A Pepper Mill

My sister Barbara gave me this awesome pepper mill, part of a gift she and Jack got me as thanks for helping out with my adorable great-nephews this year.  It works spectacularly.  Here I am seasoning some gnocchi before baking in the oven (another Meez Meals prepped dinner).

Workouts With Personal Trainer/Sugar Addiction

I was going to title this, "The Elephant in the Room", tongue-in-cheek, but I am trying to bring more positivity into my life, especially around body image.  It has recently dawned on me, in a BIG way (no pun intended) that I really need to take the difficult steps involved in promoting my own health.

My winter and spring consisted of: feeling unmotivated, not exercising, getting sick at least three times between November 2016 and now (some related to CIRS, but more on that later), and eating horribly, but with sporadic attempts to set myself right.  I would get on a good path, but then feel deflated and unmotivated.  Some of this may be due to feeling depressed.  I have been taking supplements to help this, but the whole exercise piece was missing.  So I stumbled along, knew I was gaining weight, knew I wasn't feeling well even when I wasn't officially sick.  And let's just say that my approach to sugar, ice cream, and candy bars is (and hopefully - was), like that of an addict.

I finally had the courage to step on the scale - shocking.  I know my clothes weren't fitting well, but, you know, tomorrow. I had been thinking of booking some sessions with a personal trainer months ago, but wanted to wait until after Portland.  Then I got super sick, and did nothing.  But eat.

Recently, I watched some YouTube videos on fitness and lifestyle.  I became motivated to try once again to get a handle on this.  In a stroke of luck, I received a free trainer session from the health club since it is my birthday month.  I signed up, was able to choose my trainer online (which was hard, but thankfully I picked one I match well with), and set up the first session.

The first session was mostly evaluation of my strength, flexibility, diet, etc.  Then she had me stand on this diagnostic fitness tool called "In Body":

The In Body told us my weight, which I already knew was up there, my total body fat percentage, my muscle mass, and some other stuff that I wasn't really tuned into (too focused on the first three).  In a nutshell, my fat percentage is too high, and my muscle mass is too low.  It was a lot worse than I thought it would be.  We talked about diet and sugar, and a lot of other stuff.  Ultimately in the end I signed up for a series of sessions.  

I have been exercising every day, even if it is just a walk throughout the neighborhood.  I figured out a .75 mile distance and do that when I don't go to the health club.  And I have stopped treats for now, with the exception of a little bit of nice, dark chocolate (Wei of Chocolate Dark Creamy, sweetened with coconut blossom sugar), and I had a little bit of Tyler's chocolate cake the other night at a restaurant.  I also had ordered some prepped meals from Meez Meals (Mise en Place).  That helped so much with cooking - most of the prep is all done.  I also saw a product on YouTube to add to my smoothies in the morning that seems to help with the cravings.  I am going to go through the fridge, freezer, and pantry over the next few days, and get all set up to promote proper diet. 

So I think I am on the right track.  My trainer worked me very hard today, but I felt great afterwards.  And it is easier to feel positive when one is doing positive things!

Vegan Substitute for Bone Broth

My posting has suffered due to illness.  I won't go into all of it, other than to say that I never fully recovered from a cold in March, and then was basically sidelined for two weeks recently, feeling awful, only meeting the barest of obligations.  But I am finally on the mend again (tired of being sick all the time - what an awful fall and winter I have had!)

I keep hearing about bone broth and how good it is for you.  The trouble is - we're vegetarians.  A while back, I found this recipe for a "Gut-Healing Broth".  The woman who wrote the post brings up some good points:

• Nutrients and electrolytes in bone broth can be found in vegan-friendly sources
• The body makes its own collagen 
• Our bodies can’t even digest collagen whole; rather, we simply absorb the nutrients from our food which provides our bodies with the building blocks it needs to naturally create collagen
• Eating collagen does not equal having more collagen
• Healing the stomach lining can be done in other ways
• The calcium, potassium and other minerals found in bone broth are more than easy to find in plant-based foods plus they contain much, much more goodness

I made this broth.  It had lots of ingredients.  It used coconut aminos instead of tamari or soy sauce, which was interesting (I found the coconut aminos at Whole Foods).  I added Himalayan salt to it (it needed it!).  It had a very strong taste.  I made a big batch and froze a lot of it, parceling out small doses each day of the small Ziploc bagful that I didn't freeze.  I haven't thawed any out since, but will this week.  I just saw an interesting talk on "leaky gut" which inspired me to be more cognizant of this.  

