My life in the kitchen changed once I got good knives.
Seriously.
Here are some fun videos from the Food Network on knife skills and how to pick a good knife.
Spring has sprung and it’s time to stock up on the bounty of seasonal goodies on sale soon at your local farmers markets.
Here’s a quick refresher on what you should be looking for:
Veggies:
- Asparagus
- Artichokes
- Avocado
- Carrots
- Celeriac
- Chives
- Collards
- Fava beans
- Fennel
- Morels
- Mustard Greens
- New Potatoes
- Spinach
- Spring Baby Lettuce
- Sugar Snap Peas
- Vidalia Onions
- Watercress
Fruits
- Apricots
- Strawberries
- Mangoes
- Pineapple
Just think of all the new recipes you can make with these seasonal goodies. And not a minute to soon because I, for one, am ready for some lighter fare!
Once again, Matt has come through with another amazing recipe.
This chili is really easy to assemble and is just the trick for a quick and filling meal. This recipe makes a large pot of chili that you can easily take to office to reheat for lunch. Have a salad on the side and you’ve got yourself a complete meal.
Ingredients:
2 onions, chopped and browned
2 cans diced tomatoes
4 cans of organic beans (your choice of beans)
2-3 chipotle peppers finely diced in adobo sauce
1 package of firm or extra firm tofu
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 package frozen corn
salt to taste
Directions:
1. Select a large pot with a lid. Saute the chopped onions until brown.
2. Add tomatoes.
3. Add beans. Make sure you rinse the beans well, before adding them to the pot. *Make sure that you buy cans of organic beans. They are cooked with seaweed and won’t make you so gassy.
4. Add chipotle peppers and some of the adobo sauce. *Make sure you remove the seeds from the peppers.
5. Add the tofu. You can dice it up or simply crumble it.
6. Add the cumin and then salt to taste.
7. After combining all the ingredients, simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes to an hour, covered.
8. Turn off the heat and add the corn.
You can add a little cheese on top when you serve your chili.
Enjoy!
When I told my Mom that I was cutting several things out of my diet at the beginning of the year, she got right on board and created this awesome chicken dish. When I tasted it, I was amazed at how good it was. So I wanted to share this recipe with you. The best part is that it only takes 15 mins to put together and then you just let it cook for 1 hr. Oh, and this is enough chicken for a whole week! So for those of you who like to make a big batch of something and then reheat for dinner, this is perfect. Or else, you can always freeze some of it and have it later.
Mom’s Awesome Chicken Recipe
1 large onion finely chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
9 carrots peeled and roughly chopped
5 stalks of celery roughly chopped
2 lbs of boneless and skinless chicken thighs
2 small bay leaves (or one large one)
salt & pepper to taste
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
20-25 prunes (trust me on this; it will taste awesome)
1. Get out a large soup pot with a lid.
2. Peel and chop the onion. Saute the onion in the soup pot until it starts to brown a bit.
3. Add the carrots and celery to the onions (just let them be on top of the onions).
4. Lay the chicken thighs on top of the onions, carrots and celery.
5. Pour cold water over the whole mixture. I would say add enough water so that the chicken is about 1/2 way covered. Remember, you’re not making soup. 
6. Add salt & pepper to taste. Add the bay leaf.
7. Bring the mixture to a boil and then turn to low heat for 1 hour.
8. After an hour, turn off the heat. Add the garlic and prunes and stir. Let it sit on the stove for another hour or so and voila!!
I love to have this chicken over brown rice or buckwheat - it makes for a great lunch or dinner. Enjoy!! Thanks, Mom!
Thinking of having a chicken burrito from Chipotle?
Maybe a chocolate smoothie from Jamba Juice?
Or even some nachos at the game?
Well….Men’s Health has compiled this handy list of waist-line offenders. It’ll make you think twice for sure!
I was over at a friend’s house the other night for a rather stellar dinner of seared scallops, kale and sweet potatoes. As I tasted my first forkful of sweet potatoes, I tasted ginger! I was really pleasantly surprised and thought that I should share my new find. I like mashed sweet potatoes, but find them to be a bit bland and cloyingly sweet usually. So adding some fresh grated ginger really adds a lot of zing and spice to the mash.
In terms of the recipe, peel and boil the desired quantity of sweet potato. Drain and then mash. Add your desired quantity of fresh grated ginger and a touch of butter. If you like you can also add some salt & pepper to taste. Mix and enjoy!
I love Dr. Elson Haas. Every since he taught at my school, I have faithfully tried to read up on his approach to well-being. He’s published quite a few books and now publishes a monthly article on his web site. His latest article focuses on depression; he offers some holistic approaches to dealing with depression - including self-care, exercise, a good diet and supplements. To read more, just follow the link.
