The Eagle Has Landed - Early Morning Omelettes :)

My parents took off at 2 pm Tuesday afternoon from Dover TN and arrived here in Chewelah early this morning.  It was 1 am.  Which would be 3 am their time so that was what... 37 hours.  2100 miles in 37 hours.  Not bad for old people :)  Of course my dad was starving so I made a four egg omelette and he ate 85% of it.  Mom had a little sliver  He said he was looking forward to breakfast :)  We've been letting our chickens out in the morning and then re- locking the chicken yard with mama hen and babies inside so the other hens have resorted to laying their eggs... other places. They made a couple of little nests in the big hay stack.  I hope I can find them because he does eat a bunch of eggs!  I think for dinner I'll grill the last of little T-Bone's t-bones.  :)  Oh... sad!

This morning its cloudy and humid.  Thunder storm weather.  We did not get the storm I though would come last night.  Maybe today.  I think I'll go out and take a walk before I have to make breakfast... again.  :)  It's so nice to have them here.  It's been over a year since I've seen them.  I won't see them again until May when I travel down for the BBQ.

Oh yeah.  The stats:  154.8 and glucose 100.  Almost 15 lbs to go until I hit my goal weight.  :(  Makes me wonder if I'll ever get there.  At least my blood sugar level is now hovering right around normal and that is the real goal.  That will increase the odds of my getting to watch my grand-babies grow up.  Speaking of grand-babies... my parents have not met Aubrey yet.  She is their great granddaughter and will be two next month.  Daniel and Aubrey are coming to visit for the weekend so I'm really excited about that.  I really wish they could meet Charlotte too.  Katie is moving back to the states next week.  Unfortunately the good old USAF did not have the common decency to route her through Sea Tac on her way to California.  Grrrr!  I am very thankful though that she is coming "home".  California is so much closer than England :)  Prayers for safe traveling for her and Charlotte and for an awesome reunion with her husband Ish.  He hasn't seen Katie or Charlotte since she was just a week old.  Now they will be stationed together.  Yay!

Ok... gotta go... ciao!

The Parents are Coming, the Parents are Coming!

First... 154.7 and 108.  Slow recovery from the birthday binge.  Would help if I would quit sitting down with a bag of pistachios!

My dad (from Tennessee) decided to surprise me by coming to visit.  But... he sent an email to his entire email address book telling them to hold the emails for a couple of weeks.  What?  Am I not supposed to figure that out?  :)  He made that decision Monday evening and my poor mother had all night and the next morning to prepare before the wagon left town for the long journey across country.  If they follow the usual time table they should be here tomorrow sometime.  It typically takes about 42 or so hours start to finish.  We shall see though.  My dad is 75?  Or maybe 76.  Perhaps he will slow down a little... probably not though :)  All that to say... what am I doing on the computer?  I have a house to clean!  Well... at least I can cook "normal" for them... they are both diabetic and should enjoy all my garden produce.  My dad likes to cook too... or... tell my mom what to cook :)  Perhaps I'll send him out to the garden and make him come up with dishes based on what's out there.  I also think I'll go down and make my dad a Wii character to give him something to do.  He might enjoy one of the games.  First though... I think I'll play for a little while too on Wii Fitness.  I haven't played for awhile since it is so nice outside.  Very hopefully my fat Wii character will have shrunken a little :)

Hmm... I better go rinse the dye out of my hair before it all breaks off!

Ciao!

Countdown to the Visit with the Doc

I have an apt. for new blood work on Aug 3rd.  I guess that means I really should not have dessert any more.  :) Well... it was a special occasion!  For Dave's birthday dinner I made meatloaf... not a thrilling masterpiece but it is one of his favorites - and we have already eaten most of poor little T-Bones baby steaks so I have to think up lots of ground beef recipes.  Along with the meatloaf I grilled some red cabbage and sugar peas with goat cheese and pine nuts in my new grill pan.  I am finally getting the hang of it a little more.  It would help if my grill wasn't so LAME!  Along with the grilled garden veg I made a caprese salad.  So lots and lots of fresh veggies.  And for dessert :)  I got some tasty apricots at the farmers market last Friday and stashed them in the fridge so I pulled them out and halved and pitted them.  I soaked them in Cointreau (an orange liqueur) and then sprinkled cinnamon sugar on them and grilled them on a cast iron grill pan until they were soft and caramelized on the top.  I served them over French vanilla ice cream and drizzled them with just a touch more Cointreau and huckleberry honey and sprinkled macadamia nuts on top.  That is most likely why my blood sugar was 115 this morning and why I have gained weight rather than lost weight lately.  I made almost the same dessert over the weekend with peaches and no Cointreau.  I have to say I like the peaches better but still it was very good and Dave liked it.  Anyway.... no more splurges before the doc.  This shouldn't affect the outcome too much though since it is the cumulative effect that matters - not the occasional splurge.  Over all I have been a very good girl.  I'm looking forward to finding out the results as compared with the last blood work which was - not good :)

Dave's big present was a gi-normous painting he bought while he was in Florida.  See... he just can't be trusted to go anywhere without me!  :)  It is pretty - and he has been determined to fill up the huge empty spaces on the walls (cathedral ceilings) since he built the house.  I think the only reason it works is because it's balanced out by the floor to ceiling stone fireplace facing and the wood stair case.  It will look even better when my friend and neighbor Donna completes his next present that he won't find out about because he never reads my blog.  :)  I want her to paint our home.  Her paintings are beautiful!  He would absolutely treasure it since he loves it here so much.  And so will I.  So... anytime Donna is ready - but no pressure... :)  she can add to my art gallery on the ceiling.  Here is the painting before he hung it.  It is propped up in front of the double doors so you can see just how big it is... :)  am I right?  Gi-normous???

