Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Meat and Potatoes; A Wee Snowstorm


I made a "Hungry Man" meal for Alex last night, a big honkin' sirloin steak with potatoes and beans. I had Teriyaki Tilapia and my side salad is hidden from view, but Mama Pea, I assure you, I had my greens!!! :)

Alex and I both have lots of food sensitivities and allergies. We have very sensitive digestions and when we're under stress, we always feel it in our stomachs! So once a year or so, we go on a somewhat clean eating two-week detox. It started a few days ago. I have more liberties than he does because I did my 1-year elimination diet and found out the worst culprits. His vary unfortunately, so a yearly detox always helps. We are gradually transitioning our diets though. We've already eliminated most processed foods. Now we're going to tackle the baking ingredients. When my unbleached flour is used up, we'll go to organic...then I'll have to do some more research. It'll be the same with sugars, yeast and all other baking supplies. It's going to take a while because eating well isn't cheap unfortunately! So we're tackling one step at a time. Even the cheese at the grocery store is tasteless now...we may have to buy better quality and just eat less of it...oh the horror...less cheese, boo hoo hoo! :)


If it were December, I'd have been thrilled to see this yesterday morning!


It was pretty in the woods though!


I don't know if the Canada Geese were coming or going...


But by this morning it was all melted and I got a little tease of sun for just over half an hour. I'd say my seedlings really needed it, but they are all doing so well in my window! 


There is rain in the forecast again until next Tuesday, eegad. Really...it's not normal for this area of the Laurentians!! But we make do right? I'm spending the day in the kitchen, making bread and chicken broth. Since we got rid of all the high-sugar, high-salt snacks lately, I'll try my hand at hard pretzels for something to munch on! I do wish for sunshine because the outdoor "to do" list is getting very long now; but the overcast dull days just mean more cozy time in bed with Jack and the rest of the fur kids...oh and of course with Alex too! :)

20 comments:

  1. I am cooking and baking today although I haven't gotten started yet and it's almost 3:00 p.m.! Where does the day go? Everything I do is based on weather around here. Storms coming tonight and tomorrow so I mowed yesterday and laundry today on the line. Snow? I'm sure those Canadian Geese were coming at this time of year. My friends in Minnesota had them for the last several weeks so they are on their way home! Good for you and the food investigations! I did the same with my RA and Graves etc....I am off all meds now and doing well although I'm like you...getting to all organic is not easy especially here where all we have is Walmart. The other I have to order online. I h ave to go hang another load out and hope they dry as it is 85 and humid but there is a breeze, thank goodness! TTYL! I have to catch up with your other posts!

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  2. Rain - i told you that losing the cheese near killed me! but we now can have very aged hard cheddar and parmesan. but just in small doses. i can handle a little white bread every now and again...i fell crappy the next day but not crappy enough to not eat a lobster sandwich every now and again...c'mon..fresh-caught lobster? i have to do it. but as much yogurt as i used to eat, cottage cheese (oh i loved cottage cheese) and squinchy-sounding curds to make poutine...i can't do it. the poutine thing especially killed me!

    it sounds like you guys are on the right step to making food be medicine - which is what it actually is! processed food is garbage and the crap that they put in it is worse and more addictive than crack!

    i am very proud that you are taking measures to protect your health! sending love! your friend,
    kymber

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  3. snow? wow! i wish! we are having slightly cool weather here and i'm loving it. next week might turn into summer again.

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  4. Steak and potatoes look really good. Some of the natural things like flour goes rancid where the altered stuff keeps for years so don't get too much at once.

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  5. Haha, you just knew I'd be checking for your green veggies, didn't you? Somebody's gotta keep an eye on you!

    Oh, gosh, we can ALL improve our diets to one extent or another. An occasional cleansing diet is beneficial but should get less necessary as we eat healthier on a daily basis. I know organic food is more expensive than regular commercially available stuff, but hubby and I think of the money spent as health insurance. Because there are just the two of us (most of the time) it's possible for us to buy what we feel is the best food (what we can't grow right here on the property) available, but I'm not sure what we would do if we were feeding, say, three teenagers.

    Snow? Oh, no! I think I'd better stop complaining about our cool temps. At least we have no snowflakes falling on us.

    Jack. That face! What a sweetie . . . even if he does still growl a bit!

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  6. Oh gosh sis ... snow ?? But today it was so chilly here it almost felt like it would snow. It just doesnt want to get warmer. I could show u my to do list...geeee...u know how panicky I am about the to do list...lol i feel like summer is almost over 😂😂😂
    So I amntrying to stay calm and keep telling myself ... we will survive and the list will still be there tomorrow even if we dont get anything done ... everything is fine :)
    I love the food changes u are planning.
    How did the pretzels turn out ?

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  7. Snow? Golly, we are getting more rain today. Dinner looks good. I wanted to cut more nettle today, but will need to dodge the rain.

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  8. Good morning! I use some wholewheat flour but have just transitioned over to organic white! Sure glad we didn't get that snow and hope you can work outdoors soon! We have been getting rain but would rather have that then snow! Nancy

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  9. Hi Sam :)) We do have a nice health food store, it's a 45 minute drive away but it's a huge store. The last time I went there though, I gasped at the prices. Slow changes! I never want to go cheap on what we put in our bodies, but I am in shock by how much organic food costs. How do they expect people to afford it? We'll always find a way I guess :) We usually get the geese coming in April, but I guess everything is late this time of year!

