Canned Food for Turkey Burgers

Just received this email from The Blue Plate Restaurant Company inviting customers to bring in a canned good (for Second Harvest) and get their amazing turkey burger for $5. The Edina Grill's turkey burger is mouthwatering-ly amazing! Why not help someone in need out and save some money? While you're at it, upgrade to the sweet potato fries with the Chipotle aeoli. Yum!

Punch Pizza & Second Harvest

Punch Pizza is back with another incentive to give to those in need in exchange for their amazing, melt in your mouth pizza. Today only, give a can of food (though it's encouraged to give more) which will be donated to Second Harvest and you receive either a *FREE* Margharita pizza or $6.95 off any other pizza of your choice.

Gym Membership? Fuel up with BOGO at Punch

The one time a gym membership would have served me well. As someone who refuses to pay the start up and administration fees, I've avoided gym memberships, choosing to walk around Lake Harriet, doing Pilates courses or grabbing Groupons for gym classes with no commitment. It appears my counterparts who thrive on attending the gym benefit from this one (though I'll use the money saved on avoiding said start up and administration fees to buy a pizza or two.)

August 22nd - August 24th if you purchase one pizza and show your gym membership, Punch will give you a second pizza for free.

Of course the usual rules and regulations apply, pizza purchased must be greater or equal value to the one being received for free.

My Food Revolution: Three Month Anniversary

When I first started down the road to eat healthy and live better I didn't know what I was embarking on was a 'Clean Food' diet. Well this isn't a fad for me, this is a lifestyle change, meant for the long haul. I stand here before you three months into my journey with new perspective, tidbits and even more recipes to share. I've read interesting books, watched startling documentaries and ultimately changed the way I view the world, food, and my health. I've lost weight, both emotional and physical and feel content for the first time in a long time. I'm taking care of me, cooking, cleaning, working out all because I made one decision: eat healthy.

Every day it gets easier to eat healthy, not to say there aren't days where I just want to order take out and veg out, but if I do it's a special occasion and I better be hitting the gym extra hard the following day. Finding a balance for you is the most important thing. I've always been an 'all or nothing' type of personality, when I work out, I work out hard. When I get off the exercise train I don't think you could motivate me to just go for a walk. If I do, the next thing you know I'm running the following day, expecting to do a 5k effortlessly. It's who I am. So when I made the change to 'slowly remove processed foods from my life and document that journey' I should have known better. I threw out fast food and soda in the first week. Processed foods the following week. I never do anything the easy way, but it was my way and I have found balance along the way.

Finding motivation in others, in the media is easy if you know where to look. Watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution as well as NBC's The Biggest Loser and ABC's Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition are constant reminders to me that every time I take a bite of food I am making a decision about my health. Every time I purchase organic, locally grown food I am spending money to support them and money against the giants like Monsanto who care more about profit than consumer health. Every Tuesday I watch Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition before heading down to the gym. There doesn't seem to be an excuse in the world that can stop me after watching how eating your emotions and being sedentary can destroy your life. It's pretty easy to stay motivated while eating at home or being in control of where I go out to eat, but life isn't always that easy.

Last month I went out to Happy Hour (HH) with my coworkers. Many of my coworkers know that I've radically changed my diet and thus were giving me a hard time when I showed up, had one cocktail (well half of one) and ate some of the food that was there. I talked about it with my Mom beforehand, and I figured it would be my one treat as it was for socializing purposes and not a daily occurrence. The food didn't have the same hold on me, I wasn't mindlessly eating it and the following day my stomach hurt. Not to mention that after I got home I was hungry again, I forgot how unsatisfying garbage is for you. Now whenever I'm tempted to eat something on my old diet I know without a doubt that I'd be much happier with making my own meal. What a difference three months makes.

