Weekend Winter Lunches: Curried Couscous and Veg Fried Rice

Last weekend we wanted to have some home cooked cozy lunches to fill the kids up for their afternoon activities. Saturday, we made curried brown rice couscous with prunes, red peppers, onions, leeks, and cabbage. Luke and Susannah did a lot of the cutting and definitely did some nibbling along the way. It was admittedly only partially homemade, so easy using a Lundberg's brown rice Mediterranean curry and adding lots of vegetables! To cut the salt content we used less than half the flavor packet. Then I sauteed the vegetables separately in olive oil and added one more spoon of the curry seasoning. The vegetables without the couscous were light and tasty. When the couscous was ready we mixed the cooked vegetables, prunes and couscous in a bowl. Then, everyone wolfed it down, Luke had three servings until I had to force him to save some for the dad who as we know does not always get while the gettin' is good...

Sunday, we made a large fried rice with cabbage, kale, red pepper, bean sprouts, spinach, garlic and ginger. Bean sprouts are a great source of healthy protein and add a lot of texture to the dish. I had leftover rice making the whole shebang fast and easy. (YES that rice is white, came with Indian food, what can I say?) A few of the kids added a touch of pineapple to their own plates. I saved some vegetables aside for myself not wanting the rice in the middle of the day. One of the kids set her vegetables aside and just ate the rice...hmm...can't win them all.

I usually add a salad to whatever I am having and pictured is my lunch salad of cucumbers, maitake mushrooms, kale, arugula, watercress, lettuce with Villa Manodori organic balsamic vinegar and Zoe organic olive oil. And I just wanted to add the picture of the Good Health Natural's macrobiotic platter, my easy order in dinner or lunch, comes in 20 minutes or so, hot and delicious. Their hiziki (more often called hijiki) is my absolute favorite seaweed dish in the city so I usually order extra and often forgo the brown rice. They serve the platter with sweet carrot ginger sauce and at dinner time it comes with their delicious salad...so when we do not have time to cook we have an easy healthy tasty option. The kids usually get the veggie and black bean burrito and sweet potato soup.

Winter Menu Planning, Just Some Free Thoughts on a New Year

Thank goodness the holidays are behind us, I am just not a huge fan. It is funny how many people have weight and health related New Year's resolutions. Not me!!! I guess to me January is a comfort food time of year which for me means warm soothing drinks, cozy hot vegetables, warm delicious foods, maybe just maybe relaxing the exercise a little, ok probably not. While I admit to lots of raw salads still, I tend to follow them up with hot soup or some warm vegetables. Admittedly, we have been off our game a little with holidays and laziness, ordering in mostly very healthy things but we do want to be back on track for cooking at home. New York where everything can come to your doorstep in minutes sometimes allows for complete and utter laziness, yes, I have friends who use their ovens for sweater storage and their refrigerators merely for take-out leftovers.

I have been wanting the warm kale pancakes from Hangawi, or even the leek ones, so delicious, or a big dim sum. Anyway, for this week I am planning to make my own versions of some of those foods. Sweet potato, cabbage and leek dumplings using rice paper are so cozy. We made them last year on the Chinese New Year. For recipe see http://www.nutrimommy.com/2011/02/gong-xi-fa-cai.html

I have glutinous rice flour that is chewy and would make a delicious kale or leek pancake with lots of vegetables so not too starchy but I have not quite perfected the actual recipe yet but have made them vegan and delicious. Most nights, I will go back to steaming or stir frying a big assortment of vegetables so picky kids can pick out and eat what they want. Larry made an unreasonably huge amount of brown rice yesterday so I have that to work with and may have vegetable fried rice one night. I am thinking of make your own pizza and a vegan lasagna with cashew basil cream for next week...and I have some local organic butternut squash for soup...so we are soon to be cooking more but keeping it cozy for winter.

Perry is doing well on her up week, starting three weeks in a row of chemo tomorrow, after which she will have just ten more weeks. That is sounding long to me...yikes.

p.s. The chocolate snowman and santa are turning into hot chocolate momentarily!!!

Glazed Carrots & a Healthy Winter Salad

These carrots are so simple. We started with fresh fat farmers' market carrots, sliced at an angle for ovals. These, it is sad to say, are merely fried in Earth Balance, yep, just fake buttery spread, all natural of course. But the kids loved them and it was a change from plain raw carrots. And, I must admit they were delicious yet maybe not our most healthy dish ever.

