Cute Quotes

I love quotes; they are inspiring and uplifting. I found four quotes that I want to share with you . Have an inspiring day!


This one makes so much sense. It is by Bill Cosby
( It's my favorite)





I love this one and have to remember it!
Using all the new technology ( T.V. and all the remotes, computer programs, etc. get me overwhelmed. Anyone else have that problem? ) Gotta remeber find a way, not an excuse!

This one is so true:

'

Great Advice

Have you even been to the beach and seen a bird grab a French Fry?

It's true; I'ts all in the attitude

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Shared on the following blog carnivals
Monday:

My Meatless Mondays  Midnight Maniac Meatless  ;  Monday Mania ; Melt in Your Mouth Mondays ; Made By You Mondays ; Made With Love Mondays ; Happy Homemaker Mondays ; Make a Food-e Friend Monday ; Menu Mondays ; Mangia Mondays; ; Motivate Me Mondays; ; Made It Monday; Making Your Home Sing Monday; Making Monday Marvelous Day;  Motivated Mondays ; Homestead Barn Hop ; Make Your Own Mondays ; A Marvelous Monday ; Savvy Homemade Monday  Just another Meatless Monday, ,  Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper,  Meet Me Monday  Mix it up Monday Must Try Monday Veggie Mama's Meatless Monday On the Menu Monday


Tuesday:

Tasty Tuesdays; Tempt My Tummy Tuesday ;  Naptime Creations Tasty Tuesday Link Party; Show Me What You Got  ; Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie  ; Tuesday To Do List; Tuesday Time Out Inspiration Party; ; Anti-Procrastination Tuesday; Tea Party Tuesday; Tuesday Confessional; Topsy Turvy Tuesday;  Tuesday Talent Show at Chef in Training ; Tutorial Tuesday ; Tuesday Time Out ; Domestically Divine Tuesday ; Take a Look Tuesday ; Terrific Under $10 Tuesdays ; Hearth and Soul Hop ; Frugal Tuesday Tip  Tuesday ;  Slightly Indulgent Tuesday Traditional Tuesdays,  Fat Tuesday  Allergy Friendly lunchbox  Tuesday’s Tasty Tidbits.



Wednesday:

 Works For Me Wednesday; Real Food Wednesday; Whatever Goes Wednesday; What’s On the Menu Wednesday; We Did It Wednesday; Penny Pinching Party; Friendly Wednesday; Passionately Artistic; Show Off Your Stuff; What I Whipped up Wednesday;  This Chick Cooks; Your Whims Wednesday; Show and Tell Linking Party Wednesday; Wow Me Wednesdays; Wild Wednesday Hop; Show and Share;  Sweet Tempatations; ; Success U-Wednesday Link-up ;; Create and Share ; Workshop Wednesday ;   Foodie Wednesday      Living Well Wednesday  Ducks in a Row  Frugal Ways, Sustainable Days   Gluten Free Wednesday, Gold Star Wednesday,  What's on the Menu Wednesday, Welcome Wednesday,  Gluten Free Pantry  Beyond the Peel  Healthy2day Wed   Simple Living Wednesday   Sustainable Ways #22   My Pick Of The Week  Homestead Revival,

Thursday 
 Creative Juice Thursday;  Full Plate Thursday; It’s A Keeper Thursday; What’s Cooking Thursday; Making It with Allie Thursdays; Frugal Follies Thursday;  Bake with Bizzy; Delightfully Inspiring Thursday Link Party; Share Your Awesomeness Thursdays; It’s a Blog Party;  Pennywise Platter Thursday,  Simple Lives Thursday,  Thursday Ultimate Recipe Swap, Tastastic   Katherine's Corner

Friday:

Monday

My Meatless Mondays ;Mouthwatering Mondays ; Homemaker Mondays ; Midnight Maniac Meatless  ;  Monday Mania ; Melt in Your Mouth Mondays ; Made By You Mondays ; Made With Love Mondays ; Happy Homemaker Mondays ; Make a Food-e Friend Monday ; Menu Mondays ; Mangia Mondays; ; Motivate Me Mondays; ; Made It Monday; Making Your Home Sing Monday; Making Monday Marvelous Day; Making the World Cuter Monday; Amaze Me Mondays; Muffin Monday; Motivated Mondays ; Homestead Barn Hop ; Make Your Own Mondays ; A Marvelous Monday ; Savvy Homemade Monday  Just another Meatless Monday, ,  Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper,  Meet Me Monday  Mix it up Monday Must Try Monday  Making you crave Mondays Organizing Junkie's Meal Plan Monday Green Backs' Meatless Monday Veggie Mama's Meatless Monday On the Menu Monday  In the Gumbo Monday   Yummy  Inspriations Breakfast

