Sunday, June 27, 2010

Cobbler and No Grain Granola


Here they are, as promised!

No Grain Granola


2 cups raw pecans
2 cups raw almonds
8-10 pitted dates
1 tbsp cinnamon
3/4 cup shredded coconut
2 eggs (I used duck eggs)

Process the nuts, dates, and cinnamon until they are a course meal. Stir in the coconut. Add the two eggs, slightly beaten. Stir. It will be thick and clumpy. Spread on a baking sheet with sides. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, stirring at 10 and 20 minutes. Cool and store in an airtight container. Serve with your favorite milk and add fruit, fresh or dried, if you like. We used almond milk.

Jeff says it loks like hamburger meat.  I'm afraid I have to agree. But man, is it good!

 
Blackberry Cobbler (Thanks everydaypaleo.com)

3 cups of fresh blackberries
1 1/2 cups almond meal (finely ground almonds)
1 omega 3 enriched egg
2 tbsp coconut oil
A drizzle of raw organic honey
Cinnamon to taste
“So Delicious” coconut milk

Preheat oven to 350. Pour the blackberries into a pie pan. In a small bowl mix together the egg, almond meal, and coconut oil, and shake in a bunch of cinnamon. Stir well. The mixture will be really thick and clumpy. If you wish, drizzle a bit of raw organic honey on top of the blackberries. By hand (or if you have a 2 year old to help you, that works just as well…) crumble the almond meal mixture on top of the blackberries and bake in your pre-heated oven for 35 minutes. Serve in bowls with cold “So Delicious” brand coconut milk poured over the top. Yes, it’s addicting, but life’s too short to not eat cobbler now and then…

Sorry, I didn't save you any!

Experimenting

My daughter Tabitha has been having terrible problems with her allergies this spring and early summer.  She always looks likes she's crying.  People constantly ask her if she's okay.  She also gets horrible rashes this time of year.  Since allergy eye drops and pills aren't having any effect, we decided it was time for a new course of action.
This eye looks good when compared to hers.
The first thing we did to try to help alleviate her symptoms was to tear apart all of her bedding and wash it.  I also took  away her 5,000 decorative pillows and stuffed animals that covered the bed.  Then I bought her a new pillow and dust cover.  It really didn't seem to help much. 

She had more than this on her bed!

At church I talked to a few people about some of the things they had done that has helped with their allergies.  I got a few ideas for herbal and natural remedies.  Right now we are trying MSM and quercetin.  She just started that yesterday, so we don't know how that is working.  I switched her to some natural soaps and lotions to see if that would help.  Nothing we can see so far with that. 

I love Burt's Bees!

One thing that has seemed to help a little is a major change in her diet.  We are having her eliminate 5 main groups of food.  She has done this for a week so far and it seems to be making some difference.  At least she doesn't look like she is crying.  These are the foods she has eliminated: grains, dairy, eggs, peanuts, and soy.  Hopefully after another week we can start adding them back in slowly to see if there is one of them that does affect her.  We think there may be an issue with grains.  She took Elijah to the movies and had a couple of handfuls of his popcorn.  Before the movies was over her eyes started to itch and turn red.  They had been showing some improvement.  She also had some "paleo" blackberry cobbler.  There isn't any grain in the crust, but it does have egg.  This didn't seem to bother her at all.  She really like the crust and thought it would be a good cereal.  Today I experimented with it and I think I came up with a pretty good batch. 

I will post the recipe for the "No Grain Granola" and the cobbler on a separate post.  The cobbler recipe is courtesy of Paleo Mom.  I have her blog in my links.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

UGH!

There are few things I hate more than shopping for new clothes.  One thing is shopping for new swimwear!  Chinese water torture, water boarding, listening to hip-hop, all those things I Would prefer to buying a new swim suit.  Especially since I have gained 10 pounds and all my hard Crossfit work seems to have gone down the drain.  Nonetheless, I need a new suit.  The others still fit, but I have had them for several years and they just aren't as nice as they used to be.  A little too stretchy now.  Well, I think I managed to find two.  I looked online on http://www.newport-news.com/ and found a few that were appropriate.  They aren't cut too high or too low.  One is a skirt suit and really cute.  The other is made to look like a scuba top.  It has a zipper in the front.  While the picture looks a little low cut, you can enlarge it and tell that if you want you can zip it to the neck.

scuba suit
skirt suit

So ladies, short of wearing a swim burqua, if you are patient, you can find a decent suit to wear!

Off the Table

Well, I got the table clean!  Actually, I got quite a bit done today.  I swept and mopped, did laundry, dusted, cooked lunch and dinner in the morning (it's getting too hot to even grill so I just did enough for two meals while it was still cool), and helped Jeff with some cabinet work.  I did more than that but it escapes me.  I must have overworked my brain.

Now I just need to refinish it!

It was a good thing I got that all done yesterday.  My sister stopped by last night on her way to Stillwater to pick up my niece from soccer camp.  This kid is a camping machine.  She goes to at least three camps a summer.  This year another was added because she made cheerleader.  She decided cheer leading camp was quite boring though.  She did make All-American while she was there.  I guess since she is only in 7th grade, it is pretty impressive.

Tabitha and Erika

We got our little pool up and running.  As long as he is a good kid, Elijah has free reign of the pool.  He's only 7, but I'm not worried about him just getting in it.  It's not very deep and it's an EZ Set pool, so it has soft sides.  My biggest concern is not him getting hurt, but that he leans over it and all the water comes gushing out! 

