It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood! March 6, 2010

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but it has been too gorgeous outside to be indoors despite my terrible allergies!  Here in Texas, it is 70 degrees and sunny, so it is a must that I at least jog the bike path by my house.  My sister is on her way to the Hamptons right now for Spring Break (rough life right?), but it is 50 degrees there and she is a little jealous of our warm weather.  I don’t know I think I would rather be strolling the beach in the colder weather than being in plain old Texas. 

So, I have not really filled y’all in on my allergy history, but I have had terrible allergies since exiting the womb (I was a preemi).  I also have allergy triggered asthma, with my first attack at age 18 months, also the only day I crawled in my entire life.  Needless to say, I have tried every allergy medicine on the market, and I have found that Stinging Nettles a la Whole Foods really work best!  I have to take two at a time to have them really work but they are better than Claritin or Allegra any day!  My seventh grade humanities teacher actually told me this, but it was not until my uncle and fave vitamins department employee at Whole Foods confirmed their love for the nettles was I willing to try the herbal remedy.  I now swear by it and recommend it to any random I meet at the grocery store, a bar, etc that talks about their allergies.  I know, a little out there, but they work so well I feel like I have to spread the news!  My family seriously lives off of these come allergy time!

Dr. Oz (I am a BIG fan!) always talks about the neti pot for allergies.  Has anyone actually tried it?  I have heard great things, but for some reason it just kind of creeps me out!

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This morning before Pilates core fusion aka class of death,  I made some vegan cookie dough a la Averie (of Love Veggies and Yoga) check out the recipe here!  I did not have chocolate chips so I made the recipe without and it was still great!  I made two batches: one with cocoa and one without, also I stuck one batch in the oven for 10 mins at 250 degrees aka made them not raw.  I actually liked the baked ones a little better because the flavors melded together a little better and brought out the sweetness.  Really though, they were both great and I will be munching on them for a while!  I also think they are delish frozen.

I have also been on the hunt for the new Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown.  I have been to Target, Wal-Mart, Dick’s Sports, and a couple of other places,  I think it’s an Amazon purchase waiting to happen.  Has anybody tried it?  I think yoga is a great thing for my breathing, but I can not always handle it in a studio, so I think I need a DVD.  I love Jillian’s training method, so I think that may be a good way to ease me into yoga practice.  I used to do yoga a couple of times a week, but I was just not good at it and decided I needed more cardio in my life.  Does anybody have suggestions for yoga or Pilates DVDs or any other exercise DVDs?  I think I need a break from the gym, I am just kind of tired of it right now.

Ok I am off to eat grilled BBQ chicken and some eggplant, weird combo? Probably, but I think it will be delightful!  I have not had homemade BBQ chicken in years because my sister really does not like it, so I am quite excited to have some tonight!

Goodnight bloggies, have a great Saturday night!  See you tomorrow!

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Food Rut February 28, 2010

Do you ever get tired of cooking?  Do you get in patterns of eating?

Today we went to see Valentine’s Day and when we got home I did not want to cook.  Chicken did not sound good, neither did the veggies I was planning on making, the only thing that I wanted was the breakfast I have everyday, Fage 2% with cocoa, stevia, and pumpkin mixed in.  It was so weird that nothing else sounded good, well I did eat some broccoli so I guess that sounded good too.  I guess a lot of this was because it had been about 3.5 hours since the last time I ate, so my blood sugar was low.  Do you have weird cravings or get moody when your blood sugar is low/ need to eat?  Some of this is due to my PCOS that makes me insulin resistant and causes blood sugar spikes and lows.

Lately, we have been making lots of stir fries and Italian-inspired marinara and veggie dishes, but I need to break out of this box. What kind of dishes do you make a lot?

Food, Inc. and My Soap Box

 

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Happy Sunday!  I hope you are having a relaxing day. 

