Posts Tagged ‘budget’

Farmers Markets: Your Not-Meals’ Best Friend

Monday, November 30th, 2009

Plant-Based Nutrition Has Never Been More Colorful

How would you like a winter get-away that is close, relaxing, gorgeous, and free? Your local farmers market will reward you with all this – and more! Don’t know where there is a farmers market near you? Not a problem. Simply bring up your favorite search engine and type in farmers market plus the name of your city, town, or county for the information you need.

I make the farmers market a weekly ritual, one that never fails to delight and surprise. How often do you find such reliable gratification in the current economy? The market is a visual poem, with bright and shiny colors and

Fuji apples are abundant and crunchy

Fuji apples are abundant and crunchy

alluring shapes. The contrast of fruits, vegetables, flowers, potted plants, and other plant foods such as corn or beans constantly entertains the eye.

The market also relaxes you with sound. Usually there is music, kids laughing, and happy people chatting to each other and the farmers. Kids don’t have expensive plastic toys or junk food to beg for, and they seem content to just revel in the colors and enjoy the outdoors. What a break for parents.

The wide variety of food available changes every week – determined by what the farmer harvested. This is how it should be. The relatively predictable sameness of grocery stores cannot compete. You can buy the

Heirloom tomatoes are still flavorful in November

Heirloom tomatoes are still flavorful in November

freshest and tastiest food for your next not-meal and never miss the meat or dairy foods you leave behind.

Consider your local farmers market for your next weekend. If you already visit frequently, maybe bring a friend to share the bounty.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet, the smart person’s nutrition book built on sustainable food choices. Enjoy six kinds of whole foods for permanent, hunger-free weight loss and health.

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Dark Chocolate: The Solution to Mondays

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

It’s True – Something this Good Can Also Be Healthy

Okay, healthy in moderation only, but who wants to quibble. Let’s not dissect our chocolate. This incredible food, in its most unprocessed forms, contains over 350 biologically active compounds. As in all whole foods, the total effect is greater than the sum of the parts.

Theobromine, one of the best known chocolate constituents, is a mood enhancer and mild stimulant. Flavonoids are plant chemicals, strongly represented in chocolate, with numerous beneficial effects:

  • Anti-oxidant
  • Help balance inflammation
  • Protect the circulatory system and help prevent blood clots

None of these benefits have much to do with why I start my week with a large chunk of dark chocolate. On Mondays, the week seems endless. The weekend, already past, beckons strongly. A bit of pampering is irresistible. The health benefits are only a nice add-on.

So first thing Monday morning, I breakfast on whole grain cereal topped with fruit and two tablespoons of ground flaxseeds. This is my usual fast weekday breakfast. The Monday difference is using chocolate soy milk, not the usual vanilla, over the cereal.

About 9:30 or 10 am, it’s time for another dose – this time half a dark chocolate bar. My favorite way to relish this Monday chocolate is in small

Dark chocolate bar - don't settle for less

Dark chocolate bar - don't settle for less

pieces, dipped into some soy yogurt stirred with nuts. I love everything about this hard dark chocolate: the aroma, the taste, the texture, how it makes me feel. I sniff my chocolate deeply before consuming. Anyone walking by might wonder what I was up to.

After finishing the chocolate, I still have a bit of soy yogurt and nuts to enjoy. Hot green tea is the last necessity of this weekly ritual. The rest of Monday just streams away, and soon the rest of the week as well.

Half of a 3.5 ounce chocolate bar is enough for the desired effect. My favorite is Equal Exchange Chocolates, mint flavor, which is both organic and fair trade. This delightful product is 67% cacao, which means that chocolate is the main ingredient.

Dark chocolate is REAL chocolate. The milk version, aside from the issues with dairy foods, dilutes the chocolate, making it almost flavorless compared to the real thing. Also, be aware that Dutch processed chocolate, in order to remove this food’s bitter edge, also strips many of the beneficial chocolate components.

Learn to love slightly bitter chocolate – you’ll get used to this flavor faster than you think. There’s no pay-off in tricking your body with common candy bars that have more milk, sugar, and chemicals than they do chocolate.

Dark chocolate is gourmet on a budget, feel-good without later mood crash, circulatory enhancer without prescription cost or side effects. Read the label to eliminate brands with milk or butter. Have fun trying all the others – new possibilities grace store shelves as more and more people discover dark chocolate as the best occasional junk food treat.

You actually will benefit from and enjoy dark chocolate most when you choose moderate amounts. Half a bar a week – any day you’d like – should be enough to reward yourself without gaining weight. Okay, maybe twice a week, but then treat yourself with other whole foods instead….

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet, the smart person’s nutrition book built on sustainable food choices. Enjoy six kinds of whole foods for permanent, hunger-free weight loss and health.

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An Early Thanksgiving on a Budget

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Enjoying Loving Family and Great Food Any and Every Day

Our family, bonded around plant-based nutrition and love of nature, is very close. My younger daughter lives in San Diego with me. We were so happy when Rebecca, my older daughter, could visit to celebrate Thanksgiving – even though the visit was a few weeks early.

Rebecca drove down from Northern California with her boyfriend Jan and their rescued American bulldog, Rikki. This goofy and ultra-friendly canine

Rebecca and Rikki the American bulldog

Rebecca and Rikki the American bulldog

is a poster child for why adopting from a shelter is the best way to add a furry family member.

On the first Saturday night in November we enjoyed a tasty and low-budget Thanksgiving feast. When you stick to plant-based options, you can eat way too much delicious food for Thanksgiving and stick to your spending limits.

Actually, we did splurge a little, as you can see from our menu and costs. By cooking totally from scratch, we could definitely have saved money. But all four of us ate to oblivion on Saturday night and had enough food left over for several days. So the total covers much of the food we all ate for about three days.

Two Tofurky roasts (animal-free and delicious) $17

Potatoes, onion, carrots roasted with Tofurky $3

Gravy (animal-free mix) $1

Stuffing (two bags of animal-free stuffing mix liberally boosted with fresh onions and celery) $5

Homemade cranberry sauce (meal highlight for me) $2

Homemade veggies medley stir fry (in broth) $3

Homemade winter squash pureed with spices and a little miso $3

Pumpkin pie (animal-free from Whole Foods) $13

Dairy-free whipped topping $4

Total for four people eating for several days: $51. A homemade pumpkin pie would have brought the total down to about $40, or $10 per person. Not bad for a healthy and loving Thanksgiving. No one missed the poor turkey. In fact, we were all hugely thankful that the bird was celebrating, too, happy and enjoying another day.

Intrigued? Now you can use our Whole Foods Blog Finder to target informative, fun postings on plant-based nutrition. Quick information at no cost!

Blog posting by Janice Stanger, Ph.D. Janice authored The Perfect Formula Diet, the smart person’s nutrition book built on sustainable food choices. Enjoy six kinds of whole foods for permanent, hunger-free weight loss and health.

Share and Enjoy !

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