Raw Marinara Sauce

It's almost (not quite yet) tomato season, and I can't wait. In the meantime, using sun dried tomatoes is a good way to get your tomato dose in. You can use both fresh tomatoes and sun drieds to make a robust, raw marinara sauce.

First off you need to soak your sun dried tomatoes (~1 cup) to rehydrate them; to keep it raw, soak for about 4 hours in lukewarm water. After soaking, drain the tomatoes, reserving the soaking water to use to thin out the sauce as you process. Put the soaked tomatoes in a high speed blender.
In the meantime, rough chop 5-8 Roma tomatoes, depending on size, a garlic clove, 1-2 tsp fresh oregano and thyme, and a handful of fresh basil. Put all of those ingredients in the blender with the sun drieds.

Add the following to the blender: juice of 1 lemon, 2 TBS best quality cold pressed olive oil, 3 dates (pitted) and sea salt to taste.
Process the ingredients, adding the soak water to thin as necessary. Season with S+P to taste after processing. The consistency of the sauce will vary based on your preference.


So, what do you eat the sauce with? Well, to keep it raw, you can make "pasta" out of veggies. I used zucchini, summer squash and carrots.
I used a tool called the Spirooli Spiral Slicer. Its basically a tool with 3 different blades that can be used to cut vegetables into thin cut slices, or 2 different size spiral slices.
Here's a pic with the zucchini in place:
Here are a couple of pics of the veggies as they come off the blade:

And the finished product:

Before I sauce the noodles, I add a pinch of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice to soften them up a bit.
Though not totally raw, but enjoyed by raw food enthusiasts, for a cheesy taste like Parm cheese, you can top it the sauce and noodles with some nutritional yeast.

I had a bunch of sauce left over, so I took some and added ground flax to it and then blended it together in the high speed blender. I spread it on the dehydrator sheet and dehydrated it into a tomato wrap. Today I enjoyed it filled with sprouts, avocado, grape tomatoes, hemp seeds and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast:
Enjoy! Eat something raw today!

Spin Cycle

Ride, Ride, Ride.....I'm glad I ride.....keeps my fat ass moving.
Here's my playlist from a few weeks back:

1. Undermind - Phish (Hampton 03/08/09)
2. 25 Miles - Edwin Starr
3. Celebration - Madonna
4. Duel - Propaganda
5. Some Days Are Better Than Others - U2
6. 4 Minutes - Madonna, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland
7. Kill Devil Falls - Phisj (Chicago, 08/11/09)
8. Jump - Madonna
9. Shine - Trey Anastasio
10. Party Girl - U2
11. Panama - Van Halen
12. Uninvited - Alanis Morissette
13. Roam - The B-52's

I had a couple weeks of using older playlists due to the Labor day weekend....this week's playlist I threw together yesterday morning in a panic, knowing that I had to teach last night and I hadn't made a playlist yet. That was due to the fact that we had some hard wood floors redone, and had to be out of the house over the weekend.....
But, what I put together worked quite well, and here it is:

1. Sign O The Times - Prince
2. Two Prince - Spin Doctors
3. Underneath - Alanis Morissette
4. Higher Love - Steve Winwood
5. Boogie On Reggae Woman - Stevie Wonder
6. Restless Wind - String Cheese Incident
7. We'll Be Together - Sting
8. The Stand - The Alarm
9. Backwards Down The Number Line - Phish
10. Upspin - Agents of Good Roots
11. Trippin' On A Hole In A Paper Heart - Stone Temple Pilots
12. It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over - Lenny Kravitz
13. Joy - Phish

Life is so busy - staging our home to put on the mkt, cheffing, working for KitchenAid @ Williams Sonoma.....just not much other time to do much of anything else.....
Ride, Ride, Ride....I'm glad I ride, it keeps my fat ass moving.....

Spin Cycle Hot August nights

Wooh, August has been hot!
Here are a couple playlists from the past couple of weeks:

2 weeks ago:

1.Throw It All Away-Zero 7
2. Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution-AC/DC
3. Sweet Inspiration-Derek Trucks
4. Wanted-Jessie James
5. Dead and Gone-T.I. (with JT)
6. Medicine Man-Zero 7
7. I know You Want Me-Pitbull
8. Crosseyed and Painless- Talking Heads (Live version 01/25/84)
9. Stand and Deliver-Adam Ant
10. 'Round the Wheel-SCI
11. Fly One Time-Ben Harper
12. Seven Below-Phish

