Finding My Way To Fit and Fabulous

Not Bad…I Can Live With This….

2010-07-04T18:41:00.001-04:00

The phrase that was music to my ears tonight after I fed FabHubs this:THIS being a totally vegan, organic meal consisting of kale sauteed in EVOO with some garlic and sliced onions; baked sweet potato fries AND a portobello mushroom “burger” (portobello mushroom marinated in EVOO and balsamic, cooked on the Foreman grill). Ole’ George was thrilled to be pulled out and put into use again!

The ‘shroom burger was topped with homemade guac (avocado, cilantro, onion, tomato, and lemon since I was out of lime juice) and a thick slice each of tomato and onion. I served it on one of FabHubs homemade vegan English muffins! (yes..he figured out how to make them vegan and still quite delicious!

Truly I sure wasn’t expecting that…yes, I was expecting The Look!

Leftover guac…I found out that putting the pit in when you store it is not an old wives’ tale…IT REALLY WORKS!!!

FabHubs had two burgers, I had one…and I piled on the kale and sweet potato fries for both of us. He wasn’t thrilled with the kale but said (another happy dance from me!) “I will probably get used to it.”

OH YEAH!!!!!!!!!

This follows up a pretty amazing weekend of fruits and veggies for us.

FabHubs and I were all alone this holiday weekend…he worked on Friday but was off Saturday and most of the day today (all Fabkids are off with their other parents’ for the weekend). So I warned him that it was up to he and I to make sure the tons of organic produce from Monday’s box didn’t go bad and we would be spending the weekend pounding the produce!

Saturday FabHubs and I slept in until nearly noon….and then woke up to this yumminess as I strived to use up the berries in the fridge:

After breakfast I plopped him on the couch and popped the DVD Eating in so we could watch it together. I have already seen it, but I wanted him to see it!

I expected a lot of skepticism from him….but he actually enjoyed it and learned from it, enough to even email his parents info about it!

After the DVD I made us both Green Monsters to try and stave off the hunger monsters…but soon we were both FAMISHED!

I knew I had to make something really satisfying for him if I am going to keep him close to this healthy pathway…so I whipped out all the salad type veggies I could manage to find in the fridge and made this:

HIS:

MINE:

Both had organic romaine, carrots, daikon, tomatoes, cukes, and scallions. I made these salads HUGE! (FabHubs commented that we weren’t eating from bowls, they were troughs, and indeed I served these in huge tupperware-like containers!) To add a filling factor, I opened a can of kidney beans and put at least a cup on his…only about one-third cup on mine! I was determined that there was no way he was going to walk away from this salad complaining he was still hungry!

I topped both with nutritional yeast…and gave him hummus on the side. We used my lemon/garlic dressing on top. I also added some cilantro dressing and crumbled some Mary’s Gone Crackers on top of mine.

It really did the trick and he was satisfied for hours! We ended up actually just snacking through the night, never being hungry enough to eat the grilled mushrooms, which were originally planned for dinner last night!

After dinner we watched Morgan Spurlock’s SuperSize Me, which further added fuel to our Eat Healthy fires!

I am so glad to see FabHubs alongside me on this!

Today we continued on the fruit theme, eating unpictured mango, crenshaw melon, and other fruits all from the box, all day until dinner time when we had the kale/potatoe/portobello dinner.

Now I am sad because FabHubs has to go off and work at a fireworks shoot and I can’t be with him!

I will be off in the audience with some friends though, watching.

WISHING EVERYBODY A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY!!!!

No Lights, No Phone, No Motorcar…Not A Single Luxury!!!!!!

2010-07-03T15:05:00.001-04:00

For those of you too young to recognize it…that would be from the theme from Gilligan’s Island…and except for the island surrounded by water part, that is exactly how I lived for a few weeks while I was off in Virginia with FabTeen, being mountain men!

We lived in a camp, learned 17th century crafts and even had to dress the part or we were considered “naked” and couldn’t participate!

This was my home away from home:

My cot is the one on the right without the mosquito netting!

See how the walls of the tent don’t go all the way to the floor…and the slats in my wooden pallet floor? These were welcoming open doors for my multiple roommates!

YES! They are as big and scary as they look! I HATED them!!! and I HATED going to bed!

Susanna (my human roommate and much preferred to the spidery ones) and I had a nightly bedtime ritual that sadly did not include hot cocoa and bedtime stories. Instead we would call in one of the nonspider fearing men to remove by hand a dozen or so spiders from our tent….no matter…every single night, by the middle of the night, new ones had moved in!

The closeup is the back of my tent…the little structure up hill is the bathroom! No running water…and I always did spider and snake checks before I sat down!

This was our little “village” in the woods, with the fire in the center and the tents all around it:

We built fires and cooked all of our meals over it…

Showers were also very primitive…and were a 25 minute hike there and back into “town” which translates to base camp (where FabHubs and FabStepson were!) I even had company in the shower!Sounds like a lot of work and struggles…but still I had a lot of fun and did a lot of firsts…I learned how to blacksmith! Like Mother, Like Son… I learned how to start a fire without matches…using flint and steel! I filled my water bottle from this pump….I was surprised the water tasted really good..I am very picky about my water too!Learned some old-fashioned games:Learned to weave…and I am much better at weaving than blacksmithing! Made a sheath, and then made a knife to put in the sheath: Learned how to load and shoot a black powder rifle (and it turns out I am a pretty good shot too!)

While I did dread the nights, in spite of the spiders I had such a great time!

There is so much more that I did…but this post is getting long! And since this is a food blog I know you are curious how I handled the food part!

So I will be writing another post about how I managed too eat while I was in totally meat-based environment with no access to my yummy organics or grocery!

You May Be A Mom If You……

2010-06-30T23:11:00.001-04:00

Cry like a big baby during (of all movies) Toy Story 3!!

FabSheTeen wanted to see Eclipse tonight! So I decided to give her a rare treat (we are movie renters and never go to the theater unless it is a school field trip!) and picked her up from camp and we went to the movies…but since her BFF ended up not going…she decided to wait for her, so we opted to see

instead!

The 3-D version! Don’t we look cute in our 3-D glasses? I am actually wearing glassesses since I have my 3-D glasses on over my glasses!

Ken and Barbie fall in love! So cute! So cheesy!

Confession: I am a definite movie crier! Embarrassingly enough, I am even known to cry during touching commercials.

My kids tease me mercilessly all the time about this.

But this was not Beaches, or Terms of Endearment, or Pay It Forward, or Marley and Me, or even Bambi (yes…I bawled my eyes out in all of those except for Marley and Me which I will not see because I know it will make me cry and I don’t want to cry!)

I cried for the toys, oh yes I did! and I just silently sniffled and snorted away with the tears streaming down my face behind the glassesses (boy was I glad to be wearing those!! They hid the tears well!) when Andy’s mom came into his room after he had packed! (Umm….my FabTeen will be leaving for college next year…it hit so close to home!)

But to cry at Toy Story???? LOL! or for Crying Out Loud, whichever the case may be!

Like A Little Kid!!!

2010-06-13T09:12:00.001-04:00

Ooooh I am soooo excited! Today I get to run around for a totally limited (read..we are in a hurry and FabHubs will be the timekeeper…GULP) period of time in TRADER JOE’S!

Okay…to many of you No Big Deal. But to a South Florida girl who has no TJ’s within two days’ driving distance, I am like a kid on her way to Disney World!

Silly isn’t it!

Any Must Gets?

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary, How Does Your Garden Grow??????

2010-06-07T08:32:00.000-04:00

It is AMAZING how fast our garden is growing!

FabHubs planted it on May 19 and this is what it looked like then:

Fast forward a few weeks to May 27 and it was getting bigger, and looking like a REAL garden!: And here is a little snapshot of what it looked like today, June 6: It is growing like weeds..ha ha…except for the ones FabHubs pulls out!

We have corn (tons of it!), tomatoes, broccoli, eggplant, kabocha, cucumbers, garlic, basil, cilantro, carrots, bell peppers, romaine, cantaloupe, watermelon, and two kinds of strawberries.

In other parts of our yard we also have three blueberry bushes and six pineapple plants with gorgeous pineapples growing on them! I need to get some pictures of those.

From years past we have a longan tree that for the first time is full of fruit! And a little lychee tree we purchased and planted last year that looks kind of Charlie Brownish but I have high hopes for fruit in the upcoming years from it! (we are lychee FANATICS!)

We are already enjoying basil from the garden…and the corn looks like it is starting to fruit.

Two major problems have been the heat which seems to really scorch some of the plants. At first FabHubs decided he would plant corn all over the place (hence the ton of corn!) and it would grow and shade everything. It was a nice thought…but everything was burning in the process. He finally broke down and bought the shade tarp that had been recommended to us in the beginning that he didn’t want to buy! It is making a big difference.

The second major problem is BUGS! It is amazing how every bug in a 1000-mile range receives the notice when you plant a garden! We have bugs we have never seen before!

Of course everybody keeps telling him to spray it with pesticide…but we are planting an ORGANIC garden, thank you very much! The pesticide defeats the whole purpose of trying to keep my family chemical free!

So far the soap spray seems to be working…but I have a new and improved all natural bug recipe the garden lady at Home Depot gave me the other night with garlic/hot pepper/soap…I will keep you updated on how that works once we make and use it.

Thanks so much to My Edible Yard for all of her advice on what we could plant down here in this tropical heat and for my monthly South Florida “what to do in the garden this month” updates!

I am SO excited and can’t wait until we are eating from our garden!!!!

What A Surprise

2010-06-06T21:11:00.001-04:00

Remember when I gave blood last week?

Look what came in the mail for me…my first certificate!

At a pint a shot I calculated that to be my 16th donation! A nice reward for being able to donate again.

Short and sweet today…have to go…FabHubs (who has gotten his 5 gallon certificate already!!) is calling me for dinner!

You Win Some…You Lose Some

2010-05-30T21:47:00.001-04:00

Since 9/11 I have been a faithful blood donor. Every eight weeks, like clockwork, I would show up at the blood bank to donate blood. It was an easy way for me to “do my part.”

But a few years ago, I began to be rejected for low iron. It began to be a complete roll of the dice every time I went….would my iron make it?

Soon every time I went, as soon as they sat me down for the history I would tell them to just go ahead and check the iron right away as it would be the deciding factor on where we were going.

I would suffer the little fingerstick and the squeezing of my poor finger until it turned purple and filled a small tube full of blood …and then the telling moment where the technician would plop a drop of my blood into a little fluid-filled vial. The story was usually the same, we would watch, our eyes riveted to the blood drop, me holding my breath, as we waited for that drop of blood sample to sink, passing me through to the next phase of blood donation….or not as was usually the case. For a long period of time (nearly two years), my little blood drops tended to float not sink…or perform a great tease, dropping almost but not quite all the way down, then slowly make their way back up, stopping to hover somewhere in the middle of the jar, suspended in limbo, not going down….but not going all the way up either.

At this point they would take the little tube and stick in a centrifuge to run a manual count on my iron level. The magic number was 37. 37 or higher and I was in…any lower and I was OUT! Usually I would end up somewhere between 34 and 36, with the occasional jackpot of a 37…or close enough to the 37 mark that they would pass me along.

It finally got to the point that even after spinning my blood I was rejected more than I was accepted. And after a period of time I just gave up.

Fast forward to the present where I have been eating far healthier than I ever have in my life. I drink my Amazing Grass shakes pumped up with spinach..sometimes raw, sometimes steamed. And I eat lots of beans, broccoli, oatmeal and other iron-rich foods.

I decided it was finally time to give it another try and headed back to the blood bank.

This week I made sure I drank my Amazing Grass shakes daily, and steamed the spinach to get the iron. I also added peaches, with vitamin C, to the shakes to help with the iron absorption.

In addition to this, Tuesday night’s dinner was heavy with lentils, an iron-rich legume, as I ate a nice helping of my lentil salad, and Wednesday I had my chickpea and spinach stir-fry.

Thursday morning was the day and I knew I was fortified and ready to go!

FabTeen went along with me for company..not to give blood himself.

I hadn’t made an appointment, but sadly they are usually not too busy and welcome walk-ins. FabTeen waited in the waiting area while they whisked me into the office to do my intake…and perform the all-telling iron test! As usual I had them perform the fingerstick first…and he didn’t even drop it into the vial, he immediately walked it out to the centrifuge to check it that way while I waited…End result???? I FINALLY PASSED! barely with an iron of 38 (remember I needed 37 as the minimum) but at least I passed!

From there he completed the rest of the questionnaire, took my blood pressure (a very nice 100/70, thank you very much), pulse, and temperature.After all of the preliminary testing, I was passed on to the “other side” where they actually take the blood!

I had chit-chatted with the guy quite a bit before getting to this point, and it turns out he is vegetarian as well. I told him about the organic produce box and encouraged him to sign up!I have given blood many, many times in my life and I have never felt nervous…but for the first time this guy made me nervous! I even asked him if he was sure he knew how to do it!

He just seemed so hesitant and unsure about it…and right before he stuck the needle in me he kept talking and dragging it out! First he said, “okay now,” and I expected him to do it…then “here we go” and I expected him to do it…then “just about ready,” and a few more other things before he finally stuck me! All his talking made me wonder who he was getting ready…me…or HIM! And that made me really unsure!

When he finally put it in though, it was so smooth I barely felt it! I had worried for nothing… They took several vials of blood for testing…… And when FabTeen went to take a picture of me, rather than jumping out, the phlebotomist was happy to pose! No big deal! All ready to help somebody! Afterwards, they give you a drink…I used to enjoy an ice cold coke afterwards but now I took water. The guy next to me (he reminded me exactly of an older version of FabHubs) joked about them being all out of beer…so they whipped out a coupon for the pub next door, a pint for a pint, meaning we could each get a pint of beer for donating a pint of blood! Cool!!

Then the guy asked for a t-shirt! They always give a bunch of goodies when you give blood…but they only had one t-shirt. I really didn’t want another one. I have so many already and honestly I don’t wear them except for coloring my hair or other messy jobs, so I really didn’t care. So the guy offered it to me…but I said no thanks you take it, and he said no you take it, and we went back and forth a little bit…when the other phlebotomist who had the t-shirt asked if I would like a free movie pass instead. Hmmm…t-shirt or free movie pass….HELLO! Is there any question???? I so much rather the movie pass!!! Score!

So I left with a pass for a pint of beer, a free movie ticket, a sticker, a pretty purple gauzy thing, a bottle of water, some Chex Mix, and lots of good feelings…because I was able to help somebody by donating blood AND because my iron was high enough that I could help somebody by donating blood!

You can only donate every eight weeks…my next date is July 22. Stay tuned…

Back at home I turned my sights on dinner!

I LOVE tofu….family not so much. So I am on an endless quest to try to make the tofu palatable for them! I try to make it crispy and full of flavor. So far I am a complete failure in this department…the only one who likes it is still me.

But I had tofu ready and waiting, and a bunch of veggies I wanted to use up in a stir-fry, and set out on yet another mission to make FabHubs and FabTeen see the light!

First I dug out some yummy-sounding recipes…I stumbled upon one for tofu that sounded great…and another for an easy stir-fry with miso that sounded great as well. I had a new tub of miso that had been sitting in the fridge for way too long, and finally welcomed the opportunity to press it into service.

The recipe for the tofu came from Gliding Calm. I followed it almost to a “T." (for tofu!)

First though, I had read that tofu was a little less “spongy” if you froze and defrosted it…so that is what I did. In advance I stuck it in the freezer, and then yesterday I took it out to thaw. The only other exception was I used pumpkin pie spice instead of ginger, since I was out of ginger. I sliced up the tofu, mixed the marinade ingredients together, and put everything in a baggy to marinate.

The freezing business only seemed to make some of the pieces a little crumbly! While my poor tofu was first marinating and then trying to crisp, I got to work on the rest of the dinner. I cut up a bunch of veggies to get ready to stir-fry them. What a colorful array!

I had yellow squash, carrot, portobello mushroom, broccoli, onion, and garlic…all from my wonderful organic produce box! I love that weekly delivery!! I made a delicious stir-fry sauce, adapting it from this one from FatFree Vegan.

My miso was red, and I used rice wine vinegar instead of mirin. I also was out of corn starch so I didn’t thicken my sauce. I used honey as my sweetener…and added extra to try to make it palatable for FabHubs who is a big resistor of anything soy sauce related. And of course my veggies were as above, whatever I had on hand!Then I got the brilliant idea to toast some sesame seeds to sprinkle on top of the final dish! I also made some unpictured brown rice on the side to go with the stir-fry.

Finally everything was cooked and assembled…

And what a disaster!

The rice was totally mush!

The veggies were not crisp…they were also overdone!

The tofu was tough and chewy!

What a mess! The sauce came out good though!

So not one of my best cooking efforts at all…but I think that happens to everybody at times.

I definitely got “The Look” from FabHubs and he did not have seconds. FabStepson was the only other one home…but he ate it.

However FabTeen happily ate it as leftovers the next day, go figure!

I will still not give up on the tofu though!

Do you have any tried and true hits for preparing tofu! Please share!!!!

Jewel’s Lentil Cilantro Salad

2010-05-27T22:13:00.001-04:00

(currently I have no picture of the finished product!)

1 16-ounce bag of lentils
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (or more to taste)
2 carrots, sliced thin
3-4 scallions, chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
14-ounce can kidney beans, drained and rinsed (optional)
1/8 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar (or more to taste)
S&P to taste

Soak lentils in water for 2-3 hours. Drain and put in pot with water to cover. Bring to boil 10-20 minutes, until softened, but firm.

