Picking the perfect protein powder, give peas a chance

‘Tis smoothie season and whether you’re at the smoothie shop (we love our Juice Gen) or picking a protein for home blending there are a whole lotta choices. Well and Good recently asked for my opinion of protein powder newcomer pea protein.

Protein Pros

In general, increasing protein can increase metabolism and decrease levels of a hunger hormone ghrelin, So, ”go pro” and don’t be too concerned about it. How much protein?  I think safe to go up to 1 gram per pound of body weight. So, a 150-pound person can consume 150 grams pro/day. Trust me, I don’t think you don’t have to count grams but some people need metrics.

Why Peas?

We hear about whey, soy (yuck) and even hemp protein powders but let’s give some props to pea protein. It’s a non-dairy, soy free, vegan protein made from yellow pea. Pea protein is a great option or those with allergies or food sensitivities. And rest assured, pea powder doesn’t take like peas or split pea soup.

Picking a Protein:

Look on your labels for pea isolates and organic if possible. Some of the best brands are Swanson, Sun Warrior blend (not 100% pea) and Naked Pea.

So expand your protein horizons, different proteins have different benefit. And if you need more "smooth" advice check out our 7 Steps to Smoothie Success video . 

Hemp-y Breakfast With Anna Kaiser

I had the pleasure of shooting a video you fitness guru Anna Kaiser. The requested topic was hemp and since hemp hearts are lauded in The Little Book of Thin, I was thrilled. An aside, I hadn't meant Anna prior. And you never know what a project will be like in this scenario. Anna was as welcoming and fun as she is successful. So here is the link, we make a delicious Blueberry, lime and coconut breakfast bowl and laugh a lot. The bowl feature's my favorite Siggi's coconut low fat yogurt, Manitoba hemp hearts and lots of zest. Stay tuned for our next installment.
Have you tried Anna's workout? Eat hemp foods? Did you think hemp was pot? 

Salad in a Jar

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I may have mentioned our office “snackqueenRD” Joanna Li before. Joanna runs the Foodtrainers store. She’s also our resident product taste, recipe taste and gets more excited about trying new things (a totally underrated great quality) than almost anyone I know. For todays post Joanna tackles a lunch concept that’s been taking Pinterest and the blogosphere by storm.

I love how versatile mason jars are and use them for many things from holding smoothies and juices to storing oatmeal and applesauce (I could go on forever). For some time, I’ve been eyeing “Salad in a Jar” photos on Pinterest and Instagram but those Pinterest people have skills that I often do not possess. Finally, I got up the cooking courage and decided to do a little bit of experimenting in the Foodtrainers test kitchen. After all, leafy greens and mason jars, how could I miss out?

I enjoy salad but not the soggy salad that often greets me at lunchtime. With Salad in a Jar your salad contents do not mingle and mush until you say it’s time. Here's what I did:

For my salad in a jar, I used a wide mouth quart sized mason jars (you can use a smaller size for side salads).

Our Mise en place (fancy French way of planning-it thin)

1.  For the first layer, I drizzled the dressing into the bottom of the jar (1/2 tablespoon walnut oil, 1 tablespoon maple syrup, and 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar) By adding this in first and leafy greens last, you keep your greens nice and crisp.
2. Next come your harder, heartier ingredients such as carrots, cucumbers or beets. I used carrots and beets for layers three and four.
3. After hard veggies comes protein. This could be a chopped hardboiled egg, turkey or poached salmon. I used 4 ounces of poached chicken poached in water with a little bit of salt, pepper, and a clove of garlic.
4. The fifth layer is for nuts or seeds, ideas include: sunflower seeds, quinoa, walnuts or almonds.  I sprinkled one of Foodtrainers’ favorite salad toppings, hemp hearts.
5. The sixth layer is for any other soft ingredients. I used roasted some butternut squash (made with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper), I have also used avocado.
6. By the time you reach the last layer, you should have at least 1 1/2 inches from the rim of jar for your leafy greens. This could be spinach, kale, arugula, or dandelion greens or microgreens. I chose kale. Be sure to leave a little bit of space in between your greens and the lid for pre-lunch salad shaking.