But, paired with this beautiful winter salad I would say we can get away with the fried carrots. The salad with maitake mushroom chunks and pomegranate seeds had a bunch of seasonal strong greens (mustard greens, bok choy, arugula, tot soi, lettuce, mizuna, kale, etc.) and we served it with cranberry vinaigrette made simply from raw cranberries, olive oil, garlic, balsamic vinegar and a little honey.

pictured, Lizzie and Susannah enjoyed a Maryland weekend a few weeks ago while Perry and Luke stayed in the city, Perry recuperating and Luke playing basketball...

Hospital Food

I hear it is bad elsewhere, but hospital food here at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is delicious. Chef Pnina stopped by our room to visit with us again today in her never ending desire to please the patients. She wanted to make sure we were getting exactly what we wanted and reassured us yet again if we have food or brand preferences she would make sure the staff bought what we wanted and made dishes that made us feel at home.

This week and last she made Perry special Indian chick peas, kale in a sweet vinegar sauce, and homemade baked apple chips. She happily asked us for drink preferences, peanut butter brands, etc. A few weeks ago, a staff member went out to buy black beans for Perry (while I would happily have ordered something else had I known) so she could have them with sauteed fresh red peppers.

The regular menu, the vegetarian and gluten free menus all have some great choices. We especially liked the curried vegetables with tofu over brown rice and the vegetable stir fry.

The only true gripe I would have is that the pediatric menu is sad to say the least. It is pretty basic with chicken fingers, fries, burgers, basic breakfast items and seems designed for someone trying to load up on white flour and perhaps a preference for pre-made foods rather than the fresh foods from which the adults choose. It does have a relatively good peanut butter and banana sandwich and omelettes, etc. but less choice especially in the way of actual vegetables. While it is simple to ask for an adult menu (which is what sparked them to tell me I could write in absolutely anything and they would find the ingredients, cook it and deliver it to our room), most pediatric families do not know they can do this. Chef Pnina says she is expanding the pediatric menu and it will be great to see what changes ensue.

While Sloan Kettering is where our family has spent an unfortunate amount of time, I have to wonder are we lucky to be here or are all hospitals following the room service style pick and choose plan with fresh ingredients and an executive chef who takes true pride in her work?

Coconut Lentil Soup

Finally home after our four night hospital stay I put together a cozy fall soup. This easy red lentil soup required little preparation and was made from ingredients we happened to have around. Soups work well for our family and I was hoping Perry would eat it, skinny after five days of pretty much nothing. This soup was devoured by the rest of the kids...

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves of shallot, chopped

1 clove garlic, whole

3 carrots chopped

1 bag of dried red lentils

6 cups water

Boil it all together. Add one can organic light coconut milk. Serve.

Pictured above: Korean sweet potatoes (with white dry delicious flesh) and white sweet potatoes (moister and tasty)

Glistening Fried Rice

I am first to admit that I am simply not afraid of fat. I embrace it and think it leads to everything from brain health to slim & trim body weight. I find (as hard as I may try) if I eat mostly vegetables (which I do) then fat will be my main source of calories purely because vegetables are so low in calories that even a little fat will tip the proportions. But I don't mind if my salad dressing glistens and my steamy stir fry shines and a spoon or two of nut butter and lots of seeds get in there too; I am OK with it as long as it is from a good pure source.

So, this really great healthy fried rice designed as a heavier meal for the kids who come home "starving" after long school days glistens with a combo of olive oil, coconut oil and sesame oil. The brown rice was soaked and sprouted so it cooked a little faster. We started with a lot of cabbage, cruciferous and cancer fighting, strengthening and tasty. We shelled some English peas (my helpers kept eating them raw but we used what was left), we added some leftover chick peas, because, hey, I like to incorporate leftovers, especially when I do not have enough to make a dinner of them. I dumped everything into some olive oil and coconut oil with a touch of fresh garlic and ginger, which cooked on a low temperature, added soy sauce (watered down a little) and sesame oil (not heated to smoking temp but mixed in toward the end)...a dash of turmeric was stirred in at the end and fresh lemongrass and basil were at hand raw on the side...

This dish got a bunch of vegetables into the kids subtly and flavorfully with the added brain boosting fats to help with their homework.

5 Mushroom Soup

The five mushrooms in this rich, easy soup were white, crimini, shitake, maitake and enoki, all distinctive and delicious. I sauteed a shallot, a clove of garlic thinly sliced and a small onion in olive oil, then simmered them with a bay leaf and sherry, added all of the mushrooms, more sherry, covered for a while for rich broth, then added water, let some water boil away and that was it.

