Weight training smoothie

It's 9:20 a.m. and between the cold weather, the everyday aches and pains of this body and PMS, my diet has consisted of too much Halloween candy and too many potato chips.

My fitness goals have been challenged by the cold snap and my unheated work out space coupled with ankle pain that may be related to my cerebral palsy and/or preliminary phases of arthritis. 

So today I brought some weights inside. I did 20 minutes of yoga for abs and 15 or so of lower body yoga. I'd never done that routine. The results were indeed awkward. I added to that 15 minutes of upper body free weights while watching an old episode of ER and ended up getting more reps than usual in because I enjoyed watching TV.

I "rewarded" myself with a breakfast smoothie, vegan:

 It's sweeter than I expected. I used 4 ounces coconut water with pulp, 4 ounces very vanilla silk soy milk, one tablespoon unsalted organic almond butter from Wegmans (a friend hates it and passed it off to be knowing I do love almond butter in all shapes, sizes and varieties), a banana, and Biochem Sports vegan protein powder in vanilla.

Makes me feel stronger already.

On Milk Options

My daughter has had a lot of problems with fluid in her ears. She doesn't get colds per se, it all goes into her ears. We've found that a dairy-free diet helps her get rid of that fluid.

With back-to-school, she had her first incident last weekend-- on a day we were scheduled to meet friends for pizza. Instead of pizza, we had fried chicken.

I'm a big believer in moderation, so I struggle to find a go-to substitute for dairy milk. I think it partially depends on the purpose. I like to rotate my milks, primarily because I don't want to feed everyone too much soy.

Silk Very Vanilla (soy) is the family's favorite drinking milk, though the chocolate is my husband's favorite. I often use the Unsweetened for cooking.

Silk Pure Almond is common in this house, usually vanilla for drinking. My husband likes the dark chocolate, daughter does not. 

Silk Pure Coconut in vanilla is often in the house for drinking (and fruit smoothies) and plain coconut milk for cooking (especially for dishes like Mac and cheese). 

These are the alternative milks that Target carries. Coconut milk is full of fat, which for those on a paleo diet would be considered a good thing. I'm not really a low fat cook, so I don't think we need extra fat.

Almond milk doesn't have protein and since I usually need the extra protein... But we recently tried the protein fortified So Delicious Almond milk which did not have calcium.

Today we tried Good Karma flax milk, which had lots of omegas, but no calcium or protein. But no real fat either.

We also occasionally use the almond milk and soy milk from Aldi. My daughter swears their vanilla almond milk is the best.

15 years ago I always used Rice Dream rice milk that I used to purchase by the case. The nutritional value was minimal and it was all carbohydrates. 

So I still don't have a go-to milk. And rotation is not a bad thing.

Super Sweet dairy free ice cream

It's darn cold outside so of course I choose today to make ice cream.

In the ice cream maker I place:
- 1 1/2 cups very vanilla soy milk
- 1 cup vanilla almond milk
- 1/4 cup strawberry syrup imported from Beirut
- 1 teaspoon Bols blue curaçao liquor

(The preliminary tests indicate this is going to be WAY too sweet)

Almond pancakes

Tonight I made dairy-free almond pancakes with hot strawberries. For dinner.

Honestly, the jury's still out on whether or not the sliced almonds in the pancakes worked or whether I should have placed them on top with the strawberries.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup Very Vanilla Silk
1 cup unsweetened soy milk
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 tablespoons walnut oil
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons baking powder
About 3/4 cup sliced almonds
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat eggs and add other ingredients. Fry up on hot griddle or frying pan in butter.

About 15 pancakes.

Strawberry topping
16 ounces frozen strawberries
1/8 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons strawberry preserves

Heat strawberries in microwave or thaw in fridge. Combine water & sugar in saucepan and stir well. Add strawberries, their juice and preserves. Heat to boiling.

Let boil about five minutes.

Using up leftovers Mac-and-cheese

This is my way of using up the random smatters of cheese in the fridge.

Heat in saucepan:
- 1 can broccoli cheese soup
- 1 can soy milk
- 1 cup shredded mozzarella
- 2/3 cup shredded Italian six cheese blend
- 1/3 cup Archer Farm buffalo blue cheese dip

Prepare 13.25 ounces whole wheat rotini

Combine, bake at 350 for 30 minutes, uncovering the last 10 if you'd like some crispiness

Rainy day Cheerios

This blog entry may become distracted and discombobulated. I apologize first off for that, but it's a rainy holiday and I worked the last four days in a row and we'll also blame my iron counts.

