Poisin Things And Something Great

I was watching the Tour De France and saw a commercial for Burger King's Bacon Ranch Tendercrisp Sandwich so I checked the nutritional facts on the Internet. How bad can a chicken sandwich be anyway? How about 870 calories with 50 grams of fat and a whopping 2230 mgs of sodium. They also deliver 10 gms of sugar as well. Wow! For most men who have a little weight to lose that is nearly half of the calories you should have in a day and enough fat for almost two days - not to mention the sodium which is more than a full days worth. For most women it is over half of daily calories, 2 days worth of fat and a pure sodium overload. The worst part is that no one has just the sandwich. You add fries and a coke and you can see why we are so fat.

On the news yesterday they said that 26% of the adults in Washington are obese. Even more are overweight. Only Colorado had under 20% of adults obese and they were 19+ % themselves. We can do better if we just get out of our own way. If you avoid the fast and processed food for 2 weeks I swear you won't miss it anymore. Cutting down on bad food is like cutting down on heroin - it doesn't work like that. You're either in or out. You either want to be healthier or you don't. Pick yourself to win.

Recipe: Broccoli Salad

Organic Broccoli (I use the Broccolette from Earthbound Farms when Costco has it)
Organic Red or Walla Walla Sweet Onion
Organic Raisins
Raw Sunflower seeds

Chop Broccoli after trimming 1 inch off of stems.( I chop about 3/4 inch chunks)
Thinly slice onion and then mince. Add raisins and sunflower seeds and dress with either your favorite organic dressing or try the one below. Unless you chop 3-4 lbs of broccoli you won't need all of the dressing below. Try a little and add more until you think it is right.

Dressing for salad:

1 lemon
1/4 cup vinegar (Balsamic or cider)
1/3 Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Herbs to taste (I used basil and oregano in my last batch)
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 tbsp good Mustard
1/2 tsp Agave sweetener or pure honey

Whip all ingredients until well mixed.

We eat this as a side dish as well as an addition to our salads. Athena loves when I make broccoli salad because she loves the stems. She even occasionally hides some for later when she is full.

I also make this with a hot sauce dressing which would have you replace the balsamic vinegar with hot sauce. It is really good as well, and not nearly as hot as you might think. The raisins and broccoli somehow sweeten the hot sauce. It really is good.

More soon.....