3 Easy Tips for Staying Healthy through Cold and Flu Season

Cold and Flu Season is Here!

Bacteria and viruses are spread easily through the things we touch everyday; door handles, railings, your desk, bathrooms.

Germs on your hands can enter your body by simply rubbing your eyes or touching your nose and mouth. These germs will eat up nutrients and energy and can produce toxins. Those toxins are what cause symptoms of common infections, like the cold or flu.

Take care of yourself this winter by following our tips to staying healthy this cold and flu season:

1. Wash your hands regularly
One of the most important things you can do to help prevent yourself from getting sick is to wash your hands throughout the day and especially before you handle food.  (We do not recommend using hand wipes or sanitizer with alcohol too often - they can dry your hands out and cause the skin on your hands to crack which makes it easier for bacteria to enter your blood stream.)

Wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least twenty seconds and make sure you dry hands thoroughly.  If you are using a public restroom be sure to use a towel or toilet paper to open the bathroom door when leaving!

An easy way to ensure your kids are washing their hands for long enough is to have them sing the entire happy birthday song while washing.

2. Kuzu 
We also add kuzu into our diet to stay healthy.   
(See our previous post on Kuzu for even more information!)

3. Eat healthy

Eating a healthy, well-balanced diet will help you get through the season.  Here are some foods that have   immune system boosting powers:  

- Berries, such as blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and cranberries. These berries are high 

in antioxidants which fight off toxins. 

- Yogurt, to take advantage of the benefits of Probiotics. Look for our upcoming post on Probiotics.

- Chicken and vegetable soup, See our recipe.

Eighty percent of your immune system is located in your digestive system, so eating smart can really help to keep you healthy through cold and flu season.  You can read more about digestion at Dads Tip of the Week: Digestion.   

Be sure to share these tips with your kids!

Eating Right with Diabetes

Melissa's cousin Emily was diagnosed with type 1 Diabetes in 2008.  For the past few months, we have been raising money for the JDRF walk and this weekend we flew to North Carolina to participate in it. We are proud to say our team raised over $1,000! In honor of Emily, we did a little research on eating right with diabetes and wanted to share.

One of the foods that kept coming up in everything we read was one of our favorite foods - Quinoa. Here is why:

Quinoa is gluten-free and its protein quality is comparable to that of cow's milk, according to the Purdue University website. Recent research has revealed some compelling benefits of quinoa for blood sugar control and diabetes treatment.

Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/345343-quinoa-diabetes/#ixzz1cIbq41

Another way to better manage diabetes and control blood sugar levels is through consistent meal planning. See our meal planner post and send us an email if you are interested in using our template.

You should always consult with medical professional before changing your diet.

From what we have read, we believe we have some great recipes you can introduce into your diet which may be beneficial in controlling your blood sugar levels. After consulting with your doctor here are some great sites with plenty of information.

http://www.diabetesinnj.org/Learning_to_Eat_Right.html
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06298/732548-114.stm

We also recommend you read through our blog to find some great healthy recipes.

If you would like more information on the JDRF foundation or wish to donate visit:
http://www.jdrf.org/.

Dad's Health Tip of the Week: Weight Loss

The number one concern of my customers in the nutrition store where I work is weight loss. I can honestly say there is no magic supplement to make you lose weight. The key is simple, diet and exercise. There are numerous diet plans out there along with hundreds of exercise machines for the home that make extraordinary claims about losing weight. My theory is that if you follow a consistent healthy diet and exercise regularly you will lose weight. Crash diets are temporary and exercise machines only work if you use them.

Here is a very simple idea that will work if you follow it.  Eat small quantities every 3 hours up until 7 or 8 at night.  Try to exercise 4 times a week - whether it’s going to the gym or walking and doing pushups and sit ups at home. By eating small amounts more frequently you raise your metabolism. By increasing your muscle mass through exercise you also increase your metabolism.  By increasing your metabolism you burn more fat - it’s that simple!

With that said there is one product that I have seen that seems to work as far as increased energy and appetite suppression.  It is called Lean EFX and the feedback I get in the store about this product is very positive, especially from women. This is a long lasting energy pill that shouldn’t be taken later than 2 or 3 pm, any later than that and it will keep you up at night.

