Smart Snack to Feed Your Cold

Ginger Tea with Gingersnaps
Ginger helps relieve congestion and has a soothing, spicy taste. To make a throat-calming, congestion-busting tea, steep chopped raw ginger in boiling water for about 10 minutes. Make your teatime a little sweeter by adding a teaspoon of honey to the brew and two crunchy gingersnap cookies on the side.

Recommended serving size: 1 cup of tea with 1 teaspoon honey and 2 gingersnaps
Calories: about 85

from "fitness" magazine

Introducing INDIAN BHANGRA!

Sometimes I catch Sarina Jain's Bhangra fitness dance on Fit TV's All Star Workout. I've been inspired to add this type of Indian music and dancing to my ZUMBA routines.

Bhangra is a traditional dance of celebration from the Indian state of Punjab. Bhangra dancing is also found in Bollywood movies. Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry in India. Bollywood films are mostly musicals.

Check out this video for a sneak preview of what we'll be doing in class:

black bean soup


This soup makes great lunch leftovers! The recipe makes 4 servings.

RECIPE
Saute 1 chopped onion, 1 tablespoon cumin, and 4 minced garlic cloves in 2 tablespoons olive oil.

Add 3 1/2 cups vegetable broth broth, 3 chopped tomatoes, one 15-ounce can black beans (I like to rinse and drain my canned black beans 1st) , 3/4 15-ounce can of corn or use fresh corn from the cob, and one 1.4-ounce can diced green chili peppers. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer 5 minutes.

Add 1 tablespoon snipped fresh cilantro. Garnish soup with crushed tortilla chips.

245 calories, 10g protein, 34g carbohydrate, 11g fat (1g saturated), 8g fiber.

from "fitness" magazine, Amy Kalyn Sims (some edits made by me)

ZUMBA birthday party

What a way to kick off 2008 other than having a ZUMBA birthday party?!?

The birthday girl and I getting the party stared!



Party people!