A funny thing happened on the way to the scale

Celebrations are good for the body

2011-10-17T05:52:00.000-07:00

It was a very busy weekend here with errands and family parties. A birthday celebration for my mother in law and a baby shower for a nephew. I kept thinking with the baby shower that it was only a month ago that we gathered for the baby shower to mark the nephews impending arrival. Where do the years fly by ?

Both events were the standard party environment filled with foods that are meant to feed a crowd and no emphasis is paid on watching calories or so forth. It's food that says celebration to the occasion , and it is in abundance. For someone who is on your standard weight loss type plan, such events require a lot of forethought, management strategies , potentials for grief and more ( "Oh my gosh- I ate three pieces of cake " sorts of grief) . It was the first party I have attended for a while because of my knee injury, and one that happened well into my decision to simply eat real food and nourish my body. In past times there was always this compulsion to try a little bit of each thing, lest you insult someone who brought the dish or hurt their feelings. Not so any more- I went for the things that appealed to my appetite, ate till I felt satisfied, did not give a care about meeting any kind of health goals with my intake ( must eat a veggie serving) or any such thing. At the party on Saturday I had a soda, an Italian sausage sandwich on a bun and a small piece of birthday cake. At the baby shower I had a cup of punch, a piece of fried chicken ( a thigh) , two bites of a pasta dish and a small square of cake ( scraping off the frosting because I don't like frosting). I spent a lot of time in conversations or listening to conversations, and I was satisfied on many levels. Both were experiences that I am glad I have. It was refreshing-celebrating family milestones without any thought to food.

While I have never had emotional eating issues, I have had calculation issues. Counting calories, points, grams, servings or whatever before an event and after an event so that they did not do damage. Holidays and celebrations became "cautionary events". How realistic is that ? What does that say to the deepest levels of our minds about family, joy and even basic enjoyment ? Do we really need to become these bodies that fit someone's mathematical idea of perfection but yet are fearful, bitter and selfish within ? Do we need to see things like a cake or a high fat dish as a mortal threat ? Isn't that just a little like seeing a demon under every doily and living in constant fear ?

We are more than bodies. We need to feed not only the body , but the spirit as well. Simply gathering with your loved ones to say "hooray" for someone's event does the soul good. Same with indulging in some of great grandma's strudel or cheesecake at such an event. Leave the math for places and things where a numeric figure is the only game.

A weigh In

2011-10-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

Life has slowly moved back to the more normal pattern here, but some things will never return to the way they were. One big move has been the decision to live with TV Trays instead of an actual dining set , to save space and allow the existing flow of the living/dining area to remain. Funny thing is that there is something about eating on a TV tray that really alters your menu planing ideas. While you can justify eating things like salads and soups, things like a Thanksgiving sort of meal just do not fit. We plan on reclaiming our dining room table sometime after the first of the year, with a move to completely wireless laptops . Currently the dining room table is serving as the media room, and we are questioning the value of having completely static wok stations.

Unpacking is finally done,m and I have been able to get back to exercising once again. Stairs are still a challenge I cannot met, so exercising has been with the Wii fit. I stepped on and learned that I have lost 8 more pounds without dieting, eating real fat, sugar and real foods, and using salt to taste. I have also given up the arbitrary water rules that say you must chug 6 8 oz glasses of water per day. If I want a sweet, I eat one.If my day is too full of must do activities like the laundry or vacuuming, I do not try to cram in exercise , nor do I worry about it. This plan has seen me losing 19.5 lbs over the last 3 months or so. I also feel very well.

All of this just solidifies what so many " rebels" have been saying about weight loss. Calories mean nothing, the body needs real saturated fats for health, and you do not need to use a Gym. Ever. What we do need is to simply move, eat real foods and eat them in a way that our grandparents prepared them. We need to devote time in our days to making real, nourishing foods. One of the most harmful behaviors we have adapted is to treat food as an afterthought in our lives that can best be provided by a corporation ( who's interest is more in profit than in nourishment). Rather than plunk down money for a gym membership of piece of exercise equipment, we need to pick up the brooms and mops and rakes in our homes and put them to good use. We need to skip the chemicals to clean and simply apply elbow grease to get the surfaces clean. We need to skip watching things like Biggest Loser or The Real Trainwrecks who Happen to be Vampires of Hoboken New Mexico and move our furniture to vacuum under it. It will make us feel less stress, more peace and allow us to lay down our heads at night with a feeling of real accomplishment . And in the process, the scale will show positive progress, the lab tests will return favorably and we will all spend a whole lot less time worrying about things .

A visit to my kitchen

2011-10-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

It's now October, and suddenly our cooking habits turn from quick and light to comfort food it seems. With all of the apples, squash and other produce, how can you resist ? Summer meals seem to be the stuff that you can grab and go or grill, but come the fall we all seem to crave meals that say slow down, linger and rest. The earth shows a brilliant display of colors before settling in for a long winter's nap, and our very instincts mirror that sentiment. Here in my kitchen, it is time to start building up some serious resources so that our meals can be nourishing and frugal. An empty freezer is a terrible thing !

Let me show you one of the things I am proud of- my created pantry. This kitchen is small, high cabinets that are not very user friendly for my short legs, so I converted a coat closet right off the kitchen into a pantry space for herbs, flours, baking supplies and so forth

This is the view as you open the metal doors. Two bookcases and a rolling butcher's cart have been pressed into service here. The bottom rack of the butcher cart holds Tupperware containers of bulk flours, oatmeal, rice and so forth.On top is a book rack that holds my cooking herbs, and on the closet shelf I store those over sized cooking pans and bowls that are used but not every day. In the drawer rests parts for my stand mixer, frosting tips, food processor blades and so forth.

Close up of the herbs, bulk nuts , dried fruits and leftover junk food from the move - needed to have something available for quick energy during the move and for the very crazy packing and unpacking days. At times, junk food does have a purpose !

Second bookshelf holding baking supplies, stock of teas, steam mop and so forth. Odd sized knives and the sharpener are also stored in here.

And here is the actual buisness work area of the kitchen. A caddy with cooking utensils, block of knives, can opener, timer, broom that I need to find a better home for and my trusty stock pot/pasta pot. Today it is being used to convert these guys into Liquid Gold

Chicken feet !!! Yes, actual feet of actual chickens. While they look disturbing and sound gross, they create some of the finest gelatinous stock. I am tossing these guys into the stock pot , along with a collection of chicken bones that I have been saving in the freezer for the last month. This will render about 30 cups of nutrient rich chicken bone broth. Once it has cooked on a low heat for about 12 hrs, I strain out th bones and veggies , and it is better than any commercially prepared chicken stock.

On the other counter, which is home to the rice cooker, crock pot, Kitchen Aid mixer and food processor, est 3 pie pumpkins that will be roasted in the oven, pureed and then frozen for soup, pies, pumpkin oats and a lot more. I am expecting to get 20 cups of puree from these guys. Mister crock pot is not getting a vacation today- he is going to work on these :

Ox tails ! These make a wonderful soup. In my childhood, oxtails were one of those dirt cheap foods that we would all relish. They are beef, but have an incredibly rich beef flavor. Sometime in the mid 80's their price went from pennies to several dollars per pound, and we stopped eating them, except for the rare occasion when they went on sale. I am making a big batch of oxtail soup today ( for dinner and the freezer) , and then tomorrow I am using the actual bones to make beef bone broth. Did you know that you can re-use bones for a couple of batches of stock ? I was not aware of this. Chicken bones can be used 3 times before they lose their flavor but beef bones ( tougher) can be used over and over and over. Considering the price of these , I intend to get as much bang out of them as possible. Between the stocks, soup, pumpkin, pulled pork that I made the other day and vat of spaghetti sauce I made last night and forgot to snap a picture of, I think I am getting a good start to this stocking up project.

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen ! It's small but very functional. What is going on in your kitchen today ?

Food attitude and directionally challenged

2011-09-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

There is something about moving that can throw your very deepest senses of direction and space relation completely off kilter ! I have been wandering around her for 3 weeks, unpacking, getting into my new routines and feeling like someone placed me in the spin cycle of a dryer,let me out and now I am attempting to walk without crashing into something ! In our old place, all of the windows faced the east. Here, they all face the north , and it makes for an odd play of light and shadows that my brain is still not used to.

Sometime back I made the decision to no longer count calories, points, food groups and simply eat according to appetite. It is working. I have thrown away the scale ( literally), and am going by the way my clothing fits, my own stamina, flexibility, energy levels and so forth. I have dropped an underwear size, my tee shirts are hanging tragically loose, I am able to walk longer and farther, and can now do things like sit on the floor and get up ( could not do that for some time because of the injury). It is working. I am eating things like butter, eggs, whole milk, nuts, fish, chicken, red meat, veggies, grains - basically anything as long as it is not a processed food. I do a lot of cooking from scratch. During the move, all of those rules went out the door and we spent 5 days eating fast food three meals a day. It made me feel sick, run down, bound up and just plain unpleasant. While it was EXTREMELY nice not having to cook or worry about dishes at that time, it convinced me of the benefits of taking time to do the less convenient thing. Once again, weight loss is no longer the goal, focus or issue for us. Eating real food is.

Next week I am going to cook with something I never have before- chicken feet ! In the Oriental culture , these are used often to make soups because of their high gelatinous properties. Gelatine is good for you joints, bones, hair, skin, connective tissues and more. It is a source of protein , and these are used in broths to help the body absorb the properties of any healing herbs used. I need to stock my freezer here, but have been a little intimidated to do serious cooking in this very clean, white kitchen ! Time to get over it , and back to serious eats. I will post pictures of these strange little things next time .

I'm back !

2011-09-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the very long break, but it has been a sort of exciting summer. Biggest news is that we have moved into a new place that is on the first floor and has many things to absolutely adore about it. Here is a peek at my new kitchen - it is small but extremely efficiant !

The closet that lies behind I am using as a pantry- something that I have wanted for many years. While at first it struck me as tragically small, once I got a moment to sit and think about how to best use the space, I grew to love it ! The complex has a health club, plenty of sidewalks to wander , and is adjacent to one of the longest bike paths in Northern Illinois. Good things will happen here.

Flat, Flexible Footwear Best For Arthritic Knees

2011-07-06T07:49:00.000-07:00

Turns out I am not crazy about the thing with shoes- flip flops and flexible soled soes are better for arthritic knees

Flat, Flexible Footwear Best For Arthritic Knees

Maybe Prohabition was a good thing.

2011-07-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

It was a very crazy week here, but filled with "good" choices, lots of movement , and a day of Jury Duty. I think I would rather have a root canal without pain relief than be summoned for Jury Duty ! It's not that I have objections to doing one's civic duty, but in my case right now , Jury Duty service is in downtown Chicago, and a minimum 2 hour commute be it through mass transportation or driving oneself. Good news was that the commute was completely handicap friendly, so my fears of not being able to board the trains fast enough to avoid having a limb torn off proved to be irrational. Thanks to consistent exercise and avoiding dietary triggers, I was very mobile and even considered stalling to shop in some of the stores downtown. However, the reality of packing and the need to keep expenses to a bare minimum prevented me for doing so. I have to say , if you get a chance to make it to downtown Chicago, check out The Thompson building. Outside looks like an interesting shaped building, but inside it is a breathtaking spectacle of shopping, offices and more done in such a way that it is awe inspiring !

That was Friday, and Saturday found me so glad to be done with the service and the return to the prospect of packing that I forgot to weigh in. ( as I have sated before this is not about weight loss but about gaining mobility , so skipping weigh in is a non event). I spent the day cleaning the house, moving around dejunking , sent the guys grocery shopping and then at dinner ( italian sausage patties that were on sale , deli salads that were on sale and bottom of the line white buns on sale). It was wonderful to be able to move with minimum pain ! I decided to have a beer because it was very hot. Beer on a hot summer day can be very thirst quenching. It was one of the bigger mistakes of my life ! I did not even drink half the can, and within 10 minutes my bladder kicked into hyperdrive ( not pretty) , and every joint in my body became achy and swollen. It was so bad I could barely walk by the end of the night. On Sunday I could barely move !( and as of Tuesday morning, I am still in serious pain). What the heck ??? Why in the world was this impacting me so strongly ? Was I suddenly allergic to beer ? Was it a backlash of spending a month trying to eat in a more "diet" friendly manner ? I am totally baffled . I used to drink beer when I was younger, but then it started giving me serious heartburn and so I stopped. I have never experienced such an instant and full bodied reaction to a food unless it was an allergic one. Can a person be allergic to beer ?

I don't know the answer specifically, but I do know that it seems to say what I am doing at the moment is not healthy for the long haul. If a diet of traditional foods helped me to recover and a month of switching to "healthy" foods possibly robbed me of my mobility , what would an intelligent person do ? It strikes me that the answer lies in traditional foods. This week I am taking something called a bone broth challenge. Bone broth is a stock made from the bones of an animal ( chicken, cow, lamb) long, slow cooked with a bit of vinegar to pull out the calcium. Drink 2 cups of this per day WITH the fat on ( your body needs it) and it helps to rebuild cartilage, connective tissue, remove cellulite and even make your skin and nails healthier. Another thing I will do is to drink a quart of Nettle Infusion per day. Nettle is a lowly garden weed that contains a hefty does of minerals that the body needs. It strengthens the urinary tract, boosts iron, nourishes the bones , heals respiratory allergies, nourishes the adrenal glands( something critical for menopausal women) and improves the appearance of skin, hair and nails. Next week I will return to making sourdough breads because of their benefit to the digestive system. This with the continuation of the gentle movements I have been doing should go a long way.

Strangely enough, I am thankful for the sudden set back. It has helped me to determine what is really important , and what it not. I will simply have to find a way to afford these foods while we are cutting back. We really need to have me functional and mobile !

Weigh in week 4

2011-06-25T06:27:00.001-07:00

Busy weekend, so just a quick note- down 4.2 for the week

Another Victory !

2011-06-24T05:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, for the first time since November , I was able to put on my athletic shoes, walk in them and wear them for the whole day with absolutely no pain. This is a major victory ! Next step- being able to walk on grass again !

The value of sweat and cheap eats

2011-06-23T05:35:00.000-07:00

I think right now the biggest lesson I am learning is how very much exercise works to combat anxiety ! I go along, de junking, mentally prepping for the actual packing, let my mind spin all the possibilities and potentials, find myself getting very nervous about several what if's, and then having them all disappear with a good session of sweating with The Wii. It's a brilliant thing that I have never been able to experience. It's not that I have never exercised or engaged in heavy physical activity, but rather that perhaps for the first time in my life my adrenal glands are working and I can actually sweat and remove the stress hormones from my body through sweat.I remember one of my PE teachers telling us that we had to run a mile in so many minutes, and after working up a sweat from this and showering I would feel like a new woman. I did not- even with running a three minute mile I never could sweat, and thought the whole process was rather stupid.

As I worked yesterday I began formulating a list of cheap eats that utilized things we have in the freezer and cabinet OR that can be bought for "cheap", but yet are still healthy. We are in the summer months and fresh produce tends to be inexpensive ( our Farmers Markets have not gotten the idea that they are supposed to carry actual fruits and veggies- did you know that Avon and Mary Kay are crops ???)They may sell a handful of fresh herbs and fresh baked bread, but that is where it ends. Considering this, grocery stores are our options and thankfully we have some great ethnic produce stores and Aldi's carries a pretty good selection of common fresh produce.Aldi's do vary as to their selections- in our area they are getting to be more numerous than Starbucks, and I think it makes us have a better distribution center then perhaps others. You can always purchase fresh apples, oranges, grapes, onions, bananas, lettuce, celery, tomatoes, carrots,cucumbers, mushrooms and avocados there. They always carry frozen broccoli, broccoli mix, green beans , blueberries and strawberries . These are not the end all beat all of produce selections, but they will keep you healthy. The fresh selections includes other options according to season at very low prices, so it can be a pleasant surprise shopping there. Here is the master list I will be working from for meals

whole roast chicken ( one roast chicken can stretch to 3 meals)
Quiche ( refrigerator Velcro that uses lots of odd little bits in a cheap protein)
chicken and noodles- leftover roast chicken
cabbage fry( a brilliant Burmeese dish- sauteed cabbage and egg)
cornbread with creamed chicken ( non dairy creamed using thickened homemade stock)
tuna salad
chicken salad sandwiches- leftover roast chicken
fried egg sandwiches
spaghetti with oil , garlic and tuna
meatball and onion subs ( ground turkey)- sauted onions make up for the flavor lost when it's minus cheese
polenta with chicken or ground turkey and veggies- again, refrigerator Velcro
polenta with sausage and peppers
sesame peanut noodles - peanut butter never had it so good
chicken loaf- leftover roast chicken transformed
ground turkey meat loaf- meatloaf with ground turkey chubs
coconut rice- brown rice cooked in coconut milk and seasoned with cloves,cinnamon and turmeric
veggie and chicken lo mien - a little meat, a little pasta, lots of veggies
home made pizza- redefined without cheese or tomato sauce ( grilled onions, meat, white sauce)
sweet and sour turkey meatballs
carrot raisin salad- always appreciated
Cole slaw- cheap cabbage in a sweet sour dressing
tossed salad with fruit- varies according to what is on sale this week
polenta with eggs- healthier than pancakes
quinoa muffins- cooked quinoa is included in a muffin recipe for the protein
hard boiled eggs
overnight oats-oats, some form of milk, fruit and nuts set in a container overnight and eaten
oatmeal- the old standard

peanut butter and apple sandwiches

It always feel better when you have a plan to pull from ! Any of these will be served with veggies or a salad, and accompanied by either water or home made ice tea. If lemons go on sale, lemonade is another option. I will round things out snack wise by buying boxes of cereal at Aldi's ( very affordable , less calories and more satisfaction than cookies) , cheese sticks for the boy and baking either brownies or a pound cake for a weekend treat. Both are easy, use cabinet ingredients, get several servings and can be frozen. Why consider a treat ? We include a treat on either Saturday or Sunday ( lately it has been non- dairy ice cream , which gets very expensive), and to cut out any and all "fun" foods quickly makes one feel like you have stepped away from "real" life. It is not the once a week treat that gets us into trouble, but rather when they become an every day occurrence.

I think we are going to make it !

The little surprizes along the way

2011-06-22T04:30:00.000-07:00

Sorting, sifting through, rounding up donations, sending other things to the trash. Bend, stretch, lift, bag, separate and suddenly realize this few minutes that I was going to devote to the task has stretched into a whole day , and in stopping it changes your view, and you are reminded of another something that needs to be sorted through before packing happens. I am giving myself till August 15 to de-junk and then it's full on packing . In the meantime we learned that we have to pay a very substantial fee for breaking our existing lease. Add that to the deposit on the new place, the cost of moving equipment, the need to replace at least two beds, curtains, other fancy stuff and you discover that for the next 3-4 months your grocery budget absolutely, positively must be slashed to a fourth of what you currently spend. Oh yeah...add to that the fact that it is now the summer months where you have less income, gas prices are outrageous and the electric rates almost double here in the summer months. The only expense that can be cut is groceries, and this becomes really interesting when you are working on a health goal ! You then have to start making compromises and sometimes choosing between the lesser of two evils. ( Beans and soy are out - beans contain substances that make for arthritis flairs ( purines) and soy negatively impacts your thyroid (hello weight loss stall and unexplained gain !) I am seeing a lot of stir fries, fried rices and such in our future- even couple of pancake dinners. Thankful thing is I recently stocked our freezer with boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale and chubs of ground turkey. Gotta use up the freezer before we move.

Time to fire up the Wii , and then off for another round of "What was I thinking and why do I have 6 of these ???"

Lists are only good if you read them

2011-06-20T05:20:00.000-07:00

I think I might need to get a better system of locating my to do list. I write it down on my computer, but lately I forget to look at the list to be reminded. I completely forgot to weigh in on Saturday . Since this is not about weight loss anymore, no biggie. Just keep doing what we are doing and focus on other matters.

It was a busy weekend with a family reunion and a trip to sign the last bit of paperwork on the new place. It is something like 10 miles away from here, and I am cracking up about our new street address. The number is 669- you know, three numbers away from the number of The Beast ??? I keep laughing at the irony. Packing and moving is going to be a beast, and it looks very much like it will just be the 3 of us doing the whole thing. And one of us still walking with a cane and only able to carry things with one hand. Stimulating.

I was not able to attend the family reunion. The location it was being held at suggested the tents and tables were going to be set up on a large piece of grass, and I have great difficulty walking on grass still.Rather than risk a fall ( an diminish our future moving/packing crew any more), I sent the guys and stayed home to play with a crochet star pattern, watch bad 70's horror movies on Hulu. They had fun and so did I. I am not sure what these purple stars will become ( and they are purple because it is the only color of yarn I have), but it feels very settling to do something with my hands while I watch mindless TV in an attempt not to freak out at the whole reality of packing. Living in a new place is great- having to make decisions such as whether or not to keep the Seal a Meal that you have not used in 5 years against the potential of the event that someone may shoot a yak , an give you half the meat in the future, and you want to package it in a secure fashion to store in the freezer. Or discussions such as we have not been camping in almost 15 years, are not likely to go camping because of allergies and sleeping on the ground but we have all this camping gear that is taking up space in the storage locker , so do we keep it in the event that we become homeless, give it away to a friend, donate it or attempt to sell it in it's twelve generation retro state ?

Off to exercise with The Wii- come on endorphins ! Keep me sane !!

And now for a change in workout

2011-06-16T06:09:00.000-07:00

Seems I am going to have to add a new dimension to my workout- we re moving in 90 days ( unless something major changes this). Packing, sorting and moving 10 years of accumulated stuff on top of the collection of 20 yrs treasures you brought with you from the previous place is no small deal. A happy and exciting one, but not a minor effort by any means.

Frozen bananas

2011-06-15T05:13:00.000-07:00

Things are sort of reaching a "lather, rinse, repeat" kind of pattern with exercise. There is the Wii routines of different variety, the mini cycle, the walking, the flip flop work out , and all that jazz. A quick word on the flip flops- the reason these are in my life is that I still have to depend on my husband to do the shopping, and the goal is to get me back into shoes with any kind of a sole. I have never had an issue with needing to grip flip flops with my toes while walking because of a very strange shape I have to my foot ( I struggle to get them on or off because of it). The tripping factor comes from the fact that I have to raise my foot with each step an inch higher than you do with ballet slippers. That inch is the thing that has kept me from wearing shoes , accompanied with a rigid sole. With a rigid sole extreme pressure gets applied to my knee with each step, so right now these are the device that was chosen. I am beginning to think a pair of aqua socks may be helpful as well for other reasons.

Meanwhile, I have rediscovered my love of chocolate covered frozen bananas ! Since the non dairy frozen treat experiment I have been craving these, and for some reason the stores we visit regularly do not have these in stock. Why ? Who can say. Two stores in our area carry them, they are out of the way, so I broke down and made a batch . Simple as can be- get bananas, peel and cut in half, get sticks, melt chocolate , dip and freeze. I had no Popsicle sticks or drinking straws, so I cut some bamboo skewers down to size to use. For a little bit of effort I was rewarded with a dozen frozen bananas for a fraction of the cost. I am going to toss some just plain bananas in the freezer next time to use in other frozen creations. Toss frozen bananas in a food processor with a little almond milk and you have almost instant ice cream that is very healthy and refreshing.

It is cool and rainy here this morning so bread baking is happening today , along with the lather, rinse , repeat of exercise. Have a good one !

Flip Flop Work Out

2011-06-14T04:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday , after getting in a good 40 minute workout with my Wii , I felt capable, competent and like I could tackle the world . Feeling this way will inspire an individual to not only do challenging things, but have the confidence that such challenges will be a matter of mental attitude more than anything else. Go muscles !!! You can do it !! With such an attitude I embarked on my personal goal for the week of being able to walk for the whole day in flip flops.

It may sound strange to some, but going from not being able to wear shoes to something like flip flops requires the body to use different muscles, hold itself at a different angle and so forth. Fans of The Big Bang Theory may recall in the first episode how Sheldon explains that if a stair height is changed by mere centimeters a person will trip. Comedic fact, but a fact none the less. The reason for this is the same reason going from no shoes to shoes is a challenge.

The first 15 minutes went fine , simply because I was seated at a kitchen counter , packaging up chicken broth for the freezer. The problem began when I walked over to place the packs in the freezer. Did you know that linoleum senses a challenge , and will aggressively throw it's design into a 3D form as protection ? It has to be so, which would explain why I kept tripping over the print in the tiles. The morning wore on , and I kept stumbling over the nap in the carpeting, the threshold to the bathroom , imaginary trolls and puffed up dust bunnies. Luckily I was able to grab onto something with each incident so I did not fall. However, within 2 hours my knee was hurting enough to decide to take the shoes off and congratulate myself for going 2 hours with them. Tomorrow is another day and a chance to build up more.

Bob and I took a very short walk outside when he got home- by short I mean almost half the front of our building. It was so short because the muscles that support my knee were feeling very iffy from the whacking of my knees with the stumbles. Such a grand walk could be very depressing, but I am reminding myself that this is still early in the game and I have no where to go from here but up !

Excitement !

2011-06-13T04:55:00.000-07:00

Sunday had two features in it that made for an exciting day . It started off being not so thrilling, but it is important to find ways to turn a dull sort of day around so they can make you smile. Seize the dayplanner, and all that good stuff !