Run on sentence. Oh well.

 I also apologize for the lack of photos. I have some on the laptop so as soon as i can get to an Internet connection I'll add them. Many entries lately will still lack photos as I've been so anxious to eat that I haven't stopped to photograph. Forgive me.

 First, breakfast. Husband slept until 9:30, so we opted for cereal for breakfast since lunch is a mere two hours away. I had generic cheerios with Very Vanilla Silk soy milk. The combo jazzed up the Cheerios just enough. Daughter had generic fruit loops and the vanilla soy milk (way too sweet for me) and husband had a mix of fruit loops and Cheerios and also mixed vanilla and regular soy milk.

 Next rant, Totally Target: www.totallytarget.com. This blogger is so serious about Target that she invested in a domain name. That's dedication. She uses the weekly ad, clearance items, price cuts and coupons to "get more red for your green." I don't use many coupons, in part because many are online now and it's unusual for me to have access to the Internet and a printer at the same time. She does a fabulous job scouring Target. She knows the store better than I do, and I work there.

But every time I see these obsessive couponing folks, especially the ones you hear about on reality TV shows, I question the value. Items like Velveeta Shells and Cheese, Glade plug-ins, and Trident gum. 90% of the products I see I do not and would not use. Now in the Target case, I did see Market Pantry sauce and dry pasta, which I would consider, and Seventh Generation products. I rarely buy cleaning chemicals, preferring vinegar, baking soda, 90% alcohol and hot water.

So, why would I feed my child overprocessed food like Velveeta shells just because it's cheap? I love her more than that. Besides, if I'm going to use insta-Mac and cheese the Aldi stuff is even cheaper than all those coupons. And I do use processed foods from time to time, I just add lots of vegetables. Many products I see don't make sense to me: cheese made of oil, dinners with ingredients I can't read, fresh fruit sliced so you don't have to cut it, Oscar Meyers lunchables (all those chemicals for mere meat, cheese and crackers), premade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Maybe we're busy, maybe we're lazy but I believe food is pivotal to life, central to our family relationships and that the dinner table is sacred. But that's just me.

Mother's Day Crab Pasta

On Mother's Day, we visited my dad and stepmom and had dinner at the diner. The meal was the standard inoffensive, unexciting fare but to me it was very thrilling to eat. I started with cream of turkey soup, moved on to mashed potatoes and broiled crab cake with a side of applesauce. I ate the potatoes first, then about 1/2 of one of the crab cakes, then a few spoonfuls of applesauce. For dessert, cheesecake. It was heaven. Until my jaw protested with intense pain. But it was worth it.

I am unmedicated this morning. I lost the rest of my scabs and I swear my mouth did some serious healing last night as it looks different and the pain is minor.

This is good considering what happened last night...

Never cook alone when you're starving and wounded.

I started a pot of water to make angel hair pasta. While that came to a boil, I started the based for a non-dairy cream sauce in the Le Creuset skillet.Dairy is definitely making daughter congested.

- 2 tablespoons Earth Balance
- 1 teaspoon cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill
- salt
- pepper
Heat over low, stirring constantly, slowly adding 2 tablespoons flour, stirring until bubbly. Remove from heat and add one cup soymilk. The recipe says remove from heat, but I have better luck turning the heat way down low. 

Now, I broke the remaining crab into tiny pieces. I shaved a head of broccoli into miniscule pieces and cooked them in the sauce.

I added the crab to warm it and went to add the pasta to the boiling water. Some bugs had made a nice little home in the spaghetti can and I dumped them into the pot.

So, I had to start over. New pot of water and standard spaghetti. 

By the time it finished, my broccoli and crab had absorbed all my sauce.

And I went to dump the spaghetti into the colander and I missed. Poured boiling water down my right side. I screamed, my almost seven year old kid screamed and I couldn't get my clothes off fast enough.

I have two burns on my hip. One healed decently over night. The larger of the two is still rather yucky but it looks clean and it doesn't hurt.

The meal-- husband finished preparing it. It was good.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Milk

Today was one of those hectic Monday mornings... And I had a quiet vision of how the morning would go. My homemade oatmeal bars for breakfast, a big mid-morning cup of tea. I had a sore throat and was worried I was getting sick. Maybe I am and that's why I fell...

I fell on the sidewalk and broke 4 teeth and needed three stitches in my chin. Oral surgeon tomorrow. Liquid diet for a while.

