Category: Food&Recipes

I have an assortment of different kinds of rice, from Basmati and Jasmine to short grain brown rice. Off hand I couldn’t tell you why they are different from each other but someday I’ll look them up to see if I can tell the difference after they are cooked. I do know that if I have a choice, I prefer the heft of the short grain brown rice.

I picked up this bag of Wild Blend of Gourmet Rice at the grocery store recently and gave it a try yesterday.

It’s a good thing that every bag of rice has cooking instructions…each kind seems to have different liquid requirements. The way this bag was glued shut, I could hardly see the instructions, so after I measured out what I wanted, I saved what was left in a jar and cut up the bag so I could read the instructions better. I’ll drop these pieces of plastic into the jar for the next time I want to cook it!

After 30 minutes it looked like the water was all absorbed but the rice was still pretty chewy, so I added another 1/2 cup of water and let it simmer for another 10 minutes.

While I waited those 10 minutes I pulled out a few green beans, snap peas and 1/2 a sweet potato, chopped. In a saucepan, I added some water and boiled the vegetables. A little butter, salt and pepper and I had a great lunch!

I think I’ll make sure to keep this rice around for future meals! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

I was checking out recipes online the other day and came across an article with this title: 24 Things to Add to Jiffy Cornbread Mix to Make it Even Better. I remember loving those mixes and was so surprised that they were still on the shelf at the grocery store.

Now that I can have an egg here and there, all I had to do was substitute my almond milk for the regular milk. Then, in that article I mentioned above, I found an addition that might taste good: 1/2 cup of blueberries and 3 tablespoons of maple syrup. I picked up a box mix and some blueberries and thought I’d give it a try!

The dry mix was a little lumpy so I used a mixing spoon to break up the lumps. Then I added the almond milk and 1 egg.

After adding the blueberries and maple syrup I gave it a good mix. The batter was pretty runny…but I didn’t want to add anything more until I saw how it baked. Next time I think I’ll add a little flour to stiffen up the batter. The additions also meant I might be able to make 7 muffins…so I’d better use the full size pan!

The muffins needed 20 minutes in the 400 degree oven and still looked a little flat. The extra flour would help that the next time.

However, they were delicious!! Very quick and easy. I think I’ll check out the other variations that were suggested in the article. I did another search online for “additions to the Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix” and found dozens of ideas! Since it only makes 6 muffins, I won’t have too many to deal with at one time. Give it a try! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Yesterday, anticipating the snow that arrived today, I made a quick stop at the grocery store…along with many of my neighbors! I wanted to make a pot of vegan chili in the crock pot today and just needed a few ingredients. Here is the recipe:

Not a very complicated recipe and very adaptable to whatever you have available.

I picked up a red sweet pepper and some freeze-dried garlic. I don’t use a lot of garlic and this little jar is so easy! I had carrots, celery, and onion but I took a look at the canned tomatoes and found some interesting flavors. I started with three cans of tomatoes and ended up adding a fourth can of diced tomatoes just to fill up the crock pot.

After dumping everything in the crock pot, this is what simmered in my kitchen all day. Delicious!! Try it yourself!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Right at the moment, my whole house smells great! Bert is cranking out the chocolate chip cookies and between mixing and baking I was able to use the big mixer to make my oatmeal bread.

So for a few days, I’m also not able to do anything in the kitchen…no other meals, no skin care products, no cooking…just heating things up in the toaster and microwave! Of course, I haven’t bothered to take new pictures since I’ve documented both the cookies and the bread in other posts. Sooooo…let me give you those links here:

https://marykisner.com/berts-yearly-cookie-marathon/ and

https://marykisner.com/marys-oatmeal-bread/

The main thing I can tell you is that the cost of making 170 pounds of dough into cookies has almost doubled. That doesn’t even count Bert having to figure out the change in ingredients when the cake flour boxes are no longer 2 pounds but 1 pound 10 oz. He’ll have to change the recipe to reflect that. At least this year he was able to find the ingredients he needed. Who knows what will happen next year!

Check out those links above for details about the cookies and bread! I’ll be at the other end of the house trying to not sneak into the kitchen to snag a cookie!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

I was really in the mood for something different for breakfast today. We haven’t had cereal around for a long time but today I wanted to put my frozen blueberries on a bowl of granola. Soooo…guess it’s time to make some!

