My Black Friday Breakfast at Ina's

What better way to start off a day of heavy shopping on the internet than with Ina's famous oatmeal pancakes. Ina's, a Chicago landmark located at 1235 West Randolph Street in Chicago, serves some amazing breakfast items but hands down, her oatmeal pancakes are to live for! Ina was kind enough to lend me her secret recipe (located on page 207) for the 101 Foods book. When I made them, my family fell in love with them. Here's a short video of a happy man eating those famous pancakes!


Hey, speaking of Black Friday, don't forget, 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life makes a wonderful holiday gift!!!

Here's My Holiday "Dave's Raves"

Happy Holidays to you all! Here's a few items that I wanted to tell you about that I'm extremely grateful to have in my life and stomach!! Enjoy!













Heavenly Balls® by Turtle Tree Treats!

I know…I know… But try to do your best to get that image of Alex Baldwin as “Mr. Schweaty” out of your head!

Laura Jean Weil, the creator of Heavenly Balls ® credits her mother with the memorable name. While scouring her Passover cookbooks for a new and decadent treat to serve, she came across a traditional sweet paste made from fruits and nuts called charoses. So she embarked on creating her own version made from her favorite variety of fruits and nuts including delicious Georgian pecans, dates and figs, all wrapped in velvety chocolate. She served them to her family during Sunday dinner where her eighty-four year old mother, after taking a bite, exclaimed, “Oh Laura Jean…these balls are heavenly!” So the name began.

Turtle Treats also has a variety of Heavenly Balls® made with dark, milk and white chocolate or simply dusted with the finest cinnamon! They are out of this world!!



La Tortilla Factory Teff Wraps

Besides, teff grain and flour, there isn’t a whole heck of a lot of teff products to choose from out there. These gluten-free wraps are really delicious. They combine teff and millet flour and come in either a dark or ivory version. Like their wheat counterpart, La Tortilla Factory Teff Wraps are soft, moist and amazingly delicious!


Arnold’s Sandwich Thins

I know I offered a “wheat product” in my last raves but I really wanted you to know about this fantastic sandwich bread from Arnold’s Bakery. If you like the taste of bread, but rather your sandwich creation be more ‘insides’ versus bread, these thins are perfect for you. They are made with whole grain wheat, are only 100 calories each with five grams of fiber. They are soft and delicious, too! Not always a trait commonly found in whole wheat bread products!


Sunsweet Thailand Mangoes®

When fresh mangoes aren’t in season, I love to pack these mango slices in my kids' lunch. And I especially like the 70 calorie packs because these are more representative of a single serving of fruit.



Zing Bars

Technically, these delicious Zing bars could be classified under a host of foods featured in the 101 Foods That Could Your Life book – chocolate, peanuts, blueberries and agave are just a few of the ingredients that you will find in Zing bars that fall in line with those featured in the book. But I chose “Whey” because besides powdered forms, it’s hard to find products that taste good and are convenient made with whey. Each Zing bar packs a whopping 10-13 grams of protein per bar (depending on flavor)!

Developed by a group of dietitians and nutritionists, Zing bars are the closest thing to a real meal in bar form that I have found without all of the artificial colorings and flavorings. But even more importantly, they are truly DELICIOUS!!


Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin!

Oh no, my friend! This is NOT just for pumpkin pie! Where else can you get five grams of fiber, 300% of the daily value for vitamin A, only 40 calories in a half cup? I think this is liquid gold! Well, semi-liquid might be a better description. Besides pie, you can add it to your favorite soup, casserole, smoothie, dips and of course, a variety of other desserts!

Check out this outrageous Thai Pumpkin Soup recipe!

Enjoy your holiday meal! To borrow a quote from the great food writer, Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food - "Eat food, not too much, mostly turkey." Something tells me I don't have it quite right... Ha!

101 Foods and Flexitarian: Deardorff Deems "Helpful Companions"

Check out this wonderful article from Julie Deardorff from the Chicago Tribune!

Flexibility equals results
Diet plans that bend rules leave room for 'good' and 'bad'
By Julie Deardorff

Tribune health and fitness reporter

November 23, 2008

Dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner was a long-time vegetarian who kept falling off the wagon.

Though she loved the health benefits of the plant-based diet, she also craved food with emotional ties: Grandma's pork roast, her father-in-law's beef chili and Sheboygan brats-on-a-stick.

So Chicago's Jackson Blatner changed the rules. She's now a "flexitarian" or a vegetarian who is "flexible enough to eat some meat, poultry or fish," she writes in her new book, "The Flexitarian Diet" (McGraw Hill, $24.95). And Jackson Blatner says it's OK for you to be one too.

"Who wants to be told they can't eat meat if they like meat?" said Jackson Blatner, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. "My purpose is to excite and motivate people to eat more plants."

