I have been under a super amount of stress lately.
My usual outlet for stress is volleyball, however life has stepped in and I haven't been able to play in weeks and when I have been playing, it hasn't been well, so it's even been adding to my stress.
I know I just need to take some down time to refocus and I will be ok, but it's finding that time that has been a challenge to me. I am hoping this weekend to have a nice, quiet Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
What do you guys do to de-stress and re-focus yourselves?
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
No Carbs
I must be crazy right?!! Yea, pretty much.
Food is probably the number 1 love of my life (sorry Garette, but I know you feel the same), followed closely by my love of reading. So every so often I combine the two (not in a cook book way) and I find it really changes my life.
A few years ago I read In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan and it had a great impact on me. The general idea of the book is to eat FOOD, not the crazy processed, chemical filled substances that pass as food these days. He has some general and easy to follow rules in the book that after following for only a short time I noticed insane differences in everything from my weight and skin to my overall well being and mood.
So, what does this have to do with carbs?!
Recently, I could help by become intrigued by the book Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health by William Davis, M.D. As you can guess this is where my no carbs are coming into play, but really meaning no wheat. I didn't realize that wheat today(even whole wheat) is barely a shadow of the grain that it used to be. According to the information provided in this book, which isn't hard to believe, wheat has been manipulated and processed to yield more crops at a faster pace. So compared to the wheat our grandparents and great grandparents ate, our wheat is just more chemicals.
So blah blah blah, now I will step off of my soapbox.
I talk to a lot of my friends about food a lot of the time. I love it. I can't help it. So when I try new, healthy meals that actually come out good I am going to share them here for anyone who may be interested.
Tuesday night, Garette and I (ok ok mostly Garette) made spaghetti squash with a semi-homemade tomato sauce with shrimp and asparagus. It was A-mazing and super easy!!!
Food is probably the number 1 love of my life (sorry Garette, but I know you feel the same), followed closely by my love of reading. So every so often I combine the two (not in a cook book way) and I find it really changes my life.
A few years ago I read In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan and it had a great impact on me. The general idea of the book is to eat FOOD, not the crazy processed, chemical filled substances that pass as food these days. He has some general and easy to follow rules in the book that after following for only a short time I noticed insane differences in everything from my weight and skin to my overall well being and mood.
So, what does this have to do with carbs?!
Recently, I could help by become intrigued by the book Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight, and Find Your Path Back to Health by William Davis, M.D. As you can guess this is where my no carbs are coming into play, but really meaning no wheat. I didn't realize that wheat today(even whole wheat) is barely a shadow of the grain that it used to be. According to the information provided in this book, which isn't hard to believe, wheat has been manipulated and processed to yield more crops at a faster pace. So compared to the wheat our grandparents and great grandparents ate, our wheat is just more chemicals.
So blah blah blah, now I will step off of my soapbox.
I talk to a lot of my friends about food a lot of the time. I love it. I can't help it. So when I try new, healthy meals that actually come out good I am going to share them here for anyone who may be interested.
Tuesday night, Garette and I (ok ok mostly Garette) made spaghetti squash with a semi-homemade tomato sauce with shrimp and asparagus. It was A-mazing and super easy!!!
First - preheat your over to 400 degrees and get that spaghetti squash in there for 40-60 minutes depending on the squash. (FYI - there are way easier/quicker ways to cook this up, but I had some homework to finish so I took a slower option)
Next - Get the sauce on the stove. We used canned tomatoes to save time and just seasoned them how we liked it... including garlic, onion, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes (for some kick!), salt, and pepper. Feel free to season how you like it.
Then - Saute (or grill or roast or however you like it) the Shrimp and asparagus in a little olive oil and garlic.
Finally - Combine and enjoy!!!
Note: if you have never cooked spaghetti squash before, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Besides that, once you cook it and let it cool just slice it open, take out the seeds (like a pumpkin), and just use your fork to pull out the "Spaghetti." Easy peasy.
What is your favorite healthy go to? Any no/low carb ideas for me?!
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
State String Art
So after surfing Pinterest for hours I kept seeing string art and thought how hard could this be?
As I may have mentioned, my parents recently moved to Florida so for Mother's Day I decided to make her string art in the shape of New Jersey (where we are from) and Florida (where they live now). I will go through the how to and pictures now followed by what I would have done differently.
First, of course I went to Michael's and Home Depot for supplies. I got the two plain wood plaques from Michael's and the nails and paint samples from Home Depot. You can really use any nails you want depending on the thickness of the wood you are using and the look you are going for.
Of course, I choose green for NJ as the Garden State and yellow for Florida as the sunshine state.
First, I painted the plain wood plaques in each color (John Deere imitation not intended, but appropriate).
Next I went online to print an outline of each state. Once I printed it I taped it to the painted wood to use as the outline for the nails. I didn't mark anything, but I tried to space the nails as evenly as possible.
After all the nails were in place, I started with the thread. I just used regular sewing thread I had laying around. I thought it would be a cool look to use green thread on the green and yellow for the yellow... more on that later.
So, there really isn't any rhyme or reason to the thread. Well, at least not for me. I just went all random. Although I will say, at first I didn't do an outline and I thought it looked a little strange so I did end up going around so there was a distinct outline of each shape.
That's it! Easy Peasy! So a few things I would change if I had to do it over... 1 - I would not use the same color thread as the paint. Looking back this seems like a no brainer and I don't know what I was thinking. 2 - The nails I choose were a little longer than I would have liked, but no one will know that except me.
Also, my final idiot move of the day, I was in the process of emailing myself the photos to post and I deleted them so they didn't send. However, they will arrive in Florida in the next day or two and I will post the final product as soon as my mom sends me some pictures!
What do you think? Have you tried anything similar? What color thread do you think I should have used instead (I will take notes for next time)?
As I may have mentioned, my parents recently moved to Florida so for Mother's Day I decided to make her string art in the shape of New Jersey (where we are from) and Florida (where they live now). I will go through the how to and pictures now followed by what I would have done differently.
First, of course I went to Michael's and Home Depot for supplies. I got the two plain wood plaques from Michael's and the nails and paint samples from Home Depot. You can really use any nails you want depending on the thickness of the wood you are using and the look you are going for.
Of course, I choose green for NJ as the Garden State and yellow for Florida as the sunshine state.
First, I painted the plain wood plaques in each color (John Deere imitation not intended, but appropriate).
Next I went online to print an outline of each state. Once I printed it I taped it to the painted wood to use as the outline for the nails. I didn't mark anything, but I tried to space the nails as evenly as possible.
After all the nails were in place, I started with the thread. I just used regular sewing thread I had laying around. I thought it would be a cool look to use green thread on the green and yellow for the yellow... more on that later.
So, there really isn't any rhyme or reason to the thread. Well, at least not for me. I just went all random. Although I will say, at first I didn't do an outline and I thought it looked a little strange so I did end up going around so there was a distinct outline of each shape.
That's it! Easy Peasy! So a few things I would change if I had to do it over... 1 - I would not use the same color thread as the paint. Looking back this seems like a no brainer and I don't know what I was thinking. 2 - The nails I choose were a little longer than I would have liked, but no one will know that except me.
Also, my final idiot move of the day, I was in the process of emailing myself the photos to post and I deleted them so they didn't send. However, they will arrive in Florida in the next day or two and I will post the final product as soon as my mom sends me some pictures!
What do you think? Have you tried anything similar? What color thread do you think I should have used instead (I will take notes for next time)?
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