food

Beans Replace Shortening in Yellow Cake? Really?

Posted on 10/18/2012 by Carole Carson | Fat to Fit | Comments

Personal Health | Your LifeI’ve been experimenting with a recipe that replaces shortening in brownies with an equivalent amount of black beans. I first noticed the recipe on Heidi Swanson’s wonderful Web site 101 Cookbooks. Heidi wished she had created the recipe but instead credited Ania Catalano’s new cookbook, Baking with Agave Nectar, as the source. Applesauce or vanilla yogurt had been my go-to replacements in the past. But the idea of using black beans in place of shortening intrigued me, and I couldn’t …

Do Healthy Choices Matter?

Posted on 10/2/2012 by Tammy Gordon | AARP Blog Author | Comments

Food | Personal Health | Your Life Felice Shapiro is a writer, entrepreneur, and publisher as well as the founder of Better After 50, a weekly online magazine. In addition to being a teacher and avid runner, hiker, and yogi, she is an AARP contributor. When something good happens to me it’s because I’m good. When something bad happens to me it’s because the world or something out there is bad. When something bad happens to someone else it’s because they’re inherently bad. When something good happens …

How To Teach Kids Nutrition? Plant Something

Posted on 09/20/2012 by Alejandra Owens | General News | Comments

Food | Volunteering“What do you do to get the kids to like stuff like kale? Or radishes?” I asked. Ms. Denise immediately begins shaking her head in protest, with a huge grin on her face. “If they take the seed and plant it. If they grow it. If they see it every day while they’re out on the playground. If they walk by and smell it. They will love eating it,” she said. We were standing in an edible schoolyard on a …

Ten Ways to Outsmart Food Cravings

Posted on 09/6/2012 by Carole Carson | Fat to Fit | Comments

Personal Health Losing weight and keeping it off require effective management of food cravings that can easily undermine plans to eat healthfully. Use these 10 tips to manage yourself through the crazy maze of cravings: 1. Eat at regular intervals. To avoid becoming overly hungry, don’t go more than five hours without eating. 2. Include protein in each meal to control appetite. Skinless poultry, fish, eggs and low-calorie dairy products are good sources. 3. Stay hydrated with water, since thirst can mask …

With the Aid of Science! News Roundup

Posted on 08/31/2012 by Ian Cunningham | AARP Blog Author | Comments

Personal HealthBionic eyes, curing malaria and sweet, lovely chocolate. There’s a lot of cool and groundbreaking science and medical news that came out this week. Medical science was kind of awesome this week. Cyborg: A 54-year-old blind Australian woman was fitted with a bionic eye that stimulates her nervous system to allow her to see some light. While not actually vision, it does seem to be a good first step toward a better understanding of integrating technology with the nervous system. …

The Old Fashioned’s Grandfather

Posted on 08/19/2012 by Marshall Fawley | Cocktails, Spirits and Mixology | Comments

Entertainment | Food | Your LifeWhen I was asked to contribute a weekly article on cocktails for the good folks of AARP, there was no doubt in my mind what the first article would cover. The Old Fashioned is one of my favorite cocktails. Unfortunately, most restaurants and bars, when tasked with serving one, give the customer a fruit mashup of booze, fruit, ice and who-knows-what-else. The truth is, the original recipe for the Old Fashioned is deceptively simple and delicious. First, a little history. …