Consider that the typical American breakfast consists of toast, bagels, waffles, pancakes, biscuits, muffins, “breakfast cereal,” and the like. Ask yourself this: “How come the typical American breakfast is practically all white flour and sugar?” And then you will understand why I am not the typical American breakfast eater. Continue reading
Category Archives: Uncategorized
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Chickpeas on Cucumber Cups
One thing I learned from The Gardener (my mom) is that if you have a can of beans in the cabinet, you have a meal. And since it was a rare day that there weren’t a few cans of garbanzo beans (also known as chick peas) in the cabinet, there was always a meal to be had. This recipe comes from glutenfreeeasily.com. It makes a great lunch, a great snack, a great contribution for a potluck. I think you’ll like it.
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Pasta-ta-DIE-for
When a former Jersey girl tells you that she likes tomatoes, there’s a pretty good chance that she ain’t kiddin’ around. In fact, I would go so far as to say that there is only one time of year when a tomato is really worth eating at all, and now is it. Think about it this way: This time of year I celebrate tomatoes. The rest of the year I just go through the motions. So here’s one magnificent recipe for my fellow tomato lovers. It comes to you courtesy of cooks.com. If you can’t get Jersey beefsteaks, use the juiciest tomatoes you can find.
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
A few weeks ago I got the idea to make a special treat for our friends. It had to be easy and, since the supermarket was already closed, it had to be made from ingredients already in my house. What do I always have around? That’s easy — chocolate and peanut butter! Even though I had never made peanut butter cups before, they turned out fantastic.
A Comparison of Popular Diets
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about carbs, both intact and stripped. What are stripped carbs? Carbs that were once intact (like wheat, rice, and corn), but which have had their fiber matrix stripped out through a variety of manufacturing processes. This means sugar, white (wheat) flour, white rice, and corn starch and syrup. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: It’s-All-Good Brownies
Lots of my friends think I never eat treats, sweets, or anything fun AT ALL. They are so wrong. Now it’s true that I don’t eat stuff that I would categorize as “food-like,” such as corn syrup, or white flour, or maltodextrin. But I definitely enjoy my share of desserts. For example, the peanut butter cups that I made a couple of weeks ago from quality dark chocolate and organic peanut butter (one ingredient — peanuts), were absolutely sublime, and easy. And yesterday I ate a chocolate macaroon that was pretty yummy. Continue reading
Ratatouille at Home
I would like to tell you about a recipe I made this week. This recipe is for a ratatouille (of sorts), but unlike most recipes it is not about the ingredients. It’s about the sources. Most of the ingredients came from around my own house. Here’s how it went. Continue reading
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Mint Fruit Sorbet
Thank you to Healy Real Food Vegetarian for an exceptional, delicious, and super cool sorbet made from mint, pineapple, and mango. That’s it. Stay cool!
- 1 /2 cup frozen pineapple
- 1 /3 cup frozen mango
- 6-8 mint leaves, chopped
Combine all the ingredients in a food processor or high speed blender (like a Vitamix), and process at high speed until it reaches the consistency of sorbet. Serve in a stemmed wine glass with a mint leaf on top. P.S. The mango is optional; if you don’t have any, double the amount of pineapple.
Are Brown Eggs More Nutritious?
Many people operate under the misconception that brown eggs are more nutritious than white ones. The purpose of this week’s post is to disavow you of that notion. In fact, the color of the shell has nothing to do with the contents of the egg.
Egg shell color is related to the breed of hen that laid the egg. In general, chickens with white feathers lay a white egg, and chickens with dark feathers lay a brown egg. Across the spectrum, however, there is a significant amount of variation.
My black and white Hamburgs lay a small, relatively angular egg, more cream-colored than chalky white. Such distinctiveness makes it easy to tell these eggs from the rest. In contrast, the gold-laced Wyandottes lay a very long, light brown egg with pink color tones, interestingly symmetrical from end to end so that, at first glance, the top and bottom are not always easy to distinguish from one other. Finally, the Golden Buffs lay enormous XXL-sized eggs, warm brown in color. These beauties are gigantic, so big that many of them, at least half, don’t fit in a standard egg carton. And if I do try to fit them in, the carton won’t close.
When you crack a fresh egg, whether white, cream, pink, beige, or brown, you can expect to see a yellow-orange yolk perched high above a clear, firm white. The very deep yellow yolk, practically orange, tells you that this nutritious egg came from a chicken whose diet consists of plenty of grass, bugs and worms. The color of the shell has absolutely no relation to what’s inside.
Just like with people.
YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Macadamia Parsley Pesto
I found a wonderful site called Rubies and Radishes with lots of wonderful and creative recipes. Here’s one that I especially like. I can see pouring a couple of teaspoons of this magic green elixir over an omelette, or roasted asparagus, or a cup of rotini; or stirring a spoonful into a mug of vegetable soup. If you have basil, parsley, and oregano growing in your garden like I do, then you are practically there.
- 1 cup flat leaf parsley
- 2 cups fresh basil
- 3-4 cloves garlic
- 1 /2 cup olive oil
- 1 /4 cup macadamia nuts
- 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 2 tsp. fresh oregano
- 1/4 tsp. sea salt
- 1/4 tsp. pepper
Combine all ingredients in a food processor or high-speed blender until smooth.