Happy New Year! A ramble and a bit of looking back

Yes, I'm on my computer in my study, so here's an actual real, live post!

What is your new year's eve tradition? Ours is watching Babe and eating snacks. Yeah, food. Gotta have food, right? We usually go to Sam's Club (and now Costco) and buy frozen hors d'oeurves (and yes, I had to look that word up to spell it right!). We also usually have Chex mix and special candy we make every Christmas. This year we tried to buy more low carb stuff. Hard to find, fer sher!

Tonight we went to our favorite Oriental restaurant with my dear friend, M. to finish our celebration from Christmas Eve. Normally, we go out with her only on Christmas Eve, but this year the restaurant was a little short-handed and we had to wait far too long for our waitress to take our main order. So all we got were appetizers. Thank God we ate at least! So we finished our dinner tonight. Everything went smoothly. On the way home we stopped for crickets at PetSmart (for the frog), but they were closed. Hubs dropped me off at Target and then brought the kids in after seeing that PetSmart was closed. Littlest found a lava lamp with fake fish in it that just thrilled her, and we got a little Christmas foo-fa at 70% off.

I'm not a resolution maker. I mean, if you're only going to fail anyway, why set yourself up for it? Still, I want to always be moving forward if possible. Moving forward is fun, but so is looking back. Since I don't usually do "looking back" posts every new year's eve I thought it would be fun to give it a go for a change.

Many good things happened this year.

::Son finished his massive Eagle project, became an Eagle Scout and had his Eagle Court of Honor. He also finished high school, got his driver's license, his first job, AND his first car. Oh, and he was finally baptized! Wow! He's had quite a year, hasn't he?

::We were reunited with our second daughter and her children. What a joy!

::We went back to our non-denominational church after I spent about 4 years on a spiritual journey that came to an abrupt halt due to a lack of unity within our family about where to go. I have mixed feelings about that. On the one hand our church is a great place. On the other hand I need tradition and it ain't nowhere to be found in my house of worship. I still yearn for it, especially around the holidays. There's a lot to be said for what the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have to offer. I especially miss all the teachings about the saints. How inspiring they were. I can still study them on my own, but it's not the same. God never intended us to be an island, but in community, and that includes the heavenly community.

::Hubs and I embarked on a low carb way of eating and I'm trying to figure out what I do well on and what I don't. Funfunfun! (not)

::Hubs and Son redid the whole upstairs floor in wood laminate (except the bathrooms which we'll tile eventually). They did some other household remodeling and have lots to finish.

::The 15 yo had her first violin recital; and she and Littlest have been very active in their American Heritage Girls troop with lots of great experiences.

::Littlest raised a tadpole to a frog and still has her!

::Littlest also had fun making a pen pal.

::We took down a dead tree in the yard and planted another one only to have it die.

::I finally started using a price book.

::There was the freezer saga.

::We attempted to save up for a van and did pretty well at first. But then we gave in after buying a new freezer and new furniture for the living room (all badly needed). We'll try again in 2012.

::Hubs and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary and we also celebrated the Bassets' first year adoption days. It's hard to believe that their second adoption anniversary is quickly approaching!

::I took up hand embroidery and kind of dropped stamping.

Lots more can be mentioned, but it'd take a month to list it all! Looking back is a great way to see that we really did accomplish a lot this year, and I'm looking forward to next year. Praying God will bless our country with many undeserved blessings this year, starting with a president who loves his country!

Happy New Year!

EEE! The Hobbit trailer

Can't wait to see this! In 3D, no less!

Open letter to Sam's Club

Dear Sam's Club,

Why do you charge a membership fee and then charge more for many of your products than does WalMart where anyone can shop?

And why bother selling gas only to your exclusive members when all you can offer is what every other gas station in the area charges? Yet, I was able to buy gas at Costco for $.15 per gallon less than what you were charging on the same day! Sometimes you even charge more for your gas than pricey grocery stores like Kroger and Ingles. How frustrating it is to find that I paid more than I had to because I was under the impression that you had the lowest price in town since you are an exclusive membership club and all. Hmph.

