The other day the kids and I were wandering Target, doing a little shopping. SportyGirl, always looking for ways to be healthy, found this book, Eat This Not That! For Kids! I was a bit skeptical, but after thumbing through the pages (and seeing the lovely discount coupon) decided to pick it up.
To say it was an eye-opener for both the kids and myself would be doing a disservice.
I've been a faithful label reader for many years now, but usually stopped at calories, fat, sodium, fiber and vitamins. I didn't pay all that much attention to sugars in the ingredients.
Since I read this book, I do now... and wow.
I was looking at the ingredients of a very popular granola bar. It's package says that it is 100% natural and an excellent source of whole grain. Natural ingredients don't always mean healthy. Out of the first eight ingredients, FOUR were sugar-based: Sugar (2nd), Honey (6th), Brown Sugar Syrup (7th), High Fructose Corn Syrup (8th).
I'd highly recommend the book. A perfect way for kids to learn to make good, or at least better choices in the world of prepared foods. Lots of pictures, current information and easy to understand. It's realistic about busy American family eating habits. There's a version out there for adults, too. I might just look it up.
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Mommy? Where do baby-cut carrots come from?
Silly, I know, but I've always wondered. What was the genesis of the baby-cut carrot? Thanks to Wikipedia, I now know.
And so do you!
And so do you!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
AUGH! Give Me the Clam Juice!
First, 10 points to anyone who can tell me where that quote came from.
No, Avindair. Not you. I know you know it.
As usual, I was in a hurry this morning. I realized that my Amy's Organic Palak Paneer frozen meal was still in my freezer when I was about 10 miles down the road to work. So, I made a quick stop at Cub to pick up another. They'd just rearranged the frozen foods and Amy's stuff was no where to be found.
Kashi. Hmmm.
I liked thier cereal pretty well. It's organic. Lots of good stuff for me. Lots of vitamins and fiber.
What the hell? I purchased the box of Kashi Chicken Florentine and was on my merry way.
What the hell, indeed.
As it heated in the breakroom microwave, my first thought was, "My, what an interesting new smell I've discovered."
You know how sometimes foods have a really terrible smell, but taste great? This was not one of those times.
I was hungry. I'm busy. I seriously wondered if I could manage to eat my food while holding my nose. Instead, I decided to just embrace the pain, chow down, and vow never to buy it again.
It is done. My stomach is full. I have the vague, unsettling taste of garlic and tree bark in my mouth. Now I need to see if there's any Clam Juice or battery acid in the breakroom vending machine to wash it down and cleanse my palate.
No, Avindair. Not you. I know you know it.
As usual, I was in a hurry this morning. I realized that my Amy's Organic Palak Paneer frozen meal was still in my freezer when I was about 10 miles down the road to work. So, I made a quick stop at Cub to pick up another. They'd just rearranged the frozen foods and Amy's stuff was no where to be found.
Kashi. Hmmm.
I liked thier cereal pretty well. It's organic. Lots of good stuff for me. Lots of vitamins and fiber.
What the hell? I purchased the box of Kashi Chicken Florentine and was on my merry way.
What the hell, indeed.
As it heated in the breakroom microwave, my first thought was, "My, what an interesting new smell I've discovered."
You know how sometimes foods have a really terrible smell, but taste great? This was not one of those times.
I was hungry. I'm busy. I seriously wondered if I could manage to eat my food while holding my nose. Instead, I decided to just embrace the pain, chow down, and vow never to buy it again.
It is done. My stomach is full. I have the vague, unsettling taste of garlic and tree bark in my mouth. Now I need to see if there's any Clam Juice or battery acid in the breakroom vending machine to wash it down and cleanse my palate.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Missing Chins
I miss Chin's Asia Fresh.
We used to have one by my workplace. It was recently replaced by *retch* LeeAnn Chin.
Chin's was just what it claimed to be - fresh, cooked to order, "Asian" food. The meats were moist with hardly a bit of extra fat, the vegetables were crisp and colorful - never overdone. It was a place I could go for lunch where I could be sure that the nutritional value was high and I wouldn't bust my diet.