For a while I have been in the need of some new items of clothing. The happy friendly Tee Shirts are looking faded and have several stains for one thing. For the past few months it has not been a real issue, but we have a couple of events coming up that require some casual ( but without stains) apparel. I have only recently even made it into a store because of the recovery, and in the meantime our local Wal Mart has been remodeled into one of those super-centers that is large enough to begin considering having public transportation within just to get people from the Produce isle to Sporting Goods on the other end of the store. You know the ones ( though I do admit to pondering the hilarious potential if stores like this would begin to stock fishing tackle next to the fish counter and have the live goldfish along side that. This way, all the average middle aged mom would have to remember is something dealing with fish, head to the area and let all the visual clues jog her memory as to what about fish she needed.). While it is wonderful to have everything under the sun under one roof, they can be exhausting to walk. If you have a nobility issue, ever worse. Yes, they have motorized carts, but I am not going to go there. I fear if I get in one of those I may never get out! So shopping has been the responsibility of my husband. This detail has been complicated by the fact that since the injury I have not been able to walk in shoes of any kind. It sounds crazy, but the soles hold my knee at such an angle when I take a step that it sends waves of blinding, non productive pain through my body. After a lot of research we finally found thee Danskin ballet slipper things that I can put on and wear. Technically you have something on your feet but it offers no protection from anything you step on. So, all this being said , I sent him out in the quest for a shirt, and he came back with shirts, shorts, bras and....a pair of old school flip flops. You know those ones that are like all of 2 bucks and eventually the toe strap pops out of the sole so you cannot wear them any more ? Really flimsy, but they have a flexible enough sole that your foot moves almost like in bare feet. He bought a pair and I can actually walk in these, but it is like learning to walk all over again. That inch of flexible sole changes your gait, accessing different muscles from barefoot walking. Yay- close to shoes ! I wore them around the house for a very short time and had to take them off because my thigh muscles were aching like I ran a mile for the first time. Such a silly thing, but there you have it. One of my goals for the week is now walking more in these shoes.

Second excitement. While they were gone, I got to use the Wii completely on my own, doing whatever I choose, and wound up working out for 90 minutes without even being aware of the time. I spent it in cycling, canoeing and fencing(sword battle with 100 opponents). No son at my side with a non stop stream of reasons why this game is good, the history of it, our history, discussions of what Presidents were best in history, ideas for lunches in 2015 and so on. Only sounds were the Wii background music and the birds chirping outside my window. And my thoughts- it was a really nice change of pace !

Life is good .

Silly Sunday

2011-06-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about my blog's title this morning and realized that many people through history have had a funny thing happen while on the way to the scale. Let's examine a few of these things from our collective past:

Smoking as weight loss ! That's right gents- eliminate those craving for between meal snacks with cigarettes. Endorsed by experts...like so many things endorsed by experts as the only way to go. Yes you will lose weight by smoking, but you might also lose a lung, your esophagus or even your life. So much better than a between meal snack though...right ???

Ah, yes...the grandmother of those cellulite removing creams and loofahs ! This one seems to be meant to target that double chin and "ungainly ankles". I cannot begin to tell you how many nights I have lost sleep worrying about my ungainly ankles....

Of course, this machine will work to scare the extra pounds into moving to some other more comfy home. It evolved into this :

The one on the right, a primitive version of The Hula Chair, was the final revision of this original idea :

Can we say grandfather of the mechanical bull ?? It is obviously the ladies version of this gym dandy thing that will reduce your waist and give you a fresh pressed look all in one move

Why does that remind me of an old fashioned coffee grinder and sausage maker ? And we giggle as the Shake Weight today ! Then there were the home sauna suits, wrapping your body in celophane rap, the Hot Dog /Banana /Egg Diet, The Cabbage Soup Diet, but all must stop and bow down to the weight loss product that everyone forgot about due to a brand new serious disease emerging with the same name:

Yes indeed- a funny thing has happened on the way to the scale for as long as people have been believing that it's numbers are anything more than that- numbers. Every one of them endorsed by experts. Keep these images in mind as you go through the paces with your own journey. When you feel like quitting, think about strapping yourself into one of those 1920's weight loss devices. It you are feeling snacky, think of the old Ayds reducing plan( a candy and a warm beverage 20 minutes before any sensible meal 3 times a day). And keep smiling - we're in this together !

Week 3 Weigh in

2011-06-11T04:17:00.000-07:00

I think we found the right balance for Nick ! Finding the right balance is such a key to long term success.

Weigh In
Me- down 3.8 lbs ( this now makes a total loss of 10.8 lbs with just giving up dairy and using the Wii for exercise)
Nick - down 2.8 ( still snacking, eating normal food, exercising with the Wii)
Bob- Up 0.6 ( a very bad week at work , 3 sleepless nights and an allergic reaction)

I am still so completely amazed at how well my body is responding to being dairy free ! I am eating nothing fat free( actually easting things like coconut oil and butter- which baffles me why I can eat it and not milk), eating a few normal cookies with lunch, a handful of chips and even carbs like white pasta. I am even eating normal full fat salad dressings and full fat and sugar non dairy creamer in my coffee. All of these things, in past attempts, would have gone out the door in the effort. This time weight loss is not my main focus, but instead gaining mobility and joint health with the understanding that less weight will be less stressful on my joints. In all past weight loss attempts I would work to insure that I got a minimum of 3 servings of dairy each day. It blows my mind that following that simple good health advice might have been sabotaging my efforts all along.

Note to self

2011-06-10T05:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Self:

Yes, you are feeling great. Yes you are able to move a whole lot more. However, you still must exercise caution about some things, as no matter how much you believe you can do them, they are still a bit out of your league. Take yesterday afternoon's furniture moving for example. Yes, it is a good idea to really vacuum your mattress, box spring and pillows very well about once a month. Yes it cuts down the amount of dust mites, dander, potential bedbugs, alien space craft and unicorn fluff that will find your bed as comfy as you do ( and consider you to be like a free Thanksgiving banquet). However, queen sized mattresses are heavy, ungainly things to move , even with a partner who is doing most of the moving.The action of lifting the behemoth and standing it up against a wall will put strange types of stress on several muscles and joints. Just because you can do a Warrior lunge does not mean you can compete with "Burly Guys Moving Company". Yet. And if you do decide to engage in furniture moving, when a movement makes you audibly wince and then say ouch, it means stop doing this- not just try to adjust your stance so you can do more. If you pay attention to these things, you will not wake up swollen, stiff and in pain.
Sincerely,
The Managment

So today finds me very stiff, very achy, with a knee that feels very iffy. Not a good day to focus on any kind of Yoga or walking, but an excellent day to get in Wii rowing , cycling and boxing in a chair . For some very odd reason I am noticing the more I devote to upper body workouts, the more mobility and stamina I have with my lower body. It does not make sense along the conventional lines, but perhaps it is an indication that I hold my upper body in such a way that it puts unnatural pressure on my lower spine that begins the pain train. I also notice that I work up much more of a sweat with upper body work than lower body. Perhaps it is because with upper body work I am in less pain and able to go harder or something. Don't know why, but I will take it ! They say that we have to involve the lower body, bigger muscles in order to get a good calorie burn in. If so, why is rowing about the best calorie burning exercise ? Things like that make me question conventional exercise wisdom. I think that it ultimately comes down to finding an exercise that you can do comfortably and enjoy enough so that you can do it for a minimum of 30 minutes to get your blood pumping, lymphatic system flowing , build muscles and increase your flexibility. I could be totally wrong , but this is the conclusion I am drawing from considering the entire health and wellness state of the body.

Tomorrow is weigh in and I am hoping that we found the right balance of snacking with Nick in order to get him back on track.It has been a struggle helping him make better choices this week, but at least this time he is a lot more "present" and understands fully the results. It will be really hard to cheerleader him into continued good habits if the scale shows no progress or a gain !

We love Wii

2011-06-09T04:30:00.000-07:00

Well, did not make it to the store last night. Part of the reason was that my stomach was feeling very "flippy". Eating a lot of salads and fruit can do this for a while sometimes to a person. Not exactly sick , but not exactly well. Then I began thinking of the inherent dangers of "sports shopping"- you know, the kind where you have an idea that you want to just kind of look at possibilities for clothes/books/sheets and wind up dropping 100 dollars an things you found that you will need/use in the near future and were on sale/clearance/special ? Such trips can be really dangerous to your financial health. So we stayed home and worked out with the Wii. Nick and I did a half hour together in the morning and so we calculated that if we each did a half hour with daddy, then everyone would get in an hour of exercise for the day. So we did, we all wound up sweaty after the session and it was a good time.

I am coming to really love The Wii as a fitness option. It is there in your home, it has a wide variety of possibilities and does things in a very entertaining way for all ages. No matter what the weather is outside or how crunched your schedule is , you can plug it in, pop in a fitness game and work up a sweat. From gentle movement like tai chi and yoga to vigorous cardio like Zumba or boxing, there is something for every fitness level and ability level. When not using one of the fitness games, the just plain gaming involves movement of a lot more than just your thumbs. It takes up minimal space , is cheaper than a treadmill or elliptical and is constantly being improved ( at the moment). At first I was skeptical- how could a video game actually improve your level of fitness after all ? But the truth is movement is what brings fitness, weight loss and strength. Anything that gets your body moving in a sustained fashion for a length of time will get the job done.

And with the Wii , you can exercise in bunny slippers !

Hot, hot, hot !

2011-06-08T05:15:00.000-07:00

We've moved into our first actual heat wave here. It's been a very weird weather season with temps acting like early spring, then summer then early spring again and accompanied by more rain than I have ever seen. Yesterday the heat index was 115 and the heat advisories were posted. I think our air conditioner let me know that it was a hot one by groaning LOUDLY much of the day. Summer is becoming the season of Deafness it seems.

So we opted to do indoor exercise with the Wii ( which I am now convinced can actually work for weight loss and physical fitness) and changed the menu to those foods that would not tax the AC. We did an hour of Wii cycling and Walk it Out, getting all excited about new songs we unlocked. Sad thing is that non of them are anything that I ever heard before , so I had to keep asking my son if this was an actual song or something Nintendo invented.( He is greatly amused when mom shows how old she is getting). The planned chicken breasts for dinner turned into salad topped with grilled chicken - thank you to the George Forman grill ! Then I remembered overnight oats for breakfast and started on a batch of these. Per serving you take a half cup of rolled oats and once cup of milk of your choice ( I chose almond milk). Then you can get creative. I added a tablespoon of flax, 2 t of blackstrap molasses( mainly for the calcium) , 1 T coconut and 1 T golden raisins. Stir to mix, cover, place in the fridge and in the morning, eat. It is not necessary to cook oats before eating. The Swiss have combined oats with some form of dairy for breakfast for years. They combine raw oats, yogurt and fruit for what the call museli- it's very different from what we find on our supermarket shelves.The mix is very tasty, refreshing and lasts with you for a long time.

Going to be another hot one today , but then storms will roll in and we will be back to late spring temps again. I am hoping to get out and go to the store for some more intense walking with a cart to hang on. Sunday was my first time in a store since November, and it was only a short little trip. I want to look at some clothing options. As odd as it may sound that simple activity may be more than I can physically handle from a standing/walking position, but I think I can at least try it and see how far I get. During the day there will be more Wii- thank goodness for the Wii for times and situations where the normal forms of exercise are too much !

Better and better

2011-06-07T04:27:00.000-07:00

Monday was back to the exercise grind again, and I discovered two very noticeable improvements. First was that I was able to vacuum the house without my knee feeling like it was going to snap in half. Second improvement was that I was able to walk up and down two stairs. Pain did not stop me from going further, but rather that I could not figure out how to best step with the cane so that I had something secure to grab on in the event that my knee gave out. It is a very weird thing having to retrain your brain in order to do something you learned as a little child ! That is the tricky thing about recovering from injury- or even dealing with an injury. You have to think about how to step so that you do no harm to the body. In the thinking process you can over-think it and bring yourself to the point of fear of movement, and then you have gone too far. Walking that fine line is the trick.

Besides those great strides I did an hour of Wii cycling and Walk it Out as well as taking a gentle 10 minute stroll. For dinner we had some teriyaki marinated salmon fillets that may become my go to salmon recipe- it was that good ! Forgot to snap a picture, but basically you make a teriyaki marinate with brown sugar, soy sauce, olive oil,rice wine vinegar, ginger, sesame seeds and pepper, pour it over the salmon in a baking pan and let marinate in the fridge for 2 hrs , and then grill or pan fry. I pan fried it because I was afraid of the salmon falling apart on the George Foreman grill.

I am wondering how I am going to challenge myself today !

Ice cream taste test

2011-06-06T04:31:00.000-07:00

Had a really nice time over the weekend. Got to walk in the woods twice, went shopping once and went out to eat two times. Paid a visit to the area that will hopefully become our future home and spent a lot of time just laughing and catching up. Going out to eat is something that we were doing once a week because of the time crunch with shopping. This time it was just to find very easy ways to get me walking more. Has to be a slow build- too much too soon will cause the muscles to spasm and potentially bring on a fall and re-injury. As much as I would love to do a couple of "push it till you puke" kind of build up sessions, it's just too risky. I ne3ver want to be this house bound for so long ever again !

There are two big hurdles with going dairy free and living the life of the average person- that being cheese and ice cream. When you go out to eat at most places, dishes include cheese more often than not. Cheese shreds on salads, topped with cheese sandwiches or omlettes or some kind of cream sauce. If you are avoiding nightshades, good luck finding a fast food sandwich that does not include tomatoes, tomato sauce or that is accompanied with fries, hash browns or other potato thing. They can be found, but you really have to read the menu carefully. Thankfully I can eat baked things that contain milk( bread or buns) and butter, but that is where it ends. One chain in the Midwest( Culver's) happily has side selections that are dairy free and on the menu. You can get a burger and sweet potato fries or seasoned green beans ( salads contain cheese and cole slaw contains milk so those are out). I decided to risk it Saturday and try a small dish of ice cream, just to see if it really is a problem, and sure enough it is. Sad thought, spending the rest of my life without frozen custard !

Which led to a sort of decadent but purposeful Sunday activity - the non dairy ice cream taste test. There are different times when you just want to have ice cream, and if you cannot eat regular ice cream, you kind of scratch your head. Not so very long ago there were no non dairy ice cream options in the regular stores. If you could not do dairy bu wanted a frozen treat, Popsicles were as good as it gets, or frozen bananas . They came Tofutti and soy milk ice creams , but now there are several new options.Problem is which one do you like the best? We had gone out for breakfast , which was large, and figured lunch would be just a nibble, and some how the subject of ice cream came up. I did not want to repeat the ill affects of Saturday, so a discussion led to the idea of buying one of each non dairy ice cream option, doing a taste test side by side and determining which one we liked the best. Here are the contenders , and the results- keep in mind we are people who tended to prefer gelatto over Ben and Jerry's before this.

Soy Dreams- YUCK !!! Soy ice cream and milk has a weird lemony, vanilla-ish overriding after taste that just makes my stomach flip. I have a problem with soy, so not surprising that I did not like it.

Coconut Dreams- nice taste, but a bit of a grainy mouth feel . The fat coats your mouth, but it seems to clear quicker than full fat dairy, leaving your mouth to say "wow ! ice cream !...wait a minute...". I would ea this one again , but I think it would be best in a chocolate flavor.

Rice Dreams - very pleasant , and very close to regular dairy ice cream in taste and mouth feel. This one was Nick's favorite.

Almond Dreams - my choice for the winner ! There was no difference in texture, taste, smell or flavor to dairy ice cream. I prefer almond milk over soy because the fat in the almonds mimics the fat in dairy nicely. Now if they could start making almond milk cheese ....

Diana's Bananas- the frozen chocolate covered banana on a stick- these I have loved since I was a kid , and if I feel an urge for something sweet, a banana will usually do it for me. Frozen , they work like ice cream because of the mouth feel. The guys were not crazy about these- sensitive teeth and frozen bananas do not mix.

So now we know what our go to frozen fun food will be. Wouldn't it be nice to solve all of the problems in the world in such a simple fashion ??

Weigh in Week 2

2011-06-04T05:01:00.000-07:00

I was a little concerned that this week was going to be one of those that made me crazy because I have gotten almost no sleep for 3 nights in a row. Insomnia has become my enemy of late due to some factors with our bedroom furniture. We are going to try to tough this one out until we move, so I am trying to make the best of it for now. Anyway, on to the scale:
Me- - 3.2 lbs
Bob -1.2 lbs
Nick +1.4 lbs
This time we are doing this without counting calories, points, colors, food groups or anything else- just eating real food and making sure there are enough dark greens and almonds to supply the calcium that dairy used to. With Nick , it is going to be a matter of adjusting his snacks. Part of the reason for this is when we began on Weight Watchers, with his level of required daily points he had to snack a couple of times every day in order to make the program work ( he was at 44 points per day PLUS had the daily activity points as a possibility and the weekly bonus points). He lost over 80 pounds on the program, so it did work for weight loss, but brought in other problems. Like turning him into a snack monster and making some of his Autistic behaviors worse. And being an Autistic, changes in his eating are major, major hurdles. If this was a normal 19 yr old , you could simply explain that the scale will go up if you eat more food than your body needs or other such things. This is not a normal 19 yr old so I have to figure out a strategy to steer him into, while figuring out my own strategy of living without dairy and nightshades and thinking about how to make good, portable, grab and go nutritious options for my husband , who's company is in the end stages of a major change in buisness operations. And bottom line for all is it must be real food. It's not an impossibility, but it sure can get tricky figuring this for 3 !

Plans for today include a short walk , and the first time I have walked into a restaurant since last November. Seems sort of like as exciting as going on a cruise :-)

Change in season: Why salt doesn’t deserve its bad rap | Grist

2011-06-03T16:56:00.000-07:00

Think you need to get rid of salt in your diet ? Think again. Salt, like fat, is a necessary component in the human diet for heath. The problem comes in when the food industry starts using chemical mixtures that imitate salt and give consistent( and cheap) results

Change in season: Why salt doesn’t deserve its bad rap | Grist

More moving

2011-06-03T05:17:00.000-07:00

It was a more productive day yesterday exercise wise. Getting excited because I was able to increase the time of actual walking , and do other things

Walking 10 min- YAY- up from 5!
stationary bike 10 min ( and remebered that while pedaling I can read notes or books)
Wii canoeing 25 min - always fun to do this with my son because he thinks it is hysterical to oversteer

And progress was made on another front- we believe we have found the right apartment complex for us and we put in a deposit. First available first floor or disability unit available will be ours ( we have a tentative moving date of Sept 1). First floor access is hard to come by , but something that is becoming more necessary. While I am optimistically working to remove my mobility issues, realistically I must consider that they may be permanent. If we are dependent on an elevator to get in or out of the building, when that elevator goes out I will be trapped in our home.If we are on the first floor and I do fully recover, then it is just a lot easier getting groceries and such in the house. Kind of a hope for the best, plan for the worst thing. The complex has a pool, modest health club( indoor basketball court and a few machines) walking trails and even a little patio do do some container gardening. It's also bigger , and depending on the unit available will have either a second bathroom or a very large closet space ( my hope is for the closet one !) I am crossing my fingers that something may become available a little sooner than September.

Plan for today is to get some exercise in with doing grocery shopping , assigning grades and doing the year end transcript for homeschool. Last day of school today, so it's a lot of loose ends paperwork wise. Hope you have a good one !

Look ! Books !!!!

2011-06-02T04:48:00.000-07:00

Kind of a sidetracked sort of day yesterday. Spent much of it planning and getting sidetracked by the rediscovery of my own study materials for Energy Medicine. Our homeschool year ends on Friday, and that means mommy can devote lots of time to her own studies for 9 glorious weeks. Moving the materials back to the front shelves in our dining room/school room meant stopping and glancing at the old bookmarks , remembering some of the more difficult points and ways that I was finally able to understand them and more. Good times, but not so good for movement !
Walking 4 min
Wii boxing 5 min ( stopped because Nick hurt his shoulder throwing punches)
Wii cycling 30 min

It was my birthday, and a treat was involved. The good thing about avoiding dairy ( except for in baked goods) is that it kind of shrinks your options. We had some angel food cake topped with sliced strawberries and coconut milk ice cream. It's nice to have some non dairy choices available, but it can be hard finding the best one for you. Coconut milk ice cream has a bit of a grainy texture that makes your mouth say "Ooh ! Ice cream !...WAIT A MINUTE, NO IT'S NOT !". I am going to have to investigate some of the other possibilities.

Very cool day today- should make for a good one !

Beginings, start of a program and other numbers

2011-06-01T03:52:00.000-07:00

Starting a program can be an intimidating thing ! You know where you want to be in the end, but discovering exactly where you are at the start reveals not only how far away from your goal you are, but how much work needs to be done. This is the case with my walking program. I want to get back to the point where I can walk for a solid hour, plus be able to walk in my daily activities without pain. It's a modest goal, but from where I am standing right now it feels like I have Mt Everest to climb !

The approach is to listen to my body , as to avoid re -injury or further damage and slowly build. Yesterday was the start, and I was able to get in a whopping 4 minutes of walking. Definitely have a lot of work to do here ! It was not the only exercise that I got in for the day, for these other things help to build up the muscles necessary to accomplishing the walking goal. It looked like this:
Walking 4 minutes
Wii cycling 30 min ( upper body work- I don't understand why but strengthening my upper body makes the lower hurt less)
Wii Table Tennis 5 min
Yoga 10 min - no new poses added, but greater stability with the poses mastered
Wii Sports basketball 13 min

Today is my birthday. Somehow , when I was not looking I have managed to make 53 trips around the sun. It seems like it was yesterday when I was thinking that 23 was the right age for me to marry, and then kind of getting weird about turning 40 . When did 53 sneak up on me ? I saw Cher on TV not long ago with the announcement that she is 60 now, and I wondered when did that happen as well. Age is a funny thing. As a child you count the days in anticipation of finally being such and such age. Those pass and suddenly you find yourself facing numbers that sound scary an you do a little pause. And then suddenly you start coming up on numbers that sound "substantial". They are like your annual salary or mortgage figures. They are indeed just numbers, but they always seem more influential than numbers involved in simply counting to 10. They are in there, but duplicated and arranged in a way that makes you look twice at them.

Memorial Day

2011-05-31T05:44:00.000-07:00

Big step for me yesterday ! For the first time since the injury I was able to get out to the woods and walk. Okay, it was simply walk from the car to the bathroom, but a huge step due to different terrain. Walking on grass is still completely out because of the uneven surface and walking on paved sidewalks can get tricky because of cracks and slight differences in heights from square to square. It's something that you never even think about when you are a normal , mobile person, but have that mobility challenged, and it becomes a major issue. My knee and leg still feel very weak , but growing stronger. We got out to make a run to Goodwill to drop off a donation, then drove to the woods and then around town for a bit. With the sunroof down and the sun shining , it felt like Heaven to get out and soak up some Vitamin D. !It is crazy to think that between walking to the car, walking to the bathroom, and a short stop at the parking lot where I fell and received the injury ( sort of a get back on the horse kind of gesture), I got in about 4 times as much walking than in a normal day now. After we came back home we spent an hour playing Wii bowling, tennis, Rabbids and more. It's not what a normal person would consider to be an "active" weekend, but for us right now it definitely was... and the activity level will grow !

We had a great salad for dinner- grilled chicken( George Foreman Grill) on top roast veggies and romaine.

Take a bulb of fennel and slice it, one onion, half pound baby bellas , quartered, one zucchini , sliced, a half pound asparagus and one red pepper, chopped. Place them in a zip lock and sprinkle 1/2 t garlic powder, 1/2 t black pepper, 1/2 t dried rosemary and 2 T balsamic vinegar. Toss to coat and spread on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes , or till veggies are tender.

I am going to add a hall walking routine to my exercise this week. I am still feeling a little shaky with the actual walking , and at least walking the halls I have a wall to grab onto if my knee gives out ( which it does on occasion still). Boy...actual walking program and abundant fresh veggies- can the old me be far behind ??

Winner, winner , chicken dinner with a side of the strange.

2011-05-30T04:04:00.000-07:00

Dejunking - it's a good thing. Dejunking with your family and not falling into a mindset of "my stuff but their junk", even better ! Time taken to make some major areas stop looking like a goat exploded and allow occupants to access more easily if you plan on exercising that day as well- not such a good thing. Experiencing an all day rain while doing it- an added justification to it all. So we sorted, we weeded, we dusted, we washed, be vacuumed, but no "exercise". In my mind all of this was movement, movement is exercise so it's potato, poTAto...

Sunday dinners of late have meant one thing- brined and roasted whole chicken !!

Have you ever brined a chicken ? If not , it is something you simply must try . Take a whole chicken, make a solution of 1 cup kosher salt, 1/4 cup sugar and about a gallon of water ( enough to cover the chicken completely) , place in a container and refrigerate at least 8 hrs. Then remove the chicken, rinse, let it air dry on a rack for 30 minutes and then bake at 350 for 2 hours. This week I also roasted Mr Bird breast side down and it was even better. The chicken seems to be the constant here now, but the sides get mixed up. The two I made this week were nutritious, delicious and something that would not make my body hurt the next day .

Roast chicken, Garlic linguini with Kale and Zucchini Medley

Garlic Linguine with Kale

6 cloves garlic -- crushed ( or garlic powder if you will, to taste)
1 lb kale -- stems removed, leaves cut into bite size pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt (optional)
1/4tsp pepper
3/4 lb linguine pasta

Bring large pot of water to boil. Add kale and salt. Simmer 1 minute or until kale begins to wilt.
Add pasta. Cook 8-10 minutes or until pasta is al dente. While pasta is cooking, heat oil and garlic
in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring 2 minutes until heated throughout. Remove from heat.
Drain pasta and kale. Transfer to serving bowl. Add oil and garlic. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss before serving. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese if desired ( I skipped this for mine- no dairy)

Zucchini Skillet

3 cups diced sweet potatoes
1/3 cup bone broth
2 cups diced zucchini
1 cup diced red onion
1 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup green onion -- sliced
1 red pepper -- diced ( this is a nightshade, but has so much color and flavor I decided to see if I could tolerate it)
1 clove garlic -- minced
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder

In a covered large skillet, saute the sweet potatoes in water for about 10 minutes.
Add zucchini, red onions, corn, green onions, red peppers, green peppers, and garlic.
Saute in water until vegetables are tender. Add remaining ingredients and allow flavors
to blend. Serves 6. ( the leftovers will make a nice snack or lunch side)

After the dejunking we were kind of tired out and spent the evening watching some "interesting" tv. TLC, which used to be The Learning Channel, seems to have become "The Looney Channel", featuring just about every strange sub sector of life imaginable.We caught episodes of Extreme Couponing and debated , then a new series called My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, in which the gowns worn are so big and heavy that the women are often left cut and bruised. And I thought wearing narrow toed shoes and underwire bras were bad...this left me just shaking my head. What fun ! Today the sun is out, we have only a handful of must do things, so it promises to be a fun, interesting day .

