Pear-Pecan Wild Rice Stuffing is a way to honor Native Americans at Thanksgiving.  My recipe is studded with toasted pecans and chunks of pears and will wow your crowd.  I use butter spray rather than butter to cut calories.

Ingredients for 12 servings:

8 cups challah or egg bread, cut into 1 ” squares

1 cup pecan piece

1 T. butter and some butter spray (for flavor)

1 large onion, chopped

3 ribs celery, chopped

3 pears, halved, cored, chopped

1/3  cup white wine, or you can substitute chicken broth

1 pkg (8.8 oz) Uncle Ben’s ready seasoned long grain and wild rice (or any variety)

4 T. chopped fresh marjoram

1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper

2 cups low sodium chicken broth

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Coat a large baking dish with cooking spray.  In a jelly roll pan,  spread bread cubes in a single layer, bake and stir often until toasted and crisp.  Cool.

Meanwhile, heat large non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add pecans, cooking until lightly browned, about three minutes. Remove.

In the same skillet, melt a tablespoon butter over low-medium heat and add onion and celery.  Add a little water if necessary for cooking. Spray with butter spray, add pears and cook until just starting to soften.  Add wine, cook until reduced by half, about a minute.

Stir in rice, 3 T. marjoram, salt and pepper until blended.  Stir in toasted bread cubes and pecans.  Gradually stir in chicken broth.  Transfer to a baking dish and give it a butter-spray.  Cover, bake thirty minutes.  Uncover, and bake the top until crisp.  Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of marjoram.

Northern Minnesota lakes, marshes, and streams; water 6 inches to 3 feet deep.  Wild rice has a higher protein content than most cereal grains, making it a good food for wildlife and humans. Wild rice attracts many wild birds, especially waterfowl and red-winged blackbirds, and it also provides nesting cover for waterfowl.

Peanut Butter and Jelly on the Perfect “10”

The “Perfect 10″ Western Bagel contains 10 net carbs, 9 grams of which are fiber, and 18 grams of protein with a variety of grains. Toast and spread with 2 T. peanut butter and a generous quantity of sugar-free jelly for a delectable PB&J.  Keep in mind bananas (Elvis’ favorite) apples, carrots, and celery sticks are delectable with peanut butter.

When this bagel’s 18 grams of high quality grain protein is combined with peanut butter, a legume more closely related to a pea than a nut, your grain-legume combination provides complete protein. Natural peanut butter, the kind that sometimes has to be stirred, is better for the heart because it contains only peanut oil, the good kind.  Studies have shown that mono-unsaturated fats prevent heart disease.

One percent of the population is allergic to peanut butter.  Allergic reactions are quick and easy to identify since they occur within thirty minutes.  Food intolerances, caused by artificial colors, preservatives, and flavor enhancers, are slower in reaction time.

Judy, a cousin of my friend Janessa Breckinridge, started the Gold Standard Plan prior to publication.  Release date is January 2010 for GOLD STANDARD OF THIN.  Enjoying this PB&J on the Perfect 10 for lunch and then taking a walk, Judy lost twelve pounds the first month.  Fiber-rich carbs break down slowly and thus trigger less insulin.  This allows her body free to burn fat during her walk.  The mono-unsaturated fat in peanut butter keeps her feeling full.  She says walking does not make her hungrier when she eats the right carbs.

My Tuna Antipasto Salad takes just fifteen minutes to prepare.  Serve with a small whole wheat or other small bread product, this meal is a filling 250 calories.  When we don’t overeat and overspend, we enjoy the holidays more.

Eating a potassium-rich baked potato every day can lower your blood pressure according to Tufts University research, and it only takes weeks.  If you cut back on salt while pumping up levels of artery-relaxing potassium in the potato, you’ll trim your blood pressure an average of 11 points.

Try this delicious  low calorie broccoli-carrot-cheese baked potato– and add a tossed salad.

Ingredients for one serving:

• 1 medium (5- to 6-ounce) Idaho russet baking potato, baked or microwaved
• 1/4 cup salsa
• 1/4 cup shredded low-fat Cheddar cheese
• 2 tablespoons light sour cream
• Ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup grated carrots
• 1 cup steamed small broccoli florets

Directions:

1. Reheat the potato, if necessary, in the microwave.
2. Cut a long slit in the top of the potato and press the ends in toward the center. With a fork, mash the potato pulp slightly.
3. Add the salsa, cheese, sour cream, and pepper to taste, and mash to mix. Mix in the carrots.
4. Spoon the broccoli into the potato and serve.

Estimated Nutritional Analysis per Serving: 229 cal, 6 g fat, 16 mg cholesterol, 504 mg sodium, 21 g protein, 33 g carbohydrates, 10 g dietary fiber.

Lisa Wood’s diaramas feature insects reading, having tea, and here– looking through a microscope.  Her tiny monikers are delightfully odd.  L.A. Times writer Craig Nakano tells us Lisa’s curiosities are featured at Gold Bug, owned by the Coleman Family in Pasadena.

The CAT-CAMEL is my favorite core exercise tor easing stress on my lower back, and it helps me stand taller.  Here’s how:  start on all fours with hands directly beneath shoulders and knees below hips.  Exhale and contract your abdominal muscles, rounding your spine up to the ceiling.  Tuck in your chin slightly and hold for fivteen seconds.  Then, exhale and arch your lowr back and draw your chest and head upward, holding for another fifteen seconds.  Repeat from five to ten times.

Ugh, dust mites!  A week and a half from now, we’ll be getting out holiday treasures such as Christmas decorations  and tree skirts.  The usually decorations emerge from storage covered with dust mites and other irritants.  The fix– stash decorations in the freezer overnight, where dust mites will freeze and die.  Then, to remove nonliving ittitants such as dander, launder the washable items in hot water or vacuum items that can’t get wet.

With two new young couples with toddlers and early elementary kids on the block, I have met them but haven’t brought them food gifts.  Today I’m making three grapefruit and avocado salads.  One is for us.  A delicious healthy salad is more of a crowd pleaser than a sweet treat. 

At our house, Thanksgiving is about telling family stories and sharing anecdotes.  This is what I love best about getting together anytime with the family.  Usually I start stories off  as narrator.  Now the kids continue telling them with embellishments. Silly family stories make us feel good.  In fact, we keep arteries healthy with optimism.  A Harvard study found that upbeat people are 50% less likely to have heart disease than their gloomier counterparts.  Why?  Their bodies produce far fewer artery-damaging stress hormones.

By popular demand from two emails I just received after Reba posted about her cat, here he is:

Worldwide there are more overweight people than malnourished people reports ecologist/writer David Nicholson-Lord, trusted writer for the Encyclopedia Britanica.  The United States holds the record for the most overrate country.  Watch out for fast food items– Arby’s Pecan Chicken Salad Sandwich is 870 calories, Taco Bell’s Chicken Ranch Taco Salad is 960, McDonald’s Deluxe Breakfast, regular size is 1,090, Carl’s Jr. Double Guacamole Bacon Burger is 1,090, and

Hardee’s Monster Thickburger is 1,420 calories.