Trying Almond Flour Pancakes

By Elizabeth Prata

I can't tolerate gluten, and that is a shame. But it's OK, nowadays there are plenty of substitutes. A dear friend gave me her almond flour and coconut flour. I thought, hm, I'll try my Sunday pancakes with almond flour, and found a recipe. Here is the process. BTW the egg is blue on top because of the leftover blueberry juice from the pancake that I'd cooked before I cracked the egg onto the griddle. :)

Recipe here: 5-Ingredient Almond Flour Pancakes

Nutrition info: Nutrition
Servings: 3 servings (2 pancakes each)
Serving size: 2 pancakes
Calories: 334kcal
Fat: 27.9g
Saturated fat: 3.9g
Carbohydrates: 11.2g
Fiber: 5g
Sugar: 2g
Protein: 14.4g

Food Prep this week: August 26-30

By Elizabeth Prata

How has your weekend been? Busy? I use the weekend to prepare for the week, so it's not really two days off, except for church. It's still a treadmill. If I let go for a moment, I'm behind all week. Do you feel that way?

Friday nights I'm pretty tired. At the beginning of the school year, coming off 8-9 weeks of straight rest, it's a Mt. Everest of a climb to get back into routine. On Friday nights I'm good for nothing, except staring numbly out the window, uncomprehending and body aching as if I have the flu.

Saturdays at the beginning of the year take me usually until 3:00 in the afternoon or so to 'come to'. That's not to say that I do nothing. Indeed, I get up between 5:30 and 6:00 am and get to work writing 5 blogs for the week and creating 5 scripture pictures for the week. I like to have them ready to publish when I arise on weekday mornings at 5:00.

As I study the Bible during the week, or listen to lessons or sermons, I plop ideas, verses, and information & links into drafts. Saturday mornings are when I flesh these out into completed essays. My goal is to encourage and to teach women, and to keep myself in the word, since I process things by writing.

I usually work on this until I get mentally tired, about 1:00 or 2:00. Then I take a nap. When I awaken at 3:00, I feel like myself again. I usually study my lessons from The Master's Seminary. I'm working toward a certificate in Sound Doctrine. I might feel like myself (body aches gone), mentally more alert. But I'm still way physically tired and don't do many chores.

This leaves laundry, vacuuming, change sheets, and food prep to Sunday...so it becomes not a day of rest. But that will happen soon, as I move more chores to Saturday when I'm feeling less tired and gain equilibrium again.

Food prep this week!

Red lentil soup with mushrooms, carrots, and tomatoes. This will be lunch every day.

Types of lentils. Photo The Kitchn, link to article below

Last week I had brown lentil soup. What's the difference between the types of lentils? The folks at The Kitchn explain, sharing some recipes too. Lentils are actually not a bean, or a pea, but are a pulse. Pulses are related to beans and peas. I prefer the red lentil because they have just as much protein and fiber, are a bit sweeter than the brown, and they turn to mush and thus, thicken the soup. I like thick soups.

• Blackened Tilapia (2 servings). I bought one large, seasoned piece and cut it in half to make 2 servings
• Turkey sandwiches
• Green Beans with tofu and peanuts sauted in soy sauce.
• Eggplant-mushroom saute
• Kale with mushrooms (cold and hot; salad, and sauted)
• Hummus with veggies.
• Strawberries. LOL, I bought 3 pounds so that will be my main fruit for dessert and snacks

I hope you all have a great Sunday, hopefully worshiping the Lord. Our church begins at 3:00 (a new Sunday School series begins next week, so that will be moved back to 2:00). I enjoy the mornings preparing for church and usually like to keep the morning clear to do just that. Have a super week ahead!

Food Prep this week

By Elizabeth Prata

Good morning! I've got some cooking going on. People tell me they really enjoy the Facebook posts on food prep and the blog essays on cooking. Thank you! I decided to expand it a little and share my reasoning for why I cook the things I do. :)

This is the last week I'm on the elimination FODMAP diet to see what is causing the IBS. Monash University in Australia has made a scientific breakthrough regarding foods that give people trouble who suffer from IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). I've given up gluten, having become intolerant to it. The doctor told me that there are 3 levels of food issues, sensitive, intolerant, and allergic. I have a family member with Celiac disease (allergic to gluten) and over the years I've developed an intolerance to gluten myself. So I gave up all gluten/wheat food items.

I am also intolerant of lactose. So I gave that up too. No more yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit for dessert, just fruit. I can get lactose-free milk at my regular grocery store. I can get lactose free yogurt too, but it's prohibitively expensive  and a lower cost than l-f yogurt. There is no l-f cottage cheese where I shop so that's that. I was still having issues adn I was really stumped. My doctor put me onto this Monash-FODMAP issue and it seems to be the answer for me.

I'll be excited to see which foods will be added back into my diet now that the elimination of foods containing FODMAPs have been taken out. And yes, when I took out the gluten it helped, and the elimination of lactose helped. But I wasn't completely free of bowel issues, and the FODMAP elimination helped resolve it.

But FODMAPs cover such a wide range of foods that it's not wise nor practical to eliminate all of them from one's diet forever. So there's an important step 2: after a suitable time on the eliiation diet to let the bowel and digestive system rest, now add back in small groups of FODMAP foods under controlled conditions to see what is causing the irritation in the digestive system. Click on the link above to learn about foods containing FODMAPs.

