So...whats for dinner?

Special - you're in my thoughts too.

Carole - I've found several different Rao's sauces at Target.

Carole,

I started cooking Indian food 25 yrs ago during my first chemo. I was a vegetarian when diagnosed, and as soon as I started treatment restricted my diet even further to macrobiotics. I was very thin to begin with and while doing chemo was eating next to nothing. The macrobiotic diet for BC was very strict and I found it boring. Knowing I was a vegetarian my mo asked me if I liked Indian food. I said I did and so he suggested I cook Indian food. My SIL is an Indologist and had done a lot of research and living in India. My husband had also traveled in India numerous times, so I had my SIL to start me out and then I learned form a number of older Indian ladies (one in particular) in LA. I have been cooking Indian food ever since. I learned how to do everything old school. I cook food from all regions of India. When I started cooking Indian food, the heavy greasy part was what I had always not liked about Indian food so I began cooking by using a LOT less oil in my cooking. I have always cooked "healthy" Indian food by reducing the amount of ghee, oil etc.

Purslane is a wonderful healthy vegetable wiki says...

"Although purslane is considered a weed in the United States, it may be eaten as a leaf vegetable.^[4] It has a slightly sour and salty taste and is eaten throughout much of Europe, the middle east, Asia, and Mexico.^[1][5] The stems, leaves and flower buds are all edible. Purslane may be used fresh as a salad, stir-fried, or cooked as spinach is, and because of its mucilaginous quality it also is suitable for soups and stews. Australian Aborigines use the seeds to make seedcakes. Greeks, who call it andrakla (αντράκλα) or glystrida (γλυστρίδα), use the leaves and the stems with feta cheese, tomato, onion, garlic, oregano, and olive oil, add it in salads, boil it or add to casseroled chicken. In Turkey, besides being used in salads and in baked pastries, it is cooked as a vegetable similar to spinach. In Albania it is also is used as a vegetable similar to spinach, mostly simmered and served in olive oil dressing, or mixed with other ingredients as a filling for dough layers of byrek. In the south of Portugal (Alentejo), "baldroegas" are used as a soup ingredient. In Pakistan, it is known as 'Qulfa' and cooked as in stews along with lentils like spinach or in a mixed green stew.

Nutrition

Purslane contains more omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid in particular^[6]) than any other leafy vegetable plant. Studies have found that purslane has 0.01 mg/g of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).^[6] It also contains vitamins (mainly vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol),^[7]vitamin B, carotenoids), and dietary minerals such as magnesium, calcium, potassium, and iron. Also present are two types of betalain alkaloid pigments, the reddish betacyanins (visible in the coloration of the stems) and the yellow betaxanthins (noticeable in the flowers and in the slight yellowish cast of the leaves). Both of these pigment types are potent antioxidants and have been found to have antimutagenic properties in laboratory studies.^[8]

100 grams of fresh purslane leaves (about half a cup) contain 300 to 400 mg of alpha-linolenic acid.^[7] One cup (250 ml) of cooked leaves contains 90 mg of calcium, 561 mg of potassium, and more than 2,000 IUs of vitamin A.

A half-cup of purslane leaves contains as much as 910 mg of oxalate, a compound implicated in the formation of kidney stones. Cooking purslane reduces overall soluble oxalate content by 27%.^[9]

When stressed by low availability of water, purslane, which has evolved in hot and dry environments, switches to photosynthesis using Crassulacean acid metabolism (the CAM pathway): At night its leaves trap carbon dioxide, which is converted into malic acid (the souring principle of apples), and, in the day, the malic acid is converted into glucose. When harvested in the early morning, the leaves have ten times the malic acid content as when harvested in the late afternoon, and thus have a significantly more tangy taste."

Nance,

so glad things have improved some for your SIL, it's always amazing how sometimes things can turn for the better very quickly. I hope she continues to improve. It's always good to have family near at times like that

Grand Island... oh the memories. The OMNI died in Grand Island.... oh so many years ago. We had a three month old baby and a 90 lb German Shepard collie in the back of the car. We spent too much money and time there. That was 1986... we were moving from Montana to North Carolina, broke and young. We put it all on a credit card having no idea how we would ever pay for the repairs.

Tonight, we had a Szechuan dinner. A "white" pork and water spinach with hot chills. Mighty good! I stopped at the Chinese market on the way home from yet another blood draw. I love water spinach and it just looked too beautiful to pass up. Also got some nice sprouts, Thai peppers and seeds to grown my own, fresh noodles, and some mighty tasty dried chills. So, Pho is on the menu! The stew is now in the freezer since it was clear that other "shiny" objects had taken over my attention.

New drug is approved.... will arrive tomorrow. There is a story that doesn't make my Onc's office look good.... seven days ago it was approved and I just learned this tonight. I am a little scared about all of this, but, I will pop that sucker tomorrow night cause that is my life!

