Thought is Energy and 2010

Thought is Energy! If you accept this to be so, then whatever we can think up, is possible right?

Think about what you really want this coming year, keep your thoughts focused on it and go get it!

Wishing each and every one of you a healthy, happy and magical 2010.

Happy Holidays and Give Away Results.

It sure is a busy time of year. I hope everyone is enjoying the season.

I know it's hectic and crazy at times, but don't fight it, it keeps coming back every year anyway;-)

Might as well enjoy it. And if you can't seem to enjoy it. Be happy and grateful for all the people that do enjoy it.

Sorry it took me a week to get the results to you of the Oikos give away. It's was a very involved "selection winner picking process". ;-) I cut up a few pieces of paper and picked one. Mark you were the winner. Please email your contact details to KDrociak@stonyfield.com and she will send you your winners package. For any of you that have not checked out Marks blog, take a look. He has a recent post on "brining" that is very useful.

On to some Feel Good Eating;

Grab your cast iron skillet and grill up some eggplant, zucchini, onion and a spicy pepper. Top right was the one I used. A fresh cayenne pepper. When done toss it in a food processor and drizzle a bit of olive oil in there and add some cilantro. Season according to your taste. The reason you don't see any grilled garlic in there, is cause I was out of garlic....agggggghhhhh the horror! I don't remember ever not having garlic in the house, but there is a first for everything. What you have now is a nice "vegetable hummus". You can use it in a variety of ways. I just added a helping to a nice green salad with evoo.

Breakfast this morning;

Salmon salad with home made mayo. The post I did a while ago, shows how easy it is to make yourself some mayo. Now for some the evoo flavor is too strong. But for salmon salad it works perfectly. Tuna not so much. It also pairs well with grilled chicken. Do you find the flavor to strong? What other dishes do you use it for?

This salmon salad had a tiny bit of fresh cayenne, green bell pepper and cilantro mixed in.

Update on bar-baron challenge...... folks....drum roll......I'm up to my 3rd muscle up. Even uglier then the second one.....but I'm getting there.

Greek Yogurt Give Away

Like I said the blogosphere is getting smaller. Even the little guy can get noticed ;-)

Check out this really nice email I received from the communications assistant at Stony Field Farms;

"Hi Marc, I came across your blog and saw that you enjoy Greek yogurt - namely Fage. Stonyfield Farm makes Oikos Organic which is thick, creamy and filling just like the other brand(s) you’ve tried – but, it’s ORGANIC. As you probably know, organic means it's made without artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners, and it's made from organic milk produced without the use of toxic persistent pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics, or artificial growth hormones (ie rBST). We feel that organic is not only healthier for you, but better for the planet as well. I would love to send you coupons for Oikos so that you can give it a try and maybe let your readers know what you think of it! Please let me know if you'd like them and where I can send them to.

Best, Kristina

Kristina Drociak

Communications Assistant Stonyfield Farm603-437-4040 KDrociak@stonyfield.com "

We had some really nice communication back and forth. I did ask of course for the full fat variety. They don't make that as of yet. So, all of you fat lovers ;-) please send an email to Kristina and let her know that we are very very interested in a full fat version. All of the Oikos products for now are non fat. Kristina was very nice and offered to do a give away. The give away is as follows; she will offer one of you an Oikos tote bag, 1 free 16 oz coupon and 4 free 5.3 oz coupons. She will ship the prize directly to the winner. I will simply do a random drawing. Please leave a comment if you would like to be part of it. By Friday noon E.S.T. I will pick a winner. I will notify you and get your address so that I can communicate that to Kristina. (US. shipping only)

And now for the quick review (no compensation, besides the coupons so that I could try the product)

I'm going to compare it to Fage as that is the brand I pretty much exclusively get.

