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Rhubarb Strawberry Cream Pie

My husband has yearned for rhubarb strawberry pie. Since our garden rhubarb isn’t producing (will have to transfer to a sunny spot), he bought some rhubarb along with strawberries anticipating the master baker would come up with a brilliant recipe! First I checked my mother’s recipe list knowing it was a family favourite, then the internet and eventually adaped both for our guests, one with diabetes so used Truvia (baking form of stevia) for 50% of the sugar.

Voila, this is the product!

The crust was made with olive oil becel soft margarine. I know some of you will object, this has become an area of debate. Since I have a family history of heart disease, I’m opposed to using butter or coconut, known in the literature for elevating LDL cholesterol. My preference for a tender pastry is lard, however environmentally and because my guests are vegetarian, this is forbidden. So I settled for the Mediterranean alternative, yes …I have tried oil based pastries without much success. It wasn’t the most tender pastry because I always underestimate my fat, but it looks great. As well the bottom pastry was not soggy which is often the case with slow cooking pies, it too 1.5 hrs to cook!!!

The lattice pastry top was as per request from my husband.

Lovely flavour, without much sugar…not too sweet or too tart!!

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Green Pea Harvest Snaps

Parmesan Roasted Garlic Green Pea Snap Crisps

First ingredient is green peas with about 27 ingredients when the sub-ingredients are included, highly refined!
Nutition-wise: high in protein, iron, and fibre, low in carbohydrate.
Perhaps it would be nicer to eat fresh snap peas with a dip or hummus!

While shopping in Safeway’s yesterday, was interested in their featured display; as I was commiserating, another shopper eager to get her spicy Harvest Snaps reached around me toppling a neighbouring display. I was quite surprised and commented that she must really love the product. She was happy to share her views on the variety of flavours available.

I decided on the parmesan roasted garlic because I was going to share with my husband who has an aversion to spicy foods.

The package weighs 85g and the portion size is 1/2 bag=50g. That would be a very large portion for me, the product tastes like cheesies. It has 29g carb with 8g fibre= only 21g available carb! There is 9 g fat, mostly canola oil which has a good balance of monounsaturated fat however many of my clients may be concerned about GMO’s. Only 150g sodium which is not too bad for a snack, and 9g protein, 20% iron, quite astounding for a snack.

But it is highly processed, thank goodness the first ingredient is green peas, but it has a total of ~27 ingredients when you include the sub-ingredients!

Do I think it’s a healthy snack…. well better than some chips and cheesies but there are better whole foods that one could choose… like snap peas alone or with dip or hummus!

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Updating Traditional Recipes

Banana Tea Bread

Taking recipes from the past and updating them- Banana Tea Bread!

My mother cooked everything from scratch, we often had casseroles with lots of vegetables. either on the side are in the casserole and always had dessert!

So looking back in time, I resurrected my mom’s banana tea bread recipe.

With more variety of seasonal fruit, we’re collecting overripe bananas quickly. Wanting to minimize waste, I decided to research my mom’s recipes and found banana tea bread. Although most of her cooking was healthy, she did use the hard margarine or shortening with trans fatty acids and rarely used whole wheat flour.

To make a healthier version, I went 50% whole wheat and used an olive based soft margarine (has no trans fatty acids and very little saturated fat). Perhaps I should have tried olive oil but adding more fluid to the recipe may have altered the dry ingredient ratio. As well, because I was sharing this with my diabetes brother-in-law, I substituted truvia (stevia) for the sugar, so it had no sugar in it, per se.

It was moist, sweet enough and tasted rich with banana!

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Is The Beyond Meat Burger Actually Good For You?

https://andytherd.com/2019/07/22/is-the-beyond-meat-burger-actually-good-for-you/

Another excellent article by Andy the RD

I’ve copied his edited version of Chris Millers analysis

 

The Beyond Meat Burger

By Chris Miller

Vegetarian friendly substitutes of traditionally meat-based dishes are nothing new; while many are original recipes, isolated from the meat-eating world, others are imitations of common meat dishes such as the (in)famous tofurkey.

Attempts at vegetarian friendly imitation burgers are commonplace and the subject of today’s article: The Beyond Burger, has taken the spotlight.

