Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 07:15 AM
It’s Trade Up Tuesday! That means you should stick around ’til the end of this blog post because there’s a giveaway at the end!
Last week, I was out at a Big Y store and the amazing score on Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour caught my eye.
Yes that’s a 91! That’s amazing when you consider that most conventional, all-purpose flours score about a 60 on the NuVal scale. I was first introduced to Whole Wheat Pastry flour by Catherine Katz. After some not-so-successful attempts at using regular Whole Wheat flours in my baking, Catherine taught me that the trick is to use “pastry” flour or “soft wheat” flour. Ah-ha! How right she was! It made all the difference.
I tried it in lots of of my old favorites, like Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Banana Bread. And I also used it in some new favorite recipes, like Lemon Poppy Soft Wheat Muffins and Whole-Grain Chocolate Chunk Cookies. She also encouraged me to use it in cooking, such as in her Pistachio-Lemon Chicken.
So, while I was admiring that amazing score of 91 and reminiscing about all those amazing, yummy recipes, some other high-scoring flours caught my eye too.
Like Quinoa flour, with a NuVal score of 91…
And Brown Rice flour, with a NuVal score of 87…
I’ll be honest. I haven’t experimented with these flours (yet!) But they look pretty interesting to me. There are recipes right on the back of the packages – including one for Walrus bread (it includes chick peas, hmmm).
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky reader will win all three of these alternative flours. All you need to do is leave a comment below telling me what you most love to bake. I’ll select one winner at random on Wednesday April 11th at 8 am Eastern. Good Luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Trade-Up Tuesday
Tuesday, April 3, 2012 at 07:02 AM
It’s Trade Up Tuesday! Every Tuesday, I blog about a trade up I’ve made since learning about NuVal scores and I give away something for free. Today’s giveaway is all gluten free.
As more and more people are diagnosed with celiac disease and gluten sensitivity, gluten-free products have become increasingly popular. Some people (especially athletes) just try a gluten-free diet because they say it makes them feel better. Some say that a gluten-free diet is beneficial to individuals with autism or ADD. Whatever the reason, gluten-free is all the rage. I have even been trying it out (for about six weeks now). My tummy was not feeling great – so I thought I would try to eat gluten free. I have slipped a few times. Soy sauce is tough for me – because I like to use it as a marinade. And I ate a few pretzels in a moment of weakness. But overall, it’s been pretty easy to eat gluten free because there are so many products out there.
There are so many gluten free products out there – but they do not all score so high. There are gluten free pastas that score in the single digits. There are some gluten free crackers that score a 2. Unless you are lucky enough to have NuVal scores in the supermarket where you shop, you really have to do some homework to figure out the most nutritious foods when it comes to gluten free. Here are some that I’ve found so far.
- Lundberg Rice Chips: NuVal score of 23
These chips are such a great find! The average score for salty snacks is a 15, so these chips do very well with a NuVal score of 23. Plus, they taste fantastic! I served them at a dinner party with friends and everyone loved them.
These rolled oats score just like their non-gluten-free counterpart. Regular oats score a 57 too. And I can’t taste the difference. What a great product – especially if you’ve gone gluten free and you’re missing hot cereal!
It’s hard to find gluten-free pastas that score high and taste like pasta. I’m still keeping my eye out and taste-testing for you. In the meantime, this Schar penne does taste great – and it scores better than some other gluten-free pastas. Still, it’s below the average score for pastas in general (a 57). Taking some of the flours out of pasta is what makes it tricky to get a high NuVal score. I’ll keep looking though. I’ve been exploring corn pastas, which score higher and taste great too. In the meantime, I do love this Schar.
I just had to buy these when I saw that score of 81! And I love them – dipped in hummus, of course. They are unsalted and plain, but they are the perfect conduit for my favorite food – hummus. And they don’t interfere with the flavor of the hummus – or whatever dip you are serving.
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky reader will win all 4 gluten-free products. All you need to do is leave a comment below telling me why you’re interested in winning today’s giveaway. That’s it. Easy-peasy. I’ll select one winner at random at 8 am on Wednesday April 4th
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Gluten Free, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 07:05 AM
It’s Trade-Up Tuesday! It’s everybody’s favorite day here at A Better Bag of Groceries because I blog about a trade up I’ve made since learning about NuVal scores and I give away something for free. Who doesn’t love a giveaway?
It’s that time of year! Our social calendar is ramping up – way up! It’s one of the phemenoma that I’ve noticed since becoming a parent. April, May and June get super-crazy when it comes to getting together with other families. It’s like we’re all trying to squeeze in those last “playdates” before the summer begins. Family playdates are the best because the grown-ups can socialize, the kids can play – and you don’t have to pay a babysitter! And spring family playdates don’t get any better because with the late sunsets, you can send the kids outside to play (less of a mess to clean up after!)
Not only do we have some family playdate on our entertaining docket, but we’re also hosting a dinner party with our college friends, and I’m hosting the April book club meeting. So for all this entertaining, I like to stock up on some nutritious salty snacks.
The three that you see in the photo are some of the highest scoring salty snacks in the category. They all also happen to be gluten free.
