Tasty Strips

 Gardein has produced a lot of good vegan offerings in the past years.One such product  is their chicken strips. These are versatile and are good on their own as a main dish or in salad or in sandwiches sandwiches.

I decided to make them ,seasoned and air fried.

These just needed to be dipped into a mix of olive oil, garlic and onion powders combined.

Then theywere popped into a 400 degree Farenheit air fryer for seven minutes each side.

They should be evenly spaced for just the right crispiness.

These were good on their own

I added instant microrave veggies for more substance.

It was good .The next time I will try these in salad for a delicious light supper. They;re also good with mayo on a bun.

These are great instead of the usual nuggets. They can be made cruispy and good .They;re also perfect in any kind of dish

Popping A Good For You Soda

 Sofa and good for you never really go in the same sentence.Yet there is one  - Poppi_ that changing all that.This is a tasty treat for anyone who has to give up Coke and Pepsi but still want a cold,fizzy drink.

I discovered this at the University where I work. It is big with college kids and I have seen them with the cans on campus.

I need to change my eating and drinking habits due to kidney stones. Regular sodas like the more popular ones are loaded with bone leaching phosphorus.POppi doesn't  have this.It's an all natural artesanal bread loaded with flavor.I first had the cherry and lime and then the cherry.I was instantly hooked!The taste is so good - It's as if those as a home, brew made with just picked cherries! 

I am in love with this! I want to try the either flavors like the orange and the orange cream.They also have a Shirley Temple which is a sweet,exotic grenadine flavor and they even have a Dr Pepper dupe called Dr.Pop.They even have a cola but not to worry.There are no dyes in this like the main brands. Grape and watermelon are also on my radar. They're going to be perfect for the warm weather days ahead. Poppi was created by Allison Ellsworth in her Dallas Texas kitchen. She wanted a healthier sip, one that included probiotics. She and her husband went o Shark Tank where they received the finds to go ahead to start their own soda.The rest is history and a plus for the beverage industry.

If you want a healthy soda then go for Poppi,. It's a tasty step up form all the other fizzy drinks. It's good for you and good tasting too.

Rethinking Eating

 Can people rethink the way they eat? Can those good fruits and veggies be treated the same way as potato chips and candy? Surprisingly the answer is yes.It starts with both adults and kids and it leads to a healthier life overall.

Regular contributor Pete Wells, who also struggles with weight problems wrote this fascinating piece in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Humans ave a tendency to eat foods that give them a dopamine or "happy feeling hit".It's called hedonic hunger where the tastiest and often bad ,over processed foods are craved and eaten.Yet the same theories can be applied to healthy eating too. Neuroscientist Dana Small , one of the world's top neuroscientists of food decisions learned that er own choices led her to almost developing Type Two Diabetes.Not wanting to become a diabetic she went on a diet.It wasn;t a good experience for her.All the diets she had been on were nothing more than joyless deprivation. She had to rethink eating which  she did. She looked for the sweetest priest raspberries which are low glycemic and rich in fiber.  She applied hedonic eating to healthy eating and it paid off. She followed the Raspberry Principle and made foods that she'd be excited to cook and eat. There were chicken and tofu stir fries, generously spiced with turmeric coriander ,cumin and garlic.

Anybody can be retrained to think how to eat. In England, British food journalist, Bee Wilson, founded TastEd,a non-profit group, dedicated to training teachers to show students to sniff, poke prod and ogle fresh fruits and veggies along with the all important tasting them.Ms. Wilson says "Kids have never been taught that broccoli, apples or lettuce is something they might enjoy."They've been told to eat five a day and that was it.That doesn't;t make a child want to pick up any produce and eat it. Nutrition campaigns show these good foods as chaste and the campaigns haven't changed since the 1950's.It's changing .Dr. Emmaue J. Ezekial an oncologist and bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania suggest healthy eating and the occasional scoop of ice cream. It;s showing that moderation is they key to healthy eating.He nixes soda yet promotes alcohol, saying that three to four drinks a week are fine. Doing this can reduce stress, anxiety and depression.There is also mindful eating or analyzing what you eat.The secret tot his is eating slowly and concentrating on the taste and texture of the food being eaten jam Chozen Bays who has written two books a bout it suggests eating slowly, fully chewing and savoring before taking another bite. It turns out that after the third bite a tasty food like chocolate loses its' appeal.

People CNA be taught to eat right.It just takes a shift in mindset to do so.Healthy eating is within the human range .It's just up to the eater to follow this.

Crepes With An Asian Twist

 An elegant dish for Mother;s Day is a dish filled with delicate crepes.They're a lovely and lighter alternative to French toast and pancakes and can be filled with everything form meat to cheese. to sweets. They can also be filled with berries and flavored cream for a sweet brunch or dessert.

