Yet another Kitchen Gadget

I have a pasta cooker that's a tall cylinder, you pour boiling water into it and then close it up and wait, I like it well enough but it doesn't work for anything but spaghetti. This one looks like it would work for all the pasta types I cook, elbow macaroni, spaghetti, and lasagna noodles. With my pasta pot having a bad tendency to boil over I usually end up standing at the stove for the entire 10 minutes cooking time fanning the pot with a plate to keep things under control. This Fasta Pasta cooker seems like it would be a life saver, and it's got quite a few positive reviews. I want!

end of July reading

Since my first library e-book foray several weeks ago I've checked quite a few books. Right now I have four e-books checked out at the same time... That wasn't exactly on purpose. I put myself on the hold list for a couple and they randomly came available at the same time. Hopefully I can get them all read within the next two weeks, but if not I'll just put myself back onto the hold list and recheck them out later.

The whole reason I mention all of that is because now that I'm comfortable checking out e-books books I thought I'd try my hand at checking out an audio book. I did a little online library browsing and I put one on the Nook this morning. Unfortunately the majority of the audio books my library system has are in the wrong format for the Nook to play, but many of them are in MP3 format, and that works great on it. It's rather exciting to finally be using the Nooks audio feature, considering I've owned the thing for half a year.

Honestly I'm not to big on audio books for myself (I prefer to read the words vs having them read to me) BUT I'm going to do a little searching for childrens audio books, I know the Kiddo would get a kick out of that.

sleepovers

My friend from out in Duchesne came and kidnapped me this past weekend. She heard that the Man was out of town (doing MP stuff for the Blue Angels airshow up in Idaho) and thought I deserved to have a little fun as well. So She drove down on Friday evening and picked the Kiddo and myself up.

Saturday we spent just relaxing and having fun! July 24th here in Utah is Pioneer day and the Kiddo got to ride in the Duchesne parade! Then he got a ride on a four wheeler (which he is still talking about, three days after the fact). He got to pet bunnies, play with goats, see pigeons, and cuddle puppies.













As for me, I cuddled bunnies and puppies, ignored pigeons, and very briefly petted goats.














I also learned how to make whole wheat bread from scratch!! Now I have added yet another kitchen appliance to my "dream" list, a grain mill, so I can make my own wheat flour. Someday *wistful sigh*

say what?

The Kiddo has started reading words on different objects and either gloating that he knows what they are, or asking what they mean. For example the other day he read "socks" and they started kicking his feet around laughing. Todays word was a "can't quite keep my face strait" one...

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Kiddo: Mom what's this word?

Me: what word baby?

Kiddo: this word... it says, um, sex, what's that mean?

Me: WHAT, what word?? (doing a quick turn to see what he's reading)

Kiddo: sex, it says name and then next to that it says sex... see right here?

Me: Oh! Sex... that means gender, Male or Female, Boy or Girl. Mommy is a girl so her sex is female. You're a boy so your sex is male.

Kiddo: Oh, okay. Well they have pictures too... so the pink one is the girl right, and the blue is the boy.

Me: Yep, usually pink means girls, and girls are females. Blue usually means boy, and boys are males (trying to get the word association in there)

Kiddo: Got it, so girls and boys have sex...

Me: um er they have sexES yes, but usually it's better just to call them boys or girls. Keeps things from getting confusing.

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Who knew I'd be faced with an almost birds and bees conversation this early in his life. And all because of a play doctor kits clip board.

Home made pizza

Not exactly the lowest calorie pizza out there but just for kicks I tried a no carb cauliflower crust. We tried this a couple months ago and the 'bread' turned out rather soggy, usually I'll try something twice before tossing the recipe though so yesterday I gave it another shot. This time I strained the riced cauliflower through a coffee filter (so I could squeeze out the water). The crust turned out a lot more break like and was very good. It made a fantastic alfredo spinach mushroom chicken pizza.

Cauliflower Pizza Crust

1c cooked riced cauliflower
1 egg
1c Mozzarella cheese shredded
1/2 tsp fennel
1tsp oregano
2tsp parsley

To get the riced cauliflower I buy the frozen package, cook it, drain it on paper towel, rice it with a cheese grater, and then squeeze out the excess water through a paper coffee filter.

Preheat Oven to 450.

Combine cauliflower, egg and cheese. Press evenly onto pam'd pan*. Sprinkle with seasoning. Bake 12-15 minutes.

Add toppings and broil until cheese is melted.

*This can be done in smaller pizza sizes (as you can see from my photo I make two pizza's about 8x7), and the 'dough' can be saved in the fridge if you only want to use half at a time.

ice ice baby

Kiddo has been tensing up a lot lately with his shots. I'm not sure what changed, maybe he felt one to many rounded tip' needles and stopped trusting that they wouldn't hurt. Of course when you tense up it just hurts even more.

So, with a suggestion from Grannie, we tried something new... I don't really know why we didn't try it sooner... the more I think about it the more I could swear she's probably mentioned it before.
Meet Elli. We've had her since the Kiddo started crawling. She's a plush little elephant with a re-usable ice cube in her back. We bought her and her brother (they came in a set) for when he'd crawl into walls or bump his head. I think we've only used them for their intended purposes once or twice, the rest of the time they sit in the freezer forgotten. But last night we pulled little Elli out, and put her to use:
She's got a thin piece of fabric over her lower side but the Kiddo decided he wanted direct icecube to skin contact to better test the numbing power. When we did the shot he only flinched and tensed up a tiny bit, and that was not when I stuck him, but when I pushed the plunger. He did a couple deep breaths and was fine, then he grinned at me and said "you're right! That DID hurt less then I thought."

