Guiding Stars Expert Chef Cooking Show | Pilot

Erin and Jaica shoot their first cooking show with a delicious meal of Moroccan Pork Loin and Athenian Couscous Salad. What do you think – should Guiding Stars make this a series?

Moroccan Pork Loin and Athenian Couscous Salad

Each year my friends Nancy and Andy raise a couple of pigs on their farm: one for their family and one for ours. Nancy’s 8 year-old daughter is a master pig scrambler, selecting the first piglet at the Monmouth Agricultural Fair and then we buy another one to round out the pair. They’re fed on culled fruits and vegetables from our gardens and the produce section of our local supermarket and natural grains provide them with the protein they need. It only takes three or four months for them to balloon from puppy-sized piglets to the 125 pound finished product. By the time the snow flies, the freezer is packed with the most wholesome pork we can source. It feels great to know that our food is raised humanely, naturally, and locally, and the finished product is super lean and tasty.

RECIPE | Moroccan Pork Loin

Athenian Couscous Salad

Substitute away! This recipe would work well with pasta or rice as the base. Add some grilled chicken to make a luncheon entrée. Add as many veggies as you would like. It’s a perfect neutral starting point for an endless variety of dishes.

RECIPE | Athenian Couscous Salad

Pumped-Up Pumpkin Bread

Two words often strike fear in the minds of moms: Snacks and Breakfast. Well, there’s Dessert too, because they’re always asking, and we’re always balancing the desire to please with the need to monitor sugar intake, both in terms of nutrition and also our wish to keep the Hyperactivity Gremlins in check. My friend Marilee recently posted her frustrations on Facebook, pleading for ideas for school snacks, and I’m not going to lie, the suggestions were not exactly stellar…

RECIPE | Pumped-Up Pumpkin Bread

Taste experience that doesn’t result in a new pant size experience

I am a sucker for dips. Nothing satisfies me more than something creamy and piquant spread on something texturally satisfying. A truly fundamental exercise in Cooking 101, dips and spreads teach us the value of combining simply prepared and minimally processed ingredients into exciting new taste experiences. Unfortunately, I’ve also learned over the years that when the go-to dip starts with cream cheese or sour cream, the new taste experience can result in a new pant size experience as well.

RECIPE | Garlic-Lime Black Bean and Avocado Spread

Guiding Stars: Simplify Your Grocery Experience Teaser

Decoding nutrition labels can be confusing. Guiding Stars takes the guesswork out of choosing foods that are nutritious for you and your family. Guiding Stars is an objective food rating system that rates food based on nutrient density using a scientific algorithm. Rated foods are marked with easy-to-follow tags indicating 0, 1, 2, or 3 stars. The more nutritional value a food has, the more Guiding Stars it receives. If a food doesn’t receive a star it means it doesnt meet our rigorous criteria.

http://guidingstars.com

* One Guiding Star indicates good nutritional value
** Two Guiding Stars indicate better nutritional value
*** Three Guiding Stars indicate the best nutritional value

Guiding Stars is not intended to tell you what to buy, but rather point you toward foods that have more vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, whole grains and less fats, cholesterol, sugar and sodium.

Guiding Stars 101

Guiding Stars is an objective food rating system that rates food based on nutrient density using a scientific algorithm.

http://www.guidingstars.com

Rated foods are marked with easy-to-follow tags indicating 1, 2, or 3 stars. The more nutritional value a food has, the more Guiding Stars it receives. If a food doesnt receive a star it means it doesnt meet our rigorous criteria.

* One Guiding Star indicates good nutritional value
** Two Guiding Stars indicate better nutritional value
*** Three Guiding Stars indicate the best nutritional value

Guiding Stars is not intended to tell you what to buy, but rather point you toward foods that have more vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, whole grains and less fats, cholesterol, sugar and sodium.

In The Supermarket

Guiding Stars on private label food packaging