FHC

You might love this fun project - we made a big head out of vegetables when coming up with a theme for a poster. I just came across this picture while organizing files on the computer!! Imagine using this for a fun Halloween theme - making a bunch of delicious fresh vegetables into a scary head!! Of course you would have to have some kind of a green herb dip, too.

This was our first poster:

And now we offer this new and updated version:

This poster, and more are found here (shameless plug - we always have so much fun making them!!):
http://www.foodandhealth.com/products.php?cat=7

Posted on September 5th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Cooking, Shopping | No Comments »

Do you ever find yourself running through the grocery store buying the same items you buy each week - with no idea as to what you are going to make for dinner during the week, much less an idea if you are even going to make dinner? This happens to everyone these days especially when we are on the run with too much to do and especially now that school has started again.

I find that it is much easier to come home and cook when you know what you are going to cook and you have the ingredients on hand.

Breakfast is easy - we keep the same staples on hand like oatmeal and whole grain cereal with skim milk and fruit. Snacks are also from staples like cereal, baked potatoes, whole grain low-fat crackers, yogurt and fruit. Lunch is low-fat sandwiches and leftovers from dinner.

For dinners, I plan at least 5 meals I can make during the week. Sometimes that is on paper before I shop and sometimes it is in my head while standing in the produce aisle - stuffed baked potato, fresh veggies for pasta, stir fry veggies, fresh veggies to go with fish or chicken, baked sweet potatoes, etc.

We have been making a shift here with regards to really eating on the run. This is because we are at football practice for 2.5 hours every night. I am sure I am not the only one who is spending a lot more time outside the house so I thought I would share what is working for us and our kitchen in this circumstance.

Here are a few things we are doing to cope:
1) dinner at 3:30PM - that is right - when we come home from school - dinner is ready very soon after we get in the door. I figure this way we can refuel then have a few hours for our meal to digest before being on the field - and why not fill up with quality food instead of expensive and not-really-healthy snack food like chips.

2) make lunch for the next day when we come home from school - it is too late at the end of the night and we are too scrambled the next morning so we get ahead - I believe that the lunch we pack always trumps the school lunch choices that are way too high in sodium and fat

3) my workouts are being done while he is practicing - I am not sitting in the stands

4) the second dinner when we come home is right after practice - that is usually something left over or even a fun breakfast food like waffles with fresh fruit. It has to be fast and light because we have to be in bed to get up at 5:30AM for class the next day.

To keep the meals interesting and to maintain enthusiasm, I am asking for input from my son. Here are some of the things he came up with that I used for menu planning:

Asparagus has been a good price in our stores lately. We found the best way to cook it in our test kitchen - flavorful, easy, fast, not messy!

Break the asparagus off roughly 2/3 from the tips - discarding the stems. Rinse in cold water. Place on a toaster oven tray. Toast on medium or until crisp tender, about 3 minutes. Serve with a sprinkle of fresh cracked black pepper and balsamic vinegar.

Enjoy!

Posted on August 7th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Cooking | No Comments »

Many processed chips, cookies, bars and dessert type items indicate a one ounce serving size on their Nutrition Facts Panel. I find this to be very telling about the calorie density of packaged foods.

Here are the calories in various fruits and vegetables, per one ounce:

Apple - 14 calories
Baked potato (plain) - 26 calories
Carrot - 11 calories
Celery - 4 calories
Grapes - 19 calories
Melon - 9 calories

Whereas most cookies and potato chips are between 140 to 160 calories per ounce (28 grams), even if they are baked, fat-free, whole grain or trans-fat free! This clearly shows that fruits and veggies are the way to go for snacks for those watching their waist.

Our cookie package says:
-Mini size
-Handy snack sack

We wonder if most would treat this bag as a one-serving snack and not realize how many calories they have consumed? 9 small cookies (1 ounce) is a small serving for 130 calories and the bag makes it tempting to keep eating more –That is 1040 calories for the bag!!!!!!!! We would tend to think of these more as a treat not a snack.

Flip over the bag and check the Nutrition Facts Panel - which we have summarized here:

Food and Health Communications has just produced a new game called Nutrition Facts Label Game

It is great for teaching people the difference between package claims and the Nutrition Facts Panel as well as being able to evaluate foods and make better choices in the grocery store.

We have opened the comments section of this blog - if you are reading tell us hi and what you think. We welcome food and cooking questions, too!

