Hey man, stop grilling my veggies.

Today was a true cooperative effort. I was in the mood for a grilled veggie sandwich and picked up some really fresh wraps at the local Whole Foods (where the award winning Sushi Chef Raymond Tu serves food) and an eggplant. I thought I would bring some peppers and zucchini to work to grill up on my trusty George Foreman (which is stored at work with my blender, rice cooker, pasta maker, hot pot, cutting board and utensils). On my way to work I realized I did not bring any of these items. My trusty colleague Matt L. came through with a some summer squash and a zucchini.
We grilled these as they were with no oil and wrapped them up with some Roasted Garlic Salsa. This was really good. Many of my co-workers were hovering over our food with focused gazes. I believe the slang terminology for what they were doing is "grilling". I am happy people are "grilling me". One reason is, I love attention. The other reason is grilling makes for a delicious experience!

stay postive,

matthew

PS

I am kind of curious about the use of these food related statements now

"I am steaming"
"That guy really cooked my goose"
"That's Hot"
"Out of the frying pan and into the fire"
"She's got a salty attitude"
"Holy Mackerel"

let me know if you can think of any others.

A "Balanced" Meal

Do you remember Saturday morning cereal commercials. They used to flash a picture of Golden Grahams with a glass of orange juice, a glass of milk, some toast and tell you that there cereal was part of "balanced breakfast". Tonight Caitlyn came up with a fantastic "balanced dinner". This was another kind of balance. We were making rice pilaf and sweet potato chips. The sweet potato chips were made in this way:

sweet potatoes chopped thin
put in a baking pan
drizzled with olive oil
salted with Garlic and Sea Salt
Dashed with Rosemary
and cooked for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees


We needed something to balance the saltiness of the chips and the pilaf. What balances the salty taste? The sweet taste! Cailtyn chopped up some apples and put them on our plate as well. This balanced out our taste buds and helped to make us feel satisfied and nourished :)

Stay Balanced,

matthew

PS
We also without trying enjoyed a delicous vegan meal!

Raymond and Lye Tu's marvelous Sushi Bar

I would like to introduce you to Raymond Tu. He operates the Sushi Bar at Whole Foods Market in Andover, MA. As a native New Englander I vowed to never eat raw fish. Fish was meant to be cooked, that was simply the New England way. Well the tricky things with vows is nothing can stop you from breaking them. I don't know how it happened but one day I drifted over to the Sushi Bar and picked up some spicy tuna rolls. I was hooked! I've been eating Sushi on a weekly basis since then.

The Sushi that Raymond and Lye Tu make is of superior quality. They make it with loving and caring attention. Their customers are truly blessed. This post is not meant to be an advertisement. It simply must be stated that Raymond and Lye Tu are the most positive people I've ever seen preparing food. I am under obligation as an international expert on the practice of positive eating to let you know about them. They are setting the path for putting love into food. Ry Chi has experienced an actual sensation of physically being hugged after eating their wonderful Sushi plates.

You don't have to take my word for it. They are the recipients of numerous awards for their fantastic service and there is often a line of people picking up combo plates and Sushi platters.

I also want to thank Ry Chi for taking the photo above. Doesn't Raymond just look like he can't wait to serve you Sushi!

stay positive,

matthew

Paper or Plastic? That is so last centuty......

I know it sounds like a stretch but I now carry the foremost in fashion statements when it comes to handbags. I am not talking Louis Vitton, Coach or Kate Spade (how do I know these names????) I am talking reusable shopping bags! Everyone is getting them. You simply leave them in your car and uses them to lug around your groceries while shopping. Let me tell you I prefer this! You know how many times I went to the grocery store and there were no available hand baskets!

I also want you to notice that the Whole Foods bag featured in the photo is authentic. You can tell it is a real Whole Foods reusable shopping bag by the darker green spheres inside the apple graphic. The knockoffs can't reproduce that! The bags they give me at school are also great. They are simple and functional. Plus, if people ask me about Integrative Nutrition I get to talk about using food as a way to bring positivity into your life. Which is simply my favorite topic of conversation.

If you don't want to be left in the fashion dust yet again I recommend picking up a reusable shopping bag. The real ones are 99 cents. You may find a knock-off for 5 or 6 cents...but why not treat yourself and get the real thing!

stay positively fashionable,

matthew

Staying positive even when the pasta is mushy

Hi guys,

Today I brutally failed in my attempt to cook Sprouted Whole Grain Pasta. I made two attempts at this. Once with my pasta cooker and another time trying to cook it in my rice cooker. Simply put, it wasn't happening today folks. I was not even able to supply you with a picture of this debacle...because I could not locate the camera. Things were quite awry in the realm of office cooking.

Nevertheless, my primary food was well in tact. I enjoyed my mushy pasta with friends and talked about the wacky ways of the world. I went back to the kitchen to get some yogurt and low and behold an entire plate of fruit salad was sitting there.

I snatched the whole tray and brought it back as an offering to my fellow positive eaters! Just goes to show you that being positive always gives you a great return.....so start investing!

matthew

Forbidden Foods

This weekend I ate a forbidden food. My mother told me she was going to make Steelhead Trout and was interested in having someone show her how to use her recently acquired rice cooker (if you don't own a rice cooker after reading this blog...you must really be attached to your pots and pans). Right before heading home I found some black rice at the grocery store. This was just too cool. I picked it up and thought this would be a great addition to her meal.

