I <3 Potatoes!

“Traditional Style” Potato Salad Recipe

While I don’t think I will EVER find a potato salad recipe that will equal my mom’s, this one ain’t bad. As with all my cooking these past few months, the single biggest enhancement has been the use of Watkins Spices.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups sliced cooked potatoes (still hot) with skin on
• 1.5 cups celery, sliced
• 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 cups portobello mushrooms
• 3/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 cup light Miracle Whip
• 2 Tbsp Watkins Onion Flakes
• 2 tsp Watkins Potato Salad Seasoning
• 1 tsp Watkins Garlic Salt

Directions:

Place potatoes in a large bowl. Pour vinegar over the hot potatoes, then let cool. Add rest of ingredients and mix well. Place in refrigerator and let chill for at least 2 hours.

It’s as easy as that. *I did “tweak” the Official Watkins Recipe just a little. Took out the ham and put in portobello mushrooms instead to make it vegetarian.  :)
Speaking of Vegetarian, Check out this perfect main dish for the potato salad: My Un-Mealoaf recipe. Perfect for meatless monday or anytime you want a delicious vegetarian main course.

To order Watkins online click here.

David Blalock Jr.
Bronze Trailblazer Consultant #386886
E-mail me

“Is a Watkins Home Based Business Right For You?” Click Below to find out

Vegetarian Delight

Your Fortune Online

O.k. Health, wellness & vegetarianism; what does all this have to do with yourfortuneonline.com? Excellent question, I’m glad you asked! Simply put, your fortune isn’t just about money. My day job (as I build my home business online) is working on the cardiac unit at my hospital. One of the things I have learned from working there is that the amount of money you may have will be useless if you don’t have your health to enjoy it. Because of this, I want to share what I’ve learned about health & nutrition along with how to build a home business online. Watkins is the perfect complement for anybody concerned about the health and wealth of their family. Watkins has specialized in offering quality natural products to families for over 141 years. In addition they have the perfect (imho) business opportunity available today. I just wanted to have a short explanation of why I include healthy recipes, wellness information along with steps to earning money in your home business. It is the melding of these aspects that create a more productive society.

My “Vegetarian Journey”

Well it’s been 30 days since my wife and I tried being vegetarian for the month of March. I’m happy to report that it was a roaring success. As a matter of fact, it has gone beyond the “test” stage & we are now full blown vegetarians. It has been a gradual trend that started last April when we changed our eating habits. We cut out red meat, fried foods & foods with high saturated fat. Late October 2009 I joined Watkins. I’ve really enjoyed being able to convert over to the Watkins Natural products that are available. Between eating better and using natural products, vegetarianism was not too much of a leap. The change came about for purely selfish reasons though, I must admit. Heart Disease runs in my family. The past 2 years I’ve been working on the Cardiac floor of the hospital. Seeing the pain and heartache patients and families have to deal with I decided I needed to make a change.

The Vegetarian Un-Meatloaf Recipe is Born

It has really been fun converting my conventional recipes to vegetarian. As a matter of fact, my favorite recipe (meatloaf) just got converted last night. *You can find the recipe here. It turned out awesome. The “Un-meat” I used has 0 fat and 8 g of protein. Way better for the heart than hamburger or turkey. My wife dubbed it the “Un-Meatloaf” lol! A lot of us have tried to make changes to healthier eating in the past. I can still remember trying to eat rice cakes and cottage cheese. Yuck! I wish I knew 20 years ago that it was possible to eat healthy, nutritious food that actually tastes good. It’s because of what I know now, that I didn’t know then; that I want to share healthy eating tips with others. It actually may be a benefit to others to see where I came from. Fried, and fat laden fast foods were a mainstay in my diet for years. Knowing that it is possible to go from McDonald’s Big Mac’s to Vegetarian Un-Meatloaf will show that anyone can make the change.

Speaking of change, check out VeganGal as she chronicles her adventure into Veganism during Lent: “40 Day Old Vegan” It is a daily account of her 40 days of veganism. The page I linked to has a video of her explaining veganism, as well as links explaining what Lent is. She also has several links to other Vegan Resources. Check it out.

Have a “Meat to Beet” vegetarian story you’d like to share? I’d love to hear from you, drop me an e-mail.

To order Watkins online click here.