Here is our recipe, layer by layer from top to bottom,  for

Foodtrainers’ Kale Salad in A Jar

Room for shaking

Layer 7: fill with kale

Layer 6: 1/2 cup roasted butternut squash

Layer 5: 1/2 pack hemp hearts

Layer 4: 4 ounces poached organic chicken

Layer 3: 1/2 cup beets

Layer 2: 1/2 cup chopped carrots

Layer 1: Dressing: 1/2 tablespoon walnut oil, 1 Tablespoon maple syrup, 1 T apple cider vinegar

When ready to eat, shake the jar to toss all the ingredients together or pour onto a plate and dig in!

Salad in a jar is easy to assemble, can be made ahead of time, last for 4-5 days in the fridge and are easy to transport. As Lauren says in LBT “skinny starts Sunday” so prepare your jars on Sunday, and you won’t have to worry about getting off track once the week starts.

Some other salad in a jar inspiration:

Thanksgiving in a jar, perfect for leftovers

Kale and Quinoa Salad in a jar

Have you ever tried making salad in a jar? What are some of your favorite combos?

The Top 10 Things We Learned in Sun Valley

This past weekend Carolyn and I took Foodtrainers on the road and headed to Sun Valley, Idaho for their Harvest Festival. It was a fantastic event in a beautiful location. Here are some of our favorite foods and facts from the weekend.

We learned from fellow food trend panelist and author of Cooking Up A Business (Rachel Hofstetter) that you need to hear about something from three different sources to consider it a food trend.

We learned that LA folks were right Intelligentsia coffee is pretty great

We adored Velocio coffee, coffee bar by day, wine bar by night), a cool concept. And don’t even get us started on Noosa Aussie Yogurts.

We learned about the next great sushi roll: smoked trout and mustard at Ketchum’s 2nd Ave sushi. This may be the new “Philly” roll especially with Sun Valley mustard. 

We learned that we like molecular gastronomy done right  (definitely hadn’t had it right before) and the magic of liquid nitrogen. We enjoyed Intermezzo of lemon basil sorbet, would’ve love more if hadn’t been the palate cleanser after foie gras (not our thing...) For a taste of lemon-basilyness try this “Giadaesque” smoothie 

We learned that if something doesn’t exist on the market, you can produce it yourself. Allison Evanow saw a need for organic spirits and started Square 1 organic vodka

Her cucumber, basil and botanical flavors tasted pretty good at the Martini and caviar party at 8000 feet in the fabulous Roadhouse restaurant. We loved the pour your own shot bar, no mixers required.

 

Butternut Squash and caviar mini tacos

We heard from an adorable woman who was saddened she didn't bring her Vitamix with the recent SV fires. The Vitamixers mom is 97 and healthy as ever, juicing and smoothing her whole life way before the trend

That hemp can be used to make hollandaise sauce, thank you Glo café

And that fab couple Mike and Autumn from Manitoba Harvest? Love them.

We learned it's best not to wing it mapless when you start a hike

But if you do, wear your Fitbit (20,000 steps = x miles?) and bring a camelback

We learned an arnica massage and a Bowl of Soul (coffee, spice and chocolate) “no whip” from Java coffee hits the spot after.

We learned of the Restaurant Walk concept as the new pub-crawl. We hit 18 restaurants for their offering of the day: goat cheese and watermelon skewers and organic grilled quail (in photo Carolyn is showing her quail fear) were highlights. Two other facts: you should always seize the opportunity to sit in back of a flatbed and it’s ok to be pill poppers: Digestive Enzymes and Zyflamend when needed.

So we learned a lot and enjoyed ourselves but would love to hear from you

What do you see as the next food trends? What are you hearing about? 
The winners from last week's giveaways are:
Ginny Bakes Cookies- Nina
Heath Warrior Chia Bars- Amber
Veggie Gos-Emaliah
Thank you for entering everyone.

