Category: podcast

Peppers…

On By Heather O'ConnorIn nutrition, pastel, plants, podcast, websiteLeave a comment

I told you to expect posts on nutrition or artwork. Here is a combination of the two. Last Saturday, I took a pastel workshop with Otto Sturcke which ended up being a well focused 4 hours spent on noticing the intensity of the red, yellow and green peppers. So satisfying to me because it made the thought of eating real plants so delicious.

Green, yellow and red deliciousness

Now… what to do with them? Next step is to raid the refrigerator. What do I have? Brown rice, three bean chili, sweet and yellow onions, tofu, beet greens (Dr. Esselstyn would be pleased), oregano from our garden and lots of other things that just don’t sound like they should go into a pepper. That’s it, “Stuffed peppers.” Now all I have to do is find out what spices to add. On a search for a vegan recipe, I found Ceara’s Kitchen had a really nice one that could help me through the timing and assembly steps. Helpful photographs too. One thing I will do is to keep it simple by eliminating a few things and add the things that I think will make it tasty. I do not add oil, but sauté in vegetable broth like she does. Recipes like this can be very forgiving. One of my favorite things to add would be some corn kernels.

This would be a fine dinner as a way to avoid eating a chicken. I raised chickens years ago and loved the variety of breeds that we received from Murray McMurray Hatchery. My 5 year old son and I sold eggs to neighbors and had the joy of seeing how a fluffy chick became a handsome breed of chicken and went on to laying eggs. At this time, I’d keep them was pets and wouldn’t dare to eat them. Unfortunately, factory farm raised chickens are extremely high in fat and processed under conditions that you wouldn’t expect. And you thought they were safe? Not at all. Check out this website in the Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine, PCRM. So, it’s stuffed peppers tonight!

Until the next sketch…peace and good health, Heather

Enthusiasm…

On By Heather O'ConnorIn nutrition, podcastLeave a comment

This morning when the pool was closed, I went for a two mile walk to close my Apple Watch green exercise circle. I always aim to close my red move circle and blue stand circles. It’s just a good way for me to keep track of my daily lifestyle goals lifestyle goals.

The walk around the peninsula across from the Morro Bay State Park Marina

On my walk, I met a friend who I’d met when we were docents at the Friends of the Elephant Seal rookery. We chatted about what we as retired people were doing now. Where I live there are many opportunities for retirees to contribute to the out-of-doors natural science education of visitors. Many travelers from all over the United States and all over the seven continents. California has a unique landscape of ocean, bays, rivers, forests, grasslands and deserts making a healthy lifestyle easy to experience.

As usual the topic of nutrition came up. With me, it usually does because it’s such a big part of my life ever since I watched the movie Forks Over Knives and various other links such as the one I received today. It was a podcast Plant Strong with Rip Esselstyn.

The strange thing was that when my friend went to the doctor’s office with her husband, a conversation began. She told me that all the women in the waiting room said that their husbands, partners or significant others were alive because of what the women were doing. I cannot figure it out why women are usually the ones who care, take responsibility and run the house so that their husbands are the recipients of all their efforts, continuous kindness, health care and generosity.

I have come to the conclusion that men are just as capable to take on their own health and lifestyle needs. Do we want to continually drag an unwilling partner along as we make our best efforts? Or do we just keep doing what we want and set a good example for a healthy lifestyle?

The way I see it, having two partners working on healthy lifestyles and nutritional needs has a much huge benefit for both of them. The biggest gift to our partner is to give them ourselves in our most healthy condition when we take responsibility for ourselves. Now the best gift they can give to us is the excitement, enthusiasm and knowledge to support a whole foods plant based, no oil, salt and sugar, lifestyle too!

Health is a gift we give to our immediate family, children and extended family. Right?

Recipe from T. Colin Campbell’ Center for Nutrition Studies: Loaded Miso Noodle Soup

After I made the soup Last night, I put some away in a pint jar for lunch today. I enjoyed it both days!

Have you looked at the other areas of this website? Websites and podcasts, books and cookbooks are some that I have used and followed. My introductory post is the “Healthy lifestyle.”

My favorite pizza with FieldRoast Italian sausages and NO CHEESE!

Can you identify all the delicious topping for my pizza? If you can, I’ll email you one of my favorite Jane Esselstyn Recipes for veggie burgers.

Until the next sketch…peace and good health, Heather

Broccoli…

On By Heather O'ConnorIn cookbook, nutrition, pastel, podcast2 Comments

As I was growing up, my mother often put a beautiful stalk of broccoli on our dinner plates. Always so bright and green along side the wide buttered noodles and a piece of roasted chicken, I couldn’t resist. Now, I skip the chicken … too much fat and it’s an animal that I came to love after raising them for their beautiful colorful feathers. I’ve altered what I eat significantly since I having  learned so much over the past seven and almost eight years now.

Recently, I found a super cookbook by Cathy Fisher called Straight Up Food which includes excellent information to keep me on track for proper methods of preparation. What to include and what to omit. Actually, it is the first cookbook that I found myself reading the “Preface” and then continued on to the “Introduction”,  “The Food”, “SOS-Free”, etc.  She teaches at TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, California.

My first recipe from the cookbook was a Broccoli soup which turned a deep green because I put in a generous amount of Swiss chard. Couldn’t resist all those greens because of what I’d learned from Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. You’ll  find his books listed under “Books” and “Cookbooks.” The second recipe was called Tu-No Casserole. It was amusing to me, in that I’d never made a Tuna Casserole before, but since I’m from Pennsylvania and used to creamy type of foods from the Pennsylvania Dutch region. It seemed appealing.

This cookbook I’ll continue to use frequently due to its creative and varied recipes along with its excellent compatibility with all the physicians, researchers and other chefs who follow a “whole foods plant based” approach to prevent and in many cases reverse the chronic aging diseases.

Below is a fascinating podcast about the many benefits of broccoli. Dr. Greger also mentions the best way to get the most out of it by waiting almost an hour to cook it after cutting it up. The time increases the nutritious benefits. If you cannot do that he adds a spice. So take time to listen as you play it during your daily walk. I play many podcasts during my two mile amble around the Marina Boardwalk in Morro Bay. A couple days ago, the Harmony Headlands lured me out on a walk where I listened to a podcast.

Splendiferous cruciferous a podcast by Dr. Michael Greger

Happily hiking out of 2018 and into the New Year of 2019…

Come join me, Heather

P.S. I love the color of fruits and vegetables and see that cooking is an art in so many ways. Either to alter the color of a soup or make a pastel drawing on a favorite fruit or vegetable.