I'm not much of a cook -- I don't like to cook, I don't cook well, and I am never really enticed to spend any amount of time in the kitchen preparing food. So my husband picks up my slack much of the time. Tonight he made turkey meatballs with rice and green peppers -- and some other veggie side dishes too -- and he cooks pasta and grills chicken and can successfully feed our family of four without hesitation or frustration. For me, cooking, hesitation, and frustration all roll into one. And that's why I avoid anything of the culinary persuasion and thank my lucky stars for a husband who doesn't mind cooking endeavors. But sometimes, I am forced to enter the kitchen -- I have two growing boys who need to eat, after all, and I am the one mostly at home catering to their every need. So I do okay -- I try to maintain a healthily family menu and I can handle the basics and no one is really complaining so I guess I'm holding my own. But I'd like to find more pleasure in cooking -- and more variety and more creativity too. Perhaps free weekly recipes sent to my e-mail inbox would be a push in the right direction.

The American Institute for Cancer Research offers this service, and I am just moments away from subscribing to this offering that was started by a cancer group who sends out to anyone who signs up free recipes that are mostly lowfat, high-fiber, and plant-based. Launched just several months ago, this service already has more than 10,000 subscribers -- and many are cancer survivors who have learned to make everything from cherry spritzers to brown rice pudding to sweet potato and peanut chili. A name and e-mail address is all it takes to get the ball rolling -- just visit www.aicr.org and look for the health-e-recipes area.  Soon, simple and nutritious recipes will be at your fingertips. And at mine too. Unless I decide to pass them off to my husband.

If you are a cancer patient in Israel, your doctor is telling you to drink fresh lemon grass tea on the days that you go in for radiation or chemotherapy treatments. Ben Gurion University of the Negev researchers made a discovery last year that the lemon aroma in herbs like lemon grass kills cancer cells in vitro, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. In a fascinating article published in the Health section of Israel21c, it states that the study found the citral in lemon grass causes cancer cells to commit suicide in a process called apoptosis, a mechanism called programmed cell death. A drink with as little as one gram of lemon grass contains enough citral to signal the cancer cells to commit suicide.

Lemon grass is a perennial, aromatic tall grass with a light lemon scent used for culinary and medicinal purposes. For centuries, herbalists have used the herb as an effective digestive tonic and nervous system relaxant. Lemon grass oil is used to help clear blemishes and maintain balanced skin tone. Lemon grass is also used as an insect and mosquito repellent. Now, according to Israeli scientists, they can add cancer prevention to the list of attributes associated with lemon grass.