Tag Archives: heart healthy

SPELT-BLUEBERRY PANCAKES

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Heart Healthy Pancakes fixitplan   Heart Healthy Pancakes

“I don’t have to tell you I love you. I fed you pancakes.”  
~Kathleen Flinn in “Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good”

Spelt-Blueberry Pancakes fixitplan
Our Thanksgiving holiday travel plans got cancelled at the last minute, so we spent a quiet Thanksgiving Day together at home.  As most of you know, we stopped eating meat and Thanksgiving butterbeans fixitplanpoultry after Bill’s event (and we avoid common wheat as well) so our holiday meal is a bit nontraditional anyway.  Yet the feast with the family is always wonderfully bountiful with an abundance of vegetables and Uncle Ernest’s famous homegrown butter beans!

Suddenly unprepared to put together the usual Thanksgiving fare (sans the turkey and stuffing), I used this unexpected change of plans to test this recipe and we were not disappointed!   Our nontraditional Thanksgiving meal magically became a heaping plate of blueberry pancakes Continue reading SPELT-BLUEBERRY PANCAKES →

Black Bean and Avocado Salsa Dip

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Black Bean and Avocado Salsa Dip

 

Orange-Fruit-Pieces
Evan-Amos – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

I love this stuff!  So easy to throw together, simple and delicious.  My friend Holly and I whipped this up during our recent visit to her house and we all eagerly devoured it.  She discovers the best recipes! … (including the Vegetarian Quinoa Chili here on the blog.)

Avocado_picture
Mgmoscatello-Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

It tastes so fresh and summery with the crisp, cool cucumber and sweet, tangy orange. Black beans provide protein and heart healthy fiber, magnesium and potassium, plus a variety of healthy phytonutrients.  And creamy, buttery avocado contributes beneficial, heart healthy fats. Continue reading Black Bean and Avocado Salsa Dip →

“Food Should Make You Want to Dance!”

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That line passed by as closed captioned text on the Food Network Channel today while I was sweating my heart rate up on the elliptical.  I stopped on that channel, captivated by the chef sauteing crisp apples and beautiful leeks, and I watched as she scooped out bright orange acorn squash and mashed it with roasted garlic.  She returned the squash to the shell and spooned the leek/apple mixture on top.  It looked delicious–though swimming with too much butter for my taste and I would have sauteed the leeks and apples in coconut or olive oil… but I digress. Continue reading “Food Should Make You Want to Dance!” →

Vegetarian Quinoa Chili

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Vegetarian Quinoa Chili

Traveling to see distant family and friends during the holidays, we were touched by the care everyone showed to make sure Bill ate heart healthy! — potentially challenging since he (and me!) are still eating mostly plant-based and are now also wheat free.

Butter beans and field peas from Uncle Ernest’s garden, a hearty bean soup made especially for Bill at my sister’s home, along with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables everywhere we went kept us well fed.  I carried along plenty of fresh baked Sylvia’s Ozark Cornbread making sure I had enough to share.  (I’m pretty sure I converted some Jiffy cornbread eaters to this heartier bread along the way.)

Everyone’s thoughtfulness gave the holidays an extra-special warmth and feelings of being loved.  What could be nicer than that?  Continue reading Vegetarian Quinoa Chili →

Late Summer Minestrone with Butternut Squash and Fresh Corn

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Late Summer Minestrone with Butternut Squash and Fresh Corn

“There is nothing like soup. It is by nature eccentric: no two are ever alike, unless of course you get your soup in a can.”    ~Laurie Colwin, ‘Home Cooking’ (1988)

We really like soup.  Mmmm, a thing that cooks in one pot, gives off a wonderful aroma, and makes my home feel all cozy.  It promises a comfortable and comforting meal and it requires some sort of bread.  I served this soup with Sylvia’s Ozark Corn Bread and it was a delicious pairing.

Fresh corn wasn’t available, but everything else was fresh except the tomatoes.  (I find organic canned tomatoes are much tastier than the fresh ones, at least where we live.)  It was easy to prepare in part because of how everything timed out.  While the leeks, celery and bell pepper were cooking, I chopped the garlic and measured out all the spices in a bowl.  After adding the garlic, spices, tomatoes and liquid, the pot was left to simmer.  Continue reading Late Summer Minestrone with Butternut Squash and Fresh Corn →