Olive Crazy

Yes, I may be OLIVE CRAZY right now, but there is no need to worry about chemical dependency! Actually this is just the text book I started to read yesterday for my next course in my University of Oklahoma program. I wonder if the prof will let me choose olives for my topic, haha!

I of course had to start at the commissary yesterday to pick up a few things. As I unloaded my cart I started to wonder how my selection of goodies must look to an outsider. I mean really...I bought canned pumpkin, rye flour, dried cranberries, apple cider vinegar, and an olive mustard. Good thing these were ingredients for a variety of prjects I am working on.

Let's talk about olives. I have always loved olives, and by love I mean I really could eat them all day if I didn't know that would result in a probable stomach pumping and/or extreme case of illness due to acidity. Good thing in smaller quantities olives are really good for you. Packed with monounsaturated fats, these babies are super healthy. Keep in mind too much of a good thing is still too much. While a regular portion of olives is low in calories, eat the whole jar and they add up fast. This has to do with them being higher in fat, which gives 9 calories in each gram of fat.

We can benefit from olives in a variety of ways. One is to eat them whole and then it is also available as olive oil. Traditionally olives come from areas around the Mediterranean Sea, but in the US they grow in California (though mostly those standard big black olives, like you would get if you ordered them on pizza). Well I love all kinds, but kalamata are great and available at the commissary. These have been sitting in my house for a while, so I decided to crack the lid and let the good times fly!
I decided to make whole wheat olive rolls. In order to do that I had to chop up some of these yummy olives. I don't have a pitter so I had to do it the old fashioned way, which really wasn't that bad.
Ok, 1/2 cup olives ready to go.
It looks so nice before it is even made!
Then came the dough! This is another nice feature of the bread machine. I can make various doughs for use elsewhere.
So I shaped them into smaller pieces for my rolls.
Boy did they turn out nicely.

Oh yes, they tasted as good as they looked, even better. Ryan loved them, although next time I may wait so they are still hot when he gets home from work.

But the olive fun didn't end there for me yesterday. I have this which I insisted on registering for. I really wanted to be able to make my own salad dressings and since I don't usually hang out in the litchen I thought this gadget would give me some incentive to play. Boy was I right about that...

I was in an olive kinda mood so when I spotted this as the commissary I HAD to buy it. This is an olive mustard made using green olives. It was made in Greece, but sold by a German company.

I was trying to make a variation of the cumin vinaigrette recipe that was on the dressing mixer bottle.

Of course I got added olive love from the olive oil. In the end it was the oil, cider vinegar, some of the mustard and some (ok, more than I planned) cumin.

Thank heavens for weddings! We also got this great salad spinner as a gift. And we really needed salad to go with the dressing.

Oh yeah, more olives for me. I still had a bunch of green guys so I added them to my salad. This meal (since we ate the rolls too) was heavy on the olive side, but not outrageously so. More like subltely infused with olive!

I think I will lay off the olives for today!

Speaking of today, it is Veteran's day, so I would like to take this time to thank all the veteran's who have served our country, including my husband, and also to those who recently lost their lives at Ft Hood.

QUESTION: Do you like olives?

Last but certainly not least I have a give away update for you. You have to check out this blogversary grab bag of goodies from An Apple A Day .

% Daily What?!?!?!

Seeing as I am a dietitian and I do call my blog Nutrition, Food, Travel and more, and most of the time I focus on the last three, I decided to do a nutrition post today. I know all of you have seeen %DV on a food label before. Most of you have probably noticed this is based on a 2,000 calorie a day diet. Therefore I am guessing a few of you reading this are still wondering what the heck that %DV is suppossed to do for you since chances are you are not consuming a 2,000 calories diet.

I can not tell you how many times I have had a patient, client, friend or relative tell me that the %DV on the food label is confusing. Have you ever had the same thought? For those of us with nutrition degrees, and even those of you well versed in label reading, this is not such a mystery, but for a good amount of people this puts a bump in the road to using those labels to one's benefit.

So, where to start...

The definition of percent is one part in a hundred. That's an important part to remember. I often have students and patients tell me they do not know what percent (of any nutrient) they need for the day. In the end, whatever amount (mg, g, microgram) is recommended for you, you will need 100%...or all of it for the day.

Now, what about %DV...

Food labels list percentages that are based on recommended daily intakes — meaning the amount of nutrients a person should get each day. These numbers tell you the Percent Daily Value (DV) that one serving of this food provides as a percentage of established standards. For example, a label may show that a serving of the food provides 30 percent of the daily recommended amount of fiber. This means you still need another 70 percent to meet the recommended goal. Percent DV is based on a 2,000-calorie diet for adults older than 18.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/food-and-nutrition/AN00284

and

The % Daily Values (%DVs) are based on the Daily Value recommendations for key nutrients but only for a 2,000 calorie daily diet--not 2,500 calories. You, like most people, may not know how many calories you consume in a day. But you can still use the %DV as a frame of reference whether or not you consume more or less than 2,000 calories.
The %DV helps you determine if a serving of food is high or low in a nutrient. Note: a few nutrients, like trans fat, do not have a %DV--they will be discussed later.
Do you need to know how to calculate percentages to use the %DV? No, the label (the %DV) does the math for you. It helps you interpret the numbers (grams and milligrams) by putting them all on the same scale for the day (0-100%DV). The %DV column doesn't add up vertically to 100%. Instead each nutrient is based on 100% of the daily requirements for that nutrient (for a 2,000 calorie diet). This way you can tell high from low and know which nutrients contribute a lot, or a little, to your daily recommended allowance (upper or lower).

