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April 24th, 2024

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Condiments, How To & Tips, Salad Dressings, Salads & Salad Dressings, Snacks

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Quick & Zesty Homemade Ranch Dressing – All in Pictures

As you can see in the graph below, Ranch Dressing was the number 2 most sold condiment in the US between 2019 and 2021. I can’t imagine that position has changed in the meantime.

The Quick & Zesty Ranch Dressing you see here is what I call a “base recipe” from which you can improvise however you like – flavor rules! – and I’ll provide guides about how to do that soon. The ingredients, shown below, needed to make this Ranch Dressing are all commonly found, require no cutting or chopping and are a lot more wholesome…

…than the ingredients you typically see printed on labels of store-bought Ranch Dressings, like those shown below. (By the way, the mayonnaise I’m using, far left in the picture above, is homemade, which you can see how to make by clicking this link. The yellow comes from added turmeric powder.)

Once you have the ingredients good to go, all you have to do is put them together,…

…mix them well and then let the dressing rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to bring out the full flavors of herbs and spices you use.

Click this lin k or any picture on this page for picture book Quick and Zesty Ranch Dressing directions, and enjoy!

November 28th, 2022

Blog, Dessert, Nuts, Seasonal/Holiday Recipes, Snacks, Special Recipes

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How to Roast Chestnuts in a Conventional Oven or Toaster Oven

Just seeing fresh chestnuts in the store at this time of year, which is a little tough where I now live in Hickory, NC, with one brilliant exception – more about that very soon – brings back vivid memories: from seeing and smelling them roast, or burn, on New York City sidewalks on bone cold winter nights to my dad roasting them in an electric pan and all of us cracking them open parked in front of a blazing fire in the living room when I was a much younger kid than I am now.

Roasting chestnuts is very easy, especially in a toaster oven, and well worth the flavor payoff. Here are some quick tips.

1. Select fresh chestnuts that are both heavier in weight and firm to the touch, not spongy. Also, give the chestnuts a quick look for small circular holes in their shell as any holes you find are a sure sign that pests have entered the nut.

2. Before roasting chestnuts, make sure to give them a good cross cut on both the top and bottom of the nut that penetrates the shell and thin membrane inside, as shown below. Making those cuts allows steam to escape as the chestnuts roast. Not making those cuts will allow trapped steam to build up inside the shell to the point of explosion – great, loud sound but annoying mess to clean up, which I DO know from experience.

3. Here is all you need to roast chestnuts either in a toaster oven (more energy efficient) or conventional oven.

Click this link or any picture on this page for complete picture book directions – and enjoy!

April 25th, 2022

Blog, Cooking Technique, Cycling Food, Running Food, Snacks

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Turning a Recipe Failure into Fully Flavorful Success

Mistakes? Ha! That’s just part of learning no matter how skilled you are in any field. And, no way to sugar coat it, the Chocolate, Grain & Nut Butter Power Bars I made recently, and intended to add to the recipe lineup here, just didn’t work out as planned – not even with the terrifically flavorful ingredients shown here.

The first signs regarding intended purpose as power bars: crumbling dough when I formed it a baking sheet. Then, cracks in the finished loaf (see the red arrows below), which was a clear sign the bars would fall apart easily, especially if tucked in a pocket for a hop on the bike or run.

The worst part: the flavor wasn’t as full on as I’d expected – and that happens.

But no way were all those terrific ingredients getting tossed in the trash. Instead, I did what the bars wanted to do anyway and crumbled them into a container to be “repurposed” as a chocolate-granola cereal and then…

…made this much more full-on flavorful chocolate, grain and nut butter cereal breakfast bowl.

I’ll get that picture book recipe out right after I first put together a purposely made picture book Chocolate, Grain & Nut Butter Power Cereal recipe.

More very soon!

March 14th, 2022

Blog, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Running Food, Snacks

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Banana Nut Butter Power Bars, Part 2: Boosted Flavor

Here’s how to take banana nut butter power bar flavor from good to great!

