eGgs and veG… Happy Easter, Breakfast!

Way#1 (Humpty on the half shell)

“What experiments are we doing, today, Vinny?’ asks Will, poking his head into my basket of vegs.

“SO many ways to cook eggs for breakfast,” says Vinny with glee. “We’re going to try three fast ones. Way #1… and just in time for Easter…. is Humpty Dumpty on the half shell.”

Who says Humpty was an egg?” asks Isla.

Spin 3 minutes

“What else could he be?” Vinny scratches his head. “He fell off a wall and got scrambled. Just like our eggs. Once we’re through with these beauties, nobody will be able to put them back together again!”

We select a small beet from the basket, scrub it, cut it into bits  and put it into a small pot of water on the stove. Then we drop an egg into the toe of Grammy’s panty hose. We race around the house spinning the egg in front of us until we’re flat out of breath.

Don’t bother

We also spin another egg relentlessly in our salad spinner for a couple of minutes. But this isn’t nearly as much fun or as good an exercise. Plus, it didn’t work.

Then we tenderly place the eggs in the beet water and bring it all to a gentle boil. After 8 minutes, move the eggs to a cold-water bath.

To serve, slice the eggs in half and pair them with whole-grain toast. Ta Da! Spreading the scrambly egg on the warm, crunchy toast…  it’s an exciting Easter treat indeed! Brighten with a touch of  horseradish and some of the chopped red beets if you want more oomph. You need to soak the eggs much longer than we did to get the red to seep into the shell.

Way #2 (Microwaved)

Microwaved eggs in a hummus bed

“I don’t have time to cook eggs in the morning,” claims Will and Isla’s mom, as she rushes around organizing lunch boxes, homework, and snowsuits while the clock ticks persistently toward 8:30am.

“But you have to eat something before you go to work,” says Vinny. “And the kids will do better at school with a little protein behind them. My eggs take no more than 2 minutes to cook.” Vinny grins. “I use the micro!”

Vinny finds a deep bowl and puts 1/4 cup hummus in the bottom. He zaps it for 30 seconds on high. Then he digs a small hole and breaks an egg into the hummus. He covers the dish with a  plate and sets the power at  7 and the timer for 1 minute. Some 60 seconds later, we’re ready to dig into a creamy egg poached in hummus. Time varies depending on the oven and how you like your egg. I like my hummus spicy. I also like to serve this dish topped with some Greek yogurt and ground black pepper.

For variation, fill the bottom of the bowl with salsa or sauerkraut or with any other left-over cooked veggies you have in the fridge. Roasted broccoli or cauliflower is nice. It’s the technique I’m pushing here… easy and full of possibilities for a protein- and vitamin-packed start to your day.

Way#3 (Pan poached with spinach and mushrooms)

Use a cast iron fry pan or a nonstick fryer to whip up another easy eggs-and-veggie dish. Vinny’s weekend breakfast treat uses a cup or two of rinsed baby spinach and three or four mushrooms, cleaned and sliced.

Lightly coat the fry pan with canola oil. Stir fry mushrooms until they start to brown. Add a half teaspoon of chili paste and stir. Add the washed spinach and cover.

When the leaves wilt, arrange veggies in a circle and make a hole in the centre. Add another small amount of oil. Break an egg into the hole and cover the pan. After a minute or so add a splash of water to the hot pan and cover again. Check once the steam has subsided. Add more water if the egg needs more cooking. Let it all evaporate. Take the whole works out with a spatula and place on a pretty plate. Enjoy.

For a change, try sauteing leeks and mushrooms. Or steam up some broccoli slaw for your egg nest. Top the egg with a spoonful of Greek yogurt or sauerkraut.

Pan-poached eggs with leeks

Breakfast Health Benefits

These egg dishes are perfect if you are looking for high-protein low-carb breakfasts. Perhaps, like me, you’re following Dr. Morano’s 17-day diet? I’ve been eating eggs done ways 2 and 3 for 2 months. I  now boast a healthy BMI and resolve to keep it there!

