Korean Purple Radish

While teaching cooking classes, several students have said they like to

go to H-Mart and just randomly pick a fruit or a vegetable and try it,

and if they like it... they simply buy more and find recipes for them.

What's nice about H-Mart  is that they carry many vegetables you might

not normally see in other supermarkets. 

H-Mart carries the "Korean Purple Radish"

These purple radishes are nice to eat as a snack due to the fact
they are not as spicy or strong like the way most radishes are.
They are purple on the outside and almost  tie-died  looking on the inside.
Talk about cultivating an standard white radish/daikon.

The word Daikon actually comes from two Japanese words:" 
Dai" which means- large and "kon" which means root.  

Both radishes and daikons are rich in vitamin C,
and they contain natural active enzymes 

that aid in digestion, especially of starchy foods.

Ice Cream.. Sandwich... Cake...?

Yup, ice cream sandwiches as cake.
Simply take ice cream sandwiches and layer them
into a cake pan- and spread vanilla or which ever flavor
ice cream you prefer around it and decorate it as
you would a regular cake.

If you don't need to make a full cake-
you can also take 2-3 ice cream sandwiches
(depending on how many layers you'd like)
and make a smaller cake. 
Lay 1 ice cream sandwich on the middle of some
aluminum foil (make sure the foil will be large enough
to wrap around all 2-3 ice cream sandwich plus more.)
Layer some ice cream on top of the ice cream sandwich
with a spoon or a spatula followed by your favorite topping
of oreos, m&ms, crushed nuts, etc... and of course
your 2nd ice cream sandwich and then another layer of
ice cream etc... After all your layers are done fold the aluminum
foil completely around the ice cream sandwich cake folding it
into a rectangle so the ice cream plus ice cream sandwiches
becomes one solid rectangle as it freezes up nicely together
into a nice rectangle of cold sandwiches- cake! 
When you're ready to eat it, you can slice it like you would
a cake and you have layers that were easily created with
the ice cream sandwiches.

Hollandaise Sauce

Hollandaise Sauce is that yellow creamy sauce often served with 

Eggs Benedict or often associated with asparagus.

When the sauce is properly made- it should be smooth and creamy and show

no signs of separation in the ingredients.  The flavor is rich and buttery with

an ever so light hint of tang from the lemon juice.

It is best served warm rather than steaming hot.

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup butter (unsalted preferred)

4 TBS boiling water

2 TBS of fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp  salt

1/4 tsp cayenne (substitute a splash of hot sauce)

Procedure:

Heat the butter until it gets hot and foamy BUT NOT browned. 

In a small bowl- whisk your egg yolks with the lemon juice, salt & 

cayenne (you can substitute a splash of hot sauce for the cayenne).

Once that is all mixed, gradually beat in the butter then water.

Take the well beaten mixture and put into the sauce pan on VERY LOW heat

until it is slightly thickened. 

Serve immediately or you can leave it in a bowl

sitting in another bowl of warm water for up to 30 minutes.

If you want to fancy it up- add some chopped parsley for a garnish.

Detox

I think one of the most commonly known
detox diets is the "Master Cleanse" otherwise known as
the Lemon Detox. It mainly consists of drinking cold water
with fresh lemon juice, 2 TBS of pure maple syrup and a dash
of cayenne. I'm not saying this detox diet doesn't work-
but it's kind of hard to do if you work, need to go places, etc...
(you need to be near a bathroom)
it also dehydrates you and can make you dizzy since your body
isn't eating food during the diet- if you're doing it correctly that is.

I've found another detox drink that allows you to eat while
dieting/detoxing. The pros are obvious and the only major con
is getting used to the taste at first. This smoothie recipe actually
cleans out & detoxes your system without having to starve yourself.
It's a great colon cleanse and really good for your digestive
system as well. You drink this smoothie preferably in the
morning but basically once a day. It detoxes your system and
you still eat while drinking this green smoothie.
You might think how can it detox your body if you're still
eating...? If you're really motivated to detoxing your body,
that usually means you are thinking about shedding some pounds,
so you will start to watch what you eat and it does
clean your system,.... literally.

The recipe below is for 2 large servings...

Ingredients & Procedures:
Blend the lettuce first with the water to break down the lettuce
followed by the other greens and then adding the fruit last.
You ultimately want to try to not have the fruit in there if you can-
but let's just say it tastes really green. If you could taste colors,
you could say this green smoothie really tastes green.