He is practising snorkeling for Tobago!

Tabitha is having a busy summer so far.  She is working for our church on the landscaping crew.  She's a trooper.  It has been hot ever since she started and it will only get worse.  It is just June after all.  She's brown as a berry, at least that is what my granny would have said.  It's a great farmer tan she has going.  She will work as a camp worker in about 2 weeks.  She will still be on landscaping, but she will get to wear a blue shirt.  I guess you just have to know what that means.  Her friend Jessica is coming from Florida to work also.  She is very excited about Jessica coming!  After camp is over, we have about a week to make sure that she is ready for college.  On top of all of that, she will be getting braces.  My mom decided that is what she wanted to give her for graduation.  What fun!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Productivity

Is it possible to have both a productive and an unproductive day?  I think I just did. 

On the unproductive side:  My kitchen is a mess and I really need to vacuum the whole house and probably steam clean the front hall carpet. (Never put in carpet that is almost white, especially in Oklahoma!)  I can't see my dining room table right now for all the junk mail.  Don't look for pictures of that on here!  It is partly due to sitting in the car dealership for 2 1/2 hours while my car was worked on.  Thankfully the car is still under warranty, but what a time stealer that is!  And the belt still squeaks, "It's in good condition, just really dusty."  Whatever!

On the productive side:  I helped Jeff in the door shop (another time stealer, but one I don't mind too much).  Then I made some pineapple-habanero salsa.  Don't know how it tastes, but Jeff says it's good.  As long as he likes it, I guess.  I took Elijah to the library and we had lunch at Spicy Pickle before we headed off to the dealership.  Bought chicken feed and then we picked Tabitha up from work.  When we got home, I looked at the mess and decided to at least get the dished loaded into the washer. (The mess is also partly due to the fact that I hate to clean because it is a thankless job that no one seems to appreciate.)  Then I made some almond milk kefir.  I have never made this variety before, so I guess we'll see how it turns out tomorrow.  I guess we'll also se if the house gets cleaned! 

Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!

We'll see?

So much done with nothing much accomplished, UGH!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

The Road Less Traveled

That is what our road should be.  At least what is left of our road.  After the flooding washed it our earlier in the week, it is still in a state of disrepair.  Not that I expected the county to come and fix it the next morning.  This is after all Logan County and Logan County is known for its bad roads.  There are also many roads across the county that are just as bad and worse.  We can still get to town if we need to.  We don't even have to take the 4-wheel drive to do it.  Nonetheless, I hope they get around to it pretty soon.  I'm tire of pulling off to the side because two cars can't meet and pass in many spots!


The pictures just don't do it justice.


I'm going to build a glass observation deck out over it and charge people to see it!


Only half of this part of the road is passable.  Can you guess which?

Monday, June 14, 2010

A little rain and laziness

Here is my post from my other blog.  We got over 10" of rain today and I hear the thunder of round two in the distance.  We may be in for a long few days.  One end of our road washed our, and if we get any more heavy rain, I expect the other to as well.  I posted a few pics on my other blog as well.  Here's the link:
Guarding the Garden

Just felling a bit too lazy to repost it all here!  I'll update more tomorrow!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Under Utilized



Those two words describe my great, back deck workout space.  A few years ago my husband and I started to do Crossfit.  We were both instantly hooked.  I love it because, (well frankly, I had always hated to exercise) it is not your packaged video workout.  BOOOORING!  Unfortunately over the last year and a half both of us have had to deal with injuries that have kept us out of the game.  Today that became very evident as I played softball.  Every time I hit the ball and took off for first, I was clumsy and slow.  One time they overthrew first so I was compelled to head for second.  Another overthrow and another case of over competitiveness took over, so I headed to third.  I made it safely, but wished I could have just laid down to take nap.  Running 180 feet should not be so difficult.  It was rather pathetic.  Never have I been so glad to have a player catch a ball!

GHD machine and Tire for jumping

Pull up bars and rings

Back to the point of the post.  I have had this great workout space and rarely ever use it.  Even when we were regularly Crossfitting, I didn't use it much.  The main reason was the pull up bars.  They are made out of Galvanized metal pipe.  It is slick and difficult to maintain a grip.  When your hands get sweaty it's even worse.  Hopefully today I took care of that with $10 worth of tennis racquet grip.  I also started back on my Zone Diet.  I hope in a couple of weeks to be back into a routine with both diet and exercise.  I also hope to look good in my bathing suit by the time we head to Tobago in September!


Without the tape

Regular grip tap

"Pro" grip tape

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Bloopers!


I have decided that adding pictures to Blogger can be quite a pain in the rear.  But adding a bunch is even more of a pain.  So, please take the time to check out these Senior pic bloopers.
Please tell me that bird won't poop on my head.
Can you tell it was windy?

                                                              More wind!




Stupid ants.






 












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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Grad Pics and More Senior Pics


Finally got pictures from Tabitha's graduation and the rest of her senior pictures.  I just have the proof, they are still being Photoshopped.  The wind was horrible the day we did these, so we are rally glad that any of them turned out well!

She graduated with the highest GPA in the class and also got the PE award.  A nerd and a jock!

Indulge me!





Gotta have a little fun!




My flower child.



The grand parents!

Our little family

With the photographer, Aunt Mandy.