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Blackstrap molasses is the concentrated byproduct of sugar production obtained from the third boiling of the sugar syrup. One would think molasses to be unhealthy given that it’s a sweetener, but it has a surprisingly dense nutritional profile.

Just one tablespoon of blackstrap molasses contains over 10% of the US Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of manganese, copper, calcium and potassium and contains ~15% of the US RDA of iron.

Drizzle it on hot cereal, use it in baked beans, pumpkin pies, and gingerbread, or just add a teaspoon or 2 to your non-dairy milk to up the nutritional value (particularly calcium).

More information about health benefits of blackstrap molasses can be found on the World’s Healthiest Foods.

Grocery list generators can save you the trouble of painstakingly and repeatedly writing out ingredients on a piece of paper that you may not even remember to take with you! Couple that with a few inaccuracies in transcription (flawed amounts, missed items, etc.), and your highly-anticipated day of cooking the long-awaited meal for you, your family, and/or friends turns into an exercise in frustration with return trips to the store. This is indeed the position in which I often found myself, prompting the exploration for a better way to make a grocery list and a better way to ensure I have it with me when I leave the house.

We took a look at 3 free services: AllRecipes.com, the Grocery List Generator Firefox Extension, and SlickRecipe.com, but decided that Cozi, while not exclusively software for grocery lists, was the most useful, primarily because you can copy and paste ingredient lists from any recipe online and have them instantly added to your shopping list. You can then opt to have that list sent to an email address or as an SMS message to your cell phone, the latter of which would effectively bypass the need to print it out. If you forget to send it to your phone before you leave, there’s a toll-free number you can call to request it.

But, let’s take a look at the others first. AllRecipes, Slick Recipe, and the Grocery List Generator for Firefox all allow you generate shopping lists for a recipe with just one click, a feature that Cozi does not have; however, to enter your own personal recipes, all 3 programs still require a tedious, line by line, data-entry process. If you’d rather avoid data-entry and use already-existing recipes, be aware that SlickRecipe and the Grocery List Generator rely on user-submitted recipes and therefore have small recipe databases.

Both SlickRecipe and the Grocery List Generator provide the ability to generate a shopping list based on any recipe you browse on their site (note their limited selections), and the Grocery List Generator has the additional feature of allowing you to download any recipe to your own installation of the GLG, but personal recipes on AllRecipes.com are not connected to their main recipe database; while you can still email these recipes to yourself or to a friend, you won’t have the convenience of being able to add ingredients to a shopping list you can take with you.

Now, Cozi doesn’t have the ability to store recipes in the same way nor does it allow you to generate a recipe-based shopping list with a single click, but it does have the amped up grocery list features I was looking for: the ability to easily copy and paste ingredients from any recipe you find online (ultimate ease and flexibility: no limitations on a site’s recipe database and no need for time-consuming data-entry) and the lack of requirement to print a paper copy/the ability to access the list from my cell phone.

You can send any list to SMS from the Cozi website, but in order to use the super-cool grocery list functionality we’re highlighting here — copying and pasting ingredient lists directly from a website — you have to download Cozi PC. Once Cozi PC is up and running:

• click the “Shopping List” option at the bottom of the screen
• select the “Groceries” list (or create a new one)
• visit any recipe online and copy the ingredient list to your clipboard
• return to Cozi PC and click the “Paste from Web” link

Your ingredients will automatically be imported into your current shopping list and any new items will automatically be imported into your “Recent” ingredients list.

You can add additional items to your current shopping list by clicking on the “Recent” link (there are pre-set values contained here — to remove the offending ingredients, simply click the “Edit Recent Items” link and click an item to remove it), or by typing it directly into the list. If the item already exists, suggestions will appear as you type.

We think it’s a pretty slick way to create shopping lists — and it comes with a whole host of other functionality we’re not reviewing here (e.g., shared calendaring, family photos, and a family journal) — but, unfortunately, Cozi PC is currently only available for Windows XP and Vista users (the Cozi website is available to anyone).

If you are already using a grocery list generator that you like, or if you want to leave feedback on your own experience of Cozi, let us know in the comments!

