Just like regular pesto, but with this amazing sprout!  Easy to digest and delicious, try it now!  If you are in the NYC area go see Stewart the Sprout guy with the yellow school bus at the union sq. Farmer's Market.  He's there Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Enjoy!

1/2 lb (about 3 cups packed) pea shoot sprouts

1/2 cup walnuts

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 cup olive oil

1/4 cup Parmesan-Reggiano (grated)

squeeze of lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Place the walnuts into a food processor or blender and chop up a bit.  Add remaining ingredients except the oil.  Blend for a few seconds.  Slowly add the oil and keep blending until smooth and creamy.  Mix into a bowl of whole wheat pasta. YUM!

This seems like a crazy thing to post but I have to share it!  A friend of mine made me a fabulous sandwich on Tuesday and I decided to add to it and this is what happened.  What I love about it is that it is sweet and savory at the same time, which means I don't need dessert!  Enjoy!

My Favorite BLT

 2 slices cinnamon raisin bread-toasted

mayo(vegan or high quality organic stuff)

7-8 spinach leaves

a little bit of romaine or lettuce

slice of tomato

pinch of sea salt

tempeh bacon(lightlife is AMAZING!) or high quality grass fed bacon)

red pepper slices-on the side(in place of potato chips or fries)

Spread a little mayo on one slice of bread.  Place slice of tomato and pinch of sea salt on the same side.  Load on the greens!  Cook tempeh bacon in coconut oil until both sides are brown and crispy(or the real bacon), add to the sandwich.  Top with second piece of bread.  AMAZING and EASY!

HK's I heart Fish Tacos recipe:                

1 lb wild caught fish- I use cod because we will be seasoning them

1/2 a packet taco seasoning 

1/2 cup chicken broth

Tortillas, salsa fresca, guacamole, refried beans- whatever you LOVE on tacos!

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Cut your fish into strips and place in a baking dish.

3.  Coat the fish with the chicken broth and 1/2 packet of taco seasoning.  Get your hands in there and rub it all around evenly to coat the strips.

4.  Place in oven for 15-20 minutes or until desired firmness is achieved. 

5.  Heat up your tortillas, scoop in some fish filling and load up on all your fresh favorite taco toppings and ENJOY!

I also want to make everyone aware of my friend Matt Dellapina and his blog 'Parm It Up!'.  It is entertaining, funny and he has some strange, yet amazing ideas(I never thought to put parmesan cheese in oatmeal.  You've got me there Matt!).  Check his site out at www.parmitup.com You can link to it directly from the 'Check these Out' column on the right.  

    Rice and Beans- for the tired folks!

1 can of any kind of bean you have in the house(mine happened to be kidney beans and let's buy organic if you haven't been!)

brown rice(I cooked mine in chicken broth-yum! Gives it extra flavor.  Prepare it as usual but with chicken broth in place of water)

1 egg(you will soft boil it)

2 tbsp salsa of your choice

greens (anything you've got, leftover kale, spinach, sautee it)

sour cream or tofu sour cream-optional

guacamole-optional

Layer the brown rice, then the beans, and the salsa.  Cut the egg on top(hopefully it will be a little runny).  Top the whole thing with any of the optional ingredients if you'd like!  So easy!

With that I will say, I have a HUGE sweet tooth.  It is one of the things that really gets me when I'm out and about.  So I'm going to pledge right here on my blog that I will not eat anymore sweets(or junk food) unless I make them myself.  Can you challenge yourself too?  I made the pledge and then I marched into my kitchen to make Thumbprint Cookies!  And you should too!

Thumbprint Cookies                                             

3 tbsp. softened butter

1 egg

1tsp. almond extract

1tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup Sucanat(this is a sugar product that you can find at Whole Foods)

1/2 almonds, ground(I use my coffee grinder to do this.  Just be sure to not grind it so long that it becomes almond butter!)

1tsp. baking powder

pinch of sea salt

1 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

Jam or preserves(I used some black raspberry jam we got from the farmers market in Maryland-yum!)

Preheat the oven to 350.  In a mixing bowl combine all the wet ingredients and mix with a hand blender.  In a separate bowl mix together all the dry ingredients.  Combine them into one bowl.  Then, as always with me, get your hands in there and mix it all together until the dough is sticky and you can tell that is is thoroughly combined.  Roll the dough into balls, I like mine to be about an inch and half to 2 inches.  Place them on a lightly oiled cookie sheet and push your thumb into each ball.  Add a dollop of jam or preserves into the thumb imprint.  Bake for 15 minutes.

