Thursday, December 15, 2011

Vegan Pumpkin Muffins

Mmmm. These are the best pumpkin muffins I have ever had! Seriously mouth watering. I served these over Thankgiving to my self proclaimed sugar addict meat eating brother and he couldn't get enough, took the left-overs home and asked for the recipe. Without further ado:

From Forks over Knifes Vegan Thanksgiving Recipes

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins*

Serves 6-12

1 medium banana, mashed
1 (15-oz.) can sweet pumpkin puree
1/4 cup 100% pure maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups whole oat flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 cup grain-sweetened dairy-free chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, combine mashed banana, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, and vanilla extract.

2. In a small bowl, combine oat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Transfer mixture to large bowl and mix together gently until well combined. Avoid over-mixing to prevent toughness in the final product. Fold in chocolate chips.

3. Spoon batter into silicon muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are lightly browned. Remove muffins from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Store muffins in an airtight container.

*Recipe derived from Julieanna Hever’s Blueberry Oat Breakfast Muffins in Forks Over Knives: The Plant-Based Way to Health, edited by Gene Stone.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Chilli

I just made the best chilli I have ever had. Oh, and my crepe recipe is to die for too! For the crepes I used 2 cups flour, 2 egg equivalent replacement (I use Ener-G), 1 c hemp milk, 1 tsp of vanilla, 1 tbsp of honey, and enough water to make it really thin but not to the point that its dripping just a thin stream of water, normally 1/2 c to 1 c of water.

For the chilli first I learned how to make bread like a baker and its an amazing feeling pulling one of these out of the oven. This site makes sense and makes amazing bread - http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/bread_making.htm Seriously its like bread making for inexperienced people who know nothing like me.

After making the bread bowls using the above link I used two bottles of Bionaturae Strained Tomato's (no bpa yay), 1 yellow onion, half bag of ham bean soup mix soaked over night, 1 tomato, half a yam, 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper, 2 chilli peppers, 1/2 jalapeno pepper, and then put it on simmer for 2 hrs. It was amazing. I used no artificial. The only bottle was the tomatoes and the rest was just straight out of the produce isle. No organic ingredients from the produce isle exept for the green pepper, just good all grown in America veggies, and a couple Mexican peppers. :)

My tummy is happy and Elly loved making the bread with me :)

Monday, December 12, 2011

Finals

Finals the final frontier. At least for me this is my last semester at a brick and stick college. I should have never started back to school for business and I know that now. I will be glad to be done and on to my studies in holistic health and healing. Its a celebration for me as well as a drag, a celebration of new beginnings and honing in more on my life path/calling. I think to often we get caught up in the drive of life that we forget we have a purpose if we seek it and greater things we could be doing in our limited time on this planet.
So its the best of times and the worst of times. A time of ending and a time of beginning. Now if only I could order take out. Seriously its finals and being a vegan in this town means if I want food I have to cook it myself, and from scratch. mmmm. vegan pizza, or burger, or soup and salad. I might just have to drive an hour and go to Panera :)

Sunday, December 4, 2011

I love being a Vegan!

Yes seriously I am loving being Vegan! I grew up in a family that only knew how to cook meat centered meals and got the lecture that if you didn't drink milk you would end up frail and weak like Great Grandma Soph (who was nearing 90 and death). Naturally I did what any good kid would do and ate what was prepared. Problem was it didn't set with me. I had driven past the slaughter houses smelled the stench and heard the death cry of the animals. It was the thing of nightmares the look in their eyes. Why you might ask did it take me another 10 years to become Vegan? Well simply because I didn't know any better. The media and web is so biased to the standard American diet and I had been repeatedly told that I was going to die if I didn't get enough animal protien. I finally got some down time to read the China Study about a month ago and watch Forks Over Knifes. Do yourself a favor a go watch them now. I am in love with the answers I found about why we are such a obese nation and why our cancer/hear disease/mother mortality during birth/diabetes rates are higher then most other industrialised nation. The answer? You guessed it! You are What You Eat! Now if you are a girl go read The Skinny Bitch - wait go get some vegan brownies from the store and then read the Skinny Bitch, your stomach will thank you and so will every body system after about of month of better eating. Better eating full of wonderful alive foods that are thriving and full of colour and not dead rotting carcase from another species of life form.

