Crazy Cooking

I like alliterations, can't you tell?  Anyway, earlier this week I saw an ad at a local store that sells mostly restaurant quantity stuff.  You can get a keg o' ketchup, a case of crackers, a shitload of shiitakes or every flavor of latte syrups you can think of.  But what I saw that caught my eye was the 25 pound box of red peppers.  Yep!  25 lbs!  Ahhh, roasted red peppers.  I love them.  We use a jar or so every couple of weeks, so I figured how many could 25 pounds be?  Well, duh!  25 pounds, dummy.  We also eat a lot of fresh peppers -- sliced on a sandwich, in stir fry, they are great roasted with other veggies, and they go well in a curry dish that I really like (sorry, honey, but I do).

So it only took five hours to roast 42 red peppers on the grill.  We saved three out to eat fresh, mainly because I was tired of the every-15-minute trip to the barbecue to flip and rotate.

Here is the timeline of my morning:

Here is the first batch taking a bath

All clean and ready to go

Roasting away

Cooling & waiting for bagging

Bagged and ready for the freezer

I really enjoy the weekends for they are great times to be in the kitchen for long periods.  While most people are out working in the yard, going for a bike ride or drinking beer on the golf course, I'm in the kitchen concocting the next weird thing.

Let's see, in the last month, in addition to my regular fare, I have made oil-free basil pesto stuffed mushrooms (twice), no-tuna salad, roasted red pepper hummus, my own sunflower seed butter (a desperate attempt to replicate the store-bought stuff), Thai coconut curry, Aztec stuffed pitas, mushroom oat burgers and "fries," homemade muesli (that one got shipped off to our son who longs for normal food -- notice I said "normal" and not "Mom's cookin'"), a couple of different salad dressings, creamy zucchini bisque, and a bunch of other things that I can't think of right now.

A friend of mine told me the recently that I spend more time in the kitchen in one day than she does in an entire week!  I love this way of eating.  We try so many new things -- some we don't like & I'll never make them again. 

People often ask us "what do you eat?"  It's like they have the idea we only nosh on heads of lettuce for dinner and nibble on carrot sticks for lunch.  Au contraire, my friend.  We eat incredible food, including green smoothies that taste like chocolate milkshakes, veggies stuffed in a pita topped with dijon/date dressing, and oh, wow, we even eat lasagna or "spaghetti" squash topped with our favorite sauce.  Don't forget the black bean lettuce wraps that are so fresh & tasty you won't even know they're healthy!  And for dessert, you say?  We've had banana "ice cream," black bean brownies and chocolate truffles.  And there's always the old standby dessert, FRUIT!  One of my favorites is an apple sliced up, dipped in almond butter and then dipped for the second time in currants. 

I really do think we have greater variety now that we've been "Eating to Live."  Maybe it's because I work hard to plan our meals.  I don't remember putting nearly this much thought into meal planning when we ate meat and had a processed food at almost every meal. Now our meals are full of things from the refrigerator.  Very few items come out of the pantry anymore unless it's to open a carton of nut milk, or to open a can of beans in a jiffy because I forgot to thaw some out & we need them NOW for our salad.

Well, I will be poring over the recipes for next weekend to see what fun things I can come up with for the following week.  You see, I apparently have orthorexia nervosa, a condition that is specific to those who are healthy eaters.  We tend to focus on food and plan our meals well in advance.  On the self-diagnosis quiz, I believe I scored an 8 (or 9, depending on one answer) out of 10.  I wonder what they cure is... GREEN LEAFY VEGETABLES; that's it!

Fiona? Fiona? Fiohhhnnnnaa!?

So I don't know if you know what a monster smoothie (or green smoothie) is.  I drink them multiple times a week because they're good for you -- blah blah blah.  This morning I make myself a tropical green smoothie, complete with orange, banana, coconut, mango & spinach.  Freshly poured,  my cold cup is sitting on the counter and as I go to put the lid on the cup, I hit a salad bowl that was tilted up on the counter drying and it falls over hitting the cup of green smoothie.  It tips over -- towards me, of course -- and it splashes/spills ALL OVER ME.  So now I'm standing there looking at my shoes and the green goo all over the kitchen thinking, "Oh my goodness, Shrek just shit all over me!" 

Of course, this entire thing happened within 5 minutes of me needing to leave the house.  So, what do I do first -- strip naked in the kitchen? wipe down the counter? mop the floor?  No... I just stand there, staring for a few minutes wondering WTH do I do.!  So I strip down to my undergarments and grab a large towel.  I start from the bottom up, wiping the floor, the cupboard doors & then the countertop.  I finished off with wiping down the fridge, the dishwasher & cleaning my shoes.  Tossing my green-puke blouse & sweater in OxyClean, I trod upstairs to pick out a new outfit.  At this point I've already missed the bus and am wondering if it's even necessary for me to go to work & perhaps I should just climb back into bed.  But realizing that I am a highly-valued employee, I grab some quick-change clothes, put them on & out the door I go, 30 minutes later than usual.  I drive to work, praying the entire way that the start to my morning is an isolated incident and that I can arrive at work on time, unscathed by any further harm.  Alas, I did... only to spend 10 minutes in court and the rest of the day in my office!  So, again, I ask... Can't I just climb back into bed?

Hope you're having a happy day!

These are a few of my favorite things

As mid life cruises along, I've realized it ain't that bad.  I'm wondering more if I shouldn't change the name of my blog to something like My Midlife Mumblings Make Me Miserable.  Because, after all, misery loves company, right?  If you complain, you'll be unhappy.

