The Top 17 Health Claims Big Food Uses To Keep You Buying More and More
It’s Weight Loss Season (again)! If you’ve watched any TV the past couple weeks you’ve seen it happen before your eyes! The ads for diet plans and diet aids are streaming before us. And after months of pushing indulgence the food industry is now promoting health … or at least its version of health. As […]
Recipe: Crazy Good Cranberry Orange Quick Bread
Over the years Cranberry Quick Bread has become a festive, holiday classic. In fact when I ran Pillsbury’s dessert and baking mix business, Cranberry Quick Bread sales were so important that they were a big part of making our profit goals in November and December. And part of the marketing strategy behind these mixes was to portray them as […]
Recipe: 100% Delicious Whole Wheat Pie Crust
There’s a myth about pie crusts, and I’m not sure where it comes from. For some reason, people think pie crusts are hard to make. I’m here to tell you that isn’t true. While I’ll admit it can take a little practice to get them looking perfect, the only thing you should be scared of […]
Recipe: Refrigerator Whole Wheat Rolls
Have you ever seen that holiday commercial where two brothers “fight” over the last crescent roll. If they only knew what was in those rolls their fights might end for good. Although the exact ingredients may vary slightly by manufacturer, here’s a run down of what’s in the average can of refrigerated crescent rolls:
Recipe: Rosemary & Herb Whole Wheat Stuffing
If there’s anything that brings back my childhood memories of preparing Thanksgiving it’s stuffing. When I was a little kid I’d help my mom put together our family’s homemade stuffing. As a child of the 70’s, though, our stuffing recipe was filled with white bread and then later bags of Pepperidge Farm Stuffing mix. Unfortunately these […]
Recipe: A Healthier Green Bean Casserole
One of Big Food’s tried-and-true strategies to drive sales is to create recipes that call for use of their products. Most larger food companies have a team of home economists designing these recipes. Sometimes contests like The Pillsbury Bake-Off ask consumers to share recipes. These days even bloggers are getting in on the action by designing “sponsored” recipes. But every so often one […]
Recipe: Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup for cooking with or eating!
If you venture into a grocery store this time of year you can start to see them stacked high. Like red and white mountains towering from the supermarket shelves, these cans adorn end-of-aisle displays and pop up across the store. Yes, it’s the American processed food classic—Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Condensed Soup. Founded in 1869 the […]
Recipe: Homemade Cranberry Sauce
Canned cranberry sauce was a mainstay on my mom’s Thanksgiving table. Refrigerated and cut into slices, it was exceptionally easy and popular—even us picky kids ate it up! But somewhere along the line a good friend of my mom’s introduced us to REAL cranberry sauce. Over the years hearing the “pop” of cranberries on the […]
Confessions of a Former Turkey Farmer
If you’re not a vegetarian or vegan, probably one of the most important decisions you can make for your Thanksgiving dinner is what kind of turkey you’re going to serve. Unfortunately many of the things we should know when buying our Thanksgiving turkeys have been hidden from us. A while back I had the chance […]
Recipe: Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and Chicken Broth
One of the many businesses I ran while I worked in Big Food was Progresso Soup. At the time we positioned the brand as a more adult choice with bigger and better ingredients. Turning Campbell’s iconic, condensed soup can into a symbol for watery, kiddie soup was the strategy, and we closed the ads with […]
Recipe: Fast & Easy Roasted Chicken
When I worked in “Big Food” probably one the biggest struggles I’d hear moms share was answering the question, “what’s for dinner?” While more and more dads are learning about this predicament, the problem is no less vexing. Here’s the typical situation: you have a busy life—work, kid’s activities, maybe helping out with your parents, […]
Hello Again!
Hey, there. Bruce Bradley here. It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but before I get back to blogging, I thought I’d share a little bit about what I’ve been up to, why I stopped actively blogging, why I’m coming back, and what you can expect from my blog going forward. When I started this […]