French Food Makes Me Happy

Some of my favorite meals are French. You might be wondering how French food equates to healthy living, but it makes me happy and happiness is definitely congruent with health. Now I'm certainly no Julia Child or even Julie the blogger, but I can appreciate the simple, yet bold flavors of French cooking. The French have mastered the art of finishing an indulgent meal with a fresh, crispy green salad and a creamy bite of cheese so you're divinely full, yet you don't feel like you've overeaten.

One of my household staples is a classic French vinaigrette that I learned to make 1,000 years ago while "studying" in France. My daughter won't even eat salad without this dressing. The key is to make it in your wooden salad spoon, whisk it together in the bottom of the salad bowl, place the fresh greens on top and have the man in the house toss it when you're ready to eat it. This is always the man's job in France.

Classic French Vinaigrette

Place a small dollop of Dijon mustard 

on your wooden salad spoon. 

Add a pinch of kosher salt and red wine 

vinegar to fill 3/4 of the spoon. 

Whisk together with a fork. 

Pour mixture into a salad bowl. 

Add one finely chopped shallot.

Add 3 spoonfuls of vegetable oil 
(fill the wooden spoon 3/4 full just like the vinegar)

and whisk with a fork.

Toss with greens when ready to eat.

Basically, the dressing is 3 parts oil, 1 part vinegar

Another classic dish in my house is chicken and wine. I might like this one so much because you have to open a bottle of good red wine and I hate to let any go to waste.  This is my simple version of coq au vin.

Chicken & Wine

1 1/2 lbs of bone-in chicken breasts

1 onion chopped

1 cup of baby carrots sliced lengthwise

1 cup of chopped celery

3 cups of chicken broth

1 cup of good red wine

1 piece of apple wood smoked bacon

1 tbsp olive oil

kosher salt, pepper

bunch of thyme/rosemary sprigs tied together

Rub chicken with salt & pepper on both sides. Brown the chicken breasts in olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot on medium, high heat with the piece of bacon (approx. 5 min. on each side). Remove chicken and discard bacon. Add onion, celery and carrots. Cook for 5-10 minutes on medium heat.  Add chicken back to pot, red wine, chicken broth, herbs, salt & pepper.  Bring to a simmer and cover for 1 1/2 hours.  Shred chicken and add it back to the pot. Add salt to taste. Serve over rice.

I absolutely love the flavors of a savory raclette. I prefer using Gruyere cheese and making a sort-of fondue for spreading on the bread. The cheese works best if you can keep it warm.

Simple Raclette Recipe

6-8 baby potatoes
8 oz. gruyere cheese
1 jar of cornichon pickles
4 slices of thick cut ham cut into 
2 inch squares
1/4 cup white wine
2 garlic cloves chopped
1 shallot chopped
1 tbsp butter
loaf of french bread sliced on an angle

Boil potatoes (don't over-cook), quarter. While potatoes are cooking, melt butter in cast iron skillet and cook shallots for 1-2 minutes on medium heat, add chopped garlic, cook for 1 minute.  Add shredded cheese, cook until it melts stirring constantly. Whisk in white wine and cook for 1-2 minutes. Keep cheese mixture warm on very low heat, stirring often.  Make your own raclette by spreading cheese on bread, top with a piece of ham, potato and pickle. Yum!

What's your favorite French meal?
Bon Appetit!

For the Love of Biking

What do you get when you fuse smashing music, interval training, sprints, hill climbs, epic mountain climbs and non judgemental camaraderie for one hour?  An astounding workout, of course, topped with a good dash of mental therapy.  RPM™ is an intense indoor cycling class formulated by New Zealand based, LES MILLS™. I've taken my fair share of stationary bike classes in the past, but there's no going back once you've experienced RPM™.


The brilliance of RPM™ is in the unequivocal, rhythmic program lead by highly trained instructors.  I love the certainty that I'm going to get an excellent workout every time I attend a class.  There's something comforting in knowing, for example, that Track 5 is always interval training or that Track 7 is consistently a challenging mountain climb. Don't get me wrong, it's never monotonous. The upbeat and methodical music is the central component to the class which boasts perfectly timed choreography.  LES MILLS™ introduces new music to the mix every three months, so the workout always stays fresh.