Just what is the advantage of being a member, I often wonder? I'm finding less reason to be excited about what you have to offer these days. Costco cares a lot more about my business, and for that I'm giving more of it to them.

Just wanted you to know my thoughts.

One of your longtime members

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

This is long, but worth a watch. I found it very educational!

A very entertaining time killer

Have you heard of the Brothers Winn? I just found them on YouTube and have been enjoying many of their videos.

On Rose Marie from the Dick Van Dyke Show

Our family Christmas present this year was the complete series of The Dick Van Dyke Show. The kids LOVE the show, I think, more than any other show.

Did you know that Rose Marie was a child star? Her voice was amazing. She sang like an adult!

While looking at some old footage of her as a child, I happened upon an interview she did in 1999. In this clip she talks about the show and gets up on her soapbox about the junk on tv today. She predicts that people will get so fed up with the garbage they see that there'll be a moral turn-around. I hope she's right! Anyway, enjoy.

Merry Christmas

This is my favorite version of O Holy Night. Have a blessed Christmas, everyone.

More baking with almond flour - this time, crackers!

I saw Elena's recipe for Sesame Crackers and had to make them. I was not finding low carb non-wheat-based crackers at my grocery stores, so I thought this would be a good one to spread cream cheese on or just eat plain.

So I made these today. They are so good! They have a very nutty flavor and are, as Hubs said right after trying one, "flavorsome as can be!" (a little Andy Griffith humor there). He gave me the thumbs up to make these anytime I want to.

As yummy as these are, I think I might have an issue with sesame seeds, because right after eating a few (okay, more than a few!), I started feeling flushed and my head felt swimmy. I also had some lung stress and stomach ache with a little nausea.

Bummer.

But if you can tolerate them, please give these a try. The flavor is awesome!

My little caveat: I used olive oil, but set the oven temp to 325, which is still too high for olive oil, to avoid as much damage to the oil as I could. Grapeseed oil (a new ingredient to me) is safer at higher temps, but I don't have any yet. I have so much to learn!



Sesame Crackers

3 cups blanched almond flour
1&1/2 tsp celtic sea salt
1 cup sesame seeds
2 eggs, whisked until frothy
2 TBLS grapeseed oil

1. In a large bowl, stir almond flour, salt, sesame seeds, eggs and oil until well blended. (I added the oil to the eggs - after frothing - and then added them together)

2. Separate dough into two halves.

3. Line two large (12 x 16) stainless steel baking sheets with parchment paper.

4. Place one half of the dough in the center of each lined sheet.

5. Cut another piece of parchment paper and place it over one of the balls of dough.

6. Roll dough out between the two pieces of parchment paper, until it is 1/2-inch thick and covers the entire baking sheet; remove top paper and repeat process with the other piece of dough.

7. Cut the dough with a knife or pizza cutter into 2 inch squares.

8. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown.

9. Cool and serve

Makes 96 crackers

Here's how I rolled out the dough. It would work better though if you put the parchment paper directly on a non-slippery surface like a wood cutting board or some such. I had a bit of trouble with sliding.



Here's what the dough looks like close-up:



This was after I cut it up, just before putting the second tray in the oven:



Here's what it looked like after baking. You can see that I was nibbling away at the edges.



*sigh* These sure were good. Wish they liked me.

What I made with some of that homemade almond flour

I'll admit to being a bit skittish about trying new recipes with that almond flour I made. Mainly, I just don't want to waste food if it turns out badly. But I was not disappointed when I tried this quick bread/fruitcake from Elana at Elana's Pantry. It was yummy and filling and held together beautifully. Hubs said it was second only to his mother's fruitcake, and that's high praise!

The orange and lemon zest really make the fruitcake flavor, so don't skimp on those.

A couple of caveats: I used dried cranberries because I didn't have dried cherries on hand, and I used honey because I didn't have the coconut palm sugar, which I had actually never heard of until now. I ordered some to try, though, because it sounds like a great low glycemic sweetener, unlike honey!