Eggs contain a lot of cholesterol, but dietary cholesterol is not as bad for your heart as originally thought. You can safely eat an egg a day. In return you get a large dose of protein and selenium and a goodly amount of riboflavin, vitamin B12 and phosphorus. Egg’s choline helps protect your memory. The veggies provide balance and a host of vitamins and minerals. And the yogurt and sauerkraut provide probiotics for better digestion. The hot sauce gives your metabolism a boost first thing in the morning, a good thing for weight control. These breakfasts kick butt!

If you need more than one egg to take you through the morning, boost the number of egg whites.

Egg microwaved on a bed of roasted veg

It’s a riddle, by the way. You’re supposed to guess what Humpty is. It’s Alice (of  Through the Looking Glass fame) who tells us the answer… an egg. Humpty’s VERY provoked.

Related links

The 17-day diet, starring Dr. Mike Morano – An introduction to this balanced and effective eating plan. Follow the many related links here to recipes, theory and nutrition.

Mares eat oats and does eat oats

Banana oat cones are healthier than ice-cream. They are also ridiculously tasty!

“Why do mares and does eat oats?” asks Isla.

“Oats look to me like dry little paper bits,” says Will. “Ugh. Does Bambi’s mom know something we don’t?” Will adds.

“Well,” says I, stalling for time over yet another why question. “Mom’s are usually right.” I smile. “And people eat oats, too. They’re good for us, but I can’t remember exactly why. Let me get back to you.”

I look into this burning question and guess what? Oats are another of our super foods! That’s why you find oatmeal porridge or oat cereals for breakfast on many popular weight loss diets, even ones that feature low-carb eating.

Groats, steel-cut, stone-ground, or old-fashioned rolled… the type of oats makes little difference to the nutrition you get – they’re all good. All these kinds of oats are made from the whole grain. Like other whole grains, they are great sources of fiber. But they have more of a special kind of fiber than other cereals. It’s called soluble fiber and it helps keep cholesterol in your blood down. Its fiber and protein also make oats slow to digest into sugar, a feature called low-glycemic. This means oats gives you a steadier level of sugar in your blood… so you stay full longer and you’re less likely to get diabetes. Oats is also a good source of good fats, the unsaturated omega fatty acid kind. Extensive studies show these help keep your heart healthy longer.

Just stay away from instant (or quick-cooking) oats. They are more processed than other oats. Time saved when making instant over old-fashioned rolled oats is minimal, but with instant, you lose the low-glycemic benefits.

Confirmed meat-eater that I am, I’ve never been a fan of breakfast cereal. So I’m overjoyed to learn that I can make cookies from regular rolled oats. The two recipes here are easy enough that even little kids can join in making them. One recipe doesn’t even need baking… just mix it up, roll it into balls and eat. Neither has flour, so they can be enjoyed by folks on a gluten-free diet. And both are sweetened mainly from fruit and maple syrup. You can even leave the maple syrup out if you need to. I served the oat balls in ice-cream cones, convinced that presentation makes a difference to kids.

My picky eater digs into this fiber-rich cone treat

“Yum,” says Will, my picky eater, spying the mound of cones on the dining-room table.

“Me too,” says Isla, reaching for a pink one.

Here are the recipes, with thanks for inspiration to those who’ve tried them before me.

Banana-Cranberry Oatmeal Cones
Adapted from Tiffany Lane Handmade

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 cup regular rolled oats

1 c unsweetened coconut flakes

1/4 c almond meal (or whole almonds ground in a blender/food processor)

2 tablespoon flax-seed meal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 cup dried cranberries (or any dried fruit), chopped if necessary

 

Wet Ingredients
3 ripe bananas, mashed until smooth
1/4 cup hazelnut oil (or any vegetable oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond or cocoanut extract

2 tablespoons maple syrup (optional)

 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine rolled oats, coconut flakes, almond meal, flax-seed meal, salt, cinnamon, allspice and cranberries until evenly mixed.

In another bowl (or blender), combine mashed banana, coconut oil, vanilla and almond extracts.  Then pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and stir until well combined.

Drop tablespoons of batter onto your prepared baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Be careful and check often, because mine burnt on the bottoms at 20 minutes. Delicious as is for breakfast or with soft unripened goat’s cheese (or any low-fat cream cheese).

