Beautiful Saturday in May – Preakness Saturday

The weather today was nothing short of amazing.  When the temperature is in the low 80s with a gentle breeze blowing there is nothing more I would ask for.  Even though we got home at midnight last night (see what I mean about us not being morning people?) we managed to get moving as soon as the alarm went off at 8am.  We knew the Preakness was today and that meant crazy traffic so we wanted to waste no time getting downtown to the marina.  While most people wouldn’t walk to Pimlico (the track where the Preakness is run) from our house it would be an easy walk, probably 2 or 2.5 miles from us.  However that also means that we see the increase in traffic at our place so it makes sense to get out early if you are leaving.

Breakfast for us was a bowl of savory oatmeal, this time flavored with curry that included very lightly cooked broccoli and sun-dried tomatoes. Don’t forget it is always good to have broccoli and tomatoes since the sulforaphane and lycopene are better absorbed in the presence of the other. Also whenever you use curry (which includes turmeric) be generous with the black pepper since that enhances the absorption of the curcumin in the turmeric.  The photo above is a different bowl of savory oatmeal since I was rushed this morning and didn’t take a photo.

After breakfast we headed for the boat to avoid as much Preakness traffic as possible.

Eric and I both wanted to check out the opening day of farmers’ market at the Baltimore Museum of Industry which is a very short walk from the marina. Dan stayed on the boat and fed mama and baby duck while Eric and I went foraging for produce. I bought local strawberries, apples, beets and tomatoes.  Since I have lemons and my juicer on the boat I decided a little beet, beet green, apple and lemon juice would be delicious.  We both love strawberries with balsamic and black pepper which is why I bought the berries.  J

The little baby duck seems to be growing an inch a day. I am very surprised by the rate at which the little guy is growing.  Yesterday he looked like a baby and today he is more of toddler.  The baby duck has stolen my heart. He/she is absolutely precious.  I am sorry that you can’t see the little one in person.  He comes right to the back of our boat with his momma to be fed.  SO cute!

While the weather was gorgeous it definitely called for iced green tea. This is the pitcher with matcha and regular green tea with orange, lemon and lime slices.  We both really enjoy this beverage.  If you like green tea this stuff is good. Don’t forget to brew your green tea for 10 minutes to extract the maximum amount of EGCG and that vitamin C (fresh citrus) enhances your absorption of the EGCG.

Lunch for us was curried almond salad in lettuce cups with apple slices. I took a picture of the bowl of ingredients and the second is a formed lettuce cup.  I will make this salad again soon so I can measure things and tell you how to make it.  I use a raw cashew crème with lemon and garlic in place of the mayo which works perfectly.  This recipe is ridiculously simple and quick other than soaking the nuts which happens overnight in the refrigerator.

After lunch I turned beets, beet greens, apple and lemon into juice and dropped that down into the cooler to chill for later.  Did I remember to tell you that the juicer is on the boat too now?  I brought it down to show one of the guys at the marina.  It is a long story that I will tell you more about later but it has a great ending.  Two guys lost 32 pounds total in 2 weeks (one lost 20 in 2 weeks and the other 12 in 10 days).  Impressive right?  I love a good success story, or two in this case.  ;-)

In addition to relaxing at the marina we took one of the dogs (Peyton) for a walk since his human mom and dad were at the Preakness.  For those of you who haven’t been to the Preakness you aren’t missing anything in my opinion. I went to the Preakness 3 decades ago when I was in college and it was nothing more than a drunk fest which was too much for me even way back then. Somehow seeing drunken college kids passed out or throwing up has never been my idea of a good time. Call me crazy.  ;-)  I doubt this event would be more appealing to me now at 50.

Today there was also a more boat cleaning, polishing and waxing.  For those of you who don’t know when you own a boat there is a lot of cleaning, polishing and waxing.  It seems to be a never ending project in fact. We talked about hiring someone to do it but we both decided that was ridiculous. Why pay someone to do the manual labor and then spend more time in the gym.  Hence we opted to take care of the maintenance ourselves.

Speaking of the boat I wanted to relay something that I recently noticed.  The one thing that I don’t love about having a boat is the classic “boat smell” which is reminiscent of a wet dog.  In other words not good. To combat this “eau du wet dog” I have been burning multiple (either two or three) highly scented candles every time I was on the boat.  The candle aroma has been wonderful for the boat which actually now smells good and the not the least like a wet dog.  However there are a few negatives of burning candles.  In the cooler weather when the boat was closed up my air quality monitor would move into the unhealthy range in under 30 minutes after I arrived and had two or three candles going which I found to be a little disconcerting. Second I noticed today that the candle soot was much more extensive than I expected it to be.  I spent today wiping down the ceiling in the boat to remove the film of candle soot.

Fortunately I was over at Eric’s boat about a month ago and noticed a candle warmer that he had. It looks like a coffee or tea warmer but holds a jar candle. He picked me up two of them a couple of weeks ago I have been using them. Now I have the candle aroma but none of the candle soot or the deterioration in air quality.  I was happy with this solution so I wanted to pass it along. 

