Today I thought I would have a simple, laid back Saturday with my husband and daughter. However, as my daughter destroyed the house and my husband with good intentions put on his work boots to go outside then promptly grabbed the throw on the couch and took a nap, I decided that sitting on the couch today wasn't for me. My husband, bless his pea-pickin' heart, brought home about 20lbs of overripe bananas from the locally owned grocery store a few months back. Let us rewind to that before I move forward with today's story.
My husband is probably the best junk man I know. He can leave to get one thing and come back with three more free because he talked the people out of them, or on the other hand found them on his way home. In January/February sometime, I decided to use up some bananas I had and made some homemade yummy banana bread. I enjoyed making it, it made the house smell wonderful, and it was so delicious it was literally gone in 3 days. Well, husband decided he liked it so much that when he went to the grocery store to pick something up for himself a few days later he talked the manager out of all the brown overripe bananas they had. Which equated to about 20lbs+ worth. So now an entire rack in my stand up deep freezer is stuffed full of brown bananas in grocery bags that I am STILL trying to get rid of. Joy.
But I digress. Today I decided to whip out the KitchenAid stand mixer (not really, it's always on the counter-my trophy, haha) and some of the frozen bananas to make some more banana nut bread. I have plenty of baking ingredients and of course ample bananas so I decided I would make two loaves and give the other to my neighbor. I used the banana bread recipe I favor most with a few modifications, including using whole wheat flour, increasing the bananas to 3 1/2 large bananas for each loaf (makes moist and helps with the gumminess sometimes associated with whole wheat), and adding 1/4 c toasted chopped walnuts plus 1tsp organic Madagascar vanilla. The results were phenomenal as usual, I have used this recipe before and really enjoyed it. I did not substitute the butter for applesauce, but I should have. However, even the tot was enthralled with her own little slice of 'bwead'.
Other than breadmaking, I also took some time to fix the spice jars on my fridge. The flat business card magnets kept sliding off so I decided I would steal my husband's marine grade 5200 epoxy adhesive and glue those things on there forever. They are on the counter drying as we speak, husband said it would take about 24 hours for it to cure fully and I don't want to ruin that or have to do it over yet AGAIN. I did manage to update the blog on those that is pinned on Pinterest so those having the same problem as me would not feel bad simply because I didn't express having that problem and my solution.
I can't seem to sleep well at night so tonight I tried a little meditation and relaxation. It worked as long as I was sitting here doing it, but the minute I put the laptop away and went to bed, my mind started racing again. Now I'm up, it's midnight yet again, and I'm watching reruns of CatDog and Kenan & Kel on TeenNick 90's kids. Hopefully this hot chamomile tea and honey will help me relax a little more and finally drift off. I know this little baby girl in my tummy sure likes to roll when I lay down to sleep too, hehe.
Dinner tonight was cheeseburgers for the husband and kid, and a tomato and avocado sandwich for me. Italian blend veggies with honey and Tabasco soy sauce. Caesar pasta salad. Yep, that's it.
Well that was my day! Hopefully you all are enjoying your weekend! Happy eating!
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Blinded
Well thank God the blinds I ordered last week came in yesterday. I had my husband pick up some semi-gloss white paint with mildewcide in it so I could repaint the window sills. Gross, I know, but we live in a mobile home on a creek and this year has been HORRIBLE for us for rain, so in all honesty the moisture is creating a mildewy problem in the corners of all the windows of the house. I figured the new paint would prevent any more of this happening and protect my blinds. We'll see.
I finished 5 out of the 10 windows in the house as far as putting the blinds up goes. My husband isn't really interested in the inside the house improvements as much as he does outside I guess. I don't have a problem with that, he does help if it's something I just can't do or lift though. For the most part, I'm just glad he stays out of my way, hehe. Anyway, the new blinds look fantastic and I only had a few mishaps, from spilling a full cup of paint on my granite island top to having two of the sets of blinds (so far) not fit properly in the window. However, everything was made right when my husband walked in the house and said "Mh......looks good." Yep, that's his form of a complement. I'll take it.
So, now that half the blinds are done, meaning all of them in the rooms guests would be in, I can kind of chill until I get to the other rooms. They aren't cleaned out yet and to be completely honest, I'm a little afraid to hang the nice 2" faux wood blinds up in my toddler's room. I don't know, I just feel like she's going to spill drinks on them (not sure how that happens with a sippy cup but it does!) or try to climb them like a cat. I don't know. My child is a typical two-year-old I suppose.
Feeling tired lately, but have the pregnancy insomnia like crazy. Literally I was up until 3am the other day and got back up at 9am. *sigh* I'm up again and it's midnight.
Well, on with that, I had a checkup last Monday. The doctor said the baby is doing well and I am right on track with everything. He was concerned with my 6lbs weight loss this past month because this is the time of the biggest growth in the baby. I sheepishly explained I had gone vegan and was eating better and he completely understood and supported my decision. I was honestly shocked, I have heard so many doctors downing women for their decisions to be vegan, especially during pregnancy, that I was bracing myself for the beratement and prepared to also ignore it. I also told him truthfully that during the first trimester I was very nauseated with morning sickness and the only thing I could keep down was starchy carby foods that of course have little to no nutritional value (think bagged mashed potato flakes, mac n cheese, cheddar broccoli packaged rice mix).
With how little I was able to actually eat I was surprised I gained any weight at all. Unfortunately, the weight gain was significant so in an attempt to squelch that gain, I have started to eat better along with the other reasons I have given previously for going vegan. As much as I possibly can anyways. Tonight my husband decided he was going to grill a whole pack of hot dogs and another package of beer brats. He was so disappointed when I whipped out my veggie dogs from the freezer, no idea why he thought I was going to stuff myself with meat. Silly boy.
So on a serious note. Karma. As a subject I don't believe my religion covers that, we are only taught to turn the other cheek and that God states "vengeance is mine." However, it's extremely hard to do that when someone hurts you to the pure core of your soul. I am only human. I bring this up because of a recent incident in my husband's family. There is a family member on his side, married in not blood, that I do not and have never gotten along with. I am a laid back person and consider myself pretty easy going as long as you don't lie to me or try to cheat me. This person has done both. Repeatedly. I have asked a psychologist about this person's behavior and was told that it seems to be a narcissistic personality with sociopathic tendencies. Nothing I am willing to put up with or even remotely willing to expose my children to when I don't have to. This person is NOT blood family and my own husband can't stand the person.
However, after repeatedly hurting me and my husband, the person decided to move to another state with my husband's blood family member. Since they have been gone, the person has had numerous bad visits to the doctor and is now required to make routine visits to a major medical clinic in a large town several hours away. Recently, the person had to undergo surgery and was required to stay at the medical clinic. Upon returning home, they were rushed back to the medical clinic less than 24 hours later via ambulance. At first, I felt a sick sense of cynicism, one of those 'You get what you deserve' with a smug smile things. But I realized that is not the Christian thing to do. I shouldn't revel in the fact that someone I dislike suffers, even if it's exactly what they do to me. Instead, I should only silently pray and ask for comfort in the person's hard time. It's hard for me to pray for something I don't really want to ask for on the other person's behalf, but I know it is a character building experience that God has set in front of me. As hard as it may be to understand.
Alright, well that's been my last few days in a nutshell. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and happy eating!!
I finished 5 out of the 10 windows in the house as far as putting the blinds up goes. My husband isn't really interested in the inside the house improvements as much as he does outside I guess. I don't have a problem with that, he does help if it's something I just can't do or lift though. For the most part, I'm just glad he stays out of my way, hehe. Anyway, the new blinds look fantastic and I only had a few mishaps, from spilling a full cup of paint on my granite island top to having two of the sets of blinds (so far) not fit properly in the window. However, everything was made right when my husband walked in the house and said "Mh......looks good." Yep, that's his form of a complement. I'll take it.
So, now that half the blinds are done, meaning all of them in the rooms guests would be in, I can kind of chill until I get to the other rooms. They aren't cleaned out yet and to be completely honest, I'm a little afraid to hang the nice 2" faux wood blinds up in my toddler's room. I don't know, I just feel like she's going to spill drinks on them (not sure how that happens with a sippy cup but it does!) or try to climb them like a cat. I don't know. My child is a typical two-year-old I suppose.
Feeling tired lately, but have the pregnancy insomnia like crazy. Literally I was up until 3am the other day and got back up at 9am. *sigh* I'm up again and it's midnight.
Well, on with that, I had a checkup last Monday. The doctor said the baby is doing well and I am right on track with everything. He was concerned with my 6lbs weight loss this past month because this is the time of the biggest growth in the baby. I sheepishly explained I had gone vegan and was eating better and he completely understood and supported my decision. I was honestly shocked, I have heard so many doctors downing women for their decisions to be vegan, especially during pregnancy, that I was bracing myself for the beratement and prepared to also ignore it. I also told him truthfully that during the first trimester I was very nauseated with morning sickness and the only thing I could keep down was starchy carby foods that of course have little to no nutritional value (think bagged mashed potato flakes, mac n cheese, cheddar broccoli packaged rice mix).
With how little I was able to actually eat I was surprised I gained any weight at all. Unfortunately, the weight gain was significant so in an attempt to squelch that gain, I have started to eat better along with the other reasons I have given previously for going vegan. As much as I possibly can anyways. Tonight my husband decided he was going to grill a whole pack of hot dogs and another package of beer brats. He was so disappointed when I whipped out my veggie dogs from the freezer, no idea why he thought I was going to stuff myself with meat. Silly boy.
So on a serious note. Karma. As a subject I don't believe my religion covers that, we are only taught to turn the other cheek and that God states "vengeance is mine." However, it's extremely hard to do that when someone hurts you to the pure core of your soul. I am only human. I bring this up because of a recent incident in my husband's family. There is a family member on his side, married in not blood, that I do not and have never gotten along with. I am a laid back person and consider myself pretty easy going as long as you don't lie to me or try to cheat me. This person has done both. Repeatedly. I have asked a psychologist about this person's behavior and was told that it seems to be a narcissistic personality with sociopathic tendencies. Nothing I am willing to put up with or even remotely willing to expose my children to when I don't have to. This person is NOT blood family and my own husband can't stand the person.
However, after repeatedly hurting me and my husband, the person decided to move to another state with my husband's blood family member. Since they have been gone, the person has had numerous bad visits to the doctor and is now required to make routine visits to a major medical clinic in a large town several hours away. Recently, the person had to undergo surgery and was required to stay at the medical clinic. Upon returning home, they were rushed back to the medical clinic less than 24 hours later via ambulance. At first, I felt a sick sense of cynicism, one of those 'You get what you deserve' with a smug smile things. But I realized that is not the Christian thing to do. I shouldn't revel in the fact that someone I dislike suffers, even if it's exactly what they do to me. Instead, I should only silently pray and ask for comfort in the person's hard time. It's hard for me to pray for something I don't really want to ask for on the other person's behalf, but I know it is a character building experience that God has set in front of me. As hard as it may be to understand.
Alright, well that's been my last few days in a nutshell. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and happy eating!!
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Oh Blackwater Keep On Rollin'
So I've been a bit of a slacker lately on posting. We have had some pretty extreme weather this summer in the Florida panhandle, mostly rain. Heavy rain. With flooding. Which would be fine if we lived at our old house, but we now live on a creek. For example: it rained all Friday night. When I got up and finally made my way to the back door to check, the creek was still in the banks, about 100yds from our house (9am). By 2pm, the creek had risen about 15' and was edging it's way up our back steps to the house. So apparently it was rising at about 3' per hour. No bueno. We don't have flood insurance (yeah, I'll be checking into that here shortly!) but this summer has been very odd anyway with the weather. So you could say I have been a little sidetracked with watching the weather and hoping my house didn't float away.
Nothing much to say about cooking. Because of the flooding yesterday and part of today, my husband had to cut off the water to the house to prevent the well from shorting out while it was under water. We've been surviving on crap food, still vegan, but pre-packaged junk. So much for that, right?!
My husband decided yesterday that he wishes we were able to buy another piece of land somewhere and build a home instead. We are hoping for that to be our 'retirement project' and because of the awful flooding lately have started to look for a few acres to buy and pay off in a few years. Unfortunately, because we live in such a popular area, the cost of living is skewed here and a .25 acre lot in town will cost you three times what it cost to live 20 miles north of the same lot on a 20 acre parcel. I guess I don't mind living where we live, but being raised in the city limits and moving out to a more rural area leaves me feeling that a 20 min drive to my grandmother's house is just too much. Spoiled? Yes. I used to live next door to my grandmother. Hehe.
Because my husband is self employed, it makes it a lot more difficult for us to attain financing in a conventional way. Fortunately he has made a few friends in his line of work that are investors of sorts that have helped us out. I don't believe they would be willing to finance vacant land though, so we are searching for something with owner financing. I'm sure we will have several thousand to put down and it shouldn't take us more than 2 years to pay the parcel off, but sometimes, you just don't want banks to be involved.
Which brings me to my next point. We have decided to try to build a home instead of buy an existing home. Most of the homes here in our price range are either tiny, in bad neighborhoods, foreclosures with extensive repair work needed, or with some other major flaw that we just aren't interested in. Another big issue is the lot size of the houses for sale, we need at least 2+ acres for my husband's business. Bringing us back to my above paragraph, we have a difficult time obtaining financing because of self employment as well. So, we figured what the heck, we know plenty of subcontractors that would be willing to put in bids and work on a house for us, why not do it ourselves and save big time? We could run on a build as you earn basis so when we finally get finished with the home it would be paid off. So what if it takes a few years to finish, in the end we would save a chunk of money in general contractor's fees as well as the one we both hate, INTEREST on a loan.
This is appealing to my husband, especially if you knew him. He does not like banks in the least bit. Nor politicians. Smart man. :)
I have found a fabulous website I have been reading for the last two nights straight and I am learning a lot about the DIY general contractor. Thank God for people like the owner of this site that write all this stuff down for people like me to absorb up. He even lists an order of operations worksheet so you know what needs to happen when. Very helpful!
Well that has been my last two days in a nutshell. Hopefully everyone has had a great weekend!! Happy eating!
Nothing much to say about cooking. Because of the flooding yesterday and part of today, my husband had to cut off the water to the house to prevent the well from shorting out while it was under water. We've been surviving on crap food, still vegan, but pre-packaged junk. So much for that, right?!
My husband decided yesterday that he wishes we were able to buy another piece of land somewhere and build a home instead. We are hoping for that to be our 'retirement project' and because of the awful flooding lately have started to look for a few acres to buy and pay off in a few years. Unfortunately, because we live in such a popular area, the cost of living is skewed here and a .25 acre lot in town will cost you three times what it cost to live 20 miles north of the same lot on a 20 acre parcel. I guess I don't mind living where we live, but being raised in the city limits and moving out to a more rural area leaves me feeling that a 20 min drive to my grandmother's house is just too much. Spoiled? Yes. I used to live next door to my grandmother. Hehe.
Because my husband is self employed, it makes it a lot more difficult for us to attain financing in a conventional way. Fortunately he has made a few friends in his line of work that are investors of sorts that have helped us out. I don't believe they would be willing to finance vacant land though, so we are searching for something with owner financing. I'm sure we will have several thousand to put down and it shouldn't take us more than 2 years to pay the parcel off, but sometimes, you just don't want banks to be involved.
Which brings me to my next point. We have decided to try to build a home instead of buy an existing home. Most of the homes here in our price range are either tiny, in bad neighborhoods, foreclosures with extensive repair work needed, or with some other major flaw that we just aren't interested in. Another big issue is the lot size of the houses for sale, we need at least 2+ acres for my husband's business. Bringing us back to my above paragraph, we have a difficult time obtaining financing because of self employment as well. So, we figured what the heck, we know plenty of subcontractors that would be willing to put in bids and work on a house for us, why not do it ourselves and save big time? We could run on a build as you earn basis so when we finally get finished with the home it would be paid off. So what if it takes a few years to finish, in the end we would save a chunk of money in general contractor's fees as well as the one we both hate, INTEREST on a loan.
