Not Much To Say

I know I haven't written much lately. I haven't had a whole lot to talk about unfortunately. I've just been super swamped at work, which as my dad says is "A good problem to have." I guess that's true. It's a lot better being busy and employed than to have an empty schedule and be unemployed. But I'm getting geared up for the big AIDS Walk this Sunday. Thank-you to everyone that has donated money. I really appreciate it. And it's for a great cause. And as far as healthy eating goes, I have another quick recipe for all of you that I put together myself last night. This is not a derivative recipe, it's my own creation. It's just a marinade that I created for some Mahi-Mahi that I cooked last night. This is usually a fish you'll see at a restaurant encrusted in Macadamia nut. Which tastes delicious but does make it a bit less healthy for you. I typically cook mine on our little grill-thingy in our kitchen. It's a great tasting fish and it's usually pretty cheap. I bought two nice cuts of it for $7 last night at Whole Foods. Then I took them home rubbed my new homemade marinade on them and grilled them. I was doing other things in the kitchen at the same time so I can't give you grill times. But my advice to you when cooking fish is place it on the grill and watch how the color starts to change. When it gets opaque up to about 60 percent of the fish and it comes off easily from the grill, then flip it over and let it cook for a bit on the other side. That's about it.

Marinade Recipe(all measurements for ingredients are to taste)

Grape Seed Oil (Good for high temperature cooking, especially stir fry)
Lemon Juice
Salt
Pepper
Ground Ginger
Palm Sugar (Whole Foods has it in the coffee section)

Mix the grape seed oil and the lemon juice first. Taste it. If you like the balance add the salt and pepper. Again taste to see if you like the flavor. Then add the ginger and taste. Then add some palm sugar and taste again. Grape seed oil the other elements will begin to separate fairly quickly so make sure to mix the marinade really well before you coat both sides of the fish with it. That's pretty much it. Serve with whatever side dish you want. I used soy noodles and vegetables last night. I would stay away from a side that is too sweet because the fish and marinade are on the sweeter side. The marinade could also act as a salad dressing too if you want. Eat it and enjoy. And try experimenting yourself and let me know if you come up with any cool healthy recipes that I can try.

A Walk In The Park, Stir-Fry Wok & A Soup Made Of Broc(coli)

This past Saturday was a great opportunity for me to get outside, enjoy the nice but weird weather and do a bunch of walking. But instead of lacing up my sneakers and taking my usual 5 odd mile walk, I decided to take the wife out and we met up with a couple of friends and went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. I'll tell you this much, nothing motivates you to get walking quickly then guys dressed up as demon clowns chasing you with chainsaws. They didn't really scare me that much but our friend took off running so we had to hunt her down before she got totally lost in the crowd. We even got to walk a bunch of the backlot as well. They drop you off at Whoville and then you make your way up to the Bates Motel, the Pyscho House and finally a stroll through the crashed plane scene from War of the Worlds. Not only is it mostly dark and scary with people popping out at you left and right, but you get to walk around some of the sets which was really cool. Overall I had a great time. The House of a Thousand Corpses in 3D was a real trip and we got to walk for about 6-7 hours. With limited time sitting. Our feet hurt a lot afterwards though. Then last night I had a couple of firsts in my cooking. First off I made quinoa for the first time. For those of you who have never had it before I highly recommend it. It's a great healthy alternative to rice and couscous because it is not actually a grain. It's grain-like, but is more closely related to beets and spinach. Go figure! I mixed mine with sauteed onions, peppers and shallots. I love shallots. Really good stuff though. I served with some stir fried beef with curry sauce. But the highlight of my cooking last night was definitely the broccoli soup I made. My wife and I for years have been going to this one place here in LA that serves really good broccoli soup. In fact, I like to go there just for the soup, but I also get some chicken to go with it. Anyways, I've been wanting to try making some of my own for awhile now and decided to finally try it out. The one we eat at the restaurant is lighter than mine and has a nice buttery flavor so I'm guessing they use some turnips in their's. Unfortunately, my grocery store didn't have any turnips so I was forced to use actual butter, but I only used a tiny bit. It turned out really well and tasted great. I definitely think I'll be making it again and I'll give you all the recipe as well. As far as everything else goes, I'm getting ready for the AIDS Walk in two weeks. Thanks to all of you who've donated already. For those of you who haven't please go to http://aidswalklosangeles2010.kintera.org/cevanmiller and make one. Every little bit helps so if you can only do $5 please do $5 then. Hope you're all well and thanks again for your support.


