Yummy Chobani Yogurt

In my continuing quest to eat healthier more frequently (she says as she wipes pizza crumbs from her mouth), I found this very unusual yummy and healthy yogurt recently. Well, actually, the Hubs discovered it. It’s very pricey, and am usually blind to any yogurts over 50 cents a pop.

It’s Greek yogurt. It has NO corn syrup!! This strawberry yogurt does have some sugar, but I ate the honey yogurt and that had no added sugar!! And the protein amount is higher than many other yogurts. It’s also loaded with all that happy bacteria that is good for the digestive system. Yum. While eating Chobani may not qualify you for lower term life insurance quotes, you will feel better after eating it.

Like I said, the yogurt is pricey– it’s $1 for a small container at my local Hannaford’s. The nice thing is that the yogurt is firmer and a lot less sweet than other yogurts, so the kids dislike Chobani. Which leaves all the more for me.

Now THIS Is a Meal

We wanted to treat the kids to a very nice meal this week, as they’d been working hard and needed some special TLC. But one of them was sick, and no one wanted to go to a restaurant. So I made a trip to the grocery store and we splurged on the yummiest food on planet earth: Mediterranean food. YUMMMM.

There’s everything in that salad, can you see?? Well, maybe not loose diamonds or anything! But those marinated garlic cloves and the Calamari olives come pretty close to it! Wow, this was such a great meal. And I served King Crab Legs, too. They were “OK,” a little too salty. I really liked the salad. This is the bets meal, EVER!

What’s your favorite meal?

Movies About Food #2

I saw Food Inc two weeks ago. I just can’t get that sick, wobbling cow out of my mind…..

Not much in this movie was new information to me. I’m aware that those beautifully packaged, glossy chicken breasts at the store are from poultry “factories.” That the ground sausage that I buy for my meatballs is from pig “factories.” I’m also aware of CAFOs, corn syrup, and bacterial infections in the food chain. But I want to believe that it’s a distant problem, far away from me and my casserole dish.

Food Inc is like the fast-food movie of the fast-food industry: they attempt to quickly throw together the ingredients and package it for mass consumption. They features stories about chickens in dark, aluminum-roofed boxes, and contrast it with a farmer who beheads all HIS chickens personally. They touch on Monsanto just a little, and on unsanitary conditions and food-borne illnesses just a little. They are correct in stating that the food industry is heavily regulated, government-invested and protected, and that fast-food industry moguls monopolize our food. I think that’s true. But the movie poops out in the end, because they don’t really give an answer to the problems they presented. There’s some stuff about Stony Brook yogurt– the organic stuff from Vermont– and how WalMart made a deal with them. That’s great, but… the answer to our food problems really doesn’t lie in just another mega-company providing an alternative. The answer lies in consumers having more control over their own food. The only way (for the past 6,000 years, anyway) has been to grow it ourselves. Handing our food industry from one group (the company that makes the “bad” foods) to another group (the company that makes the “good” foods) is not the answer– the problem IS that the food industry is too large and has too much concentrated power. And power corrupts. No company or industry will ever have OUR best interests in mind; they will always have THEIR best interests in mind. This is historically true.

So while I’m not saying that every person needs to get their own cow, pig. chicken, and mini-farm with fruits, veggies, and nuts (because while that may have been possible in eras past, it’s not possible today), the individual families and communities need to band together. Our sense of community in this country has completely eroded. What ever happened to the local butcher, baker, and candlestick maker? I think they answer lies in that– in a local community where people know each other, where people are accountable to each other. Kinda like the “checks and balances” that are supposed exist in our form of government (but don’t anymore, for the same reasons that we have problems in the food industry– it got too big and into concentrated hands).

So. Anyway. About Food Inc. It was “OK.” I think a lot of Americans already know about this stuff. But what do we do?! I disagree that with the premise of Food Inc that claims we need “good” companies in charge. Food Inc does say that we need to grow our own foods more, however– so I’m not saying that Food Inc is “all wrong.” Not everybody wants to go back to making their own cheese and yogurt, just like we don’t want to go back to making men’s clothing or building our own furniture, I understand that. I’m just saying that we need to get back control of what we eat. There must be an accountability for something so important.

So Food Inc was an OK movie. Yes, the problem is big, almost too big. What will solve it?

Movies About Food

Oh gee. I am usually not this obsessive about food, you know.

Seriously. I am a Plain Jane when it comes to food. I don’t like to fuss with food, and I don’t like lots of “stuff” on my food, like butter, dressings, etc. Give me a section of broiled salmon, some broccoli, and a kale salad, and I’m happy as anything. Or even a handful of chickpeas with feta cheese and olives– mmm that’s good.

