Archives: April 2010

Dear friends,

I’d like to let you in on a bit of a secret – it’s something that I’ve been experimenting with for about a week now.

If you’re not already aware of the fact that I really enjoy baking then let me explain: I don’t bake with just any ingredients; I bake with wholesome products and foods that are actually good for you and won’t give you the crazy rise in your blood sugar that you are probably used to.

On that note, recently, I started to realize that the baking powder I was using in my goods was full of crap! AH! That completely defeated the purpose of my no crap baked yummies – so I spent a while asking others what they use instead of the store-bought stuff or eggs and of course I went blog surfing to see if anyone else found the same issue that I did.

I didn’t like what I was reading because they made their own baking powder out of other crap instead of buying the crap filled one from the store – – SAME THING!

Finally I came across a sensible woman who suggested I try using chia seeds. I was confused as to how these seeds would make my muffins rise­. In any case, I followed her lead and took 1 tablespoon of the chia seeds that I found at Whole Foods, put them in a bowl and doused them with 3 tablespoons of water. I waited about 5-10 minutes and voila, it turned into a jelly like consistency!

I mixed this into my muffin mix and it did rise! Since I was skeptical I didn’t use the entire batch of the seeds in the mix and I probably should have – I think it would have risen more if I had used the whole thing. I can’t believe it actually worked! WOOHOO! The next challenge is to see if this will work with my breads and cookies!

Hopefully you can try this in your next batch of cookies or whatever else you may decide to bake. The baking powder from the store is really not something we should be putting into our food – try this alternative for a healthier snack!

We had a barbecue in our apartment! That’s right – you heard me! We just received a grill pan for our wedding and wow- this was an amazing experience! Who knew that in our tiny kitchenette in NYC we would be able to have a barbecue – or at least get the bbq flavors in our food! A genius created the Lodge Grill Pan – because I know every person who walked through the halls that night thought someone had a legit barbecue set up in their tiny apartment. HA we fooled them!

We made organic lime cilantro chicken burgers!!! And grilled veggie kebabs!

Wow it was so flavorful that I can’t resist posting the recipe down below:

For the chicken

Organic ground chicken meat

½ cup diced scallions (using the green and white part)

½ cup chopped, fresh cilantro

Salt to taste

A pinch of black pepper

Garlic powder to taste

1 lime

For the veggies:

Wooden kebab sticks

1 yellow onion quartered

1 zucchini cut into thick pieces

1 yellow squash cut into thick pieces

5 mushrooms quartered

1 lime

Place the chicken meat in a bowl and add the scallions, cilantro, salt, pepper garlic powder and ½ the juice of one lime. Mix together to incorporate all the ingredients into the chicken. Form into patties and place to the side on a plate. Turn the burners of your stove on and place the grill pan over the burners to heat it up. Once hot place the burgers on the pan and begin grilling! With the other half of the lime squeeze some of the juice over each side of the burger while it’s cooking for a bit more flavor.

Put each piece of veggie on the stick to make your kebobs, alternating the veggies. This should make 4 sticks. Place them on the grill turning frequently – using the other lime sprinkle lime juice over the veggies again for some nice flavor. Cook until nice and tender and until the burgers are cooked through. ENJOY your barbecue!

Here is one of the fantastic recipes that I cooked while Chad was away on his business trip. It’s quite simple and I had plenty of left-overs for the entire week!

I bought organic ground chicken meat from the supermarket because they don’t sell organic turkey – the chicken tasted very good – but you can use either one.

1 package ground organic chicken meat

2 cans chili beans or any bean of your choice. I like Pinto, kidney, and black beans.

1 yellow onion, sliced

1 can whole, organic tomatoes

½ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro

2 stalks celery, diced

1½ cups organic vegetable broth

salt to taste

garlic powder to taste

Start by draining the beans and washing them well in a colander. Then pour the beans into a pan on the stove – cover with water and put a lid on it. Turn up the heat and bring the water to a boil. Turn the heat off when the water starts boiling, leaving the pot covered as to keep the heat inside. Let the beans sit for an hour before draining them and rinsing with water. The reason for doing this is to allow the beans to split open to release their gases – the more gas they release, the less you will! This is to make the beans more digestible by everyone who eats them! Set them aside until you are ready to pour them into the crock pot.

Slice the onion and place it at the bottom of the crock pot – then pour the beans into the crock pot followed by the celery.

Take out each whole tomato and cut them into quarters – reserve the juice from the tomatoes so you can pour it into the pot as well. Put the tomatoes into the crock pot followed by about half the tomato juice from the can.

Start breaking off pieces of the chicken meat and put them into the pot – they will break up with the heat from the pot. Lastly pour in the vegetable broth and sprinkle the cilantro over the top.

Turn the crock pot on high and cook for 2-3 hours. I know you’re not usually supposed to remove the lid of the pot while it’s cooking but I like to stir the chili every now and then to move things around.

Serve with brown rice or quinoa – or eat plain. This also goes well with corn tortilla chips, which are gluten free! I’m serving mine with corn taco shells – YUM!

My fiancé Chad just returned home from a business trip to China – and while I missed him like hell I noticed something about myself while he was away…

When he was away I was less inspired to get in the kitchen and whip something up – sure I still did it, but making something really delicious just wasn’t as exciting as when I get to share it with him.

Since this was an obstacle that I had to overcome during the last 2 weeks – I figured out that to get myself excited about the meals that I had to cook for my lonesome self, I had to remind myself that I was cooking to nourish MY body. Not only did that get my butt in gear but I was also able to step back and, being the health coach that I am, I did what I would tell my clients to do – I actually pretended cook for other people – sure I know that sounds weird – but it worked! This worked because not only did I make fantastic meals but also I had fun doing it, AND I had leftovers for the next couple of days!

