Greens

Greens. I found this quick, simple recipe online that's right up my alley. A blend with 2 handfuls of baby spinach, 1 cup yogurt, 1 cup water, 1 cup of pineapple, and 2 banana's. Blend, enjoy. It was actually kinda good, looking forward to having it again. It would be good with some ice sometimes, or strawberries. Any fruit I think would only make it better. For now, I'll stick with the recipe and do my best to get in the habit of drinking this everyday. Mia wanted nothing to do with it, and Isabel drank it up and wanted more.

I've noticed, and so had my husband, that I haven't been so good the past couple weeks with juicing, and making healthy smoothies. It had been eating away at me trying to figure out what my problem was. Where did my motivation go? So finally I recognized that what's happening is I'm having the worst cravings for all the yummy stuff I'm trying to give up, like withdrawals. I also noticed I'm right at that crossroads where I'm either going to fall back into old habits, or stick to my new plan. I'm working hard at the new plan, I really am.

I do miss cooking. I look at my old recipes sometimes and think about how yummy something sounds for dinner, and then remember that we are on a no meat day, or it's salad day, or sometimes it hits me just how fattening that dish is, and how we used to eat this stuff like it was nothing. I cooked red meat for the first time since I don't even remember the other day, and although it was good, I was glad that I was no longer eating like that everyday. It's bitter sweet I guess.

I do like that I haven't completely cut anything from my diet, so I can enjoy every juicy, succulent, fattening, and tasty dish at our monthly dinner party. These parties are not for the weak of stomach. There are no dieters allowed, no sugar free anything. This Saturday, we are having one and it's all about Southern Seafood. No red meat, just seafood. My gosh, now I'm starving just thinking about it. I'm doing the main course and it's a shrimp shrimp shrimp dish. Lots of large shrimp, spicy and creamy all rolled into one dish. Shrimp étouffée!

Forced Out Of Hibernation

I was happily forced out of hibernation today and it felt great! The morning rush went smoothly. No tantrum's. I did run around in circles, literally. So I went to The Country Store which has a nice variety of seeds. Having a few spare minutes, I stopped at this huge garage sale that had all sorts of furniture. It's kind of my weakness I guess. I found this little toy chest, obviously for children. It was in rough shape and would take a bit of elbow grease to get it pretty again. I talked the guy down and got a good price.

Someone beat the hell out of this thing. It took 3 different grains of sandpaper to get most of these dings out, leaving just enough to give it the look I wanted. It was missing a handle from the side so I tossed the other one, and will look out for the perfect handles to replace them.
It had a giant sports sticker on the top, so I slabbed a bit of mayo on it and let it sit for about 30 minutes while I worked on the rest of the chest.
In the nude. I could paint this, I could stain it. Haven't made up my mind yet. It sure is nice wood though. I want to keep the original hardware if possible, although I wouldn't mind putting on new ones. I bought this for Isabel, now they each have old toy chests.
Cat in box. He says hello.

So the rest of the day was spent pulling the girls in the wagon, trimming my grapes, cleaning our rain water barrel out, and other little yard tasks. All four of us had fun, it was so carefree. A long warm bath and warm jammies and I'm gonna call it a day.

Authentic

Well, I haven't written in a while. Sitting down to do it now, I realize I just haven't really been eating much. This whole diet change thing that we implemented over night is paying off in different ways. I wanted to make Zoppa Toscana soup for my husband because he really likes it, so I made it. I used a sweet sausage instead of spicy so the girls, who are probably still traumatized from the pad thai, would be able to eat it. I was content with it, but would like to make it spicier next time. I made some bread, and called it good.

Ten years ago, I bought these cook books. I spent $60 on them. I know, I must have been childless or something. The kicker is I've never even used them. They're very authentic, and half of the listed ingredients I wouldn't even know where to find. I would have to venture into either Bellingham or Everett for some of the stuff. Maybe that's what's stopped me all these years.

So anyways, I was sitting and looking at my cookbooks the other day and realized how many of them have not been used to their full potential and I suddenly started to feel bad. Like the gigantic one from Spain. It was the #1 cookbook in Spain in 2007, I think I used it once. The artwork in it is pretty cool, it's fun to look at. The format is different than what I'm used to though. I see I'm babbling...it's been lovely but I'm gonna scream now!

I Did What?

Something I always complain about, is people changing other people's recipes. Just the ones that have been in the family. Never would I be able to change the enchilada sauce recipe, or the potato salad even. I never minded big change, but small changes freak me out and I truly hate them. Small stupid things, I know.

I surprised myself tonight when I made banana bread, and sprinkled cinnamon on top of just one of the loaves. Once I did it, I wasn't sure what to think or even what gave me the desire to try such a silly thing. I justified that the second loaf was completely original and untainted, so I hadn't really altered anything. How silly.