 Meanwhile, this week's food prep-

MAIN DISHES/PROTEINS

-Lentil soup with mustard greens, carrots, garden green peppers, and celery. Curry spices. This'll be for lunch every day.

-Fresh green beans with tofu cubes, teriyaki sauce and crushed peanuts on top. Tofu is a versatile and inexpensive protein. It also has the advantage of keeping longer uncooked than seafood or meat.

-Shrimp was on sale at Kroger so I bought half a pound, about 20 medium-large shrimp. This yields 4 servings, or about 50 cents per protein meal. I try to keep my protein servings under $1 each. I'll eat them cold with spinach salad.

--Crabcake with mustard greens and a potato on the side. A prepared stuffed crab at Kroger is $1. I cooked a bunch of potatoes in the crock pot yesterday. Add some potatoes to the crock with a half cup of water, turn on high, and they cook pillow soft in about two hours. You don't even have to spear them, just wash and put in. Now I have potatoes for the week without having to heat up the kitchen boiling them for a long time. Forget about baking them, it's too hot to turn on the oven in GA in August.

SIDES/VEGGIES

--I've been gifted 3 garden eggplants. I'll saute them with mushrooms and a can of tomatoes for a kind of hash. You can add this to spaghetti (or spaghetti squash), add rice, put on crusty bread with mozzarella, throw some greens in it (I prefer spinach with eggplant) or just eat as a side dish.

--Homemade hummus*. Chick peas are low FODMAP friendly! Cut up carrots & celery for dipping. Or rice crackers.

-Groats for breakfast. These are the whole oat. They are chewy and filling. Think the consistency of wild rice. I add strawberries or blueberries with lactose free milk. I love it cold! But you can heat it too for a healthy low carb, low fat, no-gluten breakfast! (1/2 cup serving of groats is 15 carbs, milk is 15 more).

FRUIT/DESSERT

-Notwithstanding the illegal donut I had on Friday, my desserts are usually fruit. This week I have strawberries, blueberries, grapes, a few mandarin oranges left from last week, and pineapple.

SNACKS

Popcorn, almonds, peanuts, slice of turkey, rice crackers with peanut butter, cheese (cheddar or other aged cheeses are more easily tolerated for lactose sensitive or intolerant folks than fresh cheeses). Drinks: Fizzy water, cold hibiscus tea, hot peppermint tea, coffee.

*Lower FODMAP Hummus recipe:

1 14.5 ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 TB water
4 TB lemon juice
2 TB peanut butter (this substitutes for Tahini)
2TB garlic infused olive oil (I dont' have this so I skipped it. DOn't be afraid to skip or change the recipe to your preference)
1 teasp sesame oil (I didn't have this either. No worries)
1/2 teas salt (I like less salt).

Measure ingredients into a bowl of a blender or food processor. Process till smooth, adding a little extra oil if necessary. Chill until serving. Servings: 8 (Sorry, I can't find how big 1 serving is...:(

There's frugal that saves money and there's frugal that costs money

By Elizabeth Prata

I'm in the middle of the time between paychecks. It takes skill, self-control, commitment to one's budget, duct tape and dental floss to hang it all together and make it through! LOL. I'm used to it by now and I plan for it. I'm in a lot of company, living paycheck to paycheck. :)

So this week for food-made-ahead, I've got:

Crabcake
Crabcake
Crabcake
Tilapia filet
Chicken chili
Green salads
Green beans
Granola
Fruit
Yogurt

The fish dishes and green beans are dinners, and the chili and salads are lunches, and the fruit & yogurt are desserts/snacks.

I found something called Siggi's, an Icelandic recipe for Skyr.

Skyr is an Icelandic dairy product, and it’s been a provision of Icelanders for nearly 1,000 years. Icelandic Provisions was developed in partnership with Iceland’s oldest farmer-owned dairy. It’s the only Skyr made in the US using the original Icelandic recipe with heirloom Icelandic Skyr cultures. That’s what makes it thick, creamy and delicious.

Yogurt and Skyr are both cultured dairy products, but the cultures that make them are different. The original cultures we use to make our Skyr impart a rich, creamy flavor, whereas yogurt cultures may provide a sour, tart taste. source

Siggi's yogurt is skyr. Siggi is an Icelandic man transplanted to upstate NY, and he makes the yogurt skyr style. It's thick and creamy, possesses mad amounts of protein, and lots less sugar. There are no artificial ingredients. My flavor (plain) has two ingredients at all, grass-fed milk and yogurt cultures. It has 25 grams of protein. It is more expensive, but since it is SO thick, you eat less per serving, so it evens out.

Coming out of the oven is burned granola. Sigh. Granola is hard to make in that it turns on a dime and burns quickly. It also browns as it cools, so you have to take it out of the oven before it is the golden color you want, trusting that as it cools, you've timed it to cook to the crispiness you desire before it stops cooling. I usually do OK with my granola, if I use my standard recipe.

This time, I changed recipes. Bad move.

The main binding agent in the recipe I usually use is honey. The recipe calls for 1/2 a cup. It costs $5.50 for a small jar that isn't even 8 ounces, but 7.5 (we notice you've dialed back on the quantity, honey people! We notice!!) In an attempt to save $$, I searched for and found a recipe that uses brown sugar.

