African Stew

African Stew

This afternoon I made Whole Wheat Raisin Bread.

Then I made some Tomato Sauce.  I sauteed an onion in corn oil, added garlic, about 3 lbs. of Roma tomatoes, quartered, 1/2 t salt, a splash of red wine, and a handful of fresh herbs, chopped: basil, thyme, and oregano.  I let it cook down several hours, pureed it in a blender, added salt to taste, and packed it away in the freezer.

Then I made 100% Whole Wheat Bread.

Salad

Dinner was African Stew.  I only made this once before, but it has been terrific both times.  I served it over brown rice and also put out a salad with Orange Balsamic Dressing.

Monday

Corn and Beans & Greens in Coconut Milk

Salad

Dinner for six tonight was Beans and Greens in Coconut Milk, corn on the cob, and a salad with lettuce, arugula, purple and lime basil, chives, parsley, cucumber, and tomato with Orange Balsamic Dressing.

Compassionate Shepherd’s Pie

Shepherd's Pie Filling

For breakfast today we had Pancakes with Peach Syrup, Blueberry Syrup, and Maple Syrup.

My lunch was cold leftover Southeast Asian Greens and Noodles, raw veggies and Spicy Peanut Dip, and no-salt veggie juice.  I had a few grapes for a snack.

Shepherd's Pie, Herbed Biscuits, and Zucchini

Dinner was Shepherd’s Pie.  I thought the filling was pretty so I took a photo.  With this we had Herbed Biscuits and microwaved zucchini.

Dessert was leftover Coconut Chocolate Chip Cake and green tea.

Lasagna Rollups

Raw Veggies

I cut up some vegetables to go with leftover Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce.

I also took some mealy peaches and made Peach Syrup for pancakes tomorrow.  I was worried that yucky peaches in = yucky peaches out, but they came through tasting good.

Refrigerator Soup

Dinner tonight included Refrigerator Soup made with portobello mushrooms, zucchini, broccoli, and fresh sage.  I also added bouillon paste and Lawry’s Season Salt.

Broccoli and Farfalle

We also had whole wheat farfalle (butterfly pasta) with Fresh Tomato Coulis, defrosted Lasgana Rollups, microwaved broccoli with balsamic vinegar, and Swedish Hill Viking Red wine.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cake

Dessert was Coconut Chocolate Chip Cake and decaf green tea.

Irish Raisin Bread

Irish Raisin Bread

This afternoon I made Irish Raisin Bread for future breakfasts.  I made Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce to go with raw veggies.

And then I made Zucchini Pizza for dinner, with Tomato Coulis, zucchini, portobello mushrooms, broccoli, and chipotle powder.

Washed it down with a Yuengling Porter.

Sushi and Rice Pudding

My parents came for dinner and I made Sushi with microwaved tofu, red peppers, and chives, and also Southeast Asian Greens and Noodles.

I don't suppose pudding is ever particularly photogenic.

By request I made Rice Pudding for dessert.  It was going great, but I fell apart at the end and forgot the initial serving suggestion said to serve it with soymilk.  It was very good but would have been even better thinner, I think.  It was more like oatmeal than pudding, but that’s OK because I miss oatmeal so much (I’m allergic).

Southwestern Black Beans

For dinner we had leftover Southwestern Black Beans with brown rice, Corn Sticks, microwaved fresh green beans, and tomatoes with olive oil, basil, s&p.

Dessert was defrosted Birthday Cupcakes and organic English Breakfast decaf.

Industry Decides What’s “Better for You”

As part of the Yale Psych 123 class I’m auditing, I looked over the materials at the BBB website “Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative.”  The ostensible point of this program is to reign in advertising of unhealthy foods to children.  Participation is voluntary, and the food companies set their own standards.  Are you already wondering why anyone at the BBB bothered to show up to the meetings?

I saw this list of “Better For You” products that the companies approved to market to children, and was naively surprised to see exactly the foods I assumed would be the targeted for removal, such as Capri Sun Juice Drinks.  In what specific way is Capri Sun with 10% juice better for you than other individual drink choices, such as Juicy Juice, Minute Maid, and Apple & Eve, all 100% juice?  Or are they suggesting that it’s “better for you” than 0% juice, e.g. soda-pop?  That’s a pretty low standard.  I think today’s theme will be, “Better Than What?”

