Tag

healthy meals

Browsing

How much food do YOU waste?

Yes, I agree that “clean your plate” is a dated rule (better option: “watch how much you put on your plate in the first place”), but I’m betting that’s the first thing the term “food waste” brought to mind. Most Americans likely associate food waste with at-home table scraps, or restaurant leftovers that go from plate to trash. The problem is much, much bigger than that. In August 2012, the Natural Resources Defense Council published an issue paper titled Wasted: How America is Losing Up to 40% of Its Food From Farm to Fork to Landfill. You read that right, FORTY percent. What I found most shocking is that most of that 40% has nothing to do with throwing out leftovers or not doggy-bagging your restaurant leftovers!

Some of Hungry Harvest’s offerings

Why you care about food waste:

  • 80% of the fresh water used in the United States is used for agriculture (source) and roughly 25% of the entire fresh water supply is used to produce food that gets wasted (source)
  • roughly 50% all produce in the United States is thrown away—some 60 million tons (or $160 billion) worth of produce annually (source) and up to 1/3 of all food produced world-wide (source)
  • about 1 billion unpeeled/unopened food items are discarded annually in American schools (source)
  • wasted food that goes to landfills–not all of us have access to composting–generates methane (source); food waste has a carbon footprint of 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gases, making food wastage the third top GHG emitter after the U.S. and China (source)
  • the United States produces enough food to sustain roughly 860 million hungry people, more than twice the amount needed to feed the true population of the United States (source) yet in 2015 42.2 million Americans lived in food insecure households [that means, roughly, they are not certain that food will be on the table for all upcoming meals] including 29.1 million adults and 13.1 million children (source)
  • Food Waste and Hunger Facts

But forget about the doggy-bagging and leftovers, as a whopping 38% (source) or more is wasted before it even has the opportunity to be eaten! Ever wonder why all the apples, in the grocery store are about the same shape and size? Or the carrots are all straight and about the same length? It’s because the nonconforming, weird-looking, too-big, too-small pieces are THROWN AWAY. It’s bad for farmers–they don’t get paid for the goods they grew–and it’s bad for the environment and the planet.

How can YOU reduce food waste?

Easy! Buy ugly produce! In California (SF Bay Area, now rolling out neighborhood by neighborhood in LA!), and UPDATE! Oregon too! check out Imperfect Produce (scroll down to score $10 in free goods!). In Baltimore, D.C., Virginia, Philadelphia, New Jersey and the surrounding areas check out Hungry Harvest (see below for a discount code!). Both are small businesses fighting food waste AND hunger. What do they sell? Hungry Harvest calls their produce “recovered” and explains it this way:

“Recovered” produce comprises fruits and vegetables that are perfectly fine to eat, but would have otherwise been thrown away. Recovered produce is often discarded because of aesthetic imperfections (think misshapen eggplants or off-color apples) or logistical inefficiencies (when grocery stores over-order produce, they can reject truckloads, and that usually gets thrown away).

Imperfect Produce calls their produce “ugly” but wants to assure you it tastes the same:

The produce we source is rejected purely for cosmetic reasons, meaning that taste and nutrition aren’t affected. Common reasons for produce being classified as “ugly” are: too small, wrong color, misshapen. We only source the most delicious fruits and vegetables, and we have strict quality-control measures in place to ensure that what ends up on your doorstep is fresh, delicious, and nutritious. If we wouldn’t eat it, we won’t sell it. We’re redefining BEAUTY in produce, not taste! And if for whatever reason you’re not satisfied with an item in your box, we will either replace it or refund the cost of the box that week.

It’s a win-win-win. Farmers get paid for produce that would otherwise become garbage. You get cheaper produce that may (or may not) look funny. Both companies donate produce to fight hunger, too! It works something like this:

My Imperfect (Perfect!) Experience

My neighborhood’s delivery day is Saturday, so I have until 3:00 Wednesday to customize my box. I get a small box of fruits and vegetables, since I travel a lot and live by myself. The basic cost (if I get whatever was assigned to the box that week) is $11-13 plus a small delivery charge ($2.99). On Monday or Tuesday I get a reminder email to check in and customize my box. (There is an option to not customize the box–surprise!–but since I’m picky I don’t often use that; you can also opt for just only fruit or only vegetables.) One of the things I like is that I can decide how much of something to get, and the Imperfect site tells me why it is “imperfect” as well as where it originated. Right now, Imperfect works mostly with larger family farms in California, but they are also working to source produce from Mexico and smaller family farms. I’m really excited to see what they can do!

