Marilu is giving away a Vitamix! The world’s best blender, a Vitamix can help you make amazing blended meals, like smoothies and soups.
Beginning February 14, every member who refers a friend to Marilu.com will receive a Vitamix contest entry for each person who purchases a full year membership. (There is no limit to the number of entries a member may earn.)
If you’re not a member,join now, and get your friends to join with you! You get an entry for every friend you refer, even if you become a member today. Plus, our February online class just started, and you’ll become part of that class right away, too.
Email marybeth@marilu.com with the names of friends who have purchased memberships. When they have completed registration, the referring member will be entered in the Vitamix drawing. If another friend registers from your referral, another entry goes in. Anyone who registers even one friend has a chance to win a Vitamix. Register more than one and you have an even greater chance.
The Vitamix Contest will run through the month of February.
Any questions please feel free to e-mail marybeth@marilu.com. This is a win/win if ever there was one. You can share the gift of good health with someone you care about and receive a great gift that will help you keep your own menus healthy and delicious! What’s not to love?
Soup is the perfect comfort food, and this soup is nice and thick, and smells like home.
We love using an immersion blender in soups. It’s a lot safer than transferring hot liquids to a blender and dealing with the steam. An immersion blender usually costs less than $20, it’s easy to wash (right away – don’t let it sit), and it stores easily in a drawer.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Potato Soup with Red Swiss Chard Blue * Serves 4
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups vegetable broth
1 cup potatoes, cut into chunks
2 carrots, sliced thick
1 bunch red swiss chard (about 1/2 pound), chopped
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
In a large stockpot, heat olive oil on medium heat and sauté onions until translucent. Add the garlic and cook an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Add the vegetable broth, potatoes, carrots, chard, and bay leaf. Cook on medium high for 15-20 minutes until potatoes and chard are tender, then season with salt and pepper. Cool to room temperature then puree half of the soup in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids). Add the puree mixture to the pot and heat on medium. Mix well and serve.
Accidentally in Love
Hallmark Channel
Saturday, February 12, 2011
9 PM / 8 PM Central
Eddie James, a disgruntled actor who wants to do more than play “Mulligan the Rabbit” on a children’s TV show, discovers life can change in a heartbeat when he accidentally gets into a car accident with single mother Annie Baker. In the unexpected friendship that develops between them, Eddie tries to help Annie’s nearly-blind daughter Taylor get an operation to restore her sight.
Stars Jennie Garth, Ethan Erickson, Fred Willard and Marilu Henner.
What is more basic than loving yourself? Your Total Health Makeover® provides the keys for learning to love yourself – with the right food, the right exercise, the right self-care. Celebrate this Valentine’s Day for ten whole days, as you focus on your core, your center, your life, your heart.
This 10-day class will focus on using your personal strengths to help you succeed with your Total Health Makeover®.
Class starts Monday, February 14 and runs for ten weekdays. Don’t miss a day; sign up now! The class will include recipes to try (hey, THM veterans – new Purple recipes!) – a shopping list will be available this weekend. Check your email or the Members Message Boards for the link.
Online classes at Marilu.com offer you *
Marilu Henner’s daily plan for your personal goals and priorities…
Access to Marilu’s proven meal plan that works…
New Purple (basic, core) recipes and a shopping list…
Support for your exercise program…
Live chats with Marilu…
Ideas and tips for improving every aspect of your life…
Coach Heather, a THM® expert who will be in touch with you every day…
A community of friends who are doing the program right along with you…
February is all about healthy hearts. If you’re a smoker, this is the perfect time to quit. Give yourself a big, healthy red heart of a valentine.
Several factors, ranging from chemical reactions in your body to unintentional (unconscious) shifts in behavior, can account for weight gain when you quit smoking. If you plan ahead, you can make conscious choices to prevent that, or to minimize it.
When you stop smoking, food tastes and smells better. So you may want larger or more frequent portions. Or both.
So pay attention to what you’re eating. Enjoy the smells and tastes, but switch to a smaller plate (studies have shown that using 9″ plate helps with weight loss), and make sure it’s at least half raw and/or steamed vegetables. Eat breakfast, and stop eating after dinner.
If you smoked for boredom, you may find yourself eating because it’s something to do now that you’re not smoking.
Get a hobby, or get back to a hobby – something that uses your hands is good – like playing the guitar or piano, or knitting or sewing, or painting or gardening. Take a walk or do some other form of exercise. Get outside.
If you smoked for stress relief (and really – how is accelerating your own death any kind of stress relief? Sorry to sound harsh, just putting that thought into your mind), you may try to relieve stress with the repetitive action of snacking.
Learn meditation or prayer practices. Practice yoga. Join a gym and work out, or take a fitness class. Journal. Call a (non-smoking) friend.
