Archive for the ‘Food’ Category
Posted by terrepruitt on March 18, 2010
My husband does the grocery shopping. I know, cool, huh? Sometimes, when he is busy, I will do it. On my way home from teaching a Nia class on Wednesday, I decided to stop by the store.
Now, the store that is most convenient to us in San Jose we can’t always go to because they have bad milk and, I believe that my husband told me they also don’t have the bread I like. So we drive a little bit out of our way to go to the store where we can buy milk that will is not sour and bread that is what I like.
While standing in the bread isle I almost had to call my Hubby because I forgot what kind of bread we get. As I am scanning the packages I see this.
Oh yeah! THAT IS the bread that we get. But, I did a little dance because of that bright yellow label. See that is one of the reasons why that is the bread we get. The label made me happy.
Then while I was standing in line I was even made more happy because I was able to share with a woman in line why I looked like I just worked out (because I did) AND tell her about Nia. Awesome!
But, Honey, if you are reading this, I still don’t like grocery shopping. 🙂 It can still be “your job”. (Thanks, btw.)
Posted in Food | Tagged: bad milk, Bread Dance, Earthgrain bread, grocery shopping, happy, Happy Dance, HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Nia, Nia class, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Safeway, San Jose Nia, San Jose Workout, San Jose Workout class, Savemart, teaching Nia, Wednesday Nia Class, work out | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 11, 2010
Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP) has come into the spotlight recently. There was recall of the product from a large manufacturer of it. One of my online friends wrote an article* regarding the recall and posted the link to it on FB. (In summary, the company (Basic Food Flavors Inc) KNEW the product was contaminated with salmonella but kept shipping it.) I read it, it upset me, so I reposted it. This led to someone posting something on my wall that had me looking up HVP.
HVP contains monosodium glutamate (MSG). I had not thought about that before. Honestly I had not thought about hydrolyzed vegetable protein at all, but now I am thinking about it. I know a handful of people that have bad reactions to MSG so they avoid food with it in it. So I kind of think that they might know that HVP contains MSG and they can either avoid HVP or be — at least — mindful of it. But it is frustrating when man-made products that we don’t even know what they are contain other stuff that we are trying to be aware of. If you know you have reactions to MSG you might know that HVP contains it. But if you are having a reaction you might not know that it is due to the MSG in the HVP.
Most people don’t Google every ingredient in their food. I don’t, do you? Are we going to have to start? Are we going to have to have an “alternate name list” on our fridge and right next to that a “recalled food” list?
As an individual, I can just not eat this stuff, but why as a group do we continue to allow so many chemicals to be put in our food. When something is taken from it natural form and processed into another form can that really be good for our bodies? Especially when it is in so many foods?
For those of you that are trying to avoid MSG, you might want to keep an eye out for HVP, if you aren’t already.
According to Wiki:
Acid-hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP, is produced by boiling cereals or legumes, such as soy, corn, or wheat, in hydrochloric acid and then neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide.
Monosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate and MSG, is a sodium salt of the naturally occurring non-essential amino acid glutamic acid.
*I had a link to the article my friend had posted but the link no longer works so I removed it. Here is a link to a Washington Post article regarding Basic Food Flavors knowing they shipped a product containing salmonella: FDA says Basic Food Flavors knew plant was contaminated with salmonella March 10, 2010
Posted in Food | Tagged: Basic Food Flavors Inc, FDA, Food and Drug Administration, HVP, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein, MSG, recall of HVP, salmonella, vegetable protein, Washington Post, Wiki | 1 Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 9, 2010
I don’t really like tomatoes. I have never liked tomatoes. I used to NOT eat pizza because of the tomato sauce. Spaghetti and tomato sauce? Forget about it. BUT . . . . tomatoes are really good for you. And so I try to eat them and I try them every once in a while.
Since they are good for you I think they make a healthy snack. This is what I had as a snack prior to doing a Nia workout.
I don’t really like them so I add a little special seasoning (pre-made garlic and salt mix).
Tomatoes contain antioxidants, vitamin C, vitamin A, potassium, and iron. They are even touted as having cancer fighting properties. Amazing for a fruit with so little calories. Do you like tomatoes?
