10 Thoughts of a Foodie for 2010

1. Forget buying powdered hot cocoa mixes... Make hot chocolate with real, pure chocolate! Use chocolate chips, shavings, or break up your favorite bars. It doesn't work with water, but if you drink milk (even soy)-- it tastes a million times better than the powder!!

2. For home-made mac & cheese or pizza, use more than one type of (whole!) cheese. It helps keep home-made more appealing because the taste is richer and more dynamic. Mozzarella and sharp cheddar is a particularly tasty combo...

3. Use ginger for motion sickness or an upset stomach. The real roots, tea, lollipops, tablets, etc.

4. Eat protein and/or dark greens with starchy or carby meals... Your stomach will thank you!!!

5. Make your own applesauce. 6 medium-large apples makes a decently sized batch. Just peel & core the apples, boil water on the stove, add apples, heat until soft, then drain water. Mash the apples in a bowl with a potato-masher. Add brown sugar, honey, agave nectar, cinnamon, nutmeg, or whatever else you please. Experiment with adding other fruits, like raspberries. It's delicious, and it will have only what YOU want in it!

6. A lot of maple syrup in grocery stores today isn't actually maple syrup. It's "maple-flavored," if you look closely-- aka maple flavored corn syrup. Eew. And real maple syrup is prettttty expensive. An alternative? Mix pure or natural maple extract with agave nectar (or honey) to taste. Mmm...

7. Free-range eggs have 3-6 times more vitamin D than "conventional" eggs. Vitamin D deficiency is becoming a huge problem in this country, so providing the extra buck for these eggs is well worth it... They also have less cholesterol & saturated fat, but more Vitamin A, Vitamin E, and beta carotene than other eggs.

8. Make your own juice! Most people I know aren't too happy with store-bought juice. Too sweet, too watery, ingredients we'd rather not ingest, etc. Making your own is cheap and easy! Plus, you control how it tastes. Juice lemons, limes, oranges, etc... and just add sugar, honey, agave, or other sweeteners till you're content.

9. Ok, so this isn't about the food you eat, but your leftovers or scraps... COMPOST. The average American produces about 4-5 lbs of waste a day-- why not put some of that to good use? Your apple core, bread crust, and old pasta won't do any good stuck in a landfill, where they don't decompose properly or put nutrients back into the soil. So why not let them do some good for your yard, garden, or potted plants?

10. Try only conducting your grocery store shopping on the outer aisles. The processed foods tend to be in the middle of the stores, so if you start at the outer stands, you'll find fresh broccoli... instead of frozen "cheese" covered broccoli.

Happy New Year!

Holiday Idealism

With Christmas in the next few days, a good portion of the world is adorned with messages of cheer, hope, peace, and goodwill.

Aside from the irony in the way these messages are displayed, their intentions are honorable and I do appreciate a time of year when so many people think of family meals, sharing, and spreading happiness. And all this cheer got me thinking of something: the difference between an optimist and an idealist.

A lot of times, when I go off ranting about child labor or toxic chemicals in our food or the plight of US farmers, people tell me I'm too idealistic. Like it's a bad thing. Like hoping for a better future is just silly and not worth anyone's time. But idealism spreads hope and plants the seeds for change. Without idealists, most possibilities would never become realities.

Before the civil rights movement, how many people do you think were called idealists, and told to forget about it? Before the women's rights movement, before the gay rights fight began...

The difference, as I see it, between an optimist and an idealist is this. An optimist, when presented with the 50+ ingredients* in their strawberry flavored milkshake, shrugs it off and just decides everything will be ok, they probably won't ever be harmed by these toxins, anyways. An idealist turns down the milkshake, possibly in favor of something organic, and thinks, maybe we can change this. Maybe someday people will consume less chemicals, and we'll support real farmers who grow real, healthy food.

So this holiday season, let's support idealists. People who not only dream of peace and happiness, but work towards making them a reality.

Click here to see the original photo.

* Typical strawberry flavoring ingredients: Amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate, ethyl amyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone (10 percent solution in alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, g-undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent

The Story Of Stuff

The Story of Stuff pretty much sums up how I feel about, well... stuff. Watch it and find out!

This is especially important right around the holidays. I could go on and on, but Annie Leonard's brilliant video speaks for itself!

So please take 20 minutes out of your day to think and learn about the extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of your stuff.

Recycling your Brita Filters

I just spent the weekend with a friend in her college dorm, and saw so many students using Brita water filters... since dorm water isn't normally too tasty. And it reminded me: Brita filters ARE recyclable! So, if you're a filter-user, here are some ways to recycle.

