RECIPE - Barley, Carrot and Mushroom Soup

Here's a healthy soup/stew if anyone is interested. I broke down the calories and for a one cup serving it's about 150 calories. To bring the sodium level down, use low sodium chicken broth or use 1/2 chicken broth and 1/2 water.

1 tablespoon butter/margarine

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or olive oil)

1 pound mushrooms, sliced

1 cup chopped yellow onion

1/2 cup chopped red pepper

2 carrots chopped

4-5 cups chicken broth 

1/3 cup pearl barley (rinsed) (NOTE: sounds like a small amount of barley but it puffs up; also barley is a higher calorie grain so don't overindulge with the amount; as for the rinsing of it, I usually skip this because it's a pain in the butt)

1 tablespoon red vinegar

5 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 teaspoon salt (optional)

ground pepper to taste

In a large soup pot over medium heat, melt butter with oil. Add mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, and carrots. Saute until tender, about 7 minutes. Add stock, barley, and vinegar. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered, until barley is tender, about 25-30 minutes. Add spinach, salt (optional), and pepper and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

RECIPE - Brown rice, cauliflower, raisin, & cashew salad

Makes 8 servings; 151 calories per serving; 5 g protein, 19 g carbohydrates, 7 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 78 mg sodium, 4 g dietary fiber.

- 1 medium head cauliflower, cored and split into small florets

- Olive oil for coating florets, plus 1-1/2 tablespoons

- Salt

- 1 tsp ground cumin

- 1 tsp turmeric

- 1-1/4 cup unprocessed brown rice (Lundberg Wehani from Whole Foods is suggested and you can also use red rice)

- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped unroasted, unsalted cashews

- 1/3 cup seedless dark raisins

- 1/3 cup dried apricots, diced

- 1/3 cup coarsely chopped cilantro (or more)

- ¼ to 1/3 cup coarsely chopped mint (or more)

- Juice of ½ lemon (or more)

- Pepper

Put oven rack on upper level and preheat over to 450 degrees.

In large bowl, toss cauliflower florets with just enough olive oil to coat. Season with salt. Dust florets with cumin and turmeric. Spread on rimmed baking sheet and roast for 25 minutes, turning florets once or twice to prevent burning. Let cool.

Make rice according to package directions. Let cool.

In a large bowl combine the florets, rice, cashews, raisins, apricots, cilantro and mint. Add the lemon juice and the remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons of olive oil (optional). Pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature.

Something to look forward to

I am so excited for you because you have something very special to look forward to. Something that will take place without you realizing it, and then when it does hit you upside the head, you will marvel at your good fortune.

It's the friendships that you will make during the 12-week-program. And my dear pal Kelly Rota-Autry reminded me of this yesterday when she shared her new blog address with me. Simple enough, right, all she did was share a blog address?  Reading her new blog reminded me of how much I loved reading her old blog when she and I were BTWG recruits....and it reminded me how our friendship developed over the course of BTWG...first, at the fitness test where my view during the 1-one test run was Kelly's backside as she paced us, later as we analyzed what we shared on our blogs and challenged ourselves to view things differently. The friendship grew stronger during the mid-point of the program as we encouraged one another through unforeseen food, work, family and workout challenges, until it arrived at what it is today - a full-fledged friendship that will last a lifetime, based on acceptance, wellness, respectful candidness, and appreciation of each other's quirks, talents, and opportunities for improvement. Good stuff....all because we signed up to participate in this one little program called BTWG. Ain't life funny bringing together two Jersey girls who ended up in the midwest?


Blog on, people!    (PS - Kelly's new blog address is http://kellybtwg2011.blogspot.com/ )

Thinking of you on Day One

I'll be thinking of you all tomorrow on Day One of BTWG. Remember that Day One and the subsequent days are not about deprivation; it's about the wonderful addition of wellness and balance and health and peace and priority to your life.

So, start flinging open closed doors. Begin peeking into dark corners. Walk up to the edge to get a better view.

And, be sure to pat yourself on the back this week each and every time you are good to yourself! We kick ourselves in the butt so often over food and exercise that it's important you start commending yourself when you treat yourself well.

HAVE A FANTASTIC WEEK BEING GOOD TO YOURSELVES!

RECIPE - Fatoosh Salad

For those who like crunch in their food and want a break from lettuce, here's a simple and delicious salad.

- 1 cup cucumber, diced (I use baby cukes)

- 1 cup tomatoes, diced

- 1/4 cup onion, diced

- mint leaves diced (or you can use dried mint leaves) - to taste but more is better

- juice of lemon, about 4-5 tablespoons

- 2 tsp of olive oil

- 1 Arnold Select Multigrain bread round or other thin multigrain bread - toasted

Combine veggies and mint. Mix lemon juice and oil and add to veggies. Stir well. Separate bread round into 2 pieces and toast. Cut bread into small pieces. Add to veggies and eat immediately.

RECIPE - Roasted Mushrooms

Clean and trim mushrooms of all varieties you like. Cut larger mushrooms in half, leave smaller ones whole. Toss with olive oil, pepper, and salt.

Spread on a baking sheet and roast at 400-450 degrees for 10-15 minutes, mixing them at least once during the roast. Eat warm or cold. Add to soups, salads, or pasta.

A Return to Blogging 1-1/2 Years Later

Amazing ! A year and half has passed since my last blog posting. The adage "Time Flies" has never seemed more true.

So, why back to blogging? The newest class of BTWG participants has gotten me fired up again with the things they are sharing in their blogs -- and they reminded me just how powerful blogging was during my BTWG experience. How friendships were made because of blog topics, how frustration could be channeled into the blog instead of into devouring the contents of the refrigerator. How some people wrote so poetically you yearned, and others wrote with so much humor you giggled like a child, and how other people blogged such raw emotions that you bled alongside of them...but what each person shared in their writings resonated in some way with everyone.

BTWG participants also have me revisiting my own nutrition and exercise and rest and meditation practices - things we all need to keep in tune with regardless of where we find ourselves on the path to wellness.

A chat tonight with a workout friend and BTWG participant made me think of the poem below. It's about self love, about holding communion in honor of your own human holiness, about looking into the mirror and embracing your beauty and value and abilities. It's about rediscovering yourself, and then having compassion toward and appreciation of the person you discover.

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

by Derek Walcott