I also need to stress the importance of hydrating your body. I know I have said this before but if you are not properly hydrated, your body simply cannot react the way it is designed to. The best water for this is Kangen water (alkaline ionized water). You need to drink a minimum of ½ gallon of this water every day and you will see the difference.

To purchase the products I have mentioned visit the following websites:

Lean EFX     www.physicaladdictions.com

Kangen water   www.great2hydrate.net

Taste of Elizabeth 2011

Last night, we attended the 5th Annual Taste of Elizabeth hosted by the Rotary Club of Elizabeth.  All proceeds from the event are donated to charity through the Rotary Club. We went last year and it was great to see how quickly this has grown in just one year! 

Attendees sampled food, beverage, and desserts from over 40 participating local restaurants and other specialty food vendors. The event closed with 50/50 and “tricky tray” raffles. 

In case you do not know what a “tricky tray” raffle is… the Rotary Club received many gift basket donations from local businesses and other donors. Attendees purchased raffle tickets and placed their ticket(s) with the basket(s) they hoped to win. Winning raffle tickets are pulled at the end of the night.   

Talk about growth - last year they had approximately 10 gift baskets donated to the raffle, this year there were over 80 – WOW!

One of the most interesting vendors we met last night was a "Chocolatier".  The name of the business is CocoaFete and they can do anything chocolate in terms of party favors for your next Bridal Shower, Baby Shower, Wedding, etc. They can even set up a Chocolate Bar at your next party where you can enjoy chocolate fondue, chocolate fountains, and/or chocolate martinis.  Check out their website for more information - http://www.cocoafete.com/. 

Congratulations to the Rotary Club of Elizabeth for running such a successful and fun event last night! We are looking forward to attending and supporting a great organization again next year!

Check out the basket we won – a $25 Whole Foods gift card and an assortment of Asian sauces and specialty products.  Check back in with us to see how we are using these ingredients in our recipes! 

Homemade Chicken & Vegetable Soup Recipe

This is a great recipe for home made chicken & vegetable soup - everyone will love it!  Tom started making it for Ethan years ago to make sure he was getting enough vegetables in his diet. Tom makes this for us on Sunday and we bring it to work for lunch throughout the week.  We encourage you to use whatever kind of vegetables you want in your soup, the recipe is just some of our recommendations.

Breaking this recipe into two days will make the soup lower in fat.  We have the chicken stock set overnight in the refrigerator so that we can easily skim the fat off the top before the stock is added to the other soup ingredients. 

Ingredients

1 whole chicken

1 bag of soup veg consisting of onion, celery, carrots, radish, parsnip, leeks, thyme, and parsley

1 8 oz box of whole grain pasta shells (we found a pasta made with quinoa)

Olive oil

Spices

Salt

Pepper

Oregano

Chopped garlic

Dried basil

Bay leaf

Vegetables

1 red bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 zucchini

10 brussel sprouts

1 box frozen corn / lima bean mixed

1 cup of green lentils

2 heads of broccoli

2 cups of chopped kale

4 carrots, sliced

Directions

Day 1

1. Chop all ingredents in soup veg.
2. In a large pot add olive oil on medium flame.  Add two tablespoons of chopped garlic, chopped soup veg, bay leaf, and all other spices. 
3. Saute for five minutes.
4. Add chicken and fill pot with water until chicken is covered.
5. Bring pot to boil on medium flame for approximately one hour. 
6. Remove from heat and let sit for a half of an hour.
7. While chicken is cooking, chop up remaining vegetables and store in ziploc bag for tomorrow.
8. Remove chicken from pot and strain remaining ingredients into empty bowl.
9. Store in refrigerator over night.  We leave the chicken and other ingredients in the strainer dripping into the chicken stock bowl to get as much natural flavor as possible.  (See picture)

 

Day 2

1. In a large pot, add olive oil, chopped garlic, green lentils and the vegetables you cut up yesterday. 
2. Season with spices and saute.
3. While vegetables are sauting, pull chicken meat from whole chicken boiled the day prior and add into pot. 
4. Take chicken stock out of the refrigerator.  All of the fat should settle on the top and the stock should be a gelatin consistency.  Skim the fat off the top of the chicken stock (see picture).
5. Pour chicken stock into pot. 
6. Bring all ingredients to a boil. 
7. Add pasta.
8. Simmer on medium heat for five minutes. 
9. Remove from heat and add kale. 
10. Let soup cool for about 15 minutes and store based on your family's needs. (We vaccumm seal and freeze half and have the other half for this week's lunches and a couple of dinners.)

