Omega-3 Fatty Acids

I try to put ground flax seed into or onto foods. Since we have vegetarian days, I will put it on hot oatmeal and since it kind of looks like brown sugar (no sweet taste) my husband will eat it.

What is really coming back in our area along with the hottest vegetable in our town, kale, are sardines! I loved them as a child growing up as I could manage one little sardine. The ones I had as a child were not skinless and boneless, but my husband is used to skinless and boneless.Long gone are the days when I would strain the mushrooms out of the cream of mushroom soup and have no patience to hear about bones in sardines. Thus,I buy a natural wild caught sustainably harvested imported sardine in a can with no BPA in the lining. IT is called "Season Brand," is kosher with the "U"P on it. I buy it in pure olive oil and can rinse it off, the sardines in salt water seem to be tougher. If you have been following this blog, you know I broke a tooth down to the bone and am cautious about anything I eat.

If you are sensitive to salt, like me, one can rinse off the sardines. I have been known to run to the beach with a can. At COSTCO they are serving them with crackers and rumor has it that many that bring their lunch from home are bringing sardines.

Because the can opens easily, does not need a can opener, it is a good emergency food to have around should we get snowed in this winter, when food trucks sometimes can not make it into the city. I can say that sell fast at COSTCO, whether one is sampling or buying them.

If you get tired of salmon (my favorite fish is ocean perch), you might want to try sardines if you do feel like cooking or are snowed in.

Next time I open a can I will show you the insides, the cover is below:

Mock Amish Meal

When a friend of a cousin visited from Germany, she asked to spend some time with the Amish who live in Middlefield, Ohio, about 45 minutes from our house. I suggested we go to the Middlefield McDonalds as it is a great place to meet and talk to the locals, but hearing the word McDonalds, my friend freaked. I told her we could have lunch at an Amish restaurant, but the Amish hostess and servers will be very busy preparing meals and most probably have no time for conversation. My friend decided on going to the Amish restaurant.

When we got to the Amish restaurant she only wanted "salad" bar, which surprised me. I introduced my German friend to the Amish hostess and asked if she might say a few words in her native tongue (a 14th century German -- or so I have read), and she kindly agreed.

My friend and I had no problems understanding the native Amish language (German was my first language). After we both ordered salad bar as I did not want my friend to be alone, the hostess suggested we at least share a typical Amish recipe.

I said great! When it came to our table, my German friend pushed it away and said this is typical German food and that my mother must have made it too! My mother never made anything like it. I not only gobbled it up, but went home and told my husband. As soon as our company left, we drove to Middlefield, ordered a full order each, and now make several variations at home.

The products I use for the quick recipe are pictured below, I only added the can of lima beans as wanted a few more veggies and frozen lima beans, even baby ones, are not tender enough.

The recipe is great for anyone having dental work, but since I recently broke the back of a premolar down to the bone, I put almost everything into the blender until my new crown is ready -- dread this temporary to fall out and expose the bone of my upper jaw!

Directions are as follows: Use only almond milk (I suggest Almond Breeze) to make the mashed potatoes (no butter necessary). To make 2 servings of mashed potatoes (my husband eats two as pictured in the bowel), heat one cup of almond milk to boiling. Take the pot off the heat and stir in 2/3rds cup mashed potato flakes. You can add a bit more of cold milk or potato if too thick or too thin for your taste. Pour the finished mashed potatoes into a serving bowl.

I took about 1/4 of of the can of soup and some lima beans (drained) and placed them in the blender to blend smooth (for me), and left it in the blender until I finished my husband's meal.

After putting his potatoes in the bowl, emptying the pot that still had potato in it, but not washing it, I poured in the soup from the can and the drained lima beans and mixed with any potato remaining in the pot to thicken the soup. One can add more flakes of potato to this soup to make it thicker (it is the secret to thickening anything, add a few potato flakes).

I poured his soup over his potatoes and put the rest in a bowl.

Then in the same pot, I heated my blender-processed soup and put it over about 2 tablespoons of potatoes that I had reserved in a bowl for me.

It is freezing outside today and this is a comforting meal. The Amish add more (homemade) noodles to the soup. I add noodles too sometimes. The very best is when I make noodles from scratch, but that is another blog post and not necessary for this recipe.

I remember having to make great homemade noodles for my Mom when I was 19 as she said, "You can only get married IF you can make good noodles."

Interesting, my Mom used the old German traditions with me, but I do not remember if either of my two younger sisters had to ace that one? Now, if I could only make all of my mother and grandmother's authentic German Christmas cookies!

Delicious Easy Hot Oatmeal with an incredible Aroma!

We love Quaker's Old Fashioned Oatmeal. Mine soaking in a pot as I write this. Since I tend to have a lot of dental work, I have been looking at what best to eat? What I eat got my attention per my check-up last year, and breaking the back of a tooth down to the bone about two weeks ago.

I was never crazy about hot oatmeal, but love it now per the way I make it. My husband loves it now too. He used to be a cold cereal eater -- those boxes are standing around, while I buy huge boxes of oatmeal and my blood work has never been better.

I cut a small banana, a fresh apple into thin small slices, dried cranberries, or whatever fruit is in the house and add it to my "Old Fashioned" Quaker Oats in a saucepan. I cover it with about 50/50 water and Blue Diamond Almond Milk as we need the calcium (twice the calcium in cow's milk). You can make it with all water or all milk of any kind too. The dried cranberries will become soft.

