Serves 4

Time 75 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 cups filtered water Vegetable Stock
• 1 Organic Winter Squash cut in half
• 4 split cloves of Organic Garlic
• 1 Organic Leeks diced fine (I do use some of the green part as well)
• 1 Organic Apple skinned and flesh pureed
• 1 1/2 tablespoon Organic Rubbed Sage
• 1/2 teaspoon  Organic Thyme (or to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon Organic Peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• Sea Salt to Taste

Prep Roast the squash and the diced leek with olive oil, 4 split cloves of garlic and 1/2 tablespoon of sage. While the squash is roasting, make your 4 cups of vegetable stock.  Once the squash is cooked (should scoop out easily with a spoon), blend 75 percent of it in your food processor.  You are welcome to crush the roasted garlic and add some of it to the soup if you like food garlicy.  The other 25% I mash by hand to give some texture to the soup.  Mix the squash into the stock.  Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of Sage, teaspoon of thyme, 1/2 teaspoon of ground peppercorn, 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt and the pureed apple. Simmer on low heat for 25 minutes stirring occasionally.

Place 1 cup in a bowl and top with rubbed Sage (or fresh if you have access to it) and a slice of apple.

PS – Fantastic to dip you Baguette in!

Enjoy

Serves 4

Time 35 minutes

Ingredients

• 4 cups filtered water Vegetable Stock
• 10 Organic scallions diced in 1/4 to 1/2″ pieces
• 1 to 2 Organic Leeks sliced thin (I use some of the green part as well)
• 1 1/2 cups diced Organic Bok Choy
• 1/4 cup chopped Organic Cilantro (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon Spicy Sesame Oil
• 3 tablespoons Mild Red Miso
• 1 to 2 tablespoons Fish Sauce
• 1 tablespoon of Organic Tamari
• 1 tablespoon of Organic Thyme
• 1 teaspoon of Organic ground Coriander
• 1 tablespoon of Organic Rice Vinegar
• 1/2 clove crushed Organic Garlic
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated Organic Ginger (or more if you like a stronger ginger flavour)
• Sea Salt to Taste

Prep Cut up all of your vegetables and set aside.  Bring 4.5 cups of water (1/2 cup will boil off) to a boil, and add your vegetable bouillon. Once it is dissolved, turn the heat to low.  Take out a cup of vegetable stock and begin to dissolved the miso in the cup by mixing a tablespoon in the stock.  Return it to the stock and take another cup.  Keep doing this till all of the miso is dissolved and returned to the stock. Add the fish sauce to the stock and place the Bok Choy (except for the leafy parts) and the leeks into the stock, let it simmer for 5 minutes. In a mixing bowl combine the ginger thyme, coriander, garlic, rice vinegar, tamari and sea salt.  Mix throughly and add into the stock.  Just before you are ready to serve add in the leafy parts of the Bok Choy and the scallions.

Place 1 cup in a bowl and top with the sesame oil and the fresh cilantro to taste

Enjoy

Serves 4

Time 45 minutes

Ingredients

Spring Rolls

• rice paper rolls
• 2 cups diced Organic Bok Choy
• 2 cups shredded Organic Red Cabbage
• 1/4 cup chopped Organic Cilantro (or to taste)
• 1/4 cup finely cut 2″ pieces of Organic CarrotDipping Sauce
• 1/4 cup diced Anaheim Pepper (if you would like it hot)
• 1 cup of Filtered Water
• 1/4 cup of Organic Lemon Juice
• 1 Tablespoons Organic Sucanut
• 1/2 cup Organic Orange Juice
• 1/4 cup Organic Rice Vinegar
• 2 cloves crushed Organic Garlic
• 1 tablespoon Fresh Organic Tarragon
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated Organic Ginger
• 2 teaspoon Organic Thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Sea Salt to Taste

For the Spring Rolls Combine all of the ingredients for the Spring roll filling in a bowl.  Soak the Rice Paper in water till translucent and then place on a flat surface and put a sufficient amount of filling in the center.  Fold the sides in first then the bottom over the sides and roll.

For the dipping Sauce in a large bowl combine the water, orange juice, lemon juice and sucanut until dissolved.  Whisk in the remaining ingredients and adjust the spice quantity until it suites your taste.  This sauce will keep in the fridge for 1-2 weeks in a good container due to the vinegar in it.

So this post is to introduce you to the wonder that is  Copenhagen Cycle Chic.  It is a taste of the possibilities that are possible when the public is dedicated to a better form of transportation.  Explore the site, it is updated daily and full of phenomenal examples of Chic Cycling!

Serves 4

Time 30 minutes then chill till cold

Ingredients

* 1/2 lb of brussel sprouts
* Israeli or French Feta (as much as you want
* 1 cups Organic diced tomatoes
* 1 cloves minced garlic (preferably through a press)
* 3 Tablespoons Organic Lemon Juice Concentrate
* 2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
* 1 tablespoon Organic Thyme (fresh if you can source it)
* 1 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1/2 teaspoon coriander (or 1/4 cup of fresh Organic Cilantro)
* 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground peppercorns

Combine Cut off the end s of the Brussel Spouts and discard, then cut them in half (so that you split the stem in half. Discard any leaves that fall off at this point. Steam the brussel sprouts till they are bright green. Remove them immediately from the heat and run them under cold water so they stop cooking. all of the ingredients in a large bowl.

