Meals in a Hurry!!

Learn to alkalize your body !
Bean & Rice Combo

Ingredients:

1-½ cups cooked brown or white rice

1 tsp sea salt, (to taste)

2 cups black beans, cooked

½ tsp ground cumin

1 large avocado, cubed

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 clove garlic, minced

2 green onions, chopped

Directions:

1. Cook rice according to package directions and keep warm.

2. Warm beans in a small saucepan and stir in ground cumin.

3. Cut avocado into cubes. Make a salsa by combining diced tomatoes, avocado, lemon juice,

garlic, and green onions; then add sea salt to taste (about ½ tsp). into rice bowls add warm rice, seasoned beans, and salsa.

Here's a simple meal that you can make even faster!
Curried Hummus Wrap

Ingredients:

1 large avocado,sliced

1 cup prepared hummus

1 tsp curry powder

1 medium cucumber cut into thin round slices

4 lettuce leaves (love leaf lettuce)

4 whole grain flatbreads

Directions:

1. Blend curry powder into hummus.

2. To make each wrap, spread ¼ cup hummus onto bread and top with avocado, cucumber and lettuce.

Ooooo...the most important part..ENJOY!! without guilt because you are eating healthy!! Just stick to a small portion size and you have it made in the shade! Comments appreciated!! Questions answered!

Who wants ice cream?

Life used to be simple. Why were prices much lower and the interest rates much higher? How do the drug and insurance companies get away with running the doctors. Why do doctors have to pay HUGE $$ for malpractice insurance and we complain we wait too long, get too little and pay too much? How has war become a profitable business? Why do we help other countries recover from disasters, starvation and illnesses while our own country is in need ?Why do both parents have to work? Why are so many people going out to eat and but say they can't afford to buy organic? Why does the neighbor's dog bark all day long for no apparent reason? Who wants ice cream?

Might as well stop asking questions that there are no good answers to right? Is there a solution to all of these problems? Who has the answer and why don't they share it? Why isn't somebody doing something?? Who wants ice cream?

Why are Americans becoming sicker and sicker? Why does the food pyramid keep changing? Why is butter bad one day and good the next? Why do people know they have to eat right and exercise but do everything but that? How do we make ourselves change bad habits? How did cigarettes get to be $10 a pack, require no advertising and still stay as one of the top 5 bad habits? How did getting the doctor of your choice get to be chosen by someone other than you? Who wants ice cream?

I haven't even taken a chip out of the iceberg on these questions. The worst thing about icebergs is what you can't really see isn't it? So what am I missing? What do you think? What questions are bugging you? Share your comments with me. I want to know!!

Oh... and who wants ice cream? That cures everything doesn't it?:)

Quick Tips for Tonight's Supper!

Grilling can be healthy as long as you don't char it. Turn it low and go slow. When weather does not permit outside grilling you can broil in the oven for similar results.

Cooking a one pot meal will feel so much easier and clean up will be faster. 

Learn to use easy clean up techniques such as crock pot bags, cover oven floors with something you can throw out instead of wash or scrub off. Cover cookie sheets and anything that splatters, put a lid on.

If you cook with a microwave ( I don't recommend it) put paper towels under and over things to reduce splatter and avoid cleanup.

If you start out late or are in a hurry, learn to use a pressure cooker. In just 45 minutes you can have a huge roast cooked or enjoy soups, stews and more!

Ingredients
·                     2 lbs russet potatoes (about 5 potatoes)

·                     1 1/2 cups heavy cream

·                     1/2 - 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese

·                     3 cloves garlic

·                     2 sprigs thyme

·                     2 sprigs dill

·                     2 sprigs parsley 

·                     4-5 leaves of rosemary (not the entire sprig)

·                     1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (you can add more if you like it really spicy)

·                     1/2 teaspoon black pepper

·                     1/2 tsp garlic powder 

·                     dash of sea salt 

Directions:

1.            Peel and slice potatoes.  You can slice these by hand or use a mandolin which is the easiest way to get uniformed slices. Slice the potatoes to 1/8 inch thickness.  Place potatoes in a bowl with cold water to prevent from browning. 

2.            Prepare the cream mixture by heating milk on low heat and adding chopped herbs, salt, garlic powder, chopped garlic, cayenne pepper, and black pepper.  Let it simmer until for 5 minutes on low heat. 