Food Friday

Sunday

Seasonal Celebration Sunday Savory Sundays; Every Day Sisters Sharing Sundays; Your Recipe, My Kitchen Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper,  Sunday Night Soup Nighthttp    

Under the Table and Dreaming , DIY Showoff , Nifty Thrifty Things, Homemaker on a Dime , Embellishing Life, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, DIY Home Sweet Home, Blissful Domestic,The Sweet Talk Shop My 1929Charmer

Pin It Please leave a comment so I know you stopped by. Scroll down to the end of the post and click on comments.

Roasted Eggplant Appetizer & Other Veggies

I'm sharing two reicpes. One for Mediteranean Eggplant and scroll down for Middle Eastern Roasted vegetables.

Mediterranean Roasted Eggplant is simple to make.

It's a fat free,gluten free, and vegan side dish that is very tasty but low in calories ( It's 0 points Plus on WW) as well.

It's a perfect recipe for dieters or for those looking for some variety to spice up their meal. We love to roast veggies because roasting really brings out their sweet flavor, and it makes any vegetable taste amazing.

We eat roasted eggplant as a spread on gluten free crackers or as a side dish with our dinner or a topping on veggie burgers.

When I am roasting , I usually try to roast a few different kinds of veggies at the same time. I might put in cauliflower that I seasoned and sprayed with olive oil, or sliced zucchini or grape or cherry tomatoes sliced down the middle. See pictures at end of this post of those vegetables.

 The grape or cherry tomatoes are my favorite because they  become especially sweet and  delicious. I use them on burgers instead of ketchup.

I combine cherry tomatoes, zucchini, and garlic which I spray with olive oil and could be topped with  a little Parmesan cheese.  All of these side dishes are low calorie, low fat, and gluten free. As you can tell from the picture, the spread is not particularly pretty, but the garlic and fresh lemon with the sweet roasted eggplant are absolutely delicious.

Mediterranean Roasted Eggplant

Ingredients

2 whole eggplants, washed

6-8 cloves fresh garlic, unpeeled

1 clove peeled, pressed

1  whole fresh lemon, squeeze juice of entire lemon

Optional: 1 TBSP olive oil ( if you don't mind the calories)

salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste



Directions:

Place whole unpierced eggplant and unpeeled garlic on a cookie sheet. Bake at 500 for about 45 minutes or until eggplant splits open and the inside pulp is very soft ( soft enough to scoop out). Scoop out the eggplant ( discarding seeds and skin of eggplant) and place in a bowl (the eggplant will cook down and won't make as much as you think.)

 Squeeze the inside of the unpeeled garlic into the eggplant ( it will be soft and sweet) AND add the pressed raw garlic if you are a garlic lover. Add the juice of 1 fresh lemon and olive oil if desired. Season with salt and freshly cracked pepper.Serve warm or cold. Enjoy on GF crackers, GF bread, or with other veggies.

Wash eggplants well and place egpplant and unpeeled garlic on a cookie sheet

Bake in oven at 500 for about 45 minutes or until eggplants split and are very soft



Remove eggplant from oven. Take a fork and scrape soft eggplant into a dish ( discard seeds and juice)

Mix with the other ingredients and serve as a side dish or on GF crackers

Other Veggies That I Roasted At the Same Time

These can be cooked with the eggplant but will finish in about 25 minutes

Before roasting I put these in a large zip loc bag with seasoning and shook. Then sprayed them
If you aren't concerned with calories, put olive oil in the baggie too.. will really crisp up when roasting.
Put these on the bottom shelf so they don't burn and check after about 1/2 hour.



Sprinkle with a little Parmesan or we prefer to squeeze lemon juice on top. 

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I

Weight Loss Motivation Monday III -Guest Blogger

This week's guest blogger ,Victoria, author of the blog Sweet Healthy Living ,shares how over the course of 1 year she lost 30 pounds following a whole food vegan diet.