But for some reason, I’ve been watching a bunch of “food” movies, and am waiting to see a few more. For the next few posts, I’ll talk about the ones I liked. Or maybe even the ones I didn’t like…. the first:

Julie & Julia

This is a cute movie. It’s about a blogger, so of course I was interested. It’s also about Julia Child, the person single-handedly responsible for the TV in the kitchen, eh? I remember my mother watching all of Child’s TV programs.

In this movie, Julie, a disenchanted New Yorker, unfulfilled with her job, decides to cook through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking cookbook. And she decides to do it in a year. And she decides to blog about it. Very cute. The movie is about the life of Julia Child during the time she wrote her cookbook (late 50s) and about modern-day Julie’s excursions into “servantless American cooking.” I tell you, I would gladly leave the cooking to a servant, yes I would!

The movie was cute, fast-paced, and of course, I loved all the smarmy blogging mentions. But it never ceases to amaze me how “big” something can become by something so…. everyday. Blogging is democratic, and I suppose that’s why it’s sneered upon. No online degree necessary, just start pounding the keys! But there are millions, maybe even billions, of blogs today; and some blogs discuss really, really meaningful things. How can one girl’s cooking exploits rise up to such stardom so quickly? I mean, Julie just *cooked.* She didn’t save orphans or rescue dying people from a fire… no, all you have to do is cook and blog about it in a sarcastic manner, and whammo, the New York Times is pounding at your door.

I don’t like French foods very much… too fatty and too buttery. Like I said, I’m a Plain Jane gal. So the recipes didn’t excite me as much as they might excite a French aficionado. I did find it fascinating to see how recipes (and ingredients) have changed in the last 60 years. A calf foot?! Aspic?! Pastry-lined roast? I marvel that cooking this way and blogging about it got such attention so as to generate a book and movie. I mean, we don’t even eat this way anymore… how could this even be popular? I guess it’s a testament more to the power of blogging than cooking, in a way. The recipes did nothing for me, but the story itself is entertaining. I especially liked the scenes with Julia Child at the cooking school. But someone please tell me how everyone in this movie remained so stinking skinny after eating these recipes twice a day or more for a year?!

I cannot eat this way. I actually have some old Better Homes & Gardens cookbooks from the late 50s, and I cannot use them. The recipes are just too fatty, too starchy, and loaded with carbohydrates and meat. Our way of cooking and eating has really changed, I think. It hasn’t necessarily all changed for the better (look at the glut of junk we have available today– Pepsi, Doritos, Roll-Ups, CocoPuffs, ick), but we have a much greater variety of fruits and vegetables in our stores. I do, however, wish we had more open markets, like they do in Europe and the Middle East. I’m not fond of American cooking: it caters to the CAFOs, the beef and corn industry, and is loaded with corn syrup as sweetener. But I’ll have more about that with my next move review.

Here’s a trailer I found for Julie & Julia. You can see how well the movie is put together. The cast is very, very good. The editing is tight, and the movie keeps your interest throug to the end, even though you know what the end will be. Meryl Streep is funny in this movie. I think she overdoes the real Julia Child a little… the real Julia seemed a little more laid back on TV, as I recall. But Streep captures Child’s vocal inflections very well. And holy cow, I had no idea she was so tall!

Bon apetit!

Fours Foods on Friday #113

I’m pretty hit and miss this spring with the Four Foods on Friday meme! Val has been “grilling” us with 1-question memes lately, haha! The questions for #113 is:

What can you make with eggs, meat or poultry, vegetables and a starch?

Hm.

Stir fry! Emphasis on the vegetables, though. Here’s one that I like. Use ONLY fresh vegetables and it will be goooooood.

Vegetable Stir Fry with Chicken
Chicken strips, cooked until tender

Peanut or olive oil
Water
Broccoli florets
Sugar snap peas
Red pepper strips
Bamboo shoots
Baby corn
Celery stalk, chopped
White onion, sliced

Hot cooked rice
Egg, scrambled and cooked
Soy sauce or duck sauce

It’s very important to quickly cook the vegetables, and not to overcook them. I start with a big wok, heating the oil a bit. I cook the chicken and set it aside. Then I throw the broccoli into the wok and let it heat up for about 3-4 minutes. I then add all the veggies all at once, add a little water, and keep things stirring until they are *just* starting to soften. If you overcook the vegetables, the stir fry will come out mushy and tasteless. I think the secret to Chinese cooking is to keep everything moving, and add water where needed to avoid burning. And this recipe is a much healthier alternative to the restaurant, take-out stuff that is loaded with chemicals– that may be fitted for best hemorrhoid treatment or something, but I am eliminating as many chemicals in my diet as possible.

So after your veggies are steamed, stir in some sauce, and set aside.
Add the egg to the rice, and add the veggies in or on top of the rice. Serve with more sauce. I think it’s yummy!

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