Food snob

Just wait - I do have quilting things to tell you about, but first I have to tell you my oatmeal story. I've become hooked on the Steel Cut Oats by Quaker - the one that you can cook in the microwave. I've perfected the technique and I was even able to cook it at my brother's house when I was away with no disasters in the microwave. A bit of almond milk and a banana and I'm a happy camper.

I didn't take a picture of the nutrition label, but there are 170 calories in a serving, 3 g of fat, no cholesterol, no sodium, 31 g of carbs, 6 g of protein and ZERO g of sugar.

I have a partial box of this instant oatmeal (also by Quaker) still in the cupboard and I thought I would try and use it up.

As a comparison, there are 110 calories in a serving, 1.5 g of fat, no cholesterol, but there are 140 MG of sodium, 23 g of carbs, 3 G of protein and 6 g of sugar.

Now if you were calorie counting or carb counting, you might want to pick the second one. But boy or boy - you need to taste them. The instant one is well - not worth eating in my opinion, especially after you have eaten the steel cut version. The steel cut version has a better texture, crunchier, the instant is like mush. Despite the fact that the instant is flavored and has sugar in it, it tastes flat. If this is your version of oatmeal and you don't like it, no wonder. Try the steel cut version - way superior product in taste and nutritional value.

I'm good with the extra calories - I need to find things to eat so I consume enough calories in a day and the taste is so much better. Thank you to Quaker for coming up with that. It's awesome. If you haven't tried it  - you should. Just remember that you need to cook it at a less than full power. Depends on the microwave, you may need to experiment. My microwave works at a power level of 5, my brother's (smaller microwave, a 6 or 7 worked better).

I know my kid is out there saying "I TOLD YOU TO READ the label".  Yes, food labels are important. It's not the calories or the carbs or the sugars of one product, it's the TOTAL intake of those products that you consume in one day. I'm still struggling to eat enough calories in a day and I'm not eating enough protein. My calories in the past were made up of the wrong foods. Once I got those wrong foods out of my system, the weight just fell off. And I'm keeping it off - that's the good news. I use My FitnessPal (phone app) to track my food and it's been an absolute MUST in order to make this weight go away and stay away. I still use it.

If you decide to use it, I would suggest that you start tracking your daily food BEFORE you start to change your diet. I think you'd be shocked at what you consume. The first couple of days are a bit of a hassle as you get the information in there, but once it's there - it's easy to log. I do the logging at the end of the day now as I have a pretty good idea of what I eat. Yes - I tend to eat the same kind of things every day. So what? And don't forget that you can add a food by scanning the label of the food so you get all the nutritional information. Super EASY!!!! Most restaurant food is also available to download (through the app) or I use something similar. It's not an exact science, but it gives you an idea of what you're eating and what's in what you're eating.

I have three pouches of that instant oatmeal left. Anyone want a taste test?? I'd be happy to serve you up a wee bit of eat so you can see the difference.

And now onto quilting stuff. If my phone would stop ringing! Oh god - I just got a duct cleaning call on my cell phone. ACK!!!!   And I've got a ton of e-mail that needs to be answered. Let's not panic!!!

It's time to get back to the quilting machine. I've got SIX quilts on the slate for this week. It's going to be tight, but two of them are mine so they can slide if need be. I got this one done yesterday.

Customer quilt - DONE

 I have one more exactly the same to do - that's a job for this afternoon.

I promised to show you those two small wall hangings that I had given to my Mom. The label on the back tells me that they were made in 2001. I know - only a crazy new quilter would make something like this. If my memory is correct, there are 76 pieces in that snowflake alone!!! Now how can I remember a detail like that when I can't remember where the extra fabric is for my Farmer's Wife quilt?

Winter Wallhanging

Spring Wallhanging

My Mom wasn't the best at taking care of quilts. I don't think she ever hung up the spring wall hanging. She put up the winter one and it hung FOREVER in the kitchen in DIRECT sunlight. Can you guess what happened to it? I happen to have some of the original fabric (OK - I have a HUGE chunk of that blue). Look at the difference.

What the sun will do to your fabric

I had told her to take it down and she did, but the damage had been done. And then the two of them got packed in a box, never to see the light of day until I unearthed them.

I'm going to make the other two. I might even remake this one because it drives me crazy to look at it. But then, I'm going to fix the hangers and buy a hanger and physically put it on their door so the quilts can be enjoyed.



I know that when you give a quilt away, that it's no longer yours. We can't sweat the fact that they may use it for the dog to sleep on, or you may find it like this. Can you find the quilt in the picture below??

Where's the quilt?

Yes - it's on top of the bottom box right beside that white box. That's a queen sized quilt all folded up and compressed under a whole bunch of other stuff. I rescued the quilt. Took off the label. My SIL washed the quilt (twice) and it's now at a new home.

There was one other quilt that I had made for my Dad and I found it (after they had moved out of the house on the farm). It was folded up and under a cover on a chair. That one was also donated last year. You see why I'm leery about those little ones?  Well - we'll see what happens.

At least they do have two quilts and they are using them on their recliner chairs, but the quilt tops are facing inward so you can't see the nice design on the front. Oh well. At least those ones are being used.

I guess that sums up today. So much more, but no more time. I've got a trip to make today. A short one, but it'll still take a couple of hours and in the car. Not like my errand trip yesterday where I walked to the bank, then the grocery store, Indigo (and Starbucks where I bought a blueberry square as a reward for my walk and I still have money on a Starbucks card that I'm trying to use up), then the mall (where they have set up a place in the center for people to walk the World Soccer) and the final stop was the library where I bought TWO books for the price of $1.00.  It was a gloriou day and just right for a walk.

On that note, I'm out of here to try and get a few more e-mails done.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!

