When you really start cooking for yourself, the best part (beyond the actual eating) is amassing a collection of foods you never thought you’d try, much less learn to love. My kitchen is filled with flavor right now, ranging from vinegars, spices, herbs, and oils to starches, baking supplies, and preserves. I couldn’t have imagined this in college, when my pantry consisted of ketchup and five boxes of Kix.

However, there is a dark side to the glorious assembly.

Filling the nooks and crannies of my shelves, between the grand boxes of lasagna noodles and flasks of sesame oil, are a billion little bags of atypical, mostly-used edibles. Currently, they consist of:

• 1/2 cup Arborio rice
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 3/4 vanilla bean
• 7 vials of food coloring (3 primary, 4 neon)
• 3 half-full jars of honey
• 8 pistachios
• 12 unshelled peanuts
• 1 small jar chocolate sauce (from 2008)
• 1 frozen bag yellow tomato slices
• 6 coffee samples
• 1/2 box superfine sugar
• 2/3 huge bag masa harina
• 4 to 6 drops peppermint extract
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1/2 cup fat free sour cream (I can never tell when it goes bad.)
• Red curry paste from before I was born (or thereabouts)
• 1 jar organic tahini, minus 2 tablespoons
• 1 canister Crystal Lite pink lemonade
• More tea than any 15 people need (Note: I don’t drink tea.)
• So many capers. SO. MANY. CAPERS.

The capers, tahini, evaporated milk, and various odds and ends will eventually be turned into a recipe. Other items (and I’m looking at you, chocolate sauce from the beginning of time) will probably suck up space until we move.

Consequently, I love dishes that can eliminate two or three strange elements. Banana Oatmeal Muffins is just such a recipe. Sure, it’s easy, delicious, and makes for an excellent on-the-go breakfast, but you can also throw in just about anything to jazz it up. (Note: except the capers. That would be bad.)

Have a half a bag of oat flour? It goes in here. Two about-to-go-bad bananas? Gone. A few Craisins? Plop ‘em in the bowl. Pistachios, peanuts, honey – even that jar of chocolate sauce wouldn’t be out of place. (Er, maybe.) Your taste buds are your only limits.

So, to end this post, a toast: Here’s to all those little weird things clogging up your cabinets. May they fill your muffins as much as your heart. (Or something.)

~~~
If you like this recipe, you might also dig:

• Blueberry Muffins
• Chai-Spiced Apple Oatmeal Bread
• Grilled Bananas and Chocolate

~~~

Banana Oatmeal Muffins
Makes 12 muffins.
Adapted from Half-Baked Baker.

1 1/4 cup rolled oats (I used Quaker Old-Fashioned – Kris)
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
1/2 cup skim milk
1 1/2 cups oat flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

NOTE: If you do not have oat flour on hand (which I don’t), simply whirl 2 cups rolled oats in a food processor until they reach a flour-like consistency. This will create about 1 1/2 cups oat flour.

1) Preheat oven to 400°F.

2) In a large bowl, stir oats, sour cream, and milk together until combined. Set aside for 10 minutes.

3) In a medium bowl, whisk together oat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

4) In a small bowl, mix raisins and all-purpose flour. Set aside.

5) To the oat/sour cream mixture, add brown sugar, vegetable oil, bananas, egg, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine. Add oat flour mixture. Stir until just moistened. Add raisins. Stir until incorporated.

6) Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray (or use muffin cups). Evenly distribute batter among cups. Bake 18-20 minutes, until muffins are golden brown and they pass the toothpick test. Remove from oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes. Flip muffins out of pan. Enjoy warm or let cool completely.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, and Price Per Serving
226 calories, 8.3 g fat, 3 g fiber, $0.33

Calculations
NOTE: My oat flour calculations are for food-processed oatmeal, as described in the note above.
1 1/4 cup rolled oats (Quaker Old-Fashioned): 375 calories, 7.5 g fat, 10 g fiber, $0.34
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream: 120 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.89
1/2 cup skim milk: 45 calories, 0.4 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.12
1 1/2 cups oat flour: 600 calories, 12 g fat, 16 g fiber, $0.54
1/2 tsp cinnamon: 3 calories, 0 g fat, 0.6 g fiber, $0.01
1/2 tsp nutmeg: 6 calories, 0.4 g fat, 0.2 g fiber, $0.03
1/2 tsp salt: negligible calories, fat, and fiber, $0.01
2 tsp baking powder: 5 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.07
1 tsp baking soda: negligible calories, fat, and fiber, $0.01
1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed: 344 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.29
1/3 cup vegetable oil: 646 calories, 73.1 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.48
2 large ripe bananas, mashed: 242 calories, 0.8 g fat, 7.1 g fiber, $0.46
1 large egg, lightly beaten: 74 calories, 5 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.21
1 teaspoon vanilla extract: 12 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.05
1/2 cup raisins: 217 calories, 0.4 g fat, 2.7 g fiber, $0.44
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour: 27 calories, 0.1 g fat, 0.2 g fiber, $0.01
TOTAL: 2716 calories, 99.7 g fat, 36.8 g fiber, $3.96
PER SERVING (TOTAL/12): 226 calories, 8.3 g fat, 3 g fiber, $0.33

Despite living in a time of unparalleled abundance, hunger is still a major contributor to our health woes.