Health Benefits I have experience:

Depression almost disappearing completely (no other life circumstance changes)

Lower Back Pain Gone

Hormone imbalance balancing out (no more full of hormone meat for me or bad menstruation)

Clearer Mind

Better ability to deal with douches and other stressful situations without getting as stressed out

Angina attacks not happening when I do get stressed out

Ability to trash the Eliptical at 1.2 miles in 15 mins without getting tired and still having a ton of energy in the end

More Energy

Energy boosts after meals - which means I eat more (I had a habit of getting to skinny because I didn't like to eat because I didn't like how tired I felt after eating and who needs to be tired with a two year old)

Happier daughter (which leads to happier Mama)

IBS gone

Secondary Dis-menoreah gone

Did I mention low back pain gone!!!!!!

Better tasting food (I love vegan recipes)

Better life over-all

If you would have told my depressed skinny butt that I would end up having all of my health problems dissapear in a month I would have laughed at you. I have been to doctors of the traditional and non - traditional and gone to nutrition counselling. I have been to physically therapists, psychologists, cardiologists, and pretty much every other ologist out there - md's do's, dc's Nothing worked. But This Works! I feel so alive and wonderful! I love that I am what I eat and I eat wonderful living foods that are yummy and I feel wonderful and alive!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Seriously might I just say don't read any post before this one. Really don't. They are for my personal reference only. K. Maybe if I could figure out how to take them off this would be a mute point, as it is just trust my bloggy illiterate self with this one.
I think I may actually start this up again. Now that I found out that the real reason behind all my problems, was that I was eating myself to death. No biggie. Now that I am a vegan its all better. Lets see since my last post I have had three people living with us at different times who all turned out to be losers, but I did my Christian duty and took in the less fortunate so brownies in heaven for me, miscarried twice (yes I was stupid/in love with babies enough to try anyways), bought a house, found out that Elly is a mutant with super speed, and fixed all of our health problems. I have switched future career plans three times due to all the above and realised that I am really just happy being a Mom. As long as its a vegan Mom. I am so blessed that I found the diet that I did. So this is the last post update of life, just thought I should bridge things here. On to bigger and better things. Better health, bigger plans, and a undying possibly unhealthy obsession with the Failure Club on Yahoo.

Monday, February 28, 2011

Welcome to my lunch break. Nice that I get one today. Ellowyn slept 10hrs striaght last night and then went down for a nap at noon, she is still fast alseep. Its so nice that I get a break.
Nothing much new lately. Just getting everything done I need to for school: fasfa in, transcripts ordered classes looked at. The main thing occupying my spare time now is trying to find a caretaker for Ellowyn. I don't need a full time daycare and that makes it hard to find space for her somewhere in this small little tiny town. I've been trying to hold on until the summer but I am getting migrains every other day because of the back strain of taking care of a bigger child (she has just gotten too big) and thats not healthy for either of us. Poor thing is so frusterated and insecure. I hope I can find someone who wants extra work who would be willing to just come over for a couple hours a day and help out with her so I can rest. Its funny how even in this economy its hard finding someone who wants to work for me because its part time, well finding the right kind of person at least. sighs. One of these days it will all work out, even if thats the day she is ready for pre-school. Other then that life has been really good for us here.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Sighs. Its been a busy month, very busy. At the same time its been full in many new ways. We where able to settle into a rental after moving twice in one week. It is a big beautiful house that has given us enough space to create a proper home. Getting a proper home and a solid schedule has been huge for Ellowyn. She started sleeping through the night earlier this week and has since hit the biggest growth spurt we have seen, and eats more then ever as well.