Well... gotta go water some plants... ciao!

Dave's Birthday Weekend

Happy Birthday Dave!  Today is his birthday but his kids, Adam and Amberlyn drove over Saturday morning to spend the weekend with him.  They met us in Spokane.  We brought our new kayaks and the canoe and floated down the Little Spokane river.  The water was slow and peaceful.  It was very relaxing and very hysterical when suddenly Adam and Amberlyn both leaned at the same time and rolled the canoe.  There was no screaming or excitement... just a slow here we go sploosh.  :)  Dave had to catch Adams sandal but otherwise they just fished the coolers and out of the river and emptied the canoe and on we went.  Nice job kids!

And here's Dave kicked back in one of our new little kayaks...

That was so much fun!  I can't wait to take them out to the lake.  I think we are going over to our property on the Pend Oreille river soon and will take them there.  That will be awesome!  After the float we decided to stop in Deer Park for some pizza.  There's a little pizza joint called The Pizza Factory that makes a great pizza.  Unfortunately I had 4 slices.  My blood sugar on Sunday morning was 113 and I weighed a whopping 155.  Arrrgghhhhh!  Since it was officially Dave's birthday weekend I made crepes  and used the last of the blueberries I purchased to make a tasty blueberry syrup.  I could not resist and had one crepe.  Amber had 7 :)  Adam had more than anybody could possibly count.

Since it was the perfect weather for grilling I decided to pull out the avacados again and this time I grilled them and topped them with pico de gallo and grilled prawns topped with a little roasted tomato salsa and bacon crumbles.  Quite tasty.  I served them with blue tortilla chips.  I made a whole acacado for everyone else and just a half for me since each avacado packs a whopping 340 or so calories.   Hmm... too bad you can't see the avacados under all that shrimp :)

The kids went home and we lounged around on the porch reading and watching the corn grow.  I found myself getting hungry so I decided to make some broccoli.  I figured I could eat a lot of that with no harm done.  I dressed it up with a little goat cheese and pine nuts - and just a few bacon crumbles :)  

                                 

For dinner I grilled some tasty burgers.  I was going to make dessert but we were too full so I just saved it for today.  Poor Dave had to work today and it's supposed to be 98 degrees.  Yowza!  I would just take him out to dinner for his birthday but there is so much food in the garden right now that I hate for it to go to waste.  I think I'll make a meatloaf for dinner.  He loves meatloaf and the ground beef is thawed out already.

The big news on the farm today is that there are five tiny chicks.  Three hatched on Saturday and then Sunday morning Dave couldn't wait any longer to see that was up with the other three eggs so he went out to the hen house and found that one more had hatched during the night.  In the 5th egg was one more tiny chick and Dave decided it was time for it to come out so he "helped" it.  It is now fluffy and doing fine and the sixth egg was not fertilized.  I can't wait until Mama Hen brings them out.  We should have better luck this time now that we the chicken yard is fully enclosed.  Unless of course the chicks squeeze through the holes and Mama can't get out to take care of them :(   Dave went out to check on them last night and said it was so funny - her large chick  that hatched in April that is now almost as big as she is is still trying to snuggle up to her at night to sleep.  Hope she doesn't push the new babies off... or maybe she will just sit on them and keep them warm :)

Oh yeah... today 154.6 and glucose 105.  So coming down from the weekend binge!

Have a great Monday everyone!  Ciao!

I'm Going to Kick Me Some Rooster Tail!

Arrrrggghhh!  Why?  We forgot to shut the chickens in the chicken yard again last night after they hopped into the chicken coup and the dang roosters woke up at 4:15 and crowed right under our bedroom window.  If only I could shoot... we'd be having fried chicken tonight!  I blame Dave.  :)  And!  I walked out into the living room this morning and yay!  Kitty surprises.  :(  Sometimes I hate that cat!  I sucked up the remaining mouse tail with the vacuum cleaner.  Eeek!  I blame Dave.  It's his cat.  I think I'm really just angry because I'm having a FAT day!  This morning the fatometer registered 154.3.  That's going backwards!  Me no like!!!  Once more... I blame Dave... I ate too many peanuts sitting on the couch.  HE sat next to me and ate a root beer float.  No!  TWO rootbeer floats... I had to have something!  No I really don't blame him for any of it.  He always catches the fall out of my wrath though.  Poor guy :)  I really do have a snack problem :(  Ugh!  My glucose reading this morning was 100 which is good but 10 points higher than yesterday.  I hope that was not caused by the sugar peas I munched out on yesterday and cooked for dinner.  Oh!  Speaking of dinner... Dave pointed out that everything we ate for dinner yesterday we grew ourselves :)  We had a tasty (WHAT THE HECK?!?   Here comes the cat with ANOTHER RODENT!!!!  Excuse me while I drop kick the cat!!!  Ok, I'm back.  I would never really drop kick the cat but give me a break!!!  I had to chase him around the living room and out of the house with a broom swatting him and sweeping the rodent along as we went.  NOT COOL!!!)  ribeye steak cooked on the grill along with some grilled broccoli and sugar peas from the garden.  I still have trouble with the petite steaks because they were from my cute petite and adorable T-Bone :(  I suck as a rancher!  :)  I did a much better job with my new grill pan.  I think the key is to just not let the grill temp exceed 500 degrees :)