With constantly growing sales and acceptance into grocery store meat aisles Beyond Meat has gripped the market for plant-based eating by the buns with its imitation meats.

The Beyond Burger is a plant-based meat substitute burger developed by Beyond Meat, but is it the savior of the vegan barbeque?

Let’s take a look.

So What’s In One Of These Things?

Aside from water the primary ingredient and main source of protein in the burger is “pea protein isolate” which is a plant-based protein derived from peas.

It’s gotten somewhat popular as a protein source in manufactured foods due to its high digestibility and satiating effect.

Yellow peas are dried and ground then the fiber and starches are washed away with water in order to leave only the protein behind.

Rice protein isolate is the second protein source intended to complete the amino acid profile of the burgers; as pea protein is high in the essential amino acid lysine but low in cysteine and methionine while rice protein is the opposite, high in cysteine and methionine but low in lysine.

By combining these protein sources the Beyond Burger offers a complete essential amino acid profile similar to meat.

The main sources of fat in the burger are expeller-pressed canola oil and refined coconut oil. Expeller-pressed canola oil is extracted non-chemically by good old-fashioned squeezing as opposed to the chemical processes involved in most canola extraction.

Normally a hexane solvent is used to break down everything but the oil, which is then extracted and heat treated to remove the solvent.

Miniscule amounts of the solvent may remain in the oil however (we’re talking parts per million miniscule) which does raise alarms for some. We’re not sure if this actually has any negative effects on human health but for some people it’s better safe than sorry.

Canola oil has the lowest amount of saturated fat when compared to other common cooking oils, higher amounts of omega-3s, and no cholesterol.

Coconut oil on the other hand is very high in saturated fat and low amounts of both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.

The refining process of coconut oil involves roasting, pressing, then bleaching of the coconut flesh. This has some benefits including a higher smoke point (important for burgers) and a milder coconut flavor, however if you prefer whole, unprocessed foods then refined coconut oil may not be for you.

The remaining ingredient list:

  • Natural flavors
  • Cocoa butter
  • Mung bean protein
  • Methylcellulose (plant fiber derived from bamboo)
  • Potato starch
  • Apple extract
  • Salt
  • Potassium Chloride
  • Vinegar
  • Lemon Juice concentrate
  • Sunflower lecithin
  • Pomegranate fruit powder
  • Beat juice extract

All appear in much lower quantities, most making up less than 2% of the product, and are primarily intended to mimic the flavor, texture, and appearance of meat.

Of note in regard to “natural flavors” it may be important to you to know that this does not necessarily mean unprocessed flavors. Natural flavors are flavor compounds derived from sources like spices, meat, or plants and may have been chemically treated.

Nutrients comparison

We’ll be comparing both a generic NoName brand frozen patty and a McDonalds patty to an equal serving of the Beyond Burger.

113g serving Beyond Burger NoName McDonalds
Calories 250 320 300
Saturated Fat 6g 13g 10g
Trans Fat 0g 1g 1g
Cholesterol 0mg 80mg 94mg
Sodium 390mg 430mg 75mg
Fiber 2g 0g 0g
Protein 20g 14g 26g

As you can see the Beyond Burger holds its own pretty well.

Lower calories, saturated fat, and cholesterol than the competition while also boasting a small bit of fiber and comparable protein. It is however notably high in sodium. It should be mentioned that these numbers are only for the patty.

Once you add a bun, toppings, and condiments they’ll be quite a bit higher.

But How Does It Taste?

Out of obligation, curiosity, and because I really wanted a burger I decided to give A&W’s Beyond Burger a try.

Pressing my poor student budget to the limit I ordered two Mama burgers, requesting one have its patty replaced with a Beyond Burger patty.

Can you tell which is which?

Once I bit into them I certainly could.

While the Beyond Burger was surprisingly good and yes, very close to the flavor of real meat, it wasn’t quite there.

The texture was a bit softer and had a pleasant but telltale aftertaste. It’s not going to fool any meat eaters, but it’s close and still very tasty.

Is the Beyond Burger for You?

