A Practical Guide To Healthy Living

Oooh, folks.  This’ll blow your hair back – from my favorite Enviroblog – re the evils of bottled water.

Seriously.  Are you still buying bottled water on a regular basis?  Quit it!  It’ll take you a month to get used to filling up your Sigg/Kleen Kanteen/etc. bottle and heading out the door.  Yes, about that long to create a new habit that will save you money and decrease your chemical exposure/get stuff out of landfills/stop lining the pockets of corporate evil-doers.

Wouldn’t that make you feel good?  

P.S. Some of you have had questions about whether the Sigg bottles contained trace BPA in the liner – here’s the scoop from their site (including a link to pics to ID whether you have old or new liners in your bottles).  If you have pre-’08 bottles, they do have trace BPA, but Sigg’s tests showed no leaching.  Decide for yourselves what you think you should do with those – I have ours segregated and will probably purge . . . .

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Good Morning America is about to “break” a story on the processed/cured meat connection to cancer.  This is based on some research by the World Cancer Research Fund, and their recommendation to limit the amount of processed meat your kids eat.  There’s an article from the BBC here.  Not new news for many of us, but it bears repeating and remembering, especially now that back-to-school is upon us . . . .

Update:  yet no mention of nitrites/ates and their connection to cancer, which is well established.  This “report” just focused on the sodium and sat. fat content.  Craziness.

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The September/October issue of Clean Eating magazine is out, and there are a bunch of good recipes to try.  Are you familiar with this magazine?  With “clean eating” as a concept?  From the magazine:  “The soul of clean eating is consuming food in its most natural state, or as close to it as possible.  It is not a diet; it’s a lifestyle approach to food and its preparation, leading to an improved life – one meal at a time.”  Sage words, folks!

I like their lack of hype and their focus on good nutrition and exercise, but I gotta say, this publication is poorly edited.  I find typos in every issue, and some of the recipes aren’t quite right – for instance, the one I highlight here doesn’t tell you to put any sort of oil/cooking spray in your skillet before you try to cook your chicken breasts . . . that could lead to bad things.  So consider this a little “buyer beware” warning from your friendly neighborhood hausfrau.

Last night, I decided to satisfy my husband’s desire for “a little more meat” with a chicken dish from the issue – it was a solid recipe, despite the lack of a little grease, but you know me – I couldn’t leave it alone.  I tweaked it and this is what I came up with:

Arugula Polenta With Chicken

Sprinkle both sides of chicken breasts with salt & pepper.  Spray a large skillet with vegetable oil cooking spray, and heat over medium heat.  Add chicken and cook until no longer pink in the middle, about 6 minutes per side.  Transfer chicken to a plate, tent with foil and let rest.

Meanwhile, put broth in a medium saucepan with garlic.  Bring to a boil, then add the polenta slowly, whisking constantly to avoid lumps.  Return to a boil, and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly until polenta is tender and the consistency reaches that of loose mashed potatoes.  Remove from heat and stir in arugula and yogurt.  Cover to keep warm ’til you’re ready to plate the meal.

Cut each chicken breast on a diagonal into approximately 1/2-inch slices.  Divide the polenta among 6 shallow bowls, top with chopped tomatoes and chicken, and serve.

Serves 6.

I steamed up some green beans to serve as a side – despite the polenta, it was a quick fix – 30 minutes from counter to table!

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My husband I recently had dinner at Tory Row, in Harvard Square (the old Greenhouse location).  This place is owned by the same folks that run Audubon Circle in Brookline and Miracle of Science in Cambridge, so if you’ve been to those places, you have a sense of the vibe at Tory Row – although I’d say it’s more Audubon-y than MoS-y.  Essentially this place is high-end bar food in a cool atmosphere, and it was jammin’ on a Wednesday night.  But the food wasn’t particularly memorable.  And this is coming from a person that loves Audubon Circle (not so much MoS) – it is one of our go-to places for good, upscale bar-food in a relaxed setting.  So while I came to Tory Row expecting more of the same, it was a bit of a bummer.

There is a very limited menu, as in the other venues, so you may want to check it out on-line before you commit – but also note that the menu I see on line is not quite the same as the one we had last night . . . . so your web-crawling might be of limited value.

I was with my husband, and we opted to share everything so that we could try more stuff and not be stuffed.  We started with Wasik’s curried apricot cheese spread and a small baguette.  First off, this is the one thing they “import” to Tory Row – it’s made by the folks at Wasik’s cheese shop, in Wellesley (a great little place if you’re in the market for good cheese in the MetroWest).  It’s essentially whipped cream cheese blended with some apricot preserves and curry powder – might sound funky, but it was slightly sweet and pretty mild, and a nice complement to the crusty, toasty baguette. 

