Salad

Salads , which appear to be healthy, can be a bigger calorie hit then a cheeseburger and fries.One reason is the inclusion of high fat cheeses and so forth in an attempt to give them flavor. Problem is, fat does not bring out flavor, but instead bully all other flavors in a dish with a heaviness and salt. They bring a lot of extra calories to the party in the process. The addition of cheese and other such things is a time saving move to bring on the flavor. If you decide to take a little extra time, you can bring out the flavor of simple vegetables through roasting , and when placed warm on a bed of lettuce, you never miss things like cheese !

One favorite meal here lately is Grilled Meat and Roast vegetable salad

I took a zucchini, a white eggplant, fennel, leeks, asparagus, mushrooms, assorted peppers and placed them on a cookie sheet, drizzled with balsamic vinegar and roasted them at 375 or 40 minutes. When they were almost done I grilled a sirloin steak ( any meat, fish or tofu would work- I imagine this would be awesome with grilled salmon) and sliced it into strips. On each plate I placed a handful of cut romaine /arugula mix, topped with a portion of roast veggies and
grilled meat. A yummy, healthy and low fat meal .

School's out

In spite of my best efforts, it seems brain cells in my son have gone to "Lala"land, and it is either take a summer break or do harm to our relationship, each other, several trees and more. When "Up" becomes a number and so forth,it's time to take a break. Sometimes he just needs to have stuff gel. So School is out for summer !

Amongst my notes and studies about the body meridians, I came across an article that was comparing the benefits of belly dancing with things like tai chi or qigong for it's abilities to get the energy freely flowing in the meridians and stimulate the lymphatic system, and I remembered having a Video of a pair of Belly Dancing for Fitness twins. It was very enjoyable exercise till my son started laughing at me while I was doing the tape and trying to hang all over me while I exercised. I stopped, he is older and also works out, so I wondered if I could find this on Youtube . SCORE !!!! I decided to add this to my exercise routine. If nothing else,belly dancing is a great way to strengthen the muscles that can prevent women from having things like bladder and uterine prolapse and some of the more unpleasant side affects of menopause. Besides that, it's fun ! So yesterdays exercise looked like this

QiGong breathing exercise
Smiling at Organs
Five animal frolics (QiGong)
Belly Dance workout on YouTube
pedal 30 min

Breakfast and lunch were the same ( swap hummus for the corned beef) but dinner was another variation on a polenta pizza- this time with roast veggies
In this mix was zucchini, asparagus, mushrooms, red pepper and red onions. Simply slice them and place on a cookie sheet to roast with the polenta crust.

Polenta Pizza

1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 cups water
1 c cornmeal
1 T oil
toppings as desired

Bring milk and water to a boil, whisk in cornmeal, stirring
constantly till the mixture is as thick as oatmeal. Remove from
heat and stir in 1 T oil. Spread on a baking sheet to a depth of 1/2
inch, cover with plastic wram and refrigerate 1 hour.Bake at 425 for
25 minutes till it begins to crisp. Prepare toppings( cook your sausage,
vegetables, etc). Place on crust, top with cheese and return to
the oven for 5 minutes, or till the cheese melts.
Here is the finished product with a salad- romaine and watercress topped with fruit salad. We seem to agree tat we are totally addicted to fresh fruit as the only topping for a salad. I don't know why- it just seems to pair so well !

Other good news- I finally found what I am going to wear to this outdoor wedding this Saturday. After searching the stores and not finding what I wanted, I remembered that I had a nice sleeveless summer dress in my closet. It's kind of a funky thing, but can be dressed up or down. I have no idea how casual or how dressy this wedding will be, so I decided that if I added a form fitting tee shirt under it , it would make a cute jumper kind of thing ( and prevent me from going on the quest for a strapless bra.
I like it- and now I just have to figure out what shoes to wear, what to do with my three hairs, make up and all that. At least I will have free time to ponder with school being over !