 Be sure to visit Victoria's website which has a wealth of information about Vegan nutrition and weight loss and lots of recipes with step by step photos. 


This is Victoria's Story and Weight Loss Motivation

Hello everyone! Let me introduce myself, my name is Victoria and I blog over at www.sweethealthyliving.com.

 I am 20 years old and am passionate about health and fitness. I also love to cook healthy, vegan food for friends and family. I am a certified personal trainer and am studying to become a plant based nutritional advisor.


                                    Chestnut Loaf   

My passion for nutrition and fitness started at around the age of 12, when I began to struggle with my weight. I tried every new diet I came across, hoping that each one would be the magic answer to my weight problem. I did not give up though, until I found what worked. My dream is to coach others in accomplishing their weight loss and fitness goals through what I have experienced and have seen work for others.

Before Picture

                                                

 Although I was never extremely overweight, at my heaviest, I weighed 30 pounds more than I do now and had around 30% body fat. I have successfully kept that weight off for 4 years and my new goal is to gain more muscle!

In these pictures, I was not at my heaviest. I had already lost about 10 pounds, but was struggling with the additional 20 pounds. 

Struggle

Tried "every" Diet

As I mentioned before, I have tried every “diet” I could find. I went from high protein/high fat, low carb diet to a raw diet and everything in between, trying to find the “answer.”

In the end, what proved to be the most beneficial, was a mostly fruit and vegetable, plant based diet. Eating foods that were high nutrient and low calorie left me more satisfied even when eating less.

Success

Once I figured out what worked for me, it took me about a year to loose 30 pounds. For weight loss, I believe that slow and steady wins the race.
It is the direction that matters, not the speed!

I honestly believe that more than 2-4 pounds of fat loss a month is not very sustainable. Granted you can easily loose lots of pounds of water in a very short time. Each pound of fat contain approximately 3500 calories. Cutting more than 500 calories a day from your diet may be too extreme.  

Here are some tips that helped me loose the weight and keep it off!

1.     Loosing weight is as much mental as it is physical.

a.      Loosing weight takes discipline and commitment. We need to teach ourselves not to use food as a form of comfort and checking in every time we eat and asking ourselves, “am I really hungry?” or “am I just eating out of habit, boredom or the need to suppress a feeling?”

2.     Focus on adding more nutrient dense foods into your diet, rather than just focusing on subtracting calories from your diet.

a.      If you eat MORE fruits and vegetables, you will naturally eat LESS processed foods. Focus on vegetables and include a large salad with lunch and dinner. Fill up in this order: vegetables, fruits, beans, grains, nuts/seeds, meat/processed food. For instance, for breakfast, start with fruit, for lunch and dinner start with a salad or steamed vegetables.

b.     Fruit is also a good option if you want a dessert after your meal.

c.     Limit/remove processed oils in your diet (even olive oil). Nuts, seeds and avocados are a much healthier and satisfying alternative, although these foods should still be limited when trying to loose weight.

3.     Eat slowly, chew well and stop when satisfied

a.      Retrain yourself not to eat until full. It takes a bit of time, but it can be done! Remind yourself that you can eat again when you get hungry and the next meal is not too far off!

4.     Start your day with exercise.

a.      Exercising first thing in the morning gets it “out of the way.” If for some reason you can’t exercise first thing in the morning, by all means do it later, but make sure you set aside a time for exercise.

b.     Commit to at least 20 minutes of exercise a day that elevates your heart rate.

5.     Try not to snack and wait until your next meal. Sometimes all you need is some water to hold you over.

6.     Remember that it will get easier! Change can be hard. Once you get a momentum on a more healthy lifestyle, it will seem effortless.

7.     If you choose to weigh yourself, weigh yourself at the same time of day no more than once a week, with little to no clothes on.

8.     Keep tempting foods out of the house. If you know you can not say “no” to certain foods, don’t have them in the house!

9.  Patience!  
a.      Lasting weight loss takes time. There is no “quick fix.” It took me a year to loose about 30 pounds.

Tip: A book I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to loose weight and/or gain health is Eat to Live by Dr Joel Fuhrman.


I hope these pointers are helpful!

