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Well, we're getting to that time of year where food and socializing are abundant, holiday celebrations at your kid's school and at home abound, and everyone starts the downward spiral that is the source of many resolutions for the coming year.

This applies most of all to your children (if you have any). Since our child entered public school this fall, I've been made aware of what many parents consider a proper snack for their child (mainly because my child relays this to me in a "why-can't-I-have-

red-hot-cheetos-and-

Chips-Ahoy!-cookies for snack" diatribe). Let me just say that I'm not entirely against such foods on occasion, but they are not snacks; they are indulgences and should be treated that way.

The average child usually consumes between 1,000-1,400 calories a day (to find out what your child should be consuming, head on over to MyPyramid.gov and on the left, click the "For preschoolers" or "For Kids" link.  If you download MyPyramid plan for your kids and can't read it, try opening it in Word.  Anyway, my point is that if you're giving a kid a 200 calorie snack and it's devoid of any meaningful nutrition, it wastes anywhere from 10-20% of their day's calories.

So it's good to find snacks that are healthy, fast and well accepted by your kids.  The ones we've been able to agree on: applesauce, carrots with dressing, celery with peanut butter, yogurt, grapes, nuts, bananas, cheese (not cheez whiz stuff, but real cheese) and whole grain crackers.  Buying a fancy little spoon for their lunchbox and a $1.79 refreezable ice (see the butterfly in the pic?) keeps everything cool and makes everything look more acceptable to both your child and their inquisitive friends.  I once made our child a pasta salad with chopped vegetables and a tiny bit of salad dressing.  She loved it, but her friends made fun of her ("what is that?" and that was the end of that). 

Since we run out the door like lightning every morning, it helps if snacks are packaged and ready to go.  And cheap.  I know that.  For many people, that seems limited to 10-packs of chips or 100-calorie cookie packs.  These are not great snacks -- they contain little if any vitamins and minerals, and they also disregard one very important point: children are a captive audience during snack time at school.  This means that they're hungry, and whatever is packed (unless positively shameful) will be quickly consumed because it's available.  Thus, it's a great opportunity to get some veggies, fruits or other healthy snacks down the hatch.  A  4-pack of applesauce is about $2.00-$2.50, 3 packs of carrots and ranch, or celery with peanut butter are $2 at Trader Joe's, little packs of Stoneyfield yogurt are about $3.50 for 6.  Theoretically you can do healthy snacks for kids at well under $1 a day.  And that's for high-end organic good stuff, folks.

As a rule, read the label for sodium and fat and avoid the product if either of those ingredients is listed as 20% or more of the Daily Value (that's those percentages on the right). 

All of this, of course, is good advice for you, too.  If you want to start the year healthier and wealthier, bypass that snack machine at work, bring your own snacks and eat just those (squirrel the money you would have spent at the vending machine or the coffeehouse -- those frappucino dealies with whipped cream can kill anyone's diet -- into a jar and you'll have some money for nice clothes during the holiday sales).  Bring a container to work to take home any especially fabulous goodies, but unless it's the Christmas party, you really need to just say NO.  Save the snacking and grazing and enjoying for the social occasions when you'll want to let go a little, and for the rest of the time, polish that halo!

Okay, so starting today and going every Tuesday from 3pm-8pm, Westfield is having another go at a Farmer's Market. It's at the corner of Woodman and Riverside, so it's probably best to park behind Macy's at the mall. Here is there web site for more information on vendors and pictures.

Sorry about the lack of recent posts!

p.s. -- SB 1420, the menu labeling bill PASSED. So you'll see menu labeling for calories and fat on the actual board starting in 2010! Look for fast food establishments to create things you would actually want to eat as a marketing tool. America wins! (Okay, California wins!)

So the other day I bought those Anasazi beans from Whole Foods, and kombu, which is supposed to help tenderize the beans and impart some flavor. I learned about adding kombu to beans during the soak and the cooking from the Real Food Daily cookbook, which has difficult but entirely worthwhile recipes that make you look like a damned genius (and I LOVE the restaurant. If I was rich I'd hike it over there daily, all right. Try the chocolate pudding there -- a dessert I barely cared about if there was a cake or cookie to be had -- it's  ridiculous how good it is).

Ah, distracted by chocolate with just minutes to write. Back to beans.

They came out great (see pic). Beans run something between $.89 and $1.99 a pound these days at Whole Foods, and I recommend the pricier organic varieties. Keep in mind that a pound of dried beans will make 5-6 cups of cooked beans so they go far for very little money (you're lucky if you get 1.5 cups in a can).

Beans are: high in fiber, low in fat, high in iron, a good source of protein and good plant chemicals.  They're also delicious and when cooked correctly taste like tiny baked potatoes.

