super bowl snacks

superbowl party | photo: kakisky

February 6th is right around the corner.  In case you don't know, that's when the Super Bowl will be happening.  While I don't follow football very closely I do find myself curiously swept up in the party that accompanies this last game of the season.  And I admit to wanting to watch the half-time show and the, usually, creative commercials.  I find it curious that this is one day of the year when companies spend millions of dollars and put forth extra effort to make sure their commercials are smart, funny, creative, or interesting.  It's the only time I usually enjoy watching them.  This day, Superbowl Sunday, is practically a holiday, with people making elaborate plans for parties and food.  This is one of the few traditional gatherings where the menu doesn't often include an entree or side dishes; it's a smorgasbord of snacks.

If you're hosting or attending a Super Bowl Party you're probably familiar with the traditional lineup of foods:  loaded nachos smothered in queso, buffalo wings, cheesy spinach dip, chili, and sausage-laden pizza and more.  Depending on the teams (and who you're rooting for) the menu changes somewhat to accomodate the event.  It's like rooting for your favorites with food.  Unfortunately many of those food choices won't leave you in good shape.

But it doesn't have to be a day of overindulgence in fatty foods and unhealthy choices.  Here are my Seven Super Bowl Snacks that will still allow you to enjoy the spirit of the celebration without regret:

1. Instead of buying cheesy popcorn or sugary kettle corn consider making your own.  Hot air popped popcorn with a modest amount of melted butter or coconut oil, salt and spices to taste is a crunchy delicious treat.  Try chili powder, onion powder, or my personal favorite, ground up nori.
2. Instead of caramel popcorn or people chow try making a healthy trail mix in your slow cooker.  It's extremely tasty, and with four different options to choose from you can make something for everyone.
3. Add a fruit platter with a yogurt dip for a healthy, delicious treat.  To make the yogurt dip take 1 cup plain organic yogurt and mix it with 1 heaping tablespoon of your favorite flavor of jam or with honey.  Much less sugar than already sweetened yogurts and it's your choice of flavors.
4. Cut a selection of veggies into strips and rounds to use as dippers instead of chips and crackers.  These go well with bean dips and even cheese spreads.  You can also serve them with a tasty guacamole or a healthy homemade salsa.  Less simple carbs, more veggies, that's always a win.
5. Instead of ordering giant super subs consider setting out an assortment of preservative free healthy lunch meats (Hormel Natural, Boar's Head Natural, and Applegate are all good brands) and a selection of whole grain rolls, wraps, and sandwich thins.  Let your guest make their own winning combination.
6. Homemade meatballs served in a marinara sauce in the slow cooker make a great snack without all the grease and fuss of sausages or wings.
7. If you're going to serve pizza consider getting a thin whole wheat crust and topping it with lots of heart healthy veggies, light on the cheese.  Avoid preservative-laden processed meats choosing grilled chicken breast instead (or add your own after delivery).

indoor onions

Just a short post today.  I recently found out that a number of my friends didn't know this super simple trick for growing spring onions (some folks call them green onions) indoors.  So I thought I'd share.

Trim off any wilted or slimy bits from the onion.
Cut the ends so that there is at least 1" of white bulb above the roots.
Place root end down into a glass with a little water at the bottom.
Place in a window where they will get indirect sunlight.
Watch them grow, cut and use as needed.

Here are a couple of pictures to demonstrate:

freshly cut spring onions

spring onions after one day

Isn't that cool?  I find it's best the first time you let them re-grow.  After that it doesn't always work as well and they're not as firm.  But it's a great way to always make sure you have some on hand, especially if you use these onions a lot.  And I do.

So what do I use them for?  Soups, salads, as a garnish, in sauteed greens, in stir fry, they're very useful, high in vitamin K, and a tasty addition to a lot of dishes.

Note:  Thanks to Mike for the reminder.  I forgot to mention in the instructions that you need to change the water daily.  Otherwise the jar gets rather stinky and the onions won't continue to grow.

on my mind monday 1.30.12

newspaper | photo: mconnors

Once again, it's time to see what's on my mind.  These are the articles that have come across my desk and that I am interested in this week.

My Subversive (garden) Plot - Roger Doiron's funny TEDx talk about gardening and food.  While it's funny there's also a message.  He talks about how we are going to feed people and how we need to grow more food to keep up with the growing population.  But we need to do so with less. Less oil, less water, less farmland, less genetic diversity, and so on.  I highly encourage you to watch the clip, it's worth the time.

Local Food Sovereignty Being Challenged in Maine - Roger's talk, above, lead to to search for food sovereignty.  I discovered that in some ways Maine is ahead of the curve.  Hey, they voted in many towns for food sovereignty - allowing cottage food industries to come into existence and grow.  But then there's the challenge that comes up from one farmer who is being challenged.  I am continually amazed at how major corporations produce harmful food, salmonella laden peanut butter, the massive egg recall of 2010, and others.  There appears to not only be very little consequence for these companies for knowingly producing bad food, but the government is increasingly going after small producers whose food is not contaminated or harmful.  Their primary crime seems to be that they are small producers.  Doesn't make sense to me.

Big Pharma Is Putting Microchips in Drugs - This article disturbs me on a lot of different levels.  First of all, I don't want to be microchipped.  For any reason.  Second of all, I'm not convinced that the data collected from this will be able to take into account bio-individual response to the medication or to other lifestyle issues.  I see this as a potential gateway to the doctor deciding that based on your results you need more medication.  Thirdly, I think it has the potential to go massively awry.  We are not meant to eat or ingest microchips.  One of the thoughts that occurs to me is that although right now we can know if we have it because the chip transmits to a patch on the skin, what if they find another way for the chip to transmit.  Then we won't know if this is in our medications.  Just not a good idea.

Why Woman Should Stop Their Cholesterol Lowering Medication - I was stunned to learn that for post-menopausal women, taking statins can increase their risk of diabetes by as much as 48%.  That's an enormous risk.  Cholesterol is important to our health.  It comes from two sources, either we make it naturally in our liver, or we ingest it from our food.  In the rush to reduce cholesterol many of us lose sight of (or are unaware) that cholesterol that is too low is also unhealthy.  Studies done in 2000 show that low cholesterol (below 160 mg/dl) can cause anxiety and depression in otherwise healthy women.  And other studies show that reduced cholesterol (and saturated fats in the diet) can increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

All of the above indicates a need to look carefully at your diet, your cholesterol intake and cholesterol levels before taking statins.  As a side note it is important to know that if you are taking statins you would do well to also take CoQ10.  Statins deplete CoQ10 from your body.  Adding it to your supplemental routine can help prevent or reduce some muscle problems that can go along with statin use.