Focus on Your Actions in August

Mihani

This is probably my favorite line in ETL... Focus on Your Actions, the Results Will Follow. I tend to forget this a lot of the time, and I get bogged down in my results (or lack thereof) and I don't stick to the plan and give it time to work. So I think having this for a title will be a good way to keep it in my mind for the month.

Another long day at work. Did better on food. Second day of having the green monster smoothie for breakfast. It does make me feel good all morning, and carries me to lunch without wanting to snack.

B - green monster
L - OSG protein power goddess bowl leftovers
D - more leftovers
S - a few almonds, a lara bar

Going to do my yoga tonight. Slacked off for a few days while I was all stressed and self-pitying, but I have crawled back out of the pit of despair and back at it lol.

Mihani

Princess Bride... what a great movie.

Carla_wfpb

Nice title for the month, Mihani. I meant to post yesterday but couldn't come up with a title for August and then got distracted. I love The Princess Bride. Time to watch it again! Here's one of the resin pieces, Mihani. So far, lots of fun. I am planning to sell coasters on Etsy to fund my resin habit! I'll post some of those later once I have a complete set ready.




Yesterday I spent my morning driving Reba back and forth from the vet's. As part of her adoption, the vet is providing a free dental fix up for her. I guess she's going to have to have some teeth extracted, poor girl. After dropping her off yesterday and then doing some yard work, I came inside to find out that her appointment had to be rescheduled because the tech there was attacked by a dog! I assumed it was 'in the line of duty' but she was attacked while walking down the street. Yikes!

I'm attempting to make some blackberry jam today. Not exactly ETL friendly, but I'm using a pectin that requires far less sugar than any other, and I'm also going to end up gifting all but one of the jars. wish me luck!

I broke down and ordered a dehydrator. I should have just ordered one as soon as I started thinking about it LOL. I am hoping the unsweetened fruit leather turns out well because we need some way to store all of the apples and pears we have, and it also seems like a handy snack for on the go. I'll also just dry slices of the fruit, too. I have a hand crank peeling and coring device that should make (relatively) short work of prepping the fruit.

Still planning to make the Glowing Spiced Lentil soup, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I also need to find a good pea soup recipe for my freshly shelled peas. As usual, my breakfasts and lunches are decent, but things go pretty steeply downhill in the evenings. Having some prepped soup would help for sure.

Mihani

That’s really cool Carla! I love art, I just don’t have any talent for it myself. I’ll be interested to hear how it goes with your dehydrator. And making jam too, wow! I made the spiced lentil soup tonight, it is pretty hot out for cooking soup, but it turned out great. I feel like it was a bit spicier last time, maybe I used less cayenne. I hope Reba’s veterinary experience isn’t too traumatic. How is she in the car?

In addition to making soup, I ran beets and carrots through the food processor for salads. I got a watermelon on the way home and going to cut that up tonight, and I also got a couple peaches but I don’t think they are quite ready to eat. Still haven’t got to the detox salad but hopefully I will get that made tomorrow. I almost forgot my neighbor gave me a big bag of green beans from his garden so I will get those cleaned and steamed tonight. I like to eat them like a snack.

B – green monster smoothie
L – I shook up some raw fit and water and had a lara bar. Really busy and never even considered slowing down enough to actually eat today
D – big bowl of glowing spiced lentil soup, slice of crusty seed bread, will have a little watermelon when I get it cut up

I am noticing some more energy since doing the green monster smoothies for 3 days now. It really holds me over too. I prefer eating light during the day so it’s good to have that holding power.

Sabine_Stroehm

Love the theme this month!

Mihani

Sabine, long time no see! Missed you. I was curious about the cell bars so I checked your profile and see that you are in "mfp jail". Wtf? So what all does your punishment entail? No posting on the main forums or just the "scarlet letter" of the jail thing? Good grief.

Today I woke up with a headache and it never really went away. Ugh. I am going to make myself stay up for a little while but bedtime is going to be super early tonight.