Lunch was Pacific Foods Cream of Tomato Soup. Snack was Stonyfield Yo Baby Banana drinkable yogurt.

Dinner made me drool with anticipation. My husband made tiny elbow noodles with tomato sauce and velveeta and browned hamburger in tiny pieces. Trying to eat it revealed 3 things:
- I can't chew. At all.
- I have limited range of motion in my jaw
- sucking on food hurts

I couldn't do it, as hungry as I am, I can't do it.


Complicating the issue is the fact that my daughter wants to share everything I can eat. Like a good mom, I share.

So, I made a carnation instant breakfast drink in the blender.

- about 8 ounces plain soy milk
- two heaping teaspoons peanut butter
- two heaping teaspoons almond butter
- 1 teaspoon Nutella
- 1 packet dark chocolate Carnation instant breakfast

We loved it

Another no grocery, no dairy packed lunch

My daughter wanted to pack lunch again and not only have I still not gone to the store (trying to survive until payday which is an unrealistic endeavor) but we had tacos for dinner and had no leftovers. Sigh.

What's a mom to do?

Assess breakfast. Child ate heap of watermelon her grandparents brought, Graham crackers and unsalted cashews.

So... Lunch.

How does this sound?
- a thermos of plain soymilk
- a spoon
- cornflakes with dried blueberries from Forks Meditterranean  Deli
- green and red grapes
- the remaining mandarin oranges from yesterday
- sesame brittle from Forks Meditterranean Deli

Mommy's five cheese mac

I made Betty Crocker's mac and cheese recipe last night with some classic Angel modifications. I don't have the recipe with me, and I didn't measure as I cooked. So this is a post based on memory.

It tasted incredible. The original Betty Crocker recipe is probably easy to find via the Betty Crocker label under this entry.

I started with about three tablespoons butter melting over medium-high heat with about two tablespoons chopped chives that I froze from my herb garden last summer. After three minutes of hearty swirling, I added about three tablespoons flour, trying not to let it degrade into a solid flour dumpling.

I added some fresh ground pepper and sea salt. Then lowered the heat to extremely low and added one cup heavy cream.  (I discovered I had no milk in the house.) I added a pinch of nutmeg. Once my flour and cream mixture had blended, I added three cups of plain soy milk. (And I am completely aware of how silly it must seem from a culinary perspective to have heavy cream and soy milk in the same dish. I am a big believer in "use what you got" cooking.)

Once that blended, I added the cheese. I probably used four ounces of velveeta (a gift from a friend), three ounces cheddar, and three or four ounces of mozzarella. Then I added the remaining fresh spinach I had on hand (about one cup, ripped into small slivers) and about a cup of frozen peas (again what I had on hand.) I wish I had some broccoli, but I didn't.

I made 16 ounces of small elbow noodles and it made two small casserole dishes full. Before baking at 375 for 30 minutes (and then cooking at 400 just to brown the top), I sprinkled each liberally with grated romano and then shredded asiago.

Fabulous. Truly fabulous. And probably a good thing, since it looks like my cooking might eliminate dairy for the next month to help with the fluid in my daughter's ears. I can survive without milk. Cheese hurts, but I can do it. How on earth am I going to cook without butter? I have a plan...

Arroz con leche

My daughter has a fever today, and a friend recommended Arroz con leche for her.
I found this recipe (and some more complicated) on Cooks.com:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1913,144182-233205,00.html

This was their list of ingredients:
1/2 c. white rice, uncooked
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 1/2 c. water
1 c. sweetened condensed milk
2 1/2 tbsp. raisins
Cinnamon for garnish

I didn't quite have that, so I mixed this is the steamer:

• 1 cup white rice
• 1 tablespoon cinnamin
• 3 cups soymilk (I wish I had almond milk)
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 cup raisins
  

Super Salads

So, this is my first full day on medication for Vitamin D and iron deficiency. I made a pledge to myself to eat healthier. Iron pills can make you constipated, so I want to make sure I get plenty of fiber.

Breakfast:

• about 6 ounces apple-kiwi-strawberry 1oo% juice
• cream of wheat made with soy milk with a touch of sugar
• 1/2 cup coffee with non dairy French vanilla creamer

Snack:

• 1 slice fruity fred, thawed from the freezer (Amish friendship bread with almonds and dried cherries)
• green iced tea with blueberry

Lunch:

• small bowl minestrone soup
• homemade multigrain baquette
• Trader Joe's hummus
• about 6 ounces chocolate silk

Afternoon snack

• sweetened green tea (grrr, though it was unsweetened)
• a banana

Dinner

• large salad with two types of bagged greens (and some carrots and cabbage)
  
• asiago
• cheddar
• chopped pecans
• dried strawberries
• raisins
• red wine vinaigrette dressing
• a side of Motts Healthy Harvest No Sugar Added Country Berry Applesauce
• 16 ounces unsweetened soy milk with Banana Moo Magic Powder
  

Another crustless quiche

I had some milk product, some eggs and some cauliflower that needed using up, so I made a crustless quiche.

