Nutrition

What foods should I eat to insure wellness? How should I prepare them? Is food medicine?

What is this?

by ladypbwiggins

20160115_131340 (2)What is this?

It’s a little jar of successful goodness!

For weeks I had been thinking about the ease or dis-ease of making my own condiments. I watched those chefs on the Food Network make sauces and it didn’t look so hard. I quickly followed that thought with, “You are not a professional chef and you don’t even like to cook.” I chickened out and bought the organic ketchup from my favorite store, The Organic Roots.  The desire to make my own resurfaced as I thumbed through the Daniel Plan Cookbook. Lo and behold there it was: a homemade ketchup recipe. I have had this book for  months and I didn’t notice the recipe. So here is my version

The recipe called for 1 cup of sun-dried tomatoes. I didn’t have enough so I used organic tomato paste and organic Roma tomatoes. All ingredients are certified organic unless otherwise stated.

6 Roma tomatoes

2 tablespoons tomato paste.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon of agave  (I didn’t have raw honey)

1 teaspoon of sea salt

I threw all ingredients in the Vitamix. Blended on high until smooth.

It’s homemade ketchup.

One more thing off the grocery list except in emergencies.

Note. The consistency is thicker than the ketchup in the store. It was also sweeter. It didn’t hve that tangy taste. Store in the refrigerator. There are no preservatives. I plan to make it again and use the sun-dried tomatoes and add a little onion and garlic. I’ll let you know what happens.

 

Back In the Lab 2

by ladypbwiggins

If you are like me, long blog posts sometimes get to be tedious. That’s why I broke Friday’s laboratory experiments into several parts. Continuing.

Country-Style White Loaves
20160115_122001

I tried to find the link for this recipe but there was only links to the book. It is The Art of Cooking Recipes and Techniques(The Cooking Club). The basic elements were all purpose flour (white), yeast, sugar, butter, milk and water. Those who know me personally, this recipe is healthy sacrilege. I must tell you I paid the price. I believe it was the source of gastrointestinal disturbances and inflammation pain in my joints. The reason I used these ingredients was because I bought the flour for Christmas desserts that we did not make. I decided to use it up and then replace it with oat flour or gluten-free flour. It was okay. Heavy like my great-grandmother’s.

Homemade Ketchup20160115_131340

This recipe is found in The Daniel Plan Cookbook. I used this recipe but I didn’t have enough sun dried tomatoes. Once again I substituted. I used ripe Roma tomatoes. I guess we are so used to the store bought kind that the sweetness was a little much. I don’t know if the tomatoes and honey combination was the source. I will use it and make the next batch with the sun dried tomatoes as instructed. I also checked the ingredients on the organic ketchup I had bought before. It contained more spices. Maybe I will add some of these spices on the batch after that. Continuing to experiment until I get the taste we want.  Ketchup

 

Vitamix Minestrone Soup

20160115_151027

I’ve wanted to try making minestrone soup for a while. I found a recipe that appeared to be similar to The Olive Gardens’ Ministrone. Before I had a chance to try it, I discovered a recipe in my Vitamix cookbook.  I tried it with a few changes. I used black beans instead of kidney beans and vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. I guess I blended it a little longer than necessary because my soup looked creamier than theirs. However, it tasted good. My husband and I decided mine would make a good spaghetti sauce. Here is the link for the recipe. It is worth a try. It is a tasty, quickly made soup. Vitamix Ministrone.

Some adjusting and changes will be made to better suit our needs and lifestyle.

Happy Experimenting.

Back In The Lab

by ladypbwiggins

On Friday January 15, 2015, I finally re-entered my my lab (kitchen). I have cooked meals but after the holidays I just was not interested in doing any “new recipe” cooking. I awaken quite early but I did not enter the lab until about 6:30 AM. I put the coffee on and moved into action.

The first order of business was to prepare for breakfast before my husband joined the conscious world.

20151026_091752Turkey Sausage I seasoned the ground turkey so that the sausage seasoning would have time to penetrate. This time I made more to freeze for future breakfasts.

 

Oatmeal and Dried Fruit Muffins 

I didn’t particularly care for bran muffins until I made these. Usually, I experience20160115_122020d very dry muffins. The black strap molasses and unsweetened applesauce make them quite tasty and moist. In stead of purchased applesauce, I put a fresh apple and a little water in my Vitamix and let it rip. The recipe is in Dr.Steven Masley’s 30 days Heart Tune-Up.
I cannot publish the recipe because of copyright laws. I would recommend purchasing the book, especially if you have heart problems. There is a lot of good information for heart health and many tasty recipes.

