Can Red Wine Make You Skinny?

Reblogged from BlackDoctor:

We have a feeling that this kind of science you'll have no problem supporting - new studies show that your glass of wine might be good for your waistline.

New research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry suggestss that chemicals in red wine actually block the growth of fat cells.

READ: Best & Worst Beauty Of The Week

Yet Another Red Wine Plus...

Read more… 267 more words

You know I love my red wine, but now all the more reason to love it. according to this article posted on BlackDoctor.org, it makes you skinny. Winning!

My Blueberry and Ricotta Pancakes

My Blueberry and Ricotta Pancakes

I’ve wanted to make these ever since I watched Bobby Flay make them on a brunch show on the Food Network. But I especially got fired up about them when my friend Wanda took me to a place called Lift Cafe in Philadelphia where they served up their version of the light fluffy disc of goodness. This morning I decided, today would be the day! I searched the internet to find a recipe to suite me, and I did. I found this one by Martha Stamps and I loved it. Now there are a few things you can adjust, like less sugar or regular milk instead of buttermilk but for my first time I followed the directions closely, as you will see in the step-by-step photos.  If you try them, let me know how they come out!

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Wild Blueberry and Ricotta Pancakes

by Martha Stamps

Ricotta makes these pancakes light and creamy. It’s the perfect foil for the intense sweet-tart flavor of wild blueberries, which are widely available frozen. You can also use cultivated blueberries, which are larger but still sweet and delicious.

3 large eggs, separated

3/4 cup part-skim ricotta, drained of excess liquid before measuring

2-1/4 cups buttermilk

5 Tbs. granulated sugar

1 Tbs. pure vanilla extract

3/4 tsp. table salt

8 oz. (1-3/4 cups) all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

6 oz. frozen wild blueberries (don’t thaw) or fresh wild or cultivated blueberries (1-1/2 cups)

Vegetable oil for the griddle

Softened salted butter, pure maple syrup, and confectioners’ sugar, for serving

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and ricotta. Whisk in the buttermilk, sugar, vanilla, and salt.

In a small bowl, stir the flour, baking powder, and baking soda with a spatula. Fold into the egg yolk mixture until just combined.

Beat the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until they hold firm peaks. Fold gently into the batter until just combined. Fold in the blueberries.

Lightly oil a griddle and set it over medium heat. The griddle is ready when water droplets dance briefly on the surface before disappearing. Ladle a scant 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto the griddle. Cook until the undersides are nicely browned, the edges look set, and small bubbles appear on the surface, about 3 minutes. Flip and cook until the second sides are golden brown, about 3 minutes more. Repeat, re-oiling the griddle between batches, until all the batter is cooked. Serve at once with butter, maple syrup, and confectioners’ sugar.

Your Liver and Your Health

Your Liver and Your Health.

Do you  know how amazing your liver is? I think most of us know it’s pretty bad ass, but for some reason we don’t connect the cause and effect food has on our bodies, particularly our liver. As you will see in the attached article, what we eat is essential to our overall health. Just as regular oil changes and tune-ups help keep our cars running in tip-top shape, taking care of our liver, by eating fruits and vegetables delivers a optimal health benefits. Yes, you can improve your health by making a few simple changes to your diet. Check out this article written by Claire Georgiou on Wednesday, 04 April 2012. Posted in Ask The Nutritionist and start improving your health today!

Once Upon A Time

If you haven’t seen this show, you are missing some good television. I’m not kidding; I’m like a Once Upon A Time crack head. I love, love, LOVE this ABC show called Once Upon A Time.  The creators have taken all our favorite childhood fairytales and gave them some modern-day, grown-up twist. In this series, all the characters of the Enchanted Forest have been banished to our world by the Evil Queen and they have no memory of who they are. Cleverly, the show parallels between the lives they have now, in the small town of Storybrooke, where the Evil Queen/Regina is Mayor and their past lives in the forest. Not only is it wonderfully wicked and deliciously dark, but it also has just the right amount of good verses evil, forbidden love and oh yeah, magic. There are no Happily Ever After’s here; that’s what keeps you coming back, HOPE. Week after week you hope the Evil Queen Regina, played by Lana Parrilla, gets what she deserves, like a house dropped on her; a wooden stake driven through her heart or water thrown on her, but that witch is always one step ahead of everyone else.  Seriously, this show gives me chills.  Anyway this is what I’m doing on Sundays at 8pm. I don’t know how I will manage when the show’s on hiatus. 

