Plants and Pickleball

[Ejeff]

Thank you Stephanie, yes October is a great month so far. Our weather is way above average, quite amazing really.

I made a big pot of soup that is seasoned with a Moroccan spice blend. I accidentally put all the spice mix in so it’s rather spicy. I blended and froze most of it and will be having it as a preload for at least a couple of weeks. Not every day though. I never throw out food, I think it relates to my frugal ways. I had the oven on yesterday so baked up a bunch of russet potatoes and several butternut squash. The potatoes make great air fried spuds and I’ve frozen most of the squash. I will use it to make soups and sauces. I ended up buying 15 pounds of potatoes and a few more yams. So I will be eating a lot of that this week. I never get tired of potatoes. Today I’m planning to make a gravy from potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, and spices. Looking forward to fries and gravy too. I also cooked a batch of black beans they are so much better than canned as I like them a bit softer. And so much cheaper also, at least half the cost if not more. I had some leftover pumpkin so made pancakes. The flour is oat flour so they are healthier than a typical pancake.

We don’t get pizza very often, but we did yesterday. I ordered mine with just mushrooms and extra sauce and then added air fried peppers, olives, and fresh tomatoes. Was very good.

My M/W/F exercise routine is going well, haven’t had to miss any days. I try to get it done early in the day and that seems to work best for me. I’ve been enjoying a lot of Pickleball and walks. I need to get motivated to add an evening walk at least some days.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Erin

[Ejeff]

Well winter has come in like a lion lol. Last weekend it was +17, this weekend -17 with the wind chill. It has snowed about 6 inches so driving is slower than usual these past couple of days. We had another family birthday celebration. It was fun to share a meal and play some games. This time I prepared Buffalo cauliflower dip for an appetizer. Main course was pizza. I used the potato/carrot cheese sauce and made homemade roasted pepper marinara. Was very tasty. Straight Up Foods carrot cake with cashew/date icing. It’s a healthy dessert, no sugar or flour. Well I guess technically since the oats are ground into flour, there is flour.

Back to simple meals this week, potatoes, beans, veggies...just the usual.

I have been listening to the Mastering Diabetes Summit the past couple of days. Quite a few interesting speakers. One thing I learned from Furhman is not sweating is perfectly fine. I thought maybe because I don’t sweat much at all when exercising that maybe there was something wrong. Seems it means I’m quite healthy so that’s nice to know. Another take away from the summit is trying to get a wide variety of plants. I’m pretty good at this, although I could definitely be adding more greens like bok choy and arugula to my rotation. I also didn’t realize there is a very strong correlation to diabetes and cancer, guess you have a much higher chance of getting cancer if you are a diabetic. Makes sense. Quite sad really how diabetes has just become one of those diseases people seem to just accept, they believe they must live with it.

Now that Pickleball has moved in doors, I bought a facilities pass. I’ve increased my exercise to include rowing and step machine and a bit of swimming. I love sitting in the sauna, it’s very relaxing and so hot. I have also started to listen to some meditation podcasts from Sleep Cove. Quite enjoying them. My daughters and I went to a market yesterday and browsed all the goodies and products. It was fun. I believe there were 3 tables selling fancy donuts. There was even a girl selling little fridge magnet donuts. They looked very real, but why would anyone want that on their fridge to provide a reminder of temptation every day. We watched When The Crawdads Sing movie, it was just okay, book is much better which is usually the case.

I baked 4 loaves of sourdough bread. Gave most of it away to family. I try not to have too much bread as I prefer spuds and rice most days. It is nice to bake sometimes, I do just one loaf per day in my Dutch oven. Done baking bread for a bit. That’s about all to report on, hope everyone has a good week!

Erin

[bunsofaluminum]

oh gosh! Pickleball fun! I met my hubby at a pickleball event with a meetup group we belonged to. But honestly, you're lucky to have an indoor venue for the sport nearby. Have fun!

[Ejeff]

Hello journal.

All is well in my world, gosh the months sure do fly by. For the past 6 weeks it’s very much winter here so no outdoor Pickleball. We have moved indoors and I also have access to a full gym, swimming pools and sauna so I’ve been taking advantage of that. At the gym I like to do a small circuit of 10 minutes on each of the step machine, rowing machine and bike. Then I finish off with just a few minutes of lap swimming and the sauna is the reward at the end. So relaxing and therapeutic. I have a nice routine established, but we will be travelling for the next few months so will be needing to make a new schedule. While travelling I plan to keep food as simple as possible, lots of potatoes and oats.

