Vampire Repellent Soup Recipe - My EPIC FAIL

I just warmed up a bowl of "Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup" from Mel's The Clothes Make the Girl blog http://theclothesmak...-zucchini-soup/, and I am laughing at myself. It tastes RIDICULOUS, it SCREAMS of garlic. NOT MEL'S FAULT!!!

The recipe calls for "4 large cloves of garlic." Ya know that Trader Joe's jar of chopped garlic? (I don't use fresh b/c I HATE that smell on my fingers). I didn't read the jar because the print is really small and my reading glasses weren't nearby. My memory / "guesstimate" told me a tablespoon was about a clove. So I put in about 3-4 tablespoons, kinda rounded, not flat, cuz hey, what the heck, we like loud flavor. Once the soup was done, I tried it & thought it was beyond loudly flavored... I pulled the jar out of the fridge, put my glasses on and read it: 1 TEASPOON equals TWO to THREE cloves. The recipe calls for 4 cloves. Oops, I added the equivalent of 24 - 36 cloves!!   

I will certainly slumber with an sense of utter security knowing that just for today, I am very safe from vampires.

Later P.S. - The soup, when made according to the actual directions, is one of the most incredible culinary creations to enter our household. It became a staple. Everyone I have fed it to loves it. It's magical. And yes, I too have had it in the morning in a mug, just like Mel suggests. It makes me swoon.

Whole30 Day 1: Ghee-Giddy to Up in Flames

Whole30 Day 1. No Jay Robb egg white protein powder spinach shake, sniffle. W30 wants us to eat WHOLE food, excluding meal shakes, although I make "clean" ones and they make my nutritional life easy.  Come on, Jen, suck it up - IT'S ONLY 30 DAYS.

We almost always cook with olive oil anyway, so today I "celebrated" the Whole30 kickoff by choosing to use ghee, a.k.a. clarified butter. I cooked the harder veggies in it first, then the eggs and mushrooms, with a fresh dollop of ghee in the pan for each round. A few oil-soaked sun-dried tomatoes at the end to top it off, and... oh dear. It was really OILY (Well, GHEE-EE, technically).

HA!  Lesson learned. We don't eat greasy food, so even "healthy" greasy isn't going to please us either. Well, that was fun to figure out!

Next lesson about to be delivered... I wanted to make theW30 compliant "Clothes Make the Girl" blog chili that everyone gushes about (MelJoulwan.com).  I realized I needed beef broth, so back out to the stores I went. Got more ghee, some more veggies, and that beef broth. Whole30 learning curve: turns out even most of the "healthy" brands of beef broth have a bunch of extra items in there one wouldn't expect, including sugars. Finally settled for the Whole Foods organic box, at least there was only one little vague reference to "spices" that leaves it unknown, which I'm christening "compliant."

As directed, I turned the big chili pot onto medium-high to let it heat before adding the oil. When I dropped the blob of coconut oil in, it immediately began to smoke heavily. I turned on the stove fan & then - a first in my cooking life - the pan actually burst into 2-foot FLAMES on my stove! I dragged the pot as far away from the microwave above it as possible but the flames were still licking upward, and now were free to reach toward my wooden cabinet door standing open above - I slammed it shut and jumped back. My white microwave was actually getting gray lines on it from upward smoke! I yelled "HELP!" to my husband as loud as possible. Which wasn't loud enough, apparently. When I realized he wasn't going to come rescue me, I decided to risk touching the pot handles to move the flaming cauldron into the middle of the kitchen floor, where there was nothing above it to catch on fire. Good move. Now, THINK!

I remembered the rule that you don't put an oil fire out with water. I knew it was best to spray it with a kitchen-type extinguisher, but ironically, the flaming pot was between me and the kitchen fire extinguisher under the sink. Second thought was to smother the flames, but a kitchen towel would just catch on fire. Setting a plate on it was my next thought, but AGAIN ironically, the flaming pot was between me and the plate cabinet. So I just stood there, watching it burn down, hoping the smoke alarm wouldn't go off, hoping the heat wouldn't crack my kitchen tile, but figuring it won't be too hard to replace a tile or two if need be. I turned the burner off - huh? Why was the burner on "HI"??? I know I put it at about 7.5...

