Kitchen Sink Soup

Hello,

Has it really been fourteen days since my last blog post? Wow. Did you all mis me? :).

I am busy living the life of my dreams. Helping people live positive and healthy lives, doing talks, counseling people, going to the grocery store, making some pretty good food. Life is great...but the positive act of eating needs to spread even further. So here I am back and in action!

Today, I want to show you a neat little trick for making soup. Everyone has vegetables lying around that they don't know what to do with. Half a stalk of celery, some leftover carrots, even at the office the refrigerator is full of leftover veggies that need a home. Here is a really simple way to make use of them: Make a soup.

Soup is very unfairly labeled a fall and winter food. I live in New England....we can go for a good soup any time of year.

So here is the process. Round up all your leftover veggies or steal them from the refrigerator at work and chop them all up. Put them in a slow cooker with some any type of broth you want (vegetable/chicken/mushroom/beef/eye of newt). Let this simmer all morning and by lunch you will have a soup!

This is a little chaotic but fun. Quantum physics says the structure of an atom is chaotic and orderly at the same time. Why not take this wonderful scientific theory into our food preparation?

We enjoyed this with some incredible tomato and avocado sandwiches provided by M. Lafleur. What a guy! I even included a picture of him chowing down!



Stay Chaotically Positive,

matthew

Quick and Easy Quinoa Pilaf

Quick and Easy Quinoa Pilaf

as taught to me by Andrea Beaman :)

Everytime I make this dish it makes people smile! Plus, it looks really fancy and tastes unbelievable. Try it and you will be suprised.

Ingredients:

1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil

1 Onion peeled and diced (or use 2 garlic cloves)

1 small can of mushrooms (or use potatoes)

2 celery stalks

1 Tablespoon fresh sage (really folks I reccomend the fresh sage!)

1/2 teaspoon sea salt (regular salt is fine)

1 cup Quinoa

1/3 cup of dried cranberries

2 cups water

Directions:

saute onions or garlic with olive oil in a saucepan for 2-4 minutes. Add mushrooms or potatoes and cook for five more minutes. Add celery and sage together and cook for 2 minutes. Add quinoa and then 2 cups of water into the saucepan. This whole concoction will come to a aromatic boil. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.

This stuff is sure to make you smile!

stay positive,

matthew

ChiRunning and ChiWalking

Hello All,

As many of you know, I am an avid runner. I love to run so much that I've driven myself to the point of sheer exhaustion doing it. This is partially because I have an exaggerated personality and partially because running is the most beautiful thing I've ever done with my body.

When my good friend Ry Chi became a certified ChiRunning instructor in October, he taught me how to run in a way that was both energy efficient and free of pain. Suddenly my relationship with running was no longer dysfunctional. I now run everyday with a feeling quite similar to marital bliss (I think...).

Ry Chi not only taught me how to run more effectively but introduced me to the fine people at ChiLiving. To make a long story short....like you, they love Positive Eating! In a recent addition of their newsletter they featured a nutrition article by yours truly :)

I encourage all of you to sign up for the ChiRunning and ChiWalking newsletter. You will learn more about your body than you could ever have dreamed and you may even get a dose of nutrition advice now and again.

Here is the link to the article,

ChiRunning Article

stay positive,

matthew

PS

If any of you would like to learn more about ChiRunning or ChiWalking you can click on the logo above for a list of instructors in your area. If you live near me....then you can be instructed by Ry Chi himself! His link is below

ChiRunning and ChiWalking Instruction

C is for cookie!

Cookies....you absolutely got to eat your cookies. I mean where would the world be without them. As a matter of fact, the cookie is analogous to the spinning disk in the sky we call the "world." They are both round and as you move across them you find all sorts of sweet and good things. Someone should make a cookie that looks like the world!

Last night, I had company coming over and realized I had to make something quick. By no means am I Betty Crocker, but I remembered the concept of how to make a cookie. Take some dry ingredients add them to wet and sticky ingredients and then mix them together. After baking for 10-15 minutes you got a cookie!

So I grabbed some whole wheat graham flour, some rolled oats, cinnamon and nutmeg. I decided to add baking powder....that seems to show up in baking recipes a lot. I have no clue what it does but figured it was best to stay safe and add it. Then I mixed Maple Syrup, canola oil, a little bit of rice milk, vanilla extract in a bowl. I added these two mixtures together, threw in some organic, dark chocolate chips and baked at 350 degrees for fifteen minutes.

To my utter shock this came out delicious. So I recommend you put this concept into action yourself:

Dry stuff - Sticky stuff - Chocolate chips - Bake

It may not make the best cookie in the world. But this is certainly the simplest cookie recipe in existence!

stay positive,

matthew

Bisphenol A

No, this is not a new pharmaceutical that someone walking next to a child pedaling a tricycle tells you about. Those are funny aren't they. They always claiming they got their life back, all they had to do was ask their doctor about _________. I am not quite sure where their life went? In all seriousness, this stuff leaches from PolyCarbonate water bottles and gets into your water.

Now, Positive Eating is the furthest thing from a "shock and awe" campaign. We are not even going to discuss all the nasty implications of this chemical. Because there is plenty of opportunity to have fun with this.

Find a simple glass bottle. Glass is probably pretty safe...we've been using it a while now and everyone seems to like it. Here is what I've been using.

Then I thought to myself....."well that is pretty boring". So I adorned it with this very simple sticker. I also am advertising my blog! That was the reason they started handing out those water bottles to begin with so made as well keep the tradition alive. I encourage you to create your own water container! If you would like to advertise for Positive Eating on the side of yours feel free. However, I would simply ask that you create a more appealing and eye catching logo than I did.
Stay Positive,

matthew