Happy Monday, Everyone!

I’m excited about last night’s dinner – not just because it tasted good – but because it was a new recipe and the beginning of my new approach to making dinner. Let me take a quick second to explain why Food is one of my 5 F’s; and why you’ll see more of it on RWR this year.

Health wise I’m changing my diet. I’m dabbling in vegan-ism and I’m thinking I might turn into a pescetarian who eats meat every once in a while. Clearly I’m still figuring that out. What I do know is what we eat directly affects our bodies – how we function, how we feel, how healthy we are, how we run and our weight.

On the personal front “what’s for dinner” has been an on-going challenge in my household. I could eat the same meal over and over and over again. The rest of my family, not so much. My husband and I have different food preferences, but fortunately we’re on the same page now and are moving forward with a healthy diet. My goals are:

- to take the stress out of planning dinner

- to actually make it fun

- to plan ahead

- to add variety in the foods we eat

- to try lots of new recipes

New recipes scare me. Especially if they have more than five ingredients. And, one of them is ginger root. I like ginger. Maybe it’s the root that’s a tad overwhelming.

Anyway, I will NOT be posting everything I eat here, my ADD would not allow that even if I wanted to, ahem, but I will share some fun food finds, good recipes and helpful information as I have it.

With that said, I pulled this Spicy Mango Scallops recipe from Taste of Home yesterday and tried it out last night. It was really tasty and easy to make. Husband said to add it into keeper file and I agree. The ingredients list didn’t scare me which is probably why I picked it:

12 Sea Scallops

1 tablespoon peanut oil

1 medium red onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

¼ – ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

½ cup unsweetened pineapple juice

¼ mango chutney

2 cups hot cooked basmati rice

Minced fresh cilantro

You can find the recipe and directions at Taste of Home. I doubled it and used brown rice instead of basmati rice. Nutritionally, it was pretty healthy except the mango chutney I bought had high fructose corn syrup in it. GASP! Next time I might try to make my own or look for a healthier option at Whole Foods or Fresh Market. If you try it let me know how you liked it; and please feel free to share some healthy recipes with me, too. I’ll take all the help I can get.

Now, I’m off to spend a little time with Husband and the kids; oh, and to pick another recipe for tonight!

Winks & Smiles,