Except for black-eyed beans and lentils, most dried beans need a good soak. I put mine in a mixing bowl, fill er up, rinse, drain, and fill again 3" over the beans after sorting through the beans for any duds (dark, mangy looking specimens or the odd pebble). Cut a piece of kombu that's about 2-3" long (about half a strip) and leave them to soak overnight. Soaking, in addition to hydrating the beans, will eliminate some of the oligosaccharides in beans that make you blow up like a flesh balloon. Ann Gentry from Real Food Daily says that the kombu also makes the beans more digestible, but I think that's because of the tenderizing.

After they're soaked and you know you'll be around for a bit, drain the beans, toss them into a pot and cover with at least 4" of water, leaving the kombu in, put the heat on the lowest setting, partially cover (and don't let the top slip over the beans or you'll have a foamy mess overflowing in no time -- I lay a wooden spoon over the top and balance the lid over that so it lays there jauntily but can't flatten out), set a timer for 1 hour and walk away. Stir if you feel like it in between. Add a dash of canola oil to discourage the foaming if you wish. Skim off the foam or don't. But after an hour come by and have a bite. Still too firm? Give it another half hour and walk away. Drain.

In my case, serve immediately to small child standing at my feet who, after one taste of some cold-rinsed beans I was checking, demanded a bowl. Mush them up with a fork and throw them into a burrito. Put them over cous cous in a hurry. You get the picture.

When our child spiked a fever (it's not even winter yet and she's got a fever already?!) I tore through the freezer and made smoothies. She drank the entire cup, loaded herself up with vitamins and antioxidants and cooled herself down, all while asking if it counted as dessert (a  small cookie accompaniment cleared that all up).

Needed:

• A blender
  
• Milk, yogurt, ice cream, soy milk, or soy ice cream, whatever cold milk-like substance suits your fancy
• Frozen mango
• Frozen blueberries
• Frozen strawberries and/or
  
• Whatever frozen fruit you like, including slicing up fresh peaches and the like and freezing them ahead of time. 
  
• Banana?
• It's all up to you

All I did was toss in the mango, strawberries and blueberries (all cheaper than fresh, they keep way longer and have almost the exact same vitamins and nutrients), fill 'er up with soy milk and let the blender rip.  And stir.  And blend.  And stir.  Until it was still frozen and frothy and way too good. 

We finally trekked to the behemoth Pasadena Whole Foods. 

Since we didn't get to go away for Labor Day we felt like indulging, and there really was something for everyone. The child chose peanut-butter-coated pretzels and a ginger "person" (is it discrimination to call it a "man"?) but we drew the line at a large block of Valhrona milk chocolate on the grounds that it would be used for evil and not good by all of us, probably as soon as we peeled back the wrapper (rule #1 with questionable food purchases: Know thyself).

We founds some beautiful biodegradable plant pots (the kind you have to send off to some composting plant probably but they're made with recycled plant materials -- grain husks) and bought one for us and one for my mom in a beautiful green color.

We got a frozen gluten-free pumpkin pie for my gluten free mother-in-law (a tester for Thanksgiving?) , some kind of Sumatra coffee for the Hub, and uh, a pair of eco-friendly shoes for me (so much for my love of lunchbags over shoes...sometimes I can be swayed).

Oh yeah, there was also food, and how - anasazi beans in bulk, which we don't have near us, 25 lb bags of organic brown rice (we didn't get that but it was amazing to think about it), kombu (seaweed that is supposed to make beans more digestible and add flavor- I'll update on whether it works later), really awesome whole wheat burger buns, 6 month aged cheddar that the small child insisted upon...and we could have come home with much, much more.  It was like a department store for food - walls of cheese, small mountainous displays of chocolates, cases of baked goods, a sake section (!).  In short, it was fun. 

I'd like to try the prepared food there some time (it takes up half of the second floor, and there is seating too). The mac n cheese (large shells with gooey yummy looking cheese) was hard to resist.  Vegan? They have a CASE of prepared food that looked very very promising indeed (but I don't have an expense account, so it was eyes only): grilled tofu, quinoa patties, kale salad, something made with a LOT of beets...a wall full of gluten-free products with a freezer case containing pecan, pumpkin and apple pies, hamburger buns, various breads, etc.  They had a case full of raw prepared foods from Leaf (a raw restaurant in Sherman Oaks and Culver City, and if you haven't tried their carrot "cake" you should - it is a wonder.

So if you're out near Pasadena, check it out: 465 S. Arroyo Parkway, ph. 626.204.2266

I have the advantage of working at home most of the time, which means I can make my lunch on the fly. The downside: I often end up standing in front of the open fridge wishing I had started some rice half an hour ago when I wasn't starving. Or that someone would swing by and make me a meal.