B - green monster smoothie
L - big salad (spring mix, shredded beets and carrots, nooch, grape tomatoes, balsamic), watermelon
D - leftover glowing spiced lentil soup
S - a few almonds, a few pretzels, a lara bar... I think I was trying to eat my headache away lol

Sabine_Stroehm

Mihani wrote: »

Sabine, long time no see! Missed you. I was curious about the cell bars so I checked your profile and see that you are in "mfp jail". Wtf? So what all does your punishment entail? No posting on the main forums or just the "scarlet letter" of the jail thing? Good grief.

Today I woke up with a headache and it never really went away. Ugh. I am going to make myself stay up for a little while but bedtime is going to be super early tonight.

B - green monster smoothie
L - big salad (spring mix, shredded beets and carrots, nooch, grape tomatoes, balsamic), watermelon
D - leftover glowing spiced lentil soup
S - a few almonds, a few pretzels, a lara bar... I think I was trying to eat my headache away lol

sigh. I can post. But I can't start threads, and I can only post every few minutes.
Hope your headache goes away!

Carla_wfpb

Hi Sabine, good to see you! Sorry to hear you are in jail! We'll visit and bring you snacks. Dr. Fuhrman approved snacks of course.

Mihani, I hope your headache is gone. That is so interesting about having more energy with the green monster smoothie. Are you making the 'classic' one? I looked at another of hers before and thought it was just too much work for early in the morning, but the classic is pretty close to what I make, only I add blueberries, half the banana, and skip the nut butter. Okay, so somewhat close lol.

The blackberry jam I made turned out really good. A very intense blackberry flavor and not too sweet. I bought a huge water bath for jam and then made a single recipe to test things out. That turned out to be a mistake because it takes a good while to boil the water twice (once to sanitize the jars, once with jam inside). I ended up with 4 half pint jars of jam after all of that. Those poor little jars were in this HUGE bath LOL. Anyway, I'm making it again today and doubling the recipe, which still isn't that efficient but I don't have any more berries ready yet. If I can find some peaches for a good price I'm going to make a peach ginger jam that has even less sugar and sounds really good.

Ruby, Reba, and the chickens are all doing well. I gave the chickens the leftover seeds & pulp from my jam and they loved it. The next morning when I opened their coop they didn't even stick around to eat their regular food, they just booked it to the pan of berries outside!

Breakfast: toast with nut butter and jam
Lunch: garden salad with lots of yummy cherry tomatoes
Dinner: red lentil cauliflower curry
Snack: apple and asian pear

liapr

Sabine, I can't wait to hear how you ended up in jail!! I would have never suspected

Thanks for starting the thread, Mihani!! I love the title, it's perfect. I'm going to try and keep that in mind as my mantra. I've had a good few days under my belt and really hoping to have a good ETL month! I'm so sick of wearing tight clothes!! And I want to feel a little better phsyically in my body too. It feels creaky and stiff lately lol.

Wow, Carla, your resin is GORGEOUS!!!! I love resin paintings, I wish I could do it myself. The colours always seem to leap out at you. How many have you done? Who is Reba, what did I miss?!

Mihani

How long is your incarceration Sabine?

Carla, the jam sounds awesome! Lot of work though. I seem to recall making it once when I was in my teens and it was a total fail lol. Here’s the green monster I’m making: ohsheglows.com/2009/07/10/super-detox-green-monster-recipe/. I think I will make the red lentil cauliflower curry this weekend. I have everything on hand.

Hi Lia! Glad to see you. I’m with you on tight clothes. I have this wonderful selection of clothes in my closet and lately I’m reduced to just a few pairs of pants that have enough “give” … ugh.

B – green monster
L – big salad same as yesterday
D – leftover glowing spiced lentil soup, slice of seeded wheat bread (I can’t buy this bread again it is a bakery thing, addictively delicious and it calls to me, I don’t need the temptation lol)
S – a few almonds, some watermelon

sloth3toes

I like jam.

liapr

I don't know why, Mihani, but I made a "pumpkin pie" smoothie once (maybe OSG) and now I just want to gag whenever I think about pumpkin in a smoothie lol. I love her tropical green smoothie though, that's always my go-to (with mango, pineapple, spinach, and almond milk basically).

Hi Scott! How are you? How's the boy?

Off to bachelorette this weekend! Wish me luck. It will have alcohol but hopefully minimal sweets...

