Disney Is Right, It IS A Small World After All!

Like many bloggers, I love reading other health and food blogs on a regular basis. One blog I read regularly is Pursuing Balance. 

I was reading Meredith’s blog yesterday or the day before when I noticed in the comment section that Jessie had a comment posted about a contest she was having on her site.  I have been to her blog, Vegan-Minded, several times before, so I decided to clicked through to see what her contest was about.

While there, I browsed a bit and saw an older post in which she blogged about a new CSA she joined last week.

She had a gorgeous picture of the box and several more showing what was in it...and like me, she listed what was in it.

As I read the list I realized it was exactly the same as what I had received in my box last week...so I followed the link and sure enough...she had signed up for the one I belong to, Annie’s!

So I went back, read a little more, and I even studied how her CSA person packed her box to see how I compare at the packing...I am new at this and I always worry how I do!
Then I went back, entered her contest, and even posted on her CSA post, telling her that I was a member of Annie's too, and how funny it was that we both posted showing pictures of our boxes and listed what we got!

About half or more later she responded to me that she went to my blog and browsed around a bit and saw my picture...and then she said that she recognized me and had actually picked up her box from me! LOL...that was just too funny!

Seriously small world!

I didn't connect it because although she came with him when he picked up the box, it was actually her boyfriend who had been the one to sign up and talk to me over the phone, and all the paperwork and phone calls were with him or in his name. I know all my “pickups” by name, but in my head the “pickup” was her boyfriend…even if we did all chat a little bit when they came by.

Of course as soon as she said who she was I remembered instantly…and was totally blown away!
Really...what are the odds of this happening in that big blogging world out there!!!!

Oh...and when looking at the box objectively, having no idea that I was the person who packed it, I thought I did a fine job!

And after you finish laughing, check out Jessie’s great blog and enter her Newman’s Organics giveaway!

Dressing The Oats

Somehow my breakfasts just aren’t as filling and satisfying when I eat something other than oatmeal.

And I do love my oats with a little something something added to them!

This morning’s was a new experiment!

First of all…I think FabHubs must have run out of time this morning because his bowl of untouched oatmeal was sitting waiting for me when I woke up.  Then FabPreteen did not like the Fuji apple she was eating (not crunchy enough!) so she gave that to me.

So I took everybody’s breakfast leftovers and turned them into a breakfast for me…boy did I feel special!

Digging into my Winning Box Of Healthy Goodies from Oh She Glows Angela, I found these:

These are cacao nibs, raw chocolate, powerfully healthy and a SuperFood! 

If you can’t read it…(I can’t!) it says how these contain a rich supply of vitamins and minerals including beta-carotene, zinc, and magnesium, and more anti-oxidant flavanoids than blueberries, red wine, and green tea.

We had opened the package a few weeks ago and eagerly dug and and…and…and…UGH!  BITTER!  Yes…no sugar added!  But I wanted to like them!

I knew I needed to find a way to enjoy them…in something else because at this point I just cannot snack on them as is!

So the lightbulb went off when I was making my oatmeal this morning and I went and got them and added a large spoonful to my oats, along with half of FabPreteen’s leftover apple (chopped up and microwaved along with the oats when I heated them up) and of course my usual spoonful of almond butter.  The almond butter just makes the oatmeal for me!

    This was absolutely delicious!  The bitterness of the cacao nibs was totally masked by the rest of the ingredients…and not only did it add a perfect hint of chocolate to my oatmeal, it also added a fabulous crunchiness that I really enjoyed.  This will also be really good with bananas I think….chocolate…bananas…almond butter….OH YUM!

Yes…this is definitely a keeper and I am looking forward to using my nibs now!

Basking In The Produce

(Edited to add  a link to Annie’s Buying Club page since a few of you have been asking about the co-op.  I know it is far from many of you…but you can see how it works and what to look for in one.  I am very very happy with Annie’s!)

Yes…yesterday was that time again…Monday’s produce delivery and I looked forward to it with my usual anticipation!

It seems like there was a lot of fruit this time but everything as usual was just delectable!

Presorting:

 

My portion (not the pumpkin…he is left over from Halloween and getting ready to become some pies! but he looks pretty cute there, doesn’t he?):  

And what do I get to work with for the week?  I just knew you would ask!

Well, I got:

• Yummy Broccolini
• A package of Grape Tomatoes
• A gorgeous Orange/Yellow Cauliflower!
• Fresh Green Beans
• A bunch of spinach
• A Florida Avocado
• A head of Green Leaf Lettuce
• A few Beets (Yum for juicing!)
• 2 Red Peppers
• Red Grapefruit
• A container of Strawberries that smelled divine, ripe, and ready to eat!
• A Honeydew
• A large Pineapple
• Tangerines
• Bananas (we can never get enough of these in this house!)
• Blackberries
• Raspberries
• Fuji Apples
• Florida Mandarin oranges

Now dinner last night was a hit with everyone….except FabHubs who didn’t have any second helpings and gave me THE LOOK!  Boy…I really hate that look!  He is NOT a veggie lover and while he doesn’t complain as much as FabPreteen…he is proving hard to win over.

