Friday, April 23, 2010 at 06:32 AM
Happy Friday! Here in Massachusetts, this is the last day of School Vacation. While these no-school days can be tough to figure out when you live in a two-income family, it’s nice to take advantage of the sunny weather and enjoy a break in routine. One of my blogging goals for this Spring Break was to arm Moms with some fresh ideas for lunch-making as we head into the last weeks of the school year. Yesterday’s post had some Favorite Things and today, I bring you the Infamous Hummus and Cheese Sandwich!
How did this sandwich become a favorite in our house? It all started when my son started pre-school at age three. A peanut-free, all-day, no heat-ups pre-school. We had been spoiled. Until that time, my son had attended a small daycare where the staff was very flexible about food. For lunch, they would heat up whatever healthy food I sent with him, including veggie burgers, homemade casseroles with vegetables, soups, etc. So the thought of a cold lunch with no peanut butter option definitely limited the choices. While my son will eat lean deli ham or turkey and cheese, it’s not his favorite. So, we started spreading hummus on 100% whole wheat bread and added some American cheese.
Soon, my son became known among the Pre-School Teachers and Teacher Aides as The Boy Who Eats Hummus and Other Healthy Things. Literally, as I was dropping off and picking up my son in the Pre-School Car Line, the teacher aides would ask me, “Can you make my lunch too?” It was interesting to watch my son develop an awareness of food and what was healthy and what was not. He would say, “Danny eats Doritos. They’re junk!” My son is now about to turn seven and he is finishing the first grade. While most of the time his first choice for lunch is Peanut Butter and Jelly, Hummus and Cheese comes in at a close second.
So, how does his sandwich score on the NuVal scale?
Cedar’s Roasted Red Pepper Hummus: 61(the highest of all hummuses we’ve scored!)
Freihofer’s 100% Hearty Whole Wheat: 33
Land O’Lakes Cheese from the Deli: Not Scored Yet
Not Scored Yet. What does that mean? NuVal is scoring just about everything in the grocery store. While our efforts started (and continue) in the Produce, Meat, Seafood, Grocery and Frozen departments, next we are embarking on scoring items in what we call Outlying Departments (like Deli, Bakery, Prepared Foods). When we’re done, you will be able to see which deli items score the highest. Pretty cool, huh? In the meantime, I feel pretty good giving my son this sandwich.
There are other breads that score higher than the 33, by the way. For example, sometimes I buy Arnold’s Flax and Fiber, which gets a 48. However, the Freihofer’s is the right size and consistency for my kids. They also like this sandwich on pita. Since I buy Joseph’s Flax, Oat Bran & Whole Wheat Flour Pita Bread which gets an incredible NuVal score of 65, that is a great choice.
But back to the hummus. What an incredible creation! I love to dip carrots, Stacey’s Naked Chips, and Wheat Thins in it. I bring it with some Joseph’s pita and have it alongside my salad for lunch. We’re big fans of red pepper hummus in our house, and as I mentioned above, Cedar’s gets the best score at 61. Tribe (the Hummus Formerly Known As Tribe of Two Sheiks) gets a 52. Sabra Hummus only gets a 26. Bummer. That’s the one I like to buy when we’re having company. It looks so chic, with red peppers and a little olive oil drizzled on top.
The lowest scoring hummus? Sabra Green Olive with a score of 23.
So Moms, gear up for one last stretch of lunch-making, homework-helping and school bus stop-sprinting. It’ll be sure to fly by. And children of all ages, try a Hummus and Cheese Sandwich today. You will soon be known at That Healthy Person Who Eats Hummus For Lunch!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Lunch
Tags: hummus
Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 06:45 AM
Welcome to Two of My Favorite Things – one of my favorite features here on A Better Bag of Groceries – where I tell you about two things that I love.
I can tell you one of my least favorite things. That would be making lunches. I think that by the end of the day, I’m just all fooded out. I’ve just had enough of touching, thinking and writing about food. So truth be told, my husband does a lot of lunch-making in our house.
So this post realy should be called Two of Our Favorite Things.
First, Horizon Organic Milks.
