Monthly Archives: November 2010

Ding ding ding!

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The food ads came in Sunday’s paper containing all of the specials for Thanksgiving day food. This one got me:

$.59 a pound is CHEAP! I love saving money on anything that I have to buy and, because of this, we usually buy most of our food at Aldi. But Aldi’s turkey was $.99 a pound. Still, there are some items that Aldi doesn’t carry so I figured I’d be able to purchase the added $20 required without overspending.

I need poblano chilis and fresh brussels sprouts, neither of which are available at Aldi. Still, 2 peppers and 12 sprouts at $2.59 a pound, I knew I had to find some more items to buy.

I was happy with the price of the sausage and bacon and bought two packages of each.

I had planned to get the celery at $.69 a package.

But Aldi had them for $.39.

So what to buy? I remembered that we were almost out of dishwasher soap and so I headed over to that aisle where I found the Cascade dishwasher tablets on sale for $4.99. I quickly guestimated what I had in my cart, thinking, hoping that I had gone over $20 so that I could purchase the turkey for $.59 a pound.

I really didn’t want to buy anything else because it would just be extra and is it really a bargain if you have to buy something you don’t need to get the savings? I think not.

So the guy starts ringing up my total and he arrives at …. wait for it….$20.01!

I felt like I had just won a pricing game on The Price is Right. Seriously, the red lights and bells were going off in my head. I think the check out guy thought I was nuts. I was so excited, I couldn’t wait to get into the car to call David and tell him!

I love games and I love winning. And getting a 20 lb turkey for $11.45 isn’t bad either! 🙂

Peek-a-boo moon over Bartlesville

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I adore clouds. Some day, I’m going to get a really great camera and just spend my time taking photos of clouds.

It’s really warm out this morning for November and when I walked out the door to let Boo Boo out, I noticed the fast moving clouds.

The moon is full and I had to capture it. Sadly, the video doesn’t look as cool as it looked it real life but it’s awesome. 🙂

Later in the day….

Coffee Chicken

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You know I’m a coffee achiever. So when I see recipes that contain coffee, I make plans to make them. I got this recipe for Coffee Chicken the other day and I knew, with some minor modifcations, I could make it paleo friendly.

I know that the one thing that will derail the Paleo Train here is if David has to come up with his own meals. I can eat the same thing over and over again, but it’s not so easy with him.

Consequently, we’ve had some terrific meals over the past week even though it’s created an unbelievable amount of dirty dishes! I just can’t seem to cook without using every pot and spatula in the kitchen. Thank goodness for the dishwasher which is now running about three times a day.

So the coffee chicken was terrific. Kind of a coffee flavored barbeque sauce. It was easy but be sure to plan for the one hour baking time. The recipe said to baste it every 15 minutes and I did it the first couple of times but the sauce stayed on the chicken pretty well.

Coffee Chicken

2-3 pounds of chicken or turkey, cut up*
3/4 cup brewed coffee
2 heaping tablespoons of tomato paste
3 tablespoons light soy sauce
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
¼ teaspoon stevia

*You can easily use 2-3 pounds of thighs or breasts cut into large chunks, or a whole chicken

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In a one-quart saucepan, mix together the coffee, tomato paste, soy sauce, lemon juice and olive oil.

Stir in the sugar and heat the mixture to boiling then reduce the heat to a simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes or until the mixture has reduced.

Place the chicken pieces in a large shallow pan then pour the reduced mixture over all the chicken covering every piece well.

Bake (uncovered) for about an hour taking care to baste often, at least once every 15 minutes.

Serve with a green veggie and call it lunch. Or dinner. It’s fabu! 🙂

What I had for breakfast

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If you are new to twitter and trying to follow “the rules” that are set forth by various people who blog, you will hear over and over again “Do not post what you ate for breakfast”.

I have tweeted breakfast  just a handful of times because we eat the same thing almost every day. But lunch and dinner? Up for grabs. I post tweets and photos about food and links to recipes.

And do you know what?

They are some of my most interactive tweets and clicked links/photos.

Today, I tweeted about eating acorn squash for the very first time and I heard from someone that I have followed on twitter for a while but rarely interact with:

JDEbberly J D Ebberly

@LauriRottmayer Acorn squash with butter!!! You KNOW it’s the Holidays!! 🙂 🙂

and also from  someone completely new that I had never heard of until she responded to my tweet:

Peggikaye Peggikaye

@LauriRottmayer butternut is my favorite ..well, after zucchini and yellow steamed w/salt and pepper … love butternut squash soup

Being interested in butternut squash, which I have never tried, I chatted with her and then followed her. I love to have followers that interact with me. Even about such mundane things as squash.

So, while you may not want to ONLY talk about what you are having to eat, I certainly feel free to break that particular “rule”. As my friend Becky McCray says, “It’s OK to still be a person”.

BeckyMcCray Becky McCray

Reminder: It’s OK to still be a person. RT @suzemuse: What if you DID tweet about what you had for lunch? http://bit.ly/d7zDSx

Great post by Susan Murphy aka @suzemuse. Because how she suggests you tweet at the bottom of her post? It’s pretty much the way I roll. 🙂

Squashed!

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Since beginning our new way of eating, we’ve tried some really great food. I saw a recipe for a filling breakfast that sounded terrific except for the fact that I had never eaten acorn squash which was the base of the recipe.

At the beginning, I told David to just be adventurous and try things before turning up his nose at them. He told me the whole time we have been married that  he didn’t like strawberries but he’s been eating them daily for probably close to a year now. I think that the preparation of the food can make all the difference.

Take, for instance, spinach. My mom used to serve us canned spinach which I thought was slimy and gross. I remember my shock, in a happy way, when I first ate raw spinach. I love it so much that sometimes I just eat it out of the bag like candy.

