Ingredients:
- Canned black beans
- Green pepper
- Onion
- Garlic cloves
- Egg
- Chili powder
- Bread crumbs
- salt and pepper to taste
For gluten-free, simply use GF breadcrumbs! Enjoy!
Ingredients:
For gluten-free, simply use GF breadcrumbs! Enjoy!
Gardens of Tomorrow
Philadelphia Flower Show 2025
Harry and I enjoyed our visit to the largest flower show in the world - the Philadelphia Flower Show at the Philadelphia Convention Center! The show's theme highlighted hopes for the future, Gardens of Tomorrow. As always, there was so much to see and do; we only experienced a part of the beautiful floral arrangements, exhibits, landscapes and garden designs. Ideally, one would need to attend at least two or more days to get a chance to see everything. For example, I can't believe I missed the aquaponics display by Philadelphia Lankenau school students!
The entrance, Futura Florentia, was bright pink and colorful with hanging glass balls filled with red roses under rainfall. Special effects blue and purple lighting highlighted blooming Okami cheery trees. All the walkways were wide to accommodate the large crowds of people.
Below are a few more of my pictures from the show. We saw lots of orchids and roses!
PHS Color Pop PHS Rose Rain - Futura Florentia PHS Orchid Rain
One of our favorite parts of the show has become the photography exhibit! We didn't get in this year, but admired all those who did. The photographs were terrific! This year I especially loved the still life category, and classes: 193 (Rooted - portrait of a tree - winner photo shown below), 195 (Eternal - portrait of a bird - winner photo shown below), and 197 (Contemplate - photo of a reflection in water).
Congratulations to all of the winners!
Happy Gardening!
Blog post and photos Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.
Legumes - Plant-based Protein
The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) are underway! Nutrition experts on the DGA Advisory Board have been busy over the past few years with researching the updates that aim to promote better health to prevent disease. The DGA gets updated every five years by the US government's Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture. Public comments have already been received. In fact, they received the most comments ever so far in DGA history with greater than 9,900 comments to date. Another public comment period is still open until February 10, 2025.
At the DGA last recorded meeting in 2024, the nutrition team were discussing considerations for reclassification of beans, lentils and peas from the vegetable subgroup to either their own category or perhaps to the protein food group. Personally, I think the shift to the protein food group in MyPlate would be good because it will highlight plant-based protein options.
Legumes like beans, lentils and peas are full of vitamins and minerals, especially iron, zinc, potassium, folate and dietary fiber. Legumes are also known to be sustainable foods, which is helpful for the environment; a win for public health and a win for the planet!
Below is a video about the many varieties of lentils that can add nutrition to your meals.
#haveaplant
Related Links
Scientific Report of the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines
Power Packed Proteins all about Beans
Blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.
Ingredients
Putting it all together
We used Bob's Red Mill gluten-free flours. Sift together all of the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into small cubes and add to mixer. Slowly mix with paddle until it is blended (cut) into the flour but visible chunks remain. Gradually add in cold water, mixing until the dough comes together. Stop mixing, form into a ball with hands, flatten into a 1-inch thick disc and wrap in clear wrap. Save and refrigerate until ready to use. You will notice that the dough is darker in color due to the buckwheat flour.
When ready to use, roll out like you would with regular pie dough. I roll the dough out between layers of plastic wrap. Then flip it onto a lightly sprayed (non-stick spray, we use Pam) pie plate; crimp the edges as desired. Fill with your strained pumpkin pie custard; bake as directed in Diana's pumpkin pie recipe. Allow to cool before serving. Enjoy!
Best Wishes for a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving!
Blog-post, photos and recipe Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.
Today in Our Garden
2024
This post was a long time in coming...I am proud to announce that I have completed my graduate coursework and now have a Master's in Applied Nutrition! What better a way to celebrate than to walk around outdoors with my camera!
It was great to discover a robust and healthy monarch caterpillar in Harry's meadow!! This was the first one we've seen all season. My guess is the reduction in insects could be from people's use of systemic pesticides and insect spraying. Some insect reduction could be from our hungry Mt Laurel lizards! Lizzy's like bugs but wouldn't eat monarch larva, since monarchs are poisonous.
The incredible passion vines have taken over our vegetable garden! Fruits looking like limes are now dangling all over the place.
We missed the veggie market on Saturday, but enjoyed a walk around the Burlington County Agricultural Center's community garden plots. The above pollinator photo was taken in their herb garden located near their farmhouse where they do the cooking demos.
Hopefully, my next post will be sooner rather than later!
Best for good health and happiness,
Diana
Blog post and photos Copyright (C) Wind. All rights reserved.
