Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 07:10 AM
So, as I mentioned last week, we recently moved into a new neighborhood. What a warm welcome we have had! New neighbors have come by with all sorts of homemade fall baked breads, cupcakes and colorful mums. One of the best things about our new neighborhood, is that we were already friendly with a few families already in the new ‘hood and the longest relationship goes back with my friend Barbara.
Barbara and her Super Kids in Times Square
I first met Barbara when I was expecting my son. We were at a Super Bowl party and she was sitting in a chair feeding her 5-week-old son. Well, fast forward a few years and our sons became pre-school buddies, then kindergarten and first-grade classmates. Soon, Barbara was hosting the Super Bowl parties and we were the lucky party-goers, because ladies & gentlemen, my friend Barbara can cook! The spread at her Super Bowl feast is like no other and we feel very lucky to be on her invite list.
We have always admired Barbara’s neighborhood, so when a house came on the market just as we got a new offer on our house, we jumped at it. And the rest is history. The day after we moved in, Barbara came walking down the street with a big beautiful white platter with a delicious apple bread and a warm batch of chocolate chip cookies. As per usual, this was no run-of-the-mill Apple Bread from my friend, Barbara. And she was kind enough to share her scratch recipe with all of you.
Apple Bread (2 loaves)
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour (NuVal score: 67)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (NuVal score: 91)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup cooking oil (NuVal score: 24 for Canola oil)
3 eggs (NuVal score: 33)
3 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
6 large or 8 small peeled, cored apples shredded with a food processor or grater (NuVal score: 96)
Directions:
- In a mixing bowl, combine flours, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, baking powder and nutmeg.
- In another mixing bowl, combine sugar, cooking oil, eggs, shredded apple and lemon peel.
- Mix well.
- Add flour mixture to apple mixture.
- Stir until just combined.
- Pour batter into 2 greased, 8X4 loaf pans.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
- Let sit in pan to cool for 10 minutes and then turn loaves onto a wire rack until completely cooled.
Bread is best when wrapped tightly and stored overnight before slicing.
The bread freezes pretty well.
Notes from Barbara:
This is the first time I’ve tried to write down the recipe and I based it on the bread I made your family. It is a recipe I converted wildly from Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook and I tend to haphazardly measure some things for each batch. For example, I’d never tried the whole wheat flour before, but I know you are very health conscious and I already felt a little bad about the cookies, 
so I improvised on the apple bread. I also added the extra lemon peel this time because the apples were ones we picked a couple of weeks ago and I thought their flavor might need a little boost. I cut the sugar way down from the original recipe years ago. I love to bake but just can’t bring myself to have desserts or cookies around all the time so I try to bake something for breakfast at least once a week. (Well, not in the summer–I’m more inspired during the school year because it takes less time to throw together the breads and muffins in the afternoon than it would for me to get a healthy breakfast on the table during the morning rush.) I have lots of apple (and blueberry!) recipes because we pick both of those almost every year. Breakfast recipes use lots of fruit and are often forgiving if you want to substitute for fats, sugars, yolks etc. and I can often gets oats in, too.
Wow! I think I will need to stop by Barbara’s test kitchen on my way home from work every now and then, don’t you? You know, maybe test taste her latest recipe? Thanks Barbara for the warm welcome to the neighborhood – and for your contribution to A Better Bag of Groceries!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Apples
Tags: Apple Bread, Apples
Friday, April 16, 2010 at 07:22 AM
It’s that time of year – when I find myself limping to the finish line by the end of each week. Bus stops, teacher conferences, homework, more homework, making lunches, making snacks, squeezing in playdates, another birthday party?! How many days left of school? Are we in the single digits yet? Before I was a parent, I used to wonder why Moms would be happy to see the school year come to a close. Now I know! While summer brings it’s own set of challenges, I am looking forward to a little break in the routine and some less-structured weeks.
In the meantime, I must make lunches. And snacks. Snacks that will stay fresh in a warm back-pack until the designated 2 pm Snack Time in my son’s first grade classroom. By Thursday night, my husband and I are tempted to throw shelf-stable fruit products (snack packs of applesauce, canned peaches, pears or pineapple) into our kids’ lunches in hopes that we might get to sit down and enjoy some Instant Netflix before 10 pm. The thought of pulling out a knife and cutting board to slice up a fresh apple is overwhelming.
I work for NuVal so I know that the best thing to give my kids is a fresh apple. Duh!
You are not going to find an applesauce that beats a 96!
However, on my last visit to Price Chopper, I was pretty amazed to find that there is an applesauce that scores very high:
Full Circle Organic Apple Sauce gets a 50 on the NuVal scale!
That is much higher than Mott’s Natural Apple Sauce & Vitamin C with No Sugar Added. That only scores a 26.
I checked in with Rachel Rodek, MS, RD, LDN, CSSD to find out why the Full Circle brand scores so much higher than Mott’s. She checked it out for me and it’s because the Full Circle brand has more fiber and less sugar than the Mott’s. You would never know that just looking at them, would you? I mean, you could stand there in the aisle and try to figure that out from the nutrition facts panel. But who has time for that. There’s homework to do and playdates to make! That’s why we need NuVal in every supermarket in America!
