How many ways can you say sugar?

Did you know that sugar could be hiding in what you are eating right now? Oh, it might not be listed as "sugar", but it is most certainly in anything you are eating if it is packaged or processed. Even if you are diligent about reading the ingredients on packages, sugar can be hiding under aliases!

I realized that it was important to write a blog about this when I was working with a client who had a simple yogurt. Many people think yogurt is a healthy food, but what you don't realize is that it might have a lot of sugar hiding in it. This particular yogurt was a store brand of vanilla with graham crackers in it. It doesn't sound particularly healthy or particularly bad, it sounds like an ok addition to a healthy diet... at first.

Upon inspection of the ingredients, we found that there are 4 kinds of sugar in that yogurt! Four! No wonder people like it! The obvious sugar ingredient was labeled "sugar". The 3 other non-obvious sugar ingredients were: evaporated cane juice, honey and maple syrup.

Another common food that hides sugar is bread. Most people would agree that bread should be flour, water, yeast, and sometimes eggs. That's it... it's that simple. Too many times, sugar is added to bread to make it taste better. Due to the publicity of getting enough whole grains in your diet, whole grain bread is in demand. However, it does not taste like white bread (imagine that!). So, what are bread manufacturers doing? They are putting sugar in it to make it tastier. Once again, the ingredients list uses aliases for sugar so that an unassuming customer doesn't realize what they are eating.

Bottom line, what types of words should you look for and try to minimize in your diet? Here are some:

• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Maple Sugar
• Honey
• Evaporated Cane Juice
• Molasses
• Cane Juice
• Corn Syrup
• Corn Sweetener
• Maltose
• Beet Sugar
• Brown Rice Syrup
• Sorbitol
• Barley Malt
• Fructose
• Fructooliogosaccharides (phew, that's a big one!)
• Sucrose
• Maltose

What happens when you have too much sugar? You gain weight, feel hungry all the time, get irritable easily, etc. In addition, you put yourself at risk for diabetes, heart disease, and a whole host of other ailments. So, next time you are looking for a healthy snack and must resort to something packaged, make sure you are able to spot sugar aliases on the label and make an informed decision.

Stuffed Poblano Chiles

We were shopping at our favorite store the other day (Mom's Organic Market) and were about finished when I realized I forgot something from the produce section. I left my fiancé in the frozen food aisle while I ran back to get it. When I returned to the frozen foods, he was enamored with a frozen meal of stuffed chiles. We investigated the package and decided there were waaaay too many ingredients listed for our comfort level, so we decided to make our own. I ran back to the produce and evaluated the big peppers available for stuffing... I found some delicious looking poblano peppers and thought they would work perfectly!

I decided to stuff the poblanos with vegan pepper jack cheese, corn, onions and cilantro. Then we made a tomato brown rice to accompany the peppers. The meal turned out so good that we can't wait to make it again!

Stuffed Poblanos

Serves: 2

Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup of brown rice, soaked for at least 15 minutes and drained

1 can of diced tomatoes with chiles (or fresh tomatoes and chiles if they are in season)

4 poblano peppers, tops cut off and seeds removed

1 small onion, diced

3/4 cup cheese (we used vegan pepper jack)

1 cup of corn (frozen or fresh), thawed if using frozen

2 TB cilantro, chopped

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees
2. Cook brown rice according to package directions or in a rice cooker. Once done, add can of tomatoes and stir to combine.
3. Put poblano peppers and tops on a small sheet pan and into the oven for about 15 minutes or until soft and beginning to brown. Remove from oven and let cool.
4. While rice is cooking and peppers are in the oven, sauté onion in small skillet over medium-high heat for about 15 minutes, or until slightly brown and translucent. If the onion starts to stick, add 1 TB of water at a time.
5. Combine cheese, corn and cilantro in a small bowl. Add cooked onions to the bowl and stir. This is your filling.
6. Once peppers are cool enough to handle, stuff each one with 1/4 of the filling. Carefully lay peppers back onto sheet pan and put back in the oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until filling is gooey and hot.
7. To serve: Put rice mixture onto plate and top with 2 stuffed poblanos. Enjoy!

Veggie Burgers

The weather was so beautiful today... it hit 63 at our house... that we thought we would break from the winter of crock-potting and make something to get us ready for spring and summer of cookouts.

What is great at cookouts? Veggie burgers! We decided to try a recipe from Yoga Journal that I pulled out years ago. I honestly don't know when it was published... When I read magazines, I rip pages out for recipes that I want to try or modify and put them in a big binder for later... I tried to look it up on their website to give you guys a link, but wasn't able to find it.

Anyway, the burger was basically black beans, cilantro, green onions, tomatoes, and spices mushed up. We added in zucchini too. Then we stirred in rolled oats. They cooked up well in the oven and held their shape nicely. I feel like these could be good contenders for going on the grill this summer.

To accompany the burger, we made sweet potato and  white potato fries, plus we made a spicy cajun roasted red pepper "catsup" courtesy of the Happy Herbivore. The catsup was roasted red peppers, onions, and seasonings ground up in the blender and then cooked down until it got pretty thick. To make fries, all you have to do is slice them thinly, toss with a little oil and desired seasoning, and bake in the oven until a desired level of doneness. To pump up the flavor a little, we tossed the potatoes in a little cajun seasoning to match the sauce. The final accompaniment was a hard cider from Angry Orchard. We are particularly found of the Apple Ginger and found it matched the burger nicely.

If you are wondering about our little skinny buns... we found these gluten free, vegan Amy's Sandwich Rounds a little while ago in the freezer section and they work well for burgers. In fact, it is really hard to find gluten free buns that are also vegan and these are the best tasting that I've found so far. They do require a little toasting, otherwise they get mushy pretty quick when they touch the toppings, but it is a small price to pay for a bun that tastes pretty decent and has all real ingredients.

Dinner was so good, that I'm looking forward to grilling out in the near future. Unfortunately, the forecast is calling for more wet and cold weather towards the end of this week, so I'll probably be back to using the old crockpot for one last winter hurrah!

Snow in March and Slow-cooker Sweet Potato and Bean Soup

Well, it is March and I am dreaming of Spring, but alas... we are expecting our biggest snowfall of the year today! Fortunately, the snow doesn't seem to be sticking very much, but it is still cold and wet outside, so I am feeling like soup. Usually I reserve the crockpot for when I am going to be in meetings all day and coming home late, but I thought it would be perfect to use today as I try to get a bunch of work done. Plus, I've been crockpot crazy this winter and have used it more than ever before in order to have dinners waiting for me when I get home.

I started by sautéing onions, peppers, and garlic. It's not necessary to sauté before putting everything in the crockpot, but I like the extra caramelized flavor and I have time to do it today, so I caramelized before adding everything into the pot. To the veggies, I added tomatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, ginger, and some seasonings. I set the crockpot to low and waited for the finished product a few hours later.

I decided to add some kale close to the end because 1) I love kale and 2) why not add a little green to this colorful soup?

Check out my March Newsletter

My March Newsletter is now available! Check it out here.