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…perishable foods aren’t very sympathetic.  Being sick last week and eating a lot of stuff from the freezer, soup, soup and more soup.  I didn’t do a whole lot of prep work that I had planned to do and am looking inside my fridge.

The kale and red leaf lettuce got tired of waiting for me to get better.

The kale is no longer green but more of a cross between Chartreuse and yellow. I had planned to make kale chips – have heard so many great things about kale chips.

The lettuce has turned slimy - totally unsalvageable.

I hate the waste of perfectly good food and therefore money.  Just a couple more reasons to not like being sick.

Another possible hinderance/obstacle is family.  Immediate and extended.  While Sofia is an innocent bystander with not much say as a 3 year old and Jon willing to anything I put before him, knowing I wouldn’t steer him wrong (he owned three pizza cutters when we first met).  Close friends and family, as I mentioned in a prior post, can make one’s transition to more responsible eating a bit more challenging.  Maybe you’re nodding your head in agreement right now, it’s tricky, you don’t want to offend or have hurt feelings of those near and dear but you don’t want to sabotage your efforts either.

Speak up and speak out for you and your family.  Educate and introduce those close to you about your efforts.

Damn, that’s awesome advice.  I think I’ll take it.  I’m putting too much work into this endeavor not too.

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• Chubby little baby toddler legs.
• Amazing family and friends, near and far, that shared Sofia’s birthday celebration with us.

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I was successful in my baking and cooking endeavors last Friday (for the most part – slacked, as usual with the last of the clean up).  Thankful for the prep work I did the day before because good gawd cooking from scratch and eating less processed food can and does mean a lot more work for someone (me).  You really need to be dedicated and buy into the philosophy of whole foods, clean eating, etc.  If you don’t you won’t be able to sustain the practice.

It’s a lifestyle.

I grew up on my fair share of processed foods.  Cheese Whiz, white rice, bologna, American cheese slices, Cool Whip, Miracle Whip, Top Ramen, sugary cereals, etc.  I’ve been trying to reverse the effects of those eating years ever since moving out of the house.

It wasn’t that my parents hated their kids and wanted to pump (and plump) us up with preservatives and other bad things - they simply didn’t know any better, had their own personal issues with food, and weren’t really interested in food the way I am - to learn more about just what it was we were putting into our bodies.

Just like so many other people in the US.  It’s harder to claim that ignorance these days.

That’s a good thing.

While, thanks to advertisement and media,  it would be oh so convenient to slip back into the ways of my childhood.  I know too much about the perils of poor eating habits and do better at picking and choosing my less healthy food choices rather partaking in the across the board, flat out, preservative fests that are still so available in the middle aisles of my local grocer or the fast food chain around the corner.  Not to mention dealing with crazy pregnancy cravings.

But with this choice comes a hell of a lot more work.

Oh, have I already mentioned that in this post?  Well, it’s true.

BUT.

It’s worth it.  It really is.  To feel good about what you’re putting into your body and those of your family.  To KNOW just what you’re putting into your body – there’s peace of mind in that.  Setting an example for your kids, influencing friends and family members.  All this can be yours when making some changes to your lifestyle (levels of changes varies and is directly proportional to your current diet habits).  Be realistic, don’t bite off more than you can chew (pun intended).  For me, cookies, bread and soup was a little too much in one day.  I’ll try to keep it simpler this week and therefore will be less cranky with my efforts afterwards.

Wish me luck.

Update:  no posts this week, in case you didn’t notice, I’ve been sick, sick, sick.  Lucky to be able to pull soup from the freezer but prepping and planning the meals this week when not feeling well can really put the brakes on the eating less processed foods momentum!  I did make some granola (more on that fun project soon) so all is not completely lost.

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• Processed vs. Whole Food in Your Body (tipthescale.org)
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My parents came over and spent the night, taking care of Sofia the next day while I had to go to work.  Jon and I had some alone time on the commute into work.  I obviously don’t get out enough because I talked almost the entire 40 minutes of our trip.  We were both kind of pleased to have this early morning time together rather than the tired-from-a-long-day’s-work time that we usually  have at the end of the day.

Something that I’m still learning to do these days – although I preach it to everyone I know, even to my patients at work:  asking for help.  I’m slowly figuring it out after hearing it repeatedly from my older sister lately.  It’s not even a matter of pride – it simply doesn’t occur to me!  I’m thinking in some cases I think this may help with procrastination.

Case in point:  I’m pregnant and this baby is coming whether I’m ready or not.  I’d really rather not have a repeat of the events leading to Sofia’s birth – literally ordering diapering supplies online between contractions on the way out the door to the hospital.  And while I take pride in my skill (and it is a skill) at procrastination I’m thinking maybe there’s a better way of doing things.  I’ve been saying (for weeks now) that I was going to go through and organize all of Sofia’s baby stuff to see what stays and what goes.  Thus far, I’ve done nothing, not even open the door to the storage closet where everything is boxed up – pathetic.  So today I took charge and asked my Mother-in-Law if she would come over to help which of course she was totally agreeable to.  See, it’s just like I always tell everyone – you’d be surprised and how willing people are to help you – it’s not the burden that you think it is.

My other big accomplishment today is taking the extra time to prep for some baking and cooking tomorrow.  In less than an hour’s time I gotten all the ingredients for a double batch of cookies ready to go to mix and make with Sofia in the morning.  Veggies washed and peeled for more chicken soup to put on the stove in time for lunch and lastly, the ingredients to make at least 4 loaves of bread.  I just paid $3.49 for a loaf of bread a couple days ago and it made me so mad at my laziness.  I can make yummy, wholesome, bread for a fraction of that amount if I could just get my act together and get organized.

And so I have.