Drain and rinse with cool water. Add other ingredients and toss. Refrigerate to blend flavors.

Notes: This is a very forgiving recipe. If I am out of scallions I will use onions. If I don’t have carrots I don’t add them. I also prefer the red wine vinegar in this recipe, although balsamic or apple cider will work as well.

The mainstays are the lentils, cilantro, onions, tomatoes, and seasonings. Add seasonings until you reach the desired flavor; you may want to add more or less oil and/or vinegar.

It is also delicious served warm.

Still Craving Fresh….and Fresh!

2010-05-27T21:55:00.001-04:00

Tuesday night we had a court of honor at our scout meeting, with a pot luck dinner. Each patrol is assigned a “category” of food to bring.

Last court of honor our patrol was assigned dessert so that is what I brought. But at dinner that night, nobody had brought salad or veggie side dishes and I ended up with almost nothing to eat!

This time I was taking no chances!

I was assigned a main dish and I was making sure it would be something I could happily eat if there was nothing else available!

So lentil salad it was. Now I totally expected (based on past experience when I bring healthy stuff) to have most of it left over. But I didn’t care!

I LOVE my lentil salad!

I planned ahead for this one, ordering an available add-on from my organic produce buying club that included a bunch of scallions and two bunches of cilantro.

Warning #1: I was such a lousy photographer for this day! I was too busy trying to get everything together and rushing around to get work done, food done, kids picked up, and to the ceremony on time!

Warning #2: This is one of my “throw everything together” recipes with no measurements…it probably comes out differently each time I make it!

First I soaked a bag of lentils in water for most of the day, and then boiled them for about 15 minutes to soften them up. I rinsed them off in cold water.Then I grabbed three (which later turned into four) scallions, a gorgeous tomato, a couple of carrots, and a handful of cilantro. The scallion, even though fresh, was rooting already! (of course no picture of that!) Gotta love those organics!I had FabTeen chop everything up and add it to the lentils. Then we used red wine vinegar, some olive oil, and S&P to taste. We placed it in the fridge for a few hours for the flavors to meld, although this lentil salad is delicious served warm as well.

Honestly it could have used a little more vinegar…but I hadn’t done a taste test towards the end and I was rushing. I also meant to add a can of kidney beans…but that slipped by me too!

Needless to say the salad was a big hit! Several people even asked me for the recipe! It was soooo good!

I absolutely love this salad and have been making a variation of it since FabTeen was born, but it has been a while since I have made it. I think it is my new vegetarian (and vegan) Go-To potluck recipe dish though, as it is perfect for a side dish..but robust enough for a meal.

Of course that is where the pictures ended…no completed salad…no buffet picture, not even a picture of my plate! Although at least I did manage to remember to take the more important photo of FabStepson receiving his merit badges! (He is the not so hairy one)

Another major salad craving I have been having is for Sweet Annie’s massaged kale salad.

Last week we had curly kale in the box and I was soooo craving it! Sometime during the week I went to make it, and when I was washing it, I found some extra protein in my kale! After four days in the fridge they were still wiggling away! YUCK!

I picked through, soaked in vinegar, and rinsed the kale to death after that…but I just couldn’t bring myself to eat it raw. I was satisfied that they were gone though..so we had it sauteed for dinner that night. But that still didn’t satisfy my kale craving.

So this week I also ordered the $5 leafy add on from the buying club, which included a big bunch of kale and an extra head of lettuce. With all of my salad cravings lately we have had to buy extra lettuce anyway, so I may as well get it from the buying club!

Finally this week I was able to make my kale salad. This kale salad is a veritable powerhouse of superfoods! I feel so healthy when I have it for lunch!

The superfoods include kale, raisins, garlic, walnuts, and honey. The only nonsuperfood in the mix is the olive oil!

I add everything into the bowl, and then massage all the ingredients together for about ten minutes to wilt the kale and make it soft. It is a messy job! But Oh So worth it! We have been storing up ripened bananas in the freezer…I like to use them for the Green Monsters, but FabTeen has been wanting to make banana soft serve for a while, so he finally remembered to do it when we had time. It has been a long time since we have had this! I had forgotten how thick, smooth, and creamy this is…so much like ice cream only totally guilt-free! Definitely something we need to make more often. It disappeared way too quick!

Finally, dinner was a total throw something together to use up my organic veggies sort of event. I needed to use up some yellow squash….a bunch of fresh spinach…onions (we have several bags of those!), garlic, and a beet!

What I started out making turned into something totally different. I was tired and feeling like I was coming down with something, and just didn’t feel like doing anything! FabHubs said he would take over…but he was going so ssssllllloooowwww and at the rate he was meditatively chopping the veggies, I was worried we wouldn’t be eating before 10 p.m. and I wanted to get to bed!

So I took over some of it…and then he took over again with a little more hurry in his step!

I sliced up the squash and added the onions and garlic that FabHubs had minced into the big bowl and tossed with some EVOO, balsamic, and S&P. I am not a big fan of yellow squash but this made them very yummy! I also peeled a head of garlic with some giant cloves on it…and tossed the cloves whole into the mix so they would roast as well. I LOVE roasted garlic cloves!

I sliced some more onions and rough cut some garlic, and had FabHubs sautee them in some coconut oil. Then I had him add the spinach that I had washed and separated. Finally, I gave him a can of garbanzo beans to add to the mix. Kind of impromptu and totally thrown together…but the end result was so good and filling too! When I don’t have a clear source of meat-like protein for FabHubs, you never know if it will pass muster. Usually I can make beans fit the bill in some way…so I try to add them often to our meals.

In this case it worked! It was flavorful, healthy, and satisfying!

Plus…the lentils from Tuesday, spinach, and chickpeas were filled with much-needed iron for me…to see if I would pass the test. I will you about that tomorrow!

Another Day, Another Salad..or Two

2010-05-22T23:16:00.001-04:00

Another busy day spent at FabSheteen’s school…we were hungry and they were making cheeseburgers for the kids (a fun reward day…party all day with slides, rock climbing, food, and more) , so FabHubs and I ran home for lunch.

I was in the mood for salad again…..

So I finished up the last of the salad, topped with my home-grown sprouts and half of last avocado. It was heavily sprinkled with nutritional yeast and dressed with my new fave…homemade garlic/oil/lemon dressing. So. So. Good.

But my manly man, tool-wielding, pioneering master, carnivorous husband…look at his lunch…

LOOK WHAT I HAVE DONE TO MY HUSBAND (hahahahaha)

Yes..he voluntarily fixed himself a lunch of a can of sardines packed in water (we read in a recent Eating Well article we should be eating more sardines); a carrot; a banana; and the other half of my avocado (guess who didn’t eat avocados when I married him)!

I am soooo proud! LOL! (I am obviously feeling way too much glee over this!)

After lunch we ran back to school to volunteer for the “bake sale” which was really a water bottle and and frozen artificially flavored and colored high fructose corn syrup sale (read water bottles and melting icees…..melting because this is May in South Florida of course!) I am so NOT happy peddling this stuff to kids, some of whom come back for thirds and fourths! (I did manage to fuss enough about selling sodas though, so they don’t sell them anymore at these weekly sales. Yes, I am THAT mom.)

Anyway, once that was finished, FabGrumps I mean Hubs and I did a Costco run to re-stock our nearly barren pantry. We were out of nearly all of our staples! Garlic, lemons, lettuce (no! not lettuce!), maple syrup, peanut butter, EVOO, white vinegar for cleaning…and more.

While ~~sampling my way~~ running through the aisles of Costco, I found pizza on sale, two ginormous unbaked pies for $7.99…and they had yummy Margherita pizza! A bargain like this I couldn’t resist! Salad and pizza would be perfect (and easy for a change) for dinner.

Once home I couldn’t resist fixing it up some! I had some leftover grilled eggplant in the fridge just begging to be added to this pizza…as well as a Vidalia onion who couldn’t wait to be sliced and diced and join the melee as well!

They were perfect on top….this pizza was perfection!Next came the salad….Costco organic spring mix topped with whatever was left in the fridge from the last two boxes: Cukes, carrots, onions, tomatoes, celery, and parsley.

Have I mentioned how much I love salad??????

We are in love with this dressing!

Simple.

Lemon juice. Olive Oil. Minced garlic. Parmesan Cheese.

That is it! A slight variation on a garlicky lemon dressing my mom used to make!And I can’t say enough about the combination of the dressing spooned over a thick layer of nutritional yeast (over the salad of course!)

While I love salads…I find I love not just any old salad, but mostly MY salads. I put all sorts of things on them…sometimes beans, cheeses, nuts, tons of veggies, hearty greens, and more.

Regular old iceberg lettuce with a few carrot shreds just don’t do it for me. Unfortunately that is what I seem to find mostly when I go out! I am starting to dread my week away at Boy Scout camp in June when I will not be able to make all of my favorite things and will have no refrigeration…so I will be almost completely relying on a meal plan based on the SAD diet. How will I get through a week without my beloved salad????? Or fresh veggies???? Or fresh fruits????

So far my main plan consists of bringing along some sprouting containers, starting them before I leave, so I have some fresh sprouts to munch on! At least that will be something. More on that to come.

The rest of the evening was spent family style. My new best friend is the Blockbuster Movie Express, found in grocery stores where you can rent a movie for $1, for one day. So after dinner we gathered ‘round the TV and watched The Ugly Truth…very cute movie!

What do you put on your salads to make them fun and exciting?

A Day Of DELICIOUSNESS

2010-05-21T22:53:00.001-04:00

Back to my eats! Yesterday was seriously delicious!

Breakfast was in a hurry and very simple (and delicious in its own way)……

Yes…I ran off to school fueled by simply an unpictured espresso to watch my daughter perform in several skits and monologues!

So filling….in a parental sort of way!

By the time I got home I was STARVING though! and craving salad in a BIG way. Lately I find I have been constantly craving huge, fresh, crunchy salads!

While I didn’t end up with huge I ended up with delicious.

FabTeen had made some organic Annies organic Mac & Cheese so I had some of that as well.

Kids complained it didn’t taste like Kraft Dinner…but that is a good thing! It is a little blander, but doesn’t have all of those ORANGE chemicals, does it!

On the side I added a perfect avocado. I forced myself to give FabTeen half of this creamy green perfection!

Over the top of the salad and Mac and Cheese I sprinkled heavily some nutritional yeast. I started eating it because I had to…but I am finding I love the stuff!

Finally…I once again begrudgingly shared this perfect, juicy, sweet, and stunning peach (the last one from the box on Monday!) with FabTeen. The things you do for your kids!

Dinner started out almost a disaster, but turned out far beyond my expectations!

I wanted to use up some things I had on hand from the box….and thought I would make some couscous with veggies with a sort of Moroccan type flare. I LOVE Moroccan/Indian/Middle Eastern seasonings.

I pulled out a box of couscous and these veggies….

Carrots, half a cauliflower, tomato, onion, garlic, ginger, and broccolini.

I was going to cook the couscous and add in the veggies.

Couscous turned out to be moth infested!! YIKES! What now!!!

I debated brown rice…but was worried the veggies would turn out mushy. So then I switched to white rice…then finally quinoa. Despite all the indecision, somehow I ended up pulling together something that turned out FANTASTIC!

While not the original plan, I decided to cook the quinoa separately than the veggies, and add it to the cooked veggies.

While the quinoa cooked I went to work on the veggies. I rough cut several cloves of garlic and diced up a bunch (quarter cup maybe?) of fresh ginger (yum) and a whole onion.

One of my major philosophies is that you can never have too much garlic or too much ginger!

Although first I pulled out the olive oil…last minute decision led to using coconut oil instead to saute these in the cast iron skillet. Another last minute decision was to toss in a handful of sliced almonds so they would be toasted too. (originally I was going to add them at the end!)

You can’t imagine the gorgeous aroma that came out of this pan..coconut, ginger, onion, garlic…aaaaahhhhh…DIVINE!

Once these caramelized a little I began adding the other ingredients.

First the carrots as they take the longest to cook.

Then the cauliflower, chopped into nice little bite-sized pieces.

Then a handful or three of raisins.

Then a drained can of chickpeas (trying to make this appealing to FabHubs…he hates cauliflower and quinoa but somehow beans in some form seem to pacify him!) I generously poured turmeric, cinnamon, and cumin on top and stirred to make sure everything was coated.

By now the pan was so full, so I decided not to add the broccolini or the tomato.

I also decided to serve the quinoa on the side rather than mix it in.

OMG this turned out UNBELIEVABLE!

Even my quinoa, stir-fry, cauliflower-despising husband begrudgingly acknowledged, said, “this is actually pretty good.”

HA! I will win him over yet!

Sometimes You’ve Got To Give A Gal A Break!!

2010-05-20T12:47:00.001-04:00

I miss my blog!

After two totally crazy, warp-speed weeks of nonstop events and working, I crashed! I needed time! I just had to take a break…from blogging…scouts…everything.

Let’s step back a little. Last we spoke was the day of my 5K (recap yet to come!). The weekend before that had been filled with extended family drama (Oh God), Girl Scout events and SheTeen’s and my birthday celebrations. We were nonstop from Friday to Sunday night!

Monday was packed with the produce delivery, while Tuesday I baked cupcakes for SheTeen’s class to celebrate her real birthday.

Wednesday I took a bunch of young and cute sheteens to the mall and the movies to celebrate Ms. SheTeen’s birthday.

In between all of this don’t forget work…and school…and homework…and regular family maintenance (they want rides to places, clean laundry, help with homework and projects…and they expect to eat EVERY SINGLE DAY! Can you imagine?)

Thursday night was the 5K. Tons of fun!!!!

After the 5K we came home, kind of late, had a little nap, and jumped up ~~bright and~~ early the next morning to go on a field trip with the SheTeen!

Field trip over, we came home and scrambled to get packed for that weekend’s Girl Scout camping trip down in the beautiful Florida Keys!

Somewhere along the course of the day (thankfully BEFORE we got the car loaded and BEFORE we hit the road), FabHubs noticed car trouble ahead. So after a few-hour scramble on his part (and some patiently ignoring the grumpiness on our part), he fixed it…(I LOVE having a handy guy) and we proceeded on our merry way. Albeit a lot later than we wanted to be! ~~FabHubs and FabTeen~~ We still had tents to set up when we got there! UGH!

Sunday we rushed home from camping early in order to shower, change clothes and not look like we were camping anymore to attend an elegant dinner ceremony honoring Eagle Scouts from 2009/2010, of which FabTeen was one! Another late night!

Monday kicked off early (too early) with kids to school, work, and produce…and the week went on in a similar vein as the previous week. Nonstop event to event to event...

And I found myself overtired, overwhelmed, and overdone!

I needed time! Time for me..time to do NOTHING (well, other than work, and school, and that family maintenance issue again!).

And so I did. And while blogging was not supposed to be included in the unexpected retreat, somehow I just couldn’t force myself to sit down and think and type!

But I am back now…refreshed, recharged, and ready to go!

I have lots to share too! From the 5K to updates on our fabulous garden…and don’t you miss my lovely organic meals? I did (missed sharing that is..we still ate them!)

Welcome back…I missed you guys!

Running….and Walking

2010-04-29T11:11:00.001-04:00

Just a quick check in as run through life, desperately trying to keep up with my sadly overbooked and bulging schedule this week!

Yes I have been eating great things and dutifully photographing them…but all reside in my camera still, not in the post.

Tonight is my first 5k ~~run~~ walk. The big Mercedes Benz Corporate Run is going on tonight and we are participating. Yes…most people will be running it but my family and I will be walking it! At this time that is the best I can do.

FabHubs, FabStepson, and FabHeTeen (now that I have TWO teenagers their names have to grow along with them) will be walking with me! FabSheteen will be at her dad’s so she will miss out (she probably doesn’t look at it that way though).

FabHubs could very easily run the whole thing and probably not break a sweat…but he is choosing to walk with me, even though I gave him the go ahead to run or even walk at his much faster pace than mine.

I know I will have not problem finishing it…I walk 3.5 miles all the time and 5k is equal to 3.1 miles.

I have only two concerns...the major concern is the not one but TWO bridges along the way, the uphill portion (I am great with flats…the hills and stairs are what aggravate my muscle weakness) and secondly….I hope I don’t come in last!!!

Hoping to have great things to report tomorrow!!!

April Is Full Speed Ahead!

2010-04-24T20:54:00.001-04:00

HI!!!

Scrambling to stay afloat during this crazy busy week! Baynanza, a Girl Scout retreat, multiple birthdays (including one BIRTH day with a brand new nephew), school field day, Girl Scout Leader Appreciation Day, and more! This week has been PACKED!

Today I finally had a chance to slow down and B R E A T H E. Even though I spent some time working, I didn’t have to run anywhere and that was relaxing in and of itself!

While I worked, FabHubs was busy on his new project!

We have composted for years and have a huge bin full of rich compost ready to go. We have talked for years about having our own garden but have never gotten around to it.

Our lovely compost bins (made from leftover fence posts when FabHubs rebuilt sections of our fence):

A couple of months ago, Eating Well ran this article, which I left in the bathroom for FabHubs to “discover.”

Garden plan, how to get started and all!

It worked like a charm! For the last few weeks he has been so excited about planting our own garden, and last week he went out and got some seeds…and now we are the proud owners of these two lovely plots: Yes..they may look like dirt patches…but they are our new edible garden! the mounds are for cantaloupe, and we also are growing carrots, tomatoes, bush beans (what are bush beans?????), corn, eggplant, bell peppers, romaine, kabocha, and pumpkin.

