The Healthy Cooking Coach

Organic Goodness at the Phoenix Food Court

Over the past five years, the food truck trend has taken off in foot-friendly cities from Los Angles to San Francisco and from Portland to New York City. The movement has attracted mainstream and gourmet eaters, chefs, and entrepreneurs alike, including advocates of fresh, locally grown, and organic produce.

By creating food truck businesses, small, independent business owners can combine resources and set up shop with a fraction of the overhead required to run a restaurant. By keeping their overhead down they can keep costs down, making their food more accessible to more people. Being mobile also allows them to go where the demand is.

Lunch at the Mobile Food Court
Thanks to the Phoenix Street Food Coalition, Phoenix has finally hopped on board with Food Truck Fridays at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market on Central & McKinley (at 14 E. Pierce Street) between 11 am and 1 pm where you can order from one of seven vendors and take a seat at one of the community tables under the market's shaded parking area. During the summer misters and oversized fans will help keep you cool.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert ©Copryright 2011

Buy fresh, buy local
Because members of the Phoenix Street Food Coalition also belong to Local First AZ, they follow the rule that requires that at least 30% of the ingredients they are locally produced. This is an easy sell to members, many of whom exceed the 30% quota.

Grassfed and organic goodness
One of the vendors, Tanya Chakravarty of Sunshine & Spice, takes Mexican-influenced street foods and fills them with Asian-inspired dishes from Teriyaki beef and barbecued pork to coconut curry chicken and sautéed mushrooms served as tacos, burritos, and won tons. Her company uses only organic chicken from Red Bird, grass fed beef, and local pork from The Meat Shop.

The majority of the vegetables she uses are both organic and locally grown. Her cooked vegetable side dishes and salads vary with the season and what’s available from her vendors: McClendon’s Select Citrus, Maya’s Farm At South Mountain, One Windmill Farm, and Horny Toad Farm.

Chakravarty’s company has been in operation since November 2010. The idea grew out of her love for fantastic foods and her desire to share it. She learned to cook at a very early age because her mother was a terrible cook and her father rarely cooked. When asked about the inspiration for her Asian Taco Fusion Cuisine, she says“I saw it as an opportunity to blend the memories of Asian flavors from the times that my father would cook with my travels to Thailand, China, and India with my brother and wrap them up in a handy carrying case, a tortilla.”

Going mobile
On a typical lunch day at Food Truck Friday, Sunshine & Spice will serve 100 to 150 people.
The business, a full time endeavor, comes with challenges. “Because there is no brick and mortar, there is an increased need for marketing to let people know where to find us and encourage them to come,” explains Chakravarty who does 90% of the cooking for her mobile food truck business. She currently does the prep in a 500 square foot kitchen. The food truck is merely a vehicle for assembly and delivery.

Until recently she has been the sole owner, running the business with one cook at Food Truck Fridays and one server. However, she just brought on a new business partner, Chef Matthew McGowen, to help her reach more people and bring new dishes into her venture. “Having a partner will help me find more great locations to take the truck and be open more days,” explains Chakravarty.

Allergy-friendly, gluten-free street food
Sunshine & Spice serves vegetarians, vegans, omnivores, and people with food allergies and intolerances, including those who must avoid wheat, gluten, dairy, and eggs. All of their entrees are wheat-free and gluten-free if you order them on a corn tortilla or in a rice and veggie bowl. (Those who eat wheat can have their breakfast or lunch wrapped burrito-style in a whole wheat tortilla.)

Photo credit: Rachel Albert ©Copryright 2011

When asked if she has procedures in place to avoid cross contamination with wheat and products that contain them, Chakravarty explains that she does have procedures in place to make her truck and her food celiac safe. “Since we have only two items that contain gluten, they [the items that contain gluten] actually get the special treatment, using different knives and being made on different trays.” They use wheat-free, gluten-free tamari soy sauce and wheat-free corn tortillas. All of their marinades and spices are also gluten-free.

“Because I have celiac disease, I have been very careful to understand every bit of food and drink that I put into my body,” explains Chakravarty. “From reading labels and talking to companies about ingredients, I learned that it was much easier to compose my own food from scratch with the best produce, meats, and other ingredients. This led to a natural progression towards grass-fed meat and organic foods.”

Chakravarty attended holistic nutrition classes at SWIHA (Southwest Institute of Healing Arts) in Tempe, AZ, with former nutrition professor, Don Matesz of Barefoot Acupuncture, who is co-author of The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook. These classes and the ideas presented in The Garden of Eating confirmed her stance on organic foods and grass-fed meat. She liked knowing that by using local produce she could encourage sustainability, give back to her community, and work with the freshest, seasonal produce.

Here’s what I tried
I went down town last Friday to try Chakravarty’s food. I had two tacos: one Teriyaki Spice Beef Taco filled with shredded teriyaki grass fed beef and crispy coleslaw topped with wasabi cream and one Barbecued Pork Taco made from Asian barbecued pulled local pork with coleslaw and cilantro cream. I also ordered a side of stir-fried seasonal vegetables consisting of stir fried slices of eggplant, onions, summer squash, hot peppers, and cherry tomatoes. (See photos above.)