I served it two ways to please children with different ideas about what comprises a dinner. I blended a lot of it and called it sauce and served it over brown rice which was true comfort food. I left the rest chunky in its dark rich broth in which the enoki mushrooms were like noodles (I often use them as a noodle substitute in Asian dishes or with tomato sauce) but found the children liked the broth but not all of the mushroom chunks so in the end I finally blended the rest as well. I still have a bit and might even freeze some. After long hospital days I find it to be a nice low calorie warm thick drink in a coffee mug, cozy after a day of being blasted by air conditioning.

Muffin Making on a Friday Afternoon

These buckwheat gluten free muffins turned out dense and delicious. While this is not a recipe merely a guideline, here is what my friend Liddy (who was forced by me to bake without a recipe) and my daughter Perry used for their creation:

gluten free rolled oats

buckwheat flour

chick pea flour

tapioca flour baking powder unsweetened soy yogurt

unsweetened almond milk

vanilla extract

honey

maple syrup

vegan chocolate chips (in some of the muffins, not all...)

They made a tray of mini muffins that were eaten pretty much immediately when the younger three kids arrived from school on Friday afternoon. Two kids liked the non-chocolate and two liked the ones with chocolate and after the mayhem that arrangement caused subsided (because more than half had chocolate chips) the muffins did turn out to be a net positive. Because two of the flours are high protein and high fiber (I only let them use a touch of tapioca), the carbs in these muffins shouldn't raise blood sugar levels. They are very low sugar and had no added salt at all so I felt good about this little baked splurge. And the apartment smelled good all afternoon...

Russian Kale and Fresh Maitakes

This kale from Windfall Farms is my favorite of the farmer's market kale but usually restaurants come and snatch it up before I can get there. Today, I had an early start, two spin classes in a row at Flywheel, home for a bit to gather my bags and then straight down to Union Square where there was an abundance of my sought after baby Russian kale. I got some other similar kale from two other vendors but I think Windfall trims it nicely so if you buy the baby kale it isn't all stems, much more user friendly.

I have become accustomed to tossing the baby kale into my salad with a bunch of miscellaneous greens (usually mustard greens, tot soi, chard, mizuna etc.) plus good old fashioned lettuce. I rinse and spin the greens together and put them on top of my chopped cucumbers, peppers, onions, sometimes sun dried tomatoes or an occasional olive, hmm this is making me hungry. I topped today's salad with a beautiful maitake mushroom from John Madura at Union Square on Wednesday...it was big and fresh. Now, my huge lunch salad is still sitting here while the gang upstairs is conferring over eating dinner out...and I am hearing murmurs that we are ordering in so I might get that salad after all...

The many health benefits of the kale include decreasing cholesterol (it binds with bile and escorts bad fats out) and decreasing cancer risk (demonstrated in bladder, breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancers due to the high amount of isothiocyanates). It has over 45 identified flavonoids and a day's worth of Vitamins K, A and C. But, I eat it for the taste, raw or properly gently cooked...

Maitake mushrooms, usually found at the base of oak trees (but I find mine at the farmer's market), comprise the other power component of my salad that is just hanging out in my refrigerator now. They contain polysaccharides and specifically beta D glucans, and have been shown to help fight cancer, diabetes, HIV, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Cancer patients often take Maitake D fraction or various concentrated versions of extract to safely work with other mainstream treatments and to help manage side effects of chemotherapy. In my day, I was known to slip a bit of maitake extract and powder into my daughter's feeding tube while she had pneumonia and was living on a ventilator after a stem cell transplant and a bad bout with a genetic cancerous brain tumor and she did survive against the odds back then. So, I do believe in it and am making broths with it to fight her current cancer as well. But, again, for me, I am all about the taste which can range from strong to truly pungent. While I eat them raw, I often lightly steam or saute them or mix them into a grandiose stir fry...I am really feeling hungry now...

Cheaper in Chinatown

It really is a bargain although many question the items sold on the crowded streets. The young coconuts are the same as those sold in health food stores and Whole Foods and are significantly cheaper and tend to be fresher. We paid $2.00 for each one, opened up on the spot, served with a straw...the kids drank the water and saved the rest for home where we scooped out the meat and they wolfed it down. I have on occasion bought a case dirt cheap (I think $12) but then I need to lug it home so there is a downside.

