Tasty Sunday Salad Recipe

Butter Lettuce Salad

This recipe provides 2 servings

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 head butter lettuce, separated into leaves

2 slices of bacon, cooked until crisp and broken into bit sized pieces

2 hard-boiled eggs, halved and lightly salted and peppered

¼ cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped

1 ½ ounces blue cheese, crumbled

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:

1)    Whisk to combine the vinegar, oil, chives, and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl.

2)    Toss the lettuce with the dressing in a large bowl.

3)    Divide the bacon, eggs, nuts, and cheese between the two, layering them in that order.

Enjoy!

3 Steps to Creating Positive Experiences and Emotions

1)    Have a positive experience (e.g., enjoy a cup coffee or tea with a friend, watch a sunset, think about events, people, and things for which you are grateful).

2)    Absorb the positive experience (hold on to the experience in your mind and visualize it). 

3)    Connect the positive and negative thoughts and experiences in such a fashion that positive experiences replace negative experiences (e.g., if a negative thought enters the mind, let go of it and focus on positive thoughts instead).

The fact is, the brain is changed by experiences of the body, the mind, and the spirit. All mental activity (e.g., sights and sounds, thoughts and feelings, conscious and unconscious processes) is based on underlying neural activity.

Remember, whatever you repeatedly think, feel, do, and sense, changes the neural structure of your brain. The experience of happiness creates positive changes in the brain’s neural network.

Try this!

Breakfast Quinoa

This recipe provides 2 servings

Ingredients:

1)    ½ cup quinoa, rinsed

2)    1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

3)    ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

4)    Pinch of sea salt

5)    1/3 cup dried cranberries

6)    ¼ cup vanilla rice milk

7)    2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

Instructions:

1)    Combine the quinoa with 1 cup water, ginger, nutmeg, and sea salt in a small saucepan, next, stir until thoroughly combined. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, covered for 10 minutes.

2)    Stir in the cranberries and the rice milk. Cover and cook, until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is tender, approximately 5 minutes. Just before serving, stir in the walnuts. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

“Attitude of Gratitude”

6 Benefits Related to Practicing Gratitude:

1) Greater Enthusiasm

2) Improved Alertness & Energy

3)  Improves Odds of Goal Attainment

4) Increased Determination

5) A Renewed Sense of Optimism

6) Better Quality of Sleep

Possessing an “attitude of gratitude,” improves our chances of accomplishing our goals and realizing our dreams; it helps us live in the moment, thus getting the most out of each and every day!  

Remember This...

“It’s all about focus. I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, doesn’t matter. It’s having a focus and having a purpose. You wake up every single day to get better today than you were yesterday.” –

Kobe Bryant

Friday Breakfast Smoothie

Tasty, Healthy Smoothie

This recipe provides 2 servings

Ingredients:

1)    1 cup ice

2)    2 ripe bananas, peeled and frozen

3)    1 cup unsweetened almond milk

4)    ¾ cup brewed cold-brew coffee

5)    ½ cup uncooked regular rolled oats

6)    2 tablespoons almond butter

7)    3 tablespoons honey

8)    2 tablespoons chopped chocolate-covered espresso beans

9)    1 tablespoon coconut oil

10) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1)    Process the ice, bananas, coffee, milk, oats, honey, almond butter, chopped chocolate-covered espresso beans, coconut oil, and vanilla in a blender until smooth.

2)    Pour evenly into 2 glasses or your on-the-go plastic sports bottle.

Convenience Tip: Make this tasty smoothie the night before to grab on-the-go in the morning.

Enjoy!

Tasty Thursday Tuna Melts

Tasty Tuna Melts

This recipe provides 2 servings

Ingredients:

1)    1 can (5.5 ounces) good-quality tuna packed in water, drained

2)    ¼ onion, finely chopped

3)    1 tablespoon capers, rinsed

4)    4 Nicoise olives, pitted and chopped

5)    Juice of ½ lemon

6)    2 tablespoons mayonnaise

7)    ¼ cup loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped

8)     Pepper to taste

9)     A pinch of sea salt

10) 2 slices of quality bread, lightly toasted

11) 1 hard- boiled egg, sliced

12) ½ tomato, cut into 4 thin slices

13) ½ cup grated Gruyere cheese

Instructions:

1)    Put the tuna in a medium size bowl. Add the capers, onion, olives, lemon juice, parsley, and mayonnaise, then mix until thoroughly incorporated.

2)    Season to taste with sea salt and pepper

3)    Preheat Broiler. Place the bread slices on a broiler pan and divide the tuna salad between them. Divide the egg slices between them and top each with 2 tomato slices followed by the cheese.

4)    Broil until the cheese is melted, approximately 1-2 minutes.

Enjoy!