Our First Month of Consumed
Snack bars, $64 roast chicken, and a quadruple chocolate cake to soothe election jitters
Hi readers! How was your weekend? Andrew and I spent ours trading off between phone banking and throwing 15 million pitches to our two baseball-crazed sons, while the third one had the time of his life eating Halloween candy in front of Mira: Royal Detective. Heading into Monday, everyone’s cup is full!
One weekend food highlight, aside from the quadruple chocolate cake that a friend brought me from Milk Bar, which powered me through a long morning of leaving voicemails for Pennsylvania voters: I made Ali Slagle’s recipe for tortellini with prosciutto and peas for dinner on Saturday night, and it’s my favorite kind of meal.
It hits every food group, truly takes less than 30 minutes, and can be made from items I almost always have on hand (I used Barilla’s dried tortellini instead of fresh, and half & half instead of heavy cream). This recipe happens to come from the NYT Cooking archive, but Ali also writes the brilliant 40 Ingredients Forever, a newsletter that is deeply in tune with my current urge to simplify life in any and every way possible. If you don’t already subscribe, I highly recommend checking it out.
This Month on Consumed
We’ve made it through our first full month on Substack! Thanks to everyone who read — and commented. (We love hearing from you.) In case you missed anything, here’s a quick rundown of what we served up last month.
We published our buying guide for kids snack bars, and I, for one, learned that the healthy-seeming bars to which I’ve been loyal for years are not all that they’re cracked up to be! Hmmmph!
Jane wrote about new research suggesting that the big problem with ultra-processed foods might be…texture?
Jane also shared the surprising refrigeration facts she learned from reading Nicola Twilley’s new book, Frostbite — and one hack from the author herself.
Liz dug into why restaurant prices are so high right now, and investigated whether you should jump on the A2 milk bandwagon (spoiler: probably not).
We interviewed Double Shift founder Katherine Goldstein for our first installment of “Hungry With…”, a food Q&A with real people about their real food routines. Think inspiration, not aspiration!
Jane shared her love for vinegar in general, and one vinegar in particular.
Coming Up in November
Our second buying guide will drop later this week. This one is all about yogurt, and GET EXCITED: Jane spent days bushwhacking her way through one of the most crowded and confusing categories in the grocery store to land on some smart and simple guidelines for you. Under normal circumstances this would hit inboxes tomorrow, but we felt like maybe less is more on election day?? So we’ll send it to you on Friday instead.
Speaking of the election — wait, have you heard that tomorrow there’s an election? — later this month we’ll be bringing you wisdom and insight from Food Fix’s Helena Bottemiller Evich on how you can expect the results of the election to impact the food you eat.
We’ve also got pieces in the works on a new AI-powered technology that could forever change the way you grocery shop; one strategy that restaurants are turning to help keep prices low; our best Consumed tips for how to simplify your Thanksgiving, and more!
What We’re Reading
This is Your Body On Sugar, The New York Times
One of the few things that Jane and I disagree on is sugar. She’s got a fierce sweet tooth and doesn’t like to focus on any one piece of her diet. I, on the other hand, sometimes wear a continuous glucose monitor for fun, and what I have seen I cannot unsee!! Anyway: The New York Times has a smart interactive guide to exactly what happens when sugar enters the body, from your mouth to your gut, pancreas, brain, and more.
The Unexpected Pleasures of Dirty Soda, The New Yorker
While we’re on the topic of sugar, I loved Hannah Goldfield’s recent dispatch from Utah about the latest trend among Mormon moms: sodas loaded up with creamers, fruit purees, syrups.
Junk Fees 86-ed from School Lunch Menus, USDA
If you want to a preview of how a potential Harris Administration might affect food policy, it’s worth noting an under-the-radar announcement from the U.S.D.A last week. Starting in the 2027 school year, students eligible for free and reduced price school meals will no longer be charged junk fees. These processing fees —which are estimated to cost families almost $100 million a year — increase the price of meals for already disadvantaged kids whose parents choose to pay online. It's part of a wider effort by the current administration to crack down on junk fees at banks, ticket vendors, airlines, and more. It’s also one more effort to move the country toward universally free school meals, something Minnesota Gov and VP candidate Tim Walz has already done in his home state.
Citing the Pandemic, TGI Fridays Files for Bankruptcy, NPR
RIP TGI Friday’s, where I spent many a Friday evening as a high school student drinking Diet Cokes and devouring loaded potato skins. The chain is the latest casualty of the shift in dining habits away from aging casual dining chains and towards fresher, faster, and cheaper options like Chipotle, Cava, and Five Guys.