Category Archives: Cooking
Thanksgiving preparations continue / Recipe
Eight more days to prepare my Thanksgiving dinner. I have my sweet potato casseroles ready and in the freezer awaiting topping on Thanksgiving morning. I did under estimate the sweet potatoes I needed for three casseroles. I will make one more if time permits. If not I will make the one I had planned for Christmas closer to that holiday.
Next in line was going to be the strawberry salad. However, I have decided to change that to a Cranberry Fruit Mold instead. I remembered how much my mother-in-law liked the cranberry one. I will make the Strawberry Salad for Christmas and will share the recipe with you then.
Sweet Potato… Delicious and Healthy/recipe
I would like to invite you to follow me over the next few days as I prepare my Thanksgiving meals. I will be sharing memories, recipes and tips on preparing my Thanksgiving meal. I will be preparing meals for two different settings this Thanksgiving. My mother-in-law always begun in September preparing for the holiday meals. I do not begin that early. I usually wait until the day before. This year I have decided to begin a little bit earlier, twelve days earlier to be exact. I am going to work on some part of my meal each day. Today I am going to make sweet potato casseroles. Since this dish freezes very well, I am going to go on and make three, two for Thanksgiving meals and one for Christmas. I am going to use a recipe from a lady (Ms Vernice) who has passed on but left cooking tips and recipes in the hands of many.
Cooking with a future Chef
Tonight my 11 year old grandson and future chef made dinner.
He had left a shopping list for me when he last visited a few weeks ago. I shopped yesterday and picked up the items he requested. I am including his list for interested readers. At the top of the list he put IMPORTANT.
His list is as follows: Chicken breast, buns, franks red hot sauce, fresh lettuce, pepper jack cheese, tomatoes, red onion and mustard.
After a discussion about baked or fried chicken and the major weigh down plan I am on, he decided to bake. I had no idea what a treat we were all in for.
His plan was to make his SPECIAL SPICY CHICKEN SANDWICHES. I am including his recipe for you to try.
Fall is the season for apples and Fresh apple cake
In the fall we begin to see roadside apple stands. This is the time of year the apple orchards are harvested. Fresh apples just plucked from the tree are crisper and tastier. When I was a child the only time you got the opportunity to eat a caramel apple was when you went to the county fair or your mom made them at home. They are more readily available now. Caramel apples are seen at most groceries during the fall. Making caramel apples at home is a fun and easy family event. Most caramel candies have a recipe on the back of the bag. Warm apple cider is also another treat of fall. You can juice your own apples or purchase a jug of cider at the roadside stand. Warm in a pot on top of the stove. Do not use the microwave oven. Add a cinnamon stick for flavor and to use as a stirrer.
Major Weigh Down Update #2
I have had a discouraging month with my major weigh down plan. I said discouraging but I did not say I am quitting. I am still very determined to lose my 75 lbs. I have tried to figure out what has went on this month. It seems like I have begin to crawl instead of leap. I only lost 4 lbs since my last update on August 28th.
Maybe some of the changes I made over the past few weeks have not been good changes.
I have began eating out nightly with my husband. We are still splitting our meal between the two of us. This makes it very inexpensive for us to eat out. This seemed inviting after a long day at work. I should have remembered I was on a weigh down plan not no a wallet weigh down plan. Maybe it goes back to the thing I have said before about cooking your own food and knowing exactly what is in your meal. Restaurants may add more salt. They may even sneak a little sugar in the food that I would not be adding. Either way this change is going to be altered down to only couple times a week.
Foods that help control DIABETES
Diabetes can be a very serious disease. There are two types of diabetes. Type 1 and type 2 are both very similar but at the same time very different. It would be hard to convince a person with either type that one is worse than the other. Both types have one very serious condition in common. Both types have the problem of unbalanced sugar and insulin in the blood.
Fall is Here time to Cook Chili
The brisk feel of fall is in the air. The sky is bright blue. Fall does not officially arrive for couple more days. To me it feels like it is already here. I hope to get my fall wreath on my front door today. I can’t say fall is my favorite season. I am not sure I have a favorite season. I am just thankful for each new season that comes. I am thankful to see another season come and to be allowed to breath and spend time with my precious family. I guess summer may be my least favorite. It gets too hot to be outside. Even with the heat I enjoy being out grilling with friends and family. Fall is an awesome time to get out for a walk. When my boys were little we always took a fall hike picking up the prettiest colored leaves we could find. We would bring them home and press them in a book then make pictures with them. Don’t miss the beauty of fall. Get out and enjoy.
When the cool air moves in, my mind always turns to cool weather foods. Chicken stew, turnip greens, baked apples, vegetable soup, and chili always brings a hint of fall to your kitchen.
Natural foods become more readily available
Fall is here. Farmers are clearing out their gardens. Farmers markets are wrapping up their season for the year. Normally this would mean our natural, organic, locally grown and fresh garden vegetables come to a end until next growing season. This year this will not necessarily be true. Fresh and natural vegetables will be available all winter.
In the past it was difficult to locate a store that offered natural foods. When you did find one the foods were so pricey it was hard to work them into your budget. Finally in the last few months more of the well known grocery stores have added NATURAL FOOD SECTIONS. YEA!!! The demand for natural foods has finally been heard. Natural foods will always remain higher priced than non-natural foods. However there is now competition for natural food sales. This should slowly bring the prices down making it easier for people to afford healthier eating. Store owners once believed eating natural foods was a fad and it would pass. They felt there was no need to invest in an expansion of a natural section. They now see it is not a fad. It is the norm as more people are taking their health into their own hands. They also see that people are seeing the connection between good health and natural foods. They noticed the increase in the past few years of money being spent on natural foods. Natural food sales has increased over the last 5-7 years. Sales are now reaching over 630 billion dollars. Money always talks. The larger stores want a piece of that business.
A Simple Picnic
Picnic basket, blanket, food, sunshine, ants, shade tree, laughing, ice chest and talking. What do all of these words have in common? If you said things you might see on a picnic. You are right.
All of my family and friends know having a picnic is one of my favorite things to do. I have been told that even as a child I enjoyed picnics. My aunt, told me that even before I could talk plain I would always ask to go on a picnic. She said, whoever I was with knew that when meal time came I was going to ask to eat out doors. I really do not have a clue what first attracted me to picnics. I do know that as I got older I realized that I enjoy the direct attention people give each other when they are out doors. No TV or phones to distract from each other. It is fun to sit out in the fresh air, talk, laugh and play. It is fun to talk about the nature you see around you. It is a fun time for people to experience and share.
5 foods may prevent the dreaded disease of CANCER
There are very few adults in the world that have not been affected in some way by CANCER. It is a word and disease that can frighten us to our very core. I think everyone has the fear of being attacked by this disease. I sure do and I look for anything that I can do to prevent it. Prevention is always the best cure for any disease. We never know if we or someone we love will be diagnosed with cancer. We do know that genetics have a lot to do with who develops cancer. Other factors can affect our chances of developing cancer as well such as stress, the environment that surrounds us and of course the food you eat. It seems every disease and cure turns to our food. Are we eating the right or wrong foods? Are there additives or chemicals in our food? There are many things for us to look at in regards to the food we eat and cancer. Wouldn’t it be great if we could discover exactly what foods to eat or not to eat to prevent us from ever having to worry about getting cancer? I recently found an article about a study that indicates there are 5 foods that may actually help us do just that.
The following 5 foods have been studied and are believed to help prevent cancer. If eating these foods decreased our chances in the slightest way from developing this disease it would be worth trying.