Last week: (I happen to LOVE this playlist...very funky)...
1. Shaft-Issac Hayes
2. You Got the Love-Rufus & Chaka Kahn
3. You Dropped a Bomb on Me-Gap Band
4. Mustang Sally-The Commitments
5. Once You Get Started-Rufus & Chaka Kahn
6. Machine Gun-Commodores
7. Tell Me Something Good-Rufus & Chaka Kahn
8. The Rubberband Man-The Spinners
9. Ain't Nobody-Rufus & Chaka Kahn
10. Kung Fu Fighting-Carl Douglas
11. Brick House-Commodores
12. Burn Rubber on Me-Gap Band
13. Mercy Me-Margin Gaye
14. What's Going On-Marvin Gaye

This week's playlist contains Madonna's new song, Celebration, which I'm digging right now - great beat in typical Madonna fashion. Will post the final playlist at the end of the week!

Spin Cycle Past 3 weeks

Hola!

Here are my playlists from this week and the past couple weeks....

3 weeks ago:
1. Pick Up the Pieces - Avg White Band
2. I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas
3. Hit Me Up - Gia Farrell
4. Boom Boom Boom - Black Eyed Peas
5. Zoo Station (GHP Remix) - U2
6. Cemetery Walk II - Umphrey's McGee
7. Cemetery Walk II (Club Remix) - Umphrey's McGee
8. 19-2000 (Soulchild Remix) - Gorillaz
9. Get Up Offa That Thing (Ali Dee Remix) - James Brown
10. Calabria 2007 (Club Mix) - Enur
11. Love Sex Magic - Ciara ftg Justin Timberlake
12. Missing Groovejet (GHP Remix) - Everything But the Girl
13. Ever So Lonely - Sheila Chandra

Last week I used a set of music that I love to spin to - it's what I spin to most often when I spin at home. It's a collection of club music called Body & Soul, Volume 3...I've blogged about it before, but I am too lazy to find the link....

Here is this week's selection:
1. Shake Me Like a Monkey - Dave Matthews Band
2. All Mixed Up - 311
3. Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon
4. Hey Baby - Jonas Brothers
5. Paper Planes (DFA Remix) - M. I. A.
6. Rockin to the Beat - Black Eyed Peas
7. Why I Am - Dave Matthews Band
8. Hey Baby - No Doubt
9. Paranoid - Jonas Brothers
10. Use Somebody - Kings of Leon
11. Sweet Dreams - Beyonce
12. Funny the Way It Is - Dave Matthews Band
13. Here It Goes Again - OK Go
14. Words (Instrumental) - Umphrey's McGee
15. Higgins (Instrumental) - Umphrey's McGee

Good stuff. I love when the class is receptive to my music. 2 weeks ago, I had someone come up to me after class and tell me it was the best class she had ever taken.
That about sums it up!

Go Jeanine Go!

Spin Cycle, end of June -> this week

Hiddy Ho - life gets in the way.....all I'm gonna say.
Here are my playlists for the past few weeks.....

Last week was all Beatles, all the time :) It was quite well received (Surprisingly)...
1. Back in the USSR
2. Maxwell's Silver Hammer
3. Sun King,Mean Mr Mustard
4. Polythene Pam
5. She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
6. Golden Slumbers,Carry that Weight
7. The End
8. She Said She Said
9. Come Together
10. Day Tripper
11. Helter Skelter
12. Magical Mystery Tour
13. We Can Work it Out
14. Paperback Writer
15. Taxman
16. Revolution
17. Tomorrow Never Knows
18. Glass Onion
19. Money (That's What I Want)
20. Good Day Sunshine

RIP MJ....you know that I have used all MJ/Jacskon 5/Janet Jackson for a playlist in the past. For some reason, I couldn't find it, so I made a new one to honor MJ:

1. Jam
2. I Want You Back
3. ABC
4. The Love You Save
5. Beat It
6. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
7. Off The Wall
8. P.Y.T.
9. Burn This Disco Out
10. Thriller
11. Billie Jean
12. Working Day and Night
13. Rock With You
14. Never Can Say Goodbye

This playlist I actually taught the Wed and Thursday classes (the day of MJ's death) and didn't use it for my Friday class, as I switched to the MJ playlist:

1. 51 Ft Ladder - Toubab ftg Rayna Gellert
2. Snow (Hey Oh) - Red Hot Chili Peppers
3. Paranoid - Jonas Brothers
4. Head in the Clouds - Equaleyes
5. Got Me Going Crazy - jonas Brothers
6. Divine Thing - Soup Dragons
7. Lazerbeam - Everyday Prophets
8. Work To Do - Public Property ftg Toots Hibbert
9. Tonight - Jonas Brothers
10. Torture Me - Red Hot Chili Peppers
11. BB Good - Jonas Brothers
12. Pleasure - Soup Dragons
13. Under the Bridge - Red Hot Chili Peppers
14. Otherside - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Still working on this weeks.....over and out...

