Emergency blueberry crumble for one

Blueberries in the freezer, snow outside on the ground, and a hankerin' for something warm and sweet. What to make, that's slightly healthy but also bona fide comfort food?!

Blueberry crumble, of course! (Blueberries are a super food. Old fashioned oatmeal's not bad either.)

Based on this recipe for Microwave Blueberry Crumble (four servings), here's a version that goes together super fast and easy (less than five minutes!), can be made sugar-reduced, and is scaled to make just one serving. And if you use gluten-free oatmeal and cornstarch, it could also be gluten-free!

I'm including instructions for topping it with a bit of vanilla-flavored cream, but you could, of course, top it with ice cream instead. Depending on the severity of your emergency and the contents of your freezer.

Emergency blueberry crumble for one

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
2 t. sugar (or one Splenda packet)
3/4 t. cornstarch
2 T. old fashioned oats
2 T. packed brown sugar (or 1 T. brown sugar Splenda blend)
1 T. chopped pecans
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon and/or a wee pinch of nutmeg
1 T. cold butter (no exceptions)
3 T. heavy cream
splash of vanilla extract

Place the blueberries in a 4- to 5-" microwave-safe dish (I used the cover of an extra-wide butter dish). Sprinkle the sugar and cornstarch on top. Cover and microwave on high for 30 seconds; stir and heat on high another 30 seconds. Repeat until the blueberries are softened and the sauce is slightly thickened.

In a small bowl, stir together the oats, brown sugar, pecans and cinnamon. Cut in the butter into the oat mixture using a fork, until the mixture resembles very coarse crumbs. You want there to still be some globs of butter, though; not completely smoothed out.

Sprinkle the oat mixture over the blueberry mixture. Cover and microwave on high for 30 seconds; stir and heat on high another 30 seconds.

Pour a splash of vanilla extract into the cream; stir till combined. Drizzle over the blueberries. Grab a spoon and enjoy!

Snow Ice Cream Recipe

Okay, normally I stay away from sugary recipes, but I also believe that there are days you need to just throw caution to the wind, live life, and have fun -- i.e, eat the real stuff!

After a 14-ish inch snow here last night -- and a very fluffy snow -- I'm fondly remembering the days like this when the kids would beg me to make snow ice cream.

One caveat: Snow ice cream is not about creamy, gourmet ice cream. It's really more like ice milk. But making it is about enjoying the moment, celebrating winter, and making memories with your kids. Or the kid in you!

Second caveat: This isn't so much a recipe as it is a method. The proportions are flexible; the main thing is to add the milk (or better yet, cream) slowly, a little at a time, so you don't turn it into slush.

Third caveat: If you live in a city with significant amounts of air pollution, you should not do this. The snow  harvests smog as it falls.  :(

Snow Ice Cream Recipe

A large mixing bowl full (1 gallon or so) of snow

1/2 to 1 cup white sugar
1 T. (or so) vanilla extract
milk, cream, almond milk, etc. -- "enough"

Either place a large, clean bowl outside to collect snow while it's still snowing, or, if you forget this step, place your bowl in the fridge till it's well-chilled, then go out and scoop up some CLEAN snow. 

Stir in sugar and vanilla to taste, then stir in just enough milk/cream for the desired consistency. 

Serve right away! This stuff doesn't keep. Remember: it's about enjoying the moment!

Photo credit

Fructose is the new "Fat"

So, last night, I picked up The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won't Prevent Heart Disease and perused it in the book store. It's by an MD and a PhD, and is backed up with lots of studies. In it, the authors explain why sugar, corn syrup and anything high in fructose are so harmful to our bodies in general and especially our heart health. The quick summary: because they're processed first by the liver. (This article by the editor of Harvard Health Publications provides a quick and easy to understand summary of the subject.)

Which isn't to say that ANY fructose is bad; it's just the over-prevalence in the modern American diet that is problematic. A meta-analysis published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reached the conclusion that "obesity and diabetes rates were low when total [dietary] fructose intake was in the range of 25–40 g/d [grams per day]," adding the caution that, "Conclusions as to the safe and prudent amounts of fructose consumption will require carefully controlled dose-responses studies in different populations...."

This has prompted me to do some research on fructose found in various types of sweet substances. Here are some things I've discovered...

Here is a University of Vermont study (See Table 1) which found that higher grades of maple syrup -- those that are lighter in color -- may contain lower levels of fructose than their darker cousins.

A short list of the highest offenders, from the Wheat Belly Blog by Dr. William Davis:

Where do you find fructose? Fructose can be found in (roughly in order from worst to least):

• Agave

• High-fructose corn syrup

• Sucrose (white sugar)

• Honey

• Maple syrup

Self Magazine's incredibly helpful nutrition database has a page listing more than 700 foods highest in fructose. 

