Friday's Food Finds

All week I am all over the Internet blogging about food, commenting about food, reading about food and finding tons and tons of stuff! I simply can NOT dedicate a single post to each individual find, so here's what I am going to do: I am going to give you a CliffNotes version of some foodie finds that I think you might all be interested in, so you have stuff to read and tinker with over the weekend! Here it goes:

Food Web Sites and Tools

• Google Recipes Well, it was only a matter of time, I guess before the search giant would dip its toe into the recipe search engine field! It is very simple to use. You can either go directly to the landing page for the recipe search engine (using the link above), or type in a recipe you are looking for right into the search bar at www.google.com and then click the "Recipes" option that comes up on the left-hand side once you conduct your search. When you have clicked that option, you have enabled their recipe search feature which opens up a number of options below it including ingredient selections as well as tie constraints. Definitely worth checking out.

Food Reads

• Food: Six Things To Feel Good About It's a good news read! Mark Bittman takes a moment to rundown six places where we've been moving in the right direction in our food fights. If you missed this when it ran in the NY Times, then you must check it out today! 
•  What genetically engineered alfalfa means to you This is a truly important article for everyone who is currently not a farmer to read. We get the gist that GE alfalfa is bad, that it threatens organic, real food, but how. A quick intro to the dangers of GE alfalfa and what we can do to safeguard our food against it.

Good Food (Recipes)

• Black Bean Soup (Panera Bread) This was my first Google recipe find. It took me back to my favorite recipe search engine (Food.com), but it took me less than a minute to find a black bean soup recipe that I had the time and ingredients to make. This was DELICIOUS. I can't wait until my next big shop so I can make a huge batch of this soup to freeze!
• Italian Sausage With Fennel, Peppers and Onions I found this one with Supercook.com since I knew I wanted to do something with the sausage and the fennel I had, but had not come up with this simple brilliance on my own. This recipe was AMAZING! The sausage came out perfectly, the fennel (I love fennel) added such a fabulous flavor to the whole dish, OH! and I only had bell peppers, so I can only imagine what extra fabulousness awaits you if you have the fancy frying peppers that are in the recipe! (My mouth is watering just remembering this recipe...)

Food FIGHTS 

• Sowing the Seeds for a Fair Farm Bill  The Food & Water Watch group and its volunteers have arranged gatherings all over the country (and even some international!) to raise awareness about the upcoming Farm Bill and actions we can all take to ensure that it is fair.
• Just Eat Organic! Watch the video, share it, let's get it viral and, above all, CONSIDER IT. If we purchase Organic products, then, economically, it would be foolish for the "powers that be" to threaten organic foods with the deregulation of genetically engineered seeds and animals.

Do you have a food website, tool, food read, recipe or food fight you think I should check out and share with the readers of Searching for Sustenance? If so e-mail me at BlogWithNV@gmail.com!

Deepak Chopra LIVE on GM Alfalfa

The Center for Food Safety sits down with Deepak Chopra to discuss the dangers and the reality of today's genetically modified food situation.

Here is the recorded event found on the Center for Food Safety's website.

Below is the original embedded livestream from deepakhomebase. Deepak Chopra has a number of events running on his livestream, so if you are interested in seeing what it's up to right now, then check it out!

Watch live streaming video from deepakhomebase at livestream.com

Why Boycott Land O'Lakes?

Image from the FarmWars blog

Get out your grocery lists.

Grab a pen or pencil.

You have to cross off some stuff on your list and you have to do it NOW.

You must stop buying any products from Land O'Lakes.

OK, I know you're thinking that I've completely lost my mind and you don't want to take any rash action based on my word alone, so let me tell you why this is something that YOU will WANT to do yourself. Here is some information I just read both on the FarmWars blog and Foodmans Blogging for the Future:

"To produce its Round-Up Ready Alfalfa seeds, Monsanto partnered with a company called Forage Genetics International, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Land O’Lakes dairy co-op. That’s right, Land O’Lakes stands to make a fortune from polluting our food supply with untested and unlabeled GMOs."

So there has been a call to action, an action that may actually make some waves in this economy in a way that our protests, petitions, and letters to Washington have failed to accomplish - a boycott of the purchase of Land O'Lakes products. And so that the impact of the action is not mistakenly blamed on our suffering economy or some other financial issue, it is also recommended that we just come right out and tell Land O'Lakes what we are doing!

"Send Land O’Lakes and other companies a clear message:  HAY you — We’re FED UP with GMOs in our food supply!
And to make sure Land O’Lakes knows why its sales are down, contact its president and CEO Chris Policinski and let him know you won’t be buying Land O’Lakes products anymore because you don’t want genetically engineered food or animal feed:
Chris Policinski
President and CEO
Land O’Lakes
4001 Lexington Avenue
Arden Hills, MN 55126-2998
651/481-2222"

In addition, some fired up foodies have decided to share their feelings on the Land O'Lakes Facebook page. Not a bad idea if you ask me since that message will not only be read by Land O'Lakes people, but also customers who may not know about the partnership with Monsanto.

