The Why Behind The What

These several times a day smoothies (have had 3 a day the last few days) are curbing my appetite for a bunch of junk food and are definitely helping to give me more energy and I only felt a little achy until late in the afternoon when I had a bit of a flare-up. We went to Half-Price books today and I picked up a few books on nutrition and one in particular that's been very informative - The Food Doctor - Healing foods for mind and body by Vicki & Ian Dipion. I'm enjoying it because I really wanted the why behind the what. I know that pineapple is a good choice for fibromyalgia sufferers but I didn't know why, now I do. The pineapple core contains bromelain which blocks pro-inflammatory prostaglandins as well as increasing anti-inflammatory prostaglandins. I also read that bananas are a good before bed snack so I made the following smoothie for Andy and I tonight. I used one I read on Pinterest by Dr. Oz as a jumping off point. It's a thick smoothie that has a somewhat unusual taste but we both loved it - I guess the proof will be in the pudding and we'll see how we sleep tonight.

Suck It Fibro Sleepy Time Smoothie

1 banana
1/2 avocado
1 apple
1/2 c milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 large heaping spoonful of homemade almond butter
2 large spoonfuls of pomegranate arils
2 Tbsp Chia Seeds
1 c frozen cherries
2 c ice

Throw into the vitamix in the order given. Yum!

Today's Smoothie ...

Is a green smoothie and was so yummilicious! I say "was" because both Andy and I slurped it up in about ten minutes flat. This one turned out a very healthy green color. The following is the recipe.

Fibromyalgia Can Kiss My Fat Rolls

1 banana
1 bunch of red grapes
1 orange
1 apple
More than 1 handful but less than 2 of fresh spinach
2 heaping spoonfuls of plain organic yogurt
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp organic pure vanilla extract
A healthy dollop of honey
8 large frozen strawberries
1/2 c of water

Put all of the ingredients in the vitamix in order given. Start the blender on 1 and work to the highest level. Blend for 30-45 seconds. Enjoy!

Smoothie Sensation For This Broken-down Fibro body

This weekend the hubs and I broke down and bought a Vitamix. Should've done it a long time ago with what I've paid for on other much less wondrous blenders and food processors in the past few years. We debated between that and a good juicer but Costco had the Vitamix at $100 off the normal price and so we gathered our pennies and took the plunge. Is it that expensive? I guess in the grand scheme of life maybe not but its about the same price as washing machine, an iPad, a television for our bedroom - and all it does is blend! I think it should have a few more features for that price. I say all of this just to give my train of thought and to admit that I really am cheap and don't like to spend over $100 on anything. BUT this overpriced blender is probably the best appliance we've ever purchased. Totally worth the money and I guess it proves the adage "you get what you pay for".

So since we have this new toy I'm determined to use it every day and honestly we've used it several times a day this week. The whole family is drinking our yummy vitamins. I've noticed that I'm feeling a little better in the mornings. The fibromyalgia is not knocking my on my arse as much as normal and my sugar addiction is not clamoring in the back of my head during every waking moment. I'm still crashing out in the afternoons but I'm afraid I might be overdoing the chores when I have a little extra energy and feeling less bad than normal.

Thought I'd share today's recipe which was yummilicious even if Andy said it looked like something Fat Bastard drank. But as any kindergartener will tell you, if you mix red, green, and yellow you'll get brown! So it may look a little gross but the taste is all that matters! At least to me anyway! Please note that 2 bananas are in this smoothie. If bananas give you migraines, don't use them. Unless you want a migraine. If you want a migraine you are too stupid to read my blog - these are not the droids you're looking for, you can go about your business. Move along, move along.

Today's smoothie is called:
Fibro Can F*** Off For All I Care

1/2 fresh pineapple
2 bananas
1/4 lemon
1 orange
1 large spoonful of organic plain yogurt
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
A healthy dollop of honey
1/2 c water
1 c frozen kale
15 large frozen strawberries

Put ingredients in the blender in order listed, reserving half of the following items: pineapple, banana and strawberries. If using a Vitamix start on 1 and work up to the highest setting until completely blended, tamping down all the while. Once blended, lower the setting to 3 and add remaining ingredients. Place on highest setting and blend until all fruit is fully mixed in and no chunks of fruit are remaining, approximately 30-45 seconds. Smoothie will be the color of cat sick.

What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

I'm the worst blogger. I know that - I've had five or six of them over the years. Blogs haven't even been around that long. So instead of starting a new one, I'm just going to revive this one. The last post was from September 2011, so where have I been? Upside down. That's where I've been - upside down.

A year and a half in a nutshell: part-time job turned into a full-time job turned into having to quit, 3 kids in school to two kids in school and one in college, marriage ups, downs, and back ups again, healthy body to a sick body, family and friends visiting, a trip to California, new friends, old friends, a giant puppy who is still a giant puppy, 20 pounds down, up, down, and up again. And I'm sure a million other things but that a good overview. Probably one of the biggest life changers of this list is the sick body part, which has impacted a lot of other things. Fibromyalgia. It's changed my life. It changes everyone's life. Pain everywhere, insomnia, exhaustion - it's a fun little chronic illness. But it's given me time to knit and crochet. Maybe it'll give me time to blog as well. But I won't be holding my breath. ;-)

I'm on about ten different medications and hurting all the time but I'm going to start drinking smoothies and juice - try to detox my body some. I'm hoping that will make a difference - I'm tired of being miserable all the time. It blows my mind that some people think this is made up or all in a person's head. What a joke! If I made this up, I'd certainly make up a cure for myself! My whole life has changed, and not for the better. Why would anyone make up such a dreadful thing? So I'm hoping this diet change will help. We'll see...