Posted in Food, Fruit | Tagged: healthy snack, Nia, Nia workout, tomato, Tomatoes | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 6, 2010
I was trying to avoid Girl Scout cookies. When asked about purchasing some I went to the Girl Scout website to see if they contained High Fructose Corn Syrup and / or Partially Hydrogenated Oils. Well, according to the website, yes. So I said no. I have two boxes of Thin Mints in my freezer so I don’t need any more. I get enough HFCS and trans-fat in my diet even though I try to avoid it. I don’t need to add to it. But, guess what, my hubby came home with FIVE boxes of cookies. I don’t know who he bought them from, but . . . now we have Girl Scout cookies in the house.
So I was looking at the boxes to see if these were the ones with the HFCS and trans-fat in them because some of them had it and some didn’t, but the thin mints we got didn’t have them. I thought that I was mistaken, but instead of going to the website I went to my freezer. The two boxes in my freezer have HFCS but the one my husband just bought, does not. And it turns out that the baker is different.
Freezer boxes: ABC Bakery (WITH High Fructose Corn Syrup AND Partially Hydrogenated Oil)
New box: Little Brownie (WITHOUT High Fructose Corn Syrup. But still contains Partially Hydrogenated Oil)
So, it can be done. Manufacturers CAN make products WITHOUT HFCS, we just have to make them do so.
Both bakeries use Partially Hydrogenated Oils, which we shouldn’t tolerate either.
Neither baker is near San Jose or California for that matter, so I don’t know why one baker is used over the other. But these are the Girl Scouts, I would hope that they were concerned about what ingredients are in their cookies.
So if you are interested in trying to avoid HFCS as much as possible check the baker and the box of your Girl Scout cookies.
Posted in Food | Tagged: ABC Bakery, diet, freeze Girl Scout cookies, Girl Scout, Girl Scout cookies, Girl Scouts in San Jose, HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Little Brownie, Partially Hydrogenated Oils, San Jose Girl Scouts, Thin Mints, Trans fat | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 26, 2010
Edamame. I first learned of edamame about 25 years ago. I was working at a mortgage company and one of the secretaries (that’s what they were called back then) introduced us. I can’t even remember where we had it whether it was a restaurant or if she made it, but I have loved it ever since. And that was before I knew it was a complete protein* or that it has isoflavones**.
I like it served warm, salted, and in the pods so you can pop the soybeans out into your mouth. It is fun.
I stopped by sushi restaurant tonight for a friend’s birthday on my way home from my San Carlos Nia class and since I don’t eat sushi I had a whole bowl of edamame. Yum. Perfect for after teaching.
I don’t really think of edamame as low in fat, but I do think of it as high in protein.
A 1/2 cup of in-the-pod edamame is about 75 calories, 7 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of protein, and 2 grams of fat and 3 grams of fiber.
I don’t often think of eating them on salads, but when I get a salad that has the soybeans on them, I really like it. Once I had a vegetable dish with them in it. I really liked that, but forget to do it myself. I usually just eat them out of the pods. But there are so many other ways you can eat them. I need to remember to add them to salads or put them in with other vegetables to make a vegetable medley.
Do you like edamame? Do you like it served hot or cold? What do you do with edamame, do you add it to other dishes? Do you have edamame recipes?
Writing about it makes me want more.
*complete protein -contains all eight essential amino acids in appropriate quantity
**isoflavones – antioxidants that are believed to have health benefits
Posted in Food, Vegetables | Tagged: antioxidants, complete protein, edamame, edamame recipes, isoflavones, Nia, Nia class, San Carlos Nia | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 24, 2009
Years ago my friend made a salad and brought it to a potluck. This had to be over 10 years ago. Since then I have seen many versions of this salad, and I myself had made many different versions. But for Christmas I am always asked by my husband’s family to bring this salad.
-A bag or two of Spring Mix
-A pear or two (chopped into pieces)
-Walnuts (chopped)
-Blue Cheese
-Balsamic Vinaigrette
Mix all the ingredients together. Using as many nuts and as much blue cheese as you would like to make a good balance.
You might be able to tell in the photo of my salad, I did not use spring mix. I used a bag of heart of romaine and some baby spinach. I didn’t use walnuts, I used pecans. I also didn’t take the picture with the dressing on because I didn’t want to toss it until we were ready to eat it even though we were going somewhere not far from San Jose.
