An Invigorating Day and Gorgeous Weather

Our day started with the most glorious weather today. Who wouldn’t love a sunny April day with mid-day temperatures in the mid-80’s? Hello spring, how I have missed you. ;-)

Knowing the weather was going to be on the warm side I started a batch of cold processed green and white blend tea first thing in the morning. It is nice to be back to the cold processed green and white tea. I missed making it this winter but when it is cold outside cold tea doesn’t feel “right” to me.

While I was rushing around this morning making Dan’s breakfast and packing his lunch I bent my little toe back extremely far and immediately knew it wasn’t good. I am fairly sure it is broken because it hurts to touch and is swollen. No I didn’t go to the doctor it is only my little toe. I did do some quick research and immediately started icing it, took Tylenol and elevated my foot. Since the Tylenol was enough to take the edge off the pain I just kept going. I did skip my long walk this morning since it isn’t comfortable to be on my feet. Maybe this will teach me to wear slippers around the house from now on. Knowing how I am I can safely say that I probably won’t change my barefoot habit but hope springs eternal right?

Dan had his favorite green smoothie this morning for breakfast which included: frozen banana, kale, walnuts, wheat germ, freshly ground flaxseeds, cinnamon, powdered ginger, stevia and a little water. He loves this smoothie which makes me happy because it is more nutritious than many things he could request for breakfast.

I mentioned yesterday that I just finished reading “Clean” and that has me craving fresh juice. Additionally Emily is doing a juice fast and that also has me thinking juice and smoothies. Of course the change in weather doesn’t hurt either. I suppose I don’t have to tell you what I had for breakfast do I?

Wednesday my breakfast was fresh juice of: 1 beet, 3 stalks celery, 2 cups raw baby collards, 1 orange, ½ lemon, 1 inch fresh ginger and 1 tablespoon chia seeds which I had over ice in a frosty glass. It may be just me but I love having a tall glass of nutrition first thing in the morning.

Given the throbbing in my foot I decided today was a good day to take it a little easy. I actually didn't exercise today. Okay I did some crunches, planks and gentle yoga but I don’t think that really counts. ;-)

My lunch was an enormous salad of: approximately 6 cups baby spinach, about 1 cup cold leftover bulgur with sun-dried tomatoes, marinated mushrooms, thinly sliced cucumber, salsa, and cherry tomatoes. Lunch was delicious, nutritious, very filling not to mention ready in under 5 minutes. That is my kind of lunch for sure. LOL

After lunch I had a chance to chat on the phone and found the call to be very uplifting. There is something wonderful about talking to someone that shares your views of health and nutrition. It caused me to reflect on my life and how it has changed since I gave up being part of corporate America.

Retiring is one of the best things I ever did for myself. When I “worked” I spent far too much time away from home and very little time on myself and/or my family. Additionally I never felt any joy from work; it was only what I did to make money. Of course I liked some aspects for working but overall it was a giant bust.

One of the things I love the most about my life now is the time I have to research health and being able to share it with you. I get many touching emails from people telling me that I inspire them, or asking questions about how to eat more healthfully or telling me how much they like savory oatmeal. Every time I read one of those emails I am encouraged to put more effort into blogging and to share more information. Making a difference in someone’s dietary choices and helping them to improve their health is such a high for me. Thank you for reading, commenting and emailing. All of you make the time I spend on the blog a true labor of love.

After “Chatty Cathy” (my nickname as a child for obvious reasons) got off the phone it was time to make something for dinner tonight. I decided to pressure cook black beans since we hadn’t had those in a couple weeks. You do all remember that the darker beans are higher in antioxidants right? I pressure cooked 2 cups of black beans in 8 cups of water under high pressure for 22 minutes then let the pressure fall naturally. When the beans were cool I put them in the refrigerator for later.

I also cubed two sweet potatoes and cooked them in the little counter-top halogen/convection/infra red oven and they were ready in 15 minutes without preheating the oven. I have only used my big oven twice since I bought this thing. It is the perfect for making quick food for the two of us. I love that it doesn’t need to be preheated and is almost as fast as the microwave but without the odd texture that you sometimes get when cooking in a microwave. When I bought this thing I wasn’t sure we would get a lot of use out of it since it is marketed as cooking meat quickly but I really love having it.

While the beans were cooking I grabbed package of seaweed snacks for their iodine content. When I gave up iodized salt years ago I wondered about the impact on my health but didn’t do a lot of research since I decided adding iodine to salt was unnatural and therefore not a concern. Fast forward about a week ago I read this article about iodine deficiencies in the UK. That was when I decided to add more sea vegetables to our day. We don’t eat sea veg every day but we do have it a couple times of week when I remember. With a little luck sea veg will become part of our routine like the brazil nuts, flax or chia, turmeric and black pepper, broccoli and tomatoes, walnuts, green and white tea with ascorbate C…you get the idea. ;-)

I also had my usual orange and Brazil nut snack.  When it is no longer orange season I may start adding two Brazil nuts to our smoothies to make certain we get adequate selenium.

Dinner tonight was another salad in a serving bowl. This salad contained: baby spinach, cilantro, salsa, black beans, sweet potatoes, artichokes, tomatoes, and marinated mushrooms.

Salads are one of my favorite things to eat when the weather starts to get warmer. It is hard to believe that there was a time when salad was my least favorite part of a meal. My food preferences so radically changed it is hard for me to believe. I often get asked if it is easy to eat this way and my answer is always yes. There are two primary reasons we are able to maintain our uber diet. The first is that we both feel so incredible which reduces our desire for unhealthy food. The second reason is knowledge. Once you know exactly why you should be avoiding certain foods even when our habits and memories cause us to look fondly at an unhealthy item the knowledge is enough to keep us from indulging.

I will be the first to admit that eating healthy at home is a breeze compared to when we go out. Chefs are not typically "able" to cook without oil and that is just something that I accept and don’t obsess about. Given how clean our diet is at home I can let that go when we go out. Life is always a series of trade-offs. I would rather go out sometimes and have some oil that to stay home and have a more perfect diet. I guess you could say having a little oil is my idea of moderation. Overall I am content with the healthfulness of diet at this time.

Happy thoughts:

• I am happy that my toe is improving, and that is wasn’t hurt as badly as it could have been. This morning (Thursday) my toe felt really good until I bumped it on a cat tree. *rolls eyes* I have my foot elevated and iced again and it is starting to feel better. I really need to be more careful until it heals.

