Explaining Myself by Referring to My Blog

It was a done deal when I recognized the implications.

Even so, I knew it would happen again.

Instead of explaining why I was not going to join the “recipe exchange chain email letter thing” I sent my friend this reply: 

 

Thanks for the invite! Sorry to drop the ball. 
Click here for an explanation.

 

If I were to do it all over again, I would have added this:

Click here for a reason to be glad I’m dropping the ball.

 

New Dinner Plan for Picky Eaters

Me: “How about spaghetti for dinner?”

                        

Him: “We had that last night.”

Actually, we had pasta and salmon.

Me: “How about sloppy joes?”

I have ground buffalo thawing.

Him: “No, I don’t want that. Will you put rice on?”

My new plan? Don’t ask, just make.

On the other hand, he will end up making dinner tonight.
Did I say something about a new plan?

What is your veggie relationship?

Recipe for Buffalo Acorn Squash

Easy, Quick, Healthy Buffalo Acorn Squash Recipe
Perfect dinner for a cool Fall or Winter evening.

Serves: Two

Ingredients:

acorn squash – 1
ground buffalo – 1/2 lb
roasted red peppers from a jar – 2 large 
quinoa cooked – 1/2 cup
yellow curry – 2 tsps 
garlic salt – to taste
red pepper flakes – to taste
coconut oil – 1 tbsp 

Tools:

pyrex casserole/baking dish
butcher knife 
oven/toaster oven 

Recipe:

1. preheat oven to 425
2. cut stem and tip of other rounded end, then cut acorn squash in half, scoop out seeds
3. cover the bottom of a baking dish with 1/2 inch of water
4. set squash in baking dish with flat/open side down 
5. set timer for 45 minutes

6. start cooking buffalo in skillet with coconut oil (solid at room temp)
7. slice 2 red peppers, set aside
8. add curry and pepper flakes to cooking buffalo

9. when meat is cooked add quinoa, roasted peppers & garlic salt to taste
(I over salted my meat but when mixed with the acorn squash it was perfect!)
10. turn skillet on high and brown meat
11. turn off stove and cover skillet with a lid for at least a couple of minutes to trap the moisture 

12. when acorn squash is soft remove from oven and set on plate or in bowl
13. fill the center of each squash half with buffalo mixture
14. serve (watch out, the squash will be very hot)

What modifications to this recipe sound good to you?

Recipe for Raw Green Breakfast Smoothie

Raw Green Breakfast Smoothie Serves: 2

Raw Ingredients:

kale – few leaves
romaine lettuce – few leaves
pear – 1
lemon – 1

Tools:

blender
lemon juicer
knife
cutting board 

Green Smoothie Recipe:

1. wash kale and romaine
2. cut leaves in half
3. fill blender loosely with equal amounts of romaine and kale, set aside

4. wash pear, remove seeds and cut into chunks, set aside
5. wash outside of lemon, set aside 
6. add water 1/2 liter or 2 cups or water to blender

7. blend until leaves are all chopped up
8. blend in a few chunks of pear at a time

9. squeeze lemon into the blender  
10. blend to desired smoothness
11. pour into 2 large glasses (or drink both glasses yourself!)

Healthy Recommendations:

* Drink first thing in the morning on an empty stomach

* Wait at least 30 minutes before consuming other food (fruit only digest well with veggies)

* Go for protein when you eat next (hand full of raw nuts, smoked trout, eggs) to balance out the carbs from the smoothy so you won’t get hungry as quickly and can avoid the temptation of adding protein powder to your smoothie. 

* Drink a cup of hot water, instead of coffee or tea, to flush out your digestive system (Ayurvedic advice)

* Drink daily. A friend got her mom drinking green smoothies and within a couple of months her mom’s vision had improved so much she had to get a new eyeglass prescription!

WARNING: If you have been a processed food eater for years work your way into this yummy, yet fibrous, drink. Trust me, I’m speaking from personal experience.

Additional Raw Food Links:

Green Smoothie Girl

We like it raw

Happy Foody

What are your favorite smoothie ingredients?

A Spoon Full of Sugar

“A spoon full of sugar helps the vitamins go down, the vitamins go down, the vitamins go down.”

Do you take vitamins? How do you manage to get yours down?

For years I have spend piles of money on supplements and vitamins only to toss nearly full bottles after they expired. 

The first three days of swallowing down a new brand of huge, smelly vitamin was fine. Day four I would start gagging it up. I would spend days five and six trying to swallow my vitamin but continue to just gag and never get it down. Even if the vitamin or supplement didn’t make me gag, I just got lazy after about five or six days and never “remember” to take it.

