Zesto Market & Juicery in Newtown: Vegan, Organic, Locally Sourced & Delicious Ingredients Interview Restaurant Vegan Newtown Smoothies Healthy Eats healthy Health & Wellness April Guilbault February 21, 2024 We’ve all walked into rooms that hum with energy. That special kind of vibrancy you can feel in the air, or in the spirit that pours from the people in your midst. In my recent travels, this inspiring energy was felt within the space that is Zesto Market & Juicery in Newtown.Zesto Market & Juicery is, with its colorful logo and window art, a small establishment that one could easily pass in their daily rounds as it sits on a fairly busy street. I, myself, whizzed by it on my first trip there. However, one should take note of this establishment because it is dishing out huge helpings of good vibes in the form of healthful food and wellness knowledge. Great vibes, actually. These folks are buzzing with enthusiasm about eating clean, nourishing food and they are excited to share it with the community. Read More
CT Guide To 40+ Immunity Boosting Products: Markets, Apothecaries, Herbs, Broth, Juice, Teas and More Features Ingredients Herbal Immune Boosting Healthy Eats healthy Herbs Juice Bar Specialty Market Special Dietary Needs Best of CT Homepage Elderberry April Guilbault October 11, 2020 There is so much talk and discussion these days about immunity, staying healthy, and protecting yourself. When you ask fifty people about what they do to stay healthy you will probably get fifty different answers. Since every human is unique, something that works for one might not work for another! However, we all know that famous quote from Hippocrates about food being thy medicine, right? There are so many foods, plants, teas, and drinks that can potentially pack a real punch for strengthening our systems. There is a wide, intriguing world of healthy options out there, it’s just finding what works for you. May some of the ideas on this list help keep you healthy and safe in the months to come.Our guide includes over 40 local CT markets, juice bars, apothecaries, and products to help boost your immune system for 2020. Read More
Zucchini Overload? Try This Westport Farmers’ Market Recipe for Stuffed Zucchini Ingredients Recipe healthy Lynn Felici-Gallant August 12, 2016 A guy walks into a doctor’s office with a zucchini in one ear, a cucumber in the other, and a carrot stuck in his nostril. The man says, “Doc, this is awful. What’s wrong with me?” The doctor sits him down and says, “First of all, you need to start eating sensibly.” To many at this time of year, zucchini is no laughing matter. In fact, this fruit of summer is so abundant some dare say they are sick of it. The good news is twofold: firstly, an abundance of any fruit in the Curcubita pepo family (which includes zucchini, summer squash, pumpkin, and cucumbers) is a sign of healthy bee pollination. While zucchini is easy to grow, it depends on plentiful bee activity for an abundant crop (or dedicated farmers who hand-pollinate). Assuming your favorite growers at the Westport Farmers’ Market haven’t been pollinating by hand, a bountiful crop of this summer staple means bees are happy. And when bees are happy. . . Read More
15 Places to Eat Healthy in CT: Juice Bars, Restaurants, Organic Markets & Food Trucks (2016 Edition) Ingredients Restaurant Juice Bar Juice Cleanse Organic healthy Best of CT April Guilbault January 03, 2016 No partridges and pear trees in our version, but there were.... 12 Frosted Cookies...11 Drinks-a-Drunk...10 Dips-for-Dipping...9 Ice-Cold Cocktails...8 Trays of Hors d’oeuvres...7 Festive Brunches...6 Company Dinners...5 Cooooookie Traaaaays (everybody sing)!...4 Cheese Straws...3 Baked Hams...2 Yule Logs...and (finally)...1 Healthy Meal for MEEEEE!! Time to get back on that wagon, everyone. And thankfully, you have us to help you do it! Happy 2016 to you and may it be filled with good eats and good health! And ok, a good organic wine or beer now and then. Here are 15 Healthy Restaurants, Juice Bars, Organic Market & Food Trucks across the state of Connecticut. Read More
8 To The Bar Snack Bars: Raising the "Bar" in CT Ingredients Gluten-Free Organic Special Dietary Needs healthy Kid Friendly Dessert CTbites Team February 19, 2013 Finally, A healthy nutty snack that is doesn’t taste overpoweringly of high fructose corn syrup! I’m talking about the new 8 To The Bar snack bar that a pair of Connecticut cousins have recently brought to Fairfield county markets. Made of a medley of eight different organic nuts, oats, dried fruit, honey and coconut, the bar has a great taste and texture. I particularly love the sour cherries that give the snack a tanginess, which, married with the sesame and coconut and the crunchiness of the nuts, translates to a taste that is deliciously more-ish. The bar hits the mark for post exercise recharging. I tried my first bar after a five-mile run and found it both satisfying and energizing (not to mention delicious) – a fact that local fitness studios have cottoned on to. The bars are now available at Joyride, Kaia Yoga and the Saugatuck Rowing Club in Westport. Read More
