Pecan and Sesame Amaranth Pancake. I will have this again with or without the Kiwi. Next time, peanut butter. Ground the amaranth and sesame. Was going to add quinoa but there appeared to be some small spidery webs holding the grain to the side of the package. Had been ok when I bought it but had left it open for too long, and someone had found it.  I decided to let him/her live. Ground up the pecans, added an egg and enough water to make it pourable. Be sure that it’s thin. The crispier, the better. Banana is good with this, but I decided on the kiwi which had been sitting there for 4 days not ripening. Yup, should have gone with the banana, and waited on the Kiwi.

Baking soda. By the way, if you ever feel heavy after a meal, I find that a teaspoon of baking soda aka sodium bicarbonate (not powder) in a glass of water does the trick every time. See under applications in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baking_soda for all of its uses. Also, http://www.armhammer.com/ which makes you click on different parts of the house to get the information. Fun if you have nothing else to do, but amazingly complete. Well, they sell the stuff.

Rum and Chutney Carrots with Tempeh. The tempeh is there to give it the easy to digest protein, but hey, if you don’t happen to have it, leave it out. The rum is rum flavoring – a couple of drops goes a long, long way, and two shakes of the apricot chutney bottle, unless  you have it in a jar. If you don’t have the chutney, you can leave that out also, and the rum, and the two teaspoons of sweet and sour sauce, and the sweet paprika, and just eat the carrots. That’s a must. Boiled and drained, and then fried while mashing the tempeh and adding all of the tastes. This is one you will not forget unless you use real rum.

Made another batch of cupcakes. They were bitter. I went over all of the ingredients. Could not figure out what would have made them that bitter. Then I remembered reading that too much sodium bicarbonate, which I had put in to make them rise, could cause a bitter taste and would also cause the cakes to fall after rising. Yup. they had done that. I tossed them. Now I have made another batch. Same ingredients except for blueberry jam on only half of them for those who do not like blueberry jam. These also fell but no bitter taste. I ate the one that had fallen the most before the shoot. It’s better to shape up if you are depressed. But then again, it got to miss the blinding flashes.

Breakfast Salad. Must give credit where credit is due. (unfortunately as much as I tried, could not find the original recipe). The idea for my attempt came from two people who have an allotment either in England or Spain and grow their own. I don’t. So my ingredients are a little bit different. But the joy of it is the same. And if you think that making the small toasts is too much work. I am here to tell you that the 3-4 minutes you spend cutting, frying them on high heat in butter, is worth every second. And now what went into the salad? This is probably the healthiest breakfast you could have, if you’re human (my cat wouldn’t touch it), plus the tastiest. 2 leaves of lettuce cut very small, thinly sliced cabbage, diced onion  – the trick for dicing onions is to sit the onion on end, make slices about 1/4 of the onion deep, set very closed to each other across the top, turn it 90% and do the same again (###), and then slice the onion. Instant chopped without the tears. To continue, alfalfa sprouts, cherry tomatoes, sunflower seeds. And for the dressing: Olive oil, small tsp of salsa, one drop of hot picante red pepper (when you see a great looking jar of beautiful purple something inside written in a foreign language which says very hot picante and you don’t stop to translate – beware. Use only one drop. Really), teaspoon of fruit chutney, teaspoon of soy sauce, tablespoon of brewer’s yeast, garlic powder, turmeric, coriander, salt, and if you want it a little bit sweeter than the chutney or instead of it, a bit of sugar or honey. You have one great-tasting start-the-morning-right-salad which will really set you up for whatever the day is going to throw at you.

Almond Chicken(tofu) Spaghetti Greened. I was given already-cooked spaghetti by Nati. What to do with it? Not that I don’t love spaghetti. But it seems that something other than the usual had to come out of it. I thought and thought and all the while, the pan was filling up with various things from the freezer, the pantry, the undownloaded shopping bags, the flame lit, and a cover put on. Aside from the tryptophan, manganese, iron, and protein of the tofu, and the necessary vitamins and minerals from the greens, there was the manganese, vitamin E plus from the chopped up almonds, the B-complex vitamins, chromium, and selenium from the brewer’s yeast (see precautions and possible interactions with medications: Demerol or MAOI antidepressant http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/brewers-yeast-000288.htm , the vitamin K from the soy sauce, the minuscule amount of Omega-3 from the rich (chunks of mushrooms) mushroom powder (I had already gotten the necessary Omega from a handful of walnuts earlier in the morning), trace amounts of manganese and B5 from the garlic powder, vitamin K from the oregano, and vitamin K from the sweet basil. All in all, a meal fit for a grateful system just trying to keep it all going smoothly so we don’t feel a thing. But in order for it to do that, we have to feed it well. Part of the price we should be willing to pay for having such a great friend.
 

Mushroom Broccoli With Honey Cheese Sauce. Mushrooms fried well alone. Broccoli tops washed well, fried in olive oil with cover on for about 4 minutes moving the brocs around occasionally. Before taking off the stove, dash liberally with sweet basil, stirring the vegetable so that all sides are included. You do not want the broccoli to be well cooked. They lose interest and so do you. Honey cheese sauce is made with cheese, flour, milk and about 2 teaspoons of honey. Warning: Check out the mushroom notes above on the upper left