Ingredients all prepped and ready to go

Cooking, after which the brother would be strained.

Health Update (Healthy Eating)

So, I have been sick for 2 1/2 weeks.  It started just before I began my healthy living stuff I mentioned in my previous posts.  It just seemed to get worse and worse with each day.  Finally the doctor gave me antibiotics last week.  I also am getting over laryngitis.  I was too exhausted to do much, but during this time the sprouts grew, Paul and I are eating more salads (with sprouts!), and I also tried a healing drink.

But I am finally on the mend.  I still cannot sing due to the recovering laryngitis.  So I doubt I will be able to sing at all for Easter.  This bums me out more than I can say.  Maybe I'll post on those emotions another time.  Today though, I went to ballet class!  So that was a bright spot. (Separate post on that to come.)

Photos:

Pea Shoot Sprouts Growing Nicely

Healthy Healing Drink:

Coconut milk, Manuka honey, fresh ginger, turmeric

I had peeled the ginger and turmeric that went into the drink pictured

Note: the AC vinegar in the back was not part of the drink!

Microgreen Kit

Continuing on my healthy living theme, I recently purchased a Microgreen growing kit from the Window Garden company.  We bought the tray, some pea shoot sprouting seeds, and a "Veg Ledge" that fits on the window with suction cups.

Here's the kit, unboxed

The kit itself came with tray, soil disc, a water spritzer, and sample pack of seeds.  I bought an extra box of seeds with the pea shoots* - that came with three envelopes of seeds and extra soil discs.  

Seeds planted, tray suction-cupped to the window

In about 10-12 days, I shall be eating sprouts!!

*P. S. Although the packet says "Use Entire Packet", I didn't.  It seemed like too much seed.  I used half.  I suppose I will spend more money that way - buying new soil discs, but I want to easily harvest these sprouts.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Healthy Living

Which I am struggling with...

I'm not sure if it is age, or being busy, or with the autoimmune issue I'm dealing with (CIRS).  I have really been struggling with eating right and exercising.  But I have been taking some small steps to try and get on track.  We recently had a super warm, sunny day.  I walked to a local market, which is a good fitness walk away from home.  I wore a tank top, put some sunscreen on only my face and forearms (which get hopelessly dark in the summer while the rest of me is as pale as ever), left my upper arms and shoulders to absorb some sunlight.  I got ingredients for some healthy recipes I want to try.  And try one I did.  It was just veggies and a sauce, but it was really good!

Groceries and some flowers for the table (springtime!!)

Steamed veggies with a miso-tahini sauce 

(and my little ducky in his bowl in the background)

Today was cold again, but Grandson wanted to search for Pokemon on the Pokemon Go game.  So we walked very far, probably a mile and a half, or even two.

It's a start, anyway.

Kleen Owt!! (Healthy Start/CIRS)

Yesterday I watched a webinar (free!) presented by Dr. Axe.  I was interested in the whole "leaky gut" business because my doctor diagnosed me with Hashimoto's and CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) last year.  I had an understanding of how the gut plays into this, but needed reinforcement because I am easily tempted to cheat.  To my credit, I have been working assiduously for the past month to avoid it.  I'm doing very well.  The only hang up is the small amount of gluten contained in the Communion hosts each Sunday (I have read that they do make reduced gluten hosts, apparently low enough that some celiacs could potentially consider using them? But don't go by me on that!! Ask your doctor!)  My doctor felt that for me, a non-celiac, the weekly host would not be a problem.  But I may gently probe around at church, see if they do offer them.  

For those who are not familiar with CIRS, here's a nice general definition from a website:
"CIRS is the illness that occurs when someone who is genetically vulnerable to bio-toxins is exposed and reacts with chronic and systemic inflammation. It turns out 25% of the population carries the genetics responsible for this condition."

I found the webinar talk to be inspiring, just the push I needed.  I wanted to have a small renewal, have plans to make an immune-building soup, plus this yummy other soup I made previously.  But my fridge was woefully in need of a cleaning and purging.  I did this, there was some "Eeew" involved in the back of the vegetable drawer, got the shelves wiped down (need to do the door shelves still).  Here it is, emptied out, waiting for new groceries:  

Groceries are bought, waiting to be utilized.  I started today baking a large butternut squash for tonight's soup.  Tomorrow I'll do the immune-building soup.  I also want to make a soup I posted about previously (here).  It was so yummy, and made enough to freeze, which I did.  Last week I thawed it out for dinner - still yummy!!

