According to the latest Community Health Survey, on average we consume just over one portion of Milk and Alternatives per day.  That is not even close to the recommended daily intake for each age group:

• Children 2-3 and 4-8 need 2 servings
• Children 9-13 and teens 14-18 need 3-4 servings
• Adults 19-50 need 2 servings
• Adults over 50 need 3 servings

Milk products are our best natural source of calcium and they contain up to 16 essential nutrients that contribute to a healthy body.  I think milk products are even better than most people realize.  A balanced diet that contains enough Milk and Alternatives is associated with healthy bones, healthy blood pressure, and a positive outlook on life.

With all the chatter of milk and alternatives I thought it would be fun to have a little quiz.  I am going to throw down 5 questions below and you let me know in the comments if they are true or false.  I will tell you all the answers tomorrow.  I think this might be a fun way to interact so make sure you tell all your friends and maybe even post it on your blog or mention it on twitter/facebook.

Pop Quiz

Answer TRUE/FALSE in the comments to participate in the Quiz.

1. One string of cheese gives you less than half of serving
2. Two 100g single-serving containers of yogurt are just a little more than one serving
3. It takes almost 25 milkettes in your coffee to equal a serving
4. The milk people put on their cereal usually adds up to about a half of serving only
5. A 500ml container of flavored milk equals 2 servings

I hope you have a great Tuesday and I will for sure talk to you tomorrow.  I have a fun announcement this week once all the details get ironed out.

Take care

zesty

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Hi everyone, Julie from Savvy Eats here!  For those of you who are unfamiliar with my blog, I am a Food Science & Engineering student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, graduating in May. I’m an unusual engineering student in that I don’t want to do super-technical work when I graduate. What I really want to do is write about food. More specifically, I’d like to write about the science behind food.  To that end, I am starting a new series this week on my blog answering all your food science questions!

For my guest post today, then, I thought I’d explain why yogurt is a good source of calcium, but cottage cheese is not.  Hey, I live in Wisconsin, aka Dairyland, so it is entirely appropriate for my first post!

First of all, whole milk is essentially a bunch of fat molecules trapped in a water-based fluid.  The only reason that the fat and water don’t separate is that the proteins in milk keep it from doing so.

There are two types of proteins in milk.  Most of the proteins are casein, which are not soluble in water, but about 20% are whey proteins, which can dissolve in water.

That is the important part to keep in mind.

Whey = Soluble in water.  The green-ish liquid in the picture below, from food-info.net.

Casein = Not a fan of water.  Not water-soluble and therefore steers clear of it as much as possible.  Oh, and all the calcium is naturally found in the casein, not the whey!

Cottage Cheese

To make cottage cheese, the casein must be separated from the whey.   When this happens, the calcium leeches out of the casein and into the whey proteins.  Since all of the casein and only a little of the whey is curdled to make cottage cheese, then, there is very little calcium.

To summarize

Whey = Now has the calcium, and isn’t in cottage cheese.
Casein = Becomes cottage cheese, but has lost its calcium to whey.

Yogurt

To make yogurt, both the casein and whey proteins are curdled together, so none of the calcium leeches out.  Yogurt, then, is a great calcium source!

Yogurt = Contains casein + whey, and therefore keeps the calcium!

I hope you have found this interesting and enjoyable.  I’ll be posting soon on savvyeat.com about why you can use a flax/water mixture in the place of eggs when baking.   I hope you’ll check it out!

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Happy Tuesday! Let’s totally throw a curve ball in the mix and serve hot milk today!  Am I crazy?  Actually ummmm maybe… but this little drink was actually quite good.  I was thinking all day long as to what I could do to spice things up a bit on zesty.

I thought that a drink recipe would be a good idea, but I do not drink tea or coffee very often.  Well tea sometimes but coffee never.  I know it is a wee bit nuts when I tell people that.  I have never tasted coffee in my life.  As for tea, I have had in the past but not regularly.  This recipe below is like a tea without the tea – or at least that is what I thought of as I drank it.

Let me know what you think of this simple twist on a warm beverage.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup (250ml) fat-free milk
• 1 Tbsp. (15ml) sugar substitute
• 1 Tsp. (5ml) Vanilla
• 1/8 Tsp. (.5ml) Almond Extract
• Dash of Nutmeg

Method

1. Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan
2. Cook over medium heat until warm, strring frequesntly, bo not bring to a boil
3. Serve Hot
4. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: When heating milk be very careful not to let it come to a boil.  It will quickly boil over and make a huge mess.  Always stay close to the stove when heating milk.

Let me know what you think about flavored milk?  I look forward to hearing your comments.  Have a great Tuesday!

Take care

zesty

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Well I think it is safe to say that at some point in our lives we have all been exposed to a box of kraft dinner or two.  I first have to tell you a couple of mandatory ingredients that are a must have for a successfull batch of the popular fluorescent orange meal.

To start it off – if one does not have real milk and real butter they should not even open the package of kraft dinner and get started.  These really are must haves to make the kraft dinner as it was intended.  While cooking it at our house – I usually add a little less milk and little more butter than they suggest to make it creamier.  I find if you add to much milk it becomes soup-like ( which I am not a huge fan of)

Now because Kraft Dinner preparation is not rocket science… I thought I would spice this post up and show you how I spent yesterday at the house.  I tested ( not for the first time for some) the below add-in recipes to make sure they turned out edible and worthy of letting the world see inside my unique kraft dinner add-ins.  So I hope you enjoy the recipes to follow and if you have any different or interesting comments about Kraft Dinner – I would love to hear about them.

Ground Beef

• 1 lb. ground beef, cooked
• add taco seasoning (as you would to make meat for tacos, according to the package directions)
• drained 1 can (15 oz.) Mexican style diced tomatoes
• 1 Cup mushroom pieces and stems

Tuna

• 1 can (6 oz.) tuna, drained chunk
• 1 celery stalk, sliced
• dash of Italian seasoning
• 1 can (10-1/2 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 cup each milk and frozen peas

Chicken

• 2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1/2 lb.), cooked, chopped
• 1 can (15 oz.) Italian style diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 cup chopped green peppers (about 1 medium)
• dash of thyme

Pepperoni/Hotdog

• 1 cup Pepperoni or hotdog slices (about 1/4 lb.)
• 1 cup chopped green peppers (about 1 medium)
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes (about 2 medium)

Ham

• 1 cup of cooked ham ( cubed)
• 1 cup of cooked spinach ( or baby spinach raw)
• 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
• 1/2 cup Bread crumbs

For the Ham Recipe above I like to stir in the parmesan cheese in at the very end then transfer everything to a casserole dish and top with bread crumbs and baked it in oven at 375 degrees until golden brown and bubbly.  And of course you can do that for any of the above choices but I find it works best with the ham and spinach.

Just for the record – I am not a huge fan of Kraft Dinner and I rarely eat it but it is fun to experiment. No matter how much you argue – most kids in this generation really do love the infamous orange noodle.

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