Toss into a blender or food processor. Pour into a glass. Add a straw.
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Senior Goods That Make Caregiving Easier
I won’t lie. I prefer other nuts like almonds and pecans over walnuts, but after I learned walnuts have several health benefits that other nuts don’t, I started using walnuts in place of pecans in many baked goods. Walnuts are cheaper, too. I also make a practice of popping a few walnuts into my mouth and putting a handful into my mother’s oatmeal each morning.
As it turns out, medical evidence suggests a daily dose of 1 - 2 ounces (i.e., a handful) of walnuts supports heart health, cuts bad cholesterol, supports gut health, and sharpens brain function, plus they may improve sleep with a natural infusion of melatonin.
Here are tips for eating a healthy dose of walnuts every day:
1) Stick with a serving (1 oz to 2 oz) to control calories. 1 oz = 14 halves. Easy enough, as we don’t tend to gorge on walnuts.
2) Eat them raw, roasted, soaked in water, or added to cereals, salads, smoothies, or yogurt.
3) Walnuts are beneficial at any time of the day, yet studies show they improve cognitive performance if eaten in the morning.
4) I find Diamond of California to be the better-tasting walnuts without any bitterness. Walmart sells this brand at a cheaper cost then its own store brand, also. I always have a 32-oz bag in my refrigerator or freezer (as well as a big bag of lightly salted almonds as snack staples)
1/2 cup white sugar![]() |
| Photo: Indiana Connection |
But guess what? There are canned foods I don't mind or like better than their fresh, or refrigerated, or frozen versions. I'll list 6 of them below.
6 Canned Produce I Like:
2) Refried beans - I see little difference in taste or texture between canned beans and dried beans you soak and tenderize yourself. With refried beans, I like the convenience, and unless you cooked a huge amount, the extra cost of buying them canned is minor. For soups or sometimes chili, I will use either canned or dried beans depending on how much I'm making.
3) Pumpkin, puree - Who in their right mind would unseed, clean, cook, and scrape the flesh out of a fresh pumpkin to use in a dish? Oh, the many steps and mess!😳4) Tomatoes, whole plum, diced, or crushed for cooking - Cheap and you have the same consistency every time when making sauces.
| Photos courtesy of Markets at Shrewsbury: Fingerling potatoes. Click the link for more potato facts. |
| Russet (or Idaho) |
| Red potatoes |
| Blue potatoes |
| Yellow potatoes |
1) Ensure (as well as Walmart's brand, Equate) Protein Drinks - Although my mother's best meal is breakfast, getting her to eat lunch or dinner is dicey! Every morning she'll have 2 eggs; peanut butter on toasted multigrain bread with a drizzle of honey; a cup of milk; and coffee, which she eats in the late mornings. It's the only real food I can count on her eating. So around 1:30 PM, I give her a vanilla Ensure or Equate protein drink. They are 11 ounces with 30 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar. Usually, she refuses dinner, instead opting only to drink a cup of milk, but with a good dose of protein early in the day, I don't fret too much. Hey, I can only make food available, the rest is on her! Btw, vanilla is her favorite flavor, so it's what I order.
3) Assurance Adult Disposable Panties from Walmart - I realize I'm oversharing, but not only is Walmart's house brand the cheapest in price, but it's also my favorite brand of all the disposables on the market. They are strong and fit like cloth panties, not diapers. The maximum and overnight absorbencies are not bulky and fitted in the leg area. They look comfortable and are invisible under trousers, and except for the material they're made of, not like wearing disposables but real panties.
4) Target's brand, Up & Up Fresh and Clean Cloth-Like Baby Wipes - I buy the 3-pack of 100 count for $5.98. Cheap in the Target store! They come in bigger quantities, but if you are not timely in using them, they'll dry up. So how many are too many in a single purchase? I haven't figured it out yet. I love the botanicals in them, but I'd buy the best-priced wipes with safe ingredients I could find.
5) Washable Waterproof Protective Pads for Beds (or Couches) - Hospitals use these thinner polyester absorbent ones, so that's what I buy. Machine wash and dry. They look good blended into the bedding, not senior or nursing home-ist at all. They are just as absorbent as the 3-layer pads but are lighter and cheaper so I think the better choice.Senior personal care items can be pricey, but these 5 are affordable and very useful. They're worth every penny! One piece of advice ... you can find many identical senior commodities sold in medical supply pharmacies selling for 1/3 less on Amazon. Always compare with Amazon before pulling the trigger.
| Photo: Cooking Perfected |
Well, I refuse to fight daily with a senior to eat her vegetables ... and I'm sorry but for her own good, she must eat a balanced diet that covers every food group. Real food + variety = good nutrition = staying healthy. I have to win this war against a refusal to eat vegetables without making it a daily battle.
