Food and Beverage
Quick, Easy Recipes to Add to Your Dinner Rotation: Simple, nutritious meals to make more time for family
Making time for meals together can have a positive impact on the well-being of families, including children and adolescents.
Last Updated on July 12, 2024 by Daily News Staff
(Family Features) Making time for meals together can have a positive impact on the well-being of families, including children and adolescents. In fact, regular meals at home can help reduce stress and boost self-esteem, according to research published in “Canadian Family Physician.”
Mealtime conversations are also a perfect opportunity to connect with your loved ones. A study published in “New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development” showed these conversations help improve children’s vocabularies more than being read aloud to.
Making time for meals together shouldn’t require spending all night in the kitchen, however. A simple-to-prepare ingredient like eggs can help you spend less time cooking and more time with family.
For example, these heart-healthy recipes for Poached Egg Tostadas with Avocado-Tomatillo Salsa, Sweet Potato Hash with Eggs and Poblano Frittata from the Healthy for Good Eat Smart initiative, nationally supported by Eggland’s Best, are ready in 15 minutes or less. They include a wide variety of vegetables, fruit, whole grains and healthy protein sources, which are recommended by the American Heart Association to help prevent heart disease and stroke.
To find more tips for family mealtimes and recipe inspiration, visit heart.org/eatsmart.
Poached Egg Tostadas with Avocado-Tomatillo Salsa
Servings: 4 (1 egg and 1/2 cup salsa per serving)
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 4 corn tortillas (6 inches each)
- 4 cups water
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 4 large eggs
Salsa:
- 1 medium avocado, diced
- 1 medium Anaheim or poblano pepper, seeds and ribs discarded, diced
- 1 medium tomatillo, papery husk discarded, washed and diced
- 1/2 medium tomato, diced
- 1/4 cup diced red onion
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 medium garlic clove, minced
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- Preheat oven to 400 F. Line baking sheet with aluminum foil. Lightly spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.
- Arrange tortillas in single layer on foil. Lightly spray tortillas with nonstick cooking spray. Using fork, pierce tortillas to prevent from filling with air. Bake 5-6 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Transfer to serving plates.
- In large skillet over high heat, bring water and vinegar to boil.
- Once water is boiling, reduce heat and simmer. Break egg into cup then carefully slip egg into simmering water. Repeat with remaining eggs, avoiding eggs touching in water. Simmer 3-5 minutes, or until egg whites are completely set and yolks are beginning to set but aren’t hard. Using slotted spoon, drain eggs. Place each egg on tostada.
- To make salsa: In medium bowl, gently stir together avocado, pepper, tomatillo, tomato, red onion, cilantro, lime juice, garlic and salt. Serve with tostadas.
Nutritional information per serving: 185 calories; 11 g total fat; 2.5 g saturated fat; 3 g polyunsaturated fat; 5 g monounsaturated fat; 186 mg cholesterol; 169 mg sodium; 15 g carbohydrates; 3 g fiber; 2 g total sugars; 9 g protein.
Poblano Frittata
Servings: 4 (2 wedges per serving)
- 4 large eggs
- 1/4 cup fat-free milk
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 2 medium poblano peppers, seeds and ribs discarded, chopped
- 2 cups frozen whole-kernel corn, thawed
- 2 medium green onions, chopped
- 1/4 cup finely shredded Cotija cheese or crumbled queso fresco
- 1 medium tomato, chopped
- 1/4 cup fat-free sour cream
- In medium bowl, whisk eggs, milk and cilantro.
- In medium skillet over medium heat, heat oil, swirling to coat bottom of skillet. Cook poblano peppers 3 minutes, or until browning on edges, stirring frequently.
- Stir in corn and green onion. Reduce heat to medium-low and carefully pour in egg mixture. Cook, covered, 10 minutes, or until mixture is just set on edges and still soft in center. Avoid overcooking. Remove from heat.
- Sprinkle with cheese. Cut into eight wedges. Place two wedges on each plate. Top with tomatoes and sour cream.
Nutritional information per serving: 244 calories; 8.5 g total fat; 2.5 g saturated fat; 1.5 g polyunsaturated fat; 3 g monounsaturated fat; 192 mg cholesterol; 177 mg sodium; 27 g carbohydrates; 4 g fiber; 8 g total sugars; 13 g protein.
Sweet Potato Hash with Eggs
Servings: 4 (1 cup per serving)
- 2 teaspoons canola or corn oil
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped
- 4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 1/2 medium red or green bell pepper, chopped
- 2/3 cup fat-free, low-sodium vegetable broth
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
- 1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs
- hot pepper sauce (optional)
- In pressure cooker set on saute, heat oil. Cook onion 3 minutes, or until soft, stirring frequently. Turn off pressure cooker.
