Food and drink news you can use

Donuts for Grownups at a party
Donuts for Grownups at a party

Irish-Whiskey-infused donuts. “Donuts for Grownups” brings you the best of all possible worlds–luxurious sweet treats with a touch of spirit. They’ll cater these things at your event—fresh out of the donut-making thingamajig. OMG, they’ll even let you pick your liquor (vodka, bourbon, Bailey’s and more). Brought to you by Sweet Dreams Mini Donuts and Uisce Beatha (ish-kia-ba-ha) Real Irish Whiskey. Just in time for St. Patty’s Day, people.

Farmers Fridge fresh mason-jar snacks and salads
Farmers Fridge fresh mason-jar snacks and salads

Farmers Fridge. A vending machine with super-healthy, fresh foods? Yep, put in your dollars and out come nutrient dense, locally grown salads, meals and snacks that taste great and fill you up. The salads and snacks are handcrafted in portable Mason jars each morning in a local Chicago kitchen and then stocked in over 14 locations around the Chicagoland area daily. Starving before or after the gym or need a quick lunch? Their Cheater Salad sounds fabulous (romaine lettuce, turkey bacon, white cheddar, hard-boiled egg, sunflower seeds, corn, carrot, organic cucumber, grape tomatoes and honey mustard dressing) at under 400 calories.

Italian olive oil, both oil and an oil bottle ...
Olive oil & bottle from Northern Italy, at the lake Garda (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Olive oil is like gold these daysExtra virgin olive oil in Spain and Italy has doubled in price in the course of a single year, according to experts at Sol&Agrifood. Still, prices in Spain, at 3.40 €/kg (vs.  1.80 €/kg a year ago), are just half that of Italy, where wholesale price is consistently quoted above 6 €/kg (vs. 3 €/kg in 2014). Get the straight dope here from the good folks at some of these Chicago vendors: City Olive, Oh, Olive! at the French Market, Old Town Oil, and Eataly’s Olive Oil specialists.

 Divine Chocolate Bars. Fair-trade, fabulous and non-GMO, this stuff comes in milk and dark and in flavors like raspberry, toffee & sea salt, hazelnut truffle, mango coconut and more. Several of the dark versions have the levels of cacao you need to get all the antioxidant benefits of serious chocolate.
Divine 70% dark chocolate bar
Divine 70% dark chocolate bar

New online TV show “America Cooks with Chefs” highlights tasty, healthy eating

A lot of us busy Americans battle with weight while we also struggle to find time to cook. It’s a tough combination to overcome.

Ora TV, a new television platform that puts out some unique and fun shows (love William Shatner’s Brown Bag Wine Tasting), now brings life to the concept of pairing healthy, chef-made recipes with tips from America’s most popular weight-loss program, Weight Watchers. In the first season, a lucky few folks got picked to cook simple dishes with James Beard award-winning chefs on live TV–and we get to learn along with them. What’s not to love?

Check out this episode where Chicago’s own Chef Tony Mantuano of Spiaggia, one of America’s finest restaurants, shows Victoria Phillips (Lake Forest, IL) how to dazzle her two kids with a quick and easy-to-make pasta/zucchini/tomato salad with pan-seared salmon.