http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutrition/ConsumerInformation/ucm078889.htm#see6

The second explanation gives some better information into what I want to talk about today and that is using the %DV to your benefit even though you do not consume 2,000 calories a day and you may not even know what you are consuming. The food label will explain %DV at the bottom and show nutrient levels for what it would be at a 2,000 calorie and a 2,500 calorie diet. So take a look here and notice the amounts recommended for fat, carbohydrate, cholesterol and sodium.

Based on this we know someone consuming 2,000 calories per day should have less than 65 grams of fat (more if 2,500 because this is ~30% of total kcal intake and we know that the guideline is no more than 30% of the diet to come from fat...so this is a MAX amount for 2,000 calories). Notice that cholesterol and sodium (and potassium) are the same. That makes it very easy to use the %DV for sodium and cholesterol. The guidelines are the same for everyone regardless of calorie intake (ok, ok maybe less if you have a medical condition that requires less, but in general this is it). As for potassium and carbohydrate they may not be as helpful as the other 3 I have previously listed. If you are watching carb intake chances are you are carb counting and using the grams listed on the label not the %DV (which BTW is based on 60% of your total caloric intake coming from carbs...a tiny bit on the high side for many individuals).

So let's looks at some labels and see how this can help you even if you don't consume 2,000 calories per day. Here is a label from a cereal box. The serving size is 1 cup. Let's look at the %DV...

For fat the %DV is 1%. This means the fat in this cereal is 1% out of a total 65 grams max per day for someone eating 2,000 calories per day. So you don't consume 2,000 calories per day, no sweat, either do I, I consume less on most days, so I know that 1% is still low, even if I was consuming 1,200 calories for the day. Now, if this said that the product contained 30% of the %DV of fat for the day, even if you don't consume 2,000 calories per day, you will be able to conclude that 30% must be high (since it only leaves 70% for all other foods of the day), especially if you consume less than 2,000 calories per day. Anything less than 2,000 calories per day and you should remember that if the fat seems high for 2,000 calories it will be a higher percent for you eating less calories. If you consume more than 2,000 calories daily, depending on how much you consume within a healthy range for managing weight, well then 30% may not be too bad and you may consider some extra math just to double check (take your desired/estimated kcal level for the day and multiply by .3 to get the calories max from 30% of fat, then divide by 9 because there are 9 calories per gram of fat and you are trying to determine max fat grams for the day.

Next we have cholesterol and sodium to look at. In this case 100% is 100% is 100% and for most people this %DV is extremely useful. This is based on 300 g cholesterol max per day and 2400 mg sodium max per day. In the case of the cereal there is 0 mg cholesterol which is 0%DV and 280 mg sodium which is 12%DV. Certainly low in cholesterol, but what about sodium. At first glance you may think this is high in sodium, but if you eat one cup (and if with milk you can see from the label this is now 14% not 12%) this is only 12% and for your remaining meals and snacks you have 88% more sodium to go. Most people consume lower sodium at breakfast than at other meals, unless adding salt to foods. Therefore, if you look at the big picture, this is really not that high in sodium. In fact I just ate a cup of this cereal and had some milk, so I have 86% sodium to go if aiming for 2,400 mg daily...so that means I can have max of ~1030 mg at lunch and another ~1030 mg at dinner, which is actually a lot of sodium!

So let's look over this other label I have here for V8 Butternut Squash soup.

You can see here that this is 3%DV for fat, so this is actually low in fat. Cholesterol is low too. But what about sodium? In this case there is 750 mg sodium, which sounds like a lot because..well it is a lot! The %DV is 31%, which by itself is a lot of sodium for just 1 cup of soup (actually not as high as some other soups). If you do not generally watch your sodium intake in general for the whole day you may not wish to consume a food that has more than 30% of sodium in just one serving. But for the sake of my example and using the %DV as a tool for quick and easy meal planning looking at sodium, dat and cholesterol intake, let's consider the big picture. At breakfast I had 14% of what I was aiming for with sodium, and now in one cup I get another 31%. That means if this is all I eat (yes, I will totally still be hungry, but for the sake of this post let me finish!), then I will have 55% or 1320 mg of sodium left to go at dinner time (or included in snacks too). So, if planning carefully, and it really doesn't have to be that involved, some foods that are seemingly bad for you, may be OK when consumed in the appropriate portion size and when taken into consideration with the rest of the foods for the day.

I really use the %DV only to gauge fat, cholesterol and sodium content of foods because all it takes is a quick glance at the percent. If something contains 56% of my fat for the day, or sdoium for the day, I am going to stay away from that product. But if I am eating very low sodium for the rest of the day, a bowl of soup may still fit into my diet for the day.

