Fresh Green Veggies and Pasta

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Cheryl's Kitchen.

Nothing quite says spring has sprung like fresh green vegetables, and this fast and fabulous recipe is a great way to get more vegetables in your diet. Even though it has a cream and butter sauce, I like to think that the health benefits of the broccoli, asparagus, and snow peas levels the playing field. In my opinion the sauce isn’t nearly as rich and decadent as other cream based pasta sauces, but maybe I’m just kidding myself. Regardless, it is a very tasty recipe that feels light and healthy. You can boost the health benefits by serving it with a fresh green salad with an olive oil and red wine vinegar dressing. See? Guilt free pasta in a delicious cream sauce! Ingredients: 2 cups fresh broccoli florets 1 cup fresh asparagus, cut in 1-inch pieces 2 cups sliced fresh zucchini 1/2...

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Slow Cooker Orange Chicken

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Cheryl's Kitchen.

I love chicken. It’s versatile, high in protein, easy to digest, and if you cook it right it can be low in fat as well. It can also be easy to prepare for a low maintenance meal, leaving extra time for the things you really love to do. Like going to the dojo and beating up bad guys in my case. But that’s just me. Which is why I love cooking with my crock pot. It’s just so darn easy, and it’s a great way to cook chicken. However, I prefer to use either a whole chicken or thighs and drumsticks rather than chicken breasts. I don’t like the texture of chicken breast cooked in the crock pot, but thighs and drumsticks turn out tender, juicy, and tasty. In this particular recipe, I use bone in chicken thighs and remove the skin before cooking. Here is a quick and easy,...

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Creamy Mushroom Soup

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Cheryl's Kitchen.

I never learned how to cook until I moved away from my hometown and my mother’s cooking to Denver to seek my fame and fortune. Since then I have become a pretty good cook if I do say so myself. However, it was a steep learning curve and there were a lot of unpalatable mistakes along the way. This mushroom soup was one of the first recipes I made that had any degree of success. Over the years, once my cooking skills improved, I changed the recipe a bit to make it even creamier, tastier, and more satisfying. In my humble opinion, it’s the best cream of mushroom soup I’ve ever had. And the health benefits of mushrooms are almost as amazing as the soup itself. Ingredients: 1 pound button mushrooms, chopped 1 Portobello mushroom, chopped 1 bunch scallions 3 cups chicken broth 2...

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The Reluctant Ninja and the Big Reveal

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Ninja Notes.

For the past five years I have been busy working on my next book, The Reluctant Ninja: How A Middle-Aged Princess Became a Warrior Queen. The book chronicles my journey in the male-dominated, testosterone-infested, strange new world of men and martial arts. It was a wild ride, and the most incredible experience I’ve ever had. But, I certainly did not go willingly. I had to be dragged kicking and screaming, and not in a good way. Marc, my Sensei, was my acupuncturist long before he became my teacher. It took him 3 long years to get me on the mat and train with him. I finally capitulated and agreed to take a few classes just to prove to him how much I was going to hate it. Ten years later I became his first female black belt. In 20 years of teaching, he never had a woman achieve such...

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Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Cheryl's Kitchen.

Every year my garden treats us to a plethora of zucchini. As a matter of fact, we have so much zucchini that we have to give it away. Which means that by the end of the season, every time I walk out of my house with grocery bags full of garden zucchini, the sound of slamming shutters and blinds by my neighbors can be heard up and down the street. Yes, by October, even the neighbors are over it. But, I love zucchini bread, but I also like to cut calories when I can, as long as I can come up with a palatable solution. Many years ago I took a traditional recipe and completely revamped it. I recently was craving a chocolate fix and added cocoa powder to my recipe. After all, chocolate is full of surprising health benefits, and the result was delicious. I do love the taste of the rich dark chocolate,...

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Fabulous Fit Tip #6

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Fit Tips.

FIT TIP #6: PERFECT POSTURE, Round Two I am passionate about posture, because I understand how important it is to our overall health and well-being. After working with hundreds of clients over the years, I have seen the health benefits of good posture as well as the detrimental effects of faulty posture. Our posture and our structural alignment doesn’t just affect our joints. It also impacts our organs and other physiological functions as well. Since this is a follow-up from my previous fit tip on posture, you might want to review Fit Tip #5. For more detailed information regarding posture, you can check out Chapter 6 of my book, “Forever Fit and Flexible.” In the meantime, here are 3 additional movement lessons to help you find your way to perfect posture. 1). Hold a tray Sit...

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Singing Green Bean Soup

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Cheryl's Kitchen.

Fall is the perfect time time to enjoy this tasty and tangy green bean soup.  My sisters and I grew up on this soup, and we loved it so much that my mom renamed it Singing Soup, based on the sounds of “mmmmm….mmmmm…mmmm” that filled the kitchen anytime this soup was on the menu. Whether it’s fresh green beans from your own garden, your local Farmer’s Market, or your supermarket, green beans have some surprising health benefits.  Paired with the humble and often overlooked potato (which also has a few surprising power-packed health benefits as well), this is one of my favorite recipes to enjoy this late summer-early fall specialty. True to form, I cut out the sour cream that was essential in my mom’s recipe and replaced it with low fat plain Greek...

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Fabulous Fit Tip #5

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Fit Tips.

Fit Tip #5: PERFECT POSTURE Spoiler alert, there’s no such thing as perfect posture, at least not in my book. A lot of us have hang ups about our posture, especially if we have ever been told we have “bad posture.” Fantastic–one more thing to feel guilty about. However, posture is an important component for our fitness and our health. So, the first thing to do is to let go of the judgement, and follow these 3 easy tips to improve your posture. 1). Stand with your back up against a wall with your feet slightly in front of you. Gently press the back of your head, both shoulders, and your buttocks into the wall. Slowly add a bit more pressure against the wall, and notice how the shape of your spine changes. Stop and relax for a moment, and repeat this several times....

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The Pilgrimage

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Ninja Notes.

I stood quietly in the middle of the dojo floor and listened respectfully while Sensei yelled at me.  He had progressed from yelling to screaming, and by now he had been screaming non-stop for thirty minutes. I was keeping track of the time by sneaking peeks at the clock on the wall at the end of the dojo. It was quite impressive to witness Sensei’s ability to find new things to yell about, as well as his stamina for screaming. He certainly was a creative screamer, and apparently, I was giving him plenty of reasons to scream at me. I didn’t know where he was getting his energy from, but at least one of us had some staying power. Personally, I was exhausted, but knew better than to admit it. Over the past half hour, we had established a predictable rhythm. My partner would attack me, I would...

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Cheryl’s Spontaneous Shrimp and Pasta Diablo

Written by Cheryl on . Posted in Cheryl's Kitchen.

I came up with this recipe in the sixth month of the pandemic when I had nothing planned for dinner and couldn’t stand the thought of coming up with a grocery list, let alone going to the grocery store. I looked in the pantry, the freezer, and the refrigerator, and got a little inspiration. I figured if it bombed, we could always order a pizza. However, the result was so delicious that I even surprised myself, and this is now one of my go to recipes. Ingredients: 8 oz large shrimp 6 ounces linguine 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes ½ cup white wine ¼ TSP red pepper flakes 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 cloves crushed garlic Directions: Heat olive oil in large fry pan frying pan over medium heat. Add crushed garlic stirring constantly for two to three minutes. Add shrimp, cook for 3 minutes...

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