Monday, February 28, 2011 at 07:17 AM
Welcome to Cooking With Catherine Katz, a frequent feature here at A Better Bag of Groceries. Catherine is married to Dr. David Katz, the founder of the ONQI algorithm which fuels NuVal scores.
David and Catherine teaching a cooking class at a Wellness Spa in Vermont
Mom to five children, Catherine is a phenomenal cook with lots of tricks up her sleeve. She is always suggesting delicious, healthy recipes to me. I’m always amazed at how easy Catherine’s recipes are to prepare and yet how they are the kind of thing you could make for a dinner party. And that’s exactly what happened with this recipe!
Since Catherine’s husband David gets super-busy when we at NuVal get going at full-tilt (just as new retailers are launching, such as King Kullen last week and another New York-based retailer coming up in March!), Catherine seems to have a sixth sense that I am getting into my “boring cook” mode. You know – those times when you rely on old stand-bys just to make it through. That’s pretty much where I was when I got an email from Catherine suggesting that I try making this Pistachio Lemon Chicken. “If you have all your ingredients laid out on the kitchen counter before you start, you can make this dish in 15 minutes from beginning to end, ” Catherine told me. She was right – she always is!
So, on a busy week night during School Vacation (when let’s face it, the world is turned upside down for many of us!), after picking the kids up from “Winter Camp”, I made this. And it was incredible. It was so incredible that I scrapped my plans for a boring old pork roast for an upcoming diner party that I was hosting that weekend and decided to make Pistachio Lemon Chicken instead. I could do this for 10 people – with 10 people present. It’s that easy. And soooooo worth it.
Pistachio Lemon Chicken
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 chicken cutlets, no skin (NuVal score: 39)
¼ cup whole wheat pastry flour (NuVal score of 91 for Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)
1/3 cup roasted salted pistachio nuts, chopped* (I actually had unsalted pistachio nuts on hand, so that’s what I used. They get a NuVal score of 67
2 tsp olive oil (NuVal score of 11)
¼ cup vermouth cooking wine
1 garlic clove, minced (NuVal score of 91)
½ cup fat free chicken broth (NuVal score of 2)
juice of 1 lemon (My husband We forgot to buy the lemon while grocery shopping, so I just used bottled lemon juice instead.)
lemon zest to taste
*You can chop the nuts coarsely in a mini food processor of coffee grinder or leave them whole if you prefer.
So, I chopped the pistachios with my Pampered Chef Chopper.
Yum…
1. Rinse and dry chicken cutlets and lightly salt with no more than 1/8 tsp salt and fresh pepper to taste and dredge in the flour, shaking off the excess.
2. Place olive oil in a large non-stick pan and saute the cutlets for 2-3 minutes on each side until browned but not completely cooked through and transfer to a plate and set aside.
Here they are after the flip!
3. Add wine and garlic to the hot pan (it will sizzle) and continue to cook for 1 minute
4. Add the chicken broth and lemon juice and bring to a quick boil.
5. Reduce the heat and return the chicken cutlets to the pan and add the pistachio nuts and lemon zest and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes until the juices thicken and the pistachios coat the chicken.
Pistachio Chicken Makes the Dinner Party Menu
After road-testing this recipe for the blog and discovering how delicious it was, I immediately scrapped my plans for a boring been-there, done-that pork roast for a dinner party I was hosting on the weekend. After seeing how easy this recipe was (and of course, having tried it out – always a good idea), I felt confident that I could make this for our upcoming party – even though it’s the kind of dish you make just before serving.
To make it as easy as possible once guest arrived, we measured out all the ingredients and dredged the chicken in flour before-hand. So I could focus on hor d’ouerves, chatting and wine-pouring…
Getting dinner on the buffet table was stress-free. It helps when everyone brings something!
Menu
Pistachio Chicken
Scalloped Potatoes (the lighter version from Cook’s Illustrated)
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Spinach Salad with Almonds and Goat Cheese
Rosemary Bread with Olive Oil for dipping
Chocolate Caramel Walnut Torte for dessert
The best part? After dinner, the guys cleaned up while the girls hit our rec room for Michael Jackson The Experience on Wii – just what we needed to work off that Walnut Torte!
I’m so glad I took the time to break away from the same old, same ole and try this recipe, because now I have a new favorite. Thanks Catherine!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Cooking with Catherine Katz
Tags: Cooking With Catherine
Friday, February 25, 2011 at 07:19 AM
Rob Keane is my co-worker and friend. He is responsible for all things PR and Media at NuVal: he’s our spokesperson, our web “editor-in-chief”, our press person, our social media strategist, he does it all. So, when King Kullen launched this week, it made a lot of sense for Rob to jump in and head to the launch while I had some other things I had to do. Since I could not be there in person, I asked Rob if he would give all you ABBG readers a behind the scenes view of the glamorous world of life in PR and media relations. Rob is actually very funny, so if you need a good Friday laugh as you head into your weekend, read on! Take it away, Rob!
