Orange Chicken Vegetable Stir-Fry

Source: jujugoodnews.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Yield: 4-6 Servings

Ingredients

Sauce:
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon orange zest
2 large cloves garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
optional sweetener like sugar, honey, agave, etc.

Stir-fry:
1 pound chicken tender cut into cubes
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons corn starch
4 cups chopped vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, celery, mushroom, snap peas, etc.
olive oil
1/2 cup medium yellow onion, chopped

Directions

1. Blend all the ingredients for the sauce in a blender or food processor for 10 seconds.

2. Taste the sauce and add your choice of sweetener to your liking.

3. Blend again for a few more seconds.

4. Heat the sauce in a large skillet on medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Carefully transfer the sauce to a heat proof bowl.

5. Rinse the skillet clean.

6. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

7. Add the corn starch and massage the chicken with your hands.

8. If using fresh broccoli or green beans, boil the broccoli for 3-5 minutes until soft enough to pierce with a fork yet firm.

9. Transfer the vegetables to a plate lined with a paper towel.

10. Wipe down the skillet until dry.

11. Heat approximately 1 tablespoon of oil in the skillet on medium-high heat.

12. Cook the onion and chicken until the chicken is cooked through, approximately 3-4 minutes.

13. Add the remaining vegetables and stir-fry them together for 2 minutes.

14. Slowly add a few tablespoons of sauce while stirring the vegetables and chicken.

15. Continue to add the sauce a few tablespoons at a time, allowing about 15 seconds between each addition to allow sauce to slightly cook down.

16. Spoon the stir-fry over a bowl of hot rice. Serve immediately.

Get Out & Dance: Why Concerts Help With Circulation and Depression

With benefits like self-expression, burning calories and boosting your mood, dancing is a positive whole-body experience. Where better to get your groove on than at a concert?

Burn Calories and Ramp Up Your Metabolism

Dancing is an effective aerobic exercise to burn off all those extra cheeseburgers, and it brings a little fun into what can be an otherwise mundane workout. In fact, dancing is so popular as a means of burning calories there are numerous fitness DVDs and applications for game consoles based on dancing as a workout. Dancing at concerts can tone your muscles, improve your balance and even boost brain health. Aerobic exercise is the best kind of exercise for burning fat.

Maybe you’ve heard of that little show, Dancing with the Stars? Even if you’ve never watched, you’ve likely heard about the massive amounts of weight celebrities lose on the show. Kirstie Alley, for instance, lost an astonishing 38 inches during two and a half months of filming during her first stint on the show. Clearly, there’s a fitness benefit to dancing.

Socialization for Improved Emotional Health

 

Image via celesteh.com

It’s one thing to dance like wild alone in your living room, but concerts offer a whole new level of fun—with friends! Don’t be embarrassed to get your groove on in the crowd. Trust me, no one’s checking out your dance moves; they’re too worried about perfecting their own.

Concerts make a great night out with friends and family, offering an opportunity to let loose and relieve some stress. It’s better than spending the evening as a couch potato.

You Kinda Like the Music

Image by por Carla_Lopez via Arte & Fotografia

Let’s face it; you’re not going to shell out a few hundred bucks for Bruce Springsteen tickets if you don’t like his music. So assuming you’re going to see an artist you enjoy, the excitement will boost your adrenaline which is good for your heart.

The adrenaline rush motivates you to get up and move. All the while, your circulation is imporoving. All those cells in your legs, arms, feet and belly need energy to do all that moving around, so your heart picks up the pace to bring the necessary nutrients and oxygen to them. This is what makes dancing a useful and fun form of aerobic exercise.

Music Therapy: A Mood Booster

Image via Gatilho

Music is becoming a therapy tool thanks to its ability to give listeners a general feeling of well-being. Music is used therapeuticaly in senior living facilities to lift seniors’ spirits and sometimes in adolescent treatment settings to lift depression. Dancing releases endorphins, which are a natural mood enhancer.

