wheat

Kufta-creation!🥩🍳🥖

You can never have enough animal food on your plate! Take a look at my kufta-creation. Two pieces of Kuftas, less than 100 g in total, cooked with parsley flakes, and spiced in salt, pepper, a dash of cumin, allspice, chili pepper flakes, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, and coriander!👩‍🍳

I also have two large sized eggs, scrambled, but spiced with only salt and pepper😊. On the side I have some delicious Asiago cheese (Santorini), flavored w/Rosemary and Olive Oil to go on a wheat bun, and a warm cup of coffee.☕️

This was so yummy good!😋 Again, you can never have enough animal food on your plate to keep you young and healthy!⚕️#healthyfat #paleo #keto #mediterranean #protein #intermittentfasting #ketosis #health #healthydiet #cheese #extravirginoliveoil #wheat #fiber #dietarycholesterol 🥩🥖🍳🌱🧀🫒👩‍🍳⚕️👩‍⚕️☕️

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book(s), Not Without God: A Story of Survival and Not Without God: Hope In the Storm. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s also been featured on The Neil Haley (media giant’s) Show, The Intuitive Edge podcast, and on ESPN’s ‘Solutions from the Huddle’broadcast as well as Grace and Truth Radio World!

Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students from all over the world from many different backgrounds and parts of the world. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among many other places. Last August she created the “Writing Because I Can’t Not Write Group” meetings and workshops where aspiring and seasoned authors can network and learn together.

Zina writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also likes to write about health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm was just published last year.

Christmas cookies (a healthier version) 🍪👩‍🍳🎄

One way to make your cookies healthier is to use whole wheat flour. These cookies are used with whole wheat mill flour. It gives them a nutritional benefit. Not only is whole wheat flour better for your digestive tract, but it is also better for people with diabetes. I’m not a diabetic, but I always choose whole wheat over white whenever I can. We all have the potential to be, so we have to be careful.

One of my favorite things to do around the holidays is to bake, especially around Christmas time. I also sprinkled these homemade cookies to give them a holiday effect.🤶 They turned out delicious! Another trick is to use melted butter. Most recipes will call for a stick of butter.🧈

I melt the butter almost all the way through. Because when you melt the butter it makes it easier to turn your ingredients into a dough. No need for a mixer. Just melt your stick of butter, and you can easily roll your combination into a cookie dough. I like to space each cookie two inches apart and make larger ones.🍪👩‍🍳

Another tip is to use parchment paper. I always use parchment paper it’s a nice clean sheet and it gives the cookies a nice round shape. The cookies turn out smoother than when you use aluminum foil, for example. Baking is fun and making healthier choices makes it even better. Follow my blog for more tips and tricks.👩‍🍳🤶🍪

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s also been featured on the Intuitive Edge podcast as well as ESPN’s “Solutions from the Huddle” broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World! Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students of all ages from many different backgrounds and cultures. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also writes on health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm is live and for sale! You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-God-Hope-Storm-ebook/dp/B09P9T2DLT

Chicken broccoli medley🥦🐣🫒

This #dish is so yummy. It’s #chicken #broccoli medley, I added some #sharp #cheddar and #wholewheat #bread as you can see below. With a little #ranch on the side, this meal was delicious. Cooked in extra-virgin olive oil, with #koshersalt #groundblackpepper and a little table salt, of course. It’s healthy and tasty too! Of course I had to have some water on the side.😊🫒🥦🥦🐣 #mediterraneandiet #ketorecipes #protein #paleodiet #healthy #paleofood ⚕️🥦👩‍🍳

About Zina

This is a healthy breakfast 🍳🍅🥩

What people don’t realize is how healthy eggs are. The myth is that eggs are not good for you because of the cholesterol. But dietary cholesterol is not the same as cholesterol in your heart. On the contrary, eggs are super good for you. My dietitian had told me that I should have two eggs every morning for enough protein intake. This is a very healthy breakfast, although the sausage is processed, ground beef would’ve been the better choice. Nonetheless, this is still a healthy breakfast. Eggs are good for you, meat is a ‘healthy fat’ and whole wheat bread with a cup of coffee is the way to go.🍳🥚🥩🍖🍗🌾☕️ #paleo #paleorecipes #mediterraneanfood #mediterraneandiet #paleodiet #health⚕️🍅🫒☕️

About Zina

Homemade Whole Wheat Raisin Cookies!🍪👩‍🍳❤️‍🩹

Last night I made some yummy cookies. As you know, wheat is a much better alternative to white. Wheat bread and wheat rice are better for you in terms of balancing blood sugar. If you’re going to have a grain, it should be wheat or a darker color, such as Rye. Rye bread also is rich in B vitamins (1, 2, and 3).