I don't bake much, if at all, so I am not used to the different properties of baking ingredients. Apparently, brown sugar burns EASILY. Given the delicacy of the granola to begin with, I wasn't paying strict attention to that split second when it turns from undone to crispy black, and I burned it. I am still going to eat it. Only the parts that had open spaces on the pan burned. I collected the rest, pretty dark as it was, and decided that the extra cost for honey is worth it to produce a large batch of granola that doubles as cereal or straight snacks all week.  It's also very sweet, and I don't like sweet.

The Icelandic yogurt is $5.50 for 24 ounces instead of the usual Kroger brand I get, $1.99 for 32 ounces.

But frugality isn't just about saving a dollar. It's shepherding the money you have to obtain the most bang for the buck. The most bang could be more protein (the yogurt) a better tasting dish, a recipe that's easier to cook (less time in the kitchen) less waste (batch of granola). Just because something is less expensive in the short-term doesn't always mean it's less expensive in thelong-term. Or better for you or less time consuming or easier to clean up or...whatever valance between time/money/ease of use you're trying to achieve.

I'm looking forward to this week. I enjoy the kids,, I enjoy my home time, and the upcoming weekend is a three-day weekend. (Martin Luther King day is Monday.) It's all good I'll start a new book as I progress on my Tim Challies challenge of reading throughout the year, Book about music or Musician: Nobody Knows: The Forgotten Story of One of the Most Influential Figures in American Music, by Craig von Buseck

Have a good week everyone!

Cold outside, hard ground, chilly rain

Warm & comfy inside!

Zucchini patties

By Elizabeth Prata

I've mentioned before that the grocery store where I shop has a reduced area where they put produce. The produce is still really good. Whatever is in the bags they place in that area costs only 99 cents.

The other day I scooped up a bag containing two large zucchini. I mean really large zucchini! You know at garden harvest time the overflow of zucchini is almost a flood. I felt that way with these beauties. My motto is, if I feel I will really use/eat the food, I buy it and think of what to do with it later. I can always think up an idea for the item in front of me, but if I don't have the item, I could have a million ideas but they won't help me fill an empty plate.

I shredded the two zucchinis and put them into the fridge. Later on I stumbled across a zucchini patty recipe and that is what I made of them! I added some flour and an egg, a bit of cheddar cheese (the recipe called for Parmesan but I didn't have that), and a bit of salt. Drop by teaspoons until the desired size, flatten, and cook on medium high heat until crispy.

Yum!

Amateur pro tip: When cooking, always make a bit more. I'll have two tonight and two for lunch tomorrow. Not only is lunch made for tomorrow, but it's packed too.

I had a fried egg and a half potato made into homefries along with the two patties for dinner. The other half of the potato is, you guessed it, for tomorrow.

There are some thunderstorms headed our way. The day has been extremely hot and humid. I have the heating gas guy coming to turn on my heater in 14 days, and yet the air conditioning has been steadily running all day, every day. Sigh. I hope the weather breaks soon, but then again, heavy thunderstorms aren't fun either. I guess I'm never satisfied, eh?

Puffy clouds turn ominously dark as the day wears on. Thunder coming!

Of rambutan and meal prep

By Elizabeth Prata

Good morning! Did you ever have a long enough's night sleep and wake up the next morning expecting to be refreshed, but you aren't? Or get a good night's sleep and wake the next morning and leap out of bed with tons of energy? Both happened to me this weekend. Once on Saturday and once on Sunday. Back to back, I'm perplexed. Oh well, I'll take the good night's sleep and morning energy bonanza where and when I can, lol.

A while ago I'd discovered that one of my favorite authors, John Grisham, had written a book of short stories. You know the excitement when you think you've read all there is from your favorite author but you find one more? Like that. I found a hardcover at Amazon for cheap and combined with my points got the last book the seller had for $3.00. I can't wait till it arrives! Later Grishams have been disappointing, but this is a very early book and those, by gum, were really good. So anticipating a new book I can dive right into is always fun.

I got up early to do some cooking. I didn't do any meal prep last weekend and though I had plenty to eat and packing lunches wasn't a burden, I did have to scramble at night when I got home. I'm tired when I get home, and I want just to open the fridge and grab some dinner without a lot of fuss or standing there to cook it. The items I grabbed for dinner last week were hummus and crackers, rice cakes, seaweed chips... but that's not enough of a dinner to sustain me.

I need to eat whole food, non-processed, with no preservatives or my stomach will rebel. That means I have to make myself every meal I eat, and think carefully about every snack I ingest. Rice cakes and seaweed chips are on the edge of manageability for my belly since they are processed, but they have barely any ingredients so I can usually eat them in moderation. But I do need to go easy on them and make them an infrequent snack and not a meal substitute. My usual snacks are fruit or homemade granola. Sometimes a few peanuts if I haven't put them all in the granola.

Anyway, so as not to repeat my mistake from last week, this morning I made:

--Quinoa to have on hand to sprinkle on salads, or to have as warmed over cereal
--Spicy chili. There was a sale on avocados so those will go on top, with sour cream too. ;)
--Baba ganoush, an eggplant dip with tahini and lemon. It's garden time and a friend gave me three eggplants. So...reduce them down into a dip!!
--Fig preserves. A friend gave me a gallon bag of figs, so I made preserves with them, and kept a few back to have as fresh into cottage cheese etc.
--Granola. I use this as cereal, snacks, or to put in cottage cheese.