Two of our Family Favorites and Giveaways

 I relax some of my food standards when we’re away from home. Despite my best efforts,  you cannot always control everything. Vegetables aren’t always organic, most restaurants don’t cook with coconut oil etc. Additionally, contrary to what my offspring think, my mission in life isn’t to embarrass them in any way possible. Even with the upcoming book, at one of our early meetings when we conceptualized it, my agent looked at me and said “the advice for each scenario cannot be to bring your own.” I agreed. But there are places when you should bring your own and one of those places is the movies.

My children eat candy and have treats but they don’t need sour patch kids the size of a clutch purse or popcorn popped in garbage. They used to give me a hard time over my need to smuggle in my own cinema offerings until I found a solution they adored. The solution’s name is Quinn and this popcorn is insanely good. Aside from the movies it’s now our football snack, road trip snack- we’re pretty into it.

As Quinn says it’s “microwave popcorn reinvented”.  I have many issues and phobias but the microwave isn’t one of them. If you don’t microwave, there are stovetop directions.  The bag is free of chemical coatings and such found in typical micro pop (and also compostable). All ingredients are non-GMO, popcorn is organic. You pop the popcorn, add oil and shake, add the flavor packet and shake again. Our only issue is that we live in a house divided. Two favor Vermont Maple and Sea Salt and two can’t think beyond Hickory Smoked Cheddar.

So there are times when I try to find a family friendly replacement for unhealthy options. Other times, I’m trying to pack the maximum amount of nutrition into our family meals.  One of my favorite ways to do this is with hemp (seeds, oil, powder). Hemp hearts (shelled hemp seeds) have a mild flavor and contain a variety of fats making them great for skin, cognition and mood.  They’re also a good source of protein. These go in our school day smoothies and get sprinkled over salads and in yogurt.

From our family (and the Quinn and Manitoba Harvest family) to yours.

Quinn is giving away a 6-pack of all flavors of their popcorn.

Manitoba harvest is generously supplying a lucky reader a hemp starter pack (with hemp oil, hemp hearts and hemp protein).

To be eligible

1. Comment below (with an email address so we can reach you)
2. Tweet “@foodtrainers family favorites @quinnpocorn and @manitobaharvest #giveaway http://foodtrainers.blogspot.com/2013/09/two-of-our-family-favorites-and.html"
3. And like Manitoba Harvest and Quinn Popcorn on Facebook

You have until Thursday September 19^th to enter 

How do you maximize nutrition in your meals? Have you tried either of these foods? And where do you try to smuggle food?

If you want to let food be they medicine, have to take "it" daily

We are bombarded by food claims. Some foods improve exercise recovery, others ease PMS, there are ingredients that help with metabolism and a few even actually help reduce belly fat. The first step is to sort through the research or consult an expert to find our which claims hold up. The second, often missed, step is to consume the foods regularly in order to ease symptoms or make a noticeable difference.  If a doctor prescribed a blood pressure pill, would you ever take it once or whenever you think about it and expect it to work? I hope not.

I recently talked about sun protective foods. If you're as concerned about sun damage as I am these days, put walnuts, wild salmon and cruciferous veggies on list each week and seek out recipes that utilize them. This is our new meatless monday dinner, in my opinion the perfect kale salad (with walnuts too). I love a cookbook from Melissa Clark Cook This Now because it's organized by month.  Green beans with walnuts and walnut oil (tarragon really makes this). green beans and walnuts

There was also a great article on wild salmon in the times last week (it is worth it to go wild) with this recipe I have on our menu for this week.

If you have GI issues or have been struggling with sub par immunity up your probiotic foods. Include at least one probiotic food daily. Have you seen Evolve's Greek Kefir? Kefir boasts 10x the probiotics of yogurt, I also adore my Siggis Coconut skyr and Bubbies' sauerkraut (no "dog" needed).