We just found out last week that I cannot carry anymore children safely. Its hard especially being in a area with so many large families (religious community with large Amish and Mexican families). I cannot go out without seeing multiple pregnant woman. Ellowyn would do well with a sibling, but I can't give it too her. I can barely care for her and some days I can't care for her properly due to my back injury. It progressed severely over the years and especially due to my pregnancy with her. We found out that there are no reliable treatment options and that carrying another child would mean more bedrest and possibly cutting of nerves to my legs.... Aaron is set on hiring a surrogate if we find the right one, and if I don't get too bad in the mean time we could have another child when Ellowyn is in Kindergarten and largely able to take care of herself. I have enrolled in school and will finish my associates and possibly my bachlors in the mean time while we wait and see. I will probably take a break for the first year of the next one's (if there is a next one) life and then go back for my Masters. I have nothing else to do right now. I can't be a proper house wife, as I can't keep up with the house so that pretty much means I have to go to school and then work as I can't just do nothing. The tricky thing is figuring out a field that I can do from a wheelchair as there is a good chance I could end up in one in the next 20years. I hope that treatement options improve before that happens, but I know better then to count on a unknown. So far I am thinking design. I can no longer go into mortuary sciences as I had wanted to as that isn't something I can work from a wheelchair, and can't work well at all (too much bending, lifting, twisting, ect) in my present condition.

I don't like it when life changes on me like that, but there never where any guarentee's. I had totally trusted the doctors saying that becasuse I was young my disks wouldn't degenerate for now, and if they did not much. I never thought I would go for a visit to a Chiropractor and be faced with the stark image on a x-ray of my spine, a image radically different from the last, and a image that told me all I needed to know. The chiropractor thought he could help me with the techniques they use, but I have been unable to find any "real" success stories and since they aren't licensed to use the machine that they use, and since it is a new very new and unproven treatment I can have no confidence in it and cannot risk the possible damage it could do. The thought of being strapped into a table to flex my back, and knowing that flexing and strain currently hurt my back, common sense tells me that it doesn't make any sense. So, I am left without any real treatments. There is surgery but no one that I know who has had it (and I know allot of people who have) had success, in fact the only reviews you find are negative. So, no babies and possible paralysis lowerlevel style. I know that degenerative disks don't normally cause paralysis but its the hernia and the way it is pinching nerves due to blunt trama on a disk that is degenerate that worries me. I am already feeling some numbness and showing signs of nerve inhibition so if anything happens to cause more herniation or if the disk degenerates funky....the whole thing is just messed up. At least I already know wheelchairdom pretty well. Its not so bad except for not being able to go on walks through the woods or feel the dirt in your toes....maybe if it happens then by then I will be able to convince Aaron to carry me.

I have decided to take back up designing and making dresses for a hobby to keep me busy in the summer while little one is busy playing outside. I feel like it would be good to get that energy out, who knows maybe it could turn into something. I haven't had the opportunity to really delve into it much before because of lack of funds for material, but I have always been creating with fabric on what scale I could. I found wholesale fabric and it will be fun to see what I can come up with. I am thinking about doing modest prom dresses. It would be fun :)

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Crazy days and Sundays. Aaron got the job offer on Thursday morning, Friday morning we accepted it after hearing back from the hospital that they have a more qualified applicant. By Friday afternoon we had worked out the money logistics to be able to move Thursday - yes this Thursday. Because its a small town the internet is pretty pricey and with Aaron's comp being on its death bed and not able to give him WoW, we are making the logical choice of not getting the internet. We will stay internet free until Aaron can get a droid on his rents plan, which sounds like it may be a couple of months. Either way I am happy. The library is less then a block away, so my escape every so often will be to leave Ellowyn with Aaron and go check my email and give you all a status update now and again. Sadly I don't think that will be very often as Aaron will be salaried and very busy until he gets the hang of things. As it is we couldn't work out the logistics to get both cars down there, so we are down one car and one cell phone. My life will be absolute bliss really. Plenty of clean air - good well water (we found the cutest house with a brand new great tasting well), lots of stuff to do within walking distance on the days with nice weather, and plenty of time to get settled and breath. Its really all coming at a wonderful time. Ellowyn is taking leaps and bounds developmentally and needs allot of time to learn things and learn how to be, to pick up her toys and clean her room. She is also really testing my limits as she whines at everything to see if she can get whatever she wants, so its a perfect time to just concentrate on her and getting her life structured, settled, and disciplined so she doesn't turn out like a spoiled lil girl. I read a article on Chinese parenting and am going to borrow allot of there concepts. I am just so glad that I will be in the place to do so. We have this wonderful little house, our own perfect size yard, and all in a very quiet community. Whats even better is my Mother in law has becoming happy with me since this development and has become fun to shop with, so we went out yesterday and will go again on Monday to get everything for the house. So awesome to be able to make a home and get all the cool little things like wrought iron looking shelves for the bathroom, matching towels, little girl bedding, and all the other little things that make a home. My next stop will be hitting up the antique actions and Amish stores for furniture!!!! It will be so grand like my own little cottage in the woods (tree's everywhere there which is a plus).
I will try to post a bit more but if you don't hear from me in awhile at least you know the glorious adventures I will be up too.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Life has been all abuzz lately. I had a really bad dream last night that through me off today, Ellowyn has been under the weather and yet still growing and active (just crashes really really really hard), and Aaron had a very successful interview yesterday with a hospital in middle of no-where New England, and one tomorrow in Sturgis with the boss' boss. Its really crazy too be done with his Thesis but having to make all these decisions as to which to pursue. Aaron is one of four people chosen to interview for two positions and his interview went really well so we expect another, and this looks like the final interview in Sturgis and they seem really interested as well. Crazy crazy crazy. I wish I knew anything about what its like in New England except for cold, and wish even more he had gotten a interview someplace warmer. Ah well, such is life. Hopefully little one gives me some sleep tonight, and even more hopefully I don' t have another crazy bad dream. At least it looks like limbo is ending soon, even though it will probably end in New England (they are offering 70K starting and the other is 50K starting, even though New England is more expensive the extra pay definitely makes up for it).

