Sugar and Refined Grains Aren't Good for Babies Either

My heart aches for the babies. This article scares me.

Easy Soup - with Mahi

First I chopped my onions, garlic, daikon strips and celery.


Then I added my zucchini and sliced mahi.


This took me less than 10 minutes.

Eat Your Colors

Check out the color saturation in the purple kale. Kale is cheap and available everywhere.


The slaw has red cabbage, apple, celery, red pepper and orange juice dressing.

Do a Little Something for Yourself and Your Family

Cook fresh food. Check out what I got this week. You don't have to shop and prep on Sundays, but be sure to find some time about every 3-4 days to get fresh produce into your home and get it ready to eat. Taking easy steps like this aids in weight loss, health, protects your heart health and keeps you happy.

Don't Do Drugs When You Want to Lose Weight

More scary information about weight loss drugs going through the FDA process. Be healthy and happy by eating more greens, not more pills. And it isn't even considered "effective" !

Rosemary Garlic Turkey Thighs with Oro Blanco Grapefruit Juice

The title says it all. Happy Thanksgiving!

Jerk Turkey Thighs with Brussels Sprouts and Yellow Onion

Turkey thighs, pasture butter, apple cider vinegar, yellow onions, brussels sprouts, pepper, jerk seasoning and a tiny bit of chili powder. I took the top off at the end of cooking to get the skin crispy.

Food for a Good Memory

Not much of this comes as a surprise. As always, leafy greens are included on any list of foods that are great for everything. Pic is yellowfin with maiche (lambs lettuce).

Fall Meal Prep

I had fun making delectable paprikash chicken and roasted zucchini. Choose an easy one pot meal and relax while it roasts or simmers.

Cranberry Sauce with Super Garlic Cumin Chicken

Cranberries are here, cooked up with half a pink grapefruit. Served with super garlic cumin chicken with white onions and black pepper.

HCFS is Worse than They Thought

It has more fructose than the industry has been claiming. Fructose is really really bad for you.

Dill Cabbage Slaw

Dill on sale at Von's (with card), cabbage, pepper, whole milk yogurt, raw apple cider vinegar, shown with canned salmon and pickling cucumbers, my favorite.

Zucchini "Pasta"

Everyone's talking about it, so I tried using a potato peeler to make pasta out of my yellow zucchini squash. Next time I will add a little salt to the water. Although my chunky sauce of white onions, grass fed beef, and fresh tomatoes was well-seasoned, the dish overall was a little bland. When I warmed up my sauce, I added plenty of fresh spinach.

More on Dangers of Supplements

I am continually amazed at the backwardness of our FDA and USDA. Today I learn that Hong Kong researchers have discovered all kinds of drugs, some illegal, in fat burning supplements, "herbal" weight loss pills, etc.

Be careful out there. If you want to lose weight, you're going to have to eat your green vegetables, drop the packaged and processed foods, and lift weights. Have fun.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Grass Fed Beef

The Dr. Weston Price website is a fascinating treasure trove of information about healthy fats. This article explained a lot about grass fed beef, why it is different, and how to age it and cook it yourself.

News to me: the omega-3 fatty acid content often trumpeted by grass fed champions is not very much higher than grain fed beef, and both are very low. Message: eat a varied diet including grass fed beef and cold water fish.

Grass Fed Ground Beef and Weekend Grill

The raw milk people had some beef on sale this past Wednesday. I decided to break out my cast iron grill because my roommate was out of town and would not be there to witness the massive amounts of oil spattered all over the room. I use grapeseed oil to grill, and I love burnt cabbage and broccoli. The beef tasted very nice especially at the great price.

How I Do It - Curry Mahi and Zucchini

Less than 10 minutes: mahi, zucchini olive oil and Thai curry powder.

Heirloom Zucchini

I didn't know that zucchini is one of the most genetically modified foods until recently, so when I saw organic heirloom zucchini at the Farmers Market, I decided to try it since it was the same price as the rest. It was green and white with thick skin and a coating of soft reddish spines that rubbed off when I washed it. The taste was, of course, very similar to normal zucchini, but stronger. I had it with spinach and sole.

