The Empty Cabinets of my Mind

No Longer a Guilty Pleasure

First a confession.  In general, I don't even like coffee, especially not as a hot beverage.  But two notes on that:

1) There is coffee and then there is coffee...

2) A little bit of Arabica makes a wonderful flavoring for cake, frosting, and my favorite, iced milk drinks

So when I stumbled across The Pioneer Woman's awesome blog and saw the following post, I did go sort of nutso and yelled, "This I've got to try!"

The Pioneer Woman's "Perfect Iced Coffee"

Did you see the part about sweetened condensed milk?  Arrghh.  Not food.  But she made it sound SO good, so I did try it.   Three scorned food items combined:  coffee, sugar, and condensed milk.  Mmmmmm.  Mixes just right with the iced coffee concentrate and milk, especially in those gooey strands that drip over the ice cubes...

However, when my best friend saw me do this, he sniffed, "I wouldn't put that in my body!"

"I would!" said I and gulped it down.  But then I got to thinking, not only is this sweetened condensed stuff not health food, but it is also expensive. So I put on my thinking cap and came up with this alternative:

I dissolved birch sugar in a little water.  Natural birch sugar, a form of xylitol, tastes as good as regular sugar, but is said to be low glycemic and also good for dental health (see articles by Dr. David Williams on xylitol or this tidbit from another terrific blog called Karen's Healthy Kitchen).  To this I added dry powdered milk until the mixture was gooey enough to pass for canned condensed milk. 

A splash of that and a splash of the coffee concentrate over ice in a glass of milk, topped with a dollop of whipped cream.  Mmmmm, I don't drink this every day, but now when I do, it is a guilt-free treat. 

 

Hint from the comments below The Pioneer Woman's excellent post:  freeze coffee in ice trays and used the flavored cubes in place of ice.

NuWave Oven Quiche

This is really a note to myself.  I am nomadic and do not carry cookbooks.  So this morning I felt like baking a nice warm quiche for brunch.

When I tried to remember what I did last time, a baking time of 17 minutes rang a bell, but when I tried that today,  the center was still not set when I stuck a clean table knife into it.  Twenty minutes was perfect, though.  Maybe this is because I used a 10" pan instead of 9" and filled it a little fuller.   So now I know what to do, and if I forget again I can "Google" myself up and find my own recipe online.  How cool is that?

My whole grain crust was made in the Magic Bullet from oatmeal ground into flour then butter pulsed in with a dash of icy water.  This crust does not have to be rolled out, just pressed into the pan.  I prebake the crust 7 to 10 minutes while assembling the rest of the ingredients:

•     Blended liquid stuff:
•     4 eggs
•     enough milk to almost fill the Magic Bullet cup
•     enough water to rinse out the cup
•     a little leftover onion dip
•     a small handful of oat flour left over from shaping the crust
•     Sprinkled in the crust stuff:
•     a few sliced green olives
•     a small handful of diced red tomato
•     chopped onions and celery (precooked in butter)
•     grated cheddar (and a little leftover grated habanero cheese)

This hearty breakfast pie is not for everyone, but it was attractive when finished and turned out delicious, at least in my opinion and that of Himself, and we are the ones who count.   It is a great way to use up odds and ends, which presumably is why quiche was invented, but it also makes an elegant meal. 

 

 

 

 

I Haven't Cooked my Pumpkin Yet!

If the Halloween pumpkin doesn't become a pie in time for Thanksgiving, it will keep until Christmas.  I paint mine on the outside instead of carving so that it will stay fresh longer. So I haven't cooked it yet, but here is my turkey:

It was a 19 lb frozen Butterball Premium Young  turkey from Winco (sold for 1/2 price with $50 groceries) and I thawed it in the fridge for 3 days and then roasted it 4 hours, starting at 350 and lowering the temperature every hour or so. 

I used a Reynolds oven bag to keep it tender and juicy and contain the drippings, which of course became giblet gravy in due time.  We had our private Thanksgiving dinner Saturday with mashed potatoes, pureed applesauce yams, stuffing on the side and other trimmings.  Desert was cherry pie. 

