Mother Nature is Medicine

Mother Nature is Medicine
MOTHER NATURE IS MEDICINE. The Creator has given us everything that we need. It is all here on this Earth and in the Universe. It can be found in the Earth, in the Sky, in the Waters, in the Air. Often times, we, as humans, tend to view nature as something that is "apart" from ourselves. We talk of spending time "in nature." We, in a sense, distance ourselves. In reality, we ARE "a - part" as well. The Great Spirit put us here and blessed us and our ancestors with this beautiful earth. Embracing the Creator and the natural blessings is food & nourishment for the body, mind, and soul. Nature is medicine. ~Peace and Blessings~

Friday, December 27, 2013

A Lucy-like Breakfast

One of my favorite youtubers, Loepsie http://www.youtube.com/user/Loepsie, shared some great recipe ideas, and one of my favorites is also the simplest. For breakfast: Tea, grapefruit, and a healthy granola cereal. I've been eating this for my breakfast every time I am home and it is so refreshing, filling, and simple.

Yesterday for breakfast, I changed it up a bit and had some peppermint tea with 1 tsp. (teaspoon) of honey, about half of a pommelo rouge (red pommelo), and a healthy grain cereal.

If you're wondering what a pommelo is, well, this was my first pommelo too:



look how deep the skin is! I don't like peeling these




It looks and tastes similar to a grapefruit, only sweeter. And if you want a better flavor, leave it out of the fridge! The same goes for clementines.


Stash Peppermint tea with honey



I really liked this cereal. It has a grainy flavor with a hint of sweetness. If you're looking for a healthy cereal that's not too sweet, try this one, Barbara's Puffins Original cereal.

THIS CHRISTMAS..

I went to New York City!!!!!

Well, we spent a week in the big city the week before, but it was fantastic!! I had only been to NY one other time, when I was little, and that was 12 (twelve) years ago! I know, too long to be away from my lovely NY. Besides attending the Opera (Tosca), The Phantom of the Opera and Matilda on Broadway, Radio City Music Hall's "Christmas Spectacular" with the Rockettes performance, Shakespeare's Richard III play (historically with an all-male cast), and the Met Museum of Art, among a few other things, I ate this:


Plié au chocolat from the nice little French pâtisserie, Maison Kayser. They served a variety of delectable pastries. This pastry was charmingly delicious!  It was soft, chocolatey, buttery, and sweet. Not too sweet, but just right. I will be going there next time I am in the city! I would love to try the  plié in Paris, the sister-city of NYC!


We also tried their cranberry walnut bread, a perfect breakfast treat!




That's tea, I don't drink much coffee :)

This Christmas... I cut out some Christmas cookies...

Betty Crocker's Sugar Cookies



Yes, that's right, I may not have had the proper board or a rolling pin, but what is it that they say, that your hands are the best tool when cooking or baking! Je suis d'accord! (I agree to that).
And they were tasty sweet!






Um, I think this cut-out is a dancing Christmas bear, I still am not sure. So, if any one has any idea as to what the mystery red one is, leave a comment below, merci!



Green sprinkles and peppermint-flavored sprinkles. Surprisingly, the peppermint ones had a strange taste that I really didn't like, but it was still all good!

Don't forget the Christmas eggnog.  Of course, I added some cinnamon to mine :)


This Christmas... The ladies of the house know how to make a Christmas feast


Joyeux Noël et Merry Christmas tout le monde!

The ladies of the house know how to cook and always make a fantastic Christmas feast!


:Potato salad, green bean casserole, deviled egg, cornbread stuffing, turkey, baked macaroni and cheese, sweet potato soufflé, cranberry sauce, kale: 

Since I've stopped eating pork (yay!), I've had to make some adjustments to my holiday feasts. This Thanksgiving and Christmas, my family used turkey sausage crumbles from Jimmy Dean instead of our usual Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage. The hot sausage really made the stuffing so delicious and spicy, but, of course, I don't use that anymore. The turkey crumbles was not the same, but the stuffing still tasted good. This Christmas, I added chopped green apple and cranberries. Cooked with the peppers and onions in the meat was a nice touch and oh so good!

