Easy Ideas for Healthier Living

A new morning routine to start the day with good intentions and carry through. Really, just thinking about eating more nutritious foods and doing one or two little things in the kitchen keeps the process of healthy eating moving forward.

1. Eat a good breakfast: eggs, homemade granola, oatmeal, French toast, yogurt, fresh fruit.

2. Fill a water glass (sometimes I flavor it with citrus, herbs, mint, ginger, or cucumber) and take vitamins.

3. Check the frig and pantry for what needs to be used. This is a critical step, if you're like me, all the produce in the store or farmer's market looks so good that loading up is easy. Then I have tons of stuff to use up before it gets old.

4. Prep work: This can take just 5-10 minutes, or as long as you want. This is looking ahead to meals for the next couple of days and thinking about what to cook. And it is also about making pantry items to stock up with exciting flavors.

Just the beginning of good ideas:

Yogurt -- I got a yogurt maker for Christmas, but it is quite easy to make your own without one. Go here for simple instructions. Just be sure to keep it sanitary.

Pizza dough -- I make this no-knead by putting it in the frig overnight. I the morning take it out and let it rise.

Baked Brown Rice--soak rice in water overnight and drain (optional). Fry rice in a little olive oil, making it nutty and flavorful, this is also optional. Put into an oven-safe pan, add a dash of olive oil, salt, lemon zest, rosemary, or whatever flavorings you prefer, cover with water. Cook covered dish at 350 degrees until the water is absorbed.

Salads -- pageful of delicious ideas.

Pesto -- whizz a small chunk of Parmensan in the food processor, add walnuts, zip, add basil (and other greens like kale, spinach, etc) zip, pour a stream of olive oil through the feeder tube and blend. Keep in a jar in the frig for a week. Use on salads, pizzas, pasta, potatoes.

Roasted Garlic -- Put a head of garlic on a double layer of foil, pour on olive oil, roast in a hot oven until tender and creamy. Can be kept in the refrigerator for a few days, but use it up on salad dressings, veggies, pizzas, etc.

Soak or Cook Beans -- Day 1--Rinse and soak the beans in a big pot of salted water overnight.
Day 2--Drain and cook beans in a fresh pot of water with salt, add flavorings if you choose to, like herbs, bay leaves, garlic.

Start a Soup or a Slow Cooker Meal -- millions of ideas available on the internet to keep you from coming home late and hungry and running out for an unhealthy restaurant meal.

Salad Dressings -- it's silly to buy salad dressing when it is so easy to make your own. A good variety of ideas here.

Endless Chicken Stock -- another link to Kitchen Stewardship. A wonderful idea that I will be doing regularly now.

Sprout Seeds -- powerhouses of nutrients to add to sandwiches and salads. These are easy to grow in your kitchen for some fresh greens in winter. Grow them in a canning jar in a dark, cool cupboard, to simulate under ground, rinse twice a day. A few days later they are ready to eat.

Sun Tea -- mix up some flavored tea bags with black tea bags and fill a pitcher with cold water. Let the sun create its solar magic. This is the easiest way to prevent drinking sodas.

Stewed Prunes -- slice an orange into thin wedges, put in a pot with 1 pound of dried prunes, add a cinnamon stick, just cover with water and cook over medium heat until the juice thickens to syrup. They don't need any sweetening, they are already perfect. Keeps in the frig for a week. A wonderful idea from Melissa Clark's cookbook, A Homemade Life.

Roasting Vegetables -- peel and cube veggies, such as beets, winter squashes, carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes. Coat with olive oil and herbs on a baking sheet, pop into a hot oven and cook until tender.
                                            Tamar Adler's video of Roasting Vegetables Ahead

Other quick things that make life easier: Prerinse salad greens, make carrot or celery sticks, marinate some meat, cut up a pineapple or cantaloupe.

Give the counters and sink a quick wipe and sweep the floor if needed and I'm done for the day.

My Obsession with Canning Jars

It started with a dozen. The next day I bought 2 more dozen. Then I went back for another dozen. There isn't any more room on the pantry shelves, unless I start removing other things. They are already two rows deep. We're trying to avoid storing food in plastic, and these work so well for small quantities. I love them dearly.