My Food Revolution: Grilled Stuffed Zucchini Rolls

I find my inspiration for new recipes from many places, most of which do not come from the internet. Childhood meals, digging through my cabinet for anything that could be thrown together and most recently celebrity inspired. In an issue of US Weekly they showed what 'diets' certain celebrities partake in and two of which I was most intrigued with used food services to cook and send their fresh food so they never had to lift a finger. Certainly makes dieting easier.

As a source of inspiration I turned Sunfare and checked out what they had on their menu. Several items caught my attention, and here is one of them. From Sunfare's 'Signature Diet' menu the Grilled Stuffed Zucchini Rolls.

Grilled Stuffed Zucchini Rolls

Slice Zucchini about 1 cm thick the long way

Grill on both sides until fully cooked

Place a small scoop of herbed Goat Cheese in the middle

Roll up - use toothpicks to hold the ends together if necessary

My Food Revolution: Broccoli Chicken Pasta

When I was younger my Dad was told he had to either give up beer or change his entire diet to avoid Type II Diabetes. Being the beer lover that he is, my father kicked up his exercise and made the whole family change their diet. I feel like most people would pick the same thing if given the choice, so I try not to begrudge him for making me eat more whole grains. One of the dishes my Dad loved to make was an easy summer pasta, it was delicious and paired with a cucumber salad it just hit the spot on summer days. So here's my take on their dish, there are two types of chicken I used, and I've linked both.

Broccoli Chicken Pasta
Frozen Broccoli (Green Giant Steamers is probably the best, no need to dirty a pot to cook the broccoli in water.)
1 box of noodles
5 pieces of pan cooked chicken (not chicken breast, chicken thigh is about the right size)
2 pieces of oven baked garlic pepper chicken (not chicken breast, chicken thigh is about the right size)

Parmesan cheese
2 Shallots
3 Garlic Cloves
Garlic salt and Garlic pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I tried two different chicken recipes as I wanted to see which one I liked best. Turns out I liked the pan cooked chicken for this recipe better than my tried and true oven baked chicken. Cook noodles, bake and pan cook chicken with garlic and shallots, microwave broccoli. Mix all together and drizzle more Extra Virgin Olive Oil on top. Grate some fresh Parmesan on top of finished dish.

*For even better results do what my parents did and get whole grain cracked pepper noodles. They're typically longer and look like Fettucine noodles. That would eliminate the need to make two different types of chicken and allow you to only use the pan cooked.

My Food Revolution: Pan Cooked Garlic Chicken

I saw this recipe on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution tv show. He was showing the kids of a single Dad how to cook a meal in under 40 minutes. The way they made the chicken looked easy enough and I decided I would try it out just for fun. I made mine a little more salty, because I have an addition to garlic salt, but season as you wish.

Pan Cooked Garlic Chicken
Chicken thighes (I use grass fed, free range)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic Salt
Shallots
Garlic Cloves

Drizzle EVOO, add chicken, chopped shallots and garlic cloves. Cook until done. I add garlic salt at the beginning, just lightly for a little extra taste as I didn't use a sauce in the pasta dish I used this for. While still cooking I also pulled the chicken into smaller pieces. For more taste, add more shallots and garlic cloves.

My Food Revolution: Sweet Potato Fries

There are a few things that are as satisfying as a burger and fries. Pair that grass fed, free range beef OR bison burger with a whole grain bun from Great Harvest and you're on the right track. But the fries can make or break the meal, so here's three different ways to make sweet potato fries.

Extra Sweet, Sweet Potato Fries
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Peel the potato(es) and then slice in half.
Cut the halves into smaller rectangles, I try to make them 1 cm on each side (the smaller the crunchier)
Drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil over the fries (I also then take my Misto and spray the potatoes with more Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
Sprinkle 1/4 Cup of Light Brown Sugar over the fries.
Cook for 20 minutes before turning the fries over. Cook until desire crispiness.
Season with salt and pepper before serving.
Sweet Potato Fries
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Peel the potato(es) and then slice in half.
Cut the halves into smaller rectangles, I try to make them 1 cm on each side (the smaller the crunchier)
Drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil over the fries (I also then take my Misto and spray the potatoes with more Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
Season with Cracked Black Pepper (not regular dinner table pepper, you want this to have a kick - you'll use less salt this way) and a teensy bit of salt. More pepper than salt.
Cook for 20 minutes before turning the fries over. Cook until desired crispiness.

