Avo Chicken Clubber

Food Challenge #4

Today, at the office, I asked some of my co-workers about their favorite fast-food sandwich. Someone mentioned a chicken club, which got me thinking...A club sandwich, also called a clubhouse sandwich or double-decker, is a sandwich with two layers of fillings between three slices of bread. It is often cut into quarters and held together by toothpicks. To order a club sandwich without the third piece of bread you would ask the waiter to "hold the club". Get it?

To me, a club sandwich looks something like this: juicy grilled chicken or turkey, crispy bacon, creamy avocado and fresh, thinly sliced bread.

At a fast food restaurant, the club really isn't a club at all: over-done chicken, flimsy bacon, wilted lettuce, under-ripe tomatoes on a bulky cardboard bun slathered with warm mayo.

YUCK!

My mission: recreate the traditional club-- without all the bread, since it's just extra, unnecessary calories.

Nutritional Information:

Fast Food Grilled Chicken Club Sandwich

• 530 calories
• 1470 mg of sodium

My Avo Chicken Clubber

Ingredients:

Chicken $2

Avocado $2

Bacon $3 (I like low-sodium turkey bacon)

Lettuce $2

Bread $2 (I buy individual whole wheat rolls, freeze and thaw them when I need 'em)

Olive Oil, S+P

Total cost: $12

American Classic
In a pan, grill up your chicken (dress it up with Olive Oil, S+P) for about 3 minutes on each side.

Uncommon Condiment
Avocado is WONDERFUL, natural condiment substitute. Instead of using mayo or mustard on your club, try mashing up some avocado. It's buttery like mayo but loaded with good fat and protein.










Bring On The Bacon
Bacon has received a bad wrap over the years, but if you use it in moderation, it can be a healthy source of protein and salt. In the microwave, place three strips between paper towels and cook for 3 minutes until crunchy. Break the bacon up into little bits and mix in with your avocado.









Toasted Bread
Traditionally, a club sandwich is served with toasted toast, but untoasted bread can be used. It's a personal call. Now start stackin.....









Looks good, huh? Try it with my Sweetie Fries for a combo meal!

Sweetie Fries

Food Challenge #3

Sweetie Fries (AKA Sweet Potato Fries)

I love potato ANYTHING: especially French Fries from a fast-food joint. But I know that they are loaded with tons of salt, too much oil and who knows where the potatoes are from. Today, at the Harvest, they had organic sweet potatoes on sale, so I thought I'd try making fries for a snack.

Nutritional Information:

Fast Food French Fries

• 500 calories
• 350 mg of sodium

My Oven Baked Sweetie Fries

• 190 calories
• 320 mg of sodium

Ingredients:

Sweet Potatoes $3 (organic)

Olive Oil

Salt

Total cost: $5

Preheat 350 degrees

Play the Mandoline:












The quickest and easiest way to make fries is with a mandoline. The mandoline allows you-- or your kids-- to cut even, thin slices. Test your skills with a carrot first. I like to leave the skins on because that is where all the vitimins and nutrients are hanging out.

Slice your strips thin so that they crunch up in the oven.

Bake Away:









Toss your strips in olive oil and salt. Bake for 20 minutes.





















These were delicious, quick, low-calorie and SALTY! MMMM.

American Food Revolution

I recorded Jamie Oliver on Oprah last week.

He was discussing his American Food Revolution and I wanted to see whether we were on the same page. It looks like he is also challenging the food system..... and is on a mission to revolutionize the way families eat.

In 2003, the renegade chef decided he would not stand for the overprocessed foods served in British grade school cafeterias. So, he launched a one-man crusade to bring real food back to the cafeteria line. After four relentless years, the British government answered Jamie's call—spending nearly $1 billion to serve fresh, healthy foods to millions of school lunch tables.

Now, Jamie is taking his mission stateside. Plate by plate, this determined father of three (with a fourth on the way!) wants to freshen up American meals. A new primetime show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, chronicles Jamie's radical three-month plan to transform eating habits in Huntington, West Virginia—recently ranked one of America's most obese cities by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. "I'm here to start a revolution," he says. "The biggest food revolution that this country's ever seen."

I'm thrilled to see international interest on this issue!

Bon Appétit Italy

In Rome, the fast food giant McDonald's just introduced a new "McItaly" line of burgers made entirely with Italian ingredients such as a burger with artichoke spread and Asiago cheese. Burger King Corp. had its $2.99 Italian Chicken Sandwich, a crispy chicken patty topped with mozzarella and marinara sauce on a hoagie-style sesame-seeded bun.

Tonight, I'm craving an Italian-style meal, but I don't want all of the starch and sodium that comes from a heavy sandwich. My challenge: deconstruct the new McItaly menu and come up with a healthy, quick alternative. Pavarotti is playing and I have about 40 minutes to whip up a buonissimo dinner.