I use whatever my friends give me and I do not waste any of it if I can help it.

Last week there was a markdown on some weird looking fruit., It was reddish and hairy like a sea urchin. Since the bag of them was only 99 cents, of course I bought it. 99 cents is a small price to pay for experimenting, and for potentially having a new world of fruit opened up to me. Here is what they looked like

You put a sharp knife into the end of it and slice all around from north pole to south. You don't press so hard you slice into the fruit, but only through the skin. Inside the fruit's center is an almond shaped pit. The fruit is about the sizeof a ping pong ball or a bit smaller. It's juicy.

They are called Rambutan, I discovered, and they look and taste like a lychee fruit. I do not like lychee fruit. I did not like rambutan. I ate one of them and threw out the other 4. So only 79 cents wasted and aside from the reddish one in the picture the others were really over-ripe anyway.

The fruit is from Malaysia and actually rambutan means hair in Malay, an apt name, lol. The fruit contains a high amount of fiber and iron, and is sweet and juicy. If you like lychee you'll like rambutan. Nevertheless, I think I will skip the rambutan next time. I've been there and done that.

I cooked my heart out this morning and my fridge is full. It was a hot and busy two and a half hours but worth it. I've already packed my chili serving for lunch tomorrow and I'm looking forward to church at 3:00 later today. But first, a nap.

Have a good week ahead everyone. By the way, I'm really looking forward to this hot weather easing up and getting some fall leaf colors going, pumpkins on the doorstep, wearing long sleeved comfy shirts, and snappy air evenings. Aren't you? Fall, you're on your way and I'll greet you happily when you get here. Fall also means hot tea season!

Apples, rainstorm, summer spouse

By Elizabeth Prata

Kroger grocery store does this neat thing with produce. If there is a container of cherry tomatoes, and one tomato inside that has split or gotten moldy, no one will buy that tray. So the store puts the container inside a red net bag and sells it for 99 cents. I take it home and pluck out the one bad cherry tomato and happily use the rest. If there's a peach that is slightly dented they'll put it in a red net bag with good ones and sell the bag for 99 cents. And so on. The produce in the red net bag is usually perfectly OK, except for maybe one item in it, and even then, 9 times out of 10 the one item is fine. I save a bundle buying fresh produce this way. Kroger told me that they like it because they hardly ever have to throw anything away.

For the first time I bought corn on the cob in the net bag. There were 4 good sized ears in it. I peeled them today and they look fine. The kernels aren't wrinkled and they look OK-fresh. I boiled them up today and ate one. I'll scrape the remaining cobs and roast them in a pan with butter, and add them to something later in the week. Maybe I'll make chili.

Another item I got in the marked down section was a red net bag of apples. These apples were all excellent and fine. And big! I am not hugely fond of apples, though, unless they are MacIntosh. You can't find Macs in the south very often. These were Gala and Grannysmith and something else. They are hard! What to do with a bunch of apples? I cubed them small and sauteed them in a bit of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

When they were soft enough I stopped. What can you do with a load of sauteed apples? Why, put some on top of your pancakes. The apples with the TB of brown sugar I'd used was sweet enough for me and I did not need to add maple syrup.

As for the remainder of the apples, (you can see them in the container in the top of the photo) they can go on cottage cheese, or into smoothies for a bit of sweetness. Roll them in a crepe, or into a wrap with some yogurt or even cream cheese. Ideas are endless.

We had some storms this early AM and when my weather alarm went off I got up at 3:00 to put shoes on and ready to go into the tub - the only interior 'room' I have since I only have two rooms in the apartment and there is no spot that doesn't have an outside wall. No worries though, the storms that did come through were mild compared to elsewhere in the area. All is well.

And since it is still summer, the lost hour I had staying up from 3:00-4:00 am could be re-couped this afternoon, which I duly did. Me and Murray caught a nap.

After the rain stopped this morning I took a walk around the yard. The raindrops hadn't dried yet.

The crepe myrtle are blooming gangbusters:

This bright red cardinal was preening and getting his feathers situated again after the torrent had stopped.

Ants were pouring out of this crack, but they were the tiny ants and you can't see them that well. The view is nice, though.

Amid all this flowery and rain soaked prettiness, there was a life and death struggle going on right under my nose. Cue Marlin Perkins and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom:

The caterpillar did not win.

Well, tomorrow is church and I look forward to getting together with my beautiful saints and worshiping my precious God. Then next week is the last week of summer break. I go back to school on Monday, July 30. It has been an exceptionally wonderful summer break, and I know I'll enjoy next week a lot, then of course, I'll enjoy meeting the new crop of kids. (After getting over the physical shock of having to actually get up and do stuff all day).

Here is a hilarious video from Kentucky Principal Gerry Brooks. Every word he says is true.

So many eggplants

I had breakfast yesterday with a dear friend and her charming baby. It was one of those breakfast joints run by short order cook ladies in hairnets who know what they’re doing and call you ‘hon.’ Biscuits, grits, bacon, eggs… it was all there. We had a good chat.

On the way home, as I approached my driveway, I looked over at the pasture. The recent rain has greened up everything to a hue so vivid the pastures shone like emeralds. The wooden fence with the waving weeds intertwined with purple morning glories created its own living fence. Amid the greenery on the fence post was a bright red cardinal. I was glad to see him, a previous local yard cat had killed one and chased the others off. It’s nice to see them returning.