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Its crazy the rush of cleaning that happens after the holidays. One thing I know for sure, if we have a tree or holiday celebrations, then it will be Aaron's doing because I sure as heck won't waste part of my life. I don't get warm fuzzy's I get the heebie jeebies (anxiety) at the thought of all the work that goes into it for no real good reason, when I see the Christmas tree. On another note going with out the cell phone has been pretty blissful. I love not having a electronic tether. The only downside is not having a watch handy. The upside is that when we do have the extra cash for a watch they will be really cheap because hardly anyone wears them anymore, not that I would wear one (never did get used to having something so bulky on my wrist), but my bag will (love the old fashion ones on chains).

I called the Bishop over the congregation over the city Aaron has been interviewing in and learned allot of cool stuff and got help finding housing. So nice to have support wherever we go. I look forward to Wednesday afternoon after the interview and finding out how it went. I so hope he gets and decides to accept the job. They have extremely cheap u pick Amish farms, and a flee market in Amish town - either of which are freakin awesome! I mean just the thought of all the yummy cheap goodness and awesome cheap second hand stuff that will be really sturdy and cool rustic looking - I think I am in love. I just may have to visit these u picks and this flee market whether or not he gets the job.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Just before bed Joy left us a present which set the mood for today. Aaron went to kick her off of our bed so she would go outside, and she peed on her way off, yes that is right my pillows and blanket gone. My other pillow is in the wash, so we had to improvise which didn't improve my sleep, that combined with Ellowyn constantly waking up because she was cold and I got no sleep. So today was mainly a sleepy bored daise. I was out of my mind with boredom, and couldn't do the only thing I had to do - clean - because I was too sleepy to clean while taking care of Ellowyn (its allot harder then it sounds because she wants to help, and be chased allot while I clean). We did have the Missionaries come over, thank heaven (literally). It was such a nice end to the evening to have someone to talk too, hang out with, discuss life and its blessings and how to get through the hard times best. It was sooo nice. Right after they left Ellowyn had it so it was a easy hour of playing with her and getting her ready for bed and then she was out like a light. Sighs, so nice to be at the end of the day. I just wish Aaron was ready for bed too, so much better when he is there because he keeps it nice and warm, and snuggly. Sadly he is still on WoW cuz he isn't tired yet.

As for me I am just anxious nervous about going with Aaron on Wednesday to check out housing. We both really feel like he is going to get a job offer and so I need to figure out where we are going to live if/when it does come. I have never been there but I have been to a small town near it so it should be fun. I just don't know how we are going to juggle a 3hr drive with Ellowyn strapped in too her car seat without anyone going insane, twice in one day. Especially with the end of her car seat ride ending with me trying to find someplace for us to chill while Aaron goes for his interview, my first though it is the library but I am afraid of it smelling bad and all musty like some libraries do...hmmm. I don't know I just know it will be quiet the adventure.