Good morning!
I did a guest post for Cathy at A Life Less Sweet on HFCS from an ex-pat perspective. If you’d like to check it out, head over there today and take a look. Feel free to leave any comments and I will answer you there.
Baby Cranberries
September 22, 2008
Well, okay, they aren’t actually baby cranberries, but are part of the cranberry family.
I love cranberries and when I was introduced to the lingonberry I fell in love with it too. It is grown in areas such as Denmark, Sweden and Finland which does explain why I first discovered the fruit at IKEA.
In my research I did find that they are grown in some parts of Alaska and in the US are often referred to as the cowberry. They really do look like mini cranberries.
Lingonberries are often made into preserves or sweet sauces. To be honest, this is the only way I’ve had the opportunity to enjoy them. Lingonberry preserves have that tart flavor that you associate with a cranberry yet there is a unique taste that is difficult to explain. I often use it as a sandwich spread or on top of breakfast foods like French toast.
I don’t see it around much so when I make it to an IKEA I always get a jar of their preserves. Aside from the sugar there aren’t an excessive amount of additives in each jar.
What sparked my interest in writing about lingonberries today is that while doing some research for a paper on omega-3 fatty acids I saw them listed as a source.
It turns out that the seeds of these little gems contain the omega-3s. It is often listed right up there with flaxseed.
I find this very exciting! I’m always looking for additional sources besides my salmon. Now wait! There’s a good idea. Grilled salmon with lingonberry sauce. Yum!
Top photo courtesy of WikimediaCommons
Links to a Healthy Weekend
September 20, 2008
Most weeks tend to go fast for me, but this one went incredibly fast for some reason. I’m still trying focus on Friday and it is already Saturday. Here is a little of what I enjoyed reading this week.
There is all kinds of talk about fall food around web – apples, pumpkins, sweet taters. Given my recent interest in the latter, these Turkish Sweet Potato & Apricot Rolls from Eating Out Loud look incredible. A new way to enjoy what is often just a holiday favorite.
I found this post about coconut oil on the Nourishing Gourmet and I was amazed, to say the least. I’ve always been leery of the amount of saturated fat in coconut products, even though I love them. There is some really thought provoking information provided regarding its health benefits and I’m planning to follow up with some research of my own this weekend.
Back in Skinny Jeans provided some info on what worked for her when it came to breaking free of the diet soda death grip.
Photo of Parque Barigui, Curitiba-PR, Brasil
Butter for Baked Goods
September 19, 2008
In the past I used margarine for all my baking. It was supposed to be better for you and it was cheaper. What could be better?
Of course, there was the healthy peer-pressure (or guilt). Butter? You are using butter? Oh no!
Then down the pipe came the trans fat awareness efforts. Saving a few extra bucks wasn’t worth all this newly recognized deadly fat.
There’s a lot of debate about the butter vs. margarine thing especially since a Harvard School of Public Health study linked hydrogenated-fatty acid (margarine) use to heart attacks in women a few years ago. Most likely due to the trans fats which have been found to raise LDL cholesterol and lower HDL. A very bad senerio.
I found this from a Harvard HEALTHBEAT pub in 05:
The truth is, there never was any good evidence that using margarine instead of
butter cut the chances of having a heart attack or developing heart disease.
Making the switch was a well-intentioned guess, given that margarine had
less saturated fat than butter, but it overlooked the dangers of trans fats.
Wow, I wonder how many other things that are marketed as good for us are guesses. Sugar replacers, HFCS maybe.
In recent years, I’ve gotten back to butter when it comes to baking. One reason is because many original recipes I have from the past call for butter. I think it yields a better product, more like it is supposed to be. It tastes better to me and if you are going to splurge you should truly enjoy your food.
Margarine is really a fake food because of all the processing it has gone through. Sometimes it is tempting to pick it up to save a buck. Yes, I am very budget conscious, but I always change my mind.
Now when it comes to fat, there is no question that olive oil and other veggie oils are superior for health. When it comes to baking though, over the past few years I’ve gone back to butter.
Like anything else with saturated fat, overdoing it is not a good thing. But if you are making your own baked goods and know exactly what goes into them, to me, it is fine in moderation if you are a healthy person and eat animal products.
Photo by ronnieb, www.morguefile.com
A Passion for Fruit
September 17, 2008
When I was starting out with my food blog I had a mission to try and keep it separate from my Brazil blog.
