WritersButt Wednesday – Recipes that Impress!

Eating healthy does not have to be a boring helping of broiled chicken breast sitting forlornly next to a pile of broccoli.  Even though I love chicken and broccoli, it is not the only option when trying to eat healthier.

As many of you know, with a few exceptions here and there, I mainly eat a Paleo Diet. It is sometimes also called the Caveman’s diet or even a Primal Diet.  Basically, you eat as our ancestors did, before we started to process our food. They ate the meat of animals they hunted or fished. They ate vegetables and fruit, which they grew. And they foraged for nuts and seeds, or whatever they could find.

Now, while I think it would be pretty nifty to have my own huge garden from which to feed to my family, I live in suburbia, it’s not happening. I also couldn’t hunt my own meats. Yes, I’m one of ‘those people’.

So, I hop into my SUV and schlep the one mile to my local grocery store and get the healthiest meats, veggies, fruits and nuts I can find.

There is a plethora of information out there about the multitude of health benefits from following the Paleo diet. So I’m not going to list them all here. I will give you a resource though that I believe is fantastic and truly recommend! It’s a book written by Diane Sanfilippo called Practical Paleo. I enjoyed this book as much for the delicious recipes as I did for the easy to digest (no pun intended) information on WHY the Paleo diet is healthy and how it can literally change your health. What I particularly loved is all information on how eating Paleo can drastically help in the struggles dealing with auto-immune issues and other disorders.

Should you want to try to incorporate the Paleo diet into your life, I have another resource for you. It’s an iPad App written by Michelle Tam called Nom Nom Paleo. You guys, this app ROCKS! I’m not kidding. Whether you want to eat ‘paleo’ or not, this is packed with delicious recipes with gorgeous pictures and easy to follow instructions. I wouldn’t lie to you.

With all that said, I’m going to give you a couple of recipes I made recently. One is a salad inspired by one I had at a fabulous local restaurant last weekend. The salad at the restaurant had seasoned grilled chicken, figs, pears, spicy walnuts and blue cheese dressed in vinaigrette. My mouth watered reading the menu and I couldn’t resist trying it. I was not disappointed. It was one of the best salads I’ve ever had and I can tell you, I eat a LOT of salads!

My version is a little different. One, we had it on one of my ‘no cook’ nights, so I borrowed a little help from my grocery store and brought home a fully cooked rotisserie turkey breast. So right away we’ve switched from chicken to turkey.

What I used:

Mixed Greens plus some romaine hearts

2 ripe Bartlett pears

Walnuts – about ¾ cup

Crumbled blue cheese (a NON-Paleo item- but I only used 3 oz for a salad feeding 5)

*I couldn’t find figs in my grocery store, so I’ll add those next time.

Dressing: red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, cracked pepper and kosher salt

Directions: I seasoned the walnuts with the tiniest amount of olive oil and then some smoked paprika and chili powder and then roasted them in a pan on my stove.

While I kept a close eye on my walnuts, I chopped and dumped all the other ingredients into a large salad bowl. I added the warm nuts when they were done, sprinkled on some vinegar, seasonings and drizzled the oil and tossed!

SO GOOD!

Pears, Spicy Walnuts, Blue Cheese … Oh MY!

 

Next I’m going to walk you through the steps I took to make the most delicious ‘breakfast for dinner’ that we had last night. I got the idea for the eggs nested in the avocado from Michelle’s Nom Nom Paleo App I mentioned above. It worked perfect!

Ingredients on hand:

Eggs – free range, farm fresh, organic … the best you can get if possible.

2 large avocados – washed because peel will remain on them for cooking

baby portabello mushrooms, sliced

fresh tomato, chopped

fresh baby spinach

salt/pepper

Directions:

Slice your avocados in half. Then make another slice about ½ inch on either side, all the way around, so that when you take out the pit, you’ll have an avocado ring with a hole in the middle.

Heat some fat in a pan (coconut oil, butter) and put in your avocado rings. Then surround your rings with mushrooms so they can sauté at the same time.

Avo rings and mushrooms in the pan

Crack an egg into the center of each of your avocado rings.

Add your chopped tomatoes to your mushrooms around the edge of the pan.

