Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Chicken Cranberry Waldorf Salad (recipe)

Tonight I made a Chicken Cranberry Waldorf Salad for dinner. It came out really good and was pretty easy to make. And it's healthy!



Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chicken, cut into chunks
1 cup of cranberries, chopped
1 cup of grapes, cut in half (I used seedless red grapes)
1 cup of celery, thinly sliced
1 red apple, chopped (I used a Pink Lady)
1/3 cup of raisins
1/4 cup of walnuts, chopped
2 tablespoons sugar (I used the Ideal sugar blend)
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
8oz of low-fat vanilla yogurt (I used Stonyfield organic Oikos organic Greek  vanilla yogurt)

Directions:
In a small bowl, blend the yogurt, cinnamon, and sugar. In a large bowl combine the rest of the ingredients and then blend in the yogurt mixture. I served this cold over a mixture of spring greens.


For dessert, I made Mock Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.  This is NOT a healthy dessert recipe. But every now and then it won't hurt to have something fun.  I got the idea from Family Fun .  I thought it would be extra funny, because my husband HATES cheese. I'm ornery like that!



Ingredients:
Pound cake  (I used an angel food cake loaf and it worked just fine)
White frosting
Yellow and Red food coloring

Directions:
Slice the pound cake (or angel food cake loaf) into slices like bread. Toast them in the toaster oven. Then slice the toasted cake into triangles.(the angel food cake slices are very small so I skipped this step)  In a small bowl mix yellow and red food coloring into white frosting until it's the color of cheddar cheese. Spread the frosting on one slice of cake and then gently squish the top piece on to make the frosting ooze out the sides a little just like melted cheese.

I could have made my own frosting, but couldn't find organic coconut oil at our Walmart. So I just purchased a can of white frosting, which means I have a LOT of frosting left, since I didn't have to use much at all. Now I got to figure out what I'm going to do with it...

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Neti Pot



    A few weeks ago I signed up on Facebook to receive a free sample SinuSense Neti Pot from Waterpik. It came in the mail yesterday, just in time, too.  I have horrible allergies, especially when I forget to take my allergy meds, and this weekend I was really feeling it. Although, I do feel better today, my sinuses were still a bit stuffy, so I decided to give it a try. I boiled water like it told me to and only put in half a packet of the saline mix, per a friend's suggestion, then let it cool to lukewarm. First, let me tell you, I HATE saline nose sprays. I also hate getting water in my nose, so I really wasn't sure how I would handle this. It wasn't THAT bad, but it wasn't pleasant either. I can't believe they recommend you do this on a daily regimen. Who does that? I do understand how it works, and it did help a lot, even though I couldn't do the whole thing.  I don't think I will do this regularly, but it's handy to keep in the medicine cabinet when I'm feeling congested. It's definitely a more natural option than medicine. I do give kudos to SinuSense for sending a GENEROUS free sample. Not only did I get a Neti Pot, but 60 saline packets along with it. It should last me quite some time.