This is appealing to my husband, especially if you knew him. He does not like banks in the least bit. Nor politicians. Smart man. :)
I have found a fabulous website I have been reading for the last two nights straight and I am learning a lot about the DIY general contractor. Thank God for people like the owner of this site that write all this stuff down for people like me to absorb up. He even lists an order of operations worksheet so you know what needs to happen when. Very helpful!
Well that has been my last two days in a nutshell. Hopefully everyone has had a great weekend!! Happy eating!
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Short and Sweet
Today was actually pretty boring. Much more of a rest day than anything else. I will blame that on the fact that my entire body aches from the painting day yesterday. My legs, my back, my ligaments in my belly and hips. *sigh* So most of my day was spent lounging on the couch and chair, playing on facebook.
I did however get the fountain pump in the mail for the water fountain my grandmother gave me. By gave I mean I bummed it off of her because it had been sitting on her side table, not running and full of dust, for about 3 years now. She told me she wasn't sure if it worked, and by the looks of the crusty lime scale left in the bottom of the water reservoir I would have to say that the reason it did not work was because someone did not continue to fill it with water when it splashed out and evaporated.
I got the pump attached, filled the reservoir with water, and plugged it in. Yep, worked good. Maybe too well, because it shot water up about an inch over the globe and splashed a lot of the water out onto the countertop where I was testing it. I disassembled it and turned the pump down to low which worked fabulously. Having nowhere in the kitchen/living room/dining room to put it, I decided it would look good on my jewelry armoire in our bedroom. I plugged it in but realized after about an hour that it was still splashing pretty good and making a mess all over the cabinet. I wound up unplugging it and I guess I'll have to take it apart tomorrow to see if there's anything else I can do to turn it down lower.
That was my accomplishment for the day. I had intentions of cleaning off the countertop in the kitchen and putting more stuff in the yard sale pile, but that didn't happen. Oh, I also did email a local company here, Allgood's Furniture, about repairing an antique stained glass window pane and frame my husband found for me on one of his jobsites. I haven't had the heart to get rid of it, and even though it's pretty sad looking and broken, I still see beauty in it. Hopefully their quote to repair it won't cost me an arm and a leg because I really think it would look beautiful in the new dining room.
Well that's all for now. Have a good evening everyone and happy eating!
I did however get the fountain pump in the mail for the water fountain my grandmother gave me. By gave I mean I bummed it off of her because it had been sitting on her side table, not running and full of dust, for about 3 years now. She told me she wasn't sure if it worked, and by the looks of the crusty lime scale left in the bottom of the water reservoir I would have to say that the reason it did not work was because someone did not continue to fill it with water when it splashed out and evaporated.
I got the pump attached, filled the reservoir with water, and plugged it in. Yep, worked good. Maybe too well, because it shot water up about an inch over the globe and splashed a lot of the water out onto the countertop where I was testing it. I disassembled it and turned the pump down to low which worked fabulously. Having nowhere in the kitchen/living room/dining room to put it, I decided it would look good on my jewelry armoire in our bedroom. I plugged it in but realized after about an hour that it was still splashing pretty good and making a mess all over the cabinet. I wound up unplugging it and I guess I'll have to take it apart tomorrow to see if there's anything else I can do to turn it down lower.
That was my accomplishment for the day. I had intentions of cleaning off the countertop in the kitchen and putting more stuff in the yard sale pile, but that didn't happen. Oh, I also did email a local company here, Allgood's Furniture, about repairing an antique stained glass window pane and frame my husband found for me on one of his jobsites. I haven't had the heart to get rid of it, and even though it's pretty sad looking and broken, I still see beauty in it. Hopefully their quote to repair it won't cost me an arm and a leg because I really think it would look beautiful in the new dining room.
Well that's all for now. Have a good evening everyone and happy eating!
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Going Green
So, I decided last night to go to Wal-Mart with my friend and pick up some groceries and more importantly to me, paint and supplies. My grandmother has decided to let me have my great-grandmother's 75+ year old large dining table that seats 8-10, and I didn't feel like my antique white walls with stark white trim would cut it to frame out such an important heirloom. Thanksgiving and Christmas at Grandmother Fleming's house was a big deal, we would all gather around the tables (yes there was a lot of us) and feast happily on turkey with all the trimmings, reliving Thanksgivings/Christmases of the past. Gifts were not really thought about, simply as much pie as you could stuff in your face and afterwards playing with the cousins.
After my parents got a nasty divorce, my grandpa and then great-grandmother passed on and it was only a few more years before the big gatherings began to fall apart. My dad and his brother are twins-I'll skip the family drama-but our two families became divided and began to drift further and further apart. As of 2011, I began hosting (hostessing?) Thanksgiving for my dad's side of the family and Christmas Eve dinner for my dad, stepmom, brother, and grandmother. I attempted to do Christmas dinner for my mom's side of the family, but it became quickly apparent that those holidays were way too close together for me to efficiently recover from one to host the next. Not sure how my Grandmother Fleming did it. *smile*
So, this brings me to my point. I've been hosting Thanksgiving dinner at my house with borrowed lawn chairs and yard sale tables for the last few years. Not that anyone minded, I'm sure, but when family or friends come over you want them to be comfortable. I finally mustered up the courage to ask my grandmother for the table and chairs set. She took about a week to answer me, and said yes. This is a big deal because my grandmother rarely lets go of anything of historical family value. I can't say as I blame her, but I'm 30 now with a little family of my own, and this means a great deal to me to be able to serve guests on a table that was so cherished in my memories of my Grandmother Fleming's house.
I rifled through the color swatches at the display and found some greens. I was going for an olive green but didn't want anything too "Army-ish" if you know what I mean. No? Well thinking about it now, that was a dumb thing to think because Army garb is called olive drab. Duh. Anyway, I wound up picking a color called "Wellington Khaki" from one of the swatches on the wall, which was actually one color choice up from the color I wanted the walls to be. Wise decision on my part thanks to my friend, because once I finished painting, the room was the exact color I thought it would be as the darker color below it on the swatch.
Being roly poly right now and easily tired, it took me from 10:30am to after 6pm of painting, cutting in, and repainting (had to have 2 coats to go from antique white to dark green) to get the room where I needed it to be. And I LOVE it. It looks especially good with the mirror project I completed a few weeks ago. I was always afraid of dark colors, but this just looks fantastic. I am exhausted, my ankles are swelling, and I almost fell off the A-frame ladder 3 times trying to cut in the 9ft vaulted ceiling, but I couldn't be happier.
Here are the before pictures:
You can see how sterile it looks. Literally this is the contractor grade crapola paint we had my dad come in and spray 5 gallon buckets of just so we could have some paint on the walls to cover the repaired drywall. There are no dimensions or really any division of the lines in the room, everything kind of meshes together.
Now here is a during picture:
At this point, I'm terrified. The walls are drying half dark half light, I haven't cut anything in yet, and I'm afraid it's just going to be way too dark. And no, I don't use painters tape. Waste of time because after all the time it takes to apply it, I can never get it to adhere correctly or give me sharp lines, it always winds up making me feel a false sense of security and I get globs of paint underneath it. Even with the good blue 3M stuff. Excuse my husband's utility trailer framed in the front yard, he was doing some yardwork and moving things around.
Now, drumroll please. Here are the after pictures:
The paint in the last picture by my daughter's head was still just shy of dry, hence the light marks. But hey, I think it looks fantastic! I'm very ready to move my Grandmother's table into the room once my dad delivers it and have some friends over for at least a card game to show off my new room!
I also decided that the photo 'collage' in the first before picture was worth attempting to save the wall stickers and re-apply them with the same setup on the pictures. I didn't do it perfectly, but until I go in there with a level for the stickers and adjust the picture frames perfectly this is what I came up with:
That is my beautiful daughter at about a year and a half old. Now, this was actually a decorative plate holder for the wall that my aunt gave me. I decided I wanted to repurpose it as a picture holder instead and already had these frames from our wedding a few years before. I think they are cuter with her little pictures in them anyway. :)
On to the mirror project, quickly. My husband's line of work causes him to happen across many items left stranded by people in a hurry. I try not to let these unfortunate circumstances deter me from seeing the good in refinishing and utilizing these items instead of hauling them to the dump. For instance: husband brought home this mirror one day. I thought it was fabulous because it was huge and would make a fantastic dining room mirror. However, I was less than pleased with the finish on the plastic goldtone frame. Krylon to the rescue! (I actually think it was Valspar, but either way.) It took me a while to decide what I was going to do with it, if I wanted to do a black frame or plain white, who knew. Then one day while pinteresting, it hit me.
Here's the before pictures, after I took the actual glass mirror out of it of course:
Now, I decided to paint a 'base coat' of gray. Husband had gray primer in the shed already so that was a bonus I didn't have to buy, plus it would be primer-ed as well! I wanted to get the feel of aged and weather-beaten wood.
For the top coat, I went with Hobby Lobby's Valspar crackle top coat. It's an off white color, but once it crackled, you could see parts of the gray 'weathered wood' underneath. It really made the frame look like someone painted an old carved wood frame and had it for 100 years. Perfection.
This last picture is one of the mirror against the new green paint in the dining room. You can see in the mirror I was only half done with the room, but couldn't wait to see how the colors went together. Magnificent! I was super pleased.
I sure can't wait to get this heavy thing hung on the wall! My daughter seen the green in the room and says "Mommy, I lub it!" I asked her what color it was. "Gween!" What does green mean baby? "Gween mean GO!" How right you are. And both of these projects were a definite GO. :)
As far as being a foodie, well, lately I haven't been slacking per se as much as I have been just being a lazy vegan. You know. Whole wheat tortillas, stuff some junk in them. Leftovers. Left my seitan loaf in the microwave overnight so I was pretty upset I had to throw it out. :( *sigh* Anyway, that's been about it. Was extremely exhausted as I mentioned before from all this painting today, so dinner tonight was a frozen pizza for the husband and kid, and bean and cheese burritos for myself. Yeah. It was that kind of night.
Well, that's been the extent of my busy day. Sleep well my friends and happy eating!
After my parents got a nasty divorce, my grandpa and then great-grandmother passed on and it was only a few more years before the big gatherings began to fall apart. My dad and his brother are twins-I'll skip the family drama-but our two families became divided and began to drift further and further apart. As of 2011, I began hosting (hostessing?) Thanksgiving for my dad's side of the family and Christmas Eve dinner for my dad, stepmom, brother, and grandmother. I attempted to do Christmas dinner for my mom's side of the family, but it became quickly apparent that those holidays were way too close together for me to efficiently recover from one to host the next. Not sure how my Grandmother Fleming did it. *smile*
So, this brings me to my point. I've been hosting Thanksgiving dinner at my house with borrowed lawn chairs and yard sale tables for the last few years. Not that anyone minded, I'm sure, but when family or friends come over you want them to be comfortable. I finally mustered up the courage to ask my grandmother for the table and chairs set. She took about a week to answer me, and said yes. This is a big deal because my grandmother rarely lets go of anything of historical family value. I can't say as I blame her, but I'm 30 now with a little family of my own, and this means a great deal to me to be able to serve guests on a table that was so cherished in my memories of my Grandmother Fleming's house.
I rifled through the color swatches at the display and found some greens. I was going for an olive green but didn't want anything too "Army-ish" if you know what I mean. No? Well thinking about it now, that was a dumb thing to think because Army garb is called olive drab. Duh. Anyway, I wound up picking a color called "Wellington Khaki" from one of the swatches on the wall, which was actually one color choice up from the color I wanted the walls to be. Wise decision on my part thanks to my friend, because once I finished painting, the room was the exact color I thought it would be as the darker color below it on the swatch.
Being roly poly right now and easily tired, it took me from 10:30am to after 6pm of painting, cutting in, and repainting (had to have 2 coats to go from antique white to dark green) to get the room where I needed it to be. And I LOVE it. It looks especially good with the mirror project I completed a few weeks ago. I was always afraid of dark colors, but this just looks fantastic. I am exhausted, my ankles are swelling, and I almost fell off the A-frame ladder 3 times trying to cut in the 9ft vaulted ceiling, but I couldn't be happier.
Here are the before pictures:
You can see how sterile it looks. Literally this is the contractor grade crapola paint we had my dad come in and spray 5 gallon buckets of just so we could have some paint on the walls to cover the repaired drywall. There are no dimensions or really any division of the lines in the room, everything kind of meshes together.
Now here is a during picture:
Now, drumroll please. Here are the after pictures:
The paint in the last picture by my daughter's head was still just shy of dry, hence the light marks. But hey, I think it looks fantastic! I'm very ready to move my Grandmother's table into the room once my dad delivers it and have some friends over for at least a card game to show off my new room!
I also decided that the photo 'collage' in the first before picture was worth attempting to save the wall stickers and re-apply them with the same setup on the pictures. I didn't do it perfectly, but until I go in there with a level for the stickers and adjust the picture frames perfectly this is what I came up with:
That is my beautiful daughter at about a year and a half old. Now, this was actually a decorative plate holder for the wall that my aunt gave me. I decided I wanted to repurpose it as a picture holder instead and already had these frames from our wedding a few years before. I think they are cuter with her little pictures in them anyway. :)
On to the mirror project, quickly. My husband's line of work causes him to happen across many items left stranded by people in a hurry. I try not to let these unfortunate circumstances deter me from seeing the good in refinishing and utilizing these items instead of hauling them to the dump. For instance: husband brought home this mirror one day. I thought it was fabulous because it was huge and would make a fantastic dining room mirror. However, I was less than pleased with the finish on the plastic goldtone frame. Krylon to the rescue! (I actually think it was Valspar, but either way.) It took me a while to decide what I was going to do with it, if I wanted to do a black frame or plain white, who knew. Then one day while pinteresting, it hit me.
Here's the before pictures, after I took the actual glass mirror out of it of course:
Now, I decided to paint a 'base coat' of gray. Husband had gray primer in the shed already so that was a bonus I didn't have to buy, plus it would be primer-ed as well! I wanted to get the feel of aged and weather-beaten wood.
For the top coat, I went with Hobby Lobby's Valspar crackle top coat. It's an off white color, but once it crackled, you could see parts of the gray 'weathered wood' underneath. It really made the frame look like someone painted an old carved wood frame and had it for 100 years. Perfection.
This last picture is one of the mirror against the new green paint in the dining room. You can see in the mirror I was only half done with the room, but couldn't wait to see how the colors went together. Magnificent! I was super pleased.
I sure can't wait to get this heavy thing hung on the wall! My daughter seen the green in the room and says "Mommy, I lub it!" I asked her what color it was. "Gween!" What does green mean baby? "Gween mean GO!" How right you are. And both of these projects were a definite GO. :)
As far as being a foodie, well, lately I haven't been slacking per se as much as I have been just being a lazy vegan. You know. Whole wheat tortillas, stuff some junk in them. Leftovers. Left my seitan loaf in the microwave overnight so I was pretty upset I had to throw it out. :( *sigh* Anyway, that's been about it. Was extremely exhausted as I mentioned before from all this painting today, so dinner tonight was a frozen pizza for the husband and kid, and bean and cheese burritos for myself. Yeah. It was that kind of night.
Well, that's been the extent of my busy day. Sleep well my friends and happy eating!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Cleanliness is Next to Godliness
Today I started slowly, but built up steam in my quest to rid the house of.... well.... crap. I decided to tackle the formal dining room first because my grandmother decided to give me my great grandmother's 75+ year old huge dining room table that seats 8, or more...I can't remember...possibly 10. It's huge anyway. I knew that most of the stuff in the floor in the dining room was baby stuff that needed to be put into what is slowly taking shape as a nursery, the other half of it was just junk that needed to be tossed or given to the charity store. I quickly filled a giant rolling trash can out front with all the junk that was just cluttering up the closet in the dining room.
