2.24.2014

Forever Home Blues

3 Weeks.....


That's the amount of time that we have not worked on the Forever Home. It feels like time is passing and the Forever Home is just standing still.

It's been tough for us to cope with this nasty weather and yes we fully understand that we cannot do anything about this but owning two homes is taking a toll on us. We need to get our feet moving, dig deep and find the motivation to go and work.



Everything is 100 times harder when you have to do pre-prep work to actually work.




Shovel the additions out for an hour

Layer on the extra clothing

Work in big winter gloves that make it hard to carry wood

Stand on ladders that are barely safe due to snow and ice below

Deal with a runny nose

Shovel one driveway, snow blow the second driveway

Split wood for the fireplace

Fix the car, fix the car, fix the car(don't ask, we are pretty sure my car has put a spell on me)



This list can go on and on and on.............................

I suppose I need to look at the positive side - the insulation is sitting in the basement ready to go


To leave you on a positive note I came across this quote and had to share since "it was rather beautiful"






2.04.2014

Things I'm Loving Lately

Snowy Hills!!!



I kid....I am not loving the snow although some of the views in our area are very pretty when we have large snow falls. I shoveled our driveway over the weekend - twice - it's a 150 ft driveway. Don't ask how I felt when I was done.



We did nothing on the Forever Home because the snow wrecked havoc on us as well as my car is not being so friendly.

Two things that I have been really loving lately are these Paleo Muffins derived from a cookbook called "Make Ahead Paleo" by Tammy Credicott. Let me tell if you, if you are trying to go this route this cookbook is amazing!

In the cookbook they are called "Breakfast Muffins" but I would think Carrot Muffins suite better to how many carrots I choose to use.



Carrot Muffins

Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients:
6 eggs
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla
4 medium carrots

I blended the wet ingredients in my Vitamix and combined the dry ingredients in a medium size bowl. You can also just shred the carrots and add them to the wet ingredients. Mix everything together and pour into muffin pan. Bake for 35 min at 350C This recipes yields 13 muffins. I also added unsweetened shredded coconut on the top. Below is the calorie count. I'm pretty sure if you wanted these to have less sugar you could lower the amount of maple syrup and add 6-10 drops of stevia.

I used Calorie Count website to determine the calories in these:

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 Serving
Per Serving% Daily Value*
Calories 98
Calories from Fat 39
Total Fat 4.3g7%
Saturated Fat 1.2g6%
Cholesterol 76mg25%
Sodium 92mg4%
Carbohydrates 10.1g3%
Dietary Fiber 2.1g8%
Sugars 6.3g
Protein 4.1g
Vitamin A 5% · Vitamin C 3%
Calcium 3% · Iron 6%

The calorie count website is great because if you are creating your own recipes it really helps you determine what to change in the recipe. You can save your recipes and create your own using the Recipe Analyzer under Tools.


Have you tried green smoothies/juices? Your answer is probably yes and you also probably looked at 5 million different combinations and possibly gave up unless you are not like me and were able to create your own mixture.

I finally came across this website Blender Babes and the options they had were amazing. OK maybe I tried 1 or 2 that were horrible but when they had the 3 day detox and 21 day challenge it really opened up my frame of thinking for what could and should go together in a juice.

Based on this recipe I now drink the below juice EVERYDAY as part of my lunch.



Green Juice:

1 cup coconut water
1/2 cup water
1 apple
1/2 cup frozen pineapple
3 cups spinach
1/3 cucumber
1 tsp ginger

Blend together (if using a standard blender you may have to blend for a longer period)

Here is the thing - this needs to be COLD! Do not attempt to drink this when it's luke warm or even slighly cold. I like my drink ICE Cold. Once I get to work I stick it in the fridge and give it a good shake before I drink it.

Calorie Count (yes there is lots of natural sugars in here, if you are looking to cut down the sugar you can use 1/2 apple maybe??) But check out the iron count!!!

Nutrition Facts
Serving Size 1 Serving
Per Serving% Daily Value*
Calories 231
Calories from Fat 12
Total Fat 1.3g2%
Saturated Fat 0.5g2%
Cholesterol 0mg0%
Sodium 333mg14%
Carbohydrates 54.9g18%
Dietary Fiber 11.2g45%
Sugars 33.7g
Protein 5.8g
Vitamin A 172% · Vitamin C 141%
Calcium 18% · Iron 37%



There you have it!!!! Hope you enjoyed a few things I am loving lately and have time to check out these sites! Any paleo recipes or new juicing sites that you might have?? Please share below!