When. I. Am. Busy...

Often times when I post, I tell you guys, "It's been so busy! I haven't been able to post in a bit!" I was thinking about this the other day and thought, "Maybe they need to know just what I mean when I say I've been busy." After all, if I was reading a blog, I would begin to wonder just what keeps that person so busy that they can't even post on their own blog! It only takes but an hour or so to create a blog, right? I decided to tell you guys just what I mean when I say busy. This was my busy yesterday!

8 AM: Alarm rings.

8:40 AM: I actually get up this time (this is my one day a week off from my 8:15 - 4:30PM job and I work just a few hours in the afternoon at a second job, but this allows me time to work on my business).

9AM: Making breakfast at my house and enjoying a quick bite while making some phone calls. Scheduled a chiropractic appointment (try for a least once a month with my current budget, but it keeps me tuned up!) Some business phone calls about ordering some more supplies and arranging a pick up to my storage unit for 5:30PM.

10:15 AM: Hopped on my bike for another business duty to order some shirts. Finished ordering shirts and biked to chiropractic appointment.

Bike, bike, bike!

11:15 AM: Crack, snapple, pop! Adjusted! :)

11:45 AM: Biked back home to get a snack. Sent out some business emails. Checked out some stuff online. Relisted some pants on Ebay. Changed and packed up my pannier for a bike ride to the beach.

And again!

1:00 PM:   Beach time! A quick stop for some relaxation and ME time! Read a book and caught up on my DAMY Health program for weeks 8-12!

                     My favorite view at the beach.                    Listening to tunes and readin'.

2:00 PM:   Bike ride back home. Ate some quick lunch and hopped off to work!

4:00 PM:   Errand for my employer and then a quick jaunt back to Minneapolis for business supplies!

5:35 PM:   En route to deliver supplies to storage space. Upon arrival, unloading and placing into storage.

7:00 PM:   Bike ride to the Wedge Coop for some goods for DAMY Health cooking night!

Rosy, my bike and me on a mission.

8:20 PM:   Trader Joe's for some OTHER foods for cooking and the rest of the week! Salad! Yum!

Late evening grocery shopping!

9:00 PM:   A night of laundry, cooking and cleaning! I've been so busy lately, my place has been a disaster! I like to cook all of my meals ahead of time for the week. This makes it easy for me to get other duties done during the week. I prepare a bunch of DAMY Health snacks, like these Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Balls! So good! I cook up meats and keep them in the fridge so I don't have to do that during the week. I get my lunch ready for the next day, coffeemaker on, dishes clean and my breakfast out on the counter.

DAMY Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Protein Balls!

As I said, my place is chaotic! I've been so busy planning my business, working out and everything else that it seems hard to keep my head above water sometimes! I really need to get this place cleaned up! I got most of the STUFF picked up, but I have yet to vacuum, dust and mop tomorrow! My bathroom has just become too gross! I should be embarrassed to put this up, but I know that others have the same problems that I do in keeping up with house work, so I'm willing to put it out there!

Wowsers. Super cluttered.

Disgusting stove top!

Ew! Soap leftover, gross sink! Time for a scrub!

Laundry is always a task at my place with the laundry room in the basement and me three floors up. Plus, it seems that my sheets always get tangled in the dryer and I can never get them fully dry...even after two cycles! I let them hang out to dry in my place with the fans on. By morning, they are dry.

Alternative drying methods.

2:00 AM:  Time to lay down and catch some shut eye. Definitely not enough hours of sleep for me! I will have to finish the rest of my cleaning and some additional snack and food preparation tomorrow. I will also have to get in a workout and a quick after work business meeting! A lot of work and little sleep, but all worth it to come home to a clean house! :)

Much better for the most part!

This is what I mean by, "I've been busy." :)

Hope you all had productive and busy days too!

Goal: Check!

One more goal off the list! I FINALLY have made my own food! I can't say my garden was as successful as I hoped this summer. My squash seems to be dying, carrots are clearly meant to be left to the experts, and strawberries need a few years to produce anything. On the other hand, tomatoes and basil are booming! The word is still out on the green peppers!

