Five short recipes for easy salads

A salad can make an ordinary dish into something extraordinary or it can even be meal on its own. Here is my top five easy to make salads – and they are delicious too!

Bacon salad

You will need:

·         250 g (1 cup) cooked bacon

·         2 apples

·         1 carrot

·         1 cucumber

·         1 beetroot

·         A few capers

·         250 g (1 cup) mayonnaise

·         1 small lettuce

·         2 hard-boiled eggs

·         3 tomatoes

·         1 stalk celery

1. Dice the bacon, celery, and apples.

2. Grate carrot and shred the cucumber and beetroot.

3. Mix the bacon, celery, carrot, apples and capers together.

4. Toss in the mayonnaise.

5. Pile up onto a lettuce leave and decorate with the eggs, cucumber and beetroot.

Crab salad

You will need:

·         1 can grab

·         1 small lettuce

·         Salt and pepper to taste

·         2 hard-boiled eggs

·         250 g (1 cup) mayonnaise

·         Paprika

1. Flake the grab meat into a bed of crisp lettuce leaves.

2. Add salt and pepper.

3. Sieve yolks of eggs and sprinkle over grab meat.

4. Chop egg whites and sprinkle around the grab meat.

5. Add a spoon of mayonnaise to each portion of grab meat and a dash of paprika.

Tomato anchovy salad

1. Cut the top off large firm tomatoes, turn upside down, and allow to drain, having removed the centre pulp.

2. Chop this pulp and mix with chopped canned anchovies, hard-boiled eggs, and cress.

3. Pile back into the tomato cases and serve on a bed of lettuce.

Winter salad

You will need:

·         1 young cabbage

·         Seasoning

·         1 stalk celery

·         2 sweet apples

·         2 hard-boiled eggs

·         1 beetroot

·         2 carrots

1. Shred the heart of the cabbage.

2. Season well and place into a salad bowl with the diced celery and thinly sliced apple.

3. Decorate with rings of the boiled eggs, diced beetroot, and grated carrots.

Tomato fish salad

1. Cut the tops off large tomatoes and scoop out the centre pulp.

2. Rub the insides of the cases with crushed garlic.

3. Chop the centre pulp and blend with flaked cooked white fish, diced cucumber, chopped watercress, and lemon juice. Season well.

4. Pile back into the tomato cases and garnish with sliced cucumber.

Beautiful body

How to understand women

Women are complex creatures, sometimes frustratingly so. There are times when we make the men in our lives want to throw up their hands in defeat and say, "I'll just never understand what women want!"

Do not give up hope. Sometimes the key to understanding a woman is to read between the lines of what she is saying to discover what she really means.

It is not entirely our fault that we have this round about way of communicating. Men are taught from a young age that asking for what they want is the best way to get it, while girls are encouraged to use our "feminine wiles" to manoeuvre our way into what our heart desires.

It does not help that a straightforward persistent woman is often tagged with unfair labels like "bitch" or "ball breaker". So instead of being direct, we sometimes take the long way to getting to what we really mean.

When your girl complains about her long hard day, there is a good chance it's not just to get it off her chest. She wants you help her relax, but instead of just asking you for a back massage, or to run her a hot bath, she feigns helplessness so you will be able to sweep in as her man and fix everything for her.

It is sometimes hard for a woman to ask for help from her man. We all want to believe we can take care of ourselves, but there are times when we just want to be cuddled a little bit. Therefore, instead of being annoyed by her whining, do the smart thing and ask her what she needs to unwind.

You can tell something is bothering a woman, but when you ask she says nothing is wrong. Do not be fooled, she really does need to talk. She just wants you to press her a little. If you insist on asking what is wrong it convinces her that you really want to hear about her problems and help resolve them.

Try to encourage her to open up without nagging. Instead, let her know that you are concerned and open to listening. She really does want to tell you about the fight she had with her best friend or how much getting passed over for that promotion at work upset her, but unless you show genuine interest, she will probably keep it bottled up.

The only time this translation may not be accurate is when she is upset about something you did. In this case, she may really need some space and time to think before she confronts you with it.

Beautiful women

Beautiful South Africa

Woman 

Are we icebergs?

An iceberg is a good analogy of our character and personality. The tip of the iceberg is what is seen first by other people, our personality. The part that lies underneath the water is our character, which lays unseen and hidden. Our personality is our image, techniques and skills that influence our outward success, but our true success will come from the goodness of our character that lies beneath the surface.

Anorexia nervosa – you must read this!

Woman

Robben Island

I am wrong!

Powerful words but unfortunately no too often uttered by a boss! Here is advice on how to use these words more often:

Admit to your staff when you have made a wrong decision, because chances are they already know. Not being able to say when you are wrong diminishes your effectiveness in the work place. Managers who narrow in on the blame and refuse to admit that they are wrong are viewed by their employees as weak and dishonest. Eventually, employees lose respect for the manager and good workers move on. People openly respect a person when they are big enough to admit that they erred in some way or other.

Robben Island

Beautiful women

Woman to woman

The catalytic exhaust

The need for lead-free petrol has revived interest in an invention that was first patented on 17 April 1909 by Michel Frenkel of France; the ‘method of deodorising exhaust fumes’. The catalytic exhaust was developed by General Motors in 1974 and has become compulsory in the United States.

In October 1987, Switzerland also made the catalytic exhaust compulsory in an attempt to combat the harmful effects of pollution, in particular the destruction of her forests, which have been reduced by 40 percent.

At the end of 1988 the American company Ford produced a new platinum-free catalytic exhaust which complied with the required standards but is much less expensive, and which has been fitted on some models of their cars since 1989. The catalytic exhaust converts the polluting exhaust fumes into harmless substances by means of a series of chemical reactions. In the  final stages of these reactions, a precious metal, usually platinum, is used.

The barelegged looked

My South Africa

Woman to Woman

Breaking down Hate

Here is a very true life-lesson:

"Take it as a reminder: The enemy is not Arab people or the Muslim religion. The enemy is fanaticism, extremism, intolerance, hate. The madmen who commandeered those planes don´t represent the followers of Islam any more than the madmen who blow up abortion clinics represent the followers of Christ."

Leonard Pitts, Jr., Miami Herald columnist

Beautiful women

Woman to woman

Travel SA

Why you need a financial plan

From a financial planning point of view, most people face four or five common risks. They are:

·         Dying too soon and leaving debt or dependents

·         Living too long (insufficient funds on which to retire)

·         Disability (over a short or extended period)

·         Funds for short-term emergencies.

·         Debt!

A financial plan should identify the potential impact of any of these areas (as well as any others) and should be designed to minimise negative impact.

Woman to woman

Beautiful women!