Think Globally, Eat Locally

As it is mid-summer, many seasonal fruits and veggies are in their prime. For most of us, that means that local farmer’s markets are abundant with ripe, delicious summer produce like tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers and melons. It’s hard to debate that these homegrown varieties taste far better than their mass-marketed, mass-produced supermarket counterparts and they are better for you and the planet, as well.
Local produce is allowed more time to ripen on the vine, since growers don’t have to worry about ripening during transport. This means that the produce has time to develop a better taste and also means a higher nutrient content. The reduction in transportation may also result in a lower price and certainly less fuel—good for the environment, as well as your wallet.
In the article “Food, Fuel and Freeways” published by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Iowa, the average conventional food travels as much as 1,500 miles or more to reach its destination, compared to just shy of 45 miles for locally produced items. This adds up to as much as 17 times as much fuel and 17 times the carbon dioxide emissions than if people were to buy locally grown foods!
http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/ppp/food_mil.pdf

In short, buy locally or regionally grown products whenever you can. It boosts your local economy, saves gas, costs less, is more nutritious, and better for the Earth.

Low Sodium Black Bean Cakes

My daughter isn’t exactly a picky eater. Quite the contrary—she’ll at least try pretty much anything we put in front of her. Lately she is very in to self-feeding, so we’ve been trying lots of fun new foods. However, at just shy of her first birthday, an adequate daily intake of sodium should be around 370 mg, nearly impossible on any sort of typical American diet (heck, adult RDA is around 2,000 mg and most people get double that in a day). With cheese, pasta and the veggie burgers we have started feeding her, she was probably getting way too much, possibly causing her to develop a “salt tooth” which could lead to heart problems later in life. Not wanting that on my conscience, I’m trying to be more aware of the sodium content in her foods. She loved the Morning Star Farms veggie and rice cakes, but they are loaded with salt, so today I created our own low-sodium version. They were a hit—probably tasty for bigger kids and grown-ups, too.


Jaimes’ Black Bean and Rice Cakes
¼ c. cooked brown rice (good way to use up leftovers!)
1 c. canned unseasoned black beans, rinsed
¼ c. cooked broccoli and cauliflower flowerettes
¼ c. whole wheat breadcrumbs
½ tbsp. minced garlic
1 egg white

Combine all ingredients in a food processor with metal blade and pulse until roughly chopped and sticking together. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium high and spray with cooking spray. Patty up mixture (resembling small hamburgers) and cook a couple of minutes on each side until lightly browned. Leftovers would probably reheat best in a toaster oven.

Why I Hate the Tour de France

I used to be a big Tour de France fan—well, of pro-cycling as a whole, actually. I knew the teams, had favorite riders, even knew what all those silly points and colored jerseys meant, etc etc etc. Beyond just Lance Armstrong, I was a fan of many riders… until one by one I saw them dismissed from the sport in disgrace amidst allegations of illegal doping.
I no longer care about the sport. It has become pretty clear that it isn’t a matter of who’s doping—they all are. Honestly, if one or two are the rest of them would have to be just to keep up. It’s simply a matter of who is better at outsmarting the governing agencies, who has more money and power for covering it up and who has the best doctors and trainers up on all the most current drugs and methods of evading tests. I think even Lance has just been very good at “cleaning up after himself.” He doped... maybe not always, but he did and the fact that he won’t admit to ever doing it makes him utterly unbelievable entirely.
Perhaps it is as some claim, a big conspiracy to discredit top American riders. Perhaps the French really are just pissed off that they can’t produce an athlete worthy of winning their own race. Or perhaps the sport has become so mired in a tradition of finding the upper hand in an incredibly grueling competition that it isn’t a sport at all any more… just a bunch of incredibly fit guys looking for their next fix.

Corn on the Cob (second best thing about summer)

Another famed food of summertime is the picnic superstar, corn on the cob. While carb conscious dieters may eschew this tasty grain, allow me to list its virtues…
1. A medium sized ear has only 110 calories.
2. It is roughly 80% carbohydrate, 20% fat and 10% protein, making it a very nutritionally balanced food… your whole diet should look this good!
3. With its 3 grams of fiber, it is about 15% of your daily recommendation.
4. It contains about 25% of your daily dose of thiamin (B1), which helps your body release energy from carbohydrates and necessary for a well-functioning nervous system
5. Vitamin A (in yellow varieties), Vitamin C, potassium, B6 and iron all round out the nutrient list of this delicious grain.
So enjoy!
Check this link for tasty corn on the cob recipes…

Supertasters

Ever wonder why kids are such picky eaters? Physiology may be partly to blame.
Fungiform papillae are raised bumps on the surface of the tongue which contain taste receptor cells (taste buds). It is supposed that folks who have more of these projections are supertasters, with a heightened sensation for salty, sweet, sour, or bitter (and the fifth sense, umami, that I’ll expand on later) tastes. While adults have larger papillae, children have far more so the surface of their tongue has much more dense taste reception.
Some evidence suggests that adult supertasters are more likely to be women, as well as people of Asian, African and South American descent. I have read an interesting suggestion that these individuals may have an evolutionary advantage, with heightened sense of taste helping them avoid potentially toxic foods and decreased disease risk by a natural preference towards fruits and veggies.
To find out if you are a supertaster, the ADA suggests punching a small hole in a piece of waxed paper, putting you tongue through the hole and applying food coloring. Then use a mirror and magnifying glass to count the papillae. Your count should range between 5 for nontasters to 12 or more for supertasters…

Hooray for Hash

No, not that kind... THIS kind

My modified version of a delicious Men's Health recipe.
Chicken Sausage and Sweet Potato Hash
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and shredded with box grater
1 medium sweet onion, finely sliced
1 tbsp. minced garlic
3 chicken apple sausage (got mine from the Kroger deli), chopped
1 tbsp. Smart Start Omega-3 buttery spread
Kosher salt
course ground black pepper
Franks Red Hot sauce (to taste)
4 eggs
3 tbsp. white vinegar

Directions:
Heat 1 tbsp. olive oil over high heat in large skillet. Add sausage, cook until browned and remove from pan. Add 1 tbsp. olive oil to skillet and add onion and garlic. Cook until lightly browned, squeeze excess water from potatoes and add to pan along with butter. Season with salt, pepper and a few liberal dashes of hot sauce. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes to crisp. Flip mixture and cook another 10 minutes to crisp the other side. Add sausage and combine.
While potatoes are cooking, fill a saucepan 3/4 full with water, add salt and white vinegar and simmer. Add eggs one at a time to poach (about 3 minutes). Fill bowls with hash and top with poached egg and a bit more cracked pepper if desired. Men's Health will tell you this is 6 servings. They are in error. It is 4, trust me. Bowl in above pic is the double sized portion I served my husband and his tapeworm...