Thanks to the Eat This blog I've discovered something fabulous! The post on Aug 6th on dried vegetables (and fruit) talked about a company called Just Tomatoes.

I found some of them at a store near us and they were so good I ordered some more varieties form their site. We now have Just Tomatoes, Onions, Green Onions, Green Pepper, Mushrooms, and Garlic. I finished off the Just Strawberries this morning!

My husband is in love with them and is throwing them in salads, omelettes etc. We had sauteed shrimp last night and used the onions and tomatoes.

What a great thing to have on hand! This healthy eating is really starting to grow on me!

I went to the BioMeridian site to see if there was anything new and there's a video you can watch now. So if you are interested in this check it out and you can see a little bit of how it works. Of course it is basically an ad to sell the machine to doctors but still is interesting.

From their site: "Meridian Stress Assessment (MSA) testing measures the energy at the meridian points, which directs the practitioner to probable areas of imbalance. This technology is used in various health care practices around the world. It gives practitioners more information to consider, while trying to bring their client's energetic disturbances back into balance."

I had an appointment yesterday and basically complained of feeling awful. After checking everything Lisa determined that I have chronic inflammation, i.e chronic bronchitis. I basically knew that but it was a confirmation that that was what was going on. It has been discouraging to be doing everything right...eating so well...and still feeling so bad. Everything else tested O.K. It's not food or an inhalant that's causing the problem. Of course the question is then "What is causing the bronchitis?" Don't know, just think it has become a chronic ongoing thing. Then I go on antibiotics which just weakens your system. A never ending cycle.

So we cleared inflammation on the machine and she's sending me a supplement for the lungs. I'm going to try to juice specifically for the lungs.

This morning I made a juice of broccoli, carrots, celery, green pepper, and garlic. Yuck! I couldn't get it all down! I think I put way too much garlic in it. I drank half the glass and then gave up. First time I haven't been able to drink a juice.

Even my husband couldn't drink it all which amazed me. He'll usually eat or drink anything I put in front of him. I always say if I wanted to do away with him it sure would be easy. "Here honey, have some arsenic!!" LOL Of course there's nothing wrong with his lungs so he really didn't need to do it. Actually on this new diet he's lost seven pounds. He wanted to loose ten so is very happy. I on the other hand am having trouble keeping weight on. I usually have to eat a lot of carbs to keep my weight up and since giving up pasta it's been hard to get enough.

First mayonnaise, now salad dressing. Maybe I should turn this into a recipe blog! LOL

My grandmother passed this recipe to my mother and she passed it to me. I have been using it forever as a regular salad dressing but since I have been on this new healthy diet I find I'm using it almost every day. I put it on baked potatoes, steamed broccoli, shrimp or salmon, and of course lettuce. It is very simple to make up a big batch and keep it in the refrigerator.

Use juice of lemons and olive oil in equal amounts. I usually juice about 3 lemons, measure the liquid, and then pour an equal amount of olive oil in the bottle. If you want a smaller amount just do one lemon and measure the same way.

2 cloves crushed garlic
1 t. thyme
Few drops Tabasco
pepper

You can vary all the above ingredients to your taste. If you want it extra hot just go nuts with the Tabasco! Shake up and put in fridge. Sometimes if it's a little too sour I add a little extra olive oil. Try to buy organic lemons and extra virgin olive oil.

This also makes a great chicken barbecue sauce. Add 2 T. grated onion to the above. Let the chicken soak for a few hours before putting on the grill. Be sure to baste as it's cooking.

Or if you want to do it in the oven, brown the chicken and cook in sauce about 40 min. at 350 degrees.

So delicious!!

We just watched The Machinist with Christian Bale. He was so thin in this movie it was totally shocking! Apparently he lost sixty pounds to play this part and although I thought the movie was really wonderful, I just can't imagine how someone could do that to themselves for a movie role. He said he just quit eating. We aren't just talking thin here. We're talking skeleton. Look at these photos.

I was sitting there mesmerized wondering how the doctors could let him do it or how the movie could insure him. It was painful to watch him move. Obviously he has put all the weight back on to play Batman. I just think that kind of thing has to have consequences down the road, doesn't it? I still can't quite believe it.

My husband arrived home from a business trip today with an interesting story from a fellow traveler. It turns out his wife has fibromyalgia and is getting amazing results from drinking cherry juice!

I did a search and there a few sites that have amazing testimonials about the benefits for not only fibromyalgia but arthritis and gout etc. I guess it basically works on inflammation.

I am ordering some for both of us to try. He had a high C Reactive Protein test (shows there is inflammation somewhere) and I'm sure it could probably only help the chest inflammation and little arthritis I have.

I have to say that if you ever consider buying an organic turkey...think long and hard....and then think again! Maybe we just got a bad brand but it was like shoe leather! And we didn't overcook it either. So if you want to eat lean meat with no fat, no flavor and no juice- buy organic! lol

It was just three of us, and my daughter -the vegetarian- didn't care. I'm just thankful we didn't invite people in. What a disaster that would have been!

Had a great day though and hope you all did too. (It makes O.K. sandwiches.)