If you read to the end, you’ll find a treat from a friend. Actually, there are special treats all through my post. Just click on the links. In addition to this post, go to my website and sign in to “FOLLOW” my websites for “Art and Healthy Groundwork” for the most recent posts. Try clicking on the page “Healthy Groundwork” to see an introduction to my ideas and a bit about “me” on this path.
Today, I was craving something hearty for breakfast because of the cool weather and something good for my heart. Just look at how wonderful a banana can be when you draw it or hold it ready to peel and cook with it.
So here is the Prevent and Reverse Heat Disease cookbook and YouTube demonstration by Ann and Jane Esselstyn that shows you how easy heart health can be. The video is the most entertaining! I loved it when I saw it. They make the Banana Steel Cut Oats and Savory Smoky Oats recipes found on pages 44 and 54. You can guess which might be my favorite. I make oat waffles some days, too. If only my Mother had known about these recipes, she would have had great fun making them.
Now for oats. You can get the rolled oats or my favorite, the steel cut oats. Skip the “quick oats since they are almost the consistency of predigested pablum when you cook them. In the Esselstyn cookbook, it says that “oats help lower cholesterol and blood sugar, reduce artery inflammation, and are dose responsive, so find a breakfast with oats, in some fashion, every day.”
WOW! I’ll go for that
When I want to search something like “oats,” I go to Dr. Michael Greger at nutritionfacts.org and find all sorts of information. He is my best source of peer-reviewed research, so it’s going to be accurate. I frequently dig into the sequential posts he produces. It confirms that I am on the correct path to learning more valuable information.
Come join me, Heather
P.S. Here is the treat that you were curiously waiting for… a link to a podcast by Howard Jacobson, PhD who interviews Caroline Trapp, DNP on the topic of “Unleashing Nurses to Revolutionize Patient Care.”
A wandering illustrator 
Love the banana!!!!!
I like to let the bananas get to the very spotted stage. They become sweeter and I think I have a sweet tooth! When I have too many, I put them in the freezer and make ice cream, well faux ice cream or banana cream out of them in a sturdy Vitamix blender. If I put a few cocoa nibs and black cherries in at the end, I almost have “Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia.” I do experiment…how about other fruit blends. Strawberries would be super! Be creative.