What do I use them for? They are filled with ingredients for healthy cooking. I always have something available to make. The list rotates, but this is the gist of it: dry pasta, whole grains, dry beans, coconut, flax seeds, kosher salt, nuts, rice, sun-dried tomatoes, vital wheat gluten (for baking bread), pinenuts, couscous, dry fruit, seeds for sprouting, raisins (golden & regular), oatmeal (rolled & steel cut), raw cane sugar, brown sugar, tea bags, bay leaves, hot chocolate mix, bran, lentils. But that's just the pantry...

I also use them in the freezer. Since I don't want to go through the whole boiling canning process, when I cook from scratch, I just throw the item in a jar and keep it in the freezer. Right now I have homemade marmalade, strawberry butter, and tomato sauce. I store a jar of yeast for baking in there too.

Yes, it's Quick Hint Tuesday

Shaved soap curls ~ use a potato peeler to shave off little curls of glycerin soap (opaque won't work). I keep them in a pretty little dish next to the sink in the guest bathroom.

supercook.com ~ you type in the ingredients you have on hand and a list of potential dishes comes up. I did this for carrots, butter, maple syrup, and a few other things and got over 400 pages of ideas.

Greek salad ~ ripe tomatoes, diced cucumbers, kalamata olives, fresh oregano, crumbled feta, dress it lightly with vinegar and olive oil.

Shower Dispensers

before

after

All the shampoo and conditioner bottles in the shower have been bugging me for awhile now. I tried getting bottles that looked good in the shower, and refilling them as necessary, but it really didn't work. And then we started adding more and it got out of hand.

I found these ceramic dispensers and I like the way they blend in with the shower tile and the brushed chrome of the showerhead. I added labels from my label maker. I just hope they hold up in the wettness over time.

springifying

Picked a bunch of lilacs from a bush on an abandoned lot. Polished up a silver pitcher. Put out a white tablecloth to lighten up my dark wood table:

With $1 worth of fabric from JoAnn's and following the directions from Make It and Love It, my mouse pad went from this:

To this, in just 15 minutes:

Cut some flowering plum branches too:

Limoncello Glasses

It's thrilling to uncover the perfect thing at a thrift store. I found 7 of these little gems for wine glasses at Savers for less than a dollar each. Pretty yellow and green stems with gold rims. They had four more with neon pink stems, but I couldn't go there.

They're just the right size for a bit of limoncello, not too big or too small. I had the opportunity to try them out when some old friends stopped by this weekend.

I am mixing a new batch of limoncello to be ready when I host book club next month.

Preparing for Guests

I love having company. Sharing the pleasures of our own home with friends and family is one of my greatest joys. And preparing for the visit is half the fun.

Food plans--decide what to serve for meals (or where to dine out), and what to have available for snacks and drinks. Do all the shopping in advance, prep all the food that you can early.

Sleeping arrangements--decide who sleeps where, change the sheets, dust the furniture, vacuum the carpet, open the windows.

Supplies--bottled water, extra toothpaste and toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, soap in the shower, books and magazines they might enjoy.

Clean the house--bathrooms and kitchen spotlessly.

Activity Plans--think of what would be unusual in your area to see based on your guests' personalities. We are big on board games and campfires around here (s'mores!). Check the papers and the internet for local goings-on. Leave plenty of room for alternatives and down time.

Flowers--if it's possible, cut some flowers and/or leaves from your garden. Or pick some up from the store.

Planting Big Pots

Potting up large, heavy ceramic pots can be a real pain. I bought two identical ones from Thailand for $34 each from Costco, but then I had to plant them.

First, be sure to place them on rolling planter holders. This keeps them easily mobile and prevents your deck, patio, or rug from rotting.




Keep them as light as possible by filling them with styrofoam peanuts. You can get them very inexpensively from your local mailing center. Fill the bottom 2/3 of the pot with the peanuts. Cover that with a thick plastic trash bag that was cut open and then punched with several holes, for drainage.







