Contaminated Ben & Jerry's ice cream, genetic engineering, sodium in pasta sauce

KIND snack bars at the Costco Wholesale Business Center on South River Street in Hackensack are displayed in boxes declaring they are made without "genetically engineered ingredients."

But when I bought Dannon's Oikos Yogurt at the ShopRite in Paramus, I learned from the label when I got home, below, that it is "partially produced with genetic engineering."

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The Organic Consumers Association has launched a campaign to get Ben & Jerry's to go organic after breaking the news about Roundup weedkiller contamination in the company's ice cream.

Roundup or glyphosate, a weedkiller made by Monsanto, is "probably carcinogenic to humans," according to the World Health Organization.

The association, a non-profit advocacy group for organic agriculture based in Minnesota, says Vermont's dairy farmers feed their cows GMO [genetically modified] corn treated with glyphosate, and pollute the state's waterways.

Ben & Jerry's also sources dairy in western states -- all from non-organic industrial dairy farms.

Mostly Roundup

In 2016, the most heavily used pesticide polluting Vermont's waterways was Monsanto's Roundup or glyphosate -- 62,458 pounds, according to the Organic Consumers Association.

Ben & Jerry's said that by 2020, it would aim to eliminate "glyphosate-contaminated ingredients from its supply chain," presumably by not sourcing ingredients from suppliers that use glyphosate "to dry out" crops before harvest.

Ben & Jerry's, now owned by Unilever, also pledged to introduce organic ice cream in 2018, amounting to 6 percent of the brand's total ice cream production in the U.S. 

Less sodium

A half-cup of Shop Rite's Wholesome Pantry Organic Pasta Sauce contains only 8% of the recommended maximum daily intake of sodium -- compared to 18% for Victoria brand sauces and 20% for the Botticelli brand from Italy -- and no added sugar.

I bought four 24-ounce jars of Wholesome Pantry Basil and Tomato or Roasted Garlic, on sale for 99 cents each today, at the ShopRite on Passaic Street in Rochelle Park.

I usually buy a 1-pound tub of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring at Costco Wholesale every week, but the "use by date" is even harder to read than before.

Eating In: A wide world of flavors dress up homemade meals, sandwiches and snacks

A pinch or two of a crushed red pepper named after the embattled city of Aleppo, Syria, where my parents were born, can elevate fish and egg dishes, such as this breakfast of organic eggs with Chinese broccoli, and leftover organic whole-wheat pasta with a ragu of sardines and anchovies.

Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale brings the flavors of Italy (imported basil, grated cheese, extra virgin olive oil and pine nuts) to fresh wild cod from Iceland, served here with organic quinoa and a medley of vegetables. The refrigerated pesto also is terrific as a sandwich spread.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Crushed red Aleppo pepper, a fragrant pesto made from basil or mint, a fiery Mexican hot sauce; and za'atar, a dried thyme mixture, are some of the flavors from around the world I love to use in my meatless cooking, sandwiches and snacks.

A pinch or two of the mildly spicy Aleppo pepper can elevate any fish or egg dish, and you can sprinkle it over a hummus made with plenty of lemon and garlic. 

My source for Aleppo pepper and canned hummus from Lebanon is Fattal's at 975 Main St. in Paterson, a Syrian bakery, grocery and butcher shop with its own parking lot.

See this video for a falafel sandwich that reveals multiple layers of flavor as you eat more and more of it:

I've been on a no-bread, no-pizza diet for years, but an occasional guilty pleasure is the toasted end of a loaf of Dave's Killer Bread, an organic loaf with 21 grains or seeds sold at Costco, spread with a homemade mint pesto.

A small Za'atar Bread from Fattal's Cafe is another guilty pleasure. I had the bread in the freezer, but warmed it up in the oven and drizzled olive oil over the dried mixture: thyme, sour-tasting sumac, sesame seeds and salt.

Kimbap (seaweed-and-rice rolls) and Cabbage Kimchi add a spicy Korean accent to a simple egg-white omelet.

My wife rubbed a Jamaican Jerk Sauce into antibiotic-free, vegetarian-fed chicken wings from ShopRite, and roasted them until they were a golden brown. The chicken is sold under the Wholesome Pantry label.

Greek extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar from Italy are all the dressing I need on my almost nightly salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix with hothouse cucumbers and Campari Tomatoes, all from Costco.

Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce from Guadalajara, Mexico, is a modestly priced sauce that doesn't obliterate the taste of your food, if used sparingly (the "extra hot" version has a black label).

I like to use Valentina with the Jamaican national dish, Ackee and Salt Fish, which combines salted cod with hot and sweet peppers, a bland fruit called ackee and a side of boiled and mashed green bananas.

Food shopping: Fish, fruit and everything else taste so much better when on sale

Pacific Dover Sole Fillet was on sale for only $6.99 a pound at Whole Foods Market in Paramus, allowing me to prepare a one-dish dinner for four for about $5 a person, below, after I added organic spinach, organic diced tomatoes, capers, grated cheese, mushrooms, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice and pesto, all of which I had on hand.

Dinner was ready in about 10 minutes, once I layered the spinach, thin fillets and all of the other ingredients in a pan lined with parchment paper and placed the pan in a preheated 400-degree oven.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Whole Foods Market app on my smartphone alerts me to sales and coupons at the Paramus store only a couple miles from my home.

So, it's easy for me to run out and take advantage of a discount coupon on Wild Gulf Shrimp or a sale on Pacific Dover Sole and organic pears.

On the same day I picked up the fresh, wild-caught sole, the Paramus Whole Foods at Bergen Town Center had a sale on Organic Bartlett Pears from Argentina ($1.99 a pound).

They ripened on my kitchen counter in a couple of days, and were sweet and juicy, perfect as a dessert with cheese.

ShopRite has unveiled Wholesome Pantry, a label for antibiotic-free chicken, previously sold under the Readington Farms brand; organic food, and other items free of artificial colors, flavors and preservatives.

I found Wholesome Pantry Organic Garbanzo Beans on sale for 88 cents a can at the Paramus ShopRite (normally $1.31 each), and added them to organic brown rice, organic diced tomatoes, organic chicken stock and chopped fresh garlic in an electric cooker.

This is a great side dish, but can also serve as a light dinner when topped with organic spring mix, cucumbers and tomatoes dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

A light dinner of salad over organic brown rice.

Costco coupons

Costco Wholesale doesn't have sales, but does mail booklets of instant coupons to members of the discount warehouse in Teterboro and Business Center in Hackensack (you don't have to clip the coupons, but they're not interchangeable).

For example, three 46-ounce cans of Dole 100% percent Pineapple Juice are only $4.09 with an instant coupon at the Business Center through Saturday.

The Teterboro warehouse sells a limited selection of skinless-and-boneless Icelandic fish fillets -- cod, haddock and flounder -- for a rock bottom $7.99 or $8.99 a pound.

Korean markets

The H Marts in Little Ferry and Ridgefield have lower sale prices for produce, rice and other items than other stores in the same Korean chain.

And the H Mart at 25 Lafayette Avenue in Englewood offers a 50% discount on any sliced dessert rice cakes left after 4 p.m.

I got $7 off a 2-pound package of Jinga-brand Assorted Rice Cakes that was marked $13.99.

But stores in the H&Y Marketplace chain can beat H Mart on some items.

This month, I found a box of 16 Ataulfo or Champagne Mangoes for $9.99 (regularly $15.99) at the Little Ferry H Mart.

These intensely sweet mangoes were available at the Teterboro Costco for about $1 each.

H Marts also are known for low prices and sales on fresh wild-caught whole fish.

Organic Bartlett Pears on sale for $1.99 a pound this month at Whole Foods Market, Route 4 east and Forest Avenue in Paramus.

Champagne Mangoes from Mexico on sale at the H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike in Little Ferry. Buyer beware: Parking lot is filled with potholes and often flooded.

When I found Organic Garbanzo Beans on sale at the ShopRite in Paramus, I added them to organic brown rice, tomatoes, chicken stock and chopped fresh garlic in an electric cooker for dinner.

Organic brown rice with garbanzo beans, diced tomatoes and garlic.

A 1-pound package of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, above, or Wholesome Garden Organic Spring Mix was selling for $3.69 this week at the Costco Wholesale Business Center, 80 S. River St. in Hackensack.

Costco's Kirkland Signature Organic Brown Eggs were introduced at $6.99 for two dozen, but the  price went down to $5.99 and has stayed there.

Dole 100% Pineapple Juice is free of genetically modified ingredients, and comes in BPA-free cans.

On Tuesday, I bought about 1.75 pounds of boneless-and-skinless Icelandic Flounder Fillets at Costco Wholesale in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center off of Route 46 ($7.99 a pound), and prepared them with Asian Indian spices, organic spinach and other ingredients for dinner, above and below.

