Glenn’s Greenie Beanies:

Great way to whip up a vegetable dish for a pitch-in or ready to heat daily vegie dish for the coming week.

Only 4 ingredients.

 

Tomatoes - Selection, Storage, Usage, Nutrition, Recipes

Tomatoes - Selection, Storage, Usage, Nutrition, Recipes: "Choose tomatoes that are smooth, firm and red to reddish-orange. Tomatoes soften slightly when ripe. Tomatoes with cracked or discolored skin should be avoided. Make sure to select tomatoes that have been stored at room temperature; tomatoes stored in cold environments will spoil..." read more & see video

Georgia Slaw - Coleslaw With Vinegar Dressing

This coleslaw is made with a tangy vinegar dressing, with only 4 ingredients: sugar, white vinegar, celery seed, and other seasonings.

One variation I intend to try is similar to the diabetic version of the dressing for my Cucumber and Tomato Salad: Substituting Equal for the sugar. Either 12 packets of Equal or 1/2 cup of Equal Spoonful.

Sugar to Sugar Free Conversion:

Equal (packets, tablets, granular, and spoonful's) equivalents to sugar portions.

Glenn’s Chicken Salad:

The original recipe called for 3/4 cup mayo, 1/2 cup artichoke hearts [which are out of my league…a man must know his limitations] and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.  I substituted Ranch dip, red bell peppers and onions for those.  Unbelievably the ranch dip nutrition label makes the mayo nutrition label look deadly…glenndl

Potatoes:

from Make The Most

Potatoes should feel solid, and should be a uniform color. Hints of green, dark spots, or shriveling on a potato's skin are signs of spoilage. If a potato is at all soft when squeezed, it is also likely spoiled. Avoid potatoes with sprouts growing from them; these potatoes are too old and may contain significant amounts of the natural toxin solanine.

Spice Up Meals and Boost Antioxidants:

from The Indianapolis Star

Research by Baltimore based McCormack & Company has identified seven ‘super spices’ for health improvement:

Bell Peppers:

from Make The Most

Select bell peppers that have smooth, taut skin. Avoid peppers with wrinkles, blemishes, cuts or dark spots. Both the pepper and its stem should be bright in color. The stem should also appear sturdy and fresh. Healthy bell peppers are heavy for their size.

Whole bell peppers will refrigerate up to one week in a plastic bag. Store whole peppers unwashed.

Potato Soup:

source: Indianapolis Star; ‘recipes for the workweek’:
‘5 in a fix’ / Joanie Fuson, 3-4-2009

Simple and easy, but I felt it needed a little punch.  next time I think I will add the onions a little later and separate some of the vegetable mix before pureeing.  Maybe use bacon instead of ham?

Food Power Chart

Print & Carry With Your Shopping List Or Cookbook

I don't know the source for this chart, what it's based on, or the significance of the 'color' coding.  So feel free to update us if you can by using the ‘read/leave comments’ link below.

All items are common food items but to be safe checks your prescriptions for contradictions.

The chart was sent to us my Mary C. [Littrell] Cook

click here to view chart.

Cajun Pot Roast & Maque Choux

Maque Choux: Another great Pitch-in dish.

“I find this is my favorite corn oriented side dish when cooked without the roast.  ‘Maque choux’ is a Cajun dish of corn smothered with green peppers, onion and tomato.”

Selecting The Best Eco-Friendly Seafood

Take some of the mystery out of buying fish with this pocket selector from Oceans Alive.  Print it out [or save it to your hard drive], cut, and fold and you have a pocket guide when your shopping.

 

This is a .pdf file so if your unfamiliar with .pdf files or don’t have Adobe Reader 9 on your computer then click the Adobe link below.

Glenn’s Chicken Nuggets

The original recipe called for cooking the breast whole but it tasted so good I cut and beat the chicken and loved it.  I sometimes buy it already sliced into ‘tenders’.  It takes a little more of the bread crumb mix and mustard so I mix up a large batch of the bread crumb mix in a container and keep it in the refrigerator for multiple cooking's.  Quick and easy nuggets.

Turkey Sausage Stir Fry:

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Ingredients: 1 package [13.5] Smoked Turkey Sausage 2 tblsp. Olive Oil 1 package [16oz] frozen stir fry vegetables 6 tblsp. Kung Pao sauce or stir fry sauce or sweet & sour sauce. 2cups cooked rice	Instructions: Cut sausage into 1/4-inch bias slices In large skillet, heat oil over med-high heat. Add sausage; sauté for 1 minute. Add vegetables. Cook and stir [as in stir fry, right] for 6-8 minutes or until hot. Add sauce. Cook and stir 1 minute [or longer until coated].
Prep/cook time: 15min serves 6	Serve with cooked rice.
I got this recipe from a Johnsonville Sausage coupon and tried it.  Simple and quick.  If your going to do Turkey sausage then use Johnsonville for sure [try it with the Turkey with Cheddar].  I’ve also tried it with Bob Evans sausage links too and it was great.	Be sure to use a large skillet.  The first time I did it the skillet wasn’t big enough and it took longer to cook which resulted in my veggies being overcooked.  I like my veggies a little crisp.  I also add onions either at the sauté stage with the sausage or after the frozen veggies are added for a little crispness.

