New veggie and recipe for March

This Months veggie was a Napa cabbage.  I used it to make a fabulous recipe called Asian turkey cabbage cups.

 

Salad dressing made easy

I cut this recipe from the Martha Stewart magazine because I am intrigued with making my own salad dressing.  I can't believe the junk that is added to commercial dressings - tons of sugar, salt, preservatives, titanium dioxide - yuk! 

The first dressing I tried was this Orange miso.  It was pretty tasty.  I did not use safflower oil but an extra virgin olive oil.

 

I also love the idea of not buying any more stuff in glass jars but making my own stuff in containers I reuse. Good for me ,  good for the planet.

Best Smoothie Ever

This is one kick ass smoothie recipe I got from thrive market.  Very, very tasty - like drinking candy.  It will definitely satisfy your cravings for sweets!

mine did not come out nearly as purple as in the picture- guess I added to much spinach!

New Veggie for January

One of my resolutions this year is to try a new type of produce I don't normally eat.  In January, I purchased a daikon radish.  I used it in a few interesting ways - I added it to salad, used it in a stir fry and butter steamed it as a side dish.  I have to say it was ok but I am not rushing out to buy it again.  It was kind of tough when cooked.  I liked it in salad but not anymore than regular radishes.  So lets see how it stacks up nutritionally compared to a regular red radish. Well the daikon is a bigger radish with more calories and carbs but way more vitamin C and other nutrients than a red radish.

Daikon

 

Amount Per 1 radish (7" long) (338 g)

Calories 61

% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0.3 g	0%
Saturated fat 0.1 g	0%
Polyunsaturated fat 0.2 g
Monounsaturated fat 0.1 g
Cholesterol 0 mg	0%
Sodium 71 mg	2%
Potassium 767 mg	21%
Total Carbohydrate 14 g	4%
Dietary fiber 5 g	20%
Sugar 8 g
Protein 2 g	4%
Caffeine

Vitamin A	0%	Vitamin C	124%
Calcium	9%	Iron	7%
Vitamin D	0%	Vitamin B-6	10%
Vitamin B-12	0%	Magnesium	13%

 

 

Red radish

Amount Per 1 medium (3/4" to 1" dia) (4.5 g)

Calories 1

% Daily Value*
Total Fat 0 g	0%
Saturated fat 0 g	0%
Polyunsaturated fat 0 g
Monounsaturated fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg	0%
Sodium 2 mg	0%
Potassium 10 mg	0%
Total Carbohydrate 0.2 g	0%
Dietary fiber 0.1 g	0%
Sugar 0.1 g
Protein 0 g	0%
Caffeine

Vitamin A	0%	Vitamin C	1%
Calcium	0%	Iron	0%
Vitamin D	0%	Vitamin B-6	0%
Vitamin B-12	0%	Magnesium	0%

The anti aging salad

Did I post this last year??? I can't remember.  It says draft in the posts list so I am going to put it up now.Sometimes I watch Peggy K's kitchen cures on the Z living channel.  Well I don't anymore because we cancelled the dish network but I used too.  This is a recipe that I really liked from her show.  It is supposed to be a salad but I prefer it as a dip with tortilla chips.  She promised that it would stop me from aging but I think she lied.  Oh well, it tastes good anyhow.  Of course, I can't eat these yummy chips since I am on the zone diet but one can dream.

Mango avocado dip



The ingredients

1 chopped mango,
2 chopped avocados
1/2 chopped red pepper
1/4 chopped red onion
juice of 1 lime
handful of chopped cilantro

Dressing: olive oil, sea salt cayenne pepper, lime juice

Chop mango, red pepper, red onion, cilantro, lime juice.  At this point you have the option of putting it in the fridge for a day if you want to make it in advance.  Add avocado and dressing shortly before serving.

I like these 'Food Should Taste Good' multigrain chips with flax seeds

For the Birds

 

On Monday we had a whopping snow storm - about a foot of snow. 

 I knew my birdies would be hungry so I made up some homemade suet with a recipe I got from the Ash Canyon B & B back in 2013.  Here it is in case your birdies are hungry too.

