I hope you all have a wonderful Easter! Or, as we say over here, Resurrection Day! As family & friends gather around the dinner table today, may we all remember the gift Christ has given us, not only death on the cross, but resurrection from the dead!

And don’t forget to enter our giveaway–it ends tonight!!

Need some inspiration for some gluten-free Easter menu choices? Look no further! The Thrifty Mama has a free download available for a gluten-free Easter Cookbook. Enjoy!

What is your favorite type of sweetener? Do you use white sugar or brown? Raw? What about honey? A post at Econobusters lists 13 reasons to buy raw honey. I think I’ll go make a cup of tea–and use local raw honey to sweeten it!

100,000 coffee samples from Seattle’s best coffee will be given away today at 1 PM EST. Head over to their Facebook page.

Taste of Home magazine is currently on sale for $5.40 when you use the coupon code: TASTE.

Thanks, Money Saving Mom!

Congratulations, Emily! You have won a month’s subscription to E-mealz! I have contacted E-mealz & they should be contacting you shortly to help you set up your subscription!!I hope you enjoy it as much as we are.

For those of you who didn’t win, you can always go to E-mealz to purchase your subscription for only $5 a month!

Just a reminder that the E-mealz giveaway ends tonight! Remember that there are multiple ways to enter to increase your chance of winning.

Also, I’m planning on doing a weekly post on gluten-free eating, so if any of you eat that way, I would love to hear from you!

The groundhog may not have seen his shadow, foretelling an early spring — but try telling that to the half the country under snow cover right now.  With spring around the corner, we’re looking forward AND backward with SooFoo — a delicious and nutritious mixture of American grown brown rice, grains and lentils. As it expands its distribution throughout California and prepares for its national roll-out, SooFoo invites home chefs to experiment and see how SooFoo can add a nutritious, flavorful twist to traditional recipes, as well as inspire innovation in the spirit of its creator, San Francisco inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist Maurice Kanbar.

For a look back (or waaaaayy forward to the fall), SooFoo suggests a hearty recipe that owes its genesis to adversity.  For Thanksgiving 2010, SooFoo donated 250 lbs. of the product to “Gobble Gobble Give” to help feed hundreds of needy families in Silver Lake, CA (and four thousand across Los Angeles).  Says organizer Barry Walker, “We were challenged on how to cook so much SooFoo, so we had our first-ever SooFoo taste test throw down.  Thirteen amateur chefs each picked up about ten pounds of SooFoo the night before. We had a panel of judges and everything. People cooked it with turkey, bacon, veggie style, all ways.  It was great. “

The winner was LA Cinematographer Jacob Pinger, who was cooking at Gobble Gobble Give for the first time.  With only hours to create a masterpiece, he created SooFoo Stuffed Peppers.  “This recipe is moist, but light on sauce,” he says. “It really lets the earthy/nutty flavor of the SooFoo come through. The bit of curry enhances that earthy vibe, but all the little diced bits of tomato, zucchini, corn and red bell pepper keep the rice open and moist. I like to be generous with the ground black pepper to give it some bite, and that bit of lemon on top gives it a real Mediterranean flare for a perfect summer patio meal. Serve with a cold glass of crisp white wine. Yum!”

We’ve paired it with a Mediterranean SooFoo recipe.  While it uses similar ingredients, the outcome is different yet equally delicious.  Try them yourself!

SooFoo Stuffed Bell Peppers (by Jacob Pinger)

Serves 4

35 minutes prep| 65 minutes total

Ingredients:

1 cup SooFoo

5 green bell peppers (big ones!)

1 small onion, chopped small

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tomato, diced

1 zucchini, diced small

1 red bell pepper, diced small

½ cup frozen sweet corn

4 cups vegetable stock

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon of curry (more if desired)

A pinch of oregano

1/3 cup grated romano/parmesan cheese

lemon wedges

salt and pepper

To Cook:

Bring vegetable stock to boil and stir in SooFoo. Lower heat and simmer, uncovered, for 35 minutes.  Cut the green bell peppers in half (lengthwise) and scoop out seeds and pith. Blanche peppers in boiling water for three minutes.  Remove with tongs and drain open side down on paper towels.

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Sauté the onion in olive oil for a couple minutes, then add salt, the garlic, cumin seeds and curry. Sauté a few minutes more until onion is almost cooked, then add the tomato. Cook for another few minutes.

