February 21, 2020 at 03:00AM by CWC There’s something about using a cast iron skillet that seems so powerful. The skillets are heavy, can rust when not taken care of, and storing them involves oil. Andrea Mathis, RDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist from Alabama, assures me that cast iron skillet recipes are nothing to be intimidated by. “I have always been a huge fan of cooking with cast iron,” says Mathis. “Besides being nonstick, and super easy to clean, my meats tend to brown better and my veggies cook a lot faster.” Unless your skillet comes seasoned, like this Lodge 12″ Cast Iron Skillet ($23), you have to season it, which means sealing it with oil. “After washing my cast iron skillet, I make sure that it is 100 percent dry,” says Mathis. “I then spread a nice, thin layer of vegetable oil into the skillet. I use my hands to make sure the oil gets onto every part of the cast iron. Then, I bake the skillet in the oven at 350°F for about an hour or so.” Seasoning forms a natural, non-stick cooking surface and helps prevent your pan from rusting. You only need to season your new skillet once, but Mathis says you should apply a thin layer of oil after each use. “I always store my skillet in a thin layer of vegetable oil, because that’s what my mom taught me to do,” she says. “Doing this helps prevent rust, so your cast iron will last
Category: Vegetarians
Alt-milk is coming for your moisturizer, and your dry skin will drink it right up
February 20, 2020 at 11:30PM by CWC The alt-milk movement first came for our coffee orders, then it hit the ice-cream aisle. And now? It’s coming for our skin-care routines. “Milk” has commonly been used as a skin product descriptor, meant to describe the texture of a nice, creamy, formula… like a thick moisturizer you can’t help but want to frost your entire body with. But these days, it’s also an ingredient-list mainstay—in many different forms. From oat milk to almond milk to coconut milk, dairy alternatives bring along nourishing, good-for-skin properties that are worth it particularly during dry skin season. Scroll through for our favorites for dry skin, which now officially have a place in your A.M. latte order and your A.M. skin routine and are ready to be milked for all their worth. (Sorry.) Oat milk: Milk Makeup Vegan Milk Moisturizer, $38 Photo: Milk Makeup If MILK makeup’s latest launch is to be believed, the oat milk phenomenon isn’t going anywhere. The brand released its Vegan Milk Moisturizer earlier this year, which is packed with oat, fig, and other good-for-you things to hydrate and soften dry skin while also offering calming properties. Oat has long been lauded as a soothing skin ingredient (remember oatmeal baths, anyone?), so its hardly a surprise that the milk-ified version touts similar benefits. Soy milk: Aveeno Positively Radiant Daily Facial Moisturizer with Total Soy Complex and Broad Spectrum SPF 30, $14 Photo: Aveeno The OG of the alt-milks has earned its place in
This is how a longevity expert stocks his kitchen
February 20, 2020 at 11:00PM by CWC The best part of every episode of MTV Cribs (RIP) was when the featured celebrity revealed what was in their fridge. Sometimes it was bottles upon bottles of champagne. Sometimes it was the same foods likely in your own fridge at the time. (Lunchables! Ice-Pops!) It’s similarly entertaining to get a look into healthy kitchens albeit for a slightly different reason: The sheer voyeuristic enjoyment is still there, but there’s also the idea that it could be unlocking a hidden health secret. Author of The Blue Zones Kitchen and longevity expert Dan Buettner discussed his diet and revealed what he stocks his kitchen during a recent conversation with members of Well+Good’s Facebook group Cook With Us. Buettner has built a career studying the best foods and habits linked to living a long, healthy life. Surely his grocery list reflects his insider intel. But what are the foods he always has stocked in his pantry? Despite traveling around the world to study centenarians, Buettner’s answer isn’t hard-to-find exotic foods—it’s staples found at any grocery store. “For the pantry, beans, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds,” he says. When it comes to the whole grains, he specifically likes steel cut oats and brown rice, two foods loaded with fiber. “These foods, along with fruits and veggies, are the staples of the longevity diets of the longest-lived, healthiest people in blue zones regions of the world,” says Buettner. His list of staples shows that eating foods
Your guide to perfectly-roasted vegetables, straight from a top chef
February 20, 2020 at 06:34PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNBjXk0c65I] Yes, eating vegetables can be delicious (and easy). Here’s how. One of the great things about vegetables is their versatility. From sautéed veggies to more creative cooking methods (zoodles, anyone?), there are countless ways to get your daily dose of greens. But according to celebrity chef Sam Kass, the best way to eat your vegetables is to roast them. “For me, roasting is one of the best ways to prepare vegetables,” he says in the latest episode of Well+Good’s new show Cook With Us. “It brings out so much flavor, and it’s super simple—you just throw them on a sheet tray and throw them in the oven.” But how to get that perfect, Goldilocks-like balance of tenderness and crunch…without setting your kitchen on fire? Never fear. Kass, who previously served as President Obama’s White House Chef and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition (NBD…), offers a few tricks on exactly how to roast vegetables to perfection every single time. In general, he recommends getting your oven as hot as it can get and letting them bake for about 20 minutes. (Note: This might vary depending on your oven make.) Toss your vegetables beforehand in your favorite oil (such as avocado or olive), add some of your favorite seasonings or spice mixes, spread them out on a sheet pan, and you’re good to go. The second trick to getting a rich, deep roast might surprise you: “I often broil my vegetables,” Kass says.