I had a lot of left over greens so I decided to incorporate them into one of my favorite things to make, PIZZA!  There is nothing like a healthy fast pizza and I have a good recipe for you.  I added the left-over dinosaur kale and it was awesome(it got light and crispy).  I made a quick salad with 1 avocado and a few handfuls of halved cherry tomatoes.  Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and you've got a fantastic side salad.

Eat healthy pizza!

HK's Healthy Whole Pizza:

1- 8oz. can tomato sauce

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/4 lb ground turkey(vegans and vegetarians, skip this!)

1 onion, chopped

olive oil

garlic(to taste, I use 2 cloves)

left over dinosaur kale or any greens- chopped

 shredded cheese(whatever you like, vegans use soy or rice cheese)

1 pizza crust (Whole Foods makes a great 10 inch round that comes in a whole wheat 2 pack and makes life VERY easy)

1. Preheat oven to 325

2. Put about 1 tbsp olive oil in a sauce pan over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic and sautee for 2-3 minutes, until soft.

3. Add can of tomato sauce and paste.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Sometimes I even toss  little cayenne in there too! Bring to a boil.

4. Cook turkey in separate skillet until brown.  Add to sauce.

5.  Lightly brush crust with olive oil.  Spread thin layer of sauce onto crust(you'll have enough sauce for both crusts).  Spread kale and cheese as toppings. 

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cheese just starts to brown.

Since the new kitchen is here that means I'll be starting cooking classes again soon.  The first one is on Feb. 20th at 6:30pm.  It's $60 a class and dinner is included.  Jennifer Fugo from Evolving Well provides a lot of information about the foods we're cooking and it's an all around great time!  To sign up email me at heatherqbsc@gmail.com

 Be Well!

Sauteed Winter Greens with Garlic

1/2 cup water or stock

1 bunch collard greens(or other leafy greens- I used some dinosaur kale)

1/4 head cabbage, cut into thin strips

1 garlic clove, peeled and minced

2tsp. Olive Oil

Sea Salt

Put water(or stock) into the bottom of a frying pan.  Add collards and cabbage and cook 2-3 minutes or until water evaporates.  Add minced garlic, drizzle with olive oil and sea salt, and continue cooking additional 2-3 minutes.

I have been training for the Nike Women's San Francisco Marathon for 4 months now.  Last year when I moved back to Manhattan from Astoria, I left the beautiful brand new New York Sports Club they had built there behind.  It is a wonderful gym, with large windows allowing the light to spill in from all over, a juice bar next door, and was almost never crowded.  I traded that in for their Irving Place gym.  It felt like a dungeon.  In fact, the spin studio was as big as my old bedroom in Queens and down in the basement.  Thinking about working out there depressed me, so as soon as my agreement was up, I canceled my membership.  I thought, "I'm running a marathon, I'll be fine.".  And I was, until I got hurt.  I was experiencing severe pain in my left leg along my shin.  Doctors told me it was a minor stress fracture in my left leg.  They told me I could not run.  I could do anything that didn't make my leg hurt, but I could not run.  That went on for 5 weeks of my marathon training.  Awesome.

Two weeks after receiving this news I was going crazy and needed to move around if I was going to have any chance of running this race.  I started to look at other gyms in the area and decided on Crunch at 12th St. and 4th Ave.  Crunch is great because everyone there is so nice!  The facilities are clean and the classes kick butt.  I never thought I'd take a yoga class at a gym, but they have their own studio so it makes you feel like you are in any other yoga sanctuary around the city.  At the time of sign up I was asked if I wanted to work with a personal trainer.  They were offering a great rate and I thought, "Yeah. This would be a good time for that.".  I had been informed by my doctor and coach that areas of my leg were not strong enough(probably why I injured myself), not to mention that I already knew my arms were very weak.  So, game on.

I was assigned Jennifer Cassetty(www.jennifercassetty.com).  Needless to say she has kicked my butt in so many ways!  She has been aware of my injury and worked around it to help strengthen all the areas around my legs to help me to not get injured again.  And I can finally do a push-up and a full vinyasa in yoga class.  I feel like a new person, one who isn't struggling to hold herself up(is there a hidden message in there?)!  Even if you can only afford to work with a trainer for a little while, it is worth it.  You will learn how to use and not be intimidated by all those machines in the gym.  You'll learn that even girls can lift weights and look cool doing it, even if you don't have the muscles yet.  All in all it has been a great experience.  I had always been so afraid to ask anyone to help me in the progress of my fitness.  This has been a wonderful way to get over it and get strong!  I will be running San Fran this year and I owe lots of that to Jennifer.  Thanks Jen!

