This morning, I found out that a friend of mine has cancer. No, wait, that’s Cancer, with a capital ‘C.’ I’ve been processing this all day and am still at a loss for words. I am praying for her health. But my friend’s story isn’t mine to tell.

Learning that this wonderful, kind, sweet woman has cancer hit me like a ton of bricks. Cancer doesn’t care how good or nice you are. It just attacks, a cruel and invasive enemy.

This got me thinking … What can we do so that we set ourselves up to avoid this monstrous disease? How can we give ourselves a fighting chance against cancer?

We can’t prevent it. But what we can do is take steps to give ourselves the best chance of avoiding it. How? Eat well. Live well. Be fit.

For diet, there’s something called The Anti-Cancer Diet, which stresses lots of fruits and veggies, healthy oils and fats and more plant-based food than meat. It sounds similar to the Mediterranean Diet and Clean Eating. It’s important to think about what you are eating and make deliberate, informed choices.

See also Eat. Live. Be. For a Better 2011.

Then there is exercise — regular exercise. As if by a strange coincidence, the kids and I started jogging this week, and I am considering running a 5K. But whether you jog or hit the gym or Zumba like crazy, doing something to raise your heart rate and keep your body fit helps.

So, with The Anti-Cancer Diet in mind, Paige and I made this for lunch today. This recipe draws on healthy, anti-cancer foods like cauliflower, sweet potatoes and garbanzo beans. The filling combination of sweet and savory is perfect over rice. If you want to up the health ante, use brown rice.

What’s your favorite anti-cancer food?
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I don’t have a recipe for you today. I don’t even really have a story. I just have a couple photos of my attempts to make baked sweet potato chips.

I’ve been working on a homemade baked sweet potato chips recipe over the past week, trying different temperatures, times and seasonings. But, so far, the results have been disappointing. I just haven’t found that sweet, crisp, salty chip yet. Read the rest of this entry…

Happy Monday! Today is Eat. Live. Be. day and since I am swamped with work this week, I am going to keep it short and sweet. This week’s topic is our go-to lunches. I love this topic, because I am pretty devoted to a delicious sandwich that I eat regularly.

Yes, that’s a turkey sandwich on 7-grain bread. I eat this several times a week, when I’m busy. Not normally with chips (this picture is from last year … I swear!). It’s super fast, the kids love ‘em too and it tastes good. This is my favorite version, featuring avocado. It’s also tasty as a California Turkey Club Wrap, with bacon. Read the rest of this entry…

Happy Friday! It’s the end of the week and time to let loose. So, when Will got home from school today, I called the kids into the kitchen for some cookie making and decorating. Check it out:

Mwah! Love the shaped cookie trays that we used for these.

The little chefs ... before they baked up a storm.

Pressing the cookie dough into the cookie tray openings ... We used premade dough to make it speedier.

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When it comes to citrus, lime is my clear favorite. Yes, I like orange juice and the occasional grapefruit. And yes, lemon is perfect for some dishes. But I save my lovin’ for the lime.

Limeaid, lime in guacamole, Lime White Chocolate Cookies — I love it all. So, lime in a dressing? Naturally, when the idea popped into my head, I was all over it. Lime, olive oil, cumin, paprika … oh yea! And what could be better to toss it with than a fabulous black bean salad?

My mouth was watering thinking about it. Oh wait, it still is.

The tart lime, creamy avocado, sweet red peppers and meaty black beans go perfectly together. The shrimp finish off the salad so nicely, giving it substance.

I served this over Boston bibb lettuce leaves, but you could plate it over baby greens, rice or without any base. It’s all up to you on that one.

Another great thing about this salad? It’s ready in about 15 minutes. I pan-fried these extra-large shrimp, but any cooked shrimp will do — and if you use precooked shrimp, it’s even faster to whip up (maybe 10 minutes?). Perfect for a speedy lunch on a busy day.

What’s your favorite fast lunch?

