Don't Just Sit There. Get Up & Move.

A new Australian study estimated that your life can be up to a year and a half longer without television. Get up & move. Click here for the full article & here for the study.

Bobby bought me P90x for my birthday and ever since I've been battling the balance between fitness & yoga (i.e. active relaxation). So far, I've been thinking thin and eating well with a highlight of a workout here and there.

But I wonder...did the study take P90x into consideration? Surely, there must be some sort of exception :)

Curly Zucchini Salad with Cashews and Cranberries

I am utterly nostalgic for summer - for its better weather and crazy variety of vegetables. Food clearly makes me giddy and i couldn't contain my excitement last Saturday when I found zucchini at the farmer's market. I quickly snagged a couple of pounds and recreated one of my favorite summer meals. Through all of the rain and crispy fall air, I needed this salad as a reminder of sunnier times.

A spiral slicer will get you the cut of zucchini you'll need for this recipe - it's $30.00 on amazon and one of the best kitchen purchases I made all summer.You can buy it on Amazon. It claims other foods are possible, but I have yet to witness. Regardless, zucchini alone has sufficed thus far for me. No cooking and minimal clean-up.

(Serves 3 as a main meal more for an app or side salad)

Ingredients:
2 zucchinis spiralized
2 tomatoes, cut into chunks
1/3 cup cashews chopped
1 package of tempeh cut into chunks and pan-fried for 5 minutes until golden brown
1/4 cup dried cranberries
3 Tbs fresh Chives
3 Tbs fresh Cilantro
3 lemon wedges
A dash of red wine vinegar and salt and pepper

Throw all ingredient together. Add lemon wedges and red wine vinegar immediately before serving.

Fall Fennel and Pomegranate Salad

Easy, Quick, Delicious. Everything a salad should be! Enjoy fall a little more by utilizing fennel and pomegranate seeds in this amazingly simple recipe.

Serves 6

Ingredients:
Arugula - 2 cups
Pea shoots - 1/4 - 1/2 cup
Fennel Bulbs - 2 bulbs thinly sliced
Pomegranate Seeds - 3/4 cup
Blood Oranges - 2 thinly sliced
Candied pecans - see how to make your own below

Candied Pecans: Toss pecans with just enough maple syrup to coat, a dash of salt and cayenne pepper. Toast at 350F for no longer than 10 minutes or until just browned

Toss all ingredients together and top with pecans. Dress with red wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.

If saving for leftovers, store pecans separately and add right before serving. Otherwise, they will become soggy!

Crispy - Baked Vegetables and Eggs

I love eggs - they're so versatile and delicious in nearly every form. Here, they're straight baked (and a bit broiled) with vegetables, I couldn't have asked for an easier and more delicious lunch. This takes less than five minutes to prep - and while it cooks you can jump in the shower and catch up on your e-mails.

Ingredients:
2 Eggs (Farm fresh or vegetarian fed for ultimate flavor)
1 small red onion, sliced
1 small eggplant quartered and sliced
1 piece of kale, destemmed and roughly chopped
1 small tomato thinly sliced
1 clove fresh garlic, pressed
salt and pepper to taste
cayenne or crushed pepper if you like it spicy
2 tsp EVOO

Preheat the oven to 400F. Heat EVOO in a pan and toss sliced onion and cook for 2 minutes.

While the onion is cooking combine all ingredients besides the eggs in an oven-safe bowl. Combine cooked onions and toss ingredients to mix. Top with eggs. Place bowl in preheated oven and cook for 25 minutes - if the eggs are still not cooked you can turn up the heat - carefully as to not burn the kale.

Hurricane Swirl Zucchini Bread (Gluten Free)

Nothing says natural disaster like comfort food. First the earthquake and now hurricane Irene - the drama doesn't seem to end, especially not for New Yorkers. The hurricane didn't seem so bad yesterday, regardless of the rain and wind we seemed to sleep just fine. Just in case though, yesterday we boarded up the windows with cardboard in case any objects were to creep off neighbors terraces or branches from trees decided to get adventurous. We woke up this morning impressed that the storm had passed and we were ready to venture out. The tree directly in front of our house completely uprooted (leaving a beautiful view of the east river - but was it really worth it?). We left the house for a bicycle ride and the disaster had spread farther than we had originally thought! All of the trees lining cherry street took a beating (uprooted and stripped of their branches) along with the other trees in front of the house. Apparently, mother nature took her wrath out on Grand Street and the FDR drive. Thank god no one was hurt.

