Meat Free Monday__Summer Veggies and Couscous

TGIM!! A new week is upon us.  
That means it's time to pursue new opportunities and new ways to stay healthy.
What are you going to do this week, that will be different from last week?

Maybe you'll try a meat free dish?

Here is today's "Meat Free Monday" dish:  Summer Veggies with Couscous.

*As always, five ingredients or less; in five steps or less; ready in about five minutes.*



1. Sautée chopped onion, garlic and tomato in olive oil, over medium heat.

2. Add chopped asparagus,

3. Then add chopped eggplant (make sure you prep your eggplant properly before cooking it).

4. Serve over couscous.

5. Add salt, pepper and a drizzle of olive oil to taste.

Share this meal with a friend to improve your physical and social health simultaneously!


Better yet, improve your emotional health (and the health of others)
by inviting an elderly friend over to share this MFM meal. 

When I saw this billboard in the Madrid metro in July, it almost made me cry!! 

The caption reads, "I'm not celebrating happy years". 
"Antonia turned 80 years old yesterday, and we were all invited.  Like her, there are more than 150,000 elderly people in Madrid who live alone and many of whom miss having someone to celebrate occasions like their birthday.  Accompany, Assist and Engage.  Friends of the elderly."



Okay, now that I'm almost on the brink of tears again, thinking about lonely elderly people, 
I want to send a shout out to my own grandma!  
Disclaimer: I'm not saying she's necessarily lonely.. she is still very active in her community and has many children and grandchildren to keep her busy!
  
My Nanny Fitz was the original "getFITwithFITZ" trainer.  She always made me exercise and eat healthy foods, when all I wanted to do was eat Fruity Pebbles and binge on cartoons on days off from school.  Thank you for being my inspiration for lifelong wellness from the very beginning!
If I was in New York right now, I would cook you dinner!  
I love you and miss you so much!


Life is too short.  Make every day and week count!  
I hope this week brings you and yours health and happiness.

Until next time..

Random travel tip for Thailand

So get this....

I mailed myself two HEAVY boxes from Bangkok to New York with DHL.  So many things could have gone wrong along the journey-the boxes traveled through 5 different countries!-but eventually everything arrived safe and sound. EXCEPT...

My little baby Buddha statue....AND a cookbook written in Thai that I bought just because I liked the photography.

I'm not sure why the cookbook was confiscated, but I do know that there are signs in the airport upon arrival that warn against buying Buddhas (like this one):



The funny thing is, my Buddha statue wasn't even from this summer's trip-it was from 2 years ago!
I packed it at the last minute as I was leaving Shanghai, and the statue entered Thailand without a problem, but got confiscated on the way out.

So the moral of the story is, even if you think Buddha statues are nice, don't buy them.  Not only because it's apparently disrespectful to Buddhism, but it appears that the Buddha merchandise just gets confiscated and then resold on the streets to dopey tourists who don't know any better.  I personally don't see a need to support the Buddha mafia.

I'm glad I didn't get a Buddha tattoo.. I wonder how they go about confiscating tattoos...

Until next time,