Fantastic Frozen Foods (Part 2)

Ever since I stumbled upon Evol products at Target, I noticed they are popping up at every grocery store!  Each store has a different variety of products, and I have only tried a few, but so far everything has been delicious!  

Evol's food philosophy is to make frozen, convinient foods with REAL ingredients.  Their products contain no animal hormones or antibiotics, no artificial flavors or colors and no GMO's!  

I also love their huge variety of products:  breakfast sandwiches, burritos, quesadillas, street tacos, dinners and 18 gluten-free items!  

So far I've tried:

• Quesadillas- both chicken and steak were delicious, easy to microwave or heat up in a pan.  They also come with two guacamole pouches that can easily be defrosted!  
• Bean and cheddar burrito- this burrito was ok, but lacked flavor.  Not sure I would get it again.  
• Butternut Squash and Sage Ravioli-  these were very tasty and a great option for lunch 
• Truffle Parmesean Mac & Cheese- I was very hesitant to buy this because of the fat content but I just HAD to try it!  It was amazing of course, and I can only imagine how fattening the gluten-free bacon mac & cheese is! 

I'm very interested to try the breakfast sandwiches and some of the other dinners.  I'll follow up with another review shortly!  

I used to eat Smart Ones quesadillas all the time, but now I am way "smarter".  I tried to compare the Smart Ones quesadilla to an Evol quesadilla, but oddly Smart Ones does not list their ingredients online (shocker!).  They only talk about how low the calories and fat are- this is a trick!   Why aren't their ingredients listed online?  Because they are bad for you!  Luckily, Lean Cuisine had their ingredients posted.  Let's check these out, shall we? 

 

This is for the Lean Cuisine BBQ Chicken Quesadillas:

TORTILLA (BLEACHED ENRICHED FLOUR (BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WATER, SOYBEAN OIL, SALT, SUGAR, SODIUM BICARBONATE, SODIUM ALUMINUM PHOSPHATE, POTASSIUM SORBATE (A PRESERVATIVE), MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, CALCIUM PROPIONATE (A PRESERVATIVE), FUMARIC ACID, SODIUM METABISULFITE (DOUGH CONDITIONER)), REDUCED FAT MOZZARELLA CHEESE (CULTURED MILK AND NON-FAT MILK, MODIFIED CORN STARCH*, SALT, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, ENZYME (*INGREDIENT NOT IN REGULAR MOZZARELLA CHEESE)), CORN, LIGHT PASTEURIZED PROCESS CHEDDAR CHEESE (CULTURED MILK, WATER, POTASSIUM CITRATE, SALT, SODIUM CITRATE, WHEY*, SORBIC ACID, CREAM, APO CAROTENAL AND BETA CAROTENE COLOR, ENZYMES, SODIUM PHOSPHATE, LACTIC ACID (*INGREDIENT NOT IN REGULAR PASTEURIZED PROCESS CHEDDAR CHEESE)), COOKED WHITE MEAT CHICKEN (WHITE MEAT CHICKEN, WATER, SEASONING (SALT, FLAVORINGS, MALTODEXTRIN, MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, SUGAR, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, FLAVOR {MALTODEXTRIN, SMOKE FLAVOR}, SPICES, CARAMEL COLOR, AND CITRIC ACID), ISOLATED SOY PROTEIN, MODIFIED RICE STARCH, CHICKEN FLAVOR (DEHYDRATED CHICKEN BROTH, CHICKEN POWDER, FLAVOR, SALT), SODIUM PHOSPHATES), WATER, WHITE RICE, ONIONS, TOMATOES, TOMATO PASTE, SEASONING (BROWN SUGAR, DRIED MOLASSES (REFINERY SYRUP, CANE MILL MOLASSES), MODIFIED CORN STARCH, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, CARAMEL COLOR, SPICES, DRIED ONION, DRIED GARLIC, SMOKE FLAVOR SALT, NATURAL FLAVORS), VINEGAR, BACON (BACON CURED WITH WATER, SALT, SUGAR, DEXTROSE AND/OR SODIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM ERYTHORBATE, SODIUM NITRITE), 2% OR LESS OF CORN STARCH, SOYBEAN OIL

OMG...that is in one little quesadilla??? I can't even count how many ingredients are in there!  