- Stir in potatoes, bell pepper, broth, garlic, paprika, cumin, thyme, pepper and salt. Secure lid. Cook on high pressure 3 minutes. Quickly release pressure. Turn off pressure cooker.
- Remove pressure cooker lid. Crack one egg into small bowl. Using back of spoon, make small well in potatoes. Slip egg into well. Repeat with remaining eggs, making separate well for each egg. Secure lid with pressure vent open. Saute 2 minutes. Let stand on “keep warm” setting 2 minutes, or until eggs are cooked to desired consistency.
- Serve hash sprinkled with dash of hot pepper sauce, if desired.
Nutritional information per serving: 258 calories; 7.5 g total fat; 2 g saturated fat; 1.5 g polyunsaturated fat; 3 g monounsaturated fat; 186 mg cholesterol; 244 mg sodium; 39 g carbohydrates; 6 g fiber; 9 g total sugars; 10 g protein.
SOURCE:
American Heart Association
At our core, we at STM Daily News, strive to keep you informed and inspired with the freshest content on all things food and beverage. From mouthwatering recipes to intriguing articles, we’re here to satisfy your appetite for culinary knowledge.
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Serve a Plate of Pasta Salad to Round Out Spring Picnics
If clear skies and bright sunshine have you dreaming of a fresh meal outdoors, a picnic may be just the solution. Rounding out your spread of sandwiches and cold refreshments doesn’t have to be a trick – instead, treat yourself to a light, simple side like this Picnic Pasta Salad.
(Feature Impact) If clear skies and bright sunshine have you dreaming of a fresh meal outdoors, a picnic may be just the solution. Rounding out your spread of sandwiches and cold refreshments doesn’t have to be a trick – instead, treat yourself to a light, simple side like this Picnic Pasta Salad.
Cooked rotini is mixed with fresh veggies, tossed with Italian dressing and topped with crumbled feta cheese for a zesty complement to your favorite al fresco meals.
Visit Culinary.net to find more ways to round out a perfect picnic lunch.
Picnic Pasta Salad
Recipe adapted from “Budget Bytes”
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 8 minutes
Servings: 10
- 1 pound rotini pasta
- 1 English cucumber
- 2 bell peppers
- 10 ounces grape tomatoes
- 1/2 red onion
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1 bottle (16 ounces) Italian dressing
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain in colander and rinse with cool water; drain well.
- Slice cucumber into half-moons, chop bell peppers, halve tomatoes, thinly slice red onion and chop parsley. Set vegetables and parsley aside.
- Transfer drained pasta to large bowl. Add chopped vegetables, parsley and feta cheese.
- Pour dressing over pasta salad and toss until evenly coated. Add salt and pepper then refrigerate until ready to eat.
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
SOURCE:
At our core, we at STM Daily News, strive to keep you informed and inspired with the freshest content on all things food and beverage. From mouthwatering recipes to intriguing articles, we’re here to satisfy your appetite for culinary knowledge.
Visit our Food & Drink section to get the latest on Foodie News and recipes, offering a delightful blend of culinary inspiration and gastronomic trends to elevate your dining experience. https://stmdailynews.com/food-and-drink/
Foodie News
How beef became a marker of American identity
Beef is central to American identity, history, and culture, leading to significant consumption and environmental impacts, while efforts to promote sustainable practices and alternative diets are emerging.
Last Updated on April 24, 2026 by Daily News Staff
Hannah Cutting-Jones, University of Oregon
Beef is one of America’s most beloved foods. In fact, today’s average American eats three hamburgers per week.
American diets have long revolved around beef. On an 1861 trip to the United States, the English novelist Anthony Trollope marveled that Americans consumed twice as much beef as Englishmen. Through war, industry, development and settlement, America’s love of beef continued. In 2022, the U.S. as a whole consumed almost 30 billion pounds (13.6 billion kilograms) of it, or 21% of the world’s beef supply.
Beef has also reached iconic status in American culture. As “Slaughterhouse-Five” author Kurt Vonnegut once penned, “Being American is to eat a lot of beef, and boy, we’ve got a lot more beef steak than any other country, and that’s why you ought to be glad you’re an American.”
In part, the dominance of beef in American cuisine can be traced to settler colonialism, a form of colonization in which settlers claim – and then transform – lands inhabited by Indigenous people. In America, this process centered on the systemic and often violent displacement of Native Americans. Settlers brought with them new cultural norms, including beef-heavy diets that required massive swaths of land for grazing cattle.