Kick You in the Pants Sweet Potato Fries
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Peel the potato(es) and then slice in half.
Cut the halves into smaller rectangles, I try to make them 1 cm on each side (the smaller the crunchier)
Drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil over the fries (I also then take my Misto and spray the potatoes with more Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
Season with Red Chili Flakes, Paprika, Chili Powder, Cracked Black Pepper (not regular dinner table pepper, you want this to have a kick - you'll use less salt this way) and a teensy bit of salt.
Cook for 20 minutes before turning the fries over. Cook until desired crispiness.

My Food Revolution: San Antonio Style Guacamole

While visiting San Antonio for a wedding a few years back we went to every Mexican restaurant there was. Most had awful guacamole, you could find better stuff at Chipotle. But one spot, Bordeau's had great guacamole they made at your table. Here's the recipe in case you're looking for a great little treat. Experts recommend eating one half of an avocado a day due to its healthy nature. But beware of the food we typically add it to (tortilla chips and pre-packaged tortillas.) My sister makes her scrambled eggs with a little milk, salt and pepper and then adds either sliced avocado on top or sometimes a bit of rough guacamole. This would be the perfect guacamole recipe to use!

Bordeau's San Antonio Guacamole
1 Avocado - if ripe you should be able to take the pit out with the knife.
1/4 of a Orange - squeeze in the juice
1/2 of a Lime - squeeze in the juice
1 Tablespoon of chopped red onions (orange 'juice' lessens its sourness)
1 Teaspoon Kosher Sea Salt
2 Tablespoons of stewed tomatos (theirs had been marinated a certain way)

My Food Revolution: Summer Strawberry Salad

There's nothing better than the sun shining down while eating on the back porch with good friends and family. Nothing. BBQs are likely to be in full force by now and if you're looking for a great salad to hopefully cut down on the kids' (and let's be honest, you too) intake of the potatos chips this salad is so delicious you'll be reaching for seconds or thirds.

Summer Strawberry Salad:

Spinach leaves
Sliced Strawberries
Feta Cheese
Semi-crushed Pralines (or sugared walnuts)
Raspberry Vinaigrette
Option 1: Put each ingredient in separate bowl and allow guests to mix together.
Option 2: Two bags of spinach leaves, 3/4 of a container of sliced strawberries, 20 crushed Pralines, half a package of Feta Cheese.

Punch Pizza: Wine a la Napoli

The good people of Punch Pizza have fun promotions every once in awhile, and it would be idiotic not to indulge when they're sent out. Seeing as I'm not big on beer or wine, I will pass on this one but plan on taking good friend Ally there when she comes into town for the NHL Draft. So here's me sending along something that hopefully you will all be able to enjoy.

My Food Revolution: 'The End of Overeating'

When I first started on becoming healthier I had heard why eating out was a bad idea but the author's focus was more on eating healthier overall and he didn't delve into the science behind it. I had decided to limit going out to eat as it was harder to do when I was spending more on fresh produce as that food has an expiration date. So I focused instead on making homecooked meals and changing my diet towards eating healthy. I found that eating healthier was not as hard financially as many claim it is, when you go out to eat more often the food you have in the fridge that expires and then you have to buy more, wasting food and money. When I stopped throwing away food, I noticed there wasn't that big of a difference in terms of how much money I spent. I still occasionally went out to eat with friends, but felt somewhat guilty for doing so.

So when a friend recommended The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite by David A. Kessler, MD. I decided to read it. Finding it was only $2.99 prompted a quick buy and immediate reading. While I'm only halfway through the book here's my first impression.

