I’ve never been a believer in so-called “super foods,” items that someone or other decides will do amazing things for our bodies. Every body is different which is what makes giving nutrition advice so complex.
Salt is salt, no matter where it comes from, I avoid it to help control my blood pressure.
The story says such offerings as banana bread, a pandemic favorite, cauliflower, raw spinach, Himalayan salt and turkey bacon aren’t all that some have said they are.
It’s a good reminder, no one food is going to turn your life around. Find what works for you and stick with that.
The Mrs. Dash product did taste different, I think primarily because of the lack of salt. Manwich Sloppy Joe has 310 mgs of sodium a serving and claims one can is 10 servings!. If you’ve ever made it, you know that’s really not the case. I’d say a can is about three real-people servings, so each person would get about 1,000 mgs of sodium, half a day’s worth.
Sugar, Dried Onion, Brown Sugar, Spices (Black Pepper, Celery Seed, Chili Pepper, Cinnamon, Cumin, Nutmeg), Cornstarch, Maltodextrin, Potassium Chloride, Yeast Extract, Tomato Powder, Dried Red and Green Bell Pepper, Dried Garlic, Citric Acid, Glucose, Natural Flavors, Vinegar.
We tried the Mrs. Dash seasoning with ground turkey instead of ground beef to hold the fat down as well. The combination worked well. I might modify the recipe on the package a bit and add more tomato paste than called for to give it a bit more tomato zwing.
One note, my local food stores don’t carry this product, so I bought it online at the Healthy Heart Market.
Attention Walmart shoppers, if you live in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma or Texas, you’ll be seeing less cut fruit in the aisles of your local store.
A Walmart supplier is recalling cut fruit in those states because of the possibility of listeria contamination, the Food and Drug Administration announced recently.
An example of the recalled fruit offerings.
“The recall is a precautionary measure due to a possible health risk from Listeria monocytogenes detected on equipment used in an area near where these products are packed. FDA discovered these findings during a recent inspection,” the FDA announcement of the recall stated. The distributor involved is called Country Fresh.
The FDA noted that “the products were packaged in various size clam shell containers (see photos). The “best if used by” dates are between October 3, 2020 and October 11, 2020 and the products are as follows:”
Oil and vinegar was the salad dressing we used when I was growing up in my Italian-American household and it has been my go=-to choice since my first angioplasty in 2012. That’s because almost all commercial salad dressings are loaded with fat, salt and sugar, liklely why we enjoy them.
I’ve written about carrying my own oil and vinegar in handy small bottles when eating out to avoid restaurant dressing choices.
But all that said, I’m always on the lookout for alternatives. And I found one recently on the Healthy Heart Market, a product called Farmer Boy Lite Greek dressing. It has zero salt, a relatively low three grams of sugar and 2.5 grams of fat per serving with no saturated fat. (You can see the nutrition panel below by sliding the center line, a new feature on my blog.)
I bought a bottle to sample it and have been enjoying it since. Irt is a bit peppery for my taste but that’s often the case with products that take out salt and sugar or fat. Pepper is added instead to give it some flavor.
Also keep in mind, a serving is two tablespoons. I have not measured how much I use on my typical lunch salad (which can be pretty large), but I’m guessing it’s more than that.
Also keep in mind, it costs $5.99, plus shipping, for a 16-ounce bottle. If you can find it at a local store, you can save the shipping cost. The manufacturer sells it for slightly less, but you have to buy six bottles at a time. The company site notes a forerunner of the dressing has been available in the Clearwater, Fl. are for more than 30 years. The Lite version is relatively new, it says.
The processor’s site doesn’t have a list of retailers carrying the brand, I’ll contact them to see if I can get more information.
Having a local source of great spices, I’m not talking about the pre-packaged kind in the supermarket, but fresher and specially blended spices, is a great aid in coming up with fun dinner options, even during this pandemic.
In the Chicago area, we have The Spice House, which has a variety of blends, including an entire section of salt-free mixtures for people like me trying to cut salt from our diets.
Salt-free spices are a must-have for any kitchen.
If you don’t have such a place, you can get creative and make your own blends. Here are a few from The Spice House to get you started. How much of each you blend is the art of it, experiment and see what works for you and the people at your table. Continue reading “Some spice blending tips to spice up your pandemic cooking”→
The longer we’re home, the more we seem to eat in these Covid days. Indeed, the Covid 19 has come to refer to the weight people are gaining from being at home. So here’s a tip to try to limit the snacking damage you’re doing to yourself.
How many chips can you eat? Likely the whole bag if you keep it handy.
This site is a little too happy-talk for my taste, but it makes a valid point about pre-portioning your snacks (it talks a lot about healthy snacks, not the potato chips, ice cream, etc people are actually eating). Still, you might find some of the points it makes helpful.
If you search online, you can find some helpful gadgets to help you see what portion sizes are.
I wrote about one such system back in 2013. The point is, don’t eat out of an open bag of chips or container of ice cream. Take a snack-size portion and eat that.
I know it’s easier said than done but give it a try.
Food recalls have popped up everywhere this summer, more nuggets of grief in this pandemic world we live in. The latest recall is for peaches, sold in a variety of retailers across the country.
“Do not eat, serve, or sell recalled loose or bagged peaches packed or supplied by Prima Wawona or Wawona Packing Company LLC, or food made with these peaches” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported August 27.
Olive oil is on the ‘good food’ list these days and thanks for that. I love it on salads of all kinds, fish and veggies I grill on my barbecue. But even with all the praise it’s gotten nutritionally, there’s been a long-held caution about cooking with it.
“Many healthy chefs exclusively use it as a finishing oil because of the oil’s low “smoke point.” The concern was that if olive oil gets too hot, it starts to burn and smoke—which can mess with the flavor of the finished dish as well as degrade some of the oil’s health benefits,” recounts Wellandgood.com in a recent article.
A sampling of the amazing olive oil we brought back from Italy.
I never believed that, by the way. Now thankfully, it’s being called a false bit of information.
A recent study, “debunks a lot of people’s concerns about olive oil’s smoke points. For one thing, researchers found that both regular olive oil and extra-virgin olive oil can withstand temperatures over 475℉, whether on the stove or in the oven. (When sautéing, the temperature is typically 248℉.),” the article notes.
As if cooking during this Covid-19 pandemic has;t been difficult enough, what with various food shortages and the difficulties associated with grocery shopping, now there’s another worry — several types of onions are being recalled as people become sick from salmonella-laced red onions.
Roughly 400 people in 34 states have become sick because of tainted red onions, California producer Thomson International is recalling red, white, yellow and sweet onions. The problem so far has been with red onions, but the company is recalling other varieties “that could have come in contact with potentially contaminated red onions, due to the risk of cross-contamination,” the Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.
It’s almost impossible to know if onions you bought come from Thomson, the FDA announcement does not list retailers that may have stocked the contaminated onions. So it advises, “if you cannot tell if your onion is from Thomson International Inc., or your food product contains such onions, you should not eat, sell, or serve it, and should throw it out.”
The outbreak has spread to Canada as well.
Here’s a look at states that have been affected, the various shades of blue indicate how many people have become sick because of the tainted onions:
A lot has been written about people overeating during the Covid-19 pandemic. And why not, with all the tension and changes in routine the pandemic has brought into our lives?
My low-fat, low-salt home-made pizza.
If you’re trying to get a grip on your pandemic eating, try starting with not eating for at least two hours before you go to bed. And, according to this piece on Foodnetwork.com, avoid these eight foods before bedtime:
