Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Juice Day 2

I have made it through TWO WHOLE DAYS without food!  I'm pretty amazed at myself.  Honestly, it has been pretty easy.  I never would have believed it.  I've only had a few cravings, and the only time I really felt hungry was on the way home today.

Today's breakfast juice was divine.  Carrot Almond Orange Cinnamon.  It was so delicious, I would drink it anytime.  Then my lunch juice was meh.  It was another one with the dreaded celery: Spinach Celery Cucumber Apple Lemon.  It was better than last night's dinner, but still not my favorite.  This afternoon's juice was out-of-the-park my favorite.  Carrot Beet Apple Ginger.  It was like pure sugar and so so so tasty.  But I didn't feel full after that one.  It tasted great, but was less satisfying.  So by the time 7pm rolled around, I was REALLY ready for my Kale Cucumber Apple Lime juice.  Which I'm drinking right now.  It's okay, but very cucumbery.  I'm adding cucumber to my no-juice list:

  • Turnip Greens
  • Celery
  • Cucumber
Not a huge list, but I think it will make for better future juicing experiences.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Eating grass

Today is Day 1 of my Strawberry Moon's A Little Bit Fruity juice fast.  I was inspired to try this by one of my knitting friends.  I'm hoping that taking a few days off from constantly thinking about what I'm eating next will help me to reset my eating habits.  Post-fast, I'm hoping to stick to a healthy low-calorie diet and lose some of this weight I've gained over the last 10 years.  Zach wants to lose a few pounds too, so I'm lucky enough to have his support.

So without further ado....

Day 1

Breakfast was delicious.  I had Carrot Pineapple Lime juice, and it was delightful. Less sweet than I expected, although I could say that about all the juices.  I'm definitely glad I went with the fruity fast, because I am definitely not ready for the hardcore veggie juices.

I'm normally a breakfast eater, so it was kind of hard to get myself out the door without eating anything.  In fact, I was so disorganized that I even forgot to take my morning vitamins!  I'm laying my clothes for tomorrow out in preparation of tomorrow's chaos.  I am very routine oriented, so changing up the start of my day is tough.

According to the schedule Zach laid out for me (juices evenly spaced throughout my waking hours), I was due for my 2nd juice at 11am.  I was totally fine until about 10:30, when suddenly I couldn't stop thinking about doughnuts.  Why doughnuts, I don't know, since I very rarely eat them (I even abstained during the last few weeks at work when everyone was bringing them in!).  I held out though, and drank my Spinach Celery Cucumber Apple Lemon juice.  I learned something right off the bat with that one: I HATE CELERY JUICE!  It just tastes like dirt.  But I gamely got it down, and wasn't at all hungry, even by the time 3pm rolled around and it was time for my 3rd juice.



Even though I wasn't really hungry, I was determined to stick to the schedule.  I am afraid that if I start getting hungry there will be no stopping me and the whole rest of the fast will be miserable.  Kind of like the idea of eating small meals throughout the day, I guess.  So at about 3:15, I cracked into my afternoon juice: Orange Almond Coconut.  Now, I really expected this one to be sweet.  Orange, afterall, is one of my favorite flavors, and it is sweet by nature.  But I was a little disappointed to find that the juice really just tasted like an almond milk/coconut water cross.  No hint of orange that I could detect.  It was still good, but would probably be more satisfying to someone who drinks milk regularly.

On the drive home from work, I felt satiated, but had a bad case of the munchies.  Maybe three days of fasting will help break the "I'm just eating because I need something to do" syndrome.

Finally, the culmination of a day of fasting, I thought for sure Juice #4 would be delicious.  But oh, my dear God, was I ever wrong.  Celery Cucumber Kale Spinach Parsley Apple Lemon Ginger was horrible.  Again, the celery flavor was overwhelming, and the only other flavor I could really taste was the parsley.  Although there was an afterburn from the ginger.  I suspect I would have found it more palatable without the celery.  I still wasn't hungry after this, but I desperately wanted to eat the rye crackers on the counter because I couldn't get the taste out of my mouth.

So. Day 1 is done and I'm getting ready for bed.  I still don't feel hungry, and I also don't feel as tired as I read I might be.  We'll see what happens tomorrow!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Embracing the bus

Okay, not really.

I got a new job. At first I wasn't thrilled since it is on the East Side and takes me an hour and a half to get there whether driving or riding the bus, but I've discovered that the job is actually fantastic.  The people are great, I'm constantly busy, the company seems fabulous, and it is right in downtown Bellevue, so there is a plethora of shopping and eating establishments within spitting distance.  The people watching pretty much sucks, since it is the East Side and everyone either works at a tech company or has just adopted the wardrobe (button up? check.).  If anyone knows of any great stuff to do or places to knit, let me know!


So the real news is a chicken update!  The girls are so big! And the coop is nearly done.  All we need to do is add hardware cloth to the windows, build the nestbox and roosts and paint!  I'm thinking it is all going to happen this weekend, which would be fabulous, because Merci has lost all her tailfeathers being cramped in the brooder.  












Saturday, April 27, 2013

Sunshine and grapefruits

WooWEE!  This month has been full of excitement.  Since the job offer I received (which I did end up accepting), Zach and I went to visit my little sister in California, I started work, and the chicken coop is more than half done!

First, a few highlights from our trip to SoCal: 





It was wonderful, and I feel like my sister and I are finally really relating as adults.  She is a wonderful woman with lots of big hopes and dreams, and I'm really lucky to call her my friend as well as my sister.

We got back from California Monday night and I started my new job Tuesday morning.  It's crazy, and the commute is so bad I've already started looking at home listings online, but the job itself and the people I work with seem great.  It will be really busy all the time, and they offer a lot of training and opportunities.

Today, Zach and his buddy moved the pieces of the chicken coop from the garage out to the back yard and put them together.  The framing is all done and the back wall is attached.  Sad to say, I forgot to take any pictures, but Zach will be working on it again tomorrow (assuming the skies don't open), so I'll get some shots then.  The girls are going to be so happy to get out of their brooder.  They are all fully feathered and it's getting crowded in there!

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Indecision

I got a job offer this week. I should be really excited, but instead I have this feeling of dread. I can't out my finger on the problem, so I'm stalling on my response and living in limbo. Possibly a part of the problem is that I'm still waiting to hear back from a local job while this offered job is up in Bellevue. But that can't be all of it because I'm also interviewing for a job in Seattle that I have a better feeling about.

If I haven't heard anything by Tuesday about the local job, my only choice becomes a long commute. Probably to Bellevue. Why am I so stressed about this?

Monday, April 8, 2013

Meatless & Marvelous

So I've decided to do an experiment this week.  I'm going to make all meatless meals, but not mention it to Zach.  We'll see if he even notices the lack of meat.

The menu includes:
Black Bean Taco Soup
A bean soup mix that was in my Christmas stocking from my mom
Pasta with pesto and maybe a few random veggies to clean out the fridge
Skinny Lasagna Rolls
and finally, if we have eaten all the leftovers, a vegetarian chili (I haven't decided which one yet)

I think if I rotate through them, Zach probably won't even notice that not a single day includes meat.  Although now that I'm looking at the menu, it's pretty obvious that Mexican and Italian are two of our favorite cuisines. :)

In other news, Zach started building the chicken coop this weekend!  We're using Ana White's Shed Chicken Coop plans.  So far, we have the floor, back wall and front wall all framed.  Yesterday, I went up to Second Use and picked up a couple of plain wood window sashes we'll use to cover the windows instead of relying on shutters.  That and painting are all I'm allowed to help with since Zach and I don't work well together.  Here's a photo of the progress.  It may not look like much yet, but I think it's great progress!


Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Another gray day

Oh, the last few days have spoiled me.  It was so sunny and beautiful this weekend, and I really enjoyed getting out of the house and getting started on cleaning up the yard.  Plus the time with the chicks in the garden was delightful.  But today, and the rest of the week according to the forecast, we're getting back to early spring weather with gray skies and middling temperatures.

