Trading Up Downtown

Clearly Composed is the pen name of an avid blogger, freelance writer, daydreamer, domestic goddess, budding athlete and eternal soul dedicated to sharing the development of a healthy and balanced life filled with wellness, personal fulfillment, beauty and joy. Passions include living in the forest, taking care of the world’s most adorable dogs, fiction writing, yoga and making soup. “Amazingly enough at around forty years old I discovered who I am and I like her.” ~ C.C.

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One of the things I love about Trading Up Downtown is when Tina shares her grocery trip finds with us. It’s easy to see through her pictures and summaries how it is both affordable and feasible to buy healthy foods on a budget. I think we all have the same good intentions of buying varied, exciting, nourishing foods but get caught in the trap of thinking we don’t have the time to prepare them.

I mean, isn’t it faster and easier to stop by a drive thru on the way home? Well, that’s what we have been conditioned to believe by the “fast food” industry. The question is are these supposedly convenient foods saving us time? We certainly know they aren’t doing our health any good and yet a NuVal poll shows that over 20% of us eat fast food once a week and over 15% eat it more than that.

So how much time do we save by passing up what’s in the kitchen to get a quick bite at a fast food restaurant? Let’s take a look at breakfast:

Breakfast at home:

• Kashi 7 Whole Grain Puffs (NuVal score: 90)
• Banana (NuVal score: 91)
• Eden Soy Milk Original (NuVal score: 82)

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Breakfast on the go:

• Burger King: Cheesy Bacon BK WRAPPER® which includes: bacon, hash browns, egg, tortilla and smoky cheese sauce. 24 grams of fat

Total time from entering parking lot to driving away from window: 8 minutes

So not only did it take longer to get breakfast on the go but, the nutritional differences are enormous. While NuVal doesn’t rate fast food you can take a look at those individual ingredients and see there are some pretty low scorers there. Remember, that’s just breakfast. It usually takes longer at the lunch and dinner hour rushes.

We can make better choices and we deserve to do just that. Have a list of a few speedy breakfasts, lunches, and dinners and keep those ingredients on hand. Rachael Ray has made an entire career based on meals made in less than thirty minutes but even a novice chef knows many tasty meals can be made in much less time than that and you have the added benefit of knowing what it is exactly you are putting into your body.

Maybe it’s time to rename those “fast food” restaurants. Perhaps they should be called “fat food that’s not as fast as the good stuff I make at home” restaurants. I think they would get much less business with that moniker and our hearts and waistlines would both benefit. We certainly have time for that, don’t we?

Hi Trading Up Downtown readers! My name is Adriane and I have a blog called The Wholesome Foodie. I am in graduate school to get a MPH in Nutrition and become a Registered Dietitian, so I have an interest in all things nutrition related. I stumbled upon the NuVal scoring system months ago when Tina first blogged about it on her personal blog Carrots ‘N’ Cake. After Tina made the big decision to leave her job at Harvard to do social media for NuVal, I knew the company must be doing something right. Curious, I researched the site and saw how easy it was to make nutritious choices. My only gripe? There no stores near me utilize the system… wahhh!

Trading Up

When Tina contacted me to do a post about NuVal, I happily jumped at the chance. I debated back and forth about what type of “Trade Up” to do until I saw this post on Trading Up Downtown. Peanut Butter Puffins used to be my favorite cereal. In fact, back in the day, all I used to eat for breakfast was cereal.

My cereal fetish began in college. After taking a course in “Nutrition & Human Health,” I realized how important it was to eat breakfast every day. Because it was quick and tasty, cereal became my breakfast of choice. However, after finally admitting to myself that cereal was not doing that great of a job at keeping my appetite at bay, I began to switch up my morning meals. Now I count on a bowl of oatmeal at least 4-5 mornings a week to fuel me through my day. Thanks to the many food blogs out there, I have learned how delicious oats can be!

Let’s see how my old cereal habit scores against my new breakfast favorite…

Old: Cold Cereal with Skim Milk

NuVal scoring scale 1 – 100: the higher the score, the more nutritious the food

• Peanut Butter Puffins: NuVal score, 24
• Kashi GoLean Crunch (pictured above): NuVal score, 33
• Kashi Good Friends Cinna-Raisin Crunch: NuVal score, 24
• Kashi Heart 2 Heart: NuVal score, 29
• Peace Cereal Mango Passion Low Fat Crisp: NuVal score, 4
• Skim milk: NuVal score, 91

Wowzas!!! As you can see some of the cereals I used to eat on a regular basis score pretty low on the NuVal scale! Just look at the Peace Cereal – NuVal score = 4… ackk! No wonder I was usually ravenous just hours after eating! In fact, the most nutritious thing about my old breakfast favorite was the skim milk I used!

New Breakfast of Choice: Oatmeal with Skim Milk, Banana and Peanut Butter

• Quaker Old Fashioned Oats: NuVal Score, 57
• Banana: NuVal score, 91
• Stonyfield Organic Skim Milk: NuVal score, 91
• Teddy Crunchy Salted: NuVal score, 38
• Dole Rasins (sometimes use these instead of banana): NuVal score, 91

So, according to NuVal, my morning oats are a much better option than the cereal I used to eat on a daily basis. It’s no wonder that this bowl of oats keeps my hunger at bay anywhere from 3 – 5 hours! Obviously the additional calories and fat helps, but all the other added nutrients are a plus. Go oats!

Thanks again Tina for giving me the opportunity to “Trade Up” my breakfast. Hopefully NuVal comes to stores closer to me so I can utilize the tool even more often!

This week’s Trade Up Recipe is from Carly at So I Married A Chef. She used a recipe from Recipezaar called My Big Fat Greek Stuffed Peppers to “trade-up” her own original recipe as seen below.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup NearEast whole-wheat couscous prepared according to directions (NuVal Score: 82)
• 2 green bell peppers (NuVal Score: 94), halved lengthwise and seeded
• 1 link of Jennie-O spicy turkey sausage (NuVal Score: 11), casing removed
• 2 cloves garlic (NuVal Score: 96)
• 1/4 of a large onion (NuVal Score: 93)
• 4 large mushrooms (NuVal Score: 96)
• 1 vine-ripened tomato (NuVal Score: 96), diced
• 1 large handful of spinach (NuVal Score: 100)
• 1/4 cup sliced black olives (NuVal Score: 6)
• lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Tbsp. pine nuts, toasted
• 1/3 cup Athenos reduced-fat feta (NuVal Score: 24)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Place pepper halves cut side down on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.

3. While the peppers are baking, in a saute pan sprayed with cooking spray, brown the turkey sausage, break up the link while sauteing.

4. Add the garlic, onions, and mushrooms to the saute pan. Cook until onions are translucent. Stir in the tomatoes, spinach, black olives, and seasonings. Saute until the tomato and spinach are softened. Add the feta, couscous, and pinenuts – stir until combined.

5. When peppers are baked, fill halves evenly with the couscous/turkey/vegetable mixture. Return the peppers to the oven and bake for about 15 minutes more.

Trading Up Downtown Giveaway

Thanks to everyone who entered the Trading Up Downtown giveaway last Friday. Here’s your winner: 40

40. Lauren @ eater not a runner, on April 23rd, 2010 at 10:53 am Said:

I was very surprised at some of the low cereal scores, especially the kashi ones I would just assume were healthy!!

Congrats, Lauren!! Please email me at thaupert@nuval.com with your full name and mailing address to claim your prize.