Apologies to the Harley riders out there – but we’re talking about riding your bicycle! (People power! No gasoline required in these days of high fuel costs.)
Does your bike need maintenance now, at the beginning of the season? Get it done.
Do you have the accessories you want? Things like a basket (we’re serious about using your bike instead of your car), a horn, mirrors, a holder for your water bottle?
Does your helmet fit? Please wear one.
Start getting in shape with some short rides and build up to longer trips, when you can pack a picnic, or even camp along the route. Find the trails in your area.
Bicycling is a family activity – get everyone involved and have fun with it!
We’re mixing it up for spring in the current online class here at Marilu.com (join now and you’ll still get in on the class!).
In the spirit of mixing it up, we’re sharing one of our favorite songs of all time (yes, really – we’ve loved it since it was first released in the 1970′s!). This song is just crazy-fun. Sure, you can exercise to it, or clean to it, or dance to it. But we just sing along badly and laugh, and that’s good, too.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! You don’t have to be Irish to GO GREEN today.
Evaluate your recycling habits. Can you do more? Check with your recycling provider to find out if you’re taking advantage of all the programs (for example, hazardous materials collections, electronics collections, etc.).
Add a green vegetable (not salad) to every lunch and dinner. Tired of broccoli and green beans? Look at all the produce you’ve been ignoring, and try something new.
Check your lawn care products – are they horrible chemicals? There are other options – look for environmentally friendly (earth-, air-, and water-friendly, not to mention people- and pet-friendly) lawn care.
Reduce your junk mail. Seriously. You get enough in your spam folder; you don’t need it in your actual mailbox, too.
Drink a green smoothie at least once a week. Just add a couple of handfuls of spinach to your favorite smoothie. (If the color bothers you, put it in an opaque or colored glass or mug.)
Reduce your energy consumption. Energy costs are skyrocketing between the civil unrest in the Middle East and the issues with nuclear power in Japan. How can you cut back? Where can you walk, or carpool, instead of drive? What can you turn off?
Make your salads from a variety of greens – get more adventurous than romaine and spinach. Try arugula, mesclun, baby herb mix, butter lettuce, red or green leaf lettuce… there are lots of choices.
Don’t use the dry cycle on your dishwasher. After it’s done washing, open the door and let everything air-dry. If you start it before bed, set it to “air dry” – everything is dry in the morning.
Plan – or plant – your garden. Depending on your growing zone, it may be planting season already. Even in an apartment, you can grow herbs in pots. If you have a balcony or deck, you can grow tomatoes and strawberries. If you have a yard, you can grow just about anything.
Yes, today’s recipe for St. Patrick’s Day is a day early… so you can prepare!
Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish of potatoes and cabbage, and sometimes other things. This is a vegan version, and it’s awesome (especially if you love potatoes). You can increase the nutrient value by using half the amount of cabbage and a bunch of kale. Wash the kale, remove the leaves from the stems, and chop the leaves. Add the kale with the onions and cabbage.
We like to serve this with spicy chicken or vegan sausages (and some good Irish beer on St. Patrick’s Day).
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Arky’s Colcannon Blue * Serves 8
3 large Idaho potatoes
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 green cabbage, cored and cut into 1-1/2 inch chunks
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
salt
pepper
2 teaspoons Hungarian sweet paprika
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut them in chunks, put them in a pot, and cover with cold water. Bring the potatoes to a boil over medium-high heat, and then reduce the heat to maintain a low boil for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are fork-tender. Drain and set aside.
In a large pot, heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil. Add the onion and cabbage, and cook until transparent, about 4-5 minutes. Add the apple cider vinegar, and season with salt and pepper. When the cabbage looks thoroughly wilted, add the potatoes, and mash them into the dish. Continue to cook for 5 minutes, stirring. Add the paprika and parsley, stir well.
Mound the potato mixture into a 2-quart casserole dish. Don’t pat it down, you want a mound of potatoes. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until it gets a light brown crust.
You’re longer and leaner when you sit and stand tall, but even better, your body is in better alignment and it works better when you sit and stand tall. Better digestion, better breathing, better spinal support.
Marilu has been championing this for a long time – what we eat affects our behavior. What children eat affects their behavior. A recent study published in The Lancet (Britain’s leading medical journal) showed that a “restricted diet” can positively impact kids with ADHD.
“Restricted diet” is their term. We know that it’s possible to eat amazing, delicious meals prepared from fresh, natural foods. Limiting chemicals and preservatives, animal-derived foods, sugars, and other health robbers is not all that difficult. The early stages of the diet in the study were more restricted, as are all attempts at identifying allergens and symptom-inducing foods.
