Let's Talk Food!

I'm Italian and I want to talk food. What's new? First, if you ever get the opportunity to eat at Casey's It's an awesome restaurant located in the west side just outside of Chicago.... Only has a couple dinner tables but the atmosphere is delightful...

I'm looking for healthy recipes here. A lot of controversy in the food side of prostate cancer but I know that healthy eating is never a bad idea. To steal a line from Dr. Mark Moyad, your food might not help you with prostate cancer, but it will likely help you with what what's more likely to kill you anyway.

So let's have some fun.

I will start with a few websites, but individual recipes are welcome.

From my fave, the Integrative Oncology Essentials website:
www.integrativeoncology-essentials.com/nutrition/

From Harvard:
www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutrition/

From CTCA:
www.cancercenter.com/community/nutritional-support/

From the University of Michigan:
www.cancer.med.umich.edu/support/recipes.shtml

From the American Cancer Society:
www.cancer.med.umich.edu/support/recipes.shtml

From Andrew Weil:
www.drweil.com/drw/u/ART02012/anti-inflammatory-diet

From Michael Milken:
www.amazon.com/The-Taste-Living-Cookbook-Favorite/dp/0966080564

From me:
Er, I'm Italian. Don't do as I do.

OK team. Lets see some recipes, books, or websites...

Tony

Sephie said...
Tony, you got my attention!!! I too am Italian...New York Italian (born and raised in The Bronx and have the accent to prove it!).

Come on Sephie I'll meet you at Ann & Tonys. Mmm Mmm Good.

Love it Sephie! Bring it on, girl! No rules here!

Tony

Cereal with frozen blueberries, makes the milk ice cold and a lighter shade of blue. WHAT,,,,you thought some thing more exciting!!!!!!

Sephie said...
Tony, you got my attention!!! I too am Italian...New York Italian (born and raised in The Bronx and have the accent to prove it!).

another bronxite! I still go there for
Bronx pizza whenever I visit my mom !

Growing up in a Ukrainian household my mom used to make homemade periogies filled with either potatos or sourkrat and she would melt butter for dipping.

Oh yea boiled peanuts, get em at Costco here. Its a staple food for locals. Ver few calories also. I just started on a avocado shtick. One medium avocado, 250 calories, lots fat, but the good kine, whatever that means. Im getting hungry which is good, off to Grand Wailea champagne brunch, oceanside,little hula, song and onolicious grinds, with two sons visiting along with 2 of there friends. I am NOT the designated driver. Eat your hearts out, pun intended, tee hee.

My Italian Stuffed Jalapeños...

Ingredients...
6 Jalapeños sliced in half and seeds removed.
Small amount of bulk mild or hot Italian sausage, precooked and broken into small pieces.
Bacon Bits (Just to keep them unhealthier) But you can skip this.
Thin Monterrey Jack cheese slices to cover the Jalapeño halves.
Mild or Hot (My preference) Giardinierra.
Panko bread crumbs.
Optional Boars Head Jalapeño sauce

Heat oven to 375.

1. I like to start by lining the bottom of the fruit with the thin Monterrey Jack.
2. Blend the sausage and the Giardinierra and fill the halves to level them with the slice.
3. Another thin slice of Jack.
4. Sprinkle the bacon bits. Sometimes I also add more Giardinierra but not always.
5. Sprinkle the Panko.
6. Cook for 20 minutes until the bread crumbs are golden brown.
7. Remove and dab the Jalapeño sauce to your flavor choice.

I have to sometimes make them with mild sausage and Giardinierra as well so I keep both unhand. The Jalapeños are actually pretty mild in the recipe so I like the heat added. Also in place of the Jalapeño sauce, some like Cream Cheese or both Cream Cheese and the Jalapeño sauce. I like just the sauce.

I have done this with Cayenne pepper powder added to the bread crumbs but you might want to finish with Ice Cream...;-)

Peace!

