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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

What We Should Be Eating & Making Now

July 15, 2020 by Mary 7 Comments

So, I have been trying out new recipes for you BUT, I haven’t found any that are great enough to share with you. They just aren’t and I’m sorry I haven’t had the time to fuss with them to make them better and therefore sharable! However, recently I came across this article that outlines the diets of the longest living, healthiest people on the earth, and there are six tenants for What We Should Be Eating & Making Now.

Here are the highlights from the article entitled The 6 Golden Rules of Eating for Longevity, According to the Longest-Living People on Earth by Allie Flinn from the blog Well+Good.

1.) Drink wine after 5 pm.

It’s 5 pm somewhere! Ideally with friends and a meal. I’m in!!

2.) Eat mostly plant-based foods.

Now I do eat meat, almost every day, but I have been trying to have more meatless days…

3.) Include plenty of carbs in your diet.

Surprising to me! They eat grains, greens, tubers, nuts, and beans. Beans seem to be most important, and I know when I am hangry (hungry and angry because of it), beans or lentils calm it the most.

4.) Enjoy meat only on occasion, and only 6 ounces at a time.

Your portion should be no bigger than a deck of cards – that is enough.

5.) Stick to black coffee, water and wine as your beverages.

In other words, pure stuff, no sugary nonsense.

6.) Practice modified forms of intermittent fasting.

I personally have been fasting 16 – 18 hours per day and I have lost weight and feel so much better. So, I may eat dinner at anytime between 6 pm and 8 pm and I will not eat anything the next day until 1 or 2 pm and that really works for me. At that time, I do have a really good meal, like a full dinner, with protein being eaten first. This is working for me in so many ways, I hope you try it for yourselves. And no, I do not miss breakfast first thing. You do not need it at our age.

I will also add to this list a few other things that I have been doing:

Practicing mindful eating.

Eating and chewing slowly, being conscious of what you are enjoying, is so important. This practice will result in eating less as it takes about 20 minutes for your brain to tell you that your stomach is full.

Intentional choices for your food.

I was having high blood pressure readings, most likely from the stress of trying to remake my life after the sudden passing of my husband, Steve, as well as lack of sleep from the stress, so my doctor immediately wanted to put me on blood pressure medicine, but I was not going to go in that direction. Instead I did some research and started eating a lot of broccoli – raw or barely roasted – sweet potatoes, flax seed crackers and taking the oil in supplement form, and eating 6 cashews a day as a preventative action for cancer. I am happy to say that my blood pressure is back to my usual good-to-low readings.

And then of course, are you drinking enough water

Years and years ago, I once had a doctor explain to me that your body needs plenty of fluids flowing always, to transport the white blood cells around to kill any infections that might be lurking. So drink up that filtered water!!

Food can have a profound impact on how people think and feel.

I would love to know the diets of the violent rioters. I wonder if they’re full of processed foods, high in saturated fats and simple carbs?

What do you think?

Since I don’t have any new recipes at this time that are good enough to share, here is a reprise of some of my summer favorites!

Feta radishes watercress and mint toasts platter.
Feta, radishes, watercress and mint toasts
Midwest potato salad in a white Le Crueset bowl garnished with parsley.
Midwest potato salad at Tanglewood
Best potato salad with fennel, Parmesan cheese, cipollini onions and picholine olives.
Best Potato Salad with fennel, Parmesan cheese, cipollini onions and picholine olives.
Sorrel pesto on a spoon.
Sorrel Pesto
Greek Roasted chicken, chicken with parsely garnish
Santorini Grilled Chicken with a Lemon/Garlic Basting Sauce accompanied by a Greek Salad
Greek Salad, salad with feta cheese tomatoes cucumbers greek
Tomato and cucumber Greek salad

Make and serve all with LOVE!

