Beef Taco

Beef Taco's 

A simple easy meal to serve on those crazy days you have little time to cook.  Make up extra meat filling and freeze the extra, so you can prepare a quick dinner on those nights you don't feel like cooking.

Baffling Tomato Sauce & Tomato Sauce With Olives and Capers

Tomato Sauce

What's Ingredients Are In Tomato Sauce

Food labels always baffle me. You think you understand them but, like a good mystery novel, the unexpected always happens. For instance, I noticed a can of Hunt’s Tomato Sauce boasting a ‘Fat Free’ Status. Funny I thought, I never knew tomatoes contained fat—unless of course there is a new hybrid tomato laden with fat. Which you never know, food scientists are doing some funky things these days, like growing ground beef in a petri dish as recently reported in the National Geographic.

I just presumed tomato sauce was simply tomatoes mushed-up with a little water, like tomato juice but thicker. But on reading the ingredient list I noticed cottonseed oil, which sounds like a fat. Right? So how can it be “fat free”?

I phoned up Hunt’s and asked. They told me the cottonseed oil is used as a preservative and as the amount is so small, they don’t list it on the Nutrition Facts Label. According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website, “Fat Free” means less than .05 grams of fat per serving size which, in this case, is half a cup.

So, technically it’s fat free. However, why should tomato sauce claim to be fat free in the first place?

My tomato sauce curiosity was piqued so I purchased three other brands and, although neither contained cottonseed oil or claimed to be ‘fat free,’ they all had other self-proclaimed attributes. By the way, cottonseed oil comes from the seeds of a cotton plant, which is not a vegetable (we wear cotton, we don’t eat it). One boasted “Source of Vitamin A.” the other, “Low Sodium” and the last one was a proud “product of Italy.” All four had different ingredients and nutritional facts listed. Purchasing tomato sauce turned out to be a true puzzle. It is no wonder labels and products baffle me.

Granola

Hippies highlighted granola

Granola is often referred to as hippy food. Could it be because it’s simple, sweet and a little nutty?  Not really, it is because these free spirited souls highlighted granola in the 60’s.  It was considered controversial because it was radically ‘natural’.  Often made from scratch contrary to the highly processed breakfast cereal readily available in the day.   Although  Recipes to the Rescue was not around in the 60’s we did publish a granola recipe back in the late 90’s  which my friend Sandy has been making ever since. She recently wrote and asked for an updated version because the recipe required milk powder which is both expensive and hard to find today.  So we have refreshed the recipe and made it simple, tasty and not too controversial.  Enjoy.

Granola

Morning Glory Muffin

Morning Glory Muffins

I've been let down by muffins too many times.  

When I’m hungry in between meals, I often walk to a nearby coffee house, because, well, that is what you do. 

As I stand in line to place a coffee order, I glance over at the array of beautiful looking muffins. They sport oversized tops studded with berries, pecans or raisins and look so enticing and healthy. Well, that is what I tell myself. After all, they are often brown which to me, is code for healthy. 

Surprising, Refreshing Watermelon Salad