A blog of food, travel, rescue dogs & creativity from a young-at-heart baby boomer.
One of my all time favorite things to do, is to go hiking. If I get to go hiking in the mountains, that’s even better.
And if I get to take my furry hiking buddy with me, then life is just about perfect. Whenever I go on a longer hike, I make sure that I take my hiking poles, my camera, I wear my hiking boots and pack a snack for both me and my buddy.
Do you have your garden overflowing with ripe veggies right now? Me too! I have a healthy, scrumptious, bursting-with-flavor kale salad that I’m betting will become a favorite for you to use up those nutritious vegetables. It is for me.
The thing that takes the most time when making this kale salad is chopping up the healthy ingredients. My all time favorite utensil for doing this is my Chop Wizard. I have the one with two trays. One that cuts larger cubes and the smaller one that cuts very small cubes or strips. For the red pepper and onions, I used the larger slicer. Core, quarter, and remove the seeds and ribs on the red pepper. One at a time, put the pepper quarter on the slicer and lower the lid pushing the pepper against the blades on the slicer cutting it into nice cubes. For the onion, peel off the skin, cut into slices, put a slice on the tray and press the lid down again. It can’t get any easier and quicker than that!
I first had a Thai tuna burger in a little delicatessen at my favorite health food market. Unfortunately, they weren’t allowed to give out the recipe. They could however, tell me the ingredients so I played around with those and added a few of my own. These are moist, spicy, and um, um good!
Even though spring isn’t officially here yet, the weather is giving us warm hints of what is to come. Remember, the groundhog did not see his shadow – spring is right around the corner. You know another hint that spring is on it’s way? Potted petunias and colorful, tantalizing seed packets of a variety of vegetables are showing up in the garden stores. I can’t wait to pick fresh, healthy tomatoes, peppers, radishes, and other yummy vegetables. Because I’m longing for “fresh garden produce food,” I decided to visit my local organic coop store and buy the ingredients since my fresh veggies aren’t ready (or even planted yet, except for the spinach). What better way to revel in a healthy, veggie rich, protein packed salad than by making Quinoa Black Bean Mango Salad. (Say that five times really fast!)
Continue reading “Quinoa Black Bean Mango Salad (Gluten Free)”
The day started with weather warnings of high winds and driving rain. When I drove into town, it really didn’t appear to be that bad. Perhaps it was the lull before the store. I decided to stock up on a few groceries. A big pot of chili sounded good for supper. Boy, was I right! The storm hit hard about an hour after I got home from the store. Electricity went out in town, and our lights were flickering. Were we going to lose all power in a sort while? I decided the best thing to do was to get the pot of chili made as quickly as I could.