Eggs in the Hole!

When you eggs have set a bit, flip the entire egg-filled avocado slice over to cook the other side.

*NOTE: if you like your yolks runny, like sunny side up, you can ‘tent’ or cover your pan and not flip the avos!

As the eggs finish cooking, sprinkle the fresh spinach over your mushrooms and tomatoes so it can wilt a bit.

Spinach comes to the party!

Transfer to a plate and truly ENJOY!!

Plate of Yumness!!

 

 

WritersButt Wednesday: Inspiration through a compliment to another.

Hometown Sunset

Something just happened in my day that compelled me to write this blog. I love how the universe works sometimes. Before I get into my story, I have a question for you all.  In the past 16 months of WritersButt Wednesday, I have shared quite a lot of information with you on health, fitness and nutrition and how they can positively impact your creativity.  When I come upon some nugget of inspiration or what I think is helpful information, I share it with you. I love sharing my family recipes with you. And I’ll never tire of inspiring you, if I can, to add more movement and fitness into your day.

What I want to know is … What do YOU want? I’d love to know what you’d like me to blog about in relation to health and creativity. Do you want more workouts? Do you want to learn more about healthy eating? More recipes, and if so, what kind are you most interested in? My goal with this weekly segment is to help, support and encourage you to live your life in the healthiest way possible to support your creative endeavors. This applies for all my writing friends, or other artists, or just anybody looking to become more fit and healthy.

So, if you have a topic you’d like for me to cover, or cover more thoroughly … let me know!

Now, back to what inspired me today. I had a phone conversation with a new CrossFit client who is going to start this week. She was so enthusiastic and friendly on the phone that I’m really looking forward to meeting her, and told her so. I even called my husband to tell him we have a really fun woman who will start this week.

This woman, why don’t I call her ‘Mary’, informs me that we have some common acquaintances, some clients and a couple friends. I remark that one of them is a very good friend of mine. Less than an hour after our conversation, Mary sends me a text thanking me for the encouragement and then tells me what a blessing I have in having one of our common acquaintances as a friend.

She proceeds to describe my friend using words like: genuine, kind, good and with a tender, precious heart.

I could not have agreed more with her assessment of my friend.  It made me feel even more blessed to call this woman one of the dearest people in my life. It also made me think so highly of Mary … to reach out to an almost perfect stranger to shower another with kind words. What an amazingly giving thing to do, a gift from the heart. The first thing I wanted to do was tell my friend of these kind words, not only because they are true because I know it will make her feel wonderful.

It also made me consider how I live my life and how I impact others. What would someone say of me? I can be opinionated (and I don’t mind sharing them!), bossy, sarcastic and stubborn. I don’t think these traits are all bad, mind you, as long as they are controlled and never aim to hurt others. I do actively work at this.

But when I read Mary’s compliments, it made me want to be a better person, the best person I can be. It made me view myself through others’ eyes.  That is not to say that I would live my life solely to gain approval or compliments from others.  Not in the least in fact. But it did make me see myself from a different perspective and take note. Do my outward actions and words represent who I am inside? I believe you can be yourself, true and honest, and still offer genuine kindness and consideration and respect to those around you, like my friend does.

I’m going to try to be the sort of person who would receive the same kind of appraisal as my friend so richly deserved.

What about you? Have you ever thought about how others view you? Does is change how you act, your choice of words or how you interact with other people? Do you have someone in your life who makes you want to be a better person?

I can tell you, it’s given me something to think about.

 

 

Gems in the Spam

Sorry I went a little MIA on you. I’ve been super focused on the online class I’m teaching through WriterU on Building a Blog. It’s been a lot of fun and unbelievably, we’re already half done!

I also just come out of a writing retreat with my amazing critique partners. I’m going to give that experience its own blog post. Suffice it to say, my mind has been stretched and creativity is bouncing off the walls. I’m going to miss my friends, who all fly home today. ~sniff~ But, it’s time to head back to my little family.

So, I popped into my spam folder to empty it and got caught up with many kind and thoughtful comments from various people interested in, well, enlarging my manhood.  First, I’d have to find this manhood and then once I do, I’d have to assess and we’ll talk about whether it needs to be enlarged. Thanks!