• Given my toe I won’t be working out as much for the next few days at least. My plan is to use that time to be productive around the house. I have a number of projects that have been on my to-do list for entirely too long. This forced exercise hiatus will give me time to get a few items crossed off my list.

• It is nice that I have gotten the hang of Facebook since I had a lot of trepidation around starting that. I can already see that I need to be careful that Facebook doesn’t cause me to spend a lot more time on the computer since I have don’t want to give up any of my other activities and there are only so many hours in the day.

• Today I am going to take some time to work on my Easter menu. Currently I am thinking I may make fresh pasta as a treat for everyone. When I have the menu finalized I will let you know what I am making.

Signing off:

I have been lazy long enough this morning so it is time to get busy. I need to make myself breakfast and get caught up with my nutrition reading. For those of you on Facebook I will posting links to any articles that I find interesting soon.

I hope you had the same gorgeous weather yesterday that we enjoyed. Talk to you again tomorrow. Have a great Thursday!

Going to the Doctor and Other Miscellaneous Stuff. ;-)

This week went by like a flash. We had errands to run and things to do and then the weather on Thursday and Friday was nothing short of stupendous and I thoroughly enjoyed it I might add. Both days we reached 75 and I could not have been happier. I am SO ready for spring to arrive.

I am going to summarize this week and try to get back into the daily blogging habit. Something has changed for me regarding blogging and I am not sure what it is. I have been finding excuses this month not to blog and I don’t know why. Maybe I am running out of things to say but I am not exactly certain what changed?

However I do have an idea of something that might be interesting for me to write. What would you think of me researching specific consumables and writing about that? I could share the good and bad about specific foods/herbs/spices etc. Does that have any appeal for you? If you have different ideas I would love to hear them? I am still hashing around ideas in my head so this is a great time to let me know what you are interested in reading. I am also curious if hearing about each of our meals is useful? I have to admit it is boring for me to write but if a lot of you find it useful I will keep doing it.

Tuesday:

Dan worked from home in Tuesday morning since we both had appointments with the internist and noon and 12:20 we drove to the appointments together. Our appointments were generally uneventful. Dan and I had our usual friendly competition to see who did better on “the tests”. I will let you decide what you think here are the stats:

Blood pressure: 122/80 (Dan), 118/76 (Alicia)

Blood Glucose: 87 (Dan), 75 (Alicia)

Cholesterol: 141 (Dan), 189 (Alicia)

Vitamin D: 39.7 (Dan), 57.4 (Alicia)

B12: 442 (Alicia), Dan’s was in the same range 6 months ago so it wasn’t retested.

I think I was “winner” on three tests and Dan took cholesterol by a mile. You know that losing the cholesterol “battle” means that I need to step up my game right? Our internist believes my cholesterol issue is probably genetic. Can you imagine how bad it would be if I ate the standard American Diet? I think my cholesterol level is probably exacerbated by perimenopause. However I also think there are things that I can do to improve it. As soon I have my plan in place I will let you know what I will be changing. It is always something isn’t it? *shakes head*

Being a girl of course I skipped breakfast before going to the doctor and getting on the scale. After all it was bad enough that I was wearing a big sweater and thick pants so was adding breakfast on top of that was out of the question. No vanity here, LOL. I felt so good when I finally got home that I considered fasting on Tuesday but opted to eat a salad instead.

My lunch which was very late (around 4pm) was a huge salad (yes that is a serving bowl it is in) and included: mesclun, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, red bell pepper, wine vinegar, nutritional yeast and chia seeds. Chia seeds are healthy but the texture is a bit odd when they are soaked, like tomatoes seeds. I guess I have completely not warmed up to the texture yet. But I am trying to add them to food when I think of it for the health benefits.

After eating my salad I made a pound of black-eyed peas in the pressure cooker. The beans cook very quickly in the pressure cooker. I combined 1 pound of dried (unsoaked) black-eyed peas, 8 cups of water, 2 bay leaves, no-salt seasoning, crushed red pepper and peeled smashed garlic. Cook the beans for 5 minutes under high pressure then let the pressure reduce naturally. Once the beans were cooked I added a quart of canned tomatoes (you can use 2 – 15 ounce cans), minced garlic, diced red onion, finely diced celery, no salt seasoning, cumin and oregano and simmered until the veggies were tender. I ate this as soup and added quinoa to Dan’s for more calories and protein. This lasted a few days for us so we will be seeing it turn up later in the post.

Later I had a banana and walnuts that I forgot to photograph.

During the evening I was doing a little nutrition reading and came across this article about fermented vegetables. I had read something similar by Dr. David Katz in our internist’s waiting room early today. Coming across this article made me think the universe was trying to tell me something. Until reading these two articles I was considering adding some kimchi or homemade sauerkraut to our diet. I am going to rethink that now. Do any of you have any articles on the nutrition of fermented vegetables? If you do I would love to know the reference. Thanks!

Dinner for me was another salad this one contained: mesclun, grape tomatoes, artichoke hearts, balsamic vinegar, freshly ground flaxseed and nutritional yeast. Dan had a bowl of the black-eyed pea soup and salad and finished dinner with a giant serving of strawberry banana soft serve.

Wednesday:

Where did the day go? I know I started it with a big marinated broccoli salad. I started by lightly roasting some frozen broccoli in the halogen oven. Have I said recently how much I love that little oven? While the broccoli was cooling enough for me to handle I used my hand held julienning mandoline to break down a carrot. I also sliced a red bell pepper and added that to the salad. To the veggies I added a little dressing of red wine vinegar with a touch of stevia and tossed everything to coat it with put in the refrigerator to cool. When I put the salad in a bowl I added some raw pumpkin seeds. I really liked the way this turned out and decided to experiment with more versions of this salad which you will see later in this post.

About mid-day the weather started to warm up to 65 so I opened all the windows to let in the fresh air. There is nothing better than airing out the house after it has been closed up for months. It was a little chilly but I had to do it. I actually left the windows open all day and night. That is how much of a fresh air fiend I am.

Lunch for me was a bowl of the black-eyed pea soup that I made yesterday. I put the same thing in Dan’s lunch but he has a bowl about twice this size and quinoa to put under his bean soup.

