Who Needs More Iron?

You do if you're anemic, or if you don't want to be. Sure, I take prescription iron 3 times a day, but according to my last blood count, I still need a boost in red blood cell production. So lately, I've been craving quinoa.

Whatever the body wants, the body gets, right? Except it really has been begging for Chex Mix, too, and Popeye's fried chicken with onion rings, but it ain't getting that.

Back to quinoa. Besides my own internal cravings and a bunch of nutritionists, who knew quinoa was rich in iron? Who even knows what quinoa (keen-wah) is? After a quick internet research, I'm still not sure ~ is it a grain, a seed, or is it the fruit of an herb?

It doesn't matter to me. It's just plain good. And yes, good for you. Plus it has plenty iron and amino acids (protein) and fiber, so it's tripley-good for you and your inner being, especially if you've gotten tired of the old-standbys of comforting mashed potatoes or buttered brown rice (which also contains a boost of iron over the plain white variety).

Quinoa is easy to cook and versatile, too. Spice it up savory or sweeten it lightly. I have never tried this recipe at 101cookbooks, but it sounds extremely good. Plus it has a photo.

Just for reference, one cup of dry quinoa can make about 4 to 6 servings and contains 87% the recommended daily allowance of iron.

> Start with one cup rinsed quinoa (toast it lightly - in the boiling pot coated with a tablespoon of olive oil - about 5 minutes until it smells nutty),

> add 1-1/2 cups water with a few grinds of sea salt,

> bring to a boil, then simmer (covered) for about 10-15 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed.

You'll know it's fully-cooked when you see the germ-spirals separate from the expanded grains. It's like your very own surprise-party in a pan.

Turn off the heat, fluff it up with a fork like you do with rice, and let it sit for covered about 5 minutes to ensure all the liquid is absorbed. And that's all it is to cooking it. Now, just season it up with fresh ingredients.

Try a bowlful with chopped tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, and frozen peas (warmed up the peas in the same skillet as the toasted nuts after they were toasted), and add a swirl more of olive oil and freshly ground salt and pepper.

Leftovers are easy. Portion them off into single-serving containers, and get creative later. For example, throw in some freshly chopped cilantro, chopped tomato, fresh corn kernels, and (of course) frozen peas. Then add a good swirl of olive oil and salt'n'pepper with two squeezes of lime across the top. Throw a few black beans in there if you wanted, but you already have a good serving of fiber and protein going for you with the quinoa alone.

Quinoa is tasty served hot or cold, savory or sweet, just waiting for you to toss in some fresh ingredients. Try it. I see some quinoa in my very near future with avocados and lime...make up a recipe and send it in to me.

For all the nutritional data on quinoa and everything else, check out nutritiondata.com.

High Apple Pie in the Sky Hopes

I get the best emails from a friend of mine. Lately, I've been really working from both ends of the spectrum on getting life back to as-normal-as-I-get after this treatment for aplastic anemia (coming up on the 100 day mark, this coming Tuesday). Every day, he sends me and list of people an email featuring Ralph Marston. Very positive and insightful. This Ralph Marston is better than caffeine every morning. Well, ok, almost -- I still need the coffee, half-caff. I try. So anyway, I thought I'd keep posting the emails while I get back into the groove soon. Not the rut, just the groove. I like this one in particular. It's my favorite subject matter, about The Little Guy Getting Ahead with big value from small opportunities:

"Sometimes the opportunities that seem the smallest are the best. For they're the opportunities that have the most room for growth. The biggest, most obvious opportunities attract a great deal of attention. That can make them fiercely competitive because of all the people who seek tomake the most of them. Small opportunities can go largely unnoticed.

"Yet for someone who makes the effort to see it, a small opportunity can be an ideal platform on which to build great value. Small opportunities are numerous and widely available. You could spend yourwhole life waiting for a big opportunity, while many small opportunities comealong every day.

"Small opportunities usually offer more latitude, flexibility and room forcreativity. With small opportunities you can make the most of your own unique passion and purpose. Open your eyes to the abundance of seemingly small opportunities that arrivein your world on a daily basis. For even with small opportunities you can create big value."

-- Ralph Marston

Go, Ralphie! Thanks for the positive goods!

Haven't had proper time to write.

But I do have time to share. Got this in the email today from a friend.

"A Positive Way"

How do you keep yourself positive when the people around you are so negative? How can you maintain a positive approach when the situations and events around you are so troublesome? A sincerely positive attitude is not a reaction to the way things are. Rather, it is an expression of the way you choose for things to be.

Being positive is not an unrealistic or naive view of a negative world. It provides you with a solid foundation for making real improvements in the world and creating meaningful value.

Being positively focused enables you to see, and to make the most of, opportunities that would otherwise be invisible. Being positive gives you the energy to move forward no matter what the obstacles may be.

When you focus on the positive aspects of a situation, there will be plenty of people who disagree with you. But that is their problem, not yours.

