Hello to my little childhood friend

Woke up with part of a voice and decided I should be well enough to get back to exercising, After all, outside of the pain in my throat and some minor sniffles and being a little tired, I felt fine and sitting around is not the greatest thing ! So let's start the day with a good breakfast. Something a little different this morning came to mind. A few weeks back our market was out of steel cut oats , and I bought some multigrain cereal in it's place ( wheat, barley, rye,spelt,oats,rice,millet cracked like steel cut oats). I found steel cut oats at the next store as a temporary item and bought them as well. Sadly the multigrain cereal has sat, so I decided to include it in breakfast today

Oatie Grainy mix

2 apples, diced
2 cups water
1 T raisins
1/2 cup multi grain hot cereal
1/2 cup old fashioned rolled oats

Place apples, raisins, water and multigrain cereal in a saucepan. Cover and bring to a rolling boil.
Pour in the rolled oats and cook, stirring constantly for 3 minutes.Place in bowls and top with 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries and 1 T goji berries

Goji berries get a lot of hype as a "miracle food"with more vitamin c than any other plant source and many other erroneous claims. Much of the hype is not based on any fact, but bad information passed from source to source. Goji berries have been used in eastern medicine for almost 2,000 years because they do have medicinal qualities- there they are known more commonly as wolf berries and often used to treat liver ailments and diseases that have a root cause in the liver.So what exactly is the truth about goji berries ?

They contain
* Selenium and Germanium: These are well-known anti-cancer agents.
*Beta Sitosterol: This anti-inflammatory agent has been found to lower cholesterol, and has been used to treat impotence and prostate enlargement. Some have considered them to be an aphrodesiac for this reason.
*Zeaxanthin and Lutine: Have been known to protect the eyes.
*Betaine: Produces Choline in the liver, which helps detoxification processes there. It is also known to protect DNA, enhance memory, encourage muscle growth and protect against fatty liver disease.
*Cyperone: Used in treatment of cervical cancer. Known to benefit blood pressure, heart and menstruation problems.
*Solavetivone: An anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agent.
*Physalin: A compound known to boost the immune system. Also found effective in treating leukemia, cancer and hepatitis B.

5 tablespoons of dried berries contain 112 calories, 21 grams sugars, 170% daily value of Vitamin A, 20% vitamin c and 12% iron

Once breakfast was over we began school and after a few subjects we headed out for a walk.Sunny day, nice and warm, should be a great thing . As soon as we hit the outside my lungs started behaving oddly. The best I could describe it was an itchy swelling kind of feeling- much like you feel with a mosquito bite, but in my throat. The feeling spread to my bronchial passages, and suddenly I was finding it difficult to breathe. As a child I had bronchial asthma, and this was feeling like the start of an asthma attack. They are very frightening, and I no longer have any kind of an inhaler or medication to deal with these , so I had to force myself to calm down, move slowly but deliberately back into the house and deal with this as best as I could with what herbs I had on hand. It seems that what I am dealing with may not be a cold, but instead an allergic reaction to one of the pollens in our area at this time. We have an unusually high amount of water hemlock this year, and it has come up early.There are also numerous false honeysuckles in bloom, but it seems that those are not a known allergen. I think to be on the safe side, till my cold is completely gone or the water hemlock stops blooming, I best limit my workouts to indoors. We came back in, exercised with the Wii and continued with school till it was time for lunch- 15 bean soup and tabbouleh on a bed of baby spinach

TABOULI

1 cup bulgar ( cook according to package directions)
1/2 c lemon juice
1/4 c olive oil -- or more
2 bunches parsley -- chopped finely(must be fresh)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 bunches green onions -- sliced thinly
3 fresh tomatoes -- chopped
1 can garbanzo beans , drained and chopped

Place the bulgar , mint, parsley tomatoes and onions in a bowl and toss . Combine lemon juice and olive oil in a bowl, whisk and pour on salad mixture. Toss. Cover and refrigerate. Will keep in the refrigerator covered for a week.

