Category: Blogging

D-Feast Friday

Yesterday, I was out visiting some blogs dealing with diabetes, and there was some excitement about a new venture, D-Feast Friday’s. Bloggers post their favorite recipes that are great tasting and diabetic friendly. Since it seems like the Zucchini-Corn Quesadillas I’ve been making lately have become quite a hit, I thought it would be a great recipe to contribute. It’s also a tasty way to incorporate some of the local produce that is so abundant right now into our daily diets.

Zucchini-Corn Quesadillas

makes two quesadillas

3 tb. vegetable oil

1 small onion, chopped (1 cup)

6 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

2 medium zucchini cut into 1/2 inch cubes (2 cups)

1/2 cup (I used Trader Joe’s Roasted Corn)

1/2 cup cooked black beans

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

2 tb. lime juice

chili powder for sprinkling

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese, optional

4 Low Carb Wheat Tortillas (I used Wrap-itz Tortillas only five net carbs per tortilla. Trader Joe’s also has a good product).

Directions

Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and saute 7 minutes. Add zucchini and corn, and saute 7 minutes more. Stir in cilantro and lime juice.

Heat pan/grill. Spray cooking oil lightly on tortilla and place in pan/on grill.

Spoon one cup of zucchini-corn filling onto tortilla, add cheese. Top with second tortilla. Spray top tortilla lightly with cooking spray (do not spray directly into flame). Cook for 2-3 minutes. Using spatula, turn gently. Cook additional 2-3 minutes, or until cheese melts.

Cut into quarters and enjoy. (Original recipe and nutritional info from Vegetarian Times)

Blogging diabetes Inspiration type II diabetes

Good Things Are Happening

Post author By seedthrower1
Post date 07/22/2010
No Comments on Good Things Are Happening

I feel like I’ve been on a crazy amusement park ride the past week, one with plenty of fun but lots of twists and turns. I’m ready for a little r and r, and hopefully things will settle down a bit. I have a lot of things to catch up on.

A couple of days ago, I met with some local healthcare folks, and they loved the idea of an outreach linking faith communities to diabetes education. I could sense the excitement in the air as the meeting broke up. We could all see the potential in this, and how it could greatly benefit our community.

Plenty of groundwork has to be laid first, but it was a very promising first step.

One of the things that I was most happy about this past week was a conversation I had with a college student. I’ve known him for several years now, and he’s matured into a terrific young man. Because diabetes runs in his family, he’s been trying to get himself on track to avoid the disease, but he also wants to help his family eat a little healthier.

So, earlier this week, he had the chance to share my zucchini-corn quesadilla recipe with his grandmother, and they whipped up a batch together. To me, these types of “sacred feasts” really excite me, because it validates to me that this blog is touching people in a positive way.

Over the next several weeks, I’m going to be making some important changes to my blog. As my knowledge base expands, I can see how my posts can be presented more clearly, more consistently, and more on target with my overall goal of helping people transform their lives.

Any input that you would like to give on this would be most appreciated and welcomed 🙂

Blogging Inspiration Mind

You Have To Be Yourself

Have you heard about the newest craze sweeping the internet? It’s all related to a website called I Write Like. I think the site got over 100,000 hits the other day.

Here’s how it works. Simply past a few paragraphs of something you’ve written and best exemplify your writing style into a text box, and within seconds you’ll find out who you write like. Now, it’s not an exact science, since the inventor only uploaded works by fifty famous authors, three books each.

Margaret Atwood, a contemporary writer who was included on the list, decided to try it out herself and entered a few paragraphs. It turns out she writes more like Stephen King than Margaret Atwood. She sent out a message on Twitter asking, “who knew?”

I entered three of my blog postings, just for fun. The first one came back stating that my style most matches William Shakespeare. Wow! There must be some mistake…

The second and third entries matched me to contemporary authors I’ve never heard of. They will remain nameless until I can check some of their stuff out 🙂

When it’s all said and done, it really doesn’t matter whose writing style matches mine. I can’t be them, and they can’t be me. In everything we do, isn’t it best to just try to be yourself?

Blogging Inspiration Mind

For the Hundredth Time

Well, this is my 100th post to Making All Things New. The idea came from reading a book, Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk. I was in the Dallas airport with time to kill, and I saw the book on display in a bookstore window. The gist of the book is to how to use social networking to tell people about something you’re passionate about.

Although my objective is more about getting the word out about personal transformation than it is about making money, this book really helped me see the benefit of using tools such as blogs to reach a larger audience. It certainly has worked for me. Helping people see the need for transformation, body, mind, and spirit is what this blog is all about. Each of our transformations is going to be a bit different, because each one of us is unique. That’s the way God made us.

We’re all in need of transformation, though, and I hope my efforts have helped you figure out what you need to do to make that happen in your own life. Don’t worry about past failures and false starts. Each sunrise reminds us of the great gift of life. We can start again. It’s a new day!

