gluten-free

http://jezebel.com/5991724/will-everyone-please-eat-gluten--please-because-you-are-literally-killing-me-kind-of

A very well written and expressed article. The fact that gluten-free foods are way easier to find and buy is a huge plus, but people who do it anticipating a quick fix to their waistline are unbelieveable. The author puts it well--just eating whole wheat is a great alternative!

And many people don't realize that with "fat-free" there's something replacing the fat...usually sugar!

I know I've said it before too, but eating a healthy lifestyle is usually more expensive and I get the percent that this author quotes--242% more expensive. I was on the phone with my mom while grocery shopping the other night and was so pleased to finally find the molasses (you'll see why in a few days if the recipe goes well!) and my mom said something about the price. I looked, $2.48, I believe, and just kinda brushed it off. I don't even look at prices any more when I'm buying groceries unless I happen to have choices--shocking! (And by choices, I mean when I was looking at flax seeds today, I found a previously ground selection or whole flax seeds...which was better for my recipe? Unknown. but the whole flaxseeds were cheaper and what the recipe did actually call for...)

Anyway, in lieu of my actually putting together a well though out article, I offer that one to y'all.

peanut butter bars

One of the things I miss the most is a granola bar. You all know the ease at which you can just grab one and eat it on the go. They all have oats or rice in them, so I haven't found a good replacement. My mom was reading her shredded wheat box one day and called me to try the recipe on there. Now I did not have any shredded wheat in my apartment so I got online and found their recipe on the Post website.

the formatting is theirs and I know it drives me batty but not enough to retype it. Regardless, the recipe works halved, and I use craisins instead of raisins (grapes!). I was contemplating putting chocolate chips in them too to add a bit of sweet to it, though the craisins and honey/PB combo makes them pretty sweet. Also, mine fell apart (I halved it so I don't think it bound together very well) but I still enjoyed eating the remnants.

But a quick, easy, and healthy treat!

Peanut Butter Bars

Ingredients

·         1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

·         1/2 cup honey

·         1/2 cup reduced fat peanut butter

·         3 cups Post Original Shredded Wheat Spoon Size Cereal, coarsely crushed

·         3/4 cup raisins

Directions

1.      Mix sugar, honey and peanut butter in large microwavable bowl. Microwave on HIGH 1-1/2 to 2 minutes or until bubbly at edge; stir until well blended.

2.    Stir in cereal and raisins. Press firmly into 8-inch square pan sprayed with cooking spray. Cool.

3.     Cut into bars. Store in airtight container. Makes 16 servings, 1 bar each.

Tips and Suggestions

Use Your Stove: Mix sugar, honey and peanut butter in large saucepan; cook on medium heat until smooth and bubbly, stirring occasionally. Continue as directed.

Take Along Tip: After completely cooled, wrap bars individually in plastic wrap. Leave in bowl on kitchen counter for a great grab-and-go snack.

Nutrition Bonus: On the run? Then enjoy one of these Grab 'n Go Peanut Butter Bars as part of your healthful eating plan.

Traveling make me thoughtful

Traveling very much does make me thoughtful...I usually drive and I'm almost always by myself. Even listening to the radio or CDs doesn't distract me (and as I recently found out, books on tape have a tendency to make me very sleepy--not good on the road!)

When I travel, I take food with me. I have been gone both of the last two weekends and I've had bags of groceries with me either time. That, or I've taken prepared food with me to eat. So consider the time I had to spend cooking and preparing food in addition to packing. I can stop at McDonald's and get fries and a milkshake, but that's about all I can eat there (discounting the "beef flavoring" in or on the fries--it's never bothered me). It is a big pain the ass sometimes to make sure, when more important things are happening, that I have food to eat.

But then I really started thinking...I seldom go out to eat because I'm too anxious about my choices. When I do go out, I check the menu beforehand. My friends always let me pick the restaurant if we do decide to go out. I always take my H2 blocker before I eat out at a restaurant where I don't know I can order 'safe' food. Salads are usually safe, but I have to be careful with dressings (eggs, vinegar derived from things I'm to which I'm allergic). This has perpetrated into the cafeterias at the hospitals where I work. I often take my lunch, but sometimes I can't wriggle out of eating something. I use the line that I'm a vegetarian, and if pressed, I'll admit to an egg allergy. I've gotten away with that here recently.