This one-dish flounder dinner for four with leftovers was ready after 15 minutes in a preheated 400-degree oven.

At Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St. in Englewood, complete restaurant-quality dinners to go are cut to $5.99 from $7.99 after 4 p.m., if there are any left.

Amid storm predictions and panic buying, I enjoyed an oasis of calm in Hackensack

As blizzard warnings intensified, the parking lot of the ShopRite in Paramus was packed on Monday morning, when I drove by on the way home from the gym. But the Costco Wholesale Business Center in Hackensack was the usual oasis of calm as I picked up fresh organic spring mix and a few other items, above and below.

The Costco at 80 S. River St. in Hackensack reopened about a year ago with a focus on small businesses, including restaurants and caterers, many of whom order by phone or computer and have everything delivered. The Business Center, open to all Costco members, stocks about 30 percent of the consumer items found at the bigger Costco Wholesale warehouse in Teterboro.

 --HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Wow, I said to myself as I drove by on Monday morning, I've never seen so many cars packed into the parking lot of the ShopRite in Paramus.

True. We'd been hearing dire predictions of a big snowstorm since at least last Friday on TV, radio, digital devices and the daily newspaper.

So, if the purpose of storm warnings is to stimulate the economy, they worked beautifully to get people to rush to supermarkets and buy food on Monday -- even if they didn't need it. 

We had plenty of food, but I ran out of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, lemons to make a salad dressing and a couple of other items, so I drove by the packed ShopRite on Forest Avenue and Route 4 and headed for the Costco Wholesale Business Center in Hackensack.

Besides the spring mix and organic baby spinach, I bought a 5-pound bag of big lemons for $6.99, Yoplait Original Low Fat Yogurt with fruit and 25% less sugar (24 for $9.99) and Kirkland Signature plain non-fat Greek Yogurt (two 32-ounce containers for $5.99).

Meanwhile, my wife drove her gas-electric hybrid to the gas station at the Teterboro Costco, waited longer than usual to fill up and left without going into the warehouse.

Costco's gas station, which sells regular for about 15 cents a gallon less than everyone else, is open to members and non-members alike.

But members who use the Costco Visa credit card get a 4% cash rebate on their fill-ups. 

A 1-pound clam shell of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, one of the tastiest salads you can buy, was only $3.69 on Monday morning at the Costco Wholesale Business Center in Hackensack, compared to $3.99 a week earlier -- the same price Costco charged in 2005. A 1-pound clam shell of Boskovich Farms Organic Baby Spinach also was $3.69, compared to $3.99 the week before.  

When I got home Monday morning, I prepared organic baby spinach with organic chicken broth, sesame oil, sake and Organic No-Salt Seasoning, and ate it with an egg-white omelet stuffed with reduced-fat cheese, smoked wild salmon and organic Mexican-style salsa. Everything but the sesame oil and sake came from Costco.

In Hackensack, Costco's Kirkland Signature Organic Large Grade AA Brown Eggs are a better buy than Nellie's Grade A non-organic brown eggs. Both are free range, and both cost $5.99 for two dozen eggs, above and below.

Retirees find watching their weight harder than sticking to a healthy, meat-free diet

BREAD SUBSTITUTES: Lundberg Organic Brown Long Grain Rice from Amazon.com, organic diced tomatoes, black-eyed peas and chopped peeled garlic. Organic brown rice, whole wheat pasta and quinoa are healthy, whole-grain substitutes for bread that leave you feeling full.

PROPORTIONS: I use 2 cups of organic chicken broth or water for every cup of organic brown rice. All the ingredients go into an electric rice cooker (with a brown-rice setting) at the same time, along with olive oil, a little salt and other seasonings.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A couple of years after I retired in 2008, my weight ballooned to 228 pounds from a combination of stress and not working.

After I gave up meat and poultry -- in favor of a heart-healthy diet of seafood, a daily salad and olive oil instead of butter -- I lost maybe 5 pounds.

Then, with the help of a trainer at the gym, I found a diet that really worked for me -- no bread, no pizza, and lots of whole grains, sweet potatoes, fruits and vegetables, in addition to seafood -- and the pounds started coming off.

I also began working part-time for a fleet-management company -- driving press and marketing cars to New York City, Philadelphia and other places, and most of the time returning by mass transit.

