Fresh whipped cream tastes far better than whipped cream spritzed from a can or scooped from a plastic tub – and it’s both as incredibly easy to make as it is versatile to use. I love it with the “rocket fuel breakfast” you see above: on fruit pancake, with yogurt and fruit, in coffee. But, as always, imagination is your only limit!
Here’s what you need for both for ingredients and equipment – easy.
Before you get started, here’s an easy tip. Make sure the heavy cream is cold and put whatever container you’re going to use to whip the cream in the freezer until it is well chilled as shown below. The reason: cold cream and a cold container make the cream whip faster – I like that!
Please click any picture on this page or this link for step-by-step fresh whipped cream picture book directions – and enjoy!
September 6th, 2023 Blog, Empowerment, MindfulnessComments Off on Character Defines the Soul of Who We Are
There’s nothing more important to who we are than our character. By character, I mean how we behave, how we think, act alone (with no one seeing us – darn important!), interact with others, pay attention 24/7/365. You get the idea. It’s our living soul.
Now let’s amp it up a bit. I have a line: Pressure brings out true character, and it doesn’t take much of a push truly to test character. When I say that, the first finger I point at is me and, boy, there are many times I see my character needs positive work, and I work on it. That work applies both to me personally and to my brands, both Gotta’ Eat right here and Breitz! (bright, bold performance wear) because those brands and I are the same.
To notch it up even further, here’s a very recent personal example. First, the setup. I’m divorced (not a bright spot in my life and at least half my fault), I had a longterm loving relationship that dissolved (same parenthetical comment as the last one), and I’ve had a tough time meeting someone I’d like to share an active love of life with near where I live in Hickory, NC. I never thought of trying online dating sites, but others, including my wise-beyond-her-age daughter, suggested I do just that. So “never”, as incredibly, without exception, always happens to me, became “foot-on-gas, LET’S GO!”.
Now, the pressure. I started communicating with a much younger, hammer-gorgeous, smart, warm-voiced woman 3 hours away from me, who immediately influenced positive change in some of my closely held daily personal and work habits. In talking with her, I barely breathed as I recognized how well we matched up. My dear God, there really is something to those non-human, highly mechanized algorithms. Every cell in my body buzzed thrillingly harmoniously that something explosively terrific could develop. Then she said, “Can I ask you a personal question? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
Of course, I’d answer! She couldn’t get to know me without me directly answering any question she asked.
“Would you consider coming with me to Turkey to get a hair transplant?”
Faster than a sharp finger snap, wildly electric ecstasy turned to switch-on, electric chair horror. I didn’t sweat. I didn’t get mad. Thank goodness for daily mindfulness training and practice. I told her calmly and firmly I couldn’t do that.
“Why not – even for a woman who would love to love you?”
“Because I’m perfectly comfortable with how my head looks. I’ve been this way for 40 years, and it would completely change who I am.” Yes, it would change my character – and not for the positive – and that is non-negotiable.
To take that one step further – and not that I needed outside validation, but I’m visiting my stepmom now and she was near me and heard most of our conversation. Soon as I got off the phone, she asked with familiar directness, “Well, Bruce. What was that all about?” As soon as I cut to the “hair transplant” punchline, her jaw-dropped, wide-eyed, stunned silent, limp shouldered stare and barely audible “noooo” said it all.
I spoke with that same younger woman last night. It turns out there are quite a few expectation differences between the two of us, and we’ll probably never speak again. Ha! Did I really just write “never” so easily after what I said above what “never” ends up meaning to me? I won’t erase it. That, too, is part of my character. And I’m perfectly big-smile comfortable that both you and I know it!
Fruit, yogurt and more? Sure, always more! With full-on flavor – that’s half the fun of it. What you see above is what I put together to rocket-fuel up or an excellent hop on the bike with good buds this morning (below) – and with no need to refuel on the way.
You can get the base recipe I used, Summer Multi-Fruit Salad, by clicking either this link or any picture on this page.
To mix it up a bit, here’s what I used for ingredients and…
…how I put it all together – fruit first; then nut butter, cookie butter spread, jam; Greek yogurt & ground flaxseed with nutritional yeast…
The key word to an energy sustaining rocket fuel breakfast: opposition. Opposition here means counterbalancing complex instant “get up and go” energy carbohydrates with longer burning proteins and fats that provide “keep the drive alive” sustained energy.
One of my favorites that wraps that combination all in one – with full-on flavor – is fresh fruit pancake like the cherry peach pancake shown here.