Pretty proud of myself. The entire room is cleaned out, things are in their places (by things I mean nothing, the room is actually empty), and I feel a little more in my element now. I managed to muster up the energy to run the vacuum in the dining room and the living room, even took the hose attachment and cleaned the baseboards. That was actually in preparation for the day of painting I'm sure to have tomorrow since I decided to jump the gun and buy a gallon of olive green paint for the dining room. I need to do it while the room is empty anyways.
So few words for so much time spent on a project today. I did manage to dust the living room too. Ok, this is actually an accomplishment. Confession time. Right after I found out I was pregnant I started suffering from horrible nausea which lead to a severe bout of depression (don't ask, I bounced from medicine to medicine trying to control the nausea and that only made other things worse). I haven't had depression this bad ever. Yeah, I've had the 'blues' and been sad, but this was an "I can't get out of bed and if I do I'm going to sleep on the couch all day and not watch the toddler and not care" type of depression. It was awful, I cried all the time and couldn't even find the energy to wash the dishes much less cook or clean. Laundry was piled to the ceiling. Dishes were being washed as needed. The trash was piled up. I didn't even vacuum the rugs for weeks. And my endearing husband was right there beside me, encouraging me and loving me through it all. I remember one day in particular my husband took us to get some quick dinner at a burger joint up the road and when we got in the car and got 2 streets from the house I fell apart crying just knowing that we would NEVER make it to the restaurant and that home was SO far away and it was going to be an eternity before I was able to get back home and sit in my chair or lay on the couch. The doctor put me on Wellbutrin SR and told me to take it every day. I'm not superior to anyone by any means, but I consider myself fairly intelligent. For the first two weeks I was on it, things were looking up, after those two weeks I noticed I was only getting to 75% of my mental capacity and then things were fogging up for lack of a better term. Shortly thereafter I developed SEVERE hives all over my body which the doctor attributed to the Wellbutrin and took me off of it immediately. The hives cleared up and miraculously, the depression was gone. It's been slow getting back to where I need to be, as that incident has been well over 6 weeks ago. But I'm starting to feel like myself again. This will be my last pregnancy, so hopefully I won't have to deal with these horrible mood swings and hormonal changes ever again. I would not trade my daughter or the little girl in my tummy for the world, but the things it takes to get them safe in your arms are less than savory sometimes.
Dinner tonight was simple, leftover veggies and the husband grilled he and daughter some beef carcass I marinated in some OJ. Got the toddler off to bed and THAT'S when I decided to meet up with my friend and go to the dreaded Wal-Mart to pick up some groceries and the paint. Yes I actually used to work for Home Depot and yes, the Behr man had me CONVINCED that Behr paint was the BEST in the world, however... after the test I did with Behr in a single room in this house, I was so mad for spending over $100 for a 5 gal bucket of it that I will never buy that stuff again. Paint + Primer my behind. I painted an entire room with it, two coats, and the wallpaper underneath was STILL showing through. Phooey on you Behr. I'll keep my $100.
So that's been my day. Hopefully will be able to post some before/after shots of the dining room. I'm not much of a decorator by any means, so don't be looking forward to an elegant room with a chandelier, rich colors, and all the fluff in magazines. Paint on a wall, some effort, curtains, maybe a vase or two...yep. I'm done. Literally the room is empty and we've been in this house almost two years. I'm not proud of that. Hehe.
Well hope everyone has had a fantastic day and happy eating!!
Pretty proud of myself. The entire room is cleaned out, things are in their places (by things I mean nothing, the room is actually empty), and I feel a little more in my element now. I managed to muster up the energy to run the vacuum in the dining room and the living room, even took the hose attachment and cleaned the baseboards. That was actually in preparation for the day of painting I'm sure to have tomorrow since I decided to jump the gun and buy a gallon of olive green paint for the dining room. I need to do it while the room is empty anyways.
So few words for so much time spent on a project today. I did manage to dust the living room too. Ok, this is actually an accomplishment. Confession time. Right after I found out I was pregnant I started suffering from horrible nausea which lead to a severe bout of depression (don't ask, I bounced from medicine to medicine trying to control the nausea and that only made other things worse). I haven't had depression this bad ever. Yeah, I've had the 'blues' and been sad, but this was an "I can't get out of bed and if I do I'm going to sleep on the couch all day and not watch the toddler and not care" type of depression. It was awful, I cried all the time and couldn't even find the energy to wash the dishes much less cook or clean. Laundry was piled to the ceiling. Dishes were being washed as needed. The trash was piled up. I didn't even vacuum the rugs for weeks. And my endearing husband was right there beside me, encouraging me and loving me through it all. I remember one day in particular my husband took us to get some quick dinner at a burger joint up the road and when we got in the car and got 2 streets from the house I fell apart crying just knowing that we would NEVER make it to the restaurant and that home was SO far away and it was going to be an eternity before I was able to get back home and sit in my chair or lay on the couch. The doctor put me on Wellbutrin SR and told me to take it every day. I'm not superior to anyone by any means, but I consider myself fairly intelligent. For the first two weeks I was on it, things were looking up, after those two weeks I noticed I was only getting to 75% of my mental capacity and then things were fogging up for lack of a better term. Shortly thereafter I developed SEVERE hives all over my body which the doctor attributed to the Wellbutrin and took me off of it immediately. The hives cleared up and miraculously, the depression was gone. It's been slow getting back to where I need to be, as that incident has been well over 6 weeks ago. But I'm starting to feel like myself again. This will be my last pregnancy, so hopefully I won't have to deal with these horrible mood swings and hormonal changes ever again. I would not trade my daughter or the little girl in my tummy for the world, but the things it takes to get them safe in your arms are less than savory sometimes.
Dinner tonight was simple, leftover veggies and the husband grilled he and daughter some beef carcass I marinated in some OJ. Got the toddler off to bed and THAT'S when I decided to meet up with my friend and go to the dreaded Wal-Mart to pick up some groceries and the paint. Yes I actually used to work for Home Depot and yes, the Behr man had me CONVINCED that Behr paint was the BEST in the world, however... after the test I did with Behr in a single room in this house, I was so mad for spending over $100 for a 5 gal bucket of it that I will never buy that stuff again. Paint + Primer my behind. I painted an entire room with it, two coats, and the wallpaper underneath was STILL showing through. Phooey on you Behr. I'll keep my $100.
So that's been my day. Hopefully will be able to post some before/after shots of the dining room. I'm not much of a decorator by any means, so don't be looking forward to an elegant room with a chandelier, rich colors, and all the fluff in magazines. Paint on a wall, some effort, curtains, maybe a vase or two...yep. I'm done. Literally the room is empty and we've been in this house almost two years. I'm not proud of that. Hehe.
Well hope everyone has had a fantastic day and happy eating!!
Monday, August 12, 2013
More Crafty Love
Today I decided to finally finish the project I must have started about a year and a half ago; finishing my great grandmother's cabinet. I 'inherited' it (my cousin was clearing out Granny's house and called to see if we wanted to pick through anything) about 3 or 4 years ago and decided for the moment that the brown faux staining paint and green 'weathered' interior with copper hardware was acceptable.
Once we moved to our new home, I no longer thought the dated cabinet was up to par. I thought for a while on what exactly to do with it. I liked the green weathered interior with the worn spots and original ivory paint showing through. I was not fond of the hardware or the brown color, so I decided to paint the exterior an antique white and replace the hardware with black. Unfortunately, the cabinet was so old I would have had to special order the handles so I simply painted the old copper ones (I don't think they were real copper, I believe they were painted to look that way). I finished painting the cabinet and doors last year, but after I moved it inside, I put the doors on the floor leaning next to it and got involved in another project somehow, never finishing re-installing the hardware.
I have cleaned the cabinet out numerous times, open shelves in this house don't take long to fill up with stuff....mostly my husband's tools and stuff that needed to go outside because the shelf is right next to the back door. Tonight was the night, though. I had decided a long time ago that the cabinet would be designated as my husband and I's wedding memories cabinet because of the amount of memories the cabinet already holds for me. Also, because I've been on some sort of cleaning binge after discovering items in my cabinets yesterday that are useless to me, I knew that when I had this new/old cabinet refinished with the doors on, it would free up at least 1 1/2 shelves of cabinet space in my kitchen where I have our wedding stuff stored.
Unfortunately, I don't think I have any before pictures of the cabinet, so you will just have to trust me when I say it was crap brown with a 1970's green interior that stuck out like a sore thumb against the brown exterior. I won't talk about it too badly because my grandmother restored it for my great grandmother sometime in the 60's with these colors and new hardware, that's how long it's been since the thing has had anything done with it. 50 years or more.
Here are pictures of the after:
So you could say I'm pretty proud of myself. I think my Great Granny Smith would be impressed as well, I can see her little old and wrinkled impressed face with her head shaking and her lips quivering like they do when you have Parkinson's. Sweet Granny, I sure do miss you! And yes, I realize my refrigerator actually looks like the one from the movie "Twins." Please don't remind me how old that movie actually is!!
Anyway, like I mentioned earlier, I am on a cleaning binge. Not sure if it's a nesting thing or just because I decided to finish up projects and got pissy when I started realizing my house was starting to look hoarder-ish with the half done projects and wishful thinking collections of junk and trash. Grr.
After being the girl that went to school full time and ran her own store 65+ hours a week plus took care of a household and did her own books, chasing a potty-training toddler and suffering from a pinch of pregnancy fatigue leaves me disappointed that some days simply emptying the dust cup on the vacuum and loading the dishwasher are my achievements. However, I'm determined to conquer this ever growing pile of nonsense in my cabinets, creeping into my storage space, and plaguing my closets.
I wanted to take on the world today, but after an hour or so I was exhausted and had to stop for a while. I decided not to push myself and think that tomorrow I will simply take it one room a day. Even one room every 2 days would be ok with me. I just hate feeling cluttered. I hate feeling like I have a trailer-load of donation items for the charity store sitting in my closets taking up space. I hate feeling that I get involved in a project only to get it half done and get tied up in something else, leaving a half done craft or task. Seriously I would be embarrassed for anyone to come to my house, I have half of my pictures hung up oddly on the wall in an arrangement that was meant for a big family picture in the middle....however that was another project that went awry TWICE now. *sigh*
I've decided to take the pictures down and replace them with a new coat of paint and a giant mirror project that I actually DID finish today as well. Tomorrow's task? Cleaning out the front closet, moving my daughter and the baby's items out of the dining room, and getting that room prepped for painting and my other great grandmother's 75+ year old giant dining table that I so desperately need for hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas for my large family. Later this week I would love to paint my existing kitchen table black (it's currently ivory white, but the chairs I have are black) and get that back into place. All these projects to get done!
Well I hope everyone had a wonderful day and stays dry in the next few. It's surely going to flood here if the county workers don't open the floodgates at the dam. Oh well, happy eating everyone!
Once we moved to our new home, I no longer thought the dated cabinet was up to par. I thought for a while on what exactly to do with it. I liked the green weathered interior with the worn spots and original ivory paint showing through. I was not fond of the hardware or the brown color, so I decided to paint the exterior an antique white and replace the hardware with black. Unfortunately, the cabinet was so old I would have had to special order the handles so I simply painted the old copper ones (I don't think they were real copper, I believe they were painted to look that way). I finished painting the cabinet and doors last year, but after I moved it inside, I put the doors on the floor leaning next to it and got involved in another project somehow, never finishing re-installing the hardware.
I have cleaned the cabinet out numerous times, open shelves in this house don't take long to fill up with stuff....mostly my husband's tools and stuff that needed to go outside because the shelf is right next to the back door. Tonight was the night, though. I had decided a long time ago that the cabinet would be designated as my husband and I's wedding memories cabinet because of the amount of memories the cabinet already holds for me. Also, because I've been on some sort of cleaning binge after discovering items in my cabinets yesterday that are useless to me, I knew that when I had this new/old cabinet refinished with the doors on, it would free up at least 1 1/2 shelves of cabinet space in my kitchen where I have our wedding stuff stored.
Unfortunately, I don't think I have any before pictures of the cabinet, so you will just have to trust me when I say it was crap brown with a 1970's green interior that stuck out like a sore thumb against the brown exterior. I won't talk about it too badly because my grandmother restored it for my great grandmother sometime in the 60's with these colors and new hardware, that's how long it's been since the thing has had anything done with it. 50 years or more.
Here are pictures of the after:
So you could say I'm pretty proud of myself. I think my Great Granny Smith would be impressed as well, I can see her little old and wrinkled impressed face with her head shaking and her lips quivering like they do when you have Parkinson's. Sweet Granny, I sure do miss you! And yes, I realize my refrigerator actually looks like the one from the movie "Twins." Please don't remind me how old that movie actually is!!
Anyway, like I mentioned earlier, I am on a cleaning binge. Not sure if it's a nesting thing or just because I decided to finish up projects and got pissy when I started realizing my house was starting to look hoarder-ish with the half done projects and wishful thinking collections of junk and trash. Grr.
After being the girl that went to school full time and ran her own store 65+ hours a week plus took care of a household and did her own books, chasing a potty-training toddler and suffering from a pinch of pregnancy fatigue leaves me disappointed that some days simply emptying the dust cup on the vacuum and loading the dishwasher are my achievements. However, I'm determined to conquer this ever growing pile of nonsense in my cabinets, creeping into my storage space, and plaguing my closets.
I wanted to take on the world today, but after an hour or so I was exhausted and had to stop for a while. I decided not to push myself and think that tomorrow I will simply take it one room a day. Even one room every 2 days would be ok with me. I just hate feeling cluttered. I hate feeling like I have a trailer-load of donation items for the charity store sitting in my closets taking up space. I hate feeling that I get involved in a project only to get it half done and get tied up in something else, leaving a half done craft or task. Seriously I would be embarrassed for anyone to come to my house, I have half of my pictures hung up oddly on the wall in an arrangement that was meant for a big family picture in the middle....however that was another project that went awry TWICE now. *sigh*
I've decided to take the pictures down and replace them with a new coat of paint and a giant mirror project that I actually DID finish today as well. Tomorrow's task? Cleaning out the front closet, moving my daughter and the baby's items out of the dining room, and getting that room prepped for painting and my other great grandmother's 75+ year old giant dining table that I so desperately need for hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas for my large family. Later this week I would love to paint my existing kitchen table black (it's currently ivory white, but the chairs I have are black) and get that back into place. All these projects to get done!
Well I hope everyone had a wonderful day and stays dry in the next few. It's surely going to flood here if the county workers don't open the floodgates at the dam. Oh well, happy eating everyone!
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Pinterest Positive
Today (well it started last night at about 10pm) I embarked on a journey to renovate my spice cabinet. Whenever I get on a cooking kick it's impossible for me to know what spices I have and what ones I don't have because I, like most Americans I believe, have 100 different sized and shaped spice jars stuffed into a tiny cabinet and piled on top of each other. So I wind up thinking I don't have a certain spice and go to the store to purchase a new one. Seriously, in going through my cabinet I swear I found 2 and 3 of some spices (ground mustard, Mrs. Dash's).
Anyway, I had this neat idea a few months back because I saved a LOT of my daughter's baby food jars. I used majority of them for her first birthday party as party favors (think carnival theme and I filled them with gummies and candy with a little tag thanking people for sharing her day), however I did have quite a few of them left over. I found an idea on pinterest that took baby food jars and turned them into spice jars. Neat huh? Took some flat black spray paint, sprayed the lids, took a silver metallic Sharpie and hand-wrote the names of the spices on the lids. I then filled the jars, and glued a cheap craft magnet (the 3/4" round ones) to the bottom and voila! Right? RIGHT?!
No. The jars were then off balance on the bottom so whenever you touched one, even gently, it cocked sideways and slid all the way down to the bottom of the fridge (which is where I was putting them). It also didn't help that the jars were directly in line with the doorway to the back door and my husband is about 2 1/2' wide at the shoulder (he's literally built like a linebacker, bless his heart!). I went to Lowe's and found some heavy washers to balance the bottom of the jars out, but those affected the magnetism of the cheap magnets. I layered them yet again with a final 'topcoat' of a magnetic sheet (like the kind for making business cards into magnets) to make it all even and uniform. It worked for some, not for others. I dealt with it for a while and pondered what else to do. Last night was the last straw. I was just TIRED of looking for spices and TIRED of having baby food jars that didn't stick to the fridge now stuck back in the cluttered spice cabinet.
