Dreaming of France -- Healthy Food

Thank you for joining this weekly meme. Grab a copy of the photo above and link back to An Accidental Blog. Share with the rest of us your passion for France. Did you read a good book set in France? See a movie? Take a photo in France? Have an adventure? Eat a fabulous meal or even just a pastry? Or if you're in France now, go ahead and lord it over the rest of us. We can take it.
This week, because of some borderline medical test results (nothing serious), we have started getting serious about eating healthier.
If we already lived in France, we'd be eating healthier, so we might as well get a jump on it. But I expect it to be a bit more challenging here in the U.S.
In France, we'll visit the market a few times a week and buy whatever is fresh.

Do you think these oranges came from Spain?

These potatoes and peppers look firm and fresh.
We're trying to eat more whole foods, cutting down on carbs and sugars.
Salad seems to always be a part of a French meal, traditionally after the main course, although some restaurants have begun to serve them before the main course, more American style.

That's not to say that we will only eat fruits and vegetables. We'll definitely indulge in French specialties, such as these galettes served with hard cider.

Galettes are similar to crepes but they are made with buckwheat rather than white flour, and they are savory instead of sweet. These galettes might have been filled with cheese, ham, potatoes, eggs or a variety of other fillings. 

I hope I've convinced you to start thinking about more whole foods, as my family embarks on healthier meals. Tonight, we had garlic butter haddock filets, baked sweet potatoes and green beans. 

Thanks for playing along and please visit the blogs of others who join in too.

No Bake Cookies

This afternoon I made some no-bake cookies. I've been trying to avoid wheat because a doctor told me long again that I had a gluten intolerance. I didn't really listen to him because giving up breads and cookies, plus noodles and cereal, just didn't seem like a good idea.
When I've gone without wheat though, I feel a definite difference. So since Monday, when I had a piece of apple pie, I haven't had wheat.
I was craving something sweet and the genius idea of no bake cookies came up. As I was making them, pouring the milk, the cocoa, sugar and butter into a heavy metal pot, I remembered the first time I'd ever made the cookies.
I was in 7th grade. We had some sort of health presentation with a movie and a take-home comic book. The movie, as I recall, was a singing group of some sort with four guys (copying off the Beatles, the Monkeys) and the guys talked and sang about eating healthy. I came home so excited clutching my comic book with the recipe for the cookies.
I remember the look on my mom's face and I think she was kind of amused that I was so inspired by this "healthy" eating group. She helped me gather the ingredients for the cookies.
Once the sugar, milk, butter and cocoa started to boil, I turned off the burner and let them cool for one minute. Then I added the pinch of salt, teaspoon of vanilla, peanut butter and oatmeal. The cookies were then plopped onto waxed paper a teaspoon at a time where they were left to harden. Mmmm.
I carefully copied the recipe in my schoolgirl handwriting onto a piece of notebook paper. At the end of the recipe, in all capital letters, I wrote "EAT!" as if someone might forget that part.
My mom was in charge of the ladies' group at church and when they put together a cookbook, she included the No Bake Cookies with my name alongside. Of course, that means I'm plagiarizing the recipe because it came directly from the healthy-eating band whose name I can't remember.
That doesn't stop me from making them though.
Now they're cooling on wax paper on my granite countertop waiting for my hungry boys to come home from school. I can claim the cookies have some sort of nutritional value, especially since I had to use the rest of the peanut butter so Spencer won't be able to make his weight-gaining drink of protein powder and peanut butter.
Bon Apetit!