Little Girl's Mom

Long time no see

2009-07-24T08:57:00.003-06:00

This summer has been rough! Husband home, kids home, work busy, etc.
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I've got a little bit of a break right now--hubby and son are at Boy Scout Camp. Son left with his troupe on Monday, and hubby left yesterday morning. Just me and daughter.
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I've felt kind of bad for daughter this week--I've been really busy with work and she keeps coming over to me and asking when I'll be done. I have to tell her I'm not sure. I guess I never realized how much she and her brother entertain each other. I kind of made it up to her yesterday--I took her out to dinner.
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I'm also having some lifestyle issues right now. It's easy to live a vegan lifestyle, but eating that way--not so easy. I have been just craving dairy--ice cream and cheese, mostly. I know what it is; it's stress. I am fighting getting back into that lifestyle that had me so fat. I used to eat when I was stressed, eat when I was happy, eat when I was with friends, eat when I was alone, etc. I've made successful alternatives for most of my eating triggers, but stress it so hard for me.
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And the thing is that even when I am eating something I'd rather not eat, I'm almost nauseous thinking about it but I keep on eating. When I have time, I've been trying to do some reading--stuff that got me motivated toward this lifestyle in the first place. The problem is that I haven't had much time lately.
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Lack of time and a feeling like I've had people looking over my shoulder is why I haven't been blogging lately. Today, with just daughter and I home and her watching a show, I feel like I have a moment.
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Oh, my garden! We had a ton of really good broccoli. Our cauliflower was buggy and gross so it got chucked. Our cabbages have been huge and wonderful. I need to go get the first of our zukes today (none at all and now I have 6 I can harvest). The tomatoes are just starting to ripen--we've had just a few and when they go, I'm going to have a million all at once. I have one yellow squish (yes, we call them squish at my house) I can harvest. My cukes are still a ways off.
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We've been eating in waves--all broccoli, all cabbage, and next is going to be all zucchini. When the tomatoes go, I want to dehydrate a bunch. We also had a bunch of cherries--We ate a ton, I made a cherry cobbler, and I put up like 6 quarts of them. I could have done like that many again, but they got wormy--gross.
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Well, that's my life right now. I need to get back to work.
Ciao for now.

Whew, I have been busy

2009-07-01T10:00:00.003-06:00

I can't truly say why--work, family, etc. but nothing horribly out of the ordinary.
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So here's "It's a Small World". They changed it since the last time we were there--they added dolls dressed in Disney movie character outfits. It was kind of fun trying to find them all. Here are two kids and some pirate's treasure. When I was a kid, the island at Disneyland was called "Tom Sawyer's Island"; now it's the "Pirate's Lair". They change things to keep current. Their shirts, by the way, came from Excalibur in LV. Several Disney employees noticed them and commented that they were "Phantasmic" shirts. Nope, sorry.

And here, as I promised, is a picture showing the crowds. There were lines up because a parade was supposed to be starting in about 45 minutes, but the crowds were like that all day Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Thursday morning was better and Friday we were at California Adventure and it wasn't nearly as bad.

So I'll give my vacation a rest now. How about on to some food?

Sunday, son wanted pancakes for breakfast. I took my regular recipe and tweaked it a bit and they came out light, fluffy, and wonderful. I think they were the best I've ever made! I took the recipe and wrote out my tweaks so (hopefully) I can replicate the results. The were 100% whole wheat and had banana instead of egg and no dairy. I was impressed--usually when I make pancakes they are really hit or miss. One time they will be good and fluffy, the next time they will fall flat and have a crepe texture, or something like that.

Saturday we went to the farmer's market and got Bok Choy--it was the first time I had ever had it. I stir fried it with onions, peppers, and garlic and a touch of teriyaki sauce. It was really good. Hubby said the leaves were tough but he liked the rest. We also got a big head of red romaine lettuce. I had several huge salads out of it.

I need to harvest the garden again. I wish our tomatoes, squash, bell peppers, and cukes would get ripe--we are still at broccoli, onions, and kale.

Well, I think I'll get back to work.

Ciao for now.

Reliving my vaca--a little bit at a time

2009-06-25T15:12:00.003-06:00

Here are the kids out in the ocean on the beach at Newport, CA. Son was a little freaked out about the seaweed. But they had a great time. We walked up the pier and back and then played in the ocean for about an hour and a half and then had dinner at Rockin' Baja Lobster. Here are my kids in the stockade--they really got in trouble at Legoland and I had to lock them up.

And speaking of Legoland, I thought the bathroom signs were really cute. Little Lego people that had to go potty.

Well that's enough vaca for today--coming tomorrow (maybe): Disney crowds and pirate's treasure.

For lunch today, I made a broccoli and kale salad (garden kale) with nut cheese mixed in. Son said it was good, but he didn't eat very much of it.

Last night dinner was sauteed veggies with olives, mushrooms, and a can of diced tomatoes served over whole wheat pasta. CCV mentioned yesterday about putting vinegar in stuff, so I put a bit in the veggies and it really added something. I make a pasta with capers and marinated artichoke hearts in it and the vinegar in my regular veggies gave them a similar flair.

Today, daughter is over at a friend's house and hubby is helping another friend out with some work on his place. So it's just son and I. I could get used to this (although it is better with both kids in school and hubby working).
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Also, I have exercised 2 days in a row. (Yeah Me!) And my relationship with food is getting back to where it needs to be. (Yeah Me, again!) I just need to keep going.

Well, back to work.

Ciao for now.

Garden Bounty

2009-06-24T09:59:00.002-06:00

Here's a pic of us at LegoLand last Wednesday. When we got back, even though it had rained the whole time we were gone, our garden had really jumped up. Yesterday we basked in some of the bounty.
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For lunch, I had a kale salad made with two kinds of kale from my garden.
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For dinner we had broccoli from the garden. (Does anyone know if broccoli keeps producing or if once you harvest the crown it's done?)
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That's all I have right now. Son is working, daughter is watching TV (I really need to get her busy this summer), and hubby is at a doctor's appointment. I'm back to work.
Ciao for now.

We're Back--a little bug eyed and big eared, but back

2009-06-23T14:53:00.003-06:00

We made it and we had a wonderful time! We did Disneyland, California Adventure, LegoLand and Newport Beach. This is a pic of the kids after we saw the 4-D show, "It's Tough to be a Bug". They have their bug eyes on and their ears on--so cute.
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There were a lot of people in Disneyland! I have never seen that many people there! So Sunday and Monday were a bit frustrating because of that, but the rest of the time was good.
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In Newport, we walked out onto the pier and there were people fishing all over. The kids were really interested when one guy brought up a sand shark. So another guy showed us a sand shark he had on a rope swimming around under the Pier. It was disgusting--the rope was like through the poor shark's nose and he was just swimming around down there. It kind of made me nauseous. We did have fun at the beach, though.
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I didn't stay vegan while gone, but did stay vegetarian. I had some items made with milk and eggs but I'm not going to beat myself up for it--overall, the world is still a better place for the choices I make. I eat the way I eat as a choice and I made the choice to change it up a bit for vacation. (I actually had planned on eating better while gone, but got frustrated at the lack of choices since we had to eat out for every meal.)
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Saturday, lunch was at a Mexican place and there was a rolled up tortilla left over. So on Sunday, we gave the dried up old tortilla to Little Girl. She was so proud of that silly tortilla! She carried it around in her mouth all day Sunday and until it got too soggy to stay together on Monday. It was like "I got a tortilla from Disneyland!". Silly dog.
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Well, I ought to get back to work.
Ciao for now.

I'm out......

2009-06-12T14:23:00.001-06:00

Just letting you all know that I won't be blogging for a couple of weeks. I'll give full details when I get back. (When I get back and caught up, that is.)

Yes, we have no bananas

2009-06-11T12:13:00.003-06:00

So I'm almost out of everything fresh, but we do have a good supply of bananas! Got some yesterday because I couldn't deal with no bananas. I had one yesterday afternoon, one in my oatmeal for breakfast and will probably have another here after a bit for a snack.
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Things at work are starting to move along so I'll be in a good place to leave for vacation. Tomorrow, I'll work, do laundry, and we'll all pack and then we're off Saturday morning. Can't wait.
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My folks were exceedingly nice yesterday. I needed new batteries for my old camera (actually, it was a hand me down from my parents) and it takes special expensive ones and I hadn't had time to go shopping for them. Dad actually did some shopping for me and told me where I could get the batteries and how much they'd be etc. but I never got around to getting them. So yesterday, he called me and said that they had a camera I could use that just uses regular batteries. It is a really nice one and it's small (my old one is a huge beast). Thanks Dad!
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It has been really weird weather here. Just a few minutes ago, the sky opened up and we had rain like we rarely have. It's still coming down, but not nearly so hard. The sky is still rumbling.
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Son's building with his Lego's and daughter is playing the Wii. And I'm just finishing with lunch (a steamed sweet potato and a bocca burger w/ Veganaise on Ezekiel bread).
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I've got to go out to the bank here in a bit--I hope it quits raining soon.
Ciao for now.

Still counting down to vacation

2009-06-10T09:21:00.002-06:00

Time can't seem to make up it's mind! On one hand, it's going way to slow--I am so ready to head out of here for vaca. On the other hand, I have lots to do before we go and I can't seem to get things done.
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Right now, daughter's in the shower, son's raking weeds out in the pasture, hubby's at a class at Job Service, and I'm sitting at my computer working (or not working as the case may be).
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I'm trying to use up all the fresh produce before we go so last night we had a vegetable lo mien and tonight we're having spuds & onions and steamed kale. Tomorrow is going to have to be a throw together. And for lunches, today and tomorrow, I'm having sweet potatoes. Then I think we'll have all of the fresh stuff gone. I did ask hubby to get some bananas on his way home from his class, though. We are fresh out and we can't seem to live without bananas these days.
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Well, back to work.
Ciao for now.

Vacation Countdown

2009-06-08T09:30:00.002-06:00

We leave in T minus 5 days............

We are going to do California this year. We have our motel reservation, our Disneyland tickets, and 2 of our Legoland tickets.

I'm a little concerned about eating on the trip--a lot of salads, is my guess. I was craving some ice cream here a while back and, after my last episode with dairy, I decided to "test" myself. Sure enough, I had dairy and just over a day later, I was stuck in the bathroom. So I am going to have to be really careful about dairy while we're gone. The problem is that so often, dairy and eggs are hidden in things that you wouldn't think they'd be in. And I just won't eat meat--yuck. I told hubby that we may need to find a grocery store and keep things like banana, apples, and baby carrots in the motel room.

At the top is a picture from our last trip--2 years ago. I was better than 100 pounds heavier in that picture than I am now. I am really looking forward to not having my feet hurt this time. Last time, I was literally crying one day because my feet and legs hurt so bad; and on the way home, my feet swelled up so bad that I could hardly get my sandals on, let alone any shoes.
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This is a picture of my kids taken on that trip. They have sure grown!

Son actually started a summer job today. He's on the "Bug Crew". They monitor and count and transplant bugs that kill noxious weeds. Today is training in the morning and then they spend the afternoon in a field making sure that they can actually identify the plants and bugs that they'll be working with. He is an alternate on the team, but the lady told me that often, the alternates work more than the regulars because they cover absences for vacations, summer camps, illness, etc. He's really excited. And it's nice because his best friend is on the crew, too.

Well, I'm back to work. I have to get stuff done this week so I don't come home to an even bigger pile--my job is one of those where the work just waits for me if I don't get it done.

Ciao for now.

2009-06-08T09:30:00.000-06:00

Proud Mama Post

2009-06-04T10:17:00.003-06:00

I haven't been good at posting. There seems to have been a lot going on and when I've had the time to post, I haven't had the inclination (due to feeling like people were looking over my shoulder. Anyway, here's a summary of life since last post--"proud mommy bragging" alert! The kids had their piano recital--there is a picture of them with their trophies. The trophy was for getting 3 consecutive "Superior" ratings at the annual Jr. Music Festival competition. Both kids got one. They played really good at the recital. They could have been better, but considering the fact that they had to prep their songs without the aid of a piano teacher I think they did great. (We had to quit piano lessons after hubby got laid off a couple of month's ago, but their teacher didn't want them to miss out on the recital so she gave them their songs and included them anyway--that was so nice of her!)
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Daughter was invited to join the "Magnet Classroom" for 4th and 5th grades. They did 3rd grade GT (gifted and talented) testing throughout the district--both public an private schools--and out of those tested, 26 were invited to attend the magnet classroom next year. This is a specialized class that caters more to the individual kids. They don't necessarily follow district curriculum and they go a lot deeper into some areas. The kids are also helped to advance in their individual strength areas. I am really excited for her! I think she will do really well.
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Son got the "presidential award for educational excellence" at his 6th grade graduation. The criteria were to have gotten all "A"s in elementary school, gotten "advanced" and a certain percentile in the ISAT tests, and gotten certain scores in the DWA and DMA tests. (There was something else, but I don't know what it was.) There were only 2 kids that got it and son was one of them. I am really proud of him as well.
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I warned you that this was a "Proud Mama Post" and that I was going to be shamelessly bragging on them.
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School's out for summer, now. Yesterday was their last day. Since I work from home and hubby is not working, they will be home this summer--I'll let you know how my sanity fares with 2 kids and 1 husband home with me all summer. (So far, I don't think it's going to be an easy summer.......)
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Well, I am going to get back to work now.
Ciao for now.

Yesterday got away from me

2009-05-28T10:26:00.004-06:00

But I'm here now. Not much happening--work is going to get busy soon, but until then..........
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So I'm taking a few minutes to blog.
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Tonight is the kids' piano recital--it's a jazzy, swinging kind of theme. Daughter is playing "Heart and Soul" (I fell in love with you; heart and soul; just like a fool would do; madly; that little kiss you stole--it got me heart and soul.) Son is playing a piece called "Surfboard Boogie" (sorry, no words for me to sing). Daughter's still a little rough on her piece but son has his down pat. Her piece is actually harder than his. I think he chickened out a little--after we had to quit formal lessons, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to do a harder song on his own so he switched to an easier song. Daughter actually switched up to a harder song just because she liked the song. (Son is doing daughter's original song.)
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Let's see, what else is going on.......well, for one thing, hubby really, really, really needs to get a job. He's starting to drive me nuts.
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Also, daughter was invited to do the "magnet classroom" for the next two years. They choose certain kids based upon teacher recommendations and tested them for the Gifted & Talented program and out of those that are tested, a certain number of them are also invited to be in the magnet classroom. It is basically just a non-traditional classroom where the kids are catered to more--the math is on the computer at their own pace; science is all lab; reading/language is done using novels instead of the textbooks, art is done every day, etc.
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It worked out that only 26 kids (out of 7 public schools with 3 to 4 third grade classes each and a number of private schools) were selected. So it really is an honor. I think it will be really good for her, but I was kind of concerned about her being separated from other kids. When I was a kid, I was in GT and was pulled out 2 days a week. I felt like I was ostracized--"the smart kid"--and never really felt like I fit in. I voiced my concern and a dad, whose older child had been in the first magnet classroom, spoke up and talked about how his daughter had just blossomed in the program. That made me feel better.
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Daughter decided she did want to do it (I think I would have pushed if she hadn't). She is shy and didn't want to leave her friends because she has a hard time making new friends. But I assured her that she can still get together with her two main friends so she decided she was OK. She will have to change schools, but the school where the magnet class is held is actually closer to our house than her current school is. And when she found out that the school mascot over there is the mustang, that sealed the deal (she loves horses.)
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They just started this two years ago so son missed it. His experience with the GT program was less than stellar. In fact, he says that he's glad he's done with GT now--they had an online computer group that met sporadically and had assignments that weren't much different than what he was doing in class. He was doing the same math program that daughter will be doing (he tested 'end of 7th grade' even though he's actually just finishing 6th grade). But he was put up a grade in math in 4th grade just to keep him from getting bored--not as part of GT.
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Last night for dinner, I spiral cut some butternut squash and put tomatoes and zucchini hummus on it--so good.
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Well, that's all I can think of.....
Ciao for now

Yesterday's food and weekend wrap-up

2009-05-26T09:53:00.003-06:00

Yesterday's food:
I started with Strawberry Ice-cream (frozen strawberries, soy protein powder, and 2 dates. I added just enough water for the Vita-mix to be able to blend it into ice-cream.) I made 4 servings so we all had it. Lunch was a salad of spinach, carrot, and fresh picked parsley. The dressing was zucchini hummus that was diluted with some apple cider vinegar to which I added some salt, pepper, and paprika.

Dinner was brown rice and a sauteed veggie mix that tasted like a cooked Cole slaw. (Cabbage, carrot, celery sauteed in a bit of coconut oil. I then added salt, pepper, ginger, paprika. It still didn't taste like I wanted it to so I added some agave and some apple cider vinegar and cooked it down. It was really good.)

I don't have a picture of dessert, but son made another recipe from Ani's Raw Desserts--Blueberry cobbler. Except that we didn't have blueberries, we only had blackberries and only canned and not nearly as many as the recipe called for. So he quartered the recipe and made 4 mini cobblers in dessert cups. It was really good.

Now the weekend wrap-up. We went to Salt Lake for the weekend Saturday we did Lagoon (Corn on the cob was the only thing there I cared to eat) from 10-3 and then went the hotel and then to Sages for dinner.

At Sages, they had a special going on--one of two appetizers (carrot pate or corn chowder), one of two pasta dishes (mushroom stroganoff or pesto pasta), and one of two desserts (Brownie sundae or tiramisu). Hubby had one combo and I had the other. The special was the same price as just the pasta. I noticed they had scaled down the portion size from the last time hubby had pasta, but that was a good thing--it meant we were able to eat everything and be full but not stuffed.

Excellent. I would recommend that restaurant to anyone. It is located in Salt Lake two blocks back toward the capitol from Trolley Square and one block back toward the freeway. I don't know the exact address, but that's how I find it.

Then we wandered the Gateway and then went back to our hotel. Sunday morning was a bit rainy. We went and rode the trolley from the Energy Solutions arena up to the University and back. It was still raining so we decided to wait a while before heading back to Lagoon. We saw a Whole Foods Market (it was right between Trolley Square and Sages) and I had never been in one before (we don't have one here) so hubby took us there.

I like Whole Foods! I wouldn't be able to shop there much, though. It was quite expensive. I'm too frugal (I have to be in order to make ends meet).

Then we had lunch at Noodle and Co.--it was right by Whole Foods. It was good. I had a dish that had rice noodles with veggies and a spicy peanut sauce. I would eat there again for a fast-food type meal.

The rain was slowing down by then so we headed back to Lagoon. We still got some light showers, but we had a ball. I had some french fries when the others had snacks.

Then we headed back home. By the time we ate I was hungry and crabby as heck. Daughter burst into tears when they didn't have the drink she wanted and son complained the whole time how slow they were. We had waited way too long to eat and my kids and I are all quite adversely affected by hunger. The reason we were so long in eating is that we decided to head up the road to a Mexican place--when we got to it, it was closed and then we couldn't really find anything.

We ended up doing Denny's. I had a dinner salad w/ vinaigrette on the side and grits (no butter or milk) and some of the grapes that came with daughter's meal. I complained about it to the family (just because I was hungry and tired and grumpy), but it was OK. Daughter and son both perked right up after they ate. I was beginning to think we were going to have to get son a second meal, but he finally slowed down after eating all of his dinner and half of hubby's. (How would it be to have the metabolism of a 12 year old boy?)

Then we came the rest of the way home and got here about 10:15. We emptied the car and went to bed.

Yesterday, we slept in and then had breakfast and goofed off. Then mowed the grass and had lunch. Then went to visit the cemeteries. Then came home for a while, had dinner, and went to the grocery store. Then came home for dessert, and got ready for bed.

Yesterday at the cemetery daughter really was into talking about the baby I lost prior to son being conceived. Both kids are sure that child was a girl. Daughter was concerned that we hadn't buried that child so there was no grave we could visit. And in fact, until son was about 5, he used to talk about having met his big sister up in heaven prior to coming down to be with us. Maybe that child was a girl and maybe my kids did know her before coming to be with us. It gives me the chills to think about, but it's also nice.

Well, this has gone on quite a ways. I need to get to work.

Hope everyone had a great weekend,

Ciao for now

Dinner last night

2009-05-22T09:23:00.002-06:00

Just a quick post here. First of all, everyone have a good weekend.
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We're going to Salt Lake. We'll do Lagoon and have dinner with my sister and her partner. And I don't know what else. We usually have fun. I can't wait to show my sister my new tattoo. It is so pretty.
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Last night, we had corn on the cob and steamed broccoli. I knew that wouldn't satisfy hubby so I told him to figure out what he wanted to go with it. He chose pork chops. The kids didn't want any pork--they just wanted the broccoli and corn. He was quite put out! But what could he say? They had the same dinner I did and I was fine (in fact, I was a heck of a lot better than him).
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So I'll probably talk to you all on Tuesday (or post to you all, anyway).
Ciao for now.

Ani's Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake Review

2009-05-21T12:35:00.004-06:00

EXCELLENT!!
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OK, review done.
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No really, it was really, really good. My only concern is that the cookbook says that it makes 4-6 servings--I think that was unrealistic. I cut it so it made 8 servings. And even with the smaller servings, I was the only one that ate my entire piece. It is really rich and you eat it really slowly. But, oh so good. I think a tiny piece was plenty.
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So if you make this, don't worry about making a double batch if you need dessert for more than 6; just make smaller slices.
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Ciao for now.

Kids cooking

2009-05-20T18:53:00.003-06:00

So I told you we got Ani Phyo's dessert book via UPS today. The recipe son wanted to make was the Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake minus the raspberries.
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Here's the recipe
Here's the cakes. Here's son pitting dates for the frosting. (One for the frosting; one for me.)

Son hard at work at the food processor.

Ta-Da!!While son was slaving away over a hot food processor, daughter and I were having a tea party. (Sorry for the poor lighting.)

Kind of a weird day

2009-05-20T15:52:00.002-06:00

I just can't get used to hubby being home so much! When he's been home, he's done some work outside, but more sitting on the couch watching TV. And in the mornings, he has the TV on really loudly as I'm trying to get kids ready for school. It drives me bats! When I have a frustrating morning, it sets a tone for the whole rest of the day.
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I did get quite a bit done, work-wise, today. But nothing else. Usually, I get something done around here. I haven't even exercised the last 3 days because of him being around--I don't like exercising in front of him. He has been in and out as he's looked for work and been outside doing stuff, but I never know when he's going to walk in so I don't start anything.
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Son is playing the piano and daughter is doing homework. Hubby just left for a computer class through the Job Service. Maybe he'll get good enough that I won't have to fill out the online applications anymore.........
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Something good--UPS showed up today and brought me a present! Actually, the present was from Ingrid at Raw Epicurean. Here a while back I won Ani Phyo's Raw Desserts from a give-away on her website and I got it today. It is a really great book. The desserts may be healthy, but they are definitely not for everyday. I can't see eating that many nuts--almost every recipe has lots of nuts.
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When son is done practicing, he wants to make something. I can't wait!
Well, I'm off.
Ciao for now. (I really need to take pic and post it, don't I? I'll see what I can do about that.)

Poor grades update

2009-05-19T12:41:00.003-06:00

I heard back from daughter's teacher. Daughter has made up the missing assignments, they just haven't been posted yet. Whew!
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She also told me that if it looks like there are any issues after she gets them entered, she'll let me know.
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Again--Whew!

Scoliosis and poor grades.......