This huge piece of ginger was $1 which is a deal compared to my local health food stores. Exotic fruits are in a similar price range. I usually go for a big bag of bean sprouts and pay about $1 for what seems like an awful lot, probably equal to three bags from Whole Foods.

At the bakery (yes we went to the bakery; no I did not violate the sweets bet), everything we chose was gigantic and $1 which seems cheap, a big bag for $8 but we have never set foot in a basic upper east side bakery, (certainly not Lady M for a $10 piece of cake) for comparison being not a bakery sort of people.

And the best deal of all is the actual dim sum. I ate a gazillion vegetable dumplings, we had two big plates of steamed chinese broccoli, the kids had more dumplings than one can imagine fitting in their small stomachs not to mention the stream of sesame balls, rice noodles, shu mai, steamed pumpkin buns...I am so full I feel sick...not my best nutrimommy exemplary behavior!

The one expensive Chinatown splurge for me is ginseng for tea. I am not sure if I am a sucker or if the ginseng varieties truly vary enough to warrant the price differentials but I do love wholesome ginseng as a soothing health drink that improves memory, promotes energy, decreases stress and overeating (yes, I should have had it before dim sum). Some people use ginseng to treat chronic fatigue syndrome as well because it effects the efficiency of the adrenal glands. So, in the end two $2 subway rides, and not all that many dollars later, we stumbled home full to our sick child (who is feeling better today) at home with the dad...back on the wagon tomorrow.

Quick and Easy School Lunches

We try to hit a legume category (sometimes other entrees will do), two vegetables and two fruits for school lunch. Occasionally, a snack goes in as well...

The kids usually have a bunch of vegetables to choose from so they open the fridge and pick (or, more realistically, I hunt them down asking what they want, yelling I am choosing for them while they hurriedly look for homework papers, shoes and socks). They often prefer raw peppers, cucumbers, crunchy bok choy, tomatoes, carrot sticks or cooked cauliflower, broccoli with dipping sauces, sauteed cabbage, kale, bean sprouts or shitake mushrooms. Sometimes they go for an actual salad with fresh stuff plus some olives and sun dried tomatoes or a cabbage based slaw.

The legume varies between red, brown or green lentils, black beans, chick peas, refried beans, navy bean soup, lima bean soup and a few others. They are all easy, and, when planned properly they are left from dinner the night before. When they are protesting legumes, we go for a staple entree of polenta with tomato sauce, gluten free English muffin with, sadly, sunflower seed butter (don't even get me started on the school's nut policy), brown rice, vegetable fried rice, once in a while tofu or tempeh. Luke also has a fall back entree of oatmeal which he loves for any meal, any snack, anytime.

For little packaged goodies, I sometimes include Sheffa tasty mix which is nut free with pumpkin seeds, chick pea sticks and spices, sometimes popcorn, or corn thins or rice crackers. (I would choose Bhuja once in a while but it has peanuts). For a bus ride snack to sneak, I do include Lara Bars or the Nut Delight Kind Bars. I do not include our homemade versions of those because the nut policy would make me feel I had to use containers that would survive nuclear war and warn the kids the offending product can not leave a certain backpack pouch the entire day.

The necessities for good homemade lunch are good thermoses, (we use Thermos brand), a lunch box with two pouches so hot and cold can be separated, glass lock containers that seal well, and good wax paper bags (no plastic to suffocate the food all day). We aim for little or no trash. I send a cloth napkin and silverware with them although they say silverware is readily available at the table. So, why do all this? The school provides an OK lunch but there is not always going to be a good vegan selection, and while usually the list of ingredients is readily accessible, there are still ingredients of which I do not approve (like soybean oil...is it from China or US? Either way, low quality vegetable oil is is a terrible source of ill health) and the quality/source of the ingredients can not be uncovered. Besides, the kids are simply more comfortable with their own food. I understand that the school is trying (this year the kitchen there is under construction which does not help matters) but we are not ready to take the plunge. Maybe next year we can see what the new kitchen produces. But for now, it is farmer's market to lunch box for us.

Lemony Kale with Garlic

So, having my big girl home from the hospital this week led to some great lunch time togetherness. Yesterday, we splurged at Beyoglu. Today, after a trip to the hospital for some basics (it is not a chemo week), we hopped a cab home and made some lemony kale with a bowl of refried beans. The kale was organic fresh from Union Square greenmarket, and I shredded it the way we like (no one likes to chew a big mouthful of kale so cutting it is important...I wish Good Health cafe would get that message somehow!) and I kept my shreds short and child friendly.

