"Huffington Post" news and stories

"Family packs" stuffed with pork chops. Jumbo boxes of breakfast cereal. Gallon jugs of orange juice. The aisles of our huge mega-marts and wholesale food retailers are filled with enormous quantities of food. But do we really need it? Michelle Madden at The Huffington Post asks: Is food too cheap? Do we eat too much (in particular low nutrient-density food -- the cheapest of all), and waste too much, because we pay so little and therefore don't value it?

Read the whole essay at The Huffington Post.

Is that low-fat yogurt and raisin granola truly healthier for you than a full-fat yogurt and a bowl of Cocoa Puffs? It's important to read the labels, reports the Sweet Beet blog at the Huffington Post. When you take into account sugars, calories, and even chemicals, the foods labeled as better for you may not be such a sweet deal after all. Turns out there are artificial colors in the yogurt, and 16 grams of sugar in a mere 2/3-cup portion of the cinnamon-raisin granola. See the rogues' gallery of foods, and get the whole scoop at the Huffington Post.

With the release of The Most Popular YouTube Cooking Videos of 2010, your constant dinnertime dilemma -- Hamburger Helper or a scary new recipe that drives the family to McDonald's? -- may be over. Filled with easy-to-follow instructions and loads of helpful hints, each of the 20 foolproof recipes can be whipped up in no time. These videos guide your hand at easy classics like pizza Margharita, a jalapeño burger (just for Dad), buttermilk biscuits, and mac and cheese. Get fancy with salmon cooked in rendered duck fat, with broccoli and tomatoes. Or go exotic with Korean kimchi and Thai samosas. We wish spring were just around the corner, but in the meantime we can still think pink (and purple) with kid-friendly bunny cakes. Nobody said you had to make them all, but, honestly, you'd be crazy not to. Start with the sculptural potato ball in a potato box, above.

Visit the Huffington Post to watch them all.

And while you're at YouTube, check out the best videos from Slashfood (including a sneak peek at country music star Zac Brown's kitchen on the road), and the best from KitchenDaily (such as The Pantry Project series of how-to videos from Gail Simmons).

Street food has gone leagues beyond the old Sabrett umbrella, a steamed dog on a bun and a ginormous yellow mustard dispenser (but don't get us wrong; we're still Sabrett fans). L.A.'s Grilled Cheese Truck and the Phoenix take on a mobile Parisian crèpes unit, Truckin' Good Food, are street-food lovers' fever dreams. Are you with us on this? Head over to the Huffington Post for the low-down on the country's Top 10 Most Influential Food Trucks.

A blogger over at the Huffington Post recently found a novel way to discourage restaurant goers from making tableside "lemonade": She argues the penny-pinching practice is as filthy as it is uncouth.

It's a point that bears repeating, if only because heaping scorn on the sugar-and-lemon set has done little to dissuade them. It's an argument that also has the distinct advantage of being true.

I'm not sure exactly when lemon wedges became as obligatory as plates and napkins, but I've never worked in a restaurant that didn't garnish their glasses with them. Server sidework invariably involves slicing a few dozen lemons into half-pinwheels, a process that's almost always messy.