My Happy List

I recently joined a little book club where we read only food/nutrition and health-related books.  Even though this is the type of stuff I'm interested in, I often find that it closely resembles work.
As I read about healthful eating or sustainable agriculture, I can't help but think about how I'll use this in my job and then I start to wonder why I'm reading this in my spare time.  Then I put it down and pick up a mystery novel.  And a cup of tea.  And a cat.

But the truth is, I like reading these non-fiction books and I want to keep learning.  So instead of relying on my own motivation to pick up these books, I joined a this book club.

We started out with Your Body's Many Cries for Water, which made a rather in-your-face argument for chronic dehydration being the root cause of every major illness in modern society.  It felt a little like being recruited into a cult, but at least the cult only encourages drinking 8-10 cups of water a day.  Cheap, easy and definitely worth a try before heading over to the doctor.  Overall, though, the author came across as a wing-nut.  But I'm still drinking more water and feeling good.

This month's book is The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  I had read this one before, but could probably read it a few dozen more times- or maybe just every December/January in preparation for new year's resolutions.  In the spirit of all things happy, here's my current list of things & activities that make me happy (by no means a complete list).

Jigsaw puzzles

Herbal hot tea (specifically, Lemon Ginger Yogi Tea with lots of lemon and local honey)

Wool socks

Flannel sheets

Pilot gel pens- bold

Watching the cats snuggle together

Gardens. Any kind.  Any where.

Fiesta ware

Organizing things!!!

Taking pictures of food

Having a clean house

Listening to music while driving

Jam with cheese and crackers

Soup

Pickled anything

Murder mysteries

Pure beeswax candles

Wednesday nights by myself when I watch New Girl

A new project or challenge
Canning jars of all shapes and sizes
Power walking and yoga, while listening to Young Jeezy, Kanye, T.I. and Lil Wayne
Slightly alcoholic mini-milkshakes
Getting things in the mail
Making lists & budgets
Crossing things off lists

Just like Julie Andrews says, sometime you just have to remember your favorite things and then you don't feel so bad.

A Proper Pantry

I know people are really busy these days, but I think it's really important to make time in life for baking cookies. Or bread.  Or bars.  Or really just cooking in general.  So many people think they're too busy to bake cookies, but I think that with a properly organized pantry, it doesn't take more than 5-10 minutes of actual work to pull a couple dozen cookies out of the oven.

Remember the old study that showed that using a boxed mix isn't any faster than baking from scratch?  Sometimes just the perception of something being time-consuming can keep you from doing it.  Sure, baking cookies takes longer than opening a package of Oreos.  But it's only a few minutes and the taste is SO much better.  Not to mention, home-baked whole grain, naturally sweetened cookies with actual dark chocolate, fruit and nuts are a heck of a lot healthier.  

As long as you have all of the ingredients you need and are able to read a recipe, you can bake a little something.  But finding all the ingredients you need is pretty critical.  If it's hard to find the baking soda and the chocolate chips are hidden, baking becomes a chore.  This is where having an organized pantry comes in.

Labeling
I'm a big fan of organizing things in jars (what?  you hadn't noticed?).  And I'm an even bigger fan of using a label-maker in conjunction with said jars.  This, paired with logical placement of the baking ingredients on the pantry shelf makes whipping up some cookies no big deal.

Grouping
I recommend grouping your ingredients as they are found in recipes rather than alphabetically.  So my dry baking ingredients are together (baking powder, sugar, cocoa, xanthan gum), my liquid sweeteners are together  (agave, stevia, brown rice syrup, etc.) and my flours are together (millet, tapioca, wheat, pastry, etc.).  Spices are grouped similarly, but then alphabetized within each group.

Stocking Up

It's also important not to run out of your baking staples.  I like to know that on any given day I have the ingredients make nearly any basic baked good: gluten free chocolate chip cookies, a loaf of whole wheat bread, biscuits, cornbread, etc.  Sure, this required extra attention when making my grocery list- But it's pretty easy if you use a grocery list template!  

My list template is an Excel spreadsheet of all the staple grocery store items I never want to run out of.  There's a column for us to check off when we use the last of something.  This means that everyone in the family is responsible for adding to the list as they use the last of foods.  Then when it's time to shop, I just grab the list, do a quick check and then head to the co-op!  Everyone's list is different, but just send me an email if you'd like my copy to use as a starting point for creating your own.  

