Exercise - Walking on the Beach

Mid-October at Stinson Beach just before colder weather set in.
Between fresh air, waves breaking, a delicious picnic, and
the absolute joy on our pet's faces, we felt uplifted for days after.

According to several fitness websites and calorie counters, beach walking burns about 30% more calories than walking on a flat surface at the same speed.  The softer the sand, the harder your muscles work and burn even more calories.

The walk from Stinson Beach up to Bolinas and back is just over 5 miles roundtrip.  We didn't even realize how far we had walked because when you have a buddy and are engaged in good conversation, you don't even notice the distance.  Our calf muscles received a gentle workout and our bare feet were massaged by the smooth sand.

Walking 5.25 miles in 1-1/2 hours typically burns about 250 calories on a regular flat surface.  On sand, the calories burned goes up to 325 calories burned in the same time.  Or more.   Enjoy!

- Kim Fielding

www.dailyspark.com
www.fitday.com

 

Grilled Vegetable Sandwich Two Ways

Use veggies in season for grilling.

I usually don't eat sandwiches.  However, if someone goes to the trouble of putting together all the ingredients that I like in a meal, then I will eat it and probably love it.  This is one of those moments.  Headed out for a picnic at the beach, I wanted something delicious so I made one myself.

Early in the day, I pan-roasted summer squash, eggplant, pepper, and red onion slices.  These veggies made two meals - picnic and dinner sandwiches.  The picnic sandwich is vegetarian.  It was nice to come home before supper to the veggies and meat already cooked because after a fresh-air day at the beach, I felt so relaxed.

serves:  8                    prep time:  30 minutes, including roasting

1 large or 2 small zucchini
2 crookneck squash
2 Japanese eggplant
1/2 red onion
1/2 red or orange pepper
olive oil
Salt and pepper
4 ciabatta rolls
Homemade vinaigrette
Avocado slices
Fresh basil leaves

Vegetarian version:
Goat cheese

Meat version:
Sliced beef or chicken
Swiss cheese slice

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Thinly slice zucchini, crookneck squash, eggplant, onion and pepper. Place them on a baking sheet and moisten with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast 10 minutes then turn sliced vegetables over and cook another 8-10 minutes until veggies are softened.



Generously brush the veggies with oil.

Meanwhile, slice the ciabatta rolls in half and moisten with vinaigrette.

To make a sandwich, start with Romaine lettuce then layer on 2 slices each zucchini and crookneck squash.  Add red peppers slices, onion, avocado slices, and several basil leaves.  If the sandwich is vegetarian, spread about 1 tablespoon or so goat cheese on top slice of bread.  If using meat, delete the goat cheese and top with Swiss cheese and meat slices.  Cut sandwich on the diagonal and enjoy.  To make this vegan, simply eliminate the meat and cheese.

Optional ingredients:  arugula instead of basil, fresh tomato slices, roast mushrooms and Gruyere cheese.  Experiment!  The sandwiches are filling and will hold you over for hours because they are nutritionally intact.  Bread/starch, veggies and protein.  It is amazing how this works!

Each half vegetarian sandwich provides about 415 calories and almost 5 g fiber.  Delete the goat cheese, add 2 ounces sliced roast beef, and 1 slice Swiss cheese and the sandwich contains about 100 calories more. 

- Kim Fielding

Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce

Everything goes into the pot and then you walk away.  Come back
later and your delicious sauce is ready.

In order to cook large batches of sauce for the melodrama audience, I decided to use my crock pot and prepare a batch of sauce per day for a week.  The sauce freezes beautifully.

serves: 16          prep time: about 1/2 hour
cook time: 6 hours

2 pounds New York style Italian sausage
24-ounces mushrooms, sliced  (if you are a mushroom lover like me, I always add tons more)
olive oil, optional
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 large container Prego Heart Smart Italian spaghetti sauce (67 ounces)
1/3 large container of water
1 cup burgundy wine
Shredded Parmesan cheese
Cooked pasta

 

This is my mom's favorite.  And I can't argue with the ingredients.

 

Start by adding the sausage to the pan.
 Fold in the mushrooms a handful at a time. 
They cook down quickly into the sausage.

