MEATLESS MONDAY: ROASTED CHERRY TOMATO & CLEMENTINE CROSTINI

The first #MeatlessMonday of 2015! We made it! I’m glad you’re here. 

Today I’m sharing an appetizer that will appease meat-eaters and vegans alike. Roasted Cherry Tomato & Clementine Crostini. Yep. Savory. Savory. Savory. Cherry Tomatoes and Citrus. An unlikely pair. This is what happens when I have items in my fridge that I don't want to go to waste and I'm in need of a tasty snack.  I'm quite resourceful when it comes to odds and ends in the fridge. Creating this recipe was quite fun.

Enter bread, balsamic and my oven. This simple recipe will be delight your taste buds and please a crowd if you're entertaining. Roasting the veggies pulls out a sweetness that is unmatched. The tang of Balsamic adds a nice rounded touch what I'm calling "the duo of delight".  

Ingredients

1. 10-15 Cherry Tomatoes Halved
2. 12 Clementine Segments
3. 1/3 cup Balsamic Vinegar
4. Pinch of Salt
5. Black Pepper
6. 4 Tablespoons Butter
7. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
8. 5 Slices of Bread

Instructions

1. Preheat Oven to 350
2. Lightly Coat a sheet pan with Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3. Toss Tomatoes and Clementine Segments in Balsamic Vinegar and Spread on sheet pan
4. Season with Salt & Pepper
5. Bake for 30-35 minutes until softened
6. While the tomatoes and clementines roast
7. Cut out rounds of bread slices, each piece should yield two rounds
8. Melt butter in a saucepan
9. Toast each round in butter until lightly golden and crisp
10. Top each crostini round with Tomato and Clementine mixture
11. Serve warm and enjoy!

Candace Boyd Wylie is an Indianapolis, Indiana native who believes in the power of a good meal.  She is the Recipe developer, Content creator and Recipe slanger at FoodLoveTog. FoodLoveTog is a food blog that is dedicated to sharing good eats and food for the soul. Candace is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and CWUW supporter. She can be found on the web at FoodLoveTog and at BoydWyliePhoto

Meatless Monday: Pear & Pomegranate Spinach Salad

It's Monday! I'm Candace and I'm here from FoodLoveTog to share a recipe for Meatless Monday.  I know what you're thinking. "The bacon lady does Meatless Monday?" Yes, more often than you think. While I do have my love for bacon, I do recognize that I can not have bacon every single day with every single meal. Going Meatless is an excellent way to curb my bacon addiction. That said, I do have moments where all I'm craving is a giant spinach salad. Enter this baby: Pear & Pomegranate Spinach Salad with  Pomegranate Vinaigrette. Yes, you can make a delicious salad and your own dressing at home! Try it, it's easier than you think.
The flavors of Fall are all throughout this salad. Sweet Bartlett pears, tangy Pomegranate seeds, chunky blue cheese and crunchy Pecans. The dressing has a balsamic vinegar base, but when matched with sweet and tangy pomegranate juice, it's kicked up a bit. Simple, yet full of flavor.
Checkout the recipe below.

Pear & Pomegranate Spinach Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Ingredients 

1 Large bunch of Spinach Leaves for Salad (cleaned and prepped)

1 Bartlett Pear, Seeded and Sliced thinly

1 Handful of Chopped Pecans

1 Handful of Pomegranate Seeds

1/3 cup of Blue Cheese Crumbles

For the Pomegranate Vinaigrette

1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/3 cup of Pomegranate juice

½ teaspoon salt

Several cracks of cracked Black Pepper

¾ cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Directions

To Prepare Salad:

Add Spinach to large salad bowl

Mix in Chopped Pecans.

Mix in Blue Cheese Crumbles.

Top with sliced Bartlett Pear.

Sprinkle Pomegranate Seeds on top of salad just before serving.

To Prepare Pomegranate Vinaigrette:

In a bowl, combine by whisking Balsamic Vinegar, Pomegranate juice, salt, and fresh Black Pepper.

Slowly whisk in Extra Virgin Olive Oil and whisk until emulsified.

Spoon desired amount over dressing.

Toss gently

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Candace Boyd Wylie is an Indianapolis, Indiana native who believes in the power of a good meal.  She is the recipe developer and content creator and FoodLoveTog. A food blog that is dedicated to sharing good eats and food for the soul. Candace is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and CWUW supporter.. She can be found on the web at FoodLoveTog and at BoydWyliePhoto

Getting Motivated for Fitness

ScienceDaily (Sep. 22, 2007) — Allison Chopra, a fitness expert at Indiana University, encourages her personal training clients to break their more ambiguous goals of say, feeling better or dropping a few dress sizes, into smaller goals that can be achieved in three to four weeks. She discourages weight-oriented goals because weight loss is a long-term process and everyone loses weight at different rates. Instead, she wants to know how her clients feel.

"I ask them, are you feeling better? How's your confidence, your energy level? Are you feeling better about yourself?" said Chopra, the personal training coordinator for IU Bloomington's Division of Campus Recreational Sports. "But these are harder to track."

Chopra offers the following tips concerning goal-setting, encouraging people to be SMART about their goals. The industry catch-phrase SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reward (as in, give yourself one when you've achieved a goal) and Time (set a time for reaching the goal):

Wellness goals should not be underestimated. People can feel a lot of satisfaction in meeting them, building momentum for other goals. "One goal I set for some of my clients is to get eight hours of sleep each night for a week," Chopra said.

Goals need to be attainable and realistic. Challenging yourself to eat no fat for a week could be setting yourself up for failure. Chopra encourages some of her clients to eat breakfast every morning, or at least do so for a week.

Be specific. A goal of "eating better," is an example of a worthwhile but ambiguous goal. A more effective or specific goal might be to limit sweets to one a day for the next week or to limit cookies to the weekend.

Exercising too much could be counter-productive. Adequate rest can result in better workouts, Chopra said. "I tell people, more than you'd think, not to exercise as much," Chopra said. "Our muscles need time to rest and repair themselves. For a normal exerciser, not an athlete, three to five days a week is good. When people start missing days, they can become disappointed and start missing more."

Keep track. Write down your goals and progress, noting it in a journal, notebook or other medium. Put goals in a visible spot. Fitness goals could include performing some form of physical activity for a certain number of days each week or a certain number of minutes. Energy (how do you feel?) can be measured on a scale of one to 10 each day. Pedometers can be used to count steps, increasing the number over time.

Chopra is a big fan of small steps and a forgiving temperament. If a goal is not met, she said, it should be reassessed to make sure it's reasonable and then sought after again -- after a brief break.

"Getting fit or feeling well is a long process," she said. "It doesn't happen overnight."