Monthly Archives: February 2012

Hanging Out With The Oldie Goldies…

...by Food Babe

Happy Sunday Morning to ya!  I have a day planned of R-E-L-A-X-A-T-I-O-N… Lately I feel like I’ve been going a million miles per hour and its totally catching up with me.  I started to self diagnose the symptoms of my exhaustion on the Google last night… SCARY. SCARY. SCARY.  So I am listening to my body today and going to take it EASY. EASY. EASY.

I had a very fulfilling day yesterday…both physically and mentally.

I followed my usual habits – Lemon water with cayenne and a big glass of Vitamineral Green Powder. Also, I had a big bowl of blueberries and banana.

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I left the house – ran over to the gym to take a spinning class to find it closed because of a power outage.  I was super bummed.  I really wanted to take a class instead of figuring out what exercise to do on my own….
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Spicy Tomato Kale Soup

...by Food Babe

Hi there! I want to share a quick recipe I made tonight that is one of my absolute favorite comforting meals – Spicy Tomato Kale Soup. I can’t even begin to tell you all of the many reasons I love this soup – is it is really easy to make, lasts for a few days, freezes well, can feed a crowd, everyone loves it… I could go on and on.

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I’d like to point out one of the products I used that is fairly new in my pantry – BioNaturae Strained Organic Tomatoes. These tomatoes are certified organic and come in a BPA free glass bottle, which is a major step up from the BPA filled aluminum cans that most tomatoes come in. Also – these tomatoes are SALT FREE! Which means you can add high quality sea salt to your liking. This is a big deal since most of the salt they put in cans of tomatoes is highly processed, bleached and devoid of minerals.

I used Eden Farms brand cannellini beans which is another guaranteed BPA free product, also free of processed salt and certified organic. These beans add a nice creamy texture to the soup once it is pureed. You’ll never miss the cream that most recipes use in a soup like this!

These two products are a must in your pantry! Add them asap so you can make this yummy soup anytime!

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5.0 from 1 reviews

Food Babe’s Spicy Tomato and Kale Soup
 
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Prep time

Cook time

Total time

 

Serves: 6

Ingredients
  • 1 tsp of olive oil
  • 1 white onion chopped
  • 4 carrots peeled and chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • ½ red pepper flakes
  • 1 tbsp fresh rosemary
  • 1 tbsp fresh basil
  • 1 tbsp fresh sage
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 24 ounces of pureed tomatoes
  • 1 quart of vegetable broth
  • 1 can of Eden Farms cannelloni beans strained and rinsed
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 bunch of kale chopped

Instructions
  1. Heat olive oil on medium heat in a large pot
  2. Add onion and carrots and cook for about 4-5 mins
  3. Add garlic next and cook another 2 mins
  4. Add spices, broth, water, and tomatoes to pot and bring to a boil
  5. Once soup is at a boil, reduce to simmer and add beans
  6. Simmer soup for 25 mins
  7. Discard bay leaf and puree soup using a hand blender
  8. Add chopped kale to pureed soup and stir into pot

Notes
Serve with crunchy crackers or a piece of toasted sprouted grain bread. ***Please buy all organic ingredients if possible***

 

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Let me know if you plan on trying the recipe and what you think!

Have a great end of week!

Food Babe

Almost Fat Tuesday

...by Food Babe

Good Evening!  While I am anxiously awaiting my comedy debut on TV tonight – I thought I would blog really quick about what happened today….

Started the morning with Habit #1 and a big cup of green tea.  I also had my Green Vibrance Powder before tackling a session of Insanity in the gym…

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Be Unconventional – Stop Drinking with Your Meals

...by Food Babe

Digestion is super important for health, staying slim, and mental wellbeing.  Without proper digestion many discomforts can be born into the body – indigestion, heart burn, irritability, bloating, lethargy, headaches, insatiable cravings, inability to determine true hunger, and depression.

Now imagine that you are doing something every single day that unknowingly is causing one or more of these symptoms!  Wouldn’t you want to know what that was?

Have you thought about what you drink and how much you drink with your meals?

