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Killing by fast food, a photo by Nomadize on Flickr.
Wordless Wednesday? I don’t take pretty pictures and I’m way too wordy. Meatless Monday? Not a chance. But No Fast Food Friday? Now there’s a campaign I can get behind!
Back on March 25, Rob Smart (aka Jambutter) tweeted that he’d like to see #nofastfoodfriday take off. And it has!
I totally understand the end-of-the-week crash that hits around 4pm on Friday. October through April, my answer is Clean out the Refrigerator Dinner (CORD). Saturday mornings during those months I go to the farmers market to stock up for the week once again. But by Friday night, the kitchen is looking pretty stark. CORD allows us to enjoy the leftovers one more time, keeps us from wasting food, and (best of all) gives Mama a night off in the kitchen while everyone heats up their own “best of the week” plates!
For those who are observing fish on Friday this time of year, you already have a fast option. I can’t believe how fast a meal of salmon is to cook. It’s so fast, in fact, I usually have to have the side dishes almost completely done before I start the salmon!
Friday would be a good night for a homemade pizza dinner. With a little night before and Friday morning planning, everyone can make their own personal sized pizza in just a few minutes. It’s also a great night for the kids to cook. With a little supervision, they can make spaghetti, sandwiches or even a big chef’s salad and let you put up your feet.
Here are some recipes from my blog that go together very quickly:
What are your favorite quick dinners? Come play with us on Twitter this Friday and share your strategies for No Fast Food Friday! Be sure to use the hashtag #nofastfoodfriday so we all see your suggestions!
This post is part of Fight Back Friday hosted by Food Renegade.
We're Out to Win You Over by wachovia_138, on Flickr
Oh boy! Grab the car keys, honey, Hardee’s has a better-for-you turkey burger! It’s got only 490 calories and 23 grams of fat! According to the website, it’s just a charbroiled turkey patty, red onions, tomato, lettuce, ketchup, mustard, mayo and dill pickle chips. Just like I’d make at home!
Oh, wait…what’s that almost unreadably small “ingredient” link?
- Ketchup: Tomato Concentrate made from Red Ripe Tomatoes, Distilled Vinegar, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Syrup, Salt, Spice, Onion Powder, Natural Flavoring. Well, that’s not too bad. I mean, at least I can pronounce these and recognize them as food. I don’t like HFCS, but how much could there be in a single squirt of ketchup?
- Mustard: Water, Distilled Vinegar, Mustard Seed, Salt, Turmeric, Spice extractives and Paprika. Okay, not many surprises there, but I wonder what “spice extractives” are.
- Mayonnaise: Soybean Oil, Water, Egg Yolk, Distilled Vinegar, Salt, Sugar, Mustard Flour, Natural Black Pepper, Citric Acid, Calcium Disodium EDTA added to protect flavor, Extract of Paprika. It has to be soybean oil? Yuck. Disodium EDTA is banned in Europe. It is a chemical preservative and is used to keep metals from combining. I think I’ll skip the mayo.
- Pickles: Cucumbers, Water, Distilled Vinegar, Salt, Contains less than 1% of: Calcium Chloride, Alum, Sodium Benzoate (preservative), Natural Flavor, Polysorbate 80, Yellow 5, Celery Extract. Wow. that’s a lot of ingredients for something I make with cucumbers and salt. Calcium Chloride is a salt that comes from limestone and is used as a “firming” agent. Polysorbate 80 is made from sorbitol (which should be avoided during pregnancy and childhood), ethylene oxide (a known carcinogen) and oleic acid from genetically modified canola. Yellow 5 is one of those horrible colors that is implicated in ADHD and worse. Sodium Benzoate only gets a 2 on EWG’s database. I think I’ll pass.
- Bun: Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Wheat Bran, Yeast, Sugar Cane Syrup, Contains 2% or less of each of the following: Wheat Gluten, Salt, Rolled Whole Wheat, Soybean Oil, Wheat Flour, Rye Meal, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Honey, Calcium Stearoyl-2 Lactylate, Molasses, Calcium Sulfate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Polysorbate 60, Ammonium Sulfate, Enzymes, Calcium Peroxide, Calcium Propionate (to reduce spoilage), topped with rolled oats. Here we go. So, in this bun we have sweeteners listed four times (High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar Cane Syrup, Honey, Molasses). That’s a lot of sweet for a piece of bread! More soy. Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate is made by combining stearic and lactic acids (usually from GE corn and/or soy) to form a stabilizer and emulsifier. Calcium Stearoyl-2 Lactylate is so similar to Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate that I won’t repeat the info. Calcium Sulfate is calcium salts plus sulfuric acid. The non-synthetic form is allowed in organic processed foods. Huh. Monocalcium Phosphate (wow! something without a red warning label!) keeps powdered ingredients from clumping and is also allowed in organic processed foods. Polysorbate 60 is made from ethylene oxide, a known carcinogen. Some countries have banned its use in foods for children and it is made from genetically modified corn and/or soy. Ammonium Sulfate is a mixture of ammonium salts and sulfuric acid. Never realized before how much sulfuric acid is in my food. Interesting. Enzymes increase the rate of chemical reactions, it doesn’t specify what enzymes are used. Calcium Peroxide is a flour bleaching agent and is banned in Australia, along with other countries. Calcium Propionate is a naturally formed acid found in small amounts in many foods. Rolled oats – HEY! I know what that is! Still, I think maybe I’ll bring my own bun.