Look , mom ! Another way to work out with the Wii !

2011-05-29T05:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday , while making a library run, my husband found a new "exertoy" (exercise toy) to use with the Wii game. Enter Yoga !

I was really excited to give this one a try ! I have enjoyed the Yoga selections with Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus, but they offer a really limited amount of instruction on how to do the poses. Other disadvantage is that you must use the balance board with these, so if you are over 330 lbs or working as a group, this is a limiting thing. With Yoga for Wii you can work without the board, AND several people can follow along at the same time. Kind of becomes an at home yoga class that you can do at your own convenience. We immediately popped this one in the machine and went through a yoga session as a family. 20 minutes later, with everyone working to their own abilities , but as a group, we determined that this was a must buy game. Even my husband , who has not been as impressed with yoga poses in the past, found this to be a great way to do things. He was left with a feeling of being more himself than he had been all week.

I would recommend this one to anyone who needs a gentle way to work out. It has plenty of cautions with the explanations of how each pose is preformed for a person to make the decision if they should execute that pose or not. There is a training mode ( walks you through the poses of your choice) Routine mode where you can select a sequence of poses for your own yoga workout and a Story Mode which explains the different disciplines of yoga, history of yoga and much more . You can use the Balance Board with this, and it can be helpful to correct errors you are making in your form.

Later that evening we opted to play the silly Rabbids games with the Wii. Dancing, sledding on the back of a beestie, doing a bizarre hygiene regimen with the silly bunnies and more. It was a lot of laughs, and the best part of it was spending the time together moving without me having to worry about stepping wrong and doing harm to my knee. It's not the Olympics, but it's a far better thing than sitting watching TV or merely clicking a mouse.

Weigh in week one

2011-05-28T05:39:00.000-07:00

We all weighed in this morning, and I feel very conflicted about writing a post about it ! Way back in November of 2007 we had one of those lightbulb/lightning strike moments that began a weight loss journey as a family. We began using the Weight Watchers 123 program , lost consistently for a while, and then the scale froze, weird health problems came into play , frustration became the rule of the day and Saturday Mornings became the thing that colored the whole week. Not healthy for mind, body or spirit. We decided to completely stop, simply eat real food, and shortly after that I got hurt, exercise stopped for the whole family and we stopped eating a lot fo fruits and veggies . The reason for this was that I could not make it to the grocery store myself so I sent the guys with detailed list of what to buy according to the sale flyers. Problem is the sale flyers are TERRIBLE for listing what fresh fruits and veggies they actually carry that week, the guys were trying very hard to not buy too much or two little, and the result was us eating only apples, bananas, frozen blueberries and the 3 main frozen veggies that are always available ( corn, broccoli, green beans). That was where we were. My injury is finally healed, I am as weak as a kitten with no muscle, and it's time to get back to where we need to be. I noticed the guys had gained weight, my bras were getting tight, but I refuse to put us all into the state we were when we pulled the weight loss plug. This time things are going to be very, very different. Monday we debated going back to the practice of weighing in on Saturdays ( after Bob stepped on the Wii and saw what his weight was and I told him what mine was), and I promised that I would not let the scale become the center of the world . The silly thing is , the scale was not making me crazy, but the accountability with blogging and weight loss email groups was the crazy maker. The weight loss journey is not a guaranteed mathematical program with consistent results every week for all people. Many factors come into play with that journey, and in all cases there are non movement/food related reasons for this. Hormones can affect it. Food reactions can affect it.The body's metabolic response affects it. When you try and try everything in your power to lose but keep coming up with a stall or gain for unknown reasons, the Blogging Community suddenly becomes very non supportive. I believe it is because the struggle the person is facing makes the reader examine their very own journey and come face to face with the reader's very own flaw in the ointment. Rather than self correct, it's more comfortable to lash out at another from a computer keyboard.

So I strongly debated not mentioning the scale process at all for this reason. In my own case , the only reason I have to drop the weight is to take pressure off my joints and better manage arthritis. My blood sugar/cholesterol/blood pressure /enzymes are all healthy. Same with my husbands. Obesity is not the cause of health problems , but rather a symptom of problems. Just because a person is overweight does not mean that they are sick. In fact, statistically overweight women have a lower incidence of Osteoporosis, severe menopause symptoms and much more.( the weight makes for constant weight bearing exercise and body fat mimics estrogen). I have no desire to wear a bikini ( prefer a garment you can actually swim in), could care less about fashion or public opinion of my shape. I simply want joints that work right. My husband wants to lose weight because of his annual company wellness screening ( impacts their group insurance plan). With my son, I want him to lose weight because he is at a weight where normal furniture breaks from his weight. So, with this being said, and our reasons, I now report the numbers. Both Bob and I are taking the number we got on the Wii as our starting number. Nick is too heavy for the Wii balance board, so is number is a complete start.
Me- 280 this week 276.8 ( down 3.8)
Bob 290 this week 288.4 ( down 1.6)
Nick 431.2
Nick's number is confusing at best. When we began last time, the number we estimated that he began at was 420. He was 15 yrs old and had no muscle definition. Now he is 19, has muscle definition and has gone through a time of serious physical muscle development. Consider the growth of an average boy between the ages of 15 and 19 , and determine what is muscle, what is bone and what is fat. He has grown 3 inches as well, so I am not sure what the real deal is. I do believe that he must lose weight though, if nothing else to stop breaking beds and chairs !

So there you have it. Our start this time . Let the show begin !

Salad creative

2011-05-27T03:46:00.000-07:00

In spite of the cold , damp creaking weather of yesterday, I achieved another level in activity. I combined all of the yoga poses that I could successfully do, added Standing Palm Tree, and was able to do a 10 minute session of yoga. Later I did 3 minutes of boxing and 25 minutes of canoeing with the Wii Sports Resort. It was more than I had hoped for , considering the conditions of the day and my decision to avoid pain medications. For some reason , either the new Yoga pose, the length of yoga work or the condition of the day , afterwords my knee was feeling very compromised and weak. This morning it is still very "dodgy", so it is going to be a day of strict upper body type work.

It was the day before any grocery shopping, and the dinner plan included a salad. However, I miscalculated our produce needs the week before, so I was left with romaine, a sweet potato, some nuts and the need for creativity . From this was born the following salad :

Take the sweet potato, cube it, sprinkle with cinnamon and roast at 350 for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, chop some pecans, toss in a frying pan and heat to roast . Place lettuce in a bowl, slice an apple to place on the lettuce and add the roasted sweet potatoes and warmed nuts. Very yummy ! We had this with cold boiled shrimp, the leftover mango black bean salsa and some blue corn tortilla chips. Very colorful , and a lot of good nutrition in this meal.

Any plans your your weekend ? For us we have commitments on Saturday and Sunday that keep us home. However if the weather holds , on Monday we are going to make it back down to the cemetery to visit the family graves and pay respects. I am seeing these people in a whole different light since my adventure with Ancestry this winter. Hard to find the words to describe those changes, but it's a good one.

Boxing is fun ! Even better with my son !

2011-05-26T04:41:00.000-07:00

Every day there is more progress, and with every improvement I get excited ! Each new accomplishment brings me closed to the old me, and even closer to the me that used to do daredevil things ( and pay for it with many injuries). It's kind of like opening presents on Christmas morning - "wow , knee ! Thanks for this .....- I really wanted one !!!" I intended to attempt The Warrior one pose, and I did it ! It did move from muscle strain hurt to feeling like it was too much for my knee to handle after a couple of repetitions, so I stopped. However, that was not all that I did for the day:

4x Warrior 1 pose to the count of 10 ( first since injury)
2x Downward Dog to the count 10 ( improved from 1x to count of 3)
10x Bridge pose held to count of 10 ( improved from 5x)
18 min Wii boxing- never underestimate how much of a sweat you'll get with this "toy"
30 min Walk it out- again never underestimate the sweat value with this one
15 min Bowling

The boxing came about with complete spontaneity. Nick and I were getting ready to exercise and we came across the original Wii Sports game, and a lightbulb went off. This game has boxing , and I remembered seeing one of the male contestants this past season doing a kind of seated shadow boxing as part of his workout when he was still quite heavy. He was breaking a sweat, and I decided that I would give this a whirl to see how it felt. Let me say, there is something hysterically fun about shadowboxing against your teenage son in a game ! We both laughed, got very sweaty and had a lot of fun . I forsee a lot more of this in the future for us.

Dinner was a new recipe that had me drooling with the thought of the colors that this would paint on the plate- Salmon with Black Bean Mango Salsa ( no tomatoes , so nightshade free)

I served it on brown rice cooked in bone broth and had a tossed salad on the side. A very fresh tasting, arthritis friendly meal that needs a little help with the seasonings- the veggies in this one are kind of bland, so it is not as flavorful as the name sounds.Tomatoes and peppers would help, but both are out for me because they are nightshades. With the salmon I cooked it in a pan with coconut oil ( lauric acid in this is very good for your body) and a little salt and pepper . Lay it on the rice and top with the salsa

MANGO BLACK BEAN SALSA
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, drained and rinsed
2 fresh mango cut into 3/4-inch cubes
half a bag of frozen corn
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup coarsely chopped, fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Combine beans, mango, corn, onion and cilantro in a medium bowl. Stir in lime juice and garlic .

It's a very cold, very wet day here today , and my biggest goal is to get in some kind of movement and avoid pain medication. Before the diet change and gentle movements , days like this would find me grabbing the Aleve or Motrin just to be able to get out of bed. That worried me greatly because long term use of those medications can be very bad for your overall health. Improvement is that I can move at all on such a day, and will probably improve as I go on. We have also decided to step on the real scale this Saturday morning to see where we are. Both Bob and I are going to use the number we first got on the Wii as our number for last week, and see what the real scale says. Mister Wii Fit has suddenly failed to recognize the weight of anything, so we cannot use that game or see what , if any, scale progress is happening. Nick and I even attempted to weigh a 5 lb bag of flour, and it could not find it.

Have a great day !

Cod Packets

2011-05-25T03:25:00.000-07:00

Food can make a big difference in the way you feel and the way your body preforms. Certain foods can actually benefit people with different conditions. For those with arthritis, one of the beneficial foods is fish, and oily fish like salmon, tuna and trout are preferred. Non oily fish is also beneficial, and mild flavored fish are a very good way to start consuming fish.

There is cause for concern when choosing fish today. Farm raised salmon is often contaminated with harmful substances, tuna has been found to contain unsafe levels of Mercury, tilapia shown to be not safe recently , and there is always a danger of eating a fish from warm waters that has consumed red algae ( making the fish neurotic). Out of all the fish in the ocean, those that are larger and inhabiting cold waters are safest it seems. This would include Atlantic Cod and Halibut. Both have a very mild flavor, but Cod seems to be the easiest to come by. My new regimen is to eat fish three times a week and red meat only once, and so I have been investigating fish recipes that are healthy , easy and family friendly . Last night was one of our current favorites- Foil Packed Cod with lemon, bay and dill.

To make this dish you will need a cod fillet per person, two or three bay leaves( fresh is nicest if you can find it), three slices of lemon, two teaspoons of butter ( why I can eat butter with no problem but not milk or yogurt is a total mystery to me), salt , pepper , dried dill and some aluminum foil. Take a piece of foil about 20 inches long, and in the center place the lemon slices, bay leaf, fillet,butter slices and then sprinkle with salt, pepper and dried dill.

Sort of like making a sandwich, or a stack of something .

Then grab the long sides, fold the edges together tightly, twist/crimp the ends together and place on a cookie sheet ( better if it is extremely well worn and begging to be replaced. Why better ? it indicates it has been a good friend in your kitchen and has not let you down !)

Place in a 425 oven for 25 minutes- or 30 minutes if you forget how quickly fish cooks in a foil back and for a minute think you are cooking a very thin chicken breast. When done, open the packet slowly, away from your face to avoid steam burns. I served it with quinoa- another favorite grain in this house. Quinoa is high in protien, low in gluten and comes out soft, slightly chewy and looking like tiny Saturn balls on your plate

We also had a big tossed salad with this , filled with joint and body friendly foods- romaine, cucumbers, sliced almonds,sliced mushrooms, jicama and avacado. Made for a yummy dinner !

This morning I am feeling confident about trying to add one yoga position to my routine- The Warrior. I have been hesitant because it can be stressful on your knees, but I think if I approach it slow and gentle, I can do it. It's a great pose to build up your thigh muscles and hips which will help me in recovery.

Progress step one

2011-05-24T14:06:00.000-07:00

Interesting- for some reason I was not able to get into my Blogger account all morning. Different automatic program updates sometime play havoc with existing programs, and it is always interesting to sort out the aftermath. All is well, mischief managed and onward !

I had a small indicator of progress today. For the first time, I was able to get on the Wii balance board all by myself- okay, with the aid of my cane , but not with a spotter. One thing that I have been severely challenged to do since the fall is to climb any kind of stair, curb or even step over a pencil on the ground. It has to do with the way your foot comes in contact with a surface when you step down. For that matter I still cannot walk in shoes because of the way they place pressure on my knee when I step.( I have a pair of Deerfoam ballet sort of slippers that I wear). These factors have made life really challenging for some things , to say the least. With doing yoga, Qi Gong and other gentle exercise the joint is getting stronger and more flexible, and today it felt strong enough to climb up that gargantuan 3 inch step. Mister Wii rewarded me by saying I was wiggling and made me get on and off 10 times before it could "find" me. That amount of "climbing" hurt, but I did it and things seem no worse for wear because of it. Picture a middle aged woman , climbing a tiny step , holding white knuckled to a cane all the while . Wonder if this is similar to the scene with the mountaineer explorers in the past ??

I was also able to add a modified variation of another yoga move- the Single Leg Spinal Twist.

The idea with this one is to attempt to turn your body into a Twizzler stick :-) In the beginning, you bring your bent leg as close to the ground as possible without pain, lay the opposite arm as flat as possible in the other direction and breath deeply. It stretches your spine and opens up your lungs , while working on flexibly in your hips. I started this one, thought of those cartoons where the character is wrung out like a dishrag and could not stop laughing ! Yes, I am easily amused sometimes.

Today a 3 inch step...can actual stairs be far behind ???

Bridges, cobras and discovering their worth

2011-05-23T03:37:00.000-07:00

Cleaning mission accomplished yesterday. I man sound odd, but a freshly cleaned, organized space is like getting a great big breath of fresh air and a whole new perspective . It feels so settling and renewing ! When a room is freshly cleaned, I feel like I have been handed a new start. When that room is my own bedroom, it feels even better.

We spent the whole afternoon sifting, cleaning and organizing, then enjoyed a brined roast chicken for dinner. Have you ever brined meat ? It is a simple way to turn a good thing into something amazing. You place your meat ( poultry or pork- beef does not work so well) in a solution of kosher salt and sugar for 8 hrs and then cook. The salt helps the protein molecules take on more moisture, and the result is a moist, tasty meat. If it is a whole chicken for a small family, it makes an incredible way to stretch your food dollar. Yummy roast chicken for one meal , leftover meat can make 3 meals( chicken salad for 2 says in our case ) and then the bones , combined with some carrots, onions, celery and water with a small amount of vinegar makes for a large bot of chicken bone broth to be used for soup, cooking grains or simply to drink on its own.It's a meal worth considering in these tight times.

After dinner we watched some mindless TV and I got inspired to try to do my Qi Gong exercises and attempt to do a very light session of yoga. Certain postures make me very nervous right now due to the stress they could put on my knee ( such as The Warrior), but others like The Bridge, The Cobra and Downward Dog seemed like a good idea. Very gentle but affective stretches. I tried the Bridge first, and was amazed at how tight and stressed my thighs and calves felt !This pose really works your thighs and calves, and I never realized to what degree before.

Instantly I got the beginning of a Charley Horse in the thigh of the injured leg ! I stopped, massaged it, stretches a little and then tried again. I was able to do about 5 of these, holding for the count of ten. I did not want to push it incase I experienced a backlash in the morning. With Yoga , the idea is to work muscles in one direction, then the opposite and so I did the reverse with something I felt I could safely do - The Cobra

This felt AMAZING on my spine and hips !It opens up your chest and seems to give your kidneys a great big hug while massaging your digestive tract. I wanted to just stay there in that pose for hours, but forced myself to repeat the same duration and repetitions as I did for The Bridge. I realized that this was not completely the reverse motion, do I attempted one of my former favorite poses , Downward Dog

This one was very shaky feeling on my knee, and at about the count of three I felt a not so productive pain in my injured knee, so I stopped. I considered doing this pose to the count of three to be my starting point, and I will try again in a day or two. You can feel this one elongating the backs of your thighs and hamstrings while stretching out the muscle in your lower back.

I feel really good about the overall progress ! I have gone from completely sedentary and stiff to beginning moving, a little less stiff and energized in a week . It's only going to get better from here.

You can tun a piano, but you can't beat tuna fish !

2011-05-22T07:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was supposed to be a day of housework, veggie prep and cooking. Wound up being all that and an afternoon of Wii with the whole family. It was a lot of fun , and served as a reminder that we need to do this a lot more often . Like I said, when mama turns her attitude right, it becomes viral !

For dinner we had a tossed salad with tuna ( romaine, jicama,cucumbers, mushrooms, avocado, sliced almonds and tuna), and I remembered just how much I love a tossed salad with tuna ! For almost 2 years, with my weight loss/reverse infertility diet I had this for lunch daily. It seemed to be exactly what my body was craving back then. Last night it just simply sounded wonderful, and became an occasion to break my ban on commercial salad dressings. For the last couple of months I have made our own salad dressings because it was the smarter move health wise. All of these involved either some form of dairy or a tomato product. This was done because flavored vinegars( a great dressing option ) became way too harsh on both mine and my husband's stomachs. Now with the elimination of dairy and nightshades, such a move is no longer possible. Sometimes you have to compromise to get to your goal ! Incidentally , we do not eat soy in any form but soy sauce because of the extremely harmful effects on the body. I have not experimented making dressings with Almond or Rice milk yet, so the commercial brands win for now.

Today's plan is to deep clean some areas of our bedroom . Who knows what treasures we will find ?? A fabulous brined roasted chicken is on the menu for dinner, and I have a feeling some more exer-play will find us again the afternoon.

Calcium of many colors

2011-05-21T06:17:00.000-07:00

Another good day yesterday. 60 minutes of exercise (walking, Qi Gong, cycling, strength training) followed by another 60 minutes of play ( Wii cycling, table tennis, seated dancing to the Michael Jackson experience). No pain afterwords and just an overall good feeling left behind. I am beginning to question the accuracy of my Wii as to weight though. We use it on a carpeted floor with the special feet, but yesterday it had trouble reading both my son and self . According to it, I gained 1.82 lbs overnight. It is a very good thing that I am not doing this for weight loss ! Weight loss is simply a side benefit- physical stamina , flexibility and movement is the goal to overcome arthritis . Sadly, with the Wii fit it wants you to take a body test with weight before each session, so you kind of find out that number just by playing.

I had to spend some time "tweaking" our menu for next week.No dairy, no nightshades, high in fish, nuts, fruits, veggies and whole grains. I had a momentary concern about calcium , but realized calcium comes from a lot more than dairy. As a woman over 50 , osteoporosis is a concern . Raising a teen-aged boy also makes calcium a cause for pause. To reassure myself I did a little research into foods that are non dairy but high in calcium. Here is a list that I made based on that research :

Broccoli, watercress, kale and other dark leafy greens, okra,chick peas, almonds, sesame seeds, walnuts, tahini, salmon with bones,sardines with bones, figs, black strap molassess, sea vegetable like nori, tapioca

To reassure myself I made certain that our menu included these items. Oatmeal with almonds and black strap molasses, broccoli and kale for sides, seasoning blend made from nori, sesame seeds and other spices, fish at least 3 times a week and limit the red meat to 2 meals per week.

As long as the Rapture does not happen today, it should be a good week !

Hanging up my Dairy Queen crown

2011-05-20T04:50:00.000-07:00

I had a FANTASTIC day yesterday ! After discovering that both dairy and nightshades are a problem, I have been thinking of ways to live without them , and on Wednesday I was able to cut them completely from my diet. Thursday was a day that was pain free, and movement could happen easy. And so move I did . Through a combination of Qi Gong, walking and Wii games, I got in 52 minutes of exercise ! No dairy or nightshades means no pain, no need for pain medications and movement can happen. Even more interesting was that the Wii said I had lost 1.32 pounds overnight, before I did a single moment of exercise for the day. Could it be that perhaps one of my weight issues has been caused by dairy ???? As a child I would drink almost a gallon of milk a day , and throughout my whole life I have been a big dairy fan with the consumption of milk, cheese, yogurt and ice cream. Is it possible that this 'healthy" habit has been a root cause of other issues in my life ? It boggles my mind to consider, but it is indeed possible.

The movement felt really, really good and I was pain free until I did a funny side step while preparing dinner, and then I had to take an Advil to make the throbbing stop. This morning I have no soreness, no stiffness from perhaps pushing too hard, so I am good to go once again.

Living without dairy and nightshades is going to prove to be a bit of a challenge for some of our family favorites. Spaghetti is out ( nightshades), most casseroles are out ( dairy or nightshades or both) and pizza is death. ( Not really, but you get the idea). The planned meal for yesterday was spaghetti, so a substitution needed to be made. Enter in polenta !

( not mine, but from the web)
Polenta , in my mind, is this great canvas that you can pile things on. I took the sausage and cooked it with mushrooms and onions, and then topped it on polenta that I made with chicken bone broth , garlic and salt . To make polenta , take 6 to 8 cups of liquid, bring it to rolling boil and then using a wire whisk and keeping the liquid moving, slowly pour in a stream of cornmeal ( about a cup) while constantly stirring. Cook while constantly stirring for about 10 minutes and pour into bowls ( or pour into a pan, cool and cut into shapes to bake or whatever). Polenta can be topped with so many things , and it makes for a different from the norm kind of side. Add a tossed salad and you have a very filling meal .

I feel like I am on a roll now- let the momentum continue !

Wearing the Cone of Shame

2011-05-19T05:42:00.000-07:00

It seems to be really difficult to fall back into the pattern of blogging every day ! It's like part of your brain misses that regular message to do such and such , and it takes an extraordinary event to kick things back into gear. I got mine yesterday, and it is forcing me to not only blog , but wear the cone of shame , like the dog in the movie Up that did not do as he should

Yes, it is unpleasant to wear, but you have to suck it up and pull on the big girl panties.

What made me don the Cone of Shame ? It came in the form of a friend. For the last week I have been getting back into a very , very modified exercise program because the injury saw me spending lots and lots of days doing absolutely nothing. It was necessary to let it heal, but lack of movement and the injury made my arthritis flair terribly, and even standing up brought pain. When I reached the six month mark I realized that things were as healed as they are going to get and now I better start working on rebuilding muscle and getting flexibility back, so I started doing some Qi Gong exercises. Qi Gong is like Tai Chi- designed to increase flexibility, mobility and vitality.

Like the gentleman in the above picture, minus the white suit and flowering trees in the background.Every day brings a little more mobility , and finally I felt confident enough to go for a very short walk outside. Something like 10 minutes, and my legs started feeling shaky enough that I was afraid of falling and re-injuring myself , so I stopped. 10 minutes is a start though, and I mentioned the walk on Facebook- where everybody is talking at everyone else about nothing at all . One of my long time friends commented that she is also trying to get back into the swing after a nasty bout of a respiratory illness, and it unfolded that we would be exercise buddies to encourage each other. She is recovering, a homeschool mom of 10 children , athletic abilities are the same as mine , so it is a good match. We both have the Wii Fit, and we are including it in part of our daily plans. She would focus more on the aerobic and yoga, me on the balance and yoga at the moment.

So, yesterday for the first time in 197 days, I got on the Wii Fit balance board. For any of you who have the game, you know what that means- the body test. Balance abilities and.....your weight. Here is where the cone of shame comes in- I learned that all this inactivity and focusing on balancing my hormones AND helping my son overcome more of his challenges of Autism through diet has seen me gain 27 1/2 pounds.

Good news is, I know how I gained it . Bad news is , I am not completely sure what dietary approach is going to help to make these pounds and friends go away. Some things are certain- daily exercise is a must. Another thing that is certain- dairy foods and any food from the nightshade family ( tomatoes, eggplant, peppers amongst them ) , foods high in oxalic acid ( spinach, cranberries and such) and foods high in purines ( organ meats and red meat) bring on horribly nasty arthritis flairs, so they are banished from the house. Foods that are beneficial are oily fish, nuts, any fruits and veggies that are not from the above categories and a moderate level of whole grains. These foods help me to feel good, have more movement and should help to remove the weight. Losing weight puts less pressure on the joints , and less pressure means more mobility and a more active life.
The guys have not stepped on the scale , but they are in agreement to support me in this. It seems that however mom operates, the rest of the family will follow. If mom sits like a slug from pain, the others will join her in sympathy. If mom stats moving , the others will happily join in because it looks like a good idea. Mom seems to be the keystone, and this keystone is back in the modified for mobility issues saddle !

Movin and groovin !