The kabocha, eggplant, and bell peppers are not from seeds we bought, but saved from organic veggies we ate from my weekly produce delivery.

I am very excited to see how these do!

We also like to toss the crowns of pineapples into a section of our yard. It is amazing how they take root and grow! Earlier this week I went out there to check on them and was amazed to find these little guys!!! SIX of them in total! These little baby pineapples are so cute! Can’t wait to eat them…we DEVOUR pineapples in this household! It is one of the rare fruits that all five of us are major lovers of!

Quite a few dinners this week have been in restaurants…something very rare for us. I think we ate in restaurants more this week than we have in the past four months!

Aside from feeling not as healthy, that also makes it challenging to use up our produce before it goes bad.

Tonight’s dinner put a major dent in our produce stash!

First, since we were so hungry, I made a snack of some raw baby carrots, grape tomatoes, and sugar snap peas, all received this past Monday in the delivery!

Crunchy sweet and delicious! I love sugar snap peas raw. It is such a crime to cook them!!!!

We finished these in no time…

For dinner I roasted a large sweet potato alongside a few rutabaga I also received on Monday: Some sauteed asparagus and broccoli… And the main dish of zucchini burgers…I had several weeks’ worth of zucchini that had to be used up!!! I still have a couple left though.

The final result…

I loved how FabHubs about ketchup on his “burgers” (he is not a fan of zucchini) and when I suggested tomato paste or sauce instead HE WENT FOR IT!!! And afterwards said he really liked it as an alternative!

Weekend is not done yet…My Birthday is tomorrow! A fine wrapup to a full week!

Birthday Week…and Nature Is Calling!!!

2010-04-16T14:43:00.001-04:00

Oh boy do we have a PACKED weekend! This time of year, every year, seems to fall into the realm of chaos for us.

First of all…we kick off what we affectionately call “birthday week” in our family. Starting with FabPreteen on April 20 (she will not be a preteen anymore so I guess I have to change her name!); my cutie nephew on April 22, and ME on April 25! Plus, this year I am getting a brand new niece or nephew on April 21! (traditionally in our family we never find out in advance!!! This will be grandchild #10 for my parents…and none of us ever learned the sex before birth. Can you believe people still do that!…it is actually fun!)

So…tonight we will have a family dinner for Ms. FabsoontobeTeen; tomorrow morning we head out for Baynanza:

(from the website):

What is Baynanza?

The early 1980's marked the beginning of a monumental effort by Miami-Dade County to save Biscayne Bay. The Bay was suffering from pollution its marine environment was in steep decline. Baynanza was created as part of a larger effort to save the bay.

Baynanza, now in its 28th year, is a celebration of Biscayne Bay as one of our most important ecological and economic systems. While Baynanza includes more than 50 great events spanning from March to April, the event that has become nearly synonymous with the celebration is the Biscayne Bay Cleanup Day.

On April 18, 2009, this event drew a record number of more than 8,500 community volunteers to the shores and islands of our Bay. They collectively removed more than 32 tons of garbage that had accumulated along from Biscayne Bay's shores.

We are big nature lovers and really enjoy camping and the outdoors, so we are looking forward to doing our part in this major South Florida event!

Speaking of nature…Did you know that this week is National Park Week? All entrance fees to the 392 National Parks will be waived from April 17-April 25. We have the Everglades National Park down here…and we go several times a year. Not sure I will be making it over there this week though.

So then after Baynanza, we rush home to get FabPreteen ready for her reward trip for selling 1000 boxes of cookies…then after taking her there I will head over to a blogger meetup (so excited!!!)…and then home to rest…until Sunday!

Sunday I will join FabPreteen in Day 2 of her reward trip, which is spa day!! Manis, Pedis, Massages..and more!

Then home for a quick dinner…and off to a play with the family!

WHEW! The rest of next week looks pretty much the same as the weekend.

We almost never eat out but this week with so many activities will bring lots of eating out! Let’s see how I do among all of the temptation!!!

Spring is here…what kinds of things will you be doing this weekend???

Creative In The Kitchen

2010-04-16T10:31:00.000-04:00

I like seitan as a meat substitute and have tried several times to make it following a simmering recipe. I have ended up with a sort of weird, moist, doughy concoction. Not so good.

I have found a few other recipes to try for baked seitan which look really good…but haven’t made the time to try them out.

So today when I stumbled on this recipe for seitan in the breadmaker, easy peasy, no kneading necessary (by ME anyway) I had to give it a try!

Of course as usual I subbed out what I didn’t have. No chickpea flour? No problem…spelt flour instead. Out of thyme (always it seems..oh..not -that kind of time!), in went italian seasoning instead.

Can’t read it? Marjoram, thyme, rosemary, sage, oregano, and basil.

This was dump and go!

Ten or less fast minutes dumping everything into the breadmaker pan and then just set it to go. After the first mix… And as I type this, still waiting for the results!

So while we wait…on to dinner.

Remember last night when I wanted to make Shepherd’s pie but didn’t want to use the cream of mushroom soup?

Well I still wanted to make it tonight. But with something other than the canned soup! So I came up with my own recipe!

I have fresh carrots, peas, and potatoes…but I really want to get some of the stuff I have in the pantry and freezer gone for good already! We don’t seem to use the freezer as much now that we are getting so much fresh produce to use every week.

From the freezer I found a half bag of mixed veggies…and another half bag of baby peas. In they went!

I dumped them into a measuring cup just to get an idea of how much I had…but I wasn’t really measuring anything. Also a bag of Boca Crumbles. Publix had a sale a while back and I stocked up…so I have lots of bags but rarely use them!I just got 2 pounds of Yukon Gold taters in my box on Monday….but I used this from the pantry, this has been sitting there for ages…..I just want to get rid of it already!As I start off most recipes…some onion and garlic sauteed in some EVOO.In went the Boca Crumbles…then when they were mostly defrosted I added the frozen veggies.

Now came flavoring time! In lieu of the can of soup (I need to get those out of the pantry too…but I will probably donate them to a food bank. (Shhhh…don’t tell FabHubs!!!)

Fresh on my mind from the seitan, I poured in some Worcestershire sauce and some amount of water that looked good (I didn’t measure)…and then I remembered this tomato sauce left over in the fridge just begging to be used in something! Perfect. I made the mashed potatoes and “iced” the filling with it!

This came together so fast! Browning the “meat” took the longest…and that was not long at all!

FabHubs came home from work and saw this…and said it sure looks like Shepherd’s pie but that would be an impossible dream in this house…and then proclaimed it a crime for me to call it Shepherd’s pie. He redubbed it Farmer’s pie…and so it is.

I put it aside while I assembled the salad and the rest of dinner, and a little while before dinner was ready I baked it until it was heated through and browned on top.Alongside…a yummy salad… Sliced avocados that were almost past their prime! (I cut the spots out before serving)I wasn’t feeling the oil and vinegar dressing tonight for the salad so I decided to whip up a version of a concoction my mom used to make. I didn’t know the quantities of the ingredients…so I just made it up as I went along.

Fresh organic lime juice and minced garlic mixed with a little sea salt and EVOO. So good and such a nice change!!!! And of course my pie Farmer’s Pie which was So Good!And we can’t forget the seitan!

Okay…it looked really weird when I pulled it out of the breadmaker…lumpy and bumpy! And very dark. I wasn’t expecting that! I cut a piece off to try it. It was crusty on the outside, but inside was stretchy and a little doughy…perfect seitan texture! Tasting it, it was a little salty for my taste (less tamari next time..and no added salt)…and surprisingly it had quite the kick! I think I added ground red pepper instead of sweet paprika! Oops!

But this will be perfect for recipes and was so easy! And ready to go for a future “quick to put together” dinner.

Do you eat unprocessed? What kinds of shortcut foods do you use to get dinner done in a hurry?

I Almost Sold Out!!!!

2010-04-15T20:49:00.001-04:00

I didn’t feel like cooking and I almost caved. I was going to make a Shepherd’s pie, subbing out Boca Crumbles for the beef. Easy enough…but I was feeling lazy and didn’t feel like making a sauce and started to reach for the cream of mushroom soup.

Yes, you read that right the canned, processed cream of mushroom soup that has been sitting unused on my shelf for at least the last six months.

And I just couldn’t do it! I felt guilty and unhealthy…and I went back and forth a while on it.

I finally ended up settling for another meal…still with processed something, but somehow totally different in my mind. At least it was organic!

We ended up with sauteed kale, roasted sunchokes, and Gardein beefless tips.

Sunchokes look like ginger, but taste almost, but not exactly, like potatoes.

After searching the internet for something interesting to do with the sunchokes, I found everything too complicated or exotic and decided to simply slice and roast the sunchokes along with some garlic and sliced leek.

Leeks have to be washed really well, especially between the layers. I had already rinsed this leek when I peeled back the outer layer and found this!

Tossed in a little EVOO and some S&, then into the oven at 425. I like the higher heat in order to caramelize the onions and garlic. So good.

On the side was curly kale, washed and destemmed…Then sauteed in the pan with garlic, onion, and a little EVOO as well. I think garlic and onion enhances veggie! After cooking I sprinkled (heavily) some parmesan cheese on top. And my quick processed portion of the dish? These meat-free beefless tips from Gardein. I have been having some low B12 issues and was recommended nutritional yeast to help…so I loaded it on top of the kale as well.

So good.

The Wind In My Face….Then Out Of My Sail

2010-04-14T14:29:00.001-04:00

Today I logged in my 50th (and 51st and 52nd) mile on my mission to walk a minimum of 300 miles by the end of this year.

I have made sure I get out walking at least three days a week if not four, and been trying to add extra steps during my day, tracking them with this (untrustworthy I believe) little guy!The past few days I have been having ~~some~~ lots of frustration for me in that I don’t feel I am shaving any time off of my miles!

In trying to think of improvements, I definitely feel a little more sure in my steps and don’t fear falling as much. I do think my legs have a little more strength to them and are not as wobbly.

We have way too high front steps with no banisters…and at my worst I had to hang on to the column for support to get down the steps and make sure I landed on perfectly even ground…or I would go down the steps the hard way!!! I did realize this morning that while I do not bound down the steps, I also don’t have to put a death grip on the column to go down them either.

Perhaps the walking.

Perhaps the fact that legs have 30 pounds less to lug around.

Perhaps a combination of the two.

And so I get towards my point…

I walk around the perimeter of a large squarish-shaped, open field park, 7/8 mile for one lap. This morning it was quite windy! Around two of the sides the wind was fierce, blowing right towards me and into my face and I had to work hard against it. Sometimes I felt I was on a treadmill, walking in place!

But it was also very warm today and I left my water bottle in the car so I wouldn’t have to carry it. I pushed hard…sweating…breathing hard…trying to speed up as fast as my poor legs could manage, even against the resistance of the wind. I really want to start bringing my time down.

And then on my third lap around this runner passed me. Dressed in a large hat, black pants, a long-sleeved black jacket, and a thick towel wrapped around her neck like a winter scarf. I was actually starting to feel a little bad from the heat…pushing mid80s today…and she was running in this, (running past me of course) dressed for the 50s!

It kind of kicked me down a notch mentally…but physically I still pushed harder and a little faster.

Then this other lady passed me…she was about my age and weight. And she was simply walking, not running, not jogging, not power walking. She was simply walking. Not breaking a sweat…she looked like she was out for a casual stroll. But she “casually strolled” right by me and left me in the dust like I was standing still. I couldn’t believe how far ahead she was within 5 minutes after going by me!

And that just took the wind right out of my sail. I don’t know why I let it. I know it is not a competition. But I am competitive by nature…even if I am competing with myself. And I started having all of these negative thoughts inside my head!

Why isn’t my time coming down?

Why aren’t I making progress?

What if I am never going to be able to gain strength and get faster?

What if there is no UP for me, and where I am today is the best I will ever be!!!

I was set to do one more lap…but I gave up and went to the car and went home.

I am not giving up…I still have hope, and I also know that no matter what speed I am, it is vital for me to be out there pushing my legs or I will definitely deteriorate.

But on this one windy day the wind sure blew out of my sail quickly!

Back to home…I talked to my mom on the phone, worked a little, and crossed some things off my to-do list, goofed off a little..and all of a sudden it was 1 ‘clock (how did that happen?) and I was starving!!!

Once again I did a quick scroungefest for lunch…looking to see what the fridge had to offer me!

A baggie of cooked lentils, leftover from when I cooked way too many last week for a lentil salad dinner.
A sweet and crunchy organic carrot.
Organic grape tomatoes!
EVOO and balsamic (not in fridge!)
and a red organic pear (that everybody keeps mistaking for an apple around here.)

Other than a minute or three for some carrot and tomato chopping and dicing…this came together in no time flat! And was so filling I couldn’t even finish it. Red pear was on the side…not in the salad..although that may have actually been kind of interesting to try!

Then look what was taunting me…singing to me…left next to my computer this morning (I type on my laptop on the dining room table!).

I had to buy one!

Of course I picked the healthiest one (wink wink)

I have to say I am SPOILED! Compared to all of the high-end organic dark chocolate brands I usually buy, this tasted awful! Look at that paltry sprinkle of chopped almonds in there..three little bits on the left side!

I don’t care what they say, this is certainly not The World’s Finest!

I am kind of glad though…I will not be tempted to buy more of these!

Now…off to work on the taxes. Have I ever mentioned I was a CPA before I had kids? LOL…kind of embarrassing…I don’t think waiting until April 14 is very CPA like!

Blogger Giveaways

Some more great blogger giveaways I have come across this week!

Amanda from Run To The Finish has a great motivating giveaway going on now. The Three Changes Challenge inspires you to make three small changes in your life that will make an impact on your lifestyle or goals. She has a bunch of great prizes for this challenge! My daughter wants me to win just so she can get the Subway GC!

I chose to limit my computer time outside of work, drink a minimum of 54 ounces of water daily, and to add resistance band training to my weekly walking to try to strengthen my muscles! Of course I just ate an hour of my computer “fun time” on this post!

Tricia from Endurance Isn’t Only Physical is back with another giveaway as well from GE to help promote National Women’s Health Week. You can win a $20 health-themed gift card for entering this one.

Greening Lunch and Cooking Under Pressure

2010-04-12T22:34:00.001-04:00

Back to produce day again! On the days I get my organic produce delivery, I work almost nonstop!

When I get home from the morning kid run, the produce delivery truck is either in my driveway…or not far off. Sometimes I barely have enough time to gulp down a breakfast and make myself some coffee!

I print the sorting sheets, set up a box or cooler for each customer coming to pick up and get to work.

Sorting usually takes me about two hours, after which I go down the list to call everybody to tell them their box is ready, and then wait for them to come and pick it up!

The customers come in bits and spurts throughout the day…usually as soon as I make a bathroom run or sit down to try and have some lunch!

Of course I love doing it…I get to meet and chat with so many great health-minded people AND I get first pick at this! This week was so colorful!

I got:

Carrots! They are so bright and smooth looking when they are this fresh!
Potatoes
Onions
Grape Tomatoes
Celery bunch
Cucumber
Romaine
Broccolini
Green Beans
Zucchini
Asparagus
Sunchokes
Kale (Curly Kale)
Strawberries
Red Pears
Grapefruit
Pink Lady Apples
Bananas
Pineapple
Mangos
Blueberries
Raspberries

Look at the asparagus…it is PURPLE!!!!

So Pretty….

After sorting and a few pickups I was RAVENOUS! And I was so craving something crunchy and green!!

I didn’t think I had time to make and eat anything so I tried to find the leftover salad in the fridge. Turns out FabHubs had snagged it for his lunch.

But luck was still with me! I ended up having a wonderful window of opportunity to make and eat a lunch, AND someone had been scheduled for a leafy add-on to her order but hadn’t ordered it, and didn’t want it…so I was thrilled to buy it! It was two HUGE Lacinto kale bunches…the tall straight kind. I had never seen bunches this big!

I couldn’t stop thinking about massaged kale salad, crunchy, green, sweet, and garlicky..it fit the bill perfectly, and I began to work my appetite into quite a frenzy over this!

All of a sudden I didn’t even want to wait the time it took to make it…I just wanted to eat it!

But of course I couldn’t get one without the other.

So I washed, de-stemmed, and tore half a bunch of kale leaves into the big blue bowl and added some minced garlic, honey, walnuts, raisins, and olive oil…and a little S&P, and massaged for ~~ten~~ seven minutes. By then it looked massaged enough to eat!

On the side I also added a small Hass avocado from last week that needed to be eaten.

OMG this was so green…and sooo good! I had two big plates of the kale. IT HIT THE SPOT PERFECTLY!!!! On the side I also tried this free sample of green tea I received from Lipton, in this beautiful little reusable storage pouch. I loved the flavors. The rest of the afternoon was a blur…produce pickups, daughter pickups, doctor’s appointment, and getting ready for scout meetings.

And then all of a sudden I had about half an hour to come up with a quick and yummy dinner before we all scattered in different directions. This is the part of whole food vegetarianism I have found to be really challenging, trying to use all natural unprocessed ingredients and not rely on anything from a box!

Before the vegetarian part it was easy to make some rice, George Foreman a natural chicken breast, and steam some broccoli and call it a meal. Now the chicken sort of throws things off for me!

But I have to say that I looked in the refrigerator, managed to start throwing some things together, and ultimately AMAZED MYSELF! This came together pretty quickly and was So Delicious. So Delicious.

A keeper!