If you missed Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days “Animal Rights” episode featuring a hunter who lives with a vegan family, you can now view it online or download it.

Hat tip to Vegan Dad for posting the link!

Google the vegan restaurant you’ve been dying to try, or whose address you’re unsure of, then click on the “reviews, directions, menu, and more” link and then the “View Larger Map” link to enter Google Maps. Alternatively, you can find a location directly through Google Maps itself.

Once in Maps, clicking the “Send” link will open a pop-up giving you the option to send to Email, Car (navigation systems for Mercedes-Benz and BMW), Cell Phone, or your TomTom or Garmin GPS (GPS must be connected to your computer).

We think the ability to send to a GPS is especially handy. You can load up your GPS with all of your favorite and/or desired destinations before you head out the door. Then, you won’t be saddled with the task of entering them into the GPS while you’re out on the road.

And, of course, if you don’t have a GPS, you can always opt to send the details to your cell phone.

What’s not to like about flax seed oil and flax seed? Flax is chock-full of Omega-3’s, an essential fatty acid with many health benefits.

Omega-3’s can:

• help lower cholesterol and blood triglycerides, reducing risks of clogged arteries that can result in strokes and heart attacks
• protect against high blood pressure, inflammation, water retention, and lowered immune function
• shorten post-exercise muscle recovery time
• increase stamina and energy
• increase the body’s metabolic rate, making it easier to burn excess bad fats
• improve the absorption of calcium
• reduce the severity of diabetes by stabilizing blood-sugar levels
• reduce the risk of macular degeneration
• relieve some cases of asthma
• improve colon health and reduce risk of colon cancer
• reduce risk of breast cancer
• promote healthier skin for those with eczema, psoriasis, dandruff, and/or high sun-sensitivity
• relieve symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis
• reduce the risk of depression and improve response to stress
• minimize PMS symptoms
  
  

In addition, it provides the fats needed for brain growth and development, it’s high in fiber, contains protein, and it contains 100x more cancer-fighting lignans than most whole grains. Clearly, flax is a health and nutrition powerhouse.

How to use it:

• Use as an an egg replacer in baked goods: 1 egg = 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds combined with 3 tablespoons of water
• Drizzle some flax seed oil on top of hot cereals like oatmeal
• Mix flax seeds or oil into yogurt
• Add it to your salad dressing
• Mix into your smoothies
• Add to pancake batter
• do not cook with flax oil (i.e., not to be used as a substitute for olive oil or cooking oil); add to cooked foods just before serving
  
  

Storage and Buying Tips:

• buy Flax Seed Oil in dark containers which minimize their exposure to light
• store refrigerated and use within 8 weeks of purchase
• minimize exposure to heat, light, and air
• grind flax seeds before use
  
  

References:

• Wikipedia Entry
• essortment.com
• Flax Seed Recipes
• Fabulous Flax
• Flax Seed Oil
• Benefit Of Flax Seed Oil Supplements

The First Annual VegBloggy Awards yielded 21 winners. We’ve rolled up all of the feeds into one happy Yahoo! Pipe for anyone wishing to one-click subscribe to an aggregated RSS feed of all 21 sites.

If you’d like to subscribe to the sites individually, right-click here to download an OPML file which you can then import into your RSS reader.

Happy web surfing and congratulations to all of the winners!

• Abolitionist Approach
• An Animal Friendly Life
• BitterSweet
• The Conscious Kitchen
• FatFree Vegan Kitchen
• Hezbollah Tofu
• Let’s Get Sconed!
• Post Punk Kitchen
• Ramblings of a Vegan Man
• SuperVegan
• The Urban Housewife
• Veg Blog
• Vegan Dad
• VeganEtsy
• Vegan Talk
• Vegan Yum Yum
• Vegans of Color
• Vive le Vegan
• Walking the Vegan Line
• We Like it Raw
• What the Hell Does a Vegan Eat Anyway?
  
