I almost ate the last cupcake.
But I didn't.
It wasn't a matter of will power or anything like that. In fact, this post was supposed to be "I ate the last cupcake."
But I didn't.
It happened like this:
I still had a bunch of leftover cupcakes from Tuesday (St. Valentine's Day). Nobody was eating them. Well, not entirely true: Some were eaten on Tuesday, my 4yo niece had had one each day since, the little guy I look after had one yesterday and I indulged yesterday (and regretted it), but that still left many cupcakes. Hubby and my kids aren't eating them.
So I ate one after lunch.
Or rather, 3/4 of one.
I'd eaten half of it, really paying attention to the taste and texture, and was kind of thinking, "Why am I eating this? It doesn't even taste that good." See, it wasn't homemade and made of fine ingredients. It was No Name cake mix and some sort of prepackaged frosting. Full of man-made chemicals and crud. As I threw the last 1/4 of it away, I said to my daughter, "It doesn't taste like real food." Pause. "That's cuz it's not real food." (And even just the 3/4 I did eat left me with my tell-tale headache. I don't know if it's the cupcake or the frosting. Or an ingredient common to both. Or just my body's way of saying, "Stop eating this cr*p!")
I had no temptation for the rest of the afternoon.
My 7yo niece and 11yo nephew arrived after school. I let them each have a cupcake. (And part of me inside is now going, "Why am I feeding them that junk?") That left one. Which sat there. And sat there. And sat there.
I ate supper. With the cupcake sitting there still on the table. I thought, "I guess I'll eat it. I'd hate for it to go to waste."
In half a second, through my mind went the idea of blogging about how I ate the last cupcake and why-oh-why-did-I-eat-it-when-it-didn't-taste-that-good-and-how-I-catch-myself-doing-this-eating-things-up-because-I-don't-want-them-to-go-to-waste-but-won't-it-just-be-going-to-waste-in-my-body?
Going to waste in my body.
And for something that I didn't even really enjoy.
I looked at that thing sitting there. The poor thing: its fate was doomed. No way I was going to eat it now.
I cleaned up my supper dishes and confirmed that nobody was going to eat it. Then I picked it up. It is now in the garbage--because everybody else here has the sense to not eat it. And now I do, too.
And that's how this post, that was going to be "I ate the last cupcake", became "I *almost* ate the last cupcake."
Friday, February 17, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Listen to your body!
I have in my head, after writing "Listen to your body!" the song "Listen to Your Heart" by Roxette. And it being St. Valentine's Day and all, seems like an appropriate song to have in my head. :D
In any case, I just wanted to babble a bit about the messages our bodies give us. This is one of those days where my body is either speaking loudly--or I'm just paying more attention!
I woke up this morning feeling like I was coming down with something, not hungry, eventually ate a banana. Not hungry for a while, my stomach was grumbling though, decided to drink some water and saw another banana and went, "Mmm, that would be good." Nothing else was the least bit appetizing. Not even the frozen dessert made last night.
Lunch came around. I was starting to feel hungry a bit, but nothing seemed to appeal to me. I eventually settled on making a cucumber, celery, carrot salad (I won't share what I did--it wasn't a very good sauce lol). By the time I finished it, I was actually feeling quite a bit better. I decided to try my raw frozen dessert (YUM!), looked at the clock and it was about 12:15. The whole morning was raw! Woot! :D And rather unintentionally.
I was feeling like I needed something more, so I reheated some leftover rice. Again, it was one of those things of considering multiple options and when I saw the rice, I knew that was the thing to do.
After that, since we have a close-to-expiring cake mix, I made some Valentine's cupcakes. I naturally ate a couple. And now I have a headache. I was fine all day--until I had the cupcakes.
My body is telling me something!
How often do we ignore these signs? How often do we recognize them but continue on eating what causes the problems anyhow?
Someday I'll learn. Being very aware that this headache, and the blah accompanying it, came as a result of the cupcakes is definitely making me look at the cupcakes as evil little things--at least for the rest of today. lol. I really do have to try to make some raw cupcakes sometime. But I need to find one, or adapt one, so that there aren't any almonds!
