Cool Salad for Hot Summer Days

It's HOT!

And it's hard to get motivated
sometimes to prepare a meal that
is healthful and nutritious.

Who wants to be stirring a pot
over a hot stove or have the
oven on competing with the air
conditioning to see which one
can run your electric bill up
the highest?

Chilled foods can not only
be great for you, they can help
cool you down. And they won't
destroy your diet!

Here's one of my favorites:

Tomato and Avocado Salad

Ingredients:

1 Large Avocado

Large ripe tomato or
Two ripe Italian (plum) tomatoes

Fresh Raw Corn cut from the cob or
small can of Shoe peg corn drained
and rinsed

Red Onion

Fresh Lime

Fresh Cilanto (optional)

Ground Cumin (optional)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Dice the Avocado and Tomato
and place in a small bowl

Mince the red onion fairly
small and add to the mix.

Add in the Shoe Peg corn
or fresh corn and a little
salt and pepper.

Drizzle about half a teaspoon
of Olive Oil over the veggies.

Sprinkle half a teaspoon of
Ground Cumin over the mix.
(Optional)

Add a handful of finely chopped
Cilantro. (Optional)

Squeeze the juice from half a
lime and gently mix all of it
trying not to mash up the
avocado too much.

Chill for 30 minutes

This is a great heart healthy
alternative to the boring salads
we're all used to.

It can be added to some many
dishes as an edible garnish
or eaten as a stand alone salad.

One of my favorites is to warm
a Whole Grain Flour tortilla.
Add a few slices of grilled
chicken breast and a big plop
of Avocado/Tomato salad and maybe
even a dollop of fat free sour
cream.

Wrap it up like a burrito and
DIG IN!

It's amazingly delicious and again,
a heart healthy alternative to high
fat Mexican dishes.

Time Away from the Diet - Fruit Salad Recipe

I took a month to not diet quite
so hard and just maintain my loss.

Generally, I stick like glue to the
diet, but I was feeling burned out.
I was missing foods that I love!

So for the past month, I mainly just
kept to calorie counting and not
eating as healthfully as I should.

I ended up losing 3 pounds anyway.

But a recent knee injury and shoulder
injury kept me down for about a week
and preparing good food was just not
a viable option.

The result? I gained 4 pounds!

I was down 45 pounds from where I
started, and now I'm only down 41.

Not to be discouraged, I am hopping
back on the healthier choices.

So, I'm about to make this amazing
Fruit Salad. It's great, give it a
try. Very easy to prepare. And fruits
are abundant right now.

Simply chop the following
Fresh Fruits:


Pineapple

Banana

Apple

Peach

Strawberries

Orange or Tangerine

Grapes (I prefer the red seedless)

Just chop these into a size
that suits you and place in
a large container. A plastic
container with a lid works best
for storing.

Now, you can squeeze a little lime
juice in the mix to keep the
bananas from turning brown. Or,
if you and your family are going
to eat it all now, put in a container
of Fat Free Vanilla Yogurt!

Chill before serving for a
cool Summer treat that beats
the heat!

THIS IS SO YUMMY!

And it's good for you.

If you're going to need to store
some of it a day or two, just go
with the lime juice and add the
yogurt when you're ready to eat.

You can add just about any fruit
you like. I have made it with
mangoes, green grapes, kiwi, pears,
and a few others. Just add what you
like in the way of fresh fruit.

You can also use Mandarin Oranges
if you can find them. Even the
canned ones are good as long as
they are packed in JUICE only.
No syrup.

I'm drooling just thinking about it.