The best part about this pancake is that it’s nothing like traditional spongy, syrup-sucking flapjacks. No sir/ma’am! These pancakes are rich in protein, have just enough flour to keep them together as they cook in the pan and are packed with fresh fruit. Now, you won’t picture book directions for this specific cherry peach pancake because the only difference between it and the cherry pancake picture book recipe you can get here is the added fresh peach slices on top of the pancake as shown below – and, of course, you can substitute those peaches – or cherries – with any fresh fruit you like.
Click this link or any picture on this page to get the full cherry pancake step-by-step picture book recipe, and either have that pancake exactly as shown in the recipe (though cherries might be tough to find right now) or improvise with any fresh fruit you like.
Last post, Rocket Fuel to Power Your Body in Motion, showed very much the same breakfast I had this morning before popping out for a bike ride with good Hickory buds shown below.
Most importantly, this cold drink tastes great! At the same time, it’s moderately caffeinated and provides a good shot of potassium, through coconut water, which boosts metabolism and pays off big time for any endurance physical activity: cycling, running, hiking, walking, full-on yard work – and more. (I usually drink 2 tumblers (about 20 ounces X 2) full of that drink before a ride and then supplement with water on the fly – and never come home dehydrated.)
For optimal results, I highly recommend brewing the coffee and making the chocolate mix in the evening so that it can cool in the fridge overnight for an ice cold drink in the morning.
Rockets, power, motion! Please tell me you find that “let’s go!” motivating! When it comes to fuel to power endurance exercise/any physical activity to keep your body in motion, the key is making sure to take in fats, protein, some carbohydrates and fluids – and having them all with full-on flavor.
Here’s what I had recently for the hop on the bike shown above with terrific good friends.
The fats, from whole milk Greek yogurt, whole milk kefir, almond-peanut butter and freshly made whipped cream, combined with protein from egg and whole grain flour in the fruit pancake, Greek yogurt and kefir gave me slow-burning sustained energy. The carbohydrates: a little sugar in my iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water drink, cookie spread on my pancake slice and fruit, dried fruit and jam in my fruit and yogurt mix, gave me instant energy to start my ride. And front-loading fluids with 30-40 ounces of iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water got me going well hydrated so that I just needed to top off with water while I rode, and the potassium in coconut water helped both prevent cramps and improve energy metabolism.
Of course, everybody’s body and fuel requirements are different, and only YOU know YOU. That means it’s most important to pay attention to what YOU eat and drink and how that affects YOUR physical performance, no matter what kind of physical activity YOU do. Still, though the fine details differ person to person, the base components are the same: carbohydrates for quick burning energy, a good shot of fat and protein for long-burning, sustained energy and plenty of fluids to start off well hydrated.
The next few posts, starting with iced coffee/chocolate/coconut water (killer good!), will show how to make each of the 3 pieces shown above that I have regularly – and always with a little improvised variety for flavor fun, before hopping out on the bike.
More soon!
June 22nd, 2023 Blog, EmpowermentComments Off on Only You Can Empower You!
There’s no way around it; you are the only person who can empower you because real empowerment doesn’t come from without, it comes from within. The best anyone else can do is provide you with the skills and tools you need to empower yourself. After that, it’s up to you to internalize what you’ve learned until you feel, know and behave fully empowered, which is both life changing and the most “eyes open, head screwed on tight” way you can contribute positively to life across the board: your personal relationships, your work, your community and much more.
The purpose of this site is to provide you with the skills you need to help empower yourself regarding the three foundations that make us who we are: what we eat, the need to move our bodies deliberately and rigorously and how we manage stress, with an emphasis here mostly on that first foundation, what we eat.
I look forward to interacting with you and continuing to share fully flavorful, quality of life-promoting step-by-step picture book cooking recipes…and much more – and having a lot of fun doing it!
I’m just back from a coast-to-coast cross country car/bike trip (advocating safe streets for all – more later) and love being on the road for the terrific sights, “big smile” interesting people I meet and the fun of improvising meals on the fly.
Along the way, I picked up some fresh, homemade jalapeño cheddar sausage at a small meat market in a tiny Kansas town. Before buying the sausages, I checked the ingredients.
At the time, all looked fine, though seeing maltodextrin pricked up my ears. Still, I ended up having a blast putting together a very flavorful sausage, fresh vegetable and cheese dinner bowl. As you can see in the top left picture below, I used fresh salad dressing I’d made earlier on my trip to substitute for oil that wasn’t available in my Airbnb for the night before cooking the sausages in the pan.
