Patricia Chuey

Food and Nutrition Expert | Recipe Developer

Fresh Ideas

Fun, inspiring food tips and tricks from the kitchen.

80 Delicious Ways to Eat More Vegetables

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Having a great supply of veggies on hand means more will get eaten. Taking steps like filling a large container in the fridge with pre-washed and cut carrots, cherry tomatoes, celery and radishes makes grabbing them super easy. Here are 80 additional ways to keep them dominating your meals…

  1. Make a delicious homemade fresh salsa by finely chopping tomatoes, peppers, garlic and cilantro. Squeeze in a little fresh lime juice and add jalapenos or red chilies if you like it hot. It’s handy for taco night or as a snack along with a few tortilla chips.
  2. Top a bed of leafy greens with warm roasted vegetables such as beets, yams or acorn squash slices.
  3. Sauté spinach, drizzle with sesame oil and a sprinkle of sesame seeds or make it gomae and serve chilled with a peanut-soy topping.
  4. Use savoy cabbage leaves as a low carb replacement for flour tortillas in wraps.
  5. Make homemade “fries” – Bake strips of fresh potato, yam or sweet potato, tossed lightly in vegetable oil with a sprinkle of sea salt.
  6. Brussels sprouts are not only available at Thanksgiving. Top with crumbled toasted walnuts, a drizzle of honey and orange or grate on a little fresh Parmesan.
  7. Serve lettuce wraps for dinner: Use crisp lettuce as a shell for minced vegetables and lentils, add grated carrot – flavor with a black bean, sweet chili or peanut sauce.
  8. Drizzle fresh tomato wedges with olive or sesame oil and balsamic vinegar.
  9. Steam broccoli and top with juicy orange slices and sunflower seeds.
  10. Marinate fresh cucumber wedges in vinegar. Add a little fresh dill for a non-pickled pickle.
  11. Make a salad of corn niblets, green and red peppers, diced carrots and red onion.
  12. Make vegetable soup from scratch – e.g. squash, minestrone, tomato, carrot, hot and sour, red pepper, fennel, corn chowder or potato-leek soup.
  13. Top celery sticks with a favourite cheese.
  14. Enhance bottled tomato sauces with extra vegetables – peppers, broccoli, mushrooms or onions.
  15. Make a vegetable-laden pizza topped with grilled eggplant, red peppers, leaves of spinach and fresh basil.
  16. Make a salt and vinegar or barbecue flavoured baked potato.
  17. Make a marinated bean salad using chickpeas, kidney beans and black beans. Add carrots, green beans and red onion for a bright and attractive boost.
  18. Make an Asian-style coleslaw of red and green cabbage, green onion, roasted almonds and sesame seeds – drizzle with sesame oil and rice vinegar. Slaw is a perfect side to fish tacos.
  19. When’s the last time you had squash? Bake, roast or broil spaghetti squash, acorn squash, pumpkin or any of the other varieties available. Ideas
  20. Sheet pan veggies. Roast a combination of cubed potatoes, onions, peppers and/or any favorite vegetables lightly drizzled with olive oil, a little salt and herbs.
  21. Make a spinach, red onion and mushroom salad.
  22. Sauté julienne carrots, zucchini and peppers for an attractive texture change to cooked vegetables.
  23. Bake a potato and top with chili or chopped, sautéed broccoli, tomato and onion.
  24. Grill vegetable kebobs made of cherry tomatoes, pineapple chunks, zucchini, red onion, baby potatoes and/or red pepper chunks.
  25. Make a salad with everything but lettuce.
  26. Make a salad with nothing but 3 or 4 different types of lettuce.
  27. Try mashed turnip or parsnip if it’s been a while. Definitely use these beauties in fall and winter stews.
  28. Keep frozen peas, beans, corn, edamame or mixed vegetables in the freezer for a quick meal addition when in a hurry.
  29. Try corn on the cob when in season topped lightly with chili or lime-flavored butter.
  30. Sauté onions, add zucchini slices and top with canned, diced tomatoes.
  31. Make a “tabouli-style” salad with lots of fresh parsley and a bit of chopped onion and tomato – add quinoa or couscous– sprinkle with olive oil and lemon juice.
  32. Make a vegetable stew of carrots, turnips, potatoes and anything else you like.
  33. Make a salad of romaine lettuce, toasted almonds, green onions and fresh or canned mandarin orange wedges.
  34. Make a coleslaw of chopped green cabbage, apples, green onion and raisins. An apple-cider vinegar based dressing finishes it perfectly.
  35. Roast an artichoke heart or make a lightened up artichoke or spinach dip.
  36. Toss together a marinated vegetable salad – marinate in a vinaigrette.
  37. Make a potato-vegetable curry.
  38. Try a mango, strawberry and cucumber salad. Mango, blueberry and cabbage is delicious too.
  39. Make a vegetable-bean chili.
  40. Top baked acorn squash chunks with apples and dried cranberries.
  41. Mix frozen peas with chives or baby pearl onions.