So today I ended up whipping up one of my very favorite things: an omelette. Not just any, but an imitation of Le Pain Quotidien's lovely, lovely parmesan pesto omelette, since I'm a lady who lunches...mostly at home. This is a fast, good, pretty low fat way of making an omelette that tastes as good or better than the kind made with plasticky drooling cheese. Wish I'd thought of taking a picture of it before the parmesan started to melt, but there you go.

You need:

• One small omelette pan (if you don't have one I recommend the 8" open skillet most manufacturers of expensive sets use as a "try me" pan: a good one is about $20 and for eggs, go non-stick).
• cheese slicer or grater (or sharp knife and patience)
  
• a carton of egg whites or perhaps 4 freshly cracked ones
  
• A block of parmesan cheese (get the real stuff)
  
• Trader Joe's Pesto alla Genovese (basil pesto) (a dab will do ya, trust me)
  
• a tiny amount of butter or trans-fat free margarine like Earth Balance for the pan
  

All of the ingredients came from Trader Joe's.  The egg whites are good for at least 2 omelettes -- use within the week, and the other stuff will last...a couple of months!  All for about the cost of one omelette at a restaurant. 

Slice yourself some cheese, very thin (I use the center slicer on an old grater).
Heat up the pan on low, toss in the butter/margarine (half a teaspoon will do) to coat.  Pour in half a cup of egg or more when the pan is heated.  Omelettes are supposed to be made on high heat, but I prefer a gentler heat and to wait so that there isn't much "skin" formed around the omelette.  If you prefer that, heat on high.  After the egg turns white and starts to bubble around the edges, gently lift the sides with a spatula and tilt the pan, allowing the extra egg on top to flow underneath.  When the top looks soft but not watery, add 1/2-1 teaspoon pesto, then fold to make the omelette.  Gently heat for another 30 seconds to a minute, then plate and add the cheese over the top.  Makes a good dinner with very little mess.

Le Pain Quotidien serves the omelette with artisan bread and a small salad of baby greens with vinaigrette, which is surprisingly perfect even in the morning.  TJs sells bagged greens, vinaigrette and baguettes if you're in the mood to go all European.  And there you go.

One word distinguishes late summer salad: Tomatoes.  Heirloom tomatoes are the best, bought ripe from a farmer's market if you can.  They taste completely different than anything from the supermarket and I'm pretty sure they're what older people are talking about when they say, "tomatoes used to taste completely different when I was a kid." 

A trip to the new Fresh & Easy at Vanowen and Sepulveda yielded some huge, dried lima beans, dried minced onion, dried minced garlic and bay leaves for the only cooking I'm up to at this time of year: boiling water.  I soaked a cup of lima beans in about 4 cups of water overnight in a mixing bowl.  Today I boiled them for 1.5 hours along with a few shakes of the onion and garlic, 1 bay leaf, a couple of baby carrots and a shot of canola oil, which reduces the foaming created by the starch in the beans. 

I set a timer, walked away and came back to beans that taste like large, well seasoned baked potatoes -- pasty and delicious over a salad (it should be said that our small child ate a bowl of them -- the spicing is subtle).

The rest is all quickly dumped into a bowl: tomatoes, raisins, walnuts, baby carrots, bagged Spring Mix salad from Trader Joe's, and Follow Your Heart's (vegan, but not low fat) Thousand Island dressing (sold at Whole Foods as well as the restaurant in Canoga Park). 

My mother dropped over some of that amazing La Brea Multigrain Bread they sell two loaves at a time over a Costco (about $4.50).  What a delicious meal after a day of frightwig-level humidity.

If you hit the farmer's markets now, be sure to look for cantaloupe, as it's finally in season and really at its best (and cheapest!). 

In the '80s, the frozen yogurt game belonged to a bunch of little establishments (like the local and still-thriving Yogurt Delight at Coldwater and Magnolia, and Humphrey Yogart, ha ha, yeah, it took me years to get the pun and my only comfort was that Steven didn't get it either) and the big game in town: Penguin's.

And then all the Penguin's in the Valley closed as low-fat high sugar everything was villainized and the Atkins diet took over.

And now it's back, and how.

Of course, Pinkberry started all this nonsense, making tart-as-hell, it's-good-for-you-if-you-forget-the-propylene-glycol frozen yogurt and serving it in an anime setting (in West Hollywood, with no parking). As a result of their resounding success (and expansion), some of the newcomers serve yogurt in spaces that resemble the set of THX 1138 and blare ambient music.

All of these places (and a few more where we stopped, we looked, we tasted and we ran) have opened recently:

Purenaked yogurt, actual frozen yogurt (Alta Dena dairy) and fruit. Refreshing, touts lots of tidbits about how good yogurt is for you but really, they should be touting the fact that they let you pile on a couple of portions of fresh fruit because you're more likely to get health benefits from that.

