Merry Christmas

This sure was an eventful Christmas Eve day in the kitchen. I am just sitting down relaxing since 0700 this morning, 20 hours ago.

I am rather tired, but I do want to elaborate on a few things possibly tomorrow. I am just hoping the girls don't wake up too early in the morning. I have been burning the candle on both ends and am now coming down with bronchitis.

Hope you enjoy your Christmas Day. 

Good night to all and to all a good night.

Vegan Sugar?

Did you know there was vegan sugar? I just discovered that today. I am not a vegan, but it was cheaper than the organic pure cane sugar I've been buying. Who would have thought this since cane and beets are plants?

There was an associate at Whole Foods that I asked why this was vegan. I was really surprised by the answer. When sugar is made, bone char is used. According to Whole Foods' website, "Not all sugar is created equal. Our vegan cane sugar is made without the process of bone char making it 100% suitable for vegetarians and vegans."

I am glad I know now that sure is processed with cow bones. After doing a little research, it seems that there is a charcoal filtering process making sugar and this is where the cow bones come in. The bone char (charred cow bones) is then used as the charcoal filter.

I guess this won't really make a difference, but it is a surprising discovery. 

Cooking Marathon

Let the cooking marathon begin! I am officially on the wire for getting all my cooking deadlines completed. I got up at 06:00 this morning and got my kitchen all sparkly clean. Then the cooking began.

Is is now 09:53 and I only have a champagne vinaigrette,  whole wheat honey pound cake and chocolate chip cookies (I used maple syrup instead of sugar) completed. This isn't very good. My internet connection was out for a few hours and I had no access to my recipes. We are so dependent on technology. One little foul-up like an internet connection out and we are disabled.

Finally the internet is now working. I have the carrot souffle in progress and will tackle another dish soon. I thought the girls would be excited about helping, but hey have no interest. They are officially on winter break and in TV mode (they watch little to no television during the school week, therefore this is all they want to do).

Well, off to cooking! Happy day to you and yours.

Wind Blown

Happy Winter! Today sure is a blustery cold winter day. I am not complaining, it is just that we are not used to cold winter days like this. Even though it is only 43℉, that cool north wind blowing feels like it is about 30℉.

Yesterday the weather wreaked havoc in our area from the wind. There was an 18-wheeler carrying part of a mobile home that literally got wind swept right off the truck bed causing the shut down of I-10 in Slidell. In addition, there were many other incidences wind related like electricity outages, trees down, fences down, and other miscellaneous events.

My favorite movie-like event happened to me. I went shopping around 2:30 when the wind was in full force. As I was walking from one shop to the next, the wind literally picked me up. I was trying to hold on to a nearby car, but the wind got me. It was a true feat just to walk from point A to point B. It was CRAZY!

Stay warm!

Feeling a Little Green

I was about to get to bed and I hear crying. When I get in there CG is covered in vomit.  If there is one thing I can't stand, it is vomit. It was the most vile thing.

Despite my thought of the bodily fluid in question, I got my little sweet pea cleaned up, hair washed, teeth brushed, and changed. Then she decided she wants her hair blow dried. At this point it is 12:30 and I was getting her bed ready. I hear crying again and all over my sofa this time.

Oh goodness! I just don't understand what's going on with her. No one else in the house is sick. She's been feeling fine except those few moments when she was upchucking. Well, I got the air mattress ready for her in my room.

One o'clock and she's going at it again. I feel so sad for my little one. We are going for clean up number three now.

The night is getting longer and longer and the morning is getting closer and closer.

Christmas Eve Menu

Here's my menu for Christmas Eve dinner. I feel like I need to add a few more veggies or sides, but for the most part this is it. Do you think this is enough for 40-50 people? Today will be my shopping day and am feeling overwhelmed. I have done this before and not sure why I'm feeling so anxious. I wonder if it's because I am going the whole food organic route this time.

Appetizers

Assorted Nuts/Fruit/Cheese Tray

Pesto Cream Cheese Bake

Holiday Shrimp

Nutty Date Ball

Salad

Red and White Salad with a Champagne Vinaigrette

Artichoke Oregano Antipasto

Sides

Carrot Souffle

Hot Buttered Cauliflower Puree

Wild Rice Casserole

Main Course

Roasted Turkey Breast

Slow Cooked Pork Loin

Baked Chicken or Roasted Beef

Desserts

Pecan Pie

Apple or Pear Tarts

Lemon Basil Sorbet

Shout Out

Is there anybody out there? Just wondering if anyone reads my blog. Just curious, you know.