"RPM's™ benefits are innumerable," says Tamara Pitard and Linda McShane,  RPM™ instructors and fitness gurus at Lynne Brick's in Baltimore, MD. "It provides you with a platform to train for anything from a marathon, mountain bike race to a triathlon.  You can tailor your own workout, since you control the intensity.  We have people that come to class to just lose weight, while others are more concerned about increasing their VO2 max. Whatever you need, RPM™ can deliver."

For me, RPM's™ intensity allows me to stay in shape by burning 500-900 calories in just under an hour. I would say, "that's a good bang for your buck."  I absolutely love being able to squeeze that much intensity into such a short amount of time.  RPM™ has become my time to decompress and get lost in the rhythms, comforting patterns and instructor guided imagery.  Where else can you beat Lance Armstrong on a mountain climb or Tyler Hamilton in a time trial?  Go ahead, get on a bike, even if it's stationary!
    

DIY Beauty Treatments

I had to smile as I was cleaning a splattered cocoa concoction from my bathroom sink, floor and walls that I dutifully share with my three daughters (aka--"The Female Zone"). I realized that this is what you get when your mom's a wanna-be alchemist. My girls have seen me creating food elixirs in my kitchen since they were little. It's to be expected that they would want to try a little skin alchemy on their own; and you should too.

In the past, women would turn to their kitchen when they wanted to look their best. The kitchen offers an array of natural, inexpensive ingredients such as rolled oats, honey and milk that can revitalize skin and hair. There are some amazing, simple recipes that can be whipped up in minutes and have been used for centuries.

Here are some of my favorites:

Foaming Hot Chocolate Milk Bath
(Cleopatra would have loved this one)

Soak in this delicious milk bath to soothe and soften your skin. Heat 3 tablespoons of dry bath mix with 1/2 cup water and two tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and bring to a boil.  Add the hot mixture to bath water while the tub is filling.

1 cup of instant dry milk

1 cup unsweeted cocoa powder

1 cup baking soda

2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 tablespoons cream of tartar

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Combine all the ingredients in a covered jar. Keeps for up to 6 months.

Rejuvenating Hair Mask

Apply this mask to hair and cover with plastic wrap for 15 to 30 minutes.  Rinse thoroughly with warm water and shampoo as usual.

1 banana

3 tablespoons mayonaise

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

Mash the banana in a small bowl until completely smooth.  Add mayonaise and oil and blend until creamy. Use immediately.

Moisturizing Avocado 

& Honey Face Pack

Apply this mixture to your face for 10 minutes.  Gently remove with cool water.

1 ripe avocado

2 teaspoons plain yogurt

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon raw honey (I love the Trader Joe's raw honey)

Place all ingredients in a medium bowl and mash into a paste using a fork.  Chill for 30 minutes and use immediately.

Clarifying Lemon Facial Toner

Smooth toner over face with a cotton ball to help even out skin tone.

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

grated zest of 1 lemon

2/3 cup witch hazel

Combine all ingredients in a clear bottle and seal.  Shake well before use.  Keeps for a month in the fridge.

Stock up on some glass canning jars and bottles to store your treatments and make sure you refrigerate your leftovers.  Bon Appetit! For the skin, of course. 

The Lunch Box Debacle

    Are you the lucky chef in your house who prepares the kid's lunch boxes in the morning? If so, I feel your pain. It's a mystery to me; food goes out nicely packaged and loaded with hugs and kisses and sometimes returns untouched . On the other hand, there are days when the box returns empty. Hmmmm. Enter my frustration. I'll say, "I thought you liked peanut butter and jelly." The answers range from, "I do, but I wasn't in the mood for it" or "no, I don't like it anymore," or better yet, "I don't like sandwiches anymore."  I'm perplexed. Do I ditch my only sandwich option or change my marketing tactics?  

The tricky thing here is that this is only kid #1, I've got two other units to please. In the grand scheme of picky, my kids aren't afraid of a little fruit and don't have an aversion to green food, but they all have ridiculously different palates. I do pride myself in unmodified dinners for the family. One meal for all and all for one meal. No one is going to starve, and there's always cereal. For some reason, though, when you release your kids to the institution formally known as school; more commonly called the school house with learning cottages, the rules change. You've lost your fastidious control as the healthy food pusher.