Basic Smoothie for one:
Somehow I must make all my mom's personal quirks and refusals work in her favor. How do I do it? Well ... I'm not above trickery.
First I trick her into eating her breakfast while she drinks her 3 cups of coffee with milk. With 3 cups of coffee, she drinks what amounts to a cup of milk every morning, which gives her 8 grams of protein and calcium. Along with it, I serve her a 21-gram low-sugar protein bar to nibble on as she downs her coffee; and I give her dry Life (cinnamon flavored) cereal that I tell her is a food called Cinnamon Crispies.:) As she always asks for cookies while drinking her last cup of coffee, I spread 2 tablespoons of peanut butter in between 2 Digestives (or 2 graham crackers, choosing the lowest sugar grams I can find) every morning. As far as I'm concerned, it's another 8 grams of protein, the same amount a person gets by eating a peanut butter sandwich! So breakfast can be checked off at 36 grams of protein with some fiber. This leads to a subsequent problem to solve ...
As you might guess, after a late riser eats a late breakfast she's not hungry at midday, so wants to skip lunch. So how do you stop late risers from omitting lunch altogether? Naturally the answer again is ... trickery!
I resort to Greek Yogurt Sundaes, a combination of 1 - 1.5 cups of Greek Yogurt that I mix with fresh and canned fruit: whatever I have on hand, such as pineapples, peaches, pears, grapes, banana (yes, I sneak in 1/2 banana!), blueberries (other berries when you have them) and topped off with a scoop more of Greek yogurt along with 1/4 cup or so of diced almonds, pecans, and walnuts; plus dark chocolate chips. A drizzle of locally grown honey helps too (we have a beekeeper friend). Dark chocolate chips are indispensable for your covert operations! You must outsmart them, or the gig is up.
From time to time, I bet every home cook gets tired of his/her own cooking. That's when I'm open to trying a new food or dish. New York is such a mish-mash of cultures I really love it! This week I received two plantains, a staple in African, Asian, and Latin American cuisine.
To tell you how unfamiliar I am with this fruit, during my 1st year in Manhattan I bought one by mistake, thinking it was a large, oddly shaped banana. It took longer to ripen, was harder to peel, and tasted raw ... after I waited a long time for it to soften, then bit into it. Because. It was raw, and I didn't know I was supposed to cook it!😂
So flash forward to our present day. Lucky me, I got not one, but 2 plantains. One was yellow, the other green.
So this time around, I knew the plantains had to be cooked, but I still didn't know how best to do it. Well ... that's what Google is for ... to tell me how!
| Photo: AllRecipes |
The yellow one I sliced and grilled both sides in a 12" skillet brushed with extra virgin olive oil on a stovetop. I could have sprinkled it with sugar and cinnamon; instead, I kept it plain and ate it with leftover cauliflower, lima beans, and carrots. Not bad in lieu of potatoes or rice. Good in taste and texture. Yep, I'll eat it again.
Now I must figure out how to eat the 2nd green plantain. If sliced thin with a mandoline, I could bake it into plantain chips seasoned with salt, dried garlic, and red pepper flakes. Or if I wait too long and it begins to soften, as I understand it, plantains can be mashed like potatoes, or not dilly-dally and use it green to thicken soups or stews. It's a brand new plantain world in the Turner household! The spicy plantain crispy baked chips are tempting!
| Photo: BigOven |
As it turns out, plantains are a complex, starch-resistant carbohydrate that keeps your glucose index (blood sugar) in a healthy range.
They are rich in iron, vitamin C, potassium, vitamin A, and the B vitamins, as well as, fiber. Plantains naturally contain beneficial plant compounds, such as polyphenols and flavonoids (which act as antioxidants) to help fight free radicals that otherwise damage the body. Eating plantains also lowers blood pressure, reduces constipation, and prevents iron deficiency anemia. The green plantains are low in sugar. As they ripen and turn yellow, plantains get softer and sweeter but stay mild in flavor. You can use ripe plantains like bananas in baking but they don't taste like bananas although they are in the same genus Musa family.
The word "plantain" indicates the fruit is a cooking banana. In other words, the name, "plantain," itself means fruit that must be cooked. Oh, right, NOW you tell me! Not when I needed to know as a young, innocent transplant to New York City. Thanks, universe.🙂
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| Photo: The Village Voice |
Wendy's was named after Thomas' then eight year old daughter. After becoming successful, Thomas became a well-known advocate for adoptions and education, raising lots of money for both causes. He wanted to give needy children (and young adults who like himself had dropped out of high school) a hand up. In 1993, to set a good example for kids, Thomas earned his GED.