 It's just never a dull moment around here.  I got up angry at the little animals and Dave got up yelling at the wandering calf.  I'm going to have to get my aggressions out by putting in my Zumba DVD... later...
Aside from all the irritation with the little animals it's going to be a fabulous day!  The sun is up, there is not a cloud in the sky and I get to go to the little farmers market in Chewelah at lunch time today.  Yay!  Oh... and did I mention that its FRIDAY?!!!!  This weekend Amberlyn and Adam are coming over and I guess we are going to go to the river and test out our new kayaks.  That should be fun.  Adam and Amber are our two oldest children.  They are Dave's contribution to the six children we sometimes admit that we have :)  Here's an awesome picture from a couple of weeks ago when they attended an 80's party.  This cracks me up!  I'm sure most of you have seen this on facebook.  It's created quite a stir.  The reason it's so very funny is because when Dave and I were dating he used to wear pretty much identical shorts :)  Although... that was in 1993.  Dave's just a little slow with fashion...and I didn't stop him from wearing them :)  He probably still has them somewhere in the back of his closet.  Maybe I'll go look for them.  :)

Ciao!  Have a great weekend!  Hopefully no more rodents for me!

Avocados on the Grill? Yes yes yes!

I made this for dinner last night.  First of all, I have to give my friend Dee credit for this idea.  She made grilled avacados filled with pico de gallo and then topped with small cocktail shrimp and hot sauce.  It was grrrreat!  I went a different way a little bit based on what I had on hand.  I grilled the avocados but used grilled cod for the seafood.  To make the grilled avacodos stand up I just sliced a little piece off the round bottom and filled the well of the avocado with a salsa made of diced yellow zucchini, shallots, fresh tomato and roasted tomato salsa.  I then topped the stuffed avocados with strips of the grilled cod topped with lemon thyme and sage.  Yes... I grew the herbs myself.  :)  I'm proud of my little herb pots.  It's the first year I have grown such a variety.  Anyway... to go along with the avacado/cod dish I served the saffron cauliflower soup I made yesterday morning and topped it with a little parmesan cheese and crumbled bacon and chives.  It really was pretty tasty.  Dave wondered what fine thing he had done to deserve such a dinner.  Unfortunately I had to burst his bubble and tell him... nothing :)  But I will give him the opportunity to redeem himself...

So... thanks for the idea Dee.  Oh... you know the grill pan I bought at the market?  I HATE it!  It warped on the grill and I didn't get the color on the cod that I wanted.  Grrr!  I'd much rather use a good grill pan on the gas stove if I can't grill it on the grill with out it falling through.  I think I will try one of those grill baskets I keep seeing at Williams Sonoma.

So this morning the fatometer reads 143.8 and glucose 92.  I was really afraid it would be worse because the last two days about two o'clock in the afternoon I must have been sleep walking because I found myself both days with my hands in the trail mix up to my elbows with little bits of dried cranberries stuck to my face!  What is the deal?  :)  Just kidding about the sleep walking.  Not kidding unfortunately about the trail mix binge.  I'm going to have to make myself slow down, put a handful into a little pinch bowl and put the trail mix back in the pantry and go back upstairs to my desk where I belong and eat my little snack.

Oh wow!  Its not quite 6 AM yet.  I still have time to make a double omelette and share it with Dave before he leaves for work.  If I hurry.  He will like that.  He'll think I'm awesome - and he will be right :)

Ciao!

The Early Bird Gets the Bacon

Last thing I did last night was clean and cut up two small heads of cauliflower that got a little out of control in the garden.  And a wagon load (that's a slight exaggeration- but not by much) of broccoli.  The first thing I thought about this morning was that darn cauliflower.  Hmm what to do with it?  I decided since it was not the prettiest stuff in the world - it did not conform to the standard nice round heads - it was all leggy and  funky :)  that it should become soup.  Also, I needed to stir fry some veg for my little morning one egg omelettes so by 6:15 my stove was going.  I fried up a pound of bacon and chopped up some veggies.  Stir fried the multi-purpose veggies (for the omelettes and other things) and filled a big pot with the cauliflower and onion, spices, home made chicken stock and let er rip.  I decided to add saffron to the soup veg.  Yum.  Here it is in its whole veg form and after pureeing with the submersible blender:

I'll finish it off with a little yogurt mixed with just a touch of cream to make it smooth and creamy and then sprinkle some of that crunched up bacon on the top.

I love to make a bunch of stir fired veg and have them ready in the fridge.  It makes my morning omelettes really fast.  I usually use just what ever veg I have in the fridge - and right now that's broccoli.  I also added onion and orange bell pepper and of course garlic and then after turning the heat off wilt in the spinach which continues to grow nicely in the garden.  Another thing the pre made veggies are good for is making a quick rice side dish.  Just make a nice rice blend.  I like to use one with wild rice and the last few minutes of the cooking time toss in some of the veggies and at the very end top with slivered almonds.  Here's the veg mixture, the omelette cooking and the finished product:

I just pour the egg in a heated small pan, let it sit for just a minute and then top with the veggies, in this case crunched up bacon and some Gruyère cheese. 

Then fold and top with plain yogurt and salsa.
Ta Da!  Hard to believe it's just one egg huh?






Oh... almost forgot.... 153.7 and glucose 90 :)  AND yesterday I measured my still too fat waistline and had lost about two inches from the last measuring.  That was encouraging!

Ok... really gotta get to work :)  Ciao!

Don't You Just Hate It When...

