This is an excellent video excerpt explaining some "facts" about olive oil.  It's by  a diet expert named Jeff Novick. 

I love chili and so I'm always playing around with my recipes to get just the right blend of flavors.  I was reading through some of the recipes on allrecipes.com and came across a recipe to try.  I modified it slightly and it is now my favorite chili recipe!  It calls for low sodium taco seasoning and a package of ranch dressing mix.  I would have never put those two together but it is wonderful!  It's so good, even my 6-year-old picky eater likes it.  If you like chili, you'll like the Amazing Chili recipe!


With the holidays at hand, I was looking for a good dish to be the "main" dish for our holiday meals.  I tried the vegebird in the McDougall book and it was horrible.  In the past, we've always done turkey, ham or homemade chicken and noodles.  So what could we use to replace those dishes that would satisfy an unlikely vegetarian?  My dear mother decided to try the Raise-the-roof Sweet Potato Lasagna from the Engine 2 Diet book by Rip Esselstyn.  All I can say is WOW (see pic)!  This is now our goto meal for the holidays and it is wonderful.  The recipe makes 10-12 servings so you may want to cut it in half or freeze half of it for another evening.

I was with family yesterday after a funeral down in the Los Angeles area and we stopped at  Marie Calendars.  I decided to have some of their vegetable soup.  It was satisfactory but I realized that I could probably find a recipe I liked better.  So today I looked out on the internet, found a recipe, made some adjustments and came up with a very yummy and flavorful vegetable soup.  To try it out yourself, you can find the recipe here.



It was a fun recipe because I had my youngest daughter (6) help me with washing the vegetables, cutting them up and putting them in the pot.  My hope was that because she made it, maybe she would be more inclined to eat it.  Well, the logic didn't really pan out although she did eat some.  My son devoured it and the mom of the house and oldest daughter weren't home to try it.  Either way, it's a nice soup to have on hand.  It would be a great idea to double the recipe and then put in the fridge for lunch over a few days.  If vegetable soup isn't your thing.....give my chili a try...it's also a good winter dish and is yummy!