Weekly Prep Time in the Kitchen

People love going out to eat.

Aaaaaaannnnndddd...

Why not?

We sit down at a nice restaurant
or fast food place,

get served,
eat in peace,
pay
and leave.

Simple....

Well, maybe not...

The time it takes
to get in the car,
drive in traffic,
wait in line
or wait to be seated,
get served,
pay a small fortune,
tip the server,
and drive home...

that just seems like a whole 'lotta' work...

How about some really simple solutions to

ALWAYS

have delicious food at home that only takes minutes to prepare and clean up?

Restaurants open way early in the morning to prepare all the food ahead of time so by the time you and your family walk in their front door, it only takes them a few minutes to put the food in front of you...hot and ready to enjoy...

Here is a gentleman
cutting up peppers

at a local
Mexican restaurant...

Also, large
walk in refrigerators
are stocked full

of fresh food organized
so that 'prep time' is easy.

The solution is to set up your kitchen

to function like one in a restaurant.

Here is a video on how to set up your kitchen to run like a well oiled machine:

Set aside time during the week
and on the weekends for
getting food prepared ahead of time
in order to make cooking meals faster...


Prep time includes:

Boiling pasta and rice.

Making salad dressings.

Defrosting and marinating

chicken, pork and steak,

but do not cook it

until the night you eat it.

Store it marinating in the fridge

in a plastic bag.

Making soups all at the same time.  

Cutting up vegetables for salads.

and making a dessert of the week...

These easy steps help to cut cooking time so that we can all make meals from scratch in 30 minutes or less instead of opting for meals out. The baked chicken

 can be used for dinner on Monday with mashed potatoes     

and green beans,    in pasta on Wednesday with a creamy Alfredo sauce ,

and the leftovers get made into chicken salad for lunch on Friday.

The steak can be made into Beef Broccoli on Tuesday

   with Fried Rice       

and steak and potato soup on Thursday. The pork roast can be served with gravy on Friday

and made into a wonderful bean soup from the stock and leftover meat on Saturday.

  Learning the art of 'prep time' saves a ton of time money and effort in the kitchen the whole week... Check out all the recipes on Facebook! Here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Makeoverslife/175447350176?ref=ts#!/media/albums/?id=175447350176

Making salads simple...

Salads are delicious and

we can get as many as vegetables as we want in one meal.

When we come home hungry

or open the fridge on a relaxed Sunday afernoon,

the thought of cutting vegetables, cheese,

and making salad dressing is the last thing we want to do.

Sooooooo....

We reach for snack food instead.

Seeing beautiful salads

on The Food Network

or in glossy magazine spreads,

we think to ourselves,

'Wow! That looks absolutely delicious

and I would love to make that.'

There is a solution.

There is an art to preparing food as fast

as you would get it in a restaurant...

at home.

Here it is:

Cut and bag vegetables as soon as you get them home

from the grocery store.

Don't wash them. The veggies will spoil.

Cut carrottes, celery, and peppers and bag them separately.

Cut one head of lettuce and bag it, too.

Mushrooms, radishes, and 

cucumbers have to be eaten as soon as they are cut.

Thus, only cut them when you need them.

Store the chopped veggies in a bowl in the fridge.

When it's time to make a salad...

Voila!

All the hard work is already done and

the salad takes only a few minutes to assemble.

Last is the salad dressing.

If you've ever peaked at the

ingredients in processed dressings,

it would be quite a surprise.

The ingredients are very unhealthy.

On the other hand, salad dressings made at home with olive oil, vinegars, mayonnaise, cheese and spices taste amazing, are very healthy,

cost A LOT LESS $$$

and they store in the fridge for up to a month.

A great one to try that is a basic dressing

for almost any salad:  balsamic vinaigrette.

Check out the video on YouTube on how to make it...

 

A fun anytime of year dressing is

Raspberry Poppyseed Vinaigrette

Here is the recipe:

                                                                 
                            10-12 FRESh RASPBERRIES 

                                        ¾ CUP OLIVE OIL.

                           ¼ CUP WHITE WINE VINEGAR.

                           2 TABLESPOONS POPPY SEEDS.

                                          PINCH OF SALT.

IN A FOOD PROCESSOR,

BLEND ALL INGREDIENTS EXCEPT OLIVE OIL.

AS THE FOOD PROCESSOR IS BLENDING, POUR OLIVE OIL IN VERY SLOWLY.
CONTINUE UNTIL DRESSING THICKENS SLIGHTLY.

Check out more salads and salad dressing recipes in the photo albums on Facebook. Here is the direct link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150199640390177.439062.175447350176&type=1

 Antipasto Salad

 Caesar Salad

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Recipes for Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend is the

3 wonderful days that kick off summer.

Food is light and colorful...it's salad season.

Welcome to summer...

Here are some recipes to celebrate summer.

Greek Pasta Salad

                               GREEK PASTA SALAD.
                              (SERVES 4).

                                         ½ POUND SHORT PASTA. (MACARONI,

                                               PENNE, ORECHETTI, ETC.).

                                        

                                           6 OUNCES FETA CHEESE, CRUMBLED.

                                         

                                           4 TABLESPOONS KALAMATA OLIVES,

                                                              FINELY CHOPPED.

                                                 

                                                1 TOMATO, FINELY CHOPPED.

                                               

                                                 ¼ CUCUMBER, FINELY CHOPPED.