3/4 - 1 cup of cold water
3/4 (little less than the whole head) of romaine lettuce
(you can substitute any green leafy vegetable if you need to)
3 stalks of celery
1/3 bunch of cilantro (you can double the parsley if you despise cilantro)
1/3 bunch of parsley
2 apples
1 banana
juice from 1/2 a lemon

Let's Not Take WATER -

Let's not take WATER for granted.
Without getting into the technicalities and science of water-
We obviously need water for many things.

I used to buy Deer Park spring water bottles by the cases all the time.
I would have so many plastic bottles to the point of foolishness.

I came across this water bottle that is very cool.
You can get the one for hot beverages or for cold water
(non thermal) I've purchased the one for cold water and
realized how much I save on plastic water bottles being
everywhere and saving by filling up on the filtered water
from my sink. Water bottles make it easier to use if you're
taking it with you in the car, an outdoor event, to the library,
bookstore etc... You can use any bottle you'd like BUT...
if you purchase one from water.org
100% of the money you pay for the water bottle goes to
help provide safe drinking water to developing countries.

Water.org is a "U.S.-based nonprofit organization committed
to providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people
in developing countries."
-founded by Gary White and Matt Damon.

Jambalaya

Jambalaya was started from the French Quarter in New Orleans.
It was attempted by the Spanish to make "paella" in the New World.
Paella has saffron it it but due to the unavailable import costs- tomatoes
were heavily substituted and as time past, Jambalaya became the New
World paella. In Louisiana today, there are many varieties of this dish,
Creole, Red and Cajun just to name a few.
Below is a simple recipe for general Jambalaya.

I usually make chicken, shrimp and sausage Jambalaya but you
can substitute any meat or no meat or tofu even!

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast
shrimp (enough for maybe 4-5 per person)
2 medium (or to your liking) sausage links
S & P (for the salt- I recommend Old Bay season salt)
oil to fry
1 onion chopped
1-2 cloves of minced garlic
half of a bell pepper (I like to mix 1/4 of a red & 1/4 of green)
if you like it very spicy-you can add diced hot peppers)
2 stalks of celery cut about 1/2 inch or so
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup long grain rice
1 can of stewed whole tomatoes
S & P (heavy on the P!)
1/4 fresh parsley or scallions
drizzles of hot sauce (to your liking)

Make Hot Crab Dip...

Ingredients:
1 container (8oz) fat free cream cheese @ room temperature
1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream
splash of hot sauce (frank's or to your liking)
1 clove of garlic minced
juice of half a lemon
2 TBS parsley (fresh chopped preferred)
S & P (salt & pepper) to taste
1 can of crab meat (about 120z)
2 scallions thinly sliced

Procedure:
Grab your favorite saucepan and start by stirring the
cream cheese and sour cream together on medium low heat.
Once it all mixes together and gets smooth, add your
splash of hot sauce and S & P. Lastly, fold in the crab meat,
lemon juice, parsley and scallions into the base of the dip,
all in your saucepan. Heat all together for about 3 minutes or
so and then place into your favorite dip bowl/plate.
Good to serve with bread or crackers. Stick with multi-grain or
whole wheat to keep with the healthiness of the fat free
sour cream and cream cheese.

You want to serve this immediately... so you can
heat this 5-10 minutes before you actually eat it.

Smoothie Ready To Go!

As the weather starts to get warmer...
nothing is healthier tasting than a good
smoothie. If you're a morning person, smoothies
for breakfast are great and even if you are a evening person
smoothies can be enjoyed as an after dinner treat as well.
Most smoothie recipes call for ice so they are cold. No one
wants a warm smoothie... right?

Here's a tip- go to your farmers market, super market,
garden- wherever you get your fruit from and cut them all up.
They don't have to be cut pretty because they will be going
into the blender anyway. After you cut them all up and mix them
in a big bowl, stuff your little zip lock bags full of fruit... mixing
some veggies is really great too! For example: adding carrots
to a smoothie is excellent. Once you've filled all your zip lock bags-
put them into the freezer. Whenever you are ready for a smoothie,
they are ready for you on the go. Once you've taken a bag out of
the freezer, due to the fact that is is frozen solid- you can either
microwave your bag of goodies for about 45 seconds - 1 minute
or place the frozen bag in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes or so-
just so that the blender is a little happier rather than a big block and
because it's already frozen- you don't have to add any extra ice.
You will probably need a little liquid to make it not as thick and
that can easily be done by adding a little bit of orange juice or apple juice!

