Avocado, Tomato Bruchetta

We love this time of year where we can use fresh ingredients from our garden and from the Farmer's Market.  Almost every Sunday we head out to Coventry, CT to the Farmer's market and choose fantastic fresh fruits and vegetables.  www.coventryfarmersmarket.com/


I made this simple dish this afternoon, enjoying some of the foods we bought today in combination with what I had in my refrigerator and garden.

One Serving

1/4 Avocado
1 Small tomato or 2-3 cherry tomatoes
1/4 red onion
Small bunch of fresh Cilantro
Squeeze of lemon juice
1-2 slices of fresh whole grain bread










Slice the avocado and tomato to chunks about the same size.  Chop the onion into small 1/4 inch pieces.  Chop the cilantro.  Combine the avocado, tomato, onion and cilantro, squeeze some lemon juice on top.

Spread mixture onto bread or toast - Enjoy!






We bought the red onion from Purity Farm and the fresh bread from Farm to Hearth at the market today.  I picked the tomatoes and cilantro from my garden.  Delicious!

Whole Foods Plant Based Diet

I completed 3 classes through eCornell obtaining a Certificate in Plant Based Nutrition.  This was a fantastic program and expanded my understanding of nutrition a great deal.  It also left me with more questions - as all good education does.

I have learned about many scientific studies which reinforce our decision to eliminate meat and animal products from our diet and all of the health benefits involved. 

The next step in our journey is to move away from all processed foods and further embrace whole foods in our diet.  Even though we do eat a lot of whole foods, there are processed vegetarian and vegan foods which need to be eliminated.  The last few weeks I have been cooking more with beans and less with TVP, this has been a challenge since TVP was a very helpful transition food when moving away from eating meat - it worked very well as a substitute for ground beef in many recipes and using the chickenish chunks in fajitas, etc. 

I have been referring to some new cookbooks that are helping me with this transition:

Unprocessed by Chef AJ - this book has many good ideas and recipes.

Another one that has been really good is The Health Promoting Cookbook by Alan Goldhaner, D.C.

Tim still enjoys his chili which he makes a batch of it pretty much every week so, not sure how to get him to stop eating TVP - the challenges continue.

The EARL - Easy Attachable Retractable Lead

We recently went for a trip to visit cousins in Hartwick, NY at their Horse Farm - beautiful place, wonderful people and a very relaxing visit.  I think they may have been a little tired of our vegan cooking by the end of the long weekend (possibly more fiber than they were used to).

They don't only own and maintain a horse farm, they have come up with a fantastic product for all dog owners out there - a retractable leash which stays attached to the dog's collar.  This would be great for traveling or camping with your dog.  The leash is always right there, ready to go when the dog is ready to go.

Check out their web-site for a video of the leash in action and to purchase:

www.theEARL.org