2011-05-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

Have you ever tried to release a screw that has become rusted shut to a surface ? Hard to do , but not impossible when you spray a little WD40 on it. That is how I feel after being so sedimentary for so long ! I believe I actually heard my knees creaking while I started moving again.

I am officially at a level of speed, fitness and endurance that a 10 minute old baby is at. Like a 10 minute old baby, I will stretch , move and improve. I decided to use a Qi Healing workout, the stationary pedal bike and just simple walking to start. The Qi is a very gentle movement routine recommended for arthritis sufferers, Seniors and people who wish to improve flexibility. I pulled out my DVD routine this morning with the intention of doing the full half hour routine, but found that after 10 minutes I had to stop. My spine has become so tight from the inactivity that the twist were starting to make me feel very dizzy and off balance. No problem- 10 minutes is a good starting point ! I then moved to the bike and was able to get in 5 minutes of pedaling before my knee was feeling discomfort. Again, not perfect , but a great start. A few minutes later I began hall walking. Still using my cane because every now and then for no reason my knee totally gives out. I am able to do 5 minute sessions of this right now, several times throughout the day. Again, not a perfect thing, but after almost 6 months of recovery time, a fantastic start. The idea is to rebuild muscle, increase strength and NOT re-injure the knee.

Day one down...onward and upward !

Back to my regularly scheduled life

2011-05-11T04:26:00.000-07:00

After 3 months and who knows how many hours, I finally said enough to Ancestry.com for now. It's not that it was not worth it or that I didn't find anything- on the contrary I kept finding things that were amazing, inspiring and thought provoking, and I can say they have changed my life. Problem is they are still there for discovery- some branches of my family tree stretch back into the Dark Ages , and with the specific data comes a lot of historical information that can be very compelling reading when you realize it is speaking about your ancestor. As long as we were paying for a subscription, I was bound and determined to get my moneys worth and learn all that I can. End result is that everything else took a back seat ! Everything except cooking nourishing foods, homeschooling and the necessary household upkeep .

So I decided to end my subscription and get back to my regular life . Back to blogging, studies, getting strong. The injury is finally healed, but it combined with minimal movement has made the arthritis a very serious issue again. Modified strength training is the order of the day, and the inclusion of a new supplement SAMe is proving to be very helpful. First order of buisness is to get into some kind of regular exercise routine that will not aggravate. My first thought is the Wii and some work on the modified stationary bike( just two pedals on a small frame).

Some results of this way of eating

2011-03-29T05:30:00.000-07:00

So we have all been led to believe that if we eat healthy ( i.e. modern definition that says it must be low in saturated fat, sodium and calories) we will lose weight and be healthy. After nearly 10 years of constant attempts to "eat healthy" , my weight did not drop, my arthritis worsened and I developed food allergies to nuts, fish and a near fatal reaction to shellfish.

For about 3 months now I have tossed everything that is believed about eating healthy in favor of eating nourishing, real food. Whole eggs, whole milk, butter, coconut oil, soaked grains, bone broths and fermented vegetables. Two weeks ago I accidentally consumed some shrimp ( shellfish- and it had me very frightened for a while) , and had absolutely no reaction. This past Saturday I enjoyed a dinner of boil and peel shrimp with no reaction. Through eating nourishing, I have reversed my allergies to nuts, fish and shellfish. My arthritis continues to improve.

I may be wrong , but I would say eliminating allergies is real health. I am not sidetracked from the weight loss journey, but rather I no longer consider it to be important. A number on the scale or a clothing size is absolutely not an indicator of your quality of health, no matter what you Doctor or Insurance Company would like you to believe. Real health is my only objective.

Shakin the tree

2011-03-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

Sill here, still plugging away at family history. One month turned into 2 months, the job is still not finished, and I am being blown away every day by the finds. Blown away in a good way, and blown away in a very disturbed way- like discovering that several of my Great Grandfathers wound up captured by the Iroquois, tortured, killed and then EATEN by them . ( It was their way, and how they believed to absorb the life energy of the person in payment for a wrong done to the tribal family). This may be the best weight loss discovery, for since I learned this fact I have not had much of an appetite for anything else. However, my family still has an appetite, so I cook for them . My clothes are getting looser , but I have not stepped on the scale. I really do not care what it says. Food has kind of fallen into a happy rut - Saturday mornings we have sourdough waffles and bacon, Sundays are eggs and some form of meat, Saturday afternoons are Chinese take out ( the most affordable, most real food filled fast food option for a busy day), Sunday is roast brined chicken and then bone broth is made from the carcass as well as chicken salad for sandwiches during the week. Lots of soaked oatmeal and egg breakfasts and home made soup with sandwiches made on soaked flour bread for lunches.

Nick , who turns 19 in a few days, seems to be on the verge of a growth spurt these days. His appetite has become amazing ( he has gained some weight, but it has always been that he gets rounder than higher), and I can hear his stomach growling several times during the day. He grabs fists full of raw vegetables, cheese, hardboiled eggs, homemade soaked granola bars and almost always has seconds at every meal. However, he has become more and more conversational , sharper in the critical thinking skills and has the upper arm strength of Atlas. I am not going to worry about his weight, as he is growing more and more functional every day. That will serve him a lot more than fitting in a size 34 jeans ever will.

Hopefully I can finish this project in the next week or two and life will get back to normal- whatever that is !

Have I dissapeared ???

2011-02-28T06:20:00.000-08:00

Some of you are probably wondering if I have disappeared- the answer is no ! I am still here, and the reason for the absence is a happy one.

All of my life , I have wondered about my mother's family. I never knew my maternal grandparents, met them only once for a brief 15 minute visit , and was told very little about them. My dad's family was very close, large, and I was blessed to have an actual relationship with my great grandmother, great grand aunts and uncles, aunts, uncles and dozens of cousins. This made my lack of other side of the family very pronounced. Who was I ? Who were they ? I was told my grandfather was raised in an orphanage but knew his father and one brother and that my great grandfather did some gambling. My maternal grandmother had a mother that was murdered, and that was all. Later in life I was able to develop relationships with my maternal aunts and uncles, but before them was a total mystery. About 20 years ago I started trying to do research on the family, and kept coming up with dead ends.Lots of questions, and the living members of the family started dying off, and the questions haunted me. Meanwhile I knew my dad's family came from Canada,France and Ireland- I met many from the French Canadian ancestors , but the ones from Ireland died before my father was born. His grandfather came from Ireland as a young man, spoke, read and wrote Gaelic, and supposedly his wife's family drank up the profits of an entire town. Fascinating tales , but how true were they ?

For the last 2 yrs we have been watching the show "Who do you think you are" , and for Valentines Day Bob gifted me with a one month subscription to the international data base of Ancestry.com. I was over the moon and set out to find out what I could , and document the people in the month. Seemed simple enough. Well it turns out I found out as much as I could about my mom's family ( a whole lot of tragedy there) , and discovered not only was my dad's family from Quebec, but I have about 20 ancestors who were amongst the founders of the colony, one who was amongst the original crew who discovered Canada and one who was the first to pilot up the St Laurence. If that was not interesting enough, their ancestors were from the French Aristocracy, and the stories of their lives are fascinating. So it has been about 3 weeks of finding link after link, story after story, and I have still not found the end. I also started on my husband's family, and it is equally as fascinating. There is so much information about our families that we have decided I can serve as the base for a homeschool curriculum for our son. Nick has started researching with me and we are using what we learn to springboard into lessons to cover all the subjects. All in all this makes for wonderfully, happy busy ! And it is so interesting that at the moment it is about the only thing happening .

So still here, still recovering and getting totally lost in history !

Sticky Chicken

2011-02-11T05:59:00.000-08:00

Through the years, I have belonged to different email lists that discuss ides for homeschooling,weight loss, housework and freezer cooking. It's like opening up your mailbox and finding some tip that can make your life a thousand times easier - what's not to love ! The freezer cooking loop was at one time a treasure house of economical, good tasting meals that could be done in bulk or frozen for future use, and I was in love ! I tried many of the recipes with great success, but there was one that I hesitated to try- sticky chicken ! The name comes from the fact that it turns out like store bought rotisserie chicken, and the skin is sticky from the herbs.The biggest reason I would not make it was that it involved using chicken with a skin. Oh, the horror ! Chicken with skin is so high in fat, and fat is so bad for your weight and heart. Since learning the truth ( fat DOES NOT make you fat and if you eliminate animal fat from your diet you will do serious, long term harm to your health), I have included chicken with the skin on and bones in tack. Better to make bone broth with .

I came across the Sticky Chicken recipe the other day and decided that I wanted to try it. First you create a dry rub marinate of spices, coat the chicken with it and leave it on for at least 6 hours, and then roast it in a low oven for a slow pace ( 250 for 5 hrs). I did not have a whole bird, but had chicken legs. I noticed one problematic ingredient in the rub- cayenne pepper ! My son has "Canadian " tastebuds and often complains that things like katsup are too spicy. I am not a fan of spicy foods either, so I decided to test out the dry rub on the legs and see what needed to be altered to the rub

Sticky Chicken rub

4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 onions, quartered

The results ? HIGHLY seasoned , yummy chicken ! I let the rub sit on the chicken for 6 hrs and then cooked them at 350 for 1 1/2 hrs. I believe the rub would work best with breasts, as the flavor is more mild. I used half the amount of Cayenne, but next time I will leave it our all together- the paprika adds enough of a warming on it's own. The chicken did com out very moist and somewhat sticky. This one would be a definite "better for you homemade" recipe to replace those supermarket rotisserie birds or even Boston Market. Leftovers work well in any recipe calling for cooked chicken.

Meanwhile, life has been good. Slowly recovering, and finding less and less need for my cane to walk. Every now and then my knee completely gives out, so I have not completely abandoned it's use. Noticing several old scars continue to fade, which is very strange. I have needed to use my glasses less and less, and it seems that my cycles have returned, without PMS problems. Nick continues to make a lot of intellectual strides. The other day he chatted with me about his idea for a grocery shopping company that he could start, and he has a sudden desire to do a lot of things completely independent. That is something I worried would never occur ! The "backlash" with this is he seems to be in the midst of another growth spurt, and has an appetite that could terrify most wallets. It is as if his body has woken up with the inclusion of things like whole eggs, butter, cream, liver, animal fats.It is so odd to see this child who was at one time distant, mentally absent and eating only plain pasta emerge from his very silent, internalized world emerge and talk about his dreams, goals, opinions and so much more. The future looks very bright indeed.

Superbowl !

2011-02-07T05:26:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to the Packers, whom I felt would win before the Playoffs. Strange thing to feel, as I am not a real football fan. Congratulations to both teams for making it a really exciting game to watch- and to indulge in lots of snacks by . It seems that Superbowl is a day of food, friends and great commercials , with football in the middle. I decided to make some football related snacks for the day so that it could be an easy day all around.

The most fun was some cupcakes that I made. Nick is really into decorated cupcakes, but neither him or I are skilled at great cake decorating ( And Bob is not even compelled to do anything but eat them). However, lack of skill should not stop anyone from having fun, so we assembled was decorating stuff we had, teamed it with what limited skills we possessed and came up with these. The recipe was a really great one for the cakes to start with !

JavaCupcake’s White Velvet Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

1 cup milk
¼ cup sour cream
½ teaspoon pure vanilla
1 vanilla bean
12 tbsp (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1½ cups sugar
3 eggs
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 375F and line cupcake pans with liners.
2. Prep vanilla bean by scoring the bean down one side and scraping the inside of the bean out. In a small sauce pan, add 1 cup milk, sour cream, vanilla, vanilla bean and inside scrapings. Cook on medium high heat until the milk starts to steam and bubbles begin to form around the outer edge of the milk, whisking occasionally. Remove from heat immediately and let cool for 5-10 minutes. You want warm but not scalding hot milk. Remove the vanilla bean shell before adding to the batter.
3. In a large bowl, combine cake flour, baking powder and salt and mix together to blend. Set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
5. Add the eggs and mix on high just until they start to whip up like frosting. You want them to be light, but not too whipped.
6. In thirds, slowly add the flour mixture. In between each addition, slowly add half the milk/vanilla mixture. Begin and end with the flour. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl and thoroughly incorporate (without over mixing) the batter with each addition.
7. By hand, fold in remaining ¼ cup milk.
8. Fill each cupcake liner using an ice cream scoop with batter, about 2/3 full.
9. Bake 15-18 minutes. After 10 minutes of baking, rotate pan 180 degrees to ensure even baking.
10. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before removing to a wire wrack to cool completely.

Not pretty, but tasty. I made a simple butter cream frosting ( butter, powdered sugar and vanilla) but these would be better with a cream cheese frosting or a French Cream. Sadly the cupcakes were the only thing I remembered to take pictures of ! The rest of the food consisted of BBQ Wings ( I want to find a bbq sauce recipe from scratch with a good flavor), meatballs, italian sausage bites and wings. I think I found the BEST wing recipe yet- real ingredients and a fantastic flavor

Rubbed Wings

2 Tablespoons melted butter
3 cloves garlic pressed
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Sea salt
10 chicken wings/drumsticks

Put all of it in a large plastic bag and shake to coat
375 for 1 hour

It was declared a day free from veggies ( an extremely rare thing in this house) , and the rare inclusion of chips and dips. I made the dips, to avoid a lot of questionable things. Guacamole ( which turned out only so so) and an onion dip that is to die for ! No need for those envelopes of onion soup mix, thanks to Alton Brown !

Onion Dip From Scratch(Alton Brown)

2        tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2           cups diced onions
     1/4      teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2           cups sour cream
     3/4           cup mayonnaise
     1/4      teaspoon garlic powder
     1/4      teaspoon freshly-ground white pepper
     1/2      teaspoon kosher salt

In a saute pan over medium heat add oil, heat and add onions and salt. Cook the onions until they are caramelized, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Mix the rest of the ingredients, and then add the cooled onions. Refrigerate and stir again before serving.
This recipe yields 1 batch.

One really funny thing happened during the game. I have had an intolerance to beer and wine for a long time ( gives me instant heartburn), but with the dietary changes I have found I am suddenly able to enjoy an occasional glass of wine. We decided to try beer for the game - it has been well over 20 years since I had a beer because of the heartburn it gives me. Bob decided the thing to buy , because of the minimal footprint in the fridge ( a 4 can pack) would be Guinness Draught. It's a very robust beer , and one thing Guinness is famous for is the great foam head it gets when you pour. We decided to split the first can between the three of us, letting me see if I could tolerate it and allowing Nick ( who will be 19 this March) to have his first ever taste of beer. Turns out it still bothers my stomach , but Nick has either an allergy or a serious intolerance to beer. One sip brought on a total digestive clean out and enough gas to power a small village. ( He has decided beer is the stupidest thing on the planet as a result- kind of a comfort in that). As the can emptied we noticed the sound of something rolling around in the can, and became concerned. We opened the can with an old fashioned opener and found this

Something that looked like a ping pong ball. Turns out, after dashing off a letter to Guinness and an inquiry on Facebook, I learned that this is something that is in every can of Guinness. It is not a ping pong ball, but a device that insures a foamy head in every glass of Guinness. Kind of ingenious when you think about it . Lie and learn something new each day !

Spinach bites and new thoughts on skinny

2011-02-05T08:07:00.000-08:00

I was reminded yesterday of a whole new reason not to"idolize" the concept of thin bodies. I believe it can help serve as a wake up call to others that are questing to find themselves looking fashionably thin as well. I am the oldest of 5, and for a lot of reasons we do not get together as much as a group as we once did. Happily, we can still keep fingers on the pulse of others through things like Facebook. Through status updates and pictures, you are at least in the know about each others lives. One of my sisters posted some pictures of a casual sort of gathering that took place, and two of the family members were looking incredibly thin, and not well. My son was looking over my shoulder and saw the photos, and exclaimed "good ! They are skinny now !". These people were never obese. One is thin from a serious substance abuse problem and the other is that way because of cancer in the lungs, kidneys and brain. I explained they were thin because they are not well, and that thin can mean not well at all.

Now try to imagine how to break down our societies obsession with thin and separate it with the evidence of disease wasting away a body, and frame it in terms an autistic child, whom only sees all things in the literal sense, can understand. Try to rationalize how thin can be healthy on any level ! Kind of makes you think, doesn't it ? If you see someone who is overweight, you may think things like they are lazy or stupid, but when you see someone Heroin Chic thin, you instantly think unwell- so why is there such a strong desire to make oneself look like they are on the path to unwellness ??

Meanwhile, here at the ranch I thought about the affects of diet on not only our physical bodies but emotional ones as well. There have been a few articles out in recent weeks about the connection between a lack of fat and fatty acids and things like depression and violence. I believe substance abuse is one result of this imbalance as people choose to self medicate. Serious alcohol consumption ( one substance of choice) can lead to several debilitating diseases over time. It just gives me that much more reason to feed my family a nourishing diet, do all that I can to respect and nurture them and make our home a refuge and place of restoration. It is my contribution to the war on drugs. Meals are relatively easy to make balanced, but snacks become tricky. Children snack throughout the day- it is a natural fact. If they are allowed to have unlimited quantities of nourishing foods, they learn to listen to their natural appetites. Statistically it has been shown that children who are restricted to quantities of snacks are more likely to become overweight because they are disconnected with their natural hunger sensations and lean to view food as something other than nutrition.Best thing a parent can do is provide snack items with real nutrition . This is one that I made for snacks this week. Store them in a covered container in the refrigerator for a week. Makes a good party appetizer as well.

Spinach Ricotta Bites

2 Tbsp butter
1 small yellow onion -- chopped
1 garlic clove -- minced
2 large eggs -- beaten
1 cup Ricotta cheese (full fat)
1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese -- shredded
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese -- grated
1 pkg frozen chopped spinach -- (10 Oz) defrosted and drained WELL
1/4 tsp Celtic Sea Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat and cook the onions for 4 minutes until tender.
Add the garlic and cook an additional minute then set aside to cool.
Whisk eggs in a bowl and stir in cheeses.
Once combined, stir in spinach, salt and cooled onion and garlic mixture.
Pour the mixture into lightly greased mini muffin cups.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the filling is set and golden on top.
Cool and Serve.

Today I am going to start working on some nourishing Super Bowl Snacks. Meatballs, chicken wings, ribs, dips and some cupcakes using a real vanilla bean- how decadent ! I have used one to make vanilla sugar long ago but never to bake with. Should be interesting ! As to the game I think The Packers will win, but I am most interested in watching the commercials ! So many creative ones ar shown for the first time during these games !

Do you watch the Superbowl , and do you have any must have snacks ???

Make your own Greek Yogurt- or cream cheese if you prefer

2011-02-04T05:20:00.000-08:00

For about 2 months now I have been soaking all of our grain and nut products in a mild lactic acid solution before cooking. Reason for this is that it removes the phytic acid, which inhibits your digestive tract from fully absorbing the nutrients in grains and reduces the carb count. It is simple to do- 12-24 hrs before planing to cook said item I place it, water and either a small amount of cider vinegar or whey in a container and let it sit at room temperature, covered. I prefer using whey , as it seems to give the grains a better taste than cider vinegar does. Problem for most people is that they scratch their heads when thinking about where to get whey. It can be sold in powdered form, but it does not have the same impact on grains I believe- plus the process of dehydrating the product involves heat and that removes nutrients. It is better to make your own, and you get Greek yogurt/cream cheese in the process as well.

It is simple to do- all you need is some plain yogurt, a bowl, a colander and either cheesecloth or paper towels.

I use a full fat variety with active cultures . This will work with fat free plain Dannon as well. I keep forgetting to buy cheese cloth, and I have a suspicious lack of linen dishtowels, so paper towels are the go to item. For small batches, a coffee filter will also work.

Place the colander in a large bowl, place the paper towels in the colander to line it, and then dump the yogurt on the paper towels and let sit at room temperature for 4 to 6 hours. This can be done overnight in the refrigerator ( and if it is the middle of summer in the south this might be preferable), but for the most part unnecessary. The thing that makes yogurt such a healthy food in the first place is bacteria that has been activated by inoculation and incubation at a specific warm temperature range.

The whey is that liquid that collects or forms on the yogurt when it has sat for a few days. Most people toss it, but it is a valuable food stuff. The whey will slowly begin to drip, and you need do nothing other than allow it time to work. After about 4 hours of ignoring it , you will be rewarded with :

a sufficient quantity of whey for your weekly cooking , and:

yogurt cheese, or Greek yogurt ! Nonfat Greek style yogurt is preferable to many people, but if you make this out of full fat yogurt, it is sublime ! You can use it as you would cream cheese, but this is not my favorite way. I mix it with a little sweetener, add fruit and it tastes like you are eating thick whipped cream and fruit. Active bacterial cultures, healthful fat, nourishing ingredients and a decadent taste- what is not to love !

A word about the final volume- you will wind up with half the amount of yogurt you began with, so if you are planing on using this in a recipe, plan accordingly. You will also wind up with roughly the same amount of whey. Both should be stored in your refrigerator for about 2 weeks. If the yogurt develops a mold or a pinkish color, toss- or if it smells bad. If the whey becomes cloudy, toss it.

A Food Manifesto for the Future - NYTimes.com

2011-02-03T13:51:00.000-08:00

This guy makes a lot of sense !

A Food Manifesto for the Future - NYTimes.com

Real Food

2011-02-03T03:43:00.000-08:00

So where do we go from here ?
That does indeed seem to be the big question. I am convinced that the current model of "healthy" eating is the quickest route to overall poor health and serious disease. I am also convinced that 99 percent of what fills our supermarket shelves is more lab experiment than food and does nothing to nourish any living being. When you come to these conclusions, what do you do ?

You learn to cook. Not how to open and combine various cans and packages to create something to feed, but legitimately cook from scratch using real ingredients. No egg beaters, egg white only, vegetable oils, fat free or low fat anything. Legitimate food involving things like real eggs, butter, whole milk, actual vegetables and flours. Meats that still look like the animal they have come from, with the skin and bone still in tact.

It is beginning to become a lost art. There are cookbooks, websites with recipes, cooking networks, but very little real food is being produced in these. If it involves a can of anything or a carton of something labeled as "stock", its not real food. Many of the skills that go into creating real food are quickly being lost. Take for example making a gelatine salad. If you were in a kitchen without Jello and or Knox gelatine, would you know how to make it ? ( It involves a calves foot). If making a cake, do you know how without the aid of a box mix ? Can you make a cheese sauce from milk, butter, flour and cheese to top pasta or a vegetable ? Many do not, and modern cookbooks ignore such basic information.

My intention is to get back to basics in all things. To create real, nourishing foods to feed my family. Since we have abandoned the scale in favor of real food , we have all seen and felt great improvements in our health, but I can do better. There are still a few processed food products in our home , and I am going to part company with these. To aid me in the process , I obtained a copy of the Boston Cooking School Cookbook by Fannie Farmer Merrit from 1916- created back in a day when processed food did not exist. I plan on learning or reclaiming a lot of old skills and sharing them in the process.

Real food for real people- that's how it was meant to be.

Groundhog could notee his shadow through the drifts

2011-02-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

All day yesterday, the forecast was for "snowmageddon". Something that the weather people have loved to predict here every time a gray cloud comes within 40 miles of Lake Michigan this year. Perhaps they long for heavy dramatic role, perhaps they feel the pressure to compete with so much bad news of late. Who knows- but after a while you begin to feel the need to scream at them and demand "just the facts , please". Yesterday afternoon brought a few flakes, a lot of cold air, and heavy grey skies. Then about 3 pm, it all turned to a shower of white. By 11:30 pm, this was the view out my window

in the morning, things looked like this

and this

Later the plows started to come through and the great unburying took place. Some seemed to get a late start and may be buried in the snow till May

Meanwhile, the children jumped for joy at a snow day today , and another one tomorrow. Sub Zero temperatures are moving in , which will turn the snow to ice. Some side streets will not be cleared for days. This matters little to kids, who take these storms as an opportunity to build snowmen

I am noticing that kids seem to have forgotten the process of rolling balls to form snowmen anymore. It's just push the snow together and decorate it. The result is the above Jabba the Snow Hutt !

Meanwhile inside, I spent the day making bread, bone broth and just enjoying the company of my hubby, who's buisness was closed for the day.

A chicken in every pot

2011-01-31T23:01:00.000-08:00

In a 1928 Republican political campaign, the promise was made to "put a chicken in every pot".Such was the promise of a life of prosperity- a chicken in every pot and an auto in every back yard was the vision of prosperity offered in the dark days after the Great Depression.

Today, in our world of "healthy" eating, such a promise has lost all meaning. Chicken, don't you know , comes either in the form of a nugget, KFC or a boneless, skinless low fat and calorie "frankenfood" that has been engineered for maximum profitability and convenience. The creature it comes from bears resemblance to that running around in a children's petting zoo farm yard, but that's where it ends. Or it is purchased in the form of equally processed boneless , skinless legs. Theoretically, it is chicken. A whole, real chicken is this scary, intimidating thing that is best left for an archaic time , when people made actual meals from real foods that involve the use of vegetable peelers, butcher knives, roasting pans and other such complicated things.

Truth be told, a whole chicken you find in the supermarket has been less tampered with through the whole process of it's life.I say this by the fact that it has a breast and thighs that do not appear to be the Dolly Parton or Kim Kardashian of the poultry world. It is proportionate to the rest of the critter. A whole chicken, if approached with respect, can provide almost 3 or 4 meals or parts of those meals. By respect I mean an attitude that every scrap of the creature is valuable and food. The way that our grandmothers approached nearly all food. It was valuable , and should be treated as money in your pocket.

