food « white male consumer

The Best Popcorn On Earth

Posted June 26th, 2008 at 9:23AM

Dale & Thomas’ Popcorn from Popcorn, Indiana. Limited selection available on store shelves, or WOW a huge variety online. I could eat the Aged White Cheddar morning, noon, and night. But I think I’m going to purchase a sampler online sometime soon. Maybe the Chocolate Lover’s 6-pack variety?

I just wish the website had shirts. I would totally rock a Dale & Thomas’ Popcorn shirt.

Dreamfields “Low Carb” Pasta

Posted June 18th, 2008 at 4:59PM

Pasta is typically one of the highest carb-containing foods you can find, and a big “no no” for any diabetic trying to control their BG levels (without injecting insulin). But through some wizardy best left unknown, Dreamfields markets their particular pasta as having only 5 “digestible” carbs per serving. After hearing good things, I was eager to try it out. So along with a jar of marinara, I picked up two boxes a few weeks ago. It tasted great, but what about the claims to be diabetic-friendly? My results? A pretty spectacular spike in my blood glucose levels. (Bad.)

Undaunted and desperate to add pasta back into my culinary repertoire, I decided to try once more, this time with a few things in mind:

Portion control – I used to eat half a box of pasta without a care in the world. My portion of Dreamfields the first time around was still too large to get an accurate bearing on its effects.
Skipping the marinara – I didn’t check at the time of purchase, but my (former) favorite pasta sauce, Newman’s Own Sockarooni* has a decent amount of sugar, especially when you load it on.

So about a week ago, I tried again, this time with a simple margarine and cheese sauce. I made sure to limit myself to a serving (a bunch maybe the size of a quarter in diameter, uncooked). The results this time around?

6:34PM ——– 62 mg/dL —— before dinner
Dinner at about 7pm, give or take.
7:54PM ——– 116 mg/dL —– +1hr after dinner
8:56PM ——– 84 mg/dL —— +2hr after
9:52PM ——– 83 mg/dL —— +3hr

Groovy, no? I was running low before dinner with that 62, which muddies things. The rise (a 50mg/dL increase) isn’t that good, but I should have been in the 80s to begin with, and pretty much anything I ate would have elevated me out of the 60s which is a poor place to be.

The fatty margarine and cheese sauce would also necessarily slow the digestion of the carbs and the ensuring spike. But I imagine this factor was minimal since the overall curve was short and small. (Typically, fat will dampen the ensuring spike, but it won’t cancel it altogether, and you’ll still find elevated BG levels over a longer period of time with a high carb meal, fatty or not.)

So Dreamfields pasta lived up to the hype, at least in my case. As always, your mileage may vary, but it’s definitely worth a try for any diabetic abstaining from pasta altogether. (Or anyone on a low-carb kick for that matter.)

* that’s right, I (used to) like to kick it up a knotch with the SOCKAROONI… while contributing all profits to charity.

The Great Tuno Campaign

Posted February 11th, 2008 at 8:07PM

My April 17th post lamenting the discontinuation of Tuno (The Case Of The Missing Tuno) has continued to generate traffic and comments long after it was initially written. In the face of such strong opposition to pulling Tuno from the shelves, I’ve finally gotten around to creating a form letter for indignant veg-heads to complain about this great injustice!

rah rah rah!

Tuno was originally produced by Worthington Foods, Inc. (I always found it under the “Natural Touch” brand name). At some point in time, Worthington was bought by Morningstar (a Kellogg company itself), and Tuno was subsequently discontinued.

To contact Kellogg / Worthington / Natural Touch / Morningstar:

By phone: 1-800-557-6525
By snail mail: Kellogg Consumer Affairs, P.O. Box CAMB, Battle Creek, MI 49016
By e-mail: E-mail form or kellogg@casupport.com

Feel free to use any / all of the following letter (after entering correct date and personal information).

Your Name
Address
Phone Number
E-mail

The Date

Kellogg Consumer Affairs
P.O. Box CAMB
Battle Creek, MI 49016

RE: DISCONTINUATION OF WORTHINGTON FOODS / NATURAL TOUCH / MORNINGSTAR TUNO TUNA FISH SUBSTITUTE PRODUCT

I was disheartened to learn that Kellogg has discontinued production of its vegetarian tuna product, Tuno, which went under the Worthington Foods, Inc., Natural Touch, and Morningstar brand names. I would like to urge Kellogg to bring back the Tuno product.

As a vegetarian, tuna alternatives are hard to come by, and Tuno was a welcomed relief to the many faux beef and chicken products lining the shelves. The canned and frozen varieties of Tuno were easy substitutes for recipes calling for tuna. Vegetarians and others who choose not to eat tuna were still able to enjoy old standards like tuna noodle casserole or a tuna salad sandwich.

