Pita Chips

I love salt and garlic and abhor the incessant wasting of food that happens right under my nose. So, although it's not rocket science, I will share how easy it was to save a bag of crumbling whole wheat pita bread from certain mold and composterdom.

Garlicky Whole Wheat Pita Chips

1 bag not so soft and fresh but still edible whole wheat pita bread
olive oil spray
garlic powder
dehydrated chopped garlic bits
salt to taste

Rip up pita into chips and arrange on a cookie sheet that fits inside of your grill. Spray the tops with olive oil. Sprinkle with assorted garlic and salt. Wait until you are done grilling your dinner,
turn grill off, place tray on grill rack, and put the cover on. Eat your dinner. After dinner, remove cookie sheet and let cool while you find a movie and regain your appetite. Snack wantonly on chips while watching movie.

Any other favorite recipes from the 'saving it from inedibility' files?

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Eating Local with Mighty Appetite

So, Mighty Appetite is a Washington Post food blog that I love to read -- and blog author Kim O'Donnell had a challenge this week to have her readers try to eat ten items produced within 100 miles. Since I love the whole concept but haven't nailed down the perfect execution of local eating yet, I thought I'd give it a whirl (before she up and moves to Seattle, sniff).

Here's what I ate in California (why yes, I am that kind of cheater):

Farmer's market local, organic strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries, smothered in Straus Family Creamery whipped cream, and handfuls of plums from the yard - while in the South Bay. Hardship.

Homegrown-basil pesto on steamed zucchini, potato and egg salad (all organic and grown/collected/cooked on site at Preston Vineyards) - plus don't forget the Madam Preston I got to sip with lunch...sigh. Dedication to the cause.

When we got home from our trip, I was exhausted, so we made burgers from some Polyface ground beef I had in the freezer. And here's what we found in our CSA boxes last night: yellow plums and green beans (et 'em up for dinner) and beets (in the slow cooker right now). Peaches are ripening in a brown bag. Go, Zurschmeides! Hey, DC local eating holds its own!

Here's my overall dilemma tho: What do people do about things like crackers? I can make my own bread in my bread machine but what do you do about things like bagels or little whole wheat bunny crackers? That your kids love? I now try to do things like pop popcorn myself (in a brown bag in the microwave to avoid all the packaging). But there are some items we eat routinely that are neither local or sustainable, 'tho they may be organic and bought in bulk. Should we just be skipping that stuff altogether? It's all those whole grain carbs, for the most part.

Makes me muse about environmentalism in general. I tend to cut myself and others mucho slack because I think that even if I/we changed just 50% of our habits, that would be an amazing difference. I also think that I can only change so much at one time. That's what I love about reading other blogs and chatting up other people who are trying to simplify and clean their lives -- I end up making so many more and deeper changes than I would have on my own. Living vicariously through you all and getting wiser because of it.

So thanks, Kim at Mighty Appetite, for getting me to more closely look at my local consumption (because of your challenge, I thought much more about the sources of all my foods, not just the 10 I'd be tracking). I'd love to hear from others the areas in which you've easily found organic, local, less-processed foods. Just don't tell me to make my own crackers. I'm not quite there yet!



*Photo courtesy of sxc. Read more!

How to Pick a Peach

Green Bean Dreams has an eco-book club going, ok, a challenge, to get us reading books about environmental preservation and protection. It's actually been going on in May and June. Not that I've posted any book reviews. No hairshirt necessary, though, Green Bean is a nurturing kind of motivator and she just wants us to keep reading.

How to Pick a Peach by Russ Parsons is a fascinating read. I'm not done, but hell, it's a reference book and I'm hanging onto this sucker for future, uh, use. I already figured out how to pick a watermelon (look for a yellow spot where it sat on the ground and ripened in the field -- cool!) and remembered it in the store when I was (confession) buying a decidedly not-local watermelon from California. Yellow spot! That info stuck! I am so into this book.

So the basic premise of the book is that if one sets out to buy the best-tasting food possible, then labels like organic and locavore can't be far behind. Parsons weaves together fascinating historical details about the genesis of modern plant breeding, recipes, practical buying tips, and helpful lists like "When it's okay to buy unripe fruit." It's like getting the thorough research end of a Michael Pollan book complete with the tips on how to identify decent produce in the market, and cook said delightful food.

