Nutritarian New Year!
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OMG Carla that picture is totally precious! Love it. She's beautiful.
I've been working most of the weekend, have made a teeny tiny little dent in the piles on my desk. Haven't eaten as well as I should and going to do some prep tonight. I have beets to clean and put through the shredder on the food processor for salads, and I'll do some carrots while I'm at it. Also got some romaine and spring mix, and some grape tomatoes, so I'm all set to get back to salads for lunch. I made a small batch of black bean soup last night and will eat the rest tonight.
Yesterday...
B - oatmeal with a few raisins, walnuts, hemp milk
L - lara bar and an apple
D - black bean soup and a slice of crusty bread
S - blue corn chips
Today...
B - same as yesterday
L - Amy's tofu scramble
D - same as yesterday
S - grapes, lara bar
Still not where I want to be with my food, but it is better. I am out of lara bars and blue corn chips, so I'm going to just not buy any more of them. I obviously can't stay out of them!
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I'm not sure what happened, but the dent in the piles on my desk filled up with stuff, and the piles are somewhat precarious. I honestly left today with my desk looking worse than when I got in. Didn't get out of there until almost 6:30 and my guess is that is going to be the way the entire week goes.
B - amazing grass shaken with water
L - Amy's tofu scramble
D - nothing yet, think I'll just have some fruit it's late and I want to get to bed early
S - a few pretzels, some grapes, some pumpkin seeds (I was just grabbing things throughout the day)
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Mihani, I would be so stressed out with the workload you have. I hope everyone else in the office is contributing and working hard like you. If I lived close enough I would make you a pot of ETL friendly food!
Yesterday I had a bad migraine and I wasn't up for making dinner. I laid on the couch with a cold cloth on my head listening to the tv while Joe watched. The lights were on low but the flicker of the tv light bothered me even through the cloth on my head. It is somewhat hard to tell because I am headache prone to begin with, but I think working in my temporary studio is causing some of the bad ones lately. There isn't ventilation and I have to use a space heater to keep it warm so I am constantly deciding between fresh air and enough warmth to store and use my art supplies.
I am feeling pretty good again today, and I will steer clear of the studio so I can hopefully make the cauliflower keema. The cilantro is not getting any fresher!
Our darling kitty Reba is acting very needy over the last week or so. I've read it can be a sign in older cats that they sense they won't be around much longer. I really hope that isn't the case with her. I'm covered from head to toe in cat fur and trying to type this with a cat between me and the screen! ...worth it!
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Awww, Carla, hope Reba is okay. I do remember that happening with a cat we had back when I was in high school. He had never, in his life, slept in bed with people. I'm not sure why, he just never did, but for the week before he died he suddenly slept with me every night. He was a very cool cat, one of the best ever. He was a big tough guy, and nothing fazed him. He played piano just remembered that... I would point at the keys and he would tap them, he could pick out tunes that way. Glad you are feeling better, stupid headaches. And thanks for the offer of ETL food lol, that's so nice.
Still struggling with eating the way I want to eat... I know it is stress and I have to get a handle on things at work so I can get my head straight.
B - amazing grass shaken with water
L - steamer bag a mix of corn and asparagus and something... threw some nooch on it
D - bagel (working late and didn't feel like cooking)
S - pumpkin seeds, grapes
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Well, Mihani, you are lucky you missed out on last night's meal! I guess it wasn't terrible...but certainly not one I'll make again. It was the Cauliflower Keema from the veganricha site. Oh well, they can't all be winners! Most of her recipes are very good and this one is still okay. Truth be told, if it was a Dr. Fuhrman recipe I'd probably think it was better than most LOL. Anyway, if you love cauliflower and LOVE!!! cilantro (1 cup blended), then maybe it's worth a try.
Interesting that you mentioned your kitty suddenly sleeping on the bed with you. We normally keep our bedroom door shut at night and Reba sleeps in her basket in the office, but last night she was meowing at the door. She usually only does that if we accidentally shut the door to her access to food and kitty litter. We let her in and she slept on the bed the whole night.
We haven't had enough time with her. Amazing about your kitty playing the piano. Reba is a smarty pants. I wish we had our keyboard set up in here so I could try it out with her.