I loved the soft texture of the locally-made corn tortillas and the way they melded around the tender meat and crunchy vegetable fillings. I could have eaten three tacos, I was that hungry and they tasted so good. The vegetables were great too. I would definitely go back to try other offerings on the menu, such as Coconut Curry Chicken (Thai style coconut local chicken chunks with crispy seasoned vegetables and cucumber raita sauce) and Soy Shroooooms (Sesame soy glazed mushrooms with chunky guacamole and wasabi sauce) and their ever changing offering of side dishes.

Hours of operation
Right now Sunshine & Spice is open from 11 am to 1 pm on Fridays at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market and at Sleepy Dog Brewery in Tempe on Thursdays from 6 to 10 pm. They’ve been at the Gilbert Farmers Market, located just off Gilbert Road just South of Guadalupe, where they will re-open for breakfast on Saturday, September 10th from 7 am until noon.

On a typical lunch day at Food Truck Friday, Sunshine & Spice will serve 100 to 150 people.

They also do street fairs. They’ve done the Scottsdale Arts Festival. This fall they’ll be at the second annual Herberger Theater Center's 2011 Festival of the Arts, Saturday October 1, 2011, from 1 to 5 pm; at the Food Truck Festival Oct. 22,, 2011with about 30 other trucks from the Phoenix Street Food Coalition; and at the Scottsdale Air Fair November 5th and 6th, 2011.

They’re still looking for more places to set up their truck and serve meals. What’s the ideal venue for setting up a mobile food truck and food court? “Think office complexes and businesses around town that don’t have restaurants with food close by” says Chakravarty.

If your office is in an area that doesn’t have many restaurants, Sunshine & Spice can meet at your office and you can sample her food. You can visit her website to learn more or call Tanya Chakravarty at 602-429-9899. Note that menu items and prices are subject to change without notice.

The Anti Anxiety Food Solution Giveaway

What’s up for grabs?
Certified Nutritionist Trudy Scott has a new book out called The Anti-anxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings. I wrote a review of the book earlier this week. Click here to read it.

Whether you are searching for more information to help your clients or patients or you’re the wife, husband, partner, father, mother, or friend of someone who suffers from anxiety, depression, PTSD, insomnia, fibromyalgia, food allergies or intolerances, a digestive disorder, celiac disease, PMS, or food cravings, The Anti-Anxiety Food Solution could provide the answers you’ve been searching for.

You may enter the drawing as many times as you like over the next 7 days. Make a separate comment below in the comment section for each action you take.
 
Rules for entering the giveaway (select one of the following):
1) Tell me what appeals to you about The Anti-anxiety Food Solution, why you want to win the book, or how you heard about it (if this is not your first exposure to the title).

To receive bonus entries spread the word about this giveaway:
Do as many of these as you like and leave a separate comment for each action you take
1) Like my Healthy Cooking Coach Facebook Page
2) Watch one of my YouTube videos and leave a comment about it below
3) Subscribe to my YouTube page, then leave a comment about that below
4) Subscribe to my blog (button on upper left side of this page), then leave a comment below
5) Subscribe to my newsletter (button on upper left side of this page), then leave a comment below
6) Publicize the giveaway, then come back to my blog and leave a comment about what you did, for example
    a) Tweet about the giveaway with a link to my blog
    b) blog about the giveaway
    c) announce the giveaway on Facebook and send me a link
    d) mention the giveaway to your family and friends
    e) come up with your own creative ideas

Deadline
Midnight, September 2nd, 2011.

Selection criteria
This contest is open to Continental U.S. residents ONLY.
Winners will be selected by random drawing and announced on this blog.

To learn more about Trudy Scott’s book or to order a copy, click the image below. You can also go to the NANP web site, or visit Trudy's web site to learn more about her work, seminars, presentations, and book signing events.

A Review of The Anti Anxiety Food Solution

Most people take food for granted. They don’t realize the profound affect it can have on their physical, mental, and emotional health. Our culture doesn’t teach us about this. We’re taught to think of what we eat as somehow separate from the workings of our minds and bodies. We’re taught to take prescription drugs when something goes awry.

But, the drugs have side effects, many of them as bad or worse than the conditions they are supposed to treat. “After decades of studies and billions of dollars of pharmaceutical industry funding, the best research findings suggest that conventional prescription medications are only marginally superior---if not equivalent—to placebos for the treatment of psychiatric disorders,” says James Lake, MD., foreword writer of the book and president of the International Network of Integrative Mental Health.

“Physicians often advise their patients about reasonable dietary changes for the prevention and treatment of medical illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes; however, mental health professionals often overlook the importance of nutrition for both maintaining good mental health and treating specific mental health problems” says Lake.

I believe the reason is that few doctors have studied nutrition in depth and fewer still understand the intimate connection between what we eat and how we feel and function. They somehow miss the fact that what we eat is supposed to provide the building blocks for all of our cells, tissues, and organs. In many cases the food we eat is not only lacking what we need but also supplying extraneous substances that contribute to further imbalances in our brains and body chemistry.

Trudy Scott, CN, has a nutrition practice in Northern California that focuses on food, mood, and women’s health. She is president of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP) and author of The Anti-anxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings. 

I met Ms. Scott, at the NANP conference in the fall of 2008. I led a presentation about how to make low-impact (low-sugar, naturally sweetened, gluten-free, dairy free) desserts. She led a presentation about amino acid supplementation and how it can favorably affect mental and emotional health. The concepts she presented weren’t new to me; I was familiar with the work of her mentor, nutritional psychologist Julia Ross, MA, author of The Diet Cure and The Mood Cure.