2009-05-19T08:48:00.003-06:00

Last night was son's physical for scouts and school athletics. Ever since I was a kid, a bunch of health care professionals have gotten together in the spring to run mass doctor's appointments. The kids check in and then go through a series of stations (height/weight, pulse/blood pressure, vision, physician exam, and physical therapist exam). They do it assembly line-ish so the kids go through one station and get their results recorded and then get in line for the next station.
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Mind you, these physicals are only for the basically healthy youth. They are low-cost ($15 dollars and nothing is submitted to insurance--in fact, the only records are the school/scout physical forms that the clinic takes a copy of). But, all that being said, it seemed to be rather thorough. I think the doctor took more time with son that his regular doc took at his last regular visit. And the physical therapist took a good piece of time with us, too. (You never get your joints and backs checked like that at a regular visit.)
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So the physical therapist noticed something with Wyatt's back so he closed the door, had son take off his shirt and re-examined him. It turns out that son has a slight scoliosis--side-to-side curvature of the spine. Apparently, it's not uncommon in boys that are just getting ready to hit growth spurts. So he showed me the curve (it was obvious once I knew what to look for), and how I could recognize the symptoms that went along with it and what to watch for to see if it was progressing.
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If he grows out of it after a growth spurt--no problem. If it stays the same--no problem (apparently, it's mild enough that it wouldn't need treated even if it remained at that level forever). If it progresses, they would want to do something (back brace or surgery maybe). And if it starts progressing, they would want to know as soon as possible because it's much easier to treat when mild than when it is more progressed.
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So, I'll be watching son's back like a hawk. (The funny thing is that he had a regular well-child visit just a few months back and the doc didn't notice his back--I'm not sure the doc even looked at his back.)
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Other kid now, I went online and checked daughter's grades. I usually don't do that, but I was checking on something for son and figured I might as well look. The work she has brought home has all been very good and I haven't heard anything from her teacher, so I had no reason to even suspect there were any problems. She has an F in Reading and a low C in Language! Both grades are due to missing assignments. All of the rest of her assignments are in and have excellent scores--she averages a high A in both areas based upon the grades that are there.
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Now if a third grader had all As in the work turned in, but had an F for the subject, wouldn't you question it? Well I did. I e-mailed her teacher and if I don't hear back today, I'm calling in. I know a third grader is getting to where she can be more responsible, but still--she's only in third grade. And as a parent, I am a little upset that I wasn't notified. I'm hoping that it's an error--maybe the teacher isn't keeping up at putting the grades in the system so it shows zeros for the assignments not entered or something like that.
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I feel bad because I freaked out a bit and had daughter crying this morning before she went to school. I tried to calm her down by letting her know that we would get it figured out.
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So that's where my mind is. I need to get it back to something else.
Ciao for now.

Whoa--Monday again already

2009-05-18T10:31:00.003-06:00

I turned my back for just one second and it was already Monday again! Sometimes the time just flies by toooooooo fast.

So, let's see, what's been going on......

Wednesday was daughter's Girl Scouts "Bridging Ceremony". She is no longer a Brownie. She is now a Junior. There's her pic.

Thursday was a Girl Scouts pot luck. (I brought a New York Burrito since the food at the potluck consisted of chicken, scalloped potatoes, etc.)

Friday was grocery shopping (fun, fun, fun).

Saturday, son got to fly! In scouts, his troupe is doing the aviation merit badge so a pilot took them up, 3 at a time, in a 4-seat Cessna so they could actually fly. He was so excited!

Then, there was the Boy Scouts spaghetti feed. They sold tickets to raise money for scout camp this summer. I talked them into doing a plain tomato sauce in addition to the meat sauce; I brought a vegan creamy avocado dressing to have alongside the ranch and thousand island; and I made vegan chocolate cupcakes for the dessert table. It may not have been much, but at least people (like me) could have the choice to eat compassionately if they so wished.

I also did more dishes that night than I think I've ever done in my life!

Then yesterday, we finished planting the garden and did some work outside.

It is finally warm here! I am so glad that I don't have to freeze anymore! It was in the high 70's yesterday and is supposed to be in the 80's today, then back down to the 70's. Perfect weather.

I am getting back to eating better again today. I seem to eat more and worse on the weekends and then eat less and better during the week. I'm maintaining my weight and I feel good, though, so I think it's OK. Maybe that's just going to be my normal. I'm not yo-yo-ing or anything, I just eat different when my schedule is different. I have more cooked food and am more likely to do desserts on the weekend. I guess that's fine as long as I'm cognizant of it and don't let it get out of control.

Well, I'll get back to work. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Ciao for now.

Wednesday

2009-05-13T14:16:00.003-06:00

Well, I didn't get back to post again yesterday. But oh, well. Life comes before blogging.
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Yesterday, I ended up having the rest of the sweet potato mash and an apple for a snack. And then had the sauteed veggie dinner at Sakura (salad w/o dressing, sauteed zuke/onion/mushroom, some steamed white rice, a few sips of mushroom broth soup.) I tried the soup, but didn't have much--even though it was supposed to be an onion and mushroom based soup, it tasted a bit like a beef broth so I didn't finish it.
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Today, I started with a banana/kale/almond smooth, then had a sandwich for lunch (avocado, spouts, bocca burger on dehydrator bread), then for a snack a few minutes ago, I had some asparagus spears.
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When I go to get the kids I'll probably have an apple. Then, for dinner, I'm making a veggie lo mien.
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Daughter saw a play with her class on Friday. It scared her so bad that she hardly ate all weekend. Now I know that she can stand to decrease her intake, but she was not eating enough to sustain a mouse! She is starting to eat a little better now, but still not eating much. It blows me away how freaked out she got! The premise of the story was that an old lady found a hairy toe and took it home and made a soup out of it; the owner of the toe came to get it back. Daughter has been freaked out about things in her food.
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White rice has pretty much been her mainstay these last few days because she can spread out the grains and see that there is nothing in there but rice. I know that's not a healthy diet, but it beats eating nothing.
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I e-mailed daughter's teacher and if she doesn't get back to feeling better, we're going to have her talk to the school counselor to see if there is anything else bugging her.
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Hubby has been home most of the day today. He actually dusted and vacuumed--I really didn't feel like cleaning plus, I was (supposed to be) working (it was pretty quiet today). When he's home I don't get much done. When he's not here and I'm not busy, I exercise, or play my violin, or read, or whatever. I don't do anything when he's here. He did go to the job service this morning and he had a doctor's appointment this after noon (he's there now) so it's not like he didn't have a reason for being here.
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Well, that's pretty much all that's going on.
Ciao for now.

Quick Food post

2009-05-12T11:42:00.003-06:00

First of all, I'M FREEZING!!!! We had a nice weekend and now it's cold and windy again. I really, really, really want warm weather.
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Yesterday's eats:
Breakfast: Banana, kale, almond smoothie
Lunch: Salad - mystery greens, red bell pepper, carrot, zucchini, dressed in a balsamic vinaigrette and sprouts with Veganaise on dehydrator bread
Snack: apple
Dinner: oatmeal (served savory--not sweet), sweet potato mash, steamed asparagus
Snack: a dark chocolate and a small shaved ice w/ sugar free syrup

Here is a pic of the salad I mentioned above. It was really good.
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Today's Eats (so far):
Breakfast: Left over sweet potato mash, banana, almonds
Lunch: Monster Sprout Sandwich (dehydrator bread, 1/2 an avocado,
sprouts)

Yup, the sandwich looks like a monster!
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Tonight, we go to Sakura (a Japanese tepanyaki restaurant) with my folks and my brother and his family. I'll have the veggies. Apparently they use an all oil margarine in their cooking because my dad is extremely lactose intolerant and their "butter" doesn't bother him. Last time I had their soup, as well, but I kind of have a feeling it is a beef broth base--I'll ask tonight and if it's mushroom or miso, I'll have it too.
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I'll try to get on later and post again. We're have some issues with daughter. But I've got to get back to work.
Ciao for now.

I WON!!!

2009-05-11T08:56:00.001-06:00

I forgot to tell you! I won a copy of Ani Phyo's new dessert book. Ingrid at Raw Epicurian was having a givaway and I won!

I am so excited to get it.............

Mother's day weekend re-cap

2009-05-11T08:45:00.002-06:00

Son was in a track meet on Saturday. It was his first time running against other people--one of those kind where we signed him up at the Parks & Rec department and then he showed up and ran when they called his events. He came in next to last on both races, but I thought he did great anyway. It's hard to know what to expect when you've never done it before.
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The farmer's market opened Saturday so we went there as well. We didn't get much--just some jam, but we go pretty much every Saturday when they're open.
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We also went out to dinner on Saturday night. I decided that I would rather have a nice Mother's Day dinner on Saturday night than go to the brunch buffet that we usually do on Sunday morning (not much there I care to eat since changing the way I eat). So we went to Prasai--excellent Thai food.
Sunday morning, I nipped the tops off my mint plants and had mint tea--that's it above. Very nice.
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Daughter made me a card, a magnet, and a key chain. Son made me the Lego creation, below. Look hard--it says "I [heart] MOM" vertically. I thought it was very creative!

Then, in the evening, we went over to my folks for strawberry shortcake. I brought Soyatoo whipped topping. I just had strawberries with the whipped topping on them. I couldn't find the packaging on the cakes (Mom got them at Costco) but I'm pretty sure they would have had eggs in them at least.

Well, that was my Mother's Day. I hope every mother had a great day.

Ciao for now.

Not much happening, today

2009-05-07T14:15:00.003-06:00

It seems like I've been quite busy today, but there really hasn't been much going on. It's been one of those days when you spend all day picking up all the little bits and pieces that got let go or ignored or piled up. So even though I've been going steady, it really doesn't seem like it.
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I guess that's better than going crazy and not getting anywhere.
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Tattoo feels better today. It's still a bit swollen, but not as sore as yesterday. (It is still quite sore, though. Don't get me wrong.) I hate pain, but I guess it's worth it.
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So today's food so far has been:
Banana, mystery green, and almond smoothie
spiralized zucchini, red bell pepper, tomato and nut cheese salad
1 piece dehydrator bread w/ peanut butter (not raw, I know, but I wanted it)
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I'll probably have an apple and carrot for a snack when I go get the kids and then a salad bar for dinner.
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Tonight is daughter's last soccer game. After the game, their coach is taking them out for pizza. Hubby, son and I are going too; we'll let daughter be with her friends and we'll sit at another table and eat. I'm guessing I'll just have the salad bar.
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And did you ask what a "mystery green" was? While son was at scouts last night, we went to the store. The spinach looked awful, the kale looked awful, I didn't want cabbage. But there, in a box were bundles of these really big nice leaves. I don't know what they were (collard greens or mustard greens, maybe) but they looked good so I got some. They were really good in the smoothie this morning. They added kind of a fresh, earthy flavor. Hopefully they'll have them again with a sign on them so I know what I'm getting next time.
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Well the pup is trying to entice me to play with her squeaky toy with her and I've got to get a couple more things done before I go get kiddos from school.
Ciao for now.

Totally out of Greens!

2009-05-06T09:20:00.003-06:00

So I am totally out of greens for my green smoothie breakfast! In the fridge I have a few carrots, some broccoli, two zukes, and some celery. Oh and some wheat grass--I'll tell you about that in a few.

So I did a smoothie with the wheat grass, 2 little carrots, some almonds, and some frozen strawberries. It was good!
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I made some nut cheese on Monday and have some tomato sauce left over from dinner, so for lunch I'm going to spiralize a zuke and top it with tomato sauce and a dollop of nut cheese.
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Snacks will be fruits and veg, like usual. And dinner is going to be broccoli and I don't know what (hubby is doing deer steak, mashed, and gravy for him and the kids--yuck).
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So I took another pic of my new tattoo this morning--I did it in the light from the kitchen window so it's a better pic than yesterday's. I love it!

My forearm feels like it has a bruised road-rash and it's a little swollen. I'm not complaining, though. (I don't think you get to complain when the 'owie' is self imposed, do you?) I'm just anxious for it to heal.
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On to wheat grass--I have been sprouting wheat for my dehydrator breads and was talking to son about it and we ate some wheat sprouts, etc. he wanted to try wheat grass. So he took some of my sprouted grains and planted them in shallow dishes and grew his own wheat grass. It is a lot sweeter than I thought it would be. (Hubby shrugged and said "it tastes like grass". And I thought, "and how is it that you know what grass tastes like?".) So son ate some last night and again this morning and I put the rest in my smoothie. (He spaced the grains so far apart that 3 dishes only yielded a small handful of grass.)
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Soccer is almost over. Daughter has one more game on Thursday and son has one more game on Friday. Then it can get nice here. (I think somebody upstairs has the soccer schedule and makes sure it is always windy and/or rainy and cold for each game.)
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Well, I'm back to work now.
Ciao for now.

My new Tattoo

2009-05-05T15:59:00.003-06:00

The first picture is of it after the outline and the initial shading was done. It's so pretty. This picture was taken in the mirror at the shop with my phone camera. This next pic is after the color is done. I took this pic in the mirror in my bathroom. The lighting isn't great and it's a bit blurry. The pic before the color actually looks better, but in reality, the color tat is much better.

I am so glad I got this! The kids like it; hubby says he'll have to get used to it.

Ciao for now.

An exciting Day!

2009-05-05T09:54:00.003-06:00

The weekend was crazy. And on Sunday, I didn't eat all that well (it was all vegan, but still not great). Yesterday I was feeling lethargic and blah! So the fact that it was a busy day work-wise, made it, shall we say--not great.
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But, I started eating well again yesterday and I feel better today. It's amazing how much the way I eat affects the way I feel. As I've gotten into eating more raw foods I notice it more. I think that my "lethargic, blah" days are more like what I used to feel like all the time. It's just that now, I feel so much better that I really notice when I don't feel that good. (Does that make sense?)
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For 2 and a half weeks, I've been pretty much raw except for one meal a day (usually dinner). Raw breakfast, raw lunch, raw snacks. Sunday, was all cooked except for snacks (one green smoothie, some carrots, and some grapes) and it had me feeling bad.
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So today is an exciting day--and not because of my kale/strawberry breakfast smoothie. And not because of my broccoli/kale/nut cheese dressing salad I'm going to have for lunch. And not because of the sauteed veggies over whole wheat pasta I'm going to have for dinner. Today is exciting because I'm getting my TATTOO!!!!
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I have wanted a tattoo forever. I've had my tattoo planned for like 8 years now, but never gotten it because I didn't want to get it on my fat body. Now I'm not fat; I've had the weight off for 10 months now. I did have to decide on a new location because my legs look awful after carrying around 130 extra pound for so many years. So anyway, later on, I'll post a picture......
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I'm so excited.
Ciao for now.

Spirooli give away

2009-05-01T13:13:00.004-06:00

Gena at Choosing Raw is having a great give-away! She's giving away a Spirooli Spiralizer! This handy tool is great for making veggie "pasta". I have a Joyce Chen spiralizer but would love the greater versatility of the Spirooli. Check out the link below to see the machine and some lovely salad made with it.

http://www.choosingraw.com/spicy-thai-salad-and-my-first-raw-giveaway/

On that link, also, Gena will give you details on how you can try to win one. (Sorry, you all don't stand a chance--I've already decided I'm winning this one.) (I hope; I hope; I hope)

(The top pic is a Zucchini salad made with my Joyce Chen spiral slicer and the bottom one is a sweet potato tofu scramble that I spiralized the sweet potato.)

Ciao for now.

Young Thai Coconut

2009-05-01T09:31:00.005-06:00

UPDATE-- Katie told me how to do Links correctly (Thank you, thank you, thank you) so I fixed it!
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Here is the link to CCV's blog. She had a challenge to try a new food. So I did.
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So anyway, at the store, I bought a young Thai coconut. I had read so much about them and thought they would be wonderful. First of all, I unwrapped the plastic and then drilled two holes in the top with a screwdriver (one for the water to drain and one for the vent) and drained the water into a glass. I was amazed that it had like 12 ounces of water!
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Then, hubby split it open with a cleaver--that is the picture below. (son had already downed about a third of the coconut water.

Then I scooped out the meat with a spoon.
I have to tell you, I'm not overly fond of either the coconut water of the soft meat. I much prefer the dried shredded coconut I'm used to and the canned coconut milk.

This morning, though, I put the left-over coconut meat in my green smoothie (banana, coconut, kale) and it was EXCELLENT that way. The coconut gave it just a subtle tropical flavor. Very good, but I won't go out of my way to buy a coconut just for a smoothie. Son didn't drink all of the coconut water so if he doesn't finish it this afternoon, I'll put that in my smoothie in the morning.

So that's my new food try for this week.

Ciao for now.

I'm in a much better mood today

2009-04-30T10:54:00.005-06:00

Things are working like they are supposed to be working, and I'm getting through my lists. Sorry for being such a downer yesterday--I hate being that way. When I get like that, it seems to permeate every aspect of my life. (We had to go to the grocery store last night and I was a royal B.)
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So I mentioned here a while back that I was going to do more raw foods. I have been doing breakfasts, lunches, and snacks raw and doing a mix of raw and cooked vegan for dinner. Physically, I feel really good. I don't get that "full" feeling after raw meals but I'm perfectly satisfied and content with what I've eaten. I get hungry more often, but it's not a "eat everything in sight" type of hunger and an apple or carrot or something takes care of it.
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I've become really fond of dehydrator bread--in fact, I've got some more wheat sprouting right now so I can make another batch.
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And, on another good note, I'm finally heading the right direction on the scale again (I had gained 6 pounds up from my maintenance weight)--I've only got 2.5 more to go.
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Plus, I've had enough energy to exercise regularly again. In two weeks, I've exercised all but 2 days.
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All the reading I've done has talked about nasty detox symptoms when first going raw. I haven't experienced anything, but I was already eating a fairly healthy vegan diet with quite a few raw fruits and veggies anyway.
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I was reading in my latest issue of VegNews the other day an article about the meaning of "Vegan" and how it encompasses the commitment to a compassionate lifestyle as well as the dietary aspects. I thought it was well said, but I thought that maybe the author should have acknowledged that sometimes the commitment to all aspects of the lifestyle evolve from what started as a "diet". Even if one commits to being a "vegan" because of health issues, the ripple effect will result in fewer animals getting killed and possibly more people moving toward the vegan lifestyle. Also, I think that what starts as a movement for "health" can't help but evolve as the person learns more about him/herself and our environment.
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I started for a combination of reasons--both health and horror at the atrocities my former lifestyle was promoting. As I've evolved over the last 10 months, I've certainly found that my thoughts and feelings in both areas have strengthened.
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Well, I had better get back to work.
Ciao for now.

Major Frustration today

2009-04-29T09:53:00.002-06:00

I tried to get started working this morning only to find out that I had no Internet or phone service! AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!
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I don't have high speed Internet in my house to play--I have it to work. And today promises to be a busy day.
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So I spent better than 30 minutes on the phone w/ tech support during which I found out that the problem is caused by a short somewhere in the line. If it's on the house side of the phone box, we'll be responsible for paying for it, if it's on their side, they'll be paying for it.
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So after all that, I went outside and found the problem--the pup has chewed on the wire where the phone service comes into the house. I called hubby, asked him to come home and fix it so we wouldn't have to pay the repairman. He said he can't come right now--he's busy. I'm MAD! I'm the one that needs to be able to work right now cuz I'm the one getting paid!
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So I messed with it and got it working--the phone has lots of static and the Internet blips in and out, but at least I can work, now.
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I found an interesting website yesterday evening--Raw for 30 Days. They took people with type 2 diabetes and put them on a raw foods diet for 30 days--no sugar, caffeine, or tobacco either--and they were able to get off their diabetes meds in 30 days. I wish hubby would be open to something like that. I don't think he even needs to go that radical; he just needs to get better at eating healthy overall.
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OK, I was gone for an hour there and now I'm back continuing my post--Now I'm even madder! I called Verizon regarding our bill--they charged us for services that I had cancelled. When I called in, they wouldn't talk to me because I wasn't listed on the account. HUBBY PUT ME ON THE ACCOUNT BOTH AT THE KIOSK AND AT THE STORE--ISN'T 2 TIMES ENOUGH????
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So I had to call him again (again, he's too busy to talk to me) but after me throwing a fit, he called in and put me on the account so I could call and get the thing taken care of.
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I am trying to save money here! I'm not going to pay more than I need to--for anything!
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OK. I have got to quit complaining and get to work.

Pumpkin Pie smoothie/soup for breakfast

2009-04-27T09:07:00.004-06:00

So yesterday afternoon, I was perusing some blogs and came across one about a pumpkin pie tasting soup. That got me thinking.........
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This morning I was totally out of greens (except for some iceberg lettuce and broccoli which I don't like in smoothies) but I wanted a smoothie. So I used one banana, one small peeled sweet potato, some pumpkin pie spices, and some water. I blended it and, viola, a pumpkin pie smoothie! I blended it a bit longer until it just started to get warm (I love the Vita Mix for being able to warm things up) and then poured it into a big mug and had pumpkin pie soup for breakfast.
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It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. I am definitely going to have to do this more often! I wish I had taken a picture, too. It was such a lovely orange color. Next time, I will.
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Well, that really was quick, this time. Of to get some work done.
Ciao for now.

Sunday

2009-04-26T11:34:00.001-06:00

OK, so I found out that my raw broccoli soup isn't very good the second day. (As usual) I put too much garlic in it and after soaking all night long, the garlic was too strong. I thinned the soup with water and then it was too watery but still was too garlic-y. So instead I dumped it and made a banana and spinach smoothie--that was better anyway. I had lunch early again (11:00-ish) because breakfast was watermelon and I was hungry again. (Oh but the watermelon was so good.)
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I really need to remember to go light on garlic. I like garlic, but it seems to get too strong for me too easily lately.
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So we went to the banquet last night; a friend and I brought vegan take-out. No one said anything so I guess we didn't attract too much attention.
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Daughter won a Harry Potter Scene It game. I won a gardening basket that came with a gift certificate for an overnight stay at a local hotel (mini-vacation!). Hubby won a group of stuff that included a gift certificate for a tattoo (for me), a shake powered flashlight (for son), and a book, t-shirt, and hat. Son didn't specifically win anything, but we share. It was a long night, though--we were there from 4 til 10. Hubby was there from 8am til almost midnight.
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It seemed like they made pretty good money last night. In the past they have used the money they raised to plant bitter brush in winter feeding grounds and to work with the BLM and Fish & Game on land management and wildlife management issues. Hopefully, there will still be wild Mule Deer around here for our kids' kids.
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Well, that's all I have.
Ciao for now.

LLamas and Watermelon

2009-04-25T10:47:00.007-06:00

Just a quick post here; not much to say......... (yeah, I've said that before and gone on and on and on and..............)

We took son and dropped him off to go on a Boy Scout camp out last night then got dinner (salad and pasta w/ tomato sauce) and then went to walk around Costco. At Costco we got a huge watermelon.

After that we started home and saw a llama in the road--yes a "Llama". On the last Friday of the month is a horse sale at the Livestock Commission Company and our guess is that this fella was an escapee. We watched as the cops got him caught (hubby helped a little-he was a cowboy in his former life). Then we decided to go to the horse sale to watch for a while. Daughter was crying at one point because we absolutely refused to buy her a horse.

