Preparation is Key!

There is nothing quite like trying to figure out what to have for lunch the next day when your only options require prep and cooking. Thank goodness for crockpots! I took some strange ingredients out of the fridge and freezer and made "squash" soup. It looked a little icky, but didn't taste too bad! Thankfully. Time for some intense meal planning.

Day... 10.

Day 10! A third of the way there. So far so good. I have to admit, I'm craving some dark chocolate Bark Thins or a nice piece of fluffy bread. We have definitely had some food adventure in the last several days. Last night we were going to have cabbage wrapped egg rolls and cauliflower fried "rice". But the cauliflower was bad! So... now what. M had the bright idea to shred and fry potatoes. As weird as it sounds, potato fried "rice" was delicious. Something I'll probably do again. Here it is in a nutshell.

Sautee garlic, carrots and peas (we didn't do peas, not whole 30) in oil (I used olive). Remove or move to edge of pan and add shredded potatoes (use a cheese grater or a Cuisinart). Stir fry at high heat until some bits are crispy. Scramble two eggs and add to pan. Stir well. Flavor with ginger, coconut aminos (or soy sauce), and sesame oil. Yum! Loosely based on the actual recipe here.

My cabbage wrapped egg rolls. 

I made a frittata for breakfast last week. Sadly, not my favorite.

I ran out of sweet potatoes! Running out of sweet potatoes and eggs is a tragedy doing a Whole 30.

One night last week I was in the mood to bake. I love to bake. I enjoy the process of creating something delicious. Well. Whole 30 says no sweets, no baked goods, nada. Maybe I cheated. But it was fun. Cooked fruit on top of chopped almonds, flax seed, and sunflower seed. It was a nice addition to my lunch the next day.

Doing the Whole 30 has been interesting and good so far. Both of us are feeling good and enjoying the fresh food, even with more time intensive prep. I definitely recommend you give it a whirl but plan and prepare!

Day 3

Day 3! I made it! Only how many more to go.... let's not count that out. : )

So last night at dinner I was still hungry and started concocting. I took the pulled pork, chopped up my asparagus, added a peach and covered the whole thing in coconut oil. Surprisingly, it was really good! Even though it sounds a little terrible.

Today I did a similar thing for lunch. Brussel sprouts, roasted chicken, pulled pork, avocado and chopped up peach. Again, very good. The peaches add a nice subtle undertone to the other flavors and give it a taste resembling more of meat and veggies on pasta than just a veggie salad.

I love my standby foods. Spaghetti, lasagna, pasta and veggies. Eating Whole30 is already training me to think outside the box and figure out what flavors would taste good together. Even flavors I wouldn't usually put together like brussel sprouts and peaches!

Now, if only I don't run out of ideas before I run out of days.

Wish me luck!

P.s. The BBQ sauce turned out great! A little strong for drenching, but very good as a flavor addition. I used the recipe here with a few tweaks and a little bit of "dashing" as opposed to "measuring."

Whole 30

Whole 30.

A what? A Whole 30 is a nutritional "reset" designed to give your body a jump start to healthy habits. Or maybe back to healthy habits. Read more here. The basics are no grains, no legumes, no dairy and NO added sugar. I don't know about you, but I didn't realize how many prepared sauces and foods have sugar in them. One store I went to had canned peas with an ingredient list of peas, sugar and water. Sugar. In my peas? At the end of thirty days food groups are gradually added back in to see if any particular food causes sickness or even general malaise. Some people use the Whole30 to identify food allergies or sensitivities. Other people use it to support healthy eating habits.

Today is day two of my Whole30 and so far so good. I've had several friends with helpful advice and recipes and lots of google searches. Tonight the quest is on for a Whole30 compliant BBQ sauce. Wish me luck!

For those of you who might wonder what to eat on a Whole30, I have posted pictures of meals from the last two days. Yummy.

Day 1: Breakfast

Sweet potatoes w/ bell pepper and parsley

Fried egg with spinach

Day 1: Dinner

Hamburgers!

Avocado, butter lettuce, carmelized onions, sauteed mushrooms

homemade mayonnaise and tomatoes.

Steamed and salted brussel sprouts.

Day 2: Lunch

Broccoli Salad sans sugar, steamed brussel sprouts

roasted chicken and shredded coconut.

Aldi was having a sale....

More to come! I hope. :)

Sunday evening delights

Tonight for my after dinner treat I had some of this

With some of this

and the crumble from here sprinkled on top.

It was quite the delicious finish to a sauteed mushroom, onion, garlic, and ham pasta with asparagus.

Yum!
Bekah

Num. Num. Yum. Yums!!

I made some very yummy yum yums this evening. I get so tired of makeshift dinners, but I don't always remember in time to have an actual dinner. This evening we had bbq brisket (the hubby smoked the meat yesterday. DELICIOUS), hashbrown casserole, steamed asparagus and corn flake cookies for dessert. Yum. 

