Blog Award

Annalisa of Indulging My A.D.D. just made my day by nominating me for a blog award!! Cool!

Before passing on this award, you must follow the RULES:

1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.
2. Pass the award to other blogs that you've newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Now, I have the pleasure of passing it on. After much thought, I am passing it on to Jared Akers at Spiritual Zen, who writes the only blog (other than by personal friends in real life) that I absolutely always, without fail, without skimming, read word for word every time he writes.

Loving my SodaStream!

OK, I've had my SodaStream for 6 months now. It is no longer a new toy. It is an essential part of my kitchen and worth every square inch of space it takes up in my motorhome. Believe me, if you live in a motorhome, an appliance MUST justify its space.

It's summer now so cold drinks are essential. A squirt of lemon juice, a few drops of STEVIA, a bunch of ice and carbonated soda water is delicious. A little orange juice and soda water beats any orange soda I've ever had. How about cherry vanilla? Use the 100% cherry juice from the health food section of the supermarket and a splash of vanilla extract.

I have given some of these as gifts and the recipients have loved theirs as much as I do mine.

If you are a regular reader, you know this is not a business site and do not do this blog for money. The affiliate link is to make it easy for you to find it. I will only ever put links up for something I 100% believe in.

Fish & Felons - Interesting

I found this quite interesting.

http://neopaleo.typepad.com/the_neopaleo_gourmet/2007/02/fish_oil_and_fe.html

SodaStream! My new toy.

I have a new toy, and a new solution!

I like to drink soda. I don't like to drink sugar, much less the HFCS that most soda is made of. A bunch of yummy chemicals with bubbles added isn't really what I want - but there's that yummy part, right? And then, while I was shopping for something totally unrelated, I found the solution.

The SodaStream carbonates tap water. Or bottled water, or filtered water - whatever water you drink. You add either the mixes they sell or better yet 100% juice.

My personal current favorite is 1 part orange juice to 4 or 5 parts carbonated water. I have already given 2 of these machines as gifts. My older daughter, who received one of them, likes to juice a clementine into her sparkling water. Cranberry juice. Grapefruit juice, fresh from the grapefruit. A little lemon and a little lime, for those of us who miss Mountain Dew. Grape. The possibilities are endless.

You can get one online at Soda Club USA, or in person at Camping World, Boater's World, or Williams-Sonoma.

Banana Ice Cream

How easy can you get:

2C cream
1C milk
4 bananas
STEVIA to taste

Whizz in blender
Freeze in ice cream maker
Enjoy

Food

This:

Food is an important part of a balanced diet.
- Fran Lebowitz

came across my the top of my email this morning. I love it. Here are some more.

“Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.”
- Michael Pollan

* Food grows and dies. It isn’t created.
* Food rots, wilts, and becomes generally unappetizing, typically rather quickly.
* Food doesn’t need an ingredient label (and probably isn’t in a package either).
* Food doesn’t have celebrity endorsements.
* Food doesn’t make health claims.
from Modern Forager by Scott Kustes

"If it has a label, don't eat it"
- Mark Hyman, MD


If you're going to America, bring your own food.
Fran Lebowitz

We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.
~Alfred E. Newman

The breakfast slimes, angel food cake, doughnuts and coffee, white bread and gravy cannot build an enduring nation.
~Martin H. Fischer

Sugar is a type of bodily fuel, yes, but your body runs about as well on it as a car would.
~V.L. Allineare

As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists.
~Joan Gussow

Chemicals, n: Noxious substances from which modern foods are made.
~Author Unknown

And from a sticker on my fridge:
SUGAR: THE GATEWAY DRUG

Even Better Cranberry Sauce

This year I made even better sugar-free cranberry sauce:

I boiled the contents of a bag of fresh cranberries until their skins popped, and drained them.
I added stevia powder equivalent to 2 cups of sugar (read your brand's package) and
an apple cut into tiny chunks and
a packet of gelatin.
Mashed it all up with a potato masher and
put in the fridge.