  42. Make a lightened up Caesar salad.
  43. Try plain, but delicious, grilled asparagus.
  44. How about good old mashed potatoes? Love potatoes, find 75 amazing potato recipes here.
  45. Grill eggplant and top with fresh herbs.
  46. Mix snow peas with yellow pepper and fresh mushroom slices.
  47. Sauté red cabbage. Drizzle with tangy vinegar.
  48. Make vegetable and herb-stuffed mushroom caps.
  49. Toss together a quick Greek salad.
  50. Sauté tomato, broccoli and/or leftover veggies with an egg for a quick breakfast scramble.
  51. Saute string beans with diced canned tomatoes.
  52. Brighten up cauliflower with chopped celery, green onions, parsley and black olives.
  53. Make a Cobb salad of cubed tomatoes, avocado, green onion, chicken and even a little bacon and egg.
  54. Make potato salad with potatoes, radishes, celery and onion – easy on the mayonnaise or go with a vinaigrette dressing instead.
  55. Try good old raw vegetables and dip. Make the dip something tasty and high quality. Don’t limit yourself to carrots and celery. Serve snap peas, pepper strips, lightly steamed and cooled asparagus or green beans, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. Hummus is an easy dip to make at home.
  56. Grill polenta and top with tomato sauce, steamed veggies, and grated Parmesan.
  57. Add a tomato slice to your breakfast sandwich or make it a toasted BLT.
  58. Bake spaghetti squash “pasta” with vegetable tomato sauce and melted mozzarella for a much lower calorie or gluten-free “noodle” than regular spaghetti. Thinly cut strips of zucchini also work as a noodle replacement.
  59. Top a dark green salad with grilled tofu, marinated in an orange-ginger dressing.
  60. Make a grilled vegetable sandwich, using as many colours of vegetables as possible or grate vegetables like beets or carrots to add to sandwiches in place of or along with lettuce.
  61. Make vegetable tofu kebobs (marinate tofu with teriyaki sauce first, then thread & grill: baste kebobs with marinade during cooking).
  62. Make a frittata (potato and vegetable omelette) with a side salad topped with a sprinkle of cheese.
  63. Puree cooked squash, carrots, cauliflower or other veggies and tuck them into pasta sauces or even baked goods like muffins.
  64. Grate fresh carrots or beets on to just about any grain or veggie dish for a colourful, crunchy boost.
  65. Make cauliflower, potato or yam “steaks’ on the barbecue by slicing into thick pieces, drizzling with a little oil and grilling.
  66. Make a commitment to try a veggie you haven’t had for a long while at least once a month. Visiting an attractive vegetable market can be very inspiring on this front. Celeriac? Fennel? Okra? Jicama? A new type of squash perhaps?
  67. Use lightly cooked sliced yam in the toaster instead of bread.
  68. Use mashed avocado or pureed cooked vegetables like carrots as a sandwich spread.
  69. Make an abundant mushroom saute using at least 2 or 3 different mushrooms.
  70. Turn leftover mashed potatoes into breakfast fritters by mixing with eggs, minced veggies and green onion and then pan frying.
  71. Google and try a good ratatouille or minestrone recipe.
  72. For a cold, crunchy treat, wash and cut the ends off a bunch or two of radishes. Leave them in a bowl in the fridge right at eye level for the kids or grownups. They’ll get eaten very quickly.
  73. Make homemade less greasy baked onion rings.
  74. Add ruby red radicchio to a green salad to instantly ramp it up a notch.
  75. Create your own house masterpiece of a tomato sauce. Make it uniquely yours with custom vegetable additions whether button mushrooms, fresh herbs, grated carrot or pureed cooked cauliflower, for example. Season with basil and oregano or spicy cayenne or jalapeno peppers.
  76. Let the kids make a different salad to accompany dinner each night, if not at least once a week. Or, set up a mini salad bar like pictured above and let them assemble their own unique salad creations.
  77. Ask for mostly vegetables on your plate when eating out (half the plate). Even at the sushi place. A side of stir fried veggies maybe or a veggie-based soup?
  78. Slice zucchini lengthwise into thick pieces and grill. Serve with a sprinkle of Parmesan or salsa.
  79. Add vegetables to the fruit you blend into a smoothie. For example, kale or spinach leaves with apple and pineapple or beets and carrots in an orange-strawberry smoothie
  80. Try different vegetable combinations for a change from the usual stir-fry:
  •  Use only green vegetables like broccoli, celery, green beans and green peppers.
  •  Try a 3-pepper stir-fry with red, green and yellow peppers.
  •  Make it Asian-style with Chinese broccoli, Bok choy, mini-corn cobs and water chestnuts.
  • Use just red and green peppers, canned diced tomatoes and fresh basil and oregano for an Italian twist.

