Can we utter, “comfort food” and “healthful,” in the same breath?

Well, not if comfort food means cans of sweetened condensed milk or oceans of gravy on mounds of biscuits.

However, as fall in the northern hemisphere brings on images of pots of soups and – for me – yet another iteration on gluten-free muffin mix – then yes, there are tons of healthful benefits to be had in comfort food.

When I had enough energy to throw some ingredients into a soup pot while recovering from Covid, there were anti-inflammatories and healing elements galore. I ramped up a recipe gleaned from Facebook that reminded me of ones I had used before.

Thanks to my friend, Rox, I had all the ingredients after she picked up my online order from the local grocery store!

Not only did I use the bag of peas, but I threw in a bag of frozen, mixed vegetables as well.

Having some leftover cornbread on hand, I placed a square of it in the center of the bowl and ladled the steaming soup on top.

Even with our diminished sense of taste, this was very yummy.

On to my never-ending quest for the perfect no-hassle, gluten-free muffin mix enhancement.

This could be the ONE!

Using my favorite mix – King Arthur Brand Gluten-Free Muffin Mix – I filled the 1 1/2 cup add-in option to include:

            1 banana – mashed

            1/2 cup ground flax seed

            1 cup gluten-free oatmeal – maybe 1/2 cup more

            Cinnamon and nutmeg to taste

*And my six muffins also contained chopped prunes – yum!

My sweetheart refuses to entertain prunes in any disguise, so his six were without.

These extra ingredients resulted in 12 generous muffins, plus a small 3” x 3” muffin cake.

What a joy it is to simply heat up a moist, fiber-filled muffin for breakfast and some healing soup for lunch or dinner when you need to take it easy, feel comforted, and still know you are getting some healing nutrition on board.

In health –

Deidre

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Do you see the shower of diamonds falling upon you?

As a reader of foodtalk4you, you should, because this marks our tenth anniversary edition!

Big periodicals would have had staff assigned to their special edition, delving into past articles, to select the essential messages from the past ten years. They would have taken most of a year making it a keepsake edition.

We are a team of two.

It’s taken several months of sifting through each blog post since the beginning, and now there are visions of a book, The Best of Foodtalk4you, on the planning board.

But first, I’ll need to finish the relaunch of Toolkit for Caregivers – which is looking fabulous as it nears the completion of formatting and cover design – and retool, edit, and format, Toolkit for Caregiver Emotions, before we can think about, The Best of Foodtalk4you.

In the meantime, Sheree and I want to thank you for your support and encouragement for these past ten years. Many of you have been with us since the beginning of our journey, dedicated to helping others see the natural health available to them – one meal … one breath … one movement at a time.

Our health is a quest that spans our lifetime, and requires a diligent application of the basic principles we outline every week – including:

“Am I doing my body good?” What it means to be on the same team with my body – consistently pulling in the same direction – in this post from 2019.

Building a positive emotional mindset – freeing ourselves from the past and changing self-talk to recreate the landscape of our day – found in a series of three posts in 2022 HERE, HERE, AND HERE. 

Are we destined to follow our genes? How our thinking and self-talk can guide our health status in these posts HERE and HERE.

Autoimmunity: the wolf at everyone’s door – a series of three posts HERE, HERE, and HERE about what autoimmunity is, the importance of avoiding things that contribute to it, and steps to take to live an anti-inflammatory life.  

Stress management – ever on everyone’s minds, has been frequently addressed on foodtalk4you. In 2016, it was discussed as the January top searches post and again in the 2019 post “SPLAT.”

Exercises – especially outside of the confines of a gym, are regularly explored as I have always believed that movements to keep and build range of motion and strength can also be done throughout the day wherever we are. Recent posts have covered this well.

Recipes – the quest for anti-inflammatory eating has spanned this decade, and recipe sharing is a favorite pastime here. From seasonal soups to Scones That Love You Back, we’ve covered it all.