You do something so stupid that you immediately look around for someone to blame because it is inconceivable that you could possibly just have done something so stupid?  But nobody else is home!  Sometimes being thrifty just doesn't pay!  Yesterday I threw some laundry in the washing machine and noticed the detergent bottle was very close to empty so I propped it up on the open new bottle to let the last bit drain in.  I left them sitting on the washing machine for just a minute until I could hang the towels out on the line... and then the phone rang.  Of course I forgot completely and was back in my office upstairs when bang!  I knew exactly what happened!  I ran downstairs to see the both bottles of detergent on the floor.  The vibration from the spin cycle had knocked them off of the washer.  The new bottle was pouring out all over the floor and all I could do was stand there frozen and watch it.  Finally I picked it up and started wiping the flood of liquid detergent off the floor with a kitchen towel and tried only partially successfully to wring the dripping thick detergent back into the almost empty bottle.  It was a little like trying to squeeze toothpaste back into the tube.  My hands have never been and will never again be that clean.  They were so clean they hurt!  I used so many kitchen towels to mop it up that now when ever I need to do a load of laundry I just throw in a kitchen towel and skip the detergent bottle.  LAME!!!

Ok... now that's out of my system so I can report the stats.  A new low again :)  153.7 Yay!  Glucose 97.  I'm scared though that tomorrow well show the trail mix and pistachio binge I went on last night :(  I'm not sure how it even started.  I was getting ready to go mow the big field after work and just grabbed a handful of peanuts, then another.  Then I decided I would have just a little trail mix.  Finally after eating half the bag I was disgusted and left the kitchen.  I hate it when that happens!  I'm surprised my blood sugar isn't higher because of all the dried cranberries.  I was so good all day too.  For lunch I roasted some broccoli and a couple of small tomatoes and then topped it with shredded gruyere cheese and then scattered a few pine nuts.

Was pretty tasty.  The trick to keeping the calorie count down even with cheese is to use a micro planer to grate the cheese.  It comes out really fine and fluffy and you can use much less and still have it look like it's melted all over.   I have to think of more things to do with broccoli right now since there is way more than I can eat waiting for me in the garden.  Anyone have any good broccoli recipes???

Ciao ya'll!

Vegetable Lasagna

Those two words always remind me of the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine was flying next to a man she kept referring to (right in front of him) as Vegetable Lasagna.  And at Valley Supply back in the day Jim used to call Brian Vegetable Lasagna which was then shortened to Veg.  Both memories always make me smile.  Vegetable Lasagna as a food never made me smile until yesterday.  My weekend guests were headed to Silverwood for the day and so I thought I would make something for dinner that they could eat whenever they got back and I decided on lasagna.  I already had all the stuff and since I did not accompany them I had time to put it together.  I always make my own sauce which really is the time consuming part.  I love lasagna!  But... you know... pasta!  So I decided to do regular lasagna for them and also a smaller pan of fake out lasagna for Dave and me.  I am so lucky that Dave will eat anything :)  You never know how these experiments will work out!  I whipped out the mandolin (food slicer not musical instrument) and sliced up some zucchini lengthwise and quickly cooked them in a grill pan then used them instead of lasagna noodles to layer in with the usual ingredients.  The grill pan may not have been necessary but I though it would enhance the flavor and who can resist grill marks?  I also added layers of fresh spinach from the garden.  On the top layer I did chop up and sprinkle one lasagna noodle just so there would be a hint of noodle.  One noodle for the whole darn pan is pretty good though :)  Dave and I were both very pleasantly surprised at how good it was and that the one little chopped up noodle was enough!  Dave announced that I could always make it like that.  My Aunty M gave me a recipe for lasagna where you use cabbage rather than noodles.  I haven't tried it yet.  I bet that's good too.  I hope so!  I have about six great big red cabbages growing out in the garden and about 10 zucchini plants.  Seriously!  What was I thinking?  It's just Dave and me now.  Two plants would have been enough :)  I don't have a clue what I'm going to do with all that cabbage!  If anyone has good cabbage recipes please send them to me.

I almost forgot to report:  154.0 and glucose 93.  Progress!  Oh, yesterday I noticed that I now actually have shoulders rather than hams :)  Gotta love that!  Almost makes me want to Zumba!  But... I still have a house full of sleeping people who would be scarred for life if they woke up and found me Zumbaing :)

Ciao!

The China Pig and the Saint

Happy Sunday!  I had planned on sleeping in just a little this morning but we forgot to lock the chickens in the chicken coup last night and so at 4:50 am the two roosters (Starsky & Hutch) chose to thank me for a day of freedom by sitting directly under my open bedroom window and crowing their brains out.  Grrrrr!  Ok, I'm awake!!!  But the sun is up now and it will be a beautiful day.  I was supposed to go to Silverwood today with my little granddaughter Aubrey (not quite two) and Daniel and Nicole and Nicole's family but I have decided to stay home and catch up on my garden and make a great big ole pot of spaghetti with garlic bread and salad for when they return all hungry and tired.  Guess which parts of that meal I won't be eating :)

This morning I was relieved to find that my weight had not jumped back up after loosing the two pounds or so on my week in the west but actually dropped just a tiny bit.  The fatometer read 154.2 this morning and my glucose was 105 so definitely inching back down towards normal (even with the ONE bite of chocolate pudding cake I made for everyone else last night).  I have now officially lost just a hair over 15 lbs and will soon be making the appointment for new blood work and hope to impress Dr. Z with my good (mostly) behavior much improved blood chemistry.