Cutting What?

What kinds of things have you cut on your cutting board?
How many wet things has your cutting board touched?
Cutting boards can get really dirty...
deep down where we can't even really see.

I've heard many people say the best basic way of cleaning
a wooden cutting board is to use 1 tsp of bleach in a
gallon of hot water and scrub away. The negative to that is-
many times your cutting board has that bleachy smell.

Let me share a way that smells way better but also cleans
really well, AND gets any stains out of a bamboo cutting board-
stains that get acquired from cutting green herbs, red spices etc...
Sprinkle a little sea salt, especially on the stained areas,
cut your lemon in half and rub it all over your cutting board
pressing down a little bit. Then let it sit for a while- 30 minutes
if you can - the longer the better and then rinse it with hot water.
Once your done rinsing... your cutting board is clean from
visible stains and clean deep down where you can't see AND
it has that fresh lemony scent.
Win, win.

"Jiffy" Mix

After you've finished your peanut butter, rinse it out well and save
the jar and the LID. It works really well when it comes to mixing your
dry ingredients in a "jiffy". Simply measure out your ingredients
into the jar, put the lid on and then shake away.
It's great because there is no dust, no mess, no extra bowl to wash
and you already bought the peanut butter, use it as double duty!

Light, Regular, Nonfat, Greek, Frozen...

Yogurt.
What exactly is yogurt and what's the difference between them all?
Yogurt is a dairy product that is made from fermenting milk
with a bacteria. Good bacteria of course- otherwise known as
yogurt cultures. Generally speaking, lactose (sugar found mostly in milk)
is mixed with the yogurt cultures and then it produces lactid acid-
which acts on milk protein to give it- it's texture and it's slight tang
in plain yogurt before all the fruit, nuts and fancy things are
added to or with it.

Cow's milk is most commonly known in making yogurt but, yogurt
is also made from water buffalo, goats, sheep, yaks and camels.
There is also non-dairy yogurt typically known as
Soya Yogurt which is made from soy milk which is
made from soy beans.

Dairy yogurt is made by heating the milk to first kill off any
bad bacteria- followed by the milk being cooled and then the bacteria
(cultures) being added for the fermentation process which can be
anywhere from 4-7 hours.

As far as the light, regular and nonfat types of yogurt...
those are obviously determined by the type of milk that is used,
whole milk, skim, etc...

Sometimes a stabilizer, like a gelatin might be added to
ensure firmness usually which is referred to as "blended" yogurt-
most commonly known as custard like the ones served at
Rita's Water Ice  www.ritasice.com  or other water ice shops.

Greek yogurt is made slightly differently-
it has been filtered out by a cloth or filter and has a higher
culture content than the average yogurt making it slightly
thicker and healthier but also can be a little more tart at times. Without all the other technical terms and processes of yogurt-
you basically want to try to eat yogurt that contains
active yogurt cultures and that isn't heat-treated yogurt...
for heat treated yogurt has been heated after culturing and
thereby destroying all the beneficial and live yogurt cultures
that is beneficial for aiding in digestion.

We can think about it like this-
1 serving (about 8oz) of plain low-fat yogurt provides us
with about 400 milligrams of calcium, whereas an 8oz glass
of milk gives us about 300 mg of calcium.
Yogurt also provides us with as much potassium as
a banana and as much protein as an egg.

Enjoy your YOGURTing!

Ready, Set , MUFFIN! + 10 minutes

Almost every single time I bake muffins I notice that there is
extra batter and I always end up tossing it out because I don't
want to bake another round of muffins with barely 2 or if
I'm lucky with 3 muffins in a muffin tin of 12.
So I recently discovered what to do with the extra batter!
Fill the foil or paper liners that you normally cook your muffins
or cupcakes in as if you're going to make more but instead put
them into the freezer either in the muffin pan if you have room
or even on a small plate. Once the uncooked muffin batter is solid,
take it out and just put it into a zip lock bag.

When you've had a looooong day from work and you want your
favorite muffin/cupcake without the hassle of making an entire batch-
just take out a ready to go muffin or 2 and bake it following the time
of your recipe adding 10 minutes to the time due to it being frozen.
It's best if you have a smaller convection or toaster oven you can
bake in due to the fact you are only baking a few muffins rather
than your regular sized oven...