Posted on July 15th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Shopping | No Comments »

These are not exactly low in calorie density - but they are low in saturated fat and trans fat (okay so now we feel like the cookie package making these claims!). And the recipe is easy enough for a kid to make, tasty for everyone and a low-cost treat for all - it is our favorite!

1/2 cup trans-free, light margarine

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

_______________________________

1/4 cup egg white

_______________________________

1-3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup semi-sweet dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Cream the margarine, sugars and vanilla together until fluffy using hand beaters or the paddle on a mixing machine.

2. Add the egg whites slowly in 3 parts.

3. Add the flour, baking soda and chocolate chips; scrape the bowl, then mix for one minute.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scoop the cookies with a tablespoon onto nonstick trays. Bake for 12 minutes. Allow to cool then transfer the cookies to a plate. Cover and store up to 3 days at room temperature. Makes about 2 dozen and the cost is about .15 each - much cheaper than a dessert out and half the price of store bought one!

Tips for kids:

- Always wash hands before starting any kitchen projects.

- Assemble and measure all ingredients before starting recipe. Have an adult assist in using beaters or mixing machine and oven.

- Clean as you go - put ingredients away as they are no longer needed. Keep counters clean and rest spoons and spatulas on cups so you don’t have extra mess.

- Be careful to use a clean dry towel or mitt to remove hot cookie trays from oven. Wet towels cause burns!

- Unless you are using pasteurized egg whites, do not eat or lick the raw cookie batter.

Serves 24. Each cookie: 127 calories, 3 g fat, 1.5 g saturated fat, 0 g trans fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 66 mg sodium, 23 g carbohydrate, <1 g fiber, <1 g protein.

Posted on July 2nd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Cooking | Comments Off

That price got your attention, I bet! Everyone is concerned about fuel and food prices at present and with good reason.

Lately I have been making a greater effort to keep the food budget on target. I have been stocking up on sale items that we use on a regular basis (gotta love the 2 for 1 specials!), not buying so many convenience/treat type things like diet soda, crackers, cereals and chips, and taking at look at each item and the other choices instead of just flying through the store like a 747 buying everything I buy out of habit. I am buying “ingredients” much more than “prepared foods.”

This has led me to notice one thing I was spending a lot of money on - lettuce. 2 people in this house go through 4 bags of lettuce a week. Pre-washed lettuce is now $2.50 a bag in our store which would equal $10.00 per week. BUT this doesn’t mean we are not eating salad or lettuce!! I did notice that whole heads of red leaf and romaine, that are very robust in size, are $1.25 each. So, I opted for 1 of each of those.

Tonight I decided to shoot photos while I was preparing the lettuce. When I weighed the lettuce, I discovered that one head is actually equal to 2 bags (One head of prepared lettuce without the core weighed 15 ounces while one bag prepared lettuce weighs about 8 ounces) - hence the discovery that I now have it for just 62 cents per bag instead of $2.50. And I must say, last week I was surprised that the cut lettuce lasted 4 or 5 days - we ran out before it went bad.

So here is how I prepared it:

Cut the lettuce in bite-sized pieces with a sharp stainless steel knife and place into large pot of cold water and stir well; allow to sit for a bit so that all the dirt sinks to the bottom. Remove the lettuce from the top of the water and allow to drain well in colander (and yes, instead of a colander you can use a lettuce spinner to remove the water). Place drained lettuce in plastic bag with a few holes cut in the bottom and keep refrigerated. The lettuce should last about 4 days.

Here are a few other vegetable specials I found this week:

- Campari tomatoes - these are slightly larger than cherry tomatoes and were the best value per pound this week in the store. I like to quarter them and put them on salads or use them in pasta or salsa.

- Mild Cubanelle peppers - these are not that hot - just a bit spicy. They were 3 for $1.79 while green bell peppers were $2.99 each and red bell peppers were $4.99 each. I was able to use one of them to make salsa and the others will be used for salad for the week.

And voila - the finished products:

Fresh garden salad with summer specials on produce.

Salmon with fresh-roasted salsa made in the food processor with oven-broiled campari tomatoes, onion and cubanelle pepper, lemon juice and Gourmet Garden’s cilantro paste.

Microwave fresh corn - I put an ear of corn that was wrapped in plastic in the microwave for 2.5 minutes.

