Thursday, May 6, 2010

Product Review: Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Lasagna Noodles (with Recipe)

My husband's birthday was on Tuesday, and his request for a birthday dinner was for lasagna. We had spied the whole wheat lasagna noodles in the grocery store a few weeks ago, and this was a good excuse to try them out. :)


Found in the pasta aisle of Publix.

Unfortunately, because this is a different type of pasta, you end up paying a little more for it. At Publix, the Hodgson Mill whole wheat lasagna noodles are about $2.50 a box, with 8 oz in one box. The noodles are also slightly smaller than regular pasta noodles, so I went ahead & bought two boxes. I ended up using all of one box and only two noodles out of the second box. (Still have enough left over to make a smaller lasagna later!)

One of the things I like about these noodles is that it comes with a "quick" recipe on the side of the box, that allows you to place the noodles in the dish without cooking them first, and provided that the noodles are completely covered in sauce, they will cook as the dish bakes. It only adds about 15 minutes to your baking time, but the time and trouble saved in cooking the noodles first was worth it, in my opinion.

I basically took the concept behind the recipe on the box, but added my own touch to it. First, I lined the bottom of the dish (glass Pyrex) with sauce.


I used Bertolli's Marinara sauce, which has a great red wine flavor.

Lay down some noodles on the bottom of the pan, and cover these in a little bit of sauce, too. I went ahead & just mixed the whole jar of sauce in with my cooked meat, after coating the bottom of the dish. I used ground turkey, but any ground meat can be used.

Now it is time to start adding in the tasty layers. I put down a layer of the meat mixture, followed by the dairy stuff: sour cream, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, and a six-cheese blend of shredded cheese.


My assembly line.

Once your sauce, meat and cheese has been added, place some more noodles on top. I ended up using three layers of noodles (bottom, middle, and top) to make this lasagna. When I got to the top, I added some extra sauce (opened another jar of the marinara) to be sure the top noodles were covered enough to cook.


Into the oven it goes - it was pretty heavy!

Bake the lasagna for about 45 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 350 degrees. You may need to use a little more or less time, depending on your oven, but basically you'll want to bake the lasagna until the cheese on top is starting to brown.


Let it stand for about 15 minutes after removing.

And there you have it! A relatively quick, easy-to-make lasagna ready for a birthday dinner. :)


I recommend serving something green with it....

After refrigerating overnight, the lasagna became "solid" enough that it was easier to cut & remove slices from the dish; I ended up freezing about half of the lasagna for later use.

All in all, I really enjoyed the lasagna, the noodles were great - I couldn't tell any difference between these noodles and "normal" lasagna noodles, other than perhaps I felt fuller more quickly. Despite their being about twice the price of noodles made with enriched flour, I felt that the value of having lasagna again (!!) was well worth it, especially since I was able to make a lot all at once & freeze portions so the lasagna will last a good while.

I would like to note that I am not claiming this is a very "healthy" lasagna, however, I would like to point out that there are certain options that can make it a better choice. First of all, make sure your ingredients are good. Of course, the noodles being whole grain makes that part a no-brainer. The simpler the ingredients, the better; I actually spent a good bit of time comparing sour cream, ricotta cheese, and cottage cheese to be sure that I found the healthiest option on the shelf. Notice that the tubs don't make mention of being "light" or "fat-free" - I chose the original options rather than the low-fat or light options because of the additives in them. When you compare the nutrition facts on the label - particularly saturated fat and cholesterol - the lighter versions might be slightly lower but the number of additives in the ingredients list (and the types of additives, in some cases) tend to make me lean toward the "whole" version of the product. Similarly, don't feel pressured to choose store brand options for the sake of thriftiness; sometimes store brands have additives listed that you may want to avoid, like carrageenan, which was found in Publix's sour cream but not in the Daisy brand. Sometimes it's worth the extra calories or the extra fifty cents in order to avoid certain ingredients. :)

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Restaurant Review: Chick-Fil-A

Last night, my husband and I had some errands to run, and our main stop was in the same parking lot as a Chick-Fil-A. Being that I had recently researched online - and didn't find anything on the main web site (that's changed now and ingredients are easy to find), but found an ingredients list elsewhere - and discovered that, while their breaded chicken had enriched flour in the breading (of course) and the wheat bun for the chargrilled sandwich also contained enriched flour, supposedly their chicken salad sandwich was on whole wheat bread.


Can it be true?

I ordered the chicken salad sandwich, then saw the little folded-up brochures containing nutrition information and ingredient lists, so I picked it up and read through it, only to discover that despite the appearance of whole wheat bread, their chicken salad sandwich was most certainly NOT on whole grain bread. It was a "multi-grain" bread, but unfortunately, these days, "multi-grain" means it might have two or three types of grains (or what I like to call "bird food" as it can sometimes have seeds or nuts, too) mixed into the enriched flour. It gives the illusion of being healthy, while it is not actually.

