On the road and at home, it's always about food and fun!
Remember when there were only three kinds of milk—chocolate, white, and strawberry? And they all came from a cow? Well, it’s a different world now when it comes to milk products. You can choose between such milks as soy, nut milks like cashew and almond, and oat. You could make your own, but it’s a long process and so if you’re feeling lazy or just don’t want to bother there’s a great alternative and that’s Upright Oatmilk, a brand that advertises itself as being even better than just plain oats because it contains 25% of recommended daily value per serving for calcium, 15% of Vitamins A, B12, and D, 1 gram prebiotic fiber, and 8 grams oat protein per serving.
Made with just oats and a blend of key vitamins and minerals, Upright Oatmilk is naturally gluten-free and hypoallergenic. What it doesn’t have is equally important and that includes no dairy, eggs, gluten, wheat, nuts, seeds, soy, peas, sesame, corn, oils, gums, emulsifiers, carrageenan, artificial flavors or colors.
The makers of Upright worked with world-leading pediatricians and food scientists to develop our uniquely allergen-free and high-nutrient oatmilk to support heart, gut, and whole-body health.
It’s powder and comes in three flavors—vanilla, chocolate, and original unsweetened.
Normally I don’t like powders because they’re often lumpy but this one, after you add water, comes out smooth. You can drink it as is, use it for smoothies, soups, or as a one-to-one liquid substitute in baking and cooking.
Iced Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espresso
Make your espresso. Add in brown sugar and shake for 20 seconds.
Add in ice and oatmilk and shake again.
Pour into a glass and add a dash of cinnamon.
Butternut Squash Soup
Saute the onions with margarine in a saucepan.
Add the chopped squash, chicken broth, black pepper, sachet of Upright instant oatmilk, and chilli pepper and bring to a boil.
Cook for 20 minutes, or until the squash becomes tender.
Mix the squash and cream cheese to a smooth consistency using a hand blender. Return to saucepan and heat through.
Pour the soup into a bowl and top with pumpkin seeds for garnish.
Upright Oatmilk Pineapple Smoothie
Upright Oatmilk Smoothie
Pour in the strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, Vanilla Upright Instant Oatmilk, and ice cubes into a blender.
Blend for 30-45 seconds.
Pour smoothie into a cup.
A dreamland of architecture, landscape, historic Hollywood, and luxury, Korakia Pensione is a desert oasis nestled in the San Jacinto Mountains in Palm Springs, California. Originally two distinctive homes both built in the early 1900s, one inspired by traditional Moroccan riad—a two or more storied home with a center courtyard and fountain–and the other a Mediterranean villa, now combined into a lush property. Korakia Pensione, with its 1.5-acres of bungalows, guesthouses, gardens, rooms, suites, and pools, accented with Moroccan details and whimsy including Moorish horseshoe doors leading into tiled courtyards with flowing fountains, decorative tiles,intricately carved woodwork, and keystone shaped entranceways.
Escape to the desert this summer and soak up the sun! Stay with us this Sunday – Thursday for two or more nights and save 20% off your stay. Enjoy our special summer enhancements starting May 29th with daytime poolside amenities, nightly dive-in movies, and special wellness offerings.
Book Now: https://bit.ly/3wlBW0P
*Offer valid for stays now until 9/1/22. Excluding Holiday Weekends. Cannot be combined with other offers or promotions. Offer ends 5/31/2022.
Described by both Forbes magazine and The New York Times as “the sexiest hotel in America,” it is a reimagination as well, as a travel to another time and place. With a focus on wellness, peace and relaxation, the day starts with breakfast served in the Moroccan front courtyard, followed by either a private yoga session or guided meditation class.
Afternoons can be spent lounging by the pool backed by spectacular views of the San Jacinto Mountains and indulging in poolside menu choices that include charcuterie boards, salads and sandwiches. Or explore the historic neighborhood and downtown, on foot or on one of the stylish cruiser bikes available at the hotel. The bikes come with baskets in case you pick up a few things.
As the sun sets, enjoy the warmth of a desert night under the stars while watching the nightly classic movies shown in the courtyard. What could be better? The complimentary smores.
If you’re there this coming Memorial weekend, enjoy the Annual Memorial Day Air Fair and Flower Drop hosted by Palm Desert, a recurring event commemorating the important role of those who fought in World War II with a drop of thousands of white and red carnations from their B-25 aircraft. Honoring those who served and gave the greatest sacrifice for their country is the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend.
Crafted after a Mediterranean-style pensione, Korakia blends the silhouette of Tangier with a whisper of the Mediterranean.
It must have been a great neighborhood.
Built in 1924 and originally named Dar Marroc, one of the two historic homes of Korakia Pensione was the former hideaway of Scottish painter Gordon Coutts. The villa with its Moroccan architectural features and décor was the way for Coutts, a flamboyant artist with a stylish mustache, to re-create his earlier life in Tangier. Coutts, who was born in in the Old Machar district of Aberdeen, Scotland, was an extremely successful artist who hosted such luminaries as classic movie actors Rudolph Valentino and Errol Flynn and artists such as John Lavery, Agnes Pelton, Nicolai Fenshin and Grant Wood. It probably is more than just a rumor that Winston Churchill, an artist himself, painted in the villa’s Artist Studio.
But Coutts wasn’t the only celebrity on the block. Neighbor J. Carol Naish has as interesting a life as Coutts. According to his obituary in the New York Times, Naish “brawled his way through the Yorkville‐Harlem area of the turn‐of‐the‐century Irish with considerable success, being tossed out of one school after another.”