I’m really looking forward to all the future posts I have floating around in my head. This has been a lot of fun, and it’s only going to get better. I’m very grateful to have you with me on the journey 🙂

On a totally different note, I went to a wedding over the weekend. The groom is someone I’ve had the blessing of watching grow up into a fine young man. He now has a beautiful bride to share his life with, and I’m so happy for them.

In their invitation, they listed all the places they were registered, so that you would know exactly what they wanted. I don’t have a lot of money, and I’m always wondering how I can give newlyweds something of meaning, rather than an inexpensive item that won’t last.

I remembered a charity I had read about recently, charity:water. I went to their website, and I really liked what I saw. A donation of $20 will provide one person with clean drinking water for 20 years. A gift that will keep on giving. They’ll even send an e-card, and the recipients can jump on-line and choose which country their gift will go.

I felt so happy to give them this wedding gift. When you have a similar opportunity, I’d ask you to consider doing the same. Such gifts will help bring about transformations in the lives of people we will never meet, and will help them to move from surviving to thriving. How cool is that?

Blogging Inspiration Mind

A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned

Post author By seedthrower1
Post date 07/10/2010
2 Comments on A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned

I had a couple of really good conversations yesterday. The first was with my new financial advisor. It was our second meeting, and now I feel like I’m back on track with planning for retirement.

I know I’m not alone in being afraid of opening those monthly statements that came from my previous stockbroker. The envelopes stacked up, unopened, for about two years. I knew I had aggressive investments, and what was inside those legal-sized envelopes would show I ended up the loser in a bloodbath. Sound familiar?

Blogging Body Inspiration Mind Spirit Vegetarian

Sacred Feasts

(Assisi, 2007)

In his cookbook, Sacred Feasts, Brother Victor-Antione D’Avila-Latourrette (what a name for a monk) wrote that he hoped his readers would discover an affinity for the monastic (vegetarian) approach to cooking. Brother Victor (much better ;)) wrote ,

this style of cooking is characterized by simplicity, tastefulness and resilient frugality. It’s also imbued with the innumerable joys and ways of praising God daily through the practice of food spirituality in the humble sanctuary of the kitchen. (pg. vii)

When I first purchased this great cookbook, I didn’t know that for centuries, monks ate an almost exclusively vegetarian diet. As I read through the recipe commentaries, I began to understand not only the rhythm of monastery life, but also how simply the monks ate. Brother Victor presented the monk’s favorite recipes with the hope that everyday cooks would recreate and experiment with the dishes, which he called authentic food for the body and soul.

Being an everyday cook, I did just that, and through trying the recipes, I became hooked on vegetarian food. I loved the line about authentic food for the body and soul. Yes, that’s what I think we need to do. Link our physical and spiritual nourishment together to improve our overall health.

If we eat only junk food, which we know is not the best for us, do we also not pay much attention to what we consume for our spiritual growth? It’s a pretty good question to ask yourself. When I look back to the time that I was eating very poorly, I can now see that I wasn’t taking care of myself spiritually either. Today, I’ve got both in sync, along with positive mental growth, and I’m in the best overall shape I’ve ever been.

All this got me thinking, and I decided to begin inviting friends over to my house for simple vegetarian meals. I wanted the food to be really good and easy to prepare. I had my first sacred feast a few months ago, and all of the recipes can be viewed in the recipes section on the right. Everyone loved the food, and it was a great experience for me.

My goal now is to start having these dinners every month. I’m encouraging you to try some of the recipes, and then host your own sacred feast. So many people are looking to get healthy, not only physically but also spiritually. I think hosting a sacred feast is a really cool way to help those we love to take care of themselves a bit better.

In the next week, look for a Sacred Feasts tab to the right. I’m going to get some menu ideas posted, along with some new recipes for you to try out (I have to test them first!).

Thanks to everyone who continues to follow this blog. It has taken a life of its own on, and I’m still learning. For those who have subscribed and get the blog through email, I have a tip for you.

When you open the email, click on the title of the blog entry (using today’s for example, Sacred Feasts). This will take you from the email to my actual blog, Making All Things New. You’ll be able to see everything the way I’m intending it to be viewed, which I think will make it a more meaningful experience for you.

Blogging

Pardon My Dust!

Please bear with me over the next few days as I work on making this blog even better. I’m trying to get the menu more organized, add content so things will be clearer and more in depth. I hope to be done by Monday!

I hope those of you that subscribe aren’t overwhelmed with email updates. If that happens, I’m really sorry 🙂

In the end, I think everything will be better than before!

Here in Maryland, we’ve had a gloomy start to the long Memorial Day weekend. I haven’t checked the weather report because I figure I’m going to be glued to the computer. Oh well, the work now will pay off later.

If you don’t have anything to do today, get yourself up and moving. Take a walk, plant some flowers (its not too late for veggies), visit a Farmer’s Market. If you have to work, say a prayer of thanksgiving that you have a job to go to. Whatever you do, enjoy!