The damage already being done - that is to say, the order placed, the payment made and the food already arrived - I decided to just go ahead & eat my mistake. Unfortunately, the Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich also contains a higher amount of high fructose corn syrup than I would like - it's in the mayonnaise and pickle relish in the salad, and it's in the bread itself. High fructose corn syrup, coupled with the enriched flour - both things that my body is not used to any more - really did a number on my poor stomach last night.

It honestly saddens me that Chick-Fil-A claims to have "nutritious choices" while most of their menu items are anything but. Not only is there no option for those of us wanting to avoid enriched flour - excepting the cost-prohibitive salads, who wants to pay so much for a salad when you can get a combo meal for about the same price? - but then you also have to deal with other additives to the salads. Croutons are easy to pick out, but the sunflower kernels they have include high fructose corn syrup.

Another down side to Chick-Fil-A's food is that most of their chicken contains another questionable ingredient: MSG. It's in the seasoning. (Ingredients in Chick-Fil-A seasoning: Salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar, spices, and paprika. Sounds like a winning combination?)

All in all, I'm afraid to say that I will just not be eating at Chick-Fil-A very much any more. If I do, perhaps I'll get a chargrilled sandwich, minus the bun, and put it on a side salad. Or something. It pains me that something so simple as "whole wheat bread" isn't even available on something that has the image of being whole wheat.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Something Fishy Going On

I never used to like fish when I was growing up. I grew up in the heart of the big city in Michigan, and we didn't really get fresh fish. My mom made it for dinner a few times - fish of the frozen variety, unfortunately - and it just wasn't very good. Whatever the type of fish she made was, it always just tasted "fishy" and so I never came to appreciate the variety in flavors between types of fish.

When I moved with my husband to Florida, he encouraged me to try some fish. The only fish I really liked the flavor of, based on my experiences, was tuna; tuna doesn't really taste "fishy" to me; it has its own distinct flavor. So at a seafood restaurant, instead of ordering a burger or chicken fingers (which is what I used to do as a kid) I ordered the tuna steak. Wow, that didn't taste like any tuna I'd ever had!

Since then, I've tried all manner of fish and seafood. I'm still not terribly big on eating clams or oysters (not even fried!) nor do I care much for shrimp - although with shrimp it's not the flavor, but the bad things it does to my stomach. I am a sucker for lobster, though; I only ever eat it on special occasions since it tends to be so pricey.

Here in northeast Florida, though, we get a lot of fresh fish. There's a large variety of seafood restaurants that serve the local catches, in addition to "the usual" tuna, salmon or catfish. One of my favorite new things to do, though, is to get fresh fish from our farmer's market; the lady that sells fresh and frozen fish has fantastic prices ($10 gets you two good-sized tuna steaks, or fresh mahi mahi) and the fish is full of flavor.

A few weeks ago I got some tuna steaks, and discovered just how easy it is to broil fish!


Seasoned with salt & pepper, and coated in olive oil. Delicious!

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and how quick it was to make the fish. It took all of ten minutes to broil the steaks (five minutes on each side, five hundred degrees in the broiler) and it was juicy, well-cooked, and soooo good.

Last week, I got some of the fresh mahi mahi from the market. I got three fair-sized pieces; two were a little on the small side, and perfect for lunch.


Mahi mahi, brown rice, and broccoli.

Since there was still a large piece of fish left, I decided I would use it in a pasta dish (oh how I love that pasta...) with a lemon cream sauce. I diced up some tomatoes, cooked some whole grain penne pasta, cut up the large piece of mahi mahi, combined it with the lemon cream sauce, and topped it with Parmesan cheese, to get this delicious dish:


What a great use for leftover fish!

Since I had no heavy cream on hand for the sauce recipe, and we don't keep cow's milk in our fridge, I made my own "cream" by combining 2/3 cup of vanilla almond milk with 5 tablespoons of butter. It actually worked really well for this recipe. One thing I also liked about the lemon cream sauce on top of this dish was the fact that the acidity of the tomato really brought out the lemon flavor in the sauce; it was a perfect combination!

Fish can be a very healthy option when added to a diet; it's supposed to be able to help prevent (or at least lower the risk of) heart disease, but it also helps to increase metabolism. Coupled with a dark vegetable of some sort, you get a really good boost to the metabolism - part of the reason why sushi is a good, healthy choice as well.

Just be mindful, if consuming fish on a regular basis, of the mercury content - and other potential toxins - in the type of fish. For example, tuna tends to have a higher mercury level; shark and swordfish are considered to be so high that they should be eaten only very rarely. The types and amounts of toxins (as well as nutrients) in a fish will vary depending on where the fish is caught (or if it is farmed) and what it tends to eat. It is generally stated, though, that the health benefits of eating fish on a regular basis still outweigh the risks.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Restaurant Review: Chipotle; More Weekend Thoughts

First off, I want to start tonight's blog entry with a restaurant review!

Last Thursday, my husband and I drove to Jacksonville to support a friend at her college class gallery opening. Since Jacksonville has all sorts of stores and restaurants we don't have near us, we like to make a trip of it and run as many errands as possible. So before heading on to the gallery, we decided to get dinner at Chipotle.

