Harvest at the Bindery — a Portland veggie gem

Harvest, in Portland, Ore., is not the type fo restaurant I would normally eat at. It’s a vegetarian place, everything on the menu is plant-based. Other veggie restaurants I’ve gone to have disappointed me with their reliance on nut-based sauces of meat substitutes. I don’t eat nuts and don’t like their taste.

The luscious morels and grilled asparagus at Harvest. Bravo!!!

But eating at Harvest with my daughter and her boyfriend on my recent trip to Portland opened my eyes to what a veggie restaurant can do with a great menu and creative chef. Continue reading “Harvest at the Bindery — a Portland veggie gem” →

June 14, 2016 0

Try the new Senor Pan Cafe in Chicago

It’s not often these days that I go to a restaurant the week it opens, but that was the happy case when my wife and I discovered Senor Pan’s Cafe on North Elston Avenue in Chicago recently.

A touch fo Cuba on the wall at Senor Pan.

Several Senor Pan’s exist in the city, this is the newest and from what the owner told us the night we ate there, the most family-friendly and casual. It’s Cuban cuisine, which amazingly given my love of food, I had never tried before. Continue reading “Try the new Senor Pan Cafe in Chicago” →

June 3, 2016 0

The FDA’s new sodium guidelines have no teeth

Reports were everywhere today saying the Food and Drug Administration was recommending major cuts in the amount of sodium in packaged and restaurant foods. FDA calls for sharp reduction in salt added to foods, was the Reuters headline. New FDA guidelines crack down on salt was on TheVerge.com.

Salt can lead to stomach cancer, one more reason to get it out of your diet. — Mountains of salt will remain in processed ad restaurant foods for years to come.

First of all, the guidelines are voluntary, not mandatory, so they don’t crack down on or call for anything, they merely suggest guidelines, which is exactly what the food industry, which has been fighting mandatory limits on sodium, wanted. Continue reading “The FDA’s new sodium guidelines have no teeth” →

June 1, 2016 0

Denny’s Fit Fare menu — loaded with salt

Many national restaurant chains these days are trying to adjust menus to offer what they call healthier or leaner meals. It’s a tall order to full when their menu planners remain addicted to salt! I ran into this with Applebee’s last year and just came face-to-face with it again recently when I went to a local Denny’s for breakfast.

Denny’s has what it has dubbed its Fit Fare menu. Items are labeled as “lite” and their protein amounts are highlighted as well. But when you dig into the nutrition info on Denny’s website, you see the sad salt stories.

My Denny's omelet..get the salt out Denny's!!! — My Denny’s omelet..get the salt out Denny’s!!!

Take the Fit Fare veggie omelet made with egg whites as an example. I planned to get this, but then saw it contains 820 mgs of sodium, basically half my daily limit! Where is all the salt? I discussed it with a very helpful waitress. We agreed the Swiss cheese used and the English muffin that could be a side likely accounted for most of it. Continue reading “Denny’s Fit Fare menu — loaded with salt” →

May 31, 2016 1

Jenny’s will take you back—to 2001?

Jenny’s Steakhouse & Pub is another one of my favorite Chicago south suburban spots, not because it has a lot of low-salt, low-fat options on its menu, but because it reminds me of the family friendly places of my youth, the kind fo place people would feel special going to on a Sunday afternoon.

Jenny's junior filet and potato. Ask for no salt preparation. — Jenny’s junior filet and potato. Ask for no salt preparation.

That and it does a killer filet mignon for a reasonable price. I was surprised to see on its website that it’s only been there since 2001, it seems much older in terms of the vibe and atmosphere, which for me is a good thing. But the owner is a third generation restaurant guy, so it makes sense.