1. The food that's super bad for you actually changes your neural pathways to reinforce the action of you eating it. This is essentially making food a drug but without the abundance of warnings and access to food at every corner on every street.
2. Some people literally cannot stop thinking about food. I have never understood this as I am not one of those people but to see how people describe their suffering is very similar to what an alcoholic goes through, it's fascinating and frustrating at the same time.
3. Chain restaurants are basically fast food places where you sit down and pay more. There's practically as much frying and processed food on your plate as there is when you eat from McDonald's. Your food isn't being cooked, it's being manufactured, so can we really call it food anymore?
4. Scientist are finding interesting studies showing how 'highly palatable' food is changing the pathways in animals and food manufacturers are using this information for a profit at the expense of our health.
5. We need to stop using food to reward good behavior or soothe us when we are stressed as it reinforces the 'desire' for food and forms habits that soon become automatic.

If this isn't enough to entice you to read the book then I don't know what is. The fact that the food industry not only puts so much fat, sugar and salt in their food to make us unhealthy but do it because it's addictive is a sign that we all need to educate ourselves. If after reading books on these topics we choose to eat the same way many currently do then that's a decision, it's a choice that was made after finding out all the facts. Because if we were to be honest, we know very little about what we're putting in our bodies, why we crave it and how to break the habits.

My Food Revolution: Organic Peanut Butter

Thus far my journey into removing as many processed foods has been relatively easy. Vegetables just require an understanding in how to make them before you start craving them. My baked asparagus? Heaven. My sauteed summer squash? Pure bliss. While the majority of my changes have been more than easy to make there was one that was somewhat difficult. Organic Peanut Butter. Why? You'd think this would be easy as you'd think they didn't put much into the PB. Wrong. But the thought of ingesting chemicals makes me gag a bit so while it took a little manipulation I figured out a great solution and thought I'd share with you too. :)

The bread I eat is the Honey Wheat bread from Great Harvest and because the Peanut Butter I have requires refrigeration I have to toast my bread so it spreads a bit easier. I then slather on some honey on to the other piece of lightly toasted bread and hanker down. It's quite simple and the end result is amazing. The Peanut Butter is a bit hard for me to eat without a bit of sugar and I eat honey on my Peanut Butter sandwhiches so it provides that extra bit of sugar I need, the heat from the toast needed to melt the Peanut Butter a bit (as it has a very weird looking texture as it is cold) and a bit of a crunch with the toast.

I get my Peanut Butter from Parker's Farm which is available at Lunds and Byerly's stores across Minnesota.

My Food Revolution: Frozen Foods

It's inevitable, there are going to be times when we need to grab a frozen meal and have it for lunch or dinner. But that doesn't mean it has to be filled with chemicals, we can still make good food decisions when we grab something to eat. Now usually that means forking over more dough, but it's well worth it. It can also mean more caloric intake, but it might not be awful to intake more calories that are healthy than binging on cookies later due to hunger.

Amy's Organic Kitchen is a great brand found at most grocery stores. The products are vegetarian and organic as well as steep in price. However, Amy's is often on sale and that's the best time to stock up. Now sodium wise their dishes are comparable to Lean Cuisine but they do have great low sodium meals that are just as wonderful. Let's compare Amy's Mac & Cheese to Lean Cuisine's Mac & Cheese (which I've had, and it's nothing to write home about.)

Amy's Organic Kitchen Mac & Cheese:

This dish has one ingredient with three parts and then six other ingredients total. That's it. Total sodium? 290 mg. The calories are higher but the dish is actually tasty instead of a waste of calories.

Lean Cuisine Mac & Cheese:
Trying to count the number of ingredients in this dish made my heard hurt. Some ingredients had multiple ingredients which had their own ingredients. This isn't food, this is science. And while science has made great leaps I'd rather have food than science when it comes to lunch.

And that's not all Amy's has, there's snacks and soups, breakfast burritos and salsas. When I went to compare Amy's Cheese Pizza Rolls with Totino's I couldn't even find the nutritional information available on Totino's site. No list of ingredients or caloric inventory, just information on how to cook them.