Later, I looked up maltodextrin. To cut to the chase, maltodextrin is a highly processed food additive made from vegetable starch and used in lots of processed foods to preserve and improve the texture/mouth feel of those processed foods. I stressed “processed foods” in that last sentence because, as noted in Medical News Today, “if a person eats too many products that contain maltodextrin, their diet is likely to be high in sugar, low in fiber, and full of highly processed foods.” (Medical News Today: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322426#which-foods-contain-maltodextrin). For what that means to you, please see the last paragraph below.
For a deeper dive, here are some bullets and links about what Maltodextrin is, foods that contain it and some potential health risks:
Maltodextrin is a highly processed food product made from corn, rice, potato starch, or wheat (again, the key words are “highly processed”, which should always give you pause) and is considered safe for human consumption as noted by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration): “the ingredient is used in food with no limitation other than current good manufacturing practice” : (https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=184.1444)
Here is a partial list of foods, also from Medical News Today and other sources, that can contain maltodextrin, all of which are processed foods:
pasta, cooked cereals, and rice
meat substitutes
baked goods
salad dressings
frozen meals
soups
sugars and sweets
energy and sports drinks
There is also unconfirmed speculation that maltodextrin, as a highly processed sugar, might play a part in decreasing good, healthy gut bacteria and encouraging the growth of harmful bacteria that can lead to intestinal inflammation and problems like IBD (Irritable Bowel Disorder). Regular table sugar can have that seem effect. (Personally, I had painful intestinal inflammation years ago, mostly due to mismanaged stress, that has been much improved by managing stress better and being vigilant about what I eat and drink.)
Bottom line, I ate and enjoyed the meals I made with the jalapeño cheddar sausages shown above. At the same time, after knowing what I know now, I’ll sure keep an eye out for maltodextrin and try to avoid it when I can – without making myself crazy (ha!).
But what about you? As I advocate regularly here, the key to eating life-promoting well is eating fresh unprocessed/minimally processed foods and always with full-on flavor – flavor ALWAYS rules – and I’m glad to help you with that right here!
Top left & right: In DC for National Bike Summit. Bottom left: riding Fiesta Island with good Navy bud, Stormin’ Walker. Bottom right: “on the fly” improvised fruit pancake.
Here’s an “on the fly” example. Was in San Diego last week at my Navy big brother’s place and made this improvised strawberry, blackberry and banana pancake for breakfast.
I’ve certainly made lots of fruit pancakes but never one with strawberries, bananas and blackberries. No big deal.
The keys to improvising are having a good, reliable, easy to remember base recipe and trusting your taste to make what you want. Also no big deal – but a lot of fun.
My base recipe for fruit pancakes: apple pancake. If you’re an apple fan at all, I think you’ll find that pancake both fully-flavor-satisfying and one that will let answer the question, “I wonder how it would taste if I made it with _______?” As soon as you ask that question – and you’re willing to take a little leap in faith – you’re off to the “on the fly” improvised races!
Almost every time I hop out on the bike, I think about what I’m going to have for lunch when I get home. That’s actually a good part of the fun while I ride.
Here’s how some of that thinking goes and what I do about it – all about putting “imagination is your only limit” to practice.
The other day, while I was out with a good group of Hickory Velo Club buds, it all started with a quiet monologue. “Shrimp’s gone. Finished beef last night. Want something quick. I do have cooked pasta in the fridge. Eggs…cheese… That’s a start…”
Here’s how I put that to action, all on the fly (aka, improvised as I was putting the dish together).
I chopped cooked pasta, cracked 3 eggs, added shots of chili lime powder, ginger sauce and teriyaki sauce to the eggs and mixed it all up.
While the pan warmed over medium heat, I grabbed a fully ripened plantain and garlic from the top of my fridge and cut and chopped them as shown below.
When the pan warmed, I added a slab of butter, swirled it in the pan to cover the pan surface,…
…and added the cut plantains and topped them with a good shake of ground turmeric and ground ginger. I let the plantains brown on both sides for a few minutes, as shown below, and then added the pasta and scrambled egg mix.
I then added chopped garlic and some sliced cheese and let that all cook until the bottom of the eggs just started to firm (about a minute).
Once the eggs started to firm up, I scooped and turned the egg mix every 30 seconds or so to let them cook cook evenly until the eggs were just about solid, and then turned off the stove heat.
I slid pan off the warm burner, let the eggs finish cooking on their own and chopped both a piece of dried spiced mango and half a small avocado.
I finished by scooping a spoon of the cooked egg, pasta and plantain into a bowl and topped it all with the cut avocado and spiced mango, a shot of parmesan cheese, salad dressing and a tiny spoon of a spice mix called Harissa (big time kick), until what I had looked like…
…this.
Killer flavor! Something I’ve never had before. And all a terrific exclamation point to a fun ride with good buds!
September 27th, 2023 
