Pimp My Grocery List: Fazilah

Yes folks, it's time for another edition of Pimp My Grocery List!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can get the lowdown here. Basically, I am 'renovating' readers' grocery lists, suggesting healthier options for what they put in their carts every week. I'm not trying to make everything spic and span, now - just trying to make it a little bit healthier while keeping the convenience and tastiness of the original product. If you want your very own grocery list pimped, email me at info[at]wholesomehedonist[dot]com!

This week I'm tackling the list of my good friend and fellow mama Fazilah. See her list after the jump: 

Putting Kitchen Scraps to Good Use

I've been thinking a lot about respect for food lately. It all started with an interview I did with Zahra Parvinian, board member at the Toronto Food Policy Council (I'll be sharing this interview next week.) She talked about how, as an immigrant, she was disturbed by the North American attitude towards food. She thinks of the kitchen as a place of family, of community and respect, so when she saw shows like Hell's Kitchen, where Gordon Ramsay throws away platefuls of food while screaming abuse upon his underlings, she was shocked.

That got me thinking about how I view food. As I've mentioned here before, I'm hardly the patron saint of food preservation, but lately, I've been trying to make more of an effort - planning my meals in advance and using my List of Endangered Foods method. So when I heard this Splendid Table podcast about using up kitchen throwaways, I was intrigued. Here are some of their tips (as well as my own) on using up scraps you would normally throw in the trash:

Interview with Rhonda Teitel-Payne, Green Barn Manager at The Stop

As part of this blog, I love to speak to inspirational people who are changing the face of health and wellness - either in their own lives or for a larger audience. That's why it was such a pleasure to speak with Rhonda Teitel-Payne, Green Barn Manager for the Stop Community Food Centre. Instead of operating like a conventional food bank, The Stop invites people in to eat, make and grow local and healthy food. It's an amazing community space with lots of events and programs for the population that needs it most as well as the general public. Below is my interview with Rhonda.

“Food is a way of reclaiming and validating who you are and where you came from.”

Rhonda Teitel-Payne wasn’t born with a green thumb. But she earned one – heck, she earned a whole green hand – over the last 13 years.

That’s when she joined The Stop’s Community Food Centre, coordinating both the community kitchen and the community garden activities. She had lots of community experience and a Master’s degree in Social Work, but no gardening experience. “I probably wouldn’t have gotten the job now,” she laughs. “But 13 years ago, there wasn’t such an organized urban agriculture scene, so I was able to get in there and learn from the ground up, so to speak.”

Rhonda is now the Manager of the Green Barn, where she oversees the community garden, the community kitchen, The Stop’s education programs and the Saturday Farmer’s Market. I caught up with Rhonda to talk about her passion and what she brings to the Toronto Food Policy Council.

You can read the full interview on the Toronto Food Policy Council website here.

How Manufacturers Make a Label Sound Better Than it Acually is

I've talked here before about marketing claims you should watch for on packages, but did you know that there's ingredients you should watch for too? I've always said that the ingredient list never lies, but unfortunately, because more and more consumers are reading the ingredient list,more and more companies are learning to 'spin' it. They are legally required to list all ingredients, but they sometimes make ingredients sound nicer than they really are or they play with the order of things to make the product sound healthier.  Here are a few examples to watch out for (after the jump)

Build a Better Bowl of Cereal

As I said in my Supermarket Survival Guide on cereal, there are a lot of Sneaky Peters out there in the cereal aisle - cereals that promise low-fat, wholesome goodness but rarely deliver. Don't get me wrong - I think cereal is an easy, nutritious way to start the day, as long as you build your bowl right. The following are some tips I got from Mairlyn Smith and Liz Pearson's great book, The Ultimate Health Eating Plan That Still Leaves Room for Chocolate. Though it was published in 2002, it's packed with meticulously researched nutrition information (conveniently decoded for the regular Joe), sensible, non-neurotic advice for eating well and delicious recipes.

Here's an easy way to build your best breakfast:

Supermarket Suspects: "Healthy" Foods that Don't Deliver

So we've talked about granola, crackers and juice as being less healthy than they're touted to be. But are there any more suspects lurking on the supermarket shelves? Of course there are! My top contenders (plus healthier switch-outs) below:

3 Ways to Fall in Love with Your Oatmeal Again

I have often told A that I can tell the changing of the seasons not by looking out the window, but by looking at my bowl of oatmeal. 

I am a die-hard oatmeal fan and I love to use it as a blank canvas and top it with whatever's in season: sunny peaches and pecans in summer, crisp pears and honey in fall, pomegranate and maple syrup in winter and tender strawberries in spring. But even I get sick of oatmeal, especially as the long, interminable winter sets in. Here are some fresh combinations to keep your oatmeal exciting during the long months ahead - minimal chopping needed.