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Showing posts from 2017

This Day In History, Words of the Day and Carpooling to High School

Do you enjoy carpooling the kids to high school? One of the perks of being a parent is that you get to spend some time with your child and his friends. There is no school bus where we live so parents take turns to drive the kids to high school, which is about a mile away, but with the morning traffic, driving requires navigating through the various turns and streets to get to the school on time. Most high school kids have a hectic after-school schedule which makes getting together for dinner not consistent. So the car becomes an extension of where conversations are made. It's surprising to learn that the kids look forward to the daily morning anecdotes, discussions and the words of the day. Today's anecdote is about the date, November 13.  November 13 is the 317th day of the year. There are 48 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Friday or Sunday (58 in 400 years each) than on Wednesday o

How to cook avocado salmon rice bowl

Avocado salmon rice bowl is one of the highly recommended dishes to make, with its nutritional value and good taste. In this article, I’ll teach you how to make this one. Scouting online for homemade recipes for a candlelit dinner you are planning to surprise your special someone with? Maybe you are looking for meal ideas that offer a lot of nutritional value and are also very tasty and delicious. Whatever it is, in this article I will share with you one of my personal favorites that I also love sharing with my boys: how to cook avocado salmon rice bowl in which the bursting flavors of fruit and fish come together in a perfect concoction.   INGREDIENTS Rice: • 1/2 cup of rice + ¾ cup of water • Salt • 1/2 Tbsp honey • 1/2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds • ½ lime juice • ½ cilantro  Salmon: • 50grams  of salmon • 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil • 1/2 Tbsp honey • ½ tbsp lime juice • ½ tbsp cilantro • Salt Avocado: • 1/2 avocado •

Quick and Easy Recipe: Arugula, Walnut, Apple and Lemon Salad & Sauteed Baby Bok Choy

Do you crave for the zesty arugula? Here's one of my go-to lunch recipe: Toss the following: 1 Bag of Trader Joe's Organic Wild Arugula 1/2 cup of toasted walnuts ( Bake walnuts at 350 for 10 minutes) 1/2 diced or cubed apples ( you can use pears, too) 1/2 freshly squeezed lemon juice salt and pepper to season Heat frying pan on medium heat. Add refined coconut oil  Add garlic and ginger, stir-fry. Add 1 bag of Trader Joe's Organic Baby Bok Choy, stir-fry . Don't overcook Happy eating  😊

Quick and Easy Recipe: Hubby Cooks Cauliflower Avocado Risotto

In search of a healthy alternative for white rice, I stumbled on Via Emilia's Organic Riced Cauliflower at the frozen section in Costco. 1 cup of white rice generally has 199 calories, and 45 grams of Carbohydrates. 1/3 cup of  the plain cauliflower rice has 5 grams of Carbohydrates and 40 calories.

Quick and Easy Recipe: Hubby Cooks Baked Sweet Potato Yams

Hubby loves researching new ways to live healthy. He recently read Dr. Gundry's "The Plant Paradox"   and learned the many wonderful things about sweet potatoes, and since that day, sweet potatoes have been part of our meal. We usually buy our sweet potatoes at Trader Joe's. However, when we want to splurge a little, and get the bigger yams in different colors, we go to Whole Foods. I used to bake the sweet potatoes in the oven for an hour, a t   400°F for 45 minutes to an hour. However, Honey's way is more efficient and quicker. Wash the potatoes well. Put 1 potato in microwave dish. You can poke some holes into it if you like, but it's not necessary. Microwave potato for 6 minutes on High Cut in half Score or cut cross-wise Season with grass-fed butter, salt, cinnamon and a dash of sugar. Happy eating  😊

Travel Diary: One Sunday Afternoon at Central Park of Skopje, Macedonia

By Flora El Don’t you just love October? October is the most colorful season. The warm sunny day creates an aura of positive energy and goodwill. The days and nights had been hectic since medical school started, and I felt drained. However, this Sunday I woke up with a positive attitude and I prepared myself physically and mentally to go out for a run. Maybe today seemed brighter than the other days. Maybe it’s because of the sunlight that reflected the green and light brown trees surrounding my huge bedroom windows. Maybe it’s the gold shining light that hit my eyes in the morning and for the first time in a while I woke up smiling instead of feeling grumpy that I needed to get up early in the morning. This sunny disposition was a feeling I wouldn’t exchange for anything -  I felt free of duties and responsibilities. I just knew that I had to love ME that day and so I did. I left my gorgeous, comfortable bed and had a good oatmeal breakfast with

