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Praising Persimmons

Posted in In The Kitchen, Recipes, tagged , , , , on November 23, 2009| 2 Comments »

Being able to buy almost every kind of fruit year-round in grocery stores is a marvelous thing, but buyer beware, there’s a fruit that’s only available in stores from September through December – and that’s the persimmon. Stock up now on this heavenly fruit!

Not only are persimmons delicious and beautiful, they are loaded with nutrients such as vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin B-6, copper, and lutein. Plus, they contain 6 grams of fiber.

The squat-shaped Fuyu, one of the two most popular types of persimmons, is meant to be eaten while it is firm and crunchy like an apple. Fuyu are great in salsas and salads. Click here for a link to a recipe that includes Fuyu persimmon chunks, mixed in with apples and pomegranate seeds, and is finished off by tossing with mint leaves, lemon juice, and honey.

The other popular variety of persimmon is the acorn-shaped Hachiya. Unlike the Fuyu, these can only be eaten when they are as ripe and squishy as water balloons. Don’t even try to eat these before they’re ready or you’ll regret it! Unripened Hachiyas are loaded with bitter-tasting tannin. To eat the apricot-like flesh of these persimmons just scoop out the soft sweet pulp with a spoon. This pulp can be used in practically any recipe requiring packed pumpkin – pies, cookies, cakes, and quick breads. Sugar levels might have to be adjusted, though, because persimmons are sweeter. Also, persimmon pulp freezes well, so buy now and bake later.

To ripen Hachiya persimmons to perfection just let them sit on your kitchen counter until they’re soft. If you are in a hurry, you can put them in a sealed container with an apple or banana and keep them at room temperature until they are ready. If you are in a super hurry, you can pop them in your freezer overnight and they become soft as they defrost. I learned this last trick from Mr. Struble of Struble Ranch. He said that if there’s a frost while the persimmons are still on the trees, he has to pick them quickly thereafter because of the accelerated ripening. I tried this freezer trick and it worked perfectly.

I made a rich and fruity bread today which my husband thoroughly enjoyed. I’m sure it had something to do with all the whiskey that went into the batter!

Here’s an adaptation of James Beard’s Persimmon Bread:

3½ cups sifted flour
1½ teaspoons salt
2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 to 2½ cups sugar
1 cup melted unsalted butter and cooled to room temperature
4 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
2/3 cup Cognac, bourbon or whiskey
2 cups persimmon puree (from about 4 squishy-soft Hachiya persimmons)
2 cups walnuts or pecans, toasted and chopped
2 cups raisins, or diced dried fruits (such as apricots, cranberries, or dates)

1. Butter 2 loaf pans. Line the bottoms with a piece of parchment paper or dust with flour and tap out any excess.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3. Sift the first 5 dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

4. Make a well in the center, then stir in the butter, eggs, liquor, persimmon puree then the nuts and raisins.

5. Bake 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes two 9-inch loaves.

If you have favorite persimmon recipes you’d like to share, please send them to me at Linnell@WhatAboutThis.biz.

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Chinese-Style Puff Pastries with Pork in Hoisin Sauce

Posted in In The Kitchen, Recipes, tagged , , , , on November 10, 2009| 1 Comment »

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Not that I’m a party animal, but in about a week’s time I have made food to take to three different events. Here’s an easy recipe to make and take over to friends or to a potluck that originated from Steamy Kitchen’s Jaden Hair. It’s a spin-off of Chinese steamed pork buns, but uses puff pastry instead. The delicate puff pastry surrounds a savory meat mixture that has a little kick! I always double or triple the recipe, because these pastries don’t last long in my home! The delicious meat mixture would be fabulous, not to mention more healthy, if used in lettuce cups or lettuce wraps, too!