I have a community garden plot and have been puttering around there, off and on, for about five years. So I know a tiny bit about food. But like most of us, my sense of seasonal food and basic store of gardening knowledge is pretty thin. That's where this book comes in. It's a contemporary storehouse of information, which is why I'm hanging onto it. Thanks to Green Bean Dreams and my friend AE who recommended this on the heels of Garbageland: On the Secret Trail of Trash. Anyone got any ideas for readable page-turners about energy use and climate change?!


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Kitchen Tricks

Today's post is all about the kitchen: recycling, reducing waste, and getting the most out of our food in the first place.

How about upcycling those annoying little produce stickers by mailing them to an artist in Colorado (via Emerald City) so he can make some more sweet Warhollian pics? Perfect project for little recyclers, eh?

Speaking of harnessing your trash, Terracycle's an eco-business that sells worm poop in recycled containers. You can sign up to sell them your used drink pouches, cans, yogurt containers, and energy bar wrappers. Sounds like a perfect school project. Or just a project for all of us with worthless recycling options. (via fellow DCUM WrekeHavoc)

Check out They Call You Mommy's post on produce to stop the crisper drawer rot festival (less waste plus more veggies + fruits in you!). Did you know you should store tomatoes stem side down? Basil at room temperature?

How to wash that basil? Those tomatoes? Whip up some homemade veggie wash with this recipe from The Dollar Stretcher.

Speaking of veggies, Culinate had an interesting piece a bit ago about how cooking some vegetables actually enhances their nutritive value. The research is incomplete, but the idea that all veggies are healthier raw isn't true across the board. Broccoli actually gains carotenoids and cancer-fighting compounds when steamed.

If you blow it and end up with some slimy green refuse? And your composter's still not assembled because your instructions decomposed? Where to put that wet trash if you've been using cloth bags? Hmmm? I know you faced this dilemma when you stopped getting bags at the grocery store! Here are two great threads that pose various solutions (biodegradable bags are generally agreed to be impractical for wet trash, hence the dilemma). One's at Emerald City (one commenter suggests keeping wet trash in a plastic bag in the freezer so it doesn't smell, hmmm, that spot's taken by my vegetable stock stash, thank you but maybe you folks have the room) and one's at Ask Metafilter. The AM thread has practical, helpful comments, including a breakdown (pun intended) of anaerobic decomposition and some complicated systems for balancing wet and dry trash.

Last but certainly not least, check out this supremely awesome Table of Condiments That Periodically Go Bad so you can have some clue how long that onion dip can sit in your fridge. (via bblog - 2 weeks.)

*photo courtesy of stickermanproduceart.wordpress.com
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Food Fascination

Lately, like everyone, I've been riveted by the Sinclair-esque downer cows (via Gristmill) in our meat supply. My favorite description of the situation (at Eating Liberally) called out the meat plants for "bovine water boarding."

Sometimes, in fact oftentimes, the frugal thing to do (bagging lunches) is also healthier. Last I checked, there weren't very many organic, free-range, locally- and sustainably-farmed, whole-grain, additive-, preservative-, and synthetic dye-free items on the school lunch menu.

But I figured last week was the safest time in history to relent and let our kid get a much-desired Hot Lunch or two since all of the bad press caused our school district to yank meat, recall or no, from the menus. C'mon, didn't you trade your lunches back in the day? Hostess Ding-Dongs being the platinum currency of lunchbox wampum. Kids can't do that now, what with food allergies on the rise and all. So to take an item off the Delightfully Forbidden Fruit list you have to bend the rules now and again.

EGirl had a (persistant organic pollutant-laced) fish sandwich (on white GMO bread) and some (bGH) cheese pizza. But her favorite part (and my favorite description?) was the milk: "Mom, it was chocolate and even though it wasn't organic? It tasted so cold and delicious that it seemed like it really was." Ah, everlasting sweetness.

Below: less musing, more foodbits...