What could be better then that?!

So, if you find yourself alone at home – whether it’s because you’re single, or because your significant other has left town – I challenge you to cook yourself a delicious meal and actually LIKE it! A very tasty recipe will be on my next post – stay tuned!

Click here to purchase sesame oil for your face

Last week I went to my accupuncturist Aimee Raupp who is an amazing woman to say the least. She offers great advice and even wrote a book called Chill Out and Get Healthy. In our last session we were talking about skin care products and I was explaining that I was frustrated about the constant marks from pimples that keep appearing on my face!

I eat pretty cleanly and I guess I have a bit of stress going on in my life, but I’m just frustrated as to why my face isn’t clearing up!

She recommended that I use sesame oil on my face. I know… doesn’t that seem like the complete opposite of what I should be doing?! I looked at her sideways but decided to try it anyway. She recommended that I wash my face with water, dry it off and then apply the oil lightly with a cotton ball. My face looks amazing! I still have the marks but I’m hoping that the oil will help to “lower the heat” in my face as she put it.

I apply it morning and night, just like if I were to use any face cream. I apply my makeup on after the oil and it seems to work well. The trick here is that there are different oils for different types of skin. Some people use coconut oil, some use sesame… You have to be recommended by either an acupuncturist or Ayurvedic doctor.

This is much better then any face cream I’ve ever used. I keep getting compliments that my face is shiny and glowing! No joke… I’m shocked!

Just thought I’d pass on this great news – hopefully this can work for you too. Give your face wash and face cream a rest for a while and let your face be natural. Make sure the oil is organic and try it for at least a week if not longer – it won’t change in just one day – keep that in mind when you’re frustrated that your pillow smells like sesame and you’re not seeing a change – Give it a chance!

Dear blog friends, I am writing to let you know that my health coaching practice is officially open for business. I am ready to take on clients and am offering a special for the first 5 bloggers to contact me.

If you’re one of the first 5 you will receive a free health history with me! If you want to learn more about this please feel free to contact me through the contact section of the blog. Health histories can be conducted over the phone so don’t worry if you don’t live in NYC or if you have a busy life– it’s not a problem at all – we can work around anything!

I look forward to chatting with you soon!

Take care.

If you haven’t watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution please watch it! He really is changing American lives one school at a time. As I watch the show I sit there in AWE listening to the fact that these elementary school kids don’t know that a French fry is made out of a potato. They don’t even know what a tomato is when it was shown to them – they were yelling out all different names of veggies. How sad! When Jamie held up a chicken nugget or a pizza they all screamed out the names but not the veggies.

What has our world come to?! A 6^th grader on the show is borderline diabetes and the entire family is obese – even the 4 year old. This sort of thing brings tears to my eyes because they aren’t being educated on the fact that these fast food items that they make at home in their deep fryer are K I L L I N G them. Huntington, West Virginia is where the show takes place and it has been named the #1 unhealthiest place in America.

What a nightmare. Jamie sure has a lot on his hands but I’m so incredibly thrilled that he has the will power to make a change. At least someone GETS it! Too bad it had to be someone who’s NOT from America. Jamie is British and came onto our soil to change our country – something seems wrong with that picture. Why hasn’t any one of our people stepped up to the plate?! Where are our American chef’s – better question WHERE IS THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT?!

My favorite quote on the show so far:

Jamie: “does a french fry count as a vegetable?”

Rhonda: (head of following all the rules for school food in Huntington) “yes it does.”

She was being completely honest. Sure a French fry is made out of potatoes but it’s fried in saturated fat and clearly anyone remotely conscious of anything food related knows that a French fry does not count as a vegetable. I can’t believe she said yes and honestly it’s definitely offensive – the U.S. government should be ashamed of themselves.

Sorry for blogging so much anger today but this issue makes me go nuts. Watch the show and you’ll see what they are feeding these kids – I promise you’ll want to throw up. Watch it anyway – to know is MUCH better then not to know.

These are our future Americans we’re talking about here and we’ve shown them nothing but processed, fake, fast, salty, sugary foods. AWFUL.

The show airs on ABC Friday’s at 9pm. You can also watch it online if you’ve missed the first 3 episodes.

As someone who has changed her diet completely in the last year, I can certainly attest to the fact that it wasn’t always easy! Sure I consciously decided to make the change in my life BUT I’ll tell you right now that it wasn’t a piece of cake!

It takes quite a while to change your palate – but once you cut out all the sodium from eating out all the time, or from the frozen meals that you’re used to – once that extra sugar gets cut out – your palate will change without you even knowing it. It’s not until you go back to eat the same food that you originally cut out that you will realize how much you’ve changed yourself.

Your senses will be heightened and you will be able to tell when something is loaded with salt, sugar, MSG, processed ingredients and quite frankly you probably won’t enjoy the old food that you used to eat. You won’t even miss it! I can definitely say that this is exactly how I feel when I splurge on some sort of sweetened treat with regular white sugar – it’s TOO sweet for me! Let me tell you that NOTHING used to be too sweet for me, in fact, the sweeter the better. But now – I have to say that I enjoy the fruit juice sweetened treats, agave sweetened and anything with natural sweeteners. What a difference! There isn’t an aftertaste from the sugar and it’s still yummy.

Please remember that your palate won’t change within a day – just because you’ve decided in your mind that your making a change doesn’t mean that your mouth is prepared for it. Give it time! Some things will probably taste bland in the beginning but there are so many different sauces that you can use to spruce it up!

You probably shouldn’t compare your new foods with your old foods because frankly they really won’t match up. You have to make new taste buds and learn to enjoy whole foods – that is the real food that you should have always been eating. We won’t get into that now, but please just give it a chance – your body will thank you – I promise!

Good luck to you!