Linnell’s Adaptation of Chinese Pork Pastries
1/2 pound ground or minced pork* (I coarse chop pork butt in a Cuisinart)
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon Shaoxing wine (Dry sherry works as a substitute)
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon sugar
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
1/4 cup minced green onion
1/4 cup minced onion
1/4 cup minced canned bamboo shoots
1/4 cup diced Chinese black mushrooms** (first soaked in warm water until softened, and then stems removed)
1 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 tablespoon Hoisin Sauce
1 teaspoon garlic-chili hot sauce
1 package frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 egg + 1 tablespoon water (egg wash)
One small handful of cilantro, chopped
additional cornstarch + cold water

* Ground chicken or minced chicken could be substituted.
** If you don’t have dried Chinese black mushrooms, feel free to use dried or fresh Shitake mushrooms.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Marinate the ground pork in the soy, wine, sesame oil, cornstarch and sugar for at least 15 minutes at room temperature.

In a wok or large saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon of cooking oil over medium-high heat. When hot, add regular onion. Fry until onions are softened, about 1 minute. Add the green onions, garlic and ginger. Fry another minute until fragrant. Turn heat to high.

Add the marinated ground meat, mushrooms and bamboo shoots. Fry until the meat is almost cooked. Add oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, and hot sauce. Stir thoroughly. Adjust seasonings if needed: Add soy or oyster sauce if it needs more salt; if it needs to be more sweet/salty add more hoisin sauce; if you like it with a kick add more chili sauce.

If the sauce needs to be thickened, mix 2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with about 1/4 cup of cold water and stir into the meat mixture. You want the sauce to be slightly thick so that it does not run out of the puff pastry. Let meat mixture cool.

Take your thawed puff pastry and place on a lightly floured cutting board. Cut each sheet into 4 squares for full-size puffs. Spoon filling onto one side, brush egg wash on the edges and bring over to fold into a triangle. Pinch to seal tightly, place on baking sheet. Brush egg wash on the tops of the pastry. Repeat with remaining.

Bake 350F degrees for 20 minutes until golden brown.

Note: By reducing the size of the pastry squares and the amount of filling, these pastries could be scaled down to appetizer size.

Enjoy!

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Where’s the Meat?

Posted in Health, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , on November 4, 2009| 1 Comment »

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Sitting at the dinner table years ago, my meat-loving youngest son took one bite out of his taco and said, “Where’s the meat?” Trying to cut back on the amount of cholesterol-ladened meat I served my family, I had substituted a spicy Mexican lentil mix for the the ground beef in the taco. It must not have been too bad because he continued to eat his taco that night and many other nights throughout his eighteen years at home!

Being Asian, I’d grown up with little knowledge of lentils. My first exposure was at the home of an elementary school friend who had six or seven siblings and whose parents were both doctors. She’d invited me over for dinner and informed me that they were having lentil stew. The first spoonful of this unfamiliar food brought my senses to attention. The firm texture of the lentils juxtaposed against the softer textures of the carrots and the tomatoes, were battling for a place in my memory against the spicy, yet savory combination of flavors. The lentil stew was delicious and from that moment on I was hooked on lentils.

What my school friend’s parents knew was that lentils were inexpensive, enough so to easily feed their brood of kids, and that lentils were packed with nutrients. The Whole Foods website states, Not only do lentils help lower cholesterol, they are of special benefit in managing blood-sugar disorders since their high fiber content prevents blood sugar levels from rising rapidly after a meal. But this is far from all lentils have to offer. Lentils also provide good to excellent amounts of six important minerals, two B-vitamins, and protein-all with virtually no fat. The calorie cost of all this nutrition? Just 230 calories for a whole cup of cooked lentils. This tiny nutritional giant fills you up–not out.

Lentils are also protein rich. They lack only one protein, methionine. Adding grains, nuts, seeds, meat, dairy products, or eggs will provide a complete protein containing the nine essential amino acids. Often times in the fall and winter I pair up a hearty lentil soup with my homemade cornbread to ensure a protein-balanced meal. Making tacos also works because both the cornmeal from the tortillas and the shredded cheddar cheese add complimentary proteins to the lentils.

Here’s an easy recipe for Spicy Mexican Lentils:
2 cups lentils, rinsed and drained
4 cups water
One package dry taco mix

Combine the lentils with the water and bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes or until lentils are tender. (Note: If you will be using the lentils in a recipe that requires addition cooking time, like a casserole, cook the lentils until they are tender but on the firmer side. Make sure your recipe has enough moisture, like a sauce, so that the lentils do not dry out during baking).