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Well, there had to a be a disappointment or two in your recipes Carla, but I LOL'd for real at your realization you would have thought it was pretty good for a Dr. F recipe. I love ETL, and hate to badmouth Dr. F, but the recipes in his cookbook aren't my thing. There have been a few that I liked, but most of them I have to doctor up with spices to make them good, and at some point I gave up trying them. I think they are just for the most part too bland for me. I like good food, that's why I got fat lol. Fortunately we have lots of websites out there with ETL friendly recipes.
I hope that Reba is okay. Glad she got to sleep in bed with you last night.
I'm thinking about buying a spiralizer, the one with the hand crank that shoots out the veggie noodles. I have a gift card for a store that carries them. Does anyone have one that you can yay or nay me on it? I already have more kitchen gadgets than I need.
I also looked at dehydrators. I know you have one Carla, are you still using it or is it collecting dust after the first burst of enthusiasm? I think I will also get one of the chopper boxes that you said you bought. I get really tired of chopping veggies sometimes.
B - bagel w/ PB
L - big ol' salad with romaine, shredded beets and carrots, chickpeas, balsamic
D - steamed broccoli, brown rice
S - apple, grapes, pretzels
Sigh, the snacky thing just isn't getting better. I have to just say NO to snacks.
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I don't have a spiralizer. I was going to see how you like yours! I think maybe Karrie has one. The chopper is something I use, especially with all of the Indian food we've been eating. It does take a bit of effort to clean the blade, pusher and container, so I don't use it if I'm just adding a bit of onion to my lunch, but if I'm making a dinner it usually involves multiple onions and I pull it out. The one I got has a container underneath to hold the onions and then you can invert the top to store it easily. Bell peppers come out great too. It is really satisfying for my OCD to see all of the onions and peppers chopped the same size. Looks lovely in the pan!
The dehydrator I have is very large. I am storing it in my garage over the winter. I think if it weren't for the orchard and garden, I wouldn't have one. You put in a huge batch of food and it gets so tiny once it is dry. And the dehydrator isn't silent...it sounds sort of like a microwave running...for 12 to 24 hours! The homemade fruit leather is amazing but you end up with a lot of clean up afterwards and fruit leather doesn't last long around here lol.
The InstantPot is super useful. I was worried it would collect dust but it does not! Because it has a saute function, you can saute your onions and spices in the IP before adding your beans and liquid etc., so you are only getting one pot dirty. It has a rice cooker function and a crock pot/slow cooker setting. I usually soak my beans overnight before cooking them in there, but you can also not soak them or quick soak them if you forget. It has a yogurt function as well, but I haven't tried making any. My favorite small appliance!
My eating is not on track right now to say the least. I had pizza last night and we're going out for dinner tonight with Joe's family. Then this weekend we're having my family over to celebrate my Mom's and Joe's birthdays. There's always something so I need plans instead of excuses! At my heaviest weight now I think. Too scared to step on the scale.
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Hi lovely ladies!! (Speaking of, I wonder how Sloth is doing these days?!)
How are you guys? Sorry for being MIA. I felt like I got too far behind on the thread and was just lurking. But then a puppy picture went up and just like that, I am backkkkkkkkK!
Also Carla, THAT is Ruby now?!?!?! OMG she's so big. And beautiful/adorable. I want to rub her fuzzy little face. I am super jealous of your brood of animals, it sounds amazing. A lot of work I'm sure! thanks for sharing the VeganRicha recipes. I haven't tried them out and was definitely in the mood for something new. We keep recycling old OSG but I find her new book a bit disappointing and I'm sick of the same old really... Also, I finally felt like a salad again this week!!!!!!!!!!!!! Going to try and ride the wave and keep eating them so that I always feel like them (ideally) lol. Also, sending positive vibes to old Reba! Maybe she just wants some cuddles this winter...
Mihani, it sounds like you're doing pretty great considering your workload. Seriously impressed, be proud of yourself! I don't know if I would be eating cruciferous veg if I was as busy as you lol. How is your work load looking this week?