Our friend Eric had a work function to attend this afternoon and evening so I took Bri for a nice walk to get her exercise.  Can you tell I have somehow turned into the neighborhood dog walker?  LOL, I guess that is what happens when you are one of the few people who volunteers for physical activity. 

We had such a late lunch today I almost thought we were going to skip dinner but I knew that wouldn’t be good.  We decided to have the strawberries and tomatoes which I bought this morning and a big glass of fresh juice.  Not the most traditional dinner but we enjoyed it.

Huge Thank Yous:

Those of you who offered to look at the website have been extremely helpful.  I have gotten some incredible feedback for which I am very grateful.  Your suggestions have exceeded by expectations. That was the good side. The other side is that now I have more that I want to do on the site.  Since the round one review went well I think I am going to do a second round once I incorporate the suggestions from round one. I know that two of you offered to help a day or two ago and I hope that you will be available for the round two review. Thank you again too everyone who has helped and/or offered to help.  Your generosity is a bit overwhelming, but in a good way.

Happy thoughts:

• Saturday was another great day.  As always there are so many things to be thankful for when you take the time to notice.
•  It was nice of Mother Nature to give us a gorgeous Saturday weather wise. I don’t know that we could have had better weather for mid-May in the Mid-Atlantic.
• The grand-duck is growing up nicely.  I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying watching him/her grow up.  Baby animals are the cutest things!
•  I enjoyed the farmers’ market at the Baltimore Museum of Industry.  However I have to admit that my favorite part is that it is a short walk from the boat.  No doubt I will be back on a regular basis to buy produce for the boat on Saturday before our big trip on Sunday to pick up our CSA stash.
• Both pups (Peyton and Bri) were very sweet today.  Additionally it was nice to get out for a two walks today with the dogs.  Apparently you don’t actually need your own dog to get more exercise just borrow other peoples.  ;-)
•  We are actually making headway on the boat in terms of cleaning, and waxing.  It will definitely be a few month weeks before we have done everything above the gunwale but that is okay.  Slow and steady wins the race right?  Dan and I were kidding with each other that just about the time we get everything waxed it will be time to go back and start again, which is closer to true than either of us want to admit. I might have to add boat cleaning and waxing into my weekly calendar.  Who decided we should do the maintenance ourselves? Oh yeah, that was us.  LOL

Signing out:

Tomorrow starts bright and early, 6:00am to be exact.  That means that we need to shut down at the marina and get home sooner than we normally would.  It is a little sad to leave the marina early but I am sure we will get used to it.  ;-)

I hope you had a great Saturday and I will talk to you again tomorrow.

My Sabbatical ... Sort of

First I want to say thank you to all of you who sent me emails to reach out and make sure that both Dan and I are okay.  I am very, very sorry that I didn’t have the time to respond yet.  I hope to find time in the future to respond to all of you who were so kind to spend your time to check on us.  Your thoughtful messages meant a lot to me. 

Needless to say my life has been out of control busy for the last few months.  It seems like every day something else gets added to my already bulging to-do list.  *sigh*  Since you know I don’t like to focus on what is wrong I am going to skim over the bad things and focus instead on the positive.

We have had the most wonderful weather this spring.  There have been quite a few days in the upper 80s already this year which is unbelievable.  The sailboat is officially “unwinterized” and she has already been out a few times which were fantastic! 

Our first trip of the season was with our new friend Lauren.  You remember Lauren we met her are Johns Hopkins during our unplanned visit this January. Lauren is quickly becoming an unofficial member of the family.  We have seen her on average once a week since we met in January.  It is wonderful to have a local health conscious friend who I can share healthy recipes, books, videos and articles with and hear her thoughts.   Lauren has also been kind enough to offer to be a recipe taste tester for me.  By the way, the new curried almond salad with cashew mayo recipe (no oil of course) was very well received.  Now I need to measure the ingredients since the concept worked.  This will be making regular appearances on the boat this summer, it is that good.

Also on the very positive news front  “my duck” (the one who eats Cheerios and catches them in the air) had babies.  As Dan said I am proud “grandmother”  LOL.  My duck brought her little ones over to meet me the day they were born.  I couldn’t be more thrilled if I were an actual grandmother.  ;-)  Aren’t they just the cutest little things?  They are the sweetest little chirpy fluff balls.  J  Since I am sure some of you are curious the little ones are already eating Cheerios.  I need to do some research and figure out what I should be feeding my ducks so that they are as healthy as possible.

What has gotten in the way of writing entries for the blog?  There have been so many things that I really don’t know where to start.  First there was a series of computer problems that resulted in three dead laptops in the span of a few days.  Dan was able to reformat one of them and resurrect it but the other two are permanently gone.  We bought another ultrabook and are now back to two laptops thank goodness.  After the laptop debacle of 2012 I don’t go anywhere near Dan’s desktop in his home office. All I need is to crash that too. I used to joke that I have the black thumb of death with plants but now I think the same thing is true with computers.  ;-)

Additionally I have been much busier than I anticipated with school (both the Immersion program at IIN and the Robbins-Madanes program).  Also my health coaching business is taking off and that too is taking up a lot more time than I expected.  However I will say that I am still thrilled each time someone has an “ah –ha moment”.  I can honestly say that I will never get tired of helping people reverse unhealthy trends and get on a better path.

