Thankful for Foxies–Thursday thankful

wee fox

Spring is my favorite season, and I planned to post on the daffodils. I love their cheery yellow-ness.

Then this little guy showed up.

Sorry, daffodils, ya got trumped by wee foxy. There are 3 little ones, but we’ve only seen them twice, and once was 5am so pics were impossible with the lighting

double trouble

 

and one of the foxies is definitely not like the other. He’s a bit of a nutter…hopping on top of the logs, running under the logs…I’m used to normal baby fox behavior, and I wonder if this dude has foxy ADHD.crazy fox He’s also much more physically adept than his sibs…

and seems to lack the normal fear in exploration.

Obviously, fingers crossed for more foxy sightings soon! My darn job is getting in the way of all day foxy stalking.

And because I always get questions & accusations:

  • Yes, they’re foxes. For reals. They turn red as they get older.
  • Nope, no idea how we got so lucky.
  • Yes, that’s our backyard. Isn’t that awesome?
  • No, we don’t feed them. We even take down the bird squirrel feeder when they’re visiting.
  • Yep, they’re wild animals, and we respect their space. All pics are taken with a zoom lens. While papa fox 3 years back liked sitting with me when I was meditating, the rest of the foxes haven’t been interested in having a relationship. We haven’t even seen the parental foxies yet this year.
  • Need more foxy? Previous foxy family pictures are here.

Do I even need to say it? It’s a joy when they visit, and I am so grateful to them for  keeping our shed on their play route. I’m delighted when I see them…it’s like reality TV but minus the makeup and infighting.

Posted in Foxy family, thankful thursday | 2 Comments

Thankful for a meditation retreat–Thankful Thursdays

sevenoaks

I went to a meditation teacher training retreat last week in Madison, VA. If you can believe it, this picture doesn’t come close to capturing the beauty.

The training was challenging, inspiring, exhausting, exhilarating and enlightening. I still feel the imprint of those days, and the beautiful other people I had the privilege of meeting.

I’m thankful for the many beautiful opportunities for beauty in my life.

Posted in cheryl's musings, thankful thursday | 1 Comment

Passover Desserts

Only a few weeks till Passover…Passover starts April 14th.I’ve got the scoop on G-free Passover finds and eats here.

Growing up, Passover desserts were famously boring and not so great. Well, except for chocolate covered matza, which was awesome. Generally, cakes were dry and crumbly, and, well, not marvelous. Since I’m grain free and soy free, I realized that most of my recipes are naturally and happily good to go for Passover.If you’re strictly kosher, ya gotta use the OUP (Kosher for Passover) ingredients or it’s not okay for Passover.

I’ve linked to some of my normal favorite brands in recipes. Every ingredient in these recipes (almond flour, nuts, chestnuts, chocolate, cocoa powder, stevia, agave, quinoa, etc.) is naturally OUP has a brand that is marked Kosher for Passover. I started trying to edit these recipes to included these brands and realized how impossible that would be, because many products have Kosher for Passover versions ONLY this time of year, so you may need to seek out different brands or buy a different batch for Passover if you’re strictly Kosher.Enjoy!fudge

Bittersweet Chocolate Chestnut Fudge (GF, CF, EF, SF, sugar free and vegan)

Bliss Dip(GF, CF, EF, SF, sugar free and vegan)

Candied Orange Peel GF, CF, EF, SF, and vegan

Cinnamon Roasted Walnuts (GF, CF, EF, SF, sugar free and vegan)

Chocolate Banana Mousse Pie (GF, CF, EF, SF, sugar optional and vegan) Use an almond erikscakemeal crust, or go crust-free

Chocolate covered clementines and pomegranates (GF, CF, EF, SF, low sugar and vegan)

E’s Cake (Chocolate Hazelnut Torte) yes, some kinds of Nutella are Kosher for Passover!

Easy almond cookies (GF, CF, EF, SF, sugar free and vegan)

Easier Easy Almond Cookies (GF, CF, EF, SF, sugar free and vegan)baked bananas

Flourless Chocolate Torte (GF, CF, EF, SF, sugar free and vegan)

Hazelnut cookies GF, CF, EF, SF, sugar free and vegan)

Tropical Bananas (GF, CF, EF, SF, sugar free and vegan)

Tuxedoed Strawberries (GF, CF (if you have CF chips), EF, and vegan)

PS–I looked over all these recipes to double check their Passover status, but if I’ve goofed, please drop me a line.

 

 

Posted in recipe | 1 Comment

Thankful for inter-dependence

Some Thursdays, figuring out a “thankful” takes a good bit of digging. This one is easy!