My Food Revolution: Gorgonzola Salad

The wider variety of food we eat the better off we are; diversification is good for us and that includes changing up the veggies we eat. Different foods give us different nutrients but more importantly changing it up hopefully means you won't get sick of the good stuff and head back for the unhealthy foods. Here's another salad recipe I love eating.

Gorgonzola Salad:
Hearts of Romaine
Purple Onion - 2 slices of the onion then chopped to desired size
Cherub Tomatoes
Gorgonzola Crumbles
Pepper to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinaigrette to taste

I threw this together for my family one time and ever since then I'm in charge of making the salad when we get together for holidays. It's easy, light, simple and even healthier for you than my favorite salad.

My Food Revolution: Terminology is Tricky

One of the reasons participating in a Food Revolution is so difficult is because of the language surrounding food. It seems every way you turn the food industry is trying to trick the consumer into believing they are making healthy choices when they may not be. Maybe you're not into reading labels like I am, I know a lot of people avoid labels for their own reasons and I respect their decision to do that. Then there are the more neurotic types like me who want to know every ingredient that is in their food before they buy it. I'm sure the average person out there is a happy medium of the two, checking some of the food typically called 'junk food' and reaching for the 'healthy food' without even a second glance. But they come up to the egg aisle and they see all these different labels on the carton and thinking they're picking the right thing grab a cage free, all natural egg. It costs more, it makes them feel good, and yet it does nothing to ensure the chicken lives in a way that is beneficial to you or it. This article was sent to me by a friend and it deciphers the jargon written on your egg cartons.

So don't just buy the brown eggs because you think they're better; make sure they're pasture raised if possible and organic. If you can't find pasture raised eggs (as I'm having a difficult time doing) make sure you're getting free range not cage free. Most chickens live in a hut but that doesn't mean the hut is sanitary or safe but it's still sans cage. Make sure you know what things mean, otherwise you might as well just get the regular eggs rather than paying 50% more for something that isn't that much better for you.

My Food Revolution: More of What I'm Eating

Earlier this month I told you what I was eating, and I thought two weeks later might be a good time to share some more recipes I've been using with you. The more I learn about what I'm eating the easier it is to keep eating healthy. I found that many homemade dinners can be easily altered with a healthy substitute that tastes fabulous and isn't processed. Here's a few pointers.

Ditch the Texas Toast:

Ever look at the back of your garlic toast box and look up the ingredients? It's not pretty and what's even worse is how coated in yellow the toast is. It's probably not even butter but whatever it is, it sure is delicious. How are you supposed to cut that out of your diet? Easy enough if you have the right tools.

Garlic Ciabatta Bread

Healthy Snacking:
Every good intention can be undermined by buying pre-made snacks. Forget the calories, count the ingredients. If there are more ingredients than the number of fingers or toes you have it's probably not the best thing for you. The best snacks are ones that are simple and delicious. It's not always so easy to bring fruit with you so grab something else that's great for you! For a great on the go alternative make your own trail mix.

Courtney's Trail Mix

When I told you about LARABAR I didn't tell you they were about $1.50 - $2.00 each. For some people that's just not doable. The other recipe I was given is a little more putzy than this one which I found on Prevention.com so I share it with you now.

Prevention's Granola Bars
When I was little I used to call asparagus ass-per-gas and refused to eat it. Then one day a friend's mom made a quiche with bacon and asparagus in it. I cut a small slice and was determined to eat it to be polite. After the first bite I was hooked, I loved asparagus. While I've had asparagus in the quiche several times since, I've only recently ventured out to eating it in a healthier way.

Asparagus

Change is CONSTANT:
Even after two weeks I continually change what I'm eating. I've replaced Lay's Potato Chips with homemade Popcorn, an apple and string cheese at lunch. For an after dinner treat I eat organic strawberries and blueberries OR I hanker down with Haagen Daz Chocolate Ice Cream and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Why Haagen Daz? Each ice cream previously mentioned has five to six ingredients without compromising taste. This is old fashioned style ice cream, the kind that even your grandmother's grandmother would recognize as ice cream when reading the ingredients. It's so rich and heavenly you can eat less and feel satisfied. It's a win-win.