Since I got a good chuckle from some of the comments, I thought y’all might as well.  Here ya go, yanked straight out of my SPAM:

Thank you for making this website so relaxed to conceptualize assemblage. solid foul. Saving this one for afterwards.

***SOLID FOUL? Are you being mean to me?

Extremely intriguing journal post. Highly intriguing and surface enclosed article. Cheers over again – I will arise backrest.

***Why are you laying down reading my blog?

Wow! This could be one component of the most effective blogs We’ve e’er succeed across on this thing. Actually Superior. I’m also a physician in this theme so I can interpret your sweat.

***I can interpret my sweat too. Means I’m hot. I live in Texas. It happens a lot.

Highly intriguing and well penned article. Cheers over again – I module come hind.

***I got nuthin’ for this one? You??

AND – My favorite …

I cant imagine youre not more popular since you definitely have the gift.

***Wait … who says I’m not popular?

For those of you with blogs, care to share some of your lovely spam ‘compliments’?  I’d love to hear them.

 

 

 

 

 

Let Me Help You Build Your Blog

I’m teaching an online class next month!

Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’m just so excited to tell you about an opportunity I was given … which I snatched up in a nanosecond. Early last year, one of my favorite writing instructors, Mary Buckham asked me if I’d be willing to teach an online class about how to build a blog. It is to be part of WriterUniv’s new Indie Track, classes geared toward writers opting to go the Indie route of publishing.

Ginger’s Building A Blog Class — April 1-26, 2013

Needless to say, I was more than willing and completely thrilled with the opportunity. I’ve known about this for quite some time, time I’ve used to plan this month-long class so that it is as good as it can possibly be.

If you or anyone you know has thought of starting a blog, I’d love to be the one to walk you through it! I’ve written the course with writers in mind, but it can absolutely be applied to any sort of blog; photography, foodie … anything at all!

And, I have PRIZES! At the end of the course, I’m giving away numerous books, fiction as well as books on the craft of writing. Also, I have a grand prize! I started my blogging adventure in the fall of 2011 when I took an amazing blogging class taught by Kristen Lamb.  After taking my Building a Blog class, students will have a brand new blog to call their own, at which point they will be eager to take their blogging to the next level and join forces with a huge community of bloggers and writers like the ones who hang out at WANA-International.

Kristen has graciously offered one of her basic blogging courses ($99 value) as a prize to one of my students! Thank you, Kristen!

I would be extremely grateful if you could help me spread the word on social media about my class. And if you are someone thinking about starting a blog and want to take the plunge, sign up! I promise to be a nice teacher and to make class a lot of fun!

Keep in mind, class starts in just 2 weeks on April 1^st, so don’t dilly-dally with your decision! ~grin~

Here is the direct link to the class description and links to register.

http://www.writeruniv.com/building-your-blog/

Thank you very much for any support. I truly appreciate it.

 

 

WritersButt Wednesday — Giggle for You!

Hi Everyone,

I’m sorry for a fly-by post today. I’m literally buried in writing work (Yay!!) as well as surrounded by my two snoring dogs. So, in lieu of a full post today, I hope you’ll forgive my indulgence in pulling this post out of the vault and reblogging it for you.  I have so many new followers (Thank You!!) that perhaps you’ve not seen this one. Although, it made the rounds on Facebook, so probably you have. In any case, it’s totally worth the 1:21 minutes of awesome!

What does this sweet dog have to do with WritersButt. Well, it’s about food (high protein even!) and watching it will make you laugh and feel good … I believe that is WritersButt Approved!!

I watch from time to time because it always ALWAYS makes me laugh.

WritersButt Wednesday – Say YES!

Hi everyone. Sorry I was MIA last week. Whew — I am crazy busy, with all good things, but I missed you!! I had this whole post planned for you today about breakfast, and the healthiest choices to give you energy, clear thinking, and not leaving you frantically searching for a ‘fix’ come 10 am.  The post will of course come with pictures of some breakfast meals that I’ve prepared recently for myself. I also have a great book review planned for you for a paleo book that I seriously believe every single person should read. I really believe that, no exaggeration. It’s called Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo. (Full review coming soon!)