Stir in onion/tomato mixture into SooFoo once it has cooked 35 minutes and keep cooking it for an additional 15 minutes. It shouldn’t dry out!  After the 15 minutes are up, stir in the zucchini, red bell pepper and corn. Add a bit more salt and pepper to taste. Place the green bell peppers on an oiled baking dish and fill them with the SooFoo mixture. Sprinkle the cheese and a bit of oregano on each one.

Bake in a preheated 325-degree oven for 15 minutes. Before serving put a little more salt and pepper on top (if needed), and squeeze a touch of lemon on each.

Mediterranean SooFoo™ (by Meli Cook)

A satisfying and delicious entree or side dish.

25 minutes prep | 50 minutes total

Serves 6

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked SooFoo™

(Cook 1 ½ cups of SooFoo in 3 cups of vegetable broth for 45-50 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed)

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large garlic clove, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

2 large celery stalks, sliced

1 teaspoon of dried oregano

1 teaspoon of dried thyme

½ teaspoon of dried basil

½ teaspoon of turmeric

1 medium red or green bell pepper, chopped

2 tomatoes, diced, or 1 (14.5 oz) can of diced tomatoes, drained

1 tablespoon tomato paste

Optional – 1 small can of sliced black olives

Salt and pepper

To Cook:

Using a large pan, sauté the onions and garlic in 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil for 4 -6 minutes.  Toss in bell pepper, celery, oregano, thyme, basil and turmeric and cook for 3-5 more minutes. Stir in diced tomatoes and tomato paste. If using fresh tomatoes, sauté a few extra minutes. (Optional – add olives too.)  Add SooFoo to the mixture and stir well.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

About SooFoo

Delicious and nutritious year-round, home cooks and professional chefs alike will also appreciate SooFoo’s nutritional value and health benefits.  SooFoo is 100 percent natural with five grams of protein per quarter-cup (45 grams) dry serving.    A good source of fiber (with 16 percent of daily value per serving), it has no additives or preservatives.  Fans of SooFoo include hundreds of home chefs as well as “Wok Wiz” Shirley Fong-Torres and author, movie critic, master chef and food writer Robert Ebert.

Inventor, entrepreneur, author, film producer and master distiller Maurice Kanbar created and honed his “perfect” combination of 9 ingredients over time after making SooFoo for himself in his own San Francisco kitchen.  Kanbar called it SooFoo because it’s “super good food.” SooFoo is available in many California and Nevada Whole Foods, as well as more than 100 other gourmet supermarkets and health food stores throughout California and Nevada.  National distribution is falling into place; in the meantime customers can order direct from the web site: www.soofoo.com.  For recipes or to submit recipes please visit us at: www.SooFoo.com .

For the self-proclaimed organizationally challenged, hearing the nightly chorus of “What’s for dinner?” after a long day can be overwhelming. Healthy Steps by Jokari offers some simple strategies to reduce the stress and achieve mealtime success.

Planning is the key, but menu-planning sessions often take place between the fruit and vegetable aisle. Last minute shoppers can be easily side-tracked by anything that looks interesting or especially appealing at that moment-with nary a thought as to how it will combine into an actual edible meal. It’s a proven fact: If one is uncertain what to serve for dinner by noon, there is a good chance the family will be staring at the local default takeout option that night.

Wanting the family to eat nutritiously, while taking the stress out of the last minute “What’s for dinner?” panic attacks, is the motivation. Here’s how to get it together before gathering together!

Healthy Steps by Jokari offers five tips for planning simple, balanced and nutritious family-time meals.

1. Identify your family’s favorites. These are the top five recipes you know your family will eat. Take a poll, and keep in mind half of your plate needs to be full of fruits and vegetables. These can become your family’s “daily specials.” For example, Pasta Night can become a weekly event to look forward to.
2. Create a master grocery list, print it and keep it on a clipboard by the refrigerator or stick it on a magnet. Detail all the items you typically use in week. This includes breakfast staples, paper products and cleaning needs. Your goal: Weekly trips to the grocery store, not numerous pop-ins for vital ingredients.
3. At the start of each week, review the calendar. Who must be where, when, and what activity might conflict with dinner? Here is where you go easy on yourself. Schedule a breakfast for dinner night, take-home Chinese, or a pizza and movie night. No one enjoys a martyr cook at mealtime.
4. Plan the meals, print the recipes and add to the clipboard. The process is simplified when your list, recipes and weekly schedule are all in one spot. Remember to stick to your plan while keeping it simple.
5. Double a favorite dinner recipe when you can. Wrap half of it well and freeze. This will be a maximum time saver for those difficult days.

Doug Taeckens, President and CEO of Jokari shared, “Once the menus are planned, Healthy Steps has taken the guess work out of serving your family properly every time, even from the stovetop. Our innovative line of portion control kitchen tools simplifies the nightly process of plating meals for a family.”

