healthy eating

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    How Do I Make Change?

    I have been doing what I do for a long time; more than 30 years. I have worked passionately at the mission that drives my every waking moment tirelessly and…

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    Here’s to 2026

    Happy New Year!!! I hope 2026 is your healthiest, strongest, fittest year yet. I read this the other day, from my hero, Arnold and I could not have said it…

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    Has PBS Been Defunded?

    It has not! The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been defunded by the federal government. In its quest to suppress any narrative except the one it prefers, it moved to…

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    Protein Harvesting?

    You might be wondering what ‘protein harvesting’ means. I know that I was. It’s the sanitized word now being used to describe the slaughter of animals for our dining pleasure….

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    I Wonder Why…

    I have been reading a lot about veganism lately. Having lived this lifestyle for more than forty years, I would have thought I had heard it all. But there seems…

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    PBS Is Defunded…Now What?

    I made a decision in 1997 that I thought was the best for my mission in life. I was at a food and wine event with chefs, many of whom…

  • Protein-Rich Veg? Yes, Please

    Protein is a key component of a healthy diet, and some of the best protein sources are vegetables. In addition to being easier on your wallet, these veggies (many of…

  • The Belle of the Ball…Florence

    Imagine walking down cobblestone streets; the same streets walked by Michelangelo, Da Vinci and other luminaries of the Renaissance. Imagine cool early spring days spent enjoying nature in the hills…

  • Barcelona, Baby

    Barcelona is widely praised for its vibrant culture, stunning architecture, and art, design, and delicious Catalan cuisine. It’s crazy beautiful and in April, the huge summer crowds have not arrived…

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    What Can We Do About Food Waste?

    The numbers are terrifying. Here’s some food for thought, pun fully intended. Worldwide, humans waste 2.5 billion tons of food each year, but the United States discards more than any…

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    What I’m Eating this Summer

    With hot steamy days ahead, we have to plan so that eating well doesn’t fall by the wayside. And while I love to make most of my foods from scratch,…

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    Healthy Living Really Is Boring

    As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger. His philosophy on fitness and overall wellness is, to me, spot on. While I don’t always agree…

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    The Hope of Spring

    As the breezes are growing warmer, wafting through our open windows with the perfume that tells us the chill of winter is finally behind us; it’s clear sailing into summer….

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    Le Belle Ame of France…

    Edward Hopper said: ““I do not believe there is another city on earth so beautiful as Paris nor another people with such an appreciation of the beautiful as the French…”…

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    The Work I Do

    I truly love the work I do. And I especially love hearing from all of my viewers and followers across the country. I love that they are inspired by my…

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    No One Should Be Surprised by This One

    Honestly, I feel like I have written this blog a hundred times before, but here I go again. I recently read two articles that sent my blood pressure soaring. And…

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    This Season

    With the interminable election season behind us, we now deal with the aftermath; who is disappointed, scared and apprehensive and who is thrilled with the results. The good news is…

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    What I Eat in a Week

    I am having a passionate love affair with Stanley Tucci’s new book, “What I Ate in a Year.” He is a smart, articulate, passionate-about-food, clever writer who charms with every…

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    Cooking from the Heart

    As the holidays come on the horizon in all their twinkling glory, we think about cooking. I confess that I always think about cooking, but that’s me. My passion for…

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    An Ode to Healing

    There’s a lot of talk about this thing called healing. We use it like it’s a cliché, like ‘it is what it is’ or ‘just saying’ but in fact, healing…

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    FinaMill…Part Deux

    I have been cooking all my life, well, almost. I fell in love with the rhythm of the kitchen at the tender age of 4, watching my mother, grandmother and…

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    An Ode to Sunday Lunch

    When I was a kid, meals were considered sacred time. I always joke that if you weren’t at the dinner table, you’d best be dead. No excuses mattered. Not late…

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    Well, This Is Frustrating…

    It’s the season of seashells and balloons. We long to hang outside and take vacations, big or small. We savor every second of the long days and warm nights, making…

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    Visions of Summer

    It’s June and I don’t know about you, but winter and spring where I am, have been grey and rainy to a degree that everyone is stir-crazy and longing for…

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    Having a Purpose

    I think a lot about the future, even as I am maturing by the minute. Who knows how much of the future I will see? But what I see worries…

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    Freshly Ground Spices and Wellness

    I confess that I am not much for gadgets. They have always been categorized in my mind as “just another thing to clean” when I am cooking. I use my…

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    Why Can’t We Do Better?