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When you digest foods without complications, the feelings of happiness, contentment, clarity, optimism, and lightness appear in your body. To maximize those wonderful feelings it is really important to understand how drinking can effect digestion.

When I go out to eat, it’s usually the same old story – The waiter or waitress comes by with a big jug of really cold ice water and serves the table.  This is standard and conventional practice – even if you don’t order a drink, you’ll usually always get a huge glass of ice cold water. Most restaurants across America and elsewhere do this every single day without a second thought. This is the first big mistake for digestion.

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Don’t drink cold water with your meals.

When several studies were published about how consuming cold water increases your metabolism a few years ago, you could literally hear the ice plumping into glasses across the country.  People thought – “Wow, if I just drink cold water all day, I can lose weight!” – well this bit of wisdom is a double edged sword. While drinking cold water does speed up your metabolism (about 4 extra calories per 8 ounces of water), it does so by using energy to heat up the cold water to body temperature. This diverts energy that should be used for digestion.  When you are eating, you want all your energy directed at breaking down food so your body can easily assimilate the nutrients and eliminate waste. When you have bad digestion – you could actually gain weight in the long run, because toxins can be built up in your digestive organs which can inhibit the bodies ability to breakdown fat, cause insatiable cravings and mess with your body’s ability to determine if you are full or not.

The second big mistake I see – is people getting refill after refill of liquids while eating.  Using the liquids to literally aid in gulping down huge amounts of inadequately chewed foods. Sometimes, drinking the equivalent of 24 ounces of liquid during the meal.

Don’t drink liquids with your meals.

Drinking liquids during your meal dilutes your naturally occurring digestive enzymes and stomach acids which makes it harder to breakdown food. Stomach acids are dissipated with the act of consumings liquids with solids because water is excreted faster than solids.   If you are chewing adequately (creating saliva), you should be able to eat comfortably without lots of liquids.  Allow your saliva to naturally help you swallow your food.

Drink water or other liquids 20 mins before you consume food and wait at least an hour after.

Focus on hydrating yourself between meals vs. during. You’ll still be adequately hydrated throughout the day with this method and allow your food to be digested without complicating matters for your stomach and intestines.

If you must drink with your meals, sip on a warm beverage.

Good options are room temperature water with lemon or herbal tea – the temperature will be closer to your body’s normal heat and ease digestion vs disrupting it. Ginger is my favorite type of tea to drink with or after meals because it naturally moves food from the upper part of the digestive tract into the lower. At home I just cut up a few pieces of fresh ginger and pour hot water over it.  On the go, I always carry these tea bags with me… When we were in Asia last summer, ginger tea was a standard on menus – I wish all restaurants here had it available too. (Yogi, Numi, and Traditional Medicinals are my favorite digestive teas.)

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I can’t wait until our eating rituals here in the modern world start to better align with healthy and nutritious practices of eastern medicine which these principles are founded.

You have the power – Be unconventional and you just may start a trend to drinking more thoughtfully and healthfully.

I’d love to hear your feedback on this topic. Do you know someone who could improve their digestion by following this habit? If so, please share this information with them. Are you guilty of guzzling down your food with big glasses of water? Don’t feel bad and don’t be shy, I used to a long time ago too.

Here’s to drinking thoughtfully all week long!

Food Babe

Crazy Late Eats – Filming at the Comedy Zone

...by Food Babe

Hope everyone’s been having a fantastic week –  This week has been busy busy busy and has just flown by! It’s Friday tomorrow, but I am going to be just as busy, if not busier than I have the last few days.  Lot’s of big plans! – it’s gonna be a doozy! Good thing I have Monday off to recover!  Thank you George Washington and Happy Birthday!

I started the day yesterday with Habit #1, an hour long workout and some juice made from these Dandelion Greens. Rotating your greens is so important!  I try to rotate out between different types of kale, collards, rainbow chard, dandelion, parsley and cilantro every single week.  I just buy different ones every week, mix and match or buy whatever is the most fresh and go for that…When you juice them they all taste very similar to each other, especially when you add celery, cucumber, lemon, ginger and garlic almost every time like we do.