My belated hero (husband) emerged from the back of the house bathroom just as the flames became very low and blue in the pot. "What's all the commotion?"  ARGH. I was so shaken I didn't respond well. So I just went outside and watered the plants to calm down. When I came back, he had opened the window, soaked the pot, and wiped off the grey lines on the microwave. Turns out the back of my husband's hand had accidentally bumped my burner knob to "HI" as he turned his burner on to heat water for tea - I know this because I SAW IT HAPPEN another tea round.

QUITE an adventurous Day 1. Sidenote: the chili is absolutely astoundingly delicious!

MY Whole30 Manifesto

Today I found the Whole9 Forum & posted my "New Member" bio. It was actually quite empowering to create this brief summary of where we are & why we are doing Whole30. It gave me a glimpse of why people consider me "really healthy" and knowledgeable about nutrition... and why I still want to keep raising the bar. Here it is:

I'm 45 years old, female, "healthy weight" according to "the tables," but I know I feel and look better at a lower body fat percentage. As an adult, I swing by about 20 pounds up & down the scale. I have good muscle built up & good cardio condition, but would really like to take it up a notch. I WISH I "loved" exercise; I don't, never have. But I've managed to stay active out of sheer "can't stand what happens when I don't." I have NO "out of bounds" health issues (all physical/biological test results of every type come out great) except one biggie:

I'm Type 1 (fully insulin-dependent) Diabetes for 31 years (since age 14), NO long-term symptoms present. (Although glucose levels have NOT been in tight control at all times, I am sure my stellar results are because I addressed the emotional patterning behind physical illness within a few years of diagnosis - see info by Louise Hay). I apparently arrested development too late to "grow back" the insulin factory that was destroyed, but no "expected" progression as western medical docs assume and warn. Having T1 has been a "blessing in disguise," because otherwise I would have been eating "healthy" Standard American Diet ("we don't eat fast food or white bread!") like my parents did, with the same poor results, not understanding why. But thanks to the T1 diabetes, unlike everyone else, I have been reading ALL labels since I was 14 and SEEING what happens to my blood sugar levels after eating items. Because my body doesn't kick in insulin to cover anything I eat (I manually put it in myself), I have decades of experience knowing how much or how little insulin is required to bring levels in my blood stream back to normal range, I have seen what acute stress does (spikes insulin for no "food" reason!), what moderate exercise does (brings b.s. down), etc.

We are winding down W30 Day 2. Bought the book "It Starts With Food" a few hours ago, already in Chapter 8. GENIUS in it's simplicity, "plain English," THANK YOU.

I'm going to summarize where I'm/we're (husband) at for my own records, I guess....

Before W30 we were eating primarily organic, proteins, veggies, limited fruit, almost no starches at home. We don't have bread, crackers, rice, pasta etc. as part of our home diet. Also don't use sugar, but definitely love to use stevia & a little agave at times. The only soda we drink, & in very limited amounts, is stevia-sweetened, beverages are water, organic coffee, herbal iced tea. No juice in the house. Dairy: We were eating cottage cheese & unsweetened Greek yogurt, hard & feta cheese. Breakfast for 5 months was always a protein shake using Jay Robb egg white PRO powder (clean & non-GMO but added stevia), organic spinach, ginger, cinnamon, organic coffee, unsweetened cocoa & a scoop of Greens First. We were drinking alcohol, mainly red wine, sometimes margaritas when out for Mexican. Just recently we found we really like dark, craft beers - uh oh!! (liquid bread). 

Biggest downfall was eating out... For ex, we LOVE Mexican. If I didn't know better, I might want corn chips, salsa & high-quality margaritas as a staple diet. Would still make "smart" choices at restaurants, (fajitas, for ex) as I just don't like feeling tired and crappy from bread/pasta/wheat tortillas, etc, but certainly much more lax on our intake than we are at home. We vacation a lot, we LOVE good-quality, delicious food, so that's where this W30 comes into play as being a very good "reset."

I think it will make a HUGE difference for my husband who has some very classic health challenges for his 61 years of age - he's only been addressing his diet since we met 6 years ago. Since then he's done a few cleanses, learned about nutrition, learned to enjoy healthier choices, etc - basically steered away from S.A.D. (the Standard American Diet). His cravings have decreased greatly, but he still struggles & has many of the classic symptoms from the book.