Saute Italian sausage with the mushrooms in a large pot.  If needed, a splash of oil added to the pan will prevent the sausage from sticking.  Break up the sausage with a spoon or kitchen shears into bite-size pieces.  When the mushrooms are softened and the sausage is no longer pink, add all (especially the juices!) to a 6 quart crock pot.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients - diced tomatoes and their juices, spaghetti sauce, water and wine.  Stir all together well.

Cook on low for about 6 hours.

Each serving provides about 280 calories, 4 grams fiber, 10 grams protein and about 18 grams fat.  Each ounce of dry cooked noodles adds another 100 calories.  We use brown rice noodles for those who need gluten free pasta.  Other choices might include quinoa or corn noodles. 

An optional topping is Parmesan cheese.  Enjoy!

- Kim Fielding

When God gives you lemons, make lemonade!

An abundance of fresh lemons in the garden should never go to waste!

makes about 64 cups or more 
prep time:  1/2 hour

16 or so lemons to produce 4 cups of fresh juice
4 cups sugar
4 cups water
Additional water and ice to serve

This recipe comes by way of someone's son, who got it by way of his mother, who thinks she got it via the internet from Simply Recipes, a wonderful blog by Elise Bauer. It is the inspiration for this version of lemonade.  The ingredients and their amounts are hers, but for convenience in serving a large audience, I decided to take liberties with the prep.  The joy of this is when the beverage runs low, simply add more lemonade mix, water, and ice. 

The amounts listed for ingredients are easily reduced for a smaller quantity.  1 cup simple syrup to 1 cup lemon juice, for example.  Add water and ice and enjoy.

Juice the lemons and set the juice aside.  Add sugar and water to a sauce pan and cook while stirring very gently over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the solution is clear.  This is simple syrup.

The syrup should be clear.

Mix equal parts simple syrup to fresh lemon juice for your lemonade mixture.  For each amount of lemonade you prepare, I recommend about 1 cup lemonade mixture to 8 cups water.  Add ice.  You be the judge.  If you like lemonade stronger, add more of the mix.  Ice will dilute your lemonade so be mindful of that.

Super refreshing!

Each glass of lemonade provides about 50 calories.  I usually don't post this type of recipe because, for obvious reasons, it can't serve diabetics or others who are sugar restricted.  But, I just could not stand the idea of serving powdery chemical-laden pseudo-lemonade to the melodrama audience and players after making every other dish from scratch.  There you have it.  Occasionally we have to splurge.  Just not too often!

- Kim Fielding

Spaghetti Party for about 100

Antipasta platters were set out on the tables prior to guests arriving. 

 

 I am friends with a most amazing and silly group who put on a Melodrama every year and accompany it with a Spaghetti Feed.  Super fun.  However, the old guard has retired and it was asked if I would be willing to take over the food.  This is not an easy task since the prior cooks were fabulous and the menu tried and true.  The tricky thing is they all know that I don't do two starches in a meal so that meant garlic bread was out.  Boo Hoo!  We provided other goodies such as an antipasta platter that included cured Italian meats, artichoke hearts, fresh mozzarella, and Kalamata olives.  (Thank you Costco).

Mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and mushrooms
dressed with a simple vinaigrette.
 

Next came the salad which was super simple.  Using my old standby vinaigrette, it balanced the spaghetti as well as the antipasta.  Some people used the antipasta to dress up their salad. By itself though, the salad was light and fresh.

Not everyone is a fan of pasta so this meal provided guests with options. 

We served family style.  Cooked pasta was dressed with sausage
and mushroom red sauce. 

Gluten-free pasta was available on the side and amazingly about 10 people asked for it.  (10% of the participants!).  In addition, I provided a vegetarian sauce on the side.  Again, more people than I expected desired that sauce.  I can't call it vegan because I put the heel of a Parmesan wedge into the sauce for depth.  Otherwise it would be....

By the time we served dessert, I was forgetful about taking pictures.  It consisted of the sweetest end-of-season canteloupe slices and small biscotti cookies. 

I was really pleased with my lemonade.  By making a simple syrup ahead of time and adding in fresh squeezed lemon juice, all one needs to do is add ice and water to a serving container and voila!  Oh, and being a melodrama, we also had popcorn. 