Alternative vegetarian tuna options still exist, but they are only available in select areas or online. Tuno was widely available because of Kellogg’s large market share and clout. I know many others share my same concern about and craving for this product. Please bring it back to supermarket shelves everywhere!

Your Name

In the meanwhile, I’ve found a few faux-tuna alternatives. I’ve yet to try any, and ordering online won’t be as convenient as picking some up at the local health food store, but what’s the alternative? No fake tuna? That’s just not an option, folks.

Tuna (Not!) Salad Mix by Dixie Diner â€“ sold out, currently, at Vegan Essentials
May Wah’s vegetarian tuna â€“ frozen
May Wah’s vegetarian tuna steak â€“ this is actually a tuna steak(!)
Scott Adams Foods Veggie Tuna â€“ can’t order online, but see if it’s available near you

The Case Of The Missing Tuno

Posted April 17th, 2007 at 5:40PM

2/11/2008 UPDATE: See The Great Tuno Campaign

So “tuno” was a soy product that looked, tasted, and even â€“ to a certain extent â€“ smelled like tuna. But it was soy and vegetarian. So my family and I enjoyed this wonderful product for many years, the health-food store in Saratoga being the only place locally that carried it. Then they stopped. Someone said that it wasn’t made anymore, but how could that be? It was such an amazing product! (We mostly made vegetarian tuna noodle casserole and tuna salad with it.)

Well my student organization is having a potluck of sorts for our last meeting. I was all set to make some veggie tuna salad for it. I didn’t believe that anyone in their right mind would ever stop making tuno. But and scouring both Wegmans and the crazy co-op here in Ithaca, I couldn’t find it!

I come back up to campus, and search the internet. I find references to tuno. The company that produced it: Natural Touch. I go to their website, and it redirects me to Morningstar Farms!

Coincidence? I THINK NOT. Morningstar AKA KELLOGG(!) must have bought out Natural Touch and stopped producing their amazing products.

FOR SHAME.

And now I can’t make my faux-tuna salad.

UPDATE: After navigating around Morningstar’s poor website, I happened upon a list of discontinued products. Among them:

Morningstar FarmsÂ® TunoÂ® Tuna Fish Substitute made with Vegetable Protein

And to add insult to injury, they re-branded it “Morningstar” before discontinuing it.

Reevaluating The Fuel

Posted March 1st, 2007 at 11:44AM

This school year I have been able to keep myself fed. But ease usually trumps nutrition or tastiness. I expect this is true for most people (I was in Wegmans yesterday, and the middle-aged man behind me in line was buying everything I usually would. He was obviously single and living alone. Bleak.)

Coming back from winter break, I brought some cookbooks. I cracked one open the other day. Entirely vegan (from that period in my life). I began reading the first chapter, and it renewed my desire to eat better and healthier. I immediately ran out and replaced my table salt with sea salt. I marinated some tofu overnight and then baked it (instead of my usual method of frying). Baked was quite tasty â€“ not crunchy or crispy as with frying (or grilling), but quite firm and satisfying.

I’m also sitting on 5lbs of whole wheat flour, which I’ll be turning into wheat gluten some day soon. You know that feeling when you discover how to make something from scratch for much less money? Like, say, buying rice in bulk instead of boxes of rice-a-roni? (I still haven’t perfected cooking rice, actually.) This is how I felt reading the wheat gluten recipe. Five pounds of flour was $2 and it’ll yield 2-3 pounds of wheat gluten.

mmmm…. Wheat gluten…

Gnocchi

Posted March 13th, 2006 at 5:49PM

In the Italian tradition gnocchi are always meant to be dumplings. They are generally made with a potato base with the addition of flour. The proportions of potatoes and flour may vary from one region to another, according to local customs and traditions, as well as to the type of potatoes used. In addition to potato based gnocchi, there are also other types of gnocchi made with flour, semolina ricotta cheese, spinach, or bread crumbs.

Gnocchi a la vodka sauce. mmmm.

I never encountered gnocchi until my semester abroad in Germany. It was much more popular there â€“ the university cafeteria had it as the vegetarian option probably once or twice a week. I definitely got sick of it at those sorts of intervals, but it’s a very good option if you’re looking for an easy alternative to pasta.

Today while perusing the “potato” section of wegmans, I came across the gnocchi. They even had a selection â€“ two different brands! Quite cheap also. Keep an eye out for gnocchi in your supermarket, and give it a try sometime. You can never eat enough potatoes. Heh.