Cucumber salad

So yesterday we went for a picnic. It was amazing.  We live very close to a lake but yet we hardly ever go.  There is always something to do with home projects, work, out of town commitments, and a slew of other "to do lists".  It was in fact our 1st picnic together. Ever. Seriously Ever.  How sad is that.  Well this started off a new tradition and a deep need to slow down a little and enjoy the beauty that is all around us.

What could go better then cucumber salad on a warm spring day?  Cucumber salad is one of my favorite go to's for something quick, light, and refreshing in the summer.  It is great for a snack, take to a cook out, or as a side with most any dish. 

Ingredients

2 cucumbers

3 small tomatoes

1/2 small onion diced

3-4 TBSP olive oil

3 capfuls of apple cider vinegar

Dash of stevia- I would add a little at a time tasting as you because depending on the flavor and sweetness of your tomatoes and cucumbers you may need very little. 

Salt and pepper to taste

1 TBSP of oregano dried

Fresh basil 3 leaves chopped (optional if you have on hand but not needed)

Go ahead and chop your veggies and add to a mixing bowl.  Add your olive oil and apple cider vinegar.  Add your salt, pepper, and oregano.  Go ahead and start adding your Stevia, a little at a time taste testing as you go.  If you have never worked with Stevia before it is much sweeter then sugar and a very small amount goes a long way.  To the point that I don't ever have measuring spoons small enough for the amount I used.

Add some fresh basil. This part is optional but if you have some add it. Go ahead and mix! 

Had to include a shot of our picnic.  Everything was clean and organic.  Obviously not necessarily low cal as I splurged for some really yummy rustic Italian bread from the bakery. Just remember to check your labels and if it has ingredients you can pronounce and the fewer the better you know you've got something clean.

Raised bed gardening

I have currently entered the world of raised bed gardening.  I am super excited to take on this challenge and take my gardening skills to the next level.  Last year I grew bell peppers, tomatoes, jalapeños and herbs in pots on the deck. Which was a great way to test my environment and learn some tricks before expanding the garden to raised beds.

By doing the pots on the deck I quickly learned that our squirrels are relentless pesky pests. They initially devestated my crop by digging through the pots to plant and store their pecan nuts.  Then I discovered they would dig up all the plants and flip them upside down before they had matured.  Then I learned that the only way to protect the crop was to completely cage the plants because even when they had matured my vegetables kept disappearing. To say the least is was  a huge learning curve.

This time around I'm feeling really prepared.  I knew I would need to do a raised bed as our dirt is hard black clay and not full of the nutrients needed to support vegetables at this time. I also knew that the beds would need some kind of covering to protect against the squirrels.  

My husband who is amazing, built my beds out of untreated cedar planks.  Why cedar and untreated?  Well , great question!  Cedar is rot resistant and weathers  the elements very nicely. Untreated? For an organic garden untreated wood is a must because the chemicals that are used for the treatment of wood can leach into your soil and your vegetables. 

The next step was my husband attached PVC pipping and I bought netting to be drapes and used as a covering. All items were purchased at Home Depot and took an afternoon to build.  A helpful hint, Home Depot will cut all your wood and PVC pipping to any measurement.  So you don't have to buy a saw or spend the time cutting the products when you get home.

Next I bought organic planting soil.  I know that if you compost and such you can use that and not need to spend the mone in soil. I do not compost as we did have a compost bin from the previous owners of our home.  Unfortunately it attracted multiple animals to our yard who also decided to make our attic their home.  Boo.... So composting for us is currently out of the question.  But I'm researching and exploring other options.  

I used about 12 bags of 2 cubic square feet soil to fill my beds. My beds are approxmentlay 4'x4'. My goal is to maintain and treat the soil  throughout the year so it maintains it's nutrients. Which will allow me to not have to invest in more soil. This was the most expensive part of this project. 

The end project after planting my starters and seeds.

That text message can wait...

I'm BACK!!!   I want to go ahead and apologize to all my readers for my lack of posts.  In the past 2 months I  have left my past job and started a new one.  It has been a blessed change that was none too soon in making.  For those that do not know I am a social worker who works in the mental health and substance abuse field. I left a job where my primary duties was intense crisis situations in the emergency room setting. 

Now to be honest the crisis situations were not why I left but the  burn out that was occurring due to poor management.  I have now transitioned to a role as a therapist at another institution and I am very happy.  I want to talk about self care in this post. Start the conversation here and continue it throughout my upcoming posts.

Self-care is a concept I throw around on the daily with clients.  Checking in, educating, and empowering them to care for themselves.  It is probably the most under utilized coping tool out there.  

