Tidbits: Let's talk Prunes

            Prunes are usually talked about with a hint of embarrassment, because, you know, saying you know about prunes is like admitting that you have a constipation problem.  Yes, prunes are known as a help for constipation, but they have a bigger nutritional impact than just that.

            Prunes are also called dried plums, because that’s what they are (and maybe they were renamed to be less embarrassing).

            According to The Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst, prunes are a popular Northern European winter fruit because they are easily stored.  They keep well in an air-tight container for up to 6 months, and even a little longer in the refrigerator.

            Why should you care about prunes or dried plums? Because they are a great source of nutritional value. 

• Prunes are a good source of fiber, with 3 grams fiber in 4 to 5 prunes. Half of the fiber is soluble, the type of fiber that helps cholesterol levels. Half of the fiber is insoluble, the type of fiber that keeps your digestion running smoothly. 
• They contain sorbitol, thought to be a help with constipation. 
• Prunes contain antioxidants, as well as potassium, some iron and vitamin A. 
• Prune puree (click here for recipe) can be used as a fat substitute in baked goods. Prune puree adds moisture, and it is especially good in chocolate baked goods because the chocolate hides the prune flavor.  (Click here for brownies made with prune puree; click here for other prune-containing recipes from the California Dried Plum people.) 

            Now, if constipation is a problem, either because of medication side-effects or another reason, here are a few proven health ideas to help:

• Add more fruit and vegetables to your day, consistently.
• Choose higher-fiber foods most of the time (whole grain breads and cereals).
• Drink plenty of water and other liquids every day.
• Keep active and keep moving.
• Stay calm; stress can affect bowel health. 

            Consider adding 4 to 5 prunes or dried plums to your day to help maintain good digestive health; you may not need to rely on the fiber supplements as much.

What’s for Breakfast: Oatmeal Pancakes

My husband and I really learned to like oatmeal pancakes when Quaker Oats introduced an oatmeal pancake mix at the grocery store.  The mix went away after about a year (I suspect it was part of a “test market” project) and we were sad. The oat pancake mix was available online, but the price for the mix was about double, you had to buy 12 boxes, and shipping was more than the cost of the pancake mix.

We found an oatmeal pancake recipe on the Quaker Oat website, which I modified a bit. The pancakes turned out great!  We like to serve them with hot applesauce rather than syrup (I know that applesauce topping sounds strange, but the dorms at Michigan State used to offer applesauce as a topping for pancakes and French toast, and it is yummy. Think of hot apple pie.)

           

Recipe: Oatmeal pancakes

(adapted from Quaker Oats website recipe)

Pancakes:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup oats (quick or old-fashioned, uncooked)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1-1/4 cup water (can substitute fat-free milk if desired)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Topping:

1-1/2 to 2 cups applesauce

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

In large bowl, combine flours, oats, baking powder and salt; mix well.  In medium bowl, combine water (or milk), egg and oil; blend well. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened (do not overmix). 

Put applesauce and cinnamon in small saucepan; stir. Heat on low while pancakes are being cooked.

Heat griddle or skillet over medium-high heat (or preheat electric griddle or skillet to 375 F). Lightly oil griddle.  For each pancake, pour about 1/4 cup batter onto hot skillet. Turn when tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked. Turn only once.

Serve with butter and warmed applesauce.

Yield: about 12 4-inch pancakes.  Serves 2-3 people.

Nutrition information per serving (including applesauce):  if 3 servings, 370 calories, 10 grams protein, 8 grams fat, 62 grams carbohydrate, 7 grams fiber, 70 milligrams cholesterol, 531 milligrams sodium.

Tidbits: Canned goods have a finite shelf life

If your can looks like this, do NOT open it.

On our lunches at work, we discuss random things, depending on who's in the room. One of the things discussed is food and food safety, and that's when I pipe up.

