Highlight of the Week

It's been awfully busy around Peas HQ lately. Woo hoo, gettin' it done here in the house of PEAS!

Taking a luxurious, deep breathe and a moment to read the glowing (unsolicited, we swear!) review of our cheese pizza on ducttapeweddingring was the clear highlight of our week, so we wanted to share it with you.

Here's the taste portion (below) of the review, but do check out the full review and also keep up with ducttapeweddingring for the honest yet super playful comic relief that we're totally hooked on!

"This was the best frozen pizza — bar none — that I’ve ever had. Ever. Seriously. (I’m out of easy ways to add emphasis. Damn.) The crust, after about 10 minutes in the oven at 425 degrees, came out perfectly crispy (like most other decent pizzas, sure) but the taste was what really put this thing into a realm of it’s own. Know how there’s carrots and whatnot baked into the crust? Well, you’re not going to taste them (sorry if that’s disappointing) as what you’re going to taste is a golden wheat crust lightly brushed with olive oil. Really. If you know someone that abhors carrots, this is the best way to sneak ‘em by them. The sauce is an absolute treat — it tastes like actual tomatoes and not some sugary, ketchup gloop. And the cheese…my goodness, the cheese. For a light mozzarella, it was sharp and full of flavor, and it really made the pizza pop.

I don’t say this lightly or with any measure of hyperbole. This seriously was the best frozen pizza I have ever had — and I didn’t feel like crap after I ate it."

Hero Foods

"Hero Foods" are foods that provide rich amounts of key nutrients, specifically the nutrients that can be challenging for vegetarians to get enough of (like calcium, protein, iron, Vitamin B12 and zinc). These Hero Foods are excellently healthy and great for everyone to enjoy, so we thought we'd share them with you.

From The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook, here's their list of Hero Foods:

Do you already cook with many of these 'hero' ingredients? 

Are there any that you are excited to work into your repertoire? 

Eat for a Low-Stress 2011

One of our New Year's resolutions is to reduce stress in our lives... through what we eat! We thought this would be a great blog entry for the whole family!

A stressed person's body will hold onto less calcium, magnesium and potassium. Prolonged stress can lead to deficiencies of these minerals as well as B vitamins and electrolytes while experiencing increased production of free radicals which stresses the body further, leaving us more susceptible to illness and slower to heal. Although we'll be preemptively reducing stresses in our lives, when faced with unavoidable stresses, we'll count on certain foods to help our body fight the physical effects of stress.

Here's the list of soothing, stress-relieving foods that we'll be eating more of in 2011 and hope that you will too:

Other recommendations include:

• a diet that's 50% raw fruits and vegetables
• minimize dairy consumption
• limit caffeine intake
• supplement vitamin D to aid calcium absorption
• regular exercise
• "tense and release"progressive relaxation. Tense a muscle group for a count of ten and then release.
• solid night's sleep. For mild, natural assistance, try camomile tea and/or melatonin.

Wishing you a happy New Year!