Supernatural Botanicals

Did you know that simple old-school hand-stands like these are super-beneficial for you?   Hand-stands are fantastic to strengthen your arms, shoulders, and wrists.  Once you get comfortable with hand-stands, you can go further into the move by bending your elbows and attempting to lower your forehead to the floor.  It also helps stretch the abdomen and improves one’s concentration, coordination and balance.  Through focused effort, it helps calm down the brain thereby helping relieve stress and tension and mild depression through the meditative effort involved.  When you feel like you have midday “fuzzy-brain”, where you’ve been over-stimulated and cannot focus, try doing a hand-stand to alleviate stress and get blood flowing to your brain again.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a gymnast to attempt a hand-stand.  Use a wall to put your feet against in the beginning.  As time goes on, you can inch away from the wall.  And as you do, you’ll be building your abdominal muscles (try it now…you’ll feel it instantly.)  When I’m feeling unfocused and overloaded with stress, I simply do a hand-stand for a minute or two to regroup and get my mind flowing again.  The stretch in the shoulders, back and arms feels so good.  And talk about instant results…you feel it immediately.

If you zoom through your repetitions when strength training, you’ll be using momentum instead of muscle power.  You won’t get the same stimulus for muscle building, and you won’t burn as many calories. You’ll also be more susceptible to training injuries such as torn muscles.

Take 6 seconds to perform each repetition: 2 seconds to lift the weight and 4 seconds to lower it.  Experts agree that slowing down is the single most significant change you can make to get better results from strength training. 

The happiest people on earth?  Among them are folks from Copenhagen, Denmark.  Look at the amazing way they live.  After watching this, Copenhagen is definitely on my bucket list.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cg-vkW8Wk2A

Don’t shy away from making your own pizza crust.  It’s super economical to make your own, and very easy.  Don’t let rising yeast scare you.  It’s easier than you think.  And lets not forget, better tasting.  You can add extra herbs (such as Rosemary or Basil), or seeds (such as Sesame or Poppy) to your crust to make it gourmet.  Not to mention, less than 300 calories.  Love that!  When the onion and fennel caramelize, they become very sweet and smell amazing (the whole house smells amazing, in fact!)  The presentation is beautiful, and your family and guest will think you spent hours making it. 

Try this delicious pizza with caramelized fennel, onion and olives.   Great for entertaining. 

Servings:  6 servings (serving size: 1 wedge)

Ingredients

• Dough:
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  dry yeast
• 2/3  cup  warm water (100° to 110°)
• 2  cups  all-purpose flour, divided
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• Cooking spray
• 2  teaspoons  yellow cornmeal
• Topping:
• 1  tablespoon  olive oil
• 4  cups  thinly sliced fennel bulb (about 4 small bulbs)
• 2  cups  thinly sliced onion
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 1/4  teaspoon  dried oregano
• 1/4  teaspoon  dried thyme
• 1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
• Remaining ingredients:
• 1  cup  bottled tomato-basil pasta sauce
• 1  cup  (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/4  cup  coarsely chopped pitted kalamata olives

Preparation

To prepare dough, dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl, and let stand 5 minutes. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add 1 3/4 cups flour and salt, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes); add enough of remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel tacky).

Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 45 minutes or until doubled in size. (Press two fingers into the dough. If an indentation remains, dough has risen enough.) Punch dough down; knead 5 times, and let rest for 15 minutes. Roll dough into a 12-inch circle on a floured surface. Place dough on a (12-inch) pizza pan or baking sheet coated with cooking spray and sprinkled with cornmeal. Crimp edges of dough with fingers to form a rim.

To prepare the topping, heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add the fennel and the next 5 ingredients (fennel through black pepper), and cook for 20 minutes or until golden, stirring frequently.

Preheat oven to 450°.

Spread sauce over crust, leaving a 1/2-inc