Editor's Note: Zola is getting a little R&R in California’s sunshine this week so she asked that we feed you this fun story from the archives. She’ll be back in her office next Monday.
What’s Middle Age?
I’ve been thinking about middle age recently.
My brother-in-law turned 70 this month. Is that middle age?
My sister turned 65 this past weekend. Is that middle age?
My husband just turned 60 on the 13th. Is that middle age?
Long ago I set a goal to live to 112. Willard Scott, the weather man on NBC’s Today Show, decided decades ago to begin celebrating Americans who turned 100 or more. That got me thinking a long time ago about middle age. I decided that I was definitely going to live past 100 and since 12 was my lucky number it stands to reason that I would live to 112. That was my theory and my goal. Still is.
Now I’m not so concerned about the number as I am about the quality. Don’t get me wrong. I still fully intend to live until 112. I think that mindset is imperative to making it. I am a full believer that people can “hang on” or end their lives with their minds as much as outside influence has anything to do with it. Accidents aside, I do think that people make choices that dictate much of what goes into how long they live.
My grandmother on my father’s side died just before her 100th birthday. I took a good look at her as she approached 100 and decided that she had done a pretty darn good job. She was well past 80 and even approaching 90 and still had her own home. She tended her garden and got her own meals. That seems like quality life to me. I want that too. My gardens now are a series of pots in the courtyard and on the roof deck but they still take time to maintain. I love my gardens and will have them as long as I am able.
My father was afraid of death. He spent a long time in hospitals and then years at a nursing home before he died.
My mother was determined not to be any kind of a burden. She was admitted to the hospital and died in less than 2 days.
I guess you can see where I get part of my opinions from.
My hope is that 56 is my middle age date. That will land me at 112 and anything after that point I’ll consider “bonus time”; that is until I change my mind and decide that 65 is middle age.
At lot of what will determine how long you live, in my opinion, will depend on what you eat. Pure, fresh food will help you live a long time. Processed foods from a box, the freezer section at the grocery store, or otherwise processed to retain freshness can only cause you problems. And don’t get me started on high-fructose corn syrup. Evil.
Most people have dubbed me a gourmet cook. I used to like that moniker. Now I don’t consider myself so much a fancy cook-- as most will define a gourmet; although I am capable when I put my mind to it. But I do embrace the term gourmet if you define it as someone who’s picky about what they will eat.
I’m not going to turn down food that’s cooked by someone else and offered to me at a dinner party. I will always enjoy the company and effort that others put into entertaining. I do turn up my nose at some of what I see on public buffets and will limit myself in what I choose from that kind of a setting. I’d rather eat more of something I know my body will use well, rather than eat just to eat.
At The Zola Diet part of what we do is teach people how they got fat to begin with and how to not only get extra weight off but how to keep it off. Our dieters are proving us RIGHT over and over again. They tell me how they tried other diets and got weight off but it came back with the vengeance of a freight train. With The Zola Diet, they tell me they are able to maintain their weight within a few pounds. They are able to eat a lot of foods they love and they don’t ever feel deprived. Pretty darn nice for ‘diet’. My goal? The tastiest diet on the planet. Check out www.zoladiet.com.
Roasted and stuffed peppers with Almond-crusted Chicken
This is really two separate recipes but I served them at the same time and they go together well, so I thought I’d offer them both to you today.
You can serve the chicken with other side dishes if you don’t want the peppers.
The peppers also can be served as a vegetarian entrée. For an entrée plan on two or three peppers per person. As a side dish, one pepper will do.
Roasted and Stuffed Peppers
Serves six as side dish. Three as an entrée. This is NOT a spicy dish. It's full-flavored, but not “hot”.
Ingredients:
3 medium poblano peppers. Cut them in half the long way (tip to stem) and remove the seeds and ribs.
6 ounces of goat cheese (you’ll find it in tubes in the cheese section)
2 tsp of minced garlic (jar garlic is fine in this dish)
6 ounces of Monterrey jack cheese grated
2 Tbl of minced shallot or onion
1 Tbl of minced basil
½ cup of dried apricots, finely minced (you can use fresh apricots too if they are in season)
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Mix everything except the pepper shells in a bowl. Just use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix it up really well. Make sure the apricot bits are dispersed throughout the mixture.
Using a tablespoon hold the poblano pepper half in one hand and stuff it to the rim with the cheese mixture. It can stick up a bit and be lumpy. Don’t level it off with a knife or anything. A bit of mounding is okay.
