Americans have a funny relationship with food. We eat too much, and often eat the wrong things. Obesity is growing, as empty-calorie junk food becomes the food of choice for harried Americans. At the end of a crazy day, it’s easier to just head to a fast food restaurant rather than prepare something healthy to eat. The result: our health is going down the tubes.

As anxiety over obesity grows, many people begin to see food as the enemy. The thought is, if only we could avoid food, we’d be thinner. But all we’ll get is hungrier.

The reality is that good food is our ally; it’s one of the best medicines we can possibly take. A diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables keeps us healthy in a myriad of ways, such as fighting heart disease, cancer and digestive disease, and keeping blood pressure lower. Due to the fact that these foods are naturally high in fiber and low in calories, they help maintain a healthy weight. Fresh frozen fruits and vegetables are healthy too, and food dehydration (drying tomatoes, bananas or strawberries) can be a smart way to store fresh food.

Create a strategy for getting more fresh food in your diet. Prepare meals and snacks in advance when possible, making the trip to the grocery store a time for planning. Choose dark leafy vegetables that are rich in nutrients, and then add a variety of colors — red, yellow, and orange – to your grocery basket. Your dinner plate should be “colorful,” with 2/3 of it fruits and vegetables.

In a rush? Make healthy choices. Load up with vegetables at the salad bar and forgo the fries. Choose broiled chicken instead of a cheeseburger. Order a fresh fruit smoothie. Simple choices can change the way you feel. Make the choice of eating well.

Although not a solution for everyone, payday loans can be your last resort for quick cash if you’ve already tried other methods like borrowing from family and friends, selling personal property or getting a bank loan.

Shop around when deciding which payday loan company to use because there are differences in requirements and fees. Since most grant you the loan by holding a check for the loan amount, you will need a checking account to get the loan. Remember that a payday loan is a short term loan with very high interest. If you are unable to pay the loan off on the designated day—usually your next payday—you will have to “rollover” the loan, which is borrowing the same amount again for an additional fee. People get into trouble when they roll over the loan for many pay periods and are unable to pay it off.

If you really need the cash and want to get a payday loan, here are a few things to keep in mind. Check several companies and choose the one with the lowest loan fees. Borrow as little as you can while still meeting your needs. Make sure you pay the loan amount by the due date, and never borrow from more than one payday loan lender at a time. The fees can add up very quickly.

Payday loans are controversial and are developing a bad name because people feel taken advantage of during hard times. But no one forces a person to take a payday loan and they do fill a need for some people who have no other means of getting emergency cash. Several states have now enacted stricter regulations on payday loans, so check to see the rules for whatever state you live in before applying.

We may live in a digital world these days, but it is still hard to get around printing some things. Business cards, fliers, posters, postcards, and door hangers are just a few of the paper-based products that many companies heavily rely on. In fact, many businesses use mass quantities of these products. It is not unheard of for people to go through hundreds of business cards in a week, especially if they are traveling for business or attending a professional conference.

A great way to save money for your business, whether you are a sole proprietor or work for a large corporation, it is use discount printing. Discount printing is a great way to save on overhead costs, which is always a very good thing for businesses, especially when the economy is on shaky ground.

Another great thing about discount printing is that with the money you save on basics such as business cards and fliers, you can invest in promotional materials, which can also be created through discount printing. You can print book marks, calendars, or note pads, just to name a few examples, emblazoned with your company’s logo, tag line, and contact information. These sorts of basic products, which you can also save money on by using a discount printing service, can lead to increased sales and recognition for your business.

Another great thing about using discount printing to boost recognition for your company is that you can rely on the staff and services at the discount printing company to help you design the perfect items for your clients or customers. There are plenty of templates to choose from if you want to take care of this part of the printing process on your own, but there are also design professionals ready and willing to help you design the perfect discount printing items.

This may not be true about other breeds of dogs, or even other dogs, period, but our Pomeranian likes to eat vegetable and meat salads. It happened quite coincidentally. We were in the food court of a mall here where they have a strange, but nice, dish. A nice Asian woman will hand you a list of sauces and spices you want to choose from, and a list of meat, seafood and cheese items available. There will be a large buffet lookalike table with a choice of pasta, noodles and chopsuey, and about 25 different kinds of extremely tasty, fresh, exotic vegetables. The usual vegetables – baby corn, lettuce, spring onions, jalapeno and mushroom – are all there, but there’s a bunch of Thai, Chinese, Mexican and other vegetables that I had never seen before.

So the recipe basically goes like this, you mix the things you want in your food, choose your condiments, sauces and spices, meat or seafood, and the chef fries that up in a wok and hands over. It’s simple, it’s delicious, and it’s just what my dog wants when I need him to take his daily petmeds.