After the lentils are cooked, drain them, making sure to reserve the liquid.

Combine the lentils, taco mix and 1/2 cup of the reserved lentil liquid. Simmer for about 15 minutes. At this point you are ready to use this mixture in any of your favorite Mexican recipes that call for a ground beef base.

Your eyes may say “Where’s the meat?” but your taste buds won’t!

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Friday’s Fresh Five (10/30/09)

Posted in Art and Crafts, Creativity, Gardening, Gift Ideas, Helping Others, Recipes, Recycling, Style and fashion, tagged , , , , , , on October 30, 2009| 4 Comments »

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#1 – Spooky Cake My Way!
I have to say that biting into crunchy chocolate bits and creamy pockets of sweetness of the Oreo cookies hidden in this cake, was a spooktacular experience! Even though Maida Heatter’s (Spooky) Oreo Bundt Cake sounded good, I didn’t have all the ingredients for it and I was in a lazy mood. With my sincerest apologies to the great baker Ms. Heatter, I cheated and used a cake mix. Here’s what I did: Preheated oven to 325 degrees. Greased and floured my bundt pan. Took 18 whole Halloween Oreo cookies, broke them into quarters and set them aside. Followed the instructions on the package of Betty Crocker’s Super Moist Yellow cake mix and made the batter. Poured about two cups of plain batter into my bundt pan. Then into the remaining batter, I gently folded in the broken cookies and poured this mixture into the pan. Baked it for 40 minutes and then removed it from the oven to cool. After it cooled, I sprinkled it with a light dusting of powdered sugar and then followed that with a light dusting of cocoa powder. Couldn’t have been easier!

#2 – Reusing Jack
You’re not going to throw away your jack-o’-lantern after Halloween are you? Jack is more than a pretty face! Roast the seeds with your favorite spices and don’t forget that the flesh makes delicious soup or heavenly pies (providing your jack-o’-lantern is still fresh). There are plenty of online sites with recipes for all of the above. After that, the best way to dispose of your pumpkin is by composting. According to Raquel Fagin of Earth911.com, “Both the pumpkin, as well as its seeds, can be composted. In fact, pumpkin seeds themselves are a strong source of nutrients, including zinc, iron and phosphorus. Compost piles rely on a mix of nitrogen-rich greens (which will include pumpkin components) and browns (leaves, paper and other carbon-rich materials). So, Halloween is the perfect time to compost, because you’ll not only have leaves falling before winter, but your pumpkin to also add to the mix.” Or what about this – Give your local zoo a call and check to see if it accepts donations of pumpkins to feed to its animals as a seasonal treat. Give a zoo animal a “Big Jack!”

#3 – OMG – Leggings Are Back!
Here’s what Gill Hart of Suite101.com says, “The fall/winter 2009 trend for belting everything from baggy tops to dresses to cardigans means that leggings are the perfect accessory, no matter what a woman’s age.” He further states, “Metallic-look poly-blend leggings also make an ‘80s-style comeback, along with jeggings and treggings, a strange hybrid, a cross between jeans/trousers and leggings, for those who are not brave enough to go the hole hog”. Say it’s not true, because I thought leggings were hideous in their original incarnations! Maybe it’s just me.

#4 – Flower Vases To Go
When taking flowers to friends or dropping flowers off to a senior home, it’s always nice to have them already arranged in vases for immediate enjoyment. There’s no need to give up one of your own vases or to go out and buy new ones, just look around your pantry. I find that large jars and cans make fabulous vases. You do save empty mayonnaise and spaghetti sauce jars, don’t you? Cover the jar or can with fabric or wrapping paper or even cheesecloth, tie with a ribbon, fill with water, and add flowers. Some cans don’t even need to be covered. An empty can of Le Sueur Sweet Peas makes a cute little flower container all by itself. What to do with the peas? That’s another post!

#5 – A Bit of Mother Teresa Wisdom
It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.

Do something with great love this weekend.