I snapped this from quite a distance and while walk-jogging. Sorry for the poor quality. He flew off before I could get a better one.

The fence is a little way down from my driveway, so I parked, left my bags by the mailbox as I went by and checked it, and hustled to walk close enough to grab a photo before the bird flew off. I snapped on from a great distance but then he spotted me and went his way.

Just then the mailman trundled down the street. I live on a one-way street and it’s a short street, so there is little traffic. I had put my camera bag and purse down on the ground by the mailbox when I came out to snap the photo of the bird, so I hustled to pick it up so he’d have room.

He had an Amazon package for me. Amazon Prime day was a couple of days ago, after all, lol. So we chatted for a while. The weather, the heat. He asked if the neighbors still lived on the other side of the house but I said, no they moved. It wasn’t a long chat. He had a route and a schedule to keep after all. But it was an American sort of morning, the breakfast joint, then admiring the rural beauty around me, the chat by the side of the road...

It’s garden season here in Georgia. That means people have veggies galore and lots of people share. I am in possession of three large eggplants at this moment. What to do?

I chopped up an onion and put it into a large stock pot with some oil. I turned the heat on medium. While the onions were browning, I diced two of the eggplants into cubes. I had two orange peppers rolling around in the fridge so I chopped them up as well.

The thing with eggplants, is they take on the flavor of what you put them with. Their flesh has a sponge-like consistency that soaks up whatever you put with it, including oil. That’s why if you’re frying them in slices, do not use a fork to turn them over because the tines will poke a hole and the oil will soak into the flesh. The flesh is also gray, not an appetizing color on a dish. So that is why I chopped up the orange peppers- to add some color.

When the onions had turned translucent, I added the cubed eggplant and a little water. Stir well. Add salt. Stir again. I covered it to retain the moisture as the eggplant cooked down.

Meanwhile I chopped cherry tomatoes.

I had bought a huge tub of greens on sale. The tub contained spinach, chard, mizuna, and kale. It was organic. It was a huge tub. I saw that I was not going to be able to finish the greens before they went bad. I added them to the pot of onions, peppers, and eggplant.
Both the eggplant and greens reduce a lot. When I added the pile of cubed eggplant it came to the top of the pot, When I added the greens, same thing. But they reduce. When the greens have wilted, add the tomatoes.

The key is to let the now mixed eggplant-onions-peppers-greens cook slowly. This lets the flavors blend. You can add what spices you like, but Italian spices make the most sense. I covered it, turned the heat to medium low, and let it do its thing.

At the end when I was almost ready, I took the cover off to allow the remaining liquid to evaporate.

The is a dish that’s good with cheese on top, or with pasta added in, or rice, or atop a good toasted Italian bread like focaccia or ciabatta. Make a submarine sandwich out of it by adding cooked pepperoni or cubed Italian ham. It’s versatile, and best of all, it uses a LOT of eggplant!

I have one more week of summer break. We go back on July 30. I am enjoying this summer break 2018 so very much.

How to cut an avocado

By Elizabeth Prata

Happy Fourth of July, you guys!

If you happen to be making guacamole today, or just want a fresh avocado on top of your salad, here is how to cut one. You guys probably know this already, but I have three avocado pics waiting to be used, so, here goes!

Slice the avocado from north pole to south pole, all around. Press your knife into the flesh until it reaches the pit. If it's ripe, you can easily pry the two halves apart. You know it's ripe if the exterior is not a fresh green but brownish, and soft to the touch.

Pry the pit out of the half it's in.

Pick up one of the halves and with a sharp knife gently score it from side to side in even lines. Then score it from top to bottom in even lines. Do the same with the other half. The more lines you make the smaller the resulting chunks will be. Make sure you score it down to the skin, but oops, not so hard that the knife pokes through into your hand!

Take a teaspoon, or a tablespoon if the avocado is larger, and press it between the skin and the avocado flesh. Scoop as if you're scooping ice cream. Pry out the chunks.

And that's it! You now have even pieces of avocado to pop onto your sandwich or on your salad. If you're making guacamole, I like to make smaller chunks because they are easier to mash in the bowl with the fork.

Enjoy your holiday, whether avocado is featured in it or not. :)

But I hope it is ;)

Cooking Day and what a great summer sky!

I had an absolutely terrific time at church yesterday, and then it was one of the every-other-Sundays for small group at one of the leaders' houses where I also had a terrific time.

The sky on the drive between church and small group was amazing! Lots of dramatic clouds against slate grey skies or pure azure skies, and sometimes both. Take a look-

It's so wonderful how the Word refreshes. I always feel so good on Monday. We are going through the Book of John and yesterday we happened to be at John 3:16-21. Our elder Scott did a fantastic job preaching it. It was thrilling to hear the old, old story again. The music was piercing in a good way, bringing many to tears ("Amazing Grace" will do that) and the Confessional time our other Elder Allen taught was also a time of refreshing, too.

Then after talking a while in the aisles when the service was done we departed for small groups at various homes. Despite being on the threshold of the holiday vacation week a good many people came for hot dogs and hamburgers. We spoke of His glorious and shared insights from the sermon, eventually departing in the summer gloaming with His love and these precious truths buried in our hearts and minds.