Doesn't it look yummy?



Paleo Fruitcake

1&1/2 cups blanched almond flour
1/2 teaspoon celtic sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2cup dates, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cherries
1 cup walnuts, chopped
4 eggs
2 TBLS coconut oil
1 TBLS coconut palm sugar
1 TBLS vanilla extract
1 TBLS orange zest
1 TBLS lemon zest

1. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt and baking soda.

2. Stir in dried fruit and nuts.

3. In a medium bowl, combine eggs, oil, coconut sugar, vanilla and citrus zest.

4. Stir wet ingredients into dry.

5. Scoop batter into 2 greased mini loaf pans.

6. Bake fruitcakes at 350° for 20-30 minutes. (Mine took a little longer, maybe 40-45 minutes? I just waited until the tops turned golden brown.)

7. Cool and serve

Makes 2 fruitcakes

Me harping once again about how you need to make your own chicken broth

Remember when I recently made 24 cups of chicken broth from one rotisserie chicken? The chicken I bought was around $5 something at Sam's Club. If I add $1 for the veggies and such that I used, that makes the cost for the broth about $6.

But wait! We've had several meals of chicken from that one rotisserie chicken! (those things really stretch the meals out pretty far) It was only the leftover carcass that I used to make the broth. So really, I should deduct the meals from the cost of the chicken before considering the savings on the broth.

I'd say the cost of the carcass was maybe $2 of the price. So if I price it that way and count an extra $1 for the veggies, spices and water I used, I spent $3 to get 24 cups of broth or 8 32-oz. boxes' worth. That's about $.38 per 32-oz. box!

When I was in WalMart yesterday I priced the boxed chicken broth and found that the 32 oz. box of Swanson broth cost $1.98. That's 4 cups of chicken broth for around $2. The store brand was $1.86.

So if I would've bought the same amount of chicken broth that I made, I would've spent $11.88. Instead, I spent about $3 - an $8.88 difference. See how that would add up over time?

Had I bought the chicken raw and cooked it myself I would've spent even less.

It's so worth doing these things yourself.

If you want to make the broth, but don't have the time when the carcass is available, just slip it into a Ziploc bag and freeze it for when you're ready.

Making it yourself is so economical and so easy!

Making your own almond flour is easy!

Almond flour is a good substitute for wheat flour in recipes, although you do need to tweak some of the other ingredients (mostly the eggs) to make it act more like wheat flour, mainly because it has no gluten, which is why we want to use it in the first place. It also has a nice mild, buttery taste and does well in baked goods.

But almond flour in the stores and online is so expensive! Amazon has Bob's Red Mill Blanched Almond Flour for $39.49/4 pack(1 lb. ea.), which ends up being $9.87/lb.! If you use Subscribe and Save you will *only* be paying $33.57/4 pack(1 lb. ea.), which works out to *only* $8.39/lb! That's some pricey flour! Making it yourself will save you a lot of money.

Here's what I did:

First off, I bought a 3# bag of almonds at Sam's Club for $10.98, which works out to $3.66/lb.. That's $4.73 per pound cheaper than Amazon's best price!

To make a superior almond flour you must blanch the almonds. This is super easy, so don't worry. In fact, it's actually fun!

You just boil up some water and, at the boil, drop the almonds in for a minute or so - they'll start to look a little pruney. Then remove them with a slotted spoon to a colander sitting inside a bowl (to catch the liquid).



Let them cool a bit by spreading them out on a towel, and then start popping off those skins! It's easiest when they're still a bit warm, so don't walk off and leave them for later unless you are willing to pop them back in warm water to loosen them up again.

Here's what the skins look like:



This is a fun task and the kids will surely want to help you (mine did). Just grab the wide end of the almond and pinch off the skin. Keep the other hand ready to catch them as they fly out of the skins or they'll be on the floor, people!

Btw, the Bassets love blanched almonds. You wouldn't know it though, would ya?