But this article (http://captainawkward.com/2013/03/09/459-do-i-have-to-destroy-my-health-to-be-in-grad-school/#more-5297) made me think. If you don't want to read it, here's a mini-summary: it's about being in grad school with a "hidden condition." IE--if you have a walking cast on, no one judges you for taking the elevator and for skipping events across campus. There are plenty of people who have "hidden conditions"; for the writer in the post, it's migraines and PCOS. The beauty of a hidden condition is that you don't have to divulge to everyone what's going on with you; you get to chose. Which is particularly good in some situations, but when you're in grad school and you have a million and one commitments, things get dicey.

I'm rambling here but basically what it comes down is that it sucks. It can be an invasion of your privacy to have to constantly excuse yourself from things because you can't do it--I have yet to find a clever way to get out of business dinners; I can't imagine what it would be like for someone with migraines trying to get through a difficult day at work. Not everyone around you needs to know the intimate details of your health history. Also, I'm in grad school and I've worked hard to get to where I am and I don't want anyone making exceptions or anything for me just because I have a health condition. So I hide it. Because I can.

But at the end of the day, when I drag myself home, I have to eat. I can't stop at fast food and pick something up. Do I have time to make it to the gym before my blood sugar tanks? Do I have a snack in my purse that I can eat? I will tell you that I have eaten food I don't like and don't want because someone pressed it on me--I was late to a dinner and my friend collected some fruit for me off the appetizer trays and it only had on it fruit I'm allergic to or that I don't like. Did I eat it? Yes, because it would have been rude to brush off the gesture.

I nearly passed out the other day in a relatively benign situation. As I excused myself to sit down and let the waves of hot/cold pass, I was extensively questioned on when I'd last eaten and whether or not I was pregnant (I'm sure you can all imagine my reaction to that!). I was fine, but later, to myself, I had to question if I've been getting good enough nutrition recently. Who knows what really happened because I ended up pinning it on too much travelling and both physical and mental exhaustion, but it brings home the point that grad school is a bitch of a time to try to take care of yourself.

When you barely have enough time to do laundry and go grocery shopping, try adding in something else. I'm sure there are boatloads of my peers in this situation. We all have things we like to keep personal.

I was way more rambly today than usual...sorry guys. :) I also finally had the opportunity to try oatmeal in isolation to see what kind of a reaction I have to it and I can tell you it's making me dizzy and quite frankly a little scatterbrained, which is pretty weird. also, oatmeal is pretty gross to eat when you know it's going to make you sick and yet you want to know what it's going to do to you.

alsooooo commas are being difficult today. sorry. and my consistency with capitalization. i apologize. it's the oatmeal.

thin mints

'Tis the season--the girl scout cookie season, that is! As such, I recently attempted a recipe I've been meaning to try for the longest time. The thing is that this recipe makes 30 cookies and that's not something I need in my house! So I recently had the opportunity to make cookies for other people and I tried this.

This is a recipe from my Babycakes cookbook; as such, it was originally gluten-free and vegan. It remains vegan but I made it not gluten free for my own comfort and to fit what I had in my kitchen.

I give you...thin mints (and my apologies to anyone allergic to mint--not one of my allergies and chocolate and mint is one of my favorite flavor combinations!)

1 ¾ c flour

1 c sugar

½ c unsweetened cocoa powder

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

¾ c canola or coconut oil

1/3 c unsweetened applesauce

2T vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

3 T mint extract

Preheat the oven to 325. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the oil, applesauce, and vanilla and mix with a rubber spatula until a thick dough forms.

Drop the dough by the teaspoonful onto the prepared baked sheets, about 1 ½ inches apart. Gently flatten each mound of dough, smoothing the edges with your fingers. Bake for 7 minutes, rotate the baking sheets, and bake for 7 minutes more. Let stand on the baking sheets for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the chocolate chips and mint extract in a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Stir until the chips are just melted. Do not overcook. Remove from the heat. Dunk the top of each cookies into the melted chocolate and place in a single layer on a platter. Refrigerate the cookies for 30 minutes, or until the chocolate sets.