Today I've scheduled a cooking day. When you choose not to eat any processed food, and are a vegetarian, and are trying different foods to reduce gut inflammation, it takes work and effort to ensure there is actually food in the fridge to eat. You can't just open the cupboard or the fridge and yank out something, it has to be made by me first.

A friend with a large garden gave me some eggplants (yay friend! Thank you!) I will cut those into rounds, dredge them in some gluten-free flour and milk, and bake. I'll also bake/roast chick peas. I need to boil up some red lentils. Red lentils cook quickly so that's good. Also will put some potatoes in the crock pot and cut up some radishes and carrots and celery for snack.

I'd bought one ready made food on Friday: roasted crunchy green peas. I gobbled them, they were so good! I roast everything, including chick peas, so I don't know why I hadn't thought of peas. The Kroger label showed only a few ingredients; peas, palm oil, salt and unfortunately, food coloring. I enjoyed them very much. My weakness is salty-crunchy foods. Nuts are very expensive, potato chips and other processed snacks don't agree with me, so I try other things like chick peas and now green peas.

Speaking of chick peas, I found them dry in a 1-pound bag. I'm going to cook them in the crock pot after the potatoes are done. This is the first time I'll have done that. Then I'll roast them. I had been buying them in the can, which is convenient. All you have to do is rinse them and pat them dry, then scatter on a cookie sheet and roast. Occasionally shake the pan to ensure even roasting. Add spices and salt near the end. (Adding spices at the beginning only ensures that it will burn onto the chick pea.)

However, I am not a fan of canned food with all the salt and preservatives. Rinsing them well does take care of all that, but still. It's more expensive to buy cans also. I'm going to try the dry and see how it works.

I'd made a red lentil/quinoa salad last week that was terrific, so I will definitely repeat that. It sure is a challenge when you can't have bread and all you want in the summer is a sandwich. It's fast, filling, and easy to make a sandwich and there are so many healthy sandwiches to make. But no more. I've been eating green salads at lunch filled with lots of goodies instead, so that is OK.

There was some silken tofu for sale which I scooped up. I am going to try a silken tofu and chia seed 'pudding,' but all the recipes I've seen so far call for cocoa powder. I don't want a chocolate based dessert. I'll try it without cocoa powder. Or I might try a smoothie with the tofu and chia seeds, milk, and strawberries.

I've got a packed day planned, and I'm not even leaving the house, lol. Cooking, listening to music, reading, need to vacuum :(, writing a difficult essay for the other blog on hypocrisy (these kind of essays are sad and tearful), working with yesterday's photos and more!

I'm still reading Moby Dick. I savor it. It is also challenging, hence the slow going. But the language! I love it. Like this:

Like some poor devils ashore that happen to know an irascible great man, they make distant unobtrusive salutations to him in the street, lest if they pursued the acquaintance further, they might receive a summary thump for their presumption.

It's so beautiful! I love language like Melville writes. Now you can see why I like to savor it.

Time to get dressed and going. I hope you all have a marvelous day.

Frugal cooking: When it doesn't work out

I'd mentioned that a friend gave me a huge bowl of veggies for Christmas/Birthday. Mostly they were root vegetables, which keep. I've used all of it except for two turnips. I'll make something out of them tomorrow.

I used the acorn squash last weekend. I'd looked up a recipe to use it in a different way than the usual 'cut in half-scoop out seeds, roast' kind of cooking.

So I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds, and then sliced it into crescents. THEN I roasted! LOL, kind of the same but different. I thought the slices would make a nice side dish of portions that would be easy to drop in my lunch bag each day.

I followed the recipe, but maybe I sliced the cuttings too thinly, because they came out sort of dry. Hmmm. What to do.

The other day when I was home on a snow day, I peeled the skin edges off and I was left with a mound of dry-ish squash slices. I decided to make a soup. I had some good chicken broth left so I put a sliced onion into the pot and cooked until it was translucent, added an already baked potato, cut up into cubes, and the squash. I simmered that at very low temp with some spices. I put half of it into the blender when it cooled, and left the other half to make a texture of smooth chunks. It was very good! Saved the squash, I'm brilliant!

I then promptly ruined it by adding some milk (as the recipe suggested). It just tasted funny to me, squash and milk. It wasn't good like a bisque or a chowder. It was just funny. So I saved my squash only to ruin it again. I'm an idiot! I should know when to quit while I'm ahead! LOL.

What will I do now that it didn't work out, twice? Why, eat it of course. No waste. I'll live, it only tastes a little bit funny. Maybe I'll add a melted bouillon cube broth to it to think the milkiness of it. Anyway, tomorrow I'm making lentil soup. Back to familiar ground.

I'd bought some tilapia and I baked it a few days ago. I had one slice left yesterday. Without being able to eat bread, I couldn't make a sandwich out of it like I enjoy doing, with cheese and a tomato. (mmm). Just a slab of fish meat doesn't really appeal to me all that much. I decided to use my last two mushrooms and the rest of a tomato and make a little salad with the fish, cut up. I added Italian dressing to it and a bit of salt, and voila, a chilled salad that was easy to prepare, tasty and healthy. I enjoyed it. I'll do that some more. Tilapia is usually low-cost and available at the grocery store.

I still love a fish sandwich though, one of my favorite lunches.

I'll make the lentil soup tomorrow, and I have some green beans and tofu that I'll make into a stir fry with rice noodles. I also have a good bit of fruit which includes fresh pineapple, and with the ripening bananas I'll make two-ingredient banana-oatmeal cookies.