Does anything in here look “imperfect” to you?? (My box this week)

My box this week had 1 pound of organic brussels sprouts, a blood orange, 2 pounds of carrots, 1 pound of creamer potatoes, a grapefruit, 1 pound of onions, a 1/2 pound of red bell peppers, romaine lettuce, 1 pound of mangoes (rejected for being too small, I can easily hold one in my hand), and 1 pound of organic lemons. I paid just $15.39, including the delivery charge. There were a ton of other choices, too. Each box also includes the “Weekly Beet,” a card that introduces a team member, gives a quick fact about one of the items offered that week (the asian pears offered the week of September 19th would have been rejected due to scarring and were grown in Kingsburg, CA), and a tasty recipe. Some of the recipes I have received are Blue Cheese and Asian Pear Tartines, Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps, Celery Root and Carrot Soup, Lebanese Pumpkin Hummus, and Fuyu Persimmon Salad. (You can find more recipes at imperfectproduce.com/recipes)

Some of the cards from my Imperfect Produce boxes

The pre-Thanksgiving box included a recipe booklet. Imperfect Produce does fun things, too. Once we got googly eyes in the box to decorate for a contest, and they recently sponsored a contest with Cape & Cowl, donating an additional five pounds of produce to the Alameda County Food Bank for every entry. I can easily set my box to “temporary stop” for vacation. I try to remember to set out my empty boxes Friday night, as Imperfect Produce can re-use them.

To score a $10 discount on Imperfect Produce: when you sign up for your first delivery, put my name (Elizabeth Bain) in the “referred by” box at checkout. (I hope you don’t mind that as an Imperfect Produce customer, this gets me $10 too.)

Hungry (for a) Harvest?

Clearly, I don’t live in Baltimore, D.C., Virginia, Philadelphia, New Jersey and the surrounding areas, so I’m not a Hungry Harvest customer–but if I lived there, I would be! I found Hungry Harvest on Twitter, and I’m thrilled to see there are other organizations doing the work Imperfect Produce does in other parts of the country. (I was extra excited to see they scored a deal on Shark Tank, which also helped fund some of my other favorite small businesses, including Wild Friends nut butters and Bombas socks.)

The Shark Tank set-up

So while I don’t have first-hand experience, it looks like Hungry Harvest shares pretty much all of the characteristics of Imperfect Produce. Delivery days are assigned by zip code, and there is a modest delivery charge. You can even have your produce delivered to your  office! Hungry Harvest also offers add-ons (Imperfect Produce has these on a variable basis). Add-ons include products from other food makers that could go to waste while still being perfectly good to consume: fresh baked bread, coffee, granola, peanut butter, jam, pesto, and produce staple add ons (lemons, limes, etc.).

Sample box from Hungry Harvest

Like Imperfect Produce, Hungry Harvest sources mostly local produce but is also reaching out to prevent food from going to waste, offers organic options, allows you to customize your box (and choose a size), has easy cancellation/temporary hold, and shares recipes to use your yummy produce. For every box they deliver to a paying customer like you, Hungry Harvest donates 1-2 pounds of produce to those in need. Hungry Harvest has a unique partnership called “Produce in a SNAP,” a partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools to bring fresh, affordable produce to food deserts to promote healthy eating and fight hunger. The program allows food-insecure families and individuals who could benefit from affordable produce, including those on government assistance programs such as SNAP/EBT, WIC, and SSDI, to stretch their food budgets and put nutritious produce on their dinner table. (I cribbed that from their website, because I couldn’t say it better.)

Hungry Harvest can’t reuse the boxes, but can pick them up for recycling if you don’t have access to recycling. (No recycling? Seriously, the 1970s called and they want their wasteful environmental policies back.)

To score a discount on Hungry Harvest: enter code TRAINWITHBAIN at checkout.

 

Beyond Eating?

You know you can also support your local farmers’ market, especially if you don’t have an Imperfect Produce or Hungry Harvest nearby. (Most don’t have beauty pageant standards for their produce, so the weirdos can show up there.)

You can commit to less food waste in your household: freeze small amounts of vegetables for use in soups and stews, chop and freeze that onion before it goes bad, share with a neighbor. Compost food scraps using a commercial service if available, or a backyard compost or under-sink worm bin.

Local and state laws have a HUGE impact on how much produce gets wasted. The NRDC report details a few items you might watch for and ideas to reduce food waste. These include tax breaks for farmers that donate produce instead of trashing it, laws that allow individuals to donate produce from their home gardens directly to food banks (this is huge in California, where one lemon tree can shower an entire block with lemons), and changes in food labels’ use of terms like “sell by,” “best by,” and “use by” (currently under discussion at the federal level in the United States).

How do you save the vegetables?