How2 Select and Store Produce

Ever have questions about how to select produce and store it?  Kroger's has a website www.makethemost.com where you can visit their Produce Page and find nutrition, storage, selection and preparation tips for many fruits and vegetables.  They even have recipe page and a page where you can enter your zip code and visit the website's of their growers, a great feature when trying to identify sources during those FDA fiascos.

If your looking for cooking events at a Kroger's near you they have a zip code search feature for that too.  Also a newsletter and Recipe Center.  This is separate and in addition to Kroger's regular website.

CUCUMBER TOMATO SALAD W/EQUAL

Ingredients: 48% calorie reduction from traditional recipe. 1/2 cup rice vinegar* 3 tablespoons Equal® Spoonful** 3 cups unpeeled 1/4-inch thick sliced cucumbers, quartered (about 2 medium) 2 cups chopped tomato (about 1 large) 1/2 cup chopped red onion Salt and pepper to taste	Instructions: Combine vinegar and Equal®.  Add cucumbers, tomato and onion. Season to taste with salt and pepper; mix well.  Refrigerate, covered, at least 30 minutes before serving.
* Distilled white vinegar may be substituted for rice vinegar. ** May substitute 4-1/2 packets Equal® sweetener.	Makes 6 servings (3/4 cup each).

sometimes I like to sneak finely diced red or yellow peppers into it....gdl

Glenn's Meatball~Vegetable Soup

 

Ingredients: 1 carton of Chicken Broth ( oz.)  1 package frozen vegetables 2 to 3 cans of Rotel "Mild", drained 12 frozen meatballs (thawed)*  3 bay leaves ¼ teaspoon pepper/lemon pepper/ or seasoned pepper/ or Garlic&Pepper grinder	Instructions: Mix all in slow cooker, cover and cook on low for 4-5 hours, add pasta if desired, discard bay leaves. *I  buy frozen meatballs at GFS, a restaurant supply store, and sometimes substitute frozen, cubed chicken.

Glenn's Salsa

Instructions:

Put all except chips in blender, pulse 2 times (?).**

*I never have success with blenders (just turns things into mush) so I just chop everything up.

*Don't use dried or bottled cilantro leaves, buy them fresh and chop them yourself.  Cutting your own tomatoes is also a big plus.

Frittata (Pizza meets Omelet)

Ingredients: 8 eggs * ½ teaspoon salt  ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper  ½ cup Parmesan Cheese **  3 tablespoons butter  1 cup shredded cheese ** ½ cup diced ham **  ½ cup various toppings: peppers, onions, etc.

Instructions: Part 1 Over moderate heat add cumin, garlic and oregano to hot oil/butter and stir for one minute… Add toppings and sauté for about one minute or until heated through, remove and set aside.

Instructions: Part 2 Beat eggs in large bowl, adding salt, pepper and the Parmesan Cheese. Melt butter in 9-inch oven proof skillet, on medium high heat (hot enough to sizzle when a drop of water is added), melt butter. Add eggs and set on low heat. Using a heat resistant rubber scraper, carefully push cooked portions at edges toward center so the uncooked portions can reach the hot pans surface, tilting the pan and moving cooked portions as necessary. When eggs are partially cooked (about 10 minutes) top with shredded ham/meat and toppings. Layer remaining cheese on top. When eggs are almost firm but not dry, slide pan under broiler for just a minute/until cheese starts to melt.

*I'm going to try this with Egg substitutes so check back later. ** substitute your own cheeses and meets, I use Cheddar in place of Parmesan and Colby Monterey Jack as the topping. ***sometimes I skip Part 1 (when making a community dish, because of the garlic) and just put the toppings in at step 5 for a crisper effect, but if you want to smell the most aromatic flavor do the cumin, oregano, garlic and butter mix at least once.  Sometimes I will crush some Doritos cheese nacho chips into hot butter as a substitute for the cumin, oregano, garlic mix and spread on before the toppings. Warning, if you let anyone taste the buttered Doritos they will become addicted!

McDaddy Cheesebake

Ingredients: 2 pkg KRAFT Deluxe Mac & Cheese (14oz X2) 1 cup KRAFT Natural Shredded Cheddar Cheese 2 cups Milk 2 cups Kraft Colby Jack Cheese 2 tsp Sugar 1/2 Tsp Pepper 1 1/2 Stick Butter 2 eggs 1 bag of your favorite Doritos, crumbled. Use your own favorite cheeses.  I like to mix melted butter and the crumbs and layer in the middle of the dish.	Instructions: Prepare Mac & Cheese as per package. Add Cheddar & Milk, Egg, Sugar, Pepper & most of the butter.  Heat for 15-20 minutes on 375. Cover with crumbs & Colby Jack, add remaining Butter on top.  Heat additional 5-10 minutes.  Optional: last 5 minutes or additional 5 minutes turn on broiler.