All I really want now is water. I think I'll listen. :D
In any case, I just wanted to babble a bit about the messages our bodies give us. This is one of those days where my body is either speaking loudly--or I'm just paying more attention!
I woke up this morning feeling like I was coming down with something, not hungry, eventually ate a banana. Not hungry for a while, my stomach was grumbling though, decided to drink some water and saw another banana and went, "Mmm, that would be good." Nothing else was the least bit appetizing. Not even the frozen dessert made last night.
Lunch came around. I was starting to feel hungry a bit, but nothing seemed to appeal to me. I eventually settled on making a cucumber, celery, carrot salad (I won't share what I did--it wasn't a very good sauce lol). By the time I finished it, I was actually feeling quite a bit better. I decided to try my raw frozen dessert (YUM!), looked at the clock and it was about 12:15. The whole morning was raw! Woot! :D And rather unintentionally.
I was feeling like I needed something more, so I reheated some leftover rice. Again, it was one of those things of considering multiple options and when I saw the rice, I knew that was the thing to do.
After that, since we have a close-to-expiring cake mix, I made some Valentine's cupcakes. I naturally ate a couple. And now I have a headache. I was fine all day--until I had the cupcakes.
My body is telling me something!
How often do we ignore these signs? How often do we recognize them but continue on eating what causes the problems anyhow?
Someday I'll learn. Being very aware that this headache, and the blah accompanying it, came as a result of the cupcakes is definitely making me look at the cupcakes as evil little things--at least for the rest of today. lol. I really do have to try to make some raw cupcakes sometime. But I need to find one, or adapt one, so that there aren't any almonds!
All I really want now is water. I think I'll listen. :D
Monday, February 13, 2012
I am such a NOOB!
It's been an interesting day.
Interesting isn't the right word. It started out fine. Then grey clouds covered over the sky and the winds picked up and it seemed to set the mood. For me at least.
Someone had shared a raw dessert recipe in Twitter. I will try to find it later. It looks delicious though. But back to the point: I bought what I needed to and decided to make it today.
I set out my nuts to soak. Then I went on with my day.
When the main work part of the day was done, I decided to tackle making the dessert. I followed the instructions and put the Medjool dates and pecans in the food processor. I pulsed and pulsed and pulsed. Kept hearing a hard thing hit the sides. I figured it wasn't yet ready. I pulsed again. I tested as they indicated. Still some hard things. I pulsed again, even though the overall texture seemed more than fine. I stopped. Still these darn hard things.
I picked one out. I processed it as a very hard pecan that just wouldn't blend. You could see the marks where the blade had tried to and it didn't work. As I was throwing it out, I had the thought: "It looks and awful lot like a pit." Saw another one in the food processor. It is a pit.
The dates.
They weren't unpitted.
The recipe never said anything about pitting the dates, but I'm guessing that it's simply a given that you pit the dates before using or buy unpitted dates.
I'M SUCH A RAW FOOD NOOB! lol.
My adventure did not end there. It hit me that I had not taken out my frozen raspberries to thaw. Here I am, almost half-done the preparation, and the raspberries aren't thawed. And the package does not indicate a way to thaw them faster.
I continue with the rest of the preparations as slowly as possible. I mix in some multi-tasking: laundry and dealing with cat urine and working on St. Valentine's Day cards and dishes and... I finish the filling, other than the part with the raspberries, and the raspberries are nowhere near done.
*sigh*
Again, I'm such a noob! lol
Then there's supper to make while trying to finish a card and deal with the laundry and clean up messes and figure out what to do with the raspberries that are still nowhere near thawed... It's been "interesting".
We had supper, the raspberries still weren't thawed. Let me point out that I started making the dessert around 3pm and 3 hours later, it still wasn't ready. Not because it should take that long. lol.
My 14yo had a ballet lesson tonight, so off we went to that. The raspberries still thawing and the rest just patiently waiting. If the raspberries aren't fully thawed by the time we get home, I may just scream. ;) No, not really. I'm actually laughing a bit inside over it all.
It's a dessert that is supposed to be frozen before eating. I'll be able to finish it and freeze it overnight.