How?

Ever go shopping hungry? What happens? I know in my case my cart’s a lot fuller on the days I shop hungry than the days I don’t, and the choices often differ as well.

Ever stop to think what happens when you sit down to a meal hungry?

You shop.

You shop from your plates, your fridges, your freezers, your cupboards, or worse still, from a menu.

And just like shopping in the supermarket you’re going to choose a great deal more and a great deal differently waiting until you’re hungry to eat than if you’d sat down not hungry.

I’m also betting that my definition of hunger is likely broader than yours. As far as I’m concerned, hunger doesn’t just come from your stomach, it also comes from your brain. Some folks like to call brain hunger, “appetite” and growling in your stomach, “hunger”. I don’t bother with the distinction. The drive to eat is second only to the drive to breathe in terms of importance to our survival. Consequently our body has many mechanisms and backup mechanisms in place to ensure that we do it. Just as there are a myriad of different physiologic pathways to encourage eating, so too are there a myriad of different sensations, emotions and rationalizations built in to encourage us to seek out food, specifically high calorie food.

So aside from stomach growling, brain growling consists of things such as cravings, compulsions, needs for a “taste” of a certain flavour/tartness/saltiness/sweetness, starting something and having difficulty stopping, and overt losses of dietary control and discretion.

When you’re hungry it’s easy to eat a full day’s calories at a single sitting. The good news is, given the world we live in, hunger is entirely preventable and were you to go out of your way with well planned meals and snacks to ensure the hunger hydra doesn’t rear its ugly heads, you can make it through the day in control of your portions, choices and your calories.

While it may feel unnatural to eat when you’re not hungry I can assure you, it’s the wise way to go and it’s very easy to do.

Here’s a basic hunger prevention strategy. Try it – you might be surprised at how well it works (note calorie range to represent minimums for women-men):

Marion Nestle explores how the fight against childhood obesity may well involve fighting big corporations.

In a related story to Marion’s the New York Times discusses how Disney helped force the eviction of the same non-profit that forced Disney to offer Baby Einstein refunds.

Tooled around my friends and fellow bloggers Travis and Peter’s new digs over at Science Blogs.

Watched a stunning HD video of the Milky Way by some guy named Charles up on Vimeo.

Marion Nestle explores how the fight against childhood obesity may well involve fighting big corporations.

In a related story to Marion’s the New York Times discusses how Disney helped force the eviction of the same non-profit that forced Disney to offer Baby Einstein refunds.

Tooled around my friends and fellow bloggers Travis and Peter’s new digs over at Science Blogs.

Watched a stunning HD video of the Milky Way by some guy named Charles up on Vimeo.

Dunno if y’all have been watching Idol this season, but so far, it exemplifies what I both adore and loathe about the show. I love that the heretofore unheard of Crystal Bowersox is receiving a wider audience, because girl can saaaang. Simon might have discovered a young Bonnie Raitt or Emmylou Harris there.

On the other hand, with last night’s ouster of Lilly and Katelyn, it seems like the finals will once again be dominated by angel-voiced 16-year-olds who know very little about music. Which? Boh-ring. You’ve heard Aaron warble one schmaltzy country ballad, and you’ve heard his entire bag of tricks. Lilly may have had the weaker vocals, but at least she kept it interesting. I’m curious to see how the next few weeks go. Readers?

That aside, the links!

1) What I Weigh Today: 152
I loved this whole post, in which the author comes to accept her weight, but this line really struck me: “When I think about the hours, years, decades of my life that have been sacrificed to body loathing and dieting, I just don’t want to surrender another second to it.” Word, Joy.

2) Good Medicine: Health vs. Pork – Congress Debates the Farm Bill
You knew meat and dairy were subsidized at much higher rates than fruit and vegetables, but seeing it in graphic form is another thing entirely. Thanks to reader Kristen for sending the link.

3) Videogum: The Videogum Why Don’t You Caption It? Contest – Sandra Lee’s Cocktail Face
Aunt Sandy made up a drink consisting of vodka, lemon juice, and heavy cream, the thought of which curdles my brain. Someone (god bless ‘em) slow-motioned her reaction after taking a sip. It’s almost performance art.