I love these milk boxes because they do not leak. Back when my kids first started drinking milk (around age 1), I would send them to daycare with re-useable Rubbermaid sippy containers full of milk in their lunchboxes. And I would come home with stinky lunchboxes. And then I would try to wash the stinky lunchboxes (which didn’t work out all that well). Finally, I would buy new lunchboxes. And then I would repeat the process. I always said that I wish that someone would put milk in a juice-box-like container. Thankfully, Horizon Organic did. UHT, by the way, stands for Ultra High Temperature processing. That is what makes the milk shelf-stable. Cool, huh? I like knowing that even if the ice pack in my child’s lunch box is not doing its job, the milk will not spoil.
My only wish for these milk boxes is that they would come in a Skim version. The best scoring Horizon Organic milk is the blue one on the left (Reduced Fat Milk with Added Vitamin A and D). It gets a 55 on the NuVal scale. That is what my daughter drinks. She calls it “Vanilla Milk” and we let her believe that! My son, unfortunately, only wants the Strawberry or Chocolate variety. We have not yet scored Strawberry, but the Chocolate only gets a 27. Ugh! Our hope is that we can wean him off of the flavored milk and move him onto the plain. At least twice a week, we send him to school with one of the plain milks, and they come right back home untouched. We will keep trying!
No matter what, these milk boxes are a better alternative than juice boxes and we know that they are getting the calcium and Vitamin D that they need. And the lunch boxes stay clean. It’s all good.
On to Favorite Thing #2: Lunch Box Notes
My boss loves to shop at The Christmas Tree Shops and that is where she found these Lunchbox Notes. It was so nice of her to pick up two packs for me as well. Check out that low price!
Here’s the box without the price tag:
On the front of each note is a positive message. My son loves this one because it sounds a lot like the Cub Scout motto (Do Your Best!)
My daughter loves this one, because as a beginning reader, she can read it!
And on the back is an interesting fact. My son loves this one because he is into politics and presidents.
My daughter loves all things Human Body, so this is one of her favs.
Aren’t they the cutest? You can find them at sayplease.com. They are made of pretty sturdy paper with a special coating that you can wipe off, so we do that and re-use them. I guess it makes up for the milk boxes we are throwing away!
So there you have it – two of my favorite lunch-making things. Now, if only I could find myself a Lunch-Making Maid!
Question of the Day
What is one of your favorite Lunch Things?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Two Favorite Things
Tags: Horizon Organic, Lunch Box Notes
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 at 10:05 AM
Do you have a recipe that you love so much, you just look for an occasion to make it? For me, it’s Cooking Light’s Garden-Style Lasagna. It’s a recipe that calls for a crowd. It is big – it serves 12 – and truth be told, it’s a little labor-intensive. When I spend that much time cooking something, I need there to be more than three other people at my table to tell me that they love it! This past weekend was my Dad’s birthday and we had ten people gathered around the table – the perfect occasion to sharpen my knives, get out my biggest cutting board and get to work.
This recipe incorporates a lot of Incredible Vegetables!
For the most part, this recipe incorporates ingredients with great NuVal scores:
Onion (NuVal score: 93)
Garlic (NuVal score: 91)
Olive Oil (NuVal score: 11)
Zucchini (NuVal score: 99)
Yellow Squash (NuVal score: 99)
Carrot (NuVal score: 99)
Broccoli (NuVal score: 100)
Salt (NuVal score: 1)
Flour (NuVal score of 67 for King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose)
1% Lowfat Milk (NuVal score of 81 for Hood 1% with Vitamins A, C & D)
Parmesan Cheese (NuVal score of 20 for DiGiorno) I used only half of the Parmesan that this recipe called for, and it still tasted great.
Black Pepper
Nutmeg
Frozen Chopped Spinach (NuVal score: 100)
1% Lowfat Cottage Cheese (NuVal score of 41 for Land O’Lakes)
Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese (NuVal score of 21 for Price Chopper’s Part-Skim Low Moisture mozzarella)
PreCooked Lasagna Noodles (NuVal score of 57 for Ronzoni Oven Ready, Simply Perfect)
If you’d like to try this recipe yourself (and I really recommend that you do), click on the Cooking Light link above for the detailed measurements and instructions.
