recipe: zesty summer fajitas

Forget eating out! These tasty, tangy, spicy fajitas are perfect as a meal or snack anytime. They're healthy, fast, and easy to make - a perfect solution for the weeknight, "what's for dinner?" dilemma.


Zesty Summer Fajitas

Start to finish: 30 minutes
Serves: 2

Thinly slice two red peppers, one medium onion and two boneless, skinless chicken breasts and place all into a bowl with the chicken on top. Sprinkle one tablespoon of paprika, one teaspoon of ground cumin, and a pinch of salt and pepper over the chicken. Then, pour a few good glugs of canola oil over the chicken. (You never want to cook on high heat with olive oil as it becomes unstable and turns into trans-fats - that's bad!) Also squeeze the juice of one lime over the chicken. Set bowl aside to allow ingredients to marinate as you prepare the rest of the meal.

Empty one can of low-sodium refried beans into a small pot and let warm on low heat, stirring occasionally. (If you leave it on low heat though, it won't burn or stick, but will still be hot by the time you're ready to eat).

To make the salsa, finely chop one red or green chili pepper and place into a bowl. Coarsely chop 15 cherry tomatoes and a small handful of cilantro and place into bowl with the chile. Pour over a couple glugs of extra virgin olive oil, the juice of one lime, and sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper. Give it a good stir and set aside.

Heat a large pan or wok to medium-high and add a glug or two of canola oil. Once the oil is hot (if it starts smoking its too hot), add all of the ingredients from the bowl with the chicken and saute until the peppers and onions are tender and the chicken is cooked through thoroughly. This should only take 10 minutes or so.

To serve, spread a layer of the refried beans onto a warm tortilla (put the bag of tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds), add some of the chicken mix, then top with the salsa and your favourites. I recommend avocado, grated cheese and perhaps a little sour cream.

Health Tip: Keep an eye on the amount of sodium in your tortillas. You'd be surprised how much salt they can pack into such a thin thing!


Credit to Jamie Oliver

quick tip: treat peptic ulcers with this veggie!

If you suffer from peptic ulcers, a natural remedy you may wish to try is fresh cabbage juice. There is conclusive evidence demonstrating that drinking the juice of raw cabbage (preferably the green kind) helps to heal peptic ulcers. In studies conducted in the 1950s, 81% of patients were symptom-free within one week; over two-thirds were better in just four days.

So how much do you need to drink? About 1 quart (4 cups) throughout the day until symptoms subside.

Evidently, this treatment can work for other types of ulcers as well. A healthy, natural treatment to try if you prefer to avoid medication when possible.

quick tip: drink this and you may burn calories twice as fast!

While the jury is still out and research is in its early stages, one study demonstrated that those who drank two cups of oolong tea twice a day had two and a half times the calorie-burning rate of those who drank traditional green tea.

This is an easy tip to implement, and certainly no harm in giving it a try!


Reference: YOU: Staying Young - Michael F. Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet C. Oz, M.D.

random thought: yoga or shmoga?

So yah, I'm a little late catching on to the trend, but I've been doing some reading on yoga lately and I have to say, I'm a little bit intrigued!

Yoga seems to do everything from lowering blood preassure and your heart rate, to decreasing stress hormones (those ones that help you carry weight around the mid-section) and increasing relaxation hormones like serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins.

I've also done some reading on memory loss, and as they say, you've got to use it or you'll lose it! One of the best ways to help maintain memory function and even stimilate brain growth (yup, you can!) is to engage in activities that work your mind and body simultaneously. Activities like yoga, martial arts, or dancing are good examples.

So anyway, long story short, I think I want to give it a try. Does anyone out there go to regular yoga sessions currently? What are your thoughts on regular yoga and hot yoga? Can anyone recommend a good yoga studio?

PS: What do you think of the new look of the site??