Heart Healthy and an Avocado Salad.

Heart Healthy

Today is the last day of February, the shortest month.  February is also Heart  Healthy month. It seems to me that this month contradicts itself as Valentine's Day is this month with all it's chocolates and candies and then we have Heart Healthy.  I guess if we ate low or no sugar candies and dark chocolate we may be on the right path.  If you are  anything like me then you don't like dark chocolate ~ I guess it is to healthy for me.

Last week I wrote an article for the Daily Dish about February is Heart Healthy.   In this article I wrote about the foods to eat to help your heart and what to do per the American Heart Association to keep your heart healthy.  So I won't go into any more details about those things. This article is going to be about keeping a healthy emotional well-being.

To me having a healthy emotional well-being is the first step to having a healthy heart.  As loving yourself and feeling proud of yourself and your accomplishments will only help to make your heart stronger.  Eating good food and exercise are only part of the whole picture.

Things to do to help your emotional well-being

• Express your emotions - allow yourself to feel both positive and negative emotion.  Do not bottle these emotions up.
• Focus on the positive.  A tip to help with this is to everyday write down three things you are grateful for.  They need not be big, they may just be getting out of bed today, seeing the sun.
• Respect and Accept Yourself.  We need to love ourselves unconditionally as we love others around us. We are in most instances our own worse enemy.
• Practice yoga, meditation and or deep breathing.  This allows us to find peace, energy and improve our concentration.
• Enjoy some alone time.  Take and make time for yourself even if it is only a few minutes during the day.  Lock yourself in the bathroom ( your children will probably still be at the door when you open it).  
• Foster creativity.  Start a hobby.  This is my way of stress reduction, writing my blog and reading other blogs.  Other things you can do is crafts, gardening, exercise (if that is your thing), cooking.
• Avoid black and white thinking. You may have to think outside of the box.  Often thinking things are either right or wrong my bring disappointing.
• Laugh loud and often.  Laughter is always the best medicine even if it is at at time that you don't think is appropriate.

These are just a few of the ideas that I remember after reading an article about this in our local newspaper. During the winter months, I feel that my emotional well being takes a big drop.   My thoughts are this happens because we don't see the sun so much, it is cold and we are stuck inside.  It is important for you whole well being to try and keep your emotional well being in check  When you do feel that you have depression like symptoms or just feeling down, it is important to talk to someone, be it your family doctor or a close loved one, or even someone you don't know.  I have often written  my feelings on articles that I have read in other blogs, this helps me to get them in the open.  It is not that they need to be read or even commented on but it is my way of doing my well-being check for me.

Heart Healthy~ Avocado Salad

1 Avocado cut in slices and each slice cut into two or three

2 -3  Roma tomatoes sliced

1/4 cup sliced red onions

1/4 lb smoked  salmon

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy.  You can add some salt and pepper to taste.

  

This salad is very tasty on it's own and is a good lunch meal with a slice of French Bread.  The first time I ate this salad was when my husband made it in Togo, shortly after we got married.  All the ingredients were fresh and he went and bought us a loaf of fresh made French Bread... Heaven. 

Let us all take some time to treat ourselves 

 Let me know what you have done for yourself today

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻   Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Links:  Gluten Free Fridays

Related articles

• The Good Fats: Benefits of Eating Avocado (weightloss.answers.com)
• The Health Benefits of Chocolate (berries.com)

Peanut Butter Cookies.

I hadn't made peanut butter cookies for a long, long time.

It is probably a good thing, because I forgot how addicting they are.

Do you like your cookies soft  or hard and crunchy?

I let mine bake longer, and also I let them sit on the cupboard overnight

 so today they were hard and crunchy...

Good coffee dipping cookies.

That is if I drank coffee anymore.. Dipping cookies in tea is just not the same.

Peanut Butter Cookies

adapted from a small town cookbook that I have had for years~ St. Theresa's Treats

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 1/4 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup peanut butter ~ I used my Canadian Kraft Peanut Butter.