Solutions. After brainstorming for a while, I toyed with the idea of different types of adhesives. I wasn't going to give up on my baby food jars. Just abandoning an idea because it didn't work the first time is not my forte. And those spice racks costed WAYY too much money and counter space for all the spices I would have to store. I thought about using commercial grade Velcro...however I just felt that would be...I don't know...weird. It doesn't help that the scratchy noise Velcro makes when you pull it apart makes my skin crawl either. So that was out. I thought about some kind of hanging thing with a hook and some sort of loop on the jar, but that seemed like a lot of work and a lot of space, and seriously, I'm not trying to make creative and difficult idea of the year here.
My final idea was to turn the jars over so the lids were facing the fridge and put the magnets INSIDE the lids. Hey, that way the magnets couldn't get knocked off and they would have a potentially flat surface against the fridge. I glued the first magnet in the center of the lid and it wasn't strong enough to hold an empty jar to the fridge. I put the jar down and went back to the drawing board. I didn't have any stronger magnets and the only ones I could find were on ebay and looked bulky. I have a giant box full of magnets and like I said before about abandoning the baby food jars, I just wasn't about to do it.
I decided if ONE magnet was x powerful, then 2 magnets must be 2x, right? That crash course in Algebra is paying off....well if magnetism is a constant anyways. Regardless, I was on a mission to figure out how to get two magnets in the lids. They fit on top of each other, but somehow 'lost' some magnetism being stacked. It still wasn't strong enough to hold the jar with anything in it to the fridge. I put them in the lid side by side instead and that helped. I stacked the magnets so there was two on top of each other with them side by side in the lid, for a total of 4 magnets in the lid. Worked perfect. Almost. Needed one more little oomph, so instead of stacking even MORE magnets inside, I utilized the magnetic sheets from before and stuck that to the outside of the lid. I printed plain labels from my Dymo label maker for the outward facing side of the jars instead of doing anything super fancy. Bam! Perfection. Sort of.
Some of the heavier jars fell off their magnetic sheets and slid down the fridge, but stuck to the fridge well when they actually stuck to the sheets. I decided to whip out the hot glue gun and glue the magnetic sheets to the outside. Initially I tried putting a big glue dob in the middle of the lid and stick the magnetic sheet to that which did NOT work. The 'pop up' button on the lids plus the dob of hot glue made a giant hill in the middle of the lid so it didn't stick at ALL to the fridge. I peeled that one off and instead made an "O" with the glue in the divot between the pop up button and the lip of the lid. Pressed the magnetic sheet into it and it worked! I've only had one or two fall off the glued on magnetic sheets so far, so I'm hoping for the best. Don't think I won't whip out the 5200 and glue those sh*ts on there forever, I'm tired of playing now. Hehe.
Here's a picture of the final project:
Other than the 4+ hours I spent doing that, today was pretty boring. I concocted a special dish for dinner, and when I say special I mean "pregnancy special." I had a small box of Annie Chung's Soy Ginger meal starter, so I whipped out some broccoli, onions, ginger slices, soy beans, soy sauce, garlic rice wine vinegar, some natural seasoning salt, and some angel hair pasta. Yep. The pasta that was included didn't look like a whole lot, so I didn't want to run out. And I could have leftovers. In the end I added some canned oysters for the husband that I picked out of mine, and a handful of grated Parmesan. My cousin told me that together did NOT sound appetizing to her, but I thought it was pretty dang good! Should have had more broccoli but I thought for sure two heads would be enough. :/ Anyways, there's leftovers. Not sure if husband will engage in the consumption of said leftovers, but that's just fine with me!
Welp, nothing much more to report for the day. Hope everyone has a good one and happy eating! :)
**UPDATE** So, after I posted this, I noticed some of the jars were sliding off the flat magnets and becoming detached from the refrigerator, causing other jars to fall. I went back today (Aug 24th), peeled the flat business card magnets off the lids and peeled the dried hot glue off of them. I reapplied some marine grade 5200 adhesive to the lids, and reapplied the magnets. I am letting them dry overnight and I can almost guarantee the flat magnets WILL NOT come off again. I didn't trust super glue, as I have tried that before and I know Gorilla glue-although it is a tough adhesive-will 'puff up' and make yucky yellow bubbly foam out the sides when it expands. And who knows how that would affect the actual magnetism with the lids. I will update in a few days with another picture to let everyone know how this worked out. I don't want anyone to deal with the falling jars and feel like a failure because it happened to me too. I just know that whenever my husband needs serious adhesives when he's working in his mechanic shop outside, 5200 is usually what he turns to. :)
Anyway, I had this neat idea a few months back because I saved a LOT of my daughter's baby food jars. I used majority of them for her first birthday party as party favors (think carnival theme and I filled them with gummies and candy with a little tag thanking people for sharing her day), however I did have quite a few of them left over. I found an idea on pinterest that took baby food jars and turned them into spice jars. Neat huh? Took some flat black spray paint, sprayed the lids, took a silver metallic Sharpie and hand-wrote the names of the spices on the lids. I then filled the jars, and glued a cheap craft magnet (the 3/4" round ones) to the bottom and voila! Right? RIGHT?!
No. The jars were then off balance on the bottom so whenever you touched one, even gently, it cocked sideways and slid all the way down to the bottom of the fridge (which is where I was putting them). It also didn't help that the jars were directly in line with the doorway to the back door and my husband is about 2 1/2' wide at the shoulder (he's literally built like a linebacker, bless his heart!). I went to Lowe's and found some heavy washers to balance the bottom of the jars out, but those affected the magnetism of the cheap magnets. I layered them yet again with a final 'topcoat' of a magnetic sheet (like the kind for making business cards into magnets) to make it all even and uniform. It worked for some, not for others. I dealt with it for a while and pondered what else to do. Last night was the last straw. I was just TIRED of looking for spices and TIRED of having baby food jars that didn't stick to the fridge now stuck back in the cluttered spice cabinet.
Solutions. After brainstorming for a while, I toyed with the idea of different types of adhesives. I wasn't going to give up on my baby food jars. Just abandoning an idea because it didn't work the first time is not my forte. And those spice racks costed WAYY too much money and counter space for all the spices I would have to store. I thought about using commercial grade Velcro...however I just felt that would be...I don't know...weird. It doesn't help that the scratchy noise Velcro makes when you pull it apart makes my skin crawl either. So that was out. I thought about some kind of hanging thing with a hook and some sort of loop on the jar, but that seemed like a lot of work and a lot of space, and seriously, I'm not trying to make creative and difficult idea of the year here.
My final idea was to turn the jars over so the lids were facing the fridge and put the magnets INSIDE the lids. Hey, that way the magnets couldn't get knocked off and they would have a potentially flat surface against the fridge. I glued the first magnet in the center of the lid and it wasn't strong enough to hold an empty jar to the fridge. I put the jar down and went back to the drawing board. I didn't have any stronger magnets and the only ones I could find were on ebay and looked bulky. I have a giant box full of magnets and like I said before about abandoning the baby food jars, I just wasn't about to do it.
I decided if ONE magnet was x powerful, then 2 magnets must be 2x, right? That crash course in Algebra is paying off....well if magnetism is a constant anyways. Regardless, I was on a mission to figure out how to get two magnets in the lids. They fit on top of each other, but somehow 'lost' some magnetism being stacked. It still wasn't strong enough to hold the jar with anything in it to the fridge. I put them in the lid side by side instead and that helped. I stacked the magnets so there was two on top of each other with them side by side in the lid, for a total of 4 magnets in the lid. Worked perfect. Almost. Needed one more little oomph, so instead of stacking even MORE magnets inside, I utilized the magnetic sheets from before and stuck that to the outside of the lid. I printed plain labels from my Dymo label maker for the outward facing side of the jars instead of doing anything super fancy. Bam! Perfection. Sort of.
Some of the heavier jars fell off their magnetic sheets and slid down the fridge, but stuck to the fridge well when they actually stuck to the sheets. I decided to whip out the hot glue gun and glue the magnetic sheets to the outside. Initially I tried putting a big glue dob in the middle of the lid and stick the magnetic sheet to that which did NOT work. The 'pop up' button on the lids plus the dob of hot glue made a giant hill in the middle of the lid so it didn't stick at ALL to the fridge. I peeled that one off and instead made an "O" with the glue in the divot between the pop up button and the lip of the lid. Pressed the magnetic sheet into it and it worked! I've only had one or two fall off the glued on magnetic sheets so far, so I'm hoping for the best. Don't think I won't whip out the 5200 and glue those sh*ts on there forever, I'm tired of playing now. Hehe.
Here's a picture of the final project:
Other than the 4+ hours I spent doing that, today was pretty boring. I concocted a special dish for dinner, and when I say special I mean "pregnancy special." I had a small box of Annie Chung's Soy Ginger meal starter, so I whipped out some broccoli, onions, ginger slices, soy beans, soy sauce, garlic rice wine vinegar, some natural seasoning salt, and some angel hair pasta. Yep. The pasta that was included didn't look like a whole lot, so I didn't want to run out. And I could have leftovers. In the end I added some canned oysters for the husband that I picked out of mine, and a handful of grated Parmesan. My cousin told me that together did NOT sound appetizing to her, but I thought it was pretty dang good! Should have had more broccoli but I thought for sure two heads would be enough. :/ Anyways, there's leftovers. Not sure if husband will engage in the consumption of said leftovers, but that's just fine with me!
Welp, nothing much more to report for the day. Hope everyone has a good one and happy eating! :)
**UPDATE** So, after I posted this, I noticed some of the jars were sliding off the flat magnets and becoming detached from the refrigerator, causing other jars to fall. I went back today (Aug 24th), peeled the flat business card magnets off the lids and peeled the dried hot glue off of them. I reapplied some marine grade 5200 adhesive to the lids, and reapplied the magnets. I am letting them dry overnight and I can almost guarantee the flat magnets WILL NOT come off again. I didn't trust super glue, as I have tried that before and I know Gorilla glue-although it is a tough adhesive-will 'puff up' and make yucky yellow bubbly foam out the sides when it expands. And who knows how that would affect the actual magnetism with the lids. I will update in a few days with another picture to let everyone know how this worked out. I don't want anyone to deal with the falling jars and feel like a failure because it happened to me too. I just know that whenever my husband needs serious adhesives when he's working in his mechanic shop outside, 5200 is usually what he turns to. :)
Saturday, August 10, 2013
The Danger of Public Television....
is that I always plan like 1,000 projects (and recipes) based on what I'm watching, but I never get around to it. Same with pinterest, only public television you get to see the whole project from start to finish and think "I can do that!" Hm. We got burned so bad on that with our house here, bought it thinking it needed quite a bit of fixing up because it was a foreclosure. However, the only thing I can compare this 'house remodel' to is possibly a gruesome, sadistic crime scene. Each layer got peeled back to reveal something more sinister. So although I do complete small projects involving spray paint and glue, I rarely get involved in huge projects anymore. I put in my 2 years of hell, thanks.
The child and I spent most of the day lazying around after I made homemade Belgian waffles for breakfast. I felt sick after eating all that sugar and oil (and I know I shouldn't have done it) but they are so good. O.M.G. Like you can't even BUY waffles that good. From a gourmet restaurant even. Anyways, once I was feeling a little better this afternoon, I decided that today would be the day to work on the turkey seitan. It says use a blender to mix the liquid ingredients and although I have one, I decided that I would use my food processor instead. Not a good idea. I highly recommend the blender as even with the beans in it, it's still very liquid.
I also had to research on something to make another modification. Long story short, my husband 'inherited' a Chantal 6qt pressure cooker. Literally when I found it in the cabinet in his house I had no idea what it was until I figured out how to open it and the instruction manual was still in it along with a rack and a steamer basket. The turkey seitan called for the use of a steamer, which I don't own and don't know how to replicate. I bought a collapsable steamer insert the other day at the grocery store, but the legs are only 3/4" long and I didn't think that would make for enough water to steam something for an hour and 15 min.
At the last minute today, I thought about the pressure cooker, gathering dust in the top cabinet over the stove. I tried to figure out how long to cook something like seitan, but instruction manuals are not very savvy on vegan meals. In comparison, I found something (pork loin) in the Chantal manual that said the original cook time was 75-90 minutes, and to cut the cooking time down to 25-30 minutes. I kneaded the 'dough' as required and shaped it into a log. I prepped the pressure cooker by putting it over high heat with the water and steamer basket inside and the lid loosely covering it. Once the water was boiling, I turned the heat down to medium.
I placed the foil wrapped loaf in the steamer basket and snapped the lid on. I decided to let it go for 30 minutes, but I believe 35 would have been perfect. The seitan was still a little soggy in the middle but nothing terrible. I've had worse, trust me. The texture and taste was nothing like 'turkey' but I'm sure that's because I'm newly off of meat and remember exactly what it tastes like. The actual taste was more along the lines of reheated soggy dense sourdough bread with Thanksgiving stuffing spices in it (thanks to the sage I'm sure). It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't amazing either. Not comparable to real meat (make sure you read the first blog in this series to catch my feelings on 'real' vegan stuff) no matter how hard someone really wanted it to be. Maybe comparable to the ground mystery meat in chicken nuggets texture. Only oddly sour. I think I'll be leaving the lemon juice out of it next time if I make it again.
Well my happy moment for the day came when my daughter (29 months old Aug 1) came to me and said "Mommy I godda go poddy!" while holding herself and ran off to the bathroom. She didn't even have wet panties at all! She has had days before where she would leak a little then run off to the potty, or days where she just stood there in the kitchen on the linoleum and pissed a big puddle while looking at me (I can't help but feel that although it probably was an accident, somehow it was a little hardheaded spitefulness in her as well). She has only had ONE accident all day today! So proud of my little girl! I hope by December when Princess #2 gets here we will have her potty training all down pat so I'm only changing one little person's poopie diapers.
Well, that's been my adventures for the day today. Hope everyone had a wonderful day and happy eating!! :)
The child and I spent most of the day lazying around after I made homemade Belgian waffles for breakfast. I felt sick after eating all that sugar and oil (and I know I shouldn't have done it) but they are so good. O.M.G. Like you can't even BUY waffles that good. From a gourmet restaurant even. Anyways, once I was feeling a little better this afternoon, I decided that today would be the day to work on the turkey seitan. It says use a blender to mix the liquid ingredients and although I have one, I decided that I would use my food processor instead. Not a good idea. I highly recommend the blender as even with the beans in it, it's still very liquid.
I also had to research on something to make another modification. Long story short, my husband 'inherited' a Chantal 6qt pressure cooker. Literally when I found it in the cabinet in his house I had no idea what it was until I figured out how to open it and the instruction manual was still in it along with a rack and a steamer basket. The turkey seitan called for the use of a steamer, which I don't own and don't know how to replicate. I bought a collapsable steamer insert the other day at the grocery store, but the legs are only 3/4" long and I didn't think that would make for enough water to steam something for an hour and 15 min.
At the last minute today, I thought about the pressure cooker, gathering dust in the top cabinet over the stove. I tried to figure out how long to cook something like seitan, but instruction manuals are not very savvy on vegan meals. In comparison, I found something (pork loin) in the Chantal manual that said the original cook time was 75-90 minutes, and to cut the cooking time down to 25-30 minutes. I kneaded the 'dough' as required and shaped it into a log. I prepped the pressure cooker by putting it over high heat with the water and steamer basket inside and the lid loosely covering it. Once the water was boiling, I turned the heat down to medium.