Google “vegetable recipes” for endless inspiration. www.lentils.ca also has some beautiful ideas for vegetarian dishes combining lentils and vegetables.

Cheers!

 

6 Easy Ways to Eat More Squash

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An absolute beauty of a vegetable, unfortunately squash doesn’t even make the top ten list of the most consumed vegetables. Yet, winter squash (acorn, butternut, pumpkin, kabocha, spaghetti squash…) is more than worthy. It’s a great source of vitamins, fibre and deliciousness, practically as versatile as potatoes. It’s local in Canada and although available all year long, it’s in season and at it’s peak from September through December. Store it in a cool, dark place – doesn’t have to be in the fridge until cooked.

Do not Fear: Six Delicious Ways to Use Squash

  1. Roast it to use as a side dish. To make life easier, use this HACK: Slice the top and bottom off of a whole squash, poke it to make a few holes, microwave for about 2-3 minutes, then enjoy easy peeling and chopping compared to fearing for your life (or at least the safety of your hand) with the hard skin of squash and a sharp knife. Acorn squash is delicious roasted in halves (at 400 degrees F for about 40 minutes) and served with a drizzle of maple syrup or balsamic vinegar. It can also be cut into wedges, drizzled with a little olive or canola oil and sea salt then roasted for about 30 minutes, flip it over half way through roasting. Make clean up easier by lining the baking pan with parchment paper before roasting.  (Squash halves or large chunks will take longer to roast than small cubes.)
  1. Sub spaghetti squash for regular spaghetti noodles. Simply roast the squash halves then scoop out the “noodles”. This cuts the calories in a pasta dish by 85% (30 calories/cup of spaghetti squash versus 220 calories/cup of regular spaghetti noodles). Another delicious idea is to roast the halves topped with tomato sauce, basil and feta for lasagna-like deliciousness.
  1. Toss squash cubes into a salad. Peel and cube squash, toss with olive or canola oil and sea salt and roast for about 25 minutes. Cool, then mix with leafy greens, sun-dried tomatoes, feta and a lemon-garlic vinaigrette. Cubes of roasted squash also go great in a breakfast burrito or curry dish.
  1. Puree into soup. Simply roast the squash cubes while sauteeing onion, garlic, celery and carrots in a little oil as a soup base. Add vegetable or chicken broth and herbs to the soup. Simply stir in the pureed cooked squash. HACK: use frozen cranberries as a pretty garnish that also functions to help cool hot soup when serving. Cranberry sauce is another delicious accompaniment to just about any roasted squash dish. Also local and in season at roughly the same time as squash, don’t reserve nutritious and attractive cranberries for Thanksgiving and Christmas only. HACK: freeze portions of leftover homemade cranberry sauce for a tangy addition to smoothies or warm oatmeal.
  1. Bake with squash. Use pureed cooked squash or pumpkin as you would applesauce for delicious muffins and loaves that aren’t dry. Cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger are squash’s dream teammates in fall season baked goods. Simply google pumpkin muffins for many delicious recipes.
  1. And don’t forget to use the seeds! They’re an excellent source of protein. Shelled pumpkin seeds, aka pepitas,  have 9 grams of protein in just a quarter cup!!! (approx 200 kcal). Buy already shelled pumpkin seeds (known as pepitas) and toast for extra yumminess. If you’re so inclined, you can easily roast the whole seeds from pumpkin or any squash you like.

