Did I Find Anything Good to Eat?
As the tagline of this blog says, I’m always looking for something good to eat. I often share stories with you, my readers, about food that scientists discover are good or not so good for you to eat. Sometimes I talk about food we’ve cooked at home that’s really good or really bad to eat. And sometimes I’ve shared my adventures in eating food on the road. Since it’s time for spring cleaning and refreshing our homes, minds, and blogs, I’ve decided to add a new feature to this blog. Each day I’m going to highlight something I’ve eaten the previous day in my attempt to find something good to eat. There will be days when there was nothing good, and maybe then I’ll share the worst of it. But don’t fear, longtime readers, I’m going to continue to highlight food in the news when there’s something worth reporting.
So, did I find anything good to eat yesterday? Yep. Here it is:
In case you had a hard time making it out because it’s so black, it’s a werewolf cupcake. Yesterday Annie and Louisa baked up a box mix of cupcakes, and then worked very carefully to decorate them with marshmallows, tinted frosting, and candies to look like werewolves. It was so good to eat because it embodied all the creative energy and attention the girls put into making them. Love, creativity, and energy go a long way into making something good to eat in my book.
And in food news… Oat O’s May Not Be the Miracle Food
The LA Times recently reported that to get the desired and reported soluble fiber benefit from eating oat o’s like Cheerios, you’d need three servings per day. And while you’d be gaining the cholesterol lowering benefits, you’d be taking in more calories and sugars than would be desirable. Now, that’s not to say that they aren’t a good piece of the puzzle, but they can’t do all the work on their own. They need to be part of an overall healthy diet and lifestyle to truly improve your heart health. So what else is new?
I’ll Take My Persuasion with a Pinch of Respect
Let me decide how much salt I want in my food!
I’ve seen many signs in the media that we are becoming a food and health conscious society. You can see it in the growth of CSA memberships (Community Supported Agriculture), production of movies like “Food Inc.”, and the success of shows like Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. There’s now rumors of a television show featuring food pioneer Alice Waters, where she would talk about the importance of eating fresh, locally grown food and supporting local farmers. The message is out there, loud and clear, that we should be thinking about what we put on our tables and in the bellies of our children. This all adds up to a strong, compelling message of persuasion.
There’s a different kind of persuasion brewing at the FDA. For the past few days the big food story has been that the FDA is seeking to regulate the amount of salt in processed and prepared foods. Here’s my problem with this. This is persuasion of the mandatory kind. As in we know what’s good for you and will make you do it because we don’t respect your intelligence. Nope, we aren’t convinced that we can make a persuasive enough case against salt for you to follow our guidelines, so we’re going to demonize the essential spice of life.
I will agree that for those with hypertension, or even prehypertension salt may be a dangerous health risk. But for the rest of the population without that health risk, there’s no good reason to mandate salt restrictions. While I applaud all the efforts of those food crusaders on a mission to convince the public we should be cooking our own food more often, choosing whole, unprocessed ingredients and eating a more healthy diet, I don’t trust government health czars. Given their track record of health mandates – consider the flip flop arguments on margarine and eggs; or how about the flip flop on exposure to sun? many of us are now deficient in Vitamin D to our detriment – you’ll know that if they seek to take away all of our salt today, some scientist will discover tomorrow that the 90% of us without hypertension now have our own set of health issues because we’re salt deficient. As I said, persuasion is a good thing, but mandates are not.
Epic Fail Quinoa Dinner
These leftovers will remain left alone.
Over the past week I’ve been cooking from Joy Bauer’s new cookbook, “Slim and Scrumptious”. If you watch the Today Show, you may be familiar with Joy since she’s the nutritionist/diet consulttant for the show. She is always ready with advice on healthy eating and improvements on our normal diets. She’s very skinny and peppy, which can be a bit much when you’re feeling guilty about your own dining preferences after you’ve heard her advice. But the book was offered to me for review, and I thought I’d give it a try since it promised family friendly recipes. Most of the recipes I’ve tested so far have been pretty good, and while not always family favorites, certainly family tolerable for a healthy type of book.
So what family friendly item did I choose for tonight’s dinner? Quinoa salad. Quinoa has been touted for years as the miracle grain of the Aztecs. You cook up the quinoa in a pot of water, much like rice. I sauteed some fennel, yellow pepper, and swiss chard. Whisked up a dressing of mustard, lemon juice, olive oil. Tossed it all together with toasted pine nuts and raisins.
Epic fail.
Joe was kind enough and hungry enough to eat his dinner and a second helping without complaint; Annie bravely gagged down 2/3 of her portion; Louisa flattened hers into a giant pancake while commenting on how disgusting the curlicue quinoa looked and how it was just like poodle hair on her plate. Yum. I’m not sure if she managed to pick at and taste a few grains, but I don’t believe she got past the look of them. Frankly, I think the look of the grain was kind of cute, but the flavor was pretty bland. When I offered the leftovers to Joe for his Good Friday lunch tomorrow, his unchecked refusal told me all I needed to know about his opinion of this meal.
You can’t blame a mom for trying once, but quinoa won’t be happening in this kitchen again anytime soon.