4) Lifehacker: The Common Sense Guide to “Organic” and Other Food Labels
Excellent rundown of food labels worth your attention. Preview: “antibiotic free” means almost nothing, while “certified humane” is mos def a good thing.

5) Food Politics: Does Fighting Obesity Also Mean Fighting Corporations? So it Seems.
Corporate interest in money will always supersede corporate interest in well-being. The trick, I think, is making well-being seem profitable.

6) Casual Kitchen: The “It’s Too Expensive to Eat Healthy Food” Debate
Love this eloquent rant about the nutrition/cost debate, not just because Dan uses “shibboleth” in the second sentence. It reminds me of that old chestnut about freeing your mind: “If you always do what you have done, you will always get what you have gotten.”

7) The Simple Dollar: Convenience Foods – What They Really Cost
Great post reiterating a key concept in keeping grocery bills low: cut up your own food. This CHG piece from August has more.

Money Saving Mom: How to Build a Stockpile
MSM’s “31 Days to a Better Grocery Budget” series is still going on, and this excellent post pretty much negates any reason for CHG’s existence. In other good news for MSM readers, Crystal is creating a “lite” RSS feed, meaning you get none of the coupon deals (which were pretty tough to wade through), but all the articles. Woo hoo!

9) Money Talks News: 28 Tasty Ways You Can Save on Food
I’m a sucker for tip roundups, and this one hits a lot of cheap/healthy bases. Forward it to a friend just beginning their journey.

10) The Kitchn:
How Do I Find a High-Quality, Affordable Chef’s Knife?
Clearing the Pantry? Make a Free-Form Pasta Casserole.
Ideas for Healthy Snacks That Ship Well?
Three questions I wonder about nearly every week, once again solved by the masterminds at The Kitchn.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Ars Technica: The New Age of Online Grocery Shopping
Good run-through of popular online supermarkets. (Thanks to Eat Me Daily for the link.)

Eat Me Daily: Fruit Kicking Cancer’s Butt
Tomatoes and papayas FTW!

Eater: Bagel Store Owner Confirms Plans for Williamsburg Starbucks
Brooklynites: biggest bummer, ever. French toast bagels, I’ll miss you most of all.

New York Times: Women Drinkers Gain Less Weight
Any excuse for a mimosa, you know?

Serious Eats
The 5 Commandments of Sautéing Food
Taste Test – Store-Bought Tofu
Use the first link to cook your veggies correctly. Use the second one to add the right tofu.

Slate: Can It – At-home preserving is ridiculously trendy.
In which the author attributes the canning boom partly to its photogenic nature. Strange arguments herein.

Tasty Kitchen: The Theme is Homemade Ingredients
Short-n-sweet compilation for the DIY enthusiast.

AND ALSO

The Paper Towel Gang feat. Bounty’s Pool Balls Test
The bearded Nordic-looking gentleman in this hilarious Bounty ad is my friend Chris. He is a genius.

Thank you so much for visiting Cheap Healthy Good! (We appreciate it muchly). If you’d like to further support CHG, subscribe to our RSS feed! Or become a Facebook friend! Or check out our Twitter! Or buy something inexpensive, yet fulfilling via that Amazon store (on the left)! Bookmarking sites and links are nice, too. Viva la France!

Have a great weekend!

Last week, I came across an article in Slate, Ignore Expiration Dates, which claims that product dating is arbitrary and can largely be ignored. Since there are no food industry standards for “sell by,” “best by,” and “use by” dates, and because storage conditions will vary wildly, consumers are wise to use their judgment when deciding what to eat and what to toss.

Ignoring the “best by” date is something I do regularly. I tend to trust my nose and taste buds when deciding when food is past its prime, particularly with leftovers. It may seem reckless, but I seldom buy perishable food with such labels: never meat, occasionally dairy, and rarely eggs. Vegetables are pretty clear about letting you know when they’re done with you.

But what about the pantry? I have a bag of jasmine rice that’s been in my cupboard for at least a year. Is it time for us to part ways? How about that ancient package of texturized vegetable protein (TVP) nuggets? I can’t remember when I bought it or the last time I used it.

I mean, after a taste test of 28-year-old rolled oats, Brigham Young researchers determined that, if stored properly (sealed container, cool, dry place), dry goods and canned goods can last for years and years, taste be damned. Good news for emergency stockpilers and promising for my rice situation.

So what’s the skinny on pantry shelf life and storage? I jumped into my InterWebShip to see what I could find.

I was initially shocked at what I didn’t find: the FDA website has no recommendations for dry goods—at least not that I could find. Meat, eggs and dairy, and fruit and vegetables are covered, but grains, nuts, legumes, and spices are sadly neglected.

