Have you watched my recent Soup Session videos with my soup sister, Julie Burford and her granddaughter, Julia? They give you a lovely feel for the joy of stirring up soup with friends. This one is different; it’s a work session with my colleague Marti Wolfson, a gifted chef/educator who teaches chefs and health care professionals, offers corporate seminars, and workshops and, to the point here, is a very special personal chef.

Every chef has a specialty, a food realm in which she has unique creativity. Mine is soup! And the good news is I love sharing my secrets.

When I first started my cooking career and I was cooking for clients, the last thing I wanted to do when I got home was cook for myself. But knowing the value of healthy foods, I made a pact with myself to make a delicious and nourishing meal after coming home from my busy day. How did I do it? I learned to be prepared. 

Today is the first day of Autumn, officially the Autumnal Equinox. However, we’re not really into fall yet; we’re in transition time, which is the perfect time to prepare!

In preparation for the launch of my new Clean Soups cookbook this week (yay!!!), we’ve created videos of me cooking soups with some of my dear friends and colleagues — to show you how creative and FUN it can be making soups with friends in the kitchen! 

My new Clean Soups book comes out next week (!!!) I’m excited to share with you the first of what we’re calling the Soup Sessions, videos in which I’m behind the stove with dear friends, family and colleagues stirring up new recipes from the book.

In my mind’s eye, I can still see the little girl who learned to make soup while sitting atop the yellow formica kitchen counter, watching in wonder as three generations of women worked their culinary magic over my Ma’s flame-enameled Le Creuset cast iron soup pot. 

Just as asparagus means spring, basil means summer to me.  I first met basil when pesto sprang onto the food scene as the absolute latest in pasta sauces — an indulgence even I could afford on my working girl’s salary in NYC. And pesto was not only budget-friendly, but easy to make in quantity and freeze to suit my busy lifestyle. 

I’m SO pleased to announce that we’ve brought my award-winning book The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen to life as a new online course launching next week! Colorful videos and handouts SHOW you how to prepare delicious, cancer-fighting recipes and teach you the skills you’ll need to support healing right in your own kitchen. 

I’m here with a hearty shout-out to Dr. Drew Ramsey’s new book, Eat Complete: The 21 Nutrients That Fuel Brainpower, Boost Weight Loss and Transform Your Health. In my opinion, this is a MUST have: a whole foods prescription, written by a leading brain expert, farmer, cook, and founder of National Kale Day! And the book is beautiful.

I turned 55 this week! I feel UNBELIEVABLY grateful that I get to do what I do in the realm of food and healing, and for the opportunity to keep learning something new along the way. 

I often get asked about coffee. Is it good for you? Or is it not? The answer: everybody has a different caffeine threshold. I’m saying, if you’re sensitive to caffeine and you get heart palpitations or jittery when you drink coffee, this is NOT your food!

In case you don’t already know: protein is beyond a doubt one of our body’s essential components, and one we need to replenish on a DAILY basis. When it comes to protein, quantity, variety, and quality all matter. And eating the types and amount of protein that are JUST right for you and your needs is key to great health in SO many ways.

You know that I’m passionate about food and plants. But you may not know that I’m really passionate about mint! This little uber-aromatic plant that grows wild, that ANYBODY can grow, that you may not pay much attention to (except in your toothpaste) is possibly my ULTIMATE favorite.  

To celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary last month, Gregg and I headed off to Greece, to spend time mostly on the island of Crete. I was looking forward to the luxury of relaxed time together and of course, the Mediterranean diet! While you may know intellectually that the Mediterranean diet emphasizes fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and olive oil, it’s another thing altogether to be IN a culture that actually lives it.

Oh, my gosh! Doing a top rated nationally syndicated television show proved to be… fun!

You never know when you go on live TV exactly what you’re going to get. You’ve got a (very tight!) script; but you don’t know the mood the hosts are going to be in… what the audience is going to be like… how much of your material is going to get in.

What is this strange green stuff?  Why, it’s kombu! In brief, kombu is a mineral-rich seaweed in the kelp family that adds an umami or savory flavor to stocks and broths. But there’s SO much more to tell. 

Remember the Spice Girls? My all-time favorite spice girls are the grande dames of spices, ginger and turmeric. Popular in Asia for millennia for both culinary and medicinal use, they are rhizomes (technically subterranean stems) and botanical relatives in the Zingiberaceae family. (You don’t have to pronounce the name.) 

I’m often called upon to comment — on longevity foods, brain-boosting foods, cancer-fighting foods — the topics of my books. But, fiber? Not my usual. And not the sexiest food topic! We hear the word “fiber” and think sawdust or dry cereals that taste like cardboard, right?

Because everybody deserves to have sweet in their lives.  I was reminded of this at a conference recently when a colleague, who is truly a grande dame of healthy nutrition if ever there was one, mentioned that when she travels she always packs some gluten free fig newtons. She finds them energizing, comforting and a welcome treat on the road, when she’s speaking to audiences, engaging with participants, in high energy mode. When she gets back to her room for some quiet time, it feels good to have a little something special with a cup of tea.