You list ingredient brands. Why?
Consider me your personal grocery shopper. That’s the value added to my recipes. I examine all the options on the Walmart shelf. Take coconut milk, for example. The first can to catch our attention is probably the one with the colorful designer label selling for nearly $10. But look for a country of origin, and you will find just “Southeast Asia.” Not good enough for me. I avoid coconut products from Vietnam, because what is now known as their “Coconut Kingdom” was once only known as the Mekong Delta. During the Vietnam War, 11 million gallons of Agent Orange were dumped on the country to kill jungle foliage so helicopter gunmen could better see their targets. The Mekong Delta was literally dripping in herbicide. I would rather move along to another country’s coconut plantations as a source for my coconut milk. There on the lower shelf, in a nondescript pale blue wrapper, is an off-brand can of coconut milk. It declares its country of origin: Philippines. It does not contain guar gum. That’s my choice. I’m stoked I found it! Even better, it costs half of what the other can costs. When you see a specific ingredient in my recipe or on my pantry list, I mean exactly that product, usually for some health reason related to the environment or nutrition.
Why are there so many canned and packaged products in your recipes?
In case the power grid goes down, it is important to have some groceries in the pantry, not the fridge. That’s why you see an emphasis on ingredients with a long shelf life in my recipes. But not exclusively. Fresh is always best.
You add some unusual things to recipes…why?
One of my biggest pet peeves with food blog recipes is that they usually only add ingredients for taste, not nutrition. Taste is important, but I believe nutrition is even more important. There are so many small additions that reap big nutrition benefits. For example, a few tablespoons of ground sunflower and pumpkin seeds blend happily into pesto for your pasta, yet they add 5 more grams of protein to your meal. Protein is a challenging macronutrient to get into your diet on a budget. This will become starkly apparent to you when you sit down to work out your own menu plan. Sign up for the FREE REPORT on how to do this in the sidebar.
Why did you choose 1600 calories as a default target for menu planning?
Depending on your physical activity, you can generally get along on 20 percent less than the average daily requirement of 2,000 calories set by the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the National Academy of Medicine, who is responsible for developing the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI)
If you’re Erling Haaland you need 6,000 calories a day, but you’re probably not playing in the World Cup soccer finals.
National Institutes of Health research is even more supportive that a moderate calorie reduction — such as 20 percent — can be beneficial for muscle health, metabolic function, and healthy aging, provided it’s done in a balanced, sustainable way, according to the National Institute on Aging.
One has to wonder if the 2,000 calorie-a-day recommended “daily value” is an inflated figure, given the overall obesity of the American public.
Have questions for me? Use the website contact form to ask, and I if it is a topic of interest to the whole community, I will include the answer in a future issue of the Menu Plan Cook newsletter. Please note, the newsletter will only visit your email inbox on an ad hoc basis when there is real “news you can use.”
