Heading to the dermatologist today

My skin has been an absolute MESS lately so, out of desperation because nothing else I have tried is working, I'm going to the dermatologist today. I suspect that I will be making some dietary changes after this visit so look for an update on that. Of course, with access to the internet and WebMD I have already self-diagnosed. LOL And the information I've read thus far leads me to believe that I will see some positive changes by eliminating yeast and sugar from my diet. So, we'll see. My appointment is late this afternoon. Wish me luck!!

My Crazy Journey

When I started this blog I hoped I would be a lot thinner and would have enjoyed many delectable, home-prepared gourmet meals. What I have learned about myself is, I find that kind of lifestyle very difficult to maintain. For a long time, I was allowing other things to get in the way and, for the last several months, we have not been eating much prepared at home. Thankfully though, that has really turned around. I have found myself enjoying being in the kitchen again after hating it for a while. And I'm also on a journey to feed my soul along with my body and I am going to use this blog as a platform to share what happens along the way. Already, my body feels at peace knowing that it is going to get the sustenance it needs, not only with nutrients but with intangible things that only the spirit can feel.

So I hope you will join me as I continue on my path with all the twists and turns. I am not as concerned about being thin anymore. Now I just want to be happy. :)

Where Do I Begin?

So, forgive my long absence. I have been so uninspired and, even though my last post had me thinking I had my kitchen mojo back, I found out that was not the case at all. And even now, I have no idea how many times dinner will be homemade during the week but let me tell you this, my goal is to cook 100% of the time. Or if I don't want to cook then we will go out somewhere that uses local ingredients. Why? Because last night we watched "Food, Inc.", that's why.

If you haven't seen that movie, don't wait. It's a watch instant on Netflix right now or you can purchase it somewhere I'm sure. This movie totally rocked our world. Even my chicken nugget, french fry, coke drinking, happy meal eating children have sworn that they don't want to eat "like that" anymore. We have had really involved conversations about shopping at our local farmers market and supporting people close to home. The boys are totally on board with that, and they're even excited at the thought of meeting the people that grow our food. The farmers have become their new rock stars, people to be admired, and I'm cool with that.

In keeping with our new philosophy, the boys and I headed to Earthfare, an organic market in town, and we picked up some supplies for tonight's dinner. My oldest and I decided to share a grass-fed ribeye and with that I served a tomato-mozzarella salad prepared with basil from my mom's own garden. Well, maybe I should say my dad's garden because he's really the one that plants and takes care of everything. Anyway, the basil was SO fragrant! Never have I purchased any basil from the grocery store and had it smell so amazingly potent. Here is a photo of the finished product:




I used organic grape tomatoes as well as organic fresh mozz. Man, oh man! It was divine!! The ribeye was surprising to me. Having never eaten grass-fed beef before I didn't know what to expect so, upon popping the first bite in my mouth I was surprised by the gamey taste that greeted me. I like lamb so I really liked this beef! It's not as strong tasting as lamb but it certainly had echoes of that flavor.

Eating this way is going to be a lot more expensive and is going to require a lot more planning. After watching that movie though it became evident to me that we are not eating *right* much of the time and something's got to give. Hopefully, eating this way will teach my children about where our food comes from and how to feed yourself as healthfully as possible!

It has been a long, long, time

Wow, when I clicked on the blog this morning to look up a recipe for a friend, I was stunned when I saw that I haven't been on here since July. Then, when I thought about what all has been going on for the last several months, I wasn't THAT surprised.

In my last post, I was talking about how my meds for heartburn hadn't been working so I decided to try just Zantac on my own. Well, that ended up not working out at all. So there I was, off to see a specialist and, one barium x-ray later, I was on a new prescription...this time for Protonix...and on my way to feeling much, much, better. I'm still holding steady at 192 after losing several pounds because I couldn't eat anything. A couple pounds came back on but that's ok. At least I can eat now.

The one really depressing thing that has happened to me is, I really can't seem to get my cooking groove back. Now that I can eat, I just don't feel inspired to actually prepare anything wonderful for myself. Perfect example. Last night, instead of doing something with the fresh chicken breasts and veggies in my refrigerator, I opted to cook a grilled cheese sandwich, accompanied by a pickle. Now, that's thrilling isn't it? I do want to cook more and prepare fun, easy dishes but just haven't hit that point where I'm really motivated to do it. I do have to prepare Christmas Day dinner for my whole family this year and am looking forward to that. I want to WANT to cook every day though!!