This week has felt busy with various things and it's flown by. Looking forward to this weekend. I have to go to my first neighbourhood christmas party by myself on Saturday. It's a delayed one due to coordination issues pre-xmas lol. All the neighbours are nice but I've been having some on-again/off-again social anxiety lately! Wish me luck At least having a giant belly can be an easy talking point lol 0 -
Ah, thanks Carla! I had not thought of the Instant Pot. Maybe that’s the best investment for my gift card. Your OCD comment cracked me up, we are a lot alike lol. I think a dehydrator is something I would not use as much as I should and would collect dust. Hope you have fun this weekend!
Lia’s back yay! I totally get social anxiety, but I generally have fun once I get somewhere. It’s getting myself to go in the first place that is the hard part. Your husband can’t go to the party with you?
Long day, long week, but it’s almost over. I have the office to myself Saturday and really hope I can get some things caught up.
B – oatmeal with a few raisins and almond milk
L – Subway veggie sub, chips (could have skipped the chips ugh)
D – stir-fry and brown rice
S – almonds
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Mihani, my aunt and cousin both got an Instant Pot in the last year and both can't say enough about it too! It made me interested, but good to know you can make a ton of delish veg stuff in it, Carla!
My husband has some bachelor party thing in the city for a friend who is having a town hall wedding/baby in the next month! He is dreading his too actually lol. I keep saying to him the same thing as you said, "you'll love it once you're there". It's dinner/drinks/whiskey tasting, so I'm sure it'll be great. Lucky guy. I keep saying that I do small talk for a living almost so I hope I can hold my own!
Yay TGIF!!! Fridayyyyyyyyyyyyyy. Mihani you have to promise yourself some fun/a break tomorrow too, not just work! Do it for us! hehe.0 -
I might have sold myself on the Instant Pot. I think it will be worth it. I like using dried beans, but it takes so long to soak them then cook them, that I end up using canned more often than not. I think the Instant Pot would help me get to making my own more often. One time I spent most of a day cooking up batches of different types of dried beans and then freezing them in measured portions, but I never got motivated to do it again after that first time.
Hope you have fun at the party Lia. How are you feeling these days? I'm sure your baby bump will be a great conversation starter lol.
B - sprouted grain toast with PB
L - some frozen vegan Indian entree from Trader Joe's can't remember what it was called... really good, with a nice spicy kick, but way too high in calories/fat for more than an occasional treat
D - not sure yet, probably leftover stir-fry and brown rice
S - a few pretzels, some blue corn chips... sigh
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Haven't forgotten about you guys! I'm having a super busy day. We're cleaning the whole house from top to bottom and then trying to clean up the yard a bit too. Everyone is coming over for Joe's and my mom's birthday tomorrow. I just came in from washing the outside of the windows and I'm soaked to the skin lol. Ruby kept distracting me and then hose would drop and turn itself on and spray me etc. The windows look good though...until Ruby starts rubbing her nose on them again, that is!
I have really bad social anxiety so I can totally understand anything to do with that. For me the anticipation is bad, the event is usually quite uncomfortable (although sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised) and then the "after shocks" are probably the worst...where I'm tossing and turning trying to sleep and I keep thinking of stupid things I said / did and I'm groaning out loud for hours.
Mihani, the other nice thing about the IP is that there are a lot of recipes where you cook the beans at the same time as everything else all in the same pot. I hope I am not overselling it to you. I find that it is more useful than I thought it would be. The only real caution is that it doesn't always save time...it takes some time to get up to pressure, the cooking is fast, and then in most cases you let the pressure come down slowly for about 15 minutes before releasing it.
Hope you have a good time at the party tonight, Lia! You will probably relax and have a good time once you're there. At least you know your neighbors. I probably told you guys we didn't meet more than a few of the neighbors at our last place and we were there for 4 years or so. Now with our acreage, I've only met one neighbor because they sell chicken feed. How does one go about meeting them? I thought we were the new guys so people would drop by to introduce themselves but probably half of them don't know the previous owners have moved. Probably too late now lol.0 -
After pondering what I can do to get better prepared for the week, I have decided that I'm going to keep things really simple. [...]. I'm taking all worry out of food prep and going to just eat the same things all week...
