SMORGASBOARD: Earnest eats... Wild, wacky chocolate... Preserving tomatoes

Talk about it

Earnest eats

They’re called Earnest Eats Hot & Fit Cereals, which is a clue these cinnamon-scented cereals (oats, amaranth, quinoa mix) aim to make you feel good about digging into an a.m. bowl.

Calories top out at 190 or less per serving (and about 6 grams fat, 6 grams protein, 5 grams fiber) for each blend: American (cranberries, almonds, etc.), Mayan (cocoa, almonds, etc.), Asian (mango, green tea, sesame seeds, etc.)

The suggested retail price for a 14-ounce canister: $6.99. For a store locater or to buy, go to earnesteats.com.

Wild, wacky chocolate

The sweet folks who brought you Vosges Haut-Chocolat have stirred up a distinctly American line of chocolate bars: Wild Ophelia.

Sourcing ingredients from small farms and artisans (smoked sea salt from Maine, Angelus peaches from California), the brand delivers wild with a wink in eight flavors including Southern hibiscus-peach, and peanut butter & banana (both favorites with tasters). Other flavors include New Orleans chili and beef jerky, with more flavors on the way.

Suggested retail price is $3.99 for a 2-ounce bar. A store locater is at wildophelia.com.

Preserving tomatoes

You can’t completely stop Mother Nature. However, you can slow her down a little. Some people wrap green tomatoes in newspaper and store them in a cool, dark place. Keeping them away from light can keep them from turning red so quickly.

Some people have been known to put green tomatoes on a bed sheet spread on the floor in a spare room. And by keeping the lights dim and running a ceiling fan on low to keep the air moving, you can slow down how fast the tomatoes turned red and have them well into winter.

Some people just start freezing them as they ripen. It’s less work than canning and you can do it in small batches. The easiest way is to drop some tomatoes in boiling water for a couple of minutes then move them into ice water to quick-chill them. Pull off the skins and cut out the cores, then freeze them whole in freezer bags. Or cook them into batches of tomato sauce and freeze that.

Fruitier Yoplait

New from Yoplait is Fruplait, a line of yogurt that is actually different from regular Yoplait. According to the box (of four 4-ounce tubs) Fruplait contains “2X the fruit of the leading yogurt” — and you can see it, and it isn’t all on the bottom!

Fruitplait retails for about $3.29, 70 percent more per ounce than Original Yoplait.

Tags: accent, updates, smorgasboard, food, cooking