Salad-bar spinach omelets, kimchi rice and fresh wild-caught fish

Fresh spinach from the cafe salad bar at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, where I volunteer one day a week, and reduced-fat Swiss Cheese from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack are terrific for stuffing egg-white omelets. Here, I served the omelet with sweet potatoes mashed with extra-virgin olive oil, cinnamon and other seasonings.

This morning, I used the last of the salad-bar spinach for another egg-white omelet, this one made with grated Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese from Costco Wholesale, za'atar thyme mixture and Aleppo red pepper, the last two from Fattal's, 975 Main St., Paterson.

An easy snack uses leftover organic brown rice, which I prepared in an electric cooker with organic diced tomatoes, and Arirang Kimchi, made and sold in a storefront at the H&Y Marketplace, 1 Remsen Place, Ridgefield.

My wife seasoned and pan-fried fresh whole croaker she bought on Sunday for $2.99 a pound at the H Mart, 28 Lafayette Ave., Englewood. Whole papaya, Kabocha squash, mustard greens and scallions also were on sale.

She also purchased two large wild-caught red snappers for $5.99 a pound at H Mart. She seasoned the fish and prepared it in a covered pot with fresh thyme, sweet peppers, onion and garlic. The light, flavorful sauce included extra-virgin olive oil, fresh lime juice and the liquid the fish gives up during cooking.

My wife cut up, seeded and boiled the Kabocha squash, including the dark-green skin, then mashed it with extra-virgin olive oil and seasonings. This morning, the mashed squash was a great bread substitute with two organic eggs from Costco with shredded Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese and Aleppo red pepper.

--VICTOR E. SASSON

Broth and stock: Trader Joe's v. Costco Wholesale

Trader Joe's sweet potatoes were sliced and boiled before they were added to a frittata, above, and mashed with extra-virgin olive oil, below.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss whether Trader Joe's or Costco Wholesale has the best chicken broth/stock. Also on the table: The magic of sweet potatoes, and a review of food prices.  

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Trader Joe's boasts of holding the line at $1.99 for a 32-ounce container of Organic Chicken Broth for more than 11 years.

That's pretty impressive -- until you compare that organic broth to Costco Wholesale's Organic Chicken Stock.

Costco says it's Kirkland Signature organic stock is "more versatile" than broth, and has "rich chicken flavor."

Stock is made from chicken bones and gristle, and broth from meat, and many cooks consider the flavor of stock to be richer.

Costco's stock has other clear advantages:

Zero grams of fat, compared to 1 gram per 8-ounce serving of Trader Joe's broth; half the calories, and slightly cheaper (six 32-ounce cartons for $11.59). 

Both are gluten free, and both add flavor to basics like rice, quinoa and mashed sweet potatoes, and make a great base for sauces, gravies and soups.

How sweet it is

When my trainer at the gym recommended a no-bread, no-pizza diet to lose weight a few years ago, he said I could eat sweet potatoes to my heart's content.

It seems our bodies process sweet potatoes better than white potatoes, and I love to boil and mash the former with extra-virgin olive oil or add boiled sweet-potato slices t0 frittatas.

The last time I mashed sweet potatoes, I inadvertently dumped a couple of ounces of black pepper into the pot when the loose-fitting strainer on the bottle of Kirkland Signature Coarse Ground Malabar Black Pepper came off.

Kirkland Signature Organic Brown Eggs from Costco Wholesale.

Costco's organics

My wife found a 10-pound bag of organic carrots at the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack today for $8.59.

A 10-pound bag of Organic Sugar from Brazil was $8.49; Organic Spring Mix from Earthbound Farm was $4.99, and three large hothouse cucumbers were $3.49.

Two of the cheapest items at Costco are 3 pounds of bananas for $1.39, and a bottle of Kirkland Signature Ground Saigon Cinnamon for $2.59, ideal for dusting sodium-free raw almonds I roast at home ($12.99 for a 3-pound bag).

The growing number of organic items at Costco allows me and other consumers to avoid genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

At Trader Joe's, a 2-pound bag of conventional sweet potatoes was $1.69, and a 28-ounce can of marinara sauce with extra-virgin olive oil was $1.99.

Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli was $1.39 for 16 ounces, but the Clifton Trader Joe's I shopped in last week didn't have Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti. 

Wild-caught sea bass and mustard greens from H Mart in Little Ferry, below. The Little Ferry store is sorely in need of renovation.

Something's fishy

I've been shopping at the Little Ferry H Mart for years, lured by an abundance of fresh fish and a wide variety of Asian greens.

But on Sunday, for the first time, I detected a strong, fishy smell from the seafood department, where a dozen or more kinds of fresh fish were displayed on ice.

I bought four wild-caught sea bass ($4.99 a pound), which I seasoned and roasted in the oven, and they tasted as fresh as could be.

Still, the store is one of the oldest in the Korean supermarket chain, and it's sorely in need of renovation.

Besides fish, I picked up mustard greens for 99 cents a pound and two Golden Pineapples for $3.

Does a healthy diet translate into good health?

Organic Spring Mix from Earthbound Farm is bursting with flavor, above. Wild-caught Icelandic haddock fillets cooked in Mexican Green Salsa are served over sweet potatoes mashed with extra-virgin olive oil, below.

Consumer Reports on Health says a 14-year review of more than 44,000 adults found that fewer than 2 percent achieved all of the following healthy habits:

Not smoking; staying physically fit; keeping blood pressure, blood glucose and cholesterol numbers in check; maintaining a healthy weight; and eating a healthy diet.

But researchers at the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which did the study, say those few people experience "a 76 percent lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and a decrease in death from all cancers, when compared with those meeting only one of those health parameters."

Fresh Icelandic haddock fillets are $8.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack. Bottled Mexican Green Salsa is available at Hackensack Market and at most ShopRite supermarkets.

"Fortunately, there's still time to experience the lifesaving effects of being healthy," according to the June 2013 edition of the Consumer Reports newsletter.

"Adopting a good-for-you-habit -- even past your seventh decade -- can add several quality years to your life," the newsletter says.

Hothouse-grown beefsteak tomatoes from Costco Wholesale.

A guilt-free, turkey-free Thanksgiving

Leftover Thanksgiving vegetables and mashed sweet potatoes at breakfast today.

I smiled when I weighed myself today -- 181.6 pounds, exactly what I weighed on Thursday before our big Thanksgiving meal.

I helped roast turkey parts and heat up a fully cooked Niman Ranch ham for the meat-eaters in the family. 

They also had store-bought corn-and-crab chowder and homemade brown rice and peas.

But I was happy with a meatless meal of salad, vegetables (carrots and green beans), and Black Tiger shrimp.

Another side dish was mashed, skin-on sweet potatoes and garlic cloves with extra-virgin olive oil, butter substitute, maple syrup and cinnamon.

I drank sparkling 100% Apple Cider from Spain mixed with lemon-lime seltzer to cut the sweetness, and a glass or two of Bordeaux.

This red wine tasted great with Black Tiger shrimp.

 


Later, with my teenage son, I watched a football game on TV. I also watched a Robert De Niro movie, "Being Flynn."

For dessert, I had Spanish clementines and a ripe Bartlett pear with a couple of slices of reduced-fat cheese.

For breakfast this morning, I fried two organic eggs sunny side up with sun-dried tomatoes and Aleppo red pepper, and slid them over leftover vegetables and sweet potatoes, which I reheated in the microwave.

Delicious, especially the yolks broken over and eaten with the mashed sweet potatoes.