Posted on June 20th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Cooking | Comments Off

Every time I grocery shop, I am always looking for new products to try as well as new trends and label tricks. We had fat-free, then we had carb-free and now we have a variety of trends including whole grain, calcium added, trans-fat free, 100 calorie servings and flavor decadence.  Most of all right now we have the worry that food prices have gone up. Recently I just saw whole chickens for $9!!

I think one of the worst shopping mistakes one can make, though, is to shop based on assumption. Assumption meaning buying things that you think are healthy without checking out the Nutrition Facts panel.

Currently we are working on a really fun new PowerPoint show called, The Label Says - Nutrition Facts Panel Game.  I managed to find and buy, on one fell swoop, about $166 worth of food that sounds okay but has a different story on the back of the box - all for the purpose of photography and research for this game. Some food items look like one serving, but they are really more. Others make all sorts of single nutrition claims but fall short on the whole picture. While others are dietary disasters with regards to total calorie, saturated fat or sodium content.

Most of us would assume fish or chicken is healthy, right? Well, maybe if you are buying a small, fresh piece and cooking it yourself without a lot of fat or salt. But most likely not if the food manufacturer has gotten ahold of it first.

Consider this fish product that claims 0g trans fat:

One would think that fish with 0g trans fat is okay, right?

But, flip the box and see the Nutrition Facts!

This product, per 3.8 ounce serving, contains 17 g fat, 3.5 g saturated fat and 720 mg sodium.

Posted on June 2nd, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Shopping | Comments Off

I had no idea I was going to take a picture of this dinner last night - but it ended up looking good and being really easy to make so I thought I would share!! It all started with a 1.5 hour hard bike ride and I came in starved. I guess a starved chef makes a good cook, eh?!

Tilapia - First off was a nice fillet of tilapia fish bought at Walmart in their freezer section. The fillets are sealed in cryovac inside zip lock bags so are very high quality. No need to defrost - this puppy went into the microwave and I used the “fish” setting to have a delicious piece of cooked fish in just 3 minutes. I am always surprised at how fast and perfect it cooks. (I do remove the fillet from the bag and I put it in a glass dish and cover it.)

The fish was topped with sliced red peppers and ginger sauteed with just a spray of olive oil. See the tube of chopped ginger that we keep handy as well as the spray bottle that has the olive oil.

Skinny mashed potatoes - baking potatoes were rinsed well to remove the dirt and then cut in chunks - skin and all - because that is faster and it makes a delicious home-style mashed potato that has more nutrients and fiber. They were covered in water and cooked for 20 minutes until tender and then mashed with low-cal margarine and skim milk. Seasonings included granulated garlic with parsley mix and black pepper.

Spinach - Finally, I sauteed garlic and olive oil and then added a bag of fresh spinach leaves. That was the base for the fish.

Voila - dinner is ready in 20 minutes!

We do have a section on microwave cookery in our new MyPyramid Cooking Demo Kit, which is great for cooking demonstrations.

Posted on May 9th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Cooking | Comments Off

This is such a simple dish to make. Chop up a selection of fresh veggies - saute with a little (2 tsp) olive oil in a nonstick pan and add broth and fresh herbs (basil, oregano). Serve over heated pasta. Top with parmesan cheese. We find this is a great way to use up extra veggies and offer a low-cal, low-fat dinner that is a new twist on pasta with red sauce.

Posted on May 6th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Cooking | Comments Off

Tortilla pizza is so easy to make - great for an appetizer, snack or light dinner. And really great to feed a bunch of kids who are hungry now!

We started with our favorite salt-free sauce, Enrico’s No-Salt-Added Pasta Sauce and some tortillas. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Then added a light sprinkle of reduced-fat cheese. You can add other favorite ingredients as well - the sky is the limit. But the kids wanted just cheese so we stuck to their order.

After 10 minutes baking - pizza is done!

Serve with salad:

And our 10 minute Microwave BBQ Chicken Tenders:

For the chicken tenders - we buy them frozen in large bulk packages from the Walmart super store. Put them frozen in one layer in a baking dish and then dab with a bit of barbecue sauce on top - go easy on the sauce because it is very high in salt. Cover with plastic wrap.

Microwave using the “chicken” automatic setting on the microwave (or 80% power for 12 minutes) and in about 12-15 minutes you have perfect cooked moist chicken tenders. Chicken is done when it is firm and no longer pink in the center.

If you teach cooking demonstrations you will be interested in our new MyPyramid Cooking Demo Kit:

Posted on April 17th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Cooking | Comments Off