Let's check out the Evol Chipotle Chicken Quesadilla:

Ok, so this also has a lot of ingredients, but at least we know what all of these things are!  And don't forget their products don't have GMO's like I'm sure Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones do.  Remember, just because something is low in fat and calories doesn't mean it's good for you.  

Great job, Evol!  Of course, it is always better to make your own meals, but these frozen options are great if you don't have time!  

Fantastic Frozen Foods (Part 1)

Hi everyone,

I am SO embarrassed that my last blog post was in March!  Sometimes life gets too busy and honestly, I wasn't inspired enough by a topic to write about...until now!

I am seriously obsessed with Target- for clothing, storage, school supplies, and now food (most Targets around here have been expanding into grocery stores too).  I usually stop in the food section because Target is one of the few stores that sells Coffee Mate Natural Bliss (natural coffee creamer with no artificial flavors, like they all should be!).  But during my last trip to Target I found that they now have a huge organic and natural foods section, especially frozen foods!  This led me to discover two new brands:  American Flatbread and Evol (I'll review them in part 2).

American Flatbread is a New England company that makes hand-crafted frozen pizzas.  Their pizzas have 100% organically grown wheat crusts and cheese with no rBST growth hormone.  They're all-natural with no preservatives, artificial colors or flavors, and NO GMOs!  I've tried the Cheese and Herb pizza and the Revolution pizza (with mushrooms and caramelized onions).  Both were delicious and easy to make!  And even better, you can pronounce all of the ingredients!

Check out all their products on their website:   American Flatbread

Crust contains: 100% Organically Grown Wheat (this is a white flour with restored wheat germ), Good Mountain Water, Kosher Salt, Fresh yeast.

Topping contains: Mozzarella Cheese (Whole Milk, Vegetable Rennet, Salt), Vermont’s Blythedale Farms Asiago/Grana Padano Cheese (Whole Milk from Jersey Cows, Vegetable Rennet, Salt), Garlic Oil (Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Organic Canola Oil, Fresh Organic Garlic), Fresh Organic Parsley, Herbs, Kosher Salt.

Now take a look at the ingredients of a Freschetta 4-Cheese Pizza....yikes!

INGREDIENTS: ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), TOMATOES (WATER, TOMATO PASTE), CHEESE BLEND (LOW MOISTURE PART SKIM MOZZARELLA CHEESE [CULTURED PASTEURIZED PART SKIM MILK, SALT, ENZYMES], WHITE CHEDDAR CHEESE [CULTURED PASTEURIZED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES], PROVOLONE CHEESE [CULTURED PASTEURIZED MILK, SALT, ENZYMES], PARMESAN CHEESE [CULTURED PASTEURIZED PART SKIM MILK, SALT, ENZYMES]), YEAST CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: CORNMEAL, SHORTENING (PALM OIL, NATURAL FLAVOR, SOY LECITHIN), BUTTER FLAVORED OIL WITH GARLIC (LIQUID AND HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, NATURAL GARLIC FLAVOR, SALT, ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SOY LECITHIN, BETA CAROTENE [COLOR], VITAMIN A PALMITATE), SUGAR, SALT, SPICE, DATEM, WHEAT GLUTEN, DEXTROSE, SEA SALT, OLIVE OIL, GUAR GUM, GARLIC, SOY LECITHIN, ASCORBIC ACID, ENZYMES (SODIUM CHLORIDE, WHEAT STARCH, ENZYMES, MALTODEXTRIN).



Wouldn't you rather be eating an American Flatbread pizza for dinner?  :)

~The Healthy Food Detective

Is Azodicarbonamide in Your Bread? (Part 2)

In my last post, I discussed how food activist The Food Babe started a petition for Subway to take Azodicarbonamide (a dangerous food additive also found in plastics) out of their bread.  Currently, the petition is up to 94,000 signatures and Subway has announced that they plan on taking out Azodicarbonamide (also known as ADA) out of their bread "soon".  Keep the pressure on Subway and sign the petition below (if you haven't yet!) and don't eat at Subway until they make a change!

http://foodbabe.com/subway/

ADA is also lurking in the majority of bread products in supermarkets.   I've taken a few trips to the supermarket to investigate which breads were the best and worst for you.  Sadly, most breads out there are filled with TONS of chemicals and additives (even if they don't have ADA in them). 

