No More Cake

Last night, I finally finished all of the left-over Halloween cake.  Good Job, Me!!  Don't know what I'll do later when my sugar craving comes up.  May have to dive into my kids' Halloween candy.

O.k., so now I don't have any ice cream, cookies, or cake in the house.  There's really no junk food to mindlessly eat on the couch while I watch TV before bed.  I'd have to make hot chocolate or popcorn (lots of butter and salt, of course).  That usually strikes me as too much effort.

So, hopefully, finishing the cake is one small step back towards healthier living.

Winter Garden Planted!

It may be way too late, but I finally got my winter garden mostly planted.  I settled on broccoli, cauliflower, onions, lettuce (Don't know how long that will last!  Guess it depends on when it freezes at night.), beets and chyrsanthamums. 

I also picked up a beautiful little pepper plant at the local garden club sale.  The peppers look like the mini-Christmas lights!  The lady said it will be a prennenial if I put it in a pot and bring it inside in the winter.  The pepper are edible but I neglected to inquire how spicy they are.  Opps!

I never was able to find rutabagas except in seeds.  According to the package, I should have planted them quite some time ago.  It says they can be left in the ground over the winter if heavily mulched.  So, maybe I'll stick those in this weekend.  Can't hurt, right?  Worse they'll do is not grow.

I love playing in the dirt!

Eat Protein - Feel Better!

I'm a suger-aholic.  That's all there is to it.  Its a trait which often leaves me feeling run down, lacking energy, and wondering why, at this age, is my face breaking out and my skin awful? 

So, some time ago I made a commitment to allow myself only one non-protein containing meal a day.  Its working pretty well but I've fallen off the bandwagon a little. 

Actually, lately, I've been terrible - not riding, not doing any exercise, and eating lots of left over Halloween cake. 

And I wonder why my body is revolting with headaches, acne, and aches. 

So, I'm going to put the cake away.  At least I stopped having my nightly, before bed ice cream.  That was one step in the right direction.  A great step would be to just throw the cake away but I can't quite bring myself to do that. 

Winter Garden Update

I'm still planning my winter garden but I thought I'd share a few of the things I've learned you can plant: 

Sounds like pretty much any root vegetable - think turnips, beets, potatoes, etc.  So far, I've bought a beet plant.  I don't know about carrots but I think I'm going to try because we were so excited with our purple, white, and yellow heirloom carrots earlier in the summer.  Oh, rutabagas.  I'm definitely going to plant those.  I like rutabagas and its a fun word to say.  Rutabaga.

Green leafy things - Kale, cabbage, chard, etc.  My family doesn't really like any of those so.  Someone told me you can plant lettuce but I'm not sure.  Might try some lettuce and maybe, maybe some cabbage.  I have no idea what to do with kale or chard.

Broccoli - This seems to be the most popular thing.  I bought a broccoli plant also.

Chrysanthamums - A great fall garden flower.  Our local nursery said they do better in the ground than in a pot and, with a general fertilizer, they'll keep blooming.  Mums are great for cut flowers inside on dreary winter days.  I bought a bronze and a purple one.

That's what I've got so far.  I'll keep you posted!

Winter Garden

I had such a lovely day yesterday - the kids were really cooperative and decided to play together well so I got to spend most of the day between the garden and the barn.

I've never planted a winter garden before but I think I'm going to this year.  I've decided that I'm not a half-bad cook and really love having fresh vegies right out my front door.  That's the inspiration.

I don't know what kind of things one plants in a winter garden.  Plants that tolerate being rather wet, I guess.  We have two good nurseries nearby that sell vegies, lots of heirloom ones too.  I'm sure they'll be able to make some suggestions. 

Zuchini Pancakes

I have too much zuchini.  Please, someone remind me next year that I do not need to plant 3 zuchini plants.  Someone should also remind me that I don't need 8 tomato plants. 

I decided to make zuchini pancakes or zuchini fritters.  Sort of like potato latkes.  I thought zuchini "pancakes" would sound more appealing to my kids than zuchini "fritters".  I made the recipe up:

Grated zuchini, 1 egg, some grated parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, italian seasoning.  Mixed it all up.  Made little pancakes.  Fried in olive oil.

They tasted good but they didn't really stick together and I had to cook them much, much longer than I thought in order to get the middle cooked all the way.  The outsides wound up a little burned because I had to cook them so long.  Hmmm . . . I need to work on my technique a bit. 

But, my 6 year old, who doesn't like zuchini, ate a whole one so I guess that's a success in itself!

I'm a Fan!

Melissa d'Arabian won the latest round of "Next Food Network TV Star" and I'm a huge fan.  Her new show on the Food Network is "Ten Dollar Dinners". 

For lunch here I'm having her "4-Step Chicken".  Yummy!  My husband even really liked it.  Easy to make and endless possibilities which is a good thing given that cooking is not something I excel at.  My only problem with it was that the flour coating didn't stick to the chicken very well.  I patted my chicken breasts dry after thawing them in the microwave.  Maybe that was the problem - should I not have done that?

Next, maybe Friday night, is Melissa's Chicken L'Orange. 

Concotion Cooking

I have to congratulate myself here - my ability for "Concoction Cooking" is greatly improving. 

I like to cook but generally, I need a recipe.  And it takes me forever!!  I'm never going to win a Speed Chopping contest.  But, I do have a fairly well stocked pantry and spice cupboard.  So, with those two things, I'm beginning to step out of the recipe box.

Tonight's concotion:

Marinate chicken breasts in pineapple juice, sliced onions, a fair amount of ginger and some cumin.

BBQ chicken and pineapple rings (I got the pineapple juice from the can of pineapple rings).

Sauce:  Boil pineapple juice and onions from the chicken marinade.  Add in the lentil curry stuff (kind of a paste) I bought at the farmer's market on Saturday.  Add half a can of garbanzo beans.

Serve cut-up chicken, cut up pineapple rings and sauce over rice.  Garnish with some cut-up fresh spinach.

It was surprisingly yummy!!  And I think even fairly healthy.  I mean, come on, I probably wouldn't have otherwise eaten garbanzo beans and spinach?  And, all without so much as a glance at a recipe!   The kids wouldn't touch it but my oldest tried a garbanzo bean and pronounced it "actually, not too bad".  My youngest had a taste of my rice with the sauce and immediately spit it out.  But, they did eat the chicken and rice so I didn't make two completely separate meals.

The real test will be if my husband likes it.

Questions to Ask Before Eating

Here are some questions I try to ask myself before putting something in my mouth:

1.  Why am I eating this?  i.e., Am I truly hungry or am I just bored or upset?

2.  What am I eating?  Is there a better choice?

3.  Do I really need to eat right now?  If its close to a mealtime, can I wait?

4.  How much am I eating?  Portion control!!

5.  By eating this, what sort of example am I setting for my kids?

Answering those honestly helps me; hope it helps you too!  Only takes a second to stop and think!