Friday Night Pizza!

It's Friday, the cakes are finished and gorgeous!
This cute little purse is among my favorites. I'm happy, I'm relaxed ( the shot of tequilla didn't hurt) dinner's well underway and my Gentlemen Husband and I had a very nice day together.

We made our own pizza and it looks mouth wateringly delicious. We made our own sauce, which is the best way to go because it's easier to control the fat, cholesterol, sugar and every other good thing. We're using whole wheat crust which has a lovely nutty flavor. I like sauted spinach, sliced roma tomatos, green olives and vegan cheese of the romano, parmesan variety. I only use a wee bit of the cheese, a 1/2 cup at most. You'd be surprised how much that is.I'm still getting used to it. Veggie Shreds don't melt very well, they sort of keep their shape, which is why I opt for the finely shredded variety.

We're having grilled pineapple for dessert. I saute it in a tiny bit of olive oil and add a little honey while it's grilling. I like it warm/cold so I don't saute it long enough heat completely through. Fresh pineapple is the best for this application.

I love this dinner, it's healthy and I don't feel cheated. I'm finding that I'm actually saving money with my new meal plan. I hesitate to order out now because there's usually nothing on the menu I feel I can eat and I have no clue what the 'numbers' are on stuff I don't prepare myself. I'm sure we'll go to a restaurant eventually but it will have to be one with seafood and salads and veggie type things. I hate to be that pain in the neck cover who asks for everything on the side, and special order this and that but I will be. I'll get over it!

Well, here's the tomato sauce recipe. It's subject to change depending on how you feel on any given day. I tend to cook with my senses and I'm a thrower. I'll toss things in randomly but I usually go with my nose. If it smells right toss it in. I also use this sauce for whole wheat mostaciolli, minestrone soup and spaghetti. We usually have some on hand. You never know when you'll need it.

Tomato Sauce for Pizza.

Saute an onion in olive oil until almost translucent
Add several cloves of garlic and saute until you can smell the garlic
Add 2- 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce and a can of diced tomatos
Add Seasonings. I use parlsey, basil, oregano, chili powder, sugar, salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg.
Let the sauce cook until thickened and yummy.
Adjust seasonings as necessary.

A run through the garden pizza is delicious and healthy. The leftovers are even better!!

All the best, Kate

The Etiquette on Christmas Decorations

I'm reasonably sure that according to Hoyle, Christmas decorations should be removed by Twelfth Night which I believe to be yesterday, yet I have no desire to take down the tree. I almost feel that since store decorations have been up since well before Thanksgiving there's a bit of wiggle room here.

I like the tree, each ornament is unique and truthfully I just put a new one up yesterday. It is one of three that I received this year as gifts. Two are from my daughter in law Cate, a snowglobe with a deer in the snow and an angel bell. The other from my friend Laurie, is a slice of strawberry pie and is the sister to a three tiered cake ornament she gave me last year.  I am enjoying looking at them and I'm not ready to stop.

There's something about wrapping them in tissue and putting them to sleep in a box for a year that makes me sad. Perhaps it would be a more valuable use of my time to leave them there and enjoy gazing at them. It may help to balance my chi. Through feng shui, chi  energy should be able to roam freely in order maintain balance. Chi is a very powerful thing. The balance of your surroundings can greatly affect your outlook and mood. If you use the color green in the East part of your house it improves your health and helps balance your family life. Our Christmas tree just happens to be green and coincidentally resides in the South East corner of our living room. Close enough for me and a very compelling reason to leave the tree standing.

You may think I might be grasping at straws, procrastinating or lazy. Not true. I like my stuff. I think there's something romantic about using it. Why should china sit in a cabinet, and candles go unburned. When I'm on my deathbed  am I going to blurt out that I really enjoyed NOT using the stuff  I've cherished throughout my life. Gifts from best friends, letters my gentlemen husband wrote me in college, treasures from relatives, things I'd try to save in a fire, these should be enjoyed. O Tannenbaum I'm not sick of you yet !

Who knows when it will come down. When I find another way to balance my Chi I might feel led to take down the tree and decorations.  For now it stands.

All the best, Kate

Filet of Soul

There are days that I daydream about moving to a little cabin in the middle of nowhere with my gentlemen husband. It would be remote enough that we would have things air dropped to us but not so remote that I couldn't bump into a forest ranger every so often. A dog sled sounds nice too but I'd like to be able to drive a pick up truck in the spring, summer and fall, maybe a zamboni in the winter.

I'm probably just feeling a little melancholy. Things are catching up with me, I'm a little stressed and I can't get the taste of last night's dinner out of my mouth. It was filet of sole and it tasted fishy to the 10th power. Several brushings and a mouthful of peroxydyl still didn't do the job and I woke up feeling like I'd sipped the water out of the fish tank in my sleep. Perhaps I'm de-evolving and tomorrow I'll wake up with scales and a hankering for flaky food.