I see my doctor at the end of the month.  I hope my month of gluten-free strictness and this new motivation to improve diet even more will pay off.  

Healthy Soup

Yesterday I made a big pot of "Weight Loss Vegetable Soup".  It was really yummy, and naturally gluten-free.  I left out broccoli simply because I forgot to buy some, and I made it with veggie broth instead of beef broth to make it vegan.  I only used four cups of veggie broth (contents of one aseptic container).  I added some Himalayan salt to taste along with the other spices (it needed a little).  I did freeze some, since it made a lot.  But have been subsisting on it as I fight off the start of a cold (along with Chinese herbs and Dr. Dunner's Sambu-Guard).  I really enjoyed the cooking, even all the chopping.  It just felt nice to create something live-giving and healthy.

Found Object - Salad Bowl

This wonderful salad bowl was made by my hubby Paul when he was in Shop Class in high school.  It is beautifully made.  He also made the salad serving set as well.  Many years back though, before we had a kitchen with storage, we used to keep the bowl on top of the fridge with a lot of other stuff.  Then one day it got jostled and fell off.  It broke clean in two, much to our despair.  It went into the basement for repair, and Paul got it glued back together.  It needed refinishing though: filling of any small remaining cracks, a good sanding, re-staining parts, and plenty of polyurethane to fill gaps and give it a solid waterproof coat.  But there were just so many other projects and so much to do, that it sat and sat and sat...

Then once we had made some good headway into the kitchen remodel, we stumbled upon it on a shelf in the basement.  How many years had it been?!  Paul got going on it again, working carefully and methodically to restore it.  Coat after coat of poly, until it was just right.

Paul's Signature on the bottom of the bowl 

from when he first made it- 4/20/72.

How lovely to serve salad in such a bowl!

Adventures in Coffee (Vegan Mocha)

For Christmas, I gave Paul a new coffee maker that mounts under the cabinet.  The kids gave him a coffee grinder.  This has been fun.  The beans smell so delicious right after grinding.  I decided to experiment with a vegan mocha recipe.  I got it from Oh She Glows.  (The recipe below makes a lot - I did 1/3 of this recipe for one serving.) 
Ingredients:

• 1 cup freshly brewed coffee (decaf, if preferred)
• 1 can light coconut milk
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
• 3 tbsp pure maple syrup (or sweetener of choice)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• dash of fine grain sea salt

1. Whisk together the coffee and coconut milk in a medium-sized pot. Bring mixture to a simmer and reduce heat to low.

2. Sift in the cocoa powder, whisking quickly to incorporate until no clumps remain. Whisk in maple syrup to taste and a dash of sea salt.

3. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Serve immediately with vegan marshmallows and/or sugar-rimmed glasses or mugs. Store any leftovers in a glass jar in the fridge.

This was pretty good!  I did adjust the sweetener a bit, since I like my coffee drinks sweet.  

The new coffee maker

The grinder

Ingredients for the vegan mocha

Non-dairy topping that is not all chemical-ey

I think I'll go make some more right now!

Vegan Caesar Salad

Now that Robert and Sierra are strict vegans, I have been looking into this more, both recipes and lifestyle change for myself.  I think that reducing dairy products is a good idea, and I totally get the animal cruelty aspect, (not going into that here though).  Our recent holiday meals have had a lot of vegan components - very tasty too.  I read about a vegan Caesar salad dressing on a youtube channel (link).  I tried it out, and it's really good.  The garlic really comes out strong in the dressing, so don't go nuts, maybe start with one clove, add more to taste!  

I did as the video suggested, adding tempeh.  

For mine I marinated, then baked the tempeh in barbecue sauce.  Yum!

Several people have asked for the recipe.  I transcribed it from the link.  Thanks to Sarah from holistichabits for this!

Vegan Caesar Salad Dressing

½ cup Brazil Nuts (or can use half Brazil nuts and half cashews), soaked overnight or for at least 8 hours

¾ cup water

2 tbsp hemp seeds

1 small Lemon (or 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar)

3 tbsp capers

1-2 cloves Garlic

1/8 tsp dry mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

1 small soaked pitted date (optional)

Place all in blender and puree until smooth. Note: garlic is very strong in this recipe, so start with one clove, add more to taste.