All that is fine and good but I’m shoving those plans aside today. I saw a video this morning on Facebook, posted by Susan Wiggs, that so filled my heart with smiles and my eyes with tears that I want to talk about and celebrate the concept of saying YES.

“Yes to what, Ginger?” you ask me.

“Yes to YOU!”

Do you say no to yourself more often than yes? Do you hold back on things, for one reason or another, things that will bring you joy? This happens to most of us more often that you might believe. We deprive ourselves because we believe that we don’t deserve it. In fact, I’ll argue that we frequently live our lives engaged in activities we don’t want to do.  We even hang on to people in our lives who do not bring us joy because they are comfortable or we feel they ‘need’ us.

Well, you need yourself too! If you let everyone else have all of you, what’s left? It’s time to say YES and open the floodgates of happiness and joy.

Top 5 things that NEED YOUR YES!

1. Yes to your PASSIONS – Do what you love. I know there are dreams inside of you desperate to be alive. Give them life. Tell them yes for the love of Tinkerbell. Do you have songs to be sung, books to be written, a role to play, images to capture,  an invention that will change the world? Or do you have the need to educate and guide, to heal or comfort? Whatever it is, it’s speaking to you. Listen to its pleas and SAY YES!

2. Yes to your SOUL – Your soul is the essence of you. It’s where your tears live, and your smiles and your laughter. Experience things that speak to your soul. Smile at the sunset that fills your eyes with beauty. Let your tears fall if they need to fall. Your soul is trying to release them for you. Laugh out loud! Don’t stifle your laughter, in fact seek it out at all costs. It’s a balm to your soul like nothing I’ve ever found. (Note: This may not be advised in church but as I found out, your Pastor will still hug you after the service even if your teen self couldn’t hold back giggles, multiple times, at inopportune moments.)

3. Yes to your BODY – Your body wants to be nourished well, hydrated, pushed physically and rested. Yes, it really does! If you can’t say yes to this, let me do if for you, loud and insistent, until you figure out how to say it yourself.  YES!!!

4. Yes to your SPIRIT – Life is crazy. It’s scattered. It’s packed with things, noises, people, obligations, and demands. Say yes to some quiet every day. Let your spirit take a breath. You don’t have to do full on meditation, although that would be great. Just a few minutes to let your breathing settle down, to let your body be actively restful, to let your mind travel inward. If you listen carefully, you might hear your soul talking. I’d pay attention!

5. Yes to your HEART – I left this one for last because it segues the video below, but it in no way is least important. Your heart has no limit on the love it can hold. It wants to expand, to wrap itself around more and more, until it’s fit to burst. Embrace love. Love yourself. Love your sweetheart. Love your family and friends. But don’t forget to love acts of kindness. Love your world, as flawed as it may sometimes be. Love your planet. It’s our home. And appreciate and love others’ love, their relationships. If we focus on things that expand our hearts with goodness, we will leave no room for the rest.

Say YES!

Pole Dancing for my husband

Happy Valentines Day.

This isn’t my most favorite holiday. I know, where’s my heart, right? But there are so many expectations on this day that it’s ripe with the prospect of disappointment. Am I cynical or what?

So, in the effort to be festive and spread the love, or at least some good cheer, I decided to give my darling husband some pole dancing for Valentines Day.

Sexy. Athletic. Awesome. How could I miss?

I’m such a giver, I thought I’d give some pole dancing to all of you too. So sit back and enjoy the show!

 

WritersButt Wednesday – Restock your Happiness Well

If your happiness well is dried-up and dreary, you have the power to fill it back up. It’s your job, no one else’s!

“The basic thing is that everyone wants happiness, no one wants suffering. And happiness mainly comes from our own attitude, rather than from external factors. If your own mental attitude is correct, even if you remain in a hostile atmosphere, you feel happy.” — H.H. the Dalai Lama

Lately a common theme keeps popping up in various aspects of my life … that of the notion of HAPPINESS. Namely, suffering a lack of it and/or lamenting the fact that it’s missing and elusive to capture let alone infuse into our daily lives. I’m writing about this today, a WritersButt day, because this weekly segment is about health and how it relates to our creativity. I can’t think of anything that will drain us dry creatively that to be held back by the firm grasp of unhappiness and woe.  Especially when we have the power to control our own state of happiness!