Ms. Scott and I traded email addresses. Since our food philosophies were so similar, when I heard that her book was coming out this year, I knew that I wanted to read and review it. For years I've wanted more people to understand about the powerful role that nutrition plays in our physical and mental health.  

Scott’s book is written for both laypeople and health practitioners who want to explore complimentary and alternative medical options. Her recommendations are fitting for children with anxiety and for adults who want to reduce their dependence on medication (or avoid getting on them), eventually wean themselves from medication, or supplement anxiety medication with proper nutrition. Her book offers a straightforward, well organzied, and comprehensive approach to improving physical and mental health.

The Anti-anxiety Food Solution explains about how our emotional responses are strongly linked to brain health and brain chemistry, which is intimately affected by what we eat. By improving our diets we can improve our brain chemistry and dramatically influence our moods and mental health for the better. Even if you already think you eat a healthy diet, you may be amazed to learn about you can improve it further by adopting the diet and lifestyle suggestions outlined in this book.

In chapter one, Scott addresses common nutritional deficiencies that can lead to anxiety (the most common mental health disorder) and how readers rectify them by adding certain foods to their diets and removing others. She outlines four anti-anxiety diets designed to help address the nutritional deficiencies that may lie at the root of one’s anxiety.

In chapter two and three, Scott explains how sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine can adversely affect our brain chemistry and how we can painlessly break any additions we may have to these substances.

In chapter four Scott explains about how allergies or intolerances to gluten and other food sensitivities can affect our mental health and about the connection between gut health and mental health. (Did you know that much of the mood altering brain chemical, serotonin, is made in the gut? A healthy digestive system is necessary for producing adequate levels of this mood-boosting compound.) Readers will learn how to improve their digestion naturally and how this can affect other systems in the body.

Chapter six expounds on use of specific amino acid supplements for balancing brain chemistry. Chapter seven deals with a condition called Pyroluria, a genetic imbalance that leads to an unusually high need for vitmin B6 and Zinc.

Chapter eight address other nutrients, hormone imbalances, toxins, medications, and other lifestyle factors that can positively or negatively affect our moods and mental health.

Although it includes recommendations for nutritional supplements, from amino acids to various vitamins and minerals for particular conditions, the main focus of this book is on improving the quality of food you eat on a daily basis. Trudy Scott emphasizes the importance of regularly scheduled meals comprised of nourishing whole, minimally processed foods. She’s a proponent of eating a mixed (omnivorous diet) comprised of high quality eggs, poultry and meat from pasture-raised, grass-fed (or at least organically raised) animals, and wild caught fish, paired with generous servings of fresh, organically grown vegetables and fruits, and of friendly (healthy) fats and oils. For those who include grains and/or beans in their diets, Scott advocates traditional preparation methods and in many cases that people avoid gluten.

While the information presented was not new to me, I found her presentation compelling and interesting and I think it will prove helpful for some of cooking students and clients who are searching for alternatives and wanting to learn how to eat in a way that better their overall health and wellbeing.

Scott’s 192 page (6x9-inch) book is broken down into eight user-friendly chapters that  include check lists, bulleted lists, and easy reference charts that help the reader clarify the information and strategies presented. The appendix includes a Food, Mood, Cravings & Sleep Log, a list of internet resources, lab tests one can order, recommended reading, references, and the all-important index. The book retails for $17.95 in the U.S., a small price to pay for the wealth of information it contain.

I highly recommend this book to the following groups of people:

1. practitioners who coach, counsel, treat, or guide people to greater health
2. laypeople who are dealing with any of the many forms of anxiety, depression, phobias, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD),
3. people who suffer from insomnia, fibromyalgia, PMS, or food cravings
4. anyone with food allergies or intolerances, addictions, disgestive disorders, or celiac disease
5. anyone who wishes to lovingly support a close friends or family member who is dealing with any of these challenges

If you are currently on medications and working with a health practitioner, you may want to share a copy of this book with him or her and request assistance in applying the principles outlined in The Anti-anxiety Food Solution.

If this book interests you, keep reading this blog. I will announce a giveaway of Trudy Scott’s book, The Anti-anxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood and End Cravings later this week.

If you subscribe to my blog (click the subscribe button on the upper left side of this page), you’ll receive email updates when I make new posts and announce monthly giveaways for books, healthy, gluten-free food products, and other natural living products.

Worried About Wheat?

In my Ice Dream Cookbook: Dairy-Free Ice Cream Alternatives with Gluten-Free Cookies, Compotes & Sauces, I discuss the epidemic of undiagnosed gluten sensitivity. According to Dr. Kenneth Fine, M.D., as many as 42% of Americans may have the gene for gluten sensitivity. So, as many as one in four Americans may have some delayed allergic reaction to gluten––a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and some oat products. Fine’s work also suggests that
gluten sensitivity may be a factor in at least 77% of all cases of autoimmune diseases.

How rare is it?
Although celiac disease was once assumed to be rare, 21st century studies show that the combined rates of full-blown and silent celiac disease may exceed 1% in Western countries around the world.

