Sylvia's Scenario

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm not eating the  overnight oats  anymore because I want hot food in the morning now.  (I'm a very seasonal eater)  So, I've been making blue oatmeal  and now I've been making this oatmeal which is a little less work.  It still has an apple in it and I added ground flaxseeds instead of chia seeds and a tablespoon of oat bran to give it that extra kick of fiber.  So, the total fiber content is 12 grams if you eat the whole thing but I'll often just eat half.  That's still a good way to start your day since the average American only eats 14 grams of fiber per day.  The recommended amount is 25 - 35 grams daily.  The apple gives it that little hint of sweetness so no added sweetener is needed. Makes 1-2 serving 1-1/2 cup water 1/2 cup old fashioned oats 2 Tbsp.  ground flaxseeds 1 Tbsp. oat bran 1/4 tsp. cinnamon 1 apple, peeled and finely chopped 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped 1.  In...

Do you want your house to smell like fall but don't want to go through all the effort to make an apple pie?  Then baked apples are your answer and they are so easy.  During the days of little time, I use to make these by coring the apples and sprinkling some sugar and cinnamon over the apples.  Then bake in the oven for about an hour.  Now that I like to experiment I'm using a little more than just sugar and cinnamon.  This is my favorite combination but you can still add raisins, currents, cranberries or whatever you like.  And, of course, they are perfect served with ice cream. 4 apples that are good for baking such as Granny Smith, Fuji, Braeburn, Golden Delicious, Jonathan, Honeycrisp, Rome, Pink Lady or Gala ( I used 5 apples because I had an extra apple sitting around looking lonely) 1/4 cup old fashioned oats 1/4 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup unsweetened coconut 1/4 cup nuts such as walnuts or pecans 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutm...

Halloween is one of those holidays that changes over the years when the kids grow up but it's always my second favorite holiday after Christmas. Christmas doesn't really change; family still gets together, we still give presents to each other, I still cook a big feast, we still do all our traditional foods like almond roca and various Christmas cookies to give away to friends and family, we watch all our favorite movies like It's a Wonderful Life, (and Christmas Vacation), I still always do a photo Christmas card even though it's getting harder and harder to get photos of Nick & Lauren with their busy lives, we still always hang our Christmas socks and fill them for Christmas morning, etc. It has changed a little with Nick & Sachiyo going to Japan now so they won't be here and we don't do as many presents to everyone anymore. But Halloween has changed a lot because my little trick or treater are all grown up! When Nick and Lauren were little Hallo...

We finally canned all our pears so now we have ten quarts to enjoy this winter if we can wait that long.  We've already eaten a couple quarts of our  plums  so I hope we still have some by winter. Our last night of canning is always a big relief knowing that we are done for another year.  The first batch of jam or jelly is always exciting, then everything begins to ripen at once and it gets a little stressful to preserve everything before it spoils and when the final canning is over, it's always such a relief.  So, we are done for another year!  Yeah!!! This recipe does not qualify for  October Unprocessed , that's for sure!  These pears are totally processed and use lots of sugar, too.  But I have a philosophy about this.  If you eat "junk" food or in this case "processed" food, it's O.K. as long as it's homemade and these canned pears are definitely homemade. I mentioned in a previous  post  that I like many veg...

We had our final barbecue last weekend and since I knew it would be our last of the summer, I choose to have my favorite marinated meat - teriyaki flank steak.   This was always Nick and Lauren's birthday dinner request (both have birthdays in July - right in the middle of barbecue season!)  When Lauren was around 6 years old, she requested teriyaki flank steak for her birthday but I was so busy getting ready for her big day and preparing all the festivities that I decided to buy a bottled teriyaki marinade to save me time and use that instead of this recipe.  When Lauren took her first bite of her dinner she yelled out "This isn't what I wanted for my birthday!!"    I felt so bad and after that I never tried another teriyaki marinade.  This is the tried and true one. Where did this recipe come from?  Well, that's another story. It's actually from the cookbook A Taste of Terrace Hill .  Where is Terrace Hill, you ask?  It is wh...

We are still eating the pears from our tree and they are as sweet as sugar.  We've picked a nice bucket full and have been enjoying having fresh pears to munch on. Tonight, I added some in our salad and it was delicious. The salad didn't need hardly any dressing because the pears made it so sweet. So, if you have some pears laying around, make this recipe for your next salad. Serves 2 5 cups of baby greens 2 cups arugula 1/4 cup dried currants 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped 2 pears, cored and grated 2 Tbsp. rice vinegar 2 tsp. olive oil 2 pears, cored and sliced 1. Combine the baby greens and arugula. 2. Add the currants and walnuts. 3.  Add the grated pears. 4.  Toss with the vinegar and olive oil.  Top with sliced pears and more walnuts.  

I finally found a kale recipe I like! I've been trying to like kale because of all it's health benefits but I've just never really liked it.  I like it when it's in  soup ,  it's O.K. prepared that way.   I like spinach and chard but just have never develped a taste for kale, but I think that may be changing now.  Kale has even more nutrition than spinach and is one of the healthiest vegetables on the planet!  It's the "queen of green"!  Why?  One cup will give you 15% of the daily requirement of calcium and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), 40% of magnesium, 180% of vitamin A, 200% of vitamin C, and 1,020% of vitamin K (watch out if you are taking an anticoagulant such as warfarin) It's also a good source of minerals of copper, potassium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus.  It's high concentrations of antioxidants- carotenoids and flavonoids - and phytonutrients are all cancer fighting nutrients.  Kale is also rich in the eye-health promoting l...