Special, you are really special. You are compassionate and a really good friend. We should aspire to be as caring as you are.

*susan*

Red,

So many questions... high bush berries or wild? And how much do you pay?

*susan*

Susan - good luck with the new drug tomorrow. here's wishing minimum SEs and maximum results.

Suladog - Somehow I thought you lived in So Cal, but are you in Sonoma? I gave my son a gift cert for the Napa/Sonoma wine train last year and they loved it.

minus,

Yes I'm in Sonoma but we go back and forth to LA for work so I have my original mo there and one up at UCS

What an interesting variety of meals being prepared and enjoyed.  The mention of corn tortillas got my attention. 

Last night's dinner was pork medallions sautéed in small amt. of butter and olive oil and served with a pan sauce of chicken broth, sour cream and Dijon mustard with fresh dill from the patio.  Baked sweet potato and romaine salad with tomato, cucumber, and colored bell pepper.  Vinaigrette dressing for me and some additional Vidalia creamy dressing for dh. 

Off to the gym much too early since I had a little trouble falling asleep last night.  It's rumbling outside and looking menacing.

Susan, hope the new med is lethal for the disease and gentle on you. 

susan - sure hoping this is effective for you!

auntie - I like your recipe better than the one I have for baked tacos - thanks!  I ended up taking the path of least resistance and doing tostadas - I just fried the tortillas flat and then set up a buffet of toppings, and doing some brown rice with salsa. Sure know that DD is home since we watched a video of how to tie flies for fishing during dinner, lol!

eric - stay safe and dry!  Eeesh!

carole - I have a similar recipe for pork tenderloin - cut the pork into 1/2' slices and pound thin, then medallions are sautéed, remove from the pan, and reduce some heavy cream and Dijon mustard with tarragon in the same pan, then add the medallions back in to rewarm.  I usually serve it with red potatoes steamed and tossed with parsley, and roasted asparagus.  I am wondering if I can substitute plain coconut yogurt for the heavy cream?  Have not made this for a while and miss it!

Can anyone give me suggestions as to what kind of beverages you have. I am trying to cut out sugar so its hard to drink anything else besides unsweetened ice tea and water. Was always used to drinking Iced Coffee w/skim milk & caramel swirl, lemonade, pomegranate juice...all high in sugar. Any suggestions to satisfy the need for something on the sweet side?

thanks carolhalston... sounds like you feel the same way I do about sugar. I basically only drink iced tea and water.. but I am getting tired of it. I put lemon in the water to change it a little. I don't do any of the artificial sweeteners... it seems like everything has sugar in it..hard trying to avoid it. I think I have gone to the extreme with trying to cut everything that they say is not good for you....its hard to try and even make a meal.

Carole,

That looks very fresh and summery!

carole - your salad looks a bit Nicoise - so pretty!

I also drink water and unsweet iced tea.  I will use stevia, but no other sweeteners.  I do like the sensation of something sparkling though, so I do like the zero calorie fruit flvored selzers that do not contain artificial sweetener.  They are not sweet but I like half water, half selzer, with some lemon or grapefruit in it.  I will occasionally have a Pelligrino fruit soda and use 1/4 of it to 3/4 water with ice.

Nice light, yet plentiful salad, Carole.....but do I detect raw onions? Must be DH's plate!

TP, I also struggle to cut back on sugar, and basically now drink water for most of my meals...plain tap (or as Susan would say, "Boston's finest";)....or seltzer, unsweetened, flavored, or plain with a wedge of citrus. For the first half of the day, I also drink lightly caffeinated coffee to which I add stevia and skim milk. To make my dinner time libations more interesting, I indulge in some wine about once a week. I do think that just drinking water is the best option, but it can take some getting used to. I figure now if the food is interesting the water is just hydrating wallpaper!

Last night I finally made the sweet and sour red cabbage soup, which is so simple yet tasty. We enjoyed it with an odd pairing of a cottage cheese and bib lettuce fruit salad with a balsamic splash using many of the fruits I bought earlier this week. Carole, I bought a lb of cherries three days ago and have finished every last one!

Tonight we had marinated, grilled portabello mushrooms with some leftovers...roasted chicken, spaghetti squash, and a baby spinach salad with pear, red onion, blk olives, carrot and a mustard vinaigrette dressing.

We had a very summery day today close to 90 degrees....and DH had set aside today to clean off our front screened porch, back deck and all the furniture....a full day project. Suffice it to say, he is exhausted, and I am appreciative.

Tomorrow night we have my birthday dinner with DS2 and DGF at La Morra. Looking forward to wearing one of the new dresses I bought this year....rarely dress up in my retirement status!

Minus...are you one of the gemini twins? I know that Debbie is one...and someone else on this thread is. I will wish Debbie HB on Facebook