Who can benefit from a gluten-free diet?
Many people find that a wheat-free, gluten-free diet brings relief from sinus problems, moderate to severe gastrointestinal distress, skin problems, such as Dermatitis Herpetiformis (DH), rheumatoid arthritis, Grave’s disease, Hashimotos thyroiditis, multiple sclerosis (MS), Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and lupus. Others find that going gluten-free (or gluten-free and casein-free) helps to relive behavioral disorders, from ADD and ADHD to developmental disorders, such as Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome as well as depression and Schizophrenic behaviors.

Where do I start?
If you or one of your family members are dealing with a gluten-related health problem, you may be wondering where to start. Besides shopping for and stocking up on new foods, you’ll have to allocate more time for label reading and planning meals. You’ll have to educate yourself about your condition and about treatment options. You’ll need to tell your family and friends about your special diet and enlist their support. You’ll have to deal with school lunches (if you have kids), birthday parties, holidays, traveling and dining out. All of this can seem overwhelming in the beginning.

You need a guide
Danna Korn knows what you’re going through. Until 1991 she and her family ate a typical American diet and, like many people, they took eating for granted. All of the changed overnight when they found out their 18-month old son, Tyler, had celiac disease.

“Millions of people are discovering that wheat makes them feel sick. Like Tyler, millions more are finding that it’s not just wheat, but gluten, that makes them ill. In a society that covets foods such as bread, pasta, pizza, cookies, and crackers, it may seem nearly impossible to avoid wheat and gluten,” says Danna.

It’s a big change
“Not only are obvious favorites such as cereals, cakes, and most baked goods off limits, but wheat is hidden in things you might never suspect---such as licorice, soy sauce, and certain seasonings and additives,” explains Danna. Then there are other sources such as lunch meats, imitation bacon and fake fish products, such as surimi, commercial marinades, packaged broths, and other products many people regularly rely on.

Then there are the emotional, physical, social, psychological, and financial implications of having to make a major diet and lifestyle change. “The feelings of deprivation, loss of convenience, sadness, frustration, and confusion can be overwhelming,” says Danna. Of course, the changes are well worth the effort when it means keeping you or someone you love healthy, happy, and worry-free.

You’ll need a map and a compass
Wheat-Free, Worry-Free: The Art of Happy, Healthy, Gluten-Free Living By Danna Korn contains practical information to help you live a happy and healthy wheat-free, gluten-free life. The book is divided into three sections.

The first section walks you through the process of discovering whether the gluten-free diet is for you, how and why you (or someone you love or care for) might benefit from this diet, and about medical tests you may need. You’ll learn about celiac disease and associated conditions, how wheat and gluten can affect behavior, and about conventional and unconvential approaches to dealing with wheat and gluten intolerance.

In the second section, Danna walks you though what you can and cannot eat on a gluten-free diet, how to decipher food labels, how to shop, plan menus, deal with social functions, holidays, travel, and other occasions that often prove challenging for anyone who has a wheat or gluten allergy or intolerance.

Part three focuses on the emotions behind the diet. Here Danna offers advice on everything from learning how to become better at planning and being creative to becoming a better communicator and improving your attitude on life in general and on the wheat-free gluten-free diet in particular. You’ll learn how to talk to others about your special diet or your child’s special diet and how to deal with other challenges specific to children.

The last section of Wheat-Free, Worry-Free, "Tech Talk," includes nutritional, medical, and scientific information pertinent to a wheat-free and gluten-free diet. The appendix includes a resource directory of national organizations and allergy and celiac support groups, testing laboratories, informative web sites, chain restaurants that cater to WF and GF diets, recommended cookbooks, and companies that sell WF and GF items.

I read Wheat-Free, Worry-Free and recommend it to anyone new to the wheat-free or gluten-free diet and lifestyle, particularly those who have kids or grandkids. It's a thorough and wel written reference guide.

Changing with The Times

Due to rising costs and poor economy, we must raise the price of The Garden Of Eating and The Ice Dream Cookbook. As of September 1, 2011, we will be increasing the price of both books as follows:

New
The Garden Of Eating: $39.95
The Ice Dream Cookbook: $29.95

The last increase on The Garden Of Eating occured in early 2007 (more than four years ago!).  We have never had a price increase on The Ice Dream Cookbook.  We held out for as long as we could, but the continued rise in expenses have been too much for us to continue to bear. 

The good news
You still have nearly two weeks left to purchase these great books at the current prices:

Old
The Garden Of Eating: $34.95
The Ice Dream Cookbook: $25.95

These books are wonderful additions to your cooking library and make great gifts for ANYONE looking to live a healthy life.  Not only are they packed with delicious, healthy, and easy to use gluten-free, dairy-free recipes, they are loaded with information about how to create a sustainable, produce-dominated diet.

To Order
Please visit: TheGardenOfEatingDiet.com

Special Bundle Bonus
Between now and September 1st, 2011, if you purchase both of my books and my cooking DVD, Cooking with Whole Foods, you will receive 15% off the current cover price of both books.

You’ll save nearly $9.00!!

To order this Special Bundle Bonus
Please call Planetary Press: (602) 840-4556.

Try Bombay Spice Grill & Wine in Phoenix

I’ve enjoyed Indian food in the past but I hadn’t eaten it in a long time. I don’t eat grain on a daily basis, I avoid wheat and gluten, I eat beans very infrequently, and I rarely eat deep fried foods, items that are usually served in quantity in Indian restaurants. So, when heard and read about Bombay Spice Grill, I knew it would be different.