Regular contributor Genevieve Ko gave a recipe for them in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Hers take on an Asian vibe with the addition of pandam cream. Pandam is used by the Laos people, the Hmong people from Southeast Asia.It;s combining heavy cream with the pandan leaves. The plant sort of resembles a leek with it's long verdant leaves but their taste s sweet. Some compare the flavor to almonds vanilla  and coconut ,Pandan extract is also used to  give the cream a verdant color., Ms. Ko';s inspiration for this comes from Diane Moua, owner and chef of Diane's Place in Minneapolis She is a Hmong herself and her eatery reflects that,especially in the lush brunches.Where to get Pandan extract? Target sells it and the spice giant McCormick also offers it .It can be found in any grocery store however on line stores such as Amazon sell a wide variety of extracts and even powdered leaves. Keep in mind the recipe can be varied to include Chantilly cream and even cocoa flavored and rum spiked creams too,

As for the crepes, Ms. Ko assures that there's no need for a fancy crepe pan. Home chefs can use a non stick skillet or a well seasoned cast iron pan. To make the whole process a bit more relaxing set it up like an assembly line. The batter (which should be chilled overnight for best results) should be in a container with a spout or a bowl.Use a ladle or an ice cream scoop to pour onto the pan. Make sure there is oil for the pan to cook the crepes in as well as a rubber spatula and finally a plate for the finished ones.The crepe pan should be heated first and then brushed with either melted butter (for a better taste) or grape seed oil. As soon as the batter is poured in swirl it around into a thin round. Set the skillet back down over the open flame and when the crepe's edges turn brown , nudge them away from the pan with the spatula. I'ts then time to flip them over.It's time to transfer them to the plate when golden spots start to appear.For relatively good crepes use Ms. Ko's recipe of creating a batter of flour milk and egg. Instead of butter use whole coconut cream from the can for a tropical taste that will match the pandam's.

Elegant crepes with an Asian vibe make for a different Mother's Day treat.thy'd be perfect as part of a brunch or simply for dessert with macerated strawberries.It's a lovely way to celebrate Mom.

Cinco de Mayo at Taco Bell

 Of course May fifth has to be Mexican food day. For a quick bite there's Taco Bell and they've just dropped their new Spring menu. There's some good stuff

I wine t toerhe to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and was pleasantly surprised by their new menu. One item that caught my eye was their brand new mini Taco salad.

This is an adorable cup that reminds of the bigger taco salads I used to get  at Casa Maria's at the Garden State Plaza back in the  early1990's . Chicken and guacamole are mixed with veggies ,lettuce and fiesta crunchy strips in a creamy dressing.The shell is just two bites of goodness.

Taco Bell has also brought on tasty looking chicken nuggets that are coated din crushed tostitos and dusted with their fiery El Diablo sauce.They've also combined the nuggets with nacho chips.Another must try is their avocado ranch stacker.This looks like a delicious mix of avocado and chicken along with cheese. Do I try the caramel and fudge empanadas? Maybe but the dirty sodas look a bit more interesting. They're sodas and lemonades with fruit syrups added.Tha'ts definitely going to reordered ,maybe even on my next visit.

It's Cinco de Maio.Ceelbrate with some good and fun Mexican food. Some of the best are at Taco Bell.

A Global Barbecue

 This is the time for that all American past time - barbecuing.Yet sometimes barbecues can be  - well - bland. It time to do the American thing and take from other cultures to create an interesting and tasty cook out,.

Spices can make ordinary meats like chicken and beef sing. One is Berbere spice ,an important ingredient in Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking.It's a fiery blend of chili peppers, fenugreek,garlic ginger basil and nigella to name a few. It gives a flavorful lift to sometimes bland chicken meat. A great recipe is chicken wings or legs with it along with caramelized lemons. It;s just rubbing the legs and thighs with the spice and then grilling for eighteen to twenty minutes  until crisp. Serve it with pita or a slaw , the last a staple in Ethiopian cooking. Hamburgers can also get spiced up with this.Use one to two tablespoons per pound of beef .The flavor is a smoky flavor. Serve on a bun with tomato and red onion slices. Keep in mind that ribs can also benefit from this smoky blend.Rub  the mixture ion the ribs and then cook for two to three hours. Another spice blend is the Indian garam masala. This is a fine blend of cinnamon,mace , star anise and chili along with other ingredients such a as asafetida - a type of dried latex, coming from a rhizome. Garam masala is an excellent rub and marinade for chicken. Use it as a marinade that will also include Greek yogurt and lemon.

Hot dogs come from Germany yet there are other wursts that are just as delicious >Bratwurst is one and can be turned into a curry wust thanks to the addition of a curry sauce . You can do the same with a regular hot dog.The sauce is a m ix of curry paste, coconut milk and tomato paste. The spices that give it zing are ginger root, and chicken broth.Sugar and cinnamon temper the hotness of  the sauce. Slather it on like you would chili sauce. Another German wurst that's out of the box is weisses wurst or white wurst, made of finely ground veal and pork combined.It' seasoned with lemon parsley and various spices> Even though it's traditionally boiled it can be grilled on a low heat. Serve on a pretzel roll with  sweet mustard. Can Italian sausage be grilled on an open flame? Yes! These are great grilled  along with sliced bell peppers. Add the two together on a good hero roll for the ultimate barbecue.Serve with a tomato salad for a tasty side. An international pleaser is a salad Nicoise from Marseille. It might seem like a glamorous meal buts is an easy salad made with not just lettuce but also hard boiled eggs ,tuna fish and boiled potatoes String beans are also added in this vinaigrette drenched salad. 

A barbecue  can be elevated with some international flair. Add spices for a tasty rub or use a different kind of sausage to eat. Think outside of the box for a Provencale salad. it makes for a fun outdoors meal.

Foodie Food Poisoning

 I;'ts a night off whileI recoup. 

More on Monday.