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Sunday was a wild, busy day. We spent the morning outside, then rushed off to a family lunch, ran some errands, rushed home, the kids ate dinner and then it was off to Will’s track practice. By the time we got home for the evening, it was late and time for the tired children to go to bed. In short order, they were rushed off to bed, read short books and tucked in.

Once that was all done, I had a second to just stop. In the rush to feed the kids at a decent hour and before track, I didn’t take the time to feed myself. And I was hungry. Obviously.

And it was in that hunger that I first made this recipe. It was light, but satisfying. The smokiness of roasted broccoli went so well with the toasty garlic and browned feta. Yum. And I liked it so much that I made it again the next next for everyone to enjoy at dinnertime. Will loved it. Paige and Shawn? Not so much.

If you like broccoli and garlic and feta … which are basically the only ingredients … then you will love this. I swear.

What’s your favorite veggie to roast?
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Remember how I was meal planning for a while? It worked so well, and being organized (and planned) made the evenings go really smoothly.

Unfortunately, I really haven’t done that in a long time. In fact, my meal planning calendar still lists a week in October. As a result, dinner has become a great big hectic feat — I hate that. It’s awful when you see 5 p.m. fast approaching with nothing defrosted and no idea what to make. Clearly, I need to start doing that again.

When I took out pork chops for dinner last night, I knew I needed to have a plan long before dinnertime arrived. Otherwise, I would be freaking out, and trying to figure out how to turn them into something tasty.

I rarely make pork of any kind, so I turned to my vast collection of cookbooks. I don’t often cook from cookbooks, but when I do it’s because I need to make something that will most likely work. Since I am relatively inexperienced with pork, this stir-fry recipe allowed me to experiment with a new way of making chops … and it turned out great. I will definitely use this cooking method again (and this recipe too).

Making this Quick Pork and Peanut Stir-Fry was so easy. I traded out chicken broth for vegetable stock that I had in the fridge. I also used a low-sodium soy sauce and halved the amount of ginger in the recipe. The result was an intensely flavored dish that everyone polished off fast. I loved the sweet-ish sauce with the crunch of the peanuts and onioniness of the scallions (aka green onions).

The trick to making this quickly is to have all the ingredients ready to go when you start cooking. It takes maybe 15 minutes to make, max, so you won’t be waiting long to enjoy it.

What’s your favorite stir-fry?
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We had a beautiful weekend, filled with hikes and playing and seeing good friends. And Will had his first track team practice. Then it snowed this morning. Crazy.

Anyway, it’s Monday and that means Eat. Live. Be. For a Better 2011. Today’s topic is A Day in the Life, which is all about giving a concrete look at how you are tackling your goals.

It took me a few tries to write this post, because I didn’t want to bore you with the mundane. Everyone gets up and does their usual mix of work, home stuff and eats. So I figured an overview of my practices and philosophy would be a better way to go.

Basically, no two days are the same, but there are some constants:

• I always eat breakfast, though it’s not always traditional breakfast (case in point: Sauteed Leeks on French Bread).
• I try to pack as many veggies and fruits in as I can. We have a basket of fruit on the counter, and when I find myself heading toward a snack attack, I grab an apple or banana or whatever. When we’re in a rush (like last night), and I feed the kids dinner early, then I have a veggie-filled dinner much later. Last night’s involved a lot of roasted broccoli, a good amount of sweet potatoes and two little super hot chicken wings.
• Though I don’t exercise formally often, I do get a workout in daily. Lately, that’s meant lots of yard work, and it’s really hard core — everything hurts today. But, then again, that could be the planks, crunches and push-ups I did yesterday. Still, an hour or two of heavy duty raking (we have a gravel driveway … and that gravel all has to be raked out of the grass back onto said driveway come spring) is a good workout. Read the rest of this entry…

Earlier this week, a farm in our town started their preliminary work for the growing season. They begin by readying their greenhouse and planting seeds for their crops (and they sell some of the started plants too). In a month or so, the first crops will be planted in the fields, and their garden center will be hopping with hopeful people with fanciful dreams of amazing gardens.