The rest of the day was spent with school and other mundane things till it was time for dinner. I decided to try something a little different- a variation on the ole campfire packet dinner. In campfire packets the food is placed in a foil packet, and the moisture from the food itself creates steam in the high heat and the result is a very moist and flavorful meal with minimal clean up. It can be done at home in an oven set to a high heat as well. I served these with Ronzoni pasta flavored with mushrooms and garlic sauteed in a wipe of walnut oil and water (stir steam if you will) , and a salad of romaine, watercress, dandelion greens and navel oranges with sunflower seeds.

Breast of chicken with asparagus and carrots serves 4

1/8 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp parsley
2 tsp lemon juice
1 leek -- thinly sliced
1 carrot -- cut into sticks
4 boneless -- skinless chicken breast halves, cut crosswise into .25 in. strips
1lb asparagus -- trimmed and cut into 1 in. lengths
heavy duty aluminum foil

Preheat oven to 450°F. Tear off 1 large piece of foil for each serving. Arrange sliced chicken
in center of lower half of each length of foil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Top with equal
amounts of asparagus, carrot, and onion. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl.
Pour equal amounts of mixture over each. Fold two ends of foil together and tightly fold
3 or 4 times. Repeat process with ends to seal packet tightly. Arrange foil packets in a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes and serve.

Last night I was kept awake with a lot of coughing and sneezing in an attempt to dispense about 50 pounds of crud in my lungs that had been building all day. I think this means that this cold/allergy thing is not done with me yet, and I will have to baby myself for a little while still. I don't like it. Being sick is very uninteresting and a hassle that keeps me from doing what I wish to do. Oh well- best see what I can learn from this experience !

Rabbits knocking at my door

I had a dream last night where a couple of bunny rabbits came to my door and asked that I stop eating to many veggies because I was taking veggies away from them. I think it had something to do with watching my son play Rabbits Go Home on the Wii and trying to use up greens yesterday. Sometimes dreams are just you mind repeating the events of the day in a colorful way.

Breakfast was cinnamon fruity oatmeal (pear, apple and blueberries) topped with a quarter cup of cottage cheese. I am not sure if I like this combo as well as oats with seeds or nuts.

Lunch was Quinoa Orange Basil salad over romaine, watercress and dandelion greens. Grains over greens seem odd ? It's really not, and with the right kind of grain you can get a wide range of nutrition. Quinoa , however is something else. While treated like a grain, quinoa is not actually a grain.Instead it is a member of the same family as spinach and swiss chard.
It was revered as an important food by the Incas. It contains a complete protien and is high in lyscine,which is needed for tissue growth andrepair.This could make a great breakfast alternative for growing children or those working on strenght training.Because quinoa is a very good source of manganese as well as a good source of magnesium, iron, copper and
phosphorus, this "grain" may be especially valuable for persons with migraine headaches, diabetes and atherosclerosis. Magnesium also relaxes the blood vessels, thus promoting cardiovascular health.One word of caution- if you are on an oxolate restricted diet, avoid quinoa as it is high in these. So Quinoa falls into the realm of other rabbit habits!

Dinner was attack of the vegetables- grilled chicken breast with roast veggies ( eggplant, asparagus,zucchini,mushrooms,peppers, broccoli and butternut squash mix) and Doubly Delicious Greens

Doubly Delicious Greens

1 large bunch bok choy -- chopped
1 large bunch Swiss chard -- chopped
1 medium onion -- coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic -- chopped
1 can diced tomatoes (no salt) -- (15 ounce)
2 cups shiitake and/or baby bella mushrooms -- sliced
1/2 teaspoon dried Italian herb seasoning

Place bok choy, Swiss chard, onions, and garlic in a large steamer and
steam until almost tender, about 10 minutes. In a large pot add tomatoes,
mushrooms, steamed greens mixture, and seasoning. Simmer over low heat
for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serves 8.

We got in more boxing, walking and ab work. I noticed yesterday that Nick is beginning to develop somewhat definable abdominal muscles and it looks cute ! He is also beginning to get noticeable muscles on his shoulders and neck ( cannot remember the names of these). It looks funny to see his body begin to get some kind of definition ! I am not so sure about my own body. Things feel tighter in my abdominal region and my clothes fit different, but I have not taken my measurements or dropped a size that I am aware of, so I am not sure. Just carry on, knowing that something is happening .