Welcome to the kinder, gentler era of nutrition. There are no forbidden fruits, no rigid guidelines and no drastic changes. Instead, experts such as Jackson Blatner acknowledge that humans are essentially weak-willed when faced with food they love.

So instead of telling people what they can't eat, Jackson Blatner tells them what they can eat, and how to do it. Gradually, the good foods will crowd out the bad ones and the changes become routine, said Jackson Blatner, who teaches flexitarian eating at The Chopping Block Cooking School.

"It's a win-win eating plan because you will enjoy the health benefits of vegetarianism without all the rules and restrictions," Jackson Blatner wrote in "Flexitarianism."

Not everyone agrees. Though every vegetarian meal is a step in the right direction, "it's a bit like telling a former smoker that it's OK to occasionally have a cigarette," said nutrition researcher T. Colin Campbell, author of "The China Study." "It really doesn't work for most people."

Still, "healthy eating doesn't have to be black and white. Gray works just fine too," dietitian Dave Grotto wrote in "101 Foods That Could Save Your Life."

When Grotto became known as "Let's-Make-a-Deal-Dave" to his clients and allowed them to occasionally indulge, he saw a pattern: They were decreasing—but not abandoning—the foods with little health benefit. But they were able to stabilize their weights, sustain blood pressures and meet other markers of good health.

And when faced with his own soaring cholesterol levels, Grotto took a little of his own medicine. Instead of a nutritional smack-down approach, he modified his diet by adding many of the foods in his book. After just a month, his cholesterol levels dropped 70 points and he lost 10 pounds.

"You can't write someone's favorite foods out of their life," said Grotto during a lunch with Jackson Blatner.

"It's so much more than fuel," added Jackson Blatner. "It's social identity."

Jackson Blatner's book is a lifestyle plan you can immediately implement. She tells you what to eat and how to do it. "I had patients who didn't really know how to make breakfast," she said. "If I said, 'add avocado,' they didn't know what to add it to."

What she didn't include—the science behind the healing powers of food, how food can be used as medicine and food lore—is found in Grotto's comprehensive nutritional encyclopedia. Though it wasn't planned, the books—like the authors—are helpful companions.

jdeardorff@tribune.com



Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

101 Food Radio Feature: Chilean Hass Avocados!

Here are some live radio shows I will be doing today. The topic is "Healthy Holidays" featuring Chilean Hass Avocados. There will also be shows that will be pre-recorded for a later broadcast in the Sacramento, Minnesota, Atlanta, Providence, Denver, Las Vegas, and Omaha. Hope you can tune in!

NOTE: All Time Slots are EASTERN

7:00 AM - 7:10 AM ET Live
KTOK Radio AM (News)
Clear Channel
OKLAHOMA CITY - 48
Host: Reid Mullins

7:30 AM - 7:40 AM ET Live
WZEZ RADIO FM (Adult Contemporary)
IND
RICHMOND - 56
Host: Mark Neimand
Mark in The Morning

8:10 AM - 8:20 AM ET Live
WICH Radio AM (Adult Contemporary)
IND
HARTFORD/NEW HAVEN - 50
Host: Mark Wayne

8:40 AM - 8:50 AM ET Live
KFBK Radio AM (News)
FOX
SACRAMENTO-STOCKTON - 27
Host: Kelly Brothers and Amy Lewis
KFBK Morning News
Kelly Brothers and Amy Lewis

8:50 AM - 9:00 AM ET Live
WKBV Radio AM (News)
IND
DAYTON - 60
Host: Chris Nolte
Morning News

9:45 AM - 9:55 AM ET Live
KCMN Radio AM (Adult Contemporary)
COLORADO SPRINGS-PUEBLO - 96
Host: Tron
The program is called Tron Talk.


10:20 AM - 10:30 AM ET PreTape for Today
WDIS Radio AM (News)
IND
Boston - 10
Host: Dan Collier
Talk of the Town w/ Dan Collier

11:20 AM - 11:30 AM ET Live
Cable Radio Network (Talk)
IND
AM Show
What's Cookin?

11:30 AM - 11:40 AM ET Live
KPQ Radio AM (News)
IND
Seattle-Tacoma - 14
Host: Ken Johannessen
Johannessen At Large

Food: The International Language

Maybe if we just cooked for each other, we would all get along. Perhaps chefs and RD's should be the ambassadors of the world - hey, it's worth a shot! Maybe our platform would be "World Piece"... a piece of fruit pie, a piece of veggie pizza...you get the idea. So why am I rambling on about food and international relationships?

I just found out that another foriegn language right sale was made for 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life! Besides English and the other "English" (anglicized - which is now selling in the U.K. with a beautiful picture of pomegranates on the cover), 101 Foods will now be coming out in Spanish, French, Romanian, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish, Czechoslovakian, Latvian and now in the Arabic language. Cool, eh?

