catsper / CC BY 2.0

Pretty much the last thing you want on your salad greens is bacteria that tends to reside in human feces. Many people, including me, buy the pre-washed spinach and romaine lettuce in bags expecting them to be clean and bacteria-free.

Well, Consumer Reports pretty much blew this belief out of the water. According to their recent tests, 39 percent of packaged salad green samples exceeded the level for total coliforms considered acceptable and 23 percent exceeded this level for enterococcus bacteria…bacteria that Consumer Reports describes as “better indicators of fecal contamination.” Shocked and concerned? I know I am. The first question that pops into my mind is what type of feces are we talking about – animal or human (not that any type of fecal bacteria is more desirable than another)?

My family of four blew through this loaf of bread in 48 hours, which must mean everyone liked it a lot. The note, “Contains Omega-3” on the package caught my eye when I was looking to grab a loaf the other day. I checked the ingredient label and indeed whole wheat flour was the first ingredient and flaxseed was the 5th ingredient.

Are you sick of seeing the same old, same old winter fruits and vegetables in the produce section? Take a short walk over to the frozen food aisle the next time. You might be surprised what you will find.

epSos .de / CC BY 2.0

This is the perfect time of year to give the frozen food section a second look when it comes to fruits and vegetables. You won’t find just corn and peas any more folks! Now, depending on the store, you can find everything from frozen mangoes to butternut squash cubes… from blueberries to broccoli florets…from edamame to okra.

Photo: Elaine Magee

A few days before Christmas, the Magee family received a gift box from Harry and David. We had received this type of wonderful food gift before – a box filled with a combination of fruit, chocolate and cookies. We tore it open only to find the box was filled with 8 pears. Pears? You could hear the disappointment in the silence.

Got soup in your pantry? I usually do. Tonight I had to make dinner quickly, so I grabbed a couple cans of chicken & vegetable soup (low sodium of course). But somehow just opening the can and heating up the soup didn’t seem appealing on this cold and rainy night. So I decided to embellish the soup a bit with items I had in my kitchen.