I placed the foil wrapped loaf in the steamer basket and snapped the lid on. I decided to let it go for 30 minutes, but I believe 35 would have been perfect. The seitan was still a little soggy in the middle but nothing terrible. I've had worse, trust me. The texture and taste was nothing like 'turkey' but I'm sure that's because I'm newly off of meat and remember exactly what it tastes like. The actual taste was more along the lines of reheated soggy dense sourdough bread with Thanksgiving stuffing spices in it (thanks to the sage I'm sure). It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't amazing either. Not comparable to real meat (make sure you read the first blog in this series to catch my feelings on 'real' vegan stuff) no matter how hard someone really wanted it to be. Maybe comparable to the ground mystery meat in chicken nuggets texture. Only oddly sour. I think I'll be leaving the lemon juice out of it next time if I make it again.
Well my happy moment for the day came when my daughter (29 months old Aug 1) came to me and said "Mommy I godda go poddy!" while holding herself and ran off to the bathroom. She didn't even have wet panties at all! She has had days before where she would leak a little then run off to the potty, or days where she just stood there in the kitchen on the linoleum and pissed a big puddle while looking at me (I can't help but feel that although it probably was an accident, somehow it was a little hardheaded spitefulness in her as well). She has only had ONE accident all day today! So proud of my little girl! I hope by December when Princess #2 gets here we will have her potty training all down pat so I'm only changing one little person's poopie diapers.
Well, that's been my adventures for the day today. Hope everyone had a wonderful day and happy eating!! :)
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Spiritual Inflection
Today I said something to a good friend of mine and it sparked a connection in my mind that I thought I might share. I'm sure this has been gone over 1000 times in other blogs and studies, but I thought it was worth the effort to write it in my own words. I made the connection today that I don't believe it's the eating meat part that I'm grossed out and upset about. I honestly believe that it's the manner in which the meat was produced and harvested that disgusts me the most.
Almost all religions and cultures believe in peace and harmony. They promote peace among people and some even promote respect toward all living things. That's the key word. Respect. I believe that these animals meet their demise with fear and pain in their hearts at the hands of disrespectful (and some demented) humans. Somehow that spiritual vibration reverberates through their neatly packaged bodies for sale and is ingested into our bodies, nourishing us with protein and a side of evil. I have noticed that the way my family took meat from the wild and from our own stock is totally different than that of the commercial farmer. I realized that was because where we were concerned with causing the animal as little pain as possible and feeding our families, commercial farmers are only concerned with greed and more money.
It all comes full circle.
I managed to complete a few errands done today before it rained hard for about 3 hours at noon. My daughter and I climbed into my king-size bed and watched 'Melmo' until she finally tired out and fell asleep. I started feeling a little lazy myself and fell asleep right after she did with her little 2 year old tow-head in the crook of my arm. Memories are something you will never get to do again, but they are sure something beautiful to look back on. Yeah I lost half the afternoon, didn't clean the living room, and wound up feeling too sorry at dinnertime to cook, but I "held" both my babies as we all slept. Can't even pay for a feeling that good.
She went with Daddy this afternoon to the woods. That little girl loves her some woods and helping Daddy with anything he remotely asks her. I think it's cute, however, this afternoon Daddy repaired a utility golf cart for a friend of his and decided to test drive it down to the lease and to his tree stand. Now, the lease is only about a mile or two from the house, all residential side streets, but there are NO safety restraints in the golf cart. I knew she was safe with him and he would keep off the right-of-way, but I have horrible anxiety. The entire time they were gone I was watching the clock, practically sitting on my phone. I just knew she was going to fall out of that thing and get run over. Or snake bit. Or they were going to get chased by a rabid bear. You know, all the wild irrational things mothers think will happen to their toddlers when they are out of sight. *sigh* They returned an hour later, unscathed and greasy with Skin So Soft bug spray on. I need to look for a better alternative to that stuff. It works fantastic, but anything I spray on that I can't even read the ingredients list and it makes our skin tingle without menthol can't be good.
So anyway, nothing else fantastic happened today. Had a plate of super greasy 'Heavenly Hash' from Coram's for dinner with some grits, but I'm paying for that now with the devilish heartburn that follows. Heavenly Hash is a concoction of hash brown potatoes, diced or sliced ham, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, sometimes mushrooms, and jalapenos with slices of cheese on top and served with a side of toast. If I had to compare it to a national chain, which it's really not comparable, but I would say Waffle House's hash browns where you can get them sliced diced etc. I had mine minus the ham. Still magically delicious. Still causes the same grease-induced heartburn and burps. The child had her favorite, a half order of biscuits and sausage gravy. For a tiny, underweight two-year old, that child can put away some food. She ate almost all of it. But I don't think I have ever seen her walk anywhere, she's always full speed ahead running and dancing. Hope she doesn't get fat like me, but I'm trying to learn new habits to show her. The best way to teach someone is to show them, right? No one is going to listen to your advice and ignore your example in other words. :)
So that's been my uneventful day. Going to go surf around and cause trouble on facebook for a while. Happy eating everyone!
Almost all religions and cultures believe in peace and harmony. They promote peace among people and some even promote respect toward all living things. That's the key word. Respect. I believe that these animals meet their demise with fear and pain in their hearts at the hands of disrespectful (and some demented) humans. Somehow that spiritual vibration reverberates through their neatly packaged bodies for sale and is ingested into our bodies, nourishing us with protein and a side of evil. I have noticed that the way my family took meat from the wild and from our own stock is totally different than that of the commercial farmer. I realized that was because where we were concerned with causing the animal as little pain as possible and feeding our families, commercial farmers are only concerned with greed and more money.
It all comes full circle.
I managed to complete a few errands done today before it rained hard for about 3 hours at noon. My daughter and I climbed into my king-size bed and watched 'Melmo' until she finally tired out and fell asleep. I started feeling a little lazy myself and fell asleep right after she did with her little 2 year old tow-head in the crook of my arm. Memories are something you will never get to do again, but they are sure something beautiful to look back on. Yeah I lost half the afternoon, didn't clean the living room, and wound up feeling too sorry at dinnertime to cook, but I "held" both my babies as we all slept. Can't even pay for a feeling that good.
She went with Daddy this afternoon to the woods. That little girl loves her some woods and helping Daddy with anything he remotely asks her. I think it's cute, however, this afternoon Daddy repaired a utility golf cart for a friend of his and decided to test drive it down to the lease and to his tree stand. Now, the lease is only about a mile or two from the house, all residential side streets, but there are NO safety restraints in the golf cart. I knew she was safe with him and he would keep off the right-of-way, but I have horrible anxiety. The entire time they were gone I was watching the clock, practically sitting on my phone. I just knew she was going to fall out of that thing and get run over. Or snake bit. Or they were going to get chased by a rabid bear. You know, all the wild irrational things mothers think will happen to their toddlers when they are out of sight. *sigh* They returned an hour later, unscathed and greasy with Skin So Soft bug spray on. I need to look for a better alternative to that stuff. It works fantastic, but anything I spray on that I can't even read the ingredients list and it makes our skin tingle without menthol can't be good.
So anyway, nothing else fantastic happened today. Had a plate of super greasy 'Heavenly Hash' from Coram's for dinner with some grits, but I'm paying for that now with the devilish heartburn that follows. Heavenly Hash is a concoction of hash brown potatoes, diced or sliced ham, tomatoes, onion, bell pepper, sometimes mushrooms, and jalapenos with slices of cheese on top and served with a side of toast. If I had to compare it to a national chain, which it's really not comparable, but I would say Waffle House's hash browns where you can get them sliced diced etc. I had mine minus the ham. Still magically delicious. Still causes the same grease-induced heartburn and burps. The child had her favorite, a half order of biscuits and sausage gravy. For a tiny, underweight two-year old, that child can put away some food. She ate almost all of it. But I don't think I have ever seen her walk anywhere, she's always full speed ahead running and dancing. Hope she doesn't get fat like me, but I'm trying to learn new habits to show her. The best way to teach someone is to show them, right? No one is going to listen to your advice and ignore your example in other words. :)
So that's been my uneventful day. Going to go surf around and cause trouble on facebook for a while. Happy eating everyone!
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Date Night!
So, before it gets impossibly late I guess I need to post! It took me a while tonight to get done with the bookkeeping work for my husband and I's business. I am not a procrastinator usually, enrolling in college and going to class broke me of that. However, after the BP claims paperwork I literally CRY when I have to see that office with the dreaded accounting software. I used to enjoy doing the books for our business until the know-nothing attorneys stuck their noses in my books that they had no idea about and tried to give advice in a field they obviously had no experience in. THAT is a sore spot for me, so I won't go there. Anyway, the taxes are done. For 2012. Yeah, well. Hey I filed an extension, lol.
Well, I posted on facebook earlier (aka-crackbook) that I needed to take a trip to the grocery store, but I dreaded going with the toddler. She's hard to keep entertained occasionally, and it's hard to focus on what I need when she's fussing and irritable. My mother volunteered to take her for the day and possibly the night, so I dropped her off and took my sweet time at the store. When I got home, husband and I partook in some fast food; I had a yummy veggie burger and the husband had some sort of giant disgusting BBQ sauce slathered cheeseburger. I started working on the bookkeeping and before I knew it, 4 hours had passed.
Mom called to confirm she would be taking the tiny terror for the night, so my husband asked if I wanted to go 'get some food.' How romantic. Should I wear my good flip flops? (sarcasm) We wound up going to a place here called Kobe Seafood and Steakhouse. Not sure how it got it's name, sounds like a big buffet, but it's actually a hibachi grill/sushi bar. I couldn't help myself when it came to the sushi, the Superwoman that I am-that is my kryptonite. We ate lobster rolls, Philly rolls, eel, and Cajun rolls. Yummy! No land meat though. I had (or at least attempted) a veggie lovers hibachi plate and it was amazing. It was just as good if not better I assume than my husband's spicy steak and veggies. The banana they crisp on the grill at the end I think may be just for looks, because when I tried it, it tasted like burnt cooking oil. Ew.
We thought we might go catch the movie "We're the Millers" but it was an hour wait. I thought we might go walk around Lowe's instead but my husband completely bypassed it and headed home. The sake must have been getting to him because when we got home, he went straight to bed. Well, so much for 'date night.' I went back to working on the books and just finished about 45 min ago. *sigh* The interesting life of a stay at home mom that has a hard time managing her time when the ball of energy is bouncing off the wall and the tiny ball in my belly is following her lead. Love my life and wouldn't trade it for a thing!
No recipes or cooking today, sorry all! Did stock up on some fabulous produce today though. Thinking this weekend I may actually attempt to do some turkey cutlet seitan! I'll let you all know how it goes! Until then, happy eating :)
Well, I posted on facebook earlier (aka-crackbook) that I needed to take a trip to the grocery store, but I dreaded going with the toddler. She's hard to keep entertained occasionally, and it's hard to focus on what I need when she's fussing and irritable. My mother volunteered to take her for the day and possibly the night, so I dropped her off and took my sweet time at the store. When I got home, husband and I partook in some fast food; I had a yummy veggie burger and the husband had some sort of giant disgusting BBQ sauce slathered cheeseburger. I started working on the bookkeeping and before I knew it, 4 hours had passed.
Mom called to confirm she would be taking the tiny terror for the night, so my husband asked if I wanted to go 'get some food.' How romantic. Should I wear my good flip flops? (sarcasm) We wound up going to a place here called Kobe Seafood and Steakhouse. Not sure how it got it's name, sounds like a big buffet, but it's actually a hibachi grill/sushi bar. I couldn't help myself when it came to the sushi, the Superwoman that I am-that is my kryptonite. We ate lobster rolls, Philly rolls, eel, and Cajun rolls. Yummy! No land meat though. I had (or at least attempted) a veggie lovers hibachi plate and it was amazing. It was just as good if not better I assume than my husband's spicy steak and veggies. The banana they crisp on the grill at the end I think may be just for looks, because when I tried it, it tasted like burnt cooking oil. Ew.
We thought we might go catch the movie "We're the Millers" but it was an hour wait. I thought we might go walk around Lowe's instead but my husband completely bypassed it and headed home. The sake must have been getting to him because when we got home, he went straight to bed. Well, so much for 'date night.' I went back to working on the books and just finished about 45 min ago. *sigh* The interesting life of a stay at home mom that has a hard time managing her time when the ball of energy is bouncing off the wall and the tiny ball in my belly is following her lead. Love my life and wouldn't trade it for a thing!
No recipes or cooking today, sorry all! Did stock up on some fabulous produce today though. Thinking this weekend I may actually attempt to do some turkey cutlet seitan! I'll let you all know how it goes! Until then, happy eating :)
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Tropical Paradise
Tonight I tried to find a recipe that was vegan but delicious. I knew from my prior Weight Watchers endeavors that there was a recipe for chicken with broccoli and garlic that I liked and could omit the chicken from. I kind of cheated a bit on that because I had some leftover chicken stock in the fridge that was going to go bad....instead of doing that I would rather use it (I wound up pouring 3/4 of it off about 7 min later). However, I saved the broccoli stems to freeze and use in some veggie stock in the future. I also found a recipe for a side dish called coconut rice that I just happened to have all the ingredients for. The house smells wonderful right now and I'm looking forward to digging in. I also marinated some chicken carcass for the husband and daughter and threw that in the oven to bake.
Just the thought of where the meat comes from now grosses me out, not to mention the cold, dead, post-rigor mortis thought of dead meat which is a novel thing because I was an avid meat eater for years up until a week ago. However, I noticed 2 years ago when I was in Anatomy & Physiology Lab in college that the dissection thing had begun to bother me more than it had in high school. I shrugged it off, but it was a while before I could eat chicken (especially the thigh with the visibly different muscles we studied in the dead cat) again. I always thought I could go back to fish if nothing else, then last summer my husband brought home a beautiful red snapper from a fishing trip with his buddies. As I was slicing up the fillets my husband had cleaned for cooking, I noticed what I always had assumed to be white blood vessels in the meat. I pulled them out and put them down the drain, but my husband saw me pulling one out and said "Oh sorry, I tried to clean out all the worms." WORMS!? Are you KIDDING ME!? GROSS! Omg, I had no fish for dinner.
Now I LOVE to fish. I love it. But I can't eat what I catch. Something about the thought of cleaning the nasty scales off of something and thinking about it being alive and squiggling on the end of my line just turns my stomach. A few years ago my husband caught a huge redfish behind our waterfront business. He cleaned and filleted it, marinated it in Italian dressing, and it was FABULOUS. I wasn't there when he caught it. Another time he caught some sheepshead in about the same place and I saw the fish before he cleaned them. We went home and he made nice fillets out of them and grilled them. Unfortunately they cooled to room temp before I got the sides done, so when we ate them, they were cold. I couldn't even get one down. It was cold and slimy and gag-inducing. Isn't it weird how you think about things like that when you change your life?
Anyway, dinner tonight was good. Not the grand slam that it was last night, but good. I put my rice in a bowl with some of the broccoli and garlic on top. For protein and good measure, I threw half a handful of walnuts on top of all that. Not sure what I'm making tomorrow yet, but I know it will be fabulous or at least an attempt at fabulous. I also know I will be making a dreaded trip to the grocery store with the toddler to find dinner stuff because I'm running out of veggies. Never had that problem before!! Like they say about your clothes being too big or your wallet being too small, it's a good problem to have. :)
Happy eating everyone!
Just the thought of where the meat comes from now grosses me out, not to mention the cold, dead, post-rigor mortis thought of dead meat which is a novel thing because I was an avid meat eater for years up until a week ago. However, I noticed 2 years ago when I was in Anatomy & Physiology Lab in college that the dissection thing had begun to bother me more than it had in high school. I shrugged it off, but it was a while before I could eat chicken (especially the thigh with the visibly different muscles we studied in the dead cat) again. I always thought I could go back to fish if nothing else, then last summer my husband brought home a beautiful red snapper from a fishing trip with his buddies. As I was slicing up the fillets my husband had cleaned for cooking, I noticed what I always had assumed to be white blood vessels in the meat. I pulled them out and put them down the drain, but my husband saw me pulling one out and said "Oh sorry, I tried to clean out all the worms." WORMS!? Are you KIDDING ME!? GROSS! Omg, I had no fish for dinner.
