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Recipes

Cooking at Home is Back on the Front Burner

by Janet on February 18, 2009

During these tough economic times, people are returning to the kitchen.  That’s good news.  And most people (96%) believe that eating at home is healthier than eating out, according to the Food Marketing Institute’s Shopping for Health report.

But some recent headlines would have you believe that cooking at home could be hazardous to your waistline.   A Cornell University study published as a letter this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests the popular cookbooks we rely on at home might be making us fat.  The researchers examined how classic recipes have changed during the past 70 years, primarily focusing on the iconic Joy of Cooking.  They found a nearly 40 percent increase  in calories per serving for nearly every recipe reviewed, about an extra 77 calories.  This was primarily due to changes in serving sizes and ingredients (extra meat instead of vegetables, more sauces, butter or sugar).  Plus, families have gotten smaller, so a dish that  once was eaten by 8 people is now consumed by 4. 

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But registered dietitian and chef Maggie Green, who served as a lead editor on the updated 2006 Joy of Cooking, is crying foul.  She challenges how this study was done — only analyzing 18 recipes out of thousands.  She doesn’t believe this small sampling represents the full scope of the book.  Additionally, the newer edition provides more nutrition information for the reader and features more fresh ingredients over processed foods.

“I still defy anyone to cook and eat sensibly at home and become obese,” Green told me in an email.  “I firmly believe home-cooking and sharing a meal with those you love would go a long way in making this world a healthier place.”

So bottom line, the problem of portion distortion is not limited to restaurant meals.   Keeping an eye on portion size is important at home too.    But does the YIELD identified in a recipe really determine how much you eat?  Not sure folks are really looking at how many servings a recipe makes and then eat accordingly.   What may help is switching to a smaller plate.   The growing size of our dinner plates makes reasonable portions look puny.  Studies show that we tend to eat more as our plates get larger.

With more meals eaten at home, maybe we need to help arm today’s value-conscious home cook with contemporary recipes that help maximize nutrition on a budget.  But it all comes down to how much you eat, no matter what recipe you’re using.

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Debating the Merits of “Stealth” Veggies

by Janet on February 10, 2009

I must admit I’m fascinated by the food fight between the “deceptive” and “sneaky” cookbook authors.  And I’m eagerly awaiting the outcome of the lawsuit Missy Chase Lapine filed against Jessica Seinfeld, author of Deceptively Delicious. Lapine alleges that Seinfeld stole ideas from her book The Sneaky Chef, which was published six months earlier. 

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This controversy stirs up so many intriguing issues — originality of recipes, ethics of publishers and agents and the power of celebrity. While the authors argue over potential “vegetable plagiarism,” I’m more concerned about the actual content of these best-selling books. Is the advice being dispensed really good for kids? 

Now, it appears the “hide and seek” approach is catching on with the food industry.  The trend tracker Mintel says the hidden nutrition strategy is gaining ground with manufacturers and predicts multiple new products for children with vegetables and fruits hidden inside.

Yes, children’s diets do need improving.  And eating more fruits and vegetables is a good place to start.  But, to me, the sneaky approach sends several wrong messages.

Tricks are for kids? 

As a registered dietitian and mother of veggie-loving twins, the concept of camouflaging vegetables just hit me wrong. Does deception really belong at the dinner table?

For starters, disguising vegetables reinforces the notion that these foods are so bad they must be hidden. Early childhood is a critical time of palate development and children need to be exposed to vegetables or they’ll never learn to eat them. Relying on these deceptive recipes may encourage you to throw in the kitchen towel and stop offering “real” vegetables to kids.

Most troubling, though, is the actual nutritional quality of the recipes. Janice Bissex and Liz Weiss, the Meal Makeover Moms, tested some of the recipes in Deceptively Delicious to see if they worked and, more importantly, to see how nutritious they really were. Once they got cooking they found that several of the recipes provided a measly amount of vegetables – some only about 1 tablespoon per serving. They thought the recipes were so focused on sneaking in small amounts of vegetables that they often missed the boat on overall good nutrition.

For example, a chocolate pudding recipe included pureed avocado but surprisingly no milk, so it contained no bone-building calcium. It was also high in sugar (10 teaspoons per 1/2-cup serving) and contained, oddly, uncooked cornstarch that they said gave it a gritty texture. Many recipes in the two books are overly time-consuming and embrace the narrow concept of “kid food,” such as chicken nuggets doused in a broccoli puree before being breaded and fried. The two dietitians thought many of the dishes didn’t even taste good – which is quite ironic since the recipes are attempting to mask the taste of vegetables, yet the final product wasn’t appealing. 