For those of you that are not familiar with it, Chipotle is to burritos what Subway is to sandwiches, only Chipotle's ingredients tend to be fresher. You pretty much go down the counter, requesting different items on your burrito or tacos, and they assemble it for you. Chipotle has a great selection of vegetarian items, even to the point of claiming that their cheese and sour cream are made in such a way that it is acceptable for a vegetarian to eat.

I've resigned myself to the fact that, at many restaurants, I may have to disassemble my food in order to skip the enriched flour. At Steak & Shake a few weeks ago, for example, I ate my burger - including lettuce & tomato - without the bun. This doesn't bother me, as the bread pretty much tends to be filler anyway. But one of the great things about Chipotle is, they offer another choice (not just burritos or tacos): The burrito bowl.


You can get more veggies this way!

The burrito bowl is the same price as ordering a burrito, and the worker at the Chipotle we went to was happy to add extra lettuce to my bowl. All this, for about six dollars!

Friday, I had an opportunity to meet some old coworkers of mine, from the company I worked with before starting my own business. It was good to catch up with the girls, but their choice of a restaurant for lunch wasn't very good considering my dietary changes: Cici's Pizza. I did eat a lot of salad at Cici's, and only indulged in two small slices of pizza. I suppose my weekend started early, oops.

Then, on Saturday, my husband and I spent the better part of the day walking around downtown Saint Augustine, exploring the Castillo de San Marcos (it was free admission, thanks to National Park Week!) and then walking to our favorite weekend spot, Borrillo's pizza, about half a mile away. I had my "usual" single slice (fills the plate!) of pizza, but I found that within a short time (just an hour or so) I was feeling low on energy again! Since I don't seem to lose energy during the week, I think it's safe to say that the spike in energy (and then sudden drop) was due to consuming the enriched flour in the pizza crust. It seems that I don't get this spike-and-then-drop when I avoid enriched flour (ie, eating the burger without the bun) but I also don't get the drop if I consume whole grain flour instead of enriched, either.

Of course, having less whole grains in your diet for a day leads to, ah, other problems too. One would think this would be easily remedied by eating something with more fiber later on in the day (I love Kellogg's FiberPlus bars, great flavor!) but it seems that something in the enriched flour just stops me up, and no amount of extra fiber later in the day gets me back on track.

I'm starting to get to a good point in my diet modification, one where I am able to not rely on a cheat day for a sampling of enriched flour. After four weeks, I no longer crave enriched flour as I once did, so taking a nibble here or there will not be a problem for me. Having "cheat" days on the weekends gave me something to look forward to in the event that I was having horrible cravings - this was how I overcame my soda addiction - and now I can go for weeks without drinking a soda, then have one on a weekday (instead of a previously-assigned weekend cheat day) and be back to "normal" the next day without a problem. I can definitely see myself skipping out on enriched flour choices on the weekends, because my body is just unhappy with the energy it receives from this less-than-nourishing food.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

More On Whole Grain Pastas

I got lucky, and caught Mueller's whole grain spaghetti on BOGO at our local Publix this week. I also had a coupon, even more incentive. ;)

We'd made some spaghetti on Tuesday night for dinner, and had two more servings left over in the fridge. Yesterday morning was my weekly trip to our local farmer's market (where I get all of my fruits & veggies!) and so I picked up some fresh basil, and made some pesto to go with the pasta for our lunch yesterday.


Needless to say, it turned out pretty tasty!

The pesto was actually quite simple to make; you will need a food processor or hand chopper (we have a hand mixer with a chopper attachment). The recipe is as follows:
2 Cups fresh basil
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Salt & Pepper to taste
Pulse basil in the food processor. Add each additional ingredient, pulsing after adding.

I personally used only salt in my pesto, because I'm not a huge fan of pepper. The olive oil I used was of an "extra light" variety, as this type of olive oil is very good in dressings & such.

I put some fresh chopped tomatoes on the spaghetti, topped it with the pesto, and then sprinkled a little mozzarella cheese on top.

One thing I've come to really enjoy about whole grain pasta is that it really fills you up and keeps you going. My husband and I ate our lunch at noon; we weren't hungry again until about 8:30 that night.

It seems that each time I go back to the grocery store and really look for things, I find more variety that I'm "allowed" to eat. This time, meandering the grocery store with my husband, we found whole durum wheat flour lasagna noodles; and while they were pretty expensive compared to the basic enriched flour variety (I believe one box of the whole grain was about $4, so about twice the price of "plain" pasta) my experience with how filling whole grain pasta is makes me think that the cost is easily worth it.

My husband is starting to regret my decision to nix enriched flour, though; as we passed the freezer section of the grocery store, the Tombstone pizzas were on sale, and he lamented the fact that we were not going to be buying any. While Tombstone pizzas are quick & easy when kept on hand, the fact that they are in my freezer means I will EAT them. (This is the same reason why I rarely buy ice cream! If it's there... it will be eaten.) I'm hoping in the long run, though, that these dietary changes will help him become healthier too.