    I was sitting in Charles De Gaulle airport, leaving Paris, heading to Rome for work. As usual, I ordered an espresso and my lovely Robert, a tea. Since we were…

  • Getting By With a Little Help…

    It’s February and for so many of us, that means resolutions often as a recommitment to wellness. In my case, at the end of each year, I take a look…

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    Food Noise?

    I am all about food…and wellness. I love the communal, sensual nature of preparing luscious, healthy foods and enjoying them with people I love. As an Italian, we always joke…

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    I Left My Heart In Rome

    It’s no secret that I adore Italy and that my Italian tours and adventures are very close to my heart and give both my husband and me enormous pleasure…enormous pleasure….

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    My Mother…Mamma Mia

    I don’t often write about my mother except in terms of the kitchen. She taught me how to love the magic of the heart of the home. It was the…

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    Feeling Grateful and Letting Go

    As we move into this glorious month; the month that kicks off the holiday season and allows us to deny the reality of a long, grey winter ahead, we begin…

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    The Importance of Fitness

    I was at the gym the other day, sweating through one of my favorite, rough and tumble classes when the instructor yelled out, “Now is not the time to slack…

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    Nightshades and Our Wellness

    I have lived a vegan, macrobiotic lifestyle for more than forty years. I came to this lifestyle through severe illness and using a rather rigid approach to eating, was able…

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    Regenerative Agriculture?

    Regenerative Agriculture? Conventional, locally grown, CSA, organic…and now regenerative agriculture. Is it just another buzzy term for us to navigate as we try to shop and vote with our dollar…

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    Magnesium and Your Brain

    Brain care supplements are really having a moment, but are they worth the hype? Many of us think of this as a concern as we age, but brain health should…

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    Listening to Each Other

    As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Since high school (yup, I worked out to his vinyl exercise album, the chart of the moves…

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    You and Your Blood Sugar

    My friend and brilliant macrobiotic teacher, Dani Mayor in Barcelona recently wrote a wonderful article on hypoglycemia and how many of us it affects; its impact on our daily wellness…

  • Flourless Chocolate Cake

    This yummy recipe is really rich-tasting so a sliver does the trick. It’s super easy and the results are soooooooooooo good. Makes 8-10 servings 7 ounces non-dairy dark chocolate bars, chopped 1/2 cup olive oil or vegan butter 1 cup coconut sugar 1/2 cup arrowroot powder 1/2 cup unsweetened oat…

  • Gladiator Stew

    I made this delicious grain dish with one of my favorite chefs, and dear friend, Chef Gioacchino Nocera from Bosco de Medici vineyard in Pompeii. He and I made it on my show and while I worked with him on it, I may not have it exactly as he did…

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    An Ode to Stepping Away

    It’s February, the month dedicated to hearts, from health to romance. I thought I would take the opportunity to talk to you about my thoughts. On December 20, my lovely…

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    As the New Year Begins

    As 2025 begins to fade from our memory and 2026 begins, shiny with promise and hope, let’s try something new or at least something we may have forgotten about. For…

  • I Just Can’t…

    I was reading the NY Times (as I do most mornings before I begin my work for the day) and saw a headline that made my heart skip a beat…for…

  • Cooking Now…Again

    There are certain kitchen rhythms that I will always associate with these past months of the pandemic. Pot after pot of what we consider “comfort food”: millet soup with red…

  • The Sicker We Get, the Happier We Are?

    Watching an hour of television at night makes me feel sick. There. I said it out loud. It’s not the programming so much as it’s the Big Pharma ads during…

  • This Chef’s Life

    It’s been a long time since I was in a kitchen full time. Most of my days now are spent testing recipes, writing articles, planning and teaching cooking classes, serving…

  • Is Fried Food Really That Bad For Us? Really?

    Yes, really. According to a study published in BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal), frequent consumption of fried foods can lead to a serious outcome: early death. Yup; you read right…early…

  • Fending off Disease with Fiber

    My husband, who I adore, loves Time magazine. Yup, good old fashioned Time magazine. I’m not such a big fan but every now and then, I see an article that…

  • Your Kitchen Is Your Pharmacy

    We live in challenging times. Our political system is in upheaval; our food supply is under assault by big business interests who care only for profit, not for quality. Our…

  • What’s Being Vegan Got to Do with It?

    I will admit that I have been on something of a long rant these days as I watch junk food being peddled to us as real food and the accompanying…

  • Our Little Ones

    It’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Month and Childhood Obesity Awareness Month so let’s talk about our kids and their wellness, shall we?   I’ll start this article by saying that I…

  • What’s Going on with Our Colons?