PS – Squash is a great source of vitamin E, vitamin A, fiber and B vitamins. Au naturel, it provides only 40 calories/100 g serving. Enjoy!

Watch these squash tips on CTV Morning Live Vancouver, October, 2016 here

So, you want to create a recipe masterpiece…

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Scribble Collage

…it’s not actually all about food all of the time.

As a recipe developer I’m often asked where I get my inspiration, how I get ideas.

Although there are books and online resources well worth checking out if you’re an aspiring recipe developer or food writer, much of being creative in the kitchen isn’t learned from a book. It comes not only from the many food experiences you’ve had and conversations about meal challenges for consumers but also simply from within you. The more you allow yourself the freedom to be creative, the more readily the ideas will rise to the surface.  We all have ideas. Some flow freely, some get stuck behind fear or intimidation. Some days we’re a wealth of creativity. Other days we struggle to come up with a single original thought. Artists and musicians often say their best work came after surviving their darkest or most challenging times.

Reading food magazines and blogs is a wonderful way to be inspired with gorgeous food photos and recipes. (If ever taking inspiration from an existing recipe, crediting the source is respectable, professional practice.) Over and above that, the more you take any opportunity to exercise your ‘creative muscles’ the better. Look for situations that allow your brain to wander in new directions. People often say they get their best ideas or make their most important decisions while on vacation, when their brain is relaxed. Not surprising. Unplugging is an important creativity booster. That has been a key for me.

Playing charades or improv games also encourages creativity. Balderdash is a board game in which you have to make up a definition for a real, but unfamiliar word, and then try to convince the other players that your definition is the correct one. I recently gave a group of foodies – dietitians, Home Ec teachers and farmers – the task of defining a few lesser known culinary terms. If they didn’t know the correct term, they were encouraged to make up any definition they like. One of the words was “muddler” – in the culinary world it’s a tool used by a bartender to mash fruits, spices or fresh herbs to release their flavour, such as mint leaves in a mojito. At our session, alternate definitions ranged from “when your non-cook spouse tries to make dinner” to “a beer snatcher”. A “fool”, culinary, is an English dessert in which fruit is made into a custard. Those in the group unfamiliar with the term came up with answers like “a Gr 9 Home Ec student who lies on the floor of the kitchen during class” and “a close-minded person”. Not being a test, participants were encouraged not to care or worry if they didn’t know the correct term but instead to have fun, participate and exercise their creativity in the process of coming up with a definition, real or not.

Another creativity-enhancing exercise they participated in was to draw a masterpiece from a scribble. This is an actual thing. You can google ‘make a drawing from a scribble’ from which you go on to create your own original drawing. We often do this to help pass the time when waiting during travel or appointments. It’s always good for a few laughs. And laughs always seem to release creative energy and ideas. In the exercise, 75 people were given the same scribble as pictured above on the top left. Some immediately started drawing. Some turned the page upside-down and sideways first. Some thought about it for quite a while perhaps wondering what I was up to with this. Each one of them interpreted it differently. Some very simply, some more elaborately as the examples demonstrate. All jumped in with this unfamiliar task and took the opportunity to create and think outside the box. None of the drawings were “right” or “wrong”. With this, the word definition exercise, and a couple other tasks, my goal was to send them off inspired to explore and experiment with their own original ideas in the kitchen.

I’ve had the opportunity to create hundreds of healthy recipes for clients ranging from a supermarket chain and food companies like Kraft to commodity groups like BC Cranberries and BC Tree Fruits – even a few recipes that appear on canned goods and food packaging. My best ideas have come after immersion in creativity-enhancing situations, culinary-related or not.  And, from summer vacation where I’m soon headed.

