Clean Eating

Sparky, the love of my life, spring in my step, kick in my julep, and best friend in the whole world, is home. He also wants more meat in his life. As bringer of the paycheck, he certainly has every right to request that. He understands my objections to the meat for food industry, and is looking forward to assisting me in my search for responsibly, locally raised meat. We also want to eat better.

So, we are trying the concept of clean eating.

That is achieved thusly: We will try very hard to consume food that is as close to its original state as possible, avoiding processed food like semolina pasta, bread and or crackers made with anything but whole wheat, and non-hydrogenated fats. Refined sugar is on the no-no list, too. So, goodbye donuts, spaghetti, TVP patties (probably better off without those, anyway), and many other fat and sugar-laden treats we love so dearly.

But that's OK.

The recipes I have been using for our experiment have come from a magazine called Clean Eating. This magazine has a section of inexpensive meal recipes, as well as simple, one skillet meals that take less than 30 minutes to prepare.

Here's a brief run-down of our suppers for the last few nights:

Monday: Pan seared sirloin with stir fried squash and onions, with tomato reduction.

It was delicious. The sirloin had a tasty crust made of spices, the veggies were wonderful just plain and tasty, and the tomato reduction was a dream. As Rachel Ray would say, "YUM-O"!!

Tuesday: Salmon-Oat Hash.

So simple!! Steel cut oats, apples, celery, fresh dill, and cooked salmon. It was fabulous, and filling!! The Irish use steel cut oats for so much more than breakfast, and this savory application did not disappoint.

Wednesday: Chicken Tetrezzini Casserole.

This one was a bit more labor-intensive than the rest of what I've made so far, but everybody seemed to enjoy it. I found the color of the sauce (made up of part of the cooked veggies in the dish, and some broth) off-putting, but it tasted very good.

Thursday: We were supposed to have a friend of Sparky's over for dinner, but he couldn't make it. I still managed to keep our meal clean. I bought two beautiful packages of tenderloin,, intending to make them in the oven with a garlic-herb crust, but we decided instead to grill tham. We gave the meat the same treatment we give our steaks: We sprinkle them lightly with kosher salt, and push the flakes into the meat. We let the meat sit for a while, then grilled it. After it was cooked, I made grilled peppers, mushrooms, sweet spanish onions, and zucchini. I tossed them in olive oil and Spike brand seasoning. It was fabulous, and clean, too! Kylie ate three helpings, and all of her vegetables!

I've lost a few pounds, which is good. I think that eating clean is good for us. Processed foods are so full of chemicals, and strange things that replace the original ingredients, things we are all better off without!!

Tmorrow, I'll continue my commentary on processed foods, as well as present afew new ideas about the food we eat.

Until then, -urp-...yum.

Spoke too soon...

*sigh*

So, our church turned out not be what we thought it was. It's hard to listen to "Give till it hurts" sermons while the pastor and his wife are driving BMW's. They are also having bankruptcy issues. The list goes on. We've been there for almost six months, but we hardly know anybody. We are looking a different church now. I don't think I'm going to blog about that any more, because it has caused our family a great deal of heartache. Our faith has not been shaken; we're just sad that we have to start over again.

Instead, I'll focus on other things for a time. Gods has blessed me with a gift; that of making tasty things to eat. I'm going to talk about that for a while, as well as continue to blog about my many goofy, inane musings.

Busy, I guess......

I looked back today, and realize that I haven't had very much to say, not much at all. Very little, really.

OK, zip, zilch, nada, nyet, nothing.

As I move throughout my day, little ideas present themselves, and I think to myself "oh, yeah, that would make a good blog post, I need to rememebr that." Do I write it down? No. Do I sit down and blog it? *sigh* Nope. My friend Lissa says not to worry about posting things right away, just get them wrotten first, then play with it till it's ready to be digested and processed by anybody bored enough to read this.

I shall now attempt to write something.

We now live in Jacksonville, FL., in a very upscale neighborhood. My husband has a good job, and the Lord has blessed us with a nice home in a neighborhhod of nice people, except maybe that young NFL player who just bought a house around the corner. Jury's still out on him......

The kids go to a terriffic public school. We went to a Science Fair dinner a few months ago, and were VERY pleasantly surprised to see a framed plaque on the wall in the Cafetorium (that's what they call them here) which read "In GOD We Trust"....Wow. Cool. It's in all of the kids' classrooms, too. The frank and unabashed conservatism here is so refreshing, a lovely change after living in that overcast, overpriced liberal hell known as Washington State. When neighbor kids come over to play with my kids, and I tell their parents that we have guns in our house, I am never met with shock and revulsion. The usual reply is, "Oh yeah? What you got? Can I see it? Do y'all hunt?" I love it!! It seems like most of my neighbors go to a church of some type, even if it may bot be the best church to go to.

We found a great, traditional, Bible-Believing, Independent Baptist church. Berean Baptist has been here for a very long time. The pastor has been here for 30 years, and every Sunday, we attend Services in the Jack Hyles Auditorium. When we walked in for hte first time, and I saw that sign, i knew we'd be right at home, and we are. Each church has its foibles, and this one is no different, but it's such a blessing to go every Sunday and hear the Lord's word read from the right Bible, and preached in the right way.

We attended another church at the invitation of one of navyman's co-workers. This church can be described as a "mega church". We went to services in a brand new auditorium, saw two people baptized, heard their videotaped salvation testimonies via a huge screen, and saw what seemed to me to be the equivalent of a hollywood show on the stage. The music was appealing in a wordly sense, the people who did specials surely belonged with a major record label, but where in all of this spectacle were the hymnals? Where was the sound preaching? Why did some of the girls look tlike they were going clubbing, and not to church? I'm not saying that we should all look like FLDS ladies, in ankle-length dresses and long johns; in fact my ieas about appropriate dress are considered rebellious by some, I'm sure. (LOL)

We have laughingly dubbed this church "Baptist Light". I'm sure those people are saved, and serving, and doing what they should, but I also know that there's better out there.

In a world hurtling toward Armageddon, I think that maybe the time has come to be thankful that people are saved, and that even though these people may not be attending a church that uses the "right" Bible, and plays the "right" music, they are still saved from a life apart from Christ. By saying this, I am not advocating any church that doesn't preach from the KJV, and I still know that the only way to Heaven is the the shed blood of Jesus Christ, and that a one-world-religion is wrong. But I am still thankful that people are still going up at altar call, still getting right with God, and still going to Heaven.

There, I'm off to a good start. I shall now exit my soap box. Hopefully, I've brought my devoted readers up to speed, and maybe even got some angst off my chest.

See you soon.