Good Seeds

Pumpkin – One serving has almost as much potassium as a small banana plus it has seven times the magnesium.  Potassium helps regulate your heartbeat and blood pressure.  Magnesium helps boost your immune system.  Delicious added to trail mix.

Black Sesame – These have more antioxidants than the pale ones, they have include a dose of iron and bone-building calcium.  They may even help prevent high blood pressure.  Black sesame seeds taste better toasted than their pale sisters.  Good sprinkled over stir-fry.

Flax – These seeds are a great source of lignans, a plant chemical that may lower your risk of heart disease.  Grinding the whole seed lets you absorb the nutrients more easily.  Great when ground and mixed in flour when making muffins, breads, cookies or just added to soups and casseroles.

Chia – Full of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids.  Sprinkle them over oatmeal, granola and sliced fruit.

Sunflower – This is one of the richest sources of the disease-fighting antioxidant vitamin E.  Try these sprinkled over your salad.

Olive Oil

Olive Oil is high in monounsaturated fatty acids, which help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and raise HDL (good) cholesterol.  It contains antioxidants such as flavonoids and polyphenols which have anti-aging and other disease-fighting properties.  Polyphenols also aid in lowering blood pressure.  So, how can you tell them apart?

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil – Produced from the first cold pressing of olives that have been picked the same day.  Best used for salads and as a condiment.  This is the most expensive and has the most pronounced flavor and fruitiness with a dark green coloring.

Pure (Regular) Olive Oil – Made with subsequent pressings of the olives with some additional filtering and refining.  It can be blended with extra-virgin olive oil to boost flavor lost in processing.  It’s less expensive and a good choice for cooking with a golden yellow coloring with green hues.

Light Olive Oil – This doesn’t mean it’s light in calories but light in color, fragrance and flavor.  It has been finely filtered and is suited for high-temperature frying due to its higher smoke point.  The coloring is pale yellow.

Nutella Banana Bread

This recipe can be found by going to Chef in Training  The only change I made was to use a tube/bundt pan instead of the suggested 8 x 1 loaf pan.  It's a bread well worth making.

Beef & Broccoli Stir Fry

Another delicious dish has just made it to the manuscript file for Think With Your Taste Buds - Beef.  As with all of my Taste Bud recipes, I had a recipe for Beef & Broccoli that I wanted to play with.  There were several ingredients that I didn't have on hand so I decided to Think With My Taste Buds and find substitutes.  Boy did I make some good changes.  This is one of the best Beef & Broccoli dishes I've ever made.  It's another one to put on your 'to try' list when Think With Your Taste Buds - Beef comes out this winter. 

Country 'Baked' Steak

This one was a total make up as you go dish that turned out wonderfully good!  It's just been added to the manuscript for Think With Your Taste Buds - Beef so add it to your list of dishes to try when published this winter.  Until then, order your copy of Think With Your Taste Buds - Desserts through Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Coconut Almond Cream Cake

1 yellow cake mix
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup almond slivers
1 can coconut milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix cake according to package directions.  In a bundt pan sprayed with non-stick spray sprinkle enough coconut and almonds to cover the bottom of the pan.  Pour remaining coconut and almonds into the cake batter.  Bake according to package timing.  Mix coconut milk and sweetened condensed milk.  Using a skewer or wooden spoon, poke holes into the cake while still warm and drizzle milk mixture over cake allowing to seep in.  Cool completely.

Comments:  You will have more than enough coconut milk/condensed milk.  I pour my leftover into 1/4 - 1/2 cup containers and freeze for later use.  This cake comes out moist and so good.  The combination of the coconut and almonds give it a wonderful texture.  The coconut I use is flaked not shredded and I find it in bulk at the health food store.  It has no added sugar so it only adds flavor and texture.