classes Tag

By: Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen Coach, Apple Valley, MN Most of us look forward to traditional comfort foods this special time of year, usually anticipating the pleasurable sights, smells and tastes of our family holidays. What dishes are on your “must serve” holiday list? Does everyone in your family agree or do you stress yourself out trying to satisfy everyone’s favorite food memories? What about potential rising numbers on the bathroom scale during the next few months?  Just thinking about holiday cooking and eating does not have to raise your blood pressure. Holiday feasts and treats can include superfoods, offering more nutrition per calorie without straining your waistline or wallet. Click to read more about the fresh, local and global rainbow of holiday superfoods and spices to consider. These fresh foods offer power-packed energy and strong immunity for happier healthier

Imagine the earthy jewel tones and delectable tastes of autumn harvest on your dinner plate. Even after our first frosts, nutrient-dense, calorie-sparse root vegetables deliver a bounty of body-warming energy for the months ahead. Many of the super-healthy hearty fall “greens”  such as chard, the kales and cabbages, Brussels sprouts and beet, collard and mustard greens  taste even better when they are kissed by frost. Cooler temperatures stimulate plant sugar production leading to a touch of sweetness. In addition, October is the month to stock up on sweet or tart FRESH & LOCAL apples. Consider building optimal health while supporting local farmers and growers with October’s plentiful produce. For cooking demos and ample samples of “Black Bean Smothered Sweet Potatoes” and “Tangy Cranberry Salsa with Pumpkin Seeds” plus more seasonal recipes and healthy coaching for easy whole-foods meals, sign up for

By: Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen Coach, Apple Valley, MN July gifts us with a healthy abundance of flavorful FRESH & LOCAL produce: the crisp nutrient-packed greens of cilantro, collard greens, cucumbers, kales, lettuces, Napa cabbage, parsley and zucchini; the succulent reds and oranges of beets, berries, carrots, radishes, romaine and melons; and the captivating earthy palette of heirloom tomatoes. Satisfying summer meals and optimum health are not the only benefits of eating a rainbow of FRESH & LOCAL produce. When we buy local, we help our local farm families earn a living, which in turn preserves farmland around us. Buying fresh local food also supports our local economy and saves money through minimizing and eliminating processing, packaging, marketing and transportation costs. Take your taste buds on a lip-smacking tour of these July flavors, recipes and meal ideas. I look forward

By: Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen Coach, Apple Valley, MN The planting season is complete at Featherstone Farm, located in southeastern Minnesota bluff country near Rushford.  Featherstone farmer/owner Jack Hedin recently blogged that this is the earliest spring in his living memory that has produced such high quality and quantity of his first crops. With Featherstone delivering FRESH & LOCAL produce to Valley Natural Foods, expect red and green lettuces the first part of June, including butter, romaine and red oak leaf lettuces.  Discover more of what's local at the co-op

By: Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen Coach, Apple Valley, MN If “eat healthier,” “try new foods” and “save more money” are on your list of resolutions for 2012, consider the dazzling diversity of our bulk foods trail from nourishing soups to energizing nuts. Our new helpful booklet, available in mid January, entitled “Discovering Bulk Foods: A Cooperative Guidebook” and my FRESH & LOCAL classes from January through March will show you how to easily buy and prepare package-free and earth-friendly bulk foods, while saving an average of 30 to 50% on our 300+ choices.  You can now register for these classes online.  Most of us are not looking to “get bulkier” in this New Year. So what’s the real story behind “buying bulk”? Read more to realize the benefits of shopping on our bulk trail. First of all, don’t confuse “bulk foods”

Nature and local producers collaborate to bring us fresh succulent green and red gifts this month. Even after we have been gifted with a moisturizing blanket of pure white snow, local producers still deliver FRESH & LOCAL, including lush deep green upland cress, crisp bright green and white bok choy, crinkly red bib lettuce and juicy rich red vine-on tomatoes.Look closer at the bunches of upland cress (the hydroponic version of native watercress and also called winter cress) in the produce department and you’ll notice long white roots have grown in water rather than soil. Hydroponics is the official name and it’s a splendid way for us to be gifted with fresh local produce through our winter. Michele Keller, owner of LaBore Farms of Faribault, Minnesota, has been growing chemical-free hydroponic greens since 2004. Her co-op and restaurant customers are

Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen Coach Visualize bringing the jewel tones and earthy tastes of autumn to your dinner table. Beware: eating a cornucopia of deep reds, oranges, yellows and greens can lead to radiant optimum health. The USDA currently recommends eating at least four cups of red and orange vegetables per week and 1 ½ cups of dark green veggies for an average adult.The good news is that you most likely can’t eat too much FRESH & LOCAL. And your wallet and your waistline will breathe a sign of relief.To invite more diversity, energy and health into your life, explore the whole colorama of vegetable and fruits delivered fresh each week in October from local Minnesota and Wisconsin farmers: Orange, green & yellow squashes and pie pumpkins: Acorns and Spaghetti squashes offer a sweet nutty flavor, while the Buttercups, Hubbards,

Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen CoachAs September arrives on our doorsteps, we notice a change in the air and in what’s FRESH & LOCAL at Valley Natural Foods. We may still have a few fleeting days to savor our last bites of fresh cucumber, sweet corn and watermelon. Our supplies of ripe red local tomatoes and aromatic basil are winding down, to be upstaged by the arrival of all that thrives in cooler weather, including the nutrient-rich Brassica oleracea family of luscious greens, including broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kale and kohlrabi.All cousins to wild cabbage native to the wind-swept limestone sea cliffs of coastal England and Europe, these hardy Brassica veggies love our autumnal weather and offer the highest-level of disease-fighting nutrients per serving of anything FRESH & LOCAL, not to mention naturally low in calories, fat and sodium.

 by Loris Sofia Gregory, Healthy Kitchen Coach August brings some of the healthiest peak pleasures of the summer.  This month gives us a dazzling abundant palette to tantalize our taste buds: the crisp greens of broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, kale and zucchini; the succulent oranges and reds of beets, carrots, peppers, radishes, melons and tomatoes; the sunny yellows of sweet corn and summer squash, not to mention a fragrant riot of flavorful herbs. Satisfying meals and optimum health are not the only benefits of eating a rainbow of our FRESH & LOCAL produce. You are also supporting 25 Amish families who comprise the Wisconsin Grower’s Cooperative. These farmers of rural Black River Falls and Mondovi use horse-drawn plows and hand tools to provide Valley Natural Foods shoppers with some of the highest-quality produce grown in the Midwest. Most of the farms