Tonight, when I told Mia to go pick out what PJ's she wanted to wear to bed, so hated the thought of bedtime soo much, she got upset and walked to her bedroom door, and turned around and said "not fair!" Slam. I suddenly felt much better about sending her to bed early. Sigh..

A Tuesday

It was a quite Tuesday. The girls behaved well and enjoyed some quite time. Meanwhile, I managed to make my last batch of jam, and without a single interruption. Made some cheese omelets for me and the girls, toasted some english muffins, slathered them with butter and fresh made jam, and had one large cup of coffee. Cleaned my messy kitchen, scrubbed the playroom floor, did some laundry. Wondered what the hell was going on with the insane weather outside. I saw dark gray clouds, blue skies with lots of sun, hail, heavy rain, bigger hail, and then finally it was dark.

So my husband is on a very strict diet for the next 3-4 days so he's limited with meals. I went down my checklist of "yes" items, he needed a creamy sloppy mess of a dinner. So I made him tuna casserole. Poor guy can't eat anything very healthy right now, no salads, uncooked fruits and vegetables etc; It was fun to make it, it had been a long time.

That reminds me that I need to replace my mustard powder, I think it's done.

I also enjoy making bread crumbs. I like making pockets of butter covered with them so I get that nice crisp. I thought I'd pile it on and I doubled the amount so I used 2 end pieces of bread that I keep for crumbs when I need them. It was totally fattening.

Raspberry Peach Jam

I woke up this morning, at 5:30, and couldn't go back to sleep. Thanks Bel. It was a day where I didn't have any appointments of any kind, nowhere I needed to be, nothing I needed to do. Just relax, fold some laundry, and hang with my girls. It was the type of day I always look forward to.

I have known for some time, that I would be running out of homemade jam. Since I didn't get grapes that were edible this year, I found myself in a bit of a fruit bind. I did make some blueberry jam, and that was good. I just didn't get the quantity I prefer to have, which is enough to eat for a year, share, and gift away. Not even close. I never thought I would really depend on those grapes to turn out good. No thanks to all the extra rain last year.

So I battled with having to buy fruit, which is expensive when you buy large quantities to make a lot of jam or jelly. But it had to be done. So I found a recipe that I felt pretty good about, and it had half the amount of sugar than your average recipe, which I always end up doing on my own. So hopefully, I wouldn't have to make any changes and could just cook and can away without a care.

So here are the peaches. I couldn't find fresh peaches anywhere, so I went with canned which scares me but, it's better than buying jam at the store. So here I am mashing them.

Here are the raspberries that I had in the freezer. Rinsing and thawing out.
I combined that raspberries, peaches, unsweetened apple juice, and the juice from half a lime. Bring that to a boil, while stirring regularly.

But wait! Don't forget your pectin and coffee!

It's just impossible for me to do the rest and get pictures so we'll skip ahead a bit. I boiled it, added the pectin while stirring constantly, brought to a rolling boil that could not be stirred down, added the sugar, continued to stir, brought back to a rolling boil, timed 3 minutes of constant stirring while boiling and melting the skin off my hand, and this is what I get; 8 half pint jars of raspberry peach jam. All jarred and going into the boiling pot.

One recipe was only suppose to make 5-6 half pint jars. Well, I know better than that and was glad that I prepped 10 jars ready for use. I was pretty heavy handed on the fruits, using almost 2 cups (whole) more than called for. Less sugar and more fruit will always make for better jam. I put some on a plate and threw it in the fridge to harden faster, which is how you taste test. I am pleasantly surprised how well it turned out. Must be in the genes. I plan on making at least 3 more batches of this.

Last night I made miso soup, shrimp pad thai, and white rice. Something I'd made before and it all went well until we finished grace, and dug in. Oops! Before we knew it we had 2 screaming kids at the table. I used cayenne pepper instead of chili powder and it was pretty spicy! Delish, but hot. So there I was making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as fast as possible while my husband tried to calm the girls down. They ate their miso, and a little bit of rice but I have this huge container of leftovers that I have every intention of devouring here soon for lunch.

One last bit, I finally did the paint touch ups in the play room. I bought a sample can of the color, which is really all I needed. It went on funny, and knowing well that it always dries differently, gave it a bit of time. Once dried, I was kinda mad. It's a very light beige, not the pale sage it should be. I'll give them one more chance to get the color right, and if they can't do that, then I'm just gonna re-paint the whole room. Which I don't mind because I LOVE to paint walls.

Will Trade Cooking For Art Supplies

True story. I miss art. I miss the peace I got from sketching, or drawing, or painting, or being covered in charcoal. I was thinking, the last time I even picked up a medium, was in high school when I took an Advanced Fine Arts class. I did my best in that class and I still have my portfolio, hiding. In the closet. All by itself. They've traveled. They've been in storage. They've been moved. I think they need new friends. Ha ha ha.

