It's fig season! Easy gourmet appie recipe

Yesterday I was sent home from a dear friend's place with a purse full of fresh figs from the tree in her back yard (that's why I like to carry such a big purse - you never know when the product of someone's garden is going to need transportation to your kitchen). Yum!! There are few things I enjoy more than fresh figs.

I had a party to go to last night, and all I could think about were figs figs figs. So I did a little research online, and came across this recipe for "Elegant Fig Appetizers". Minimal ingredients, and it took all of 10 minutes to make as I was rushing to get party-pretty. It was absolutely delicious and a total hit. Thank you to Christine M on allrecipes.com for the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 12 fresh figs, halved
• 4 ounces herbed goat cheese (chevre)
• 24 almonds
• 1 tablespoon honey (I used agave instead)
  
• 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven broiler for high heat.
2. Place the fig halves, cut side up, on a baking sheet. Top each half with about 1/2 teaspoon goat cheese. Place one almond on each, press to push the cheese slightly into each fig.
3. Broil the figs in the preheated oven until the cheese is soft and the almonds are turning a rich shade of brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the broiler and let cool for 5 minutes. Arrange the figs on a serving platter and drizzle with honey and balsamic vinegar. Serve warm.

Ode to a perfect Sunday

Very atypically for me, I left this past weekend wide open and plan-free. To be at home for a weekend is unusual for me. To be at home and without a jam-packed calendar is unheard of.

The results were delightful, and more evidence that leaving space in your life for the unknown and for self-care reaps tremendous rewards.

At the risk of being self-indulgent, let me share my day with you:

It began with a nice snoozy sleep in. The type of sleep in where you wake up, aware that you could get up if you had to, but that you can sleep in too, and so you choose rest. And then you delight in the “I have nowhere to be right now, and this bed is so comfy I choose to stay right here” feeling. Result: a day begun well rested and steeped in a strong dose of appreciation.

Then it was breakfast time. Yummy eggs scrambled with lots of fresh veggies, a wee bit of sausage cause it’s Sunday and fun, and a piece of buttery (gluten-free) toast. Wow. So very good. Result: starting the day with delicious home-cooked whole foods that nourish body and soul.

After a little encouragement from my partner in crime, we brought out the bikes and went for a nice long ride, ending with a cruise along the beach: probably my favorite place to bike. The day was glorious, the bike through town surprisingly casual and relaxed (I live in LA, remember – that doesn’t often happen here), the beach an amazing treat at the end. Result: leave the car at home, and simply getting around town becomes great exercise and tons of fun.

I biked over to my little garden plot in Venice, and spent a couple of hours weeding, delighting at everything that’s been growing abundantly in my absence, and planting the next round of yummies. I harvested some fresh greens, peppers, strawberries, and carrots that I planted as seeds or seedlings, and felt so much love for the air and sunlight and dirt that spin their magic into deliciousness for my dinner plate. Result: I connected strongly to where my food comes from, and was amazed at what just two hours in the garden can produce.

A friend called: the wind was strong and the ocean was calm. Did I want to come out for a sail? Um, YES! Could the day get more perfect? Great friends, beautiful boat, the wind, the ocean, the sun. My cheeks hurt I smiled so hard. Result: a day fully spent outdoors, playing and laughing and feeling fabulous.

The bike back home (mostly uphill) was fast and fun, and we stopped at the market on the way home to pick up the missing pieces (some grass-fed steak – yum!) for dinner. We sipped a glass of red wine by candlelight, ate our delicious home-cooked meal, and relived every perfect moment of the day. I fell into bed exhausted, happy, and forget counting sheep – I was counting my many, many blessings.

What did I learn from this day? I learned how amazing a day without plans can be. How important and nurturing it is to spend a day almost entirely outside. How much you can integrate activity and exercise into your day in a way that you barely notice you’ve done it. How just relaxing into the weekend and taking it as it comes and enjoying every little minute of it can be one of the most nourishing things you can do for yourself.

Summer-inspired healthy habits

There’s no better time than the summer to make a renewed commitment to getting healthy. The long days, the blue skies, the warm evenings… all provide ample opportunity to build in healthy habits that are so much fun you barely notice they’re good for you.

Here’s a small sample of some healthy habits that I’ve been playing with the last couple of months. Try them out and let me know if you have some to add!