Then home and daughter made "no bake cookies" (she even veganized the recipe for me:

She used vegan margarine instead of butter and soy milk instead of cow milk. They came out pretty good (she got the recipe at school--note the doodlings of a 9 year-old girl)

This morning, hubby left early; Mule Deer Foundation banquet tonight and he's a big part of the committee and workforce. Mule Deer conservation is his baby although if you ever called him a conservationist, he'd probably argue to the high heavens. He eats meat and hunts and is all man; those conservationists are hippie, tree hugging, long haired granolas--that's his perception, anyway.

So anyway, right now it's daughter and I. We'll go pick up son after while and then go over to the fairgrounds for the banquet (I am bringing take-out from the good Thai place since the food there is not to my liking.)

I had watermelon for breakfast. It was so good but it didn't stay with me very long. I was hungry again so just a few minutes ago (around 10:30-ish) I made a raw broccoli soup in my Vita Mix (broccoli, miso, almonds, garlic and salt blended until just warm). It needed something so I added a bit of sugar (I don't know why, but that little bit of sugar made it better.) So I ate about half of that (I made way too much) and then had one of daughter's cookies. Pretty good.

That's all I know, so

Ciao for now.

Friday again.......

2009-04-24T13:18:00.007-06:00

OK, doesn't that salad look just yummy? Zucchini cut with my spiral slicer on a bed of spinach. Over that is a tomato sauce (tomatoes, Italian seasoning, yellow bell pepper) and a dollop of "cheese" sauce (almonds, nutritional yeast, soy sauce, garlic, onion, turmeric, water). All of it raw.
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I thought it was just perfect; in fact, that was dinner last night and it was so good I had it for lunch again today. Of course, I laid it out all pretty but I mixed it all together before I actually ate it. Son at his and half of his dad's. No surprise that hubby and daughter didn't eat it very well.
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By the side of the plate is piece of dehydrator bread (2 cups sprouted wheat, a date, a bit of salt, a handful of almonds, a handful of flax seeds, and a bit of water--all processed into a dough in the food processor and then spread into rounds on the silpat sheets and dehydrated at 105 for 10 hours, flipped partway through).
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I told you I was going to try to eat more raw. Tuesday was one meal cooked, the rest raw; ditto for Wednesday and yesterday. Maybe I'm imagining things, but I think I do feel better--not as heavy after eating.
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I have been having raw soups--yummy. Here are a couple of the combinations I've had lately:
--cauliflower, garlic, 1/3 an avocado, water, salt & pepper
--cauliflower, a few almonds, water, salt & pepper
--zuke, carrot, ginger, chili powder, 1/3 avocado
I just put everything in the Vita-mix and blend until just slightly warm. These have all been really good. The avocado or almonds make it creamy and I don't add very much water so it's really thick, too.
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I've also been doing green smoothies more. Usually banana, spinach, ice & water, and one of the following--almonds, oats, quinoa. I really like those, too.
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I had a class in Boise Wednesday and went up there on Tuesday night. Met a good friend up there--I always enjoy that. I wish I could take more classes up there just for that. My cooked meals on Tuesday and Wednesday were with her.
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Tuesday we ate at Mazzah Mediterranean--I had falafel, dolmas, and tabbouleh--really good. It was like a Mediterranean fast food place so that's the kind of atmosphere it had.
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Wednesday for lunch we ate at PF Chang's--I had Buddha's delight (I think that's what it was called--5 spice tofu and veggies w/ brown rice)--excellent!
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I'm reading a new book--Living Cuisine: The Art and Spirit of Raw Foods by Renee Underkoffler. It is like half cookbook, half reference book. I'm in a section now that gives all sorts of detail about all the different types of produce there are. For instance, we got some little round fruits at the Asian market last weekend called "longans". I found out how they grow and that they are related to the lychee, and when they are available, etc. This book has a lot of information that ranges from what modern farming methods are doing to our environment to how to cut and store the foods you buy. It has preparation method descriptions and kitchen set-up information. I am really pleased with this book!
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As a mom, I really put my foot in my mouth Tuesday night. Daughter had a paper in her hand and came up and asked me "Mom, what is "sex"?". OK, hubby was there, but son was off somewhere so I decided I could start THE TALK. I got as far as "when a man and a woman love each other..." when she interrupted me with a strange look on her face and a loud "HUH?" She held the paper out to me, pointing to a box on it and said "it says 'Sex: F'." So now hubby almost falls off the chair laughing and I have to pull myself together--Oh, "gender". So I went on to tell her that it just meant whether the paper was talking about a boy or girl--F for female and M for male.
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OOPS.
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I think that's all I can think of.
Ciao for now.

Savory oatmeal, family upset, and sleepwalking

2009-04-21T10:36:00.003-06:00

Good morning all.
Here a while back CCV posted asking about savory oatmeal. Yesterday lunch was leftovers; this was what I had in the fridge--stir-fried teriyaki veggies, spaghetti squash, oatmeal. Not enough of any one thing for a meal so I warmed up the veggies and squash together, then warmed up the oatmeal, then poured the veggies over the oatmeal. It reminded me of teriyaki veggies over polenta. I'll easily do it again if I have leftovers, but not to cook for a meal for my family--they don't like polenta, so I'm sure they wouldn't like oatmeal like that. (My family is uber-picky.)
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Next topic.
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Speaking of picky--I made a bean loaf (vegan lunch box blog) and steamed cauliflower for dinner last night. It turned out really good. But no one would eat the loaf! Hubby had a few bites and then went into the kitchen and put his piece in the dog dish. Son ate about half and daughter ate 2 bites..
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I blew up. At hubby mostly. I told them all the I shouldn't even care if they all get fat, get diabetes and high blood pressure, have heart attacks and die. I ought to just quit cooking for them and let them fend for themselves.
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Then a bit later, hubby was trying to be cute and I told him to knock it off because I was madder at him than anyone else. I expect it out of the kids--they are just kids--I would expect better out of him. He obviously doesn't give a rat's ass that he is fat, has diabetes and high blood pressure, and is heading right for a heart attack, but he needs to care that he is sending daughter there, too.
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It's one thing to eat like crap if you truly don't know any better, but he does. And our most important job in life is to raise our babies to be healthy, happy, productive members of this planet. He needs to get on board and help me with that job. It's child abuse to intentionally make your kids sick. That's what we are doing if we don't feed them healthy food. We are guilty of child abuse! I think I'll put it to hubby that way. Surely, even if he doesn't care about himself, he would care about his daughter........
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OK, rant done--next topic.
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Last night I made date balls. Hubby wanted some (don't ask me why I did anything for him last night, but I did). I used the basic recipe for "donut holes" by Ani Phyo but more or less just winged it--dates, coconut, and almonds in the food processor. Then I decided I wanted chocolate so I added a spoon of cocoa powder. Then I rolled them into balls and rolled them in coconut. YUMMY! Son, hubby and I all liked them--daughter didn't even try, of course.
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Next topic.
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In the middle of the night last night, son came and woke me up. "Mom, I woke up to go to the bathroom and when I went back to bed, my blankets were gone." So I went with him and, sure enough, his blankets were gone! The weren't on the bed or the floor or under the bed or on the bunk. So I started looking around the house. The were on the love seat in the living room! He just couldn't understand how they could have gotten there. I have a pretty good guess--I think he was sleepwalking. Pretty funny.
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I have a class in Boise tomorrow so I probably won't post (unless I do it from my phone). That's all I have.
Ciao for now.

Good Monday Morning

2009-04-20T08:41:00.004-06:00

Good Morning,
We got quite a bit done Saturday. We froze through son's soccer game, then daughter and I got our hair cut (she goes shorter every time), then we came home for lunch, then we went to 3 different nurseries and came home and started on the garden.
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We planted all of our cooler weather crops. So far, our garden has cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts (I had never done any of those before). We planted our onion sets. We planted some strawberry starts we got from a neighbor. We planted an apple tree and a cherry tree to replace the peach and cherry trees that died. And we planted a couple of blackberry starts. We also planted zucchini along side the house--it's protected there so we don't need to worry about it and this way it'll get an earlier start.
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We also have seeds for pumpkin (both carving and eating), butternut squash, yellow squash, and beets. I'm going to plant the beets this afternoon. Also this afternoon, we're going out to my aunt's to get more strawberry starts and some raspberry starts.
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We are going to have the biggest garden I think we've ever had and I am so excited. (I hope I can maintain the excitement when it's 100 degrees out and I'm having to weed it........)
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Yesterday, I took the kids for a bike ride. It was daughter's first time riding on a road with traffic. She did really good (other than the fact that she rides a lot slower than son and I do). But we were like 2/3 through our ride and she got a flat tire. We have these nasty goat-head burrs that grow around here. Even though they are considered a "noxious weed" and the city is supposed to make people control them, they are still everywhere--the city doesn't do anything about it. So anyway, we had to walk our bikes from there. She was really bummed and insisted that it was OK, she could ride like that. I had to let her know that she'd ruin the rims on her wheels and then she wouldn't have a bike to ride if she rode like that. It ended up that both of her tires were flat--the back one just hadn't gone flat as fast as the front one did. So we got an OK bike ride and a good walk. (I let son ride on ahead so he could tell hubby what had happened and why we were taking so long.)
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Books--I bought Kristen Suzanne's Raw the Easy Way. It's a good book. I'd like to incorporate more raw foods into my diet. I love green smoothies and most of the raw recipes I've tried. Son loves her "Sweet Potato Mash" from her Easy Raw Holidays book. I also think I'd be healthier. I still feel like I have to fuss so much to maintain my weight. I feel better and don't have nearly so much trouble with my weight when I'm eating more raw foods. So I'm going to try to incorporate more--probably breakfast, lunch, and snacks. And then I'll try for raw sides along with dinner. We'll see how it goes.
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Well, I think that's about all.
Ciao for now.

Happy Anniversary to me!

2009-04-15T15:02:00.004-06:00

Yes I got married on Tax Day. It wasn't planned that was just the day we did it (Elko County courthouse basement). But it is weird that I got married on April 15th and went on to become a CPA. (I don't work in public practice anymore and I don't do taxes--except my own--but I am still a CPA.)
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So anyway, today is our 24th anniversary. Hubby came home and took me out for lunch (with some money we had stashed away just for today) and tonight we are going to go out to dinner as a family. We usually don't go out twice in one day, but this way we get a family celebration as well as a personal one. We didn't do gifts this year--nothing we really need bad enough to justify spending money we don't really have--we're just spending time together.

Above is what we woke up to. This picture was taken out my front door just before I took the kids to school. On the seat of the swing it was 3 inches. It snowed a whole lot more after that but never got any deeper because it was just warm enough that it was kind of melting as it fell. Since I've been married, I don't remember ever having snow on April 15th.

I sprouted some wheat and now have dehydrator bread drying. In addition to the sprouted wheat, I added some almonds, some flax seeds, a little salt, and a little cane syrup. Then I just processed it in my food processor (added a little water to make it more doughy) until it was like dough. Then I made flat rounds on the silpat sheets (dipped my fingers in water so the dough wouldn't stick). I'll dry them for a few hours and then flip them off the silpat and continue drying until they are done.

Last time I made this bread it was pretty good. The dough tasted even better this time so I'm betting the bread will be even better, too.

Ciao for now.

2009-04-14T18:38:00.001-06:00

I'm testing the mobile blog set-up. It'll be cool if it does......

Roasted Red Pepper sandwich

2009-04-14T09:20:00.002-06:00

This is a sandwich I ate a few days in a row for lunch--really good.

One piece of Ezekiel bread

red pepper nut cheese (Rhio's recipe)

Kale

Red bell pepper

Put the nut cheese, kale and red bell pepper on the bread and broil (I do it in the toaster oven) until the pepper is as done as you want it.

The kale got crispy where it was not tucked under the pepper. I really liked it that way. On this day, I put some carrots beside it and called it lunch.

Ciao for now

I'm back

2009-04-14T08:56:00.003-06:00

It has been a long time since I blogged--a lot going on! Unemployed hubby, issues at work, family stuff, etc. I get "too busy" to do this, but I forget the sense of catharsis that comes from letting it all out. Honestly, when am I really "too busy" to take a few minutes for myself? If I get that way, I need to re-prioritize my life. If I don't take care of myself, I can't take care of the people in my life.
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So in a couple of ways, hubby's unemployment has been a good thing for us. Number one is that we are being forced to re-connect as a family. We were so busy running all the time that we really didn't spend any family time. Now, with our schedules cleared up a bit (and cable cancelled), we have more family time.
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And, with no excuses, we are getting things done around here. We cleaned out the back yard (a little bit anyway) and took 2,300 pounds of scrap iron to the recycle yard--didn't get much money for it, but it was better than a kick in the pants. We got the part of the roof that leaks re-roofed. Yeah, it cost money for the roofing, but it needed to be done really badly. We have a really big garden spot this year and it's all ready to go. Hopefully, we'll be planting our cool weather crops this weekend.
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Hubby's unemployment has been hard in other ways, though. We HAVE to have insurance. Unemployment take home is a little bit less than his after insurance take home was before. It is cheaper to get individual policies than to go through my employment so that's what we did. Even after cutting all the extras out of our budget (music lessons, karate, cable, cell phone extras, housekeeping, etc.) we are going to be around $200 down each month after paying for insurance. We'll still do OK--that was our "play money" for dinners out and occasional weekend trips. If, however, he doesn't get a job before unemployment runs out, then we'll be hurting.
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Had Easter over at my mom's. We did a BBQ. I took my own burger (an "Amy's" 1/4 pound vegan patty) and no one even commented. I also took a veggie plate with a nut cheese dip and blondies. My brother and his family didn't even taste the dip or the blondies. Mom and Dad both commented that the blondies were good, but only just tasted the dip. Mom got out the ranch dressing and everyone dipped in that instead. It hurts my feelings, but oh well. I commented to hubby that my family runs and hides when I cook. Although it's funny, my folks love my vegan chocolate cake and my homemade bread.
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Oh well, enough family complaining. The kids are doing good. Son is raising money for scout camp. His troop is doing a spaghetti feed. Son has sold enough tickets to pay his way. They are trying to get each kid to sell enough tickets for camp plus some extra for food, etc. (anybody want to buy a ticket?)
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Daughter is home sick today. She has been in the bathroom puking at least 6 times already. Poor baby. There's nothing worse than throwing up in my book.
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Work has been crazy. Today is finally kind of slow and I don't mind at all.
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That's all I know of for sure.
Ciao for now.

Back from Vacation

2009-03-20T10:53:00.004-06:00

Hi, this is going to be short and sweet. I'm not much in the mood to blog right now--I'll tell you why later.

Friday night we ate at a vegan diner in Salt Lake City called Vertical. Think all the greasy roadside diner foods made vegan. EXCELLENT! We all had breakfast--daughter had biscuits and gravy; son and hubby had and avalanche (pancakes, home-fries, tofu scramble, & "sausage"), I had gravy overload (home fries w/ gravy, "sausage" & tofu scramble). I loved their "sausage"; I was only able to identify rice and caraway seeds as ingredients, but it was so good. I had leftover biscuits & gravy and "sausage" for breakfast in the hotel the next morning and we snacked on leftover pancakes going up the road. They gave us a lot of food.

Saturday we headed down and were at the Grand Canyon Sunday Morning--we stayed there til around 1 on Monday and then headed up through Utah and hit Arches national park on Tuesday, and home on Wednesday.

Son holding at tree by the Grand Canyon (Don't worry, he wasn't close to the edge--I absolutely forbade anyone getting anywhere near the edge.)An arch outside of Arches national park. Son and I climbed to the arch.The shadow of son and me inside the arch taking a pic of our little bitty car so far below.

We had a lot of fun. The fun ended when we got home. Yesterday, hubby got a layoff notice at work. So now we have to figure out how to cut costs etc. Not Fun.

So anyway, I'm hanging in there, but don't feel like talking about it now. Ciao for now

Throwing a fit and getting ready for vacation

2009-03-13T13:13:00.003-06:00

Hey all,
I have been busy so I haven't been posting much lately. We're leaving as soon as the kids get out of school for the Grand Canyon. Tonight we'll be in SLC and tomorrow in Flagstaff and then just whatever until we come home on Wednesday.
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We've got all of our bags packed--except for a few things that I just got out of they dryer that the kids will need to toss in. We've made arrangements for the fur babies--I've got a friend who takes better care of them than we do. (Although my son's cat hates her for some odd reason.) We've got the motel reservations made for the first two nights. It will be nice to get away--as long as hubby doesn't think "vaca=endless hours in the car". He sometimes gets that way.
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Anyway, now on to my fit du jour. I HATE girl scout cookies and I can't seem to stay away from them. I put them in the trailer and I was still going and getting them and munching. I have been exercising more, but was gaining weight from cookies. And it was like after eating cookies, I'd get all down on myself and then eat more than I should of other stuff--stuff I normally am fine with eating in moderation. I truly think in some cases (mine) obesity is due to an eating disorder. It's like once I start, I can't stop. Even when I feel sick.
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So anyway, this morning, hubby was telling me how nice I look (he always says that) and I fell apart about how I'm gaining weight and I can't seem to stop myself and even with the cookies out of sight, I can't get them out of mind. He didn't seem to understand so I put it in a perspective he could appreciate--he used to be a smoker. I told him it was like right after he quit smoking if he had come home every night to me smoking and I wouldn't keep the cigarettes put away. And worse yet, as if our daughter was smoking and I wouldn't do anything about getting her to quit (and even encouraged her) even though he was trying his best to get her to quit, too. And then I pointed out that he can stay totally away from cigarettes, but I can't stay totally away from food. And if the crap food is in the house, it's that much harder for me.
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I think he understood. He didn't get offended or cop an attitude (my tears probably showed him that this was not an attack on him, just an attack on myself) or anything. He just got an old grocery bag, went out to the trailer and got all of the remaining cookies, and put them in his truck. He said he'd take them to work so I wouldn't have to worry about them anymore.
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Now sometimes he does stuff like this, but does it with an attitude that makes me just want to scream. But this morning, he was being totally sweet about it. I really appreciated it. Maybe my analogy worked better than any other way I've put it. So today I've eaten well and I'm not obsessing about cookies at all.
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I intend to continue to eat well and take care of myself and my family! And I'll do it as if our lives depend upon it! Because, in all actuality, they do.
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Well, I'm getting back to work so I can be at a good spot to be gone. If I don't get to the computer on my trip (the laptop is packed), then it may not be until next weekend before I post again--I'm guessing I'll be crazy busy when I get back to work on Thursday.
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Ciao for now.

Sloppy Joes on Biscuits

2009-03-10T12:12:00.005-06:00

If last night's post seemed a little stilted, that's because it was. Sorry. Hubby came and started looking over my shoulder (I hate that) so I quit typing, minimized the screen and asked him not to. He got hot and asked what I was typing that he couldn't read. I told him that I was fine with him reading it, but my blog is kind of like my journal and I wouldn't want him to read my journal--or at least not read it over my shoulder.
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He harrumphed off. So I kept typing. I don't think he'd care about anything I typed, and,even if he did, I don't think he could find my blog to read it even if I put a shortcut to it on my desktop. So anyway, I'm blogging at lunch time today instead of with him around to avoid any of that.
Above is a pic of half a multi-grain biscuit (I had already eaten the other half when I decided to take the pic) and my sloppy joe stuff from last night. The Recipes follow:
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Multi-grain biscuits
1/2 cup flour
1 TBSP Baking Powder
1 Tbsp Sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup wheat
1/4 cup oats
1/4 cup brown rice
2 TBSP flax seeds
coconut oil (1/2 cup-approx)
soy milk (1 1/4 cup approx)
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Put the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a bowl. put all of the grains in the vita-mix and blend until they are flour. Put that in the bowl, add the flax seeds and stir. Cut in the coconut oil until the mixture is crumbly. Add enough soy milk to make a sticky dough (don't over mix--just with a fork until it comes together). Drop by spoon fulls onto a baking stone and cook at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. (sorry for the imprecise measurements, I make my biscuits more by feel than by measurements.)
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TVP Sloppy Joes
1 Cup TVP granules
1 Cup water
1 tsp Better than Bullion-Veggie
1 can store brand sloppy joe sauce
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This is so easy--bring the water and bullion to a boil and take off of the heat. Stir in the TVP and let it set for a few minutes to absorb the liquid. Stir in the sauce and put back on the stove on low until it is as warm as you'd like it. (Be sure to check the ingredients of the Sloppy Joe sauce because I'm not sure they all are vegan.)
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The rest of the family wanted to save their biscuits for jelly so had their sloppy joes on bread. I had mine on a biscuit. Even hubby liked the sloppy joes! (Of course he said he likes them better with hamburger, but I expected that--he likes everything better when it can gum up his arteries.)
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So, what's going on in my life? Not a whole lot. Just work and ferry the kids to an fro. We have a school thing called "strut your stuff" tonight. Next week is Spring Break and we are going to take a 5-day vacation to the Grand Canyon. And that's about all.
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Daughter decided she was big enough for a bra this weekend. So we took her and got her one (she already had some sports bras, but she thought she was big enough for a real "cup-size" bra). She is now the proud owner of a striped "A" cup bra. It's a front hook because she couldn't seem to figure out the back hook in the dressing room. I keep having to remind her she can't be snapping and unsnapping her bra in public. Oh well, she will get it figured out. I just hope we're still a long way from the next monument of growing up female.
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Well, I guess I had better go now.
Ciao for now.

Girl Scout Cookie Sale, Chocolate Pie, Magic Bullet and more

2009-03-09T18:18:00.005-06:00

Saturday, daughter manned a Girl Scout Cookie booth. Anyone want to buy a cookie? Daughter did well, but I'm glad the cookie sales are over.
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Both kids did well in their piano festival, too. They each got 49 out of 50 with a "Superior" rating. Daughter had some memory baubles in her piece that cost her a point, and I can't remember why son lost his point. But I was proud of them.
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Sunday, the kids and I made a "chocolate cheesecake" (I think I got the recipe off vegcooking.com). We made it for a birthday dessert since my folks were coming over. It was really soupy when I pulled it out of the oven so I was afraid we were going to have chocolate syrup in a graham cracker crust, but it firmed up as it cooled. It was really good--it would have been better if I had gotten some Soyatoo whipped topping at the store. No one could believe it was Tofu.
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Hubby went ahead and got me a Magic Bullet blender--mom had said she'd chip in. She said that they couldn't afford to get it for me right now so they'd split the cost with hubby, instead. So when they got there, mom changed her tune and said that, instead, they were going to take our family out to the tepanyaki restaurant for my birthday. I appreciate it, but I can promise that will cost more than my Magic Bullet did. Also, I am glad we weren't depending on the money they were going to chip in or we'd be SOL.
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I exercised today and Saturday but took Sunday off. I am doing well.
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And, by the way, the Magic Bullet is getting a work out. Everyone had their own smoothies last night. Kids each had a smoothie this morning. I had blended banana quinoa for breakfast and asparagus soup for lunch. And hubby and kids each had a smoothie this afternoon.
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Dinner tonight was home made multi-grain biscuits, TVP sloppy joes, and asparagus. It was pretty good. (Especially the biscuits)
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Well, that's a fast wrap up.
I think hubby wants to go to WalMart as soon as son gets done with his homework, so
Ciao for now.

Friday!