I also had my usual orange and Brazil nut snack. I pack the same thing in Dan’s lunch every day so that he gets sufficient selenium too. Dan isn’t wild about the taste of Brazil nuts but since they are the best source of selenium which he knows is important for the immune system he eats them without much complaint. He has to complain a little because that is just how things are in our relationship. Thankfully I know he enjoys complaining and that it isn’t serious. I swear I don’t understand how men think. LOL

Dinner for me was another salad. With the weather warming up I am starting to crave salad again. This one contained: mesclun, grape tomatoes, artichokes, thinly sliced cucumber, and was tossed with nutritional yeast and red wine vinegar. I topped the salad with a few white chia seeds.

Dan worked late on Wednesday and had another bowl of black-eyed pea soup with quinoa; a big salad and strawberry banana soft serve for his dinner.

Thursday:

This was the first day of truly glorious weather. The felines and I enjoyed having the windows open. You would think none of us had every smelled fresh air before.

Breakfast for me was savory oatmeal which this time included: oats, water, nutritional yeast, cumin, no salt seasoning, finely minced garlic, fresh baby spinach, wheat germ, freshly ground flaxseed, grape tomatoes and raw pumpkin seeds. I was not happy about how the oatmeal looked with wheat germ on top and decided to start adding it to the oatmeal before the spinach.

After breakfast Masi was snuggled up on our bed. Yes the electric blanket was on because I am totally wrapped around fuzzy cat toes. ;-) I took my big camera into the bedroom and managed to get another picture of him with his eyes open and wanted to share it with you. I think he is such a pretty boy.

Lunch for me was a bowl of the black-eyed pea soup. I sent the same thing in Dan’s lunch only much more of it and with quinoa to put under it to make it a complete protein and add calories. I also send a salad in Dan’s lunch to make certain that he gets his fresh veggies. I need to learn to worry as much about my nutrition as I do about what goes into Dan.

Both of us had an orange and Brazil nut snack.

For my dinner I wanted more veggies. This time I made a big bowl of marinated veggies which included: lightly roasted broccoli, red bell pepper, red onion, red cabbage, and defrosted frozen mixed veggies (carrots, peas, corn and green beans). I dressed this with red wine vinegar, course country Dijon and stevia and added a few raw pumpkin seeds to the top for healthy fat. This really turned out well so you should expect to see it show up very often. With summer approaching we will be eating a lot more cold veggie dishes soon.

Since I had the end of the black-eyed pea soup for lunch I needed to make another pot of soup for dinner tonight. This time I made a pound of black beans in the pressure cooker. I combined the dry unsoaked but rinsed pound of black beans with 8 cups of water, 2 bay leaves, 6 cloves smashed and peeled garlic and cooked it on high pressure for 22 minutes. I let the pressure reduce naturally and added a red onion, 1 quart of canned tomatoes (no salt), 2 minced chipotles in adobo, 6 cloves garlic, cumin, oregano, no salt seasoning, cinnamon, cocoa powder, chili powder and paprika and simmered until the veggies were tender. Voila bean soup in well under an hour. That is one of the best things about a pressure cooker. I love that you don’t need to soak the beans and they cook so quickly. If you are like me and you don’t plan a pressure cooker can be a life saver at dinner time.

Dan worked late so he ate after I had finished. His dinner was a big bowl of black bean soup with quinoa and a bowl of the marinated veggie salad that I made earlier today.

Friday:

Today was another absolutely fantastic weather day. It was 59 when we woke up. I loved having the windows open all night to let in fresh air. Come on spring! LOL

Breakfast for me was a bowl of the marinated veggie salad that I made yesterday on top of a little quinoa for the refrigerator and a few sliced almonds for healthy fat. I know I say this all the time but this is exactly why I always make intentional leftovers. Sometimes you are busy and the idea of cooking just isn’t appealing. That pretty much explains the entire month of February so far. However even though I didn’t want to cook I still had homemade food in just a few minutes and that was great.

Dan had his usual green smoothie with kale and banana for breakfast. I have started adding wheat germ to his smoothies and oatmeal too. I wanted to increase the amount of vitamin E we are both getting. It doesn’t seem to impact the taste of texture but it does increase the nutrition.

Lunch for me was a simple salad of baby spinach, artichokes and grape tomatoes. I made a quick “dressing” of nutritional yeast, red wine vinegar, freshly ground flaxseed and no salt seasoning. If you like nutritional yeast you should give that combination a try.

The lunch that I packed for Dan was the marinated veggies and black bean soup of quinoa, an orange, 2 Brazil nuts, walnuts and marinated veggies.

I knew dinner would be late since we were going to run errands after work so I made myself a small bowl (less than 2 cups) of the black bean soup.

We needed a few things from the grocery store (mostly kale) so after Dan left work we made a quick trip to Whole Foods (no kale!) and picked up some fresh organic herbs (cilantro and parsley), organic tofu, organic braeburn apples, and organic pink grapefruit.

While we were in Whole Foods we grabbed a 15 whole grain veggie sushi with avocado and cucumber to include in dinner. For those that are interested the 15 grains were: 1) sushi rice, 2) black rice, 3) glutinous rice, 4) germinated brown rice, 5) glutinous millet, 6) adzuki bean, 7) black soybean , 8) glutinous foxtail millet, 9) corn, 10) jobe’s tears, 11) amaranth, 12) black sesame seed, 13) white sesame seed, 14) barely, 15) buckwheat and 16) white sorghum. Well, the label said 15 but clearly it is 16. No OCD here! LOL ;-)

Then we decided to make a quick run to Wegman’s for a few things. I was hoping they were would organic kale, but it wasn’t to be. We picked up organic sweet potatoes, shitake mushrooms (for the immune system impact), brazil nuts (for selenium), macadamia nuts (for making nut cheese), raw pumpkin seeds (for salad and Mexican dishes), wheat germ (for vitamin E), more organic beans (about 12 pounds) of various varieties and a bag of raw super food granola. Are you shocked that I bought granola? Me too actually, but here is why I bought it.

The granola contained: maca, reishi, and astragalus….talk about immunity boosting granola. I had to buy it just to see what it tastes like. The bag I bought has entirely too much sugar in the form of (agave, dates, and palm sugar *rolls eyes* I am more interested in how the flavors come together than anything else. My plan is to use the granola like a crunchy topping for sweet oatmeal. If we like it you know I will be making my own healthier version soon. Some things around here just never change. LOL

When we were heading for the checkout we ran into our friend Louis. Now running into your friends at the grocery store isn’t strange typically but Louis lives in Delaware about 2 ½ hours from here so we were surprised to see him. It was great to see him even if it was only for 15 minutes.