  

[via SuperVegan and FatFree Vegan Kitchen]

Liz Lovely reports that it’s National Peanut Butter Cookie Day. It could be a rumor, it could be true. If you can confirm or shed light on the origins of this glorious day (with actual or creatively inspired proof), you can win a half-dozen of their peanut butter classics.

Regardless of whether you submit an entry or not, the cookies are on sale today only. Buy them at Liz Lovely.

The source of the Salmonella outbreak linked to raw tomatoes is still unknown and cases are on the rise, but not all tomatoes are implicated. The FDA reports that raw, red Romas and raw, round, red tomatoes (beefsteaks) should be avoided, but cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, vine-ripened tomatoes still on the vine, and tomatoes grown at home are all still safe for consumption. Not all tomato-growing regions have been affected either, so if you know where the tomatoes have been grown, you can check it against this list to see if they are safe.

The FDA also offers the following tips:

• Wash hands with soap and warm water before handling tomatoes
• Wash each tomato thoroughly under running water. Don’t wash tomatoes in a tub or sink filled with water.
• When finished washing a tomato, cut out the scar where the stem was, and throw it away.
• Never cut a fresh tomato until it has been thoroughly washed.
• Cut the tomato on a clean cutting board, using clean utensils.
• Refrigerate fresh, cut tomatoes (or products made from them, such as salsa) at 41° F or less if they’re not eaten within two hours.
• Wash hands with soap and warm water after preparing the tomatoes.
• Cooking contaminated tomatoes will not prevent illness.
  
  

In addition to the guidelines above, The Daily Green offers an additional tip when dining out: “ask how the restaurant has responded to the outbreak. If you’re unsure, ask for no tomatoes with your order, since removing them once your food arrives could contaminate what’s left on the plate.”

For additional information, visit the FDA’s information page or their guide for the Safe Handling of Raw Produce and Fresh-Squeezed Fruit and Vegetable Juices.

According to new research by Boston Children’s Hospital, about 40% of infants and toddlers and 42% of teens are not getting enough Vitamin D. Vitamin D is essential to calcium absorption and bone growth and adequate intake of Vitamin D can prevent rickets in children and osteoporosis in adults.

But before you hit the panic button, be reassured that Vitamin D is found in a whole host of foods. In fact, in the US, fortified foods provide most of the vitamin D consumed. It is available in cereals as well as in calcium-fortified fruit juices and non-dairy milks. Most multi-vitamins also contain Vitamin D supplementation.

But, perhaps the best way to get Vitamin D, is to just go outside and get some sunshine. The current NIH recommendation is an exposure of “5-30 minutes between 10 AM and 3 PM at least twice a week to the face, arms, legs, or back without sunscreen.”

So, break away from your computer, video game, and/or television and pick up your vegetables from the weekly farmer’s market, or take a post-prandial stroll (be it post-lunch or post-dinner), ride your bike to work once or twice a week, take a jog around the block, or do some weekend gardening with the kids. You’re sure to be just fine.

But remember, UV rays can’t penetrate glass, so sitting near a window isn’t going to cut it! Shade and cloudy days will also cut the effectiveness of UV rays in half. And, note that a vegan diet is no more subject to Vitamin D deficiency than any other diet. Vitamin D, in general, is found in very, very few foods, and it’s worth reiterating that the vast majority of Vitamin D intake is consumed in fortified foods. If Vitamin D deficiency is a risk, camping out for too long behind closed doors is a more likely culprit than lack of nutritious food.

When you’re on the road, be it for work or pleasure, it can be difficult to find an independent coffee house near you that offers free wi-fi and that soy latte, or mocha you’re craving. Enter Starbucks.

Ubiquity is perhaps Starbucks’ greatest advantage — they’re everywhere and, luckily, they always offer soy milk, albeit for an extra charge.

Now, with the purchase of a pre-paid Starbucks Card, you can get 2 hours of free wi-fi daily, and bypass the soy milk (and syrup!) surcharge on your latte and mocha orders. The card also allows you to get unlimited free refills on regular coffee and, when buying a pound of beans, a free 12oz. beverage. Starbucks may not be your first choice coffee stop but, in a pinch, it will definitely do!

[via Goatless]