The recipe for this snack I took from the Eating Well Eating for Energy magazine. It’s a quick simple and easy healthful alternative to processed food snacks.
To make the sweet potato toast:
Cut 1/4-inch thick slices from the center of the potato. Toast until tender and starting to brown 12 to 15 minutes.
I used the oven and heated 2 potato slices for 30 minutes because it took longer to toast the slices.
Apple & Smoked Gouda
On each slice add:
2 Tbsp. shredded smoked Gouda + 4 apple slices
+ 1 tsp. toasted coconut
+ 1/2 tsp. maple syrup
+1/8 tsp. flaky sea salt
This is the tastiest snack that I had for dinner using 2 slices of sweet potatoes.
It could be the ideal snack post-workout if you exercise in a home gym.
The upside-down pasta bowl proclaims Bon Appetit. The recipe for the alfredo corn in the photo comes from Bon Appetit magazine. It’s creamed corn circa 2024. Better than the store-bought kind which likely has a chemical additive via natural flavor as an ingredient.
This is my new favorite recipe. Though I used 3 ears of corn the kernels did not fill up 2 cups in the measuring cup. In the future I’ll buy six ears of corn to make the full recipe.
Plus I did not use the Parmesan cheese crisps. I also used David’s Kosher salt not the Morton.
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter cut into pieces
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
2 cups fresh corn kernels (from about 2 large ears)
2 tsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1/4 tsp. Morton kosher salt plus more
2 oz. Parmesan finely grated (about 1 cup) plus more for serving
Store-bought Parmesan cheese crisps (such as Whisps for serving)
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Melt butter in a medium high-sided skillet over medium heat. Add pepper and cook, swirling pan, until fragrant, about 45 seconds. Add corn and cook, tossing often, until tender, about 2 minutes.
Mix cornstarch and 1/2 tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1/4 tsp. Morton kosher salt into 1/2 cup room-temperature water in a small bowl until dissolved. Add to pan; cook, stirring constantly, until liquid thickens and clings to corn, about 2 minutes.
Remove pan from heat. Add 2 oz. Parmesan and stir vigorously until mixture is creamy and melted. Taste creamed corn and season with more salt if needed.
Spoon creamed corn into a shallow bowl. Top with more Parmesan; coarsely crush a handful of cheese crips over.
In a bowl, whisk together vinegar and honey to dissolve. Add nectarine slices and toss to coat.
Let marinate 10 minutes. Add oil and pepper and toss to coat.
Grill or toast bread and spread with ricotta. Then spoon nectarines and juices on top.
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Though the recipe is supposed to serve 2 I had the two bruschetta slices on my own.
I used the kind of small peppermill you buy at the supermarket to twist and grind the pepper.
Keep the bottles and ingredients together in one place like on a cutting board in the sink. This will make cleanup easier. I used an ordinary soup bowl to marinate the nectarines in. You can use a small glass mixing bowl.
This blog entry is not intended to be a boot in the bum. At the end I tack on the truth: we cannot judge each other for the choices we make. The choice to eat meat is a personal decision. Fire up the barbecue if you want.
I’m not a total saint as though I don’t eat meat I have chicken and turkey. They are not without controversy either.
My goal is to make followers think for five minutes about what each of us can do to promote the health and welfare of Americans. Seeing beyond our own plates is called for.
The book shown above is an expose of the food industry where a handful of corporations earn billions of dollars at the expense of their loyal customers who buy their food “products.”
Apart from what I believe is the health risk of eating meat I won’t eat meat for other reasons. I stand in solidarity with homeowners living right near the CAFOs–slaughterhouses.
Negative health effects of the people living near these confinements include “a lower life expectancy and higher rates of infant deaths, asthma, kidney disease, tuberculosis, and blood poisoning” according to the book which everyone should read.
Workers falling into manure pits die from the fumes. Industry-bought economists at college universities tout the economic growth that CAFOs bring to these areas. That is a lie.
Income inequality thrives where CAFOs exist in rural areas like these. Elected leaders are in cahoots with these big food businesses via deregulation and rubber-stamping the building of new slaughterhouses.
“High poverty rates and anemic job growth” follow these CAFOs. Undocumented workers comprise the employees here as no Americans want their kids to work there. The fallacy is that CAFOS promote good jobs. In fact indentured servitude is more likely what these kinds of jobs are.
The solution is voting with our wallets and pocketbooks like always. We don’t have to buy what these billionaires living in mansions are selling: ill health and income inequality.
Elected leaders who don’t want undocumented people coming here are colluding in allowing undocumented people to work in CAFOs. This hypocrisy is not funny.