Disclosure: I received five Luvo meals to review because I am a BibRave Pro. (I had previously encountered Luvo as a sponsor of the Shape magazine Meet and Tweet event.) Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews. As always, the opinions in this post are 100% mine–read my integrity statement!

I’m really busy, and don’t enjoy cooking for one, or preparing dinner at the end of a long day. But I’m also trying hard to keep my eating habits away from food that comes in through my car window or is so processed that I don’t recognize what it is. Last fall, I was lucky enough to score an invite to Shape Magazine’s “Meet and Tweet” event, where I first heard about Luvo. Most of the samples Luvo brought to the event contained meat, but I did get to try one of the vegetarian burritos–tasty!  Luvo also sponsored the hydration stations, and gave each attendee a well-designed, super cute infuser bottle that is currently my favorite water bottle. When BibRave provided the opportunity for the Pro team to try Luvo meals, I signed up as fast as my mouse could click.

But let’s step back for a moment.

Once upon a time not that long ago, a “frozen meal” was a Swanson’s TV dinner, heated and served in the Pan Am Airlines-inspired aluminum tray. Not only did they save 1950s and 1960s housewives countless hours so they could focus on other tasks (you know, ironing the bed sheets, busting out the hot rollers to primp before the man of the house returns from his long day at work), but surely they were a sign that we were living in the future. I remember the beefed-up “Hungry Man” dinners introduced in the 1970s (can’t have those hungry manly-men going without dinner just because they hadn’t married yet or because the little lady got herself a job), and the 1980s’ “Kid Cuisine” (though I’m still not sure why kids need their own special food—can’t they just eat regular food?). For at least the last decade or two, the phrase “frozen meal” has conjured up images of overly processed, boxed food with more polysyllabic mystery ingredients than recognizable ones, the glossy packages featuring professionally styled “serving suggestions” that surely must be photos of something other than the contents of the box.

Frozen food’s reputation has taken a hit, especially among the younger, savvier generations who don’t trust “big food” to have their best interests at heart. Industry insiders have commented that consumers are increasingly skeptical (just like this BibRave Pro) of any food that comes in packages, and want products with ingredients they recognize. (Check out this article from Fortune.)

That pretty much describes me. I recognize that modern food technology enables me to have cooked food that is safe to eat directly out of my grocery store—and I like visually appealing, cootie-free food—but I don’t want to have to guess at what’s in my food, and I don’t want to have to pay restaurant prices for frozen meals. Luvo is a great compromise: I recognize the ingredients, it heats perfectly in the microwave due to the proprietary pouch, AND it tastes delicious.

This is the frittata I made--not a press shot. Doesn't it look just like the box?
This is the frittata I made–not a press shot. Doesn’t it look just like the box?

Let’s take a look at the Farmer’s Market Frittata, which was one of my favorite dishes.  It is intended as a breakfast dish, but I ate it for lunch, along with an apple and a beverage. At 250 calories and 12 grams of protein (10 grams fat, zero trans-fats; 29 grams of carbs—in case you care about the macros), the frittata plus a medium apple was enough for me to feel satisfied.

First question: What’s inside?

  • Sweet Potatoes
  • Mango
  • Egg Whites
  • Apple Juice From Concentrate
  • Tomatoes (Tomatoes, Tomato Juice, Salt, Calcium Chloride, Citric Acid)
  • Mushrooms (Mushrooms, Water, Salt, Citric Acid)
  • Water
  • Poblano Chiles
  • Red Bell Peppers
  • Tomatillo
  • Milk
  • Parmesan Cheese (Cultured Milk, Enzymes, Salt)
  • Onions
  • Ricotta Cheese (Whey, Milk, Cream, Vinegar, Salt, Xanthan Gum, Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum)
  • Part-Skim Mozzarella Cheese (Pasteurized Part-Skim Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes)
  • Goat Cheese (Pasteurized Goat’s Milk, Salt, Cheese Culture, Vegetal Rennet)
  • Green Bell Peppers
  • Contains Less Than 2% Of:
    • Balsamic Vinegar
    • Citric Acid
    • Dehydrated Onion
    • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
    • Garlic
    • Garlic Powder
    • Green Chili Pepper
    • Green Onion
    • Guar Gum
    • Jalapeno Peppers
    • Lime Juice Concentrate
    • Natural Flavor
    • Oat Fiber
    • Rice Starch
    • Roasted Tomatoes In Oil (Tomatoes, Sunflower Oil, Garlic, Salt, Oregano)
    • Seasoning (Natural Flavor, Potassium Chloride, Yeast)
    • Seasoning (Sea Salt, Potassium Chloride)
    • Spices
    • Turmeric And Annatto For Color
    • Whole Eggs
    • Xanthan Gum