After joining the Navy where he was promptly thrown into the brig, Naish deserted to join a buddy in the Army and flew missions over France with the Aviation Section of the Army Signal Corps. He then made his way round Europe, singing in cafes and picking up a command of eight languages, six of which he spoke fluently. A tramp steamer finally deposited him in Hollywood in 1926.
Fame followed quickly and by the 1940s he was acting in 30 or so films a year. A character actor, he also was successful on Broadway, television, and radio.
We wish we could have attended some of the parties held here back in those days but the present is marvelous enough. Among the rooms and suites available are:
A rare 1918 California adobe. Two 1940s steel windows have been welded together to create a dramatic pivoting window wall. The whitewashed stone wall encloses a grove of citrus trees.
This room is located adjacent to the pool and fountain. Luxuriate in the vintage bathroom or relax in your Queen bed while listening to the peaceful sound of the Moroccan fountain.
A lovely upper-level studio with high ceilings, a large north facing window overlooking the San Jacinto Mountains. It has a four poster Queen bed, a large sitting and dining area, kitchenette and a balcony overlooking a private courtyard.
Next to the Moroccan pool, the room features a Queen bed and a stone bathtub. Fall asleep to the peaceful sound of the bubbling Moroccan fountain.
This spacious room in the courtyard adobe has an arched entryway, Queen-size built-in bed, stone shower, sitting area and private patio.
This large suite in the courtyard adobe has a Queen-size built-in platform bed and a large indoor/outdoor stone tub with a rain shower. The suite features a full kitchen with breakfast bar, a spacious sitting area with a wood burning fireplace. The private patio offers dramatic views of the San Jacinto Mountains.
This sunlit, white washed, upper-level studio offers a semi-private balcony with views of Tahquitz Canyon and the San Jacinto Mountains. The windows overlook our tranquil courtyard. It features a King bed, full kitchen, a stone shower and a sweeping grand staircase.
This spacious suite opens to a view of the pool and the San Jacinto Mountains beyond. The suite features a Queen bed, full kitchen and a dining room with French doors opening to a cozy patio.
This is a large, sunny, upper-level suite with extraordinary views of the mountains, pool and courtyard. The suite has a private stairwell, a large living room, a King bed, private balcony, a tiled bathroom and full kitchen.
A large, bright and airy suite situated in the center of the courtyard adobe. The living room overlooks the pool and with views of the San Jacinto Mountains beyond. The suite offers a private patio, a Queen bed, stone bathtub, a kitchen and a living room with a wood burning fireplace.
This sunlit adobe room opens to a large patio/courtyard with a sweeping view of the San Jacinto Mountains. It features a Queen bed and full bathroom.
This large one-bedroom suite features a King bed, sitting and dining area, full kitchen, and a wood burning stone fireplace and a spacious bathroom with a free standing porcelain tub.
Adjacent to the pool and fountain, this comfortable studio features a Queen bed built into an arched Moroccan alcove, a full kitchen and French doors opening into a semi-private patio shaded by blooming fruit trees.
The Korakia Pensione (257 S. Patencio Road, Palm Springs; 760-864-6411)
Details: Full breakfast is included. Summer discounts are 20-40% of regular rates.
Take note there are current packages available.
Prevention.com: 15 Best Air Fryer Cookbooks to Buy 2022 – Best Air Fryer Cookbook for Beginners. https://www.prevention.com/food-nutrition/healthy-eating/g38749295/best-air-fryer-cookbooks/
Spoiled by her mom’s cooking and too tired to cook herself after working all day Yumna Jawad decided after getting married to change all that. Calling her mom—there was no Facetime back then–Jawad would have her stay on the phone and tell her step by step how to make a meal. It took just two weeks and from there Jawad, who moved to Kalamazoo, and now lives in Grand Rapids, used her new skills not only to cook for her family but as a springboard to creating Feel Good Foodie, her healthy, quick, and creative food blog. She also keeps an active Instagram account with three million followers.
I came across her blog when researching healthy recipes since I’ve moved on during the pandemic from trying all those dessert recipes I’ve been clipping and saving for years and was very impressed. Besides recipes, she also offers nutritional information, substitutions, how to videos, how long does it take to make the recipe and links to similar recipes. So I emailed Jawad and she responded within ten minutes even though it was late at night but then judging by how often she updates her blog, she may not sleep much if at all.
It turns out that she worked in Branding and Research & Marketing for consumer packaged foods and the retail food industry and eight years ago began sharing recipes on her Instagram account. She now has over two million followers which is pretty amazing. I have like 2000. Her blog has 400,000 visitors a month. So I asked her why she thought she was so successful.
“When I first started sharing recipes on social media, my photos were all taken on an iPhone and it was always the meals I made that day for myself or my family,” she says. “The food wasn’t styled or edited, but it was easy and approachable. I think it resonated with a lot of people seeking ways to eat healthier that was attainable and easy-to-manage. And when others tried recreating my recipes, they had similar results without ‘Pinterest fails’. That encouraged them to try more and share more, which I believe helped me establish credibility in my brand and recipes. And all of that was before I even knew that I was even building a health and wellness brand.”
Jawad has an international background that adds to the creativity of her recipes. She was born in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo and also lived in Sierra Leone until age 11. When Civil War broke out there, the family moved to Dearborn, Michigan. After marrying, she and her husband, a cardiologist, moved several times as well before ending up in Kalamazoo and now Grand Rapids She first learned to cook traditional Lebanese food but now has exponentially expanded her repertoire but there’s often a Middle East/Mediterranean aspect to her recipes because of their focus on vegetables and healthy ingredients.