So, while nothing beats a fresh apple, sliced with love and carefully packaged up in your child’s lunch box, give yourself a break once in a while and buy some applesauce – the high-scoring kind, that is. Just be careful – there are some duds out there!
In case you can’t tell, the score on the Mott’s strawberry is a 5! Yup, a 5! Cheetos score higher. And fresh strawberries get a 100.
For more on apples and applesauce, be sure to check out one of my favorite blogposts from Dina Rose, Ph.D. who writes It’s Not About Nutrition (the art and science of teaching kids to eat right). I helped her with ths scores when she wrote this post back in August of 2009, and at that time the highest applesauce we had scored was only a 30. Good to know we have now found one that is a 50!
How ’bout them apples!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Apples
Tags: Apple Sauce, Apples, applesauce, Full Circle
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 01:08 PM
Don’t you just love all those “Back To School” segments that permeate the airwaves at this time of year. My husband and I saw this short Healthy School Lunch piece on our local Boston NBC station Monday night. While I admire Molly’s nutritious choices and creative presentation, I just can’t see myself making a Turkey Kabob for my son’s lunch box. Molly cubed the turkey, and cut up pieces of home-made bread for her kabobs. That is just not happening in our household. And then I think of what my son would do with the skewer once he was done with the kabob? Use it as a weapon? Hmmmmm. Not a workable lunch idea for me. Even the news anchors were doubting Molly’s suggestion to get your children to eat roasted red peppers.
Instead of a labor-intensive lunch making plan, I decided to use one of my favorite strategies to make life easier: use child labor. My son started first grade this morning. So last night, I asked him if he’d like to make his own lunch. He enthusiastically agreed to do so. So I got him set up and he went to work. While he worked on his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I cleaned up dinner dishes. It was a win-win situation. Yes, there was jelly to clean up after, but it was worth it.
I went into the office today to see my friends who work in Scoring to see how my son’s lunch fared. I was pretty excited because I thought I had found THE AMAZING BREAD THAT SCORES AN 81. I was wrong.
Nature’s Pride 100% Natural 100% Whole Wheat Bread: 27
Trader Joe’s Natural Peanut Butter: ?
Smucker’s Strawberry Preserves: 1
Organic Baby Carrots: 99
Apple Slices: 96
Horizon Organic Reduced Fat Chocolate Milk: 27
So the bread that I bought looked really healthy. Look at all those claims – 100% Natural, 100% Whole Wheat. But it got a 27. Not bad, when you consider that the median score in Bread is a 25. But it’s not THE AMAZING BREAD THAT SCORES AN 81. That would be Nature’s Own 100% Whole Wheat Bread. And this is why I really wish I had a grocery store that actually had NuVal in it. I work there and I work with scores all the time, but when faced with the completely overwhelming bread aisle, I can’t remember which breads get what score.
The peanut butter that we used is from Trader Joe’s and we haven’t scored their store-brand products. Now, I could assume that it gets close to what Teddie Peanut Butter Smooth gets (a 36). But as I learned from my Bread experience, you really can’t make those assumptions.
My son also packed a snack for school.
Fruit Falls Tropical gets a 41 (a much better score than many juice boxes)
Pepperidge Farms Goldfish get a 24
Bananas get a 91
With my own first-day jitters, I worried that he might get hungry and so I quickly packed him a second snack this morning:
Minute Maid 100% Juice Mixed Berry which scores a 13 (see what I mean about those juice boxes)
Wheat Thins which get a 23 (nope, they’re not better than Goldfish)
Grapes which get a 91
Well, he’s home now and he had a great first day. His lunch may not have been made on a skewer, but it was a fun project. And it included this note that you see in the picture. Now that’s creative. And it only took me a minute.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Apples, bread, peanut butter
Tags: Apples, bread, chocolate milk, Goldfish, Juice, peanut butter, wheat thins
Friday, August 21, 2009 at 06:54 AM
Check out Dina Rose, Ph. D. She is a sociologist (and a Mom!) who blogs about food, nutrition and kids. Today she takes on apples vs. apple sauce vs. apple juice with NuVal scores for each. Before you go out and stock up on apple juice boxes and individual cups of apple sauce for Back To School, read what she has to say in An Apple A Day.
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Apples
Tags: Apple Juice, Apple Sauce, Apples
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 10:38 AM
After my blogpost about My Top Ten Favorite Foods, I thought it would be fun to blog about my kids’ Top Ten Foods. I wanted their list to really come from them, so I pulled out my flipchart from Staples that we sometimes use to draw big pictures, put it in the living room, and had a brainstorming session with my 6-year-old and 4-year-old. They thought that this was pretty cool. I took a picture to prove to my readers that this really is THEIR list. Notice the wrinkled paper and the kindergarten and pre-school penmanship. We were too tired to bring the easel up from the basement and we propped the flipchart up on the couch, so you can see that the the handwriting is quite slanted.