My only thought of why there is such international interest in my book is that I appropriately gave a nod to the origins of all of the featured foods. It was amazing to me when I was conducting research on these foods how a food like the kiwi made it all the way from the Yangtze River Valley in northern China to New Zealand to eventually land on the plates of Americans. Go figure! Anyhow, I thought I'd share this wonderful news with all my readers!

In Chicago, We Oat and Oat Often!

I got back yesterday from an amazing day spent with some of the top food and fitness bloggers at the new Sustainability Center at Quaker Oats in Chicago. We talked oats, ate oats, looked at new and forthcoming oat products (A new oat pancake mix is coming out next year!!) and learned about the life-saving properties from yours truly and Annabelle Volgman, MD, ranked one of the top cardiologists in the mid-west!

It was so neat to be able to meet with these cutting edge bloggers (cell-web-erties, as they call them) - so many have incredible and inspiring stories of their struggles with weight and health. I left there pretty jazzed that these bloggers are really helping their readers through their experiences. Check out there sites - here's the list of these uber-bloggers that were in attendance:

Steph of Back in Skinny Jeans
Carla of MizFit Online
Roni of Roni’s Weigh
Jennette of PastaQueen
Tanya of I Ate a Pie
Lisa of Workout Mommy
Monique of Big Fat Deal
Leslie of the Weighting Game
Jason of Twit2Fit
Anne Marie of This Mama Cooks
Jenna of Eat Live Run
Kath of Kath Eats
Lyn of Escape from Obesity
Alanna of A Veggie Venture
Anne of Elastic Waist

Several of their blogs have really neat pictures of the event, great recipes to try and just cool stories of their experience in the windy city.

The neat thing is that I announced that the winner of the Quaker oatmeal contest, where they are being called upon to put together the ultimate bowl of oatmeal, will have their recipe placed in my forthcoming book. Cool, eh? The best part is I get to try it...I can't wait!!

Noshtopia! My Interview with a Food Blogger

"Noshing" is good. It's especially good when you nosh on credible health information and foods that are both tasty and good for you, all at the same time!

Check out my interview on Noshtopia where I'm asked a variety of questions about the health benefits of oats and other areas of health.

Quinoa: A Protein-Packed Powerhouse

Photo from Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times.


Check out this article in the New York Times today that features one of my favorite protein-packed grains. Quinoa only takes minutes to cook and can really bump up the nutritional value of any meal! Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD, author of The Flexitarian Diet ,contributed the outstanding Caribbean Quinoa recipe (which can be found on page 271) in my book. Want to feel as strong as an Incan warrior? Try a bowl of it!


November 3, 2008
Recipes for Health
Quinoa: A Protein-Packed Alternative to Grains
By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN

Quinoa (pronounced KEEN-wah) is a relative newcomer to the American pantry. The tiny, ancient Peruvian seed, which has a mild, nutty flavor, is related to leafy green vegetables and is often used like a grain. Quinoa is as versatile as rice but it has a protein content that is superior to that of most grains, because it contains all the essential amino acids. In particular, quinoa is high in lysine, an amino acid important for tissue growth and repair. It’s also a good source of manganese, magnesium, phosphorus and copper, and it has a high iron content.

Quinoa is very easy to cook. It’s important to rinse the seeds well, because they are naturally coated with a bitter substance that protects them against birds and other predators. Most packaged quinoa has already been cleaned, but it doesn’t hurt to soak and rinse it just in case. Quinoa cooks in 15 minutes, and it’s easy to tell when it’s done because the seeds display a little white thread that curls around them.

Basic Steamed Quinoa

Many recipes for quinoa suggest cooking it like rice, in two parts water for one part quinoa. This works, but I find the grains are fluffier if I cook them in three parts water and drain the excess water once the quinoa is tender. The tiny seeds swell to about four times their original size, so 1 cup uncooked quinoa yields about 4 cups, enough for 6 to 8 servings.

1 cup quinoa

3 cups water, chicken stock or vegetable stock

1/2 teaspoon salt (more to taste)

1. Place the quinoa in a bowl and cover with cold water. Let sit 5 minutes. Drain through a strainer and rinse until the water runs clear.

2. Bring the water or stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the salt and the quinoa. Bring back to a boil, reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer 15 minutes, or until the quinoa is tender and translucent, and each grain displays a little thread. Drain and return to the pan. Cover the pan with a clean dish towel, replace the lid and allow to sit undisturbed for 10 minutes. Fluff and serve.

Yield: about 4 cups, serving 6 to 8

Advance preparation: Cooked quinoa will keep for three or four days in the refrigerator and can be reheated in a microwave or in the oven.



Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company