November, 2025

• I’m a high school dropout.
• I got my GED after I made my first million.
• I don’t count calories, just eat what I know is good for me.
• I’m not as tall as I used to be.
• I’m 5’4″ tall and weigh 118 pounds.
• I’ve never missed a day of work in my entire adult life – never called in sick.
• I was a contestant on The Price Is Right.
• Other jobs I’ve had: waitress, hostess at a strip club, receptionist, musician, songwriter, standup comic & backup singer for Wayne Newton.
• I’ve seen the inside of a jail cell.
• I cut my own bangs.

You know how I’m always making my dark chocolate cashew clusters? I just thought it was a healthy sweet treat considering the health benefits of dark (70%) chocolate and the protein from the cashews. Plus, I keep them refrigerated and cashews stay softer than almonds. So last night, I saw this article about my favorite snack! Who knew?

To see “The Surprising Snack Dietitians Say Helps Keep Your Blood Sugar in Check,” click here.

p.s. Cashews must be toasted first! I buy them raw and dry-roast at 350 until they’re light brown (about 12-15 minutes) and they taste much better than store-bought toasted ones.

Thanksgiving is just days away and there’s a lot you can do in advance… like planning the perfect outfit to wear for dinner. I recommend pairing a colorful holiday blouse with the biggest stretch pants you own! Here’s what I made this week:

• Fresh cranberries for Thanksgiving dinner
• Chicken soup
• Skinless chicken drumsticks with rice and Swiss chard + salad
• Custard pudding
• Banana bread (for a friend)
• Apple bread (for me!)
• Spaghetti with simple meat sauce + salad
• Oatmeal muffins
• Plain chicken jambalaya + salad

• Simple white bread with egg to make bread cubes for my Thanksgiving bread stuffing
• Leftover cold chicken drumsticks + potato salad & marinated broccoli (a picnic 😋)
• No knead whole wheat bread
• Granola bars
• Penne with chicken & pesto sauce with steamed carrots & zucchini
• Taco salad

I’m so looking forward to my Thanksgiving dinner. Everything is from scratch and is out of this world. I’ll be making turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, fresh cranberries, gravy, and pumpkin pie with real whipped cream!!! Tomorrow, I’m roasting turkey wings to make stock for my gravy and stuffing. After all that food, we never feel overly full or lethargic, probably because we’re not having anything involving marshmallows! 😀

I’ve always believed that it’s more about what I DON’T eat than what I DO eat that keeps me healthy. You can eat lots of broccoli but it you follow it with a can of Pilsbury crescent rolls, that little doughboy will haunt you in your sleep! 😀 Here’s what’s not in this kitchen:

• No Soft drinks
• No Fruit juice
• No Energy drinks
• No Beer
• No Wine
• No Alcohol
• No Store-bought salad dressing
• No Cured meats or sausages (*see exception posted Dec. 1st.⬆)
• No Ultra-processed foods

This story was all over the news yesterday. ➡ ➡ “Ultra-processed foods are linked to chronic health conditions like obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, chronic kidney disease and overall higher death rates. Common examples of ultra-processed foods include sugar-sweetened beverages, packaged snacks, instant soups, breakfast cereals, energy bars, mass-produced packaged breads, ready-to-eat meals, ice cream and pizza.” (Ice cream and pizza!? That’s just sad!! 😭)

But don’t fret. Almost all of these foods can be made at home to be enjoyed so you don’t have to give them up, just make them yourself. I make my own snacks, soups, granola bars, breads, meals, and pizza and I encourage everyone to do the best you can to avoid processed food. Read labels. If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it.🤓

Oh… more things that are not in my kitchen: Cheese Whiz, Spam, Pringles, Ding Dongs, Twinkies or Funyuns! (…but you knew that ❤️).

It’s been raining for days here in Southern California. ☔️ I love it. I’m forced to stay home in my kitchen and do what I love to do. Here’s what I cooked this week:

• Turkey tenders with rice & broccolini with garlic
• Tomato soup
• No knead pumpernickel bread
• Vegetable bean chili
• Apple pudding
• Chicken spinach skillet dinner + salad
• No knead whole wheat bread

• Mini chocolate chip cookies
• Leftover turkey tender with steamed & pan fried potatoes, carrots, green beans & sweet potatoes
• Buckwheat pancakes
• One pan chicken with roasted potatoes, Brussels sprouts & bell peppers
• Tortillas
• Rigatoni with simple meat sauce + salad with garbanzo beans & avocado

About those mini cookies: We usually just have a cookie for dessert these days. Since cutting back on sugar, I rarely make cakes or pies. I’m even making the cookies smaller and one small cookie or a chocolate cluster is all I need for dessert. But the man I love claims he’s being deprived of his rights and as the warden of this prison I should allow him to have two cookies. His claim is that two small cookies are equal to one regular cookie and as a model prisoner, he’s entitled to a grown up cookie for dessert. (…awaiting a decision from the appeals board… 😀)

For anyone curious, there’s lots of empty space on the shelves of my refrigerator but the vegetable drawers at the bottom are standing room only. Why don’t I start with what’s always on the shelves in my fridge:

• Container of crudité (carrots, cabbage chunks, radishes)
• Container of cut papaya or mango
• Milk
• Eggs
• Buttermilk
• Mayonnaise (avocado-based)
• My butter-mix
• Avocado oil
• Champagne vinegar
• Homemade salad dressing
• A few mini apples
• Granola bars
• Four containers of nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, and pistachios)
• Dark chocolate cashew clusters
• Homemade peanut butter and almond butter
• Container of apple bread or lemon blueberry loaf (depending on season)
• Blueberry and blackberry  jam
• Low sodium soy sauce
• Mustard
• Pickles

And down in the crisper drawers, I always keep….

