Yummy Recipe for Black Bean & Corn Salsa

I stumbled across the basis for this recipe in one of those flimsy, grocery store magazines. You know the ones that always have a thin woman on the front with a header like: “Lisa lost 124 pounds by eating CHOCOLATE.” These mags always have a diet page, where they recommend eating nothing but celery & carrots (and a little chocolate, as in Lisa’s case) for two weeks. Then on the next page there is a recipe for 1000 calorie double mint chocolate cream cheese cupcakes.

Well, this was one of the recipes on the diet page. The diet touted in this mag is the Latin Diet. Long story short: eat lots of fresh tropical fruits & veggies, lean poultry, fish & seafood, a little olive oil and lots of spicy peppers. YUM! I modified this recipe because I am never one to follow a recipe completely, unless I am baking.

1 cup corn kernels

1 cup black beans, cooked

1 cup chopped, grape tomatoes

1 TBSP (more or less depending on your taste) chopped jalapeno

drizzle of olive oil

2 TBSP white vinegar

Squeeze of fresh lime

1 TBSP chopped cilantro.

Combine all this together. Serve over chicken or a white fish. Or eat with tortilla chips.

 

I took this to work yesterday. Fortunately I got a couple of bites before everyone else got to it, because when I came back to it later, it was ALL gone. Got lots of requests for the recipe.

 

Refinishing Furniture and Changing Your Lifestyle: A Very Similar Process

When you refinish furniture, the process takes many steps. There’s the stripping away of the old finish. Then there’s sanding and sanding and sanding. Depending on the type of finish, the next step may be staining and then more sanding and more stain and more sanding. Then comes a poly coat and then maybe some wax. Needless to say, with drying time, it takes quite a while. But the result is usually a beautiful, revived piece of furniture.

I feel the same about making the changes necessary to lead a healthy life. It’s a big project. It takes time to build healthy habits. It takes trial and error. It takes reading labels, books and websites. Then it takes putting the research into practice. It is not easy, but the rewards are great.

I began the process because of several factors. I was concerned about my youngest son’s health and I was motivated by my good friend, Bertha. My son, Asa, was diaganosed with a LD and his teacher said he showed signs of ADD in the classroom. I did tons of reasearch on ADD and found that improving his diet was something we could do to immediately help him. So along with changing his diet, we have done several other things and we have seen a marked improvement! It wasn’t a complete “cure” but surely an improvement.

My friend since childhood, Bertha, is beautiful. She always has been. But when I saw her this winter, she looked especially good. She looked so healthy! So of course, I asked her what she was doing. She told me she was doing yoga and trying to eat healthy foods. She gave me some book titles that she had read. I started reading anything I could get my hands on.

I was already doing a little yoga, reading a book by BKS Iyengar called Light On Yoga. I was already working on the outside of my body, so it made perfect sense to make changes to the inside as well. In my next post, I will explore the specific things I am doing and list some titles I have read.

A Fresh Change…putting my thoughts in writing

The world is full of people who have written books, articles, blogs, etc. about being healthy. Lately, I have been sort of obsessing on these writings, gobbling up any information I can find. I do not presume to be an expert on health in any way. I am simply writing to share my own encounter with trying to live a more healthy life. I thought others might find it helpful to know what works (or does not work) for me and my family.

Reading about being healty and actually doing something about it are two TOTALLY different things. As I read more, I do more. I incorporate small things. Some things work, some do not. I love the idea of a vegan diet. I love the idea of being able to give up caffeine, alcohol and artificial sweeteners. But, I am no way ready to do this all cold turkey. I still love a frosty beer and big, ol’ greasy cheesburger…once in awhile. All things in moderation. I think that is the key to my personal health.

So what am I doing right now? Personally, I am trying to cut back on the frosty beer and wine and whatever alcoholic beverages I happen to enjoy. We go to the beach in less than a month and I really want to look & feel my best. I think that abstaining from alcohol will help in that effort. I will let you know how it goes. So far I have had one drink in the last four days. That is a record for me. Small changes are all it takes, right?