Autism…Sports injuries…Healthy Kids through Nutrition

I went to a UNS (Ulan Nutritional System) symposium in Clearwater, Florida early December. The theme was nutrition, nutrition, nutrition and kids, kids, kids! The point was really hammered home, and my next blog will be about autism and muscle testing/muscle kinesiology. Then, sports injuries and healthy pregnancies. I learned a lot.

Could nutrition be the answer for our problems? It seems too simple. Could white sugar and flour be responsible for many of our diseases and ills? I never thought so.

The more interested I have become in Nutritional Response Testing (muscle testing), the more I have learned about the human body and disease. I’ve been clearing the cobwebs off my biochemistry, microbiology, anatomy and environmental health background. It is exciting to hope that we have a place to start – that we can reverse many of the health concerns and declines through diet and supplements.

Me, with Taylor, on a downhill slide....

For years I’ve taken vitamins, antioxidants and tried to eat right. Yet I still had cancer (twice), joint issues, stomach trouble and a racing heart. I could feel myself declining, and it was scary to me that I couldn’t do anything about it. I changed my lifestyle completely:

                                            1) Retiring from a job I loved that was slowly killing me

2) Eating better

3) Getting more exercise

                                            4) Being stress free (Having fun, only doing things I loved, etc.)

Yet I still didn’t feel great. I just couldn’t get on top of things.

Tough to get on top...

I didn’t eat badly. Really, I didn’t. One cup of coffee in the morning, one glass of red wine at night. I love salads and vegetables more than fruit…I like fish and grass-fed beef and free range chicken and eggs. I switched to olive oil and butter, and tried to eat whole grain breads and pasta. Last summer I took a healthy gourmet cooking class. White sugar was out of my house. So why is my weight still creeping up and why did I feel just okay?

Muscle testing showed my heart needed support, and also that I had parasites and titanium in my system. I had tried muscle testing before, but no one had placed me on a long-term program with bi-weekly monitoring. The biggest point that was hammered home:

                                        1) Diet, diet, diet. Supplements can only do so much. Diet is the other 70%. Eat protein for breakfast. Cut out white sugar. Completely. I had it out of the house, but not totally out of my diet, especially at restaurants.

                                         2) Keep a food log…pay attention to how I feel and how I am sleeping. Look back over the last 4 days of food when I have issues.

Getting back on top...

Within weeks of taking the whole food supplements that I tested for, I felt better.

Now, months later, the trend continues.

I’m taking Standard Process whole food supplements to help my body heal itself. No covering up the symptoms anymore. I have more energy. My heart is stronger. I even ran my Mom’s little dog, Ruffy, around her complex without getting short of breath, and no, I haven’t been working out per-se. My heart has stopped the up-in-the-throat beating that was so annoying and scary. (But a stress test on the treadmill was fine….)

The white dog in front is Ruffy. At 14, he can still run around the building with me! I ran with him in June and I could only run for a minute, period.

All I know is that if I can feel this much better this fast, maybe there is hope! And if we can get kids and pregnant moms to eat better, future generations should get healthier and healthier.

Pilots look down the road, not right in front of them....

What’s Cooking in the Country?

Maryhill Winery, Columbia River Valley, Washington

One hundred miles from Portland, Oregon, is a great place to be.  Maryhill Winery offered another cooking class yesterday. Instead of Thai, we learned to cook seafood with Chef Gary Puetz.

Of course Trena and I took it! Only this time, we invited more friends. Debbie Brown, Linda von Borstel, Wanda Hilderbrand, Arla Melzer and Tom McCoy came.

Trena, me, Gary, Tom, Debbie, Wanda, Arla & Linda (almost out of the picture!)

While eating delicious seafood and drinking good wine, Gary enlightened us on catching, cleaning, preparing and eating fish.

We tried four or five different kinds…I lost count, but they were all great.

Gary Puetz is an entertaining chef, and his crew cooked for us while he talked. I took notes because I knew I wouldn’t remember half of it otherwise. The only trouble is, I can’t find my notes right now, so I’ll try to remember what he said!

Gary Puetz

Use dry vermouth when you cook fish to eliminate the fishy odor!

Use limes instead of lemons: no seeds, lots of potassium (your body needs it and you won’t need salt), and its delicious.

Use dry ramen noodles, among other ideas, for breading – but throw away the awful seasoning packet – use it around your plants in the garden as an insecticide.

Cut a potato lengthwise and put it on a long barbeque fork, cut side down on the grill surface. Run it along the bars – it keeps seafood from sticking to the grill – the starch is the secret ingredient!

