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Life flies past us so quickly, and sometimes I’m certain the sound of the wind is actually the sound of life flying by.  That’s the way it’s felt lately; a whirling blur, a constant hum, non-stop motion.  Since my last post in August, I’ve gone on a 14-state road trip, moved from the East Coast back to my beautiful California, and re-entered the corporate world after a year-long hiatus.  My husband quit his job to launch a graphic design business, we found a goat living on our new property, summer faded away into the brilliance of autumn, and I discovered almond flour.

Yes, that’s it.  I discovered almond flour. Extraordinary, delicious, versatile almond flour.

It’s not cheap — I paid about $35 for 5 pounds from my local co-op — but I’ve never enjoyed gluten-free baked goods more.  A single cup of almond flour provides the following nutrients:

• 140% of the RDA for vitamin E
• 80% of the RDA for magnesium
• 60% of the RDA for phosphorus
• 48% of the RDA for protein
• 32% of the RDA of calcium
• 16% of the RDA for folic acid

There’s more.  Almond flour also makes the best banana-nut bread/muffins ever.

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There’s no need to pour guests a glass full of artificial ingredients, synthetic pesticides included. Instead, with eco tricks, you’ll support sustainable farming and products with eco-friendly packaging. And when friends imbibe in an organic cocktail like a Hot Buttered Maple Rum, Acai-Lum Sangria, Kentucky Christmas or Pineapple Caipirinha with Sweet Lime Espuma, you know they’ll be on board!

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Did you know that red onions are rich in flavonoids, sulfur compounds and promote better bones? In fact, if you make them a staple in your dishes they just may help reduce certain types of cancer and the risk of heart disease.

We all know that sweet potatoes and yams improve a meal as they’re very high in vitamin C and A. Now, the healing power of this side dish is fortified when paired with red onion slices.

Here are more facts about the healing ingredients found in this easy side dish.

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Before you get started, this meal you need a few simple ingredients that you can pick up at just about any grocery story:  1) About a pound of Mostaccioli noodles 2) 2 cans of Diced Tomatoes 3) Roughly 1 can each of Tomato sauce and tomato paste 4)1 pound of mild Italian sausage 5) Fresh mozzarella cheese and some Italian blend shredded (or grated) cheese 6) Crushed Garlic.

Start with the noodles and boil them until they reach al dente style (firm pasta, just slightly undercooked), and then drain and strain.

Then cook up the Italian sausage in the same pan you just used.  Load the sausage with what you like as far as seasonings/ salt and pepper.  While working on the sausage, warm up the tomatos adding crushed garlic to it (the garlic can also be added in the final mix).

(As far as substitutions for Italian sausage, different kinds of meat or sausage, especially spicy can make for a really interesting taste.  If using a substitute, try to find other cheeses that fit well with your meat choice.)

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Even though these cupcakes are still a sugary, the addition of matcha green tea powder means each one will boast the benefits of green tea including weight loss, lowered blood pressure, decreased stress levels and increased energy. So when you try the Matcha Meringue Cupcakes recipe, you can feel a little less guilty about indulging.

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That’s when these Fall Finale Muffins show up on our breakfast table.  Grab the last of the apples and pair them with shredded carrots for a hearty, healthy muffin packed with a nutritional boost.  Because of the high amounts of fresh carrots and apples, along with dried cranberries and nuts, these muffins take on more of a crunchy produce feel than a typical bread-like muffin.  Fall bounty you can hold in your hand.

Make an extra batch as these freeze surprisingly well.  Here’s the recipe:

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Fall salads are as bright and colorful as the falling leaves outside now. I hope you’ll try this easy fresh beet, apple and yam salad with cranberry dressing.

The recipe is simple. First boil and roast the beets and yams. Then let cool, slice some organic apples and the golden beets together with the yams or sweet potatoes. Cranberry vinaigrette adds a delightful tang to this side dish.

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Thinking about giving gardening a try? While the traditional growing season has ended in most parts of the US for this year, it’s not too early to start planning for next Spring. You may want to check out books on starting a backyard garden, and there are plenty of them out there. You may also want to find some of the books that offer suggestions and recipes for the produce you grow. And, if you need encouragement to grow organically, there are still more books on that subject.

If you want a book that covers all three of those areas, though, your choices get much more limited. Janette Haase’s From Seed to Table: A Practical Guide to Eating and Growing Green* not only provides readers with gardening instructions and tips, recipes and menus, and essays on the environmental issues surrounding agriculture and food production, but does so in a month-by-month structure that gives you the information you need when you need it.

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If you are thinking, well that is just too easy meal, don’t give up on me yet.  I am going to show you how if you spend just a little more time with the preparation or variation, this can be a really great meal.

First off, cook up some spaghetti.  Even for a beginners cooking Blog, this pretty easy–Boil some water, toss noodles in the pan and cook until they reach al dente, or firm but not solid (just a hair under fully cooked).

Right here is where I would like to improve this dish.  First off, try whole wheat pasta instead of regular enriched flour pasta.  It is much better for you, and the taste difference in negligible.

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So how do you know if you are deficient? Some common signs of a possible major deficiency in zinc are acne, fatigue, white spots on your fingernails, hair loss, high cholesterol, prostate trouble, irregular periods, impotence and infertility. However, even a minor deficiency can affect your sexual desire and function, so taking the time to make sure you are getting enough of this mineral during the day can have a positive outcome on your romantic evenings. If you are concerned, there is an oral test that can be done at a doctors’ office, as well as a blood test to determine if you are zinc deficient. Vegetarians and vegans need about 50% more zinc in their diet then meat eaters. Since there is an array of plant-based zinc sources, there is no need to panic and since most Americans are believed to be deficient in this vital mineral, it’s time to eat up people!

