Shrimp, Avocado and Yam Salad with Lime Dressing

Makes 4 Servings

This is also a great salad without the shrimp, in case you want to serve it with another protein.

2 large organic sweet potatoes
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp
2 quarts chicken stock
1 teaspoon fresh ginger
1 stalk lemongrass
3 Tablespoon lime juice with zest (use a microplaner for this)
1 teaspoon cumin
Few pinches of red pepper flakes or to taste
1 whole Vidalia onion- sliced in this half moons
1/4 cup cilantro – coarsely chopped
1 Tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1/3 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1/8 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1) Wrap each yam in foil and bake at 400° for 1 hour. Cool.

2) Combine shrimp shells with stock, lemongrass, ginger, and pepper. bring to a boil and cook until reduced by one quarter, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for 20 more minutes.

3) Strain shrimp stock and return to the pan; bring to a simmer over moderately high heat. Add the shrimp and cook just until they turn pink, about 2 minutes. Transfer shrimp to a baking sheet and let cool.

4) Lime dressing; whisk together lime juice with zest, cumin, red pepper flakes, honey, fish sauce, salt, olive oil and toasted sesame oil.

5) Peel the yams and slice them crosswise 1/2 inch thick. in a large bowl. gently toss the potatoes with 3/4 cup of the dressing. let stand 15 minutes, tossing gently once or twice.

6) In a medium bowl, toss the shrimp with the onion and 1/4 cup dressing. Arrange the yams in a ring on 4 large plates. spoon the shrimp and onions into the center. fan the avocado over the shrimp and garnish with cilantro leaves. Drizzle with remaining dressing.

Quick Pickled Onions

This indispensable condiment adds tangy crunch and a bright pink note to your tacos or are great to munch on!

Makes about 1 cup

Photo by Christopher Testani

1/2 cups rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar or honey
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 red onion, thinly sliced

1)  Whisk first 3 ingredients and 1 cup water in a small bowl until sugar and salt dissolve.

2)  Place onion in a jar; pour vinegar mixture over. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.

3)  DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 weeks ahead. Cover and chill. Drain onions before using.

Terrible Advice from TreeHugger on Healthy Baking

timlewisnm/CC BY 2.0

Treehugger, a usually trusted source for advice on food and the environment has it wrong this time….

The article they wrote (you can read it HERE) says there are three things you can change when baking that will make your desserts healthier.  The 3  suggestions they have are not any healthier, in fact one of them makes those desserts WAY less healthy!  Let’s look at each one;

1) They suggest that you replace the white flour with whole wheat pastry flour.

There is NO difference nutritionally whatsoever.

2) Use fruit puree instead of oil or butter.

Using fruit puree simply increases the carbs, an easier way to gain more weight. Remember carbs are what makes us gain weigh, NOT fat.  In fact, having more fat with a higher carb dish or meal means you will absorb those carbs slower.  This helps in the management of regulating blood sugar, thus helping with weight and diabetes.

That being said, USE ONLY butter, preferably organic.  Never heat or cook with vegetable oils, they are highly carcinogenic when heated and become sticky…increasing our chances of heart disease and stroke. 

3) Use Succanat instead of sugar.

While there might be slightly more nutrients in Succanat, it costs $24.00 A POUND!   And it acts exactly the same way in the body; raising blood sugar quickly.

In fact ALL carbs, even fruit, do the same, raise blood sugar quickly.  So whether you use, agave, honey, sugar, Succanat, rice syrup, fruit puree…the body reacts the same. 

SO, when you are going to bake…use real butter, use alternative flours like almond meal or coconut that are far lower on the glycemic index.  Use nuts in your desserts or with meals, increasing the protein.  Here are a few recipes for chocolate chip cookies that are FAR healthier than the normal ones…and taste divine! One uses almond meal, one uses coconut flour.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 30 cookies

2 cups blanched almond flour
¼ teaspoon Celtic sea salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks

1. Place almond flour, salt and baking soda in a food processor

2. Pulse in butter, honey and vanilla until dough forms

3. Remove blade from processor and stir in chips by hand

4. Scoop dough one level tablespoon at a time onto a parchment lined baking sheet

5. Press balls of dough down gently

6. Bake at 350 for 6-8 minutes

7. Cool for 15 minutes (do not handle prior or cookies will break)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup tapioca flour
1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup potato starch
1 cup almond flour
1 Tablespoon xanthan gun
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1/ 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter- room temperature
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
16 ounces dark chocolate chips

1) mix all dry ingredients, use a whisk to mix, it’s almost like sifting.

2)  Mix wet ingredients briefly, do not over mix.  Add eggs one at a time, mix briefly.  Add vanilla, mix in.

3) Add dry ingredients, 1/2 cup or so at a time.  Briefly stir in chocolate chips.

4)  Refrigerate for 24 hours. Really.

5) Using walnut size balls of dough. Place on a cookie sheet.  You can make them any size you want.  Push any chocolate chips sticking out back into the dough.

