but the other day we saw a commercial for one of their new burgers and we decided it's been way too long since we have had a Wendy's burger. They are cheap, filling, and delicious, so we are having one for dinner (and maybe we'll really splurge and get a Frosty too....) I'll be sure to post about the goodness of Wendy's next time I post.
Until then, on with today's post:
Nick In the Kitchen
Nick and I met while we were working at a local restaurant. I was a server, he was a cook. From this you would think he would do most of the cooking, but let me tell you, it's rare. Of course I have to blame myself a bit for that because I love to cook and since our kitchen is so small I typically take it over without giving him a chance to even offer cooking dinner. I don't mind being the "ruler of the kitchen", but every once in a while he takes over and creates something amazing.
The above picture is Nick preparing our Valentine's Day dinner. That's not a cigarette behind his ear, it's a pen (I always think it looks like a cigarette). He made filet mignon, grilled vegetables, and baked acorn squash!The picture below was taken during the first month after we got our ice cream maker (and yes, he seems to be wearing the exact same outfit...). The first couple times we made ice cream Nick HAD to be present, and HAD to help out. Now he just waits for me to make the ice cream. I guess it's just not as cool anymore.
Of course, that doesn't stop him from eating it, and enjoying every bite :)
Last night I had to work late so Nick was forced to cook for himself. Here is what he prepared:
If you have never tried Boboli 100% Whole Wheat crust, you are seriously missing out!Nutrition Facts (serving size 1/5 of the crust)
150 calories
3 grams fat
280 mg sodium (yeah, this is kind of high, but compared to other crusts it's not!)
5 grams fiber
6 grams protein
6% calcium
6% iron
Final product:
Pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, chopped green and red bell peppers, chunks of grilled chicken, red hot.
When I got home I tasted a piece, it was AWESOME! Of course if I would have been home I would have added some more veggies, and less cheese, but I was still proud of his efforts, I mean LOOK at all those peppers!
Here is what I ate for dinner, before I went to work:Whole wheat tortilla, mixed greens, grilled chicken, swiss cheese, avocado.
Another Popsicle Experiment
I hate throwing ANYTHING away, therefore I had to find a way to use this chocolate Carnation Instant Breakfast. What's wrong with it? Well, it has sugar alcohols that give me gas (gross), and it has inulin as it's fiber source (one of the "fiber tricks" I talk about often). Inulin also seems to give me gas.
So I decided to split up the drink and make it into three popsicles. I used the rest of my POM Wonderful, which needed finished, and mixed the chocolate powder, about 1/2 cup POM, 1/2 cup soymilk, strawberries, and blueberries.
Final product: AMAZING! I was so proud of myself. It had a slight chocolate taste, mixed with a delicate fruity taste...man I wanted to eat all three! But that would have defeated the purpose of splitting it up into three servings. No gas for me :)
Is All Salmon The Same?
150 millions pounds of salmon are consumed per year in US, not including canned varieties!
**Source: Good Eats!
Farm vs. Wild- Basically, this is a debate of "nature vs. nurture", wild meaning nature, farmed meaning nurture (although, I'm not so sure farmed salmon is really nurtured a whole lot).
- Wild salmon's life consists of swimming downstream, then swimming all the way back, upstream (aka, they are nice and physically fit!). Farmed salmon are usually born in a tank, with no room to move around.
- Wild salmon's food of choice is fresh shrimp from the sea. Farmed salmon gets the luxury of ground up fish, made in a factory, or raised by another farmer! Once they hit the right weight, they are killed and sold.
- Wild salmon has more heart healthy Omega-3 fats, but I've also read that wild salmon can have more contaminants from the water. Overall it seems that wild salmon may be best, even considering the possible contaminants, but keep in mind farmed salmon is much better than non at all!
- Other nutrients: niacin, b-6, and b-12, selenium, magnesium, phosphorus
- To determine if your salmon is really wild, ask to see the "country of origin" when at the fish market.
Alton Brown's Method for Preparing Salmon:
Add:
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
ground pepper
Put into pan.
For a 6-8 ounce piece pan sear, over medium heat, for 2 minutes on each side. If it's really thick, then cook 1.5 on each side and 30 seconds on the "thickness side" (does that make sense? I don't know what to call that side..). When done, put onto a plate, cover loosely with foil, and let sit for 5 minutes. Then enjoy!
Giveaway Time! Melissa at "For the Love of Health!" has an amazing giveaway that is definitely worth checking out!! What are you waiting for?!