Carla_wfpb

Lia, I just started with the resin work. I've done 3 small ones to start out and test the waters. They are around 11"x17" in size, maybe a little smaller. I just finished one this morning that is curing now. It is an 18"x24" size and I'm pretty excited about it! I'll take a picture of that one too in the next day or so. I'm also doing coasters and I'm going to do some necklace pendants too. I need small projects to use up the last bits of resin. Reba is the 10 year old kitty cat that we adopted She is a sweetie! She's at the vet today getting her teeth fixed and I'm missing her already. She is coming home this afternoon. Another bachelorette this weekend? Tis the season, I guess! Have fun! (and good luck )



Mihani, are you still getting a nice energy boost from that smoothie? I am planting some kale this weekend and if it grows for me, I'll start using it in monster smoothies. Does the liquid garlic extract have garlic flavor? I can't quite imagine drinking a pumpkin kale garlic smoothie! I'm going to check out that wheat grass powder. Do you use that?

I now have a dozen jars of jam made. Pretty funny considering we don't really eat jam around here haha...but it does taste good. I''ll end up giving most of it away. There's also a recipe for a mango chutney that sounds really good. Next up is trying out my new dehydrator. I can't say why, but canning, dehydrating, and taking care of chickens etc. is very satisfying and enjoyable for me. I didn't know I'd enjoy this new lifestyle so much! Getting out into the sun a lot more seems to be helping quite a bit with my depression, too. When I was tested at the doctor's about 6 months ago, she said my vitamin D levels were extremely low.

Mihani

Lia, it’s a very small amount of pumpkin lol. And I left out the nutmeg after the first one, I didn’t like it. Have fun this weekend!

Carla, can’t wait to see more of your creations. I definitely had more energy the first part of the week, but work sucked it out of me by yesterday. But still, it seemed to be a better week. I think sometimes just focusing on diet and exercise can energize me. I am so glad to hear you are enjoying your new lifestyle in the new home. Sounds so idyllic. Totally jealous. And you’re jammin’ the jam!

I finally had one of Dr. F’s books come available from the library for my kindle, and discovered that while I love reading novels on the kindle, I hate reading non-fiction books. I like to be able to flip back and forth when reading things like that and it’s not so easy on the kindle. I know you can bookmark and highlight on the kindle, but I just don’t like it, so I’ll have to go the brick and mortar library to get the actual book.

It was a totally crazy day. Boss is out of town and was so looking forward to catching up a bit, and it was just one thing after another. People calling to ask if they could meet with me, phone calls galore. I brought work home for tomorrow and won’t go back to the office until Sunday.

B – oatmeal (I was burned out on the green monsters)
L – leftover spiced lentil soup
D – pasta with broccoli, red pepper, onion, marinara
S – watermelon, lara bar

Oh, I forgot Carla asked about the liquid garlic. The first two days I sort of felt “garlicky” after the smoothie, but after that I didn’t notice it. I have always heard garlic has a lot of health benefits, and I will keep adding my ¼ tsp to something every day even if I give up on the smoothies. Also, I did buy the Amazing Grass greens, and it’s not bad at all. Good protein boost. I wouldn’t say it is my favorite plant protein powder, but it’s decent.

Carla_wfpb

I don't know what happened to the post I made yesterday. Maybe I hit preview instead of post. Not sure what all I wrote about, but I'll give it another go.

Reba came back from the vet on Friday and is doing well. She had two teeth pulled, which is better than the vet thought it would be. She was on wet food only Friday and yesterday, but is back to her regular combo of wet and dry food today.

Yesterday Joe and I worked on the garden. We harvested the last of the peas, and then sifted rocks out of several of the beds and then added compost, peat moss and sand to them. We planted some of each of the seeds we ordered and are hoping for the best!

I made my first batches of fruit leather last night. I did apple, apple and cinnamon, apple pear, apple blackberry, and apple pomegranate. They turned out really well except that I made them a little too thin so there are holes throughout the leather. I'm going to add some spinach into the mix next time. Our co-op is having a one day sale on organic peaches for 99 cents a pound, so I'm heading to town tomorrow to pick up a huge load of them for peach jam and fruit leather. I'm going to check out the liquid garlic and Amazing Grass greens, too. I need to have more greens for sure.