We had quite a few mangoes that are as ripe as ripe can be and so my hubby sliced and diced them to make dried fruit out of. He did a great job, got as much of the flesh off the seed as possible. Dried mango to add to the granola, yum. :)

Hashbrown Casserole

Mangoes in the dehydrator

Corn flake cookies

Leave a comment if you want recipes, and I will post them later. Don't forget, Mother's Day is sunday! 

~Scottie

Such a long time...

It has been such a long time since I have blogged. I have thought of many topics to blog about:

How to: Christmas stockings
Arkansas Visit/ Fishing trip
Lenten Practices

But, alas, have not blogged on any of them, as you well know. : )

Latest news, my sister had an art show this evening, but I haven't heard how it went. I am hoping for a good turn out, and a great success.

I planted my garden this evening, or more precisely, I finally finished planting. Last weekend the hardware store had a giant plant sale and had a 4 plant container (the little ones) for $.89/ea. We bought WAY to many plants for our garden. We ended up sharing some of our extras with the neighbors. :) I started the planting last saturday, and finally finished this afternoon. Unfortunately, I need to finish planting flowers in the front flower bed. *sigh* I now have corn, green beans, carrots, broccoli, squash, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, cantaloupe..... I don't think it is all going to produce, but if it does... we are going to have produce running out of our ears this summer. Wouldn't that be lovely? :) We planted some raspberry and blueberry bushes too, but the rabbits ate all the leaves off... I don't know if they will survive. I should get a haircut and go put it around the bushes. :D

Side note: I am very thankful and grateful to those bloggers in this world who regularly update and post new things to share with us all. I enjoy reading your blogs and getting to see a piece of your life. Thank you!

So long
~Scottie~

Christmas is here!

Christmas is here! Really? Already? I'm not ready for this! I finally conceived a place put my christmas cards, the very large number of them as you can see. : ) 

Life has been rather busy at my house. I've intended to post and simply haven't made it! Here is a bit of what has been going on:

Aries came through for one last visit before heading back to Hong Kong. We raked leaves and gave her another unique american experience. I made her jump in them too. :)

My grandfather brought me some Arkansas Black apples and I had to do something with them! They were picked in September and I didn't get them until December. Surprisingly only a few were really gross. The rest became dried apples, frozen apples, and a little bit of apple cider. Yum! Thanks, Grandpa!

Aries also brought me back some chocolate from Seattle, compliments of her and KV. Not the best ever, but definitely a nice full bodied chocolate. I really enjoyed it.

Oh, and while all the apples were on the counter, my hubby left me a message. :D

Oh, and one last thing.

Merry Christmas to all!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We went to the family for Thanksgiving. We had the typical turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and bread. I did make these Vanilla Mashed Sweet Potatoes. They were good, a lot more like whipped potatoes than mashed potatoes. I used probably two teaspoons of vanilla extract in place of the vanilla bean, and omitted the autumn infused oil.  For part of thanksgiving weekend, we decorated for Christmas. My sister took these pictures. Enjoy!!

My brother. Don't worry. No announcement needed. :)

Wedding Ornament

Chocolate Daze

I have recently been reading cookbooks (yes, reading) and done lots and lots of drooling. My current favorite drool has been over this book:

Well, I was in the mood this evening for something chocolatey. Something dark, decadent and delicious. Something more along the lines of Cupcakes, but alas, I don't live in San Francisco, nor could I find a recipe that looked as delicious as these.  I've been perusing David Lebovitz's blog (the author of the above cookbook) so I think I will blame my current chocolate cravings on him. :D Thankfully, he came to the rescue to satisfy my craving. I made Clotilde's Very Chocolate Cookies and let me say they are as dark, decadent and delicious as a girl could hope for. I used Lindt 85% dark chocolate bar and hershey's cocoa. I didn't have any cocoa nibs, so I left those out. I would love to try the cookies with those in them. For those out there who love bigger cookies, mine are about thumb size and are perfect. Each bite is so dark and so rich, anything bigger would be overwhelming. 

Enjoy!

What a mess.

So the bug guy is supposed to come and spray.... and he said for maximum effectiveness, you should empty your cabinets. *sigh* Now my kitchen (most of it) is all over my dining room, my family room, and inching out into the living room. Oh well. No more buggies?

Baking up a storm!

Can I just say "yum?!" Mike was gone this afternoon and I decided to work on some of my "projects". Namely, using or storing the roasted squash I had hanging out in the fridge. A friend of mine gave me a recipe for pumpkin bran muffins which I absolutely ADORE and had yet to find a good recipe for. I also wanted a pie. AND I needed to make dinner. So.. this is the result. : )

Butternut Squash Pie. It looks, tastes and smells like pumpkin! 

