Chicken, Wild Rice, and Veggie Casserole

Chicken wild rice and veggie hot dish - before cooking

Dish - cooked at 355F for 2 1/4 hours

Recipe (serves 6)

1 cup of wild rice
1 pound package of chicken strips
1 can of soup (chicken noodle, cream of celery, or chicken and rice)
1 can of green beans
1 can of peas, corn, or insert veggie here
1 red pepper sliced
1/2 to 1/3 purple onion sliced
2 cups of water

Place all ingredients into glass casserole dish, stir and cover

Pre-heat oven to 355F

Serve hot with pecans or walnuts sprinkled on top.
Add blueberries or raspberries for additional flavor

I refrigerate it in small containers for lunch or dinner.

Consider baking 4 - 6 sweet potatoes at the same time to mix in with the casserole later and to save electricity.

Filling oatmeal breakfast combo

Quick breakfast on the go.

Mix:

Two packets of fruit flavored oatmeal instant
1 scoop vanilla muscle milk
1/4 to 1/2 cup walnut or pecan pieces

Place mixture under Keurig and heat 2/3rds cup of water pouring into bowl.

Mix hot water with ingredients and add milk as needed.

Add 1 cup fruit - blueberry, raspberry, strawberry - previously rinsed in potable water.

This combo is nutritious and filling but diabetics should check the glycemic index of the breakfast combo.

If you take fish oil in the am it is good to take with this meal as the Omega 3 in the fish oil balances out the omega 6 in the nuts.  Also make sure to drink adequate amounts of water after this meal.

Please don't eat this if you have nut allergies or if any of these ingredients interfere with the effectiveness of medicines.

Mix and match lunch salad

Spinach Salad minus the fruit- N. Carlson

I've been asked to give my all purpose mix and match lunch salad combo for work.  The separate ingredients are brought to work and prepared just before eating.

One washable salad mixing bowl kept at work. Knife, fork and spoon.  Wash hands before preparing.

Salad mix (pre-washed) (1/2 bag):

• Baby spinach
• Spinach/arugula
• Kale mix with spinach or arugula 

Meat: Pre-cooked (eat cold or pre-heat separately) approx. 3 - 4 oz.  - cut in bowl

• Turkey (natural)
• Chicken (natural)
• Ham ( no nitrates)

Nuts: 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup

• Walnuts
• Pecans

Fruits:

• blueberries
• red raspberries
• black raspberries
• sliced strawberries

Dressing: (Activa Yogurt - small container)

• assorted fruit flavors (blueberry, cherry, strawberry, mixed berry)

Crunchies:

• Dried kale
• Dried pea pods (plain, pepper, other flavors)

Optional Extras:

• avocado
• Single scoop muscle milk vanilla dry powder
• fine grated cheese

Mix and eat.  

Tips:

Eat two to three times a week.  Vary the combination of ingredients to reduce boredom.  This is not necessarily a low calorie meal but it is very nutritious and filling. This preparation also has a good amount of fiber so go easy at first.  

Making Mac Monitors More ergonomically friendly

Mac screens have a few design flaws that make it problematic for individuals using the lower part of their bifocal lenses to view the screen.

1. The stand that comes with the monitor is not height adjustable.
2. The lower part of the screen has approximately 1.5 to 2 inches edging that makes it impossible to bring the screen down to desktop height.
3. The process to remove the stand and replace with a VESA mount is not intuitively obvious.  The video below is a great help. 

Video by Geoff Tripoli on the procedure to install a VESA mount on one of several Mac displays - 5:24 min.

Adding a VESA compatible stand will allow the monitor to be adjusted to accommodate a wider range of individuals. Total cost for the upgrade is currently less than $150 US.

Sitting for extended periods shortens your life - Annals of Internal Medicine

Empty bench - N. Carlson

A September 12, 2017 article in the Annals of Internal Medicine, Patterns of sedentary behavior and mortality in U.S. middle-aged and older adults: A National Cohort Study confirmed what other studies that relied on self reporting have shown.  Sitting for prolonged periods is not healthy.

Accelerometers were placed on individuals in the cohort to measure the total amount of sedentary time and the duration of each sitting period.  The number of deaths in the study participants were checked a median of four years later.  The study found that longer duration (greater than 60 to 90 minutes) of sitting sessions and a longer time spent sitting were associated with all-cause mortality.

The researchers recommended that, "physical activity guidelines should target reducing and interrupting sedentary time to reduce risk for death."  Survival rate was best for individuals who sat for less than 30 consecutive minutes.

Sitting too long can kill you - 46 seconds