THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods


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PRODUCT REVIEW: Healthy Harvest Freshness Extender

January 17, 2009 at 9:00 am · Filed under Fruits, Nuts & Seeds, Kitchenware-Tabletop, Vegetables-Salads-Herbs

How often do you waste food, throwing out wilted and moldy produce…and how often are you angry that you don’t have usable food in the produce bin when you go to eat that romaine, those mushrooms, those berries? According a USDA study, American households throw out 25% of the produce they purchase because it has gone bad, an average of $600 of food per year per family.

Many fruits and vegetables give off ethylene gas as they ripen. That’s why one of the tricks to ripen fruit quickly is to put it in a closed paper bag overnight with a banana or an apple. That same ethylene gas in your produce bin—or even low levels of ethylene compounds wafting through the main body of your refrigerator—hastens the ripening, and wilting, of your produce.
The Healthy Harvest Freshness Extender keeps ethylene gas at a very low level, and will double or triple the shelf life of your produce. Just place one “egg” into each bin, and the contents are protected from ethylene gas. The contents of the Freshness Extender last for three months, and then must be replaced. Note well: It only works if you refill the egg every three months with a fresh packet of (non-toxic) crystals. But boy, does it work!

Read the full review on TheNibble.com.

Shop igourmet.com

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VIEWPOINT: Should You Buy Bottled Water?

January 16, 2009 at 9:30 am · Filed under Beverages, Viewpoint

Bottled water is a hotly-contested topic these days. After several years of impressive growth, sales have recently declined. Much of the the decline is attributed to environmental issues, specifically, the amount of plastic bottles going into landfill. Bottled water expert Michael Mascha explains the difference between commodity bottled water and naturally bottled water, and why you should consider buying one and not the other.

Much of the bottled water sold in the United States is really bottled municipal tap water. Government and industry estimates are that filtered municipal water comprises up to 40% of the bottled water sold. It makes no sense to buy this processed tap water. If you are not happy with the way your own tap water tastes, you would be much better off buying a water filter. You’d save money, gas, your own energy hauling, storage…not to mention the environmental benefit of reducing the amount of PET plastic bottles produced and disposed of by more than 40%.
Most consumers confuse two distinctly different types of bottled water: commodity bottled water and naturally bottled water. Read about the difference between each one, and make an informed decision, in the full article on TheNibble.com.

Soda Club USA

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PRODUCT REVIEW: New Zealand Natural Ice Cream

January 16, 2009 at 9:00 am · Filed under Ice Cream-Sorbet-Yogurt


Dense yet restrained ice creams—plus a sorbet
and a frozen yogurt—in the basic, popular flavors.		 New Zealand Natural Ice Cream is actually imported from New Zealand. It’s a different style of ice cream than Americans are used to; and if you like it, it’s better for you than your favorite superpremium (less sugar, less cream). The brand isn’t yet widely available in the U.S. and normally we don’t write about products that aren’t accessible to most readers, at least by mail order. But a number of people have asked about it, so here’s the scoop (pun intended).

New Zealand natural is natural, of course. The milk and cream come from rBGH-free cows, and there are no artificial ingredients or preservatives. It’s made with an egg custard. Thus far, it sounds like a lot of premium ice cream brands. Yet there is something very different about New Zealand Natural Ice Cream.

The product line uses less sugar and a lower percentage of cream (more milk) than a typical American premium recipe, making up the difference in the low overrun (air whipped into the ice cream). So you have a dense ice cream without the tongue-coating butterfat or the cloying sweetness.

Read the full review on TheNibble.com.

Stonewall Kitchen, LLC

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TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: Uli Mana Raw Cacao

January 15, 2009 at 9:30 am · Filed under Chocolate, NutriNibbles-Organic-Health, Sugar-Free, Top Pick Of The Week

For everyone wondering about the healthy food picks of the last few weeks, January is “health month” at THE NIBBLE. That’s the brief hiatus between the six weeks of holiday eating that end the old year and the Valentine’s Day delights of the new year. During “health month,” we try not to tempt people away from their New Year’s resolutions. Both our Top Picks Of The Week and the regular reviews and articles on TheNibble.com are bursting with the most delicious “good-for-you” foods we can find.

Before you get tired of healthy foods, the indulgences begin again on January 26, with three weeks of Valentine gift recommendations. Or maybe they begin right now, as we show how chocolate can be wholesome, vegan, organic, raw, primitive…and delectable. We polished off every last morsel.

When we first set eyes on Uli Mana, its packaging did not look like manna from chocolate heaven. But then we tasted the organic chocolate truffles, brownies, chocolate spread and more. Raw cacao was never more divine. And with nary a drop of refined sugar: It’s all sweetened with lower-glycemic agave syrup. There’s no cream, no butter, and more antioxidants than in regular chocolate. How could our New Year’s diet disapprove?
Truffles made from raw cacao, covered with raw
cacao nibs, have intense, bittersweet chocolate
flavor. You are mano a mano with the cacao.
Wow!
In Uli Mana’s hands, raw cacao is a wow. This is food for serious foodies—though they may wish to share it with their raw foodist and vegan friends. Read the full review, including more about raw cacao, on TheNibble.com.

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BOOK: Great Chefs Cook Vegan

January 15, 2009 at 9:00 am · Filed under Books, Recipes, Vegan

Great Chefs Cook Vegan by Linda Long How popular is veganism? Popular enough to have inspired a gorgeous new cookbook, Great Chefs Cook Vegan, by Linda Long, with recipes by 25 of today’s most lauded chefs, including Dan Barber, David Burke, Cat Cora, Daniel Boulud, Todd English, Suzanne Goin, Thomas Keller, Gabriel Kreuther, Eric Ripert, Marcus Samuelsson, Charlie Trotter and Jean-George Vongerichten. Each chef contributes a three- or four-course vegan meal with beautiful photographs of each recipe. Examples include Baby Beet Salad With Pistachio Vinaigrette & Chickpea Fritters, Sweet Pea Ravioli With Sautéed Pea Leaves, Stuffed Baby Bell Peppers With Sunflower Seed Risotto, and Chocolate Cake With A Chocolate Truffle Molten Center. Yum—what time shall we be there for dinner?
A vegan diet is more restrictive than a vegetarian diet. Vegans exclude any type of animal product, including eggs, dairy and honey. The diet focuses on whole grains, vegetables, fruits, beans and legumes, is low in fat, contains no cholesterol and is rich in fiber and nutrients. And, in the hands of great chefs, the food tastes as wonderful as anything else they cook, as you’ll see when you start cooking up a storm from this cookbook.

Get a FREE Backpack when you spend $100 or more.

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