Saturday's Breakfast Courtesy of Simple Food

My senior Mom and I ate this dessert from Simple Food for breakfast. As I anticipated, it was too chewy to satisfy a cake or brownie craving. I'll post Simple Food's video below so you can see how easy it is to make and why I was so tempted to try it. 

Note: I don't let FB track my or your activities. Click here to watch if you don't wish to give FB such permission. 

Ingredients:

For the Cake --

1 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup warm milk

2 eggs

a pinch of salt

2 smashed bananas

4 tablespoons of cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

I added 1 scoop of Premier protein chocolate powder to the recipe.

For the Topping --

Dark Chocolate and walnuts 

We're not in my kitchen today so we didn't have a loaf pan. I used an 9" x 9" square baking pan and surprisingly got  more pastry than expected. I used butter flavored cooking spray, and it lifted out cleanly.

After baking, I let dark chocolate chips melt on top of the pastry while we waited for it to cool enough to eat.

Here's my review: If you crave a piece of cake or a brownie, skip this recipe. If you're trying to eat a bowl of oatmeal and want to dress it up, then wait about 40 minutes for it to bake, go for it!

Although we had no problem eating it (we were hungry waiting!), and it was nutrious, I doubt I'll make it again. Either I'll eat a bowl of oatmeal or have a piece of cake. Sometimes you can't have it both ways.

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What I'm Feeding My Senior Mom

Photo: Canadian Digestive Health Foundation

My Mom relies on me to make her food choices, but honestly, I liked it better when she had an appetite and all her faculties, and if she didn't eat, or eat healthily, it was her choice as an adult and not my problem. I should add that younger, she prepared and ate healthy meals. Now it's my job to plan and cook for her.

I support eating a healthy diet, and I also pity her because it's sad to grow old and lose your independence and appetite. She must follow my rules, and I can be an enforcer if necessary.:)

The following are my caregiver rules:

1) She must eat at least 2 meals a day! In her adult life, she never ate lunch, so I have to work with her lifelong habit and pack her nutritional requirements into 2 meals a day. But after I've done so ...

2) She must eat her dinner. Breakfast is never a problem. Too often she claims she's not hungry for dinner, but I tell her she must eat one. She's lucky to have someone in her life who is mean. Me! It is something a nursing home aide cannot do ... tell a senior she must eat food. In a nursing home, the meals roll in and out, eaten or not, often by separate aides.

3) She must eat the amount of protein her body requires daily and a variety of fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, as much as I can get her to eat with her reduced desire for food. I use skim milk and 4 ounces of fruit juice (no sugar added) to help meet her dietary needs. According to the National Library of Medicine, older adults may benefit from consuming 1.2 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (or 0.54 to 0.9 grams per pound). This is in line with what other medical sources recommend. Three glasses of skim milk a day help get the job done! Eggs, too, are an easy-to-eat light meal.

3) No overloading on sugar. Everybody should eat a healthy diet, young, old, or in-between. Sugar is a treat, not a staple. In fact, sugar is bad for all of us and addictive. Many of us like sweets, but if a senior has arthritis, sugar causes inflammation, resulting in more painful joints. We cut down on sugar, eating it in moderation only: A row of dark chocolate, 2 cookies here and there, birthday cake, Christmas cookies, one portion of Halloween or Easter candy. So we don't feel deprived. I'm also a believer in the less sugar you consume, the less you crave it. Finally, it's as easy to like healthy food as unhealthy food. Cherries, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, and apples are all delicious snacks! Ditto for vegetables and a healthy dip such as spicy humus!!

A fortune in eggs.😳

It's payback time for both my mom and me. Once upon a time, she was the enforcer ensuring I didn't overload on sugar and ate a balanced diet, and now our roles are reversed. The egg has become the head chicken and enforcer. Be careful of the values you instill in your children. Chickens come home to roost!🐣😁

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Toffee

Both toffee photos: iStock

Although I cook and bake, I'm not a candymaker. Making candy is more precise and sometimes more dangerous than either cooking or baking. The mixture of ingredients gets very hot, 1st degree burns hot if it accidentally splatters on your skin! Because making candy is more exacting there's also a higher degree of disappointment and failure!

That said, I like toffee and will make this recipe if nobody else steps up. Sometimes called Christmas Crack, my family never consumes it for Christmas, but at other times of the year:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Toffee

Ingredients:

40 Saltine Crackers

2 sticks of butter (= 1 cup)
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter (= 6 ounces)
16 ounces chocolate chips

A garnish of your choosing - See below.

Directions:

1) Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. (Before parchment paper, a greased sheet of aluminum foil was used). Lay the saltine crackers side by side on top of the parchment paper. Set aside to make the toffee.

2) In a saucepan melt the butter and sugar on medium heat on the stovetop. Stir until the mixture begins to boil. Next, let it simmer for 3 minutes without stirring.