But, if you've had a bad day at work.... maybe it doesn't matter-
STRESSED backwards is DESSERTS ya know.

Lemons On The Grill

Lemons are great for many things. They are good to rub
on your hands to get rid of strong smells like fish or even oil.
But, 2 ways to use lemons on your grill are:
when you are getting ready to grill- cut a lemon in half,
stick a fork in it and rub the lemon all over your grill grates
as the grill is warming up... this will help clean
your grates and it also gives your food a little lemony flavor
which usually works with many foods. Another of many ways
to use lemon on your grill is for salt.
Take some coarse sea salt and mix with lemon zest.
This lemon sea salt is great to sprinkle on some fish,
some types of steaks and on chicken. Add some extra
lemon juice and black pepper and you've got a simple
lemon pepper chicken.

Soak & Double Those Skewers

The most common skewers are the wooden bamboo skewers.
When you are using wooden skewers- the most important
tip is that you want to soak them in a water.
Soak them for at least 30 minutes. If you're

really in a hurry... you might be able to get away with 20 minutes-
but I really recommend 30 minutes or more. Soaking them in
water prevents them from burning when you grill them.
If your not grilling- don't worry about the soaking.

You can put any type of meat on bamboo skewers.
You can also skewer veggies and even fruit.
When you skewer smaller items that are going to be grilled...
use 2 skewers so that the food doesn't spin when you
try to turn the skewer over- especially when it comes to shrimp.

Here Fishy, Fishy, Fishy...

When you buy your fish or any type of seafood-
beware of soggy seafood. Fresh fish should be firm and shiny,
not slimy or soggy.
If you are buying the whole fish rather than a fillet-
you want to look your fish in the eye, making sure the eyes
are clear which indicates a recent catch and freshness.
Cloudy eyes in fish usually indicate that it's been on the
shelf for many days. Fresh fish should be vibrant and
almost glistening to the touch. Fishy fish is also not good.
Even though you are buying FISH... if it smells fishy...
don't buy it. It has gone bad. Don't buy fish or seafood that
is being offered at a bargain either... unless you are getting
a bucket of something by the shore somewhere-
seafood usually isn't going on sale unless it's getting older
and the store wants to get rid of it. Save the sales for the shoes!

Compost Your Scraps!

I have 2 composts while living in an apartment.
I have this silver little one that stays on the floor by
the trash can. and a 2nd one... a metal bucket with a
lid from Ikea.com which is bigger but still small enough
for an apartment.

I started one in the winter, by simply taking soil from
3-4 old plants that had died from freezing from being
on my balcony. And I started to add raw scraps from food.
The most common things that go into my compost are-
carrot & potato peels, egg shells, tea bags, coffee grinds,
onions skins and fruits that might go bad.
My soil in these composts have turned the soil very dark,
rich and healthy... I'm just waiting to get some plants to use my
recycled soil that is full of nutrients.... hmmm what
kind of herbs should I plant....?

Just make sure your bucket has a lid. A lid that will be
tightly sealed. There are many different types of composts...
for example some people actually buy bugs/worms to add
so the vegetation breaks down even more quickly...
I've found that you don't have to do that... just make
sure your lid is closed on your bucket and leave it alone...
just take a little shovel and mix the soil after about
2-3 weeks of decay. Don't be surprised when you take a
sneak peak in a week or so... just remember the soil is breaking
down and the food and it is decaying.

Plan Your Meals By The Week!

Keep a little more organized by....
planning your meals a week at a time.

make, buy, design, craft, be cReAtiVe
and have a list of what you're going to eat
for dinner for the week...
if you're home during the day... try all your meals...?

Some pros for writing and making your weekly list are:
~being organized,
~not having to say "what am I going to eat?" every single day
~being able to have a more productive grocery list
so you don't buy everything in sight or have to go back
daily b/c you forgot something
~getting up and starting the day off knowing what's for dinner
~being able to eat something different everyday and the stuff
you like or want all because you took 5 minutes to think about
dinner for the week
~lastly, it makes you a little more aware of what you are eating

Oh, & You Forgot Your Reusable Bags AGAIN!

I know, you want to use those reusable bags you got
for free or paid 99 cents for but if you are like me...
you seem to forget them.

Some people say to just keep them everywhere, a few in the car,
one near your purse, one near your door, near your keys, in the garage...
but that can also get annoying having bags everywhere.