Well that depends; there’s endless reasons people reduce their meat intake. If your reasoning is environmental or related to animal suffering then absolutely you should give the Beyond Burger a try.

Beyond Meat claims each of their burgers requires 99% less water, 93% less land, 46% less energy and generates 90% less greenhouse gas than a traditional beef burger.

This is certainly promising.

From a nutritional perspective consumers may harbour concerns over the extensive ingredient list, but it remains hard to deny that the nutrient composition is favourable to other common beef burger varieties. The cost could also be a concern, with 2 frozen Beyond Burgers costing eight dollars in most grocery stores.

All in all the Beyond Burger is very promising and could create options for a lot of vegetarians. It’s not perfect but no food is.

I certainly didn’t regret feeding my curiosity and biting into one, I doubt you will either.

Final Verdict: While beef lovers can’t easily replace a steak, they can now replace a beef burger. Give the Beyond Burger a try.

Chris

 

 

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Metformin recall

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/more-diabetes-drugs-recalled-over-contaminant-linked-to-cancer-1.4983576

There have been reports of unacceptable levels of nitrosamines in some of the metformin , slow release medication  and there is a recall.  It is not suggested that you stop taking your metformin, however it may be advisable to discuss this recall with your doctor or pharmacist.

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Opening office #105, 5700 Cowrie St. Sechelt next week, Tue-Thur, 10-4 pm

Safety Precautions for Covid 19 visiting Dietitian’s office:

  1. Removing most of the chairs in the waiting room to ensure physical distancing
  2. Removing all the magazines to reduce the number of touch points.
  3. Making some of the kitchen area off limits to reduce the number of touch points.
  4. Providing hand sanitizer in the waiting room and bathroom
  5. Putting up notices on the entrance door and in the waiting room to advise patients about Covid19 protocol
  6. Pre-booking precautions to ensure clients are not showing Covid 19 symptoms
  7. No cancellation fee, if clients are feeling unwell prior to the appointment.
  8. Patients will be spaced with 30 minutes between each appointment, to ensure no overlap
  9. Desk surfaces, chair, door knobs will be sanitized, before, between and after all appointments.
  10. Clients will not be seen if they are not wearing facemasks, as will the Dietitian during the visit.
  11.  No drop-ins
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How to cook your own chickpeas!

Soaking overnight

Have been wanting to cook chickpeas instead of using canned for some time,  They taste fresher and it saves you $$  Finally I decided to soak overnight, started with 1 c chickpeas:3 c water, no salt

This forced me to cook them in my instapot the next day, it was so easy.  I don’t know why I procrastinated.  I rinsed them, put them in the instapot with the same water ratio and pressure cooked for 20 minutes.

 

 

Cooke in Instapot for 20 minutes

Don’t they look great!  And they smelled so yummy, I snacked on some right there!   I thought that I had cooked way too much but didn’t realize that I would use them up so quickly!

Have wanted to make roasted chickpeas as a healthy snack for some time.  Found the perfect recipe:  2 cups chickpeas, 2 T vinegar, 1 T olive oil, 1 tsp dijon mustard, supposed to have 1 pinch salt, I made mine unsalted.  Placed in a pre-heated 400 F degree oven on a cookie sheet, no greasing.  The recipe suggests baking for 1 hr, tossing them every 10 min.  I was far too impatient for this and tossed them every 15 min but by 30 min, they looked roasted and I took them out.

 

Roasted Chickpeas

They tasted great, but some of them were not crisp and slightly soft so I put them in the oven for longer, next time I would check them more often and take the browned chickpeas out as they cook unevenly in my oven.. Was very pleased with the flavour and  will do this again.

I was on a roll  and proceeded to make a chicken chili  adding 2 cups chickpeas, fortunately that was exactly the amount I had left over..  So I was able to cook an entree with the remaining chickpeas depriving myself of the opportunity to refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze in 2 cup portions.

 

Chicken Chili with chickpeas

I won’t tell you the recipe because it became a truly signature dish using my favourite allium vegetables.  Perhaps it was a bit spicy; for my partner but just perfect for me.  Here’s a photo of that meal!

So don’t hesitate, save yourself some $$ and cook your own chickpeas!