After years of this non-sense and wasted money I decided to quit taking vitamins and supplements all together.

I did stop for about a whole year. That is until I discovered the wonders of gummy vitamins.

Faithfully, I have been taking my vitamins (I even take more than one!) every morning. I look forward to taking them. They are the first thing I consume in the morning.

Now all I need to do is invent the chocolate carrot on a stick and I am sure that running first thing in the morning would become my new favorite thing. Ok, make that my second favorite thing. Those gummy vitamins would still rank number one.

Do you think the benefits of the vitamins out ranks the detriments of the corn syrup?

Food from China

We’ve all heard about the melamine in the dog food and milk from China. 

Now the newest issue of Time Magazine reports the story of people who died because of tainted Heparin (blood thinner). The original source being from–you guest it–China. One of the ingredients in Heparin comes from pig intestines and China has a bunch of pigs. Apparently, the huge demand for product has made it nearly impossible to properly monitor Chinese companies. Sound familiar?

Remember what Upton Sinclair revealed in this book The Jungle, the predecessor to Fast Food Nation? Back in the day, when the U.S. was a manufacturing Mecca, all kinds of disgusting things got mixed into products. 

Thank heavens I didn’t live then! Besides the 19th Amendment not existing or not being able to purchase tampons (can you imagine?) my can of Spam might have been fortified with a knuckle. A scrumptious sandwich ingredient, if I were an Aztec.

After reading that Time article I got to thinking about all the foods I eat. Many have a million and one ingredients and I have no idea how they are made or where they come from. Who would have thought milk could or would be tainted? Could my Chinese green tea, soy sauce, or sour gummy worms be tainted with something weird?

At that moment my idealistic self took hold and now I am thinking of resurrecting my raw foods diet. Besides the fact that lettuce in a blender is starting to sound pretty delicious–at least to the alternative–I need an excuse to put more scraps in our new city composting bin and less into our “land fill” bin. And, if I ever end up needing a blood thinner I’m going to start choking down raw garlic again. Sorry Josh. 

Any interest in joining me in the cause?

Can I get the recipe?

I don’t bake and rarely cook. If I do, you are guaranteed it will be something strange (that only my friend Greta will eat) or run of the mill boring: fried egg inside a sheet of seaweed, a taco pizza on a corn crust (actually, that was pretty tasty), or spaghetti with meat sauce.

If I really, really like something you made I may ask you for the recipe. Why? Good question because you know I am not going to make it. My only hope is that I can get Josh to make it.

Asking for the recipe is really the Jen Grauer secret code for “That tastes so good that I want more. Will YOU make more and share it with me? Please. Pretty pleeeeeeease.”

After dinner at a friend’s last night–where I did not get around to making anything and brought Whole Foods made stuff instead–I was given a homemade oatmeal cookie. I took in order to be polite but I usually pass on oatmeal cookies. They are fine but let’s be honest, they aren’t chocolate chip cookies. Before my first bite I was warned that it was salty, was made with only half the butter and now had the nickname of a “breakfast cookie”. Great. 

OMG! It was so good! I was given three more in a baggie to take home (just over 12 hours ago) and have already gobbled up the last one. 

Hey Rory, can I get the recipe?!

 

Rory's professional looking breakfast cookie!

The secret to a flat stomach!

On my way to the checkout line a book catches my eye. Sure, I’ll bite. What do I need to eat to get a flat stomach? With too many health books on my shelf I flip through the pages to get the gist.

This positive new spin of eating to create a flat stomach is great! I always thought it was about what I should stop eating. 

I search out two of the items on the stomach flattening list and toss them in my cart.

Every day I work diligently on flatting my stomach. I am especially motivated to do the work when I am hungry or feeling bloated, which seems frequent. Strangely, the results are not yet visible.

Perhaps this new method just takes time, a committed effort. I usually give up on my health plans too quickly. This one deserves my discipline and I will force myself to continue until I see results.

 

 

 

 

Dark chocolate Bija Truffles from Canada! Another reason to love Canada!

 

 

Santa Barbara green olives in brine.

Sweet Irony

With my dessert in one hand and my book in the other I sit down to read  ”Sugar Shock”. 

Blah, blah, blah… sugar, white flour, processed foods are making us sick and driving up our deficit by taxing our medicare system. Lobbyist and special interest groups buy government officials (including the president) to keep sugar prices low through subsides and prevent regulation of junk food advertising to kids.
 

My sweet little treat sure tastes good right now though.