3) Pour and spread the very hot toffee mixture evenly over the crackers then transfer to bake in a preheated 400-degree F oven for 5 minutes or until bubbly.

4) Remove the toffee from the oven, then spoon dollops of the peanut butter evenly over the toffee. Place the tray back inside a hot oven for a minute to help melt and spread the peanut butter over the mixture.

5) Top with chocolate chips. Place the tray back in the oven for another minute to melt and spread the chocolate.

6) Sprinkle the top with any of the following if you wish: white chocolate chips, chopped peanuts, or a sprinkle of sea salt.

7) Freeze the mixture for 1/2 hour or refrigerate for a couple of hours to firm up the toffee.

8) Break the Chocolate Peanut Butter Toffee into pieces. At last, it's ready to eat!

I don't know who added peanut butter or re-named the confectionary treat Christmas Crack, however, it bumped the toffee up a notch to decadence! I prefer it topped with chopped peanuts, but many others like a sprinkle of sea or kosher salt. You decide.

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Merry Christmas Everyone

Adoration of the Christ Child (1620) by Gerard Van Honthorst at The Uffizi Gallery in Florence Italy

Merry Christmas from THE SAVVY SHOPPER. I hope the week fills your life with love, peace, and joy. Whatever your faith tradition is or wherever you live on our globe, everyone is equally valued here, where we can share or learn about each other's cultures and holidays.

Inside my kitchen for Christmas ...

I made a Kentucky bourbon fruitcake (with walnuts, pecans, dried apricots, pineapples, cranberries, raisins, frozen cherries, and fresh blueberries). I baked the cakes the first week of December and have been soaking them with bourbon every few days, aging our treat for Christmas Day.

Know that I baked all these cookies in 2024, then returned to older blogs to switch out the Google images I originally posted, so don't be confused.:)

Four batches of cookies will do this year - Springerle, Scottish shortbread, pecan cookies, and coconut macaroons are enough for family, friends, and building staff.

We're keeping Christmas 2024 low-key. I'm happy to spend it with my senior mother and whoever drops by for homemade low-fat eggnog and treats. During Christmas week I'll walk with a friend down to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree but plan to stay close to home.

A neighborhood friend has her heart set on making us chicken coq vin as a Christmas dinner which we'll gladly accept. Usually for Christmas in my childhood home, my mom made a roast beef dinner. She grew up eating a stuffed roasted goose for Christmas but didn't carry on the tradition of serving any special meal. On December 25th, we simply ate a hearty balanced dinner often roast beef with either potatoes or 

Kartoffelklöße (potato dumplings), gravy, vegetables, and a salad with a loaf of grainy rye bread heated in the oven. It's still one of my favorite meals although I don't eat as much red meat as I did growing up since it's no longer doctor-approved. How we stayed healthy in the past is a mystery.:) 

In celebrating Christmas around the world ... or just joining your friends who do🎁👑🎄: 

Merry Christmas in 25 different languages

• Arabic: عيد ميلاد مجيد (Eid milad majid)
• Chinese: 圣诞快乐 (Shèngdàn kuàilè)
• Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest!
• Farsi: کریسمس مبارک (Krismas Mobaarak!)
• French: Joyeux Noël!
• German: Frohe Weihnachten!
• Greek: Καλά Χριστούγεννα! (Kalá Christoúgenna!)
• Hawaiian: Mele Kalikimaka!
• Hebrew: חג שמח (Chag Sameach!)
• Hindi: क्रिसमस की बधाई (Krisamas Kee Badhaee!)
• Irish: Nollaig Shona!
• Italian: Buon Natale!
• Japanese: メリークリスマス (Merī kurisumasu)
• Korean: 메리 크리스마스 (Meli keuliseumaseu)
• Latin: Felix Nativitas!
• Polish: Wesołych Świąt!
• Portuguese: Feliz Natal!
• Russian: С Рождеством (S Rozhdestvom!)
• Spanish: ¡Feliz Navidad!
• Swahili: Krismasi Njema!
• Swedish: God Jul!
• Tagalog: Maligayang Pasko!
• Turkish: Mutlu Noeller!
• Vietnamese: Giáng sinh vui vẻ!

If your native tongue isn't on the list, please add it in the comments below. May the season's goodwill touch the world and last in the hearts and deeds of people throughout the year! 

Merry Christmas Everyone!🐑🐪

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White Poke Cake Made Two Ways

Photo: Tasteful Recipes from Facebook

I haven't made a White Poke Cake -- once upon a time called an Angel Food Cake -- in years but this one is perfectly festive as a Christmas dessert, plus with an alternate custard topping it's suitable for the rest of the year. Perhaps I like the poke cake because I love custard pudding!