Earth Day and Liver

Happy day after Earth Day - or as my son kept calling it Green Day. I think the green logos and the said named band got twisted in his head and it made for some funny moments.

We began the day with something I called Fruits of the Forest Oatmeal. Why the name ? Because I got tired of saying oatmeal with berries, pears and apples. Fruits of the Forest sounds so much more interesting, don't you think ? Great oatmeal dishes deserve fun PR !

I had originally planned on certain lessons and activities for the day, but Nick was so excited that it was Green Day that I abandoned those plans and decided to turn a lot of earth day programs and activities into our lessons. It's one of the beauties of homeschooling- the ability to change plans and strike when and where the iron is hot. One of the things we caught was a program called Life after Oil- which dealt with a scenario of life once the globe's oil supplies run out ( something the Peak Oil people are predicting to happen in the next 20 years). He was pretty cool with the idea of no cars until he saw this meant no shipment of foodstuffs and forced rationing. That scared and greatly upset him, until I explained that it simply meant people would have to do things in a different way and that there is indeed food all around you , outside your front door. This became a biology lesson where we grabbed the field guides, headed out the door an found food in our back yard. Dandelion leaves wrapped around orange sections are absolutely delicious - if you make sure you are picking dandelion greens from a non sprayed source and carefully was them before eating. These and several other foodstuffs are growing right out your door, at your feet. Nick was impressed and reassured that life would go on - an important belief for any human being !

Eventually it was lunchtime and I decided to make something I saw on Marissa's blog , but with some different ingredients. Lithuanian rye bread ( love love love !) with red pepper hummus, baby spinach , sliced avocado and cucumber slices. I paired it with some baked pita chips and veggies- it was really tasty ! I think I am ready to classify hummus as one of my favorite foods in the world .

WARNING
The following meal may cause memories of childhood trauma, responses of EEWWWW and other such side affects.

With that said, I present to you last night's dinner- Healthy Saute'd Liver and onions with Vinegar and Honey Glazed Brussels Sprouts, Couscous salad and a green salad with cranberries and walnuts

Healthy Sauteed Liver and Onions

1 medium red onion
3 TBS low-sodium chicken broth
3 TBS low-sodium chicken broth
3/4 lb calf's liver -- sliced thin (1/4-inch)
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic -- chopped or pressed
1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and pepper to taste

Thinly slice the onion. Chop or press the garlic.
Turn stove to medium. Heat 3 TBS low-sodium chicken broth in a stainless
steel skillet.When the broth begins to steam, add onions, cover and
Healthy Sauté for 4 minutes.When the onions have lost most of their water
content and have become dry, push them to the side of the skillet,
leaving space in the center.Heat the second 3 TBS broth in the center of
the skillet, leaving the heat on medium.When the broth begins to steam,
add the sliced liver and Healthy Sauté uncovered for 3 minutes.
The pieces will be browned on one side, and the liver will release
liquid.
Turn the liver pieces over and brown the other side for 3 minutes. When the liquid has evaporated, the
liver is done.Remove the pan from the heat and drizzle the liver and
onions with balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil,
and garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste.Transfer to a serving plate and
serve immediately.


Vinegar and Honey Glazed Brussels Sprouts

1 pound Brussels sprouts
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
¼ cup cider vinegar
1 tablespoon honey

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with foil.
Trim the ends off Brussels sprouts and halve. Set aside in a mixing bowl.
In a small saucepan, combine vinegars and honey. Bring to a boil over
medium heat and cook, stirring often, until mixture is reduced to ¼ cup.
Toss vinegar and honey mixture with sprouts, and spread on prepared
baking sheet.Bake for 25 minutes.Makes 4 servings

