I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that a a lot of kids out there like avocados. They are a healthy, nutrient rich fruit (yes they are a fruit) that are often passed off as a vegetable in sandwiches, salads, and of course, guacamole. Seeing as Cinco de Mayo is right around the corner, I realized those easy prepackaged containers of guacamole would soon be flying off the supermarket shelf. (more…)
Spring Break. For many of us those two words are synonymous with freedom: freedom from school, freedom from responsibility, freedom from winter, and freedom from the captive grasp of supermarket produce. That’s right, Farmers Markets are opening in towns across the country, and for those of us here on the west coast lucky enough to have year-round farmers markets, we are now able to enjoy the bounty of spring produce. (more…)
Spring is here, and with it comes one of the most recognizable candy confections to grace the supermarket shelves…Marshmallow Peeps. Those little pastel colored puffs of artificial flavor fill many Easter baskets and young tummies each year. But perhaps it’s time to consider what those little bunnies and chicks are actually made of. As we discussed last week, it’s also important to recognize artificial colors and their suspected effect on children. The pink Marshmallow Peeps are colored with Red 3, which according to Ruth Winter, M.S. in her book A Consumer’s Dictionary of Food Additives, “in 1996…was found to be a cancer-causing additive and may contribute to breast cancer.” Apparently, according to the same book, the FDA has considered removing Red 3 as an optional food colorant, but has yet to do so. What are they waiting for? (more…)
Food dye. Well there’s the big red-blue-yellow and pink elephant in the room. Artificial food dyes are currently headliners on our food related news. A couple weeks ago Frito Lay announced they plan to give a more natural makeover to some of their snack products like Lay’s flavored Potato Chips, Tostitos, Multigrain SunChips and Rold Gold Pretzels. And a week later the FDA held hearings to evaluate a request to post warning labels on the labels of products containing these artificial colors. You can read three pertinent news articles on these topics here: (more…)
Some of you may have seen this article before. It has floated around Facebook and been passed along in emails. But in case you haven’t, it’s an article that needs to be read. According to an article in PREVENTION magazine, there are seven foods that individuals at the forefront of food safety avoid eating. These foods are as follows: (more…)
The answer is NO. Repeat after me, No nitrites, no nitrites, NO NITRITES!!! Okay, I just had a flash back to my old cheerleading days.
Turkey deli meat is one of those things that I never really thought too much about. It’s always been the lean deli protein that came sliced, smoked, honeyed or roasted and when piled on whole wheat bread with mustard and veggies became my healthy lunch. Or was it? During this Out of the Box Food journey I’ve been looking more carefully at everything, and that needed to include turkey. I tended to choose turkey over ham because it was supposed to be healthier, right? Well, I’m learning that it’s not just about the product itself, but how the product is cured and what might be added to it that makes the difference. (more…)
I received a comment to the Chicken Stock post a couple weeks ago, with a question about bullion cubes. Chicken and vegetable broths are chock full of sodium, but what about those little cubes of flavor that dissolve into hot water to make soup? Those must be better, right? After all, they are so small. Well, the short answer is no. The censored, passionate answer is…well, let’s leave that one to the imagination. (more…)
How many times do you find yourself cleaning out the produce drawer of your fridge and kicking yourself for not actually using those veggies you were certain you’d use, “this time”? It happens to me a lot. I overbuy the beautiful produce I see at the farmer’s market, use only half a bunch of celery or undoubtedly leave half an onion sitting wistfully softening in the drawer. Don’t beat yourself up. You can use those leftover veggies to replace something you’d normally buy at the market, but without all the added sodium. Something you can use to make soup, risotto, mashed potatoes, sauces…the possibilities are endless. Vegetable broth. (more…)
I can’t tell you how many of the recipes I make call for chicken stock or broth. It’s an ingredient I use more often than I can keep track of, yet I was unaware what I was actually adding to my dishes every time I cracked open a can or poured generously from a carton. Sodium. And lots of it. The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that individuals consume less than 1500mg of sodium per day (that is just over 1/2 tsp of salt). Yet some varieties of packaged chicken stock and broth contain more than 850mg sodium per serving! (more…)
An article came out this week in the Chicago Tribune telling the story of drastic changes made to the Chicago Public Schools’ hot lunch program and the less than stellar response to the changes. The article entitled, “You can lead kids to broccoli, but you can’t make them eat“, reaffirmed the importance of what we do at Out of the Box Food: make fresh food palatable to kids. Now, I am a believer of kids eating real food, not just kid food like macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets (even if they are made from scratch or without added chemicals). But realistically, as this Chicago Tribune article states, we need a middle ground. A transition. We have to reach those kids who think they only like macaroni and cheese or chicken nuggets. Since the goal is to get them to actually learn to like fresh, I’d rather see a child tuck into a bowl of fresh macaroni and cheese made with fiber-full macaroni, fresh cheese and milk then have them stare blankly into a bowl of Quinoa and Kale. At least to begin with. Let them first learn to like fresh. (more…)