A healthy twist
The restaurant, owned by a health conscious doctor, offers a unique and healthier twist on Indian food. Besides offering meat, fish, poultry, tofu, bean, legume, and mock chicken, lamb, shrimp dishes. They promise that 97% of their appetizers and entrees contain less than 500 calories per serving. Calorie-conscious diners can view the nutrition breakdown of any menu item in a small pamphlet they offer. You can order brown rice, white rice, or skip the rice altogether.

The chefs at Bombay Spice Grill don’t use cream or milk. They don’t deep fry anything. They cook with only extra-virgin olive oil---no butter*, ghee*, or refined vegetable oils. I appreciate that they don’t use polyunsaturated vegetables oils, which are unstable, inappropriate for cooking, and hazardous to health. I have nothing against butter or ghee; I consider healthy and natural and I use them in my kitchen in some meals on some days. Still, I recognize the value of their decision not to use any butter fat in cooking. This makes their food accessible to vegetarians, vegans, omnivores, and people with an intolerance to lactose or casein. You'll find yogurt in some dishes and it is clearly marked so you won't have any surprises.

Bombay Spice Grill has won more than 20 awards, including Best Food 2009 at the Scottsdale Culinary Festival where they competed against 40 other restaurants in the valley.

Gluten-free rules!
An increasing number of restaurants now offer gluten-free menu items; although many have failed to create procedures to ensure a safe dining experience for people with celiac disease and other serious gluten-intolerances. At Bombay Spice Grill, 95% of the menu has been gluten-free since they opened, three years ago.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert© copryight 2011

Four months ago the management decided that their staff needed to learn about cross contamination and how to avoid it after one of their gluten-free diners was accidentally served their wheat-based naan. Although the customer didn’t consume the wheat bread, it was on his plate and could have been a problem.

The manger attended a gluten-free expo this year (2011) and consulted with people who belong to the Celiac Disease Foundation Greater Phoenix Chapter, so that he could understand the needs of gluten-fee diners. The restaurant's owner invested in separate pots, pans, knives, and utensils and created policies for the kitchen and wait staff. They even have a separate grill for cooking their gluten-free papadums.

Gluten-free dining made easy
The restaurant’s regular menu alerts diners who follow a gluten-free or vegan diet to ask for a special menu. Anytime a customer asks for a gluten-free menu, either the manager or the chef come to the table to find out about any other food allergies or intolerances (many people have multiple food intolerances) the person may have. This information gathered gets recorded on a pink note card that gets stapled to their order. The server is alerted about this so that everyone in the front and back of the restaurant knows that this particular table is gluten-free. Since Bombay Spice Grill has had these produces in place, they have not had any issues with cross contamination.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert© copryight 2011

More on the menu
You can order soup, salad, hot or cold appetizers, vegetable, chicken, lamb and shrimp Biriyani, and a variety of entrees that you can customizable, from the base through the sauce and key ingredients.

You’ll find delicious, freshly made naan, roti, dosas, and papadum crisps. The thin, crepe-like dosas (made from brown rice and lentil flour) and the crispy papadum crisps (made from lentil and chickpea flour) are gluten free.  Their sauces and desserts are also gluten-free. Only eight items on the entire menu contain gluten.

The food
My friend and I shared three starters: Seared Eggplant, Shrimp Tikka Kebab, Lamb Tikka Kebab, and a mixed vegetable side dish with a spinach, broccoli, garlic, ginger, tomato and fenugreek seasoning. The food was artfully plated and delicious.

Eggplant has never been one of my favorite dishes; although I’ve had it in a couple of ethnic restaurants, one of them a Thai place in downtown Phoenix, where I really enjoyed it. I loved the seared eggplant dish. My friend and I thought it was great. We found it tender, succulent, and full of flavorful without a lot of fat. (I would order it again.) The tamarind sauce served on the side added a slightly sweet, slightly tangy flavor. We liked the shrimp and the spiced lamb cut into sausage-like rounds. Both were sauteed with onions, red and green bell peppers, garlic, and served with a mildly spiced cilantro sauce. The dosas and papadums made great accompaniments for scooping up tasty morsels of meat, vegetables, and sauce. We were comfortably full so we didn’t order dessert.

The drinks
If you drink alcohol, you can order regular or gluten-free beer or one of the many internationally selected wines, served by the glass or bottle. We didn’t try any of these.

The atmosphere
We liked the background music. It was neither too loud nor distracting, issues we’ve had with some other restaurants. We liked the open feel of the place, how neat and tidy it was, and that we could actually see into the open kitchen. 

The staff and service
We found the staff friendly, knowledgeable, and attentive. Our orders were taken promptly and food came to our table fairly quickly. Both of us want to go back for lunch, dinner, or brunch. On a future visit I would like to try the lamb chops, seared salmon, and Tandoori wings, another vegetable dish with a different sauce, and their rice pudding and mango sorbet. I think my friend will probably dine there with her husband next time.

Bombay Spice Grill & Wine is located at 10810 N. Tatum Blvd. (NW corner of Tatum & Shea across from Whole Foods Market). They are open Sunday to Thursday from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. until 9:30 p.m. Wednesday is Date Night. A couple can order one appetizer, two entrees, a Dessert Flight (a sampling of all three of their desserts), and one bottle of wine for $40. They are also open from 11 am to 3 pm on Sundays for a Botomless Brunch Buffet ($11.95 per person) that provides all you can eat from a selection of eight menu items.