An Updated Systematic Review with Implications for the School Nurse and Registered Dietitian
15-minute presentation
by Diana Wind, MS, RDN
Those of you who knew Junetta, may remember that one of Mom's favorite places was Long Beach Island (LBI); especially, Barnegat Lighthouse. We had not gone since we took her there on her birthday a long time ago (before Covid) when she was still with us. Mom has been gone 4 years already. RIP mom...We always think of her when we see 'ol Barney!
Harry and I went to the shore, with our cameras, in search of seals that were reported in the news to be all along the NJ coastline. There have been more sightings early this year due to the warmer weather. Young seal pups migrate to warmer waters from New England.
Well, we did not see any seals. It didn't matter. The weather was so nice; it felt so good to get outdoors! A LBI resident told us that they only had one seal sighting on the island. I'm thinking that it may be the one that was found entangled in plastic in Beach Haven. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center rescued the sickly pup last month. The problem of plastic is another story. If we had seen any seals of course, we would have kept a respectable distance of at least 100 feet per NOAA recommendations.
Having similar color tones as in seals, we watched other shore life that at first we thought were ducks. We're not bird experts, but they look like Brant - small sized geese that breed in Canada and overwinter along the New Jersey and New York coastlines. As with many species, they are in decline. Caring for the environment and our waterways has never been more important.
We watched the vegetarian Brant feeding on sea grasses and greens along the moss-covered rocks.
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Brant |
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Blog Post and photographs Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.
Best Wishes for a
Healthy and Happy New Year 2024!
Happy New Year everyone! I'm proud to be featured in a recent Every Day Health article (link below) with my take on an RD approved Grazing Board. Grazing boards are spin offs of charcuterie appetizer boards.
Grazing boards (also called graze boards) feature a selection of nibbles that can be served to your family or guests before the main course. They can also be served after a main course for visiting family or friends.
This New Years, RD approved, grazing board features sustainable, protein-packed, legumes, namely black-eyed peas - called Hoppin' John. Black-eyed peas bring good health, joy, good luck and peace, which we all sure need more of in this world.
Ingredients for Diana Wind's dietitian approved - healthy grazing board:
Putting it all together
This is another GardenCuizine freestyle recipe, meaning that you control the portions based on how many people you plan to serve. Simple and easy!
Start with selecting a large serving board, such as a large cutting board, mirror, or tray. We happened to have a big blue plastic tray that worked perfectly.
Fancy martini or sangria glasses and short decorative glasses make good serving containers for your vitamin-rich fruits and veggies! A twisted star party necklace on the tray adds to the design.
A side fruit bowl or basket filled with bananas, apples and clementines adds even more nutrition for you and your guests. No need for junk foods at this party!
Keep leftover Hoppin' John in your refrigerator so that you will have plenty to enjoy as a meal another time over quinoa or brown rice.
Best Wishes for a Healthy and Happy New Year!
Related Links
RD Approved Grazing Boards - Check out #8
GardenCuizine Hoppin' John recipe
GardenCuizine Cinnamon Bionico Sauce recipe
Looking Differently at Charcuterie
How Beans Contribute to Sustainable Nutrition
Photo and blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.
What's for Dinner Tonight?
For deciding on what's for dinner, start with choosing the protein. Last night we selected fish, salmon. We keep our fish frozen. Once we decided on having salmon, we pulled it out of the freezer to thaw. After a short period on the counter, for food safety, we put it on a plate and into the refrigerator while we decided on the rest of the dinner side dishes.
As you can see in the picture, we served the baked sweet 'n spicy maple glazed salmon with a starch and a vegetable to balance the meal. The frozen green beans took less than 5 minutes to saute with fresh garlic and butter, and the rice pilaf was leftover, so we just had to heat and serve.
Our oven's broiler is not working right so we decided to bake the salmon. Your next decision after deciding on the cooking method is how to season the salmon. I decided on using hot pepper jelly. We had pepper jelly in jars made from this summer. Hot pepper jelly isn't really that hot; it adds just the right amount of sweet 'n spicy flavor to just about any food from corn bread to fish!
This is a GardenCuizine freestyle recipe, meaning that you don't really need to measure the ingredients. You can use any amount desired of the ingredients to your liking.
Preheat oven to 350 deg F
You'll need a baking dish with a cover
Ingredients
Putting it all together
Enjoy!
GardenCuizine Nutrition data 3 oz Salmon: Calories 175, Carbs 0, Fiber 0, Protein 19g, Vitamin B12 2.4 mcg (99% DV), Healthy Omega-3 fatty acids 2.2g (Wow! 201% DV)
Photos and blog post Copyright (C) Wind. All rights reserved.
About 10 million females and 1 million males in the U.S. battle eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia, with millions more suffering from binge eating disordersThere is hope with treatment and therapy:
Most eating disorders occur during puberty and the late teen/early adult years, however, symptoms can begin as young as kindergarten
More than one in three normal dieter’s progress to pathological dieting