To continue creating your own culinary masterpieces, I encourage wholeheartedly and fearlessly jumping into any and all creative opportunities you come across.  Laugh a lot and free yourself knowing there is no right or wrong way to do it.

Cheers!

Can You Smell What Time It Is?

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MojitoWho knew that in the 17th century, before electricity, spices were used to tell time? True story.

Spice ‘clocks’ released the scent of certain herbs or spices depending on the time of day. I love the idea of mint o’clock to wake me up or cinnamon for an energizer around 4 pm! Maybe there’ll be an App for that soon? It’s likely not out of the question that a little puff of our favourite scent could come out of our smart phone at different points in the day to let us know what time it is. Smell is the sense that’s most strongly associated with memory. Perhaps a whiff of vanilla or fresh basil would do a better job than the clock in reminding us to get to where we need to be on time? It seems it could at least promote taking a deep breath at several points in the day – likely not a bad thing.

If you appreciate delicious scents as much as I do, it’s kind of fun to think about what your favourite scents are and how you’d structure your clock. Oatmeal cookies baking? A warm spicy curry maybe?

Learning about this spice clock left me reflecting on how various food scents mark certain times of the day.  Here’s an example of what it might smell like around here depending on what time it is…

8 am Sunday – Maple Syrup. Childhood memory. Time to get up. Dad’s made his famous flax seed pancake breakfast. This is a scent our son and his cousins are now very familiar with from Grandpa’s pancake-making lessons. It was awesome when our 23 year old nephew (also a graduate of Grandpa’s pancake school) visited and we made him pancakes. His first words were “Yum! It smells like Grandma and Grandpa’s place in here!”.

7:30 am Monday – Apple cinnamon oatmeal is on the stove. It must be the start the school and work week.

3 pm Monday – Banana Loaf.  The school day is over. Coming home from school we’d often walk into the house to the warm scent of home baking. These days, I love it when our son and his pals walk in after school and say “Yum, it smells like muffins”.

5 pm Tuesday – Garlic and Herbs. Big staples in our home cooking – whether a soup, pasta sauce or stew, the scent of these aromatic vegetables sautéing can be detected in our home at some point between 5 and 7 pm most days.

4 pm Wednesday – Mango or Vanilla. Kiddo is making a snack. At age 11, he’s discovered that the ‘secret ingredient’ in a great smoothie whether strawberries and cream, mango or a ‘Frappuccino’ as he calls it, is a little hint of pure vanilla flavoring.

5:45 pm Thursday – Freshly squeezed lime and mint. I’ve grabbed some mint from the herb garden and muddled it into a virgin Mojito I’m sipping while making dinner.

6:30 pm Friday – the grill is on! Whether fresh vegetables tossed in a little olive oil and sea salt, marinated salmon or souvlaki, it must be Friday (or the weekend) when the scent of the BBQ wafts through the air.

8:30 pm any night – The popcorn is ready to snack on!

Scents mark so many occasions from the very special to everyday. Freshly brewed coffee and morning. Bacon and Saturday. The Christmas season is full of scented goodness…Grandma’s shortbread or gingerbread cookies baking, a mug of hot chocolate after coming in from the toboggan hill, warm apple and cinnamon cider simmering. Summertime is also full of many deliciously-scented memories – picking fresh local strawberries, a perfectly ripened peach plucked right off the tree, the kids squeezing lemons into the pitcher for their road side lemonade stand, that fresh bread from the Farmer’s Market vendor…

Research has shown that taking in the aromas of great food may even help us be more mindful eaters and less likely to overeat. Scents can certainly bring back great memories of happy times and family. Teach the kids to take in and appreciate the scents of real, wholesome food. The scents of a happy life! Reflect on your favourite scented memories for some culinary inspiration this week!

Breathe it all in!

Cheers!