These were the best of my carrots. Epic carrot fail.

As I said though, tomatoes and basil have been booming! My basil has been growing so quick I've been bringing BAGS of it into the food shelf to give away! So, I finally took the liberty to use some and can some salsa! My first successful canning project is going to go to my landlord as a thank you for allowing me to use the space in her garden. She even cut down her own plants so I could use the space! How generous is that?!

Here is how my canning process went!

 After picking the tomatoes, I blanched them.

Peeling off the tomato skins.

Next I cored them and removed seeds.

I made a salsa that came out of the Ball Blue Book. It was Jalapeño Salsa! I made a batch for work one day too! That was my first attempt at canning and I didn't have enough tomatoes to fill the jar for canning. My coworkers really enjoyed it though! My one coworker said it was, "the bomb!" That made me pretty happy!

After making the salsa up and heating the jar and lids, I put the jar in it's water bath and away I went - canning! I was rather skeptical, I have to admit. I also realized, I need a deeper pot! That'll be an investment I'll have to make!

Here were my results:

Yes! A successful canning project! Perfect seal and hopefully no botulism! ;)

I'm going to make it pretty and bring it over to my landlord tonight!

Glad to be crossing these things off my list, one by one. (I am going to go and check it off the list now!) I was thinking today about how much progress I've made in the past year since leaving my job. I'm so happy for moving forward and not looking back - focusing on what brings me joy and fulfillment!

Here's to salsa and only looking forward!

New. Thing. #4: Down. With. Dairy.

I recently started to play with my diet a little bit to just see how it affects me. I would like to lean more towards a plant-based diet. However, I will likely never be a person to say I am a vegetarian or vegan. I like all types of food, you see. On the other hand, I can recognize the benefits of limiting myself with regards to certain foods.

You are what you eat!

In my steps in moving towards a more plant-based diet, I decided dairy was the place to start. I started a few weeks ago by replacing my 2% milk in my smoothies each morning with almond milk. I tried both rice and almond milk, I just like almond milk better. I've been experimenting with different brands. Trader Joe's has the cheapest that I've found at $1.69 for 32 oz. I've been told Costco has almond milk you can buy in bulk and is pretty cheap.  I was skeptical about soy milk, but ended up trying it in coffee at a shop...not so bad! Actually gave it a nice nutty flavor! The only place I didn't cut out dairy was at work in my regular coffee, I continue to add a dash of half and half.

Trader Joe's and Almond Breeze almond milk.

Yes, I did blog the other day about CHEESE! I do not think dairy is BAD, I don't think any food is BAD, I just think many things can be bad when we eat too much of them. That is what I was finding with myself and dairy products. I do continue to eat some cheese on things but I have drastically cut back on cheese. I even tried Coconut Bliss chocolate ice cream! Pretty good! Tasted like a Mounds Bar!

I will note that last night, I did make pizza. I also indulged in a regular latte today to see how I felt after. How did I feel? Bloated. I think that sticking with cutting out a lot of dairy will be good for me. I've been focused on trying to include more foods that I have probably not been eating enough of. I've been including leafy greens in my smoothies in the morning, namely spinach. My smoothies only consist of fresh/frozen fruit and almond milk so I am getting doses of vegetables and fruit immediately in the morning. A good way to start each morning! I have also been wanting to go to Costco and purchase a new veggie burger I had tried and really enjoyed!

Spinach!

Less dairy is my new challenge to having a more plant-based diet!

Have you ever noticed that certain foods have become too much of a regular thing in your diet? Did you eliminate them? How did you feel afterwards?

New. Thing. #3: Things. That. Make. You. Go. Mmmmmmm.

I've been noticing lately that I've been getting bored and feel that I'm always cooking the same old thing. This week, I've been trying to cook some new dishes that I haven't had before incorporating some ingredients from my garden. I've grown basil in the past but I've never used it! I've always just given it away to people. This week, I realized that my basil had exploded - probably due to all of our rain! I had so much and it had to be picked!