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  10. Hi Kymber! :) I remember you told me that, but honestly I WILL NEVER, I said NEVER, give up cheese entirely lol...When we get settled, I plan on making my own, especially the Mozzarellas and Cheddars. I just don't have the equipment or set up for it here so in the mean time, we'll try our best to buy good stuff. The market where I get my veggies has a very big cheese section, it's lovely. Curds...mmmmm.....I love poutine! We haven't had a good one in a long time! :) As we age, we need to take better care of ourselves. I mean ideally we would have started long ago! :) But it's never too late, I believe that about everything in life! :)

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  11. Hi Joyce :) You can have my snow, I won't miss it! :) And I would like some of that summer in exchange.

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  12. Thanks for the advice Gill. I do try to buy in bulk so I only have to shop monthly but I'll have to keep an eye on expiry dates more diligently. Buying a big bag of regular flour, I never worry that it'll expire.

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  13. Lol Mama Pea, yes, I knew you were looking for my veggies in that photo ha ha ha! :) Thanks for keeping an eye on me. :) It's just the two of us as well, but we're kind of in debt-repayment and savings mode too so we can buy our property in a few years, and dipping into that money saddens me, although I know health is very important too. It's okay though, I've mentioned we're doing things gradually and I think that as I grow my own veggies and make as much from scratch as I can, it will save us some money. Growly Jack...I love him to bits. He'll show his teeth and growl then start licking our hands and then wagging his tail and howling...he's all over the map lol but he trusts us and he's very happy, which makes me very happy!! Ugh, yes, the snow...I need sunshine! I hope we don't have "one of those" summers...the last cold summer I remember was when I was in high school. It never got about 15 degrees all summer (60F). It was miserable!

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  14. Hey sis, yeah, snow. Giggle if you must! :) I'm just waiting for the end of May heat wave! I didn't have time to do the pretzels yesterday, I'm going to aim for that today since it's cloudy again and I'll be staying inside. The food changes are very exciting! We had our first success yesterday with chicken broth, I'll blog about that. And yeah, the "to do" list...one thing at a time! It's just that it all falls along with the weather now! :)

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  15. Hi Kristina :) I almost preferred having snow to a deluge of rain. At least the snow melts...the rain just accumulates at this time of year.

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  16. Hi Nancy :)) I used to use whole wheat flower, but we just don't like the taste of it. Over the years, even before Alex and I met, I tried whole wheat over and over and I just kept turning my nose at it! I will still try lol...because I know white flour isn't especially nutritious. But I'm looking forward to the organic white, I'd love to see if there is a difference. Already the unbleached is easier for us to digest than the regular bleached flour. Hope your rain goes away! ;)

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  17. Hi Starting Over :)) I COMPLETELY agree with you! Where are my April showers and May flowers??? I think it'll be June showers and July flowers at this point...

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  18. Snow!!!!!! Enough of that please!!! Our weather has not been great this week - very windy and very cool. Enough that we did get frost this morning, I could see it on our neighbors roof as the sun rose.

    Eating clean and well is very expensive. I have always used unbleached flour in my baking. The thought of chemicals just to make a flour white is beyond me. One of my doctor colleagues and I share flour. We order unbleached flour from Italy (50 kg bags of it). Its like working with dust it is so incredibly fine. Very lovely to work with though. It makes the best bread - sourdough especially!

    I should send you a picture of my seedlings - I am so disappointed. They have amounted to nothing. I never have had luck with seedlings of any kind, I don't even know why I tried again. Oh well. My lettuce on the other hand is going like gangbusters!!! We had some for our dinner last night. :)

    :) Dianna

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  19. Hi Dianna :))
    Oh the snow is gone now, but it's just so cold out...forever November it seems. Should I jinx myself and wish for black fly weather?????? Oh and the bites to go with it? :))

    Wow that is pretty cool that you order your flour from Italy!! And you're right, it's expensive to eat well, but what choice do we have these days? I mean...nothing has flavour and everything is so hard to digest, makes us bloat up, gives us heartburn...even the bottled water. Evian is the only water Alex can drink that doesn't make him nauseous. The bottled water you get in the big jugs gives me heartburn...I wish we could drink the well water...well, no sense griping! We just have to make do right?

    I'm SO SORRY about your seedlings! :((( What could have happened?? May I suggest you try again with this kind of soil: Seedling and Sprout Soil ? I think this is my miracle secret to all the seedlings growing. If that doesn't work...I don't know! I just have to make sure that these transition well into regular soil. I'll have to mix some in to the regular soil when the time comes so that they don't shock, at least that was the advice I was given by the lady at the garden center. My watering schedule is one day some water spritzing just to get the top of the soil damp, then the next day I take them all to the sink for very light watering. It seems to be working very well, plus they are in the only sunny window. But they're still growing despite the lack of sun!

    I'm so happy about your lettuce!! :))) I can't wait to taste some of my own!

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❤ Thanks for your comment, I love hearing from everyone! ❤ Why not join me and my fellow artists every Thursday for TADD? That's Thursday Art and Dinner Date! It's a lot of fun!
Love,
Rain