2 tsp baking soda

2 cups white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 tsp salt

extra sugar to roll cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix flours, baking soda and salt together and set aside.  In bowl, combine brown sugar, white sugar and butter.  Mix well, add peanut butter and continue to mix. Mix in eggs.  Once all these ingredients are mixed add vanilla and then dry ingredients.  Once everything is mixed well, roll into balls.  Roll balls in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheet or use a baking mat on your cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes.

  I baked mine for 14 minutes and they came out crunchy, 10 minutes would make them soft. Enjoy.  I bet you can't eat just one.

Enjoy

The next time I make them I am going to use more whole wheat flour and less white flour... I also  didn't put the fork marks in my cookies...

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻   Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Links: In and out of the kitchen, Tasty Thursdays, Weekend Re-treat

Related articles

• Whole Wheat Peanut Butter Cup Cookies (foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com)
• History of Peanut Butter Cookies and Why Peanut Butter Cookies Have Fork Marks (proflowers.com)
• Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Cookies | Babble (babble.com)

Foodie Friends Friday ~ Don Tomas Coffee

I hope everyone had a great week... We had lots and lots of snow with a blizzard

and I turned to my Don Tomas Coffee to keep us warm as we were digging out of the snowdrifts. 

It is wonderful coffee and I hope you all will fill out the rafflecopter for your chance to win some.

Now let's get onto the Party.

Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party

First before we do anything, make sure you head over to the Daily Dish Magazine to find out 

which Recipes that Caught our Attention

Each week, each host will pick their favorite recipe and it will be featured on our Daily Dish Magazine.

To be featured, the recipe must have a link back to our party or one of the hosts blog or both.

Next week it might just be your  recipe here...

Welcome to Foodie Friends Friday!

Please take a moment to read through the rules before getting started, Thank You!

*By linking up you agree that you read these rules and all photos/recipes are original and belong to you. You agree to allow Foodie Friends Friday and any of it's affiliated websites or publications (Social Girls Media, LLC) to use photos, links, and recipes for reprint and/or republishing and distribution without monetary compensation to you. If photos & recipes are used, proper link backs to you will be included.

Adding Links back to Foodie Friends Friday and our Button is our only form of advertising to bring in more people to see YOUR recipes.

Please remember to do this. It benefits you! To thank you, we will continue to feature those with links throughout the year on various outlets.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com/" title="Foodie Friends Friday" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj628/busyvegetarianmom/FFFDDButtonNEW150Darker_zpse238f637.jpg" alt="Foodie Friends Friday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Meet our Co-Hosts at Foodie Friends Friday:

Now Let's meet our sponsor this week!

*Giveaway Disclaimer: Facebook is in no way associated with this website or giveaway and holds no liability for this giveaway. "Liking" facebook pages is optional, not mandatory for entry. Sponsors will be responsible for shipping- if there is a delay or problem with prize, you must communicate directly with sponsor.

This week's sponsor is Don Tomas Coffee
to check them out go to their website or facebook page

Remember to fill out the Rafflecopter for your chance to win

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This week's Party

Last Week's Party Winners

Sponsor Winner

Voted Top 3

Giant Sweet Orange Rolls ~ Feeding my Giant
Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix ~ From Calculus to Cupcakes
Cranberry Pecan Chicken Salad ~ Yesterfood

Most Clicks

Make Your Heart Pound Cake ~ Pint Sized Baker
Chocolate Pudding Cupcakes with Strawberry Centers ~ Little Mom on the Prairie
Cherry Swirled Cheescake ~ My Biscuits are Burning

Host Favorite

This week's host favorite goes to Lizy over at Just Dip it in Chocolate for Neapolitan Romance Dessert

This is a perfect dessert made for two and was a great link up on Valentine's Day.

I was literally liking my computer screen when I saw this dessert..Lizy's pictures make them just jump off the screen your mouth.  If you haven't been over to her blog you need to go, her recipes are wonderful and pictures are superb.   Here is a picture of this wonderful dessert... Doesn't it look decadent?

My mouth is watering again.

picture credit.  Just Dip it in Chocolate

Have a great weekend...

 Don't forget to go over and check out the Daily Dish Magazine.

We have many great articles for everyone.