When you stop smoking, you may unconsciously start eating more high-fat, sugary foods. Studies have shown that smokers who gain weight tend to eat those foods.
Prepare fresh fruits and veggies for snacking, and keep them in your fridge. Challenge yourself to try a new whole food (food as it grows) every week.
For Valentine’s Day, you may want something a little different, so here’s a strawberry cake that includes chocolate. Don’t make this for two people, though. Make sure you have other friends or family to share it with.
It takes a little time to prepare this cake, but it’s delicious (and you know exactly what’s in it). If you’re celebrating on Monday, you may want to make the parts over the weekend, wrap and cover them carefully, refrigerate, and then assemble them on Monday. You’ll need about an hour of time to bring the frosting back to room temperature before you frost the cake.
If you don’t have a double boiler to melt the chocolate, use a small pot set inside a larger pot. Put about 2″ of water in the larger pot, and bring to an active simmer. Make sure no water gets in the smaller pot, or the chocolate won’t melt properly.
Vegans can substitute the egg whites with Ener-G Egg Replacer.
Place ingredients in bowl and let stand for 1/2 hour to draw out the natural juices. Take 1 and 1/4 cup and puree in a food processor. You will use some of this for the cake, the frosting, and the rest is used for a filling.
Cake:
3/4 cup soy margarine
2-1/4 cups unbleached flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup soy milk
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups unprocessed sugar cane crystals
4 egg whites (or equivalent Ener-G Egg Replacer, prepared as directed)
3/4 cup strawberry puree
Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 9 and 1/2-inch round cake pans. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl with an electric mixer, cream soy margarine, sugar cane crystals, and egg whites. Add soymilk, oil, and vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture. Beat until smooth. Add strawberry puree mix and beat an additional 2 minutes. Pour into cake pans and bake 20 minutes, then test with toothpick. Let cool before frosting.
Frosting:
3/4 cup unprocessed sugar cane crystals
1/4 cup unbleached flour
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 cup soy cream
1 cup soy margarine at room temperature
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup dairy-free chocolate chips, melted and cooled
1/4 cup strawberry puree
In a small saucepan, melt chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside to cool. In a medium saucepan, stir sugar cane, flour and cocoa. Cook and add soy cream slowly until smooth. Let boil, thicken, and then reduce heat. Cook an additional few minutes stirring constantly. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat margarine until creamy. Add the cooled soy milk mixture, then add vanilla, melted chocolate and strawberry puree. Mix well until slightly stiff. You may need to place in the refrigerator for a few minutes to stiffen before you frost.
Filling:
Mix the remaining bite-size strawberry pieces with the remaining puree. This goes between the frosting layers in the middle of the cake. To do this, first frost the top of the bottom layer with a thin layer of frosting. Then put the strawberry filling on top. Next, frost the bottom of the top layer with a thin layer of frosting, and put it (frosting side down) on the filling- and frosting-topped bottom layer. Finally, frost the top and sides of the assembled cake.
Garnish:
Cut a large strawberry in half to make two hearts (carve a little if you need to). Put them on top of the cake in the center as a garnish.
The Third Annual Valentine Romance Sneak Peek Oscar Suite at Café La Boheme in West Hollywood gave celebrities a chance to pick up some Valentine’s Day and award season freebies from a wide variety of vendors — including some with green elements, like Aquamantra water, sold in 100 percent biodegradable and recyclable bottles; Gold Canyon candles; which has an Essentially Soy line; and Twisted Silver jewelry, made from reclaimed metals, old spoons and recycled glass. “I love everything here,” said Marilu Henner before snapping up earrings and a ring.
A longtime vegan, Henner (pictured right) pointed out that one can save body, health, animals, the planet and pocketbook by following suit. She also buys natural and organic products for her dog, and just started a garden. She has a big weekend ahead: she’s doing hair and makeup for her son’s school play, a production of “The Servant of Two Masters,” and her Hallmark Channel movie, “Accidentally in Love,” premieres Feb. 12. She plays the mother of Jennie Garth’s widow and single mom in a story written by Garth’s husband, Peter Facinelli.
Henner also has the comedy “Vamps” coming up, which she likened to “‘Clueless’ meets ‘Twilight.’” She plays a dying cancer patient who reverts to her hot former self after a vampire bite. She’ll also be performing live in a one-woman show this spring; so far, dates are set for April 15 and 16 in San Francisco and April 23 in Nashville. But of late, Henner is becoming known for something besides her acting career (“Taxi” et al.) and self-help books: her brain. She’s one of six people confirmed to have super autobiographical memory — which means she can remember everything that ever happened to her, dates and all. Naturally, she’s writing a book about it — and how mere mortals can improve their own memories — that will be published in September.