I noticed Pop Tarts’ only whole-grain variety was on the list.  I was wondering why only one variety was made healthier (barely), and whether, when the child gets to the supermarket, he or she might, with the Pop Tarts brand firmly planted in mind, choose from the dizzying variety without noticing which one had whole grains.

I picked a few other products to analyze.  I found that the cereals I checked out, such as Trix and Cookie Crisp, were healthier than I would have thought before I looked into them a little while back.  I used Burger King’s convenient online calculator to get the profile for a “Better for You” Hamburger Kids Meal with Apple Fries with caramel dipping sauce (fresh apples sliced and packaged to look like fries), and apple juice.   Let’s compare that to a Subway Veggie Delite Kids Meal with apple slices and juice box:

	BK Kids Hamburger Meal	Subway Veggie Delite Kids Meal
Calories	430	285
Fat	11.5 g	1.5 g
Sat Fat	4 g	0
Cholesterol	30 mg	0
Sugar	36g (10 from the apples and caramel, 21 from the juice)	31 g (28 from the fruit)
Protein	14 g	6 g
Sodium	580 mg	295 mg
Fiber	?	5 g

I picked another product at random from the BBB list, Kids Cuisine Carnival Corn Dog.  The nutritional info there first trumpets that it has 1 c of the recommended 2.5 c of vegetables; I wonder if that’s the french fries or the corn?  To compare, here is a frozen meal that would probably also appeal to kids, Amy’s Enchilada.  Still too high in sodium, but with almost the same amount of protein as the corndog meal, it has more fiber, less than half the fat, no cholesterol, 20% of the sugar, and is organic.

	Kids Cuisine Carnival Corn Dog	Amy’s Whole Meal Black Bean Enchilada
Calories	420	330
Fat	12 g	8 g
Sat Fat	3 g	1 g
Cholesterol	30 mg	0
Sugar	20 g	4 g
Protein	10 g	9 g
Sodium	660 mg	740 mg
Fiber	7 g	9 g

Kid Cuisine’s maker ConAgra’s self-selected maximums include the decision that any sodium under 760 mg is “better for you”.  The real value of this industry-determined program appears to be to keep industry off the hook.  They may have made some baby steps in improving their products, but we don’t need baby steps at this point, we need strides.

Chipotle

My kids and I went to Chipotle for lunch in between back-to-school shopping.  It was a good meal; they have vegan black beans to put on whatever you order (watch out, the pinto beans are not vegetarian).  I got a burrito with black beans, rice, corn, and hot salsa.  My vegan daughter got a build-it-yourself taco with the same ingredients minus the salsa.  The kids meals came with chips in a little bag, but no salsa.  You could probably ask for some.

I understand this is a common issue with Chipotle’s, so I’m under no illusion I’m having a creative thought here, but they need more seating.  It was after 1:00 and there was nowhere to sit inside.  It wasn’t a nice day, but we had to go outside and dry off some seats.  If it had been raining or snowing, I guess we would have stood there in the dining room with our food in our hands, waiting for someone to finish.  What is the etiquette for that?  Would Miss Manners suggest we gentle waiting customers form a line somewhere in the cramped area, or just pick out seated customers who looked nearly done to hover over?  I’m really reluctant to return on a worse-weather-day, despite the good food.

I came down with a cold, so my sweetheart picked up takeout from Aja Noodle, which always does a fine job.  I had Miso Soup and Yakiudon noodles with tofu.  My daughter had Tofu Lo Mein.  Tofu wasn’t suggested for either of these dishes, but they were happy to put it in.

U.N. urges global move to veganism

According to The Guardian, a report issued by the U.N. in June states that “a global shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, fuel poverty and the worst impacts of climate change.”

This is huge, and yet a Google search does not bring up a single U.S. media that picked up the story, only vegan internet sites.

So pass it on.