Allendale Family Eye Care:

Address:

70 W Allendale Ave
Allendale, New Jersey 07401

Parking: Park on the street (free street parking) or in the parking lot in the back.

Phone:  (201) 327-1081

Hours: M-F 9AM to 5PM (according to the yellow pages) but I know their hours vary.

Scott’s Review:

During their over 40 years in business, they have perfected what visiting an eye doctor is all about – they really should package it up and sell their business model to all new optometrist graduates.  First, call the main number and make an appointment – the office staff is nice and friendly.  As most good eye doctors, expect to not get an appointment that week but it will be worth the wait.  Dr. Levy is skilled in glasses, contacts and other eye-related things.  Even though he is an eye doctor, he’s not afraid to push laser vision (Lasik) correction performed by someone else if he thinks that it could be beneficial for the patient.

They have state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment (glaucoma testing, peripheral vision and retinal checking that also predicts the strength of your lenses) Dr. Levy is very personable as is his office staff.  Appointments last about 45-90 minutes but you’re moved between different rooms and devices so it doesn’t seem so long.

It’s a family practice so I recommend bringing your children there and stopping before or after your appointment for lunch or dinner at the AB&G (Allendale Bar and Grill)  across the street from the office for a burger, and some popcorn while you wait for your food order.

They (Dr. Levy, not AB&G) 🙂 take VSP insurance.

He’s highly rated on Healthgrades   and Wellness.com and as a 15-year patient, I will recommend him to any of my friends in Bergen County.

PSA: Get Your Eyes Examined Yearly!

You owe it to yourself!

 

Background:

In order to come up with this simple keto stuffed pepper recipe, I researched and experimented with a few stuffed pepper recipes to find something delicious, keto-friendly and easy – with only 9 ingredients.  I tried to balance the meat/non-meat ingredients to try and differentiate this from other recipes and skew it to the healthier side.

I wanted to create something that used the magical Turmeric and could use store bought ground beef.   This recipe works with ground chicken and ground turkey as well – or the packaged meatloaf mix (beef, pork, and lamb.)

You can mix up the cheese and the sauce to take this Mexican or Philly or wherever your imagination takes you.

I found out the hard way that smaller cauliflower pieces are needed to properly rice it.  My first attempt “souped” the cauliflower on the bottom because the pieces were too large to fall down into the blades.

This recipe calls for dicing an onion.  I have my own method but it resembles what is shown in this video:

Ingredients:

• 1 head, large (about 6″-7″” dia) Cauliflower Raw
• 1 large (about 3″ dia) Onion – diced
• 2 tbsp Garlic – diced (from a jar is fine)
• 16 to 20 oz Beef Ground (80% or 85% or 90% lean)
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil – divided
• 2 cup, shredded Cheddar Cheese
• 1 to 2 tsp Turmeric
• 4 large Green (or red or yellow) Bell Peppers (Fatter with a wide base to help them stand up)
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce or pasta sauce or salsa
• Optional – 1/8 Teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 deg F.
2. Cut the cauliflower tops off (about four cups) and dice them into 1″ cubes.  Then use your Vitamix (Purchase from Amazon) or food processor (Hamilton Beach or Cuisinart) and pulse them while scraping them down between pulses for less than a minute to rice the cauliflower.  It should be about 2 cups.
3. Cut the tops off at the highest widest part of the peppers. Then cut in a circle around the highest widest part and remove the center, seeds, and pull off and discard any lighter colored internal ribbed areas with your fingers.  (I should make a video for this)

4. Heat 1 Tbsp Oil up in a large frying pan – large burner – medium heat
5. Add diced onions – saute 4 minutes
6. Then add Garlic – saute 3 minutes more or until the garlic starts to brown and the onion is soft.
7. Add Ground Beef – cook thoroughly about 8 minutes.
8. After brown, turn off the burner, then tilt the pan and spoon off the drippings as best you can – 1 to 2 tablespoons left is fine.

9. Now stir in the rest of the oil, tomato sauce, 1 Tsp Turmeric (optional cayenne pepper – only 1/8 teaspoon!) and cauliflower cook for two minutes
10. Add half of the cheese – cook for two minutes more
11. Place peppers in a baking dish and fill with the meat mixture using a spoon that is narrower than the pepper opening.  Make sure that the peppers are standing up.
12. Bake uncovered in an oven for 30 minutes – watch the pepper and when they start to wrinkle they should be ready.
13. Remove and add remainder of the cheese to the tops of the peppers.
14. Bake for an additional 5 minutes for the cheese to melt.

You really don’t need any sides with this simple keto stuffed pepper recipe.  It tastes great reheated in the microwave too.  This is a good break from some of the standard Keto bars and powders.  Here are some of the best sellers out there.   Nutrition facts are on the bottom of the page.

These are currently less than $1 a bar:Now, you can buy the best-selling beginner Keto Cookbook!

 

How to Pick Delicious Nectarines

I’m sure that you woke up this morning wishing that you had some ripe nectarines at home and realized that you don’t.  But before you go out and buy them, watch this short video with “Produce Pete” who tells us how to choose ripe nectarines.  He says the trick is to look at the “yellow part” and that it should be yellow and not green or white.

Produce Pete says that yellow nectarines will have the sugar and not be tart/sour.  If they are hard, they will still be sweet if they have the yellow on them.

I recommend picking a medium to large nectarine as the huge ones are typically mealy and the small ones were likely picked too soon.

How to Store Them.

Produce Pete also said to keep nectarines and other “stone fruit” out of the refrigerator -store them at room temperature. He goes on to talk about the strange gas called Ethylene and the ripening technique talked about in my other post: Smart Farmers Market Tips

If you must store them in the refrigerator, store them in the low humidity crisper  (Rot-low, Wilt-high).

Go out and use your new knowledge to grab some delicious nectarines today!

Here is a link to the main video: Main Video