Mihani, I totally agree about the Kindle for reference books. I made the mistake of getting a recipe book in kindle format once...ended up buying it again in paperback. I love my Kindle for fiction, though! It saves so much space, and is superb when going somewhere by plane for traveling light.

Here's my latest resin piece:

Mihani

Carla, wow, that resin piece is gorgeous! Love the colors. Glad Reba did well at the vet. Your cooking and dehydrating experiments sound like fun. And planting too. You’re wearing me out lol.

I ended up not going to the office at all. I brought home more work than I could do in two days, still not through it all. Heading out to visit a friend and I’ll do some more work when I get home. I want to stop at Fresh Thyme and get some more salad greens for the week on the way home.

Yesterday:
B – oatmeal with almond milk and sliced peach
L – leftover pasta and veggies marinara
D – rest of the pasta, sprouted grain garlic toast
A couple glasses of wine

Today:
B – oatmeal with almond milk and sliced peach
L – tofu/broccoli/red pepper/onion stir-fry with brown rice
D – sautéed zucchini and yellow squash with Italian seasoning, salad
S – watermelon

Mihani

Another busy day, still working tonight at home. Boss returns tomorrow, I was hoping to be a bit more caught up before he got back. Sigh.

B - lara bar (running late)
L - subway veggie sub (forgot my lunch)
D - leftover stir-fry and brown rice (my forgotten lunch)
S - a few pretzels

Carla_wfpb

Mihani, hope you have some time to catch your breath soon! Oatmeal with a peach sounds good, I'll have to remember that.

I didn't end up going to the co-op for the peaches or supplements. It is now a 30 minute drive each way from where I live, and my house was just too messy to leave it another day and add more projects into the mix! Stayed home, didn't do any office work, and just cleaned cleaned cleaned.

Picked so many pears this evening. Hundreds left. My family lives across the border so they can't take any home. Joe is going to bring some to the office, we'll set some aside for his dad, and I think we'll end up donating a few boxes to the food bank. The apple tree that has apples ready doesn't have that much fruit on it for some reason. I don't think they pruned the trees this year, so maybe that's why. The other 2 apple trees have lots though, so we'll be swimming in apples again soon. I found a recipe online for miso pickles, so I may have to try that to use up some of the cucumbers. I have no idea what kind of cucumbers they are, so not sure how they'll pickle.

Mihani

You have a lot of fruit to harvest there Carla… your new life sounds like so much fun. Donating what you can’t use to the food bank is a wonderful idea

Another busy day but I stuck to the plan. I switched things up again at breakfast. I soaked 1/2 cup thick cut rolled oats and a tablespoon of chia seeds in a cup of unsweetened hemp milk. First time I’ve made overnight oats. I liked it a lot just like that and didn’t think it needed anything added. Going to be my breakfast this week, except I think I’ll change to 1/2 water and 1/2 milk.

B – overnight oats
L – steamer bag of broccoli and cauliflower with nooch and fresh ground pepper, a peach
D – blended salad
S – lara bar (I really need to knock that off, I don’t need them)

The blended salad turned out pretty well, but I need to make some modifications. I didn’t have a recipe handy so I just winged it. I used half a head of romaine, a tomato, about 1/2 cup fresh parsley, a small carrot, a couple green onions, a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, and 1/4 tsp of the liquid garlic extract. It was really tasty and what an easy way to get in all those raw veggies. I used a cup of water and next time I will cut that way back, only add water if needed. I wanted it to be more like a soup consistency than a juice. I poured it in a bowl anyway and topped it off with a cup of chickpeas and a tablespoon of sunflower seeds. I think next time I’d be better off just blending the sunflower seeds in with the veggies, it didn’t work out real well sprinkling them on top when it was more like juice, I mostly drank them whole lol. It was so simple too, no chopping just rinse the veggies, throw everything in the blender and done. I’m excited to try some other combinations.

Other than the lara bar I’m really happy with my day today and I felt great until I ate the lara bar, then I got a headache again. I’m starting to think my blood sugar may be slightly out of whack and I need to really tighten things up until I get these pounds back off.