The humble bird would begin life as a simple roast chicken dinner. If you wanted to get fancy, brine the bird before roasting to bring out the maximum flavor. A whole roast chicken looks like a mini thanksgiving, and can be carved in the same way you carve a turkey.After the meal is done , let the carcass cool, and pick all of the meat off the remaining carcass. Depending on the size of the appetites you are dealing with, this can be anything from 2 cups of meat to 1/2 cup. Meal number two can become chicken salad or ala king or even fried rice. Third meal happens when you collect the bones, place them in a pot with vegetable tops , parings and some spices, water, vinegar and let it simmer for a couple of hours. Cool, strain and you have a broth that can be used to make soup, cook grains in or simply nourish on its own.

In our "health " conscious and fat phobic world today , such meal stretching is impossible. One food, one dish is the mindset.A boneless skinless breast feeds one person, one meal, and that is that.No bones, no skin, no fat, no mess. In exchange for convenience and calorie consciousness we have tossed out an opportunity to stretch our food dollar and have access to some valuable nutrients( bone broth is high in calcium and protien). One thing eating bone broth helps prevent is osteoporosis. Is it a coincidence that as we consume more boneless, skinless ,low fat "chickenstein", we also find more and more drugs like Boniva on the market? I think not. And as we consume less and less "evil" saturated fats we find a greater need for more formulations of drugs for the management of depression . Could it be because our bodies need these saturated fats to keep a chemical balance ? ( Trans-fatty acids lead to depression- and are found in things like margarine and vegetable oils that become rancid, oxidized and hydrogenated).

It is said that when one begins to live a green lifestyle where the focus is on recycling, prosperity is often a surprising side benefit. I think that when we return to a real food lifestyle ( shunning anything that comes in a can, a box or a vacuum sealed package, we start for economy but reap real health in the process.

Integrated Supplements Blog: Study Finds Oxidized Cholesterol In All Dairy Powders Tested - Levels Increased With Storage

2011-01-31T05:51:00.000-08:00

Integrated Supplements Blog: Study Finds Oxidized Cholesterol In All Dairy Powders Tested - Levels Increased With Storage

Trans-Palmitoleic Acid, Metabolic Risk Factors, and New-Onset Diabetes in U.S. Adults — Ann Intern Med

2011-01-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

More proof that we need fat in our diet- and from animals. High fat dairy raises your level of HDL Skim milk should be avoided like the plague- it contains oxidized cholesterol , and will do your body more harm than eating butter, full fat cheese, full fat yogurt and such.

Trans-Palmitoleic Acid, Metabolic Risk Factors, and New-Onset Diabetes in U.S. Adults — Ann Intern Med

Healthy sleep cycles balance hormones and burn fat

2011-01-25T11:23:00.000-08:00

Weight is more the result of hormones than calories in and out. Getting the right amount of sleep will serve you more than having Jillian beat the pounds off you.

Healthy sleep cycles balance hormones and burn fat

Impatient !

2011-01-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

It's been a quiet sort of week here. Been working on strengthening my knee, healing my metabolisim and just dreaming of spring :-)

Turns out , my knee injury is the result of sprained ligaments, and the timetable for healing such is 3-6 months. I do not wish to hear this, as it has been 2 months and 1 week now since the injury. Slow, steady progress is being made, but impatience seems to be building. I am sick of walking with a cane, get really frustrated when my knee shows signs of weakness and just grumble a whole lot ! I am a very bad patient .

As to the metabolic healing, repairing this can take even longer. Reports I have read indicate it can take as much as a year to see a turn around- again, not what I wish to hear. Yesterday I decided to check my resting temperature, 30 minutes after waking up. If you are "normal" the reading will be very close to 98.6 ( variations within the 98 degree range is considered normal). Mine was 97.5, which is an indication that my metabolism is still trying to balance. It's interesting to me that many years ago , when trying to conceive and using the basal temperature readings as an indication of fertility, my normal temperature was always in the 97 range- dropping to 97.4 when I ovulated and shooting to 97.8 after and then dropping to 97.5 . My weight has been an issue since I was 18 months old , and I have also always registered a low body temperature. This seems to scream volumes in the light of things I have learned recently. My metabolism has never worked correctly, and the root cause is most likely PCOS

The Checkup - Weight loss's link to better health questioned

2011-01-25T04:14:00.000-08:00

Lose weight to get healthy >? Think again. Change you habits to improve your health instead

The Checkup - Weight loss's link to better health questioned

Liver and Onions

2011-01-18T05:11:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make. I was a very odd child ! While my siblings and friends would go nuts over pre- sweetened cereals , I could not stand them. I wanted eggs and some kind of meat for breakfast. Sadly that would only happen while camping. While they would sneak cookies from the cookie jar, I would swipe cans of mussels or tubes of liver sausage and eat them. I would crave protein with fats instead of sugars and carbs. Something tells me that way back then I was naturally trying to address my nutritional needs through cravings. Another odd thing was that my favorite dinner was....liver and onions ! Truth be told I could have probably ate it every night, but for various reasons this did not happen. I continued to make and crave liver and onions till one day the "health" advocates determined it was a very bad food to eat, due to the cholesterol, fat and chemicals. We now know that blood cholesterol has nothing to do with cholesterol you ingest from foods and EVERYTHING to do with the amount of insulin your system pumps out in an attempt to balance the affects of carbs you ingest, in particular without fats and protein. In other words, an egg white omlette and fat free bran muffin is going to bring you a lot closer to a heart attack, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and so forth than the whole eggs, bacon and butter breakfast ever will.

But back to liver. Turns out our mothers and grandmothers were right- it is good for us. It is also something that we should eat once a week ( like fatty fish). What exactly is it good for ? 1 slice beef liver contains 78.2 grams protein,1,539 % RDA Vitamin A and 101% RDA Iron. It is Low in sodium, No sugar, High in iron,
Very high in niacin,Very high in pantothenic acid,Very high in phosphorus,Very high in riboflavin,Very high in selenium ,Very high in vitamin B6, Very high in vitamin B12 and High in zinc.Liver has long been a part of the treatment for pernicious anemia because it is a rich source of heme iron (the organic iron in animal foods). This type of iron is five times more easily absorbed than non-heme iron. Pork liver contains the highest amount of iron, at 34 mg per 4-ounce serving.

Liver is something that I intend to serve once a week, and I was struck by the absence of liver recipes in most cookbooks. Liver is also something that you will no longer find in most fresh butcher counters of grocery stores ( along with heart, tongue, kidneys and brains/sweetbreads). You find it in the freezer case. Happily I remember how my mother used to make it, so I will show you how it is done. Liver, when cooked right, is absolutely delicious as well as nutritious.

First, place your liver in a dish, cover it with milk and allow it to soak 30-45 minutes. This step pulls the "strong " taste out of the liver and makes it much more palatable to more sensitive pallets. Meanwhile, peel and slice a mess of onions and saute them in bacon grease or butter. Avoid vegetable oils or Crisco because they make the liver taste wrong.

When browned, transfer to a platter and add more bacon grease to the pan and bring to a high heat. Dredge the liver in a mix of flour, salt , pepper and paprika and quickly fry in the pan- no more than 3 minutes on each side. It usually winds up put it in the ban, count to 30, flip, count to 30 and transfer to the platter. Serve with grilled onions and katsup or balsamic vinegar, but nothing is really needed.

My son has only had liver a handful of times , but liver sausage sandwiches several times. He saw the platter, grabbed two slices of liver and inhaled them ! Something tells me he just might really be my son after all. Yes I carried him and gave birth to him but I became very suspicious when it was learned that he disliked chocolate. I could not believe that ANYTHING that came from my body could not like chocolate !

Just a little geeky-ness

2011-01-16T08:56:00.000-08:00

I have been having fun, sifting through the books and collecting other tidbits from old 19th century cookbooks. There is a wealth of information to be drawn from these ! I would like to share with you some things I learned about the basic loaf of bread.

The word loaf comes from lifan, meaning to raise or lift up. This described the action of having dough stand till fermented and then mixing it with new dough ingredients, "lifting" the whole mass , making it lighter and more porus.Wheat is classified as red or white, in reference to the color of the grains, and as winter or summer. Winter wheat is sown in the autumn and summer wheat in the spring.Soft wheat is tender and floury, hard wheat is tough and contains more gluten.There are four specific and different processes for milling flour ( St Louis Process,Haxall Process,Minnesota and Health Food Flour)Good flour should not be white in color, but yellowish.It holds together in a mass when squeezed and retains the impression of the hand, up to the marks on the skin.

Kind of cool ! Today it seems we only focus on the price, white or whole wheat and little else. No wonder it is so easy for food manufacturers to slip things into products and sell us nutritionally balanced lab products in the name of food. I think we have allowed ourselves to become to far removed from actual food.

In other news, stability and strength has been growing, and I am starting a formal exercise program this week. 5 minute sessions of tai chi, walking and shadow boxing 3 times a day. This week they will be 5 minute sessions, next week increased to 7 minutes and so on. It's not so much with the goal of weight loss ( I am learning that this is one of the most harmful things that you can possibly do to your long term over all health), as it is a move to increase strength, flexibility and improve the quality of sleep. Shadow boxing and tai chi are just a whole lot of fun ! Tai Chi has been shown to be very helpful in the prevention of falls as we age, as well as increase flexibility. It's fun to pretend to be water flowing, birds flying or animals frolicking !

Pasta, building and reads

2011-01-14T05:55:00.000-08:00

I want to share with you something my son made for me . I was going to make another batch of sourdough pasta yesterday and I was trying to figure out how to hang it to dry. I mentioned to him my dilemma and asked if he could think of a way to dry this . When he was little I would make homemade pasta fairly often and hang it on a wooden clothes rack to dry, and then crawl under the racks, sneaking bits of raw pasta that had dried and broken off. He knew what was needed, and designed and built this.out of Knex

And I proceeded to fill it up with home made pasta !

Pretty cool, eh ?

Today I begin reading the first stack of books I scored for the nutrition self directed course. I am one of those strange people who reads several books at once, speed reads and takes lots of notes. The index cards will be flying fast and furious for the next few whiles here. What am I currently reading ?

97 Orchard by Jane Zigmond( a story of 5 different immigrant families living in a New Your City Tenament and what they ate)
Breakthrough- Suzanne Sommers ( about using food as a cure)
The Omnivore's Dilemma- Micheal Pollan
In Defense of Food- Micheal Pollan
The End of Food- Paul Roberts
The Hundred Year Lie- Randal Fitzgerald ( About nutrition, food and medicine)
The Schwarenbein Principle- Diana Schwarzenbein MD ( about reversing metabolic damage caused by dieting)
Appetite for Profit - Michelle Simond ( truth about modern food)
What are you really Eating-Amanda Ursell ( how to really read a nutritional label)

Should make for some interesting reading. I was rather surprised to learn from the 97 Orchard book how important cabbage was to all ethnic groups , and that there was a side industry of door to door cabbage shredders. When the cabbage harvest came in , they would go from door to door with a mandoline slicer type device and help the housewife shred cabbage for making home made sauerkraut, at the cost of a penny per head. Sort of a clue as to how common fermented foods were at that time to all people. I love learning facts like this !

Fermenting Vegetables with Sandor Katz

2011-01-13T03:32:00.000-08:00

I tried the sauerkraut yesterday, an sadly I did something wrong , as I wound up with something that tasted salty and spoiled. I noticed that when I opened the jar it was very dry, so that would indicate that I did not squeeze these enough in the beginning. I came across this video yesterday, and I am going to try this again. I am going to shoot for as moist of a mixture as he has here. Thought I would share the video with you all as well so those of us whom are learning can learn together ! Important points seem get enough liquid, check the liquid and add water if nessisary

Moroccan Chicken and future plans

2011-01-12T05:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday , the biggest decision was to enroll in a Real Food nutrition class or not. I am a big fan of education, and most of my life I have been active in some form of studies, often informally. Herbs and alternative medicine have been the primary ones for the last 16 years, and when something comes along that I feel will help round out the existing knowledge and expand it, I jump at the chance ! Unfortunately this is not a free course, and till Nick is graduated the majority of funds devoted to education are applied to his education. I pondered and pondered, and came to a brilliant conclusion- rather than enroll in the class, I will simply buy the textbook and do some independent study. This is not an accredited course, so there is no real need to enroll ( in my opinion). Between our library and Amazon, I was able to find not only the text book , but several that the textbook cited as sources. I am excited ! A course that actually recognizes that food is an essential component in nutrition !

Sadly, this seems to be something that has been forgotten. In order to get "healthy", you must use secret information, passed down to the masses via an authority. Sort of like a religious rite where the Priest is the only one privy to the information and will dispense it to the masses. The secret knowledge comes from a lab that evaluates the components of said product, and lists them in the form of calories, fat, protein and so forth.To be "healthy" ( sanctified), you must ingest a certain number of these components, and ignore all else. Appetite, enjoyment, aversion are all unnecessary ( and evil) things. These are "The Devil" , and all efforts should be taken to turn your back from these. Interesting theory. Seems that nature and The Creator were just doing stupid experiments till science came along and straightened us all out !

Amongst the real food offerings in this house yesterday was a new to me chicken recipe. Moroccan chicken, and the blend of spices sounded very intriguing .

Moroccan Style Chicken ( Sally Fallon inspired)

1 frying chicken cut into pieces( or parts, preferably with bone and skin on)
1/4 Soy Sauce
1/4 cup dry white wine OR vinegar
2 TBL honey
juice of 2 lemons
grated rind of two lemons or 3 TBL preserved lemon peel
1 clove garlic peeeled and mashed
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, thyme and pepper
3 Tablespoons melted butter
2     cups chicken stock
8                     dried apricot halves -- coarsely chopped
                        and soaked in warm water

Mix soy sauce, wine, honey, lemon juice, lemon rind, and all spices together. Marinate chicken pieces in this mixture in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Remove pieces, pat dry and set skin side up in a stainless stell baking pan, reserving marinade. Brush with butter, season with sea salt and pepper and bake at 375 degrees for about 1 hour. Reduce heat if chicken begins to burn. Remove chicken to heated platter while making sauce.
Pour chicken stock into the pan, bring to a boil and stir well. Add marinade and drained apricot pieces. Let sauce reduce by about one half. Check seasoning and pour over chicken pieces.

I served this with roast broccoli, whole wheat couscous, the sauce and the fermented cranberry relish that I made the other day

The verdict ? The chicken was flavorful, but not what I anticipated for some reason. The lemon twang seemed to overpower the other spices. The sauce was not as thick as one would anticipate. These were infinitely better than the fermented cranberries ! WAY too salty ! The consistency was a bit softer than whole berry relish, but the addition of salt to cranberries was kind of like a cruel joke. I don't think I will be making this one again. Live and learn I guess. I am going to try fermented carrots next week, and tonight we try the sauerkraut that I made. What excitement 1!

Obesity is Starvation

2011-01-11T12:53:00.000-08:00

Pork roast and a reflection

2011-01-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

Snow, snow , snow ! Happily we are not getting as much as a lot of areas in the country, but we seem to be getting our fair share here. Snow, from the perspective of looking at it through a plate glass window from a warm house is pretty. Looking at is from the perspective of the mess you must shovel, drive or walk through is not ! As a kid, a snowstorm represented a day off school and the opportunity to go sledding in the local hilly ravine turned opportunity to catch serious air. As an older adult, snow represents yet another time to contemplate bone density, the laws of gravity and stiff joints. I don't think I took as much time with the kid perspective as I should have ! Then again because of some of the time spent in that kid perspective, the adult perspective looms large( I broke some ribs sledding and my collarbone while skiing back in the good old days and they inform me of the approach of damp weather these days).

For some reason, winter weather makes me think pork roast. No idea why, but I always do. Perhaps it is something about the nutritional make up of pork- it is a good source of B6, B12, niacin, thiamine, riboflavin, iron, magnesium, potassium and zinc . Then again it can be something about the pig's role on a farm. Pigs were kept because they were an amazing animal that could convert household scraps into meat. Slopped with the leavings of the family table, cooking scraps, bits and bobs of various organic matter, pigs were kind of like bone broth on the hoof. Take what is thought of as useless, and transform it into something very useful. It has always struck me as interesting that one of the very reasons why I consider pigs to be valuable , some religious thoughts consider this to be reason to declare them unfit for human consumption. Where as they see it as the animal being unclean because it has consumed an unclean thing, I see it as a tribute to nature that this animal has the capacity to take the unclean and clean it for other use. Kind of like the water cycle when you get down to it. Did you know that the amount of water on the planet has been the same since the day it was formed ? It is made clean and usable through the water cycle. All of the snow and rains that are happening are evidence of the melting polar ice caps. We are going to have a very wet time for a long while now it seems !

But back to pork- I came across yet another recipe for a pork loin roast that said "make me". This one was to be served with a sauce, and it made me mourn the loss of my gravy boats over the years. Serving sauce in a coffee cup just seems wrong !

Asian Pork Loin

2 lb Pork Loin
5 cloves garlic
3 onions, sliced
1 apple, chopped
1 can pineapple chunks, drained
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 c. splenda
1/3 c. balsmic vinegar
2 t. soy sauce.

Toss pork loin, garlic, onions, apple , pineapple and chicken broth in crock pot- cook on low for 4-6 hrs. Pour sauce into pan, add Splenda, balsamic vinegar and soy sauce, heat to boiling. Dissolve 2 T cornstarch in cold water, add to sauce to thicken.Slice roast and serve with sauce

Here it is , served with the sauce, soaked rice and saute'd Kale. Chard, kale and other dark greens seem to be so much better in the winter than salads are !

The gravy boat loss was contemplated by me deeply. Part of it was because of an upcoming anniversary. On the 17th we will have been living together for 30 years, and married for 30 years this coming August ( yes we were bad kids and lived together without benefit of marriage- something a lot more shocking at that time than it is now to be sure). As I was hunting down something to serve sauce in, I realized that in our 30 years of housekeeping I have only had one gravy boat, and should have had more. In comparison I have had 10 wine cork removers and have used them very infrequently ( perhaps 15 times in our entire history together) and 3 melon balers that have only been used twice. I still have one coffee cup that was given to me at one of my bridal showers, and the two original sets of cutlery I received as wedding presents. Other than that, nothing about me or my kitchen equipment is the same as it was in those days. I am different, as is he, and the amazing thing is that we have managed to change in ways that still complement each other. That is a good thing.

Now this is interesting ( and could be the proof that conventional wisdom is totally wrong)

2011-01-10T09:59:00.000-08:00

If it is the fall or winter, and if you happen to live with the average American male, football will be at least discussed during the season. Yes, I know that women also love the sport, but as a rule football tends to be in the realm of male pastimes. I have yet to meet a guy who did not have a team that they favored, knew about or were in the smallest degree a fan of. So, when you live with two males and it is the cooler months, you will find a game or two at least on your radio or TV at some time. I must confess, I would rather play than watch football. (Okay, these days I could not play even if I wanted to, but you get the idea). I am a football dummy- I do no understand how the scores are computed, what position is what, or what makes up a good or bad play. All I know is that football players are professional athletes who spend about 6-8 months out of the year training, playing, surrounded by professionals who are able to mold their bodies into the optimum specimen for the game.Trainers, coaches, sports medicine, work outs and more. Few of us could step in and go through their training or pre- game workouts, to be sure. No one would call a professional football player a couch potato. These guys are perhaps the gold standard of active ! The sports medicine/trainers are able to get them to rally through an injury as a rule , in order to return to the game and nutritionally their needs are calculated by science. It's not simply big guy grabs a ball, runs and knocks down folks in the way. Different positions are treated with a slightly different diet and work out to archive the ultimate in human anatomical engineering for the position according to current knowledge. Wide shoulders, muscular thighs, strong arms, and flat stomachs.

Imagine my surprise when I found myself watching a couple of football games over the weekend and noticing the beginnings ( or more) of a belly bulge on several players. A belly bulge is the result of abdominal fat, brought on by too much Cortisol ( a stress hormone) in the bloodstream. Then I looked even closer and began to realize that according to the current BMI nonsense ( weight with height), almost every single one of these professional athletes would be called Obese. So here we have a group of highly paid, scientifically trained athletes who are technically obese, AND have belly bulges. Huh ????? ( Quarterback Payton Manning is one example) I pointed this out to Bob, and we got into a meaningful discussion about the affects of stress, fitness, weight and more, which led me to doing a little investigating this morning. Turns out , my eyes did not deceive me ! Obesity IS a problem in the NFL ( click here to read)

So if it is simply a matter of calories in vs calories out and moving more will bring a healthy weight, why are football players obese ???

Could it be that weight is, after all, NOT controlled by thermodynamics, but by hormones ? Let's make something clear from the start- hormones are not simply things that control your period and sex drive. The body contains numerous hormones that control all manner of bodily functions. Hormones are regulated by FAT- so if you are eating a low fat diet, your hormones can and will become imbalanced in time. One hormone in particular is tied closely to stress, and when it is out of balance it creates belly fat. That hormone is called Cortisol. Another will make you hungry for chemical reasons , and that hormone is called Leptin. This page gives a very brief explanation of the role hormones play in weight

So here you have this group of athletes, doing all that the current wisdom says one should do for optimal physical condition, whom are technically obese and showing the effects of stress hormones , in part BECAUSE of the current wisdom ( the training schedule, actual game play). And we mere mortal, ordinary persons are supposed to follow the same wisdom and expect positive results ???? I don't know about you, but I think this might be the best evidence to date to kick the current wisdom to the curb and start listening to the kind of wisdom that prevailed BEFORE nonsense like the lipid hypothesis , low fat diets and aerobic theology prevailed. You know, way back when people were actually healthy.

Bring on the cranberries !

2011-01-09T08:45:00.000-08:00

I was shuffling food in my freezer the other day , and I discovered that I have an unnatural amount of cranberries in my freezer . They were very inexpensive this fall, we enjoy cranberry relish, but I believe 12 bags of these little beauties is just too much !. Happily I stumbled upon an recipe for a fermented cranberry relish while blog reading, and I decided to give it a whirl for myself. Should make a nice side relish for various poultry and pork dishes .

Fermented Cranberry Relish

3c. raw cranberries( from the freezer)
2 Blood Oranges chopped into large sections
1/2c. sliced almonds soaked for 24 hrs in water and apple cider vinegar to remove phytic acid
1/2c. sugar( I use Splenda)
1/2 c. orange juice
1 t. cinnamon
2t. lemon juice
2 t. sea salt

Process the cranberries, nuts, and orange sections in the food processor until they’re processed to a medium consistency (not large chunks, not liquified – somewhere in the middle). Stir in the sugar, juice, salt, cinnamon, and lemon juice. If it looks like it needs some more liquid, add another 1/4 c. of juice.
Once everything is mixed well, put into a glass quart sized jar. Press down so that the liquid rises up to the top, then add 2 t. salt to the top. Cover and let sit on the counter at room temperature for two days to ferment. Put it in the fridge after 2 days

I am still waiting to test the saurkraut taste wise. I moved it to the refrigerator the other day after it had been singing and bubbling on the counter. I released the gas a few times to prevent it from exploding, and what I smelled seemed perfectly saurkraut-ish . Plans are to use some this week in a corned beef salad and as a side for one of the planned dinners. Meanwhile we sampled the apple beet relish with lunch, after giving it a few more days to settle and chill

Lovely tasting stuff, this is ! As it sets the flavors mingle to create something similar to a sweet, horseradish sort of relish without the strong horseradish bite. We wound up eating it as a side for a couple of meals, and I now have a second batch brewing on the counter

      Apple & Beetroot Relish

3    large apples (about 1 ½ pounds) -- cored but not peeled
3 large beets (about 1 ½ pounds) -- peeled
2    star anise pods
1   tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon unrefined sea salt

Shred apples and beets by hand, or in a food processor.
Toss the shredded apples and beets together until well-combined and mixed together.
Add the star anise and whole cloves to the apples and beetroot, and continue to toss until the spices are evenly distributed among the shredded fruit and vegetables.
In a mason jar layer the apple and beetroot.
Periodically sprinkle unrefined sea salt over the layers of apple and beetroot and mash with a wooden spoon or mallet to encourage the fruit and vegetables to release their juices, creating a luscious brine to encourage the proliferation of beneficial bacteria.
Ferment in a mason jar for a minimum of three to four days, or longer, depending on the level of warmth in your kitchen.After your apple and beetroot relish has sufficiently cultured, remove the star anise pods and whole cloves. Place the apple and beetroot relish into a blender or food processor and process until smooth.
YIELD: Approximately, 24 2-ounce portions.

Sourdough Waffles

2011-01-08T07:29:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I blogged about my New Years Resolutions here- it's a week into the New Year and so far I have been doing really well with them. Rather than set out a goal related to weight loss ( like I will lose 10 lbs or whatever), I am setting the following goals towards nourishing eating.

1. Eat some form of fermented or soaked food every day
2.Eat a form of calcium rich food every day ( full fat dairy, bone broth )
3. Eat a nutrient dense vegetable once a day ( kale, chard, beets, pumpkin, etc)

Simple goals that will go a long way towards overall health. I have been really good about eating fruits, veggies, real food, drinking water, so these are a further step on this quest . One tasty way to fulfill those goals is with sourdough foods, and one of the easiest of these is sourdough pancakes or waffles. What better way to start off a weekend morning ? Having made a sourdough starter last week, it was an easy move to sourdough waffles this morning

Sourdough Whole Wheat Waffles

The night before, mix:

1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

In the morning, add:
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder

Cook on a waffle iron- makes 6 round waffles

I serve these with breakfast sausage, real maple syrup, milk and fruit. Full , nourished bellies are a great way to start out a busy day of household chores and fun !

Giving into temptation

2011-01-07T04:58:00.000-08:00

Found out yesterday that if certain stretches were still too painful to do while standing, I could do them without pain while lying in bed. Sounds silly and like the ultimate lazy person's work out ! In reality, doing the movements without the added burden of body weight, at first, helps the muscle to get in the stretch alone. I discovered this quite by accident , and doing these adds a little more mobility. More mobility means more activity and more activity means more strength , and before long these add up to a return of normal life . A good thing !

