Monday, February 26, 2007

Recipes and a bunch of other stuff

I've got several recipes for you today.  I hope you like them. 
 
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Lets start off with a different kind of salad from Better Homes and Gardens.
 
Arugula and Roasted Cauliflower Salad
Ingredients
2 medium heads cauliflower, cut into bite-size florets (about 10 cups)
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
2 Tbsp. champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. Dijon-style mustard
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 5-oz. pkg. arugula (8 cups lightly packed) , or two 5-oz. pkg. baby spinach
1 large red onion, very thinly sliced
4 oz. shaved Parmesan cheese  
Directions
1.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In shallow roasting pan combine cauliflower, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper; toss. Roast, uncovered, for 30 to 35 minutes, stirring twice. Remove; cool.

2.
In small bowl combine vinegar, mustard, and remaining salt. Whisk in the 1/3 cup olive oil until combined. In a large bowl combine cauliflower, arugula, and onion. Add the vinegar mixture; toss gently. Top with shaved Parmesan. Makes 12 servings.
3.
Make-Ahead Tip: Prepare through step 1. Place the roasted cauliflower in a storage container or plastic bag and seal. Refrigerate overnight until ready to serve. Bring to room temperature before combining with greens and onions in the bowl.
 
Then a marinated flank steak from The Spark People.
 
Marinated Flank Steak
Serves: 4
This will bring out all kinds of flavor in your beef.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup salsa
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lime
1 flank steak (about 1.5 lbs.)

DIRECTIONS

1. Put the salsa, garlic, olive oil, and the juice of the lime in a zip top plastic bag. Shake around to mix ingredients.
2. Add the flank steak to the bag. Seal the bag while pressing out as much air as possible. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
3. When ready to cook, remove the steak from the bag, discarding marinade.
4. Grill or broil the flank steak to medium or medium rare. Don't overcook - flank steak can get very tough and unappetizing if overcooked.
5. Let it rest for 10 minutes, and slice the meat against the grain into thin slices.
 
I thought we'd try to spice up the plain ole green beans with this recipe from Lawry's. 
 
GARLIC GREEN BEANS

PREPARATION

Preparation Time: 10 Minute(s)
INGREDIENTS

1 package (16 oz.) frozen cut green beans, cooked according to package directions
1 Tbsp. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! ® Spread
1 tsp. Lawry's ® Garlic Salt

DIRECTIONS

In medium bowl, gently toss beans, Spread and Lawry's ® Garlic Salt.

SERVING SIZE

Serves: 6
 
I've been searching for low-carb desserts and this one sounds pretty good so I thought I would put it on here.  I'm sorry, I can't remember where I found it.
 
Low Carb Cool Strawberry Cream Pie 

***Meringue Shell:*** 
4 egg whites 
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 
3 tablespoons Splenda 

***Filling:*** 
1 small pkg. sugar-free gelatin (strawberry or raspberry) 
1 pint heavy cream 
1 (8oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened 
1/4 cup Splenda 
1 quart strawberries, cleaned and sliced 

Preheat oven to 275F. Grease one Pyrex pie plate and set aside. Beat 
egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar then beat until whites 
stand in peaks. Add Splenda and beat for an additional minute or two. 
Spread the meringue evenly in the bottom of the plate and up the sides. 
Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes in a 275 F oven, then raise the temperature 
to 300 and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool 
while you make filling. Dissolve gelatin with 3/4 cup boiling water. 
Stir in 1/3 cup cold water. Place in freezer for approximately 15-20 
minutes (just until it begins to gel.) When the gelatin is ready, 
whip the heavy cream until stiff (but not dry). Fold in cream cheese 
and Splenda. Fold in gelatin. 

Stir in strawberries (reserving a few for garnish if you like.) Pour 
over meringue shell in pie plate and let chill until firm -- about 2 
hours. 

5 carb grams per serving. 
 

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As long as we're on recipes I thought I would share this little bit of healthy information with you that I got from Real Age.  

3 Good-for-You Drinks

Can't remember your kid's cell phone number? Try a daily dose of apple juice.
Concerned about diabetes? Sip four cups of coffee a day.
Sidelined by an achy knee? Start every morning with a big glass of fresh orange juice.

You can read the entire article at this Real Age ARTICLE LINK.

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I received this message in one of my Healthy Reflection emails from Spark People.  It's definitely something that I need to remember. 

Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intention of throwing it at someone else. You are the one who gets burned. - Buddha

Is your life filled with anger?