I will post some pictures below. I also want to share the recipe in case anyone would like to make them. They came out to 25 cookies all together. What’s great about making a large batch of cookies is you can refrigerate them for up to 1 week and then freeze what you have not consumed for 1-3 months.. I like to put each cookie in its own plastic baggy.

Ingredients:

3/4-1cup of unsalted OR salted butter, and partially melt the butter in a pan

1/4 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of packed brown sugar

2 eggs

3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups of Whole Wheat flour (all purpose flour)

3/4-1 cup of raisins (I used mixed raisins of different kinds)

1/2 tspn of vanilla extract

1/2 tspn salt

1/2 tspn baking soda

AND, this recipe is so easy. STEP 1: basically MIX all ingredients together (in no particular order!). It is fun. Now, there may be excess flour that doesn’t want to mix in. So you will have to add about 1/2 cup to a full cup of water, a little at a time, to smoothen the mixture out.

You want the mixture to have a dough like form but to be smooth enough to scoop onto a cookie sheet. Use parchment paper for best results. Scrape up all the excess flour. You can scoop with a tablespoon, and set the cookies about 1-2 inches apart.

This should come out to 20-25 cookies.

Voila! You have Whole Wheat Raisin cookies! By the way, chopped walnuts would be great to add too but are not necessary. It’s optional. Some people like to add 1 cup of uncooked cooking oats. Oats are also great for helping to regulate blood sugar!

Bake at 375-400 F. You may have to go back and forth between the temperature. Check on them every 2 minutes. They only need 10-12 minutes. But cooking times will vary. When the outer rims are golden they are done. But don’t burn! Once you leave them to sit for at least an hour, they will continue to form.

Enjoy!🍪🍪👩‍🍳

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored the best-selling book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s recently been featured on the Intuitive Edge podcast! She’s also been on ESPN’s “Solutions from the Huddle” broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World! Zina’s written several hundred articles and has taught thousands of students of all ages from many different backgrounds and cultures. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also writes on health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm is live and for sale! You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-God-Hope-Storm-ebook/dp/B09P9T2DLT

Homemade Whole Wheat Walnut Cake!🥮🌾🌰

Baking has always been a favorite past time since I was a kid. At home they’d call me ‘Betty Crocker.’ As an adult I’ve grown more into the baking art and really enjoy embracing my ethnic side with the foods I make!🫒

They said it couldn’t be done, but I did it. Homemade wheat walnut cake from scratch! It’s never been done without white flour as far as I know. Mom was proud. I altered this traditional recipe to make it healthier. It is delicious! Even more delicious than the all-purpose flour version.

I have to be original and think of healthier methods. I hope I see posts from people in the future who have swapped the all purpose white or self rising flour for whole wheat cakes.

I altered the recipe a bit. Since it’s a foreign food, I was able to locate a few people who made this and one even attached a video. I didn’t follow the exact measurements. The better you get with baking the more you just know what to do.

Here is my own recipe:

It contains 3 and a 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour, 3 eggs, two teaspoons of baking powder, crushed walnuts (as many as you’d like :), a cup of whole milk, a cup and a half of sugar, a cup of butter, a tablespoon of vanilla extract, and I add a little water to make it more of a liquid form. You don’t want the cake mix to seem like dough. You are not making bread, you are making a cake. That’s why I add about a half cup or less of water. You basically mix them all together. I add a little extra flour (about a cup or two) to make two cakes each time. You can slice and freeze the cakes for up to a month. You bake at 350 F for a minimum of 30 minutes. Baking time can take up to an hour. Once your toothpick comes clean you’ll know it’s done.😊🥮☕️

Oh, and it might not be a bad idea to add about a 1/2 cup of vegetable oil into the mix.☺️ It will help the cake to keep that liquid form.

