Fried Green Tomatoes… Kinda.

The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teacher at my mom’s school was teaching weather to her kids. My mom volunteered Jake and I to go in and talk to them and answer some questions. As we left, Mrs. McCall gave us a basket of some squash, gourds, tomatoes, chilies, and some Halloween candy. The tomatoes were from her garden and still very green. So, I decided that I was going to make fried green tomatoes.

I started looking up recipes online and didn’t like any of them. Most use buttermilk which I don’t have. Many are just fried with bread crumbs and no seasonings. Some have lemon pepper in them- I’m not a HUGE fan of pepper. So I decided I’d come up with something myself.

Well, after a day or two the tomatoes started turning red. So I sliced up this half green half red tomato. I dipped it in milk and a mix of Panko bread crumbs and ranch dressing mix. I then fried them in oil. All in all, pretty easy to make. They taste yummy too. The heat brought out the sweetness of the tomato. The bad thing, they seemed to get much more ripe and red in the heat so they are not quite as firm as I think truly green tomatoes would have been. However, they taste very good.

Fact # 3

• From 2001 to 2004, breast cancer incidence rates in the U.S. decreased by 3.5% per year. One theory is that this decrease was due to the reduced use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) by women after the results of a large study, called the Women’s Health Initiative, were published in 2002. These results suggested a connection between HRT and increased breast cancer risk.

Don’t replace your hormones.

My Favorite Cookbook

After taking a long nap with the hubby, it was time to decide what to make for dinner. I turned to my trusty friend, Bill Phillips and his book, Eating for Life.

I knew I had ground turkey in the fridge. I flipped through all of the pages (each recipe has a picture of the finished product and ingredients) and found a winner. “Crunch Taco Salad: Chili-seasoned ground turkey on a bed of lettuce topped with salsa and sour cream.” Yummy. I used extra lean turkey and vegetarian chili- which by the way does not smell very good coming out of the can but tastes way better.

This book is awesome. It gives you many breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack recipes. All of them have been rated an 8 out of 10 or above by Jake and I. They are super simple, very healthy, and YUMMY! The recipes are low fat, high protein and balanced. He also includes basic diet and exercise information in the front of the book. In the back he has examples of menus that readers have sent in along with their before and after pictures.

Of all of my cookbooks, this is my favorite. Try it out. You won’t be sorry.

Fact # 2

As promised, here is another breast cancer fact:

• About 1,990 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in men. Less than 1% of all new breast cancer cases occur in men.

It's not just a woman's disease.