South Jersey is Beautiful

 

 Barnegat Lighthouse

Those of you who knew Junetta, may remember that one of Mom's favorite places was Long Beach Island (LBI); especially, Barnegat Lighthouse. We had not gone since we took her there on her birthday a long time ago (before Covid) when she was still with us. Mom has been gone 4 years already. RIP mom...We always think of her when we see 'ol Barney!

Harry and I went to the shore, with our cameras, in search of seals that were reported in the news to be all along the NJ coastline. There have been more sightings early this year due to the warmer weather. Young seal pups migrate to warmer waters from New England.

Well, we did not see any seals. It didn't matter. The weather was so nice; it felt so good to get outdoors! A LBI resident told us that they only had one seal sighting on the island. I'm thinking that it may be the one that was found entangled in plastic in Beach Haven. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center rescued the sickly pup last month. The problem of plastic is another story. If we had seen any seals of course, we would have kept a respectable distance of at least 100 feet per NOAA recommendations.

Having similar color tones as in seals, we watched other shore life that at first we thought were ducks. We're not bird experts, but they look like Brant - small sized geese that breed in Canada and overwinter along the New Jersey and New York coastlines. As with many species, they are in decline. Caring for the environment and our waterways has never been more important.

We watched the vegetarian Brant feeding on sea grasses and greens along the moss-covered rocks. 

Brant

Related Links

Atlantic Brant Research

Audubon Bird Guide - Brant

Seal and Sea Lion Week

Barnegat Bay Partnership

 
 Blog Post and photographs Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

RD Approved Grazing Board! @eatrightpro @eatrightnj #haveaplant #gardencuizine

Best Wishes for a 

Healthy and Happy New Year 2024!

Happy New Year everyone! I'm proud to be featured in a recent Every Day Health article (link below) with my take on an RD approved Grazing Board. Grazing boards are spin offs of charcuterie appetizer boards.

Grazing boards (also called graze boards) feature a selection of nibbles that can be served to your family or guests before the main course. They can also be served after a main course for visiting family or friends. 

This New Years, RD approved, grazing board features sustainable, protein-packed, legumes, namely black-eyed peas - called Hoppin' John. Black-eyed peas bring good health, joy, good luck and peace, which we all sure need more of in this world.

Ingredients for Diana Wind's dietitian approved - healthy grazing board:

• Hoppin' John: black-eyed peas (also known as pulses or legumes) - precooked and ready to heat and serve
  
• Fruit cups (we used strawberries, blueberries with plain Greek yogurt)
• Yogurt or whipped cream for the fruit dip (Cinnamon Bionico sauce is always a winner too! Recipe included below)
  
• Basket or bowl of whole fruits: bananas, apples, clementines, grapes (and/or other favorite fruits)
• Carrot sticks
• Celery sticks (and/or any other veggies you want to use; including, but not limited to: red bell pepper strips, cucumbers, radishes and cherry tomatoes)
• Hummus dip for the veggies (we used store bought)
  
• Cheddar cheese (or any of your favorite cheese, with some cut into star shapes)
  
• Jalapeno Pepper Jack cheese (cut into star shapes)
  
• Wholegrain crackers
• Spanikopita (spinach & feta) wedges - store bought; ready to heat and serve
  
• Pistachios (or any of your favorite nuts)

Putting it all together

This is another GardenCuizine freestyle recipe, meaning that you control the portions based on how many people you plan to serve. Simple and easy!

Start with selecting a large serving board, such as a large cutting board, mirror, or tray. We happened to have a big blue plastic tray that worked perfectly.

Fancy martini or sangria glasses and short decorative glasses make good serving containers for your vitamin-rich fruits and veggies! A twisted star party necklace on the tray adds to the design.

A side fruit bowl or basket filled with bananas, apples and clementines adds even more nutrition for you and your guests. No need for junk foods at this party! 

Keep leftover Hoppin' John in your refrigerator so that you will have plenty to enjoy as a meal another time over quinoa or brown rice.

Best Wishes for a Healthy and Happy New Year! 

Related Links

RD Approved Grazing Boards - Check out #8

GardenCuizine Hoppin' John recipe 

GardenCuizine Cinnamon Bionico Sauce recipe 

Looking Differently at Charcuterie 

How Beans Contribute to Sustainable Nutrition

Photo and blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

Sweet 'n Spicy Maple Salmon

What's for Dinner Tonight?