Her culinary inspirations, besides her mother include Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa fame.
“While not all of Ina’s recipes are low calories/low fat, I love her realness, approachability, and passion for cooking,” says Jawad. “She inspires me to be who I am and allow that passion to come through with my recipes without any fluff.”
Curtis Stone is also another food idol because, she says, he is all about eating unprocessed and unpackaged foods as much as possible, which is actually healthier and cheaper.
“This is something that I focus so much on with my wholesome home-cooked meals,” she says.
And because, as the mother of two children, she likes meals that are quick to prepare, she’s a fan of Rachel Ray.
“Rachel rally popularized the idea of 30 minute meals that made home cooking so accessible for so many people; and that is directly in line with my thinking,” says Jawad.
Currently she adds three recipes a week to her blog—meals she’s been making for her family since she learned to cook 12 years ago. Some are inspired by tradition, others by watching cooking shows, reading food magazines, and following social media and focuses on new approaches creating healthy wholesome meals.
“This includes, for example, trends like quinoa crust breadsticks, or cauliflower pizza or sweet potato toast,” says Jawad. “I keep up with the latest trends and test new ideas myself and then add my own twist to them, usually by making the prep easier or by swapping some ingredients to personalize the recipe.”
She’s also adding to the recipe data base on her blog.
For those who wonder how to incorporate new foods into their kitchen repertoire, she has some tips. When she used to discover new produce at farmers’ markets, she’d ask the grower for suggestions. Now, Jawad uses the vegetables or fruits in a way that makes it more connected to what she knows.
“I recommend experimenting with it in a way that you normally eat other similar foods,” she says. “For instance, since rutabaga is a root vegetable, I would prepare it similar in a similar way to other root vegetables by roasting it because I know I would naturally enjoy that more than steaming it. I would also recommend trying something new in smaller quantities and having others to share it with. It makes the process more enjoyable to try a new ingredient or recipe with other taste testers. When it comes to kids, the same advice applies. But also, I strongly recommend having kids help in the purchase and preparation of ingredients. It gets them more excited about what they make because they feel more invested in the process. When all else fails, mask it in a smoothie or blended soup.”
The following recipes are courtesy of Yumna Jawad.
Place chicken and scraps from the outer layers and end of the onions, carrots, and celery along with a couple bay leaves in a large stock pot. Add bay leaves and 8-10 cups water and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until chicken is fork-tender, about 30 minutes.
Remove chicken and shred; then strain the chicken broth using a fine-mesh sieve and discard the vegetable scraps and bay leave
Heat oil in the same pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onions, carrots, celery, garlic and cook until tender, about 4-5 minutes. Stir in the shredded chicken, orzo, rosemary, and turmeric (if using). Then return the broth to the stockpot and bring a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer until the orzo is cooked, about 20 minutes.
Stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately with fresh parsley or mint, if desired.
Place the sweet potatoes in a large mixing bowl, and toss with olive oil, salt, garlic powder, paprika and black pepper.
Cook in 2 or 3 batches, depending on the size of your basket without overcrowding the pan until they’re crispy. I recommend 12 minutes, turning halfway. This may vary based on your air fryer.
Serve immediately with your favorite dipping sauce
For the Avocado Yogurt Dip
Combine quinoa, eggs, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in onions, cheese, garlic, and cilantro. Add the breadcrumbs, stir, and let sit for a few minutes so the crumbs can absorb some of the moisture. Feel free to add water if the mixture feels too dry. Form the mixture into 6-8 patties.
Frying Instructions:Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Place add quinoa on the heated pan, making sure not to overcrowd the pan and cook until the patties are golden color, about 7 – 10 per side minutes.
Baking Instructions:Place the quinoa patties on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the oil on top of the patties. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F for 15 minutes, until golden.
To make the avocado yogurt sauce, whisk together the cilantro, avocado and yogurt. Season with salt and pepper and serve with the cooked quinoa patties.
Notes
Storage: Store any leftovers in an airtight container. They will last up to 5 days in the fridge.
Freezing Instructions: You can also freeze the patties before or after cooking them.
Substitutes: For best results, follow the recipe as is. However here are some common substitutes that would work well in this recipe.
“Satisfy your sweet tooth with a plant-based treat in under 10 minutes,” Jawad says about the following recipe. “3-ingredient chia pudding is the perfect pick-me-up. High in fiber, protein, and healthy fats, this recipe is as good for you as it tastes.”
Pour all ingredients into a Mason jar and mix well. Let sit for a few minutes and then stir again until it is smooth and there’s no clumping.
Cover the jar and store in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
When you’re ready to eat, top with your favorite fruit and serve.
A much maligned vegetable belonging, along with peas and lentils, to the vegetable class called legumes, beans are about as low on the food chain as you can go in terms of respect. Kids snicker at rhymes about beans and the gas they produce and sayings like “not worth a hill of beans” signifies their, well, insignificance.
Once Abra Berens, the former co-owner of Bare Knuckles Farm in Northport, Michigan and now the executive chef at Granor Farm in Southwest Michigan, was like most of us. She didn’t give a bean about beans. That is until she became intrigued by the bean and grain program at Granor, a certified organic farm in Three Oaks, a charming historic village with its own burgeoning food culture.
Now she’s all about legumes and grains and for anyone who knows Abra that means a total passionate immersion in the subject which resulted in her latest cookbook, a 464-page door stopper with 140 recipes and over 160 recipe variations titled Grist: A Practical Guide to Cooking Grains, Beans, Seeds, and Legumes. Just published by Chronicle Books on October 26th, the demand for Grist is so high it was hard to get a copy at first.