No doubt you’ve had the experience; You bite into something and think, “Yah, that’s good, but it could really be better if…”

That’s exactly what I thought when I tasted a fresh batch of the banana nut butter bars I posted recently – and you know the deal here: flavor rules. And not that those bars didn’t taste good. They did. But good isn’t good enough. So, right away, I made another fresh batch with adjusted ingredient quantities, as shown in blue below.

Here’s how a bowl full of flavor boosted banana nut butter power bars came back after coffee with my good Hickory buds.

Click this link or any picture on this page to download the freshly revised picture book recipe.

February 28th, 2022

Blog, Cycling, Cycling Food, Fitness Food, Grains, Nutrition, Running, Running Food, Snacks

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Quinoa Power Bar Picture Book Directions

Killer North Carolina cycling & quinoa power bars the 3 to the right of “dude” left (me) haven’t yet tried (next ride, men!)

A few terrific cycling buds asked me on a ride this weekend if I have any recipes for power bars. I do: Quinoa Power Bars and Banana Nut Butter Power Bars.

The keys to a good power bar: a mix of simple and complex carbohydrates that your body breaks down quickly for immediate burn, healthy fats and protein that take longer to break down for sustained energy burn – and killer good flavor! Both the quinoa and banana nut butter bars provide exactly that.

First, quinoa power bars because I just updated that recipe yesterday with relatively new nutritional information and directions showing how to grind whole chia seeds to get the most out of them. I’ll update the banana nut butter bars next.

Click this link or any picture on this page for step-by-step quinoa power bar picture book directions.

April 8th, 2019

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Beans, Blog, Snacks, Special Recipes

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Cilantro Pesto-Hummus Picture Book Recipe

I’m a big fan of rich basil-flavored pesto and cilantro infused hummus. The “pummus” (pesto + hummus) recipe you see here combines those flavors by substituting fresh cilantro for fresh basil and then really pumping up the herb flavor of bean-based hummus.

Here’s what you need to make pummus, which goes great with vegetables, on pasta, with rice, on bread – your imagination is your only limit.

Click any picture on this page for an easy-to-follow picture book recipe.

November 10th, 2015

Blog, Snacks, Vegetables

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Brussels Sprouts Chips – Flavorful Alternative to Bagged Chips & All in Pictures

Brussels sprouts chips are an excellent quick, flavorful, and much more nutritious alternative to commercially bagged chips.

The hardest part about making these great tasting chips – and it’s actually not hard at all; it just takes a little time – is peeling the sprout leaves as shown above. After that, it’s just add oil, broil & enjoy!

Pistachio Pesto: Nutty, Herby, and All in Pictures

If you like pistachios and basil or are already a big fan of pesto, you’ll love this recipe. As I mention on the first page of the step-by-step picture book recipe shown below you can get by clicking any picture on this page,…

Empowering Kids in the Kitchen with Kid-Friendly Quick & Easy Tuna Salad – All in Pictures

This quick & easy kid-friendly to make tuna salad is a great way to empower kids’s confident independence in kitchen because it requires only 3 ingredients, 3 pieces of equipment, and no cutting with a knife or even the use of a can opener if you buy cans of tuna with pull-tab tops as shown below.

Kid-Friendly Tuna Salad Ingredients Click any picture on this page for a complete, very colorful step-by-step picture book recipe.

Kid-Friendly Tuna Salad Picture Book Recipe

June 3rd, 2015

Blog, Fitness Food, Fruit, Snacks, Special Recipes

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Avocado and Mango Salsa – All in Pictures

Last post showed how to cut a mango as easily and mess-free as possible. Here’s a great way to combine the “bite of tropical sunshine” fruit flavor of fresh mango with avocado, fresh cilantro, lime, garlic, red onion, and as much – or little – jalapeño pepper as you’d like to pack together an explosion of summertime flavor. Read more »