For me, I have 3-5 bags and I keep all but one in the car.
I have one hanging right by the door where my car keys are.
I also have gotten into the habit of writing "bring bag" on my grocery
list as well which seems to help!

Dairy Tips

If you can, try to buy milk in cardboard cartons or
non-translucent jugs so that light doesn't seep in, which can
cause milk to spoil more quickly. Store milk in the refrigerator
that is set below 40 degrees, and don’t store it in the door.
Items stored there are susceptible to warm air that enters
the fridge each time you open it.

Discard any unused milk after one week from
opening it, no matter what the sell by date is.
(Milk can be frozen for up to 3 months)
Ice cream has a shelf life for about 2-4 months,
as long as the freezer is set at zero degrees.
Yogurt is best used within 7-10 days from when you purchased it.

Butter is safe in the refrigerator, tightly wrapped, for about
1 month and may be frozen for about 6 months.

Hard cheeses like Gouda (pronounced -"who-da" not Goo-da),
Swiss, cheddar etc... will keep for 3-4 weeks in the refrigerator.

If your block of cheese has mold in it... cut 1 inch around
the mold area, the rest is safe to eat for up to a month.
Cream cheese will keep for about 2 weeks,
Ricotta cheese will keep for about 5 days,
and cottage cheese will keep for about 15 to 20 days.

Tilapia with Tater Tots

This tilapia dish is good for people who are
not so keen on fish... and for people
who enjoy fish- even better!

Ingredients:
1 frozen bag of tater tots thawed
4 cloves of smashed garlic
olive oil
1/4 cup diced tomatoes or grape tomatoes halved
6 or so slices of roasted bell peppers diced up
3 scallions chopped up
several olives diced up (optional)
Salt & pepper to taste
2 TBS chopped fresh parsley (you can used dried)
4 or 5 tilapia fillets (fresh or frozen- thawed)


Procedure:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Drizzle olive oil in a pan and fry the tilapia until slightly golden.
Take the slightly cooked tilapia out of the pan and put
tilapia into the pan you're going to bake in the oven.
Cook the hash browns with garlic and salt in the same pan you
just used for the fish with olive oil until golden brown.
(use a potato masher or spatula to flatten most of the tater tots)
Add the potato on top and around the tilapia in the oven-safe
dish/pan along with the tomatoes, scallions, parsley, roasted bells.
Bake in the oven until crispy.
( I like to turn it to broil for the last 5 minutes or so.)

Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 pkg. white cake mix

1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Lemon Flavor Instant Pudding

1 cup water

4 egg whites

2 TBS. oil

1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened

2 TBS lemon juice

1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar

Procedure: Preheat your oven to 350ºF.

Mix the cake mix, jello,water, eggs and oil until it's blended well.
(The batter should be thick) Use a spoon to fill into cupcake lined muffin tins. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in the pans for about 10 minutes then, move to wire racks and cool completely.

You want to beat the cream cheese, butter and lemon juice until it's well blended.Then, gradually add sugar and beat until smooth. Spread onto cupcakes. Zest a little bit of lemon for color and beauty if you'd like. (not too much zest tho... you don't want tart cupcakes)

Made in Philadelphia

So what are some foods that are highly recognized
in the City of Brotherly Love?

We all know about the Philly CheeseSteaks...
Philadelphians Pat and Harry Olivieri are often
credited with inventing the sandwich by cooking
chopped steak on hoagie rolls in the early 1930s.

Pat's (www.patskingofsteaks.com)
and Geno's Steaks (www.genosteaks.com)
have a highly publicized rivalry. Both restaurants are
located across the street from each  other on 9th Street
and Passyunk Avenue in of course south Philly.

What is so good about a Philly CheeseSteak vs.
a cheesesteak from somewhere else?
The steak meat used for Philly CheeseSteaks is thinly
sliced rib-eye or top round. The steak meat is also usually
cooked on top of  sauteed onions for the flavor and to
prevent over cooking or  more importantly from drying out.
In Philadelphia, most  cheesesteaks go on an Amoroso roll.
Amoroso Baking Company (www.amorosobaking.com)
is a family-owned company that specializes in
baked breads and rolls. The company was founded in 1904 in
South Philly by Vincenzo Amoroso and his two sons.
Philly CheeseSteaks are known for having Cheez Whiz which is
a thick processed cheese sold by Kraft Foods and was first
used in 1953. Cheez Whiz is known to have been used because
it was easy and already a spread/melted texture.