Related articles

• 150 Best Recipes for Foodies (foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com)
• My New Coffee Obsession - Don Tomas Coffee (sweetheatchefs.com)
• Foodie Friends Friday Recipe Linky Party (foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com)
• Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party ~ February 7/13 (marlys-thisandthat.blogspot.com)

Madame Croque with a twist

I am a sucker for grilled cheese and ham sandwiches and put an egg and Bechamel Sauce,

You have a Madame Croque.

This recipe I originally found on Isabelle at home  site.

Isabelle is a French Canadian so of course she would know what a Madame Croque was.

I had no idea until I read her post... So head over and check it out.

I have made this couple of times and made it just as Isabelle's recipe told me too.

 

Madame Croque done per  Isabelle at Home's recipe

But the last time I decided to change it a little and make it my own......

So here it is...

Madame Croquet with a Twist

adapted from Isabelle at Home

Makes 2 Sandwiches

1/2 cup bechamel sauce

4 slices of bread  (I used French bread cut thick)

1 tbsp butter

2 tsp Dijon Mustard

4- 6 slices of ham (I used honey ham)

1/8 lb cheese ( I used Tillamook Cheddar Cheese)

onions to taste 

1 avocado sliced

2 eggs - either fried or poached.

fresh parsley to garnish ( I used dried)

To make Bechamel Sauce:

1 tsp butter

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp dry mustard 

1/2 cup milk

salt and pepper to taste.

Place butter in saucepan and melt, add flour and dry mustard, stir until all mixed.  Turn heat down to medium-low and add milk.  Stirring constantly until comes to a boil and thickens.  Add salt and pepper.  Keep warm until ready to use.  (I did turn mine off and just warmed it when I needed it )

Preparation of sandwich:

Fry or Poach eggs. ~ I don't like runny eggs so mine are well done, make them the way you would like.

While the eggs are cooking.  Butter one side of the 4 slices of bread, this will be the outside of the sandwiches.  To two slices of bread apply dijon mustard and set aside.  Place the other two slices of bread, buttered side down on a panini maker.  Apply one tablespoon of the Bechamel Sauce, then apply 1/2 avocado, onion slices, 2-3 slices of ham and 1/2 of the cheese, cover with the bread that has dijon mustard, butter sided up.  Repeat for second sandwich.  Close cover of panini maker ~ (I didn't close mine completely).  Cook until a nice brown colour.  Remove from panini maker and place on plate. Spread another tablespoon of bechamel sauce on top of sandwich, add egg and garnish with fresh parsley and enjoy.

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻   Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)

`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Links: Freedom Fridays, Tasty Thursdays, Foodie Friends Friday, Favorite things Friday , In and Out of the Kitchen

Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party...

Happy Valentine's Day and do we have a great Valentine's Giveaway for you today..

Hope your day had been great .
Take a Look at the Recipes that Caught our Attention
From Last Week at the Daily Dish Magazine.



For your chance to be featured, remember to link back to our party...
That is all you have to do.

Foodie Friends Friday Linky Party

Welcome to Foodie Friends Friday!

Please take a moment to read through the rules before getting started, Thank You!

*By linking up you agree that you read these rules and all photos/recipes are original and belong to you. You agree to allow Foodie Friends Friday and any of it's affiliated websites or publications (Social Girls Media, LLC) to use photos, links, and recipes for reprint and/or republishing and distribution without monetary compensation to you. If photos & recipes are used, proper link backs to you will be included.

Adding Links back to Foodie Friends Friday and our Button is our only form of advertising to bring in more people to see YOUR recipes.

Please remember to do this. It benefits you! To thank you, we will continue to feature those with links throughout the year on various outlets.

<div align="center"><a href="http://www.foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com/" title="Foodie Friends Friday" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/jj628/busyvegetarianmom/FFFDDButtonNEW150Darker_zpse238f637.jpg" alt="Foodie Friends Friday" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Meet our Co-Hosts at Foodie Friends Friday:

Now Let's meet our sponsor this week!

*Giveaway Disclaimer: Facebook is in no way associated with this website or giveaway and holds no liability for this giveaway. "Liking" facebook pages is optional, not mandatory for entry. Sponsors will be responsible for shipping- if there is a delay or problem with prize, you must communicate directly with sponsor.

