50th Blog Post and a New Goal!!

So T-minus 70 days until my 30th birthday! I've decided to celebrate by running in my first ever 5k! I was going to run in the Mushroom Festival's 5k, but I'm just starting to train with this great Couch to 5K program for the iPod and I don't think I'll be ready by September 11th. However, I want to go run/walk it as practice for my birthday run.

The 5k I want to participate in is called the Lupus Loop in Philadelphia. October 30th at 9:00 am the run begins! Will you run with me? Having the moral support of my friends would be awesome! So who's with me?

To Starting Age 30 Right!
Cheers,
Katy

Fruits and Veggies and Freezing, Oh my!

In The Essential Vegetarian Guide, Shaw recommends freezing and preserving fruits and veggies so that eating wonderful and healthy summer produce continues through the cold winter months.

After a shopping spree at our local produce junction, I decided to take Shaw's advice and learn how to preserve my fruits and veggies for quick access in healthy recipes all year long.

So far, I have frozen corn and sweet potatoes using this extremely helpful website. The instructions are simple to follow and encouraging. I have a ton of mushrooms that I'm so excited to use in this slow cooker vegan recipe I found for cream of mushroom soup! Now, I have to get over my fear of canning. I don't have a canner, and I might just ask for one for Christmas to make the starting process a bit easier.

Now, I am off to freeze some bell peppers! :-)

With the pound of blueberries and 6 grapefruits, I decided to experiment with making sorbet with a simple recipe from allrecipes.com. Juice the grapefruit and then blend with blueberries and 1 c. sugar. Freeze the mixture for 3 hours or until solid, stir to smooth out ice crystals, freeze again for another 3 hours or more. I'll have pictures tomorrow!

To learning new things,
Cheers,
Katy

Sweet Potato Chili

It's Friday night, and the skies have opened. Thunder, or "wonder" as my Libby would say, is rumbling. Lightening is flashing. I want comfort food. With three pounds of sweet potatoes calling my name, I know exactly what I want... no... need to make. I came across the idea in The Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas. Atlas' approach to the chili is wonderful, but somehow I've seemed to make so many adjustments after misplacing my only copy of the recipe that the chili has become my own.

For this recipe you will need:
6-7 small sweet potatoes, washed, peeled, and quartered slices
Fresh Salsa (I use the Giant brand, but feel free to improvise)
28 oz can of diced tomatoes
28 oz can of low sodium, vegetarian black beans
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 c. Vegetable Broth
A dash of nutmeg and salt to taste

1) Prep your sweet potatoes
2) In a large saucepan, add your extra virgin olive oil and salsa. Simmer until salsa is fragrant and onions are golden and stir frequently.
3) Add sweet potatoes, vegetable broth, black beans, nutmeg, and diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil a simmer for 15-20 minutes until sweet potatoes are tender.
4) Serve with tortillas and light sour cream (if you prefer)


As you can see, my kids love this recipe! It's incredibly simple, healthy, and easy to prepare.
Have fun cooking, and feel free to share any variations or adjustments.








To Healthy Comfort Food,
Cheers!
Katy

Called back

My old school district called me back in. I start teaching September 1st. What?! This month I dedicated my time resigning to the idea that teaching full-time wasn't for me. That maybe my passion and intelligence weren't enough. I received the letter an hour ago, and after a couple frantic calls (1) to my husband, who's on his way back from a business trip, and (2) to my mother, and listening to all their practical reasons to go back, and I agreed.

Harrison and Libby were disappointed with the decision. The childcare for them was set up before I was laid off and it was never canceled, so logistically, they would be in school while I was in school. Their anxieties were deeper than practicality. They were afraid that last year would repeat itself. That they would lose their mommy from September to June. Last year, however, taught me to prioritize my health and relationships before my career.

God help me keep these priorities. I know that I became work obsessed last year, and hopefully that knowledge and the maturity I have gained through experiences these past few months will help me keep a healthy perspective.

To Going Back But Not Regressing,
Cheers,
Katy

Tuna Noodle Salad a.k.a."The Sponge-Bob"

Hey Everyone!

