Category — Healthy Eating

Strawberries are a delicious way to add more antioxidants and fiber to your diet.  According to the California Strawberry Commission, a serving of strawberries, just 8 berries, contains more vitamin C than an orange, and 2 grams of fiber!  What’s even better, is that a cup of strawberries contains just 50 calories.

I’ve found that the best and fastest way to get my daily intake of fruits and veggies is to make a power-packed morning smoothie. Here’s a strawberry smoothie recipe to get you started.  It also contains blueberries–another superfood!

Strawberry & Blueberry Smoothie

• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 cup frozen strawberries
• 1 banana, peeled
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 1 individual size container of yogurt

Combine all ingredients in a blender, or smoothie maker, and blend until mixture reaches desired consistency.  To add a little zip, replace some of the milk with orange juice.  Yogurt can be any flavor, depending on what you like.  I’ve also added a handful of uncooked quick oats to this recipe for increasing my whole grain intake.

It’s the weekly produce aisle dilemma for me…do I spend more to fill my refrigerator with organic fruits and veggies or just stick with the old standbys?  Have you ever wondered if buying organic food is really worth the money?  According to the green living gurus at Ideal Bite, there are times when organic is definitely better. Here are the top ten picks for food you should always try to buy in organic varieties:

1. Peaches
2. Apples
3. Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Lettuce
9. Pears
10. Imported Grapes

In addition to reducing the risks associated with consuming pesticides and other chemicals,  organic foodies claim that organic produce tastes better, and is more nutritious. Here’s an interesting article on the benefits of eating organic foods.

If you’re trying to make room in your grocery budget for organic foods, consider slashing bottled water from your grocery list. A recent California study showed that bottled water isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

If you’re trying to turn back the hands of time, you may want to give blueberries a try.  These plump and royal-hued berries should be considered little gems when it comes to maintaining a youthful appearance and good nutrition.

Here are just a few of the health benefits of eating blueberries:

• Blueberries contain more antioxidants than any other fruit.   Eating blueberries wards off cancers and heart disease because of their high concentration of anthocyanin.
• Blueberries slow the aging process, preserve eyesight, and help us stay mentally alert.
• Blueberries prevent urinary tract infections.

Here’s a recipe that will help you add blueberries to your diet!

Banana Blueberry Bran Muffins

• 4 ripe bananas, pureed in blender or food processor
• 1 package frozen blueberries
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 2 eggs
• 3 tsp. baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups oat bran
• 1 quart of buttermilk (see below for substitute info)
• 4 cups Kellogg’s All Bran cereal
• 2 1/2 cups flour

In a large mixing bowl, combine bananas, blueberries, walnuts, eggs, baking soda, sugar, vanilla, and oat bran until coarsely blended.  Then, add buttermilk, cereal, and flour.  Stir until thoroughly mixed.  Fill muffin pans 2/3 full and bake at 375 degrees F for approximately 30 minutes.

No buttermilk?  You can make your own buttermilk substitute in 5 minutes.  To make 1 cup of buttermilk, add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to a measuring cup.  Then fill to the one cup line with regular milk.  Gently stir, then set aside for 5 minutes before using.  The muffin recipe above requires 1 quart (4 cups) of buttermilk, so you’ll need to do this four times, or quadruple the recipe.

Here are many more blueberry recipes.

In my never ending quest to squeeze more veggies into my family’s diet, I was reading the other day about the health benefits of sweet potatoes.  Turns out these funny looking root vegetables are an excellent source of vitamin A, and a good source of both calcium and vitamin C. In addition, the antioxidants contained in sweet potatoes are linked to helping the body heal itself, and fight cancer and other diseases.  This article on sweet potatoes even rates them as the most nutritious vegetable in existence.