Basil

Most people always suggest using it to make pesto. There is one problem: I don't like a lot of garlic nor do I like that much parmesan cheese. That's problematic if you want to eat pesto. However, I did decide I would try and find another recipe that I could use the basil that I had grown and enjoy too! I was on a search for recipes and I found this recipe for a pasta twist on caprese salad. I just used a little less garlic and olive oil then the recipe recommended.

Caprese salad.

I have tons of basil left! I'm thinking a margherita pizza this weekend!

Another new recipe I made this week was a new salad dressing. It was really good and I'll definitely make it again! It is the Honey-Lemon Dressing as found in Food & Wine Magazine.

The recipe is as follows:

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon honey

1/2 teaspoon chopped thyme

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

In a small bowl, whisk the lemon juice with the lemon zest, honey and thyme. Whisk in the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Honey-Lemon Dressing

This was a wonderful dressing! They also have a Basil Vinaigrette recipe. With my overabundance of basil, I will have to try it!

Another new item I tried this week while I was grabbing a few things at Lunds was Beemster Graskaas (Grass Cheese) cheese. Now, I wouldn't normally be so excited about cheese, but this is a SPECIAL cheese. Made in the Netherlands, it comes from the very first milking each spring of the cows which is some of the creamiest milk. Only 2,000 wheels are made each year and only 1,000 of them are shipped to the US. Once it is all gone, there is no more till next year! I felt so lucky to get a wedge of one of the only 1,000 wheels! Wooohoo! Yep, I get excited about the small and nerdy things. :) Read more about this cheese here.

From the Beemster crew, above is a video of the cows getting out for the first time on spring pastures! Come on ladies, make that milk! :)

Does anyone have any exciting basil recipes that I might try? What other new recipes do you suggest that I could possibly make?

Accomplished. Weekend.

What I did this weekend!

I am so happy to say that I had SUCH a productive weekend! Friday night I got a workout in, made myself some homemade pizza and treated myself to a movie! I went and saw Something Borrowed. Yes, all by myself! I love treating myself to movie date night sometimes! :)

Saturday it was time to get to business! I woke up early and went with my mother and nephews to a Lego convention as my father, who originally planned to go, unfortunately had a toothache. I had an early wake up call and off I was to meet my mom and nephews. It was a fun time and always good to spend some time with my family!

My nephews and batman at the convention.

It rained all day so that was a perfect way to spend the afternoon...indoors! However, just in time for me to go home, the sun peeked out! I took advantage and did a jaunt around the lake. Was such a nice run!

After the run, I got to planting! I received my Kmart bags last week and I knew I had to get planting this weekend! I filled my bags with dirt and starting putting the tomato and strawberry plants in them. I only got 3 bags done and I ran out of soil. I will make one more trip and get some soil and fencing and then I will start my garden area. I put a picture of the plot that my landlord generously gave to me! So nice! I also gave you guys a little update on the status of my seedlings!

3 bags I received from Kmart. Oh, the area in front of it is my little plot. I put these items in bags because I have plans for that other area which need more space! :)

Tomato plant.

Strawberry plant. This bag is awesome! Why? See those little pouches on the side? Well, you can grow other herbs out of those pouches! So cool!

Seedlings! 

Butternut squash!

Herbs sprouting!

Bob, my Chia pet bunny. 

I got a bunch of other work done this weekend, including selling a ton of items on Ebay!

Today was spent washing all of my laundry and cleaning and rearranging my apartment. I need to get my table put in SOON! I'm dying to invite people over! Also, I spent today working on another stock. I made chicken stock! The chicken fell RIGHT off the bone today when I was done. I made myself a dinner with chicken, Uncle Ben's rice and some veggies from the stock. As you can imagine, that's not ALL I plan on doing with it! I will make a chicken and rice soup, (with the leftover rice and chicken), as well as freeze some stock for later use.

Chicken! It does not look so appetizing here, but I promise it was good!

Stock!

Rice beginning to cook!

Dinner!

Tomorrow: finish my planting, get Ebay items sent, work and get some business planning done as well! I can't wait to accomplish more!