I am a believer in the power of linoleic fatty acids and belly fat but you'll need to snack on sunflower seeds daily, put hemp seeds or protein in your morning smoothie or add pine nuts to your salad.

Yes, there’s a value in eating a variety of healthy foods daily but if you are utilizing a food for a specific function, it needs to be consumed regularly for enough time. Start with 4-6 weeks. In some areas- GI pain or body fat you'll be able to see a difference. The bonus? Oftentimes when we're really getting what's called a therapeutic dose of a certain nutrient, there are other "side effects" such as better skin or digestion. Hippocrates was one smart guy.
Have you ever added a food into your diet for the sake of improving a condition or health issue? How long did it take to notice a difference? Do you take vitamins? Have you ever though of seeking out the same nutrients from food?

SafSlim May Help Belly Fat, Should You Take It?

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With so many questionable weight loss products and programs, more often than not when asked to investigate the latest system or scam I find a whole lot of exaggeration and risk. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy denouncing dietary disasters. So when clients came in inquiring about Safslim supplements plugged by Montel Williams on the Dr Oz show, I was secretly excited to expose the “truth” and let them have it.  I mean “Safslim” sounds so suspicious.

First, A Look at the Research

A 2009 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found obese, post menopausal women lost 6.3 % of abdominal fat and gained lean muscle mass taking safflower oil capsules with no change in diet or exercise.  Their blood sugar levels improved, as did insulin sensitivity. The glucose improvements may have been a result of the reduction in stomach fat. Another study, with a similar study population, confirmed these results and found safflower oil also improved HDL or “good cholesterol”. Anyone has worked with post menopausal women knows a reduction in abdominal fat isn't easy to achieve.

Interesting, can’t bash at all based on this but these are the only two studies I found.

What dose is needed, how do different brands compare?

Safslim is not organic and is more expensive than other brands. It’s also a flavored liquid sweetened with xylitol and I’m not sure that’s necessary here.  The dose used in the studies and suggested by Safslim is 6-8 grams per day which for this product is two tablespoons. 

Are there risks? Is there a way to benefit without a supplement?

This is where it gets tricky. The predominant oil in Safslim and many other capsules is linoleic acid though other fatty acids are present. The better safflower for cooking and more stable is “high oleic” variety that has a higher smoke point. Food sources of linoleic acid are sunflower seeds, pine nuts, hemp (for example safflower is 78% linoleic and the fat in hemp 60%) and pecans. If your organic chemistry isn’t fresh in your mind (linoleic is 18:2n-6) or if  you need a fatty acid primer, there is a good one here.

Would I suggest this?

I wouldn’t suggest the supplements yet. There’s not a lot of research, none on non-obese or male subjects, and I don’t quite get the mechanism acting here. Safflower gets converted to GLAs (black currant, evening primrose are GLAs) which have great effects on PMS and skin so these are other potential benefits. I just don’t feel the case is strong enough to supplement for three to four months as the studies did. I will admit, after reading about this I had my favorite Kaia raw sunflower seeds for a snack. I think this is a topic to keep an eye on. My math says 1.5 tsp. regular (not high oleic) safflower oil or ½ ounce sunflower seeds would give you the 6-8 grams of polyunsaturated acid used in the studies. These fats should replace other fats in your diet or you're looking at adding close to 100 calories to your daily intake. So I’m not sure I would suggest following the “Montel” diet but there appears to be something to this safflower thing, I’m just not sure what.
Addendum (Summer 2012)
It seems my clients are less cautious than I am. After I posted this many of them felt why not try Safslim and they did and they reported back. The vast majority were pleased. I also received emails and blog comments attesting their satisfaction with this product. What can I say? I went from a skeptic to a believer. I don't think you have to but if you're concerned have Safslim with your means and skip either your mid morning or after dinner snack to compensate for the added calories.

Did you hear about safflower supplements? What do you think of the information above? Would you supplement or increase dietary linoleic acid based on what you know?