#wheat #wholewheatflour #diabeticfriendly #cake #betterthanwhite #assyrianchaldean #yummyfood #walnuts #tchai #tea #coffee #cake #mediterranean #style #foodie #conossieur 🥮☕️😀

About Zina

Intermittent Fasting (benefits) & Calorie restriction! #health⚕️

I have been decreasing my amount of breakfast lately: for example, instead of having two eggs for breakfast, I am only having one. I don’t add ground beef every day, as a matter of fact, sometimes I skip breakfast altogether. Some of this is to continue to maintain my low calorie intake of 1,440 calories or less per day. Some of the reasons I’m decreasing is also because of the benefits of fasting or reducing food. Fasting has been proven to improve our health greatly. After eight hours of fasting, your body naturally goes into “ketosis,” so intermittent fasting is like doing “keto” without following a keto diet.

As of today, I have set my “eating” hours from 10 am to 6 pm. That will put me at a 16:8 plan. Eight hours of eating and 16 hours of no food. Again, after 8 hours of no food, your body naturally goes into ketosis and stops buring carbohydrates for fat. Instead, it burns fat and makes things called ketones, which it can use for fuel. That’s what we weant. Ketosis is a word you’ve probably seen while you’re looking for info. on diabetes or weight loss. Typically I have breakfast and lunch with a snack in the evening. I would like to get to the point where breakfast and lunch are cut by 200-400 calories each time.

I achieved that. The picture I posted above is of my breakfast. I had one egg: 70 calories. I had almost half of a sweet onion: that is about 18 calories in the picture above. I had a third of a Roma tomato: again, only around 8 calories. I also had a slice of split top wheat bread: 8o calories. With coffee (with limited cream and sugar), that is 50 calories. That’s a low 224 calories. As you can see, by taking out the regular 2 oz. beef and extra slice of wheat (or second egg), I have cut my calories significantly. However, I will incorporate ground beef maybe for lunch or tomorrow. The benefits of ground beef are incredible. Red meat provides iron and other nutrition. I have been anemic before and don’t want to get back on iron pills, so having red meat several times per week is important for me.

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored the best selling book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s been featured on ESPN’s ‘Solutions from the Huddle’ broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World. Zina’s written more than 500 articles and has taught thousands of students from all over the world spanning many different backgrounds and cultures. She’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and the Southern Writers magazine among other places. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She also writes on health and diet and loves to help others. Her latest book, Not Without God: Hope In the Storm is live and for sale! Order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Without-God-Hope-Storm-ebook/dp/B09P9T2DLT

The ‘Mediterranean Delight’

I started a 1,200 calorie per day plan accompanied with the Mediterranean Diet recently, and a friend suggested I call it the ‘Mediterranean Delight’ instead of a diet. I hate the word, ‘Diet.’ Lol On this plan you are allowed up to 4 proteins a day. A serving size is considered 3-4 oz. of meat, poultry, etc. and that is the size of a ‘deck of cards.’ I actually was having one egg every morning, but my doctor recommended two eggs for breakfast so this is about 1.5 scrambled eggs here. You are allowed 2 grains/bread per day each consisting of 100 calories, preferably dark (wheat) bread so I added this little bun. Finally, I added these delicious koftas which will put me at about two proteins so far between the eggs and meat. You can see I am having a warm cup of coffee with limited cream and sugar. Obviously, I have not started on fruit servings and vegetables along with nuts, seeds, etc. If you are looking to lose a little weight, I recommend the Mediterranean Delight (diet). Search it on google for a complete guide of servings and how much of each food group you can have per day. You won’t regret it!

About Zina

Zina Hermez has authored the Best-selling book, Not Without God: A Story of Survival. She’s been featured in numerous articles, guest posts, podcasts, websites, newsletters, and magazines. She’s been featured on ESPN’s ‘Solutions from the Huddle’ broadcast and on Grace and Truth Radio World. Zina’s written hundreds of articles and has taught thousands of students. Additionally she’s appeared in Christianity Today, the Suite T blog, and Southern Writers magazine among other places. She writes on faith, science, and overcoming adversity. She is a major foodie and loves to help others. You can connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, Linked In, or Twitter.