Going Granolafied

Apparently, I really am going granola. All this crocheting and crafting and bread baking and detergent making has pushed me over to granola making as well. I've made it for the second time this week - second time because the family GOBBLED up the first batch. When it comes down to it, I'm not 100% sure this is  cheaper than buying it at the store (recently, I've been buying the organic granola from costco at around $7 for a good sized box) I haven't actually sat down and figured out the price per cup but clearly the beauty of this is that I know exactly what I'm putting into it, which means I know exactly what the family is putting into their bellies. I also had bought oatmeal in bulk a while back and it hasn't been going as fast as I thought, so this is a good way to use that up.

I mainly drink almond milk - and personally I thought the granola was delicious with that. The almost 14 year old man-child who would be a junk food junkie if I allowed it absolutely loved this stuff - of course he decided he loved it enough to put it on top of a bowl of ice cream as well, but whatever ... I just keep cramming the word "moderation" down all of their throats. Poor eating habits have certainly hit home and I am bound and determined that these kids will take what they eat seriously before they reach full adulthood.

After scouring around on the internet, the recipe I finally landed on was this one I found at CDKitchen. It is beyond easy and best of all, it makes the house smell AMAZING - exactly like autumn should smell. I did make some slight adjustments - so here's my version of the recipe:

Ingredients:
4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups sliced almonds
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup bran flakes
approx. 1/4 cup chopped nuts (I had a little bag partially used and just threw it in for the heck of it)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
approx. 1/3 cup veg. oil
approx. 1/3 cup honey (the recipe called for 1/4 cup of each of these, I went a little more since I put in more ingredients)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins (I love raisins but my kids all fight against the raisin tide, so the adults end up eating them all anyway)

Preheat oven at 300.

In a bowl mix top nine ingredients. On the stove, warm up the oil and honey in a saucepan, don't let it boil, add in the vanilla. Rotating the dry ingredient bowl, slowly add in the honey mix. Pour on a baking pan. I used parchment paper for this and I highly recommend that - I don't think it would have turned out as well on just a baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. If you like your raisins to have a slightly baked flavor, I'd add them in at this time (which I did) or if you like them totally raw, you add them in at the end. Bake for an additional five minutes. The original recipe calls for a full 40 minute bake time, but that was too long in my oven - you'll need to know your own oven here because I'm guessing you don't want charred granola. Set the baking pan on a cooling rack and cool completely - during the cooling process is when the granola clumps together so letting it cool completely is important (although, I did nibble on it during the cooling). And then seal it up in tupperware and watch it disappear - at least it did at my house!

Obviously, this is an easy recipe to make your own. I think next time I'll get some dried apples and use apple pie seasoning or I was thinking maybe pumpkin spice might be yummy to try in honor of pumpkin spice latte season. I'm just going to say, I'm good with being a little granola.

Muffins, Addictions, and Baby Contortionists

I found this recipe on pinterest or stumbleupon or flicker or craftgawker or tumblr or I have no idea! You could spend your entire life going from one social networking site to another looking at blog after blog of things, things that after awhile could make a person feel like an inadequate slob for not being able to transform a thrift store  kitchen table into an amazing wall mural that is both elegant and kitschy. But in all honesty, it's a hard addiction for me to avoid. I looorve stumbleupon and pinterest especially and I could spend hours on etsy convincing myself I could make this or that. It's a problem. *sigh* One that I'll just have to live with.

So back to the muffins. I found this recipe here. I loved the idea of having a snack for the kids for after school or in their lunches that I made out of just two ingredients - and two ingredients I often have in my cupboard. Why I always have an extra can of pumpkin in the back of my pantry is a total mystery to me - but there it always sits among the extra cans of black beans and diced tomatoes. So I went ahead and made these this morning - except I made them in muffin form and added a half of a bag of chocolate chips I needed to find a use for. They're pretty yummy! Mostly they taste like pumpkin muffins, you don't taste a lot of the yellow cake mix in there and I could not make them look pretty - but that's okay (refer back to my suspicion of too pretty food). They have a denser consistency than your typical cake or muffin batter which means it didn't lay in the muffin cups very uniform, even though I used an ice cream scoop like usual. But other than that, easy peasy - you should try them out.

Also this weekend I worked on several projects. A couple I'm not revealing at this juncture - but I had a request for one of my apple cozies and then a friend has asked me to make a little man sweater vest for a baby boy (who is to blame for the sweater vest return? I'm not complaining - I love them myself - even wore a couple in high school, which were not at all cool... but I'm wondering, is it that kid on Glee? Justin Timberlake? Who has pushed this fashion forward? Personally, I'd like to think it was Harry Potter, but I always like to think it's Harry Potter). But do you know, those aren't easy to find! I could not find a pattern anywhere so I made it up. This was my first attempt - however, it's going to need to be in a stretchier yarn (this one I just used in worsted weight since I was practicing - but I rarely ever use plain ol worsted weight yarn, I generally stick to cotton if I can). But as my dear bff pointed out - how exactly are you going to get a baby into that thing? Only baby contortionists can wear it - and I think that's a pretty small demographic. So back to the drawing board....

Love Charley!

Harper that is. Charley Harper was from Cincinnati and when we first moved here I went to an exhibition of his work, his Ford Times art in particular, and just loved it. If you aren't familiar with him, you should definitely check him out.  So I made my own embroidered rendition of his cardinal close up - I drew it free hand so it's obviously not exact, but I like the way it turned out.

Also, here is my cutesy little owlishness mural as well.