Tuesday, April 05, 2016

5 myths about canned food busted! Plus, an easy and yummy recipe!

This post is brought to you by Jolly Food.

From time to time, I post photos and share recipes on my Instagram (follow me @topazhorizonblog and hashtag #MakeItJolly!). Some of those recipes feature Jolly canned goods, like corn, green peas, black beans, pimiento, and a whole lotta mushrooms. While I don't cook every single meal with canned food, I do stock up on a lot of canned goodness because I'm a very busy mommy. On days I need to whip up something quick, healthy and delicious, I go to my canned goods shelf.

Yes, canned food is healthy! Any form of fresh food is good for you. Yes, canned food is fresh! There are a lot of myths surrounding canned food and so lemme bust them for you.

Myth #1: Canned food is not fresh.
Well, it's definitely not corn on the cob that's sitting in your hand, if that's what you mean! But canned food, especially fruit and vegetables, are a step away from fresh in this sense: Fresh from being picked at its best ripeness, fruits and vegetables go straight to the cannery to be cooked and packed, usually within the same day. That's pretty fresh to me!

Farm-to-table food is fantastic, of course. But for us living in the cities, that means hours, maybe even days, being transported from farm to market, and again hours and maybe even days sitting there on the shelf. Fresh fruit and vegetables are always great. Always. As long as you're sure they are actually fresh. If you're not sure, canned and frozen fruits and veggies are a good option. Better canned and frozen than none at all!

Myth #2: Canned food is full of salt. 
Sodium is a known preservative. So people think canned food is absolutely steeped in salt. Not true! There are canned food that need just a bit of salt and there are some don't need salt at all. Jolly uses citric acid for example. That's Vitamin C to us. If salt content bothers you, you can just thoroughly drain then rinse the canned food before cooking or eating.

Myth #3: Canned food is full of preservatives.
Okay, what do I mean about some canned food don't even need salt? So how is it preserved? Is it full of dangerous chemicals? Well, the process of canning means the food is cooked. High temperatures kill bacteria that can cause decay. This bacteria-free food is then sealed tightly in a can, preventing bacteria to contaminate it. Food is now preserved—no salt or chemicals needed.

However, always check the label for ingredients! That's why I choose Jolly. I checked the labels and all Jolly uses in its cans of fruit and veggies are salt, sugar, cornstarch, citric acid. That's it!

Myth #4: Canned food is highly processed.
Canning is not a modern invention. We've been putting food in jars and cans since the 1800s. It's a simple enough process: pick fresh food - wash - put in container - heat - seal. Not highly processed at all. Homemakers have been doing this food preservation method in their own kitchens for hundreds of years. Even little old me has done some canning in my past life (it was a high school project, if I must be honest).

And can we please stop being allergic to the term "processed food"? Lemme give you examples of processed food: cheese, yoghurt, dried fruit, cereal, bread and milk. These are perfectly healthy processed food!

Myth #5: Canned food has no nutritional value.
Remember how I said that canned food is fruits and veggies picked at their best quality? And remember how I said that they go straight to the cannery to be processed at their peak? And remember how I said that canned food uses little to no sodium or preservatives? That means not a lot of nutrients gets lost from canning.

In fact, USDA Food Quality Lab research plant physiologist Gene Lester, Ph.D., told Eating Well magazine, "While some vegetable and legumes lose nutrients in the canning process, others actually see their healthy compounds increase." Examples are corn, tomatoes and pumpkin. Heating them during the canning process releases or increases their antioxidants.

Now that we've busted these myths about canned food, let me share with you a dish my husband made this weekend. Enjoy!

Bacon and Potato Pizza


This is a modified recipe from Tastemade's Bismarck Potato Pizza


Lots of bacon
1 large potato
Lots of Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup Jolly tomato paste
Jolly mushrooms (we used shiitake but you can use any Jolly mushroom)
3 ounces mozzarella cheese
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
  1. Fry bacon in a pan. Set crispy bacon aside.
  2. Drain off the bacon oil (set aside for future dishes!) so that the pan is just greased.
  3. Cut potato into very thin slices. Arrange potato slices in a ring patter in the same pan that cooked the bacon.
  4. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese. As Buddy Valastro of Cake Boss says, "Don't go cheap on the cheese!"
  5. Cover and cook on low hear for 5 minutes. 
  6. Spread Jolly tomato paste onto the potatoes. 
  7. Arrange Jolly mushroom slices and mozzarella cheese on top.
  8. Crack the egg at the very center. Cover and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. This should be enough to crisp up the potato crust.
  9. Transfer the potato pizza onto a plate, pile the bacon on top. Serve!
  10. P.S. I seriously think you don't need to add salt anymore because of the cheese and bacon but my husband said he sprinkled salt on the pizza.