I have to go grocery shopping. No bread, no milk, no cheese. Unfortunately, when preparing food for my kids these items are considered staples. Libby woke up from her nap around 2:00 and, due to a serious undertaking with home organization, I completely forgot to prepare lunch.

After searching through the cabinets, I found a can of tuna, light mayo, relish, and 1/4 box of bow tie noodles! Ah ha! I quickly boiled the noodles, and cooled them. Then I combined the noodles with the can of tuna, 2 Tbsp. of Light Mayo, 1 Tbsp. of relish, and we ate the salad served with a side of fresh pineapple. It was awesome! Libby kept saying it was the best lunch ever, while Harrison whimpered apprehensively at the thought of eating something other than the norm. After a few bites he warmed up to it, but he wasn't as fond as the Libster of this improvisational dish.

To Improv,
Cheers,
Katy

Bread Baking

I am going to try it! The first menu in Shaw's book calls for whole wheat bread to accompany a curry egg salad, and if I'm really going to do this challenge I want to do it right. Shaw's recipe for "hearth-warming homemade bread" looks simple enough, but I have my trepidations!

I relate to Shaw as she admits attributing her failed attempts with bread baking to "...a threatening demeanor that scares the life out of tiny organisms such as yeast, a free spirit that can't bother to distinguish between a half cup and a whole one, and an artistic temperament that favors impulse and improvisation over meticulous measuring and timing. In actual fact, the reason is that I'm impatient, disorganized, and way too undisciplined for an art that requires such precision and care." (Shaw, 396)

This quote summarizes most of my excuses for any failure and the actual reasons for those failures. My "creative temperament" has been my reasoning against discipline. Routines were tossed aside because they felt too legalistic and stifling. Shaw's saving grace was a snow day. She took the time to follow the recipes "letter by letter" and commit to perfecting her skills. Afterward, she applied her improvisation. Maybe this should be how I go about learning my routine. Follow a plan letter by letter, and then add my creativity after I've become so familiar with the right way that my creative impulses aren't derailing to the ultimate goal.

It's raining today. Not a blizzard, but still, it's a great opportunity to stay in and bread baking will be fun project to do with Harrison and Libby.

To First Attempts,
Cheers,
Katy

Menu Planning

So today I'm planning the family menu for the next two weeks.

My bookshelves are fully stocked with great cookbooks that I completely ignored for two years while I worked. Flipping through the pages, I remember all the fun I had learning new recipes and devoting my cooking style to healthy living.

My favorite, The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook by Diana Shaw, reminds me of the challenge I gave myself before I started working full-time: To cook my way through the Diana Shaw's recipes.

So here we go! Hopefully my family will be just as excited!

To Healthy Living,
Cheers,
Katy

My Little Shadow

Here I stand, arms akimbo, hands on hips, and asking Harrison if he cleaned his room. With a quick glance to my right, I see her. My joy and my love. The one everyone says looks just like me. Libby. Her arms akimbo, hands on hips, eyes wide, and lips slightly pursed. Her dream in life is to be a mommy and a teacher. Her eyes light up when she looks downstairs after her nap and sees me typing on my computer/waiting for her to wake up. I can't imagine the world without her.

Earlier this week, when someone told me that she looked just like me, I thought about her future. How I so desperately want to be a part of it. How thrilling it will be to see. She turns three this week, and once again I'll be reminded how quickly time slips by and my vow to cherish each moment healthily and happily.

To Libby on her 3rd birthday week,
Cheers,
Katy

A Terrible Reason Not To Write...

I'm having an ugly Betty week. I hate my body. I hate my clothes. I hate my hair. BLAH!

...that is all.

Well, not really. I also hate this feeling. This searching for a reason to let go and actually take care of myself needs to stop.

I've been mourning the loss of my job since June, and I finally feel like I have nailed down the "what," the main reason, for my mourning. Sure, I'm sick over the idea that I won't be going back to my old school and do everything I had planned. Much like a relationship in which the girl hears wedding bells only to find out her significant other experiences waves of nausea after hearing any words spoken in future tense. I was finally ready to settle into a life and to make plans, and I sacrificed so much in order to do it. This is my realization, this the thing I am mourning the most: I lost a year of Libby and Harrison's life because of the hours I kept and my inexperience with prioritizing with a sense of balance.