As most of you know, I am living abroad and while I spend some time in the US, more of my time at the current moment is spent here in Brazil.
I started thinking about it though and I have exposure to some pretty cool ingredients here, especially fruits. I thought maybe others might like to see a little bit of what I have around.
Plus, I don’t know where all my readers are from so maybe you have access to some of these things too.
So, every now and then I might mention an ingredient or two that I have come to love here in Brazil. I’ll let you know what I do with it too.
What better place to start than with my favorite fruit, Passion Fruit, or Maracujà.
I love anything and everything made with this tart exotic treat that is known for its calming properties. You can find it fresh, juiced and as a dessert such as cake or mousse.
Around here it is guarana for energy and maracujà for sleep.
I haven’t personally noticed it making me sleepy, but I’m a pretty caffeinated person on a regular basis so maybe I am overriding its affects.
I’ve mostly found the yellow variety here. There is a purple variety, but it is more common in Australia. I’ve seen the purple on occasion, but have never tried it.
Its little black seeds are edible, pack some fiber and they add a great crunch to yogurt. I like to mix the fruit pulp and seeds in with vanilla yogurt.
A few months ago I went to a yoga with a friend. The instructor gave us tea made with passion fruit after class.
She explained the recipe to my friend, however, being true to her yoga, she was a bit of free spirit and we couldn’t get exact instructions. One thing we did discover is that there is no actual tea in it. You just drink it warm like a tea.
I’ve managed to recreate it and I have it almost every week. If you have access to passion fruit give it a try with this tea or mixed in your yogurt. It might become your favorite fruit too.
About 5 cups of water
¼ c sugar
1 inch piece of fresh ginger, cut into small pieces
1 passion fruit
Use some of the water and the sugar to make a simple syrup. To a large pot add the remaining water, simple syrup, ginger and pulp from the passion fruit. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes. Your house will smell awesome by the way!
Pour the liquid through a strainer or colander to separate the pulp and seeds from the liquid. Enjoy it warm in your favorite mug.
Could It Be?
September 16, 2008
I will admit I am a huge Starbucks fan. Unlike some others I know, for me this does not translate to frequent visits. It is much too difficult for me to part with $5.
I kind of like it this way though because it has remained a real treat for me. Back home I went about 3 times a month. It would be my meeting place with friends to catch up or something to cheer me up when I was having a really bad day.
By the way, have you ever been to a Starbucks in Seattle. I’ve never heard such complex orders in my life. I actually felt a little stupid when I just ordered a non-fat latte. I felt like I should be more creative or something.
Okay, back to the point.
Well, surely you’ve noticed how desperately hard they are trying to appeal to the health conscious. Considering the fact that they have always had a skinny latte, yet now they feel the need to market it.
I’ve never really had a hard time choosing a healthy beverage there. Their pastries are a different story.
I rarely get one, but when I do it has to be a scone. Unbelievable! Luckily I have as much of a conscious about consuming 500 calories in 3 bites as I do parting with $5.
When I saw all their ads for healthy foods I thought – Here we go. Lets load ‘em up with sugar and fat replacers and call ‘em healthy.
But I got a friendly marketing email from them last night.
Could it be that they’ve actually created a truly health option? Part of the email stated,
“Together they are made from a range of great ingredients, including whole grains, fruit, nuts and seeds. None contain artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup.”
Now, I haven’t seen the whole ingredient list, but this is enough to make me look into it. Here are the products if you haven’t seen them yet.
Now, I can’t say this will make me start buying breakfast there. It is really just a specialty coffee place for me. I still need to see the calorie content, but I am glad to see the bit about the sweeteners.
They may provide a better option for those frequent visitors. Well, that is as long as they don’t pair it up with a venti, whole milk, white chocolate mocha every day.
Photo by blitzkrieg, www.morguefile.com
Sweet Potatoes and Coconut
September 15, 2008
Okay, I tried it.
I think I was semi-successful at recreating the soup I had in Ireland, Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup.
Just a few notes. Mine doesn’t have the rich orange color that yours probably will. I had to use sweet potatoes, batata doce, from here in Brazil which have a white flesh and look like this.
I’m looking forward to trying it with sweet potatoes from home when I return around the holidays. The starch from the potatoes makes this a really thick soup so if you like it thinner add more chicken stock. I loved it, but my husband said it was a little too sweet for him.