Mini Potato Corn Meal Cakes

Have you ever had boxed potatoes flakes and didn’t know what to do with them. I never used them and now that I am trying to prepare fresh, unprocessed foods I was at a lost. I didn’t want to throw them away. They were a blessed and appreciated gift in a Thanksgiving basket. While having my first cup of coffee, I noticed a recipe on the box that was interesting. It was Mini Potato Corn Meal Cakes. Why not, I said to me. I followed the recipe and it yielded more than I needed for that morning’s breakfast.You got it. I froze the rest. Here is the recipe with my real time changes.

2 cups Idaho Spuds Classic Mashed Potatoes

1/3 cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne or chipotle pepper

2 cups milk

2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed  (I didn’t use)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

3 green onions  (I used yellow onions)

Combine potato flakes, cornmeal, garlic salt and pepper in a large bowl.

Stir milk, corn kernels, cheese and green onions.Let stand for 2 minutes.

Scoop into 1 inch balls and place on a baking sheet. Flatten into 1/2 inch thick patties. (I skipped this. I went straight to the skillet.)

Spray a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat.

Place patties in a single layer in pan. Brown [patties about 4 minutes per side, spraying with additional cooking spray as needed. Repeat with remaining patties.

Serve warm garnished with a dollop of sour cream and green onions or shredded cheese. (I skipped this. It would defeat my healthy plan.)

My husband said the cakes were good. My omissions did not affect the taste.  Next time I will use fresh potatoes.

This is getting to be pretty long so I will put the other recipes in another blog.  Friday was a busy day.

Happy Experimenting.

 

Turkey Sausage Revisited

by ladypbwiggins

A few weeks ago I tried a homemade sausage recipe that I found. In that post I gave the source credit for the recipe. This time I tried it just as she wrote it except I substituted vegetable broth for chicken broth.

  1.  I bought a turkey breast and a turkey thigh. Using my virgin boning knife I removed the meat from the thigh bone. The breast was already removed from the breast bone. I must admit this process caused me to consider becoming a vegan.
  2. I used my KitchenAide meat/nut grinder to grind the meat. I used both the light meat and the dark meat believing the dark meat would add a little fat. My hope was that the turkey would be juicier.
  3. Next I used my mortar and pestle to grind the basil and oregano.
  4. I added that along with the rest of the spices to the ground turkey.
  5. I used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.
  6. Mixed it all up be sure to evenly distribute the spices.
  7. Finally, into the pan it went. I used a little oil in the pan so the patties wouldn’t stick. I think I used grapeseed oil or it might have been coconut. Either works.
  8. The results were very good. It was less dry but not what I wanted. Sooooo

Next time, I will bake a turkey part and use the drippings to add a little fat to the mixture.

For the recipe review Making Turkey Sausage.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Next Phase To Complete Healing

by ladypbwiggins

This post was written earlier but it an integral part of the journey, so rather than update it timewise, I decided to post it as is. I will follow with an update to some things mentioned.

It has been a very educationally journey that I and my family have been on since my husband’s heart attack in March. He finally came home from rehabilitation on Friday. He has improved so much but we still have a ways to go to reach complete restoration. Several things have come to my attention that will be included in this next phase. I discovered Dr. Steven Masley’ 30-day Heart Tune-Up. This is an eating plan which focuses on heart strengthening. I have also discovered or at least it has been confirmed that we should really pay attention to the drugs that are being prescribed for us and our loved ones.

The Tune Up

We began the 30 day journey on Saturday August 1. I had to make some adjustments because we do not eat chicken, beef or pork. Today the Chicken Stir Fry was made with tofu. The dish was quite tasty.  Just in these two days I feel better. I have also noticed the pain from my husband’s neuropathy has decreased. I will be watching that because I was told neuropathy cannot be cured and that nerve regeneration was not possible. This side effect to the eating plan is welcomed but the jury is still out on the lasting effectiveness.

Drug Fight

I will be making appointments to visit Carl’s doctors on Monday. Our discussions will center around the drug Amioderone and Warfarin initially. Amioderone has some very serious side affects that are counterproductive to his healing. Waffarin is rat poison. Need I say more?

Stay tuned

Gluten-Free Bread Success

by ladypbwiggins

I have been trying to bake gluten-free bread that had the texture and height to qualify as a sandwich bread. The first attempted tasted fine but did not rise to the sandwich bread size standard. I made the substitutions for wheat flour as directed in my bread recipe but the outcome was not completely satisfactory. Since that effort I have searched for a recipe that would give me the desired results. I went to Barnes and Noble to get a book I had found online but they did not have it. I found another called The How Can It Be Gluten-Free Cookbook from the American Test Kitchen. I decided to give it a try.

