Category Archives: Food

Festive Bean Salad (aka Texas Caviar)

If you’re looking for a delicious and healthy recipe to take to a Fourth of July celebration this weekend, this one fits the bill! You may already be familiar with Texas Caviar since there are a million variations of the basic recipe in circulation. This party favorite is essentially a marinated bean salad/salsa that is fiber rich and also sugar-free thanks to the stevia substitution I’ve included here. I usually serve this with baked tortilla chips but feel free to experiment with whatever suits your taste.

As for the name….you can rest assured that there is no actual caviar in Texas Caviar! The dish apparently was created by Helen Corbitt, a famed 1950’s food consultant who was the head of food service at Neiman Marcus in Dallas. I found this recent article which gives more of the history if you’re interested. If you’d rather just cook it…well, then, read on!

Festive Bean Salad (aka Texas Caviar)

serves: many

Ingredients:

1 can black eyed peas

1 can pinto OR hot chili beans

1 can black beans

1 can garbanzo beans

1 16 oz bag of frozen corn (or 2 c. of fresh corn cut from the cob)

1 small jar chopped pimento

1 medium Vidalia onion, diced small

1 c. diced red, green or yellow peppers

6 finely diced jalapeno peppers (seeds removed)

3 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

Dressing Ingredients:

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 Tbsp. water

3/4 c. apple cider vinegar

1/2 c. canola oil

10-15 packets of Truvia sweetener OR 1 tsp. PURE Stevia powdered or liquid extract

Baked tortilla chips or other chips of your choice

Directions:

Drain and rinse the first four ingredients in a colander or strainer. Transfer to a large bowl and add next 6 ingredients. Set aside.

In a saucepan, bring the dressing ingredients to a boil and cook for 3 minutes. Pour over beans and vegetables and stir to coat. Let cool in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (up to 24). Drain most liquid before serving with chips.

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Healthy Convenience Food?? Does it exist?

I’m sometimes asked for recommendations for healthy convenience foods. Okay, honestly, I’m asked that A LOT! And it’s completely understandable. With the pace of life we’ve all become accustomed to these days, there are times when it’s helpful to be able to open a box or a bag and know that a healthy meal or snack is moments away. It’s not impossible to find healthy packaged options, but it does require some solid investigation and a little label reading know-how.

Before I get to that, let me just say that my overall recommendation is still to limit packaged and processed foods as much as possible.

Can you challenge yourself to find ways to get fresh, whole foods on the table quickly? You’d be amazed by how quickly a shrimp stir fry can come together, or a big dinner salad with pre-cooked chicken, or even a healthy sandwich loaded up with extra veggies!

Can you expand your definition of convenience foods to include things like:
– Nuts and seeds
– Dried fruit
– Quick cooking whole grains
– Frozen vegetables
– Frozen fruits
– Plain yogurt or cottage cheese

These can become the basis of healthy meals and snacks and often take just as little time to prepare as a more processed option!

And yet…there are times when packaged foods seem like the only solution. For those times, I’ve compiled a few thoughts for you on how to make the best choices possible.

Self Magazine Healthy Food Award Winners
I was intrigued by the list of Healthy Food Award winners in this month’s issue of Self Magazine. I think there are some real winners on that list (and some i may not have given quite so glowing an endorsement to myself). But all in all I think the staffers at Self have been thorough and have produced a good list of ideas for your review.

Fitness Magazine Healthy Food Award Winners
In the same vein as the Self List above, here is the list as judged by Fitness Magazine. The link takes you to a set of slideshows with Top 10 lists by category.

Eat This, Not That Recommendations
Additionally, I think the editors of the Eat This, Not That empire (and I do mean empire – have you COUNTED how many books they’ve published?) do a great job of helping to highlight better packaged food choices. They also have books on restaurant menu choices, food for kids, and other topics. For the record, I find their website a bit confusing and not very user-friendly but the books are much simpler to navigate!