After putting Sofia to bed was the idea of going back into the kitchen to do more work sounding appealing to me – hell no!  Now that it’s done, and especially tomorrow, I know I’ll be really glad and proud of myself.  Yes, proud, because it takes a LOT of work to keep your family healthy.

A lot of work.

But when I cringed and paid for that loaf of bread (and this was one of the better brands) then saw the ingredients list filled with so many unknown and unpronounceable ingredients.  I thought – ok, enough is enough.  Time to get to work.

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I like red lentils.  They look cool – though I think they’re more orange than red but, whatever.  I don’t see them at too many stores so when I do find them I try to pick some up.  They’re more interesting than the plain old brown ones which look more olive green than brown to me.

So I’ve had this big bag sitting around for a while and finally happened upon a interesting recipe.  That is interesting to me right now is using my crockpot, an interesting spice combination and simple ingredient list. 

This recipe seemed to fit the bill:  Clean Eating Red Lentil Stew. But I actually found it via another blog site:  motherAwesome.  I’ve been interested in Indian spices and foods for several years.  These are not flavors of spices I grew up with so I’ve been educating my palette and have been taking my family along for the experience.  At first bite, I thought I needed to add some salt but upon further consideration/a few more bites it didn’t seem necessary.  To bulk up the meal and because I don’t really like to eat just soup/stew  (I need to eat it with something else).  I decided to make rice – a combination of brown, white and what my mom calls “black” which actually cooks up purple (what’s with the wacky colors and this recipe?!).  At any rate, Jon dug in although, as only Jon would do, he first wanted to add cheese.

“Try it first before you add to it.”  was my response since we only had sharp cheddar cheese.  My toes curled at the thought of adding that to this dish.  Luckily, he agreed and added nothing.  Sofia, at first, balked, which I expected – too many flavor combinations, plus the carrots and unidentifiable beans.  But she’s a good sport and was willing to at least try it.  If I avoided the carrots I could coax her into several bites – enough to make a meal although she was pocketing her bites in the corner of her mouth but once I started alternating bites with homemade applesauce it all went down.  Little stinker.

In typical Sherry fashion, I did add a little twist by dicing up a pear and throwing it into the crockpot.  I like the idea of adding fruit to a savory dish.  I’m not sure if this pear added a whole lot but I don’t think it took away from the end result.  I would have added an apple if I hadn’t used all my apples the day before in the awesome homemade applesauce we ate with dinner.

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Because I’ve gotten into trouble in the past.

More than once.

And while I pretty much stick to his instructions, sometimes he’s not around.  But anyway.  I’m happy to have a working computer again and I’ve spent most of this week familiarizing myself with/playing around with this new computer of mine.

And dealing with a sick Sofia while Jon is out of town working 12+ hour days.  This is a hard working family!

And making awesome applesauce.

And roasting chickens then making stock for red lentil soup, the recipe I found over the weekend.  I plan on posting.

Eating my sister’s homemade “hotpockets” – biscuit dough filled with mushrooms, bratwurst and white cheddar cheese.  Freezes fabulously and reheated in the toaster over so the biscuit had just a bit of crunch on the outside.  With a big salad to accompany it.  Heaven!

I’ll admit I’ve gotten sucked into the world of Freshly Pressed, again, goodness but there are so many people doing and writing about so many interesting things!

Thinking, thinking, thinking about what to make next and waiting for a good, sunny, non windy day to take pictures of my t-shirts I made last year to post in my store.

Laughing at my husband when he voiced his genuine(!) frustration at my thoroughness when scraping the mixing bowl clean when making my famous, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Hoping to regain focus by the end of the week.  Umm, yes, I know that’s only in a couple days!

That has left our house with one computer. 

(I know – there are starving children in Africa with NO computers in their home let alone one!)  I’m very thankful to not be a starving child in Africa – or anywhere else for that matter.  And really, I’d rather not relive my childhood, once was enough, though growing up in a family of five, I did survive with one computer just fine.  But those times were with no internet.  The computer was completely utilitarian.  My how times have changed…

But I digress.

It’s not the greatest situation when you’re trying to maintain two blogs and you’re married to a Techie.  Plus, his laptop is strange to me, unfamiliar, a little cold and not very likeable but that may have to do more with the fact that his laptop’s exhaust fan is working properly…

At any rate, said Techie husband is remedying the computer situation this weekend and things should be getting back to normal next week. 

I hope.

We had some family over for dinner last week which really gave us a kick in the butt to clean this place up.  Hang a couple more pictures that have been leaning against the wall and yes, randomly throw things into the back room at the last minute.  The thing of it is that with a new house come curiosity and tours of the place so people end up discovering the room door or closet door that really shouldn’t be opened unless you’re prepared for an avalanche.  Ah well, at least the bathrooms were clean and I was able to damp dust the trim.

This new-to-us house was built in 1920 and has plaster walls and I’m scared to put a nail or tack into them so we’ve just been putting our photos and artwork on the already existing nails and hooks which has been, for the most part, working.  I just hung out second to the last print in the hallway today and noticed a big old loop of dusty cobweb floating from the ceiling.

Yuck.  And how long had that been there?

That is honestly the first cobweb I’ve noticed since we moved into this house.  Cobwebs can be tricky one day.  Just when you’ve looked in every ceiling corner, wall surface there’s a big old dusty thing floating right in front of you.  It’s gross and I hope none of our weekend guests saw that monster.  Then again, they were probably distracted by the dumping ground that has become our back room/my studio space.  Which I’m happy to report I started cleaning up the day after the get-together.

But what I really wanted write about today was on the topic of humidity and indoor air pollution but I’ve been distracted by ozone and those air filtration machines that use ozone claiming it helps “clean” the air in your home.  It’s fascinating information and there’s a lot there so I’m going to spend a little more time with it before posting.

Happy dusting!

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