Found in the fridge (all from last week or prior):

Leeks
Zukes
Broccoli
Carrots
Garlic
Ginger
Tofu (yes, I know it is processed…but still!)

Found in pantry:

Rice
Curry powder
Coconut oil
Canned coconut milk
Raisins
Cashews

Quickly I sliced up the tofu and put it on a pan under the broiler to try and get some of the moisture out of it. I didn’t press…I didn’t marinate. No time.

I called FabHubs into service to get the rice going for me. Would have preferred brown rice…but no time!

Then I washed and chopped, sliced and diced. I heated some coconut oil in the cast iron. First I sauteed the leeks, garlic, and ginger…then added the carrots since they needed longer to cook…then the zukes, broccoli, and finally the somewhat browned, broiled tofu.

When the veggies were looking sufficiently tender, I sprinkled everything with a TBS of flour for thickening, and an unmeasured but very generous amount of (homemade a few weeks ago) curry powder. I stirred everything up until I couldn’t see the powder anymore, and then mixed in the can of coconut milk.

Finally, a few big handfuls of raisins and some cashews…I had a small amount of raw that I used up, and then found a small gift box of roasted…both went in!

The end result…..a huge hit with the family, done in record time, AND a bunch of veggies were used up in the process!

Aaaaaamazing I tell you!

Are you afraid to experiment?

Or do you find the more you cook the easier it is to invent “have-on-hand” combos without recipes that turn out great??

Use Me or Lose Me

2010-04-08T16:42:00.001-04:00

Once again because of being away, I am two or or three boxes behind on my veggie usage and they are starting to develop a pathetic Use Me Or Lose Me attitude! And it hurts to throw any of them away so I am on a mission!

Yesterday I pulled out bag after bag of veggies to see what I had, and in what order of desperation it needed to be used up in, and made my lunch and dinner plans!

Lunch was a hummus wrap, crammed with some very desperately failing yellow tomatoes, that sadly I had to pick through, green onions also starting to turn, romaine lettuce, and cukes! All from two or three boxes ago but hanging in there..barely.

I have issues with my wraps. I either am clueless on how to fold them as nice as they do in restaurants…or I pack them with way too much stuff. I tend to think the latter.

On the side I had a handful of my English peas, more yellow pear tomatoes, and a few sweet and crunchy mini Bell peppers.

Look how colorful!!!!After lunch I was as stuffed as my wrap!!! Dinner continued the Use Me or Lose Me theme…

I had two weeks’ worth of asparagus bunches! Tossed in some balsamic, EVOO, and S&P and roasted in the oven at 425:

Broccoli, a zucchini, some ginger, and some unpictured onion thrown in at the last minute, all from the last share or two that were starting to turn…I also used a rough chopped a bunch of garlic cloves from this week’s share! Some seitan that has been sitting in my fridge for a while…I figured this would be the perfect time to use it up!

Into the cast iron with some olive oil and Adobo seasoning. I would have used some soy sauce and a dab of honey on it…but FabHubs is not a fan of soy sauce. In the least bit. And since I was already pushing the envelope with the seitan, zucchini, and asparagus, I decided to keep the flavorings simple…garlic and ginger, although at the last minute I did splash on some balsamic.Delicious! And quite off the cuff too, just trying to use up whatever I could! FabHubs did take a small SECOND serving of asparagus and another small second serving of the stirfry. I know when he doesn’t finish up what is on the table he is not a big fan. But hey…I can do math, and seconds of a no-meat meal = PROGRESS! Especially seconds of that despised veggie…asparagus!!!! (really what is wrong with that man!!!!)

And bonus points, I didn’t get THE LOOK!

FabStepson on the other hand finished off the bowl!!!

What is up with the English!!!

Then it was onto dessert…FabHubs and I found this in Publix Key West…and it went in the cart AS A JOKE! I got back to Irene’s and ACK it was in the bags! I never meant to actually BUY it! So I put it aside to return it.

Of course the kids thought it was hilarious and tons of spotted dick jokes ensued…and then two dessert-loving 12 year olds begged me to keep it because, as they said (and I cringed), “We have never tried spotted dick before!” (Biting my tongue here…this is a family blog!)

Finally I relented and we kept it, and it was pulled out last night for dessert. I steamed it up and then fruited it up with fresh blueberries and strawberries on the side!

Nothing like a fruity spotted dick! And then I remembered something I had in the pantry to top off our spotted dick, purchased a few Christmases ago on clearance from Publix!

I kid you not!

Yes…I am biting my tongue again.

And I thought the English were supposed to be reserved!

A Reunion of Sorts

2010-04-07T10:57:00.001-04:00

This morning I had something I haven’t had in a long time….two whole weeks~

Oh how I have missed my oatmeal!

I was CRAVING it this morning! I microwaved together 1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup almond milk, 1/3 cup water, a handful of organic blueberries, half a small organic mango…and afterwards I topped it with a spoonful of raw cacao nubs (perfect crunchy goodness) and a TBS of almond butter.

On the side I also had half an organic grapefruit from yesterday’s box:

These are so incredibly sweet…we never get enough in the box and four out of five of us fight over them! I seriously have to ration out the grapefruits to make sure the grapefruit piggies in my house (I am NOT pointing fingers at my husband or daughter of course) don’t steal all of the grapefruits and everybody gets at least half of one!

In the predawn hours, in the midst of getting kids ready and off to school, I also chugged an Amazing Grass shake (1 cup almond milk, one scoop Amazing Grass Superfood, and a scoop of ground flax seed)Along with a shot of almost not photographed espresso!

The Perfect Breakfast!

Speaking of produce…yesterday was produce day and oh did I get a glorious mix!

Bananas
Apples
Strawberries
Blueberries
Mango
Oranges
Grapefruit
Kiwi
Red Pears
English Peas
Mint
Rhubarb
Lettuce
Eggplant
Tomatoes
Garlic
Leeks
Sweet Crunchy Minipeppers!!! YAY!
Collards
Lemons
Limes
Zucchini

A really really really great share!!

Rhubarb is a new one for me…we don’t grow it in South Florida, and it isn’t prevalent in the grocery store, so I have not had it often!

Only when I have been to Canada! I have to figure out what I will do with it…Not enough for a pie…..

I got a pound and a half of these English Peas:

Now as a kid my mom used to buy these all the time…and we would pop them open and eat the peas raw right out of the pod. Sweet crunchy healthy snacking. I always thought that is how you are supposed to eat these!

But yesterday I kind of had an epiphany, because of the mint included in the box, they are really meant to be cooked. Like peas.

I called my mom and told her about it, and she said she never liked cooked peas so she just ate them raw. Now, while I DO love cooked peas I am not wasting these…guess what I will be snacking on today!

Spring Break 2010, Part Two, Day One!

2010-04-06T17:03:00.001-04:00

After a long weekend away and a couple of days of rest, we packed up again for Part Two of our vacation to spend a few gloriously relaxing days in one of my absolutely favorite places…Key West!

Key West and I go waaayyy back! As a kid, three or four times a year my mom would throw us in the car and head down the chain of Keys to Key West for long weekends. And years ago, in another lifetime before kids, as a CPA I used to head down to Key West annually for usually three-month periods to perform audits down there. I was always first in line with my hand raised and frantically waving “PICK ME” every year when it was time to do our annual Keys audits!

And even though I was working down there, far away from the crazy hustle and bustle, stiff suits and heels, and hour-long commutes of Miami, it still felt like I was on vacation!

Key West has a totally different atmosphere. Packed chock full of some seriously really weird people coupled with a “5’ o’clock somewhere” mentality….I think the locals are always on vacation too!

And while I know Key West like the back of my hand…I came to a startling realization that other than a brief afternoon stop on a cruise and a many scout camping trips in the middle Keys, my kids had never really experienced Key West. I felt I was sorely depriving them of this experience and decided to fix that this Spring Break.

I had made “reservations” a few weeks ago at my friend Irene’s Inn, better known to her as her tiny two-bedroom condo which suits a single person just fine. Of course we descended on her in a five-person frenzy…kids included! She was very gracious about it though…and didn’t even get grumpy with us! I made sure we brought our own food, fixed all meals for ourselves and for her, and didn’t stay long enough to wear out our welcome..so we only stayed two nights.

Since I had received my produce box on Tuesday and really had not had a chance to use much of it, we packed most of it into coolers and brought it down with us.

I also quickly threw together some wraps to eat on the way down so we wouldn’t have to stop…hummus, cukes, lettuce, tomatoes, and onions (all from the produce box) in a Flat-Out multigrain wrap. So filling. So YUM!

This was rounded out with unpictured organic apples, bananas, Stacy’s Pita Chips, and this Publix fruit and nut granola bar. I think everybody ate their way down to Key West!The drive down was its usual stunning sight. I love the bridges! With the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic on the other there is water, water everywhere!

I have always had particular fascination with the seven-mile bridge…literally seven miles over water. As a kid I always made sure my mom would wake me up when we got to it and never wanted to miss it! Now in my 40s I still eagerly look out for it!

To the right you will see the old, two-lane, scary, dilapidated bridge we used when I was a kid…it is now a fishing bridge.

Key West in all of its weirdness didn’t disappoint! As we turned down the street towards Irene’s house, we were greeted by this giant Easter Bunny waving at everybody passing by! By the time we got to Irene’s it was later than I expected and I wanted to make sure we got to see the Sunset Celebration down at Mallory Square.

Tourists gather on the pier to watch both the sun setting in all its spectacular glory…along with a whole bunch of street people performing different kinds of street theater…mostly juggling fire on ladders and other high things, along with some other stuff sprinkled in.

Friday night we saw….

This Silver Guy who stands like a statue:

This guy who has someone in the audience tie him up in a strait jacket and then wrap him in chains…and he unhooks his joints, bends his body in painful, odd-looking positions, and gets out! Then we found a Silver Girl..also standing like a statue! Next was a juggler guy on a bicycle balanced on a pole! In the background was a guy who walked a tightrope and juggled fire: A guy who was sort of a combo one-man band and Goodwill store. You had to see this to believe it:

A guy who just played the guitar and sang! Yep…no fire…no juggling…no trash..ummm..no teeth! But he did sing and play really well!!!

A different guy who had someone put him in a strait jacket and wrap him tightly in chains! Incredibly he got out in less than 2 minutes…

And then went on to juggle fire and breath out flames too! That is not fire on the back of his head though….that is the sun getting ready to set and reflecting off of him!

Which brings us to the main event of the evening (no, not the street performers…nature’s stunning show!)

Beautiful!!!

Afterwards we saw two more shows before heading home for dinner!

This very very young (19? 20?) boy actually did a great job! He was humorous, fun to watch…and had some amazing strength and balance…sorry for the dark pictures. The sun had set and we couldn’t use flash or he might be flash blinded!

Balancing the ladder:Handstand on the ladder:

Juggling fire! See in the second picture where he catches the flaming juggling baton thingie (do those have a name?) on his face!

Then he switched ladders to a free-standing kind of ladder (I don’t know the technical name!) with no leaning thing! He climbed on this up into the air! And then juggled flaming batons on top! INCREDIBLE!

The last show had a guy and girl. They did quite a few things…among them he juggled flaming baton thingies..then breathed the flame and blew out fire! Can you see the fire in his mouth? This was seriously impressive in person!!! Then his girl climbed into this box and he put knives through it. It is after dark so it was hard to photograph…but if you look closely you can see her arm coming out on the left to show us she is okay…after all the knives are pushed down and coming out the bottom.

Everybody was invited to go up and see how she was contorted inside the box…but we realized our meter was up and so made a beeline back to our parking space before we got a ticket!FabPreteen was seriously disappointed! I promised her she could look in the box when we went back the next night…but they weren’t there!!! Of course I didn’t hear the end of it.

If you have a preteenage daughter you probably understand.

After a quick stop at Publix for some extra dinner supplies (FabHubs was going to make pizza) we went back to Irene’s for dinner.

Somehow with all my gabbing I forgot to take a picture of the gorgeous (and absolutely delicious) pizza FabHubs made for me! Yes he makes his crusts from scratch…and topped it with my favorites…ricotta, mozzarella, onion, pineapple, mushrooms, red pepper, and maybe more veggies but I cannot remember! Kids had cheese.

I never thought I could break everybody from the pepperoni habit but they seem perfectly happy without it! I am pleased!!!

I was starving…I had not had anything since the hummus wrap and granola bar on the way down (I can’t afford the snacking calories the rest of the family can!) so while FabHubs made dinner I made a nice salad for myself. I was in the mood for something crunchy on top, so stealing an idea from Pursuing Balance Meredith, I topped it with some crunchy, fruity granola, along with some balsamic! It was perfect! Next was bedtime! Kids were packed onto the floor and couch. Good thing they are campers and used to being in sleeping bags on little mats in tents…they adapted perfectly.

FabPreteen got the couch of course! She is not as adaptive as the boys are! After tucking everybody in…FabHubs and I went off to bed ourselves, pretty exhausted and ready to recharge for another day of sightseeing…

Check out more of our Spring Break 2010 Sites and Eats:

Spring Break Part One, St. Augustine

Spring Break Part One, St. Augustine continues

Spring Break Home Again Intermission

Spring Break 2010, We Rest!

2010-04-01T18:10:00.001-04:00

Well we sort of rest, if you can count unloading the car, unloading the suitcases, and loading and unloading the washing machine repeatedly over the next two days!

Factor in the last of the transcription for the week, a produce delivery, and a Passover Seder, and we have two days of rest and relaxation (HUH?) before embarking on the second leg of our spring break down to Key West.

The produce delivery was its usual gorgeous bounty!

Asparagus, red chard, raspberries, bananas, apples, pineapple, broccoli, strawberries, chives, avocados, mangos, purple potatoes, romaine, yellow tomatoes…and more! Am I a lucky girl or what!

I also ordered some organic horseradish root to take to the Seder!

When we got to my sisters, she was frying up some beet and sweet potato chips and had the beet greens ready to feed to the garbage can.

I did a quick interception (they look amazingly like the red chard!)

And cooked them up for a quick dinner last night, along with some black beans and rice.

I was NOT in the mood to cook at all and so I resorted to the healthy person’s quick meal…the canned black bean.

Topped with some cheddar cheese, light sour cream and fresh chopped organic parsley alongside my sauteed beet greens (didn’t I say something about not feeling like cooking? Yeah Right) it was a relatively quick but delicious meal.

Now we are reloaded back into the car for the drive down to Key West…more to report tomorrow!

Check out more of our Spring Break 2010 Sites and Eats:

Spring Break Part One, St. Augustine

Spring Break Part One, St. Augustine continues

Spring Break, Key West Day One

Spring Break 2010, Part One Continues…..

2010-04-01T17:37:00.001-04:00

Sunday morning we had another full day planned.

We started off with a hearty breakfast. Somehow over the last few weeks we ended up with over 10 pounds of organic russet taters and needed to start making a dent in them. FabHubs packed them so we could use them…and use them he did! He made these ridiculously massive (but delicious) potato pancakes! We had those with the organic eggs I order alongside my weekly produce delivery.

Can’t forget the coffee! We are double-fisted coffee people…Espresso in one hand and French press in the other…camping or not!

The rest of the day was spent shopping in the old part of the city! My favorite find was some vegan organic deodorant which so far seems to be working really well!

I didn’t take many pictures of us shopping..too busy browsing!

We had a ghost tour planned for the evening, so we decided, instead of eating dinner out, to eat lunch out and eat our snacks and sandwiches for dinner while we waited for our ghost tour.

I found a great little restaurant on the street we were on…I had some very unhealthy but delicious coconut shrimp. I ordered the fruit salad alongside and I was very excited about this…but it turned out to be canned! A big let down.

By the time we reached the end of the street the trolleys had stopped running and so we had a long but scenic walk back. This is the day my pedometer logged my 6 miles! Maybe!

We were early for our ghost tour, so we go the cooler out of the car and sat in the parking lot and had our sandwiches, fruits, and snacks while we waited.

The kids had begged and begged for this ghost tour but I was not really thrilled about it at all. It took us all around the city after dark…and (gulp) back into the jail at night. I didn’t mind the city tour, but I was seriously not into the tour back into the old jail. At night. This was a place of horror that already creeped me out during the day…at night it took on a whole life of its own!

Thankfully we survived!

We got back to the cabin and while the kids zonked to bed…we had an adult beverage by a campfire!

The next morning was checkout time. Breakfast was simple this day..cereal and fruit. I had pictures of these but I can’t seem to find them!

After packing up, we went back to the old town to visit the fort! After the fort we took a final ride on the trolley to hear about the reset of the historic parts of the city…then back to our car for the long ride home.

Leg one of the trip complete…we will be home for two days and then down to Key West for another few days of sightseeing!

Check out more of our Spring Break 2010 Sites and Eats:

Spring Break Part One, St. Augustine

Spring Break Home Again Intermission

Spring Break, Key West Day One

It’s Spring Break! Part One…

2010-04-01T12:11:00.001-04:00

Kids are off of school, FabHubs is on vacation, as are my clients, and we are relaxing, having fun, and doing a little traveling!

The first part of the week I hauled the kids up to St. Augustine and we had a fun few days seeing lots of OLD sites.

Did you know that St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States? Established even before Jamestown!

As a family of 5, vacationing can get a little pricy, especially eating out three meals a day! Besides, I feel healthier when we make most of our own food.

So usually we will stay at a campground and rent a cabin. We make our breakfasts and lunches (which we carry with us in a cooler, along with snacks and drinks), and some of our dinners. We eat out at least once or twice while we are gone, and usually en route as well.