Back in the dark ages , when my son was locked into the worst of the texture issues and bad diet, you would find our cabinets full of pasta and the infamous blue box mac and cheese, because these were the only foods he would eat without having a neurological melt down because of the texture.After a lot of supplement intervention and work, many other foods were eaten without problem, and I have really shuddered at the idea of making any form of macaroni and cheese again ! While I try to avoid it, Nick does request it from time to time ( but looks at the blue box stuff and says it is not food). I fear it would set off a trigger in him for one thing, as well as being such a high carb food ! We do need some carbs to keep our adrenal functions healthy and other nourishment at a cellular level ( something that does not become apparent till one goes through several years of low carb eating and a metabolic crisis hits), but it seems to be best to eat these with a high level of fat in order to minimize the bodies insulin response. If you eat high carbs with low fat, your body responds in such a way that you will soon feel hungry /snacky, and will often lead to a binge. ( this is NOT a form of uncontrolled behavior, but a pure biological response) . For this reason, if I was to make a macaroni and cheese again it would definitely be made from scratch , and would have to be the right proportion of fat and protein to carbs. I stumbled on this one that I found on Kelly the Kitchen Kop's blog, and decided to give it a try

Mona Lou’s Homemade Baked Macaroni & Cheese
3 1/2 c pasta
1 1/2 sticks butter
16 oz shredded cheddar
3 slices colby cheese
2 c milk
salt and pepper

Boil water in a large pan, add about 2 T. Olive oil
Add 3 1/2 c. elbow macaroni
Stir well several times during the 8 minutes it cooks
Drain well in a colander, running hot water over the macaroni
Use a cold stick of butter to grease a large 4 qt. glass bowl and add the macaroni
Add sea salt & pepper
Add 2-8oz. packages of shredded sharp or extra sharp cheddar cheese Stir well
Add milk just until you can see it coming up the sides of the macaroni – about 1 1/2 to 2 c. – not sure on the amounts, I’ll try to remember to keep track next time I make it.
Put a few slices of colby cheese and 5 or 6 pats of butter on top
Bake 375-400 for about 1 1/4 hours, depending on how hot your oven is – it should be just light brown on top

Verdict ? DEFINITELY high enough in fat to prevent a binge, as well as protein. Super easy to make and my son thought he had died and gone to heaven . I thought it was missing something small, but was definitely yummy ! Baked Mac and Cheese is a hard thing to dislike. I am going to add this one to the rotation of meatless meals in Lent. Lent and spring - coming up faster than we realize !

Crackers and noodles

2011-01-06T05:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon, while going about the daily chores, I started to get this deep down feeling that I actually WILL recover from this injury ! I felt a glimmer of a basic core strength, and it reminded me that while the progress is very slow, it is happening. As long as I drink about a quart of Nettle Tea a day and take time to elevate my leg, I can live with a Tylenol in the morning and on going to bed , and the mobility increases. Still working on being stable enough to get in the shower instead of a sponge bath, but I can feel it right around the corner. Yay ! Hopefully come May 1st I will be able to take my cane, tie ribbons on it and dance around it because I will no longer need it to walk . My own Maypole of celebration there.

The other day Nick grabbed some very old, very stale Graham crackers from the cabinet for a snack, and ate them but requested that we make our own. Which translates to "Mom, I bet you could do a lot better on your own"- he has come to see that the home made alternative often tastes a lot better. I have made crackers in the past ( easy to do) , but never graham crackers. I came across a recipe from one of the blogs I read ( cannot remember which one- sorry !) , and told him we could definitely make our own

Whole Wheat Graham Crackers
2 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 cup dark brown sugar -- lightly packed
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 stick unsalted butter -- cut into 1-inch cubes 1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup whole milk
2 Tablespoons whey
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Pulse or mix on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off on and off, or mix on low, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal.In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, milk, whey and vanilla extract. Add to the flour mixture and pulse on and off a few times or mix on low until the dough barely comes together. Wrap in plastic and chill until firm, at least 2 hours or overnight
When ready to bake:Adjust the oven rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat Roll the dough about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be sticky, so flour as necessary. Cut into rectangles or use cookie cutters. Poke with a fork bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Warning- the smell of these warm from the oven can produce a feeding frenzy !

I also decided to experiment with Sourdough Pasta. I have made sourdough pancakes and breads before, and home made pasta, but have never combined the two . Sourdough is a beneficial thing- saves money spent on commercial yeast AND it is a beneficial food stuff to our digestive tract.There is a lot of information out there that would lead one to belive establishing a sourdough culture to be a tricky thing, but it is very simple. Pioneer people did it all the time with no special things. Here is how to create a good starter

Sourdough Starter

2 cups rye flour
2 cups warm water

Mix, cover with a wet paper towel and let sit 24 hours at room temperature. Remove 1 cup of starter and add 1 cup flour and one cup water . Cover and let sit another 24 hours- should be foamy and sour smelling. At this point your starter is ready to use or refrigerate. If you refrigerate, take out every 5-6 days , remove one cup and feed with one cup flour and one cup water.

The disadvantage with sourdough is that you have to plan ahead. You must devote time to making the starter ( if you do not have one) and you must feed the starter and create a sponge the night before you plan on baking. If you are in the rhythm it becomes second nature, but getting into it is "thoughty". In the case of pasta making, you really do not need a special machine or attachment- all you need is a rolling pin and a knife.If you are making it to cook that day , the only other thing you will need is a pot of boiling water. If you want to dry it, the time honored way is a broomstick handle suspended between two kitchen chairs, or a wooden clothes drying rack.

SOURDOUGH PASTA- 2 servings
1 cup whole wheat flour.
1/8 teaspoon Celtic sea salt.
2 teaspoons lard or bacon grease ( I used bacon grease caue that is what I had on hand)
1/4 cup sourdough starter.
Kefir whey or water.
Olive oil.

In a bowl mix the flour and salt, then finger in the lard. Add the starter and enough kefir whey or water to make a heavy dough. Knead for a few minutes, wrap in baking paper and put aside to work for 8-24 hours.
Just before you are ready to make the pasta, knead the dough then roll out with a baking pin to about 2mm thick. Cut the dough into narrow strips with a sharp knife, or into pieces to make your favourite pasta shapes. You may cook the pasta immediately or put it aside to dry and cook later. A clothes rack makes a useful frame to hang strips of pasta.Cook the pasta in vigorously boiling water for 5 minutes, then strain before returning to the saucepan and tossing with a teaspoon of olive oil. Serve with your favourite toppings.

It has been a few years since I made fresh pasta, and I am a little out of practice, but here are pictures from the process

After mixing, ready to rest for a day

ready to roll- it gets a little darker after it rests

rolled and cut - because I could not stand to roll it , they came out very thick noodles- a cross between a noodle and a German dumpling. Then I made the mistake of not bringing the water to a rapid enough boil before putting the pasta in and they started to fall apart when I stirred the water. I did not want to toss the noodles after devoting so much time to them, so I opted to cover them in Alfredo sauce. I thing my family would eat a motor engine if it was covered in Alfredo sauce - or placed in a meat loaf !

The verdict ? Tasty. They do taste like any whole wheat pasta in the form of texture, but the twang of the sour dough with the smoky taste from bacon grease made them really satisfying and interesting. This is something I will definitely be making more of in the future, and I plan on experimenting with other flours as well.

Just dropping in to say

2011-01-05T07:32:00.000-08:00

Happily improving, gaining strength and experimenting more in the kitchen. Taste verdict on apple beet relish is YUM YUM YUM !!! Sauerkraut is going to wait a few more days , but it smells right. Lemon preserves are "singing " away and I have needed to release the gas by unscrewing the lid for a moment, for fear that the pressure could build and explode.

Today we are trying our hand at homemade graham crackers and sourdough noodles. The crackers were suggested by my son , after he grabbed a pack of very stale graham crackers to snack on. The noodles are the second attempt to create, as the first one molded before we could roll and cook. Soaking and "sour dough" type applications helps to reduce the carb impact in the body as well as removing the phytates, and adds a probiotic to the intestinal tract. Will blog about the results tomorrow.

Meanwhile , I am watching in amazement, once again, at the power of the right herb applied to an identified condition in the role of healing. Nature does not make mistakes, and man will never be able to replicate the intelligence within natural methods of healing.

Childhood myths- the wrong ones are right

2011-01-03T04:46:00.000-08:00

Let's talk about some childhood myths. If we are raised in the average American Home, we are told early on that Santa brings the presents on Christmas Eve, the Easter Bunny hides eggs and brings baskets on Easter Morning, The Tooth Fairy collects your baby teeth and exchanges them for money, the opposite sex has cooties and there is a Monster living under your bed that can be awakened by flushing the toilet in the dark.You believe in these with your heart of hearts as being true. Then you are told other things that sound implausible and you automatically relegate them to the stuff of myth, such as bed bugs and Water on The Knee. Within the last two years I have found the implausible things to be very real - bed bugs are an epidemic in major cities and Water on the Knee is a fairly common ailment with those experiencing knee injuries . The latter I learned to be true of my right knee, and the result of the injury I sustained recently.

There are options in mainstream medicine for this condition, involving things like cortisone shots, surgical drainage and other dubious things.None of which I feel are safe, considerable or actually healing, so I am embarking on an herbal and alternative medicine course of action to treat and heal this. Ice, rest and elevation are indicated ( as opposed to my previous actions of try to move it more, use the heating pad -that does not work- and feeling guilty about not exercising more). Herbs like comfrey , nettles and willow bark will be used freely as will massage therapy. It appears that once this condition begins, there is a constant chance that it will reemerge. All the more reason why activities like yoga and Tai Chi are in, running , all forms of jumping and many forms of twisting movements are permanently out. I will be honest- I am NOT at all happy with this reality. To be completely honest, my fitness goals are simply to become pain free and mobile enough to once again clean my house and walk in the grocery store. That is what I am working to achieve now. Another part of the healing involves eating nourishing fats, protein and bone broth whenever possible. Bone broth has substances that aid in the health and repair of joints and many other body tissues. Do you think it is a coincidence that things like rampant arthritis , osteoporosis and tooth loss became more prevalent when we were all told the lie about how bad fat was for us ? ( Depression, Heart Disease, Diabetes and Obesity also became epidemic when everyone moved to high fiber and low fat). When bone broth was replaced with fat free stocks out of a can or carton, we began to rob our bodies of vital nutritional substances.

Last night for dinner was another in a quest to serve nutritionally dense foods on my table. Bones and roots- perfect foods for wintertime. Root veggies are good for you, but too many get stuck on just potatoes . There is a wide variety of roots to eat, and many are nutrient dense as well as tasty. One nice way to work with the bitter taste that some carry is a creamy mustard sauce, such as the following :

Turnips in Creamy Mustard Sauce Serves 4

2 Tbs. Butter
1 1/2 Pounds turnips cleaned and cut into 1 inch chunks
Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 Tsp Splenda
1 Cup more or less chicken stock( I used bone broth)
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
1/2 cup fresh cream

Heat the butter on medium heat in a saucepan When the butter is hot, add the vegetables, give them a toss and sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste. Allow the vegetables to cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes until they begin to brown and they are nicely cooked.
When the vegetables are lightly browned, add in the sugar and the stock to cover the vegetables completely and turn the heat up to high and achieve a boil
Allow the vegetables to boil, giving them only a stir or two, uncovered for about 30 minutes. They are ready when the vegetables are shiny and browned and sitting in a little puddle of syrupy liquid. Turn the heat down and stir in the mustard and cream until it is well combined . Serve warm

This seemed to be a good in place of potato sort of side. We all really enjoyed the flavor. It went well with the spinach we also had and made a nice complement to these simple marinated chicken drumsticks. Any chicken parts could be used here, simply adjust cooking time accordingly. The flavor was infused through the meat nicely- this is one of my new favorite recipes !

Lemon Garlic Drumsticks- serves 3
6 drumsticks (about two pounds)
Marinade:
2teaspoons dry mustard
3 large garlic cloves -- peeled and finely minced
1 teaspoon sea salt
Lots of freshly ground pepper
Zest of one large organic lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
Juice of about half of the lemon
3 tablespoons olive oil

1: Combine marinade ingredients and mix well. Rinse and drip dry drumsticks. In a large ziploc or bowl place drumsticks and pour over marinade. Mix to combine well. Place in refrigerator, covered and marinade for a 2-12 hours.
2-When ready to cook, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place drumsticks in a small casserole dish and bake for about 45 to 55 minutes, or until done. The juices should run clear when pierced with a knife.

Saurkraut and fermented foods

2011-01-02T07:57:00.000-08:00

Yesterday , to celebrate the New Year, I made something that is going to improve both mine and my families health- sauerkraut ! Did you know that sauerkraut is an incredibly healthy food if it is not the pasteurized creation found in today's stores, AND that it is incredibly easy to make ? It's true. With home made sauerkraut you get the benefits of a cruciferous vegetable, a pro biotic and more ? Consider the following:
What is so good about sauerkraut and other such foods ? Lactic acid bacteria - LOTS of lactic acid bacteria. They act as probiotics in our gastro-intestinal tract. Probiotics encourage the growth of healthy bacteria in our intestinal tract, which helps us to digest food properly. 70 percent of the human immune system lies in our intestinal tract- insure that this is running healthy and the rest of the body will follow suit.

Lactic acid fermented foods such as sauerkraut have made up a significant portion of food eaten by humans for a long time and still do in many developing countries, eg in Africa. Lactic acid fermentation is the simplest and usually the safest way of preserving food.There is archeological evidence that humans have always used this form of food preservation, and it was the primary way lactic acid bacteria was ingested. Our need for this bacteria has remained, in spite of how our industrialized food processing methods have developed. The result has been immunological problems , gastrointestinal problems and more.Be nice to your insides and say yes, to the benefits of sauerkraut!

From Sauerkraut .com
1. Sauerkraut as immune booster One of the not so secret benefits of sauerkraut is the boost it gives to immune systems. Packed with vitamins andminerals, sauerkraut has been used as a lay immune booster for centuries.Sauerkraut contains phytochemicals which are created during the fermentation process. These naturally occurring, beneficial by products of sauerkraut help boost the immune system which leads to a decrease in a number of health problems. The common cold, skin problems, weight gain and tainted blood are all fixed by a healthy functioning immune system.
   2. Sauerkraut as cancer fighter
      The most recent evidence of sauerkraut's status as a Superfood is found in numerous studies on the cruciferous wonder's cancer fighting properties. The results of a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry concluded that sauerkraut is a cancer inhibitor. The study discovered that the fermentation of cabbage produced a substance called isothiocynates, which prevents cancer growth, particularly in the breast, colon, lung and liver. Although raw cabbage is normally rich in a compound called glucosinolate, the researchers found that during the fermentation process enzymes are released that completely decompose the compound into several breakdown products. The majority of these products are cancer-fighting isothiocyanates. The University of New Mexico published a study linking sauerkraut consumption by adolescent females to a reduced risk for breast cancer earlier studies indicate sauerkraut may reduce the risk for other forms of cancer including lung, colon, prostate, and liver We are finding that fermented cabbage could be healthier than raw or cooked cabbage, especially for fighting cancer, says Eeva-Liisa Ryhanen, Ph.D., research manager of MTT Agrifood Research Finland, located in Jokioinen, Finland. A recent study by the American Center for Cancer Research has found that sauerkraut has a profound effect in preventing and healing breast cancer. Based on reports that breast cancer rates amongst polish women in the United States were much higher than those in Poland researchers set out to find out why. Their answer; the women who still lived in Poland ate significantly larger amounts of sauerkraut especially important while they were in adolescence. The research found that the women who immigrated Americanized' their diets and stopped eating as much of the super food that is sauerkraut thus increasing their rates of breast cancer.
   3. Digestive Aid
Eating sauerkraut is a great way to protect the balance of bacteria in your gastrointestinal tract. Sauerkraut is one of the few foods that contain the bacterium Lactobacilli plantarum. L. planatarum is a very dominant strain of healthful bacteria which helps your digestive system in the following ways: boost the immune system by increasing antibodies that fight infectious disease help inhibit pathogenic organisms including E.coli, salmonella and unhealthy overgrowth of candida (yeast) create antioxidants (glutathione and superoxide dismustase) that scavenge free radicals which are a cancer precursor transforms hard-to-digest lactose from milk to the more easily digested lactic acid. It neutralizes the antinutrients found in many foods including the phytic acid found in all grains and the trypsin-inhibitors in soy generates new nutrients including omega-3 fatty acids, digestive aids and the trace mineral GTF chromium. These various properties are the best scientific reasons given for what has been known by loyal users for millennia, sauerkraut cures an upset stomach and is the best natural physic there is. Many sources say raw fermented foods are beneficial to the digestive system by increasing the healthy flora in the intestinal tract or creating the type of environment for them to flourish. Sauerkraut and its juice are traditional folk remedies for constipation. Fermentation actually increases nutrient values in the cabbage, especially vitamin C. Fermented foods are also said to facilitate the breakdown and assimilation of proteins. They have a soothing effect on the nervous system. The benefits of sauerkraut and sauerkraut juice have been recognized for generations. In some families of southern Germany, the children are fed raw sauerkraut twice weekly to support their intestines. Today it is thought that these benefits may relate to a high proportion of lactic acid in sauerkraut and sauerkraut juice that naturally supports the digestive processes, maintain intestinal flora, and increase the feeling of well-being.
   4. Flu Fighter
      With the spread of Avian Flu spreading across the globe, one enterprising Korean scientist, Kang Sa-Ouk of Seoul National University, took 13 chickens infected with avian flu virus and a couple of other diseases, fed them Kim chi extract and found that 11 of the birds recovered. Experts think the vital bacteria are created during the fermenting process and this gives the dish its health-boosting qualities.

So how to you make it ? You will need a cabbage, some clean jars with secure lids, a sharp knife, cutting board and sea salt

I grabbed 4 jars just in case. Start by thinly slicing your cabbage, packing it into the jar , and when you get about an inch of cabbage sprinkle on a little salt and begin to mash the cabbage with a wooden spoon. Press, poke, whatever and you willo begin to notice a liquid forming. Then add more cabbage, more salt and more pressing until you have your jar filled up to an inch away from the top with liquid covering

Cover with the lid securely and let set 3 days.It is then ready to eat, or can be moved to cold storage and stored indefinitely. Flavor improves with age.In my case it will be a refrigerator , as I have no root cellar. I am not certain what the procedure would be for canning this - hot water bath or pressure canner.

2 jars from one medium sized head. It was so much fun to make and so amazing to see how it came together that I got a little crazy and also made

Fermented apple beet relish- a condiment made in the same fashion with apples, beets and spices added- will be ready in 2 days

Morroccan Preserved Lemons- another condiment made in a similar fashion with Meyer Lemons . This one will be ready in 3 weeks. I also made another batch of Beet Kvass- I am really enjoying the taste and affect of that drink !

2011- Yay !

2011-01-01T05:06:00.000-08:00

2010 is done and 2011 has begun. A whole new year to achieve goals and take on new experiences. I do not make New Years resolutions or even lists of goals myself-I just sort of get giddy about the whole idea of a brand new drawer to store the experiences of my life in. Who knows what will wind up shelved in that come this time next year ? 2010 was not the greatest year, but not the worst either to be sure. I have a lot of friends who have had crushing blows in 2010 ( worst was a friend having a stillbirth on Christmas) , and I compare my groans to theirs and things seem much better. Perhaps this is one reason why we need to express sadness to each other- to remind us of how many blessings we really do have in our lives. I think the worst thing for me happened within the last 24 hrs. My husband, in a desire to help get me more mobile and understanding my complete impatience with the injury, bought me one of those 4 footed canes. It does help me walk around more, but learning how to walk with a cane is a little tricky. Several times I have almost tripped on the feet, and because you carry your body differently when walking with it, I have sore muscles in my back and arms. Getting really tired of trying to learn how to walk yet again in my life, and really wanting to stop coughing from the cold ! All in all, it made for a good reason to do everything to make the bad luck form 2010 stay in that year and not spill into the new year. Time honored way of doing this was through foods, cleaning house and so forth. I spent the day in cooking chores while the guys took care of shopping, housecleaning and more.

first way to make the bad luck stay- feed it rich food ! Caviar on cucumber rounds is a good way to do it. Caviar is a very good source of healthy omega fats, and is something that can be thought of as a healthy treat. Lots of folks think it is a very expensive food, but it is no where near as expensive as these:

Ox tails ! Many years ago, when I was a child, these and neck bones were dirt cheap meats. Neck bones made a very rich spaghetti sauce, but ox tails made one of the finest, richest soups on the planet !

made with barley, carrots, celery, onions and tomatoes, it is a very rich bone broth. Oxtail soup is something people either love or hate ( we love it) and if you ae going to pick a "rich" food to hold the bad luck in place, this is a good choice. Oxtails used to be about 40 cents a pound- today you can pay as much as 8 dollars a pound for them.

Good soup should always be served with good rolls- these soaked whole wheat crescent rolls served the purpose !

Mozzarella balls with cherry tomatoes just for fun. Nick seems to think anything served on a stick is special and fancy :-)

and then Swedish Meatballs- mainly because the other day I had a surplus of ground beef defrosted and had to figure out a way to cook and refreeze the extra. Meatballs are a great way to do this.

At 10 pm ( figuring that it is midnight somewhere) we rang in the new year with sparking cranberry juice and herring. For some reason, for as long as anyone can remember, my family has had a mandate to eat herring at Midnight on New Years Eve. Always struck me as an odd thing for a Scotch/Irish family to have as a custom, till one year I learned that the custom was actually Scandinavian in origin a, and was probably adopted back in the days when my ancestors were defending the land from Viking Invaders. Most likely there were blood bonds formed, and this custom became part of our life.

Some goals I have for the year at the moment is to make friends with my cane, experiment more with fermented foods and just be the best me that I can be. It's gonna be a good one !

New Years Eve

2010-12-31T03:21:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post wishing you all a Happy New Year. Yesterday I gave into the cold, slept a lot and wound up ordering a pizza for dinner. ( no worries- we have officially adopted an 80/20rule with diet. 80 percent of the time eat healthy , 20 percent whatever).

Plans for ringing in 2011 include staying home, eating Oxtail Soup and Herring ( two family classics, together for the first time ever) , and game playing. We may or may not stay up till midnight. Probably not :-)

Hope you have a fun evening and Awesome New Year !

I want my mommy !!!

2010-12-30T03:39:00.000-08:00

Had a day of rest, and things feel somewhat better. I still need the chair to walk , and sadly once again I cannot bend my knee enough to be able to get into the shower, so sponge baths and more rest are in order. As if to punctuate my plight, a cold bug has found me , and I am coughing, sneezing and struggling to breathe without it tickling my throat. It makes sense, spending so much time indoors in dried out, heated air. Normally I do not get colds, but when I do, I just want to be comforted ! If I had my way about it I would run home to Mommy, have her tuck me in and just make it all better. Sadly Mommy has advanced Dementia and if I showed up it would be a wild card at best, and she may not even recognize me. So I have to do the next best thing- make food like she did.

My mother was not a great cook, but she did have a few dishes that stood out . One was French Toast. I loved mornings when she would make this, and it was always served with powdered sugar instead of syrup. French Toast and potato pancakes were always served with powdered sugar and NEVER syrup for some reason. When I feel the need to be "mothered", I crave French Toast, and no one made it the same as mom. Even though I follow her recipe, which I learned from watching her and cooking with her, it does not taste the same as when she made it. Mother Magic is missing I guess. Here is her recipe with some alterations to make it more nourishing

Mom's French Toast

4 eggs
1 tsp sugar( I use Splenda)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp nutmeg
butter
coconut oil
bread

In a bowl whip eggs and add sugar, salt, cream, vanilla and nutmeg. In a frying pan melt butter and coconut oil. Dip bread in egg mixture and let sit for 30 seconds each side. Slide into the pan and fry 1 minute per side, or till brown. Serve with powdered sugar or Maple Syrup.

Not Good

2010-12-29T02:13:00.000-08:00

The most difficult thing for me , it seems , is learning patience with my own body when it comes to recovery ! Yesterday morning I was sore, and I decided it would probably be wise to take a rest day. Should have listened, but for some reason I got it in my head that the soreness I was feeling would work out through exercise, and if I could do 5 minutes on the bike yesterday I could push for a full 10 minutes today. So I did, and it was very stupid to do. Result was pain, my leg once again becoming extremely swollen and needing Epsom salt compresses . This morning it is very painful and I am back to needing the chair on wheels to walk at all.

Only benefit was I got a really good nights sleep. I think today is definitely going to be a rest day. If I suddenly consider trying any exercise, I will ground me !

Resolution: Lose Weight and Get in Shape!

2010-12-28T13:22:00.000-08:00

Plugging along

2010-12-28T03:01:00.000-08:00

I rested, I rallied, and in the afternoon and evening I got back on that horse again. Managed to push through the pain to get a final total of 5 minutes bike time and about 3 minutes walking time. I also tried to work with my resistance bands, but at this point they seem a little too intense, so we will put them aside for now. 8 minutes total for the day - yay me ! Best thing about it was that after the pain stopped I felt more stable and mobile, so it is indeed time to do this. More today.

I was really happy to discover I had planned something comfort food wise for dinner ! When I was little , my mom would make something we called Scalloped Potatoes from scratch. You take peeled potatoes, flour, salt , pepper, butter and milk, layer and cover with milk to bake. It made a Bechamel sort of sauce, and it was always creamy and comforting. Through the years I stopped making it because it was too starchy. White potatoes + white flour make for a not so good thing. A while back I stumbled across a recipe for this sort of dish but made infinitely better. It seems that if you combine a starch like potatoes with a higher level of fat and protein, it will not provoke the insulin response that a starch alone will. I think potatoes get an unfair bad rap these days. They have long been a nourishing staple of many cultures for the energy and satiation level they provide. If prepared properly, potatoes are a good thing. And this dis was indeed a good thing- very satisfying, nourishing and pleasing to the pallete !