Fill the center with high quality potting soil, amended with a slow release fertilizer like Osmocote and possibly those water retaining crystals. Trim the excess plastic from around the edges.



Pot the plants of your choice. I selected two small purple fountain grasses for $5 each from Home Depot. In a month, they have grown to almost fill the pots. Sometimes, a real pain is worth the effort.

Square Chalkboard Bottles

I thought of this a few weeks ago and finally got around to making them. I claim no original creativity on the idea~I probably saw it in a magazine and mentally filed it. Anyway, it's a great way to use old bottles and would make nice gifts too.

Flat sided bottles work best. The small one was a champagne vinegar, and the middle size ones were white balsamic vinegar, both from Trader Joe's. The biggest, dark green bottle was balsamic vinegar from Costco. I have noticed that Jose Cuervo tequila comes in the same shaped bottle too. Wine bottles could work but it would be harder to write on them.

The little spout is a good idea too. You can use them for so many things: homemade salad dressings, Garlic~Parmesan Dipping Oil (from yesterday), simple syrup (mint, vanilla, lemon, or ginger, ooh yummy!), garlic oil, or flavored vinegars, or limoncello. What else?


Directions:
Remove labels and wash and thoroughly dry the bottle.
Paint a solid stripe of black chalkboard paint down the middle of the bottle.
Allow to dry completely.
Write with chalk (I just wish I had better handwriting).

The Great Wall of China

The China Pictures are on the bedroom wall (finally!). I took these photos in March, had them enlarged in April, framed them in May. Since then, they have lined the floor of the bedroom. I asked Brad to hang them when they were framed. After six months, I asked him again, as nice as I could be, whenever he got a chance, please. On Sunday, he did it.

Now, how could it take that long to do a 30 minute job? If it slips his mind, it will not get done simply because I am a wife who refuses to bitch and nag. If I see them still sitting there after three months, I bite my tongue. Because…he will do anything for me: he cooks me dinner every night, he brings me a glass of wine in the evenings with a little piece of cheese as a treat, he compliments me ten times a day. How can I whine about such a little thing?

And he does the same for me. He doesn’t complain that I am notoriously slow at finishing the office paperwork, or when the house is overly dusty. Or I spend all day reading blogs. Not a word of complaint from him.

Monday Activity

Man, I’ve had an industrious morning. In addition to the regular Monday morning cleaning, I’ve vacuumed the garage, dusted the canopy-thing over the bed, changed the sheets and cleaned out the frig. It’s like spring cleaning, but in the autumn instead. I think it probably has something to do with the green tea I’ve been drinking all day. It’s been awhile since I did that, and it feels sooooo good.

Later this afternoon, I will finish my postcards and make my autumn list. A little late, but I’m feeling like getting things done around here.

Book Club at My House Tonight

When it’s my turn to host book club, I try to do a good job. You know, make the atmosphere inviting, light a few candles, cook some delicious food, have lots of wine available.

The temperature outside has dropped 20 degrees in the last two days, so it is feeling very fall-like here. This is perfect because our house is at its best in the fall. The wood tones, dark leather furniture, and deep mustard colored walls all contribute to a cozy mood. I spent yesterday getting out the ceramic pumpkins, pinecone garlands, and wreaths. I keep looking, and moving, and putting away summery things, changing the various vignettes around the house until I’m happy with them. Then they stay in place until after Thanksgiving.

I’m still deciding on the menu, this is very unusual for me. Normally, I will have a list a least a week in advance and most of the food pre-cooked by now. I’m thinking Chicken Saute Au Parmesan, which we’ve made several times lately and I know it’s damn good. If I roast potatoes to go with it and some people bring salads that will be good enough. This morning I found a recipe on Country Home website for an Autumn Fruits Crisp with orange flavored whipped cream, which sounds like it will be ideal.

Sleeping Outside

Oh, my goodness! Pure joy to wake up under a canopy of wisteria, birds singing, sun just peeking over the fence. Long ago, we would pitch a tent in the backyard to enjoy summer nights, mid week, just to add some spark to our lives. We found that we loved sleeping out.

