The Junk Food Nutritionist

                I was invited to a potluck party to watch the big football game…at the last minute.                 What!? I love preparing food to share with others. But, I’d rather have advance notice.                 My usual potluck favorites: fruit salad, quinoa salad, hummus with crackers or vegetable chips, or dessert with a dietitian twist.                 Well, I didn’t have enough fruit for fruit salad and I was missing the sauce I usually add to my quinoa salad. I’d already gone grocery shopping and didn’t want to go back out to find any special ingredients.                 So, I thought about ...

At work, we served Red, White, and Blue Cookies at our Memorial Day picnic. I was hoping they would be served again for Fourth of July. And, initially, that was the plan. I pointed out that some of our residents were unable to eat them due to dietary restrictions and we'd have to make an alternate dessert. Rather than making an alternate dessert, the idea was nixed entirely. So, I decided to make my own... Since my company didn't make them from scratch, I couldn't borrow the recipe to follow. (Not to mention, it wouldn't have been vegan or otherwise met my nutrition preferences...) I started with Minimalist Baker's 1 Bowl Vegan Sugar Cookies as a guide. You could also use your favorite sugar cookie recipe or even store bought sugar cookie dough and add dried blueberries and dried cranberries. Red, White, and Blue Vegan Cookies Makes 9 small cookies 4 Tbsp. margarine 2 Tbsp. brown sugar 2 Tbsp. powdered stevia (or another sugar substitute e...

Over the past month, I’ve looked at several healthy-seeming snack foods and shown you which aren’t as healthy as you might think.  Today, I have one more snack for you…Flavored squeezable applesauce pouches.  You might be thinking, “No way is that healthy. It has to be full of added sugar and artificial flavoring.” But that’s not true. At least, it’s not true for Musselman’sSqueezables . I’d call these a health food. In addition to unsweetened applesauce, Musselman’s Squeezables come in fun flavors: Sour Raspberry, Sour Cherry, Sour Lemon, Strawberry, and Honey Cinnamon.     None of them contain artificial flavors or artificial colors. The Honey Cinnamon applesauce contains honey, but none of the others contain added sugars.  The main ingredient, of course, is apples. The three berry-flavored ones contain raspberry puree, cherry puree, and strawberry puree respectively. The lemon one contains lemon juice. Of course, there’s cinn...

It’s National Nutrition Month and we’re looking at snacks. Which are health foods and which are junk foods? Someone asked for my opinion on this week’s product: Go Macro Bars. To be honest, I’d never eaten one before.   So, I had to sample one, especially after I found them for a ridiculously low price. I bought a whole box of 12 for only $2! These bars of organic, vegan, Kosher, gluten-free, and non-GMO. But, none of those terms automatically make this product a health food.  In fact, I’d say this falls more in the spectrum of junk food.  Let’s look at the ingredients to really understand why…

We all need a grab-and-go snack sometimes. Often, a granola bar is an easy choice because it can be eaten with one hand. It doesn't even have to be a clean hand because your hand will never touch it; just eat it straight from the wrapper. But, there are a lot of different granola bar and granola-bar-like things on the market. Their status as health food or junk food varies. Where do KIND Pressed Bars fit? I'd call these a health food! This is a health food because it is made up of only a few ingredients, all of which are healthy foods. KIND's website lists 6 flavors: Apricot Pear Carrot Beet, Pineapple Coconut Chia, Pineapple Banana Kale Spinach, Mango Apple Chia, Cherry Apple Chia, and Strawberry Apple Chia. Those aren't just the flavor names; those are the ingredients. The Mango Apple Chia flavored bar only contains mango, apples, and chia seeds. Although I consider this to be a health food instead of a junk food, I still recommend eating it in mod...

A bodybuilder friend told me about “healthy,” vegan cookies by Lenny & Larry .   My sweet tooth said, “I have to try them.”   I soon found The Complete Cookie at my corner drugstore. There were only two flavors available in store and each individual cookie cost $1.99.   But, online Lenny & Larry sell 11 flavors: snickerdoodle, chocolate chip, birthday cake, coconut chocolate chip, double chocolate peanut butter swirl, double chocolate, peanut butter, white chocolate macadamia, lemon poppy seed, oatmeal raisin, and pumpkin spice.   These cookies are vegan and Kosher. They’re made without high fructose corn syrup, soy, artificial sweeteners, sugar alcohols, and partially hydrogenated oils. They must be healthy, right?   Well, no. These are healthier cookies, but they’re still junk food...

You may already know that I love my Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bake recipe. It makes a nice, soft oatmeal bar. But I set out to make another soft oatmeal bar. I came up with this Cran-Cherry Oat Bar which was literally devoured by the first coworker who tried it. No one else got a piece!   This time, I decided to get the protein from chickpea flour. And without the sticky peanut butter, I needed another binder—a flax egg! Cran-Cherry Oatmeal Bars Vegan, Gluten-Free, Nut-Free Number of servings depends on your serving size. I cut mine into 6 bars. 4 of which were eaten by one man. 1 Tablespoon ground flax seed 3 Tablespoons water ½ c. brown sugar 5 Tablespoons vegan margarine 1 teaspoon lemon extract 1 cup chickpea flour, packed 1 cup oats 1 teaspoon baking powder ¼ c. dried cherries ¼ c. dried cranberries 1. Preheat oven to 350°. 2. Using a fork or whisk, mix together ground flax seed and water. Set aside 15 minutes. 3. In a large ...