There's hope, though. I could dive in with Jamie Oliver and the bunch to address the problem of unhealthy school lunches. It's on my list, but in the mean time I'm fighting my own food revolution on the home front.  I think one of the keys to a successful lunch box is to go tapas style--small portions and lots of variety. This can seem labor-intensive prior to a cup of coffee in the morning, but after caffeine, manageable with the right supplies. This week I'm experimenting. Simple, no fuss lunches with variety. I should mention that I refuse to cut sandwiches into cute shapes with cookie cutters or put faces on things that shouldn't have faces. Day one looked like this:

Lunch #1: Homemade lunchable-- sliced cheddar cheese, whole grain crackers, piece of uncured ham, pickle. Granola. Strawberries. 2 Cookies. 

Lunch #2: Bagel with cream cheese. I like Trader Joe's Spinoza bagels with 9 grams of protein. Aside from being high protein, the packaging states that it "Bagels Your Mind", which confirms that someone at Trader Joe's is over educated, underpaid, and still manages to have a sense of humor about his/her situation,  yogurt tube--frozen, apple--cut in two halves, put back together and tightly wrapped in plastic wrap so it won't go brown, baby carrots and dip.

Lunch #3: Veggie wrap with yogurt dip, red pepper, lettuce and cucumber, cheese crackers, vanilla yogurt, small milk chocolate bar.

The aftermath wasn't too bad. Most containers returned empty, bagel half eaten, carrots half eaten. Chocolate and cookies, gone.  I've had to put post-it notes on the sweets to remind them to "eat last." Which I'm sure they completely ignore, but it makes me feel better. I think a little sweet treat in the lunch box gets more eaten in the long run. Good friend and personal chef, Maureen Kramer of Baltimore Biscuit Company suggests offering up some healthy oatmeal cookies or homemade granola to jazz up the lunch box monotony.

Maureen’s Granola 


Ingredients:

10 cups rolled oats,1 cup dried milk, 6 cups nuts (any combination of raw almonds, walnut, pecans, cashews), 5 cups dried, unsweetened coconut flakes, 3 tsp. salt, 2 egg whites, ½ cup vegetable oil,1 cup honey, 3 tsp. vanilla, 2-3 cups golden raisins (add after baking). Heat oven to 275 degrees



Method:

1. Combine dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

2. Add wet ingredients. Hint: add the oil first then pour the honey in that cup. Mix thoroughly.

3. Put it in pans 1-3 inches thick and bake.

4. Use a spatula to turn it every five minutes or so. Like cookies, it’s best to take it out before it seems done. When it feels hot to the touch and is a light golden brown, it’s ready.

5. Add golden raisins.


Chocolate-Laced Oatmeal Cookies

Heart-healthy oats are peppered with bittersweet dark chocolate chips to make these crisp calorie-conscious cookies.

Ingredients:

Olive oil cooking spray, 1 ¼ cups quick-cook old-fashioned oats, ½ cup whole
wheat pastry flour, 2 tsp flaxseed meal, 1 tsp cinnamon, ground, ½ tsp baking
powder, ¼ tsp sea salt, ½ cup agave nectar, 1 large egg white, 2 tsp unsalted
almond butter, 1 tsp pure vanilla extract, ¼ cup dark bittersweet chocolate chips
(about 40 grams)

Method: 


1. Preheat oven to 350°F and lightly spray 2 baking sheets with cooking spray.


2. In a large mixing bowl, combine oats, flour, flaxseed meal, cinnamon, baking powder and salt.


3. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together agave, egg white, almond butter and vanilla.


4. Add egg mixture to dry ingredients all at once and combine. Stir in chocolate chips.


5. Divide batter equally into 16 mounds (about 1 rounded tbsp in size) and arrange evenly spaced on prepared baking sheets. Using the back of a slightly dampened spoon, flatten each mound into 2 ½-inch circles. Bake 9 to 10 minutes, until golden. Cool on sheets for an additional 10 minutes before transferring to racks to cool completely. Stored in an airtight container, cookies will keep fresh for 2 to 3 days.

I'm sure you're thinking, is she really blogging about this? This is nothing new. Sometimes, though, just hearing what other people are doing may spark an idea for you. I had to snicker the other day when I read an article about two chefs who couldn't get their kids to eat anything other than standard kid fare. Just hearing this makes me feel better and reminds me of an excellent cookbook idea I've had rattling around my head. The cookbook features two staple, kid-friendly meals from each one of my friends. Bingo, we all have some new recipes to shake things up at the dinner table. Unfortunately, that one hasn't even made it on the list, so in the mean time here are some yummy, kid-approved lunch box recipes:

Wraps seem to be working in our house. 