Of course Alaskan salmon and good Albacore can’t be beat. Don’t buy Chinese farmed fish. The water they are farmed in is runoff from pigpens. Do buy American farmed fish – its not the farmed fish of 30 years ago, and it is better for you than fish caught in polluted waters!

Grill fish skin off, 65% of the time on one side, 35% on the other.

A great crew of cooks!

Bake fish with the skin-off side up (i.e. Tire tread look) so that the oil from the skin is pulled down into all of the fish.

Use mayonnaise instead of butter or oil to seal the juices in: the oil renders out.

Never buy seafood with concave eyes. Fish needs to be cleaned and iced right away.

You know how seafood relaxes on the grill, and droops? Use a fork to lift the parts lower than the grill, and then use a spatula, so you don’t lose any!

Thanks, Gary! We learned a lot!

Oh, there was so much more that I learned… too much wine and too little time!

A great group of listeners, eaters and drinkers!

Cheese and grapes and a salmon spread were our first course. Then we ate a ceviche to die for: raw shrimp and salmon and vegetables, but not really raw because the lime chemically cooks the seafood. Yum! And it was accompanied with a wonderful salad with Albacore tuna on top.

Then we had a prawn risotto and baked salmon for the main course.

Gary’s son Matt, another chef extraordinaire!

Fudge cake with whipped cream and raspberry sauce for dessert!

Rosé, Viognier, Reserve Zinfandel, Syrah and a few other delicious wines…. We sat on stage, laughing and enjoying the company and food for three hours, before retiring upstairs to the winery!

Linda and Arla (trying to hide behind her glass…)

It turns out that he has known Forest Peters, another friend of ours, since they were five. They’re both from Newport Beach, Oregon and he calls her “Punkie.” (Sorry Forest, I couldn’t resist!)

Of course I had Gary sign a book for Forest…and I bought one for myself, too.

Thanks again, Gary!   http://www.seafoodsteward.com/

FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD!

Getting ready to eat on the North Shore of Hawaii.

Food…I love to eat. It’s a wonder I don’t weigh 300 pounds. Maybe the reason I love to travel is that I never have to cook, but I can taste exotic, yummy dishes.

Like table-side guacamolé at Barbacoa’s in Boise Idaho. http://www.barbacoa-boise.com/

Ruth's Diner in Salt Lake City

Temple Square in Salt Lake City, UT

Or blue cheese filet mignon at Charlie Palmer’s Steakhouse in Reno, Nevada.

Sour cream enchiladas at Who Song and Larry’s in Vancouver, Washington.

Alex and Deanna at dinner laughing after the guacamolé song.

Portland has great restaurants.

Portland, OR has great food: Salty’s Copper River Salmon. The Melting Pot’s fondues. Stanford’s flat-bread pizzas.

A Japanese restaurant in Venice, Italy.

Friendly butcher in Venice near the Guggenheim

But Italy is all about the food. As much as I loved the preparation and presentation, I’m still not sure how I feel about eating out of the water surrounding Venice. I thought it was out of the deeper parts of the Ligurian Sea….

Sea bass with rosemary potatoes and veggies in Venice, Italy.

Delicious fish in Venice

Rosemary potatoes, tomatoes & olives

Totally clueless how to eat a whole fish at the table...Gail & I got help!

Clam spaghetti. Rabbit. Bruschetta made ten different ways – all amazing. I can’t say I had a bad meal in Italy, except for kid’s ravioli in Camoglia. And maybe the anchovies in Monterossa.

Dinner time on the ranch...

I love to cook, if I’m in a class. Jean Jones and I took a great class in Singapore. We even went on the spice garden tour, and I started growing basil at home. Last year I took Diane’s healthy gourmet cooking class in Santa Fe and it was exactly what I wanted and needed.

But there is something about cooking at home that stalls me. The idea, at the grocery store, of concocting something thrills me. Then I get home and it never turns out quite the same.

Maybe it has something to do with marrying a ground beef guy. Seriously, that’s all Kevin really likes. When he was little all he would eat was Salisbury steak and chocolate pie. Thanks, Rose. Talk about spoiled!!

Mom’s lobster Newberg and cheesy-crab dip were to die for. She used to make great stroganoff, too, but not with ground beef. It just isn’t the same with ground beef. Even the good, lean, “organic” beef we get from Mike Woods.  Lasagna. Spaghetti. Meatloaf. Taco Casserole: all big hits at my house. Note something in common? Ground beef. They love a Quiche I make…but only if I make it with (you guessed it): ground beef.Besides, how many times can you make tater-tot casserole (with ground beef) and glow with pride when praised with “Oh, this is so good!”

The kids didn't want to eat Meatloaf Man on Halloween. "Gross, Mom. That is so gross!"