How Do You Cut Down On Sugar?

This comment was posted by Anonymous to an old post, so I thought I'd bring it forward to current time:

okay, this is somewhat of an old blog, but i'm just catching onto this whole sugar thing...

how do you cut down your sugar? i struggle with eating in general. what type of items do you eat for lunch and dinner?

are we talking replacing cooking oils or actual food items or both.

recipes would be helpful and so would brands of items...

How do you cut down on sugar? First, there's the obvious: cakes, candy, cookies, ice cream (ouch). Then there's the process of learning what other foods have sweeteners hidden in them. Reading labels, being shocked at the prevalence of all those words ending in -ose and -ol, among others.
Kathleen of Radiant Recovery recommends moving sugar to mealtimes first, eating it with protein. After a while of that and some other steps - see her website - you detox from sugar.
Mark Hyman of Ultra-Wellness recommends going cold turkey. Whatever works for you is fine. And if you occasionally make an exception and eat some - well, you're still eating less than you were.

What do I eat for lunch and dinner? That depends. I work days sometimes and nights sometimes and have no truly dependable schedule. But a typical lunch might be a chicken quesadilla on a whole-grain tortilla. Or a salad full of veggies and chicken or salmon or ???. Or a bowl of yogurt with fresh fruit. Careful of the yogurt: only PLAIN is sugar-free. The rest are ALL sweetened with either sugar or artificial sweeteners. My favorite dinners are grilled - say burgers, sweet potatoes, veggies. The above is still rather vegetable-deficient but I'm working on that.

The oil question: I'm told olive oil is healthiest. It also doesn't like high heat, so if I'm cooking in the wok I use peanut oil. Flax oil is good in a breakfast shake: when I put it in, I notice less dandruff kind of stuff. I use olive oil and balsamic vinegar on most of the salads.

Recipes: I'm not really a good one to ask. I'm a "keep it simple" kind of cook. You know, "spray the grill with grill spray, marinate a steak, throw it on the grill along with a couple of sweet potatoes and some chicken strips seasoned with whatever I feel like using and cook over medium flame 'til done." Or, "fill a steamer basket with veggies, put over an inch of simmering water until tender but not mushy". That's my kind of recipe. I have put some Real Recipes on the blog, for chocolate candy and stevia sweetened ice cream, and will continue to as I come up with ideas - and readers, please feel free to share your own favorites too - but the internet is full of recipes already and I'm usually on the searching end of those, rather than the posting end.

Brands change their formulas. The only thing better than reading labels yourself is eating fresh things that don't have labels. I can tell you that Duke's is the only mass-market mayonnaise that doesn't have sugar - and that's only the regular, not the low-fat - but then if they change the recipe, will you notice? (As of the last time I bought mayonnaise, that was true in this part of the country, for products at the stores where I shop. There certainly may be others, but I haven't found them.)

In short, there are no easy answers to the "how to eat" question - but it's an interesting and worthwhile adventure. Enjoy the road.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

Oh how I wish I were good at doing book reviews! Because I would so review the book I just read: Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, A Natural History of Four Meals.

In this book, Mr. Pollan follows 4 very different meals ranging from a fast-food burger meal to a meal entirely and personally hunted and gathered. What are we REALLY eating? What are the ramifications? What are the true costs?

It would be a very favorable review. I would begin by telling you how his writing style is such that I couldn't put it down. Although seriously non-fiction, this is not a boring read at all. This is an adventure.

And then there is the subject matter. We are talking serious eye-opening here. Make-you-think stuff. Nitty gritty stuff.

Oh, never mind - just read the book! I'm champing at the bit to read his others.

www.michaelpollan.com

Chocolate, again!

More ways to enjoy chocolate without sugar or other yucky sweeteners:

Almost Pudding:
Puree ripe bananas, with a soup spoon of cocoa powder for each banana. Chill. This makes a delicious pudding-like dessert. It doesn't gel as gelled as regular pudding, but it will thicken up nicely. I will try it folded into whipped cream sometime soon.