• Early morning yoga, outside in your backyard or patio. You don’t have to be a full-fledged yogi to do some nice morning stretches. Dust off that yoga mat, take it outside at the crack of dawn, and do some sun salutations.
• Long evening walks. Explore your neighborhood. Take the dog out. If you don’t have a dog, take your cat. Or your spouse/child/boyfriend/girlfriend/next-door-neighbor/coworker. Or even just yourself. It’s a great opportunity to turn off the TV and move your body.
• Get to know your farmer’s market. Dedicate a weekend morning to explore what’s growing in your area. Pick a fruit or vegetable you’ve never tried before, ask the farmer how to prepare it, and try it out! You’ll be surprised at what you come up with. (That’s how I learned about Kohlrabi – a vegetable I couldn’t even pronounce, let alone prepare, until a month ago.)
• Spice up your water. Summer’s a time when it’s more important than ever to pay attention to your water intake. Add a few slices of cucumber, some fresh mint, or a slice of grapefruit, orange, lemon or lime to make water a little less ordinary.
• Get out of the gym. Gym’s are obviously great places to exercise, especially in those deep dark months of winter. But on glorious sunny summer days, consider moving your gym workout outdoors. Dig your old Frisbee out of the far recesses of the hall closet. Exercise can double as play time, and vice versa.
• Take the family for a hike. Pack up a picnic, bring lots of water, and head into the hills. In most cities you don’t have to go far to find some beautiful outdoor spaces to explore.

Meditative Moments

One of the often-forgotten but oh-so-critical elements to healthy living is a quiet and peaceful mind. Clear thinking, reduced stress, and better sleep are just some of the many benefits attributed to such a state.

Personally, this is one of my biggest health challenges.

When I think of a quiet mind, I conjure an image of zenned out bliss… and in most moments of my day, the utter busy-ness of my brain keeps me far away from anything close to this. My overactive mind can propel me out of the deepest sleep, distract me from even the most compelling conversation, and have a significantly negative impact on my quality of life.
I’m not a big New Years resolution kind of gal, but this year I made a commitment to incorporating the one thing that I felt would impact me in every aspect of my life: meditation.

Being me, and never doing anything lightly (ever the perfectionist – see my last post “Lessons from a two-legged dog” for some reflections on that little beast), I launched in with a commitment to sit still and calm my mind for 10 minutes every morning. I promised myself I would do this EVERY DAY of 2009.

January 1 didn’t start off so well. A little too ambitious with the festivities the night before. Enough said.

January 2: well… I’m still at a dance convention and where am I going to find somewhere to be still and quiet by myself for 10 whole minutes?

January 3: still at the dance convention… still making excuses.

January 4th I am back home and force myself to sit, this time for 40 minutes (to make up for the last three days you see) and I get about 20 minutes into it when the phone rings, I answer it, and that’s that.

I think since January 1st (yes, I am well aware that it’s April 30th) I have sat quietly and meditated for a grand total of 2hrs. That’s roughly 2 minutes a day. Not bad, but nowhere near the 10 minutes /day I originally committed to. And probably 1.5 of those hours were “make up” sessions where I was on an airplane and thought I’d take advantage of the enforced sitting-still time to cram a bunch of 10 minute meditations in at once.

Now, I’m not knocking my efforts here. Those were 2 hrs of quiet time that I wouldn’t have afforded myself had I not made this explicit commitment. But I did realize that this 10 minutes/day commitment isn’t working for me and I need some amendments.

Which is how I came up with what I like to call “Meditative Moments.” If you remember the lesson of the two-legged dog and that working with what you’ve got is much more productive than waiting for the perfect set of circumstances to appear, you’ll have already guessed what I’m talking about. Meditative Moments are those moments throughout the day – and there are many of them if you start paying attention –where you have the opportunity to sit still, to take a deep breath or two or even three, and calm your mind.

These are the moments at a traffic light where you turn off the music, put down your phone and just take in the moment of stillness before zooming off again. They’re the moments when you sit down to a meal without (gasp!) the TV on, a book, email, facebook, your phone, the radio, or any other distraction, and just enjoy the meal. They’re the extra few moments you take at the end of a hot shower, just breathing in the steam, letting the water fall over your shoulders and feeling your body relax.

These meditative moments have become my new obsession. I look for them everywhere. And, as a result, I find them everywhere.

Are they as effective as sitting in total silence and stillness for 10 minutes every morning? I’m not sure. If I get to a place where I can build that into my life, I’ll let you know. But in the meantime, finding and really milking these moments has been a wonderful way of keeping myself calm, grounded and even peaceful on even the busiest of days.