On a final note, on Tuesday we also watched Food, Inc. which is a documentary on food and its origins within the United States. It's really an eye-opening story about where our food comes from, and the conditions it is grown in. I highly recommend it -- especially if you haven't been shopping at your local farmer's market. You'll probably start!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Comparison: Whole Grain Pastas

Last September, in an effort to lose some weight and at a suggestion from my doctor, I decided I was going to attempt the "Atkins" diet, in which one starts off at no more than 20 carbs (not including fiber) per day, and then gradually adds "healthy" carbs back in. I didn't want to try this diet change approach, but my grandpa on my mother's side (from whom I have inherited my body type) had relatively good success with the Atkins approach so I figured I would give it a try.

Within a couple of days, I found myself having terrible cravings for all manner of items I wasn't "allowed" to have. In addition to this, I was very irritable and moody, lethargic, and had sprouted a horrible headache. It was plain to me that the Atkins approach might not have been the best idea for me to attempt; even more so since I had just started my costume business and Halloween was approaching, so it was a very busy time for me.

I basically quit the Atkins diet after a little less than a week; I needed my ability to focus and I needed my energy. I didn't have time to wait out the lethargy (which, I've been told, gets better as your body adjusts) because I had so much work to do, and only a month or so in which to do it. I learned a lot from my researching, though, and I vowed to attempt a "backwards-Atkins" style diet change. I would start removing simple carbs from my diet - using brown rice instead of white, for example, or only buying healthy cereals, not the sugary stuff - and that's kind of what's led me to the eradication of enriched flour from my diet today.

One of the items I really lamented "losing" in my Atkins attempt was pasta. Pasta is one of my staples at home; if I don't feel like making anything complex for dinner, I will make some spaghetti, or mac-n-cheese, or cook some chicken breasts, cut up some tomatoes, bake it with some rotini, and some cheese on top. I serve my stews and soups over pasta to make it more filling. Pasta is such a versatile food, so I didn't want to cut it out of my diet when I ditched the enriched flour.

About a year or so ago, my husband and I had tried Ronzoni's "Healthy Harvest" spaghetti, and weren't exactly fans. We figured some time would be needed for pasta manufacturers to get it right and release some of the good stuff. In all honesty, the Healthy Harvest had too much of a gritty texture, and too much of a "brown" flavor, that was not able to be covered up by pasta sauce.


Good For You, but Not Tasty.

I'm sure that this pasta would have been usable in certain culinary situations, but I just never came up with one, and so we didn't even finish the box, we just got rid of it. It sat around in our pantry not being used, because we just didn't care for the flavor. Come to find out, upon inspecting the ingredients list, this pasta has flax seed meal added to its ingredients, which likely gave it the unfavorable flavor. Keeping the ingredients simpler is better, when it comes to pasta; the added fiber and omega 3's are probably nice, but if I'm looking for that I'll get it in my cereal in the morning, thanks.

I was hesitant, then, to try any whole grain pastas after choosing to eliminate enriched flour from my diet. As my diet was starting the day after returning from a trip to Atlanta - the location of our nearest Trader Joe's, unfortunately - I checked their pastas and found both spaghetti and rotini whose only ingredient was "Organic Whole Durum Wheat Flour." Perfect!! This pasta - both spaghetti and rotini - was actually quite delicious, and lasted a lot longer than pastas normally do, because of the whole grains being so filling in comparison.

Great, so now I've found a pasta I love, and one that fits my requirements, but it's a six-hour drive to get the stuff. Now what do I do?

I inspected the shelves of Publix, my local grocery store, and found there are actually a few whole grain options for pastas available. One of them was Mueller's pasta, a brand I know I already liked, and their ingredients list read the same as Trader Joe's: nothing but whole durum wheat flour. Fantastic!


This one was pretty tasty!

Actually, the flavor of this pasta is pretty darn close to the taste of "regular" pasta made with enriched flour. The only difference in this, as well as the Trader Joe's pasta, is that the texture is ever-so-slightly "grittier" than usual, but this is very easily ignored, especially if the pasta is cooked properly.

Okay, so I've solved the problem of the pastas that I love so much.... all except one. What to do about Mac-n-Cheese?


Annie's Homegrown to the rescue!

Our grocery store also carries "Annie's Homegrown" organic foods, among which are several pasta varieties. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any of the whole grain pastas at Publix, but I did find the White Cheddar shells at my local Target. We gave it a try last night, and it wasn't too bad! You make it a little differently from the Kraft stuff (mix the cheese sauce separate from the pasta, and then you pour it in) but it wasn't too bad, and the price was pretty reasonable too. Again, the flavor was just fine as the whole grain flour was the only ingredient used in the pasta, and by now, after having converted to whole grain pastas, I don't even notice the slightly rougher texture of the flour used.

One benefit to eating whole grain pastas instead of the usual stuff made with enriched flour is that you are getting a good bit more fiber in your diet. The manufacturers don't have to add fiber or other ingredients to bring up the fiber content; you get a good bit of that directly from the whole wheat.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Weekend Observation

I've been doing really good at this "only whole grains" thing - and I will start off with some exciting news: In the past three weeks, I've managed to lose approximately 5 pounds.