My guess is that if you're still reading this, you're either already doing most of these things yourself and this is making perfect sense or you're concerned about my sanity for caring so much about the organization of my pantry.  But I promise that it helps make cooking and baking so much faster and easier if you organize things and always keep the staples in stock.  And anything that enables me to bake two dozen Chocolate Trail Mix Cookies (when it was parent-teacher conference night, I had to work until after 7pm and still hadn't made my dinner at 8pm) is worth it.  

Boomerang Errands

My vacation is coming to an end this weekend.  It's been a fabulous 11 days off of work with plenty of relaxation and family time.  I've never read so many forensic pathology mystery novels within such a short period of time (six?!).  With Mike injured and the kids sick, it's been like a hospital ward in our living room, but it was kind of nice to have everyone home and lounging around all week!

But you know me. I had to have a big to do list for the vacation, too.  I go crazy if I don't accomplish something each day, so this was really for my own sanity that  I set goals for my vacation.  The universe was working against me, though.  All of my errands were of the boomerang variety.

In The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, she writes about errands that result in more errands- She calls them boomerang errands.  These are rarely satisfying and end up lengthening your to do list rather than shortening it.  She advises that the important thing is to just get started on them. This was my week.

Task: Add a stabilizing back to my nose snail so it stops moving around. (The snail is a combo stud and ring designed by Verno at The Holy Mackerel)
  Resulting Task: Two days later, ring has loosened and I have to go back for another appt.  Maybe because I had the sniffles and kept blowing my nose?  Luckily, it's a free appt.

Task: Get the scratch on my car fixed (It was keyed in December)
  Resulting Task: After 2 appointments at the dealership during the vacation, they tell me that it won't buff out and will cost $1,200 to fix.  Then had to file a police report to file an insurance claim.  Now have to contact insurance agent and make another appt. at dealership and leave my car for 3-4 days.

Task: Get teeth cleaned
  Resulting Task: Teeth are clean, but have cavities (Noooooo!!!!!!!).  Two more appointments scheduled now.  Dentist says to buy an electric toothbrush so I stop over-brushing.

Task: Get my annual physical
  Resulting Task: Doc says to get massage or chiropractic care for my crazy tense shoulders/neck and headaches.  (Darn!  I have to get lots of massages? :)  )  More appointments scheduled.  Also must locate evening primrose oil in vegetarian capsules (my favorite brand discontinued it) because it is my wonder drug.

Task: Take Hannah to the vet for shots and check up
  Resulting Task: Increased her Benedryl to try to make her stop scratching her face off.  Didn't work.  Now need a follow-up appointment for steroids or prescription food.  Awesome.

Task: Meet with home insurance rep. to update coverage
  Resulting Task: Not done.  First need to get grandma's ring appraised.  7-10 days later I can pick it up and then schedule an appointment.

So while I know that I got plenty done during my vacation, I'm left with a longer list than I started with.  Oh, well.  At least I still found plenty of time to work out every day, read every day, eat good food, sleep late, and generally just lounge around.  Here's a great example of some of my favorite activities:

Eating almond milk ice cream, reading a mystery novel, snuggling with the animals and surrounded by the space heater and heating pad.  I love multi-tasking.

Lists

I love lists.  They make me sane and calm me down.


I found this list of "Things I Hate" from my MySpace page in 2005.  Somehow that seems like a long time ago now. Thought it'd be fun to repost it here.


I hate:
my computer because it shut down after i typed this whole $%^&*(*  list and now i have to retype it
dust bunnies
knick-nacks with no purpose
cottage cheese served with canned fruit
kentucky and anything associated with kentucky
daylight savings time
athletic shoes with neon colors
the obsene number of phone books that i receive every year
musical chairs
lassie
crawfish
cleaning up dog pee, cat pee, little boy pee (same goes for poop)
library fines
video fines
warm root beer
pants with tapered legs
top sheets
high waisted underwear
cream of wheat
vacuuming the stairs
the smell of hamburger meat cooking
soggy cereal.  actually, any cereal.  i just hate it.
baseball caps with unfolded brims
dishrags and anything contaminated by their touch
cat litter
things in the refrigerator without a lid
leftover halves of bananas
crumbs in my bed
clothes that mildew in the washer because i forget to dry them
bras
overcooked carrots
"bagless cyclonic" vacuum commercials on tv
dirty hand towels
hand towels that are too fancy to use
soggy french toast
dog smell
the way tofu gets pink mold
how little boys always pee on the toilet seat
country style decorating
the kids on Barney (especially Tina)
culottes
mullets
changing clothes/showering/getting out of bed in the winter
wearing socks in the summer
the way graham crackers are packaged
horses (nothing against them personally- just the freudian associations and the how little girls get obsessed with them and don't always grow out of that phase)
lotus notes email
how deodorant pulls my armpit hair and then turns all foamy and gross
potatoes that turn green way too fast
the way my closet is -20 degrees right now and will be 115 in the summer
fancy yoga shirts that are so low cut that your boobs fall out in headstand
peeling oranges
all those plastic surgery shows on tv
having to take the recycling bin back inside after it's picked up