Now, that’s worth more than a hill of beans.
Berens, a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Chef: Great Lakes, also authored Ruffage. That book, which came out in 2019, was named a Best Cookbook for Spring 2019 by the New York Times and Bon Appétit, was a 2019 Michigan Notable Book winner, and was also nominated for a 2019 James Beard Award. She puts the same energy into her Grist.
“We are told over and over again to eat a diet rich in whole grains and plant-based protein,” writes Berens in the book’s introduction. “The science is there—high in soluble fiber, low glycemic index, healthy fatted protein—but the perception of whole grains seems to still be of leaden health food, endless cooking times, and cud-like chewing at the end of it all.”
Indeed. Consider this. A cup of cooked black beans has 245 calories and contains approximately the following percentage of the daily values needed in an average diet—74% folate, 39% manganese, 20% iron, 21% both potassium and magnesium, and 20% vitamin B6.
“But we all know that they’re good for you,” says Berens, who describes herself as a bean-evangelist. “I want people to understand these ingredients and you can’t understand these ingredients until you know them.”
And so, she introduces us to 29 different grains, legumes, and seeds. Some like lentils, lima beans, split peas, quinoa, rice, and oats we know something about. Others are more obscure such as cowpeas, millet, teff, fonio, and freekeh are mysteries. That is until you read her book and learn not only how to cook them but also about their history. There’s a cheat sheet of the health benefits of each. Berens also conducted interviews with farmers including her cousins Matt and John Berens, third-generation farmers in Bentheim, Michigan who have transitioned into growing non-GMO corn and edible beans and Jerry Hebron, the manager of Oakland Avenue Urban Farm, a nonprofit, community-based organization dedicated to cultivating healthy foods, sustainable economies, and active cultural environments. Hebron has been raising crowder beans for almost a decade.
We also get to meet Carl Wagner, a farmer and seed cleaner in Niles, Michigan. Berens said she wanted to include “invisible” farming jobs and this certainly is one. She didn’t know what a seed cleaner was until a few years ago and figured that most of us don’t know either. Wagner, with his wife Mary, run C3 Seeds, a company that provides seed cleaning for grains and seed stock. When Berens asked him what he’d like people to know about his job, his response was that they would know that seed cleaning “is part of buying a bag of flour or a bottle of whiskey.”
“The biggest thing is that if people are interested in cooking with beans, it’s an easy entry point it’s not like buying $100 tenderloin,” says Berens.
Of course, you can buy beans in the grocery store. Berens recommends dried beans not canned. But Granor Farm also sells black, red, and pinto beans at their farm store which is open Friday and Saturday. For information on the times, visit granorfarm.com
Berens is already working on her next book, tentatively titled Fruit, due out in 2023. When I ask her how she does it all, she laughs and replies, “I don’t have any hobbies.”
And she takes things very seriously.
“Every author has to think about why they’re putting something in the world,” she says, “and what is the value of it and makes these books worthwhile.”
With Grist, we’re learning the value of tasty and healthy foods that taste good.
The following recipes are reprinted from Grist: A Practical Guide to Cooking Grains, Beans, Seeds, and Legumes by Abra Berens with permission from Chronicle Books, 2021. Photographs © EE Berger.
Seared Chicken Thighs W/Buckwheat, Smashed Cucumbers + Tajín Oil
The angular mouthfeel of the buckwheat plays well with the crunch of the cucumber and against the crisp of the chicken thigh. Serve the buckwheat warm or chilled, depending on your preference. If you aren’t eating meat, the salad is a great lunch on its own or pairs well with an egg or fried tofu.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil over high heat. Toss in the buckwheat groats and give the pot a stir. Return to a boil, lower to a simmer, and cook the grains until tender, 8 to 15 minutes.
Drain the groats, toss with a glug of Tajín oil, and set aside.
Trim the ends of the cucumbers and place on a cutting board. Using the widest knife (or frying pan) you have, press down on the cucumbers until their skin cracks and they break into irregular pieces. Dress the cucumbers with the Tajín oil and a pinch of salt.
Combine the yogurt with the lemon zest and juice, chopped herbs, chili flakes (if using), a pinch of salt, and two big glugs of olive oil. Set aside.
Blot the chicken skin dry and season with salt and pepper.
Heat a large frying pan over high heat until the pan is starting to smoke. Add a glug or two of oil, lower the heat to medium, and fry the thighs, skin-side down, until golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Flip the
chicken and sauté until cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes more.
To serve, dish the buckwheat onto serving plates. Top with the chicken thighs and then the dressed cucumbers. Garnish with a thick spoonful of the herbed yogurt.
Tajín Oil
In a medium sauce or frying pan, heat the oil over medium heat until it begins to shimmer, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat, add the Tajín, and let steep for 5 minutes.
Whole Roasted Leeks w/Chickpeas, Lemon Vinaigrette, Ricotta + Chard
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the whole, cleaned leeks, side by side, in a roasting pan.
Scatter the thyme (if using), chili flakes (if using), and 2 large pinches of salt evenly over the leeks.
Scatter the orange peel strips over the leeks and drizzle them with the orange juice and ¼ cup of the olive oil to coat.
Cover with foil and bake until the leeks are tender, 35 to 45 minutes.
Combine the chickpeas, chard ribbons, lemon zest and juice, and remaining ½ cup of olive oil with a big pinch of salt and a couple of grinds of black pepper.
