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Where’s My PEEPS?

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Do you have a thing for those fluorescent marshmallow bunnies and chicks that were hatched over 50 years ago? They got their name – PEEPS — because they were originally modeled after the yellow chick.  Now they’re made for Christmas, Halloween, and Valentine’s Day, too  — so you can get them in yellow pink, blue, lavender, orange, and green shapes that represent the different holidays. They come chocolate dipped, too.

PEEPS continue to be the subject of lots of design contests (you’d be amazed what you can make out of peeps) and scientific experiments (some claim them to be indestructible). Just Born, the parent company of PEEPS, claims to produce enough PEEPS in one year to circle the Earth twice. Their website even boasts a fan club and a section for recipes.

Do You Like Your PEEPS Soft Or Crunchy?

People have definite PEEPS preferences. Some like them nice and soft, others like to leave them out in the air to age to perfection so they get a little crunchy on the outside.

They’ve been microwaved (careful, they expand and can really make a mess in your microwave), frozen, roasted, used to top hot chocolate, and added to recipes. But they don’t toast well on sticks like regular marshmallows because their outer sugar coating tends to burn.

Millions of Peeps

During the Easter season Americans buy more than 700 million PEEPS that are shaped like chicks, bunnies and eggs although the iconic yellow PEEP is still the most popular choice.

As many as 4.2 million PEEPS can be made daily.  In 1953 it took 27 hours to create a PEEP.  It takes six minutes today.

Newspapers have been known to run contests for best PEEP recipes and best PEEP pictures, and, in a world of contrasts I’ve spotted a blackboards outside of bars in NYC advertising PEEP contests and a kids’ stores using boxes and boxes of PEEPs for window decorations.

What’s In Them?

Send a PEEP for lab analysis and you’ll find sugar, corn syrup, gelatin, less than 0.5% of potassium sorbate, natural flavors, dye, and carnauba wax.  They’re gluten and nut free but are not Kosher.  (No wonder some claim that they’re indestructible!) You can even get sugar free PEEPS that are made with Splenda.

If PEEPS are part of your Easter ritual, even though they’re filled with sugar and all kinds of dyes and chemicals, for a seasonal treat, calorically you could do worse.

Five little chicks (42g, one serving size) will set you back 140 calories; 0g fat; 1g protein; and 36g carbs.

Easter Candy Tally

Eating 25 small jelly beans, 5 Peeps, a 1 3/4 ounce hollow chocolate bunny, and 1 Cadbury Creme Egg, which is not an unusual amount of Easter candy, tallies 730 calories.

You’d need to walk 7.3 miles, 11.77 kilometers, or 14600 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps to walk off that number of calories.  Sounds like a lot, but very doable over a few days.

 

Chocolate Eggs And Bunny Ears

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It’s time for pretty chocolate eggs nesting in baskets, bunnies and ducks in all shades of chocolate, and brightly wrapped candy stuffed in plastic eggs for Easter egg hunts.  Couple that with chocolate smeared over little kids’ faces and indestructible fluorescent peeps molded into weird shapes before they’re popped in your mouth.

It’s Easter candy time.  Admit it – Easter candy is seductive.  How can you not break off the chocolate bunny ears or eat your way through a basket of mini-chocolate Easter eggs?

If you’re going to indulge — and sometimes it’s worth it — you might as well know a little about your chocolate Easter candy.

Ninety million chocolate Easter bunnies are made every year.  76% of Americans think that chocolate bunnies should be eaten ears first, 5% think bunnies should be eaten feet first, and 4% like to eat the tail first. Despite the virtues of dark chocolate, 65% of adults prefer milk chocolate.

Easter Eggs – the Confectionary Type

Chocolate eggs can be found in all sizes and at every price point.  Some are piped with flowers and others are wrapped in foil.  You find them in chain stores, discount stores, and at high-end chocolatiers. Easter is ranked second for holiday for candy purchases in the US (just behind Halloween) and solid, hollow, and filled chocolate Easter eggs are one of the most popular choices.

Although John Cadbury made the first French Eating Chocolate in 1842, Cadbury Easter Eggs didn’t arrive until 1875. They’re a far cry from today’s Cadbury Crème egg (which now also comes with caramel, chocolate, and butterfinger fillings). Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate appeared on the market in 1905 and helped boost the sale of chocolate Easter eggs. Today’s chocolate Easter eggs are predominantly solid, hollow, decorated, and filled milk chocolate.