Once we got home and had everything put away I made a very quick dinner. We had the multigrain sushi from Whole Foods. Since we don’t need to sodium I tossed the soy sauce which didn’t make Dan happy but he knows why I did it at least. We also had the end of the marinated veggies that I made yesterday. Those were such a big hit I made another batch on Saturday to try them out on my parents.

We both liked the multigrain sushi so you know what that means….yes I will be making some at home. Luckily I just happen to have a bag of organic multigrain that I picked up at the Asian store which will come in very handy.

True to form we ended up staying up very late last night, well after midnight in fact. So much for getting back on our early morning schedule. We really need to work on that again tonight. It is much more difficult to turn night owls into morning people than I anticipated.

Happy Thoughts:

There are so many things to be happy about this week that I need to keep my list short so that I don’t bore you to tears:

• Dan and I were both generally happy with the outcome at the internist. I have some cholesterol work to do but overall it was a good visit.

• The weather this week has been magnificent. I can’t say enough how much I have enjoyed this early taste of spring. I am looking forward to getting my bike out of storage for some outdoor exercise that isn’t hard on my knee. It will also be fun to use the TRX outside. Woo hoo! I am such a geek sometimes. LOL

• I have been reading another new health book and am really enjoying that. Learning new things always puts a big smile on my face.

• Speaking of new things, have any of you heard of “The Great Courses” before? I ordered a set on health they have on sale that covers nutrition and disease. Once it arrives I will let you know what I/we think of it. I said we since I know I will be getting Dan to watch the parts that I think are interesting. One of the reasons he is completely on board with my healthy lifestyle is that I make certain he learns along with me. Knowing why we are doing different things has lead to greater compliance if you know what I mean.

• It was wonderful to see our friend Louis briefly Friday evening. I wish he lived close like he used to because I miss not having him around the corner. But on the bright side I talk to him at least twice a week and frequently more often. It is always great when a friendship stands the test of time and mileage.

Signing out:

That is the update on what you missed last week. I need to clean up my kitchen from the meal with my folks and get a few other things done around here. Talk to again soon, hopefully tomorrow. I am very interested to hear what you would like to read in my coming posts.

Wednesday 02.02.11 Ground Hog Day

How was your Ground Hog Day? I hope yours wasn’t like Bill Murray’s in the movie. My Ground Hog Day was good and fairly low key. I was able to get back into my normal routine for the most part. It was nice to spend the majority of my day at home.

The day started with breakfast and we both had oatmeal today. Dan’s included mixed frozen berries, cinnamon, powdered ginger, freshly ground flaxseeds, a pinch of stevia and chopped walnuts. I wanted to include pictures of his breakfast sometimes so that you can all see the difference. My goal with Dan’s meals is to get more calories into him. I do that by increasing his portion sizes and adding extra high calorie items like nuts and seeds.

Like usual I exercised once Dan has left for work and then had my breakfast. I had a bowl of savory oatmeal with nutritional yeast, cumin, chili powder, fresh spinach, chickpeas (that I pressure cooked previously), salsa, and walnut parmesan.

After breakfast I pressure cooked a pound of red kidney beans. To cook these I added 1 pound of dried red kidney beans (which I rinsed and sorted), 9 cups of filtered water, 2 bay leaves, 6 cloves of peeled and smashed garlic and a healthy pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. I cooked these on high pressure for 32 minutes and then let the pressure release naturally.

Once the beans were cooked and cooled I decided to start writing the long post I put up yesterday. This is a picture I took to send to my husband. Just overlook the lack of makeup please. ;-) Binky the cat really shouldn’t let anyone take his picture until his face is made up. Joking I was talking about myself of course, LOL! When I say I am covered in cats I mean literally covered in cats. The picture above is Binky practically up my nose. A few minutes after I took this he laid his head down and took a nap. *rolls eyes* Who is in charge in this house? Oh yeah, it is the cats. ;-)

I was hesitant to include a picture of myself without makeup but I also realize that this is who I am. Given than I will be 48 in a couple of months I can say that things could be much worse. I guess on some level I think it is important to embrace who we are, wrinkles, grey hair and all.  I am posting this to prove to myself that I hae embraced my age which is really tough for me.  But it looks like I finally got there.  No one is more shocked than I am.  ;-)

Once Binky “let me get up” I made myself some lunch. This time I was in the mood for quinoa with baby spinach, chickpeas, salsa, walnut parmesan and dehydrated leeks which I now make plain.. I was hungry about an hour after I ate this so I had second bowl.

My afternoon snack was my usual navel orange and two Brazil nuts (for the selenium).

By the time dinner came around I had no idea what I wanted to cook. This happens much more often than it should. I ended up making a simple salad for dinner. This one included a mixture of veggies which I marinated in red wine vinegar with some dried Italian seasoning. The marinated veggies included: cucumber, yellow bell pepper, carrot, artichokes, and cherry tomatoes. Just before serving I tossed in baby spinach and fresh parsley that I minced. I topped the salad with the red kidney beans which I pressure cooked earlier in the day, a dollop of salsa and a few raw pumpkin seeds. I realize this doesn’t sound like enough food but it was a huge salad for both of us.

Not one to miss an opportunity for dessert Dan was certain that he hadn’t had enough calories and wanted me to make him a batch of strawberry banana soft serve. I swear he needs a soft serve intervention. LOL

I forgot to post this dinner from earlier in the week. It was completely made in my new little halogen oven. The tofu slices were coated in a mixture of miso, apple cider vinegar, grated garlic, and a pinch of stevia. The potatoes were baked and then tossed in Meyer lemon juice and zest. Then I tossed the lemony potatoes in zatar and sumac. The green beans were coated in a mixture of miso which I thinned with a little fresh apple cider I frozen in ice cube trays to have when it wasn’t in season. I added sliced dried apricots and almonds to the green beans. This was a very simple meal but it came together very quickly since I used the halogen oven. I am enjoying that purchase and find myself using it almost daily now.

Happy Thoughts:

Wednesday was a good day and here is what I am thankful for today:

• I am very proud of myself for owning my age if you know what I mean. It is easy to show yourself dressed and made up but posting a picture after exercising and without makeup was something I thought I would never do. *pats self on back* ;-) I guess I am finally growing up. Nah!