    What’s Going on with Our Colons? The news was big…and somber…and apparently, shocking for many people, including experts.   A new study, published in the Journal of The American Medical…

  • The Three-Day Detox

    Can you feel like a new person in just 3 short days? Can you undo the damage you did over the holiday season? This 3-day plan can put your feet…

  • Perimenopause and You

    Perimenopause and You I get asked about this life condition a lot so I thought I would take the time to do some research and get you some good information…

  • Our Smoothie Culture

    I have a very specific opinion on smoothies. You may hate it; you may rant at me for it, but here goes. We finally put kale…in all its crunchy, nutrient-dense…

  • You and the Flu

    Every year around this time, the bombardment begins. Every expert pushes each and every one of us to get a flu shot like our lives depend on it. It starts…

  • Imagine a World without Soda

    My husband and I travel a lot for our work, as well as with family and for pleasure. We see a lot of sights…and stop at a lot of rest…

  • The Power of Sublime Porcini

    There are some things that you just can’t live without…great olive oil, sexy shoes, fresh garlic, juicy grapefruit, loyal friends, tulips in the spring and porcini mushrooms.    Growing up…

  • Eating with the Seasons: Summer

    Just to take us back to the dreamy, leisurely days of summer…yum! Summer Now we’re talking. Summer. It’s my season. Sure, I love Christmas and all that goes along with…

  • How the Heck Did We Get Here?

    I think a lot about food. I guess that’s obvious, right?   The other day, my husband and I were driving on the highway, passing billboard after billboard for food…

  • Paleo-Should We Really Eat Like Cavemen?

    I have to say that of all the dietary extremes we humans adopt on our quest for health and fitness, the Paleo or caveman diet concerns me the most. I…

  • Saturated Fat

    As we celebrate our tickers, I thought I would take a look at one of the ingredients that seems to cause us so much grief.   We are told that…

  • Cooking for One…You’re Worth It

    In the kitchen, one can be a lonely number. There’s leftover fatigue or the sad bowl of cereal for dinner – again-rather than cooking. On top of that, spending time…

  • Glorious Garlic

    Glorious Garlic I didn’t cook with garlic until I was about 10 years old. My mother, you see, didn’t like it. I know, right? An Italian cook who didn’t like…

  • S-l-l-l-o-o-o-w-w Cooking

    There’s something about the fall that makes us crave long-cooked, hearty dishes. They seem to comfort us as the days shorten, the nights grow longer and the frost is definitely…

  • Eating with the Seasons: Autumn

    We live in a great country where we can get any fruit or vegetable at any time of the year. That’s good news and bad news for us. It’s good…

  • O-o-o-o-o-o-h, Onions

    As the weather cools, we turn our attention indoors. We move from the outdoor sizzle of the weather to the indoor sizzle of our skillets.  For some of us onions…

  • Women’s Health and Fitness Day

    It’s a big day in my world–bigger than a lot of the days on which we celebrate various conditions and causes. We’re celebrating women’s health and fitness. Today we ask…

  • Eating Well on a Budget: Series Post 2 of 2

    Let's continue our conversation of what seems like an impossible mission of stretching your dollar to get healthy food on a budget.  VegetablesThis is a no-brainer. Veggies are inexpensive and…

  • Back to School-for the Big Kids

    It’s true-70% of non-athlete college students gain between 10-15 pounds their first semester, and it just grows from there. Yikes! While my days as a college student are long behind…

  • The Art of Canning

    It’s that time of year. Your seeds have sprung into full-grown plants laden with the fruits of your labor. While much of your garden bounty ends up on your table–and…

  • Label.ology: How to Read a Label

    I know–duh, right? Don’t you just pick up the package, turn it over, and read? Yes, but you may not know what exactly you’re seeing. It’s complicated. We are bombarded…

  • One reason Italians live so well… lentils!

    I admit it. I am completely obsessed with lentils, as are most Italians. I always say that if we could make a delicious lentil gelato, we would! Green, brown, yellow,…

  • Going Meatless

    We post some very cool social media with daily healthy tips, yummy recipes and some interesting information about our food and making healthier choices.   But now? Oh, yeah, baby….

  • Let Them Eat Kale

    There are two types of people in the world…those who eat greens and those who should.   You can laugh, but it’s true.   In my book, leafy greens are…

  • The Dairy Myth

    Doesn’t it seem that for most of us we often have weight loss on our minds? We’ve been told that milk and other dairy products can be helpful in the…

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    One Healthy Thing – Let’s Do This

    As we move forward into these next days, let’s challenge ourselves with lifestyle choices that will result in real radiant health. Everyone tells us that being healthy is easy (including…

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