My current favorite summer salad

I was looking around at all our garden produce and came up with this:

• Fresh Tomatoes, sectioned
• Fresh Cucumbers, sliced
• Red Onion, chopped
• 2 TB Olive Oil
• 6 TB seasoned rice vinegar
• Ground fresh pepper

Toss. Dig in.

Do not chill; it ruins the tomatoes, therefore the rule is – no leftovers!

Apparently it’s national salad week.

Who knew? Over at Mark’s Daily Apple…

A personal journey

Disclaimer – The actions and results I’ve outlined below worked for me. However, I am neither a doctor nor am I your doctor; you may be in a different situation and need a different plan.

In November of 2006, some friends took me rock climbing, which I had not really done before. I quickly realized that I would not be very successful at this sport if I was trying to carry my spare tire up the cliff as said spare tire contributed nothing whatever to getting up the cliff.

I so badly wanted to succeed at climbing that it motivated me to get rid of the spare tire. Call it a magic moment – an event that gave me the motivation to make a permanent change.

I’ve outlined here the changes I made to lose weight. One thing I didn’t originally mention on that page is that I also started taking 3000 mg of fish oil and 900 mg of Omega-3 Fatty Acids every day. I also eat a lot of fatty fish (salmon) and rarely (not “never”) eat red meat.

I recently (July 2008) went to see my GP on an unrelated subject and she ordered a panel of blood tests. I recently got them back, and discovered that I also had a blood panel to compare them to from just after I made the diet and lifestyle changes.

The Salad Dressing Jackpot

Go here. Yum.

Egg Scramble with Red Curry Coconut Soup

This morning we actually had some leftovers (which rarely happens!) from the last batch of  red curry coconut soup, so I had the idea of making a scramble from it.

11 ways to eat the 11 best healthy foods that you aren’t eating

Go here. Thanks to Cousin Pink!

Apricot Upside-Down Cake From Scratch

We have quarts and quarts of frozen apricots from our tree this year. I’m planning to try this recipe, substituting frozen apricots and whole wheat flour.

Oatmeal Fruit Bars

Thanks to ‘Bama Fred. These are really tasty.

Corn and Potato Frittata

From Wikipedia: A frittata is a type of Italian omelette that frequently features fillings such as meats, cheeses, and vegetables. Like a traditional French omelette, a frittata is prepared in a skillet. However, whereas an omelette is cooked on a stovetop and served folded, a frittata is first partially cooked on a stovetop but then finished under the grill (broiler) and served open-faced.

This is one of my favorites…

My favorite protein shake

• 1 C orange juice or milk (obviously you lose the orange taste) or both
• 1 frozen banana, sectioned (good use for those “overripers”, I break them in half, bag them and freeze them)
• 1 C frozen blueberries (optional, but yummy and good for you)

Blend until smooth

• 1 or 2 scoops vanilla whey powder (depends on how protein-y you want it) added with blender on low

Blend until well mixed

• Several ice cubes. Number will depend on how frozen you want it, how hot it is, temperature of other ingredients. I like stiff milkshake consistency