3 things I need to remember

Three things I learned today:

• Don't transport compost to the compost bin in a glass bowl, because cleaning hunks of glass out of 2 week old curried chickpeas inside of a 4' x 4' compost bin is not fun.
• Don't trust that all mason jars in the fridge have their rings attached.  Sometimes they only have lids and your crisper drawers get flooded with pickle juice.  
• Don' t start looking for the emergency vet number when Hannah yelps like her leg was just broken.  She probably just needs to lick her paw for 5 minutes and then will be fine.

How Many Meals?

If you asked me in the past how many meals I eat per day, I probably would have said, "About 4."  That's not true, though.  Apparently, I eat about 10 times a day.

I started writing down everything I ate over this past weekend because I was trying to figure out a pattern to why I've been getting headaches and a few other weird symptoms lately.  I thought maybe I wasn't eating a balanced diet and was getting too much sugar and my blood sugar levels were crashing and making me feel bad.  While I've been making a conscious effort to eat better this past week, I know that writing things down skews it even further.  But I've been eating when I'm hungry and trying to eat better.  And that means eating 10 times a day, I guess.  

Here are some of my mini-meals over the past weekend:

Apple and whole grain toast with 1/2 avocado
4 Gardein strips and 1 bunch kale chips
Wild rice salad
Peanut and dulse snack mix and an applesauce cookie
Polenta/black bean bowl
Fattoush salad
Wasa crackers with white bean spread
Pea Soup and wild rice salad

Pretty good, huh?!  I'm not consciously trying to NOT eat anything, just trying to eat more fruits and veggies and while grains.  So far, no headache!

How often do you eat?

Happy Day!

In honor of our 7 year anniversary, here's my list of Mike's favorite things to eat/drink:

• Virgil's root beer
• Popcorn with flax oil, nutritional yeast and salt
• Spud Puppies (the Cascadian Farms organic tater tots)
• Pizza!
• Non-alcoholic beer (Usually whatever Trader Joe's has)
• Leftover gluten-free pasta mixed with leftover rice and leftover tofu, all fried up in a skillet until it tastes magically delicious and nothing like any of the original dishes
• Ice cream- Chocolate peanut butter or GF coconut cookie dough or really any kind
• Tanpopo's Kitsune (Japanese soba noodle soup with spinach and tofu)
• Lots of Bragg's Aminos on everything

And here's my list of some of the weird, nasty things that Mike likes to eat or has cooked for me:

• Pasta with popcorn and cardamom(on one of our first dates)
• Smoothie with apples, cantaloupe and cocoa
• Orange juice mixed with root beer
• Orange juice mixed with soymilk (yes, it curdles)

Hopefully I haven't forgotten anything... I love you, Mike!

Things that Keep Me Sane

Sometimes eating homecooked, sustainable food can be a real time-suck, but here are some things that help keep me organized when it comes to food, family, animals, etc. A lot of these relate to kids because, well, it takes some magic tricks to stay a sane stepmom sometimes.

*The animals are trained to know that they get fed only after my alarm has gone off. This means that they don't beg for food before I'm ready to get up and that they NEVER let me sleep past my alarm.

*The kids earn video game minutes every morning (well, every morning they wake up at Camp Dad) by being ready to go to school before 8:50 am. They have a checklist of things they have to do and can't write down their final time/minutes earned until everything is done.

*I keep a message board on the fridge and freezer to list the perishables inside. This way Mike knows when he needs to use up the broccoli even though he refuses to look inside the crisper drawer.

*I plan easy meals for Monday and Tuesday nights because those are our nights with the kids when they have homework (a.k.a. crazy nights filled with cranky kids. Friday and Saturday are homework free!). The rest of the week I have time to just wing it and cook whatever sounds good.

*I NEVER put unmated socks into a drawer. Single socks go in a bag until they find their match. If they don't get matched, they become dusting socks.

*The kids earn money for chores, but also lose money for naughty things like throwing shoes at their brother or playing with Pokeman cards after bedtime. Most chores and offenses have prices assigned on a spreadsheet (duh).

