Eat. Drink. Better.

Organic, Shaken and Stirred: New Book from Paul Abercrombie Offers Eco Cocktail Recipes

Julie Knapp — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:29:23 +0000

As you plan for a season of holiday parties, why not serve eco-conscious cocktails alongside the organic free range turkey and local pumpkin pie? Get started with Organic, Shaken and Stirred. The drink recipe book by Paul Abercrombie will teach you how to make your home bar green and create 100 amazing concoctions using organic liquors, fruits and mixers.

There’s no need to pour guests a glass full of artificial ingredients, synthetic pesticides included. Instead, with eco tricks, you’ll support sustainable farming and products with eco-friendly packaging. And when friends imbibe in an organic cocktail like a Hot Buttered Maple Rum, Acai-Lum Sangria, Kentucky Christmas or Pineapple Caipirinha with Sweet Lime Espuma, you know they’ll be on board!

Read more of this story »

The Healing Dish: Cayenne Pepper Spiced Organic Red Onion Spirals with Sweet Potato and Yam Chips

Lucille Chi — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:00:27 +0000

Organic baby sweet potatoes, yams, and red onions taste great when sliced thin, drizzled in olive oil, seasoned with a dash of organic cayenne pepper and baked.

Did you know that red onions are rich in flavonoids, sulfur compounds and promote better bones? In fact, if you make them a staple in your dishes they just may help reduce certain types of cancer and the risk of heart disease.

We all know that sweet potatoes and yams improve a meal as they’re very high in vitamin C and A. Now, the healing power of this side dish is fortified when paired with red onion slices.

Here are more facts about the healing ingredients found in this easy side dish.

Read more of this story »

Food Safety: Another Benefit of Healthy School Lunch Programs?

Kim Ukura — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:30:31 +0000

At the risk of sounding repetitive, I’d like to add to the growing list of the benefits for healthy school lunches and school lunch reform that we blogged about yesterday. On Tuesday, USA TODAY ran an investigative story about tainted school lunches that shows how safety lapses in food production or distribution can put children at risk.

The lead of the piece is a story of almost 70 students at a Wisconsin elementary school who got sick two years ago after eating tainted tortillas. A subsequent investigation discovered that flour tortillas from the providing company were responsible for outbreaks at “more than a dozen schools in two other states” over five years. The FDA issued a warning about the tortillas, but the article says the warning never made it to school officials.

However, this case isn’t an isolated incident. According to the article,

The story of how food with a history of making kids sick continued to get into schools illustrates broad failures in government programs meant to provide safe, quality meals for America’s children, a USA TODAY investigation found. Parents and schools often have no idea where the food comes from. They know even less about the safety records of the companies that supply it. And if they try to find out, they face government roadblocks that put the rights of manufacturers ahead of providing information that could protect children.

It goes on to explain how food-borne illnesses often don’t get reported, authorities struggle to find the cause of the outbreak, or action on the issue comes to late — all factors that can potentially create safety risks.

Read more of this story »

Can’t Cook, I Can Help . . . Try an Italian Casserole (Mostaccioli)

Jason Karnosky — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:20:12 +0000

This Blog has started with a few pretty simple recipes, however this time around I am going to ramp things up a little by delving into the world of casseroles. For the beginner chefs out there don’t fret, because what I am going to suggest is only slightly more advanced than before. If cooked properly, this easy to make mostaccioli casserole results in a big portioned, tasty meal sure to please.

Before you get started, this meal you need a few simple ingredients that you can pick up at just about any grocery story: 1) About a pound of Mostaccioli noodles 2) 2 cans of Diced Tomatoes 3) Roughly 1 can each of Tomato sauce and tomato paste 4)1 pound of mild Italian sausage 5) Fresh mozzarella cheese and some Italian blend shredded (or grated) cheese 6) Crushed Garlic.

Start with the noodles and boil them until they reach al dente style (firm pasta, just slightly undercooked), and then drain and strain.

Then cook up the Italian sausage in the same pan you just used. Load the sausage with what you like as far as seasonings/ salt and pepper. While working on the sausage, warm up the tomatos adding crushed garlic to it (the garlic can also be added in the final mix).

(As far as substitutions for Italian sausage, different kinds of meat or sausage, especially spicy can make for a really interesting taste. If using a substitute, try to find other cheeses that fit well with your meat choice.)

Read more of this story »

A Case for Healthy School Lunches

Becky Striepe — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:30:21 +0000

The Child Nutrition Act is up for renewal and Congress has extended the deadline to early 2010. We’ve talked before about the pitiful school lunch situation in the U.S. and about how you can help advocate healthy lunches for healthy kids. What we haven’t really covered are the whys. Are the benefits of healthier lunches really worth the cost?

Read more of this story »

Meringue Cupcakes Made with Matcha Green Tea Powder

Julie Knapp — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:19:01 +0000

Cupcakes are still the dessert du jour, but forget chocolate and vanilla — try the green Matcha Meringue Cupcakes instead. Two secret ingredients give them a delicate green hue — finely grated lime peel and matcha green tea powder, a premium powdered green tea that’s used in the Japanese tea ceremony. Use organic ingredients to make the recipe even greener.

Even though these cupcakes are still a sugary, the addition of matcha green tea powder means each one will boast the benefits of green tea including weight loss, lowered blood pressure, decreased stress levels and increased energy. So when you try the Matcha Meringue Cupcakes recipe, you can feel a little less guilty about indulging.