 

Whole Wheat, Whole Grain, Multi-Grain - What is the Difference?

We have talked about food labels and what they really mean when they say enriched, fortified, and refined. But what about labels like "Whole Wheat" "Whole Grain" and "Multi-Grain"? They all kind of sound like the same thing and they all seem like they would be good for you. Take this information with you the next time you go food shopping so you make better decisions when buying food for your family:

Whole Wheat / Whole Grain

Product examples that may contain whole wheat or whole grains: Whole wheat breads, pastas, cereals, tortilla, chips, and flours; brown rice; oatmeal; popcorn; quinoa.

Whole wheat refers to the whole wheat grain (see the picture we made below) and to be whole wheat, a grain must still have all it's parts: the bran, germ, and endosperm. Most nutrients are in the bran and germ parts of the whole grain. (Whole wheat comes from grinding the entire wheat berry.)

Whole wheat and whole grains are so good for your body and health. Here are just some of their benefits:

• Promotes gastrointestinal health
• Reduces the risk of Type 2 Diabetes
• May decrease cholesterol levels and blood pressure, reducing risk of heart disease
• Good source of dietary fiber, iron, manganese, and other vitamins and antioxidants

Multi-grain
Product examples that label their foods as multi-grain: Breads, cereals, tortillas, crackers, snack bars

Multi-grain means that a food contains more than one type of grain (example, oats, flax, millet). Keep in mind when you are buying these products that it does not necessarily mean that the product contains whole grains. In other words, many multi-grain products contain refined grains.

Through the food manufacturing refining process, grains lose most of the bran and germ parts of the wheat germ. Remember, this is where most of the nutritional value is in the wheat grain. And yes, manufacturers can add back fiber, vitamins and minerals to their products that are lost during the refining process. However, natural whole grains provide healthy nutrition that cannot be duplicated in enriched multi-grain products. Stick to the natural whole foods!

**Whole Wheat and Whole Grain Foods are, in general, MUCH Better for you than Multi-Grain Foods.**

Make sure you know what you are buying. Look at the ingredients label and make sure that all grains include the word 'whole'. Stay away from products where 'enriched wheat flour' is listed near the top of the ingredient list. We hope this clears things up. Let us know if you have any other questions we can answer!

Here's a picture we made of a whole grain and it's "parts":

Dad's Health Tip of the Week - Digestion

It is my opinion that all diseases start in the colon and that’s why it is crucial to do the following 4 things to maintain a healthy colon. 

#1. Enzymes. When you chew your food enzymes are released in the mouth and start the digestive process; therefore it is very important to chew your food well. I also recommend that you take some digestive enzymes with each meal, either in supplement form or by eating something that contains a high amount of enzymes such as papaya, or pineapple.

#2. Fiber, it is important to keep things moving in the colon and fiber does just that. I recommend eating a high fiber diet or supplementing with good quality fiber supplements such as psyllium, chia seeds, flax seeds, to name a few.

#3. Probiotics. Throughout our colon we have trillions of bacteria, some good and some bad. The challenge is to keep it balanced so that nutrients can be absorbed and viruses are kept from entering the blood stream. I recommend supplementing with a probiotic that contains 5 – 8 billion bacteria and 8 – 10 different strains.

#4. Hydrate! As mentioned in a previous health tip it is extremely important to drink water to maintain a healthy colon. The best water by far is alkaline ionized water. I can’t stress this point enough because even if you follow all the tips listed above and you are dehydrated, your body can not work efficiently no matter how well you eat.

My supplement recommendations are:

• Super enzymes by Now Foods
• ProFibe by Cerburg Products
• Jarrow Dophillus EPS by Jarrow
• SD501 water ionizer by Enagic 

The listed supplements can be purchased at www.physicaladdictions.com

The water Ionizer can be purchased at www.great2hydrate.com

Easy Salmon Dinner Recipe

Unsure how to incorporate salmon into your diet? Try this easy recipe for your family tonight.