I just got back from Long Island, where we had a great launch at King Kullen. It was fantastic to meet all these enthusiastic people and feel their excitement about NuVal.
We arrived the day before the event, getting a quick look at the Commack store, and seeing all the work that was put into getting our scores on King Kullen shelves. Everything from signage to displays to price tags (where most of the scores are found) looked terrific. Then it was off to eat too much at a great restaurant and back to the hotel for some last-minute work before bed.
(By the way, a quick aside—how come we can map the human genome and send picture-taking robots to Mars, but we can’t figure out how to give hotel customers decent Internet access? Seriously? It’s that difficult?)
The next day was the media launch. While these types of events can be a lot of fun, they can also be nerve-wracking. A great deal of hard work went into this event—King Kullen had a terrific setup against the backdrop of their floral department, NuVal visionary Dr. David Katz drove for over two hours to attend and give words of encouragement, and folks from NuVal and King Kullen’s PR firm had been hitting the phones to drum up interest in the media. And there’s always the fact that this was NuVal’s foray into the NY Metro market. But while having an interesting story to tell and hard work certainly help, media coverage is never guaranteed.
The Commack, NY King Kullen store, where we had our media launch
The setup for the media conference, about an hour before the event. In about 40 minutes, this would be standing-room only
About a half hour before the event, any concerns about media attention were forgotten, as reporters from CBS Radio, Newsday and the Long Island Press showed up, as well as camera crews from News 12, TV55, Long Island News Tonight, and FIOS 1 News.
King Kullen’s Joe Brown, Vice President of Sales and Merchandising, is interviewed before the conference
It also helped that dozens of people from King Kullen’s headquarters showed up to lend their support. A lot of positive energy. Even a seemingly minor detail, such as the food that King Kullen served at the event, was done with NuVal in mind.
The refreshment table for the event. But what are those signs above the food? Hmmm…
Why, NuVal scores for the refreshments, of course!
Soon, NuVal visionary Dr. Katz arrived at the store, and soon we were off and running. He quickly engaged the audience, speaking about NuVal with the passion and conviction he’s become known for. One of Dr. Katz’s talents is his ability to talk about anything from macronutrients to biological chemistry and make it accessible to the average listener. Makes me wish he taught biology when I was at college.
Dr. David Katz (middle) arrives at King Kullen
Dr. Katz speaks at the press event. “You can improve your diet and your health one well-informed choice at a time,” he said.
After Dr. Katz’ speech and a quick Q&A session, the event was over, and NuVal was officially launched. Now, King Kullen’s customers have a very powerful tool at their disposal—a system that will guide them to the most nutritious foods on the shelf in an easy, accessible manner.
After the event, Dr. Katz spent time talking with the media…
…and to members of the audience more than an hour after the event’s end.
Dr. Katz frequently talks about the need to stop the flood of rising obesity and heart disease rates, and likens NuVal to a sandbag, part of a barricade that will stop the flood and get our health trends moving in the right direction. Thanks to King Kullen, we have a great partner in helping us all get on the right track for nutrition.
Coming Up Monday on A Better Bag of Groceries
While Rob and Dr. Katz handled the media frenzy out on Long Island, Catherine Katz and I hit the kitchen this week and this recipe that I have for you might just be my all-time Catherine favorite! So, be here Monday to check it out! Have a great weekend everybody!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Dr. David Katz, Guest Bloggers, King Kullen
Tags: Dr. David Katz, Guest Post, King Kullen
Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 09:03 AM
Today, I turn the keyboard over to Tracey Cullen and Michele Tonner from King Kullen Supermarkets. I have been working with Tracey and Michele since June of last year to develop a partnership and to help them launch NuVal in their supermarket chain on Long Island – and it has truly been a pleasure. Both Tracey and Michele are super-accomplished career and family women who find a little time each day to read A Better Bag of Groceries and I feel so humbled. They have a lot to say about NuVal, so I won’t hold them up! Without further ado, I give you Tracey and Michele!
Michele and Tracey
We are so excited to be guest-bloggers for today’s A Better Bag of Groceries. We both work for King Kullen, a chain with 45 locations on Long Island and Staten Island. After months and months of work (on both our part and NuVal’s), it’s finally here – NuVal is in King Kullen! All of our customers get to benefit from this easy-to-understand scoring system. The higher the score, the better the nutrition – how easy is that?