Pemmican cones don’t need baking!

Pemmican cones

Adapted from My little bit of this and that

This recipe reminds me of the pemmican our ancestors made from nuts, seeds and buffalo fat to last them through long trips and the winter months. I think peanut butter makes a tasty substitute for buffalo grease. Serve these in cones or take some of these balls in your  backpack on a hike through the wilds.

You need

1 1/2 cups regular rolled oats
1/4 cup maple syrup (optional)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup pistachios (optional)
2 tablespoons of homemade nutella (optional)
1/2 cup ground almonds
pinch of salt
1/4 cup apple juice
a few chocolate chips to garnish

Mix all this together. Add more juice if the mixture isn’t sticky enough to form balls. Make little balls of dough and top each one with a chocolate chip. You can eat these balls directly, or you can bake them on a greased pan at 350F for 10 or 15 minutes. Allow to cool on a rack before tasting.

The three faces of Brocky Lee

Brocky Lee’s Slaw fortifies a lunch-time soup

Brocky Lee is a fine fellow. He’s a member of a well-recognized vegetable family, the Cabbages. Many of Brocky’s famous cousins include such luminaries as Sir  Cauliflower, Mr. Kale, the brothers Radish and Turnip, and the little Missies Brussels Sprouts and Arugula.

Brocky Lee has been highly regarded as a useful veggie in Italy since the time of the Romans. He first came to England by way of Belgium in the 1700s… ever so long ago. He made his way to America with other Italian immigrants but didn’t become popular on this side of the ocean until the early 1900s. And now we see him turning up in all the best restaurants, nearly everywhere!

Here are a few pictures from Brocky Lee’s family album.

Broccoli

Romanesco

Rapini

Brocky’s might comes down to stiff fiber, the means to sharpen eyesight, and powerful weapons called antioxidants. Bullies like Cancer and Heart Disease and pests like Flu all run when they see Brocky coming. He’s rich with precious metals like iron, calcium and zinc, which he uses to buy strength for your blood and bones. He’s just a real pal to keep around!

And now, this super guy is handier than ever. I’ve just discovered Brocky Lee’s Slaw… and although I don’t usually sanction processed food, this slaw is a fabulous time-saving way to sneak broccoli into every meal.

A slice from one of Carl Warner’s spectacular foodscapes

If you insist on showing us all up, you can make your own slaw easily with a food processor and save a whole bunch of pennies. Here’s how. Top your broccoli plants and use the little trees in stir fries. Try this excellent recipe from The Girl in the Blue Apron. She even pairs Brown Rice with Brocky Lee,  for a delicious and nutritious marriage, serving up all the food groups. Then you can put the stalks through your shredder on the food processor, wasting not one bit of the precious plant. You can even shred the leaves if you want. They’re edible. Also shred a couple of carrots and a little red cabbage, and you have a home-made slaw to last you through the week.

Easy recipes that showcase
three faces of Brocky Lee with slaw

Breakfast: Brocky faces the day with a slaw omelet, spruced up with some tomatoes

I heat a little olive oil in my skillet on medium-high and add a handful of slaw. I stir it around a bit and when the whole thing is really hot I throw in a couple of tablespoons of water and put on the lid. The steam cooks the slaw super quick. After 2 minutes or so, I arrange the slaw into a circle and pour an egg, lightly whipped, onto the skillet. When it begins to firm up, I pile the veggies on top and flip it over. I like my omelet on a slice of whole grain toast. Easy, filling, and delicious.

Lunch: Brocky Lee fortifies a bowl of clam chowder from a can. Choose low-salt soups.

Even easier than the omelet, this lunch involves opening a can of your favorite soup. I used clam chowder. Add a large handful of slaw to the soup in the pot and heat gently. Once the slaw has softened to a texture you like, serve up the soup and decorate with a dash of paprika. Supplement with a slice of whole-grain bread or crackers, if you like. Easy peasy!