Many people wonder how long to keep canned goods before they go bad. Have you ever wondered this? And before I knew what I know now, I always assumed that the heat treatment used for canning was enough to sterilize the product inside. But now I know that not every single bacteria is killed. That's why cans bulge (see photo above). There are slow-growing bacteria that can have a slow feast and ruin your food.  And if you open the can when it's in the bulged state, the bacteria is going to spray all over your kitchen. Gross!

This can of fruit has been on my shelf for who knows how long. If I were very organized, I would mark the date of purchase on the top of the can. Why? Because, according to the FDA's Food Safety site, canned goods won't last forever, and the safe storage time for fruit is 12 to 18 months (see chart for other "shelf stable" foods -- scroll to the very bottom).  After that time, the food will start to deteriorate. The other can of unbulged fruit (same label) we opened had obvious corrosion inside the can, and the fruit cocktail tasted like metal. Bye-bye to that can, too.

So the lesson here? Don't stock up on too many canned fruit and vegetables,  unless you know you can use them within a year and a half.  And consider marking the date of purchase on the top so you can keep your stock rotated with the oldest in the front, so you know which cans to use first.

Q & A: How to avoid the greenish ring in hard-cooked eggs

Photo from American Egg Board

Q.             I was wondering what I am doing wrong. Almost every time I make hard boiled eggs, I get this greenish color covering the yellow yolk. Do you know what causes that? Is it harmful?  C.D. Grandville, MI

A.            According to the American Egg Board’s “Eggcyclopedia”, you probably cooked your eggs either too long or at too high of a temperature. The greenish-grey ring  between the yellow and white of a hard cooked egg results from a reaction between the sulfur in the egg white and the iron in the yolk.

            Is the green ring harmful? No, but it does not look very appetizing.

            A sure-fire method of cooking hard-cooked eggs, which will avoid the dreaded green ring, is to place the eggs in a saucepan in a single layer. Add cold water to cover the eggs by one inch. Heat on high just to boiling, then remove from the burner and cover the pan. Let the eggs stand in hot water for 12 minutes for large eggs (15 minutes for extra-large, 9 minutes for medium).  Drain immediately and serve warm. Or cool under cold running water then refrigerate.

            The Eggcyclopedia has lots of info, from egg safety, to recipes, to trivia. I don’t make hard-cooked eggs very often, maybe twice a year, and one thing that I forget is to buy my eggs ahead of time.  The Egg Board recommends to buy your eggs for hard cooking and peeling (used for deviled eggs, as an example) at least 7 to 10 days ahead of when you need them.  This allows the eggs to develop an air pocket on the larger end, making it easier to peel after cooking and cooling.

What's For Dinner: My Best Beef Stew

It's definitely stew season in these here parts. Temperatures today were in the low 30's, with flakes of snow and a wind chill in the teens. It was 50 degrees a couple days ago...but that's how March is. Teases of spring mixed with serious winter.

I found a stew similar to mine on the Fun with Barb blog. She serves her stew with an Oat Wheat bread, which looked like a great combo, so I printed off the recipes as inspiration in October 2011.  I finally got around to making my stew, but mostly because my husband noticed the fantastic stew meat at a great price during our last trip to Meijer's grocery store.


My Best Beef Stew

2 pounds beef stew meat (or cut your own chunks from sirloin)
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 - 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
Olive oil or other vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped into bigger pieces (1/2 to 3/4 inch), about 2 cups
2 tablespoons beef base
4 - 5 cups water
4 - 5 medium potatoes (I used red skin), cut into large cubes
1 pound baby carrots, halved
3 ribs celery, trimmed and cut into 1-inch sections
3 ounces tomato paste (half a can)
Optional vegetables to include: green beans, green peas, etc.

Put the flour and seasoned salt in a large zipper food bag, and add about one-third of the meat at a time. Shake to cover beef with flour, and remove pieces, shaking off excess flour back in the bag. Repeat with the rest of the beef cubes.
In a large Dutch Oven, heat oil over medium, and add floured beef cubes, a small batch at a time. Brown on all sides and remove from oil as they are done and set aside to make room for the next batch.