Cheddar Cheese Scalloped Potatoes

2 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup finely chopped shallots or onions
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
2 teaspoons sea salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 russet potatoes peeled, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
2cups grated sharp cheddar cheese (about 8 ounces)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Whisk cream, shallots or onions, rosemary, salt and pepper in medium bowl to blend. Place half of potatoes in prepared baking dish, overlapping slightly. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup cheese. Top with second layer of potatoes. Pour cream mixture over potatoes in dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover gratin with foil and bake 1 hour. Uncover and bake until top is golden brown and potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes longer. Let gratin cool 10 minutes before serving.

I wound up serving it with some Parmesan crusted pork chops and red cabbage- made for a yummy winter evening meal !

Pushing twoards normalcy

2010-12-27T08:06:00.000-08:00

The time has come to push myself in the arena of recovery. Slowly I am going to have to build up my muscles in order to get closer to normalcy, and I am using Spunky Suzi's challenge as my inspiration. Her challenge this week is to get 10 minutes of exercise daily, and for a normal person this would be a nice, gentle starting point. However, for me I am finding that it may well wind up 10 interrupted minutes each day ! I am finding that the really terrible muscles that once were have been replaced by limp strands of cooked spaghetti noodles . I decided to do 10 minutes on my little set of pedals without a full bike thing. You sit in a chair, you put your feet on the pedals and pedal away. First revolution was pain. Second more pain. By the time a minute passed there was so much pain I thought I was going to vomit ( wow, the Biggest Loser Last Chance Workout Experience of my very own !). So I stopped and tried to walk the pain off. 5 passes in the short hallway and I was seeing stars. I think it amounted to a whole 3 minutes of activity. It's a start, and I can try more later today. While it sounds tragic, 3 minutes is a point to start from. Recovery and rebuilding is a painful process, but yo do get there . Thanks Suzi , for the completely measurable challenge !

Yesterday I discovered that I had some cottage cheese and marscapone cheese that was in the fridge with a forgotten purpose, and coming close to expiration. I determined that my freezer was not quite stuffed enough yet so I made a casserole for dinner that could create a few lunch portions worth of leftovers for the freezer

Lasagna Casserole

1 pound ground beef
4 T. minced onion, or chopped fresh onion
4 cups tomato sauce
1 T. basil
1 T. oregano
1 t. garlic powder
½ t. salt
8 oz. cottage cheese
8 oz. pkg. pasta (any shape)
8 oz. mozzarella cheese (or cheddar, or a mixture of both)

Brown ground beef and minced onion. Drain grease. Add tomato sauce, basil, oregano, garic powder and salt. Allow meat and sauce to simmer about 20 minutes. Boil pasta according to package. Drain and stir pasta into sauce. Add cottage cheese, stirring until everything is evenly mixed. Pour into a casserole dish (9×13). Top with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until cheese is melted and casserole is bubbly.

The Marscapone presented a bit more of a challenge. The only things I have used it for in the past had been savory sorts of dishes. I did not think it would go well with the cottage cheese in the lasagna casserole, and so I searched online and found this recipe for a cheesecake using it. I made some adaptations to make it low carb, and I have to say this was the best cheesecake I have ever eaten ! Glad there is enough for some tonight as well.

Low Carb Marscapone Cheese Cake

12-16 servings
Crust

    * 2cup slivered almond, lightly toasted
    * 3 tablespoons splenda
    * 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Filling

    * 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, room temperature
    * 2 (8 ounce) containers mascarpone cheese, room temperature
    * 1 1/4 cups splenda
    * 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
    * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    * 5 large eggs, room temperature

   1. 1 For the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
   2. Finely grind the almonds and splenda in a food processor. Add the butter and process until moist crumbs form. Press the almond mixture onto the bottom of the pan (not on the sides of the pan). Bake the crust until it is set and beginning to brown, about 12 minutes. Cool. Decrease the oven temperature to 325 degrees F.
   3. 3 For the filling: Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, mascarpone cheese, and sugar in a large bowl until smooth, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in the lemon juice and vanilla. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.
   4. 4 Pour the cheese mixture over the crust in the pan. Place the springform pan in a large roasting pan. Pour enough hot water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake until the center of the cheesecake moves slightly when the pan is gently shaken, about 1 hour 5 minutes (the cake will become firm when it is cold). Transfer the cake to a rack; cool for 1 hour. Refrigerate until the cheesecake is cold, at least 8 hours and up to 2 days.
   5. 5 For the topping: Combine the chocolate-hazelnut spread and cream in a small bowl. Heat in the microwave until warm, stirring every 20 seconds to blend, about 1 minute.
   6. 6 Cut the cake into wedges. Drizzle chocolate sauce over the wedges and serve.( we ate it with butter sauce instead of chocolate sauce)

Christmas

2010-12-26T04:49:00.000-08:00

Christmas was quiet , but nice here. No visiting family, no family visiting, no calls, nothing but Mass schedules and then naps to recover from the late night and early morning services. And a big meal. I think my freezer is going to start begging for mercy shortly !

The meal begins with a Who Roast Beast. What is a Who Roast Beast ? It's a second Shank Ham in a week because you husband has been really craving ham and asks you to make a ham the way people used to make hams when you were children. Hey- presentation is everything !

Roast Who Beast ( ham to the rest of the world)

1 shank ham , with rind and outside fat trimmed
4 T stone ground mustard
4 T Brown Sugar
1 can pineapple rings ( reserve juice)
1 jar cherries( reserve juice)
whole cloves
toothpicks

Place ham in roasting Pan. Mix mustard, brown sugar and a small amount of the reserved pinapple and cherry juice till you have a sauce. poke the meat with a knife all over, lightly score and apply sauce with pastry brush. Place pinapple rings on ham, securing with tooth picks and place cherries in the center in the same fashion. Stud the meat with cloves and bake at 325 , 15 minutes per pound.

Polish Sausage and sauerkraut

1 jar polish sauerkraut
1 vacuum pak Polish Sausage( or Kielbasa)
Place sauerkraut in a 9x9 pan. Slice kielbasa into bite sized portions and insert into sauerkraut. Bake 325 for 1 hr.

Baby Bok Choy with Cashews Recipe
   * 2 Tbsp olive oil
    * 1 cup chopped green onions, including green ends
    * 3 cloves garlic, chopped
    * 1 pound baby bok choy, rinsed, sliced
    * 1/2 tsp sesame oil
    * Salt
    * 1/2 cup chopped, roasted, salted cashews
1 Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add onions, then garlic, then bok choy. Sprinkle with sesame oil and salt. Cover, and let the baby bok choy cook down for approximately 3 minutes. (Like spinach, when cooked, the bok choy will wilt a bit.)
2 Remove cover. Lower heat to low. Stir and let cook for a minute or two longer, until the bok choy is just cooked.Mix in cashews

Sweet Potato Dollars ( the most delicious way to make sweet potatoes so far)
Serves 4
3-4 Sweet Potatoes
3 TBL butter
3 TBL Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Celtic Sea Salt

Peel potatoes and slice crosswise at 1/4-inch intervals into “dollars.” Brush two cookie sheets with mixture of butter and oil. Arrange the dollars in one layer and brush with the remaining butter and oil. Season lightly with sea salt. Bake at about 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

I have the bone from the ham becoming broth as we speak, and I am ready to get back to normal life again !
Hope your Christmas was good!

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

2010-12-25T05:21:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about Christmas is the way that different cultures celebrate the event. I am of Irish/French/German/Ukrainian descent, and somehow through the mingling a lot of customs got glossed over. We left out Bourbon and Cookies for Santa, opened presents and then Mom and Dad settled in for a long winter's nap. ( They had a strange custom of doing NO shopping until Christmas Eve, nor put up the tree. They dropped me and my siblings off at Grandma's for the day, spent the day shopping, picked us up , drove out to my Uncles to exchange gifts, came home about 10 pm , put us to bed, put up the tree when we fell asleep AND wrapped all the gifts and had a room full of gifts and a decorated tree completed about 5 minutes before we woke up). Meanwhile , I was surrounded by friends in homes with rich,"exotic" traditions, and I envied them. It seems that they had a bit more to stand on in this world or something. This year when we learned that we would not be able to be with my family for Christmas , we were free to totally create our own, and I was reminded of the Sicilian custom of The Feast of the 7 Fishes, and decided to try this out.

Soaked rice Arrancini

Rice:
* 1 cup brown rice, soaked overnight in 2 cups water and 1 tsp apple cider vinegar , then drain before cooking
2 T butter
1 small onion finely chopped
1 tbsp. of tomato paste
2 quarts of water
2 eggs
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
2 tsp chopped parsley

Over a medium flame, heat butter in a pan.
Add the chopped onions and sauté until light golden, about 7 minutes. Add tomato paste, and a little at a time add half of the water. After a few minutes, add the remaining water, salt, pepper and parsley.
Boil for about ½ hour, covered. Remove and reserve half of the cooking liquid. Stir the rice into the remaining boiling liquid and cook over a medium heat till done. Let cool for about 30 minutes
Beat the eggs with the cheese and mix into the rice.Let cool on the stove, stirring occasionally.

Forming the rice balls
Work and compact cooled rice with your hands into a mass, and if is too dry add plain water until it is smooth and moist, but not too watery.
Wet hands with oil and shape some rice into a ball, the size of a small orange (hence the name arancine).
Make a hole with your finger and fill it with a teaspoon of the stuffing or small cube of cheese. Use half of a teaspoon if making miniatures rice balls.Add a small amount of rice to cover the hole and smooth the rice ball until round. If it is too small, add some rice. If it is too large, remove a pinch of rice and reshape. Repeat until it is a smooth sphere of the desired size

Frying the rice balls
3-4 lb. of sifted fine Italian breadcrumbs
3 eggs
½ glass milk
Deep fryer @ 375 degree (preferably Peanut Oil)

Place milk and eggs in a wide bowl and beat until smooth.
Place the rice balls into the egg mixture, a few at a time.
Taking one rice ball at a time, remove from egg mixture and reshape slightly, if necessary. Then place it in the breadcrumbs.
Squeeze the breadcrumbs into the rice ball and continue rolling it in your hands, continuously compacting the breadcrumbs and shaping the ball.
Set the breaded rice ball into a pan or dish. Once all rice balls have been battered and breaded, move them on to the fryer.
Deep-fry until golden, and let rest on paper towels.
It is advisable to warm the rice balls in a 325 degree oven for a few minutes before serving, to allow the stuffing to get warm.

Calimari Salad

    * 1 1/2 lb cleaned squid
    * 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
    * 1 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
    * 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
    * 1 large garlic clove, minced
    * 1/2 teaspoon salt
    * 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
    * 1 small red onion, halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced crosswise (1 cup)
    * 1/3 cup pitted Kalamata olives, halved lengthwise
    * 2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes (3/4 lb), halved or quartered if large
    * 2 celery ribs, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
    * 1 cup loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
Rinse squid under cold running water, then lightly pat dry between paper towels. Halve tentacles lengthwise and cut bodies (including flaps, if attached) crosswise into 1/3-inch-wide rings.
Cook squid in a 5- to 6-quart pot of boiling salted water , uncovered, until just opaque, 40 to 60 seconds. Drain in a colander and immediately transfer to a bowl of ice and cold water to stop cooking. When squid is cool, drain and pat dry.
Whisk together lemon juice, vinegar, oil, garlic, salt, and pepper in a small bowl, then stir in onion and let stand 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine squid, olives, tomatoes, celery, and parsley in a large bowl. Toss with dressing and season with salt and pepper. Let stand at least 15 minutes to allow flavors to develop.

Tuna Meatballs
(Serves 4)

2 cans tuna
Olive oil
2 ounces pine nuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
1-3/4 cups plain dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
Zest and juice of 1 lemon

Grind, mix all
Shape into meatballs about 1 -1/2 inch in diameter.
If you keep you hands moist the meatballs will be easier to form.
If the mixture is too sticky, add a little more bread crumbs.
Place the meatballs on a greased baking sheet, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet.
Add the meatballs and sauté until golden brown on all sides.
Heat the tomato sauce in a saucepan.
As the meatballs are done browning, add them to the sauce if desired or finish in 325 oven for 10 minutes

Crab Spaghetti - simply cook a pack of moc crab in marinara sauce , mix with linguini or spaghetti and top with Parmesan cheese
Okay, one family classic and three fishy fellows perhaps ?? These other two were added because we really needed a veggie and the other just has to be at Christmas

Saut'ed Kale with bacon and dried cherries- just makes it taste good

Pannetoni - because it is simply served at holidays in Italian homes.

Results- delicious, lots of leftovers , and I am wishing that Santa will install elastic walls on my fridge !
And tomorrow we make a meal for Christmas. Who needs cookies and candy ?????

Festivus

2010-12-24T02:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was nothing new or interesting food wise, mainly because we were celebrating Festivus ( the Seinfeild inspired holiday). Yes there is supposed to be a big meal , but it was never specified what that meal was, so we just made a pizza. The important aspects were covered :

The Festivus Pole - ideally should be aluminum but we did not have access to one. The pole is an important symbol of the holiday so we created one out of a bamboo skewer and Bendaroos. We spent the day in the expression of feats of skill ( like this constructed the day before ) :

The airing of Grievances ( which included complaints that our fridge does not have elastic walls, not pictured) , the giving of major awards

And finally the wrestling of the head of the house to the ground. Well, almost !

It was a great Festivus for the Rest of Us !

2010-12-23T02:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I started adding some muscle stretches to my activity level. I discovered that the little bike is still out of the question because it hurts sharply when I bend my knee, but stretching just plain feels good ! I think I can actually move into some yoga activity now. Not every position, but a select few to help gain strength and flexibility. This will ultimately help with the range of motion I have with the knee.

It was also the beginning of the final push of choir rehearsals before Christmas. Hard to believe that it is so close now ! Colored lights on the tree make me think about getting colors on a plate, and I think that was the reason why I chose to make this meal. It's basically a simple sandwich and salad, but with the right compnants and care, that becomes so much more !

Purple cabbage and broccoli slaw with Roast Veggie Meatloaf burgers on Honey Whole Wheat Rolls- colorful and I think the burgers could fill an army ! I cut the recipe in half, split it into three burgers instead of four and found it to be more than I could eat! Next time I will make em smaller and freeze a few.

Purple Cabbage and Broccoli Slaw
( small pieces reminds me of KFC Coleslaw- one of my favorite things !)
    * 1 small purple cabbage or half of a medium purple cabbage
    * 2 Cups baby carrot
    * 1/2 red onion
    * 1 medium head of broccoli,
    * 1/2 Cup dried cranberries
    * 4 Tbsp sugar
    * 1/2 tsp salt
    * 1 tsp celery seed
    * 2 Tbsp white balsamic vinegar
    * 6 oz plain yogurt
    * 1/4 Cup slivered almonds

Using a food processor, shred the cabbage, carrots, red onion, broccoli. Toss together along with the cranberries in a big bowl.Mix together the sugar, salt, celery seed, vinegar and yogurt.Combine the yogurt mixture with the vegetables. Top with almonds.Refrigerate until ready to eat.

Roasted Vegetable Meatloaf Burgers with Balsamic Glaze:

For the Burgers:
(makes 8)

    * 2lbs Ground Beef
    * 1 Yellow Zucchini
    * 1 Green Zucchini
    * 1 Small Onion
    * 1 Red Bell Pepper
    * 3 Cloves of Garlic
    * 1 Teaspoon Sea Salt
    * 1 Teaspoon White Pepper
    * 1 Teaspoon Italian Seasoning
    * 1 Teaspoon Parsley

For the Glaze:

    * 1 Cup Ketchup (No Sugar Added)
    * 1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
    * 1/8 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes

Take your zucchini and garlic and grate.
Very, very finely chop onions and red bell pepper.Add to a pan with a little bit of cooking oil on medium heat.
Mix together and add spices.
Continue cooking, stirring frequently. It is VERY important to cook until all of the water is eliminated.When finished cooking, place onto plate lined with a paper towel to drain any remaining water. Set aside.

Take the ketchup and balsamic vinegar and put into a pot.
Combine. Add spices.Bring to a simmer and then turn off heat.

In a large bowl combine meat, half of balsamic mixture (reserving other half for later use) and vegetables.Form into patties. I used a measuring cup (3/4 Cup Size) as a guide.
Place onto a baking rack (under the rack I have a tin foil lined baking sheet for easy clean up) and brush with remaining balsamic glaze.
Place into the oven at 400 degrees.
Cook for about 25-30 minutes.
Place on Bun and if you wish top with grated extra sharp cheddar cheese.

   Soaked Honey Whole Grain hamburger Rolls

Mix well, and let sit covered at room temperature overnight :
7-9 cups whole grain flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 cups water
1/3 cup melted butter or coconut oil
The next day dissolve
1/4 cup warm water
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp honey
Combine with soaked dough and add
   1/2 cup honey
    2 tsp sea salt
    additional all purpose flour to make a non sticky , elastic dough

Knead 10 minutes or till dough springs back ( gluten forms). Place in a greased bowl, cover and set in a warm place and let rise till double in bulk. Punch down and let rise for a second time. Punch down and shape into buns. Let rise and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. ( Note- you can use half of the dough to form rolls and freeze the other half to use as a pizza crust another time)

Lazy to the bone

2010-12-22T03:52:00.000-08:00

Spent a very lazy day yesterday building a K'nex model as a family, playing board games and just hanging out together. Bob is able ( most years) to take vacation time the week before Christmas , so for us it means that Solstice Day can be spent in blissful relaxation. It is really necessary as a recharging of the batteries before the Christmas frenzy begins as a rule. Between church commitments and family commitments things get a little crazy, and then add end of the year inventory at work immediately following, it really wears you out !

So as we snapped the plastic pieces together and laughed at our errors, I made a batch of Lentil Soup. I think the fact that one has a ham bone in the kitchen makes creating either lentil or split pea soup an imperative ! Heck, some times I will simply make a ham for no reason just to get the ham bone because I want Lentil soup ! Don't know why that idea got stuck in my head, but it is there. In the old days I would simply toss in the lentils because I was led to believe that they required no soaking and were the fast food of the bean world. While this is still true, I have come to learn that lentils and any bean , grain and nut can be improved by soaking in a mild lactic acid solution for 8-24 hrs before preparing. So this time I made my soup with soaked lentils.

Lentil Soup

Bone from a shank ham
4 cups bone broth
2 cups lentils ( soaked the night before in 4 cups water and 1 tsp cider vinegar- removes phytic acid)
4 onions,peeled and chopped
2 carrots, sliced
3 ribs celery, sliced

Drain and rinse lentils. Place everything in the crock pot and cook on low 6 hrs or till lentils are mushy.

Yule

2010-12-21T06:15:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year !

Sound odd ? Not really. Today is The Winter Solstice and the beginning of the Solar Year. In our household it is one of the Winter Holidays, and it is usually celebrated on the eve of the event with decorations and a special meal amongst other things.

Food is a part of most celebrations in some way. It is universal in language. The participants may not understand the event celebrated in full , but they know when something smells and tastes good ! We had a meal with things that were in some way representative of the sun , the returning light and I will share the pictures and recipes. It's going to be a big cooking week for me here with Solstice, Christmas Eve and Christmas ! Good thing is I can make it nourishing !

Let's start with Soaked Sun Bread

Soaked Sun Bread

2 – 2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 stick butter, melted
3 tablespoons buttermilk

2 tablespoons active dry yeast
3 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons sugar( I used Splenda)
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest of one lemon (optional)
Mix yeast and milk. Let stand until foamy. Stir in eggs, sugar, 2 cups flour, butter, salt and lemon. Mix well, adding flour as necessary to form a dough.Knead on a floured surface for 8 – 10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.Place dough in greased bowl, cover with a cloth, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, 1-2 hours. Punch down dough, knead gently, and divide into two portions. With one portion, form a round flat ball to make the sun’s face. Use a knife to carve eyes and a mouth. Use a bit of dough from the second half to form a nose and eyes and mouth
Divide the rest of the second half into six portions.Shape into a rope, cut rope into smaller sections to form spirals and place around the edge of the face.
Cover the sun and allow to rise again in a warm place for about an hour.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Bake the sun bread for about twenty minutes or until lightly brown. Cool slightly before slicing.( we don't slice him, but kind of rip off pieces !)

Then bring on dinner ! We had apple Maple glazed ham, spiced red cabbage ( red ball like the new born sun) sweet potatoes with maple butter ( orange like the sun and it goes well with ham) and orange cranberry sauce ( again, orange and red like the sun at different times of the day). All seasoned with herbs and spices that are "firey", like the sun itself.

Crockpot Rotkohl (German Red Cabbage)
1 medium/large red cabbage, shredded
1 med sweet onion, diced
2 med (or 1 large) apple, granny smith or other sour kind, peeled, cored and diced
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp honey
1/2 c. apple cider vinegar
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp mulling spice, in a cheesecloth bag or tea steeper
1 c. water
1 tbsp butter
salt and cracked black pepper to taste
1/2 c. raisins
1/2 lb bacon, diced (optional)

   1. If using bacon, cook until crispy and drain on a paper towel. Then use the bacon grease to saute the onion.
   2. If not using bacon, saute the onion in the butter until translucent.
   3. Add rest of ingredients into crockpot, set on low for 6 hours.
   4. If you’re going to use a stock pot or dutch oven for this, the cooking time would be between 1 and 2 hours, depending on amount you make.
   5. Remove spice bag before serving. This seems self-explanatory and yet…maybe it’s just me.

Smoked Ham with Maple Apple Glaze
3 to 4 pound, semi-boneless cold smoked ham
1 to 2 large tart baking apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 to 3/4 cup pure maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 325º F.

Rinse the ham well with cold water and pat dry. Place in a baking dish or roasting pan large enough to comfortably hold the ham, and cover tightly with foil.Bake the ham until completely heated through, about 20 minutes per pound. About 10 minutes before the ham is done, melt the butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat until it begins to foam. Saute the apples in the butter until tender and golden, about 5 minutes, and add the maple syrup. Increase the heat slightly and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the syrup begins to thicken. Remove from the heat and set aside.Remove the ham from the oven and increase the temperature to 350º F. Carefully pour the juices from the ham into the skillet with the apple/maple syrup mixture and stir to combine. Spoon the glaze back over the ham and return to the oven. Bake, uncovered, for an additional 15 to 20 minutes to glaze the ham, basting it every 5 minutes.Remove the ham to a cutting board and allow it to rest for about 5 minutes before carving; reserve the glaze from the pan. Carve, spoon the glaze over the slices and serve.

Cranberry-Orange Sauce

    12 oz fresh or frozen Cranberries
    1 lg. organic Navel Orange
    1/2 Cup Sugar or Sucanat ( I used Splenda)
    1 tsp. ground Cinnamon
    1/8 tsp. ground Cloves

    Rinse cranberries, and discard any spoiled ones. Finely grate or zest the orange peel. Cut orange into quarters, and add to a blender, along with the orange zest. Pour in enough water to make 1 cup, and blend until roughly chopped. (You don’t want a smooth puree; keep it “pulpy.”)
Pour juice into a saucepan, along with sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour in cranberries, and return to a boil. Stir over medium heat for 8-10 min. Be careful!! Cranberries start popping & will splatter!! (When not stirring, you can partially cover the pot with a lid, to allow steam to escape, but keep some of the splatter inside.)

    When most of the cranberries have popped, and the liquid has started to thicken, remove from heat. The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools. Pour into jars to store or into a serving dish. Refrigerate or freeze if not serving immediately.

An evening of fun and games took place, and then it was time for desert- gingerbread and home made eggnog

Soaked Flour Gingerbread

Combine and soak overnight
1 Cup Buttermilk or Kefir
2 ½ C Freshly Ground Spelt or White Wheat Flour
Next day add
¼ lb Butter or Coconut Oil
¾ C Sucanat ( I used Splenda)
2 Eggs
¾ C Molasses
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
½ teaspoon Salt
2 Tablespoons Powdered Ginger
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
Pinch Cloves

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 9 x 9 baking dish. Bake in an oven preheated to 350 ° F for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake’s center comes out clean

Egg Nog

    6 beaten egg yolks
    2 1/4 cups whole milk
    1/3 cup sugar ( I used Splenda)
    1 tsp vanilla
    1 cup whipping cream
    2 Tbsp sugar
    Ground nutmeg (optional)

1) In a medium pot, mix the egg yolks, milk and the 1/3 cup sugar. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture just coats a metal spoon . Remove from heat. Place pot in a sink or bowl of ice water and stir for 2 minutes to cool mixture off a little. Stir in vanilla. Cover and chill for 4-24 hours.
2) When you're ready to serve:
Beat the whipping cream and 2 Tbsp of sugar until soft peaks form.
3) Transfer the chilled egg/milk/sugar mixture to a punch bowl. Fold in the whipped cream. Serve immediately. Sprinkle each serving with nutmeg. If you find it a little too thick or too sweet, simply stir in a bit of milk to thin it out.

Happy New Year !

Another hurdle down

2010-12-20T04:53:00.000-08:00

No food featured today, but instead a mini goal as far as movement was achieved. I was stable enough to be able to get out of the house for the first time in 30 days ! After lifting a bag of groceries and running the vacuum I felt secure enough to attempt the trip outside and to the car. Secure enough, but still very scared ! We have had snow and there is ice on the ground in spots , and I kept having images of stepping on a patch of black ice, slipping and re- injuring myself all over again . Normally walking is something you just do. After an injury or with aging, walking requires thought as well as movement. How to step, how to step with the terrain involved, how to shift your weight to be stable and secure- it is a phenomenon that you never realize exists until you find yourself there. And then once you are there you suddenly understand the slow movements and great cautions of some people. However, the only way for it to get better is to face the fear and discomfort and get moving. The first is the worst, so I decided to tempt my brain with the carrot of a Dunkin Donut Gingerbread Latte as the goal. Getting to the car was nervous , achy , but I did it. Then I discovered that I still cannot bend my knee enough on my own to get my leg in the car ( what is that about ????). So my hands helped to get the leg into position ( accompanied by a lot of verbalization of OUCH) , and off we went. I was shocked to find this great big bright thing in the sky as well- I hear it is called The Sun.

