The Quinoa Recipe and Excitement

The question for the past couple of weeks has been "are you excited?" At times I've acted as though I was asked "how are you?" (people do not want a lengthly explanation) and simply answered "yes" . Truth be told, I haven't been excited; I've been anxious, exhausted and too "in it" with this whole book thing that I haven't been skipping or giddy or whatever it is excited people do. That was until I watched good old Super Soul Sunday last night. Marianne Williamson talked about leading with love rather than  fear. If you're ready to click away thinking I've gone off a spiritual cliff hang on. She gave an example of going to get a job. Often, we're thinking "am I going to do well?" or "will they offer me something?" and that shifts our focus and we're stifled and scared. Marianne said "it limits our capacity to shine." Sound familiar? What if instead we all focused on what we wanted to communicate or assumed we would be well received. I am not sure I'd go all the way to "blast them with love before you arrive".  This really rung a bell with me. I am not looking for a job but I'm certainly putting this little book out there (tomorrow!) and my thoughts have been dominated by "how is the book going to do?" but the Super Soul Lauren is going to try to focus on spreading the LBT word, keeping it fresh and fun and who knows maybe I'll blast you all with love in the new year. 

And, for a taste of LBT here is one of my favorite recipes from the book. Jenna Helwig formulated all the terrific recipes and this one is a keeper.

MISO BROCCOLI QUINOA SALAD

Makes 4 servings

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon white miso


2 tablespoons rice vinegar


2 cups cooked quinoa (rinse before cook)

3 cups steamed broccoli florets, roughly chopped

2 cups baby arugula


1⁄4 cup raw sunflower seeds


1⁄4 teaspoon salt

To make the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, miso, and rice vinegar. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the quinoa, broccoli, arugula, and sunflower seeds. Add the dressing and the salt. Toss gently until combined. 

Yes, this was the "Dr Oz Quinoa"

I am "excited" to share that the Little Book of Thin Blog tour kicks off tomorrow with a dozen posts from some of my favorite bloggers. I'll be tweeting and FBing and posting the links here as they go live. OK gotta "skip" and get ready for this book launch.

Do you tend to be fearful with important events? Do you like quinoa? Cook with miso? Remember how to skip?

Two Little Book of Thin Secrets to Say Thank You

Little Book of Thin illustrator Diana Marye Huff

Here we are, another Monday morning and I have two questions for you. Are you walking around with any thoughts along the line of “ugh why did I eat x, y or z this weekend?” My second seemingly unrelated question is do you know what you’re having for dinner tonight? If you answered “yes” to the first food-guilt question or “no” to the second planning question The Little Book of Thin is for you. I am so appreciative of those of you who have pre-ordered this book. I told you to save your e-receipts and I hope you did because I have a token of my gratitude to send you and these are not just any tokens they are "thin" tokens.

First, you’ll receive the LBT Victory List (oh my goodness my son just came in and said “mom don’t you mean BLT”). Parting ways with that food guilt is one of the cornerstones of Foodtraining and this Victory List will get you started, even before the book arrives. When we’re trapped in “I shouldn’t have had that” mode we’re wasting time that could be spent strategizing. Banish the word willpower from your vocabulary. It’s not about who will win you or the breadbasket, it’s about deciding whether you’re having the bread (or booze or dessert) before you’re in the tricky situation. With the LBT Menu Map you’ll start to wear your food-planning hat and an ounce of prevention is worth many, many pounds of fat.Life is too short to cry over a caramel or an extra cocktail but I know you want to feel your best, come January 1^st 2014 (and now even before that) you can.

Here’s what to do: email your proof of purchase to info@foodtrainers.net and type “LBT preorder” in the subject line. We’ll email you your Victory List and Menu Map. And if you can’t locate your receipt, simply email your name and where you preordered from (Amazon, Barnes and Noble etc).

So let’s kick this week off on a positive note. What healthy item did you purchase or cook this weekend? Any fun fall workouts? Whatever you did for yourself it’s a victory, pat yourself on the back and one victory will lead to more.

**And bloggers I’m going to be doing a Little Book of Thin Blog Tour. Some of you have emailed expressing interest in doing a Q/A or receiving an advance copy. This will take place the first two weeks in January; contact me if you’re interested. It’ll be a great way to kick off the New Year and we can tailor the content to your audience or platform.