Speaking of weightlifting, I was recently in BC, Canada for vacation.  My boyfriends dad said he wanted to take us to the park in a near by town while his wife was doing some shopping.  He brought us to a park in Burns Lake, Canada where they had built something called the 'Green Gym'.  This is an outdoor gym made out of playground material, so it isn't damaged by weather.  The weight machines are all based on your weight(the downside is that you can't become a body builder unless you put your boyfriend in your lap or something!), you are lifting your own weight, pressing your own weight, etc...  They even have cardio machines.  It is one of the wildest, coolest things I've ever seen!  WHY don't we have these in the states?  Go to http://greengym.ca to check it out and then write to your state representative.  We need to get these in the states!  Doing everything I would do at the gym outside when the weather is nice?  Sign me up for that!

So reach out for a little help, even if it's only to use the free personal training session they give you at the gym.  

And talk about Green Gym, we can get them here and help our communities build a better foundation for physical fitness!  Think of how many lives that could change!  Be Well. 

Sounds funny, right?!  I was fortunate enough to see a lecture with Anne Marie Colbin, founder of the Natural Gourmet Cooking School in NYC.  If you ever have a chance to hear her speak, she's fabulous!  She made a great point in her lecture about whole foods.  What makes a "whole food"?  Well, technically it is a food that comes to you the way it came from nature. I'm a person who doesn't do a lot of dairy so I use soy or rice milk.  Apparently soy and rice milk will wreck you're thyroid. Over processed non-dairy alternatives will cause you're thyroid to work overtime.  I don't want that!  So, she suggested putting banana milk on cold cereal(she wasn't big on cold cereal, but I live in the real world with the rest of you and I find that I can not escape it!).  I tried this simple recipe with not only cold cereal but also on left over brown rice from the night before topped with berries and it was awesome!  It keeps in the fridge for about 3 days, so give it a go!

Banana Milk

1 banana 

1 cup water

your blender

1.  Blend the banana with the water and pour on your cereal.  That's it!  How awesome is that?!

OMG!  We’re finally here!  It has taken several months, lots of design and planning, but Quit Bitching. Start Cooking. (QBSC)is up and running!  I say we because many people have contributed to the creation and vision of this company, and I’d like to take a second to thank them. 

THANK YOU’S: A great big thanks to the gals that make up the Holistic Business Collaborative for letting me bat ideas around.  My fam-awesome and crazy as they are!  Thanks is owed to the peeps over at Integrative Nutrition for giving me the courage to get this out and into the universe.  And my little family I live with and see everyday, MT and Ike, thank you for taste testing and all the love.

OK!  So, what is this?!  What is this blog all about?  QBSC sounds kinda harsh!  Well, it sort of is, but I’m not trying to be a jerk about it or anything!  What I really want to do is empower you!  I want for you to put all the excuses aside and get cooking.  So there will be lots and lots of EASY HEALTHY recipes in the blog and lots of information about food, health, exercise and nutrition.  There will also be some general suggestions, things that you can keep in mind on a daily basis to reach your health and fitness goals. 

Let’s get on with it then!

The first topic I’d like to address is the sweet tooth.  Almost everyone I know has one, myself included.  When I first began evaluating my eating habits, one thing was very clear, I was eating way too much sugar.  After a bit of research, I decided to incorporate sweet veggies into my diet.  Sweet veggies include…  By incorporating more of these veggies I was able to put the breaks on my sweet cravings.  It was kind of magical!  Who knew that one little dietary change could change so much?  Eventually, I stopped eating refined sugar completely.  Here is one of my favorite sweet veggie recipes.  I love to have them alone as a snack, or with a veggie burger. Enjoy!

SWEET POTATO FRIES

What you’ll need:

1 sweet potato or yam

2 tbsp olive oil

sea salt

fresh rosemary(optional)

1.    Preheat oven to 425

2.    Scrub the potato so that you can cook it with the skin.

3.    Cut potato into fries. *

4.    Place the fries onto a baking sheet and drizzle the olive oil on them.

5.    Sprinkle with sea salt and rosemary(as much or as little of each as you’d like)

6.    Get your hands in there!  Toss the fries around making sure theyare all coated in oil.

7.    Bake for 35-45 minutes or until they’ve reached your desired level of crispiness.