More Food!

Well this is the actual dish I made for dinner club. It's called 'risotto' although I have a hard time when vegetarians, vegans and raw foodists (or anyone else) use food words that we're familiar with and make it their own.

It problematic because a meat eating person might want the tofurky to taste like turkey and it just doesn't....so why not make up a new name? .... and then their might be more converts, or at least people who can give up meat for a few meals if we stop calling the turkey tofurky....you get me?

and this risotto definitely DOES NOT taste like risotto. It tastes like a cabbage slaw....and it's delicious!....but calling it risotto is confusing, and someone hoping for a risotto dish would be disappointed with this one....someone hoping for a cole slaw type dish will be over the moon, however.

Let's begin.

Here's the recipe.

Risotto:
1/2 head Cabbage, no stems
2 Salad Turnips
Salt & Pepper
1T Olive Oil (you could experiment with flavored oils, too)

Cheeze
1/2 C soaked nuts/seeds, reserving water
2 Cloves garlic, minced
2T Olive Oil
1T Lemon juice
Salt & Pepper

Preparation:
For Risotto:

Place cabbage and turnips in food processor and chop on pulse until rice consistency is reached. Put in bowl and mix in oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.

For Cheeze:
Place cheeze ingredients in food processor and blend on high, adding reserved water until creamy consistency is achieved. Toss with risotto. Adjust seasonings as necessary and dig out your favorite veggies to blend in!

It's so easy! I will point out that you should peel the turnips. I had never prepared a turnip before this, but I decided peeling it is best.

For mine, I added broccoli and (food processed)carrots.

ENJOY!

Today for Lunch

Let me begin with a little background information to start. I'm in a dinner club. We meet once a month. Every month the host decides on a theme. (You can read about a previous dinner club here. ) This month's theme was RAW FOOD. I was so worried that we would be sitting around a table full of baby carrots, but instead we were all really inventive (like always) and excited to research and see what this whole raw foods thing was all about.

Attending this installment of dinner club got me excited about all raw food recipes. Now, I can't commit to more than one raw meal at a time, ie: I probably won't pursue this for a week, or even a day...but throwing in a recipe here and there has been a lot of fun this week, and super easy!

Here's a recipe from www.welikeitraw.com

Zucchini Pasta by Philip McCluskey

So you're enjoying eating raw, but really missing those family spaghetti meals. Well, now you can create a dish that is 10x healthier, easy to make, and has a little bit of an Italian flair to it too.

Ingredients

• 1-2 zucchinis, shredded with hand peeler
• 1 handful organic artichoke hearts
• 1 handful of olives, pitted
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 lemon, squeezed for juice
• sea salt to taste

Directions

1. Shred zucchini with hand peeler
2. Add rest of ingredients
3. Toss and serve

It's pretty delicious, as simple as it sounds and looks. I opted out of the olives on this one, and in the future will probably opt in on some more veggies or maybe even some tomato sauce. The lemon juice really added a lot of flavor, and I was able to eat a whole zucchini for lunch...how often does that happen?!? I think the secret to this was to slice them with a grater/slicer so they become thin, wide zucchini ribbons.

If you are a raw foodist, I think that's great. I am not one, I like hot food sometimes....but I think trying these recipes is fun and adds variety to my usual routine.

Delicious and nutritious!

Snack Attack....today: The Apple.

People ask me all the time what's the best snack to have before a workout...I always suggest a snack with that's carbs and protein.

This applies to snacks you eat all day too. Protein keeps you fuller longer and the carbs are good for energy.

Today we'll talk about Granny Smith apples. They are one of my favorite apples because they are ALWAYS crisp and tart tart tart.

You can have this delicious fruit in a variety of ways all day long. Here are 3 ideas.

1. Ohhhh.....an apple with almonds. Be sure to keep your serving size of almonds under control. Those are an easy thing to go overboard on.

2. YUM! An apple with a small serving of meat....This is sliced chicken.

3. The apple with peanut butter. Watch your serving size here. Using an actual measuring spoon for your PB portion is not the worst idea (it's the best idea).

Eat up!

Why oh Y?

So today I was witness to this:

I was at the YMCA; the only female in the weights area (there are usually a couple other females in the weight area, just not today) and a couple enters the gym...they part ways and the man comes over to lift weights and the woman hops on an elliptical.

Now, we can go into a whole bunch of scenarios on this one like...

1. Maybe it was the woman's cardio day

2. Maybe she was going to do cardio for 30+ minutes and then do weights

3. Maybe she's injured and can only do cardio at this point....

I hear what you're saying....but do you hear what I am saying?

That woman (I bet) doesn't do any weight training.

Why not?

Maybe she's afraid she'll bulk up.

Maybe she doesn't know what she's doing. (this is when a trainer is helpful)

Maybe she doesn't think it's important.

Weight training is so important especially for woman...

-as we age and the threat of brittle bones draws near.

-to tone and shape our muscles. I'm sure she was on the elliptical for the aesthetic benefits of working out, maybe less so to work her heart.

Why not get all the aesthetic benefits of working out then? and lift some weights and really maximize your time in the gym burning fat and getting stronger all at the same time!

I'm not anti cardio....quite the opposite, I shoot for at least 30 minutes of cardio everyday.

I'm just pro strength training. The benefits are endless.

Get in the weight room, ladies!

The Future

I'm planning on trying to jump rope for an extended period of time on Friday...for my workout...I'll let you know how it goes....at this point it sounds kinda boring for 30 minutes...we'll see what I come up with.

And sew it goes....and other musings on life.

Well I enrolled myself in an online sewing class so I could get motivated to use my sewing machine and have a little inspiration on sewing projects. The class began this week and already I was nervous....before the class even started.....I had read some of the comments pertaining to the first project, cloth napkins, and it sounded like people were having a hard time of it already.

On just the first project!

"What if I'm no good?" I thought.

"What did I get myself into?"

Well I attempted the ever daunting cloth napkins last night and after being confused about how to first, measure and cut fabric and then how to make a 1/4 inch hem and then how to even use my sewing machine, I was stressed from the start. I attempted all the above and ended with a zig zag stitch on one side of my hem and a jumbled, knotty mess on the other side. That's not what the directions called for, mind you. I was upset, stressed out and didn't know the first thing about how to fix the machine problem.

I went to bed, talked it over with a client with sewing knowledge in the morning...returned to my project and after rethreading the machine....following the directions step by step, I successfully hemmed one end of the cloth napkin. The machine zigged when I needed it to zig and zagged when I needed it to zag. It was amazing.

So patience won in the end, not frustration, not giving up, simple patience that is hard, but important to practice.

Here is a picture of my ever familiar work station and then the finished product: 4 beautiful cloth napkins!

This experience can be easily applied to life and to exercising in general....here are a couple rules to break it down for you.

1. Start slow.

2. Take baby steps.

3. You might not be great at first, but you'll get better.

4. Be patient.

5. Let yourself make mistakes.

Uphill

Have you ever tried walking uphill for 30 minutes? It's tough.

Here is what I recommend.

Warm up for about 3 minutes on the treadmill at about 3.0 and increase the incline every 30 seconds or so. By about minute 4 or 5 you should be at an incline of 12. The highest incline you will reach and maintain.

For the next 30 minutes remain at the incline of 12 and play with your speed between 3-3.6mph.

image from www.weheartit.com