Mihani

I got an email about Dr. F's 10 in 20 (lose 10 pounds in 20 days detox program) and for $14.95 you get a 50 page downloadable book with recipes and a 20 day meal plan plus 3 months membership to his website. I just signed up. I'm going to immerse myself in ETL for the 3 months that I have the membership, then I'll decide if I want to renew it. I'm not going to start the 10 in 20 until next week, I'm grooving the past couple days on what I'm doing. I felt a lot better today, more energy, no headaches.

B - overnight oats (1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup hemp milk, 1/2 cup water, 1 T chia seeds)
L - steamer bag of broccoli and cauliflower with nooch and black pepper, an apple
D - blended salad... this one turned out great. Last night's tasted fine but it wasn't the consistency I wanted. This was more like a green soup and super tasty. I just added a tablespoon or so of water at a time until things got going and then let it go. When I dropped chickpeas into the bowl before serving they didn't sink lol. Tonight's creation was romaine, baby kale, half a yellow pepper, an ounce of sunflower seeds, a carrot, parsley, lemon juice, two green onions, a tomato. I am a little surprised but I like the blended salad even better than smoothies. I enjoy the savory rather than sweet. And so refreshing in this hot weather.

Carla_wfpb

That's fantastic, Mihani! I'm sure the program and membership will be very motivating. And you already do so well. I'm going to talk to Joe about it tonight and see if he wants to get serious about it with me. We've been talking about doing better, so I bet he'll be on board.

I have another load of fruit leather drying in the dehydrator. This time maybe there will be some left to store! I am going to make some pear sauce this week, too. I have a healthy muffin recipe that uses unsweetened applesauce instead of sugar and I think I could sub in the pear sauce pretty easily.

Yesterday we started seeing some of our seeds sprout up from the raised beds. The turnips were the first, and then some lettuce and spinach, then kale. No sign of the carrots or Brussels sprouts yet, but we weren't really expecting anything to be up so soon anyway.

Mihani

Carla, I'm going to try to read a lot of his articles and watch the webinars before my 3 months is up to learn more and hopefully motivate me. I wish he offered more of his stuff for free but I get that he's a businessman as well as a doctor. The 3 month membership would be about the same price as the 10 in 20 plan deal so I figured it was a good time to try it out and get the bonus book. I belonged to the site for a few months some years ago but didn't really use it so I cancelled.

You are making me want to get a dehydrator lol. And yay for seeds sprouting!

B - same as yesterday
L - same as yesterday
D - same as yesterday except I added black beans to the bowl rather than chickpeas. Also had some watermelon which I also had last night and forgot to add to my post.

One more day of my little plan and then I'll decide where I want to go from there. I don't think the 10 in 20 is going to be right away just because of work/time constraints, but I will try some of the recipes and I think I'll keep having a blended salad every day for one meal.

liapr

Hi everyone (ie. Mihani and Carla, haha). Thanks for carrying the group lately! I love reading about your adventures though, you both have such creative food ideas.

Mihani, I really thought that your blended salads were smoothies, NOW it makes more sense! More like a veggie soup?! Great job though. Sometimes I find it easier to stick to a healthy meal plan when I have less choice, and am sort of eating something similar every day. I love starting the day with a smoothie actually, I need to do that more often. It's a good way of hiding greens too.

Carla, I am also in awe of your new life! I love the photos too. It seems like something out of the movies. Will you be bored in the winter?!? lol. How are all your pets? The dehydrator sounds awesome!

We finally got our giant yard fenced!! It cost a small bundle but our pup is actually so pleased. He wouldn't venture out much, but for some reason, he feels secure now and trots all around and rolls in the grass. He is so cute. It feels so much more private, but we have NO vegetation except a tree. We are meeting with a landscaper next week to discuss some designing for next year. I can't wait to start to spruce it up! Right now I have two singular pots of flowers lol. It's pretty pathetic.

PS YOUR RESINS ARE SOOOOOO GOOD!! Are you selling them?! Or hanging them up??