Look beyond those who argue for defeat, and find the path to victory. Whatever the current situation may be, you can always choose a positive way forward.

-- Ralph Marston

And when all else fails,

...a little superficial shopping never hurts. Check out these Mary Jane boots. And, I really want the "Rain Rain, Go Away" blue sky umbrella. Hey, not everything has to be so serious to be so positive. Just don't get too crazy with the credit card.

You learn by continuing on.

Think about your life and how it starts.

You start with a clean slate as a tiny, wailing-crying baby human. You have no idea where you are, but you continue on. From there, for at least the next 18 years, you learn. Someone teaches you to eat, to brush your hair, to wash your face, to be kind to others, to eat your vegetables, to write a term paper, to solve an algebra problem, to fly a kite. You are trained to go to school, from age 5 to age 18, at the very least. Then, you go on to what you think you will do for the rest of your life ~ you get to choose what and where you learn at a college or university, where you can easily spend at least 4 years, maybe 10 if you feel like it. Then, you are in the world, on your own. You have no idea where you are, but you continue on. Unless you apply the teachings you have learned, it's all just useless trivia. With all the years of textbooks and tests, we all know that the most important things you've learned, you learned them when you were just a child, just before you went to school. "Some people never grow up, they just grow older," my mom told me once, explaining the juvenile pettiness of someone I'd encountered along the way in life. Whether you realize it or not, we all choose everyday, of whether to learn and to grow or to not, with just the smallest actions we do, or don't do. "Character is what you do when no one is looking," I read once. You have no idea where you are, but you continue on. You have to listen to your intuition, between what you know is right or wrong, and choose the right answer. You don't have to, but that's the way it was set up. Someone taught you the difference between the two along the way. If they didn't, then it's never too late to learn. You have no idea where you are, but you continue on. And sometimes, that's all you need to know to continue on. Life is that easy and that hard at the same time. Sometimes that is all you need to know. The rest is just photos and yearbooks and useless worry. The best solution isn't always the easiest, but right is right for a reason. It works.

Healing Nutrition

Oh, you can't tell me that nutrition isn't a part of overall healing and maintaining health and well-being. In my quest to find superfoods which may help boost immunity or promote healthy cell growth or keep donated blood and platelets happier, I found a great site, Nutrition Data ~ a huge amount of information on any food you may be researching. Anyone besides me like steamed okra? Just me then? Ok, I admit it ~ I love okra. Enjoy!

"Joy is internal and eternal." ~ R. Olivier

Over the years, I've known several people who've ended up committing suicide, in one way or another. The first one was named Jeff. The moment I met him and shook his hand, I saw the pain in his eyes, and knew he'd kill himself and that there was nothing I could do to make him feel better. We worked together one summer repairing chipped, beveled glass entry doors of overblown mansions and the cracked stained glass windows of tiny, old country churches ~ guess which ones I enjoyed most? The ones painted in deep, rich tones of blood red and golden light with contentedness and peachy skin tones, telling stories to the simple peasants like me, with paintings, examples, resurrecting the sunlight into heavenly streamers and ribbons crawling across wooden floors.

The second person I knew was named Spencer. I knew when I met him, he was too nice to survive in this world, I thought. "I can't watch this," I thought, not getting involved in his life but wanting to, wanting to help him. Scared of him as I saw myself. One night, a girl of not much worth broke his heart, left him right after his mother died from cancer. So, with a bravery and weakness I can and can't imagine, taught that it's a sin to end your own life, he put his driver's license in one back pocket, his birth certificate in the other, and threw himself in front of a train.

Many people I have known since then haven't died, but they are living zombies. Not long ago, so was I ~ zombied ~ I knew it, it almost killed me, and it scared me. That slow, droning feeling that life "just sucks" and has no point: relatives and few really close friends along the way drank themselves and everyone around them into living hell. They're still alive, but really, they're not there anymore. It surprises me, but at the same time, it doesn't. I wish I could help everyone. But I can't. But.

I'm not sure what my point is except that I know how hard it is to remain positive or to actually be positive and change your outlook on life. Honestly as always, I've been so close to never feeling one more positive thought ever again that I wanted to punch people in the mouth for even suggesting it. At this point, you need to stop and think, "What am I thankful for?" Think of one thing. If you have only one thing, then you have something. If you have zero, then search and create one thing to be thankful for. Because if you have one, odds are, you will soon be able to count up three, then seven. Then, announce them out loud. Silently acknowledging your counted blessings is good, but fighting back and throwing them out to the universe is the key. You will be heard, and don't let anyone take that away from you.

Life is hard. Being sick is hard. Being well is hard. Being alive is hard. Being dead is hard on everyone else. Patience and peace is hardest of all. When you feel terrible enough, at the end of your rope clinging onto the unravelling knot, remember that "happiness is external, and joy comes from within." These words came to me today through a talk by Ross Olivier. "Never give up, never say die," is what my father said after every surgery and every treatment. Tell yourself that every day.