As a food historian, I am interested in how, in the 19th century, the beef industry both propelled and benefited from colonialism, and how these intertwined forces continue to affect our diets, culture and environment today.
Cattle and cowboys
Beginning in the 16th century, the first Europeans to settle across the Americas – and later, Australia and New Zealand – brought their livestock with them. A global economy built on appropriated Indigenous territories allowed these nations to become among the highest consumers and producers of meat in the world.
The United States in particular tied its burgeoning national identity and westward expansion to the settlement and acquisition of cattle-ranching lands. Until 1848, Arizona, California, Texas, Nevada, Utah, western Colorado and New Mexico were part of Mexico and inhabited by numerous tribes, Indigenous cowboys and Mexican ranchers.
The Mexican-American War, which lasted from 1846-48, led to 525,000 square miles being ceded to the United States – land that became central to American beef production. Gold, discovered in the northern Sierra by 1849, drew hundreds of thousands more settlers to the region.
The desire for cattle-supporting land played an integral role in the systematic decimation of bison populations, as well. For thousands of years, Native Americans relied on bison for physical and cultural survival. At least 30 million roamed the western United States in 1800; by 1890, 60 million head of cattle had taken their place.
Beef replaces bison
It is no coincidence that the rise of an extensive and powerful American beef industry coincided with the near-elimination of bison across the United States.
Bison populations were already in steep decline by the mid-1800s, but after the Civil War, as industrialization transformed transportation, communication and mass production, the U.S. Army actively encouraged the wholesale slaughter of bison herds.
In 1875, Philip Sheridan, a general in the U.S. Army, applauded the impact bison hunters could have on the beef industry. Hunters “have done more in the last two years, and will do more in the next year, to settle the vexed Indian question, than the entire regular army has done in the last forty years,” Sheridan said. “They are destroying the Indians’ commissary … (and so) for a lasting peace, let them kill, skin and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated. Then your prairies can be covered with speckled cattle.”
In 1884, with no hint of irony, the U.S. Department of Indian Affairs constructed a slaughterhouse on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana and required tribal members to provide the factory’s labor in exchange for its beef.
By 1888, New York politician and sometimes rancher Theodore Roosevelt described Western stockmen as “the pioneers of civilization,” who with “their daring and adventurousness make the after settlement of the region possible.” Later, during Roosevelt’s presidency – from 1900 to 1908 – the U.S. claimed another 230 million acres of Indigenous lands for public use, further opening the West to ranching and settlement.
The Union Stock Yards in Chicago, the most modern slaughterhouse of the era, opened on Christmas Day in 1865 and marked a turning point for industrial beef production. No longer delivered “on the hoof” to cities, cattle were now slaughtered in Chicago and sent East as tinned meat or, after the 1870s, in refrigerated railcars.
Processing over 1 million head of cattle annually at its height, the Union Stock Yards, a global technological marvel and international tourist attraction, symbolized industrial progress and inspired national pride.
Where’s the beef?
By the turn of the 20th century, beef was solidly linked to American identity both at home and globally. In 1900, the average American consumed over 100 pounds of beef per year, almost twice the amount eaten by Americans today.
Canadian food writer Marta Zaraska argues in her 2021 book “Meathooked” that beef became a key part of the American origin myth of rugged individualism that was emerging at this time. And cowboys, working the grueling cattle drives, came to embody values linked to the frontier: self-reliance, strength and independence.
Popular for decades as a street food, America’s proudest culinary invention – the hamburger – debuted at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 alongside other novelties such as Dr. Pepper and ice cream.
After World War II, suburban markets and fast-food chains dominated the American foodscape, where beef burgers reigned supreme. By the end of the century, more people around the globe recognized the golden arches of McDonald’s than the Christian cross.
At the same time, national programs reinforced food insecurity for Native Americans. In efforts to eventually dissolve reservations and open these lands to private development, for example, in 1952 the U.S. government launched the Voluntary Relocation Program, in which the Bureau of Indian Affairs persuaded many living on reservations to move to cities. The promised well-paying jobs did not materialize, and most of those who relocated traded rural for urban poverty.
The true cost of a burger
Policies encouraging settler colonialism ultimately led to more sedentary lifestyles and a dependence on fast, convenient and processed foods – such as hamburgers – regardless of the individual or environmental costs.
In recent decades, scientists have warned that industrial meat production, and beef in particular, fuels climate change and leads to deforestation, soil erosion, species extinction, ocean dead zones and high levels of methane emissions. It is also a threat to biodiversity. Nutritionist Diego Rose believes the best way “to reduce your carbon footprint (is to) eat less beef,” a view shared by other sustainability experts.