When the leeks are tender, transfer from the roasting pan to plates or a serving platter. Top with the chickpea and chard salad. Dot ricotta over the top and serve.
Spoon Pudding with Pork Chops and Cabbage Salad
For the spoon pudding:
For the salad:
4 pork chops, seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled
To make the spoon pudding:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an ovenproof baking dish or frying pan that can hold 2 quarts total volume.
Combine the cornmeal, salt, 1 cup of boiling water, and the melted butter and whisk out any lumps. Combine the eggs, milk, and baking powder and add to the cornmeal batter. Pour into the prepared baking dish and bake until the edges of the spoon bread are just set and lightly browned, 30 to 40 minutes.
To make the salad: Combine the cabbage with the olive oil, chopped parsley, lemon zest and juice, chili flakes, paprika, and a couple pinches of salt. Toss to combine and adjust the seasoning as desired.
Serve the spoon bread alongside the grilled pork chops and cabbage salad.
Looking for a last minute Halloween treat that’s not only yummy, but healthy to counteract all that Candy Corn, caramel corn, and other candies we’re going to overeat? We’ve got good news for you. Catherine McCord has you covered. McCord, founder of Weelicious, a website created as a motivating guide combining her own experiences in creating healthy and delicious meals with fact-based research on children and food.
McCord, the author of Weelcious: One Family. One Meal featuring 140 original “fast, fresh and easy” recipes and Weelicious Lunches: Think Outside the Lunchbox, takes one of her childhood favorite desserts—pudding cups and recreates it into Chocolate Tofu Pudding Cups served in small clay flowerpots for a perfect Halloween treat. And honestly, it’s so good, no one will realize that it’s healthy.
Chocolate Tofu Pudding Cups
Place the first 4 ingredients in a food processor and blend to combine.
Scrape down the sides of the food processor. Blend again to make sure everything is incorporated.
Place 4 whole chocolate wafers in the bottom of the clay pots so none of the pudding goes through the hole at the bottom of the pots.
Divide the chocolate tofu pudding between the 4 pots.
Place the remaining 20 wafers in a Ziploc bag and using a rolling pin, crush into small pieces resembling dirt.
Sprinkle the crushed wafers on top of the pots and then place the gummy worms in the pots.
Serve.
Pizza Mummies
Preheat oven to 400℉.
Place the English muffin halves on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes.
Remove muffins from oven and spread 2 teaspoons of the pizza sauce onto each English muffin half.
Peel the mozzarella sticks into strings and decoratively arrange them on top of each English muffin. Slice the green olives into 1/4 inch thick rings and place them on top of the cheese to create eyes.
Bake mummies for 3 more minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
One Small Garden: Over 300 Delicious, Nutritious Recipes by Lillian and Dave Brummet is a timely collection of recipes now as more and more fresh produce is coming on to the market. Described as the ultimate guide to using fresh fruit and vegetables from backyard gardens to farmer’s markets, the book is guide to using what’s in season to create wholesome meals, the recipes here use the freshest and purest sources of food available.
“I hope to inspire others to buy fresh local food and to cook it in ways that are even better than going out to a restaurant,” says Dave Brummet of Brummet Media who with his wife has also authored the Trash Talk series about green living and saving money and time through better waste and resource management. “We want to inspire people to spend more time feeding themselves quality, nutritious food instead of the lure of expensive over-packaged convenience foods. In your car, which can be rebuilt with numerous replaceable parts, would you try to run it with dirty kerosene? No, so why do we put junk in our system when we have no hope of replacing those parts we might ruin by doing so. How we eat has an impact on our world – it affects equality, poverty, farming practices, the health of the soil, the purity of the water and air – and of course your own personal well-being.”
The book, loaded with lots of interesting tidbits of historical and nutritional information, is more than just a collection of recipes, it’s also a way of learning how to treat yourself to the healthy, delicious rewards of one small garden.
“The most important thing for me is to have a general feeling that I used the time I was given to create a positive legacy–be it through writing, supporting others, donating, sharing garden harvests, greening our property and making a more eco-friendly home, or daily actions such as dedicated recycling and so on,” says Lillian. “Part of being conscious includes self-sufficiency – not being reliant on aid programs, or living in heavy debt to others, looking after one’s health the best one can, etc. So I try to live proactively in my home life, but also in business – with the idea that what I choose to do now will have a ripple effect on the direction our world takes tomorrow. What I choose to buy now, whether I grow organically, what I choose to write about and blog about all has an impact on tomorrow.”
STRAWBERRY WHEAT GERM MUFFINs
Authors’ note: “Perfect strawberries when in season, frozen strawberries can also be used– just chop, thaw and drain before using. This will yield between 18-22 muffins depending on how large your muffin tins are. I prefer to use muffin cup liners that are compostable, which will help reduce the amount of waste heading to the landfill. Feel free to experiment, I have used reconstituted powder milk, rice milk and almond milk for this recipe with great results. White chocolate chips work well with this combination, however I personally prefer dark, flavonoid-rich chocolate.”
3 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
1 cup bran
1 cup wheat germ
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cup white flour
1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries
1 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Beat eggs briefly then add sugar and beat for 3 minutes. Add remaining liquid ingredients and then use a wooden spoon to stir in the germ and bran. Allow to rest for 10 minutes while you tidy the kitchen and prep the next step. In a separate bowl, combine all the dry ingredients together, and when the timer goes off – combine all the ingredients together, including the strawberries and chips.
Preheat oven to 400˚.