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So, here are some of our favorite glittering diamonds for you, dear readers! Your readership and comments are our diamonds! Thank you!

In health –

<— Deidre, who writes, and Sheree—>, who makes this lovely to read!

Make sure you are subscribing to foodtalk4you – keep scrolling to the bottom of your device or go to the top left of your computer screen. Your information is never shared, and your inbox is never hounded.

You love them or hate them.

As a longtime resident of North Carolina, I’ve been around these mollusks a long time, but wasn’t a big fan because most of the time they were being served raw. Oh, and they were usually not chewed.

Yeach!

Fried? Occasionally, sure.

But after experiencing barbequed oysters hot-off the grill, with garlic butter bathing a tender, juicy, cooked, chewable morsel – I was hooked. Being at my daughter’s house on the lanai, gazing at the Hawaiian sunset didn’t hurt either.

A few Oysters Rockefeller in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, consumed after experiencing the Grand Illuminations sealed the deal.

If they are cooked, I’m game.

The Asian Cucumber Twists that inspired last week’s post, represented the salad/vegetable portion of our oyster feast – thanks to my sweetheart’s daughter, who is in the business of selling and delivering Gulf oysters to restaurants in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Gulf oysters she shared with us are huge! We enjoyed a couple oyster feasts during her recent visit, and we appreciated all her hard work in shucking them for us, too!

Her baked oysters were phenomenal using a small dab of butter, garlic salt, lemon juice, parmesan, and cheddar.

Oh, my!

Turns out, oysters have some excellent nutritional value – above and beyond the lore around enhancing sexual prowess.

One 3-ounce serving of oysters, approximately 6 medium, is incredibly low in calories and carbs, and is high in protein and vitamin/minerals. Check this out:

• Calories: 69
• Fat: 2g
• Sodium: 90mg
• Carbohydrates: 4.2g
• Fiber: 0g
• Protein: 8g

But the numbers that really caught my eye were from the USDA website below.

Cobalamin is vitamin B12 and essential for maintaining brain and nerve health – and for making DNA and red blood cells. B12 also helps lower levels of an amino acid linked (when in high levels) to dementia, heart disease, stroke, and osteoporosis.

To summarize, a 3-ounce serving of oysters has:

• Very few carbohydrates
• Less fat than carbohydrates
  • Is packed with protein and essential amino acids (Omega-3 fatty acids)
  • Very high in vitamins including B12
    • Very high in minerals including potassium, zinc, magnesium, iron and is low in calories

The caution about oysters is usually centered around eating them raw because they may contain a Vibrio bacterium which may cause diarrhea, vomiting, and in some cases, severe illness. Cooking them with proper techniques can kill harmful bacteria.

Also, because of advanced techniques in refrigeration and storage, the adage about not eating oysters in a month without an ‘R’ has gone by the wayside. Oysters are now safely consumed year-round.

There are six oysters left we are planning to put on the grill tonight. Hope I learned enough about how to shuck an oyster from watching others.

We’re on our own tonight!

In health –

Deidre

Are you skilled in eating with chopsticks? For some, it’s a sure-fire way to eat less – nothing stays on with our precarious hold!

But it’s amazing how a pair of chopsticks can transform the process of slicing vegetables to create shapes and textures.

Remember Hasselback potatoes? They were all over the recipe blogs a few years ago. They intrigued me, but I never took the plunge in creating them. /

After using a similar technique for cucumbers this past weekend, I’m going to do it. Who can resist having fun in the kitchen while creating something unique, tasty, and incredibly visually appealing?

Oh, and with minimal effort.

During a recent visit, my sweetheart’s daughter suggested we try creating an Asian cucumber salad. It’s another recipe concept that I have never taken up, so the opportunity to do this together was just the ticket for the kitchen adventure we wanted.

After we watched a how-to video on the slicing technique and saw how a small cucumber can be transformed into a spiral, we were sold!

There are many recipes and how-to videos out there, and the technique I used to slice is different than the recipe we followed which was loosely like this one:

Using a package of six small Persian cucumbers, I washed and trimmed the ends from each. Next comes the magic!

