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Published on Leave a comment on Winter Greens and Squash in Coconut Milk

Happy New Year Everyone!

I've been way too busy enjoying the wacky 50 to 60 degree temperatures we've had in PA these past couple months, celebrating birthdays, and the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays with family.  But it's good to be back!

Now that temperatures are back to our typical frosty January days, seems like a great time for a cozy winter vegetable recipe!

On New Year's Day I watched a news program that said that the #2 'How to' Google search in 2015 was "How to make kale chips?"  And #8 was "How to cook collard greens?"  Ha! Can you believe that?  Who knew these two would be such sexy veggies??

So if you still wanted to jump on that kale or collard green bandwagon but have been unsure how to do it outside of all the hype about kale chips, here's a great tasting way to work them into your meal.

...continue reading "Winter Greens and Squash in Coconut Milk"

Published on Leave a comment on What’s your gut telling you??

food-as-medicineA couple weeks back I attended a continuing education program called 'The Pharmacy in Your Kitchen: An Overview of Medical and Medicinal Foods' given by Dr. Michael Lara.  It was a fascinating all-day presentation, and I am hoping to share a couple posts regarding the valuable information shared that day.

Did you know your gut contains more than 10 trillion microorganisms?!
Don't you want to know what they're doing??

One of the best takeaways from this program was a video put out via NPR called 'The Invisible Universe of the Human Microbiome'.

Okay that sounds like a mouthful and very technical. Despite the wordy title, this little video has animated characters and explains things in such a fun and simple way, it's great information for both adults and children on probiotics or 'good bugs' and the importance of them in your body.

Click here for a link to the YouTube video.  It's really fantastic and I encourage readers to take a few minutes to view.

...continue reading "What’s your gut telling you??"

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Published on 9 Comments on Sauerkraut and ‘Nifla’

What kind of good Dakota girl doesn't know how to make sauerkraut and nifla??
This one didn't until a couple months ago, but I've got it down now and am ready to share!

Just like my previous post about kekle (kuechle), our family apparently goes for the simplified spellings of these words........so we spell it 'nifla'....others spell it 'knoephla' or 'knipfla'.....potayto potahto.....the point is that it is carb heaven.

I don't think its possible to have lived in North Dakota and never eaten sauerkraut and nifla or had a soothing cup of nifla soup...so good. Ya, you betcha. There's probably something wrong with your prairie genes if you don't like it......just saying.

However, at their age, the kids love the nifla, not so much the sauerkraut. So for now, I make them a 'nifla and bacon' version to go alongside my 'nifla and sauerkraut' version. I usually don't cater to their dislikes but more sauerkraut for me so I'm ok with it. Bacon solves everything.

So here's the recipe - if you've never tried it, give it a whirl.........it tastes even better as it gets colder outside!

...continue reading "Sauerkraut and ‘Nifla’"

Published on Leave a comment on Green Reads
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
― Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Don't get me wrong, I still love a great bacon cheeseburger or juicy grilled steak.....that's not going to change.  But I have been trying to switch around the portions in our household and make meat more of a 'side dish' and the veggies and other stuff the main deal.

It's a slow process trying to build more vegetarian dishes into the repertoire over time but hopefully one that changes habits for good going forward.  It also helps that the kids are past that preschool picky stage and are actually starting to enjoy a wider variety of foods.  I'm a no drama mama......my least favorite thing about cooking is hearing from diminutive food critics.

So I'm constantly on the lookout for good, easy - not too crazy - vegetarian recipes to add for variety.  Plus I need inspirational pictures to motivate me and also prevent me from standing in front of the fridge after getting home from work with that blank stare of 'what should I make today?'.  (and for all of you out there that do meal plans, good for you - you probably don't stand in front of your fridge doing that.  But for all my organizational skills, meal plans are something I've never been able to get on board with - too restrictive or something about it - can't do it.)

Of course, now we have Pinterest which does help somewhat - providing recipe eye candy for inspiration.  I do use Pinterest sometimes, but I guess I still like grabbing a well-loved book down from the shelf.

Here are my go-to vegetarian books.........would love to hear if you have some tried and true books you'd like to share......

And below, I've added a recipe I just made the other week to accommodate the couple eggplants I got in my CSA delivery.  Personally, I'm not so big on eggplant but I have found that I like it as Baba Ghanoush.......plus I just like saying that ........Baba Ghanoush (come on, admit it, it just sounds fun).

...continue reading "Green Reads"

Published on Leave a comment on Open Letter to My Hot Flash

Since I'm new to blogging, I've read a bunch of advice books and webpages on getting started, what plug-ins and web hosts to use, how to create a name and  logo, and all that jazz.  All of them advise you to find your niche and to not write about a bunch of disparate things.  But they also say to write what you know.

While the topic this week is certainly something I know, it's quite a bit 'off road' from what I expect to be writing about. But it's been like an irritating bug bite in my Evernote files -  I wrote it just to get it out of my head one night and now, quite frankly, I'm posting it just to stop looking at it. I'll go back to my regular programming of recipes and guilt tripping you into eating more veggies next week.

Many parents thoroughly enjoyed M.blazoned's viral post that circulated all over Facebook this summer entitled 'Open Letter to My Kids About Summer'. If you have not yet busted a gut over that one, stop now and go there - click on the link and read it. It's well worth the laughs even if you don't have kids and despite the fact that summer has come and gone. ...continue reading "Open Letter to My Hot Flash"

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Published on 2 Comments on What are kids’ favorite veggies? The ones they make!

Remember that old commercial '3 out of 4 dentists surveyed recommend Trident gum...'?  It feels like that's our dinner table every night......

It's a given that 3 out of our 4 kids will either love (or hate) whatever vegetable is served with dinner.  It is NEVER unanimous and well, that's OKAY.  Hey, I still don't like beets.

If this sounds like a similar issue at your dinner table, I've got 2 solutions that seem to be working for us. ...continue reading "What are kids’ favorite veggies? The ones they make!"

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Published on 4 Comments on The ABC’s of CSA’s

CSA? You've maybe heard the acronym before but weren't quite sure what it meant....maybe a new criminal investigative show set in rural America???

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and is a way for consumers to buy local seasonal food directly from a farm. Farms typically sell 'shares' to the public - you pay a price ahead of time like a subscription or membership and then fresh food is delivered directly to you or to a location near you for pick up on a regular basis.

farm-fresh-food-background_23-2147516967

 

There are many different types of CSA programs depending on what farms are in your area. They may be able to provide not just vegetables but a wide variety of foods including fruit, meat, yogurt, cheese, honey, bread, or eggs.

...continue reading "The ABC’s of CSA’s"

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Published on 8 Comments on Kekle: An Old Twist on the Donut

2015-08-15 12.45.06Since this is my first post, why not start with one of my favorite heritage recipes?

I'm talking about Kekle ('KEE Cleh') which is how my family spelled it, but you may see it spelled as Kuechle or some other variation. This is 'Grandma Werner's" recipe (my dad's mom) which my mother continues to make when family gathers. In fact, we just devoured several batches as my sisters and I gathered our families at Mom and Dad's over the 4th of July.

If you snooze you lose! They go fast.

...continue reading "Kekle: An Old Twist on the Donut"