On the food front nothing much has changed. My favorite lunch is still a large salad bowl with rice, roasted peppers, cabbage, onions, a few air fried mushrooms, lettuce and some pumpkin seeds. For dressing, I blend up and have even found I can make larger batches and freeze it. White beans, lemon juice, horseradish, mustard, vinegar, tahini and water. Never get tired of this. At the very end I also microwave it for like 20 seconds, my family thinks I’m weird, but what can I say I enjoy a warm salad lol. As it’s cold out I’ve been making lots of soup and it helps me empty out the freezer also.

I’m not doing too much seasonal baking, but I did make a new recipe for gingerbread men from Vegan8. This recipe is a keeper as the dough was easy to work with to roll and cut. It used maple syrup, but I want to try substituting date syrup next time. I make my own oat flour. The flavour and texture just turned out very nice and it was a thumbs up from the family. I’m looking forward to several holiday gatherings over the next couple of weeks.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a 2023 that is full of health and happiness.

Erin

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Erin!

Wishing you and your family a Merry Christmas and awesome 2023!!!

Love your journal!!! I am going to try your warm lunch salad concept --- sounds delicious!!!

Best,
Stephanie

[Daydream]

Ejeff (Erin), your salad sounds good. Have a wonderful trip this winter!

[Ejeff]

Thank you Stephanie and Daydream.

Touring around southern Portugal and Spain for the past 6 weeks has been fun. In the first half we were getting in 3 to 4 hours a day of lovely walks and hikes and then my hubby took a bad fall. So it’s been about 3.5 weeks since quad repair surgery. Much less walking now, but I still try and get my own 30 to 60 minutes in a day. The weather has been very lovely, mostly sunny days with temperatures around 16 to 19. On the exercise front I am still doing my 100 squats a day (4 sets of 25) and I brought resistance bands so I’m working on arm and shoulder strengthening 3 days a week.

We stay in Airbnb’s so I mostly prepare my own food. It’s quite interesting how I cannot find some things here, but I also find things here that I cannot back home. For example I can always buy kale at home, but cannot find it here. One thing I found here was chopped and bagged Swiss chard. Super handy to dump in a pan and sauté and very delicious with a bit of lemon or vinegar. At home I can find Swiss chard, but not ready to eat. Oranges are very plentiful and so juicy and sweet. Mostly I keep food simple and just try to get in lots of veggies each day along with my starches. Since I cannot blend up my favorite salad dressing, I just use hummus that I thin out with water and sometimes a bit of mustard or vinegar. Works well. Definitely having too many non compliant sweets...they are everywhere. Not a good excuse and I could definitely do better skipping those. It is fun to browse the markets here, sometimes the produce is very good other times not. Of course there is fish and seafood everywhere. I’m sure not tempted to have any of that, the smell is quite awful. They also sell whole rabbits in the local markets, when I saw the first one I didn’t even realize what it was. So horrible seeing that! Humans are so strange, they will eat rabbits and cows and chickens. Yet worship their dogs and cats, pampering them and such. Such a disconnect. I guess they just don’t really think about it and that’s how they are able to eat the animals. But once you start to think about food and animals in a different way it’s impossible to even think of eating that meat. At least that has been my personal experience.

The forums have been so quiet, hope they pick up a bit soon. I enjoy reading everyone’s successes and strategies.

Erin

[Daydream]

Erin,

I am so sorry about your dear husband's injury. I'm sending you hugs! Thank goodness that your husband was able to quickly get the surgery he needed so he can heal properly.

It sounds like you are staying mostly McDougall compliant while traveling in Portugal and Spain, which is great. Ewww, about seeing whole dead rabbits in the market! I know that would gross me out. I hope the rest of your travels are safe and enjoyable.

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Erin,

Your touring of Spain / Portugal sounds amazing!!! Are you looking for Pickleball folks there??

Wishing your husband a speedy recovery from his surgery.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Stephanie

[Ejeff]

Daydream and Stephanie,

Thanks for the healing wishes. Hubby is coming along very well, he has had some Physiotherapy sessions so now just practice and healing time. No I haven’t been playing Pickleball here, it does exist in some towns though.

