Thursday, March 25, 2010

eating healthy

So, I hear complaints from people now and then about how expensive their food is. I just thought I'd give some information I learned from an economics class I took at USU in 1998. I then realized that, ah, that was over 10 years ago so I did a little digging at USDA/ERS expecting to see the figures going back up because of the recent spike in prices, but found that they were actually holding steady.

In 1929 we as Americans spent 23.4% of our disposable income on food, In 2008 we spent 9.6% of our disposable income on food. In 1998 we spent 10.1% on food (this includes eating at home and dinning out). Entertainment (including recreational toys), on the other hand was closing in on 20%! We wanted to have fun instead of eat I guess.

Well today we are in tough economic times and we need to make choices, but the Farm Bureau, and I will agree, that eating doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. Using fresh veggies and fruit to prepare your meals will cut the price drastically at the counter. If you have a farmer nearby you can ask him if he'd be able to sell you some of his produce out of storage.

For example, we have potatoes in storage that we can sell directly to you the consumer. I dare say that we can give you a 50% discount on potatoes as compared to the stores price, and we will. It really only works for those who can drive out to our farm unfortunately, but then if you put together a big enough order with all your friends, then shipping can be figured out and can be reasonable.

There is also the option of shopping for fresh produce at farmers markets. Market season is almost upon us in Idaho, but in California, markets can be more readily available.

What do you think? Do you use very many fresh fruits and vegetables in your daily eating?

p.s. Follow the link for more information on eating healthy on a budget.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Shopping for Health

The other day I was grocery shopping and remembered I wanted to buy some more cornmeal. (My friend gave me this great homemade cornbread recipe!) I haven't bought very much cornmeal in my life, so I was reading the labels to see what the difference was. Most of the cornmeal I found said something like bran and germ have been removed.

WHAT?!?!

Really?

I suppose most foods do have the germ and bran removed from them so they can sit on the shelf longer - but didn't anyone include the germ and bran in their cornmeal? I know that food is healthier for you if you have germ and bran included - it is the actual WHOLE grain form of the food. Whole grains are good for your body, especially when you include the germ and bran in the mix.

I searched and searched and ended up just grabbing one. They all read about the same.

So, I walked down the baking aisle a little more and happened upon a section of Bob's Red Mill packages. Well, lo and behold, Bob had a fine ground cornmeal that had the germ and bran milled with it and was not removed! I was so happy!!

Bob's Red Mill Corn Meal won. I went and put the other cornmeal back and bought Bob's. And you know, the price wasn't much different for the whole cornmeal than for the stripped cornmeal.

I'll go for health. Thanks, Bob.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Spelt Banana Blueberry Bread Recipe

I usually send these recipes out through my email list... however, I decided to share this one through my blog to all my lucky readers. I will also send it to my email list, but I thought you might need this one here. My friend Cheryl shared this recipe with me and told me I could share with my readers and friends, so here it is...

(Blueberry) Banana Bread

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon butter
pinch salt

Add 1 - 1/2 cups spelt flour and mix.

Then add 2 ripe bananas (sometimes I add another half if not using blueberries)
1 level teaspoon baking soda
Beat lightly.
Optional: Add approximately 6 oz. slightly mashed blueberries. Stir in.

Pour into greased, floured loaf pan. Bake 1 hour in 325 oven.

(my variations: I used frozen blueberries, and didn't even try to mash them)
The end product - I tend to bake all my banana bread in glass cake pans. I just like it better that way. I actually LIKED this banana bread. I'm pretty picky with my banana breads, because my favorite recipe has buttermilk in it. But this recipe was actually good. I expected it to be heavier than it was because I used 100% whole spelt flour (no white spelt flour).

In the end - my blueberries sank to the bottom, but they added a nice touch and I'll make this recipe again. Let me know if you try it and what you think.



By the way, if you need spelt berries to grind into spelt flour, I used HiStakes-Spelt's Berries
Enjoy!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

I Need Your Help, Please

I have created a quick poll to see what YOU are interested in - in regards to foods and farmers markets. So, if you are reading this through your RSS Feed or through some sort of Reader, please take time to click over to this blog and answer the poll (2 questions) on the side of the blog.

I am interested in your reasons for shopping at farmers markets (in hopes that you do shop at farmers markets). If you have never shopped a farmers market, please answer the poll anyway. I would like to know which reasons are most important to you and what would help you shop at a market.

Thanks for taking time to answer the question.

(I have a killer spelt recipe coming soon - I just made it and have pictures to share!)

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Lactose Intolerance Shouldn't Exclude Dairy From Diet?

So we were reading an article on lactose intolerance and I wanted to share it to see what your views are:

NIH panel concludes lactose intolerant shouldn't avoid dairy

People may avoid milk and other dairy products due to concerns about lactose intolerance, but eliminating these nutrient-rich foods may be unnecessary to manage the condition and could impact diet and health, a panel of experts assembled by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has concluded.


The NIH Consensus Development Conference on Lactose Intolerance & Health was convened to examine the latest research on lactose intolerance, strategies to manage the condition and the health outcomes of diets that exclude dairy foods. Lactose is the natural sugar in milk and some people lack sufficient amounts of an enzyme that is needed to comfortably digest lactose.


After a thorough review of the scientific evidence, the panel completed a draft consensus statement that is intended to correct some of the common misperceptions about lactose intolerance, including the belief that dairy foods need to be excluded from the diet.

Read more here on their website

So, what do you think about this?

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