FRESH Blueberries

I've done it. I've planted a garden. If you know me, you know I have the blackest of all black thumbs. But I'm bound and determined to make this garden work. I only planted perennial flowers to keep it simple, but I did put a blueberry bush in. Yesterday I was able to pick the first handful of berries.


They are delicious. Some are super sweet, others not so much. But they all taste so crisp and fresh. I think I like this super fresh food thing. Maybe next year I'll add a few more edibles into the mix. We'll have to see how this first year goes, though...

PS...I've said it before, but aren't blueberries just the prettiest?

Holy Zucchini!

My friends are always trying to find ways to get on the blog...and my friend Natalee wins the prize this week.


She's working on her first garden and planted enough zucchini to feed most of the Bay Area for the summer. She decided to give me her state-fair-worthy zucchini...not because she likes me more than anyone else. She just wants some blog exposure, and she deserves it. This zucchini makes my strawberry look like a raspberry!


I just love summer and fresh produce.

The Goods: Splendido Little Tomatoes

As I was eating these tomatoes at lunch today, I thought they were just too pretty to NOT be photographed.


These are my favorite store-bought tomatoes. They are from Trader Joe's (surprise) and are called "Splendido Little Tomatoes."

Wanna know something funny? Ever single time I've bought these (which is a LOT) I thought they were called "Splendid Little Tomatoes," because they ARE splendid! As I was posting the picture just now, I saw "Splendido" and thought, "Just my luck...Trader Joe's misspells the label the day I want to post about them." DUH. Splendido are a type of tomato (yeah, can you tell I'm a big gardener?). I've been misreading the label this whole time!

There is a happy ending to this silly story...if you don't have a Trader Joe's, you'll still be able to get these splendid splendidos! :)

Pretty Easter Centerpiece

My good friend and neighbor Adrianne has done yet another beautiful and impressive thing that I'll never get around to doing. It's a good thing for you I have talented friends to shake things up a bit on the blog. :)


Adrianne grew some grass...no worries, this grass is legit. It's wheat grass and it's beautiful. I mean, it is SO PRETTY! And a great idea for an Easter centerpiece. For easy-peasy instructions, click on over to Design Mom. She says it takes about 1-2 weeks for the grass to grow. Since Easter is 1-2 weeks away, it's perfect timing for you to get your own basket of grass growing! Your Easter guests will be mightily impressed.

And since this IS a food blog, I suppose you can always grind your grass up and drink it. Um, yum? Probably not. But anything that tastes that yucky has got to be good for you, right?

Recovering Grapefruit Junkie Lapses

I went through a phase with two good friends where we ate red grapefruit ALL THE TIME. That was a super healthy phase in my life: everyday we ate grapefruit, spinach and cottage cheese for lunch and worked out together after work. Those were the days...what happened?!?! I'll tell you what happened...TJ's chocolate covered pretzels, that's what.

While I may not eat grapefruit every day anymore, I still LOVE LOVE LOVE red, sweet grapefruits (and Ruby Red juice, which I can chug, chug, chug). As I was enjoying an especially tasty grapefruit today (even Cate ate a few pieces!), I decided I needed to share some pictures of it with you (yes, I went picture crazy today) as well as the most killer technique for eating it.

The BEST WAY EVER to eat a grapefruit:

1. Get yourself a red flesh grapefruit - sample varieties are Ruby, Rio, or Star.


2. Peel the grapefruit.


3. Break it in half (the only reason it's cut in my pictures was because it was pretty...you don't have to cut it) and peel off the rind from the grapefruit flesh. The rind pretty much stays together while you peel off the flesh from each slice.


4. Enjoy!!!


Forget a spoon. It's only going to massacre your fruit, destroying the texture. Trust me - it is so much better this way and worth the extra 5 minutes it takes to peel. Yum.

Super Baby Food

I have a few friends right now who are starting their babies on solid foods. I was talking to Nate about it and he suggested I do a quick post! Sorry to the non-baby people out there...although, the book I mention below is a great baby gift idea!