• 2 kinds of lettuce (usually romaine and red leaf)
• Cabbage
• Carrots
• Celery
• Onion
• Radicchio
• Granny Smith apples for baking
• Iceberg lettuce for sandwiches
• Baby spinach
• Broccoli
• Bell peppers

I buy other vegetables when needed for a certain recipe like zucchini, green beans, Swiss chard, beets, or Brussels sprouts (don’t make a face! 🤢) You don’t have to love Brussels sprouts but put on your big boy apron and cook them! 🙂 They’re one of the top cancer-fighting vegetables you can eat. Next post, I’ll talk about what’s NOT in my fridge and why…

It’s plain and simple and may not be for everyone who likes spicy Mexican food but it’s perfect for me. We have it every Saturday for our movie night. 🎬 It’s light and healthy because I only use olive oil and fresh lemon juice for the dressing. And I always use my own not-spicy chili powder and very lean ground beef. It’s fast too! I usually make it less than 20 minutes.

You can mix it all in one bowl to serve or I sometimes put the lettuce (tossed first with olive oil & lemon juice) in two separate serving bowls and we put all the other toppings on ourselves. The only extra I sometimes add is avocado but I don’t want to get too full so we have room for the giant vat of popcorn I make for the movie. 🍿 Click here for the recipe.

Here is an un-retouched photo taken at home. I was anxious about showing myself at this age but I want to be transparent with this new Health and Beauty section and all the things I plan to share. I have so much I want to post here, I didn’t know where to start. So I will start with this morning. Here’s my typical morning routine:

• We all wake up a bit dehydrated so I drink a few sips of water, not cold but lukewarm water, which feels kinder to the body. I then use a moisturizing lip balm (no Chapstick), and spray my face with a facial spray. It provides a little moisture until I wash my face.
• Still in my pajamas, I follow that with a big cup of green tea while I check my emails & comments, here and on YouTube, and answer what I can.
• After that, I wash my face and put on a serum followed by moisturizer.
• While it sets, I get dressed, put on my walking shoes and put on sunscreen. Sunny or overcast, I always wear sunscreen.
• Wearing a wide-brimmed hat, long sleeves, and carrying water, I head out for a brisk 10-12 minute walk. Some of it is uphill (I hate that part!) so when I come down that slope, I do a light jog because stressing the bones helps with bone density. (It’s easier to do that going downhill). It’s not really jogging it’s just pounding the pavement to create a weight-bearing effect.
• Back home and cooled down, I’m ready for breakfast.
• My typical breakfast includes a hard boiled egg, a slice of my whole wheat bread, a cup of black tea, and 1/2 slice of apple bread for dessert. 🍏
• Now I’m ready for another, always full, day.

I hope this little start is helpful. I plan to post more on what we eat and drink, or never eat or drink, what about snacks, what’s in my fridge and freezer, specific exercises, supplements (you might be surprised), my skincare routine, and much more. I can’t wait to share more and hope it’s helpful. Experts believe that up to 80% of chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes are preventable with a healthy lifestyle and some cancers as well. I believe that.

I make pretty much everything we eat from scratch at home and I can tell you that we never ever get colds or the flu. Not in decades! My grateful husband is a beneficiary of my healthy cooking and the standards I maintain in the kitchen. He loves me for it and shows it with his pet name for me…. “Warden.” 😍

My cooking isn’t always pretty, but it’s always good! 😋  There are some things you only make for parties but I highly recommend having your own party, like pretend you invited people over but they never showed up. Then you get to eat all the hors d’oeuvres. So here’s what I made this week…

• Deviled eggs (gone in two days!)
• Spinach fried rice + cabbage soup with added carrots
• Chocolate pudding
• Granola bars
• No knead crusty rolls
• Turkey chili but with chicken + salad and crusty rolls
• Almond butter

• Spaghetti with cherry tomatoes & broccoli (I love this!)
• Apple pudding
• No knead whole wheat bread
• Dark chocolate cashew clusters
• Branzino with roasted vegetables
• Oatmeal muffins
• Taco salad (posting this week!)

It’s hard to focus on my cooking when the Dodgers are playing the Blue Jays in the World Series. ⚾️ I’m a Dodger fan but I’m also from Canada. 🇨🇦 It’s like having to choose between cake and pie! Here’s what I cooked this week:

• Vegetable fried rice with carrots, cabbage, bok choy, spinach, and edamame + salad with ginger dressing.
• Tortillas
• Chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons (husband’s fave)
• No knead seeded bread
• Thin breaded chicken cutlets with rice plus steamed carrots and green beans.
• Oatmeal muffins
• Salmon patties with roasted vegetables
• No knead fruit & nut bread
• Vegetable bean chili + endive & romaine salad
• Apple pudding
• Taco salad

Here’s an un-staged picture of my spice drawer. Don’t judge me! 🙂 I know how it looks…. bad. But I know where everything is at any given moment. If you’re gong to judge me, do it for something dreadful… like cutting my own bangs.