A Resolution To Keep

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I’m not one for making New Year’s resolutions. I’ve always felt that if you made a resolution it would ultimately be broken. Such common resolutions like losing weight, exercising more. We all see the kick off of those on January 2 when the stores trot out their “diet” food on sale and the gyms are all packed. At least for three weeks.

Eventually, the initial crush passes away. People let it slide. Resolutions are broken and another year is in full swing.

Well, this year, I’m making a resolution and I will keep it. In 2015 I resolve to not involve myself in Secret Santa gift exchanges.

Weird, no? Let me explain.

I love Secret Santa. I love taking the time to scout out the perfect gift for my draw. It makes my heart happy waiting to hear that they received the gift and to find out how they liked it. The remainder of the Secret Santa fun is getting a surprise gift that someone hopefully got the same enjoyment out of selecting and sending to me.

I have been a part of two Secret Santa groups now for the past two years. In one group, we actually use Elfster and the participants list things they would like to receive which gives you an idea of what to give even if you don’t know the person.

Neither of the two years did I know the person who’s name I drew but I still had fun looking through their list and choosing for them something that I would like to receive.

The other group is a blind gift. If I could have made my own choice of the person I wanted to have for my draw this year, it would have been the person I got. I was so happy. I already knew what the gift would be, I just had to find it. I had to have one piece made but then found the other. I enjoyed including a little description of the background of one of the selections as I knew the other would be understood.

Both recipients seemed happy with their gifts and, in turn, I was happy.

It’s now New Year’s Eve. The last of the deliveries have been made for the day, tomorrow is a holiday. Not to mention, another year.

I have received no Secret Santa gifts in return.

I’m not mad. Things happen, people get busy, sick, life gets in the way. But I can’t help but being a little bit disappointed.

For the past three years, one of my favorite events with Social Media Tulsa has been the time we spend with the Salvation Army helping them get ready for the Angel Tree gift giving. The group is a fun group and the cause, a worthy one. I love bringing toys that will go to kids who might otherwise not have a fun Christmas.

Next year, instead of Secret Santa, I’m going to draw angels from the Angel Tree and fulfill their wishes. Since Christmas, to me, is really about giving, it will be a completely happy experience.

I’m excited with my New Year’s resolution, one I know I will keep. Maybe the first ever! I’m also looking forward to an awesome 2015 and I wish you and yours an equally awesome New Year. 🙂

Book Review: Devil in the Deadline

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Devil in the Deadline by LynDee Walker

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book. Once I picked it up, I read it straight through. Although it’s the fourth in a series, it’s the first one I’ve read. I loved the fact that I wasn’t bogged down in back story from the previous books and only realized towards the end that the characters knew each other too well for there to have been just the one book. Excellent!

I love Nichelle, a journalist with a flair for detecting. I loved how the story was woven to where I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be until it was revealed.

Nichelle is called to the scene of a murder by a cop who trusts her to get the story out and maybe talk to people who won’t talk to the cops. As she starts investigating the story, she comes to connect the murdered girl to a large televangelist church.

After several visits out to the church and nosing around Nichelle becomes more convinced that the two are connected but lacks everything she needs to prove it.

There are two love interests for Nichelle. Joey, a guy with mob connections and Kyle, an ATF agent. These two add for a nice twist inside the story.

I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a fast paced, intriguing read. I can’t wait to read the books that came before! 🙂

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Book Review: Vanessa and Her Sister

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Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had a hard time with this book but ultimately ended up liking it. It’s written in a diary form which, at first, seemed disjointed to me. But it also made it easy to read.

The story is about Vanessa Stephens and her sister, Virginia. Virginia love Vanessa beyond all reason and is a little emotionally unstable. Because of this, she wants whatever Vanessa has including her husband, friends, etc.

The book is a fictional work based upon real people and events, The Bloomsbury Group. I didn’t realize this until I was reading the Author’s Note at the end. I wonder if I would have “gotten it” more quickly if I were familiar with these people.

I enjoyed the characters, though. Artists and writers they were very avante garde for their time and always remained friends no matter water.

I’m glad I finished this book. 🙂

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Raw Vegan Avocado Pasta

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I’ve been sitting here the last couple of days marveling at this person I’ve become. It’s Christmas time after all and I’m not planning tons of uber sweet treats for us all to eat. No, instead, things like this happen. The other day I clicked into Pinterest to look at something Nikki wanted to do for the glambaby’s birthday and I saw this:

I clicked through to see the ingredients and immediately became obsessed with eating this salad. Now, I’d heard about hemp seeds before but had never eaten them so I’m not sure why I felt I needed to eat this, I just did. As soon as I could get away, I ran to Akins and bought hemp seeds and hemp oil and came home and made the salad. I wasn’t disappointed. One of the best things I’ve eaten since I started my raw journey.

