Grocery store junk food dinner ideas that satisfy cravings without cooking - CNN
Grocery store junk food dinner ideas that satisfy cravings without cooking - CNN |
- Grocery store junk food dinner ideas that satisfy cravings without cooking - CNN
- Food from the Heart Continues Providing Healthy Meals During Pandemic - Santa Barbara Independent
- Flaming Tower of Food - Idaho Falls Magazine
- Food Safety Courses for Pickup & Delivery Introduced - Progressive Grocer
- As extra unemployment runs out, Food Bank of Alaska braces for elevated need to grow - Alaska Public Media News
| Grocery store junk food dinner ideas that satisfy cravings without cooking - CNN Posted: 24 Jul 2020 11:02 AM PDT Of course, you know a kale salad topped with a healthy protein and loaded with veggies is what you should be eating for dinner tonight. But as the Covid-19 pandemic still has us socially isolated, concerned about the health of our loved ones and worrying about cutting expenses to stay financially stable in these uncertain times, what we want is something affordable — and preferably cheesy — that can pretty much cook itself. Stress makes us want junk foodMarket research company IRI Worldwide reported in April that frozen food spending was up 31% over a year ago, while packaged food purchases were up 21%. Dr. Alison Mitzner, a family wellness expert, says — no surprise here — stress can lead to emotional eating. "Stress also causes an increase in hormones such as cortisol, which can in turn increase cravings for sugar, salt and fatty foods," she says. "Also, in times of stress, many people eat comfort foods and have unhealthier food cravings, as they are often associated with positive memories such as holidays." In fact, according to a 2015 Harris Poll, 67% of Americans say they turn to comfort food as a pick-me-up. Their faves? Pizza, followed by chocolate and ice cream tying for second and mac and cheese coming in third. And a study from Cornell Food and Brand Lab found when an environment is cluttered and chaotic, it can lead to choosing more indulgent food. So, we're bound to cave to cravings occasionally, and especially during times like these. Should the urge for those frozen pizzas, lasagnas or pot pies you gobbled down as a kid suddenly strike, just remember moderation is key. Mitzner says, "It is normal and OK to want the occasional extra snack or unhealthier option, but you don't want it to become a way to deal with your emotions or a way to cope." Sure, we try to fill our virtual grocery carts with mostly healthy options, but here are a few frozen comfort foods we're not ashamed to admit to snagging as well. All in moderation, of course. 18 frozen junk food dinners we're cravingMarie Callender's Vermont Macaroni and Cheese (prices vary by location; instacart.com)  Marie Callender's Vermont Macaroni And Cheese Peanut butter and jelly. Bacon and eggs. Macaroni and cheese. We'll take the latter when it comes to the world's greatest food pairings. We're not alone: A 2018 survey by Annie's found one-third of Americans say mac and cheese is their go-to comfort food. But how do you eat the dish? Of those polled, 71% of Americans use a fork, while 25% use a spoon. One thing not up for dispute: This bowl of comfort is delicious no matter which utensil you use. ______________________________________________________________________ State Fair Beef Corn Dogs (prices vary by location; target.com)  State Fair Beef Corn Dogs - 5pk/13.35oz If you can't get out to the boardwalk and don't feel like trying a corn dog recipe at home, then nuke up a couple of these nostalgic and satisfying corn pups in the microwave in less than one minute, literally. ______________________________________________________________________ Evol Frozen Truffle Parmesan Macaroni and Cheese Bowl (prices vary by location; target.com)  Evol Frozen Truffle Parmesan Macaroni and Cheese Bowl - 8oz We could honestly do a whole story on just mac and cheese, but we're listing a few options here that are so unique they don't feel repetitive. Like this truffle and Parmesan number that is a bestseller at Target. You know, to help you feel a little bit fancier when you transfer this from the microwave to a real bowl. ______________________________________________________________________ DiGiorno Rising Crust Pepperoni Pizza (prices vary by location; instacart.com)  DiGiorno Original Rising Crust Pepperoni Frozen Pizza Some say it can make you more productive at work. Some even say it may prevent illness and death. And it also ranks as the most addictive food. No wonder we could eat pizza — frozen, delivered or homemade — every day of the week. ______________________________________________________________________ Caribbean Frozen Foods Jamaican Style Beef Patties — Mild (prices vary by location; target.com)  Caribbean Frozen Foods