Canning. 101.

Can-can can you do the can-can?

I CAN!

Yes, I'm a total nerd...and I love it! I took a canning class! Once again through Minneapolis Community Education. My teacher was Mr. John Galvin and he was incredibly awesome! He was super excited about the smallest of things having to do with canning and I thought that was great! I get excited about things like that too! For example, when I first tried growing herbs and they began to sprout. Yep, I was taking pictures and Facebooking them left and right! Most of all, I found that to be the greatest thing about the class! John's enthusiasm for canning! It makes me want to can all the more! So contagious!

On the other hand, the first thing John spoke with us about? Botulism.

Yep, he initially scared the crap out of me with this. I will admit it. I won't even lie and say that when I got home, I didn't go and google more about botulism, if it can be cured, etc. Because...I did. WebMD does not cure hypochondria...just so you all know.

Hey Gertie! I hope you used proper canning techniques! No one likes their peaches with a side of bacteria! 

John taught us all about the canning process AND how to do it safely so that we avoid illnesses such as botulism. I can't wait! Even while listening to him talk I became inspired to try even more than I thought I would try! I think I will try to can my own spaghetti sauces, tomatoes, jams and MAYBE some soups. Perhaps I'll get inspired to do even more! ;)

Jam anyone?

Beyond the canning process, we learned all sorts of different factoids about produce. For example, did you know that fresh produce loses half of its nutrients in only 1-2 weeks?! Wow! That statistic actually amazed me. Proves just how nutritious even GROWING your own vegetables must be.

Also, we learned of the wonderful world of Menards - John's favorite store as he informed us! Apparently they have TONS of canning stuff though so I will have to be hitting that store up very soon!

She's got all the supplies!

With my seeds planted and my garden in process, I can't wait till canning time starts! Also, my wonderful brother told me he had a pressure canner I could borrow and also a Ball Blue Book of Preserving! I can't wait to try out some recipes!

By the way, for everyone in the Minneapolis area, I highly recommend you check out John's class through Minneapolis Community Ed. It is excellent!

My kitchen come this fall? I hope so! (Minus the wallpaper!)

May canning season come quick and may my fruits and veggies grow rapidly!

You splurge, you purge!

I've begun to notice a new pattern. I recently had the realization that I was falling back into some nasty old habits.

I told you all about the beautiful dresses and bag that Sonya had sent me for my birthday. I probably failed to notify you all of the other shirts and accessories I've acquired since my meeting day with Sally. Yes, some of them were to obtain pieces that I was missing. However, some of my more recent purchases were just...well, frivolous. It recently occurred to me that I have not been sticking by a rule that I created for myself upon moving into this new place. Every time that I  take in a new item, I need to get rid of another item. 

I've taken in a few items lately:

1. A pair of super cute Mary Janes that my sister bought for me from the Goodwill for only $3.00-NEW!

2. A purse I got from Steeple People for $3.50.

3. A backpack for biking with my laptop for $3.00 from Steeple People.

4. Cute new summer shirt from My Sister's Closet!

I was going through my closet the other day, realizing my hangers were dwindling. Yes, I had acquired more new items than I remembered and haven't got rid of any. Thus, the search through my items began. I grabbed a few bags, some dresses I haven't worn in YEARS and some shirts that just don't fit right any more and marched my way to the thrift stores. I stopped at Everyday People and Buffalo Exchange and sold what I could and donated the remainder. 

Dress not worn for ages. Time for resell!

Bag full and ready for donation!

It appears some old habits such as going out are reoccurring as well. I think that my birthday lunches and some other events really spoiled me in the month of April and I forgot about my need for thrifty! May will be spent working on getting back into my thrift mode. Amazing how addicting those restaurant foods seem to be! Suck you right in!

Today's dinner: green and red peppers, onion and cheese omelet over a toasted whole grain roll. 

Thinking of making another huge pot of minestrone to last me for a while tomorrow. Now that I'm fully purged of my items, I'm fully prepared to get back on track with cooking and minimizing!