For deciding on what's for dinner, start with choosing the protein. Last night we selected fish, salmon. We keep our fish frozen. Once we decided on having salmon, we pulled it out of the freezer to thaw. After a short period on the counter, for food safety, we put it on a plate and into the refrigerator while we decided on the rest of the dinner side dishes. 

As you can see in the picture, we served the baked sweet 'n spicy maple glazed salmon with a starch and a vegetable to balance the meal. The frozen green beans took less than 5 minutes to saute with fresh garlic and butter, and the rice pilaf was leftover, so we just had to heat and serve.

Our oven's broiler is not working right so we decided to bake the salmon. Your next decision after deciding on the cooking method is how to season the salmon. I decided on using hot pepper jelly. We had pepper jelly in jars made from this summer. Hot pepper jelly isn't really that hot; it adds just the right amount of sweet 'n spicy flavor to just about any food from corn bread to fish!

This is a GardenCuizine freestyle recipe, meaning that you don't really need to measure the ingredients. You can use any amount desired of the ingredients to your liking.

Preheat oven to 350 deg F

You'll need a baking dish with a cover

Ingredients

• Farm raised Salmon fillet (thawed)
  
• 1/3 cup, or less, hot pepper jelly (preferably homemade) 
• 1 Tblsp pure maple syrup
  
• pinch Fresh ground black pepper
• pinch Salt 
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder 
• chopped fresh or dried parsley
• 1/3 cup or less water
  

Putting it all together

1. Combine pepper jelly and seasonings
2. Place salmon in baking dish; spread pepper jelly spice blend over salmon
3. Add water to bottom of baking dish (do not cover the fish in water)
   
4. Bake 15 minutes covered
5. uncover and bake another 15 min or until done
   
6. Serve with a starch and a vegetable, such as brown rice and green beans.

Enjoy! 

GardenCuizine Nutrition data 3 oz Salmon: Calories 175, Carbs 0, Fiber 0, Protein 19g, Vitamin B12 2.4 mcg (99% DV), Healthy Omega-3 fatty acids 2.2g (Wow! 201% DV)

 Photos and blog post Copyright (C) Wind. All rights reserved.

FDA Investigation of Lead in Cinnamon Apple Sauce Continues

Lead poisoning can happen in adults and children. Eating lead can make you or your kids sick. Symptoms include headaches, belly pain, vomiting, anemia and more. 

Don't let anyone eat these three brands of Cinnamon Applesauce pouches:

1. WanaBana Apple Cinnamon Fruit Purée. The pouches were distributed nationwide online and at retail stores.
2. Schnucks brand cinnamon-flavored applesauce pouches and variety pack
3. Weis brand cinnamon applesauce pouches

If you see any of these products in a store >>> Snap a photo of it and notify the FDA. If your child ate some or is sick, consult your Pediatrician.

Note: I am no longer posting on Twitter since it became X. You can find me on Instagram, which is a family friendly, safer site for the public and healthcare professionals.

Related Links

FDA Investigation

Ask Your Doctor About a Child Lead Test

Testing Children for Lead Poisoning 

Whitesbog Blueberry History

Historic Whitesbog 

We both recently had the pleasure of going on a photography outing to support the New Jersey Pinelands with Richard Lewis, a fine art landscape photographer. After spending a day with him on a fun group photography tour at one of our favorite parts of the NJ Pinelands, Franklin Parker Preserves, I started following Richard on social media. 

Soon after, Richard posted some amazing autumn photographs of sunrise and a red rainbow at a place called Whitesbog. How is it that we've lived in South Jersey all our lives and never visited Whitesbog? Thanks to Richard's post we found our way to Whitesbog with our cameras. The historic 1857 farm and village is located in Browns Mills NJ. Whitesbog is in part of the Brendan T. Byrne state forest.

It was here at Whitesbog that Ms Elizabeth Coleman White showed the world that blueberries could be cultivated. Ms White's very interesting skill set included nursing, agricultural research and hands on experience in both cranberry and blueberry farming.

I was saddened, but not surprised, to read that when Ms White's Father died, in his will, he did not make her President of his company even though she contributed so much to expand the business for their family. The Whitesbog plantation grew from 600 to 3,000 acres.

The legacy of this special area is cared for by the Whitesbog Preservation Trust who is open to the public daily from sunrise to sunset. You can find more information and maps to several walking trails on their website (link below). The landscape is very peaceful and beautiful as you can see from my photos shown. We look forward to visiting again soon!

References and Related Links

Whitesbog

NJ Women's History 

History of Blueberries

Fall at Whitesbog in the NJ Pine Barrens

Blog post and photographs Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved.

