Sunshine Bars

Instead of eating 3 larger meals per day, I tend to eat breakfast and dinner, but graze through lunch into the afternoon. I like to eat small portions of multiple foods instead of lunch. However, I don't usually buy snack food from the grocery store because it is difficult to find genuinely healthy products and it gets expensive quickly. There are plenty of brands that advertise for healthy snacks, but when you read the nutritional information, high amounts of salt, fat and additives are often included. As a way to rectify the situation, I began to make my own snack food. One of my favorite recipes comes from The New Laurel's Kitchen by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flanders and Brian Ruppenthal. I have adapted the recipe to suit my tastes, and you can vary it to suit yours.

Sunshine Bars:

1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup grapeseed oil
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup raisins, cut up
1/3 cup toasted almond meal

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Begin by chopping the raisins (I like to cut them in half, but you can do any size you like). Toast the almond meal in a skillet until it has a nice nutty smell. Meanwhile, heat orange juice to a boil in a small saucepan. Add dried apricots to the juice, bring to a boil again, cover and turn off heat. Let apricots sit until they absorb enough juice to become slightly tender.

While apricots are sitting, mix honey and oil together in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, stir together oats, wheat flour, wheat germ, cinnamon and salt. Add raisins and toasted almond meal to the dry ingredients.

When apricots are slightly tender, remove from pan and chop coarsely. Add the remaining orange juice to your honey and oil mix, and stir until combined. Add chopped apricots to dry ingredients and stir together. Combine wet and dry ingredients in the large bowl and stir until well mixed. Press the "dough" into an 8x8 square baking dish lined with parchment paper (or whatever size you have handy). Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before cutting into squares.

I have added about twice as much cinnamon as the original recipe calls for because I find Laurel's recipes to be slightly under-seasoned for my taste (but I am a self-acknowledged cinnamon fiend...). Overall the recipe usually tastes great and it's fairly fool-proof.

Edible Explortions Book Club: Diet For A Small Planet

Since reading Diet For A Hot Planet, by Anna Lappe, I thought I should read her mother's work as well. Diet For A Small Planet is really the foundation for much of the writing about the food movement since the 1970's. Because I have read more recent works, Frances Moore Lappe was not saying much I did not already know, but I found her personal journey very inspiring. She also included some interesting facts about common protein myths, including other sources for Vitamin B12. I did not, for instance, realize that tempeh is a good source for B12, but I am very excited since I love tempeh!

However, although I found her journey to writing Diet For A Small Planet personally inspiring, in reading the 20th Anniversary Edition, there was too much discussion added concerning her work since writing the book, which pointed the reader towards her Institute for the Arts of Democracy and Food First organizations. I did not want to feel as though she was advertising for her other work.

I would say that this book has always been, and will continue to be, a great foundational resource for those interested in food and the ongoing food movement, but I actually thought that Anna Lappe's book would be a better resource for people looking to begin their search for knowledge about the food industry nowadays.

Feeding Your Pet (Cat)

One of the things I have been thinking about lately is how to feed my cat in a healthy and sustainable way. We currently feed our cat Science Diet Hairball Control Light dry food and Fancy Feast wet food. Both have pretty low fat content percentages. Fancy Feast Classic Seafood Variety has 2.0-4.0% fat content, depending on the type of fish, and Science Diet has 7.2-9.5% fat content. Kia, our cat, has lived with us for about 5 1/2 years. I say lived because, as many cat "owners" know, I believe she probably owns me more than I own her. We first met her at an ASPCA shelter about 5 1/2 years ago and adopted her then (she was almost a year old).

Kia has struggled previously with her weight and overeating, so we have had her on a meal plan for a number of years instead of free-feeding. We would like to give her healthy, nutritious food that doesn't have all of those additives and chemicals that most pet food brands include. For example, the Science Diet we feed Kia has chicken by-product meal, chicken liver flavor, and animal fat with mixed tocophenols. How about naming the specific animals? The Fancy Feast wet food has meat by-products, Red Dye #3, and Turkey (in seafood?). I know from having read
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser that Red Dye #3 is not good for people, so I think I can safely assume it is not good for cats either. As for the other ingredients, I took a few minutes to peruse the Internet and found some disturbing factoids. However, since this information is not coming from a source I know and trust, I will not expand until I have conducted further research. I recently went to both Petsmart and Petco to get a few other things for Kia and decided to go through all of their "natural" food choices. Although some of them do use healthier ingredients, such as real meat, brown rice and veggies, they all had a high fat content, especially compared to the dry food she eats now.

Why is there nothing available that is low-fat with quality ingredients, providing all the nutrients that a cat (or dog) needs? I would like to be able to make food for her myself, but since I am not a veterinarian, I am not even sure where to begin. I don't know exactly what my cat needs on a daily basis in terms of protein, fat, carbs, etc. and I don't know what other vitamins and nutrients she needs. Are there resources for people who want to make their own cat food?

I was thinking of suggesting that my vet have a workshop or seminar on this topic. I feel like a lot of people could benefit from learning more about this topic. Plus, as with most foods, I suspect that homemade would actually be cheaper than store-bought cat food, and it would be nice to control what is going into Kia's system.

The Search for Loose Leaf Tea

I am a tea drinker. Always have been, probably always will be. For as long as I can remember, I have begun my mornings with a cup of hot black tea. Of course, it seems that lately that cup has turned into several, but that's another story. My husband and I were trying to find, and are perpetually on the hunt for, good loose leaf tea that is not exorbitantly expensive. Over the years, I have come to realize that this is a very difficult process. There are so many facets to consider - quality of the tea, the price, the processing, where and how the tea was grown, as well as the sustainability and labor practices of the plantation and the distributing company itself. I know from having seen the Steeped in History exhibit at UCLA's Fowler Museum of Cultural History that the environmental and labor practices of each tea plantation are very important. However, unless you want to pay A LOT of money, it is very difficult to take this into consideration when looking for everyday tea.

