A Change in my Diet

Recently, I read a book called "Skinny Bitch" (A no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous.) This book is not a diet book. It's a pro-vegan, pro-organic, anti-factory-farm book. No details are left out about why milk is bad for you, how pesticides are in every freaking thing, and why you shouldn't eat meat or drink coffee. For at least a week, I could barely eat anything. I couldn't drink non-organic milk without thinking about the cows in the factory farms and all the details that the book described. Most of this, I knew, and blocked out. Some of it, I didn't know, and it was gross. I'm not going to outline all the details here. If you want to know where your food comes from, and can handle the shock-value that these authors are going for, get this book.

What I will say is, I am now eating less dairy, buying as many organic products as I can, and avoiding red meat, chicken, or pork (for the time being.) There is one thing you can't get from a vegan diet, vitamin B-12, and having had a B-12 deficiency in the past, I will not go through that again. If and when I do go back to red meat, it will probably be in the form of pepperoni (ok, I had both chicken and pepperoni last weekend, but not much), or it will be free-range meat that I cook myself.

Since I've been trying to buy a lot of organic foods that I haven't bought in the past, I'll be reviewing some of the best and worst here. Stay tuned.

Here's a quick review:

Newman's Own Fig Newmans - Wheat and Dairy Free: These are great. They taste almost the same as regular Fig Newtons, and after I ate about 5 or 6 of them, I still felt pretty good, not all full of fat. Price-wise, they were a little more than Fig Newtons, but not outrageous. I think somewhere around $3.50.

Snack Attack!!

Here are some reviews of some recent snack purchases.

Snyder's of Hanover Pumpernickel and Onion Sticks
These are fantastic alone or dipped in hummus or maybe a nice sour cream dip. I dipped them in Tribe Zesty Lemon hummus, which is quite delicious. Great consistency (not too chunky, not too too smooth), lots of garlic and lemon flavor.
I bought the Snyder's sticks because the grocery store (Price Chopper on Pullman St.) didn't carry the Pepperidge Farm brand of pumpernickel; they only had sesame and I think multi-grain.

Hummus
Another recent delicious hummus find was the Trader Joe's Organic hummus. Fantastic! Avoid the non-organic one though. It's flavorless and too smooth. It's more like a paste.

The best hummus ever, though, is from Ed Hyder's Mediterranean Market on Pleasant Street in Worcester. You can't go wrong. Tangy, garlicky, thinner consistency than most storebought brands.

Other good things to dip in hummus: baby carrots, tortilla chips, and Wheat Thins.

Chocolate Love

Dove dark chocolate hearts are so chocolatey and creamy that I'm going to stock up on them on Friday, when they go on sale. Go get yourself a bag!