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Doing the Tivo Tango

Posted in About me, Husbands, Recipes, tagged , , , , on October 27, 2009| 2 Comments »

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Every couple of nights my husband and I do the Tivo Tango. It is a well orchestrated dance that consists of fancy footwork, television, and our dog. There are certain evenings of the week were several of our favorite television shows are scheduled for the same time slot. My husband sets the Tivo (digital video recorder) to record the conflicting show on one television set and we sit and watch another show on a different television set. When that show is over, we race upstairs to another room and watch the show that we missed, but was recorded. The neat thing about recording shows is that we can advance right through all of the commercials. On occasion we have been known to run back downstairs to the first television set to watch a third show that was recorded while we were upstairs watching the second show. Confused, yet? The dog doesn’t understand it either, but he follows us from room to room, because he’s just happy to be with us. Doing the Tivo Tango makes it sound like we are television addicts, which we are most certainly not, but being empty nesters now, we finally have complete control of the television remotes, which means we can watch anything we want, any time we want!

Of course, having the stamina to watch all this television requires some fuel. I have been searching for a good kettle corn recipe for some time now and found this one by Scott Hargrove. My husband is the popcorn maker in the family and does not take this title lightly. Just today he went online to buy a crank-type popcorn maker that will make our kettle corn more authentic! I will keep searching for the best kettle corn recipe and after we receive the crank-type popcorn maker, I am going to try a recipe that includes pulverized Heath Bars! It’s got to be good!

Here’s my husband’s adaptation of Scott Hargrove’s kettle corn recipe:
1/4 cup vegetable oil (peanut oil or canola oil works too)
1/2 cup good quality popcorn kernels such as Orville Redenbacher
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 TBS white granulated sugar
1 TBS brown sugar
Coarse salt (to taste)

Large pot with lid

Directions:
1. Place the large pot on stove and turn the heat on high, add the oil to the pot. Heat oil till it gets very hot (not smoking). Ripples will start to appear in the oil.
2. When the oil is hot, add the popcorn kernels then cover with lid.
3. Watch for kernels to pop, once they start popping, turn the heat down to medium.
4. Carefully shake the pot occasionally to shake any unpopped kernels to the bottom of the pot (where they can get hot enough to pop). This also helps prevent the popcorn from scorching.
5. When the popcorn stops popping, remove pot from heat.
6. Carefully remove the lid so you don’t get hit with hot popping popcorn.
7. Pour the powdered sugar over top. Cover with lid and give the pot a shake to distribute the sugar.
8. Remove lid, add the both the brown and white sugars to the popcorn, cover with lid and shake it up again.
9. Put pot on stove again, low heat, to melt the sugar a bit, shake for about 30 seconds.
10. Take off heat and stir gently with spoon to coat the popped kernels with the sugar syrup.
11. Sprinkle with 3-5 pinches of coarse salt or to taste and stir again. At this point you can also add ancho or chipotle chili powder if you like popcorn with a little kick!
12. Pour popcorn into large serving bowl and watch your show.

If you have a great popcorn recipe you’d like to share, I’d love to give it a try!

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One Month Celebration!

Posted in About me, Recipes, tagged , , , , on October 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

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What About This? celebrates its one month anniversary today, so in appreciation of all of you who’ve been loyal followers and to those of you who just stopped by for a peek, here’s a bonus post! Your positive feedback and great comments have encouraged my creative spirit. This is my sixteenth post and I can hardly contain all the thoughts and ideas I still have for this blog!

So in celebration of W.A.T.’s one month birthday, I baked cookies! I hadn’t tried this recipe before, but was very pleased with the results. The cookies have a nice crunchy exterior and a soft chewy center – the best of both world’s in my mind! Here are my tweaks to the recipe: I added a half-cup of Heath Bar Bits. I don’t like my cookies overly sweet, so I resisted temptation to add more. I also toasted the pecans ahead of time. Toasting brings out the flavor in nuts. Because I like chunky cookies, I added more coconut than the recipe called for and because I didn’t have a bar of semisweet chocolate to cut into chunks, I used a bag of chocolate chips.

Here’s my adaption of Martha Stewart’s Cowboy Cookies:

Ingredients

Makes about 3 dozen.