For more information visit their web site:
http://www.bombayspice.com/ or call them at 602-795-0020.

Why Dry: The Benefits of Using A Food Dehydrator

If your garden is bursting with fresh produce, your friends and neighbors give you fresh produce, you visit farms with you-pick-it programs, or you find sales on your favorite fruits and vegetables, you may be wondering what do with all of it. How do you store it? If you want to save space, save energy, save money, and enjoy great tasting goodies all year round, drying is the way. It's not just for vegetables either. You can also make your own beef or bison jerky if you have a dehydrator.

What follows are the benefits of drying food and some tips to help you get started. For more information about drying meat and poultry and for great jerky recipes, consult my book, The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook.

Save Space
Most foods dry from one-third to one-sixteenth of their original size. Once dried, 76 tomatoes will fit into a  single quart jar! If these same tomatoes were canned, they'd fill 16 (one-quart) jars. Dried foods also weigh 85% less then canned goods. For example, you can store 25 pounds of onions in a one-gallon jar once they've been dried into rings, flakes, or powder.

Save Energy
The one or two pennies per hour it takes to dry foods is far less than the energy it takes to maintain fresh foods in the refrigerator or freezer. The drying process usually takes 4 to 12 hours but most people keep fruits, vegetables and prepared foods in cold storage far longer then this. Enormous amounts of energy go to waste in food storage that could be saved or put to better use.

Reduce your environmental impact
Drying helps reduce your reliance on packaged, processed and so-called “convenience” foods.  This translated into fewer cans, boxes, and bags in your home and, ultimately, in landfills. By some estimates, the average American throws out his or her own weight in packaging every month. Even environmentally aware shoppers often find it difficult to avoid buying heavily packaged foods. Why not make your own instant foods at home? With dried fruits and vegetables you can make your own spice blends, instant soups, sauce and stuffing mixes, soup “helpers” and extenders, desserts, powdered sweeteners, fruit leathers and meat-based jerky and dried veggie-chips

Save money
If you want to save money on nutritious dried foods, make them yourself. Sun-dried tomatoes often cost upwards of $12 a pound.  Dried chives cost $30 or more a pound and shiitake mushrooms cost between $20 and $40 a pound, depending on the grade. Dried apples cost at least $10 a pound while dried apricots often cost $12 per pound. Commercially prepared dried herbs, spices, and seasonings can also be costly.  In most cases, you’ll save up to 90% of the cost by drying foods at home. 

For convenience sake
Dehydrators don’t require any attention except for occasional checking to see if the goods are as dry as you like. And you don’t need any special storage containers. Dried foods can be stored in empty peanut butter, mustard, jam, or spice jars, or in recycled zip-lock bags. Or, you can place them in widemouth pint and quart jars and vaccum seal them using a Food Saver and a special attachment. You can dry your favorite foods during the day while you’re at home or away, or at night while you sleep!  Pretty easy, really.

Simply purchase or harvest fresh apples, peaches, pears, blueberries, or cherries, when they’re perfectly ripe, then dry them for use throughout the year.  Make the most of the summer’s sweet corn (if you buy or grow organic, non-GMO corn), tomatoes, bell peppers, chile peppers, peas, parsley, chives, leeks, edible flowers, etc. By stocking up now, you’ll always have enough on hand. 

Its the healthy way to go
By drying fruits, vegetables, meats and other foods at home, you can ensure that your meals are free of preservatives, refined sugar, and other unnecessary additives. Many allegedly healthy foods have been adulterated to such an extent that they no longer nourish us. Overall, drying foods benefits your health and the health of the environment.

Rehydrate it, you'll like it
Many dried foods can be eaten as is, though most are best presoaked and cooked. To rehydrate, place in a bowl with just enough cool water to cover and let soak for several hours or overnight.  Or, cover with boiling water, cover bowl with a plate and allow to soak for several minutes until soft and plump.

For dishes that require some simmering, such as soups and sauces, finely cut, dried vegetables should be added at the beginning of cooking time without being rehydrated.

When using dried produce in cooking, add more liquid than when using fresh produce because dried foods will absorb the juices around them. A good rule of thumb is to add an extra cup of liquid per cup of dried food.  For stewed fruit, add 2 cups of liquid per cup of dried fruit and simmer until tender.  For pies and pastry fillings, add one cup of water or apple juice per cup of dried fruit and cook your rehydrated foods normally.

Stretch the season
With such a marvelous and easy-to-use invention as the food dehydrator, you'll be able to enjoy produce all year long, whether from the garden, the farmer’s market, a you-pick-it place, or from good deals on seasonal produce at the grocery store or natural foods co-op. But, the only way to truly appreciate the far-reaching advantages of dehydrating is to dry it and see!

Drying Tips & Techniques
There are no absolutes when it comes to drying.  Many variables come into play like the kind of produce you dry, it’s size, thickness and freshness, the humidity in the air and the type of dehydrator you use.

