Wednesday, February 23, 2011

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: learning from a gorilla study

The hubs sent me this link which I thought was incredibly insightful!  We can definitely learn a lot from this study.  Thank you mono!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: more like UN-wellness wednesday!

So last Tuesday on my quest to trying out different restaurants in my neighborhood, I ended up acquiring the foodie's GREATEST enemy - FOOD POISONING!!!  That's right folks!  I was ill for three days straight.  My husband thinks I had it coming but judge for yourself.

So my brother and sister-in-law were over last Tuesday night.  I was too busy cleaning out the pantry preparing for our move that I didn't have time to cook.  My brother wanted burgers and my sister-in-law wanted sushi.  Well guess what?  There actually is a place that serves both in one restaurant!  Yup AND it has good reviews and came highly recommended by my girlfriend. The place is called Kings Burgers - Got Sushi?

So the three of us waited for the hubs to get off jiu jitsu class to go to this magical burger/sushi joint.  The place looked like a burger joint with a counter to order burgers and fries, although one section of it is for sushi.  My husband and brother ordered from the burger side, which they actually had to order at the counter.  My sister-in-law and I ordered a plethora of sushi and sushi rolls.  The sushi didn't look bad and the rolls were pretty tasty, and the hubs and bro thought their food was great.

Well later that night my stomach wasn't feeling so great.  I went to bed with a massive belly ache and I was just tossing and turning.  I felt warm and had the chills. The next morning, I threw up...A LOT.  I threw up my dinner from the night before...and actually felt happy about that because I thought I would feel great immediately after.  But no, it just got worse!  My fever persisted from the night before but on top of that I now had diarrhea.  All I did that day was sleep hoping I could just sleep it off.

As my fever, nausea and diarrhea continued onto the next day, I decided to go to Urgent Care.  The doctor confirmed my suspicion - food poisoning that has turned into the stomach flu.  The doctor gave me 2 shots on my bum that day (which I'm still recovering from as it left bruises!) - for nausea and an antibiotic in case I had a bacterial infection.  That day, I rested and drank lots of Pedialyte and coconut juice.

I thought the worst was over until the next day when I had the Montezuma's revenge aka "the shits."  It was AWFUL!  I still had the diarrhea so I had to keep hydrated so I drank lots of liquids.  But as soon as I drank something, it would come out the other way almost instantaneously.  Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in my bathroom that day.

Finally on Saturday afternoon, I decided to be brave and go to IKEA with the hubs.  I saw the Swedish IKEA cookies called Ballerinas and I had to have them!  I ate them on our way back to the house, half of the bag in fact and I knew the hubs was secretly judging me although he didn't verbalize it haha! Sure enough...I was able to keep them down!  In fact I went to the restroom expecting the worse but no...OMG never was I so excited to have semi-solid poo in my life!  After 3 days of not being able to keep any food down, the Ballerina cookies stayed!  Oh I love IKEA for so many reasons!

I'm back to my healthy self, even working out.  I'll continue my writing now and I am not eating sushi quite yet...just to be safe.  :)

Monday, February 7, 2011

HOMEMADE MEALS MONDAYS: garam masala roasted chicken

So the hubs and I watched the documentary Food Inc. last year and it totally changed the way we viewed food, specially chicken and beef.  You see he and I love roasted chicken. We would always get a whole roasted chicken from Costco because they are always so juicy and so plumped...until we saw that documentary. There is a reason why those chickens are so big and it is not good! (Watch the documentary if you haven't!)  So we vowed NEVER to eat Tyson roasted chicken from Costco EVER AGAIN.

So I had to come up with my own recipe using organic, free-range chicken. One of my girlfriends from work has suggested that I try garam masala with my protein as it is very tasty.  So I bought a little container of Spicely organic garam masala from Wholefoods a while back. Garam masala is an all-purpose spice used mainly in Indian dishes.  Reading straight from the packaging...it contains cinnamon, coriander, fennel, cumin, black pepper, cardamom and cloves. That's it! So I came up with a very simple roasted chicken recipe using this and I was pleasantly surprised on how moist and tasty it is! The hubs really loved it too, so I'll probably make it quite often!