I think I will focus more on food.  A blog seems to be a good outlet for a lot of my grumbling about unhealthy food choices that I make, mostly sugar!  Most of you know that I follow a diet-style like none other.  Most people look at me like I'm nuts, but (ooohhhh, nuts... yum! Oh, look, a shiny thing)  I really enjoy the challenge of being healthy. 

Recently, I posted a question on the Dr. Fuhrman forums asking what "avoid" really meant since Dr. F has a number of foods that we should avoid for better health.  For me, one of those foods is gluten.  Gluten, as you know, is in wheat and other grains.  It was advised that I "avoid" gluten to help with what appears now to be an undiagnosable autoimmune disease.  (More on that in a different post.)  So there's a couple things going on here.  What really does "avoid" mean?  and   Why avoid gluten? 

First, "avoid" means avoid like the plague.  And that answer comes not only from the forum, but also my handsome husband.  I hate it when he's always right.  If you knew there was a 10-mile backup on I-5 and you were told to avoid the area, you would, right?  If there was a man with a gun running around and you were told to avoid him, you would, right?  So when you're told to avoid a certain food, you don't eat it, right?  Well... only if you want to get sick.  But darn if it doesn't taste good.  I have learned that gluten isn't for me.  (The answer to the second question)  This recent discovery as to why I've felt lower belly discomfort a lot of my life has led me to avoid gluten as much as possible.  It has also made me realize that I need a substitute.  Gluten-free breads are good, though many of them are not vegan & still contain sugar -- Gasp! So does regular wheat bread, duh -- they also are expensive, and really good GF products are only baked at our local bakery certain days of the week.  I have learned to make my sandwiches in lettuce wraps.  It's one of my new favorite meals -- and snacks, for that matter.  Anything you put on bread, you can put in a romaine leaf!

Top it off with some yummy nut dressing & you've got a wholesome meal.  I usually eat two of these.  And no meal would be complete without dessert, so this is my new addiction.  Apple slices with almond butter with currants!

So now, I feel like a million bucks and I have another game to add to my list of healthy eating challenges .  Now, if I could just as happily take on sugar.

Bumbing Mumblin

This is supposed to be a midlife mumbling blog & I haven't been mumbling about anything lately much less midlife.  So I will do some catching up.  If this post doesn't explain the inner workings of a pre-menopausal, midlife woman, I don't know what will.

My very smart, talented, handsome, free-spirited, high-on-life son has made the decision that college isn't really all it's cracked up to be and he wants to follow his dream and work with kids in the outdoors.  By now you're saying, Well, that all makes sense; you should follow your dreams.  I wholeheartedly agree.  It's taken me a number of weeks to get over the idea that right now college is not his thing and while he's still young he should travel and live the life of a single, free guy.  So at the end of May, we will pick him up from his dorm; he will say goodbye to his very special roomie and we will bring him home for a few weeks before he packs up all of his belongings -- all of those that are extra special to him like his climbing gear & guitar -- and he and my handsome hubby will head off to Wyoming.  Yes, Wyoming.  Do you notice that word?  Say it very slowly... WY-OH-MING.  Doesn't it sound like "Why, oh me"? 

When we have kids, we have dreams for them.  Our dreams are not their dreams.  They must stretch their wings and leave the nest at some point.  I'm okay with that.  I don't think that having him gone for the summer is all too different than when he worked at Boy Scout camp near Bumping Lake.  He will be home after a few short weeks & then he'll tire of us after a bit and be on to something different.  Au contrair, mon ami!  After he works at the kids' camp, he will be moving over to the resort owned by the same folks.  He plans on being gone until at least October, maybe longer.  He assured me he'd come home for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I'd better start planning my menu now!

This idea of him moving to a different part of the country does give me some travel ideas, however!  Grand Tetons.  I think I was there when I was five or six and I'm sure I didn't appreciate the scenery at all. And how nice would it be to have my son waiting on ME at a resort?!  Oh, there goes that dreaming again.

So another day that I'm feeling older & one step closer to emptynestedness.  I'm not sure I'm complaining, just mumbling.

Tomorrow I will post about food.  Today I just HAD to report my latest midlife crisis.  I think I'm lovin' it... at least embracing it.
Toodles,

Age is just a number... really?

I've been thinking about age a lot recently.  As a mom of an adult child <gasp!> and a wife a retiree, I've been feeling old lately.  I keep plugging away and going to work each day which I like.  I like routine and organization so work keeps me on target.  It seems easier to work out and eat well when I'm in my groove.

Speaking of being in the groove... What really made me think today that I was getting old was when I clicked on the radio to the "oldies" station, Michael Jackson's PYT: Pretty Young Thing was playing.  After singing along and doing a little car dancing on my way to the Park & Ride, I realized I was listening to what is termed an oldies station.  Seriously?  Oldies? That song was released in, oh... 1982 on the Thriller album.  That really wasn't that long ago.  After all in 1982, I was just a pup in high school, eager to get my driver's license and start my own life as a PYT (okay, that was added as humor).

For the last couple of weeks when I've looked into the mirror, I've seen an old lady.  I really think I'm becoming my mom.  My neck is getting wrinkled, my eyes look tired and we won't even talk about my hair!!  I've been focusing on eating so healthy & feeling great I've forgotten to look at ME closely.  And my hands... Oh my goodness.  The hands really tell a woman's age.  Yep.  If I didn't know that I was in control of my fingers, I'd say they were my mother's!  Perhaps when God was mixing the X & Y chromosomes and creating my DNA, I got all of my momma's characteristics.  But that's okay.  My mom was a great woman!  I'll gratefully take her grey hair, her wrinkly, stubby fingers & her lines around her mouth.  I'll accept all of that to have a happy & long life.  In order to do that, I think I'll go eat a salad!