Tasteful Selections Potatoes Crushed with Basil

I was recently sent a sample of Tasteful Selections Potatoes to try out with my husband. It was a 28 oz. bag of "2 bite" mixed potatoes. I kept the bag in the refrigerator until I was ready to use them and they kept fine.

The Website

Before getting down to the business of preparation, I decided to check out what the website had to offer in terms of "best practices", tips or recipes for their potatoes. The first thing I found was that there were actually nine different varieties of potato packages I could have received!  (I found that pretty impressive.) Then I worked my way over to the recipe page. To be honest, this is what took me so long to prepare them, each night I would look at the recipes and, feeling that I had only one bag to play with, I couldn't decide which recipe I wanted to try. I decided to let my husband in on it and ask him which he would like to try, together we settled on the Crushed Potatoes With Basil recipe.

 Working with the Potatoes

When I finally took them out of the bag I was immediately impressed by the beautiful colors and variety found within. And, yet, while there was variety in color there was a nice uniformity in the size of the potatoes. I was also impressed by what good shape the potatoes were in (I am in constant fear of the one bad potato ruining an entire bag by smell alone!).

I LOVE the purple potatoes - how pretty both inside and out!

While the potatoes roasted in the oven, I worked on the very simple seasoning that instantly smelled delicious. After the 30 minutes in the oven (as the recipe directed), however, not all the potatoes were tender. In total, it probably took closer to 40 or 45 minutes to reach the appropriate "doneness." I then crushed each potato with my fork and added them to the bowl with the seasoning in it.

Smash!

Mix!

Yummy!!

 
The Final Verdict

The potatoes were, as the package had guaranteed before I even opened it: AMAZING! The recipe was simple enough to prepare with ingredients I had around the house. The package of potatoes was just enough to enjoy (and go for seconds!) for my husband and I. I am hoping to find Tasteful Selection in my Stop N Shop soon!

Have you tried Tasteful Selections Potatoes yet? If so, what did YOU think?

Note: After checking out the Tasteful Selections Website, you might also want to check in on their Facebook page! 

Mark Bittman's Food Manifesto in The New York Times

Good Afternoon! There is nothing quite like opening up a link about food in the Opinion pages of a widely read publication and finding SANITY!

Mark Bittman, author of Food Matters and the Food Matters Cookbook has written his first ever opinion column for The New York Times, entitled A Food Manifesto for the Future. In his own words,

"...food and everything surrounding it is a crucial matter of personal and public health, of national and global security. At stake is not only the health of humans but that of the earth."

These are powerful words, these are true words and they are important words. Take a moment to read Bittman's "Manifesto", and then think about this excerpt from Bittman's NY Times blog post entitled What Am I Doing? as he lays out a part of his motivation behind his "Manifesto":

"What’s gone wrong with food in the last hundred years has been a mixed bag of progress and self-destruction. There is no need for anyone in the world to go hungry; yet people do. There’s no reason for food to make us ill, either from chronic disease or communicable ones; yet it does. There’s no need for agriculture to poison the land, air, and water. All of these ills can be remedied, and yet it appears the situation worsens year-by-year. My mission here, as I see it, has several aspects: Try to figure out just why things move in the wrong direction; look for examples of positive societal change; and suggest ways in which individuals can make a difference, not only in our own lives but in the bigger picture."

Mark Bittman, a soldier in our food fight, is calling each of us to action - will you heed his call?

For Further Reading

• MarkBittman.com
• Books by Mark Bittman:

      

The New Dietary Guidlines for Americans, 2010: Why We Need Them and How We Can Achieve Them

They're here!!

• Eat more fruits and vegetables.
• Eat more fresh food and less processed foods.
• Eat less fat, salt, sugar and soda. 
• Watch your calorie intake.
• Eat less, in general. 

I don't think any of these ideas are new to us, necessarily, but many of them are new to our dietary guidelines. This document, released earlier this week, seems to finally be moving in the right direction!