Spin Cycle End of May/June 2009

Here are some of my playlists from the past couple of weeks:

1.Who Did You Think I Was- John Mayer Trio
2. Mix- Gomez
3. Join Together- The Who
4. Peace Frog- The Doors
5. Don't Bring Me Down- ELO
6. A Little Less Conversation- Elvis
7. Philadelphia Freedom- Elton John
8. Lay Down Sally- Clapton
9. How Sweet It Is- Jerry Garcia Band
10. Bold As Love- Hendrix
11. Deep This Time- moe.
12. She's So Cold- Stones
13. Mary Jane's Last Dance- Tom Petty

2 weeks ago I made a mix of mamba, salsa and cuban music. My classes love international music like that, and so the ride was alot of fun:
1. Puehunguita - Los Zafiros
2. Dun Dun - Los Amigos Invisibles
3. Maria Moita - Carlos Lyra nad Bossacu
4. Carnival - Mark Endresen and the
5. Da Lata - from Compliation album, Brazilified
6. Pio Mentiroso (Guaracha) - Afro Cuban All Stars
7. Beatbox Cha Cha - Ursula 1000
8. Funky Spanish - From Soul of Brazil
9. Mambo No. 5 - from Entertaining Made Simple
10. Samba - Faze Action
11. Mambo Gozon - From Entertaining Made Simple
12. La Cubanita - Los Ninos De Sara
13. Dance Maria - From Entertaining Made Simple
14. Superpop Venezuela - Los Amigos Invisibles
15. Mambo Holiday - Joe Holiday

Last week was a totally random mix:

1.Traffic Boom-Pierro Piccioni (Big Lebowski)
2. About Nothing-PM Dawn
3. Dig In-Lenny Kravitz
4. Blue Monday-New Order
5. Knock Me Down-Red Hot Chili Peppers
6. Peppyrock-BtK
7. (Oh No) What You Got-Justin Timberlake
8. Baby, Baby, Baby-Joss Stone
9. Reggae Got Soul-Toots & The Maytals
10. Jerk It Out-Caesars
11. Just Fine-MJ Blige
12. Ready To Go-Republica
13. I'd Die W/Out You-PM Dawn
14. Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam-Nirvana

For my Asperger's Awareness Spinning Ride, I pulled a variety of songs that I had played over the weeks leading up to the event. The event was extremely successful, and I raised $2500 and donated it to the Asperger's Association on New England!!! I felt good about it.
Here is the ride:
1. Blue Jeans Pizza - moe.
2. Sweet About Me - Gabriella Cilmi
3. It's A New Day - will.i.am
4. Obama Song - Michael Franti and Spearhead
5. Down with Disease - Phish
6. Rainy Day - Coldplay
7. Pretty Young Thing - Michael Jackson
8. Just Dance - Lady GaGa
9. Tailspin - moe.
10. Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon
11. Live Your Life - T.I.
12. Beggin' - Madcon
13. 4 Minutes - Justin Timberlake, Madonna
14. Amsterdam - Coldplay
15. Silent House - Dixie Chicks

I don't have a playlist made for tomorrow's class, but I might be able to pull one off tomorrow. We'll see.

Spin Cycle

I have made a couple of great playlists over the past few of weeks.
Viola!

Nothing special about this one, just some neat tunes that go good together. The first song is actually from and album of String Cheese Incident songs that were remixed by some DJ who calls himself DJ Harry. Airstream Driver, song 4, is from the new Gomez album, A New Tide. Upon first listen I was disappointed with it, as it is quite mellow. But I just listened to it a bunch of times over the past couple of days and I am beginning to appreciate it more and more each listen.
1. Collision - DJ Harry
2. Heartless - Kanye West
3. Magnificent - U2
4. Airstream Driver - Gomez
5. Welcome to the World - Kevin Rudolf
6. In Love With a Girl - Gavin DeGraw
7. Ain't No Other Man - Christina Aquilera
8. Lady (You Bring Me Up) - The Commodores
9. Forever - Chris Brown
10. No More Words - Berlin
11. Just Dance - Lady GaGa
12. Go - Groove Armada
13. Take a Bow - Rihiana
14. Quiet Times - Dido

I call this one "Old School" - it went over very well - lot's of singing along, and hootimg and hollering; how can you not when you hear Baby I'm a Star???