• This cool tool at Foodsel allows you to see nifty visual guides to food contents. Like if you eat a Krispy Kreme, what does that really mean? Why, a fifth of a stick of butter and four sugar cubes just went down your gullet. But you got 16 batteries' worth of energy. And if you're my weight, to burn off the calories, you could play lawn darts for two hours and 16 minutes. (via Lifehacker)
• This nifty little list by Kid Safe Seafood answers the question on a lot of parents' minds -- just tell me what fish is safe for the little ones to eat. A-OK to gobble = shrimp, scallops, salmon, cod, crayfish, mussels, and tilapia. (via Green Mom Finds)
• Rocket fuel's in all of our food. Sigh. (chipper fact courtesy of EWG).
  
• Get rid of those teflon pans, easy to clean though they may be. (more EWG).
  
• Americans may be fatter than the French because we look to external cues to tell us when to stop eating (like whether The Daily Show's still running) rather than internal cues like satiety. Blame it on the Clean Plate Club, eh? (via Science Daily)
• A tip from Zen Habits to help you stop eating sweets after dinner: brush your teeth right away. You won't want to mess with your minty freshness. Plus, you can get your kids on the path to bedtime pronto.
  
• An aside in a recent Gristmill story about wine and chocolate pairings noted that highbrow chocolate is fair trade because really expensive chocolate is made from custom grown cacao and therefore is free of forced child labor. It's also relatively pesticide-free, labeling or no, so gobble up that Valrhona.
• Safeway's getting on board with animal rights. (also via Grist) First an organic line and now bunny-love? More to love than just the hook-ups....
• Button mushrooms are just as healthy if not healthier than highbrow expensive fungi like shitaake or porcini. Mmmmmmushroooms. (via Science Daily)
• Here's a thorough piece at the Boulder explaining the debate about big organic milk producers like oh-horror-a ahem Aurora and whether or not they are fauxbies breaking the spirit of organics or the real deal. (via chewswise)
• Another reason to bag the nuggets? Runoff from conventional poultry farms is polluting waterways like the Chesapeake Bay. (via NPR)
  
• Cool resource: a list of high fiber veggies. Apparently avocados have way more fiber than carrots. Who'da thunkit? (from A Veggie Venture)

Happy Wednesday!

*Photo via sxc - for more of ramasamy chidambaram's work, see http://www.studiosrishti.com

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Run and Grab Some Vino, Sweetie

To-the-point health roundup for your Monday: Have a glass of wine every now and then; get off your duff and make sure you're jogging, not biking; don't worry about animal fats as long as you're eating Pollan-esque real food; stay far, far away from the off-brand hospitals; and junk the chemical cleaners and Teflon pans while you're at it. Hmmm, live the Amish life in a big city with a modern hospital?

• The good news? If you drink moderately and exercise, you're less likely to have a heart attack. Have you been sipping vino while playing Wii tennis? Did you drink a margarita and then play hide and seek? Score! (If you're pregnant, nursing, or concerned about correlations between breast cancer and alcohol, don't worry, exercise alone lowered risks of heart attacks). via ABCNews
• If you're going to have a heart attack, head to a top-ranked hospital -- you're 27% less likely to die there (and not just during your angioplasty). Check out the rankings in your area (free). via ScienceDaily
  
• Another validation of my love for buttery, crispy chicken skin (which, I must admit, precipitated the demise of my vegetarian days back in college). Mmmm, dreams of salty, juicy, savory fat! via Culinate
  
• Eat too much chicken skin? Analyze your cardio for its butt-sculpting potential. via Women's Health.
  
• Commandments for cancer prevention from the Director of the UPitt Cancer Institute: exercise, eat healthily, don't smoke PLUS eat organic produce and limit meat; make your own cleaning products or at least avoid the most toxic ones; limit cellphone, nonstick cookware, and stain repellant use; avoid parabens (preservatives in beauty care products) via EWG
• Also? If you do get breast cancer, (it's not your fault--my addition) and it's not your personality that's to blame.... Wha? via Jezebel
  

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Faux Food Haiku

Loved Tara Parker-Pope's recent contest mimicking Michael Pollan's haiku introducing his new book In Defense of Food:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

The Well winner? Out of 1000 entries...

Ate plants. A big heap. Still hungry.

(...via the Ethicurean in December, also see edible San Francisco's Pollan haiku which notably references offal meats).