Mix the remaining ingredients, except the feta in a small bowl. Pour the sauce over the brussel sprouts and top with as much feta as desired. Garnish with fresh cilantro to taste.

Serve chilled

Enter Sevi Organics.  A chance discovery on twitter has led me to what I believe is quite possibly the best source for hygiene, cosmetics and skin health products that I have found.  First and foremost all of the products (save one line of brushes) are made by the owner and the team at their studio in Baltimore.  They handcraft all of their products from beginning to end. All core ingredients are 100% vegan (if you don’t care, you should!), Sulfate and Paraben Free and certified organic, organic wild crafted or ethically harvested!  Still have questions or concerns, write or call the owner, who is responsive, open and honest.  Not to mention extremely passionate about her work!

I cannot say enough about what I believe I have discovered here.  But don’t take my word for it, check it out yourself – Sevi Organics .  And if you are on twitter, the owner can be followed at twitter.com/ecosevi

Ciao and Happy Grooming!

FOR PART 3 VISIT: VBS TV FOR

Two hundred million Americans are overweight and 100 million are obese. More than 75 million Americans have high blood pressure. 24 million people are diabetic. Heart disease remains the No. 1 cause of death for men and women, followed by stroke and obesity-related cancers. Obesity is about to overtake tobacco as the No. 1 cause of preventable deaths in the United States.

I am a huge fan of anyone putting together thoughtful provocative media projects that highlight the blight that the world finds itself in do to the greed, indulgence and outright selfishness of our modern day society.  Processed People appears to be another excellent documentary on the state of our Eating Habits in the US.  I know this is a touchy topic for many but the film appears poised to delve into the topic from a responsible perspective getting into the disaster that is the processed food industry and the addictive properties that what we consume has on our behaviors.  In under 1 centuries timeline, we have ruined our water supply, fogotton how to responsible farm and now believe that consuming poisions through our food is alright as long as the FDA says it is.

Please plan on supporting this film and then blogging it up online.  The population needs to wake up and obviously SuperSize It was not enough.

This is a reprint of a good short article on what to eat and when for Cyclists.

We’re all obsessed with weight loss.

More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and we spend billions each year on products and services that promise to help us shed pounds. Cyclists typically aren’t overweight by average American standards, but we’re nonetheless fixated on weight, wanting to make bike and body alike ever lighter in a quest for better performance. Yet the latest research shows we’ve all misplaced our focus, and that body composition is a much better indicator of overall health and fitness.

“Body weight tells us nothing about health,”

says exercise–nutrition expert John Berardi, an adjunct associate professor of exercise science at the University of Texas at Austin.

“You could be 165 pounds and quite lean, or 165 pounds and quite fat. Regardless of your weight, the higher your body-fat percentage, the greater your risk of fat-related illnesses like heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.”

In terms of measuring performance potential, the bathroom scale is equally useless, says Paul Goldberg, a Colorado-based dietitian and coauthor of The Lean Look.

“It doesn’t distinguish muscle mass, which enhances performance, from fat mass, which hinders performance,”

he says. The key to going faster on a bike is improving your power-to-weight ratio, by either raising your power output or lowering your weight, or both. Power comes from muscle, so the best way to tune your body for better performance is to maintain your muscles while shedding only fat to lose weight.

Eating for pure weight loss tends to lead to the loss of both fat and muscle, as well as to undereating.

“Undereating carries with it a host of problems such as deficiencies in key vitamins and minerals, reduced muscle glycogen storage, loss of muscle mass and diminished power output,”

says Berardi. Inadequate carbohydrate intake may reduce blood volume as a by-product of depleted glycogen stores (because glycogen is stored with water), and insufficient protein consumption limits your muscles’ work capacity.

“Each of these factors is a performance killer,”

says Berardi. Combined, you don’t stand a chance. Eating for leanness is more complicated than simply restricting calories. On one hand, you need to provide muscles with the nutrition they need to function optimally. On the other, you need to deliberately starve your body’s excess fat so it’s broken down to provide energy for muscles and never replaced. The key is in consuming the right kinds of calories at the right times throughout the day. Here are 10 proven strategies.