Tony

Well,
For now, Jim, the best I can do is show some of my food photos.

tinyurl.com/klex4dx

I included a couple of Mr. Todd and I having a breakfast in room S221 on Capital Hill with the Senate Majority Leader. The "breakfast" was donuts and coffee. Still it was food. But we were talking cancer with the Senator.

The Jalapeños are also pictured.

Edited to fix the link.

Tony

Post Edited (TC-LasVegas) : 7/28/2013 6:01:08 PM (GMT-6)

Here's a spaghetti sauce recipe that I've been making for more than 20 years. It's from a food column by John Owen called 'The Intermediate Eater'.

1 lb ground round

3/4 lb ground Italian sausage

2 med onions,chopped

1 green pepper,chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

4 cloves garlic,minced

6 sprigs parsley,chopped

1/2 cup (loose) porcini mushrooms (soak in a cup of warm water until soft)

1 can (4 oz) mushroom pieces and stems

  (use 8 oz mushrooms if porcini mushrooms not used)

2 tbs olive oil

1 can (6 oz) tomato paste

1 can ( 16 oz) tomatoes, finely chopped

38 oz tomato sauce

1 can (8 oz) tomato juice

1 cube butter

1 cup water

1 tsp beef bouillon base

1 tsp basil leaf, crumbled

1 heaping tsp rosemary, crumbled

1 tsp sage, crumbled

1 1/2 tbs Kitchen Bouquet

1 heaping tbs sugar

1 heaping tbs salt (if desired)

1 1/2 tsp pepper

 

 

 

          Saute the ground round, parsley and garlic. Drain and add to the pot.  Fry the sausage as you did the ground round, drain and add to the pot. In the same skillet, heat the olive oil and saute the ground green pepper, onions and celery for about 5 minutes.  Add that to the pot, too, along with the chopped mushrooms.

        Add all the remaining ingredients and simmer for an hour or two.  If you want to be sure the sauce is the thickness you prefer, you might add the cup of water listed above in slurps as needed. 

 

Not going to worry about 'health' food- how about comfort food.  Hubby loves these cookies.  Originally from his grandmother- and we suspect the recipe 'came over' when the family left England/Wales/Scotland. 

Grannie's Buttermilk Tea Cakes

2 cups sugar

1 cup (or 2 sticks) butter or margarine

Cream together well, then beat in

2 eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla(or more to taste- hubby likes it strong so I use 1 Tablespoon)

Mix 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (not baking powder) with 4 cups all purpose flour

Have 6 Tablespoons buttermilk ready

Add small amounts of flour and buttermilk- mixing in well until all has been added. 

At this point you can make the cookies, or add about 3/4 to 1 cup raisins that have been plumped in very hot (near boiling) water for about 2 min.  Hubby likes the raisins. 

I make rather large cookies.  I spread about 1 Tablespoon of dough into a 2"-3" round.  I put 12 cookies on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 320degrees for about 10-12 min.  Tops should not brown- edges may be very light brown.  Remove and let cool on sheet for about 2 min. then put on cooling racks or paper towels to cool completely.  The cookies are chewy/soft and go well with almost anything (Hubby loves them with either a regular or scotch screwdriver!!! But they are great with herb or spiced tea, too).  You can also substitute pecans for the raisins. 

I'll share others later.  Maybe my hushpuppy recipe, or my mother's 'stew', or my lemon dill chicken noodle soup ... well I'll just see what I'm in the mood to share. 

 

I read this thread this afternoon and you forced me to go out for pizza. Maybe not Italian, not fancy but the kids loved it and I isn't hungry any more

Tim, I make my own sauce all the time...watched my mom make it for 25 years and have made it for my hubby for over 30 years. Have been asked many times for the recipe - I don't have one! Whenever we have steak or pork chops with bones, I put the bones in the freezer and use them in my "gravy" (Italians call sauce with meat "gravy"). I don't add sugar, though...a little bit of grated carrot can help cut the acid of the tomatoes. I also like to add about 1/4 diced green pepper. The pot sits on a very low burner for hours, and my husband's job is stirring it frequently and tasting it to make sure it's fit for human consumption.