You can make baked sweet potatoes in the oven, or even in your microwave, just like a regular baked potato, or mash them.  I’m also going to try this skillet recipe:

Skillet Sweet Potatoes

• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 2 whole sweet potatoes
• 1 cup sliced onions
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• Salt and pepper

Peel sweet potatoes with a vegetable peeler.  Using a mandolin slicer or a knife, slice the potatoes into 1/2 inch strips, and then the onion into medium-thick slices.

In a nonstick skillet, cook onions in oil for 5 minutes, or until softened.  Next, add sweet potatoes and vegetable stock.  Cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes until potatoes are tender.   Serves 2-4.

Sweet potatoes pair well with pork dishes, or baked chicken breasts. Here are more sweet potato recipes.

Whatever you do, don’t throw away the pumpkin seeds leftover from carving Halloween pumpkins!  Roasted pumpkin seeds are a delicious and nutritious Halloween treat, and they’ll stay fresh for a couple weeks in a tightly sealed container or bag.  Here’s how to make them:

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Separate pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin pulp and place in colander.  Rinse with water, and sift through with your hands to wash away any remaining pulp.  After rinsing, place seeds on paper towels to dry. When seeds are dry, place them on a cookie sheet, and toss with a drizzle of olive or canola oil.  Add in any seasonings you like such as salt, garlic salt, Old Bay seasoning, etc.

Bake seeds in a 350 degree oven, stirring every few minutes, until golden brown.

Read more about pumpkin seed nutrition facts.

Lately, I’ve been trying to introduce more whole grain foods to our family’s menu.  I know the health benefits of whole grain foods are amazing, but we don’t like the ‘cardboard-ish’ texture of some of them.  I have found some delicious 100% whole wheat bagels that everyone likes, and even some whole grain toaster pastries that make a great quick breakfast, but I’m going to try to make my own whole wheat bread too.

If you have a bread machine, this looks like a very simple whole wheat bread recipe:

Whole Wheat Honey Bread

• 1 1/8 cups water
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/3 cup of honey
• 1 tbsp. dry milk powder
• 1 1/2 tbsp. shortening
• 1 1/2 tsp. active dry yeast

Place all ingredients in the pan within your bread machine.  Following the directions for your particular model, adjust to whole wheat setting, and start. Source:  All Recipes.

I made this for dinner the night I made my chicken broth.  It was easy and delicious.  Serves four.

Butternut Squash Soup

• 1 butternut squash peeled and cut into one inch cubes (I bought mine precut)
• 3 cups homemade chicken bouillon OR 3 cups store bought chicken bouillon
• 2 tablespoons butter
• the vegetables left over from making the stock OR 1 onion, peeled and quartered
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• salt to taste

DIRECTIONS FOR USING MY HOMEMADE STOCK: Throw out the parsley, garlic and the skins from the onions.  Keep the rest of the vegetables in the pot along with about 3 cups of the strained broth.  Add the squash and boil until the squash is soft.  Put all the vegetables in the food processor.  Stir the pureed vegetables in the pot with the broth.  Add the butter, spices and salt to taste.  Serve hot with a dab of sour cream or heavy cream if you like.

DIRECTIONS FOR USING STORE BOUGHT STOCK:  Melt the butter in your pot and sautue the onion for a bit until soft.  Add your bouillon and the squash and cook til soft.  Puree the onion and squash in the food processer then stir the puree in to the pot with the broth.  Add the spices and salt to taste.

I have almost all the risk factors for contracting skin cancer: pale skin, blue eyes, freckles, an immediate relative who has been diagnosed with skin cancer and a history of being burned several times over.  To add fuel to the fire, I live between Southern Cali and Australia, I love the outdoors and I hate putting on sun block!  All this considered, I still have a fantasy that I can not only eat to protect my skin, but also perhaps, ingest my way to reversing the skin damage I already have!  Here’s what the experts say I’ll have to eat if there’s any chance of making my dreams reality.