• It was great to have a day at home and I am thankful that I can focus on caring for my family (Dan and the fur babies)

• There was time for me to meditate and I always find that enjoyable. If you haven’t tried it I highly recommend it. I always feel like a weight has been lifted from the shoulders when I am finished.

Signing out:

Time for me to turn in for the evening. My knee is doing great which means I want to hit the gym tomorrow morning. I can honestly say I miss going to the gym at 6am. Who said that? LOL

Talk to you all again tomorrow.

Baked Veggies in Red Sauce topped with “Melted Mozzarella Topping”

Don’t you just love Saturday? I think it is my favorite day of the week. It is wonderful to sleep in until your body wants to get up. Saturday is my only day to sleep in which makes me appreciate it all the more. A girl could get used to this but someone needs to feed my hubby. Even though Dan knew how to cook when we met has forgotten how to do anything in the kitchen. I guess that should be expected since I have done all the cooking for the last 20+ years. Dan will tell anyone that there are two types of people in the world cooks and eaters and we all know which one he is. ;-)

When I asked Dan what he wanted for breakfast he choose a green smoothie again. Like always this one contained: kale, frozen banana, cinnamon, powdered ginger, freshly ground flaxseed, walnuts, a pinch of stevia and fresh soymilk. I processed it in the Vitamix until it was completely smooth. Since the machine was already green I made myself the same thing only with less banana and walnuts and I used water instead of soymilk.

Every weekend not long after breakfast we start to discuss what I am going to make for the 3pm meal with my parents. We both decided I have been making soup and beans too often lately and that I needed to do something different. We talked about a few options but decided that I would bake veggies in red sauce and top it with “cheeze”. I thought about adding beans to the dish which meant I also needed to make some of those since the freezer inventory of home cooked beans was empty.

First I made a pound of pressure cooked garbanzo beans. To 1 pound of dried beans I added 9 cups of water, 2 bay leaves, 4 cloves of peeled cloves of garlic and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes. I cooked them on high pressure for 32 minutes and allowed the pressure to reduce naturally. In the end I didn’t use them in the meal so they went straight into the refrigerator. If I don’t use them Sunday or Monday they will be frozen in 2 cup containers for future meals. Beans freeze well and are great to have on hand since I don’t like canned beans. It seems to me that canned beans taste metallic plus I don’t like the sodium and other additives they typically include.

Next I knew I needed some red sauce for the next meal. Instead of making a small amount I made a large pot so I would have more intentional leftovers. Why make a little when I can always freeze the extras? This is part of my philosophy of cooking once and eating many times. Every time you do this you are saving yourself a step later. Having items like this in the freezer is a huge help when you are short on time or cooking ambition.

Next I steamed veggies to add to the sauce. In this case I used crimini mushrooms which I cut in quarters, carrots cut into bite-sized chunks and broccoli florets. I stored them in the refrigerator until I was read to put together the dishes to be baked and broiled quickly before dinner.

The last step was making the “mozzarella” to go on top. This literally comes together in 5 minutes. I got the basic recipe from my friend Courtney who always has tasty and healthy recipes to share.  Thanks again for sharing this Courtney.  I made very minimal changes to the recipe, here is what I did:

Melty Mozzarella Cheeze
Serves 8

Ingredients:

2 cups water
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup oats
1/4 cup raw sesame seeds or tahini if not using a high powered blender
4 tablespoons arrowroot (you could use cornstarch too)
3 or 4 tablespoons lemon juice (I used 1 Meyer lemon)
1 tablespoon dried onion granules
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/8 teaspoon mustard powder
white pepper, to taste
salt, to taste

Directions:

Combine all the ingredients in your blender and process until completely smooth. The mixture will be very thin when you pour it out of the blender. Don’t worry it gets much thicker when it cooks.

Pour into a sauce pan and cook over medium heat stirring constantly until very thick and smooth (it will get very very thick--just keep whisking/stirring).

I made it right before using it and poured it warm over the prepared dishes.

Nutritional Information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 91.01
Calories From Fat (35%) - 31.82

Total Fat - 2.34g
Saturated Fat - 0.33g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 2.77mg
Potassium - 56.25mg
Total Carbohydrates - 8.3g
Fiber - 1.16g
Sugar - 0.41g
Protein - 1.32g

Comments:

Much to my surprise my parents cleaned their plates. No one asked what the white topping was, though I am sure they know it wasn’t cheese. They did however eat it all which I thought was great. I guess you can say this recipe is omni approved. 

To make the entire veggie dish place the par cooked veggies in small casserole dishes, top with red sauce and then the melty mozzarella. I baked them until they began to bubble and finished them with dehydrated leeks when they came out of the oven.

I tried to keep the 3pm meal with my parents light because we were thinking of going out to dinner on Saturday. Even though we hadn’t decided I had a feeling we would end up going out. Dan and I both like to relax and chat with everyone at the restaurant so it was a good bet we would end up going which we did. Not to mention when we went tea shopping last weekend we picked up a couple of bags for “the kids” so we had to drop that off. Since we were going to be at the restaurant we might as well go to eat right? ;-)

To accompany the veggie dish I made a side salad of shredded romaine, pineapple, strawberry, dried apricots and sliced almonds. I made a quick dressing of white miso, reduced-fat almond butter and apple cider.

At 5pm we called the restaurant and made a 6:30 reservation. Since we didn’t give them any notice we told them we would make something up from what they had and not to go to any trouble. Did they listen? Of course they didn’t. I felt very guilty because the restaurant was packed and there were people waiting when we got there. Much to our surprise they had our dinner all planned so we went with it. We both love not knowing what is coming to the table other than it is vegan. Are we the only people that like to eat that way? ;-)

When we walked in Jeannine was behind the bar and had to give me a kiss. On the way to the table I got a hug from Corey. I guess you can see why Dan and both feel like part of the family every time we are there. Of course we sat in Aimee’s section where else would we go when she is working? She had our pot of tea waiting for us. Can you tell we are spoiled? I guess you are all starting to understand why we almost always end up at the same place for dinner when we go out to eat.

Our first course was a tofu Caprese salad. Will had skinned the little tomatoes which I thought was a great touch. The tofu was either baked or broiled I didn’t ask which and it had a touch of sesame oil and I think I could detect rice wine. The dish was finished with fresh basil. It was definitely a twist on a Caprese salad but we both really liked it.

