Recipes Mania News January 2006

Happy New Year to each of you and I hope that 2006 proves to be a very special year for each of you, for all of the good reasons.

As we go into another new year it is a time when many people decide to make a change in their life in some way. Needless to say that most resolutions don't last for the first week of a new year. So why not join me in one resolution that isn't rigid? This year I would like to eat a healthier diet without compromising my love of food. - That doesn't appear too difficult does it? For instance if you never eat a healthy meal you only need add one per week and you're actually achieving something. A longer, healthier life can't be a bad thing for anybody.

To help you work towards this goal the site will now feature new healthy, but tasty, meals though our news blogs section. The aim will be to create high quality meals based upon the healthy nutrition food pyramid. If you're unsure what that is you will find articles in the same news blogs section of the site.

Click here to see the article on the food pyramid.

This month's recipe of the month will feature a truly healthy meal that can be presented as a gourmet meal too. More of that later.

I've always derived great pleasure from the things that children say because they have such an open and honest approach to life. (Why do we ever lose that honesty?)

This story comes from teh pages of the Sydney Morning Herald: An old man had to get a new set of false teeth. His six year old grandson approached him and asked: "Grandad. Can I have your old teeth to take to school for 'show and tell?' "

The second is from my own seven year old grandson who told me that he wasn't very happy with the class he's been assigned to for the new (Australian) school year.

"Why?" I asked him.

"I don't like the teacher, I wanted to go into Miss Brown's (not her real name) class."

Something inside of me told me to tread cautiously by finding something positive to say. "But you've never had Mrs. Smith (again not her real name) as a teacher." I put on a very encouraging tone of voice. "She may be a a good teacher and prove to be lot's of fun."

He paused to think for a moment before replying. "Mrs. Smith is a very good teacher grandad; but Miss Brown has bigger boobs."

I dread to think what's going to be important to him next year.

Recipe of the Month

Ingredients for 1 serving:

1 Salmon steak (or cutlet.)

1 can (13 ounces or 365 grams) Cannelini beans.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and pepper to taste.

Method:

Salt and pepper on the salmon and place it under a medium grill 4 minutes.

Empty the contents of the can of Cannelini beans into a saucepan and heat the beans.

After 4 minutes turn the salmon and allow to grill for a further 3 or 4 minutes.

Drain the cannelini beans well. The mash the beans thoroughly and form a pate with the pulp.

Serve the salmon over the pulped cannelini beans.

Garnish with a very light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

This entire meal takes less than 10 minutes to prepare and cook and the taste is out of this world.

(This recipe was first published in our news blogs section.)

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How Positive Are You

As an example we'll look at a certain part of the brain known as the reticular activating system (RAS) and how this part of your brain decides how you see situations. Relationships are a prime candidate for analysis so here goes:

When a woman meets with a prospective life partner they first have to decide whether they like this person. This decision will be made by the RAS and goes something like this:

"You only drink red wine - Great!"

"You like to sit up in bed for hours reading. - Very educational!"

"Toilet seat always up - Fantastic!"

I'm sure you get the gist of what I'm saying. That is the normal falling in love process. But to understand the way your RAS works you need to look at the same couple falling out of love.

"He only drinks red wine - Yeuk!"

"He sits up in bed reading for hours - Yeuk!"

"The toilet seat is never down - Double Yeuk!!"

So what has happened? The man she is describing is exactly the same. He drinks red wine, reads in bed and leaves the toilet seat up. What has changes is that her RAS is now focusing on negatives rather than positives as it was when they fell in love.

(By the way this works both ways, I just used the female perspective as an example.)

Now we get back to your life and the thoughts that is lacking something. This is probably your RAS viewing life from a negative position and to get your lust for life back you must start re-programming it in a positive manner.

The sun is beautiful and so is the rain because both help form natures cycle.

My glass is half full, never half empty.

My life is as beautiful as it was when I first entered this relationship and I will focus on the positives.

I can achieve anything that I turn my mind to because I have the ability to achieve my goal.

Things to beware of:

The mind is purely your natural computer and it operates on the programming that you submit. For instance if you see a dime on the ground and ignore it the message you send your mind is that money is unimportant. What happens when your sub-conscious identifies a million dollar making potential? It ignores it because you have programmed it to believe money is unimportant. Next time forget your pride and pick it up; that sends a very positive message to your brain.

Ever heard the saying that we only use 10% of our brain? That is total garbage, if we only used 10% our brain capacity would decrease by 90% - It is another negative message you send to your brain.

I use 100% of my brain and it is wonderful to be able to draw on the minutest detail of my childhood and recall it in detail.

I think what that stupid saying means is that our brain is similar to an iceberg and only 10% is visible. That is our conscious brain. The remaining 90% is our sub-conmscious brain, or memory bank. Our conscious brain needs to be able to draw facts from our sub-conscious at will. The only way that you can build that link between both parts of your brain is to trust it and be positive about being able to make the link when you need to.

(Note: If you can pass this skill to children they will thrive at school.)

The purpose of this little story is to inform you that if you wish to change your life you must first change the way that you think. The way that you think has got you to where you are and is unlikely to take you any further. To do that you need to change the way that you think and become positive and trusting again. What is in the past leave there. Dwelling on past mistakes just sends negative thoughts to your brain that your brain accepts as programming. Do you see the vicious circle?

I accept full responsibility for everything that happens in my life, good, bad or indifferent. Nobody is to blame but me. That way I am able to bring things to a close and move on. Try it, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Finally we added a comments ability to all News Blogs and invite you to post your comments online.

So far we have received just one response. If you try a recipe or a tip and have a comment to make please add because everybody like to hear your viewpoint rather than just mine.

At the bottom of each blog is a button that you can click on to add your comment.