Confession- as a child , one of my favorite meals was Liver and Onions, and we ate it once a week because liver was cheap, high in protein and good for you. My mom would coat it in flour and spices, pan fry it quickly , and it was one of the most tender, tasty things she made. I ate a lot of organ meats as a kid- at that time they were considered to be healthy. Then came the late 70's and a really bad study on cholesterol led people to believe that eating eggs, liver and so many other foods would lead to heart attacks. Finally, the truth is coming out . These foods will not raise your cholesterol and are actually good for you. Did you know that liver contains compounds that help to actually prevent a heart attack ? It's true. The danger form eating liver too often comes from it's incredibly high level of Vitamin A, and certain health conditions make it hard for the body to process the level. Liver supplies 29 grams protein,36 percent of the RDA for iron and 634 percent of RDA for Vitamin A.162 percent DV of riboflavin, 72 percent DV of pantothenic acid, 72 percent DV of folate, 66 percent DV of niacin, and 54 percent DV of
vitamin B6. It does a body good !

Deli at home

Spring brings the blossoming of road construction in our area. We are in the outer suburbs of Chicago, and distances are not measured in mileage, but in time. Bob serves at one church 30 minutes away , and another 20 minutes in the opposite direction. When the commute to the 30 minute church is impacted by road construction, that route can expand to an hour commute each way. If that happens on a Saturday it means rather than having him and the car until 3 pm, we only have the opportunity till 2 pm, so you have to re-think some things. This was the first week of construction, and we decided to air on the side of caution, streamline as much as we can to afford him an ample enough window of time to deal with whatever road construction tossed his way.
We started the day with pumpkin oats- one of my personal favorite oat mixes. For 3 people I combine 3 cups of water, 2 T raisins, a small can of solid pack pumpkin, 1T cinnamon and 1 1/2 cups rolled oats. Cook till the oats are thick , place in a bowl with a spoonful of peanut butter, a tablespoon of flax, tablespoon of coconut, tablespoon of cranberries and tablespoon of slivered almonds.I think I am a kid at heart, because I love to mix things together in a bowl. It's like playing with food !

Then it was off to handle grocery shopping. Three stops, a list that suggested it would be easier just to move to a farm than shop, and three people. We have become a very efficient shopping machine ! I print out a list for each person to follow , and we all head off to gather our items. We come home and everyone has their own rolls in the putting away process. Normally we eat lunch at our produce market, but this day in the interest of time we decided to create a deli at home, using the last of the salads from the previous week and a few additions

Turkey pastrami with provolone on a pretzel roll ( these in NO WAY classify as healthy , but something Bob ADORES, so better to incorporate them in some way than avoid them and bring on a binge). It was met with a Beet Salad ( cabbage, shredded beets and carrots) Colorful Salad( broccoli, corn, red and orange peppers) and Quinoa Bean salad, a few remaining celery and carrot sticks and a handful of garlic pita chips. This was my first time trying these , and I love them ! Chip satisfaction with a lot less fat and sodium . I kept thinking these paired with hummus would be a great contribution to an time a munchie was called for.

The afternoon found me chopping, chopping, chopping ( another 3 hour session), and then finally dinner
Romaine and watercress topped with papaya,pineapple, mango, honeydew, strawberries and cantaloupe. Main course was roast veggie pizza on a high fiber wrap ( green peppers, broccoli, carrots and mozzarella cheese. Somehow I neglected to put mushrooms on the list ! I thought it was very odd that we were buying no mushrooms, but decided to trust the list I made. I hope I do not find some meals to be seriously lacking in flavor because of this !

Nutrition is a powerful thing and remebering the rest of my life.

It was a very cool, rainy day here yesterday. The temps did not reach the 40's , so it was another day of hall walking and Wii. It was the kind of cool damp where you began to expect the rain to turn to snow, but it never did. While the weather was miserable, we were pretty bubbly and began the day with the following