Filed Under: Appetizers, Dinner, Pasta, Poultry, Salads, Sauces Tagged With: chicken, Greek salad, potato salad, radishes, sorrel, sorrel pesto

Sorrel Pesto

September 2, 2014 by Mary 41 Comments

The crickets are chirping with the sounds of fall and the days are getting shorter. August has been a runaway month for us. Three weekends got away with a wedding in NJ, our week in Vermont and then a Saturday in Baltimore to celebrate my mother-in-law’s 95th birthday. Finally, we’ve been able to get back on track to normalcy to spend the weekend at our home upstate, visiting our friends up there. And then there’s my garden, which has been neglected for all this time. I was afraid I would miss all of my beautiful tomatoes, but thankfully most have waited for me! But my kale and sorrel have all gone wild!! So I had to do something with them. Kale salad last night and tonight (and hopefully our son who lives in Brooklyn will take some more), and the sorrel – so much! –   so far, I made a sorrel pesto sauce!
Herb garden in upstate NY.I spent all of Labor Day in the kitchen and garden. Here’s how my garden looked when I arrived on Friday. Holy kale, right!?

Sorrel leaves in a colander.And here’s all the sorrel I harvested. I used only 1/3 of this for the pesto.

I made a basil pesto and then I whipped up this sorrel pesto. After that I made a red sauce, which I simmered for 4 hours with short ribs, a fruit salad and I was going to make a sorrel sauce but my husband couldn’t find any plain unflavored Greek yogurt at any store that was open on this holiday, (the only one being Stewart’s).  While cutting everything in the garden, I did a bit of weeding and tied up the tomatoes that were growing all over the place. And then in the kitchen, I did something super dumb. I was reaching deep into this bottom cabinet where we keep the plastic leftover containers, trying to find a matching lid for my sorrel pesto container. I lifted my head before fully backing out and banged and cut my nose on the bottom part of the counter overhang. Wow! How stupid!! Here I am dizzy and bleeding while Steve is at Stewart’s trying to wrestle up some Greek yogurt to no avail.

So I’m holding an ice pack to my eyes and nose while blood drips down all over my face. Not a pretty sight. Steve comes home, we clean up the wound and try to make a butterfly bandage to hopefully heal this thing without a scar. Seems too minor to stitch. Besides, who wants to go to the emergency room? What a mess! Jeesh – the hazards of cooking!

Sorrel pesto on a spoon.Meanwhile back to my sorrel pesto. Here it is. A very pretty green, (with no blood drops, mind you).

Sorrel is a lovely, lemony flavor. I remembered this lemon asparagus pasta sauce recipe that I used to make all the time. I thought the sorrel pesto would be interesting, with the addition of the cheeses that a traditional pesto has. Because I feel sorrel is lighter than basil, I used a combination of pine nuts and walnuts as the nut addition. I know it’s not often that you may have extra sorrel around your household, but if you do, this is really delicious for a simple yet unique pasta dish.

So give it a go!! But don’t cut your nose like I did!

Remember, it’s all about the quality of the ingredients for any dish you make, so use the very best you can, and always cook with LOVE.

SORREL PESTO – makes about 1.5 cups

3 cups of packed sorrel leaves, thoroughly washed and dried
4 – 5  large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
3/4 cup Greek extra virgin olive oil (I like Athena brand)
¼ cup of pine nuts
1/2 cups walnuts
3/4 cups grated Parmesan (Reggiano) cheese
1/3 cup grated Pecorino Romano (Locatelli) cheese
salt
pepper

In a large food processor, combine sorrel leaves, garlic, pine nuts and walnuts. Process to make a near paste. Scrape bowl. With machine on, slowly drizzle in olive oil. Scrape bowl again. Add the cheeses, a big pinch of salt and 12 grinds of fresh pepper. Process again, taste and add more salt, if necessary, to your liking.

A one cup portion is enough to coat 1 lb. of dried pasta, cooked. I like it on fusilli or gemelli best as it can get in all the little groves for maximum coverage and flavor. Excellent to put a dab on grilled chicken breasts, squash, potatoes or green beans. Adds a lovely cheesy, lemony flavor.

This freezes well.

Filed Under: Dinner Tagged With: kale salad, sorrel, sorrel pesto, sorrel pesto recipe

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

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