BPA FREE

My sister in law Katy sent me this article about Toxins in our diet from one of my favorite shows, the biggest loser. Julian Michael's says we should avoid certain plastics that have BPA in them.

"Bisphenol A (BPA): BPAs are chemical compounds that are added to plastics to make them more durable; they're most commonly found in the linings of food containers, beverage cans, some baby bottles, and drinking bottles, and they can leach out into foods and liquids. Harmful side effects from consuming them can include increased risk of breast and prostate cancers, infertility, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and insulin resistance (which, in turn, can lead to type 2 diabetes). To be safe, store foods in glass containers, drink from stainless steel water bottles, and do your best to avoid canned foods."

The biggest no no is to warm up food in plastic with BPA in it. If you still have plastic tuperware that you are using to store your leftovers in, then consider getting a set of glass storage containers. You can find a nice set from Costco for only $15.

Update! My sister Julie went and bought a set yesterday and it was $30, but sometimes they have a coupon for $5 off. See her comments below. Still worth it!

Annie's Mac and Cheese on sale this week at Smith's!

If you live around a Smith's food and Drug, then you need to know about the great sale they have this week. About 4 different varieties of the Annie's Mac and cheese are only .49 cents each when you buy 10! They are usually $1.99 each, but they are on sale for .99 cents each and then when you buy 10 of them you get $5 off when you check out.

I have been feeding my kids annies for sometime now because they don't have any food coloring or hydrogenated fats in them. They also are made with organic pasta. This is really the best deal I have found on them.

Sale goes through Tuesday March 29th, 2011!

UPDATE on McDonald's Hamburgers . . . Good Science vs. Bad Science

So do you remember that post I did about the McDonalds hamburger that was almost a year old and still looked the same? Well my daughter Amanda needed a science fair project, so I gave her that idea, and she was really excited about it.

The main difference between her experiment and the McDonald's hamburger that stayed the same is that she used a control . . . a homemade hamburger! If you don't have a control, then it is all hype and NOT GOOD SCIENCE!

This is what she did . . . Took a plain McDonald's 1/4 pounder hamburger, and put it in a zip lock bag with a couple of slits in it (the thought of a hamburger rotting in the open grossed me out). Then she took and then a homemade 1/4 pound patty on a homemade hamburger bun and put that in a gallon zip lock bag with a couple slits in it. She then let them sit on top of our cupboards for 6 weeks and took pictures each week to see the change. I wrote the date on the bags with a permanent marker so we knew when each picture was taken.

Results:

After about 2 weeks, mold appeared on both hamburgers. Black mold on the homemade hamburger, and green and white mold on the McDonald's hamburger. More mold was on the homemade hamburger.

Conclusion:

Mold needs moister to grow, so by putting the hamburgers in ziplock bags, there was enough moister to allow the mold to grow.

When we were trying to figure out why our McD's burger got mold, but this other one did not, we came across this great website that took about 9 different hamburgers and put them under different environments. Some where kept in a container, and some in the open air. They came to the conclusion that the McDonald's hamburger's moister evaporated so quickly, that the mold didn't have a chance to grow. Click here to see the blog post.

We also found out that a McD's bun has a ton of preservatives in it. That is probably why the black mold (one of the most common molds) didn't grow on the McDonald's burger.

Here is the ingredients list of the bun:

Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, yeast,soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide, soy flour), calcium propionate and sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

I explained to Amanda that mold spores are literally everywhere! But, if they don't have the right environment (moister, heat, and sometime the right light, or darkness), then the mold will not grow. I remember learning about this in a biology class I had in college, and it grossed me out for weeks. They showed us a video of mold spores in slow motion.

Such a fun experiment. She won first prize too! Great science Amanda!

Simply Fruit

We love jam in my family. We go through about 1 jar a week. We eat lots of PB&J sandwiches, have toast in the morning, and jam on a piece of bread is a great snack. It is really hard to find jam with no High-Fructose Corn Syrup in it (HFCS).

It is really fast to look on the back of the jar on the ingredients list to see if your jar has HFCS in it. Jam really only has 3 ingredients, 1. fruit, 2. sugar, 3. pectin.

My favorite jam is the simply fruit brand by smuckers. This kind is sweetened with fruit juice instead of sugar. Walmart has the best price on this jam. I always stock up when I go there.

If it says "organic" on it, then it shouldn't have HFCS in it.

Costco has organic strawberry jam, and they have another kind of berry jam that is free from HFCS.

So if you are looking for a jam that is free of HFCS, look for simply fruit at Walmart, shop at Costco, or buy organic!

Thanks James for being my model for the Simply Fruit Jam!

Beach Day in the middle of Winter

My girls love to get their swimsuits on and wear them around the house. To make it an official beach day in the middle of winter, you have to make a smoothie and put mini umbrellas in them of course. I bought the mini umbrellas at Target for a couple of dollars.