“We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same.” — Carlos Castañeda

One of my children is currently going through a rough patch where he is extremely unhappy with an aspect of his life. It’s a situation he can’t currently avoid and where he is unable to ‘be happy’ about it. I told him that because he can’t change his situation, he’ll have to change his thoughts.  He’ll have to alter how he thinks and find some purpose that will give him happiness in this unhappy situation. He doesn’t have control over ‘liking it’ but he does have control over how he reacts to it.

“Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” — Anon

I don’t say this as if to suggest that it’s easy. It’s not. It’s a struggle and a discipline but it’s a vital ingredient to contentment and having joy in your life. I also believe creating your own happiness is a lifeline, a veritable source of life for your Muse!

How do we go about creating this happiness? Well, we could do as Rumer Godden suggests:

“How to be happy when you are miserable. Plant Japanese poppies with cornflowers and mignonette, and bed out the petunias among the sweet-peas so that they shall scent each other. See the sweet-peas coming up. Drink very good tea out of a thin Worcester cup of a colour between apricot and pink . . .” — Rumer Godden

Doesn’t that sounds lovely? But maybe not feasible for us all, especially me since all plants are determined to prove I’m a plant-murderer. I would however love that cup of tea while I give you some tips on how to create, find, and nurture happiness in your life.

Help Someone – Yes, that straight forward. Reach out and make someone else feel good. Could be as small a gesture as a compliment, or a Facebook note telling them they’re a great friend. Maybe a favor to make their day a little easier. Invite someone for a cup of coffee who may need friend. Be a bright moment in someone else’s life. Find a quote online and share it with others to make them smile or laugh. Be otherwise uplifting and positive in your dealings. Let your actions and words spread warmth and love.

5 Minutes for 5 Blessings – Feeling truly miserable? Grab a piece of paper and a pen, set a timer and write down 5 things that are blessings in your life right now and/or for which you are grateful. If you finish in less than 5 minutes, spend the rest of the time until your timer buzzes rereading what you wrote and focusing on the things that are wonderful in your life. If the buzzer sounds and you’re not done, stay there until you finish. Everyone has at least 5 things.

“I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.” - Martha Washington

Banish your Negative Mojo – Go outside into open space. Stand with feet firmly planted on the earth. Open our arms wide, look up to the sky and will the negativity inside of you to GET OUT. Stand there and force your mind to banish that crap out of there. Feel it leave you so that you have all sorts of space opened up for joy.

“To get up each morning with the resolve to be happy . . . is to set our own conditions to the events of each day. To do this is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

3 Pros for Every Con – For every unhappy situation in your life, you have to come up with 3 things about it that are actually positive. This is really hard. I’ll use my son as an example with the situation he’s going through. His 3 pros for his con might read: 1- physical training that is strengthening my body 2- establishing strong self-discipline 3 – learning perseverance.

Note: these would be the 3 things I, as his mother, would like for him to believe. He’d be hard-pressed to come up with one at this time, much as I beg him to do so.  ~ahem~ As I said, this is not easy, for adults, much less for teenagers!

“The really happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery when on a detour.” — Unknown

Smile – This seems simple and you know what, it is. But it packs a punch. Just smile. A smile on the outside will quickly penetrate to create a smile on the inside. If nothing else, a smile will conjure up thoughts and memories of things that have made you grin or laugh.  To focus on those will take your mind off of what was causing you to feel unhappy. Will that something still be there when you stop smiling? Probably. So freaking smile again! You got this!

“There is only one cause of unhappiness: the false beliefs you have in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occurs to you to question them.” — Anthony de Mello

Resolve – Decide, make the decision to be happy. No one else controls that emotion in you unless you let them. Period!

If you’ll indulge me one last quote. I hope this one lights a fire inside of you to seek out happiness, to create it and infuse your life with it.