So, I asked my kids questions like, “If you could eat a food every day, what would it be?” I was surprised to see that their list was so healthy! I truly expected Cheetos, Kit Kats and cotton candy ice cream to make the list since they beg for these items at our Pool Club’s snack bar. Maybe they chose real foods because we were in our own house? Like most grown-ups, they tend to eat well at home and not so well when we are at a restaurant, vending machine, convenience store, etc. We took turns (of course!) with this list, so my six-year-old son chose the odd numbered items and my four-year-old daughter, the even.
1. Carrots
How excited was I that this healthy veggie which scores a 99 on the NuVal scale was the first thing out of my son’s mouth! I buy the smallest baby carrots I can find for the kids because they are not choking hazards. Sometimes, during the school year, I splurge on the small baby carrots that are pre-packaged.
2. Spaghetti
This was when I knew that my daughter was taking this exercise very seriously. Spaghetti is definitely her favorite food and she loves to eat it just like the dogs do in Lady and the Tramp. Now that I know the NuVal scores, we eat Barilla Plus Pasta Spaghetti Multi-Grain at home because it scores a 91. I had tried whole grain pastas years ago and did not like them, but this one tastes just like regular spaghetti. It’s a great alternative when you realize that Prince Spaghetti gets a 49.
3. Apple Slices
These get a 96 and they make a great accompaniment to a sandwich. When you can get your kids to eat something that gets a 96, why would you ever give them chips?
4. Pancakes
Now my daughter must have been thinking that by putting something on this list, we could get is back in our household because we stopped buying Aunt Jemima Frozen Mini Pancakes when I found out that they score a 6! This same child loves Quaker Old Fashioned Oatmeal which scores a 57, so I make it in large quantities and reheat leftovers for a quick hot breakfast.
5. Cinnamon Toast Crunch
My son begged for this cereal last week because Ice Age 3 Return of the Dinosaurs was on the box. We were shopping in Roche Brothers at the time and they do not have NuVal yet (although I wish they would get it), so I wasn’t exactly sure of the score, but I was in no mood for a melt-down in the cereal aisle, so I relented. I got home and looked it up and found out that it gets a 27, which is not bad when you consider that the median score for cereal is a 25. The key would be to get my son to switch to Cinnamon Toast Crunch with 75% reduced sugar because it scores a 40. That is even better than Cheerios (one of the best scoring Children’s cereals at a 34). The question is: Does the 75% reduced sugar have Ice Age 3 on the box? I hope so.
6. Ice Cream Sandwiches
My daughter, who does not like chocolate (crazy!), loves Hood Ice Cream Sandwiches. They score a 2. She also loves plain vanilla ice cream. As I discussed in my I Scream post, Breyer’s Extra Creamy Vanilla ice cream scores a 45. I will work on migrating her over to that choice. “Sorry, honey. The store was all sold out of ice cream sandwiches.” That will only work when I get to go grocery shopping alone – which is like a vacation!
7. Pineapple
Another award-winning pick from my son. Fresh pineapple gets a 99. The canned versions only score a 25. So, while it is more expensive and a huge pain to cut up, I buy the fresh. I admit there are weeks that it sits on the counter and the leaves get all dried out and it starts to grow a little mold on the bottom and then I feel guilty that I blew $4 on a fresh pineapple. But actually that is usually when it tastes the best, so it works in our busy house.
8. Orange Juice
This surprisingly healthy shout-out came from my daughter, Miss Spaghetti-Pancakes-and-Ice Cream. As I mentioned in Keeping Kids Hydrated – Guiltfree, Tropicana 50 Pulp-Free with Calcium scores a fabulous 81. That is amazing when you compare it to Minute Maid Orange Juice Pulp-Free which scores a 30. Before I knew about Trop 50, we were buying our juice from our milk man because I’m on this glass bottle kick right now. Sorry Milk Man! As I mentioned in My Top Ten Favorite Foods, be sure to buy the one with added calcium and Vitamin D, because the other one scores much lower.
9. Plums
My son must have thought there was a prize at the end of this because his last choice scored a 99 also. My colleague and friend is a dad of 2 and he has a “fruit before anything else at breakfast” rule in his house. I liked that, so I started giving the kids cut up plums or peaches with little tiny seafood forks that came with my everyday flatware (what else are you going to do with those?) at breakfast time. It’s a great way to squeeze in another fruit. I put the plums in paper bags until they get nice and ripe.
10. Soup
And on the hottest day of the year, my daughter chooses soup! She has always been a big fan of this hot and salty favorite. We love to sing the old Tom Jones favorite, “She’s a Lady” when she drinks the remaining broth right out of the bowl. She’s such a class act, my four-year-old. Unfortunately, I don’t have any scores on soup as of yet because NuVal is scoring that this fall. It will be interesting to see how they do. It was also interesting to read this morning that Campbell’s will be removing 25% of sodium from soups. Maybe they heard about NuVal?
Try this with your kids and see what they choose. I’d love to see your lists in the comments!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Apples, Barilla Plus, Carrots, Ice Cream Sandwiches, Orange Juice, Pancakes, Soup
Tags: Apples, Barilla Plus, Breyer's Ice Cream, Carrots, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Ice Cream Sandwiches, Orange Juice, Pancakes, Pineapple, Plums, Quaker Oats, Spaghetti, Top Ten (Kids), Trop 50