 

Dietitian to the Cookie Aisle Please

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Global 2 Mar 09

Connecting with a retail dietitian just might be the most important thing you’ll ever put on your shopping list. Despite the occasional misconception, these experts are not in your grocery store to follow you around, to increase your guilt load or tell you what not to buy. They’re also not there to up sell vitamins or products you don’t want. Incredibly knowledgeable in a very specialized area of the food and nutrition field, retail dietitians operate at that perfect intersection between delicious tasting food and food that’s also great for your health and life! Retail dietitians are part of a larger group of registered dietitians, the only regulated food and nutrition experts in Canada.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting or working with over 250 retail dietitians from Canada, the USA, even England and Israel. They’re ALL passionate foodies with outstanding repertoires of practical ideas for every possible food situation you could ever face. They’re experts on nutrition truth and evidence versus hype while also being exceptional home chefs!  (Some are both dietitian and culinary school-trained chef, have additional post-graduate certifications in diabetes management, weight management, gut health, natural health products, cooking course instruction, media relations and more.) Whether needing portable breakfast ideas for your sporty kids, guidance to help your Dad manage his diabetes, meal inspiration for your gluten-free dinner guests, creative ways to get your kids eating more vegetables, tips on reducing food waste, ideas to expand your meals-for-one repertoire and much more, these experts are there to assist. Their services are usually offered free of charge simply for being a customer of the grocery store in which they work.

A few of the many very valuable dietitian services you can find in smart retail settings these days include:

  • Healthy Eating Tours – guided tours through the store customized to the group needs whether addressing diabetes, food allergies, nutrition for kids or assessing if new products are worth the hype, for example
  • Health events – often teamed with the store pharmacists, these events offer screenings for high cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, bone density and other health concerns
  • Cooking classes – stores with kitchen facilities are increasingly offering culinary events and programs for adults and kids groups on topics ranging from easy to make healthy snacks for college students living in residence, homemade baby food, seasonal party appetizers or how to host the perfect holiday meal, to name just a few
  • Recipes and Meal Ideas – often weekly recipe ideas displayed in the store, the flyer, on TV and/or the company website
  • Q and A services – a direct line to expert advice whether you catch the dietitian in the store, by phone or online.
  • Written materials such as a listing of the gluten-free products the store carries, tasty ways to use in-season mangoes or a meal plan for managing high blood pressure

These aren’t dietitians who couldn’t find work elsewhere. Far from that!  Not everyone can make it in this fast-paced, ever-changing environment  – one that is also traditionally very male dominant. Retail dietitians are also involved in projects ranging from advising senior management and department heads on how to  handle the latest healthy eating trends and the special diet questions they face from customers, keynote speaking at professional conferences and events for the public, assisting in the development of new healthy food products, creating ad campaigns that encourage eating healthy food, developing recipes and information that appears on food packaging, recruiting, training and leading teams of 50 or more in-store dietitians, communicating with food industry executives, being available as a subject matter expert to the media and even serving as the in-house wellness department offering nutrition consultations for employees.

As a nutrition student in the late 80’s, I remember wondering why grocery stores weren’t a major employer of dietitians? The very place where consumers make the majority of their food decisions! I wasn’t the first dietitian to ever work in a retail setting. In 1989 in Calgary, Alberta, I arranged a meeting with the corporate dietitian of Safeway, a supermarket chain that operates in both Canada and the USA. Having access to a dietitian as a grocery shopping coach of sorts was a concept I felt had tremendous opportunity to expand upon. After a varied nutrition career journey and while working concurrently as a consultant to media, the public and sports teams, I pitched an idea and went on to spend nearly a decade as a Retail Dietitian. It was a fantastic experience with a great company. Today I’m very fortunate to be part of a group of 10 brilliant colleagues – Canada’s first expert advisory group of Retail Dietitians (CRD – Canadian Retail Dietitians) – which includes representation from Canada’s most innovative grocery companies.

This inspired me to also include a few stories in this post directly from the trenches so-to-speak. Lesser known ways retail dietitians make life a little (or a lot) easier for consumers. Each situation was a memorable, positive interaction between customer(s) and retail dietitian. There are many more examples I could have included in sharing the often immeasurable ROI of a retail dietitian!