We spend our days in a flurry of emails, texts, meetings, school programs, art projects, homework, chores, carpooling, and I'm sure 100 other things.  We become so entrenched in the day to day and just getting by we lose sight of the big picture which is "us".

"Us" is who completes these tasks, carries us through life, and is with us at the end.  It is the carries "us" through life part we miss out on most often.  The whole "you can't see the forest through the trees" thing is so true, and the forest is "us".

We wonder why we have headaches, stomach problems, weight gain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, relationship problems, irritability, and a slew of other problems.  We experience these things because our bodies are desperately trying to get our attention and we just keep pressing forward. " I'll pop some Advil, pepto, and ambien" and it will be ok.  Well it won't.  Stress kills.  It affects our body's natural rythem and ability to stay healthy ( more on this to come).  

Now I know I just painted a grim picture but take a minute and just breathe.  Breathing in and out.  Imagine a ballon in your stomach inflating on the inhale and deflating on the exhale.  Visualize a different picture for yourself.  I picture without the constant need to struggle through another day.  Visualize a day of serenity and peace. Visualize a restful sleep, a headache free day, no stomachs pains day.   Paint that picture.  Wether your in a garden, on a beach, top of a mountain, or cozy in your bed. All while breathing in and out.  Feeling your stomach rise and fall.  Go ahead take a minute.. The rest can wait.

Now I hope you took a minute to paint that picture and breathe.  What you did in that moment is self care.  While you were breathing and visualizing you were resting, rebuilding, and revitalizing.  You used a form of mindfulness: deep breathing and imagery.  You took a moment to care for yourself.

There are so many ways to care for yourself.  It starts small with the intention to be kind to oneself, to love oneself, and to start caring for oneself.  

Choosing to eat differently or recommit to a healthier lifestyle is one but so is taking time throughout your day to reconnect with oneself. To be present in your moment in time: hold it, taste it, and love it.  

For me leaving a job that was slowly killing me through stress was my self care.  I'm reconnecting and recommitting to love myself everyday.  It starts small and it will grow if you foster it.  

I hope through this blog I can not only share recipes but also the need for love and caring for oneself.  We only get one life to live... That text message can wait.

Paleo Crock Pot Short Ribs

Does anyone ever go to the grocery store and decide to be brave and bold and buy a new ingredient?  That is how Paleo Crock Pot Short Ribs came to be.  I was at the meat counter, almost done and the sale of the day catches my eye. Short Ribs? Grass Fed?  Maybe I need these in my life? Then I find myself ordering 1 pound please.  Before I know it; I'm checking out and thinking "I have no idea what to do with short ribs".  I know I love short ribs but how do I cook them?  Well, a week or so later and I decide slow cooking sounds like the best way do this. So I bust out the crock pot, mushrooms, carrots, onions, garlic, and stock and just start creating.

I would recommend making the recipe with 2 pounds of short ribs as the yield of meat is not enough for left overs or more then 2 people.

Ingredients
I used 1 pound of Short Ribs but i recommend 2
1 quart organic reduced sodium Beef Stock

1/4 cup dry red wine
1 onion chopped
1 large garlic minced
5 medium sized carrots chopped
1 cup diced portobello mushrooms
1 tsp sage
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper


In a small bowl mix the sage, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and black pepper and mix to make your rub.  Gently coat your ribs in the rub and place in the crock pot.  Then chop your vegetables, beef stock, and red wine to your crock pot.  Turn the crock pot on medium for 6 hours, cover, and cook.

I served our short ribs over paleo mashed sweet potatoes.  Simply boil 2 large organic sweet potatoes.  Mash boiled and drained sweet potatoes with 1 TBSP of grass fed butter.  Delicious! I hope you enjoy the simplicity of this recipe with the warm hearty flavors.

Roasted Leek Soup

Brrr, baby it's cold outside!  As the temperature drops it is the perfect time to warm up with some yummy soup.  I love my soup hearty, savory, and exploding with flavor.  Normally when you hear "hearty" one might think heavy and cream, but that doesn't have to be so.  You can clean up your favorite soup recipe and keep it creamy and hearty with out it including 'heavy cream'.  My favorite way to do this is by roasting vegetables and making a puree, then just add any stock, and followed by spices. There you have a savory and hearty soup with all the cream.

This season I am working on cooking more sustainable which includes buying in season vegetables and fruits. Leeks are a hearty root vegetable that is usually harvested in the fall and makes for a great winter veggie. So I was cruising my local grocery store and I thought what the heck those Leeks look interesting.  So I bought some and decided to experiment with a new soup recipe to add to my repertoire.

