The Common Culinarian

Greetings! You’ll notice I changed the title of the Wednesday segment. Since this blog is about food, and this segment is about how food interacts with your body, I thought it was more appropriate that the segment title deal direction with food. Thus, Wholesome Wednesday was born.

Yahoo Health has a great article on 127 foods that fight fat. Problem is, they don’t really break it down in an easy to read format. Plus, if you want to learn math, this isn’t the article for you: I only count 54 foods, or food types.

I’ll cover these foods and my thoughts on them over the course of the next two weeks in a multi-part Wholesome Wednesday segment. Today, we’ll begin with the first 4 sections of the “Any Time List.”

Fruits and vegetables
All fruits and vegetables—raw, cooked, fresh, frozen, canned—belong on the Picture Perfect Anytime List. Avoid any packaged fruits that have added sugar. Otherwise, the more fruits and vegetables you eat, the better.

I think this is very sound advice. Fruit has countless benefits: it provides fiber for your body, provides antioxidants that fight aging and cancer, and generally fills you up without making you uncomfortable. I heard on the radio the other day–and I’ve heard this more than once–that those folks who eat an apple before each meal ate something like 300 calories less, on average, than those who didn’t. And, it had to be an apple–apple sauce, apple juice didn’t work.

Soups
You’ve heard of value for your money. Soups give you very good value for the calories. They are filling; a bowl of soup can be an entire meal. They are satisfying. For many people, they are more satisfying than raw vegetables, while many give you all the benefits of veggies (if you choose the soups chock full of vegetables). They are inexpensive, convenient, easy, and quick to make. Soups don’t make you feel like you’re on a diet. Above all, soups are versatile. They can serve as a snack, as part of a meal, or as a cooking ingredient.

The idea here is to fill yourself up on food that’s got high volume but low calories. This works in most soups because they are broth based and broth is mostly water. However, you need to be careful not to mistake this advice for cream based soups. While tasty, and a delicious occasional treat, cream based soups are loaded with fat and calories–and I think they defeat the purpose of eating a soup before a meal. Incidentally, I’ve heard the same thing about eating a broth-based soup before a meal as I have about eating an apple before a meal. Maybe we should all try it–we’ll be healthier as a result, at least!

Sauces, Condiments, and Marinades
Put the following items at the very top of your shopping list. They’re invaluable for adding flavor, moisture, texture, and versatility to every food and every meal.

1. Salad dressings: oil-free or low-calorie (light or lite)
2. Mayonnaise: fat-free or light
3. Sour cream and yogurt: fat-free, plain, or with NutraSweet (or low-fat nondairy substitutes)
4. Mustards: Dijon, Pommery, and others
5. Tomato puree, tomato paste, and tomato sauce
6. Clam juice, tomato juice, V8 juice, and lemon or lime juice
7. Butter Buds or Molly McButter
8. Cooking sprays (such as Pam) in butter, olive oil, garlic, or lemon flavors
9. Vinegars: balsamic, cider, wine, tarragon, and others
10. Horseradish: red and white
11. Sauces: salsa, cocktail sauce, tamari, soy sauce, A1, Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, duck sauce, chutney, relish, and others
12. Onion: fresh, juice, flakes, and powder
13. Garlic: fresh, juice, flakes, and powder
14. Herbs: any and all, including basil, oregano, tarragon, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, dill, chives, sage, and bay leaves
15. Spices: any and all, including cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cumin, nutmeg, coriander, curry, paprika, and allspice
16. Extracts: vanilla, almond, peppermint, maple, coconut, cocoa powder, and others

I think this is a fun list. However, I do not have a lot of these items, which goes back to the well-stocked pantry debate. Only use from this list what makes sense for you. Line-by-line:

1. Salad dressings: Definitely, have some salad dressings on hand. However, only buy what you’re going to use and what you can’t make easily. We have ranch dressing on hand, but we can just as easily whip up a vinaigrette as we can pour processed soybean oil from a bottle.
2. Mayonnaise: Only have mayonnaise if you’re going to use mayonnaise. We will use maybe 2 cups in a year for anything, so we only have like a 10 ounce jar.
3. Yogurt & Sour Cream: Yogurt is a good thing to keep on hand–it’s a good snack, and there are studies that demonstrate the importance of having a low-fat source of dairy in your diet for promoting a healthful weight. We only buy sour cream when we need it, and we splurge–have you looked at the ingredients list on most sour creams? Non-fat milk and emulsifiers? No thank you. Go for Daisy, if your grocer carries it. 100% real sour cream, no additives. And, it holds up better than that emulsified crap.
4. Mustards: Mustards are good. You can make a Dijon crusted pork chop, or use some as in emulsifier in your vinaigrette!
5. Tomato products: Yep on tomato products. These are common in Italian style cooking, as well as Middle Eastern cuisine. You can make something delicious and tasty in no time. And, for the men–Lycopene, an compound with links to reduced rates of prostate cancer.
6. Clam juice, tomato juice, lemon & lime juice: Hmm. This doesn’t seem like something the common cook would use very often. Buy your lemons and limes fresh if you need the juice. Unless you’re making margaritas for the Titans.
7. Butter flavored sprinkles: I say no to butter flavored compounds. Use the real stuff, just go easy. And I’m serious–use butter, not spread, not margarine. Your tastebuds will thank me.
8. Cooking sprays: I also say no to cooking sprays. The chemical propellant is a disaster with non-stick surfaces. Get a Misto and go to town. It’s much better, and your cookware will thank you.
9. Vinegars: I agree whole heartedly–have a variety of vinegars on hand.
10. Horseradish: This depends on how much you’ll use it. I’ll tell you what–American horseradish is something awful to me, but when we were in Austria over the summer, the horseradish they use with their sausages was delectable! It was sweeter and milder than American horseradish. Get some, if you like sausage.
11. Lots ‘o sauce: I have three of these: ketchup, soy, and Worcestershire sauces. The rest you can make or buy as you need them.
12. Onions: Definitely have some onion powder and fresh onions. You can dice them really small and grate them for their juice. Don’t waste your money.
13. Garlic: See number 12
14. Dried herbs: Only have as much as you’ll use, or use what you have. Herbs don’t really go bad, but they do lose their potency after a while. You can always plant fresh, too. I think this will be my spring project (but it will have to be a window garden, cause we don’t have the space!).
15. Spices: Same as number 14. Spices do the same thing. They just taste so much better when they are fresh, anyway.
16. Other aromatics: I have vanilla extract and cocoa powder. Vanilla is the most versatile plant, because it goes with almost everything.

Dressings and Dips
I recommend fat-free or light dressings and dips. The light category—low-fat, reduced-fat, and low-calorie—is midway between totally fat-free and regular, and it’s often more pleasing to the palate than fat-free. Dressings can be used as all-purpose condiments, dips, toppings, even cooking liquids. They already contain a mixture of ingredients, so just slather them on vegetables, seafood, and pretty much anything else. Or cook with them to make up for the lack of butter or oil. I recommend keeping several varieties of dressings and dips on hand, including at least one creamy version. Try brushing a light creamy dressing on seafood, then broiling; the dressing adds moisture and flavor.

I agree, but we also discussed this in number one above. I think a more fitting item here is to keep soup and dressing packets on hand, to mix with your sour cream and/or mayonnaise. Plus, you can use the packets for other recipes, as well. I think that’s the more frugal choice.

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Check back next week when we look at the next four categories in this article. (And, of course, check back daily for other features here at the Common Culinarian!)