This week's giveaway is a 3 qt Casserole dish for one Lucky winner from Lodge Cast Iron

Open to US Residents only.

Remember to fill out the Rafflecopter for your chance to win

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Last Week's Party

Sponsor Giveaway

Voted Top 3

Strawberry Napolean  and Strawberry Jam Cookies from Calculus to Cupcakes
Oven Tacos from Yesterfood

Voted Top 3

Munchies Mini Chocolate  Chip Muffins and  Meyers Lemon Cake from Cozycakes Cottage
I heart You Cupcakes from Lady Behind the Curtain

Host Favorite

This week my host favorite goes to New York Cheesecake  from Crumbs in My Mustachio.  Both my husband and I love cheesecake.  I was planning on making it today for dessert but ran out of time.. But I will be using this recipe in the near future.

Doesn't it look so good?

picture credit:  Crumbs in my Mustachio

Related articles

• 150 Best Recipes for Foodies (foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com)

Happy Valentine's Day...

I hope everyone is having a great Valentine's Day!

Take time to reflect on the things that are important to you ~ your loved ones.

Valentines isn't about how many gifts you receive or even that you receive anything,

But is a time to do  something special for the one's that you love the most,

or to do something special for someone be it a stranger, acquaintance or that special someone. 

Happy Valentine's Day  

My day didn't go as quite planned

 Hubby decided that he would stay late at school today and study.

We did have a wonderful morning together

I made one of his favorite breakfast ~ Oven Pancakes

I cut them in heart shapes

and we had our breakfast by candle light...

So it was a prefect start to our day.

Candle Light Breakfast

Heart Shaped Oven Pancakes

I even received a  box of chocolates

Now I wonder if I should go out and buy something for hubby

Or is my Valentine's Breakfast enough?

For our late dinner we are having Moussaka

Do you have any Valentine's plans...

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻   Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Related articles

• My Funny Valentines Day (andrewwhalan.com)
• Valentine's Day Breakfast in Bed (foodiefriendsfridaydailydish.com)
• Happy Valentine's Day! (kphoenixlove.com)
• Valentine's Day... What it means to me. (marlys-thisandthat.blogspot.com)
• Ideas for Valentines (marlys-thisandthat.blogspot.com)

African Toffee

A couple of nights ago, hubby was craving the toffee that he could get when he was at home in Togo, West Africa.  So, he called his mom to find out how to make it.  After making it I have a new respect for African women.  I knew that they are tough, but I have no idea how they rolled these candies without burning their hands and how they are able to make them small and smooth.  Mine were large and rough, but they still tasted good.  Tonight I decided to make them again and this time I decided to make them into heart shape for Valentines.  Let me tell you this wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.  The toffee hardens very fast and my heart shapes were a bit distorted... But they tasted good and that is all that matters.  Right?

African Toffee

1 can coconut milk

1/2 cup sugar - you can use more if you want them sweeter

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp anise

oil for area you will be making toffee and your hands

Combine coconut milk and sugar in saucepan.  Heat over medium heat until boiling.  Add lemon juice and anise.  Stirring fairly frequently, continue to cook over medium until candy begins to thicken and turn a brownish colour.  Takes about 15-20 minutes.  Take off heat.  Pour onto a clean surface that has been covered with oil.  Oil your hands and using spoon cut into small pieces and roll in your hands until toffee is smooth.  The second batch I spread the toffee out and used a heart shape cookie cutter, cut into hearts.
*** Please note toffee is very hot and if you are rolling it out by hand it may burn your hands.

Hubby told me that when I rolled mine, I rolled them to big in Togo the women and girls would roll them very small and sell them for 5 CFA each (about a penny).  The would roll enough of them to make some money... So the can of coconut milk was about $1.50.  I should have had more then 150 candies, I had about 40 the first time I rolled them... But maybe I could have sold them for more.

Enjoy

✻ღϠ₡ღ✻   Marlys

(¯`✻´¯)
`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻ Enjoy your day....`*.¸.*✻✿*.¸.*✻

Links:  Gluten Free Friday , Thursday's Treasure