The only steak I order out these days is a filet because of its leanness. They also tend to come in smaller sizes than other steaks, so you save on overall calories as well. At Jenny’s I opt for the 8-ounce junior fillet because it comes with no toppings that would add fat or salt. At $22 with a baker potato and simple salad, it’s a bargain. Continue reading “Jenny’s will take you back—to 2001?” →

May 16, 2016 0

Skillet rosemary chicken, modified to cut salt and fat

Food Network has tons of recipes it sends me via regular email newsletters but many of them have too much salt, fat and sugar for my post-angioplasty diet. So I find myself modifying them to suit what I need now. Such is the case with this skillet rosemary

chicken.

Here are the ingredients Food Network specifies:

3/4 pound small red-skinned potatoes, halved, or quartered if large
Kosher salt
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, plus 1 tablespoon leaves
1 clove garlic, smashed
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Juice of 2 lemons (squeezed halves reserved)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts (6 to 8 ounces each)
10 ounces cremini mushrooms, halved Continue reading “Skillet rosemary chicken, modified to cut salt and fat” →

April 27, 2016 0

A Chicago north suburban favorite reborn — Kappy’s

Kappy’s has been in the Chicago suburb of Morton Grove for more than 30 years and was the kind of old-school diner that had the spinning dessert refrigerator in the front with massive cakes and pies in it all the time. When my son was young, I remember taking him there for a birthday meal just so he could get a piece of one of those cakes.

My Kappy's veggie omelette with fruit and whole wheat — My Kappy’s veggie omelette with fruit and whole wheat toast.

Massive pieces of cake are off my menu since my 2012 angioplasty, and they;re apparently not front-and-center at Kappy’s anymore either. A new generation of the owner-family has taken off and freshened the place up a bit.

My wife and I tried it on a recent Sunday. The menu is still immense and I didn’t see many low-fat, low-salt choices despite the new decor. So I went with what has become my standby meal at such places, an egg-white omelette. It was one of the best I’ve had. Continue reading “A Chicago north suburban favorite reborn — Kappy’s” →

April 26, 2016 0

Farm-to-table claims — again it’s buyer beware

I recently wrote about how people need to be careful when buying anything labeled grass-fed beef, given that the USDA says it can;t police who uses that when for their products any longer. And now I’ve come across this story from Tampa warning that the rash of new restaurants popping up these days calling themselves farm-to-table may not be what they claim either.

Mondelez has to compete with fruit for the healthy snack trade, can it? — Always check claims of farm-to-table freshness at restaurants.

The food critic for the Tampa Bay Times checked into claims by some farm-to-table places in that area and was not happy with the results.

“This is a story we are all being fed. A story about overalls, rich soil and John Deere tractors scattering broods of busy chickens. A story about healthy animals living happy lives, heirloom tomatoes hanging heavy and earnest artisans rolling wheels of cheese into aging caves nearby,” writes Times food critic Laura Reiley of the so-called farm-to-table restaurant craze. Continue reading “Farm-to-table claims — again it’s buyer beware” →

April 20, 2016 0

Fast food breakfast choices — the salt flows like water

WebMD recently did a series of posts about fast food choices which I wrote about recently. The news was mostly bad, especially when it came to salt content of even what WebMD considered the best alternatives in several categories.

A McDonald's breakfast platter my mother once loved. — A McDonald’s breakfast platter my mother once loved.

The medical site is at it again, sending me this look at fast food breakfast choices. Again the news is bad even for the choices WebMD says are you best bet, or at least better bets than the calorie and salt monsters profiled first. Continue reading “Fast food breakfast choices — the salt flows like water” →

March 10, 2016 1

Eating out salt, fat and calorie minefields from WebMD

I’ve been writing this week about a special issue of the WebMD newsletter dealing with eating out. One article got very specific about items to avoid as various fast-food outlets and what to buy instead.

Deep dish pizza--those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end. — Deep dish pizza–those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end.

I pointed out those substitutes all were too high in salt, as far as my diet is concerned. This post looks at another article entitled Worst Restaurant Meals.

Continue reading “Eating out salt, fat and calorie minefields from WebMD” →

March 4, 2016 1

Tag: eating out