Category Archives: Health/Nutrition

Luke’s Local Beefs Up Its Family-Style Catering Delivery Service

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A bountiful smoked chicken wrap, coleslaw, Brussels sprouts and pasta salad from Luke's Local.

A bountiful smoked chicken wrap, coleslaw, Brussels sprouts and pasta salad from Luke’s Local.

 

It’s hard to believe that it’s been eight years since I first met Luke Chappell, when his nascent Luke’s Local was a charming little kiosk inside the San Mateo Hillsdale Caltrain station, selling fresh produce, coffee and meals-to-go.

Today, it’s a much larger San Francisco-based operation, which partners with local farms and food companies to deliver gourmet groceries and freshly prepared provisions to homes and offices around the Bay Area.

The entrepreneurial spirit runs deep in his family. After all, his family founded Tom’s of Maine.

Recently, I was invited to try out gratis his expanded family-style catering delivery service. It’s an option for when you want to feed a crowd, whether for an Oscars viewing party or a business lunch.

What is noticeable first and foremost is how fresh and vibrant the food is. All of it tasted as if it were just made, not sitting around for hours.

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Coffee So Good

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Raw cacao, cashews, a touch of sea salt, and cold-pressed coffee make up this Cashew Mocha.

Raw cacao, cashews, a touch of sea salt, and cold-pressed coffee make up this Cashew Mocha.

 

Coffee So Good is coffee so nutty, too.

In the best of ways.

This organic cold brew coffee manages to be creamy while being vegan.

The secret is cashews.

The nuts provide the creaminess that milk or cream normally would. Each 10-ounce bottle has 160-180 calories, as well as 4 grams of protein, about 10 grams of fat, and about 9 grams of sugar from agave nectar, depending upon the flavor.

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Of Lettuce, Muffins, and Grocery Stores

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A Pete's Living Greens butter lettuce head wrapped like a bouquet. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

A Pete’s Living Greens butter lettuce head wrapped like a bouquet. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

Pete’s Living Greens

We’ve grown so accustomed to the ease of pre-washed lettuce in bags and plastic tubs that it’s hard to make the effort to actually rinse and tear an actual head nowadays.

Pete’s Living Greens asks you to do that. But what you get in return is really fresh lettuce that keeps impeccably well for more than a week in your fridge.

That’s because the lettuce head is sold with its roots still attached. That means you can tear or cut off what you need, and keep the rest alive to ensure freshness. The non-GMO-verified lettuce is grown hydroponically in greenhouses in Carpinteria, CA. Each clamshell container contains one head, enough to serve four as a first course or two as an entree-sized salad.

One head in each package. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

One head in each package. (Photo by Carolyn Jung)

I had a chance to try samples of the butter lettuce. I tore off the leaves from their roots, gave them a rinse, and spun-dry them before tossing with cucumbers, radishes, and avocado in a mustard vinaigrette. The lettuce had good flavor all on its own. What I really liked was that I was able to keep the rest of the lettuce in my fridge for 10 more days without the usual wilting that often results with plastic tubs of pre-washed spring mix.

Look for the Living Greens at Albertsons and Safeway stores for about $2.49 each.

Model Bakery Opens A Third Outpost

With its original St. Helena and its Napa locales still going strong, the ever-popular Model Bakery has opened a third location — this one in Yountville.

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Bee Free Honee — It’s Like Honey, But It’s Not

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A honey-like product that tastes of apples.

A honey-like product that tastes of apples.

 

With its golden, amber hue, it looks a lot like honey.

But from the moment you unscrew the cap on the jar, you get the unmistakable whiff of sweet apples.

Bee Free Honee is a honey substitute made from organic apple juice, cane sugar and lemon juice — all cooked down until sticky and viscous.

The company was founded by Minneapolis-based Katie Sanchez, who grew up on an apple orchard with a father who was a beekeeper. One day, while trying to make a less sweet apple jelly, she accidentally created this syrupy concoction instead.

It’s vegan, and safe for anyone who has a honey allergy. Use it just like you would honey.

With bee populations decimated over the past decade, it’s also a way to enjoy a honey-like product while stressing bees less. Moreover, for every jar sold, Bee Free Honee donates 10 cents to pollinator-friendly groups.

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