Fortunately, the usual culinary suspects (and one newbie) are chock full of great information:

• Shelf Life of Pantry Items from Slashfood provides a handy chart of basic dry goods and their life spans.
• The Kitchn deftly handles Condiments and Expiration Dates and Vinegar: Does It Have a Shelf Life?
• The grand dame herself, Martha Stewart, gives up a Kitchen Chart of baking staples.
• StillTasty kicks it with a comprehensive shelf life database. Just enter the food item that concerns you and get the life span and storage suggestions.

In a nutshell (4 months; longer if refrigerated), dry good shelf life is less about spoilage that will make you ill and more about maintaining nutritional density and flavor. Following these storage basics will extend the life of your pantry goods and save you money:

• Cool, dry location: vital. Pantry items should be kept between 60° and 70° F
• Air-tight containers: important. Storing food in jars and canisters with tight-fitting lids increase the mileage of your goods.
• Refrigeration/freezing: helpful. The oils in nuts and flours can turn rancid over time. Refrigeration stabilizes the oils and slows the aging process.

So what about my rice and TVP? Well, according to StillTasty, because I’ve kept my rice sealed and away from heat, it will last indefinitely. TVP lasts about a year in a sealed container, but I’m pretty sure it would sustain the roaches through the nuclear winter. If I don’t use it in a month, it’s getting the heave-ho. There is no room in my pantry for emergency insect food.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr member Maksis.)

~~~

If you dug this article, you may dig:

• 20 Cheap Healthy Dishes Made from 10 Pantry Staples
• Pantry of the Gods
• A Beginner’s Guide to Beans

Last week, I came across an article in Slate, Ignore Expiration Dates, which claims that product dating is arbitrary and can largely be ignored. Since there are no food industry standards for “sell by,” “best by,” and “use by” dates, and because storage conditions will vary wildly, consumers are wise to use their judgment when deciding what to eat and what to toss.

Ignoring the “best by” date is something I do regularly. I tend to trust my nose and taste buds when deciding when food is past its prime, particularly with leftovers. It may seem reckless, but I seldom buy perishable food with such labels: never meat, occasionally dairy, and rarely eggs. Vegetables are pretty clear about letting you know when they’re done with you.

But what about the pantry? I have a bag of jasmine rice that’s been in my cupboard for at least a year. Is it time for us to part ways? How about that ancient package of texturized vegetable protein (TVP) nuggets? I can’t remember when I bought it or the last time I used it.

I mean, after a taste test of 28-year-old rolled oats, Brigham Young researchers determined that, if stored properly (sealed container, cool, dry place), dry goods and canned goods can last for years and years, taste be damned. Good news for emergency stockpilers and promising for my rice situation.

So what’s the skinny on pantry shelf life and storage? I jumped into my InterWebShip to see what I could find.

I was initially shocked at what I didn’t find: the FDA website has no recommendations for dry goods—at least not that I could find. Meat, eggs and dairy, and fruit and vegetables are covered, but grains, nuts, legumes, and spices are sadly neglected.

Fortunately, the usual culinary suspects (and one newbie) are chock full of great information:

• Shelf Life of Pantry Items from Slashfood provides a handy chart of basic dry goods and their life spans.
• The Kitchn deftly handles Condiments and Expiration Dates and Vinegar: Does It Have a Shelf Life?
• The grand dame herself, Martha Stewart, gives up a Kitchen Chart of baking staples.
• StillTasty kicks it with a comprehensive shelf life database. Just enter the food item that concerns you and get the life span and storage suggestions.

In a nutshell (4 months; longer if refrigerated), dry good shelf life is less about spoilage that will make you ill and more about maintaining nutritional density and flavor. Following these storage basics will extend the life of your pantry goods and save you money:

• Cool, dry location: vital. Pantry items should be kept between 60° and 70° F
• Air-tight containers: important. Storing food in jars and canisters with tight-fitting lids increase the mileage of your goods.
• Refrigeration/freezing: helpful. The oils in nuts and flours can turn rancid over time. Refrigeration stabilizes the oils and slows the aging process.

So what about my rice and TVP? Well, according to StillTasty, because I’ve kept my rice sealed and away from heat, it will last indefinitely. TVP lasts about a year in a sealed container, but I’m pretty sure it would sustain the roaches through the nuclear winter. If I don’t use it in a month, it’s getting the heave-ho. There is no room in my pantry for emergency insect food.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr member Maksis.)

~~~

If you dug this article, you may dig:

• 20 Cheap Healthy Dishes Made from 10 Pantry Staples
• Pantry of the Gods
• A Beginner’s Guide to Beans