The second course was a curried chickpea and spinach dish. The dish was flavored with curried powder, habanero and a touch of red sauce. It had really nice flavor and I appreciated that the spinach was just lightly wilted. This was an extremely filling dish.

The last course was an Asian veggie dish with broccoli, shitakes, edamame, red bell pepper, carrot, snow peas and onions. The sauce included sriracha, rice wine vinegar, agave, habanero, ginger, garlic, and I thought I could detect a hint of five spice. Dan liked the sauce so much he was dipping whole wheat pita into it long after he said he was full.

We like to take our time and talk while we eat so we prefer to have our courses come to the table very spread out which everyone knows. We also have to talk to everyone and find out how they are doing while we are there. I imagine other customers wondered who we are since we hug and chat with everyone at the restaurant all evening long.

Like usual we were still there talking when everyone was cleaning and setting up for brunch. By then we had moved to the bar and were catching up with Jonathan, Will, Jeannine and Jen. We always have to chat and find out how things are going with them and what they have going on. Will has some fun stuff going on with his Master’s thesis that I can’t wait to hear more about, Jen’s boyfriend has almost finished his first month as a commercial flight instructor, Jeannine has her other job as a realtor moving along and we just learned that Jonathan is almost finished with his finance degree. I love talking to people and getting to know them since they are all so unique and interesting.

On the Aimee and Michael front things are going very well. They are both enjoying their classes this semester and Michael is doing extremely well in his MCAT prep class but we knew he would. He is taking it near us at Hopkins and has developed a good relationship with the instructor. He is going to make a wonderful doctor.

We ended up talking to everyone until Michael arrived to pick Aimee up a little after 11 and then walked out with her to say hello to Michael. We are trying to plan our trip to DC with them over spring break since he is very busy with school and MCAT prep.

When we got home we were both wide awake and needed time to wind down before bed. Somehow we were still up at 1:30 in the morning. It will be hard to get up Monday morning at 5am for the gym since we have gotten back to our old night owl ways. I hope we can make that happen since I would like to get back into the routine. I like having my workout finished earlier in the day.

Happy thoughts:

As you have probably guessed we had a good Saturday so I have many things to be thankful for. Here are my happy thoughts today:

• I am very thankful to have such a great neighborhood restaurant where we can go to get a great vegan meal even though it isn’t a vegan restaurant. As you must have noticed by now we always have a great evening when we go there. Both Dan and I are looking forward to the weather change which means we can start enjoying dinner under the trees on the patio again. When the weather is nice we are there quite often relaxing, talking to everyone and enjoying the weather. ;-) We both love having dinner al fresco. There is just something incredibly relaxing about a leisurely dinner outside.

• It was great that my parents ate dinner this weekend both days without complaint. Who knows maybe eventually I will get through to them. Nah, what was I thinking? *shakes head* LOL

• Dan didn’t work at all on Saturday or Sunday which was wonderful. It was nice to spend an entire weekend with Dan where both of us had a chance to relax.

• It was also nice to have our temperatures get over 40 on Sunday. We needed some of this snow to melt. It is time to start warming up now. ;-) I am looking forward to the return of spring.

• I am also grateful that we are both happy and healthy today. That is something that we both used to take for granted. When you are at risk of losing your health it becomes much more precious to you, at least that is what happened to us.

Signing out:

We had a great weekend but it is coming to an end. We spent a relaxing day at home on Sunday we had my parents over for dinner and then we went back to catching up on season 6 of Criminal Minds. It looks like we aren’t going to be finished for a few more days. I am not sure why but I love this show. As my girlfriend Deirdre says it may have something to do with "that fine piece of man candy" on the show. LOL, she does have a way with words doesn’t she? I wonder which actor she could be referring to. ;-)

I hope you had a great weekend and found time to recharge your batteries for the week. Talk to you again tomorrow.

Tuesday & Wednesday and Mexican Flavors

Wednesday was busier than usual for me which interfered with my online time. Sorry about disappearing on your yesterday. I had intended to post but time got away from me. Fortunately even though I was super busy it was all good. I don’t mind busy days when they are productive. Here is what has been going Tuesday and Wednesday:

Tuesday:

Today started with a snow and freezing rain mix all over the roads and sidewalks. Fortunately the snow came down first making a little cushion so that the ice was easier to remove. However it was still a mess though pretty the way it coated the red bud tree. I was a little bummed that we had to cancel going to DC with “the kids” but it is always better to be safe.

Since Monday’s breakfast was oatmeal Tuesday was a green smoothie for Dan which turned out nice and creamy. This smoothie contained: banana, raw kale, homemade sprouted soymilk, cinnamon, powdered ginger, freshly ground flaxseed, a pinch of stevia and ice to make it cold. Dan said it was good and possibly a little better than the version I make with frozen banana, water and no ice. I froze a sheet tray of bananas Tuesday morning which means the next smoothie will have frozen banana and soy milk. With a little luck he will like that version even better.

Dan took his time leaving for work Tuesday morning to be safe. I was happy that he has that option because I worry about other Marylanders on the road since they panic when there is precipitation of any sort let alone one the frozen varieties.

After Dan left for work I used my exercise bike for cardio and the TRX for strength training and then wrote my post. My breakfast was a quick bowl of items I had in the refrigerator. Tuesday I had brown rice, pinto beans, salsa and fresh cilantro. Sometimes I just need food and NOW and this was one of those mornings. That is one reason I always have intentional leftovers in the refrigerator.

I used the end of the sprouted soymilk in Dan’s smoothie this morning which means I will be making soymilk again today. Thankfully I figured out that the hulls are easier to pour off the top which makes it much quicker to make soymilk at home. Since it appears I am going to be making soymilk and almond milk regularly again I am going to start beans soaking and sprouting every other day now so that I have a supply ready to go.

My morning was completely uneventful but in a good way. Once I finished exercising, breakfast and making soymilk there was a little cleaning and then I curled up in my favorite chair with a faux fur throw and a few cups of green and white tea and went back to reading the book I started yesterday. It might have been grey outside but I had a good morning.

Here is my newest tea pot that I got from “the kids”. It is an adorable Japanese pot with crackle finish that holds about 16 ounces. The fine mesh strainer basket inside is perfect for fine teas like rooibos. This is the latest tea pot in my collection. I didn’t realize how many tea pots I had until I was trying to find a place for this one. For someone who is a reformed espresso addict it is surprising that the tea pots are taking over now. I will share some of my favorites with you as I use them.

