Thar she blows!!! September 15, 2009

Ugh, I overate again!  And I am regretting it royally, just like most other times I overeat.  I think I’ve turned to my old ways of eating too much because of some anxiety and anticipation I’ve been feeling lately.  The other night I had a bad incident that involved wine, a Cazuela, and then a DQ Blizzard.  Not pretty.

My life has been full of home remodelling related research, selling my car (sold on one day on Craigslist, and I got cash—cha-ching!), trying to be productive at work, and having a somewhat full social calendar as well.  Gah, where is my sane life??

Workouts have been sparse, but good.  I started a Couch to 5k program just to switch things up a bit, but I haven’t done many of the walking workouts.  I was supposed to workout tonight, and catch up with the Driz along the way, but I bugged out.  Speaking of the Driz, we had dinner at Fajitas on Sunday!  She joined Chris and I for the picnic-table, Cazuela drinkin’ fun and we had a great time  

Let’s see what kind of pics I have for you….not in order

Egg and egg white scramble with green bell pepp, tomatoes, avocado, mushrooms, and carrots.

Naughty veggie pizza with thin crust, extra sauce, and light on the cheese.

Beer to go along with the naughty pizza

 

So after my wine, Cazuela, and Blizzard madness of Sunday I was mad hungover   I worked from home and tried not to hurl.  Around lunch time I felt better and had a can of Health Valley Fat Free Minestrone soup, doctored up with garlic powder, garlic salt, Italian herbs, and some canned parm (the klassy stuff, you know how I roll).  The soup was low sodium (read sweet and bland), but the add ins helped.

Lily helping me polish off evidence of the Blizzard….

Field Day 2009!!  My friend Kristina coordinated a fun roundup of local friends and clients, chock full of silly games, BYOB, and picnic food.  I participated in the egg carry, water balloon toss, and tug of war, and spectated on the sack race and kickball. 

Just couldn’t resist flashin’ the cash.  Uber klassy, I know, but I’ve never held that much cash at one time!!!  Crazay!  It’s all about the Benjamins, baby   BTW, I’ve never sold a car, or used Craigslist, and it all worked out so smoothly.  I sold the car less than 24 hrs after listing!  Now, if selling my house could just be as easy… anyone got a suitcase with a few hundred grand coming my way??

Frozen treats August 31, 2009

And no, tonight I don’t mean a Dairy Queen!  I’ve been enjoying some frozen fruit this week, specifically grapes and now cherries.  Girlfriend and her addiction turned me on to the cherries

 

Last week’s produce pact worked out well, and I ran out of fresh goodies on Friday.  Although I ate more fresh produce, I also had too much other food   Overeating at dinner out, throwing in a DQ Blizzard, and drinking a lot probably counteracted the good feelings that eating produce created   Anywho…

This month’s Gourmet Magazine had a great roasted cauliflower recipe.  I didn’t add the kalamata vinaigrette, but all was well   I don’t like the cauli raw (the man prefers it raw), and roasted is now my favorite.  Give ‘er a try! I like how this recipe called for the cauli to be sliced into big 1″ sections, rather than florets.

Lily was so cute at dinner tonight!! 

 

Since I was a bad girl and didn’t do the rest of my grocery shopping yesterday, I had no lettuce today for lunch.  So, I had a lettuce-less salad of carrot, tomato, avocado, bell pepper, mushroom, and some leftover multi-grain rice from Saturday’s dinner.

 

Yesterday was WillaKenzie‘s Day in the Vineyard, a private event for members with wine classes and a wonderful catered lunch at the top of the vineyard.  So gorgeous!  Here’s the spread from the wine & food pairing class.  I didn’t eat but the wild mushroom and chevre tart b/c of the shrimp and fish the other bites contained, and as I ate it the chef casually mentioned it had bacon in it. :shocked: *^%$%$#*&^%*&(*)????!!!!!  Why do ya gotta add bacon??

Daniel, the vineyard manager, raises longhorn cattle and keeps many of them on the vineyard property.  Here’s Chris getting up close and personal with a friendly cow (she licked his hand!).

This is the big daddy of the pack—Rodeo Maximus.  His horn span is a whopping 72 inches.  Whoa!!  Better not get too close to that bad boy!

This little darling was checking her reflection out in the truck.  So cute!  She nosed and licked the truck, and almost took out the mirror with her horn. 

Lunch was a green and lima (??) bean salad with a citrus vinaigrette, a quinoa salad with squash, tomato, red pepper, onion, a mixed green salad with caramelized hazelnuts and sundried tomatoes, and yummy olive bread.  Not pictured are my four desserts:  two oatmeal raisin cookies, one chocolate-chocolate chip cookie, and one almond biscotti. 

These two cattle have the optimal longhorns—rather straight out, and possibly a little corkscrew type curvature.  Aren’t they perty!!??