Do me a favor. In the comments section, let me know if anyone is there. Leave a comment...anything, say hello, where you are reading from, if my blog really sucks. I just want to know if anyone is there on the other end. Feel free to leave a comment anonymous, just leave something.

Send me a shout out!

Overwhelmed

Can you say overwhelmed! That is how I am feeling right now. I have six days to plan and prepare a meal for about 50 people on Christmas Eve, prepare one dish for Christmas Day, get everything ready for Christmas, decorate and sanitize our house, and pack for a ski trip. Oh and work throughout the week, too.

I planned on going grocery shopping on Sunday, but it never happened. I mostly know what I'm cooking, but I don't have my list together. I just have to do it and get it done. I thought to let everyone bring something, but I want to be able to eat, too. I have been getting stomach aches and nausea when eating out regardless where it is. So, I thought I would save myself a few tummy aches and add a bit more stress to my life.

I just need to remember to think good happy thoughts when I am getting stressed out preparing everything from scratch and unprocessed.

I may not be around much in the next few weeks because of all the holiday excitement. Have yourself a great holiday and stay safe!

The Power of Food

Food is a powerful source of fuel. This fuel can be good or bad. I have been, for the most part, processed-free since October 1, 2012. I have been able to see a clear difference in my overall wellbeing, mood, less fatigued, and just out right feel better.

Now this is the part where I show you how profound the effect food has on our bodies.  The past two weeks I've been in situations of fasting or eating what everyone else is eating. My mother cooked a "special" dinner for us to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Then a few days later we went out to dinner at a restaurant. Therefore, I ate what was available. Actually we dined out 3 times in 2 weeks + my mom's dinner.

The outcome is very moody and irritable. Since I went processed-free, my mood has been even keel without any outbursts. That's not the case right now. Since last Saturday I have been so irritable and moody. At first I thought maybe it was hormonal, but this has not been an issue over the last 3 months. I am really convinced it is the food. My kids are bearing the brunt of the situation because they are setting me off for the most random and tedious things. I truly need to apologize to them for my voice raising. They noticed something is just not right with me, too.

Some of the foods I ate which I normally wouldn't are white processed flour, white processed sugar, processed cornmeal, bread, and several other items which I know are GMO. Don't think I am nuts. I know these foods are affecting me in such a way.

My big challenge is the role of hostess for my in-laws on Christmas Eve. They want to bring junk food and I would prefer to cook everything for 50 people. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

Merry Early Christmas to Me

Today was the day I finally got around to addressing envelopes for my Christmas cards. It was going great. It even gave me a chance to update my hardcover address book. I felt shameful at one point because I didn't even have my parents' address updated. They've been at their current address for at least  seven years.

In addition, it was a bit sad because there were so many names there that were no longer with us. I still couldn't allow myself to erase those gone from my book.

As I was about to stuff the first envelope, I showed the card to my friend. She looked at it and said, "Doesn't your last name have an 'i' in it?" Well, yes it does. Why was she asking me that? She brought the card close to me and said, "Look!" I misspelled my last name. What the heck! I could not believe I did that.

I ordered the cards from Shutterfly. They looked awesome except for my mistake. In a state of panic, I called Shutterfly. I gave the customer service rep my order number and she noticed it. I told her I misspelled my last name. She immediately said, "Oh, I see you left out the 'i.'" She rambled a few things, but my brain was still in panic mode.

I was expecting to hear her say I would get a discount if I wanted to reprint them, but no.  She offered me a credit for the same amount of cards plus free two day shipping. How awesome is that? She graciously offered me free card reprints and free shipping for a mistake I made.

Shutterfly, you are awesome! I have been using you for many years and will continue.  Your customer service team members rock. I only wish I could remember the young lady that helped me today around 1:55 PM CST. I have many praises for her.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

This morning we had a blast of winter. The temperature was down to 41℉. It was a big change from our 70 degree weather. My girls thought it would snow. They really want snow badly. Matter of fact, it was four years ago today that it snowed last.

Here's a picture from our snowfall on December 11, 2008. Yes, can you believe that? Snow in Louisiana.

I doubt we will get snow this week, but it sure is nice to get a taste of winter, finally. Stay warm and bundled up!

Headache Help

Do you have any headache remedies? Since my Complex Migraine episode on November 27 post, I've been getting migraines and bad headaches almost daily. I've been given Fioricet, but I don't really like taking it. Lucky for me I am not getting the neurological or stroke like symptoms or even the aura with these migraines, but I am still getting rather intense head and eye pain. It was so bad last night I went to bed at 8:00 PM.