Makes 30.

Now I have my typical few comments to be made on the recipe--be careful with the chocolate/mint step. Mine burned. I was watching it carefully and stirring but it still burned. It could have been my mint extract, which was old and likely expired and probably not quite 3T. Also, my apartment smelled very strongly of mint for the longest time. I personally enjoyed that, but it's not for everyone.

Also, I didn't line my cookie sheets. I may regret that later, but I watched them carefully and took them out a little early. I had three different cookie trays going and one of them burned a little around the edges, but the rest were perfect. According to my friends to whom I gave the cookies.

And to the observant reader who notes that there is applesauce in these and I can't eat them, kudos. I ate a few because apples are a bit of a quandary for me (I ate an apple on the core once and had no problems, I ate applesauce and felt miserable) but I did truly give most of them away. Even without the mint and chocolate covering, they were rated as delicious. So there's a thought too!

While I haven't had a girl scout thin mint in ages, I have it on good reports that they taste almost exactly the same. So enjoy!

happy valentine's day!

this article makes me giggle!

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/14/health/valentines-day-allergies/index.html?hpt=hp_bn13

I was attracted to the title: Making Valentine's Day safe for your allergic sweetie.

There are some true gems in it...

including:
Watch your own food, too
If food allergies are a factor in your honey's life, the nonallergic person should also watch intake. Research presented at an allergy conference in 2010 suggests that another person's saliva can present problems for an allergic person even hours after eating. Brushing your teeth may help, but it may not be enough, Bassett said. Talk to your partner about his or her level of comfort regarding what you eat before smooching.

mwahahaha...hasn't been anything I've noticed in my life but it still made me laugh.

there's also a gem of a comment about people who are allergic to latex. I should hope, by Valentine's day, one would be aware if their partner were allergic to latex (like i am!) and plan accordingly, but can you imagine if this went terrible wrong? (fyi and maybe TMI, I am not THAT sensitive to latex but some people are! I only get hives which I know from wearing latex gloves at work).

See, giggling. Inappropriately. 

Happy Valentine's day!

food labels

First off, http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/2013/02/11/food-companies-exploit-americans-with-ingredients-banned-in-other-countries/

if you haven't seen that already, take a look. I have some major points that I'd like to pick apart but I think it's important to read. (Also, it's the second comparison between the US and the UK I've read in the last week--the last was a fascinating contrast in America's liberal pain medication policy which has gotten us to accidental deaths from medication overdose at an all time high contrasted to the UK where people suffer unnecessarily due to the unavailability of pain meds).

Americans haven't concerned themselves with nutrition for the longest time and I do 100% agree with her that it's the real problem. Nutrition and nutrition education, that is. I am incredibly well versed in nutrition because I'm a medical person and I'm smart and grew up in an environment that taught it. I now live in an area where we're happy if people can graduate high school and talk "good." I go around daily correcting grammar in my head. I'm sitting here drinking a calorie-free vitamin water to supplement my lack of B complex vitamins; how many of my compatriots are drinking full calorie mountain dew?

I don't implicate the food companies in any of this; I applaud coke's recent programs to educate consumers and I also applaud NY for attempting to address the obesity problem with cutting off people at a certain amount of soda. I doubt people truly realize how many empty calories they're consuming in a day; I doubt many people know what an "empty calorie" even is.

I feel that the prevalence of fad diets preys on the lack of nutrition education in this country. I think that people in America realize that there is a problem but want an answer as to how to fix it. The simply and truest solution is diet and exercise, but we're all constantly hoping for an easier answer. I know I still have to exercise tonight and I'm not happy about that, but I also just consumed 2 190 calorie biscuits...if I don't want that to go straight to my hips, I'm exercising. I'm creative with the way I exercise on certain days, but it does indeed suck to get up and run a few miles. You do it if you want to make a difference. Because surgery is a whole hell of a lot more expensive and painful. The other health benefits--improved immune system, more effective sleep--are an added benefit to getting on the ellipitical.

It's also interesting to consider where the lack of education about nutrition comes about. I doubt many physicians are capable of tackling the complex topic, but I think the blog post above does give doctors short shrift. Doctors can handle a basic conversation of nutrition that would satisfy most American's questions. It's when you get to *my* level of funky nutrition that you may need to talk to a nutritionist. A discussion of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins--doctors can do that. Do we schedule the time to talk with a doctor? No. Does an insurance company pay for that visit? I don't.

