Your $20 will go a long way. Image courtesy Ad Council.

Our mom is on a diet and didn’t want any sweets for Mother’s Day. She has a sun room that’s like a greenhouse, so she didn’t want us to send cut flowers.

So we made a donation to Feeding America.

Feeding America is the nation’s leading domestic hunger relief charity. It helps to feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of member food banks.

While desperately needy people are hungry every day, summer is an especially challenging time. For these three months, millions of kids lose access to subsidized school lunches and breakfasts.

For too many kids, these are the only meals they can rely on—and more than a few pack up their fruit or bread to take home for hungry preschool siblings.

As you think about summer vacation, ask yourself if you can manage a $20 donation, which will provide 280 meals to children and their families.

Plus, if you donate now, the ConAgra Foods Foundation will provide a matching grant to double your generosity.

Donate here.

As a result, more and more schools are banning peanut products, eliminating that lunch staple, the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

But there’s another kid-pleasing option that is a find for anyone: almond butter. It’s just as delicious; some people may find it even more so.

Almond butter can be substituted for peanut butter in any recipe. It’s available in smooth and crunchy varieties. And it’s also sold in individual-serving snack packs that are easily portable.

Nutritionally, almond butter and peanut butter are similar, with 190 calories per two tablespoons.

Beyond basic almond butter, try the raw, organic and kosher nut butters from Artisana, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week. Get to know their superb almond, cashew, coconut, macadamia, pecan, and walnut butters, and much more.

How about curry-flavored pasta? Photo by
Angela Foto | IST.

Colored and flavored pastas have long been available. The most popular are flavored with spinach to create a pale green pasta; with red bell pepper, which results in a pink-colored pasta; and with squid ink, which creates a black pasta.

Flavors/colors have traditionally been combined to make a more interesting presentation. Paglia e fieno (straw and hay) is a combination of conventional yellow pasta and spinach pasta; tricolore pasta is a combination of conventional, spinach and red pepper flavors.

Over the last thirty years, as chefs and pasta manufacturers have become more creative and consumers have become more adventurous, many different flavors of pasta have appeared. You can find everything from chocolate- and strawberry-flavored pasta to chipotle and wasabi pasta.

Al Dente, a pasta company based in Michigan, embraces flavors with some 26 different options in three varieties of ribbon pasta: fettuccine, linguine and pappardelle.

The company also makes some of the best pasta sauces out there. Many commercial tomato sauces—even specialty brands—are loaded with unnecessary sugar, which compensates for less flavorful tomatoes and a lack of more expensive spices. Al Dente pasta nails it by using the most flavorful, quality ingredients, eliminating the need to sweeten.

The line is certified kosher. Read the full review.

A Brief History Of Pasta
Pasta dates back to ancient times. Flat sheets of pasta were made by the Romans, who called them laganum, referring to the vessel in which the dish was baked. The word evolved to lasagne.

The Romans lacked tomatoes, which originated in Peru. They did not reach Europe until about 1529, when Spanish Conquistadors returned from Mexico. Initially used as houseplants, they were not eaten until the 1830s!

Romans flavored their pasta with honey or tossed it with fish sauce (garum). By the Renaissance, pasta was baked into pies and served as a sweet dish with sugar, cinnamon and other spices (noodle pudding). There were butter sauces, olive oil sauces and cream sauces plus plenty of grated cheese, but only since the 1830s have there been tomato sauces.

Continue with a the history of pasta.

See the many different different types of pasta.

The national grassroots education campaign aims to renew support for hemp farming in the U.S. Although illegal today, hemp was traditionally grown in the U.S. by many farmers—including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration of Independence was drafted on hemp paper!

In addition to edible hemp seed, hemp has long been used to make fiber for rope and textiles.

The growing of hemp as a food and textile crop was banned in 1957, due to federal confusion over industrial hemp and marijuana.

While there is pending legislation to change the situation, currently no live hemp plant (specifically, leaves and stems) can enter the U.S. But the seeds and end products containing them can be imported.

Hemp seeds are one of the most nutritious foods around. Hemp, along with quinoa, is one of the few plant foods that are a complete protein (containing all the essential amino acids). Hemp seed is packed with protein, omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids (the highest levels of any plant source) and magnesium. The flavor is mild, similar to sunflower seeds.

If only hemp were legal, it would add inexpensive protein to our diet. Instead of appearing only in niche health foods, large manufacturers would use it to add protein to cereal, milk and other foods.

Currently, Americans can purchase hemp seed powder to add to smoothies and other foods; shelled hemp seeds to sprinkle on salads, soups, veggies, yogurt and hot and cold breakfast cereals (very tasty!); and hemp seed oil for salads.

Beyond nutrition, an excellent reason to legalize hemp growing is that it can be a salvation to many of America’s farmers.

It is difficult for many American farm families to earn a living from farming. Farmers earn $25/acre for growing corn. Hemp would yield $200/acre, giving them the income they need to keep their family farms.

Now that you know, support hemp farming. Write to your state and federal representatives. Not only does the federal government need to legalize hemp farming, but each state must also legalize it in order to allow its farmers to grow hemp.

Learn more at VoteHemp.com and follow the link to send a pre-written email, fax or letter to your legislators to let them know how you feel about the status of hemp in the U.S.

And don’t forget to enjoy the benefits of hemp as a high protein nutritional supplement. Start with sprinkling the tiny seeds onto your salads. If you typically eat a low-protein vegetable salad for lunch, it’s just what the doctor (or nutritionist) ordered. Two tablespoons of hemp seed provides 11 grams of protein, as much as a chicken drumstick.

Our favorite hemp food: the hemp bagels from French Meadow Bakery.

Use your artist’s eye to plate food
beautifully. Photo courtesy National Arts
Centre | Ottowa.

It’s easy. Think of the plate as your canvas. You’re the artist who decides how to lay out the food.

This example is from Michael Blackie, Executive Chef of the National Arts Centre in Ottowa, Canada, which includes the restaurant Le Café.

Here, Chef Blackie took two salad ingredients—beets and blue cheese—and created a beautiful plate by slicing the components in contrasting shapes and adding textural ingredients:

The right dishes create the mood. You can use your round plates, of course. But we picked up affordable long rectangular plates in New York City’s Chinatown; alternatively, you can buy nine-inch-long versions online.

Here’s a book on food styling that is highly recommended by Top Chef winners Hung Huynh and Stephanie Izard, as well as our favorite American chef, Grant Achatz of Chicago’s Alinea restaurant.

This week’s assignment: Vary colors, textures, shapes and sizes, and create your own pieces of art. Let us know how it turned out.