Some of my favorites:

• Peanut butter, nutella and banana
• Veggie--spread tortilla with yogurt dip or hummus, add lettuce, red pepper strips, cucumber or what ever your kids like.
• Loaded Chicken Salad--cook two chicken breasts and shred, add 1/4 cup mayo, 1 apple cubed, 1/4 cup dried cranberries, 1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds. 

I'm also a big fan of yogurt in all forms. My kids enjoy yogurt parfaits on the weekends, so I sometimes make them a lunch box parfait for school.

• Lunch box parfait--vanilla or Trader Joe's vanana yogurt in a small container with frozen blueberries or strawberries. Pack some granola in a separate container to mix in. 

I find that having lots of small plastic containers on hand makes lunches easier to prepare and more eco-friendly. Another great option is to purchase a bento box style lunch box. I absolutely love these biodegradable lunch boxes from Goodbyn™ . I always get a tinge of green guilt when I use those pesky plastic baggies, so you could consider the reusable bags, if you don't want to buy a new lunch box. There's a great shop on Etsy, Bleuroo, that makes adorable embroidered and personalized reusable snack bags. 


Happy preparations!

Is your Drinking Water Safe?

I'm not a doctor or a scientist, but I've always suspected the danger of added fluoride to our drinking water. I'm always a little suspicious when chemicals are forced on me, and usually rightfully so.  In this case, most municipal water suppliers have been adding fluoride to our drinking water since the 1940s in order to help "prevent" tooth decay. Unfortunately, over exposure to this potent neurotoxin can lead to health problems such as lowered IQ, thyroid issues and surprise, surprise, cancer.  Sadly, there are several studies showing that the ingestion of fluoride doesn't improve cavity prevention. I can guarantee, though, that is has put millions of dollars in the pocket of its manufacturer, Dow.  


Although, he's a bit of an alarmist, here's what Dr. Mercola has to say:

"The conventional wisdom has been that topical application of fluoride can help strengthen your enamel and help prevent decay. If that's untrue, then the case against water fluoridation—the ingestion of fluoride—becomes even stronger than it ever was before.

There's just no doubt that ingesting fluoride has no beneficial effect on your teeth. In fact, there's overwhelming evidence indicating that fluoride is a potent toxin that can cause a wide array of severe health problems once ingested.

When evaluating the issue of water fluoridation it is also important to understand that fluoride is a drug. You can't get fluoride without a prescription. Yet it's being added to your water supply on a mandatory basis at various levels that may or may not be safe for various individuals, especially children, the sick, and the elderly. Water fluoridation is a major assault on your freedom of choice – to be drugged or not.

Sodium fluoride, which is a far simpler toxin than the fluoride compounds used for most water fluoridation, has also been used for rat and cockroach poisons, so there is no question that it is highly toxic.

Amazingly, the United States is only one of eight countries in the entire developed world that fluoridates more than 50 percent of its water supply. (The other seven are: Australia, Colombia, Ireland, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore.) In Europe, Ireland is the only country that fluoridates more than 50 percent of its drinking water, and England fluoridates 10 percent. Most of mainland Europe is not fluoridated, and yet, according to World Health Organization data, their teeth are just as good, if not better than Americans'."

Read the full article here: Does Fluoride Really Fight Cavities

All this talk about chemicals in our water made me curious about mine. After a little digging, I found this great database through Environmental Working Group that gives water reports for many cities in the U.S. and helps you find water filters to eliminate specific chemicals.  EWG Tap Water Report

You can also check out the widget on my sidebar and enter your zip code to get your EWG water report. Of course, this report doesn't have fluoride listed for some reason. I did find that Baltimore City's fluoride average is .9 ppm (parts per million), which is just above the new Health and Human Services proposed maximum limit of .7 ppm. Here's a link to Baltimore City's most recent water report: Baltimore City Water Report

Unfortunately, most water filters, except for reverse osmosis systems, don't remove fluoride, so we're basically stuck with it until the levels are reduced or eliminated by the government. 