A Cheat Sheet For Popular Chocolate Easter Eggs (and a bunny)

As tough as it may be to admit, chocolate is a high calorie, high fat food.  Hershey says that nearly all of its chocolate products have been certified Kosher by the OU (Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregation). Here’s a cheat sheet for some of the most popular chocolate eggs:

  • Hershey’s Cadbury Chocolate Crème Easter Egg:  1 egg (39g), 180 calories, 8g Fat (5g saturated), 25g carbs, 2g protein
  • Hershey’s Cadbury Crème Egg, original milk chocolate with soft fondant crème center:  1 egg (39g), 170 calories, 6g fat (3.5g saturated), 28g carbs,  2g protein
  • Hershey’s Cadbury Mini Egg:  solid milk chocolate eggs with a crispy sugar shell: 12 eggs (40g), 200 calories, 9g fat(5g saturated), 28g carbs, 2g protein
  • Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Eggs:  7 pieces, 200 calories, 12g fat (7 saturated), 24g carbs, 3g protein
  • Dove Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate Eggs: 6 eggs, 240 calories, 14g fat (8g saturated), 26g carbs, 3g protein
  • Dove Rich Dark Chocolate Eggs:  6 eggs (43g), 220 calories, 14g fat (8 saturated), 26g carbs, 2g protein
  • Reese’s Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Eggs:  5 pieces (38g), 190 calories, 12g fat (6 saturated), 21g carbs, 4g protein
  • M & M’s Milk Chocolate Speck-Tacular Eggs: 1/4 cup (12 pieces): 210 calories, 10g fat (6 saturated), 29g carbs, 2g protein
  • Solid Milk Chocolate Easter Bunny:  2.5 oz, calories: average 370

But Isn’t Chocolate Good For Me?

The health benefits in chocolate come from cocoa. Dark chocolate has a greater concentration of cocoa than milk chocolate.  White chocolate, without any cocoa in it, isn’t really chocolate.

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, can be heart healthy if it replaces an unhealthy, high calorie snack, but there’s still no recommended amount to eat to get the health benefits.

The Bottom Chocolate Line

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, contains flavonols which have antioxidant qualities and other positive influences on heart health. Just remember that those delicious, pastel wrapped chocolate Easter eggs are caloric and moderately high in fat, one-third of it the type of saturated fat that isn’t heart healthy.

Extra ingredients like crème and caramel fillings can add lots of extra fat and calories. There’s no recommended serving size of chocolate to help gain cardiovascular benefits. If you’re going to choose a sweet treat, chocolate — especially dark chocolate with a high cocoa concentration — might be a healthier choice than other types of sweets.

Easter Candy Tally

Eating 25 small jelly beans, 5 Peeps, a 1 3/4 ounce hollow chocolate bunny, and 1 Cadbury Creme Egg, which is not an unusual amount of Easter candy, tallies 730 calories.

You’d need to walk 7.3 miles, 11.77 kilometers, or 14600 steps, assuming you cover one mile in 2,000 steps to walk off that number of calories.  Sounds like a lot, but very doable over a few days.

Up next: jelly beans and peeps.  What’s your favorite?

5 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Valentine’s Day

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1. When Did We Start Exchanging Valentines?

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages. The first commercial Valentine’s Day cards in the US were created in the 1840s. British Valentine’s Day celebrations started around the 17th century and by the middle of the 18th century all social classes exchanged tokens of affection or handwritten notes. Americans probably began exchanging handmade valentines in the early 1700s and mass-produced valentines in the 1840s.

2.  Who was Saint Valentine?

The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different martyred saints named Valentine.  All of their stories emphasize Valentine’s sympathetic, heroic, and romantic appeal.

In one, a priest in 3rd century Rome defied Emperor Claudius’ decree outlawing marriage for young men and continued to perform secret marriages — for which he was put to death. Another story suggests that Valentine was killed because he tried to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons. And in another legend the imprisoned Valentine sent the first “valentine” message, a letter, to his jailor’s daughter signing it “from your Valentine.”

Some people think that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate Valentine’s death around 270 A.D.  Others think the Christian church decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an attempt to “christianize” the pagan Lupercalia, known as the beginning of spring festival.

3.  Why Is The Symbol For Valentine’s Day A Red Heart?

No one seems to be really sure why the heart shape symbolizes love, but there’s some speculation that it might have to do with a rare, now extinct North African plant called silphium which was mostly used for seasoning but also had off-label use as a form of birth control. In the 7th century BC the city-state of Cyrene had a lucrative trade in it and minted coins that showed the plant’s seedpod, which looked like the heart shape we know today. The theory goes that’s the reason the heart shape first became associated with sex and then with love.