Oikos difference is, that it's fat free and organic. You can read on Fage's website that they " In line with our All Natural approach to yogurt making, our milk and cream supply comes from farmers who have pledged not to treat their cows with rBGH " also a disclaimer that reads "The FDA has said no significant difference has been shown, and no test can now distinguish, between milk derived from rBGH-treated and non-rBGH-treated cows" (wonderful stuff right?)

You can click on the links for their respective nutrition information. But for a short summary;

for 8 ounces,Fage has 7 grams of sugar vs. 9 for Oikos. Protein 15 grams for Fage, 23 for Oikos. Total fat 23 grams for Fage, 0 for Oikos. Sat. Fat 18 grams for Fage and 0 for Oikos.

So those are the product details. Much against conventional wisdom, I like my saturated fat and the fat in Fage is in my humble opinion a good thing. But I do REALLY like that fact that Oikos is organic. Very very important when it comes to dairy products made in the US.

Now for the taste.

This was an eye opener.....

The taste was a bit different from one another obviously, both had their own distinct flavor, BUT they both tasted equally GOOD. Normally fat free products don't taste right at all, but Oikos did a superb job with this one. I makes me very eager for them to come out a with a full fat organic version.

Thank you again Kristina for contacting Feel Good Eating. Thank you for your generous give away and try and get the ear of your marketing department, and let them know the primal/paleo crowd would love to see a full fate version hit the shelves.

Remember to leave a comment to be entered in the drawing.

"Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight."- Marcus Aurelius

Links

I wanted to share a little link love today:

Simon who runs this site has done a fantastic job, and the blog is full of great information. Look for a guest post coming up. One of the posts I enjoyed recently was about about James Bond (Daniel Craig). Check it out!

My friend Steve has recently started another fantastic blog; THE DAILY BOTTLE

This wonderful blog showcases AFFORDABLE delicious wines. He even tells you were to find them. Thanks to Steve, I recently picked up a bottle for $5.99 that I would have never known about and the taste was truly outrages for a bottle of red wine at that price. Check it out.

Coming up next, the blogoshpere gets smaller.......I got some attention because of greek yogurt.

SMILE

"Things dont always work out the way you expect......and that's ok too."

My martial arts teacher always said this to us. And when he would say "and that's ok too" he would smile and put you at ease.
I thought about his smile this morning when things weren't quite working out..........

The 5k this morning was a first time event locally, and was part of the Greg Norman Merril Lynch "The Shark Shoot Out"

If you are into Golf, you can get a glimpse of beautiful Naples on the t.v this weekend. Possibly a little overshadowed by the Tiger Woods debacle, but the tournament is a popular one and a favorite fun time stop for the pro's. The course is located on the grounds of a Ritz Carlton hotel and in a very high end residential community. The race was laid out nicely and took us through the residential neighborhood.
With a start time of 7:15, registration started at 6:15 am. Due to the golf tournament, we had to park off site and busses shuttled us inside. I woke up early, made myself a nice cup of espresso, hopped in the shower and was ready to leave. Still nice and dark at 6 am as I got in my car. I try and start the car, my battery is DEAD. I grab my phone and call for a cab. Dispatch tells me no cabs for at least 45 minutes. As I stand in front of my garage, my old little scooter winks at me and I can swear she says "I will take you". The problem is, I know Ms. Scooter has a blown fuse. But I decide to start her up anyway. One step on the starter and she STARTS UP. I grab an extra sweatshirt and I'm off. I kept thinking in my head "and that's ok too". I took me a little longer to get there obviously, so the routine of getting there and taking in the scene had changed a bit. I got there with about 15 minutes to spare. Got my chip and enjoyed the fresh morning air and the excitement off all the people milling about. I got lots of looks and questions about my VFF's. The most common ones were "are you running in those?" and "where did you get those" There was 1 other young lady that had a pair of sprints. Made my way to the starting line and felt a good rush of adrenaline. My starting song on my ipod shuffle was ready and I was ready to give my first race a real go. Well, I did exactly what I told myself not to do. When the gun went off.......I sprinted like a mad man ;-) Bobbing and weaving (Thanks Andy, I know what you mean now) I tried to pass everyone I could. I was so fired up. Hey, I'm a greenie. ;-)