The recipe for the Christmas version, which is circulating on Facebook, uses cake mix, however, I never, ever buy cake mix. In my home, the rule is if you eat cake, either buy a good bakery cake or make one yourself. Every cake that enters your piehole must be worth its calories!!

For sure making a cake from scratch is as easy as opening a box of cake mix:

Ingredients for the White Cake Batter

½ cup butter softened
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large egg whites, room temperature
½ cup milk, room temperature
1½ cups all-purple flour (I never buy cake flour, but you can.)
2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

1) With an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.

2) Add the egg whites.

3) Pour in the milk and continue mixing.

4) Follow with the all-purple flour and baking soda.

5) Next pour in the vanilla and almond extract.

6) Bake in a prepared buttered 9-inch square baking pan in a preheated 350-degree F oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until the center is firm.

7) Remove the white cake from the oven. Let cool and remove from the pan while still warm. Next, sit aside to cool completely.

You could make a topping for this White Poke Cake any number of ways, but I'll give you two options. The first cranberry topping is festive for Christmas:

I. Cranberry Poke Cake Topping🎄🎁🔔

ingredients:

14 oz of cranberry sauce - either homemade or canned

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup sugar if it isn't already sweet (taste it and judge.)

Directions:

Simmer the ingredients in a stockpot on the stovetop until smooth and uniform in consistency. You'll pour the cranberry topping over your white poke cake (see #4 below).

The 2nd topping is for the rest of the year:

II. Vanilla-Almond Custard Poke Cake Topping🥛🥚🥛

Ingredients:

4 cups of milk

Photo: iStock

4 egg yolks

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

1) Toss the milk, eggs, sugar, and flour into a stockpot on the stovetop and whisk together. [FYI: I get a smoother custard by blending these ingredients cold.] Stir occasionally while the mixture is heating up.

2) Bring to a boil and on medium heat continue whisking while simmering until the mixture thickens into a custard.

3) Near the end, add the vanilla and almond extracts and stir. Turn off the heat.

4) With a fork poke holes in the top of the cake. Pour your topping of choice on top of the cake. [I've never combined the cranberry and pudding toppings, but if I did I'd use straight cranberry sauce without thinning it with water on top of the custard which I'd pour into the holes of the cake first.🐪🐑]  

At Christmastime, you can use your 4 leftover egg yolks to make my pecan cookies, which I linked, or save them for a breakfast omelet. Waste not, want not.

5) Finish the cake with a dab of real whipped topping if you wish. The sweet creamy goodness only improves the cake.

Bon appètite!

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Christmas Fruitcake

November is the perfect time to prepare for Christmas.🎄 This week, I've ordered nuts and dark chocolate chips to have on hand to bake cookies. Buying a few items at a time is the way to do it. Planning and making lists equal calm.

The following recipe is a David Parke share. David Parke is a Facebook friend of mine from the United Kingdom, who retired after years of serving on Queen Elizabeth II's staff. I have no idea what position he held and haven't had the pleasure of meeting him in person, but he uploads very tempting recipes. My classmate, a romance author, makes the best fruitcake ever found here, but it requires lots of Kentucky bourbon and weeks of time. My in-person friend has so many requests for her fruitcakes, she began selling them.

If you don't order or make hers, try this one uploaded on Facebook by David Park:

Christmas Fruitcake

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

1 1/2 cups mixed dried fruits (raisins, cherries, apricots, and cranberries)

1/2 cup candied orange peel

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1/2 cup dark rum (or orange juice for a non-alcoholic version)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp allspice

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup buttermilk

Optional Glaze:

1/4 cup apricot or peach jam, warmed

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1-2 tsp milk (adjust as needed for consistency)

David's directions as quoted verbatim ...

"Instructions:

1. Prepare the Fruit Mixture --

In a bowl, combine the mixed dried fruits, candied orange peel, and nuts. Pour the rum (or orange juice) over the mixture, cover, and let it soak for at least 2 hours or overnight for the best flavor.

2. Preheat the Oven and Prepare the Pan --

Preheat your oven to 325°F (160°C). Grease and line a 9-inch loaf pan or round cake pan with parchment paper.

3. Mix the Dry Ingredients --

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice in a medium bowl. Set aside.

4. Make the Batter --

• In a large bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract.
• Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, alternating with the buttermilk. Stir until just combined.
• Fold in the soaked fruit and nuts and any remaining liquid.

5. Bake the Cake --

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 60-75 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

6. Optional Glaze:

For a festive glaze, mix the powdered sugar with milk until smooth. Brush the warm jam over the cake, then drizzle with the powdered sugar glaze.

Details:

Prep Time: 20 minutes (plus soaking time)

Bake Time: 60-75 minutes

Total Time: 3 hours (including soaking)

Servings: 8-10 slices

Tips:

a) Storage: Wrap the cooled cake in plastic wrap, then foil, and store in an airtight container. This cake tastes even better after a few days!

b) Flavor Boost: Brush the cake with additional rum or fruit juice every few days for extra moisture and depth of flavor.