Now there are probably a few things in the list you’ve heard mocked in the national TV campaign the dairy industry is waging against non-dairy milks, or targeted as evil “chemicals” by a certain food blogger who shall remain nameless. So before you get yourself tied up in knots, here’s the REAL scoop:

  • Calcium chloride is a salt, similar to sodium chloride (you know, white table salt). Similarly, potassium chloride is a salt—maybe you’ve purchased it as a commercially available salt-substitute.
  • Those “gum” ingredients… Xanthan Gum, Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum…these are all polysaccharides (a carbohydrate  with more than one monosaccharide bonded togther; monosaccharides are simple sugars like glucose). Guar gum (aka guaran) is made from ground up guar beans; the beans are dehusked, milled, and screened to obtain the guar gum. Locust bean gum does not have any insects in it, but is basically guar gum made from locust beans (carob beans) instead of guar beans. Xanthan gum is made by fermenting simple sugars (glucose, sucrose, lactose), then drying the product and grinding it into a powder. (But wait, you may ask, aren’t these “weird chemicals”? You can buy they all from Bob’s Red Mill, a trusted brand in natural foods for more than three decades. As thickening and stabilizing agents, they are commonly used in gluten-free baking.)

Second question: is this idiot-proof?

Instructions printed ON THE POUCH, not just the box.
Instructions printed ON THE POUCH, not just the box.

Um, sort of. Both the box and the pouch tell you to microwave it seam-side up. I missed that, and made a little bit of a mess with my first ravioli meal. Oops.

Side by side: the box, my meal
Side by side: the box, my meal

The food still tasted just fine, but when you heat them up, the pouches expand in the microwave. If you are like me and didn’t bother to read the actual instructions carefully, and put the seam down, you just end up with some minor leakage from the pouch at times. (When you cook them seam-side up, there might be a little steam, but the seam doesn’t always burst.)

Obligatory action shot!
Obligatory action shot!

As you can see, the pouch poofs. My kale ricotta ravioli slid right out. At first it seemed like a small amount of food (like 6 ravioli), but it gave me some much-needed perspective on portion size! The ravioli made a great light lunch or, when paired with a salad, a substantive one. One thing I liked about Luvo at the Meet ‘n’ Tweet was the handout about customizing Luvo meals, which included recipes using Luvo–like how to use the Luvo Orange Mango Chicken to make lettuce wraps.

If you haven’t figured it out, I found all of the meals I tried quite tasty. The surprise stand-out for me was the Roasted Vegetable Lasagna. Look, I grew up in a midwest “steak and potatoes” kind of family that all think it is bizarre that I no longer eat animals. We ate canned and frozen produce for most of the winter. The most adventurous options available to use were a Chinese restaurant and a Chi-Chi’s. I grew up as a bit of a picky eater, and I didn’t have a sweet potato or kale until I was over 30. So “with butternut squash, whole wheat noodles and kale” was almost a taunt about how yucky this would be.

The contents of this box won my heart. If you can cook like this and are single, call me.
The contents of this box won my heart. If you can cook like this and are single, call me.

Except it wasn’t. It was completely delicious, and I wanted a second serving. (Not because I was hungry, but because I loved the taste.)

A few more pointers about the Luvo brand:

  • Luvo has a woman CEO! Christine Day, former CEO of lululemon, is a sort of rock star. Even Fortune thinks so.
  • If you do eat animals, at least Luvo meals don’t use meat raised with hormones or antibiotics. (NOT using antibiotics is super important—read why here.)
  • Dairy products are sourced to be rBST-free.
  • Concerned about the effect of GMO crops and Monsanto on international agriculture? Luvo is committed to non-GMO soy, corn, and canola.
  • Each Luvo meal or burrito has fewer than 500 calories. Paired with a salad or a piece of fruit, it’s enough to satisfy.
  • Luvo uses organic ingridients whenever possible.
  • Frozen meals have a reputation for being high in sodium—but Luvo defies that, with fewer than 500mg sodium per serving. (No, they didn’t mess with the number of servings per package—each of the pictured meals is one serving.)
  • Protein, fiber, and nutrients come from real food.

Overall, I’m really happy with Luvo, and intend to head to the Whole Foods near my office to stock up. For other reviews on Luvo, try an omnivore’s opinion, or a meal-by-meal review.

I’m pleased that Luvo has stepped up to my plate, and can’t wait to taste more of their vegetarian dishes. (Did you see they have a quinoa and vegetables enchilada?? How about the vegetable coconut curry pilaf?)