I was only a little hungry at lunch time and decided to have a snack rather than a mean. This time I had a banana with the almond butter okara that I made on Friday.

Later I had a second snack of a tangerine and Brazil nuts (for the selenium).

Next I decided to make a pot of red kidney beans in the pressure cooker. These cooked for 25 minutes on high pressure and I let the pressure reduce naturally. The beans were tender but still held there shape.

I had no idea what I was going to do with the beans when I cooked them but decided to use some of them in a soup. When I made this soup I wasn’t measuring which means I will give you the method rather than a recipe. I strained most of the beans, except a cup, and moved them to the refrigerator for later this week.

I left about one cup of the red kidney beans in the cooker along with the bean cooking liquid. To the pot I add one quart of diced tomatoes half of which I processed in my blender. I also added 1 large onion which I finely diced, 8 cloves of minced garlic and 14 ounce of extra firm tofu cut into small cubes. I also added 1 pound of shitake mushroom caps that I sliced thinly. For seasoning I added 1 chipotle in adobo, cumin, oregano, chili powder, cinnamon and cocoa to taste. I simmered this until the veggies were tender and the flavors blended. Tuesday we had this over quinoa and topped with a fast salsa of avocado, tomato, lime juice, lime zest and cilantro.

Dan liked the flavor of the soup but wasn’t too sure about the tofu component. I thought it was good but I am more open about fusion cuisine. ;-)

In case you want to make your own Mexican inspired dish here are the flavors that are common to that cuisine:

• avocado
• beans
• chilies
• chocolate
• cilantro
• cinnamon
• corn and/or hominy
• cumin
• garlic
• garlic
• lime
• rice
• scallions
• tomatoes

After dinner Dan had to have two bowls of strawberry banana soft serve. This time I made with a splash of soymilk instead of water and that is now Dan’s new favorite. He thinks it is more like ice cream with the soy milk and I agree.

Wednesday:

For breakfast this morning Dan had a kale and banana smoothie but this time I used frozen bananas and soymilk. Dan has declared the soymilk makes it a much richer and creamier smoothie. *happy dance* I love it when I can tweak a family favorite and make it better. I will continue to make my smoothies with water but Dan’s will now be made with either homemade soy or almond milk. If you are having difficulty keeping weight on you may want to try this too.

My breakfast was salad with quinoa, mushroom ragu and nut cheese. For some reason I was craving greens so I tossed together a quick salad. I love it that my body has begun to crave things that are good for me. I added the nut cheese for flavor and texture but also for healthy fat so that the fat-soluble vitamins were more effectively absorbed.

I was busy at home and wanted something fast for lunch. This meant I turned to my intentional leftovers of course. Lunch was leftover Mexican-flavored soup over quinoa topped with salsa. As you may expect the salsa adds flavor but also adds a little fat again to help with the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. In this case the avocado wasn’t “technically” necessary since tofu also contains fat but it looks pretty and I like the contrast of hot and cold and the brightness from the lime. ;-)

My afternoon snack was a banana and the almond butter okara spread I made a few days ago. The okara spread is a little addictive. I need to make another batch of that and measure it so I can share the recipe with all of you.

Dinner was late this evening since Dan didn’t get home until after 8pm. *sigh* I don’t like eating late since it can disrupt my sleep. I decided to make something very quick and simple for dinner. You know that I like to have mushrooms in at least one meal a day since they boost the immune system and dinner was a mushroom meal for us. I didn’t measure but I can describe the method. I used my cast iron skillet to increase the iron in this dish.

This dish contained 1 red onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 2 cups diced tomatoes in their juice, 14 ounce box of frozen artichokes defrosted, 1 pound of oyster mushrooms (any mushrooms will do). Next I added oregano, fennel seeds and black pepper to taste. I simmered this until the harshness cooked out of the onions and garlic and added two handfuls of roughly chopped arugula and turned off the heat. Arugula is part of the cruciferous family which means it is more nutritious raw or lightly cooked. I served this on top of quinoa and finished with a tablespoon of nut cheese.

The entire meal was ready in less than 20 minutes, including cooking the quinoa and allowing the onions and garlic to sit for 10 minutes after they were chopped to give the chemical reactions time to take place.

Increasing My Water Intake:

I have mentioned a few times that I need to drink more water since most of my fluid intake comes from white or green tea. On Wednesday I decided to stop talking about it and do it. Knowing that I should drink more water wasn’t enough to get it done. I have decided to have a mug of water after every mug of hot tea. Additionally I have started tracking my water and tea intake to keep myself on track.

There are many theories regarding how much water we should be drinking. Some say you should have 64 ounces. Others say you should take your weight in pounds and divide that in half and drink that many ounces. For example if you weigh 150 pounds you should drink 75 ounces. Yet other “experts” say that if you eat a lot of water rich food like fresh produce and soup you need less water. Other experts say that since coffee and tea are both diuretics those don’t count in your daily fluid intake. Is your head spinning yet? Me too, LOL. I decided to take a very simple approach to have I had enough water. I read once that you know you aren’t dehydrated if you urine is a pale yellow and that is going to be my guide.

Happy Thoughts:

I have had a good week so far, busy, but still good. As always I am listing my happy thoughts to remind myself and you that there are always things in all of our lives for which we should be grateful. Here are my happy thoughts today:

• Adding soymilk to Dan’s favorite strawberry banana soft serve and green smoothie were both extremely well received. *pats self on back* I guess you know what you will be seeing on the blog going forward. ;-)

• Dan is finally starting to like quinoa. In the past he has tolerated it be it wasn’t his favorite but now he asks for it. *happy dance* I get so excited when he likes something that is healthy. I started using quinoa years ago because it is a complete protein and it has now become my go to grain. If you haven’t tried it you should. Even my 80-year-old omnivore father likes quinoa. It has a very mild flavor most similar to rice so I imagine most of you would enjoy it.

• I am also happy that this week we have had mushrooms at least once every day. It is fascinating to me that something that tastes so good and is so versatile can also boost your immune system.

• My quest to increase my water intake went well on day one. I had 5 mugs of tea and an equal amount of water and “things” were lighter in color as expected. The only down side is I felt like I was in bathroom all day. LOL, the things I will do for health. ;-)

• My parents both had dentist appointments on Tuesday with the slick roads. I was holding my breath that my mother wouldn’t fall and hurt herself. Fortunately she had the good sense to reschedule her appointment. *huge sigh of relief* Having elderly parents is much harder than having children since you feel responsible but have not actual control.