3.            Butter a casserole dish and begin to layer potatoes.  Pour a little milk over the first layer and then sprinkle some Parmesan cheese.  Continue to layer until your milk mixture and potatoes have been used up. 

4.            Sprinkle a little paprika or cayenne pepper on the top layer then add rest of parmesan cheese. 

5.            Bake at 375 degrees for 55 minutes.  Insert a toothpick into the center of the dish to make sure potatoes have cooked all the way through.  If the top is not brown enough, turn broiler on for 2 minutes to get a golden brown crust.  Keep and eye on it since the broiler works quickly and can burn your potato dish easily!

Under a Bushel Basket

Do you know your own potential for greatness? Do you recognize your talents? You can probably see them in others much better than yourself. But this is what I learned about myself this week, I only see the things that need work. Who doesn't need work? Right?

This tends to take on a life of it's own with me. I start seeing the things that I need to change and only focus on those. It's like hitting yourself with a wooden spoon. It hurts! After a ton of bruises I say "Maybe that's not the best way to bring about change."

We all pick the way we do things based on pain or pleasure. If it causes us pain we naturally stay away. If we like it, we might even find ourselves doing that more often. Old habits die hard don't they? Especially if we have been doing them for a long while. Like eating the wrong foods, eating too much of the right foods, drinking, smoking, driving dangerously, returning to an abusive situation, continuing on a path of least resistance no matter the cost.

I've done all of those and more. What I think about most is the pattern. Setting oneself up for disappointment or listening to others say "watch out for that" and continuing on just the same. What keeps us tethered exactly on that path? How does anyone break a bad habit? How do we change the way we think about what we do? What keeps a moth from hitting a flame?

It's definitely an inside job. No one can change us. We have to find a way to change ourselves. Wow, that's tough!! I can get myself thinking the right thoughts and doing the right things that I know are what I want and before I know it...BOOM...back on the old path. Dang...I thought I had it, well I did have it. It felt good too!! It brought me such pleasure. Why would I want to go back to the pain??

I wish someone else would be in control of my actions. Sort of like a video game, give someone else the controller and that way it would be easy. Willpower, doesn't seem to do it. So what's the answer??

A personal success plan. It takes the emotional part away. Then it's just following your own directions. Make that recipe for success! Find a short term motivator and prevent long term consequences. So let's think of a few. How can we reward ourselves for making good choices?? Put a quarter in a jar so we can see our success pile up. Make a mark on a calendar, add a rubber band to our wrist, take little steps toward a bigger prize (that new goal we have). What would motivate you to change??

It's easy to hide our light under a bushel basket, it's easy to sit in the back, to not speak up, to be a wall flower, to not make waves, to feel we don't deserve the things we really want or want to happen. To sabotage ourselves is easy. How do I know? We do it, we keep doing it. We go right back to it. It must be easy. We have the potential for greatness and we keep hiding it. Flip off the basket and let that light shine! Find an accountability partner, someone who you feel emotionally safe with. Someone who won't judge you. Or get a coach or mentor to pull you out from under!! I'm here too. We can do it, we just can't give up!
www.sandrabullard.com

It's a loose spring!

Every once in awhile I get this really crazy notion...maybe you get those too? You wonder what it would be like to just get up today, get showered, dressed, pack a bag, hop on any flight going anywhere and be there for lunch or supper or lupper. What a wild and really loony idea huh?

So, ever wonder why no one that you know does that? If you know of someone that has done it or if you have done it I want to hear how you came to do it in the comments. Because that my friend is FREEDOM. In today's world of routine and schedules it's hard to find time to do anything you really want to do when you are working.

I guess that kind of thinking was how the "retirement bug" bit me. I was about age 35 when my nursing career was well underway, I saw how poorly nurses were paid. It made me mad to think that chefs made more money. Then there was the guilt of not being there for my kids. I kinda felt like my life took the drivers seat and I was just there for the 45 year ride. Stuff was passing me by on both sides so fast that I hardly had time to prepare or enjoy them.

I started putting those "special events" in plastic zip bags so I could keep the mementos. Figuring that some day ...when I retired, I could take them and put them all in order in a scrap book. Well, I had the hardest time finding a good old fashioned scrap book. You know the kind you just slap stuff on the page and call it a day? No, probably not. Well, they used to make it a little less of an all out 2 day project. But, hey, I retired in 2011 and I haven't gotten to it yet. If my kids are reading this...Sorry:)

I started painting the hallway about 2 months ago now. Luckily the paint can I cracked open had just enough to reach to the end of the wall I started painting. No problem right...wrong. The women behind the paint counter said, well mam (I hate that) we don't make that number base anymore so we can't match that paint color exactly. I bought the closest color they could mix up and there it sits. Along with my 8th day of the week.

