Food and Health

Belly Blasters

Keeping a belly down ain’t as hard as you may think.  It all is about the food of choice.

Let’s start with legumes which are full of protein and fiber and they do a good job of crushing appetite.  The black beans are the highest in flavonoids because of their dark color.

Flavonoids may thwart the storage of excess tummy fat.

 

Pears are so low in calories and high in fiber, you could eat one before every meal and still lose weight.  Pears are loaded with catechins and flavonols — two antioxidants that appeared to hinder the storage of belly.

Then we have popcorn, my favorite snack, which is a whole grain.

Vinegar  potato salad, the key to this is that it is chilled.  Seems when you chill potatoes they form resistance starch crystals, resistant starch helps the body incinerate more fat for fuel while making less fat.

Sunflower seeds, another belly blaster, throw them in your cereal, yogurt, or just pop them straight into  your mouth. 

White tea another fat breaker.Apple cider vinegar has acetic acid, which turbocharges the body’s ability to burn fat and simultaneously hinders fat storage. Sunflower oil, a couple of tablespoons a day encourages belly fat to take a hike.

Peanuts, healthy fats in peanuts are burned more readily than the less-healthy fats found in cookies, chips, and creamy desserts. So make them your snack of choice.

Along with the above comes reducing stress.  Chronic stress boosts your blood levels of cortisol — the “fight or flight” hormone. And cortisol encourages belly fat in two ways, it tells the body to store more fat in the belly and triggers cravings for sugar and high fat comfort foods.  And the final thing to combat that belly fat, which in my mind is essential to an over all healthy body.  Yes, that dreaded word, exercise.  But did you know that just standing up more often helped melt 1½ inches from people’s waists.  See it doesn’t take much.

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source:  Real Age

Family, school

Cabaret – Cardozo Theater

On Thursday night I went to see my niece,  Sandra (Fraulein Kost)  in a high school play.  Well, that’s what I thought anyway.  It was opening night, they performed on Friday night also.  Lots of excitement all through the halls and theatre, laughter, people runnning up and down the aisles….the band tuning up. The electricity was flying and  I could not wait to see the show.

“Set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, it focuses on nightlife at the seedy Kit Kat Klub and revolves around the 19 year old cabaret performer Sally Bowles (Ayana) and her relationship with the young American writer Cliff Bradshaw (George)”.

My neice had sprained her ankle two weeks before and we were so worried that she would not be able to perform…..she proved us wrong……she and the entire cast were not only professional but fabulous!!!.

Emcee Brandon,Ernest Ludwig played by Praxitelis, Fraulein Schneider played by Juelia, Herr Schultz played by Zach and the Kit Kat Dancers and Girls ….their  powerful voices and each and every  song  of the entire cast with the band  was just so wonderful……they transported me and  the audience to Berlin 1931 – a most dangerous place and time.

A favorite part was the dance routine If You Could See Her with Emcee Brandon  and a gorilla…….under the costume was Sandra!!  After laughing, I realized how serious a song it really is……gets you thinking we must never let that happen again – to anyone.

I just want to thank all the wonderful people at Cardozo High School for their talent, time and courage to bring us Cabaret!!  Moral of the story……don’t miss a performance of the children in your life.  They will teach you something……so slow down, stop, look, listen and love.

Bravo!!!!!

posted by Liz

community, Dining, recipe, Travel

Food In The City – Souvlaki

Liz and I are  city girls  can’t say we were born and raised, in the city, but raised we were.   I spent my first 20 years of my life in Manhattan, got married, left the city lights, and moved far away to the suburbs, Astoria, a 20 minute drive from Manhattan.

My husband is also from  Manhattan and he lived on 33rd and 3rd.  Yes, turdy,turd and turd.   Our roots were strongly planted on 29th Street between 1st and 2nd avenue.

Here we created memories, our lives were enriched growing up on 29th Street.

New York City was simply called the ‘CITY‘. When asked where do you live the answer was the ‘CITY‘ and everyone knew what that meant.   It  did not mean  Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and certainly not Staten Island, these boroughs were considered the country, there were trees and wide open spaces in the boroughs.

Here is the funny part, at least I think, now we go into the ‘CITY’ and it is like stepping into another world.

We recently spent a day in the ‘CITY’ and the changes are amazing.     So much has changed.  We took the train to 23rd Street and 5th and laughed when we saw the station decorated with hats.

Doesn’t Liz look like a school girl.


We had  lunch out ( out on the street), we have not done this in years, to many years.

Who says you have to spend a lot of money to eat in theCITY’.

I had a hot dog and Liz had a chicken souvlaki.

We stood on the corner and watched all the people go by.   Interesting people in the ‘City’.   As soon as we came out of the train, we eyed a woman who had a hat on.  Nothing strange about wearing a hat, of course, but this hat looked like it belong to  her doll, it was that small.

In spite of the change, we still feel at home.

I love the ethnicity in the ‘CITY’.

We grow up with all kinds of people, all kinds of faces, and all kinds of stories.

So, I guess, all in all the

CITY has not really changed.

Chicken Souvlaki Recipe:

How to make it


  • Combine first 5 ingredients in zip-loc bag, add chicken pieces, shake to coat with marinade. Seal and refrigerate for 30 minutes, turning once.
  • Remove chicken from bag, discard marinade. Thread chicken onto skewers, with spaces between chicken to speed cooking.
  • Place skewers on grill, turning occasionally, until chicken is cooked through.
  • Prepare tzatziki sauce, set aside.
  • Remove cooked chicken chunks from skewers.
  • Serve chicken wrapped in pita dressed with veggies and a dollop of sauce.
  • Enjoy!

PS – you don’t have to make tzatziki sauce you can  buy it in your supermarket.

Uncategorized

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