courtesy of allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

2 lbs beef or Oxtail

6 onions – shredded

3 stalks celery – sliced

1 carrot – sliced

1/3 lbs cabbage – sliced

6 tomatoes – diced

1 green bell pepper – sliced

1 can tomato paste

4 bay leaves

10 cups water

Seasoning Ingredients:

1 tsp ground black peppercorn

1/2 lemon (for squeezing the juice)

2 cloves garlic – chopped

1 and 1/2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Wash beef and dice.  Scald and rinse in cold water.  Drain.

2. Stir fry garlic.  Add beef and fry until fragrant.  Set aside.

3. Heat oil and fry onion until soft.  Add celery, carrot, cabbage and cook till fragrant.  Set aside.

4. Heat 2 Tbsp of oil.  Fry tomatoes.  Add tomato paste and 1 Tbsp of sugar.  Fry until fragrant.

5. Boil water.  Put in all ingredients and seasoning.  Bring to a boil and then turn heat to medium.  Cook for 2 hours.  Shift to low heat and simmer for another 2 hours until the soup turns thick. (You can also use a slow cooker this way too).

6. Enjoy

2 pumpkins make LOTS of puree

NOTE: DO NOT use a graham cracker crust.  That is the picture above.  It was delicious but i burnt the crust   We are making 2 more with normal crusts.

{image from marlerblog.com}

I picked up some pistachio nuts (because I love them and hadn’t had them in a long time) from Trader Joe’s.  I practically almost consumed an entire bag last night.  Thankfully, Shawn was sharing them with me.  They’re actually a really good snack and really good FOR you too.  Here are some factoids:

1-They contain lots of fiber

2-They are a good source of protein

3-They are a good source of antioxidants

4-They are pegged as a good food to help lower cholesterol and risk of heart disease

5-They have about 30 vitamins and minerals that are good for you!

So…get to eating!

Here is another pistachio dedicated site for you.

Brown Rice (or Brown Jasmine Rice)

1 Eggplant

1 Portobella mushroom (big one, if small, 2-3)

Ground turkey (not a lot, maybe the equivalent of enough to make 1 hamburger patty)

Soy Sauce

Directions:

1-Cook rice (in pot or rice cooker)

2-Cut up eggplant and mushroom into 1 inch chunks

3-Heat up pan with small amount of oil, toss in eggplant and mushroom, and ground turkey (will need to break up ground turkey meat, can also be cooked separately, then added to mixture).

4-Sauté with soy sauce and cook until eggplant is soft (if undercooked, will taste a bit rubbery) and ground turkey is fully cooked.

5-Place rice on a plate, top with some eggplant/mushroom/ground turkey mixture

6- Enjoy!

• Brown Rice
• Whole Wheat pastas
• Whole wheat bread
• Chicken breasts
• Ground Turkey
• (Choice or Select) Extra/Lean ground beef
• Oatmeal
• Milk
• Greek Yogurt
• Fish fillets
• Cereal (Cheerios!)
• Flax seed

Cooking is going to be mighty interesting!  One tip I have is that if you are (like me) a lover of white rice and normal pasta, start with the half & half (half normal and half whole wheat)…and then start moving towards whole wheat.  Might taste odd at first, but that is the beauty of baby steps.

Don’t worry, I feel the way you do…”yuck, lower cholesterol might = nastiness”…but that is not tolerated here.  I don’t like gross stuff and neither does anyone else.  You will see!  Stay tuned.  Research and planning has to be done…

Ingredients:

Olive Oil

Any soft vegetables you have (i.e. peppers, onions, zucchini, etc)

Chicken pieces (bone-in or out is fine)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1-Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2-Cut up the veggies into chunks.  Place in glass baking dish

3-Season with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, mix so that both vegetables and bottom of dish are coated

4-Place chicken pieces on top of vegetables (if bone-in, may want to brown on a skillet for a minute, if boneless, you can put as-is in dish)

5-Cook for about 25-30 minutes (depending on size of chicken, you may want to cook longer, check chicken before deciding if it’s finished or not)

6-Enjoy!