This Christmas Fruitcake Delight will bring a taste of the holiday spirit to your table. Each slice is packed with festive flavors and warm holiday memories—perfect for a cozy winter celebration!"

I aim to make this fruitcake (for Thanksgiving?). It looks sensational! Hmm, I must grab some dried fruit while shopping for my weekly groceries. Nowadays for Christmas, I prefer confections that aren't super sweet yet have other flavors and textures creating a party in your mouth! Like European cakes and pastries, call them adult sophisticated sweets if you will!

Thanks, David Park, for the share!

Update, December 1: I substituted Marker's Mark Kentucky Bourbon for dark rum because my rum wasn't dark rum. I used pitted frozen cherries instead of dried cherries (much cheaper!), a tablespoon of grated orange rind with a squeeze of orange juice instead of candied orange rinds. To make up for the skipped 1/2 cup of candied rinds, I added 1/4 cup of fresh blueberries and 1/4 cup of dried pineapple, which I cut into small pieces. Walmarts and pecans went in (about 1 1/4 cups together). I also soaked the nuts and fruit for hours in the bourbon before making the cake. Tweaking the recipe works as long as you keep the ratio of the dry-to-liquid ingredients. I added 5 more tablespoons of all-purpose flour since my cherries and blueberries were wet, not dried.

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Old Navy's Sweater Dress Is Perfect For A Breezy Home

My mom lives in a warm house but due to high ceilings, it can get a little chilly in winter. Old Navy's Sweater Dress is perfect to wear during the colder months so her home's thermostat doesn't have to rise above 72 degrees F, keeping her gas and electric bills reasonable (though not cheap).

In her senior years, too many layers can get too heavy and cumbersome, restricting her moments or causing her to fall. This is a one-piece, knitted dress that wraps around her like a soft warm sweater. It's 56% cotton, 25% polyester, and 16% nylon. I bought her the dress last year in a light tan color and hoped Old Navy would bring it back this year in new colors ... which they did! She loves wearing shades of red, so I ordered her dress in cherry bark.

I highly recommend buying clothes for seniors at Old Navy, and unless there's a medical reason, skip those senior apparel websites. They tend to be greatly overpriced and unfashionable. If you dress old in garments resembling sweats and pajamas, you start to feel ancient and feeble. My mother likes fashion and wants to maintain the same dignity she had at ages 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, etc. 

Old Navy offers cute comfortable clothing that looks appropriate for every decade of a person's life. The sweater dress isn't too loose or skin-tight, but just right to flatter most body types. Moreover for everybody, they are easy to put on and take off, as well as, to care of by machine washing and drying them.

With a promotion code, I just spent $22 on her new lovely durable sweater dress. It sure beats paying $70+ for a sweats-pajama-house dress that nobody ever called fashionable!

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Protein Cookies For Breakfast

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Protein Cookies For Breakfast

Today I'll share two recipes, one for a senior and another for everyone else. First up: For breakfast some mornings I make a hot bowl of cereal for my senior mother. In her cereal, she gets 1/4 cup of 1-minute oatmeal, an overflowing tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter, about 1/4 cup of milk, and sometimes 1/2 banana. Microwave it for 2 minutes and after it cools but is still warm, I dice a Pure Protein Chocolate Chip bar and mix it in. She gets protein vitamins, and fiber but is none the wiser that she's eating a healthy breakfast as it tastes and smells like a cookie! According to her, she doesn't eat breakfast.🙂

Here's how you can turn it into a real protein cookie to eat for breakfast, or anytime you need a cookie. If you're not a senior who's a picky eater, you don't need the Pure Protein bar 😉 --

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies (a complete protein)

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups oatmeal flakes

1 cup of crunchy peanut butter

1 large ripe banana, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla

a pinch of salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

a sprinkle of nutmeg

1/4 cup honey

2/3 cup dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips

Options: (1) 1/4 cup of raisins - I add raisins to keep the cookies moist longer. You could puree them before adding. (2) Although we're not dried fruit in cookie fans, you could use other dried fruit if you like. (3) If you wish to chop 1/2 cup of nuts like walnuts, pecans, or almonds, feel free to toss them into the batter. (4) A couple teaspoons of flax seeds is another healthy choice.

Directions:

1) In a mixing bowl, mix all your ingredients, one by one, together.

(2) Refrigerate the batter for 1/2 hour or more.

3) Drop a tablespoon size of batter onto a buttered foil-lined cookie sheet about 1 inch apart. Flatten the top if you wish.

4) Bake at 375 degrees F for 12 - 14 minutes or until they are slightly golden brown.

5) Remove and let cool before serving.

Protein cookies are for people who don't eat breakfast.🙂

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