Tip #1: When it's time to start your baby on rice cereal, use Earth's Best brand. Trust me...not to get too graphic on a food website, but it will keep your baby's system happy, if you know what I mean. :)

Tip #2: Super Baby Foodby Ruth Yaron is a GREAT resource. If you want to make your own baby food, it's a must-have. If you don't want to make your own baby food, it is still a very handy book to have around. I used it a lot in the beginning. It really helped me to know what foods I could feed to Cate at what stages, etc. Despite eventually giving up on making my own baby food, I'm still very glad I had the book at my fingertips. You gotta get it, mommies!

So, that's all I have to say on the subject...well not really, I've got plenty to say on the subject. I'm just giving you a break for now. :)

Real Live Carrot Sticks

I like baby carrots as much as the next guy, but REAL carrots taste so much better. Usually I'm too lazy to drag out the cutting board, peeler & knife (sad, I know). But once in a while I do and it is SO WORTH THE EFFORT. Regular, grown-up, non-baby carrots just taste great, raw or cooked. Since I was lazy with the main course last night (thank you Mr. Manwich), I decided I could take the time to cut up a few carrot sticks. The result: yum, especially with that oh so healthy ranch dip.

Pomegranates

My friend Maria recently picked these pretty pomegranates and was nice enough to share with us! I've never worked with pomegranates before. I found a great website with tips on how to cut them and recipes. To the pomegranate experts out there, what's your favorite way to eat pomegranates?

Healthy Eats: Trans Fats

Hey everyone, no cute picture today...plus, I don't know that a glob of trans fats would be very appetizing to look at!

I've been on the anti-trans fats crusade for about 10 years. I was so happy when the FDA finally required food labels to include trans fats in 2006. I just read about a little glitch in the system, however, that I wanted to share with you. As long as the serving size has less than 0.5 grams of trans fats, they can put 0 g on the label and say there's no trans fats. Granted, 0.5 g isn't a lot, but if you're eating more than one serving, it adds up. And you really don't want any in your system anyway, no matter how small the amount. Lesson learned: check the ingredients list as well as the nutritional label. If it says 'hydrogenated' or 'partially hydrogenated' anywhere, then you've got trans fats. Don't eat it!

Why are trans fats so bad? Like saturated fats, they raise your bad cholesterol. However, trans fats take it one step further and actually LOWER your good cholesterol, something saturated fats don't do. Ah, the wonders of modern science. If you have a choice between a spread or real butter, go with real butter. It will do less damage and your body knows how to process the natural foods much better.

Gotta love all of our processed foods out there. Geesh.

The Goods: Leeks!

After all this meatiness, time to feature a VEGETABLE. Without further ado, meet the leek!


When I was looking through my leek pictures to do this post, I noticed there were potatoes and carrots on the cutting board. For the life of me I cannot remember what I was making that night! But I do know this...it was a soup. Leeks are GREAT in soups. There are leeks in the Butternut Squash Soup recipe I have posted and I've used them in other soups that are blended at the end (good in veggie soups).

A few other leek-y ideas from Miss Rachael Ray. BLT Smashed Potatoes (I have made these and they were AWESOME) and Bacon, Potato, Leek & Crab Chowder (which I haven't made but sounds mighty fine).

Why do I like leeks? They are part of the garlic/onion family (they look like HUGE scallions). They are, however, milder and give a nice flavor to whatever you are cooking.

Never cooked with leeks? Here's how to clean them: Cut off the root end and the green top, leaving 2" of green. Slice leek lengthwise and clean leek under running water, making sure to get the dirt out of all the layers (when they grow, the pick up lots of dirt inside). Follow your recipe as directed.

Healthy Eats: Yoga Today

I know, yoga isn't food...but yoga is all about holistic health, and health is related to eating, right? Anyway, I love yoga and I love this website and just wanted to share it with you: Yoga Today. They do FREE 1-hour yoga classes EVERY DAY...and you can have them automatically download to iTunes if you like. The instructors are great and I really have enjoyed the classes I've done. Great if you can't make it to a real class but like having the guidance of an instuctor.