Ingredients
Salmon
(2) 4 oz Wild Salmon
Marinade (we like to use a carribean sauce)
Olive oil
Salt, pepper to taste

Quinoa

1 cup of quinoa

2 cups of chicken stock

To taste:

Salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Paprika

Vegetables

Vegetables - any kind you have ... tonight we used zucchini, red pepper, broccoli, and green beans

1/2 cup chicken stock (or enough to cover about 1/2 inch of the pan)

Olive oil

Spoonful of Minced garlic

Salt, pepper to taste

Directions

Salmon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Drizzle olive oil on the bottom of a medium glass pan.

3. Put salmon in pan (skin side down) and season with salt and pepper.

4. Pour marinade over salmon and cover with foil

5. Bake for approximately 15 minutes and take the foil off.

6. Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes.

Quinoa

1. Bring all ingredients to a boil. Stir.

2. Cover and turn down to a low simmer.

3. Quinoa should absorb all liquid and will be ready in about 15 minutes.

Vegetables

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Put all vegetables in a small glass pan

3. Pour in chicken stock and drizzle some olive oil on top of the vegetables

4. Season vegetables with minced garlic, salt and pepper

5. Cover pan with foil and bake for approximately 20-30 minutes.

(You can cook both the vegetables and salmon in the oven at the same time.)

Morning Shake Recipe

We like to have a shake in the morning before going to work. This usually holds us over until about 11 a.m. and a mid morning snack (like greek yogurt) get us through until lunch. Try this recipe out and let us know what you put in yours!




Ingredients

• Handful of Concord grapes
• 1 cup mixed berries (we buy frozen)
• 1 tablespoon of Greek yogurt
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 cup of juice (we use acia juice)
• 1 tablespoon Garden of Life super-green formula
• 1 scoop Pure WPI whey protein isolate

Directions
Mix all ingredients in a blender. Makes 2 shakes.

Super-fruit Series - Pomegranate

Have you ever heard of a “super fruit”? Super fruit is actually a made-up marketing term, but the description is intended to describe fruits that have exceptional nutritional value and taste. Blueberries, pomegranates, cranberries, and acai berries are all examples of super fruits.

We thought we would start a “Super-fruit Series” so we can all understand the different types of “super” fruits available, the associated health benefits of consuming these products, and how you would prepare and/or cook them.

Let us know if there is a super fruit you want more information on!

This Week’s Super Fruit: Pomegranate

Pomegranates grow on shrubs or trees, up to 26 feet in height. They are red, about the size of the orange, and can have up to 600 seeds inside! Pomegranates are in season during the autumn. The fruit is grown all over the world today, including southeast Asia, southern Europe, and tropical Africa.

Pomegranates are so, so good for you, and that is one of the reasons we picked this fruit to be the first of the series. Research has shown that pomegranates may act like aspirin in the body, preventing or reducing the risk of blood clots. The fruit is reported to increase oxygen flow to the heart and reduce arthritis pain by reducing inflammation. Also, pomegranates are full of antioxidants. Antioxidants help lower your bad cholesterol and they neutralize free radicals that have been shown to cause cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

So, how do you eat it?
Pomegranate is available in many different forms, including the whole fruit, juice, powder, sorbets, and in yogurt. The fruit’s nutrition is in the seeds (also referred to as arils) and juice. It is best to buy organic pomegranates.

Want to try the whole fruit but have no clue what to do? Here’s one way you can easily enjoy pomegranate and all of its health benefits! Remember not eat the skin, peel or white membrane that covers the seeds.

1. Wash your pomegranate super fruit.
2. Cut off the top and bottom of the pomegranate and score the skin in several places.
3. Many will recommend you now soak the fruit for 5 – 10 minutes, but this step is not required.
4. Pull the pomegranate into small, separate sections (the fruit should naturally pull apart).
5. Peel off any membrane that is covering the seeds.
6. Using a small bowl to catch the seeds, take each section and pull the skin back so that the seeds fall into the bowl. You will probably still need to gently rub any remaining seeds off the skin/peel into the bowl as well.
7. Throw away or compost the skin, peel, and membranes.
8. Enjoy your pomegranate seeds!

