For National Popcorn Month, here’s some trivia from The Popcorn Factory, based on a survey conducted online by Toluna Quick Surveys:

 
The favorite time to eat popcorn:

 
Check out the history of popcorn, an all-American snack. Air-popped without butter, it’s a low-calorie, high-fiber whole grain snack. You can add a bit of plain or flavored olive oil, and all the herbs and/or spices you like.

[1] Beets are most familiar in a reddish-purple hue, but are also available in different shades of red, orange, white, yellow, even red with a red and white bullseye pattern inside, called chioggia [KYO-gee-a] beets (photos #1 and #4 © Quinciple).

[2] Chioggia beets (photo by Woodley Wonderworks | CC-By-2.0 License).

[3] Roasted salmon on a bed of beets (photo © Silk Road Tavern | NYC [since closed]).

[4] Roasted beets, easy and delicious, with chimichurri sauce.

[5] Beet guacamole (photo © Colette | Food Deco).

[4] Roasted red and yellow beets with goat cheese. Here’s the recipe (photo © Williams Sonoma).

July 9th is National Beet Day, but we enjoy beets year-round. We eat the edible roots, and the greens are also delicious—just sauté or steam them. For fall, Valentine’s Day, or the holidays, the colors are perfect.

The availability of fresh, cooked, and canned beets makes it easy to incorporate beets into any meal. And unlike many canned or precooked vegetables, the flavor and texture are pretty close to fresh-cooked beets.

Today’s tip comes from Oldways, a not-for-profit whose mission is “to guide people to good health through heritage”: healthy eating and healthy foods that “have the power to improve the health and well-being of all of us.”

Along that line, beet roots deliver fiber, folate, manganese, and potassium; the beet greens pack vitamins A, C and K.

The history of beets is below.
 
 
BEETS FOR BREAKFAST

While it’s not a conventional breakfast ingredient, beets add vivid color, flavor and nutrition to:

 
 
BEETS FOR LUNCH

 
 
BEETS FOR DINNER

 
You can add beets to breakfast bars, brownies, energy bars, sangria, smoothies. You can even make beet ice cream and a vegan beet “cheesecake.” See beautiful recipes at LoveBeets.com.
 
 
BEET HORS D’OEUVRE & SNACKS

 
 
THE HISTORY OF BEETS

The modern beet (its botanical name is Beta vulgaris) evolved from wild sea beet, which grew wild in places as wide-ranging as Britain and India to Britain.

The wild sea beet was first cultivated in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East—although only the leaves were eaten! (Even today, beet greens are delicious. Don’t throw them away: Sauté them.)

In early times, the medicinal properties of the root (the red bulb) led that portion to be used to treat a range of ailments from constipation, fevers, skin problems and wounds.

The Romans cultivated beets; early recipes included cooking beets with honey and wine (that’s still a good recipe today). Apicius, the renowned Roman gourmet, included a beet broth recipe in his cookbook as well as beet salad with a dressing of mustard, oil and vinegar.

The original beet roots were long and thin like carrots. The rounded root shape of today was developed in the 16th century and by the 18th century was widely cultivated in Central and Eastern Europe. Many classic beet dishes originated in this region, including borscht.

In 19th century England, beets’ dramatic color was popular to brighten up salads and soups. The high sugar content made it a popular ingredient in cakes and puddings.

Today there are many varieties of beets in sizes both large and small, including chioggia (with red and white concentric circles), orange, white and yellow. Look for these specialty beets in farmers markets.
 
 
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*Or stir grated cooked beets, garlic, fresh dill or thyme, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice into Greek yogurt.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

This gluten-free chicken pot pie will please many. Photos courtesy Blake’s All Natural.

BLAKE’S GLUTEN-FREE CHICKEN POT PIE & SHEPHERDS PIE

With the fall season, the gluten-freer’s thoughts turn to comfort foods—which usually mean soups, hearty stews, pot pies, mac and cheese and heaping dishes of pasta.

This is also, as it turns out, one of the most challenging categories in the gluten-free realm. Most of the hot comfort foods contain noodles or crusts of some kind, and substitutions are not easily made.

Enter Blake’s All Natural, an 80-year old family firm that was acquired by ConAgra in May 2015. Most of the line is conventional, but there’s a GF version of their most popular item, Chicken Pot Pie; as well as Shepherds Pie, which is naturally GF (the crust is made from mashed potatoes instead of grain).
 
Blake’s Chicken Pot Pie

I tasted their Chicken Pot Pie in a bit of a fever, recalling happy afternoons spent at my Gram’s where my favorite treat was classic pot pie. Grandmas know what makes a child’s heart go pitter patter. Hence my bar for Chicken Pot Pie is quite high, attached as it is to golden memories.

Blake’s did not let me down. You can taste the quality and the care.