Instead of going into this week’s produce I tried to finish off some stuff from last week!  We still had some collard greens and zucchini and lemons left. 

I went to A Veggie Venture and found a recipe for braised collard greens and lemon roasted zucchini. 

  Somehow the picture-taking process got lost around here and I even forgot to take the pictures of dinner!

The greens had a sweetish taste to them and were great (Unless you are FabHubs and seriously missing the ham hocks in them!).

The zucchini was GORGEOUS!  It was browned and crispy on the outside with a good flavor…there were no leftovers of either.

I rounded out the meal with some leftover brown rice which I heated up and topped with crumbled feta cheese.  YUM-O!!!

For dessert we did hit the box….the berries go bad fast so we usually try to eat those within two or three days max.

I had razzies, blackberries, and strawberries.  This time they were a little tart!

I just sliced them up and put a tiny drizzle of Agave syrup on them…something I don’t normally do but since I had my two new berry converts open to eat them (FabHubs and FabStepson…TWO SERIOUSLY MAJOR victories here on this front!!!!) I didn’t want to turn them off by them being too tart!

After dinner we lit the Menorah (I know…a little late in the evening but we are casual Jews!)  I have had presents for the kids all week so far but I didn’t tonight….but boy did they have a gift for me!

  The chocolate was delicious….but the true gift was my kids!  (Sniff, Sniff).  I had absolutely NO CLUE! 

They had snuck off when FabTeen picked up FabPreteen from school for me, stopped at CVS, and gotten a surprise something for me!!!  (OK…they got one for FabHubs too, he was special also). 

They did well!  I LOVE dark chocolate! 

But not as much as I LOVE my kids!

I Have Lost Ten Pounds

WAIT!  Hold your congratulations! 

Alas…I have not lost the ten pounds…the other night as were getting ready for bed, FabHubs hopped on the scale (yes,  at night…after dinner) and said, “Well, I have hit the 10-pound mark.”

This is FabHubs.  He of the rugged, muscled, strong, already thin enough, blessed metabolism variety.

He who eats triple helpings of dessert and three-egg omelets with 3 slices bacon and 3 slices sausage, plus toast and grits without a second thought.

He who will eat three-quarters of a meat lover’s pizza in a single sitting.

Yes…I am down 22 pounds since July 20.  But that is intentional and I have not eaten even a quarter of what he has eaten….I have worked very hard for my weight loss and his is accidental incidental….and my fault because his dinners (and only his dinners that I cook) have been lightened up!

Boy I tell you…life sure isn’t fair!!!!!

HMMPPHHH!

(Be nice…this is after two days of canoeing and an overnight on the river!)

My Very “Producive” Week In Review

Ugh..that was  bad, wasn’t it!  Sorry!!

Here I was going to blog about how I  used my produce box all week…and then I pulled a disappearing act.

This week I went into overdrive and became overwhelmed….and it just didn’t happen.  By evening I was tired and just couldn’t summon the energy and creativity to blog.

But the food part and pictures did happen  so I can put together a quick recap! 

Monday:

All fruits and veggies from my produce co-op except the carrots, (organic from Costco:

Homemade coleslaw, Asian style vinegar based dressing

  

I dragged this thing out…it is at least 18 years old and I haven’t used it probably in 10 years…but it worked!

     

Roasted tater chips…sweet and russet!

   

Final dinner was a huge helping of the coleslaw to fill me up, the homemade potato chips, and a Boca Burger on an Arnold Sandwich thin with totally processed American cheese, and organic onion and sliced cucumbers.

      

Dessert was yummy mango…not quite ripe enough though so it was a little tart.  These two were chunked and shared between the four mango lovers.   Mangos are not on FabHubs approved fruit list!

  

Tuesday:

Oatmeal with almond milk, leftover mango, cinnamon, and almond butter.  I had been craving this!  Obviously only the mango came  from my delivery!

A snack of local Florida mandarins…I didn’t even know we grew mandarins in Florida!  We loved these…a lot more than the blood oranges that came last week.

  

Lunch was a tempeh wrap.  I have never tried tempeh before!  It was really good and is a definite repeat.  I put it on a flatout wrap with some more sliced cukes,  green leaf lettuce, and grape tomatoes.  I rounded it off with a large helping of my Asian style  coleslaw…very healthy, low in fat and very filling!

    

Sorry for blurry picture!

Dinner….

While looking  for a recipe to use my collard greens, somehow I found this perfect recipe!

Perfect because oddly enough…I pretty much had all of the ingredients for it!  I had bought  the Field Roast vegetarian sausage when we went  camping a few weeks ago with the Boy Scout troop…but because they ended up having some vegetarian MRIs  I never used it and it was at the point where it really needed to be used…or else!  It wasn’t apple sage…it was Italian…but I didn’t care, it still fit the bill!

     

From the produce box I pulled into service some garlic, red bell pepper, red onion, and collard greens.  We were out of whole wheat pasta so I just used what we had on hand.

          

Dessert!  Dark organic Green and Black chocolate and organic raspberries.