I feel like I need to mention food. Carrots are good for you. :)

Healthy Eats: H-2-WHOAH!

I already knew I was dehydrated, but apparently an IV is in order. My friend Karen (who's awesome fitness blog will be launching soon!) introduced me to a calculator on fitsugar.com. You can put in your stats and find out how much water and food you need daily based on your activity level. I don't need 8 glasses a day...I need ELEVEN! What the?!?! I don't even have 11 of the same glass for this picture!


New mantra: drink more water. With new mantra in place, any tips for getting ALL THAT WATER down every day?

Healthy Eats: "Light" Yogurt

Today's post may seem like a no-brainer to a lot of you, but for me it was a fairly recent "bright idea." Figured I may as well share! If you're smarter than me, than just move on and come back tomorrow. :)


So, first let me say if I offend any diet soda drinkers out there, I apologize. That said, I hate artificial sweeteners. I don't like the taste, but I'm also a firm believer that eating less of something natural and "unhealthy" (i.e. sugar, butter, etc) is healthier than eating something "fake," (i.e. said sweeteners, transfats, etc). See, there I go offending people... ANYWAY...I HATE light yogurt because it has all those yucky tasting artificial sweeteners. (Clarification - low fat yogurt is different from light and is just fine with me.)

The problem: regular yogurt (low or regular fat content) has so much sugar in it! One day I said to Nate, why can't they do light yogurt that simply has less sugar in it? Well, "the man" may not do it for me, but I can do it myself! I've started mixing my yogurt with plain! It's not as sweet but still tastes good to me (and Cate!) and comes with a lot less guilt, half to be exact. I know, DUH. But I'm happy I finally figured this out! Yes, plain yogurt all by its lonesome is definitely the healthiest, but I'm not eatin' that stuff. :)

Healthy Eats: The World's Healthiest Foods

After all this chocolate-dipped strawberry talk (by the way, I received some as a gift yesterday...chocolate-covered strawberries are my destiny), I think it's time for a little healthy eats.


Check out The World's Healthiest Foods website - it's a great resource, and it's free! They provide nutritional info, recipes, menus and more. They also have compiled a list of the 130 healthiest foods and explain why those foods made the list, including a nutritional breakdown for each of item.

After reading an article in my yoga magazine, I've decided I need to start exploring the world of greens beyond spinach. I'll keep you posted on my progress! Feel free to share any healthy greens recipes (you know, swiss chard, kale, collards, etc).

Healthy Eats: Now THIS is Whole Wheat Bread

If you read my previous whole wheat french bread post, you'll know I was DUPED by the label & ended up with completely nutrition-less white bread that just kinda looked like wheat bread. WELL... I've gotten smart, well at least smartER. Hate to sound like a stinkin' broken record, but Trader Joe's came through again. I picked up one of their Whole Grain Artisan Breads and we had it with our stew. It had all kinds of whole wheat flour, whole grains and FIBER in it. Yea! And it was delicious - Cate even gobbled it up. yum yum.

Healthy Eats: FitDay.com

Time for a "healthy" post :) If you are looking for an online diet journal, check out www.fitday.com. You can sign up for a free account and track all kinds of fitness information... food, calories, activity, weight goals, etc. Have a Fit Day!

Healthy Eats: Wheat Bread with NO FIBER?!?!

I recently bought a loaf of "wheat french bread"... well, when I got home and read the label, there was NO FIBER in the bread. What the?!?!? My two whole grain cents... if you care... make sure the bread you buy says WHOLE wheat bread or whole grains - and read the labels carefully! I basically bought white bread with brown flecks in it, flecks with absolutely NO fiber.


I'm going to venture into the world of wheat bread baking. I'm looking for a recipe that is like the wheat bread they give you at Cheesecake Factory (DARK, kind of sweet, not too dense, not pumpernickel). If you have one, please share!