An affair with Keifer

I want to first off say thank you for all the nice complements ! For many years I have had more than a little interest in something called nutritional healing, and have studied it with herbal medicine , but simply on my own and not in a formal setting. It started when I was first diagnosed as having PCOS and being unable to conceive. For so many years I was told by doctors an others that my life would be so perfect if I just lost weight ( wrong- life happens in spite of what the scale says and losing weight will simply address the physical issues and nothing more). It took a naturopath to find the condition and point out that my weight was a symptom of this condition and not the cause. It is a symtom becase of the way the body metabolizes food in PCOS , but ironically weight loss helps to bring the other symptoms under control. When he explained how a diet specifically focusing on certain nutrients addressed the metabolic issue , that made me very curious as to why. It was obvious that this thing called nutrition could do a lot more than just build strong bones and muscles, and I stated to study everything I could get my hands on about it. After Nick was born and autism entered our lives, nutritional healing once again became a factor. Could supplements and diet reverse this problem ? Turns out that it can make a dramatic difference. If it were not for evening primrose oil supplements, Nick would had been lost still and weight loss would have never been possible for him in the first place. Proper nutrition, addressing what a body lacks, can work a miracle.

There is food, and there is food. The longer I am on this journey, the more I am reminded at every turn of the importance of high quality, nutrient dense real food. One thing new to me is the concept of soaking grains before use in cooking. Soaking helps break down the grain and allows it to become more digestible. For some people grains are a problem in greater amounts. PCOS patients are amongst those. It has something to do with the metabolism of starch carbs amongst other things. It seems that this can be lessened with soaking the grains. It is one thing that currently is stored in my brain and makes sense but has not come to the level where I can put it into words yet, so let me show you my first experiment into this- steel cut oats soaked in keifer

Yum yum !!! But what is keifer you ask ? No, not the guy in the series 24- it is a cultured milk product similar to yogert.
I will let this web page explain- from keifer.net

"Both kefir and yogurt are cultured milk products...
but they contain different types of beneficial bacteria. Yogurt contains
transient beneficial bacteria that keep the digestive system clean and
provide food for the friendly bacteria that reside there. But kefir can
actually colonize the intestinal tract, a feat that yogurt cannot match.
Kefir contains several major strains of friendly bacteria not commonly
found in yogurt, Lactobacillus Caucasus, Leuconostoc, Acetobacter species,
and Streptococcus species.It also contains beneficial yeasts, such as
Saccharomyces kefir and Torula kefir, which dominate, control and
eliminate destructive pathogenic yeasts in the body. They do so by
penetrating the mucosal lining where unhealthy yeast and bacteria reside,
forming a virtual SWAT team that housecleans and strengthens the
intestines. Hence, the body becomes more efficient in resisting such
pathogens as E. coli and intestinal parasites.
Kefir's active yeast and bacteria provide more nutritive value than
yogurt by helping digest the foods that you eat and by keeping the colon
environment clean and healthy.Because the curd size of kefir is smaller
than yogurt, it is also easier to digest, which makes it a particularly
excellent, nutritious food for babies, the elderly and people experiencing
chronic fatigue and digestive disorders. "

It is thick , but not quite as thick as sour cream. Like yogert it has a "twangy " taste but it is more liquid than yogurt. To me this is a little easier to work with in a recipe , as it easily pours much like buttermilk. Here is the recipe I used for the dish:

Overnight oats with keifer

1 part steel cut oats
3 to 5 parts keifer
1 cup blueberries
1 t cinnamon

Place in fridge overnight or up to 24 hrs. In the morning add 1/3 cup
dried fruit and place in a greased casserole dish.Bake covered at 375
for 40 minutes

Not exactly a quick cook, but very yummy and filling. I was a little concerned that Nick might protest the twang without some major kind of sweetening, but he loved the taste. This one will be repeated in the future.

Lunch was an attempt to use up some leftovers from the night before, and it worked

A Thomas Lite multigrain English muffin spread with red pepper hummus, topped with leftover roast vegetables and mozzarella cheese , then baked at 400 for 10 minutes. Mini roast veggie pizzas ! I was out of wraps, so these worked just fine.

Today begins a celebration of one of the eight holidays in my spiritual tradition and I wanted to get the shopping and chopping done early so Saturday would be totally free for fun. We did our grocery shopping in the evening and grabbed a quick dinner out. I had a barbecue chicken sandwich and was reminded of my love hate relationship with barbecue sauce. I love the taste, but it gives me heartburn almost instantly. I should have grabbed soup or salad instead.

