Simply Grilling: Oh-so-healthy new ways to grill!

The week of Fourth of July festivities is the perfect time to get ready for grilling season.  I recently received Jennifer Chandler‘s great “simply grilling" and have read it, cover-to-cover now, absorbed in the beautiful photographs and delicious looking recipes.

Jennifer Chandler has a simple, easy way with her recipes and grilling techniques.  A Food Network Dinner Impossible chef, she has also authored Simply Suppers and Simply Salads. You can follow her, as I do, on Twitter at @cookwjennifer.

For those of us with busy lives (read: EVERYONE! Lol) the cookbook gives many fast and tested methods that prove your backyard grill does not need to be a weekend-only activity.

I’ve already tried Jennifer‘s recipe for Lemon-Rosemary Scallops and they were "oh, MY! Delicious!"

When you are trying to keep food simple and use as many fresh ingredients as you can, simply grilling will give you inspiration and “how to”s that the most novice of grillers and chefs can easily prepare.

Thanks to Jennifer for sending me this great grilling cookbook – you’ve inspired me to break of out of my grilled chicken rut and experience new, delectable meals.

Here’s to our health~

Jan / HealthyLoserGal

Summer Vegetables' Last Hurrahs

This weekend provided one last golden weekend of summer in my eyes... a chance to turn my face toward the skies, eyes closed and just soak in the sun a tiny bit while out walking.  I also gave myself one last leisurely stroll through one of the local Farmers' Markets (this time in Waltham on Saturday) and stopping by a few of my favorite local, small farm stands.

I came home with delicious urban garden grown sweet corn, farm tomatoes, bulls eye and red beets, and peaches from the Farmers' Market and late season watermelon (complete with deer teeth marks in the outside rhine!), cukes and onions from this summer's favorite find: the 78 year old farmer on the Concord / Bedford line who is deaf as can be but doles out a plentiful pound of veggies and always offers me something free to go home and try since our initial one hour chat back in June.  When I visit with him it is like visiting with farmers from the small town I grew up in of Salem, NY, and I always leave with a smile and a heaping bag full of great, just-picked vegetables.

Tonight I threw together a very quick and easy (and one of my goes-with-everything) salads made with fresh garden tomatoes, sliced onions, fresh corn, avocado, and rinsed black beans (the lone ingredient from a can). The only thing you need to add, and only if you wish to, is the juice from 1/2 lemon and 2 Tbsps of lite Caesar salad dressing to toss into the veggies (and, technically "fruit" since avocado isn't a veggie).  I sometimes add a few pinches of freshly chopped cilantro, too, which gives the salad a nice kick if you'll be eating/serving it the following day.

The beets got the very plain and simple boiling method... and voila! a summer dinner of fresh veggies is complete with plenty of leftovers planned for the work days ahead.  As that famous woman down the road from Lexington used to say, "Bon appetit!".  ; )

Dream. Believe. Achieve.

Jan / HealthyLoserGal

A month to reflect... to explore the uncharted?

This year I have the extraordinary opportunity to have four weeks of sabbatical from my job - paid.  I have worked for a wonderful company for the past five years and - as a way of honoring that milestone - employees are giving four weeks of paid leave to be used at one time.  Additionally, I have my regular four weeks of vacation this year.  What to do... what to do?

I've been contemplating what to do during this time off.  I'm not in a financial position to 'tour the world' right now or probably would go to Italy (I've never been) and then to Greece (nor have I been there) and then spend ten days in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia at their Celtic music festival in October. 

But the world is my oyster, so to speak, as I can chose anything I want to do.  The question is:  what DO I want to do?  A friend suggested I take a class and learn something I've always wanted to learn...  I immediately thought "like how to play the mandolin" (I have one in my closet just waiting for me...) and then "you could finally take quilting lessons!".  But... I don't know... is this what I want to do for four weeks when this is such a rare occurrence?  I don't think so.

How about volunteering?  How about volunteering somewhere exotic that would be new to me and exciting?  But where... and how do I find out about those opportunities?  I just happened upon an interesting site in Cape Breton called Shushan... they seem to have a community of Christians, Celtic inspired, that volunteer in return for housing, and in the summer months hold wilderness camp for troubled teens.  Fate to have found the site?  I'm unsure...

I love Ireland.  And when I say I *love* Ireland I mean it moves me to the very depths of my soul to be in Ireland.  It feels like home.  It makes me believe in reincarnation because I am sure I have walked those paths and breathed in that air long before my first visit there.  But... but... but... I've been to Ireland... I *know* Ireland.  Granted I do love it...  but is that what my sabbatical should be? Revisiting the known... or exploring the uncharted... both geographically and maybe spiritually... maybe I need to just be on my own, solo, self-searching and self-centering for a month?

Maybe I need a challenge.  Something like... hiking a mountain or volunteering in Appalachia AND hiking the Appalachian trail. 

Or maybe it is time I reward myself... for raising my son on my own and working for 30 years and for challenging myself to lose 100 lbs and doing it.  Maybe I should take all the books I want to read and all the tapes I want to listen to and my exercise gear and my paints and my camera and rent a cottage on a lake and just veg.  No schedules. No one to answer to.  Just *be*.

I need your suggestions, friends, because I really DON'T have a clue what I'll do.  If you had a month to do anything you wanted to do - by yourself - what would you do?  What would you attempt to get from that month?  If you could go anywhere in the world... where would it be and why and what would you do there?

I'm soooo looking forward to your comments and help with this exciting decision!  THANK YOU in advance!

Dream. Believe. Achieve.

: )

HealthyLoserGal ~ Jan