Sexy Veggie Food Choices: tempeh, beans including lentil, adzuki beans, chickpeas and lima beans, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, nuts including cashews, pecans, pine nuts, almonds and Brazil nuts, honey, tahini, flax seeds, flax oil, peas, blackberries, kiwi, peas, summer squash, corn and sweet potato, oats and seaweeds including kelp and dulse.

Try this recipe for my “Just Can’t Get Enough Granola” to start boosting your zinc today.

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Now your probably thinking, this is probably too simple to be expressed on a Blog.  Well I disagree.  If a little extra time is spent with preparation, this can be one of those great easy meals, that you can remake again and again.  This meal is such a staple that in our house, we designate one night a week as Grilled Chicken Salad Night.

In order to make up this meal, you need to grab some boneless chicken fillets from your local grocer’s freezer.  Simply grill up the chicken over a charcoal or propane grill until the chicken is cooked through and crisp, but not burned. While cooking, cover the chicken with basic seasoning to improve taste. For my super delicious chicken salad, usually a little well done on the chicken makes for a tastier meal.

If you lack the potential to grill, chicken actually bakes well in the oven under steady supervision of flipping the chicken to ensure the chicken is baked all the way through.  To bake it use the same formula as you did for grilling, but just expect a little more production time.  In either case, slicing open the raw chicken at various parts will help cook the bird and let the seasoning soak in more.

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Fall crops – from butternuts to beets – require taking out the big sharp knives, the cutting boards, and usually can’t go from garden to plate in ten minutes or less. (Case in point: the yummy, yet rather complex, Beet Burger recipe I wrote about last week). But there’s a reason for that: these types of fall vegetables are meant to store and be savored through the winter months, particularly here in through our Wisconsin winters. Tougher skins and harder insides hold up to seasonal and local eating booty through our lean Midwest growing months, providing the opportunity to still eat fresh year round.

Consider this Roasted Root Vegetable recipe my point of entry into the winter cooking season. Cooked in olive oil with some simple seasonings, this recipe showcases the distinct, hearty flavors of root vegetables. Potato recipes get temporarily bumped off the breakfast plate at Inn Serendipity this time of year as this flavorful, unusual recipe prompts folks to rethink their assumptions about rutabagas and other roots.

Roasted Root Vegetables (Vegan)

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Yes. After learning that Crisco got its name from crystallized cotton seed oil and waxing nostalgic about the big red-white-and-blue shortening can Mom used to keep in the cupboard for baking, I was shocked to find that a typical 32-ounce bottle of all-natural, cholesterol free Crisco Pure Vegetable Oil had just one ingredient.  Not cottonseed oil but soybean oil.

Soybean oil is another surplus crop more frequently used for whatever the processors, marketers, and packagers come up with. Cottonseed oil isn’t in the cooking oil or shortening ingredients.  It appears Crisco has given in to the cheap grain trend of government-subsidized crops making more of our food.  It’s probably better than fattier cottonseed oil that’s increasingly fed to dairy cows as a fiber source that converts to butterfat in milk.

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Gluten free baking is not for the faint of heart or the timid of soul.  The tried and true baking results that come from the familiar use of wheat flour are substantially difficult to reproduce without our old friends, wheat, rye, and barley.  With some experimentation and a little tenacity, you can find a good gluten free flour mix, and still have some of the same baked treats you once enjoyed before you relinquished all gluten related items.

In my three years of learning to cook and bake gluten free, I’ve tried numerous combinations of flours and prepackaged mixes.  Some were pretty good, but most spanned the spectrum between OK and outright terrible. I looked for gluten free flours in recipe books, in online searches, and throughout the blogosphere, and finally found the best all purpose flour mix in a cookbook - Gluten Free Baking Classics by Annalise Roberts.

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Pomegranates contain almost half your daily quota of Vitamin C, an antioxidant that is required for at least 300 different metabolic functions in the body. Vitamin C is also a protector from free radical damage and a facilitator of good circulation, which is vital for sexual health and pleasure. They also contain vitamin B5, the anti-stress vitamin needed for proper adrenal function, and vitamins A and E, which help to reduce the risk of heart disease.

Pomegranate oil is now being used in many menopause products to help reduce symptoms, as well as in vaginal creams to help eliminate dryness, which can make sex painful. Pomegranate juice is easily found at your local grocery store, often mixed with other super-fruits, offering you an antioxidant cocktail that is easily assimilated by the body. The seeds are great in cold salads, on (soy) yogurt with some nuts or paired with greens for a sweet and tart delight. Do something good for your body today and try the greens recipes below to increase your overall health and feed your libido at the same time. It doesn’t get much better then that.

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This is a very adaptable, forgiving recipe—feel free to modify and experiment with ingredients.   Carrots can easily substitute for some of the beets.  The burgers freeze well (and taste surprisingly good cold), so we usually make a triple batch in a jumbo bowl.

Here’s the recipe:

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But these culinary treats should not just be for moms and kids.  Playing around with the recipe some can turn this classic into a work of art, and I would like to show you how.

(Photo taken by Dan Tentler)

Now this is not the first time the guilty pleasures of grilled cheese have been toted on this site.  Kelly Best-Oliver spells out her enjoyment of grilled cheese and tomatoe shallot soup.  Robin Shreeves also encourages grilled cheese and tomato soup in her Thrifty Thursday Blog from September 2008.

However, both these Blogs do not improve the process of making grilled cheese to improve taste.  I like to think that Grilled Cheese sandwiches can be a real meal, an almost delicacy if you will.  That is where I, Jason Karnosky–the working food journalist come in.

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