Alrighty now. What shall we talk about? Hmmm… What say we talk about food and exercise? Hey, wait a minute. Don’t leave! I’ll try to talk about a few other things. Oh, here’s some pictures from this morning’s walk.
The view from the top of my hill to the top of another hill:
See that tiny little gray blob between two trees over on that hill? I know. I can’t see it either. But look:
Kinda scary that I can do that with my little ol’ point and shoot, huh? I just hope no one’s out there tonight with a telescopic night lens pointed through my big window with me sitting here in my nightie and all.
Oh, and Look!!! The Return of the Stick! I was pretty excited when Noah found this little stick in the middle of the road and picked it up. I thought maybe that was just a stage he was going through.
Alright. Now that I’ve got you hooked, I’m gonna talk about my favorite topic. FOOD. This morning on Georgie’s blog, she had a great entry talking about good fats in the diet, and why a lot of her recipes are low fat. Very good post. Check it out. Georgie just has a lot of good practical knowledge, and also some darn good recipes. While I was over there, I noticed a little blurb about using spinach in smoothies, and the recipe looked so good I wanted to try it. Sounded so refreshing, and relatively low cal. Only thing was, I didn’t have spinach. But what I made was fantastic anyways.
Here’s what I made:
- 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze
- 1/2 cup whey (when I strain my yogurt to make greek yogurt I keep the liquid ‘whey’ and use it in various and sundry recipes.) You can use whatever liquid you want.
- 1/2 frozen banana
- a little cinnamon
- 3 ice cubes
Oh, it was delicious and refreshing!
I am really starting to get into the treadmill thing at the gym. Of course it doesn’t hurt that I can watch TV. (For those of you new to my blog, I haven’t had a TV for over a year, by my own choice.) Today Dr. Oz had an interesting show again. Had a segment on foods that help you sleep. According to him, Pubsgal and I should never be awake, what with all the walnuts we consume. Then he had a segment on three new foods to try: pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts (not gonna happen here,) amaranth instead of brown rice, and trout instead of salmon. I used to love trout, so I will try that and the amaranth. Actually I have some pumpkin seeds and I like them. Just not gonna give up the walnuts yet.
So, anyway, because I was enjoying the show, and also starting to enjoy the treadmill, I went 35 minutes instead of the 20 I was planning for. And I did some running intervals in there too. I know that’s not much compared to what some of you do. But when I first tried it, I thought I wouldn’t last 5 minutes. Its actually a good idea to change up your exercise occasionally, so I am very glad that I tried this. And hey, its the last season of Oprah…
I picked up a new creation of Vicky’s that I had been interested in trying: zucchini quinoa bread (with dark chocolate chips.) Dang, that girl knows how to cook. The quinoa was whole, as far as I could tell, and added a little crunch to the bread. I can see I will be doing more food experiments soon.
I had the zucchini bread over at the Buck’s with a ‘tall’ coffee, and had a very nice quiet time. I needed to work on organizing my thoughts regarding leading a spiritual formation group. Success, finally. Its not all Mr. You Know Who’s fault that I can’t be quiet at home. I am distracted by a myriad of things in my house–computer, quilting, housework, etc. Its nice to go to Starbuck’s with my book bag and sit quietly with all the computer notebooks.
I had essentially the same dinner last night as I had tonight. Love having leftovers for an easy fix. I did roast these little brussel sprouts, which were quite excellent. I read somewhere that it was brussel sprout season. These really were very fresh and yummy. The tomato was just unbelievable. It was big enough for 3 servings! Just had it with a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil and basil. Last night had the mozarella, tonight plain . The fish is red snapper, pan’fried’ using PAM, and then squirted with a whole lemon .
I had half an apple in the fridge, so I fixed a little bowl of this Stuff for my dessert later. Finally heading to work tomorrow. Then off for the weekend. I know. My life is very tough.
Sleeping Noah. Just the way I like him in the evening.
Sleeping Monkey. Just the way he always is in the evening.
Its hard to catch Sophie sleeping. But this is her on the bed, just the way SHE always likes it in the evening.
I’m off to watch NEW episodes of The Dog Whisperer!
(*IMHO = in my humble opinion.)
debby weighs in 
What did you decide about leading the small group?
I want to check out your back posts for one describing your yogurt making methods. I eat a LOT of yogurt and that’s something I’d like to do.
Love your walking pics.
I think I’m going to give it a try. Still need to work out the details with the friend who asked me to do it. Still nervous, but getting things down on paper yesterday really helped. Thank you so much for your prayers and your encouraging words the other day.
Homemade yogurt is simply the best. I do the whole process in one glass container and the microwave. Here’s the link to the directions: https://debbyweighsin.wordpress.com/recipes/homemade-yogurt/
Let me know when the small group meets so I can remember you specifically at that time. I was a “trainer” by profession, but still get nervous at leading small groups or anything related to discipleship and/or Bible study. I always wonder what makes me think I’m qualified to lead others in discussions about spiritual things. If that happens to you, remember its the demons talking. God desperately needs people willing to lead groups. Thanks for answering that call.
Ohmygosh, your tomatoes look so good I want to stick my fork in this computer screen. Love it that N found a worthy stick and that you got it on film (or pixel, or whatever). Could we also have the recipe for the quinoa zucchini (chocolate chip) bread, please? I bought some quinoa to try (again) that’s in my fridge. Did you now that it goes bad very quickly at room temp??
You know, I’ve heard that about quinoa and the fridge, but it doesn’t make sense to me. I mean, they sell it in packages in the store, and in those big bins where you can buy it by the pound. Well, if I come up with quinoa poisoning some day you can say, I tried to warn her LOL!
Oh, yes. As soon as I can figure it out, or finagle it out of Vicky I’ll let you know the recipe.
So glad to see the return of the stick!! And isnt’ it nice when all of the children are quiet/sleeping? So peaceful!
Wrangle the zucchini bread recipe out of Vicky – that sounds really yummy!! 🙂
I used to do the spinach smoothies, because you really can’t taste the spinach, but they did a number on my tummy. I guess I don’t tolerate raw spinach very well.
Need to get more quinoa – that stuff is good and I forget about it.
Hooray for stick time! I am surprised there are any sticks left in your neighborhood 😀
Sophie on the bed – what is it about that breed that makes them so content (and entitled!) when they are on our beds?
As always, I knew you would understand the Sophie picture. The other thing she is expressing is hope. That I will let her stay on the bed all night instead of making her get in her crate. Which I would LOVE to do if she wouldn’t pee on the carpet every night. It is so nice to have that little hot water bottle next to you every night. Well, at least in winter its nice.
That smoothie sounds good! I have done the spinach-in-the-smoothie thing, and it works really well.
That’s funny about the walnuts. I never had trouble sleeping because of eating walnuts. But pumpkin seeds are good, too, and it’s almost pumpkin season! 😀
Aw, Stick Boy is so cute! I love that expression on his face, it’s like, “Can I keep it, Mama? Can I? Huh? Huh?”
No, you read that backwards, I think. Walnuts are a food that helps you SLEEP. I guess that’s why I take a dish of them to bed with me every night LOL.