Dinner: A speedy stir fry starts with Brocky Lee’s Slaw

Fry some onions and peppers in a little oil until they’re tender. Add a couple of handfuls of slaw and stir until tender. Transfer to a plate and add a little more olive oil to the hot pan. Stir-fry some chicken cubes that you’ve been marinating for a few minutes in a half cup of yogurt seasoned with cinnamon, garlic powder, ground pepper, a tablespoon of soya sauce, and two teaspoons of cornstarch. If the mixture gets too thick as it heats in the pan, thin it out with a little more yogurt, or even just a little water. Once the chicken is cooked through, add the veggies back to the pan, stir another minute to rewarm, and serve the whole thing on top of some whole wheat noodles or brown rice. Use a quarter pound of chicken per person and adjust the seasonings to your own taste.

Brocky Lee comes in many guises. We could write a whole cook book devoted to his many faces. You have just seen three of them. Each of these dishy foods is easy to make, adaptable to your likes, and wonderful for your good health. In fact Brocky Lee is considered one of the superest of the super foods. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get cooking!

Read more
Health benefits of broccoli, a thorough review
Photo credit for Broccolo Romanesco: Judith Bruder

Hazel tames the giant Nutella

Giant Nutellas lurk about in the strangest places. Here they are, hiding on the bottom shelf in Le Bon Marché in Paris!

Hazel is deeply wise. She holds the secrets of the earth within her. Love her and she’ll tell you where to quench your thirst… for water and for knowledge. What’s more, she’ll bless you with a silver tongue for telling others what you’ve learned.

So it’s said. But is there any truth behind the power of our elf  Hazel?

Here’s what we know for sure: Hazel harnesses the power of the nut. And nuts are powerhouses of nutrition. Eating a handful of nuts a day can help prevent heart problems and weight gain. That’s why nuts are key players in many popular weight-loss programs these days.

Raw hazelnuts are half the price of the roasted, skinned ones. I’m the miserly sort, so I went for the cheapo ones.

Would you believe there are 130 hazelnuts in just one of those giant kilogram jars of Nutella? There is also a heap of skim milk and cocoa powder thrown into the mix. How can anything with so much fiber, vitamins C, B, and  E, protein, folate, and calcium be anything but good?

Well, Nutella has its detractors. For one, there is a large dose of sugar – 11 grams in one tablespoon. And then, there is the whole palm oil thing. This vegetable oil has 41% saturated fat (the bad kind, but just half what palm kernel oil has….) and no trans fats (the worst offender). So maybe palm oil is only half bad? The jury is still out, but I think there could be a place for modest amounts of palm oil  in our food.

However…  health is not the only concern opponents to palm oil have. Over-farming of the rainforest is threatening endangered animals, like the gorgeous orangutan. Our elf  Hazel would definitely be sympathetic to this cause!

Momma orangutan and baby. Photo courtesy of harrymoon, FlickR Commons

I just LUV Nutella, though, and I’ve even used it as an ingredient in my healthiest cookies ever (the recipe is in my book). So what is a nutty orangutan-loving Nutella fan to do? Well, if you have the time and the inclination, you can make your own hazelnut spread. It’s not hard if you have a food processor. You get to say how much sugar is enough, and you can simply leave out the palm oil or use olive oil instead.

Vinny’s Homemade Hazelnut Chocolate “Nutella”

1 1/2 cup whole hazelnuts
1/4 cup (50 grams ) cocoa (dutch-processed is less bitter)
1  cup skim milk
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup skim  milk powder
2 tablespoons  maple syrup (optional, use stevia instead and unsweetened chocolate rather than bittersweet to lower the sugar by half again)
pinch salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 heaping cup (200 grams) chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, or chips
3/4 cup (125 grams) chopped milk chocolate, or chips

Warm hazelnut sauce on eggy pancakes with strawberries

On a rimmed baking sheet, toast the nuts in a 400ºF oven for 10 minutes, or until their skins begin to pop. Shake them up half way through. Then keep an eye on them, because they burn easily. Burnt hazelnuts taste yucky!!! Pour the hot nuts onto an old (but clean) tea towel, gather the corners into a bundle and rub the nuts together like mad. You want to rub off as much of their skins as possible. This is hard work. Maybe that’s why the roasted nuts were twice the price! While they’re warm, blend the nuts in a food processor until they go from finely ground to pasty.

