Colorful Harvest

This morning was such a lovely morning to be outside.  I pulled a few things from my garden after tending to the chickens.  We've had a bumper crop of yellow squash and zucchini, and also cherry/grape tomatoes.  I am starting to get a few eggplants and I am excited about that.  I bought the plants from an organic farmer from our farmers market.  I realized once I got them home that they had mites.  I separated them from the rest of my plants and treated them with an organic spray.  The plants were sad looking at first and now they are doing great!  The variety is called "Fairy Tale" and are picked fairly young and small.  I plan on grilling these up today along with some squash, onion and green peppers.
I think Charlie and I are going to a blueberry farm today to get some berries.  I've been freezing fruit lately to add to smoothies.  This week I had healthy smoothies twice a day (made with spinach, sprouts, fruit, ground flax seed and sometimes non-fat yogurt).  The frozen fruit makes the smoothie cold and it covers the flavor of the veggies and flax.  I have a bunch of reasons for doing this -- but what it all boils down to is HEALTH.  Although I am a vegetarian, I still have some bad eating habits.  I'm trying to make some positive changes right now and start to take better care of myself.  The smoothies definitely make it easier to get a bunch of healthy stuff packed into one meal.

Heirloom Tomato Panzanella Salad

I'm taking a break from all the nature photography to offer up a recipe I made from my last good haul of tomatoes from my garden (a few weeks ago).  It's called Panzanella salad -- it is easy to make and you can add or subtract from this recipe as you please:

Gather heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil from the garden, red onion, garlic, green olives, and fresh mozzarella -- chop, chop, chop.  Blend olive oil and balsamic vinegar, add salt and pepper.  Mix it all up.  Use day old crusty bread and chunk it up.  Mix the bread in a few minutes before serving.  It soaks up all the juices and softens up.  This salad doesn't really keep more than a day because the bread gets too soft -- but don't worry -- it disappears quickly.  Healthy and delicious!!!

See, I told you it is easy!  You could also use cucumber or bell pepper and feta cheese instead of mozzarella.  It is really up to you.  Look around the internet for other recipes to see the variations or if you are the kind of person who wants to know specific measurements.

PEMF and pizza

I went to Grand Rapids today to drop off our tax papers and to visit with my family.  It was a very quick visit.  We had just enough time to check out the treatment that has been helping my Dad recover from his stroke and then go to one of my favorite restaurants in Grand Rapids.  

PEMF -- or pulsed electromagnetic field therapy -- has been helping Dad a lot.  Dad didn't have any loss of strength or any paralysis from the stroke, but he does have problems seeing some things.  He has been getting PEMF treatments once a week and he notices the effects immediately.  He is able to see better right away.  After about 4 days things start to get worse again for him.  My Mom has a friend that just bought one of these machines (they are NOT cheap) and offered to let Dad get a midweek treatment as well.  It looks weird, and I haven't done enough research on how it works, but it has worked for Dad.  

I also got to try it out.  It felt like a muscle twitch in my tight shoulders while I was laying down on a mat with the tube running through it.  I tried the thing on my head too and it felt like a tapping or pulsing on my sinuses and my teeth.  It didn't seem to do much right away for me, but I did have a headache earlier today and now it is gone.  They say it really helps with arthritis as well.  Very interesting!

After that, we went to Marinade's.  It is a small bistro near my parent's house that I adore.  I got a calzone  with feta, kalamata olives, and crimini mushrooms.  Yum!  My Brother and Dad got meaty calzones, and Mom was more adventurous with a little pizza with lemon zest, walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, etc (but no tomato sauce).  She loves that combination.  

As you can tell by the coats we were wearing, it is cold outside.  I'm sure most of the people reading this are experiencing the same thing right now -- but you never know.  Anyway, I thought I would throw in a cute picture of Angel -- another of my folks' cats.  She is a sweet heart.  She loves the window ledge above the radiators in their front room.  If I were a cat, I think I would pick that spot as well.   

Still Waters Wellness

Still Waters Wellness is my Mother's business located in West Michigan.  She is a reflexologist and also does several other modalities that promote holistic wellness.  She has been helping people for years now but has just recently gotten her web site up and running.  Now we need to let people know about the site.  So, please take a moment and check out  http://www.stillwaterswellness.com/

If you know of anybody who is in the West Michigan area who is dealing with health problems or stress please let them know about her site.  If you know of someone who is not from the area please feel free to direct them to the site as well.  There is a lot of great information about what reflexology is all about.  Perhaps it will help them discover a natural way to heal themselves.

Oh, and I also have to brag that I helped with some of the photos on the website.