My Daily Game Plan: Mom Prepares Healthy Vegetarian School Lunch for her Children

By: Cyd Deserva Potian Since 1992, I have been practicing Yoga lifestyle. I studied the philosophy behind a vegetarian diet, and the benefits of eating vegetables and fruit. I made a decision to change the way my six-year-old daughter and I ate. Meat was out, veggies and fruit were in. My daughter made the transition easily because she was able to have her usual singang , menudo , and dinuguan without adding meat to the dishes. I substituted tofu and other meat alternatives. The meat cravings were gone - out the door! Four of my children were born into the vegetarian lifestyle. The challenge for them came once they started school. Sadly, there are no vegetarian choices at their school. I would get up early every morning and prepare their favorite dishes. My children did not mind taking their lunch to school, since there was no other choice. I made lunch for my youngest son, who was four at the time. Steamed corn and mushrooms with brown miso paste on the side. His cla

Making the World A Better Place: Teach our Children Kindness, Good Manners and Right Conduct, and Remember to Say Thank You

Most school district's curriculum is focused on preparing the students for college and the workforce. I understand that to be competitive in this new global economy, the next generation needs to be trained and proficient in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM), but what about "Good Manners and Right Conduct", or as my Mom would say, "G.M.R.C". When my children were in Grammar School, I had such conversation with one of their teachers on teaching "Character Education" in school. I asked, "Do you think the world will be more peaceful if we know how to be kind and grateful?" To have the possibility of world peace, shouldn't we start being kind at our own homes, our communities, our towns? Growing up, my parents reminded my brothers and I to be kind, not only through daily reminders but by how my parents dealt with other people - strangers and friends alike. Dad always emphasized to help ourselves so that

Honor 9/11 : Where Were You On September 11, 2001? Remember. Reflect. Honor

Let us take a moment and say our prayers.  Let us not forget. Pray for the loved ones we lost and for those who were left behind. Remember that day and how we all came together, united. Remember today and let our hearts be filled with love to get through another year. Make today be a reminder to hold our loved ones tighter, to wake up and remember every line on their faces, to forgive, to pick up the phone and let them know how much we love them. So that my children and grandchildren will always remember... With all the stress this deportation had put me through, I didn’t realize I had a bigger responsibility of explaining the situation to my children. I took for granted that they probably felt bad, too, but before I read their letters, I didn’t realize how severe the situation was. In the meantime, my parents decided to move out of New Jersey until we got the help that we needed. They were scheduled to fly to Los Angeles on September 11, 2001. Sept

The Good Catholic Movie Review: Reasons Why You Should Watch The Movie, More Than Once

(with actor/producer Zachary Spicer, my friend Dawn and writer/director Paul Schoulberg) Are you looking for a movie with complex cinematic production, lavish scenic locations, supernatural heroes, explosive stunts, sci-fi twists and special effects? If you are, then the movie, " The Good Catholic " ,  is not what you're looking for. However, it is something you should reconsider, because it's a feel-good movie that will make you think, ponder and chuckle. You're probably thinking, "it's probably preachy since it's a Catholic movie." First of all, it's not preachy at all, and secondly, it is not a Catholic movie. In celebration of my birthday, my friend invited me to go see a movie. I suggested that we see " The Good Catholic " which was recommended by another friend of ours. It's playing until September 14th in  our town,  Cranford , which is known as the Center of the Universe. Today happened to be a special

Tone-It-Up Tour in New York with K&K and Jillian Michaels : What To Expect

NEW FRIENDSHIPS, LOTS OF HUGS, LOVE, INSPIRATION AND SWEAT Have you ever attended a fitness festival? I learned of FitFluencers Katrina Scott and Karena Dawn's (aka K&K)   Tone It Up Challenge through Self magazine's  newsletter. I signed-up for the challenge and did the suggested work-outs. The playfulness and youthful energy of the two cheerful fitness gurus reminded me of my daughter and nieces. A month ago, I found out that K&K are doing a fitness festival (Tone it Up Tour) in Brooklyn, New York (!!!) with celebrity trainer, Jillian Michaels (!!!!!!). In case you're from another fitness planet and you haven't heard of Jillian Michaels, she's best known as the intense personal trainer at the reality television show, "The Biggest Loser". Push-ups, squats, weight "lifting", downward dog and planks were all foreign to me until after my fourth child, FOUR, was born. I was approaching 40 when I started working-out, but I di