“If I regarded my life from the point of view of the pessimist, I should be undone. I should seek in vain for the light that does not visit my eyes and the music that does not ring in my ears. I should beg night and day and never be satisfied. I should sit apart in awful solitude, a prey to fear and despair. But since I consider it a duty to myself and to others to be happy, I escape a misery worse than any physical deprivation.” — Helen Keller

And Sometimes You’re Just an Ass

Who’s an ass? If you’ll indulge me while I pull out the ol’ soapbox, I’ll give you my thoughts and you can decide if a certain someone is an ass or not.

This morning, I read a blog from my friend Julie and she got me all fired up. Seems she ran across a review on the New York Observer written by Rex Reed which prompted her to write her post. I hesitated to post the link to the review because, quite frankly, I don’t want to give Rex or his inane opinion any more screen time, but you will hardly know why I’m all-in-a-fuss unless you read it.

In a nutshell, Rex reviews the movie Identity Thief starring Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman. Only it’s not quite a review but more of a mud-slinging fest against Melissa about her size, as if that has one tiddely-do about the movie. (Yes, tiddely-do can be a word if I want it to be.) In regards to beautiful and talented Melissa, Rex vomits out terms such as “cacophonous, tractor-sized”, “screeching, humongous creep” and “female hippo”.

I don’t know about you but that just reeks a stink of vile, mean-spirited, offensive insults meant to personally attack someone so that an ass a person can feel superior when indeed he is not. He was supposed to review a movie, not spew his misguided opinions about an actor’s size. I mean, who in the hell cares? It’s got nothing to do with the movie and only served as a platform for Reed to get some shock-value attention. Careful, Mr. Reed. That sort of attention often brings about bad karma.

There is another opinion Reed shares in his attack review that I found sad and a bit creepy. He writes:

“Poor Jason Bateman. How did an actor so charming, talented, attractive and versatile get stuck in so much dreck?”

Okay, so according to Rex, if you’re ‘attractive’ (in his opinion), among other talents, you won’t land roles that might not be box office sensations. What?!

This is the bigger issue here. Why the constant gauge of value and talent on appearance and size?

WHY????

It doesn’t matter. Good grief!! Are we as a society so shallow? Honestly?

A person’s merits aren’t measured by their fat percentage and cover model potential.

Is a person kind? Is a person honest? Is a person loving, loyal, respectful and considerate? Those are traits that define a person and their value. Not their freaking pants size.

Now, I’ve given Rex Reed far FAR too much screen time on my blog. I’d like to shine the limelight on someone who deserves it. Someone talented, funny, charming, beautiful, vivacious and warm.  One of my favorite blogging buddies, Myndi Shafer, recently shared this hilarious clip on her blog. It’s laugh out loud funny! I’m going to share it too because everyone should have a smile on their face today. It’s Friday after all.

Note: Y’all know I try very hard not to swear on my blog. So, I’m sorry for saying ass. But, sometimes, if the word ‘fits’.  ~wink~

WritersButt Wednesday – Recap from the road and Lettuce Wrap Recipe

Whew, I have been a busy girl since last week. When I left you, WritersButt was going on the road to Sacramento to speak with RWA’s chapter, Sacramento Valley Rose. Well, it went, it had fun and it returned home safely and by ‘it’, I mean me! Let me share the trip with you.

I arrived in Sacramento mid-day and got to finally meet Patricia (who writes as Jansen Schmidt) in person. In no time, there was much talking and laughing. I have to add that Patricia is a fabulous tour guide. I think I know more about where she lives and grew up than I do about where I live.  It was so fun to learn about a place I’d never been before. As I describe any photos and/or places, I hope Patricia will correct me where I get the details wrong. I had been up since 4 am!

We set off to find food since we were both starving. We went to a lovely little restaurant called The Independent. We both ordered their roasted beet salad, which was delicious. Their soup special was a carrot soup that sounded so unique that I had to try it even though it had a dairy base. It was worth a little tummy discomfort to try the blend of flavors; carrots, jalapeño, radish and something else I can’t remember.

I got the drive-by tour of Hangtown, aptly named because they originally had a hanging tree. Here’s George displayed as an homage to the days gone by.

George at Hangman’s Tree

Nestled into the hills were remnants of houses, stairs, and chimneys from long ago. I took this picture for some very important reason that I can’t recall. Patricia will have to fill in the pertinent details here.