A few thoughts of my own:
Beyond those lists, I’ve compiled a few principles to follow when navigating the aisles of prepared foods. Leveraging these principles will let you explore various brands and flavor combinations, looking for what appeals to you vs. buying something just because it showed up on a “list”.

Principles:

– Choose packaged foods with the shortest lists of ingredients, and with ingredients you recognize

– Read nutrition labels! Don’t be fooled by marketing claims on the front of the package (e.g. Whole Grain! Low Carb! All Natural!) Those words are often meaningless. Instead, read the actual nutrition label and keep meals within reasonable caloric limits, taking note of fiber, sugar, fat, and sodium content (as well as anything else you are watching for your health)

– Limit consumption of packaged meals to once or twice a week “crutches” vs. making them everyday fare

– When selecting packaged meals and snacks, check out the organic section of your grocery store or shop in a health food store like Whole Foods – they’ve done some of the work for you in narrowing down your options to some of the best ones!

– Build your list of trusted brands and shop their selections first (A few examples: I like Amy’s and Kashi in the frozen meals category, Amy’s and Healthy Choice soups, Annie’s and Back to Nature for snack foods, etc.)

Happy shopping! I’d love to hear some of your personal favorites in the comments section below!

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Can the USDA Improve the Food Pyramid?

Remember learning about the food pyramid in school? You remember, the one depicting the food groups and recommended servings of each one? Can you name the food groups YOU learned in school? Well, in the words of Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changin’!

This year, the USDA and FDA will jointly release the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The current guidelines came out in 2005 and will remain in effect until these are released. Last week, a preview of the report from the Advisory Committee was released for public comment. I took some time to review the Executive Summary and some of the more detailed findings to see what we have in store for us when the new guidelines are released later this year.

The Dietary Guidelines contain the latest, science-based nutritional and dietary guidance for the general public. They are the foundation for federal nutrition education and promotion programs, as well as the basis for the federal food assistance programs, so they are pretty important!

Here is some of what I discovered it’s likely we’ll see in the 2010 revisions:

– A shift to a more plant-based diet recommendation, emphasizing vegetables, cooked dry beans and peas, fruits, fiber rich whole grains, nuts and seeds
– A recommendation to increase the intake of seafood and nonfat/low fat milk products
– A recommendation to consume only moderate amounts of lean meats, poultry and eggs
– Guidance to significantly reduce intake of foods containing added sugars, solid fats, sodium, and refined grains
– Guidance to replace energy-dense foods with nutrient-dense foods (love this!)
– A recommended alcohol consumption maximum for adults of 1-2 beverages a day

Beyond that, there are some changes recommended to the “food environment” (aka the world in which we operate as Americans). These may include efforts to:

– Improve nutrition literacy and cooking skills so people prepare and consume more food at home (YAY!!!)
– Increase health, nutrition, and phys ed programs in schools and preschools
– Create greater financial incentives (especially for low-income Americans) to purchase, prepare and consume the healthiest foods
– Encourage restaurants to offer health-promoting foods

While I think all of these findings and likely outcomes represent steps in the right direction, it’s unlikely we’ll see MAJOR shifts within the pyramid since both the FDA and USDA are so heavily influenced by the food industry and agricultural lobbyists in America, who have a vested interest in protecting the historical recommendations which leaned heavily on American-produced crops and animal products.

What seems to me to be important is figuring out your OWN food pyramid – one that works for you and makes you feel your best.

As one to consider, I really like Dr. Andrew Weil’s Food Pyramid and it’s recommendations – in fact, I think this is how I’ve largely been eating and feeding my family over the last few years (minus the unlimited cooked Asian mushrooms – not that I’m opposed to them!). His recommendations just make sense to me and when i’m eating in accordance with them, I know I feel my best. No one approach to eating works for everyone, but this is one (rooted in the Mediterranean Diet) that sure seems to work for a lot of people! Check it out…experiment with your food…and of course, stay tuned for the release of the new 2010 Food Pyramid later this year – I’ll be anxious to see how much change we can get onto that page!

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