We arrived at the campground really really really late Friday night. Much later than I wanted to…everybody was exhausted and had to make up their bunks! At least we weren’t setting up tents! O The cabin is a small, two-room cabin with a/c and electricity. No kitchen, no bathroom.

We do all of our cooking outdoors in front of the cabin.

Breakfast: Making lunches to go: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and unpictured Tofurkey sandwiches on homemade bread brought from home. We ended up buying more for the rest of our trip.

Our first day in town we saw the St. Augustine History Museum, the Old Jail, and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.

I put on my new pedometer to track the steps/miles I walked. I didn’t calibrate it and it gave me a total of over 6 miles! I don’t really think I walked that much though.

We bought trolley tickets, but ended up doing a lot of walking…which was fine with me! I wore my brand new walking shoes for the occasion.

Back “home” that night, after a quick stop at Publix we cooked up dinner. Caesar salad and spaghetti with tomato sauce for FabHubs, FabStepson, and FabPreteen…whole wheat pasta with shredded veggies and peanut sauce for FabTeen and me!

While FabHubs and FabTeen worked on dinner, I caught up on some work (I had a bunch that needed to be finished and still worked at night) while FabPreteen rested her eyes…

We did take a few shortcuts…

Salad was bagged salad with dressing included:

Peanut sauce was jarred: (sorry…bad picture!)

FabHubs cooked the pasta: Assembled and tossed in a Ziplock. I was happy with mine…FabTeen didn’t like the sauce. You will have to picture everybody else’s, I was a poor dinner photographer. After this we were zonked and went to bed…we had another full day planned for tomorrow!

Check out more of our Spring Break 2010 Sites and Eats:

Spring Break Part One, St. Augustine continues

Spring Break Home Again Intermission

Spring Break, Key West Day One

A Sublime Meetup

2010-03-26T22:09:00.001-04:00

I do love meetups! In the more than (gulp) 15 years since I have been using the internet I have had the occasion to make and meet many great friends online!

I have one group I met online at least 12 years ago, most of whom live in my city. After getting together many many years ago we became fast friends and while we don’t get together often enough, we do try for at least once a year…and still keep in touch regularly online.

I also recently had a fun meetup with some other local Miami healthy living bloggers…meeting people for the first time you feel you “know” because you have been friends online or at least following them online is so much fun!

So recently when one of my favorite bloggers, Angela from Oh She Glows announced she was coming to Florida, and was going to have some blogger meetups I was seriously excited!

Since she was coming to Ft. Lauderdale, not Miami, it was going to be a bit of a drive for me. She wanted to meet at Sublime, THE vegan restaurant to go to in South Florida, taking my excitement level up another notch…I had been looking for an excuse to drive all the way to Ft. Lauderdale to try Sublime for a while!

I emailed her and offered to make the reservation for our group…when she emailed me back and told me to go ahead, she had me make the reservation for 15 people…meaning I would also get to meet 7 other South Florida bloggers! This was getting better and better!

After going back and forth a bit with the restaurant and the party size, they told me our large party would be at two tables side by side in the back of the restaurant.

Wednesday night I piled my family into the car (we usually come as a package deal!) and up to Ft. Lauderdale we drove.

Our reservations were for 8 p.m., but because we had such a long drive and knew were going to be hitting major rush hour traffic, we left really early! So we got there really early! We were the first ones there!

Other than Angela and her husband Eric, I had absolutely no clue who else was coming!

As we walked up were greeted by these beautiful windows…the water falls down them on the inside, although you can sit and watch the water stream down the outside. FabPreteen has declared she wants these in her room. I told her I would see what I could do.

First to arrive after us were Eliana and Marc from Not All Who Wander Are Lost. I heard them ask the front desk about the table and the front desk pointed to me and told them their party was here…so they looked at me and since I didn’t look like Angela, they seemed like they thought the front desk might be wrong!

I went up to them and asked if they were with our party, and when they said yes I introduced myself and asked who they were…their names didn’t mean anything to me, but when Eliana had told me about their blog I knew who they were right away…I had visited their blog!

Pretty exciting!

At this point the hostess seated us and we chatted while we waited to see who else would arrive. It was like a continuous blind date…the hostess would head towards our table with someone who would look sort of lost (the only one we all knew was Angela!) and we would introduce ourselves and ask who she was…and what her blog was! Not everybody had a blog though…some people just followed Angela’s blog and came to meet her.

When Angela and Eric arrived everybody was very excited…yes, she looks even more glowing in person! She sat down at our table, which by now was getting a bit crowded.

But even though our table was for 8, as people arrived we kept scooting over, closer and closer together (and ignoring the second table), until we had 12 people seated around our table. I noticed that even though the restaurant had specifically told us we couldn’t put the tables together, they kindly overlooked us all cramming into the one table and eventually even seated another party at it!

Here we all are…our server was great with the pictures. She happily took pictures with at least three different cameras…and even looked to make sure they came out good, retaking when necessary. She was so patient with it I wondered if she was a blogger herself!

Here we all are around the table…starting with FabHubs, Me, Marc, Eliana, Lesley, Angela, Eric, Jelena, Stacey, and Kelly.

It was so much fun…and I was excited to find out that everybody else was actually from Miami (except Stacey who is from Boca but lived in Miami) so I know a Miami blogger meetup is in our future!

Now on to the food….FabHubs knows I love eggplant, so he ordered the eggplant rollatini for me, filled with “ricotta.” This was really delicious and I thought the filling was remarkably close to ricotta…if I didn’t know I never would have guessed!

FabStepson and FabPreteen each enjoyed a Caesar salad. FabSS devoured what he told me were tofu croutons, but FabPT didn’t like hers…when I tried one I found it wasn’t tofu but artichoke! No wonder Miss Picky didn’t like them! I was happy to relieve her of those…I love artichoke! The beers all had some funky names like Hazed and Confused and more. I love dark beer so I ordered a Mocha Porter Rogue which was so good! A surprise from the kitchen, compliments of the chef! Pesto Polenta! We passed this around and shared (two plates of it). This was really good as well. I have been wanting to make polenta for a while…this reaffirmed for me and I know I will be breaking out the cookbook to give it a try.My unadventurous family all ordered the same thing…Margherita Classico. Yes…all three of them. The same thing. I did try a piece and while the crust was a little thinner than I normally like the pizza was excellent. Looks like cheese, doesn’t it?

It was rather humorous to hear the discussion going on between these two about the cheese. FabPT (who always seems to get what’s going on..she is a girl) told FabSS that it was not real cheese. He, on the other hand, insisted that yes, this was real cheese, real mozzarella. They went at it for a little while on this issue. But again, if you didn’t know, you probably wouldn’t guess…it was that good!!

I ended up going with the “Four Sides” dish, because I loved all the sides. I am surprised I ended up being a bit disappointed!

The sides I chose were the grilled asparagus, whipped potatoes, blackened tofu, and garlic broccoli.

The asparagus was great…everything else was actually kind of bland and looking back I wish I would have chosen the tofu grilled instead of blackened. The “blackening” was actually a dry powder coating on the outside, not blackened like I am used to. Next time I would try one of their signature dishes instead. After dinner, Angela passed around her Glo Bars as a wonderful treat for everybody. The kids promptly tore into theirs…FabHubs and I waited…until the drive home where we shared ours!

Leaving the restaurant we had a couple more photo ops, and then very slowly chatted our way out to the parking lot.

It was sad to say goodnight…but it was late and we had to go…kids still had to get up for school tomorrow and they were dragging.

What a fun evening!!!!

Two more blogger meetups I one day hope to have…with my Losing To Win buddies (mostly out in Utah and Colorado) and my SBI support group, spread all over the eastern part of North America!

Blogger Giveaways

Since so many great bloggers give away so many fun things, I have decided to add a little giveaway section at the bottom of my posts.

Click through to check out some new blogs and enter some giveaways:

Gliding Calm is giving away a raw food book to try some new raw food recipes!

Tricia at Endurance Isn’t Only Physical has an amazing Kettleworx Essentials package to give away. I sure want to win this! While you are there read her incredible story of how she lost over 100 pounds. She is very inspirational (and since she lives in Ft. Lauderdale I was quite disappointed she was out of town and not here for the meetup!)

Good luck!

Crisis Averted

2010-03-26T18:46:00.001-04:00

As usual, planning when eating out saves the day!

Last weekend we had a special Boy Scout event. In our area, it is an annual rite of passage ceremony called Webelos Woods and is where the Cub Scouts leave the Cub Scout pack, cross a over a bridge, and are received by their new Boy Scout troop on the other end. It is a weekend campout filled with fun activities, culminating in this ceremony.

For many years our troop has done active service for this event and usually FabHubs, a pioneering guru, builds the bridge that the boys cross over. This year was a little extra special. While FabHubs was building the bridge, FabTeen built the campfire…a four-foot tall structure (design courtesy of FabHubs) that was lit in the ceremony and burned in a spectacular towering inferno. I am proud of him…he has learned well from FabHubs!

The bridge is built with no nails…all wood held together by rope…and goes up in about 8 hours…and down in less than one after the ceremony!

But back to the crisis…since FabHubs does the bridge, we recruit our troop to help him…and while the troop is out there we always have one of the troop cooks out there preparing lunch and dinner for us.

But this year I am vegetarian.

So I called Troop Cook in advance and asked about the menu. I know this is something I always have to do now. In the past Troop Cook, who proudly declares “I don’t eat anything green” has always been extremely accommodating finding something for me to eat.

This time he seemed a little annoyed.

Lunch, he said, would be roast beef sandwiches, chips, and cookies. But don’t worry, he told me, it will be very high quality roast beef.

Hmmmmm……

I told him thanks, but I didn’t eat any meat. But since I had an event with FabPreteen in the morning anyway, I just figured I would come after lunch. Problem solved.

Now on to dinner. Dinner would be chili and cornbread. Now in the past when he has made chili for us it has also had a side of rice. So in my mind I thought, okay, chili, cornbread, and rice.

I knew the chili would be with meat…so I asked if he would be able to put aside some off the chili mixture for me before he added the meat and I would bring some Boca Crumbles to put in my batch. I would even bring my own small Dutch Oven to make it in. No, that wouldn’t be possible, but he could make it with chicken instead for me (and everybody else).

No…that wouldn’t work, I don’t eat chicken either. At this point he was really sounding annoyed, to the point where he told me he was about to lose service on his phone and would call me back in a few minutes, which he never did.

So as usual, I took matters into my own hands and decided to throw together my own batch of chili, which I cooked the night before and brought with me to reheat at the event. I figured I could have it with cornbread and rice that would be there.

Plus, I knew besides being meatless, I would bulk mine up with extra veggies…including “green things!” So I quickly went to work and gathered my ingredients..

Tomato sauce, black beans, Boca crumbles, frozen mixed veggies, spices:

First I browned some garlic, baby bella mushrooms, and garlic in a little EVOO:

Then I added everything else and let it cook!

Easy chili! Ready in 20 minutes!!

I put it in a baggie and stuck it in the fridge, and the next day I packed it in the cooler, along with some cheddar cheese and sour cream to top it off.

Good thing I did too…because when I got to the campout I brought my chili over to Troop Cook and asked about heating it up. Nope…no extra equipment..I was on my own.

Okay..how about the rice and cornbread..well, no rice, but the cornbread would be cooked as a top layer right on their chili. So was there a little extra cornbread mix we could put aside and use for my chili? Sorry!

I was so glad I had brought some toppings and fruit for me!

And I was so happy that FabTeen opted to eat my healthy chili instead of the other too. (Wish I could say the same for FabStepSon and my Fabulous Husband!)

Vegetarian and Green Just Go Together!

2010-03-17T22:12:00.001-04:00

Happy St. Patty’s Day Bloggies!

How many of you are celebrating are really Irish?

I am not but I still had fun with the day. Once I got over some frustration of what to make for dinner!

But first let’s talk about lunch!

Since I work from home, lunch is pretty readily available to me and I usually end up with a nice salad, a sandwich and veggies, or some combo of leftovers.

Somehow along this health quest I have learned that almost anything can be thrown together, put over a salad, and topped with goat cheese to make an excellent meal!

My family still isn’t quite getting how heated rice with green onions and feta, or roasted veggies and feta over salad goes together…but these are two of my favorite combos.

Today I rummaged through the leftovers and found:

A tiny amount (quarter-cup?) of veggie fried rice.
A leftover sauteed garlic/cauliflower/kale combo.
Goat cheese.

We had salad as well (we always have salad!) but I changed my mind once I started putting it together.

I put the veggies on top of the rice, and sprinkled goat cheese on top, heated it up, and came up with this masterpiece:

Looks kind of gross but tasted fantastic and was really filling. Plus the GREEN KALE fit the day perfectly!

After I was almost but not quite satisfied and had a sweet craving! I remembered my friend had given me a blueberry living food bar to try. She had shown me three flavors and I had chosen blueberry.

This bar is from a place called Hallelujah Acres which promotes a vegan, mostly raw lifestyle.

This bar was one of the best bars I have ever tasted! (These and Glo bars of course!!) I was in LOVE! I definitely have to get some more of these! I love Larabars but these put them to shame!!!

These filled me up perfectly and kept me satisfied through dinner!

Now on to dinner…..

In past years I have always made GREEN dinners for fun! We have gone usually the traditional route…corned beef (I LOOOOOVVVEE corned beef!), green mashed potatoes, and a green veggie such as broccoli. I would also color our drinks green! Yes me…who normally runs away as fast as she can from artificially colored stuff.

It is actually the only time I have ever used food coloring…other than in science experiments!

Anyway…after almost six months of not eating meat, corned beef was not an option…but I knew I wanted to find something green and satisfying for my family for dinner (somehow green and satisfying don’t fit in the same sentence together).

I knew I had a few green things from our produce box on Monday and planned on using the asparagus, rapini, and collard greens. I was going to make a dish with the rapini and white beans! Green enough?

But somewhere along the way I ended up changing my mind and making spinach/white bean burgers…green and white…which came out fantastic!

For hurry up sake I used canned navy beans. I opened two cans, rinsed them well, and put them in a big bowl and then the fun started.

I added one cup oatmeal, two eggs for binding, a bunch of cumin (I poured and didn’t measure), Adobo seasoning, chopped onion, lots of garlic, and for green value I steamed some organic baby spinach, squeezed it dry, chopped it up, and threw it into the mix.

Almost forgot…I also grated a bunch of parmesan cheese and put that in there too!

Then we mashed and mixed…leaving lots of chunks in it.

Then I stuck it in the fridge to chill for a few minutes while I prepped the rest of the green dinner.

First the asparagus…That was tossed with a little EVOO, syrupy balsamic, and Adobo…and into the oven in a single layer at 450 degrees.

Next came the rapini!

Rapini (or broccoli rabe) looks kind of like greens with little broccolis on them…but is actually related to turnip greens! It is very healthy, easy to prepare, and delicious. I treated it like I do all of my greens…to quick dip in heated EVOO along with rough cut garlic and onions…and then when brilliant green I top with some grated parmesan.

Once the two veggies were underway…it was time to get the burgers going!

They look just like my black bean burgers….only green and white! The taste was different too, but just as good! I think I might even like these a tad more!

I did end up pan frying them which didn’t thrill me…but it was so fast whereas baking them would have taken longer..but next time I do want to bake these. I was a little irritated with myself for using olive oil in a third recipe!

FabPreteen was being difficult with the greens…so I made a small burger for her, see it in the middle of the other four above? I don’t force her to eat full meals of what we eat…but she does have to try everything.

She has come a very long way with her pickiness and I am thrilled at some of the things she eats willingly now whereas before it was a major argument and turned the meal totally unpleasant!

I also put out a green salad because she had to eat a good helping of veggies and she loves salad! They added red bell peppers and tomatoes on their own!

I made her Ramen noodles (another thing that drives me crazy that I hope I can wean her off of in the future) and she went ahead and added green to it so her meal would fit right in! Yes…along with her green drink.

Yes…here is my guilty green beer!

Final meal…which was really great……and green!

And for dessert, this delicious organic sweet pineapple.…well it is green on the outside!

I really thought I was going to blow it this year and other than a green veggie didn’t think we would have our green fun!

Overall it worked out very well…and other than the green beer, was all vegetarian, natural, organic and not processed!

How was your St. Patrick’s Day?

Eating On The Road

2010-03-15T17:51:00.001-04:00

Whew! What a weekend!

Saturday was spent at Girl Scout Day at the Kennedy Space Center. We woke up at 3:30 a.m. in order to be at the chartered bus by 4:45 a.m.

There was an organized day for Girl Scouts with all sorts of activities and we had to be there by 9:45 a.m.

The night before I made a list of things to pack, and put into the cooker whatever didn’t need refrigeration. I also put some water bottles into the freezer as well as some O.N.E. coconut water.

I definitely wanted to be prepared for the long bus ride and for the day at KSC. I knew we had veggie burgers available for us in our included lunch…but I also knew the other stops on the road would probably include fast food of some description and I wanted a healthier alternative for FabPreteen and myself (only of us was excited about that preplanning…the other was really hoping for a rare fast food indulgence!)