What else can we do?
Some of us will tout the benefits of eating a nice juicy steak and continue to do so. We cannot judge each other for the choices we make.
However we can open our eyes to what is going on. Lobby for workers’ rights and the ability to form a union at a CAFO.
I took this recipe from allrecipes.com. Just say no to boxed instant pudding with food dye. Per serving this had 33g sugar so it’s best reserved for an every-so-often treat.
To its credit the recipe per serving has 6g protein.
The recipe serves 4. Yet I used only 3 crystal bowls filled up near to the top.
For a summertime and year-round treat I say yes to this pudding from scratch.
The chocolate pudding tastes like real chocolate. Not the chemical chocolate taste of the instant boxed kind.
I had a bowl of this chocolate for breakfast. It tastes delish. I recommend steering clear of products in supermarkets. Instead use recipes or create on your own recipes for food like this that you can make from scratch.
Though you were supposed to stir constantly for 20 minutes on medium heat I have a hotter flame. So I stirred the mixture for only 10 minutes.
Here’s the recipe:
Chocolate Cornstarch Pudding
1/2 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Stir together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir in milk.
Bring to a boil, and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.
remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla.
Let cool briefly, and serve warm, or chill in the refrigerator until serving.
I checked this book out of the library and stopped reading it.
The premise is scientifically sound. The reason I didn’t read it is because the M.D. author wrote: “Shop the perimeter of the supermarket.”
In my view no one should be going in person to a market to shop for food unless they’re NOT buying processed food and not buying food with chemicals listed as natural flavor in the ingredients.
I didn’t like that the author conceded that it’s okay to shop in the perimeter. Not everything sold in the end aisles is healthful. That’s obvious in the Stop-n-Shop I’ve gone to.
In Metabolical the author talks about those of us who are TOFI: Thin Outside Fat Inside.
You want to be healthy: Lay off the Starbucks drinks and diet and regular colas and resist taking up smoking.
It’s as simple as that. I found a recipe for chocolate pudding that I’ll post here. As store-bought instant pudding has food coloring and other not-good ingredients.
We should each of us enjoy life and Eat to Live. There’s no shame in wanting to be happy and healthy.
There’s no shame in having an illness either. A person might not be in remission (the medical state of having no symptoms). Yet they can recover in terms of having a life they love.
Illness makes it harder to live your life. My sincere hope is this blog can be a ray of light in readers’ lives.
I would say 90 percent of what happens we can’t control in our life. In my view the things that are under our control should be taken advantage of.
It’s a myth that “calories in versus calories out” or burning off more calories than you consume is the best way to eat or lose weight. It’s the type of food that counts.
Today I’ve been figuring out how to “cook” up my dinners when I have no energy to cook and desire to clean a dish and saucepan after.
The magazine above which I found in Walgreen’s has easy healthful recipes that I’m going to make this summer. In the next blog entry I’ll share one for tuna salad.
My approach is that I want to eat 90 percent of my food coming from God’s green earth or the bright blue sea.
I have a big chocolate chip cookie or whoopee pie here and there. However I try to watch what I eat and drink consistently.
The Mediterranean Diet is touted as the healthiest diet. Really it’s not a restrictive “diet” it’s a lifestyle.
This summer I’ll make one of the recipes that calls for using a Dutch oven.
The photo above is of a “continental breakfast”-style dinner.
I’ve taken to making this meal when I have no energy or desire to cook and then clean dishes pots and pans.
Food items:
Mary’s Gone Crackers gluten-free crackers.
Black seedless grapes.
Driscoll’s organic blackberries.
Cento olives in the yellow can.
Grillies halloumi cheese.
Have no idea if this is a healthful dinner.
What I’ve come to realize is that sustainable habits like a weekly routine should sustain our ability to thrive as human beings living in a society where the scarcity mentality is alive and well.
We shouldn’t view things in terms of competing with each other to get what we need to survive.
To sustain our ability to live life whole and well I think adapting and being flexible is paramount.
So take having that weekly routine:
In some weeks we’ll be cooking our dinners 4 or 5 times a week. In other weeks we’ll need to find quick-and-easy meals to prepare because our energy is shot or we don’t have the time to cook and clean.
Before we can save the planet we need each of us to attend to our own health and well being.
That’s because we might live on God’s newly green earth down the road. Yet if we don’t have the health to enjoy our time here it’s likely going to be harder to feel good about ourselves.
I eat well to feel well.
With the summer heat coming on I’m all for making dinners that don’t require using the hot oven. A way to save on your gas or electric bill too.
Full and Robust Life Hacks 