I used to be the casserole queen when I was living with Dr. Fran Lechleitner. She and her son Rich would eat anything I cooked, and they even said they liked it...even though they claimed I made enough for an army! But if you live with a picky eater, there is too much variety in a casserole. Onions? Mushrooms? Garlic? Green beans? Watching your dinner get picked apart at the table is no fun. And I’m not talking about my husband now!

And all the healthy stuff I learned to cook? Colt and Kevin weren’t really impressed. It takes something out of the experience when you spend hours on something and the response is negative. Or you have to throw it out.

Buffalo meat is supposed to be healthier....

Part of the problem comes when I try to “health-it-up.” Using less butter or light sour cream. No sugar – trying to substitute honey or agavé always changes the consistency. The other part of the problem is that the reason I learned to fly was because I hated cooking. I don’t hate it anymore, though – its the outcome that is so sporadic. The highs and lows. I like highs and lows in flying, but not after hours in the kitchen.

When I flew to Japan I would get inspired. Mitsuo’s salmon is always a hit. So was the Yakisoba I learned to make from Bill Fuchs, a pilot friend. I came home with all the ingredients in my suitcase (except the salmon).

Horsemeat...a Japanese favorite I've never tried.

Karlene makes a wonderful oatmeal with crunch, sweet, nutty, etc.! And her pasta with Granny Smith apples, spinach, almonds, peppers – yum!

I make a killer sour cream chicken recipe that I got from Carolyn Petersen. And an awesome enchilada recipe from my girlfriend Linda Cepeda. Jambalaya used to be my favorite, along with a killer wild rice mushroom soup from Linda Mau.

Great chocolate chip cookies from Patti’s mom, Barb Sharp.

Aunt Elly’s margaritas make any dish taste good.

And I don’t want you to think that Kevin doesn’t cook. He makes great breakfasts, and the kids love his pizza, macaroni and cheese, hamburgers (!) and tacos. But that kind of food just leaves me cold. And fat. So, I either need to hire a chef or get motivated.

See, I love food. I love thinking about it, talking about it, eating it. I just love it even more when someone else fixes it. Or maybe I just like traveling and going out to eat. Lobster Mac and Cheese is awesome, by the way, and I can order fish a hundred different ways. Salads loaded with blue cheese or goat cheese. Once in a while I even order a…hamburger.

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FOOD AND FRIENDS

When you think about the impact different people have had on your life, you often forget the recipes you have from them and the food you have shared. Just about every dish I fix came from a friend, relative or travel experience. They are as much a part of my memories as the knickknacks I keep around my house to reminisce and dust.

One of my earliest memories is having Christmas breakfast at my grandparents’ house in Delaware. We used the fragile, cut-crystal bowls I still have in my cupboard. Nana really didn’t cook, but she could cut up a mean grapefruit and I loved the powdered sugar and cherry on top. Other than that, favorite foods at Nana’s consisted of peanut butter, windmill cookies and fig bars – all purchased, never homemade. No wonder Nana wanted to live with us.

Snowman cake and popcorn ball snowmen

Birthday cakes were wonderful creations at our house. Mom always went all out to make our birthdays special because they were so close to Christmas. Mine was December 22^nd, three days before; Jim’s was January 7^th, only two weeks later. I had a snowman cake one year that seemed two feet tall. It was an architectural marvel, and each guest also had a popcorn-ball to munch. My brother’s globe cake, perfectly round with oceans and continents and each country’s flag inserted was another feat of engineering. It fell apart after all the guests had been served. One year I had a manger scene on my cake, with Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus crafted out of sugar standing on top.

My mom accomplished this sugar extravaganza by taking lessons from my Aunt Becky, who made peep-eggs for Easter with tiny panoramas inside. Aunt Becky’s counter would be full of miniature baskets, bunnies, chicks and carrots when the holiday neared. At Christmas she crafted sugar cubes with detailed Christmas trees, wreaths and stockings on top.

So many early memories come from food. We never realize how they have shaped our lives and our tastes. For example, I doubt I would have liked asparagus as a child if I hadn’t helped my Uncle Larry garden. And my Aunt Sarah always had figs and dates in her refrigerator – a “treat” most children never try in the United States.

I remember having to prepare meals with my grandmother in Indiana. I hated it. I liked the chatter among the aunts, but I longed to be outside running with the other kids. Instead, grandma made me peel peaches and tomatoes. I was horrible at it; partly because I didn’t try and partly because it was difficult to remove the skin unless the fruits were at a perfect ripeness. I would butcher the poor spheres, slicing away half the edible part in the process. We would both be frustrated at the end of the process. I was thrilled when experts finally declared the skins edible and full of vitamins.