If any of the almond skins are stubborn and don't want to come off, put those almonds back in the hot water for a little longer and they'll peel right up! If you've already dumped the water out, just get the hottest tap water you can and put some in a glass or bowl and use that.

Once they're skinned, put them in a dehydrator set on the lowest setting for a couple of hours to get them good and dry. Or put them on a cookie sheet and pop them in the oven on its lowest setting until they feel good and dry, maybe 30 minutes or so (my dehydrator's lowest setting is 95 degrees, but my oven's is 170 degrees, so the oven will take much less time to dry them).

After they're good and dry, just process them in your food processor or blender until they have a fine crumb. Then bag up and freeze!



Wasn't that easy? We did the whole 3 pounds at once, which I highly recommend doing. Why make this mess more than once, I say?

I was able to get about 12 cups of almond flour from 3 pounds of almonds. Most recipes I've seen call for about 2-2&1/2 cups per batch of cookies/muffins/etc., so this will last you a good little while.



Come on, give it a try!

Maybe it's just certain dairy?

Well, after that lovely soup gave me inflammation and I contemplated that I might have to give up dairy I've had plenty of dairy that didn't give me inflammation - mainly Swiss and mozzarella. So maybe it's only certain dairy that I need to avoid.

Milk seems to be an issue for me, so could it have been the heavy cream? They're closely associated, being that one is from the other. I need to make something with heavy cream, but no cheese and see what happens.

Or could it have been the Gouda? Man, that would be sad because Gouda is one yummy cheese!

And just maybe I will test the soup again (been afraid to, honestly) to see if I get the same reaction or to see if it was a fluke.

Diet can be such a mystery!

Nifty tip about thickening a soup with cream

I mentioned in my recent soup post that I figured out a way to thicken soup even more with cream. While cream is already thick, adding it to a soup that has no starchy vegetables isn't quite enough.

So here's the tip:

To thicken a soup even more when adding heavy cream, whip the cream first. If you are adding it to a pureed soup you can whip it in the soup.

Amazing that I found this out just as I may have to say goodbye to dairy. *sniff*

2 new Christmas movies for our collection

I can't believe I've lived nearly 50 years and just today saw White Christmas for the first time. I've known about it for a long time, but for some reason never intentionally sat down and watched it.

But our family took an interest in the film after seeing Son's best friend act in the play. We enjoyed it so much that we all wanted to watch the movie.


Another movie we just saw this year is Holiday Inn. There is a connection between both films, and you can see them when you watch them. The only thing I wish was different about this one was that it be in color. Still, it's a great film.

Are there any Christmas films you just recently found out about and loved?

Could it be dairy? *sniff*

I feel like I'm honing in on what is bothering me as I eat very little* of what I think is/are the culprit(s). (*It's the holiday season, after all, and the bad stuff is everywhere! The temptation!)

That wonderful soup I just posted about gave me a terrible case of inflammation. Btw, I find if I take an ibuprofen and a loratadine (anti-histamine) I get a great deal of relief from the inflammation. But I'd rather avoid the inflammation AND the drugs!

Dairy is often implicated as an inflammatory substance. So it should be no surprise that it could be a great deal of my problem. I've been in dairy denial! I love dairy! And being that we're doing a lot of low carb eating these days this is sad news for me, as dairy is BIG in low carb recipes. I believe it's why low carb is so popular.

But there is another world out there of people who are trying to feel well and who have already discovered that they also are not good on dairy and grains. It's the Paleo crowd.

I've been doing a huge amount of online research on the Paleo lifestyle and it looks doable for me. I don't buy into the whole evolutionary slant that many of the Paleo/Primal bloggers get into. It's just about the food to me. I'm looking for a workable diet, that's it. So I have to weed through all the evolution talk which one day will look so silly but is all the rage right now, to get to the rubber-meets-the-road stuff.

Generally, Paleo eating is grain-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, legume-free, etc... You're probably thinking, "What's left??" But there are lots of foods left. Not the popular stuff, but lots of tasty foods when properly prepared. I've printed out many recipes that looked good enough for me to try that I'm kind of excited about it. And I'll share any recipes I try and like.

