Green Options

Last Wednesday, two of my favorite foodies were on tv doing a segment about “guilt free” eating. Using simple substitutions, I learned I can save more than 200 calories by switching my morning bagel to an English muffin with Laughing Cow low-calorie cheese spread and almost 1,000 calories by switching from fettuccine alfredo to tofu noodles and light cheese. Simple changes that make decadent foods more health-conscious, what’s not to love?

For some people, quite a bit, actually. The foodies in question are Rachel Ray and Lisa Lillien — women who love talking about food in a way that doesn’t make a person like me feel overwhelmed. But their philosophies for simplicity, healthy substitution, and fun in cooking don’t always mesh with the more serious demands some food activists make. What I’m still not sure of is whether there’s a compromise to found somewhere in the middle?

Like a creamy scoop of Bi-Rite salty caramel ice cream that remains on your taste buds even though it’s gone down the hatch, the Slow Food Nation aroma still lingers. Besides some of the panel discussions, the Slow Food Nation, of course, involved tasting so we persevered the long lines and made our way to as many of the tasting stations that was humanly possible.

We had to weave through [...]