Professional Wellness Month

June is Professional Wellness Month!

Photo Credit: June: Professional Wellness Month-Reboot Your Life

Professional wellness is about promoting a healthy work environment, building relationships among employees, and improving personal work performance. Employers should show they care about each employee’s well-being, encourage less stressful professional practices, and help employees become more efficient.

Exercise at Work

It’s hard to find time to exercise, especially for those of us who work in an office. Exercising at work may seem impossible, but it’s one option for staying fit and keeping your energy up. It takes some creativity, but there are opportunities to exercise at work if you pay attention. All it takes is a little planning and some inspiration to squeeze in a little movement all day long.

 

The Basics

You probably know a few tricks for staying active at work. Taking the stairs when you can, parking further away from the door and walking around the office when you can are good places to start. Beyond that, there are a few other options to keep you moving:

·        Sit on an exercise ball instead of a chair. This will strengthen your abs and back and you’ll work on your posture without even trying.

·        Set an alarm to go off every hour to remind you to stand up and move around. Even if you just swing your arms or take a deep breath, you’ll feel more alert.

·        Use the restroom on another floor and take the stairs

·        Use a pedometer and keep track of how many steps you take. Aim for 6,000 to 10,000 steps a day.

·        Leave something important in your car (your lunch, your briefcase, etc.) so you have to run out to get it (and take the stairs)

·        Deliver documents or messages to co-workers in person rather than by email

·        Go to the mall for lunch and park on the opposite end of the food court. Don’t forget to buy something healthy.

·        Get a headset for your phone so you can move around while you talk.

Be creative. Any movement is better than none, so don’t feel like you have to do sprints all day long. Adding short bouts of exercise throughout the day will help you burn more calories and will also reduce stress so you can easily smile at your boss when she piles more work on you.

Credit to: June is Professional Wellness Month

National Rivers Month

June is National Rivers Month!

Photo Credit: National Rivers Month

Did you know that more than 250,000 rivers and streams run throughout America? Together, these waterways flow for nearly 3.6 million miles, providing drinking water to over 65% of Americans. The Outdoor Industry Association reports that nearly 175 million Americans ages six and older participated in outdoor activities on local waterways. Together, they pump more than 86 billion dollars into the economy every year!

But the truth is you can’t put a price tag on a river-especially when illegal dumping, litter, sewage and industrial runoff threaten the communities and ecosystems that depend on them. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 290 million scrap tires are produced in the United States each year. That’s enough tires to circle the Earth 1.6 times! Unfortunately, many of these tires, along with other unwanted items, are dumped into rivers every year. To give you an idea, National River Cleanup^®volunteers removed more than 36,000 tires from local waterways in 2012 alone.

In honor of National Rivers Month, we’re calling all paddlers, fishermen, outdoor enthusiasts and humans alike to organize or volunteer with National River Cleanup. By participating in a river cleanup, you help preserve these invaluable resources that make life on Earth possible. So what are you waiting for? There’s never been a better time to give back to the rivers that do so much for us!

Credit to: June is National Rivers Month!

Fun Friday: Food Edition

Welcome June 1! Today is the start of something amazing.... (At least I would like to think so!) That means summer is officially right around the corner. When summer hits, my appetite seems to disappear. So, here are filling recipes for your summer pallet!

Green Bean and Whole-grain Penne Salad

• 1 1/2 pounds green beans, stems trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-in. lengths
• 16 ounces whole-grain penne, rotini, rotelle, or fusilli pasta
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• About 1/3 lb. Roquefort cheese
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons each finely chopped flat-leaf parsley and finely chopped chives
• 5 crisply cooked thick slices bacon, crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper  

Preparation

1. 1. Bring 2 large pots of salted water to a boil. Prepare a large bowl of ice and cold water. In one pot, boil green beans 3 minutes; drain and plunge in ice water to stop cooking. In the other, cook pasta until tender to the bite, 9 to 12 minutes or according to package directions. Drain and rinse thoroughly under cold water until completely cool (see Notes).
2. 2. In a food processor, pulse mayonnaise, Roquefort, and vinegar until well combined but still slightly chunky.
3. 3. In a large bowl, toss together pasta, green beans, Roquefort dressing, parsley, chives, bacon, and pepper until pasta is well coated. Season with salt to taste.
4. Note: Nutritional analysis is per 1-cup serving.