2009-03-06T13:16:00.002-07:00

Well, another week has come and gone--almost. I'm feeling good about life right now. It has been so busy this week that I've hardly gotten a breath, but still life is good.
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I exercised again today. I'm getting better! Last week I exercised Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And this week, I have exercised Wednesday, yesterday and today. Saturday and Sunday were on the road. Saturday, every time we stopped to go to the bathroom I did jumping jacks--daughter thought it was a hoot--and then at the motel, we were on the 4th floor and I did the stairs. Sunday, at the motel, I did the stairs 4 times (round trips) and swam for 40 minutes. Then this week, I've been doing the treadmill.
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I'm also back to watching what I eat and making sure I stay vegan (who wants dead animal stuff rotting in your gut? not me!). And, I'm writing everything down.
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So last night we had the curried vegetable soup that I got off MSN.com. It was really good. In fact, I had left-overs for lunch today.
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Then, last night, after daughter got home from Girl Scouts, and all of the instruments had been practiced, and all the homework done, we had Chickpea Blondies (recipe from "have cake will travel") and Purely Decadent Dairy Free ice cream in Peanut Butter Zig-Zag flavor. Good stuff. The blondies were a bit doughy. I think I should have cooked them longer than I did. They were still really good, though; especially with ice cream.
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For my birthday, I got my dehydrator and my peelers--I've had both of them for a while now.
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This morning, I had the last piece of Blondie with my oatmeal for breakfast (yes it was the last piece--I had a piece at lunch yesterday right after I made them--to make sure they were edible, of course--then after school/work hubby and the kids each had one; and then we all had a big one for dessert last night; and there was only one piece left). I microwaved it and that cooked it enough that is was so much better than they were last night. I'll have to remember to cook them longer next time.
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Tonight, son leaves for another scout camp-out. Then daughter has trumpet lessons. Then we'll probably just have a quiet night at home. Or maybe go walk around the mall or something. Hubby doesn't like to stay home--it seems like the only things he can think of to do at home is sit on the couch, watch TV, and sleep. Sometimes that drives me nuts--I'm much more of a homebody.
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Then tomorrow, daughter is selling girl scout cookies at a booth from 11-2. Son is supposed to be home around noon-ish. We have tickets to a pancake supper from 3-8. And then we have scheduled a "family meeting"--son needs to have it for one of his scouting merit badges.
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Sunday, we are going to go out to dinner for my birthday--probably to Prasai. And then my folks are coming over. I've got to make them some sort of birthday dessert, but I don't know what, yet.
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And those are my weekend plans. Of course, the grocery store has to fit in there somewhere, too.
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Well, I ought to get back to work.
Ciao for now.

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-03-05T13:42:00.004-07:00

I'm 41 today. So far today, I've yelled at my daughter, gotten mad at our accounting firm, done laundry, worked, and made my birthday dessert. You will notice that there is a small corner of it missing--I had to make sure it was edible. It most definitely was.

Today is going good, otherwise. I have dinner in cooking--a curry vegetable stew that I got the recipe off MSN.com. My family is home-daughter is practicing her trumpet, son is getting ready for a scout camp out, hubby is helping him, and I'm doing this.

I also exercised today. The pup didn't have as much fun with the treadmill as she did yesterday.

Speaking of yesterday, last night, I made some chocolate-almond ice-cream pops. It is an adaptation off some of the recipes in Ani's Raw Food Kitchen (the almond yogurt and the vanilla ice-cream). Here's what I did:

In the vita-mix I blended 1 cup almonds, 1/4 cup raw sugar, 1 tablespoon cocoa, and enough water to make it a milk-shake like consistency. Then I poured it into Dixie cups with Popsicle sticks and put them in the freezer.

I had one last night--oh, so good!!!~ (it wasn't quit frozen yet so I had to eat it with a spoon instead of peeling off the paper cup and having a pop.)

I've got to go get dinner--it should be almost ready.

Ciao for now.

Day one--a good day

2009-03-04T14:07:00.005-07:00

Yesterday, I decided that I needed to get back on track with my health. I had been feeling crappy, I had been eating crappy, I hadn't been exercising. I was feeling bad emotionally and physically. I was cranky with my family. And the scale was starting to go back up.
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So today is day one of taking care of me again. I already feel better. Right after dropping the kids off at school, I took all of the Girl Scout cookies and put them in shopping bags and put them out in the trailer. When people want a cookie, they are more than welcome to get one--but they may only get as many as they want right then; they may NOT bring a whole box in the house. I know that will keep me from eating them. I'm basically lazy and if I have to go outside to get the cookies, I'll give it a second thought and skip them.
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I also got out a notebook to record my food intake and exercise in. I'm not counting calories, but I know that if I make myself write what I'm eating down, I'll think twice about putting crap in my mouth. I also know what appropriate portions are and am more likely to stick with them when I am writing things down.
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I did some research and found a running program (I dream about being a runner and actually enjoying it) and implemented it--day one down, only 7 weeks and 6 days left to be up to running 2 miles. Day one wasn't that hard, so if I stick to the program and don't try to move forward too fast, maybe I can do it. Day one was run 1 minute, walk 2 minutes, repeat 10 times.
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Funny story about exercising, though. The pup figured out that if she dropped her ball on the front of the treadmill, the belt would take it and shoot it off the back of the treadmill and she could go get it. The only problem was that sometimes, the ball would bounce back under the treadmill and the belt would take it up to the front of the machine where she couldn't reach it. I had to stop twice to fetch her ball from under the treadmill.
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Daughter and I had a confrontation last night. She has had an attitude about karate for the last few months. She doesn't want to do it. I have told her that I think self-defense is important and I want her to continue for now (she's a brown belt--why wouldn't she want to keep going long enough to get to black?) Her teacher has noticed her attitude and suggested she "take a break". That made me mad; she kept saying that he said it, not her. I pointed out that he only said it because her attitude in class is so poor that he needs her out of there. And I pointed out her messing around and distracting the other students. (She does that in her music lessons, too.) So after a lot of tears and me being a hard-ass. I think she is to the point that she will shape up. If she doesn't shape up, she's going to lose the fun stuff like Girl Scouts (all her troop seems to be is a craft, cookie, and play group--I can't see that she's learning any life skills).
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So, we'll see how that goes.
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Tomorrow is my birthday. 41! Old, huh? I found a Chickpea Blondie recipe from "have cake will travel"'s blog that I'm going to make. It will be better than the chocolate cake that we've had ad nauseum since last August. I already got my dehydrator and my Titan Peeler from my family. Mom wanted to split the cost of a Magic Bullet with Ron and they'd go in together to get me that. I want it, but we've spent enough money on me. If Mom wants to get me the Magic Bullet (I hinted it to her), fine. If not, then no biggie.
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Well, I had better get back to work.
Ciao for now.

Just a real Quick Re-Cap

2009-03-03T18:41:00.002-07:00

What do you think of my new T-Shirt? Pretty cool, huh? OK, so here's the re-cap since last I blogged. Saturday we went to Boise--there was a banquet in Nampa that hubby wanted to go to. Daughter won a pellet gun, hubby won a range finder, son and I got squat--actually both kids also got a pair of gloves and some junk. We went to a Thai place and got take-out and I brought my own food to the banquet. I figured I'd get comments, but no one said a thing.
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We also went to the mall--I got the above T-shirt.
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Sunday, hubby was sick. Kids and I went down to breakfast, hubby slept. Kids and I swam in the hotel pool, hubby slept. Kids and I went in a store, hubby slept. I drove home, hubby slept. (Are you starting to see a pattern?)
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It was a bad, achy flu bug. He was home from work for the last two days but didn't bug me because he slept the whole time.
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Monday, as I said, hubby was home sleeping and I was working. Work went fairly good, right up till the end when it fell apart. Then the kids had piano and the grown-ups did grocery shopping (hubby came along cuz he said he thought if he did something he might feel better--wrong.)
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Today, son had a dentist appointment in Boise--had to get some cavities filled so I dropped daughter off at my mom's and mom took her to school and son and I hauled it up to Boise, had the appointment, and hauled it back. We were back by 1 and I started work. Fortunately we (the gals in the office and I) were able to get the stuff from yesterday cleaned up.
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Now hubby is gone to take the kids to Karate. He's finally felling better for real. And I am posting here and then going to watch Biggest Loser.
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As far as eating goes, I have been really bad lately. There is something about Girl Scout Cookies--if they are in the house I have to eat them. So starting tomorrow, I am going to start writing down everything I eat again. I'm going to do it just like I did when I was actually trying to lose weight. (And now I do have some weight to lose to get back to where I was before Christmas.)
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I have been better about exercising lately--4 out the last 7 days. I am going to start pushing myself on that, too. I DO NOT want to go back to being FAT!
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So I am making a commitment for the whole world to read and to hold me to.
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Well I had better get going.
Ciao for now.

"Meaty" pasta sauce

2009-02-27T14:22:00.006-07:00

So for dinner last night, I made "pasta with meaty sauce". But the pasta wasn't pasta and the meat wasn't meat. Here's what I did.

Bake a spaghetti squash and the fork it into pasta.

The sauce was a little more complicated, but not overly so--here goes

Rehydrate 1 cup of TVP with 1 cup of veggie broth. Saute TVP, chopped onion, and chopped garlic in a little coconut oil. Throw in zucchini, red pepper, and broccoli chopped into small pieces and saute just a little longer. Add a can of diced tomatoes and a can of tomato sauce. Add lots of Italian seasoning along with whatever fresh herbs you have (I had parsley). Salt and pepper to taste and scoop it over the spaghetti squash.

It was really good. The family paired it with a hamburger. I just had lots of "pasta" and a piece of Ezekiel bread.

This morning, daughter was sleeping on the couch (she gets up with her daddy and then crashes on the couch until it's really time for her to get up) and the pup crawled up on her and they were sleeping nose to nose. When I took this pic, the dog woke up so they aren't nose to nose here, but they were until I got the camera.

And just so he doesn't feel left out, here's the sleepy boy, too.If I do say so myself, my kids are pretty cute!

So I had to go get more Girl Scout Cookies today to fill the last order daughter got. And then I bought a few boxes so that she would be at her goal. Now she just has one shift at a cookie booth and then we are done with cookies for another year (I hope).

I really hate these fundraisers that sell crap food.

On a totally unrelated note, I tried shirataki noodles today. They are made out of "yam starch" and have very few calories. I was after kelp noodles in an Asian food market and ended up getting those by mistake. They look gross--like clear worms packaged in a bag of water. But I wanted to try them so I drained and rinsed them and mixed them with left over pasta sauce for lunch. The texture was weird and I couldn't quite get over the look of them. I don't think they tasted bad, in fact, they didn't have much taste at all. I won't buy them again, but at least I can say that I have tried them.

Well, I guess I'm off. Tonight is going to be a busy night: Son-violin lesson, Daughter-guitar lesson, dinner, Symphony concert. Then tomorrow we are going to Boise to a banquet hubby wants to attend and we'll spend the night there. So I probably won't get back on until Monday. You all have a great weekend!

Ciao for now.

Chocolate Give-away, exercise, and my new peeler

2009-02-26T13:21:00.003-07:00

First of all, I was perusing CCV's blog just a few minutes ago and she is having a Jocolat bar give-away. If you want to participate, here is the web address. http://chocolatecoveredkatie.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/so-what-about-this-chocolate-giveaway/ (Sorry, I don't know how to do links, so I just copied and pasted the URL.)
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It's a great blog. I visit it regularly. She had a recipe for Tofu pudding--basically just blended silken tofu with flavors. I had it for an afternoon snack yesterday--mine was tofu, cocoa, agave, and a splash of vanilla. It was really good. Who would have thought that something that simple would be that good?
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I'm really proud of myself. I have exercised 2 days in a row. Last night, daughter and I exercised while we watched Biggest Loser--about 35 minutes worth. And today, I exercised after the gals at the office went to do lunch and errands--about 30 minutes worth. I don't know why I have such a hard time exercising. I feel so much better after I do it, but I can't seem to get motivated to do it regularly. It's frustrating. I would really like to be a runner. I have daydreams of myself jogging out in the sunshine with our pup. But the reality is that I am so self conscious (I still see myself as a fat chick) that I only jog on the treadmill or in place in the living room. I am going to try to exercise more regularly.
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I was also proud of my daughter for exercising with me. We did it as sort of a game. I need to do that with her more often.
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Last night, daughter and I played with the Titan Peeler. I still love the peeler, but the jury is out on the julienne cutter. We were playing with the dinner potatoes--peeling, making "chips", making hash-browns, etc. All of the product went into the curry to cook. And all of the little bitty potato pieces cooked down to make the sauce really thick.
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Today, I julienned a zucchini for my lunch. It takes longer than my julienne attachment on my mandolin, but the clean-up was so much easier. Also, the shreds are a lot finer using the Titan. I like it, I'm just not sure if I like it better than my mandolin.
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Well, I ought to get back to work.
Ciao for now.

I'm going crazy!

2009-02-25T14:35:00.003-07:00

OK for the last week or so, Ki-Ki, our big yellow dog, (that's her, under my desk) has been getting out of the kennel. We put her back in and hubby figures out where she gets out and patches the wire. She has been out of the yard several times and I'm afraid she's going to get run over.

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Well today, she got out of the kennel but stayed in the yard. I can't fix fence so I've let her stay in the house and the pup is driving me bats. The pup wants to go out, but then as soon as she sees that Ki-Ki is staying in, she wants back in. Over and Over and Over again.

And the pup wants to play and Ki-Ki doesn't so there's been a lot of growling and trying to hide under me going on.

I'm going crazy! Dog out, dog in, dog out, dog in, "Little Girl back Off!", dog out, dog in, "Little Girl back Off!". So right now, Little Girl is in her kennel whining and Ki-Ki is asleep at my feet. And I'm ready to scream!
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On a lighter note--the second Titan Peeler came in the mail today. I'm going to give it to my aunt and we're going to split the cost. I really don't need 2 of them. But I really like it. Did I say that earlier?

Bye again.

I got a new peeler...

2009-02-25T10:52:00.006-07:00

Yeah, I know. That doesn't sound really exciting, but I was excited. I saw an infomercial for the "Titan Peeler" and it comes with a julienne tool and a plastic thing that makes it into a mandolin. It looked so cool and hubby said to order it so I did. It is really cool. They are heavy tools--I expected them to be light and feel cheap. And it worked great! I made butternut squash soup for dinner last night and I have never peeled a butternut squash as easily as I did with that peeler. My old peeler just wouldn't even peel one--I had to do it with a knife.
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Below is a picture of the soup. Son used the "triangle cutter" on the mandolin attachment to make citrus crowns. I thought he did a pretty good job.

I was really nervous about purchasing based upon an infomercial, but I'm glad I did this one. It was supposed to be a 'buy one get one free' offer so with shipping, they ended up being $15 a set (14.99 for the set, 13 some-odd for shipping, 0.00 for the second set). I haven't gotten the second set yet, the paper said they were shipped separately so I would guess I'll get it today.

I haven't tried the julienne tool yet. I'll do that later--probably for a zucchini salad.

Yesterday, I also made blueberry-coconut fruit leather and apple chips. This time I turned off the dehydrator while it was still leather so we didn't end up with blueberry/coconut chips. Both the leather and the chips were really good.

Speaking of fruit leather, daughter couldn't seem to get "leather" figured out when I made the strawberry leather. It got called "strawberry felt" and "strawberry velvet" before she finally got it straight.

Right now, I have crackers dehydrating. The recipe is from Ani Phyo's Raw Food Kitchen. I hope they will turn out good. The certainly smell good, but I think they are more of a savory vs a sweet cracker. They will go better with soups than with almond butter and jelly.

I had to get up at the crack of midnight this morning--well, not quite, but early. Son had his sixth grade ski trip today and he had to be at the school by 6:45. I think he'll have fun. He took his own skis and stuff so he could get on the hill faster. I hope he's careful! I'll pick him up (exhausted, probably) at around 5:30, feed him and send him to scouts.

Well, I ought to get back to work now.

Ciao for now.

It's Monday (and a soap-box alert)

2009-02-23T10:42:00.002-07:00

Good morning!
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I survived another weekend. Now just to survive another week..........
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Son had a ball skiing yesterday. It's a good thing they ran into someone they knew up there, though. Son did the big lift for the first time--he got going too fast and fell and lost his skis. This guy from the kids' karate class was wonderful and helped him get up and going again and stayed with him until he had gotten it all figured out and was OK on his own. Here is a big THANK YOU to him.
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Son is his own person. He loves going and doing things like that. It didn't matter to him that his dad was in the lodge. He is secure and comfortable enough in his own skin that he can do things by himself. I don't think I would have at his age.
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Daughter and I just hung around here and then went to the Home & Garden show with a friend of mine.
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yesterday's food:
-coffee and a scone for breakfast
-leftover Chinese rice & veggies for lunch
-Broccoli salad (cuz lunch didn't fill me up) for a snack
-a chocolate, 1/2 and orange, nibbles of stuff I was making for the dehydrator for other snacks
-broccoli, mashed potatoes, TVP crumbles for dinner (family had fried chicken and gravy)
-soy ice cream and girl scout cookies for snack.

All was vegan except for the girl scout cookies--they have milk products in them.
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Speaking of that, I was looking at another website yesterday (can't remember what it was for sure, sorry) and there was an article on it that, to me, sounded like its author felt like anyone who ever ate non-vegan was not vegan at all. She made it sound like vegan was a moral and ethical issue--like murder. Like it's not OK to murder someone just because you "fell off the wagon" and it's not OK to have an occasional non-vegan item for that reason.
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I totally agree that it is an ethical consideration, but sometimes it is so hard to avoid all animal products or to find substitutes at that specific time that I am not going to beat myself up for an occasional lapse. The way I eat and live is a choice that I made. It is vastly different than most of the people around me and, frankly, my decision has less to do with the treatment of the animals (although that is big) and more to do with just the fact of what it is--dead flesh, mother's milk for baby bovine, and blighted chicken ovum. (EW, I just made myself nauseous.)
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And as far as the animal welfare is concerned, the milk products and eggs are what bother me the most--and they seem to be the hardest items to avoid. The milk cows are born, raised on a bottle in a little bitty pen, inseminated against their will (isn't that rape?), have their baby taken, get their milk taken, live in nasty pens, and get it done all over again and again and again until they can no longer make the milk they once did. Then they are killed. This is the same for egg-hens, minus the bottle and the rape. Plus, with chickens what is taken is just disgusting. The meat animals honestly have it a little better because they are fed and treated slightly nicer (they have to be so they will be fat) and their suffering ends earlier (no one wants stringy steak).
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Sorry for that soap-box. If you don't like it; don't read it. It's just my opinion. I'll get on to other things.
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I didn't watch my oatmeal this morning and it boiled over and made a huge mess in the microwave--I ended up with only about half of my breakfast left. Good thing I had one small scone left. (OK, that was boring. I'll just get back to work now.)
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Ciao for now.

My Birthday Present

2009-02-22T10:52:00.003-07:00

First of all, sorry I haven't blogged for a while. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, I was busy. Thursday, I was busy playing. I got my birthday present from the Fed-Ex man. (Actually from my family, but Fed-Ex delivered it.) It is a GooD4U 6 tray dehydrator--ain't she purty? As soon as I had a break from working, I called hubby and asked if he minded if I got out my present and played. He didn't mind. So Thursday, I made dehydrator bread, banana chips, and dried parsley. FYI-Banana chips take a lot longer than I would have ever thought. They weren't ready until Friday. Right now I have carrot crackers going.

I got online and got Kristen Suzzane's dehydrator cookbook--I'm going to make some fruit leather after I get done here.

hubby and son are up skiing today. Well, son is skiing; hubby is probably drinking coffee in the lodge. Daughter and I are taking it easy. We are still our my jammies as a matter of fact.

Well, that's it for the time being.

Ciao for now.

Butternut Squash Soup

2009-02-17T18:38:00.003-07:00

Today's Food
Breakfast-Peanut butter oatmeal and coffee
Lunch-Butternut squash soup and Almond butter/jelly on Ezekiel bread
Snack-chocolate-soy ice cream and graham crackers (bad me--but it was good)
Another Snack-wasabi peas
Dinner-Miso good gravy over Ezekiel bread and steamed cauliflower
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Easy Butternut Squash Soup
1/4 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 stalk celery
1 1/2 cup cubed butternut squash
2 cups veggie broth
chili powder to taste
paprika to taste
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put all of the above in a glass casserole dish and microwave until the veggies are soft (took 2 rounds of 4 minutes each for me). Pour into the Vita-Mix and blend. Turn down to low and add 1 tsp lime juice and a little cilantro-keep blending on low until the cilantro is lightly chopped.
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Pour in bowls and enjoy--Makes 2 big bowls of soup.
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Son and I had this for lunch. He liked it this way better than when I make it on the stove--on the stove, though, I don't blend it. I think he liked the blended texture.
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Well, that's all for now. I'm going to watch Biggest Loser and will probably have a smoothie for a bedtime snack.
Ciao for now.

A quick wrap-up

2009-02-17T09:28:00.003-07:00

We woke up to snow again today. I am so ready for spring. It is still snowing, but it is a heavy, wet snow. Plus it's 34 degrees out so there is no more accumulation. The level on the ground is staying steady where it's at. OK, I think I will work backwards from today. It's easier for my brain. Yesterday, the kids had a dentist appointment plus they were off school so we visited with friends before their appointment. It was a good day. We don't get to see them often and I miss having coffee and visiting while the kids play--we started that when our boys were babies and they lived a lot closer. The real bummer is that son woke up sick today with a bad cold. I really hope he didn't infect them. I will feel so bad if he did.
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Sunday, we didn't really do anything other than grocery shopping. Boring.
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Saturday--Valentine's day and daughter's birthday party.
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I didn't have time to go shopping for a valentine for the kids so I made them "gift certificates" on the computer--good for a book, a CD, or a toy--both kids got a Lego set from Target. Then hubby took daughter to a girl scouts thing at Lowe's while son and I cleaned the house and I made and decorated the cake. The cake and stuff is below.

Then we had a quick lunch and it was party time. I am an extreme introvert. I hate having too many people in the personal sanctuary of my home and still I let daughter invite lots of girls. WHAT WAS I THINKING? We had 8 girls in addition to her and all I can say is "ARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!" I was so glad when they all went home. (It probably wasn't as bad as I feel like it was, it's just that I don't deal well with things like that.)
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We did a game, presents, cake & ice cream, a pinata (did it inside because we had an impromptu blizzard), and I put in a girl movie. They still destroyed daughter's room (not that it was far from destruction in the first place, mind you).
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One girl's mom called asking if we had found her i-pod. What was a 9-year old girl doing bringing an i-pod to a birthday party in the first place? I certainly wasn't going to babysit it--I didn't even know she had it. Another girl didn't want to stay with the others and I was constantly having to herd her out of where she didn't belong. Another girl decided she would stay longer and called her mom to tell her that she would call when the movie was over--she was the last to leave and only then because I told her to call her mom. And all of the little girls were loud and rowdy--I guess that's just how little girls are when they get together.
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Son was an angel; he helped me clean the house and get ready and he put up with all the little girls. He told me that he decided he did like the movie he got sis for her birthday after all because it was the only thing that finally settled the girls down. He also ended up being in charge of the pup.
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Then we went out to Prasai--an excellent Thai restaurant--for our valentine dinner.
Friday--the daddy/daughter dance. Above is the picture they had taken there. I think they had fun.
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Well, I need to go.
Ciao for now.

Friday the 13th

2009-02-13T13:53:00.004-07:00

Hi all,

It's Friday the 13th. The kids are out of school today so after they had both gotten ready and both practiced both of their instruments and we had lunch, we took the puppy to Petsmart. She got spoiled rotten--A new squeaky, a new chewy rope, and a new T-shirt. The brown with pink trim looks really good on her--see?