Secondary Research Study of Prediabetes in Adolescents and Sugary Drinks...

Easy steps to make a Veggie Quesadilla

What Are "Pulses?" #haveaplant #gardencuizine

#Haveaplant

Debunking the paleo diet | Christina Warinner | TEDxOU #gardencuizine

Romanesco #gardencuizine #haveaplant

Incredible Edible

 

Meet Romanesco, one of the wildest looking veggies on the planet! This fascinating, Italian heirloom veggie is sometimes called Fractal Broccoli. This beauty was grown in New Jersey! If you see it at your local farmers market or grocery story give it a try. It's super nutritious and you can eat it and prepare it as you would broccoli or cauliflower. The head is chartreuse and the leaves are green of course; although purple leaves would make it even cooler!!

Related Links

If you Love Cauliflower, it might be time to try Romenesco

Incredible Edible

Photograph Copyright (C)Wind Photography. All rights reserved.

Health at Every Size video essay

Celebrate Diversity!

I hope you are all doing well! It has been a long time since I've posted. I've been quite busy between work and graduate school. Yes, I'm back in school at my old age! I'm working to get my Masters of Science in Applied Nutrition by next summer. Learn, learn, learn until it is time to retire. 

I'm inspired by Harry, Mom (RIP...), colleagues, and my Rowan graduate students. Students in Cohort 4 are busy learning in their clinical rotations now in their supervised practice. I'm very happy to see them building on their dietetics knowledge base and wish them all the best.

Our beautiful gardens are wrapping up with colorful fall blooming asters and goldenrod. We didn't have very many monarch caterpillars or butterflies this season. Overall less bugs of every kind. There were smells of pesticides at times during the summer. Sigh.... We have lots of native plants for pollinators here too. I hope people don't use as much pesticide sprays next season. 

Anyway, this post is to share my latest video creation on Health at Every Size®. It is only 3-minutes if you have time to take a look.

Health at Every Size® (HAES) is a non-diet approach to health and wellness. It promotes acceptance of all body shapes and sizes. Weight stigma and bias can be harmful to all ages, especially children. HAES promotes intuitive eating instead of weight management.

Over the years, as an outpatient clinical dietitian, I've experienced many adults and children crying in my office over their body weight. Weight shaming by family, friends and/or the public weighs heavy on their hearts and minds and can be hurtful, especially to children. 

HAES is controversial, especially for healthcare professionals. What do you think about this topic? Should society and healthcare professionals try and shift from weight management to health promotion?

Thanks for watching!

Related Links

Association for Size Diversity and Health 

Today's Dietitian article

Blog post and video (C)Copyright Wind. All rights reserved.

 

@PHSgardening Philadelphia Flower Show 2022 and Photography Competition!

 Philadelphia Flower Show

In Full Bloom

We loved the 2022 Philadelphia Flower Show "In Full Bloom"! The show is open to the public from June 11th to Father's Day, June 19th. This was the second time outdoors in the historic FDR Park located in South Philadelphia.

We took public transportation, which wasn't a great experience. Patco was strangely very light in ridership. We were thinking perhaps from so many people working from home. 

We encountered the homeless problem at 13th street station and could not walk underground to connect with the Septa line to get to the show; we went above ground and walked further down. Thankfully, we managed to get ourselves to Septa and on to the NRG station to get to the show. 

There was so much to see once we got there. Of course, we stopped at the Photography exhibit. Harry and I both had photos that made the show! Congrats to Harry for his spectacular photo of sunset taken in the New Jersey Pinelands at Franklin Parker Preserve. My image was a macro shot of an Italian Anemone (shown below). 

Anemone blooms are very interesting and quite beautiful. Out of the 48 accepted photos into the exhibition, of the 6 that got accepted in the category of Macro Blooms, two were Anemones! That is incredible considering there are thousands of varieties of other flowers that could have been photographed. 

 

We really enjoyed visiting the children's exhibit by Fresh Artists. The kid's comments about their artwork was heartwarming. What a wonderful innovative, nonprofit program. See below link for more information. 

There were so many gardens that we ended up missing a lot. As always, it is impossible to see it all in one visit. The pollinator gardens were great. Hopefully more people replace a patch of their lawn grass with a mini meadow with pollinator and native plants.

This year we made it to the Olmstead Pavilion and Wow! what a sight. Valley Forge Flowers created quite an impressive display loaded with cascading orchids.