The key to enjoying a plant-based diet is embracing food inclusion, not restriction
February 19, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC Back in the late 2000s—way before everyone was obsessed with oat milk and Beyond burgers—a facialist recommended that I cut back on my dairy and meat consumption for the sake of my skin. At the time, I felt like she was sentencing me to foodie prison. How could life be worth living without mac and cheese? Wouldn’t I wither away on a diet of sad, chicken-less salads? Still, I slowly (!) started phasing out animal products and have been happily vegan for about two months now. In the decade since I first bid adieu to Brie, I’ve come to realize that plant-based meals are far from restrictive—in fact, I’m eating a wider variety of foods than ever before. (And not just because there are now vegan dupes for just about every animal product imaginable.) Think about it: In the average grocery store, the produce section is a lot bigger and more diverse than the deli counter. “There are hundreds of different varieties of fruits and veggies and things that we often skip over at the store,” says Catherine Perez, MS, RD. She says that many of her clients fill up on the same handful of animal proteins over and over—chicken, beef, and pork on repeat, for instance—whereas there are dozens of readily-available, affordable plant-based proteins to experiment with, from tofu and beans to lentils, seitan, tempeh, and beyond. “You can make your meals different every single night if you want to,” she says.
Here’s what a healthy chef puts in his 5-minute anti-inflammatory salad dressing
February 19, 2020 at 10:00AM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTUeyLGyjkk] Hot take: Salad dressing is the differentiator between a homemade salad that tastes like you paid $20 for it, or a bland bowl of greens you’re ready to toss in the trash after a few bites. But if you’ve been nervous to try your hand at homemade dressings (PSA, the store-bought stuff can often contain lots of preservatives and gums), it’s really not as hard as it might seem. On our latest episode of Cook With Us, senior food and health editor Jessie Van Amburg challenged Sam Kass—cookbook author and former White House chef to the Obamas—to whip up an anti-inflammatory meal in less than 30 minutes, and the star of the show was his five-minute turmeric salad dressing. Why all the hype over a salad dressing that doubles as an inflammation fighter? Because Kass believes that food is the foundation of our health. The dressing is made using just six ingredients—olive oil, lemon juice, turmeric, mustard, ginger, and garlic—and can be used on a variety of dishes, which Kass illustrated by sharing not one, but two salad recipes that are veggie-packed conduits for slurping up the golden topping. Why all the hype over a salad dressing that doubles as an inflammation fighter? Because Kass believes that food is the foundation of our health. “The best medicine we have is the nourishment we get through the foods we eat,” Kass says. “Inflammation is one of these things that is a root
5 dietitian-approved tips for using Trader Joe’s ‘Everything But The Elote’ seasoning
February 19, 2020 at 03:00AM by CWC There’s a new spice in the aisle at Trader Joe’s, and its name is Everything But The Elote. Like the idea behind Trader Joe’s Everything But The Bagel seasoning before it, the goal was bottling the mouth-watering flavor of a beloved staple. This time, that was elote (aka grilled corn on the cob sold by street vendors throughout Mexico and the United States). And TJ’s has succeeded once again. The second the $2.49 bottle hit the spice section at TJ’s, the masses went wild. To capture the flavor of the delicacy—which is typically coated in crema, cheese, chili powder, and lime juice—the company used a blend that lights off those same dopamine receptors. Essentially, like the name suggests, it has you covered on everything but the corn. “It contains spices like chile pepper, chipotle, cilantro, and cumin that add a nice kick for relatively few calories when combined with the sea salt, corn flour, Parmesan, and other ingredients,” says Amy Gorin, RDN, a registered dietitian nutritionist in the New York City area. “I don’t love that the first ingredient is sugar. But ideally, you’re only using a little bit of this—a serving is ¼ teaspoon—so using the seasoning wouldn’t add too much added sugar to your day.” While this stuff is great on corn (duh!), there are also so many other ways you can use it to create healthy meals at home, too. View this post on Instagram : “Elote-Jalapeño Cornbread