David has been great about trying everything and today was the first time he said, “ummm next time, please leave the spinach off of mine”. Okay, so he really doesn’t like spinach. Even sauteed in bacon grease. I can deal with that. It’s more for me.

But….he liked the rest of this meal which I found to be completely and totally tasty! Yummmmm!

I found this recipe at Fearless Athletics and knew that I had to try it. The called it

A Truly Filling Breakfast

Ingredients

1/2 acorn squash

1 1/2 slices of bacon (I used 2 slices for each of us)

baby spinach (1 handful for each, stems picked off as they should be)

2 egg

spring onions

olive oil

  1. Toss your 1/2 squash in the microwave with a drizzle of olive oil with some plastic wrap on top for 6-7 minutes, depending on the size.
  2. While your squash is in the microwave, cook the bacon on the stove.  once cooked, chop the bacon into small pieces.
  3. Sauté the baby spinach in some of the remaining bacon grease.
  4. In another pan fry your egg in a few spoonfuls of the remaining bacon grease.
  5. Put it together! Pile the bacon in the squash, throw the spinach on the bacon, and lay the egg on top. Sprinkle with chopped spring onions.

The secret here is to have your spinach picked and your spring onions chopped before beginning the cooking process. From there it goes really fast.

This was really good and filling just like they said. We will have it again and I’ll just eat David’s spinach because I loved the way all of the flavors combined together. Give it a try, I’m sure you’ll be pleased! 🙂

Day four of our new plan

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We’ve made it through until today with no trouble and having eaten some fabu food! David has been great about trying everything I have prepared and he seems to like it all. Among the new recipes we’ve tried are:

  • Paleo Meatloaf
  • Indian Chicken
  • Garlic Beef Stew
  • Chicken Curry Soup

I had a really bad headache for three days. I’m hoping that part is over. I also feel like I need a BIG nap in the afternoons. I hope I’m past that, too.

On the plus side, I feel so much better in my joints and back. I was so achey on Tuesday, the day we started following this 100% that I just wanted to cry. I’ve also lost 4 lbs. Now, I’m not going to get too excited about that part. I can lose four pounds pretty easily with any new way of eating. I’ll get excited when that continues about 15 times over!

But for now, it’s all good. I can live through the headaches knowing they will eventually go away as long as my joints don’t hurt like they did ever again! I’m also waiting for David to say, hey, I can really notice the difference this is making. But he needs to give up all the crap, too, and I know he had some junk for a couple of days. 🙂

Tracking with the royals

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I always felt like I tracked with Princess Diana.

We both walked down the aisle to Trumpet Voluntaire’.

Then we each had an heir. And a spare

We both, sadly, suffered from bulimia. 🙁

Then she got divorced and dead and our paths veered onto very different tracks.

I cried as I watched her funeral on TV. She was so much in the public eye and we both seemed to be at the same spot in our lives and I felt like she was my friend.

Now, once again, our path is converging onto the same track with the royal path although the track is Diana-less.

The heir is getting married!

Our heir will be getting married to the gorgeous Vanessa on June 11, 2011.

When will their heir marry Kate? That remains to be seen but we will probably be a little bit ahead as we always have been. Tracking, yet again, with the royals.

Fun facts:

Our wedding: April 21, 1979 / Their wedding: June 29, 1981

The Heir’s birthday: December 31, 1982 /Prince William’s birthday: June 21, 1982

The Spare’s birthday: June 7, 1984 / Prince Harry’s birthday: September 15, 1984

Paleo thanksgiving

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We’ve been dabbling in the paleo lifestyle for a while now. This past week has found me over indulging in grain laden “goodies” that have made me feel awful. I’m convinced. It’s time to go full on and no looking back.

I heard this morning that Thanksgiving is next week. How did that happen? Yikes. Time to start planning our first paleo Thanksgiving.

Our menu will include:

  • Turkey
  • Cauliflower stuffing
  • Carrot souffle’
  • Roasted Brussels sprouts
  • Apple crisp with “ice cream”

Look for the recipes to come!

It’s just nuts

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We have five pecan trees in our yard. They produce fruit every three years and it’s a lot of nuts. Certainly more nuts than two people and one dog can hope to use.

The last time, we gave away bagsful of nuts, invited the church members to come pick them up and still had plenty left over until they started falling from the trees this year.

I’ve collected about a half a bucket of nuts so far this year. But they are plentiful and there are still a whole bunch left on the tops of the trees.

Usually every day, I pick up nuts around the edges of our property to keep the would be pecan poachers honest. Today, I read a book all day and didn’t pick up any nuts.

I just watched a man go along the alley, on the empty lots (of which there are now five highly populated with both pecan trees and nuts) picking up nuts and putting them in his pocket like he thought no one was watching.

BooBoo and I watched out the window as he came around the house and started looking at our grass. As he bent down to pick up the first nut, I opened the door and I asked him, “Did you plan to ask if you could have those nuts?”

He dropped what he had in his hands. “Oh.”

Me: “So let me ask you, would you just take my car?”

Him: “What?”

Me: “Would you just take my car because you wanted it?”

Him: “Oh no, I wouldn’t take your car.”

Me: “Then why would you just take my nuts without asking?”

Him. “Oh, I’m sorry. I won’t take any.” And he hurried off down the sidewalk.

If anyone came up to the door and asked if they could have some of our pecans, I would say sure, thanks for asking and help yourself. As I said above, there are a LOT. Way more than we can use.

But something that is a huge irritant to me every three years is the people who will just come along and try and help themselves to my property unless I stop them.

I’m a generous person but I don’t like thieves and I really, truly want to understand why someone thinks that it’s okay to take pecans when it’s not okay to take cars?