This. ^
That's my plan for the week. I've gotta get serious again. I'm gonna go hard for 6 weeks. See how much progress I can make. I'm going back to basics.
Breakfast is gonna be green smoothies and some mixed raw nuts.
Lunch is gonna be raw veggies with hummus and guacamole.
Supper is going to be stir fried veggies with rice.
I'm back!! I am determined to do this finally and get out of my slump.0 -
I just did 5km on the treadmill and after my son's water polo practice, I'm gonna do it again (cuz I am too out of shape to do it all at once right now...)0
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Welcome back, Karrie! Nice to see you Good work on the treadmill.
Was it you that got a vegetable spiralizer? If so, do you use it a lot & like it?
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Hi everyone. I recently bought a spiralizer, and I absolutely love it! I found a simple site that has some basic recipes along with info on spiralizers as well as accompanying cookbooks; pretty straight-forward. Worked for me! I bought the "counter-top" spiralizer mentioned on the options page. Compared to all the other gadgets I have in my kitchen, it's relatively inexpensive. Here's the site: vegetablespiralizerrecipes.com
It's fun to use and the clean up is easy. I've done the zoodles recipe and a delicious cucumber salad with the ribbon-cut blade. I plan on trying baked potato chips next (maybe with sweet potatoes?)
Plus the gift basket idea will be my go-to for the next time I'm stumped with what to get family/friends.
Hope this helps!0 -
Hi Carla! I did get a spiral user for Christmas and I love it too! Thanks for the website info Daego!!
We also got a kitten for the kids for Christmas and he does NOT like the blender AT ALL. Poor kitty. He'll get used to it eventually, right?!?!
I have my treadmill in my furnace room and this morning when it kicked on it was HOT! I cut it short and only did 2 miles instead of 3 because I felt like my head was gonna pop right off my shoulders!! I'll have to remember to turn it down before I start in the mornings. Let it kick in after I'm done.0 -
Great info, Daego! Thanks! I ordered a counter top model.
Karrie, have you done any weaving? I am going to get a rigid heddle loom. There are some videos on YouTube and some good forums so I'm going to try to teach myself. Craftsy has a few classes too, and for $20 (half off right now) that's not too bad at all. Was the site that you and another ETL member were chatting about ravelry.com? I just started using the site and I love some of the groups they have!! Nice job on the running!
While I was ordering the spiralizer, I couldn't help but get the Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen cookbook. I'll let you know what I think!0 -
Carla, how was your weekend with family? You are going to undertake another artistic endeavor? I am so envious of your energy and talent!
Hi Karrie! Great to see you. Well done getting back on that treadmill. I’m still in the contemplation/guilt stage here lol.
Great website DaegoFrank, thanks! And welcome to the group. I am still waffling about what I want to spend my gift card on, but I think the instant pot is coming first.
Work is still crazy and I’m still having trouble sticking to full on eating right. I know it is fatigue as much as anything. Tired=Hungry for me. I went in Saturday and spent almost the entire time on ONE file… ugh. Nothing moves off my desk. Sunday I woke up with a sinus headache and felt miserable all day so I took Sudafed and napped mostly, and really regretted not being able to get into the office. I stayed late tonight.
B – Heritage Flakes cereal with (unsweetened) almond milk
L – Trader Joe’s Tikka Masala
D – avocado toast (on sprouted grain bread)
S – A couple handfuls of pumpkin seeds, and… French fries… yes seriously lol. I did realize I don’t care for fast food French fries any more, I’d rather make baked or roasted potatoes at home, so much yummier. The fast food all I tasted was salt and oil, no potato.
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Tired = hungry for me too... I munched a bit yesterday because I left supper too late... But I'm still down this morning, so that's a plus.
I didn't get on the treadmill this morning; I tossed and turned all night last night, and at one point, I woke up crying (although I can't remember the dream at all). So I ignored my alarm and went back to sleep. Fortunately, I have nothing going on tonight; so I'm going to get on the treadmill as soon as the kids get home from school.
Here's a pic of our new kitty, Oreo. He's now 15 weeks old...
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