And since I couldn't get enough, one last cat haiku in the traditional 17 syllable structure:

The food in my bowl
Is old, and more to the point
Contains no tuna.

(from a 2005 Haiku Slam reported on here in SFGate).

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Straw(berry) Man

Wow, we really need to buy organic strawberries. And not just because they're in the Dirty Dozen (list of produce items with most residual pesticides put out by EWG). In October, the EPA approved an even more toxic fumigant, methyl iodide, to "sterilize" the soil pre-planting. By that the farmers mean "kill everything in sight that might resemble a roundworm." As you might imagine, it's bad news for a host of other living things, including humans (think attacking central nervous systems and reproductive disorders, for starters). Methyl bromide, the old fumigant, was so toxic that the US agreed to phase it out back in 1987 but we've been using it (at increasing levels!!) ever since via maniacally greedy and shortsighted clever loopholes. Its replacement seems like it's even worse, and the impact on farmworkers was already gruesome with methyl bromide. Time to eat blueberries instead...or, um, anything else. Read more!

Soy Vey

Maybe a health food, maybe a toxin? Not to knock the Tofurky, but soy seems to have been on some kind of nutrition roller coaster in the past few years, judging from the headlines. It's been bothering me, the not knowing about soy, while my child continues to gobble edamame in quantity. So here's the basic lowdown.

Some of the biggest hopes for and worries about soy stem from the fact that soy's rich in isoflavones (genistein and daidzein), chemicals which behave like estrogen and, possibly, anti-estrogen (!) in the body. They're not really sure how isoflavones work in our bodies. They may replace estrogen (which would be positive, if stemming the spread of estrogen-receptive breast cancer cells, for example, by replacing them) or they may mimic estrogen (which would be negative, if disrupting the endocrine system of a developing baby, for example). Soy's chemical makeup also may act as an antioxidant. Complicated plant. I'm surely no scientist and welcome any helpful analogies....

On the hopeful side, some argue that avoiding meat sources of protein (high in saturated fat, high on the food chain and therefore high in toxins) by any means necessary substituting soy protein can't be a bad idea, especially since many cultures have eaten soy for hundreds of years without adverse effects. Scientists still theorize that soy may be helpful in preventing heart disease, lowering blood cholesterol and blood sugar, preventing prostate cancer and osteoporosis, and lessening menopausal symptoms, but the jury is still out (and much-lauded heart claims may be overrated). Most research is unclear about the reality of soy's role in our diet, so doctors tend to advise people to eat it in moderation (surprise!), some on the basis that it's been eaten for so long in many Asian countries whose health profiles are vastly better than here in the US.

On what some have called the Dark Side of Soy, soy may cause breast cancer, disrupt thyroid function, cause premature puberty in girls, and may in fact be a problematic food source for infants due to possible hormone disruption during development. There has also been speculation that soy decreases mental function and sperm count in men. Sally Fallon, of the Weston A. Price Foundation (proponent of traditional foods including grass fed meat, raw milk, and lacto-fermented goods), believes that soy is dangerous to eat unless it's properly fermented. She highlights the seemingly obvious point that Asian societies have traditionally eaten small amounts of tofu/miso/tempeh, not highly-processed soy protein products we see in many supposed 'health' foods like meat substitutes.

Of those scary claims, and the laudatory ones too, it appears that the jury's still out (there's no solid evidence to back up most of the theories pro or con).

Because we lack information about most prospective positive benefits to soy, and it's a common allergen, some advise parents to feed babies soy formula only if a child has a milk allergy and there's a compelling reason to choose soy. Claims that soy might prevent allergies or cure colic are two common (unsubstantiated) reasons for its introduction but avoidance due to the theoretical possibility of hormonal/endocrine disruption due to soy formula hasn't been proven either.

So what do they know for sure about soy? Not much.... But here's a few (tofu) nuggets:

• Research this fall showed that genistein (an isoflavone in soy) in soy infant formula is protective against rotavirus (a really unpleasant and common childhood illness for which they recently introduced a vaccine as well).
• People who have had kidney stones should completely avoid soy because it contains oxalates, which promote the formation of the most common type of kidney stones.
• Research has shown that a diet replacing meat protein with soy nuts is effective at reducing a host of risk factors (abdominal fat, low HDL, high LDL) that together form a "metabolic syndrome" seen in postmenopausal women at risk for coronary disease. Soy nuts (not soy flour) effectively lowered blood sugar and LDL levels in this cohort.