They have several bread recipes but I chose the Classic Sandwich Bread. I used Bob’ Red Mill Gluten-Free flour blend, almond milk, homemade dairy-free butter and agave nectar instead of their blend, sugar, butter and dry milk.

 

I had to forget all that I knew about baking bread. There was no kneading to be done. The instructions said the dough consistency would be like sticky cookie dough. It was. They said the dough would rise above the pan and advised that you make this aluminum foil collar. It did. If I had not done that it would have spilled our over the pan. I didn’t make it tight or stiff enough because it spilled over a little bit. That made it hard to get out of the pan when it was done. My husband and I were quite pleased with the results. He was too thrilled about the first attempt.  🙂

I am very please with the bread and the cookbook. It is also a teaching aid for novices to gluten free cooking. The recipes are tested and critiqued by home cooks before publishing. Tomorrow is cook day. I plan to try their flatbread and corn tortilla recipes.

 

Now To Make It Happen

by ladypbwiggins

Today’s assignment is to determine three (3) goals that I would like to accomplish with my blog. When I first began blogging it was to find out if anyone was interested in what I had to say. It seems a few people are.

  • One of my goals is to learn what people are interested in and to learn how to effectively match my writing interest with their reading interest. I am writing a book but I didn’t know if anyone would buy it.
  • The second goal is to increase the number of connections to be inspired by and to inspire.
  • Speaking is one of my gifts and I enjoy informing and motivating people. Knowing what people are interested in could give me an opportunity to do something I love.

On that note, I will be speaking at a Black History Picnic celebration here in Perris, CA. It will be interesting because I am asked to speak about healthy nutrition while the listeners are eating soul food. This will be a challenge.The next day I will be speaking at our church for morning worship.I am going to have an exciting weekend.

In the meantime, I am trying new recipes to introduce to our congregation during our health ministry. Tonight it was a Dr. Hyman’s Sun-dried tomato Turkey Burger. This is a recipe in The Daniel Plan written by Pastor Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen and Dr. Mark Hyman. It was very tasty.

Fresh From The Tree

by ladypbwiggins

This week I was given fresh organic oranges. I spent quite a while juicing them in my Nutribullet. For Christmas and a belated birthday gift my husband and I bought ourselves a KitchenAid Stand Mixer with the ice cream attachment. I thought, “Why not try making a sorbet using some of this fresh orange juice?” I had some simple syrup with pineapple left that I made the last time I tried to make sorbet.  Success! My husband said it was good. I am very pleased that we have fresh sorbet with no chemicals. Unfortunately I had to use sugar, albeit, organic to make the simple syrup. Next time I will use agave nectar and give it a try.

The frozen yogurt shops just lost a customer. I can make my own and know what is in them. I think next time I will try one of my vegetable Nutriblast. Vegetable Sorbet. Mmmm.

FYI: I am also trying the image format for you Blogging 101 colleagues. In the Capoversa basic theme it is not making a big difference from the standard format.

Is There a Food Cartel?

by ladypbwiggins

I woke up yesterday morning thinking of cartels. I guess I was influenced by the CSI:New Orleans episode I watched the night before. We usually think of the drug trade south of our borders when we use the word cartel. I decided to look it up because I realized that I really didn’t know what it meant. This is a definition from one of several sites.

car·tel

  1. an association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition.
    “the Colombian drug cartels”

    • historical

      a coalition or cooperative arrangement between political parties intended to promote a mutual interest.

When I read it I thought this seemed awfully familiar. The definition below is what I remembered from a business class I attended.

 OLIGOPOLY
A situation in which a particular market is controlled by a small group of firms.An oligopoly is much like a monopoly, in which only one company exerts control over most of a market. In an oligopoly, there are at least two firms controlling the market.

When a market is controlled, doesn’t that include prices and restricting competition?

There is a campaign going on against foods containing genetically modifies organisms. The battle is mainly against the Monsanto corporation. But it doesn’t seem like they can have the kind of power they are having without help. Some believe members of our Congress have been bought by Monsanto. Others believe the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) is in the mix. The things that have been happening certainly make you wonder. I just read an article about the meaning of “natural” on our food labels. This is an excerpt

“What is important to understand is how natural flavors are created. Scientists, or flavorists as they prefer to be called, blend natural or synthetic chemicals to create flavorings. The only difference between artificial and natural flavorings is the original (natural) source of the raw ingredients/chemicals. The formulas for both are the same although a small change can result in a different flavor.” The bold is mine.

These are FDA approved foods. Is this what you think of when you want natural? If you are like me, you thought natural meant devoid of artificial or chemical anything. I was in the 2/3rds mentioned below. Are you? We have been deceived for years.