BROCCOLI SOUP RECIPE

2 Big bunches of broccoli (the greener the better)
1/2 TBSP. Butter (or turnips for a healthier alternative)
Salt & Pepper to Taste
Large Pot
Blender


Cut the florets from the broccoli, wash and set aside
Fill pot and bring to a rolling boil
Salt the water while it's boiling
Put the florets in the boiling water and salt the top of the broccoli
Boil broccoli until tender but not super soft (cutting them with a knife to test, if knife snaps through, they are done)
Remove broccoli from the water, but don't dump the water, you'll use that as a stock
Place broccoli in a blender and fill about halfway with broccoli stock
Put butter into blender
Season with pepper
Place the lid on the blender and hold it down firmly with a towel (I can't stress this enough)
Do a few pulses with the blender to start breaking the broccoli up then run the blender on liquefy until you get the consistency you want (if you want it thicker use less stock and vice versa)
Check soup for seasoning
Serve

Super duper easy and it tastes great and is great for you. It's an easy way to get yourself to eat broccoli if you don't normally like to eat it. Try it, enjoy it and let me know what you think.

AIDS WALK

I registered to do the AIDS Walk in LA this year. I figured it was a great excuse to motivate myself to continue walking and getting in shape. And it adds a goal to my workout. It's not a very extreme walk, only 10k, so it shouldn't be too bad to do. And as long as it's not 115 out in Mid-October like it was yesterday, I should be able to complete the walk with ease. But I need all of your help as well. I'm trying to raise at least $1000 in donations. I'll be completely honest with all of you, I set that goal for myself so that I can get a Star Fundraiser Crown to wear while I'm walking. Okay that's not the only reason, it is for a really good cause so please help me reach my goal and help continue to fight the good fight against a disease that has affected all of us in some way or another. If you want to give please go to http://aidswalklosangeles2010.kintera.org/cevanmiller and you can donate online. Or if you're more old fashioned you can fill out a donation form and send in a check. I'm really looking to all of you to help me out here. Especially you Deb. Maybe Bigelow Tea would be interested in a little corporate sponsorship for a great cause. I'll wear a Bigelow Green Tea shirt if you guys want. But in all seriousness please check out the site and donate. Every little bit helps...me get that crown...and to continue fighting the battle against AIDS in the U.S.

Liquid Diet Weekend

For those of you who did not know already, Saturday was a day of misery for me. That's right, I had my wisdom teeth removed. Actually it wasn't really all that bad. In fact it was a lot easier than I was expecting. It helps when you have a really good dentist like ours. And the best part was I got to lay around and watch football all weekend. Yay football! But here's the thing though, I wasn't able to eat solid foods for the whole first day and pretty much all of yesterday as well. So instead I survived on protein shakes and soup. Finally later in the day yesterday I was able to eat some grapes and later some chicken. What is it about eating grapes that just always puts me in a good mood? I think it's because it takes me back to the days when I was a kid and I loved to snack on grapes. Or maybe it's because they're really good for you, but still taste like candy so it feels like cheating when it's actually not. Anyways, the weird thing is I thought I'd be starving all weekend long without any substantial food in my stomach, but I wasn't. I think the main reason for that is because I've been focusing on not only what it is I'm eating, but also how much of it I've been eating. So I don't need huge portions of anything to fill me up anymore. So maybe I'm making some progress after all. I may not look like a runner just yet, but at least I'm really making significant changes in my life which will ultimately help me achieve my goal and be happier and healthier.

Halfway Point, New Year & Super Cool News

It's almost two weeks into September which means I am officially at the halfway point time-wise toward the marathon. And I can definitely say that I am no where near halfway ready to run a marathon. I'm just not where I need to be at this point. But I am going to keep on working on it because worst case scenario I'll walk or crawl the whole thing if I have to. I just hope they don't kick me off the course after a certain time period. And speaking of renewal, yesterday was Rosh Hashanah which is more than just the celebration of the New Year, but also a chance to reinvigorate and re-motivate yourself to be a better person. It's with that spirit that I am going to rededicate myself toward my marathon goal. I've definitely hit a downturn in the process and now I'm going to turn it back around.

And finally on a super cool note, Bigelow Tea has come through and they are sending me some samples of their tea. How cool is that. I look forward to trying them and letting you know what I think.

And on a crappy note, I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled this weekend, so pray for me because I am a bleeder.

