Posts from — August 2009

Are you all familiar with these?  A campaign by the EWG to give top-level, usable information to families to maximize their environmental health.  I know I sing the EWG’s praises so often – I just feel that they most often represent a balanced, logical approach to all this toxics madness.  After all, you could really make yourself nuts trying to follow the latest this-n-that, right?    You can subscribe by email and get updates every time they publish a new tip. 

Today’s is on chemical flame retardants in the home – something I’m sure our microfiber-ballistic-cheepie-kidproof sofa is full of . . . but at least I’ll know more for the next purchase, right? 

Grub Street (NYMagazine.com’s food news) has released its Where And What To Eat in Boston for Fall ’09.  I really need to get to Olecito, period.  Haven’t been to the Inman location, and here they are, opening an outpost.  I’m feeling skeptical about Todd English’s new venture, Curly Cupcakes . . . but maybe Todd has what it takes to change my mind about cupcake boutiques?

I don’t think this is going to get me any fan press out on the ‘net, but I have been completely digging cantaloupes this year – so much so that I have been eating about 1 entire melon per day, on average.  Cantaloupes are a nutritional powerhouse, with very few calories.  A cup of cubed fruit has more than a day’s worth of vitamin A, nearly a day’s allowance of vitamin C, 12% of your daily potassium needs, and 9% of a day’s folate.  And all this for the low-low price of 50 calories, folks!  Even bestsellers like apples, pears, and bananas have at least 100 calories.

I have been just cubing these super-sweeties up and eating them for dessert or a juicy snack, maybe combining them with some fat-free Fage, but there are some creative ideas in the latest issue of CSPI’s Nutrition Action Health Letter:

• Spritz the chunks with lemon or lime juice, and eat as-is.  Lime sounds particularly good to me.
• I never would’ve thought of this - top the ‘loupe with shaved Parmesan and drizzle it with balsamic vinegar.  That sounds really interesting – I’m going to try that one today. 
• Another one with cheese – fill half a melon with low-fat cottage cheese and a sprinkle of toasted sunflower seeds – yum! 
• Cube it and serve it over a bed of mixed greens and some goat cheese, tossed with a red wine vinaigrette.  Another fruity salad – you know I’ve been lovin’ up on those this summer.

Are you loving cantaloupe?  How are you eating it?

Here’s a post from Jezebel that critiques Marie Claire’s “Girl’s Guide to Eating Green” as not taking the discussion far enough . . . . long, but worth the read.    I agree with the author, but I don’t think that the average MC reader would dig a discussion this deep.

I am Larabar’s “fan of the day” today!

I was at the Woburn Whole Foods recently, and scoped out their Larabar selection.  They carry the new Tropical Fruit Tart flavored Larabars – have you tried these?  I am in love!  They’re sweeter than the other flavors, a little coconutty, yet a bit tangy with hint of citrus from the orange peel.  Zippier and sunnier than your average Larabar.   And while I consider bars a convenience food, and not a whole food substitute, they do count toward 20% of your DV of Vitamin C and qualify as a full serving of fruit.  So if you’re eating lunch on the go or need a snack to hold you over ’til your next meal . . . I’d highly recommend!

P.S.  If you can’t get Larabars near you, or if you are just a slave to internet commerce like me, Larabars are on sale at Drugstore.com right now.

We’re in the final days of summer vacation at our house.  I love back-to-school preparations for my daughter – for me, the consummate nerd, there was never a more exciting time of year than the beginning of the academic year, and I’ll admit it!  I am living vicariously through my kid.  Is that so wrong?

So with school comes lunch.  Many kids have the choice of buying their lunch, which is easy on the mama, but dubious on the nutrition.  Even in our liberal, relatively health-conscious suburb, mozzarella sticks are considered an “entree” at lunchtime.  Or wait, yeah, it gets better – nachos.  There are some marginally better choices like cheese pizza (my kid always buys on pizza day) or a PB&J sandwich (we are not nut-free – isn’t that retro?), but over all, it’s a nutritional wasteland.

I pack my daughter’s lunch many days – mostly because once the novelty of buying lunch wore off for her, she realized that the food at school was “just not very good, mom.”  We do a lot of nitrate/ite free cold cuts (Applegate Farms makes a good turkey bologna – colored with beet juice, no less, and a hand-tied uncured maple ham that is adult-tastebud-worthy).  As a side I’ll cut up strawberries, baby carrots, or a sliced apple.  Or we’ll go super-alternative and she’ll have cubed tofu, leftover noodles or sometimes even cold chicken nuggets.  For snacks she most often totes a little container of organic applesauce and some Annie’s Wheat Bunnies, but she also likes cheese sticks and crackers.  Or depending on the allergy issues of others kids in her class, I’ll send some hummus and baby carrots for dipping.