I made biscuits and then we had Chicken A La King.

Mike was helping me put away the muffins and looked confounded.

I went and picked some of the green beans out of our garden to use for dinner. They were huge! The top green bean is the huge one, the bottom one is the size I am accustomed to picking. I can't believe how big they got. I've been really enjoying going out to pick a handful of green beans every few days. I will have to plant a bigger patch next year. : ) Anybody have canning jars?

Pumpkin Bran Muffins

This recipe is the best bran muffin recipe I have ever had. We used to buy Krusteaz Bran Muffin mix and they stopped selling it in our store. : ( I think this recipe is going to be my replacement. I am curious to try substituting applesauce and peanut butter for the pumpkin and see how that works out.

Some things I did do, I used wheat bran instead of oat bran. I also used cinnamon and nutmeg instead of the pumpkin pie spice. An alternative would be cloves and ginger. For some added nutritional kick, yogurt would probably substitute well for the milk. 

Oat Bran Muffins

from food.com via Joanna Campbell

1 1/2 cup oat bran 

3/4 packed brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup mashed pumpkin, cooked*

1/2 cup milk

1 egg (or 2 egg whites), beaten

2 Tbls oil

Mix dry ingredients

Mix wet ingredients well then combine with dry ingredients until wet (don't over mix)

Spray or line muffin 12 muffin cups

Fill 3/4 with mixture

Bake at 425 for 20 min.

If you have never used fresh pumpkin or squash, it makes things even better!

Roasting Squash

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice pumpkin (or squash such as butternut) in half, empty the innards. The seeds can be roasted too. Place pumpkin skin side down and bake for at least one hour, until a fork easily pierces the flesh. Remove skin and puree pumpkin. 

Let me know how things turn out, everybody. : )

Oh, and this picture is just for fun. My sister took it.

Hugs!

~Scottie

Friends and Fun

So it seems this weekend turned into an intense people filled weekend. We had dinner with some friends, then some more friends arrived to spend the weekend, and then saturday we went to a party of some other friends. Whew! I crashed out last night and didn't want to wake up this morning.

Saturday we went to the Nelson - Atkins Museum of Art. We didn't look at more than a third of the exhibits and spent several hours. It is definitely on my list to go visit again. I enjoyed not feeling I had to see everything because I can come back. So often on trips to museums and what not, it is in a different city and if you miss something, the opportunity might not come again.

Here are a few pictures of the exhibits.

I forget how much taller we have gotten.

Mummy?

I LOVE this photo. Don't ask me why.

And.... some photos of us. : D

Photo bomb!

What? Nothing to see here.

Jump!

Now you see me

Now you don't!  :D

And last not but not least, a real picture of the group. : )

D.J, Anne, Hubby and Me, Steph and Gary.
Yeah. : )

Conquered!

I feel like a man. I mean this in the best way of course. Tonight, I conquered the grill. : D I got the charcoal, lit the charcoal, let it catch on fire nicely, had lovely coals, and cooked the steak. Woot. :D  Of course, Mike gave me advice on how to get the charcoal going.... and then he flipped the steaks for me. Oops. Didn't realize they would cook so fast! Oh well, dinner was quite yummy. : ) Sorry, no pictures of the roasted corn, baked potatoes, and steak.

By the way.... why is it the corn is roasted and the potatoes baked, but they were in the oven together?

~Bekah

What's one more?

I just finished reading this:

At 1007 pages including illustrations and endnotes, it is the longest book I have read in quite a long time. However, I started it Saturday afternoon, and finished Sunday evening. I didn't spend all my time reading either. Whew!


The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

This book is an epic saga, of which Way of Kings is the first of a planned ten-book series. (According to Wikipedia). Goodness that is 10,000 pages! What a stack of paper. The story follows several different characters for the main story lines. I'm expecting them all to weave in together. However, in a 1000 pages, the story was only just beginning! Sword fights, special powers, unique plant life, and a diverse culture and religion all give life and depth. My favorite two characters are Shallan and Kaladin. They lead very different lives, but seem to have the same determination to succeed. When the story ends, both have just embarked on a new era in their lives. One which Sanderson left wide open to his creativity. Here is hoping the new one arrives quickly!

Busy, Busy!

I had such a lovely weekend. It was such a busy weekend! :D My grandpa came through Friday, then he came through again on Sunday and brought a friend. Mike taught him how to play Wii bowling. It was great.

I also got to see my friend Candice. Yeah!! I haven't seen her in almost two years. We stayed up late.... talked, caught up. It was lovely. Anybody have an adventurous weekend??

Have you ever had Peach Nehi? It is peach flavored soda. My husband introduced me to it, and it is yummy. Particularly with vanilla ice cream! I had it for dessert yesterday.

Toodles!

~Bekah