Now I LOVE to fish. I love it. But I can't eat what I catch. Something about the thought of cleaning the nasty scales off of something and thinking about it being alive and squiggling on the end of my line just turns my stomach. A few years ago my husband caught a huge redfish behind our waterfront business. He cleaned and filleted it, marinated it in Italian dressing, and it was FABULOUS. I wasn't there when he caught it. Another time he caught some sheepshead in about the same place and I saw the fish before he cleaned them. We went home and he made nice fillets out of them and grilled them. Unfortunately they cooled to room temp before I got the sides done, so when we ate them, they were cold. I couldn't even get one down. It was cold and slimy and gag-inducing. Isn't it weird how you think about things like that when you change your life?
Anyway, dinner tonight was good. Not the grand slam that it was last night, but good. I put my rice in a bowl with some of the broccoli and garlic on top. For protein and good measure, I threw half a handful of walnuts on top of all that. Not sure what I'm making tomorrow yet, but I know it will be fabulous or at least an attempt at fabulous. I also know I will be making a dreaded trip to the grocery store with the toddler to find dinner stuff because I'm running out of veggies. Never had that problem before!! Like they say about your clothes being too big or your wallet being too small, it's a good problem to have. :)
Happy eating everyone!
Monday, August 5, 2013
Veggies and Happiness!
So today was another semi-lazy day. Did a bunch of laundry that had been kind of sitting around for a while, and paid some bills online. Had to call the Culligan water people today because our filtration system outside is leaking and the water in the house is starting to stink again. Yes. Our water is beautifully crystal blue, but it smells like dog poo. And tastes like the smell of dog poo. Never thought that was possible until one day when we were working on the remodel and I didn't bring any bottled water with me, so I went to the hose out back. I was SO hot, it was like August or September, so after rinsing my face and head I took a long sip....and promptly spit it out. I didn't know the had filtration to take care of such a strong sulfur smell and taste and immediately I told my husband we had to sell the house. The water stunk up the entire house when we flushed the toilets while working. Fortunately they do make filter systems for us out here in the boondocks, so we had one installed. On with the story, the water has started to stink again so my husband went and checked the system and there seems to be a gasket leak. 2 years outside in the elements will probably do that though.
Today was leftovers for lunch and snacking throughout the day of course. For dinner I wanted to find something to do with broccoli and carrots, and another dish with Portobellos. I already had some huge potatoes for baking, so that was my third dish. I found a lovely recipe for Honey Sauteed Broccoli and Carrots which turned out amazing. I kind of had a question about whether vegans can use honey or not, which turns out to be an age old question with battles being fought for both sides. The honey that I had was raw, unpasteurized, and local (which helps with allergies), and I figured the bees are going to make the honey anyways, there is no harm in harvesting what nature provides without doing harm to any animals which is the basis for the entire vegan movement. Anyways, I decided the honey was ok for our family so I went forward with that recipe. It was a total hit and we will be making it again.
The other recipe I found was for Sauteed Portobellos and Spinach. Now, this recipe called for butter which I easily traded out for Earth Balance spread, dry red wine which I subbed sherry cooking wine for (only because I didn't have any dry red on hand), and Parmesan cheese which I didn't sub out with anything but I did cut down on. Told you the cheese thing was very hard, but half of what the recipe called for was plenty to flavor the spinach. It turned out delicious and surprisingly elegant. It was a strange addition to the broccoli and carrots, and the potato, but they were all their own flavors and they were all very much a surprise to me as someone who didn't care for cooked spinach, raw broccoli or raw carrots. It's not that I don't like vegetables, I just don't think I have ever had them seasoned correctly. And I wonder if that's the same reason why I hear people say "I don't like vegetables" because when you mention the v word, they think of the dried out powder coated vegetable trays famous for being mysteriously full at get-togethers that you have to coat with the ranch dip to even choke down. Or worse, the over salted canned crap that most people open and dump in a saucepan to heat for 'sides' (guilty as charged!). Well no wonder people hate vegetables!
This is beginning to be an exciting adventure in food for me. I love to cook and to see me, you can tell I love to eat too! I like experimenting with new flavors and seeing how they come together in harmony. I have noticed since changing my diet in only one week I have had a 95% decrease in heartburn, I feel lighter, my sleep cycles are returning to normal, my mood is improving, and I have some energy returning. I know the last part will be sluggish to return though, because of the pregnancy and the little girl in my tummy pulling nutrients from everything I eat. I will say in one week via ultrasound 7 days apart, she gained 5oz. This doesn't sound like much, but the first week she weighed 9oz, and when I came back for the second ultrasound she was 14oz! Almost doubled in body weight in one week of clean eating!
On that note, it had come to mind over the week if that's why my first child was born at 6lbs 13oz instead of the larger size the physician told me she would be. Back then, we lived a constant diet of canned crap, instant food, junk food, fast food, and above all-Mountain Dew. The doctor told me to cut back on the MD when I told him that was mainly all I drank, so I went to Crystal Light lemonade and 2 Diet Mountain Dews a day. Looking back with what I know now, I honestly wonder if the aspartame didn't contribute to her low birth weight. I know that the worst thing that happened the entire time was a kidney stone at about 36 weeks. Talk about awful, and I know it was the MD that caused it!
I did not significantly keep weight off during pregnancy either like I thought I would by drinking diet drinks, and had a 50lbs weight gain. This is a lot for an obese woman to gain during pregnancy with our average supposedly between 10 and 20lbs. However, with the botched Cesarean section, ignorant overmedicating, and the normal postpartum tiredness, I lost 30lbs in 2 weeks. The other 20....well they come and go unfortunately. Got tired of battling with them, so I went and saw a doctor that I knew would prescribe me what I was asking for. Phentermine. Talk about adding fuel to the fire. Yes, I did lose an additional 45lbs and had energy out the wazoo, however, some of the side effects were awful. My hair started falling out (I have [had] long luxurious FULL curly hair, I can now barely make a ponytail), my periods were irregular and at times nonexistent, my mood was snappy and irritable 90% of the time, and worst of all, I was on them so long my body got used to them and I couldn't function 2 or 3 days after I stopped taking them.
My metabolism is shot and my body is still trying to reset itself even now, a year later after I stopped taking them. I do not recommend them at all. And that's when I started thinking maybe pharmaceuticals weren't the way to do anything. I think a lot of times Americans try to treat the symptoms instead of the actual problem. Headache? Take some aspirin and forget that your body is asking for water. Backache? Take some acetaminophen and forget your body is telling you not to strain it that way again and let it heal for a while. Heartburn? Take some antacids/prescriptions to lessen the acid instead of changing your diet. Sometimes I think Americans (myself included!) need to be kicked in their pansy, whiny, self-centered asses and told to get up, exercise, change your stinking gross diet, and listen to what your body tells you. But most doctors don't want to offend you for fear of losing income, and others are just as oblivious and hooked on Big Pharma to care. *sigh*
Well that's my rant/post for the evening. Hope you are all doing well and I wish you happy eating!
Today was leftovers for lunch and snacking throughout the day of course. For dinner I wanted to find something to do with broccoli and carrots, and another dish with Portobellos. I already had some huge potatoes for baking, so that was my third dish. I found a lovely recipe for Honey Sauteed Broccoli and Carrots which turned out amazing. I kind of had a question about whether vegans can use honey or not, which turns out to be an age old question with battles being fought for both sides. The honey that I had was raw, unpasteurized, and local (which helps with allergies), and I figured the bees are going to make the honey anyways, there is no harm in harvesting what nature provides without doing harm to any animals which is the basis for the entire vegan movement. Anyways, I decided the honey was ok for our family so I went forward with that recipe. It was a total hit and we will be making it again.
The other recipe I found was for Sauteed Portobellos and Spinach. Now, this recipe called for butter which I easily traded out for Earth Balance spread, dry red wine which I subbed sherry cooking wine for (only because I didn't have any dry red on hand), and Parmesan cheese which I didn't sub out with anything but I did cut down on. Told you the cheese thing was very hard, but half of what the recipe called for was plenty to flavor the spinach. It turned out delicious and surprisingly elegant. It was a strange addition to the broccoli and carrots, and the potato, but they were all their own flavors and they were all very much a surprise to me as someone who didn't care for cooked spinach, raw broccoli or raw carrots. It's not that I don't like vegetables, I just don't think I have ever had them seasoned correctly. And I wonder if that's the same reason why I hear people say "I don't like vegetables" because when you mention the v word, they think of the dried out powder coated vegetable trays famous for being mysteriously full at get-togethers that you have to coat with the ranch dip to even choke down. Or worse, the over salted canned crap that most people open and dump in a saucepan to heat for 'sides' (guilty as charged!). Well no wonder people hate vegetables!
This is beginning to be an exciting adventure in food for me. I love to cook and to see me, you can tell I love to eat too! I like experimenting with new flavors and seeing how they come together in harmony. I have noticed since changing my diet in only one week I have had a 95% decrease in heartburn, I feel lighter, my sleep cycles are returning to normal, my mood is improving, and I have some energy returning. I know the last part will be sluggish to return though, because of the pregnancy and the little girl in my tummy pulling nutrients from everything I eat. I will say in one week via ultrasound 7 days apart, she gained 5oz. This doesn't sound like much, but the first week she weighed 9oz, and when I came back for the second ultrasound she was 14oz! Almost doubled in body weight in one week of clean eating!
On that note, it had come to mind over the week if that's why my first child was born at 6lbs 13oz instead of the larger size the physician told me she would be. Back then, we lived a constant diet of canned crap, instant food, junk food, fast food, and above all-Mountain Dew. The doctor told me to cut back on the MD when I told him that was mainly all I drank, so I went to Crystal Light lemonade and 2 Diet Mountain Dews a day. Looking back with what I know now, I honestly wonder if the aspartame didn't contribute to her low birth weight. I know that the worst thing that happened the entire time was a kidney stone at about 36 weeks. Talk about awful, and I know it was the MD that caused it!
I did not significantly keep weight off during pregnancy either like I thought I would by drinking diet drinks, and had a 50lbs weight gain. This is a lot for an obese woman to gain during pregnancy with our average supposedly between 10 and 20lbs. However, with the botched Cesarean section, ignorant overmedicating, and the normal postpartum tiredness, I lost 30lbs in 2 weeks. The other 20....well they come and go unfortunately. Got tired of battling with them, so I went and saw a doctor that I knew would prescribe me what I was asking for. Phentermine. Talk about adding fuel to the fire. Yes, I did lose an additional 45lbs and had energy out the wazoo, however, some of the side effects were awful. My hair started falling out (I have [had] long luxurious FULL curly hair, I can now barely make a ponytail), my periods were irregular and at times nonexistent, my mood was snappy and irritable 90% of the time, and worst of all, I was on them so long my body got used to them and I couldn't function 2 or 3 days after I stopped taking them.
My metabolism is shot and my body is still trying to reset itself even now, a year later after I stopped taking them. I do not recommend them at all. And that's when I started thinking maybe pharmaceuticals weren't the way to do anything. I think a lot of times Americans try to treat the symptoms instead of the actual problem. Headache? Take some aspirin and forget that your body is asking for water. Backache? Take some acetaminophen and forget your body is telling you not to strain it that way again and let it heal for a while. Heartburn? Take some antacids/prescriptions to lessen the acid instead of changing your diet. Sometimes I think Americans (myself included!) need to be kicked in their pansy, whiny, self-centered asses and told to get up, exercise, change your stinking gross diet, and listen to what your body tells you. But most doctors don't want to offend you for fear of losing income, and others are just as oblivious and hooked on Big Pharma to care. *sigh*
Well that's my rant/post for the evening. Hope you are all doing well and I wish you happy eating!
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Grilling and Chilling
Lazy Sunday for our household. Got up late (9am), Shelby and I had our ritualistic bowl of cereal in front of Team UmiZoomi. Oddly enough, I got hungry again at about 11:30am after Shelby and the husband left to run errands. I was in the middle of a documentary film called "Vegecated" that was about 3 people challenged to become vegans for 6 weeks. I paused the movie and made myself a garden burger on whole grain topped with onion and a quick 'guacamole' I whipped up. I re-positioned myself in front of the television and started the movie again. Finishing the last bite and washing it down with a bottle of water, the movie went to a turning point. Suddenly, home movies of slaughterhouses appeared on the screen. I was totally unprepared and my emotions ran wild. Living in the Deep South where hunting is as much a sport as it is a lifestyle, I am accustomed to the killing of animals for food and the cleaning process that goes with it. We simply lie in wait for our dinner and kill it as efficiently and quickly as possible with some remorse out of respect for the animal that had given its life. This was something totally different and inhumane. There were videos of chickens being crushed alive, soft innocent baby chicks being fed into a meat grinder hopping and peeping to get out, baby piglets being castrated (having their baby testicles pulled off) with bare hands and having their tails clipped with no anesthesia, live cows and pigs hooked to giant meat hooks struggling to get away before having things done to them I have only seen faked in horror movies. I literally had to look away because I was about to throw up in my living room. I decided to go this route initially because of my health, but to ignore those cold videos is to deny my humanity and to deny that there is pain in anything but humans. I am disgusted and appalled. Describing it to my husband later when he got home, I was in tears and he shook his head with his eyes wide and said, "Wow, that's just demented!"
He still had steak for dinner.
Not blaming in any way because a week and a half ago I would have joined right in with a slab of carcass myself marinated in Dale's and slathered in steak sauce. But tonight, something changed. I refuse to contribute to the horrors I witnessed today. Instead I had a marinated giant Portabello cap, asparagus, and a green salad with balsamic vinegar. Simple and yummy. Unfortunately I added too much Dale's to the Portabello cap and too much soy sauce to the asparagus, so EVERYTHING besides the salad was way too salty. Oh well, I can't always be perfect!
On another subject, I've been thinking about cloth diapering the new baby. I've looked into disposables again, and with the prices rising and pushing $40+ for a Sam's Club sized box, I'm wondering if it might be a better investment to simply break down and purchase cloth diapers that I can eventually sterilize and resell. Another reason was thinking about the amount of diapers our toddler has gone through and the training pants she's currently in and using. It's the time thing that gets me, and the fear of the unknown I suppose. Did you know that ONE diaper takes about 500 years to decompose? That's literally twice the age of America itself! It just seems kind of wrong to dump trash that's going to outlive my great great grandchildren. I was checking into Seventh Generation disposables as well, but I haven't been able to really see their ingredients to know if they are biodegradable or simply 'unbleached' puffy silicone crap. Going to go check that tonight on their website.
Well, that's pretty much been my lazy day. Uneventful, minus the almost vomiting and over-marinating of dinner. Will write more tomorrow, until then, happy eating!
**Update on this- I wanted to let everyone know that I checked Seventh Generation's site and they did not list their ingredients in there, but in another blog I found information that points to the diapers as being the same as regular disposables with the silicon pellets and 500 year decomp rate. I believe I will be going cloth this time, and I found a good deal on a small starter kit at Target.
He still had steak for dinner.
Not blaming in any way because a week and a half ago I would have joined right in with a slab of carcass myself marinated in Dale's and slathered in steak sauce. But tonight, something changed. I refuse to contribute to the horrors I witnessed today. Instead I had a marinated giant Portabello cap, asparagus, and a green salad with balsamic vinegar. Simple and yummy. Unfortunately I added too much Dale's to the Portabello cap and too much soy sauce to the asparagus, so EVERYTHING besides the salad was way too salty. Oh well, I can't always be perfect!
On another subject, I've been thinking about cloth diapering the new baby. I've looked into disposables again, and with the prices rising and pushing $40+ for a Sam's Club sized box, I'm wondering if it might be a better investment to simply break down and purchase cloth diapers that I can eventually sterilize and resell. Another reason was thinking about the amount of diapers our toddler has gone through and the training pants she's currently in and using. It's the time thing that gets me, and the fear of the unknown I suppose. Did you know that ONE diaper takes about 500 years to decompose? That's literally twice the age of America itself! It just seems kind of wrong to dump trash that's going to outlive my great great grandchildren. I was checking into Seventh Generation disposables as well, but I haven't been able to really see their ingredients to know if they are biodegradable or simply 'unbleached' puffy silicone crap. Going to go check that tonight on their website.