Try sprinkling the seeds over plain yogurt, oatmeal, ice cream and salads. You can also drink the juice of pomegranates. There are some great instructions online – just google it. We incorporate pomegranate into our diet primarily through juice and greek pomegranate yogurt. If the juice is too strong for you, mix ½ water or orange juice and ½ pomegranate juice.

*Important Note*
In researching this fruit, we came across an interesting warning: Be sure to let your doctor or pharmacist know as pomegranate may interfere with certain medications! Also, pomegranates stain. Be careful and wear dark clothes or cover up with a napkin when enjoying this fruit.

Fun Fall Family Projects

Looking for something fun to do for the whole family next weekend? How about taking the family pumpkin picking. Or you could even just pick up a few pumpkins from your local farmers market.


Once you get your pumpkins, here are some fun project ideas you can do at home with the whole family.

To complete the projects below, you will need one large pumpkin and one medium pumpkin per person.  

Pumpkin Painting

We set Ethan up with a medium pumpkin, some markers, construction paper, and left the rest to his creativity!  He loved making his pumpkin and was very proud to display it in his room!

Pumpkin Carving

Clean excess dirt off of your pumpkin. Cut out the top and scoop out the pumpkin guts with a strong, large metal spoon.  Set pumpkin seeds to the side in a large bowl (you can use them later to make toasted pumpkin seeds).


Draw the pumpkin's face using a permanent marker and cut out along your stencil using the pumpkin knife. We figured out that you can wash away any any remaining permanent marker left on the pumpkin with the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. 

Put a tea light inside your jack-o-latern, turn off the lights and Enjoy!

My mom and I made this one - we think he is so cute!

**Use a pumpkin carving knife - it will make carving the pumpkin much easier on you.**

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients

Pumpkin seeds from carved pumpkin

Tablespoon of olive oil

Taplespoon of melted butter
Sea salt

Directions
1. Separate pumpkin seeds from pumpkin guts and wash the pumpkin seeds.
2. Boil water and teaspoon of salt in medium saucepan.
3. Add pumkin seeds and continue to boil for approximately 15-20 mins.
4. Dry pumpkin seeds for several hours.
5. Later, preheat oven to 300 degrees.
6. Mix pumpkin seeds with melted butter and olive oil in a small bowl.
7. Spread pumpkin seeds out onto baking sheet (make seeds as flat as possible) and sprinkle with sea salt.
8. Bake seeds for approximately 45 minutes (or until browned), stirring occassionally.
9. Let seeds cool and Enjoy!

Happy Fall!

We love the fall and are enjoying the beautiful weather and our home-made fall decorations!

Happy Fall everyone!

Dad's Health Tip of the Week - Protein

I work in a sport nutrition store in Florida and one of the most common questions I get is “what kind of protein should I take”? Proteins are judged by their biological value (BV), which means how much of it is absorbed and utilized by your body. The higher the BV, the better.

The highest BV protein is Whey Isolate. This is a milk protein that has been filtered down to where all the fat and lactose has been removed leaving the purest and most easily digested protein your body can use. The only thing you have to consider when taking it is that you don’t want to take too much in one serving. Whey Isolate is so quickly absorbed that any more than 25 – 30 grams at a serving will be wasted because your body can not utilize more than that at one time. I recommend mixing it with milk because milk contains casein that slows down the absorption and makes it more of a time released protein. The best time to take your protein is within one hour after your workout. This is when your body will uptake the protein and deliver it to the muscles with the most efficiency.

Whey Protein Isolate (WPI) is the best protein but it shouldn’t be your only source. There are many other types of protein such as eggs, soy, quinoa, beef, chicken, and fish to name a few. I recommend that supplementing protein should only be about 25% of your daily intake with the rest coming from food sources. As a rule of thumb you need about 1 gram of protein per lb of body weight per day.

For the best selection and best prices visit www.physicaladdictions.com

Tuna Salad

My mom used to make a large bowl of tuna salad every once in a while and we loved it.  We took her recipe and made a couple of easy changes to get a healthier alternative.  


This is also another great lunch meal you can make on Sundays and bring it to work throughout the week for lunch. 