So,by now you have completely forgotten what got you interested in reading this post. It was probably the loose spring headline that did it.
I started me thinking about getting older and how I feel about aging. In general, it's obvious that we can put on all the lotions and potions we can afford. Some do nips and tucks and sucks (that's the new one) oh and freeze, I forgot freeze the fat one. But we can't escape the time. It passes even when we aren't looking . But what you remember about people isn't so much what they look like because beauty comes from within. It's the springs that make the mattress. It's how they lived their life! It's what they had the courage to do that you couldn't! It's how they inspired you or how they taught you something about yourself.  No matter what you think about when their name comes to mind, it's that little piece of them that you recall. So by chance if you get a mattress with a little loose spring...think of me! Always there to support you, pretty fair under pressure and sometimes a pain in the butt.

Time is on your side!!

Hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock, the clock struck one and down he run... where was he going in such a hurry? To market to market to buy a fat pig, home again home again jiggity jig.

I know you didn't come to read your old nursery rhymes, but time is a little bit of a riddle with too much rhyme and reason. We all get 24 hours a day, but if we took away the clock would the day seem longer or shorter? Do you think you could master time then? From sun up to sun down could you figure out when to do what, or what to do when?

As a world we have been driven by the clock since birth. Feedings every 3 hours, school and work start at a certain time and end at a certain time each day. Catch your favorite show, hear your radio program, "I have so much time before I have to..." are thoughts that come and go all day in the minds of people all over the world. When we don't want to get out of bed we want to smash the alarm clock don't we?

I have a challenge for you, it won't be an easy one, but just for one day, NEVER look at the clock. Take them down off the wall or cover them up. Don't sneak peak at the corner of your internet screen or linger on your cell phone to catch an inadvertent peak either!!! Don't watch the news to see what time it is and don't cheat!! I bet you can't do it! We are creatures of habit. It'so hard to change. Especially when it comes to time. But here is the good news...time is on your side.  If you do get through a day without a clock and don't get a fine (for parking too long and your money runs out) you miss something or someone because you were late or maybe early, or you just threw up your hands and just did the best you could with this new concept...you will see that when you do get your clock back, life is a snap...a walk in the park.

I want to hear from you if you actually do this challenge. Let's hear how you did and be honest. If I don't get anyone brave enough to try it...I won't be surprised. Mary had a little lamb...little lamb....little...

Start your day with Qi

   

Just like the sunrise inspires the flowers to open and the birds to sing, Qi-Gong practice in the morning....ahhhh....what a way to start each day.Warm up your mind and gently awaken your body by doing simple but meaningful movements. You can get your DVD from me.
     I used to believe that I didn't have time to exercise. Fear told me that if I spared even 15 minutes it would throw off the entire days schedule, I would be late for work and it wouldn't be worth it. I couldn't have been more wrong. If this is you, read on with an open mind will you?
     When we have a job to do each day, no matter where that is, it's important that we start each day in prayer, appreciation and reflective thinking to set the tone you want to have that day. Our thoughts, our beliefs, rule the day. Our body follows what our mind believes and helps us achieve our goals. So take 10-15 minutes and welcome each day into your life, I guarantee your days will be much better. Your mood will be brighter, your body happier and your life much more fulfilling. This practice will help you stay stress free and full of energy throughout your day and allow you to access spiritual inspiration. It will allow you to be open and creative and think clear. Have an abundant and passionate day!! Your best days are just ahead. Get the Simply Healthy Newsletter by returning to my website at www.sandrabullard.com and fill out the sign up form and get started now.
     This morning practice encourages us to use our Qi (key)-this lifeforce energy is inside us and we learn to channel this energy instead of our muscle force. These flowing movements help your flexibility, power, strength, increases circulation and promotes relaxation. I have never felt more alive and well! But don't take my word for it, try it yourself.
     We do what we believe 100% of the time. Willpower is only temporary energy. For sustaining long term, you may need to challenge your beliefs...is that really true? Then allow yourself to change what doesn't fit your goal and your lifestyle. Come back soon will you? Leave a comment below any time!