Category: Healthy Eating

New Year’s Eve is always an exciting time of the year.  I always like to have good foods, watch movies, spend it with family.   I enjoy crepes.  My daughter makes delicious crepes.  What exactly is a crepe you ask?  It is a very thin pancake derived from the Latin work crispus which means curled.  I found this recipe that used Cassava flour.  I decided to try it so I would have another gluten free recipe in my toolbox for guests and family who are gluten free.  This recipe is delicious.  I will use this recipe often as the flavors blend, the strawberry jam with the added power pack of chia seeds is by far one of the best jams I’ve ever made.

Does the word Gluten Free leave you baffled as to where to shop? Sure, you can find gluten free ready-to-eat products at the store, but suppose you want to cook from scratch. If you have a gluten sensitivity, gluten intolerance, or celiac, Kitchen Kneads is the place to go. Kitchen Kneads has a great selection of gluten free flours, a great Bob’s Red Mill selection and ancient grains that are gluten free to add to your nutrition level. Kitchen Kneads also has a huge selection of beans and several varieties of rice. This will be a whole new world to you. There are 12 common grains that are gluten free all with wonderful nutrition properties.

When I think of chocolate, my mind plays a screenplay of the many different kinds of chocolate I have had throughout my life. As a little girl, I thought M&M’s and Hershey’s were a treat that was savored and eaten slowly. As a young mother, my sweet daughter surprised me with a box of Whitman’s that will always hold a special spot in my heart. In fact, I saved the box for years and used as a sewing box. Chocolate chip cookies, brownies, s’mores, and chocolate cake are also favorites. A few years ago, I even discovered chocolate lemonade. Now that’s delicious. I have now discovered amazing chocolates — both dark and milk chocolate. I am a lover of dark chocolate but I have found some wonderful milk chocolates that are so smooth it feels like velvet on my tongue. 

As a child, cookies were oatmeal, chocolate chip, snicker doodle, or no bakes. These were all delicious to me. As an adult, I realized that to eat healthy, these favorites of my childhood might not be the best for me. Years ago, I was introduced to a 5-ingredient cookie that is delicious, healthy, and -in fact- a meal in a cookie.

Did you know that there are 7,500 apple varieties?  2,500 of these varieties are grown in the U.S.  According to SelectHealth.org, the most popular apple is the Red Delicious. It was introduced in the 1880s in Iowa and is well-known for being bright red, crunchy, and mildly sweet. However, the Gala may soon take its place in the number one spot, moving the Red Delicious to second and Granny Smith will take third place. Apples are also filled with nutrition. It is true, an apple a day, keeps the doctor away. RD.com states that the apple is one of the healthiest fruits.

Watermelon brings me back to my childhood days in Washington state. I have vivid memories of digging a “safe hole” in a cold mountain stream, placing the family watermelon in the protected area to chill, and then playing and splashing in the river until it was cold. When I eat this jam, I remember the same taste many years ago while I sat on the river’s edge spitting seeds as far as they would go.

When I think of zucchini, it grows while you watch it. So plentiful, it’s manna of the garden. But just where did this vegetable come from?