Of course, it would seem I'm falling into the same old patterns that I always follow with my way of eating. There are always a million reasons that I can come up with that it's not convenient to cook for myself. What I need to do is just suck it up and eat right and exercise. Have you ever seen the move "The Color Purple"? There is a scene in it that keeps repeating in my mind and I would swear it's my body talking to me. The scene I'm talking about is when Celie confronts Danny Glover's character about how badly he has treated her. She says, "Until you do right by me, everything you even think about is gonna fail". And I think that is where I am right now. My body has had it and something has got to give. I'm not going to truly feel good until I do right by it.

I'm sorry it has been so long since I last posted and my plan is to get back on the wagon and start cooking beautiful, delicious meals again. I hope that, where ever you are, your holiday season is blessed, full of love and happiness. Come back and check for a new post this week. :)

The Ups and Downs of the last few months

Food wise, things have been mostly downs since March. My stomach has been in such a bad state for a very long time and I really didn't know what was going on. In August of 2008, I was diagnosed with heartburn and given a prescription for Prilosec and told to lose some weight. Beyond that, I received little direction. Things were going ok until the holidays when apparently, I lost my damn mind. I started eating and drinking things I don't even like such as coffee, alcohol. I was drinking soda every day when I hadn't had regular soda for years. My body kicked into high gear and rebelled and that rebellion manifested itself in a terrible way. What I thought was a stomach bug ended up being GERD, Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. Oh fun! My doctor doubled my dose of Prilosec and yet still no advice on what to eat. Taking matters into my own hands, I began to research it and came across of wealth of information that began to show me what I was going to have to do in order to live with GERD. It took a few months to get my medicine and my prescription right and now things seem to be on the right track. Boring menus but at least I'm not writhing in agony because my chest is on fire.

Some happy side effects of this new way of eating, I have lost 17 lbs. In August I weighed 207. This morning I weighed 190. Most of that weight loss occurred in the last couple of months because I was trying to find the right things to eat and my stomach was in such a horrible place. Now I'm on OTC Zantac 150, once a day. The prilosec and the nexium were both making my breathing labored and my heartbeat speed up. It was very frightening! The Zantac seems to be working so far. My blood pressure is good at 110/70 and my resting heart rate is excellent at 64. During the week, I exercise by swimming at the pool and that seems to really help me feel good, too.

My diet is less than exciting these days. The list of things I shouldn't eat is fairly long and rather depressing when you love to eat, like I do. Onions, garlic, pepper, sugar, chocolate, cinnamon, lemon, oranges, limes, all no-no's. At first, I was consumed with thoughts of, "What am I going to eat then? Will I have to eat this way forever?" I still don't know the answer to the first one but the "what" seems to be a bit clearer. My day usually begins with a bit of cottage cheese and fresh fruit, I drink only water between meals, lunch is a sandwich or a turkey hot dog with a touch of cole slaw (no mustard or ketchup), dinner is chicken and veggies or something similar, lightly prepared. The key is to be sure it's low in fat because fat is a heartburn trigger as well. So far, things are boring but they're working. I'm losing weight and not suffering with heartburn.

This experience has taught me many things about myself. First of all, I have a CRAZY sweet tooth!! Living without sugar and chocolate has been so incredibly hard for me but the reward of comfortable living has made it doable. Second I have learned that at my darkest moment I won't give up. That is reassuring, indeed. Even when I was sitting in the doctor's office crying my eyes out, I had my doubts about whether there was a way for me to feel well again but I didn't give up hope. Thankfully, it feels like I'm on the right path.

If you are suffering from GERD or acid reflux, I highly recommend you get a book called,"Eating for Acid Reflux" which you can find at this link: http://www.amazon.com/Eating-Acid-Reflux-Handbook-Heartburn/dp/1569244928

I don't get any kickback if you buy it. It has made a big difference for me and I think it could for you, too, if you are not finding medical solutions to your acid reflux problem. My goal is to be off the medicine in a couple of months and to manage it completely through diet. That may not be possible until I lose all the weight I need to lose first but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

Hope all is well in your world!

