Po’ Girl’s Applesauce Spice Cake

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Po’ Girl’s Applesauce Spice Cake

1/2 C Butter
3/4 C Dark Brown Sugar
1 Egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla

Sift together following dry ingredients:
1 3/4 C Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Cardamom
1/4 tsp Cloves
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 tsp Ginger

Add:
1 C Applesauce
1/2 to 1 C Raisins, Currents & or Craisins
1 C Chopped Nuts if desired

Slowly cream together the first four ingredients, then add the dry ingredients till well combined. Incorporate the apple sauce and remaining ingredients into the batter and bake in a greased bundt or tube pan at 350° for 45-50 minutes.  Please feel free to adjust the spices as well as adding any of the fruit.  You could try chopped plums, apples or leave the fruit and nuts out altogether and it will still be delicious!

Daily Prompt: Howl at the Moon and Other Stuff

I have eaten healthy most of my life. Thankfully they did not have fast food when I was young and we were too poor to over indulge in anything, thank God!
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Love the local farmers market at harvest time!

Had to start sticking to a very low sodium diet lately in hopes of keeping my blood pressure at a more normal level. I’m so jealous of people who can eat anything and they’re fine. That’s amazing to me. I recently decided to change-up the usual pasta and sauce by baking it. Used an odd larger pasta called Gigli, made my own sauce with a tomato paste base and very low salt, mostly herbs and spices and layered it with some cheese I mixed up with low-fat sour cream, which is naturally low in sodium compared to cheese. Made for a nice creamy base. Recipe to come later on the Recipe page I’m working on.

Low sodium organic canned beans and fresh/frozen green bean salad with vinaigrette dressing.
Low sodium organic canned beans and fresh/frozen green bean salad with vinaigrette dressing.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Texture

Enjoy this gallery of textures!

 

Enough With The Comfort Food Already!

This has been a long, hard winter for all of us.  I am sick of the severe cold and all the shoveling and I’m sure most of you agree.

I lost my job, again, right before the holidays and my only sister soon after.  It looks like I will be losing my home by the end of this year unless I find another job soon and I have to say I have not had the time nor the inclination to look under the circumstances.

Being snowed in and being depressed does not make for a healthy person mentally or physically when you decide to self-medicate with food.  I do not drink or have any other vices and have found through the years what a great comfort food can really be.  One of my overweight friends once explained to me “You cannot eat and cry at the same time.”  I see what she is talking about now because for most of my life, I would lose my appetite if I was upset about anything.  Now I become ravenous!

I am still working out regularly, but not happy with the fact that I had managed to lose over 20lbs last year and have now found myself putting that weight right back on again.

I have tried to take walks on several occasions only to start slipping and sliding on the mess that has continued for the last two months in my area so about the only time I am out is when I have to get supplies.  I dig out if the snow is deep enough.  For a couple of inches of snow I just drive right over it all.  The unfortunate result of this is that snow becomes so compacted down that I am not able to shovel it at a later date because of the severely cold temperatures.

This comfort food actually comforts my stomach as well.

Po’ Girl’s Rice Pudding

Combine 2 cups cooked rice with 2 cups milk and 1/4 cup sugar.  Cook on medium-low heat stirring regularly for approximately 20 minutes until thickened.  Then add an additional 1/2 cup warm milk with one beaten egg (to temper egg), one teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder stirring continuously for an additional 10 minutes or so.  I slowly added a few spoonfuls of the cooked pudding to the 1/2 cup with the egg before adding this to the hot pudding to prevent the egg from curdling.

This makes a very delicious, but not super sweet rice pudding that I much prefer to store-bought.  Much better for your sugar levels.  The following video gives you an idea of how thick the pudding becomes when it is almost done.  Please stir enough to prevent scorching keeping your eye on the heat, adjusting as needed.

http://youtu.be/tZISpHkvSoM

Weekly Photo Challenge: Unexpected

I have only made cinnamon rolls a couple of times in the last 40 years or so.  I stopped trying because the dough was never soft enough and they never turned out well at all even though I followed the recipes to the letter.

This may have been the problem.

After refusing to pay what Cinnabon charges for a sweet roll I decided to try one more time while changing up the basic recipe.  I was very pleasantly surprised to finally have made a batch of cinnamon rolls that were tender and delicious, an unexpected delight!