Meanwhile, warm the milk, powdered milk, maple syrup, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt in a small saucepan. Watch it and stir, because the milk can easily burn on the bottom. Remove from heat as soon as it starts to boil.

In a glass or stainless steel bowl set over a pan of simmering water, melt the chocolate, stirring until smooth. Take off the heat a little before it’s completely melted, because you don’t want it to curdle.

Add the melted chocolate to the ground nuts and process the mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the warm milk mixture bit by bit, and process until the sauce is well blended. It will be more liquid than Nutella, but don’t worry. It gets thick when it is thoroughly cool.

While it’s still warm, you can strain it into jars if you like it smoother rather than nutty. But I like the extra fiber. Makes about 2 1/4 cups. Keep it in the fridge.

Vinny served the hazelnut sauce on eggy pancakes and poured some over strawberries. He also uses it in his chocolate cookies, melting moments. The spread works fine without palm oil. Hazel the elf, in her usual charming, understanding, socially conscious, honest and tolerant way… says, “Enjoy!”

Vinny’s homemade hazelnut and chocolate “Nutella” spread gets a thumbs up!

Yield: About 2 1/4 cups or 36 tablespoons.
Nutrition information per tablespoon (From eaTracker, by Dietitians of Canada):
98 Calories
6 g fat (including 1.8 g saturated fat, no trans fat)
9.6 g carbs (including 1.2 g fibre and 7.6 g sugar)
2.4 g protein
19 mg sodium (salt), 116 mg potassium, 53.8 mg calcium
21.5 RAE Vit A, 7.4 DFE folate

Recipe adapted from The Family Kitchen. If you want to compare nutrients with the commercial Nutella by Ferrero, here’s their nutrition label.

What’s for lunch at Hogwarts?

Rumbledethumps… with sweet potatoes and white ones.

British kids like Harry and Hermione find foods with the strangest names on their school menus. Which of these silly-sounding dishes isn’t like the others… Is it Bubble and Squeak? Rumbledethumps? Spotted Dick? Or Hash? Here’s a hint: Think potatoes.

Bubble and Squeak are best friends. The dish named after them is made with leftover veggies from a roast dinner. It’s mainly mashed-up potato and cabbage, but you can throw in carrots, peas, Brussels sprouts, whatever.

Bubble the Owl and his pal Eek come to lunch when we try a few British dishes.

Bubble and Squeak could be one of the earliest of the fast foods. A recipe for it first came to light in 1804. Now, it turns up on school lunch menus in England all the time. Fry some up for yourself and see if you can figure out how it got its name? There’s a recipe at the end of this post you can try. I like to use sweet potatoes, rather than the white ones. White potatoes are only a breath away from sugar once they get into your stomach. Sweet potatoes provide energy longer.

Rumbledethumps is a similar treat that turns up in Scotland. The ingredients are amazingly like what goes into bubble and squeak… left-over veggies. Wave your wand at my recipe below to learn how to make it fresh.

Harry might have had trouble identifying the third potato dish in my list of funny-sounding foods. That’s because hash turns up more often in  North America. Hash browns are made from raw potatoes that are grated and squeezed (to get out extra liquid) before they’re fried. Left-over cooked potatoes that are sliced (not mashed) before popping them in a frying pan are usually called home fries but are sometimes confusingly served as hash browns. Hash dishes are often served for breakfast. I usually say “No thanks,” though, when they’re offered. I’d rather fill up on breakfast foods that last longer in my tummy than potatoes do.

The remaining dish on our list, spotted dick, has nothing to do with potatoes or policemen or dogs. But it would have been a favorite with Harry Potter.  It’s a steamed pudding! (Or as they might say in some quarters in Britain, puddink… which might  possibly be shortened to  ‘dink, which may then have been repeated as dick…). Well, that’s one way I’ve heard it explained. Funny name and all, spotted dick would be popular at Hogwarts. The spots are raisins and the pudding part is made from a suet dough.  More about how to make a steamed pudding in my next post. In the meantime, here are a couple of potato recipes to keep you busy and energized.

