Back in October before the election, Michael Pollan wrote an open letter to whoever would be the next President called Farmer in Chief and he detailed what he’d like to see changed about food policy in our country.

Last week Marion Burros wrote Obamas to Plant Vegetable Garden at White House – the most detailed article I’ve seen on the garden and quotes from Michelle. An example:

“I wanted to be able to bring what I learned to a broader base of people. And what better way to do it than to plant a vegetable garden in the South Lawn of the White House?” For urban dwellers who have no backyards, the country’s one million community gardens can also play an important role, Mrs. Obama said.

But the first lady emphasized that she did not want people to feel guilty if they did not have the time for a garden: there are still many changes they can make. “You can begin in your own cupboard,” she said, “by eliminating processed food, trying to cook a meal a little more often, trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables.”

Then in Is Food Revolution Now in Season? Andrew Martin shares how the changes in administration may open the way for changes “in the way the federal government oversees the nation’s food supply and farms, changes that could significantly bolster demand for fresh, local and organic products.”

In mid-February, Tom Vilsack, the new secretary of agriculture, took a jackhammer to a patch of pavement outside his headquarters to create his own organic “people’s garden.” Two weeks later, the Obama administration named Kathleen Merrigan, an assistant professor at Tufts University and a longtime champion of sustainable agriculture and healthy food, as Mr. Vilsack’s top deputy.

And Mark Bittman followed that up with his take on how we can make vast improvements in our diets and help the planet in Eating Food That’s Good for You, Organic or Not.

To eat well, says Michael Pollan, the author of “In Defense of Food,” means avoiding “edible food-like substances” and sticking to real ingredients, increasingly from the plant kingdom. (Americans each consume an average of nearly two pounds a day of animal products.) There’s plenty of evidence that both a person’s health – as well as the environment’s – will improve with a simple shift in eating habits away from animal products and highly processed foods to plant products and what might be called “real food.” (With all due respect to people in the “food movement,” the food need not be “slow,” either.)

So, what do you think about all of this? Good? Bad? What are the pitfalls you’ll be watching for? How much change can the American public take? Comment below and let us know your thoughts.

But this year, have no fear.  Along with a couple of food blogging friends, we’ve put together a tasty Big Game spread sure to please any fan of good football and/or good food:

Appetizers

Spicy Cheddar-Jack Cauliflower Dip (Vegetarian, Gluten-Free) and
Eight-Layer Mediterranean Dip (Vegetarian) from Whole Foods Market

Vegan Pita Chips, Caramelized Onion Dip (Gluten-Free), and
Cheesy Straws from Bittersweet (all Vegan)

‘Best’ Guacamole (Vegan), Jalapeno Lime Hummus (Vegan), and
Parmesan Crisps with Roasted Tomato Salsa from Karina’s Kitchen (all Gluten-Free)

Main Course and Sides

Spinach-Mushroom Quesadillas with Feta (Vegetarian), Chipotle Chili (Vegetarian, Gluten-Free) and Turkey Chili (Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free) from Whole Foods Market

Easy Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas (can be made Dairy Free),
New Mexican Stew and Yeasted Quinoa Cornbread (Vegan) from Karina’s Kitchen (all Gluten-Free)

Dessert

Chocolate Pecan Brownies from Karina’s Kitchen (Gluten-Free)

Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies from Bittersweet (Vegan)

Have a great Game Day and let us know what you plan on making!

So, we’ve been reading about breakfast! Here’s some solid info from our website:  Breaking for Breakfast and our audio podcast celebrating February as Hot Breakfast Month.

Yeah, yeah, we know it’s not quite February yet, but we’re always ahead of the curve!

So, with breakfast on the brain, we bring you some healthy breakfast ideas from around the web.

From 101cookbooks:
Wheat Berry Breakfast Bowl: “Thin slices of sautéed pears, ruby-hued cranberries, and plump, golden wheat berries are sweetened with generous dollops of maple-sweetened yogurt and finished with plenty of toasted pecans and a sprinkling of dried persimmons, ginger, and dates.”

From A Mighty Appetite:
Lulu’s Cookies: These cookies are a “snack/dessert/breakfast-on-the-run.” The dough freezes well, so you can bake them as needed, or bake enough for a week at a time. Consider leaving out the chocolate chips when making these for breakfast fare.

From Chocolate and Zucchini:
Oatmeal Breakfast Clafoutis: This is essentially baked oatmeal.  Great for making on a Sunday, then you have great breakfasts for the week!  Just cut a square each morning and enjoy. Mix it up with different nuts and fruits. Try cutting back on the sugar, though.

And of course we have some great breakfast recipes on our own website as well. Try Overnight Oatmeal, Gluten-Free Flaxseed Muffins or Whey Protein Breakfast Blast (if you don’t mind the cold!)