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.  Please do not over bake them or they will be on the dry side.  That is what happened with my next batch even though they still were tasty.

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Sloppy Po’s for Dinner!

You’ve all heard of Sloppy Joes, now try Sloppy Po’s!

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SLOPPY PO’S RECIPE

  • 1 LB ground turkey  (Butterball Everyday good quality and price)                         1 Small minced onion         2 cloves of minced garlic
  • 1/2 Cup turkey gravy                                                                                                       1/4 Cup cherry wine           1/4 Cup cranberry juice
  • Season to taste with salt and/or pepper

Simmer meat, onion & garlic til meat is well browned.  Add the remaining ingredients and continue to simmer approximately 15 additional minutes.  Serve on a bun of your choice and add a salad, fruit and/or vegetable for added nutrition.

Clipping Coupons is Not Healthy

 

Extreme couponing is a hyped fad that couldn’t last since people have to have real food to live on.  Typical coupons are for 30 cents off two packages of refrigerated rolls which don’t come close to homemade in taste and ingredients.  It also does not save you money when you compare the prepared food to cost of the ingredients for homemade most of the time.  Most of us don’t need the additional carbs in our diets from rolls anyway.

Weigh the pros and cons of joining any price club or warehouse.  Most cost you an annual $50. fee and offer large sizes of high-end items.  You will save much more just shopping the sales in your local markets.  Part of the large quantities may end up wasted if you cannot store in properly or use it up fast enough.  It does not save money if the product goes bad before you can use it all.  Most of the food offered is frozen or processed as well.  The best idea is to get together with friends or family and chip in for one family membership that you can go in on so you can divide the food as needed.  It has the mental health perk to commune with others while shopping, as long as your relationships are not dysfunctional.  Some people prefer to shop alone.

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My First Real Garden in The Burbs

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Standing in front of my first garden in the burbs.

How Green is Your Garden?

I am chemically sensitive and I have been for many years.  I know a lot of people that have the same problem and the numbers are growing.  Chemicals are big business and the only way this will change is if we stop using those products.  Less demand means less production, less money for advertisement to convince you that you need them, hence less pollution.  We use chemicals for cleaning, lawn care, health and beauty aids, even in our foods.  Now when did granny say, I’ll just add a little more MSG or cottonseed oil when she was cooking dinner?  There is simply no legitimate excuse for our dependence on these toxic additives to our foods especially. 

I understand that there can be a concern at times about a product’s ingredients becoming stale or unstable without their use, but if foods were received fresh and used as intended, the need for many of the additional additives would subside.  Insisting on fresher products may force our governments to allow us to consume products grown or produced in America, which in turn puts more Americans back to work.  Most of our products come from other countries and there is a longer time span from production or harvest to market due to all the import, export procedures and regulations.  Personally I fear any product that should only last a week, tops, lasting for months on a store shelf

Living green means living fresh and organic, as we were created to live.  We were certainly not created to constantly ingest man-made garbage.  There is so much talk about finding a cure for cancers, but I have yet to see the people responsible for this quest do anything remotely that will bring this about.  We certainly don’t need all the marching for donations, which is big business for some.  We need our world leaders and governmental agencies to do the right thing for a change and reduce the world’s pollution that is almost out of control now.  I don’t know about global warming, but I do know that toxic chemicals pollute and poison our air, water and earth daily.  Soon this may not be reversible.  This smog destroys people’s lungs and many inner city children show signs of asthma right away due to their tender membranes and tiny bodies.  Some don’t stand a chance.  Instead of trying to stop this madness, Doctors give these children more chemicals and toxins in their bodies to try to counteract the symptoms.

Most cancers are caused by irritations and the body’s homeostasis being altered allowing the cancers to grow.  I live near numerous factories and since moving here my lungs have become so much worse.  I don’t smoke and never go by smokers anymore due to the chronic bronchitis this causes me.  Gone are the days of drying laundry outdoors unless you live out in the boonies, and that air is still not really fresh anymore.  Our air circulates globally and China is a big polluter next to the U S.

I encourage you to write to your state and federal governments to see what ideas they are coming up with to improve our environment.  Please feel free to offer any suggestions to them that you think may help, just keep it “clean.”

Weekly Photo Challenge: LUNCHTIME

Keep it simple, but real.