Food Challenge #2

The Italian Chicken Sandwich

Nutritional Information:

• 580 calories
• 1730 mg of sodium

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts $3 (I buy a pack of four and save two)

1 Egg 25¢

Breadcrumbs $2

Mozzarella $4 (I indulged on a fresh ball of mozz, but you can also use the shredded kind)

Tomatoes $2

Garlic $1

Pasta $2

Zucchini $1

Olive Oil

Salt

Pepper

Total cost: $15.25

Preheat 350 degrees

DIY Tomato Sauce: Coat a sauce pan with Olive Oil (3 tablespoons). Dice tomatoes (cherry or vine) and garlic (3-8 cloves, depending on how zesty you want it). Throw in pan, cook on medium-low, for 10 minutes. Add S+P to taste. Cool. Puree if you want it smooth, let it be if you like it plump.

Super Simple Crispy Chick: Make egg wash (mix egg with water). Pour breadcrumbs on a plate. Set aside. Cut chicken breasts in half and then pound the 4 pieces out between wax paper (recommend pounding tools: small pan, hammer, rolling pin, soup can). Heat a large pan with Olive Oil (3 tablespoons) and while it's heating up start to dredge your skinny chicken slices in egg wash then breadcrumbs. Sizzle your chicken until both sides are honey-colored. Set aside to cool and rest.

Zucchini Strips: Take your zuch and slice it lengthwise. I like mine cut in fairly meaty strips. Brush each side with Olive Oil and Salt. Line on a cookie sheet.

Pasta Pasta: If you want pasta with this meal, now's the time to make it. I recommend any shape Barilla Plus Multi-Grain pasta.

Putting It Together: Assemble your dinner by placing your sauce in a baking dish. Nestle your chicken in a saucy spot and top with mozzarella. Put dish in oven for 15 minutes. At the 15 minute mark, put the zucchini in the oven. Cook for 15 minutes longer.

Dinner's ready! Bon Appétit!

Blogger Behavior: Joey on Value [the] Meal

Bloggers at my office challenge the food system, specifically the fast food industry. Curious about my co-workers behaviors, I will be interviewing them on a weekly basis and finding out a little bit more about their personal values, action, lifestyles and responsibility.

Q: Tell me about yourself?

A: I am the online organizer here at Corporate Accountability International, which means I help manage and expand the online presence of our campaigns and our organization. I didn’t know I wanted to do online organizing until 2006, when I interned in the New Media department of Deval Patrick’s gubernatorial campaign. Before then I was pretty sure I wanted to work in a national park somewhere (and before that I wanted to play on the Red Sox). When I’m not watching baseball I like to bake bread and play really nerdy board games.

Q: What was your diet like before working at Corporate Accountability International?

A: I was in college up until the summer before I started at Corporate Accountability International, so my diet was a college diet (not very good). I remember eating a lot of eggs and French fries. I became a vegetarian in the fall of 2007, and I have avoided fast food for a long time.

Q: Be honest, do you eat fast-food?

A: I stopped eating fast food after I saw Super Size Me and wanted to puke. But on the rare occasions that I’ve indulged in fast food, I sometimes like to get the McDonald’s milkshake.

Q: Since joining the Value [The] Meal campaign, what's changed?

A: I nag people about bottled water more.

Q: What does a ‘value meal’ mean to you?

A: I guess a value meal to me would be a meal made of fresh and healthy ingredients that I didn’t pay much for – ideally organic/local/something like that.

Healthy Ways, Healthy Days at Work

At my office, field organizers challenge fast-food giants and program coordinators confront big agriculture. In the midst of this hard work, my co-workers and the company environment models sustainable lifestyle choices. Here, staffers practice what they preach.

1. The Coffee Club. You can join for $10 a month which will save you loads of cash since a Grande Starbucks latte is now, what, $5? The club-o-caffeine uses fair trade coffee beans, they expect you to use a mug and wash it out when you’re done, and they offer turbinado sugar and organic milk. Here’s my cup…

2. Community Lunch. Smells from the kitchen during lunchtime are intoxicating: a basil and mozzarella Panini is melting on the press; a homemade whole wheat pasta salad is set out to taste, try and share (an action to get people to eat more whole grains); a quick assembly of salad with beans, nuts and dried berries is considered fast-food here. Staff members sit and talk about hot issues (clean drinking water, environmental policy, healthy school lunch options, and social justice issues) as there is an unspoken policy at the lunch table banning personal gossip and jargon. All of this makes for a smart, satisfying meal. This is the whole wheat and broccoli pasta salad with salty parmesan cheese…

3. Dish Duty. We had dish washing duty in prep school. Every student was expected to contribute to the maintenance and upkeep of the school such as running the post office, working in the admissions office, dishwashing and a variety of other duties. My office employs the same kind of progressive programs: watering the plants, cleaning out the refrigerator, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning the kitchen table tops. That’s Jamie washing her dishes…