• Use the freshest local and/or organic produce whenever possible.
• Buy enough produce. Most foods will shrink from one-third to one-sixteenth of their original size, so you may need more then you think. A good rule of thumb is 1 ½ pounds of produce per square foot of drying tray.
• Clean fruits and vegetables thoroughly before dehydrating.
• Peel vegetables and fruits if waxed or if the skins are thick or you find them irritating (e.g. sweet potatoes, yams, apples, etc).
• Remove any soft or spoiled spots before slicing and dehydrating.
• Slice, dice, chop or shred the produce in a consistent size to ensure that the pieces dry in the same amount of time. Consult your dehydrator's instruction manual for the suggested thickness of different types of produce.  Generally 1/4-inch to3/8-inch works best.
• Steam or blanch vegetables with long cooking times or that tend to be eaten cooked (e.g., green beans, winter squash, and sweet potatoes). For peas and corn, brief cooking can be helpful to reduce the enzyme action that causes flavor loss. Vegetables with short cooking times – such as zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, celery and onions – require no precooking.
• To prevent discoloration, dip sliced fruits (bananas, apples, pears, peaches, etc.) in apple or pineapple juice for a few minutes before dehydrating.
• Check the food you are drying several times a day to avoid over drying.
• Dried, sliced fruits should be soft and pliable when fully dried.
• Dried, sliced vegetables should be brittle.
• Label the containers with the contents and date.
• Store dried foods in a cool, dry, relatively dark place. Ideal temperatures are between 60 degrees F to below freezing.
• If moisture beads appear on the sides of the storage container, the produce is insufficiently dried. Return it to the dehydrator immediately. Oily or very moist foods such as olives are particularly susceptible to rancidity if not dried properly.
• Dried herbs do not require rehydration.
• Buy a dehydrator with adjustable temperature settings. The Excalibur is my favorite; however, I used American Harvest machines for almost 15 years before upgrading to the higher end machine.

 

 

Safe Storage Containers for Frozen Desserts

Commonly used plastic food and beverage containers can undermine your health by leaching toxic chemicals into the foods and beverages you consume. This can contribute to endocrine disorders, birth defects, and cancer. While we can’t eliminate all risks, we can certainly reduce our exposure to these harmful chemicals by being more conscious about the kinds of foods and containers we buy and use.

Safe food storage
If you’ve followed my blog, taken my online or live cooking classes, or read my cookbooks, you know that I advocate using a home drinking water filtration system rather than buying bottled water. I encourage people to use biodegradable, non-toxic, and inert containers for storing foods in the pantry, the refrigerator, and the freezer. Examples include stainless steel thermoses and water bottles, wide mouth canning jars and other glass jars, tempered glass containers with lids (think Pyrex and Corningware), and stainless food tins, such as tiffins, tiffin-like containers, and stacking stainless steel food containers. You can read more about these and other options and the benefits of them in The Garden of Eating.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert© Copyright 2009

Freezing homemade frozen desserts
If you make your own frozen desserts, you may be wondering what to store them in besides plastic. In my Ice Dream Cookbook, I present several alternatives, including pint and half pint canning jars, tempered glass custard cups with lids, and cardboard ice cream containers. 

Most people don’t know that you can freeze in glass if you leave an inch of space below the lip in the jar (where it gets narrow) when freezing liquids and you chill the jar and its contents until they are cold to the touch. I freeze many leftovers in glass jars and round and square tempered glass containers with lids. Still, there’s a limit to how much glass I want in the freezer when it’s very full.

The cardboard ice cream containers
These containers are one of the best options. They look like store bought pint-size containers of ice cream except that they don’t have labels. They’re inexpensive, unbreakable, 100% biodegradable and you can write on the outside (do this before you fill them with ice cream or Ice Dream). If you have kids, you can let them decorate the outside of the containers with colorful markers before you fill them with your freshly churned frozen dessert.

These containers are less fragile than glass jars, which can tumble out of the freezer and break if you’re not careful about where you place them. They keep your homemade frozen desserts fresh and preserve the texture better than larger containers, which can lead to icing up if the dessert is repeatedly frozen and then allowed to soften enough to scoop.

Restaurant supply and outlet stores sell these pint-size food-grade containers in packs of 25 and they usually sell the lids separately. In Phoenix, AZ, I buy them at Smart & Final stores. Although I listed some online sources when I wrote the boo, many required purchase in large amounts, until now.

A great find
Today one of my enthusiastic book customers sent me an Amazon link for these containers with lids. (Thank you, Isabelle!) Now you can buy 25 pint-size, food-grade cardboard containers with lids from Amazon. So, you don’t have to hunt around town for a store that sells them.

If you haven’t ventured to make your own frozen desserts, now’s the time, while the weather is still hot. Making your own frozen dessert is easier than you might imagine with today’s modern ice cream makers. You can make flavors you won’t find in stores. You can use higher quality ingredients and avoid a long list of preservatives and additives. You make your treats dairy free, gluten free, egg free (if you’re allergic to eggs or want to simplify the “custard” making process), naturally sweetened, and lower in sugar. My Ice Dream Cookbook will walk you through the process of making non-dairy coconut milk based ice cream alternatives without refined sugar. For more information about the book, click here.

Looking to Indulge? Try Indulge Burger

I'm always on the lookout for restaurants in the Phoenix metro area that have gluten-free menus. I write a food column for Arizona Weekly Magazine. While I don’t have to limit my selections to places with gluten-free menus, I definitely prefer those that do. I follow a wheat-free and gluten-free (GF) diet and so do many of my cooking students, book customers, coaching clients, and friends.