Christmas Was Lovely

This Christmas was one of the best I have ever had.  It was mostly stress-free, pleasant happenings, happy memories.

Christmas Eve - I only had to work a half-shift, then came home to eat and rest before Mass. I sang with the choir.  We started before the Mass.  We sang a lot of different music, some very difficult, some familiar.  It was a lot of work learning it.  But we sang well.  The whole Mass was very beautiful.  Then home to finish up wrapping and do the stockings.  Julie outdid herself by baking tons of cookies for Santa.

Christmas Day Morning - Ty woke us up early, very excited.  We opened gifts.  I got a bottle of Jo Malone Orange Blossom (I have been wanting it for perhaps a year!).  It smells divine. The Little Boy was happy with his gifts.

Christmas Day Afternoon - Cooking!  Kristin made her usual lasagna.  I made the dark and soft restaurant rolls and seasoned the Tofurkey to bake.  Robert and Sierra made all of the sides, with me just helping here and there with chopping, and then minding everything while it baked.

Christmas Dinner - How beautiful.  It was candlelight and china, tasty wine and unusual beer provided by Sierra, and the food turned out great.  The conversation was pleasant, no fighting amongst the siblings, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

It was a blessed season.

Ty places the star.

The tree, all decorated.

Orange Blossom Deliciousness!

Meez Meals

A while ago I blogged about trying the Hello Fresh meal service.  Although the food was of good quality, I wasn't delighted with the recipes - just not to my taste.  Plus there wasn't a big variety of choices.  My cousin suggested a local service called Meez Meals.  You may wonder about the name.  According to their website (www.meezmeals.com): "The name Meez Meals was inspired by the cooking philosophy of Mise En Place – French for having everything ready to go when you’re ready to cook. We love the idea, but our French is challenged. So we went phonetic: Meez."  

I like this service, because they provide a soft-sided caddy with reusable ice blocks when they deliver.  Once unpacked, the ice blocks go back in and the caddy can be right back on the front porch for the next week's delivery (except in January I suppose - it would get completely frozen to the porch and wouldn't move until spring).  Most importantly, the food has been really good.  They have much more variety, and can tailor many of their meals for vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free diets.  Tonight we had Yellow Curry (we had them leave out the mint yogurt) and Thai Peanut Carrots.  It was yummy, and we have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch!

It Begins! (Recipe Testing for the Downton Abbey Dinner)

I am beginning to try out the recipes I have planned for my Downton Abbey Dinner.  The first one is a split pea soup.  I am trying to duplicate the old Magic Pan "Potage St. Germain" recipe (which can be found easily online).  However, I am trying to do a more healthy version.  I will include little tiny glasses with a bit of brandy at each place setting, to pour into each individual soup serving if my ladies want that, the way Magic Pan used to do.

I have a dessert recipe to try, and I need to figure out how to do a version of my main entrée without gluten so I can have some of that (my ladies will have the normal recipe).

There Be Latkes

On Sunday, Robert and I made latkes from the Hello Fresh ingredient boxes.  They were yummy.  I am loving the Hello Fresh boxes, because they, and my new kitchen, make cooking fun and easy.

A Little Corner - With Kitchen Step-Stool (And Little Boy)

My kitchen is coming together more and more.  I wanted to some sort of bar stool or chair so that someone could sit in the kitchen.  For example, when I have a friend over and I am still cooking, the person could sit and talk to me.  This often happens on Movie Night, when I pick up my friend Lisa before Movie Night starts and I still have food to finish up before the rest of the guests arrive.  Or, when Tyler needs a snack or breakfast, he could sit there. When not in use it would sit against the wall to be out of the way - an important consideration, since Kristin walks past this area from her room to the main floor of the house.  When I first suggested this idea, she was concerned about the space, thinking I planned to put a couch or something there!

I was thinking of a chair step-stool that my mom used to have in her kitchen.  I wanted that, because I also need a step stool to reach the higher cabinets.  There are vintage ones out there, and new ones in the same design.  However, the new ones are black or red.  As much as I love the vintage design, I did not like those colors for my kitchen.  But the same company that makes the vintage-y ones (Cosco), also makes a more modern design in white. So, I got that.  It works perfectly.  Here is Ty waiting for his snack (egg, over-easy) to be finished cooking.