I find myself finding other recipes that aren’t necessarily raw and trying to figure out how to make them raw and that’s what I did today. I came across this recipe for Avocado Pasta. I loved the idea but there were so many things I don’t eat in the recipe. Still, it leant itself nicely to being modified and I came up with this for lunch today. Oh yum! Seriously one of the best things I’ve eaten. If I had more zucchini, I’d have made myself another huge bowl.

raw_avocado_pasta

I will definitely eat this again and again and again. The only thing I’ll do differently is add more ground black pepper which I adore. Yum!

Last year at Christmas, I think there were more desserts than people here to eat them. This year, my biggest Christmas dinner dilemma is what to do with all of my bananas so we can all sit at the dining table. What a change! 🙂

bananas

Raw Vegan Avocado Pasta

2014-12-06 13:53:17

Delicious zoodles with a creamy avocado sauce.

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Ingredients

4 small or 2 large zucchini
1 ripe avocado
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs lemon juice
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
Ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

Spiralize zucchini into zoodles. Cuz tomatoes in half.
To make the avocado sauce, place avocado, spices, and lemon juice in blender or food processor. Blend. Add water to make a smooth sauce.
Pour over zoodles and tomatoes, toss until evenly coated. Add ground pepper to taste.

Notes

You can use fresh herbs and spices, in fact they're probably preferable but I was in a hurry. Yum yum! 🙂

By Lauri Rottmayer

Adapted from DamnDelicious.net

Lauri Rottmayer https://www.rottitude.com/

Book Review: The Job

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The Job by Janet Evanovich
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another fun book by Janet Evanovich! I loved it. I love this series. Kate and Nick are great.

Nick Fox is a world renowned thief who has been caught and is undercover working for the FBI. Kate is an FBI agent who works with Nick. She tries not to fall for him but he’s sexy and charming and handsome and smells good.

In this book they are trying to catch a notorious bad guy who’s had complete body plastic surgery and has assumed a new identity. They come up with a great plan to catch him that’s funny and suspenseful.

This is a fast moving book with great characters and a good story line. Highly recommend! 🙂

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Book Review: The Heart Has Its Reasons

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The Heart Has Its Reasons by María Dueñas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m normally a very fast reader but this book took me a long time to finish. At the beginning, it moved slowly for me. But the back story kept drawing me in and made me want to finish. I’m so glad I did!

In an effort to escape the abrupt ending of her marriage, Blanca accepts a position in California, far away from her home in Madrid. She is to work on the legacy of a former professor at the college where she ends up. Although she is over qualified for the position, it was what she needed to get past the hurt in her life.

As she progresses through the life of the professor via his papers, she meets Daniel Carter. It is Daniel’s story that is the back story there. How, as a young man, he went to Spain to become entrenched in the culture and society so he could be a Hispanist.

This story was wonderful. I didn’t know exactly how the two stories would merge until close to the end. If you start to read it, and think it’s not moving fast enough, hold on and finish it! You’ll be glad you did.

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Raw Pumpkin Spice Smoothie

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I’m not one of those girls who’s all gaga over pumpkin spice everything. I like the taste but hadn’t had it this year. This morning, I found myself with a banana crisis on my hands. Usually I have the same smoothie for breakfast: bananas, strawberries and spinach. I love it so much I usually have it for lunch! 🙂

raw_pumpkin_smoothie

But I used my last “dead” banana yesterday at lunch time. I have frozen bananas and bananas that aren’t quite ripe yet. So last night I had to figure out what I was going to have for breakfast so I’d be prepared. I had used some of the pumpkin I had in the freezer to make Raw Pumpkin Hummus (amazing!) and thought that pumpkin could be a possibility.

I was nervous to eat a pumpkin raw. Why? I couldn’t tell you. Everthing I’ve tasted raw so far has been delicious. I was so drawn by the hummus recipe that I finally decided to try it. When I got the pumpkin all pureed, I tasted it and was surprised. It was sweet! And yummy. 🙂 I then proceeded to Middle Easternize it. 😉

So this morning, I decided to make a Raw Pumpkin Spice Smoothie. I used dates, frozen bananas, pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. Then , after I took a pretty photo of it, I added a half a bag of spinach because I have just got to have it! The spinach didn’t take away from the deliciosity of the smoothie, it just took away its pumpkiny color. Here I am making up all sorts of words in one paragraph. 😉

raw_pumpkin_smoothie_spinach

So here’s the recipe if you’d like to try it. It is a big YUM! I think quite highly of raw pumpkin now, if you hadn’t guessed.

Raw Pumpkin Pie Smoothie

2014-11-11 08:48:58

A raw pumpkin spice offering.