I say "approximately" because my weight can fluctuate a LOT from day to day, so checking my weight is not a good indicator of actual weight lost. However, my scale has now been hovering right around 216 pounds - which is ten pounds lighter than when I started my attempt to lose weight at the beginning of this year, and five pounds lighter than my weigh-in three weeks ago before cutting out enriched flour.

I think that this is pretty solid evidence that getting rid of enriched flour was a good idea for me.

I may have mentioned already that one of the things I noticed is that, when substituting whole grains where normally there was enriched flour, the increased fiber seems to also increase metabolism. So it really came as no surprise to find that my body just was not functioning in the "new" normal way, after having had no whole grains, and increased sugar, for a period of about 30 hours or so.

It all started Friday afternoon with a trip to Taco Bell with my husband for lunch. I like Taco Bell with my new diet change; I can still eat quite a bit of what's on the menu by simply removing the covering. So I ordered two crunchy tacos - one of them supreme for some tomatoes & sour cream - and proceeded to take the filling out (passed the shells to my husband, so don't worry, they didn't go to waste) and make a messy little taco salad. :) I drank water with my meal, but my husband had a giant cup of Mountain Dew, which he proceeded to refill and bring home with him. He left it behind as he left for work, and of course I just had to drink it. And, of course, I was up rather late Friday night.

Saturday morning was the usual: cereal for breakfast, and then preparing for a picnic with friends in the afternoon. Before we left the house, I had a granola bar, then we got to the picnic relatively late in the day, around 2pm. I actually did pretty good at the picnic itself; the only enriched flour I had was a spoonful of pasta, and a few different sweet things later in the afternoon. I ate my burger without the bun, and had some excellent fresh cole slaw, potato salad, etc. Most of what I filled up on was not flour-based at all. I did, however, drink another Mountain Dew. Despite having a fair bit of water throughout the day, it's never a good idea for my body to have Mountain Dew two days in a row, as it completely counteracts any metabolism I've managed to put into place. Didn't eat anything for dinner, as we had been nibbling on things at the picnic later in the evening, too.

This morning, for my second "cheat meal" for the weekend was a bacon-egg-cheese bagel from McDonald's for breakfast. I haven't had one of these in months, so it was a nice little treat. This afternoon, however, I was really feeling the effects of so much sugar and so little grain/complex carb over the weekend; I started to get sluggish shortly after noon, and by 4:30 pm we still hadn't eaten any lunch, but I also didn't feel like moving at all. I eventually got up to go scare up some food, but my brain and my motor skills just were not functioning the way they normally do. I ate a banana, for a quick spike of some kind of carbs, and my husband and I heated up (home made) chicken soup for an early dinner.

The feeling I got this afternoon was similar to the feeling that made me quit attempting the "Atkins" low-carb diet. It was as if my brain simply hadn't had enough fuel. It wasn't a matter of not having ANY carbs over the weekend - I did have plenty of sugar, but I also had vegetables, potato (in the form of potato salad and potato chips at the picnic yesterday, and hash browns this morning) and simple carbs in the form of breads and pastas, but I didn't have complex carbohydrates at all since the granola bar I had before leaving for the picnic yesterday. It's interesting to see how my body handled a lack of these complex carbohydrates.

I think more than anything, my "cheat days" are important to me because they continue to teach me exactly how enriched flour is processed by my body, and the consequences that arise due to consuming it. The more I learn about how my body is adapting to these dietary changes, the better; I find it interesting, too, that in the span of just three weeks, my body has latched on to the nutrition in whole grains & complex carbohydrates, and is now, after a fashion, demanding them.

I apologize if this entry seems to be a little dis-jointed or not concise/clear; like I mentioned, I've definitely felt a difference in how my brain has been functioning, and I fear it will take a little bit of time before it gets back to 'normal.' (Whatever that may be!)

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Foods That Don't Stick With You

I've always heard people say, when they're doing work that requires a lot of energy, that they want food that is going to "stick" for the rest of the day. I think that, from this, my mental image of food "sticking" to one's insides meant that the food would literally have to be thick, heavy, and - of course - kind of sticky, in a sense.

Most of these qualities conjure up thoughts of foods that were ridiculously hard to clean the leavings off of the dishes that were used to prepare or to serve them. Grease, sauce, juice, all sorts of stuff that is pure torture to try & scrape off of the dishes come from foods that "stick."

It wasn't until a few months ago that I decided, if these foods get so crusty & difficult to remove from my dishes without a lot of effort going in to removing them, what in the world are these food items doing to my insides? Because of this (pretty scary) thought, I created a new rule for myself in which I will buy things that are easy to clean off of the plates, because the easier it washes away in lightly running water, the easier my body can pass through my system what it doesn't actually use.

