• Choosing the Healthiest Foods for Your Family

    Welcome! I am a mom of a busy 8 year old and an adventurous 6 year old. I also happen to work for a great company called NuVal. NuVal is a nutritional scoring system that rates foods on a scale of 1-100, based on how nutritious they are. We are implementing NuVal in grocery stores around the country.

    NuVal may not be in your area yet. But I see the scores while they are "hot off the press" and because of that I am able to make better decisions about what to feed my family.

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  • Disclaimer

    I am not a registered dietitian. I am just a mom who happens to work for NuVal. I am also an AFAA-certified Group Exercise Instructor. NuVal is a system designed to lead customers to the most nutritious food choices. It is not a diet or weight-loss plan. Before starting a diet, you should always consult your personal physician. The opinions expressed in this blog are the opinions of the writer and not the opinions of NuVal LLC.

Trade-Up Tuesday: Barilla Plus Pasta

Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 06:45 AM

Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday – a weekly feature on my new blog where I fill you in on one of my trade-ups and ask you to tell me how you’re trading up for better nutrition. 

This week, I introduce you to Barilla Plus Multi-Grain Pasta, which gets an amazing NuVal score of 91.  That’s incredible when you realize that the median NuVal score for pasta (half are above, half are below) is a 52.  For example, Prince Spaghetti gets a 49.  Now, let me just admit right here that it took me some time to try out Barilla Plus.  I had tried some whole wheat pastas in the past and they just didn’t do it for me.  Also, since I was so used to thinking about foods in terms of calories & fat alone (and not in terms of total nutrition), I figured I would just stick with regular old pasta.

I have two people to thank for finally making the switch.  First, I remember having dinner with our friends, Pete and Heather, last winter.  Heather is a fabulous cook and is known for sneaking vegetables into some of her kids’ favorites.  Pete is a super-healthy long-distance runner who posts Lance Armstrong-like times during marathons.  Pete is a huge fan of NuVal and he chooses some very high-scoring foods.  While out for this dinner, he said to me, “So, I assume you’re eating Barilla Plus.”  Well, I wasn’t.  And I felt a little guilty about it.  I mean, I worked for NuVal and I was learning all this great new information about different foods, but I wasn’t “living” NuVal. 

Soon after, I met Shari Steinbach, MS, RD, Healthy Living Manager for Meijer supermarkets. 

Shari Steinbach

We were conducting webinars together, training sessions for all of the store associates at Meijer, who would soon be implementing NuVal.  She mentioned Barilla Plus, it’s high score and also offered up that it tasted just like regular pasta.  It was enough to make me try it.  And I’ve never gone back.

Today’s GiveAway

 Pasta giveaway

Today, I’m giving away my Barilla Pasta Trade-Up Package – which comes complete with a red colander and a NuVal water bottle.  To enter, just leave a comment and tell me about a trade up you’ve made since learning about NuVal.  And if you haven’t traded up yet, check out www.NuVal.com and find a trade up you’d like to make.  The contest closes at 11:59 pm November 24th.  I can’t wait to hear from you!

Posted by: Melissa 63 comments

Posted in: Barilla Plus, Pasta, Trade-Up Tuesday

Tags: ,

Taste As You Go

Friday, October 23, 2009 at 06:05 AM

Head on over to Taste As You Go where I’m guest-posting today. Michelle Judd is a new Twitter friend of mine who lives in NYC (lucky girl – I miss it sometimes!). Michelle blogs about her great adventures in the city as she visits restaurants and tries new foods. She also is a healthy cook who is training for the Philadelphia marathon. I love to read her latest adventures and cheer her on. For her blog, I challenged myself to make the best-scoring pasta dinner ever! Just what Michelle needs for her upcoming big race!

Posted by: Melissa 1 comment

Posted in: Pasta, Tomato Sauce

Tags: , ,

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