I totally agree with the concept of boosting the nutrient density of the foods kids eat (such as adding grated carrots to meat balls or finely diced bell peppers to pasta sauce), but I struggle with this deceptive approach.

Jessica Seinfeld has readily admitted in media interviews that she resorted to these stealth tactics with her children because she grew tired of “bribing them, begging them, whining at them” to eat their vegetables. But studies show that pressure like this doesn’t work. When you bribe or force children to eat certain foods, they like those foods less. 

So what can we learn from this cookbook controversy? For me, I’m even more convinced that there are better ways to get kids to eat their veggies.

We should focus on making vegetables taste good, not apologizing for them. If we do, children will learn to eat vegetables the same way they learn to eat other foods.  Kids need time and multiple opportunities to eat vegetables.  Plus, they need to see parents enjoy them too! Getting kids involved in selecting and preparing vegetables can make them more appealing. Trips to farmers markets and even growing your own vegetables also can help.

We need to remember that we’re helping to establish food preferences that can last a lifetime so it’s worth the effort. There are no quick fixes.

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Ode to the Chickpea

by Janet on February 9, 2009

hummus-2I’m crazy about the humble chickpea. 

This pallid orb, AKA  garbanzo bean, was once relegated to a lonely container nestled in ice on a salad bar.  But no more. 

Now, hummus is the new salsa.  And the chickpea is the new superfood.

Several recent studies suggest this pale legume deserves the limelight.  Packed with fiber, protein, folate and hard-working phytonutrients, chickpeas have a lot to brag about.

Australian researchers found that a chickpea-heavy diet helped bring down blood cholesterol levels, including LDL or “bad” cholesterol.   Even more recently, the same group of Aussies found that chickpeas helped with glycemic control and insulin resistance — which may be valuable in the prevention and management of diabetes.  Other studies suggest chickpeas can tame your appetite (boost satiety) and could even help trim your waistline — OK, that study was with rats, but still!

Beans are a lowfat alternative to meat, so making a substitution could be beneficial.  After all, beans are officially part of the “meat and beans” group in the food pyramid.  And they also count as a vegetable.  In fact, beans are the only food that can do double duty.  They belong to both food groups. Dietary guidelines recommend 3 cups of beans per week — but most people need to triple the amount of beans they eat to achieve this level.  Certainly, hummus is a good place to start.

Here’s the most perfect bowl of hummus we enjoyed this summer in Lebanon.  Even though it’s easier than ever to find prepared hummus in most supermarkets today, there’s nothing like making it yourself.

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Hummus Recipe

4 cloves garlic, peeled and halved
2 16-oz. cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2/3 cup tahini, well stirred
Juice of 2 lemons
1/4 cup olive oil
water (as needed)
1 teaspoon salt
Optional garnish:  whole chickpeas, toasted pine nuts, chopped parsley, paprika, cumin or sumac

Combine all of the ingredients except the water and garnish in a food processor and process until smooth. Add water to thin hummus to the desired consistency (about 1/2 cup).  Transfer to a bowl and drizzle with additional olive oil to keep the hummus from crusting, and add garnish. Refrigerate until ready to use. Serve with pita chips.

My Lebanese mother-in-law will boil the canned chickpeas first to soften and get rid of the thin skin on the bean (to make for a really creamy hummus), but I tend to skip this step.  You also can rub the chickpeas with your fingers until the skins come off. My husband often prefers a version without tahini that’s called balila hummus (although he refers to it as hummus “unplugged”).

Even though we like the plain garlic/lemony version best, we will often experiment by adding different ingredients  including canned chipotle in sauce, roasted red peppers, chopped jalapeno, olives, cilantro or pomegranate molasses. Check out this hummus recipe from Joylicious that’s simply garnished with paprika and whole chickpeas.

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Spicy, Built-In Portion Control

by Janet on February 8, 2009

Here’s a new product that had me intrigued.  I found it when walking the exhibit floor recently at the American Dietetic Association’s Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo. 

I wrote about several new products on display at the Expo for my column in the Chicago Tribune.  But this one didn’t make the cut.  Primarily because it’s not available yet in the Windy City.  For now you can only find Flavor Magic online.

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This innovative product is intended to help you easily reduce portions and boost flavor of meat, fish or poultry. You simply place your protein choice on top of a pre-cut seasoning sheet and trim the meat to match the recommended 4-ounce serving.  The goal is to manage portions before you sit down to eat.  

Let it marinate for 30 minutes, remove the portion-control “transfer sheet” and then grill, bake or broil. The dry marinade contains no MSG or preservatives, and comes in several flavors including Zesty Cajun Creole, Riviera Tomato & Basil and Dijon Honey Mustard.  Available at PortionControl.net, along with some valuable information on fighting “portion distortion.”

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