Yes, I brought that stuff home once, and gave him the leftovers. He just loved it, and that’s the first time he when he did not quibble over his medication. So that gave me the idea; its bean a few years now, but I always do a daily dish of veggies and meat salad for him, and he takes his meds as nonchalantly as ever.

That’s something strange about a dog – or about a man, if you look at it the other way – a dog can eat the same good food for years on end without getting bored. But give a man something good, and he will eat it for 2 days; and start grumbling on the third. So, anyways, my dog still likes this stuff, and I have never had a problem feeding him his meds since.

It’s a warm sunny day in October and I am sitting at a sidewalk café with my bff M. having coffee and crepes.

This area of town is one of those,” up and coming” neighborhoods which has been going through the gentrification process for as long as I can remember. And quite frankly, I like that it is still rough around the edges and not too tidy or crowded with the stroller set.

It’s a rare opportunity in the Midwest to dine outside in October and the mood was festive. The couple behind us was drinking Champagne in the middle of the afternoon. I felt practically continental!

This place is very small and definitely has a European flair. The crepes are their signature dish and they come both in sweet and savory varieties. I must say that the dessert crepes take the prize.

We had café ole and a Nutella, banana, peanut butter crepe! Need I say more?

I am glad that I took these photos before I cooked the scallops and shrimp because as soon as they were cooked they were eaten.

First of all it was so easy, second of all it took maybe 15 minutes.

I picked up some nice looking jumbo shrimp and large Bay scallops. I had some lemon, garlic and butter. That was it.

We were drinking Trapiche Malbec. Probably not the best choice with seafood but it was what we had and it was yummy.

I started by melting the butter in a large skillet then added crushed garlic which I placed on the 2 tablespoons of butter, so it wouldn’t get brown, then squeezed lemon into the skillet.

I put the scallops on the bottom and laid the shrimp on top of them. They cooked for maybe 8 to 9 minutes on high.

People were picking them out of the pan! I plated these then squeezed on more fresh lemon and they lasted for about 10 minutes!

This meal was low calorie, delicious and nutritious.

A lazy Sunday afternoon all to myself; many might find this to be a lonely prospect, however, I savor the opportunity like a rare and special gift.

On days like these I find myself drawn to the book store, especially when it is particularly dark and gloomy outside. I enjoy the smell of the paper and coffee mingling in the air. I pass by old friends in the “Classics” section. I can’t resist browsing through a fashion magazine or flipping through the latest celebrity “confessional”; mostly for the pictures!

And, of course, there are the cookbooks. One glossy book after another filled with food porn, right there out in the open for everyone to see. I could sink into a big over-stuffed chair for hours devouring the photos with mouth watering anticipation.

Eventually, spent, I head upstairs with my coffee and lose myself in the Jazz section of the music area. Listening to Dinah Washington and Ruth Brown, I close my eyes and feel like I could be in 1950’s New York, walking along the Avenues.

I inevitably come across Charles Mingus and Miles Davis. Now, Kind of Blue is an old favorite of mine, as it is for so many. I think that many of whom born on the tail end of the Baby Boom generation don’t realize that a lot of this kind of music provided the background for their childhood.

Anyone who has ever watched I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched or any Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis film and countless other movies and television shows from that era will find the jazzy sound familiar and evocative of the milk man, soda in glass bottles, and station wagons, just to name a few.

I can remember rainy afternoons as a child, sitting in front of the record player, reading the liner notes on the record sleeves and looking at the artwork on the album covers. This time period, around 1959, had some particularly great artwork. S. Neil Fujita provided the memorable art on Charles Mingus’ Ah Um and on many Columbia Records releases. These works have become generational icons both musically and artistically.

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Just as I did as a child, I wiled away a Sunday afternoon listening to great Jazz, gazing at captivating artwork and transporting myself to a time and place which lives only in my dreams and in the melodies of Miles and Mingus.

I have been anticipating the debut of Bruce Willis’s new movie Surrogates and finally saw it yesterday. I find the premise, that we can be replaced by humanistic robots in our day to day activities, to be fascinating. Who hasn’t wished for a low maintenance, forever youthful, virtually indestructible version of themselves?

The original application of the technology was designed to help those who were paralyzed or suffered the amputation of a limb. By using ones brain power the subject could remotely operate the movements of say a prosthetic hand or leg.

Leave it to Hollywood to extrapolate to the absurd and create a world in which we remotely operate, through brain power, an entire entity which looks human and is capable of transmitting its sentient experience back to the operator.

In Surrogates, society evolves into a world of pajama clad real life gamers who spend their lives in the comfort of high tech Barcaloungers ordering take out and, apparently, not practicing much personal grooming. I imagine that the cost of maintaining their better, stronger, faster and much better looking robotic facsimiles eats up the lion’s share of their income.