For an entree, we ordered baked cod with leeks.  It was well-prepared, but unexciting.  The cod was very fresh and not over-cooked, and the thinly-sliced leeks were nice, but it did remind me of a rather, shall we say, “British” preparation – very plainly seasoned with salt and pepper and not much else.  Again, not horrid by any means, yet not memorable in any way.

We also got a side of roasted asparagus with Parmesan.  It was tasty and was drizzled with olive oil and topped with shaved Parm, but again, not a standout, especially when we’ve grilled asparagus all spring/early summer – just as good.  We also got a side of their grilled corn – it’s not on the on-line menu, and I can’t remember exactly what it had on it, but it was a sort of jalapeno mayonnaise-like concoction that was slathered all over the grilled ear of corn, and then it was sprinkled with some queso fresco.  There was a cilantro butter on the side, but that was nearly flavorless.  This could’ve been yummy, but there was waaaay too much of the jalapeno stuff on the corn.  It was overpowering and greasy and made me happy I wasn’t on a date where I was trying to impress someone.  You will end up with it all over your face.

The standout of the meal was the salad we ordered.  It was a big chopped salad, again, not on the on-line menu, with romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, nice thick-cut smoky bacon, European cukes, chopped cornichon pickles and a great green-goddess dressing.  It was a really nice combination – all the veggies were very fresh, the dressing was very creamy and well-executed (NOT a dietetic salad, folks, there’s a lot of mayo and sour cream involved in that dressing!) and the cornichons gave it a nice, crunchy/salty bite – a great counterpoint to the creamy dressing.  I’d order this again as an entree salad, despite the lack o’ protein – the fat from the dressing would be satisfying enough!

So while nothing but the salad particularly stood out for me, I like Tory Row overall.  Not nearly as much as I like Audubon Circle, so I won’t go back as often, but Tory Row offers decent food in an unhurried atmosphere with the bonus of great people-watching.  Worth trying out yourself.

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Several months ago, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) helped break news of a secret meeting where lobbyists from the chemical industry and food companies collaborated on a plan to mislead consumers about the risks of BPA.  You can see the entry on their Enviroblog here, including a damning internal meeting memo.

EWG’s online community was outraged, and at the EWG’s urging, called two of the companies represented by name in the memo to denounce the campaign.  Coca-Cola responded, but as yet, there is no word from Del Monte.

You can help put pressure on Del Monte – find out how here.  And for an encyclopedic treatment of BPA, also from the EWG, click here.

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This is an adaptation of a Deborah Madison recipe.  I made this with fresh rainbow chard from the farmers’ market – it’s in season now and if you are trying to incorporate more leafy greens into your diet, this is a delicious vehicle!

Chickpeas With Chard & Moroccan Spices

For the greens:  Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Meanwhile, separate the stems of the chard from the leaves and coarsely chop each, but keep separate.  Add the chard stems to the boiling water and cook for approximately 5 minutes, until just tender.  Add chard leaves to the water and cook an additional 2 minutes.  Drain and set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the garlic, 1/2 t. of salt, dried spices, 1 t. oil, 2 T. of the cilantro and the parsley.  Stir to make a thick paste.

Heat the remaining oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add the onion and pepper.  Cook for 7 minutes, then stir in the garlic paste, chickpeas and 1/2 c. chicken broth.  When the onion is translucent, add tomatoes, chard, another 1/2 t. salt and the other 1/2 c. broth.  Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 5 minutes.  Stir in the remaining cilantro and serve.

Serve over brown rice, barley or whole-wheat couscous.  Serves 4, generously.

P.S.  This is even better the next day, when the flavors have come together.  Makes a GREAT lunch!

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It’s August, and here in the Northeast U.S., we all know that our beautiful weekends are numbered.  I don’t know about you, but we’re trying to squeeze in as many backyard BBQs as possible . . . evenings on the patio are precious.  Soon we’ll be shoveling again.

This is a menu I’ve made many times, always to raves from the crowd.  It’s virutally all do-ahead, so you can take some time with your guests instead of running around crazy before dinner.

Grilled Lemon Chicken recipe from Gourmet Magazine – FYI, I use ~3 lbs. of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and it works out well.  Also note that you must marinate this chicken overnight, so plan accordingly!

Pair this with the Orzo With Tomatoes, Feta & Green Onions recipe from Bon Appetit.  FYI, if you can get fresh, multicolored cherry tomatoes, they’ll look really pretty in this.  And a note:  I am usually a hater of pasta salads, but this one has so much flavor, it’s worth the chopping.  Trust me – I’ve never had a party where this was served and people didn’t request the recipe.  Never!

Serve this Fig Salad With Greens & Walnuts on the side – be sure to scale up the recipe to however many servings you need – as written, it only serves 3 people.

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This article is from today’s Chicago Tribune.   For more information on which fruits and veggies retain the most pesticide residue, see my post from January.

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