Once again I was lousy with the photos! But I packed:

Two organic pears
A thermos of coffee
Waters
Coconut water
Two organic apples
Organic sweet mini bell peppers
Organic carrots
Laughing Cow cheese
Stacey’s Pita chips
Larabars: Two minis and one regular
Cliff bars, for FabPreteen
almond butter packets
Peanut butter and jelly sammies for the FabPreteen
An incredibly awesome wrap for me which consisted of an organic avocado, some of my amazingly delicious homegrown (by me!!) sprouts, organic tomatoes, organic scallions, organic cucumber slices, and some S&P on a multigrain Flatout wrap.
A gigantic salad…with all sorts of veggies, feta crumbles, and chickpeas
A square of Ghirardelli dark chocolate for yours truly

Before we left in the morning I filled the thermos with coffee and made us some Mom McMuffins! (scrambled eggs and cheddar slices on an Arnold Sandwich thin).

By 8:30 I was starting to get pretty hungry. I thought it was kind of early to be eating…but as I started to think about it I had eaten breakfast at 4:30 a.m.! We weren’t scheduled to be there until 9:45 and I knew lunch would not be served until noonish of course…so I broke out the snacks!

Over the next hour I had a pear, some Stacey’s, and a miniLarabar! This was enough to get me by.

When the bus stopped for the rest of the troops to get coffee and snacks, I loaded up a mini backpack cooler I brought to tote around inside NASA.

I brought with me one of the coco waters, regular waters, pears and apples, carrots, Cliff bar, and Larabar.

FabPreteen and I arrived looking quite haggard after only a few hours of sleep..hair crazy blowing in the wind! My hat went on right after I saw this!

While there we got to talk to an astronaut…..

….stand underneath the actual Saturn V rocket that was flown as part of the Apollo program. We looked and felt really insignificant under this….it is 36 stories tall and lying on its side here…it goes down the length of this very very very long building!!!

…and see the Discovery shuttle already out at the launch pad ready to go up on April 5! The picture doesn’t do it justice with my little point and shoot!

Lunch was a little eventful…I had called to find out about vegetarian options and was told lunch would be a choice of hot dogs, hamburgers, or veggie burgers.

But we were the last group to get lunch and by the time we got there, they only had hamburgers and ONE veggie burger. NOT COOL!

I was just not going to eat and give the veggie burger to FabPreteen…but she ended up eating a burger (which she has not had in at least six months) and gave me the veggie burger.

I was not happy at all and found that to be quite unreasonable!!!

In addition to the burger, they included a drink (we chose bottles of water…although FabPreteen did beg for the soda!); a bag of chips (which I ate); and a bag of cookies (which I ate).

No fresh fruit..no salad..no veggies. So I broke out my carrots and munched away on those! I try to make it a goal to have some fresh fruit or veggie at every single meal!

Otherwise…the day went well and we were back on the bus by 6 p.m. to head home.

At dinnertime, sure enough they made a rest stop/fast food run. I broke out the PB&J for dear daughter and I had my wonderful wrap! Which I even remembered to photograph!

With flash and without…lighting on the bus was awful!!!! We finally arrived a little after 11 pm. totally exhausted!!

Foodwise the day ended up working quite well for me (other than the veggie burger incident) because I packed and planned…but I have to say that quite a few people commented (with wry humor) on my packed cooker and the backpack I brought in…as if I had packed for a longer trip.

I am not sure why I am expected to settle…at the rest stop many of the places were closed and someone mentioned to me that there was very little available for someone who didn’t eat meat…I was content because I had brought healthy food that I really enjoyed..plus I saved a whole bunch of money by packing my own.

On trips do you usually take your own foods or do you get whatever is available? What are some of your favorite easy to pack meals and snacks?

I’ve Sprouted!

2010-03-12T22:33:00.001-05:00

No silly…I am done growing myself…but look what I grew this week! Lousy picture I know…but these things are truly amazing!

I do love sprouts. I never buy them but I enjoy them when they come on sandwiches…and I have been looking into growing my own. I just hadn’t gotten around to it.

I had talked about it with a girlfriend and Monday night she surprised me with some seeds, a jar, and two lids of hers to try!

So I put a TBS of seeds in the wide-mouth mason jar she brought me, put a bunch of water in them, put the finer-meshed lid on top, and soaked the seeds overnight.

Tuesday morning I drained the water and set the jar in a sunny spot.

Tuesday night when I went to rinse my seeds (I am supposed to do this twice a day) this is what I found…

Can you see that? (sorry…I only have a little point and shoot)…they were already sprouting! I was really excited…and I couldn’t believe how excited I was over sprouting seeds.

By Wednesday morning they were shoots already! HOLY COW! I was so excited that I noticed that my empty Maranatha jar was the perfect size to set up another sprout garden!

I swapped lids, putting the lid with the larger holes on the already sprouted jar, and the finer meshed lid on the Maranatha jar and got some more sprouts going! The lid won’t screw onto the Maranatha jar…only set on top so I have to hold it down when draining…but it still works!

These were my two little gardens Wednesday night!

Tonight (Friday night already) my first batch is just about ready to harvest! I have a Girl Scout all day trip tomorrow and am packing my own dinner rather than suffer through the McDonalds I know they are going to be stopping for…so I will make a sandwich using my first crop of sprouts!

Pretty exciting wouldn’t you say?????

Sprouts are serious Superfoods! They are powerful cancer fighters, extremely high in antioxidants and immune boosters, as well as being high in fiber, and vitamins C, E, and E. They help the body absorb glucose, are high in protein, and even help slow down the aging process!

All that and more in something that is so cheap and so simple to grow! And incredibly fast too! I went from seed on Monday to plate on Saturday!

I am addicted! I am ready to try all sorts of seeds now and need a few more jars and lids to get a good supply growing at all times.

I also thought I would share this beautiful RED pear I got in my organic produce box this week. We only got two of them and there are five of us…so we all shared!

I had my half ~~smothered~~ drizzled in a TBS of almond butter!

Tomorrow I am off with the Girl Scouts to the Kennedy Space Center for Girl Scout day! They have a great program prepared for us…but we have a five-hour bus ride each way and I have to be at the bus by (UGH) 4:45!!! A.M.!!!

I am looking forward to the sites of course…but also walking around all day…and I have packed a cooker with frozen water and coconut water to drink…and packed plenty of healthy snacks…fruit, carrots, mini-peppers, Laughing Cow Cheese (FabPreTeen), Larabars (for me), Cliff bars (for FabPreteen), Stacy’s pita chips, as well as PB&J sandwiches for the FabPreteen for her dinner and an avocado wrap (with my fabulous homegrown sprouts) and organic salad for my dinner! I am well prepared I think!

It is now 10:30 and I am off to bed for my 3:30 a.m. wakeup call!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend my bloggy friends!

Proud To Be A Loser

2010-03-06T13:08:00.001-05:00

Yesterday marked the second weigh-in for Losing To Win, the weight loss competition I joined on January 5! I didn’t place in one of the top 4 money slots…but I am still so proud to be a loser!

From February 5 to March 5 I lost a total of 6 lbs, bringing me to a Losing To Win total of 15 pounds since January 5, and a grand total of 33 pounds since I joined Weight Watchers (which at this point I am not following at all) on July 20, 2009!

Did you say I deserved a reward? Of course you did! So as not to disappoint, I went and really splurged and treated myself to these! An actual pair of good quality walking/running shoes as opposed to the whatever brand I would by myself before. I went to a running store and had my foot fitted for a shoe that will take me the mile…or at least the 300 miles I plan to walk this year!

Now what I really really want is this:

Not because I am a major runner…but I do want to start tracking my heart rate to make sure I am getting it at the target level…and because I am tracking my miles and that will free me up some to get off the measured parks I am going to.

Maybe I will make that a 100 mile reward….unless someone who loves me gets it for my birthday next month!

This is actually very first time I have rewarded myself for reaching a milestone and treated myself to some fitness gear.

How do you reward yourself when you have reached weight loss or fitness goals?

How I Went From “If I Get Around To It” to “Just Do It!!!!”

2010-03-04T14:52:00.001-05:00

I was born and raised a couch potato. Growing up, while my family enjoyed the outdoors and nature, it was all from a spectator point of view, never an active one.

And really that is quite understandable! With a congenital muscle weakness which targets the arms and legs running rampant throughout most branches of my family tree, making it difficult to walk stairs and even hills, going out for touch football or a game of frisbee was never going to be my family’s recreational activity of choice.

Now that I am in my 40s, I clearly understand why my grandfather moved his family from the hilly, stair-filled, icy and sometimes treacherous (for us) north to the much easier to navigate warm flatlands of South Florida!

But I am striving to push forward and get through some of those challenges!

In the last seven months I have made health changes to my life that I never imagined, the biggest one being becoming a vegetarian! I still am shocked that I was able to do that…somehow a simple mind shift stuck with me and I have no desire for meat or junk food anymore.

Part of this mind shift I know is due to the cocoon of healthy living I have been able to surround myself in. Between the blogs I hang out on, the real-life people I am associating with, the organic produce I order, and the changes I have made in our household, it has become so much a part of my every day life that many times I forget everybody doesn’t have this healthy lifestyle…until I go out in to the real world that is!

A few weeks ago I had a blogger meetup with four other healthy living bloggers who live here in South Florida. Out of the five of us there, I was the oldest, heaviest, and clearly the most out of shape. I have made incredible changes in my diet, but sitting with these girls it sure didn’t look like it!While everybody there made healthy eating a priority, two of the girls, Amanda and Melissa, are avid runners and they had some running tales to share with us. Honestly, listening to them I really WANTED to be a runner too! But there I was…not doing anything at all!

When I got home I went to explore some of their blogs a bit…I had never been to Amanda’s blog before, and for some reason, reading her story about how she got started running really motivated me and something clicked inside my head…albeit something really small, but at least it was a something, right?

I wanted to love moving my body as much as she enjoyed moving hers!

During the same week I followed my usual internet routine of reading the health blogs to keep my motivated, and as usual I went to one of my favorite’s Oh She Glows, along with Amanda’s blog, Run To The Finish.

While reading about Angela’s day at OSG, she spoke about what a busy day she was having…12 or so hours of baking, paperwork, and more…AND all of a sudden I saw how even in the midst of all that she had to do, SHE STILL MADE SURE SHE MADE TIME FOR A SERIOUS WORKOUT!

I couldn’t believe it…for me being busy was a sure excuse to not have to work out! And here she was still making sure she got to it with an absolutely full day of being on her feet either ahead of her or behind her!

And as I thought about it I realized that all of the healthy bloggers out there who really were fit and thin did the same thing.

And the big ole’ lightbulb in my head turn to a brilliant, glaring, shine in your eyes so bright that you can’t ignore it kind of on.

EXERCISE WAS A PRIORITY IN THEIR LIVES!

And all of a sudden I got it! To somebody like me and most people I know, exercise is something you fit in if you have the time. IF YOU HAVE THE TIME. And guess what…most of the time with going here, going there, doing this and that…you (I) DON’T HAVE THE TIME…so it just gets dropped of the list.

But it became so beautifully clear to me at that moment that all of these gorgeous, young, healthy ladies I have been motivated by view physical activity as one of those things in your day that falls into the “MUST DO” category with those things you have to do during that that are not optional!

You know, you MUST shower, MUST get dressed, MUST eat, MUST get the kids to school on time, MUST get your work done, MUST pick the kids up from school, MUST breathe…and you MUST give your body some physical activity…..get the picture?

I sure did! You may think I am a big dummy…but really, I had never looked at physical activity in that light before.

And the other lightbulb that came on was how even these ladies had their moments when the did not want to get up and run or workout…but they still did, because it is important to their overall wellbeing! It was a MUST Do!

So since that giant lightbulb started glaring at me I have been making sure I am making it a priority, and for me, with my muscle condition, really it is a priority…one of quality of life in my future as a matter of fact.

I have set my goals and for the first time in I don’t know how many years I have been following through and ENJOYING it too! ME! Enjoying exercise!

My goals had to start with what I am able to do…I will never be a marathon runner, I am not sure it is possible, but I can walk (and I am grateful for that), and I do know I can strengthen my legs somewhat, hopefully slowing down the progression and severity of the disease.

So for the past few weeks I make sure I walk 4-5/7 days. I am walking a minimum of 2 miles each day with an overall goal to walk 300 miles this year. I have also set a goal to at least be able to jog a mile. YES! A whole mile!! Of course as it stands at this moment, that one mile for me might as well be 26.2!

On April 29 I will be walking the Mercedes Benz Corporate 5K! Maybe not a big deal for you marathoners…but it is for me and I am really excited about that! One day I hope I can run one…but for now I am thrilled that I can walk one…and keep it in an hour too!

I have already seen progress in my speed and endurance. In two weeks I have gone from a 22 minute mile and shaky legs after the first mile (hoping I won’t fall down out there in the park!) to a 19 minute mile today…and I pushed through to 3.5 miles. AND…for the first time on my walk today (hee hee) I wasn’t the slowest one out there! Yep..there was one lady I could keep ahead of! HEY…that is progress for somebody that has always been a turtle!!!!

Already I see that I will need to be adding some kind of stretching routine and strength training routine to the walking, not that easy when most routines have floor exercises and as of yet I am still not able to get up from the floor by myself.

But I am learning about that…how to proceed and I know I will succeed in there too!

I am not sure of all the how’s, what’s, and why’s of all of the changes, understandings, and motivations I have been lucky enough to experience lately…but as a thank you to Angela, Amanda, Melissa, Karilynn, and some of the other bloggers who, even they have no clue, have played a major role in motivating me, I hope over the next year to be able to pay it forward by showing what I can do and motivating some other couch potatoes to get off of the couch and move!

Really…if I can do it, anybody can!!!

A Few Good Meals

2010-02-25T22:00:00.001-05:00

I am way too tired to write…how about pictures instead…

My faaaavvvee breakfast! Oatmeal made with almond milk and water, cooked with bananas, topped with cacao nibs, razzies, hiding strawberries, and a spoonful of almond butter. My faaaaavvveee!!!For FabPreteen, whose tastes are evolving (finally!!!), yogurt mix…peach yogurt topped with razzies, strawberries, bananas, and a sprinkle of granola. She loves this stuff..one day I will wean her off the yogurt with fruit…but for now I am happy she is eating this!Sweet organic grapefruit shared with FabPreteen. Organic tangerine…midday snack!

Dinner…chickpea/broccoli/potato coconut curry over quinoa and topped with raw cashews and raisins… OMG this was incredibly good!Breakfast this morning…FabPreteen and I had coupons for free oatmeal at Starbucks for…it came with cute little packets of dried fruit (currants, mixed raisins, cranberries) and mixed nuts (walnuts, almonds, and pecans)

And a cute little packet of brown sugar which I resisted at first (I never use it on my oats at home!) but at 50 calories I succumbed..put all the packets in my oats..and felt so guilty!On a regular day I wouldn’t pay for Starbucks oatmeal when I could make it at home for pennies….and healthier…but it was good! And probably better than stopping at Dunkin’ Donuts.Finally dinner tonight…shock shock shock…made by FabHubs! Yes…HE COOKED THAT STUFF! (He has resisted cooking dinner since we went organic/vegetarian..well I went vegetarian, he is resisting that too. He always tells me, “I don’t know how to cook that stuff!”)

Roasted acorn squash, collard greens sauteed with garlic and onion, topped with parmesan cheese, and sauteed leeks.

Another shock…the collards, squash, and leeks are from previous weeks….and are the very last of older veggies.

For the first time in I don’t know how long, I ONLY HAVE ORGANIC PRODUCE FROM THIS WEEK’S BOX IN MY HOUSE!

I really can’t believe it!

And on that note…I am going to bed!!!!!

Eating Well

2010-02-24T11:53:00.001-05:00

By Monday morning my fruit bowl was pathetic! After making lunches for the kids, only one lonely little apple remained. I think this is the first time this has happened since I joined the organic produce club!

But thankfully it was Monday…and soon this arrived…..

Not quite in that form, but after everything was sorted out, this is a portion of my share!

This week for my fresh organic eating and cooking pleasure I have:

1 bunch spinach
1 head broccoli
1 head broccolini
1 container of rainbow heirloom cherry tomatoes…YUM!
1 bag onions (I needed these!)
2 bulbs garlic (I needed these two!)
4 Haas avocados
beets
2 cucumbers
1 beautiful head of green leaf lettuce (not my fave but I love salad)
1 bunch cilantro
pink lady apples
blueberries (gone already by this posting!)
4 mangos
Ridiculously ginormous bananas
Tangerines
Grapefruit
Jazz apples…these are almost as good as the honeycrisp!
Raspberries
Strawberries

I also sprung $5 more this week for two extra bunches of kale…I have been craving a massaged kale salad!

Look at these tomatoes! Aren’t they pretty? They are almost gone too!Good razzies too!And afterwards my fruit bowl (and kids) were full and happy again.Look at the size of this banana! Normally I put a whole one in a double batch of green monsters for myself and FabTeen…or I put half in my monster and half in my oatmeal…but this was the size of TWO bananas!

I ended up splitting one between two batches of oats and a double batch of green monsters!

This is my full-size milk container!

By lunchtime on Monday, in between taking care of produce, people coming to pick up, and trying to work, I was starving! Sometimes I don’t get time for breakfast or lunch on those days and every time I sit down for lunch the doorbell rings!

I threw together in a hurry some of the fresh mozzarella balls I got on Sunday’s Costco run, organic baby spinach (Costco again, not the produce box), and half of the last large tomato from last week. I sprinkled some S&P and balsamic on top. I had Girl Scouts Monday night and I have been grumbling A LOT about being the only one to take care of the produce…so I was pleased to come home to the produce finally being put away in the fridge in the green bags.

FabHubs had also made salad…using ingredients we got in the box that day…a huge step in the right direction for him. Thus far he has been resistant to actually making anything using the produce (maybe cooking with it means accepting it? I don’t know) but Monday he did! This coupled with his meatless weekend makes for some major breakthroughs!