Come visit me at www.sweethealthyliving.comfor healthy, vegan recipes and exercise advice!
                                                 Two of my vegan recipes

                     
                                              www.sweethealthyliving.com
         

                                                                                       Chestnut Loaf   

__________________________________________________________________________________

Victoria, Your blog is an amazing wealth of vegan nutritional knowledge  . Thank you so much for sharing your weight loss journey and ideas with us .

I am still looking for 3 more guest bloggers for this 8 week weight loss motivation series.

If you are a reader or  blogger who would like to be a guest blogger at the end of May or in June  to share your experience and journey, please contact Judee at vegyid2@yahoo.com

Guest bloggers can share tips, recipes, their experience, other websites that are inspirational, their daily mean plan etc.  Looking forward to hearing from you.

I have linked this recipe to the following blog carnivals: 

Sunday    Monday  Tuesday   Wednesday    Thursday  Friday
Seasonal Celebration Sunday Savory Sundays; Every Day Sisters Sharing Sundays; Your Recipe, My Kitchen Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper,  Sunday Night Soup Nighthttp    Under the Table and Dreaming , DIY Showoff , Nifty Thrifty Things, Homemaker on a Dime , Embellishing Life, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, DIY Home Sweet Home, Blissful Domestic,The Sweet Talk Shop My 1929Charmer
Pin It Please leave a comment so I know you stopped by. Scroll down to the end of the post and click on comments.

How to Reduce Your Risk of Diabetes

Studies reveal that you can reduce your risk of devleping diabetes by almost 30% by including nuts in your diet 5 days a week.

 While looking for nutritional information on nut butters and nuts, I found some very interesting information related to many degenerative diseases and how the good fats in nuts are very beneficial for blood sugar stabilization. Who knew? I usually avoid them thinking they are too fattening, but the study revealed that they not only do not make you gain wieght,  they can actually help lower your risk of developing diabetes.

I found the study posted on the website Flutters Nut Butters which has lots of interesting information and studies about the benefits and importance of nuts in the diet. The following information is taken directly from their website:

"Nuts can dramatically reduce your risks of developing type 2 diabetes according to a Nurse's Health Study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on  Thursday, 28 November  2002

.Eating nuts substantially lowers the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and does not lead to weight gain, a large-scale American study of women has found - a result that is likely to also apply to men.

                         

Eating five servings of 30 grams a week reduces a woman's risk of developing type 2 diabetes by almost a third, the research by Dr Rui Jiang from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston has found. The research appears in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

The results are based on an analysis of 83,818 women who took part in the Nurse's Health Study, one of the largest investigations into risk factors for major chronic diseases in women. Participants were a sub-group of the original 121,700 who had no history of diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer. They were tracked for 16 years.

"We were not really surprised by our findings," said Jiang. "Nuts contain lots of fat, but most fats in nuts are mono and polyunsaturated fats, which are good for insulin sensitivity and serum cholesterol. Nuts are also rich in antioxidant vitamins, minerals, plant protein and dietary fibre."  (quoted from Flutters Nut Butters website)

The researchers define a serving of nuts as 1 ounce, or 28 grams. Eating five servings a week reduces the risk by 27 per cent. Even eating a serving of nuts less than once a week reduces the relative risk by eight per cent, they said. Consuming between one and four serves a week results in a reduction of 16 per cent."

I used to eat some soaked almonds every morning. I don't know about you, but I'm putting nuts like almonds back in my diet.

Do you eat nuts? Why or why not? Did you know about this study?

Please leave a comment so I know you stopped by. Scroll down to the end of the post and click on
comments.

Shared on the following blog carnivals:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday Potluck ;Family Friendly Fridays ;Simply Sweet Home Friday’s Favorites ;Food on Fridays ;Foodie Friday  Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap ;Creation Corner, Friday’s Link Party ;Feature Yourself Friday ;;It’s a Hodgepodge Friday  Fight Back Friday  Frugal Friday,   Thankful for Food   
Friday Jennifer Cooks' Fusion Friday 

Seasonal Celebration Sunday Savory Sundays; Every Day Sisters Sharing Sundays; Your Recipe, My Kitchen Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper,  Sunday Night Soup Nighthttp    
Under the Table and Dreaming , DIY Showoff , Nifty Thrifty Things, Homemaker on a Dime , Embellishing Life, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, DIY Home Sweet Home, Blissful Domestic,The Sweet Talk Shop My 1929Charmer