When we moved to this house, the previous owner had built a private little garden off the master bedroom in a side yard. He built an arbor and grew wisteria up the sides and over the top. Under this he put a hot tub. We thought this was ideal, soaking in the tub that first winter was a pleasure. But when spring arrived, we wanted a place for an outside bed and the arbor was just sitting there unused.

Off we went to Home Depot, buying plywood for the base, a wooden door for the headboard, outdoor carpet for the “floor.” It took us one afternoon to build the platform for the hot tub. We got a mattress and hung a mosquito net, making a cozy nest for the two of us.

The hot tub is still there, functional, if we want to use it. But honestly, we never have. Maybe this autumn, we’ll get it running again. In the meantime, we fall asleep to a chorus of crickets and frogs, the stars twinkling through the wisteria leaves. We are lucky here, most nights there’s a gentle cool breeze that rustles the leaves. It's one of the things we do that makes summer a very special time for us.

If there is anyway you can arrange to sleep out where you live, try it. It'll change your view on life.

Tuesday Quick Hints

Rottentomatoes.com: This website compiles the reviews of hundreds of movie critics and then gives each movie a score based on the average. This is a fair way to represent the quality of a film, no one critic can unduly influence the score. If it gets over 70 percent it is “fresh” or under 70 gets a “rotten” tomato. There’s a “tomatometer” at the top for the exact score and quotes from various critics, so you can see why they rated it. Look under the tabs at the top for “Tomato Picker” and “Certified Fresh.”

Take off Labels: We are crowded in our lives with too much advertising. I prefer that my home is a quiet refuge from all that, so I go around pouring contents into clear jars and pulling the labels off shampoo bottles. It’s very satisfying.

Quick Panting: Give your insides a good quick workout by panting deeply for a minute. Take a big breath and let it out in short strong bursts until you can’t get any more out. You’ll feel the muscles around your diaphragm tighten. It’s great exercise for your core muscles.

Shower Remodel

I wish I had a picture of the old shower to show you; it was truly awful. Our friend Brian did the remodel and Tim did all the tile work. It’s great when you have talented friends. I asked for a seat, because it just seems practical to be able to sit and shave your legs or just rest for a minute. If you have room, it’s a high priority. I also asked for a ledge about four feet from the ground. Brian thought I was crazy to have it framed in, but it’s perfect for the soap dish, shampoo bottles, razor. It works.

Instead of being totally square, we cut the corner off to make more floor space in the bathroom, so we needed to have a custom pan made for the floor because it’s an odd shape. We framed a short wall about two and a half feet tall on the outer edges which we topped with clear heavy glass. The wall is tiled on the inside, making it less expensive and easier to clean. I was against the clear glass really, because it’s hard to keep from water spots. But I think it was the right decision; opaque would make it too closed in. Now we have to squeegee it off after every shower, but it’s a habit that you soon get used to.

We had to redo the seat because it slanted the tiniest bit towards the back, which made the water pool against that back edge. If you ever remodel a shower remember to tilt everything toward the center.

(The window you see in the last pic is just a reflection in the glass).

Tuesday Quick Hints

Brining Meat: This makes a tremendous difference in any meat that you cook, roast, stew, fry, or bbq. It will be soft and tender and tasty. Mix ½ cup of kosher salt with 1 qt water. You can add sugar and/or herbs too if you want it to be even more flavorful. Soak the meat for at least 4 hours.

Buy Matching Socks: I have about six pairs of white and six pairs of black, all identical. I never have a problem with matching or missing socks.

Clean Your Kitchen Stuff: Once in awhile, meaning rarely, I take everything on my kitchen counter that can go in the dishwasher – the tea kettle, the head of the can opener, the sponge, the drain strainers, the crock next to the stove and all of the utensils in it—and run a load.

Sleep Warm

After living in the Tahoe area for twenty five years, I’ve learned a few things about keeping warm at night. We mostly heated our house with a woodstove, so by two o’clock it turned very cold in the house and no one wanted to get up and put more wood on the fire.

