Marilu Henner's Blog, page 174

Featured recipe from Marilu's table * Garden vegetable soup

This is a very "Purple" version of vegetable soup – lots of veggies, no fat, very low sodium, and all the carbs from vegetables. If you're looking for a cleansing kind of soup, this is it. The vegetables give it good flavor, although the flavor will be mild if you're used to a lot of salt and seasonings.

If you like, add miso to the soup (per individual portion) after you've removed it from the heat. Miso is a fermented paste made from grains and soybeans. The live organisms of miso are good for your gut and they're an effective therapeutic aid in the prevention and treatment of heart disease, certain cancers, radiation sickness and hypertension. Put one soup spoon worth (a couple of teaspoons) in your bowl, then add a little of the soup broth, and stir to combine it. Then add the rest of your soup. Never heat miso; the heat kills the living organisms.

Miso is sold in the refrigerated section of your health food store. Keep it in the fridge after you open it. If the kind you buy comes in a plastic bag or pouch, transfer it to a glass jar (it's just easier to keep it that way). It lasts indefinitely.

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Garden Vegetable Soup

Purple * Serves 8

8 cups water

4 cups chopped onion

3 stalks celery, chopped

2 cups chopped broccoli

2 cups chopped carrots

1 cup chopped cauliflower

1 cup green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 cups chopped kale

1/3 cup Bragg's Liquid Aminos

In large pot, bring 1/2 cup water to a boil. Add celery and onions and cook until soft. Add remaining water and rest of ingredients except kale, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook for 30 minutes. Remove cover, add kale, and cook for 15 minutes. Serve.

 

ALL NEW class at Marilu.com * Mix It Up March!

Are you in a rut?

Is your weight stuck at one number?

Are you tired of your workout?

Do your menus bore you?

Well get ready for MIX IT UP MARCH! We'll mix it up, shake it out, stir it around – and get ready for a fresh, sexy spring!

Class begins Monday, March 14 for ten weekdays, ending Friday, March 25.

Your coaches are the amazing Lyrical, an experienced THMer with a sparkling personality and lots of great ideas, and her son Chef Ryan! Ryan was in high school (or maybe middle school) when his mom decided they'd be eating healthier foods and following Marilu's THM® program. He learned to love a great variety of food (we can tell you about the first summer they subscribed to a farm share, and he found all kinds of new favorites – and sometimes ate all the plums or all the carrots or all the berries before his mom got home from work). He fell in love with preparing food so it was both delicious and healthy, so much that he went to chef school and found a career he's passionate about!

Now for these ten days, we get Chef Ryan as a coach!

Take this class to mix up your routine, shake things up, kick it into high gear, and get ready for spring. Get fresh and get sexy by mixing it up!

Members are automatically enrolled in class – just check your inbox on the first day of class for the class daily email.

Not a member? Join now!

Hey! Get a friend to join with you and earn an entry in the drawing for a free Vitamix! Read the details here.

 

Hey sunshine! Get moving!

Whenever you have good weather, get outside for some exercise.

Take a walk, take a hike, go for a run.

Shoot some hoops. Or hula hoop.

Ride a bike, ride a skateboard, go inline skating.

Don't waste the good weather days. Enjoy them!

//www.marilu.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/02 - Pocketful Of Sunshine.mp3

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Amazon.com Widgets

 

What happens when you drink a soda?

What happens when you drink a soda?

In the first 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don't immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor, allowing you to keep it down.

20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (And there's plenty of that at this particular moment.)

40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate; your blood pressure rises; as a response, your liver dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked, preventing drowsiness.

45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production, stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.

> 60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium, and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.

> 60 minutes: The caffeine's diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you'll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium, and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolytes, and water.

> 60 minutes: As the rave inside you dies down, you'll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You've also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the soda. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like hydrating your system, or building strong bones and teeth.

This will all be followed by a caffeine crash in the next few hours. (As little as two if you're a smoker.)

~ Wade Meredith

We suggest a nice glass of water instead.

 

♥ Top 10 bad excuses to smoke (& why they're lame) ♥

My grandmother smoked until she was 90. * Some people are lucky, and she might have lived healthier and happier to 110.

I enjoy smoking. Why should I quit? * Your addiction has tricked your brain into believing you enjoy it.

You've gotta die of something. * Yeah – but why kill yourself?

This is a bad time to quit. I'm too stressed right now. * Pick a time in the near future when you won't be so stressed. And stick to it. Or (who are you kidding?) admit that you're never going to be free of stress, and just do it now.

I'm afraid I'll gain weight if I quit. * Yeah, we addressed that already here and here.

I exercise every day and I'm in better shape than most non-smokers. * Your lungs aren't in better shape.

Smoking is part of my persona and gives me character. * Nice try, Bette Davis! Wouldn't it be cooler to have a healthy persona?

Smoking is like a good friend. * Good friends don't age you, control you, and then kill you. Time to dump this "friend."

I'm already getting lung pollution from smog and second-hand smoke. * That's like saying, "I've already had a beer; I might as well have a six-pack!"

I only smoke occasionally. * Then why bother? Why risk so much for so little?