6 Great Cleanses to Start the New Year Right Ingredients Juice Cleanse healthy Sarah Green January 02, 2013 What could be more appropriate for a CTbites article than to paraphrase a Shakespearan play whose title contains a tasty pork product? HAMlet, at his existential and post holiday binge worst probably also asked "To cleanse or not to cleanse...that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the gut to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous feasting, Or to take action against a sea of troubles and, by cleansing, - end them. Don't worry. And don't bother with the nunnery. Instead, get thee to one of the establishments listed below and sample a cleanse to rid yourself of post-food-orgy regret. Start the new year by taking care of your body with one of these 6 great cleanses: Read More
The Stand Juice Cleanse: 5 Days Without Food Ingredients Fairfield Norwalk Special Dietary Needs healthy Jane Beiles March 21, 2012 Can a diehard food lover survive 5 days without solid food? I love food. I love to eat it…raw food, cooked food, gourmet food, diner food, farm-to-table food, bar food. My first paychecks came from restaurants – seating or serving those seeking food. Decades later, I now earn my living taking photos…and yes, you guessed it, the subject matter of which is, quite often, food. So how in the world did a food-lover like me end up committing to spend 5 day chewing exactly none? Read More
Nothin' But Bars: Best Granola Bar in CT? Ingredients Features Brunch healthy Breakfast Kid Friendly Dessert Christy Colasurdo January 26, 2012 In a world all about “grab and go,” I was happy to stumble upon “Nothin' But” snack bars after a spinning class at Joy Ride in Westport recently. That same week, we spotted them at the Westport Farmers’ market and the Village Market in Wilton. Seems that the chewy little bars, packed with ‘nothin’ but’ organic oats, nuts, seeds and dried fruits and hand-mixed with organic cane sugar, olive oil and honey have found a cult following in Fairfield County. Not only are these the tastiest and most nutritionally dense snack bars we’ve tried (not too dry, not too sweet, loaded with fruits, nuts and all-natural ingredients), they’re also packaged in re-sealable Ziploc bags so that you can eat half in the morning and save the other half for a midday pick-me-up (if you have the willpower). Read More
Blueberry Season Opens TODAY @ Bishop's Orchards Ingredients Local Farm healthy kids activity Kid Friendly Stephanie Webster July 13, 2011
A Guide to Juice Fasts in Fairfield County CT Ingredients Restaurant Special Dietary Needs Specialty Market healthy CTbites Team February 17, 2011 If you’re not going three times per day, then something’s not right ,”says Glen Cavallo, who, along with Lisa Storch, owns Catch a Healthy Habit Cafe in Fairfield, where I’m sampling one of the Super Smoothies that is bottled up for customers doing the Café’s Five Day Juice Cleanse. To hear Glen, and other cleansing gurus like Carissa Delicicchi at The Stand in Norwalk, and Carrie at Kaia Café in Westport, talk, it seems that most of us could probably use a little “cleaning out” every now and again. A Juice Cleanse is a nourishing diet consisting of liquid food allows the digestive organs time to rest and heal from the toxins of modern living. They give your body a break from bad habits like caffeine and alcohol and reset the palette for healthier foods. Read More
Green Food Tips To Reduce Your Footprint Ingredients Features Education Going Green Organic Seafood healthy CTbites Team April 29, 2010 One of the easiest ways to make Earth Day every day is to green your kitchen. Here are some delicious and fun ways to reduce your family's "foodprint" while eating well. You can also view some of Analiese's tips on this Channel 8 news segment. 1. Buy locally grown food from a farmers' market and learn to cook with the seasons. Michel Nischan's (of The Dressing Room) latest cookbook is perfect for anyone looking for inspirational ways to cook with the seasons Read More
Green Gourmet To Go: Healthy Eats in Bridgeport Ingredients Features Local Farm Organic Special Dietary Needs Vegetarian healthy Farm Fresh Liz Rueven April 28, 2010 If you discover sweet potatoes and spinach in your fudge brownies at Green Gourmet to Go don't be surprised. OK, you can keep that a secret from your kids because the veggies are not detectable in these moist, chocolatey bites or in the Blondies with a sweet potato base. The chocolate (anti oxidants a plenty!) masks the veggies and you will be better off for having added a few more to your daily intake. My fave desserts were the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and the almond oaties. They tasted most like what I would expect (read: crave) from a cookie. Imagine eating your veggies in your dessert! I didn't mean to jump to the end first but I was so enthralled by the ingredients list that I did exactly that! Linda Soper-Kolton has been open in Black Rock for only 5 weeks but she is well on her way to establishing herself as a resource for healthy meals and nutrient dense foods. Read More