GARAM MASALA ROASTED CHICKEN
  
1 organic, free-range whole chicken (about 3 lbs)
1/4 cup of organic butter (slightly melted)
1/2 organic apple of any kind (cut in half)
1 tablespoon of garam masala (try the Spicely brand as it has no salt, preservatives, wheat, etc.)
salt & pepper

ingredients
First pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Rinse the whole chicken, removing the giblets, etc. and pat dry.  Now brush the melted butter all over the chicken including the cavity (I used my hand and it was messy so I suggest some sort of a brush).  Add salt and pepper everywhere.  Then rub the garam masala seasoning all over including the cavity.  Then insert the apple slices inside the cavity to keep the chicken moist.  Finally, place the chicken on a roasting pan and bake for an hour and a half (until the internal temp is 180 degrees).  That's it!  Super simple, super moist and super yum!!!  :)

garam masala roasted chicken - yum!!!

Friday, February 4, 2011

FEATURE FOOD FRIDAYS: dine la week

I LOVE Dine LA!  It's an opportunity to try out nice restaurants in the Los Angeles area for less!  It includes a prefix menu to include appetizer, main entree and dessert for a set price - yum, yum!  This year, I went to Border Grill in DTLA for lunch, dinner at Fogo de Chao in Beverly Hills, dinner at Chaya in DTLA and Border Grill (again!).  ALL were very good!  Check out the food from my second trip to Border Grill...

crackalicious tortilla chips and salsa...sooo good!
baja ceviche...one of the most tasty and freshest ceviche I've ever had
tortilla soup
chicken poblano enchiladas
chuleta de puerco en pepian taco = awesomeness
capirotada aka badass bread pudding
pastel rufina - croissant-like pastry with cream and chocolate chunks, so good!






Wednesday, February 2, 2011

WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS: running with those funky shoes

Vibram Five Fingers Bikilas

I am not an avid runner.  I've done 5ks, 10ks and even a marathon but I am not an avid runner.  But I do enjoy it!  So in 2004, I decided to join Aids Project Los Angeles to train for the New Orleans Mardi Gras marathon.  I mean how can you pass that up?  A good cause?  Mardi Gras?  Great food? Beignets, anyone?  So I trained, I finished, and New Orleans was awesome (so much so that I visited it again the next year for a friend's bachelorette party)!

So a few years ago, I decided to train for another marathon - the inaugural Pasadena marathon!  I started to train and train and train and when we got to up to 13 miles, my right knee started to hurt.  Well it was bound to happen as I was running a lot but I was sure it would go away.  So weeks later, my knee still hurt but even more so.  So I decided to see an orthopedic surgeon who happens to be the sports doctor for the USC Men's basketball team...and he was hot - thanks Jane for the referral!  He checked out my knee, asked the routine questions.  Have you been training? Did you change out your running shoes after so many miles? Do you stretch  before and after running?  I did everything correctly while training.  So his diagnosis - "You have runner's knee.  You really can't do anything about it." LAME!  So my knee will hurt if I continue to run.  I was pissed as I recruited a couple of friends to run the marathon with me!  So I stopped training. :(

I continued to run but not long distances.  Months later, my boyfriend (who is now the hubs) read about these funky shoes on Men's Health magazine, apparently they simulate running barefoot.  So he got us each a pair to try.  I was really excited as the hubs DID NOT like running AT ALL and he was all of a sudden interested in running, yeah! We put them on and went on a trail run.  It was AWESOME!  It was like running barefoot...I felt like a little kid running around this hiking trail.  It was exhilarating!  It was so much fun!  So we continued to run with them on weekends.  Months later, I noticed something - my knee no longer hurt!  These funky shoes worked for me.  They simulate running barefoot and humans are made to run barefoot...and it totally fixed my knee!

So now I can't really run using any other brand of shoes.  I tried going back to regular running shoes and my knee started to hurt again so I am never going back!  Funky Vibram Five Finger shoes it is (my second pair now) or someday, I may be courageous enough to go all out and run...barefoot.  Whoa! We shall see!  :)