Asparagus with Wasabi Dip (Recipe)

Look no more if you’re searching for an easy appetizer that will disappear!

Ingredients:

• 3 lb thin to medium asparagus, trimmed (two pounds works for me!)
• 1 cup mayonnaise (you can adjust by using part mayo with Greek style yogurt or sour cream)
• 4 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons wasabi paste

Directions:

1. Blanch asparagus in 2 batches in a large saucepan of boiling salted water 1 minute. Transfer to a colander and rinse under cold running water to stop cooking. Drain well and pat dry.
2. Whisk together mayonnaise, soy sauce, sugar, lemon juice, and wasabi paste until sugar is dissolved.
3. Serve asparagus with dip.

Note: Asparagus and dip may be prepared 1 day ahead and chilled, covered.

Apple, Walnut, and Mixed Greens Salad with Zinfandel-Cranberry Vinaigrette (Recipe)

I love salads.  This one is reminds me of fall and winter and would make a nice addition to your holiday menu.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sweetened dried cranberries (such as Craisins)
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup apple juice
• 1 tablespoon walnut oil
• 1/2 cup zinfandel or other fruity dry red wine
• 10 cup gourmet salad greens
• 1/2 cup cranberry juice cocktail
• 3 cups cubed Gala apple (about 2 apples)
• 3 tablespoons minced shallots
• 1 cup thinly sliced Walla Walla or other sweet onion (about 1 medium onion)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts toasted
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Orange Scented Green Beans (Recipe)

Here’s a quick  side dish that will compliment your holiday meal.

Ingredients:

• Peel of 1 orange
• 2 pounds of green beans, trimmed
• 2 T butter
• Salt
• 3 T fresh chives, snipped

Directions:

1. Fill a pan with 2 inches water and bring to a boil.
2. Add orange peel and beans.
3. Cook 5-6 minutes, beans should remain bright green with a snap to them.
4. Drain beans and return to pan.  Remove peel.
5. Toss with butter, salt and chives and transfer to a serving dish.

HHS Announces Physical Activity Guidelines

Thanksgiving kicks off a season when Americans typically spend the next six weeks enjoying their favorite holiday treats only to make it their New Year’s resolution to shed the extra three to seven pounds they’ve put on.

With two-thirds of Americans already being overweight or obese, additional holiday pounds can wreak more havoc on people’s bodies than the obvious extra padding. Holiday stress and excess calories can precipitate attacks of angina or even a heart attack in people with underlying disease.

Therefore, the new exercise guidelines, released last month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, are just in time to get an entire population moving.

This is the first time that the government has issued specific guidelines on how much exercise, types and intensities are appropriate for people of all ages and physical conditions.

Stuff the Turkey, Not Yourself on Thanksgiving

Though most Americans are likely to gain three to seven pounds during the holiday season, anyone trying to eliminate or limit such family traditions as turkey, stuffing, candied sweet potatoes, casserole and pie on Thanksgiving is bound to be banned from the dinner table.

Hence, rather than starting a revolution in the kitchen to save yourself from putting on extra pounds, why not quietly change things up a bit? Considering that the average traditional Thanksgiving meal packs approximately 3,000 calories, for good health it’s well worth introducing new flavors, substituting ingredients and replacing some dishes—say a 180-calorie slice of pumpkin pie for the calorie-rich 480-calorie slice of pecan pie. You’ll keep the family peace and weight scale happy.

To help you cook a deliciously healthy Thanksgiving feast, ACE has asked two experts—Jessie Price, food editor of EatingWell, a bimonthly magazine dedicated to healthful eating and Marjorie Geiser, a registered dietician and ACE-certified Personal Trainer—to reveal their healthful secrets.

Dragonfly Yoga now offering Sunday Morning Yoga & Guided Meditation in Mount Laurel, NJ

The perfect way to start off your week! Dragonfly Yoga Healing Arts and Retreat Center and Pilates Core Center are now offering an all-level yoga class Sunday mornings from 8:30 to 9:45am, followed by a one-hour guided meditation at 10:00am in our Mount Laurel location. These class are perfect for students of all levels of experience.

The all-level Yoga class will include modifications and variations to be offered for most poses so that everyone leaves their Yoga class refreshed, centered, and ready to start the week. The following guided meditation is for those who wish to grow in knowledge and peace of mind, achieving a deeper connection to the energies around them, while helping to deepen their Yoga experience.

Every student from beginner to experienced will be able to enjoy these classes and grow their practice!

We look forward to seeing you there.

Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive – Free Class

Please join us as we help those in our community who are struggling to feed their families this Thanksgiving.  In years past we have collected non-perishable food items for the local food bank.

Last year, a number of you preferred to donate cash or with a check and we converted that money into Shop-Rite gift cards which allowed the food bank to purchase items they needed - fresh turkeys, fresh vegetables and other perishable items.  They also have a need for disposable diapers, baby food, baby formula.

We will be collecting non-persishable food items and cash/check donations November 17 through November 23 at both studios. 

Everyone contributing to the food drive will earn a
FREE Pilates or Yoga mat class!

Ayurveda – Know Your Stress Type

Ayurveda is a system of healing that integrates basic physiology, emotional disposition, and spiritual outlook, then presents all three in the context of the universe itself.

We often speak of stress in terms of situations we find ourselves in – traffic jams, looming deadlines, getting laid off. But Ayurveda holds that stress actually originates in the mind. “Fundamentally speaking,” says Nimi Nitai Das, an Ayurvedic physician in Boston, “stress is a disorder of rajas.” Rajas represents passion or undirected activity; it’s one of three universal qualities, or gunas (the other two are sattva, or “purity,” and tamas, or “inertia”). According to Ayurvedic texts, too much rajas shows up in the mind as attachment, craving, and desire – by their nature, these impulses can’t be satisfied and therefore create a negative psychological disposition.

Pilates/Yoga for Pink A Huge Success!

Thanks to this year’s P4P coordinator, Jeanette Morenski, the PC2/Dragonfly Yoga staff volunteers (Archana Bhalgat, Nicole Carroll, Melissa Roberts, Melanie Levan, Kim Friedman, Justin Marx, Diane Myles, Nyla White, Luray Tobar, and Nancy Davis) and all who particpated in the event, this year’s fundraiser for The Breast Cancer Research Foundations was not only a financial success, but the most fun we’ve had yet.   We raised $1,967!

Luray Tobar and Melissa Roberts came up with the idea of a Pilates for Pink Plank-Off Challenge and the training began.  What began as a friendly competition between two instructors, soon spread to other instructors as well as clients of all ages… Congratulations to the particpants – you are all winners!  By the way the time to beat next year is 7+ minutes of holding plank!  The word on the street is that the 2009 Plank-Off training will begin in the spring!  Watch for details after the first of the year.

GYROKINESIS® Now Offered at Dragonfly Yoga & Pilates Core Center

After experiencing many personal struggles and chronic illnesses, Juliu Horvath spent many years in self-exploration and study. These experiences not only led him to true healing, but he was also inspired to create a movement system that offers the same benefits offered by yoga, dance, gymnastics, swimming and tai chi, but is not derived from these other exercise modalities. Some of the hallmarks of  GYROKINESIS® exercises are the fluidity of the movements and the ease with which one can perform them.

GYROKINESIS® exercises allow one to work on the entire body through seven natural elements of spinal movement: forward, backward, left side, right side, left twist, right twist and circular, as well as all other joint articulation.

This approach systematically and gently works the joints and muscles through rhythmic and undulating movements. These movements stimulate the body’s internal organs while different corresponding breathing patterns are integrated along with the movements.