I may just have a raw frozen breakfast tomorrow morning. ;D
Interesting isn't the right word. It started out fine. Then grey clouds covered over the sky and the winds picked up and it seemed to set the mood. For me at least.
Someone had shared a raw dessert recipe in Twitter. I will try to find it later. It looks delicious though. But back to the point: I bought what I needed to and decided to make it today.
I set out my nuts to soak. Then I went on with my day.
When the main work part of the day was done, I decided to tackle making the dessert. I followed the instructions and put the Medjool dates and pecans in the food processor. I pulsed and pulsed and pulsed. Kept hearing a hard thing hit the sides. I figured it wasn't yet ready. I pulsed again. I tested as they indicated. Still some hard things. I pulsed again, even though the overall texture seemed more than fine. I stopped. Still these darn hard things.
I picked one out. I processed it as a very hard pecan that just wouldn't blend. You could see the marks where the blade had tried to and it didn't work. As I was throwing it out, I had the thought: "It looks and awful lot like a pit." Saw another one in the food processor. It is a pit.
The dates.
They weren't unpitted.
The recipe never said anything about pitting the dates, but I'm guessing that it's simply a given that you pit the dates before using or buy unpitted dates.
I'M SUCH A RAW FOOD NOOB! lol.
My adventure did not end there. It hit me that I had not taken out my frozen raspberries to thaw. Here I am, almost half-done the preparation, and the raspberries aren't thawed. And the package does not indicate a way to thaw them faster.
I continue with the rest of the preparations as slowly as possible. I mix in some multi-tasking: laundry and dealing with cat urine and working on St. Valentine's Day cards and dishes and... I finish the filling, other than the part with the raspberries, and the raspberries are nowhere near done.
*sigh*
Again, I'm such a noob! lol
Then there's supper to make while trying to finish a card and deal with the laundry and clean up messes and figure out what to do with the raspberries that are still nowhere near thawed... It's been "interesting".
We had supper, the raspberries still weren't thawed. Let me point out that I started making the dessert around 3pm and 3 hours later, it still wasn't ready. Not because it should take that long. lol.
My 14yo had a ballet lesson tonight, so off we went to that. The raspberries still thawing and the rest just patiently waiting. If the raspberries aren't fully thawed by the time we get home, I may just scream. ;) No, not really. I'm actually laughing a bit inside over it all.
It's a dessert that is supposed to be frozen before eating. I'll be able to finish it and freeze it overnight.
I may just have a raw frozen breakfast tomorrow morning. ;D
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Oh my goodness...
After I posted the previous post, I checked out my sidebar blogs. Karen Knowler posted: http://karenknowler.typepad.com/living_in_the_raw/2012/02/falling-off-the-wagon.html
"This week, more than a few people have shared with me that it hasn’t been their “best” week ever food-wise. I can sympathise. Hormones? Changing weather? Recent life changes? Something larger and far more cosmic than meets the eye? "
I am not alone! lol
"This week, more than a few people have shared with me that it hasn’t been their “best” week ever food-wise. I can sympathise. Hormones? Changing weather? Recent life changes? Something larger and far more cosmic than meets the eye? "
I am not alone! lol
Busy, busy week
It's been a crazy busy week this week. It's left me finding it hard to figure out what to tackle first and it has led to, as it always does unfortunately, dropping all progress I was making with my eating. :( On top of that, we had a get-together yesterday where there were all kinds of yummy things. lol. Okay, well, I made one of the yummy things (pics and recipe review to come later!) and I ate one of the other yummy things (another vegan item), but that is actually it. I didn't want to ask everybody what was in what they brought, so I just stuck with what I knew to be dairy-free.
I did find I was kind of reacting later on in the afternoon. I don't think it would be from the cake I made--cake flour, sunflower oil, organic sugar, cocoa, vinegar, vanilla, rice milk, the usual baking powder and baking soda, I think that's all that's in it--but I'm wondering if it was from the vegan cupcakes. I'm guessing the vegan spread she used for the icing was a soy-based one and I don't think I normally react to soy the way I reacted to something yesterday (kind of like a sudden tightness/congestion in my lungs or bronchial area--I've had it before when I've had things with milk), but I reacted to something. That or my body got fed up with the level of grains and sugar the past week and was just trying to expel it! lol.