It's Peach Cobbler, y'all

Mmmmmm. Have you ever had peach cobbler? Here in the South we eat it a lot in the summer time, especially with barbeque but I really had a hankering for it and just had to make myself some this week!

Now for the record, things with flour in them make me feel unwell so, these days, I really cannot enjoy many treats like these. As long as I don't have other things with flour in them during the day, I will allow myself one small portion of this, just so I can have a taste. This is a recipe that I adapted from Paula Deen's "The Lady & Son's" cookbook for pear cobbler.

My Peach Cobbler

Peach Mixture
16 oz bag of frozen peaches
2 tbs butter (salted)
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 TBS pumpkin pie spice (or less depending on your taste)
1/4 cup cold water
1/2 TBS cornstarch
1 TBS lemon juice, (fresh squeezed if you have it)

Batter:
1 stick salted butter
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
3/4 cup self-rising flour
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large saute pan or non-stick skillet, empty the package of frozen peaches and allow the frost to cook off over medium heat. Add the butter, sugar, lemon juice, and pumpkin pie spice and cook for 1-2 mins. Take your 1/4 cup of cold water and add the cornstarch to it. Pour that into the skillet and cook over a low heat until the mixture is thick, stirring occasionally. As this is cooking, prepare your batter.

Place the stick of butter in a baking dish (like you would use for a casserole) and then put the dish and butter into the 350-degree oven until the butter has melted. Remove and leave the oven on.

Stir together the sugar and flour. Slowly add the milk, stirring a bit at a time, and mix well. Pour the batter over the melted butter in the baking dish. DON'T STIR IT. Gently scoop a couple of peach slices at a time from the skillet and drop them into the batter, moving around the dish until all the spaces are full of peaches. Then very carefully pour the remaining sauce from the pan over the top of the mixture (DON'T STIR) and put it in the 350 degree oven for 30-45 mins, until it's a nice golden brown. It should look like this:



Serve alone or with a dollop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on top. It is delicious!!!!

BEST. Cookie. EVER.

For a long time now, I have been relentlessly searching for the perfect sugar cookie recipe. Many years ago, I ate a sugar cookie and loved it but had never been able to duplicate the flavor myself. Until now. Oh my goodness. Seriously, I will make these so much more often than Chocolate Chip which had been my favorite cookie for several years running. Because I'm a sharer, I'm going to share the recipe with you.

For all you New Year's dieters out there, I'm sorry for tempting you with this. They are truly, delicious.


I adapted the recipe from one in Dorie Greenspan's book called, "Baking", and her recipe is titled, "Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies".

2 cups all-purpose flour
scant 1/2 tsp KOSHER salt, omit the salt if you only have iodized or cut back to 1/4 tsp.
1/2 tsp baking powder
10 Tbs salted butter at room temp (yes, I said SALTED)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tsps vanilla extract
2 tsps almond extract

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking powder.

With a mixer, (I used my kitchen aid stand mixer) beat the butter at medium speed until it is smooth. Add the sugar and beat again for 2 minutes. Add the large egg and the yolk and beat for a couple more minutes. Add the vanilla and the almond extracts. Turn the mixer off and add the flour in increments, mixing only until it comes together. Frankly at this point, I just grab a big wooden spoon and mix the flour in by hand because my stand mixer leaves all kinds of dry bits at the bottom otherwise. Don't overmix the dough though, you don't want your cookies to be tough.

On wax paper, divide the dough in half. you can roll it out into discs for cutting cookies or, if you're like me and totally impatient with that kind of thing, just roll it into a tube shape so it looks like refrigerated cookie dough you can buy at the store. Let it chill in the fridge for a couple of hours then you can cut into shapes or slice and bake. Your choice!

Bake in a 325 degree oven for 8-12 minutes (depending on your oven) until they are done. The tops should not change color. They should still look pale when done.

Please make these and let me know what you think. The original recipe called for unsalted butter and 1 tsp of vanilla, no almond extract. I for one, love the combination of sugar and sweet hence the reason I used salted butter. Oh, and I didn't have any unsalted butter in the fridge. :)

Make these cookies ASAP!!!