The girls got to play in the snow today, and they had a lot of fun. They came in wet, and dirty from all the mud. Then we enjoyed a nice big pot of black forrest ham and potato soup and continued out Sonic Generations day. Mia kicked ass and took names, it's amazing to watch her! I haven't been juicing too much lately, I'm not sure why. Just haven't been in the mood, but we've had a lot of salads, some with chicken and some without.

Isabel has really taken another step towards growing up. She's learning faster than Mia I think because she has that child like influence. She's already this amazing little problem solver who climbs, explores, imitates and talks. I melt every time I see the girls together, smiling, giggling, and loving each other. They always run into our room, shut the door, climb in our bed, and snuggle together. They're so quite about it, so when we investigate their whereabouts, I find them being the sweetest of sisters, I just can't get over it sometimes. Although stressful, having 2 little girls is amazing.

Chugging Along

I still feel stupid. I'm still trying to figure out the Mac. I knew it would be different, but geez, am I that behind? I guess so. The playroom is slowly coming along, my 2 day challenge I found was just not going to happen. Getting rid of the desk proved to be a much bigger challenge than I originally thought. All the papers, all the piles, all the shredding. It's a good thing I just bought a new shredder, because I'm pretty sure that if my old one was still kicking, it would have kicked the bucket.

I did get all the books moved into the sitting area, that wasn't such a challenge and I really can't wait to see that space finished. There's still a huge pile of toys in the corner, due only to the fact that the desk is a monster. So when I started in on the papers, I was excited to realize I have a large file cabinet in the garage that I can finally utilize. Then I opened it up. My honest first thought? Is it too early for wine? It's full of more papers. Ugh.

Then I ran into another problem along the way. What do I do with all the little things that have piled up, that aren't trash or junk, but not really needed, but if you get rid of it, you'll find yourself in need. I literally have shoe boxes full of stuff with labels that read "Just another box full of shit that is neither garbage or really needed." I must have been in a bad mood that day. But hey, guess what? I now have a laundry folding table! Yay!

I haven't been really cooking a lot lately. Mark has been sleeping pretty late so we haven't been on our "normal" schedule. A lot of salads, healthy sandwiches, a pot of spaghetti. I am making a Co-Op trip tomorrow so I will pick up some super yummy apples n' things.

Miss Bel has been really challenging lately. She has thrown the worst tantrums, it's awful! She's changed her daytime sleeping habits, so she's missed out on some adventures. Will this child give me the dreaded "terrible two's" stage? Mia did not, so this will be different and I'm not looking forward to it. Another parent challenge - I took Mia for her first ever hair cut the other day. It was hard to get her to hold still, and she wasn't too sure about this strange lady washing her hair in a weird sink. But it has layers and is very cute, and full of body. I kept some clippings for her baby book. I must have heard at least 50 comments on her hair color by the time we stepped out of there. The lady doing her hair spent like 10 minutes just looking at all the reds in amazement that I wasn't secretly dying her hair at home. Really? She's 4!

Things added to my to do list: 1. Find a chalk board I can put low on the wall for the girls to draw randomly all over in the playroom. 2. Find a nice comfy, one person chair that can be lounged around in. 3. Figure out why the "magical" mighty mouse doesn't want to copy and paste.

Projects About To Be Checked Off!

Well, this is going to sound so silly, and honestly I'm embarrassed. I can't figure out how to open another page on this thing to download you a picture to look at. I'm sure my husband will laugh at me later for this.

Anyways, we did it! We finally bought ourselves a MacBook and will be getting rid of the desk top and turning what would be considered an office, into a playroom. It's very exciting for me. No more desk to get messy, and no more dumb office chair. The kids have always gravitated towards that room anyways. Of course it will still be my laundry room, but thankfully the room is big enough for 3 of us, so I'm excited to go down this little path and get some order in my life.

I love that I can now lay in bed and play online without killing the battery on my phone. I love the "mighty mouse", so futuristic, I love my coffee, I love the thought of having a room open up to possibilities. Mark has this bookshelf that was custom made for him as a child, but it's so tall we haven't been able to bring it in the house. So he's going to fix it so I can bring it in, and get rid of all these cheap and ugly bookcases I've been forced to stare at. I think I'll put that in the soon to be open space and maybe down the road add a comfy chair that I can sit at. I guess I'm visualizing a sitting room. Oh the possibilities.

The past month besides all the recent excitement, has been rough. I got violently ill with a viral infection of some sort, and was down and out for a while. I didn't eat, and only drank water and gatorade, and layed in bed for days. So if I'm not cooking, my husband is getting by from outside sources. It was awful! What's worse? When I was finally started feeling good enough to try and have some coffee, it tasted awful! My taste buds did a lot of changing and I'm still eating things that I used to love, and dealing with the harsh reality that I don't really like them anymore. The coffee thing did tame itself, and am now back to my close relationship with the bean.

On a lighter note, my rings are getting bigger. My right hand ring is too big for my finger that I wear it on, and now I wear it on my middle finger so I won't lose it. I think that's promising. All those salads for dinner just might be doing something.