Anyway, no pictures, but I had an opened can of kidney beans in the fridge from my Friday night salad that I mentioned to him needed using and asked him to make some rice and we would have the kidney beans over rice with some sour cream and cheddar.

He got creative (points for him!) and mixed the kidneys with some garlic and black beans. The sour cream was bad…but the cheese was fine so the beans and rice, along with the salad, made for a great (pictureless) dinner.

Wrapping up Tuesday…I was in a seriously falafel mood! I think it is because I absolutely LOVE tahini sauce and could spread it on everything instead of mustard/mayo/ketchup (which I don’t eat much of anyway) and even dressing.

Lunch was a Sunshine burger which I have been so eager to try! I have wanted some burgers that are soy-free…I definitely need soy alternatives in the house.

Stacked with lettuce, tomatoes, cuke slices, and tahini on an Arnold Sandwich Thin…this did not disappoint!!!

Alongside I had a Jazz apple and a carrot.

Dinner was on my own…boys were at Boy Scouts and I had opted to stay home and FabPreteen had eaten at her dad’s…so I broke open the falafel balls I had bought on Sunday from Costco (told you I was hungry for falafel!

I put it in a Flatout wrap along with some lettuce and cuke slices…and then after the picture I smothered it in tahini! YUM

I made a salad on the side…which I dressed with the rest of the tahini.

This was so good…I may have to have this again for lunch today!

Better Late Than Never

2010-02-24T08:04:00.001-05:00

I guess!

I had promised a couple of people a recap of my yummy zucchini burgers the other day and have yet to get it up…so here it goes.

When I got home from the campout we were seriously low on food in the fridge but we had a few holdovers from weeks (yes, with an S) past that really really really needed to be used, red cabbage being a priority, a cauliflower also from weeks past, and the zukes next!

Carrots were still fresh…I never get enough in my box and have to supplement for juicing with Costco huge organic bags of carrots, but sadly we were out of onions and garlic…and I had to resort to jarred.

First I dragged out my old KitchenAid monster and popped in the shredder attachment. This sat dormant for a long time but lately has been getting a lot of use…and today it was in for a power workout!

I had lots of shredding to do!!!

First came the zucchini since I wanted to set it aside to drain.

I shredded three zukes and placed them in a colander over a bowl. These guys are FILLED with water and drain a lot! I set that aside while I went to work on the cabbage.I chopped and pushed the red cabbage through the hopper. I won’t like…this was a royal PITA! And I got grumpy! I also grabbed four carrots and shredded them into the mix.

I was surprised how well it stayed in the fridge. I only had to peel off a few of the outer leaves that had turned black and yucky…the insides were brightly colored, crunchy, and still sweet!

To make the dressing, I heated some water and added some white vinegar, Sugar In The Raw, and salt (too much salt). A simple old recipe I had found.

Looks good? Well it wasn’t!!! FabHubs and the kids were able to eat it…but beyond this sample I couldn’t choke it down. I wanted to rinse it off and start over…but FabHubs said he would eat it.

I was really disappointed!

It was sooooo salty! Next time I would cut waaaaayyy down on the water and salt and increase the vinegar!

After an intermediary Costco run I was able to continue with the zucchini burgers. I was out of Parmesan cheese and just can’t have these without it!

I bought a giant $16 wedge and while the grater was still set up, I grated half of that into a container so we have it ready for use over the next couple of weeks.

Then I took handfuls of the zucchini out of the colander and squeezed them as dry as I could get them, putting them into a different bowl.To the dry zucchini I added two eggs, a bunch of shredded Parmesan cheese (maybe a cup?), salt and pepper, and a bunch of Panko (no measuring…I eyeballed and poured). Mixed it all up and then lit it sit a few minutes…then I formed burgers and pan fried them in a little olive oil. They were a little too moist…I hadn’t squeezed out well enough I guess, or maybe I should not have added the second egg…I had a little trouble flipping them and ended up pouring a little more oil in to help it brown better (I had been stingy with the oil first go ‘round). That seemed to do the trick.

Finally, to round out the meal, was the cauliflower. I chopped these up into little florets. While I was chopping, I also heated a pan with some EVOO in it and sauteed some chopped (jarred…I prefer fresh) garlic. I added the cauliflower to the garlic and sauteed until everything was browned. I had some fresh parsley from the previous box as well…so I chopped some of that and added it at the end, along with a very generous dusting of more Parmesan! Final dinner:

Zucchini burgers on Arnold Sandwich Thins, topped with tomatoes, spinach, and fresh homemade tahini sauce (I put FabTeen to work on that one!) Alongside some browned cauliflower with parsley, cheese, and garlic…. And some too salty but looks pretty cabbage slaw!Other than the slaw this was really really good…but I have to say I was exhausted…and GRUMPY after camping, shopping, chopping, shredding, and cooking all day!

Surprises!

2010-02-22T23:42:00.001-05:00

This weekend I had a Girl Scout campout, one where they were providing all of the food and I was not allowed to bring anything at all. Not allowed as in strictly forbidden and clearly outlined.

They did have a vegetarian option available, which both FabPreteen and I opted for…but to be honest, I was expecting at best a meatless version of the S.A.D. (Standard American Diet).

I then became a smuggler…couldn’t help it! In my car I had a cooler stuffed with “just in case” fare. Frozen aseptic packs of rice milk, coconut water, organic apples, individual packets of almond butter, and Larabars!

Hey..I am a Girl Scout and I was prepared! Especially if I needed a chocolate fix! Newman’s Own organic chocolate was BOGO at Whole Foods this week and FabHubs each picked one out! I was not going to sit out and not eat the whole weekend!

Well I wish I had remembered (DUH!) to take photos of the food before I ate…somehow the lightbulb always came on after the plate was empty!

Friday night we were responsible for our own dinner so in a huge hurry to make sure I got to the campout before the gates closed I rummaged through the fridge and threw together this:

This would be a huge salad with lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms and maybe other veggies I had in the fridge that I can’t remember now.

On top I tossed in some leftover leek lemon rice, heated up, and then a generous sprinkling of feta crumbles. Then on a whim I opened a can of kidney beans and tossed a bunch on top. I poured on some balsamic, slapped a lid on top of the container and threw it in the car to be eaten later…and I have to say this was one of my best concoctions! I loved it!

I was good for the rest of the evening! Okay…I did have a small scoop of ice cream at the ice cream social.

The next morning I walked into the dining hall to find a glorious array of fresh cut fruits and veggies…apples, bananas, oranges, grapes…it was gorgeous! and I was so pleased I forgot to snap a picture! Alongside this was turkey sausage (I passed), scrambled eggs (I took), bagels, cream cheese, and coffee!

Nor did I remember to take photos of lunch, dinner, or breakfast the next day….all equally as delicious with healthy vegetarian options always available. I was seriously and joyously surprised!

The only sneaking I did of my smuggled goods turned out to be a Larabar instead of a ‘smore at the campfire (‘smores just do not appeal to me anymore!) and I kept going back and forth to the car to fill my cup with coconut water rather than drink the lemonade or fruit punch provided. Honestly I felt like a high school kid sneaking out to the car to spike my punch!

SURPRISE #2 came from FabHubs and the rest of the boys whom I had left home. The conversation went something like this:

ME: So, how much meat did you boys eat while I was gone?

FABHUBS (proudly): NONE!!!!

ME: NO! You are kidding!!!!

FABHUBS: Believe me we thought about taking advantage…but didn’t!

ME: Can you scrape me off the floor now?

I was totally shocked…we still have chicken, Bubba Burgers, lamb, and other various meat products I have stuffed into the recesses of the freezer that I thought for sure would be eaten while I was gone!

And secretly I was thinking some room would be freed up in that freezer for more veggies! Not that I am disappointed at all…I guess all their grumbling has a touch of showmanship to it but they are getting the message and going along with it after all!

On the other hand…while they may not have eaten meat, they also didn’t go to town on the veggies I had left for them either. I am not sure they even ate any!

So when I got home I had to get to work on using a bunch up to make room for the new veggies coming in today.

First on the menu was some juicing. Carrots, ginger, beets, parsley, apples…and I decided to try some red cabbage I had that needed to go!

This month in Prevention Magazine I read an article that said you should strive to eat a Rainbow of Health every day……and this we definitely did today.

This juice was definitely a rainbow.

First of all, the colors were so brilliant…even FabHubs grabbed the camera to take a picture of the purple cabbage juice.

Isn’t that color beautiful?????

Fun Fact About Me….PURPLE is my absolute favorite color…and not pastelly type purples…but this deep brilliant purple! My camp chair is purple…my purse is purple (HeeHee)…even my pens are purple. I LOVE PURPLE!!!!

And the remaining parts of the ROY G. BIV equation…all out of order:

Green Parsley

Ruby Red Beets; Orange Carrots; Cream Colored Ginger; and Pink Lady Apples!

The result….pink, healthy, and delicious!!!!

This post is getting looonnnngggg…and the computer is acting very slow…..so I will have to blog my continued colorful dinner in another post!!!!!

Black Bean Burgers

2010-02-17T11:38:00.001-05:00

More pictures showing how to make black bean burgers

1 14 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 cup oats
1 TBS herbs of your choice (this time I used oregano and cumin)
2 cloves minced garlic (I used more because I like lots!)
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste

Mash beans in a bowl leaving some chunky. Add egg. In a blender or food processor combine the onion, garlic, oats, and seasonings. Add liquid if you need to, to make the mixture moist. I used water, but you can use ketchup, wine, milk, or vegetable stock if you like.

Add the mixture to the beans and mix well. If mixture is too wet you can add breadcrumbs (I used Panko) to thicken it up some.

You can make this mixture in advance and leave in refrigerator a few hours or overnight. It will thicken up nicely and make burgers that are easy to form and stick together well. The mixture will also freeze well, in already formed burgers or in a bag.

To cook, just form into your preferred shape and pan-fry on medium heat in a little olive oil.

You can substitute a flax egg, or other liquid to make this recipe vegan. You can also freeze the burgers cooked if you like.

Try different herb combos such as cilantro and salsa; parsley and parmesan cheese; soy and scallions. Be creative and experiment!

Mixing It Up

2010-02-13T11:04:00.000-05:00

My big challenge is making food that has enough protein to satisfy FabHubs while not relying nightly on soy, soy processed foods, or veggie only meals.

While I know beans are a huge source of satisfaction for him and seem to generate the least amount of “meat missing”...I find I am not using them enough at all. I definitely need to put some more energy into using beans more often.

This week I decided to go ahead and make some black bean burgers, hoping this would do the trick for him.

The past two nights we actually ended up having the same exact thing for dinner…not leftovers reheated but each cooked fresh again.

Of course I love the sweet potatoes and we have so many of those it was a great excuse to use them (fries with the burgers of course!).

I did these first since they would take the longest to cook.

First I washed and cut them into fry shapes.

Then I put them in my giant blue bowl that I seem to use for everything…and tossed them with olive oil, salt, and chili powder until they were well coated…and promptly forgot to shoot the picture of that!

Into the oven they went…single layer, 425 degrees, stirred every 15 or so minutes until they were brown and roasted and ummmmmm.

Next we had TWO heads of local Florida chard that I had to use, from two different weeks of produce box deliveries…those green bags sure worked their magic here. The old head looked just as fresh as the one I got this past Monday!

I decided to go ahead with the two heads of chard. But by the time they were both washed, chopped, and ready to go I saw that this was a huge quantity and would be too much for us so I ended up cooking only half.

I chopped fresh garlic and tossed that in a large cast iron pan with hot olive oil and cooked those a bit…then piled in as much chard as I could get to comfortably fit in the pan. The rest went back into a green bag…to be used the next night.

Piled in the pan…

Starting to wilt some…

Now starting to look really tender. I do cover the pan with a large lid in between photos and stirring to help soften the greens.

Once the greens were done I ~~poured~~ sprinkled a generous amount of fresh grated romano cheese over it…this and the garlic made the dish! Seriously…coming from someone who never ate veggies growing up…I could eat this whole dish myself!

Romano all melty….YUMMMMMM

Okay…enough chard..onto the burgers.

FabHubs had bought the huge can of beans and so the bean mixture ended being a huge amount…enough for two dinners and then some.

After two nights of making burgers I still ended up freezing some for a quick-ready future dish.

These looked pretty darn disgusting in the mixing process:

Really…they tasted much better than they looked! I mashed a drained and rinsed can of black beans in a bowl while FabTeen put into a blender a rough chopped purple onion (it’s what I had), some oats, and some water to get it to puree. We added the liquidy mixture to the beans, along with two eggs. I did debate subbing out flax eggs for the eggs…but decided to just go with the eggs.

Really it is just like making burgers, except with mashed black beans instead of the ground beef. I leave some of the beans chunky too. Of course we added garlic…we are a garlicky kind of family.

The mixture was too liquidy the first night…so I dumped in a bunch of panko bread crumbs trying to thicken it up some. It worked…but really the burgers were much easier to form the second night after the leftover mixture had sat in the fridge overnight.

Finally we had corn that needed to be used up, so I boiled some water and threw it into a pot. I don’t like to cook my corn to death…I basically just heat it up.

Boil the water, stick the corn in for a minute or two…and that it is it. It tastes so sweet and crunchy that way! No butter needed. A little wine and candle that FabTeen surprised me with to relax while I cooked…

And the end result…which I thought was such a beautiful color combination! My little point and shoot does not do the colors justice either!

Tasted really really good to boot…and the biggest bonus is I feel like I am eating like a queen and losing weight.

What more could a girl ask for?

Save The Produce!

2010-02-12T21:57:00.001-05:00

As I mention often, one of the downsides of getting a large box of organic produce every week is that I have to be vigilant about using it up.

It definitely hurts to throw away that produce I so lovingly packed one, two, or even (gulp) three Mondays or so ago!

One of my favorite “use it up” method is the often seen here huge pan of roasted veggies. I love this because it is truly an anything goes dish…anything I have that needs to be used goes in it! I do try to make sure I use the fragile, tender, more easily spoiled produce such as the lettuce first.

I have found that I am more apt to eat salad (and make my family eat salad) on a daily basis if I take the time to wash, spin, and tear the head of lettuce so it is ready to go. I prep it and then stick it in a bag similar to those Debbie Meyer green produce bags. Then all week it is just a matter of pouring some in a bowl and topping it with fresh cut salad veggies.

Usually I will make an enormous salad with it…cut veggies and all, and then store that so all I need to do is pour onto a plate or in a big bowl for dinners or lunches….no more cutting necessary.

Isn’t that a gorgeous rainbow of colors? Tastes pretty good too…I would much rather taste that rainbow any day.

This was my prepped salad stash for this week….usually topped with some sort of protein…feta cheese, tempeh, seitan.

Stirring Up Dinner

Well this week I found myself, once again, with an abundance of veggies that were on their last legs or just needed to be used up…and to be honest I was kind of sick of the roasted veggies. I wanted something different that used a bunch of veggies….and wasn’t soup!

Stir fry to the rescue!

First I had some tofu in the fridge so I set that to pressing. No…I don’t store textbooks on the stove…underneath all those textbooks is a brick of tofu! You have to press it for about 30 minutes to get all the liquid out!

Second step was to get the brown rice cooking since that takes so long as well….that is in the pot to the right of the pressing tofu.

While those two were doing their thing largely unattended, I hunted down veggies for the stir fry that I knew were hiding out in the fridge and set to work chopping and dicing. I added orange carrots, yellow carrots, a large bunch of scallions (from three weeks ago!!!), some broccoli that was seriously on its last legs (and the inspiration for this dish!), fresh garlic, fresh ginger, and mushrooms.

Once the tofu was pressed and drained, I cubed it.

Finally everything was ready to go….I think this is in the pan cooking already but I am not sure!!!!

While the veggies were cooking, I got a pan out and tossed some sesame seeds in there to dry toast. I saved these to put last into the stir fry.

Have you noticed that all of our pots are stainless steel and our pans are cast iron? Our cast iron pans are so well seasoned they are all nonstick.Once the veggies were fork tender I began tossing “stuff” on them. I wish I could tell you it was an exact recipe…but it wasn’t. I subscribe heavily to the “pour it on until it feels right” method of cooking.

I added a hefty dose of less Na soy sauce and very generously poured some honey in there as well. When I went for the taste test something still was missing….and I noticed the jar of natural peanut butter on the counter…so I opened that and got out a large spoonful which I stirred into the stir fry…perfect!!! That did the trick! Final addition was the topping of toasted sesame seeds. I thought about adding some cashews in there as well, which would have been delicious, but I decided the sesame seeds and tofu were enough. After all, I am still trying to notch the scale downward!

Dinner was a huge hit…except for FabHubs who tolerated it…but that is to be expected….and the bonus is I successfully saved a whole bunch of veggies from a sad fate in the compost bin.

Salads, Stir Fries, and Roasted Veggies…do you have any other Go To methods for using up large amounts of veggies?

New Things To Try

2010-02-08T12:36:00.001-05:00

Gorgeous organic produce box came today and as always it has a great mix of some old favorites as well as fun new things to try.New and interesting includes these three beautiful flowery artichokes. Sure I have had them marinated and jarred from salad bars but I have never ever cooked them before. I don’t yet know what I am going to do with them! I also got these YELLOW carrots!