Needing help…generally, I put dependence up there with getting dental work done. But we winter danceall have times we need to lean on others. I think our ability to receive love, support, and compassion is a great measure of how healthy we are. None of us were meant to live in a vacuum.

So I needed to muster up the courage to ask for help this week, and I was offered great kindness and compassion. I’m beyond grateful for that gift, and sometimes simple words can be a great treasure.

I’m also reminded that we tend to think of one person giving, the other receiving. In any truly open and honest exchange, both give; both receive.

Posted in thankful thursday | 2 Comments

Ultimate Roasted Broccoli

roasted broccoliSince it’s St. Patty’s day, I’m going for the green theme! If you’ve ever had roasted broccoli, you know it’s amazing. Trust me, there’s a way to make amazing even better…and it’s simple and quick.

I love to roast veggies, and I’ve posted a bunch of my faves:OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Of all of them, I think the roasted broccoli is the one we make most often.

The secret is the dried minced onion, and adding it at the end. I simply don’t have time to do all of the chopping and dicing when I get home from work, and dried is so easy and convenient.ultimate roasted broccoli

3 Tablespoons of olive oil

2 large heads of broccoli

1-2 tsp coarse sea salt

1-1.5 TBSP dried minced onion (reserved!)

Preheat oven to 350, and chop broccoli into small pieces. Toss broccoli in olive oil and salt. Spread out chopped broccoli over a cookie sheet lined with foil. 2 large heads of broccoli gives enough good stuff to thoroughly cover a large cookie sheet. Bake at 350 until browning, around 20-22 minutes. THEN add in the dried minced onion, stir and bake ~4 minutes more, or until the onion is browning.

It is so good…you’ve got to try it.

McCormick’s sells big containers of minced onions, which we tend to bust through pretty quickly.

I’m submitting this to Gluten-Free Wednesdays, which is hosted by co-hosted by Linda of Gluten-free Homemaker, Shirley of gluten free easily and Lynn of Lynn’s Kitchen Adventures, and if I remember this will go to Wellness Weekends, too. (Yay! I remembered!)

Oh, and hop over and see my Cocoa Nut Muffins for Muffin Madness by Shirley of gluten free easily

Posted in recipe, side dish, vegetables | 1 Comment

Thankful for…1st signs of Spring!

springSpring hasn’t quite sprung, but at least we’ve got clues that it’s on its way. I’m so thankful for the songs of the birds, the warmer weather, and the little daffodil shoots that are starting to come up!

Posted in cheryl's musings, thankful thursday | Leave a comment

Blankie Love

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAI love blankets…and so does my crew. When it’s this cold, I’m constantly reminded that you can never have too many blankies, and it’s so super wonderful to curl up with one. The white blanket above is from grad school and is almost an old friend.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAg snuggles

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAmy lovespeace love and kittehsOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAkitty protectorI’m very thankful for all the blankets and my team of professional snugglers!OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

G is to the left; he’s in most of the pics because he and I usually hang out together, but a few have Hou, too.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Posted in cat pictures, thankful thursday | Leave a comment

Calories, Weight, and a Whole Lotta Garbage

I was looking back at old drafts of posts that I’ve written over the years but never published, and I found this rant on the 1200 calorie weight loss myth. Since it’s the last day of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week  and the first day of National Nutrition Month, I figured it would be a good time to share it.

Not a week goes by that I don’t see a client who truly believes she/he needs to be following a 1200 calories diet to lose weight or be healthy. It seems to be the #1 nutrition myth.scale

Despite what the intertubes may say, a 1200 cal diet is not considered standard professional weight loss advice. Honest. There is, of course, plenty of bad advice and/or controversy out there, because that sells. There’s also a whole lot of standard nutrition advice that I heartily disagree with, but that’s another post. Take a  look at the recommendations designed for the average person, like MyPlate/USDA calorie levels. Those are actually in the ballpark of pretty reasonable. Take a look at AND (aka Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) who quite reasonably drills that people should not eat under 1200 without doctor’s supervision and advocates levels based on BMR aka your metabolism.  ACSM aka American College of Sports Medicine recommendations are clear that 1200 is the absolute lowest that someone should eat, and that’s instead been twisted into a max or ideal in a perverse fashion. “Don’t eat less than 1200 cal” does NOT mean a 1200 cal diet is the standard or ideal. Just because some petite, sedentary little old lady might be just ducky with that calorie level doesn’t mean that’s standard advice for the masses.

Any nutrition or professional who perpetuates the idea of 800 or 1200 as the standard is poorly informed and irresponsible. Period. No excuses. That goes for the NHLBI site that mentions 1000-1200 calories and cites a report from 1998, too–that was actually the only supposedly reputable site I could find that recommends under 1200 calories. Yes, they should know better. And yes, advisory committees at weight loss companies that perpetuate this idea should know better. That is their job, and many people are brainwashed into going along.