Today's Questions:
What have you heard about wild vs. farmed salmon? Which do you prefer?
Does your significant other/roomate ever cook? Do you enjoy his/her creations?
Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!
17 comments:
OMG! I Have the same ice cream maker! LOVE LOVE IT!
As far as Food Inc goes, I am with you on not wanting to buy everything organic etc etc, but I am not easily swayed, so it will really have to hit me hard for me to change my ways. I mean I am in the agricultural college with my major, so I had to take animal science and watch a pig be slaughtered and dressed and although I do not each much of any pork, I have seen quite a bit of the behind the scenes! Anyways, go to the FOOD INC website and watch the trailer here:
http://www.foodincmovie.com/
It seems that it is only showing in major cities, but see if there is one near you here:
http://www.magpictures.com/dates.aspx?id=3e3938d1-b785-4286-9ae0-8eb5952f1480
thank you so much for clearing up the difference between farmed vs. wild. I always get so confused when I eat out.
i think its great to hear that your eating wendy's - it shows that you can be healthy and still indulge from time to time. i love your blog :)
Great post! I love that Nick is wearing the same (or a very similar!) outfit in the two photos. And you are lucky to have someone who can cook you such amazing food. Wow! At the same time, he's lucky to have you too. I love all your eats!
I'm glad to hear you had popsicle success this time around! The berry/chocolate combination sounds wonderful!
OOooh, how funny is this - you post about salmon, and ate some for dinner tonight! Haha! I think we generally buy farmed salmon - I think it may be cheaper? I'm not sure why we do, but I know we've been to a salmon farm before and 'picked' our fish (which we saw them kill... it made my mum cry). I love salmon, and really have no idea which is better but it seems both have their good and bad points? I think I would feel better eating wild salmon though, as they've probably had a better quality of life.
In terms of your other question - I still live with my parents (though I'm moving out in a couple of months!) and they generally cook dinners. Both are fabulous in the kitchen. I'm a lucky gal :-)
those Popsicles look really good! have fun at wendy's today. i am a sucker for the plain mcdonalds 89 cent hamburger myself :)
Just found your blog from Angie's - I'm an RD, too! I love that you post about fast food - proof of the "everything in moderation" mantra! I look forward to reading your future posts and hope you don't mind I've added you to my reader. :)
have a frosty- you only live once ;)
The pizza looks great! I did think that was a cigarette (smoked chicken pizza?!)
I don't eat salmon often but have wondered about the safety aspect of wild salmon- guess there are pros and cons to both but cost also comes into it. Is organic salmon always wild?
My signficant other doesn't cook at all but he's always helpful in the kitchen with the cleaning and cutting, so it's fun too! :)
interesting facts about salmon, thanks for sharing!
I haven't tried farmed salmon yet,so I can't say much about the taste,but back in India I had once picked up farmed shrimp and it had absolutely no flavour. Now I never pick up anything that is farmed-wild is best for the taste :)
W.r.t the question about the "better-half"(are they still referred to as such-or am I using an outdated term?):in our 4 years of marriage,he's only cooked for me once when I was sick (and we were newly married). Now the only time he steps into the kitchen is when he makes our morning cuppa "chai" :)
I often get confused on what salmon to buy, but it's one of my favorite foods. I do know, though, that any type called "Atlantic" is the poorer choice, environment wise (but that's all there usually is in the store, ack!)
My boyfriend cooks a fair bit, and he's really good. I have to ask him nicely to use a fraction of the oil he usually cooks with, but other than that he does a pretty good job making healthy treats. And he makes the BEST guacamole and salsa ever...seriously!
You sound so excited for the ice cream maker! I would be too! haha I can't wait to see what you create!
And the POM popcicles you made look fantastic! What a nice summer treat!
I am not much of a burger person BUT Wendy's is the only place I get one from. They're actually quite good.
That's so great your man can cook too! :-)
Have a great evening!
I love the Boboli whole wheat pizza crusts! Nick's pizza is so gorgeous! I'm very impressed! I love all the peppers! (I am also in raptures over your gorgeous tortilla and a-m-a-z-i-n-g Popsicles...)
Zach and I are much the same way as y'all - we both like to cook but I happily do most of the cooking, which makes the occasions when Zach cooks extra-special exciting events! I love when he surprises me by cooking dinner... :-) Best of all is when we get to cook together - such fun!
SO awesome that you and Nick met while working in a restaurant! The perfect beginning to a foodie romance! :-)
ahh those popsicles look SO good!!!
