I am a believer in zero-waste cooking I grew up in a house where food was regularly thrown away. It drove me crazy! That’s why I recommend books like Lindsay-Jean Hard’s Cooking with Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems into Delicious Meals. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), nearly half of America’s food supply is wasted, around 133 billion pounds. Wasting food is a waste of money, but it also hurts the environment because food dumped into landfills produces methane gas, a big contributor to global warming. Why waste food if you can repurpose it? Canned food
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It seems like everyone I know is on some kind of diet this winter to lose weight. I have friends on Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Nutri System, Dr. Oz Diet and The Zone Diet. I’m getting pitched on paleo, alkaline, magnesium, PH balancing, you name it! I have to wonder: What’s Fact and What’s Quack? During my studies at Institute for Integrative Nutrition I learned 100 dietary theories. The simplest approach is the one I adhere to: eat food in moderation and in smaller portions; mainly plants and lean proteins; exercise more and hydrate more. One area that fascinates me is
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The invitation was sudden, subtle and enticing. Boarding the bus to New York this past week, we ran into someone we’d recently met at a dinner party. He quietly came over to us after we were seated and said, “Would you like to come to my house for a mystery meal?” “Why not!” We answered, intrigued with the idea. Let’s face it: David and I have been in a dining rut at home eating various versions of greens, beans, mushrooms and fish every night. We could use a little mystery to spice things up. He asked us about our food
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I love one pot dishes, especially those hearty ones to enjoy on a wintry night with a side salad and a glass of wine. But hearty sometimes is not healthy. That casserole may be stick to your ribs delicious but it may be sticking you with added calories, sodium and fat. That’s why I love Linda Gassenheimer’s book series written under the health guidelines of the American Diabetes Association. With obesity in America at an all time high and a major cause for Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke cancer and many other chronic illnesses, this series provides common sense
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I’ve never been much of a fried food fan but I love the crispy edges of burnt toast and pizza crust, seared salmon skin and grilled veggies. When I was a meat eater we’d always asked for the flavorful “burnt ends” of the barbecued brisket or pork butt. Grilling and barbecues are cooking rites of summer. But high heat and open flame cooking can cause a chemical reaction in some foods that is potentially carcinogenic. According to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) website: Heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are chemicals formed when muscle meat, including beef, pork, fish,
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Cat Smiley runs a successful weight loss retreat in Whistler, Canada. (Whistler Fitness Vacations) where women undergo a healthy boot camp for 1-12 weeks. But for anyone who can’t make it to Canada, Cat has just released “The Planet Friendly Diet: Your 21 Day Guide to Sustainable Weight Loss and Optimal Health” (New Society Publishers). I like this book’s practical approach, easy recipes and no nonsense approach. Here are a few of Cat’s tips that I am taking to heart:
Read more →In the early 1990s, fashion industry executive Ann Odgen Gaffney found herself cooking and caring for a designer in the industry fighting AIDS, The experience taught her to be fearless which was especially helpful when she was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2001. Fortunately, Ann recovered following her surgery and her life went back to a new normal….well, sort of. A second diagnosis of unrelated breast cancer came later and was a more difficult journey with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Ann learned from this experience that cooking was solace and nutrition was essential to manage side effects from treatment and support
Read more →“Do Your Best, and Then Let Go” So reads one of the 13 chapters- and morsels- of kitchen wisdom in Alana Chernila‘s new cookbook, “The Homemade Kitchen.” This is a book whose message is as much about how to approach life at a slow, measured and pleasurable pace as it is about about cooking with the same intentions. “Start Where You Are.” “Feed Yourself.” “Put Your Hands in the Earth.” “Do the Work.” “Slow Down.” Alana has these phrases and others taped to her refrigerator. I do the same thing on mine with inspirational quotations such as: “Just as the
Read more →Getting wasted is growing in popularity. I don’t mean drinking yourself silly and getting trashed. These days getting wasted means becoming more grounded and conscious about the food we eat and utilizing every part of it rather than throwing it out. In other words: Don’t trash your dinner. The United States is an agricultural wonder abundant in food. Stores stock hundreds of products both farm-raised and man-made. Restaurants and food shops are on every block in cities and towns. Yet, we waste more food than we ingest, and more than 46 million Americans are living with food insecurity (lack of food).
Read more →Can you eat on a $4 a day budget? I bet your $4 latte or juice you say you can’t. But $4 is the daily budget 46 million Americans must survive on to eat, based on the allocation of SNAP, the U.S. government’s food stamps program. And millions more, including cash strapped working parents, fixed income retirees, students and grads entering the workforce, live with similar limitations. We’re talking food and nourishment and the fact that many people don’t have enough on their plates for themselves or their families despite living in a country where food is plentiful. It’s called food insecurity
Read more →In the world of cooking and gustatory pleasure, the sensation of taste can be categorized into five basic categories: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. The latter is a Japanese term for a savory, stimulating sensation that is meaty but not in the “red meat” meaning of the word. Umami fills your mouth with pleasure. I like to experience all five senses when I eat and I hope to convey them as I improve my cooking ability. But I think I have identified a sixth sense. It’s why homemade dishes you remember as a child tasted so good and why I can’t seem to
Read more →I finally took the plunge. After reading about the benefits of juicing from wellness warriors like Kris Carr and Joe Cross, and to prep for my radio interview with Daily Greens Founder Shauna Martin, I decided to give it a try. First I had to find the juicer. David had purchased a Breville when I was diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago thinking we (he) would juice my way to better health. I don’t recall ever using it. I forgot we actually had a juicer and tried to liquefy fruits and vegetables in my KitchenAid blender. But there was too
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