Food & Beverage

Cherries (831626178) thrive!
Fruits & Vegetables June 15, 2018

Cherries: Sweet and Savory

Fruits & Vegetables June 15, 2018

Cherries. As part of fruits and veggies month, Thrive! is featuring a few favorite fruits and veggies. A whopping 90 percent of adults and children don’t get enough fruits and veggies. So, add this one to your shopping list this week! HISTORY OF CHERRIES Cherries were once prized fruits, tasty enough to make it to the finest meals. They were featured at Roman conquerors’ meals and fancied by the Chineses noblemen. They were soon enjoyed by the common man when they were brought over to America in the 1600s. However, it wasn’t until the French colonists brought cherry pits over to America did…

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eggplants-thrive!-sized-IMG_4218 2
Fruits & Vegetables June 12, 2018

Eggplants: The Most Misunderstood Nightshade

Fruits & Vegetables June 12, 2018

Eggplants. As part of fruits and veggies month, Thrive! is featuring a few favorite fruits and veggies. A whopping 90 percent of adults and children don’t get enough fruits and veggies. So, add this one to your shopping list this week! HISTORY Eggplants are one of the fruits most commonly mistaken as a vegetable and have been documented as a part of the world’s agricultural landscape since early BCE. Originally reported in China and India, there is speculation that the eggplants earliest uses were medicinal rather than for food. Eggplants grow from the nightshade plant and were originally thought to be poisonous because…

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Foodimentary
Food & Beverage August 9, 2017

Basics Aren’t Boring – Its Foodimentary!

Food & Beverage August 9, 2017

My Dear Watson, it’s Foodimentary! As event professionals, it’s easy to get caught up in making everything grand. Dressing things up and making fancy upgrades is impressive, but it can also get complicated. Especially when it comes to designing event menus. That’s where foodimentary comes in. What is foodimentary? According to Urban Dictionary, food blogger John-Bryan Hopkins created the word foodimentary, defining it as “a specific way of looking at food or a food item.” And, that’s what we’re going to do—look at our food through the eyes and stomachs of those with food allergies and other dietary needs. We’re going to…

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Meeting Menu Makeovers
Food & Beverage August 2, 2017

Meeting Menu Makeovers

Food & Beverage August 2, 2017

Meeting Menu Makeovers – Let’s do it! In honor of ANTI-boredom month, I want you to think about how you can banish boring buffets and makeover your meeting menus. We need to stop serving foods that are lifeless, drain our systems and are full of sugar and artificial ingredients (see picture). It is a waste of money, energy and food. Buffets and meeting menus should be inviting, healthy, and full of life. The food we serve at meetings and at work should invigorate us and help us get through the day. Food is so important — it sustains us, it delivers a social focal point, and it is…

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Squash
Fruits & Vegetables June 29, 2017

Sit Down for Some Squash!

Fruits & Vegetables June 29, 2017

Squash! As part of fruits and veggies month, Thrive! is featuring a few favorite fruits and veggies. A whopping 90 percent of adults and children don’t get enough fruits and veggies. So, add this one to your shopping list this week! Summer squash is known as Cucurbita by its scientific name. It’s s a term that some scientists can’t agree on because of variations of its genus. There are between 10 and 30 species, and they’re probably all delicious enough to make it onto your menu. HISTORY Squash were cultivated as long as 10,000 years ago, and serve as an important vegetable…

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Fruits & Vegetables June 27, 2017

Papaya – One of the World’s Healthiest Foods

Fruits & Vegetables June 27, 2017

Papayas! As part of fruits and veggies month, Thrive! is featuring a few favorite fruits and veggies. A whopping 90 percent of adults and children don’t get enough fruits and veggies. So, add this one to your shopping list this week! Papaya is a delicious, juicy fruit, known for its uniquely sweet flavor and its vibrant sunset colors that encapsulate the tropical, warm places it grows in. HISTORY Papaya is one of the many fruits that is not originally from the many places we find it. It’s largely a part of the culture of these places as a result of natural migration,…

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Cucumbers fruits and veggies month
Fruits & Vegetables Recipes June 22, 2017

Get Some Cucumbers!

Fruits & Vegetables Recipes June 22, 2017

Cucumbers! As part of fruits and veggies month, Thrive! is featuring a few favorite fruits and veggies. A whopping 90 percent of adults and children don’t get enough fruits and veggies. So, add this one to your shopping list this week! How do you take your cucumis sativus? Personally, I prefer it in water and separately dipped in ranch, but there are a million ways to eat this simple, yet refreshing vegetable more commonly known to our dinner tables as the cucumber. HISTORY Cucumbers were first discovered by humans in India over 4,000 years ago. People who we may today call Indians,…

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Olives fruits and veggies month
Fruits & Vegetables June 20, 2017

Oh My! Olives!

Fruits & Vegetables June 20, 2017

Olives! As part of fruits and veggies month, Thrive! is featuring a few favorite fruits and veggies. A whopping 90 percent of adults and children don’t get enough fruits and veggies. So, add this one to your shopping list this week! The fruit of the olea europaea has been gracing Mediterranean food, from pastas to pizzas to breads and martinis for centuries, but you probably know this fruit better as the olive. This small fruit is famous the world over, and for good reason. HISTORY The olive tree, to the best of our knowledge, was probably developed somewhere around Turkey and Syria,…

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National Nutrition Month
Food & Beverage March 28, 2017

National Nutrition Month: March is the Time to Evaluate Nutrition and Taste

Food & Beverage March 28, 2017
Nutrition is a big part of our everyday lives. We continue to learn ways to improve our lifestyles, respond to medical challenges, and share in the growing awareness that nutrition and taste are not mutually exclusive. March is National Nutrition Month, which means it’s the perfect opportunity to evaluate the foods we serve our attendees. National Nutrition Month Every year, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics sponsors National Nutrition Month. It’s meant as a campaign to help bring focus to the importance of making informed choices and develop healthy eating habits. They also place importance on the right amount and…

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Swirls of cooked noodle on a fork - National Eat Your Noodles day
Food & Beverage March 13, 2017

It’s National Eat Your Noodles Day

Food & Beverage March 13, 2017

Noodles: A Food Staple of Many Forms It’s National Eat Your Noodles Day (#NationalEatYourNoodlesDay). Who comes up with these specialty days, I do not know, but I’m going to go with it today. Especially since what you think of as noodles might be different than the guy next to you. According to the Oxford dictionary, noodles are made from flour paste into very thin, long strips of pasta. Once cooked, they can be eaten in soup or with sauce. When you take my friend Chef Gloria Smiley’s pasta making class, you learn that pasta is simply white flour and egg. From…

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