The original food pyramid, launched by the USDA in 1992, included the four food groups stacked in the shape of a pyramid with the number of recommended servings a person should eat from each group in a day. The widest part of the pyramid depicted the foods that should make up most of the diet (cereals and grains). The top of the pyramid, indicating the group that should be eaten in small amounts, was fats.

In 2005, the USDA revised the pyramid, expanding the number of food groups to six and adding a person walking up steps on the side of the pyramid to emphasize the need for exercise.

But it wasn’t popular with some nutritionists; and it for sure had no visible impact on the increase of child (and adult) obesity rates.

The new guideline, MyPlate, is a dramatic departure: a simple visual so that people can eat healthy at every meal. The visual has four colored sections representing fruits, vegetables, grains and proteins. Next to the plate is a smaller circle representing dairy products.

Now, instead a huge plate of pasta with a small salad or a large piece of meat and potatoes with a few broccoli florets, one can look at the plate and see that at least half of it should be grains and vegetables. (Pasta is a grain—but that grain shouldn’t occupy 100% of the plate.)

On ChooseMyPlate.com, the USDA emphasizes several important nutrition messages: eat smaller portions, make at least half the plate fruits and vegetables and avoid sugary drinks.

Here’s the advice from the USDA (none of it is news):

Balance Your Calories

 
Eat More Healthy Foods

 
Foods to Reduce

When was the last time you made a dessert using fresh apricots?

For most of us, the answer is: never.

So here’s a quick and easy recipe for Balsamic-Glazed Apricots With Ricotta Clouds.

If you think that “caramelized apricots” and “honey balsamic glaze” require a lot of work, this video will show you that both are done in a snap.

So take advantage of fresh apricots now in season and turn out a delicious, crowd-pleasing dessert.

Expeller pressed oils (also known as cold pressed oils) are those that have been extracted from fruits (avocados, olives, etc.), nuts, seeds and grains by expeller pressing.

A completely natural process, the source material has been squeezed in an expeller machine—an old-fashioned mechanical press. Some types of oils may then be refined using a steam filtration process.

The best oils are produced this way, and only oils produced this way are 100% natural.

Expeller pressed oils are typically more expensive because the pressed olives, nuts, etc. yield only about two-thirds as much oil as they would with chemical extraction.

Producers choose a lower yield and a pure product, rather than soaking the fruits/seeds/grains in chemicals, which can leave residues in the oil.

Expeller pressed oil are 100% natural, free of chemical solvents, additives and preservatives. Because they are less volatile, they evaporate less when heated; so you can use less when cooking. This can offset the higher price.

Another benefit: oils with a high level of saturated fat, such as coconut oil, contain fewer triglycerides than common vegetable oil (and thus have less saturated fat) when they are expeller pressed. Canola oil becomes lower in saturated fat than chemically extracted olive oil, and higher in Vitamin E, Omega 3 and Omega 6.

What is chemically-extracted oil?

If you don’t purchase oils that are labeled expeller pressed or cold press, your oil has been processed with hexane, a petroleum derivative (also known as a petro-organic compound). It is then further processed with phosphoric acid and other additives.

Now that you know, the choice is yours!

You’ll want many bites of these whoopie pies. Photo by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.

We wannahav lots of these cakelike cookies:* perfect recipes of moist cake and buttercream. Each one is a pillow of comfort food.

*A whoopie pie is not a pie, but a sandwich cookie. It’s made not from cookies, but from cake. Confusing? Well, that’s how the industry classifies it. A cookie is a handheld food; a piece of cake requires a fork.

Send any dad an assortment of scrumptious Wannahavacookie Whoopie Pie Classics.

The mixed dozen includes chocolate, red velvet and vanilla cake whoopie pies (the best red velvet cake we’ve ever had). They’re filled with chocolate, vanilla, raspberry, mint and peanut butter buttercream fillings, and are packaged in a reusable bucket tin.

Order them at TheNibbleGourmetMarket.com.

We bet Dad will say “Whoopie!”

June 2nd is National Rocky Road Day.

Rocky road ice cream is chocolate ice cream mixed with nuts and marshmallows, the “rocks” in the road. The original nuts, walnuts, were later replaced with toasted almonds.

Over the years, the concept has been ported to fudge, cookies, popcorn and other sweets.

An easy recipe for Rocky Road ice cream is below.
 
 
HISTORY OF ROCKY ROAD ICE CREAM

In 1928, William Dreyer and Joseph Edy founded Edy’s Grand Ice Cream in Oakland, California. Rocky Road ice cream was created the following year.

William Dreyer’s professional relationship with ice cream began in 1906 when, as a galley boy aboard a German passenger ship, he was tasked with making a frozen dessert to celebrate the ship’s arrival in America.

By the 1920s, he had established an ice cream manufacturing facility in Visalia, California. In 1926 he was recruited by National Ice Cream to run a large plant in Oakland. In Oakland he met Joe Edy, a prominent confectioner.

In 1928, Edy and Dreyer teamed up to manufacture premium ice cream under the name Edy’s Grand Ice Cream, focusing on creative flavors. At the time, ice cream was only sold in basic flavors such as chocolate, strawberry and vanilla.

Dreyer was inspired by Edy’s use of marshmallows and nuts in a candy creation. In those days there were no miniature marshmallows. So in March of 1929, Dreyer cut up marshmallows with his wife’s sewing scissors, and added them along with walnuts to a base of chocolate ice cream.

The flavor was named Rocky Road for the texture. You’ll also find references that it was named for the troubled economic times of the Great Depression. However, the flavor was created in March 1929 and the stock market crash that engendered the Depression didn’t happen until October of that year.

 
EASY ROCKY ROAD ICE CREAM RECIPE

If you don’t want to make chocolate ice cream from scratch:

1. LEAVE a quart of store-bought chocolate ice cream on the counter to soften. You want it just soft enough to mix in the “rocks.”

2. STIR in 1 cup of miniature marshmallows and 1/2 cup roughly-chopped almonds or pecans.

3. RETURN the quart to the freezer to harden.
 
 
MORE ROCKY ROAD RECIPES

[2] Rocky Road ice cream with caramel sauce (photo © Queen Of Cream | Atlanta).

[3] The original rocky road ice cream (photo © Edy’s).