Turkey Day Leftovers With a Twist!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday filled with lots of fabulous food! And if you’re like us, you're now left with TONS of leftovers you've gotta eat up! But don't worry. We've got some easy, fast, and delicious ways to make your second-, third-, and even your fourth-day feast fun and oh-so tasty! Here are four of our favorite ways to enjoy Turkey Day leftovers:

Quick Quesadillas. Simply tuck turkey pieces, veggies, and cranberry sauce (or a drizzle of gravy if you'd prefer) between two tortillas, and heat the whole thing up in the oven.

Turkey Noodle Soup. Skinless turkey meat and leftover veggies are perfect additions to a hearty Fall soup. Boil any noodles you’d like, then add turkey broth and as much meat and veggies and you'd like!

Super Sandwich. Spread pureed squash or yams on slices of rye bread, then pile on a few cold turkey slices and some lettuce, tomato, and onion. Top with another slice of rye bread, and enjoy.

Thanksgiving Sliders. Grab a couple of leftover rolls, and slice them in half to make four buns. Add warmed up turkey and stuffing to each bottom bun, replace the top buns, then dollop with leftover cranberry sauce and a drizzle of hot gravy.

For more delicious recipes (that are good for your health to boot), check out our bestselling book, The New Healing Foods. You can even try it out for FREE for 21 days with our Free Preview!

How Do You Like Them Apples?

Last week, we gave you five fabulous recipes using pumpkin…This week, we’re shining a spotlight onto Fall’s other star ingredient: Apples! So get out to your local apple orchard (or maybe just your backyard!) and pick a basket-full. Then, make up one of these dandy apple dishes…

Cheesy Apple English Muffin: Open an English muffin and place 2 apple slices on each side. Cover the apples with 2 slices of reduced-fat cheddar cheese, and toast in a toaster oven or under a broiler until the cheese is melted.

Roasted Apple Salad: Peel 2 apples, and slice them into wedges. Toss the apples with 2 tsp. of olive oil and ¼ tsp. of thyme. Bake the apples for 25-30 minutes at 400°F, turning once halfway through. Then, remove the apples, and let them cool. Toss 3 cups of spinach and 6 cups of mixed baby greens together, and drizzle with ½ cup of red wine vinaigrette dressing. Top with the roasted apples, 2/3 cup of shredded Swiss cheese, and ¼ cup chopped walnuts. (Makes 6 servings)

Chunky French Applesauce: Cut 1 apple into bite-sized chunks. Place the apple into a saucepan with a third cup of raisins, ¼ cup of chopped walnuts, ½ tsp. ground cinnamon, a pinch of ground nutmeg, and ½ cup of water. Bring everything to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until apples are tender, stirring occasionally. Serve warm or cold over the top of grilled pork chops. (Makes 4 servings)

Amazing Apple Crisp: Peel, core, and slice 6 apples. Mix the apples in a bowl with ¾ cup of sugar, 2 Tbsp. lemon juice, 1 Tbsp. flour, and 1 tsp. cinnamon, then spread the mixture over a lightly greased 9-inch square pan. In another bowl, combine 1 cup of old-fashioned oats, ¾ cup brown sugar, ¾ cup melted butter, and ¼ tsp. baking soda. Mix well. Sprinkle the crumble evenly over the apples in the pan. Bake for 30 minutes at 375°F and serve warm, topped with vanilla ice cream. (Makes 8 servings)

For more delicious dishes that’ll also help keep you healthy at any age, check out our bestselling book, Grow Younger, Live Longer—See Chapter 8 for a whole bunch of family-friendly recipes! You can even try it out FREE for a full 21 days with our Free Preview.

4 Smashing Recipes (Starring Pumpkin)

Boo! Get ready for the spookiest time of the year—that’s right; Halloween is almost here. And what says “Happy Halloween” better than pumpkin, especially when it's on your plate!

Earlier, we covered how to prep and cook a pumpkin. If you missed it, head over to Jerry Baker Home, Health, and Garden on Facebook. (And while you’re there, don’t forget to like, follow, and share our page, too!)

Now that your pumpkin is out of the oven and pureed, you can pop it into containers and freeze it for later use, or you can enjoy it right away in one of these four tasty and amazing ways:

• Savory Pumpkin Mash: Stir your mashed pumpkin with a little margarine, ground cinnamon, and skim milk, and eat it instead of plain old mashed potatoes. It goes perfectly with grilled poultry!
• Sweet Pumpkin Puree: Sprinkle your pumpkin puree with pumpkin pie spice and chopped toasted pecans. Serve it with pork tenderloin for a delicious Fall dinner.
• Pumpkin Pot Roast: Add a little salt and pepper to your pureed pumpkin, then pour it over lean pot roast like a gravy. So easy, so quick, and so yummy.
• Berry Good Pumpkin Bowl: Season a bowl of warm pumpkin with ground ginger, and stir in some raisins or dried cranberries. Top with slices of baked chicken, and dig in!