Recipes

Rumbledethumps is ready for the oven… topped with cheddar cheese and mozzarella

Fresh Rumbledethumps – Shred a half cup of onion and a cup of cabbage. A food processor works nicely. Lightly saute them in 2 tablespoons olive or canola oil and a dab of butter, until the onion is transparent and the cabbage wilted. Mash a cup or three of  boiled potatoes with a little butter, salt and pepper and stir in the onions and cabbage. My suggestions: Add a half cup well-drained cottage cheese or an egg to the mix, or use sweet potatoes instead of white ones.

Put all this in an oven-proof dish and top with 1/2 cup shredded hard cheese. In Britain they usually always use cheddar. Pop the dish in an oven preheated to 350°C and bake until golden brown.

The cottage cheese or egg  increases the protein in the dish. Protein slows down digestion of the potato, so you don’t get an energy surge from the dish. Sweet potatoes are also digested more slowly than white ones and have added vitamins. They make a healthy substitute!

Bubble the Owl says sweet potatoes taste the best, whether they are oven roasted or fried up as Bubble and Squeak. Shrimps and maple syrup are the sides.

Easy Bubble and squeak – Use up your left-over veggies. Eat this potato dish with meat on the side, as protein slows the digestion of the potato.

• 1 tablespoon butter and 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ½ cup onion, finely chopped
• Leftover mashed potato (use sweet potatoes if you have them for a healthier version)
• Any leftover vegetables: cabbage, turnip, peas, carrots, Brussels Sprouts, etc., finely chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Fried bacon pieces (optional)

In a large frying pan melt the butter and oil together, add the chopped onion and fry gently for 3 minutes or until soft. Turn the heat up slightly and add the mashed potato and vegetables. Fry for 10 minutes turning over in the melted oil two or three times ensuring the potato and vegetables are thoroughly reheated. Press the potato mixture on to the base of the pan with a spatula and leave to brown for 1 minute. Flip over and repeat. Or make small patties, like I did.
Serve and cast a spell on your table for good health and happy mealtimes!

Go sweet on Valentine’s Day with these deliciously nutritious pancakes

Luv U… B mine?

I was surfing the net one night when I came across what may be the perfect answer to  chocolate overdosing on Valentine’s day.  Emmy in Seattle, another WordPress chef, had posted a recipe for  sweet potato pancakes. I thought: what a terrific treat for the family on a day that celebrates all things close to the heart! The only changes I made to Emmy’s recipe were to make a smaller quantity using buttermilk (which is low in fat in spite of its name), leaving out the sugar in the mix and throwing in a little oat bran to increase the fiber.

To feed four hungry people as a side dish, I took one small sweet potato  (250 grams or 2 ounces) and peeled, diced, and boiled it in just enough water to cover the pieces. When they were soft to the fork I drained the water and mashed them with an old-fashioned potato masher. Yams work equally well, although surprisingly, they are not a potato at all. They are of the lily family.

In a large bowl, I mixed 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 c. whole wheat flour, and 1/4 cup wheat bran (which I always keep on hand), 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and a pinch of salt.

In a separate bowl, I whisked 1 omega-3 egg with 1 cup buttermilk and 2 teaspoons of canola oil.  Of course you can use any kind of eggs, milk or oil…. but on a day we are celebrating love, I think we should be as kind to our hearts as we can be with these healthy ingredients low in saturated fat.

I whisked the sweet potato puree into my liquid ingredients,  thinking how  my sweetie whisks me away pretty good, too … She’s great! Then I dumped the whole thing into my dry ingredients and stirred just until they were blended.

If you want to follow through with hearts on Valentine’s Day, Emmy had some good ideas. But I took the lazy guy’s way out. I sprayed my largest cast iron frying pan with oil and added a dab of butter for flavor. Then I filled it with small scoops of batter, just a little larger than my heart-shaped cookie cutter. I waited for bubbles to rise to the surface. Then I checked the underside by lifting it with a spatula. Once it was golden brown, I flipped the whole works over, again using my handy dandy spatula. After a minute or three, once the second side was golden as well, I took the pancakes off the heat and flipped them out onto a wooden cutting board.  Here’s the fun part. Using cookie cutters, I turned each pancake into a heart for my sweetie.  I presented them to her with a splash of maple syrup on top and some berries on the side. “You are berry cute,” I said to her. “I think we’re cut out for each other!”