It dawned on me that yesterday I didn't follow the rules. I skipped meals which caused hunger and then I ate the wrong things. By the time hating dinner rolled around I was starving and crabby and ended up eating peanutbutter and jelly, a handful of animal crackers (does that make me a carnivore?) and a cup of low sugar cocoa- blaech!!

My soul is feeling fileted. My job requires large amounts of sugar, dairy, fat and high fructose corn syrup. Do you have a 50 pound bucket of glucose in your kitchen? My gentlemen husband, who I dearly love, requires large quantities of beef jerky, chocolate donuts and snacky crackery, chippy dippy things so I'm surrounded by the stuff and trying to ignore it. My new snack is peanut butter and raisins on a rice cake and I'm trying to shout it's praises like a cheerleader while family members look on with their eyebrows cocked. It's a little tough once in awhile, on days like this. It's not so dire that have a salami stuffed in the fire wood basket or a lamp stuffed with peanut butter cups but it's tough.

When my soul feels exhausted I think about a little cabin in the woods, a woods that does not contain a candy house and a couple of crumb dropping hoodlums.

All the best, Kate

Spin, Spin, Spin

I made it to the gym today with enough time to walk 12 minutes on the treadmill before spinning began. I realize that ranks me a top spot in the underachievers hall of fame but at least I didn't show up in my pajamas. According to leading authorities, (okay, it was Dr. Oz) you're supposed to walk 2 blocks for every 10 pounds of weight you're carrying, that is on your body, not whatever weights you're literally carrying. Not a back pack, heavy purse, toolbelt, boxes of velveeta or the weight of the world, you know what I mean. It takes 16-17 blocks to make a mile so you can figure it out for yourself, but let's just say I didn't get very far. I need to get up even earlier. We'll see how the rooster feels about it when I wake him up tomorrow.

When I say spinning I don't mean, straw into hay, a carousel,  yarn, or round and round. Technically, that's twirling and the two should never be confused. I'm referring to sitting on a stationary bike and riding slow, fast, standing or sitting with various levels of resistance. On the heavier side if you're not cheating. It takes a few days to get into it and if you have stairs in your home you may want to center your activities on the main level for awhile because your backside is going to be sore. I'm not kidding but you'll feel better...eventually. This tightens up your backside and legs so nicely that in a few months you'll discover that you've literally kissed your ass goodbye. The hardest adjustment may be the bike seat. You can invest in a cheap pair of bike pants with a cushiony bottom for about $20. You won't regret it. If you opt not to, rest assured that in a few months you'll toughen up, not to the point of callouses but you'll adjust. It's probably no worse than riding a horse all day.

There are lots of things to remember. If you follow the teachings of the Dalai Lama you'll learn to live in the moment. The past is gone, the future is ahead and you're just there, taking a ride, letting everything fall away. You'll be prompted to relax your shoulders, keep your elbows down and tucked in, your heels down and your hands relaxed. I use the time to collect my thoughts and sort things out.

The intensity varies and you'll get in a zone and start enjoying it. There's a lot of heavy breathing, sweating and once in awhile you shudder, I'm still talking about spinning. When you get tired you can concentrate on the music or if you're a scifi nerd like me you can recite the Moctar chant of strength. " norak toroth, norak toroth". That's 'torOTH not Torah. Reciting the Torah is much harder but I can do it, and while standing on one foot. I can teach you to do it as well, but another day. For now I need both feet on the peddles.

The camaraderie with other spinners is outstanding, there's a bond. We are a group of people who prefer beating up our bodies to the din of loud music in a dimly lit room well before dawn.  It's all good. You can thank me later, when you're able to buy jeans off of ebay without even trying them on.

I wanted to mention one other thing. There's a website that I frequent called livestrong.com. I keep my food diary there. You can track what you eat and develop meals every day. You can also figure out what your caloric needs are and set goals for yourself. If you want to lose 20 pounds the site will calculate how many calories you should eat to lose 2 pounds a week. The 'Daily Plate' gives you an opportunity to list your foods and tells how you're doing by calculating your calories, grams of fat, sugar, protein etc. You can also calculate in your excercises and it will spit out what you burned. It's easy too, 'point and click'.

I love it but a word of caution. If you're somewhat OCD just relax a little. Don't get so into the numbers that you start freaking out about the sugar content of tomatos. Don't deny yourself for the sake of the numbers. If you're a few grams over, you'll live and you don't have to go public with your information. You have to make it work for your lifestyle. My goal right now is 120 grams of carbs and 15 grams of sugar, but that's just for a little while because that's not realistic long term. It's all about choosing a plan that's right for you.

I changed my eating habits a little over a week ago and I have a little more energy already. To you I say " live long and prosper" and check out that website!!  http://www.livestrong.com/

All the best, Kate

To medicate or meditate, that is the question.