4 – 5 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp unsalted butter
¼ tsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
4.5 cups chicken stock or broth
½ cup light coconut milk
Heat olive oil in soup pot, add potatoes, onion and carrot. Cook on medium for about 8 minutes stirring frequently. Add garlic, butter and sugar; cook about 10 minutes more, stirring frequently. Add cinnamon and stir to coat vegetables, about 30 seconds. Add chicken stock, bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
Using an immersion blender, puree all ingredients until smooth. Stir in coconut milk. Garnish with finely shredded coconut, if desired. Makes 6 servings.
New Blogger at Charity Mile
September 15, 2008
Just wanted to let you all know about my new blogging gig. I am very excited!
I will be writing for Charity Mile. The blog focuses on athletic events for a cause. I’ve planned a few 5Ks in the past so my focus will be on event planning with some race nutrition and international events mixed in.
My first post went up today and you can find me there on Mondays and Wednesdays for sure with a few extras added in throughout the week. If you have an interest in race events, stop by and check out some of the information.
Photo by cohdra, www.morguefile.com
Links to a Healthy Weekend
September 12, 2008I hope everyone has a great weekend! These are some of the things I really enjoyed reading this week.
Tonic News Network had a great post about eating locally. It provides an interesting list as to why it is beneficial. My favorite one is Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic.
This is a big reason why I didn’t jump on the organic bandwagon when it was becoming so popular. People seemed to be buying organic and forgetting about the fact that it had to get to them in Indiana from California. I think there is much more awareness now though and things are changing to support local AND organic.
I am a Food Network addict. I haven’t been able to watch it a lot recently, but it used to be on constantly before we made our move. I enjoy Good Eats from time to time because I have a love of food science behind my nutrition/health/cooking exterior. Eat.Drink.Better. posted this week about how Alton Brown is going to focus his show more towards sustainable and local food choices. Can’t wait!!
Now, I’m a Google fan, would love the experience of working there some day just to see what all the hype is about. However, I have to admit that this post at That’s Fit made me a little queasy. I love the salty and savory breakfast combo, but it has to at least look appetizing. Just something to make you glad you are a healthy eater.
I just started reading Does This Blog Make Us Look Fat and I am loving it for a daily laugh. This post about reducing your consumption of beef products had me laughing out loud.
Jell-No!
September 11, 2008
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been on any type of restrictive eating plan (aka, diet) where sugar free, fat free pudding or flavored gelatin was your main source of dessert.
Yes, my hand is up.
Not recently though. Over the past couple years whenever eating this lackluster sweet, I could immediately tell I’d eaten the chemicals.
Speaking of chemicals, is there any actual food in this stuff?
For those who may not know gelatin is made from collagen which is in animal connective tissue. I remember the day I learned this in one of my nutrition classes. I was a bit grossed out.
Connective tissue? Yum, bring on dessert!
I guess one could stretch that technically this is a natural ingredient despite the face that it is processed. It is just all the other stuff in there. Flavors, colors, and in the fat and sugar free versions, aspartame or similar sweeteners. The fat and sugar free pudding is similar as far as chemical sweeteners go.
A dessert filled with this stuff usually leaves me with a headache and feelings of sluggishness. I think it is mainly from the over consumption of aspartame.
If you think about all the desserts boxed pudding and gelatin are used for, it is usually an excess amount of the stuff. Not only do you use the pudding mix, but sugar free, fat free whipped topping as well. Too much!
I continue to be amazed how as a society we’ve accepted these foods as healthy or diet friendly. I am a believer that you are better off eating a homemade cookie or piece cake with real ingredients than a spoonful of chemicals.
No doubt this stuff has some staying power. Although in the beginning it wasn’t there to be diet food, it was more there for convenience. I learned when I read Something From the Oven that cookbooks throughout history are filled with gelatin desserts from boxed mixes.
Then the non-fat, non-sugar versions came out and it was instant low calorie, health food.
I’m guilty of indulging in a gelatin dessert and a pudding cup in the past. Speaking of this did you see the Sex and the City movie? I was just able to see it on the flight back from Ireland. I loved the part where Charlotte would only eat pudding cups in Mexico. Too funny!
Anyway, this is one of those foods that was relatively easy for me to give up. Not nearly as difficult as diet soda! However, I do think I’ve kicked the diet soda habit except for my occasional cocktail. I’m having a hard time parting with it as a mixer.
Photo by Seemann, www.morguefile.com
