Creative Leftovers

I like to use leftovers as much as I can, but I know the kids aren't into having the same meal two or three days in a row. The other day, we had flounder with sweet potato fries. There were leftover sweet potato fries. I could have easily heated up my whole oven to re-heat them on a baking stone, and they would get the same texture as fresh, fried sweet potatoes but to save energy and to change it up a bit, I added a bit of butter to them, some cinnamon and sugar and nuked them in the microwave. Boy were they good. Not sure healthy, but healthier than french fries with regular potatoes.

Today we had home made personal pizzas. The boys had broccoli on theirs, among other things (mozz cheese, sauce, bacon, green peppers, mushrooms, parm cheese, oregano, garlic etc). The broccoli was leftover from dinner yesterday. Hubby had Pork on his, leftover from dinner yesterday, just shredded small...he also had more fixins on his too.

There are many ways to serve leftovers to make them more appealing to the family and not have to have the same meal the next day. Tomorrow we will have fish and chips for dinner. (Cod fish, and the chips will be sweet potato fries again, as I won't buy french fries). Then Tuesday we can have fish tacos for dinner because I will make more fish than we know what to do with. I have used leftovers to make twice baked potatoes and so many other goodies.


  

WHAT TO EAT the book

Marian Nestle has written a great book called What to Eat. It is probably one of the best Health Food information books I have ever read.

I love what it says about vitamins, and herbal supplements p. 466-477. The whole book is really amazing! She talks about what imitation crab meat really is..what it goes through to become that, also about why salmon is pink...its really a book everyone should read. I could go on and on about the great topics she covers, but you should just read it, buy it or get it at the library...you may want to buy it, as I go back to it often.

If you want to see the book go to http://www.whattoeatbook.com/ Its her blog.

I like to read and when I find something good, I like to blab about it.

   

Zoning laws

I am trying to understand the reasoning for some of the zoning laws.
I thought that I owned my home. I have to pay taxes just to own this home. Then, the government is going to tell me what I can and cannot do. I have a decrepit fence that I inherited when I bought this home. It is falling over, has holes in it and looks a mess. I must pay money to get a permit to replace my fence, but my neighbors can spray their lawns and trees with pesticides that are poisonous to wildlife, our children and our environment and linger in the environment for decades, and do not need a permit to do so.

So replacing my ratty fence with a nicer fence that hurts no one, is not allowed without permission and paying a fee, but they can poison the world, just so their lawns don't have dandelions and need no permission to do so. I remember reading an article about a woman who was told to cut her wildflowers down that she planted, because they were "weeds". The definition of a weed is a plant that is not valued where it is growing. So who needs to value this ? The homeowner that planted the wildflowers to attract birds or the government, who leads us to believe this is a free country, yet we never really own our homes.

Christina Cooks

One of my favorite cooking shows is Christina Cooks.

http://www.christinacooks.com/

She has great healthy recipes and I have all of her books (except her newest one, just haven't ordered it yet). One of her books, my favorite is called

Glow: A prescription for radiant health and beauty. It talks about what you eat and how it affects what your skin, hair, nails and eyes, etc look like. She has foods to help you gain more beautiful skin and also shower regimens, that you can view on her current newsletter, which you subscribe to free on her site... http://www.christinacooks.com/newsletter/pdf/current.pdf

Here is an excerpt from her website, on her story and what got her started in whole foods.

LEUKEMIA DIAGNOSIS It’s really interesting, in hindsight. I was told I had delicate skin when I was young, because if someone would so much as take my arm to cross the street, I would have bruises the next day. I’d hear from my mother, “You’re a girl, where do you get these bruises?” And I’d be thinking, “I don’t know.” I remember, as an athlete in high school on the swim team, I would come home from practice complaining that my bones hurt, and you know, typical Italian family, they’d say, “What do you mean your bones hurt; go do your homework.” Life was different then. We didn’t rush off for blood tests so quickly. When the doctors diagnosed me, I had thought I was tired because my mother had passed away, with the whole grieving process; but the doctors said that the leukemia had been there for many years, never diagnosed. So the condition was pretty acute by the time it was diagnosed, but they said that it had been undetected for so long.

