"Mostly Vegetable Soups" to help remove the holiday pounds

Mostly Vegetable Soups

Click to purchase ~ $2

Just before the holiday gluttony kicks in, and just after the New Year gluttony ends, Mike and I fill ourselves up with healthy healthy soups and stews.  These comfort foods give us the boost we need to resist some of the worst abuses, and they also help to get us back on track in the New Year.  This has been our pattern for years now, and I'm happy to say that even if we pack on a few pounds during the week leading up to Christmas and the week in between it and January 1, we always manage to get them right back off before another two weeks have passed.

No, we're not special (as in "well isn't that special?")...we just choose our gluttony wisely!

Well, I've put together an e-booklet with 13 of our favorites.  While I can't make any health or nutrition or even diet claims for these soups (I am not a registered anything), I can tell you that they work for us. 

  
Tomato Basil Soup 

Filipino vegetable carving

When Mike and I went on a cruise through Alaska's inner passage, one of the shipboard events I enjoyed seeing the most was a demonstration by some young Filipino men who had mastered the fine art of vegetable and fruit carving.  There are a few more pictures on my Mixed Media Artist blog if you'd like to see and read a bit more about it!

Agave nectar and syrup

I was soooo disappointed to learn recently that agave is extremely chemically processed during its extraction, and that its glycemic index is higher than regular table sugar!  Bummer.  Just when you think you've found a better "natural" alternative.  :-(

Read about 5 top eating "healthy" myths on GoodGreens blog.

Dora the Explorer party

A few days ago, I showed you all the fun stuff that Kids Party World sent me to try out on some unsuspecting party-goers, and I'm here to report that all the props and decorations were a big hit!  A lot of my granddaughter's extended family is bilingual (Spanish and English), and Dora is definitely a family favorite.

It's fun to have all the matching tableware, but I think my favorite has got to be the oversized poster for the wall.  It really helped to set the mood!

As regards FTC disclosure guidelines: I have received selection of Dora the Explorer party supplies free of charge from Kids Party World in order to write a review.  I have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received.

Basic chunky granola

I am totally fed up with cereal, and I don't even eat it.  Well, once in a great while, but not frequently.  However, Mike eats it almost every day, and that gave me reason to start looking a little more closely at the ingredients.  I'm sure most of you already know that even "healthy" cereals (by whose standards??) are loaded with unnecessary sugar, salt, and other garbage.

I'm not opposed to sugar or salt, and I use them liberally in cooking where I know exactly how much is in there.  But who needs them added to every processed food on the shelves?  The food manufacturers, that's who. They have trained our taste buds away from the taste of actual food and made us lovers of processed crap.

Ok, down off my soapbox.  I've removed nearly all the processed foods from our personal shelves, so now it's time to look at cereal.  Don't worry, there's sweetener in this recipe!

Basic Chunky Granola 

1/3 c maple syrup
1/3 c light brown sugar
4 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
1/2 c canola oil
5 c rolled oats (not quick cook or steel cut)
2 c almonds, chopped, raw preferred
2 c raisins or other dried fruit

Spray a rimmed baking sheet and line it with parchment.  Set the rack to the upper middle position and preheat to 325.  In a large bowl, whisk the syrup, sugar, vanilla, and salt together, and then whisk in the oil.  Stir in the oats and almonds and work with your hands until the sugar mixture is worked through.

Scrape out the oats onto the baking sheet and compress the mixture firmly into a thin, even, and tight layer.  Bake for about 40 minutes, rotating the pan once. Remove from the oven to a wire rack and cool thoroughly.  Break the granola into pieces and stir in the raisins.  Store in an airtight container.

Dora the Explorer hosts a birthday party!

Katherine, with her new baby sister Julianna

Kids Party World sent me a party-in-a-box recently, which we decided needed to be tested out properly on our granddaughter Katherine, who is just turning 5 and is definitely a fan of all things Dora.  Also of all things princess, pony, ballet, littlest pet shop, and a whole lot of other topics as well.  Fortunately, many of these other interests of hers could have been equally well handled by Kids Party World!

I think you'll be impressed by the wide selection of themes and specific supplies available at their website.  As you can see from the shot above, we received tableware, decorations, toys, stickers, confetti, and a fabulous poster to hang where the kids can have their picture taken with Dora!  More pictures will be coming once we've had the party!

As regards FTC disclosure guidelines: I have received selection of Dora the Explorer party supplies free of charge from Kids Party World in order to write a review.  I have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received.

So proud to be from Boston

The courage of our first responders, volunteers, and fellow runners puts the spotlight clearly on the cowardice of the thugs.  So proud of all the ordinary folks who ran into the fray along with the trained first responders to provide help.

Philosophy 101

Mostly Vegetable Soups!

Mostly Vegetable Soups

Click to purchase ~ $2

Mike and I are starting our two-week course of healthy soups to help us get rid of the pounds we picked up during the holidays!  You can read about my recipe e-booklet here.

See you in a week!

Love you all!  I'm taking the week off (mostly to play with the little one), and I'll see you bright and early in 2013!!

Merry Christmas!

Eat early and often, my friends!