• This has been a good week in terms of taking care of me. I took time to listen to body and rest when I needed rest and to slow down and be kind to myself. Sometimes everyone needs to recharge. It seems that this has been my week recharge my batteries.

Signing Out:

I have been goofing off this morning. Other than getting Dan fed, his lunch packed so he could go to work I have not been very productive. It is grey and overcast this morning which typically has an impact on my activity level and this morning was no exception. I have been sipping Christmas tea while writing this post. Now I need to get moving and knock out my exercise so that I can have breakfast and start my day. Looks like today will be a long one. ;-)

I hope everyone is having a great week. Talk to you all again soon. Happy Thursday!

Dreary Monday = Day to Relax and Regenerate

For some reason neither Dan nor I slept well Sunday night. We decided it was best to sleep in rather than head early to the gym. Instead I would exercise at home and Dan would exercise before leaving work.

For breakfast Monday morning Dan had oatmeal (finally made with soy milk), frozen wild blueberries, cinnamon, powdered ginger, ground flaxseeds, a pinch of stevia and walnuts. When I asked Dan what he thought of the oatmeal with the soy milk he said “it was different but neither better nor worse” compared to the oatmeal made with water.

Since I had breakfast after exercising I decided to make myself savory oatmeal that contained: oats, water, nutritional yeast, cumin, chopped broccoli, ground flaxseed, salsa and raw pumpkin seeds. This really is one of my favorite breakfasts. I should make it for myself more often.

After breakfast I decided to treat myself with a book. It was nice to spend some time relaxing and doing something just for me. I think that most of us spend too much time rushing from place to place or task to task that we don’t take time to do things for ourselves. I am trying to work on being more kind to myself. I think that will help me to be more at peace with life in general. I will let you know how that seems to work out for me. ;-)

For lunch I had the remainder of the Moroccan chickpea stew from the weekend over brown rice.

Once I finished with lunch I decided to pressure cook a pot of pinto beans. I combined 1 pound dried pinto beans, 9 cups water, 2 bay leaves, and 4 garlic cloves. Once the pressure cooker reached high pressure I cooked the beans for 19 minutes. Then I let the cooker pressure reduce naturally. This amount of time resulted in beans that were tender but still held their shape.

I decided to make pinto beans to mix things up a little. Typically I make garbanzo beans or white beans but I like to change up the beans we eat since they all contain a different mix of micronutrients.

I went back to my book after lunch and spent the afternoon sipping tea and reading. Since I usually spend my Monday crossing things off my to-do list I thoroughly enjoyed taking a break. It was so nice in fact that it made me wonder why I don’t do things like this more often.

My afternoon snack was a tangerine and Brazil Nuts (for selenium).

Dinner was a very simple meal of brown rice, pinto beans and salsa. Nothing exotic just fast food from the refrigerator that is filling and healthy. It is funny the longer I eat a clean healthy diet the less I crave fancy food. That is still so odd to me since it is counter to everything I thought I knew about myself. It is as though my body only wants to be nourished. Has anything similar happened to any of you or is it just me?

When Dan came home he had a bowl of brown rice, pinto beans and mushroom ragu. Since he worked late the snow and freezing rain had started and the roads were getting slick. Thankfully he made it home without incident.

New Kitchen Toy:

I ordered this interesting oven from Tuesday Morning that uses halogen, infrared and convection to “bake”. I have been considering one of these for a couple of years and at $75 I thought why not. I don’t know anyone that has one but it looked like something I wanted to try out. I am most interested in being about to bake without turning on the oven.

When we replaced our stove about 5 years ago we did so with a gas model like the prior one. I have always preferred the heat control of a gas stove top. Then when I put VOC detectors in the house I realized that every time I used the gas oven the detectors would tell me to open the windows. Great! *rolls eyes* It never occurred to me that using the oven could be that dangerous. Now I use the oven less often just to be safe. Thankfully using the gas cook top doesn’t cause the same high level on the VOC detectors. Did any of you ever give this a thought? I know I didn’t until I bought the detectors.

I will be using this new toy as soon as it arrives and will let you know what I think. If it gives the same result as an oven in less time I will consider the purchase a success. *fingers crossed*

Happy Thoughts:

Monday was a good day for me. Here are my happy thoughts:

• It was great to spend Monday in relaxing mode. The weather was grey and dreary making it perfect day to be kind to myself. I had 5 different types of white and green tea while I read a nutrition book. Seriously this must be what heaven is like. It was great to spend the day relaxing since that was what my body seemed to want. I think we should all take more time for ourselves.

• I am very grateful to have my husband and fur children and the time to take care of them. Not everyone is as happily married as I am or has the ability to be a “stay at home cat mommy” (as Dan refers to me). I realize that I am very fortunate in that regard. Other than cancer my life really couldn’t be much better. However if it weren’t for the cancer I don’t know that I would be as grateful for everything that I have. It is shame that most of us don’t appreciate what we have until we are at risk of losing it.

• My GI system has returned to normal after the heavy meal on Saturday. I have to say I prefer how I feel after I eat my food. ;-)

• I am relearning to love my pressure cooker. I think I may use it to make dinner tonight. Having meals ready in a flash can be addictive.

• While I didn’t like it that Dan worked extremely late I was glad he made it home safely since the weather wasn’t very nice when he headed home.

• Since we were up late last night we slept in again this morning. It is nice to be able to do when you feel it is necessary. Dan headed to work a little late this morning which also gave the road crews time to clear the overnight frozen precipitation.

• Tuesday was going to be our day to go to DC with “the kids” which we had to cancel due to the weather. We received snow and freezing rain overnight which caused all the schools to close around DC. It was sad to have to cancel but it was best to be safe. If nothing else we will get together for a day when they are both off for spring break. I am thankful to have good friends in my life to make plans with even if they get messed up periodically.

Signing out:

Our weather today is cold, wet, grey and generally not so nice. This morning our sidewalks were covered with a thin layer of snow covered with ice. Not the type of day where I want to go outside so I may have a repeat of Monday. That will give me time to finish the latest book so that I can get back to the nutrition textbook.

Given our weather I think I am in the mood for soup today. We haven’t had any soup in a few days and that is always good when it is cold and wet.

I hope your Tuesday has started off well. Talk to you again tomorrow.