I let it sit for awhile together, covered in liquid, and will then cook it slowly. Sometimes I stop as tend to burn meals when I blog. Here is what it looks like so far. You can see the oatmeal underneath and banana, apple, and dried cranberries. Sometimes I only use banana, other times only apple or dried cranberries, but am doing all today and it will be delicious!



Here, I am covering it with 50/50 Almond Milk (the one with 30 calories in a glass) and water, or one can use any combination, just cover it -- does not matter if a little more liquid as it will get cooked into the oatmeal shortly.



Now I will cook it and come back to finish the blog!

It smells heavenly when the banana cooks in the oatmeal, the fresh apple is soft and the cranberries plump-up -- can you see?



Oatmeal finished -- soft enough for me but it could be cooked longer -- the apple is very soft and the the banana gives it the most heavenly aroma. Sometimes I put ground flax seed on top -- as it is very reasonable at COSTCO. The only way my husband will eat ground flax is on top of his oatmeal. I sneak it in lots of things when he is not looking! We lean to vegetarian so have to get plant sources for our Omega-3. Do not buy un-ground flax seed as humans can not digest the tiny seeds. If you come up with a recipe, please post, or you can sign up with your email to get the blog each time I update. If you prefer Kindle format, it is available at http://amzn.to/1zFZ4kr for 99 cents per month (Amazon set the price).



It holds up well in the refrigerator if you can not eat it all and my husband will microwave it when he is in the mood --- "Oatmeal is not just for breakfast anymore, as it is a great snack."

And as my great-niece would sing to the tune of 3 blind mice:
"Hot Oatmeal, hot oatmeal, yummy, yummy, in my tummy, hot oatmeal."

The World's Fluffiest Easy Coconut Macaroons

Coconut Macaroons (about 20-22 two-inch cookies)

4 tablespoons sifted cake flour (all purpose works great too)
2/3 cup granulated sugar put through coffee grinder to turn to powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional, I always omit the salt)
4 large egg whites (close to room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups sweetened shredded coconut (I use the entire 14 ounce package)

I process the sugar and the flour (for this recipe I prefer unbleached, all purpose as it has less gluten and results in a lighter, more tender macaroon). I have also used Bolts Red Mill one to one gluten free flour. In my coffee grinder, I grind the flour and then the sugar for a few seconds for the fluffiest macaroons ever. This step is not necessary and I know some leave out the flour completely if following a gluten-free diet, but I like the macaroons with the flour and sugar.

Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, add vanilla and beat for a second. Take a strainer and sift the fluffy flour with fluffy sugar through a strainer into the beaten egg whites, a bit at a time and very gently fold in, continue this until the sugar/flour mixture is folded into the beaten eggs whites. Then add the coconut a bit at a time and continue to very carefully fold it into the egg white/flour/sugar mixture. Drop by rounded tablespoons onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet (baking sheet preparationexplained below) allowing space for spreading.
I get about 25 2 inch macaroons from the recipe.

Bake in preheated 350 F oven about 18 minutes or until golden brown on the edges and dry on the surface, be careful not to over bake. My husband grew up liking everything over-baked and he likes them at 20 minutes when the entire macaroon is a uniform golden color -- Most prefer just some golden on the outer most coconut, around the edges and on the bottom.
Preparing baking sheet, spray metal pan with cooking spray, put parchment paper over the sprayed pan, the idea being that the macaroons do not get parchment paper stuck in them as the parchment paper sticks to the pan. The macaroon batter is sticky -- so let them cool before gently removing them from the parchment paper. If you move them before they cool, a bit of the cookie will be stuck to the parchment paper!

Kale Smoothies in Winter

While I am re-reading an Ebook (I am author #2) which is FREE for Cyber Monday, entitled, "Mentoring Power," I thought I should make us some kale smoothies. These smoothies are a very dark green. This is because I added concentrated tart cherry juice to the mixture before blending.



The recipe for 2 full glasses includes:

2 medium ripe bananas (my husband likes 3 ripe bananas for a really sweet smoothie)
2 cups of almond milk
1/2 cup of kale (mine was Italian Heirloom kale from my garden having been quickly blanched and frozen, fresh kale is great too and you can add more kale to your mixture.
Cherry concentrate -- about 1/4 cup -- but his is optional, and fruit may be added, or leave it as a kale shake with just the kale, almond milk, and banana

I blend the above in my Oster blender which will crush ice. I do not add ice in the winter, but in the summer I might add frozen bananas and ice. The blender is a cheap one, maybe $25.00, but it had to have the ice crushing setting as I do not want to notice a single plant cell in my smoothie, I want it smooth as a smoothie should be. I do not want to chew my smoothie!

Berries or almost any other fruit (berries, peaches, etc) can be added, but if you are sensitive about colors, be cautious about combinations as you might end up with a gray color -- delicious to drink but not to look at.

By the time I finished drinking my smoothie, I had read the concise Ebook, Mentoring Power, once again -- it is only FREE for Cyber Monday, a few more hours.

If you or someone you know needs a mentor, is interested in how to mentor, or in U.S. and/or foreign mentoring programs, do not miss the chance of downloading this FREE ebook, which was Hot listed on Amazon's list of ebooks on vocational guidance, the first day it was published!