Life's A Beach--And a Shoe!

Carnival of the Recipes

This recipe is one of my favorite for summer time eating. Low cal and very light. It is also very easy to store in a picnic basket for that day at the beach. It makes 8 servings and only has 12----yes--- 12 little calories! If you use real sugar then it is 30 calories per serving.

Cucumber and Onion Salad



1 and1/2 cups cucumbers, sliced paper thin
1/2 cup onions, sliced paper thin
1/3 cup vinegar
5 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
Sweetener equal to 15 teaspoons sugar

Layer onions and cucumber in a jar or bowl. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over vegetables. Refrigerate overnight, stirring or inverting jar several times.

Check out all the other summer fun recipes at Blabber Heads, titled life's a Beach!

While you are eating healthy at the beach to maintain that bikini figure and to avoid Dunlap Disease--you know where your belly dunlap over your belt--you must protect your feet or at least have fashionable beach shoes to wear. I remember going o the beach as a youngster and having to hip and hop over the sand. Man it can get hot. I think it really is hotter now-or so it seems. We did not have shoes with us when I went to the beach as a child.

We would leave our tennis in the car and walk barefoot. It seems that when I was little noone really worried about having "beach shoes" for going to the beach. I remember my father going to the beach in his black dress shoes. Wingtips. He would never get in the water. He would be in dress shorts and a short sleeve shirt and socks and dress shoes. His feet never touched the sand. We could never get him to take off his shoes when he was there or untuck his shirt or look like he wanted to be there in any way. He was just the driver and tolerated the beach for our sakes I guess.

Wingtips--My fathers' beach shoes

When I got to middle school and high school I do remember having flip flops to wear to the beach. Back then flip flops were not the decorative ones of today. They were the original plastic flip flops. Nothing special. It was even hard for me to find a picture of a plain pair. This is the closest I could find to the original. The originals after a while would break. The front thong piece would get loose and come out leaving you with sliding out of them from the front. Then it was time to get another pair.

The beach shoes of my youth

And you know what? Flip flops at the beach was the only place you would see them. We used to also call them shower shoes. They were just not worn any place else. They were not appropriate. Flip flops are getting ahead of themselves. Who in there right mind would wear flip flops to see the president? Tacky! These do not even look like the nice fashionable ones...these look like the cheap 99 cent flip flops.

Flip Flop--FLOP!

Today, of course there are many choices and I have had all sorts of beach shoes-whatever was popular at the time. Today beach shoes range from very casual to nice. This next pair is my pair of flip flops that I have now. They were my salvation in my shoe emergency! I have yet to get them near any sort of water for fear of messing up the beads. I can wear these with summer dresses and be called "dressy." Not for the beach.

I want a pair of the original Beach Crocs. I think I am going to get these for my birthday. Will I wear them to the beach? I am not sure. Maybe. I will make sure that I do not spill any juices from salad on them. I seem to be famous for messing up shoes that way!

What I do is kick them in the pants with a diamond buckled shoe!
~~Aileen Mehle~~