Once beef is done, add onions and cook for 2 to 3 minutes over medium heat, stirring to prevent burnt pieces. Add the cooked beef, water, and beef base to the onions in the Dutch oven, and stir to dissolve the beef base. Cover and simmer 1.5 to 2 hours. Then add cubed potatoes, carrots and celery and simmer another 30-45 minutes. Add the tomato paste to thicken gravy at the end (the dish does not look or taste like tomatoes, in case you are wondering). Makes great leftovers.

Makes about 12 cups of beef stew. Nutritional information per one cup:   222 calories, 19 grams protein, 7 grams fat, 19 grams carbohydrate, 3 grams fiber, 45 milligrams cholesterol, 582 milligrams sodium.

p.s. I did make the oat wheat bread from the Fun with Barb blog linked above, but had "yeast failure" (I was waiting for the yeast to bubble during the proofing stage, but it never did. I proofed a second packet of yeast --different brand--and that bubbled in 10 minutes. That put me behind and the bread was done after we were done with dinner (it should take about the same time as stew, as long as everything goes right).  It might be wise to start the bread an hour before you start the stew, if you want to serve them together.

Also, the bread baking directions say the oven temperature is 305, but I used 350F (the other number is likely a typo) and baked for 40 minutes. The bread turned out great.

Tidbits: How Much Dark Chocolate is the Dose for Health?

Well, chances are that by now, you have worked your way through your Valentine box of chocolates.  No matter if you got the chocolate as a gift or you picked them up yourself the day after Valentine’s for a bargain.

You were probably thinking, “chocolate is good for me”, when you got them, especially if you listen to the news often enough.

So here are my questions for you, to get you to think a minute:

• Did you eat the whole box within a week?
• Did you share with anyone?
• Did you make a vow to eat one piece per day until it was gone (because you always watch your weight)?
• Did you ask for or buy dark chocolate? Or are you a milk chocolate fan? 

• And last but not least, have you ever thought about how much chocolate you “need” in order to be healthy?

One thing amazes me in news stories about nutrition and food: The reporters give you the sound bite, “dark chocolate is good for (fill in the blank with either your heart, brain, blood pressure, cholesterol)”, but they neglect to mention “the rest of the story”, including the amount of chocolate that the study participants ate to get the good results.

According to the February 2013 issue of Tufts University Health and Nutrition Letter, yes, dark chocolate is good for you. But don’t take that as a license to eat a ton of it. Moderation may be a boring word, but that is the word of the day when it comes to chocolate.  Tufts reported that in one study, published in JAMA in 2007, it took just 6.3 grams (0.2 ounces) of dark chocolate per day to see a beneficial effect on blood pressure in people with mildly elevated blood pressure. 

So what is 6.3 grams of chocolate?  Half of a small square of foil-wrapped chocolate, or 7 Ghirardelli Double "dark" chocolate chips, or 13 Nestle’s semi-sweet chocolate chips.

A piddling amount of chocolate is all you need each day. Pictured is the "dose" of Ghirardelli Dark chips with a "normal" chocolate chip in the middle to compare size.

As for the quiz questions above? If you were truly eating chocolate “for your health”, that box of chocolate should have lasted at least until now (2 weeks later). Unless, of course, you share. 

What's for Dinner: Chicken and Noodles

When I spotted this recipe on Pioneer Woman's blog (click here for recipe), I knew I had to make it.  It's perfect for a cold winter day, and I like recipes that make enough for a couple days of leftovers.

It's an easy recipe, but give yourself plenty of time as it takes a while to bring the chicken and water to a boil, and to de-meat the chicken (but using the chicken with the bones gives the best flavor, so the time is worth it.)

I did two things different from Pioneer Woman; I added the onion (she did not) and I added one tablespoon of chicken base (she had the base pictured with the other ingredients, but forgot to mention it in the printable recipe).

I also got some gorgeous flowers from my "favorite" cousin Alan (I have to be careful because I have 24 first cousins and I don't want any hurt feelings!)  In the middle of winter, these were most certainly a bright spot!

Lots of cheerful color

No color, and more white stuff to come.