The nice thing about many of the recipes is that they're like old favorites, only revamped for Paleo. Instead of dairy milk and cream they utilize a lot of coconut milk. Instead of wheat flour they use almond, coconut and flax seed meal flours. Where there's a will, there's a way, right?

So I will begin trying out some dairy-free recipes and see how I feel. I'm very hopeful that this might prove to be a solution to my problem.

Let's see what happens!

Cauliflower, Cheese, and Spinach Soup My Way

You ever wing a recipe and it turns out really, really good?

Tonight I altered a recipe from Dana Carpender's cookbook, 1001 Low Carb Recipes. I made Cauliflower, Cheese and Spinach Soup, but I did it a little differently than she did. This soup, the way I made it, actually tastes like broccoli cheese soup. I guess that makes sense since I mixed cauliflower (a near relative to broccoli) and spinach. It's so delicious! Hubs had 2 big bowls. I would've too, but one filled me up.

First of all, her recipe is for a slow cooker, so right off the bat I was changing things. I cooked it within an hour. Her recipe calls for something called Carb Countdown dairy beverage. I just used heavy cream which I already had on hand. Her's calls for a seasoning mix called Vege-Sal. I had Spike in the house. Mine is salt-free, so I added the salt also. In fact, I added more than she called for (1&1/2 tsp.). I used 6 garlic cloves while the recipe calls for 4. I just love lots of garlic.

And here's a nifty tip alert: I had a lightbulb moment when I added the cream near the end. Just as cream thickens when you make whipped cream, it thickens in a soup if you blend it long enough with a stick blender (or regular blender). So I didn't need to add the xanthan gum to thicken. I'll mention this in a separate post so it doesn't get lost on my blog.

Here's her recipe and here's mine (sorry I was too lazy to pour some in a bowl and spend a half hour photographing it). ;D



Cauliflower, Cheese, and Spinach Soup My Way

1 head cauliflower, cut into small pieces
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1/2 cup red onion, minced
5 oz. fresh baby spinach
1/4 tsp. cayenne (very spicy, you can add less)
1 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp. Spike (or other all-purpose seasoning mix)
1/4 tsp. freshly grated pepper
4-6 cloves garlic, crushed
3 cups shredded smoky Gouda cheese
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup bacon bits, divided

In a soup pot put chicken broth, water, and cauliflower. Bring to a boil and cook until cauliflower is very tender, about 15-20 minutes or so.

Add red onion, baby spinach, cayenne, salt, all-purpose seasoning, pepper and garlic.

With a stick blender or in a regular blender, puree the soup.

Return to the pot if using a regular blender. Cook about 15 minutes more.

Slowly add the cheese in handfuls. Gouda is a soft cheese and will melt quickly.

Add cream and 1/2 cup of bacon bits. Blend with the stick blender or return to the blender. Blend until it starts to thicken a bit. The cream will thicken the soup up beautifully.

Pour back into pot and add the rest of the bacon bits. Warm another 5 minutes and serve.

Enjoy!

What a life!

Could she be any more comfortable?

Donut humor

Okay, I know wheat seems to be a bad food for me. I suffer for eating it. But sometimes it's worth it. Like when Hubs shows up with fresh Krispy Kreme donuts. It's really hard to resist them.

Back in college, I became addicted to their chocolate-covered crullers. Those will put on the pounds quick! We have a Krispy Kreme store near us, but I never see chocolate-covered crullers there. I do see them in grocery stores. But to have one freshly made that day - oh!

Anyway, I found this little scene quite amusing when I opened the box to get my last donut:



You can see who ate her's first.

Why all the posting all of a sudden?

Because I'm on the computer in my study and I feel more bloggy there for some reason. So if I post a bunch you'll know why. ;)

Boiling eggs successfully, including peeling them with ease

When I originally started making boiled eggs I would bring the water to a boil and then place them in carefully and set the timer for 9 minutes.

Then I saw a new method somewhere online that said to put the eggs into cold water, set the burner on high and the timer for 20 minutes and then cool them when the timer goes off. That's how I've been doing it all this time.