 



The Junco and bushtits both think it is yummy
 

 

Bushtits always come in flocks, eat for about 10 minutes and bugger off again

Blast from the Past

Last Christmas I received this as a gift from one of my Twisted Sisters.

 

 

His Lordship and I discovered this way back in about 1988 when we lived in Champaign Urbana.  When my mom came to stay with us, we shared it with her.  She loved it so much that we used to buy it in large quantities and give it to her for Christmas.  For about 15 years it has been off of my radar.  But low and behold, my sister found it.

 

We used to make it with Campbell's soups.  But being a little more health conscious now, I used these soups instead to prepare it last night.

 

 

 

I also sautéed 1/2 cup of chopped red onion and 1 lb of mushrooms with the ground bison I used instead of ground beef.  For liquid, I added 1/2 of soaking water from some dried mushrooms, a cup of homemade bone and veggie stock and 1 cup of water.  It came out very yummy!  But unfortunately, because of all that rice, I can only eat a little of it.  Looks like his Lordship is going Cajun for the next week. 

 

New Recipe for January

One of my resolutions is to try a new recipe every month.  Last week, I made something I have been meaning to try for ages - homemade miso soup.  I love miso soup.  It doesn't have many calories and in winter, it is hot and comforting.  To control the salt, I used a low sodium sweet miso and a low sodium tamari sauce.  Here are the ingredients:

 

They include two kinds of sea veggies - kombu for making a dashi which is Japanese broth and wakame to add with the tofu to the broth.  To make a dashi, one brings a piece of kombu and 5 cups of  water to a boil. Take it off the heat, discard the kombu and pour the hot water over 1/2 cup of bonito flakes.  Let that steep for 10 minutes and strain. 

 

Then dissolve 3 tablespoons of miso in the broth, add green onions, tofu and wakame and simmer.  If it is too bland, add a few tablespoons of tamari.  It is that easy, low calorie and really satisfying.

 

 

 

 

Just Kick Me...

I have been on the zone diet for a week and have lost 4 1/2 pounds.  It has been fairly painless thus far.  Menus have consisted of smothered omelets, health drinks, Icelandic yogurt and fruit mostly for breakfast, a big old salad for lunch, and a meat and veggie dinner.  No flour. No booze. 1 cookie on Tues. and even an Indian meal out last Saturday.  I think portion control is making a big difference - I have been good about controlling the serving size.  Of course, limited carbs helps with that since I am a carboholic and have no bottom to my carb rubbish pit.  So next time I blog that I have gained 4 pounds, please just kick me and remind me of how painless it would be to go on a diet for one week (before it is 12 pounds and requires 2 months of dieting).

A Fuhrman Recipe for you...

I made this recipe for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  I really like it!  It's super easy and totally adaptable.  You could put just about any nut, dried fruit, choc chips(!!) in these cookies (more like a muffin, really) and it would be delicious.  This is my current go-to snack when I'm craving junk.  Not low in calories but healthy and filling so definitely helps.  Wouldn't really work in the Zone, though.  Too many carbs.  

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Jennifer Shmoo

Serves: 12

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups old fashioned oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

4 medium ripe bananas

1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds

1/3 cup raisins or currants

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 300ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment and spray with nonstick spray.

Use a high-powered blender to process the oats into flour. Pour the oat flour into a mixing bowl and add the baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

Put the bananas into the blender and blend until completely smooth. Add to the oat mixture along with the sunflower seeds and raisins or currants, and mix until well combined.

Use a 1-ounce cookie scoop to place spoonfuls of the cookie dough on the baking sheet. Dip the scoop in water to keep the dough from sticking. Use lightly moistened fingers to flatten each cookie down slightly. Bake 15 minutes.

Cool cookies on a wire rack and store in an airtight container. Makes about 24 cookies.

Per Serving:

CALORIES 115; PROTEIN 3g; CARBOHYDRATES 22g; TOTAL FAT 2.7g; SATURATED FAT 0.4g; SODIUM 106mg; FIBER 2.9g; BETA-CAROTENE 11ug; VITAMIN C 4mg; CALCIUM 9mg; IRON 3.7mg; FOLATE 15ug; MAGNESIUM 22mg; ZINC 0.2mg; SELENIUM 2ug