Best Power Meal!

Quick and Healthy Weeknight Dinner

This is probably not new to most people but a recent discovery to me and I love it! As a working mom, quick meals and healthy are essential!

Here is how it goes:

Veggie Burger! - your favorite recipe or frozen if needing fast. Fry an egg over easy and place on top. Cut up a whole avocado and some tomatoes! Bam! Filling and healthy!

Easy and Affordable!

Pink Slime??? What is this, Nickelodean!

Maybe instead of buying a ton of unnecessary products, buy less or you could be eating the pink monster.


70% of Beef in Supermarkets Contain Pink Slime

My Fathers Daughter - Gwyneth Paltrow

Those close to me know my love for Gwyneth! I personally think she is amazing. Her journey through self discovery has been both public and personal. I am a HUGE fan of her blog, Goop. Gwyneth lives a healthy lifestyle, eating a healthy diet, exercise (with Tracy Anderson) and so on. Watching her father go through pancreatic cancer was another catalyst to her speaking out more about healthy eating.  I loved watching her food journey on Spain on the Road Again, feeling as if I was getting to know her and when she announced her cookbook I was the first person in line to buy it! She has put together a wonderful cookbook with options for vegetarian, vegan, kid-friendly, etc. I seriously just love this woman!

While I like everything in this cookbook here are few highlights from "My Fathers Daughter" and "Spain on the Road Again"

Gwyneth Paltrow's Horchata Recipe

Serves 2
1 cup blanched whole almonds, soaked overnight in 2 cups cold water
1 vanilla bean, split
1/4 cup of sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Cayenne pepper
2 cinnamon sticks

Put the almonds and their soaking water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth.  Strain through a very fine strainer (discard the solids), and pour the almond milk back into the clean blender. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them to the blender, along with sugar and ground cinnamon; blend well. Pour into two glasses, sprinkle with cayenne, and garnish with cinnamon sticks.

copied from: Spain: A Culinary Road Trip by Mario Batali with Gwyneth Paltrow. HarperCollins. 2008.

Gwyneth Paltrow's No-Fry Fries!

• 2 large russet potatoes (2/3 lb each), peeled
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt

1. Heat oven to 450°. Cut potatoes in half horizontally; cut each half into 1/3-inch-thick fries and place in a bowl of cold water. Remove from water and dry thoroughly. Toss with oil and sprinkle with salt. Place fries on a cookie sheet. Roast until browned and cooked through, turning occasionally, 25 minutes.

175 calories per serving, 7 g fat (1 g saturated), 27 g carbs, 2 g fiber, 3 g protein
copied from: My Fathers Daughter by Gwyneth Paltrow. HarperCollins. 2010.

I love reading cookbooks...they are my novels! This one is a must buy for the bookshelf!

Here is the link to Amazon: My Fathers Daughter

Forks Over Knives and Rambling Thoughts

I recently went to see Forks Over Knives at Whole Foods with my good friend Malini.  It was a great movie and I recommend everyone to watch it. As someone who is avidly striving to live a healthy lifestyle, I am open to differenct opinions in regards to what we put in out bodies.  There are so many diets out there right now;

• The Paleo Diet
• The Blood Type Diet
• Dr. Dean Ornish Diet - I actually did this one and it worked! Hard to sustain but good.
• Plant-Based Diet 
• Vegetarian Diet

I could go on and on because I haven't even spoken about the famous 10 Diets. I swear if you look hard enough there is a ton of stuff written and successful in regards how to eat to live. I do believe it is personal to everyone and what works for each individual person.

I am attaching a link about Forks Over Knives and I appreciated the approach on the whole foods, plant-based diet. I do think that we have become lazy as a society as we need immediate gratification on everything, including food.  If both parents are working, kids are in sports, school, etc. it can be difficult. I mean let's face it, there are very few families that have time. I think it is great that everyone is writing all these books but nobody is helping/teaching people HOW to do it.  These authors are showing people recipes and exercise but we are asking people to change habits and that can take a lot of work.  We need to teach people HOW and make it EASY for them and people will change.  There will be a time when Lays Potato Chips will be $5 a bag and broccoli .79 cents. Jeremy and I have incorporated this philosophy into our weekly diet for years and have invested a lot of time and money into living this way (sidenote from Jeremy: he loves Lay's Sour Cream & Onion Potato Chips and hopes they never reach $5 a bag!). 

While I believe very strongly after reading about plant based-whole food diets, I also believe that animal protein is good in moderation AND it depends how that animal lived (but that is my personal opinion).  I know it can be expensive to shop for groceries at specialty shops but if you are going to the Wal-Marts and Sams Clubs you probably are eating factory farmed meat, make sure to get organic soy products, as most commercial soy beans today are genetically engineered to feed cows.mass-produced food that has a lot of chemicals in it. I eat a steak every once in awhile but the cow is grass fed. I will eat chicken from Jodar Farms or soon to be my own chickens, I think that you get my point.

Being a gardener, chicken farmer and huge supporter of eating local. I am a HUGE Joel Salatin fan and believe we can eat healthy as long as we know what we are putting in our bodies and where our food comes from. It can take a lot of work, investing in your groceries is like investing in stock. Here are a few things I do in my daily life:

• Be smart about how you shop.  
• Read labels. 
• Read cookbooks 
• Know your meat/fish (if you choose to eat meat). How did that animal live? How was this fish caught?
• If  you are going to be a vegetarian/vegan, take a cooking class and learn new and fun ways to make different types of food. Indian and Asian foods are super good and have a lot of vegan/vegetarian options. I am especially on a kick learning to make Indian food!

Here are some fun reading materials to check out that Jeremy and I have enjoyed:

• Feeding the Whole Family - I purchased this book a year or so ago and enjoy the recipes
• The China Study
• Animal, Vegetable Miracle
• Omnivore's Dilemma
• Farm City - This is just a cute fun read
• McDougall Quick and Easy Cookbook  - great cookbook
• Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World 
• The Backyard Homestead

I have also been loving my IPhone and my new favorite app is "How to Eat Everything Vegetarian" by Mark Bittman! Seriously just plug stuff in and WHAM! You have yourself a meal. 

Peace and Love

Sarah Is A Fan!

I discovered this sweet treat at Whole Foods and love it! It taste so creamy and flavorful! I especially think it would taste super yummy frozen!