A Dose of Health

Butter gets a bad rap, but in my book I’ll pick butter over margarine any day.

I used to buy into the ‘margarine is better than butter’ hype, but no more.  Trans fat free and low in cholesterol spreads such as Promise and I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter, Country Crock and a host of others have a long list of ingredients.  Have you ever checked it out?

Here’s the list for Smart Balance Buttery Spread:

Ingredients

NATURAL OIL BLEND (PALM FRUIT, SOYBEAN, CANOLA, AND OLIVE OILS), WATER, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF SALT, WHEY (FROM MILK), VEGETABLE MONOGLYCERIDES AND SORBITAN ESTER OF FATTY ACIDS (EMULSIFIERS), SOYBEAN LECITHIN, POTASSIUM SORBATE, LACTIC ACID (TO PROTECT FRESHNESS), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS, CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, VITAMIN B6, VITAMIN B12, VITAMIN D, VITAMIN E (DL-?-TOCOPHEROL ACETATE), BETA-CAROTENE COLOR

You can find this listing on the Smart Balance website.

Butter:

Now, I’ll go to my refrigerator and pull out a stick of butter and read the ingredients as follows:

Cream, Salt, Milk

I don’t know about you, but I’ll take the stuff I can pronounce over what I can’t any day.

Not only does butter taste better and makes things it interacts with taste better, but the ingredients are common every day ingredients.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a spare jar of VEGETABLE MONOGLYCERIDES AND SORBITAN ESTER OF FATTY ACIDS sitting around on my pantry shelf.

The Healthy Goal

I know, I know, butter is full of saturated fats and its ‘bad’ for us.  Well, since the goal is to make healthy choices one choice at a time, if given the option between margarine and butter, I choose butter (olive oil would be better, but that option is not on the table at this time).

So, if eating butter means that I have to make one extra lap around the block or vacuum with a little more vigor, so be it.  I’d rather have cream, salt and milk in my system than the host of ingredients that are listed on the margarine label.

Additional Reading

While doing a little research on butter, I came across this document entitled Ingredients for Margarines and Spreads.  Not quite sure what it all means, but I know after skimming through the document, I’m even more adamant about choosing butter over margarine.

Last night I wanted pizza, but I didn’t want to order pizza because I didn’t want the traditional white dough pizza, or the traditional thin crust white dough pizza or the Sicilian sliced white dough pizza. Do you notice a reoccurring theme here? I didn’t want the white dough pizza.

I was lazy and hungry and didn’t want to wait for the oven to warm up to make homemade pizza so I decided to make a fried pizza instead. I know, it sounds extremely unhealthy, but wait, listen to what I did.

Here are the ingredients

• Whole grain organic soft tortilla wraps
• Fresh tomato (organic preferred)
• Shredded mozzarella cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder
• Basil (fresh preferred, but I only had the dried basil in my cabinet)
• Olive oil

Cooking utensils

• Bowl
• Skillet or frying pan

Here’s how to make healthy fried pizza:

• Slice the tomato paper-thin into a bowl and season them with salt, pepper, garlic powder and basil.
• Spread the tomato over the tortilla wrap. The tomato serves as the traditional tomato sauce.
• Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top of the tomato.
• Heat the skillet and put just a hint of olive oil in it. You only want enough so that the tortilla won’t stick. If you prefer to use one of those oil spray things, use that (I personally don’t care for them too much).
• When the skillet is good and hot, place the pizza in the skillet. You want to leave it in long enough for the bottom of the pizza to develop a little crust and for the cheese to melt.

Melting the cheese without burning the crust can be a little tricky so here’s an alternative method:

Nuke the pizza in the microwave until the cheese melts. Then place the tortilla in the frying pan to crust up the bottom a bit. Once the bottom has a little texture, lift the skillet and slide the pizza out of the pan onto a plate and viola! Quick, easy and health fried pizza.

Variations:

As far as variations go, the sky is the limit. You can top your pizza with your favorite toppings. Not being much of a meat eater, my favorite toppings happen to be things like arugula, olives, sun dried tomatoes, spinach, banana peppers, onion, and so on.

More than being quick and easy to make, fried pizza is delicious. Unfortunately, I was rather hungry when I made the first experimental pizza so I didn’t stop to take pictures. The second and third pizzas were a goner too. My hubby and son devoured them.

Next time I make fried pizza, I’ll take pictures and post them here.

In today’s day and age with prices rising with no end in sight, people may accidentally start eating healthier. It’s cheaper and healthier to cook from scratch. Every cloud has a silver lining and maybe a healthier society is the silver lining on this cloud of increased cost of living.

Although it is not absolutely necessary to buy all of the latest gadgets to make cooking from scratch easier, there are a couple of gadgets that I’ve found useful over the years. These gadgets have helped me to save money, cook healthier and preserve and store the excess food for a later day. Here’s my current list:

• The Magic Bullet: The Magic Bullet is what I use pretty much every day. It’s great for making a quick batch of peanut butter, small batch of pancake batter, a strawberry and more.

• Food Processor: For the heavy-duty large quantities (too large for the Bullet) I use a food processor. When I need to make large portions of vegetarian burger, homemade chicken nuggets, or if I have to shred cabbage for cold slaw I use a food processor.

• Crockpot: Slow cookers allow busy people to cook meals while they’re not home. Just add the ingredients and turn it on. It’s also a great way to cook a second meal while you’re cooking the first meal. The slow cook method makes even the lesser expensive cuts of meat taste great.

• Vacuum seal: A vacuum seal reduces waste. It preserves food by sucking the air out and creating an airtight package that can be frozen. Additionally, vacuum sealing leftovers in the airtight canisters adds new shelf life to last night’s meal. The vacuum seal also helps to season meats much quicker than the traditional season and wait a day method. The vacuum sealer cuts the seasoning time down to an hour or two.

• Dehydrator: although I don’t use this as much, it is a great gadget to have for making homemade fruit snacks or for drying fruit just before they go bad. You can also make jerky, whether it be chicken or beef. Personally, I’m not a jerky fan, but if you can make your own, why not give it a try?

• Juicer: Nothing tastes better than fresh made juice from organic fruits and vegetables. The juice is a healthy and delicious and it’s a great way to sneak some vegetables into your children without them ever knowing it.

• Blender: Blenders can take the place of a Magic Bullet and food processor (for some tasks). They’re good to have around.

The above gadgets are not necessary for better eating, but they sure make life easier. If I had to choose one or two gadgets that I could not live without, it would be the Magic Bullet and the crockpot.