Read more of this story »

Savoring Gratitude: Three Tips toward Thanksgiving Appreciation

Lisa Kivirist — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:28:34 +0000

As we head into the Thanksgiving season, all eyes (and mouths) fixate on that key holiday ingredient: food. From turkeys to pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving gifts us with a list of seasonal traditions that celebrate our love for good food. While these all rank important holiday elements, let’s not miss the key ingredient rooted in the inherent concept of Thanksgiving: gratitude.

A mindset of green gratitude emphasizes positive abundance, relishing the glass half full perspective. An important concept to keep on the front burner, especially as tanking economies fuel table conversations that tend to serve up sentiments of fear, scarcity and deprivation.

Add a dash of green reflection and gratitude to your Thanksgiving table by throwing these three questions on eating and drinking better into the conversation mix:

Read more of this story »

The global harvest

Steven Schmitt — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:14:00 +0000

As Thanksgiving approaches, we tend to focus more on what we have to be grateful for. We have a bountiful food supply, symbolized at this time of year by horns of plenty, Turkey Day feasts at our tables and in trade magazines from Country Living to Better Homes and Gardens, among others.

The stewardship of sending food and other basics in the form of care packages to poverty-plagued countries tends to be ignored. I got a lesson in this dilemma as I watched a video at] my home church on Lutheran World Relief (LWR), a 64-year-old organization that sends donations of ordinary items we take for granted to help families and children in Third World countries that depend on agriculture for their livelihood and live on less than $2 a day in some areas. While we go to college in hopes of writing our ticket to success, kids in Mali get wide-eyed at the sight of pencils and paper to write with. LWR donors typically send simple things such as health kits, toothpaste, soap, needles and thread, quilts, and layettes for new mothers, 40 of which can be sent for $40.

That raises a major question about food. How can we get that need met in Mali where crops are meager and cows look frail and sickly? A true and false test we took prior to the video presentation included statements such as “There is not enough food to go around,” “The free market can end hunger,” and “We benefit from people’s poverty.”

Just tell that to the Stop Hunger Now, an international hunger relief organization that coordinates the distribution of food and other life-saving aid around the world. Stop Hunger Now’s vision is to end world hunger in our lifetime and has a mission to provide food and life-saving aid to the world’s most destitute and hungry in the most sustainable, efficient and effective manager. SHN’s volunteer meal packaging program packages and ships dehydrated, high-protein, and nutritious meals for crisis situations and in school feeding programs. Food, medicines and medical supplies are also sent to respond to emergency needs. A recent article in the Charlotte Observer puts the world hunger count at a startling one billion people, a 100 million increase in one year, according to United Nations figures. “The rise in hunger,” the article adds, “has also triggered riots and acts of violence.” (See www.stophungernow.org)

While food prices have dropped off since mid 2008 they are still 24 percent higher then in 2006. Another unnerving statistic is that the growing hunger rate has become larger than the growing population rate, a trend that began two years ago. While most of the world’s undernourished live in developing countries, all regions of the world have recorded a two digit increase in hunger.

The food issue seems to be the inability of producers to get quality food to those who need it most. There IS enough food to go around but the free market won’t end hunger unless the system is based on something other than profitable sale. Global improvements in food distribution logistics and infrastructure would reduce costs and travel distances for the benefit of well-fed shippers and hungry people. That takes public and private stewardship and cooperative planning and implementation. A solution to poverty would combine food stewardship with showing people in Mali and elsewhere how to grow their own crops better. It’s like teaching a man to fish so he can fish for a lifetime.

The U.S. food system has all the tools needed to send food to the hungry in an organized, efficient manner. The next step is to establish relationships with countries such as Mali and send our surpluses and provide our knowledge to areas who want a way out of poverty. Such an effort, combined with public education about the hunger problem to motivate private donations to relief groups such as Lutheran World Relief, or whatever organization has a presence in our communities. No one should live on $2 a day. The heads of large food companies and the people working for them sure don’t. Globalization involves social responsibility to peoples around the world. Stewardship is wise use of resources that produce the best results without causing hardship on either side of the food equation.

Profit is possible with global stewardship. It requires, however, a wider vision of what we can do with what we make to make the world a better place to live for everyone –not just the people in our own fertile back yard. Otherwise Edward R. Murrow’s Harvest of Shame, a 1960 CBS news documentary about the plight of migrant workers in America will trascend to global poverty that we all pay for in the end.

Upgrading the College Diet: Eggs/Quiche

Camille Rogers — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:51:00 +0000

Hmmm…eggs. Incredible. Edible.

Many college students like eggs because they provide a cheap, fast and (If prepared correctly) tasty meal. I like eggs for all of those reasons too. Since I have been in school, I have found them to be reliable for curing both morning and evening hunger.

I also like eggs because they pack a nutritional punch. According to the American Egg Board, one large egg provides six grams of protein; the quality of egg protein is so high that scientists frequently use eggs as the standard for measuring the protein quality of other foods. Eggs are also much lower in fat than many people think (one large egg has 4.5 grams of fat and 75 calories). In addition, eggs have recently begun to shed their rep as heart-clotters because scientists have yet to show that dietary cholesterol (the kind in eggs) significantly boosts blood cholesterol levels in everyone.

Read more of this story »

Enjoy the San Francisco Ferry Building Market Place for Local, Sustainable and Seasonal Food

Lucille Chi — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:26:46 +0000

The San Francisco Ferry Market is a gorgeous place to stroll around in if you are in the San Francisco Bay Area for any length of time.

The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market:

“is a California certified farmers market operated by the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture“ ~CUESA

The market is open Tuesday and Saturday.

Below are spotlights on a few of their unique vendors in this city building, such as the Far West Fungi shop, and organics from the Farm Fresh to You store.

Read more of this story »