One of the first things I replaced was pasta sauce. I used to buy Ragu sauce on BOGO on sale, and think it would last "forever" because the bottles were pretty big. The truth of the matter was, I ended up using quite a bit on my pastas - I'm not entirely sure why? perhaps because it is so thin - and it also stained more than one piece of Tupperware.

A few months ago, I discovered another item on sale at Publix: Bertolli's pasta sauces.


One of many flavor varieties offered by Bertolli.

I never typically purchased foods like this; I was brought up to "buy cheap, eat cheap." After all, those big Ragu bottles can make a heck of a lot more chili than one of these little bottles ever could. And besides which, I don't like chunky tomatoes in my pasta sauce. When I want sauce, I want it thin and just enough tomato flavor to add to the pasta flavor - then doused in parmesan cheese, of course. So after I bought this type of sauce, I lamented the fact that I'd purchased "chunky sauce" when my husband opened up a bottle to put it on his pasta; I decided I'd finish off the open Ragu in the fridge instead.

Naturally, the next time I made pasta, I hadn't yet had a chance to replenish the stock of Ragu, and so all I had available was the Bertolli stuff. I grudgingly poured the chunks over the top of my pasta, and picked around them (passing the tomatoes off on my husband) but I had to admit: the flavor was pretty good. Soon, I came to really enjoy the sauce, and now I won't even bother picking the chunks out.

On evening, after the dishes sat in the sink long enough for the sauce to have dried on the plates, I cringed at the thought of having to scrape the sauce off of the plates before putting them into the dishwasher. I ran the plates under the water, and surprisingly the sauce came up without even a fight; simply rinsing was enough to get rid of most of the sauce left behind on the plates. It was then that the thought of "sticky" foods occurred to me, and it was also then that I resolved to only purchase sauces like the Bertolli sauce that wouldn't be impossible to remove from my dishes, and thus my insides.

So far this concept seems to be holding up pretty well in regards to the foods I choose to eat. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to choose pre-packaged or bottled foods that are made with nothing but whole ingredients. For example, there are hardly any ingredients in the Bertolli sauces, except those necessary to make the sauce itself. Similarly, a dish like my vegetable stew has nothing unusual added to it - it's nothing but whole ingredients, no preservatives or anything - and this, too, will not stick to my dishes when rinsing them off.

I believe this is yet another "argument" for the ideas of whole foods being better foods for you. They don't necessarily have t be organic, per se, but should be as natural as possible without being chock-full of preservatives.

Just one more step toward a healthier lifestyle.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A Confession.

Occasionally, I work for some friends of mine that own a tourist shop in downtown Saint Augustine. I have really come to love the Old City and enjoy spending time meeting new people in the tourist district. Especially during busy seasons (like spring break, which, here in Florida, is not just one week but an entire season of its own), you can speak with people from all over the world; not only that, I get to practice my Spanish skills. It just keeps getting better!

Sadly, I have not helped out at the shop since the Christmas season, and while the store itself hadn't changed too much (after five years plus you just get back into a groove) my immune system has. I'm no longer used to handling cash and credit cards from a couple hundred people over the course of the weekend, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise that I seem to have picked up some "gunk" from somewhere.

Yesterday was spent not doing much of anything, simply resting and drinking a lot of water in an attempt to recover. This morning I still had a bit of a frog in my throat, but I'm feeling a little more energetic; I think the nice, cool, fresh air coming in my open windows is helping with that.

Anyway, over the weekend, our friend (and soon-to-be roommate) came for a visit, to get away from her dorm and work on some art projects. She showed up Friday afternoon, and after debating what was for dinner between her and my husband, we decided to go for pizza. I did decide to bend my "rule" of "no enriched flour except on the weekends" because I was going to be trapped in a small box of a store by myself (just me and the tourists!) all weekend and I could bring my lunch. So off to Borrillo's - some of the best New York style pizza this far south of the City, and we're talking thin crust, chock-full of grease, the works! - and pizza was had.

The thing about Borrillo's is that, true to New York style pizza style, the slices are enormous. One slice is almost more than enough for one person, so being that there were three people and eight slices on the pie, there were definitely leftovers.

I brought two of the slices (yes, cold pizza!) in to work with me on Saturday, since I was working from 11am until 8pm, thinking I would eat my second slice for dinner that day. Well, as it turned out, I ended up feeling kind of crummy on Saturday, to the point where I just didn't want to eat dinner at all. (My husband re-heated a small bowl of my vegetable stew and I did eat that, at the very least..) So my second piece of leftover pizza was saved for lunch on Sunday.

So what am I confessing?

I broke my rule. Sigh. Pizza for dinner on Friday, lunch on Saturday, and lunch on Sunday. That's three days, not two.

In a paltry effort to make up for it somehow, I did skip my "one allowed snack" with enriched flour for the weekend, but that doesn't matter now, does it? Pizza's much more than a snack. Especially these slices. ;)

I'm not letting it get me down; I'm posting publicly here so that I feel like I am being held accountable for being "naughty." Whooops.