In the meantime, I’ll tell you that there are 7 basic steps to the recipe.
Step 1: Microwave the spinach, let it cool and then squeeze out the water. (easy enough!)
Step 2: Chop, chop and chop some more. (Those pictures above say it all, don’t they?)
Step 3: Saute your veggies. Have a really big metal bowl handy because you saute them pretty much one veggie at a time.
Step 4: Make your Spinach sauce. Warning: This is where you can end up with a gluey mess if you are not paying attention. I tell you this from experience. Stay focused, never stop whisking and you will be OK!
Step 5: Make your cheese mixture. Thankfully, this part is simple and quick. Just two ingredients and no chance at all that you will make glue.
Step 6: Layer your little heart out. I have to keep reading and re-reading my recipe here. Just remember it goes cooking spray, spinach mixture, 4 noodles, cheese mixture, vegetables, spinach mixture, 4 noodles, cheese mixture, vegetables, 4 noodles, spinach mixture. Top with parmesan and mozzarella. Got that??? 
Step 7: Bake – 20 minutes covered, 20 minutes uncovered.
Exhale and get a glass of wine. You deserve it. Oh, and get your husband to help you with the dishes. You now have two pans and two big bowls dirty – plus some measuring instruments.
So back to our dinner party….my husband and I were in a good place. Years of entertaining together have certainly helped us to smooth out our pre-party routine, but our too-small kitchen and smallish house can make it a little stressful at times. On this day, things were going well.
With the dishes done, we had time for a last minute sweep through the house to hide put away toys, Clorox wipe clean the bathroom, and Swiffer vacuum the floors. Then, after washing hands thoroughly, it was back to the kitchen to set out crusty bread:
Make a salad…
and set out some wine.
Things were looking good. Until I took the lasagna out of the oven. Now, I have made this recipe probably four times prior to this occasion and it has always been great. But this time, the top was crunchy. And not in a good way. In a bad, uncooked noodle kind of way. Not the whole top. Just around the edges. Like a very wide mat in a picture frame. A very wide mat of crunchiness. Ugh!!!
I now realize where I went wrong with this recipe. I got overzealous with the lasagna noodles. The recipe says use four noodles. I used six. I was trying to cover the top of the casserole. I just wasn’t thinking! These are no-boil noodles. They will expand. So, use restraint. Four. Noodles.
My husband, who honestly should have been wearing his SuperMan cape on this particular day, said, “Why don’t we use the kitchen shears to cut away the crunchy part?” And we thought those kitchen shears were only for cutting the tops off freeze pops! Actually my husband is always trying to use them to cut things like paper, credit cards we don’t need, and metal wire. It is also his tool of choice when opening new toys – all that clam shell plastic packaging and twisty things. And I always yell, “Not the kitchen shears!” So where he ever came up with the kitchen shear idea to solve a culinary problem, I have no idea. But with a houseful of dinner guests now, we went for it. To cover up the missing topping, I used the rest of the cottage cheese (I added more of the 1% milk) and brushed it around the cut-out part. I covered that with baby spinach leaves that I found in my fridge (because one of these days I really am going to make a Green Monster shake) and more of the grated mozzarella.
I popped it back in the oven, covered this time, for about 5 more minutes and voila – it was perfect!
Disaster averted, we had a lovely dinner and were treated to an evening of entertainment. My kids were in charge of that part, so it included a SpongeBob theme song sing-a-long, the Cha Cha slide dance-off, the YMCA (even seated Great-Grandmas can do that one) and a rousing game of Zingo (Great-Grandma’s know how to play Bingo, so they quickly learn Zingo).
I’m not sure if it was the SpongeBob theme that my kids picked for Papa or the Cabernet, but my Dad seemed to have a great time.
So, I hope I haven’t scared you out of making this recipe. It is sooooooo worth it!