Carla_wfpb

Mihani: I am not sure how much I'd use the recipes or the forums really, but maybe the webinars would make it worthwhile. I didn't realize that those were on his site. The sad thing is that I already know what I can and can't have / should and shouldn't do, but it is making myself do it that is the hard part. For $15, if it motivates me in some way to do better then it is worth it. If you see a good webinar, let me know and that will probably sway me.

Hi Lia! Wow, how great to have your yard fenced. So nice for your pup and the privacy. Nice in a way to start with a blank slate since you can do it exactly how you like. We love having a fenced yard for Ruby. Peace of mind for us and freedom for her. Thanks for the comments on the resin art I am having fun doing it, but the resin I get is light-fast, non toxic, and doesn't turn yellow so it is very expensive. I need to sell some pieces, even it if it is just to cover the cost of the resin so I can keep experimenting with it. I am trying to decide between selling on Etsy or creating a website, or a combo. I would also need to buy a camera to photograph the art...I have a point and shoot but need a better one with interchangeable lenses so I can add a polarizing lens to get rid of the glare - that and a couple of lights with polarizing filters in front of them. It all adds up fast. I'm also thinking about selling smaller items, like necklace pendants and coasters but I'm not sure if they should be on a different site as it might be too much of a mix of arts and crafts. In any case, I have a few necklace pendant molds coming some time next week and I'm super excited to try some designs with those. I'll post the results at some point.

We're finishing off all of the foods we know we shouldn't be eating and won't be replacing them. I am gearing up for a big detox headache when we go on the straight and narrow. It makes for a very ugly first week, so I want to make sure I stick with it this time and make it worthwhile (I've done it a few times for 5 days or so and then fallen back on bad habits...terrible headaches for 5 days running for nothing)

Have a great weekend guys!

Mihani

Carla, I'm not interested in the forums really (I'd rather hang out with you all!) but I am looking forward to full access to all his articles and webinars. I have read a few already. I am mostly just hoping it reinforces my current efforts. I agree that I might not use all the recipes, I don't have time to cook/prep for every meal, although most of them seem pretty easy to put together. Like you, I know what I should do, I'm just not always motivated to stay on the right path lol. Right now I'm grooving on the blended salads for dinner. I was thinking tonight that I am going to cut up a little of some of the veggies and greens to add to the "soup" after is blended. It's a bit tricky to get it the right consistency where it is like soup and not a smoothie, but I'm learning what creates more "juice" that won't require much if any water added. Adding some chopped veggies with the beans would make it chunkier.

You have so much going on with all your artwork and the new property and all that, I don't know where you find the energy! I think starting your own website sounds like a great idea.

Lia, yay for a fenced yard. My dog loves to be outside and it is so nice to be able to leave him out a while without watching him all the time. I don't leave him out when I can't at least keep half an eye on him though, he's still a bit mischievous. I totally get having less choice and just eating kind of the same every day. The routine helps me.

I won't post my meals today, see yesterday

whats_her_name

I'm here after 2 weeks' holidays! I slipped a bit on my exercise (ok, a LOT!), but I have a plan for fall now, and I feel good about it.

Both of my kids want to try speed swimming this year, which I am TOTALLY excited about because I was a lifeguard and we own a waterfront cabin. So I WANT them to be good, strong swimmers.

They're going to be in pre-competitive with practices Mon & Wed for the boy, and Mon, Wed & Fri for the gal. So I've decided that I'm going to get a membership to the pool , and while they're in their 90 minute classes, I'll be able to do my own 75-80 minute workout too!!

And my mom and I are going to sign up for yoga classes either once or twice a week. Will have to see the schedule and figure out what works.

And I'm going to get some new running shoes (I think my toe issues are thanks to my shoes being a bit too snug), and I'm going to resume my zombie runs in the mornings, too.

I also started a bullet journal to get/stay organized (google that - they're pretty nifty), and I'm going to plan out my meals for September right away so that I'm always planning at least 2-3 weeks in advance, including my grocery lists. I'm going to NAIL nutrition AND fitness this fall! I'm going to set a goal to lose 10-15 lbs each month in Sept, Oct and Nov. I'm GOING to DO this!!