I'm excited to once again RAISE THE BAR on our lives!

"Don't Worry, Be Happy!" Even With Fat Thighs

This past weekend I was exploring San Diego (again) with my husband and friends; I was HAPPY. The weather was perfect, the restaurants' food and table locations for us were perfect, we found the perfect shopping items that we didn't even know we were looking for, the perfect parking spots opened up as we approached.

Today is a day back at home. Turns out it's not only perfect in San Diego, it's also perfect here. The weather is perfect, the wind chime rings the perfect tone. My home-made arugula and turkey salad was the perfect lunch. The instructional videos I found for a project are perfect. My son's path into adulthood is unfolding in a perfect (and interesting) fashion. It is perfect that I ran out of half and half, which is often an element of the perfect cup of coffee for me, because it prompts me to walk to the store today, the perfect instigator to drive me out for some exercise on this perfect-outdoor day.

But is it REALLY "Perfect?"  ??? 

Well, does it really MATTER if it's perfect by any other standard by my own?  My mother, for example, would flatly state it is NOT - it is too hot - her "perfect" weather is under 70 degrees. 

Q. What in the hell does this have to do with "Defensive Dressing"?! 

A. I could effortlessly argue it's NOT a perfect day because my upper thighs are not as toned I would prefer, and the lines around my mouth that I see in the mirror are deeper than what I deem prettiest. Oh, and my fingernails are DEFINITELY much weaker than they would be on a perfect day!

So am I delusional?  Am I one of those annoyingly cheerful people? I suppose I spend perfect evenings scrapbooking all my happy memories too?  (Not that it matters, but Uh, no).  

For the past year and a half, I have worked with my emotions and thoughts as a PRACTICE - meaning practice-but-not-perfected - of training myself in the direction of looking for the perfection (a.k.a. gratitude, good attitude). I have read, heard, felt, experienced, "drank the Koolaid" about the benefits. We've heard it all our lives, the earliest exposures probably being a calligraphied "inspirational" plaque decorated with tulips or butterflies or a sunset hanging above the towel bar in someone's guest bathroom, or a maybe a poster with cute puppies on it hanging on the preschool wall.

"Attitude is Everything." 
"Have An Attitude of Gratitude." 
"Whether you believe you can or you can't, you are right." 
"10% of life is what happens, 90% of life is our attitude towards it." 
"What you focus on expands." 
"YOU decide if the glass half empty or half full." 
"Choose to be Happy." 
"You are what you think about." 
"Life is what you make of it." 
"DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY!" 
(On and on and on.........)

I wasn't always like this. As a kid I wouldn't have been considered "Emo" as I didn't dress in lots of black & use heavy eyeliner, but I was pretty sarcastic and leaned to a negative first response.  "Oh, GREAT. (SIGH)" "Just my luck. (SIGH)" "Oh COURSE that would happen just I get here... (SIGH)" "Cheerful people bug me." 

Now I have "a determination for JOY" within me.  I make every effort to lean in the direction of feeling just a little better. Because it makes life ACTUALLY BETTER. There's value in creating and drinking your own KoolAid, and it's not airy-fairy value, it's REAL. The next hour of your life is YOUR LIFE. Next weekend is a weekend of YOUR LIFE. Do you define yourself by an Eeyore attitude without knowing it? (you know, from Winnie the Pooh, the donkey a.k.a. ass, hmmm). Would it be terribly painful to actually have nothing significant to bitch about from the next hour or next weekend? No "horror" story to tell the people you work with, or your sister, or whomever you share life's miseries with? Might it be worth it to have no crap to share, but to tell the good parts with a smile? Might you lose some co-commiserates in the process because you got all cheerful? YES. AND THAT COULD REALLY HELP to not have to listen to their misery which validates your misery which builds like a backed-up toilet...

So here's what I'm focused on: "I can thrive under any and all conditions. I can be joyful under any and all conditions. I can find interesting things to think about or participate in under any and all conditions. I am not held captive by my environment, by my culture, by my government, by my relationships, by ANYTHING. I am the creator of my reality, because I have CONTROL of my THOUGHTS."   Wanna join me? It's actually okay if you don't. But I still gave you something to ponder for maybe a future time  ;-)