Steel cut oats with pears, apple , blueberry and pumpkin seeds. Oats are always a good way to start a day ! After breakfast, we hit the halls for our first walk of the day and then jumped on the Wii to get in almost a full hour of exercise before hitting the schoolwork. I was feeling quite energized when we began , and then suddenly discovered that an unwanted visitor made an appearance- she seems to visit most adult women ever 28 to whatever days. This made my energy go from peppy to
However, there is no sick day for mom's , so press on ! We jumped into ( okay...energetically stepped into ...err, slid into) school, then another walk, and then a break for lunch. I was feeling more droopy as the morning wore on , and suddenly so ravenous that I could eat floor tiles if not bolted down. Our metabolism changes with that visitor ( for some complex reasons) , and the ravenous hunger you get is your body demanding different nutrients as fuel or the journey. Instead of simply diving into anything, I thought about what fuel my body was in the greatest need of, and whipped up a creation I call scrambled eggs with stuff
I took some shredded cabbage, red pepper, scallions, mushrooms and kale, sauteed them in water and then tossed on some Mrs Dash and egg beaters. The veggies made it incredibly bulky, and immediately following lunch I felt back to my perky self. Yay nutrition !

After school was finished and a third was was taken I started looking or school materials , and stumbled onto two documents that many of you may be interested in about personal fitness action plans. First one is called Fitting fitness in ( click on the link to follow) and another called
Minimalist fitness- how to get in shape with little or no equipment .Both have some really handy tips about routines and exercise that can be done anywhere with little or no equipment. We are going to add many of these to our own daily routines.

Dinner was wholewheat pasta with roast vegetables ( zucchini, eggplant, butternut squash,broccoli, red peppers, asparagus) and chicken legs with mango glaze ( actually 100 percent mango papaya fruit spread that I found at our market with some garlic powder added).
The evening found me in a conversation with my middle sister about my mother. Mom has Dementa and Parkinsons Disease, and my middle sister is her caregiver. Lately mom has taken a turn for the worse and has begun to be physically violent with my sister whenever it is time to change her clothes or get her in the shower. Mom is fully incontinent, so changes happen often every day. Mom thinks that my sister means her harm and starts trying to defend herself, picking up anything nearby and beating on my sister with it as she struggles to change her clothes. Mom only responds to her, and it seems that it is time to look into a care facility for mom. She is only going to get worse, and if she progresses like most patients with this disease, she is going to begin to experience swallowing problems and more in a short time. My sister is feeling very guilt ridden about this, so I am trying to get her to see that this move is to be thought of more as the best care for her needs instead of failure or abandonment. Not going to be an easy argument. However, it does serve as a powerful personal reminder that no matter what the scale or clothing sizes or tape measurements say, your life is defined by a lot more than just these things. I am someones mom, daughter, wife, friend, sister, lover, counselor, Reiki worker, teacher,fiber artist, Blogger and a whole lot more. While the numbers on the scale may prove to be an indicator of how physically fit we may or not be for these challenges and roles, it does not define our abilities to preform them or even who we are. That lies with something much deeper, more far reaching and of greater concern to many. It is true for me, and every other person on a weight loss journey. We are not single faceted, one dementional beings, and it is important to keep that in mind. Life happens while you are busy executing plans based on your perception of your impact on the world.

Notcho Mamas Oatmeal

Adding to the growing body of oatmeal in assorted options - I blame the bloggers at Kath eats Real Food and For the Love of Oats for directing my thoughts to come up with this concoction.As a kid I thought oatmeal was okay and the only thing that ever fancied it up was a sprinkling of raisins. Then I met my husband who loved oats, and learned about adding brown sugar to it. Next was the discovery of steel cut oats and I thought I had found Nirvana. Then one find day I stumbled onto the two blogs I mentioned, and oatmeal will never be the same. Thank you !!!!!!

Notcho Mamas Oatmeal- serves 2
( named because none of our moms would have considered thesde options)

1 cup solid pack pumpkin
1 1/2 cup water
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats ( or combine rolled oats and rolled barley flakes)
2 t cinnamon
2 apples, chopped
2T ground flax seed meal
2 T slivered almonds
2 T peanut butter

In a pan combine water, oats and pumpkin. Place on medium heat and stir constantly till oats thicken ( about 5 minutes). remove from heat,divide into two bowls and sprinkle each with 1 t cinnamon, 1 chopped apple, 1 T flax , 1 T almonds and 1 T peanut butter on each. Mix and eat.

WW points- 6 and 2 fruit and veggies servings.