6) Bake 18 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.  Cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes.  Remove to a cooling rack. Eat warm or wait to cool.

Chamblin’s Uptown NOW serving Millie’s Gluten Free Desserts

My favorite uptown destination, and awesome Used Bookstore..Chamblin’s Uptown, is now carrying my gluten free desserts.

Not only is this one of Jacksonville’s best used book stores, they also have a delightful little café.  They serve an eclectic mix of soups, sandwiches, breakfast and lunch specials, and also serve brunch.

They are carrying my Almond Berry Tarts; These luscious, buttery tarts are delicately crisp on the outside, soft melt-in-your-mouth on the inside.  These tarts are one of my best selling desserts…and no matter that they are gluten free…they don’t taste healthy!  These are relatively low on the glycemic chart as the “flour” is mainly almond meal that I make.

They are also carrying my Chocolate Almond Macaroons;  These are not like normal macaroons.  They start that way, with meringue, but I fold in dark chocolate, grated coconuts and a hint of cinnamon.  These are very rich, very crunchy on the outside, gooey chocolate goodness on the inside.  These are flour, oil and butter free.

Visit Chamblin’s and check out the awesome café…and my desserts!

Diabetes on the Rise Among Teenagers AND Is Treatment Resistant

Nearly one in four American adolescents may be on the verge of developing Type 2 diabetes or could already be diabetic, representing a sharp increase in the disease’s prevalence among children ages 12 to 19 since a decade ago, when it was estimated that fewer than one in 10 were at risk for or had diabetes, according to a new study.

This worsening of the problem is worrying in light of recently published findings that the disease progresses more rapidly in children than in adults and is harder to treat, experts said.

The study, published online on Monday in the journal Pediatrics, analyzes data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which has a nationally representative sample. While it confirmed that teenage obesity and overweight rates had leveled off in recent years and that teenage rates of high blood pressure and high cholesterol had not changed greatly, it found that the percentage of teenagers testing positive for diabetes and prediabetes had nearly tripled to 23 percent in 2007-8 from 9 percent in 1999-2000.

Obesity and the form of diabetes linked to it are taking an even worse toll on America’s youths than medical experts had realized. As obesity rates in children have climbed, so has the incidence of Type 2 diabetes, and a new study adds another worry: the disease progresses more rapidly in children than in adults and is harder to treat.

Why the disease is so hard to control in children and teenagers is not known. The researchers said that rapid growth and the intense hormonal changes at puberty might play a part.

This info is from two different articles;

Obesity-Linked Diabetes in Children Resists Treatment

Diabetes on the Rise Among Teenagers

Millie;  This begins when babies are born, here is a list of my recommendations;

1)   Breastfeed and do not start solids until close to one year.  Make sure your nutrition is perfect- 2400 calories a day with plenty of saturated fat and organic, grass fed meat and eggs.

2)  DO not start children, or babies on any type of cereal; they are almost 100% carbs and have no nutrients.

3)  NEVER give your kids, or babies, fruit juice.  It’s simply main-lining sugar.  Feed whole fruit, one serving a day.  The rest should be meat, eggs and vegetables.

4) No soft drinks, ever.

5) Never let a child under 3 watch TV.  The messages they get are awful, the inactivity is awful.. Go out to play with your child, take him for walks, start camping, hiking, swimming.  Both of you will be better off.

6) Maintain control of your child food intake, even with their grandparents.  It’s hard, put your foot down and insist- NO JUNK FOOD!

REMEMBER; Unless your babies and small children have cars and jobs…YOU are in CHARGE!

A Refined Technique for Cooking Beef Liver

We all know that we need to eat organ meats as it is impossible to be really well nourished with out them.  I have learned over the years to NOT overcook it so it is very tender.   Here is a post from a great website I found today about Cast Iron.  Click Here to visit the site- Ramblings On Cast Iron

You can fry liver in a pan, and it will be GOOD.

Or, you can tweak your method just a little bit, and it will be GREAT.

One of my loyal blog readers suggested a few changes to the way I normally cook liver, which seemed small and insignificant.

But I decided to try anyway.

This liver was melt-in-your-mouth-like-butter tender, and had a better flavor too.

Here’s what I did differently:

1. Preheat the cast iron skillet until it’s really hot. Melt butter in the skillet, to sizzling.
Before, I’d just preheat until the butter was simply melted. It needs to be sizzling.

2. Season with salt and pepper only, nothing else, and dust very lightly with sweet rice flour.
Before, I dredged it in flour and added onion powder and garlic powder.

3. Don’t crowd the pan. Cook only one or two pieces at a time.
Before, I’d throw it all in, and the onions too. Cook the onions in a separate skillet.

4. Turn only once! One minute each side. It will be "medium" cooked.
Before, I’d keep turning, until it was well done.

These changes, at first glance didn’t seem like they would make much difference. But, they sure did.

I deglazed the skillet afterwards, with beef stock, and added sweet rice flour to make a gravy.

Some people fry bacon with liver; You can cook the bacon first, and then use the bacon grease.