So:

• 5 large eggs
• 1 cup fresh half and half
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1/2 head cauliflower
• 3 strips morningstar vegetarian bacon
• 1.5 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon parsley
• about 2 ounces cheddar cheese

Beat the eggs and the milk products with the parsley. Preheat oven to 425. Heavily butter a deep-dish pie pan. In a skillet, combine oil, bacon, cauliflower and herbs/spices and cook briefly until they smell good.

Add to bottom of pie dish. Add cheddar, in crumbles. Pour egg mixture over top. Place in oven for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 300 and cook at least another half an hour until eggs set and toothpick in center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes.

Must Try: Silk Truffles

I'll let everyone know when I try this:

http://www.silksoymilk.com/recipes/silk-chocolate-truffles

Cornbread and sausages

Tonight I'm planning cornbread and spinach-asiago chicken sausages. I had planned to make Eileen Bresslin's vegan cornbread recipe but I ran out of soy milk.

Eileen's recipe:

Preheat oven to 350. These muffins, or cornbread, need to go in a hot oven as soon as they're mixed.

• 1.5 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1.5 cups soy milk
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix dry ingredients. In separate bowl, mix wet ingredients. Pour liquid into dry, mix until just combined. Bake 30-40 minutes. Note: You may not need quite that much oil.

I added parsley and flax seed to mine tonight.

Now for the sausage... I decided to try and make a sauce. In the bottom of the pan I started with:

• About 1/4 cup apple juice
• About 1/4 cup chicken broth
• About one teaspoon cornstarch

Whisk as bring to a boil to reduce and thicken. It smelled sweet, so I added:

• About 1/2 teaspoon four color peppercorns
• About 3/4 teaspoon garlic pepper
• About 3/4 teaspoon garlic
• About 1/8 teaspoon curry

After it seriously thickened, I added:

• three spinach asiago chicken sausages, sliced
• about 1 cup French cut green beans, frozen and thawed in the microwave

Then I served with the cornbread, using some of the excess sauce as gravy.

(Note: These are the same sausages I got at the warehouse club a few weeks ago and had in the freezer. We've eaten them in pasta sauce, and as sausage sandwiches, and now this funky recipe.)

Ravioli with gouda and broccoli

This recipe was designed to use up holiday leftovers from my husband's work party, primarily ham and some smoked gouda.

I started with some steam-in-the-bag just picked broccoli cuts from Wegmans, which honestly, disappointed me a tad because of the number of stems in the bag. With those prepared and about 12 large cheese ravioli cooking, I got my Le Creuset skillet and began concocting a sauce.

First, I melted four tablespoons butter, then added the broccoli, hearty sprinkles of garlic pepper, and sprinkled breadcrumbs over the broccoli. I let that sizzle a few minutes (like two). I added about 3/4 cup soy milk and 1 heaping teaspoon flour, working very carefully to keep the flour away from the broccoli until I got the butter milk and flour incorporated. I added about 3/4 cup tiny pieces of ham. Then I also added about 1/4 cup of small chunks of gouda. After that melted, I set the sauce aside and, with drippings still in the pan, added about two teaspoons extra virgin olive oil to the skillet. Then I fried the ravioli over low heat and sprinkled them with another 1/2 cup finely grated smoked gouda.

Then I returned the sauce to the pan, stirred it all up, and added another 1/4 cup finely grated smoked gouda. And served. It was fantastic.

Another tuna casserole

Since lunch was spicy and used both meat and beans, I opted for a milder dinner. In one pan, I cooked 1 lb of egg noodles.

Meanwhile in my Le Creuset skillet, I did the following:

• Added three tablespoons butter
• about 1 teaspoon basil
• one teaspoon garlic pepper
• and some serious shaking (maybe 1.5-2 teaspoons) of the seasoned parmesan mix that came with the spinach rigatoni things from Aldi

Once the butter melted, I added:

• one cup soy milk
• one packet of cheese mix from Wegmans cheddar and shells mac and cheese dinner

While that cooked, and I stirred, I prepared about two cups cauliflower in the microwave and opened a can of tuna. Then I added them to the skillet.