I hope this helps to clarify some of the confusion over %DV. I find that nutrition students just starting out are just as confused over this as my heart patients at the hospital. When I teach this to patients I tend to simplify a tad more than I did in this post, but most of you know a lot about nutrition and I thought you could handle my long blabbering about this topic.

Ok, so to finish up I wanted to share some pictures. Since Vegas doesn't really have a fall, I don't really have any fall pictures to share to get you in the mood for the season. so instead, here are some winter pics from, believe it or not, Las Vegas. Ok, so here were are up Mt. Charleston, which is still sort of Vegas, but also on it's own since you have to drive there up the mountain. But when in need of snow in Vegas (during the winter) this is the place to go.

QUESTION: Do you look at the %DV when looking at labels and meal planning?

CONTEST ALERTS:

Chocolate Covered Katie is giving away your choice of a kitchen gadget valued up to $35

and

if you love desserts, stop by Nutricious is Delicious for a chance to win a box of Penny's low fat desserts.

GOOD LUCK

Adventures in bread making

This has been an adventure filled weekend for us. First off we did our first round of bread making with this beautiful new bread machine. Yes I am sure it is just as easy to make bread from scratch in the regular ol' oven, but the novelty of the bread machine was just too much to pass up. Plus this one also does jams and chutneys, so I really couldn't resist.

Here are some reasons to make your own bread:

-Simple and nutritious, easy to use high fiber ingredients

-You know what's inside...no preservatives!

-You can have whatever kind you want

-Great if you follow a gluten free diet

-Cheaper than regular bread (if you buy a bread machine there is cost for the initial investment)

So, for our first loaf we selected a nice honey whole wheat recipe. Boy was I glad the commissary had whole wheat flour.

Here is what the ingredients looked like before we closed the lid and let the machine work it's magic!

Here is Ryan making a nice ball of dough after he removed the kneading paddle.
Look how perfect looking this turned out.

Nice slices...

It was really soft inside and had a nice crust.

So for breakfast the next morning we made some runny fried eggs to have with our bread.

I took the end piece.

Then we got started on loaf number 2! This time was a dessert type bread. I made a low fat chocolate sour cream tea loaf. I did include the dried cherries, but I left out the chopped nuts. I personally hate nuts inside baked goods even though I like them plain. Does that make me weird?

Turned out looking pretty nice. The chocolate chips and cherries all went to the bottom, and we flipped it over so it then became a nice looking top layer.

So, those were our adventures in bread making, but there were still more adventures to come our way.

Saturday night we went to a local book fair since they advertised they would have some English books.

I bought some books about the island and Portugal.

We stopped in to a local bar/cafe/restaurant called Mar a Mesa and had a quick coffee.

We were a little hungry (and I guess we may have missed dinner) so Ryan ordered a tosta mista, which seems to be a popular bar food. I asked Ryan what this was and he explained it was like a hot ham and cheese sandwich.

Since I don't eat ham I thought about the option available to me. Then the light bulb went off and I ordered a tosta mista sem fiambre (without ham) and POOF...I got a grilled cheese sandwich!

It tasted really good.

The next morning Ryan had this idea for our fave storage containers...the lock and lock. Let's see what Ryan did with this awesome container...

Yep, he cooked an egg in it!

The he made sandwiches for us for breakfast using the honey whole wheat bread we made the day before.

The egg fit perfectly.

So those were some of our adventures so far, but there was still one more adventure for the weekend. Sunday some of the guys were going out spear fishing, so I decided to pack up my gear (in my awesome bag pictured below) and go out for a snorkeling adventure.

So we stopped here first to meet up with everyone, but this site in Porto Martins was too rough.

But I did take a few pics while we waited since this is a really nice area with great views.

Then we stopped over at this location towards Biscoitos, but again, too rough.

Another location, but again, too rough. Boy, were we ever gonna find a good spot given the windy weather.

After an hour of searching we located this spot near the pink hotel in Angra, just to the west of Monte Brasil. Much calmer!

So we got into the water at that location and the guys fished while I snorkled around. This spot had lots of great fish to look at. Lots of pretty colors. After a while I was out far enough that is was no longer rocks below, but white sand. I had a great time, and I actually got to see Ryan spear 2 fish and pull them back up to the surface. It was super neat to see the whole process. After a while I headed back in, but when I was in shallow water I got freaked out when I spotted a decent sized octopus. Holy Cow!!! It was a lovely shade of purple and blue, but serious, too many arms for me and I panicked. Luckily I wear a knife, and in this case I was in shallow water and could stand up.

Afterwards we were starving since it was dinner time. I got to see the sun set on the west side of the island, which was nice. We opted for kono pizza since many things were closed as it was Sunday. I love this kono car.

As always I had a nice salad.

Of course we also got pizza cones to go with the salads. I had smoked salmon and cream cheese in a cone and Ryan had tomato and cheese.

What a super way to end a super adventurous weekend!!!

QUESTIONS: What was your last adventure? What is your favorite kind of bread?