Do this with each pepper until all of the stuffing has been transferred to the peppers if possible. You might have a bit leftover. If that’s the case, save it for leftovers. You can heat it and eat it like dip with celery sticks.
The only trick to this meal is you need to prop the peppers next to each other so they don’t tip onto their sides. I was able to do this by lining them all up along one edge of a 9-by-13-inch pan. If they tip the filling might melt and run out. In that case your meal would not be as pretty but you should be able to scoop it out of the pan and serve it over the peppers anyway.
Roast the peppers at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the topping just begins to get a bit brownish in places. It will look a bit like lightly toasted marshmallows. The peppers will mellow and soften.
When you want to serve you can carefully remove them with a tong and put them on a plate.
While these are roasting you can make your chicken.
Almond-Crusted Chicken
Serves 2 and can be doubled or tripled easily.
This is SUPER EASY and tastes great. This is also good for you. Other chicken recipes that are dipped in egg and coated with crumbs or white flour mixtures contain a lot of carbohydrates that your body turns into fat. This dish is made with pure almond flour which won’t turn to fat. Your body will use it as fuel.
Ingredients:
1 egg
2 chicken breast halves (skinless) approximately 6 ounces each
1 cup of almond flour (Bob’s Mill is the most famous maker. Find this in the health food section). This is purely ground almond flour.
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter or ghee for frying
Directions:
Put the egg on a dinner plate and break it up with a fork. You want to beat it a bit.
Place the almond flour on another dinner plate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
(optionally) pound the chicken breast halves inside a plastic bag (one at a time) to thin them out. You can use a meat mallet and pound them to about one third of an inch thickness. This makes them cook faster and gives you more coating surface.
Dip each piece of chicken in egg. Dip both sides. Then transfer it to the almond flour to coat both sides. Set aside and repeat.
Melt your butter or ghee in a large frying pan. Add the chicken and cook one side on medium until it turns a nice golden brown. Then turn over and repeat. Do both pieces at the same time.
You could continue to cook the chicken in this pan until it’s done but many times that makes it darker and less juicy. What I recommend is that you transfer your chicken to an ovenproof pan and put it in the oven at 375 degrees and bake it for about 15 minutes more until the chicken shows no pink inside. This makes the outside crispy and the middle juicy.
Then you are ready to serve.
What’s Middle Age?
I’ve been thinking about middle age recently.
My brother-in-law turned 70 this month. Is that middle age?
My sister turned 65 this past weekend. Is that middle age?
My husband just turned 60 on the 13th. Is that middle age?
Long ago I set a goal to live to 112. Willard Scott, the weather man on NBC’s Today Show, decided decades ago to begin celebrating Americans who turned 100 or more. That got me thinking a long time ago about middle age. I decided that I was definitely going to live past 100 and since 12 was my lucky number it stands to reason that I would live to 112. That was my theory and my goal. Still is.
Now I’m not so concerned about the number as I am about the quality. Don’t get me wrong. I still fully intend to live until 112. I think that mindset is imperative to making it. I am a full believer that people can “hang on” or end their lives with their minds as much as outside influence has anything to do with it. Accidents aside, I do think that people make choices that dictate much of what goes into how long they live.
My grandmother on my father’s side died just before her 100th birthday. I took a good look at her as she approached 100 and decided that she had done a pretty darn good job. She was well past 80 and even approaching 90 and still had her own home. She tended her garden and got her own meals. That seems like quality life to me. I want that too. My gardens now are a series of pots in the courtyard and on the roof deck but they still take time to maintain. I love my gardens and will have them as long as I am able.
My father was afraid of death. He spent a long time in hospitals and then years at a nursing home before he died.
My mother was determined not to be any kind of a burden. She was admitted to the hospital and died in less than 2 days.
I guess you can see where I get part of my opinions from.
My hope is that 56 is my middle age date. That will land me at 112 and anything after that point I’ll consider “bonus time”; that is until I change my mind and decide that 65 is middle age.
At lot of what will determine how long you live, in my opinion, will depend on what you eat. Pure, fresh food will help you live a long time. Processed foods from a box, the freezer section at the grocery store, or otherwise processed to retain freshness can only cause you problems. And don’t get me started on high-fructose corn syrup. Evil.
Most people have dubbed me a gourmet cook. I used to like that moniker. Now I don’t consider myself so much a fancy cook-- as most will define a gourmet; although I am capable when I put my mind to it. But I do embrace the term gourmet if you define it as someone who’s picky about what they will eat.
