One of the simplest meals to prepare is pasta. For novices as well as experienced cooks, pasta opens the door to many value-focused meals. Listen in as nutritionist and natural foods chef Alana Sugar shares her tips for enjoying pasta on a budget. Here are a few of our favorite pasta recipes. What are yours?
One of our vendors was featured on Oprah today for their innovative calf raising practices. Inspired by their concern for animal welfare, the Strauss family spent years researching alternative veal raising systems. Ultimately, they say the most humane and compassionate system is the one Mother Nature provides.
For anyone who wants to eat veal, this is the way to go —pasture-raised with exceptional quality and flavor, while raised in a healthy, humane and sustainable way. They promise their calves are:
Free to Roam – never tethered, raised in confinement
Raised on natural open pastures alongside mother & herd
Never raised in feedlots
Unlimited access to mother’s milk
Strictly vegetarian fed – never receiving animal by-products
Never ever administered growth hormones
Never ever administered antibiotics
Never experience the stress of industrialized farming
If you want to know more, check out this video on their website. Strauss Free Raised™ Veal is available in our stores in the Southwest, Southeast, Florida and Rocky Mountain regions. It’s coming soon to stores in other parts of the country.
Josiah provided this field report from his visit to these orchards in early September.
The growing geographies in New York State and Pennsylvania are reporting lush fruit sets (on the trees), vigorous growth and excellent size, and early indications are also quite good for color and sugar…some of these growers are calling it a “vintage season.” Of course this is bittersweet for certain other growers in some areas, summer storms brought some pretty serious hail through the orchards back in July and August and a fair number of growers are reporting some fairly serious damage as they get closer to harvest. This is, naturally, never good for anybody.
But for those who managed to get through those hail-storms with little or no impact, it’s going to be a pretty solid season…we expect to see some of the classic, heirloom varietals (‘york imperial’, ‘northern spy’, ‘empire’ etc.)…and there should be plenty of ‘honeycrisp’ to go around!
Think making pasta at home requires expensive equipment and hours of your time? Think again! This week’s Secret Ingredient episode features guest chef Michael Romano from Union Square Restaurant Group as he shares his secrets for making fresh pasta with creamy carbonara sauce in just 30 minutes. Michael also shows why choosing the right flour makes a difference when it comes to making perfect pasta.
This past Saturday (October 4th) The Hockaday School, located in Dallas, Texas, was introduced to the excitement and passion of the Teen for Safe Cosmetics campaign. After an enlightening introduction about the campaign by Judi Shils and two campaign members, Hockaday students were convinced about the important cause and ready to get involved. I personally never knew the seriousness and potential harmful ingredients in beauty and personal care products that and my fellow peers and I use daily. I believe it is crucial for young women to raise awareness, advocate for change, and make a difference in today’s world.
Teen for Safe Cosmetics has been the most dynamic cause that I have encountered and I am in awe of all the possibilities and achievements of this campaign. Hearing about experiences like traveling to Sacramento to lobby for legislation and the success of their events was inspiring and invigorating.
After the meeting, everyone flocked to Whole Foods Market for the Teens Turning Green Collection launch event. The event was a huge success! The campaign’s new products were on display for purchase and girls enjoyed makeovers, manicures and an eco-friendly fashion show.
The Teens Turning Green line was also inspiring. I discovered that all the products were designed and created with the help of teens and I was amazed at how refreshing, practical and effective the products are. I plan to visit Whole Foods Market again this weekend and buy more of the line’s wonderful products. From this campaign I learned that teens can truly make a difference in their communities as well as the future of this country, and that action is the best way to bring about positive change. Hockaday is very excited about the Teens for Safe Cosmetics campaign and we cannot wait to join the fun!
Okay, we’re cheating a little this week and perhaps this post would be better named “What We’re Watching…” ’cause that’s been the preferred method of media consumption this week. A friend of mine reminded me of some excellent TED | Talks that I’d encouraged him to listen to a few months back.
But of course, as inspiring as these talks were, I was hungry for more and just yesterday, stumbled upon TED’s new lists, which allow users to order talks based on user ratings on criteria such as “most beautiful”, “most jaw-dropping”, “most ingenious” and “funniest.”
We often get stuck in our own ruts without realizing. We buy the same grocery items week after week, make the same dishes again and again and wonder why we get bored with eating at home. This week, we challenge you to look at your leftovers through new eyes and see if you can put a new spin on what you’ve already got in your fridge.
Our pick for The Whole Deal™ tip of the week comes from Ann B. who offers up a creative solution for leftover produce and lunchbox staples:
At the end of the week on fridays we have pizza and smoothies. This is a great way to use up any veggies I have left over in small amounts…3 mushroom, 10 cherry tomatoes, and half an onion may have been a boring salad but make a very exciting pizza! I can even save time buy buying a whole foods pizza crust! For the smoothies I use any yogurt that did not get used in the lunch box along with any left over bananas, strawberries, and that last sip of juice. The kids think it is a friday feast and I just smile and know I turned frugal fun!
What do you do with your ‘random’ leftovers? Post ideas on The Whole Deal™ for a chance to be an upcoming featured tip!
We encourage you to join in the forum discussion instead of posting a comment on this blog entry.
Studies about Bisphenol-A (BPA), the plastic monomer used to make polycarbonate plastic, have been getting a ton of media attention lately, and our customers have had quite a few questions about it. While we certainly don’t have all the answers, we wanted to share with you what the research currently shows and what we, as a company, are doing to address the issue.
Pumpkin Carving 101
My neighborhood in Santa Cruz is the area Mecca for all things Halloween. We moved there in October of 2002 and I was mowing the front yard one day when a neighbor came by to introduce himself. He asked me if we knew about Halloween and how much candy did we buy. I said no and a 100-piece bag. He said we would need three times that much and he was right — 300+ kids and four super size bags of candy later and my family realized we were in Halloween heaven.
The 2005 backyard harvest My contribution to Halloween in our neighborhood is pumpkin carving — about 50 pumpkins every Halloween. In the last few years (in honor of the Whole Foods Market green mission), I’ve been composting and growing pumpkins too. I save the seeds from the best pumpkins and use the composted pumpkins from last year’s display to grow the new season’s crop. The process has this great circle of life element and worked well until I planted too many seeds one year and we couldn’t find our backyard for the summer – it turns out most pumpkin plants just keep growing if they get enough water and sun. I didn’t know that but my wife Erin now reminds me every spring.
Curious about the best ways to apply makeup for mature skin? It’s no surprise that natural products provide the best approach for keeping the skin looking and feeling radiant. Join us in Manhattan as we watch a makeup artist at work. Learn about powerful ingredients and tips for applying natural face care products and makeup for beautiful maturing skin.
Welcome to Whole Story, the official blog of Whole Foods Market.
Don’t know us? In a nutshell, we are the world's leading natural and organic grocer and we’re passionate about healthy food and a healthy planet. Learn more about us.
We’re lucky to have a whole bunch of smart, passionate people doing incredible things in areas like organics, supporting local growers, green practices, fair trade, micro-lending and all kinds of food related stuff. We’ll use this blog to share some of the cool things going on around here.
Of course, what makes this blog really exciting is YOU — so join the conversation!
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