Soft Pretzels are known all around Philadelphia.
They originated in Germany and after they immigrated to
Pennsylvania- Pennsylvania is known to make 80% of the nations
soft pretzels today. Pretzels sold in paper bags are best

rather than the ones wrapped in plastic because the plastic
makes the doughhard making them more often stale.

The 1st American cream cheese was in made in 1872 in New York
by William Lawrence. In 1880, the name "Philadelphia" was used
and put into their brand name after the city that was considered at
the time to be the home of top quality food.
Cream cheese is good for bagels of course but you can also use
Philadelphia cream cheese when you are making a cream sauce
for your pasta dishes, cheesecakes & other desserts along with
adding it to veggies such as potatoes appetizers and more...

Philip J. Baur, a baker from Pittsburgh and Herbert T. Morris,
a Boston egg salesman got together and created a business and
produced baked goods in 1914. The baked goods were so good
that after tasting a few samples, Herbert's wife
said they were so "tasty" so they named the business
Tasty Baking Company (www.tastykake.com)
and came up with the catchy name Tastykake and the
rest is history!

To Drink Or Not

This one is a dilemma ....

To drink or not to drink MILK.

Now, we know milk is good for you

the calcium makes our bones strong etc...?

So many people become lactose intolerant as adults

because their body is not able to metabolize lactose

because of the lack of the required enzyme lactase for our

digestive systems. It is estimated that about 75% of adults

all over the world have decreased activity of the enzyme,
making it harder to digest milk and other dairy products.

The actual dilemma is that...

people usually don't think about it but,

cows are mammals and they only produce milk

when they are pregnant-

so all the milk we drink and have with our cereal

comes from a cow that is pregnant pretty much

her whole life literally. Cows produce milk

after calving and their milk is produced longer than

people produce milk after giving birth but,

regardless many cows are impregnated pretty much

every other year in order to give us milk.

Commercial farms often give a hormone to the cows

to produce the milk for a longer period of time than usual.
See the dilemma.......? hmmm

Barley Risotto With Shrimp

Ingredients:
1/2 cup barley
3 cups chicken stock (substitute any stock)
1 TBS olive oil
1/2 cup minced onions
1/4 of small shrimp
1/2 TBS grated lemon zest
1 TBS fresh lemon juice
salt, pepper and grated Parmesan cheese to taste
you can top some cut scallions for a garnish

Procedure:
It's best to let the barley soak in cold water over night.
Bring the stock to a boil in a pan.
Heat oil in a pan and let the onions sweat (about 5 min. or so)
Stir in the barley when onions are cooked-
pour 1/2 of the stock in the pan to let the barley cook,
and then pour the rest of the stock until the stock pretty much
evaporates and the barley is soft.
Stir in the shrimp when the stock is almost evaporated
and when the shrimp is pink (cooked)
add your lemon zest, salt, pepper and Parmesan Cheese.

Oat.

Whether you want instant or whole oats for your oatmeal-
oats are good for you.

Oat bran... bran being the outer casing of the oats is known to
lower bad cholesterol.

Oats are known to take longer digesting- resulting
in keeping  our stomachs fuller for a little longer
than other grains such as rye or barley.

Oat straw is known to be used by cattle farmers as
bedding because it is usually softer and more dust free.

Oat extract is also known to soothe certain skin
conditions and used in many Aveeno products.


The oat grains are de-husked, heated and cooled to stabilize the
"Oat groats"- the seed inside the husk to make the oats we are
more familiar with like Quaker Oats or any type of oats ready
for your oatmeal. You can purchase instant oats which are
processed and broken down more but are very easy to microwave
or you can purchase whole oats that aren't broken down as much.
Either way... have fun with them- add some fruit,
jelly and nuts to your oatmeal.

 To make whole oats on the stove you can... take
1 TBS butter
1 cup of whole oats
3 cups of boiling water
1/2 cup whole milk
1 TBS brown sugar (substitute an apple by grating about 1/4 of the apple)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
stir all the ingredients on the stove until oats get soft and cooked

You can also make oatmeal cookies with craisins.

2 1/2 cups of uncooked oats
1 cup flour (if you can, sift it)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup softened butter (not heated or melted) room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup brown sugar (substitute Splenda)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup of craisins (dried cranberries)
or you can do 1/2 and 1/2 of craisins and raisins
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until brown at the top