So I finally watched Food, Inc last night and all I can say is AMAZING!! I have been wanting to watch it since I saw the Oprah episode, Before You Grocery Shop Again.  Watch the link because it was a really good show highlighting Michael Pollan and Alicia Silverstone.  Michael Pollan of course talked about his new book, Food Rules, and Alicia talked about her Kind Diet.  I love Oprah and I respect that she highlights intelligent experts in their respective fields, hello Dr. Oz (my idol) is a prime example! 

Okay anyway, about the movie.  I knew I wanted to see it, but I expected it to be depressing since I knew it included the slaughter houses and all.  But it was really a lot more positive.  The message was basically that we need to know where our food comes from and demand that we have higher quality.  It was a call to action to choose to buy organics and grass-fed meat and the food industry will be driven by this demand.  The website http://www.takepart.com/foodinc/ was included in the end of the film for everyone to get involved. 

Thanks Marianne, my mom, for always taking this action and buying organics and raising us on quality foods (even when it was not in vogue)!  I grew up on Whole Foods ever since I can remember.  At age 2, I was allergic to sugar and soy and my mom had many food allergies as well, so Whole Foods has always been our main grocery store.  I think I would have had a lot more health problems if I lived off of chemicals and processed foods like the rest of America has become accustomed to!  Okay, I will get off of my soap box, but this is a cause I truly believe in! 

I now know I need to read Michael Pollan’s books.  Are there any other books you all would recommend?  I so admire Michael Pollan and Food, Inc. for exposing the problems with America’s food system.  I knew healthier food was more expensive, but the lengths to which this documentary exposed how expensive healthy food is in relationship to fast food and the decision one family had to make between healthy food or diabetes meds really made an impact on me.  

Enough of the serious talk and onto my eats from last night: 

 BEFORE:   Pork Tenderloin (from Costco yesterday) marinating in Galeo’s miso dressing and Sriracha 

 AFTER: deliciousness! 

 Brussel Sprouts roasted in oven at 425* for 25 min with cayenne, salt, pepper, and onion powder 

 Salad pre-dressing, we used Galeo’s ginger wasabi miso dressing= creamy, healthy goodness (can you tell I am on a food trend of miso? love it! it’s from Whole Foods, and worth trying) 

I’m off to do Jillian Michael’s No More Trouble Zones and go for a nice jog.  Do you all have any suggestions for any other work out DVDs?

COSTCO and Chocolate

So we finally went to Costco to buy the usual, broccoli, Pellegrino, spinach, some kind of protein for dinner tonight and stirfries throughout the week, and Larabars.  I forgot how crazy it gets on Saturday, but there were ohh so many samples to keep me distracted from the crowd 🙂  I was also thinking about buying another Jillian Michaels DVD because I love her No More Trouble Zones workout, but there were none to be found, sadly. 

I also went to the Pilates of death class today, formally known as Pilates core fusion.  I have a love/hate relationship with this class because it is hard and I am always in pain and barely make it through the whole hour.  I had not been for two weeks, so it really kicked my booty!  I was talking to the instructor for tips to get stronger before her next class since my missing it for two weeks really made me weaker, and she said come more often!  haha I really like her and will make sure to go to her Tuesday and Saturday class this week!

Yesterday I made Averie’s (of Love Veggies and Yoga) Raw Vegan Coconut Oil Chocolate and loved it!  I changed her recipe just a little:

1 T Coconut oil (melted with the Agave)

1 T Agave Nectar (Instead of her 1.5T)

1/2 t vanilla extract

2 T Cocoa powder

I added in a drop of mint extract with one batch and it was good as well! Peanut butter would also be good in this recipe.

Tonight we are grilling pork tenderloin for dinner.  I did a marinade of miso dressing with Sriracha, should be good!  We are also broiling some brussle sprouts with some cayenne, onion powder, salt and pepper and making a spinach salad with miso dressing and some mushrooms.  We will see how everything turns out!

Have a great Saturday night!

xoxo Erin