Unfortunately, with the demise of the Plymouth location, there are only two -- count'em with me -- TWO locations left in Minnesota.
Today I was out running errands at lunch time, like I do, and wanted to grab something quick to go back to the office. What do I have nearby?
Taco Bell - Choose 1 taco slop delivery system (A. hard shell, B. soft shell, C. flour tortilla). Fill it with hamburger slop, chicken slop, or bean slop. Garnish with onion slop, cheese slop, hot sauce slop, and sour cream slop. Wrap in paper and serve with a sneer.
Panera - Menu items described by words like artisan, fuji, harvest, orchard, and Parisian, which really mean "stick to half-portions or you'll gain 5 lbs. today."
Pot Belly - Tasty sandwiches, with lots of calories, that cost far too much for what you get... and a line that goes on forever.
Chipotle - IF you watch what ingredients you choose, can be very low cal and healthy, but if you arrive at noon, kiss a quick lunch goodbye.
Salsaritas - Pretty much the same as Chipotle.
Noodles & Company - REALLY have to watch what you order here. Can be very high in calories and fat. Plus, the noodly entrees can be really heavy, even with lots of veggies.
Buffalo Wild Wings - A few light menu choices, but SLOW, SLOW, SLOW!
Then there's LeeAnn Chin.
Today, I chose it because there was no line, it was right next to the place I'd run my last errand, and I figured I could find something that was halfway healthy. And I did. By not eating it.
The biggest difference between LeeAnn Chin and Chin's Asia Fresh is when the food is prepared. LAC has heated vats of their entrees, sitting under a warmer, waiting to be chosen like awkward teenage girls at a dance. By the time my so-called entree of stir fry chicken had reached my fork, the once crisp snow peas, broccoli, mini corn, and onions had become a pile of barely identifiable green and brown mush. Disgusting doesn't cover it. It was inedible. Much like the last few times I ventured through their doors. I dribbled a bit of soy sauce on the untouched steamed rice, picked what I could stomach, and threw the rest away. And I'm not a picky eater. Just ask my waistline.
Here's what I don't get. In all of the LeeAnn Chin locations I've tried, I've never really had good food. Each event was usually due to a time-crunch or an overwhelming craving for "Asian" food. If you go to LAC's corporate website, you'd think their egg rolls walked on water: Best Chinese Food - Mpls St Paul Magazine, Best Chinese Food - Minnesota Monthly Reader's Restaurant Survey, Best Chinese Food - City Pages, Best Take Out - Mpls St Paul Magazine. HUH? Are their taste-buds DEAD?
Add that to the sit-down restaurant prices for cafeteria line food? Never again. Last straw-ville for me. Not by the hair of my LeeAnn Chinny-chin-chin.
We used to have one by my workplace. It was recently replaced by *retch* LeeAnn Chin.
Chin's was just what it claimed to be - fresh, cooked to order, "Asian" food. The meats were moist with hardly a bit of extra fat, the vegetables were crisp and colorful - never overdone. It was a place I could go for lunch where I could be sure that the nutritional value was high and I wouldn't bust my diet.
Unfortunately, with the demise of the Plymouth location, there are only two -- count'em with me -- TWO locations left in Minnesota.
Today I was out running errands at lunch time, like I do, and wanted to grab something quick to go back to the office. What do I have nearby?
Then there's LeeAnn Chin.
Today, I chose it because there was no line, it was right next to the place I'd run my last errand, and I figured I could find something that was halfway healthy. And I did. By not eating it.
The biggest difference between LeeAnn Chin and Chin's Asia Fresh is when the food is prepared. LAC has heated vats of their entrees, sitting under a warmer, waiting to be chosen like awkward teenage girls at a dance. By the time my so-called entree of stir fry chicken had reached my fork, the once crisp snow peas, broccoli, mini corn, and onions had become a pile of barely identifiable green and brown mush. Disgusting doesn't cover it. It was inedible. Much like the last few times I ventured through their doors. I dribbled a bit of soy sauce on the untouched steamed rice, picked what I could stomach, and threw the rest away. And I'm not a picky eater. Just ask my waistline.