Align the cucumber between the chopsticks and make consistently sized slices on the diagonal. The chopsticks keep the knife from going all the way through the cucumber.

Then, turn the cucumber over to the other uncut side. Make slices going vertically.

When you lift the cucumber, there is an amazing swirling twist! So cool!

Some recipes recommend cutting the cucumber in two bite-sized pieces, but we didn’t do that because we wanted to show off the beauty of the twist in the serving bowl.

Cucumbers contain a lot of water – which is why they are so refreshing, but when put into a dressing, the results get watered down. Therefore, the next step is to draw the excess water out of the cucumber before adding the dressing.

To “sweat” the cucumbers, we sprinkled two teaspoons of Kosher salt over them, mixing and massaging the salt into flesh. This recipe suggested leaving the salt on for five minutes – no more than 10 minutes – lest they lose their crispness. Other recipes contradict that method and want a longer sweating time. We were happy using less than ten minutes.

While the cucumber twists are sweating, it was a snap to mix up the dressing in a small bowl using ingredients we had on hand:

See the full downloadable recipe below.

By the time the dressing is mixed, it’s about time to rinse the salted cucumbers. Under running water, rinse the salt off very carefully, repeating several times. Place rinsed cucumber twists onto a towel to drain. Pat dry.

Place cucumber twists into a bowl and pour the dressing over, gently tossing to evenly distribute. That’s it. Time to serve. If there are leftovers, these can be refrigerated for a few days.

Asian Cucumber Twists are so easy to create and provide such a crowd-pleasing presentation and taste experience.

I can see using this recipe again and again.

Thanks for reading. I hope you like it!

Want to share this post? Use the options under the MORE button below.

In health –

Deidre

No matter if you are gathering romantically or with friends and family, I’m going to share a lovely recipe with you just in time for Valentine’s Day next week. That gives you plenty of time to get the ingredients together.

Perhaps you could even share the creative process with your special someone. I adore cooking with family and friends – the joined efforts amplify the fun.

We are going to a French-themed dinner party tonight, so what better dessert could I bring than this?

Never heard of French Apple Cake? I hadn’t either until I came across a recipe online a couple years ago. The original recipe’s author refined many other known recipes to correct common apple cake problems: sogginess, apples sinking to the bottom, or results that are too custardy in texture.

The recipe I am sharing with you is my own version based upon ingredients at hand. I simply did not want to travel to the NC State Farmer’s Market in Raleigh to secure the specific kind of apples originally called for.

Granny Smith’s from the local grocery store would just have to do. Since these apples are literally at the bottom of the sweetness chart, I adjusted the sweetness in the ingredients with one tablespoon more sugar.

And – we were out of brandy, so I had to pivot on that as well. Most other French Apple Cakes use an addition of rum, so switching from brandy to – ta da – Amaretto, seemed totally fine. And it is!

This cake is a bit of a hybrid: part cake, tart tatin, and pie. With its higher ratio of fruit to batter, I am totally satisfied with the results, and I think you will be, too.

To begin ingredient preparations, I brought out an old friend: my old timey-looking apple peeler that cores and slices apples to perfection. Consistent one quarter inch slices every time! Practically effortless.

One key to this recipe is in the browning of the butter, which releases such a yummy, nutty aroma and flavor. I’ve been reading many recipes lately for cookies that call for this step. Have you been doing this? Worth exploring.

French Apple Cake is delicious served by itself, but tonight I’ll be using a bit of French Vanilla ice cream on top. Anything to ramp up the ‘French’ factor!

Here’s your downloadable recipe:

Love is a beautiful thing. Romantic or not, whenever we share love with others is a extraordinary time.

Thank you, dear readers for supporting foodtalk4you through your comments and by subscribing. Sheree and I love and appreciate you! And thank you for sharing this post with others by using the options under the MORE button below.

Happy Valentine’s Day in health –

Deidre