The average American woman spends 51 minutes cooking every day—here’s how to cut that time in half
February 18, 2020 at 10:30PM by CWC In today’s edition of The Patriarchy Sucks, the United States Department of Agriculture reports that women spend an average of 51 minutes per day cooking and cleaning. Men, on the other hand, spend just 22 minutes preparing for and tidying up after a meal. Of course, spending time preparing a recipe from scratch can be a loving act of self care or other care, but there are days when that time chips away from otherwise enjoying your life. When that’s the case, we curated the best time-saving kitchen tips from our stable of nutrition efforts. You deserve to have those 29 extra minutes for doing you—not the dishes. The best time-saving kitchen tips for cutting meal preparation in half 1. Pack your cooking repertoire with one-pot recipes and semi-homemade meals A sink full of crusty pans, dishes, and silverware can mean spending 20 more minutes in the kitchen that you could fill with Netflix, a run in the park, or literally anything else. That’s why one-pot recipes, like this linguine, or semi-homemade dinners that combine premade with fresh foods, can be such a game-changer. At the end of the meal, you just have to clean a plate, a fork, and a pot. That’s a wrap. 2. Get down with a sheet pan full of veggies Cooking everything on the stovetop requires your constant attention. (Is it burning? Am I stirring enough?) Body Love Everyday author and celebrity nutritionist Kelly Leveque‘s sheet pan veggies ask you to
4 hair-care essentials that will take any routine up a notch
February 18, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC Our skin pretty much steals all the beauty spotlight. According to Dianna Cohen, founder of the new hair-care brand Crown Affair, however, your hair deserves just as much attention. And in keeping with the less-is-more vibes reverberating through skin care, that doesn’t mean you need a routine stacked with multiple steps, you simply need a few hair care essentials that you can mix and match, depending on what your hair needs at a given moment. “I’ve always nerded out about hair care, because your wellness routine includes your hair,” says Cohen of her passion for what she calls the “skin-ification” of hair care. “Like your skin, your hair goes through different phases in your life—if you’re going through a stressful time, it shows up in your hair as much as your skin.” As we know, stress really does cause hair to gray, and stress can sometimes even lead to hair loss. This is why creating a simple routine for your strands—something Cohen recommends for all—is key to leaving your hair looking nourished and less damaged. Similar to skin, people have very different hair types (different textures, curl patterns, hair thickness) and lifestyle factors (such as how often you sweat or shower) that impact how you care for your hair. But Cohen swears that regardless of hair type, mixing up these four basic tools will lead you to a reliable, streamlined routine. Keep scrolling for the must-have hair-care essentials Cohen suggests for all. Graphic:
Chickpea pasta at a restaurant near you? Banza CEO Brian Rudolph wants to make it happen
February 17, 2020 at 08:00PM by CWC In the almost six years since Brian Rudolph co-founded chickpea pasta line Banza in 2014 with his brother Scott, the company has: entered more than 12,000 stores, expanded its produce line to include vegan mac-and-cheese, lasagna noodles, and chickpea rice, and now plans to expand beyond the supermarket space into the food service industry. (Think: the pasta version of Beyond Meat.) Given the brand’s track record, there’s little doubt Banza will not only reach these new heights, it’ll exceed them in ways consumers can’t see coming—all of which is exactly why Rudolph was named a Well+Good 2020 Changemaker. Here, Rudolph talks to Well+Good about why the brand’s mission of reach and accessibility is so important to him and their pie-in-the-sky dreams. W+G: People are passionate about Banza products, to say the least. How do you decide, “Okay, this is what we’re going to make next”? Rudolph: We listen to the consumers really closely. People have been reaching out to us and asking about lasagna noodles pretty much since we launched. Same with the plant-based mac-and-cheese. Ever since we came out with our original mac-and-cheese, the top comment on Instagram was asking for us to make it 100 percent plant-based. It was a very clear request, but it took us a while to get it exactly right. How long does it take for something to go from idea to finished product? It depends on the product. With the chickpea rice, that was actually pretty