And now for the China Pig part.  My dad sent me this little story from my childhood and I am happy to include it here since this time it is not recounting some embarrassing event that happened to me.  This china pig actually provided me with many a summer days enjoyment.  Any of you who know my mother Molly will know what a saint she is - after all she is still married to Wally after 50 something years :)  Anyway... it is not often that she gets caught red handed... :)

THE CHINA PIG

When we lived in Birmingham, and the kids were small, all my pocket change went into a large china pig. It was my intention to use the savings for our summer vacation. It was, usually, a week or so in Tennessee, where my wife, molly, was born and raised. My change consisted of nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars. It should amount to three to five hundred dollars--plenty for a vacation in those days.

One evening after work, I said, “let’s bust the china pig and count the money”. My wife quickly objected and said, “oh no, it’s such a pretty pig!” I adamantly declared that, “I had saved for this vacation and I was ready to go“. I went and got a hammer and struck the pig, which shattered and coins spilled out like a waterfall. To my amazement I saw that the coins were all copper colored. I cried out, “they’re all pennies“. My wife, quickly commented, “it’s a miracle!” With a lot of skepticism, I prodded my wife to admit that every afternoon, the Good Humor ice cream truck would come dinging into our neighborhood and kids would pour out of houses like a plague of rats. Out would come the table knife and silver coins would come sliding out of the pig on the knife blade and were out the front door like a flash of mercury. I never saved coins after that. So, go bust the china pig. My birthday is coming and I’m worth it.

Wally Taylor

I'm Going to Have Dessert Every Day!

I was shocked to discover (especially after the high blood sugar) that while I was away I actually lost weight. :)  It must have been those gooey chocolate balls and phyllo dough with ice cream at Elliots.  This morning I weighed 154.8.  That's over two pounds lighter than when I left.  Hmm...  I don't get it.  Well... Yay!  My blood sugar is creeping down towards normal too.  It was 115.  I'm not really sure how I lost pounds.  I guess even with a nasty good dessert I still consumed less calories than I would at home munching out on pistachios every day.

This weekend I have my granddaughter Aubrey along with Nicole and Daniel and some of Nicole's family visiting.  Her mom Charleen (Aubrey's other grandmother/Nana), Aunt Tammara and Grandpa Elmer.  Her sister Jessica and cousin Ashley.  Aubrey's little cousin Noah came with them and they are best buddies.  Noah is two.  About 7 or 8 months older than Aubrey.  They are SO cute!  Tomorrow we are going to Silverwood.  Today they all went to the lake and I stayed home to catch up on some stuff.  Everything get's behind while I'm away.  I need to weed the garden but it's getting pretty hot out there now.  I picked some lettuce last night when I got home.  It was growing wild.  Still have more that I can use out there waiting for me!  And my broccoli needed to be harvested.  Some clusters were starting to turn into flowers :(  And the spinach needed harvesting.  Dave's corn garden had grown about a foot!  I love this time of year.  It is a horrible time to be away from home though.  With all that needs to be done, what am I doing sitting here on the computer?  I better roll!  I'll leave you with few more photos of the really lovely produce from the Pike Place Market I went to last Wednesday.  The first photo is ropes of peppers and garlic.  I had to bring one of those home with me.

Have a great weekend!  Ciao!

Happy Friday - Time To Go Home!

Oh boy!  Let's see.  It's been a fun week.  The highlight of course was my little trip to the Pike Place Market.  It's one of my favorie places to go. 

 I love the market itself plus if you just follow the stairs you end of up on the Seattle Waterfront and some wonderful seafood resturants.  We (my friend Dee and I) had dinner at Elliots on the pier. 

The morning after my Pike and Elliots excursion my blood sugar was 139!  This morning it's 121 so coming down but yowza!  Since I'm away from home I can't weigh and have a reading that is consistent but based on my blood sugar I think it's safe to assume that I have not lost any wieght this trip!  I bet it wasn't the oysters

Probably not the Ahi Tuna with Mango... afthough mango is very high on the glycemic index

I just wonder if it could have been this...

YA THINK???

Well... anyway we had a blast shopping and eating.  It was well worth it.  Even if it resulted in pics being shown on facebook that look like this...

That's supposed to be rabbit ears... apparently my fingers do not work upside down :)

I'll have to include some of those pics in later posts but for now I really have to get a little work done :)

Have a great weekend and Ciao!

Oh... all pics courtesy off Dee.  Most of them were awesome... some make me just a little angry :)

I don't Know...?

I swear it was only like 10 chips.  And they were all kinds of whole grain sesame seedy.  All that to say that I did not have lower blood sugar this morning.  It was 117.  That really makes me think the cinnamon capsules might be actrally helping.  ?  Otherwise I only ate yogurt (I better check the label again), a taco salad which I made so no bad stuff and then the real treat.  :)  Went to Dee's house last night for dinner - thanks Dee.  She recently had a stroke of brilliance and created grilled avacados with salsa and shrimp piled on top.  Oh yummy!  She made two levels of salsa heat wise.  The mild version that was too hot for her husband, and the kind that you ate if you had been a very bad girl and needed a little taste of what hell fire would be like :)  It was good!  :)  I should have taken a picture of the avacados.  They were so pretty.  And of course there were the ribs which were amazing.  But we were not even hungry for them after the avacados. 

Today we are going to pike place market and somewhere awesome on the pier for seafood.  It will be close to 80 degrees.  I'm so excited!  Today it is a great day to be me :)

Ciao!

Hmmmm....