Jamaican Style Beef Patties - Mild - 9oz There's something about the distinct combination of jerk spices and flaky crust in a Jamaican beef patty that we can't help but crave. It doesn't hurt that they're ready after just two minutes in the microwave. ______________________________________________________________________ Stouffer's Classics Party Size Lasagna With Meat & Sauce (prices vary by location; instacart.com)  Stouffer's CLASSICS Party Size Lasagna with Meat & Sauce If Stouffer's is good enough for NASA, it's good enough for us during quarantine. According to parent company Nestlé, astronauts were fed frozen meals from the brand upon the 1969 moon landing, and Tektite 2 marine research aquanauts were served Stouffer's in 1970 while in the Atlantic. ______________________________________________________________________ Tyson All Natural Crispy Frozen Chicken Strips (prices vary by location; target.com)  Tyson All Natural Crispy Frozen Chicken Strips - 25oz Strips, fingers, nuggets, dinosaur-shaped — who cares? As long as it's breaded and easy to pop in the oven, some oil, a microwave or an air fryer, we're in. Add a little ketchup, ranch or barbecue sauce for dipping and dinner is served. ______________________________________________________________________ Ore-Ida Golden Tater Tots (prices vary by location; instacart.com)  Ore-Ida Golden Tater Tots You can have your french fries. Take your onion rings. When it comes to indulgent side dishes, we're all about the classic tater tot. Invented in the 1950s by the Oregon-based Grigg brothers, who founded Ore-Ida, tater tots not only work as a yummy side dish but are the stuff of legend when used in a casserole. Just ask Napoleon Dynamite. ______________________________________________________________________ Bertolli Frozen Chicken Florentine & Farfalle (prices vary by location; target.com)  Bertolli Frozen Chicken Florentine & Farfalle - 22oz Creamy pasta is on the table and ready to satisfy your taste buds in minutes with the ready-made chicken Florentine from Bertolli. There's spinach in it, so it's healthy — right? ______________________________________________________________________ El Monterey Steak & Three-Cheese Burritos (prices vary by location; instacart.com)  El Monterey Shredded Steak & Three-Cheese Burritos Shredded steak. Cheddar, mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheeses. Mexican spices. Tortilla. Really, do you need anything else? ______________________________________________________________________ Mrs. T's Mini Classic Cheddar Pierogies (prices vary by location; instacart.com)  Mrs. T's Mini Classic Cheddar Pierogies Comfort food doesn't get a whole lot more comforting than pierogies. Little dough pockets stuffed with whipped potatoes and aged cheddar cheese, Mrs. T's versions work as an appetizer, entree or snack. Or, in our case, all of the above. ______________________________________________________________________ Mrs. Paul's Xtra Large Crunchy Fish Sticks ($5.99; amazon.com)  Mrs. Paul's Xtra Large Crunchy Fish Sticks, Frozen Seafood, 30 Count Popular since the 1950s, fish sticks are generally made from cod, then battered, deep-fried and frozen. "They are especially popular with children, who eat them with ketchup, tartar sauce or other flavorful dips," writes Sherri Machlin in "American Food by the Decades." She goes on to write that parents love the food because it saves time and their kids devour them. "In fact, children who do not like to eat fish usually like fish sticks." Was she spying on our childhood? ______________________________________________________________________ Totino's Pepperoni Pizza Rolls (prices vary by location; instacart.com)  Totino's Pizza Rolls, Pepperoni Their website claims that they're the nation's top-selling hot snack and who are we to argue? Totino's Pizza Rolls are notorious for burning the roof of your mouth because no one can wait for them to cool down before cramming them in. OK, maybe that's just our shame to live with. Either way, these pizza bites are a snack food that just about any '80s, '90s and even '00s kid has satisfyingly called dinner. ______________________________________________________________________ Frozen Beef & Cheese Mini Tacos (prices vary by location; target.com)  T.G.I. Fridays Cheddar & Bacon Loaded Potato Skins Taco night is a comfort all its own, but sometimes we just don't feel like putting in even that amount of minimal effort. These cute little mini tacos go straight from the microwave to your plate. Just add hot sauce, and dinner is fun and done! ______________________________________________________________________ TGI Fridays Cheddar & Bacon Loaded Potato Skins (prices vary by location; instacart.com)  T.G.I. Fridays Cheddar & Bacon Loaded Potato Skins Craving your favorite bar snack but can't go to the bar? Here's