Part of ramping up the business meant that I needed to stop fiddling around and square away my second website which I have been working on “in my spare time”, what little of that there has been over the last few months.  I am reasonably happy with my new site.  However I would love to get a little more feedback before I open it up to everyone.  If you have time to look at the site and give me feedback please let me know by sending an email to veganepicurean@gmail.com with “new site review” in the header and I will send you link.  Thank you in advance for taking the time to consider whether you have time to help me out or not. 

As you can tell I went from a woman of leisure to running flat out, rather zero to sixty in a lot of respects. I knew that I would be busy but never anticipated that I would be this busy.  However I am not complaining things are working out well so it’s all good.  There is a lot more going on but I have to save some of it for future posts so I don’t run out of things to write about.  ;-)

What have you been up to this spring? Is there anything fun going on in your life? Any new tips or tricks to staying healthy that you would like to share with others?  As I am very fond of saying we are stronger together than we are alone.

Happy thoughts:

Since it has been a while since I have written my happy thoughts I will need to get back into the habit of doing this.  J

• Two weeks ago I got to spend a weekday with my husband when he had a trip to Richmond for work. I rode along to keep him company and we talked the 3 hours down and back which made us both happy. We had lunch at our favorite veg restaurant and I got more recipe ideas. I will tell you more about this later.
•  I bought a new Vitamix for home and now I have my old Vitamix on the boat.  *happy dance*  I love having a Vitamix on the boat.  Now we can have green smoothies anytime and anywhere.  Could life get any better?  Well maybe it could get better.  One of the guys (Eric, who you will be hearing more about in upcoming posts) at the marina saw my Vitamix in action and he bought one too.  I am spreading the Vitamix love everywhere I go.  I really should be on their payroll.  LOL
•  Recently I have been testing homemade fabric softeners because I dislike the idea of using the chemical stuff with its carcinogens and that has been going really well.  This is something else that I need to share with you in an upcoming post.  If you don’t see this in a few weeks and are interesting be sure to remind me to tell you about it.
•  I have been reading a lot of books on Buddhism in my free time and I must say the more I learn the more it draws me in.  If any of you have any book suggestions let me know I would love to know what you would recommend. I will tell you about the specific books I have been enjoying in a future post.
• Dan and I went to a fun little Italian movie at The Charles last week called " The Salt of Life” that was cute.  It was shot in Rome and made us both miss Italy since we adore Rome.  We may need to take a little trip sometime this year to satisfy our craving for living on Italian time.  Any of you who have been fortunate enough to go to Italy know exactly what I mean. 
• As crazy as this will sound I have finally come to terms with the fact that I am going to be 50 years old later this week.  Wow, I can’t believe that I said that out loud LOL.  I now realize that since I don’t look my age I really need to wear 50 proudly.  ;-)  This has really been huge for me since I have been dreading turning 50 for the last 3 years. Yes I actually started worrying about it when I was 47.  No vanity here…… LOL
•  I am also very thankful for every day that I get to spend with my wonderful husband. We both appreciate every moment we have.  One thing that cancer has taught me is that life is short so enjoy it now since none of us know how long we have.  Buddhism reminds me that the only moment any of us has is now and to live fully in this moment.

Signing out:

I have a client to coach later today and then I need to do fun things like finish doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen since I actually cooked today.  I hope you are having a wonderful day.  It is my plan to get back to daily posting though my posts will probably be shorter than they have in the past.  In a few weeks I will be sharing the second site with all of you and that is where I will be writing more about health with this blog reserved for my recipes and daily musings.

Talk with you all again soon which I hope means tomorrow.  J

Where Has Alicia Been?

Hi everyone! You are probably wondering where I have been. Life has been hectic are my house and I have had very little time to spend on the computer. I have been cooking though and have quite a few recipes to get posted for all of you.

Sue and I finally got together today and make our first three dishes from “Ad Hoc at Home”. We had no difficulty making them both vegan and healthy. We made Cream or Cauliflower Soup, Chicken and Sausage with Peppers, and Broccolini Salad. Needless to say there were many changes to the recipes to eliminate the animal products and reduce the fat. Some of the original recipes called for copious amounts of olive oil. We recreated every recipe with 1 tablespoon of oil, or less (total, not per serving).

Since I have only been home for an hour tonight and have an eye doctor appointment early tomorrow morning I don’t have time to post the recipes tonight either. Sorry! I thought I would share some sneak peeks of what you can expect to see in the next few days, as I get caught up.

Pictured above: Baked BBQ tofu on Spinach Salad, Barley Risotto with Beet and Beet Green, Cream of Cauliflower and Leek Soup with Torn Croutons and Beet Chips, Seitan Cutlets and Sausages with Peppers Rustica, Broccolini, Broccoli Rabe and Broccoli Salad.