Summer Bounty

I am enjoying the bounty of summer lately. I've been eating a lot of cherries, blueberries and strawberries. The other day I went to Olive Garden and had this dessert that they only have in summer. It's berries, strawberry sorbet and this creamy Italian custard. It is just heavenly. At home I mostly eat the fruit just plain, although sometimes I dip the strawberries in powdered sugar. Yummy!

I've also been making pancakes using a mix called Kodiak Cakes. It's whole grain and you only need to add water. They have been coming out perfectly on my fairly new Lodge cast iron grill/griddle. It's the kind that covers two burners on your stove.

Barbara

Strange pricing

The internet has led to some strange pricing. I like Bob's Red Mill Quinoa. I live about 2 miles from Bob's headquarters. To buy a 4 pack of quinoa at the store is $41.14. To buy it from Amazon and have it shipped to my house, it's $35.94 and if I put it on a subscription, I get 15% more off and free shipping. It's amazing that I can get something sent to my house cheaper than going to pick it up myself and the place it comes from.

Barbara

This is where Portland's water comes from

This is such a beautiful picture, I had to post it. Portland has great water that is so pure it doesn't get filtered. It comes from the Bull Run wilderness area, in the shadow of Mount Hood. It tastes great too.

Yes, I love living here!

Soups

It's warm here in Portland but I"m making soups anyway. I enjoy them and they are filling. I made a barley-mushroom-kale soup and a black bean soup. I made some baked corn tortilla chips this morning, before it got too hot.

My black bean soup has evolved. I take one or two cans of Trader Joe's black beans and rinse them. Put in a pot with this small cube of frozen cilantro I have, some veggie broth (mine is from Pacific Foods), chili powder, onion and garlic powder. Let that warm up on low. Take about half the beans and enough liquid to cover and put in a blender. Blend well then put back into the soup. This thickens it. I like to have whole beans in the soup as well, so I don't blend up all of it. Add some salsa (I use Pace Picante) and corn. I had some leftover mushrooms from the barley soup so I tossed those in too. Heat and store for delicious meals! I heat up the soup then put in the baked chips.

Barbara

Diabetes

I was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I’m still trying to get my medication sorted out. I haven’t really done much with my diet yet. I am moving slowly (as usual!) toward the McDougall lifestyle. I do know I do better, blood pressure and health wise in general when I do that. I’m just stubborn about changing completely over to a full vegan diet. The strange part is I do enjoy the vegan food I make/eat.

I recently made a new dish, got the recipe from recipezaar.com. It’s called barley casserole and it’s vegan and easily made McDougall friendly. It is just soo good! I love barley and I’m going to try some new barley recipes I found there.

Barbara

Creative cooking

The other day I made pizza dough. I took what was left, cooked up some ground turkey I had and planned to make calzones. I have to admit, it didn't turn out too well. So I had a lot of cooked ground turkey left. I had already mixed in the little bit of pizza sauce that was left. So today, I cooked up some angel hair pasta, added some jarred pasta sauce and the turkey and had that for lunch at work today. Very tasty. Never used angel hair in spaghetti before, but it worked very well.

Still working on the pantry oversupply and it's slowly being eaten away.

Barbara

Pantry cooking

I recently realized that I have a LOT of food in my pantry (shelves, refrigerator and freezer). So yesterday I wrote up a week's worth of menus using only what is already in the house. It was easy to come up with 3 meals a day and I have a lot of ideas for at least another week. I shop way too much. Maybe a way of feeling secure, I think. Anyway, we need to continue to economize and this is a good way, getting rid of what we already have.

Health update

Well, I recently got diagnosed with diabetes. My A1c test came back at 11.1 which is quite high. My blood sugars were in the 250 range.

Of course my doctor wanted to put me on statins, for no apparent reason, my cholesterol is 197 which is fine. I refused. He put me on metformin, which I've stopped taking because of the side effects. I'm taking various herbals and eating a completely vegan low fat diet (Dr John McDougall's diet). It's working well, my blood sugars are down and my blood pressure is amazing.

More later.