This morning my glucose level was 115.  I didn't eat anything bad yesterday!  What's the deal?  Maybe it was just catching up from Sunday???   Anyway...  I'm in Woodinville now so no weight for a few days.  Mabye that will be the magic to see if I can get below 157!  Or... maybe the cinnamon capsules were working... I don't have any with me.  Well... perhaps tomorrow will be better.  Speaking of Woodinville... or the drive to it anyway, man was it ever windy!  I could hardly keep my little bug on the road.  I think I got an ab workout from gripping the steering wheel for dear life for 5 hours.  There was a wicked dust storm too and white caps on the columbia river.  I was very glad I wasn't in our Honda hybrid yesterday.  I followed one for a while and it kept making what appeared to be sudden almost lane changes :)  Poor guy!  Wonder what his gas milage was.  I bet on a 350 mile trip he drove 400 miles from all the weaving.  :) 

Have a great Tuesday everyone!  Ciao!

Recovery Mode...

What a great weekend!  Friends and family, food, fire, the Chewelah community fair.  So much fun.  I actually ate quite reasonable Friday and Saturday but Sunday when we went to Silverwood it was a dietary train wreck. :)  Oh the carnage!  So much fun though.  Today is a new day and I will be good.

The stats this morning were way better than I expected.  157.3 (Still!) and glucose 103.  So I guess it is ok to be bad just every once in a while :)

Have a great week!  Ciao!

Here's to a great weekend!

There are not many things in the world that are better than looking out on the early morning with a cup of coffee and anticipating the arrival of friends and family (and seeing your cute little calf grazing on the wrong side of the fence - again!).  Although it's light outside the sun has not quite risen over the mountain directly behind our house.  That's why it's only 53 degrees outside.  The weatherman forecasts 94 today.  You will not hear me complain about the heat.  I may turn on the a/c though :)  Dave has set up party central down by the creek where it's cool and I bet his first task of the day will be to check and see what time the tavern opens so he can go get his keg.  I'm getting ready to make pitchers of iced tea and ice down sodas and water for those of us who will not be dancing around the keg.  Just think of the calories saved :)  I have some last minute mowing to make the grass surrounding Dave's corn garden really pretty.  I really should be cleaning up the house.  But what the heck... it will be trashed about 15 minutes after our guests arrive :)  Well this morning I have cause for celebration :)  156.9 EVERY OUNCE COUNTS!  And glucose 99.  I suspect tomorrow with all the food around I will be sad again but just for today at least 157 is gone.  I'm looking forward to 150 and then 145 and then 140.  And since I am going to Silverwood on Sunday and will be seen in a swim suit I wish 140 was here now.  Well there's always next year.  Perhaps this will be the last year that I will speed down the water slide and hear someone yell out "Shamuuuuu!" as I splash down in the tank at the bottom  :)

Well... the sun is up now and blinding me.  It's my signal to get hopping!  I hope you all have a great weekend... ciao!

Inspriation!

Ugh!  I'm not inspired about my numbers this morning though!  Guess!  Yep... 157.4 and glucose 110.  Yikes!  Hmm... could it have possibly been the PINT of Ben and Jerry's Pistachio ice cream I devoured on the couch before bed???  Ya think???  I'm so stupid, I'm so stupid!  I hate myself!  Ok... now that that's out of the way... now I can move on to the inspiration part...

Yesterday I was chatting with my cousin Beth on Face Book about Bing cherries and how we were both introduced to them by my mother.  There is a very funny story from when we were kids that went something like this... or maybe it wasn't like this at all but it's what I remember.  I went camping with my mom and brothers and Aunt Joyce and her kids.  This was a great treat.  I don't think I had been camping since I was really small.  Aunt Joyce also loves Bing cherries.  She was probably the one who introduced them to my mother and maybe even on this trip.  She brought a whole bunch with her.  I think we were all allowed a portion and then..well my mom apparently couldn't stop thinking about them and got up in the middle of the night and ate I believe the rest of them.  Perhaps she left one or two in the bag.  She went back to sleep very satisfied and felt that she would never be found out - I believe she was going to blame it on a bear.  Unfortunately one's sins have a way of being shouted from the rooftop - or in her case I guess tooted from the rooftop would be more accurate.  Anyway... as I was laughing to myself about that happy memory (seems that all my favorite memories are somehow related to food) I realized that it was lunch time.  I wandered down to the kitchen without a plan.  I only knew that it needed to be something light and cool as I am stuck on the same pound and it is hot outside.  I decided a salad was in order but what kind?  In the garden yesterday morning I noticed a respectable amount of baby spinach so I went out to pick it.  I still had a couple of beautiful small cucumbers from the farmers market last week.  And the cherries that I had hidden in the corner of the crisper!  Hidden from Dave so he would not repeat the sins of my mother and eat too many at once.  Well, after I brought out the cherries it all fell into place.  I chopped the spinach, cukes, a small tomato, some fresh mozzarella, a few basil leaves and pitted just five Bing cherries and quartered them.  I scattered them over the top of the salad and for a grand finishing touch sprinkled some chopped pistachios on the very top and then drizzled with balsamic/pomegranate dressing.  It was just right!  The cherries were sweet and tart and I could taste a little in every bite.  I think I'll call it Beth's Bing Salad since she inspired me with the bings.  I took a pic of it but that came out really bad and I didn't realize it until after I had eaten the salad so I had to make it again for dinner.  The salad in the pic below is a double portion.  Actually there was enough for three people.  Dave loved it!  Of course the bing cherries made it!  Thanks Cuz!  May be you could try it sometime before you eat up all your cherries.  :)  Here it is:

Here's the "FatSecret" Version that I submitted.  Sorry... some of the measurements are strange.  They make you list them that way based on serving size.  Here's an example from the recipe.  For the pomegranate juice they say a serving is an 8 oz bottle so I figured I needed about half an ounce so I put .16 of a "serving".  Lame!  What I really meant is about 1 1/2 teaspoon.  Anyway...Have a great day everyone!