All the characters are great on this show, but I want to especially say Lana plays her role magnificently!  Okay Lana that’s all the love you’re gonna get, now back to hating you (I mean that in a good way)

Whip Lash

No, I’m not talking about the common neck injury or the Marvel comic book super villain type whiplash, but the “whip my hair back and forth” phenomenon popularized by Willow Smith type whiplash; only this is for your eyelashes. You all know I’m a big fan of beautiful eyelashes; they are window dressings for your eyes!  Not all of us were born with beautiful, long lashes, but don’t worry,  my friend DeneenMarcel, owner of TheBeautyFacePlace,  located at 4th and South in Philadelphia, can help you out with that!  See her here on this 6 ABC Action News broadcast, talk about lash extensions and how you too can have those sexy bedroom eyes.

Action News Broadcast – Lash extensions

Got Juice

About ten (10) days ago I watched a documentary by Joe Cross called   “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”  it’s about a man who was tired of being sick, so he took his health into his own hands and did a sixty day juice fast (he consulted his doctor first). Anyway, I was so inspired, I decided to give it a try. So, for the last ten days. I have only had fresh vegetables and fruits, either juiced or blended.  Although Joe only juiced, for me the combination of the two made it mentally easier, since I believe you can benefit from both. The journey was very interesting, the first few days were difficult, not because I was hungry but because I was breaking the habit of eating whatever, whenever. On top of that, I’m a HUGE coffee addict so detoxing (which is what your body does when you’re not eating) and having caffeine withdrawal was a bitch. I was in a total fog and my head was pounding and on the second or third day I slept a good fifteen hours. But, I made up my mind to have the strength of a warrior and power through since I knew this feeling was only temporary. After about the third day, I began to have a shift, I started to feel better, even the thoughts of aborting the mission started to fade. I had more energy. About the seventh day my mind got so much clearer and I could actually feel the fortification taking place in my body whenever I drank the fresh juice; I was over the hump. I even had to take my mom to Costco and I was amazed at the total control I had over not eating all the samples they were giving out. Since it’s the holidays they were giving out some really good stuff.  There were a couple of items I had to ask my mom to try for me and tell me in detail how it taste. Now, here I am on the tenth day, which is the amount of time I said I’d commit to this fast, and I feel like I could do it for another ten days, I haven’t decided. I do know for sure that if I don’t do it another ten days I will modify it by adding salads and  homemade soups from scratch. The great thing though is that I feel more tuned-in to the needs of my mind, body and well-being; I fall asleep easier and I have way more energy than before!

The one side affect I’ve had from all this, I lost thirteen pounds  (which is basically what I put on when I went to Philadelphia this past Summer; damn you SHAKE SHACK!!   LOL. But seriously,  it’s not like I had a poor diet, it’s just that now I control  chocolate cakeI

Turkey Time is Coming!

It’s that time of year again, you know the time, turkey, stuffing, pies and cake time….oh yeah family and friends time too. I promise, this year I won’t overdo it. Well, okay I may, but I am on an exercise  program to combat the holiday bulge; which you can read about or join on tudyandyvetteshow.wordpress.com.  I plan on doing  buying a smoked turkey, cooking collard greens and sweet potatoes. I don’t think I’ll make mac and cheese this year,  as I think I’ll save that for Christmas dinner. I will get a deep dish apple pie though, yum. Usually I have a holiday themed adult drink decided on by now but I’m still working that out. I’ve been stalking the FoodNetwork for interesting dishes to give a try, so my menu may change. This year is going to be low-key, simple with football, house slippers and plenty of liquor. I wish we had a working fireplace, but in Southern California that doesn’t seem to fit. Usually, we have sort of a pot-luck, wherein people would bring their specialty dish, but some have gone vegan or out of town, so I will be doing all the cooking, hence the smoked turkey (which are very good by the way). I still haven’t ventured to make my own rolls, perhaps this would be a good year to try, that way I’ll have them perfected by next year. Anywho, this, as some of you may know is my favorite holiday, I always enjoy Thanksgiving with those special people in my life I often refer to as family.  I will be posting more holiday stuff so feel free to come back or post your holiday plans. tah-tah