Recipes to follow!

- Kim Fielding

We walked the dog today...

The loop at home.  Remember to bring the "bags"!

I am so annoyed but thankfully laughing at the same time.  Just around wake-up time, or just before then when I am in a deep sleep, there is a cold moist black nose that very gently lets me know he is there.  I don't want to wake up yet and so want to go back to dream land, but I have Scout.  This big furry thing blinks his eyes at me and I realize I have to yank my stiff body out of bed and get moving.   Everyday it takes me a while to get my joints started.  He understands and waits.  He seems to intuitively know when I need to move.

That is why I am so big on exercise.  We can all do it.  Pain eases through gentle movement.  Yoga helps so many as does Pilates with a good instructor who understands your needs.  With a dog, there is the obligation to walk.  At our cabin, we have a designated "poop loop".  It is a half mile and our dog does his "business".  But the best part is this:  even though I may not always wish to be the walker, I am so glad that I did the "loop".  Poop bags aside, just to get moving is the bonus.

Walk around the block, 15 minutes, 1/2 mile:  about 50 calories burned

1/2 hour Pilates, general workout or 1/2 hour stretching hatha yoga:  about 70 calories burned

- Kim Fielding

Green Salad with Strawberries

Fresh strawberries, arugula, scallions, and slivered almonds. 

Serves:  4
Prep time:  10 minutes

4 cups arugula lettuce
3 scallions, sliced
1 cup strawberries, washed and sliced into quarters
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/4 cup vinaigrette dressing

Toss all together and serve as a side dish for any meal.

Calories per serving:  less than 100.

P.S.  Basic vinaigrette:  2 parts oil, 1 part vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.  Put all in a jar and shake to emulsify.  Add herbs or seasoning to taste.  That's it!

- Kim Fielding

Grilled Vegetable Salad Dinner

Potatoes, peppers, eggplant, chards, red onion, green beans, and fennel sliced and ready for the grill.
 

End of summer produce is the best.  Hot days ripen tomatoes, eggplants and peppers mature, and other produce available in farmer's markets and stores is glorious.  For our cooking class I featured grilled vegetables in a pasta salad and a Nicoise salad.  Left-overs inspired this simple salad that was filling enough to sate my boy's bellies.

The vegetables were tossed only with olive oil before grilling.  The eggplant cooks quickly while the onions, fennel, chard stems, green beans, and peppers take a little longer.  Be watchful so that the veggies are neither under nor overcooked.

Composing the salad consisted of a handful of spring mix surrounded by halved cherry tomatoes.  Arugula is good also as are a variety of chopped herbs.  Next, layer on grilled veggies.  (I used them all).  Top with your choice of protein.   In this case we used thinly sliced grilled beef.  Other protein options include pressed and grilled tofu or seitan, chicken, or whatever your heart desires.

The finished product.  A salad composed of grilled and non-grilled vegetables topped with a lean protein. 

The final touch is the dressing.  As always, a freshly made vinaigrette is the first choice.  Two parts oil, one part vinegar, salt and pepper, and depending on how you feel, herbs or dry mustard.  In this case I ventured into something a little different.  I added ricotta salata which is a hard version of ricotta cheese and is crumbly.  Add a couple tablespoons of crumbled cheese to the vinaigrette and then drizzle over the composed meal.  For a vegan option, leave the cheese and meat out.  This was delicious.

One of the great things about eating healthy, besides not feeling guilty or glutteny afterwards, is that you can walk away with a sense of well-being.  A stroll after dinner with your family or spouse, your dog, or your music should end the evening and prepare you for restful sleep.

Calories for the salad with the ricotta salata dressing but not including the meat is about 550 and offers almost 15 grams of fiber and 12 grams of protein.  The measurement for this calculation included 1 cup greens, 3 cherry tomatoes halved, 2 red small red potatoes halved, a handful of green beans, 4 slices eggplant, about 1/2 head of fennel, several slices of red onion, and a couple tablespoons of vinaigrette.  All vegetables except the lettuces and tomatoes were grilled.

- Kim Fielding