we are working on expanding our garden that we started last year. One option is to expand the greenhouse by establishing plant boxes on the roof for a green roof. We are also working with our farmer’s market to get their food in our cafe. So far the head of food services has not been too helpful. Have any of you tried this?

While the North American International Auto Show is going on at Cobo Center in Detroit now, this weekend in sunny SoCal, Buick is continuing an interesting car-meets-foodie tour around the country that is a way to allow potential customers to test drive its latest lineup and see that this is not your grandfather’s Buick, while you get to meet super chefs like TV’s MIng Tsai, Hugh Achely and Ben Roche, the molecular gastronomy guy, who makes desserts with liquid nitrogen. This invite-only event comes to the OC this weekend and LA next. There’s a giveaway for a pair of tickets…Oh, and you get an autographed cookbook from the celebrity chef as a parting gift!

Easy Fried Rice…instead of paying $9 at the local Chinese take out place, it’s easy to make your own…

I try to make a daily blueberry smoothie, although sometimes I skip days for whatever reason. But it is should be a daily thing, after all blueberries are a nutrient-dense superfood. And the smoothie is packed with antioxidants that combat free radicals/helps prevent disease…

The other day I made a smoothie that went beyond my normal smoothie, which is often: frozen or fresh blueberries, raspberries, banana, almond milk, raw kale, plain yogurt, and pineapple or papaya (if I have it) and Vit. C powder (if it’s handy).

Since celery lowers blood pressure, and it’s said apples help too, a friend suggested what he adds to his smoothie - an apple (cut up), and the blends celery in while the blender is going. I had never thought of adding apple or celery. Sure, I add kale, and you can’t even taste it, but get the benefits. My friend said he makes a smoothie once a week and stores it in the fridge. I would rather do it fresh daily, hence, I don’t always get around to it.

Tried adding a couple small sticks of celery and a baby honeycrisp apple the other day to the mix - you can taste a bit of the celery, but I didn’t mind. Trying to adapt the food as medicine philosophy for prevention…amazing how much you can pack into one smoothie.

I try to cook as much as I can and when there’s time, it’s all about trying new recipes, especially duplicating favorite dishes I’ve had at a restaurant. Tried Larb and was very pleased with the outcome of this easy Thai dish/recipe…

P.S. If anyone has a foolproof recipe for Pad Thai, would love it. Have all the authentic ingredients and have never quite duplicated it the way they make it at the local Thai place…and/or a good panang curry recipe…

Want to survive winter in Korea? Here’s 10 dishes to help you do it. Almost makes me wish I didn’t live in SoCal (emphasis on *almost*). My go to favorite are the sweet potatoes. They sell them on street corners and I gotta tell ya, they really are woodfire roasted. YUM!

So many people in this world live without sufficiently meeting their dietary needs. Despite the fact that we have enough food on this earth to feed everyone, these people still go hungry. One misconception about hunger in this world is that it only happens in remote countries, but it is actually a big problem here in the United States as well.To be able to fix this, there are different things that we are able to do. Here is a website that can tell you more about this.

When you think about it, we waste so much food. Food gets thrown away as if it is trash in homes all over the country. If we donated that food to the people that need it, we could be saving so many lives. Some services are offered to pick up your unused food. I beleieve that more of these services should be offered! That would be one step closer to ending world hunger!

One time I went to my friend’s grandmother’s house and she had a huge garden. There were potatoes, carrots, different varieties of green beans, tomatoes, okra, and many other types of vegetables. That day we went out and picked a bunch of stuff. That night we used what we had picked to make dinner and it was one of the best meals I had ever had. It was so good that I picked some stuff from the garden and brought it home. I told my parents about their garden and we decided to get our own garden. My garden is nowhere near as good as my friend’s grandmas, but it is fun to have and it cuts down on the amount of food we have to buy at the grocery store. Also it provides fresh and organic food.

Traveling around the world, getting acquainted with other cultures, different traditions, meeting new interesting people is an experience noone should miss! The world has so much beauty to offer, so much places and things everybody must see!!!