I had plans for today: make Portuguese Sweet Bread (done), start my Chocolate Milk Stout brewing (not done), do some weeding and pruning (a little done), and start my lasagna beds (not done).  Oh well.  I did accomplish a few things. Most notably the sweet bread, although it didn't turn out like I wanted, so I'm not giving you the recipe yet.  I finished my first batch of dairy kefir and started a new one.  And I found a volunteer position I'm considering applying for, depending on how Thursday's job interview goes.

Plus, I'm sticking with FlyLady's Baby Steps cleaning routine, and my kitchen sink is shiny!

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Happy Easter!

Easter at our house has been quite pleasant.  Parents-in-law and I enjoyed Zach's cooking for breakfast, and then once they were off, Zach and I headed out to the yard to get spring started.  Or at least that was the intent.  Since it was so nice out, I got the idea to bring the chicks out to the garden for their first outing, so other than cutting back a few dead things, mostly I just sat and watched chickens.  They were so darned cute!

This is my favorite picture - Trixie peeking around the crate.  She is so adventurous!

The girls all had a good time, although the camera died, so I only got a few photos.







Cricket found a slug!





Thursday, March 28, 2013

Chicken update

I took pictures of each of the chicks last night.  They are getting so big!  Merci is looking and acting more like a chicken everyday.  She's even clucking sometimes.


Trixie and Cricket are the rulers of the coop.  I'm not sure which one is top chicken, because they seem to team up to gang up on Merci and Scooter all the time.  Today's trick is to fly across the brooder and land on the other chicken's back.


 



And finally Scooter...  She's kind of the tagalong.  So far she seems the most easy going and friendliest.  She doesn't put up a fuss when I pick her up like the others do, and she is quick to settle in for a cuddle.  She mostly hangs out with Merci, which is funny since Merci is so much bigger than her.  Her feathers look like they are growing in mostly white, with some gray and tan in spots.  I can't wait to see what she looks like when she gets bigger.





Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Celebration time, come on!

Is it unreasonable to feel like I should be justified in buying two sweater quantities of yarn because I got a second interview?

I guess I'm unreasonable then.  Plus, they're no longer going to be selling online! That is enough to justify the second SQ, right?

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

It's been a long time coming

Hi.

It's been a while.

I'm going to change the focus here and actually focus on more interests than just food.  After all, the blog is called War of the Appetites, right?  I have an appetite for many things in my life. Food, yes, but also books, crafts, gardening, chickens, cats, and more.  So I'm going to widen the focus and maybe you're interested in other things too.

The first thing I want to get out there is that I am currently unemployed. This has given me some extra time to explore different interests of mine.  So far I've spent a lot of time napping and surfing the interwebs, but I have also developed quite the interest in urban homesteading.  Now, I daren't say the phrase "urban homesteading" to the other half; he'd accuse me of being a hipster and not take a word I say seriously.  Instead, I'm starting small.  With chickens.

Trixie and Cricket came first. One yellow, one black, they were sweet and fluffy and adorable when I picked them out at the feed store.


Trixie, the yellow one, is a Buff Orpington.  I've read that they are docile and friendly, and since I want lap chickens, she seemed perfect.  Cricket is a Barred Plymouth Rock.  Mostly I got her because I had to bring at least two chicks home the first time and the store didn't have the other two breeds I wanted.

A few days later, after corresponding with a woman down in Edgewood, I brought home Merci.  She is a Black Copper Marans, a hard-to-find breed around here.  When she's all grown up, she'll lay dark chocolate colored eggs.


Merci was three weeks old when I got her, and was hatched by a man who raised parrots.  She already knows how to step up, which is completely adorable.

Lastly, I got the Ameraucana I wanted.  Ameraucanas lay blue-green eggs and have fluffy beards.  Scooter's beard was obvious from day one, and her little fuzzy face is so sweet.


They've all gotten a lot bigger now... more to come!