The answer is both. Sadly the healthy diet has not kicked in enough to thwart these awful migraines. It's getting tiresome and no doubt the complaining is too. I'm getting a little frustrated at having headaches for so many days in a row. It used to be when I woke up headache free it was a big sigh of relief because I knew it was a free pass for the day. Not so anymore. Waking up sans headache is no longer a free pass. Quite often I get through part of my day only to have a sudden onset migraine. Consequently I live on the precipice of panic.
                                                                                               

I crawled out of bed with a whimper this morning with some residuals of yesterday's headache afloat in my head. After my gentlemen husband left for work I went back and rested for an hour or so and crawled out again and popped a few Excedrin Migraine.  I practically had to force myself to start my day but I made it through  and ended on a high note. I cleaned and organized my office, sorted through the bills, paid a few, and created a sewing room in the spare bedroom. Oh yeah, I worked on cakes too. I'm gloriously satisified with my accomplishments and hoping that today's events may help me to relax and sleep well tonight. Last night I was very restless and awake for most of the night. Ridiculous.

I have quite a few pieces of fabric and looking through them was so much fun. I love fabric and have many projects in the works, a quilt, an outfit, curtains and chair cushion covers for a slider rocker I purchased at the local thrify establishment for just a few bucks. The BUTTONS were amazing and I have so many!!! As a child I used to spend hours sorting through my Mother's button jar and found myself enjoying it just as much today.

I suppose sorting and classifying is a type of meditation for me. There were rick racks, elastics, spools of thread, an ecclectic assorment of needles and pins, miniature tools, tape measures and a stack of multi colored fat quarters that I could just cozy up to all day long. These are all good things. I relaxed I feel good and there's a nice aroma of vegan wholegrain mostaciolli coming from the oven. I'm hungry and heartily satisfied at today's events. I hope it lasts. There's a little something clustering in my head but I'm hoping some hot food and warm cuddle will keep it at bay.

In the meantime check out Livestrong.com and we'll chat about it tomorrow.

All the best, Kate

Top of the Morning!

I've recently discovered a love for Southern Biscuits and Gravy but on day 3 of healthy eating in twenty-ten I'm not ready to fall off the wagon, or is it get on the wagon? Either way, pork sausage is not a part of my plan so I opted for Morning Star Sausage Crumbles. Not a bad alternative but I had to add a tablespoon of oil as there was no fat to speak of to make the roux. It got pasty so I fried the dickens out of and it got a little better.  I think next time I would fry up the sausage, leave the fond ( sticky bits) and 1/4 of the sausage in the skillet, make the roux and sauce and then add the remaining sausage back in. My daughter in law Cate, and son Ben thought it tasted pretty good too. It's nice to have a supportive family!! Cate suggested the addition of mushrooms to the sauce and I wish I would have thought of that. Mushrooms often add a nice meaty flavor to dishes. I can hardly wait to try it again.

For the  biscuits, I used a smidgeon more than half all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. I want to maximize my wheat and grains without compromising the taste and texture. I've begun incorporating whole wheat flour in half increments to everything that requires flour. It provides a nice nutty flavor and a delightful texture you can feel in your mouth. When you purchase the soymilk for baking and sauces double check to be sure you don't have vanilla. Even 'plain' has a sweet taste. Look for unsweetened and it's usually in the healthy food aisle, not refrigerated.

The taste was great and my gentleman husband thought it was fine. His tastebuds tend to lean to the refined sugar, chocolatey end of the spectrum so I was flattered. We're doing a little paradigm shifting and I'm enjoying it very much. It takes a lot of planning and a little creativity but I'm beginning to see that I don't have to eat dairy, sugar, and meat to feel satisfied and create meals that are tasty. Perhaps my tastebuds won't be unemployed ad infinitum after all but I haven't told you about my cupcake disaster yet so the jury is sill deliberating.

If you have a few extra bucks invest in a good baking scale. It makes a huge difference in flour and dry good measurements. Look for one that will 'tare' and you'll never have to move the bowl. Mine is a My-Weigh KD-8000 and it weighs in ounces, gram, kilograms and pounds. It's a good investment.

All the best, Kate

Whole Wheat Baking Powder Biscuits

7 oz all purpose flour
6 oz whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 ounce butter
2 ounces shortening
1 cup unsweetended soy milk soured with 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine dry ingredients, butter and shortening and work with your fingers until mixture resembles small crumbs.
Add soymilk and stir until it comes together.
Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead slightly then flatten into a large disk of dough about 3/4 inch thick. Cut with 2" biscuit cutter.
Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Soymill Gravy with Sausage Crumbles.
1 pound Morningstar sausage crumbles ( not Italian style)
Coursely chopped mushrooms (whatever increment you want)
1 Tablespon olive oil
1.25 oz all purpose flour
2 cups unsweetened soymilk
2 sage leaves chopped
lots of pepper
salt

Fry the sausage crumbles, mushrooms and olive oil  in cast iron skillet.
Set aside 1/2 to 3/4 of the sausage in a seperate bowl
Add the flour and cook 3-4 minutes
Slowly add the unsweetened soymilk and cook until a nice gravy forms
Add the remaining sausage back in
Add sage, salt and tons of pepper.


Add the olive oil and flour and cook for 3-4 minutes.