It's actually more of a muscle shirt and on the back it says "being cute is a full time job". So true....... She loves her new toys. Her old squeaky broke and quit squeaking and her old rope was falling apart. right now she is in puppy heaven.

The kids are playing the Wii (as usual) and I'm blogging for a few before I get back to work.

Tonight, hubby and daughter are going to a father-daughter ball. Daughter is so excited. She'll be wearing her birthday dress (if I go get it out of the dryer, that is) and she picked out a black shirt for her daddy. I really think it's sweet. I remember when I was a kid and our church had a daddy-daughter dance. I got to go with my piano teacher's husband because my dad was working (yeah, just a bit of bitterness there). I am so glad hubby does stuff like this with the kids. I'll take a picture of them and post it.

I'm not sure what son and I will do tonight. Probably not much of anything.

Today's food:

coffee and pumpkin oatmeal for breakfast

PB & J on Ezekiel bread and some steamed butternut and sweet potato for lunch

1 (yes, only one) of my daughter's chocolates

I'm going to make a green smoothie after while (apple, almond, and spinach) and see if I can't get the kids to try it and then I'm not sure about dinner and snack yet. Hubby and daughter are going out before the dance so son and I might either just fend for ourselves or go to Pita Pit. He and I like it, but hubby and daughter don't so we never go there.

By the way, I like the comments. Thanks.

Ciao for now.

A haul of Dolls

2009-02-12T19:16:00.002-07:00

Daughter got this American Girl doll from hubby and I, and the Hannah Montana doll from Grandma and Grandpa. She also got some stuff for her American Girl doll from us and an American Girl movie from her brother.
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So that was yesterday.
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Today wasn't too exciting--here's the food:
coffee and pumpkin oatmeal for breakfast
Zucchini salad and left over pasta for lunch
an orange and a leftover pumpkin muffin for snack
1 (yes, only one) little chocolate from daughter's valentine party haul
tofu scramble served over spinach for dinner (pic is below)

I'm starving again now--I think I'll have some graham crackers dipped in brewed chocolate for my evening snack. I'm going to wait a while, though.
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Daughter is fighting a cold--I sure hope she gets better without giving it to me!
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The kids are off school tomorrow--we'll see how much work I get done tomorrow.
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Well, not a very exciting day. Hubby is at a meeting, the kids are playing the Wii, and I'm here typing. Think I'll get off this machine and read.
Have a good evening.
Ciao for now.

She's dreaming of a White Birthday....

2009-02-11T12:05:00.004-07:00

Daughter got her wish. She has been saying that she wanted a white birthday since Christmas. She got her wish--we woke up to 2 inches of snow this morning. Right now, it's starting to melt off so I'm not sure how much will be left when she gets out of school.

The picture above is over exposed, but that's her in her birthday dress--a Hanna Andersson. Below is a full view.

Notice the snow boots. Don't they just add that extra special "something" to the ensemble?

Here in about 20 minutes, I'm leaving to take the muffins over to her class, and then after school, Grandma and Grandpa are coming over so she can open presents. Then we'll take her our for her birthday dinner. Then we'll drop son off at scouts.

She chose Carino's Italian Grill for dinner. I like eating there--it's pretty easy to eat vegan.

We are having her open her presents from us today for 2 reasons. First, it is her actual birthday and second, I'm afraid that there will be so many little girls here on Saturday that she won't notice our presents as much. (Not to mention the fact that maybe there will be less handling of the presents by others if she doesn't open them at the official party.)

Well, I know this was quick, but I'm off.

Ciao for now.

Muffins and Pasta

2009-02-10T17:57:00.005-07:00

When daughter got home we started in on the muffins. I made a double recipe so we'd have some for home, too. We ended up with 32 muffins and a small loaf. Here they are (along with the birthday girl--the big "9" tomorrow)!

Then I made the pasta--I stir fried red pepper, zucchini, onion and garlic in olive oil. Then I added capers and artichoke hearts (and a little garlic salt because it was bland). Then I served it over whole wheat angel hair pasta. Ta-Da.

That's all.

Ciao for now.

I'm making muffins tonight

2009-02-10T13:53:00.005-07:00

Daughter wants muffins for her school birthday treats tomorrow so we're making muffing tonight! The really cool thing is that her favorite type of muffins are "The Best Pumpkin Muffins" from Vegan with a Vengeance. Maybe not the healthiest of my vegan recipes, but it's a step in the right direction.
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And speaking of that, the cake she wants for her party on Saturday is the "Devil's Food Cake" from vegcooking.com with the icing from the "Chocolate Devastation Cake" recipe--same website. That cake is my family's favorite. Hubby had it for his B-day, son had it for his B-day, we had it for Superbowl, and now daughter wants if for her B-day. My B-day is in 3 weeks, I'm going to have to find a different recipe for my cake (just to be different).
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Yesterday's food:
coffee and banana oatmeal for breakfast
Miso soup and spinach salad and asparagus for lunch
apple and a piece of toast w/ very light pb&J for snack
broccoli and tofu/sweet potato scramble for dinner
2/3 of a serving of banana oatmeal for snack
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Today's food so far:
coffee and the rest of the banana oatmeal for breakfast
green tea/soy milk latte for snack (home-made, not bought)
zuke/red bell pepper salad and Almond Butter & Jelly on Ezekiel for lunch
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I'm going to make a green smoothie w/ apple, spinach, and almonds for a snack and I haven't figured out what for dinner--maybe ww pasta with stir fried zuke, pepper, onion, garlic, capers, and artichoke hearts over it. That's always good.
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I talked to daughter's teacher today--daughter wasn't tested for GT and she was bummed so I just wanted to ask about it. Apparently daughter made the first cut but then wasn't selected to be tested. I then e-mailed the GT teacher to find out the details. I think daughter needs to be challenged-she's in third grade and reads 3+ grade levels above that, she started doing multiplication on her own in first grade, she plays 3 instruments, she used to bug her brother by looking over his shoulder and answering his homework problems before he did (he's 3 years older than her). She does let her social life and her emotions get in the way at school sometimes, but I do know that she needs to be challenged and that she is bright. I hope I hear back from the GT teacher soon. (Son was passed over for GT when he was first tested, too. The reason he was passed over, though, was because of his Aspergers--he couldn't do the testing in the time they wanted him too. His teacher and I were both upset--she had had him working on advanced stuff for several month's prior to the testing just to keep him from getting bored.)
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Oh listen to me! I sound like a mom who thinks her kids are all that and bag of chips. No really, I'm not like that; I just know my kids. We were at the school orientation and talking with son's teacher this year and one of the other mothers butted in and started talking about her boy and how smart he was and all the extra stuff they did for him at his last school, and how he was so smart that he didn't even need to listen to the teacher, and on and on. Hubby and I rolled our eyes at each other and later I told him that if I ever got like that, he should slap me upside the head.
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No, I think my kids' work and their personalities need to speak for themselves. I have told them a million times that if they work really hard and get a C, then I am even more proud of that C than I am of the A that they didn't have to do anything to get.
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Well, I ought to get going and get something else done. Work is finally settling down, but there is still stuff to do. Then it'll be time to go get kiddos from school.
Ciao for now.

Sunday Night

2009-02-08T18:36:00.002-07:00

There's a picture of last night's dinner--Fat Free Vegan's BBQ Seitan Ribz, fried spuds & onions (with ketchup), and steamed carrots. It was really good. Hubby even ate the ribz! I was amazed! Son ate 2, and daughter ate 1/2 (so what's new with her, right?).

For a snack last night we went to Dairy Queen--the family got blizzards and I got a "star-kiss" (it's kind of like a popcicle--the only thing there that's vegan). I ate half my star-kiss and then put it back in freezer and got out some leftover cabbage salad and ate that instead. Yeah, I'm weird.

Today's Food:

breakfast-coffee and banana oatmeal (again, what's new, right?)

lunch-ribz sandwich (ribz, bbq sauce, veganaise, and spinach on ezekial bread) and spuds & onions

snack-a Starbucks soy green tea latte and some pumpkin seeds

dinner--miso soup and asparagus (we pronounce it "Asper-grass". That came from me--I'm still weird.)

Daughter got her valentines and her valentine box done today. We also got her B-day invitations done. She also had a birthday party to go to for a friend from girl scouts.

Both kids also got both of their instruments practiced. Son was a bit moody today. I have heard (from a gal that had both sons and daughters) that sons are just as moody as they get into their teen years as daughters are. I think he is there. I would have sworn he was approaching TOM if he'd have been a girl.

We went to Barnes & Noble last night and I got a new book--Empress. So far, it's really good.

Jeez! I re-read what I've written and realize that my life is really boring. I guess that's OK. Whenever something exciting happens, it's usually not exciting in a good way.

Well, I'm off.

Ciao for now.

Saturday Check-in (work, food, family)

2009-02-07T15:45:00.003-07:00

Yesterday's food:
coffee and banana oatmeal for breakfast
Bean-loaf sandwich and cabbage salad for lunch
an apple and an almond yogurt pop for snack
Golden Corral for dinner
1/2 a bowl of pb oatmeal for snack
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We usually go out on Friday night. Hubby and kids wanted other things, but we finally settled on Golden Corral. I pretty much stuck to the salad bar--raw veggies w/ vinaigrette and some sunflower seeds. I did have 3 Brussels sprouts, 1/4 of a dry baked potato w/ cocktail sauce for dipping, and one bite of rice (I only had one bite because it tasted like it had been cooked in broth and I figured it was probably not veggie broth. For dessert, I put some chocolate sauce on the crushed peanuts. Good stuff. It wasn't great, but I had a lot of veggies and it was better than some of the other things the family suggested.
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I meant to write yesterday, but I messed up big-time at work. Posted a whole payroll in the wrong period and ended up on the phone with tech support hoping there was a way to undo it in one shot like I had messed it up in one shot. No such luck. So I ended up having to void and re-do each one individually. I really should have paid better attention. I kept apologizing to the office manager and she was like "we all do it". And I'm fine with that as long as "we all" is more like "you all". I'm a lot harder on myself than I am on anyone else. Oh well, I got through it and got it all fixed. I only missed getting one thing done that needed to get done yesterday and it's on top of my to-do list for Monday.
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After work, it was pick kids up from school, get my deposit ready for the bank, and take kids to lessons. Son is getting some pretty bad habits with his violin. His teacher wants me to help him out, but he doesn't practice as good when I try to help. (In fact, when he first started private lessons and his teacher was helping him with some stuff he asked me "Mom, why didn't you ever show me this?" And I was just stumped. "Uh, hello, I have been showing you, but you didn't think I knew what I was talking about.")
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We got a guitar case for daughter's guitar. Up until now, she has been toting it around in the cardboard box it came in. I have been so afraid that sooner or later it would get hurt--the box is really getting ratty. I am wondering if she is going to play both trumpet and guitar or if she is going to drop the trumpet.
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Anyway, then it was dinner, like I said above. Then to Fred Meyer to get a couple of things that Winco doesn't have. And then home to watch a movie--The Wild.
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This morning we were lazy--I paid bills, the kids both practiced their piano, and then we got around to getting ready. We finally left the house around 11:30-ish. We grabbed a Subway (veggie delight flatbread with no cheese and oil & vinegar) then went to Shopko (hubby socks), Costco and Winco (groceries), Zurchers (party stuff for daughter's birthday party, and then we came home. The veggie sandwich didn't hold me over very good so after putting the groceries away, I had a piece of bean-loaf, a piece of whole-wheat bread, and an apple. Then I laid down for a while. Now I'm up and going again.
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So today's food:
coffee and PB oatmeal for breakfast
veggie delight flatbread for lunch
bean-loaf, ww bread, apple for snack
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dinner is going to be:
BBQ Seitan Ribz from fat free vegan's blog, steamed carrots, and fried spuds & Onions.
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I keep trying to blog daily and I keep getting off track. It's kind of cathartic to keep a journal and I seem to do better with this one than a paper one, so I'll keep trying.
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I think I'll go read for a while (kids are doing doggie duty in the yard) and then it'll probably be time to get started on dinner.
Ciao for now.

It's Thursday

2009-02-05T12:07:00.003-07:00

I've been away for a while again. This time it's totally because of Terry Goodkind! I got to the climactic ending of his last book Confessor and couldn't put it down. I have to get my work done, I have to get certain things done around the house, and I have to take care of kids. But, when that is all done, I can read, blog, exercise, or whatever. The last 3 days have been READ!
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And now that the book is done, I'm going into fiction withdrawal. I can feel the shakes starting even as we speak. (Just kidding) I started in on Eragon again so I'll have that and Eldest re-read before Bresinger comes out in paperback (all by Christopher Paolini). But what I really want to do is go to the bookstore and park myself in the Sci-Fi aisle and read the first chapter of whatever catches my eye until I find another book (or series of books) that I can't put down.
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I've been having issues with my family eating my cooking. All I get is complaints. And my hubby tries to talk with the kids to get them to settle down and all he does is make it worse ("mom has a right to be however she wants to be" and "yeah, some of her food is not as good as we like, but mom can cook what she wants to cook"). HELLO--I"M RIGHT HERE AND I CAN HEAR YOU.
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I ended up in the car crying while the family finished dinner Tuesday night. When hubby came out to talk to me, I don't think he appreciated it when I said that I didn't care anymore--he can have a f-ing heart attack and daughter can weigh 300 pounds and I'm just sick of caring anymore. I'm not actually there yet, but at times I feel like I am beating my head against the wall and he's working against me. If I decide I don't care about him anymore, I still have to care about daughter--I pointed out to him that, yeah, we can be however we want, but it is our RESPONSIBILITY to do our best to help our kids be healthy. That's what I'm trying to do.
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For dinner last night, we had a bean loaf and steamed cabbage. Daughter asked if she had eaten enough to have candy (NO) but I told her to ask her dad. He, of course, asked me. I glared at him and told him that I was sick of worrying about it, he could do it.
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Sorry to rant. Maybe that's another reason why I haven't been blogging so much lately--I hate to just complain.
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OK, here's a grateful list to get me back on track:
1-I have a husband that I love and who loves me (even if he doesn't love himself enough to take care of himself)
2-I have two (for the most part) very good kids
3-I have a job that I enjoy that pays well
4-I have enough money for a roof over our heads, and food on our table, and to occasionally play.
5-I have a few friends that are the best friends that anyone could ever ask for
6-I have a healthy body and a bright creative mind (that one probably should have gone first)
7-I have pets that love me unconditionally and are willing to show me whenever I need a hug
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I need to keep remembering those things when I get to feeling low.
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Yesterday's food
coffee and banana oatmeal for breakfast
leftover curry over pasta for lunch
cabbage and bean-loaf for dinner
1-apple, 1-orange, 1-piece of bread w/ jelly, 1-almond yogurt pop for snacks (not at the same time--this was 3 snacks)
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Today's food
coffee and banana oatmeal for breakfast
steamed cabbage and bean-loaf sandwich for lunch
Dinner will be cauliflower and leftover bean-loaf
Snacks will probably be fruit and an almond yogurt pop
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Well, the pup is sleeping and I ought to get back to work. Isn't that a cute picture of her with her blanket?
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Ciao for now.

Superbowl party and revisiting "restaurant reviews"

2009-02-02T12:55:00.004-07:00

OK. First things first. I went back and read my restaurant review post and something stood out to me. So let me clear something up. This is regarding "A Taste of Thai". The restaurant owner is totally allowed to have his own point of view about his customers. I just think it is extremely poor business practice to make fun of some customers when other customers are withing hearing distance. Even if I hadn't been included in the group he was talking about, I still would have been offended thinking "gee, if he talks bad about other customers, what is he saying about me when I'm gone." So I'm not saying he's not entitled to his opinion, I'm just saying that he was exercising extremely poor judgement. Whew, that's out of the way.

Now on to the Superbowl Party! I don't really care for football and fortunately, hubby doesn't watch too much of it either, but we do usually watch this one game of the year. (Actually, I do more reading and paying attention to the commercials that I do watching football.) I made the cake pictured above, nut cheese, and guacamole (all vegan, of course).

Then we had a light dinner (bocca burger and broccoli--kids and hubby had chicken nuggets and broccoli) at the start of the game. Around half-time we had cake. And in the last half, we had popchips and nut cheese and guacamole.

The game was actually good. I watched more of it than I usually do.

And then, just before bed, I have to admit it, we had cake and ice cream (rice dream for me). Oh well.

So today is going pretty good. I'm having a hard time getting my mind around a spreadsheet I need to get done. I might get it about half done today, but it's going slow.

For food, I had coffee and banana oatmeal for breakfast and spinach salad and home-made whole wheat/oat flour bread w/ margarine. I was going to have a sandwich and then I realized about 11:00 that I had no bread so I made the whole wheat quick bread (I posted a recipe here a while back) and used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 oat flour. It came out really good. I didn't even bother with the sandwich fixings it was so good.

I'm going to make a curry tonight. I'll finally try that curry paste I got at the Asian food market last week.

Well I'm off again.

Ciao for now.

A Saturday Drive

2009-02-02T08:54:00.003-07:00

So anyway, Saturday, we got things done around the house in the morning and decided to take a drive. It was overcast at home and I was craving sunlight so we headed north. We didn't even leave the house until about noon and then we got back home around 8:00.
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We went to Ketchum and ate at the cafe I mentioned in my last post--yum! Then headed back to Timmerman hill and over to Fairfield. We got into the wind by Fairfield and had snow drifting over the roads. It was overcast there, but the rest of the day, we were in sun. Then we went on over to Mountain home and headed back towards home on the freeway. We turned off the freeway by Glens Ferry and went around by King Hill. Just past King Hill we saw hundreds of deer and probably half that many antelope (winter range).
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See the picture above about the petrified watermelons? That's right there by where we saw the deer. In the fields there are these watermelon sized boulders--all nice and rounded. They were dropped by the Bonneville flood (eons ago) and somewhere around the time when my hubby was a kid, the Stinker Station put that sign there and it's still there. Kind of funny, huh?
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So anyway, from there we went through Bliss, down to Hagerman, back up to Wendell, and back on the freeway to home.
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It was a lot of driving, but it was so nice to be in the sunshine. Sometimes, this time of year, especially, I crave it. I feel like if I don't get some, I'll just have to scream.
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So anyway,
Ciao for now.

Restaurant Reviews--The good and the bad

2009-02-02T08:36:00.003-07:00

The Bad
Friday night we went to one of my favorite Thai places. A Taste of Thai in Twin Falls, Idaho. I am giving you the name and location so you can boycott them. The food was excellent and the service was really good, so why boycott them? because the owner is a an Ass.
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As we were sitting there eating dinner, he notices some friends of his at the booth right behind me and goes over to visit. He is talking quite loudly and he starts in on customers who ask for chopsticks. (I ask for chopsticks at any restaurant that has them because I enjoy using them.) He goes on about "And these people ask for chopstick and I'm like 'give me a break--what do you think we are? Chinese? I've never been to China' I don't mind when they ask for them with noodles because we kind of stole noodles from China anyway, but when they ask for chopsticks with a curry or stir-fry! I mean really!"
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He was being very loud and continued to go on and on. The waitress came over and asked how everything was and I told her that it was kind of hard to eat with him over there wragging on customers that use chopsticks. He heard me and started in that he was just visiting with his friends and that he wasn't talking about me, he was talking about someone else. I pointed out that I am a customer who asked for chopsticks and he said he didn't know I had asked for them and he was just visiting with his friends.
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Anyway, I felt bad for the waitress who was stuck in the middle of that. The end of it was that we didn't have to pay for dinner and the owner (who by the way was drunk and belligerent the whole time) said he didn't care if we never came back.
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Guess what? We won't ever go back there. So we only ended up getting half a dinner, but we got it for the price of the tip.
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The Good
On Saturday, we took a drive. (I'll tell you about that in my next post.) We went to a raw vegan place in Ketchum, Idaho called Glow Live Foods Cafe. It was really good but pricey (everything in Ketchum is, though.) I had a quinoa, veggie, and Indian seasonings bowl (I don't think the quinoa was raw, though) Hubby and kids had the pizza (nut cheese, tomatoes, and klamata olives on sprouted bread). The bread wasn't raw either. The kids also shared a banana and chocolate hemp milk smoothie. We got desserts too--Macaroons (excellent), date ball (mine are better), banana bark (excellent), raspberry buckwheat crispy bar (better at home with soy milk over it--then excellent).
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My only thing on this place was that they should have made a point of noting what items were not raw since they hold themselves out to be a raw foods cafe (the hemp milk was noted in the menu, the bread I asked about because I was expecting a dehydrator bread, and the quinoa was obviously cooked.)
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Well that's it for restaurant reviews.
Ciao for now.

I'm back!

2009-01-30T12:35:00.003-07:00

Oh my heavens, I feel like I dropped off the side of the world (blog-wise anyway). I have been really busy this week with work and after being on the computer all day, I haven't wanted to at night.
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Other than being tired, I've had a good week, though. Weight wise, I'm finally back in my range! Yeah, it took almost a month to get myself straight after the holidays, but I am there, now. And I am staying there.
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Son is home sick again today. I swear, he could get a virus in his left pinkie toe and it would make him puke! I can't send him to school puking, so he stays home.
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Daughter is looking forward to her birthday. Her birthday dress, leggings, and hat were delivered today (she picked them out from the Hanna Andersson catalog). I think she'll look cute. Plus, as a bonus, I think the leggings will match her other Hanna dress so she can still wear it even though it's starting to get too short for her.
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Hubby might be home early today--he had to work a while last night and then had to go in an hour early this morning, so he might get off early. If he does, we'll go grocery shopping before music lessons (son is seeming to be fine now so I'm not sure if I'm going to cancel his violin lesson or not).
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I made some of Ani Phyo's Almond yogurt and froze it in little Dixie cups with Popsicle handles and now I have almond freezer pops. Yummy! Son didn't like them, he said they were "too almondy" (duh, what did you expect?).
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An Asian food market moved from the dingy little building they were in to a new building so hubby and I went in while kiddos were at piano lessons on Monday. I bought some miso paste and some yellow curry paste and some noodles. Tuesday we had home-made miso soup--so good. I wasn't aware that a lot of the curry pastes have "shrimp paste" in them--the yellow curry paste was the only vegan one they had. Also, some of their miso pastes had monato (fish) in them. I had to look for a vegan one of those, too. Now I wonder if I am getting fish when I get miso soup at Japanese restaurants.
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I was going to make curry last night, but we had a couple of errands to do before hubby went back to work so we grabbed a burrito on the run--rice and bean burrito with added lettuce and green salsa.
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Well, how's that for a whole week in a hurry. I'll try to get on more regularly, I think I'm about done with the end of year work rush. (I hope, I hope, I hope.)
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I don't know what's going on this weekend yet, I hope it includes a lot of sleep.
Ciao for now.