Speaking of perty…here I am!  We walked up to lunch rather than taking the shuttle van. 

 

Compare this pic with the one from last year:

Andrea and her hubby, Chris, had a party Saturday for their 30th birthdays.  I got snuggly with their baby, Basil.  He’s such a sweetie, and so darn cute!!

Dinner before the party was an inspired creation:  stuffed white acorn squash with multi grain rice, sautéed tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, bell pepper, and garlic, seasoned with s&p, Nature’s Seasons, and Italian herbs.  I roasted the squash for ~45m at 325, scooped out some flesh to make more room, then stuffed it with the cooked filling and baked another 15 minutes.  Sadly the squash itself was rather bland   What can I do to amp it up a bit?

Lily had a vet appointment in Oregon City Saturday morning, and on the way back we stopped at Spicer Brothers Produce.  They had tons of great items, with about half of them being local and super fresh.  Fresh apples!  FINALLY!  Although none of the items were labeled organic, Andrea had a great point in that many local growers use organic and sustainable methods, they just aren’t certified.  Spicer’s had great prices on most items, and the guys seemed to smile at me a lot.  This sexy bitch got her bananas at the “overripe” price rather than the regular price. That’s what I’m talking about.

I got three new items:  golden delicious apples, white acorn squash, and donut peaches.  After washing everything thoroughly I dug into a peach.  WHOA!  SUPER sweet taste, with only a mild peachiness.  Ideal for mixing in with less sweet fruits, or used in cereal and other applications.  The apples are great!  Might be a new fave of mine.

 

I thought Friday’s salad looked especially pretty:

After hitting up DQ for a Tagalong Blizzard Tuesday night, we treated Lily to a doggy cone again   She gets excited when we pull in to DQ now cuz she knows what’s coming.  Oops!

 

And that just about sums up the last week.  I’ve still been a less-than-stellar worker bee and am still having trouble getting back in to busy mode at work.  I’m rather like obstinant-non-worker bee

So, I guess I’ll officially announce that Chris and I are buying my grandmother’s house.  This month we’ll be getting quotes for updating the house (gotta green the place up a bit, repaint some, remove wallpaper, change out carpet, add a fence, ya know).  After family is in town for my grandmother’s Celebration of Life party in late Sept. I think we can clear out the unwanted furniture/etc., and then in October the work can be done.  We anticipate taking possession and moving around Nov. 1.  Holy moley—can’t believe it’s really gonna happen!! It’s kind of surreal, frankly, and rather stressful.  But exciting nonetheless  

Tata!

The hidden truth July 1, 2009

I’ve now been eating a vegetarian diet for about two months, but I admit I have not been that great at making sure some things I consume are not animal sourced.  Some examples:

• are those beans/rice/tortillas made with lard? animal broth?
• is there gelatin in this dessert?
• does that calcium pill have gelatin?
• does this dish have fish sauce in it?

Recently I’ve been studying my nutrition to determine if I should take multi-vitamin, calcium, and/or other supplements.  I’ve also been checking out supplements as I visit the store or browse online, and I am shocked by how many supplements contain gelatin and fish/shellfish sourced ingredients, even some that claim to be vegetarian or for vegetarians.

From what I’ve calculated in my daily nutrition, I think I’m lacking  in many things across the board   I’ve never been a believer in vitamins and most supplements, and if I get on a kick of taking something I don’t usually stick with it that long.  I don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on supplements, esp. since my increased produce intake has already upped the food bill, so I’ve set out to find a good vitamin that seems like a good value. 

Today I found these: Deva Vegan Tiny Tablets, and I’m thinking of giving them a whir.  I’m also considering calcium and B vitamin supplements, especially since I have “cracky teeth” and sometimes think my energy has waned during the last few months. 

But, I also wonder about taking a liquid vitamin, like Nature’s Way, and a chewable calcium tab in an effort to ingest more of the nutrition. (Hard pills may not break down in the gut and can just be shat out nearly whole!  Our bodies don’t absorb most of the pills we take, including pharmaceuticals, which is factored into dosing of pharmaceuticals but not supplements/vitamins.) Again, I’m rather blown away by some of the ingredients in the chewables…except for these, but dayum, they’re expensive!!

Any thoughts for me on vegetarian/vegan supplements? vitamins?

How ’bout some pics now?  A gallery of my top 8 pics, including:

• vanilla soft serve ice cream dipped in chocolate from Dairy Queen!  it sounded good and was oh.so.perfect.  I was very satisfied with this treat
• wildflowers in bloom!
• blueberry tea
• my first library book in like 20 years

This bitch is outta here!  I didn’t work out yesterday or today   Boo.  I may get up early to get in a nice workout…but it’s already 11 so we’ll see how that goes. 

Toodles!