And here's the opinion of one Paleo dieter, from a forum thread on PaleoHacks:

The monosaccharide form of fructose, which is found in corn syrup, is supposed to be the most harmful. Surprisingly, the honey has about 42gm of monosaccharide fructose per 100gm serving, while molasses has about 13gm and maple syrup has about 4gm (source). So with regard to monosaccharide fructose, maple syrup would appear to be the least toxic.
However, in the previous thread on honey, studies are cited which show that honey does not have the same harmful effects as other sweeteners, and may even be beneficial. This is probably because honey is a whole food whose ingredients have complex interactions that somehow mitigate some of the possible harm from the fructose.

(Update, 3/12/13) And here's a great post on Green Lite Bites, exploring the nutritional aspects of several natural sweeteners.

Probably more info to come...

I am not a health professional and this post is not intended to be professional medical advice.

photo credit: Wikimedia

Cholesterol vs. Inflammation

What you think you know about cholesterol could hurt you.

Twenty years ago, doctors told us to stay away from high-fat foods like eggs, bacon, and butter because they raised cholesterol and could lead to heart disease.

America responded and stopped eating fat. In its place, however, we ate more sugar and other carbohydrates.

How did that work out? Not great.

As a whole, Americans grew fatter and sicker than before. Scientists back then may have reached the wrong conclusion.

As more research uncovers the role diet plays in cardiovascular disease, it’s becoming obvious that fats aren’t the only villains in the picture. Increasingly, scientists are recognizing that you should also watch out for some carbohydrates—specifically, sugars and refined grains. “I believe that a diet containing moderate amounts of saturated fat is OK, and possibly better, than a low-saturated-fat diet that is rich in sugars and refined carbohydrates,” says Ronald Krauss, M.D., director of atherosclerosis research at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute.

Now a growing number of medical experts say weight gain, heart disease, and other illnesses are not caused by high cholesterol, but by something different: inflammation.

Dr. Beverly Teter, a lipid biochemist at the University of Maryland, said scientists wrongly blamed cholesterol for heart disease when they saw high levels of it at a damaged blood vessel. Teter believes the body put the cholesterol there to fix the problem, which was actually caused by inflammation.
"It's the inflammation in the vessels that start the lesion," she explained. "The body then sends the cholesterol like a scab to cover over it to protect the blood system and the vessel wall from further damage."

Good things cholesterol does in your body:

- can protect against respiratory and gastrointestinal problems.
- helps create vitamin D.
- the brain contains more cholesterol than any other organ and needs it in order to send messages from one brain cell to another.

Foods that fight inflammation:

- that are high in Omega 3 fats
- olive oil
- avocados
- cold water fish
- coconut oil (fights colds and the flu and has even reversed the symptoms of Alzheimers, ALS and Parkinson's Disease in some people.)
- walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, and pecans.
- pumpkin and sesame seeds
- natural saturated fats (maybe; science is still sorting this one out).

Foods which, in excess, cause inflammation:

- Omega 6 fats
- vegetable oils
- mayonnaise
- margarine
- anything containing high fructose corn syrup or other sugars
- white bread, white pasta, white rice

Foods which, in any amount, cause inflammation:

- trans fats (Which is a man-made fat, and for which the Harvard School of Public Health says there is no safe level to consume.)
- any packaged food containing the word "hydrogenated" on the label.


Condensed from an article by Lorie Johnson at CBN and an article by Rachel Johnson, Ph.D, M.P.H., R.D., at Eating Well.

I am not a health professional and this post is not intended to be professional medical advice.

photo credit: Nicola since 1972 via photopin cc

Salted-caramel glazed oatmeal cookies

I love it when a recipe goes wrong, then turns into something oh so right!

One of my favorite cookies is sunflower seed oatmeal cookies. (Gibbers', too.) I made a batch today to take to a neighborhood get-together tonight, but I played with the proportions a bit too much, and they came out kinda bland. So I thought a caramel icing might balance that out.

And it did! But I couldn't just leave it at that. Since "salted caramel whatever" is everywhere these days, I thought I'd give them just a light sprinkling of kosher salt.

Perfect! The cakey/crispy texture of the cookie contrasts nicely with the gooey caramel, and they do balance each other out. That icing would also rock drizzled over banana cake, muffins, or banana-nut bread!

I can't give you the cookie part of my recipe, because I swapped Splenda for some of the sugar, just added the dry ingredient mix till it looked right, and same on the oatmeal. But the base recipe I was working from is the standard one on every carton of Quaker Oatmeal: Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I leave out the cinnamon and swap sunflower seeds for raisins.

On to the icing...

I started with a recipe on AllRecipes.com, but changed it substantially. Here's what I ended up with:

Caramel icing

covers three dozen cookies

 2 T. butter

 1/4 c. cream

 1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/2 c. powdered sugar (or less)

1/2 t. vanilla

Kosher or sea salt to taste (optional)

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Then stir in the cream and brown sugar. Boil vigorously for 1 minute.

Remove from heat, and beat in half of the powdered sugar. Cool slightly, and beat in the vanilla and the remaining powdered sugar. Taste it as you add a bit at a time; you may not need all of it. 

It sets up pretty quickly, so have your cookies all ready before you make the icing. If it gets too thick, add more cream and/or return it to low heat for a moment.

Drizzle over the cookies. Sprinkle lightly w/ kosher or sea salt, if desired.