Here's what I don't get. In all of the LeeAnn Chin locations I've tried, I've never really had good food. Each event was usually due to a time-crunch or an overwhelming craving for "Asian" food. If you go to LAC's corporate website, you'd think their egg rolls walked on water: Best Chinese Food - Mpls St Paul Magazine, Best Chinese Food - Minnesota Monthly Reader's Restaurant Survey, Best Chinese Food - City Pages, Best Take Out - Mpls St Paul Magazine. HUH? Are their taste-buds DEAD?
Add that to the sit-down restaurant prices for cafeteria line food? Never again. Last straw-ville for me. Not by the hair of my LeeAnn Chinny-chin-chin.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Rhino A$$
That's what I had for lunch today.
No, really.
It was cleverly marketed as "Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad" at The Fancy Grocery Store (tm). You know the one. The grocery store with carpet on the floors, mahogany-stained shelves, and approximately 20,000 kinds of smelly cheese.
In a rush this morning, I decided to pick up lunch there on my way in to the office. There's always something tasty at the deli counter and I was in a hurry. The first thing I spotted was a giant dish of "Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad" covered in crisp Sugar Snap Peas and sweet Mandarin Orange slices. It lacked the "swimming in mayo" look of their other salads and, being on special today, appealed to my cheap-skate sensibilities.
Boy, was I wrong. The only way I can truthfully describe the taste that assaulted my tongue was... rhino ass.
"Perhaps," I foolishly thought, "it's the coffee I just drank or it needs to be mixed up or... or... "
So I took a few more bites. Now it became clear that it was rhino ass with a side of sodium the size of the Great Salt Lake.
Granted, I've never actually indulged in the culinary adventure of rhino ass -- expensive, pretentious rhino ass. But if I ever were to, I would imagine that it would taste exactly like "Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad" from The Fancy Grocery Store(tm).
All in all, I should have had the Clam Juice. Uck.
No, really.
It was cleverly marketed as "Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad" at The Fancy Grocery Store (tm). You know the one. The grocery store with carpet on the floors, mahogany-stained shelves, and approximately 20,000 kinds of smelly cheese.
In a rush this morning, I decided to pick up lunch there on my way in to the office. There's always something tasty at the deli counter and I was in a hurry. The first thing I spotted was a giant dish of "Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad" covered in crisp Sugar Snap Peas and sweet Mandarin Orange slices. It lacked the "swimming in mayo" look of their other salads and, being on special today, appealed to my cheap-skate sensibilities.
Boy, was I wrong. The only way I can truthfully describe the taste that assaulted my tongue was... rhino ass.
"Perhaps," I foolishly thought, "it's the coffee I just drank or it needs to be mixed up or... or... "
So I took a few more bites. Now it became clear that it was rhino ass with a side of sodium the size of the Great Salt Lake.
Granted, I've never actually indulged in the culinary adventure of rhino ass -- expensive, pretentious rhino ass. But if I ever were to, I would imagine that it would taste exactly like "Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad" from The Fancy Grocery Store(tm).
All in all, I should have had the Clam Juice. Uck.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Choco-barker-ama
Last weekend the Nerdpod made a quick trip to my hometown - Grand Forks, North Dakota. Each trip is not complete without a trip to the original Widman's candy store. This link it to the spin off store in Fargo that only sells a fraction of the fantastic and out-of-this world candy combinations online -- but you can still get the world-famous Chippers. Chocolate-covered potato chips. Incredible stuff.
We came home with a stock of Widman's chocolates. A few ounces each of chocolate-covered orange sticks, peanut butter melts and cranberries, a bag of chocolate covered coffee beans and a 2-lb. box of Chippers. My mother thoughtfully packed them in a small styrofoam cooler to survive the car ride back to the cities.
Our poodle, Buddy the Nerd-hound, had a better nose than I gave him credit for.
Yesterday, I discovered the lid to the box askew and every chocolate that had been in an unsealed paper sack (orange sticks, peanut butter melts and cranberries) was missing. The Nerd-hound had enjoyed a chocolate feast.