Delicious soups to help remove the holiday pounds

Mostly Vegetable Soups

Click to purchase ~ $2

Just before the holiday gluttony kicks in, and just after the New Year gluttony ends, Mike and I fill ourselves up with healthy healthy soups and stews.  These comfort foods give us the boost we need to resist some of the worst abuses, and they also help to get us back on track in the New Year.  This has been our pattern for years now, and I'm happy to say that even if we pack on a few pounds during the week leading up to Christmas and the week in between it and January 1, we always manage to get them right back off before another two weeks have passed.

No, we're not special (as in "well isn't that special?")...we just choose our gluttony wisely!

Well, I've put together an e-booklet with 13 of our favorites.  While I can't make any health or nutrition or even diet claims for these soups (I am not a registered anything), I can tell you that they work for us. 

  
Tomato Basil Soup 

An important warning...

Real Food Fast for your Kindle!

Did you know that the Real Food Fast! blog is available for your Kindle?  Unfortunately, it's not free (Amazon sets the price), but it's only 99¢ a month.  Is technology great, or what?

My other two blogs are now there as well:
Beading Arts
Mixed Media Artist blog   

I heart food

Image: Portlandia on Facebook

Manischewitz Wine Bottle Organ

Swap out junk for solid nutrition

A few weeks ago, David Greenberg from Good Greens contacted me and asked if I would like to try some of their healthy snack bars that they would like to see replace the junky candy bars so many of us turn to during the day.  Well, skeptic that I am, I expected the bars to be marginally edible at best, especially after I found out that most of them are coated in vegan chocolate.  I've had vegan chocolate before and it was gross.  Apparently this was also company founder Keith Pabley's experience, because he made it his mission to create a natural and organic health bar out of green superfoods that didn't taste awful. 

So it turns out I was wrong...these are fantastic.  They use real chocolate, folks.  It might be vegan, but it's got great flavor, no funny aftertaste or weird texture.  Love them love them love them.  You know that I'm pretty much a whole foods kind of girl, and that I tend to stick my nose up at packaged foods of any type.  Well, thanks to chocolate coconut, chocolate mint, chocolate chunk, chocolate peanut butter, chocolate raspberry, and wildberry, now I need to convince my local store to carry Good Greens bars!  

From the Good Greens website:

The bars contain a patented blend of 52 natural super foods, which are naturally dried and minimally processed. These super foods boast a vast array of micronutrients, probiotics and antioxidants to enhance immunity and even combat disease. In addition to their impressive nutritional values, Good Greens Bars are also gluten‐free, dairy‐free, vegan and contain the nutritional equivalent of 100 percent of your daily fruits and vegetables.

Encased within the rich layers of dairy‐free dark chocolate lie a variety of nutritious ingredients including spirulina, one of the highest protein and most phytonutrient‐dense foods on the planet, and camu camu, which packs more than 11 times the recommended daily value of vitamin C in a single teaspoon. In addition, the bar also contains alfalfa, wheatgrass, spinach, pomegranate, ginger and nine types of berries including acai berries and goji berries. These and 45 other nutritionally‐optimal foods can be found within a pocket‐sized bar, making a yummy powerhouse meal accessible at any time or place.

Their dark chocolate coating (wildberry is the chocolate‐free variety) enhances the flavor experience, making Good Greens bars a snack of choice for parents, kids and everyone in between.

As regards FTC disclosure guidelines: I have received a box of Good Greens bars free of charge from Good Greens in order to write a review. I have not been paid for my endorsement as it pertains to the products received.

Skinny? Who cares?

Coffee...not just for drinking anymore

How to predict the weather with a cup of coffee.  No, I'm not kidding you!

Just Add Sugar

With a title like that, you might be expecting a cookbook, but instead Just Add Sugar is a journal-style collection of the adventures of my friend Deby Scott, sharing the joys and frustrations of being a mom.  When infertility and the world said no, God said yes to Deby and her husband Eric, and in just 15 years they became the parents of seven precious adopted children. 

Of course, not every day is literally sweet!  Like the time that Deby worked for hours to make a fluffy chocolate bear cake for son Nick's first birthday.  Well, Nick, who was already a climbing maniac, managed to pull over the cake and splat the whole thing on the floor:

My cake!  My darling little bear cake!  What was I going to do now?  I was in shock and had to think fast about how to handle the situation.

I grabbed my spatula and started scooping the cake off the floor in chunks.  I tried arranging those chunks, some with frosting and some now without, back into the shape of the cute fluffy bear; but by the time I was finished, it was anything but that.  It was a hopeless, miserable mess, and one that looked very much like it had been in a horrible wreck! 

....I was heartbroken, but what could I do?...

I stuck a candle in it and we ate it!

The "Sugar" refers to the sweetness of the presence of God in daily life, and this was just one of the many many times that Deby and Eric had to rely on that sweetness!

As you might expect, many of Deby's stories include food as well as children.  But I don't want you to be misled; it's not a cookbook.  Deby wrote this amazing collection to be an encouragement to mothers, especially to adoptive mothers, but really to all moms.  And dads too, for that matter.  As I read through Just Add Sugar, I could hear just how much the stories are in Deby's actual voice.  You'll love this: it's like sitting down with a good friend and swapping tall tales...except that hers are true!