May 1st, 2014 
Blog, Breakfast, French Toast 
Comments Off on French Toast with Nut Butter and Jam – Easy & All in Pictures 
You bet, this is easy – and darn delicious! All it takes is spreading your favorite nut butter and jam on a piece of cooked French toast either fresh out of the frying pan or warmed in the microwave to give you a topping that’s both flavorful and much more energy-sustaining that traditional maple syrup or any other straight sugar topping.
Here’s all you need.
Click any picture on this page for a very short, newly revised step-by-step picture book recipe.
April 28th, 2014 Blog, Breakfast, French Toast Comments Off on Pan Cooked French Toast – All in Pictures 
I don’t know about you, but I sure love the smell of butter, eggs, bread, vanilla extract and ground cinnamon cooking in the morning. Great stuff!
Here’s what it takes to put together fresh pan cooked French toast.
Click any picture on this page for a complete, freshly revised and more colorful step-by-step picture book recipe.
April 23rd, 2014 Blog, Vegetables Comments Off on Oven Roasted Potatoes – Easy to Make, All in Pictures 
Oven roasted potatoes are a great, less fatty but fully flavorful alternative to French fries and are darn easy to make. All it takes is a quick clean, cut, season, roast – and have at ‘em!
Just a quick word about whether to peel or not to peel the potato skins. I recommend not peeling the skins from the potatoes. Not only is peeling an extra step, but more importantly, removing the skin significantly decreases the nutrient and fiber content found mostly in both the potato skin and right below the skin.
FAO/USDA potato nutrition facts – click for link
April 18th, 2014 Blog, Breakfast, Eggs, How To & Tips Comments Off on Easy and Safe Soft or Hard Boiled Eggs – In Pictures and Video All right! Adios, snow – bring on spring! The weather’s getting better – yah! We’ve got a big holiday weekend ahead. Boiled eggs – either plain white or brightly colored – are gonna’ be centerpieces of kids’ dreams Saturday night and breakfast tables Sunday morning – and, yes, it takes a real man – or woman – to eat those eggs out of the cups you see above – all in fun.
For the easiest and safest way I know to make soft or hard boiled eggs, just click any picture on this page for a free, newly revised much more colorful Gotta’ Eat, Can’t Cook step-by-step picture book recipe, and/or check out this short step-by-step video.
April 11th, 2014 Blog, Breakfast, Pancakes Comments Off on Nut Butter, Yogurt, Fresh Fruit and Dried Fruit Topping – All in Pictures 
Last time, I showed how to make almond, quinoa and flaxseed pancakes, shown below, that are a great energy-sustaining alternative to sugar “spike and crash” traditional flapjack pancakes.
Here are the ingredients to make a nut butter, yogurt, fresh fruit and dried fruit topping that goes great on those pancakes – or any pancakes, French toast, or waffles – that’s both terrifically flavorful and provides sustained energy. As mentioned in the recipe, though I’m using almond butter (which I’ll show how to make fresh next), any nut butter will work. The same goes for the fresh fruit, dried fruit, and yogurt. It’s all about taste and imagination – and imagining that what you’re going to make is gonna’ taste great!
Click the top picture or bottom two pictures on this page for a complete step-by-step nut butter, yogurt, fresh fruit and dried fruit topping picture book recipe and/or the second picture from the top for the almond, quinoa and flaxseed pancake picture book recipe.
April 4th, 2014 Blog, Breakfast, Pancakes Comments Off on Almond, Quinoa and Flaxseed Pancake – Picture Book Recipe 
Do traditional flapjack pancakes, especially when they’re soaked or slathered with your favorite sweetener, tend to give you – or your kids – an eye-bugging, “take-on-the-world” energy spike followed not long after by a nose-diving, “UGH!” full body crash? You bet I know the feeling,..and it’s all caused by sugar.