As of January 2022, about 10% of Americans over the age of 18 considered themselves vegetarian or vegan. Another recent study found that 47% of American adults are “flexitarians” who eat primarily, but not wholly, plant-based diets.
At the same time, small-scale farmers and cooperatives are working to restore soil health by reintegrating cows and other grazing animals into sustainable farming practices to produce more high-quality, environmentally friendly meat.
More encouraging still, tribes in Montana – Blackfeet Nation, Fort Belknap Indian Community, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, and South Dakota’s Rosebud Sioux – have reintroduced bison to the northern Great Plains to revive the prairie ecosystem, tackle food insecurity and lessen the impacts of climate change.
Even so, in the summer of 2024, Americans consumed 375 million hamburgers in celebration of Independence Day – more than any other food.
Hannah Cutting-Jones, Assistant Professor, Department of Global Studies; Director of Food Studies, University of Oregon
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
At our core, we at STM Daily News, strive to keep you informed and inspired with the freshest content on all things food and beverage. From mouthwatering recipes to intriguing articles, we’re here to satisfy your appetite for culinary knowledge.
Visit our Food & Drink section to get the latest on Foodie News and recipes, offering a delightful blend of culinary inspiration and gastronomic trends to elevate your dining experience.
Last Updated on April 22, 2026 by Daily News Staff
SAN DIEGO, CA — The award-winning JOEY Restaurant Group is continuing its U.S. expansion with the debut of its first San Diego location, JOEY La Jolla, opening April 23, 2026. The new restaurant will be located at Westfield UTC, one of Southern California’s premier retail and lifestyle destinations.
A New Dining Destination for La Jolla
Set in the heart of La Jolla, the 10,600-square-foot restaurant is designed to deliver a vibrant, upscale-yet-approachable experience. Guests can expect a seamless blend of indoor and outdoor dining, complete with a welcoming fire feature, lush landscaping, and a covered patio that opens into an expansive, modern interior.
Inside, the space features a lively bar and lounge area, complete with a DJ booth for select evenings, a curated wine wall, and contemporary art installations. The dining room centers around a striking olive tree beneath a wood canopy, creating a warm and immersive atmosphere ideal for everything from casual lunches to late-night gatherings.
Elevated Cuisine Meets Global Inspiration
JOEY Restaurants has built its reputation on globally inspired dishes and high-quality ingredients—and JOEY La Jolla is no exception.
The menu will showcase a wide range of offerings, including:
- Premium steak cuts like Bone-In Prime Ribeye and Tomahawk
- Fire-torched sushi and fresh seafood
- Shareable plates and handcrafted bowls
- Signature creations like Truffle Udon Carbonara
The beverage program is equally robust, featuring a curated wine selection and handcrafted cocktails such as the Good Life Margarita and Woodsmoked Old Fashioned. Guests can also explore “JOEY Supers,” a creative take on the classic highball with a refreshing twist.
Leadership Behind the Experience
The culinary and beverage program is led by an award-winning team, including:
- Matthew Stowe, Executive Chef and Top Chef alumnus
- Jay Jones, Bar Development Leader and Hall of Fame inductee
- Jason Yamasaki, Group Sommelier
Their combined expertise is expected to elevate JOEY La Jolla into one of San Diego’s standout dining destinations.
Soft Opening and Reservations
Diners eager to get an early look can reserve a table during the restaurant’s limited preview period from April 18–22, ahead of its official grand opening on April 23. Once open, JOEY La Jolla will offer full-service dining daily, including lunch, happy hour, dinner, and late-night service.
Hours of Operation:
- Sunday–Thursday: 11 AM – 12 AM
- Friday–Saturday: 11 AM – 1 AM
Location:
4489 La Jolla Village Drive, Suite 1600
San Diego, CA 92122
A Strategic Expansion into Southern California
According to company leadership, the move into San Diego marks a significant milestone in JOEY’s broader growth strategy. With its strong culinary culture and coastal lifestyle, La Jolla provides an ideal backdrop for the brand’s signature blend of hospitality, design, and globally influenced cuisine.
As San Diego’s dining scene continues to evolve, JOEY La Jolla is positioned to become a go-to destination for locals and visitors seeking a dynamic and elevated dining experience.
At our core, we at STM Daily News, strive to keep you informed and inspired with the freshest content on all things food and beverage. From mouthwatering recipes to intriguing articles, we’re here to satisfy your appetite for culinary knowledge.
Visit our Food & Drink section to get the latest on Foodie News and recipes, offering a delightful blend of culinary inspiration and gastronomic trends to elevate your dining experience. https://stmdailynews.com/food-and-drink/