More ice cream flavors:
Making ice cream in individual serving sizes in the plastic bags, I've tried several yummy flavors:

Cherries & Almond flavoring. A special favorite.

Orange flavoring and vanilla. Makes something amazingly Creamsicle-like. Yum.

Cocoa powder and mint flavoring. Also good.

Tips for a Better Life

My oldest friend (meaning how long she's been in my life) sent me this this morning and I thought it deserved posting here - and on my other blog - and on my refrigerator too. So, in no particular order except the way I received them:
40 Tips for a Better Life in 2008

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It
is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.

3. Buy a DVR and tape your late night shows and get more sleep.

4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement,
'My purpose is to __________ today.'

5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.

6. Play more games and read more books than you did in 2007.

7. Make time to practice meditation and prayer. They provide us with
daily fuel for our busy lives.

8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.

9. Dream more while you are awake.

10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food
that is manufactured in plants.

11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan
salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.

12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

13. Clear clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and
flowing energy into your life.

14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, OR issues of the past,
negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your
energy in the positive present moment.

15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems
are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like
algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a
college kid with a maxed out charge card.

17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the NEGATIVE BLUES away.

18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

22. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.

23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their
journey is all about.

24. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In five years,
will this matter?'

26. Forgive everyone for everything.

27. What other people think of you is none of your business.

28. REMEMBER GOD heals everything.

29. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

30. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends
will. Stay in touch.

31. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

32. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

33. The best is yet to come.

34. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

35. Do the right thing!

36. Call your family often. (Or email them to death!!!)

37. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements:
I am thankful for __________. Today I accomplished _________.

38. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

39. Enjoy the ride. Remember this is not Disney World and you
certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life
so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.

40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about. (Actually I didn't forward this to anyone. But the link to the blog is on every email I send, so sooner or later...)

Now, I invite you to post anything that you think should have been on the list!

Yummy Chocolate Candy sweetened only with STEVIA

I think I have the chocolate candy thing figured out!
Chocolate doesn't like liquid. So I break up unsweetened, just cocoa, baking chocolate into small pieces and put in top of double boiler with stevia POWDER. Boil the water under it. Take care not to let steam get into the pot with the chocolate - don't cover it. When it begins to melt, I take it off the heat and stir like mad to melt the rest - and make it be shiny and not lose its temper. (Temper means the cocoa butter is properly attached to the cocoa and doesn't "bloom" in unsightly white streaks on your finished chocolate.)
How much stevia? I liked the results I got with 5 soupspoons of Stevia Plus. Stevia Plus also has inulin, a fiber supplement, which makes it easier to measure - 2 Tablespoons would equal a cup of sugar. Some powdered stevia is just stevia and very very small amounts would be needed.

Yesterday's batch I made some with dried fruit and nuts, some with unsweetened coconut, and some plain, with mint oil. I liked that especially well.

Delicious Tortillas! sin masa o azucar! (without flour or sugar)

I found something delicious this week.

It seems all the "whole wheat" tortillas on the market, at least in my stomping grounds, are part whole wheat but still contain white flour. Except Tam-X-ico's whole wheat tortilla, which is actually whole wheat and other whole grains and is delicious. But it does have a small bit of sugar and some other ingredients that sound more like chemistry than food.

And then I happened upon Ezekiel sprouted grain tortillas. This is their ingredient list:

INGREDIENTS: Organic Sprouted Whole Wheat, Filtered Water, Organic Unhulled Sesame Seeds, Organic Sprouted Whole Soybeans, Organic Sprouted Whole Barley, Organic Sprouted Whole Millet, Organic Sprouted Whole Lentils, Organic Sprouted Whole Spelt, Sea Salt.

Now, that's FOOD. I bought a pack to try, and 2 quesadillas later trotted back to the health food store at which I found them to stock up.

Here's their website: Ezekiel Tortillas