Needless to say, the entire city was shut down. Three miles all the shops were closed (except Chinese groceries). We headed back home and whipped up this zucchini bread with what we had left in the cupboard - brown rice flour and gluten free all purpose flour. The rest is pretty much improvised from a variety of recipes, and we crossed our fingers that it would turn out properly. It was delicious and now the entire loaf is nearly gone.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup gluten free all purpose flour
1 3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/2 c. brown rice put on the side
1 cup brown sugar
1.5 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
dash of gloves
1/4 cup soy milk or coconut milk
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/3 cup oil (EVOO or coconut oil)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups zucchini
1/2 cup craisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the flours (besides the 1/2 cup brown rice flour that you put aside) and dry ingredients together, set aside. Add milk, lemon juice, oil, eggs and vanilla.

Mix 1/2 cup brown rice flour with 1/2 cup water and heat on stove until it becomes a gooey mixture. Add to bowl with the rest and stir until homogenous. * You can skip this step if you have xanthan gum (use 1 Tbs xanthan gum instead)

Mix in zucchini and craisins and bake for 50 minutes or until you can slice without pulling out gooey mixture attached to knife.

Vegetable - Citrus Skewers and Fire Roasted Nectarines

We finally escaped the city this past weekend for an overdue camping adventure. All we wanted was to spend time in the great outdoors, build campfires, swim and hike. The food might be my favorite part. Food has never tasted better cooked on an open fire. These veggie skewers were a perfect way to utilize our roaring campfire. We were stuffed and still had leftovers for breakfast. Great grilling vegetables include tomatoes, garlic, onions, zucchini, summer squash and red peppers.

Even better was dessert. After dinner, we skewerd sliced plums and nectarines and threw them on the fire. What began an experiment ended as a pleasant surprise - quite literally: nature's candy. They were juicy and warm and melted in the mouth.

Utilize the last bits of summer and get out to the wild. Cooking these in your oven would do just fine as well, except the skewers may not be as necessary (but equally fun!)

Ingredients:
Pint cherry tomatoes left whole
1 zucchini
1 small summer squash
The cloves of one head of garlic - in tact but peeled
2 small red onions
2 sweet red peppers
1 lemon
salt and pepper

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1 nectarine sliced
1 plum sliced

Directions:
Cut the vegetables into decent sized chunks so that they can be easily put onto a skewer. You can mix or match vegetables or make uniform skewers (whichever you prefer * note that onions and garlic may take longer to cook than tomatoes, zucchinis, etc.). Throw in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes stirring or flipping occasionally or on the fire/grill and flipping occasionally.

For the fruit, repeat the same directions and note that they will take less time to cook than the vegetables. Check for desired tenderness.

Mid-Summers Chickpea Salad

I find so much expression and joy through playing with food and creating dishes that taste great. International cuisine makes it all the more inspiring- being able to experience a little bit of culture with each bite. Here I found comfort in the Mediterranean diet after having traveled to and missing the Israeli taste buds all too much.


The chickpeas and mung beans are a great source of soluble fiber. The tomatoes contain lycopene which act as a natural SPF and protect the skin against sun damage. The blend of fresh and dried spices account for its kick and addict-ability factor. The more color, the better.

1 15 oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
¾ cup mung beans either sprouted or cooked
3 Tbs quinoa, cooked
1 heirloom tomato, cut into chunks
1 sweet onion, thinly sliced
2 scallions, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 sprigs of mint, chopped
4 Tbs parsley, chopped

Dressing:
1/4 cup of tahini
1/8 cup water
salt
pepper
cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients and toss with salt and pepper to taste. For the dressing: begin adding water one teaspoon at a time until tahini thins but doesn’t become too runny. Add salt, pepper and cayenne pepper to taste. Dress salad individually right before serving.

Part Duo: This is also posted on Food Coach's blog, so check it out! Dana has great things to say.