 

Here is a pretty interesting article I found about antibiotics and hormones in turkeys, why frozen turkeys are better than fresh, and what they mean when they say it is a "young" turkey.  

About Buying a Turkey

Apparently the turkeys with a Premium label are given better food before they become our food. 

Breakfast as Usual

Actually, I didn't eat breakfast for many years and even now do not always like to eat in the morning.  For some reason, I am ravenous when traveling, whether by air or on a road trip. 

This is one of the reasons I like to frequent bed and breakfast inns, especially ones like The Victorian Rose in Ventura, which serve a sumptuous breakfast in addition to providing other amazing amenities.

Incidentally, Nona upgraded her website and it is worth taking another look if you haven't already:

My Favorite Bed and Breakfast

PS:  This is not a paid ad.  We just really love staying with Nona and Richard, and go there as often as we can. 

Got the Shakes?

From sweet potatoes pureed in milk and honey and blended into a creamy shake with ice to Natraburst's relatively new MLM product which I mix with chocolate and quaff daily, I am a confirmed health shake nut. 

I like nutrition bars too, not as meal replacement, but as a substitute for dessert.  Having weaned myself off from white flour products decades ago, now things like cake and donuts and pie crust just do not taste good to me.  I'd rather eat a diet bar for a sweet treat, or my all time favorite, a little bit of decadent dark chocolate.

Until recently my own little countertop sprout farm was churning out buckwheat lettuce, wheatgrass, and fennugreek sprouts on a daily basis, but I recently moved in with a friend who doesn't yet understand all this stuff, and we haven't quite figured out where I can put stuff.   Not only do I miss the super fresh crunchy green I had been growing, but my jeans seem to be filling out a bit. 

Instead of dieting, I have always considered commons sense nutrition to be a necessary and normal way of life.  I don't get all freaked out if 5 extra pounds pop up, and I never diet to get them off, but maybe I will drink more water, be more active and cut back a little on the carbs. 

Unlike a lot of folks these days, I consider bacon and eggs and real butter to be health foods, but like everything else, in moderation.  Therefore, it will be breakfast as usual. 

 

 

 

Never Too Much Chocolate

I was absolutely astounded when I recently learned that one of my good friends does not eat dark chocolate.   A long time ago I went without chocolate for two years just to see if I could do it.  Then I started eating chocolate again, but I have to say that nowadays overly sweetened milk chocolate just does not taste good to me.  I have to have the dark stuff. 

It is best if it is the kind that melts on contact, too.  Yuck on waxy tasting chocolate.  OK, so I am fussy. 

Grocery Outlet Stores got a shipment of dark chocolate Easter Bunnies in the cutest metal tins, and I was SO tempted to try one.  Do I care if Easter is over?  Bunnies a SO good.  But they were $2 and the Boticelli Signature bars were only $1 for the same ounces.  So I bought two of those instead.  Yes, it melted just right.

Since I only ate 1/4 of a bar, I put extra cocoa powder in the Natraburst Shake I am having right now.  If you are interested in a good tasting Super Food and a way to make some extra money, please check out my page about 124online, the creators of Natraburst:

A List of all the Good Nutrients in Natraburst

HINT:  If you crush ice with the powder, your Natraburst shake will taste really good, with the texture of an ice cream shake.

 

 

 

Update on Natraburst

Natraburst is a meal replacement powder that contains a yard-long list of wholesome nutrients that I really want to put in my body every day.  Initially I was sort of turned off by the idea that it is only sold through multilevel marketing, but since my brother was already a distributor and he used the product and liked it, I tried it and like it too, so I became a distributor as well, just a couple months ago. 

Surprisingly, I have already gotten a commission check in the mail, so this is turning out way better than I expected.

If you would like to take a look at this super food, here is my page:

Meal Replacement

Of course, I'd love to have you on my waiting list. 

All Sugar is not the Same

I was reading another article by Jonathon Wright, the MD who goes all over the world looking for natural medicines, one of which is my favorite kind of sugar, Xylitol.