Do you still have that grocery list? Have you crossed them off yet? In the end, it is up to you, of course. However, if you believe in this cause and decide to boycott Land O'Lakes (as I will be doing - I just informed the husband before this writing), then please be sure to share your feelings with others you care about.

For some further information on GMOs:

• Check out the posts about Dr. Oz's Show on the GMO Debate
• Frankenfood: It's Alive! article from New Hyde Park Patch
• The True Food Network
• Mark Bittman's GMO Poll Results (and more) from the NYTimes

Are you ready to answer a call to action in the month of March? 

Check out Where Are All My Hummingbirds? A Call To Action to see what challenge the Searching for Sustenance blog has planned!

Friday's Food Finds

All week I am all over the Internet blogging about food, commenting about food, reading about food and finding tons and tons of stuff! I simply can NOT dedicate a single post to each individual find, so here's what I am going to do: I am going to give you a CliffNotes version of some foodie finds that I think you might all be interested in, so you have stuff to read and tinker with over the weekend! Here it goes:

Food Web Sites and Tools

• Foodily.com Unveiled this week, Foodily.com has been called the Facebook for food. I have only just started tinkering with it, but so far I like what I see. It is a recipe search engine where you type in an ingredient and it spits back recipes in an order that takes into account the seasonability of the ingredients and the likes of your facebook friends.
• foodgawker.com A collection of recipes from all over the Internet selected for their beautiful, mouth-watering gawk-worthy photos. Just check it out, you'll see what I mean.
• BonJour Mezzaluna and Curved Cutting Board set I have had my mind set on picking up a mezzaluna for myself, so when I saw this set in this month's issue of Clean Eating magazine, I was instantly sold. The cutting board is curved and the handle is magnetic for easy storage of the two pieces together.

Food Reads

• The Genetically Engineered Alfalfa Deregulation Battle If you haven't heard the news yet, both the House and the Senate have allowed genetically engineered alfalfa to be to pass without regulation. It is now in the hands of the president. The news is all over the Net, so here are just a couple of reads: Did the White House pressure the USDA to approve Monsanto's GMO alfalfa? and OrganicGate: Are Whole Foods, Stonyfield Farm, and Organic Valley Cozying Up to Monsanto? are just two that can give you an idea of the current mood surrounding this issue.
  
• Naïve and Slightly Woozy Mark Bittman's response to the reaction he received for his "manifesto" in The New York Times Opinion pages. In it he directs us to one of the comments that brings up some truly intriguing arguments about climate change and their role in the food industry. It is definitely something to think about.
• What Would Happen if We All Decided to Buy Organic? A great rant on the Rant/Rave website that just reminds us, once again, how important our food purchases are.

Good Food (Recipes)

•  Lemon Dijon Wings Since I am fairly certain will be having my husband's favorite hot wings this Sunday for the Big Game, I decided I wanted to do something different with the extra batch of wings I had hanging around this week. I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com and it was DELICIOUS. I baked the wings instead of grilling them (since there is still about of foot of snow and ice outside) and they came out super yummy. I also decided pretty last minute I was going to make them, so I did not marinate overnight, just about an hour or so (I can't WAIT to taste them with even more marinating time!).
• Crispy Roasted Chickpeas Perhaps this one isn't new to you, but when I first stumbled across this one, I nearly jumped out of my chair! I need to try this. I have a couple of different spices I would like to try it with, so when I go grocery shopping this weekend, you can bet I will be picking up some chickpeas! Thank you, Steamy Kitchen!

Food ACTION

• GE Alfalfa There really is only one topic on my mind this week and it is genetically engineered alfalfa. Please take a moment to use this tool from the Food & Water Watch to write to President Obama to let him know that regulation of genetically engineered foods is NOT one of the places where he should be worrying about government over regulation! 

  

Do you have a food website, tool, food read, recipe or food action you think I should check out and share with the readers of Searching for Sustenance? If so e-mail me at BlogWithNV@gmail.com!

Take Action Against GM Alfalfa

You may be thinking to yourself: "Alfalfa? I don't eat that... What's the big deal?" Well, it is simple really, cattle eat it - both beef cattle and dairy cattle. Honeybees love it, and, with their help, the GM Alfalfa could cross-pollinate all over the place!  So, to preserve the organic crops we do have, take a minute to sign this petition and pass the link along to others who will do the same.



In case you do not see the petition widget above, you can see and sign the petition here.