Kathy Week 65: Welcome Spring!

We had a wonderful Spring Break vacation trip to visit family, but it was hard to "behave" completely on my eating. This morning the scale said "136." I'm sure having a tough time getting my weight to 130-ish, where I would like it to be!

I hope the spring weather will help. We got out for a short hike today along the Salmon River Trail, one of my favorites.

The trail goes right along the river for most of the way - lots of views of the fresh, sparkling water. Oh, the air smells so good!

Everywhere along the trail there are little streams and waterfalls that come rushing down the mountain toward the river. So pretty!

We hiked a mile or so along the river, then turned around to head back to the car. It was starting to rain, and getting a little late. But we'll be back out for more hikes again soon!

Recipe Alert!

Back at home after the hike, I tried out two new recipes this evening.

My, oh my, they are so very yummy. Luckily I snapped a couple of photos before we gobbled them up, so I can show you this deliciousness, and I will give you the links to the recipes, too.

Avocado and Papaya Salad

I found the recipe here.

I made these changes:
1. Added a few blueberries. They look beautiful and are full of anti-oxidants. So healthy, so yummy.
2. Used Annie's Lite Raspberry Vinaigrette salad dressing instead of making the dressing in the recipe. The recipe was headed that direction anyway. Have you tried this dressing from Annie's? It's SO GOOD and only 40 calories for 2 Tablespoons.
3. I wish I'd torn up the lettuce leaves before putting the fruit on top. It was kind of a pain to cut them up for eating.

Roasted Asparagus with Olive Vinaigrette

The recipe is from the Real Simple magazine, here.
We've had it two nights in a row now, and I am going to have to buy some more asparagus. Mark and I both in love with this recipe.

The only things I did differently were:
1. I cut the recipe in half, since there are only 2 of us.
2. I used fresh cilantro instead of parsley. Yum yum yum.

Seriously, we agreed that both of these recipes taste better than what you get in a fancy restaurant, but they are so simple and healthy.

Oh, and by the way...papaya. I bought this fruit for the first time a couple of weeks ago. We had it fresh when we were in Guatemala, but for some reason I never tried it here in the U.S. What was I waiting for???

If you haven't tried it yet, here are my papaya recommendations:
1. For your first adventure with papaya, buy the smaller kind of papaya, which comes from Hawaii. It looks a little larger than a pear. The bigger kind is the same shape as a small football, and it's a lot of fruit to consume. The smaller ones aren't so overwhelming. They cost more per pound, but go ahead and just buy one to see how it works out for you.
2. When you buy it, you shouldn't detect a fruity smell. Once the papaya has that fruity smell, it's overripe, and it won't taste as good.
3. I looked online at this website to learn how to cut it up. I hadn't known they have so many seeds! The seeds are edible...a little spicier than we like at our house, but they might be just the thing for you. Or you could plant some and get a cool plant like this one.

Well, Skinnies, that's all I have for this week! I hope the spring is lovely wherever you are, and that you are getting out and getting some healthy exercise. I get to start my yoga class with my husband again on Monday night--hooray!!--and I'll be getting out for some runs, too. See you next week!

One last pic from our Salmon River hike today.

Yes, that is SNOW in the foreground.
Hurry up, Spring!!