Here are some of the WORST breads on the market right now.  Note that not every product from that company has ADA, but if any of the products had it, I put it on the list.  Remember to read your labels to be sure!

WORST LIST: 

Sara Lee

Thomas’s 

Freihofer’s

Martin’s Potato Rolls

Fiber One (No ADA, but TONS of additives)  

Sunbeam

Arnold Sandwich Thins and Light Bread

Mariano's 

Let's take a look at Arnold's Bakery Light 100% Whole Wheat.  Arnold's boasts that there is no high fructose corn syrup in this product.  Looking at the list, I think corn syrup is the least of your worries! 

WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, WATER, CELLULOSE FIBER, WHEAT GLUTEN, YEAST, SUGAR, SALT, WHEAT BRAN, MOLASSES, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, CALCIUM PROPIONATE (PRESERVATIVE), DATEM, GRAIN VINEGAR, NATURAL & ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CALCIUM SULFATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, ETHOXYLATED MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, SOY LECITHIN, SUCRALOSE, AZODICARBONAMIDE, SOY FLOUR.

 Artificial flavors, sweeteners and ADA...is that really worth eating just because the bread is "light"?  

 These breads products aren't the WORST, but not exactly great either: 

Nature's Own
Country Kitchen
Arnold (some)
Pepperidge Farms

Kasanof's ( recently removed ADA)!  

 Let's take a look at Nature's Own 100% Whole Wheat bread.  Their tagline is "We Are Nature's Baker".  I don't think so!

Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Brown Sugar, Yeast, Wheat Gluten, Contains 2% or Less of each of the Following: Salt, Vegetable Oil (Soybean Oil or Canola Oil), Dough Conditioners (Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Calcium Stearoyl-2-Lactylate, Monoglycerides, Calcium Iodate, Ethoxylated Mono and Diglycerides, Calcium Peroxide, Datem), Cultured Wheat Flour, Vinegar, Calcium Sulfate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Yeast Food (Ammonium Sulfate), Soy Lecithin. 

No artificial sweeteners or flavors, and no ADA, but steer clear of "dough conditioners"!  

Here is a very small list of the BEST bread products I found at the supermarket! 

Nature's Promise
Barowsky's Certified Organic
Vermont Bread Company
Matthew's All Natural  

Let's Look at Matthew's All Natural Whole Wheat Bread.  Notice the amazing difference in number of ingredients alone.  And each slice is 70 calories, naturally! 

Whole Wheat Flour (Unbleached, Unbromated), Water, Malt, Vital Wheat Gluten, Yeast, Cold Pressed Corn Oil, Sea Salt, Cultured Wheat Flour, Vinegar, Lecithin.

Of course, the best bread to eat is homemade.  All you basically need is flour, water, yeast and sugar!  There are so many easy recipes online.  Please follow the Healthy Food Detective on Pinterest for an organized page of all-natural recipes! 

~The Healthy Food Detective :) 


500 Ways to Make a Yoga Mat Sandwich

Is Azodicarbonamide in Your Bread? (Part 1)

If you haven't heard, "healthy" fast food giant Subway was taken down this week by Vani Hari, otherwise known as the Food Babe, for their use of Azodicarbonamide in their bread products.  Over 75,000 people (including myself) signed a petition for Subway to take this chemical out of their bread.

What is Azodicarbonamide you ask?  Well, it's a dangerous plastic chemical used as a dough conditioner in bread products.  This same chemical is used in YOGA MATS, SHOE RUBBER and SYNTHETIC LEATHER.  Azodicarbonamide has also been found to induce asthma and is possibly carcinogenic.  Now the scary thing is that the USDA allows this chemical in our foods in the U.S. and considers it "safe" in small amounts.  So why is it banned in the U.K., Europe and Australia?  Because when Azodicarbonamide is baked in bread, it produces the carcinogen urethane. 

Subway restaurants over there use a completely different dough for their bread.  Check out the difference in the ingredient list (photo taken from foodbabe.com)

Sadly, Subway isn't the only culprit here.  Many fast food restaurants use Azodicarbonamide in their bread products as well, including McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Dunkin Donuts and even Starbucks (excluding their La Boulange Bakery products).