In high school and college my friends and romantic relationships had top priority over any of my academics. I always put relationships first no matter what. This job, changed my ability to do that--or maybe I was just focusing on the wrong relationships. Sure, my relationships with O'Connor, Atwood, Salinger, and my students were going strong, but then again, I met Harrison's playschool teacher close to the end of his school year. As a teacher, I hated parents like me. It hurt so much when I realized that I was one of them.

So, now I am dealing with the hurt and the anger. This week I kept pushing all the negativity down only to let it resurface once during a conversation with a friend. Her suggestion was to write a list of all my hurt and anger and any injustices I have gone through in my life time. So I did. I won't publish the list, but I will publish my thoughts about what I wrote down.

At first, the list was binding. Memories that I've repressed came flooding back. I had a terrible diet this week, and I excused it. I was coping. Right? This is coping. Isn't it? But it is not coping. It is hiding. And I challenge any of you who use food, or drugs, or alcohol, or workouts, or shopping, or anything else as a "coping" mechanism to not do what I did. Instead, I needed to immediately follow up with the second step my friend advised me to do after the list was written: address the list head on and pray through it. The hurts and pains of my life are mine. They are mine to give to a higher power. They are mine to surrender... because I don't want them anymore, and I can't do this on my own.

To surrendering,
Cheers,

Katy

Just made it!

Ah ha! I still have 15 minutes left in the day, so I haven't gone back on my word to post for the next 90 days about my progress!

The enchiladas turned out to be really good, but too spicy for my kiddos! Trader Joe's Taco Seasoning is so delicious, but my kids found it to be muy caliente. They were all about the Wholly Guacamole though. Yum! Large chucks of avocado and just the right amount of flavor paired with baked organic tortilla chips. So, so, so good.

Today's workout was all about the kids and I'm sore already!
We spent the afternoon walking/running up the largest hill in the neighborhood with one of our plastic green saucers we use for sledding and... well... we went "Summer sledding." I love seeing these two laugh, and I don't think I've ever seen Libby laugh so hard in my life.

I'm sure my neighbors think we're nutty. But it was so much fun to run and play with them.

Another thing we just started doing is kids' style yoga before bed. I took all the yoga poses I learned in theater and gave them animal names like "the turtle" and the "mermaid." It's fun and a great way to relax before bed. I will have to post pictures of this tomorrow.

To Love, Wackiness, and Good Nights,
Cheers,
Katy

Chicken Enchiladas Katy Style

So we lacked most of the ingredients from the Food.com recipe. Here's what I did:

In a large saucepan, I combined:
2 cups of shredded chicken
1 small can of chopped olives, rinsed and drained
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can of tomato soup
1 package of Trader Joe's Taco Seasoning Mix
3/4 cup of water

and I heated the mixture and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

While that simmered, I prepared yellow rice in fat-free chicken broth according to the directions on the box.

When everything was ready, I poured the rice into a 9"x13" baking dish and started filling tortillas with the chicken mixture. I placed each rolled tortilla seam down onto the rice and covered the tortillas with what was left of the chicken mixture. Then a generous handful of 2% Cheddar cheese went on top. I baked it at 375 for 20 minutes. We'll see how this improvisation worked out. Can't wait to try it!

What's For Dinner?

Low-Fat, High-Taste... CHICKEN ENCHILADAS!! I am so excited about trying out this recipe tonight from Food.com!

Comments!

After reviewing previous posts, my heart started to break for the 27 year old who started this blog. How have two years gone by ignoring this person? She was competitive, eager, and optimistic. The same characteristics I have today--but they had lessened through disappointing experiences and my own failure to reach my goals.

Then, I read the comments. Comments from people who believe in me and people who are supporting me through this journey. The comments hit me in such an emotional way. I felt the competitive urge and a surge of eagerness and optimism flood back to me. I began to remember the 27 year old girl I left behind.

To your support,
Cheers,
Katy