But Bethany has an even better way:

Cover the eggs in a pan with cold water. Bring the water to a full boil, then take the pan off of the burner. Let them sit in the water for 15 minutes, then immediately drain and place in cool water.

I like that method! It saves electricity and is more gentle on the eggs.

Well, another issue I've had with boiling eggs is peeling them without losing half the egg. I know there's all this talk about using older eggs for boiling because they peel easier and all, but I think I know of a way to make any egg peel right. Try this and let me know if it works for you:

Add a small handful of salt to the water for the eggs and dissolve. Then boil as usual.

I did 14 eggs this way today and every single solitary one of them came out perfect! I was so happy! Did I discover the secret? We'll see as I try this next time.

See all my perfect eggs? (Okay, not perfect, but close! I was in a bit of a hurry peeling them (see last post) and gouged out bits as I was grabbing at the peels. Had I taken my time they would've been absolutely perfect - not that it's necessary! Just nice.)



They turned out beautifully:



Was this something you already knew about? Am I late in the game?

Confusion, deviled eggs and inflammation, oh my!

Well, we had an interesting dinner tonight. There was some confusion as to when the girls' AHG Christmas party was supposed to be, and because of a mix-up I thought it was tonight when it was really this coming Friday.

So following the instructions in the email from the troop that Hubs had read to me, I had to quickly come up with 2 savory snacks to bring, plus get the girls to pick out gifts for their leaders since it would be the last time they would see them until after the holidays (this is when having a driving teenager in the house is such a blessing). So I sent Son and the girls to Target for the gifts, and I got busy making deviled eggs and loaded potato skins. It was a lot of work I hadn't anticipated, but all was going well until I got the 15 yo to check her email to be absolutely sure of the date.

Turns out it was definitely this Friday, and I wondered how Hubs had gotten a different date. It also turns out that he had had his email archives folder open and accidentally looked in there. He was reading from last year's Christmas party email!

I was miffed, I'll admit. That was a lot of work for nothing. But he's so sweet I couldn't stay mad at him too long. So we had deviled eggs and loaded potato skins for dinner. Plus, I cooked up some baked tilapia because Littlest had been anticipating it for supper before the great email mix-up took place and I didn't want to disappoint her. She likes so few foods these days.

Dinner was a little heavy, but it was good and pretty much low carb, although I did get some pain and stiffness from the potato skins. Guess I need to watch those, too.

I'll share my discovery about boiling eggs successfully in another post.

Homemade Nesquik

The 15 yo LOVES Nesquik. We were going through a Sam's Club sized container every week. I kid you not. I looked online for a recipe that would taste as close as possible and ran across this recipe. It was a good base, but was hard to mix into the milk. So I tinkered with it. I ended up with a recipe that the 15 yo loves as much as Nesquik, but it's not in powder form like Nesquik. I just couldn't get it right as a powder. But as a syrup I hit a home run. We make this frequently now and double it. I keep it in the fridge. It's pourable and mixes right into the milk with no problems.

My old Tang pitcher holds a single batch, btw.



Homemade Nesquik

2 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
2/3 cup powdered milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1&3/4-2 cups water

In a medium to large pot (the mixture rises fairly high when boiling, so a bigger pot is critical to avoid overflow), combine the sugar, cocoa powder, powdered milk and salt. I recommend sifting the cocoa powder and powdered milk when adding to the sugar to remove all lumps. It's easier than waiting till the end to do it, with less waste.

Whisk in water and turn on heat to medium high. Whisk constantly at first, then often the rest of the time, scraping the bottom religiously with the whisk to keep it from burning.

When the mixture comes to a full boil, set the timer for one minute and stir constantly, taking care to avoid splatters. When the minute is up, set it aside to cool. Once cooled, transfer to a pitcher with a lid. I like those pourable glass orange juice containers, but you may prefer a lighter weight/unbreakable container if your children are younger.