And oh, if anyone could give me a suggestion of some really good, hot and spicy turkey sausage like Jimmy Dean's pork Hot Sausage, please let me know in a comment below. I'd appreciate it!



Now, doesn't that look golden good!

This Thanksgiving, I thought of the idea of cooking the turkey in the crock pot so we could use the oven for the other delectable dishes. The crock pot turned out a success then and again for Christmas! We don't eat a lot of turkey so we just had a turkey breast, and oh my goodness, it tasted soo good cooked in the crock pot with wine, parsley, gravy.. So, if you're rushing around Christmas, next time, plop the turkey in the crock pot overnight and wake up Christmas morning with a wonderful aroma!


We had collard greens for Thanksgiving and I made kale for Christmas.



Merry Christmas from the Apple Cider Snowman!
After Thanksgiving, I start rolling out all the Christmas bowls, cups, and mugs, and make it my mission for everyone to use only the "Christmas" decorated kitchen ware, or whatever you call it! ;)



Christmas Salad

Joyeux Noël et Merry Christmas tout le monde!

I pray everyone's Christmas and Holidays were a joy and brought a warmth of comfort, peace, unity, and good health : )

Before the traditional, main course, I made myself a very nice salad. This salad was the best I had in a while. You know why? Because I made it! Yes, I made it and I knew exactly what was going in it, for the most part, and knew that everything was clean! yummy
For the past few months, I've been mainly using just oil and vinegar for my salad. It's not only healthier, but very tasty too and fresh-tasting, not excessive if used right. But for this salad, I wanted to try the new Caesar dressing we got and it was really good. Caesar dressing is one of my favorite 'dressings'.
:Spinach leaves, cucumber, red and orange plum tomatoes, shrimp, croutons, clementine orange, salad seasoning: 
Cranberries, walnuts, and black olives would be a nice addition to this kind of salad too.



Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Banana Chocolate Buckwheat Pancakes






 Sliced Banana and Milk Chocolate Chips


I made these this past summer. It looks like this year’s summer was the time to make a lot of new things. Actually, these would be even better in the winter - fill you up inside in the colder months.
These buckwheat pancakes were thick, not only in size, but it tasted thick too and hearty, more than your average pancake. That’s why it’s Buckwheat.

I enjoy cooking and baking, when I have the time, and the only time I am able to is when I come home from college. When I live on campus, I eat the food there and the only thing I make myself is few and small  - not enough money and with only a microwave to cook. So, the microwave has seen a lot of tea and mugs in its day. When I come home, I have to make a lot of food. . . and it tastes better too. I enjoy cooking, but it’s nice to get a break too. Perhaps it kind of evens itself out? 3 months of making every meal, then about 10 months free with little breaks in between. mmmm
Maybe. 
At least I am practicing and creating my own recipes and trying out new recipes and learning a lot about cooking from the great family chef :)

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Spicier Zatarain's

Zatarain's New Orleans Style Red Beans and Rice.
A little blurry here . . .
WITH



and WITH 1 sliced Beef Hot Sausage Link




Delicious for when there's chill in the air..

Twice-Baked Potato

I’ve never made “twice-baked potatoes” before, but when a friend mentioned it, I knew that I had to try this out when I finally got home.





Clean potatoes and leave them wet. Cut a slit down the middle, the long way, and if you want, make another small slit down the other way (shorter way) making a “cross”.





Wrap each potato individually with Reynold’s Wrap and bake till potatoes are tender at 400⁰ F





Scoop out as much potato as you can without destroying the skin! Tricky business…





In a separate bowl, combine the potato “meat” with butter and sour cream. And you can do what I did and also add garlic powder and Italian Seasoning or Salad Seasoning.
Pack in the potato “meat” back into the potato skin, cover with the Reynold’s Wrap, and return to the oven till the potato gets a little golden.



This was really delicious and something that I will definitely make again. Everyone loved it! Plus, I didn’t have to worry about the mess of drooping butter and sour cream with a plain once-baked potato. All I added after was a little bit of ground black pepper. Plus plus, I think this cut down on how much butter and sour cream I usually had to add to a once-baked potato.