I just picked myself back up, and back on it again. Yesterday was the start of Week Three of my Whole Grain Challenge. I weighed in and still holding steady, just under 220 lbs. (It tends to vary from between 217 and 219, it would seem.) I'm still proud of this fact, and excited that my weight is staying consistently lower than where it had been. We'll see what this week brings; I am looking forward to when the ocean warms up more and body-boarding becomes a regular activity again. :)

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Product Review: Snyder's Grande Multi-Grain Tortilla Chips

One of the things I was lamenting the loss of when I decided to give up enriched flour, was crackers & crunchy snacks. I would usually eat Goldfish crackers in the afternoon, or maybe some pretzels with lunch. Those peanut butter crackers? Love 'em. Can't get enough of tasty, crunchy things in the middle of the day.

Another thing I was not looking forward to giving up was tacos. I'm a sucker for some ground beef or turkey seasoned with cumin and annatto, topped with cheese, lettuce, tomato, green onions, and a dab of sour cream. Mmm! (No, they don't know us at our local Taco Bell... I swear...)

A good alternative to floury tortillas or crunchy crackers is this: Snyder's Grande Multi-Grain Tortilla Chips.



Don't let the ingredients listed on the web site fool you; the packaging actually reads: Whole Yellow Corn, Whole Rice Flour, Vegetable Oil (contains one or more of the following: corn oil, canola oil or sunflower oil), Whole Oat and Barley Flour, Maltodextrin, Salt.

The key word, of course, being "whole" before each of the flours listed. This means you are getting not just multi-grain, but whole grains with each tasty tortilla chip. No enriched flour found here!

I found these chips in a separate section of the grocery store (near the gluten-free products) instead of with all of the other tortilla chips, but that's what you get for taking your time to occasionally browse the grocery store & peruse the various options you have.

I'm very excited that these tortilla chips are available, and they are going to become a regular on my shopping list when taco night comes around again.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Vegetable & Bean Stew

(Note: If you prefer to work from a "list" format for a recipe, click here. The following will be a play-by-play of tonight's preparation of this particular stew, so the ingredients are going to vary slightly.)

Just under two years ago, I was diagnosed with high cholesterol. Seeing as I am only in my mid-twenties, this was a little bit of a problem. I've been working with my doctor on changing my diet and we are seeing results, but more than anything the knowledge of my high cholesterol also awakened in me a need to be more conscious about some of the things I put into my body.

Among the good foods to eat when one has high cholesterol is the bean. After all, the saying goes, "Beans, beans, they're good for your heart...." It's true! :)
Actually, beans are high in fiber and protein, and low in fat. They also are cholesterol-free. Beans contain complex carbohydrates which provides adequate fuel to your body. (For more nutrition information on beans, go here.) Another great thing about beans is they are relatively inexpensive. One can generally costs less than a dollar, or you can buy a bag of dry beans (soak overnight to prepare them) for anywhere between one and two dollars.


I bought four cans of Publix brand beans for my stew.

To start off making this delicious stew (and be sure to either have hordes to feed, or space in the fridge/freezer, as this makes quite a bit of food) begin by dicing up an onion. You will also need four cloves of garlic, chopped up. I keep a jar of chopped garlic in the fridge, and just use a few spoonfuls of this.


Heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat, then add your onions & garlic.

Cook the onions and garlic for about five minutes, stirring often enough that they don't scorch at all. Then comes time to add the vegetables.


Here are all the vegetables I added to my skillet.

You can use any vegetables, really. I like to get a good mix of colors. I also like to buy locally from my farmer's market, where I can find fresh vegetables to use. Pictured here are carrots, asparagus (although it was a bit pithy, the stalks were thinner than the last time I made this stew and it didn't turn out as well; lesson learned) along with corn and tomato. You might also add potatoes, broccoli, celery, peas, or anything you like.

I begin cooking the vegetables by putting in the toughest ones first. So the carrots were first to be added to the skillet, followed by the asparagus, then the corn, and finally the tomato. You'll want to cook the vegetables until they are fairly tender.


Time to prepare the stock!

Ideally you can use 3-5 cups of water for the stock, and the vegetables will produce enough flavoring of their own. I've done that in the past and the taste is great. In tonight's case, however, I only had one lone tomato left in the fridge, but I also had half a carton of Trader Joe's organic creamy tomato soup. I put this, along with three cups of water, into my stock pot, and began heating it up on medium-high heat.

Add to your stock: one tablespoon of rice vinegar, one tablespoon of honey, one tablespoon of Dijon or spicy brown mustard, and season with some thyme, parsley, salt and pepper.

Now, add the vegetables and the beans.

One thing I always do with beans when using them is rinse them. This is really a personal choice; in this case, since the beans are being used for stew, it wouldn't hurt anything to not rinse them. Rinsing canned goods is just a general habit of mine, especially since some can liners may contain trace amounts of BPA.


Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat.

Almost done! Once the pot comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low/medium-low to get a good simmer. Cover the pot and let this simmer for at least an hour.


Lookin' good!