I sauteed slivered garlic in olive oil to start (aiming for lots of garlic because Perry had no neutrophils at this morning's blood work and the very low white blood count leaves her susceptible to infection)...I added the kale still wet from a washing and covered it so it would steam rather than brown in the oil. (Olive oil should not reach a smoking temperature and we are pretty careful about that.) Anyway, I separately made our special lemonade sauce from fresh lemon juice (about 1/2 a juicy lemon), a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, a generous teaspoon of raw buckwheat honey and 1/4 cup of water. Truly like a fresh squeezed lemonade. I spooned the kale into a serving bowl, dumped the dressing on and placed a few slivers of raw garlic on top...I was being a little garlic crazy I know but it might do some good...hopefully so might the kale with vitamin K and the beans with iron for strength. So, it was a good lunch and overall a good day...and, yes, we are letting her eat in her bed these days.

Tropical Fruit Salad With Local Fare

This fruit salad became tropical with some small additions despite the mostly local fruits we bought today at Union Square. It was my first Union Square farmer's market trip since we got back from our summer travels and it was bustling...I was happy to have Luke and Susannah to carry the bags. In Naples, Florida visiting my mother we had a tropical salad with shredded coconut on top of greens with almonds and oranges. Luke ate so many greens that day because he loved the shredded coconut that I thought I would give it a try. Tonight, he ruthlessly rejected my lettuce so we made an intricate beautiful fruit salad instead.

Fresh local ingredients:

1 pear

1 apple

2 nectarines

1 peach

1 cup raspberries

Tropical ingredients:

1 tbsp per serving shredded coconut (organic, dried, unsweetened)

1 mango

1 kiwi

Other ingredients:

pecans

almonds

So we put the fruit together and jumbled it all up. Then we topped the individual servings with the coconut and nuts. It was delicious as a part of our dinner served along side kale sauteed in balsamic vinegar and olive oil (for the special sick girl who is still wanting wholesome fresh fare), and broccoli and hummus (the broccoli took some persuasion and for Luke it required soy sauce). But it was a good easy fresh dinner...on these indoor days I think I am eating a ton...

pictured above: Perry less than a week before the diagnosis of the sarcoma in her leg that has her currently hobbling around on crutches waiting for her treatment to begin on Tuesday.

Our Famous "Cobbler"

OK, we call this cobbler, a term we use loosely for this breakfast treat we indulge in several times a week in the summer. We make it in peach and blueberry or a combo of the two (but not mixed, separated in the dish or overwhelming arguments prevail in the form of your blueberries touched my peaches and now I can not eat any of this!). It is simple and I often have it completed before 6:30 a.m. We chop some peaches into medium chunks, rinse some blueberries and lay them in a shallow casserole dish or pyrex. We dump Nature's Path fruit juice sweetened corn flakes on top and spread them out. Luke puts a bunch of raw pecans, a few raw cashews, almonds and walnuts in the coffee grinder and grinds them well. I must admit he broke one coffee grinder so far and maybe 8 year old boys are not the most coffee grinder savvy bunch around. We spread the nut mixture over the top and then drizzle organic grade B maple syrup over the whole shebang. We pop it in the preheated oven and bake for about 25 minutes on 350 degrees so the fruit gets juicy and cooked through and the top browns gently. If you rush the dish, the top might burn before the fruit gets properly cooked so beware.

Anyway, this gem of a dish, gluten free, sometimes beautiful, sometimes not, always tasty provides us with summer sweet breakfasts. The nuts are a great protein and fat added to the otherwise sweet dish and change the digestion and the blood sugar effect dramatically. And in our house, the kids can do the entire job but I do take it out of the oven for them...

p.s. we do not skimp on raw fruit either and frequently enjoy fruit salads like the one pictured above, pictured merely because I liked the picture, and often add sesame seeds to the top...

Summer Cooking and a Vegan Birthday

Just a few summer creations the kids made. Luke's vegan gluten free tortilla with olive oil and rosemary roasted at 350 degrees for a short time is a great breakfast or snack. Rosemary is so great for the brain and body so we use it pretty liberally. Perry is showing off our black bean, corn and salsa creation. It was really just a quick lunch of corn cut off the cob tossed into a pot with a can of Eden organic black beans, some chopped tomatoes, pepper and onions and some Green Mountain Gringo medium salsa...fast and flavorful.