But the Catholic Church contends that the modern heart shape became symbolic in the 17th century when Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque envisioned it surrounded by thorns. It became known as the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the popularized shape became associated with love and devotion.

There’s also a school of thought that the modern heart shape came from botched attempts to draw an actual human heart, the organ the ancients, including Aristotle, thought contained all human passions. It was described as a three-chambered organ with a rounded top and pointy bottom, which might have been the inspiration for medieval artists to create what we now know as the heart shape.

Red is traditionally associated with the color of blood. Since people once thought that the heart, which pumps blood, was the part of the body that felt love, the red heart (legend says) has become the Valentine symbol.

 4.  Where Does “Sweets To The Sweet” Come From?

We have Hamlet’s mother, the Queen (via Shakespeare), to thank. The phrase refers to the funeral bouquets of flowers scattered over Ophelia’s grave (Hamlet’s former flame) — but the candy industry uses it to promote Valentine’s Day candy.

5.  Who Gets And Gives The Most Stuff On Valentine’s Day?

Valentine’s Day is the fourth in line for holiday candy sales after Halloween, Easter, and Christmas. 52.1% of people buy cards, the most popular Valentine’s Day gift. Women buy about 85% of an estimated one billion Valentine cards that are sent each year.

Around 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate are sold and a survey by the Chocolate Manufacturers Association showed that 50% of women most likely will give chocolate to a guy for Valentine’s Day.

If you’ve ever wondered who gets the most Valentine’s Day candy and gifts, you might be surprised to learn that kids are the winners getting 39% of all Valentine’s Day candy and gifts. They’re followed by wives and mothers at 36%, fathers and husbands at 6%, and grandparents at 3%.

And, not to overlook other members of our households, more than nine million pet owners buy their pets gifts with the average person spending $5.04 on them.

Chocolate And Valentines: Like Birds Of A Feather They Stick Together

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Why are about 1.1 billion boxed chocolates — that’s about 58 million pounds of chocolate candy — sold in the United States during the week before Valentine’s Day? Why not twizzlers or gummy bears?

What Is It About Chocolate That Makes It The “Romantic” Candy?

Chocolate infatuation began around 2,000 years ago. The higher echelon in the Mayan and Aztec societies infused cocoa beans with water which formed frothy chocolate drinks that were both drunk on special occasions and used as sacrifices to the gods.

Montezuma, the Aztec ruler, was of the belief that chocolate was an aphrodisiac.  He routinely drank it before dallying in his harem, which cemented the association of chocolate with love and romance. Years later there is scientific evidence that the chemical phenylethylamine found in chocolate is linked to feelings of excitement and attraction.

Aztec society also used cocoa beans as money and as gifts. In the 16th century, the Aztec’s reverence of chocolate prompted Christopher Columbus to take some back to Queen Isabella of Spain. The love for chocolate and its mystical powers spread throughout Europe. Chocolate’s power was believed to be so strong that nuns were forbidden to eat it and French doctors used it as a treatment for a broken heart.

In 1822 John Cadbury opened a tea and coffee shop in Birmingham, England and soon began selling chocolates. In 1861 his son Richard created the first heart-shaped box to fill with chocolates for Valentine’s Day. This year more than 36 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold.

Chocolate: The Good And The Not So Good

A pound of milk chocolate has 2300 calories, 140 grams of fat, 270 grams of carbohydrates, and 31 grams of protein. Although a lot has been said about chocolate’s heart healthy benefits, it’s still a high calorie, high fat food.

Isn’t Chocolate Good For Me?

In moderation—and, depending on the type—the answer is yes, although there is no “prescribed dosageamount.” The health benefits of chocolate come from cocoa, and dark chocolate has a greater concentration of cocoa than milk chocolate.  White chocolate, without any cocoa in it, is not really chocolate.

Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, contains flavonols which have antioxidant qualities and other positive influences on heart health.  But Valentine’s chocolates are often not high quality chocolate and are moderately high in fat, one-third of it the type of saturated fat that isn’t heart healthy. Extra ingredients like crème and caramel fillings can add lots of extra fat and calories.

Oh Those Calories:  Valentine’s Hearts And Kisses

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a treat of some Valentine’s chocolate.  A whole box might be a different story!