In a nutshell:

• It is recommended that you filter your water to help reduce chemical contaminants. Don't forget to cook and make coffee with this water too. It appears that carbon block filters are more effective than the granulated activated carbon. Ideally, a reverse osmosis filter is the best, but they are expensive and a major pain to change (I've learned this from personal experience). This one seems pretty good after looking at Baltimore's contaminants: Clear 2O Water Pitcher

• If you're on-the-go, carry a safe, re-usable water bottle. Hard plastic bottles (#7 plastic) can leach a harmful plastics chemical called bisphenol A (BPA) into water. Carry stainless steel or other BPA-free bottles. Don’t reuse bottled water bottles. The plastic can harbor bacteria and break down to release plastics chemicals.

Blend It

We've had many discussions in our household over the years about having a liquid diet.  I'm not talking about coffee and beer here. Although, I know that's what you were thinking.  In our cottage, as in most, we struggle with ways to eat all of our fruits and veggies.  We're reminded constantly about the benefits and pure need for our bodies to ingest 7-10 servings a day.  That being said, it's not easy.  My father always said he had to retire in order to eat all of his fruits and veggies and drink his daily allotted water.  He's right, in a sense, it's hard to fit it all in. I'm lucky if I floss once a week and I snicker when the dentist tilts his head with that mask on and says in a muffled voice, "are you flossing every day?" I usually reply, "no, I'm lucky I showered today", and that's true!  


We're all busy and need to find a balance in our lives to keep ourselves healthy.  Regular exercise and a healthy diet are so important, and if you're one of the lucky ones, flossing.  With fruits and vegetables, an easy rule to follow is eat the rainbow.  Of course, if there was a pot of chocolate at the bottom we would have an easier time following through.  Fortunately, I am back as a proud blender owner. My brief 3 month hiatus due to an attempt to remedy my leaking blender was a huge waste of time.  Good old, "Fifty Years of Quality", Waring, has not redeemed themselves. I've moved on and am back in the smoothie-making saddle. Here's the great thing about smoothies, fruit contains just as many nutrients as vegetables, and tastes better too. So, you could go on a liquid diet with a good old fashioned blender. At least you can squeeze part of rainbow into a good blender drink.  Cheers!


Here are a few of my favorites:


High Protein Peanut Butter Banana

• 1/2 cup low fat milk
• 1/2 cup 2% greek yogurt (I prefer this yogurt since it's higher in protein)
• 1 tbsp creamy peanut butter
• 1 tsp honey (go for raw honey if you can)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 banana

Kid's Favorite

• 1 banana
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
• 1/2 cup of Trader Joe's vanana yogurt (yes, vanana)
• 1 carrot
• orange juice (pour enough to cover the other ingredients) 

Tamara's Early Morning Energy Smoothie

• 1 cup low fat milk
• 1 tbsp instant espresso powder
• 1/4 cup creamy natural peanut butter 
• 1 frozen banana
• optional--1 scoop of protein powder

Ditch the Scented Candles

As the holiday season swiftly approaches, I was thinking "didn't we just do this?" Did I actually say that? What I meant to say is, "ditch the scented candles."  Once again, I'm not an expert here, but it doesn't take an expert to know that something is wrong when you get a splitting headache after walking past the Yankee Candle shop. Now to put things into perspective, I am a bit sensitive, some might even say neurotic. I'll stick with sensitive.  However you want to slice it, maybe my neurosis is like the canary in the coal mine; a good litmus test for all things bad. Fragrance oil scented candles are nasty little pillars of wax. I admit, some of them do smell good.  It's hard to get a natural candle that smells like fresh baked cookies. There's a price, though.  Did you know that fragrance oils consist of hundreds of synthetic chemicals. As stated in one article, "95% of the chemicals found in these oils are synthetic compounds derived from petroleum, and include chemicals such as benzene derivatives, aldehydes, and others capable causing cancer, birth defects, central nervous system disorders and allergic reactions."


In an effort to have a healthy home, eliminating fragrance oil scented candles makes sense. Who knows, you might get wild and crazy and eliminate scented laundry detergent and bath and beauty products too. There is an alternative to synthetic fragrance oils. You can make sure to buy products that contain essential oils. These are oils that are mostly steam distilled from plants and flowers to create a very intense, pure oil. When used correctly, these oils can smell amazing and actually have therapeutic and medicinal benefits. Fortunately, I have an addiction to Etsy and was able to locate a soy candle maker who sticks with essential oils only. I also love that they are eco-friendly! Happy shopping...