Sweet potato is a wonder food

Here’s what I found out out about sweet potatoes. They’re super good for you! The Centre for Science in the Public Interest  ranked the sweet potato number one in nutrition of all vegetables. It beat out the next highest vegetable, which was potatoes,  by more than 100 points! Points were given for content of dietary fiber, naturally occurring sugars and complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron and calcium. Points were deducted for fat content (especially saturated fat), sodium, cholesterol, added refined sugars and caffeine. The higher the score, the more nutritious the food. Sweet potato ranked highest with a score of 184. Potato came next at 83.

Cook Up A Story. See main menu for more about the book. Click pic to order.

Hey, sweet patootie, I yam keen on you! B mine?

Fry up a little love this Christmas

Love on toast!

Here’s a twist on a favorite recipe that has love written all over it… a heart-y breakfast to get the family into a peaceful mood for Christmas. It’s made with eggs, Vinny’s theme in recent posts.

Eggs often get a bad rap in the press. But they have lots going for them, even though the yolks do contain cholesterol, a nasty fat associated with heart disease.  Recent studies show healthy people can eat up to 7 eggs a week, though, without damaging their hearts.

Eggs are an inexpensive source of protein. The yolk provides two nutrients, lutein and zeaxanthin,  that protect your eyesight, as well as choline, a nutrient that keeps your brain sharp. Mom or Dad would love this for a special treat in the morning. I bet you would too! Give it a try soon.

Vinny’s heart-y breakfast treat     Serves one, but easily doubled

Ingredients
1 egg
1 tablespoon skim milk
1 slice of whole grain bread
1 teaspoon of olive oil

Cook Up A Story. See main menu for more about the book. Click pic to order.

Equipment
small bowl, measuring spoons
heart-shaped cookie cutter
no-stick frying pan
egg flipper, serving plate

Get ready…
1.     Find your ingredients and equipment.
2.     Break the egg into the bowl and mix it up with the milk.
3.     With the cookie cutter, cut a heart from the center of the bread.
4.     Pour the oil into the frying pan. Put the pan on the stove on medium heat.

Get set…
1.     When the hot oil starts to crackle, put the slice of bread in the pan and pour the egg mixture into its hole. Put the heart-shaped cut-out in the pan beside it.
2.     After a few minutes, check the underside of the heart cut-out with a flipper and turn it when it’s golden. Cook another minute or two. Remove it from the heat, and put it on your plate.
3.     When the egg mixture sets, use the flipper to turn the egg and bread over together, and brown the other side for a minute or so.

Go!
1.     Lift the egg and bread from the pan. Put it on your plate.
2.     Add a dash of sea salt and a good sprinkle of pepper.
3.     Top it off with your golden-heart cut-out, and share the love!

Maple syrup magic

The sugar shack: Maple goodness is best in small packages! Story source: click my photo

If you really need to have a sweetener, choose maple syrup. It’s good! And now there is some proof that it might also be good for you.

Yes, spoon for spoon it has about the same number of calories and carbs as garden variety white sugar has. But maple syrup comes from the heart of  trees. It flows in the spring, from roots to branches, to renew sleeping buds. Native Americans drank the first sap as a spring tonic. And recently, a scientist named Navindra Seeram conducted a “commendable analysis of the chemical constituents of maple syrup and discovered some interesting, previously undetected compounds in the process, ” according to a well-known commentator on science issues, Joe Schwarz. These compounds are disease fighters called phenolics.

But Schwarz has been one of  Seeram’s worst critics. To suggest that maple syrup is healthy, he says, because it contains some phenolics is rumpled thinking. Phenolics  are abundant in fruits and vegetables, he adds. He also worries that people hearing about “healthy compounds” in maple syrup could let their appetites for the sweet treat run wild.