If your child has been diagnosed with ADHD (or ADD), ask your health care provider about trying dietary changes to reduce your child’s symptoms. It may not be the only solution, but it may help.
The full article is linked at the end of this quotation.
Kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, are normally treated with behavioral therapy and stimulant medications. A new study suggests that a highly restricted diet can be just as effective at reducing symptoms in a majority of children with ADHD.
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“There’s no question that foods have effects on people’s mood, sleep and energy,” says Dr. David Schab, a psychiatrist at Columbia University in New York. However, he adds, the current state of knowledge about what foods are problematic and which kids are susceptible is still too limited to be of much use for doctors or their patients.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 9.5% of school-age children in the U.S. have ADHD. That adds up to more than 5 million kids who could potentially benefit from a symptom-reducing diet.
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Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder exhibit a range of symptoms. Many have trouble staying focused on a single task and become bored or distracted quite easily. Others are unable to sit still, stay quiet or be patient. Some kids have a combination of these symptoms, plus others, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
In the study, published last month in the Lancet, 100 children with ADHD symptoms who were 4 to 8 years old were divided into two groups. Half were allowed to eat only a small number of foods for five weeks; their diets were customized from a short list of ingredients that included water, rice, turkey, lamb, lettuce, carrots, pears and other hypoallergenic foods. The rest of the kids were counseled (along with their parents) about healthful eating but allowed to eat whatever they wanted.
At the end of the study, 64% of the kids on the limited diet showed significant improvement on a variety of standard rating scales. Though the initial scores for all of the kids in this group put their ADHD symptoms in the moderate-to-severe range, after the diet intervention their symptoms were classified as either mild or nonclinical.
For our MIX IT UP class starting today, we have an awesome green smoothie recipe. If you’re skeptical about green in your smoothies, you aren’t the first, and you won’t be the last. But trust us – the banana and blueberries really do make this a great tasting smoothie.
You can make this recipe in a regular blender or in a Vitamix. Using a Vitamix makes it much easier and quicker, and makes the resulting smoothie, well, smoother. A regular blender yields a slightly chunkier smoothie, but adding a little water will help that, and frozen fruit helps, too.
If you can grind your own flax seed, that’s best – it’s fresher, and oils get rancid rather quickly. You can grind a cup or so at a time and keep it in your freezer. If you purchase it ground, then do keep it in your freezer to reduce spoilage.
Baby spinach is the mildest “green” flavor, and it makes great smoothies. If you want to amp it up, add the kale. When washing the leaves, pull them from the stem (you don’t really need a knife, just hold the thick end in one hand and strip the leaves with the other hand). Kale leaves come in different sizes, depending on the type of kale and the point of time in the growing season. If your kale leaves are as big as your head, only use one to start. If they’re the size of your hand, use 3-4.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ Blue Dino Smoothie from Jennifer Taylor Blue * Serves 1
1 to 1/2 cups of water (start with 1 cup and add more if necessary)
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed
2 big handfuls of baby spinach
2 or 3 leaves of kale (but only if you have had green smoothies before and want to kick it up a notch or if you are feeling like really going for it)
1/2 of a frozen banana
1 cup of frozen blueberries
Blend and enjoy.
Remember if you don’t have a super duper high powered blender like the Vitamix, add the liquid, flax and greens first and blend. Then slowly add the frozen fruit. You may have to start and stop the blender a few times and stir it and add more water.
Marilu says, “Everything is connected to everything.”
People are connected, too, and not just through social media and the amazing world wide web. What we eat depends on what is planted in fields around the world. What we wear depends on what is made in factories around the world. Everything we purchase requires a global effort.
Our sisters and brothers in Japan are dealing with so much loss and devastation, and we will be feeling it around the world for years to come. Our thoughts and prayers are with them now, as they face the lack of food and water, the loss of friends and family and home and jobs.
Mix It Up with Marilu, Lyrical, and Chef Ryan for ten weekdays, starting Monday, March 14.
Kick it up into high gear, and get fresh and sexy for spring.
PLUS * Win a VitaMix! Invite a friend to join and let us know your friend’s name. When she (or he) joins for a year, your name is entered in the drawing! Participate in class each day to get your name in the drawing again. It’s easy – and you’ll have fun sharing classes with your friends at Marilu.com!
In the USA, we move our clocks forward one hour tonight – it’s one of signs of spring!
“Spring forward” also means we only have 23 hours in the day. Let’s take the “glass half full” approach and commit to being more efficient today, so we don’t miss that hour. Go to bed one hour earlier than you normally would, and you won’t even miss it.