So what do you have for breakfast?

Dr. Melina

Melina Jampolis of Dr. Melina is CNN’s new health and diet expert. She is a board certified internist and physician nutrition specialist (one of only 200 in US). She specializes exclusively in nutrition for weight loss and disease prevention and treatment.

She was the recipient of a Local Producer Loan from Whole Foods Market that aided her in rolling out her specially formulated protein bars and other products.

In her new role at CNN, she is advising people with a variety of diet and exercise related health concerns.

Justin’s Nut Butter

As mentioned on the Today Show, Justin’s Nut Butters are an excellent choice to keep on hand for healthy snacking.  His nut butters are produced in small quantities from the highest quality natural and organic ingredients and come in convenient single serving packs for taking on the road, keeping at your desk in the office, throwing into your bag, etc.

Whole Foods Market in Boulder was Justin’s first retail outlet for his nut butters, and our Team Members have worked with him to grow his business. Justin’s Nut Butter can now be found in five of our eleven regions! He’s using his loan to expand his production of the single serving packs.

If you have any questions about our Local Producer Loan Program, check out the FAQ section of the web page or contact the program coordinators directly at LPLP@wholefoods.com.

Still going strong? Excellent.

Not doing so well? Well, it’s all right. Many of us set lofty goals for ourselves at the beginning of this year and are at a loss as to where to start.  Oftentimes the biggest changes we want to set into motion in our lives require small pushes. Whether you want to be healthier, more environmentally minded or happier – all of these goals are attainable with a bit of a nudge.  Check out what we’re reading this week to inspire us into taking those first steps toward achieving our goals. What are you doing?

Fresh Start for a New Year? Let’s Begin in the Kitchen

Mark Bittman strips the cupboards bare and then stocks them back up in his NY Times column.

While you’re stocking up, you might clear out a bit of the detritus that’s cluttering your shelves. Some of these things take up more space than they’re worth, while others are so much better in their real forms that the difference is laughable. Sadly, some remain in common usage even among good cooks. My point here is not to criminalize their use, but to point out how easily and successfully we can substitute for them, in every case with better results.

America’s Untapped Energy Resource: Boosting Efficiency

TIME magazine’s Michael Grunwald delves into the not-so-glamorous but oh-so-effective world of energy efficiency.

This may sound too good to be true, but the U.S. has a renewable-energy resource that is perfectly clean, remarkably cheap, surprisingly abundant and immediately available. It has astounding potential to reduce the carbon emissions that threaten our planet, the dependence on foreign oil that threatens our security and the energy costs that threaten our wallets. Unlike coal and petroleum, it doesn’t pollute; unlike solar and wind, it doesn’t depend on the weather; unlike ethanol, it doesn’t accelerate deforestation or inflate food prices; unlike nuclear plants, it doesn’t raise uncomfortable questions about meltdowns or terrorist attacks or radioactive-waste storage, and it doesn’t take a decade to build. It isn’t what-if like hydrogen, clean coal and tidal power; it’s already proven to be workable, scalable and cost-effective. And we don’t need to import it.

TED Talks: Matthieu Ricard: Habits of happiness

Biochemist turned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard talks about training our minds in habits of well-being, to generate a true sense of serenity and fulfillment.

Tele-Graham Crackers: Sweet Treats in the Mail

Last Minute Gift Idea: Beer Bread Mix

Gingerbread Man Macaroons

Got any creative, last-minute gift ideas for your friends and family?

Cut It Out!

While it would certainly be much quicker to make these classics as drop cookies, it’s all about the cut-outs, if you ask me. Endless varieties of cookie cutters catch my eye every time I find myself shopping for kitchen supplies, and now is the time of year I can put those impulse buys to good use. These shaped cookies can do more than just feed the stomach, but also treat the eyes, and quite possibly elevate one’s mood. The effort put into making these cookies into something special is what truly makes them a perfect gift. It takes a bit of patience, skill, and luck, but I have a few tips to help you get started in case you need some reassurance.

Baking and Substitution Tips

I receive so many requests for substitutes in cooking and baking recipes (food allergies are on the rise, you know, not to mention those tender-hearted animal loving vegans- their smiling faces are popping up everywhere these days) that I thought I would write a post about what works- and what doesn’t- in quirky Substitution Land.

Endless Amounts of Cookie Recipes

It’s baking season. You know it. I know it. We all know it. It always comes as a shocker when those cookie sheets, flour sifters and endless sticks of butter slyly make their way off their respective shelves in those first days of December, but now that it’s December 10th, it should come as no surprise at all. The mixing bowls are prepped, the eggs are waiting to be cracked, now the only question is…What cookies to make this year?

What secrets do you have for baking show-stopping cookies?