Healty Alternative

As some of you may know I've been trying to spend more and more time in the kitchen cooking. It's a something that I've only recently become passionate about. The last year and a half or more. As part of my culinary experiments in the kitchen, I'm always looking for healthier recipes and finding ways that I can take dishes that my wife and I love and try to make them a lot better for us. With that I offer up one of my first eating recommendations for you all. However, in all honesty I can not take too much credit for this one because I learned it from wife, who in turn learned it from her mother. But that's how the best cooking really comes about though. Anyways, my great suggestion for you all is using turnips instead of butter. Not for everything. I don't think you can saute food with a pad of turnip, but I'll look into that one. Turnips, if you've never eaten a raw one before, have a great buttery flavor to them and they go great with other root vegetables. So if you're thinking about making mashed potatoes, try using turnips instead of butter next time. My recommendation is to use about twice as much potato as turnip. If you want it a bit more buttery, use more turnips. Just make sure you boil both of them together and long enough to mash well. Another quick tip. Put them in cold water then let the temperature rise to a boil. Potatoes cook better that way.

I made a great mashed potatoes alternative last night that both my wife and I enjoyed so I figured I would share my first ever recipe with you all. Again, this isn't completely my recipe, I did take some of it from elsewhere, but made it healthier and more my own. My recipe is for Parsnip Puree. Parsnips are those things at the grocery store that look like rotten carrots. They are identical in shape except they're white. They are really delicious if you've never had one, I suggest you do. Here's my recipe, it's one hundred percent dairy free so even vegans can eat. Although I don't condone veganism. I hope you all try it and enjoy.

Parsnip Puree:

6 Large Parsnips
1 to 2 Good Sized Turnips depending on how you want it to taste
6 Cloves of Garlic
1 Large Shallot
Salt and Pepper
Olive Oil
Aluminum Foil
Baking Sheet
Food Processor (you can also use a potato masher if you don't have a processor)

Preheat your oven to 350 Degrees

Wash and peel your parsnips and turnips

Rough chop your parsnips and turnips. Try to get the pieces to be roughly the same size if possible for even cooking.

Peel your garlic cut out green stem if needed. (The stem creates a bitter taste if left in, but it is edible.)

Place aluminum foil on baking sheet and place the chopped turnips, garlic and parsnips on top of the foil.

Coat the the turnips, garlic and parsnips with a fairly generous amount of olive oil.

Season the turnips, garlic and parsnips with salt and pepper. It's okay to use less than you may normally here because you can always add more as your pureeing them later.

Cover completely with aluminum fold and fold all the sides so it's sealed.

Roast in oven for 40 minutes or until they are all the way tender and soft.

Peel wash and rough chop your shallot (you can add the shallot to the roasting as well, however I did not).

Pull the vegetables out of the oven and place everything, in the food processor. Even the olive oil. There is a lot of flavor in there with the vegetable juices etc. Put the chopped shallots in the food processor.

Puree the vegetables until they are an even consistency. Check halfway to make sure you don't need more salt and pepper. Add more salt and pepper if necessary.

Serve. Because of the shallots and parsnips, it will be on the sweeter side, so a good savory dish goes great with these.

So that's my recipe. Try it out and let me know what you think. I look forward to your comments. Let me know if you have any questions. And I'll try to post some more recipes as I come up with them.

Softball Weekend and A Bigelow Response

This last weekend was the playoffs for my work's recreation softball league. We were the 10th seed going into the post season, but we still had high expectations for ourselves considering we were riding a two game winning streak and our bats had really been coming alive lately. Our first game was Saturday and we actually got matched up with the team we creamed just a couple of days before on Monday. They were the 7th seed in the tournament. For the first couple of innings were looking bleak and the opponents quickly jumped out to a 4 run lead. But then our bats really came alive as we ended the game scoring 25 runs! We ultimately won 25-17. Spirits were high and drinks were flowing. I'm not going to say exactly what kind of drinks they were, but don't worry I stayed away from anything brewed I swear. I am afterall still trying to watch my figure.

Day two started really early...for a softball game that is. That game began at 8:45. Since this one was played near my apartment I was able to walk there. Except this time I also had to lug a case of water for the team. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best decision, but it did add some more exercise etc. to just a normal brief stroll. Unfortunately, game did not go nearly as well as the day before. To put it mildly, we got our asses kicked. Badly. I'm still having trouble sitting. But on the plus side, the experience of playing on this team and this league has been so positive that everyone was buzzing about where and when will we play next. So that was really cool. There wasn't that usual "Oh well see you next season" malaise that has been the standard for other rec league teams I've been on. And that was really cool. Especially since I like playing the game and my teammates are really cool too. I'm hoping I can talk them all into kickball. Soooo much fun.

And on another note, I don't know how many of you read the scant amount of comments that I usually get on this blog, but I actually got one from someone from Bigelow tea for my last post about drinking their green tea at work. I don't know if it was real or a hoax, but it was kind of cool. I'm wondering if I mention them some more in this here post, if they'll send me a case or two of their green tea so I can drink it at home as well. Since Bigelow tea is great not only first thing in the morning to wake me up at work, but also great at night when I'm winding down. I hope that works. Deb if you're out there still, hook me up.