Place 22 paper liners in 2 muffin tins and spoon out the batter evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean, and the top has a light golden color. Cool completely before serving.
“People are eating African American food every day, but they don’t know it,” Angela Shelf Medearis says to me when we chat on the phone. In part, she’s talking about James Hemings who, in the complicated way of slavery, trained in the culinary arts in Paris and became a noted chef de cuisine and yet lived most of his life enslaved. Hemings either created or introduced a variety of the foods we eat now such as macaroni and cheese, ice cream, French fries, meringues, crème brulée, and French-style whipped cream. Another dish he created that we don’t eat regularly if at all is his handwritten recipe for snow eggs–soft, poached meringue, set in puddles of crème anglaise.
Hemings was the son of Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman and John Wayles, the man who “owned” her. The two had six children together. Wayles also had a more traditional family and his daughter Martha married a plantation owner named Thomas Jefferson. Thus, James was the half-brother of Martha Jefferson who “inherited” James (that’s so creepy I even hate writing it) when Wayles died. James was eight when they all came to live at Monticello. His youngest sister, Sally was just an infant. To make matters even more complex, after Martha died and Sally reached some type of maturity—she was probably in her mid-teens, she became Jefferson’s mistress and had six children by him, four of whom lived to adulthood.
So, Sally Hemmings was Martha Jefferson’s half-sister, and her children were half-siblings to Martha and Thomas’s children. I mention all this not only to show how helpless enslaved people were as to what happened to their bodies but also to show how intertwined Black and White families were and how the foodways of both merged.
But while Hemings introduced the Frenchified cookery to America,
Medearis, the founder of Diva Productions, Inc., the organization that produces her multicultural children’s books, cookbooks, videos, and audiocassettes, points out that people weren’t eating black-eyed peas before Africans arrive in this country.
“Back then they even thought tomatoes were poisonous,” she says. “But when they shipped slaves, they also shipped the foods they ate with them because that was a cheap way to feed them,” she says. “The recipes for those foods traveled from one place to the other. If they stopped in the Caribbean or South America before coming here, then the recipes changed with the foods and spices available and the types of cooking techniques.”
Medearis, a television chef known as the Kitchen Diva, has written 107 books. Many are children’s books, but she also is a cookbook author focusing on both the historic roots of African American cookery and healthy eating like The Kitchen Diva’s Diabetic Cookbook: 150 Healthy, Delicious Recipes for Diabetics and Those Who Dine with Them.
But she didn’t start out to be a cook.
“I only cooked enough that social services wouldn’t come and take away my children,” she says with a laugh. But her mother, after she retired, decided she wanted to market her raisin pie for some extra income.
While her mother and sister did the cooking, Medearis who often wears feather boas during her TV appearances and on her PBS cooking show and isn’t shy about being in the limelight, did the marketing.
But when her mother and sister decided to quit, Medearis knew she had to learn to cook if she wanted to keep her food business going.
Now she’s so full force that celebrity chef and restauranteur Bobby Flay arrived for a Jerk Chicken Throwdown while she was marinating jerk chicken for a family get. It was for his Food Network show Throwdown with Bobby Flay.
Who won I ask?
“My chicken had been marinating for hours,” Medearis replies. “He just arrived from Manhattan and threw some spices on his chicken. It burned. I beat Bobby.”
Watch it here.
Though she originally didn’t cook Medearis had written several loved historic research. Did I know that George Washington Carver drove a food wagon around to introduce people to healthy foods?
No. I knew that Carver, who famously said, “There is probably no subject more important than the study of food,” was born a slave and became a botanist, author, educator and agriculturalist. He also collaborated with auto magnate Henry Ford on growing peanuts and soybeans.
And don’t even get her started on Carver and black-eyed peas.
“Black-eyed peas, okra, peanuts and sesame seeds, and the oil they produce, are documented contributions from Africa via the slave trade to our American cuisine,” she writes in her syndicated column. “I prepared black-eyed peas any number of ways while doing research for my first cookbook.”
That would be The African-American Kitchen: Cooking from Our Heritage, a best seller that even now 30 years later is considered a standard on the foodways African Americans bought to this country. The problem though was getting it published. Her award winning children’s books were published by Dutton and when she brought the idea for her cookbook, she found an editor there who loved the book. But the editor at the next level turned it down, saying he’d published an African American cookbook almost 30 years earlier and no one bought it. He didn’t think the country was ready for another.
What’s a Kitchen Diva to do? Make a peach pie, of course, as it’s representative of both Black and Southern food history.
“You could hardly get a peach pie anywhere back then in Manhattan,” says Medearis. Wrapping up both the peach pie and the manuscript, separately we presume, she sent both off to the publishing company.
She got the contract.
“That book sold so many copies it was crazy,”
Overall, she’s written 107 books seven of which seven are cookbooks. Published in seven languages, she’s sold a total of 14 million books. But despite that, she’s not ready to stop.
“People ask me when I’m going to retire,” says Medearis who lives in Austin, Texas. “Why should I? I’m having a lot of fun with it. I’m doing what I want to do.”
Creole Chicken Stew
Makes 8 Servings
“This is a quick and healthy version of New Orleans-style gumbo,” writes Medearis about this recipe, which was published in her book, the . “Using frozen vegetables is a real time-saver when making this tasty stew; it’s also the perfect way to use kohlrabi when in season. Select small, tender okra pods for this recipe, and don’t slice them until right before you add them to the stew.”