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Ingredients

10 dates
2 frozen bananas
1 cup raw pumpkin
1 cup water
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
4 1/2 oz spinach, if desired

Instructions

Add dates, water, bananas into Vitamix. Blend well. Then add pumpkin and spice and blend until combined. If you'd like to add spinach, add enough water to mix it in, approximately 2 cups.

Notes

The spinach doesn't take away from the pumpkin-y taste!

By Lauri Rottmayer

Lauri Rottmayer https://www.rottitude.com/

#NaNoWriMo 2014

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NaNoWriMo logo

Have you hear of NaNoWriMo? I believe I first heard of it four years ago when my friend Jen Luitweilter was participating. She explained to me that NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writer’s Month. And a lot of people do it!

I’ve had a book in my head for several years now. Back then, it hadn’t been there as long, though. I investigated the website and decided that the following November, I was going to sign up and finally write that booki.

The following November rolled around and I made an account at the NaNo website. And I chickened out. I hadn’t even written Pageant Savvy at that time. I’d written no book and I was terrified to write one. That no one would read it and I would be embarrassed.

Another year went by.

It was November of 2013 and I thought, “This year, I’m going to do it!” I logged into my account at the NaNo website and this time, I entered the title of my book.

And I chickened out.

At this point, I HAD written a book but it was non fiction. My doubts were huge and I thought I simply couldn’t write fiction.

Earlier in 2014, My friend Becky McCray told me to just write the darned thing and get it out. Don’t worry about edits, that would come later. Great advice and I did think about starting to write it then but never did. Things got in the way, I was still scared.

I put “Win NaNoWriMo 2014” on my goals list. Write Mrs. Congeniality was already there. It’s been there. 😉

This year, in September, I went to a blogger get together. There, I sat across the table from one of the Municipal Liaisons of the Tulsa NaNo group. I told her I had tried a couple of years to do NaNo but I had chickened out. She told me about the local group and told me she was going to hold my feet to the fire.

So this year, I logged into my account, entered a title, a synopsis, donated to the cause (NaNo is user supported) and began writing. Now after having written for seven days, my word count is just under 19,000. My dashboard says that I should complete my book November 22, eight day early. Whoa!

And you know what? It’s been fun! This book has been in my head for so long, it’s just flowing out my fingers and I like it. Bigger news? I wouldn’t care if someone read it! And this is only the first draft.

While I have a general idea of the story, I did write bios for all of the characters before I started writing. As I write, situations take place on the screen that, after I’m finished, surprise me. I had no idea I would write that. How fun!

I will win NaNoWriMo this year. And I will be so happy to cross two goals off my list. But I want to encourage you. If you ever thought you had a book to write, don’t be scared, sign up for NaNoWritMo and get it done in November. 🙂

Raw Sweet Potato, Carrot & Spinach Soup

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I’ve been having a heck of a time getting warm today even though it’s supposed to be a record breaking warm day. I decided to have soup for lunch and boy was it GOOD! 🙂

raw_sweet_potato_carrot_spinach_soup

I bought some sweet potatoes the other day and wanted to use them but, like a lot of days, I sometimes feel sweeted out from all of the fruit I eat and most of the recipes season with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. I wanted something spicy!

I chopped up a large carrot and blended it with a cup of water. I then cut up two sweet potatoes and chunked them and tossed them in. The mixture was pretty thick so I added another cup of water. Then I found some little orange peppers that I forgot I had and tossed in a couple of those and some onion. I then added some of the home made taco seasoning that is always in the cupboard and cilantro. Oh how I love cilantro!

I blended it all in the Vitamix until it was warm. Then I poured about 2/3 of the soup into my bowl and added a big handful of spinach to the remaining soup in the blender and blended it. I tried to swirl the two colors of soup but I think I had too much green to make it pretty but, oh well, it was delicious and that’s better than pretty, right?

Raw Sweet Potato, Carrot & Spinach Soup

2014-10-25 12:45:05

Serves 1

Delicious, spicy raw soup!

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Prep Time

10 min

Total Time

10 min

Prep Time

10 min

Total Time

10 min

Ingredients

1 large carrot
2 cups water
2 sweet potatoes
2 mini orange peppers
1 cup spinach
chopped onion to taste
2 tsp home made taco seasoning*
cilantro to taste

Instructions

Place 2 cups of water in Vitamix and add carrot. Blend.
Add chopped sweet potato and peppers. Blend until smooth.
Add onion, taco seasoning and cilantro. Blend until warm.
Pour 2/3 of soup into bowl. Add spinach to the remaining soup and blend until smooth. Pour in the middle of first soup and swirl. Garnish with more cilantro and cracked black pepper. Yum!

By Lauri Rottmayer

Adapted from Raw Carrot and Sweet Potato Soup with Spinach

Lauri Rottmayer https://www.rottitude.com/

*I use the taco seasoning recipe found here.