Something cool where I was.

After lunch, we did what any smart women would do in wine country. We went wine tasting. We went to two different wineries. Even though the vines were pruned and there was a lack of green, I loved how the rolling hills looked and the stark branches. Here are some photos.

Ginger and Patricia at Boeger (did I spell that right?) Winery. Blurry, yes, but thought it was a cute pic.

Old building at Boeger Winery

Patricia and Ginger at Lava Cap

The winter vines at Lava Cap Winery. Really LOVED the wines here!

At Lava Cap they had me compare their 3 Zinfandels side by side. They were all excellent. Peace out!

I enjoyed meeting Patricia’s husband and especially their sweet dog, Sherlock. (I mean with that name, how could you go wrong, right?)

It was about time for dinner so we drove ‘back down the hill’ to meet up with some of the board members of Sacramento Valley Rose. I enjoyed meeting them and getting to chat over a lovely dinner. By the time I got to my hotel room, I was exhausted. It wasn’t late by west coast standards but I was two hours ahead and limping along on very little sleep by that point.

The next morning, I did a little workout in my hotel room. YES, that’s right! No excuses! Enjoyed a lovely little breakfast and then got ready for my presentation.

Ginger speaks to Sacramento Valley Rose about WritersButt.

This photo needs a caption! Who’s got one to match my expression?

Patricia and Ginger post meeting and ready for lunch.

I want to thank Patricia for inviting me to speak. The workshop went very well. The members of SVR were awesome. They asked amazing questions. I could have talked with them all day. I wish them all much success in their writing AND in incorporating fitness and healthy nutrition into their lives. I hope it helps their creativity soar and keeps their muses happy and dancing!

BONUS: A recipe for you!!

Chicken Veggie Lettuce Wraps

The first night after my return home, I made Chicken Lettuce Wraps from a recipe I got from a friend. I did alter the recipe a bit to accommodate one of my childrens’ aversion to bell peppers. I’ll post the recipe she uses and tell you my alterations. You can create your own version. I made a HUGE batch so we could use it for 2 nights and we still have a little left to use in eggs tonight. I love a meal that keeps providing for days.

Chicken Vegetable Lettuce Cups

INGREDIENTS

	Additional toppings of choice: Avocado, Guacamole, Salsa, etc.
	Lettuce leaves (such as Bibb), washed and dried
	Salt and Pepper to taste
2 to 3	tablespoons fresh parsley or cilantro
2	teaspoons chili powder
1	pound ground chicken (or turkey or beef)
2	cloves garlic, minced
1/2	cup carrots, shredded
1/2	cup yellow bell pepper, diced
1/2	cup red bell pepper, diced
1/2	cup green onions, chopped
1/2	cup yellow onions, diced
4	tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (or coconut oil)

 

**NOTE: Both my friend and I added mushrooms because we like them. I will say that I more than doubled this recipe, like quadrupled, because I did want it for multiple meals. I used a whole bag of shredded carrots, 2 cups mushrooms (sliced small), 4 fresh zucchini sliced small instead of bell peppers.

INSTRUCTIONS

Cook all your veggies in a large skillet with coconut oil and garlic until softened. (If you’re going to add mushrooms, cook them first w/ no salt until they get good color and then add the other veggies) Don’t overcook and let your veggies get mushy! Add your salt and pepper.

Brown your meat in another skillet or pot.

Once your meat is cooked through, add your veggies to your meat, add in your chili powder and more salt and pepper to taste if needed.

Remove from the heat and stir in your fresh parsley or cilantro.

NOTE: You can add in an Asian sauce for flavor but only if you find one without added sugar and no high fructose corn syrup. Good luck! I suggest a little tamari soy sauce – tamari because it’s gluten free. If you are going to use the soy, hold back on your salt seasonings until the end because you may not need any.

To serve, place chicken/veggie mixture into lettuce cups and serve with toppings of choice. I used large green leaf lettuce cups instead of the typical iceberg because it’s healthier. You could use red leaf lettuce, butter lettuce, romaine ‘boats’, etc.

YUM – enjoy!!