I am not too pleased to have to take a barbiturate daily, but I don't really know of any other means to rid this. I've been going to see my chiropractor, but kind of feel it is making things worse. Since I started seeing him, if I turn my neck a certain way I hear and feel a click and that's when this intense pain appears. Maybe I'm just over analyzing this.

I stopped in Whole Foods and was recommended Butterbur. I purchased it, but haven't taken it yet. I was waiting to hear more about it. I am just doing a bit of research on it now. If you know anything about Butterbur or any other migraine treatment, please let me know. These damn things can be disabling.

Passionate about Heart Health

Have I ever told you how much I love my job and love what I do? Yes, I really do. When I was a little girl I wanted to be a teacher. When I finally got to college I realized how much teachers made and looked into other career options. That's when I decided to look into nursing.

For the first eleven or so years, I mainly worked in cardiac type units such as telemetry, CCU, ICU, and heart transplant. Within the last 8 years or so I decided I needed to scale back my working hours and not be in such high stress areas. Therefore I moved into the echo/stress lab running cardiac stress tests, helping out in the cardiology offices and my newest job as cardiac rehab nurse clinician.This is where my job comes full circle because I am clearly doing what I initially set out to do and love....educate.

Even though I am a nurse, I am the educator I always wanted to be. I spend my working days educating people about taking care of their health and hearts. We discuss diet, exercise, risk factors for heart disease, and what they can do in order to have a healthy lifestyle change.

Monday when I went to work, I had 15 patients that had heart attacks. This number is too high. I might see that many of heart attacks in a week, but in one day....I am slightly in shock by our culture. I try really hard to educate this population as to what one can do to try and reverse or change risk factors for heart disease.  The patients keep getting younger and younger.

Personally, I feel the food we eat is killing us. It is not uncommon to see a patient with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight, diabetic, and a smoker. To have one or even two of these I can accept, but to have all of these is unacceptable.

People, we need to wake up and listen to our bodies! Take a better look at your food. Read the labels. What are you actually eating? How much are you eating? Are you eating to live or living to eat?

I think one of the reasons I am so passionate about writing this topic today is because I lost one of my work colleagues last night. She was in her forties and had a massive heart attack. I am just crushed that I saw her one day walking and talking and the next day she is dead. She has children and grandchildren.

My job proves to me over and over again that if you eat well, exercise, take time for yourself and minimize stress you can avoid the risk factors for heart disease and end up a statistic.

I would like to challenge everyone I know and who reads this to eat well and healthily, exercise daily if possible, do not smoke or chew tobacco, take time for yourself everyday to meditate or just have quiet time, go to the doctor to have your blood work checked, and get a baseline EKG and possibly an echocardiogram.

My personal journey with food has been a great adventure and has taught me many great lessons. I have eliminated about 98% of all processed foods. I no longer use cows milk. I have increased the amount of fruits and vegetables daily. My total cholesterol in September was 179 and the result from last week was 136. I think eliminating the processed junk is a major contributor. In addition, I have minimized the acidic producing foods and try to go with the more alkaline producing foods to eliminate inflammation.

I don't like to preach, but I tend to see a lot of repeat offenders. Stop eating the crap, eat smaller portions, quit smoking, drink water with lemon, exercise, and take your probiotics daily. Remember we have to eat to live, not live to eat.

Greek Yogurt Pancakes

My girls wanted pancakes today, but only yummy pancakes. I've been searching hi and low looking for the perfect recipe and I finally came up with one. Actually it is a variation of several recipes.

Here's my take on Greek Yogurt Pancakes:

3/4 cup Greek yogurt (plain or any flavor) = ~6 ounces
1 egg
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon almond milk (or any liquid; omit if using all purpose white flour)

Mix yogurt and egg until smooth and creamy. Add flour and baking soda and mix well. Add almond milk and stir. Pour onto hot griddle. Flip when bubbling. Remove from griddle when cooked.

This makes approximately 12 slightly larger silver dollar size pancakes or 8 moderate size pancakes.

Today we used strawberry Greek yogurt which gave it a sweet taste drizzled with pure maple syrup. To add your own twist, you could use vanilla in the batter or a sprinkling of pure cane sugar or honey. Personally, I like mine plain without syrup.