GETTING STARTED WITH WHOLE FOODS I remember asking, “Is there anything we can do that will cure this?” and they [the doctors] said, “No.” This was 16 years ago, and [since then] we’ve made quite a few advances. Do I recommend this kind of course? Not for everybody. I really did it the hard way, which is how I do most everything. But at the time, they couldn’t offer me much. Even a bone marrow transplant would be iffy. So one of the five doctors agreed to monitor me, and the minute I would deteriorate they could intervene. And I agreed to that because I didn’t think this [diet] was going to work either. So Robert and I went shopping at a co-op, and he’s loading all this unfamiliar food into my basket. Now I’m a cook, and I’m thinking, “I’m dead, I don’t know what to do with this…” We emptied my cupboards and loaded them up with new foods; he gave me a few quick lessons, and it may sound simple, but that’s how it started.

MY RECOVERY It took a year and a half to regain my health and there were lots and lots and LOTS of ups and downs. I guess it was maybe 2 months before they saw a big difference in my blood. They didn’t know what I was doing, and I said, “Well, I’m doing this diet thing. I’m eating whole grains, beans and vegetables.” They said, “That’s very nice honey, but what are you doing?” They called it spontaneous regression and had no answer for it. They said, “Whatever you’re doing, do it, because something’s changing.” And off I went; it was a long year and a half, but after that period, my blood tests showed no sign of cancer and haven’t since. And what I’ve discovered since then about the power of food in the body is what drives me in my passion every day. If people understand the energy of food and how it affects our health, they can make choices best suited to them.

Check her out, she is beautiful and has some great advice and recipes.

Wine Charms (not just for wine)

I make my own wine charms out of shinky dinks, swarovski crystals and other charms. I stamp the blank shrinky dink material, with things like cute characters for generalized charms to personalized charms with names stamped on them.
These are great for parties, and also for kids. My kids like to drink grape juice, water etc from wine glasses, and so do we. You can also put these charms on the pop top of soda cans to tell whose is whose, and coffee mugs too.
I cannot take credit for these wine charms pictured here, but they are the basic type of layout for my wine charms. I did not take pictures of mine (yet). Some have name tags, animals, bugs, etc...and some have silver charms instead of shrinky dinks.
I actually got the idea from Long Trout Winery, they have shinky dink charms of their fish logo they gave to us when we bought a case of wine. It did not have any beads on it, it was just the fish logo shrinky dink, but it was so cute, I had to make them.

And of course, you can put them on your MARGARITA glasses!

Twice Baked Potatoes, super easy

I used my Wolfgang Puck immersion blender today to make twice baked potatoes...omg it was so good.

I took the potatoes, and baked them (okay, I admit it, I microwaved them to bake them lol) I let them cool a few min and then I cut them in half and scooped out the insides with a small cookie scoop. I put it in the immersion blender conatiner, and I added some cheese, cream cheese, and leftover bacon, broccoli, whatever you have is good... we had broccoli the frige from a restaurant we went to the day before... chopped it all up well, sort of a mashed potatao consistency and scooped it back into the potato skeletons, seasoned it up....baked it about 10 min.....Wow, they were terrific and so easy to make.

My Immersion blender is something I use so much, I burnt one out and am on my second one...not that they are built cheap....I just use it for everything, even chopping steaks into burgers, brussel sprouts for has, chicken into chicken burgers, etc....I love it. I can't live without it.

Lazy One Pot Pasta

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I make pasta in one pot all of the time. No strainer to wash, no sauce pot, just one pot for everything.

I take a stir fry pan (or a sauce pan will do, make sure you have a lid for it).
Add 2 T olive oil and garlic to your liking. Any meats , peppers etc you may want, chicken, clams etc and cook.. Then add a large can or two soup sized cans of pureed or diced tomatoes. Some of your favorite spices and let it simmer a bit to create a sauce. Then add a box of pasta (penne or tortellini is what I use for this type of lazy pasta cooking). Add some water, 1-2 cups, judge it and watch it, you may need to add more water as it cooks and the pasta plumps up, put on the lid and let it cook, stirring occasionally.

I make this a lot and got the idea from that crappy hamburger helper, I thought, I can make my own sauce and spices and make it healthier.