Concerts allow the audience to feel the music in its truest form: Live. Combined with the excitement you’ll feel about the opportunity to see a favorite artist in person, the general positive vibes your favorite tunes always give you will be amplified.

If you needed a few additional reasons why it’s a good idea to check out your favorite band next time they’re in a town near you, look no further. Who can argue with an activity that makes you feel good, lifts your spirits and is good for your body and overall health?

Fruit Tip: Make Cut Apples Last Longer

Source: theyummylife.com via Shari on Pinterest

Those packages of pre-sliced apples you can buy at store are great for a healthy snack on the go but the price can add up. Make your own by slicing apples, soak in cold water for 3-5 minutes, then soak in a lemon-lime carbonated soda (such as 7-up or sprite) for 3-5 minutes. Divide into snack size portions and store in Ziploc bags in the fridge. The lemon-lime soda will keep the apples from browning and make them last longer.

Using the Induction Cooker

We ran out of gas a few weeks ago while we were cooking and had to use our stashed induction cooker. We have been using it ever since. We will try to see if it’s low on electricity. I am not too keen on using it all the time but the husband insists we try it out. I just realized we still need a gas stove because if ever the power goes out we have a back-up plan. This reminds me to get a maha mh-c808m charger for our rechargeable batteries. We are trying to go green in our own small ways in the house and we try to limit our usage of batteries (we have so many remote controls and wireless everything around the house). I was trying to stock our emergency preparedness kit during the impending typhoon Pablo and was reminded of all of these.

Nail Care Tip

Have you ever experienced getting tainted nails after using bright polish?

You can get rid of that!

Make a paste using 1 tbsp peroxide and 2 1/4 tbsp baking soda. Let this paste sit on your nails for 5 minutes and voila! White nails!

Car Safety Practices

It always bothers me when I see news of car or motorcycle accidents. It hits close to home because my sister-in-law was involved in a car accident when we were 15 which left her paralyzed from waist down up to this day. It makes you realize how great your responsibility is as a driver for your passengers and to all other travelers on the road.

What irritates me the most though are accidents that involve buses and motorcycles. Local buses in our city have a reputation for having the worst drivers that I am sure that Auto Accident Attorney Pinellas firms are up to their necks representing most of them in court. There have been numerous accidents which resulted in deaths involving reckless bus drivers that I often wonder why their licenses and the bus franchise have not been revoked yet. Motorycle drivers are another thing.
Auto Accident Attorney Pinellas should have most of the cases of motorcycle driving while drunk too. Motorcycle drives sometimes feel they are invisible and drive like they own a big 4×4. Sorry to burst your bubble Mr. Motorcycle Driver, but one swipe of a car behind you and you can get thrown out of your motorcycle. And please — wear a helmet!

**This post is not meant to demean or generalize bus or motorcycle drivers. It’s just the author’s bad experiences with some or a few of irresponsible drivers. It also does not mean the car drivers are the only responsible lot – there are also a few rotten ones in there. My point? Drive responsibly.

Say No to Sugar

While doing price comparison on the denis wick mouthpiece 5bl at wwbw, I stumbled upon this and had to share:

“In 1822, the average American ate the amount of sugar found in one of today’s 12-ounce sodas every 5 days. Now, we eat that much every 7 hours. One hundred and fifty-six pounds. That’s how much added sugar Americans consume each year on a per capita basis, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Imagine it: 31 five-pound bags for each of us.

Notice how fat is wrapped around the vital organs when you are overweight or obese:

If this isnt enough to scare you:

Sleep Will Do You Good

I need to get some sleep.

If you didn’t know, sleep actually helps you lose some weight. If you don’t get enough sleep you tend to overeat so you can have energy and you tend to reach for more sugars and caffeine too – instant energy boosters.

Because I have been busy with doctors, family issues, and work, I have not been able to get enough sleep.

So the pounds are creeping back in.
I need to get some sleep.