Don’t worry, we’re not done yet—we’ve also got the best pumpkin seed recipe ever! These tiny treats are the perfect snack to munch on this season. And they’re also a good, concentrated source of zinc, a critical virus-fighter! Here’s how to make ‘em:

• The Tastiest Toasted Pumpkin Seeds: Separate the seeds from any remaining pumpkin pulp by running them under water. Then, spread the seeds out on a cooking sheet in a single layer. Coat them with non-stick cooking spray, and sprinkle them lightly with salt (or garlic salt, if you’d like). Bake at 325°F for about 25 minutes or so, until toasted. Then gobble ‘em up!

We hope you enjoy these Fall Favorites! And for more tummy tempting ideas that’ll keep you in the pink of health, check out our bestselling book, Homemade Health. You can even try it FREE for 21 days with our Free Preview!

There’s nothing like a slice of chilled watermelon on a hot summer day. But in the laziest, haziest dog days of summer, try a sippable watermelon slush instead. Here’s how to whip up a batch of blended bliss:

In a blender or food processor, whirl 1 can (10 ounces) of frozen nonalcoholic margarita mix and 3 cups of cubed, seeded watermelon. Add 2 cups of frozen cubed watermelon* (or ice cubes), and pulse until the mixture is slushy. Serve immediately. Yield: 6 servings.

* To make frozen cubed watermelon: Cube seedless watermelon, place the cubes on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper and freeze. When frozen, transfer to a plastic freezer bag and return to the freezer.

Now all you have to do is find a cool breeze and a comfy hammock, sit back, and enjoy the summer as you indulge in this sweetest of all cancer fighters.

It’s true! Red watermelon is rich in lycopene, one of the six active carotenoids that create the red, orange, and yellow colors in foods and that are now being heralded for their power to prevent various cancers. At least two studies have shown that lycopene is tops when it comes to gobbling up dangerous singlet oxygen before it can damage your cells and start them on the road to becoming cancer. 

To learn more about the healing powers of food—plus over 111 easy-to-make recipes that’ll tempt your tummy, check out my Giant Book of Kitchen Counter Cures, FREE for 21 days! It’s loaded with solid nutritional information and practical advice.

Goodness, gracious—grapes are in season! And they’re not just yummy. They offer a bunch (pun intended) of health benefits, too.

Think grapes are so sweet and satisfying that there’s no way they’re good for you? Think again. Here are some of the latest scientific findings that show what’s so great about grapes:

·        Grape skins are rich in resveratrol, a compound that puts the brakes on an enzyme that cancer cells need in order to grow.

·        Purple grape juice is bursting with flavonoids, which improve blood flow and protect your arteries.

·        Drinking grape juice helps make bad (LDL) cholesterol less likely to oxidize and stick to artery walls.

Gobble up grapes in these delicious ways:

·        Toss seedless grapes into your green salad to add a sweet crunch. They add crispy goodness to chicken, shrimp, and tuna salad, too.

·        Serve fruit kabobs for desserts. Skewer grapes, banana slices, whole strawberries, and pineapple chunks. Drizzle with honey, lime juice, and allspice, and set ‘em on a warm grill to heat them through.

·        Ditch the candy dish and replace it with a bowl of grapes. Here’s betting you’ll pop a few in your mouth every time you walk by.

Here’s one of my frosty treats that’s packed with flavor—and you can whip it up in a flash! It tastes so yummy that you’ll forget it’s good for you:

In a blender, whirl 1 cup of fat-free frozen cherry yogurt and 1/2 cup of purple grape juice until creamy smooth. Garnish with a cluster of purple grapes, still on the stem, and serve with a wide straw.

Check out more than 111 easy-to-make recipes that’ll tempt your tummy, in my Giant Book of Kitchen Counter Cures. It’s loaded with solid nutritional information and practical advice that you can try—FREE for 21 days!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This time of year, I like to treat my sweetie to something delicious that I bake myself. It’s unexpected—since I usually don’t spend much time in the kitchen—so it’s always very much appreciated. Even if I bake my gift of goodies from a store-bought mix, I always give it a homemade touch by topping it off with a beautiful cascading ribbon of chocolate.

And I’ve figured out how to get the job done neatly, with very little cleanup. I just fill a bowl with boiling water, and drop in an unopened 6-ounce bag of chocolate chips. After a few minutes, I carefully remove the bag and knead it to blend the chocolate. I usually have to repeat the process a few times until the chips have completely melted. Then I snip off a small corner of the bag and squeeze the melted chocolate onto the cake, brownie, or cookie in fun patterns. When I’m done, I just toss the bag in the garbage. It’s as easy as that!

For more wonderful ways to turn common household products into super-duper solutions, check out my America’s Best Practical Problem Solvers book—FREE for 21 days! It’s filled with terrific tips and tricks for your home, health, and garden.

This delicious—and easy!—recipe will make a plateful of cookies or a bough-ful of edible Christmas tree decorations. But I’m guessing that you won’t be able to keep your mitts off ‘em to keep the tree trimmed until Christmas Eve. Here’s how to make them:


Preheat the oven to 375˚F. In a large bowl, cream together ¾ cup of softened butter and 1 cup of sugar; add 1 egg, and beat well. Mix in 1 teaspoon each of peppermint extract and vanilla, then gradually stir in 2 ¼ cups of all-purpose flour. Divide the dough in half, and add several drops of red food coloring to one half.

Refrigerate both halves of dough for at least 30 minutes, then roll out a tablespoon each of red dough and plain dough until they are each 6 inches long. Twist the rolled dough together and pinch the ends, then bend one end into the shape of a candy cane. Place the candy cane on an ungreased cookie sheet, and repeat the rolling technique until all of the dough has been used. Bake for 8 minutes.

Hooray! Thanksgiving is almost here! I can practically smell the pumpkin pie—which is, without question, my favorite part of the Thanksgiving feast. So what better time is there to give thanks for pumpkin and its potent nutrients?


Pumpkin is as potent a vegetable as you’ll find anywhere. Its deep orange color is a sure sign that it’s just crazy with carotenes, which fight both heart disease and cancer.

So of course pumpkin pie is great for Thanksgiving. Put this recipe in your favorite piecrust, and you’ve got a winner. But here’s a little secret: If you bake this filling in custard cups instead of a crust, you’ll have a power-packed dessert with half the calories of last Thanksgiving’s pie!

Spicy Pumpkin Custard/Pie Filling

2 cups of canned pumpkin
1 ½ cups of evaporated skim milk
½ cup of packed brown sugar
¼ cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of blackstrap molasses
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 300°F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin, milk, sugars, molasses, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and eggs, and stir with a wire whisk until thoroughly blended. Ladle into six custard cups (or into a prepared pie crust). Arrange on a rack set in a baking pan of hot water. (The water should not go more than halfway up the sides of the cups.) Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the custard comes out clean. Chill before serving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Perfect Weekend

Hi again, everyone!

It was a fun-filled weekend at the Baker house, let me tell you! We had absolutely beautiful weather and, like any green-thumbed gardener, I couldn’t wait to spend Saturday and Sunday in the great outdoors. But I was in such a rush to get up and at ‘em, that I accidentally banged my shin on my night table when I got out of bed. Ouch! Well, I wasn’t about to spend the day nursing a bruised leg, so I prepared one of my Grandma Putt’s favorite healers. I melted 5 teaspoons of petroleum jelly in a saucepan and added 1 teaspoon of hot pepper to it. Once the mixture had cooled, I rubbed it onto my sore shin, and soon, I was ready to dance a jig (or do some yardwork).

Once outdoors, I was rarin’ to grow. But what to do? My beds were in pretty good shape, and it wasn’t time to rake leaves yet. Then I remembered how much Shirley loves a bloomin’ bouquet of fresh, cut flowers. So I decided that a cut-flower garden would make the perfect addition to my yard. I found the perfect patch of ground and got to digging. After I finished removing the sod and loosening the soil, I mixed 25 pounds of gypsum, 10 pounds of organic plant food, and 5 pounds of bonemeal in a wheelbarrow, and worked this into the bed (approximately 100 square feet). This super blend will make the soil in my new bed as rich, fertile, and loose as possible come spring planting time. I can hardly wait!

And what would any perfect autumn weekend be without fresh apple cider? So we went down to the local mill for some warm doughnuts and a glass of just-made cider. It was delicious! Since I knew one glass was not going to be enough, I brought a gallon home and whipped up a batch of my Grandma Putt’s Famous Spiced Cider. It’s fast, easy, and oh-so-good. We spent the evening out on the back porch, soaking up the last of the beautiful weather, sipping this special brew until it was gone. If you want to make some for your family, mix 3 qts. of cider, 1 tsp. of cloves, 1 whole nutmeg, 1 cinnamon stick, and 1/2 cup of sugar in a pan, and simmer for about 5 minutes. Then strain, and serve while still warm. One taste, and you’ll love it as much as we do!