“We’re not saying you should eat this to get phenolics,”  Seeram emphasized. “We’re saying that if you’re choosing to eat this sweetener, it has these phenolics which are present in other healthy plant foods.”

If kids want sweetener on their pancakes, though, it might be worth the extra cost to splurge on maple syrup.

For more maple syrup magic, try this recipe for maple candy. Maybe you should cut the recipe in half, though.  A pound of candy seems like an awful lot, and a little of this stuff takes you a long way. Share with friends, while you’re at it… sweet!

Girly breakfast

Got any more of these babies?

It’s tough being a girl. Today’s media-hyped culture is swamped with images of beauty. These portrayals often reflect malice or self-focus. One young artist thinks some girls have adopted this catty lifestyle, bringing the media’s influence far past fashion. Breakfast is a likeness of us! Click here to check out this artist’s concept of a common breakfast food for today’s teens. And while you’re looking over the image, you can take a look at some of the other art posted on the website of the National Gallery of Canada and vote for your own favorites. Or just cast a vote for Vinny’s

It’s not always as easy as pie…

Sugar bombs!

Just when you think you know what things are good for you to eat, someone throws you a hot potato.

Let’s say you’ve  got it figured out that sugar tastes good, but it isn’t the best thing in the world to eat too much of.  So you want to choose foods with less sugar. OK, good. Then take this little test. Which of these three foods has the most sugar?

a) One serving of oat cereal, like Cheerios

b) One serving of chocolate-flavored puffed corn cereal

c) One serving of fruit-flavored yogurt

Don’t scroll down till you’ve settled on an answer.

Have you picked?

Ok, scroll down now.

If you picked b you could be wrong. Some fruit-flavored yogurts have as much as 30 grams of sugar in a single serving. One  serving of chocolate-flavored puffed corn cereal has only 14 grams of sugar. So if sugar is a problem, sweetened cereal with milk is better for you than overly sweetened yogurts. But check out the nutrition label for Cheerios. It has only 1 gram of sugar per serving. It’s by far the best bet for families trying to keep their sugar habit in check.

Cook Up a Story gives kids lots of tips on how to understand all that stuff on the package about nutrition. It makes sense. Read the labels and eat smart!

Cartoon comes from the website kmkirbynapkins – too cute!

Make a date with cranberries and digest some good feelings

Dates and cranberries make great friends. They contain minerals and molecules that your body loves. Dates have amazing amounts of potassium, which banishes the blues. Cranberries are full of nutrients that fight disease. Natural sugar in the dates plus fiber in the oats mean instant energy with benefits. These date and cranberry squares make a super healthy breakfast or snack choice with fuel that lasts. Best of all they taste DElicious, especially with a dab of vanilla yogurt.

Ingredients
½ bag (500 grams) pitted dates
1 bag (340 grams) fresh, frozen, or dried cranberries, rinsed and with stems removed
4 cups oatmeal
2 teaspoons cinnamon
¼  tsp salt
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons sugar

Equipment
large saucepan with lid, large bowl, wooden spoon, measuring cups and spoons, 2 nine-inch square pans

Get ready…
1. Put the dates in the saucepan. If using dried cranberries, add them too. Then add boiling water – just enough to cover their tops. Let them soften for 10-15 minutes.
2. If using fresh cranberries, rinse and take off any stems, then add them after the dates have softened.

Get set…
1. Gently stir the fruit over medium heat until the dates and cranberries form a soft paste (about 5 minutes after they come to a boil). Do not overcook as you want to see the different fruit in your squares). Allow to cool for 30 minutes.
2. For the crust, measure the remaining ingredients and mix them together in the large bowl. Sprinkle one cup of the crust mix into each pan.
3. Add half the cooled fruit mix to each pan, slowly, as the mix is thick and gooey. Use the flat of a large spoon to flatten and spread the paste. Then top each pan with one more cup of the crust. Let cool completely, then put in the fridge.

Go…

Cut into squares and serve with your favorite low-fat yogurt (optional, but a tasty and protein-rich addition).

Cook Up A Story. See main menu for more about the book. Click pic to order.

Recipe adapted from one given to Vinny by France Laliberte. Thanks, France!