The filling is delicious! You can taste the distinct flavors, yet also appreciate the blended sauce and the good crust, which is the hallmark of a top pot pie. There was a little too much sauce for my liking (not atypical in store-bought pot pies), but I relished the classic pot pie flavor.

The brand makes both all-natural and organic products. With the gluten-free pot pie, the vegetables and crust are organic. The chicken is not, although it is natural (antibiotic free), and quite tasty!

I was surprised that I actually preferred the cornmeal crust variety of the two options. The brown rice crust was a bit sweet and shortbread-y (I prefer buttermilk-y/salty flavor notes), whereas the cornmeal crust was hearty, had better body and just enough salt.
 
Blake’s Shepherds Pie

Next I tried the Shepherds Pie, made with organic corn and organic mashed potatoes.

As with the pot pie, the veggies are organic but the beef is not. (Although organic meat is important to many, it would raise the price beyond where enough consumers are flexible. Hence the balance between organic and natural ingredients.) The beef was perfectly spiced and tasted of a high quality, so I added points back for flavor. I liked it even better than the pot pie.

My recommendation: Absolutely give Blake’s a try! Their products are great cool- and cold-weather comfort food options, a great convenience when you don’t have time to make your own. That goes for the “regular” line, too.

You can also send a GF gift box, containing four gluten-free pot pies and four shepherds pies.

Discover more at BlakesAllNatural.com.

—A review from Georgi Page, Gluten Free Specialist

LUCY’S COOKIES

It was 2010 when we first selected Lucy’s Gluten Free as a Top Pick Of The Week, followed by a product update in 2011. The brand continues to treat consumers new gluten-free baked treats.

This year, the new GF treat is Triple Chocolate Brownie Crisp, the first flavor of Lucy’s new brownie line to hit shelves. It’s made with chocolate chips, 72% dark chocolate chunks and cocoa powder (comprising the “triple chocolate”), plus Madagascar vanilla.

A cross between a chewy brownie and a crunchy cookie, Triple Chocolate Brownie Crisp is a symphony of deep, rich chocolate flavor. A serving size of three crisps contains just 100 calories.

As with all Lucy’s products, Triple Chocolate Brownie Crisp is allergy friendly: no gluten or wheat, dairy milk, butter, eggs, casein, peanuts or tree nuts.

Brownie Crisp is currently available in a 4.5-ounce pouch size and a 1.25-ounce grab ‘n go individual bag.

Continued thanks to Lucy’s founder and chairman, Dr. Lucy Gibney, for showing that allergen-free can also be delicious. Discover more at DrLucys.com.
  

[2] Homemade cheese draining in cheesecloth (photo © The Pines | Brooklyn).

This recipe, from Alice Waters via Good Eggs in San Francisco, illustrates how much fun making fresh cheese can be. It’s much easier than mozzarella, so it’s a good “first cheese.”

Prep time is just 25 minutes, but the curds need to drain for 12 to 24 hours, depending on how soft or crumbly you like your farmer’s cheese. Alice Waters drains hers for 16 hours, at which point the cheese is still soft enough to spread, but dry enough to crumble onto salads.

The cheese should be flavored with a bit of salt, but can be made salt-free. Go gourmet with added chives, black pepper or other favorite seasonings. It can also be sweetened, for something like cannoli cream or ricotta cheesecake.
 
 
RECIPE: HOMEMADE FARMER CHEESE

Ingredients For 1-1/2 Cups Cheese

 
Preparation

1. POUR the buttermilk into a 1-quart canning jar and put the lid on tightly. Place the jar in a pot and cover with enough water to keep it submerged. Heat over medium-high heat until little bubbles appear on the jar and in the water, but before the water reaches a boil.

2. TURN off the heat and let the buttermilk cool in the pot until the water reaches room temperature. Meanwhile…

3. LINE a nonreactive* sieve with a few layers of cheesecloth, or a single layer of butter muslin, and set it in a nonreactive bowl deep enough that there is an inch or two between the sieve and the bowl. Once the water has cooled, remove the jar of buttermilk and pour the contents into the sieve. You should have firm white curds. You can add a pinch of salt or salt substitute to the curds at this point.

5. SPREAD and enjoy, or top it with yogurt.

 
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*Reactive vs. Non-Reactive Cookware: Aluminum, cast iron and copper are popular for cookware because of their superior heat-conducting properties. However, these metals can react with acids in a recipe (citrus, tomato, vinegar, etc.), imparting a metallic taste and discoloration of light-colored foods. This is also true with mixing bowls and utensils. Non-reactive materials include enameled metal, glass, plastic and stainless steel.
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WHAT IS FARMER CHEESE OR FARMER’S CHEESE

Farmer cheese or farmer’s cheese is a fresh (unaged), simple, cow’s milk cheese that’s the “child” of cottage cheese (see below), and a relative of paneer, queso blanco (more solid, like feta) and queso campesino (Spanish for farmer’s cheese, more like cottage cheese with curds). The texture is much dryer and the curd is tiny, such that it is molded into loaves and sliced.

