Claire and I live a lifestyle of fitness and healthy eating, including Dr. Weil’s anti-inflammatory diet (type it in your search engine) and believe in the concept, though we certainly can’t afford to access it at Miraval.

We have our own, non-credentialed version, at Far Horizons Tucson Village. We call it The Health Nuts club. We meet and discuss various ways to encourage each other in healthy lifestyle changes. Maybe people would take our free version of a wellness program seriously if Oprah came here instead of Miraval? Somehow I doubt we’ll see her at our humble and inexpensive (compared to Miraval) resort. Both Dr. Weil’s model, and our simpler one, have considerable merit for those facing declining fitness, weight gain, heart, blood sugar and other wellness issues. Pills don’t solve all problems.

Nobody thinks the health insurance companies will embrace this model soon, but that probably won’t stop Dr. Weil, Dr. Nicolai and Mirival from making a buck. For the rest of us, it’s up to us to get together and help each other with our wellness goals. It doesn’t cost any more than a little time, and the willingness to listen to, share, and care for each other.

We get interesting reactions from Chinese. These were at yet another pass, this one about 14,339, and a summit several hundred feet higher a few kilometers on. The road was good to the top, and looked like a beautiful 40 kilometer downhill, but, it was not to be. The road was severely frost heaved. It was fun at first to ride the moguls, but got old after a few kilometers. Here are some pictures from the day:

Claire: We’re getting to the stage where we think about food a lot, and we tried to make a decent dent in the big bucket of rice, but we failed to come close to finishing it. Yes, we’re eating pork now, or any kind of protein for that matter, and we eat whatever vegetables they bring us. At the grocery stores, we study and poke the packages and hope they’ll sustain us through a night of camping. Yogurt and cookies (a whole roll) is a before bed tradition of carbohydrate loading and we even bought Tang for our water bottles tomorrow. Wish I had some Cheerios, they always charge me up. If you’re out pedaling today or tomorrow, push a pedal stroke for us, we’ll need it; tomorrow; (tonight for you) we climb 7,000 feet to well over 15,000 feet and hope to get down in elevation to find a camping spot low enough to allow for sleep, before dark.

We were shopping later that evening and I overheard this conversation from one woman to another, “Ha! I can’t buy anything for the freezer, there’s room for nothing in there but fish”

I should have such a problem. Salmon is $11/lb here, more expensive than the lower 48. Can’t figure that one out.

The roaring Frazier descends from the jagged peaks and glaciers of the Canadian Rockies, first in a north-westerly direction. It makes a hard turn south near Prince George for a long run to Vancouver and the sea. We followed the Frazier to Prince George, located on the Yellowhead Highway in the middle of BC. In 1997 we rode Zippy through Prince George as part of a 5000 kilometer tour of BC and Alberta from our home in Dungeness, Washington. It was nice to be able to return, and remember. Beyond Prince George, the land becomes almost like a gentle sea, huge long waves of white spruce and aspen, rolling off to a far horizon. Here the sky becomes the thing, billowing white and blue-gray clouds against a cobalt northern sky, turning color with a later and later sunset.

It becomes almost difficult to sleep as we near the Yukon, the days are so long, the nights so short. We close all the blinds in Turtle, and it still is late before we can sleep. Light usually wakes me at 3:30am, but I’m a good sleeper, and Claire’s warmth makes it easy to wait for full sun to warm us through the windshield sometime around 6:30. At that 3:30 awakening, I open the blinds and curtain between our living area and the cab to welcome the sun. A warm house makes it easier to get out of bed at a reasonable hour.

Here in the cool north, when we chose a boondock spot, we look first for level (the refrigerator is fussy if we aren’t) and secondly, a north-east exposure for morning warmth. Two of our most important camping tools are, a short carpenters level, and a compass. For trickier leveling situations, we can now use our Android to give us the exact number of degrees we are off –level; very cool.

It is quiet beside a lazy boreal stream. Earlier, we watched a beaver patrol the near shore, five meters away, as we enjoyed dinner and a glass of fine Oregon wine, courtesy of John and Sharon Hoyle. The beaver found nothing to her liking and returned downstream. Maybe she didn’t like the neighbors, or that we didn’t offer our wine?

The next morning, it was Claire’s turn to open the blinds, put the pot to boil for my morning coffee, and climbed back in bed for a wake up snuggle.

Later, I sit with the warm sun on my shoulder, watching a shorebird forage the far shore, head bobbing, its legs a-blur, mind on food, preparing for the breeding to come. My coffee steams in the sun’s rays, and slowly begins to bring my brain into a semi-active mode. Our passenger chair rotates to take full advantage of the sun, and the view. It is another million dollar view, free. I love that sentence. I wonder if the people tied to the RV Resort umbilical are enjoying their morning, packed together as they are, with a claustrophobic view of the toilets and other motorhomes. These mornings and evenings, all alone with our river, lake or mountain view, make us feel rich, even if we do have to make our own coffee.

Girls Night Out

One man’s solution to cooking for one without resorting to pizza or chips and dip.

Ingredients: half a tin of chopped mustard greens (or whatever you have in the cupboard, even beans), 1/2 cup snacking carrots, chicken breast, olive oil, hard cheese, pepper, salt, mixed herbs of your choice, garlic powder, wine or beer.

Pour the cook a glass of wine. I would have had beer, but none in the house. I would have preferred a red, but the box of white isn’t quite empty. I’m going back to bottles so I can have a few reds around too. The boxed was better than I thought, but not good enough to do again soon. Maybe in the motorhome.