1200 cal=universal weight loss standard advice = complete BS. It’s simply not what science-based recommendations say. We need to be clear about that. It’s like ignoring the cat that pees on your shoe. Don’t pretend it’s normal, it just encourages him to do it again. Trust me on that. I do understand that’s a common misconception, and what the media and many weight loss companies promote, but no, that’s not research consensus, nor is it responsible info. We do a disservice by continuing to perpetuate that 1200 cal for weight loss as the government or research norm. The more we say it, the more it gets established as true. If you see a professional giving such misguided advice, please, enlighten them. Ask those “experts” why they’re not following the mainstream professional guidance out there against low calorie diets.

And most importantly, I think that the whole calorie discussion misses theOLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA mark. Completely. Because not only does it miss that we have different metabolisms, it doesn’t even consider quality of food. There are people who do thrive on 1200-ish cal and would find 2500 oppressive, and vice versa. I can say honestly my metabolism is just be slower than average. When I was in undergrad, I worried that there was something wrong with me. My solution at the time? To eat more chocolate and make up the calorie difference. 😉 But that’s another story… If I forced myself to eat the # of calories the tables recommend, I would feel really ill. It’s simply too much FOR ME and that is as goofy as eating too little. I’ve seen other  people who are comfortable, happy and healthy and happen to eat somewhere in the ballpark of 1200 cal…or 1800…or 2200…or 2800…or even 3200, or whatever. The problem lies in suggesting XX # of calories universally, because not only doesn’t it exist, but it also completely ignores dietary quality and the many functions that food has in our lives.

Hopefully we can agree–we all have different needs, and a magic number doesn’t exist, and chasing a number is harmful. When we’re still trying to find the right-sized calorie box for people, we’ve missed the human being and their individual needs. It would be truly marvelous to simply drop calories from the discussion and focus on real food, self-care and movement.

Okay…stepping off my soapbox now.

Posted in cheryl's musings | Leave a comment

Random Thankfuls–Thankful Thursday

waterGrateful for the wind whipping the water around, the mallard digging for something under the water who kept wiggling his little duck tush in the air (no pics of him, so sorry!)

I’m grateful for my heating pad, the music, my husband’s snuggles, a delicious local apple before bed…and I’m off to bed, thankful for many blessings big and small.

 

Posted in cheryl's musings, thankful thursday | 2 Comments

Menu Plan Monday: Maple!

cheryl's pralines

What a beautiful weekend! The snow is thawing, and all I want to do is go outside and enjoy the mild weather. Hope it’s lovely where you are, too.banana chocolate tart

Last week was a tasty one, with my new love, Chocolate Banana Tarts, stealing the show. And this week I’m hosting Menu Plan Monday with the theme of maple. If you’re interested in hosting any time soon, do contact Heather of Celiac Family.

I adore maple, and many of my favorite recipes have maple as a sweetener, like my Amazing Chocolates, my Maple Pralines, Nana Skillet Bread, Hazelnut cookies and my Macadamia Maple Butter . My Sweet Potato Pie uses maple sugar, and so does my Chocolate Chestnut Cake, which I totally have to post really soon. I also adore Shirley’s Maple Caramel Chews   and I can’t keep track of how often I’ve made those lately!

Maple is also a low FODMAP sugar, which can help for many tummy troubles, so I’ve been trying to play with maple recipes more often. I’m also excited to see what foods with maple you share!

Sad as it is, I realize that I can’t simply eat maple sweetened desserts all week, so onward to the food!

Monday:
Kale and beef in chestnut sauce

Tuesday:lettuce bowl

Herbed chicken with roasted rosemary cauliflower

Weds:

Leftover chicken on greens from my happy new aerogarden!

Thurs:

Home late—freezer rummaging time

Friday:
Coconut Chickpea Stew

Fun maple recipe: my new maple walnuts. As soon as I get a pretty pic, I’ll post them.

And everyone else?

Lori of Gluten Free Week joins us with Maple Baked Beans to “fill” her maple requirement! (just kidding–no requirement to use our theme ingredient) She rightly points out that real maple syrup is so much more amazing than the fake stuff.

Elisabeth from the Girl who couldn’t eat anything teases with talk of Cauliflower Alfredo that caught my eye right off the bat! She also posts on some mini vegan cheesecakes.  She plans to have breakfast for dinner, which sounds like fun.

Kendra of the peaceful mom joins us with her adorable Apple Sandwiches, and her Italian Chicken is similar to one of our staples, too.

 

Posted in menu plan | 4 Comments