We will let Elli try her magic again tonight and see if she can keep up the good work. At the very least it's distracting him some.

kick back..

and relax... is this not the neatest looking chair you've ever seen?? I want one, or at least I want to spend a good hour sitting in one just to see if it's as comfortable as they say it is.

Pasta and Whole Grain

As you all know my project this summer was to lose a little weight (done) and learn to eat healthier. I did not think I was eating so poorly before, but I've learned a LOT lately about how our bodies process foods - why we store fat vs break it down etc. What foods prevent us from burning fat, and what foods help us do it. Which is good to know, for me it's not so much for the weight LOSS part but for the keeping weight OFF part.

So there's the obvious, that most of us know. Sugar is bad, the regular sugar type sugar (chocolate brownie style) and the 'you don't think about it' sugar (foods that turns to sugar; orange juice, bread, pasta)... so eating that stuff makes you have a blood sugar spike (sugar rush WOOO) which then causes your body to release insulin, which tells our bodies to store fat!! AND causes a crash (not so woohoo) and the crash makes us tired and hungry and gives us cravings. All bad cuz then I run to the kitchen for a snack... which usually ends up being a piece of bread with pb and we start it all again.

So that leads us to the fact that there are good Carbs and bad ones. Bad ones are simple carbs like white flour. But many articles I've read include whole wheat bread in the list, and whole grain cereal, whole grain pasta, and granola.. the list goes on. I was surprised to read that products can say they are whole grain w/out actually being whole grain, as long as there's a little in there then can label it that way. Which means you're eating grains thinking it's the good stuff... but it is still processed grains and will still cause that insulin spike/fat storing mode situation... *grumpy sigh*

Obviously we gotta have carbs, they give us energy. And obviously fruits and vegetables are good carbs. Then there's the sprouted grain breads (which ARE good for you). But I want my spaghetti and my mac and cheese so I'm not sure WHAT to do about that. Maybe I'll just make sure I do a 30 minute work out video before dinner on the days I want to eat pasta, I'll use the whole grain (for what it's worth) and my body will be in extra calorie burn mode so it wont store as much fat as it otherwise would.

Confusion really is my primary reaction to this great grain debate. To eat or not to eat, I like carbs way to much to cut them out of my diet... (a couple article links for you)

Good Carbs vs. Bad Carbs: How To Pick The Best Carbs For Your Diet

Carbohydrates: Are All Grains Bad For You?

At least the good fats and bad fats part of things is easier to understand. I mean everybody pretty much agrees that if you eat the bad fats it causes your body to store fat. But eat the good fats it tells your body to burn more fats (increases your metabolic fat burning something or other). And, even better, they all seem to agree on what the good fats are!! Easy then, try to avoid hydrogenated oils (which seems impossible when you look at food labels, yikes), use either real butter or the tubs of heart-healthy margarine made with omega-3 not fake stuff that have trans fats in them, use olive oil (or, even better, coconut oil), eat eggs and avacados and nuts (though apparently peanuts** and cashews are both "bad" nuts, which is upsetting because they are my two favorites *big sigh*).

And the random bit of information I came across that actually makes a ton of sense and was pretty interesting to me (being that I'm a lazy person and love processed foods)...

Here it is, see our liver has a whole bunch of jobs, but the two important ones for weight are the breakdown of fats and filtering harmful toxins from the blood. So when we eat processed foods the liver stops breaking down fats in order to focus on filtering the chemicals and has no time or energy for fat breakdown. So the fewer processed foods we eat, (foods with artificial sweeteners, fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, processed soy products)... the more time it has to break down the fat vs store it. And then thinking about THAT you realize that almost all the pre-made store bought foods (trail mix, health snack bars, flavored yogurt, frozen lasagna etc) have those things in them.

Anyway, take it all for what it's worth. It's overwhelming to say the least. I think I will make an effort here and there. Like I said, I'll work out on pasta dinner days, I'll replace my oils with coconut oil (already done) stop getting the fake butter and start using the real stuff.

I'm not going to become a crazy health nut, but sometimes even one or two steps can help enough to keep things on the right track. And the older I get the more important it is to take the small steps to keep things from getting out of control.

**I refuse to give up my peanut butter!! I may possibly be persuaded to spend the couple extra bucks to get the sugar free organic just peanuts kind (rather then skippy)... we'll see how it tastes before I commit to it.

Kids say the oddest...

The other day as I finished up my prep for a grocery store run I asked the Kiddo to go get ready so he could come with me. The Man was home and I thought it would be nice to take the Kid so he could get some relaxing solo time. The Kiddo had other ideas, the conversation when something like this:

me: Kiddo, go potty and get your shoes on, we're going to go to the grocery store.

Kiddo: that's okay mom, I want to stay here and play with my toys in my room.

me: What? Really? But I need you to come with me, I need your help to pick bananas..

Kiddo: But I really do want to stay here, I'll play in my room and daddy will play on his computer.

me: um er but I would really like you to come with me, I really do need help picking the banana's... oh AND I need help picking a new package of twizzlers...

Kiddo: I have an idea for you, what if you CALL me when you need help. I can stay here and play, and you can go get groceries, and you can call me when you need help picking the twizzlers and banana's. That's the greatest idea, isn't it a great idea?

me: ummm .... ....

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This morning:

"Mom, I want to be a magic wolf dog. I'll have powers, and I'll save the whole big world all by myself! And when the alarm sounds that's when I'll turn into a wolf, and my tiny teeth will turn into great BIG teeth (tapping his front teeth)). And my tiny claws ((holding out his fingers and pointing to his nails)) will turn into HUGE claws, and my other tiny claws ((kicking his foot forward)) will turn into huge claws too, and then I'll be the biggest and the strongest and I'll save everybody."