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By: Joanne | June 23, 2009 | Category: Home and Family

a chef chopping onions in the kitchenWhat’s your secret recipe? There’s that one dish that you make better than anyone else. Is it your chili, or your barbecue, or your amazing pie?

I really enjoy cooking, but I’m not very creative in the kitchen – I’m just good at picking out good recipes and following them. Sometimes I like to make healthy dishes with fresh vegetables, I also like regional dishes and sometimes just a yummy dessert like Mamie Eisenhower’s chocolate fudge. I don’t mind that I don’t create the recipe; I just like to serve and eat tasty food.

If you’re a creative chef, you can protect your recipes and share your masterpieces with the rest of us. Did you know that you can copyright a recipe? It’s true. Better yet, maybe you’ve got enough recipes to fill a whole cookbook. Let me know when it’s published, I’m always looking for a great, new recipe.

| View Comments [4] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: cook   copyright   food   joanne   recipe  

 

Entry bubble Buying Organic

By: Colleen | June 17, 2009 | Category: Money

Personally, I don't give a hoot if my food is organic or not.

I know not caring makes me completely un-trendy and quite possibly just plain stupid, but I can list all 50 states alphabetically and recite all the books of the Bible IN ORDER (this makes me an instant hit at cocktail parties). What more do you want from me?

For those of you who are overall healthier and smarter than me, here are some tips to use when purchasing your organic foods. Keep in mind, in 2002 the USDA implemented uniform organic standards for American farmers- organic foods much be produced without chemical pesticides or fertilizers and in livestock, without the use of antibiotics or growth hormones.

  • The demand for organic products has grown tremendously in the past few years (making it a $28 billion industry in 2008). Because of this, you no longer need to shop at speciality (and expensive!) organic stores. Many grocery chains offer their own cheaper organic lines- but the best place to go is still a local farmer's stand or market.
  • Integrate your most heavily used foods as organic first. For most people these are items like milk and eggs. When buying organic fruits and vegetables, focus on items that traditionally carry more pesticides: peaches, apples, bell peppers, and celery.
  • Buy your produce in season and locally since out of area produce uses more fossil fuel to ship. Also check country-of-origin stickers.
  • Don't fret over fish. Right now there are no government standards for what makes seafood and shellfish organic.

| View Comments [1] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: colleen   farmers'_market   food   organic   usda  

 

Entry bubble Experimenting with new recipes

By: Jess | March 12, 2009 | Category: Health

Vegetables in a bowlWhen I was thrust into the real world after college, it was my first real opportunity to cook my own meals. As a health nerd, I had a couple recipes that I knew were nutritious, but after making grilled chicken with vegetables or salmon with broccoli hundreds of times, the recipes started to get boring and I was craving something different.

Often that meant I would hit the salad bar at my grocery store or order a veggie hoagie from a sandwich shop. While still nutritious, these on-the-go meals started to make a dent in my budget.

In honor of National Nutrition Month, I'm challenging myself to try at least one new recipe a week. This week I made a vegetarian stir fry that I found on a friend's blog. Next week I might try some of the heart-healthy recipes from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. In my quest to put lots of color on my plate, I'll definitely explore recipe options from the the Centers for Disease Control that focus on creating meals around fruits and veggies. And of course, I'll check out meal options from the United States Department of Agriculture as I try to put as much variety in my menus as possible.

If this sounds like a challenge you are up for, I'd love to have you join me. If you're worried that healthy cooking is going to be too expensive, you can check out tips for cooking thrifty meals that are still healthy. Nutrition.gov is another place you can turn for healthy eating guidelines.

If you know of any other great nutritious recipe sources please feel free to share in the comments!

| Post a Comment | View Comments [3] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: cooking   food   fruits   healthy_cooking   hearty_healthy_recipes   jess   nutrition   recipes   vegetables   vegetarian  

 

Entry bubble An Unhealthy Need to be Skinny

By: Jess | February 26, 2009 | Category: Health

Scale in trash

(Writer's note: What follows is a short excerpt from an article I wrote for my college paper about a young woman who suffered from an eating disorder. I'm posting part of it here in honor of National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. If you're interested in reading the entire story, you can find it here.)

As the petite young woman knelt on the bathroom floor for more than three hours, holding her shoulder-length blond hair away from the toilet bowl and retching up the remains of a night at Cornerstone Grill and Loft, she had only one thought in her mind: "At least I'm getting my dinner up."

For the sophomore business major, who shared her story on the condition of anonymity, this was as low as it got. Sitting there in a drunken haze, she reached for her cell phone and, without thinking, speed-dialed her boyfriend. She told him everything - how she lamented every calorie, how she could go for days on end without eating and how she hid it from everyone.

While that night may have been an all-time low, it proved to be a turning point by bringing her anorexia, a disease suffered in secret, out into the open.

The young woman I interviewed was brave enough to share some of the thoughts that swirled around in the mind of a person suffering from a terrible eating disorder. She felt comfortable telling me how there were days she ate nothing, but how on days when she ate only a single cracker and a diet soda, she felt fat and ugly. Unlike this young woman, many people who suffer from similar disordered eating patterns will never share their thoughts with anyone and may never reach out for help.

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, which runs February 22 to 28, exists to encourage people to embrace their body no matter what its shape or size. It exists to raise awareness of eating disorders and bring light to resources available both for those who suffer and for their friends and family.

It never hurts to familiarize yourself with the warning signs of an eating disorder. The National Eating Disorders Awareness organization provides additional information for teachers and coaches as well as information on counseling and other help options.

It's been a few years since I wrote that story, but in the time that's passed, I'm happy to say the young woman found a counselor, put on much of the weight she had lost and seems to be more comfortable in her own skin. She's also happily engaged. She was one of the lucky ones, who had supportive friends urging her to get help and was brave enough to admit she needed it.

| Post a Comment | View Comments [1] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: anorexia   bulemia   eating_disorders   food   health   jess   national_eating_disorders_awareness_week   risks  

 

Entry bubble Holiday Cooking

By: Joanne | December 16, 2008 | Category: Home and Family

turkey dinner on a plateI’ve been obsessed with two things this week: finding a store with a Nintendo Wii in stock, and cooking. I got the Wii on Sunday – I sat in the store parking lot for an hour before they opened. I am a one woman Christmas shopping commando.

I’m cooking in preparation for the holidays. My husband’s whole family will be in town. Luckily his brother lives close to us, so we won’t have an overwhelming amount of house guests, but when we’re all together, we add up to 12 hungry mouths to feed. I try to prepare as much food as I can in advance, so I have time to enjoy being with my family.

This weekend I made freezer rolls and three kinds of soup: a free-form veggies and beans, curried peanut, and corn chowder.

My big challenge will be a big, sit down dinner on Christmas Eve. We’ll have turkey, gravy, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, salad, and I’m still undecided on an entrée for the vegetarians. I’m thinking of a bean dish, but will have to put a little more thought into the holiday menu. Let me know if you’ve got ideas.

I still have to figure out when to take the turkey out of the freezer, but I’m sure the Meat and Poultry hotline can help me with that and remember, if you’re planning on bringing some of that killer jam you made this summer when you fly to grandma’s, remember that airline security applies to food, too.

| View Comments [2] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: christmas   family   food   holiday   joanne   soup  

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