Am I Losing My Touch?! And a Taco Salad Recipe

Hey Everyone! How's it going? Is January getting started on the right foot for you? It is for me, fo sho! After a magical but low key Christmas & New Years will my little family of 3, we're back in the swing of things. Bean's back at school, I am back at the gym with a vengeance & an eye to achieving some fresh goals (one of which involves a bicep curl & a 35 lb dumbbell, we'll see how that goes, ahem), new personal training clients signing up AND...my aerobics classes starting on Monday out in my little village. I am nervous & excited, can't wait for people to show up and hopefully feel like they're getting something out of it!

What are your goals as far as fitness for this year? Any changes on the horizon?

So the gym is hopping, as I'm sure you can imagine. Lots of newbies, great to see them working hard to change something in their lives. I love it. What I don't love? One of the 'oldies' whose still kicking around the place. He's this guy, a real pain the butt, lurks around the place making googly eyes at all the ladies, innapropriate comments, touchy-feely, very icky. I've complained to management about him, and said a few things to him to head him off, and it works....for a little while. But then he's right back at it within a few weeks, drives me nuts. At my gym I'm usually one of the only girls in the weight room, which can sometimes be intimidating enough- do I really need this douchebag there to make it uncomfortable?

And the worst part is, I think I might be losing my touch. My touch with the Look of Death (aka Beotch Face) that is. I mean, this look has been known to fell a man at 20 paces- just ask Brad (don't worry, he's ok now). They wither as soon as I bust it out, sometimes even curl into fetal position on the floor, it's never failed me. So I tried it on Mr Douchey yesterday and it appears he is my Kryptonite. Didn't even phase him. Googly eyes just got bigger and inane comments presented....haallllp! What do I do? Any thoughts? Advice?

Alright, enough yakking. How about a recipe? Taco Salad is a real standbye in this house. The Bean absolutely ADORES it, and so do we. It makes a huge amount of food, which is great for leftovers. And it is superb for entertaining too because the platter is pretty impressive looking. I think it's pretty healthy, especially if you use extra lean ground beef or even better, ground turkey or chicken. This was our New Year's Supper, a nice fresh, clean way to start the New Year. Here it is:

Ingredients:
1 pound extra lean ground beef or ground turkey
1 onion, minced
2 TBS minced garlic
1 tablespoon chili powder, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, or to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 can EACH of black beans,kidney beans, & corn niblets, drained and rinsed
1 head Romaine lettuce, torn into small pieces
1 - 2 tomatoes, cut into bite-size pieces (or halved cherry tomatoes)
1 cuke, chopped
1 sweet bell pepper (colour of your choice), chopped into chunks
1/2 cup sliced green onions
Chopped cilantro to taste (optional)
1/2 cup sliced black olives (optional)
1 or 2 avocados, sliced or guacamole
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese
Salsa, Sour Cream, Tabasco

Directions:
On a LARGE platter, arrange the lettuce as a base, like a bed. Spread kidney beans over lettuce, then black beans, then corn. Scatter chopped peppers, cukes & tomatoes around the perimeter of the salad base (so the platter doesn't turn into a mountain). When you're almost ready to serve, fry ground beef or turkey with chopped onion & garlic, add chili powder, cumin, salt & pepper and fry together till meat is cooked through and fragrant from the spices. Top salad platter with meat, then green onions, olives, then cheese & cilantro. You can either buy a vinnaigrette of your choice to go with it, or make one with Olive Oil, Lime Juice, Salt, pepper, agave/honey, garlic. To be honest, there are so many flavours going on here that lately we haven't even been using a dressing. Serve with salsa, sour cream, tabasco (I put that s%$t on everything!) and guac. I also like to make nachos (with baked chips instead of fried) OR quesadillas made with Ezekiel wraps....Enjoy!

Alright guys I gotta scoot so bye for now. Thank you for reading. I appreciate it immensely and look forward to your feedback. For reals....

xoMelissa