I followed up the juice with my “bird seed cocktail” as coined by one of my co-workers… Some protein powder mixed with chia seeds.

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For lunch, I met an old friend and mentor from earlier in my career – he’s kinda famous on wall street and crazy smart.   We went to Halcyon Flavors from the Earth and lunch was so perfect. I haven’t had chicken in SOOOOOOO long – it’s been months!… This little piece was so cute and perfectly sized – probably about 3-4 ounces of meat.  It was from a local farm (no growth hormones! no antibiotics!) and served on top of wilted kale and farro.  The original dish has creamed kale, but the chef at Halcyon was happy to accommodate special requests. I love this!  Yeah for being flexible for the health conscience!

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Back at my desk, I grabbed a few organic figs and almonds out of my drawer to snack on.  This is my favorite snack right now.  I’m addicted.

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In the afternoon, I worked the rest of the day from home, where I drank some more juice to power me through a few tasks that had to get done.

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I ate dinner while working too – a large arugula salad with TruRoots Sprouted Lentils and chomped down on some Mary’s Gone Crackers.  The lentils are incredibly easy to make because they are already sprouted – 5 mins and you have a really awesome source of fiber and protein – the perfect topping to salads. They are available on the Food Babe Shop if you can’t find them at your local grocery store.

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For dessert I had some new cookies I created this week with raw cacao… they turned out great, but were way better with Coconut Bliss!

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After dessert – I headed straight to the NC Music Factory – To get ready for filming at The Comedy Zone.  This week I was asked to be a featured guest in Crazy Late with Johnny Millwater – It’s a local late night comedy show similar to David Letterman or Jay Leno… I thought this advertisement was quite hilarious.  I love my title here – Blogger and Chef… so funny.

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When I got to the show, they quickly escorted me to the green room, where I was pleasantly surprised by the big bowl of fruit and some other vegetarian options. I stayed far far away from that gallon of crazy neon liquid!  (Johnny – that’s made from those mutant foods I told you about in my interview!)

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I loved the fact that the regular menu at the Comedy Zone has two different organic salads available to choose from – This was no joke!

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Getting my makeup highlighted by the lovely Lenore Cuyler – One of the things I hate most in the world is getting ready for big events – I get so crazy stressed out! Having Lenore there to do my makeup and refluff my hair was really incredible!  No stress…. no worries…. just look at my smile!

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Waiting patiently “backstage” for my queue….

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I was interviewed by Johnny – he asked me some interesting questions… I had a lot of fun answering them and hope to share the clip with you here once it airs live next week on Monday at 11:30pm here in Charlotte – Check your listings!

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At the end of the show, all of the acts came on stage at once, waved and clapped goodbye to the cameras – I felt like I was on Saturday Night Live!   All of the people who worked to put the show on were incredibly nice and so much fun to work with!  Johnny, himself was so humble and appreciative.  The funniest act of the night was a toss up between the Funky Geezer and Lyndel… Can’t wait to watch them again on TV.

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Before we left, I caught the lead singer of the house band stealing a banana from the green room.  Smart man, I tell ya.

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After the show, we were feeling a little snacky and wanted to decompress a little before heading home…we went across the street to check out the new restaurant Osso owned by the same people who own Blue uptown… The restaurant was absolutely gorgeous!  The interiors are breathtaking!  I can’t wait to go back and have a real meal…

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My husband and I shared the Arugula Pizza (my half without Prosciutto). Please note – the crust was made in house from unbleached flour and the cheese was imported raw aged fontina from Italy! … pretty neat, eh? I had about two pieces with a cup of ginger tea – a perfect way to end the night…

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Don’t you love when restaurants tell you what’s in your food and where it came from!?!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and lots of good real food eats!

XOXO,

Food Babe

P.S. Thank you to everyone at ‘Crazy Late’  for this fun opportunity and to my husband, brother in law (not pictured), Allen, Amy, Nicole and Tom for cheering me on! Your love and support is amazing!

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