I like to wait until the stock thickens a little bit, then it is perfect for serving. You can serve the stew alone with some whole grain bread, or over brown rice or whole grain pasta. Tonight's dinner was served over Trader Joe's organic whole durum wheat flour pasta spirals.


You can sprinkle a little bit of parmesan cheese on top for added flavor.

This is a very simple recipe, and very easy to adapt to your own personal preferences for vegetables and flavors. If you don't like something, simply omit it or swap it out for something you do like. Just a little bit of this stew keeps you going all afternoon - as my husband, who works outdoor utilities, can tell you.

Enjoy!!

First Post!

Hi there!

I'm putting together this blog mostly for myself, but figured if anyone else wants to follow along that this might be some valuable information.

Basically, I'm starting out on a journey to become more healthy. I'm 5'8", and currently 26 years old. At its highest, my weight read close to 230 pounds. I've been heavy for most of my teen and adult life, partially due to poor discretion on my part, but also partially due to the foods I was brought up eating.

A couple years ago, I decided to cut out one unhealthy element from my diet: aspartame. After having done some pretty thorough research, I decided that this was one thing my body could do well without. It took me three months to get past symptoms of withdrawal, including headaches, extreme fatigue, and horrible moodiness. Once the aspartame left, my weight began to slowly but steadily increase. I believe aspartame is to blame for my weight stagnating (not losing, but not gaining either) so seeing weight gain was actually a good thing to me! (Crazy, huh?)

After gaining weight, I decided that high fructose corn syrup - especially in the form of sodas - was the next thing to go. I used to be dependent on sodas for caffeine and energy to get through the day; slowly but surely, using natural sources of caffeine (such as tea) and other forms of natural sugars (fruit) I was able to beat my soda addiction. I now will occasionally drink a soda, but at a rate of one or two a month as opposed to the same number in a single day.

Removing these things from my diet was certainly a good thing; I was, however, disappointed to find that my weight would still not go down, despite daily exercise and good eating habits. It was then that I looked for another common factor in my daily diet, and I found it: Enriched flour.

Enriched flour is in just about everything. It's more pervasive than high fructose corn syrup - which, by the way, is in all manner of food things you might not think needed sweetening. Doing some research, I discovered that enriched flour, despite its sounding "good" (enriching is supposed to make things better, right?) it is actually very, very bad. Enriched flour has been processed to the point of having very little nutrients left, and so it is enriched in order to add some of those nutrients back in. The down side is, the nutrients added are not the same nutrients that left; in this sense, enriched flour is probably the farthest thing from "natural" you can find.

My decision, then, was to cut out most of the enriched flour I consumed on a daily basis - and believe me, I found it everywhere. In my cereal for breakfast. In my bread for lunch. In those goldfish crackers I ate for a snack. In the pasta I had for dinner. It's tricky to get rid of; even many of the food items advertised as being "made with whole grains" do have whole grain flour in them, but it's just mixed with the enriched stuff.

Last week, I began my challenge: remove all of the food in my diet that has enriched flour, and see what it does for my body. This is what I did when I got rid of aspartame, and then sodas/high fructose corn syrup, and the difference in my health was apparent.
Because temptation is great, I allow myself two cheat meals a week; these cheat meals have to be taken on the weekend only. (And that's Saturday or Sunday; if we happen to have a long weekend due to a holiday, that does not give me extra cheat days!) I also allow myself one cheat snack over the weekend, with the stipulation that it must be a correct serving size. So when it says only sixteen animal crackers, that's all I'm allowed. Count it out & put it in a bowl; don't eat from the bag!

The first week was hard to get through. I have piles of now-junk-food sitting in my pantry or on the countertop, just looking at me, begging to be eaten. Goldfish crackers. Cheez-its. Granola cookies. Animal crackers. Mac and cheese. I love mac and cheese.

A long trip through the grocery store told me I don't have too much to worry about, though. There are a lot of good whole-grain options for foods I might like to eat! Triscuits, for example, are whole wheat flour. Whole grain pastas are being offered, as are whole grain tortilla chips. I found a bounty of whole grain or alternative items in the gluten-free section of my local Publix supermarket. So it does exist; this is just going to have to be a lifestyle change, swapping one for the other.

I would like to point out that I am not actually attempting a low-carb diet. What I am doing is rearranging my eating habits so that it consists of whole grain flour in the foods I eat. This does add fiber, to be sure, but it also adds complex carbohydrates that would not ordinarily be allowed in a low-carb diet. Also, I am not avoiding high-carb fruits or vegetables (I love potatoes too much for that!!) nor am I avoiding the occasional piece of candy or chocolate. I'm simply replacing enriched flour with whole grain flour. I may occasionally use low-carb recipes, as they tend to run in line with the ideals I have in mind. But I might also serve rice with my fish, or eat meat on whole grain bread.

My plan is to share here some of my findings in the challenge; what works, and what doesn't. What tastes good and what is horrible and should be avoided at all costs. Recipes, tricks and tips for replacing enriched flour in my diet. If you are on a similar journey, or have any input, I would love to hear from you! It is always easier to take on a challenge of this scale when you know there is support.