Author: admin

Afternoon Green Smoothie

A great way to curb the pre-dinner munchies

Several of you have asked for the recipe for the green smoothie I drink in the afternoons. Here it is!

About 1 T chia or flax seeds (throw them in first so they are weighed down in the blender or they’ll stick to the sides when you blend), a cup of almond milk, 1/2 or whole banana, healthy handful of spinach, 1 T nut butter (I’m using almond right now, but be creative), and a few ice cubes. Sometimes I add a few baby carrots, sometimes a T of carob powder.

That is it! It’s easy, delicious, and for me, fills the void between lunch and dinner. Let me know what you think.

#41: Searching for Freedom from Yo-Yo Dieting?

It’s all in your head.

I’ve been thinking about my face lately. I can’t seem to avoid doing so, since I read an article about face transplants in The New Yorker and then literally a day later read a chapter in Women Food and God in which the face issue reappeared. Who am I without my face? If my face were to suffer a terrible allergic reaction and be covered with boils, would I be the same person? To myself, surely—my soul is my soul. But to others? Would my words be as convincing?

What if you were a different size? Do you feel like you are who you arebecause you’re a size 12? Would people take you more seriously if you were a size 8? Do you think they would? I guess I’m hung up on the topic of digging to the root of your overweight issues because I think it’s that important. If you identify yourself with your yo-yoing weight or your diet of the moment, I truly fear you won’t ever succeed in keeping the weight off. You’re just too connected to yourself as “person on a quest for a new and better body.” Will that new body, when finally achieved, bring you all the happiness and bliss you imagine? Not a chance. Not if you don’t address the issues that made you fat in the first place.

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#40: Staying Sane

Yet another good reason to exercise.

Oh, the sad horror of losing your mind. I’m constantly doing that now, but I’m able to find it again, usually minutes later. What this is really about, though, is dementia, and boy, will I ever do whatever it takes to keep that demon away.

Thankfully, there is tons of research being done right now to help us learn ways to keep our brains young, active, and sane. So now not only can we say that exercise helps reverse or relieve age-related body changes such as sarcopenia (the loss of muscle), symptoms of menopause, and osteoporosis, it also decreases the risk of dementia. Even more, higher levels of exercise might correlate with even lower risk of dementia. Awesome.

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Meatless Monday: Broiled Blackened Tofu

Neither difficult nor weird.

Broiled Blackened Tofu

Spices:
2 ½ t sweet smoked paprika (if all you have is hot paprika, just eliminate the cayenne)
2 t ground cumin
1 t dried oregano
1 t dried thyme
1 t sugar
¼ t salt
¼ t cayenne
A few pinches freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced

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#39: Clear Your Clutter (reprise)

For my readers new and old, I thought this post worthy of a re-post.

Maybe some of you are familiar with this New Year’s resolution: Clean out the house and keep it clutter-free. It is hard work to keep the house uncluttered when you’re busy, and even more so when you’re busy and have children. When you work, too, well, it’s almost easier to just give up. But don’t.

When you live in a cluttered home, you hold clutter on the inside, too. In fact, when you visit a person’s home and it’s just stuff everywhere, you can tell a lot about that person. Not that he or she is necessarily dirty or lazy, but that he or she likely has some unresolved issues. It’s true: Clutter is only a surface expression of a deeper issue. When you keep your home organized and clean, your heart and mind are more free and available to the people and things that are important to you.

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Meatless Monday: Collard Greens & Rice

Veggie plate, anyone?

Our weekly CSA veggie basket is brimming with greens every week this time of year. We had to find some favorite preparation methods or we were in danger of dreading the basket instead of looking forward to it. We stumbled upon this recipe, and now we HOPE to see collard greens in our basket. Go figure!

Collard greens with rice

• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 cup brown* or long-grain white rice
• 1 tablespoon Earth Balance butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups chopped collard leaves, loosely packed
• pepper

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#38: What is IS

What does your present look like?

Listen to yourself talking to your friends about your typical “I ate this,” “I really shouldn’t eat that,” “I feel so…” body conversations.

If you are always looking to a certain weight or measurement that you think will make you finally “just right,” then your life—where you are and who you are right now—is just a means to an end. You’ll be missing out on the you that you are at this moment, and frankly, the goal weight or whatever it is you have in mind will likely make you only fleetingly happy. You can become addicted to seeking.

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Meatless Monday: Lentil Burritos (reprise)

Just had these and decided to bring them back to your plate, too.

Lentil Burritos

½ package of Trader Joe’s pre-cooked lentils
1 small onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup (4 oz) shredded soy cheese
1 cup vegetable broth
About 8 small flour tortillas
1 (8-oz) can tomato sauce (with roasted garlic if you can find it)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon taco sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch
Toppings: Tofutti sour cream, guacamole (when avocados are in season)

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#37: Focus on the Progress…

…not the slip-ups!

Focus on your progress, not your slip-ups. For slip-ups there will inevitably be. If there were no slip-ups, there would be no challenge, and life would be easy, and everyone would be healthy and skinny and“The Doctors” would go off the air.

Focus on the now. What can you do, say, think, feel, eat right now that will make you a better you? Just because you ate a huge dinner out last night does not ruin your diet and give you carte blanche to continue eating badly until Sunday night at midnight, at which point you will virtuously start from scratch and never slip up again. Start right now. The body is amazingly forgiving.

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Meatless Monday: Soyrizo Tacos

You won’t believe how “meaty” these tacos are.

Soyrizo Tacos 

Hello, delicious! You won’t believe how easy and non-meaty these meaty-tasting tacos are.

  • 1 package veggie chorizo (We love Trader Joe’s Soyrizo)
  • ½ onion, diced
  • Shredded cheese (Trader Joe’s soy shredded is our pick)
  • Small flour tortillas

Toppings:

  • Tofutti sour cream
  • Taco sauce

So easy: Sauté the onion until translucent. Add the soyrizo and heat through. We like to sear our tortilla shells by holding them over the burner with tongs for 10-15 seconds per side. Don’t burn your house down, though—cover them in paper towels and warm in the microwave if you don’t want to sear them!

Put the soyrizo mixture in the shells, add sour cream, taco sauce, and any other toppings that suit your fancy, and you’ve got dinner!

(Based loosely on a recipe in The Kind Diet)