I made it to Friday

2009-01-23T12:42:00.002-07:00

Yesterday's food-coffee and oatmeal for breakfast; salad and rice & beans for lunch; 3 graham crackers, an apple, and a cup of brewed chocolate for snack; rice & beans and broccoli for dinner; 1 banana and one graham cracker dipped in chocolate sauce for snack. Pretty good day.
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Let me start by saying that my rice & beans were a hit. Daughter picked out the beans and at them but not the rice (she said the rice tasted like the beans--well, yeah, they were cooked together), but other than that..... Son had two servings as a matter of fact.
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I started out today by e-mailing everyone I know trying to get them to buy Girl Scout cookies. Daughter is selling them and we were supposed to have turned the pre-orders in last night; silly us, we hadn't even sold one single box, yet. Her goal is 100 boxes! I mean really, give me a break! How is a little girl supposed to sell 100 boxes of cookies? Answer--she's not; mommy and daddy will sell 100 boxes of cookies so she will feel like she made her goal.
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May I just say that I HATE having to pester people to get them to buy whatever crap the organization decides it will sell for a fundraiser. I would rather just give the organization a check than run around trying to get people to buy crap food or crap trinkets or crap whatever. I won't eat them, why should I try to sell them? It's the same way when my kids were selling cookie dough for their school--we didn't sell a single tub this year. Oh well, enough complaining. (Yes, I do have an attitude about that. I am an introvert and do not do "selling" well. Although hubby points it out when, every once in a while, I do a great job selling something I believe in--like my vegan lifestyle, or my Vita-mix, or whatever.)
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So I lose one kid tonight and gain another. Son is going up camping with scouts (I am so uptight about that!) And daughter is having a friend sleep over (I am not excited that). I'm going to get hubby and the girls a pizza and I'll have the rest of my rice & beans and whatever else I see in the fridge that looks good.
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Today had been (food-wise) coffee and oatmeal for breakfast, and a babaganoush pita sandwich with lots of veggies.
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Well, I had better get back to work. Have a great weekend.
Ciao for now.

Beans and Rice

2009-01-22T13:25:00.003-07:00

Just real quick here--I was looking at CCV's blog and saw her pasta and decided I'd do pasta for dinner. So I figured I go put on the beans and rice (one of the advantages to working from home) and I'd have them for lunch. Well, they came out so good that we are having beans and rice for dinner. Here's my recipe: Beans and Rice (6 good size servings)
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2 and 1/2 cups water
1 cup brown rice
1 can of beans of your choice-liquid and all (choose a firm sort like kidneys)
1 tablespoon of garlic powder
1/4 cup dried onion pieces
1 teaspoon chili powder
salt to taste
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add all of the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. reduce the heat and simmer for 45-60 minutes (until the rice is done and it is as soupy or dry as you want it).
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Note--I use the liquid off the canned beans and then less salt. If you drain and rinse your beans you will need to increase the amount of water you use and the amount of salt. Also, I had a tiny bit of tomato sauce in the fridge (like less than a quarter of one of those little bitty cans) so I just poured that in, too.
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Well, I'm off again.
Ciao for now.

A better day

2009-01-22T09:28:00.002-07:00

Hey CCV! Little Girl says thanks for the compliment on her eyes. (Now you've given her a big head--I'll probably never hear the end of it. Oh well.)
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So yesterday went better:
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Coffee and Almond Butter/jelly sandwich for breakfast
tofu scramble and salad for lunch
oatmeal for a snack (I was starving by 2:30)
Tofurkey sausage, broccoli, and salad for dinner
still hungry after dinner so had a banana
Salad, 3 graham crackers and 1/2 cup of soy milk for snack.
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I am also feeling happier again. I really think it's my cycle--Monday's snack attack, Tuesday's really bad mood, Wednesday's sort of bad mood, today feeling back to myself. Yeah, I think I'm cycling.
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This morning, daughter and I had a good old game of "Yankee Doodle". In case you don't know how to play, the first person sings "Yankee Doodle went to town, riding on a (fill in the blank--the stranger, the better)". And the next person has to complete the song. Our last round was "Yankee Doodle went to town; riding on a tree stump; It didn't go very fast or far, so Yankee had to ju-ump." I'm really good at that game.
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Yeah, I'm a weird mom. But we have fun.
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I think we're going to have rice and beans for dinner tonight. We have leftover steamed broccoli from last night so If I make some rice and beans, we'll have a good old meal.
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Well I've got to get to work. By the way, we are under an inversion and have been for the last week or more. Our skies are grey and our temps are cold. It's supposed to rain today--I'm hoping it does so we'll get this washed out. I always feel better when the weather at least "looks" pretty outside.
Ciao for now.

I made it to Wednesday

2009-01-21T12:28:00.004-07:00

Puppy had a play date this morning. Well, not really. I have a friend who has a grooming shop so I took Little Girl in this morning to get her sharp puppy claws trimmed. After that ordeal (she cried like we were killing her at one point), I let her down to play with my friend's business partner's dog (did that make sense?). Anyway, this other dog is like half her size and just as much energy. She had a ball and it was so fun to watch. She may even want to get her toenails trimmed just so she can go play.

So yesterday continued to be bit of a sucky day. I felt bad and just worthless. I had oatmeal and coffee for breakfast, sauteed veggies and a pb-agave-banana sandwich for lunch, a wedge of purple cabbage for snack, a huge salad with homemade vinaigrette and tofu scramble for dinner, and an apple before bed. I also exercised a little bit.

Last night, hubby was helping with dinner. I turned to put my dressing on my salad and he hadn't dished me one up--he had three bowls out, one for son, one for daughter, and one for him. He completely forgot about me. How's that for a loved one making you feel invisible?

I still feel a little down today, but visiting with my friend helped. I had a Almond Butter and jelly sandwich and coffee for breakfast; and salad and tofu scramble for lunch. I'll try to get a bit more exercise in today, as well.

I also got on the scale today. I wanted to lose a pound this last week, right? Well, I gained one instead. Between the binge on Monday and the extra snacking over the weekend, I gained. I am resolved to get those 3 pounds back off--I know three pounds is not the end of the world, but I am NOT going to have worked so hard to lose all that weight only to gain it back; and 3 pounds is the start of that road.

So yesterday I mentioned that I was uptight about son going camping. I talked to the scoutmaster's wife--she said that if it weren't for her hubby going, she probably wouldn't let her son go. She's a worry wart like me. But she said that she knows how her hubby is with all of the kids and knows he'll watch over them really closely. They will have suburbans up there so they can get in and get warm if needed and they will have hand/foot warmers and heaters, too. I know I have to let him go sometime. I'm just afraid that if I let go, something will happen and I won't have him or he'll be hurt.

Son accused me of trying to scare him out of not wanting to go. I told him that I was just a worry wart and I wasn't going to smile and pretend I was fine with it when I wasn't. I told him that if he didn't want me fussing, he should quit talking about it. I also told him that I would be fine Saturday afternoon when he walked through our door.

UPS came and brought daughter's B-day present today! An American Girl doll! I unpacked the box to check the contents and wanted to play with her. Alas, I can't. I put it back in the box and put it away. I can't wait to play with it after she opens, it though ;-)

Well, I guess I ought to go and at least pretend to do something constructive. (Yeah, that's the kind of day it is--better than yesterday, though.)

Ciao for now.

A rough day

2009-01-20T09:42:00.003-07:00

Do you ever have one of those days? I'm in one. There are several things going on and with everything, I feel like I just can't win.

First of all, I know I shouldn't obsess about my weight, but I do. I lost the weight and I am NOT going back to being fat. It's just not happening. That being said, I had a really bad afternoon yesterday--eating wise. I was craving chocolate and I've found that if I don't give in to my cravings in some form, then I go overboard at some point. So anyway, I made a little bit of chocolate sauce (cocoa powder and agave nectar) and dipped a banana it in. (ok so far) I had just a little bit of sauce left over so I dipped some crackers in it to finish off the chocolate. (still ok cuz I only had a few crackers.

Then, I went back to work and thought I was doing ok until it hit me--I finished off daughter's leftover french fries in the fridge, the rest of the ice cream in the freezer (only about 1/2 cup left, thank goodness) and a rice crispy treat. I felt just gross--the fries weren't very good; the ice cream was was real and it tends to give me a stomach ache; and rice crispy treats are made with marshmallow which is made with gelatin from animal bones which makes me nauseous. And the worst part is that I kept eating even though I felt sick.

I wonder if it had to do with my cycle (a friend once suggested it might and I don't have my TOM thanks to the Mirena IUD but I probably still do cycle). I do know that that kind of out of control eating is what got me fat in the first place.

After I got through that, I did better. Veggie Delight (mixed sauteed veggies and tofu w/ steamed rice) at a restaurant for dinner (I was feeling bad and didn't want to cook) and an apple for bedtime snack.

I really need to get a handle on this. I hate that I get in these eating binges and can't seem to stop myself.

Second, I was going through son's agenda book last night and see an assignment on which he really didn't get a very good grade. He had missed only one point on the rest of it, but then hadn't even done a whole section (it was a research paper). I ask him what's going on and get that he didn't know it was part of the paper because he was gone when it was assigned--he's been sick, he has been out for ortho appointments, and he leaves the classroom for GT.

So I e-mailed his teacher. After getting his teacher's response, I think it's a bit of both of their faults. Son needs to take the initiative and ASK what he missed when he gets back, not just assume that nothing was missed. Teacher needs to make sure son is understanding all parts of the assignment.

I don't want my son to get any special attention, but he does have aspergers and all too often, he gets to focusing on one thing to the exclusion of all else. I think the teacher should have son paraphrase or even write things back to be sure he got everything.

I just hate my son not doing well because of not getting all of the information. And don't get me wrong--I am more proud of a C that was worked for than I am of an A that was handed out. I try to let my kids know that I expect them to do the best they can. And if they have done their best, I'm on top of the world.

I had to go in and talk to one teacher regarding reading. Son was reading all the time--catalogs, encyclopedias, non-fiction books. He was supposed to be taking AR tests on fiction books for a grade. I told his teacher that as long as he was reading, I was happy. That I didn't think reading should be turned into a chore by forcing it--I think forced reading as children is why a lot of adults dislike reading now. I told her that since I knew he was reading and knew that he could read, I would support him even if he got a bad reading grade. He ended up getting enough points to get a good grade, that's not the point.

I guess I'm just saying that as long as my kids are doing their best and trying and learning, I will back them up 100% no matter what.

Third, some issues with work. Don't really want to go into them.

Anyway, everything has me feeling really low today.

I've had coffee and oatmeal to eat so far. I have left over stir-fried veggies that I plan on having for lunch; probably with a sandwich. I'll have fruit for a snack. I'll figure out something good for dinner. And I'll drink lots of water. For right now, I'm going to get back to work and put on some music, and try to be positive.

Wish me luck.

Ciao for now.

Weekend, camping concerns, money woes, etc.

2009-01-19T12:24:00.004-07:00

Well, I guess I'll start with the food. Friday night was a tofu scramble (heavy on the sweet potato, light on the tofu) and steamed broccoli. That's it below. Then on Saturday, we ended up going to Boise. I had the leftover tofu scramble and coffee for breakfast. A half nectarine and some pumpkin seeds on the way up. A salad (no cheese, no croutons) with vinaigrette and sweet potato fries for lunch (did the best I could at the restaurant). An apple and Almond butter/jelly sandwich for snack, and a Subway veggie delite sandwich for dinner. Late, when we got home, I had some Almond yogurt (from Ani's Raw Kitchen).
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Sunday, I had oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. A zucchini salad with Tahini vinaigrette (home made) and a Seitan, veganaise, on whole wheat sandwich. I had ww tortilla and tangelo for a snack. Had teriyaki stir fried veggies and teriyaki tofu for dinner. Had almond yogurt and pumpkin bread for a snack.
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Today I've had coffee and oatmeal for breakfast ,and zucchini salad and almond butter/jelly on ww tortilla for lunch.
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Whew. Looking back, I did more snacking that usual. I need to start watching that better. Or make sure I truly am hungry when I snack. I have a habit of snacking out of boredom or habit--not good.
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So anyway, we went to Boise on Saturday. Kids needed pants and we wanted to go ice-skating. Ice Skating was a blast! I have to say, though that it's a good thing my daughter doesn't skate very good because it gives me an excuse to hug the wall too--I have to stay close to help her, don't you know.
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When we went to the Boise mall to get clothes for the kids, I was amazed at the state of the stores. We saw discounts of up to 90% off. And stores that usually don't show much in the way of recession signs, were a lot emptier than usual. Then, yesterday, we went to the mall here, I saw the same thing. It's getting a little scary. (Although at one store that was going out of business, I got two pair of jeans--one cost $3.30, the other $3.50.)
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Son is going camping this weekend with scouts. I'm really a bit uptight about it. It's going to be in the teens, temperature wise and it's just 12 and 13 year-old boys and the scout leaders. We ended up shelling out $80 bucks to get son a good sleeping bag and mat to try to avoid hypothermia. What do kids do that can't afford to do that? (We couldn't afford to do that, but did it anyway.) I think I'll call the scout leader's wife and ask her if she would let her son go if his dad wasn't going to be there with him.
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I have to take the big puppies in for shots this afternoon. Another thing that has to be done that we can't afford.
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I keep telling myself that we will get through all of this.
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Well, I had better get back to work, I actually have quite a bit to get accomplished this afternoon.
Ciao for now.

Too many words, not enough pics

2009-01-16T13:22:00.001-07:00

Daughter and hubby at Old Faithful last summer--waiting for it to erupt

Son at Old Faithful last summer--playing "Karate Kid" while waiting for it to erupt

It's Friday again

2009-01-16T13:05:00.002-07:00

So last night for dinner we had left-overs. There was rice, curry veggies, biscuits, and gravy. And then for a snack I had a wedge of purple cabbage (weird, I know, but I really like it) and a nectarine.
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Today, I had my cup of coffee with soy milk and a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast and then went to a Mexican place for lunch where I had a bean burrito, rice, and a salad.
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I went out to lunch today because hubby is home and he took me. He's home because he has to work the night shift tonight (not really night shift, just 6 pm until 2 am--unless they get done quicker). The kids have half a day of school today (end of the semester) so he's off picking them up right now and then he'll be taking a nap.
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Fortunately, I'm pretty much done with work for today. It would be awfully hard to keep them quiet so he could sleep and still work. It seems like, even though they are big enough to take care of themselves, if mom or dad are around, they need to keep us involved. I mean, it's really a good thing--just frustrating when I'm trying to concentrate.
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Wednesday, I took a video out to the hospital to a gal I used to work with there. We did it right after son's ortho appointment so it was just him and me. She works on the 5th floor. I asked son if he was up to taking the stairs; he was. So we did stairs up to the 5th floor, down to the basement, and back up to the first floor. I wasn't nearly as winded as I thought I would be. I forget that I'm in a lot better shape than I used to be.
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I'm really concerned about daughter. I doubt she'd have been able to do the stairs. I talked to hubby today at lunch about how we needed to be good examples to her. He just doesn't understand that his eating, his inactivity, and his attitude toward his health is rubbing off on her. His response was to tell me that he's not drinking as much milk as he used to (he used to go through almost a gallon a day by himself) and that he only had 3 spoons of sugar in his coffee today instead of 8. (Oh my gosh! I had no idea he usually put 8 spoons of sugar in. And he was completely serious--he wasn't pulling my leg!)
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I'm afraid that it's going to take a heart attack or something before he gets the idea that his health is his responsibility. His daughter's health is our responsibility, but I can't do it alone.
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Son put his pants on today and I noticed a hole in the butt--not really a hole, but it was threadbare under the pocket. He has another pair that I've already patched there. And all of his pants are getting to be high waters. Daughter needs new pants, too. I think we need to go shopping this weekend. Can't send my kids to school naked, now can I?
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Since I'll have the kids at lessons (son-violin, daughter-trumpet) when hubby has to go to work tonight, I'll have to figure out something for dinner for the three of us. I was thinking maybe a tofu scramble and zucchini. Son would like it, but daughter wouldn't.
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Well, I think I'm going to quit typing now and look through some blogs. I haven't been able to keep up very good lately--I've been too busy with work.
Ciao for now.

Comfort food.and ramblings on becoming vegan

2009-01-15T14:48:00.004-07:00

Hi, all.
I've got just a couple of minutes to post here. Tuesday's biscuits left me wanting more so last night I made more. I also made "sausage" gravy out of Gimme Lean Sausage, olive oil, flour, and soy milk. So we had biscuits and gravy--the ultimate in comfort food. Yum, Yum.
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I had meetings all day at work--three in a row. I think we got a bit accomplished. Now I need to type up notes and get them to the office manager so we can review them together.
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I was reading another blog where a commenter posted about maybe being vegan came about as a result of an eating disorder. I feel that totally applied to me. My (self-diagnosed) eating disorder, though, is overeating--sometimes uncontrollably. It was through attempting to control a lifetime of binge eating and eating crap that I came to eating vegan--a friend recommended Skinny Bitch, and then I did some more research, and I changed.
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So basically what I'm saying is: Who cares how one comes to being a vegan. The point is that it is a good, healthy, sustainable lifestyle. It's good for health. It's good for our planet. And it's good for all of the other living creatures on the planet. The fact that some of us may have come to it in ways that others don't think should have led us there does not negate the fact that now we are here. And now we are (or are on our way to being) healthy and compassionate members of this planet.
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Like I said, I only had a few minutes. Now they're up.
Ciao for now.
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disclaimer--the views represented on this blog do not necessarily represent the views of the world at large. But they are my views.

Still running like crazy

2009-01-14T11:34:00.007-07:00

"Bat Dog...na-na na-na na-na na-na.....Bat Dog!" (anyone remember the batman theme?)
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Hey, I'm still here. I have been so busy these last couple of weeks; it's just crazy. I thought I'd have time to write at lunch-time, like usual, but it hasn't been working out that way.

Part of it is usual end-of year accounting stuff, part of it is "people" issues, part of it is family issues.

I'll start with my weight since it is so much on my mind right now. I stayed the same last week. And since I didn't really eat or exercise well enough to lose weight and I had "brownie issues" over the weekend, I can't really complain. I am only 2 pounds over my range, so It's not a huge deal. But I do have to deal with it now before it's 5 pounds and then 10 pounds and then 130 pounds. So I am going to do better this week. I promise. One pound a week is good with me and that's what I'm shooting for.

I'll go back to food now. Sunday night, I made the kids eat the rest of the brownies--no more of those nasty things in the house.

So Monday was good. I had lunch at a Thai place with a friend--nothing like a good spicy tofu curry. And then for dinner, I made VegNews' baked macaroni and cheese. It was so good. Who'd have thought that potatoes, onion, carrots, almonds (I subbed those for the cashews), mustard, salt, and paprika (I think that was all) would make such a cheesy tasting sauce. Even hubby ate it and liked it. (Daughter didn't like it because it wasn't Kraft but she ate 2 big servings of broccoli to make up for not eating the macaroni so I was totally good with it.) We will defiantly do that recipe again.

Yesterday, I had oatmeal for breakfast; broccoli and left over mac & cheese for lunch; and I did a pea and potato curry for dinner. I was rather surprised that hubby said he liked that one, too. Daughter picked out the potatoes and dipped them in ketchup. Son didn't eat much, but he had been home sick with a stomach ache (puking all night Monday night/Tuesday morning) so I didn't worry about him.

And speaking of oatmeal, I found a cool, quick way to make it. I like the steel-cut oats but then take too long to cook and I don't like cooking them over the stove. So here is what I did (three mornings in a row now, so it can't be too bad):

quick Steel-cut oats

1 part steel cut oats

4 parts liquid (I use 1 part soy milk and 3 parts water)

3 dates

put the above in the vitamix and blend. Pour into a microwave safe bowl and nuke for 90 seconds-stirring at 30 and 60 seconds. Stir and eat!

The texture is different--you don't have the distinguishable oats in it, but it sure tastes yummy and it's so easy.

Today, I had oatmeal for breakfast, and left-over curry for lunch. I'm not sure what snack and dinner will bring--probably fruit for a snack and I don't know what for dinner.

Also, last night, I was reading my book (Terry Goodkind-Chainfire. I love the Sword of Truth series!) and Zedd had stew and biscuits. I got a hankering for a good baking powder biscuit and it wouldn't go away! So I made up a batch and they were so good. I hadn't made them in so long that I had to look up how hot to cook them. (I've made them so often that I just do it by feel more than by recipe, actually.)

Biscuits

flour

coconut oil (always used Crisco before but changed to coconut cuz it's not hydrogenated--it's solid at room temperature naturally)

salt

turbinado

soy milk

Add flour (2 cups, maybe?), a pinch of salt, approximately 1 heaped tablespoon of baking powder and 1 tablespoon of sugar to a bowl, cut in enough coconut oil to make coarse crumbles--don't over mix. Add in soy milk slowly, stirring as you go just until it comes together as a dough--DON'T OVER MIX. Shape into biscuits with your hands and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 18-20 minutes.

These are crumbly so I usually put the fillings on top instead of trying to break it open and put fillings inside. They are so good with jelly. and good in soup. And if you like English scones, add more sugar with the flour and top by brushing with soy milk and putting sugar sprinkles on before baking. In fact, I have an "Eggnog Scone" recipe that is just about this except it has Cinnamon and eggnog--I need to make it with Cinnamon and soynog. Oh gosh. I want more biscuits!

The puppy has a new game--it's hilarious to watch! She gets a toy in her mouth and then bats a ball around with her paws. And she is a fetching fool. Right now, she's asleep--a good way to have her.

Well, I've got to go now. Back to work.

Ciao for now.

Wrap Up

2009-01-11T13:32:00.002-07:00

Well, I've been away for a few days. I guess I had better do a wrap up to get caught up. First of all, I'm typing on my kid's laptop instead of the big machine that I usually use. This is easier--I can sit in the comfy chair with it on my lap. But the problem is that the keyboard isn't as sensitive as my regular one so I tend to miss spaces or capital letter here and there. Forgive the errors if I don't catch them.
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Thursday, like I said last time, I had to go up to the office--2 hours away. The gals up there seem to think that I'm difficult and can only eat at the one place in town that has tofu on the menu--a Chinese place. So we eat there every time I go up. It's good, don't get me wrong, I'd just like to do something different once in a while. (I'd love to go to the raw vegan cafe up there, but they say they won't eat there.) I did get a lot done--year end closing went smoothly this year.
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Friday, had not much to note. I can't remember much of note to write about so I guess I'll leave it there.
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Saturday--we did a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of shopping--over $200 worth. We were out of absolutely everything! And we hadn't had money to re-stock so, since I got paid, we stocked up. I hate shopping with my husband, but what was I to do? I didn't feel very good, either. I was dizzy, had a sore throat and a headache. I took a nap--it didn't help.
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OK, now we are to today. We had to clean the house--yuck. My aunt cleans my house for me every other week, usually, but my uncle had surgery on his knee so she hasn't been doing it for a couple of times. My house really needed cleaning. I had daughter vacuum, son dust, hubby sweep and mop, and I did the bathroom. (Then I went around and touched up anything that I knew would drive me nuts later.) I paid each of the kids $3.
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My uncle has surgery, like I said. I am making a pot of butternut squash soup to take over to them for supper tonight. Apparently, he had trouble with his blood sugars while he was in the hospital. My aunt said that since I was on my "Diet", I'd know what kind of stuff I could make that would be OK for him. OK--I'm not on a DIET. This is how I eat.
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But speaking of that, I have been really bad lately. Hubby bought a big tub of brownies that I can't seem to keep my hands off of. (They have egg and even though I know I'm eating baby chicken embryos--or at the very least blighted chicken ovum from cruelly abused hens--I can't seem to keep my hands off of them. GROSS) I got on my hubby earlier today saying that none of us in this house need that sh*# and that if he feels he absolutely has to have some, he needs to get one serving's worth so they will be gone. He replied that he thought they were disappearing OK. I replied with telling him that was the point--his fat A*# wife was eating them and that I didn't need them or want them.
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I feel like he sabotages me. He wants me to be fat and miserable so I'll be in the same sorry state as he is. He doesn't seem to care that our daughter is heading for the same fat, sorry state as well. I really think that I need to make an appointment with a nutritionist and talk to her about daughter. I grew up fat and miserable. I don't want the same for her.
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Oh, one thing from Friday that I just remembered. I had lunch with the gals that I used to work with at the hospital. One of them is the one that recommended the book that led to me going vegan. Anyway, one of the other gals asked if we were still on our "diet". We both said, it's not so much a diet as just how we are now. And she started talking about how her and her new hubby started doing soy and cutting out all dairy because she's allergic. So anyway, she said that now she's just like us except that they eat meat. News Flash! That's not anything like us. We don't kill animals.
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Sorry. Little rant there. I guess I've been doing that a lot this post. I guess I had better give it up and do some more tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be in a better mood. My throat still hurts a bit so maybe I'm still off due to a bug. And, more likely, I'm off because of all the crap brownies I've been eating. I'll try to shape up here.
Ciao for now.
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(Just did a spell-check; I sure used "OK" a lot in this post. Sorry if that bugs anyone. I say that because hubby says "you know" about 25 time per minute and it drives me bats. I don't want to be the cause of anybody else's bats being on loose.)

