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Black Bean Veggie Burgers - Yes God!

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My mother came across this incredibly simple veggie burger recipe just a couple of weeks ago, and we have already eaten these burgers for two meals.  So quick and tasty!  We topped them with avocado, tomato, lettuce, and chipotle mayonnaise.  Yum.   Serves 4 Ingredients: 1 16-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 2-inch pieces 1/4 cup green onion 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1 egg 1 Tbsp chili powder 1 Tbsp cumin 1 tsp Thai chili sauce or hot sauce 1/2 cup bread crumbs Directions In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until paste-like. In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion and garlic. Stir into mashed beans. In a small bowl, combine egg, chili powder, cumin, and hot sauce. Stir into mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide into 4 patties. Place on lightly greased foil and grill on medium to high heat, about 8 minutes on each side. Serve on English muffins with ch
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Loving Kindness Meditation

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Loving Kindness Meditation, or Metta Meditation, is a particular type of mindfulness practice.  It's  not meant to be viewed as some kind of voodoo spell of love and kindness or anything, just a nice way of thinking of others warmly and positively.  If you frequently wish goodwill and happiness on someone who is...unpleasant, you may eventually respond to them more positively.  What an idea! Above is a very basic example of Metta.  I like a more extended version in which the meditator begins with the self, then to a benefactor, followed by someone you interacted with recently but are indifferent to (i.e. Cashier at store), then someone causing negative emotions, then onto larger and larger groups (i.e. your coworkers, community, state).  When doing this in a group with someone guiding the meditation, I've really enjoyed having the guide use specific examples of groups of people to think about within the community like homeless individuals downtown, everyone working in the cap
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Honey. Lime. Tilapia...Yes.

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This recipe  is tasty, quick, & easy!  I made it for the second time tonight.  My advice= be generous with the honey and go easy on the flour.  Mmm...divine :)
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Get to know TED.

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TED is a nonprofit organization that believes passionately that ideas have the power to change attitudes, lives, and ultimately, the world.  TED is dedicated to spreading ideas, and its website full of videos of talks and performances is one vehicle it uses to do so.  You can search for videos by length, topic, descriptors (i.e. inspiring, funny, jaw-dropping, etc.), speaker, and more.  Some of the speakers are world famous, and each is well-respected in his or her field.  You can watch anything from an impressive one-man orchestra: Andrew Bird's one-man orchestra of the imagination , to a medical visualization of fetal development: Alexander Tsiaras: Conception to Birth , to a human rights lawyer discussing social injustice:  Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice . These are just a few talks that interest me, but there's a little something for everyone.  Technology, entertainment, design, business, science, & global issues are the main categories feature
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The Civil Wars make beautiful music.

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The Civil Wars is a musical duo made up of John Paul White, vocals & guitar, and Joy Williams, vocals & occasional keyboard.  That's it.  They have no back-up band or other frills.  I would place them in the Folk genre, but I think that they would be appealing to people of varying musical tastes.  I could be wrong...you can decide for yourself since they so generously offer a live album for free to download from their website.  It's called Live from Eddie's Attic & you can find it by following this link:  The Civil Wars official website I'd also encourage you to listen to their cover of the Jackson 5's I Want You Back.  The Civil Wars completely make this classic their own.  I Want You Back - youtube I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!  I listen to them...frequently.  That may be an understatement...
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In the beginning...

It was Labor Day weekend, and a group of friends traveled to Chicago to reunite and celebrate a birthday.  Sunday afternoon was spent at the ballpark.  A feeling of euphoria passed through the group, and they found themselves incapable of pinpointing exactly what about this afternoon made it so tremendous. They tried to assign the top honor, "The Gold Star", to various things: the sunshine, the wonderful company, the delicious drinks, the baseball pants?  It seemed unfair to call just one of these things The Gold Star winner of the day.  Therefore, they gushed about all things wonderful.  Why must we denote a winner, when so many things are worthy of recognition?  This is the philosophical question that plagued them that fabulous day.  Thus the birth of a blog that celebrates greatness in many forms.  No winner will ever be assigned, rather everything featured can be considered worthy of mention.  Honorable Mention.  Who are we to pass final judgment anyway?  That job is best
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