And, well, as for my birthday, it was a day off the sweets bet that Luke and I have been a part of since January so we really dove into the dessert. But of course, I did not skimp on dinner vegetables. We steamed celery, broccoli raab and mushrooms and also sauteed cabbage and mushrooms in dark balsamic vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce. I doused mine with Lottie's Original Barbados Recipe Hot Pepper Sauce and had a pig out of Anne Zimmerman proportions, but hey, it was my birthday. And, the details of the dessert: I had some Organic Nectar cashew based ice cream in pistachio (the only flavor with a moderate sugar count and incredibly delicious); So Delicious coconut based ice cream in peanut butter chocolate and in low sugar chocolate. We melted a chocolate bar Noi Sirius Icelandic, spooned it over our sundaes where it formed a shell which we topped with Soyatoo Rice Whip, a rice based vegan whipped cream from a can...we topped it off with a fresh cherry. So our replica of a traditional ice cream sundae was probably more satisfying than the real thing making some happy cows and happy kids.

Of course tonight, after our Thai food I said no to doughnuts and was met with outrage, so quickly they forget yesterday's sugar blitz...ain't that always the way it goes?

Play Date Plates

Susannah's friend was admittedly a little skeptical of the Asian pear but while she proved herself a good little eater, we have had some picky playdates. Last year, I would make playdate food, a compromise and then my kids would have a nutritional step down and the guest would not like it anyway...for example, vegan whole grain pasta dishes, quesadillas, pizza, gluten free english muffins and peanut butter sandwiches and the friends would still pick around every vegetable and sometimes reject whole grain crusts / breads. So this year we just stick to whatever we would otherwise have. If that happens to be just vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts and seeds then, fine, said guest must accept or reject. After lunch yesterday, one of Susannah's friends asked for a doughnut which brough on outright laughter from Luke, a doughnut in this house, where did she think she was?

Anyway, the playdate food above include cooked sprouted lentils (for fiber and a complete protein), lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, carrots, cooked corn, sprouted corn tortillas, watermelon, Asian pear, Thai hummus (amazing from Roots in Clarksville...their chana masala hummus is even more amazing), and Whole Foods black bean dip. So, I am offering a pretty big array of stuff that the pickiest eater should be able to tolerate. Yesterday's picky eater wound up asking for pistachios and then just sucking the salt off of them...hmm. Think I can mend her ways by the end of the summer?

Summer Salad With Corn and Lima Beans

With corn and lima beans in season, this salad is a real treat and a filling and complete meal. I had lettuce, peppers and cucumbers from the farmer's market and sun dried tomatoes soaked in olive oil from New York for this great fresh combo. I used an apple cider vinaigrette with some spicy sun dried tomato spread (Les Moulins Mahjoub from Le Pain Quotidien) and water. The spicy sun dried tomato spread can be recreated by blending cayenne pepper with sundried tomatoes and olive oil.

I was starving the day I ate this salad for dinner (I had run 12 miles in the morning heat) and quickly chowed down a huge serving bowl size portion. Lima beans have great fiber content as well as lots of magnesium, iron, folate, potassium, and manganese. Because of their high molybdenum (a trace mineral) content (1 cup has 86% of a day's worth), lima beans help metabolize sulfites. They are generally extremely heart healthy and as for digestion, they keep things moving on through.

So, this delicious salad is really easy to make in this month or so during which lima beans are on hand and available. please note that the lima beans should be cooked thoroughly by steaming or boiling until soft all the way through. And, the corn was raw cut off the cob for less negative impact on the blood sugar...

Stuffed Pablano Peppers

These peppers were so tasty...and easy.

White mushrooms (I totally cheated and bought the organic mushrooms pre-sliced)

Corn (4 ears I cut fresh off the cob)

1 Onion from one of my favorite farmers

A touch of the green of the onion for garnish

Sauteed all of above w/ ground cumin and sea salt. Stuffed it into the raw pablano, baked for a short time. Tonight, I ate the filling without the pepper as that is what the scavengers left me. I dumped Lottie's Original Barbados Recipe hot pepper sauce and now my mouth is on fire but I am very satisfied, so delicious...

Perry's Peppers

Perry makes these fried peppers herself and they are fab. She prefers medium sweet peppers, not bell, more of either a banana or cubanelle and she prefers light green ones. She slices them into long pieces and heats a frying pan with soy sauce, organic aged Villa Manodori balsamic vinegar and sesame oil. Then, she just lets them sizzle up, the sauce practically turns into candy that we scrape out and devour when she finishes cooking the peppers. They take only a few minutes to cook and she has a nice side dish a little of which she occasionally shares. Now, if I could only get her to wash the frying pan...