A Better Bag of Groceries

Mixing It Up

Monday, March 7, 2011 at 07:25 AM

I talk about food.  All.  Day.  Long.  I like food – a lot – so this is a good thing.  But when you’re in the business I’m in, you never really leave your work.  I am always, always talking about food and nutrition and recipes and NuVal scores.  Good thing I love what I do, right?

It’s always been this way.  When I worked for a really big supermarket company, I would find myself at cocktail parties listening to people tell me all the things they did (or didn’t) like about their store.  I would grin and bear it.  Things are different now.  With my NuVal job, I’m so passionate about what I do, that I want to talk about it 24/7, so it’s all good.

So, last week, in three separate conversations, I discovered a very interesting phenomenon.  People are mixing it up in order to trade up for better nutrition.  By that I mean, sometimes it’s hard to get all the way to the high-scoring food.  So they are mixing their food to eventually get to the better score.

Here’s what I mean:

Getting to Skim Milk

My very vocal friend Ed announced at our dinner party  that “we are an all blue-cap household now!”  By that he means that he, his wife, Liz, and his two girls are all drinking skim milk.  Yay for them!  Skim milk scores a 91  on the NuVal scale.  Other kinds of milk score lower:

• Skim milk:  91
• 1% milk: 81
• 2 % milk:  55
• Whole milk:  52

By “blue caps”, Ed is referring to the color of the caps that come on the milk bottles delivered by our beloved Munroe Dairy. 

So, how did they get there?  Mixing of course.  Mix skim milk with either 1%, 2% or whole and increase the percentage of skim until you finally become an all blue-cap household!  By the way, my friends Ed and Liz, and their two girls, made this switch in a three-day time period!  So, you can do it too.

Improving Your Chocolate Milk

My spinning instructor, Alicia, is also a Munroe Dairy fan.  While she likes them for their skim milk and Rhode Island farm eggs (just as I do), she does indulge in a little chocolate milk for her girls.  (My son loves chocolate milk too!)  Most chocolate milks that we’ve scored at NuVal score a 26, which is quite low when you consider that the average score for milk is a 60.  So, to make it a little more nutritious, Alicia mixes it with skim milk.  Great idea!  I always think that flavored milks are a great way to get milk into a kid.  Alicia’s trick is very creative.

Getting More Protein in Your Morning Cereal

In yet another conversation last week, this time with my friend/neighbor/morning babysitter Eileen, she told me an interesting story about Special K.  She has been trying to switch her husband from regular Special K (NuVal score of 23) to Special K with Protein (NuVal score of 53).  Problem is – he’s not crazy about the taste of Special K with Protein and really prefers the original.  So, to make it more palatable for him, Eileen mixes the two.  What a great idea!  I wonder if my daughter influenced her.  She loves to make cereal mixes.  Or perhaps it was her own three kids.  Nevertheless, it’s a great way to get to one of those higher-scoring cereals.  Don’t think you can stomach a whole bowl of Shredded Wheat?  Throw a few into your regular bowl for extra fiber.

Question of the Day

What strategy have you used to trade up (or to get your kids/spouse/significant other) to trade up for better nutrition?

Baby Update

For those of you following the baby watch, my sister-in-law, who comments here almost daily as “c neroni” gave birth to a healthy baby boy last night.  Benjamin David weighed in at a sturdy 8 lbs. 6 oz.  I’m sure that Christine’s nutritious eating had something to do with it!

Posted by: Melissa 5 comments

Posted in: Milk, Special K

Tags: cereal, Cereal for Grown-Ups, Milk, Special K

Trade-Up Tuesday: “Best of” Cereal

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 06:54 AM

Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday!  Every Tuesday, here on A Better Bag of Groceries, I talk about a Trade-Up I’ve made since learning about NuVal and I give away something for free.  Today’s Topic:  The Best of the Cereal Category. 

I love it when magazines have their “Best of” lists.  Every summer, you will find me on the beach with my nose deep into the Best of Boston from Boston magazine  or the Best of Rhode Island from Rhode Island Monthly.

As the weather gets warmer, my household becomes All Cereal for breakfast.  We put away the oatmeal and while there is an occasional toasted item first thing in the morning, it is more likely to see four bowls and a glass bottle of our favorite milk at the breakfast table.

People ask me about NuVal scores for cereal often and so today, I am giving away the most notable high-scoring items in the Children’s Cereal category and the Adult Cereal category (that sounds a little risque, doesn’t it?)

If you have kids, there is almost nothing better than a box of Cheerios.  Cheerios score a 34 on the NuVal scale.  There is a Cinnamon Toast Crunch with 75% reduced sugar that scores a 40, however, I’ve yet to find it here in New England.  My kids are big Rice Chex fans.  I think my husband feels good knowing that he is giving them cereal that does not have a cartoon character on the front of the box, but Rice Chex pale in comparison to Cheerios.  They only score a 24.  In fact a LOT of kids cereals score in the 20-24 range.  My advice?  Try to keep the favorite finger food of most toddlers on your table for as long as you can.  The score is better than the rest.

Now, when it comes to adults, the Rock Star Cereal that we at NuVal often mention is Post Shredded Wheat.  It was a standout early on when we began scoring the cereal category.  It gets an amazing 91!  There are other cereals that score a 91 as well, including Barbara’s Shredded Wheat, Arrowhead Mills Organic Amaranth Flakes, Price Chopper Puffed Wheat, Meijer Shredded Wheat, and Bear Naked Fit Triple Berry Crunch.  The cool thing about NuVal, is that when grocery stores put the scores on their shelves, you can easily see when a store brand gets the same or better score than the National Brand – and it’s usually cheaper.

So, these days, we do have both Cheerios and Shredded Wheat on the morning menu, usually topped with banana (91) , blueberries (100), or strawberries (100).  Sometimes, I even top with nectarine (93).  Yum!

Today’s Giveaway

One lucky commenter will win a box of Shredded Wheat and a box of Cheerios.  Sorry, I can’t send the skim milk through the mail!  Just leave a comment below telling me your favorite cereal.  (No worries if it’s not nutritious!)  I’ll choose one commenter at 7 am EDT on Wednesday so check back to see if you are the lucky recipient!  Good Luck!

Posted by: Melissa 56 comments

Posted in: Trade-Up Tuesday

Tags: cereal, Cereal for Grown-Ups, Cereal for Kids