Hot Drinks for the Holiday

Now that Winter has officially begun it is nice to warm-up with a hot drink. These are 2 of my families favorites; Hot Mulled cider and Hot carob rice-milk.

Hot Mulled Cider

2 quarts cider or natural apple juice
1 tsp. whole allspice
1 ½ tsp. whole cloves
2 sticks cinnamon
Orange slices

Pour the cider into a crock pot or large pot and heat on low. Put the allspice and cloves into a tea ball or cheese cloth then drop into the cider along with the cinnamon sticks. Float the orange slices on top. Cover and let heat for 2 hours. Serve hot.
Variation; for hot spiced wine substitute port wine for the cider.

Hot Carob Rice-Milk

Heat a cup of carob rice-milk for each person over medium heat until it just starts to simmer. remove from heat and carefully fill mugs with with the yummy hot liquid then top with fresh whipped cream!

Whipped Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla or peppermint for a holiday twist.
¼ tsp. stevia

Add all the ingredients into a blender in the order that they are listed while on low speed. Cover and turn blender speed up to high. When cream has gotten thick, it is done.

Enjoy these drinks with your family and friends and have a wonderful holiday season and all winter long!

Book Signing at Whole Foods Market/ Girls Night Out

Join me at Whole Foods Market Jenkintown Thursday, December 8th 6:30-8 p.m. For Girls Night Out in The Whole Body department! Girls Night Out is back and they’ve got a fabulous party planned with delicious samples, luxurious spa treatments, chair massage, and great gift giving ideas like Trish's Dishes Cookbook. There will also be tours of the department and some great games where you can win incredible prizes.

So bring your girlfriends and get ready to have a blast!

What to eat on "Turkey-Day" when you don't eat Turkey?

So many times when someone finds out that I am a vegetarian the first thing they say is "So what do you eat for Thanksgiving dinner?" Like they don't believe me and need to see how fast I can come up with an answer. It doesn't take them long to realize that I have been eating this way most of my life. But they still want to know what I will be eating for dinner on the day many have named after their main course "Turkey-Day."

Anytime of the year I like to eat the foods that are most abundant during that season. When to take a look at all the wonderful, comforting foods of autumn it is hard not to have many favorites. So saying they is no "traditional" dinner that I serve every year. Sometimes it is a pumpkin stuffed with a mix of hearty grains or a more traditional potato or bread stuffing accompanied by many of greens and other yummy side dishes. This is why I named one of the chapters in my cookbook "Side dishes...The Best Part of the Meal" I like to let everyone chose a favorite side.

This year my dinner will have a traditional look to it as I will be serving a "naked turkey." A vegetarian version of this holiday main course but still it is all about the sides! Starting with red onion soup then moving on to apricot acorn squash, lima beans, candied yams, fresh cranberry sauce, cabbage salad with bacon (vegetarian of course) dressing, and fresh baked bread. Moving on to dessert the ever traditional pumpkin pie and mixed berry cobbler topped with fresh whipped cream. Truly a feast filled with comfort and health.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

What Do You Do With Apples?

In my home we love apples so fall is very delicious. I love to find a way to incorporate my special ingredient into the meal I am planning. This past weekend I was making pancakes for breakfast so I chopped up an apple very fine along with some raisins, added a little bit of cinnamon to my usual pancake batter and adjusted the liquid a little. A scrumptious, hearty breakfast was had by all.

The morning before we had chunky apple muffins for a morning on the go. I will soon be making apple dumplings, apple crisp, apple-sauce cake, butternut squash soup (which is sweetened with an apple), and chopped up and added to my salad. Oh, i forgot to mention that I also love to eat them fresh picked from the tree.

Let me know your favorite ways to eat apples this season.

The rewards of growing grapes

Three out of four seasons of the year the couple of grape vines I have give me their gifts. In the spring when the young tender leaves are about the size of your hand they can be picked and made into delicious stuffed grape-leaves. Summer time provides sweet juicy grapes that are perfect for snacking or if you have more than you can eat they can be made into a special wine. Fall comes with the task of cutting down the vines but then they can be formed into wreaths or other shapes for beautiful door decorations and more.



I love growing an

assortment of plants but the grapes seem to provide me with most variety of gifts in return.

Roast Your Vegetables For Even More Sweetness

While in the midst of a bountiful harvest the choices are endless to make a hardy meal of roasted vegetables. Roasting them bring out all their natural sweetness that makes them irresistible. After you have your vegetables roasted there are a variety ways you can chose to serve them.

First start with I start with the root vegetables like onions, garlic, carrots and parsnips. Next I like to include tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli, summer squash (green or yellow), and bell peppers, hot one if you like. Finally I add some fresh herbs, rosemary, thyme, and basil. Just include any vegetables and herbs that you and your family enjoy, maybe even an apple. Spread out on a baking pan and coat lightly with olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper. Bake uncovered for an hour at 350°.

Serve them as a side dish that will disappear instantly.

Blend in a blender until smooth for a sauce that can be served over rice or potatoes.

Serve over brown or black rice with the roasted vegetable sauce with some hearty bread as a main dish.

As a roasted vegetable soup blend until smooth adding some vegetable stock or water to thin to your desired thickness.

Enjoy the harvest
Enjoy your food
Enjoy your life

Kill the Weeds without chemicals

Do you have weeds that grow through the cracks in the sidewalk or driveway? How about in the walk ways or patio? I have found a great solution without using any chemicals. Boiling water! I just take a teapot of boiling water out to the weeds pour a little on and in a few days they are dead. What could be easier then that? My pets are safe the ground is safe and the weeds are gone. The only down side is that you can not use this method around your garden because it will kill all the plants it touches.

