Quick Fish Chowder

I made this quick fish chowder yesterday.  Even though it's not an authentic clam chowder, it was still very good and easy to make.

Saute:

1 chopped onion

6 cloves of garlic

until softened.

Then add:

about 2 cups of chicken broth

2 carrots, sliced

2 stalks celery, sliced

4 chopped potatoes (more or less, depending on the size)

frozen corn, about 1 cup

a handful of spinach

1 can of salmon

1 can of tuna

spices of your choice (I used pepper, garlic, curry, parsley)

Bring to a boil and then simmer until vegetables are soft.  Let it cool down and then puree the soup, leaving it a bit chunky.  Add milk and reheat.  I added a bit of parmesan cheese with the milk.  

His and Hers Chocolate Coconut Cookies

We were cookie monsters last night.  We quickly whipped up two cookies due to a severe chocolate craving.  We didn't use a recipe.  We started off by whisking one egg and adding alot of unsweetened pure chocolate powder in it. Then a handful of coconut and a handful of Rice Krispies cereal, which we forgot we even had in the cupboard.  To that we added a bit of baking powder and baking soda ..... and then milk to get it the right texture.  Then we topped them with raw sunflower seeds, sliced strawberries and a drizzle of maple syrup. Baked at 350 degrees F for about 20 minutes.  Nice and quick....and chocolate craving all gone.

Baked Grapefruit

If you like grapefruit, here is a simple yummy dessert posted by The Fit Community. 

I made it last night.  I altered it by adding walnuts instead of almonds (since that's what I had on hand).  I also drizzled it with just a bit of maple syrup.  It's so good and easy to make. 

Thanks Fit Community for the great health and fitness tips!!

Roasted Stone Baked Potatoes

These potatoes are so addicting! Last night we were craving potato chips but that's something we don't have in the house and after having a snow storm in May, no way we were about to leave the house to go buy a bag lol

I made these on our pizza stone.  You can bake so much more that just pizza on a stone.  I love it.  The potatos cook so perfectly ..... nice and crispy on the outside.  I cubed them and coated them with canola oil, smoky paprika and black pepper ....and just a little coarse salt (since the chip craving was there).  I baked them at 425 degrees F for about 40 minutes.  Half way through the baking, I spread a sliced onion over top and I shredded a bit of cheddar cheese.  

Soooo good!!!  I just might have to make more tonight.

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Quick Chocolate Pear Cake

This is a quick bedtime snack I made.  A chocolate cake in a pie plate.  It's not the appropriate time to be eating chocolate but when the craving hits, it hits!  I didn't measure anything.....just whisked an egg with some coconut flour, a bit of baking soda, baking powder, low-fat chocolate milk, lots of pure cocoa powder, unsweetened shredded coconut, walnuts and a bit of Harvest Crunch cereal.  I added water to the mixture to get the right consistency and poured it in a pie plate. I added a thinly sliced pear on top sprinkled with cinnamon and baked it at 375 degrees F for about 25 minutes.

We had it with strawberries and vanilla yogurt.  It sure kicked the chocolate craving ..... and we went to bed full of energy....but it was well worth it! lol

The Many Benefits of Blueberries

The Many Benefits of Blueberries

For great prices on vitamins and supplements, visit my iHerb page and use coupon code MCC481 for up to $10.00 off your first order. 

Healthy Life Ideas - iHerb

Uses For Coconut Oil

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Sports Nutrition Pyramid

31 Delicious Things to Cook in May

© Photographer Gleb Semenjuk | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Provided by BuzzFeed Food.  All the recipes looks so good! I'm planning on making quite a few of them!

Here's the link:

31 Delicious Things to Cook in May

Six Health Benefits of Leafy Greens

I love growing my own pesticide-free greens.  Greens are very easy to grow and they like cooler temperatures, so you can plant them early in the Spring and keep re-seeding every couple of weeks to keep a good supply of greens all summer long.  This is green lettuce I planted a few years ago in a planter box just outside my back door for easy picking.  I will be doing the same this year.

Here are some health benefits of greens provided by Best Health Magazine ..... of my my favorite magazine subscriptions.

6 Health Benefits of Leafy Greens

Weekends Are For Relaxing

Wall Words - RELAX Eco-Friendly metal word made from recycled materials ideal for the garden. Combine with other words to create a personalized phrase or thought for your outside space. Beautifully crafted with a two-tone burnished bronze painted finish that will weather to a beautiful patina over time

Amazing 86 Year Old Woman

86 years old....this woman is amazing!  Watch her video:

Video - 86 Year Old Gymnist

Click here to visit Raw For Beauty

Health Benefits of Avocados

Click here to visit Raw For Beauty

I love avocados.  They are so versatile in recipes whether it's a main meal or dessert.  They're so creamy and can be a substitute for high fat cream sauces for no guilt eating.  

Transform Your Energy With Senior Strength Training

So you've determined that it's time for you to do something about the condition of the shape you're in in your senior years, as the bones get more brittle and your muscles weaker. Weight training exercise is the ideal means by which you can return to your old self, with tough bones and good muscle mass. However it is intimidating for senior citizens unless you fully understand how you can start. This article will make it a snap to get going! Keep reading to discover how weight training for seniors can be easy, fun, and best of all, habit-forming!

