Gluten-Free Grilled Apple and Gorgonzola Sandwich Recipe!

Came across this YUMMY sounding recipe...let me add...HEALTHY recipe! I haven't tried it yet, but I have faith that this is going to be one dee-lish sandwich!



Ingredients:
1 package 1/3-less fat cream cheese
4 oz. gorgonzola or blue cheese*
1 T honey
1 thinly sliced apple
arugula
gluten-free sliced bread
roasted chopped walnuts (optional)
Directions:
Combine the cream cheese, gorgonzola and honey in a bowl and season with fresh-ground pepper. Add the walnuts at this time, if using. Spread a tablespoon on each slice of bread, add sliced apples and a handful of arugula. Grill on a griddle or a pan.
The cheese mixture also makes a great dip for apples, if you want to forgo the sandwich.
* Most blue cheese and gorgonzola produced the USA are gluten-free, and not started on bread. BelGioioso is one brand that is verified gluten-free, as is Rosenborg blue cheese and Point Reyes blue cheese.
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Author Information: Anne Steib, Chicago, IL
Anne Steib
gfreegurl@yahoo.com
http://www.examiner.com/x-13312-Chicago-GlutenFree-Food-Examiner

I got the recipe from: http://glutenfreeworks.com/blog/2009/10/19/fall-recipe-gluten-free-grilled-apple-and-gorgonzola-sandwich-recipe/
 

Bad Soy, Bad!

When my kids were just getting off the bottle, I was learning that cow milk isn't GREAT for us. It's hard to digest. And of course drinking a lot of juice wasn't good because of sugar content. So though I always keep organic milk on hand at all times, and we have juice too, I got them started on chocolate and vanilla soy milk as an alternative to milk and juice. I've read that soy is good, it's full of protein, etc. I figured they'd be drinking something healthy and drinking less cow milk, less juice.

So that's my story on how soy was introduced into my life.

Well, recently, I was startled to find out that soy is actually BAD. Huge red flag for me since my kids drink soy milk a lot. Of course, for every positive said for a food, there's a negative statement about the same food to follow. But I became concerned because we go through maybe two cartons of soy milk a week. I also heard nothing but GOOD things about soy, so I was curious as to WHY soy is now bad. Because if it's bad, I don't want my kids to continue drinking it. And how can soy be bad? Vegetarians eat lots of soy, don't they?!

Well, I did my research on it.... And here's why it's bad:

1) The soybean contains large quantities of natural toxins or 'antinutrients,' including potent enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and other enzymes needed for protein digestion. They can produce serious distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic deficiencies in amino acid uptake.

2) Soy is higher in phytoestrogens than just about any other food source. Phytoestrogens are dangerous to the human body. Phytoestrogens are plant-based estrogens that mimic estrogen in our bodies.

3) It raises cancer risk, and causes nutrient deficiencies, osteoporosis, thyroid problems, reproductive difficulties, and Alzheimer's Disease.

4) There have been studies that soy lowers sperm count.

The list can go on. And the truth is that these studies have given us these results, but that doesn't mean it's been proven.

The bottom line is that it's given me a scare strong enough to make me ween the kids off of soy milk a little. There ARE alternatives like goat milk, almond milk and coconut milk. I found chocolate almond milk, so I'm giving that a shot. And as with all foods, I'm keeping the soy milk in moderation. There are no studies that confirm that soy is totally, irrevocably BAD for you...and there are studies that show there IS some good to soy. That being said, I'm going to probably seek out the alternatives for now, just in case.

I just wanted to inform you that soy is NOT the BEST out there because everyone is so gun-ho thinking that soy is so good for us, when there's a very real possibility that it's NOT. The food industry won't tell you that, so I will.


*Some info based from:

http://www.vegfamily.com/health/is-soy-bad-for-you.htm
http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/articles/soy-truth.php

Doormet - Gourmet Cafe Food Delivered to Your Door

I'm always on the look out for YUM, LOCAL health food...whether it be a grocery store, fast food, a sit down restaurant...or food delivered to my door!

