This week I am going to give you some of my easy recipes that you can go to when you feel you need to inject your menus with something different.  Believe me our meals don't look that different on a weekly basis.  A small portion of meat and lots of veggies is usually all we need for supper.  Sometimes some oven or BBQ roasted sweet potatoes in olive oil and spices are there too.  This time of year corn on the cob is a great treat, butter and all!

I am really enjoying edamame (aka soybeans) as a great snack.  I can only get them in the city.  They are found in the frozen vegetable section.  You boil them for a couple of minutes then rinse in cold water.  Sprinkle with sea salt.  They do have a tough skin so I just bite the beans out.  They are yummy and Gentry quite enjoys them too.

Here is another way to enjoy salsa (they specify it be cooked salsa because the tomatoes are way better for you when cooked).  Add the spicy salsa to a mashed avocado with chopped onions and garlic.  So you've got an easy guacamole dip.  I enjoy it for lunch with crackers, or whole grain taco chips or celery or whatever you can think of.

Another way to use avocado is in sandwiches.  This is an Avocado tuna wrap.  I am not a tuna fan - I don't find it has much taste.  But this one was tasty.  This recipe is from the July 2009 Chatelaine.  To your drained, canned tuna add lemon juice and dill weed.  You might need a little mayo to moisten it.  I didn't need much.  Stir gently, but keep it chunky.  You will thinly slice 1/2 a red pepper, 1/4 red onion and 1/2 avocado.  On the whole wheat tortilla spread hummus (YUM!) then the other fixings and roll it up.  This makes 2 wraps.

I will save and keep adding to these in the nutrition blogs.  If any of you have any equally simple recipes please share them!!  I know how easy it is to get bored with what we eat.  If you can throw in a new snack, or a different combination it's all good.

Quotes
Fix your eyes forward on what you can do, not back on what you cannot change.  Tom Clancy  How easy is it to live in the past playing the "should have" game.  Instead work on what you can do in this moment to make a difference.

Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.  Jim Rohn  I can think of many people who know lots of stuff but can't express how they feel about it.  What a difference that would make.

The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by obvious realities.  We need men and women who can dream of things that never were.  John F. Kennedy   We all can do that if we take off the skeptic or cynic hat.  Practice dreaming - and have faith.  That is the one thing I am working on right now - faith replacing fear.