Well, that's pretty much been my lazy day. Uneventful, minus the almost vomiting and over-marinating of dinner. Will write more tomorrow, until then, happy eating!
**Update on this- I wanted to let everyone know that I checked Seventh Generation's site and they did not list their ingredients in there, but in another blog I found information that points to the diapers as being the same as regular disposables with the silicon pellets and 500 year decomp rate. I believe I will be going cloth this time, and I found a good deal on a small starter kit at Target.
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Revelation in Documentaries
Well, before it gets TOO late and I am TOO tired to do it, I'll post for the day. Today was kind of a lazy day for us, we had a wedding at 7pm to attend (which our daughter totally showed her behind at! Very disappointed in her!) so I whipped up a quick lunch of an avocado, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a little feta cheese, juice of half a lime, thin slice of onion, cucumber, and some paprika. Mixed it all together with a little salt and stuffed what I could in a whole grain flax pita. I mixed what little was left in the bowl with a handful of raw baby spinach leaves and voila! Instant lunch. The 2 year old wasn't interested in it to say the least, but that was fine with me because it was delicious!
The wedding tonight was at a friend of our's parents' house. You know, coming from middle class and sometimes dipping to lower-middle class, I've always dreamed of owning a home with a beautiful view, perfect landscaping, immaculate interior, fine antique furniture, an elaborate patio with soft outdoor lighting strategically placed to make a fairy tale deck, you know-the magazine house. My husband and I have worked hard for where we live now, a simple home on an acre (paid in full mind you) completely redone on the inside with new everything because it was a foreclosure, and I have pride in where I live. But you always aspire for something bigger. I realized tonight as I sat in the glow of the patio lighting that these people were just like me. They worked hard for what they had, they simply made more money doing what they did than I did. They still had to pay the electric company. The sun still set at their house. They still had to go to work. I guess the old saying 'They put their pants on one leg at a time just the same as I do' finally hit me in the head. This place we were invited to, albeit beautiful, was not a fairy tale home-this was just a house. Just like mine. Only our family and our love could make a place uniquely our home, and our home is just as beautiful as any.
The wedding was beautiful as well. Simple and elegant with a solo violinist. The offerings for the reception held on the patio were Italian in nature, ranging from ziti with marinara to stuffed manicotti with ricotta and spinach. I managed to have my husband find me a small salad with vinaigrette, a lone manicotti, and some sort of mashed potato stuffed thing that looked like a huge fried mozzarella stick at first. Not so good for the au naturale whole grain and dairy free, but I pushed the piece of fried chicken for the Marsala aside to Geff. So that was ok.
I have been a movie junkie for most of the day, which is not like me. I usually can't sit through a whole movie. But I watched Forks Over Knives again (a MUST SEE, Netflix has it on their lineup if you have a subscription) and it was on from there. I watched several interesting movies along the same lines and all of them had the same storyline-plant based foods are more healthy and provide ALL the necessary nutrients for living. I mean, there were some pretty outrageous claims on there, from vitamin C cures cancer to vitamin B cures depression. I kind of believe it to, I mean the body is a fabulous healer when it's not consistently ingesting poisons and toxins like highly refined foods, junk, and processed meals. If you haven't Googled the McDonald's burger and fries in the doctor's office that has been left on the tray for a decade and HASN'T molded or even begun to decay, you need to NOW. This is the fast "food" you are feeding your kids, people you love, and above all-YOURSELF! Yuck.
So, that's been my day in foodie adventures. I hope I can have even an inkling of the willpower some of these folks on the entire plant based foods diet had in the documentaries I watched today. I know it will be more healthful for not only me, but build a strong foundation for my daughter(s!) in their nutritional futures. On a closing note, I realized something watching the movies and when they said it, I realized that as long as I kept the mindset I have now I will be ok. One of the commentators mentioned the moment you take the word CAN'T out of your dietary guidelines and reword it as "I CAN have it, but I don't WANT it." Interesting twist.
So, happy eating to all!
The wedding tonight was at a friend of our's parents' house. You know, coming from middle class and sometimes dipping to lower-middle class, I've always dreamed of owning a home with a beautiful view, perfect landscaping, immaculate interior, fine antique furniture, an elaborate patio with soft outdoor lighting strategically placed to make a fairy tale deck, you know-the magazine house. My husband and I have worked hard for where we live now, a simple home on an acre (paid in full mind you) completely redone on the inside with new everything because it was a foreclosure, and I have pride in where I live. But you always aspire for something bigger. I realized tonight as I sat in the glow of the patio lighting that these people were just like me. They worked hard for what they had, they simply made more money doing what they did than I did. They still had to pay the electric company. The sun still set at their house. They still had to go to work. I guess the old saying 'They put their pants on one leg at a time just the same as I do' finally hit me in the head. This place we were invited to, albeit beautiful, was not a fairy tale home-this was just a house. Just like mine. Only our family and our love could make a place uniquely our home, and our home is just as beautiful as any.
The wedding was beautiful as well. Simple and elegant with a solo violinist. The offerings for the reception held on the patio were Italian in nature, ranging from ziti with marinara to stuffed manicotti with ricotta and spinach. I managed to have my husband find me a small salad with vinaigrette, a lone manicotti, and some sort of mashed potato stuffed thing that looked like a huge fried mozzarella stick at first. Not so good for the au naturale whole grain and dairy free, but I pushed the piece of fried chicken for the Marsala aside to Geff. So that was ok.
I have been a movie junkie for most of the day, which is not like me. I usually can't sit through a whole movie. But I watched Forks Over Knives again (a MUST SEE, Netflix has it on their lineup if you have a subscription) and it was on from there. I watched several interesting movies along the same lines and all of them had the same storyline-plant based foods are more healthy and provide ALL the necessary nutrients for living. I mean, there were some pretty outrageous claims on there, from vitamin C cures cancer to vitamin B cures depression. I kind of believe it to, I mean the body is a fabulous healer when it's not consistently ingesting poisons and toxins like highly refined foods, junk, and processed meals. If you haven't Googled the McDonald's burger and fries in the doctor's office that has been left on the tray for a decade and HASN'T molded or even begun to decay, you need to NOW. This is the fast "food" you are feeding your kids, people you love, and above all-YOURSELF! Yuck.
So, that's been my day in foodie adventures. I hope I can have even an inkling of the willpower some of these folks on the entire plant based foods diet had in the documentaries I watched today. I know it will be more healthful for not only me, but build a strong foundation for my daughter(s!) in their nutritional futures. On a closing note, I realized something watching the movies and when they said it, I realized that as long as I kept the mindset I have now I will be ok. One of the commentators mentioned the moment you take the word CAN'T out of your dietary guidelines and reword it as "I CAN have it, but I don't WANT it." Interesting twist.
So, happy eating to all!
Friday, August 2, 2013
Friday Fest!
Those of you that are not from Panama City miss out on a little thing we call Friday Fest every first Friday of the month from March through November. This is the mecca mother of all Panama City-an gatherings, it's literally better than the county fair in terms of the sights you will see. Everyone from wanna-be stars doing half-drunk karaoke at every stoplight downtown, to crazed women chasing men down and cussing them out, to the weirdest 'Gothic' people and costumes/hair/makeup you have ever seen. Grandmas in their 60's/70's chugging cups of Bud Light with tube tops barely hanging on, 300lbs women painted into size 12 jeans (hey, I'm not small but I know how to dress my larger frame!), cool guys trying to be 'Jersey', giant dogs, high school girls trying to be cute, trashy women trying to be cute, sweet babies dancing in front of booming speakers (mine was one of 'em, lol), and everyone you would normally see at Walmart at midnight. Never a dull moment. If people watching isn't your thing, well there are plenty of food vendors, charities begging for money, timeshare scammers, carnival games, bands, kid's organizations, and our favorite, classic/muscle cars (and some beaters, not sure how they get in), begging for your attention as well.
Because I have been feeling extraordinarily swollen and miserably pregnant lately, I told my husband Geff I would only go with him if he agreed that we could go to my favorite food joint downtown- Trigo. It's a San Francisco style deli that I couldn't get enough of when I worked for an attorney's office downtown last year. The prices are higher ($8-12) considering we're in Panama City and most places you can eat lunch for $5-7. But it's ALWAYS fresh, ALWAYS delicious, and they make everything to order (except their salads they make in batches daily).
I most definitely got my favorite sandwich, the Veggie Lover. Piled high on yummy crusty sourdough bread, it has lettuce, tomato, onion, banana pepper, avocado, cucumber, mustard, and yes a slice of what I believe to be mozzarella or Swiss cheese with mayo. Hey I did good on the veggies, gimmie a little slack. For the side I had the spinach salad, amazing as always. I've tried to recreate it at home and I think I spied something in it tonight that I didn't put in it before that may make the difference. It's essentially fresh baby spinach, EVOO, lemon juice, a pinch of salt, Feta cheese, and I believe I saw paprika tonight. You wouldn't think a salad so simple would be so delicious.
**Word to the wise, if you try to make it, make SURE you use EVOO. I bought regular olive oil one time thinking they were the same, they are NOT. Olive oil has a thick oily flavor to it, where EVOO has a light crisp flavor. Just FYI. I didn't know and I found out the hard way. Now if I could figure out what to do with the half-gallon Sam's sized container of olive oil, I'd be ok.**
So as far as cooking goes today, I didn't do any. Had sliced cucumbers for an afternoon snack, leftover spaghetti and meatless balls (insert Beavis and Butthead laugh here) for lunch, and Ezekial cinnamon raisin bread with almond butter for breakfast. Easy day. And this mama sure needed a day that wasn't full of cooking! Tomorrow may prove to be a challenge, Geff and I were invited to a pool party and cookout at my cousin's house, which usually entails piles of ribs, pulled pork, chicken salads, croissants, potato salad, and the like. No greens. No veggies. Just meat and mayo and cheese. Hmm.
Hope everyone has a wonderful evening. :)
Because I have been feeling extraordinarily swollen and miserably pregnant lately, I told my husband Geff I would only go with him if he agreed that we could go to my favorite food joint downtown- Trigo. It's a San Francisco style deli that I couldn't get enough of when I worked for an attorney's office downtown last year. The prices are higher ($8-12) considering we're in Panama City and most places you can eat lunch for $5-7. But it's ALWAYS fresh, ALWAYS delicious, and they make everything to order (except their salads they make in batches daily).
I most definitely got my favorite sandwich, the Veggie Lover. Piled high on yummy crusty sourdough bread, it has lettuce, tomato, onion, banana pepper, avocado, cucumber, mustard, and yes a slice of what I believe to be mozzarella or Swiss cheese with mayo. Hey I did good on the veggies, gimmie a little slack. For the side I had the spinach salad, amazing as always. I've tried to recreate it at home and I think I spied something in it tonight that I didn't put in it before that may make the difference. It's essentially fresh baby spinach, EVOO, lemon juice, a pinch of salt, Feta cheese, and I believe I saw paprika tonight. You wouldn't think a salad so simple would be so delicious.
**Word to the wise, if you try to make it, make SURE you use EVOO. I bought regular olive oil one time thinking they were the same, they are NOT. Olive oil has a thick oily flavor to it, where EVOO has a light crisp flavor. Just FYI. I didn't know and I found out the hard way. Now if I could figure out what to do with the half-gallon Sam's sized container of olive oil, I'd be ok.**
So as far as cooking goes today, I didn't do any. Had sliced cucumbers for an afternoon snack, leftover spaghetti and meatless balls (insert Beavis and Butthead laugh here) for lunch, and Ezekial cinnamon raisin bread with almond butter for breakfast. Easy day. And this mama sure needed a day that wasn't full of cooking! Tomorrow may prove to be a challenge, Geff and I were invited to a pool party and cookout at my cousin's house, which usually entails piles of ribs, pulled pork, chicken salads, croissants, potato salad, and the like. No greens. No veggies. Just meat and mayo and cheese. Hmm.
Hope everyone has a wonderful evening. :)
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Off the Wagon
Ok, so I told you this vegan thing is hard. Well of course, 2 1/2 days into the body cleanse and vegan lifestyle, my husband and I decide we are going to go to Golden Corral for lunch with the family today before my 20 week ultrasound. I went in with the best of intentions, but the smell of roast beef, fried chicken, yeast rolls with shiny butter tops, and catfish nuggets got the best of me. Hey, we go to Golden Corral like once a year-but when we do, all bets are off. As well as the vegan lifestyle apparently. I did not choose this lifestyle to save animals (although I have heard some heart wrenching, vomit inducing stories), or to be a hippie as some people oddly think, I chose it because it is a cleaner, healthier way of living and has amazing health benefits. When you can stick to it. I am human though, and I will have days where I mess up. But I had a good breakfast of Ezekial toast and almond butter, and probably won't eat much for dinner having shoveled mashed potatoes and fried chicken in my face until I was almost sick at lunch. It will take a few days to detox from the meats and highly sweetened caffeinated tea, and it will suck, but eventually I will learn that a stomachache and headache for 2 days is not worth the trouble. But for now, looks like I will be sitting here detoxing...again. I'm sure that eventually with practice I will have the willpower to 'just say no'. :)
The Whole Foods Challenged Grocery Store
As far as grocery shopping goes around here, if you're shopping for organic, vegetarian, or vegan foods anywhere besides Publix, you're usually going to be in the wrong store. Publix in Panama City is the Wiggins Auto Parts of food; if no one else in the county has it and it seems to be an obsolete "big city" ingredient, Publix will have it.
Occasionally, there will be organic foods in Winn Dixie (Hwy 231 at Transmitter's store has a small section whereas the one in Callaway has a little bigger section) near the end of the fresh produce section. Winn Dixie in Callaway has a separate freezer section at the end of the produce section with assorted frozen vegetarian and vegan foods like Amy's burritos, limited soy "ice creams", and Food for Life breads.To be completely honest, I have not gone in there looking for Garden Burgers yet, but I'm going to assume those are with the regular frozen patties being that I haven't seen them in the small freezer section set aside for organic foods. There is also one double sided shelf directly across from the small freezer section with shelf stable foods like organic pastas, chips, cereals, baking goods, and candy bars. If you are looking for "milks", there are a few non-refrigerated ones on the shelf stable section (rice milk), other than that they are going to be over in the dairy section near the cow's milk and creamers. Winn Dixie carries not only Silk Soy, but also Silk Almond. I prefer Silk Soy Vanilla Light, less calories and is lightly sweetened so I don't miss my sweet cow's milk as much. Occasionally they will have Silk Almond Chocolate, now THAT is a treat. Imagine a liquid Hershey's bar. Yep. Organic canned vegetables are mixed in with the regular canned vegetables, but have an all white label with the word 'Organic' in a type of handwritten script.
Sam's Club has a very limited section of organic and vegan friendly items. In the bread section Sam's has a nice selection of whole grain breads, including Arnold brand. You have to buy two loaves at a time which works for my family. They also have things such as large bags of organic baby carrots, and a large tub of organic baby spinach or organic baby salad greens. Silk Vanilla is in the dairy section next to the cow's milk, and comes in a large 3 half-gallons pack (which is where I normally buy it only because it's a few cents cheaper). I checked the ice cream freezers on my last trip and although they have a huge amount of ice creams, sherbets, and novelty items, I did not see any dairy alternatives or organics. I'm sure there are a few organic frozen veggies in the freezer section, but it would take some serious time and scouring to find them. In the shelf stable products, the only thing I have found has been Mara Natha Almond Butter. It's not listed as "Organic" but the label says all natural and in the ingredients the only thing not certified as organic is the roasted almonds. For some reason I lean towards this one as it's a giant container for $7, whereas the "Organic" container at Publix is half the size for the same price. Hey, I know shopping more healthful is more expensive, but I'm not trying to kill myself with these prices.