Ciao!

View photos Recipe is awaiting approval. Servings: 1 Prep Time: 10 mins Meal Types: Appetizers Side Dishes Salads and Salad Dressings Lunch Rating: not yet rated. fatsecret members overall average rating

by Kathy O  Bing Caprese This salad featuring fresh bing cherries began as a basic tomato, basil, mozzarella salad and then took a left turn :) It's delicious and refreshing, perfect for a hot sunny day lunch. Ingredients 1 1/4 servings fresh mozzarella cheese 1/2 serving salt & pepper pistachios 1 serving balsamic vinegar 0.16 serving pomegranate juice 1 tbsp olive oil 5 bing cherries 2 cups baby spinach 1 cup slices cucumber 1/2 cup cherry tomato Directions In a salad bowl layer the spinach, cucumber, halved cherry tomatoes and torn mozzarella cheese. Remove the pits from the cherries and quarter them. Chop 1/4 cup Salt and Pepper or other shelled pistachio nuts. Gently toss the salad ingredients and add the cherries and pistachios to the top. For the dressing, in a small shaker or cruet add 1 T each balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Add 1 teaspoon pomegranate juice. Add just a dash of salt and pepper. Shake well and dress salad. Enjoy!

 

What Doesn't Work!

For starters... 157.3.  I'm hanging out with 157 again.  I think I've had an overly long relationship with 157.  We need to break up!  And glucose 99 which although still within the normal range is a spike from the day before.  I wonder if it had anything to do with the 3/4 cup of penne pasta I had for lunch or the True North pistachio crisps I had before dinner that were too numerous to count?  Big sigh.  So I think lunch was fine... I really ought to be able to eat 3/4 cup of pasta along - with some very yummy chicken.  It was left over from dinner Sunday night that my friend James made.  I think I've hit on a big idea.  Invite people over to visit and make them cook :)  Come to think of it... last time Brenda came over she cooked all weekend!  Of course I was explosively ill :)  Anyway... if I can't have 3/4 cup of pasta... just kill me now!  But after work I decided to do a little mowing.   Dave had called and said he had to work overtime so I thought I would get that done for him.  Well a little mowing turned into two hours and by the time I got in it was 7pm and I was famished.  I decided to get dinner going.  I planned on making a salad and grilled yellow fin tuna with asparagus.  Here's where I took a left turn... I grabbed a handful of raw Spanish peanuts just to quiet the hunger pangs.   Then I grabbed a handful of dry roasted peanuts, then I got out the bag of S & P pistachios, then the bag of pistachio crisps.  By the time I had dinner ready I wasn't even hungry!  I did eat the salad but left all the tuna and asparagus for Dave since he still wasn't home.  Not only did he have to work late and stop by Home Depot to pick up box 1 of 2 of the new patio furniture I bought (some bonehead only brought home one box!)  but he also got stuck in road work traffic and did not get home until 9pm.  Since I had challenged myself to go to bed at 9:30 I brought him his dinner and kissed him goodnight.  The morale of the story is... don't start!  It's like the first crack in the ice on a thawing river!  So... tonight I will drink an 8 oz glass of water then a small glass of orange flavored Metamucil before starting dinner.  And could the people in charge of grocery shopping please stop bringing the nuts in the house?  Is it really too much to ask?

Here's a question  ... am I the only one who goes through these daily challenges with cravings, will power and blubber?  Probably not since dieting is a multi billion dollar industry.  Oh well... another day, another 1900 calories.

Ciao!

An Awesome Long Weekend!

This weekend I enjoyed having my friend James and his nephew Brennan visit.  Brennan spent the weekend doing all the things an imaginative 10 year old boy could do on a farm.  Feeding the animals, throwing the stick for Lucy.  Shooting the BB gun.  Burning up fallen branches, roasting hot dogs and smores, lighting off fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July.  On Saturday we went to the airport to pick up Dave and stopped at Riverfront Park for a few minutes and walked over the Spokane River on the old bridge that is now closed to traffic and used for a pedestrian and bike bridge.  We also had to check out the huge radio flyer wagon.  It was fun to spend some time just playing.

Yesterday was spent getting ready for next weekend.   Dave spent most of the day weed eating.  I mowed.  We had partly sunny weather.  I started out with a tank top so I could get some sun on my pasty white skin but soon realized it was too cold so I went in and got a jacket.  After just a few minutes I had to take that off because the sun came out.  That's the way it went all day!  Hot and cold.  That's how my little diet feels too.  This morning 158.3 :(  but glucose was 91 :)  Yesterday I ate pretty well but over indulged in pistachios.  Repeatedly!  Why?  Why have three bowls of pistachios?  Why not go to bed at a decent hour?  Dork!  Consequently I am tired, slightly swollen and not overly enthused about today.  It is however a new opportunity to make some better choices.  I recall sending my children off to school and telling them with a nice little mommy smile, "make good choices!"  I think I better start following my own advice.  It was a great weekend though!  This coming weekend will be too.  After that I am heading west for a few days.  One afternoon I am going to play hooky go to Pike Place Market with my friend.  :)  I am really looking forward to that!