This tastes great in almond milk. I'm sure it's good in any of the other "milks" if you can tolerate the small amount of powdered milk in the recipe. I found it lacking without the powdered milk, but you can try leaving it out if you're sensitive to it.

Enjoy!

A little trick I learned about grating carrots

I was watching a YouTube video where a guy was cooking up something or other, and he shared this little tip that I thought was worth blogging about.

Don't cut the top end of your carrot off before grating. That way you protect your knuckles and have no waste. Then offer the end to your dog if he loves carrots!

Chicken chicken chicken

I took a rotisserie chicken we had eaten and made a big batch of chicken broth from it. I made 24 cups. I am trying to make enough so I will never run out.



It's so easy and it tastes really good. And it's so cheap to make! Just throw the chicken carcass in a soup pot with carrots, celery, onions, garlic, a few herbs (I use thyme, oregano, basil, parsley, and dill), a sploosh of white vinegar, salt, and a lot of water. Bring to a boil and low-boil for several hours. Cool; remove the chicken meat and bones and vegetables. Strain through cheesecloth or something like it. Refrigerate for a few days to let the chicken fat rise to the top. Skim that off and feed it to your dogs and strain the broth again if it needs it. Bag and freeze and you have great broth for future recipes!

Shread the meat and bag it up and freeze it for future meals, or put some of it, the carrots, celery and broth together and make some chicken soup to freeze.

Another thing I did was to drain out the container the chicken came in. I put it in a mason jar and left it in the fridge along with the chicken broth. After a few days it looked like chicken fat Jello!



I scooped it out into a freezer bag and froze it for making chicken gravy in the future. No waste!

Sometimes God answers prayers really, really fast!

Last night, for instance. I was getting really good sleep the last couple of months after discovering 5-HTP and GABA. Both of those plus my usual cal/mag and vitamin d3 supplements were giving me full nights of restful sleep. It was wonderful. The cal/mag alone was never enough so I took ibuprofen to knock myself out. Not necessary since beginning the 5-HTP and GABA, though.

But for the last week or so my sleep has been just terrible. And I couldn't figure out why. Last night I went to bed and did the usual tossing and turning only to wake up several hours later (like clockwork, unfortunately), feeling absolutely wired. Why??!?

So I prayed, "Lord, what is wrong with me?" Within a SECOND the answer came: "Cal/Mag".

*Clunk*

Yes! I had run out of my cal/mag supplement a couple of weeks ago and had totally forgotten about it. Now I realize how vital it was for me, especially the magnesium part.

However, I was still out; but I had gotten some (chelated) magnesium glycinate as recommended by Maria Emmerich just to try because it's supposed to be easier to absorb with much less trouble in the digestive tract (which I did find to be true for me, btw). So I took a double dose and another GABA and went back to bed. I drifted off easily and slept restfully the rest of the night.

Today, I ordered some more cal/mag and will not let it run out again - you can bet on that!

Thank You, Lord, for such a quick response to my desperate prayer. You are awesome!

What to do with a bunch of lemons

I usually buy lemons by the bag, but often some of them go bad before I get to them. So I thought a great way to enjoy them without worrying about them is to freeze the juice. Now that I've thought about it I'll also scrape the rinds off and freeze them next time.



I figured out that my ice tray cubes hold about 1 TBLS each. Now if I need lemon juice for a recipe I can just go to the freezer! Pretty "cool", huh? ;)

Sweet pups in a sunlit room

Let go

I love Heartlight Ministry. They have a radio show called Parenting Today's Teens of which I get daily emails that I can often relate to. Mark Gregston has such valuable advice for those of us raising teens. I've often taken his advice and had great results from it. Not that it was always easy, but it certainly was worth the difficulties that sometimes arose from those decisions. Things work out in the end.

See, I've already raised two teens who are now grown-ups. One is 34 and one is 32. That's so hard to believe! Wow. So I've made LOTS of mistakes, and I wish I had this ministry to help me back then. I was way too controlling, thinking that that was what I was supposed to be. Plus, it felt safer. But in the end I only learned the hard way that letting go was necessary and right. And when I finally did it it was a relief in some ways. But I still had to watch my children learn many hard lessons, and no parent likes that part. But I'm very proud of my girls now that they're grown up. They are navigating this scary world with greater ability and their ships seem to be pointed in the right direction.