1½ tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onions
1 cup coarsely chopped carrots
¼ cup chopped celery
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons diced seeded jalapeño chile
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon dried thyme
2 tablespoons whole-wheat flour
3 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch-wide strips
1 cup peeled cubed Yukon Gold potatoes or kohlrabi, or a combination
1 cup diced zucchini
1 cup halved okra or frozen cut okra
4 cups cooked brown rice
2 green onions, chopped, including green parts
In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat. Add the yellow onions, carrots, celery, garlic, bay leaf, jalapeño, salt, pepper, and thyme and sauté until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, transfer the vegetables to a plate, leaving as much oil in the pot as possible. Add the remaining ½ tablespoon of oil. Stir in the flour. Cook, stirring constantly, until the flour begins to turn golden brown, about 3 minutes.
Gradually whisk in the broth and cook for another 5 minutes, whisking until smooth. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the chicken, potatoes or kohlrabi, and zucchini. Return the sautéed vegetables to the pan. Partially cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 to 30 minutes.
Add the okra and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf. Serve over ½ cup of rice per person and sprinkle with the green onions.
Kitchen Diva: Tap Your Inner Chef With DIY Recipes
Angea Medearis, the Kitchen Diva, wrote one of her syndicated columns on creating Do-It-Yourself recipes.
“Basically, a DIY dinner recipe is about finding a way to retain the flavors of the recipes you love while using the ingredients that you have on hand,” Medearis writes. “If you have always wanted to free yourself from the restraints of a recipe, now is the time to do it! Think of the current lack of ingredients as permission to tap into your inner chef.”
To ease into creating your own DIY dinner recipes, Medearis suggests starting by making a pot of chowder.
“No one really knows the origin of the term chowder,” she writes, “but whether it came from French, Caribbean, Portuguese or Brazilian cooks, the basic meaning is connected to the large pot that the meal is cooked in.”
Medearis is a history buff paritcularly when it comes to food.
“Chowders were introduced to North America by immigrants from France and England more than 250 years ago. Native Americans called the dish ‘chawder’.” she says noting the word interpreted as “chowder” by early settlers and fishermen in New England.
“The original versions of the dish consisted of a pot filled with a mixture of fresh fish, salt pork, leftover hardened biscuits (which were used as a thickener), onions, water and whatever spices were available, writes Medearis. “A chowder is a delicious way to use the ingredients you have on hand to create a meal that does not require extensive prep or simmering for hours. My recipe for Seafood and Sweet Corn Chowder uses the basic techniques.”
My recipe for Seafood and Sweet Corn Chowder uses the basic techniques for making a chowder, but is designed to accommodate the need to vary ingredients based upon what you have on hand or what you can purchase at the store.
Whether you decide to make a seafood or vegetarian chowder, feel free to create your own version of this DIY dinner.
SEAFOOD AND SWEET CORN CHOWDER
If you don’t have all the vegetables, seafood or spices on hand, omit or substitute the ingredient with what you do have. This chowder will still be delicious without it!
3 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil
1/2 cup (about l large stalk) chopped celery
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced or 1/2 tablespoon granulated garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon dried dill or tarragon, or 1 tablespoon dill pickle juice
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes
2 cups chicken broth, seafood stock, clam juice, bouillon fish base or water
1 to 2 large Russet potatoes, or 3 red skin or Yukon Gold potatoes cut into 2-inch cubes, about 2 to 3 cups
2 large carrots, chopped
2 cups frozen corn, thawed, or 1 (15-ounce) can whole kernel or cream-style corn, or 6 ears sweet corn, husk and silk removed, or frozen corn on the cob, thawed with kernels cut from the cobb
2 cups heavy cream, half and half
Whole milk or 2 (14-ounce) cans evaporated milk
1 3/4 to 2 cups fully cooked, skinless salmon chunks, or 1 can (14 3/4 ounces) salmon, drained, flaked, bones and skin removed, or 1 to 2 cups fresh or frozen peeled and deveined shrimp, cooked peeled and deveined shrimp, or cooked crab meat (checked for pieces of shell) or a combination of the seafood equaling 1 3/4 to 2 cups.
1. Place the butter or oil into a large saucepan or Dutch oven placed over medium heat. Add in the celery, onion, green bell pepper, garlic or garlic powder, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and pepper, dill, tarragon or dill pickle juice, and the cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes. Saute, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are tender, about 4 to 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the broth, stock, juice or water, potatoes, carrots and the remaining teaspoon of he salt and pepper. Cover and bring the chowder to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to low; stir the mixture, cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until the vegetables are nearly tender. Stir in the corn, cream or milk, and the salmon, shrimp or cooked crab meat (or a combination of seafood). Simmer on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes or until heated through.
4. Garnish with lemon wedges, chopped parsley or green onions. Serve with toasted French bread or crackers. Serves 6
Here’s the Jerk Chicken recipe that won the Throwdown with Bobby Flay.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 bunch cilantro, leaves chopped
4 green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 Scotch bonnet chili, serrano, or Thai bird
chiles, seeded and minced
3 bay leaves
3 peppercorns
1-inch piece cinnamon, crushed
2 tablespoons ground sage
1 tablespoon ground thyme
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
5 pounds chicken pieces
Combine the oil and vinegar in a medium glass bowl. Stir in the orange and lime juice, molasses, soy sauce, cilantro, green onions, garlic, chili, bay leaves, peppercorns, cinnamon stick, sage,thyme, allspice, pepper, and nutmeg.
Place the chicken pieces in a large baking pan and pour the spice mixture over them, coating each piece well. Cover with plastic wrap and place the chicken in the refrigerator to marinate 12 hours or overnight, turning once.