Note:

Ingredients can be prepped and pasta cooked a day ahead of time and chilled (add 1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil to the cooked pasta). Toss everything together just before serving. The dressing can be made ahead too; if it thickens, thin it with a little more vinegar or even milk.

Baked Potato Salad 

Preparation time : 50 mins. | Serves 6 persons


This baked potato salad looks like baked potato casserole but it tastes different due to dressing of mayo, cream and yogurt. You may also add cooked meat to make it more tasty and rich but I like this salad with vegetables only.

Ingredients:

4 medium size potatoes
4-5 green onions (chopped diagonally)
2 green capsicums (chopped)
3-4 green chilies (chopped)
1 cup fresh cream
1/2 cup yogurt (drained)
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp Tabasco
1 tbsp sugar
Salt to taste
2 hard cooked eggs (sliced)
1 tsp paprika

Procedure:

1. Boil potatoes for just 20 mins. so that they would not become completely soft, then peel and cut into large pieces.
2. To prepare dressing combine fresh cream, mayonnaise, yogurt, tabasco, paprika, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl.
3. Take a greased baking pan of suitable size and one by one make layers of capsicums and boiled eggs. Pour the dressing onto the veggies and put pieces boiled potatoes over the layers and sprinkle spring onions and green chilies onto the top. Place the pan in oven for just 20 mins. at 350 degrees F.

Roasted Chicken and Bow Tie Pasta Salad

• 3 cups uncooked farfalle (bow tie pasta) (about 8 ounces)
• 1/3 cup fresh orange juice $
  Click to see savings
  
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil $
  Click to see savings
  
• 1 tablespoon stone-ground mustard
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (about 2 breasts)
• 1 1/2 cups seedless red grapes, halved
• 1 cup thin diagonally cut celery
• 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Preparation

1. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat; drain. Cool completely.
2. Combine orange juice and the next 7 ingredients (orange juice through rice vinegar) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk to combine. Add pasta, chicken, grapes, celery, red onion, walnuts, chives, and parsley; toss gently to combine.

Creamy Yogurt Fresh Fruit Salad

This is an easy side dish that you can throw together right before dinner . . . one of the saddest things about summer ending is that you don't have access to as many delicious fruits; thankfully this salad can be adapted to whatever fruit is in season.

2 cups strawberries, sliced
2 fresh peaches, sliced
2 bananas, sliced
2 cups grapes
1 (8 oz) container of plain or vanilla yogurt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
lime juice

Mix together the fruit in a large bowl. Mix in about 3 Tablespoons of lime juice to keep the fruit from going brown (plus it adds great flavor!). In a small bowl, mix together yogurt, lemon juice, sugar, and vanilla. You can either serve the yogurt mix to the side of the fruit (and use it as a dip) or mix it right in with the fruit to make a salad (as I did in the picture). Both ways are yummy!

**Some of my other favorite fruits to use are blueberries, kiwis, cantelope, and pineapple. You really can use whatever fruit you want!

Taco Salad

Ingredients

• 1 (1 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
• 1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 (16 ounce) container sour cream
• 1 (16 ounce) jar salsa
• 1 large tomato, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 bunch chopped green onions
• 1 small head iceberg lettuce, shredded
• 1 (6 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, blend the taco seasoning mix and refried beans. Spread the mixture onto a large serving platter.
2. Mix the sour cream and cream cheese in a medium bowl. Spread over the refried beans.
3. Top the layers with salsa. Place a layer of tomato, green bell pepper, green onions and lettuce over the salsa, and top with Cheddar cheese. Garnish with black olives.

-Denea Duran