- Turkey Patty: Turkey, Water, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Sodium Phosphates, Spice, Flavorings, Maltodextrin. You can pretty much assume the turkey came from a turkey CAFO (what, you thought all turkeys were pastured?) Water and salt. Ah, a nice break on our trip through chemical land. Potassium Chloride is a natural salt found in sea salt. Sodium Phosphates are salts used to keep food from degrading when exposed to oxygen and is allowed in organic processed foods. Spice is defined by the FDA as “Aromatic vegetable substances, in the whole, broken, or ground form, whose significant function in food is seasoning rather than nutrition.” Similarly, “flavorings” is not identified as being natural, artificial or “other” flavoring so there’s really no base for examination. Maltodextrin can be created from GMO corn or wheat (in which case it would have gluten) and is used as a flavor enhancer. The main thing that strikes me about the turkey patty is the amount of sodium! I just can’t get behind eating food that’s come from a CAFO. Sorry, maybe we’ll stay home, honey.
Whatever you do, if you do have one, take your turkey burger plain, because the sauces are just disgusting! I won’t examine each ingredient, but definitely would before I ate one of them!
Mushroom Sauce – Mushrooms, Water, Mushroom Seasoning [Modified Waxy Corn Starch, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Salt, Maltodextrin, Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed and Soybean Oils, Monosodium Glutamate, Natural and Artificial flavors, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Caramel Color, Beef flavor (contains Disodium Inosinate and Guanylate), Beef Fat Shortening (Rendered Beef Fat, Corn Syrup Solids, Sodium Caseinate, Mono and Diglycerides, Citric Acid), Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Spice, Silicon Dioxide (to prevent caking, contains sulfites), Onions, Liquid Margarine (Liquid and Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oils, Water, Salt, Vegetable Mono and Diglycerides, Soy Lecithin, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Beta Carotene (color), Vitamin A Palmitate added), Modified Food Starch, Dehydrated Garlic, Spices, Citric Acid.
Buttermilk Ranch – Soybean Oil, Water, Distilled White Vinegar, Corn Syrup, Buttermilk (Cultured Lowfat Milk, Milk, Nonfat Dry Milk, Salt, Sodium Citrate, Vitamin A Palmitate), Egg Yolks and Enzyme Modified Egg Yolks, Sugar, Contains 2% or less of: Salt, Modified Corn Starch, Torula Yeast, Monosodium Glutamate, Lactic Acid, Phospohoric Acid, Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate as preservatives, Garlic Powder, Xanthan Gum, Polysorbate 60, Onion Powder, Natural Flavor, Dehydrated Parsley, Cultured Cream, Enzyme Modified Milk, Calcium Disodium EDTA added to protect flavor, Buttermilk Powder, Molasses, Soy Lecithin.
Sweet Baby Ray’s Barbecue Sauce – High Fructose Corn Syrup, Vinegar, Tomato Paste, Modified Food Starch, Contains less than 2% of the following: Salt, Pineapple Juice Concentrate, Natural Smoke Flavor, Spices, Caramel, Sodium Benzoate as a preservative, Molasses, Corn Syrup, Garlic, Sugar, Tamarind, Natural Flavor
This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.
After an average nationwide 10% price increase in January, 2010, it seems the coffee giant isn’t done fiddling with our wallets while the economy burns. The new autumn menu board sports an open layout, clean and easy to read (although no calorie or fat counts are to be seen yet) with the seasonal offerings prominently positioned. Starbucks representatives claim the new menu board was designed in response to consumer complaints that their board was too cluttered and hard to read.
But, when you look closely at the drive-thru menu, you might notice a few things missing to make room for all that lack of clutter. Most obviously, the “tall” size drinks are gone. “Tall” is Starbuck-ese for “small”, coming in at 12 ounces for a hot drink. On the board now are only the 16 ounce “Grande” and (20 ounce hot or 24 ounce cold) “Venti” size drinks. Oh, you can still get tall drinks, but you have to know they are there. It’s a secret, like a short drink.
(Did you even know you could get an eight ounce hot drink at Starbucks? I didn’t until one day I was there with my youngest daughter. She wanted a hot cocoa, but I told her she could only have half of it since she didn’t have someone to share it with. The barista said, “I’ll make her a short. It’s only 8 ounces.” Huh.)
