Food Additives: Do you know what you're eating?

  These days, far too many food manufacturers are cramming harmful additives into the foods we eat each day.  Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance it's appearance and taste, some are of natural origin, such as, pickling or salting, and others of artificial origin.  The problem with many of these artificial, and some natural, additives are the side effects they cause when ingested, being linked with cancer, digestive problems, neurological conditions, heart disease, obesity, and more!

Be proactive about your health, look at food labels, if the ingredients list is a large paragraph full of words you can barely pronounce you may want to think twice.  Products that are especially guilty of this are low-fat/no-fat processed foods.  If they are taking the fat out.....then what are they putting in it's place??  
Know what you're eating! 

Let food be fun!

  On my grocery list for last week were ingredients to make turkey tacos.  After making them I still had a lot of leftovers, so to prevent meal boredom I recreated my turkey tacos into baked tostadas, and they were super yummy!  Here's how I did it.....
   
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Place your tortillas on the baking sheet, brush with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt, black pepper, cumin, and chili powder.
Bake for approx. 5 mins. or until crisp, and golden brown.
Once cool, spread on guacamole, layer on top the seasoned ground turkey, iceberg lettuce, and garnish with salsa.

 Baked Tostada

Baked and seasoned flour tortilla with guacamole, taco seasoned ground turkey, iceberg lettuce, and homemade tomato-serrano salsa.

Mexican kitchen must have's...

    To always have on hand - Tortillas or tortilla chips, mexican spices (cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, oregano, black pepper, salt), fresh garlic.
     Ingredients to pick up - Meat (mine being ground turkey but can be anything you want), tomatoes, onion, avocado, limes, cilantro, peppers (depending on heat preferences you can choose anything from a bell pepper to a habenero)

Nutrition Tip: weekly circulars help with meal planning and money saving.

Unsure of what to make for dinner? Or what to buy on your next trip to the supermarket? Check out your grocery stores weekly circular for some great ideas and money saving tips.

Seeing what's on sale each week at your supermarket will help:

• spark ideas for cooking and meal planning
• add variety to your diet
• save you money
• make it easier to write a shopping list

I went ahead and provided you with a few grocery store websites that will take you right to their weekly circular. Take a look before you head to the market and see if this helps you create your weekly food shopping list.

Roche Bros
Stop and Shop
Shaw's and Star Market
Hannaford
Market Basket
Whole Foods

Restaurant Review: The Friendly Toast

The Friendly Toast, located in Cambridge, is your quintessential breakfast, lunch, or late night spot for delicious comfort food with quality.

So how did The Friendly Toast rate?!

5 categories; cost, ambiance, food, service, and location,each with a rating of 1-10; 50 being a perfect total score.

Cost: 8 - $-$$/Very large portions and good quality ingredients compensate for higher prices.

Be Aware: Larger portions can lead to overeating. Eat slowly and aim to bring half your meal home with you.

Ambiance: 9 Fun, entertaining, and eye popping. Before you even open the front door you are swept away by the aroma of sweet, cinnamon french toast and syrup. Once inside, if you had intentions of getting lunch, the overwhelmingly delicious scent of french toast will shift your appetite. Bright colors and quirky artwork makes this restaurant not only delicious, but a feast for your eyes as well.

Food: 8 This is a diner that puts effort into creating foods from quality ingredients, making as much as they can from scratch, and buying from small businesses instead of large corporations. The french toast was wickedly good, sandwiches were tasty but this is definitely a place you go for a morning meal at any time of day. The caloric density of the food offered here brings down the rating, making this a spot that is an occasional visit and not a eating out staple.

Service: 7 Waitress was nice, not very attentive, but she delivered our food in a timely manner and everything in our order was done correctly.

Location: 6 Tricky to find, located in a spot that is easy to pass by. There is metered street parking close to restaurant. Visit the website for their complete menu with item descriptions and prices.

www.the friendlytoast.net


Overall Grade: 38/50 =  C

Restaurant Review

I love going out to eat and trying new restaurants. Last night one of my girlfriends and I wanted to go out for some pizza, so we decided to try Stone Hearth Pizza, located in the Porter square of Cambridge. I was very pleased when we walked up to the store front and saw that they pride themselves on fresh, high quality ingredients that are locally grown, organic, and delicious!

Why did this excite me so?

Staying healthy and happy is my number one priority. Eating really yummy food is also one of the my priorities. Since what I eat directly effects my health, I need to make sure the foods I choose are health promoting, but also super delicious. Healthy doesn't have to mean sprouts and wheat grass, it can be sausage pizza with banana peppers.

No matter what you eat, try to choose the highest quality version of that food. It's beneficial for your health, and it will allow great flexibility with your diet while still eating the foods you enjoy.

Visit the restaurant website to read all about them or stop in and try it for yourself.
http://www.stonehearthpizza.com/index.htm