                                                  

                                                   1 TEASPOON LEMON JUICE.

                                            

                                                2 TABLESPOONS ITALIAN DRESSING.

                                                                   (SEE RECIPE).

·        IN A MEDIUM SAUCEPAN, BOIL PASTA UNTIL TENDER. DRAIN.

·        IN A LARGE BOWL, TOSS ALL INGREDIENTS TOGETHER WITH SALAD DRESSING.

·        SERVE IMMEDIATELY.

Italian Dressing

                                        3/4 CUP OLIVE OIL.

                                       ¼ CUP WHITE WINE VINEGAR.

                                       ½ TEASPOON GARLIC POWDER.

                                         ½ TEASPOON ONION POWDER.

                                           ¼ TEASPOON BLACK PEPPER.

                                         ½ TEASPOON ITALIAN SEASONING.

                                                 ¼ TEASPOON MRS. DASH.

·        IN A FOOD PROCESSOR, MIX ALL INGREDIENTS UNTIL WELL COMBINED.

Steak or Chicken Kabobs

Cucumber and Tomato Salad

                                                ½ CUCUMBER, PEELED AND SLICED.

                                                2 TOMATOES, CUT INTO CHUNKS.

                                                2 GREEN ONIONS, FINELY CHOPPED.

                                                                 ¼ TEASPOON SALT.

                                                              ¼ TEASPOON PEPPER.

                                                            3 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL.

                                          1 TABLESPOON APPLE CIDER VINEGAR.

• IN A MEDIUM BOWL, MIX ALL INGREDIENTS TOGETHER.

S'More's

Baked potatoes with all the 'fixins'

Look for more recipes on Facebook...lots of photos.

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=lf#!/photos.php?id=175447350176

Have a great weekend...

Meditation-Breath Counting

     Breath counting is the first meditation exercise.   

It is simple, and it requires no mental preparation at all.   

Breathing is a natural and automatic act 

our body does to sustain life.   

When we get stressed, 

our breathing is affected and we tend to lock our breath.  

  

Remembering to breathe allows our body to diffuse the central nervous system by preventing the release of the powerful stress hormones that 

throw our natural chemistry out of balance. 

    

Since this is the first meditation 

exercise in the Makeoverslife program, 

please prepare some mental notes before you begin.

Exercise:

1.      Find three quiet spots where you may go throughout the day to close your eyes for 5-15 minutes.

2.    Pick one of these spots when you are ready to begin.

3.    Get comfortable.  Close your eyes.

4.    Imagine everything is going to be alright.

5.     Create a beautiful place in your mind where you would most like to be at peace: 

A luxury hotel or yacht, 

on top of a high mountain, 

a cabin in the woods, 

a meadow with a stream, 

a sunny day on a tropical island, 

outer space, 

under the sea, 

or even on a cloud. 

This place could be anywhere...

use your imagination!

6.    Here in this place that is all your own, 

time and money are irrelevant.   

Life is perfect in this place.  

 Sir Thomas Moore called it Utopia.   

Christianity calls it Eden.  

 Finding your oasis is the number one 

shift/paradigm in the 

Makeoverslife Meditation Exercises.   

Congratulations!  

 You did it!

7.     Breathing for the purpose 

of meditation takes practice to master. 

Relaxed shallow breathing like we do all day long 

without even thinking about it is not the way.   

The correct way is to inhale through your nose as you begin counting at an even pace:  

One… two… three… four.

Take in as much air into your lungs 

that you possibly can and hold it for a brief moment. 

When you’ve reached the number four, 

exhale just as slowly and evenly counting backwards: Four…three…two…one. Repeat.

Now, here is the key! 

Our thoughts race all day long. 

During meditation, the most important thing 

to learn is how  

to slow your thoughts way down 

and to think only about the task at hand.

 So, during your breath counting exercises, 

concentrate all of your attention 

on your breathing and counting. 

As thoughts come up, let them pass by 

like cars on the highway. 

As soon as you realize that your attention has wandered off from the counting and breathing task at hand, 

bring it back gently to this important work. 

Teaching yourself to do this will move mountains in terms of your ability to control where your attention goes.

Expected results:

·        Power over actions comes in your reactions.   

Life comes at you fast. 

We react out of habit.   

Being aware of how you act and react in a situation life has dealt you—as you are going through it—is a very powerful tool in your ability to change the outcome of a situation and get the best possible result out of it.   

As the saying goes, hindsight is 20/20.   

The magic comes from having insight during your 

life dramas—not afterwards—when it is usually too late.

·       

Breath counting is the foundation exercise for the Makeoverslife plan. 

All of these exercises are written in chronological order, so that you must master each one to be able to understand and apply the rest of the exercises to your life.   

Just like riding a bike is a skill you must practice, 

so is the meditation process.

·         

The result you get from practicing the breath counting exercise will be a feeling.   

You will know it when your mind comes upon it 

after practicing a few times.  

 It is a feeling of something familiar: 

Peace, surrender, 

gaining control over your mind, 

and awareness that 

in fact you are not your thoughts.   

While you

may own your thoughts, 

you are not bound by these patterns of thinking. 

They no longer define you. 

You have autonomous control of them 

and you are now the master of your domain.  

Your mind  now becomes a tool.   

This is the beginning of a purposeful life 

versus a life asleep and in the automatic.

Welcome to the superhighway towards 

your true identity: 

Your Spirit.