Allow the chicken pieces to come to room temperature before grilling. Heat the grill until the coals are somewhat white with ash; the flame should be low. Place the chicken on the grill and cover with the lid. Grill for 30 to 35 minutes, turning pieces to cook evenly. Baste pieces with remaining marinade.
For more information including recipes, https://www.medearis.com/
I love the premise of Danielle Walker’s latest cookbook, Eat What You Love: Everyday Comfort You Crave, with its idea that even if you’re gluten-intolerant (which so many people seem to be), have a dairy allergy, suffer from an autoimmune disease, are following a Paleo diet or just want to incorporate healthy eating a few days a week, you can easily do so.
Walker, who also authored the New York Times best-selling Danielle Walker’s Against All Grain: Meals Made Simple, likes to take classics that we love—think lasagna, apple crisp, fried chicken (yes, fried chicken), sloppy Joes and chicken pot pie and made them healthy and full of flavor.
“I’m always looking for ways to incorporate more vegetables into my family’s meals, and using riced cauliflower in this fried rice recipe inspired by Chinese takeout is a great way to do it,” she writes in her description of one of her super easy recipes (though I cheated and used soy sauce instead of coconut aminos and also bought rice cauliflower instead of doing my own). “The salty sauce can make any vegetable taste appealing, and this dish is pretty much all veggies. While it’s super-simple to make cauliflower rice at home, many supermarkets sell fresh or frozen riced cauliflower, so that’s what I use more often than not. Go ahead and use it straight from the freezer; there’s no need to thaw it first.”
I’ve cooked several recipes out of this cookbook which I just received and all of them have turned out great—helping me keep my New Year’s resolution of eating healthier.
Shrimp Fried Rice
Serves 4 to 6 ·
11⁄2 pounds jumbo raw shrimp, peeled and deveined, with tails removed
6 tablespoons coconut aminos (see note below)
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
5 tablespoons avocado oil
1⁄2 small yellow onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 carrot, diced
2 eggs, beaten
11⁄4 teaspoons fine sea salt
1⁄4 cup frozen peas
2 green onions, tender green tops only, chopped
Combine the shrimp, 1 tablespoon of the coconut aminos, and 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil in a bowl.
Place the cauliflower in a food processor fitted with the grating attachment, or use the large holes on a box grater, and process the florets into rice-size pieces. Pick out any large fragments that didn’t shred and chop them up by hand with a knife or save for another use. You should have around 3 cups riced cauliflower.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the avocado oil in a wok over medium- high heat. Add the onion, garlic, and ginger and cook, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, for 2 minutes, until fragrant. Add the carrot and cook, stirring continuously, for 2 minutes. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons avocado oil and the cauliflower and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes more. Transfer the cauliflower mixture to a plate and return the wok to the heat.
Add the shrimp mixture to the wok and sear for 1 minute per side, until pink all over and just cooked through. Transfer the shrimp to the plate with the cauliflower and return the wok to the heat.
Pour the eggs into the wok and stir to scramble them for 10 seconds, until mostly cooked through. Pour the cauliflower mixture and shrimp back into the wok and add the remaining 5 tablespoons coconut aminos, the remaining 1 tablespoon sesame oil, and the salt. Stir in the peas and cook for 1 minute longer. Top with the green onions and serve immediately.
Note: Coconut aminos, which are available at some local grocery stores or can be ordered online, are a Paleo substitute for soy sauce and still deliver the same salty tang, only they contain no soy and no wheat. If you’d rather just stick with soy, use the same amount as the coconut aminos.
Chocolate-Zucchini Muffins
Makes 24 · These muffins are moist and fluffy plus they’re nut free writes Walker, who keeps them in the freezer for a quick breakfast when the family’s frazzled and trying to get out the door for school. If zucchini isn’t in season, you could use shredded carrots.
11⁄2 cups shredded zucchini
8 eggs
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup pure maple syrup
2⁄3 cup coconut flour
1⁄2 cup unflavored collagen peptides powder or protein powder of your choice (optional)
1⁄2 cup raw cacao powder
6 tablespoons arrowroot powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1⁄4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1⁄2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1⁄2 cup dairy-free chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two 12-cup muffin tins with baking cups, or grease the tins with coconut oil. Line a plate with paper towels.
Place the zucchini on the prepared plate and allow it to drain some of its moisture while you make the batter.
Place the eggs, applesauce, and maple syrup in a stand mixer fitted with the beater attachment or use an electric handheld mixer. Mix on medium speed until combined. Add the coconut flour, collagen peptides powder, cacao powder, arrowroot, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and mix on medium speed until combined.
Wrap the paper towels around the zucchini and give it a light squeeze to remove any remaining moisture. Add the zucchini to the batter along with 1⁄4 cup of the chocolate chips and mix on low speed until incorporated. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each two-thirds full. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over the top.
Bake for 22 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the pan and allow them to cool completely on a wire rack before serving or storing.
Freeze in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, tightly covered with plastic wrap, for 4 hours. Place the frozen muffins in an airtight container and freeze for 4 months. To eat the muffins directly from the freezer, heat them in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes, until warmed through. Or, defrost in an airtight container in the fridge overnight, or for up to 1 week. If you prefer, warm on a baking sheet in a 400°F oven for 2 to 3 minutes.
The recipes above are from Danielle Walker’s Eat What You Love: Everyday Comfort You Crave Copyright © 2018 by Simple Writing Holdings, LLC. Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