Bad Boys? Bad

I came across this video yesterday entitled “Why Women Love Bad Boys” with Niecy Nash. She sits around talking with women, one of which is dating a bad boy. Now, since you know this blog is about self-love, you’ve probably guessed where I’m going with this one.  Loving bad boys, is hating yourself, period. That’s it; plain and simple.  If you are in a relationship with a bad boy you will remain in that relationship until you come to know and love yourself. Some women say they love bad boys because they love adventure, or they love his confidence; they feel protected. These are all poor excuses they tell themselves to avoid the truth; the truth of not loving yourself. If you loved yourself, you would NOT allow yourself to be mistreated, cheated on, or taken advantage of.  Somewhere in your soul you believe you deserve bad treatment; you deserve to be disrespected; that you are not good enough to have a strong man who is all about you.  You have convinced yourself that it’s okay for him to treat you badly, because you treat yourself badly and that’s exactly why the woman in the video started crying. She wasn’t crying over a loss of love, because she never had that, she cried because Niecy spoke to her soul, where the truth lived.  If you are in such a relationship and you are ready to start loving yourself, then you know it’s time to leave. Don’t be afraid; trust yourself. Take some much needed time to detox and start to get to know and love a person worthy of your love, YOU. Once you do that, you will recognize a man worthy of your love. He will be the one who respects you; takes care of you (I’m not talking financially here, you can do that for yourself) encourages you; who will help with the kids and the dishes. You will recognize the love he has for you because it feels just like the love you have for yourself.  This works both ways, if you are a man loving a bad girl, this is for you too. 

Girl Scouts are moving on up to modern times

In an effort to help girls acquire the skills they’ll need to become leaders of tomorrow, the Girl Scouts of America (GSOA) have revamped their badges. This is exciting and long over-due. I was a Girl Scouts when I was a kid and while we did a ton of fun activities, like camping, cooking, cleaning a public park etc., we didn’t do much in terms of preparing for the real world. I havent’ thought about the GSOA in a while (except when it Thin Mints” time) but hearing this news made me think “wow, what a great vehicle to teach and encourage young girls to explore subjects they may not otherwise have access to until later in life. These new badges include subjects such as financial literacy, business etiquette, public policy and local food awareness. The girls can also earn badges in areas such as web design, digital filmmaking, product design and more. Kathy Cloninger, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of the USA said in a statement as ABC News reports; “The new badges encourage “the critical thinking, creativity and entrepreneurship that the next generation of leaders will need to make the world a better place.”  On NPR’s All Things Considered, Alisha Niehaus of the Girl Scouts of the USA tells Guy Raz  “Some of the changes aren’t entirely about changing the subject matter; they’re about adjusting the approach. For example, what used to be a Fashion, Fitness and Makeup badge has been changed, because Niehaus says that while the girls in the program are still interested in makeup and fashion that interest isn’t limited to how things will look, but goes a little deeper. So there will be a badge in the Science & Technology category called The Science Of Style, which will focus on things like the chemistry of sunscreen or perhaps even making your own perfume.”

 There’s also a badge within the Innovation series called Product Designer, which Niehaus calls “the intersection of design and business.” Girls working on that badge might try to improve the functionality of backpack straps or improve the design of a cell-phone case. Don’t worry, for those of you who like the old badges, like cooking, athletics and first-aid,  Alisha tells USA Today, they’re still around. 

This is great because it encourages critical thinking and creativity. It gets girls “business minded” at an early age. Like I said before, we no longer live in the days of raising our kids to go to college and get a job, they go to create a job; meaning making their own business.  We need to take a page from the GSOA’s playbook for our girls and boys, expose them to these things at an early age so they too can be business-minded. They don’t have to be in the girl/boy scouts to get this lesson!

Support your local Girl Scouts!!!

Danielle’s Birthday

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 I don’t need to say time flies, we all know that….well, if you’re an adult with a busy life you know that. Anyway, yesterday was my daughter Danielle’s twenty-second birthday. TWENTY-TWO. TWENTY-TWO years ago she was born. I am in awe of how time has flown by. I still think of her as my baby. My baby with the tight baby grip she’d have on things she’d declared hers; my baby who had her very own sense of style at a very young age;  the one who would belt out a Marriah Carey song like no body’s business.  Now, now she’s about to finish college, she’s  driving and has a job. When did this grown up stuff happen? I feel like it snuck up on me in no time flat, while I wasn’t looking.  In my heart, she’s still my little brown-eyed girl with  big ponytails and a sweet smile; but in my eyes she’s a smart young lady with a point of view, opened mind and beautiful spirit, who will do wonderful things in her life and the lives of others. I love you, Danielle