The Typical American Diet 
 
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 finally put into print all of these healthy eating ideas because, whether we can say we knew it or not, as a country we simply have not been implementing these ideals in our daily eating. Let's begin by looking at how the typical American diet stacks up against the recommendations in our new guidelines:

Click the image for a larger version, if necessary.

While the data for this chart is dated, at the latest 2006, the evidence is striking. Could we have improved in the last four years? Sure. However, I am not sure there have been dramatic enough changes in our culture and/society to have me believing that possibility. And on that note...

What Has It Done To Us

The single piece of evidence staring each of us in the face day after day when thinking about how we are doing in terms of our consumption as a country is the increasing rate of obesity. Not only do we see it in our every day lives, in our families, friends and coworkers, but now our television programming is becoming saturated with reality weight loss programs with no shortage of participants. The guidelines have recognized this problem and spell it out in black and white.

click to enlarge

While each of the comparisons in the table are staggering to me, it is the last that seems unfathomable - in 1990 ZERO states had adult obesity rates more than 25%, but by 2008 THIRTY-TWO states did. Enough is enough.

The Bad Guys

There are a number of factors in our diet that have led to this sad state of affairs, but calories is not necessarily one of them. Remember this: calories = energy, we do need them, however, we do not need an excess of them and we need to get them from healthier sources. To exemplify this, let's take a look at some of the places where we have been picking up some bad calories:

click to enlarge

With this segmented bar chart it is easy to see how to cut out those evil calories! Be careful, too when you pick up some of these low calorie snacks sold on the market - think of this chart and ask yourself Where are these calories coming from? Your food should supply you with energy (calories) and nourishment (nutrients).

Since the chart is up there, it is plain to see that one of our greatest nemeses in the food game is fat. Well, the same is true of fat as is of calories - not all are bad. There are, in fact some essential fats we need to have in our diets. Here is another great chart from the guidelines that breaks down the fat in a selection of solid fats and oils:

click to enlarge

Finally, one of our greatest problems in this country is sodium. If you are not sure it is that much of a problem, then this chart is definitely for you:

click to enlarge

To explain, the dotted line running horizontally across the graph represents the "Adequate Intake of Sodium for Individuals 9 years and older", the solid horizontal line represents the "Tolerable Upper Intake of Sodium for adults." This is heartbreaking and frightening to me, especially when I see where the 2-5 year old group is. Sodium is a problem and we need to address it. (Says the woman who had a nice bunch of salty gluten-free pretzels with her lunch today...)

The Good Guys

Well, it is not all doom and gloom! The Guidelines are here to point us in the right direction, to carve a new path to a healthier future! Part of that battle is pointing out our allies in the fight and how to ensure we get more of them.

click to enlarge.

Each of these groups: vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy and protein contains one or subgroups that we should focus our energy on finding, preparing and eating. When it comes to grains, we should look for whole grains, and here are three ways the guidelines suggest that you can incorporate them into your diet.

click to enlarge.

The goal is three ounces of whole grains per day, while it would be great to always have 100% whole grains, the guidelines recognize that this is not the only way.

It Takes a Village

Finally, as noted earlier, to truly tackle the issues of our society's unhealthy eating habits and make sweeping changes across the country, it is going to take more than a mere document filled with suggestions - it is going to take a culture shift. The Guidelines have illustrated how big this idea really is to tackle, socially. Not only do each of us have to tackle this as individuals, but we must seek changes in our environments, we must see changes in all of our sectors of influence and only then can we truly see changes in our social and cultural norms and values.

click to enlarge.

So start now in your inner circle with all your individual factors, download the Dietary Guidelines for yourself so you can be educated about what is need to enact real changes. Then work on your environments: your home, your workplace, your child's school - be an active participant in the food conversations to ensure that all individuals in these environments recognize this as a priority. As for the sectors of influence, let your doctor(s) know that this is priority for you and your family and you would like them to be on the same page as you, let your government officials know (TAKE ACTION when the need arises), post healthy food tips and tricks on your facebook page, in your tweets and on your blog, if you embrace these changes, this healthier lifestyle your social and cultural norms and values will change... then you'll just have to wait for your ripples of influence to impact those around you!