You are what you eat!

Many of us are trying to eat more healthy these days and that isn't always the easiest. A couple of reasons - we don't know how, we think we don't know how and we have no idea what we are doing!!!!   Plus you think you are alone and when you talk to your friends - they will think you have gone over to the OTHER side.

So.............    six of us got together last week and had a FOOD session. We had so much fun and I wanted to share it with you.


We get together to sew once a month and got on the topic of food.  We mentioned that we had tools or wanted certain tools and were they worth it. We collected a list of stuff we wanted to try and this is the result.

Tidied up the kitchen and we had a great work surface to do our demos

M brought all the stuff she needed for her demo. Looks pretty darn healthy!!!!!

Someone wanted to learn how to make bread from scratch. We invited Mary to come along as she is a bread maker extraordinaire.

The bread is waiting to rise!!!!!!!!!!!!

And much later we had wonderful little loaves of bread. YES - she bakes them in tin cans. God forbid if you throw those tins away!!!!!!!!!!!

Bonnie Stern got mentioned several times and someone brought one of her cook books. Looks like the old, the tried and true is still good!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elaine S made hummus in her food processor.  It is great to make your own because you can add all kinds of stuff to it. she added olives and sun dried tomatoes.   That was VERY yummy. I don't have a food processor and I don't think I want one simply because of the clean up.   I know - I am LAZY in the kitchen. I need things to be easy and relatively quick 

Mary also served us COLD oatmeal that had been soaked over night in apple juice (I think). Then topped with a bit of yogurt and some blackberries - this was a FAST FAST FAST breakfast for anyone  and very healthy!!!!!

A number of people have asked about a juicer. Should they get one. Well M did us a demo on the juicer.

Here she is squeezing some lemon into her GREEN concoction. While I appreciate the juicer, I think it is wasteful (more on that in a bit) and there are LOTS of parts to clean up. I HATE the clean up. Takes a LOT of produce to make juice and best to make a weeks' worth at one time. Put it in the fridge and clean up once a week. 

Then M demoed the NUTRI-BULLET. Like the magic-bullet, but bigger with a stronger motor.  I like this because you are getting ALL the pulp included in the smoothie. No waste - quick clean-up - the cup which can go in the dishwasher and the blades which you rinse right away. My money is on the Nutri-Bullet.  Great - quick and easy to make a smoothie in the morning on your way out the door. 

Joyce was asked to make KALE chips. As you know - EVERYONE is on the band wagon with KALE these days. Most of us had tried making kale chips at one point, but failed dismally in getting them just right. Joyce is obviously a pro because these were good and I could have eaten the entire batch by myself.

One of the secrets - DRY KALE.   Wash it, cut it up and DRY IT THOROUGHLY.   You could mix it in a bowl with the olive oil and touch of salt, but we put it right on the cookie tray and mixed it there.    Secret number two - SLOW and LOW in the oven. 

The chips - YUM YUM YUM. Instead of the salt - you could add some spices?????

Then Joyce demonstrated a machine she got recently called Yo-Nanas. You know those bananas that start to brown. Well pop them in the freezer and when you want some dessert - get out your Yo-nana maker.
You cut the mostly frozen banana in half and put half in the machine, then some blueberries or other frozen berries, then the rest of the banana and VOILA...................

It is like a frozen yogurt/sherbet - a very yummy dessert. Fast and the clean-up of the machine is not bad. I wonder what would happen if you used the immersion blender for this????

Sharon made this yummy soup. I think it was tomato (god - that is sad that I can't even remember that!!!)

She used the immersion blender to mix it up.   The more I see - I am liking that immersion blender. I bought one the other day and want to do more with it. FAST and EASY to clean up - my style of cooking.

Elaine K made some gluten free dessert items. She made these at home - chocolate chip cookies and brownies. Funny how I remember the names of the sweets!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a very interesting day and we got to sample all kinds of goodies. I really really enjoyed the process and we are going to do it again. This time - the theme is BREAKFAST foods. Things that you can eat on the run or sit down, but have to be healthy breakfast items and there is NO COLD CEREAL (from a box) on our menu.

I'll let you know all about that when it happens.

Now back to that pulp from the juicer.  Hmmm - I wonder if it would make soup?????  Of course - I did NOT read anything about the pulp. Just thought I could make it up. Well.....................

After throwing two boxes of veggie broth into the mix

The pulp was STILL DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!!!    Looked and smelled DISGUSTING

I tried the immersion blender, but NO - NOTHING was going to change that mess!!!!!


Then I decided to read the book on the juicer to see what others do with the pulp. Well some people use it in meat loaf (about a cup as filler), other make think crackers. Hey - I could do that.

My crackers

 Of course - by this time - there is too much liquid in it and nothing happened. The entire lot ended up in the compost!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Lessons learned on this day:

Gluten free products taste good and the texture is great. But since I do not have to eat them, I won't, but I would if I had to.
A food processor is too much work in the clean up area (at least at this time)
A juicer is way too much work in the clean up area and way too much waste
A Nutri-Bullet seems like a cool tool and I want to experiment more
I LOVE my immersion blender and will play with that and all the attachments more
I LIKE cold OATMEAL for breakfast and will make that again
How to make DELICIOUS kale chips
My friends all want to be health conscious like me and are willing to share!!!!!!!!!!!



Oh my - this has opened up a whole new thing   and I may just get good use out of that huge kitchen of mine after all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Get your friends together and try some experiments. It is loads of fun and I really really really enjoyed the day. Thanks everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Mary - that doubting Mary - did NOT think I would have a rolling pin!   Which I do and a few other things that she may not think I have. I wasn't always a doltz in the kitchen!!!!!    Just lazy when no one will eat what I make. Why bother!!!!!!!!!!!!



Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!