It is so versatile, we could eat it twice a day!

Farmer cheese is made by pressing most of the moisture from cottage cheese. It can be flavored with herbs or puréed fruits. In fact, mixed with purée and baked, it is similar to ricotta cheesecake. Another variety is paneer, or Indian farmer cheese, which is easily made at home. It should be consumed fresh, as it goes stale if kept too long, and becomes brittle and useless with refrigeration. In Canada, the term “farmer’s cheese” refers to a different type of white cheese that does not have a rind and is firm but springy in texture. It is mild, milky and buttery in flavor. Canadian “farmer’s cheese” may be used in a similar fashion to Colby or Cheddar.

Once a staple of Middle European cuisine, farmer cheese was made in the U.S. by Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants; but any cheese maker can make it; but not many do. It can be hard to find outside of strongholds of Jewish cuisine.

 
 
SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT FRESH CHEESES

 
 
WHAT IS CHEESECLOTH?

Cheesecloth is a loosely woven cloth used for lining colanders and other purposes in home cheesemaking (photo #1). It is used for draining, bandaging cheeses and covering air-drying cheeses.

Butter muslin is a more tightly woven cloth used for draining, pressing, and bandaging both hard and soft cheeses. It is better for holding in small, soft curds and for making fresh cheeses and soft cheeses, because the tighter weave keeps some of the necessary moisture in.

Here are more tips for using cheesecloth and butter muslin.
  

Why do we only get pitches for slimmer versions of food in spring, before “bathing suit weather?”

After an especially tasty month visiting restaurants, for everything from fried skate sandwiches to duck confit mac and cheese, we noticed that clothes were getting snug.

As if on cue, we got this list of tips from Warren Honeycutt’s new book, Comfort Food without the Calories: Seven Delicious, Healthy Substitutes for Cold-Weather Favorites. The author of Get Lean for Life: 7 Keys to Lasting Weight Loss shared these tips with us.

Given the upcoming calorie fests of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas, we can’t think of bathing suit weather, but we can think of fitting into something for New Year’s Eve.

Our tip today is: Plan ahead for all the great holiday fare ahead. Here’s advice from Honeycutt, who starts off by reminding us that “flavorful” and “nutritious” aren’t always mutually exclusive. Here are seven guilt-free substitutes for some classic comfort foods:

To save calories, make your own hot chocolate recipe instead of a mix. Photo courtesy OpenSky.com.

Spaghetti squash instead of spaghetti noodles. Spaghetti squash isn’t nearly as carb-heavy as noodles, and it contains nutrients like vitamins A, B-6, and C, as well as omega-3 essential fatty acids. When baked or microwaved, this veggie can be shredded into spaghetti-like strands with a fork and enjoyed with any tasty sauce of your choosing. Top with lean chicken breast or seafood for a healthy and delicious boost. Alternative #2: zucchini noodles. Alternative #3: a half-and-half mix of spaghetti and zucchini noodles.

Sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes. Sweet potatoes are filling and delicious, rich in vitamin A, and contain more vitamin C and fiber than white potatoes—with fewer carbs and calories. But that’s not a license to eat sweet potato fries. Enjoy them baked.

Tea instead of hot chocolate. Tea is full of antioxidants and may, according to several studies, help lower the risk of diseases ranging from Parkinson’s to many different kinds of cancer. It’s also great for weight loss, especially when sweetened naturally with stevia or xylitol (we admit to using Splenda). What, you say: How is tea a substitute for hot chocolate? We agree with you, not with Mr. Honeycutt. If you just have to have a cup of hot chocolate, make your own a healthy recipe (unsweetened cocoa powder, nonfat milk, noncaloric sweetener, peppermint extract) without the sugar and corn syrup of commercial hot chocolate mixes.

Thinly sliced zucchini or eggplant for pasta-free lasagna. Layer all that delicious low-fat ricotta cheese and tomato sauce between zucchini or eggplant slices to cut down on the carbs in this classic comfort food. Both zucchini and eggplant are low in calories and full of nutrients and antioxidants, making them healthy replacements for pasta.

A NIBBLE favorite is a microwave chip maker. These chips go fast, so buy several (they stack in the microwave).

Health-conscious homemade soups instead of salty store-bought brands. There’s nothing that says comfort like a warm bowl of soup, but the condensed canned soups you buy at the supermarket are often loaded with cream and sodium. When making soup at home, use low-sodium stock, plenty of herbs and spices for flavor, and cauliflower puréee in place of cream. Add nutritious, low-calorie veggies like spinach, kale and carrots, as well as beans and chunks of lean meat for protein. You may never buy a can of soup again!