It took a while, but I shed more than 40 pounds.

However, I soon got fed up with the low hourly pay, stopped working and started volunteering more, while going to the gym twice a week (volunteers are seniors who have nothing better to do with their time).

Still, last summer, I started putting on the pounds, despite following the same diet that was such a success before.

I've applied for part-time work again, but even an enlightened company like Tesla appears to hire only young people, from the looks of the workers in its New Jersey showrooms.

Assembling ingredients

We prepare most of our meals at home, but I think of cooking as just assembling good ingredients and seasoning the food to taste, while trying to avoid added sugar and too much salt.

For example, when I make pasta with sardines, I use a bottled sauce without added sugar and never salt the pasta water, because so many of the other ingredients already have plenty of sodium in them.

We don't cook with butter or cream at home, and when eating out, we ask the kitchen not to use them in our food.

We substituted olive oil for cooking and frying instead of vegetable oils, most of which contain genetically modified ingredients (GMOs).

One upside of home cooking is all of that exercise I get shopping at several food stores, especially when I park far away from the entrance.

Proportions

Here are the proportions that work for me when cooking at home:

For pasta with sardines, 1 pound of pasta; a 40-ounce bottle of red or vodka sauce (without heavy cream); three cans of sardines with oil or tomato paste (minced before adding them to the sauce); one can of anchovies (drained and rinsed); and red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, capers, and dried herbs and seasonings to taste.

For a 10-inch frittata, 3 cups to 4 cups of egg mixture with grated cheese, chopped pitted olives, diced tomatoes, mushrooms and other ingredients poured into a preheated pan with olive oil.

For organic brown rice or quinoa prepared in an electric cooker, 2 cups of chicken broth or water for every cup of whole grain, plus a little more if you add black-eyed peas or beans, diced tomatoes, pitted olives, mushrooms and chopped fresh garlic.

SEAFOOD BOLOGNESE: Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti from Whole Foods Market ($1.49 for a 1-pound package) with sardines in marinara sauce.

PLENTY OF LEFTOVERS: Cooking 1 pound of pasta at a time leaves plenty of leftover for breakfast (topped with eggs sunny side up), lunch and a snack.

SWEET MASH: ShopRite Supermarkets in Paramus, Rochelle Park and Englewood sell 3-pound bags of Organic Sweet Potatoes for $3.99. I bake them or cut them up with the skin, boil them until soft, then drain and mash them with extra-virgin olive oil and a half-dozen seasonings, including curry powder, cinnamon and granulated garlic. 

LESS GREEN: Last week, two brands of Organic Spring Mix -- Earthbound Farm and Wholesome Garden -- dropped in price to only $3.99 at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro and the Costco Business Center in Hackensack. I dress my salads with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RADICCHIO: I prefer Earthbound Farm, which contains radicchio in addition to all of the baby lettuces in spring mix. Above, Wholesome Garden Organic Spring at the Costco Business Center.

COOKING AHEAD: Leftovers from a kitchen-sink frittata make a great snack or a light dinner. 

PESTO ACCENT: I pour the egg mixture into a preheated non-stick pan with olive oil on the stove top and, after the crust sets, finish the frittata under the broiler, adding pesto when it is cooling on the counter.

ASIAN GREENS: From an array of greens at H Mart, the Korean supermarket chain, I favor Chinese broccoli and mustard greens or whatever I find on sale.

COVERED COOKING: I poured a half-cup of organic chicken broth and a little sesame oil into the pan, brought them to boil and added the thick stems, putting on the glass cover. The leafy greens go in later.

KALE AND EGGS: I prepared an egg-white omelet with smoked wild salmon, reduced-fat Swiss cheese and pesto, and added kale from the other pot. 

SAY KEEN-WA: Like organic brown rice, organic quinoa can be prepared in an electric cooker, with all of the ingredients added at once. A Mexican-style salsa makes quinoa even more appealing.

NO-SALT SEASONING: I prepare fresh spinach with chicken broth, sesame oil and Organic No-Salt Seasoning from Costco Wholesale, which has an extensive line of spices sold under the Kirkland Signature house label (a few of them are shown below).

SUNNY SIDE UP: For perfect fried eggs, use a non-stick pan with olive oil, and don't turn the flame above medium. I add grated Parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper, and eat them over pasta, quinoa or brown rice.

For past coverage of food shopping, restaurants and related topics, see: 

Do You Really Know 

What You're Eating?