*I always pack the kids' lunches and my own right after dinner. My lunch is usually leftovers, anyways, so that means it's easy to pack up at night. Making lunches in the morning is darn near impossible for me to accomplish.

*We don't cook things for breakfast (besides toast), unless it's a special occasion or a weekend. It's plain soy yogurt with a touch of maple syrup and homemade granola (made on the weekend) for the kids every morning that they're at our house. I like toast or an apple with peanut butter.

*Bedtime routine is essential in our house because our boys are as night owl as they come. We start with a 5 minute warning. Then they take a bath, drink sleepytime tea (chamomile or one of the bedtime teas) and eat a little snack (graham cracker or toast). Then they go to the bathroom, get water, and clean off their beds. I read them 2 chapters of a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mystery and then it's time for sleep!

* I try to do laundry by room rather than by color. None of us wear white anyways (that would just be ridiculous to even try), so I don't really see a point in sorting by color. If I sort by the room it goes to, then putting away folded clothes is simple- They all go to the same place!

*I do sort my towels and rags on shelves, though. The nice towels go on the upper shelves. The okay towels are in the middle. They're okay for various not-too-nasty purposes. The bottom shelf is for the rags we use to clean everything nasty (dog pee, spills, cleaning the bathroom, etc.). The kids are pretty good about using the right towels. This system is perhaps a symptom of my not-clinically-bad-anymore-OCD. Actually, this whole post probably is.

*I keep a grocery list template (in Excel spreadsheet form, of course) on the front of the fridge. When we run out of something, we just check it off the list. This way I'm always ready to shop.

Hope some of these tips/tricks are helpful. What are your favorite "staying organized" hints?

Follow Up

After the post about my Sunday routine, someone asked me to lay out the times for everything.  So today I kept track of my timing for everything.  Here it is:

1:00-1:20 Mixing and kneading bread dough

1:20 Bread starts first rise

1:20 Prep applesauce

1:30 Put apples in to roast at 400F

1:30 Prep granola

1:38 Put brown rice on to cook

[Down time: blog, laundry, soymilk or beans in the pressure cooker, etc]

2:13 Turn off brown rice

2:30 Take out apples, mash.  Turn down oven to 325F

3:00 Bake granola

3:30 Take out granola.  Turn up oven to 350F

3:40 Bread finishes first rise, starts 2nd.  (This took way longer than usual today.  I used different yeast and wasn't really happy with it.  Usually I'd put the bread in the oven by now)

I didn't need to make any soymilk today, so I left that out, but I usually do that during the down time or at the end.  On a good bread rising day, I'd say that I'd be done in 3 hours.  Today I'm just now putting the bread in the oven at 5pm- 4 hours total.  

Hope this helps!  I'd love to see others' cooking/baking routines!

Getting it all done

My friend commented this weekend about reading this blog and marveling at all the cooking projects and wondering how I have the time for stepkids, work, etc.

I understand how it might seem impossible to cook food from scratch and still  function in society and not be frazzled to the max.  But other folks do far more than me, sewing their own clothes and grinding their own wheat.  All I know is how I've organized my own life to include these tasks that are important to me.  

Like with any commitment, though, cooking with few convenience foods requires some give and take.  To make time for cooking more, I've arranged my weekend into the "slack-off" day and the "get things done" day.  Saturdays I go to yoga, chill out, watch CSI reruns, and generally try not to feel guilty for doing nothing.  Sometimes I even hang out with friends!

Every Sunday I have basically the same routine.  I start the day off with some cleaning because sharing a house with 3 boys (2 of which have poor aim) means the bathroom ALWAYS needs to be cleaned.  Then I clean the kitchen enough to be able to cook in it all day.  

Every week I make the same things:

Soymilk

Granola

Whole wheat bread

Whole wheat rolls

Roasted applesauce

A pot of beans

Sometimes I'll make a big pot of brown rice or make almond milk instead of soymilk.  But this is my routine.  The good part about having this routine is that it doesn't take too long to get this all done.  The apples roast while the bread is rising (to keep the kitchen warm enough).  I use the hot oven to melt the peanut butter and Earth Balance for the granola.  It all fits together like a puzzle.

I think it is because of this routine that I've been able to keep my grocery budget under control.  And it's actually pretty relaxing to listen to music and cook on Sunday afternoons when I know that it makes the rest of the week SO much easier to handle.  

And what else are you going to do when it looks like this outside?

What I Ate

Let's see...my last post was Saturday.  A lot has happened since then.

