Rest Stop - Santa Fe Style Quinoa Salad

This Quinoa Salad Recipe comes from the web site Once A Month Meals.   http://bit.ly/18tpBnC   I made this for dinner tonight and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  Vick is trying to eat better also and is trying to hold her calorie count to 1000.  I am having a hard time convincing her that is not smart and she should eat at least 1200 calories a day.  Any way back to the recipe:

Santa Fe Style Quinoa Salad

1 1/2 cups water

1/2 cup picante sauce

1 cup quinoa, well rinsed

1/2 tsp ground cummin

1/4 tsp salt

ground black pepper, to taste

1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 1/5 cup fresh or frozen corn, cooked, drained and cooled

1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, halved

2 medium scallions, thinly sliced

1 small jalapeno chili, seeded and finely chopped

In a medium saucepan, stir together water, picante sauce, quinoa, cumin, salt and pepper.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, about 15 to 20 minutes.  Uncover pan and toss quinoa with a fork.  Transfer mixture to a large bowl and let cool slightly.  While still warm, add the remaining ingredients to the quinoa mixture tossing well to combine.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve slightly warm or let cool to room temperature.  

Here is a little food for thought:  I read a short article about nixing temptation.  It is titled  "Control Your Urges with a Ride on the Mind Bus".  A very interesting read.  I will have try to try it and post about how it worked for me.  The link is:  http://bit.ly/1dKPTbE

Rest Stop - Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

The recipe for these cookies comes from the http://www.welltraveledwife.com  web site.  I know they are technically not healthy but by using coconut oil in them I felt they fit on this blog in an obscure way.  Any way they were very good and even my daughter couldn't leave them alone and she doesn't care for coconut.

coconut chocolate chip cookies

1/2 cup coconut oil

1 cup + 1 Tbsp brown sugar, packed

2 eggs(room temp)

1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

12 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 - 2 cups shredded coconut(optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray cookie sheet or line with a silpat.

In a mixing bowl, use a mixer to beat the coconut oil and brown sugar.  Add in the eggs and beat until fluffy.  Add in the vanilla extract.

In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder with whisk.  Mix the flour mixture into the coconut oil mixture a little bit at a time with a wooden spoon until all the flour is incorporated.  Add in the chocolate chips + coconut and mix well.

Drop by small rounded spoons onto prepared baking sheets.  Bake for 8 - 9 minutes or until slightly browned around the edges.  They will be really soft and chewy, with a slightly crispy edge.  Let them rest on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before removing to rack to cool completely.

ENJOY

Here is an interesting article  http://nydn.us/15rGCMQ   about the Mars Candy Company asking a small fish shop to post a disclaimer that deep-frying the Mars bar is not in line with company's supposed commitment to "healthy active lifestyle" and that Mars Inc does not endorse the deep frying of their candy bars. As if Mars bars are part of a healthy life style.  Who are they kidding?

Now the answer to the trivia question I asked in my last post.  To find the answer good to the Rest Stop - LOL from Aug 18th.  I posted the answer on that post because if I put it here you would read the answer before you rear the question.

Rest Stop - I Am Not Dead

I have asked by several people what has happened.  They want to know if I am still alive and kicking and how my weight loss is coming.  If you have looked at my weight loss tracker, you may notice that something doesn't look right and you are right.  My scale always weighed me a lot lighter than my Dr.'s scales.  I liked mine better but I have decided to get real and accept the weight that my Dr.'s show me to be.  If I moved my scale a fraction of an inch I could show a 20-30 lb loss or gain.  I have now figured if I set it on a tile I have it shows the same weight as my Dr and thus my weight now shows at over 340 lbs.  But that is okay because that means my beginning weight was about 411 lbs and up to this point I have still lost over 60 lbs and that makes me happy.  I have also set goals for weight loss for each week to be able to lose the 150 lbs I am striving to lose by the time I have been on this journey for a year, which will be April of 2014.  Vick and I have set up some incentives along the way.  They will be for every 25 pounds I lose.  One of the incentives is being in a commercial Dr. Scott wants to do but Vick and I have agreed that I need to be losing big time again before I can take part.  And he is talking about doing this commercial in the next couple  of months, so I need to kick it in gear.

My visits with Dr. Scott had been stretched out to every other week but he felt I had lost my fire and I have been visiting with him every week recently to get it back.  I had fallen to about 60-70 percent dedication to this journey and Dr. Scott was concerned I was slipping farther.  I know what to do, I just need to do it.  I am now at about 80-85 per cent back on track, with a goal of being back to about 95 per cent in the next couple of weeks. Dr. Scott says just take small steps.  He has me keeping a food journal and it includes how many times I go to the Gym.  He wants me going at least four times and preferably 5 to 6 time a week.  And I have to show him my food journal when we visit.  I know I feel a lot better when I eat smart.  I will also be blogging again because I have still been reading about nutrition and exercise and have several recipes to put on this site.

I am very thankful to Dr. Scott for all the help he has given me.  Because of his program and concern for my health and well being I have been able to lose 60 pounds, which is something I had been unable to do on my own.

On the lighter side. a little trivia and a couple of interesting observations from an errand I ran tonight.

First the observations: I went to put gas in my truck tonight at the local mini mart and noticed a couple of signs on the gas pumps.  First, I could get a two cent per gallon discount on my fuel purchase for buying a 44 ounce soda and the second was I could get a 3 cent per gallon discount for a purchase of two Red Bulls. The first one caught my attention because I heard earlier today that the American people consume over 5 billion gallons of soda which equates to over 50 gallons per person.  Since Vick and I drink almost no soda, somebody is drinking my share.  No wonder we have an obesity problem.

Now for the trivia:  What item has sold over half a trillion since it began being produced 100 years ago?

The answer in my next post, which will be posted tomorrow night.