When someone cuts you off while driving, or misses an appointment you made together, you probably get angry. Often our imaginations create internal situations and fantasies that perpetuate those feelings until you are boiling and ready to take it out on someone else. Truly though, we waste too much of our time and energy feeling negatively towards all sorts of things in our lives. When was the last time you went an entire day without feeling angry? Think about the times you most frequently feel those tense, frustrated feelings building up in you and examine the root. If the situation is unavoidable, you've got to force yourself to accept it and move past it. Maybe you need to sit down with a co-worker and talk to her about what is bothering you--instead of just letting her idiosyncrasies get under your skin each day. Perhaps you need to find an alternative route home to avoid the daily traffic jam that makes your blood boil. Your body and mind will thank you for the peace such moves provide in the end.

This is a hard one for me.  I've spent much of my life being angry and/or resentful of people who have done something to hurt me or those I love in one way or another.  I often try to move beyond it by ignoring the situation.  I'm sure you can imagine how well that works, lol. 

Kind of like turning your back to a pitbull.  It's still there and will get ya one way or another.  Only thing is, when you turn your back to it, you don't know when it is going to strike.  Ouch!

I know better than to ignore it, that it won't get me anywhere or make it any better.  However, since I don't particularly care for confrontations, it's hard to know what to do.  I'm always afraid that even if I say the smallest little thing about something that I don't like, or that I wish someone would do differently, that they are going to take it the wrong way or blow it up to something bigger.

Speaking of knowing better, I got this from The Daily OM a few days ago.  I liked it and decided to share it with you.

The Past In Light Of The Present
Knowing Better Now

When we look back at the past, knowing what we know now, we often find it difficult to understand how we made the mistakes we made. This is because once we learn new information, it is nearly impossible to reenter the headspace we were in before we learned that information. And so we look back at parents who spanked their kids, for example, and wonder how they could have thought that was a good idea. Similarly, our personal pasts are full of mistakes we can't believe we made. We did things then that we would never do now, and this is precisely because we have information now that we didn't have, or weren't able to access, then.

From ideas about how to raise children to how to treat the environment, our collective human past sometimes reads like a document on what not to do. In many ways, this is exactly as it should be. We learn from living and having experiences. It is from these past actions that we garnered the information that guides us to live differently now. Just so, in our personal lives, we probably had to have a few unsuccessful relationships or jobs, learning about our negative tendencies through them, in order to gain the wisdom we have now.

In order to live more peacefully with the past, it helps to remember that once we know better, we tend to do better. Prior to knowing, we generally do our best, and while it's true that from the perspective of the present, our best doesn't always seem good enough, we can at least give our past selves the benefit of the doubt. We did our best with what knowledge we had. Beyond this, we serve the greater good most effectively by not dwelling on the past, instead reigning our energy and knowledge into our present actions. It is here, in this moment, that we create our reality and ourselves anew, with our current knowledge and information.

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First I want to post this information for those in our area.

Donations for the family of Officer Dressel can be made in his name and are being accepted at:

  • Cumulus Broadcasting has set up a memorial account at 5/3 bank
  • Toledo Police Federal Credit Union offices located in the Toledo Safety Building at 525 N. Erie St. and at Heatherdowns and Eastgate
  • the Toledo Firefighters Credit Union at 2800 W. Laskey Road.
  • Island Variety at 722 Dearborn will be taking donations through March 2nd for Keith Dressel. There will also a condolence card there to sign.
  • The following credit unions: AP Federal Credit Union, Champion Credit Union, Erie Shores Credit Union, Jeep Country Credit Union, ProMedica Federal Credit Union, Suburban Credit Union, TPS Credit Union, Toledo Area Community Credit Union, Toledo Co-op Credit Union and UT-MUO Credit Union.
  • You can also leave messages on the Bedford Funeral Chapel Website at Bedford Funeral Chapel.

    Today Toledo police officer Keith Dressel is being laid to rest.  I'd like to express my gratitude to him and his family.  I am thankful that there are people like Keith willing to risk their safety to protect our community. 

    It is such a tragedy that his young life (he was only 35 years old) was taken and his family and friends are suffering.  I cannot even begin to find the words to express my feelings of sympathy for his wife and 2 young children. 

    I watched the mayors news conference on Friday when they discussed the details of the funeral being held today.  Officer Dressels wife, Danielle was standing next to the mayor and his parents were also there.  When I saw how young Danielle was, the sadness of it all just hit me and I stood there and wept for her and their childrens loss.

    For all of us, today is just another Monday.  For the Dressel family and friends, it is the day they say good-bye to a loved one.  It is the day they honor his life and the sacrifice he made trying to make our community a safer one.  It is the day they had hoped would never come. 

    I want to offer my prayers of support.  May God be with them all as they face this day and each day after. 

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    Hugs!
    Preview

    1 comment:

    Anonymous said...

    This was a very nice entry to commemorate Keith Dressel.  I hope his family gets to see it.

    Greg