It is a great salad. I sometimes use apples instead of pears. Whatever you have on hand is good to use. I like to use walnuts or pecans, I have tried another nut, but I am sure it would work out.
Posted in Food | Tagged: blue cheese, Christmas, Green Salad, salad, San Jose, San Jose Workout, Spring Mix, walnuts, workout | 1 Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 15, 2009
Not too long ago I was feeling so tired. I didn’t know why and I still don’t KNOW why, I think I know, but I am not sure. I think I wasn’t getting enough iron. I take Calcium supplements, they are Cal Complete so they have other stuff in them. I understand and I like the idea of being able to get all the nutrients I need from food and not having to take a supplement. But . . . I don’t think that is realistic for me. I think that sometimes I just don’t eat all the nutrients I need. Also, since our food is so altered who really knows if I am getting the nutrients I need from the food. There are other reasons I food might not have all the nutrients we think, first of all the food can be altered (as I just stated), or it could be not as fresh as it needs to be for optimal nutrients, or I could be cooking some of the nutrients out. Either way, I like the idea, but I don’t think it is entirely possible to get everything I need all the time from food. And with calcium it is recommended to take a supplement anyway.
With calcium your body can only absorb so much at a time so it is recommended to take it twice a day. I always take the “going to bed” one, but I was forgetting about the morning one. And I think it was affecting me. I eat a spinach salad almost every night so I thought I was getting enough iron through that, but apparently even though spinach has a lot of iron the body cannot absorb it that well.
There are two kinds of iron heme and nonheme. Heme is found in meat and is most easily absorbed by the body. Nonheme is typically found in plant sources and is not as easily absorbed.
I eat mostly chicken with about 1.1 milligrams per 3 oz. compared to beef at 2.2 to 3.2 milligrams per 3 oz. Add my chicken to my salad, I have about 3.8 milligrams. The total of the two is close to 20% of the recommended daily allowance. So, if you add my two calcium pills with a total of 83% of the RDA you get 103%. If I only take one then I am missing about 40%. Now I don’t know if that is enough to make me feel like I did, but I thought, “Hey, let’s get back to my 83% and remember to take both pills and now I am feeling less tired.’”
Of course, only lab tests and a doctor can tell me what if it truly was low iron. It could be a lot of things, but I just thought it was interesting that spinach doesn’t contain as much iron as I thought and absorbing it depends on what it is mixed with. So I figure with the chicken I eat, the spinach I eat and the calcium with iron I take, in addition to anything else I am eating that might have iron in it, I really will be getting the RDA.
For a lot more information on iron: (06.07.20 – sorry seems like this link no longer works)
http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/factsheets/iron.asp
Posted in Food | Tagged: Calcium, dietary supplements, exercise, heme, iron Calcium supplements, nonheme, nutients, nutrients, spinach, workout | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 3, 2009
Yup, AGAIN with the asparagus, but this time it is NOT roasted. You see, my hubby gets just as tired of me cooking roasted asparagus just as you probably get tired of me blogging about it. Well, we recently went to Coscto (is that a Bay Area thing? There are a few just in San Jose.) and bought a few bags of asparagus. I could eat just roast it and eat it that way, but I like to make food that my hubby will enjoy too, so I decided to try cooking it another way.
Trying to come up with something new is a little exercise in creativity. It is funny how it works out when I am just throwing stuff together and when I am just trying something out to be different it turns out that my husband LOVES it. I never know how it is going to work out.
I put some garlic infused olive oil in a pan with some onions then cooked the ground turkey. I decided to be totally daring and so I used some balsamic vinegar (hubby is not a fan, but Ithought I would try it). Then I added the asparagus and I also used some smoky garlic sea salt a friend of ours brought us from Hawaii.
I cooked it all up and served it over rice. Now, I have to honest, I really liked it, but my hubby LOVED it and it COULD be because I plated his rice, then I took two slices of Havarti and put it over the rice, THEN I put the turkey asparagus combination over that. So the cheese melted in between thehot rice and the hot turkey. I had a taste, his tasted pretty much like cheese. And anything is better with Havarti because it is like butter. I didn’t have the cheese and I felt it was great and not overpowered by cheese.
I used a package of turkey (I guess it is a pound or a little over) and probably a one and a half pounds of asparagus.