This brought me to the question: how do you choose what's best environmentally and socially, but still maintain your pocketbook? We usually go to our local Halal and Indian Markets here in LA for our everyday tea. These local, ethnic markets are such a good source for so many products - tea, spices, bean and legumes, rice, flour and the list goes on. If you have access to this type of establishment, I highly recommend shopping there for any products that are commonly used in the associated country or region. In this case, I know that much of the tea we drink is grown in India, and much of the tea consumed in the world is consumed in India. Therefore, it seems only logical to buy our tea from an Indian grocer.

There are some brands that you can order online - Two Leaves and a Bud is among my favorites - but it is more expensive. I consider these teas my "sometimes" teas. This brings me back to the excellent point Anna Lappe made in Diet for a Hot Planet: it's probably better to cut down on usage of a certain product and be able to spend more on quality. However, as previously alluded to, this may be a very difficult process for me!

Since this is one of our everyday staples, I am always researching this topic and will continue to post updates as I come by more information...

Edible Explorations Book Club: Diet for a Hot Planet by Anna Lappe

This book is a great introduction to the topics of sustainable eating and the climate crisis. Lappe writes in an intelligent way, not dumbing her writing down, as if readers would not be able to understand. She uses mainly scientific and academic sources in her writing, and does not fall into the trap of making unsupported statements that a lot of general information books do. I personally prefer someone who speaks intelligently and supports her claims with published facts.

As far as the topic she was writing about, it was a mix of new information and a lot of things I already knew (but I tend to read a lot about this stuff). I think we, the general public, need a book like this right now. It breaks down what the problem is, why it's a problem, and gives us suggestions for how we can actually do something about it. Lappe also shows us how large corporations are essentially fooling us into thinking they are doing something about the climate problems. She illustrates how they are using smart advertising and innovative language in an attempt to avoid doing anything at all.

Unfortunately, I came away from this book feeling a little overwhelmed by how big of a problem this is and not really knowing where to begin. I did make note of many of the resources she provides, so perhaps that will help me to continue researching. The main thing I took away from this book is that I need to be much more careful about what brands of products I am buying, where the ingredients are coming from, and what policies these corporations are following. I get too easily lulled into the "everything at Whole Foods is alright" trap. It's really not. We all need to be watchdogs to take care of what is going into our bodies, the land we live on, the water we drink, etc.

I really liked Lappe's idea of saying it's ok to eat beef/red meat, but to cut down how much you are eating and to buy higher quality meat instead. Also, I will be much more careful about ordering in restaurants, because that is a way that I can really impact the industry. If I am making choices based on where the product comes from and the treatment of the animals, the restaurant will be forced to also, and so on...and as someone who has tasted grass-fed beef, it really does taste much better to boot!

Two days ago, I tried my hand at making homemade peanut butter. Being from Sweden, I did not grow up with peanut butter, but tried it first at age 6 while in the US, and have never looked back. I always used to eat Skippy Creamy PB, but in the last few years have switched to natural peanut butter. I like natural peanut butter for the better peanut taste as well as for the lack of additives and preservatives. Adam and I usually buy the creamy and salted peanut butter from Trader Joe's and we go through it quite quickly. I found a recipe on another blog (adapted from Alton Brown's recipe) and have tweaked it again myself:

15 oz. Roasted, Unsalted Peanuts
1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
1 1/2 tbs. Honey
2 tbs. Grapeseed Oil

Place a quarter of the peanuts in a food processor and begin to process until almost smooth. Add the rest of the peanuts in quarter portions in order to get a smoother finish. When peanuts are beginning to form a "dough", add the salt and honey. Process until well blended. While running the food processor, add the oil one tablespoon at a time. Run for another minute, or until the peanut butter has your favored consistency. Add more salt or honey to taste.

The flavor turns out great - it definitely tastes more like peanuts than store-bought PB. This recipe makes a stiffer, coarser peanut butter than most store-bought PBs. As for the ingredients, you can decide what to include. I chose grapeseed oil because it's heart-healthy as compared to palm oil, which is what Skippy uses in their Natural Peanut Butter. An added benefit is that you can control the amount of sodium you consume per serving. I figured out that my homemade peanut butter has 60.95mg/serving, whereas Trader Joe's PB has 130mg/serving and Skippy has 150mg/serving.

I have tried to calculate the calories per gram in my peanut butter versus the kind we buy from Trader Joe's. It looks like my product actually has 0.30 more calories/gram (6.24cal/g vs. 5.94cal/g), so it's not a big difference, but I have to admit that, in terms of calories, it is not healthier than store-bought natural peanut butter. I also ended up buying peanuts from Trader Joe's, but there has to be a better source of cheap, good quality peanuts out there. If I keep buying the Trader Joe's roasted, unsalted peanuts, the cost of making my own PB will actually be slightly higher than buying the Trader Joe's jars. However, because the homemade variety is much thicker and heavier, I don't think we will end up using as much per serving, so it may last longer.

I will definitely keep making my own PB, and not just because I like playing with the food processor. The benefits are enormous - it's super quick and easy to make, and you have complete control of the ingredients. No weird preservatives or additives, no over-oiling...and it's especially great for anyone with PBJ addicts in their household. My personal PBJ addict gave the homemade version two thumbs up!