I’m not going to turn down food that’s cooked by someone else and offered to me at a dinner party. I will always enjoy the company and effort that others put into entertaining. I do turn up my nose at some of what I see on public buffets and will limit myself in what I choose from that kind of a setting. I’d rather eat more of something I know my body will use well, rather than eat just to eat.
At The Zola Diet part of what we do is teach people how they got fat to begin with and how to not only get extra weight off but how to keep it off. Our dieters are proving us RIGHT over and over again. They tell me how they tried other diets and got weight off but it came back with the vengeance of a freight train. With The Zola Diet, they tell me they are able to maintain their weight within a few pounds. They are able to eat a lot of foods they love and they don’t ever feel deprived. Pretty darn nice for ‘diet’. My goal? The tastiest diet on the planet. Check out www.zoladiet.com.
Roasted and stuffed peppers with Almond-crusted Chicken
This is really two separate recipes but I served them at the same time and they go together well, so I thought I’d offer them both to you today.
You can serve the chicken with other side dishes if you don’t want the peppers.
The peppers also can be served as a vegetarian entrée. For an entrée plan on two or three peppers per person. As a side dish, one pepper will do.
Roasted and Stuffed Peppers
Serves six as side dish. Three as an entrée. This is NOT a spicy dish. It's full-flavored, but not “hot”.
Ingredients:
3 medium poblano peppers. Cut them in half the long way (tip to stem) and remove the seeds and ribs.
6 ounces of goat cheese (you’ll find it in tubes in the cheese section)
2 tsp of minced garlic (jar garlic is fine in this dish)
6 ounces of Monterrey jack cheese grated
2 Tbl of minced shallot or onion
1 Tbl of minced basil
½ cup of dried apricots, finely minced (you can use fresh apricots too if they are in season)
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Mix everything except the pepper shells in a bowl. Just use a wooden spoon or spatula to mix it up really well. Make sure the apricot bits are dispersed throughout the mixture.
Using a tablespoon hold the poblano pepper half in one hand and stuff it to the rim with the cheese mixture. It can stick up a bit and be lumpy. Don’t level it off with a knife or anything. A bit of mounding is okay.
Do this with each pepper until all of the stuffing has been transferred to the peppers if possible. You might have a bit leftover. If that’s the case, save it for leftovers. You can heat it and eat it like dip with celery sticks.
The only trick to this meal is you need to prop the peppers next to each other so they don’t tip onto their sides. I was able to do this by lining them all up along one edge of a 9-by-13-inch pan. If they tip the filling might melt and run out. In that case your meal would not be as pretty but you should be able to scoop it out of the pan and serve it over the peppers anyway.
Roast the peppers at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the topping just begins to get a bit brownish in places. It will look a bit like lightly toasted marshmallows. The peppers will mellow and soften.
When you want to serve you can carefully remove them with a tong and put them on a plate.
While these are roasting you can make your chicken.
Almond-Crusted Chicken
Serves 2 and can be doubled or tripled easily.
This is SUPER EASY and tastes great. This is also good for you. Other chicken recipes that are dipped in egg and coated with crumbs or white flour mixtures contain a lot of carbohydrates that your body turns into fat. This dish is made with pure almond flour which won’t turn to fat. Your body will use it as fuel.
Ingredients:
1 egg
2 chicken breast halves (skinless) approximately 6 ounces each
1 cup of almond flour (Bob’s Mill is the most famous maker. Find this in the health food section). This is purely ground almond flour.
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter or ghee for frying
Directions:
Put the egg on a dinner plate and break it up with a fork. You want to beat it a bit.
Place the almond flour on another dinner plate. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
(optionally) pound the chicken breast halves inside a plastic bag (one at a time) to thin them out. You can use a meat mallet and pound them to about one third of an inch thickness. This makes them cook faster and gives you more coating surface.
Dip each piece of chicken in egg. Dip both sides. Then transfer it to the almond flour to coat both sides. Set aside and repeat.
Melt your butter or ghee in a large frying pan. Add the chicken and cook one side on medium until it turns a nice golden brown. Then turn over and repeat. Do both pieces at the same time.
You could continue to cook the chicken in this pan until it’s done but many times that makes it darker and less juicy. What I recommend is that you transfer your chicken to an ovenproof pan and put it in the oven at 375 degrees and bake it for about 15 minutes more until the chicken shows no pink inside. This makes the outside crispy and the middle juicy.
Then you are ready to serve.
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