My pictures don't do it justice. It really was spectacular and was still in great condition by the near end of the show when we saw it. 

I also loved that the flower baskets surrounding the walkways on the show grounds included my favorite coleus, Inky Fingers or a variety similar.

As we were leaving we saw people getting a watering can sprinkle of water to cool off from the 90+ degree heat of the day! All in all it was a terrific show and we can't wait to attend again next year. 

Special thanks to all who worked so hard in organizing the flower show and everyone who participated in the competitions - the creative works are inspiring!

Related Links

Young Fresh Artist and their Art Bloom Big at the Flower Show

Photographs and blog post Copyright (C) Wind. All rights reserved.

Pioneer in NJ history of Natural Foods and Organic Produce #GardenCuizine @SouthJerseyMag @EatRight_NJ

South Jersey Pioneer Woman in history of Organic Produce

The recent news of my sister and nephew taking jobs in a company selling organic produce is heartwarming. Our mother, in heaven must be smiling! The late Junetta S. Mehl and I were leaders in bringing organic produce to South Jersey. 

The demand for Organic produce appears strong. Even with the higher costs and inflation related to the pandemic.

Now, having worked for over 10 years in each career, my journey from business owner to Registered Dietitian Nutritionist feels like it has come full circle! My business Garden of Eden Natural Foods and Country Kitchen, Inc. was among the first places in South Jersey where the community could buy a variety of organically grown produce. 

We sold all kinds of organic fruits and vegetables from organic kale to organic carrots. Organic carrots were a popular feature in fresh squeezed organic carrot juice at our juice bar. Customers in the Garden's 60-seat restaurant loved the 100% pure fruit smoothies!

I remember the days driving to Kennett Square to Albert's Organics to pick up cases and 50 lb bags of organic produce. I would take my dog Aspen on the drive too. Those were the days!

Upon arrival to Albert's, sometimes I'd have a chance to chat with Albert and his wife, Claris. They were from LA. He opened Albert's in 1980. This was back in the day before Whole Foods opened in Marlton, NJ. Albert's Organics grew into the largest wholesale distributor in the US.

In 1987, Garden of Eden was the hub for everything natural and organic. During the 1980's demand for natural and organic foods was rapidly growing. So was the explosion of technology. The Internet was born around 1983!

When Whole Foods did arrive in town, they started out as Fresh Fields. Natural Foods sales became big business. According to Natural Foods Merchandiser (The Evolution of an Industry), natural foods sales in the US grew from 1,900 million in 1980 to 4,640 million in 1991. 

Related Links

Growing Organic Demand

Photographs and blog post Copyright (C)Wind. All rights reserved. Portrait photo of Diana Wind (C) Harry Wind. All rights reserved.

Diana's pie dough recipe #pumpkin pie Happy Thanksgiving! #GardenCuizine

Diana's Pie Dough in a Pinch

Went to make a batch of my usual, shortening free, pie dough recipe for Thanksgiving pumpkin pie and apple pie and we didn't have any plain yogurt! Oh my!!

I could have used ground cookie crumbs or graham cracker crumbs; but some pies, like pumpkin and apple, taste best with a traditional pie crust. 

Below is another pie dough recipe to use in a pinch!

Ingredients

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tblsp sugar

7 Tblsp unsalted butter (or Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks*)

1/4 cup trans fat free vegetable shortening

1/4 cup ice cold water

 

Yields two pie bottoms or one pie top and bottom

Putting it all together

Sift together the flour, sugar and salt. Add to mixing bowl. 

Cut the butter into small 1/4 inch cubes. Add a few at a time while mixing on low. After a minute, turn off the mixer and reach in and feel for any chunks; squeeze the butter chunks with fingers to "sheet" into the flour. Mix again, but not for too long. 

Add in the shortening. Mix again to combine into the flour. 

Add the cold water and mix using the paddle attachment for another minute or so. Stop periodically to see if the dough can hold together when squeezed. Use judgement if you need to add a little more water. 

When dough can be squeezed and holds together, you're done. Divide and press into two equal balls. Do not over work the dough. Place one at a time onto clear wrap; flatten into disc about an inch thick. Wrap. Repeat w/other ball. 

Refrigerate to rest for at least one hour. 

When ready, roll out to about a 1/2 inch larger than pie dish and fit as desired.

*Have not tested this product, but should work for vegan option. Let me know if you try it.

Related Links

Is Butter Really Back?

Recipe and blog post Copyright(C)Wind. All rights reserved.