Today's smoothie consisted of

• 1 Cup OJ
• 4 Strawberries with the green parts still on
• 1 Cup ice
• 1 peeled orange
• 1 peeled banana
• 1 scoop strawberry ice cream

Super yummy!

Meatless Monday

I have now joined the pledge to have meatless Mondays at my house. I have always tried to have 2 meatless meals a week, and I often cut the meat in half from a recipe. When I saw on another blog a "meatless Monday" logo, and just had to look into it.

You can go to www.meatlessmonday.com to find out more.

Here is some information I pulled off their blog about the benefits of eating meatless once a week.

Going meatless once a week may reduce your risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. It can also help reduce your carbon footprint and save precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel.

Read about these benefits below. But keep in mind that just going meatless is not enough. That’s why we give you the information you need to add healthy, environmentally friendly meat-free alternatives to your diet each week. Further, if you do eat meat on other days, we strongly recommend grass-fed, hormone-free, locally-raised options whenever possible.

Health Benefits

• LIMIT CANCER RISK: Hundreds of studies suggest that diets high in fruits and vegetables may reduce cancer risk. Both red and processed meat consumption are associated with colon cancer.
• REDUCE HEART DISEASE: Recent data from a Harvard University study found that replacing saturated fat-rich foods (for example, meat and full fat dairy) with foods that are rich in polyunsaturated fat (for example, vegetable oils, nuts and seeds) reduces the risk of heart disease by 19%
• FIGHT DIABETES: Research suggests that higher consumption of red and processed meat increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.
• CURB OBESITY: People on low-meat or vegetarian diets have significantly lower body weights and body mass indices. A recent study from Imperial College London also found that reducing overall meat consumption can prevent long-term weight gain.
• LIVE LONGER: Red and processed meat consumption is associated with modest increases in total mortality, cancer mortality and cardiovascular disease mortality.
• IMPROVE YOUR DIET. Consuming beans or peas results in higher intakes of fiber, protein, folate, zinc, iron and magnesium with lower intakes of saturated fat and total fat.

Environmental Benefits

• REDUCE YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization estimates the meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change worldwide . . . far more than transportation. And annual worldwide demand for meat continues to grow. Reining in meat consumption once a week can help slow this trend.
• MINIMIZE WATER USAGE. The water needs of livestock are tremendous, far above those of vegetables or grains. An estimated 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef. Soy tofu produced in California requires 220 gallons of water per pound.
• HELP REDUCE FOSSIL FUEL DEPENDENCE. On average, about 40 calories of fossil fuel energy go into every calorie of feed lot beef in the U.S. Compare this to the 2.2 calories of fossil fuel energy needed to produce one calorie of plant-based protein. Moderating meat consumption is a great way to cut fossil fuel demand.

If you would like to join me in the pledge of going meatless once a week, then visit their website and sign up. I even looked at their recipes to help me plan my menu for this week. We are going to try the butternut squash chili. Yummy!

Eat This . . . Not That!

Just saw a depressing article about the worst sit-down restaurant foods you can order. Olive Garden's Salad and Bread sticks were on the list, along with a host of Cheesecake Factory foods. Take a look here to see if you favorite restaurant or food made the list.


I am going to make these up right here and now, but here are some guidelines for eating out with your family.

• Don't order anything with Alfredo sauce!
• Don't order anything deep fried.
• Don't drink soda or juice with your meal
• Don't let your child choose anything off the kids menu
  
• Do share your meal with someone else (split it)- You can always eat something when you get home if you are still hungry.
  
• Do order something with a side of vegetables instead of fries
• Do give your child 2 or 3 of the healthiest options from the kids menu
• Do share a dessert with at least one other person (or skip it)
  
• Do drink water with your meal.

We try not to go out to eat more than once a week.

Here is some more info on the worst FREE foods:

THE #1 WORST "FREE" RESTAURANT FOOD: Olive Garden Bottomless Salad and Breadsticks
Garden-Fresh Salad (1 serving with dressing)
350 calories
26 g fat (4.5 g saturated)
1,930 mg sodium
22 g carbohydrates

Breadstick (1 with garlic butter spread)
150 calories
2 g fat (0 g saturated)
400 mg sodium
28 g carbohydrates

Olive Garden wins the battle of the fattening freebies by a mile. The minute you sit down, you’re staring at bowls of bottomless breadsticks and “garden” salad. Bottomless, however, doesn’t describe what you’ll look like if you spend too much time grazing in the Garden. Just one serving of each will give you 25 percent of your day’s caloric intake, before you’ve taken your first bite of your actual meal. But wait: Aren’t salads “healthy”? Not in this Garden: The free salad alone has almost a full day’s worth of sodium. Unfortunately, Olive Garden is far from the only restaurant that’s really a dietary minefield. Check out this comprehensive slideshow of the 20 Worst Restaurant Foods in America.

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/worst-free-restaurant-food

Hope this helps!

That is Henry making a mess at Aspen Grove Family Camp last summer. It was the only pic I could find of the kids eating out (we like going out to dinner without all 5 kids in tow!)