I think I'll challenge myself to go to bed by 9:30 for the next three nights.  If I do that I will feel more rested and no doubt also reduce my pistachio intake :)  You can see that I switched from cashews to pistachios.  Because I ate all the cashews!

Have a great week!  Make good choices (note to self) and Ciao!

I'm so glad 157 is gone!

Well it's the start of a new week and now I must renew my determination.  As I said I'm not hovering on 157 any more... this morning when I woke up and stumbled to the scale I had to rub my eyes and look again.  158!  WHAT??? I don't know why that should be surprising though.  After all, over the weekend I did have smores, pasta, cake and ice cream.  What was I thinking???  :)  That's no way to lose weight!  Now that Dave is home he can lose weight with me :)  He's is very thrilled about that let me tell you.  Fortunately my blood glucose level is relatively stable.  Yesterday it was 102 and this morning 103.  That's lower than I expected but I'll take it.  I wonder if those cinnamon capsules someone recommended to me are helping to keep it down.  I can't tell.  I'll just keep taking them... but work really hard on eating healthy things for the rest of the week.  This weekend will once again be a challenge as it is Chataqua weekend and who can resist disgustingly delicious "fair" food?  Not me!  And besides that Dave is bringing home a keg Saturday afternoon and inviting everyone he knows to come help him drink it.  If anyone is in the neighborhood this is your invitation to come on by Saturday afternoon.  I will not be drinking beer but where there's beer there's usually fattening food right?  We will have friends from the "other side" all weekend and I am going to Silverwood on Sunday so I have no idea what all food naughtiness I will indulge in.  Certainly some :)  I feel like if I can't enjoy some of the things I love then life would be BORING!  I little moderation would be great though.  I'll have to learn how to do that.

Gotta go mow again.  Ciao!

Favorite Day of the Week! Saturday :)

I love waking up Saturday morning just a little tired because I have had a late night playing Murder with guests.  Unfortunately for me Brennan who is 10 beat me badly but beat Uncle James by only 1.  I should sleep in but I hate to waste even one minute of a Saturday.

Today we are going to have breakfast and then get ready and go pick Dave up from the airport after hanging out at Riverside Park for awhile.  Yay!  I thought of making a fritatta (cause I can't flip omlettes)  I have bacon crisping up in the oven and... oh yep!  Here comes James.  Bacon always wakes people up :)  So I'm prepping everything and then we will let Brennan make breakfast for us.  He said he likes to help out in the kitchen so he will like that.

We made (I helped but Brennan made most of it) a fritatta with spinach, a little zuchinni and onion, sun dried tomatoes and goat cheese.  We also made grits (yummy) and Brennan made a beautiful fruit salad all by himself.
And here we are :)

And now for the bad news.  157.3 (REALLY!!!!???) And glucose 95.  Man!  I can't believe 157 is back!  Oh well... There's always tomorrow!

Now... off to pick up Dave from the airport :)  Ciao!

Busting Through the Barricade!

Yippy!  156.6 and glucose 96.  There is still no evidence of a collar bone but I finally beat 157 :)

Ok... gotta roll!  Way too much to do today.  Dave is coming home tomorrow and my friend James is coming to visit today.  Promises to be a fun weekend.  

Have a fabulous 4th everyone and (whole heartedly)  CIAO!

Arrghhhhh! And I did almost everything right!

157.5 :(  glucose 95.  I really though I had it.  I really thought I might scoot under the 157 mark but NOOOOO!  How discouraging.  Well I guess I'm going to have to admit it... I have a substance abuse problem.  It's nuts.  Yep!  That's why!  Yesterday I ate for success.  In the morning I had my little yogurt parfait which was only 180 calories then a salad for lunch.  Well ok... it was pretty deluxe and yummy... but I didn't even eat as much of it as I normally would have.  I shared it with Mags who popped by at lunch time.  I didn't even put avocado on it!  Check it out though... I know... all these salads are starting to look the same but this one was pretty tasty.  It had most of the usual suspects topped with a chicken breast grilled in Chili-Lime rub with fresh mozzarella balls on top and... strawberries.  Hey... don't wrinkle your nose up... try the strawberries!  Yum!  Oh... and toasted pine nuts.  I made a pot of strawberry tea too,  Yesterday about lunch time it was still only about 65 degrees which seemed COLD after a few days of 80 so the thought of a cold lunch was not that appealing.  It paired nicely with the salad.  :)  Listen to me... it paired nicely...  Oh brother!  :)  Gag me!

 Anyway... for dinner I had the other chicken breast and a steamed artichoke.  Rather than the traditional fat fat fat artichoke dip I made one by Ellie Krieger who I typically like but... meh!  Not so great.  Sounded good but sort of blah.  It had saffron, ground almonds, caramelized onion... it still sounds good... but was one time the plain yogurt was not that successful in standing in for sour cream or mayo.  I might try it again some time and use a combination of sour cream and mayo.  I think for me it would be ok.  I really don't use much dip anyway.  After dinner there were plants to water and mail to retrieve which took me right up to 9pm.  I thought I was home free but NOOOOOO!  The bag of roasted, salt and pepper pistachios called to me from the pantry until I finally gave in and had a bowl.  And then another.  :(  I'm pathetic and weak.  (insert self flogging here)  And it's not sunny!  I just want to crawl back in bed - or eat more pistachios.  Instead I'll pop in a new Zumba DVD and see what new torturous moves Beto has for me this morning.

So... (half hearted) ciao!