Explosively flavorful fresh chocolate pudding – with added chocolate chips (absolutely add them!): It’s far better than anything you can buy in a store and about as close to chocolate heaven as you can get – and still be on this Earth.
Here are the needed ingredients – all real, nothing fake.
2 tips regarding this recipe – or any pudding recipe:
1. Cook using low-medium heat and stir the pot often making sure to scrape the pot bottom surface to keep the milk, as it warms, and cooking pudding from sticking to the pot, which both keeps the pudding from burning and makes cleaning the pot a lot easier.
2. Although they’re optional, I like adding rich dark chocolate chips to the pudding for an added punch of chocolate flavor and like adding those chocolate chips after the pudding has cooled to just warmer than room temperature so that they also add comfortably chewy texture to the pudding.
Click this link or any picture on this page for picture book directions that show how to make this fresh chocolate pudding – and enjoy!
Last post showed how to make a fully flavorful, exceptionally easy to make, highly versatile Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing. I made that dressing most recently to start a “Gotta’ Eat Smartly” series of food demos with AARP at Eastway Recreation Center in Charlotte earlier this month. That series is designed to give senior citizens the hands-on kitchen skills and knowledge they need to empower themselves to make life-promoting/quality of life improving meals.
If you’re a regular to this site – or know me personally, you know flavor rules – always! Here’s an example. Sure, we could’ve used that Instant 5-Ingredient Salad dressing on a traditional lettuce and tomato salad, but where’s the flavor fun in that? So instead, I showed the group of a dozen very engaged women how to make a Pear and Avocado Salad – and then how to improvise on that very easy base recipe. First, here’s what you need to make the base recipe – and you’ll see that we replaced a store-bought salad dressing in the top picture with our Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing.
I mentioned “improvising” above, and by improvising I mean adding or substituting ingredients based on either/both your taste and/or ingredients you have on hand – and remember, recipes are just guides. So, for example, I asked the women if they thought it would be ok to substitute or even supplement the pears with apples. Sure! And then I suggested adding adding flavors as they liked based on personal taste.
That last sentence fired up a lively discussion. “Can I add chicken or any other meat?” Yes! “What about fresh herbs?” Sure!
“What about adding potato salad?” Absolutely! And that potato salad question led to a talk about mayonnaise in potato salad and which mayonnaise brand I like. My comment: I don’t like using processed foods, like store-bought mayonnaise, with long paragraphs of ingredients, some of which are NOT found in nature. So, I improvise and substitute mayonnaise with Greek yogurt, mustard and spices.
“If you do that, then what about making homemade mayonnaise?” one of the women asked. “A friend of mine makes it all the time and says it’s easy.” Great idea! I’ve never made it before, but I’ll learn and we’ll make it together next time we’re together.
Next time is coming up fast: Thursday, February 8th – and I’ve already started practicing.
I first picked a top-rated homemade mayonnaise recipe from Inspired Taste. I then improvised a bit, as they suggested, and will need to do more of that. You know the flavor deal. I’m not rolling out my version until that flavor kicks it full-on.
In the meantime, back to the Pear and Avocado Salad featured here. Please click this link and pass it on for the easy to follow picture book recipe shown below. And remember: that recipe is just a guide. Play with it. Improvise. And, most of all, have fun!
Last post mentioned work I’ve just started with AARP (American Association of Retired People) and Eastway Rec. Center in Charlotte, NC, to help senior citizens empower themselves in the kitchen to make life-promoting foods.
The first recipe we made together was the Instant 5-Ingredient Salad Dressing shown below, which is just as incredibly versatile as it is easy to make.
First, a quick back story. The first time I ever made this recipe was with a group of fellow veterans who were turning their lives around through Veterans Incorporated (Vets Inc.) in Shrewsbury, MA. One of the guys in the group, a fellow Navy veteran – and terrific character, chimed in when I listed the seven ingredients I intended to use: garlic powder, salt, ground black pepper, mustard, honey, vinegar and oil.
“Why do we need the added salt and sugar? A lot of guys here have diabetes and/or high blood pressure. We don’t need that _____(4-letter word for “stuff”)!”
I get blunt beautifully and had to agree about the added salt and sugar. But this was the first recipe I was rolling out with these guys and first time I’d ever met them. My inner thought: “Fine, I’ll cut the salt and honey – but, boy, this dressing’s gonna’ taste like crap.”
I quickly made the dressing and asked the guys to taste a spoon of it full-on before I tasted it myself. The stunner? They loved it – and so did I.