the next best thing. According to the Idaho Potato Commission, potato skins debuted as an appetizer in the mid-1960s and "came from a radio story about sailors eating the vitamin-rich skins to ward off illness." ______________________________________________________________________ Mrs. Budd's Shepherd's Pie (prices vary by location; instacart.com)  Mrs Budd's Mrs. Budd's Shepherd's Pie This meat and mashed potato classic may be high in calories and sodium but man does it taste good. ______________________________________________________________________ Hot Pockets Garlic Buttery Crust Pepperoni Pizza Sandwiches (prices vary by location; target.com)  Hot Pockets Garlic Buttery Crust Pepperoni Pizza Sandwiches - 9oz/2ct Another pizza-like creation that we gravitate toward when we need a nostalgic trip down Junk Food Dinner Lane is pepperoni pizza Hot Pockets. They're kind of like the middle child between DiGiorno and Totino's, but we love them all the same. ______________________________________________________________________ Devour Buffalo Frozen Chicken Mac & Cheese (prices vary by location; target.com)  Devour Buffalo Frozen Chicken Mac & Cheese - 12oz The final mac and cheese variation on our list is this intensely satisfying combination of buffalo chicken wings and macaroni and cheese. A match made in comfort food heaven. It packs an impressive 29 grams of protein too. Note: The prices above reflect the retailers' listed prices at the time of publication.  |
| Food from the Heart Continues Providing Healthy Meals During Pandemic - Santa Barbara Independent Posted: 24 Jul 2020 12:49 PM PDT  Food from the Heart (FFTH), a nonprofit providing free, nutritious food to about 160 homebound, ill people in Santa Barbara and Goleta, has continued preparing and delivering food every week throughout the pandemic. COVID, however, has required significant adaptations to ensure the safety of staff, volunteers, and clients, including the elimination of visiting time with clients. COVID caused the normal contingent of 25-40 volunteers who prepare the food each week to be trimmed down to 12 to ensure social distancing. Many volunteers, who are seniors, chose to pause during the pandemic anyway. This decision, Board Chair Kelly Onnen related, greatly saddened these volunteers because they love the work and miss being part of the FFTH family. Other volunteers felt comfortable continuing through COVID, enabling FFTH's services to run uninterrupted. Get the top stories in your inbox by signing up for our daily newsletter, Indy Today. At Trinity Lutheran Church, whose kitchen and fellowship hall FFTH uses at a greatly subsidized rate, masked and gloved volunteers prepare the food at individual tables spaced 10 feet apart. The pre-COVID ambiance, filled with chatter and laughs, has been replaced by a more solemn environment, with volunteers focused on the work. Onnen lamented that the volunteers no longer have the social aspect, but she and the volunteers are all very pleased that the work can continue with the new protocols. The menu each week includes soup, an entrée, a deli salad, a dessert, fruit, and bread. The food, which typically last three to four days, is nutritious, tasty, and visually appealing — all important attributes for ill clients, who need healing food and who sometimes have poor appetites. A separate group of volunteers, also masked and gloved, delivers the food. Pre-COVID, drivers typically entered the home, put away the food, and visited with the clients. Drivers have the same routes each week and develop rapports with their clients. Now, COVID requires that the food be dropped off at the door. The social interaction, Onnen related, has always been just as valued by the clients as the food and is a key part of what Food from the Heart is about. Safety, of course, is paramount, so the social aspect must take a pause.  The fresh fruit comes from another group of masked volunteers who harvest from donors' backyards and donors' commercial orchards. While FFTH has donated surplus produce in the past to the Foodbank of S.B. County, in COVID times, the weekly donations have been off the charts. An increase in volunteers harvesting and in people and businesses allowing their fruit to be picked has enabled FFTH to deliver 2,000-2,500 pounds of fruit each week to the Foodbank. This week saw plums, nectarines, oranges, tangelos, and lemons harvested. FFTH also supplies Grace Lutheran Pantry twice a month. Starting a couple of months ago, each week FFTH gets 15 boxes of assorted fruits and vegetables from the Berry Man as part of the USDA's Foodbox Program. The 38-pound boxes have a dozen types of produce, most of which is sourced close to home. Most of FFTH's clients are referred by medical agencies, but clients can self-refer. As in non-COVID times, there is a short wait list. Food