I came across this article on tbo.com about a local gourmet cafe that delivers food to your door! The place I speak of is Doormet, right on Dale Mabry in the Palma Ceia area in the Publix plaza! You can walk into their quaint place that sits 30 or you can have them deliver. They serve pizza, soups, sandwiches and salads, burgers and pasta...yeah, perfect for lunch, I know! They even have mac 'n cheese, which is a PLUS since mac 'n cheese is a staple food for my kids...and on a slightly more enticing note, they deliver desserts, wine and beer! They even have some organic items, which is AWE-SOME.

SIGN. ME. UP!

I don't think they'll deliver to my new house which is NOT in Tampa, but I think I'll have to stop by there before work.

Contact info: (813) 287-DOOR (3667),www.doormet.com

I guarantee you, they HAVE to be better than McDonald's!

Orange Juice, You Betrayed Me

Here I am thinking good ol' orange juice is good for us. Oranges. Freshly squeezed. Pulp. Yummy for my health.

So you'd THINK.

The short and skinny of this is this. Companies remove oxygen from oranges so they can store the juice for up to a year in giant holding tanks. Yeah. Gross. When they remove the oxygen, its flavor and nutrients are also stripped away. When they're ready to bottle them, the same companies that make fragrances for perfumes also make FLAVOR packets for orange juice. These lovely flavor packets are mixed in with the stripped down juice and wala---OJ tastes like oranges again. And still lack the nutrients.

My advice: buy your own oranges and squeeze them yourself. Don't trust the stuff on the shelves.

What Got Me Curious About Organic

"Organic" has been my word of the day (more like word of the YEAR) lately. I've been reading up on the importance of organic, WHY organic, what's out there, etc. And wow, there's a lot we should really know! (A LOT of people don't know this because the food industry doesn't want us to know; others don't know because they choose to ignore the truth.)

To begin with, what sparked my interest enough to stretch my curiosities in this direction? Well, you know how the news goes...you hear about how eggs are bad for you, how cows are being pumped full of hormones and girls are getting periods at 7 years old, how pig farms are so nasty... Headlines like those got me wondering what are the alternatives and how can I avoid this? Additionally, I used to work with an extreme vegetarian, almost vegan woman...she was totally insane in her love for animals...not exactly what turned me onto this route, but she was enough to get me thinking. Then my hair gal got me turned onto it in a more positive way, which was good because I was beginning to think that vegetarians were animal loving, people hating unhumans with a psycho agenda in life. So that's what got me started in researching this.

So...WHY organic? Why do I want to go organic? And why can't I?

Well, the bottom line is that we as a society have been independent on somebody else for food for YEARS. It started just after caveman days, but more so TOTALLY reliant around the 1700s. Whereas cavemen hunted and gathered their own food for themselves, then moved when food was insufficient, society started growing and processing food...Eventually, we needed food to last LONGER, so people made ways to PRESERVE food, to make them last longer. Secondly, because societies got LARGER and more reliant on others for food, farmers had to basically make their animals MASS PRODUCE...had to inject hormones to beef them up, inject antibiotics to keep them from getting sick, started MAKING them mass produce other little baby animals. Farmers also had to feed them grains instead of green grass. Take all these MODIFICATIONS, and we end up with BAD FOOD.

Our foods now have hormones, pesticides, tons of preservatives. Most of it genetically modified. Corn and soy are used in A LOT of what we eat, which is NOT good. We're eating FAKE food basically...food lacking in true nutrients, vitamins and minerals. We're eating food that's almost not food anymore, after all the alterations it goes through.

So that's why I TRY to go organic. But why don't I go head-on organic? For the obvious reason...it's expensive. And yes, my family's health is worth it. But it's really difficult to double our grocery bill.

To be honest, reading all this stuff about how bad our food is is totally overwhelming. It's to a point where I feel we can't eat ANYTHING and be safe. Can't drink cow milk, soy milk, Juicy Juice, orange juice, water, soda... The bottom line here is I think it's important to be INFORMED. Then from there, all we can do is do the best we can. Buy what we can afford and avoid what we can without driving ourselves crazy.

I think what I'm going to do is write short blogs on things I find that I personally find interesting. In no way am I trying to convert anyone. In no way am I judging anyone. I just want to inform.

Oh and one more thing...my parents say, "We've been eating this stuff since we were born and we're still alive today." True. They are definitely alive. But if you notice, today, we all have a lot more health problems. There's a lot of cancers going around. Kids are reaching puberty sooner. There's a lot of obesity. I wonder why.