Everyone in this future android world is young, mostly white and thin. The city streets look like the set of a photo shoot for a Gap commercial. Sexual promiscuity is rampant as there is no accountability and no consequence to the virtual act; “no slap and all tickle” as it were.

In this future world, food becomes something consumed alone in the privacy of one’s home; ordered from menus stuck on the side of refrigerators. Going to restaurants is not an option. How could this be? Could you even imagine such a world which eliminates the social interaction of people around food? I don’t even know if this is remotely possible as it is such a deeply human ritual.

I wish that this movie would’ve explored these issues more deeply and address, also, the psychological, social and moral implications and dilemmas which would inevitably arise.

For instance, there are no children around and who is raising the children who are around? How are they being made? People seem to prefer to interact with and through their robot selves? And since you could choose what you want to look like, wouldn’t this lead to a new kind of racism?

All clothing would need to be made in one size; all robots are tall and thin. The sloppy pj’s and sweat pants the humans are wearing look like a one size fits all mess, as well.

Would we become genetically inferior? Physically atrophied? Would our eyesight mutate into a sense of another kind? We wouldn’t need to heat the work place or stores or sport venues. And who would play these sports? What kind of competitions would entertain us?

As with all new technology, I am quite certain that the first thing to be fine tuned will be pornography! Sex as entertainment will take on a whole new meaning.

I for one would miss meeting friends out for a drink and sharing a good meal. I will miss the thrill, the tingle of electricity when I am in the space of someone with whom I have a tremendous amount of chemistry.

I don’t know if I have the hand-eye coordination to thrive in a three dimensional virtual world. I would be happiest in my kitchen eating in my pajamas!

These Purple Kale plants are beautiful and they certainly do brighten the long Midwest winters. They are practically the only thing with color left by mid winter.
But I certainly did hope that they were also edible. It turns out that they are and they are also quite nutritious.
I found a few recipes to utilize this pretty veggie. It’s inexpensive and is as beautiful in the plate as around it.

Braised Tuscan Kale

4 bunches kale, stems removed
Salt as needed
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ white onion thinly sliced
½ rosemary sprig
1 dried small red chile
2 garlic cloves thinly sliced
¼ cup chicken stock or water

1. Coarsely chop the kale leaves and blanch them in boiling salted water, about 3 minutes, then drain.

2. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat and add the onion, rosemary and chile. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. When the onion is translucent and starting to color, 3 to 5 minutes, add the kale.

3. Cook the kale over medium-low heat for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring often. The kale will turn a deep, almost black color, become soft and then almost a little crisp. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt. If the greens get too dry during the cooking, stir in a little stock or water.

4. Spoon into a serving bowl and serve.

Bean and Kale Soup

1/2 lb. dried Great Northern beans
Water as needed
Olive oil as needed
1 onion, chopped
2 small carrots, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
4 cup shredded kale (1 small bunch)
1 boiling potato, diced
2 cup chopped Swiss chard bunch (1 small bunch
1 large tomato, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Salt to taste
Freshly-ground black pepper to taste
1 cup freshly-grated Parmesan cheese

1. Place beans in large saucepan with enough cold water to cover. Let stand at room temperature overnight.

2. Drain beans and return to saucepan. Add enough water to cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until tender, 1 hour 30 minutes, reserving liquid. Transfer half of beans to food processor or blender and puree. Reserve remaining whole beans.

3. Heat 1/4 cup oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots and celery and saute 5 minutes. Stir in kale, potato, pureed beans and enough reserved bean cooking liquid and water to make 6 cups. Heat over medium heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until vegetables are tender.

4. Add chard, tomato, garlic, rosemary, parsley, thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until chard is tender and flavors are well blended, at least 1 hour, adding additional bean liquid if soup is too thick. (Soup should be quite thick.)

5. Stir in reserved whole beans and simmer until heated through, 5 to 10 minutes. (Can be cooled and refrigerated overnight.) Ladle into heated soup bowls and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Top each bowl of soup with spoonful of olive oil, if desired.

The cold winds are blowing and coffee and carrot cake is the only remedy.
This tastes best after a long walk in the chill autumn air.
It’s so cozy and yummy and feels like Fall to me.
I added a little yogurt and butter to make it extra moist and have been enjoying this all week.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
3 cups shredded carrots
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts
½ cup raisins

Cream cheese frosting

1 package cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
enough milk to soften

Method

Heat oven to 350 fahrenheit
Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.
Mix sugar, oil and eggs until well blended. Beat for 1 minute
Stir in remaining ingredients except carrots, nuts and raisins.
Beat 1 minute then stir in remaining ingredients

Bake 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

Frost with cream cheese frosting if you’d like