Here’s an idea of what the calories might be in some of the more common Valentine’s chocolate:

  • Hershey’s Kisses, 9 pieces:  230 calories, 12g fat
  • Hershey’s Special Dark Hearts, 5 pieces:  220 calories, 7g fat
  • Reese’s Peanut Butter Hearts, snack size:  170 calories, 10g fat
  • Russell Stover boxed chocolates, 2 pieces:  150 calories, 4g fat
  • Dove Dark Chocolate Hearts, 5 pieces:  210 calories, 13g fat
  • Godiva boxed chocolates, 4 pieces:  210 calories, 12g fat

10 Turkey Stuffing Tidbits You Want And Need To Know

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Stuffing – most of us love it, eat it, go back for seconds (thirds?), and then eat the leftovers.

But did you ever really think about stuffing – like why it’s called stuffing (or dressing) and what makes it taste so good?

Ten Stuffing Tidbits

  1. There’s some difference of thought about stuffing vs. dressing.  For a lot of people, stuffing is stuffing whether it’s cooked inside the bird or in a separate baking dish. Some people call stuffing the stuff that is stuffed into the bird and they call dressing the stuff that is cooked separately, even if it’s made from the same recipe.  Others go a bit further and maintain that dressing is pourable therefore stuffing is stuffing regardless of how or where it’s cooked.  People in different parts of the country favor different terms. The Amish often call it filling.
  2. Although there are some historical references about the use of stuffing in Ancient Italy, according to Bonappétit.com, stuffing comes from “farce,” which is the word for stuffing in French.  In the 16th century,  the term “stuffing” replaced farce. Farce, the stuffing and farce, the form of comedy, both started out as the Latin farcire, which means “to stuff.” The farce made to be eaten was a filler for a roast. Initially, the theatrical farce was a theatrical improvisational padding of French religious dramas and the actors, for laughs, were expected to ham it up.
  3. Semantics! Cookbook authors favored “dressing,” in the 19th century, but used stuffing and dressing interchangeably or wrote recipes that called for cooked birds with the dressing stuffed inside.
  4. In 1972 when Stove Top introduced an instant stuffing mix that could be made without the bird, was cooked on top of the stove, and was cheap and easy to make, “stuffing” became the go to word.
  5. Stove Top sells 60 million boxes of stuffing every Thanksgiving. When prepared according to box directions and with no additional additives, a ½ serving has: 105 calories, 4.2g fat, 14.7g carbs, 336mg sodium, 2.1g protein.
  6. Stuffing is a seasoned mix of vegetables and starches and sometimes eggs or other protein. Stuffing recipes vary regionally. Southerners usually use cornbread while people from other parts of the country generally use white or wheat bread as the base. Often celery or other vegetables, chestnuts, apples, cranberries, raising, oyster, sausage, turkey giblets, sage, onion, or pecans can be added.
  7. Stuffing is extremely porous. If it is “stuffed” into a turkey, as the turkey cooks the turkey juices that may contain salmonella get into the stuffing. To be safe and prevent salmonella problems, the stuffing must be heated to 165 degrees Farenheit. Cooking the stuffing to 165 degrees usually means the turkey will be overcooked and dry.
  8. If you’re putting the stuffing in the turkey, do it just before roasting – not the night before — so the juices with possible salmonella don’t have all night to soak into the stuffing. Allow 1/2 to 3/4 cup of stuffing per pound and don’t pack it in too tightly which might cause uneven cooking and not all of the stuffing reaching 165 degrees.
  9. If you’re cooking your turkey on an outdoor grill, or in a water smoker, or you’re using a fast-cook method, don’t stuff it because the turkey will be done before the stuffing reaches 165 degrees.
  10. There’s no historical evidence that stuffing was served at the first Thanksgiving.  Stuffing is really thought of mainly as a Thanksgiving food. Before the advent of Stove Top many home cooks wouldn’t have made stuffing for the holidays.  Stove Top, cheap, quick and easy helped stuffing become very popular.

If you’re beginning to get antsy about holiday eating, download my book, The Sensible Holiday Eating Guide: How To Enjoy Your Favorite Foods Without Gaining Weight, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009VOFIK8 on Amazon.

Then sign up for a free ½ hour teleseminar on Thanksgiving Eating: Challenges and Solutions, https://eatouteatwell.com/thanksgiving-teleseminar-signup.  It’ll be recorded if you can’t make it, but you still need to sign up so I know where to email the link to the recording.