Healthy Seeds and Dr. Oz Now Plays the Seed Pantry Game!
Dr. Oz acted as if he was surprised that the two women who played the Pantry Game knew a little more than he anticipated about seeds and their health benefits. It was encouraging to see Seeds given some attention on this show to continue to educate people about the profound value of Seeds and Nuts in their daily dietary regimens.
Seeds and Nuts are commonly in their original ‘whole’ form when sold in bulk online or in the bins at the Food Co-ops around most communities. They are also chopped, ground, and sliced for inclusion in various recipes for breads, cakes, cookies, pastries, and other foods. Just be careful that they are NOT rancid and that you get yours from a reputable supplier that only sells fresh (and preferably organic) Nuts and Seeds.
From the time that I was a small child of my Italian mother, I have enjoyed fresh nuts. During the Holidays, we always had raw walnuts and filberts with the silver nutcracker in bowls on the living room table. My mother also used generous servings of sesame seeds, pine nuts, and poppy seeds on a variety of dishes. She LOVED to chop fresh walnuts or pecans and blend them into our pancakes designing animals or words with the chopped nuts! My favorites were the elephants and the giraffes. I encourage you to PLAY with your food in a healthy way…
We love to nibble on a handful of fresh organic cashews or almonds. We also enjoy them gently toasted in a cast iron skillet and then bathed in a little bath of tamari with ginger or toasted sesame oil. You can prepare pumpkin seeds the same way and sometimes we add a dash of cayenne or black pepper to our pumpkin seeds. They all make a fabulous salty snack without added salt…much better than potato chips or fritos.
Macadamia Nuts and walnuts are delicious in nut breads and we sneak some banana bits into our macadamia nut bread. I love a pineapple upside down cake with macadamia nuts or pecans chopped and spread over the sliced pineapple. It adds some high quality protein to the carbs of the fruit as well as giving some texture to this dessert.
Being Italian…Pesto with pine nuts is just the best and we love drizzling it over brown rice and steamed vegetables. We vary our pesto with sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic and artichokes and often mix in some walnuts with our pine nuts. Pine nuts are also divine in chicken soup. The Greek Lemon Chicken soup is simply heavenly when you include those pine nuts!
Our healthy cinnamon rolls use fresh walnuts or pecans using raisins to sweeten these precious treats that are not reserved only for breakfast. We also use blue agave syrup to sweeten our cinnamon buns and our other nut dishes. In fact, if you toast your nuts in the skillet and add in some honey and agave syrup…the concoction is a gooey, yet glorious snack.
Sprinkle sunflower and sesame seeds over whole grain dishes and vegetable dishes. We make a fantastic blend of sesame seeds and sea salt called Gomasio which is one of the best and the healthiest condiments you’ll even enjoy. You can sprinkle Gomasio on salad, sea veggies, regular veggies, and on any slab of meat, too. It makes a whole grain dish utterly delightful!
Last, but not least…we combine dried fruit and nuts to make a snack that will satisfy at any time of the day or night. We love to blend hazelnuts and chocolate from spreads for bread and toast to hot sauces over ice cream or frozen yogurt.
There are tons of great recipes for cookies and pastries like almond cookies and baclava that incorporate healthy nuts in the list of ingredients.
We blend hemp seeds and poppy seeds in our Smoothies and sprinkle them on our breads and focaccia and bagels.
Here are the business partners we use to get our own stash of healthy and fresh Nuts and Seeds:
If you are searching for a source for pre-packaged mixes for cinnamon rolls, poppy seed bagels, pizza, cookies, cakes, and other great blends which include seeds and nuts; then visit our favorite supplier:
Glutino – Premium Poppy Seed Bagels
If you are looking for an excellent supplier of medicinal Seeds and Sprouting Seeds like Chia Seeds; then Mountain Rose is our favorite:
