Posts by Kerry Weisser
Fall in Love as you Serve-Gogo Grandmothers
Falling in love through service is an incredible experience. When your heart is moved by an unmet need and you know that you are being called to participate in fulfilling that need, an instantaneous thing happens in your heart-you fall in love with the people you are serving. TRUE greatness in this world comes through serving others. True love also comes when you give 100% to another person and that happens through serving one another.
Look at these faces and read the “Did you know” facts that accompany each photo….. These are the faces of the new people I love…I have never met them but my heart is drawn towards them all because I have taken the risk of joining in, making myself vulnerable and jumping into serving these beautiful women and children that live in Malawi, Africa.
Ten days ago, I attended a Gogo Grandmothers retreat held at Mariner’s Church in Orange County. This 10th annual Gogo Grandmothers retreat was a glorious day spent renewing our hearts and reaffirming our commitment for the continued work being accomplished in Malawi. I am privileged to be a board member for the SAFE /Gogo Grandmothers ministry and have loved every minute of my time serving with the other members of the board. (SAFE stands for Sub-Saharan Family Enrichment) We serve a mighty God who moves in mighty ways!
Gogo Grandmothers provides for the orphans of AIDS in Malawi, Africa by assisting the grandmothers who care for them. In America, and across the world, individuals and Gogo Grandmothers groups (often uniting women who are grandmothers themselves) gather monthly to pray and carry out fund-raising projects that provide what poor “gogos” in Malawi need to raise the orphans whose parents have died due to the ravages of AIDS in their country. In …
Read MoreFall Food, Friendship and Gathering
Fall reminds me of family, friendship, food and gathering. Gathering beautiful leaves that have changed colors and have fallen off the trees. Gathering around the table to celebrate all the things we are thankful for. Gathering back the friends you have not seen all summer because people’s schedules get uncharacteristically crazy during the summer months. Gathering back with life groups or volunteer organizations you belong to that take a break for summer. This weekend, I did a little bit of all of the above. On Saturday evening, after a wonderful day of nourishing my soul at a retreat (I will write about it next week), I was privileged to spend a few hours with my daughter and two friends. One friend was one of my most valued friends and the other was her friend (a new friend to both my daughter and me). We were blessed to share a few hours together. It was a time of enrichment for all. We talked about the fantastic day we had spent together learning about a great work that is going on in Malawi, Africa and we shared about our lives and how God had been encouraging us in our walks with Him. Friendship and gathering together is medicine for the soul. Sharing with women who are committed to serve in their community and abroad and are involved in amazingly interesting activities is one way to be encouraged and to contribute to your own healthy mind and body.
We shared a meal together and the food was spectacular…nutritious and delicious!!! Here is my rendition of the dish that we all ordered…..
Bombay Bowl
1 yellow onion
20 large or 30 medium brussel sprouts trimmed and cut in half
1 head of cauliflower
4-5 carrots
1-2 parsnips
4-5 small red, white or purple potatoes…
Smoked Paprika Chickpea and Chard Soup
October has ushered in the fall season and even though the weather has not cooled down during the day, in our hometown, the evenings are brisk and perfect for a bowl of hearty soup. This vegetarian selection of chickpeas and chard combined with nutty farro makes a delicious soup. I served it to our family this weekend and it was a 10 out of 10. As we continue our Healthy Mind and Body challenge we encourage you to join us, click here for more information.
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped carrots
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped parsley
3 cloves garlic chopped
2 teaspoons fresh rosemary chopped fine
1 bay leaf
3 cups organic vegetable broth
4 cups water
1 ½ teaspoons Spanish smoked paprika
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon salt
1 can rinsed and drained chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 (14.5 ounce) can fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
4 cups chopped swiss chard
3 cups cooked farro (cook as directed on package)
½ cup green onions
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
Directions
Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add onions, carrots, celery, parsley, garlic and bay leaf. Cook for 8 minutes until vegetables are tender. Stir frequently. Stir in broth and water and spices, chickpeas and tomatoes. Bring to a boil. Stir in swiss chard and farro and cook until chard wilts. Stir in green onions and top with cheese. Keep well in refrigerator for 5-6 days.
Serves 8
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Why Begin with My WHY?
Have you ever thought about WHY you do what you do? Most of us spend our time focused on our WHAT-tackling our “to-do” lists, taking care of the urgent needs in our daily lives and ultimately accomplishing some of our goals. The girls and I are currently participating in an online course called Healthy Mind and Body. (to find out more about this program click here). One of the guiding principles of the course focuses on developing our WHY. The difference between our WHAT and our WHY is very important to understand when developing a healthy mind and body? Our WHAT focuses on the tasks to be done, the end result of what we want to accomplish. Our WHAT involves logic, drive and behaviors that we use to obtain our goals. Our WHY, on the other hand, focuses on our vision, passions, beliefs and purpose. An example of the difference might look like this……My WHAT…..My daughters and I write a blog to provide “deep rooted wisdom for growing families”….My WHY….everyday is filled with amazing things that I am learning and I am passionate about sharing my experiences in our blog so I can help others. The difference is not in the results, but in the process. My WHAT is the task of writing the blog. When I approach my life from my WHAT, those things I want to accomplish and the tasks I need to do can become mundane and driven by obligation, responsibility, commitment. Those driving forces are not bad or wrong, they just lack the inspiration that comes from working out of my WHY. When I approach my life from my WHY, I am inspired to do the very thing I really want to do, deep down inside of me. I am driven by my greater purpose, …
Read MoreItalian Caprese Panini
Do you ever have a craving for a delicious Italian dinner but do not have the time to make homemade pizza and it is too hot to stand over a hot pot of pasta boiling on the stove. Try these amazing Italian caprese panini. We did not actually have a panini maker but we improvised with an old school waffle maker that had a double sided grill. (You can also use a pan on the stove top with another heavy pan on top and then flip the sandwich over halfway through baking.)The result is a crispy outside, cheesy gooey and delicious inside filled with mozzarella, roasted red peppers, red onion, garlic, basil, sliced tomato and spinach. It is best served hot right off the panini press dipped into a balsamic vinegar dressing.
Ingredients
4 large ciabata style rolls (crunchy outside and soft inside)
12 ¼ inch slices fresh mozzarella cheese
2-3 fresh garlic cloves smashed
3-4 slices red onion
1 roasted red pepper You can sauté in a pan or roast in the oven)
8 basil leaves chopped into small pieces
2 cups baby spinach leaves
2 tomatoes sliced (8-10 slices)
homemade balsamic vinegar dressing see recipe below
Cut Ciabata bread in half lengthwise. Open up and layer on bottom half-cheese, tomato slices, red onion, red pepper,spinach and basil. Spread the smashed garlic on the other side. Press two halves together and put into a panini press. Let sandwich heat until cheese is melted and top and bottom of the ciabata is crispy.
Homemade Balsamic Dressing
¼ cup olive oil
⅓ cup balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic smashed
½ teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
2 teaspoons honey
Pour all ingredients into a salad dressing emulsifier and mix until well blended.
Crunchy Veggie Taco Slaw and Pineapple Mango Salsa
On a warm summer night when it is too hot to cook…fire up the grill outside and grill up some white fish and make grilled fish tacos. The perfect accompaniment to your homemade fish tacos are these recipes for Crunchy Veggie Taco Slaw and Pineapple and Mango Salsa.
Ingredients for Veggie Slaw
1 bag broccoli slaw from Trader Joes
1 cup leftover bbq corn or Trader Joes fire roasted corn (defrosted)
½ cup red onion chopped
1 yellow pepper chopped
1 cup spinach or kale chopped fine
½ cup cilantro chopped fine
10 roasted brussel sprouts chopped
Dressing
2 teaspoon cumin
½ cup balsamic vinegar
4 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons orange juice
1 clove garlic smashed
Mix all vegetables in a medium bowl. Stir all dressing ingredients together in a small bowl. Toss crunchy veggies with dressing and chill until ready to serve. Place grilled white fish (we used cod) on a warmed corn taco and add ¼ cup crunchy veggie taco slaw. Add 2 tablespoons pineapple and mango salsa on top of slaw and add a dollop of guacamole.
Ingredients for Mango and Pineapple Salsa
½ cup fresh pineapple chopped into small pieces
½ cup fresh mango chopped into small pieces
1 medium tomato chopped into small pieces
¼ cup cilantro chopped fine
4 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice or lime juice
4 Tablespoon of your favorite salsa (we used Pace Picante medium)
Mix all together and chill until ready to serve.
Grill up some of your favorite white fish and wrap it up in a warm corn tortilla, with some crunchy veggie slaw and pineapple mango salsa and you will have a delicious dinner ready for a few close friends or a crowd.
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Pumpkin Ginger Spice Scones
The sights, sounds and smells of Fall are in the air and the mornings are cooler. School has been in session for weeks now and hopefully the kids have settled into a routine that allows for a healthy breakfast.
But if you still find yourself running around in the morning with many days that they need a grab-n-go breakfast or a pick-me-up-snack midmorning, these Pumpkin Ginger Spice Scones are packed full of nutritious deliciousness.
Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
¼ cup hemp seed
¼ cup oat bran
2 Tablespoons chia seeds
2 Tablespoons ground flax meal
1 Tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup crystallized ginger chopped fine
½ cup cold butter
¼ cup undenatured whey pumpkin protein powder (you can substitute vanilla)
5 Tablespoons honey
½ cup pumpkin puree
1 cup plain greek yogurt
Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add chopped crystallized ginger to dry ingredients. Cut cold butter into the dry ingredients with ginger until resembles small meal. In a small bowl, mix honey, pumpkin puree and yogurt. Fold wet ingredients into dry in the large bowl. Only stir until dry ingredients are moist so scones stay light and fluffy. Roll dough out into a large rectangle 1 inch thick on a floured board and cut into scone sized squares, triangles or circles. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. Yields 25 small scones or 12 large scones.
Pumpkin Apple Cake made with Honey
This cake was a family favorite when I was growing up. In order to modify the original recipe, I did some research on a website called Cooks.com and found out some really interesting information about substituting honey for sugar in baking. (See end of post for a few of the tidbits I learned) This is my first experiment following their suggestions. I am excited to have some guidelines to go by as I experiment with some healthier options in my baking, since I love to bake but I am moving completely away from white sugar-excpet for the Famous Weisser Cookies!!!!
Ingredients
3 cups flour (you can use a combination of white, wheat, almond meal)
¼ cup pumpkin spice undenatured whey protein powder (you can use vanilla protein powder)
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup honey
⅓ cup coconut oil
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 teaspoon s vanilla
3 cups finely chopped apple
1 cup chopped pecans
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix wet ingredients in a medium bowl. Chop apples into tiny pieces. Chop pecans. By hand, mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients until moistened. Fold in apples and pecans. Batter will be very thick. Spoon into a well greased Bundt pan and bake in a 325 degree oven for 60 minutes. Cool and dust with powdered sugar.
You can make a healthy glaze or decorative frosting to make your cake look more festive.
Healthy decorative Frosting
¼ cup pumpkin spice undenatured whey protein powder (if you use vanilla protein powder add 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice)
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
¼ cup powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons butter softened
2 Tablespoons almond milk
Stir all together and add a bit more almond milk if necessary until …
Kerry’s Key to Youthful Aging
Kerry’s formula for youthful aging includes a new supplement that is a powerful blend of complex botanicals and vitamins uniquely designed to offer superior telomere support for healthy aging.
This is my new secret weapon to combat the effects of the toxins in my environment that I am exposed to every day. What is a telomere you may ask? If you are like me-in the age bracket that wants to SLOW DOWN our physical aging, then you may not know about telomeres, because we were not taught about them in our biology classes in the stone age.
Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica define TELOMERES-A telomere is a region of repetitive nucleotide sequences at each end of a chromatid, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring chromosomes. Its name is derived from the Greek nouns telos (τέλος) ‘end’ and merοs (μέρος, root: μερ-) ‘part. A telomere is a segment of DNA occurring at the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres are made up of repeated segments of DNA that consist of the sequence 5′-TTAGGG-3′ (in which T, A, and G are the bases thymine, adenine, and guanine, respectively). Some human cells contain as many as 1,500 to 2,000 repeats of this sequence at each end of each chromosome. The number of repeats determines the maximum life span of a cell: each time a cell undergoes replication, multiple TTAGGG segments are lost. Once telomeres have been reduced to a certain size, the cell reaches a crisis point and is prevented from dividing further. As a consequence, the cell dies. Thus, the processes of cell aging and cell death are regulated in part by telomeres. Every time your cells divide you lose some DNA. Telomeres are short tandem repeats of nucleotides at the ends of chromosomes.
These daily nutritionally …
Read MoreForever Young – Kerry’s Wellness Story
I am the matriarch of the Weisser Women and consider it a privilege to be walking my journey with my daughters as we share our deep-rooted wisdom for growing families with you. This week we are sharing our stories of health-physical, mental and emotional wellness with you as we introduce our “Wellness Wisdom” campaign.
Forever Young has always been one of my life mottos. I never appreciated being told how “young” I looked when I was in my 20s and 30s…In 1978, I was privileged to be working for the Fellowship Foundation, which entailed being a hostess for a table of International people at the National Prayer Breakfast. When a lovely woman at my table asked me what junior high school I attended, I was dumbfounded and in quite the quandary. If I told her I was married and had recently graduated from college she would be totally embarrassed but how could I answer her without insulting her? And I was the hostess at her table so I could not avoid answering her since I would be interacting with her the entire morning… Fast forward to the present time and I am honored and thrilled anytime anyone thinks I am WAY younger than my age.
Since I spend quite a bit of time with my 4 daughters and 7 grandchildren, they keep me on my toes. I don’t ever want to miss anything going on in their lives because I can’t keep up. I am a naturally energetic person by nature but when I became a Gammie and added multiple trips each month down to Southern California to help with the grandkids, I vowed to myself that I would be committed to personal health and wellness forever. I have always been a healthy eater, being exposed to nutritious food …
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