It always feels awful when life seems to take over and things back track, but I guess that's just how life is. I have time now to take life back over. Creating the drive to do so, especially after a not-very-good sleep, might take a little work. ;)
I did find I was kind of reacting later on in the afternoon. I don't think it would be from the cake I made--cake flour, sunflower oil, organic sugar, cocoa, vinegar, vanilla, rice milk, the usual baking powder and baking soda, I think that's all that's in it--but I'm wondering if it was from the vegan cupcakes. I'm guessing the vegan spread she used for the icing was a soy-based one and I don't think I normally react to soy the way I reacted to something yesterday (kind of like a sudden tightness/congestion in my lungs or bronchial area--I've had it before when I've had things with milk), but I reacted to something. That or my body got fed up with the level of grains and sugar the past week and was just trying to expel it! lol.
It always feels awful when life seems to take over and things back track, but I guess that's just how life is. I have time now to take life back over. Creating the drive to do so, especially after a not-very-good sleep, might take a little work. ;)
Monday, February 6, 2012
Adventures in molten-lava-cake-making
(Oops! Started this on Saturday and didn't get a chance to finish! lol)
I was hankering to try a lava cake recipe that I have in my Eat Your Cake and Vegan Too book, so I decided yesterday to make it.
For some reason, I couldn't keep straight the ingredients I needed to pull out and how much to measure of each one. I kept having to look over and over. Got the cocoa and the sifter, then proceeded to put the first tablespoon of cocoa directly into the other dry ingredients instead of through the sifter first. lol. Sifted the rest.
The liquid part went fine. So did making the lava part of it.
I went to spray my rice cooker (yes, you make it in a rice cooker!) with vegetable oil spray as indicated, but didn't have any. I remembered that I had a reusable one, but it's either clogged or broken, as I discovered. Ended up just greasing it with some vegan (and gluten-free) Becel. It worked fine, as it turns out.
The instructions said that if you just have a simple rice cooker, just start. So I did that. If you wanted a lava cake, you needed to check it after about 20 minutes; if you just wanted a cake, let it go until it stopped.
My rice cooker stopped after about 10 minutes.
I had no idea what to do. This was completely unexpected. I looked at it. Definitely not ready to eat. I decided to leave it in the machine for another 10 minutes, to complete the 20 minutes indicated in the book, but it turns out that was too much and I didn't have much of a lava cake. :( It tasted pretty good though, which, of course, is all that matters in the end. ;)
I was hankering to try a lava cake recipe that I have in my Eat Your Cake and Vegan Too book, so I decided yesterday to make it.
For some reason, I couldn't keep straight the ingredients I needed to pull out and how much to measure of each one. I kept having to look over and over. Got the cocoa and the sifter, then proceeded to put the first tablespoon of cocoa directly into the other dry ingredients instead of through the sifter first. lol. Sifted the rest.
The liquid part went fine. So did making the lava part of it.
I went to spray my rice cooker (yes, you make it in a rice cooker!) with vegetable oil spray as indicated, but didn't have any. I remembered that I had a reusable one, but it's either clogged or broken, as I discovered. Ended up just greasing it with some vegan (and gluten-free) Becel. It worked fine, as it turns out.
The instructions said that if you just have a simple rice cooker, just start. So I did that. If you wanted a lava cake, you needed to check it after about 20 minutes; if you just wanted a cake, let it go until it stopped.
My rice cooker stopped after about 10 minutes.
I had no idea what to do. This was completely unexpected. I looked at it. Definitely not ready to eat. I decided to leave it in the machine for another 10 minutes, to complete the 20 minutes indicated in the book, but it turns out that was too much and I didn't have much of a lava cake. :( It tasted pretty good though, which, of course, is all that matters in the end. ;)
Friday, February 3, 2012
A site after my own heart
Too busy to post much lately, but I wanted to share something. I saw this as an ad in Facebook today:
Living Without: The magazine for people with allergies and food sensitivities
They have a section for recipes, gluten-free, dairy-free, other allergies... Some of the recipe photos look really, really good!
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