Yogurtland: Something like 12-15 flavors, self serve, 30 cents an ounce. The yogurt is good, they have odd stuff like green tea and taro flavors but their vanilla is smokin'; they have a topping bar (cereal, caramel, chocolate, brownies, etc), and cups that start at the size of a small bucket. As a result your first yogurt there usually weighs in at just under the fighting weight of a small cat. And I watched, it wasn't just me. Although, dingetydang it, I always thought the peanut butter cups used for toppings looked dry and unappetizing and uh, they're pretty much like crumbled crack. Big downside: the place reeks of cleaning fluid (white floors, yet mysteriously, not that clean!).

More, including a nutrition tidbit after the jump!

Left to my own devices, I could eat carbohydrates with bouts of protein consumption and nothing else. Usually by dinnertime my interest in going face down into a bowl of food at the end of the day when I'm make-upless in my "tired pants" (nicknamed by the child for the proclamation about my mental state that usually accompanies their donning) is keen.

Turns out this is also how the vast majority of my students fill the bill when they're left to their own devices. They work a lot, can't afford a lot, and thus they eat breakfast and generally return home looking for food with raptor-like hunger. Many of us can finally relax at dinnertime (or lunchtime if we work the night shift, hopefully). They don't have enough time to shop, don't have enough time to eat, and as a result they don't meet up with vegetables very often unless they're in a wrapper squeezed between a piece of meat and a bun.

So how about a salad?

When you're really hungry, this sort of thing tastes really, really good. The prep also lends itself to the popping of ingredients into one's hungry mouth without a trace of guilt. And if one is a serious cheater like me, this can all be done rather quickly (and somewhat cheaply, but let's not kid ourselves, produce can be expensive -- but you're worth it!! Excuse me while I put down my pom-poms). Here's how -- any or all of these:

* Bagged salad (yes, it's cheaper, and even a little safer, to buy head lettuce, but who are we kidding here?)(Make it dark leafy greens like soft red salad and not that iceberg crap you get at the fast food places with no taste at all. Unless you like only that, in which case go ahead, it's better than skipping it altogether).
* baby carrots: ready for action, cheap, keep well
* cucumber
* raisins (keep well, in it for the long haul, keep them sealed in a bag, 1 tablespoon)
* nuts (violently expensive but spring the $5.99 or so at Trader Joe's. Packed with good fat and in the case of walnuts, those fab omega 3 fatty acids - 1 tablespoon)
* An apple. Keeps well when whole, get the organic for about $.69-.75 apiece and cut into salad last. Or,
* Mandarin oranges in the can. Usually swimming in sugary juice so drain them and rinse that off. Refrigerate the can. Yum!
* Frozen peas and/or corn. Don't believe me, but they're great in salad.
* Cooked pasta (1/2 cup to 1 cup), leftover rice, cous cous...(evil-fast pasta trick: put regular pasta in the microwave raw but just covered with water and zap it for about 9 minutes while you are prepping the rest, run cool water over it after draining)
* Beans, tofu, leftover chicken from the restaurant the other night, cheese, cottage cheese, parmesan cheese. Not all of these, just one good protein source, and just 3 oz. of meat, or 1/2 cup of beans, or 1 oz of cheese will do the trick
* low cal dressing, or 1 tablespoon of the seriously good stuff (read: high in fat)

Yes, all of this will run you about 30 bucks. But it makes a lot of salads, and a lot of salads is what you should be tossing down your gullet. All this takes just about 15 minutes once you get the hang of it (I run to the fridge, grab everything in one go, dump it on the counter and go to work quickly). If you go nuts you can really stuff yourself for not too many calories and get all your day's veggies and quite often the fruits you were lacking too.

Small child in the mix? No problem. Toddler age children love finger kid salad!foods, but many don't like foods mixed up together. So serve them separately while you're prepping. Also, serve them their veggies FIRST if you'd like them to get eaten. Keep any bread, beans, etc. for after the first 10 minutes theirs hits the table and they'll work on the good stuff first while they're really hungry.

I got this swell melamine divided dish for $1.99 at Target. (but note: NEVER heat plastic dishes in the microwave - the plastic gets into the food and it's NOT safe!)

Would you rather have this sort of thing for lunch? Good idea. Don't know how to package it up? For a child, there's the lock and lock. (The lock and lock can be had at Target for about $4. Again, never microwave plastic). For adults, there's To-Go Ware, Bento boxes, or anything else you've got. On a bit of refreezable ice in a cooler bag, please. If you yearn to see the best "what to pack for lunch blog" anywhere, check out veganlunchbox. You don't have to be a vegan to love it.