My Food Revolution: One Month Anniversary

It's been a month since the fateful day that changed my life. Last Friday was my one month anniversary free of soda and this past Saturday was my one month anniversary free from fast food. It's been a journey, made more difficult by not being at home and being in complete control of my own diet but there are ways to avoid eating things you don't want to eat.

What I've learned:
- Read the labels. If there's things you can't pronounce or your grandmother's grandmother wouldn't recognize, skip it.
- You can find healthy alternatives to almost everything in your diet. It won't be exactly the same but that doesn't mean it has to taste like cardboard.
- Leftovers of home cooked meals are your friends. Freezing meals is even better. When you're lazy and just want something quick this prevents you from grabbing fast food or a frozen meal.
- Tell people about your changes, it helps to be held accountable and to receive encouragement from time to time.

New goals:- Use the Farmers Market. Now that the weather is nice it's time to take advantage of local produce.
- Give up plastic Tupperware. It's bad for my health, it's bad for the environment.
- Try new recipes. Good friend Sarah from CWGAP has sent me a ton of recipes. I'll report back on how some of them turned out :)

My Food Revolution: Dealing with the Pushback

There have been a lot of benefits to learning about how food is made, where my food comes from, and even how to eat better. I feel better, I look better, and I know what I'm doing is better for me and the environment. It's been a constant struggle to encounter people who not only treat me like I'm crazy but also the ones who treat me like I'm manipulated and stupid for changing my ways. Even though I'm the one who has been reading the books, watching the documentaries, I'm the one who knows the least. And once that's known, it then becomes about how all of those books and documentaries are slanted and pure propaganda. I think there is a very big piece of the puzzle missing from most of the conversations where I experience 'push back' - it's called common sense. Let's throw out what the experts have found and just take a look at growing trends and try to see what could attribute to it.

Resistance to Antibiotics
There's this saying, 'You are what you eat' but as Michael Pollan brought up in his book In Defense of Food, 'You are what you eat eats.' This saying had me thinking about more than food, about antibiotics. For years Doctors had warned against using too many antibiotics for fear of resistance to antibiotics in the future. There was a time when Doctors wrote a prescription for every ailment, that time has come and gone and now we are seeing a stricter grip on recommending antibiotics. It stands to reason that resistance to antibiotics is bad, that these superviruses and superbacteria are evolving to survive antibiotics, and this is a problem for the health care industry and for us. Would it not make sense to also cut back on eating food that has been fed antibiotics as well? If our food is fed antibiotics to deal with the living conditions it's a fair assumption to make that there are superviruses and superbacteria that are evolving that target chicken and cows as well. By giving so many antibiotics instead of relying on the evolutionary process and the defenses their bodies have could be weakened, causing the need for more antibiotics. If we're so concerned with the amount of antibiotics we put in our own bodies, we should be equally as concerned about the amount of antibiotics we put in our food.

Natural Woman?
These days girls are menstruating at a younger and younger age. What used to start at age 16 is now beginning at age 9. What is the change in this, how can this be changing virtually over night? One could make the argument that the hormones (rBGH) used to increase milk production could be affecting as well. While it might seem unnatural to do so, let's take a look at things from a common sense perspective. Before the 1960s there was no to limited manipulation by food companies with their products. The average age for a girl developing was in the range from 13-18. After the 1960s we started changing our food, processing it, adding hormone, antibiotics, etc. In this day and age there are cases of pre-teens having babies and children as young as 9 starting their menstruation cycle. We are literally speeding up the process of aging, and given how many women wish to have children in their late thirties after they pursue a career starting their period at nine will make it that much harder. Evolution doesn't change things over night, these children should not be getting their period or having the ability to make a baby at such a young age, yet they do. This change is caused by something and my money is on hormones in our food.