- Food Should Taste Good Multi-Grain: NuVal score of 43
- Terra Original: NuVal score of 32
- Beanitos: NuVal score of 55
I like to serve these with hummus or with a yogurt-based dip that I make myself. Try mixing regular non-fat plain yogurt (not Greek) with a little feta cheese and fresh dill. Yum.
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky reader will win all 3 bags of high-scoring salty snacks. All you need to do is leave a comment telling me one of the following:
- Which of these salty snacks you would most like to try
- About a trade up you’ve made in the salty snack category
- What you would dip these salty snacks in
- What parties or get-togethers you are planning to host in the upcoming weeks.
- All of the above
I’ll select one winner at random at 8 am Eastern time on Wednesday March 28th. Good Luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Trade-Up Tuesday
Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 07:00 AM
It’s Trade-Up Tuesday – everyone’s favorite day here at A Better Bag of Groceries. On Tuesday, I blog about a trade up I’ve made since learning about NuVal scores and I give away something for free. Today, I’m talking about almonds. Just almonds. Not almonds and oil. Not almonds and salt. Just plain old almonds.
Because here’s the thing. The 3 products you see pictured above are all just pure almonds. There is nothing else in those packages. So, they all get a fantastic NuVal score of 81. Sometimes, you see almonds that are roasted. And that’s when things get tricky. Long-time readers might remember my horror when I found out that the roasted, unsalted almonds I had been snacking on forever only scored a 48! All along I thought I was crunching on nuts that scored an 81. But they were treated with peanut oil – and some other oils too. So, it brought the score down considerably. So then I tried to roast them myself. It was a comedy of errors. Read the post.
So, basically, if you love almonds – and want to get that high score of 81 – look for packages that contain just almonds. There are dry-roasted almonds that have no additives that score an 81. They don’t have to be raw. You just have to look.
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky reader will win all three packages shown above. All three of these contain just almonds – so they all score an 81. I love that some 100 calorie convenience packs are included in this giveaway too. To enter, just leave a comment below telling me your favorite nut to snack on. Bonus – you can enter twice by leaving a second comment with the NuVal score on that nut. Hint – you can search on my blog to find some nut scores if you don’t have NuVal in store near you. Just put the name of the nut in the search tool. I’ll select one winner at random at 8 am EDT on Wednesday March 21st. Good Luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: almonds, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: almonds, Trade-Up Tuesday
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 07:11 AM
Welcome to Trade-Up Tuesday! Every Tuesday, I blog about a trade-up I’ve made since I learned about the NuVal scoring system and I give away something for free. It’s a great day and lots of people tune in. Today is a special edition of Trade-Up Tuesday because I wanted to celebrate! I just discovered that this little blog is shattering its readership record! Yup, it’s true. The top number of readers ever (in a month’s time) used to be a little over 12,000. And usually, the monthly readership hovers somewhere around 11,000. Well, this month (January 1st through January 31st, 2012), we broke that record. As of yesterday, 13,991 people had read A Better Bag of Groceries in the month of January. So, thank you all for reading – and for recommending ABBG to your friends.
I’m pretty sure we’ll go over the 14,000 mark by the end of the day today. So, to celebrate, I put together some of my favorite things for today’s giveaway. They are all high-scoring foods in their categories and they are all something that I discovered thanks to NuVal.
There are LaraBars…
Kind Bars
and Chocolate Twilight Delight
LaraBars are a staple in our kitchen pantry, but just a couple of years ago, I was asking, “Lara Who?” After my co-worker Tina introduced them to me, I was hooked. And they get great NuVal scores for a snack bar. In this giveaway, there is:
- Apple Pie LaraBar: NuVal score of 53
- Pecan Pie LaraBar: NuVal score of 40
- Cashew Cookie LaraBar: NuVal score of 32
My kids now love LaraBars too – especially the Apple Pie flavor.
Kind Bars are the snack that I am most likely to grab when I am at an airport or convenience store. I like them for a quick energy boost on the go. These also get great NuVal scores.
- Kind Nut Delight Bar: NuVal score of 66
- Kind Fruit and Nut Delight Bar: NuVal score of 28
- Kind Almond and Apricot: NuVal score of 23
To put those scores into perspective for you, the average score for a snack bar is a 24. So, all of these scores are at just about average – and some are much higher.
And then, there’s my favorite food group: chocolate! I need to have a little nibble every day. I remember the day that I found these Twilight Delight bars at Price Chopper with a NuVal score of 21. I was so excited! After all, the average score of candy is a 4. Here was a dark chocolate (my favorite kind of chocolate) bar with a NuVal score of 21. I was jumping up and down with excitement.
Now to continue my blog celebration here, I threw in one of our new NuVal long-sleeved t-shirts and a NuVal water bottle.
Isn’t this a great giveaway?
Today’s Giveaway
One lucky reader will win today’s giveaway with all of the goodies included. All you need to do is leave a comment below telling me what favorite goodie you would have included if it were your giveaway. In honor of the blog record-breaking today, I’m also asking readers to “pass the blog” on to a friend, relative or neighbor who may not know about A Better Bag of Groceries or NuVal yet. It’s an honor system kind of thing, but you can let me know if you passed it along. I’ll choose one winner at random at 8 am Eastern time on Wednesday. Good Luck!
Posted by: Melissa
Posted in: Trade-Up Tuesday
Tags: Trade-Up Tuesday