Preparation: microwave the carrots covered, fry chicken breast in lots of extra virgin olive oil sprinkled with garlic powder and spices, remove chicken and add greens to pan, warm and mix with olive oil and frying juices. Arrange on an 8″ plate and grate hard cheese on the greens, salt and pepper carrots to taste.

I usually cook for Claire and enjoy working in the kitchen, knowing she will enjoy the meal when she comes to dinner after working in her home office. Tonight she went out with some girlfriends to dinner. I didn’t feel like putting much effort into dinner just for me, but wanted it to be healthy. She went for Thai. I’m jealous.

Rainy Day Soup

We don’t get many rainy days in Tucson, but when the soft winter rains come, this is what I like to make, and love to smell Claire’s whole grain bread baking in the oven. Yum.

Ingredients: one onion, five cloves garlic, several cups oldest vegetables in refrigerator, dried mushrooms, one can tomatoes, one can red beans, 1/4 cup bulgur, sheep cheese to grate, pepper, one big squirt of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons dry chicken broth, 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes, wine.

Pour the cook a glass of wine.

Preparation: put a cup of water in the crock pot and turn on high, chop vegetables, throw in crock pot with contents of tomato can and cover. Cook on high for three hours; then add mushrooms, bulgur and one cup water, one can of red beans, squirt of fish sauce, add chicken broth, chili flakes, and turn to low. Cook on low until time to eat. Adjust liquid if necessary. Grate sheep cheese on top of each bowl of soup (not in photo, forgot) and grind some pepper on top of that. Serve with whole grain bread and wine.

Perfect for that rainy day you don’t want to spend cooking. Let the crock pot do it. I might add extra virgin olive oil at the end next time.

Another in a series of simple meals in the Mediterranean diet mode with added ideas from Dr. Andrew Weil’s Anti-Inflammatory Diet.

My recent article on prevention and easing of Type 2 Diabetes with diet and exercise on the site,  Just One Opinion has received quite a few visits. If you know someone who is Type 2, or headed there because of obesity and lack of exercise, send them to Just One Opinion, it might be a start.

Ingredients: two cups broccoli, one medium yam, two pack of cards sized pieces of wild salmon, tarragon, garlic powder, Trader Joe’s 21 Salute, 1/3 cup chicken broth, wine.

Pour the cook a glass of wine.

Preparation: cook yam covered with some water in microwave 2/3 done, let sit to finish. Fry salmon in lots of extra virgin olive oil with garlic powder and tarragon, remove and cover to stay warm. Add broccoli to salmon juices and olive oil on medium high and brown, add 21 Salute, chicken broth and finish covered. Serve on 8″ plate and a glass of wine.

Salmon and yam go well together, and blend with most vegetables. Change the spices and method of preparation for variety.

Oriental Stir Fry from Italian Leftovers

This is a second healthy meal using the purposefully created leftovers from a Mediterranean meal, minus the pasta.

Ingredients: leftover vegetables and chicken saute (two days old, max) extra virgin olive oil, 1/3 cup coconut milk, 1/2 orange, 1 tbsp fish oil, 1 tbsp red curry paste, 1/4 cup dry whole grain basmati rice, cashews.

Pour the cook a glass of wine.

Preparation: cook rice 35 minutes in salted water, drain and cover to finish; stir fry rice in olive oil, curry paste and fish oil; add leftovers to mix with coconut milk and heat; squeeze 1/4 orange into wok and stir.

Serve on 8″  plates with 1/4 orange and chopsticks.

Serve with a hearty white wine.

Ingredients:  two boneless skinless chicken breasts, Trader Joe’s 21 Salute and garlic powder, 1/4 cup whole wheat penne, one large onion, one red pepper, three medium zucchini, sheep cheese, pepitas, 8 cloves garlic, tarragon, black pepper, marjoram, extra virgin olive oil.

Pour the cook a glass of wine.

Preparation: fry chicken breasts coated with Trader Joe’s21 Salute and garlic powder in lots of olive oil, chop vegetables large pieces, cook penne al dente while you fry the vegetables in lots of olive oil with tarragon and marjoram; add cubed fried chicken. Drain pasta and cover 1/2 of an 8″ plate, add vegetable/chicken breast mix, top with sheep cheese, pepitas and ground black pepper.

Serve with your favorite hearty white or light red wine.

There will be leftovers of the vegetable/chicken mix. Reserve for tomorrow nights meal!

Simple dinner built around Claire's many grained bread

Ingredients: extra virgin olive oil, fresh asparagus, pack of cards size serving of wild salmon, Claire’s many grained bread, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, 4 cloves garlic pressed, tarragon, Trader Joe’s 21 Salute, sea salt, ground pepper.

Pour the cook a glass of wine.

Preparation: Claire bakes her no knead many grained bread; I can’t be more specific because she makes it differently each time, which is part of the adventure! Steam the asparagus while frying the salmon in extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled with tarragon and fresh pressed garlic. Make dipping oil/vinegar mix adding Trader Joe’s 21 Salute and pepper. Arrange on an 8″ plate, sprinkle asparagus with sea salt and serve with wine. Dip the bread liberally in the olive oil/balsamic.

This is simple, quick and healthy nutritious. If you’re in a motorhome you probably don’t want to bake bread, but even Wal*Mart has some good artisan breads. Don’t be tempted by the white stuff!

If you haven’t noticed, these recipes are all very healthy. Don’t let that put you off. This kind of eating is much more satisfying than processed foods, white flour, sugar, bad fats, and the 8″ plate will soon seem plenty big; the pounds will melt away, the cholesterol numbers go down, and you’ll avoid type 2 diabetes. Enough preaching. Enjoy.