Not only can chocolate in certain quantities be toxic to dogs. Not only had the pooch been on a diet ANYWAY. But my Widman's chocolates, which were supposed to last us for months of occasional one-chocolate treats, were GONE! OH, THE HUMANITY!
I called the Nerd-hound over to me and he knew at once he'd done wrong. But I wasn't as mad as I was worried. I quickly called our vet's after-hours number and got in touch with the emergency vets service. I learned a number of things... all of them good:
1. Milk chocolate, while still toxic, is far less toxic to dogs than dark chocolate.
2. Everything he ate was something coated in chocolate... not solid chocolate... so the concern was more about the extra sweets upsetting his tummy than poisoning.
3. His extra-poundage actually helped him out in this case. The heavier the dog, the more he'd have to ingest to be dangerous.
4. He didn't get into the coffee beans. It's the caffeine in the chocolate that's the real danger. If he'd torn into those, he might have been a goner.
The bad:
1. He can have vomiting and diarreah for up to 24 hours after his choco-feast.
2. He was up several times during the night with doggy tummy-ache and we were treated to unbelievable dog farts, but at least he didn't hork up anything on the carpet.
Normally, I don't think he would have paid the chocolates any attention. In all the time we've had him he has rarely tried to grab food off our plates, the table, the garbage -- but I think his diet has turned him back into the natural scavenger he is as a canine. I can't blame the pooch. I didn't punish him. I think the tummy ache was punishment enough. And I've learned that poodles can smell through a 2-inch thick styrofoam cooler.
All in all, Nerd-hound seems to have taken it in stride. This morning he was a little extra cuddly, but back to eating and drinking and having his morning coffee (that's what we call his outside time on the leash) like normal. It was a good reminder that sometimes, having a dog in the house is like having a toddler -- that pees outside.
We came home with a stock of Widman's chocolates. A few ounces each of chocolate-covered orange sticks, peanut butter melts and cranberries, a bag of chocolate covered coffee beans and a 2-lb. box of Chippers. My mother thoughtfully packed them in a small styrofoam cooler to survive the car ride back to the cities.
Our poodle, Buddy the Nerd-hound, had a better nose than I gave him credit for.
Yesterday, I discovered the lid to the box askew and every chocolate that had been in an unsealed paper sack (orange sticks, peanut butter melts and cranberries) was missing. The Nerd-hound had enjoyed a chocolate feast.
Not only can chocolate in certain quantities be toxic to dogs. Not only had the pooch been on a diet ANYWAY. But my Widman's chocolates, which were supposed to last us for months of occasional one-chocolate treats, were GONE! OH, THE HUMANITY!
I called the Nerd-hound over to me and he knew at once he'd done wrong. But I wasn't as mad as I was worried. I quickly called our vet's after-hours number and got in touch with the emergency vets service. I learned a number of things... all of them good:
1. Milk chocolate, while still toxic, is far less toxic to dogs than dark chocolate.
2. Everything he ate was something coated in chocolate... not solid chocolate... so the concern was more about the extra sweets upsetting his tummy than poisoning.
3. His extra-poundage actually helped him out in this case. The heavier the dog, the more he'd have to ingest to be dangerous.
4. He didn't get into the coffee beans. It's the caffeine in the chocolate that's the real danger. If he'd torn into those, he might have been a goner.
The bad:
1. He can have vomiting and diarreah for up to 24 hours after his choco-feast.
2. He was up several times during the night with doggy tummy-ache and we were treated to unbelievable dog farts, but at least he didn't hork up anything on the carpet.
Normally, I don't think he would have paid the chocolates any attention. In all the time we've had him he has rarely tried to grab food off our plates, the table, the garbage -- but I think his diet has turned him back into the natural scavenger he is as a canine. I can't blame the pooch. I didn't punish him. I think the tummy ache was punishment enough. And I've learned that poodles can smell through a 2-inch thick styrofoam cooler.
All in all, Nerd-hound seems to have taken it in stride. This morning he was a little extra cuddly, but back to eating and drinking and having his morning coffee (that's what we call his outside time on the leash) like normal. It was a good reminder that sometimes, having a dog in the house is like having a toddler -- that pees outside.
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