Monday, April 14, 2008

Healthy Blogging Awards

I woke up yesterday to learn that The Slow Cook had been selected as one of 10 inductees in FoodFit.com's first annual "Best Healthy Food Blogs" awards. Who knew?

We are in pretty good company. The other blogs chosen are Eat Close to Home, Chefs Collaborative, Chews Wise, Edible Nation, The Ethicurean, Mighty Foods, 101 Cookbooks, Pinch My Salt and Organic to Be. Most of these are already on our blog role.

You might well ask, What are these awards and what is FoodFit?

Foodfit is the creation of Ellen Haas, a one-time food activist who became the Clinton administration's assistant secretary for food and consumer services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, presiding over the nation's school lunch program, among other things. Formerly president of Consumer Federation of America, Haas founded and served as executive director of Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, a national advocacy group that agitated for improved food labeling, seafood safety and beef grading.

Haas has authored four books in recent years, beginning with "Great Adventures in food: Fresh Ways to Celebrate Every Meal" (St. Martin’s 1999) and "Fit Food: Eating Well for Life" (Hatherleigh Press, 2005). She started the FoodFit.com website in 2000. Subscribers (apparently free) receive a personal fitness profile and a diet plan with recipes--many contributed by some of the country's top chefs--aimed at specific dietary needs. The site sends periodic e-mails with targeted advice, and there's also a chat room where subscribers can compare notes.

The website has a number of features--an interview with Alice Waters, tips on how to burn more calories, what to do about knee replacement surgery. For some reason, though, the time frame seems to be stuck on fall. For instance, there's a segment on how to get motivated for fall entertaining. Yo, we're in April already!

It's not clear how The Slow Cook found its way onto FoofFit's radar. "In honor of National Public Health Week, FoodFit Founder Ellen Haas has picked her Top Healthy Food Blogs," is how the website announced the awards.


Well, we are tickled to have been chosen. The Slow Cook is about growing food close to home, making dinner a meaningful experience for the family, taking control of the pace of our own lives. Our idea of healthy eating is to be a little more mindful of how feeding ourselves affects the rest of the planet.


So thank you, Ellen Haas, for including The Slow Cook in such an esteemed group.

5 comments:

Drew @ Cook Like Your Grandmother said...

Congratulations on the win. I'm always glad to see people getting recognition for doing real, un-fussy food from scratch.

I haven't quite built up to (sub)urban agriculture yet, so I still have to buy most of my ingredients. I'm going to have to check out some of the links on your site to see more about it.

Drew
How To Cook Like Your Grandmother

Ed Bruske said...

Love your blog and your book, Drew. Frankly, I think we cook better than either of our grandmothers. But they had the correct right idea about how to live--use what you have, make things yourself, don't throw anything away. Getting back to that lifestyle is a good idea.

Joanna said...

Well done Ed ... not surprised; it's well deserved

Joanna

Drew @ Cook Like Your Grandmother said...

Actually, Ed, I've got a standard joke whenever someone says, "Your grandmother must have been a great cook."

"Actually, there's a reason I called it How To Cook Like Your Grandmother."

My maternal grandmother grew up in an orphanage where kitchen duty was something you get as a punishment. My paternal grandmother died when I was five or six, so I don't know anything about how she cooked.

Bottom line is, I've based my whole style of cooking on nostalgia for something I never personally experienced. Psychologists probably have a name for this.

Ed Bruske said...

Drew, you've pulled it off nicely. I still have fond memories of my grandmother's cooking--or some of her cooking, anyhow. I think most of us probably exagerate a little when it comes to the grandma's prowess in the kitchen.