I do her drinks in Sigg bottles – water for snack and skim milk for lunch.  But I have yet to find a suitable, non-plastic alternative to those little plastic tubs with screw-top lids made by Rubbermaid.  They at least save us from using 1,000 Ziploc baggies in a week.  But they’re plastic, and I am always trying to reduce our exposure to plastic – especially for our daughter.

The other brainstorm I had last spring was to buy cheap stainless utensils at Ikea and send those with her when she has cut fruit/tofu/pasta in her lunch.  If you get a few, you’ll have enough for a rotation:  you can throw the day’s dirties in the dishwasher at night and still have some clean on hand to pack for the next day.  You can get the teaspoon and salad forks from the Dragon collection there in packs of 4 for $5 – nice and small for the lunch box, but just make sure your kid knows not to pitch ‘em when s/he’s done!

My husband has started bringing his lunch to work too – after reading about the “horrors” of nitrate/ites again, he decided to forgo his “cancer-wich” at work and start making a sandwich at home.  But for the male exec on the go, a brown bag, or worse yet, a “lunchbox” just won’t do – it’s sad to say, but there is a certain cool factor that has to be upheld at the office, even at lunchtime.  We found these great stainless steel LunchBots for him – he has two of the duo (put 1 sliced apple in one side, and some almonds & raisins in the other) and two of the uno which fit a whole sandwich nicely.  Wash one, use one.

Can you help me out with ideas today?  I’d like to completely purge plastic from my daughter’s lunchbox, but I haven’t been able to find a substitute for the plastic snack containers – it needs to be something that will tolerate a liquidy snack without spilling – like a stainless container with a rubber gasket around the lid – know of anything?  Even the fabulous Laptop Lunchbox uses plastic, although BPA/lead free. 

Let me know if you have suggestions!

Cupcake boutiques continue to be the rage, and frankly, I don’t get it.  Maybe it’s because I’m cynical and not cutesy?  Maybe it’s because most of their product is terrible?

It’s easy to screw up a cupcake.  Most often, the problem is that they’re dry.  You have to be extra careful when you’re baking a little weeny cake.  There is no baked good more unappealing than a dry cupcake.   And I’ve even had cupcakes made by really terrific, accomplished bakers, that are dry dry dry.  No good.  Not worth the calories.

Then there is the cute and hip factor.  Cute and hip alone don’t get you very far in life, and not in cupcakes either.  I want substance:  a moist cake with a firm but tender crumb and good flavor in the cake.  I also want enough icing so I can get some in almost every bite, but I do not want it mounded up on top so precariously that I have to eat it off before I chomp the cake or worse, that it just falls off when I unwrap my cake.

Last, but certainly not least, there is the pricetag problem.  You can pay $3.99 for a single cupcake at some places.  $3.99!?  I find it offensive.  And this is coming from a woman whose biggest budget line-item is for food.  I am lucky enough to be able to spend good money on good food, and I will pay extra for a premium product.  But I haven’t found a premium cupcake in a boutique yet.

Lest you think I’m insane, see what ire cupcakes can inspire on boards like Chowhound.

What the heck has set me off on this rant?  The other night my husband and I broke down and tried Sweet, in Harvard Square.   We split their “organic karat” cupcake, which they bill as “Moist carrot cake with shredded organic carrots and crushed pineapple topped with classic cream cheese frosting and an edible gold leaf petal.”  I can’t remember how much we paid for this puppy, but it was in the $3 range . . . because although I brought a menu home to refresh my memory, there are no prices on the menu.  Grrrr.  Don’t even get me started on this junk.  It’s similar to when you’re at a restaurant and they describe the specials, but don’t let you in on the prices.  Makes me craaaazy.

So this cupcake was actually moist, and it certainly was cute.  But with all that carrot and pineapple, you’d have to work hard to have it be dry.  And here’s the thing, the cake was pretty much flavorless.  It was merely a vehicle for the cream cheese frosting, which was fine, but not outstanding – and it was mounded up in such a cute way that it did not pass my icing distribution requirement.  It fell off.  A total buzz-kill.

Here’s what I like about cupcakes – they’re a sweet treat in a portion-controlled package.   I’ll spend money on cupcakes from old-school venues like Lyndell’s, but better yet, I think it’s fun and relatively easy to make cupcakes.  This recipe for black-bottom cupcakes is one of the best I’ve had anywhere, frankly.  It’s moist, it’s chocolatey and flavorful and fun, and it’s cheap to boot.