Today I would classify myself as an average cook. I never liked Home Economics and I never had the patience complicated recipes required. I even took aviation in high school to avoid chemistry when I need an additional science. I had heard chemistry was just like cooking. One of the big problems I have with time-consuming meals is that I am surrounded by picky eaters. My husband was the baby of his family, so his mom always cooked him Salisbury steak or made peanut butter sandwiches. He never had to try foods he didn’t like – I guess his mom was too tired by the time he arrived to force the issue.

Consequently, my favorite dishes: Lobster Newberg and Jambalaya, never get prepared anymore. For years I only fixed hamburger dishes, and that is as un-creative as you can get. Hamburger pie, hamburger stroganoff, meatloaf, tater-tot casserole, tacos, taco  casserole, lasagna and spaghetti topped the list. Over the years I branched out, trying Carolyn’s Sour Cream Chicken from New Orleans and Mitsuo’s Salmon from Japan. My family loves them! Akiko’s Yakisoba was a hit, as were Linda’s Chicken Enchiladas. Our family is becoming eclectic after all.

When we traveled to Spain, my son finally attempted some Spanish after he let me order. I came back with tuna fish pizza by mistake. Jamon y quesa and only cheese pizza became staples, although he did try a few tapas. Personally, I am somewhat adventuresome when it comes to food. I don’t want to eat Shark fin or Duck’s feet or thousand-year-old eggs, but I do like Korean Kimchi, Malaysian Nasi Goreng and Singaporean Chili crab. Indian, Thai, Arab, French, Greek – any nationality of food is a hit with me.

Nasi Goreng. I picture a restaurant on stilts over the South China Sea with a small band playing. The children fish and collect shells. This is truly heaven.

Fancy coffees in New Zealand

Singaporean Chili Crab. East Coast Seafood restaurant in Singapore with twelve flight attendants making a mess on a white tablecloth while we watch people exercising out the windows. It is situated around a huge arena or track.

"The Watcher" Try to eat BBQ pigeon sitting by a window without feeling guilty.

Korean Kimchi. A private room in a restaurant, where the children won’t disturb anyone as they play. It is set up like a dining room in a home, with the table over a hole in the floor for your legs. Korean homes are so small that people use these rooms to entertain in instead.

Let’s face it, food is all about memories and socializing.

Purple pigeons in Venice

I see pigeons and remember eating them barbecued on top of the Westin in Singapore.

Cracking peanuts anywhere reminds me of Raffle’s Long Bar in Singapore while reading a book on a rainy day. The fans turn slowly, while the rain pours down monsoon-style.

Total relaxation. Chicken satay with peanut sauce reminds me of the pool in Singapore with the underwater speakers and swim-up bar. And that reminds me of sitting at Chilés on the “Singapore River” as a 30 foot snake swam my way. My brain is an infinite loop of memories.

Peanut pancakes remind me of Malaysia in Johor Bahrain, on the way to Kukup Fishing Village and the rubber plantation.

Gouda and Edam cheese: traveling the countryside of the Netherlands.

Meatloaf and chili recipes: Kevin’s mom

Sour cream chicken: Carolyn

Dinner rolls and cinnamon rolls: My mom

Applesauce: Aunt Elly

Apple pie, peanut butter cookies: Aunt Elly

Margueritas: Aunt Elly

Tomatoes and feta: Fran Moore

Lemon bars: Mary Z

Guacamolé: Linda Fogleman

Juanita’s pancakes: Linda Prokes

Barb (Microbiology): Zucchini bread

Toffee: Verna

Taco Casserole: Aunt Junie

Peanut butter pie: Aunt Kim, Cousin Linda

Peanut butter cookies: Cousin Gail

Snickerdoodles: Cousin Debbie

Rice and Bean Bake: Aunt Irene

Tamale Pie: Cheryl (?)

Stew: Aunt Emma

Beefy Bean Wild Rice Bake: Jeanne W. (?)

Barbara Sharp: Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sugar Cookies: Verna

No Bake Bars: Barbie Burns

Porkchops: Molly

Hot Fudge: Verna

Short Bread Cookie: Grandma Bee

Bananas Foster: Sandy (flying student, nurse)

Strawberry Rhubarb Custard Pie: Patti Moore

Kahlua Under the Sink: Stephanie Fisher Hill

Yakisoba: Bill Fuch

Stuffed Round Steak: Kim McCullough

Wild Rice Soup: Linda Mau

Broccoli Salad: Susie

Spinach Salad: Mom

Aunt Kim: Corn Casserole

Ally Roble’s Mac ‘N Cheese

Memories. I make a recipe from an old friend and remember all the good times we had.

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