“When we see a product labeled as such we perceive it as better for us, in fact a Consumer Reports survey found that two-thirds of Americans think the word natural on the label means it contains no artificial ingredients, pesticides or genetically engineered organisms and as a result has launched a campaign to ban the use of the word “natural” on both packages and in all marketing for foods and beverages.”

Read the rest of the article. The FDA has no clear definition of what “natural” means.

So now we have Monsanto and the FDA appearing to be working together to control what is in our food. What part is Congress possible playing in this. Antitrust and fair trade agreements? All I know is that it seems others profit at our expense.

The last parties to this perceived cartel is the medical profession and the pharmaceutical concerns. I don’t mean all doctors. I am referring to the system that they have to operate in. Treat the symptom, don’t search for the cause. Prescribe a pill because it cost too much to spend the time searching for the cause. Doctors are required to operate in that 15 minute window unless they are private practices that control their own offices. I had an interesting conversation with one of my husband’s doctors. Because of some heart problems, he has been prescribed Warfarin or Cumidin, rat poison. I asked the doctor if he could regulate the situation with foods that are natural blood thinners. She said no. I asked why. She said because they could not track it. This is how they track it. Take a certain number of tablets and check the blood. If the thinness is in a certain range you are okay. If it is too high, decrease the number of tablets. If it is too low, add more tablets. If the blood test is the telling factor, you could eat more or less of the vegetables depending on the thinness level. They rather he take poison, so they can regulate the dosage, rather allow him to eat fresh, certified organic vegetables and get healthy. Does that even seem reasonable to a rational, thinking mind?

I love my country but “the love of money” has removed standards and logical reasoning that can be trusted. What cartel should we fear first?

The end of the article mentioned above states the only way you can be sure your food is natural is to purchase USDA certified organic products. I am also buying from stores who have verified their products as non-GMO. I don’t know what those organisms will do to us.I am choosing to go that route. I hope I can trust the USDA.

Thanksgiving Cooking Experiment

by ladypbwiggins

I posted this on ladywiggins.blogspot.com  for Thanksgiving. I thought I would repost it here. Vegans out there please share your recipe successes.

I hope you had a wonderful time with your family. It was just my husband and I. Our children were away this year. I had a ball. Not because they were away though. I experimented with our traditional recipes. I was motivated by my newly vegan son and my dairy-intolerant grand-baby. I had wanted to try vegan cooking for a while and I figured now was a good time.

Mac and Cheese

Attention went first to my mac and cheese. This is my grandmother’s mac and cheese so the flavors are sacred. I decided to use rice elbow macaroni. I never used it before. Next concern: How do you bring those southern flavors to vegan world: Butter, real milk, sharp and mild cheddar cheese? I was skeptical but I went all in. I replaced the cheese with veggie cheese. I replaced the milk with flax seed milk. I found it to be creamier than almond and other nut milks I’ve tried. However, what to do about butter? I found some vegan butter in my favorite organic store but the cost was ridiculous. Google came through. I found several vegan sites that had recipes for making your own vegan butter without using soy products. I made my first non-dairy butter. The results were good but I still didn’t know how it would work in my mac and cheese. It was wonderful. That gave me hope for my sweet potato pie.

Sweet Potato Pie


This was not completely vegan but it was still an experiment. I used my non-dairy butter, a blend of flax and evaporated milk and egg. I thought my husband had bought an egg substitute but he bought egg whites instead. The filling was good. The real experiment was the pie crust. I decided to try gluten free flour. Who knows why? I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil or shortening. I either had a crumbling mess or something that was very oily looking. I wanted that flaky crust I was familiar with. As it turned out, the taste was great but the texture was too thin. Saved by the flavors.

I have learned a lot through this experiment.

  1. I will never plan to buy dairy butter again.
  2. I have since found a recipe for homemade baking shortening. That’s next.
  3. Coconut oil, refined and unrefined are my new best friends. It has so many uses besides cooking.
  4. I have found a website of a vegan sweet potato expert. Things are looking up for my Christmas pies.  http://sweetpotatosoul.com/2014/01/how-to-make-vegan-sweet-potato-pie.html
  5. Sunflower oil has entered my pantry.
  6. I found non-soy, non-gluten, non-wheat egg replacer. They also gave the ingredients and I have them in my cabinet. I wonder if I can make my own?
  7. I just found an egg replacer recipe using chia seed. Who knew? Got to try this. http://www.foodrenegade.com/how-make-egg-substitute-chia-seeds/

I also found this link for powdered egg replacer recipe. If any of you have used these recipes, I would certainly like to hear from you. My holiday baking begins in about a week and a half. I am planning to experiment ahead of time.

Vegans out there please share your experience and wisdom. I am on fire to test things out.