Winner of the Trade-Up Tuesday GiveAway
Congratuations to Commenter #46, Vanessa! You have won the perfect bean giveaway. Send me an email at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com and let me know your mailing address. Thanks to all who entered!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cooking Light, Dinner Recipes
Tags: Cooking Light, Garden-Style Lasagna
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at 07:04 AM
Hello Everyone! Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday, the best day here on A Better Bag of Groceries because I tell you about a Trade-Up I’ve made and I give away something for free. Today, it’s all about beans. Not just any beans, mind you. These are beans that score 100 on the NuVal scale. Yes, you read that right – Eden Organic Pinto, Aduki and Navy Beans all score a 100 on the NuVal scale. My husband loved this photo, which I snatched as the sun was rising in our backyard. He felt that it made the beans look as though they came from heaven.
You know, one of the most popular posts I ever wrote was about The Beans That Scored 100. When I saw that score on the shelf at Price Chopper, I couldn’t believe my eyes!
So, I had to write about it and that is when I found that a lot of ABBG readers are passionate about beans. Y’all wrote in with a lot of great recipes that day.
Writing about beans reminds me of a song my mom taught me when I was little:
Beans, beans, the musical fruit
The more you eat, the more you toot
The more you toot, the better you feel
Now you’re ready for another meal!
There are other versions of that catchy tune, but I think that is the cleanest of the bunch!
I am a big fan of beans, especially chick peas, dark red kidney beans, and black beans. And I’m always looking for something new to try. But the thing about canned beans is that their scores really vary depending on what (besides the beans) have been added to that can. For example, these Eden Organic Navy Beans score a 100, but Goya Navy Beans only score a 65! Likewise, you could choose the Eden Organic Pinto Beans for a score of 100 or Bush’s Best Pinto Beans for a 56!
The 100 score (usually reserved for foods like spinach) really piqued my interest. I checked in with Rachel Rodek, MS, RD, LDN, CSSD and Manager of Nutrition Communications for NuVal. She said that normally Pinto beans would score a 93, but these canned beans score a perfect 100 because of the addition of kombu seaweed in the ingredients. Seaweed is high in flavonoids, plant pigments that also provide health benefits. How cool is that?
To Enter:
One lucky reader will win all three cans of Perfect-Score Beans. To enter, just leave a comment below, telling me your favorite Bean. I’ll choose one winner at random. The contest closes at 10 am Wednesday Eastern Time. Good Luck! I really should throw in a bottle of Beano, too – dont’cha think?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Pinto Beans
Tags: Aduki Beans, Eden Organic, Navy Beans, Pinto Beans
Monday, April 19, 2010 at 07:03 AM
Today, I am delighted to introduce a new feature here on A Better Bag of Groceries: Cooking with Catherine Katz! Catherine, a mom of five children and a Ph. D. in neuroscience, is married to Dr. David Katz, founder of the ONQI algorithm which fuels NuVal scores. I was thrilled to learn recently that Catherine is a fan of A Better Bag of Groceries and she and I have been connecting ever since.
David and Catherine
Catherine is the creative force behind many, many recipes including those found in The Flavor-Full Diet, a book that she and David published in 2007. I purchased a copy on Amazon and I am loving it! Catherine and I sat down recently for an interview. We covered a lot of ground, so here’s a small excerpt from our discussion:
Melissa: You were raised in the South of France and moved to the United States at the age of 14. What was different about the American way of eating and how did it affect you?
Catherine: Being raised in the south of France, eating a Mediterranean diet, walking to and from school every day and everywhere I needed to go, I never had an issue with my weight and never even thought about it. So, when I moved to Houston, Texas at age 14 with my mom, it was a complete culture shock at every level! First of all, nobody walked anywhere, my mother and I soon discovered that to fit in, we had to get a car or take the bus, so walking was out of the question. Fascinated with the American ways and eager to do as Americans did, I was introduced to Burger King and McDonald’s (which at the time was not present in France, at least certainly not in the south of France). I discovered sugary snacks available at all times of the day, even in school. Baskin Robins with all those amazing flavors and huge scoops…(!) So, I think it was about 6 months later I was literally shocked to discover that I had gained about 25 lbs! All of a sudden, food became an issue and I struggled with my weight like everybody else, going on diets and losing the weight and gaining it back. It wasn’t until I went to college in California that I rediscovered myself and my old ways of healthful eating and physical activity. I finally stabilized my weight and I have ever since.