Case Study: Margarine
Back in the day when margarine came out my Grandpa Pop said hell to the no was that going in his stomach. It didn't taste right to him and he refused to let my Grandma serve it. Now we know that the thing most food marketing tells us is deadly and bad for us is Trans Fat. Back in the day margarine had the deadly Trans Fat. I have a theory on man-made vs. made by nature/God and it basically is this: man is limited by what [s]he knows and often we find [s]he doesn't know enough. Just like with margarine which was introduced to take the place of butter as something much healthier for us, Heroine was developed by researchers as a safe alternative to Morphine. Patients had become addicted to Morphine and these doctors and researchers developed Heroine as a way to help them out as they believed Heroine was not addictive. It was later found out that Heroine was exponentially more addictive than Morphine. I am not saying science does nothing right, in fact Novocaine is an altered form of Cocaine that does not cross the blood-brain barrier thus it is not addictive and can be used as a local anesthetic so scientists have gotten some things right and some things wrong. What I am saying is until we know what is truly in this scientific food it might be best to leave it be.

Think before you eat something that has ingredients you cannot pronounce. Think before you eat meat that isn't free range, grass fed. Think before you purchase groceries, think before you go out to a restaurant. Even if you don't go as far as I am going in my quest for health just take a moment and think about what you are putting in your body. If you have more questions than answers about the food you are eating, chances are it's not something you want to put into your mouth.

My Food Revolution: Granola Bars

I think the most frustrating thing about my journey on this 'Food Revolution' is that things we thought were healthy for us actually are packed with chemicals and processed. It feels like there's evasive language at every turn and figuring out what we can actually eat is a battle in and of itself, let alone eating right.

When starting this journey towards better eating I went to the grocery store and headed towards my usual sections, reaching for boxes and turning them over to the back. Based on the few chapters I had read in Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, I had some basic tools to figure out what I needed. I headed to the produce section picking up organic lettuce, green onions, cucumber, summer squash, tomatoes, bananas, apples, and grapes. I felt good about that and tried to figure out what to eat for breakfast and lunch.

Grocery Granola Bars:
I turned over every single granola bar box at the grocery store looking for just one box without twenty to forty ingredients and void of soy bean oil (I'm anti soy bean oil because of Monsanto, if you remember. Most soy bean and canola crops are genetically modified and are sprayed with Round-Up as soon as they are planted, in fact the amount of pesticides is enough to make your skin crawl.) I could not find a single granola bar that was anywhere close to what I wanted. Frustrated I picked up a regular Nature Valley box and made a bargain with myself to find an alternative.

Homemade Granola Bars:
My friend Sarah from Chicks Who Give a Puck sent me a semi-complicated recipe for granola bars that looked better than what was offered at the grocery store but still used Canola Oil. For all that effort it still had something I wanted nowhere near my food. Deciding it was better than nothing I resolved to try the bars but before I could test them out my coworker told me about Lara Bar.

Lara Bar:
Lara Bar is named after their founder, Lara Merriken. The idea for Lara Bar came about while Lara was hiking the Colorado Rocky Mountains. What started as a small operation now carries over twenty different varieties of breakfast bars, most are dairy and soy free, completely vegan. These bars have anywhere from two to nine ingredients. That's it, they aren't packed with ingredients you can't pronounce or oils that are loaded with chemicals. The only ones that are not guaranteed to be soy and dairy free are the ones with chocolate. Even though the chocolate chips used in them are vegan they are made at a facility that makes regular chocolate chips so there may be some contamination.

What you should remember when you are in the grocery store is Michael Pollan's rule - stick to the perimeter of the grocery store and buy real food void of any stickers of health claims. Things that claim to be healthy often aren't real food but chemically laden scientist made food like substances. Which means be weary of most cereals, choose to instead make a fresh breakfast for yourself and your family or to grab a Lara Bar.