Azodicarbonamide is also lurking in the majority of bread products in supermarkets.  So even if you eat at home, you're still not safe from this dangerous chemical.  I'll be writing more about bread products in my next post. 

Fortunately, the petition has put some great pressure on Subway.  They have announced that they plan to remove Azodicarbonamide from their products "soon".  Want to help put the pressure on?  Please sign the Food Babe's petition below!  And don't eat at Subway until they make a change! 

http://foodbabe.com/subway/


Every signature counts! YOU can help make a difference! 

~The Healthy Food Detective :)  



Related articles:  


http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/chemical-subway-ditched-mcdonalds-wendys-use-it-too-n25051

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/national_world&id=9421744

Does Anyone Make Real Ice Cream Anymore???

A friend asked if I could do an article about ice cream vs. frozen yogurt.  I thought this was a great idea, until I started doing some investigating and found out that most frozen yogurts AND ice cream have additives in them.  So much so that I am going to have to write two separate posts! 

I took a trip to the grocery store to find out which ice creams really were the best for you.  This turned out to be a bad idea, because it made me very angry.  There are very few real ice creams made out there made of simple ingredients!  Even Breyers, who I thought made "natural" ice cream, is full of additives, thickeners and gums.  My mom informed me that so much of Breyers is not even real, they now have to call it a "frozen dairy dessert"! 

Let's check a little further:  Here are the ingredients for Breyers "Natural Vanilla" (their purest flavor), which they claim:
America's favorite Vanilla ice cream, made with five simple ingredients including fresh cream, rich milk, fine sugar and real vanilla bean specks. Breyers® Natural Vanilla - inspire your own masterpiece. 

Here are the ingredients:  MILK, CREAM, SUGAR, TARA GUM, NATURAL FLAVOR.

Tara gum is a natural thickener that comes from a plant in Peru.  That's a simple ingredient?  Apparently Breyers added tara gum because consumers wanted a "smoother texture".  And notice how there actually ISN'T vanilla bean in there like they claimed, it's listed as "natural flavor."  If it really was pure vanilla bean, it would say vanilla bean.   And you don't even want to know what is in the other flavors...gums and thickeners galore! 

So which ice creams are the best for you?  Here are the slim pickings I found at the grocery store.

1.  batch  

This is a Boston-based company that is currently only sold in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine and Connecticut.  But I love their philosophy! 

"We are Susie and Veronica, and we make ice cream fully from scratch using real ingredients, many of which are sourced locally and Fair Trade. By real ingredients, we’re talking vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, and our own handmade caramel, for instance. These are in contrast to the extracts and flavorings used in other ice creams. Additionally, we’re not into putting weird things in our ice cream – things like guar gum, carrageenan, xanthan gum, mono-diglycerides, corn syrup. Somehow it’s become the norm to put those into ice cream."  

Check them out at http://batchicecream.com/

2.   Haagen-Dazs

 

An old favorite from the mall, and always a fun treat when you get an ice cream craving at the food store.  Although Haagen-Dazs has some flavors with a ton of ingredients (like Bananas Foster and Caramel Cone), these simple flavors below are your best bets: 

coffee
vanilla bean (with real ground vanilla beans!)
green tea
chocolate
cookies and cream
chocolate peanut butter
strawberry

3.  Turkey Hill All Natural 

 

Turkey Hill started an all-natural line!  Although limited in flavors, it was great to see a list of very few simple ingredients from one of the big ice cream producers.  Turkey Hill also has the least amount of calories and fat compared to batch and Haagen-Dazs.  The salted caramel is delicious!

Know of any other natural ice creams?  Comment below!

~Healthy Food Detective


P.S.- My friend reminded me that the most natural ice cream you can have is homemade of course!  She is very lucky to have an Kitchenaid mixer with an ice cream attachment.  My mom has her own ice cream maker.  However, I don't have either of these tools.  My next challenge:  to make ice cream without an ice cream maker!  Stay posted!  
 