1. Buns O'Plenty - Issac Hayes
2. Rock Your Baby - George McCrae
3. Computer Blue - Prince and the Revolution
4. Flashdance...What a Feeling - Irene Cara
5. Shake - Prince and The Time
6. Love Machine - The Miracles
7. Never Can Say Goodbye - Gloria Gaynor
8. Papa's Got a Brand New Bag - James Brown
9. I'm Every Woman - Chaka Khan
10. Now That We've Found Love - Third World
11. Babe We're Gonna Love Tonight - Denis & Denyse
12. Baby I'm a Star - Prince and the Revolution
13. Let's Stay Together - Al Green
14. Do Right Woman-Do Right Man - Aretha Franklin

3 weeks ago, I used Trey Anastasio's solo album, Trey Anastasio, and mixed the tunes around to spin to. I loved it, and I think the class did too, or well, at least they tolerated it - good melodies, nice horn section etc.

2 week's ago, the playlist I used, I actually made with my benefit class in mind. Here's the playlist that we spun to - I am going to make a couple of changes for the benefit class.....I'll post that after the event is over:
1. Blue Jeans Pizza - moe.
2. Learn To Fly - Foo Fighters
3. Live Your Life - T.I.
4. Toxic - Britney Spears
5. Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon
6. Burnin' Ip - Jonas Brothers
7. Down With Disease – Phish
8. Love Stoned/I Think She Knows Interlude
9. Bring It Up – James Brown
10. Shakedown Street – Grateful Dead
11. Where Are We Runnin? - Lenny Kravitz
12. Black Capricorn Day – Jamiroquai
13. 4 Minutes – Madonna
14. Sweet About Me – Gabriella Cilmi
15. Not Ready To Make Nice – Dixie Chicks

Last week, I used an old, random playlist - lots of Madonna and Lionel Richie in it - first played in Sept, 2007. Here's a link.....
My playlist for this week is FUN. I'll post it later though, no time right now....
:) have a good one - don't forget to sign up for my benefit Spin ride to benefit the Asperger's Association of New England...Sat June 6th 12-1pm @ Healthworks Fitness Center, Chestnut Hill, Ma...call 617-383-6100 to sign up. Contact me to find out how to donate if you cannot ride....
thanks!

Spinning ride for Asperger's/Autism Awareness

As some of you know, our son Max was recently diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome/ADHD. Asperger's is a syndrome that falls on the Autism spectrum. The Asperger's child is usually highly intelligent, but can have delays in social development and can have trouble with executive functioning, such as organization, prioritizing, and follow-through of day to day activities. With the correct interaction and support, people with Asperger's can lead very normal lives, even using some of their Asperger qualities to excel in areas that other "neurotypical" people can not. We are lucky in that Max is extremely intelligent and so with the proper social skills training and occupational therapy, we believe that he will be quite successful.

AANE was the place that I first turned to in order to learn more about Asperger's and so this ride is to support their efforts. As a non-profit organization, AANE relies primarily upon membership dues and donations from the community to function. AANE also receives support from a number of foundations and corporations. The efforts of volunteers from the community also help out by way of a variety of administrative, technical, and fundraising projects.

My ride will be Saturday June 6th, at 12pm, at Healthworks Fitness Center in Chestnut Hill, MA, one of the Healthworks clubs that I teach at.
The ride is open to the public, so you do not have to be a member of the club to attend. Both men and women can attend.
The suggested donation for the ride is $25.00, and can be made at the time of the ride as a check made out to the Asperger's Association of New England.
You can sign up for the ride by calling Healthworks @ 617-383-6100.


Autism Awareness Spinning Ride
with Sharon Shiner
Saturday June 6th, 12 PM at
Healthworks Fitness Center
1300 Boylston Street
Chestnut Hill, Mass 02467
Sign up by calling 617-383-6100

For those of you who aren't lucky enough to ride with me because you don't live close by :), you can still donate none the less.I realize that times are tough right now, but even $5.00 can make a difference.

Please consider signing up for this great event and help support a cause which is so personal to me. If you can not make the ride but still wish to donate, please contact me for how to make the donation.

Thanks so much for your consideration! Feel free to email me if you have any questions regarding the spinning ride or questions regarding Max and Asperger's.
Sharon