Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Better than Bouillon; Organic - Reduced Sodium

One of the products that I use almost every day while cooking is the 'Better than Bouillon' Bases and to be more specific, I use the 'Organic -  Reduced Sodium' ones. The broth comes as a paste in jars.  I use either the beef or chicken base to add flavor to many sauces and soups. It adds great flavor to the foods, is easy to use and dose, doesn't take up much space, doesn't go bad fast (like fresh broth or canned or boxed broth) and best of all it has a reduced amount of sodium and it is organic. The sodium content is 15% of the recommended daily value per teaspoon. And typically I add about a tablespoon per dish for 4 people and then skip adding salt altogether.
The chicken produces a clear yellow broth while the beef is more brown and has some small (meat?) particles in it, which my kids frown upon a bit if it is in a clear broth. But again the flavor of the broth is very good! I usually buy a 16 oz jar at my warehouse store.

I could not find a picture of the kind I buy online, not even on the company's website. But below are some products of the same brand, however they are either not organic or do not have a reduced sodium content. And the ones with the reduced sodium content, have only a 25% reduction compared to the regular one, while the organic reduced sodium version has a 50% reduction.



Click here, if you want to read more about what is going on in the food industry in regards of salt reduction!

Friday, March 26, 2010

My favorite lollipop!

Well maybe not my own favorite food, but definitely a winner for my kids. And I like them too as a candy for my children, as they appear to be one of the few more natural and edible options in confectionery.

Since we moved to the US about 18 months ago, I have been on the hunt for 'healthy foods' for my family but I am having an extremely hard time to find candy that have all natural flavors and colors and, very important, that are tasty. In the Netherlands, there seemed to be a bigger selection of confections with natural colors and flavors in regular supermarkets. Here it is barely impossible to find something that meets those three criteria in the confectionery aisle, unless you visit a health/natural store. And to be honest, most of the candy that is available there is not enjoyed by anybody in our home.

I am a sucker for natural ingredients and good taste in foods, because, ultimately if it doesn't taste good, nobody eats it even if you call it candy. But the regular candy in the supermarkets all seemed to be full of artificial colors and flavors or if they are not, they do not taste good.
So I like these lollipops because they are organic and contain natural colors and natural flavors, no genetically modified corn stuff and even the citric acid used is organic. Besides that they look good, nice and colorful, are not too sticky (so the wrapper comes off) and did I mention it, my kids like them too?

So what lollipop  am I talking about? The lollipop, I like is from Yummi Earth and comes in bags or in cute boxes (see above, they also have smaller boxes)  that you can reuse easily to store other things.

If you want to read more about food colors: visit IngredientsWizard.com/colors

Monday, March 22, 2010

My most favorite food: Dutch cheese with appelstroop sandwich

My most favorite food, that I can eat everyday, without getting tired of is a 'Dutch cheese sandwich with appelstroop'.

You could say that it is my Dutch heritage, growing up with it, but that is not really true. I did not eat cheese, or even would tough anything that had toughed cheese, until I was nineteen. So my favoritism is of my adulthood.

Let me first explain a bit for all not Dutch people (and probably plenty of Dutch people, because apparently what I am talking about is really something from the south (Limburg) of the Netherlands) what I mean when I say 'a Dutch cheese sandwich with appelstroop'.

A Dutch sandwich with cheese and appelstroop
(Boterham met kaas en appelstroop)

It is a slice of dutch bread, either white or (whole) wheat (latter is healthier, first can be an exceptional treat), with a layer of appelstroop (will explain this later or maybe even write a blog about it) and then one layer of Gouda cheese, a bit aged in general.

The combination of the soft, chewy bread, the sweet tart flavor of the appelstroop and the salty flavor of the Gouda cheese is something that is never boring to me.

It is really delicious!

My biggest issue with my favorite food is that I live in the United States. So some of the very essential parts of my favorite food are hard to find. In particular, a slice of tasty Dutch bread is almost impossible to find. Gouda cheese has made it to many stores in the US, so not too much of an issue. Appelstroop can be purchased through Dutch Food importers (yes, they exist and there are plenty of them), but the Dutch bread needs to be at least a bit fresh, and I have not really found a baker in the Bay area that makes such a thing. So I bake my own bread every other day to be able to have have my 'boterham met kaas en appelstroop'.

* The top image is what a typical dutch slice of wheat bread looks like, and the right picture is a slice of full grain bread with cheese. Of course I could not really find an image of one with appelstroop...