I found a pretty simple recipe online and gathered ingredients. The original recipe calls this “Healthy Granola” but I decided to call it Honey Nut Granola. The link to the original is here: https://cookieandkate.com/healthy-granola-recipe/

Here are the ingredients:

And here is the recipe:

Making Granola

Step 1: I prepped a 9″ x 13″ cake pan with parchment paper and preheated the oven to 350 degrees.

Step 2: I measured out the dry ingredients and put them into a large bowl. (I did chop the nuts into smaller pieces.)

Step 3: Mixed up the wet ingredients in a small bowl before adding them to the dry ingredients: coconut oil, maple syrup and honey (I used 1/4 cup each), and vanilla extract.

Step 4: Mixed up the granola to lightly coat “every oat and nut.”

Step 5: Poured the granola mixture into the prepared pan. I used a spatula to press the granola into the corners.

Step 6: Baked granola in 350-degree oven for about 24 minutes. (I stirred it halfway and pressed it back down in the pan with the spatula).

Steps 7 & 8: Remove the pan from the oven and let it sit to cool completely (at least 45 minutes).

Step 9: I broke the granola into big pieces with my hands and put it all into a large bowl.

Step 10: I stirred in 2/3 cup of golden raisins and let it cool some more.

Step 11: I dumped the granola into a gallon ZipLock bag and put it in the freezer.

This recipe is supposed to make 16 – 1/2 cup servings. We’ll see!

Tomorrow’s granola breakfast should be delicious with a helping of frozen blueberries on top! Try it yourself! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

A cold snap in our area always entices me to make soup and homemade bread! Bert had purchased a large ham with the bone the other day and after cooking and taking off the meat, I boiled the bone and trimmings along with other vegetable scraps to make Ham soup stock. While it was boiling away, I whipped up my whole wheat bread.

I wrote about this bread recipe last May, using all whole wheat that I ground myself (https://marykisner.com/from-wheat-berries-to-bread/). This time, I used up some of the flour I had ground before. I store it in the freezer to keep it fresh.

Here is the recipe again:

This time I wanted to analyze the recipe to see if it was as nutritious as I thought it was. I used the chart tool that you may have read about a week or two ago (https://marykisner.com/analyzing-a-recipe/).

While the bread was baking (and the soup stock was boiling) I pulled out a blank chart and started by listing the ingredients in the recipe. I looked up each ingredient in my little book or online.

Here is the finished chart:

So, it looks like each slice of bread will be about 146 calories, 25.6 gm of carbohydrates and 5.5 gm of protein. It was a good reminder that it compares well with commercial bread, tastes better and has no extra preservatives or chemicals. I keep the loaf we are using in the refrigerator and freeze the extra. And of course, commercial bread from the store doesn’t make the whole house smell so good on a cold day!

Give this recipe a try! Your whole house will smell great!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

Have you ever wondered how many calories or carbs are in a favorite recipe? It’s pretty easy if you bought that cake or package of dinner rolls at the store. But what if you make it yourself? There are no labels on your own homemade goodies. Sometimes a recipe is posted on-line and will include the various nutritional numbers, but not always.

Sunday I was motivated to make a big batch of my favorite muffins…Blueberry Banana Walnut Muffins. This is a Vegan recipe…meaning no dairy or egg involved. I had tweaked the recipe over the years so while the original may have had nutritional information now I had no idea about those values.

Recently, I found out that I’m no longer so sensitive to egg protein and wondered if adding one egg to the recipe would boost its protein level or make no difference. I figured adding one egg to a recipe making 12 muffins would also be safer for me as I tried to introduce even a small amount of egg protein to my diet.

While I was mixing and baking, I wondered if I could figure out the nutritional content of a single muffin, specifically calories, carbohydrates and protein.

It is so much easier to buy a packaged item and look at the Nutrition box on the package. I’ve been reading the information on the back of almost every package I buy, since I’ve been careful to avoid all dairy and egg products. I’m sure you’ve read them too. For example:

This information is required by law now and is very helpful if you or your family members have allergies to certain foods.

However, in my house, most everything I make is from scratch so the nutrition labels only refer to an individual ingredient, like flour or sugar. Some items have no labels:

So, I spent Monday creating a chart to include the items I wanted to know about in my muffins…like calories, carbs and protein. I could have added fiber, fat or sodium if I had wanted to track those nutrients.

The two items below were essential to make this chart…a general book listing most foods and their nutrition content…and a calculator. I also used this website: https://calorieking.com/us/en/.