 

Wednesday:

Around here, week was getting crazier so pictures are sparser!

For breakfast I mixed Fage 0% Greek yogurt with the last of the razzies, some bananas, some Granola To Go (about 1/4 cup sprinkled), 1/2 TBS almond butter, and a drizzle of Agave nectar.   Yummy…but I did miss my oatmeal!

For dinner I wanted to use up the  broccoli before it went bad, some more potatoes (I have a major back up of those right now and need to use them!) and the eggplants.

I ended up roasting the eggplants over charcoal to make  baba ghanoush…I took pictures of the process but they seem to have left!

So I have:

   

I snacked on this with some of Mary’s organic crackers that I received from Oh She Glows Angela in the box of fabulous goodies I won from her!

OMG!  I am in heaven with these crackers…they are so crisp and crunchy and flavorful  and I immediately read the package to find out if they are Canadian only or American because I want to buy more of them!  I was hugely relieved to see they are made in California!  I will be hunting these down in Whole Foods!

  

For dinner we had the baked potato which I smothered topped with a little in light sour cream and cheddar cheese (I know!)   The lemon was for the broccoli! 

And to my complete horror,  I am having a complete brain blank here and have no idea what that other stuff is that I put on my plate that I am sure made my husband give me “the look” that I get when I serve my no meat meals!  I will have to show the picture to FabTeen and ask him…he will remember for me!  Thank goodness for kids!

(HA!  Update here and I didn’t even need the kid for it!  After squinting hard at the photo for a while, I remembered all by myself!  They are homemade bean burgers…which were not the best I have made but they were palatable.  And yes…I definitely, absolutely got the look!)

Thursday:

Thursday I finally broke out the kabocha squash.   I have received two of these in my boxes and have yet to use them!

If it weren’t for Heather, who eats these fanatically when she is not eating almond butter, I would have never known what to do with it! 

It is something I never would have bought…it looks ornamental!  But because I have been “hearing” about this for weeks, when it showed up in my box I was pretty excited!  (Yes, I know…excited about a squash, pretty pathetic!)

Hmm…I had some more “done” photos of these but they must be hanging out with those missing pix of the eggplants on charcoal!

At any rate…I am in LOVE with this squash!  It is so sweet and yummy and I loved it prepared this way and it totally reminds me of something else I have eaten…boniato maybe?  Although the skin is different…..don’t think so…but I don’t know!  I ate it skin and all.  I loved the crunchy skin on  the sweet, soft flesh…it was so perfect. 

We had dinner:

A salad I threw together with more veggies on their last legs, begging to be eaten, a nekkid Boca Burger, the last of the broccoli sprinkled with a little parmesan…and the Kabocha!

And I kept going back for more and more and more and more kabocha.

and we watched Survivor, and then CSI, and then I hit the kabocha bowl again!

   

I have one more kabocha to enjoy…and  then I need to hunt some down!  After I thank Heather of course!

Friday:

Was a day of complete lunacy where I had one activity after another from the moment I woke up until I  got home after 9 p.m.  Bake sale, Girl Scout activity, picking up kids, driving kids….it was nonstop!

No pictures!  Dinner was 1 slice cheese pizza and a bottle of water at the Girl Scout activity!

Saturday:

The madness continued!  Girl Scout caroling at a local nursing home, then a memorial BBQ (didn’t eat anything there) then a big family Hanukkah dinner!  Didn’t get in until well after 1 a.m.!   (Geez!  When did that become late?  Probably after the second child!)

Still no pictures!

I  passed on the brisket (which upset my sister terribly!!!) and filled my plate with salad,  also avocado salad, and delicious homemade latkes!

Sunday:

Finally!  FabHubs wanted more latkes and since we have a ton of potatoes to use up that is what we had at breakfast! 

Camera was still sleeping though!  And the day was another one on the run…so no pix at breakfast!

Off to yet another Girl Scout activity!  FabPreteen ate pizza…I waited for dinner though.

Dinner was another avocado salad with avocado and red onion from  the box, tossed in balsamic with a little S&P.  Very simple but very good!

  

More tossed salad, again to use up veggies before I get my  refill  tomorrow!

Brown rice:

And a coconut/peanut tofu stirfry!  I had some green onions that were starting to go mushy and they fit  the bill perfectly in here! First time I have ever pressed  and pan fried tofu…it was good…not great but good.  Need to tweak the seasonings here…..(soy sauce, peanut butter, garlic, coconut)

      

And that is my week in review!  I did a great job using up my fruits and veggies from this week…and  even most of what I had piled up in the fridge from previous weeks!

Still left from last week and before are two mangos, two bananas, 2 lemons, 1 kiwi, salad, 3 zukes, more collards, a bunch of fresh spinach, some fresh herbs (I seem to have trouble using these up!), white taters, yams, and a kabocha! 

Sounds like a lot but relatively speaking it is not and will be easy to use!

The fridge actually looks kind of empty and ready to receive tomorrow's delivery.

The clock just struck midnight and I am off to bed!  Another busy busy day tomorrow.