 Ice Cream's Identity Crisis: The New York Times

The Breyers Controversy

Summer dish: Tri-Color Italian Pasta Salad

So school is coming to an end, and I am absolutely running out of lunch ideas!  I am so sick of sandwiches and salads, so I've been getting into making pasta salads for the week- easy and delicious! After a shopping spree at Trader Joe's, I came up with this recipe.  I used their organic vegetable radiatore pasta for some extra vitamins and fiber.  And the key is to make your own dressing over using bottled Italian dressing- avoid those preservatives and artificial flavors!  

Tri-Color Italian Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

1 package Trader Joe's Organic Vegetable Radiatore Pasta
1 3-oz. package sun-dried tomatoes (I used TJ's)
1 3.8-oz. can of Lindsay Naturals black sliced olives (any olives will do-just check the labels for preservatives)
1 medium green pepper, chopped (any color will do!)
About 1/2 container of TJ's fresh mozzarella balls (Ciliegine), halved

Dressing- to taste (I don't really measure well, experiment a little bit at a time and see what you like! )

A few tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white or red vinegar
Adobo seasoning
Dried oregano
Italian seasoning

Instructions:

Cook pasta according to package- leave a little undercooked to keep it from getting mushy.  Drain and cool.  In the meantime, chop the green pepper and halve the mozzarella balls.  When the pasta is cool, add oil, vinegar and seasonings.  Gently mix in the rest of the ingredients.  Refrigerate and enjoy for lunch or a side dish! 

Other possible add-ins:

Grilled chicken or shrimp
Zucchini or yellow squash (lasts better than cucumber in a pasta salad) 
Red onion
Grape tomatoes
Chick peas
Fresh spinach

Be creative!  Have any other add-in ideas?  Comment below:  

The Greek Yogurt Showdown!

It's pretty hard to avoid the Greek yogurt craze these days!  I love Greek yogurt, as many do, for the thick texture and extra protein.  Of course, NOTHING tops the amazing yogurt I had in Greece (which was full fat I'm sure!).  Here in the U.S., we like our yogurt low or non-fat.  But how many of us are checking BELOW the nutrition facts at ingredients?  That thick texture may not be yogurt, but added thickeners like gums and starches.  See which yogurts top the Healthy Food Detective's list!

I compared all 0% fat strawberry yogurts.  Here are my ingredients ratings from worst to best!

6.  Dannon Light and Fit Greek

This yogurt may only have 80 calories, but this is the absolute worst on the list because it has CORN STARCH, SUCRALOSE (artificial sweetener), ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS (who knows what those are?), and CARMINE for added color.  What is Carmine you ask?  Well it just so happens to be ground up RED BEETLES.  Yes, you are eating insects for breakfast.  Totally disgusting!  

5.  Yoplait Greek

This yogurt was very close to being last.  The only thing saving it was that there are "natural flavors' in this yogurt instead of artificial ones in Light and Fit.  However, this yogurt still contains:  CORN STARCH, SUCRALOSE, ACESULFAME POTASSIUM (another sweetener), and our old friend CARMINE again.  Eek!

4.  Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt

Dannon claims "It's everything you want in a Greek yogurt." Does that include ground up red beetles and seaweed? 

MODIFIED CORN STARCH, CARMINE, CARRAGEENAN (red seaweed), POTASSIUM SORBATE

3.  FAGE Total Greek 0%

I really thought a real Greek brand would top the list!  The plain yogurt itself is totally fine.  However, the cute strawberry fruit cup on the side is what stores some thickeners. 

CORN STARCH,  XANTHAN GUM (natural thickener from corn/wheat, but processed product)

2.  Chobani 0%

This yogurt came to a close tie with Fage.  The only additive in here:  LOCUST BEAN GUM (Carob bean gum) 

1.  Stonyfield Organic Greek 0%

Of course, my favorite brand STONYFIELD takes the number one spot!  The ingredients speak for themselves:

CULTURED PASTEURIZED ORGANIC NONFAT MILK, ORGANIC STRAWBERRIES, ORGANIC SUGAR, PECTIN, ORGANIC NATURAL FLAVOR, ORGANIC ELDERBERRY JUICE CONCENTRATE (FOR COLOR).

And remember, the best strawberry yogurt around is to get plain, natural Greek yogurt and add your own fresh strawberries and honey!  

-The Healthy Food Detective