1.  My KitchenAid mixer broke.  I've already had to replace the motor a couple of years ago because I accidentally didn't tighten the screw that holds in the attachment cover and it got stuck in the beater and broke the motor.  This time it's a mystery- It just won't turn on!  No frosting until I can make it out to the repair shop that's only open while I'm at work.  Is this worth taking vacation time for?

2.  I delivered my first dishes to Mr. C and he really, honestly doesn't want me to cook for him.  Not because the food is bad, but because he'd rather eat his ramen.  I'd like to object, but if I were 90 years old and someone was trying to make me change my diet, I'd be pissed too.  We'll see if his friend talks him into changing his mind.

3.  I successfully went nearly 2 weeks without baking cookies.  That has to be a world record...okay, maybe just a Liz record.  I broke down last night and make some oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies, but forgot that 100% oat flour and rolled oat cookies don't hold together all on their own.  Duh.  So we had to peel the one huge too crispy/undercooked cookie off the silpat mat and eat them right away.

4.  I taught a class tonight about transitioning to a vegetarian diet and/or eating less meat.  It was good because it forced me to brush up on my nutrition...and evaluate my own diet.  I think I'll copycat fellow food snob Catherine tonight and do a "flog" (food log) to make sure I'm on track.

Today I ate:

2 corn pancakes with a Yves sausage patty and slice of vegan rice cheese in the middle and maple syrup on top

(yes, like a breakfast sandwich on pancakes.  I promised these to the kids)

[1 hour yoga class]

2 16-oz glasses of water

1 16-oz smoothie with soymilk, banana, and peanut butter 

(the juice bar special this month!)

2 cups of black eyed peas, brown rice, kale, red peppers leftovers

1/2 organic candy cane

a few orange slices and almonds

16 oz water

About 3 cups of stir fried cabbage, celery, and carrot with ginger and garlic and Bragg's

About a cookie's worth of leftover disaster oatmeal chocolate chip cookie

*My eating isn't over for the day.  I came home and realized that we only have a few veggies and condiments in the fridge, so I threw together the stirfry so that I could think enough to figure out what else to cook.  Just veggies won't hold me over for too long!

It's interesting to see how I eat written down.  I really do graze all day!

Inventory

At the Co-op,  the end of the month is time for inventory.  In my current job, I don't really have to do anything for inventory, except occasionally troubleshoot some problems with our handheld terminals and the reports they generate.  So in the spirit of cooperation and in the memory of late nights counting bread in the freezer, I'll take an inventory of what I've canned so far this year.  All ingredients are either homegrown, local, organic, or some combination of the three.

Tomato Sauce- 12 quarts

Pickles (hot and regular dill)- 15 quarts

Salsa- 9 1/2 pints

Tomatillo salsa- 2 pints

Pickled jalapenos- 11 half-pints

Seitan Soup- 2 quarts

Summer Squash Soup- 5 quarts

Corn relish- 8 pints

Whole tomatoes- 3 quarts

Peach pie filling- 2 quarts

Apple butter- 3 1/2 pints

Cherries- 7 pints

Spiced Apple syrup- 4 pints

Peach jam- 9 pints

Peach chutney- 2 pints

Jalapeno Jam- 4 half-pints

Mulberry Jam- 5 half-pints

Strawberry Jam- 24 half-pints

See what I mean about needing a shelf for all this stuff?!

In the freezer is another story.  

By the way, I'll be participating in Vegan MoFo again this year.  For those that missed out on November 2007's festivities, Vegan MoFo is short for Vegan Month of Food.  It's essentially a blogging challenge.  I'll try to post 5 times a week during the month of October.  I'd say every weekday, but I'll probably post on the weekends and forfeit a weekday if needed.  For a list of all the other vegan bloggers participating, go here.  Beware, though.  Once you start following the 200 or so blogs, you'll never clean the house or cook or see your family again.

Camping Food

Preparing for camping is one of my favorite things to do. When I'm packing away our supplies, I get the very same feeling I used to get when playing house on the front porch, weaving together baskets out of monkey grass to store away the berries and acorns I'd gathered from the neighborhood. Only now I'm old enough to actually identify and eat the berries I find.

Camping involves the ultimate combination of planning (including list-making) and food: Two of my favorite things. I keep a camping supply list on my computer so that I'll never forget to pack something. And about 2 weeks ago I started planning what food we'd pack.

Did I mention we're only camping for 3 days and 2 nights?