Be healthy and keep the earth healthy too!

Blueberries

The blueberries are just coming out now and are simply delicious. There are so many ways to enjoy blueberries your imagination is the limit. For example last night I took some basic butter cake that I had made in a tube pan, sliced it into one inch pieces. Then I layered cake, whipped cream, blueberries and repeated. I ended up with individual blueberries short cake! A great way to start the first day of summer vacation for my son.

Blueberries have so much more to offer then great taste. They are high in vitamin C, A, E, K, manganese, fiber, anti-oxidants, and phyto-chemical. Their benefits include helping remove harmful free radicals, and lowering blood sugar levels.

So see what you can dream up or stick to one the the many popular blueberry dishes you already are familiar with.

Book Signing

To celebrate the release of Trish's Dishes

, the Hatboro Union Library has invited the me to hold a book signing as part of Hatboro's First Friday festivities on June 3, from from 7:30pm to 8:30pm. Speaking with readers about Trish's Dishes, the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, and the challenges she faced on her path to publication. Trish will be selling copies of her book and answering readers' questions. Her second book signing is scheduled for June 11 at Bunn’s Natural Foods in Southampton from 12:00pm to 3:00pm.

Just Released

It was spring three years-a-go when I decide to take the suggestions from clients, family, and friends to share my healthy recipes. Today I am happy to announce that I am doing that with my recently published cookbook, Trish's Dishes- Family Meals for a Healthy Lifestyle.

Trish’s Dishes is a collection of more then 100 whole food recipes that have been the basis for reversing the crippling effects of my childhood battle with osteoarthritis. Also, these are the meals that I raised my 3 wonderfully healthy children on, so they are "kid tested and approved."

Trish’s Dishes has something for everyone. From breakfast to dessert (and snacks too!), enjoy meatless alternatives to classic dishes paired with assorted whole grains and no refined sugars. You can try something new and learn about unfamiliar ingredients in a chapter I call "What is That Anyway???" Or find a way to make your favorite dish a little healthier.

To receive a copy of Trish's Dishes- Family Meals for a Healthy Lifestyle., you can click on the link, or if you are in the Philadelphia area contact me to find out where you can pick one up. It will soon be available at Amazon.com and Borders.com. It will be closer to six month before it will be available through Barns & Noble.

I know that you will enjoy these wonderful recipes as much as my family has!

Some benefits of Dirt

It is time to get out and start digging in the dirt again. After flooding rains yesterday and gusting winds today I will just have to wait. I have always started planting my vegetable garden in mid-March so I am really inching to get to work and prepare the soil for planting. The snow-peas, lettuce, carrots and beets are my first seeds to be introduced into the spring soil. But there is so much more to be gained from gardening then a harvest of delicious life-enhancing foods… harmony. After this very snowy, cold winter I could really use the reunion with the fertile mother earth and all her gifts.

There is just something about working in the soil of mother earth that can bring you into harmony with your world. Many gardens already know the stress reducing benefits of working with dirt and plants but it has gone farther then that. School principals stated that after a day where the students have been working on gardening projects that there are fewer disciplinarian problems. Students are observed working more cooperatively with others during and after these projects. Similarly convects given the opportunity to work in landscaping and gardening project also showed a decrease in hostile behavior.

It is really magical how the earth can give each different seed just what it needs to be a whole and complete food with its own special set of nutrients to give. Likewise the earth can give people the peace and harmony within so that they can be whole and complete with so much to give. So start making your plans to shed the winter stress by getting out in the dirt.

Food may not only be the newest “fashion” trend but also the environmentally proactive way to help the planet. Food has become so fashionable that while people are turning away from so many popular past trends food is still gaining popularity. In fact as book sales have declined in so many areas cookbook sales are continually on the rise. While we are eating out less we are trying to still bring that spark to our meals to make them as special as eating out. One way we are doing that is by buying fresh, organic and local when possible. This is where we become an agent for positive change for our environment. Every time we choose foods that have little to no processing and where chemicals are not need for a long shelve life we take a step forward to giving ourselves and our planet a healthier longer life.

Here is hearty winter meal using sweet root vegetables, fresh herbs and mushrooms. For me living in Pennsylvanian mushrooms are always local and plentiful.

Mushroom Stew

12 oz. seitan, broken into bit size pieces
½ -1 pound of your favorite mushrooms, mix it up, bite size
3 cups of assorted fresh vegetables, such as carrots, parsnips, zucchini, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, removed from stem or 2 tsp dried
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, removed from stem or 2 tsp dried
⅛ cup or less of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup water or vegetable stock
¼ cup of red wine

In a mixing bowl toss the first 9 ingredients to coat. Put into a baking dish. Add in the water and wine. Bake at 450° for 45 minutes covered. Remove from over-baste and return to oven uncovered for 15 minutes if needed. Serve with bread and a salad.


(Excerpts from Trish’s Dishes Copy right 2009)

Progress

The past few weeks I have been working continually to prepare my cookbook, "Trish's Dishes - Family Meals for a Healthy Lifestyle", to be submitted to the publisher. January 24, 2011 all my work was turned over to Infinity Publishing. I never would have guessed how much more goes into getting a cookbook published other then creating recipes and a lot of cooking. Who would have guessed that by writing a cookbook I would learn how to use a computer really good.I could not have done it with out the continual help and support from my daughters, Guenevere and Tonya.

Now the really hard parts starts, the waiting until I get to see the finished product. I am looking to have books available for sale Spring 2011 through Buy Books on the Web, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, pretty much everywhere.