Today I will be doing a lot of cooking for Yule/Winter Solstice, and so there will not be any more excursions. The first hurdle has been overcome, and now it's just press on. I am mentally calling this my Couch to Fully Functioning Human Being program !

Scientists now saying carbs, not fat, are to blame for America's ills - latimes.com

2010-12-19T22:39:00.000-08:00

Yet more evidence that high fiber, low fat diets not only make weight loss impossible for many, but also are one of the biggest factors in many of the health problems we face today.

Scientists now saying carbs, not fat, are to blame for America's ills - latimes.com

Improvement on a holiday classic

2010-12-19T03:27:00.000-08:00

Getting better and better ! Friday I managed 1,367 steps without aid and yesterday I was strong enough to make a swipe with the vacuum cleaner and actually lift a bag of groceries to the counter. Both moves proved a lot more physically challenging than I ever thought they could be , but I did them. Things will get easier. Today I am going to try to get outside and all the way to the car. It will be the first time I wave been out of the house since the injury, which was the weekend before Thanksgiving.

All this time at home has given me opportunities to play with new recipes and techniques , and it has been very rewarding. One of these was an opportunity to make a fruitcake that is better and better for you. Yes, I know. At the mere mention of the word fruitcake most people make jokes or worse. Poor Fruitcake ! What is commercially sold as fruitcake in most places today is kind of a lab experiment with tar based colored , jellied fruit. Real fruitcake is lighter, delicious and filled with dried fruits and nuts. It is to savor ! I came across this recipe that combines good fruitcake with real gingerbread and does it using the soaked flour and nuts method. It was so good, Nick asked for seconds

Meg's Gingerbread Fruitcake

(From Keeper of the Home   )
The night before you'd like to make the cake, combine:

    * 3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
    * 1 cup buttermilk
    * 1/2 cup melted butter

Let sit on the counter, covered tightly overnight. The next day you'll need:
* 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
    * 3 teaspoons ground ginger
    * 2 teaspoons dry mustard
    * 2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
    * 2 teaspoons ground allspice
    * 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
    * 1/2 cup Rapadura or Sucanat( I used Splenda)
    * 1 teaspoon baking soda
    * 1 1/2 cups Blackstrap molasses ( it's a whole bottle)
    * 2 large eggs, beaten
    * 1 T vanilla extract
    * 3 cups dried unsulphured fruit, finely chopped - apricots, cherries, cranberries, raisins, figs, dates, apples
    * 1 cup chopped nuts (it's best if they have been soaked and dehydrated first) I used walnuts

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2)Spray cake pans with Pam ( I prefer this to butter and flour)

3) Mix the eggs, Sugar, molasses, and vanilla together until creamy.
4) Gradually add the soaked flour mixture, beating until combined.
5) Add the rest of the ingredients, and stir until just blended.
6) Gently fold in the dried fruit and nuts.
7) Pour the batter into prepared pans and bake for about 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8) Place pan on rack and let cool.

We had this with a scoop of vanilla Ice Cream- YUM !!! ( I have to ask Santa for some colored plates- white is horrible to photograph !)

Comforts on a winter eve

2010-12-17T03:04:00.000-08:00

Slowly I turned...step by step....

Okay. Maybe not so many turns, but definitely slowly and step by step. I managed to get the pedometer on correctly , and went about my day with the desire to take at least 1000 steps . The number is only an impressive goal when you factor in recovery- normally 1,000 steps would be a very bad thing. The pedometer does not display the number on it ( Nintendo DS Personal Trainer Walking) , so you wait till the end of the day when you upload your data to find the number. I knew it was less than 1,000 because it had not turned green, but it was sort of like Christmas Anticipation to discover the actual number. Drumroll....699 ! Hey- it's a start. A point to build from as I regain strength. Consider how excited people get when a baby takes it's first step. This is sort of similar :-)

I made two different dishes for dinner yesterday. Being the second of three Ember Days, it was another opportunity to go meatless, yet keep it nourishing. Meatless does not mean vegetarian, so you have opportunities to incorporate bone broths into your meals.Bone Broths are so healthful that there is a saying in South America that it can raise the dead. It's liquid gold, and can turn the simplest ingredients into very nourishing dishes . I used it ion both of these,

Cheesy Polenta-Veggie Bake

6 Cups bone broth ( I used chicken)

1 lb Aged Cheddar

3 Eggs, beaten

1 t salt

1 1/2 Cups Polenta

1 Large Red Pepper, cut into small pieces

2 Cups Shitake Mushrooms, chopped

1 t Paprika

Preheat over to 350 degrees

Bring water to a boil. Add polenta, stirring constantly until thickens. Turn heat down and add remaining ingredients. Stir until well blended.Pour into 13 x 9 pan and bake uncovered for 45 minutes to an hour. Cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Turnips in Creamy Mustard Sauce ( a Mark Bitterman inspired dish)

2 Tbs. Butter
1-1/2 Pounds turnips peeled and cut into 1 inch chunks
Sea Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 Tsp. raw sugar ( I used Splenda)
1 Cup more or less chicken stock ( I used chicken bone broth),
2 Tbs. Dijon mustard
parsley
1/2 cup fresh cream

Heat the butter on medium heat in a saucepan of a size that will allow the vegetables to sit on its bottom in a single layer. When the butter is hot, add the vegetables, give them a toss and sprinkle on salt and pepper to taste. Allow the vegetables to cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes until they begin to brown and they are nicely cooked.

Both were perfect for a cold, wintry day . The polenta reminded me of mac and cheese in a way , being creamy and cheesy with a comfort food quality. The turnips were absolutely delicious ! The sugar and mustard removed any bitter twang of the vegetable and the cream gave it a comforting mouth feel. I thought of the people in Sweden at this time of the year, living in almost total darkness for a couple of weeks. I could see why turnips are a popular vegetable in their cuisine- packs a potent bite like the cold darkness of winter itself. Both are going to show up again on our table.

Going to press for more steps, and maybe a go at the little pedals without a seat thing.

Want to Lose Weight? Think This, Not That

2010-12-16T05:51:00.000-08:00

About a month ago I read a blog from a woman to took a challenge to put the scale away for a month, and her posts led me to discover many other blogs that have changed everything I thought about food, health, weight and nutrition. Today I was led to a post on a blog written by the author one of the most convincing arguments to date that we are living in the days of insanity when it comes to weight. I invite you to read his post and think about everything you have been led to believe about weight.

Want to Lose Weight? Think This, Not That

It's not pretty !

2010-12-16T03:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, inspired by the previous day's excursion with watering plants without aid, I determined that it was time to start pushing myself towards strengthening the muscles again. It it to the point where standing or walking is painful, but not of a sharp, nauseating variety. There is a difference- building muscle strength is pain, but it is a more mellow, core level sensation. Injury pain is sharp, blinding and demands immediate attention. Personally, I think healing pain is more sustained, and therefor a lot worse than the other ! However pain must be endured to heal, and it is best to get about the buisness of facing it sooner than later with recovery for me. So I set a goal to take 1,000 steps during the day. Not run a marathon, not climb a mountain, but simply get in 1,000 steps throughout the day without aid. I strapped on my pedometer and set about the day, encouraging myself to take extra steps whenever possible. It felt good AND painful, and I was excited to learn my step total for the day. Turns out I positioned it wrong, and for the entire day I registered 5 steps. Today is another day, and I have the pedometer positioned better, so we will try again !

Sometimes the results you get are not what your eye expects to see. I was expecting to see a number at least close to 1,000 with the pedometer, but didn't. Yet I know that I did more to be mobile than the day before. When I went to make dinner, I was expecting to have a dish with a pretty outcome, but did not get one. I made a quiche with a crust, which is basically a pie , and for me that means mini disaster. Pies are not my longsuit at all ! I struggle to get the crust rolled properly , only to be unable to serve a piece in a way that looks pretty. It frustrates me, so I usually skip pie making if at all possible. Yesterday was the first of three Ember Days ( an ancient custom that is sort of a mini thanksgiving for the season and a rent collection day for rural communities) , and by tradition it is a day of fasting ( meatless). I discovered this recipe thsat involved a whole wheat, no roll crust, and I was inspired to take a chance.

As you can see, the presentation was not good, but the taste definitely was !

Crab and Kale Quiche

    1 Single “no-roll” whole wheat crust
    3 Tbl. Butter
    2 cloves Garlic
    1/2 Cup chopped Sweet Onion
    1bunch kale, chopped
    1 Cup cubed Swiss Cheese
    1 – 1 1/2 Cups Crabmeat ( moc crab in my case due to an allergy)
    3 Eggs
    1 Cup Whole Milk Plain Yogurt
    1/2 Cup Milk
    1/2 Tbl. dried Parsley
    1/4 tsp. ground Celery Seed
    Sea Salt & Pepper
    Paprika

    Preheat oven to 400 F. Prepare your pie crust pastry dough, and press into a sturdy 9in pie pan. Bake 20 min. Let cool slightly before adding quiche filling.

    Meanwhile, melt butter in a pan, and gently saute garlic and chopped onions, adding in the fresh kale when almost done. Season with salt and pepper.
    Beat eggs, yogurt, and milk together, adding in the celery seed powder and salt & pepper. Add crab, kale mixture and swiss cheese to the pie crust (in that order), and pour egg mixture evenly on top. Sprinkle with a light dusting of paprika. Reduce oven temperature to 375 F, and bake for 23-30 min, until quiche is set. Serve warm or cold.

Crust:
1/4 cup Butter, softened
1/4 cup Coconut Oil, melted
1 1/4 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1/4 tsp salt
Water

Process in a food processor and press into a pie pan

I think next time I make this I will do it as individual quiches or chill it before serving. It may have slid, but it was very tasty. As to real men not eating quiche ? Both of my real men wanted seconds.

Cavorting, crock pot and cookies

2010-12-15T03:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made a big step towards recovering. I walked around the house, without the chair or a cane, holding a watering can full of water and I watered all my plants . This may sound like a non such thing, but I have still heeded to support my self on the walls while walking , and carrying anything has been out of the question. This was kind of like a mini marathon at this point. Yay me ...I am getting better !

I am constantly in search of some crock pot recipes that work well ! It seems that modern crock pots cook a lot quicker than their older models, and most foods turn not so nice when cooked in them. Especially true of any dish containing chicken !It takes a bit of experimentation with your own crock pot to discover just the right time table for the dish through trial and error. Happily, my guys are agreeable "guinea pigs" in this process. These days I am also looking for recipes that use nourishing foods prepared in the proper way, so when I find on , I give it a whirl. Yesterday I experimented with quinoa in the crock pot for the first time. Quinoa is a very healthy, high protein whole grain, and to acchive it's full nutritional benefit it must be soaked in water and a small amount of whey or cider vinegar 8-24 hrs before cooking.( This step removes the phytic acid , which can block the digestive tract from fully absorbing minerals and other nutrients)

Chicken and quinoa stew...or soup

Crockpot Chicken and Quinoa from The Nourishing Gourmet

1 cup quinoa (soaked overnight in water, than drained and rinsed in a strainer. If you don’t soak your grains still rinse to remove a bitter substance from the grain)
2 cups of chicken broth
1/2-3/4 cup of white wine (amount depending on your taste and wine used)
2 cups of water
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon of salt
4-6 carrots, peeled and cubed
3 celery, sliced
1 onion, minced
2 chicken breasts or thighs
3 Tablespoons of butter (opt, for added richness and flavor)

Throw all the ingredients in your crock pot, cook on high, 4 hours or on low, 8. Shred the chicken when done, and stir into the stew and you are done!

Verdict- quinoa seems to really break down in the crock pot !It became almost invisible, and the chicken did get overdone, sadly. It seems that the dish could have used a bit more flavor as well. However, it did come out tasty and very filling !

I also experimented with another cookie - a flourless Walnut Thumbprint using soaked walnuts and home made date butter

Walnut Thumbprints
1 1/2 cup walnuts
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
1 egg
1/2 cup dried unsweetened coconut
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
sweetener equivalent to 1/2 cup of sugar( I used Splenda)
fruit puree OR sugarless jam ( I used Date Puree- recipe follows)

In a food processor, combine walnuts and coconut oil. Process until it becomes walnut butter. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides once or twice. When that mixture is the consistency of a chunky nut butter, add the egg, coconut, soda and sweetener. Blend it until incorporated. Chill for 30 minutes.

Roll dough into balls or use a small scoop. Lay out 24 balls onto a cookie sheet. Use your thumb to make an indentation in the center of each ball as you press down. Fill this cavity with a small amount of jam. Bake for about 15 minutes at 325. Let cool on cookie sheet.

Date Puree
1 lb Majool Dates
water to cover

In a jar place dates , cover with water and soak at room temperature overnight, covered. In the morning drain the dates and place in a food processor. Puree till a jam like consistency. Store in refrigerator.

These were very good ! The date puree gives an almost chocolate taste, so you have a nutty, chocolate cookie that is not overly sweet, and satisfying. Definately a keeper !

Baggy pants and Cuccia

2010-12-14T03:34:00.000-08:00

Some of you may be asking " So how is all of this going for weight loss ? " To be honest, I have not stepped on the scale in a while. We made a decision to go a month without weighing in, and then I fell and injured my knee. There has been a great deal of swelling with the knee, and I know that such can cause a false reading till the swelling goes down. Much of it has , but Bob convinced me to simply put the scale away till after Christmas. However, I think I got an indicator of how we are doing yesterday. Over the weekend we noticed that one store was having fleece separates for 5 dollars and Bob volunteered to buy some. I gave him my size , and he brought these home and a pack of Fruit of the Loom undies. ( you know, the just practical , every day kind). Yesterday afternoon I finally got around to putting them on , and they are pretty ridiculously big, Injury potential big. Same with the underwear. Same with my existing bras , but not as much. Add to that, my rings are getting loose. Judging by these non scale indicators, I would say I am indeed losing weight. Both of the guys have noticed their clothes are loose. Gee- how can this be if weight loss is all about eating high fiber, low fat foods and exercising at least 30 minutes a day ? Could it be true that everything we have been told about weight loss and obesity is a complete and total lie ? Could it be that weight has more to do with hormones, which are fed and fueled by fat, than the idea that if you eat less you will lose weight ? Radical thoughts, but from what I am seeing, truth.

It struck me as kind of amusing that this "enlightening" indicator of my own progress was given to me on the feast of St Lucy ( okay...artistic stretch, but it makes a good segue into the original planned post) St Lucy was a woman born in Sicily who lived an extraordinary life of faith and was martyred for her belifs. Her feast day is December 13, and before the calender change , it marked the day of the Winter Solstice, and the beginning of growing light. In Scandinavian countries , where winter means long nights, the promise of returning light is a huge thing understood by all. They celebrate St Lucy's day with saffron spiced buns, cocoa, coffee and young girls serve these wearing wreaths of candles on their heads. And then there is the Sicilian traditions of the day which sort of fall under the wire. The island of Sicily suffered starvation , and they attribute the end to the starving time to the intercession of St Lucy. As a kid, I grew up in a close to Chicago suburb with a lot of ethnic families ( Polish, German, French and Italian). No one mentioned much about feasts celebrated beyond the main ones, but I do recall seeing this interesting looking pudding thing at a few of the Italian homes in mid December. Bob is half Sicilian , and when I decided to celebrate the Advent Saints this year, my thoughts went to serving something Sicilian for St Lucy's day. Cuccia ala Ricotta was in order. It is not a quick dish, but pretty healthy, tasty and could be made even healthier with some adaptations, First you soak the wheat for a day, then you cook it and let it rest for a day , and then make the pudding. What results is this :

And here is the recipe

Cuccia alla Ricotta

Soaked Cuccia (Cooked Wheat)
*1 lb. of skinless wheat
    * 4 oz. unsalted butter
    * Pinch of salt
    * 1 bay leaf
Pick the wheat over for stones and place in a bowl. Cover with water and 2 tsp apple cider vinegar or whey. Soak overnight and drain.
In a large pot place the wheat, butter, bay leaf, and salt, add enough water to cover it then add an additional 2 quarts of water. Bring it to a boil over a medium heat, lower flame and simmer until it is cooked, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Stir it occasionally; keep a small pot with hot water on the side to add in case the wheat absorbs all the water before it is cooked.
When wheat is cooked,( soft but still chewy) if the water has not been absorbed, drain the excess water, remove bay leaf, cool it, cover and refrigerate.
This is the Cuccia. The next day , proceed to make Cuccia alla Ricotta

Cuccia alla Ricotta
Serves 4 to 5
    * 1 cup of ricotta
    * 4 tablespoons of sugar
    * ½ cup of assorted candied fruits
    * ¼ cup chopped chocolate or chips
    * 2 drops vanilla
    * zest of ½ orange or 1 t dried orange peel
    * 3 cups of Cuccia
    * 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder if desired

Preparation
Combine the ricotta, sugar, half of the assorted fruits, chocolate, zest of orange and the vanilla, blend the ingredients thoroughly: add the cuccia and keep mixing until smooth and creamy. If it is too dry add some milk
Place in a serving dish, garnish with remaining candied fruits and a dusting of cinnamon.

It occurred to me that if I make this again, it would be a little healthier (and more authentic) to swap out the green and red cherries for simple dried fruits . I do not think green candied cherries would have been served with this for some reason.Why this dish ? According to Sicilian legend, Saint Lucy brought wheat to the starving people of Sicily. A cargo shipment of wheat arrived on this day and people were so starving that they skipped grinding the wheat and simply boiled it till soft and ate it.Traditionally on this day, no bread or pasta is served in Sicilian households. Granted, they would not have taken three days to make a pudding, but instead simply boiled it and ate it. The dressing up came in later years obviously.

While visions of Sugarplums danced in their Wee Little Heads...

2010-12-13T03:15:00.000-08:00

It's getting closer and closer to Christmas ! Parties, errands, commitments... all of which I have been able to say no to this year because of my recovery. I am walking a lot more stable, but it takes very little time for my muscles to become taxed and really wobbly. Does not make for a good situation to wander through stores at this time of year, so I have been giving Bob and Nick lists and they do the errands. Stairs are still a no go as well as other things, so we have canceled any party invites we have, including the annul gathering with my family. I am being super cautious ! A fall could mean more serious damage, and it has only been slightly more than 3 weeks. 6 weeks is pretty much the normal time table for serious injury healing, so it's just a mater of time and patience.

This has been a huge blessing, because it allows complete control over our eating ! We have specific dietary guidelines that we follow ( it must be food that our primitive ancestors would have been able to create) and properly prepared grains and nuts ( soaked, sprouted or fermented before cooking), and absolutely no fat free anything.Regular meals are very easy , but when you come to things like cookies, a little more thought provoking. Many recipes can be adapted to these guidelines, but some things get a little difficult to know how much water to soak the flour in and not compromise the quality of the final product. Happily there are several very creative women out there doing this for their families and are happy to share their knowledge. I visit their blogs and learn about how to nourish my family , even when it comes to treats. I decided for my first attempt into this healthy holiday baking would be Sugarplums. Did you know that they are an actual food substance and not a made up literary device ? In days gone by, they were sort of the go to sugar cookie because they contained no sugar beyond fruit. Spices, dried fruit and nuts that are properly prepared.

Sugar Plums ( adapted from The Nourished Kitchen, found here)

In a mixing bowl , place
1 cup shelled walnuts ( or other nuts of your choice)
1/2 teaspoon unrefined sea salt
enough war water to cover plus an inch

Cover and let soak at room temperature 8-12 hrs ( this removes phytic acid from the nuts, making them more digestible and nourishing). Then when ready to make, drain, pat dry and place in a food processor. Add:
zest of 1 orange ( or 1/2 tsp dried orange peel )
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup chopped pitted dates
1/2 cup chopped unsulphured apricots
1/2 cup chopped pitted prunes

Pulse for a minute, till well combined. Transfer to another bowl, roll into small bite sized balls .( be prepared to rinse your hands often, as this gets really sticky !) To make less sticky for serving, roll in unsweetened coconut flakes. Makes about 3 dozen.

How do they taste ? Like a cross between a Lara Bar, a truffle and a good fruit cake. No wonder children had visions of these dancing in their heads- they are yummy ! News of my creating them sent Nick into a spontaneous recitation of Twas the Night Before Christmas- it made me smile ! After dinner , as we were watching a DVD in John Adams and making mention that tomorrow was St Lucy's Day I brought them out, curious to see how the guys would like them. They were inhaled ! I felt really good that these were something that tasted good and was good for you . Can't wait for the next experiment !

Fear without loathing in the Kitchen

2010-12-10T04:55:00.000-08:00

Many years ago I had a garden and I did a lot of caning of the bounty. Hot water bath method for those items that had a high acid content ( pickles) , and everything else done with a pressure canner , and scrupulous hygiene for both processes. Botulisim was the demon that lurked under every doily, and one step in error could result in a toxic stew for me and mine. Lots of ultra clean equipment, surfaces, tools and product gave you good odds from escaping this beastie, but even with being vigilant, botulisim could sink in. Bacteria was a big bad wolf and cleanliness and attention to food temperature were the weapons of choice, and hey were my constant companion. Long after I gave up canning, those weapons remained in my holster.

Recently, I have been severely challenged in this department . The concept of lacto-fermentation( soaking grains at room temperature with a lactic acid starter solution) is at first a terrifying idea. "All foods must be kept at ____ temperature or food borne illness could result". You hear stories of salmonella outbreaks everywhere on virtually every food stuff, and the idea of doing something to encourage bacterial growth is terrifying ! Yet, to do this step means to break down the phytic acid in grains, nuts and beans means getting a resulting product that is better digested. It also means a method of introducing beneficial bacteria to your intestinal tract, which will further boost your absorption and disease fighting ability ( probiotics). One must be brave about these things. The grain products were one thing- I consoled myself that the heat in the cooking process would save me from some kind of evil, killer bacteria. However, there was a bigger fear to conquer- drinking beet kvass !!

Beet Kvass is made by placing peeled and cut beets in a salt or whey solution and letting them sit on a counter , covered, at room temperature for 48 hours, and then refrigerating another 48 hours before drinking the juice without any further processing. Benefits are one of the most healthful foodstuffs on the planet that is used as a daily tonic, afternoon pick me up, aid in cancer treatment and more. I argued with myself that many people drink this and live, and have done so for many , many years. To take this step involved un-learning everything I had previously had ingrained about food safety. Preciously held beliefs would have to go away in order to try this health step for myself. I rationalized that this is what happens with yogurt making, cheese making, sourdough cultures and saurkraut making, so it is not s new thing. I started my own brew. It sat on the counter for two days, reminding me of my mental battle and then moved into the fridge for two more , where it leered at me every time I opened the door. Then on the 5th day, it was time to face the music. Time to pour off a small cup and drink it. Reason for a small cup is that it seems some people have found this stuff to be a little too powerful on their intestinal tract and cramping happens. Another reason seemed to be if I ingested a botulisim slurry, less would be easier to have cleaned out of my system ( not really, but it sounded logical).

I opened the jar and sniffed- what resulted was a pleasant aroma. Good sign ! Nature has ordered that if it smells pleasant, odds are very good that it is edible, and if it is bad it will smell bad. No cloudy liquid, no bulging lid, nothing that looked in the least dubious. So only thing lest was to actually drink the stuff. Over the lips, through the gums, look out stomach, here it comes !. The taste was sort of like a very mild pickled unsweetened beet , with a base of salty and an overtone of earthy beet flavor. Not something that you would expect from a cold liquid, but not unplesant. I drank it down and watched how it preformed in my body. Within 25 minutes I felt a short , small burst of energy. Seems that it was agreeing with my body. The next afternoon I found myself actually craving the taste again. Strange, as I had never tasted this before. I blame my Ukranian DNA for this ! Nick disliked it, but Bob found it to be "interesting". I suspect that the health claims behind this might be true, and I intend to drink this daily for a month to see if it improves anything.

So another step taken towards a more nourishing diet. So far, I have loved them all and found them to benefit the taste and texture of foods as well. Saturday I will be trying another step- making and eating sourdough noodles. It is another form of Russian/Ukrainian "peasant" cuisine. Noodle dough is made with eggs, whole wheat flour and whey and left to ferment at room temperature for 3 days and then rolled into noodles or dumplings and cooked. I have a batch currently working on the counter, ad I am reminding myself that salmonella is not found in the eggs themselves but rather on the shells. I am also reminding myself that for years, eggs were commonly stored at room temperature in baskets and no one got sick. Butter was also kept out at room temperature for that matter and no one became ill. It's another leap of faith !

SuperNutrient.com :: Autism :: Fatty Acid Metabolism

2010-12-09T02:31:00.000-08:00

More evidence that we NEED fat- and saturated fat for that matter. Saturated fats naturally have high levels of essential fatty acids. Plant based fats such as corn and canola oil are high in Omega 6 fatty acids, which arm our health

SuperNutrient.com :: Autism :: Fatty Acid Metabolism

The Truth About Saturated Fat and Cholesterol - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com

2010-12-09T02:05:00.000-08:00

Did you know that low fat foods make it harder for your body to absorb calcium ? Then add the fact that phytic acid, which happens when grains are not soaked, further inhibits calcium absorption, is it any wonder osteoporosis is such a problem ? Yet another reason to toss out the insanity of high fiber low fat diets. They do more in the long run to injure health than a high number on the scale will.

The Truth About Saturated Fat and Cholesterol - Associated Content from Yahoo! - associatedcontent.com