Another culprit is the constantly changing front of nutrition: did y'all realize that it's a my plate system now, not a food pyramid? Which raises the question of what exactly a balanced meal is supposed to be.

I think Michelle Obama is trying to reach out and correct this problem, but when the school system is already overwhelmed trying to teach reading and writing let alone STEM stuff, nutrition is overlooked. But we clearly need to get to the kids before it becomes an issue. It's more complex than that because it's the parents who buy and cook the food for the household, but I think blaming any of this on food costs and socioeconomic problems like availability of fresh produce in poorer neighborhoods is brushing off a far more serious problem.

Enough on that. Better education is key.

My big problem with that blog is I'm not sure exactly where she's getting her nutrition labels because I know Betty Crocker has improved. Some of those labels may have been accurate at some point in time, and I can tell you for a fact that some of them are true as of the last time I read that label, but food labels are getting easier to read. I definitely have noticed that some companies are drifting away from using yeast to using yeast substitutes in their foods. There are even a few biscuits that I can buy and cook at home. I think a lot of companies are recognizing this problem and may be acting on it. Of course there will always be companies that will drag their feet and refuse to acknowledge any problems with MSG and corn syrup, but I think we've got to give credit where it's due. Americans expect Pringles to taste a certain way and we wouldn't like it if the recipe was compromised for the ingredients. Which is why the comparison to the UK version is key, but I know from having traveled that foods taste different here than they do two hundred miles away, let alone across the Atlantic (and as any Ukrop's fan may acknowledge...the fried chicken tasted different when Martin's bought them because of a change in the oil it was cooked it).

Were any of you surprised by food labels? I have often wondered and had on a list of potential blog post topics one on reading food labels. I read them obsessively of course. Did y'all know that McDonald's french fries have beef flavoring in them? I did. Vegans probably knew that too, but 98% of America wouldn't be able to tell you that. I think many people would be absolutely shocked to consider how many foods have MSG in them....or monosodium glutamate. Also, how food companies get away with hiding how much corn syrup or sugar is in something by listed in multiple times as a component of another ingredient.

My absolute favorite food labels have only a few ingredients in them: sugar, peanuts, butter, flour, etc. No chemicals. Things that even I, with my education and experience, can understand without having to dig into that education. Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend but either way, Americans need to educate themselves on the types of things they're ingesting every single day.

super bowl snacks

Two posts in two days! What is the world coming to! Actually, it's just that it's snowing here and I've been contemplating the timing on when I need to get cooking for what I'm taking to my friends' super bowl party. It'll be another short one, anyway.

I definitely volunteered to make potato skins because I know I've gotten that down in the last few months. Potatoes are my major source of calories which kinda sucks because of the carbs, but I've gotten over it. Either way, I make the baked potato soup recipe a bit, particularly here in the winter, which leaves me with potato skin carcasses. Since I hate throwing food away, my mom (as always) reminded me that I can make potato skins with them. Easy enough too!

The key is leaving enough potato in them to make them a little more substantial--I sometimes eat these for dinner, if I've got enough laying around and want to just toss something in the toaster oven. I always have cheese around, and occasionally bacon bits or sour cream or even green onions. Another trick--spray the potato with canola oil in addition to the aluminum foil. It helps them crisp up. Simple enough, right? So I spray them, spray the aluminum foil, then load them up with as much cheese as I'm in the mood for (and that's usually a lot!). Since I use fake bacon bits, I usually add them after I cook them. Same for anything else I've added, but that's up to your discretion and what you add to your own potatoes. I use my toasted oven--400 for about ten minutes, check to see how crispy they are and if the cheese has melted and go from there.

So the two tricks: leave enough potato in them to actually eat and spray them with canola oil.

Now, as for wings...I have no comment on how to cook those. ;)

And I can definitely say I have no real opinion on who wins the game, but I am SO looking forward to seeing the baby Clydesdale horse. at least I'm not working these year, unlike almost every year I can remember! (and I say that knowing that I'm on call and that could definitely change!)