• one can tuna
• about two cups cauliflower

I drained the noodles and added them.

• 1 lb egg noodles cooked.

I stirred, and added more of the seasoning

• about 1 teaspoon Aldi parmesan seasoning

Then:

• about 1/4 cup extra sharp cheddar cheese
• about 1/4 cup sour cream

Stick in oven at about 35o until the family is ready for dinner.

Fruity Baked French Toast

I can't find my recipe for baked French toast, but this won't stop me. I'm combining the vegan recipe for French toast, my imagination and my leftover homemade bread from Thanksgiving...

• 8 slices homemade white bread
• 8 slices homemade multigrain bread
• 4 large eggs
• 2/3 cup homemade applesauce
• 1 banana
• juice of 1 clementine
• 1 cup soymilk
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Okay, so the jury is out on whether this one will "work." In a bowl, I mixed: the eggs, applesauce, banana, juice, milk, honey and vanilla. I dipped the bread into the mix and layered it into my greased (with butter) 11x 7 casserole dish. Then I added the cinnamon and the nutmeg to the egg mix and poured over the bread. (I had two layers of bread.)

I'm baking and 350 and then I figure I'll broil it depending on how much of the liquid gets absorbed.

After 20 minutes at 350, most of the liquid absorbed, but it was still mushy, so I rearranged it a bit and increased heat to 420, for another 10 minutes...

As the pieces got crispy, I served with cream cheese and my mother-in-law's blueberry topping.

Now, if you'd rather try a recipe for vegan French toast, here you go (from Eileen Bresslin):

• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 cup orange juice
• 10 slices stale bread
• vegetable oil
• cinnamon

Mix soy milk and orange juice, dip bread in mix lightly (do NOT let bread get soggy) sprinkle with cinnamon and fry in oiled skillet.

Almond Sunset 'Kid' tea

My daughter tends to get obsessive about drinks. Apple juice for weeks on end. Chocolate milk next. (Which is why I usually buy chocolate soy milk-- it doesn't have high fructose corn syrup.)

Last night my husband and I tried the new Le Creuset tea pot. It has the least obnoxious whistle of any tea pot I've ever heard. We had the organic black currant decaf tea that I survived on during my business trip to Pittsburgh.

Today apparently, my daughter could be bribed to eat her breakfast with a glass of 'dessert tea.' So, to the teapot I go. I believe I mentioned this tea once before, but it has become such a favorite (which I did not expect) that it should be mentioned again.

Mommy's special dessert tea is actually Celestial Seasonings Almond Sunset, a decaf herbal dessert tea of "roasted carob, roasted barley, roasted chicory, cinnamon, orange peel, natural almond flavor, blackberry leaves, and anise seed."

And this is how I make it:

Supplies

• one tea pot with water
• one expresso cup/ demi-tasse
• soymilk
• honey
• one teabag (Celestial Seasonings Almond Sunset)
  
• one baby or sugar spoon

and when pleasing children, scale and details are important.

As water heats, prep demi-tasse with about 1/2 teaspoon honey, either in the bottom or along the side. When the water boils, hold the teabag with one hand against the side of the cup and pour the water over the teabag into the cup. Fill the cup about 3/4 full, then dip the teabag several times into the water until it turns a rich orange-brown. Then remove the teabag. (This keeps the tea from getting too strong.) Stir with the tiny spoon to dissolve the honey. Add an ounce or two milk, in my case plain soy milk, and stir again. Serve with the spoon inside so little hands can stir and sip.

The $3 dinner/ Mme. Pomfrey's potion

We attended the Riverside Festival of the Arts today and had a late lunch of beef brisket sandwiches. For dinner, we had a picnic while my daughter and I rode our bikes. No one was very hungry because of such a meaty lunch, so we had the Dole Southwest Salad with bananas for dessert and water from our bike bottles. The dinner cost me about $3 total, or $1 per person, because the salad (which came with salsa ranch dressing, tortilla chips, sour cream, cheese, radishes, shredded carrots and lettuce) was buy one get one free at $3.99, and the bananas were 59 cents a pound.

My daughter made the mistake of getting her bike going really fast and then deciding to see if she could ride one-handed. The answer was no. She has a nasty though superficial crash and scraped her elbow in an ugly way. So after we washed her up, I made her Easy Now traditional medicinal tea with honey and soy milk and my husband told her it was Mme. Pomfrey's special potion.