These were certainly a hit with my family. I made two batches and they were just about gone before I was finished making them. I had to scoop pancakes off their plates in order to get this picture. They were perfectly moist without being floury or cake-like.  It is always a great feeling of accomplishment when there is nothing left!

I believe this will be our new go-to pancake recipe. Next time I will certainly double it instead of having to make two batches. The great thing is that they are full of protein.

10 Year Wedding Anniversary

November 30 we celebrated ten years of marriage. That is a decade! Part of me thinks the time has gone so quickly and part of me thinks it passed appropriately. 

We have three beautiful girls to show for the past 10 years. Reflecting back, we sure have experienced a lot of life together. We have had many firsts, wonderful travels, sadly several family losses, hurricane evacuations and renovations, many highs and a few lows, and all in all a great life. 

I planned on posting pictures from our wedding with both of us, but I don't have any. So, it is just me posing. I want to give credit to the photographer, but can't think of the name. If I do, I will certainly put their name up.

Oh What a Day!

Today started off as a not-so-good day. The most bizarre thing happened today with my vision. At about 0700 this morning my vision changed. My left eye lost peripheral vision. There was this weird prism-like light moving up and down supper fast where I would normally see peripherally. My vision was starting to decrease in other parts of my left eye.

But, it is now 0715 and time to head off to school. I was able to get my two oldest daughters to school without problem. As I am sitting in carpool line, my left hand starts to go numb. I am thinking this is fine and I'll shake it out. The next thought was there is no way I can get CG to school having these strange feelings, can't see and now numb. I decide to drive myself to the emergency room which is about 5 minutes from where we were.

As I am driving to the hospital, the left side of my face, teeth, lips, and tongue go numb. I am really freaking out at this point because I have my 4 year old with me. Somehow I made it to the ER. I whisk her out the car and run into the building. As I approach the reception area, I collapsed. The whole left side of my body is weak and numb. I got scooped up in a wheelchair and a "stroke code" is called. STROKE? I am only 42 years old. How can I be having a stroke? IV started, CT scan completed, meds given.

During this time I was having a headache...extreme headache. Finally the results are in. No stroke! They feel like it was a migraine with stroke like symptoms. I never knew there was such a thing. Next, I had an MRI and am still waiting to get those results.

As of now, I am headache-free, no numbness or weakness; everything is back to normal! I just have to wait until tomorrow to go home.

The official diagnosis was "complex migraine." I learned that this is an official disorder. Migraines that start with an aura of vision changes, nausea (which I have been having), and stroke like symptoms such as numbness, weakness, and speech impairment are classic signs of this type of migraine. I am due to see a migraine neurology specialist, but I think my first visit will be with my chiropractor/Chinese medicine doctor.

The Good and The Bad

Happy Thanksgiving! Our family has plenty to be thankful for today.

My middle daughter had a first yesterday. We are so excited for her. She learned to ride a two wheel bike all by herself yesterday! She has a few bumps and bruises to show for it, but is very proud to show you.

In addition to MM's great accomplishment, we celebrated our thanks with both of our families yesterday. It is always so nice to be with all of the extended family. You see movies and hear horrible stories regarding family turmoil on Thanksgiving. I am just happy to say that doesn't happen with our family.

The sad news is that my husband's brother died at 2:00 PM on Thanksgiving. He was very sick and it was a matter of time when he would pass. FG went to visit him about two weeks ago with the anticipation he would let go while he was there, but he was holding strong.

Needless to say, FG left at 4:30 this morning to get back home to be with his mother and bury his brother. His mother is crushed. This is the second son she is burying in about 3 years. It was not an option for the rest of us to go with him. We are sending his family love and support from home.

May you rest in peace Cayetano.

Wordless Wednesday

Yum!

Being Green

I saw this on Facebook and it really struck home. It is from the page Things That Make You Go Hmm. The little clip really says a lot. All the talk about recycling and being green, we've been doing this for years, but now it has a name to it.

We only have one television and people think we are nuts because of this. At work, I walk the stairs. I have great memories wrapping our school books in the beginning of the school year with brown paper bags; Oh Schwegmann's Supermarket how I miss thee. So many things from the past we did that are so old school, but we were being green.

Being Green

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.
The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have th

is green thing back in my earlier days."
The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment f or future generations."
She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truely recycled.
But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.
But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.
But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person.

Autumn Craft

The girls and I made these cute owls out of toilet paper rolls and cupcake papers. When I was posting I was thinking they were turkeys, but obviously they are owls.

Hoo Hoo