1. Monitor your body-fat percentage to be sure you’re eating enough calories. The typical cyclist needs to consume 15 to 18 calories per pound of body weight per day to maintain muscle mass, but don’t waste your time counting calories, advises Goldberg. “Counting calories is like tracking every pitch of a baseball game,” he says. “Stepping on a body-fat scale is like jumping straight to the final score.” If your body fat holds steady or decreases, you’re getting enough calories. If it goes up, even though your weight may be holding steady or decreasing, it’s a sign that your body is breaking down muscle because you’re not consuming enough calories.
2. Consume at least 0.5 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Protein is the primary structural component of muscle. Research shows that this is the minimum level of daily consumption required to maintain muscle in endurance athletes engaged in moderate to heavy training.
3. Eat a high-carb meal before each ride, such as a bowl of oatmeal or a vegetable stir-fry with brown rice. Also, during rides lasting more than one hour, consume carbs on the bike; the simplest way is to sip a sports drink according to your thirst. “Ensuring that your muscles are well supplied with carbohydrate fuel for training will minimize the amount of muscle tissue that is broken down to provide fuel,” says Goldberg.
4. Drink or eat a recovery supplement or snack within an hour of finishing a ride. In this time frame, the body uses carbohydrate and proteins most efficiently to replenish and rebuild muscles. A study from Ontario’s McMaster University found that female cyclists maintained muscle mass and performed better during a period of increased training when they consumed a carb-protein supplement immediately after workouts, rather than with breakfast.
5. Limit your consumption of extremely calorie-dense foods, such as ice cream and just about anything fried. These foods provide far more calories than your body needs to meet short-term energy needs. When you eat these, the excess calories are stored as fat.
6. Keep fat consumption to no more than 30 percent of total calories, and ideally no more than 25 percent. The average American consumes 34 percent of daily calories from fat–and remember, the average American is overweight.
7. Get most of your carbohydrates from low-glycemic-index sources, such as vegetables and whole grains. Carbs from these foods are slowly absorbed into your bloodstream for longer-lasting energy; carbs from sweets and refined grains are rapidly absorbed. Choose low-GI foods at all times except during and immediately after rides, when quickly absorbed sugars will replenish glycogen stores fast.
8. Divide your daily calories over four to six eating occasions, not just two or three. “Eating frequently encourages smaller portions,” says Berardi, “and eating smaller portions minimizes the number of excess calories you’re likely to consume each time you eat.”
9. Concentrate your calorie intake during times of greater energy needs: first thing in the morning and before and after rides. Your body is least likely to store calories as fat when your muscle and/or liver glycogen reserves are low, such as when you wake up, and during and after exercise.
10. Get enough omega-3 fatty acids. Known for boosting heart health, the omega-3 fats found in foods such as wild salmon, flaxseed and mackerel may also promote leanness. One study from Berardi’s lab showed a 400–calorie-per-day increase in metabolic rate, -1 kilogram of fat lost and 1 kilogram of lean mass gained in subjects who supplemented with fish oil daily for three weeks.

Matt Fitzgerald, coauthor of The Lean Look, is a health and fitness writer in San Diego.

Always do your own research and consult your trusted Naturopath, Nutritionist, etc. if your are unsure of your findings.  Know your sources as well. Trust is key in finding and implementing new concepts and ideas.

and here it is:

1. Bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosis)

A seaweed seen in cold waters, Bladderwrack is found to be an affective remedy for rheumatism and inflamed joints. It also works great for thyroid and goiter. If your weight gain is associated with thyroid then Bladderwrack is the best remedy for you. In many people, weight gain is traced to hypothyroidism, severe deficiency of iodine. Iodine is required for the optimal function of the thyroid gland. Bladderwrack contains minerals including iodine, potassium, magnesium, calcium and iron. Consult a medical practitioner before taking bladderwrack as it may lower blood sugar levels.

2. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinalis)

Dandelion is a name googled quite often in our decade. Abundant with minerals (iron, zinc and potassium) and vitamins (A, B, C and D), dandelion is a known remedy for liver complaints. It can treat UTI, anemia and gout and can be good blood thinner. Its weight loss benefits gained popularity quite recently. Dandelion has diuretic properties which will enable you to pass more urine and thus increase the loss of water and reduce water retention in the body. Take an ounce of the dried herb to make dandelion tea or take fresh dandelion leaves in salad.

3. Kelp (Fucus spp.)

Like Bladderwrack, Kelp is another seaweed that is abundant in antioxidant vitamins and iodine. Including this herb in your diet will boost metabolism and help weight loss related with thyroid-dysfunction. Kelp should not be taken with other herbs like bladderwrack. It is important to consult your doctor before taking these herbs as they may complicate your underlying medical condition.

4. Malabar Tamarind (Garcinia cambogia)

A southern Indian herb widely used in Indian diet, dried Malabar tamarind consists of thirty percent Hydroxycitric Acid (HCA). Though many fat loss supplements promote HCA as an aid to weight loss some researchers claim that the weight loss benefits of HCA are not proven in humans but animals.  However, it is maintained that HCA can help you watch your portion sizes by controlling your appetite.

5. Cayenne Pepper (Capsicum minimum)

Cayenne pepper is said to be a better weight loss aid that green tea. It contains capsaicin, a thermogenic chemical (makes it a hot herb) which will help to speed your metabolism and check your appetite. Increased blood flow, a healthy blood pressure, increased sex drive and a healthy digestive system are some other benefits cayenne pepper may offer.

6. Guarana (Paulina cupana)

Native to Venezula and northern parts of Brazil, Guarana can be called an elder brother to coffee due to its high caffeine content. It works as an appetite suppressant  giving it a distinguished place in herbal weight loss supplements. Guarana can increase your energy, fight fatigue, detoxify the blood, reduce intestinal gas, help dyspepsia and enhance fat burning. Guarana should not be taken by those who have cardiac problems or high blood pressure.