Melissa: The recipes in The Flavor-Full Diet are incredible! What was your inspiration for creating them?
Catherine: Thank you so much! It always makes me so happy when I get that kind of feedback. David and my marriage are definitely the inspiration for The Flavor-Full Diet! When we first met, we realized that his passion for health and my love of French cooking needed some tailoring! As we built our “little” family, it became a passion for both of us to find ways to make food that our family would love but that would also love us back! So, I started playing with my recipes and finding tricks to keep my sauces succulent and rich using healthy ingredients instead of cream or butter. Little by little, my cooking began to change and the feedback I was getting was just wonderful, we never gave up anything in taste and lusciousness (wouldn’t have it any other way!) and gained such vitality and health for ourselves and our children. One day David asked me to write up my recipes for this new book he was writing and he told me with great assurance that they would meet every stringent standard of the most healthful diet put to the test. Although I knew I used only healthy ingredients and had been “converted” to healthy cooking, I was definitely intimidated by his statement and was a little dubious that I could meet every single requirement (I am talking optimum levels of calories, protein, sodium, fiber, healthy fat, cholesterol). My words: ARE YOU KIDDING?(in my dainty French way!) But sure enough, one by one, I submitted each one of my recipes to two dietitians and I was AMAZED myself, to see that he was….right! And so Flavor Full was born!
As I said, Catherine and I covered a lot of ground in our interview, and more exerpts are coming in future installments of Cooking with Catherine Katz. She filled me in on tips for teaching five kids how to become healthy eaters, her summer camp for healthy children, Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative, how she feels about NuVal (hint: she loves it) and even what it’s like to be married to David Katz! Stay tuned.
Catherine with Natalia (14), Rebecca (21), Valerie (15), Corinda (20), and Gabriel (10)
In the meantime, my husband and I tried out our first recipe from The Flavor-Full Diet. We chose Pan-Seared Tilapia with Lemon Chives and Capers since David and Catherine wrote that “even kids love it.” They were right. We made it, we loved it, and so did the kids! This is a recipe you can serve for a grown-up dinner party and your kids will eat it too. Amazing!
Ingredients:
Juice of 2 lemons (about 1/3 cup) (NuVal score: 99)
1 Tablespoon fresh chives, snipped (NuVal score: 96)
1 teaspoon rinsed and drained capers (NuVal score: 7)
3 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (NuVal score: 11)
1 1/2 pounds fresh tilapia fillets (NuVal score: 82)
Salt (NuVal score: 1)
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 cup Arrowhead Mills Organic Pastry Flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Flour – NuVal score: 91)
Directions:
1. In a small bowl, stir together the lemon juice, chives, capers, dash of salt and 2 Tablespoons of the oil. Set aside.
2. Rinse the fish and pat dry. Season with the salt (use no more than 1/8 teaspoon) and pepper. Place the flour on a flat plate and dredge the fish, coating both sides.
3. Heat the remaining 1 Tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the fish and cook, turning once, for 7 – 8 minutes, or until tender and browned on both sides.
4. To serve, place a fillet on each of four plates and drizzle with the lemon mixture.
This photo came out a little blurry, I know. We were in a hurry to eat it!
Catherine was absolutely right. Somehow the sauce seemed decadent and scrumptious, but as you can see from the ingredients, it was not. I felt like we were eating in a restaurant (until I saw the dishes in the sink and realized that we would be doing them.) Still, I was so happy that the kids gobbled it up. We even had some leftover fillets and I reheated them with the sauce. I think it was even more delicious the second time around!
I am very excited to be working with Catherine on this new feature. I feel like I have my own French chef/consultant! And she is delightful too. I am one lucky lady!
Question of the Day
Which of these Flavor-Full recipes do you think I should try next?
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cooking with Catherine Katz, Tilapia
Tags: Catherine Katz, David Katz, Tilapia