The story of Forbidden Rice was that it was kept under lock and key by Chinese Emperors because it was a powerful aphrodisiac. This is why it is called forbidden! The emperor shared it amongst his court when necessary. The rice was thought to be grown strictly on Royal Grounds. So I truly did eat like a king on Saturday night.

The rice is lower in gluten than brown rice and has a high iron count. It also gives off a popcorn smell during cooking. The water also turn purple during cooking. This stains so be careful!

stay positive,

matthew

PS

The meal was absolutely fantastic!

Spice is nice!

Hey everybody. How are you.....and you better not answer "not too bad". If I answered "not too bad" to people, I would be lying. Usually, I am doing great! Even if things I prefer to answer "Fantastic" just because it is a fun little game I like to play. Of course, in that case I would still be lying.....who's the judge of this stuff anyway!

Yesterday's office meal was kind of bland. It needed some spice. I tend to think big so I envisioned myself bringing my entire spice rack to work. I decided I've littered work with enough cooking appliances...I better leave the spices at home. Instead, this morning I took the ingredients I needed and placed them in small tupperware containers. That little jar with the red cap had cumin, curry, nutmeg, chili powder and mustard seed in it. This morning before I left I sprinkled a little bit of each into it and then when I got to work I added them to:

1 can of Coconut Milk
4 Tablespoons Peanut Butter

This served as a drizzle for steamed Garnett Yams (really just a big sweet potato)

Here is a picture:
Upon tasting it Matt L. exclaimed "Not too bad"!

hahaha......see how it doesn't really match up with the emphatic passion we should bring to eating as well as life. His actual words were:

"This is good "

He then immediately apologized for using an expletive and said

"This is really good stuff, "

He will get the hang of it eventually. In the meantime may all your meals be positive!

Have a fantastic day

matthew

Watercress....pleasant sounding huh?

What's behind the glare....Watercress!

I bought this from the Whole Foods yesterday just because the name sounded so fresh and alive. Say it with me-----Watercress.

One thing about dark green vegetables is they are power packed with nutrients. They are so packed that these nutrients can be hard to get out. One method to get at them is cooking. Cooking is great....but it is kind of like blowing up an entire city just because you have a quarrel with one person. That doesn't really make sense.

We still need to coax these beautiful life giving friends out of the tight cellular wall that contains them. Last night I chopped up the Watercress and placed it in a Ziplock bag with some vinegar and dried cranberries. The vinegar will act as an agent to break down the cell walls and let the vital nutrients out. Ancient traditions put vinegar on all sorts of vegetable for this very reason. It also helps increase their shelf life. This method survives today and is known as "pickling" as in Pickles!

Of course, I didn't place these items in a jar and leave them on a shelf for six months because I just can't wait to eat this beautiful sounding plant --- Watercress.

stay positive,

matthew

New York City's Most Positive Cook

This weekend I was in New York for another incredible weekend of schooling at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. My very good friend, Nick, invited me to attend an Andrea Beaman cooking class with him. Andrea Beaman is a rock star chef. She was on Bravo's Top Chef and is now the host of Wise UP! a television show that sends Andrea around the country exploring holistic approaches to health.

Her energy and positivity was absolutely Beamin! (I could not avoid using that....sorry) With the help of her assistant Donna Sonkin (her website) they took us through a fun filled evening in NYC. Andrea and Donna are cutting edge in their application of holistic nutrition to cooking and fun! The passion that was brought to cooking was infectious and everyone left saying they could not wait to attend another class.

Here is a great recipe from her website!

Brown Rice Pilaf

- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 leek, cleaned and diced
- 4-5 mushrooms, sliced thin
- 1 tsp. herbed sea salt seasoning
- 1 cup brown basmati rice, soaked overnight
- 1 3/4 cups water

Saute leek for 1-2 minutes. Add mushrooms and herbed salt seasoning and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add rice and water and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce flame to simmer and cook for 40 minutes.


If you took the best nutrients possible and formed them into a personality you would have Andrea Beaman! I strongly encourage you to check out her website:

http://www.andreabeaman.com.

Stay positive,

matthew

PS: I have not started her book yet but I am sure it is going to be quite a ride

Valentine's Day Pizza!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I promised a suprise for you and boy did I deliver. Follow me as I take us through this love drenched experience!
Here are the toppings for this Thursday night's pizza. That's right that pot is a 30 year old fondue heater. In it is a melted brick of 65% Cacao chocoloate. On the right are chopped strawberries. These two foods have been enjoying a hot and steamy relationship for years now!
Here is the crust! The universal symbol for love! It is kind of funny how this looks nothing like an actual human heart. I thought about making crust in the shape of an actual human heart. I even broke out an anatomy book my mother bought me for Christmas. It was pretty complicated. I struggle with cutting hearts out of pieces of paper. Thank God Caitlyn is responsible for making the crust :)

Here is the finished product.

Pizza Crust

2 cups wheat flour
2 cups oat bran
2 Tablespoons Canola Oil
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons of "Brown Sugar" ("how come you taste so good" - Rolling Stones)
1 teaspoon of yeast
1 Cup warm water

Toppings
melted chocolate
chopped strawberries
lots of love

Here Caitlyn and I are with our Valentine Pizza. This was nothing short of amazing. You got to try it. "Try a little a tenderness" (Donkey, Shrek) while you are at it.

"All you need is love" - John Lennon

matthew