Catching up with Pictures

Except for this sentence, this is a wordless post of what we've been doing since my last post.

Get Ready for Cranberry Season

It's almost cranberry season!

Actually, it might already be cranberry season.  Since I haven't been looking for them in the stores yet, I would not know.

It would make no sense for me to look for them, much less to buy them, if I have no room for them in my freezer ...

--- YET!

As you can tell, I don't always think of seasons as terms of weather.

For example, the orange season starts when cranberry season is at least half over.

Has "living in Florida" done this to me?

Anyway, I must get ready for cranberry season.  That means: Make Room in the Freezer!

I had to use up some veggies, some of which were stored in the freezer, and others in the vegetable crisper in the refrigerator.  Here's what I managed to use up in the last two days:

• Two quart bags of cubed eggplant
• One small bag of cut broccoli
• One quart bag each of sliced zucchini and yellow squash
• The rest of the celery, cut into one-inch lengths
• The rest of the carrots, cut into one-inch lengths
• One bag of sliced rhubarb

I used up all the veggies by making an Indian-style dish.  We had half a bottle of a simmer sauce, which became the basis of this dish.

I steamed all the eggplant and set it aside.  Then I steamed the carrots a few minutes before adding the rest of the veggies to the steamer.

I placed all the steamed veggies into the large stew pot.  I placed the simmer sauce into the VitaMix blender and added about eight ounces of raw cashews, a can of coconut milk, some curry powder, and a couple dashes of salt.  After the cashews were fairly well chopped, I added the sauce to the veggies, turned on the heat, and simmered them for a little while.

There was such a huge quantity of vegetables that there were leftovers:

Even hubby, who declares that he "can't stand" eggplant, thought the dish was quite tasty!

I had been wanting to use up the rhubarb for a while.  The only way I knew to use it was in a pie, but I didn't want to make a pie.  I searched my RSS reader for a rhubarb recipe, and found a rhubarb and berry dessert sauce recipe (click here).

I bought a bag of frozen, mixed berries to go with the rhubarb, and made this.  It also tastes great with vanilla ice cream (ask me how I know!).

I will have to poke through the freezer again to see if there's anything else we can take out - and use up - before I can go buy some cranberries to keep in there.

And what, you may ask, will I DO with those cranberries?  Something I did with them
last year (click here for the recipe):

FYI, after cranberry season comes orange blossom season.  YAY!

Pretty Food!

I made a green smoothie today.  Into the blender I put the following:

• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/2 bag spinach
• 1/2 small bag frozen cubed mango
• 3 apples
• 1/2 cup green tea

Here's what it looked like when I started to blend it:

Here's what it looked like while it was blending:

Here's what we do with it when it's done.  Well, OK, we actually put the salsa jar lids on and store them in the fridge ...

I used a spatula to get the last of the smoothie out of the blender jar, and I let DH lick the spatula.  He declared it good enough to eat, and told me that it was a Pretty Color!

Usually DH doesn't like to eat it, and only because it's green.  For example the other half bag of spinach was used in an "apple pie" smoothie a few days ago, and he refused to eat it.

Here are the ingredients for the Apple Pie Smoothie I made last week.  I usually use coconut milk, but wanted to use up the last can of coconut water:

• 1 tall can coconut water
• 3 capsules psyllium fiber (it was still quite liquid)
• 3 small apples
• 1/2 bag spinach
• 1/2 small bag frozen strawberries
• 2 teaspoons (if not more) apple pie spice

Have you ever made a fruit smoothie or a green smoothie?

A New Twist on an Old Basic Food

Hubby made an interesting lunch today.  He made toasted cheese sandwiches, but there were a few additions to the basic toasted cheese sandwich, giving it an interesting twist.

He toasted the sprouted grains bread slices in the toaster, then he buttered the slices.  Meanwhile, he sliced a large tomato and picked some fresh basil leaves from our herb garden.

He layered the above ingredients with cheese slices, sprinkled them with an Italian herb mix, and heated them in the skillet.

The next time we have these, I hope he uses two slices of provolone cheese in each sandwich.  The sandwiches were served with fruit salad, which he did not make.  Click on this picture for a drool-worthy view:

How to make a yummy fruit smoothie

We have a VitaMix blender. We did lots of research and found a good price. This blender makes it very easy to make a fruit smoothie. Here's what we put in it:

A banana, blueberries, two apples, some raspberries, about an inch of ginger, and at least one cup of green tea.

Here are the pictures:

Simple Fruit Smoothie with supper

I peeled two oranges and blended them in the VitaMix with some frozen strawberries. Dee-licious! This went very well with supper, which was orange roughy sauteed in coconut oil and sangria, with a little sea salt and fresh ground pepper. The side dish was boiled sweet potato slices, drained, with a little butter.

A Diet of Real Food

I have wandered and returned to smoothies more times than I can count. I do know, though, that I lose weight when I take a smoothie to work and snack on it in the morning and afternoon instead of junk food. I lost 3 pounds this week, and that's a good thing.