Yeah, I know I make it a bigger deal than I need to...But that's part of the fun!
And when camping with 2 hungry and very energetic 8 year old boys, you need some serious food. Plus, when your family is eating organic, local (or fair trade), gluten-free, and mostly homemade, it takes some time to make all this!



Here's what we're packing:
2 jars of homemake TVP and kidney bean chili (For "frito" pie!)
1 jar of homemade mexican style black beans
1 jar of homemade, local salsa
2 bags of chips (local org. tortilla chips and organic "fritos")
a triple-batch of homemade tofu jerky
4 ears of local org. corn
1.5 pounds Door County dark cherries
1 pound local org. green beans
3 Larabars
1/2 pound instant hummus
1 can org. tomato sauce
bulk polenta
1 pound org. local hemp granola
Org. local popcorn kernels
Org. graham crackers
2 boxes of gluten-free crachers
Fair trade chocolate
Vegan marshmallows
Org. peanuts in the shell
4 batches of homemade cookies
12 homemade mulberry/cherry/maple sodas

I was worried about not having enough food. Now I'm worried about having too much junk and not enough veggies. But really, isn't camping is all about eating junk food? Or maybe that's just my idea of camping?

To Do

Usually I spend my weekends cooking up a storm, but last week was so busy that by the time this weekend rolled around, I had a to do list a mile long. It was warm enough to take the plastic off the windows and take down the awful curtains that broke and wouldn't let any light into the house. It was also warm enough to take the kitten outside on a leash. The cutest thing ever was when the dog, Hannah, took the leash out of my hand and started pulling the kitten along! (but she pulled so hard that the safety release broke her collar open and she tried to escape.) The kitten also tried to climb in the drier every time I went into the basement to do laundry.

***I should take the time here to note that although I complain about to-do lists, they are probably my favorite thing in the world to make and update. And I go insane without one. I think Mike hides my lists sometimes, just because he knows I enjoy rewriting them.***

Among sewing curtains, patching holes in the wall, cleaning out the fridge, and vacuuming (until the vacuum cleaner stopped working...great.), I didn't end up cooking much of anything. By Sunday night I was famished and ready to order in Thai food- Except the restaurant I really wanted to try was closed!

I really shouldn't be eating out anyways because I'm trying to reign in my food spending again. My food budgeting goes in waves, really. I have elaborate plans for budgeting and stick with it diligently...until it works and I have extra money. Then I allow myself to spend more. Then I'm back where I started. Right now I'm spending about 15% of my disposable income on food (yes, I track it). While this is more than most Americans spend, it's about average for folks from other (over)developed nations. So considering I eat nearly all organic food, I'm not doing that bad. There. I rationalized my grocery spending.

So anyways, here is what I ended up making on Sunday:
It's Tinkyada gluten-free pasta with my favorite "Parmesan tofu", zucchini, broccoli, and a lemon-red pepper sauce. The tofu I just tossed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, nutritional yeast, and red pepper and then baked at 450 for about 20 minutes. It puffs up and gets really crispy and reminds me of when I used to eat Parmesan cheese and it would get brown and crispy on garlic toast. I didn't write down measurements for how I made the sauce, but I know that I deglazed the pan with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper, salt and hot water mixed with arrowroot. The sauce thickened up nicely and coated the pasta. Mike thought it needed some tamari, but I liked it with just a bit more red pepper.

I also made the chocolate-chocolate chip-walnut cookies from Veganomicon- but with oat and barley flour instead of wheat. WOW! These are really good cookies! I just love the flavor of oat and barley flour. Sadly, I cannot share them with my gluten-free buddy... but I can share them with Mike and my newly wheat-free pal. And I'm sure they won't last long.

Recipe Organizing!

I'm finally doing it.
I'm organizing my recipes.
I'm been meaning to do this for ages. The spiral notebooks are bulging, the scraps of paper are faded and ripped. The computer files are scattered on DVDs, USB drives, and in free recipe software programs lost when my hard drive crashed.
I was scoping out prices on MasterCook when I remembered that my new versions of MS office came with something called Microsoft OneNote. I figured- What the heck? Maybe I'll take a look and see what that program does.

IT IS A RECIPE ORGANIZER'S DREAM COME TRUE!

This program allows me to easily type in my recipe, organize it into a certain book and within that into a certain section. I can move the text around really easily, post pictures, web pages, blog it, anything! And I can search for text anywhere within the book or section I want. Even text within pictures. It is beautiful. So far I've made it through the scraps of paper and started one notebook. It's so much fun to go through all my food porn pictures and match them up to the recipes!