David Blalock Jr.
Bronze Trailblazer Consultant #386886
E-mail me

Clinically Proven Vegetarian Diet

Conventional wisdom concerning dieting is to eat less & exercise more. Simple huh? Problem is, any change you make in your life has to have 3 components.

1. There has to be a “Core Desire” for change
2. Have a “Proven Method” to follow
3. Be sustainable

Why Diets Don’t Work

Now, people that do the typical “diet thing” usually don’t have the 1st component down. As a matter of fact I think most of us have been there. Ever heard these words: “I’ll try this new diet and see”. This should be your first clue it ‘ain’t gonna work.

Second, is eating less and exercising more a proven way to lose weight. Yes, and no. If you have the “Core Desire” and follow through, then yes it is. However the final component is what trips most people up. Is it sustainable. This simply means that day in and day out you are able to follow the changes you’ve made in your diet and continue to exercise. Many of the “Diets” I have read about aren’t sustainable.

Non-sustainability (if that is even a word) is often times a problem because of portion control. Less food in means less weight gained, simple math. Well, not so much. It has been clinically proven that a reduction in intake most often causes your body to say “hold on here, I’m starving” and hang on to fat. There is actually a “method” to eating that allows you to eat more and lose weight. I avoid calling it a diet because diets are usually short term strategies. This is actually a lifestyle change.

Clogged Artery Blaster Vegetarian Diet

The main difference between this program and other diets is that it has been clinically proven to work. Not only can you eat more and lose weight, it has been proven to be the only non-surgical way to reversing blockages to the heart. Let that sink in for a moment. You can actually have the benefits of a CABG (coronary artery bypass graft) without having surgery. Dean Ornish, MD is the doctor who made this discovery. You can read the details of his diet here on WebMD. And while it should be obvious, I am in no way connected to or profiting from Dr. Ornish, and ANY major lifestyle changes you make should first be made after consulting your personal physician.

With that being said, bet your wanting to start eating a “little” healthier now aren’t you! Here are some resources for ya!:

• Natural and Organic products: WatkinsOnline.com
• Raw Food Recipes: from @Mariesas_Eye
• Vegetarian Resources: from @MeatlessMegan
• Low fat & Vegetarian Recipes: from me!  ;)

To order Watkins online click here.

David Blalock Jr.
Bronze Trailblazer Consultant #386886
E-mail me

Pasta

Watkins Pasta Recipe

Here’s a good one I adapted from WatkinsOnline.com recipe section.

Ingredients:

• Cooked Whole Grain Angel Hair Pasta (8 oz.)
• 2 Tbsp of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”
• 1/4 Tsp Watkins Black Pepper
• 1 Tsp Watkins Garlic Liquid Spice
• Watkins Sea Salt to taste
• 1/3 cup Vegan grated Parmesan Cheese
• Garnish with Watkins Organic Basil

Cooking Directions:

Toss pasta w/ “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter”, salt, pepper & liquid spice. Top with “cheese” and organic basil. ~Enjoy  :)

4 servings

To order Watkins online click here.

David Blalock Jr.
Bronze Trailblazer Consultant #386886
E-mail me

Vegetarian Refried Beans

Fat Free Refried Beans Recipe

This recipe is originally from WatkinsOnline.com. Slightly tweaked by yours truly. 

Ingredients:

• 1-16 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1/3 cup tomato juice
• 1 Tbsp Watkins Onion Flakes
• 1/4 tsp Watkins Garlic Granules

Directions:

In a medium skillet, combine all ingredients. Simmer on low-medium heat until beans start to break up. Mash with a fork adding additional tomato juice as needed to get desired consistency.

For a Fantabulous Low-fat Quesadilla recipe check this recipe out: Vegetarian Quesadilla.

To order Watkins online click here.

David Blalock
Bronze Trailblazer Consultant #386886
E-mail me

Healthy Vegetables

Vegetarian 101

This is day 7 of my grand experiment of being a vegetarian for the month of March. Why would I want to test the waters of vegetarianism? Working on a Cardiac IMC unit in the hospital I noticed some “Common Denominators” of the patients that come to the floor.