Labor Day Splurge - Bison Ribeye with Brie

Brie sliced thin and placed on steak once I turned it. Used hot heavy bottom skillet with no oil, then covered for a few minutes to rest and melt the cheese.

Is Organic Better for You?

Finally a very comprehensive, carefully designed study saying YES.

Rosemary Chicken with Red Onion

Red onions turn sweet in the oven with rosemary and garlic chicken. Easy peasy.

Get Your Veggies In

Sale at Vons organic spinach and broccoli slaw. No need to go organic on the broccoli crowns or red cabbage. This salad has a dressing of yogurt and ACV with caraway seeds.

Sprouted Kamut

Tried foods I don't normally buy this week: sprouted kamut, yellow bell pepper and heirloom zucchini. The kamut went in a daikon salad with lemon and oil, chili powder and parsley. The delicious flavorful zucchini at the same price as the other squash went in an egg bake with the rest of the huge pepper and some broccoli.

The Basics of Carbohydrates

I thought this article was short and yet very informative, with lots of new information about carbohydrates.

Purple Basil

I think another name for purple basil is Vietnamese basil. It is a lot like green basil but when I smelled it, there was a pleasant but unfamiliar deep element to it that I could only smell at the very end of the scent. I used it in a squash, pepper and tomato veggie "sauce" with pepper and Italian seasonings.

Avoid These Ingredients in Supplements

Oh yes we love our supplements, but please be careful.

Experiments with Raw and Cooked Celery

$2.00 for a bunch of organic celery at Santa Monica Farmers Market, intense celery taste. Raw with leaves with sliced daikon, tart lemon juice, olive oil, caraway seeds, pepper, Greek seasoning from Spicely. Used the leaves as delicate aromatic herb for sole filet with olive oil, pepper, Greek, mustard powder. Like butter.

Dover Sole and a Light Hand

Jamaican jerk seasoning can be overwhelming: sometimes I want that and sometimes I don't. This time, using a light hand on a mild white fish was just the right choice.

Nutrition News

Why traditional diet advice is no longer applicable.

Panch Phoron Cumin Garlic Chicken

I toasted the panch phoron mixture in olive oil before smearing it all over the chicken, added cumin, pepper and garlic. Toasting the panch phoron made the flavors more mellow and rich.

Mahi Mahi White Sesame and Coconut

Sesame seeds to liven up my basic red cabbage with lemon olive oil dressing really came to life when fried up with some coconut crust on mahi.

Let's Stop Wasting Food

Sure I want you to go shopping and eat fresh food, but does that mean you're always having groceries go bad? That's bad for your planet and your pocketbook. Article from Slate on 10 ways to curb waste.

Thyme Chicken

Organic air chilled chicken with fresh thyme, black pepper, lemon juice and olive oil, chili powder, peeled garlic cloves.

Avocado Madness

Sunday lunch of avocado, red cabbage, salad greens, and sole from the Santa Monica Farmers Market, cooked it with garlic and Italian seasoning from Spicely.
Second pic - avocado mess with lemon juice and Penzey's Northwest seasoning, which is tasty but a little too salty for me after all.

Ahi with Basil

Fish on the weekday equals fast, satisfying and staying lean.

Tomatoes Basil and Bison NY Strip

Where can you go wrong? Large beefsteak tomato with Japanese basil, lemon juice, olive oil and a sprinkling of Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning, black pepper. Lindner bison NY strip, decided to try it still cold inside. It almost tasted like fish, not too much of a surprise since grass fed bison is high in omega-3 fatty acids.

Japanese Eggplant with Basil and Spinach

Sweet long skinny Japanese eggplant sauteed with plenty of olive oil, Italian seasonings, pepper, then added spinach and basil and wilted.

Horrifying Food Ingredients

OK I'm not a huge fan of this author, but I have to admire his willingness to take on huge food companies by disseminating this information in a widely-read public forum.

