Butterfly Sparks Designs

Monday, March 22, 2010

Eating Well, Living Well



I grew up in Tennessee as a true Southerner.  Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and creamed corn were weekly diet staples at our house.

Heck, fried anything was a staple. Along with cooking any recipe with at least 2 whole sticks of butter. (I once observed my mother cooking the Thanksgiving dinner and vowed to never watch again. Lord, help us, all the butter).

Then God up and moved me to Texas, where I landed in a home with 1 native Californian and 1 native Coloradoan as my roommates.

To say our eating habits and meal choices were different is an understatement.

My cabinet was full of potato chips, candy, and starches galore.  Their cabinet had organic this-or-that, raw sugar, whole wheat flour, and odd words like flax seed and lentils.

I snubbed their healthiness until I got tired enough of staring out at sick people every day at the hospital in my work as nurse.  I was quickly developing a fear I might one day turn into one of them. Where I live in East Texas is considered the stroke belt of our nation; this is largely due to diet and lack of exercise.  Our Southern diets are killing us or disabling us too early and cheapening our quality of life.

So, I decided to humble thyself and learn this thing called: Eating Well.

My roommates schooled me, and my arteries are forever indebted to them :)

It's not so difficult. I feel a lot better eating well, and I have a proactive weapon against the fear of a declining quality of life in my golden years.  I'm still learning what it means to eat healthy foods, and here on the blog, we'll learn together. We'll explore some things like acai juice, juicing, flax seed, etc.

To kick off the Eating Well, Living Well section of this blog, here's a recipe I recently obtained from a friend.

I call it "Salmon Salad Goodness:"

-Romaine Lettuce
-Bag of Salmon (Chicken of the Sea has these bags in the tuna section of the grocery store, and they are very cost efficient)
-an avocado, cut up into cubed-sized pieces
-pine nuts (I found a bag of them at the store, and after making 5 of these salads, I still haven't used the whole bag.  Just throw as many onto the salad as you would like).


Dresssing:
-Mix salt, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar to taste.


Put the above ingredients together and drizzle on the dressing.

It's easy-peasey. I don't often crave a salad, because I still feel hungry after eating them. But, probably due to the avocado, this one is very filling. I'm not a huge salmon fan, either, but I like this. It's also high in protein- great for you diabetics out there and anyone else who lives on a busy schedule.  Protein is nature's gift of an energy boost.

You'll want to multiply the ingredients based on how many you're feeding. I'll buy a smaller bag of salmon when I'm making it just for myself and use half an avocado for one serving. Go easy on the vinegar- I learned this the hard way :) It's a delicate balance, oil and vinegar. Doesn't take much salt, either. So, go easy, all you salt fanatics out there :)

Hope you enjoy this salad, and I'll post other heart-healthy, not-so-difficult recipes on here from time to time. 

And, the best recipe for good health:

"Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own.  Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track.  Don't assume that you know it all.  Run to God! Run from evil!  Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life!"  Proverbs 3:5

2 comments:

  1. Glad to see you posting over here! I'm excited to see where this blog takes you.

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  2. Sounds good - I happen to like salmon, so I'm sure I would enjoy this. Yes, our southern diets are killers.

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