After an unusually frigid period of temps in the low teens and wind chills in the single digits, we have a reprieve of temps in the 60s. It is going to be a nice day. I went outside at sunrise and took a few photos of my yard.

This is my favorite view. I LOVE this birdhouse.

The Classics Club: The Spin List, and other Saturday activities

I like reading. I don't often read as much as I would like because...I don't know. I guess the days just get away from me after I've worked, studied, written a blog essay, prepared dinner, done chores, engaged in real life ministry...and if after all that when I sit down to read usually either my eyes are too weak or my body and brain is too tired.

I have to remedy this.

Reading is WHO I AM. It sustained me through a difficult childhood, carried me through a painful divorce, consoled me on lonely post-divorce evenings, provided inexpensive entertainment and travel as a rejuvenated carefree adult, allowed for mind expansion (Read Flatland, just read it!) as a new Christian, and generally offered lots of fun hunting up the next book. There's always books.

I found this blog called The Classics Club. The About page for this blog states its purpose:

The Classics Club was started on March 7, 2012 by a blogger who wanted to see more people posting about classics literature in the blogosphere. Her goal was to, “unite those of us who like to blog about classic literature, as well as to inspire people to make the classics an integral part of life.” She thought about several ideas but finally settled on inviting people to make out a list of (at least 50) classic titles they intend to read and blog about within the next five years.

I've often wanted to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) a challenge where a person is challenged to attempt to write a 50,000 word manuscript between November 1 and November 30. Just write! But I've written close to 4000 essays almost every day for the last 9 years, issuing millions of words, so I think I've got the writing habit well cemented in me.

So, on to reading.

The Classics Spin Reading Challenge is

Come up with a list of 20 classics still on your to-be-read list and post these books on your blog before Nov. 17. This is your “spin” list! You can choose any books that you actually already have or books you’ve been waiting too long to read or books you really want to get through before the new year. Then, on Friday, Nov. 17, the Classics Club will randomly select a number from 1 through 20 and post it on their blog. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by Dec. 31, 2017. It’s all for fun so no pressure to participate but thought it would give me a boost to get reading done with others.

Specifically, here is how to participate:

Go to your blog.
Pick twenty books that you’ve got left to read from your Classics Club List.
Try to challenge yourself: list five you are dreading/hesitant to read, five you can’t WAIT to read, five you are neutral about, and five free choice (favorite author, re-reads, ancients — whatever you choose.)
Post that list, numbered 1-20, on your blog before Friday, November 17th.
That morning (11/17), we’ll announce a number from 1-20. Go to the list of twenty books you posted, and select the book that corresponds to the number we announce.
The challenge is to read that book by December 31, even if it’s an icky one you dread reading! (No fair not listing any scary ones!)

My list of 20 classics I'd like to read are as follows. Some I own already, some I bought for free on Kindle today, and some I'll wait to buy or borrow until it is by chance announced. Sometimes I wonder, wouldn't it be nice just to go to my Amazon WishList and just buy everything on it all at once? Sigh. But poverty avails.

1. Austen, Jane: Northanger Abbey
2. Baldwin, James: Go Tell it on the Mountain
3. Bengtsson: The Long Ships
4. Braddon, Mary Elizabeth: Lady Audley’s Secret
READ IT!
5. Buchan, John: The Thirty-Nine Steps
6. Burnett, Frances Hodgson: The Making of a Marchioness
7. Equiano, Olaudah: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
8. Faulkner, William: As I Lay Dying
9. Jewett, Sarah Orne: The Country of the Pointed Firs
10. Jerome, Jerome K: Three Men in a Boat
11. Kipling, Rudyard: The Man Who Would Be King
12. le Carre, John: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
13. Melville, Herman, Redburn
14. Milton, John, Paradise Lost
15. Mitchell, David: Cloud Atlas
16. Muir, John: Nature Writings
17. Pound, Ezra: Personae: The Shorter Poems
18. Proust, Marcel, Within a Budding Grove
19. Wharton, Edith, The Decoration of Houses
20. Wright, Richard: Native Son

We'll see how it goes.

Meanwhile I have frittered away my day. On the good side, I listened to two Sinclair Ferguson sermons. He is a man whose knowledge of the Bible is solid and his pulpit demeanor is calm and assured and comforting, even when he speaks of convicting things, as he did in the first sermon I listened to: The Priority of Worship. The second was Christ's Message to the Church, from Revelation 2.

I made split pea soup with carrots and peppers, field pea hummus, eggplant and peppers in tomato sauce, gluten free strawberry cobbler, and 2-ingredient oatmeal banana cookies. The cobbler rocks. I will get more of Bob's Red Mill gluten free flour!

I'm still in my jammies and probably will head back to bed for a short nap. When I get up I'll take a shower and then read for the evening. I'd like to finish Moby-Dick since I put another Melville on my list, one that RC Sproul had recommended, called Redburn.

I hope there is a nice mix on my Reading Challenge list. I have a few about the Black experience, some poetry, female literature, an adventure or two. I do like an adventure story. Farley Mowat, Jack London, Jon Krakauer... Into Thin Air and Grey Seas Under are two great adventure stories that come immediately to mind. Also London's To Build a Fire. I also like a good marine tale but I didn't see any on the list, though admittedly I'm not familiar with every single title.

