In one of my textbooks Herbal Recipes for Vibrant Health, for the Basic Herbology class that I am taking to earn my Holistic Nutrition Degree, the book’s author Rosemary Gladstar speaks of a mythical Greek goddess named Cosmeos who “gave to mortals the gifts of herbs, flowers, and other simple pleasures to nourish the body…

I need to get started on the first assigned project in my Basic Herbology class, so I decided to draw upon a strategy that I used when I was studying to earn my degree in education. I prepared a dried fruit and nut/seed mixture to munch on. It seems to help me think more clearly. Last evening, I was reading…

The first snowy groundcover… so pretty, but it brought my garden prep for next year's planting to an abrupt halt. A shovel and a wheelbarrow are the only remnants of digging in the dirt on a warm afternoon one short week ago.   A hot bowl of oatmeal would have been perfect on this cold morning, but I…

I sliced into a loaf of autumn zucchini bread, that I made yesterday, to serve with stewed prunes for Dick's and my breakfast this morning. If you had an aversion to prunes as a kid, give them another go-round. You may discover that your attitude toward them has changed over the years.   Stewed Prunes…

I have all of my ingredients prepped and measured to make loaves of zucchini bread… seems like a perfect thing to do on a late September day. The colors of the ingredients even look like autumn. I found a recipe on one of my favorite recipe blogs, 101 cookbooks, which I highly recommend for nutritious recipes. (Thank you to my daughter, Lisa, for suggesting that I…

Another keeper from the 101 cookbooks blog… Double Broccoli Quinoa. It wins a "Best of Show" County Fair Ribbon, in my opinion, for the super foods tastily packed into one dish: quinoa, broccoli, avocado, and almonds. Quinoa simmers for 15 minutes while cooked broccoli, garlic cloves, almonds, Parmesan cheese, salt, lemon juice, olive oil, and milk…

This is the perfect autumn breakfast or dessert. Besides apples, pears, and dried cranberries conjuring up images of the season, there are many fall colors going on in the topping supplied by the oats, raw sunnies, and raw pumpkin seeds. And the autumn spices… cinnamon and nutmeg. What a heavenly aroma in the kitchen as it bakes! All of this… as if it wasn't enough… and there is only 2 tbsp real maple…

I think I will just move all of the recipes on the 101 Cookbooks blog over to my site. Ever since my daughter Lisa told me about cookbook author Heidi Swanson's blog, I have loved her "natural whole foods vegetarian" recipes so much! In 2003, Heidi vowed to curb her urge to buy more cookbooks and begin to try new recipes…

There is an autumn feel in the air… just the day for pumpkin pancakes topped with chunks of perfectly ripe pears and a drizzle of real maple local syrup.    Pure autumn bliss…   Pumpkin Pancakes Whisk 1 ¼ cups flour (I used stoneground Gold N White flour), 2 tbsp sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp each cinnamon,…