So . . . how else can I cook asparagus?
Posted in Food | Tagged: Asparagus, Bay Area, Bay Area Exercise, Bay Area Workout, Cheese, Costco, garlic olive oil, ground turkey, Havarti cheese, roasted asparagus, San Jose, San Jose Costco, San Jose exercise, San Jose Workout, turkey | 3 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 15, 2009
Recently I had a friend over and she made me laugh so hard. I was making popcorn for us and she kept saying things like, “If this works . . . .” “I can’t wait to see if this works.” “Are you sure this is going to work out?” It made me laugh. I had a pot and I made a HUGE bowl of popcorn. I didn’t take pictures at the time because I didn’t think I would blog about it, but then I made some more the other day and it reminded me that popcorn can be a healthy snack.
Ever cooked it on the stove?
I use a pot that will net me as much popcorn as I want. Remember a little pot will still net you a lot of popcorn. Since I use different size pots I don’t measure per se.
Pour enough olive oil in the bottom of the pot to cover from 1/2 to 3/4 of the bottom. You don’t want so much oil that the whole bottom of the pot is covered, then you will just end up with oily popcorn.
Let the oil get hot. Then pour enough popcorn in to fill the bottom. I usually let it make about two “layers”. Then put the lid on.
I realized that I was not good at making popcorn in a pot until I got pots and pans with glass lids. I always wanted to SEE if the popcorn is popping, so I would lift the lid. And that would take the heat out of the pot and the popcorn would burn before it popped. But with a glass lid I can let all the heat build up in the pot, which allows the heat to build up in the kernel and then POP!
I DO move the pot around, shaking it. I have a glasstop so I lift the pot up to shake it, but if you have a stove that you can move your pot around while it is still on the heat that is even better.
HAVE A BOWL READY! Because once the pot gets full and the popcorn starts pushing the lid off you need to start pouring. So just keep putting the popcorn in the bowl, return the pot to the stove, let more popped corn fill the pot, pour, pop, pour, pop. You might be able to turn the stove off in between that, it all depends on your stove and your pot, but you will get the hang of it after a couple of times.
Re-reading this before I post makes me want popcorn. Do you like popcorn? How do you cook it?
After I am done, I just salt it, I don’t use butter. But if you do, you can just melt it in the pot you just used to cook the popcorn. And if you do use butter, the calories and the fat content of the snack does go up. But, I think that butter is better than the “butter” they use at the theater. What is that stuff? Ewww.
Posted in Food | Tagged: heathly snack, olive oil, Popcorn, snack, stovetop, workout | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 3, 2009
I wanted to share this with you just in time for Labor Day. This past summer I went to a barbeque and the hostess had made grilled bell peppers and feta. She had bought the bag of bell peppers that you get from Costco that have the different colors in them.
Well, I brought some home to Hubby and he liked them. Since then we have made them several times but we have been using the green bell peppers.
It is so easy. You just cut the bell peppers so they form a little boat. If they are flat that is ok, it just makes it more possible for the cheese to escape. 🙂 Then you grill them 5 minutes on each side, or if you like them less cooked just grill them on the inside for five minutes.
After you grill them either on the outside for five and the inside for five or just the inside for five you put feta in them. You can put as much as you would like. You can also use blue cheese. It is a litte bit more greasy so it is a little tricky to deal with, but it is good. I prefer the feta.
Then you grill the feta filled boats for five minutes. Yum. Nothing else is needed. No salt, no oil, nothing. And they are so yummy.
Recently we went to a barbeque and started talking about all the ways you can do them and there are a lot of ways. You can get elaborate and makes some pretty yummy concoctions, or you can just keep it simple. It is really good. This is an easy treat that is in a class by itself.
I don’t know if you have a Costco in your area but that is what we have in San Jose and the Bay Area where we get our large quantities.
If you end up trying this and make any variation, let me know how it works out. I would love to hear how different types of cheeses work. Although it is an exercise in will power to not over do it on the cheese. You know how I love cheese!
Posted in Vegetables | Tagged: bell peppers, Costco San Jose, exercise on Labor Day, grilled bell peppers, Grilled peppers, Labor Day, San Jose exercise, San Jose exercise class, San Jose exercise on Labor Day, San Jose Workout | 7 Comments »
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