Ingredients

1 box whole wheat pasta, cooked

4 cans tuna

2 - 4 tablespoons mayo (with olive oil)

1 green pepper, diced

1/2 red pepper, diced

1/2 cup of celery, diced

1 can black pitted olives, cut in half

salt

pepper

Directions

Drain tuna, place in large bowl.  Add in 1-2 tablespoons mayo, salt, and pepper and mix thoroughly.  Add in chopped peppers and celery.  Add 1/2 of the cooked elbow noodles and mix all ingredients together.  Add remaining elbow noodles and 1-2 tablespoons mayo, salt, and pepper and mix thoroughly.  

  

Can Honey Provide Allergy Relief?

We picked up this bottle of honey at the local farmers market last weekend.  We've heard that honey may provide allergy relief so we did a little research. 

Here is a brief summary of the theory behind honey providing allergy suffers' some natural relief:

Bees carry pollen from flowers to their nest, which ends up in small amounts within the honey they make. Local honey is important because local bees will likely transfer pollen from local flowers.  The theory is that if you eat 1-2 teaspoons of local honey per day, the honey may act as a vaccine in small doses and help boost your immune system against the pollen. 

For people who are looking for a natural remedy to allergies, this may be one option. 

Honey is great as an alternative sweetner in your hot or cold tea.  Try honey on a piece of toast with peanut butter - it's delicious.

Our Favorite Lunch Recipe

We love to make this great recipe on Sundays and bring it to work for lunch throughout the week. Tom created this recipe because he wanted to make sure his seven-year-old son was eating enough vegetables (Ethan already loves quinoa!).  This is one of my most favorite things Tom makes for us! Everyone at work always tells me how good it smells when I heat it up and I think it tastes even better than it smells! 

Try it out and let us know what you think!

Ingredients

Chicken

1 whole chicken

soup veg (optional)

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

sea salt

pepper
garlic powder
onion powder
paprika

Recommended vegetable mix: (use any vegetables you have in the house)

1 pint brussell sprouts
1 pound of broccoli flourets
1/2 pound baby carrots, sliced
2 cups fresh green beans, chopped
4 cups of fresh kale or spinach
Olive oil
Garlic, chopped
Sea Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)


Quinoa

1 cup of quinoa

2 cups of chicken stock (use stock made from boiled chicken)

To taste:

Sea Salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Paprika

Directions

Chicken

In a large pot, boil whole chicken with giblets (take these out of the chicken and plastic and boil in pot), garlic and other seasonings until chicken reaches an internal temp of 165 degrees.  You can add soup veg to the pot to add even more flavor to the chicken stock (you'll be using the stock to make the quinoa). 

Remove chicken from pot and let cool.  Strain chicken stock into two large measuring cups (you will need two cups for the quinoa and two cups for the vegetable mix). 

After chicken has cooled, remove the skin and pull chicken meat from the bone. 

Quinoa

Using the chicken stock made above, bring all ingredients (quinoa, chicken stock, seasonings) to a boil. Stir. Cover and turn down to a low simmer. Quinoa should absorb all liquid and will be ready in about 15 minutes.

Vegetables

In a large pot with olive oil and chopped garlic, add vegetables sautee vegetable mix (excluding the kale/spinach). Season vegetables with salt and pepper, and sautee for about ten minutes. 

Bringing it all together...

Add pulled chicken and two cups of chicken stock to pot with sauteed vegetables and continue to cook over medium flame.  Add kale or spinach and stir.  Add cooked quinoa, stir everything together and remove from heat. 

Enjoy!

                         

Trip to the Farmers Market

Today we went to the farmers market in Summit, NJ.  There were lots of local famers and other home-made goodies - you will be surprised with what you may find!

We came home with wine, mini-pumpkins, gords, flowers, honey, peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes.  Farmers and local businesses were also selling home-made candles, blankets, baked goods, sauces, and lots of vegetables, fresh seafood, poultry, and mums. 

Here's what we are planning on doing with our purchases...

We used the peppers in the tuna salad we'll have for lunch during the week (recipe will be up later). 

Tom uses honey in tea for sweetening, and using local honey is even better!

Tonight, we'll grill the zucchini in olive oil and garlic for a great vegetable side dish. 

We can't wait to try the wine out with dinner tonight! And the flowers, pumkins, and gords make a great autum center piece on our dining room table. 

You can use the app we recommended, Locavore, to find a farmers market near you. 

Any great farmers markets in your area?