After tasting Xylitol, I am uninterested in other kinds of white sugar.  If all it did was taste better, that would be enough for me, but according to Dr. Wright, Xylitol, which he calls Sugar X, keeps us healthy as well as being delicious. 

I quite using products made from white flour many years ago, but thinking back I can still remember how hard it was to make the switch.  Not so with this "better" sugar.  It just tastes SO good.

In other news, I found a little store in Arizona that sells home made blackstrap molasses and I got them to ship me a few jugs after quickly using up the 3 lbs that I bought while traveling on vacation.  I like to drink a glass of molasses milk from time to time, especially when I am away from any my favorite organic dairies. 

Now to get back into production of fenugreek microgreens, which are delicious sauteed with eggs and potatoes and which are said to help control blood sugar. 

Wow Energy!

Here is something new:

Stuff for Smoothies

OK, it is only sold through multilevel marketing.  But it is good stuff and not much work to build a business for those who would like to earn some extra money. 

My favorite meal replacement and it is chock full of nutrients.  Please check out the link:   INGREDIENTS

Before I Forget

Here is what I THINK  I put in my bread dough yesterday which was so delicious after I baked it:

Dry ingredients ground in the Magic Bullet, then mixed together:

1 3/4 cup of flaked grain (2/3 oats, 1/3 red winter wheat)

1/4 cup of ground seeds (1/2 pumpkin seeds, 1/2 sunflower seeds)

Liquid ingredients mixed together after I heated the water, then left to "rest" for a while (to see if the yeast was active):

1/2 cup water (heated)

1 teaspoon dry yeast

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 teaspon honey flavored rice syrup (It said honey, but I read the label)

When I mixed the dry ingredients and the liquid ingredients, this dough looked way too runny, but I was busy and left it while doing other stuff.  When I came back, it was nice and thick and ready to knead.   I coated my hands with olive oil, shaped it into and ball, worked it just a little bit, then went off again to do other stuff. 

When I came back, using more olive oil, I worked it just a little bit more, then separated the dough ball into 3 parts and shaped each one into a flattened ball, and baked them in my counter top infrared/convection oven using the pizza setting.

FACT:  This was the ugliest looking bread that I ever baked.  When I cut into it and saw the inside I almost threw it out without tasting.  But it tastes delicious, so here I am trying to remember what I did so that I can make more of it exactly the same. 

ANAYLYSIS:  I think it was the pumpkin seeds that made the bread turn a color that initially seemed so unappetizing.  But the flavor and texture they added made up for it. 

I am the only person I know who puts a bit of baking soda in bread dough.  I do not put much salt in any of the food I make, but in bread-baking salt helps control the fermentation rate of the yeast, strengthens the gluten, and gives the bread a good "crumb" (interior consistency) so NaHCO3 is my salt-substitute of choice.  

While salt slows down the fermentation of the yeast as well as providing flavor to the dough, honey speeds it up.  

I buy rolled oats and other grain flakes in bulk from bins at Henry's Market, Whole Foods, or whatever health food store is available.  Usually I add a handful of fresh-ground flax seeds to my baked goods, but this time I didn't.

This recipe made three individual loaves, each about the size of a large hamburger bun, but as this bread is dense and packed with nutrition, each loaf made more than one serving. 

The crust was very much to my taste, both in texture and flavor.  I cannot promise that I will get the same results next time.  Also, people who are used to eating white bread probably would not like the kind I bake, as mine is always 100% whole grain.

After putting these notes down, I decided to post a version of this "recipe" on Associated Content (now called Yahoo Contributor Network) -- I would have put it on Triond first, but I had already hit the "Publish" button when I decided to share, so it was too late to do that:

Ugly Bread

Oh, and I would have taken a picture, but honestly the greenish black color of this bread might have scared some readers away ;-)

Another reminder...my friend's father has a beautiful motor home for sale and I listed it for him on eBay.  If you are interested, please take a look:

Jim's Winnebago