Yum!

For more recipes using Jolly canned food (healthy and affordable!), check out their Facebook page and website

Monday, April 04, 2016

Game boys

Let me share with you a few of the thousands of photos we have of my boys. Only a few make it to social media! The rest we pore over obsessively, usually on those nights just before we go to sleep but the kids still aren't sleepy. So I show them their photos, I tell them the stories behind the pictures, and sometimes I make up silly bedtime stories a la comics style using their pictures.

Like this for example. We will call this story...

The Day Piero Became a Gamer

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Piero 
who wondered where his brothers disappeared to. 
He found them in Papa's bedroom where they were battling evil foes.
"Holy macaroni!" Piero said. "Vito and Iñigo are slaying monsters by the hundreds!"
"And they're using these magic black things to be heroes."
"Mama, how do I get to be a hero, too?"
"Vito's going a bathroom break? He just said he needs to wee-wee? And that means..."
"Die! Die! Die!"
Piero: "What happened?!?"
Vito: "Mama, Piero made me lose my game!"
"Give that back."
"No!!!"

Heehee. Our stories are really super simple, nothing that will ever see the light of day (er, except for this silly one!), and the boys usually scroll through my photos and they'll pick a few from when they were babies or from when they were somewhere else, and then they'll beg poor, sleepy, exhausted me to tell them a story. And I do. And they're so easy to please. And they laugh and laugh over my nonsense stories till I finally tell them to stop their delaying tactics and go to sleep.

And they do, happy with new memories to dream about in their sweet sleep.

Aww, those pictures of the boys are nice. Maybe I can share with you more old photos every first Monday of the month? I really do have thousands upon thousands! These are from New Year's Eve. Our kids don't play a lot of video games actually, about twice a month maybe, and only during the day. But it was New Year's Eve and we wanted to keep them awake to greet 2016. But they tired of playing and off to bed they went. Fun photos from a night I had actually forgotten about. Thank goodness for photos!

Saturday, April 02, 2016

Engineering for Kids makes learning tons of fun!

Oh my goodness, it's summer!

Well, in the Philiipines, it's either summer season or rainy season so it's actually been summer for a while now. But because we just had a graduation, there's suddenly a clear line marking summer break. And there's just a ton of things to see and do for kids! Like trips abroad, holidays by the beach (our beaches are the best in the world!), activity centers, sports clinics, art workshops, and summer classes.

My kids recently got to try Engineering for Kids and LOVED it. They did. Iñigo even had a meltdown when it was time to go home (this came as a shock because Iñigo doesn't have meltdowns anymore!). Even Vito and Piero lingered and dawdled when it was time to go home. They had so much fun!

They made a moon from DIY play dough. This activity taught them about shapes, texture, numbers.
Waiting for snack time!
Enjoying snack time!
They made rockets to blast off to the moon!
Iñigo built Iron Man from giant Legos.

Now let me tell you a bit about Engineering for Kids. Engineering for Kids is an educational program based heavily on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). In a rapidly developing world, engineers and scientists are what's desperately needed but schools don't seem to devote enough time to these subjects, and when they do, maths and sciences are deemed both boring and stressful by students. Engineering for Kids makes STEM fun, challenging and hands-on. Kids learn how important STEM is to understand their world and how it works and to come up with solutions to many problems big and small. Very useful life skills!

If you're near the Katipunan Ave. area in White Plains, do check out Engineering for Kids. It's right by the gate of Blue Ridge, across Pan de Americana, the building with upside down vehicles. Here are their summer offerings:






Enrol in any of the programs and use my discount code: SMILE-0316B. Enjoy!

To learn more about Engineering for Kids and STEM curriculum, click here.