What's hiding in your spices?

Last night I was making dinner when I had one of the most disturbing experiences I've ever had in the kitchen. I pulled out my Hungarian Sweet Paprika, poured it into a teaspoon and almost had a heart attack when I saw the spices crawling around on the spoon. YUCK!

Upon further inspection and some research, I found that grain beetles are quite common in not only grains, but also in dried spices. It turns out that they are a good indicator that your spice could be moldy and old and needs to be thrown out anyway. I methodically went through each of my spices to make sure I didn't have any others and found them in my chipotle chili pepper, which I recently purchased and was almost gone, so that too instantly went into the trash. I even went as far as dumping out entire containers of Old Bay to make sure they are completely clear of anything gross and was happy that I had no additional issues.

How can you prevent these gross little bugs? It turns out that some people recommend keeping red spices in the fridge/freezer, just like your grains. I already keep most of my grains and various flours in the freezer, but I had never heard of keeping red spices there too. From now on, if you are at my house and looking for a red spice, you can bet it will be in the fridge! I also learned that you can avoid the beetles with air tight containers and making sure the area is kept clean. There is still a chance that you can bring an infested product into your house, so make sure to check all your grains, flours, and spices before you use them!

Farmers Market Find - Concord Grapes

At the farmers market last week, I found big juicy concord grapes. I have never tried them before but was drawn to them because they looked so big and picture perfect. The farmer allowed me to try a grape and I couldn't believe how much it tasted like grape juice! So, that makes at least two things I learned this summer at the farmers market…

1. Raspberry candies taste like black raspberries - I didn't know there was a raspberry out there that actually tastes like a candy, but I found them at the market this summer
2. Grape juice and jelly tastes just like concord grapes - I didn't know there were grapes out there that taste as sweet as the juice!

Anyway, I had to buy the grapes after my discovery! Even though they are extremely delicious, the skin is tough and chewy and they have a lot of seeds, so cooking them seemed like the natural thing to do.

I found a recipe online for grape jam that only requires grapes and sugar and thought that is the perfect recipe for me! I followed her directions exactly, except for the amount of grapes and sugar. I only had 1 lb of grapes and used about ¾ cup of sugar total. The jam came out amazing! Here is the fantastic step-by-step guide that I followed: http://chefinyou.com/2011/10/concord-grapes-jam/

Here is a pic of me squeezing the grapes. It is amazing how the insides are all white… and how they came right out of the skins. I think it is because the skins are so thick.

I put the skins aside, as directed, so that I could put them back into the jelly when cooking. I was nervous when I put the skins back into the pot that they would be too thick, but they weren't at all. In fact, they cooked down quite nicely.

Once it was all done, I poured it into a glass jar and put it in the fridge. Well… after I ate some straight off the spoon! :)

Look at the amazing purple color of the jam. If concord grapes are still in season this week, I know what I'll be buying at the farmers market! 

To be or not to be Gluten-Free

This week the FDA released the first standards on what manufacturers can label as gluten-free. You might be shocked to know that prior to this, manufacturers were left up to their own judgement about what is gluten-free, of course they are also allowed to call things "all natural" without standards, so maybe this didn't surprise you. However, if you are one of the 3 million Americans with Celiac, this should be a welcome change.

What is gluten anyway? Gluten is a protein found in foods processed from wheat and related grains, such as rye and barley. Gluten is found in many products including bread, cereal, beer, soy sauce, flavored chips, and many many others. 

How do you know if you have Celiac? How do you know if you should be gluten-free? 

• First of all - being gluten-free is not a diet strategy. Removing processed products from your diet is a good change to make, but gluten has protein and nutrients that are good for you. Often gluten-free products have quite a few processed ingredients that you might not want to eat either. According to nutritionfacts.org, there was a study conducted last year that suggested that being on a gluten-free diet was actually bad for your good bacteria in your gut, so a gluten-free diet is not for everyone. 
• If you have noticeable symptoms such as the classic features of Celiac: diarrhea, weight loss, and malnutrition, or latent symptoms such as isolated nutrient deficiencies but no gastrointestinal symptoms, then you should see your doctor and get tested. 
• If your doctor rules out Celiac, but you suspect you might have a sensitivity, try an elimination diet. This means remove all gluten from your diet for a period of at least 2 weeks and see how you feel. Reintroduce gluten at the end of your 2 week period and again assess how you feel. If you have a sensitivity, you should have a noticeable difference when you start eating it again. Based on how you feel, you can make the decision as to whether to continue eating it or not.
• Be aware that gluten is found in many, many products. There are plenty of gluten-free alternatives, but if you suspect you have a sensitivity, do your research on what removing it from your diet means and what foods are affected.
• If you try the elimination diet and don't see a difference between when you eat gluten and when you don't, good news! You probably don't have a sensitivity and can continue eating gluten (preferably in the form of whole grains).

If you need assistance with the elimination diet or have more questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at jessi.toye@toyeconsulting.com.

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.