Healthy Life Lessons

Good morning and welcome to Monday!  Looking for some yummy, healthy, quick and easy lunch ideas for this week?  Check out this one! As the weather has cooled, so too has my craving for cold salads.  I still eat them, but definitely not as often.  This was supposed to be a warm salad, but as I was getting ready to make it, I realized I was missing a crucial ingredient.  Don't you hate when that happens? Anyways, that recipe is forthcoming.  Not one to let food go to waste, I decided to come up with an alternative on the spot to utilize all the fresh veggies I'd bought.  The result was this salad, which I think is now going to be made again and again, regardless of the season.  Its just simple and yummy and quick to throw together. To make it vegan, just use black beans as your protein, instead of tuna, and use a non-dairy yogurt in your dressing.  Some avocado would also be great in this and/or corn kernels, if you so desire. Te...

  As soon as Halloween is over, Christmas shopping season begins.  When Black Friday hits (i.e. today!), things really get nuts. A few years ago, despite the fact that Canada celebrates Thanksgiving in October, we adopted the Black Friday tradition.  I guess retailers will use any excuse to get us spending.  Honestly, it probably benefits Canadians, like myself, who don't celebrate Christmas, most.  It used to be we got our shopping jollies on Boxing Day, but now we start opening our wallets for great deals on Black Friday (and Cyber Monday). I will admit I have been eager to join in on the discounts, and have already gotten a few good ones.  All year 'round I tend to be an online shopper.  In fact, Canadians love online shopping.  That's why Target failed here, because they didn't address that fact.  Is it because we like to avoid going out in bad weather? Or because this is such a geographically huge country and we often have to d...

I still shudder at the amount of rice I used to eat.  Don't get me wrong, its very nutritious, its just all the warnings about the arsenic content...which is apparently highest in brown rice, my absolute favorite! I ignored the headlines for a while because the media loves to cause panic, but finally when credible sources began to warn about limiting rice intake, I decided I needed to cut down. I never thought cauliflower rice would cut it as a substitute for me, but was pleasantly surprised to find I really enjoy it.  What's more, the last time I indulged in real rice, I found I wasn't loving it as much as I used to. I don't even miss it in most dishes! So I now make all sorts of dishes with cauliflower rice.  I can't say how I came up with this recipe, it just came to me like a bolt of lightening, but I am sure glad it did, because its a standout.  I love the sweet, sour, spicy combo.  You can make it vegan by using tempeh bacon, tofu or oth...

  There is no denying my favorite season is over.  We already had the Santa Clause parade, and yesterday the temperature dipped dramatically and it actually snowed! Fortunately, it didn't stick on the ground. I have to admit, we had a pretty awesome fall.  Perhaps a bit too much rain, but also some absolutely spectacular, and unseasonably warm weather.  But the trees have lost most of their leaves and I am sure that it won't be long until the temperatures drop even more and snow starts to pile up. Blech! As my brother said the other day when we were complaining about the climate here, "Where else in the world does it go from 30 Celsius and -30 Celsius?" Good question!  Sucks for me since I hate temperature extremes. Also, like lots of people I can get the winter blues.  I am really really hoping that doesn't happen, and perhaps the fact that I honestly have never felt better (no idea why...but I think its connected to starting to take CoQ10),...

    Its Friday but I'm not really feeling TGIF.  I work until really late tonight, and then again tomorrow morning. Then its a whole lot of chaos trying to get the girls to activities, and 2 different parties.  Sunday there are more activities and then we are supposed to go to my brother's house to celebrate my nephew's birthday...except Adam will be at his book club and I will have to leave my brother's half way through to get Big A from theatre school.  Its going to be nuts.  But I guess at least its not Monday, right? Then again, this coming Monday is quite sane, though the rest of the coming week is also a bit nuts because besides work, there is the girls' daycare fundraiser on Thursday I am helping sell tickets for, and then, of course, attending. In reality though, I am not complaining. Being busy is good.  We all complain about it endlessly, but most of the time its with stuff we enjoy.  At least in my case, I am very fortunate...

Need some extra protein power? Look no further.  These bars are choc-full.  They are also very high in fibre, packed with nutrients, gluten-free, sugar-free and vegan.  Oh, and my kids adore them! I am so pleased with how these turned out. The problem I've always had when making protein bars or granola-type bars is that they usually rely on either a liquid sweetener (and there are none I like to use in abundance) and/or nut/seed butter as binders.  This makes them high in sugar and calories and the nut/seed butters makes them kind of greasy. This time I used...pureed chickpeas! Seriously! Even I wasn't sure how they'd taste, and, in particular, whether they would pass the kid-friendly test.  I am happy to say the exceeded my expectations!! Or perhaps I should say, ex-seeded my expectations, because they are full of good-for-you seeds like chia and hemp. I used a bag of Nature's Path Q'ia Superfoods Cereal, but you can use any chia-based cereal or...

Nope, I am not referring to a silent and celibate fruit.  Just a really sweet one! Monk fruit, also called luo han guo and Siraitia grosvenorii , is a type of fruit native to China and Thailand that has been used for medicinal and sweetening purposes for centuries. Its been available as a sweetener in North America for some time, but still doesn't seem to have caught main-stream awareness yet. I have tasted things where its used as a sweetener, but never bought the sweetening products itself until recently, because they used to be so expensive.  But the price seems to be coming down, probably due to growing demand. So far, there is no evidence that it has any side-effects and actually has health benefits, it is zero calorie, and will not raise blood sugar (is safe for diabetics!).  The research I checked out was actually quite impressive!  As usual, we folks in the West are slow to catch on to all sorts of goodies they've been using in the East for ions. ...