Shopping for the Essentials

Before you  begin to prepare meals you need to make sure you have all the essential ingredients you need. Most of the things you will need to cook with are located in the market isles such as Sugar, Salt.  Pepper. Flour, Oil, Pasta, Soup Stocks.

Fruits and vegetables are a great pick at the market and we need to make sure we pick up some . You should be eating at lease 5 fruits and vegetables each day, and one way you can do this is to incorporate them in your meals like make yourself a salad and add apples or pears, this is a delicious salad.

The apples are fruit that most of us can eat, proverbs say that" an apple a day keeps the doctor away."  Another fruit to choose is an orange which is loaded with vitamin C.  

When looking for vegetables look for tomatoes and  potatoes. I like to get the ones still connected to a vine.  Onions are essentials as well as potatoes.  Leeks are a good vegetable to eat also it is in the onion family but not as strong tasting as an onion. Leeks are very good in soups & stews.

Carrots are another good choice, along with green peppers or Brussels sprouts, lots of people enjoy okra also and lets not forget egg plant.
Tomatoes on the vine tend to be sweet and the go good on sandwiches and in salads.  What I like to do is make a salad without lettuce such as tomato,
cucumber, onion and avocado.Sometimes I like to put blueberries in my salads.  Whatever you like  incorporate it into your daily diet, make the change, don't eat the junk food or the non-nutritional foods, you might lose weight in the process.  Another way to get it all in is to make a
large pot of vegetable soup.

Hot Soup on a Cold Day

We all know what it is like in the middle of Winter to come in from the cold and try to warm up. Nothing seems to work except for a cup of hot chocolate and  a bow of hot steamy chicken soup. The weather outside is brutal especially in New York and I don't care what borough you live in, there is nothing like the" hawk" whipping around the corners of those tall gray buildings and  concrete sidewalks.

God forbid if you left home without your hat and gloves or scarf you  be real trouble.  The tears running down your cheeks turn to ice sickles and your eye brows freeze.  The worst part is waiting on the bus and finding out that your bus is running late.

I am sure that many of you have similar situations and stories  but the fact of the matter is that when you get home all is well when you can sit down to a bowl of hot soup be it chicken noodle, beef vegetable, chili. potato, corn chowder etc.

Winter is the perfect time of you can cuddle up with family get to know each other better, share ideas and read a good book and just enjoy being home.

It doesn't take much to make a chicken soup all you need for the basics such as:

1. Boneless, skinless chicken
2. Chicken broth
3. Vegetables you have on hand
4. celery/onion
5. salt/pepper to taste

To this soup, you can put whatever you wish and have on hand into a pot.  If you have noodles you can put them in, rice or even beans, there is no right and wrong in this matter just be creative and you will have a really good pot of soup to keep you warn this Winter season.

Homemade Tomato-Basil Sauce

If you have followed me or friend me on FaceBook then you have seen the home video Thomas and I made on Tomato Basil Marinara Sauce, I am just following up on the video showing my version of making homemade Tomato  Basis Marinara sauce.  There are many ways you can make this sauce for your family.  I just showed you the basics.  The recipe is used was:

Roma tomatoes about 7-12 lbs. about 6-pint jars.

2 sweet onions chopped

fresh or dried basil

garlic
three tablespoons of brown sugar

green pepper (optional)

tomato paste (optional)

Sea Salt

balsamic vinegar

black pepper

lemon juice from concentrate (not fresh)

oregano

thyme

With this recipe you can use whatever mixture of Italian seasoning or herbs you like, just make it to your taste.

The tomatoes are scored and placed in a pot of boiling water for about 3-4 minuted or until skin loosens and quickly put in ice water to stop the cooking.  What you want to do next is cut up the tomatoes I like to quarter them but you can do half or however, you like. place all ingredients in a pot and cook for 1 1/2 or 2 hours or until it reduces to the desired thickness.  When the cooking is complete if you have a blender or a food processor fill it halfway with sauce and blend until the desired smoothness.

Make sure you have properly prepared your mason jars.  Fill jars with sauce put back into hot water for 10 minutes until top snaps releasing excess air.  You are now ready to store your sauce or serve with your favorite Italian dish.

Cooking on a budget - and making small life style changes

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!

This year 2019 I,(we) (us) are going to try to do things a little different. I am going to attempt to cook new things for my family but on a reasonable budget.  I have found that to eat healthily you have to be somewhat creative because it can be very expensive.  Things like fruits and vegetables, for example, are very expensive.  

There are lots of fruits and vegetable from other countries that are extremely rich in nutrients that we don't explore because we are not familiar with them.  So I am going to choose a lot of different foods and prepare them for you to help make meals interesting.  I am very excited and you will be able to see how unusual food cooks up.  Let me know if you know of any food you would like to learn more about and I will add it to my meal planning. Keeping it simple is what my plan is for this year.
I have already begun by going shopping and pricing some of the produce items in my favorite Supermarkets.  I will also be visiting Giant, Shoppers, Sprout, Aldi and Wegmans so keep a look out for my upcoming Blogs  One of my plans is to make my own homemade Applesauce and Tomato Sauce, this is going to low a lot of costs

I plan to get rid of the store-bought salad dressing and make my own house dressing using lots of lemon/lime juices and olive oil.  I am also planning to make my own seasoning and spice mixes and video while I am doing it. I hope this helps you and your family also. I believe that if you eat better you will feel better and your overall health will be better.  I know that what I am about to do is not a perfect answer but I know it will be better and healthier than what I have been doing.  So hang in there with me and together we will see what happens.

Other things I will do to help in exercise, is to park the car farthest away from where I am going, walking around a few times in the Supermarket. Do stretches while waiting on line. Stretch in the morning when I get out of bed. These simple little things can make a difference in how you feel during the day.  I will use the stairs instead of escalators or elevators and I will remember to walk briskly, you might want to try this also!

At the end of this year, I will then be able to report on how all my small changes helped me during 2019 so again Have a Very Happy New Year!!!!!!