Hello Fresh Trial

I have started up with the Hello Fresh meal service.  How this works is that the company assembles all ingredients and recipes for your weekly order, then delivers them in a box with cold packs.  I really liked what I saw with this first box.  We ordered the vegetarian box.  It gives you three meals to make.  Some are gluten-free, others can be adapted by making a gluten-free grain on the side to replace the pasta, etc., then using the sauce or other ingredients included in the recipe.  You can choose two servings or four.  We chose the four servings.  What's interesting is that if you order the four serving option, they are sent in two individual two-packs, rather than the four all together.  That way, if you are not particularly hungry or family members are away for the evening, you can just make a two-serving meal, and save the other for a night later in the week.  That's what we did tonight.  Kristin was at a dance rehearsal, and Julie was over, but not super hungry.

I made the Chinese Black Bean Sauté:

All of the ingredients, nicely packaged.

The meal was good, with the exception of the Chinese spices; there was star anise and fennel in it, which I do not particular like (along with cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns, and cloves, which I do like).  When I make the second one I will use my own spices.  But the meal all in all was good.  I also had to make some special adjustments.  Paul hates mushrooms, and that is one of the prime ingredients.  So I sautéed those separately.  Then I made some Morningstar farms veggie fake meat crumbles for Paul.  So we just assembled our individual dishes according to the "innards" we liked.   

What seems like will work out in a most excellent manner is that since the meals are packaged up and labelled, they simply can go in the basement fridge, and all I have to do is go grab a pack or two to make.  It doesn't take up room in our more compact upstairs fridge. With me avoiding gluten, I will have to adapt parts of some of the recipes; some I may need to not eat at all.  But tonight's meal was gluten-free.  The Barley and Avocado salad will require me to make a side of rice or quinoa to replace the barley in my own portion.  The others can have it with the barley as written.  The Cauliflower Mac and Cheese for this week will be something I won't have (although, perhaps I could make a side of gluten-free macaroni, and reserve some of the cheese sauce!), but I'm sure the others will enjoy it.  Next week's meals I can also make substitutions (gluten-free pasta for me to replace the orecchiette pasta the others will have with the sauce, and using gluten-free bread or a portobello mushroom for the Fig and Brie Grilled Cheese - interesting combo!).  

So, I'll see how this goes.  I'm hoping that this will help me with meal planning.  I like the idea of someone just telling me what to do, and having the ingredients all there for me.  I like to cook, but don't like the planning and figuring out ingredients.  Not sure why that is!

Countertop View

Making Stock

Today I tried something I have never done before: making a vegetable stock. I wanted to make one that I was reading about (found while searching for the benefits of alkalizing mineral broths for health).  It was actually fairly easy - all of the vegetables were chopped via my Bosch food processor, dumped into the stock pot, water added, boil, then simmer.  Once cooled the broth is strained off from the vegetables.  It made a large quantity which I then divided up.  I froze two bags of broth, drank a mug of it, and the rest is in the fridge to be used for soup I will be making tomorrow or Friday. 



Restoring Order From Chaos

Our kitchen project goes on, but we have definitely turned the corner.  We have cabinets, countertops, a working stove, a small but fully-functional dishwasher, an awesome fridge, and now, running water.

It is so lovely to be able to function in the kitchen.  Paul hooked up the sink late last week.  This weekend we started putting things back, as much as we are able to pending certain organizational tweaks we are doing (pot & pan organizer, lazy susan shelf trays, etc. to be shipped in the coming days).  Today I continued putting things away and organizing.  The fridge, although new, has been with us for almost a month, and needed a wipe down inside.  I also moved some of the of the food that was housed in the basement fridge upstairs.  I stopped by Mariano's and got some nice produce.  It's time to eat healthy again since the kitchen is open for business!

Two really special things that have occurred now that we are moving back into the kitchen are: 

1. Reclaiming the dining room table, where lots of kitchen stuff was sitting for months
2. Having a cup of tea!  There was really nowhere to set up my tea kettle and brewing cup.  

We have had family dinner at the dining room table the past two nights.  Our dining room was so bad, it literally looked like a hoarder's house.  It was so nice to unclutter and clean it, and use it again for its proper purpose.  This afternoon I brewed a cup of tea in the mug Aunt Martha gave me long ago.  It's battered and bruised, but it feels like home to me.

I'm so glad to be getting back to normal, but a new, delightful normal with this wonderful kitchen Paul has created for me.  More photos to follow in the upcoming weeks.