The Snow's gone

2009-01-07T10:37:00.002-07:00

By the way, I forgot to mention it. All that snow we had on Monday is gone! It was warm and melty yesterday, and it rained some. The it's warm again today. No Snow!
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So I spent all that time moving snow on Monday for nothing.
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I'm glad it's getting nice though. Tomorrow I have to go up to the company office--about 2 hours up the road. I hate driving on bad roads so I'm glad we've got the melting going on.
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Ciao for now (again)

Last night's dinner and ramblings about my weight

2009-01-07T10:14:00.004-07:00

There is a picture of last night's dinner--doesn't look to appetizing, but it was good. Fried eggplant and mushroom gravy over mashed potatoes. Here's what I did:
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Eggplant:
slice an eggplant into rounds (I left the skin on). Dip each slice in a cornstarch-soy milk slurry and then dredge in flour. Fry in a little olive oil--a few minutes on each side.
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Mashed potatoes:
Come on, you can figure that one out.
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Mushroom Gravy:
saute sliced mushrooms in a little bit of vegan margarine until they are as done as you'd like them (do this in a sauce pan so you don't have to change pans). Add 3 cups (about) of vegetable broth and bring back to a boil. Mix 3 tablespoons (about) of cornstarch and 1 cup of water in a shaker jar. Slowly stir the cornstarch/water mixture into the boiling mushroom/broth mixture and stir until it comes back to a boil and then thickens.
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Assembly:
Put the potatoes on a plate, put a couple of slices of eggplant on the potatoes, put gravy over the whole mess.
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For breakfast today, I had crock pot oatmeal and put some date-almond-soy milk on it. For lunch I'll have a Almond butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat and a piece of baked sweet potato (the only fresh veggie I have left in the house). For a snack, I'll probably do a pumpkin and strawberry smoothie since I have both of those in the freezer. And for dinner, I got out some sweet potato mash (frozen leftovers from Thanksgiving) and some green beans (frozen leftovers from summer) and then I'll warm up the leftover gravy (from last night) and the leftover bean loaf (from Monday). How's that for a leftover meal?
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Weight
I know I shouldn't obsess over this but I do. I have lost 130 pounds and i don't want to blow it. I've lost the weight twice before in my life and both times it came back. But also, both times, I lost the weight for a specific purpose so of course when that purpose was fulfilled, I quit being vigilant and went back to my old habits. Of course the weight came back. The first time, I lost the weight for high school--I got out of high school and gained. The second time, I lost the weight because we were having trouble getting pregnant--I got pregnant and gained.
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This time I lost the weight for more permanent reasons--my health, my life, my children. I have to be vigilant! Admittedly, it's a lot easier to maintain when I eat vegan (although I have found I can make some pretty naughty vegan treats) and put an emphasis on "healthy".
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As of last Wednesday (12-31-08) I had gained 6.5 pounds over the holiday season. As of this morning, I am only up 2 pounds from the top of my range. (I know I didn't lose 4.5 pounds in one week--I didn't eat that sparingly and I didn't exercise that much--so I'm guessing I was retaining water, too.) Only 2 more pounds to get back to my range.
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By the way, I decided on my "range" because I know how wildly my weight fluctuates from day to day--a range is easier to watch than a set number. I think I'd really obsess over a set number because I would be off from it more often than I'd be on. My range is actually a little below my goal weight, but I've found it pretty easy to maintain (thus far, anyway) within that range. My BMI is withing "normal" but a little bit above "optimal". I feel good when I'm in that range and like I said, it's pretty easy to maintain there, so that's where I want to stay.
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We watched "biggest loser" last night. I am so glad I'm not there anymore. I don't want to ever go back there again.
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Well, I really need to get back to work now,
Ciao for now

My Dad Fell Moving Snow

2009-01-06T12:35:00.003-07:00

I mentioned yesterday that it had been snowing all day. Well, I wasn't the only one having to move snow (I moved snow so I could take kids to school and again before I could pick them up). My dad went out to move the snow at his place and fell on some ice. He landed on his backside and put his left hand down so hit it hard too. He fell the same way about a week ago. His wrist is probably broken, but he won't go get it checked out. (A retired doctor is the worst patient.)
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So anyway, he fell yesterday morning, so I told Mom that after we dropped the kids off at piano lessons, hubby and I would come clean up their snow.
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The kids were wanting to go to the Y to play after piano so we had dinner at 4:15. Were at piano at 5:00. Cleaned snow from my folk's place from 5:15 - 6. Got home from piano at 6:30, and were at the Y at 7:00. The kids played in the kid's room--I love that they exercise in the guise of playing games. Hubby and I did the circuit room, the I did the abs machine and the stationary bike while he did the treadmill. So the whole family got about 50 minutes worth of exercise in. Yeah, us!
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I was making my bean loaf last night and opened a can of navy beans and there was a big piece of meat on top of the beans--yuck. The last time we were buying beans, hubby asked if we could do navy beans (I like garbanzos, kidneys, and black). I told him sure so he threw a couple of cans in the cart. He picked them out and I didn't look at the label--it said "flavored with slab bacon"--GROSS. So I put the beans in a container and told them they were his lunch today; he didn't take them with him so I guess he'll have to eat them tomorrow.
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So anyway, I used my new Christmas present for the first time last night--my food processor. I didn't like the way it chopped the veggies, but that's probably because I'm old fashioned. It would probably be good if I had 25 zucchinis to do or something. I did like the way it mixed everything together for the bean loaf, though. And the next time I get around to making date balls, I'll really put it through it's paces.
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We are out of basically everything (including money--that's why we're out of everything else) so I need to figure out what I can do for dinner with one eggplant and some mushrooms. I was thinking about either an eggplant "stoganoff" or fried eggplant with mushroom gravy. Probably either way, it will be with rice or over bread because I don't have any pasta.
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I'll probably do the fried eggplant with mushroom gravy and do it over bread. Hubby likes the "hot -insert your meat here- sandwiches" that are served at diners, so he would probably like that.
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Well, I had better go and get back to work. It's 36 degrees out today and there has been a little rain. A lot of the snow that fell yesterday has melted leaving a slushy mess again. Such is life.
Ciao for now.

A cold Monday morning

2009-01-05T09:59:00.003-07:00

It's 19 degrees and snowing outside right now! Above is a picture out my front door. Today is also the kids first day back after the Christmas holidays. A few schools nearby were closed due to weather (they are in more rural areas than ours); I think I might have had to scream if our schools were closed. I love my babies, but two weeks with them home is enough.

I'm wondering what I'm going to do this summer when school is out. Last summer they figured out how to entertain themselves so I could work--I guess they will figure it out again. They were probably annoying this break because of the excitement of the holidays.

Son asked this morning if we could go to the Y after piano lessons tonight. I love that they want to go exercise! I told him we could.

I had leftover chowder for breakfast again (weird, huh?) There is still a tiny bit left so I'll have a small bowl and a sandwich for lunch. I think I'll do a bean-loaf and broccoli for dinner. (Unless something else takes my fancy by then.)

Right now, "Fetch Monster" (Little Girl) is trying to get me to play with her and I need to get back to work. I'd better get to the working part--the fetch part doesn't pay too well.

Ciao for now.

Tofu Scramble and ramblings

2009-01-04T18:27:00.004-07:00

My dinner was really good. As a 'good ole boy', hubby wanted to have fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy--yuck! So I contributed steamed carrots and cauliflower and made myself a Tofu Scramble. I have seen them all over the blogs and seen recipes that all look easy, so I just put it together, seasoned it how I liked and served it over spinach. Here is my recipe:
Curry Tofu Scramble
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1/3 of a package of extra firm silken tofu-mashed
1/2 of a sweet potato spiral sliced
curry powder
ginger
turmeric
salt
pepper
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I mushed up the tofu, spiral sliced the sweet potato, added the curry, ginger, and turmeric. I then sauteed in a little bit of coconut oil and added a bit of salt and pepper.
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Serve over spinach leaves.
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I thought it was really good. I think I will definitely do this again. I had leftover chowder for both breakfast and lunch. I got thinking about the chowder (the recipe is on yesterday's post)--the recipe originally came from a lady at my mom's church when I was a kid. Then, it was made with butter, cream and clams and had no corn, garlic, or cabbage.
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When I got married, I started making it occasionally with milk (instead of cream), sometimes bacon or no meat (instead of clams), and margarine (instead of butter). Then I got a recipe for col cannon--basically a potato and cabbage soup--and liked it so well that I started adding the cabbage. I started adding corn when hubby raved over some corn chowder he had.
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Now I've veganized it and it's the best ever. Hubby even likes it!
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Speaking of hubby, I sometimes get a little frustrated about my family. I read VeganDad's blog and his family likes the way they eat. Mine hates my food for the most part. The problem, in large part, is that hubby is a old farm boy and thinks of meals of as "meat and potatoes"--fried is better. That is the way I ate for the first 23 years of our marriage and that is what made me 276 pounds of fat, unhealthy misery.
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Now that I've changed and feel so much better, I'd really like to get the family to change. The problem is that kids look to whichever parent is to their liking at the moment. Hubby used to smoke and then he had a bloody nose that wouldn't stop--he ended up having to have surgery and he really thought he was going to die. The doc gave him a lecture about how it probably wouldn't have happened if he wasn't a smoker. That scared him out of smoking.
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I'd rather it not have to be a heart attack that scares him into getting healthy. To often people don't get a second chance to get healthy after one of those. He's overweight, pretty lazy, and resists changes to his diet. He's teaching daughter to be just like him.
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On a better note, after spending all that time at the Y exercising yesterday, the kids wanted to go back again today. The Y is closed on Sunday so instead they did over an hour on Wii fit and Wii sport. So they did get moving. That's really good.
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Well, I'm off.
Ciao for now.

Chowder and the YMCA

2009-01-03T20:14:00.003-07:00

Our local Y has been remodeling lately and had their open house today. We went to "look around" and ended up staying for almost 2 hours! They have all new weight equipment, they got new cardio equipment, they now have a circuit room that takes a half hour for a full body work-out, and they have a kids room.
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The kids room has a dance floor-type game where the kids can play games that are like dodge-ball, squash the bug, tennis, etc. It also has WII-type boxing and bowling. It has Marshall arts-type 'hit the target' game, and a sit-up basketball game. It is so cool. the kids were in there for about an hour and still not ready to leave.
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Hubby and I did the circuit room and then he went and walked on a treadmill, while I did the grown-up's sit-up basketball thing and then rode the stationary bike. Their stationary bikes have computer screens and you choose your track and then ride on the track you choose. Or you can do a "chase the dragons"game on them. They were so cool. I almost enjoyed sweating.
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Daughter took our guitar to her trumpet lesson this morning (this was before lunch and the Y--I'm just typing out of sequence.) Her teacher spent time with her to do some basic guitar stuff. that was really nice of him.
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After the Y, we came home and I started dinner. We had Chowder--my own recipe. Here it is:
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1 head cabbage-chopped
1 onion-diced
3 stalks celery-diced
garlic to taste-chopped
6 potatoes-cubed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp allspice
1 can corn
1/2 stick of vegan margarine
1/4-ish cup flour
2 cups soy milk
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Saute the onion, celery and garlic for a few minutes in just a little olive oil. Add the cabbage and potatoes and just enough water to cover them and then boil until tender (25 minutes or so). Add the seasonings and the corn.
In a separate pan, melt the margarine and stir in the flour to make a stiff paste. On high heat, whisk in the soy milk to make a gravy. It will get thick fast so watch it. Put the gravy in the pan with the veggies and stir it in.
The water in with the veggies mixes with the thick gravy to make a nice creamy soup. I had to add more salt, but I didn't add it to the recipe above because not everyone likes things salty.
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I don't have a picture, but it was really good. The recipe makes a lot, though. We have enough left over for another couple of meals. Daughter picked the potatoes out and dipped them in ketchup--go figure.
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Then, just a little bit ago, I made vanilla almond ice cream and added a tablespoon of dark cocoa powder--yum yum. I could have eaten the whole batch by myself.
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Well, I ought to go. It's getting on toward bedtime. Son should be home soon (they are doing a scouting fundraiser) and he'll want some of MY ice cream and then we can all crash.
Ciao for now.

Happy New Year

2009-01-02T13:05:00.003-07:00

Happy New Year! My Daughter decided to get her hair cut short on New Year's Eve. She had never had a real hair-cut up until August of 07. Her hair was all one length and went half way down her butt. Then she cut it to like the middle of her shoulder blades. Then in December of 07, she cut it to just touching her shoulders. Then in August of 08, she cut it to a chin-length bob with bangs (her first bangs). And now she decided to do short all over. It is so cute. (I keep saying "she cut it"--actually we had a stylist cut it.) The picture is her outside the mall right after she got it done.
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For new years eve, we had my folks over and had sparkling juices (grape, blueberry, and strawberry), veggies with a red pepper nut cheese for dipping an chocolate fondue with brownies, graham crackers, marshmallows, bananas, and strawberries for dipping (only the marshmallows and brownies weren't vegan--I didn't eat those). I know it's hard to imagine, but the veggies hardly got touched while the chocolate and goodies disappeared in minutes.
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I didn't have cocoa butter so I used coconut oil for the chocolate--here is what I did:
coconut oil (melted to a liquid in the microwave)
maple syrup
cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder)
Whisked them all together (adding first more syrup and then more cocoa powder until it tasted good).
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I put it in the fridge until we were ready for it and was surprised at how hard it got. It melted nicely over a candle, though (my fondue pot can use a candle for just melting or has an alcohol burner for actually cooking--I learned the hard way that the alcohol burner is not for melting chocolate.) I'm thinking I could have put soy or coconut milk in for more of a milk chocolate.
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Then the folks went home, hubby and I went to bed, and the kids stayed up to watch the new year in the central time zone. (that put them to bed at 11-ish in our time zone.)
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On new year's day, we were just lazy for a while and then took a drive to look for the deer. They winter around our area.

This is a deer that was by a pond right next to some people's house.
These were some rock people and a rock cat that someone had built up on the side of the canyon. I had never seen them before even though we had been on that road before so I think they were new. Pretty Cool!

Here's the sunset. It was pretty overcast so the sun made beautiful colors on the bottoms of the clouds.

We had a really nice drive and the kids made the most of their new cameras. I would guess that we saw a total of like 30 deer--some were nice bucks, but we couldn't get close enough to get really good pictures of them. The kids each took probably like a hundred or so. Good thing they are digital cameras so I don't have to buy that much film or pay for that much developing.
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Today's going pretty good, so far. I've gotten lots of work done, I ate the left-over veggies from Wednesday for my lunch, the kids aren't fighting too awfully much, and hubby is at work.

Well, I had better go and get back to doing something.

Ciao for now.

Stupid 40 year old woman tricks-take 2

2008-12-31T11:52:00.003-07:00

I couldn't believe it! Last night, I got out of the car, grabbed a bag of groceries from the trunk, turned, and was on my butt! I know how slippery our driveway is and I thought I was being careful; apparently, I wasn't careful enough. I didn't break anything (grocery or body) so I guess that's good. I just added to my bruises. Above is a pic from Christmas morning. We had a small tree this year so we wouldn't have to worry so much about the puppy getting in it.

Yesterday, I said I'd try to think of something exciting for dinner--didn't happen. Hubby said he liked my stir-fried teriyaki veggies so that's what I made. The veggies were celery, onion, carrots, garlic, bell pepper, and butternut squash. I sauteed them in coconut oil for a while then added a Hawaiian teriyaki sauce and continued to cook until they were done. We had them served over polenta. (Yeah, I know, teriyaki is Asian and polenta is Greek (I think). But they went together well anyway.)

This morning, I made up some of the leftover polenta like grits--polenta, soy milk, and turbinado warmed up in the microwave.

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For lunch I had left-over teriyaki veggies in a tortilla (Yeah, I know, Mexican and Asian--but it was good.)

Tonight, we will go out for an early dinner (to beat the rush) and then come home and have my folks over. I'll do a veggie plate with red pepper nut cheese for a dip and a chocolate fondue with all sorts of stuff to dip. The kids like to dip brownies and marshmallows--I don't have those in a vegan variety so I'll skip them and dip bananas, strawberries, and Graham crackers. Then, if it's like usual, my folks will go home, hubby and I will go to bed around 10 and the kids will stay up to watch the ball drop.

I think I get more boring with each passing year.

Work is going good. I got a lot done Monday, Tuesday, and so far today. I'm doing really well as far as year-end goes. I always worry about it, but it always goes fine. I guess I just blow it out of proportion because I only do it once a year.

I'll leave you with a picture of my "dog-pile"--Little Girl and Dubby on the chair, Ki-Ki on the rug.

Ciao for now.

The Holidays March on

2008-12-30T12:47:00.002-07:00

OK. Here it is December 30 and I'm just getting around to looking at my blog--first time in like a week. I haven't haven't looked at any of the other blogs I follow, either. Hey, CCV--thanks for the comment. I really like your blog. So anyway, here's a synopsis of my holiday (short and sweet).
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Christmas Eve--I worked for a couple of hours and then made Sugar Cookies, Whole Wheat Bread, and Pumpkin Muffins. Son made Date Balls. And then we all frosted the cookies (all of the stuff was vegan, of course). That evening, my folks came over and brought presents and then we went to a couple of friends' houses to deliver goodies.
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Christmas day--We got up and opened presents. Santa was good to my kids. Daughter got an easy bake oven and mixes, and son got bionicles. From us, kids got cameras. From grandparents, kids got camera cases. Hubby got tools. I got a mandolin and a new food processor. Grandparents got pictures.
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Then during the day, I made a devils food cake and re fried beans; daughter took pictures and "baked"; son took pictures and built bionicles; hubby napped. Later that day, we went over to my folks house and had tacos for dinner and cake and pie for dessert. My brother and his family were there too. We gave them vegan bread and goodies--they gave us a meat and cheese gift pack (gag).
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December 26th--more bionicle building, picture taking, easy baking etc. by kids. More napping by hubby. I worked. We did have one disaster related to the cameras. The kid's cameras can take videos and they both loved that. Daughter did a "hurricane" video and ended up losing her camera for a week because "we don't treat cameras like that!" (She just didn't understand that you don't toss a camera to make it look like the hurricane took it. I am pretty sure she understands now.)
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December 27th--Saturday--I played at "stupid 40 year-old woman tricks" and did a face plant in the parking lot at the movie theater. I said some choice words. I'm still sore, and my knee is beyond bruised. It was snowing on top of slightly melting ice so was really slick and I was in a hurry because I didn't want to be late and I just slipped. By the time we got into the theater, I was laughing at myself for being so stupid. We saw Disney's "Bedtime Stories" by the way. It was good, but not one I'd want to see over and over again.
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December 28th--Sunday--we went down to the hot tubs and swam. Really fun and eased the soreness.
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December 29th--Monday--I just worked. It was a really busy day.
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And that brings us back to today. I am resolved to start eating better again. I ate all together too many of the Christmas goodies and need to get back on top of things. I didn't lose all that weight only to gain it back my first Holiday season thin.
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I'll try to do something wonderful tonight for dinner and then I'll blog all about it tomorrow. Take care, all. And I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Hubby's Back Working Weekdays!

2008-12-22T13:55:00.004-07:00

My hubby is back working weekdays again! I am so excited! He came home from work Saturday and said he would be off on Sunday and then back to regular weekdays starting Monday. It is so much nicer having him here on the weekends and gone on the weekdays. Honest, I'm not trying to be picky, but it's hard to work and get anything else done around here during the week if he's home; and I hate going to bed by myself only to wake up in the middle of the night when he gets in. And as far as weekends go, I'm just used to having him around. I was so tired last week--getting up in the middle of the night is hard for me.
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So he's back on his regular schedule because they got ahead of schedule on the job they're on so 2 of them got taken off that and put back to their regular work. Fortunately, he was one of the two.
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Now I just have to put up with the kids being home for the next two weeks. It won't be too bad--I'm just a creature of habit and I'm not used to having the kids home. Earlier, I had to put on earphones to drown out the sound of the TV so I could get some work done.
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Here's the recipe (sort of):
Butternut, Pea and Potato Curry
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1/2 onion-diced
2 stalks celery-diced
2 carrots-diced
2 TBSP coconut oil
1/2 butternut squash-cubed
1/2 large sweet potato-cubed
3 small potatoes-cubed
1 TBSP curry powder
1/2 tsp each-ginger, turmeric, paprika
1 tsp chili powder
2 cups yellow pear tomatoes (mine were out from the freezer from my garden)
1 can coconut milk
1 can peas-drained
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Saute the onion, celery, and carrot in the coconut oil until the onions get translucent. Add the potato, sweet potato, and squash. Sprinkle all of the spices on and saute for about 10 minutes.
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Blend the tomatoes and the coconut milk in the Vita-Mix and pour over the veggies (add more water if needed to make a nice sauce). Simmer covered until veggies are as done as you want them. Stir in the peas.
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Serve over brown rice.
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It was supposed to be a curry, but the flavor and consistency, etc. reminded me of another dish I had at an Indian restaurant--I don't remember the name of it, but it was really good.
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The puppy is doing really good. I told the kids that since they are home for a couple of weeks, they need to let the big dogs in and watch the puppy. Hopefully, by the time they go back to school, the puppy won't be so crazy every time she sees them so I can have them in here (being good) while I work.
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It started out rough, but now everyone is being good.
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Well, I guess I'd better get back to doing something productive. It's too much fun blogging, though.
Ciao for now.

Baby It's Cold Outside

2008-12-19T16:18:00.003-07:00

To steal a line from a Christmas song. It has been really cold here. Today is warm by comparison--23 degrees at 4pm.
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This is my third shot at this post. I tried two other times from my cell phone while son was sledding and both times I accidentally did something (I thought I just hit the backspace key, but apparently not) and everything I had typed just disappeared.
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This is KiKi. She was a rescue dog--a friend found her and we brought her home in 2004. She is a little slow, but such a good dog.

This is Dubby. She was a K-Mart parking lot freebie that we got in 1998. She was supposed to be half lab and half Rottweiler. (I think her lab momma was friendly with a German Sheppard that the Rottweiler didn't know about.) Son was about a year and a half at the time and called her "the dubby". (That's little kid language for "the puppy".) The name stuck--she's Dubby.
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The kids are out for Christmas break now--2 weeks of it. Daughter is at a friend's house for a birthday party/sleepover. We took son sledding. Hubby and I sat in the car and tried to stay warm while he slid down the hill over and over again. Right now, hubby and son are gone--son's violin lesson.