We met Melissa and a few of her NuVal colleagues last year when they came to visit King Kullen, and have both have been avid followers of this blog ever since. We are both interested in nutrition, albeit in different capacities. Michele has both a professional interest (she has her Masters in Nutrition) and a personal interest (she is looking to make the most nutritious decisions for herself, her husband, and their two-year old daughter). In addition to her position with King Kullen, Tracey is pursuing her executive MBA, which is a full-time endeavor. Between working full time and going to school full time, and traveling quite a bit to do both, Tracey has less time to cook these days, but whether selecting fresh vegetables and meat, frozen meals, or something in between, she is also looking to make more nutritious decisions for her family.
We could not be more excited for NuVal’s launch at all 45 King Kullen locations this week. King Kullen is America’s first supermarket (Don’t believe us? Check with the Smithsonian!). Now, another first – King Kullen is the first retailer in our region to provide NuVal scores to our customers. All of our customers that are interested in nutrition can now “trade up” throughout the entire store. Over 13,000 items in our stores have been scored, with new scores come out monthly. Each month, we can’t wait to see which items have been added to the file. We usually spend a few minutes each morning talking about NuVal, but when new scores are reported, we have a field day!
We have also really enjoyed working on the customer literature and artwork for our stores. We used some material provided by NuVal, but we had a lot of fun creating new and different (and very colorful!) marketing materials, in our efforts to fully educate our customers and employees about NuVal.
Some of your blog readers have been following NuVal longer than we have, but here are some things we have encountered that may be interesting to readers of this blog, as well as other retailers that are considering implementing NuVal:
- We have made our own personal trade-ups:
- Michele: When conducting an in-store training for about 50 employees at our store in Huntington Station last month, Tracey spoke about the scores for boneless chicken and shrimp. I listened to Tracey discuss the scores and the reasons for the score difference (shrimp has lower energy density, better fat profile, and omega-3 fatty acids). When we finished the training, I did my grocery shopping for the evening. Instead of buying chicken as planned, I instead bought shrimp. Shrimp has now become a more regular component of our family’s diet.
- Tracey: My husband and I equally enjoy arugula and spinach salads. Once I started learning about NuVal scores, I realized there was an opportunity for a big trade-up; arugula scores an 82, while spinach scores 100! So now, I only buy spinach (even if arugula is on sale!).
- Soda: There is actually a soda that scores a 26! Has anyone tried Diet Cherry 7-Up? It tastes great, and if you are a fan of diet soda, it’s a great trade up from the other diet sodas, which generally score a 15. Melissa can correct us, but we suspect it gets its boost from Vitamin E. (Melissa’s Note: I checked with our dietitians here and Michele and Tracey are right about the Vitamin E!)
- Yogurt: This is a confusing aisle for many shoppers. Low-fat, reduced fat, fruit on the bottom, add-in granola, Greek… What to pick? Who knows, and for many people, they just default to whichever sounds healthy and is on sale that week. NuVal makes choosing yogurt one hundred times easier (no exaggeration). And speaking of 100, did you know there’s a yogurt that scores 100? And it’s not a Greek yogurt. Fiber One yogurts all score 100, and they taste great and are filling.
Yogurt is an aisle where there is so much variation, and so much room to trade up and still get a tasty yogurt. We should admit, there were some surprises for us here; for example, while the plain Greek yogurts are high-scoring (usually in the 90s), once you add fruit or flavoring in, there is a big dip in the NuVal score.
- Organics: As most of you already know, an organic item doesn’t get a boost just for being organic; whether or not an item is organic has no effect on its NuVal score.
- For us, the most challenging part of the NuVal roll-out is ensuring that our employees and customers understand that it’s impossible to shop and only purchase items scoring 90 or higher. Scoring is from 1-100, but you should not compare across categories. In our meat department, many items score in the high 20s and low 30s. These are good scores for that category, and finding 100 is just not possible. When shopping for cookies, look at cookies, and don’t compare cookie scores to produce scores or soup scores.
It’s also time to admit that we both have a NuVal-related addiction. Unfortunately, it’s getting worse, not better… Where better to admit it than here, in a public forum. We are both addicted to the “Nutrition by the Numbers” game on NuVal’s website. Not only are we both addicted, but we are extremely competitive about our scores with each other, and other King Kullen employees. Who’s checked out this game, and what’s your best score? Let us know in the comments, we’d love to see!
Thanks for reading our blog posting. Aside from your comments about the Nutrition by the Numbers game, we’d also love to hear from those who have seen NuVal in King Kullen. Don’t forget to visit us at http://www.facebook.com/kingkullengrocery, or email us at nuval@kingkullen.com.
