Food Safety

September is National Food Safety Month (and National Corndog Month, but I guess that's not exactly nutrition-blog worthy), so I thought I would highlight the need for food safety measures. When most people think of food safety, they think of restaurants and grocery stores, but many (perhaps even MOST) cases of food-borne illness happen at home. Case in point, when I was finishing my undergraduate degree in nutrition (and coincidentally enrolled in aServSafe food safety class) I gave myself the worst case of food poisoning I have ever experienced. Despite the fact that I got an A in the course (so I know how to safely prepare food!), I made a few cardinal mistakes in making a simple soup from leftovers. First of all, it is not a good idea to leave your leftover Thanksgiving turkey carcass languishing in a stock pot in the back of the fridge for a week. However, this was a transgression that could have been overcome had I not sampled the soup in preparation several times before it came up to temperature. Needless to say I was laid out by what I assume to be clostridium perfringens. Not fun. Learn from my mistakes and practice good food safety at home.
The website for the American Dietetic Association suggests the following measures to help prevent food borne illness:
*Wash your hands often- before cooking, after handling raw meat, wiping your nose, etc. etc. etc. Use antibacterial soap and scrub well (hum a verse of the birthday song to get in a good 20 seconds). Use a nailbrush to clean potentially harmful bacteria lurking under fingernails.
*Keep a clean workspace- don't reuse cutting boards after using with raw meats (wash and disinfect them), don't have your space cluttered with non-food items like your purse or beverage and wash your counters before preparing food.
*Wash all utensils, cutting boards and dishware in hot, soapy water before and after use.
*Wash towels and dishcloths often, using hot water in the washing machine. Sterilize sponges by microwaving or in the dishwasher on an NSF cycle... or throw them out!
*Maintain proper temperature in your refrigerator and freezer (and when cooking). Temps from 40 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit are the "temperature danger zone" where bacteria breed the best. Invest in thermometers to check your fridge temp and meat thermometers for cooking.
(www.eatright.org)

Watermelon and Vidalia Onion Salad

I posted a few weeks ago about the virtues of watermelon. The first time we had this delicious salad was years ago at a restaurant in Buckhead (Atlanta) called Agnes and Muriel's. We've worked hard to recreate it. Watermelon is on its way out of season, so enjoy this delicious and healthy salad before they’re gone…

Watermelon and Vidalia Onion Salad

You'll Need:
One seedless watermelon, rind removed, cut into bite sized pieces
One large Vidalia onion, peeled and sliced into thin strips

2 tbsp. fresh mint, chopped
¼ cup red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. seasoned rice wine vinegar
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. coriander seeds (whole)
Kosher salt and cracked pepper to taste

Combine watermelon and onions in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, wisk together vinegars, olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir in mint and coriander. Pour over melon mixture and stir to combine.
Garnish with sprigs of fresh mint.
(I’ve seen similar recipes that sprinkle with a little feta cheese as well)

More Summer Produce to Love... Zucchini!

In keeping with my trend of highlighting summer produce, I would be remiss to leave out zucchini. This colorful summer squash, native to the Americas, boasts less than 30 calories per cup and is packed with nutrients. Specifically, zucchini has significant amounts of fiber, folate, potassium, magnesium, beta carotene, and vitamins C and A. It is also rich in lutein and the antioxidant zeaxanthin which promotes healthy vision.

Zucchini is an excellent “stealth” food, meaning it is easy to sneak into other foods to boost their nutrition. I add a ½ cup to my turkey meatloaf, make an excellent zucchini bread, and a delicious zucchini fritter that can be an hors d’oeuvre or light meal. Brush medallions of zucchini with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and cracked pepper then throw them on the grill.

Although I didn’t grow any this year (a first for me), my sister-in-law has kept me well stocked—thanks Nicole!

Kid's Menus Killing Our Kids?

According to a new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the nutritional quality of kid’s meals at many (if not most) chain restaurants is seriously out of whack. The Center examined 13 national chains and found that 93% of offerings exceeded 430 calories-- pretty high considering that children aged 4 through 8 only need about 1400 calories a day (and that’s if they are moderately active). One of the worst offenders, for example is a child’s meal at Chili’s which includes fried chicken “crispers,” cinnamon apples and chocolate milk to a total of 1,020 calories. A similar count weighs in from Burger King’s “Big Kids” (pun intended?) Meal with double-cheeseburger, fries and milk totaling over 900 calories. Is it any wonder that today’s kids are as overweight as their parents when you consider that the average family eats out at least once per week. It adds up.
So what’s a parent to do?
There are healthy choices out there—many of which are as easy on the wallet as they are on the waistline. Jason’s Deli serves up kid-friendly organic fare and beverages without high-fructose corn syrup. At many locations, kids eat free after 5:00 pm. Moe’s has healthy, child sized soft and hard tacos rounding out at just over 200 calories and also has certain evenings where kids eat free. If you look, you can find more healthful options than fried chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese, but it may take a little more effort from Mom and Dad. If you don’t cultivate a taste for unhealthy foods when your children are young, chances are they’ll make better choices when they grow up. Or better yet, rather than focus on the negative, emphasize a diet based on fruits, veggies and whole grains. I’m not saying you should deprive kids of the chance to be kids, just stress healthy eating and lead by example.

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.