As I look outside at our disheveled gardens, I am struck with how much work will have to happen before we can grow anything this year. Rocks from our gravel driveway were pushed far onto our lawn this winter. They need to be moved back again. Leaves, long forgotten under the snow, wait to be raked up and moved to our compost pile. My fenced garden of raised beds for growing veggies needs to be cleaned up, fertilized and planned. And will this be the year that I turn the grassy paths in it to gravel ones? I’m not sure.

And all this has to happen fast — between rainy days and chilly winds — so that it’s all picked up before the first blades of grass and rapidly growing weeds start appearing. It’s a race against Mother Nature, and I’m cold and sore just thinking of it.

I never really thought much about growing seasons and yard prep and all that until I had kids. It’s amazing how those sweet little people can make you so much more mindful about everything — where your food comes from, how you eat and living kindly with nature.

While I am in the beginning stages of planning for spring, it’s still soup season. And heck, when it’s cold like it still is (even on lovely sunny days like today), soup is just about the best thing ever — warm, comforting and belly-filling.

This Potato Broccoli Cheddar Soup is a perfect late winter soup. It’s creamy, though it contains no cream, and flavorful, though the ingredients list is relatively short and simple. One of the greatest discoveries I ever made about soup making was that pureeing potatoes in a soup can give it that lovely creamy texture without the added fat of stirring in heavy cream.

The flavor reminds me of a broccoli and cheddar baked potato (which is especially good if you love broccoli … and broccoli and cheddar baked potatoes … like I do), except it’s in a comforting, warm soup.

Here I’ve topped it with some chopped roasted red peppers and Westminster Oyster Crackers. The cool, sweet peppers and crunchy, almost buttery crackers are a fabulous compliment to the soup.

A few months back, I received a box of these crackers in the mail, and was instantly smitten. Oyster crackers and I have a long relationship, dating back to my days in Catholic elementary school. I used to sneak them during band practice (I played the clarinet. Poorly. Um, yea. Might have helped if I didn’t eat during practice, I suppose).

So, these Westminster Oyster Crackers. They impressed me. First, there was the flavor and texture — an almost buttery flavor, and a satisfying puffy crunch. Then there was the ingredients list, which is simple and 100 percent pronounceable. They contain ingredients I have not only heard of, but own! So, we’ve been munching on these for a few months now — as snacks, in soups, etc. The kids love taking them for snack time at school.

It’s still chilly here, so this soup is perfect. With the crackers and roasted red peppers, of course.

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Maple syrup is a staple in our house. We eat it on pancakes (like these delish Pumpkin Chocolate Chip ones) and use it to glaze veggies and meats. And it always has to be the real thing. No imitations, or else I just won’t eat it.

The kids know that we only use real maple syrup. Why? Because in a time not that long ago, Shawn didn’t. There was maple syrup and “Daddy’s syrup,” and the kids quickly learned the difference: maple syrup comes from trees … Daddy’s comes from a factory.

But maybe a year ago, Shawn gave up his syrup in favor of the real deal. I can’t remember when it happened, but I’m glad it did. Now, we only have maple syrup.

About a month ago, Will started asking questions about maple syrup. Where does it come from? How is it made? Who makes it? So, I figured it was time to head off to a maple syrup fest so he could see for himself how maple sap becomes maple syrup.

Years ago, I covered the opening of maple syrup season for a newspaper, checking out a family farm and covering a super informative festival. It was awesome, so I knew a fest would be perfect for this. So, I did a quick Google search and found one not too far away.

We ended up heading to the Open House Maple Festival at  Sullivan Farm in New Milford, which is run by the New Milford Youth Agency. Guides showed us everything about the process, even letting us sample Grade A and Grade B syrup. Read the rest of this entry…