An ice-cream maker!!! COOL BEANS! There's SO many awesome stuff you can do! LOL abt nick only helping out once!
I like salmon, so I'll eat them both wild and farmed, but I definitely prefer wild. They taste fresher, and the color is more vibrant and healthy-looking. But the price is just too much!
Hooray for a new ice cream maker (and not just because I get to buy your old one)! :-)
I liked your informative salmon review, too. I prefer eating wild due to the higher omega-3 content, but I take what I can get usually.
It's so weird not seeing everyone every day. Are you done with home visits yet?
There are so many great things about this post! First it was great to read that you ate a Wendy's burger and enjoyed it.
Second, the pizza that Nick made looks so good!!
And thank you so much for laying out the proper differentiation between farm and wild! I normally always buy wild, as I once somewhere read that they are better than farm. But after this post everything is clearer. Also I am happy that the salmon I eat also consumes shrimps, since i love shrimp so much. ;~P
The husband cooks quite often, which is a great thing and also he cooks really well!
Great post Gina- thanks for blogging about wild versus farmed salmon!
I blogged about this topic (farmed vs wild salmon) a while back and here's some more info I found:
Like you mentioned, farmed salmon are grown in floating netcages and fed processed anchovies, sardines, herring- all fish humans eat. This reduces the amount of fish available for human consumption. It takes a lot of fish- 3-5 lbs- to provide enough fish meal and fish oil to add 1 lbs of weight to a farmed salmon.
The small fish fed to the farmed salmon are caught closer to shore and are therefore more contaminated with PCBs, pesticides and dioxins.
A study that analyzed 700 wild and farmed salmon from 8 different countries found that farmed salmon contained 7 times higher levels of pesticides, PCBs and dioxins than wild salmon and eating it can increase your risk of getting cancer (see below). As a result of this study, the US Environmental Protection Agency recommends you eat no more than 1 meal a month of farmed salmon from Washington state and Chile- the places with the least-contaminated farmed salmon. Farmed salmon from Canada, Maine and Norway were found to be twice as contaminated as the salmon from Washington and Chile, therefore the recommendation is to eat no more than 1 meal every 2 months of fish from those places. Lastly, farmed salmon from Scotland and the Faroe Islands were so contaminated that it's recommended you not eat it more than once a year!
Your risk of cancer does increase if you eat pesticide-contaminated farmed salmon regularly. If you eat 6oz of farmed salmon from Washington or Chile once a month, your risk of getting cancer rises by 1 in 100 000.
According to a 2003 study, a salmon farm of 200 000 fish releases as much fecal matter as 65 000 humans, killing marine animals and plants and causing harmful algae to grow.
Farmed salmon have more diseases and can carry sea lice that eat fish flesh. Salmon farmers often use antibiotics to help control the spread of disease. In fact, farmed salmon receives more antibiotics by weight than any other livestock. Many of the antibiotics used are the same ones used to treat human infections and traces of these substances are passed on to consumers and can contribute to the dangerous increase of antibiotic-resistant disease worldwide.
Other tips and facts
Grilling your salmon and letting the juices drip away, cooking it until it reaches an internal temperature of 175 degrees Fahrenheit and removing the skin before eating it will reduce the amount of contaminants by at least half.
Farmed organic salmon means that the pens are less crowded and the fish are exposed to less pesticides.
All salmon from Alaska is wild. Chinook is the most contaminated, Chum is the least contaminated
Most salmon sushi is from farmed fish.
Most canned salmon is from Alaska therefore wild. It will have more sodium so buy salmon canned in water and rinse under water for at least a minute to reduce the sodium by about 40%.
Smoked salmon is usually farmed. Although the heating kills some of the contaminants, smoking creates others.
Farmed trout is high in omega 3 and less contaminated than salmon.
(sorry this was so long...!)
Sources:
Schardt D. Farmed salmon under fire. CSPI: Nutrition Action Healthletter. June 2004.
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/files/PSF_Salmon_Brochure.pdf
I would have to agree that I prefer wild salmon because of the many reasons stated above, but it can be so darn expensive! And the harvesting time for wild salmon is very very short. It's also sad because all those diseases can pass on to the wild salmon if the farmed get out into the wild and 'mingle' I love having salmon every once in a while if it's a special treat in a restaurant. I believe that with all the controversy out there, it is better to have some fish each week, rather than non at all because we are so worried about pcb's and such. The benefits of the omega-3s definitely outweigh the risk.
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