Mihani

Welcome back Karrie! Hope you had a great time. Sounds like you've got a great plan going.

It's after 11:00 just wrapping up some work here need to get to bed! Went a bit off the rails on Saturday but back at it Sunday. I made sauteed summer squash and barley for dinner tonight. Cooked the barley in veggie broth. It was really good, I don't know why I don't make it more often.

whats_her_name

We chased pokémon last night in the heat! Ugh... But there were so many people out doing the exact same thing it was almost comical! There's one park by our house that has about a dozen pokéstops, so that's where everyone was circling. There were even a couple of seniors doing it, too (I was impressed!) A dad with his toddler strapped to his chest, 2 pairs of new parents with their babies in strollers, a couple of entire families, like us... Busy, busy!!

I made the OSG black bean quinoa salad (the one with the cumin dressing) and I just LOVE it! The avocado mixed in there is just delightful!! Yum... Need more quinoa so I can make it again - It's kinda the perfect power lunch!!

Carla_wfpb

Thanks, Karrie! Now I know what I'm going to make some time this week for dinner! The black bean salad sounds perfect for the hot weather we've been having. You are all fired up with your plans for Fall! Getting in some swimming while the kids are in lessons is perfect. I think bullet journals are cool too. I started one earlier in the year, but with the move I forgot about it. I need to find the notebook that I was using and pick it back up.

Mihani, have you been delving into the content on the Dr. F site? Or are you waiting until you start the 20 day plan? I should make some barley too. I'm going to see if there are any good pressure cooking recipes out there for it.

For lunch today I'm eating cucumbers. It reminds me of your watermelon frenzy, Mihani We have so many of them in the garden and more coming every day. And then I am scared to look and see more, so I wait an extra day and then they grow super HUGE. I just found a dehydrator recipe for cucumber and tomato flax crackers so I'm going to give those a try. It only uses 1/2 a cucumber at a time, but if the first batch turns out I can do 9 trays at a time. This recipe leaves the skin on the cukes and is ETL friendly. Only thing to watch out for is not eating too many flaxseeds! If anyone has a dehydrator I'll share the recipe if they turn out. Also other cracker recipes with flaxseed base if anyone is interested.

Here's my first attempt at some resin jewelry (necklace pendants). I seem to have caught the jewelry making bug, so now I'm looking at metal jewelry making classes on Crafsty. A whole new world with tons of classes. Uh oh

liapr

*insert emoji with heart eyes* - your resin stuff is crazy good, Carla, I'm in awe. I will show at your online store for sure!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe we are on the back half of August, seems crazy. On the other hand, it's easily been the craziest summer I've had (especially with work, but also with moving and a million wedding events) that I'm actually kind of excited for September.... I feel so guilty saying that because I love the heat. But still.

I got a million household chores and yardwork and met all of our awesome neighbours this weekend! It was productive, but I was a little behind on my food prep. I went to the grocery store without a list which also results in aimless shopping and random vegetables.

Karrie, great to see you! My husband just signed up for the pool which is around the corner from us and is enjoying it. I think I'll try it out too but I keep putting it off... either because it's been so long or because I dread putting on a bathing suit in public. Sigh. It's such good exercise though!

Mihani, have you got your blended recipe down to an art now?? Sounds like you're on an awesome roll!

whats_her_name

Carla, those pendants are beautiful!! I'd like to claim that green one on the bottom!!!

You selling????

Last night was my 19th wedding anniversary, and I thought my hubby had a soccer game, so I thought that maybe we'd go out for supper tonight instead. Well it turns out that my DH had other plans. When I got home from work he had a ribbon maze set up for me to follow the ribbon. He had our wedding music playing, and the ribbon took me to our wedding flowers, then to some dark chocolate with acai berries and blueberries, and then it took me to some pink grapefruit soda, and then it took me to the bathroom which was all lit up with candles and the bath was drawn and waiting for me with an itinerary for the night. I had an hour to soak and relax in tub, then I was off to a massage, then out for supper, then to a movie.

The kids were already at my parents' house, so it was a night that was truly all about me and DH. How lovely is that!! And the massage was woooooonderful...

The most amazing part was that the kids were in on it and nobody let it slip!