If you haven’t gotten to the gym quite yet, here are some useful tips on turning everyday activities into potential calorie-burning ones! - via DLM
- Park far away: Instinctively, almost all of us look for a spot as close to our destination as possible. Instead get into the habit of parking a block away, or parking at the farthest parking spot. If you are grocery shopping, park in the store’s lot but choose the back row. Clearly you wouldn’t want to be caught pushing a shopping cart down the street trying to get to your car.
- Take the stairs instead of elevators: If it is one or two floors, always take the stairs. If you need to go up/down several floors then take the stairs to two floors above/below and then take the elevator. As you get used to it, increase the number of floors you use the stairs for. If you park in a level parking lot, always park in one of the higher levels and walk down.
- If possible, walk or bike to work: This is not possible for everyone, but if you live in a place where the pollution is less and your workplace is relatively close by, then choose to walk or bike instead of driving.
- Skip the stop: If your city has a subway or bus system, skip your stop and get off at the one after (or before) and then walk from there. You’ll get to enjoy the air and neighborhood a little while increasing your heart rate.
- Maximize the benefits from your grocery trip: When you go to the grocery store, make it a habit to walk the entire store. Go through every aisle and every nook and corner. Avoid the aisles that could tempt you to pick up junk food though, since that can completely obliterate any benefits of walking a few extra steps! NOTE: if you have a spending problem don’t do this.
- Take a short walk-break at work: Again this one depends on your work location, but ours is located outside the city and is on large private grounds. Every afternoon a couple of us go for a short walk (~1 mile round trip) which takes roughly 15-20 minutes. It is very invigorating and a nice break from the afternoon routine.
- Do your own yard work: This is a good one for summer time when the lawn starts to grow and you need to keep it trimmed. Instead of hiring someone to do it for you, do it yourself. You will not only get some exercise, but save some money too!
- Play with your kids: Kids these days seem to play more video games than outdoor games like we did when we were younger. So take your kids out to the park and throw the ball around, play tag, etc.
- Put on your favorite music and dance: This is not only exercise, but also a great way to unwind at the end of a busy day. And a good trip down the memory lane for those of us who have not done it in a long time!
- While watching TV, pace or stretch: Instead of switching channels during the ad break get up and walk about the house. Do some lunges or some simple stretching exercises. If you have stairs in your house, walk up and down the stairs a few times, during each ad break for at least one show every day.
- Choose to walk down instead of call or email: When you have a question for a colleague, instead of picking up the phone or shooting an email, walk over to their cube. This will not only provide some exercise but a short break for a quick recharge.
- Walk while you talk on the phone: If your job involves talking on the phone a lot, then instead of doing this sitting at your desk, get into the habit of pacing while you talk. Motion creates emotion so you may even become a better speaker by doing this.
- Choose active entertainment over passive entertainment: Instead of going for a movie, choose to go play tennis with some friends (or at least bowling). Instead of playing regular video games, play with a Wii. Instead of meeting friends for a cup of coffee, catch up over a sunset walk.
- Choose active vacations: While planning vacations, pick something that involves some walking and hiking. While taking in a new city, do it by walk, instead of driving around. If golfing, skip the cart. If staying at a resort, make use of their pool and the exercise facility. Try skiing and white water rafting.
You are what you eat, so eat well.
A stupendous insight of civilizations past has now been confirmed by today’s investigative, nutritional sciences. They have shown that what was once called “The Doctrine of Signatures” was astoundingly correct. It now contends that every whole food has a pattern that resembles a body organ or physiological function and that this pattern acts as a signal or sign as to the benefit the food provides the eater.
Here is just a short list of examples of Whole Food Signatures.
A sliced Carrot looks like the human eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye…and science shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.
A Tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.
Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.
A Walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.
Kidney Beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.
Celery, Bok Choy, Rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.
Eggplant, Avocadoes and Pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today’s research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? …. It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).
Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the motility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well to overcome male sterility.
Sweet Potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.
Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.
Grapefruits, Oranges , and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.
Onions look like body cells. Today’s research sho ws that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.
“The news isn’t that fruits and vegetables are good for you, it’s that they are so good for you, they can save your life .”
David Bjerklie, TIME Magazine
I am doing a bit of a detox where I am not drinking caffeine, eating any sugar or dairy. Yes, I know, how dreadfully boring. But since I do believe that necessity is mother of invention, this morning, I have created a new warm beverage that actually tastes pretty darn good.
I call it “Jane’s Alternative Teeccino Almond Milk Latte”! Try ordering that at Starbucks!
If you’ve never heard of teeccino, it’s an herbal coffee that I often recommend to my clients who are trying to decrease their coffee intake. It comes in different flavors and is actually rather tasty. I like to dress mine up with a splash of unsweetened almond milk. When I get *really* motivated I will make my own almond milk, but today is not one of those days. So I used Almond Breeze unsweetened almond milk that I picked up at Trader Joe’s.
Give it a shot!
