I have more stuff to say (and photos to blog) about traveling and eating right, but by request, I interrupt:
Dear GreenSmoothieGirl, will you please continue the good, better, best discussion, specifically covering pasta, seasonings, nut butters, and fats?
Pasta: white-flour pasta doesn’t belong in the kitchen of a health-conscious cook. The more coarsely you grind your wheat, the more nutritious it is, since the blood sugar uptake is slower.
Good: whole-wheat pasta
Better: whole-spelt or –kamut pasta (ancient, unhybridized grains)
Best: homemade pasta made from ground whole grains, soaked 8-24 hours in advance (too time-consuming for me, but some like to do this)
Nut butters: grocery-store peanut butter has trans fats and sugar added.
Good: organic, natural peanut butter
Better: roasted almond butter
Best: unsalted, homemade raw almond butter made from soaked, raw, dehydrated almonds (I put them through the Champion Juicer with the blank plate on)
Fats: almost everything sold in the grocery store is refined, high-heat treated and rancid.
Good: extra-virgin olive oil, other unrefined oils (mostly found in health-food stores)
Better: virgin/organic coconut oil, refrigerated flax oil, unrefined grapeseed oil
Best: whole foods high in good fats like avocados, nuts, and seeds
Seasonings: many in the grocery store have MSG added even if you don’t see it on the label, as well as sugar and refined salt, and other chemicals.
Good: unrefined sea salt (50+ trace minerals, still actually very slightly refined)
Better: Original Himalayan Crystal Salt (84 trace minerals), Mrs. Dash
Best: Kelp, herbs like basil, thyme, oregano, salt-free and chemical-free organic seasonings like anything by Spice Hunter at your health-food store
Quinoa is great too!
Yeah, quinoa pasta too, good one!
What about brown rice pasta, where would you put that? Tinkyada is the only brand worth getting, though! We eat that because it’s gluten free.
A “good” option–nutritionally about the same as whole-wheat pasta.
“Yeah, quinoa pasta too, good one!”
Where do you get this or do you make it?? Blendtec, foodprocessor, dehydrator, alkaline water machine — ok, inhale, exhale — I want it all & I want it now but then there’s reality!! LOL So having said that if you can’t readily buy quinoa pasta how do you make it? :-)
You can just buy quinoa pasta at the health food store.
Quinoa is sold at Costco and I am lucky to have a grocery store with a great bulk food section Winco. They sell it there. I have not checked Fred Meyers bulk.