When we married, my English grandmother gave us a goose down duvet as a wedding gift. This was in the 70’s, before Americans had any idea of what a duvet was. Heaven! When I needed to buy a new one, I thoroughly researched them since it is somewhat of an investment. By far the best deal is Costco – highest thread count, highest down count, lowest price. They have them at Costco.com. While you’re at it, buy their down pillows too. I can’t live without mine.

About ten years ago we bought a feather bed, which was more of an investment, but worth it, creating an envelop of warmth around us. We bought a high quality one and it has been warm and soft since. I had to get extra deep fitted sheets to go over it, but those are easier to find now. I just flip it and shake it every couple of days.

I’ve taken a few trips to England, where I’ve been colder than I’ve ever been in Tahoe. It’s a dampness that I’m simply not accustomed to. When I was thirteen years old, I became obsessed with hot water bottles, insisting that I buy one while we were there. I got a nice quilted lavender one, which I used for years. When I went back, they had moved up to electric bed warmers. A flat panel, like a heating pad but larger, that you put between the sheets and turn on shortly before going to sleep. You whip out the bed warmer and jump into the warm sheets. You can do the same with a heating pad, but it only warms one spot, probably your toes. I know people through history have warmed rocks or bricks in the fire and wrapped them with towels to warm the bed, but I am afraid of them exploding, so I’ve never done it.

When we moved to Donner Lake, both of our kids complained bitterly that their rooms were too cold. I guess Brad and I didn’t notice because we have each other for body heat. So I bought them electric mattress pads. Problem solved! They loved them. I bought Sunbeam from Sears, but they have them in most department stores. Turn them on 30 minutes before you go to bed and you’re toasty all night long.

Tuesday Quick Hints

It's Tuesday again!

Zicam: I have a cold today. I hate that. Zicam is the best thing I’ve found to eliminate it quickly. I like the swabs and keep using them for several days. It seems expensive at $11 for a box of 20, but it’s worth it to feel better.

Non hazardous cleaner: This is a great way to scrub things clean without harsh chemicals. Mix baking soda and dish soap, maybe a little water to make a paste. Scrub with a toothbrush.

Prepared beets: beets are the best vegetable! Although I didn’t get to eat them much before, because they’re a pain to cook and peel. Now you can buy them already done. They are pretty much always in my frig. Have them on a salad or as a side dish, warm or cold.

Clear Off Your Counters

I know it looks great in magazines when you see kitchen counters filled with cute cookie jars, cookbooks, baskets of fresh veggies, etc. The house seems alive and ready to cook a wonderful meal for a wonderful family. Life is not like that!

What do you have on your counters right now? I have a fruit bowl, a kitchen-aid mixer, a paper towel holder, two knife blocks, a can opener, salt and pepper shakers, a soap dispenser and a utensil holder by the stove. When people come over they say, “Your counters are empty.” How can that be? I have ten things in my tiny kitchen. All the appliances are black and chrome and blend into the background. Everything is completely practical, used daily. The exception is the Kitchen-Aid, because it’s too heavy to lift up every time I want to use it and it really looks good there, tucked away in its own corner.

Kitchen counters need to be clear to be useful. We need room to prep, cook and clean up. How annoying it is to clear the dinner table to find that every inch of counter space has been over run with all the cooking paraphernalia. Look at each item on your counter and ask if it really needs to be there. If it’s not critical, find it another home.
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Note: The comment below by flyfly3 appears to be some sort of "blog spam" that I cannot delete. Do not open it.

Tuesday Quick Hints

Peanut butter fondue: My friend, Teri Reed, told me to melt a little bit of peanut butter in the microwave for one minute. Then use fresh fruit to dip in. I tried a banana; it was heavenly. Just my kind of snack: quick, easy and healthy.

Red thread: I think this is a Martha idea. Sew a little piece of red thread at the bottom center of your sheets. There will never be the “which way does it go?” dilemma again.

Mixing juices: I had a quarter of a jug of Simply Orange, I mixed in a can of Kerr’s guava juice and a sparkling cider left over from Christmas, which added just enough fuzz to make it interesting. I’ll mix any kind of juice together, limeade and pomegranate is another good one. I add water by a third to cut down on the calories. My only rule is that the juice can’t have any high fructose corn syrup.