People are talking...

Once the guidelines were released, the news hit the web and responses could be found everywhere, here are just a few I have read so far:

• Food Politics.com
• The New York Times
• Dietitian on the Run
• The Huffington Post

What are your thoughts about the guidelines?

Clean Eating Defined

As I have been searching for a better way to eat, a better way to live and for the healthiest stuff to consume I keep coming across the term "clean eating." The term has sounded great, but every time I tried to explore it further I kept finding myself in a myriad of "diet plans" or "clean eating menus" and was instantly turned off to the idea. I don't do diets, personally - instead, I seek a better way of life. However, in the end, I am nothing if I am not insatiably curious, so I needed to get to the bottom of this clean eating conundrum for myself!

This weekend I found a magazine actually called Clean Eating. It is, evidently, not a new publication, but it was new to me, so I decided to spend the $5.99 to further satiate my curiosity. It wasn't far into my page turning (page six, in fact) that I came upon exactly what I was looking for: a description of what clean eating actually is.

Clean Eating As Defined by Clean Eating Magazine

There are 13 highlighted points, or habits I think may be more appropriate, to follow if you are looking to embrace a lifestyle of clean eating. 

I read this issue cover to cover and have post-it notes sticking out of it all over the place!!

1. Eat five to six times a day. This means three meals and two to three snacks. Each meal should be comprised of a lean protein, plenty of fruits and vegetables and a complex carbohydrate.
2. Drink at least two liters of water each day.
3. Get label savvy. According to the magazine clean food is anything that contains just one or two ingredients.
4. Avoid processed and refined foods. Their suggestion: avoid white flour, sugar, bread and pasta and enjoy whole grains instead.
5. Know thy enemies. The bad guys? Foods high in saturated fats, trans fats, sugar and any fried foods.
6. Shop with a conscience.  Look for humanely raised and local meats.
7. Consume healthy fats. The essential fatty acids.
8. Learn about portion sizes. 
9. Reduce your carbon footprint. Eat seasonal and local produce.
10. Drink water with a lemon wedge instead. They advise against drinking more than one glass of red wine per day.
11. Slow down and savor.
12. Take it go. In short, prepare your own food for your outings so you can ensure you are staying clean.
13. Make it a family affair.

Finding the Dust Bunnies in my Diet

While reading through this list, I realized that this is exactly what I have been trying to do! I simply want to eat clean - what a simple idea! So, you may ask, what's the problem? Well, while I've been "cleaning up" on my own, I have been missing the mark on one of the habits listed above. It's like that stubborn corner under my bed where the dust bunnies all go to settle so neatly out of my reach every time I am trying to clean up. The dust bunnies in my diet are those ingredient lists (from #3 above)!

I have been tossing and turning about this for a while, realizing that while I have been eating healthier and friendlier (now that I know of my body's issues with gluten and dairy), I have not yet kicked the processed foods habit - especially since my local farmer's market closed for the winter. Each time I consume a product in a box that is labeled gluten-free, or even reach for some of my dairy-free replacements, I am consuming foods that have a list of ingredients much longer than a mere two ingredients!

I am forever a work in progress and so my consumption plan shall be as well. Back to the drawing board, as they say - it is time for me to clean house!

Your Very Own Cleaning Resources

•  Check out the Clean Eating magazine website. Not  only do they have a recipe section, but there is also a community to join, meal planners and shopping lists as well as a great How-To section for cooking tips!
• Also, check out The Gracious Pantry, a blog with "clean eating recipes for everyday living." Tiffany has some amazing recipes on this site as well as her own run-down of what clean eating is, how to get started and loads of other helpful content whether you are just getting started or looking for some new ideas.

Are you a "clean eater"?

What dust bunnies do you have hiding in your diet?