I really think that the hardest thing for most parents is letting go of their kids when they reach an age where they have to begin taking on their own responsibilities. The wisest and messiest thing to do is to let go early on so they can learn the consequences of their actions while they're young. But we want so badly to protect them from the ugliness in the world. It's hard to do it. But it makes adulthood a lot easier for them.

This is the hardest thing we'll ever do because it's like sending them out into pitch darkness. But we who know Christ know that while the dark, scary world is out there, He is greater and more powerful than that darkness. Darkness is as light to Him. (Psalm 139:12) And He will guide our children. We have to trust Him and pray.

Today's email message was especially comforting:

Sometimes parents assume the only way to be good parents is to be in control of their teens… and to stop ‘em from making mistakes.

If you’ve got a death grip on your child… or you swoop in to save them from a potential failure… get ahold of yourself! Hey, a good parent actually gives away control to their growing child. It’s the only way your teen will learn through the decisions he makes.

So… it’s time to quit doing everything for your teen. Think of it as a well- deserved vacation! You get to let go of some of the responsibility you’ve been carrying around… and let your teen take some of the weight. Mom … dad … maybe it’s time to let go!

So if you have the tremendous job of raising teens, check out Parenting Today's Teens and get some help navigating those difficult years.

The Hobbit will be in 3D!!

Isn't that so exciting??

Christmas cookies

Littlest and I made sugar cookies and dipped them in almond bark and the kids decorated them with about every kind of sprinkle in the house. We collect those multi-compartmented cake decorations all year round, so we can pretty much cover every holiday.

I'm trying not to eat too many! They're so good!

Yummy leftovers

I had this for lunch yesterday. It's spiralized zucchini pasta in a meat sauce (Gia Russa sauce - yum!) with mozz melted on top. So good! Gia Russa is pricey, but Publix sometimes has it BOGOF, so that's the time to stock up. It's one of the lowest carb sauces I could find. Unfortunately, low sugar sauces are all expensive, but soooo worth it.

Fascinating interview with a former vegan

I dipped my toe in veganism a few years ago for health reasons only to find that I didn't feel well on the heavy amount of soy I was consuming. This evening I ran across info about Lierre Keith who wrote the book The Vegetarian Myth and then found this podcast interview she did with low-carb biggie Jimmy Moore. She was a vegan for 20 years and her perspective now versus then is quite fascinating.

Jam Tomorrow People

Alison at Brocante Home shared an insightful post about living in the now. I often catch myself being a jam-tomorrow thinker. Gotta stop that!

When will I learn?

I don't know if anyone remembers me mentioning in this post back in May of 2010 that I suspected I had a wheat intolerance, but I was reminded yet again that something's up when I eat it. I've been pretty good about avoiding it since we've been doing the low carb thing. But today I wanted a tuna sandwich and so I had one on my whole wheat bread. I really only make it now because Littlest loves it.

Within 30 minutes I was achy and stiff. Then I felt lethargic and even a little depressed. I don't normally feel depressed these days since discovering that 5-HTP helps bring up my serotonin levels, so I knew it must've been the wheat.

We just had dinner - low carb spaghetti sauce on spiralized zucchini noodles (love that!) and I'm feeling a little better.

At some point I'll get it in my head that for me wheat is a no-no. It's just not worth the misery.

29 years

Today Hubs and I celebrated 29 wonderful years of marriage.

We went out this evening and ate a lovely low carb dinner at Red Lobster (inspired by Tom Naughton's tempting description of his meal there) and saw the movie, Hugo in 3D, which I highly recommend, as do pluggedinonline and Michael Medved (he gave it 4 stars - link to mp3 of rating).

We came home to well-behaved children who had actually tidied up the house a bit while we were gone. They put a log in the fireplace and lit it as soon as we got home.

A grand evening, it was, it was.