Healthy Steps is a wellness-focused line of everyday kitchen tools developed to help manage and maintain a healthy weight. For example, the Portion Control Pasta Basket is a basket and colander in one; you can cook and serve the proper portion of pasta every time. The Portion Control Protein Server is a spatula measuring one serving of cooked protein. Once your meals are planned, the serving is a breeze.

Currently, the Healthy Steps by Jokari line has 30 products with MSP ranging from $2.99 to $14.95. The entire line is available online at Organize.com. A selection of products is available at many different retailers including Hy-Vee, Garden Ridge, Cost Plus World Market, Zabar’s, Wegmans, Big Y Food Stores, Kings Food Stores, QFC and Giant Food Stores.

For more information, log on to http://www.myhealthysteps.com for products, recipes and nutritional information. Follow Healthy Steps by Jokari on Facebook.com/healthysteps, Twitter at www.twitter.com/healthy_steps and on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/user/MyHealthySteps.

Are Our Kids Getting Fatter and Hungrier?

Advocate Reveals Connection Between Obesity and Hunger

and How to Stop the Trend

If the war against childhood obesity was a race, America would still be at the starting line.

Childhood obesity has tripled in the past 30 years. About one out of every three children or teens is overweight or at risk of being overweight. Because children’s bodies are still developing, the damage to organs triggers medical problems extending throughout their lifetimes, according to a report issued by First Lady Michelle Obama’s Task Force on Childhood Obesity.

Nearly 75 percent of Americans will be overweight or obese by 2019, and that condition will drag down the economy and impoverish the nation. What’s worse is that our nation is growing fatter at the same time it is growing hungrier. Another study by New York’s Food Research and Action Center describes another dilemma — a new definition of hunger that actually describes how families can become obese at the same time they are going hungry.

“The term the scientists used is ‘food-insecure,’” said Erin Baker, founder of Erin Baker’s Wholesome Baked Goods a (www.ErinBakers.com) bakery that combines the appeal of baked goodies with nutritional benefits to help fight obesity. “It describes the condition that hits a huge sector of the population. Low-income people tend to seek out cheaper food which in most cases is fast food, the result is a high calorie diet with poor nutritional value — just a lot of empty calories void of fruits, vegetables and grains.

Baker’s own journey started with being 20 pounds overweight and not feeling well most of the time as a result. She regarded food as an afterthought, but soon embarked on her own personal campaign to change her food and feel better. That campaign, combined with her 17 years in the natural food market, has inspired her advocacy of the fight against childhood obesity. She recommends the following steps for people who want to help reverse the trend toward obesity in their families’ lives:

• Fruits, Vegetables, Grains — Providing a diet that includes six to nine servings of fruits, vegetables and grains per day will change your family’s life. It will give them more energy, enable them to exercise more effectively and truly give everyone the fuel they need.

• Preparation — It’s easy to let the fast-paced nature of American life become the tail that wags the dog with regard to you and your family’s nutrition. Each meal should be thought of as sustenance, and you should ask yourself every day, “What is this meal doing for my body and my family’s bodies?”
• Food as Fuel — The cooking show revolution on cable has America’s mouths watering for tasty new dishes, but if you want to actually be healthier, you should also regard your food as the stuff that fuels your body. You wouldn’t try to fuel your car with garbage. It wouldn’t work. Why do you think your body is any different?

“I hear all the time about how people just don’t have time to prepare decent meals anymore, and how they’d never have time for lunch if it wasn’t for the drive-though,” Baker said. “What we feed ourselves and our families is killing us, killing our kids and one day soon, it might actually serve to cripple our nation. Our families need to eat the right foods to truly satisfy the appetite…this will curb the tendency to eat the junk foods that cause obesity. There is a fine line between being unhealthy and being sick, and we have a whole country just about to cross that line. But in the face of these new studies, we really need to focus and change our habits now and start eating healthier.”

About Erin Baker

Erin Baker started baking and selling cookies at 9 years old, and she loved it so much that she made it her life’s work. Erin created the “Bakers Breakfast Cookie” which she describes as a “portable bowl of oatmeal” to address the growing demand for healthy grab and go foods.  Since 1994 Whole grain oats, pure fruit and honey have been the primary ingredients in her shelf stable products, making her a pioneer in the bakery industry. Baker’s product line includes Breakfast Cookies, Home-style Granola, Breakfast Cookie Minis and Organic Brownie Bites, all of which are handcrafted and baked to order…and yes her name is really “Baker”!