Wal Mart. How I loathe thee. Tiny if non-existent organic produce section. No frozen goods besides Boca Burgers and a few assorted Morning Star Farms meatless products. There's also a small 3 bay section of shelf stable foods mixed in with the rest of the grocery section, crammed with everything for all dietary concerns from gluten free to baking ingredients. You have to look for this section in each store, but I usually am able to spot it by the giant GLUTEN FREE packages and the Bob's Red Mill logos on other packages. All of these products vary by which Wal Mart you go into, I've seen things like Egg Replacer in some and not in others. Wal Mart is usually my last resort for anything.
Olive Leaves on 23rd Street is a good place to go if you know pretty much what you are looking for. They carry strange and obsolete items you may not even find at Publix, like the nutritional yeast I love so much (sarcasm intended). But seriously, if it's something you can't find anywhere else and seems like an oddity, Olive Leaves will probably have it, and the folks there are ready to guide you to the item in the store if you can't find it on your own. They have an interesting selection of things that I have never even heard of as well. If nothing else it's definitely fun to go in there and look around at the new foods and vitamins.
I have only been into Mount of Olives on 23rd Street once, and it seemed like more of a supplement and vitamin shop than a grocery. I had to find some C-herb, but that's a whole 'nother blog for another day.
On to my favorite, Publix. I have a love/hate relationship with Publix; I love being able to find what I need, however, I hate the prices they slap on the organics and how there are NEVER any coupons for any of the healthier foods. I am going to try to scour the internet a little better for coupons to defray the costs, because my last small buggy-full was $200 and being a stay at home mom and student, that is kind of unacceptable. I have found Publix on Hwy 77 has a better selection of organics and is better organized as far as the organics go, although some of the foods are mixed in with the regular foods. Publix has not only the "Greenwise" section for fruits and veggies, if you are looking for your family and they are not vegan or vegetarian Publix has Greenwise organic meats as well. There are pitas and pita chips, hummus dip, organic fruits and veggies, and of course on Hwy 77 the whole foods section is in the front next to the pharmacy. It's not huge, but there is a lot more to choose from than most of the grocery stores in town. They do carry vital wheat gluten for homemade seitan, boxed meals like Annie Chun's Pad Thai (add your own veggies/tofu), Organicville salad dressings, Bragg's Liquid Aminos (this is like a vegan version of Dales or soy sauce), cereals, granolas, cookies, chips, dips, even sulfite free wines. In the frozen section (across from the hot dogs and next to the open deep freezer with meats in it) there is a pretty good selection of Morning Star Farms and other brands of meatless entrees, quick meals, and just imitation meats by themselves. I have found the meatless crumbles (ground "beef") is pretty good in tacos if you season it, and although the "bacon" they have looks like dog treats, it's actually pretty good as well. It's not bacon, but it's salty and meaty tasting and kind of favors turkey bacon when it's cooked crisp.
This is what I have found so far at the grocery stores around here. If you know of any more or want to add your own, please do! I can always use tips on where to get things and I'm sure others will appreciate it as well! Happy shopping!
Occasionally, there will be organic foods in Winn Dixie (Hwy 231 at Transmitter's store has a small section whereas the one in Callaway has a little bigger section) near the end of the fresh produce section. Winn Dixie in Callaway has a separate freezer section at the end of the produce section with assorted frozen vegetarian and vegan foods like Amy's burritos, limited soy "ice creams", and Food for Life breads.To be completely honest, I have not gone in there looking for Garden Burgers yet, but I'm going to assume those are with the regular frozen patties being that I haven't seen them in the small freezer section set aside for organic foods. There is also one double sided shelf directly across from the small freezer section with shelf stable foods like organic pastas, chips, cereals, baking goods, and candy bars. If you are looking for "milks", there are a few non-refrigerated ones on the shelf stable section (rice milk), other than that they are going to be over in the dairy section near the cow's milk and creamers. Winn Dixie carries not only Silk Soy, but also Silk Almond. I prefer Silk Soy Vanilla Light, less calories and is lightly sweetened so I don't miss my sweet cow's milk as much. Occasionally they will have Silk Almond Chocolate, now THAT is a treat. Imagine a liquid Hershey's bar. Yep. Organic canned vegetables are mixed in with the regular canned vegetables, but have an all white label with the word 'Organic' in a type of handwritten script.
Sam's Club has a very limited section of organic and vegan friendly items. In the bread section Sam's has a nice selection of whole grain breads, including Arnold brand. You have to buy two loaves at a time which works for my family. They also have things such as large bags of organic baby carrots, and a large tub of organic baby spinach or organic baby salad greens. Silk Vanilla is in the dairy section next to the cow's milk, and comes in a large 3 half-gallons pack (which is where I normally buy it only because it's a few cents cheaper). I checked the ice cream freezers on my last trip and although they have a huge amount of ice creams, sherbets, and novelty items, I did not see any dairy alternatives or organics. I'm sure there are a few organic frozen veggies in the freezer section, but it would take some serious time and scouring to find them. In the shelf stable products, the only thing I have found has been Mara Natha Almond Butter. It's not listed as "Organic" but the label says all natural and in the ingredients the only thing not certified as organic is the roasted almonds. For some reason I lean towards this one as it's a giant container for $7, whereas the "Organic" container at Publix is half the size for the same price. Hey, I know shopping more healthful is more expensive, but I'm not trying to kill myself with these prices.
Wal Mart. How I loathe thee. Tiny if non-existent organic produce section. No frozen goods besides Boca Burgers and a few assorted Morning Star Farms meatless products. There's also a small 3 bay section of shelf stable foods mixed in with the rest of the grocery section, crammed with everything for all dietary concerns from gluten free to baking ingredients. You have to look for this section in each store, but I usually am able to spot it by the giant GLUTEN FREE packages and the Bob's Red Mill logos on other packages. All of these products vary by which Wal Mart you go into, I've seen things like Egg Replacer in some and not in others. Wal Mart is usually my last resort for anything.
Olive Leaves on 23rd Street is a good place to go if you know pretty much what you are looking for. They carry strange and obsolete items you may not even find at Publix, like the nutritional yeast I love so much (sarcasm intended). But seriously, if it's something you can't find anywhere else and seems like an oddity, Olive Leaves will probably have it, and the folks there are ready to guide you to the item in the store if you can't find it on your own. They have an interesting selection of things that I have never even heard of as well. If nothing else it's definitely fun to go in there and look around at the new foods and vitamins.
I have only been into Mount of Olives on 23rd Street once, and it seemed like more of a supplement and vitamin shop than a grocery. I had to find some C-herb, but that's a whole 'nother blog for another day.
On to my favorite, Publix. I have a love/hate relationship with Publix; I love being able to find what I need, however, I hate the prices they slap on the organics and how there are NEVER any coupons for any of the healthier foods. I am going to try to scour the internet a little better for coupons to defray the costs, because my last small buggy-full was $200 and being a stay at home mom and student, that is kind of unacceptable. I have found Publix on Hwy 77 has a better selection of organics and is better organized as far as the organics go, although some of the foods are mixed in with the regular foods. Publix has not only the "Greenwise" section for fruits and veggies, if you are looking for your family and they are not vegan or vegetarian Publix has Greenwise organic meats as well. There are pitas and pita chips, hummus dip, organic fruits and veggies, and of course on Hwy 77 the whole foods section is in the front next to the pharmacy. It's not huge, but there is a lot more to choose from than most of the grocery stores in town. They do carry vital wheat gluten for homemade seitan, boxed meals like Annie Chun's Pad Thai (add your own veggies/tofu), Organicville salad dressings, Bragg's Liquid Aminos (this is like a vegan version of Dales or soy sauce), cereals, granolas, cookies, chips, dips, even sulfite free wines. In the frozen section (across from the hot dogs and next to the open deep freezer with meats in it) there is a pretty good selection of Morning Star Farms and other brands of meatless entrees, quick meals, and just imitation meats by themselves. I have found the meatless crumbles (ground "beef") is pretty good in tacos if you season it, and although the "bacon" they have looks like dog treats, it's actually pretty good as well. It's not bacon, but it's salty and meaty tasting and kind of favors turkey bacon when it's cooked crisp.
This is what I have found so far at the grocery stores around here. If you know of any more or want to add your own, please do! I can always use tips on where to get things and I'm sure others will appreciate it as well! Happy shopping!
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Welcome to Beautiful Panama City, FL-Population 5 (Vegans)
So, after much deliberation and...well...procrastination on my part, I have decided to return to veganism. Slowly. I dove into it headfirst after reading "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin in July of 2012. After detoxing off of the diet pills and highly-caffeinated drinks (read-migraine for 4 days!), I felt better than I had in years. I had energy without needing an artificial supply of it, my face and skin were clear, and I felt better about myself. Unfortunately, I got to the point that I was missing SOME kind of meat after being unable to perfect homemade seitan and being too leery of tempeh, and resorted back to being a pescatarian (vegetarian who eats fish/shellfish). Of course when that ball started rolling, it rolled right on back to cheese, then chicken on occasion, then a huge steak and veganism/vegetarianism was over for me.
Now I won't say that veganism is easy, I'm sure it's hard even for those with the resources; however, I will say that living north of Panama City, Florida gives me an even bigger challenge. This is a totally new concept to me and it seems that 85% of the grocery stores in this area are organically and plant-based challenged. I have also been told by a friend of mine (who sells commercial produce) that the farmer's market sometimes has folks that come down from Alabama and Georgia, peddling commercially grown products as their own "backyard produce." I'm sure this is not the case with all the old timers there, but I can't help but be slightly judgmental and skeptical after being thrown that kind of information from someone I believe to be a very reliable source.
I have checked out online shopping venues like Off the Vine, but I find that I'm not sure where this produce comes from, who certifies it besides the USDA (thanks Skinny Bitch for that unsettling tidbit), and I feel a little nervous about ordering food off the computer (yeah, blame that on small town-ism). I am still getting used to the prices of organic vs. pesticide/chemical bathed fruits and veggies, but I think OtV is pretty comparable.
In my time perusing other sites for edible recipes for a new convert that won't completely gag a junk food and sweet tea addicted husband and that will also appeal to a two year old raised on corn dogs and cookies, I mainly stuck to the major sites before. I think this was the downfall last time because the recipe I found for seitan was AWFUL and inedible unless you coated it with something and pretended it was supposed to taste like boiled rubber tires or fatty chicken skin. I managed to find a recipe that I would like to try in the next few days (for myself first) on a site I am infatuated with at the moment. But for now, I will list some do's and don't's and just general tips for Southerners with fried chicken taste buds who are thinking about coming over to the light side:
Now I won't say that veganism is easy, I'm sure it's hard even for those with the resources; however, I will say that living north of Panama City, Florida gives me an even bigger challenge. This is a totally new concept to me and it seems that 85% of the grocery stores in this area are organically and plant-based challenged. I have also been told by a friend of mine (who sells commercial produce) that the farmer's market sometimes has folks that come down from Alabama and Georgia, peddling commercially grown products as their own "backyard produce." I'm sure this is not the case with all the old timers there, but I can't help but be slightly judgmental and skeptical after being thrown that kind of information from someone I believe to be a very reliable source.
I have checked out online shopping venues like Off the Vine, but I find that I'm not sure where this produce comes from, who certifies it besides the USDA (thanks Skinny Bitch for that unsettling tidbit), and I feel a little nervous about ordering food off the computer (yeah, blame that on small town-ism). I am still getting used to the prices of organic vs. pesticide/chemical bathed fruits and veggies, but I think OtV is pretty comparable.
In my time perusing other sites for edible recipes for a new convert that won't completely gag a junk food and sweet tea addicted husband and that will also appeal to a two year old raised on corn dogs and cookies, I mainly stuck to the major sites before. I think this was the downfall last time because the recipe I found for seitan was AWFUL and inedible unless you coated it with something and pretended it was supposed to taste like boiled rubber tires or fatty chicken skin. I managed to find a recipe that I would like to try in the next few days (for myself first) on a site I am infatuated with at the moment. But for now, I will list some do's and don't's and just general tips for Southerners with fried chicken taste buds who are thinking about coming over to the light side:
- DON'T go into your kitchen and throw out all of your food to change over to 'new food.' I have done this before. Although it sounds good on paper, I don't think trashing hundreds of your hard earned dollars because the labels don't say "Organic" is a smart move, unless you are trashing Twinkies and Coke. (yes, in the South it's called Coke, not soda, not pop, you know what it is) You have been eating non-organic for years probably, just figure out how to incorporate the healthful foods you already have into other dishes containing more fruits and veggies. When you run out, buy the organic version, or simply trade the item off for a completely different one.
- DO transition slowly if necessary. If you want to buy some basics like organic chickpeas (these are also called garbanzo beans), limes, black beans, avocados, and the like, go for it. Just use what you have in your cabinets for as long as you can and renew with the new organics when you grocery shop again.
- DON'T expect everyone in your household to be on board with it. I have to cook separate meals for my husband and daughter right now because they are not accustomed to the new tastes and don't care for meatless anything.
- DON'T expect vegan cereals, nut butters, and breads (sprouted grain breads) to taste like Sugar Smacks, Jif, or soft white bread. They aren't terrible, but they are not going to be what you are used to. If you need sweetener, look for raw (turbinado) sugar or stevia next to the sugar at the store. Agave nectar works well too, but remember these are not going to taste the same or sweeten at the same level as regular white granulated sugar.
- DO READ THE REVIEWS ON RECIPES! A lot of times this will tell you whether the recipe is tasty or if the readers had to add a slew of different ingredients to make the dish taste good. If you are not familiar with spices, seasonings, and vegan alternatives, I would find another recipe. This is coming from someone who has wasted a lot of money (and time!!) on long cooking, many ingredient dishes that turned out awful (homemade vegan meatless cheese-less lasagna with roasted cauliflower and nutritional yeast with cashews-WORST EVER). If you have the budget and are experienced enough to know when to add cumin and when to add cilantro, go for it! Otherwise, stick to the 4 and 5 stars.
- NUTRITIONAL YEAST is terrible. A lot of long-time vegans will tell you this makes dishes taste 'cheesy', no. I beg to differ. It makes dishes taste like you dusted them with powdered ass butter. This was one of the peeves of mine, but I won't blame anyone because I guess when you are without cheese for so long maybe you forget how heavenly delicious the stuff is. Vegan cheese tastes like nothing. It doesn't taste like cheese. It tastes like a slice of yellow dried paste. Give the cheese up. It will be hard to do. Trust me.
- DON'T be afraid to try new things! The first time I seen the word "quinoa" I asked my husband what quinn-oh-uh was. It's actually pronounced keen-wah, and it's a type of grain. Weird little thing too, it's in a little pod and when it cooks, the outside busts open and this little chewy opaque 'fish eye' comes out. It's actually delicious though, like a type of rice almost.
- GET OFF THE CAFFEINE! It's hard, but once you do it and stay off of it for a few days after the headaches stop, you realize how much clearer you think and how energized a simple piece of fruit or cup of fruit juice makes you feel (don't go overboard with the juice please). There are decaffeinated teas to drink, and best for you is water of course. Don't go jacking up your water with Crystal Light either. Chemicals in a pouch. Think about it. What did you add to water to make lemonade as a kid? Lemons and sugar. None of those are in that 1/2oz single serve pack. It's only chemicals modified to taste like sugar and lemons. I mean, antifreeze supposedly tastes like syrup, but if an animal drinks it, what happens? Yuck. If you don't want to buy bottled water, get a good filter. I live out in the boondocks with a deep well in an aquifer (literally my water when I fill my garden tub is Gatorade blue), so I can survive on that. If you live in Pensacola, I would ADVISE bottled water even if you are on city/county resources.
So, that's my basic list. Tomorrow I'm going to try to write about the local resources we have here at the local supermarkets (Publix, Winn Dixie, Wal Mart, and a few others). Till then, don't be afraid to explore the non-commercialized vegan sites!! :)
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