I printed out the revised recipe with the addition of one egg. Of course, adding the egg meant it was no longer a Vegan recipe. If I find the egg bothers me, I know the recipe is just fine without it.

I first started scribbling on sheet of paper and finally decided to make a Table in Microsoft Word (shown below).

The first section of 4 columns is for the standard measure of the ingredient; the next 4 columns is the amount in my recipe. Once the numbers are added up (shown at the bottom of the columns, I divided each number by 12 and got the final amount for each muffin.

First, I listed the separate ingredients in the first column. Then I looked up each one to find the basic measure (like 1 cup) and recorded the three values: calories, carbs and protein.

Then I recorded the amount used in my recipe and computed the three values in the second set of 4 columns. I finally tallied the totals at the bottom and divided by 12 (muffins).

Now I could say a single muffin would provide about 204 calories, 27.2 gm of carbs and 3.2 gm of protein. Adding the egg to the recipe increased the protein a little, but I could easily leave it out if this tiny bit of egg protein bothered me.

Note: This method isn’t perfect. I can’t guarantee that every muffin has the same number of blueberries, but it’s good enough for me!

At the end, I made my table into a Template by deleting all my notes about the muffins and saved it as a PDF. I will use it when I want to know the nutritional value of any other recipes I make. If you would like a PDF of this chart send me an email at marykisner@comcast.net, or you might be able to capture it right out of this post.

You can make a table yourself like this in Word and include the categories you are interested in. I probably should find someone who knows how to set up an Excel spreadsheet Template that would let me type right into the form and add up the numbers automatically! Wouldn’t that be nice! As it is, I’m happy using a pencil or pen for now. Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

This first Saturday of fall the sun is shining, but we woke up to 42 degrees! The forecast was for sunny with a high of just 65 degrees. I wanted to try sun tea, even if it took all day. I really don’t care for hot beverages but I needed the boost of green tea. So I found some at the grocery store that had added pomegranate to it for flavor. I’m sure there are many brands and flavors, but this is what I bought:

I had a 2-quart jar and filled it with cold filtered water. I pulled out 7 teabags and cut off the strings.

I put the jar on our patio table in the sun and crossed my fingers. By late this afternoon, I had green tea ready to be chilled and poured over ice!

Seemed to work just fine! I’ve done this before for Bert’s favorite tea, but never in cool weather. It seems like a good hot summer weather thing to do, but this way works too! Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.

We have been watching the progress of our first attempt to grow Delicata Squash. Bert planted seeds under grow lights back in the spring and carefully transplanted them into the garden in late May. We did not really know anything about growing or cooking the squash so this was an experiment for the season.

We planted only 6 seeds. We had no idea how big they would get, but from the size of the first few leaves, I knew they would be BIG!

We watered frequently and held our breath!

While we waited, I did some research about when to pick them and how to cook them. Eventually the skins turned the right color and hardened. They were about 8-9″ long. They almost fell off the vines last week, so it must be time!

Recipe #1: Roasting Slices

The first recipe I found was a simple roasting of slices. The directions said to cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds and slice them in 1/4 to 1/2″ slices.

I put the slices in a bowl and drizzled oil on them, then added salt and arranged them on a cookie sheet.

I roasted them at 425 degrees for 20 minutes; then turned them over and roasted for another 15 minutes. They were supposed to be crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

They tasted good but were a little hard to eat. The rind was still tough so we had to sort of nibble on the inside. They were hardly thick enough to cut off with a knife. So…moving on to another recipe!

Recipe #2: Stuffed and Baked

Bert suggested we use them like we would a sweet pepper, stuffing them with a hamburger/rice mixture and baking them in the oven.

We prepped the squash like before…cut in half and scooped out the seeds.

Then we assembled the stuffing:

1 1/2 lb. of hamburger, cooked with onion, garlic, salt and pepper

1-2 cups of cooked rice

1-2 cups of cooked tomatoes (or canned)

Italian seasoning

We mixed this all up and stuffed the squash shells:

I covered the pan with foil and baked it at 350 degrees for an hour. This made a very tasty meal! The squash was soft enough to scoop out of the shell while we ate the stuffing. I will consider this recipe a success!

Delicata squash is not as sweet as Acorn squash, but it made a pretty dinner. It would have been good with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese on top, before or after baking (if you can have it). Enjoy!

Please comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.