Yesterday was the annual third grade formal Christmas breakfast so last night, daughter was all gung-ho on manners. Now we're not heathens, but we are also a far cry from a Martha Stewart family. So daughter kept trying to correct everything we did at dinner. "That's not how you are supposed to hold your spoon." "Your napkin is supposed to be in your lap except when you are wiping your mouth with it." Etc. We finally got her calmed down. I explained that manners are to make a meal enjoyable, not miserable.

For dinner we had pumpkin soup. I got the recipe off MSN.com. It was really good. And easy! :-)

The puppy got her stitches out this morning! Ya-Hoo! So she no longer has her wiener wrap or her big collar. Her tummy is still sore from where the stitches were pulling, but the vet said that as active as she is, that was better than taking them out earlier and possibly having to take her back to surgery and re-sew her up. I guess I agree. I don't think I'd have wanted to do another 10-14 days of that.

Son had his violin concert. I was so disgusted with that. The teacher also teaches at the local charter school so she had her private lesson students play with school orchestra. The show was the "winter showcase" for the charter school and there were so many kids there. And of those kids, way too many of them were behaving obnoxiously--I hate that. And of all of the parents there, way too many of those were just as obnoxious as the kids. The teacher had the orchestra kids all lined up ready to go on stage and another teacher came in and started having kids change their shoes for another part of the show. The violin teacher tried to stop her telling her that they needed to be ready to go on in a minute and she had them lined up and they didn't have time to change shoes and the other teacher hollered out "my third graders need to change shoes. My third graders change shoes." I mean really! Why was her group supposed to be allowed to get out of the line up to change shoes? Just a guess, but judging by her attitude, I would bet that if someone had pulled this other teacher's kids out when they were lining up for anything, this other teacher would have thrown a fit. Anyway, watching some of the teachers and some of the parents, I can pretty well figure out why the kids were acting the way they were.

Oh, and also, I didn't even get to see the concert from the audience. I went to sit down and they were charging admission! The charter school is a public school! And none of the other public schools charge to see your own kid preform. So anyway, I watched from the wings backstage. Son didn't do very well--he was put in the back. He had never played with most of these kids and he was uptight. (Also, he is like his mom--doesn't do well in chaotic situations.)

OK, so enough complaining now. I haven't been writing much lately because of hubby being home. His getting in at 2 am from work and then getting up at 7 or 8 and then taking a nap at like 2 pm has kind of put a crimp in my style. I'll be glad when he is back on days. Make that I will be glad when he is back on weekdays. I don't like him working the weekend. It would be nice if we were both off on the same days.

When hubby and son get back, we are going to go get dinner (our usual Friday routine is to go out to dinner). Hubby wants Mexican food tonight. And then I was thinking that maybe the kids and I would go see a movie tomorrow while hubby is working (after sleeping in and after daughter gets home, of course).

Well, I guess I'll go now.

Ciao for now.

Whew, I've been away from my Blog a while

2008-12-16T13:09:00.005-07:00

Hi! I've been away from my blog for awhile. I have just been really busy!
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Look at my poor puppy.
She is just too active. She won't let her belly heal up so now she is in a wiener wrap and a fancy collar. Fortunately we'll try to get the stitches out on Friday, so we've only got a few more days of this.
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Son got his braces on yesterday!

Isn't he cute? He'd hate me for saying that. His mouth was sore so he had some broth and a smoothie for dinner last night. For breakfast, he had cream of wheat. I made him mashed potatoes to take to school for lunch, but he decided he'd try the Christmas dinner they were doing. It'll have mashed potatoes.
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Here's a picture of our yard right now. It started snowing last night and just quit a few minutes ago. We now have some sunshine, but it's only 21 degrees.

Hubby is on the couch trying to catch some ZZZ's. He has to work again tonight. He got home last night a bit after 2 am, slept until 7am, and is now catching some more sleep. I would be really grumpy if my sleep was broken into bits and pieces. I hope he's not.
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I haven't done anything exciting with food lately, so I don't have anything to talk about there. I did get a start for Kefir from my aunt. She has hers in milk, I rinsed mine and am doing it in soy milk. It definitely imparts a yogurt-y taste to smoothies. And from what I've read, it's supposed to be really good for you.
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We have a piano recital tonight, a violin recital and a boy scout Christmas party tomorrow night, and trumpet lesson and a girl scout Christmas party on Thursday night. Then on Friday, the kids are out for a 2-week Christmas break. Saturday and Sunday, hubby works and on Monday, we have another Christmas party.
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It just gets so busy this time of year.
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Well, I had better get back to doing something constructive.
Ciao for now.

Friday Morning

2008-12-12T08:50:00.002-07:00

Good morning. I'm sitting here at my computer waiting for one of the gals at work to get in. I'm certainly not lonely this morning--Daughter is home sick today and hubby is home again today.
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Daughter has had a runny nose for a couple of days and now she's really feeling rough. It's just a cold. I'm listening to Disney's "Lion King" on the TV. She and her daddy are watching it.
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I'm also really cold this morning. The thermostat doesn't say it's any different than usual, but I get cold easily and once cold, I don't warm up easily.
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Depending on my boss and the office manager, I'm either going to be really busy today or have nothing at all to do. (I'm waiting on each of them before I can get into certain projects.) I was kind of hoping for slow and then I was going to take off and go to the mall and get a haircut and a pair of shoes. (I have a jumper I was going to wear to hubby's work Christmas party tomorrow night, but I don't have any shoes to go with it. I just need a pair of super cheap black flats.) With daughter home, I doubt I'll make it shopping even if I am slow at work.
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Dinner last night was steamed cauliflower, sweet potato mash (left-overs from thanksgiving that I took out of the freezer), and a small bean burrito (leftovers from last night). Hubby and the kids had ham in lieu of burrito--hubby bought a ham with his gift card from his employer.
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Then we went driving around to look at Christmas lights. They were so pretty.
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Then we came home and had a strawberry/banana smoothie for a snack and went to bed. It was a nice evening.
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Well, I should be getting a call any minute now--she was going to be in at 9.
Ciao for now.

Betty's Burrito Beans (and still the dog)

2008-12-11T09:20:00.005-07:00

Last night's dinner was roasted squash (or "squishie" as we say in my household) and bean burritos. She squash was drizzled with olive oil and molasses and then baked until soft. The burritos had sauteed onions and peppers, homemade "re fried" beans, and spinach on whole wheat tortillas.

Funny story about the beans. A couple of years ago, I had a big container of dried pinto beans. Daughter got it out of the cupboard, opened it, and filled zip-lock bags with the dried beans. Then in sharpie, she wrote on the bags:

"Betty's Burrito Beans

(or you can try to make coffee)

$2.00"

She didn't know the difference between beans and coffee beans apparently. But anyway, ever since then, whenever I make re fried beans, they are called "Betty's Burrito Beans". Here's my recipe--they aren't really "re fried" at all.

Betty's Burrito Beans

1 1/2 cups dried pinto beans sorted and soaked

2 stalks celery

2 carrots

1 medium onion

2 cloves of garlic

1-2 tsp salt

1/4 cup barbecue sauce

Boil the beans. Let them boil down until there is just enough water to cover them when they are almost done.

Chunk the vegetables and put in the vita-mix with just enough water so they will blend well. Blend them and then pour the mixture onto the beans and bring back to a boil.

When the beans with the veggies are done, put in the salt and pepper. There will still be water over the beans, this is OK. Blend with an immersion blender. Put in the barbecue sauce and stir.

If the beans are too runny, cook down. If they're to thick, add enough water to get them to the correct consistency.

And that's all there is to it. I get asked to bring my beans to family things as a bean dip or when we have tacos. Also, my family likes them really well so I know they will eat (picky little boogers, anyway).

Last night after dinner, when I went to feed Little Girl, I noticed that her belly was all swollen to one side of the incision. And then this morning, even though the swelling was down, when she sat up, there was one area that bulged. So I took her in to the vet as soon as they opened (had hubby take kids to school since he's off today) and found out (Whew!) that it was just inflammation and it should be fine if she takes it easy.

So I asked if I could just quit the medicine they had given me for her. I told them that she was like a hummingbird on speed with the meds--they laughed and told me that I should only give her the meds from now on if she really acted like she was in pain. (Hello, I don't think that dog feels any pain.) And right now, she is actually taking her usually morning nap (usual before her surgery that is).

Like I said above, hubby is home today and tomorrow and then will be working Saturday and Sunday. After he got home from taking the kids to school, he came over and stood over my desk and started talking. Apparently, since he is home, I am supposed to be ready to have him all over me. I told him that work time was not that time. He decided to go for a drive and see if he could find a deer (whatever, at least he's not here bugging me).

I'm hoping to have a busy day at work, but right now, I'm blogging while I'm waiting for a call to discuss the things I hope to be able to get done today. I'll have to wait to get started until a couple of things up at the office are done so I may or may not be busy (I'm hoping for the "may").

Ciao for Now.

Zucchini Noodle Salad and life in general

2008-12-10T09:43:00.006-07:00

Last night for dinner, I made the above salad. It was kind of a last minute thing that came out really good. I made it up as I went along--here is the recipe:

Zucchini Noodle Salad

.1 1/3 zucchini

1/3 Diakon radish

1 red bell pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup white vinegar

2 heaping tablespoons Tahini

1/2 tsp ginger

2 tablespoons soy sauce

black pepper to taste

Run the zucchini and radish through a spiral slicer and dice the red pepper into small even dices. Toss the veggies together.

Put the remaining ingredients into a small bowl and whisk together for the dressing.

Pour dressing over the veggies and toss again.

That salad was so good. I ate the leftovers a few minutes ago and I think it was even better this morning--it was like the veggies got softer.

Well, that's my grand dinner experiment. Then came this morning.........

Son was supposed to get his braces on this morning but he woke up an hour early (I thought it was nerves). He puked (again I thought it was nerves). I talked to him and he felt it was just nerves and he would be fine. Then, as we were getting ready to head out the door, he puked again. So I cancelled the appointment. And now he is pale as a sheet and lying on the chair asleep. I guess it wasn't nerves after all.

Yesterday, the puppy went crazy and wouldn't settle down at all. she usually takes several naps during the day, but yesterday, after her short morning nap, she suddenly went nuts wanting to run and play. She didn't settle down until 9:00 last night. I called the vet this morning and found out that the pain med they were having me give her does that to some dogs. They cut her dose in half--so far, she seems a bit more normal today--we'll see if she goes nuts after her nap.

I wish humans snapped back as fast after surgery as she does. But then again, I fear that she's going to pop her sutures open and then have even more troubles. One of our older dogs, Ki-Ki, did that. Fortunately she was healed enough that it just gave her a really wide scar.

Hubby is going to have a weird schedule from now until sometime in January. This week he has Friday off, and then, starting Saturday, his schedule is going to be Saturday and Sunday-days and Monday through Wednesday-6:30 pm to 3:00 am. They are doing an office remodel so are going to work after the office closes 3 days and the weekends. What a pain! Oh well.

Well anyway, I had better get to work.

Ciao for now.

Little Girl's recovery

2008-12-09T12:38:00.004-07:00

We went over to the vet's office after I got the kids last night and picked Little Girl up. Poor baby felt so bad. I know it's a routine surgery that most female pets have, but I can't help but feel bad for her--I remember how much my appendectomy and cholecystectomy hurt.

So last night, she just wanted to be held. She yiped if she moved wrong or tried to get up or down off the chair. I even had to help her go outside to the bathroom because she couldn't get down the three steps to the yard.

At one point, she was shivering so I went and got the little yellow blanket and wrapped her up. This morning she was sleeping all sprawled out on her back (not very lady-like, but oh will)--see her scar?

Today, she can get up and down by herself, although she has yiped a couple of times. She also is wanting to play fetch, which she is not supposed to. Right now, she is chewing on her Kong (I filled it with peanut butter to keep her still and busy).

For dinner last night, the family wanted hamburger gravy. So while hubby made that, I made the potatoes (vegan), the steamed broccoli, and then some vegan gravy for myself. (I just melted a little vegan margarine, seasoned it, stirred in some whole-wheat flour, and then added soy milk and stirred on the stove until it got thick.) There was just enough vegan gravy for me. It was so good.

I had my annual physical today (it has actually been 2 years since my last). I was so pleased! The nurse went on and on about my weight loss, the doctor talked about it a lot and congratulated me on doing it the "old-fashioned" way. He told me that I am the healthiest he has ever seen me!

(I was a bit frustrated when the nurse asked me where I got my protein. She asked if I ate chicken even though I was vegan. Uh, no. You would think a nurse would have at least a bit of nutrition knowledge. I remember we had a course on it when I went to nursing school--apparently if you don't use it, you lose it.)
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I did a stupid-40-year-old-woman trick last night. Since the dog couldn't get down the steps to go potty, I carried her down (hubby wouldn't do it because he wasn't dressed; hello, my stunning outfit was jammies at the time). So I carried her down the steps and started to put her down and started losing my balance. I tried to get her put down quickly without hurting her, while trying to re-gain my balance by pushing with my toes. I went over forward anyway. I got the dog down just in time to put my hand out to break my fall. I have a skinned knee, sore toes, and a bruised hand. Hubby had me in tears (laughing at myself) as he re-enacted my slow-motion fall.

I also made some crock-pot oatmeal last night before bed. You put steel cut oats, water, and soy milk in the crock-pot. Turn it on low just before bed and when you get up you salt it lightly, stir it a lot, and you have oatmeal! It was good. I will do that recipe again for sure. For a topping, I blended 1/2 cup of soy milk with 3 dates (my favorite sweetener) until smooth and then threw in a handful of almonds and blended just enough more to rough chop the nuts and then poured that on my oatmeal. YUM,YUM!

Well, that's all I have.

Ciao for now.

An Ice Cream recipe and ramblings from the weekend

2008-12-08T13:57:00.004-07:00

Well, I made it through another weekend. Weekends just seem to wear me out! And we didn't even really do that much.
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Friday after school, son had violin lessons then we went over to girl scouts where daughter's troop was having a dinner (chili and hot dogs--oh goody. I had an apple brought from home) and then walking over to the Christmas lights parade. We thought the troop had a float, but nooooo, they were walking the parade route giving out fliers about girl scout cookies. The leader's girl took off (after being told by her mom "you don't need to follow me") with my daughter in tow. So I walked after them--there was no way, I was letting her out of my sight in the dark in a crowd when the leader wasn't watching them. So anyway, I froze my patootie off.
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Then, I was hungry (and apparently so was hubby) so hubby suggested we get some dinner somewhere. Can't even remember where we went, so it must not have been too memorable.
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Saturday, we did get to sleep in for a while. Then the kids did karate their demonstration at the Festival of Trees (Son did the Bo Kata and daughter did a self-defense demonstration of her against 3 attackers). After that was the Karate Christmas luncheon at the China Buffet. Daughter was promoted to Brown Belt (she was so excited that she caught up with her brother) and son got his Bo pin.
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Then we did some errands, went home and had a quick snack and went to see the community college music department preform Handel's Messiah. I really like that, but I don't think hubby did.
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Sunday, we took a drive out in the desert. Hubby was looking for a deer, but not too hard. We took the puppy with us. We took a few walks and looked at a cave, and then went to Wal-Mart and came home.
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Exciting weekend, huh?
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Last night I got the hankering for ice cream so I made some. It was my own throw together but it was really good. I thought so anyway. Hubby complained about the texture of the nut based vanilla ice cream so this time I used soy milk as the base. He complained this time about the coconut texture--I just can't please him. I would guess he would be pleased it either had been made with a quart of heavy whipping cream--YUCK.
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Anyway, here's the recipe--notice the exact measurements.
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Put the following in the Vita-Mix:
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around 3/4 cup of dates
a couple of handfuls of shredded coconut
approximately 2 tsp vanilla
enough soy milk to come up to the 3 cup mark on the blender container
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blend it all until smooth. Taste and see if you like it. Add anything else if you want to. Pour into your ice-cream maker and crank until it's done.
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Easy. By the way, my ice-cream maker is way cool. I got it at a yard sale and it is one that has an outer insulated plastic shell, an inner metal container with some type of liquid in between the inner and outer walls, a paddle beater, a lid, and a handle. You keep the inner container in the freezer until you have the ice cream mix made. Then you put the inner container into the outer container, pour in the mix, set the beater in, put the lid and handle on, and then start turning the handle. It take about 15 minutes (you don't have to be turning constantly, just every couple of minutes) and you have a soft-serve type ice cream. If you want it harder, then you let it get to that stage, take the beater out, replace the lid and cover it with a towel for another 15 minutes.
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This morning was the pits. Just before he left for work, hubby stepped in dog crap in the yard and made a trail through the house--front door; through the living room, dining room, and kitchen; back through the dining room and living room; into daughter's room; and back to the living room before I noticed it. I was so MAD! I had so many dog crap spots to clean up! And he was all like "it was an accident, I didn't know I had stepped in it." I have the kids trained to check their shoes but, for some odd reason, the adult male can't seem to remember to check his. He was all put out that I got mad at him when it was an "accident" but I know he would have been mad at the kids had they done it. (If he hadn't been almost late for work, I would have made him clean it up. As it was, I wasn't going to live with it all day so I cleaned.) I would have just liked a stupid, sincere "I'm sorry" instead of excuses--"it was an accident", "I didn't know I had stepped in it"--and an attitude because I was upset.
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I grew up with the mantra--You are responsible for your actions whether you intend them or not. I have taught it to my kids. For some reason, hubby thinks it doesn't apply to him.
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After I got the kids off to school, I took Little Girl in--she got spayed, micro chipped, and a tooth pulled today. The vet said she came through everything fine. I'm supposed to call here in a while to check and see if she is ready to come home today or will need to stay the night. (I don't think I'd be ready to come home the same day as I had all that done.)
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I also had a dentist appointment today. Look Ma, no cavities!
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I don't have a clue as to what we're having for dinner tonight. I had a cabbage, apple, date, and almond smoothie for breakfast; leftover veggies (from a veggie pasta last night), a piece of bread, and some homemade hummus for lunch; a tiny bit of left over ice cream from last night for a snack; and will have an apple for another snack while I'm waiting to pick up the kids from school.
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Whew! That's a rambling post. Oh well.
Ciao for now.

Curry for Dinner and Christmas Ramblings

2008-12-05T14:22:00.002-07:00

We had a curry for dinner. I got the recipe off of vegcooking.com (it was the eggplant and cauliflower curry but I substituted a pumpkin type squash for those two ingredients). It came out pretty good, but I like my regular curry better. (This is so fun--snapping pictures of my cooking with my phone and sending them to my computer and uploading them to my blog. Yeah, I know, I'm weird.)
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Last night we took son shopping for his sister's Christmas gift while she was at Girl Scouts. He wanted to get her an easy bake oven. Well, that's like her number one item on her list and I'm pretty sure Santa has his elves making it for her (ahem, ahem). So I had to put on a show saying that he is not getting her an easy bake oven because it gets hot and I don't want her to burn herself. Hubby said I did a good job of it. And I made son promise not to tell his sister what I said--so it won't hurt her feelings and make her think I don't believe she could do it. He ended up getting her a metal detector made for kids. I can't help but wonder if he really thinks she'll like it or if he thinks he'd like it.
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Sis picked out a bionicle for her brother. Hubby took her shopping while son and I were at his ortho appointment and doctor's appointment on Tuesday. With him you can't go wrong getting him Lego's.
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I want a new food processor and a dehydrator for Christmas. The food processor I have is a really small attachment to a really old (not very good) stand mixer). I want a bigger one that I don't have to put together so much and will work better than what I have now. I have been looking at different stores and there is one on sale now at Target. I thought hubby and kids were going to get me that, but son told me that they had already gotten me something (I hope I started hinting long enough ago that it's something I want--I have to love whatever they get me but I am so tight that I really hate them spending money on me if it's not something I really want or need.) I'm not really looking for a dehydrator, for now I just use my oven on a really low temperature.
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Hubby is torn between a spotlight they have at Wal-Mart and a tool kit they have at Costco. I keep telling him he needs to decide so I can take the kids shopping and steer them right.
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And by the way, speaking of ovens (two paragraphs up), yesterday afternoon I made some Seitan (the round thing beside the curry is a slice of it.) I took a recipe I got off of the Post Punk Kitchen website and changed the seasonings to how I wanted it. It came out really good, but it's a baked recipe instead of a boiled or steamed one (I love that--it's easier for me to put it in the oven and leave it alone rather than having to keep a pot on the stove). Well anyway, I either made it too wet or didn't wrap it up tight enough or something because it expanded out the ends of it's foil wrap and then there was liquid from it that ended up all over the bottom of my oven. I had to clean my oven. (It wasn't a whole lot, just a bit, but I don't like my oven all gross.) Next time I'll bake it in a pan with sides, just in case.
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Well, that's all for now. The dog is sleeping; the cat is sleeping; I wish I were sleeping, too.
Ciao for now.

Red Pepper Hummus and some frustrations

2008-12-04T12:09:00.005-07:00

I just got done with lunch. (that's it up above) I wanted something good, so I had hummus, thin sliced diakon radish, and a piece of "winter wheat" bread. It was really good and quite filling. I ate earlier than usual so I hope I'm not starving by this afternoon.
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Red Pepper Hummus:

1 red bell pepper

1/8 of an onion (approximately)

1 clove garlic

1 heaping tablespoon tahini

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 can drained chickpeas (save the liquid)

Salt to taste

chickpea liquid to get it to the right consistency

put everything in the Vita-Mix except the salt and liquid. Blend it using the tamper to get everything down and adding enough liquid to get to the right consistency. Taste and add salt if needed. Note--don't add the salt until after you add the liquid you need. The liquid off the chickpeas is sometimes salty enough that you don't need to add any more.

Now my frustration. Last night we went to the grocery store and tossed out over a hundred dollars. This morning my hubby tells me that he has a Christmas lunch at work and he forgot to get the stuff to make the 'fruit & cookie dessert' that he wanted to bring. He him-haws around saying he wonders if he has enough time to go to the ATM and then to the store before work so he could put it together at work. So I finally told him that I'd go to the store after I drop the kids at school and come home, make the dessert, and take it out to him.

Now here's where my frustrations lie! 1-he would have to take my card to hit the ATM so he'd have my card all day. 2-there's no money in my account because I hadn't gotten my check into it yet. YOU CAN'T JUST "GET MONEY" OUT OF THE ATM BECAUSE YOU WANT IT . THERE HAS TO BE MONEY IN THE ACCOUNT! 3-I end up having to make the stupid dessert that I don't even want to eat (it has buttermilk, whip cream, and chocolate covered cookies in it).

Well I did it. I have to save his backside sometimes because I have been known to have a stupid attack myself. And when I do, he saves my behind. Turn-about-fair-play, I guess.

The pup is getting spayed on Monday. Poor Little Girl.

Son got his spacers put it for his braces yesterday. And then he lost 2 of them overnight. The gal at the ortho office said that it wasn't a big deal; that if they came out while he was sleeping, then his teeth probably aren't jammed too closely together so it won't matter much. We are just supposed to go in next Tuesday and get them replaced so maybe they will have one day to work before he gets his braces on Wednesday. My guess is that if those fell out over night, the new ones will, too.

Well, back to work.

Ciao for now.