Meanwhile, since DH is the cook at our house, my mere mention of reducing our intake of rice and pasta and bread brings a reaction that means he has closed his ears to me. Even quoting from books doesn't get me anywhere with him. My concern is for our inability to lose weight, much less keep it off - but especially him.

Imagine my surprise when a friend sent him an email with a link to this article and forwarded it to me. My "reply to all" said "I have a book called "Diet Wise" that Paul didn't want to hear what it said - which was pretty much what this article says - so I loaned it to a friend at work." DH told me, "Gee, thanks for embarrassing me in front of my friends!" My inability to tell a straight story with all the facts is what blocks his attention.

Since I had loaned that book to a friend, he asked me how was he supposed to know what it says. I told him to look up "allergy elimination diet," which he did, and he came up with this link and this link. I got the book back the next day because my friend was going to just go buy it at the book store, so he's had a chance to look at it.

The book "Diet Wise" basically says that no one particular diet is good for everybody - not the south beach diet, atkins diet, low-fat, low-carb, raw food, vegetarian, vegan, or even the grapefruit diet. The book says that you have to find out for yourself what foods are good for your own, unique body. Often food allergies or sensitivities block your body's natural health. By taking the most-common allergenic foods out of your system, you are giving your body enough time to really eliminate the effects of these foods. After that, you can start adding foods to your diet, one at a time. Reactions to re-introduced foods let you know what your food sensitivities are. Foods giving no reaction at re-introduction are safe to eat.

The bottom line is that after Thanksgiving we are going to ditch ALL grains, citrus, dairy, chicken, and processed "foods" for at least two weeks, maybe three. Then we will add certain foods back to our diet to see if we have any reaction. I hope we don't have the situation where he can eat a food that I can't, or vice versa. Meanwhile, such "clean" eating will probably become our new habit, especially if we do the intro for at least three weeks.

Raw Fruit Pudding

I started my early morning errands with a cup of iced coffee from the gas station. It was a steal at $1.80, and oh, so yummy!

My hubby brought me a donut when he came back from a motorcycle ride this morning around 11:30. Since he had not had breakfast this morning, he also bought himself a sandwich at the donut shop. I figured that I might as well fix myself something for lunch.

Whether to atone for my sinful-eating ways or to balance out my so-called meal, I threw some fruit into the VitaMix. What I got was the texture and thickness of pudding, and it was really good. Here's what I put in it:

• 1 apple
• 1/2 banana
• 4 chunks frozen mango
• 1/2 Cup frozen blueberries
• 1/4 Cup iced tea (MY liquid of choice - there's a pitcher of it in the fridge at all times, sweetened with stevia)

Today's Smoothie ...

... is lettuce, blueberries, bananas, and some coconut and almonds. It looks like purple mud, but it tastes pretty good!

More Green Smoothies

Sunday night, I made enough for Monday and Tuesday's lunch:

• romaine lettuce
• some parsley
• 2 peaches
• 1 apple

Today's lunch was quite good. I made a lot, and I ate it all:

• spinach
• blueberries
• 1 banana

Some day I might consider taking pictures of the process. The only thing holding me back from that is that my kitchen does not look like a studio of any sort.

Friday's green smoothie

Friday's smoothie was even better:

• romaine lettuce
• small amt parsley
• one apple
• one kiwi
• a few dashes of lemon juice

The predominant flavors were kiwi followed by lemon. Very good!

Drink my Lunch

It's not what you might think if you don't know me. I mean, it's not booze, or even a traditional protein drink.

It's Greens!!

Yep, my lunches at work have been what basically amounts to blenderized salads. Here's the line-up:

Monday
leftover salad with cheese and salsa
- yummy with a salsa attitude

Tuesday
red leaf lettuce, cut cross-ways and rinsed
one pear, quartered, cored, and cut up
a few mint leaves
1/2 Cup water
- just OK

Wednesday
6 large romaine leaves, cut cross-ways and rinsed
two bananas, broken up
1/3 Cup shredded coconut
1/3 Cup leftover iced tea
- the best so far

Thursday
romaine lettuce
bananas
strawberries
blueberries
blackberries
leftover tea
- tasted like a fruit slush

I put the smaller and wetter things into the blender first, greens on top, and liquid poured over. Then I blend on the Liquefy setting until it looks, well, blended. I pour this into a container which I then leave in the freezer overnight. When I take it to work and leave it on a napkin in the back corner of my desk, it thaws to just the right temperature by lunch time.

I thought I was doing this for my general health and for the health of my eyes. There is a nice side side effect of 3.4 lbs of weight shed, and I started just this week! I also don't have that mid-afternoon dragged-down feeling. If this is an experiment, it's not over yet!

I have made it a point to not change any other eating habits, except that two weeks ago we gave up carbonated beverages completely. Oddly enough, that had no effect on my weight.

I recommend any book by Victoria Boutenko, but especially "Green for Life" and "12 Steps to Raw Foods."

More Fruit than Cereal in my Breakfast Bowl

As you can see, there is more fruit than oatmeal in my cereal bowl. What a healthy way to start my day!!