Its easy to skip the bread basket, ask your server to leave off the croutons, or order a burger without the bun. But that’s not enough for people who have celiac disease and for many people with autoimmune disorders or a wheat or gluten allergy or intolerance, even trace amounts of wheat protein or gluten in a meal can cause side effects that may last hours, days, or an entire week. While I don’t fall into that category myself, I am sensitive to the needs of people who do.

Indulge yourself
I found Ingulge Burger, located at 10392 N. Scottsdale Road on the Southwest Corner of Scottsdale and Shea (in the Scottsdale Commons Shopping Center), online earlier this year. They have a GF menu and they also offer an extensive list of GF selections. They’ve been in business for two and a half years, I just hand't heard of them until recently.

Your options
Indulge Burger is known for their signature burgers and specialty burgers. You can get one made from beef, chicken, turkey, salmon*, or black beans. Indulge uses only certified humanely-raised and handled beef free of hormones and antibiotics. That’s a big plus to me. If you order a beef burger, you can choose between naturally-raised and Kobe beef, choose the size (1/2 pound or 2/3 pound) and how you want it cooked. You can have your burger served on brioche, an English muffin, a whole wheat bun, a gluten-free bun, or bread-free on a bed of greens (the paleo, primal, and low-carb option).

Photo credit: Rachel Albert, copyright© 2011

*Note: If you like salmon but avoid farmed fish because it contains higher levels of contaminants and it’s eco-unfriendly, then I suggest you let them know that you would order a salmon burger or salmon on a salad if they used wild-caught fish. When I asked, they told me they haven’t gotten requests for this. You could help change that.

Here's where the choices come in.They offer nine different kinds of cheese (just check off what you want, if you want it). They have 15 different veggie toppings from pepperoncini to pineapple. Im partial to the caramelized, grilled onions. They have a selection of 20 side sauces, which they say have all been tested and certified gluten-free. My favorites (I didn’t try all of them) include the Aioli, Apricot Chipotle, and Honey Mustard sauces. The menu also includes additional toppings, such as honey-cured bacon, sautéed mushrooms, sliced avocado, and fried egg.

A caveat on blue cheese GF diners
If you have celiac disease or some other serious health condition requiring a strict GF diet, you need to know about one error I believe I found on their menu. Under the cheese selection they list blue cheese as an option. I've read that the variety of mold used to make blue cheese is grown on wheat, making blue cheese a no-no for anyone with celiac disease or a related condition.

Photo credit: Rachel Albert, copyright© 2011

Gluten-free buns
I rarely eat burgers on a bun. I don’t miss it. I’m so used to eating a burger as a side dish with salad or cooked leafy green or mixed vegetables with a side of baked or roasted vegetables or fresh fruit. Still, I enjoyed eating a burger on a GF bun. I thought it had a good flavor and texture and held together well.

Other offerings
Indulge Burgers’GF menu also includes three side salads, three main dish salads, a fish sandwich, chicken sandwich, grilled veggie pesto sandwich, and an all-beef hot dog (it’s GF) on a GF bun. For people who don’t follow a GF diet, they have some additional menu options.

The fries
Indulge serves baked GF French fries. However, their sweet potato fries and crispy fried onion strings are not GF! To make these GF, they’d need to have a separate fryer or use a GF batter for all of the items they bread before frying.

I wanted to like the French fries. So did my friend who needs to adhere to a strict GF diet. Instead, we found them dry and lacking in flavor (other than a strong saltiness). I gave them a second chance and had the same experience. I suspected they were pre-cut (possibly blanched) and frozen. They have a very small kitchen and items made GF in house require extra space to avoid cross contamination. I had my suspicion confirmed when I called the restaurant.

GF desserts
Indulge also serves GF desserts, including cinnamon rolls, Red Velvet, carrot, chocolate, and lemon cupcakes from a local bakery, Julia’s Gluten-Free Bakery. If you follow a dairy-free diet, a low-calorie or low-carb diet, or avoid refined sugar, these are not the cupcakes for you. If you’re looking for a treat and the main determinant for you is whether something is GF or not, then go ahead, indulge. I did try part of one of Julia’s Red Velvet cupcakes a year ago (at Nourish Café), and thought it was tasty.

The verdict
I thought the food tasted good and I found the portions generous. I would go back. However, if you’re looking to avoid HFCS and other refined sugars and refined, polyunsaturated oils, maybe you’re better off dining at home. If you eat out infrequently, then I wouldn't worry about ingesting small amounts of these ingredients (I don't). I'd say, go ahead, indulge! It's the overall composition of your diet that makes the biggest impact on your health. One meal out of 21 per week is unlikely to be the tipping point.

Hours of operation
Indulge Burger is open Monday through Friday from 11am to 10pm; Saturday from 9am to 10pm; Sunday from 9am to 9pm. They serve breakfast on Saturday and Sunday. Happy Hours run from 3:30  to 6:30 pm daily with Ladies night on Tuesday and Wednesday from 4 pm to close.

For more information visit their website.
Phone: 480.998.2222

The Winner of the Primal Blueprint Giveaway

Karen Rowan of Watertown, MN, won a copy of Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint in the most recent giveaway on this blog.

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I've got another book to give away this month. I'll post a review of it and details later this week.