  1. Taking the edge off your hunger: You know how long it takes to get all of the seeds out of a pomegranate? During holiday season and with a great sale on pomegranates, I decided to profile and demo an easy pomegranate salsa recipe. As anyone who has done it will know, it indeed took some time to separate the arils of 5 pomegranates. I had the other ingredients in separate bowls ready to mix to make the salsa. I bent down to grab a spoon and looked up to find a customer scooping up and enjoying a generous handful of the arils – whole hand in the bowl! Although it meant I had to start all over again, we had an excellent chat and at least this took the edge off their hunger with a healthy snack. It also left me with a great idea for my next food safety-themed demo. Offering free apples, oranges and bananas for easily distracted, hungry kids shopping with mom or dad has also been an initiative customers appreciate very much.
  2. Providing a personal snack: In the same vein as the story above, we’ve had carefully prepared camera-ready food for use in TV commercials that were being filmed in the store disappear only to discover a curious customer enjoying watching the filming from the sidelines while satisfying a craving.
  3. Making splitting up a little easier: Who doesn’t love a cookbook with a full colour photo of every single recipe? Cookbooks made by retail dietitians are appreciated for their practical meal solutions. When a couple was going their separate ways, I was contacted with a request for a duplicate copy of a cookbook that was sold in the store a few years back and no longer in stock. It was a well-loved item neither wanted to part with. They were so appreciative to receive a second copy.
  4. Keeping the plot from over thickening: Or, at least the stir fry sauce! A young home cook asked if the produce bag they had filled to the brim with bulk cornstarch would be enough for a recipe they were planning to try. Saving them money, we were able to reduce the amount they bought by about 99%.
  5. Expanding the available treats: I have assisted many customers with diabetes in the ‘dietetic’ aisle of the Pharmacy and taken the time to explain how and why they can and should shop for a much wider variety of real, wholesome treats outside of this aisle. They are always very grateful.
  6. Preventing a chocolate marshmallow cookie emergency: I once responded to a panicked phone call from a customer who was calling from the cookie aisle looking at a case lot sale on a favorite treat, wondering what to do. It was a great opportunity to recommend many healthy snacks and provide some context with the 80-20 rule.
  7. Ensuring the recipe turns out: Nervous about the unfamiliar flavour and not seeing ongoing value in keeping a full $6 bottle on hand, I reassured a customer that the 12-ingredient recipe they were shopping with would still work out if the ¼ teaspoon of cardamom it called for was omitted.
  8. Getting it all done with one-stop shopping: Hearing customers express their stress in getting everything done in time for the holidays, it’s always great to see their relief when they realize they can get much of their gift shopping done right in the grocery store. In the early morning or late evening when all of the other stores are closed except the supermarket, I’ve been able to help customers find items for gift baskets like nuts, fruit, chocolate, fine cheeses, baking ingredients, tea and coffee. Cookbooks, cookware, kitchen gadgets, seasonal merchandise and gift cards make great last minute gifts too.
  9. Reducing the guilt load. Where some customers think the dietitian will take one look at their cart and judge harshly, expert retail dietitians actually do the complete opposite. I’ve had the opportunity to calmly reassure many customers that although they may have ideal grocery buying aspirations that include selecting only the cleanest, purest food, if the reality is that their budget doesn’t allow this in every case, we’ve worked together to find that happy medium place where they can be optimally nourished and feel relieved about it, no longer fearing shopping or feeling overwhelmed every time they step foot in the store.
  10. Reminding that we all have to shop: For a few years I appeared in a weekly healthy eating segment on TV. One time I was doing my own grocery shopping and could tell a customer was following me. They finally approached and said “Aren’t you Patricia Chuey? What are you doing buying your own groceries??? Don’t you have people who do that for you?” They were completely serious. In fun, I told them that even though I could have personal shoppers (not exactly true), I opt to buy my own groceries so I know what I’m eating. Truthfully, your retail dietitian most likely loves to do their own grocery shopping! These experts typically even include supermarkets, Farmer’s markets, food manufacturing facilities, farms and anywhere you can buy food as must-see tourist attractions when on vacation and away from their workplace.

 Watch for – and definitely don’t fear – the dietitian either already there or coming to a supermarket near you soon. These food pros are truly there to be your friend in making food choices that fit best for your family. Share openly and you’ll find they understand your challenges intimately and will help you approach shopping in the most nourishing way that works specifically for YOUR unique needs!

 

 

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