Mango Salsa - A fabulous summertime dish

One of the best things about the summer season is how much fresh fruit is available.  Watermelon is something I look forward to every year!  Another favorite of mine is mango.  Now, mango is one of those fruits like pomegranate. It's kind of tricky to peel and eat but once you figure out the key to unlock the goodness you'll be so glad for it!!

With my new way of eating, I'm trying to add more color to my plate.  That way it's easy to see that I'm getting more nutritious fuel for my body.  So today, I whipped up some Mango Salsa to go along with the grilled chicken and corn on the cob I planned to eat for lunch.  It's so yummy, sweet, a little tangy, and very bright.  Like eating sunshine!!  Here is the recipe:

Mango Salsa
Serves 2

1 ripe mango
1/4 cup - 1/2 cup finely chopped red pepper
2-3 Tbs red onion, finely chopped
1 healthy pinch of fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 lime

To see the best way to peel/slice a mango, please watch this video on You Tube.  Mangos can be quite juicy and, if not done properly, your hand could slip on the knife and that would not be good!  So watch this video first:



Once you have your mango all ready to go, combine the red pepper, red onion, and cilantro with the mango.  Then, take your 1/2 a lime and squeeze it over the top.  Set it all aside and let the flavors come together for a little while.  I left mine out on the counter for 30-45 minutes or you can put it in the fridge until you're ready to eat it.  Let me tell you, once you have this light, refreshing side dish you will want to move somewhere tropical so you may eat it all the time!  I absolutely love it!!  One serving is only 98 calories and is chock full of good things so I'm only happy to eat my share.  You could also add black beans to this for a complete meal.

Here is what it looked like on my plate today:

Yummilicious!!!

In other news this week, I had another visit with my nutritionist and my weight was down 2 more lbs.  WOOT!  It's nice to see the scale moving in the opposite direction for a change!!  Bernadette is so helpful and supportive.  It's so important to have someone on your side, who isn't going to judge you or recriminate you, only help and offer advice when it's needed.  Losing weight is not easy and the path the get to the final destination is incredibly long.  This is why having Bernadette guide me is so vital to my success.  I haven't been able to do this on my own in a long time but she is going to help me get to the point where I can.

I'm still working out every day, walking on the treadmill and lifting free weights, too.  To keep things from getting to stale I ordered some exercise DVD's from a company called The FIRM.  I had some years ago and they were great, high-energy, and HARD workouts!  Now I'll be able to mix up my routines a bit and keep my body guessing about what's coming next.  Hopefully that will help keep plateaus at bay.

Well, that's all I've got for you today.  This week I've been looking through some new healthier cookbooks and am looking forward to sharing some meals I make soon.  Until then, please take care and thanks for stopping by!!

A review and a pic of yours truly.

The other night we were at Target picking up a few things and I decided to peruse the frozen section to see if there were any new, interesting Lean Cuisine or Smart Ones offerings, specifically for breakfast.  Because our schedule is so hectic, it's nice to have something quick to prepare on hand for those times when I forget to defrost something or just plain don't want to cook.  Well, Smart Ones had some nicely portioned breakfasts and I decided upon the Waffles and Turkey Sausage.

You can see from the photo that the turkey sausage is not particularly photogenic, however, it was actually pretty good!  The package comes with two waffles, a small packet of syrup, and two turkey sausage links.  There was a fancy envelope which allowed you to microwave the waffles to the desired crispness but, mine weren't crispy.  :(  They still tasted fine but, if I did this again I'd just use the toaster. All in all, it was surprisingly good.  The syrup allotted was so much less than I'm used to using but it was exactly enough.  That's an interesting by-product of this journey I'm on; it's getting easier to see what a proper portion size looks like.

Today I decided to have my oldest take a pic of me so once I reach my goal, I have something to look back on as motivation to keep working hard.  So, here I am.  All 5'3", 201lbs of me:

Yep.  That's me!  I've got a long way to go but I know I'm going to make it.  This morning I worked out on the treadmill, walking for 30 minutes at about 3.7mph.  Let me tell you, listening to the Black Eyed Peas songs "Pump It" and "Don't Phunk With My Heart" will get you moving like nothing else!! I have a medley of songs by them Lady GaGa and Madonna on a playlist and it makes the treadmill time just fly right by!  After my walk, I worked out using free weights and did some crunches.  Can you tell I'm ready to get in shape??  :)

Finally, I wanted to share with you this delicious salad that was my lunch today.  It consisted of leftover grilled chicken, 1/2 a head of romaine lettuce, 1/4 of a red pepper, a tsp of raw sunflower seeds, a Tbs of capers, all topped with 1.5 Tbs of Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette.  It was so delicious!!!  There is something about eating salad during the summertime.  So light and crisp, I love it!

It's nice to feel so pepped up about something and not being submerged in self-loathing feelings.  Certainly makes for a much better day.  :)  I hope all is well in your world!!

Where Do I Begin?

So, forgive my long absence. I have been so uninspired and, even though my last post had me thinking I had my kitchen mojo back, I found out that was not the case at all. And even now, I have no idea how many times dinner will be homemade during the week but let me tell you this, my goal is to cook 100% of the time. Or if I don't want to cook then we will go out somewhere that uses local ingredients. Why? Because last night we watched "Food, Inc.", that's why.

If you haven't seen that movie, don't wait. It's a watch instant on Netflix right now or you can purchase it somewhere I'm sure. This movie totally rocked our world. Even my chicken nugget, french fry, coke drinking, happy meal eating children have sworn that they don't want to eat "like that" anymore. We have had really involved conversations about shopping at our local farmers market and supporting people close to home. The boys are totally on board with that, and they're even excited at the thought of meeting the people that grow our food. The farmers have become their new rock stars, people to be admired, and I'm cool with that.

In keeping with our new philosophy, the boys and I headed to Earthfare, an organic market in town, and we picked up some supplies for tonight's dinner. My oldest and I decided to share a grass-fed ribeye and with that I served a tomato-mozzarella salad prepared with basil from my mom's own garden. Well, maybe I should say my dad's garden because he's really the one that plants and takes care of everything. Anyway, the basil was SO fragrant! Never have I purchased any basil from the grocery store and had it smell so amazingly potent. Here is a photo of the finished product:




I used organic grape tomatoes as well as organic fresh mozz. Man, oh man! It was divine!! The ribeye was surprising to me. Having never eaten grass-fed beef before I didn't know what to expect so, upon popping the first bite in my mouth I was surprised by the gamey taste that greeted me. I like lamb so I really liked this beef! It's not as strong tasting as lamb but it certainly had echoes of that flavor.

Eating this way is going to be a lot more expensive and is going to require a lot more planning. After watching that movie though it became evident to me that we are not eating *right* much of the time and something's got to give. Hopefully, eating this way will teach my children about where our food comes from and how to feed yourself as healthfully as possible!