Thursday, September 29, 2011

Eat processed food and sixlets cake

Pasta with pickled herring and caviar sauce
Food Diary (September 29, 2011)
Breakfast: Rolled oats with plums and sunflower seeds
Lunch: Pasta with pickled herring and caviar sauce, pickled carrot and apple salad
Dinner: Oat sourdough with cheese, pickled carrot and apple salad
Baking/sweets: Flaxseed Oatmeal Crackers, sweet crackers (recipe to follow)

This is the first time that I made Flaxseed Oatmeal Crackers and I halved the recipe. That was a mistake, in hindsight I wish I made the whole batch, or even doubled it. The crackers are absolutely delicious, nutritious and really addictive. Rolled oats and flaxseeds are good for you so you can eat them guilt free. These crackers are made with oil and water, not butter unlike many crackers. The recipe is available here

Pasta with herring and caviar was nice but perhaps caviar goes better with potatoes or blinis not pasta. It seems potatoes or blinis complement and enhance the flavor while pasta seems to have slightly muted it. It was still delicious. Lesson learnt.

Flaxseed Oatmeal Crackers


Today's Favourite Photo
Sixlets Cake



Today’s Favourite Blog
Source: SunHerald
The message is usually to avoid processed foods and eat whole foods. Now to add to confusion, Connie Weaver, head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue University, says avoiding all processed foods is “ridiculous.” “You just have to be somewhat selective.” And her reasoning makes sense.

"Omitting processed, packaged foods can make it hard to meet your body’s dietary needs. And although not all processed foods are of equal quality, the best of them can deliver lots of nutrition without doing you any harm". Weaver says “It is not a good recommendation to think people can have ‘fresh’ and ‘local’ foods meet all their nutrient needs. Issues of seasonality and transportation make it impossible for all of us to access fresh and local foods all the time”.

This is great advise as long as consumers know which processed foods to select and which to avoid. A blanket advise to avoid processed foods is unrealistic. I read somewhere that the current food system will not be able to meet demand if everyone follows the nutritional guidelines on what we should eat. So while everyone is given advise on what to eat, if we all followed the advise there would not be enough food. Imagine if we all started eating 2-3 portions of wild caught salmon every week and avoided tuna?
  
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15 comments:

  1. What a stunning cake...great photo find! And nice to see a quote from Purdue U...just north of us here and where my son went to school.

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  2. Very interesting article; It really is impossible to eat organic/ fresh for 100% of the population, 100% of the time. At least they're keeping it real. In other news - I want that cake!!

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  3. Very interesting article; It really is impossible to eat organic/ fresh for 100% of the population, 100% of the time. At least they're keeping it real. In other news - I want that cake!!

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  4. Gosh. I'd just stuff that caviar into my mouth.
    The crackers looks like something to dunk into milk ... a very compact cereal breakfast! You could market that... like weetabix.
    Man! That cake must have taken ages to decorate. Beautiful tho. Wish I had that much time on my hands ...
    Connie Weaver makes plenty of sense. After all the articles you've posted (esp the fresh(?) milk post) I really can't even tell what's real anymore.

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  5. the flaxseed cracker looks yummy! yay for healthy snacking. i try to eat minimally processed foods, and its easy since i am single, but if i had a family, it would be so difficult!

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  6. That cake is amazing! It would require so much patience and a steady hand! :)

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  7. That cake looks great! Such different colors than you would normally see on a cake.

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  8. Flaxseed and oatmeal crackers sound fantastic! Maybe I should prepare them and finally use the bag of flax seeds I have had for years in my kitchen! I have just checked your recipe: there are surprisingly few ingredients! It's already on my to-do list!
    I think people tend to simplify the word "processed". I have read (and heard nutritionists say) that canned tomatoes and tomato sauce (of course without any additions) is much healthier than raw tomatoes. It has more lycopene. Also I know some frozen vegetables and fruits contain more vitamins because usually they are frozen the day they were picked and since most people don't buy food on the markets but in supermarkets, their fruits and vegetables are from several days to several weeks old.

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  9. Lizzy: it is

    Ashley: exactly, more realistic advice. Your ‘other news’ is good too, I fully concur!

    ping: just remember, underneath the caviar is pickled herring:) That cake would have taken ages to decorate, and very quick to demolish it! Regarding nutrition, it is difficult to tell what’s right and wrong. It keeps changing and it depends who you listen to. But this article is one of the more practical ones

    Junia: they are yummy. Is it better to stay single, for health reasons???:)

    Lorraine: exactly, not good to do it when hungover

    Yummychunklet: exactly, great to look at and I am sure delicious too

    Sissi: I have updated the text – I found an easier method of working with the dough. I am eating it as I write, its awesome. Canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are picked and processed at its peak. Tomatoes are tree ripened and canned whereas those in supermarkets are picked before reaching its peak. I also read that fruits and veges start losing nutrients when you keep them so frozen/canned ones have an advantage here I think

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  10. Okay, the crackers look amazing and my son who is addicted to all things crunchy is going to love them.

    Secondly, I agree on the processed foods. Everything in moderation is okay. If you are selective and choose appropriately there is not reason you can;t enjoy processed foods at certain times- same can be said with a lot of things. I think people take a recommendation too far sometimes and go to the extreme with it.

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  11. Too bad the flavor got lost with the pasta because it looks delicious. Glad the crackers were a hot, nice to have a healthy treat! Love that sprinkle photo, talk about patience with that!

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  12. The pasta looks extremely delicious and flavourful!
    Love the cake too...just stunning!

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  13. oh my gosh! I've only made crackers once and I was obsessed with them! SO delicious. Yours look fantastic

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  14. I would LOVE to have those crackers to dip into hummus! Yum!

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  15. Wow that pasta is so far my favourite photo in your blog, great colours, great composition. Lovely flavours.

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