- Tracey and Michele
Question of the Day
Have you tried to play Nutrition By the Numbers? What’s your best score? Tracey and Michele would love to know!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Guest Bloggers, King Kullen
Tags: Guest Post, King Kullen
Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 08:15 AM
Today, King Kullen will announce that they are the latest supermarket retailer to launch NuVal. There, I’ve said it: King Kullen!! It feels so good to say those words to you! For months, I’ve been unable to tell you who the newest retailer is – but today I can. Yay, King Kullen!
So, if you remember yesterday’s clues:
- I fly into La Guardia airport when I go to this supermarket chain
- It is near New York City, but not in New York City
- They have been in business for over 70 years
Now, I could fly into Islip, but the flights are more expensive and not direct. So Logan to La Guardia I go.
So who is King Kullen?
King Kullen is a supermarket chain with 45 locations on Long Island and Staten Island in New York. Back in June, I was lucky to be on the NuVal team who first met with the executive team out at King Kullen, to determine if we could reach an agreement to partner together. We did and the rest is history.
The team at King Kullen has been amazing to work with and they’ve been very busy getting ready for today’s launch.
Assistant Manager Bob Tobey has been getting all the signs just right.
King Kullen’s NuVal signs are huge!
and beautiful!
And they really make NuVal pop throughout the store!
And Night Manager Chris Lucenti has worked incredibly hard to make sure his store is perfect for the NuVal launch today!
You’ll be hearing from some of my new King Kullen friends soon! But we’ve got a press conference beginning at 11 am Eastern time today. Dr. Katz will be there – so I’ve gotta run! Stay tuned!
Yesterday’s Winner
Congratulations to Commenter #5 Jaclyn! You’ve won an I ♥ New York t-shirt! Congratulations! Send me an email at abetterbagofgroceries@gmail.com with your mailing address so that I can send your prize to you. Thanks to everyone who entered and guessed (correctly and incorrectly) in this fun giveaway.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: King Kullen
Tags: King Kullen, New York
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 07:07 AM
I Love New York! And I love that the lucky people of New York are about to get a whole bunch of grocery stores with NuVal scores on their store shelves!
Yes, today is a special edition of Trade Up Tuesday. Typically, on Tuesdays I blog about a trade up I’ve made since learning about NuVal scores and I give away something for free. Since tomorrow, you will all learn who the new retailer is – and, hint hint, it is in the New York Metro area - I thought I would host a New York-themed giveaway.
So, while I will still blog about some trade-ups I will make while in The Big Apple, the winner of this Giveaway will win their very own I ♥ New York t-shirt.
If you read the “About” section of this blog, you will see that in a previous “life,” I flew to all sorts of different cities and worked on long-term consulting assignments. So, in my mid-twenties, I actually spent a year working in Manhattan. It was one of the best years of my life – what a great experience!
My favorite food while I was working in New York? Bagels. Every Friday my whole project team shared this huge paper bag of ginormous bagels with scrumptious cream cheese. So, what’s the closest thing I’ve found in a grocery store to a real New York-style bagel? Ray’s New York Sesame Big Boiled Bagel Shop Bagels. They score (brace yourself) a 3 on the NuVal scale. Ugh, I know. So, what’s in my freezer now? Much higher scoring bagels, such as Thomas’ Better Start Light with 8G of Fiber Multi Grain. They score a 42 on the NuVal scale. Or Lender’s Multi Grain. They score s 37. Big difference.
New York is also known for wieners. I am not a hot dog aficionado – at all. But I include these scores here for the curious among you. Nathan’s Famous Skinless Franks (so New York) score an 8 on the NuVal scale. Or, you could get what I get for when my kids eat an occasional hot dog: Hebrew National 97% Fat Free franks: NuVal score of 20. Much better.
So, break out your Sinatra CDs everybody, because it’s New York Week here on A Better Bag of Groceries! Tomorrow, is the big press conference announcing our latest launch and we are all very excited!
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky commenter will win their very own I ♥ New York t-shirt to commemorate NuVal’s launch into the New York Metro area. All you need to do is leave a comment below guessing the grocery store chain that we are launching in. (Don’t know any New York-based supermarket chains? Try Google for answers!) Your answer does not need to be correct to win. I will choose one winner at random at 8 am on Wednesday. Here are a few more clues:
- I fly into La Guardia airport when I go to this supermarket chain
- It is near New York City, but not in New York City
- They have been in business for over 70 years
Remember, you don’t have to be right to win! So just have fun! Good luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Bagels
Tags: Bagels, new retailer, New York