Not only does this dressing taste great (most important), but it’s also incredibly versatile. As shown in the few sample pictures below, it goes great on any kind of warm or cold salad, over cooked vegetables, meat, chicken, fish, pasta, rice – imagination is your only limit.
Here are the ingredients needed to make this salad dressing. You’ll actually see six ingredients below because I often use two different types of vinegars for added flavor, which you certainly don’t have to do.
Click this link or any picture on this page for a complete step-by-step picture recipe that includes information about the sourness of different vinegars and why this recipe is considered low in both salt and sugar.
January 15th, 2024 Blog, Empowerment, Salads & Salad DressingsComments Off on Helping Seniors Empower Themselves to Make Life-Promoting Foods with AARP and Eastway Rec.
I’ve written this here before, and it’s entirely true; only you can empower yourself. Sure, others can help. But the best anyone else can do is provide you with the skills you need to empower yourself because empowerment comes from within. You have to feel it, own it. Once you do, ha!, you’re off to the races!
I’m now 65 1/2 years old, a legitimate senior citizen. And I’ve just started working with AARP to help fellow seniors learn the skills they need to empower themselves to make quality of life-promoting meals on their own though a program we call “Gotta’ Eat Smartly” at Eastway Rec. Center in Charlotte, NC.
To pull back a bit to the bigger picture, even though we’ve just begun, the program’s intent is to start locally, right at Eastway, to develop a proof of concept that connects directly with seniors and shows positive results. Those results include growing participation and seeing how seniors actually apply the skills they learn at our live in-person sessions and at home.
Once we do that, we can then replicate those same skill-providing techniques and use them more widely throughout central North Carolina and beyond. Like throwing a stone in a pond, it’s all about creating an enthusiastic splash that ripples out and connects with as many people as possible by providing seniors – and eventually others – with the skills they need to make life-promoting foods, foods that our bodies and mind need to function as effectively as possible, give us the foundation to live the best quality of life possible – and taste killer good!
Leftovers are the most flavorful rewards of cooking Thanksgiving dinner.
First, I hope you had a fun time and fully flavorful Thanksgiving dinner with friends and/or family.
Second, one of the best rewards of making Thanksgiving dinner yourself is all the leftovers that actually enrich with flavor after the holiday meal itself.
First, click this link or the picture below for picture book directions that show how to remove and store meat from a cooked turkey.
Here are two easy to make turkey leftover recipes, turkey nachos and turkey parmesan, intended to inspire your imagination to make fully flavorful Thanksgiving leftovers that suit your taste.
Click this link or the picture below for very easy turkey nacho picture book directions.
Click this link or the picture below for easy-to-make and fully flavorful turkey parmesan picture book directions.
Enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving weekend with full-on flavor!
Last two posts showed how easy it is to make fully flavorful fresh whipped cream and then how to boost flavor to that same whipped cream by just adding ground cinnamon. This post shows a couple ways to vary whipped cream flavor very quickly and easily – even if you’re lactose intolerant. As always here, imagination is your only limit!
Killer easy to make! As shown in the picture thumbnail sketch below,…
…just add pumpkin butter and pumpkin pie spice to the base fresh whipped cream recipe. And you don’t have to be limited by pumpkin butter. You can use apple butter, your favorite jam, butterscotch spread – anything you like to get the flavor you want.
Then if you or someone you know is lactose intolerant, here’s how you can easily switch out heavy cream with coconut cream and coconut milk to make both a basic coconut based whipped cream and then use the above ideas to vary the flavor any way you like.
The key here – as always – learn the base recipe and then use your imagination to have fully flavorful fun with it!
The other day I mentioned that I keep a vat of fresh whipped cream in the fridge. That vat went dry just after I wrote that. So, what a great opportunity to whip up a new one – and add flavor, all fun and very easily. As shown below, all I did was add a good shake of ground cinnamon (I do that all the time now) and use coconut sugar instead of regular white table sugar.
Whipping then took only 2 minutes as I’d used heavy cream right out of the fridge and a frosted glass measuring cup I’d put in the freezer over night.
You’ll notice in the last shot above that I didn’t whip the cream until it was firm enough to keep the ejected hand mixer blades standing. All fine. That’s the consistency I like, as it dissolves more easily in coffee, works great on anything else I top with it and makes it easy to pour into a “vat” I put in the fridge for easy access anytime I want it.
Click any picture on this page for step-by-step picture book Fresh Whipped Cream directions that you can vary however your personal taste desires.
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…
February 15th, 2024 
