Eating Healthy

Melaina has been complaining she wants healthy food. Jeremy has already begun to cut carbs. My Mom and Dad have been doing great on changing the way they eat. I think it is time I do the same.

I have started with the most difficult and the most regularly consumed item in my daily routine. I quit the Dr. Pepper. That meant giving up caffeine as well cause I don’t do coffee. I’m not stressing on the caffeine thing really. If I have a cup of tea fine. I just really needed to eliminate the high fructose corn syrup that is a main ingredient in soda. I can’t switch to diet because aspartame and I have never gotten along.

Now obviously this is going a long way toward controlling my hypoglycemia and will help put off the inevitable diabetes. I am however aware that there has got to be more to do. For instance I need to get rid of the simple carbohydrates and replace them with complex carbohydrates.  No more processed foods and I should eat more fish and chicken. At least salt is not a huge issue for me. quite frankly I don’t really like it and never add it to my foods. I actually prefer the natural taste of things.

So, here is the stumbling block I have just come too in starting this new food adventure. I have to learn to plan meals and shop accordingly. I need to find good healthy recipes that are not too overwhelming for someone who has always hated to cook. I may find after awhile that some recipes that scare me now will be no big deal in the future.

Basically I have all these great ideas and a bit of knowledge about what I can and can’t have but no clue on how to put them together or how to start.

Focus on the positive! Water doesn’t taste so bad after all. An apple makes a great desert. White cheese is better than yellow and I LOVE feta cheese.

Oh think I found something good: Butter Lettuce Salad With Feta, Mandarin Oranges and Kalamata Olives Recipe by Jennifer Meier

Butter Lettuce Salad With Feta, Mandarin Oranges and Kalamata Olives

Photo by Jennifer Meier

This salad is light and refreshing. The salty but mild Feta pairs well with the Kalamata olives and is a tasty contrast to the oranges.

Butter Lettuce Salad With Feta, Mandarin Oranges and Kalamata Olives serves 2-3

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 head butter lettuce, washed and torn into bite-sized pieces
• 2/3 cups shelled, unsalted pistachios (either raw or roasted)
• 1/4 lb. Feta, crumbled
• 1 cup pitted Kalamata olives
• 2 Mandarin oranges, peeled and separated into wedges
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

Preparation:

In a bowl, whisk the olive oil, vinegar, salt and cumin together until well mixed

In a large salad bowl, toss the lettuce with pistachios, Feta, olives and orange wedges. Drizzle the dressing on top. Toss again and serve.

Excited over a Vacuum

Most of you know that I have five black cats and two dogs. So finding a vacuum that will handle that much pet hair has been a constant battle. I love my pets but I simply cannot stand pet hair everywhere.

Recently Melaina has been on this weird lets watch info mercials kick. Which resulted in me watching the “Shark Navigator” commercial. I admit I was totally sucked in. (lol no pun intended)

I am a bit of of a skeptic when it comes to someone trying to sell me something. Especially on TV. I am always watching for those little tricks. Like before and after shots where the lighting is clearly better and they’re wearing makeup in the after shot. Or the vacuum is used and looks amazing then they move to the next set up and if you look the canister is totally clean so it clearly is a different  vacuum.

Some of the selling points of the “Navigator” are: never loses suction, light weight and easy to maneuver, pet hair removal attachment for furniture and a longer crevice tool for less bending over. Obviously what caught my attention was the never loses suction and pet hair attachment. I watched very closely for those little tricks and was pleasantly surprised to see that they did not switch out vacuums between messes. Needless to say I ordered one.

Today it arrived and I immediately put it to the test. I vacuumed the entire living room and when I saw that the canister was full I went to the one place in my house that almost never gets vacuumed. The carpet under Jeremy’s desk was black. It is supposed to be light blue. This area makes the examples on TV look like nothing. I went in nice and slow and came out on the same line. IT WAS BLUE!!! I have never had so much fun vacuuming in my entire life.

Well that was a chore

I got to thinking today that I had not written anything in seven months and people may begin to think that there is nothing on my mind. So I took a moment to scroll through some of my older posts. Much to my dismay many of them no longer had any pictures. I realized of coarse that they had been linked to my msn spaces and that is no longer in existence. Consequently I just spent the last couple of hours pulling up each entry on writer to delete the box with an X in it and replace it with a picture linked back to my photo bucket albums. Oh and did i mention searching through my photos on my computer to upload the ones that were not on photo bucket yet? Having finally finished all of that I completely forgot what I was going to say in the first place.

Spring Fever

So, Earth Day was last Wednesday and I celebrated it by laying in bed with a migraine and sleeping with the TV on. Not really the best way to help the planet. So yesterday after work I felt all inspired to do something.

We have had this three tier corner thing sitting next to our front porch for about a year now with Jeremy’s chives and a few empty pots. I really wanted to get a few more pots and some flowers to put on it. I thought it would be pretty and then that thing would look on purpose and not like we just had nowhere else to put it.

By the time I had all the pots in place Julian had brought my big blue pot from the back yard for me and put it on the corner of the porch. I stood there admiring my work and feeling like something was missing. I needed something to hang from the two hooks that I had taken the jack-o-lanterns off of. While that was still bothering me I went to get my wind chime to hang in the upper part of the V posts. While I was setting up the ladder I hung it on the hook so I could use two hand and Ashton said that he liked it there. Well that decided it for me and I went back to get my other chimes. I did end up having one to hang in the V.