I’m not a regular at Starbucks. I don’t like the greenwashing they practice, claiming their cups are recyclable when they are not and making questionable claims about Ethos, their water brand. I don’t like paying as much for a cup of coffee as it costs me to make my family a nourishing meal. But this insider culture they are promoting now smacks of class warfare and I won’t play that game.
As for the new menu boards, I find it disingenuous to claim that they’ve cut down the choices to the two most expensive in order to declutter. Considering the calorie and sugar counts of their beverages, they’d be doing the obesity epidemic a big favor lopping off the biggest sized drinks instead! After doing a stint working drive-thru, I can tell you for sure, fewer choices on the board=less “deciding time” for each customer=more customers per hour=greater profit. And that’s the real motivator, isn’t it?
This post is part of Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.
Enjoy your holiday cookies, but be sure you are alarmed about the health risks of doing it!
I read this article when it first appeared on newswires: Study Finds That “Sustainable” Food Isn’t So Sustainable.
For the most part, it had some interesting information and was great fodder for discussion among my family. It certainly challenged our critical thinking skills. There were a few “results” of the study that stuck in my brain like splinters, though.
Supposedly, these researchers didn’t just study food miles, or ocean acidity, but “everything.” Remember that old test-taking strategy: “Qualifiers like ‘never, always, and every’ mean that the statement must be true all of the time. Usually these type of qualifiers lead to a false answer.” That seems to be a safe assumption here as well.
Let’s start here:
Reducing the amount of animal-derived inputs to feeds (e.g. fish meals and oils along with livestock derived meals) in favor of plant-based feed inputs can markedly reduce environmental impacts.
Sounds reasonable, but let’s think about it for a minute. Because we don’t know (no one does, not even experts) the long-term damage to the environment (or our own bodies) resulting from GMO plant production, plant-based feed inputs would almost certainly increase environmental impacts. More GMO corn and soy means more monocropping, more glyphosate in the environment, more pesticide-resistant weeds, and more genetic pollution. I find it hard to fathom how plant inputs could be in any way considered sustainable.
At the point that fish are removed from their natural surroundings and fed man-made “inputs” rather than food, the animals’ body begins to work differently, less efficiently and perhaps dangerously (think: fish CAFO).
Soymeal-fed salmon is already in the markets. You’ll notice a little “color added” notation to the price sticker. That’s because farmed salmon which are fed soy meal don’t produce the pink color you would normally expect in salmon meat. The pink has to be added back in to make the fish “look” right. Does that make it right? Does it contain the same chemical and nutrient composition as salmon that makes its own “pink?”
I’m not saying the feed should be animal-based, I’m saying it should be what is natural for them in their environment. Feeding fish GM soy and corn (the cheapest, subsidized and therefore most likely suspects) would significantly alter their body functions, perhaps making them less suitable for human consumption. This alteration could have long-term effects on their environment as well, something we cannot predict or plan for.
But that’s nitpicking compared to my beef with this statement:
Driving to the store alone and then cooking alone at home has a big environmental impact. Going out to dinner more, or just eating more frequently with friends and family at home, has huge benefit.
Whoa. Did I read that right? Dining out is a more sustainable food model than cooking or dining at home?
This is the kind of message that has taught our children that Sugar Bombs cereal is “part of this complete, balanced breakfast.” Restaurants are wonderful, but do we really need to eat out more than we already do for the sake of “sustainability?” Is it sustainable to have others prepare your food, control your portions, mix sustainable seafood with unsustainable and unhealthful canola oil and irradiated seasonings and MSG, charge you twice what it would cost you to prepare it at home and create increased food waste by their preparation and disposal methods?
I realize the authors intended point was that an oven turned on for fourteen minutes at 350° to cook one serving of fish uses the same amount of energy as an oven turned on for fourteen minutes at 350° to cook eight servings of fish, and is therefore eight times less efficient. I have no argument with the “dining with friends and family” part of the scenario. Shared meals have a long, rich tradition in human history, and far better for society, health and environment to share a meal slowly than to eat in front of the TV or in the car on your way from point A to point B.
It’s a very rare meal in my house that requires a trip to the grocery store for a single ingredient. The drive to the store and back most often is a single weekly trip, carrying food for no less than 20 meals. How does that stack up next to the driving associated with a trip to and from a restaurant for a single meal?
When reading studies and articles by “experts,” I think it is vitally important to understand that we don’t know everything. We can’t possibly take every scenario into account: that’s the law of unintended consequences. It’s also good to bring a healthy dose of skepticism and not check your brain at the door.
This post is part of Prevention Not Prescriptions and Real Food Wednesday.
The Dark Side of Fat Loss
