Let there be salads.

After leaving you earlier today, I took the puppy on a quick 1.5 mile walk and hit the elliptical for a very sweaty 30 minutes. If you are a fellow elliptical-er, some tips: BUMP UP the resistance! You can take it, I promise. The benefits of intensifying your work out are limitless. Another thing, rather than doing a manual work out (adjusting the crossramp and resistance manually) choose an INTERVAL track. This will improve your stamina and endurance. Plus, more calories burned. All good things.

My work out is a little light today because on Thursday I did a "Mag 7" circuit work out and not only are my inner thighs in so much pain I hesitate to use the restroom,  I also hurt my elbow a teeny bit doing too many tricep dips. I am taking it easy for the next day or two. That's my rule of thumb, if something hurts real bad, leave it for 3 days to recoup. Usually I am back in business by the third day.

This was my fuel for work out this morning, along with 24 oz water:

Over easy fried egg, cinnamon raisin Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain bread, and a Pink Lady apple. If you are an egg lover like me and you like a nice yolk to dip your toast in (even cinnamon raisin, so good (you're welcome Michelle)) the trick is very LOW heat and oiling your pan. I like to use coconut oil. I'm sure you've heard about coconut oil as the newest "healthiest fat" but it really does have some honest to goodness health benefits, it's flavorless, heats well and can be used for so many other things. If you're interested in learning more about it, here's a good link coconutoil.com

Puppy and I getting ready for a stroll

Now for the more fun stuff: cooking! I am always trying to find ways to dress up some really healthy ingredients and today we are doing a quinoa salad and a whole grain Mediterranean pasta salad. I am so sorry if you don't live in a place where you have access to Yumm sauce, because I'm going to use it in one of the recipes, because it's just so delicious. This being my first entry about cooking, I feel like it is taking an eternity! I will get the hang of it. Let's start with the Mediterranean:
Ingredients:

• precooked whole wheat penne or rotini (make sure it's whole wheat, sometimes they trick you with some 51% whole wheat crap)
• Balsamic vinegar
• Fresh basil
• Fresh mozzarella (I got the "cherry tomato style", just little cheese balls)
•  Whatever goodness you prefer from the olive bar, if your grocery store doesn't have an olive bar, you can buy these things jarred. I used:  sun dried tomatoes, roasted garlic and a little olive tapenade
• Plain Greek yogurt
• Fresh tomato
• Red onion
• Spinach

First off, I want to show you how to cut an onion, because so many people don't know how to do it this super easy way.

I use my favorite knife, 7" Santoku, don't be afraid of big blades! Just takes some practice.

First, slice of the top, and set it flat and slice in half from the root. Then peel off the outer layer and toss.

Then slice it on a radius, but don't cut all the way to the root end! Keep it intact.

Then slice it as big as you'd like the dice to be. Voila! perfect dice!

If you are planning to eat red onion raw, soaking them in ice water for at least 30 minutes takes away some of the intensity/spiciness.

 Then take the fresh basil, stack it and roll it.
(I'm aware that this looks like a basil blunt)

Slice thinly.

 Then I large diced a tomato, and there's the cheese I used

 Put indredients in a bowl with pre-cooked and cooled pasta, add olive bar ingredients, greek yogurt, a generous drizzle of balsamic and stir. Salt and pepper (S&P) to taste. This salad can be served as it is, or you can do what I do. Upon serving I throw in a bag of baby spinach.

This is Yumm sauce, if you haven't tried using it at home, you should!

Yumm salad with quinoa:

• precooked and cooled quinoa (I keep cooked quinoa in the fridge at all times-quick and high in protein)
• Zucchini
• Cucumber
• Tomato
• Bell pepper
• Dill
• Plain Greek Yogurt
• Yumm sauce

Large dice of zucchini, cucumber and tomato, and chopped dill. (FYI: DILL IS A WONDERFUL HERB THAT DOESN'T GET ENOUGH CREDIT. It's not just for fish and tzaziki. I love to put it in salads and on my fried eggs while they're in the pan. SO good.)

Toss all ingredients together and add 1/2 c. Yumm sauce and 1/2 c. Greek yogurt. S & P to taste. This salad is the same as the Meditteranean one for me, I prefer it with red leaf lettuce or baby spinach, but can be eaten as is. It's also great with bell pepper too!

 I really love quinoa. Like I mentioned, I keep some in the fridge at all times and throw together salads like this on a nearly daily basis. Whatever vegetables you have on hand and a favorite dressing. E & I grill year round, so I always make extra of whatever meat we're grilling (usually chicken, salmon or NY strip) so that I can use that in salads for a day or two. I don't do well with a plain old iceberg salad, so this gives me variety and all the protein I need.

It's time for bed, but the BBQ was really lovely, as are my sisters. I will leave you with that.

I hope this finds you well. Goodnight.