I ran so hard that I actually started breathing heavy and I think I easily ran my first mile in under 7 minutes. I couldn't sustain that obviously, but found my stride and watched the other runners. At mile 2 my calf screamed at me.........I only had one choice.....I screamed back and said "frik you calf" I kept a good pace and even though some 12 year old girls, a few older ladies and one really old guy passed me, when I saw the finish line I picked up the pace pretty good for the last 200 yards, I came in at 24:30. I was feeling very happy about it. Sadly my name is not yet on the final results list, as my chip was not tied to my shoe but my shirt. I didn't know where to attached the chip on my VFF's, so stuck it to a safety pin on my race bib. Guess you're not supposed to do that and now they have to enter me manually. So 24:30 for a 5K is a pace of 7:51 a mile. Not too shabby for a first one. Next race in January. Goal will be to go below 23 minutes. I felt good after the race, calf was sore but not terribly so. I had to go play tennis at 9:30 so went home took a shower and headed for the courts. I told my doubles partner that he had to do all the running though ;-)

I know we are not supposed to be to tied to materialistic possessions......but today I'm really grateful and in love with possibly my two favorite ones.

Thanks for all the support and comments prior to the race guys. It was really appreciated!!

Sushi Lovers 2, 5K and a Question

Well I promised you all a 'Tuna Tartare" recipe, so here it is.
Find your self a nice piece of ahi tuna. I actually get it frozen from the local fish market.
I can't find it fresh very often around here.

Ingredients; Scallions, sesame seeds, rice vinegar, soy sauce, wasabi, fresh ground pepper and a tiny bit of mayonnaise.
It's hard to tell you how much I used of everything.......it's a taste thing. Finely chop the scallions. With a clever or chef's knife, chop and mince the tuna. In a large bowl mix it with the scallions. Now start adding your ingredients and keep tasting until you like it ;-) How simple is that?
I served it in a half an avocado.

I was just in one of those nice moods to cook, be creative and listen to music.
So I also made something else to go along with the tuna.

Feel Good Eating Bay Scallops

Thin slices of yam/sweet potatoes fried in coconut oil, seared bay scallops with a soy/sweet soy glaze. Drizzled with jalapeno dressing and a very thin slice of jalapeno. This was delicate, full of flavor and I even surprised myself a little ;-)

Let me know if anyone wants the jalapeno dressing recipe.

So this Saturday is my first official 5K. I feel very good, except for a small calf "twinge". I ran 4.5 miles last week, and even though it hurt, I ran through it with the exception of the last half mile where it was more stop and go. I'm excited to run, it's a beautiful course they laid out. I will post results, even if I come in around 28 minutes vs. the under 24 that I'm shooting for ;-) As Andy has said to me, "don't leave anything out there", I promise you all I won't.

Of course I will be running in my VFF's. I have a suspicion that I will be the ONLY one there in VFF's. I will just have to deal with the stares. So here comes the question of the day;

How do you pronounce it VEEbrams or Vibrams?

(Justin if you're reading, would love your input.)

Make it a great day!

Sushi Lovers

I don't know about all of you, but I LOVE sushi/sashimi.
Like some type of addiction, I CRAVE it.

Short on supplies at home, but made myself a little something to "curb the jones"
Between some saran wrap I flattened out smoked salmon slices. Finely diced up some cucumber,scallions and nori/seaweed. To that I added a little dollop of dijon mustard and mixed it together. Lay on top of the salmon and add fresh sliced avocado. Rolled them up for easy eating and cutting. Really delicious. I had no soy/tamari sauce otherwise would have added that to the little mixture.

This week I will make some tuna tartare and share that recipe with you.

As a dad, I've always really liked this quote from Wayne Dyer "“Your children will see what you're all about, by what you live rather than what you say.”

Make it a great day everyone!