I’ve been enjoying the small purple sweet potatoes from the markets. So easy to just microwave and eat plain. At home these are harder to find, but they are more tasty than the huge orange yams. This week I ate a lot of frozen broccoli in additional to the usual salads. When I stir fry some veggies, I like to start with a red onion then add lots of mushrooms and a few cherry tomatoes. In my big bowls I enjoy both cooked and raw onion.

We are still enjoying the sites of southern Portugal and will head north along the West coast this coming week. The people in Portugal are very friendly and I can see why many people choose to retire here. The weather has been very sunny around 17 degrees. We haven’t had much rain at all although there is some in the forecast for this week.

Hope everyone has a great week, March is a nice month as the days are getting longer and spring is getting closer.

Erin

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Erin!!!

Glad that your hubby is healing well!!!!

Your trip sounds amazing!!! Awesome that you are having excellent opportunity to see Portugal...

Love what you said about the purple sweet potatoes. Have "Stokes" here --- these are smaller for sure than most... they are beautiful color... a bit dry --- so I like to mix them with other sweet potato / yams.

Thanks much for the YouTube recommend on my journal. Was pretty spot-on!!!

Cheers,
Stephanie

[Ejeff]

Stephanie, no I’m not playing Pickleball while travelling, I’m quite likely suffering from withdrawal lol. Glad you enjoyed the Broccoli Mum videos.

We are now in Netherlands and will return home in about a week. Very pretty country and the people are so friendly. I absolutely love how they bike everywhere here. I see parents with one child on the back of the bike and one in the front. Many elderly people ride bikes too. More vegan options in the stores and in restaurants as well. The weather is much cooler around 13. Windy and a bit of rain.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Erin

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Erin,

Hope that you share more about the Netherlands!!! That sounds amazing!!!!

Glad your hubby is doing well... I bet you get right back to the Pickleball when you get home!!!

Best,
Stephanie

[Ejeff]

Stephanie, yes back to Pickleball yesterday. Was such fun and great to chat with my friends there. Outdoor play will begin in about a month, although we could technically play now, but the courts don’t get set up until then. It’s sunny and about 6, but this weekend we will see temperatures of around 16, it will feel wonderful.

The jet lag is real, took a few days to feel normal and sleep better. Upon returning home, I saw a couple freezer items that needed to be used up some frozen squash and some sweet potatoes. I turned the squash into a puréed soup with garlic and ginger. Used the sweet potatoes to make burgers. I’m pretty bad at following recipes so I just put all the stuff in the food processor and whizzed it up. Then I baked in the oven and they turned out quite good.

Also stopped at Costco stop so I’m all stocked up now on veggies and frozen fruit. I find that the more veggies I buy the more I need to use them up, so it increases my intake. Was nice to have a huge salad yesterday. Although the purple onion was too strong. I think I read that you can soak the onion in water or vinegar for just a bit so it’s not quite so powerful when eating raw. Does anyone do that regularly? Does it work? Guess I need to try that out.

I bought a stack of trays to do sprouting so I’m trying it out with the package that came with the trays. I need to order seeds. I will report back on how sprouting goes. Is anyone into growing their own sprouts on a regular basis?

Happy Easter to everyone!

Erin

[Ejeff]

I decided to change the title of my journal

The sprouting experiment worked great, I think I shall continue to sprout on a regular basis. We had a nice Easter weekend gathering with the family. I managed to avoid all chocolate so yay to that. Mark had mentioned that he just says to himself that’s not food to me and I used that mental strategy. So thanks Mark!

We had beautiful weather over the weekend and enjoyed some walks. The snow is almost completely gone now.

I cooked up an Instant pot of chickpeas. Very tasty, so much better than canned. I threw in a couple bay leaves. Since I had the bean water on hand, I threw in some celery and onion and made a quick soup. This week I won’t need to do much cooking as I have lots of roasted veggies ready too.

I’m really enjoying being back to Pickleball and the gym. I’m trying to pace myself so I don’t end up with another shoulder or arm issue. I also find the sauna so therapeutic. I try to stay in for about 20 minutes. Does anyone else use a sauna regularly?

Hope everyone has a sunny and happy week.

Erin