While Jeremy and I were shopping for the flowers and pots he came across some perennials that he really liked and we decided to get them and plant them in front of the corner piece. By the time I had finished the pots we had come up with a better place for them. That project would have to wait for after work today though because I was too tired to do any more. I did take a picture of the before on this one though.

That spot is so hard to mow because it is basically a hole that I am guessing was a round garden at one time.

When I got home from work today I sent Jeremy to the store to get some weed block to roll out in what would be our new garden and while he did that I mowed the lawn. Then if you’ll notice there are two bricks that are a little more curved than the others so I dropped them in the driveway to break them if half. (That was kind of fun.) Anyway he finally got home and I let him remove the grass. We used it to fill some holes in the back yard. I did the stuff closest to the rose while Jeremy rested. When we were ready to put the dirt in we discovered that he had accidentally grabbed the bags of bark. So back to the store to return the two unopened bags and get soil. Well he got a couple more plants while he was there.

I am quite happy with the end result. We had a lot of weed block, one bag of soil and half a bag of bark left so I went with my new theory of, “If it’s hard to mow it’s got to go.”

Ok, so it is not real pretty just yet. the roots of this tree are the worst for mowing over and now I wont have to. I will post a new blog when this project gets completed. Except for the two broken bricks this really doesn’t look bad from a distance.

My OCD Moment

Well it started with a rather frustrating day at work last Saturday. Or maybe it really began the night before when I could not get to sleep and did everything in my power to not start organizing my closet. I woke up tired and by the time I got off work I just wanted to feel better and found myself doing something I have never done before. I shopped for new clothes. (yes I have shopped for clothes before just not as a way to make myself feel better) When I got home I went into the bedroom to put away my new clothes and was again struck by the sudden compulsion to reorganize my closet. (I was tripping over my shoes again) So I started out by putting a load of laundry on and kicking the rest into the hallway. I threw everything from my closet onto my bed and then spent like a half and hour or so vacuuming the floor. You’ll notice in the pictures that we are not talking about a lot of floor here. Fortunately Melaina was too busy with Niki to make fun of me for this. By the time I got all the laundry done everything was put where I wanted it. You may think this is the end. You would be wrong. I followed all of this with pictures to send to my Mom and Sister. What follows is the email I sent them. 

Left to right: pj's for tonight, corduroy, denim, other pj's. Top drawer: two slips, my old tummy sucker (just in case), six bra's (yes I got new ones) and panties. Middle drawer: light socks, medium socks and dark socks across the back and tights and pantyhose in front. Bottom drawer: all my sandals and flip flops. Every shoe in it's place

 

look nothing to trip over

 

ok left to right: 3/4 sleeve shirts that look like two layers, short sleeve look like two layers, long sleeve blouses, 3/4 sleeve blouses, short sleeve blouses, short sleeve knits with collar, sleeveless blouses, sleeveless knits with collar, 3/4 sleeve top w/out collar, short sleeve w/out collar, long sleeve knits, 3/4 sleeve knits, short sleeve knits (aka T-shirts), sleeveless, empty hangers, casual slacks on fold over pants hanger, city shorts, Capri's, slacks, knee length skirts, long skirts, dresses and scarves. Robe on hook. Shelf left to right: blankets, sheets and pillow cases, winter hats, snow sweaters (likely to go away cause they're from the 80's), two stacks of assorted sweater with two active wear outfits on bottom of right stack.

 

  Left to right: new top and shoes, new top and shorts, new top and pants, new top

 

Ultimately this was more of a day than a moment but hey I have clothes for spring and summer and my closet is clean. The end result is much better than if I had eaten junk food to feel better.

My bed is not a litter box!!!

Well I had the pleasant surprise when I crawled into bed last night of finding that yet again one of the cats urinated on my bed. I have tried so many different products to eliminate both the smell and the problem. I can’t exactly keep the door closed because I can’t get Cougar to come out from under the bed and I don’t want her trapped in my room. Plus when the heater comes on I get cooked. I had a product that took out the stain and the odor but after it ran out the can got thrown out and I don’t remember what it was. So, I used this pet odor stuff last night and then had to use the hair drier on it before I could put clean sheets on. Then today I was looking under my sink in the kitchen and found that I have smoke odor eliminator. It is a zep product and is commercial grade. I had bought it for use in my car. Anyway I read the can and it says quickly eliminates odors caused by cigars, cigarettes, Body waste, garbage, animals and fire damage. So I stripped my bed and sprayed the mattress. I really hope this works. There is nothing worse than thinking you have cleaned something and then waking to find that your body heat has reactivated the smell. Cat piss is NOT a pleasant smell to wake up to. I love my animals but once again I find myself asking … Why do I have five cats?

            Cougar                                      Sirus Black       

          Moon Shadow                               Wicket

                     Beef

         (the primary suspect)

Hey this does work with windows live writer

I really like using windows live writer and therefore have been reluctant to change the way I blog. Turns out that I can use writer and post to this blog without the copy and paste technique that I have been using for so long and will likely not continue to use windows live spaces. None of my friends are on it anyway. I find that I have little to no interest in myspace anymore but I still have a couple of friends who have yet to convert to facebook so for them I guess I will still paste my blog there. Now I just need to see if there is a way to transfer my archives to this site. Ah the challenges of technology.