Preserve is virtually the leading producer of 100% recycled consumer goods. They have teamed up with Brita to create a great recycling program, Preserve Gimmie 5 . Brtita filters are #5 plastic, which is common, yet not recycled everywhere. Sadly, if you just throw #5 into your home bin, there's a good chance your community won't be able to recycle it. Check for participating Gimmie 5 locations near you, or just mail your filters in (instructions for both US & Canada).

Preserve accepts all clean #5 plastics, like Stonyfield yogurt cups or hummus containers. Any Preserve products you may own, like their toothbrushes, are also re-recyclable. 

To top it off, everything is BPA- and animal-testing- free and made in the USA!

Let's Talk About the Weather

When we open old English literature novels, such as those by Jane Austen, we find characters enduring fairly bland conversations about the weather. And we're all familiar with the old idea that to talk about the weather is to maintain polite conversation.

So does anyone else find it funny that this has changed? The weather is no longer boring, and it has become a controversial topic, rather than a cornerstone of unoffensive conversation.

With the Climate Change Conference going on in Copenhagen this week and the next, the weather is suddenly all we're talking about. Democracy Now! is providing interesting daily coverage live from the conference. Check out their website to learn more. I particularly recommend their fascinating interviews with environmental refugees-- people who are native to countries where climate change is so real that it is a daily threat to their survival.

I was impressed by Mohamed Axam Maumoon, a 15-year old from the Maldives. Watch the interview to learn about Mohamed's inspiration, as well as the all-too real impact climate change has had on his homeland.

Democracy Now!'s segement, Voices from Africa, features poignant commentary from natives of Malawi, Swaziland, Kenya, and more. 

Sarah James, a leading indigenous activist from the Alaskan Arctic, talks in this interview about the impact environmental change has had not only on her life, but on the sacred culture of the Gwich'in people. 

Hibernation and... Chickens.

Hello all! Sorry for my week-long absence... I have been a bit busy I due to the fact that I uprooted myself from Chicago to Boston, but I confess: I have also slipped into hibernation-mode. I seem to have developed a profound ability to curl up and fall soundly asleep anywhere, anytime. This greatly amuses Adam, who will be chatting with me one minute, only to find me asleep the next.

My hibernation instincts awoke (that's ironic) when the first snow fell. Which got me thinking about... no, not bears curled up in their winter caves... but chickens!

Chickens don't really lay eggs in the winter. Light triggers egg laying, and during the winter the reduction in natural light causes hens to almost entirely cease laying. If you're eating eggs (from light-reduced regions) in the winter, the chickens are being forced to lay due to artificial indoor  lighting.

The hens don't get to enjoy nature's pre-planned vacation. I personally feel that if nature intended for the hens to take a rest, then I'm not the one to mess with it. It's also more environmentally friendly not to run artificial lights all winter long. Plus, as a woman, I am particularly sympathetic to the idea of... laying an egg... every day. I'm not sure what the human equivalent would be, but no matter, I still sympathize.

At least those lucky ladies at Antiquity Oaks get to hibernate like me in the winter!

Consumer Reports Warns Against Chicken

I was pleasantly surprised this morning to see an article titled Lax Rules, Risky Food in Consumer Reports. 

CR's recent tests found that an alarming 66% of grocery store chicken meat is contaminated. "The Department of Agriculture has been pondering new standards to cut the prevalence of certain bacteria in chicken for at least 10 years," the article states, "but has yet to act." Over 3.4 million Americans get sick from contaminated chicken every year. The Department of Agriculture and the USDA still don't act, in spite of the fact that we have a clear example of practices that reduce-- or altogether eliminate-- contamination: in CR's tests, "store-brand organic chicken had no salmonella contamination at all."

The USDA has no regulations for campylobacter, which sickens an estimated 2 million people a year in the US. Contamination is more likely to happen in the giant ware-house style "chicken coops" used by the large-scale farmers who provide grocery and restaurant chicken. To combat the problems of cramped, filthy quarters, they pump the animals with antibiotics. But CR is quick to point out that these antibiotics are misused or unnecessary: "a high percentage of bacteria in our tested chicken were resistant to one or more antibiotics." Yet the Union of Concerned Scientists still estimates that 70 percent of antibiotics given in the US are used to "pump up animals," not to treat existing illnesses or infections. Consumers Union urges Congress to pass legislation to end this unsafe practice. 

Stricter regulations would make our food safer, treat animals better, and reduce chemical waste production. Safe food does exist. We just need to care for the plants and animals in the right way.