I see, said the fuzzy eyed man

Nice sunny day yesterday. For us it was a day of back to school and one must do out of the ordinary errand because Bob had one last vacation day and we had access to the car. After all of the singing commitments of Holy Week, it's good for him to have a day to just breathe before jumping back into his official paying job.

Breakfast was overnight steel cut oats with a tropical fruit mix and strawberries. I LOVE overnight oats when we have to get moving faster in the morning ! To make them for 3 people I bring 4 cups of water and 3 T of any dried fruit to a boil. Once it boils remove from the heat and add 1 cup steel cut oats. Cover and in the morning bring it back to the flame and heat it for about 5 minutes. Fast, yummy and filling !

After breakfast we headed off to get vision exams for myself and my son. I knew I needed new glasses, Nick has never had a vision exam and up till recently has never shown any vision problems. He can see things at a far distance, but has begun to make some really silly errors when reading. Could it be clowning around or was there a real problem ? Not sure , so vision exam is a good way to find out. Turns out he is neither nearsighted or farsighted, but has inherited severe astigmatism from both his father and I and needed glasses. He also got the dilation drops , and the poor kid had a rather strange sensory day- never an easy thing for an autistic !
He had to wear sunglasses for a few hours after the exam. Our glasses would be ready that afternoon so we came home to eat lunch and do school.

Lunch was happily leftovers of the dishes I brought on Easter- Roast Veggie and pasta salad with a Balsamic dressing and Couscous with Dried Cranberries and Pecans

Couscous Salad with Dried Cranberries and Pecans Recipe


1 cup shelled pecans
1 1/2 cups whole wheat couscous
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
2 cups boiling water
1 cup thawed frozen peas
3 scallions -- very thinly sliced
2 medium cucumbers -- peeled, seeded, and diced
1/4 cup shredded fresh basil
Lemon Dressing:
Zest of 1 lemon
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 garlic cloves -- minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup olive oil

Toast the pecans in a shallow pan in a preheated 350-degree F. oven until very fragrant, about
7 minutes. Set aside to cool.Place the couscous, cranberries, and turmeric in a large bowl. Pour
in the boiling water, stir, then cover the bowl with a large plate or foil. Let sit for 10 minutes.
Remove the cover, then fluff the couscous with a fork. Cover again and let sit 5 more minutes.
Stir in the pecans, peas, scallions, cucumbers, and basil.
Combine the dressing ingredients in a jar with a tight-fitting lid and shake vigorously.
Yield: 4 servings

For the pasta salad I made a box of whole wheat pasta and roasted a butternut squash, pound of asparagus, head of broccoli, head of cauliflower and 8 carrots cut into julienne strips at 375 for a half hour. Then I combined then and tossed with this

Balsamic Dressing

3/4 cup water
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tsp capers
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp tarragon -- thyme, fresh basil, chopped parsley.

Shake and serve

Both were very good cold, and the next day ! We finished schoolwork ( which was shortened because of his eye dilation and inability to read close up for a few hours because of it) and then headed back up for our new glasses

Me- in frames that are more recent than 80's big hair bands( hubby in the background)
The visually improved Nick . Glasses are going to take a while to adjust to for him. New line of vision, new things on your face, learning how to deal with streaked lenses and more.

We did get out for a 45 minute walk in the midst of all of this back and forth. I credit Bob with giving us the prompting ! There are times that it is really helpful to have the in person support of another on the journey...who is not trying to keep a million details in mind at the moment !

Dinner was Roast vegetables and grilled steak salad. To make I cut up a bulb of fennel, a half a pound of mushrooms, a red onion, a zucchini, 4 Mexican orange sweet peppers and half a pound of asparagus spears and roasted them at 375 for 30 minutes. Meanwhile I grilled 3 sandwich steaks on my George Foreman Grill ( you could substitute chicken, fish or baked tofu here). Take 3 plates and lay our a mix of romaine and watercress( or any greens you like) top with roast veggies and one of the steaks , sliced. I like a drizzle of a honey mustard dressing here but it works with nothing at all or a balsamic dressing just as well.

A busy but healthy day !