Ingredients
2  organic Leeks
1 small organic cauliflower head
1 chopped onion
1/2 garlic head
2 cups Organic Vegetable Stock
Olive Oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp paprika
3 TB grass fed butter
salt and pepper


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  You will want to clean the leeks and chop them.  I had never cleaned a leek before but it was not that hard. 

Chop off the green tops and the root. 

Then dice the entire stalk of leek.  

Then soak and swirl around in a bowl of warm water to get all the grit off of them.

(Just for a few minute)

Drain and then rinse in a colander.

On a baking sheet place your chopped leeks, chopped cauliflower and chopped onion.  Cut the 1/2 of a garlic head in half and place on the baking sheet.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper.Mix with your hands so all the veggies are gently coated.

The bake for about 20 min or until golden brown and soft.

Then add veggies to your food processor or blender.  Blend the veggies till in a smooth puree.  I added a little vegetable stock to help keep the puree smooth.

Melt butter in your stock pan.  Then add your puree and vegetable stock.  Add your spices.  Heat to a simmer and stir occasionally to keep from burning.  Simmer for about 30 min and then serve.  Feel free to add extra vegetable stock if you would like a thinner soup. 

Clean lifestyle

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had an amazing, revitalizing, and yummy holiday.  I know I sure did!  I had 5 Christmases, which meant 5 helpings of decilicious, tantalizing, not really healthy, and scrumptious meals.  To say the least it was wonderful to spend all that time with family and friends.  Though I did get off track of healthy, clean, and whole food cooking and eating.  But that is ok.  In my opinion living a lifestyle vs a diet means it's ok to splurge on family favorites and eat sugar from time to time but you don't let that derail your lifestyle. You simply re start and get right back at it like you never left.

As it is the new year, anyone with a tv will be inundated with weight loss ads and excersise programs.  I am a firm believer in having a healthy lifestyle and being active.  Diets are short term that end once you reach your goal or are too starved to keep doing it.  Lifestyle exactly what it sounds like, it is how you live your life. 

Living a whole food, clean lifestyle to me means eating whole foods with the least amount of processing.  If your eating less processed foods that includes sugar.  Cutting out the use of cane sugar which is hidden in most things processed is a huge part of this.

  By buying ingrediants in their most natural form you can control what goes into your body.  This means shopping the outside of the super market where you will find the fresh ingredients: vegetables, fruits, meats, fish and dairy are usually found on the outside of the supermarket and not deep inside the aisles.  It also means cooking.  Really cooking and not just reheating in the microwave.  

If you are cooking with spices and fresh ingrediants you know exactly what you just ate.  You know how much sugar, salt, and fat was in that meal.  This is so much simpler then standing in aisles reading convoluted labels and really just guessing sometimes.

Also think about high startch food like potatoes. Your body turns startch into sugar and energy.  Which is all fine and dandy if other foods you eat aren't being laced with sugar. Eating less startch items means less sugar in your diet.  Now I love a good potatoe in some stew just like the next person, but sweet potatoes which have less startch can be substituted.  Or if your gonna splurge with a potatoe just think less is more and in moderation.

Another piece of clean eating is eating organic.  Why, organic? Well if we are trying to eat the freshest ingrediants in their natural form that means no pesticides and chemicals. You want to eat food that has no additions. 

 Try to imagine how your great grandmother cooked and grocery shopped.  She probably had a garden in the back yard and went from the bakery, to the butcher, ect. She knew her meat and dairy came from the farmer from the next county and her carrots came from her backyard.  She knew who touched her food.  She never questioned that someone had modified the seed (GMO) or that someone washed her berries in pesticides. She also knew she had to cook and create her food.  That she couldn't buy something wrapped in foil through a drive thru. 

Now that you have envisioned how your great mother cooked her meals, now imagine you basically wanting to replicate that in modern times.  Buying organic, non Genetically modified, fresh ingrediants is the way.  Cooking your food from scratch. It doesn't have to be hard.  In fact simple food tastes delicious.  Also pack your lunch with left overs from dinner from the night before.  Two birds one stone. 

Is organic more expensive? yes, it can be. Why is it more expensive? Because organic farmers have to prove to the government that food was grown organically which costs money.  Are some foods more important to eat organic than others yes.  Visit the EWG (environmental working group) for the dirty dozen list at http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary.php

Now that I just did a real quick break down of what eating clean is, I want to say we all do the best we can and starting a new lifestyle is hard. Start small, with some new recipes.  Or try it for one week.  I promise your body will feel different.  I am a 2 can of diet mountiam dew a day convert that couldn't imagine going back to my old eating habits.  When I eat clean I feel better, when I don't my body tells me and I feel it.  

Please ask questions or comments.  I'm learning things everyday and I would love to help others with their lifestyle changes. At the end of the day remember to love yourself; part of that is loving your body.