Television and movies have increasingly been disappointing. I hope this is an indication of increased sanctification and not simply a lull in tv programming that entices my fleshly desires, only to be re-ignited if some other program comes on.

I didn't watch Project Runway this week, even though it is part 1 of the finale. I also stopped listening to Tom & Lorenzo post-mortem on PR, since they take the Lord's name in vain too much. I've started and stopped watching several movies for similar reasons. So books it is. That's a good thing! I've noticed I'm calmer when I don't consume too much media.

I have 5 more days of school then we are out for the week of Thanksgiving! I can't wait! Here is Principal Gerry Brooks on the long month of November. It is long. Really long.

Enjoy, and till next time, ponder this:

It's the week before Thanksgiving. Why did the turkey cross the road?
To prove he was a chicken!

Gluten free

I'm trying gluten free lifestyle for a while to see if my tummy troubles and other symptoms go away. So far, they have. Therefore, I am keen to continue on this path.

Sunday is Pancake Day. I always have pancakes on Sunday, sort of to celebrate the brunch atmosphere and relaxing day ahead that Sundays always are.

Hmmm, gluten-free means no pancakes. I tried scrambled eggs last week, but again, with no toast, it just felt incomplete.

At Kroger they have this weird section that has sprung up, where they put marked down organic items. It has a sign above the shelves that says "Sink Accessories" which I find hilarious, and the section is across from the toilet paper, more hilarious. Total incongruity.

So anyway I noticed that some gluten free flour from Red Mill was there last week. Red Mill is a good brand and the priced they'd marked it down to was great. I bought it and made muffins last week, and they came out good. This week I found a gluten free pancake recipe using Red Mill flour.

Pancake perfection!

Now, just because Sunday is Pancake Day does not mean I am skillful at making them. I never, ever, ever seem to be able to make them thick. Or I burn them. Or they come out rubbery. Or whatever. I still enjoy them.

The photo on the gluten free pancake recipe looked great, round, thick, crispy edged pancakes. I made the recipe, making the same substitution I'd made last week with the muffins. I do not have buttermilk on hand but I soured some milk with vinegar last time with no ill effect. This week I did not have white vinegar for the souring, so I used lemon juice, something the recipe actually suggested.

The pancakes came out crepe thin. Like, paper thin. It turned out to be a happy mistake, though, because the recipe made lots, and lots, and I decided to use the remaining pancakes as sandwich bread for this week's lunches. I don't think I will ever make pancakes as good as the ones like in the photo above, but I enjoy the specialness of the ritual and the festive-like atmosphere I create for myself on Sunday mornings. My church service begins at 3:00 so I really have the whole morning for coffee, reading, prayer, and pancake brunch. Here are mine. You'll see the thinness, but how equally applicable these are for use as a sandwich wrap.

Plate is Vernonware, mid-century modern, produced in 1952-53, Raffia pattern

Pretty thin. But tasty!

October already? Also, the County Fair

It's cool and fresh this morning, though the daytimes are still inexplicably in the 80s and even the 90s. My car thermometer read 100 one day this week. It had been sitting in a hot parking lot all day though. Still hot. The steering wheel was too hot to touch!

Anyway it feels good to feel the fresh breeze. I got up and baked this morning.

As is my routine, on Sunday mornings I cook and bake stuff for the week so that when I arrive home from work, I don't have to spend a lot of time preparing meals, but sit sit down and write and study. I love that our church begins at 3:00! I have the entire morning to awaken slowly, sip coffee, and cook and do these things that make my week go better.

 This morning I made 3-ingredient oatmeal 'cookies'-

Also, roasted chick peas, baked potatoes,  three pieces of fish, and gluten free strawberry muffins.

I have to go gluten free now. I knew it was coming, and I didn't want it to, but it came anyway. My mother has celiac disease and she's extremely, highly sensitive to gluten. Those who are in the inner circle of relationship of those with celiac, have a 1 in 22 chance of being gluten sensitive also. I had been feeling pretty terrible for months, but the symptoms were so disparate that I could not put my finger on what was the matter. Having avoided the obvious, a couple of weeks ago I had a low point of high pain, limited mobility, constant headaches. I decided the pain was not worth the bread. I sat down and dug in and found that all my symptoms, varied as they are, coincided with celiac.

I cut out all gluten for two weeks and I immediately felt better. Sigh.

So now I am re-orienting myself to a new mindset of cooking, shopping and living. Gluten free items are expensive, and I do miss making sandwiches. I'll figure it out eventually.

The gluten free flour was on sale so I picked it up and made the muffins. LOL, I didn't have blueberries so I substituted canned strawberries I had in the back of the cupboard, and I didn't have buttermilk so I substituted regular milk soured with vinegar. The substitutions didn't seem to harm the baking any. Next time I'll cut down on the amount of sugar. I don't like sweet muffins and there's always to much sugar in recipes for my taste. I'd already made enough swaps to interfere with the recipe so I didn't dare cut back on sugar this first time, but next time I will.

The county fair was in town and I haven't been since 2009. It's only two miles down the road so Saturday evening I went. They close at 4pm and re-open at 6, and I was there at the re-opening. The light was low and golden, the famed "Golden Hour" photographers love each morning and evening. Since I was there right at the beginning, there were not too many people and I got a lot of clear shots of the fairway. I can't seem to add a slideshow to Blogger posts so sorry for the many individual pics.