from the Heart's name, according to Onnen, reflects all the love that goes into each bag of food. In its 25 years, FFTH has never missed a week of food delivery. Onnen shared that she feels completely blessed to be part of the organization. Eighteen years after she started, Onnen is still working alongside volunteers who were there when she arrived. The "volunteers love what they do and get back as much as they give." For more info or to make a donation, go to sbfoodfromtheheart.com. At the Santa Barbara Independent, our staff is working around the clock to cover every aspect of this crisis — sorting truth from rumor. Our reporters and editors are asking the tough questions of our public health officials and spreading the word about how we can all help one another. The community needs us — now more than ever — and we need you in order to keep doing the important work we do. Support the Independent by making a direct contribution or with a subscription to Indy+.  |
| Flaming Tower of Food - Idaho Falls Magazine Posted: 24 Jul 2020 02:07 PM PDT
For those who are somehow not familiar with Dutch oven cooking, it is best explained by saying that it is the manliest of all cooking options. What is more manly than a hefty cast-iron pot made to be covered in charcoal and specifically not to be cleaned with soap and water? Grilling is great for your typical Joe, but Dutchoven cooking is only for those brave souls able to channel their inner mountain man. You can cook anything in a Dutch oven. Just gather up whatever you have a taste for, cut it up and throw it in a cast-iron pot and cover it in red hot charcoals and let nature do the rest. Dutch ovens make everything taste better. They give food an outdoor rustic, "I just drove a covered wagon across the Oregon Trail" taste. While the contents can be healthful, a tradition of many Dutch oven chefs is to rely on shredded cheese and cream of mushroom soup to give every dish that mega-calorie comfort food boost. The real secret to Dutch oven cooking is seasoning the oven. You never wash out a Dutch oven! You wipe or scrape it clean, then apply oil and heat to add the microscopic remnants of the last meal to the oven's patina. Just like our lives are a sum of our experiences, a Dutch oven is the culmination of everything that was ever cooked in it. I had a friend whose prized possession was an original Dutch oven used by his grandfather when he came west on a wagon train. That Dutch was the Stradivarius of Dutch ovens. Its patina was thick and rich and added a special flavor to anything cooked in it. One year for his birthday, his wife wanted to do something really special for him. She washed and scrubbed and made that dutch oven look almost new again. Thanks to many hours of counseling they are still married. Dutch oven cooking is unique because you are able to cook an entire seven-course meal in one flaming stack of food! Some people get really worked up about using a specific number of charcoal briquettes per oven. The holy formula is three more on top and three less underneath of whatever the oven's diameter is in inches. We call those people "briquette Nazis." I once went on a work trip where the boss counted out the exact number of briquettes we should have needed to cook our meals, but due to cooler than average ambient temperatures, dinner was not ready until midnight. My philosophy is to use all the briquettes you need to get the meal cooked safely and as soon as you can. Dutch oven cooking will never be considered fast food. If someone says a Dutch oven dinner will be ready at 6 p.m., you can be fashionably late at 7 and still be in time for the hors d'oeuvres! You can cook just about anything in a Dutch oven! This includes appetizers, rolls, soups, stews, main courses, side dishes and all kinds of desserts. You can even make ice cream in a Dutch oven if you swap ice for the charcoal! Dutch ovens are even great for making breakfast casseroles as long as you plan that you need to wake up before the sun rises to make sure the coals are ready in time. So next time you want to try something different, just coat that Dutch oven with a healthy layer of butter, pile on the ingredients, cover in red hot charcoals, and let that flaming tower of food do its Idaho Falls epicurean magic! Read more of Idaho Falls Magazine's July issue here.  |
| Food Safety Courses for Pickup & Delivery Introduced - Progressive Grocer Posted: 24 Jul 2020 10:35 AM PDT  360training, which provides individuals and businesses with online regulatory-approved training, has launched Disease Prevention Food Safety Courses for Restaurant & Grocery Pickup & Delivery. Developed in response to COVID-19, the courses instruct food managers, food handlers and consumers how to lower the risk of disease spread during the order, pickup and delivery of food and groceries.