Try it! And let me know where you’ve found your unexpected meditative moments.

Lessons from a two-legged dog

I have been known to be a perfectionist; an all or nothing type of girl. I like things to be just “so” and if they aren’t just right then my tendency is to throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. As I’ve learned over the years, the way we do one thing tends to be the way we do everything, and so yes, this tendency has at times crept into my approach towards my health.

You know how it is… you’ve just taken on a new way of eating; let’s say you’ve just eliminated refined sugar from your diet. It’s going brilliantly and you’re all proud of yourself: you feel great. And then a few weeks later, in a moment of weakness, you reach for that one cookie. And we all know it’s never just one cookie. Once you’ve had that cookie, you rationalize: “Well, now I’ve screwed the whole thing, I might as well have a whole HANDFUL of cookies, and why not that tub of ice cream while I’m at it?” And it goes downhill from there.

With crazy schedules, it can be easy to fall into this habit of all or nothing and to use our busy-ness as a reason to not do anything. I’m a long distance runner, and I sometimes find myself not going for a run because I don’t have time for a 5 mile run or more, and for whatever reason 3 miles - even though really that’s better than no miles - feels somehow like not enough. So I end up doing nothing. It’s silly, but we all do some version of that.

Today on my (yes, 5 mile) run, I was feeling particularly proud of myself because not only had I made time for a run, but I’d done a full workout before running. As I was cruising along feeling good, I came upon a woman walking her dog – a dog that had been badly injured and had its two hind legs strapped in a trolley. I think this situation was a new one for the dog, because it was really struggling to move forward using only its two front legs, and the woman had to do a lot of gentle encouraging and steering to help him along.

The dog looked up at me as I passed and I almost immediately got teary. I realized how silly it is that sometimes I will forgo taking care of myself because all the bits and pieces aren’t perfect. All or nothing really is only nothing. As a very wise woman recently said to me: “Perfection is the lowest standard.” And that dog’s determination and will and making do with what he had is absolutely the highest standard.

Let’s take this lesson into our busy lives and remember the two-legged dog when we use our busy-ness as reason to not take care of ourselves. Walk (or run) up the stairs instead of taking the escalator if you don’t have time to hit the gym. Make use of the heaviness of your laptop bag when you’re waiting in line at the airport and do some bicep curls. Maybe you don’t have time for a full yoga class, but why not do a few sun salutations in the morning, and finish the day with child’s pose? Grab the apple instead of the cookie when you’re craving something sweet. Work with what you’ve got, no matter how little it seems.

I have a feeling the rewards will be worth it.

Walk your cat?

So I’m sitting in a lecture by Dr. Arthur Agatston, creator of the South Beach diet. It’s just before lunch and I’m getting distracted by thoughts of food, as often happens before ‘feeding time.’ As he’s closing, Agatston throws out two statistics that catch my attention:

1) Dog owners live longer than cat owners
2) People who live in walking cities like NYC and San Francisco live longer than people who live in driving cities like LA and Atlanta

My initial reaction is “Duh! Isn’t that obvious?” But that is quickly followed by a moment of internal pause as I realize I fall on the shorter-lived end of things on both counts: I have two cats and I live in LA.

Hmm.

A little put-off, I get defensive and think to myself, “What’s a girl to do? Walk her cat?”

Even as the thought crossed my mind, I found myself confirming something I’m realizing more and more everyday:
We lead crazy lives in crazy times. Squeezing in career (often several of them at once), our family priorities, our extensive social commitments, and endless to-do lists, who’s got the time to be healthy? Let alone the resources?

And the odds seem stacked against us: environmental toxins creeping into our air, water, and food supplies; economic downturns requiring we think twice about booking that much-needed massage; daily agendas so packed I sometimes have to schedule in a shower or it just doesn’t happen.

Is getting healthy even possible in this kind of world? And what does this have to do with my cat??

Well, what I realized while pondering the logistics of walking my cat is that being healthy even in our crazy lives is not only possible, but can be a lot of fun and an opportunity to get creative. In fact, out of pure necessity, that’s becoming my specialty: finding creative ways to incorporate healthy choices into all aspects of even the busiest day. Amidst all this craziness, we might as well get our bodies working FOR us instead of against us, don’t you think? Hence the title and theme of my blog: Walk your cat. Check back often for creative and unusual ways to get healthy.