* Vegetable oil cooking spray
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
* 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 3/4 cup light-brown sugar
* 2 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
* 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/4-inch chunks (1 cup) or chocolate chips
* 3 ounces (3/4 cup) pecan halves, toasted
* 1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (more if you like coconut)
* 1/2 cup toffee bits

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder.
2. Beat butter and sugars with a mixer on medium-high until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low, and slowly add flour mixture, beating until just incorporated. Beat in oats, chocolate, pecans, coconut, and toffee bits until combined. (Dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)
4. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a small spoon, drop dough onto baking sheets, spacing 3 inches apart.
5. Bake until edges of cookies begin to brown, 11 to 13 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to a wire rack, and let cool for 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks. Let cool. (Cookies can be stored up to 3 days.)

Enjoy this recipe and thanks for your continued support of What About This?

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Quinoa and Shrimp Salad

Posted in Health, Recipes, tagged , , on October 12, 2009| 7 Comments »

P1080937_1Always on the lookout for healthy recipes, I found several interesting ones that use quinoa. Quinoa, which is pronounced KEEN-WAH, is a tiny Peruvian seed. Although it resembles couscous and can be served like rice, it is far more nutritious than either; quinoa is packed with all the essential amino acids. I saw this recipe by Martha Rose Shulman last year and have made this tasty and nutritious dish several times. Of course, like everything else I do, I had to tweak it a bit. Attractive mounded on a bed of leafy greens, it serves about six.

Here’s my adaptation of Ms. Shulman’s recipe:
Step 1: Basic Quinoa
1 cup quinoa
3 cups water or stock
1/2 teaspoon salt (just a pinch worked for me)

1. Put quinoa in a mesh sieve and run under cold water to remove a bitter and protective coating on the seeds.

2. Bring the water or stock to a boil and put in quinoa seeds and salt. Bring water to a boil again, cover pot, turn down heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes or until seeds look translucent and tiny curly threads appear.

3. Drain liquid and fluff with fork. Let cool if using for salad.

Note: Cooked quinoa will keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator.

Step 2: Dressing
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1 small garlic clove, minced
pinch of cayenne pepper
salt to taste
2 teaspoons sesame seed oil
1/4 cup canola oil
2 T buttermilk (I used soymilk because that was all I had)
2 teaspoons of sweet soy sauce

Step 3: Salad
3 cups cooked quinoa (use all that was prepared in step 1)
4 scallions, white and green parts, sliced thin
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/4 C chopped cilantro
1-2 cups bay shrimp or as much as desired

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, vinegar, ginger, garlic, cayenne, salt, sesame seed oil, canola oil, buttermilk, and sweet soy.

2. In a salad bowl, combine the cooked and cooled quinoa, scallions, cucumber, and cilantro. Toss with the dressing. Toss in the shrimp just before serving, so that it does not “cook” in the lime juice.

Here’s to healthy eating!

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Chocolate and Coffee: What Could Be Better?

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on September 30, 2009| 2 Comments »

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Do you ever go into a coffee shop and take a slow deep breath to savor the aroma? I do. I love the smell of coffee, but oddly, I don’t drink it. Besides being a green tea type of person, the caffeine in coffee sends my heart into racing mode. Yes, I know green tea also contains caffeine, but for some reason it doesn’t seem to affect my body the same way.

Some of my favorite food memories are coffee-based. My Auntie Priscilla used to make a satiny, chewy coffee candy as part of her Christmas gift to my family. These little bites of coffee were each rolled in wax paper and then finished off with a twist at each end. It’s a prized family recipe now and it always reminds me of her.

Another wonderful coffee-based memory is the Coffee Crunch Cake once served at the now defunct Blum’s Bakery in San Francisco. It was a confection that consisted of layers of light sponge cake and fresh whipped cream, all covered with chunky bits of light-as-air coffee crunch topping. I can almost taste it now!

So after going out for coffee this afternoon with some friends, or in my case, a chai latte, I was in the mood for some coffee and baking. I’d had a recipe on my desk for a while and decided to try it. Chocolate Cupcakes with Coffee Cream Filling is a Paula Deen recipe, so it’s a given that it’s decadent and probably not low in calories! The cupcakes are made with a batter that contains fresh brewed coffee, injected with coffee cream, and topped off with coffee butter.