Getting A Grasp Of Weight Training Lingo

We should get up and running by understanding a couple of principles. You need to understand the fundamental principles of the way weight training actually works, and the basic process by which the muscles in your body increase.

Sets Vs. Reps

The easiest way to grasp reps (short for repetitions) and sets is to picture a person doing some push-ups. If they do ten push ups back to back, that is one "set," with 10 "reps." When they then rest for 30 seconds and proceed to do 10 additional push-ups one after the other, that's 2 sets of ten reps.

Rest Intervals

It's very helpful to take short breaks in between the sets to let the muscles in your body to recover. This commonly ranges anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes. Your endurance will end up even better when spending a smaller amount of time on your rest intervals.

Free Weights

Free weights (also called dumbbells or barbells) are weights that aren't attached to a weight lifting machine. They are well-liked by fitness instructors given that they call for more utilization of stabilising muscle groups (put simply, one's body has to work more to keep the weights stable than it would with a machine, which stabilizes for you).

Atrophy

The loss of your muscular mass. This could be a result of the lack of use of the muscle (for example you're not doing exercise often enough), or because of injuries, or illness.

The Essentials Of Strength Training

We're all aware that over time you can build muscle by doing a basic piece of equipment like lifting a 3 to five pound bar bell several times each week. So why and just how would this happen?

To give an example, we'll use the bicep curl. With a bicep curl, you keep a weight in one or in both hands, with the arms extended ahead of you. Then you bend your arms upwards in the direction of your shoulders. When you do this exercise, it produces tiny tears in the muscle of your bicep. Next amino acids come in to restore and strengthen the ripped muscle fibers. This helps make them a bit more resistant against damage in the future.

This process begins straight away, but because it is so tiny, it will need some time before you begin to notice obvious benefits in the form of tougher and bigger muscles. Take care, though. The muscles can start to atrophy after just 2 weeks of non-use (ie. if you don't continue doing your exercises regularly, you are going to drop just about any gains that you make).

Senior Weight Training: Getting Going

Since you're ready to go, let's move on by learning a couple of the basic exercises you can perform.

We would suggest you start with the Super Senior Workout videos, which will take you through the weighttraining exercises that will genuinely benefit your body, and at the end of the program gives you a full weight training workout you can do for remarkable strength gains in just a month.

How much weight do you want to start out with? Take a full 1-liter water bottle in each of your hand. With the water bottles in your hands, perform the following moves 8 times a piece.

Put your arms at your sides and then raise them up so your body looks similar to the letter "t."

While not moving or raising the shoulders, raise your arms above your head.

With the legs about two ft. apart, go into a squat, keeping the knees parallel to the toes, spine straight, and looking ahead of you.

Take a position with your feet a shoulder's breadth apart from each other and come up onto your toes.

How did you do? Have a look at the more common reactions that follow, and after that proceed with the strategies.

--I wasn't able to complete the repetitions for one or more of the strength training exercises Empty the waterbottles half way and make use of those for now. You can little by little fill up the water bottles with morewater when it becomes easier to do.

--I had tender muscles after the movements: Stick to the full water bottles and then graduate to the dumbbells (below) till it becomes easier.

--I was feeling somewhat sore after the movements: Purchase some 3 lb and 5 lb free weights and perform the same movements with three pound barbells, eventually graduating to the 5 lb ones.

--I thought they were pretty simple: Get some 5 lb. and 7 lb dumbbells and do the same movements with five lb weights, eventually graduating to the seven lb. ones.

The drills were actually ridiculously easy! Acquire 7 lb and 10 lb. barbells and then do the same drills with 7 lb free weights after a while graduating to the ten lb. dumbbells.

Consider adding no less than one fresh weight bearing exercise a week, until you have a routine of about 10 to 12. Make an effort to vary the exercises every once in a to keep from plateauing (which occurs when your muscles quit getting bigger and stronger).

With slow and mindful progress, you'll start to see real benefits from your new weight training for seniors strategy!

Ron Krayewski writes about weight training for seniors at SuperSeniorFitness.com. Ron is a resistancetraining professional and has been coaching clients for more than 40 years. Now that he's sixty-five, he is providing training and fitness advice to boomers, and creating a series of video programs about senior weight training.

Spring is Finally Here

Yay!! Time to get the garden going. I love gardening and picking fresh pesticide-free fruits and veggies. I also love the exercise I get from gardening and the peace of mind. It's been a long winter this year....I hope Spring is here to stay and Summer follows. Hopefully it will be a long growing season. My houseplants are even feeling that Spring is in the air. Here is my lime plant. My limes keep growing. I thought it was a mini lime plant but now I'm thinking otherwise.

Adding Beans to Your Diet

Here's a great article from Best Health about why you should eat more beans.

Six Reasons to Eat More Beans

I love all kinds of beans and legumes and I'm always trying to incorporate them into my diet.  Here are some of the bean recipes I have made.  I especially love them in soup.

My Bean Recipes

Free Health Test - Make Health Last

How does your health compare? Take the free Risk Assessment Test from the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Make Health Last