Nutritious choices made simple®
Banana bread has been having a moment in the sun. Bananas do not have a long shelf-life for fresh storage, but most home cooks are well aware that the browner the banana, the sweeter the banana bread. If you stocked up on bananas because they were available and couldn’t eat them before they went a bit soft, banana bread is a natural choice. It is not, however, your only option for dealing with aging bananas. Also, bananas are not the only food that quickbreads are good at using up.
With fewer trips to the store, the need to stock up on frozen fruits and veggies is greater than ever. Today’s supermarket is packed with a plethora of frozen packaged produce so that it can still be on your plate, in your smoothie and flavoring your oatmeal even when you aren’t able to visit your farmers market or fresh department at your local store.
With social distancing the norm now (not to mention isolation and self-quarantining), my household—and undoubtedly yours, too—has had to readjust in lots of ways. Primary among these are our individual schedules. As someone who has worked from home part-time for the last 20 years, my adjustments have been more minor than my college-aged daughter’s or my husband’s. Yet even for me, the altered patterns of each day’s meals and gym time (or lack of gym time), for example, have caused some ripples in my behavior. While it’s true that every one of us is experiencing this home-bound lifestyle in our own unique way, there are likely some challenges we share, too. Here are a few tips that might help all of us retain, regain or even begin some healthy habits while we remain sheltered at home.
I am starting to lose track of the number of people who have come to me for help troubleshooting their preliminary adventures into the world of sourdough. This is not because I am an expert on sourdough, but because I am one of the few people in my social circle that has been wrestling with the challenge of producing good sourdough as an infrequent home baker for more than a decade now. Which is to say, I’ve turned out enough leaden lumps to have learned some lessons along the way.
To slow the spread of coronavirus, Americans are being urged to stay at home except to provide essential services or do essential things like grocery shopping. Ordering food online for curbside pickup is among the CDC’s recommendations to limit potential exposure to others and the virus. The demand for curbside pickup at supermarkets has surged to a level higher than ever before. Slots for this service, also referred to as click and collect, are difficult to secure. Many shoppers are also navigating this shopping experience for the first time. I want to share some tips here for click and select shopping success. I can’t help you snag a coveted slot (try ordering early?), but once you do, I hope you feel more prepared.
When working from home, one of my biggest issues, and I think I am not alone, is my urge to snack. At work, I snack frequently as well, but the difference seems to be what I am snacking on. At work, I keep a drawer stocked with healthy items so that I don’t have an option for a less healthy choice. So why can’t I keep to the same rules at home? I do often try to keep things I know I have less portion control with out of the house all together, but there are some less healthy items at home too. How do I allow snacking but in the right amount and with the right choices? Here are some of my personal strategies.
Right now, we’re all facing an unusual number of calls to culinary greatness resulting from not having all the ingredients on hand. It’s easier to get where you want to go if you keep in mind a few fundamentals about substitutions.
Extra, unexpected time at home can be viewed as a moment to bond with our families and explore new culinary ideas or nourish them with homemade foods that we don’t always have the opportunity to prepare. At a moment when so much is unfamiliar it can be nice to be in the kitchen where life feels like a constant. If you have extra time at home to be in the kitchen, consider these ideas.