The New Year is off to a rousing start. Sort of snuck up on us: POW! right into that energy of newness once January hit. I don't do New Year's Resolutions but I do find this midwinter time good for taking stock of what served me last year and what I want to focus on going forward.
Health is always at the top of my game-plan -- seems right to me for everyone to make that a priority each time the calendar revolves into a new year. If you've decided to move a little further up the food continuum by increasing your fruit and veggie intake, here's my advice: start simple, look for what's easy to incorporate on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, go for any "low hanging fruit" options, the easy ones right in front of you, like apples on a neighbor's tree.
Perhaps this year will be the year you go organic for everything. I don't need to remind you what that can do for your health, the health of our planet and all those organic farmers out there.
When I find myself at my desk 'on hold' waiting for someone on the phone, I fill my time by checking out the many links recommended by my readers, friends, and colleagues. You know what I mean -- all those emails with amazing- (or amusing-) sounding links to information scattered about cyber-space. I keep a list of my favorites at my website, and use my holding time visiting them to find out what's new. Here are a couple I found this past month:
Is your refrigerator scary? You know, are there things in there of uncertain age and provenance? (Research tells us that 50% of the stuff in the Average American Refrigerator either doesn't need to be there or should be discarded.) It doesn't take long for our fridge to get out of hand. Particularly in a "living food" kitchen where preservatives aren't used, fresh things are brought in from the garden or bought several times a week, and some products (like nut butters) are hard to tell apart, fridge organization is imperative. Thankfully, there are Sharpies and Duct Tape! I make it almost a fetish to mark what everything is, and when it began its refrigerator nap. Inevitably, I still find myself wondering, "Is this still good?" In my web browsing I came across this site that helps me keep my living-food crammed refrigerator as current as possible: www.stilltasty.com. Pick fruits or veggies, click and you get a really long alpha list of items. Scroll down, click on your chosen fruit or veggie and voilà, you get a graphic showing how long it lasts in the refrigerator and freezer. Great info in a quick easy chart.
A great new WOW product -- wish I'd discovered it in time for Christmas gifts this year -- the CUPPOW -- like Ka-Pow! from the old comic strips. This little goody turns a canning jar into a road-ready drink container. I can't tell you how many smoothies or juices have ended up all over my shirt while drinking and driving. I know, I gotta stop drinking when I drive . . . but when you love smoothies, and are as busy as I am and do all the traveling I do, anything to keep the liquid gold in its glass jar and not on me is a winner!
For those of us who love canning jars this one can be a lifesaver. I use all sizes of those long loved Ball or Kerr jars for very different reasons than my grandmother. Nope, no canning in this house, but lots of smoothie and juice drinking on the go. I don't own stock in Cuppow but for a limited time there's a discount code on my website so be sure to put it in at check out and save 10% off your CUPPOW order -- I just like writing it, I can see the bubble above Captain America's head -- CUPPOW! -- as he saves the world by drinking one green smoothie after another.
One of my local markets has gotten excited about my -- well, I guess it's ours now --
Saturday Jan 26th -- Whole Foods Napa -- Join me from 1 - 2pm in the Culinary Studio to help celebrate their 5th anniversary. I'll be doing a short discussion and demonstration of almond milk with More than a Nut Milk Bags and More than a Nut Milk Bag Recipe Collections available for sale.
Some of you may know Caldwell Esselstyn, the Cleveland Clinic guru whose heart disease work is getting lots of press. His son, Rip Esselstyn, is a buff firefighter who turned around the health of his Austin, Texas firehouse colleagues . . . and others across the nation are picking up on his work. Since Rip published his Engine 2 Diet he has been traveling extensively to promote a plant-strong lifestyle. Chicago's mayor, Rahm Emanuel, has spent time with Rip and this week publicly got behind plant-based eating, claiming that the Engine 2 Diet has improved his triathlon times. He states that Chicago's healthcare costs could be dramatically reduced if more people simply decided go plant-strong. Here's the report:
The More than a Nut Milk Bag Recipe Collection is now available on Amazon and I'd love your help with reviews. Many of you have told me personally how you love the recipes, tips and information in the 120 pages of the collection. I'd love you to share them with the world on Amazon. Here's one recent review added to our Amazon page and I love it!!
January seems to be the month everyone gets on board with juice cleanses, juice detoxes, juice fasts and any number of cleansing regimes. The New Year is a good time to start fresh and clean out the old gunk. The Green Giant Juice recipe featured in the More than a Nut Milk Bag Recipe Collection was inspired by one I tasted at Living Light, my alma mater, 5 years ago.
And for those of you who are proud owners of the More than a Nut Milk Bag Recipe Collection there are four more recipes in large format pdf's for printing or tablet use in the kitchen: Carrot Ginger Juice, Grapefruit Juice Cooler, Detox Green Juice and Green Giant Juice (my own recipe). As a reminder on page 102 of the More than a Nut Milk Bag Recipe Collection are the instructions to log into the members only section.
Thank you for joining me this month on our food continuum. This year began much like all the others with bright shiny ideas and possibilities. I look forward to sharing some of mine with you and would love to hear what's going on in your world. I appreciate you, your input and your energy. Without you I'd have no one to write to.
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