Overall the cupcakes were delicious. The cake part was moist and the cream filling was light, but flavorful. The butter cream was a little too sweet for me, but really how bad can a mixture of cream cheese, butter, sugar, and coffee be? I did not use the chocolate covered coffee beans for garnish because I didn’t have any, but I did sprinkle some organic raw cacao nibs on top. They’re not sweet and have a nice chocolate crunch. You can find these at Whole Foods.

One thing I would do differently the next time I make these is to use a pastry bag and pastry tip to squeeze the filling into the cupcakes. The screw lid of my Wilton squeeze bottle kept coming off and there is more wastage of cream since some of it inevitably gets stuck in the bottle. If you’d like to try the recipe just click on this link.

Again, what could be better than chocolate and coffee? Enjoy!!

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What About This: My Most Requested Recipe

Posted in Health, Recipes, tagged , , , , on September 14, 2009| 7 Comments »

P1080452It’s kind of ego-deflating, but my most requested recipe is not for cookies or Chinese dishes, but it’s for my breakfast oatmeal. I always loved it when my mom served me a bowl of hot oatmeal for breakfast. As a child I would look into my bowl and watch little specks of liquid gold (melted butter) float in pools of rich milk that surrounded islands of oats. Decades now, I can still taste the wonderful goodness of hot oatmeal. Of course I can, because I have eaten it everyday for breakfast for the last two years! The catch is my mom gave me something else besides oatmeal. She gave me a genetic propensity for developing high cholesterol. My mom’s a tiny little thing, but her cholesterol numbers are big time. She once had her blood drawn and it looked like milk. The genetic link is strong. My siblings carefully watch their cholesterol and my daughter was diagnosed with high cholesterol at the tender age of five.

“If you were my mother, I would put you on medication.” Those words from my doctor brought me to attention. Vainly, my first thought was, what does he mean if I were his mother? Do I look that old? Then reality set in, my valiant effort to stave off high cholesterol was failing. It was inevitable. My total cholesterol was 255 and my LDL (“L” stands for lousy) was 171. I begged him to give me six months to see if I could turn it around. He consented. Well, I stretched that out to eight months, but it was worth it! After eating steel cut oatmeal every morning for eight months, I managed to bring my total cholesterol down to 225 and my LDL down to 136. That 35 point drop in LDL was amazing and my doctor said some patients don’t even see those kind of results with cholesterol medications.

Two years later I’m still eating steel cut oatmeal every morning. The latest lab results are looking good. My total cholesterol is 212, but my LDL went down to 119! Of course it helped, too, that I got a job that requires a lot of walking.

Once a month I cook a big pot of steel cut oatmeal. Why steel cut versus the other kinds? Steel cut oats are whole grain groats (the inner portion of the oat kernel) which have been cut into two or three pieces. Rolled oats are oats that have been steamed, rolled, re-steamed and toasted. Unfortunately they lose some of their texture and taste in the process. Instant or quick oats have been further processed to break down fiber. The more soluble fiber, the better. Read this article from the Mayo Clinic on the top five foods to lower your cholesterol numbers.

Here’s my most requested recipe:
Rinse 5 cups of steel cut oats, toast them in large pot, add 15 cups of hot water, stir in cinnamon and dried cranberries (optional), and bring to a boil. Turn down heat to a simmer and cook for 25 minutes. No stirring allowed. Let oatmeal cool. Scoop about a 1/2 cup or so into a waxed paper square (hamburger patty squares from Smart and Final) and push into cupcake tins. Cover with plastic wrap and let cool. After they cool down, pop out each cupcake of oatmeal and put into a plastic freezer bag and freeze.

Each morning I reach into the freezer, grab an oatmeal cupcake and place it in a bowl. I microwave it for one minute and then peel off the paper. I place it back in the bowl and add ground flax seed, frozen blueberries, a handful of toasted walnuts, and a sliced banana. This concoction gets microwaved for a little over a minute and it’s ready to eat!

Let me know if this helps you with your cholesterol levels!

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