Most soy available in this country is genetically modified and is not organic, which is another topic altogether but bears noting as some believe that genetically modified soy may account for skyrocketing allergy rates. So, if you're going to eat soy at all, make sure it's not GMO and that it's organic. This is harder than it sounds, btw, as you probably know if you've read The Omnivore's Dilemma; soy (and corn) products and by-products are everywhere in our food chain. Once again, time to read your labels. Such a conspiracy to get us to cook and source every food we eat!

I think my cautious takeaway from this may be to judiciously limit the edamame, as they're not fermented (to make the soy more digestible) and to consume limited amounts of organic, non-GMO tofu, tempeh, and miso, truly traditional soya foods. I'm sure we can come up with another satisfactory salt-bearing device for EGirl! Read more!

Pro Biotics Pro Pro Biotics

Quick and dirty: if you or your kids have tummy troubles, try taking probiotics. They've been shown to relieve diarrhea and recent research shows they may help reduce colic in unhappy babies, maybe indicating that those sad little people are just (loudly) protesting the state of their intestines. Breastfeeding itself helps maintain beneficial gut flora, but mothers taking probiotics while pregnant/breastfeeding may improve on "gut immunity and probiotic supplementation for formula-fed kids may be helpful in preventing them from getting diarrhea.

The basic idea behind probiotics is that they may help restore balance to the flora in your gut, which live in delicate balance. Antibiotics or stress or illness can wipe out all the bacteria in your gut, giving diarrhea-causing flora a vacuum to fill. Probiotics are supposed to perform the reverse service, kicking out bad bacteria and allowing good bacteria to recolonize your gut. My kids' pediatrician recommended them for me while breastfeeding to pass along to my colicky baby, and to get rid of thrush (a fungal/yeast-based illness). She also prescribed probiotics to prevent diarrhea when my kids needed to take antibiotics. Apparently, research shows that probiotics help alleviate excema and milk allergies in children as well. We now use probiotics with success whenever tummy trouble's an issue for the kids, no matter the cause.

There are multiple strains of probiotics and most doctors I've talked to recommend getting at least three strains in a supplement at one time. Unfortunately, although research is promising regarding supplementation, probiotics are regulated as food and the exact strains found in supplements can vary, so go to a reputable store or pharmacy and talk to a knowledgeable person about which brand to buy. This table catalogues which specific benefits have been attributed to which specific strains (the particular strains matter), and designates brands/suppliers carrying tested probiotic strains. As you might imagine, most products containing research-tested strains of probiotics trumpet this fact in their marketing.

To get the benefits of probiotics, adults can eat yogurt (make your own! it's easy) or drink kefir (yogurt drinks), take pills or buy specially fermented probiotic beverages (holy bleccch in my opinion, BatMama, but my yeast-prone neighbor swears by them). For the kiddoes you can dissolve capsules in water to administer by eyedropper (infants) or give them chewable supplements, yogurt, or kefir (yogurt drinks). EGirl loves the orange flavor of these kid-marketed kefir drinks so we (occasionally, as they fit perfectly into the Whole Paycheck pricing structure) stick them in her lunchbag. Probiotic supplements need to be refrigerated so look in the cold case in the nutrition section of your local health food store.

May your legions of gut flora be well-balanced and strong! Read more!

Sleeping Like A Neurologically Impaired Baby: Holy Mackerel! Eat Herring Instead

Well, the experts have been flopping a bit on this issue but the basic gist is that there is mercury in the really healthy deep sea fish that have high levels of beneficial omega-3s in them. And since mercury's particularly damaging for small people, pregnant or nursing women and children have had to closely watch their fish intake. (Which is a bummer, since among other benefits it seems that a high intake of the DHA fatty acids in fish could account for better sleep in infants, no small feat.) There are handy lists of fish to avoid, mercury calculators like those here and here, and lists of fish that are safe to eat. Recently it seemed like the evidence weighed in favoring eating more fish over avoiding it for groups watching mercury exposure, but research showing that it's better to consume fish than not while pregnant may have been funded by -- surprise -- the fish industry. So we're back to the longstanding advice that women of childbearing/nursing age should eat 2 servings/week of fish and limit their consumption to specific species (the fish industry study recommended greater consumption without regard to species). One fish that's been hotly debated because it's a beloved kid sandwich food is tuna, which the research shows you should probably limit no matter the type (albacore vs. light).

