catching up

I know I’ve been missing in action from chatting with you all but things have been hopping.

Wednesday night, we got to enjoy a rare visit with one of our kids – Kaylee and her guy, Tony. We added in Tea for good measure and all of us caught up over Papa Murphy’s pizza. The time zoomed by! Tea and I even managed to watch the last episode of Grimm after Kaylee and Tony called it a night.

Last night, it was an evening spent with mom and we did one of our favorite things – went to a cooking class! Mom and I are fiends for trying out new foods. This class was “Cooling Inflammation with Food” and it was really good. The food actually was more than good – it was fabulous. The class was taught by Karen Lamphere a local nutritionist in the area who is super knowledgeable. This is my third class by Karen and every one of them has been great. This one was packed so there is clearly a lot of interest in the topic.

 Did you know most disease is based in inflammation? That was news to me. Naturally, it means we all need to eat better (most especially me) and Karen always shares inspirational ideas. Now, truth be told, I was a bit skeptical of her menu last night. I just didn’t see how the things could come together to be good but boy was I wrong.

We had an edamame dip for an appetizer that was a lot like hummus only made from edamame beans. I gave it thumbs up. Mom plans to bring it to book club and I plan to eat most of it. Then we had salmon that she covered the flesh side with sesame seeds and then cooked in a little oil on the stove top. She topped that with a mushroom and pepper teriyaki topping that was killer. To the side she served roasted sweet potatoes, topped with grated carrots and daikon radish, with a teriyaki dressing and a sprinkle of pecans. Also killer. But the big surprise was the dessert.

 She made a strawberry tart with nut cream. The crust was almond flour and honey. Then she spread a little bit of sugar free strawberry preserves on the cooled crust. While it baked she had made the cashew “cream.” Basically it was cashews, water and some honey all ground up together in a vitamixer and then cooked on the stove to thicken it at the end for a bit. It didn’t look all that tasty and it was really hard to think it could replace one of my personal favorite things, whipped cream.

Well it did! It smoked that whip cream and sent it right out the window with a big “don’t let the door hit you on your hydrogenated oil filled whipped whiteness in a plastic bowl on the way out” kind of way! Wowzaa. She spread the almond cream on top of the preserves, then added a layer of fresh sliced strawberries, sliced it up and stepped back for the ooooos and aaahs – and the yums! It’s not a pretty dessert – you’d want to serve it to company in low candlelight — but it’s very tasty, with low sugar content and good for you ingredients.

Two things to pass along – Karen is very big on salmon and ginger for fighting inflammation. We need to eat more of both. And she is MEGA down on anything and any kind of trans fats. Big time.

Gotta run for now – it’s the weekend! Gotta get our fun on! Eat healthy!