Sole and Vegetables

I got two beautiful large sole filets from the Santa Monica Farmers Market for $7, spinach is on sale at Vons, and I added some squash and red chard - all for my post-workout meal on Sunday.

Paprika Chicken a New Way

I marinated my chicken pieces in a mixture of yogurt, lemon juice and plenty of Hungarian paprika, then sprinkled it with black pepper. I baked it with the lid on first, then took it off to let the juices concentrate. The chicken came out flavorful and moist and stayed that way through three days of leftovers. Score!

Weekly Prep - Zucchini Frittata

Got 20 minutes? Then you have breakfast for four days. I made a frittata by sauteeing onions, baby broccoli and a ton of sweet tender baby zucchini, then adding my lightly beaten eggs, topped with raw baby Swiss cheese. This frittata is seasoned mainly with Spice World's Mexican Seasoning, plus a bit of chili powder and black pepper. I simply cooked this one covered on the stovetop.

More on Dangers of Supplements

Eat your good food and get your exercise. Even more evidence of supplement contamination and lax oversight.

Roasted Veggies with Rosemary

I made a mix of zucchini, brussels sprouts and beets and added a ton of fresh rosemary. I used olive oil and black pepper, then roasted until soft. Note: seek out smaller beets. If not, peel the big ones. The peels on the small ones are tender and yummy to me, but the bigger beets' peels are thick and fibrous.

Dangerous Supplements

Be careful and check your supplements at one of the many websites that test them.

Rosemary Garlic Chicken with Grapefruit

Marinated drums in grapefruit juice, tons of fresh rosemary, a few pieces of chopped white onion and garlic. Later, sprinkled with pepper and paprika. I removed the lid halfway through baking to concentrate the sauce and brown the meat.

Mahi Mahi with Asparagus

Trader Joe's frozen mahi mahi comes out nice, good texture and mild flavor. I made it with asparagus sauteed in some pasture butter.

Stay Away from Processed Meats

Article about heart healthiness of processed meats versus red meat.

Jerk Bison Ribeye

While trying to think of ways to use jerk seasoning, I grabbed a Lindner bison ribeye. I grilled it on my stovetop grill after sprinkling it with jerk and some extra black pepper. As you can see, I like my bison still mooing.

Fresh Halibut

Sometimes you can find good deals at ethnic markets. This fresh wild halibut was $6.99 a pound at Nijiya. I made it with Spicely Shrimp and Crab Broil. The first four ingredients are paprika onions garlic and mustard.

Chicken Curry Cauliflower in One Pot

Throw your chicken, washed and cut cauliflower in a big oven-safe pan and add pepper and the curry of your choice. I used extra turmeric. It made more than three complete meals with minimal effort.

Creole Yellowtail

Our New Orleans friends recommended Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning. I used it to do up a piece of my overfished (crap!) yellowfin from Trader Joe's. I'm always instructing others to READ INGREDIENTS. Turns out this seasoning is composed mostly of salt, so it is meant to be used sparingly. My fish was pretty but tooth-numbing.

Look for low- or no-sodium versions or make your own with red pepper and garlic.

Do You Buy Organic? The New Dirty Dozen

They're saying the list of the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables has changed.

Daikon Cabbage Slaw with Black Caraway Seeds

Did very well with the cabbage last week (reduced appetite and an extra bit of fat loss), so I made a new one today. This was very heavy on daikon, a cheap Japanese radish. It is a cruciferous veggie, of the cabbage family, and a family you should sample every day (Brussels, kale, radish). I used regular cabbage this time.

I picked up black caraway seeds when there were no brown for my sauerkraut. I do not like the black seeds in the kraut. In the raw slaw they are fantastic.

The dressing was again based on Horizon sour cream and Bragg apple cider vinegar, this time with chili powder and fresh cracked long pepper.

I had it for lunch with a coconut crusted piece of yellowfin. Don't forget to season coconut heavily if you're using it as crust.