 

Featured recipe from Marilu's table * Barley and mixed veggies

Today's Meatless Monday recipe is pure comfort food, and it's a great way to use up what you have.

This dish takes a little longer to cook, but if you think ahead, you can prepare the barley the night before (while you're eating and cleaning up from dinner?), and then reheat it over very low heat with a little more broth or water, stirring it, while you prepare the vegetables.

You can make this dish with other veggies, if you don't have these on hand. We love recipes with this kind of flexibility. Substitute any canned beans – Great Northern, cannelini, aduki, red, pinto – or lentils – or use frozen peas or shelled edamame. Use what you have. For the veggies, add green beans, celery, broccoli or cauliflower (cut small!), mushrooms, or a few stems of kale or chard (remove stems, chop leaves).

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Barley and Mixed Veggies

Yellow * Serves 6

2 cups pearled barley

5 cups water

1 cup vegetable broth

1 Tablespoon of non-dairy margarine

3 Tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup shallots

1 cup red onion, diced fine

1/2 cup red pepper, diced fine

2 scallions, thinly sliced, green part only

1-1/2 large carrots, shredded

1-15 ounce can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

1/4 cup fresh basil, finely chopped

In a large saucepan over high heat bring 5 cups water, 1 cup vegetable broth, non-dairy margarine and pearled barley to a boil. Stir and reduce heat to a low simmer; cook covered about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until soft.

In a medium skillet over medium heat, sauté olive oil, shallots, and onion until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add red pepper, scallions, carrots, black beans, and balsamic vinegar. Stir and continue cooking an additional 5 minutes, allowing flavors to come together and carrots begin to soften. Add parsley and basil and mix well. In a large bowl combine barley and vegetable mixture; toss well and serve.

 

Spirit Sunday * Shine

Photo by Robert Michie

 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

~ Marianne Williamson

 

Fitness Friday * Push-up boot camp

It's time to start thinking about how your arms are going to look this spring and summer in sleeveless tops and bathing suits.

We really like the Hundred Push-ups Challenge.

There's instruction on good form for several types of push-ups.
There's a pre-test, so you know how to train.
There's a six-week training program based on your pre-test results.

And there's an app for that, too. If the app is going to make you do it, then by all means… get the app (iphone, android, and windows 7 phone).

When you've mastered 100 push-ups, check the site for their other programs – 200 sit-ups, 200 squats, and 25 pull-ups.

 

Making oatmeal unhealthy

Real oatmeal contains no ingredients; rather, it is an ingredient. As such, it's a promising lifesaver: oats are easy to grow in almost any non-extreme climate and, minimally processed, they're profoundly nourishing, inexpensive and ridiculously easy to cook.

~ all quotes from Mark Bittman, How To Make Oatmeal … Wrong

EXACTLY. Oatmeal is easy, cheap, and nutritious. It's hard to make it wrong – you almost have to do it on purpose. And apparently, that was exactly what McDonald's set out to do.

 

…in typical McDonald's fashion, the company is doing everything it can to turn oatmeal into yet another bad choice. (Not only that, they've made it more expensive than a double-cheeseburger: $2.38 per serving in New York.) "Cream" (which contains seven ingredients, two of them actual dairy) is automatically added; brown sugar is ostensibly optional, but it's also added routinely unless a customer specifically requests otherwise. There are also diced apples, dried cranberries and raisins, the least processed of the ingredients (even the oatmeal contains seven ingredients, including "natural flavor").

Seriously? How can oatmeal contain seven ingredients – before you add the "cream," sweetener, and dried fruit? Oatmeal is… oats. And water. And maybe (because it's totally optional) a pinch of salt. What "natural flavor" needs to be added to oatmeal? Doesn't it taste like oats already? (We couldn't even hold back the laugh when we typed that.)

 

Others will argue that the McDonald's version is more "convenient." This is nonsense; in the time it takes to go into a McDonald's, stand in line, order, wait, pay and leave, you could make oatmeal for four while taking your vitamins, brushing your teeth and half-unloading the dishwasher. (If you're too busy to eat it before you leave the house, you could throw it in a container and microwave it at work….

If you don't want to bother with the stove at all, you could put some rolled oats (instant not necessary) in a glass or bowl, along with a teeny pinch of salt, sugar or maple syrup or honey, maybe some dried fruit. Add milk and let stand for a minute (or 10). Eat. Eat while you're walking around getting dressed. And then talk to me about convenience.

Thank you, Mark Bittman. There's nothing inconvenient about making your own oatmeal. If you like to cook over a stove, you can even make a big pot on a day you have the extra 10 minutes, and keep it in the fridge all week. Scoop out a serving, add some liquid (we like soy milk for this, but water or any plant milk, or even apple juice works), and warm it quickly on the stove. You know, while you half-unload that dishwasher (we're glad he said that, because that's exactly how we use our time).

We love this article. Please go read the whole thing.

 

The number one way to prevent a cold…

…is to wash your hands.

Most Americans don't wash their hands often enough – or long enough – to prevent disease. There's no excuse for not doing it right.

[image error]Photo by William Stadler