Testing of fish oil has shown that most is not contaminated with mercury (your grandmother was right about that cod liver oil!) but since supplements aren't heavily regulated you have to choose brands carefully. American Heart has helpful guidelines on supplementing with fish oil.

In a parallel vein, lots of enviro organizations have lists of what's sustainably fished. This site helpfully lets you track down environmentally conscious restaurants serving sustainably harvested fish. And Environmental Defense has a downloadable pocket reference guide to enviro choices re sustainably fished species. But my favorite is the NRDC guide, which combines the mercury warnings with the sustainability info in their wallet card.

The bottom line? Avoid tuna, shark, tilefish (golden bass or snapper), swordfish, orange roughy, bluefish, and sea bass. Eat as much as you want of catfish, anchovies, clams, crabs, pollock, oysters, wild salmon (not farmed, which has PCBs), sardines, sole, herring, tilapia and trout. Also, try to eat lots of fish high in omega-3s like herring, sardines, oysters and salmon. Check out the lists for further fine-tuning of this advice, and try to eat a variety of the safe fish. Read more!

Born to Different Sensory Worlds (I Am Salty, You Are Sweet)

"Some mothers and their children may live in different sensory worlds due to differences of taste sensitivity related to genes, age, or both." I so love this line. Apparently some kids are more sensitive to bitter (read: spinach-y) tastes than others, and are predisposed to like sweets. I know this will shock many of you, but it's true, some kids prefer frosting to pimento cheese spread. This may be a childhood sensitivity that those kids grow out of, or experience may trump sensitivity after a certain point. They just don't know yet. On a related note, scientists have also figured out something I've long known -- some people just don't like chocolate. Yup, as I've long maintained, some of us adults have a specific metabolic chemical that makes us "chocolate indifferent" -- much to my mother-in-law's horror, she being of the "chocolate desiring" persuasion. So some of the behavior we see in our kids may be age-related, and some may be part of their basic metabolic make-up. And all of this underscores once again how tricky it is to navigate food issues when your husband-- I mean child--is very different from you. Read more!

Top Organics List

I bet you have seen this list; I used to have it printed out to carry in my wallet but I keep giving it away. For easy reference, here is the Environmental Working Group's list of the Top 12 Foods to Buy Organic (you can cough up your email to get a printable guide to the foods most/least contaminated with pesticides. The site also provides a longer list adapted from pesticide residue research for your perusal).

CHEC (Children's Health Enviro Coalition) combines the EWG info with research from the Consumer's Union and gives in-depth info about which pesticides you're avoiding in their Green Guide list.

I've combined these sources below:

Dirty Dozen+ (Buy Organic)
Peaches, Apples, Sweet Bell Peppers, Celery, Nectarines, Strawberries, Cherries, Lettuce, Grapes (Imported), Pears, Spinach, Potatoes, Cantaloupe, Tomatoes

Cleanest 12 (Lowest in Pesticides, Save Your Cash)

Onions, Avocado, Sweet Corn (Frozen), Pineapples, Mango, Sweet Peas (Frozen), Asparagus, Kiwi, Bananas, Cabbage, Broccoli, Eggplant

Care2 has a helpful list that provides alternative foods with the same nutrients to buy in case they don't have, say, organic strawberries (go for the vitamin C in blueberries, raspberries, oranges, grapefruit, kiwifruit, or watermelon instead).

Delicious Organics (some organic produce delivery company in South Florida) has a more exhaustive list that includes genetically modified foods, corn, and nuts (which are probably also smart to avoid since anything high in fat hangs onto toxins like dairy/meat/oils). DO seems to update their list so check it out; the EWG info is almost a decade old. But remember to consider the source (an organic delivery service company, which might benefit from consumers needing to buy, well, as many organic products as possible?).... Read more!