According to 360training, training is just as important for consumers as it is for restaurant and grocery delivery businesses.
The new courses are part of 360training's Health and Sanitation Safety Awareness (HASSA) certification, a program that provides structured training on procedures, protocols, best practices and contingency plans for consumers and businesses. The goal of the program is to establish an environment that appropriately assesses and evaluates risk while also forming actionable response plans that can bolster both employee and consumer confidence.
HASSA-certified businesses receive a sign for their store window that notifies the public of the certification and good-thru date. Employees can earn individual certification through the HASSA for employees course.
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| Posted: 24 Jul 2020 08:10 AM PDT  Byron Corral loaded boxes of food into a car in a giant parking lot in East Anchorage. "One of the boxes is milk, like two gallons of milk," Corral, 26, said through a face mask. "In other boxes, there's just an assortment of dry goods. And another box is fresh produce." Corral was one of about 10 volunteers at the Food Bank of Alaska's drive-thru, emergency distribution site on a recent weekday evening. He and the others quickly stacked boxes into cars and trucks, working through a line of vehicles that snaked through the lot. It seems busy now, Corral said. But you should have seen it this spring as the coronavirus shut down businesses and unemployment skyrocketed. "The first week when we started this location, the whole entire parking lot was full," he said. "We had at least 500 to 600 families that were served. And usually we average like 100." Mike Reusser, the director of operations at the food bank, said the initial spike in need was staggering. The food bank saw a steep rise in the number of people brand-new to the food bank in late March and April. Since then, the total numbers have declined and leveled out, but they are still above normal. And there's concern about a second spike coming, especially with uncertainty about the future of federal unemployment benefits that are set to expire at the end of July, said Jim Baldwin, the food bank's chief executive. "We're all getting a little anxious," he said. "We're wondering, 'Are we going to have another surge in August?'" RELATED: Alaska's economy is headed for an 'income cliff' at end of July For now, the food bank is estimating that the need is up about 75% statewide compared to last year. Lisa Aquino, chief executive of Catholic Social Services, said the St. Francis House Food Pantry in Anchorage experienced a similar spike in clients in the spring. While numbers have plateaued, she said, they continue to serve a striking number of new people. "The troublesome thing I think that means is that these are people who are not able to sort of make ends meet and ordinarily they have, but they can't right now because of the situation — because they can't work because of COVID or they lost their job or because they also have to take care of their kids and they can't make all that balance," she said. SEE ALSO: Additional actions needed, state warns, or 'cases are expected to continue to rise rapidly' Aquino said she also worries about what happens when federal, state and local benefits triggered by the pandemic expire. "There's still record-high unemployment, still real struggles because of the pandemic, so we anticipate that the need for food is going to skyrocket," she said. Reusser said he expects that increased need to last for months if not longer. "Given what we've experienced to this point, what we're experiencing now, we would expect the need to be sustained, especially into the school year and through the winter," he said. He said the rise in demand has also come with an increase in volunteers and donations from the community.  |
Every place has its own local cuisine. New Orleans has its Cajun cooking, Chicago has its deep-dish pizza, Salt Lake green jello. Idaho Falls to me is best represented by our Dutch oven cooking. Others may do it, but I like to think that we do it best because it exemplifies our pioneer heritage and willingness to experiment.| You are subscribed to email updates from "food" - Google News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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