A Guide to Fairfield County 2010 CSAs Ingredients Features Delivery Service Local Farm Organic healthy Farm Fresh CTbites Team February 26, 2010 Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is a means for consumers to buy a share in a farm's seasonal production directly from the farmer. Consumers benefit from buying local, farm fresh, high quality produce at an attractive price and farmers benefit from pre-selling the harvest. It’s a clear win-win. CSA members typically pick up their weekly shares at the farm or a location in their community, but a new CSA option is delivered to your door! Community pick up locations generally involve a small volunteer commitment, perhaps two hours per season, during which the site is readied and broken down for weekly share distribution. CSA membership is not for everyone because in such a partnership arrangement, the consumer shares both the bounty of the farm's harvest and some of the risks inherent in farming. We have lost so much farmland in Connecticut that less than one percent of our residents earn a living by farming. Eat well, support your local farmer and do your bit to preserve farmland by buying a CSA share in one of our precious organic or IPM (Integrated Pest Management) farms. Back in January I announced that it was CSA registration month and shared that two organic farms were expanding and had opened their lists to new CSA families: Sport Hill Farm in Easton and The Hickories in Ridgefield. The CSAs from these two farms quickly sold out. The good news is that there are still a few CSAs open for new subscribers, but you should act quickly if you want to secure a share. Read More
Superior Snacking: BlueBelle Premium Granola Bars Ingredients healthy Kid Friendly Dessert Liz Rueven February 24, 2010 For some time now I have been making special trips to a Doc's, a Westport coffee house, just to purchase their hand made BlueBelle Granola Bars. I would look for any excuse to drive down their street in the hopes of finding my favorite flavor. Always on the hunt for talented small local producers, I recently tracked down the owner of BlueBelle Premium Granola Bars, Westport's Jerri Graham, to learn more about her take on this popular snack. Jerri's mission is to create healthy bars that are delicious, satisfying and enhance over all well being. She takes simple, nutritionally dense ingredients and combines them such that each one is identifiable and discernible. She is a creative soul with great business integrity, who understands the importance of a product to both enhance one's health and thrill the palate. There are currently 4 variations on the bar, all using the same base of organic oats and oat flour. The choices are Lemon Ginger, Fruit and Nut, Cherry Cranberry Almond and Chocolate Coconut, Read More
What The Heck Is A CSA? Ambler Farms Event Tells All Ingredients Features Education Local Farm Organic Wilton healthy Farm Fresh Stephanie Webster January 05, 2010
Home Made Indian Fare in a Flash Ingredients healthy Recipe Indian r2d2 August 20, 2009 As I walked into my house the other day, distracted with thoughts of what to make for dinner for our houseguests, I was greeted by a sweet scent of ginger and curry wafting through the door. I was famished after a long day and was downright tickled to find a delicious terrine of spinach, chickpeas, and Indian spices stewing on my stovetop. I sighed, thinking how pleasant it was to have houseguests after all! My dear friend Jackie and her Indian husband, Habib, were staying a few nights on their way up to Maine. As I lifted the lid and took in the tantalizing aroma, I was transported back to Jackie and Habib’s wedding in a Tribeca loft, where Habib’s mother had seemingly spent weeks preparing the most sumptuous Indian fare for their wedding reception. I had heard from Jackie that Habib had inherited his mother’s cooking skills as well as their old family kitchen secrets, but I had never experienced it firsthand. Turns out, anyone can enjoy this home made Indian fare without spending hours in the kitchen. Read More
A Better Bread: Wave Hill Breads in Wilton Ingredients Bakery Special Dietary Needs Wilton healthy Breakfast Stephanie Webster August 11, 2009 My first experience with Wave Hill Breads was at The Dressing Room in Westport. Ordinarily, when the "bread course" arrives, I sample but only pick as I like to save my appetite for the main event. That evening, however, when the waiter strolled to the table, the smell of freshly baked bread immediately altered the dining plan. It was warm to the touch, had a strong crunchy crust, and the kind of dense spongy inside that has great mouthfeel. It required no spread. It was perfect all by itself... although the sweet creamy butter slathered on sure didn't hurt. When asked where this resplendent loaf had whence come, they answered Wave Hill Breads. Googling Wave Hill Breads from the restaurant, I found to my great excitement, that these lovely loaves were made locally in Wilton, in a small bakery right off Route 7. I was there the following day. I had to find out more. Read More