• Vitamin A - Found in carrots and low-fat dairy products such as yogurt.  A vitamin A supplement is also recommended for it’s dramatic benefits to the skin, however use caution in taking it if you’re pregnant - it can harm the baby in large doses.
• Antioxidants - The best sources are berries: blueberries, strawberries and blackberries.  These protect skin cells from DNA damage.
• Essential Fatty Acids - Found in salmon, walnuts and flax oil.  Some women prefer to take fat from their butt and shoot it into their face to look younger.  I think I’ll try eating more salmon first.
• Oils - Make sure it’s cold-pressed, expeller processed or is extra virgin.  Commercial oils are full of crap and heated when processed which ruins the good stuff.  Oil is high in calories however so you only need two tablespoons per day.
• Selenium - has been proven in some studies to prevent skin damage.  Brazil nuts are a high in selenium.
• Green Tea - can be useful if put on the skin as well as digested.  Green tea has been proven to prevent and reduce the risk of skin cancer.
• Water - An oldie but a goodie.  Make sure you drink at least 8 glasses per day.  Your skin will thank you!

Check ou WebMD for a full report on healthy foods for skin.

Here’s what I know about food and epilepsy.  Diet -not drugs- completely cured my niece.

I witnessed the whole thing go down over several years.  My five-year-old niece suffered several devastating seizures which caused my brother and his wife to seek help.  The only remedy doctors prescribed was drugs.  These drugs, they were told, would never cure my niece, they would only control the seizures with the faint hope that the inevitable onset of retardation may not occur.  Luckily, my brother and his wife were informed about the Ketogenic diet.

For anybody out there who is struggling with this issue, I can’t tell you how to do the diet, I can only tell you that the diet works.  But, it’s not easy to follow.  You have to have 100% commitment.  I watched my brother travel around for years with a food scale and a hungry daughter, just hoping and praying that this diet, consisting mostly of fat, would prove the best thing for his beloved daughter.  It did, she is now a perfectly healthy, thriving college student who can eat whatever she wants and remains drug and seizure free.  Another young girl who was diagnosed with epilepsy at the same time as my niece wasn’t so fortunate.  Her parents refused to put her on the diet and instead chose to follow the doctors orders.  She is now in a wheel chair, reduced to becoming a  drooling, mentally ill adult.

Witnessing that experience changed my life.  I’m now inclined to always look beyond the doctors prescription and take matters into my own hands.  I’ve been lucky to have only had minor ailments so far in life, but I have to admit that I have cured them with diet, exercise and life style changes as opposed to medicine.

If you or someone you know has the unpleasant problem of reeking onions and garlic after a meal, Cooking and Blogging is here to help.  I personally love to use both of those bulbs, but I’ve have had to lay off because of the stinking and burping effects it leaves on some of those I’m feeding.  Is there a way to get the same taste with out the nasty side effects?

YES WE CAN.

It comes in the form of an Indian spice called asafoetida (pronounced as-fi-TI-da) powder or hing.  I was first introduced to it when learning some tricks from ayurvedic cooking by my friend John Joseph.  The sage-old, Indian diet is devised for optimum health of people and the planet and is one of the tastier, good-for-you eating philosophies I’ve tried.  That is due to the well-crafted use of spices, and asafoetida is one of the star players.  It is used instead of onions and garlic because it leaves no aftertaste or smell on the palette.  However, it does stink before it’s cooked, but don’t let that alarm you, just keep it tightly sealed when storing.  You can pretty much cook with it the same way as garlic or onion - when you start a sauce or stew you can saute it in a little oil then build your culinary masterpiece from there.  Basically, anytime a recipe calls for chopped onion or garlic use the same amount of the powder, or maybe a little less until you get used to it.

If you can’t find hing at your grocery or health food store you can buy it online.  I got mine from kalyx.  They seemed to be the cheapest at $5.21 per bottle, a small price to pay for a huge improvement in the smell of your breath!

(Asafoetida is the white powder toward the top left of the picture above)