The holidays can be a stressful time on many levels – picking out the perfect presents, cooking large elaborate meals with the family and all the travel to get to your loved ones.  This week, we’re featuring some sites that provide some great advice on how to keep things safe and stress-free.

Worried about cooking your holiday meats to the right temperature?  Need to know how to long it’s okay to leave a buffet out?  Check out the USDA’s Holiday Food Safety Fact Sheets, which range on topics from entertaining and buffet service, food safety on the road and even an entire sheet dedicated to turducken!

With all the celebration, there’s often a lot of alcohol consumption.  We encourage all of you out there (who are of age!) to drink responsibly.  Here are some tips from Psych Central on how to keep your holiday drinking safe.  If you’re not sure how much is too much, check out this new mobile app, B4U Drink that calculate your Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) based on the number and types of drinks you’ve had.

Feeling the holiday blues?  Stress from family, travel and too much to take care of getting to you?  The Mayo Clinic’s got an excellent list of advice on how to cope with stress over the holidays.

Our favorite piece of advice from the Mayo Clinic:

Don’t abandon healthy habits. Don’t let the holidays become a dietary free-for-all. Some indulgence is OK, but overindulgence only adds to your stress and guilt. Have a healthy snack before holiday parties so that you don’t go overboard on sweets, cheese or drinks. Continue to get plenty of sleep and schedule time for physical activity.

Thanksgiving is a holiday filled with tradition – celebrating the fall harvest with a bountiful array of fall vegetable sides and a succulent turkey centerpiece, giving thanks at the dinner table before the meal, watching the Thanksgiving Day parade and football games on TV and taking long naps after too much turkey and red wine.

Why not start some new traditions this year by “greening” your Thanksgiving?  Check out some of these great tips on how to make your holiday celebration memorable, while being a little kinder to the environment.

How to Go Green: Thanksgiving Day

It’s not as hard as you might think: Do you typically put a wreath on your door and a cut flower arrangement on your table? Try buying organic, or better yet, find living succulent wreaths for both. Is your centerpiece a turkey? Find a heritage breed, or consider a vegetarian alternative. Find out how to shop your local farmers’ markets for your feast, and find recycled elements for your holiday decor.

How to Plan a Green Thanksgiving

Quench thirst with green liquor. Serve organic vodka, gin, cider, wine or beer; buy local if possible. Instead of bottled water, freshen tap water by filtering and adding squeezed lemons, limes, or oranges

Go light on chicken, turkey and beef. Focus on eco-friendly vegetarian fare or organic meats. Try vegetarian nut roast with apple walnut stuffing or baked acorn squash with cranberries. A green Thanksgiving can be delicious without the turkey!

13 Eco Friendly Tips for a Greener Thanksgiving

When running around picking up all your necessities for the big day, make sure you bring along reusable bags. See if you can reduce the amount of waste you produce by buying only as much as you need and choosing products that come in packaging that can be recycled.

Guide to a Greener Thanksgiving

Try Some Turn-Offs

Two of the biggest Thanksgiving traditions often mean having the television on all day. The Macy’s Day Parade carries over to football games for those not on cooking duty in the kitchen, and there are often movies for the kids on other TVs. That electrical consumption, along with running the oven and popping in and out of the fridge for ingredients, can really add up when you multiply it by the millions of people participating all over the country.

If you enjoy watching the Parade, try attending an actual parade in your hometown—the excitement of a live event will be much more entertaining for the kids and spending time with your fellow community members fits right in with what Thanksgiving is supposed to be about. If you’ve got die-hard football fans, however, they may not be too keen on the idea of giving up the games. See if you can talk them into a limited amount of viewing and make sure you use one TV for the group instead of several in different rooms, especially if you own big screen TVs (which are real energy eaters). After everyone finishes eating, offer up board games or card games for people to play and serve dessert in the living room so that you can turn off lights and/or heaters in other rooms (don’t forget the kitchen).

First off, we were named America’s Healthiest Grocery Store by a panel of leading health experts.  Hooray!  According to the article, we topped the list because:

Whole Foods has the whole package — from an extraordinary selection of fresh conventional and organic fruit and vegetables to delicious prepared foods with healthy ingredients and clear labeling. (Most other stores offer mystery meals that may very well be loaded with butter.)

Building the Perfect PBJ Sandwich

Interestingly, the 365 Organic was cheaper than the other three [Jif, Skippy and Reese's]. More important, it was the best-tasting peanut butter in the bunch. It had the freshest peanut taste and seemed to us as if it had less sugar and more salt than the others.

Taster’s Choice: Whole Foods’ naan comes out on top

Whole Foods took the top slot with its 365 brand ($2.99/12 ounces). “Has a nice bubbly, blistered, slightly charred surface,” said one taster. Others commented on the “light texture,” “tangy taste” and “nice puffiness,” and said that “it looks like traditional naan.”