But why give up pancakes just because of sugar? Here’s an energy sustaining, easy-to-make alternative made with ground almonds, cooked quinoa and ground flaxseed that cuts the sugar, boosts the protein – and IMPROVES both flavor and texture. You can see what they look like fresh out of the pan in the photo above. Here’s one of my favorite ways to have them with full-on flavor: topped with non-fat Greek yogurt, fruit, dried fruit and a good shot of fresh whipped cream.
I’ll put that topping recipe together this weekend and post it soon. In the meantime, here’s what you need to make almond, quinoa and flaxseed pancakes. Yah, I know: some of the ingredients might look or sound new to you, but give ’em a shot. That’s half the fun of it all. As always,…
…just click any picture on this page for a complete, easy-to-follow step-by-step picture book recipe.
March 25th, 2014 Blog, Environment Comments Off on Inviting Businesses to 16th Annual Westborough Earth Day Cleanup
It’s human nature. A clean town attracts business.
Over the past few years, more businesses (H&S Environmental, Ted’s Montana Grill, Energy Federation Inc. and Green Park Mortgage) have participated in The Westborough Community Land Trust’s annual Earth Day cleanup.
Here’s what Rt. 30 at Rt. 9 looked like before and after last year’s cleanup.
This year we’re again asking for business support for an event that only takes a few hours to complete but makes a night and day difference that lasts a full year. Please consider lending a hand on Saturday, April 26th.
We’ll have two start times: 6:30 a.m. to clean Bellows Rd. and Westmeadow Plaza, and 9:30 a.m. to clean identified sites throughout town. For more information or to report a site in Westborough in need of cleaning – or to schedule a date to participate other than April 26th that suits your needs, please contact me, Bruce Tretter, (508) 446-7790 or earthday@westboroughlandtrust.org.
March 19th, 2014 Blog, Vegetables Comments Off on How to Make a Warmly Comforting Vegetable Tian – All in Pictures 
They say spring is on the way, but, wow, it’s been biting cold both in the morning and evening here in the Northeast. And, though there’s not a lot we can do about the temperature outside, we sure can do something in the kitchen to warm us from the inside out – all very easily.
As I mention in the TIPS section at the beginning of the step-by-step picture book recipe you can get by clicking this link or either picture on this page, the word “tian” that you see in the title above is Greek for “frying pan” and is both a shallow earthenware cooking pot and a fantastically flavorful dish made with the layered, thinly sliced vegetables, herbs, oil, and garlic you see in the ingredients picture below and then baked in that same tian pot. Long sentence? You bet. Great stuff? Try it!
Been out for some great cross country skis lately right around the corner from where I live. And when I come back in, I’m soaked wet from the inside out and good to go for something darn flavorful and nutritionally sound to take a bite out of hunger.
Recently, I posted a new step-by-step picture book recipe showing how to make Sweet and Savory Power Tuna Salad… Read more »
February 14th, 2014 Blog, Fitness/Health Comments Off on Incredible Nutritional Difference: Mayo vs. Non-Fat Greek Yogurt Last post I mentioned that I’d show the nutritional difference between regular mayonnaise and non-fat Greek yogurt. Before showing that difference, though, I will say that I’ve used non-fat Greek yogurt not only as a more nutritious substitute but also as a fresh and lively flavor-enhancing alternative to mayonnaise.
Most importantly, when making this comparison – as with any other nutrition label comparison, make sure to check the serving size as circled below.
The serving size listed on the mayonnaise label is 1 tablespoon, or about 1/2 ounce. The serving size for the non-fat Greek yogurt is 1 cup, or 8 ounces. That means you either have to multiply the nutritional values on the mayonnaise label by 16 (there are 16 tablespoons in 1 cup/8ounces) or divide what you see on the non-fat Greek yogurt label below by the same 16 (1 cup = 16 tablespoons).
Below is a table comparing the nutritional values of 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise to 1 tablespoon of non-fat Greek yogurt. The difference is significant!