Altogether this week I got:

Artichokes
Red and Yellow bell peppers
Sweet potatoes
Those Yellow carrots
Celery
Grape tomatoes
Cauliflower head
Butter lettuce
Rapini
Chard
Lemons
Blueberries
Mango
Lots of Mandarin oranges
Pink Lady apples
Lots of Bananas
1 bag of Kiwis
Cara navels….LOVE THESE!
Honey tangerines
Grapefruit

Lots of yummies to enjoy this week! I know I will be fighting Ms. FabPreteen off of those grapefruits and kiwis!

So what is your favorite way to prepare and enjoy artichokes?

A Super Sunday!

2010-02-07T22:06:00.001-05:00

Today was SuperBowl Sunday…and while I am not a football fan, having the game right here in Miami made it all the buzz everywhere I went!

The weather was absolutely super too! Our church meets outdoors and today we met under brilliantly clear blue skies with a slight chill in the air and no humidity. Perfect!

After church I ran over to Starbucks for my blogger meetup. I was a little bit late because I had a stop I had to make in between…but they were nowhere near finished by the time I got there.

I met up with Amanda from Run To The Finish, Meredith from Pursuing Balance, Jessie from Vegan-Minded, and Melissa from Trying To Heal. Weird how blogging has changed the way some of us identify people!

We had a great time chatting for a while in Starbucks. What an interesting group of ladies!

When it was time to say goodbye everybody kind of had the same goal in mind next…walking over to Whole Foods to do a little shopping! So we all walked over there together and chatted up and down the aisles.

I hadn’t eaten since before I had left for church that morning and I was craving a fresh juice…but when I saw the green juice I wanted was nearly $10.00 ($10.00!!!!! for juice) I decided I would just head home and juice my own!

Back at home, ravenous now, I made my favorite blend of carrot/apple/ginger/beet/parsley. I really wanted to down the whole thing myself…but I had to share with the family!!!

Then inspiration took over and I decided to compete with FabHubs over the kitchen!

He was making us homemade pizza and guacamole for dinner and snacks…and out of the blue I had a weird driving need to make juice pulp muffins!

So side by side we worked…he rolling out the pizza dough and chopping veggies…

Me throwing ingredients into a bowl for my juice pulp muffins. Some of us (hint, not me) were a little less thrilled about the space sharing than others! Good thing we have a double oven so I could have my own!

I found this fantastic recipe on this blog I fell in love with and used it as a basis for my muffins, tweaking it here and there to make it my own.

I doubled the recipe since I had plenty of juice pulp! I used one cup of spelt flour and one cup regular. I also threw in some golden raisins, I had some fresh organic cranberries on hand (YAY!), and even some organic orange peel.

Sweetened by honey and no oil added, these are quite healthy.

I mixed all of the ingredients together but they seemed really dry for muffins…so I added a little bit of apple juice for extra moisture. (I would have preferred to use orange juice if I had any!)

They were still thicker than most muffin batters…but I was afraid to add too much so I just went with it this thick. I scooped up big handfuls and molded them into balls and placed them in the muffin pan….where ACK! They looked just like mini meatloaves!!!! While they cooked I snacked on our homemade guac with my new snack love, Stacy’s Naked pita chips.Then the pizza was ready…custom-made for various tastes….my half has ricotta, portobellas, pineapple, tomatoes, green peppers, garlic, and onion.

YUM! And finally the meatloa….er I mean muffins were ready!

They were a little dense but still pretty good! Everyone liked them except….FabHubs of course!

He still made “the face” but on a scale of faces it was not a “10” face (which means I hate this…where is my steak and sausage…don’t you ever make this again) but more like a “3” face (not my favorite and a tad too healthy for my tastes, but I will eat just this one).

Good enough for me!

Okay…Superbowl is over..Saints are winners and I am tired on this superfun day!

I Have Done Well!

2010-02-06T12:32:00.001-05:00

Cookie goal you ask? Almost there with less than 100 boxes left to sell!! We did really well!

Weight loss competition you ask? I lost a total of 9 pounds from January’s weigh-in to yesterday’s weigh-in…actually a little more but lucky me…my TOM started Thursday night before weigh-in and so my weight popped up a little.

Still, out of 42 competitors weighing in, I placed a respectable 11th place!

I did really well!!!

Where is the food for the week you ask? Yeah well with cookies sales and work taking up much of my time eating has been rushed and pictures almost nonexistent. But I have still managed to eat healthy, use what comes in my produce box, and lose weight!

I have done really well!!!

My best surprise came Wednesday night when I got home late from a cookie booth with my daughter.

FabTeen had cooked us dinner! He took broccoli, red onion, and garlic from the produce box and made a stir fry with peanut sauce.

These are pictures of what was leftover! He also made brown rice to serve with it.

It was delicious!!!! He also baked some chocolate chip/flax/pecan cookies…(yeah..we needed more cookies in this house!). At least these were healthy…and so good!

I was pretty impressed with what this 18 year old kid came up with! He has definitely learned something from me..and in this regard I really have done well!!! I am so proud of him! Hee Hee…he will make a fine husband some day!

Some EXCITING NEWS! Tomorrow I will be meeting up with a few other South Florida healthy bloggers! I will be meeting Meredith from Pursuing Balance, Vegan-Minded Jessie, and Melissa from Trying To Heal. I think some others are coming but I don’t know who…at any rate I am quite excited to meet everyone!!!

Cookies and Burgers…What A Combo!

2010-01-30T12:39:00.001-05:00

Well we are halfway through Cookie Season with only two weeks left (thank goodness!) and I am happy to update we are around the 700 box sold mark on FabPreteen’s quest for 1,000. Yes, I have cookie boxes all over my living room! Those are all full cases you see….but that is the last of what she needs to hit the mark!

A few more booths, a few more boxes, and then I can get back to my regularly scheduled blogging!

Honestly, I take tons of pictures for the blog, but by the time night comes and I am done with work and cookies (there is nothing else in my life right now!) I am totally and completely beyond pooped and the fingers just won’t work to eek out a post…let alone the brain put together something coherent!

That being said, it is the weekend and FabPreteen is at her dad’s this weekend which means no cookie booths for me and blog posts for you!

This week I really had some deeeeeelicious concoctions I whipped up while frantically trying to use up produce before it went bad!

Before I get into a few of those…I have to share the new and unusual veggie (for me) that came in my box this week!

I consider myself pretty worldly and knowledgeable when it comes to fruits and veggies…but this was new to me….and just adorable too! It looks like a little flying saucer!

It is a sunburst or patty pan squash! I need to figure out what I want to do with them to enjoy them. So far I have only cut up one into a pan of roasted veggies that I made this week.

But here is what I did with another squash I had…zucchini! I have had these zukes in one of those green bags for more than two weeks now…those green bags are fantastic! But they aren’t miraculous and the zucchinis were letting me know they need to be used up or else…so I made them into these:

These zucchini burgers were beyond deliciousness! (I can’t believe this former 100% medium-rare beef-loving gal just said that!)

I grated up the zukes and let them drain while I chopped garlic and grated fresh romano cheese to put in there. When the grated zucchini had drained, I hand squeezed large clumps of it so it was very dry, and then added the garlic, cheese, some panko bread crumbs, and an egg.

I formed these into burgers and fried them up. No ketchup needed!!

I also had some organic potatoes that needed to be used…which I baked and we topped with sour cream and cheddar cheese.

And finally the ever present salad. I get a head of lettuce and some for of tomatoes in every week’s produce box…as well as various other veggies that are perfect in salad…and so we always have salad to eat. I don’t mind but I am not sure my family is of the same mindset at this point!I was pretty pleased with this dinner!!!! Even though I am not having meat…I feel like I eat like a Queen and in great portions….and still lose weight! Not too shabby!

And I never got to it earlier this week…but here was my box this week! Bananas, apples, strawberries, mandarin oranges, raspberries, apples, lettuce, tomatoes, asparagus, the patty pan squash, avocado, kale, carrots, pears, mangoes, blueberries, dill, radishes…and more!

The bananas were incredible! I have never seen such big fat bananas…Okay…besides the fact that the picture does not do the description justice at all…what weirdo posts a banana with a golf ball for comparison!

You will just have to take my word for it!!!

Have any of you been able to find an organic produce co-op near you?

A Tale Of The Scale

2010-01-30T11:17:00.001-05:00

Because I am losing, the scale and I have actually been getting along quite well lately! I am usually kind excited to see what good ole scale has to say to me many mornings.

But last month was a little frustrating…I was eating well, but hovering! Grrrr!!! I just couldn’t blast through the floor of 171 pounds! I had a seriously vicious cycle going…up three or four pounds, down 1, down another, down again…the up…then down…then…I am sure you get this picture!

And then one morning, about three weeks ago, I hopped on the scale AND I WAS DOWN 7 POUNDS! SEVEN! Was this right? Was something wrong with the scale? How could this be?

I really really really wanted it to be right of course! I was kind of excited!!! But I was a little afraid to give in to that excitement in case it was a fluke…this was SEVEN pounds!

I stepped off the scale…then stepped back on. SAME THING! So good so far! I tried one more time, off and then back on…I was still down!

Now I was feeling pretty good! FabPreteen came downstairs and I hustled her over to the scale for a second consultation from an independent physical specimen….yes, I made her weigh herself!

SHE had not lost seven pounds! She was still in the ballpark of where she had been…good for me…that meant my weight loss was a good possibility here!

Now finally I allowed myself to be excited…and because I was so light, I floated through the day on cloud nine!!!

OH YEAH!

And then that evening, FabHubs said to me out of the blue, “Hey…did you weigh yourself this morning? I was down about six pounds!”

Well with those words I immediately crashed back to earth! Uh-Oh…was something wrong with the scale after all?

Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

So FabHubs, changed the battery and calibrated it…and made sure it was flat, and did all the technical things necessary to make sure the scale was doing its job the way it is supposed to.

And guess what…hee hee! I am getting thinner!!!!

(Ummm…so is he apparently….I am the one who needs to lose weight and it is still dropping off of him faster than it is me! MEN!)

Since that roller coaster of a day the scale and I have become really tight…it is my friend at the moment!

Yes, it is showing better and better numbers each week…and while I know many of the competitors are blowing me away in weight loss…..I am looking forward to my Losing To Win weigh-in this month.

A Tale Of Two Dinners, Indoors and Outdoors

2010-01-26T08:01:00.001-05:00

First, sorry for my relative quietness! With two camping weekends in a row, girl scout cookies, and work…I am hard pressed to get any sleep this past two weeks let alone get in the kitchen for cooking and on the computer for blogging!

Last Thursday though…as I sat in the doctor’s waiting room I flipped through one of the magazines in his office and found this delicious-looking recipe for a healthy beef stew! I looked at this recipe and thought…I can vegetarianize this…AND we pretty much have all the ingredients for it from the produce box. And so this was born:

I subbed out a package of store bought seitan for the beef,

When we got home from camping Sunday night we had big bowls of this for dinner. I added some Boca Crumbles to make a little meatier tasting for FabHubs…and sprinkled some freshly-shredded parmesan on top.

I still got the glare! But to the rest of us it tasted so yummy!

Friday night was back to the Everglades for us…this time with the Boy Scouts…and this time on a primitive piece of property in the middle of the Everglades.

This is what we had for running water:

I kid you not! The boys (and adults) used this for drinking water and cooking and washing water. We big city folk are definitely not used to this!

But we could get used to this….beautiful isn’t it!

This little guy was right up next to the path. This lady stood right over his tail while her family took, a picture of her! I personally keep a wide berth and I have lived here my whole life!This this guy pulled the gator’s tail! Mr. Gator was NOT happy. He turned and hissed and looked at this guy…..And then we had to walk by him to continue on our way back to the car! And I was NOT happy either!

The sun was already setting when we started making dinner… And I thought I would show you the camping kitchens…these are the different kids’ kitchens:

This is FabHubs and my personal camping kitchen…it is a bit messy as it was in use full blast all weekend!

FabHubs (and I) was the cook for the adults for the weekend, about 20 or so people. FabHubs did the menu planning and shopping for the group, but I packed a bunch of my own food to make sure I was able to eat well…and eat healthy. Our troop loves their meat and potatoes…and FabHubs was able to slip some healthiness into the meals, but still made it unhealthy enough for them to enjoy!

Breakfast did not get pictures taken as we were running behind and the group was hungry!

FabHubs made his English Muffins from scratch and I worked on the eggs. I sliced and diced red and green bell peppers, onions, and potatoes, which I cooked in a Dutch oven along with eggs and sausage. Bulk pork sausage for the group…and a small Dutch Oven portion for me with Gimme Lean meatless sausage. We melted cheese on top. This along with the muffins and coffee….Divine!

After lunch I went on a small hike (see pictures above!) and we got back well after the time for lunch. Lunch was simple…fruits and sandwiches but I was not hungry from the big breakfast though so I never ate it!

Dinner was the major meal and FabHubs started on it right after lunch! He wanted to make his “Better than Macaroni Grill” Italian rustic bread out there in the Dutch Ovens. I didn’t get pictures of the process…but I managed to get some pictures of the finished product before it disappeared! He made three loaves.

It was GOOD! I hadn’t had lunch and I ended up eating THREE slices!!! Good thing I had only had fruit for lunch!

Our dinner menu was grilled chicken (FabHubs makes THE BEST!…even if I do not eat it anymore); green beans almandine; Caesar salad, and cowboy beans.

My job was the green beans….I started out by getting some help and then breaking all tips off of the beans and breaking them down into bite-sized pieces.

We got another group of adults to put the salad together:

I melted some butter in the Dutch Oven and threw in a package of almonds to toast some:

Oddly enough, the green beans ended up being the last thing finished and we were waiting on them! Here is what they looked like when cooking…there are hot coals on top of the lid and hot coals underneath to provide heat and cook what is inside!

FabHubs made the baked beans from scratch. He had put the beans in to soak the night before. My vegetarian version, however, got a little dried out!!!

He also grilled the chicken over the open fire. I had tried to think ahead a little…see that silver looking thing on the top right corner of the grill? That is my organic sweet potato I had brought from home…I wrapped it in foil and threw it on the grill so I would have something to eat…based on the looks of those beans above, it is a good thing I did that!

We had some fun entertainment while we cooked!

And while our meal cooked, I walked around to see what the visiting pack was making:

Grilled eggplant and onions….I got the leftovers of this…YUMMY!

Baked potatoes:

Salad:

Corn:

At some point around this time, someone calmly said to FabHubs, “Ummm…Mr. M**, your chicken is on fire.” At which point FabHubs ran over to the fire pit to extinguish his chicken!

The chicken was saved and was still good….so I hear!

This was my dinner! The green beans were a huge hit and I was lucky to get myself a second portion!

I did sneak in a few oreos while there…but overall I managed to watch what I ate and of course the planning made a huge difference.

Monday morning the scale and I were still happy buds!

Who Needs Workout…I’ve Got Cookies!

2010-01-21T07:58:00.001-05:00

Hundreds of them to be exact (that is not exact is it!).

Yes..FabPreteen is on the quest to reach 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies sold and guess who is her support system. I am getting tons of exercise lugging cases of cookies out of the house and into the car….lugging cases of cookies out of the car to the booth…packing up the booth and back to the car…unloading the car and back into the house. (This is Florida…you can’t leave the cookies in the car or they will melt!)

Don’t forget that heavy table, two chairs, and a cash box….and who needs to go to the gym, I just do the cookie mom workout!

Yesterday was a crazy day for me! In addition to having back to back cookie booths from 3-9 p.m., I also had a organic produce delivery, work, and kids to deal with.

My living room was unbelievable yesterday with 350 boxes of cookies and a few hundred pounds of produce to be sorted!

Needless to say I am quite exhausted….and my eating habits after 3 p.m. were less than stellar.

Does splitting a box of Lemon Chalet Cremes with your daughter for dinner make me an awful mom? I threw a couple of cheese sticks in there for protein.

When I got home at 10 pm I still had to put my own produce away, do the paperwork for it, work on the order for cookies for the girl scout troop for this weekend, and take care of the last day’s produce box pickup. Yes…that late!

I finally stumbled to bed around 12:30 a.m. and got to get up at 6 a.m. this morning to do it all again.

Have I told you this is my favorite time of year? (You are not reading any sarcasm there are you?)

I actually don’t mind all the work…I just need a few more hours in my day so I can fit some sleep in there as well.

In case you didn’t notice, produce was moved this week to Wednesday! This week’s box contained a lot of wonderful goodies I don’t have a lot of experience with, such as turnips and parsnips, and look forward to making, along with some of my favorite staples, apples, bananas, pineapple, carrots, and more…We got:

Leeks
Roma tomatoes
Parsnips
Yams
A head of Cauliflower
Carrots
Celery
Portobello mushrooms
Turnips
A bunch of Dill
A head of Romaine
Chard (this was so pretty!)
Fennel (also very pretty)
Blueberries
Bananas
Tangerines
Gala apples
Pears
Grapefruit
Pineapple

I was also supposed to get some mandarins and strawberries but took a trip north on a different truck…so I will get some of those next week!

This weekend I am camping again, this time not in those adorable Chickee dorms…but in a tent out with the Boy Scouts in a rough and primitive campground out in the Everglades!

I hope to be able to find time to prepare some food to bring so I have some healthy veggies to enjoy and so all of this won’t go bad! FabHubs will be doing the cooking for the adults in the troop…but the troop is a huge meat crowd so that is what he will cooking for them and I will be on a lonely veggie quest, fending for myself!

Today it is work….and more cookies! I sure look forward to getting some rest while camping this weekend!!!!

In the meantime….WANT TO BUY A BOX OF GIRL SCOUT COOKIES?