The The “Top 3″ were:

1. Overweight (moderate to severe obesity)
2. Diet (high saturated fat)
3. Exercise (lack of)

Seeing these common connections between people with heart problems (coupled with heart disease in my family) & a few other reasons; in April 2009 my wife and I changed our eating habits. I avoid using the word “Diet” intentionally. I’ve been on “Diets” before. They are typically short term & ineffective. I did some research and chose a “Program” to follow. In our case the “Swank Diet” is the eating regimen we chose to follow. What did we give up? The main changes to our diet were the elimination of fried foods and the reduction of saturated fat. *Side note: Be careful what you make fun of. I used to laugh at people in the grocery store that read product labels; now I’m that person! So how much saturated fat is o.k.? We went with avoiding anything with more than 2.5 grams of saturated fat. The results: after three months we had both lost 30+ pounds (and have kept it off for 11 months & counting). While our reasons for changing our eating habits was not to lose weight, but instead to eat healthier; it’s still kinda nice wearing clothes that 10 years ago wouldn’t fit. I have a low-fat simple recipe site here: Recipe Resource. Most of them are “Swank Friendly”, but they are all tasty, simple to prepare and low-fat.

Healthy food is yucky! This is what I used to believe. You know, to eat healthy it’s all celery sticks & tasteless rice cakes. Boy was I ever wrong. We found a community of people committed to following the “Swank Diet” who generously and selfishly shared their favorite tasty recipes. Now the Swank Diet was designed for a specific medical condition that I wont go into here. And while the medical evidence for it’s benefits aren’t overwhelming, we knew that the healthier lifestyle change was something we wanted to adopt. The health benefits from eating delicious healthy food was our primary goal, and in this we succeeded.

Watkins Natural Products

October 2009 I was introduced to Watkins. I received some samples in the mail and was flabbergasted. I was one of those people that had never really heard about Watkins Vanilla, Watkins Black Pepper & Watkins Cinnamon. OMG!, this stuff was awesome. Seriously, just doing a simple cinnamon taste test between the cinnamon I had in the cupboard vs. Watkins Cinnamon opened my eyes to a world of flavor I had been missing. I had no idea that there could be such a difference in the flavor and quality in spices. Now, 5 months down the road with my involvement in Watkins, I’ve found that all of their products are top notch. They feature natural and green products that are good, and good for you and your family. It was great when I realized that a simple change from chemical laden shampoo, soaps & deodorants to natural Watkins products would be better for me and the environment. With over 350 products, Watkins has something for everyone.

7 Days as a Vegetarian

So how did I end up experimenting with vegetarianism? A little soul searching and a lot of fact finding. Just as before when I went with the Swank Diet, I did some research. I remember years ago hearing about a Dr. Dean Ornish who had a revolutionary way of reversing blockages to the heart WITHOUT surgery. The parallels I saw between his Clinically Proven way to reverse heart disease (eat low-fat vegetarian diet & exercise) and the patients I see coming to the Cardiac unit (unhealthy diet, overweight & no exercise) were an epiphany. “Yeah but”, why does it have to be vegetarian? Why not? #1 it’s proven medically to reverse blockages to the heart. Secondly, have you ever considered why it is you have the eating habits you do? Just because that’s the way you were raised should not be the one thing that stands between you and living a healthier life. “Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner” Ever heard that one, or have you ever got a McDonald’s jingle stuck in your head. Could we as a society be so malleable as to be susceptible to the marketing marvels who promote an unhealthy diet? I was. What vegetarian recipe could compete with McDonalds? Check this out if you love the McRib.

Vegetarian Recipes

After researching more about Dr. Dean Ornish and his “Eat more & lose weight” healthy heart eating regime, I decided to see if I could find any good recipes. Yep, sure enough I did! Here are a few great resources to try. AllRecipes.com then search for vegetarian recipes. Another awesome site for info on vegetarianism and recipes is goveg.com. Start here with Vegetarianism 101. Being a guy, I’m a visual creature. That’s just one of the reasons I love VegTV.com. They have videos showing you how to prepare some wonderful vegetarian and vegan recipes.

In conclusion. I’m not trying to scare or guilt anybody into being a vegetarian. My goal is to supply share our story and offer resources. I’m looking for helping the person who has an open mind & is looking for better health. Thanks for stopping by.

To order Watkins online click here.

David Blalock
Bronze Trailblazer Consultant #386886
E-mail me