Cleanse: ALL the spaghetti squash

Last night my sister made granola, and also roasted a spaghetti squash so we could have it with quinoa and toasted pumpkin seeds (the recipe calls for spinach but we forgot that bit).

Good grief are we going to be eating spaghetti squash for a while! And since I'm off the obvious toppers (tomato, cheese, butter) it'll be interesting to see what winds up happening.

Breakfast: granola, almond milk, half a banana
Lunch: leftovers from last night's dinner
Dinner: tbd but undoubtedly will incorporate squash!

Cleanse: day 3

I don't think I'll blog every day of this cleanse, but it's a handy way to keep track of what I've been eating.

Last night's dinner was in fact Almond Coconut Curry Greens - and quite tasty too! I skipped the raisins as I'm not a fan, and I don't have lemon pepper so I zested a lemon & added pepper. The recipe doesn't say how many servings it is, but I didn't make any rice so I split the meal between two bowls. In the end I couldn't finish mine so had it for lunch today over rice.

Breakfast: oatmeal with almond butter and 1/4 pear
Lunch: rice and leftover dinner; 1/4 pear
Snack: probably some granola - my sister's making some and it smells good (oats, millet, sunflower seeds, rice syrup) I wound up having a bowl of banana & strawberry with some oats sprinkled on, and some almond milk.
Dinner: TBD. Like, I really have no clue, but I think I'm going to hit a happy hour in which case I will definitely be sure to have a good snack under my belt before I go out.

Symptoms/feelings:
I feel a bit tired, but I don't think that's due to missing caffeine since I drink no more than a cup a day. I had a slight headache come on last night and it's still vaguely present.

Cleanse: day 2

Allow me to brag a bit - after I decided to do this cleanse, a friend invited me out for a birthday beer celebration. I managed to go and NOT have gluten (beer) or nightshade (french fries). Instead I ordered a cider and skipped the snacking. Yeah, I'm also supposed to be off sugar and probably alcohol too, but I'm still chalking this in the win column.

Last night's dinner was soup with brussel sprouts, chicken sausage, and quinoa. It was actually quite good! My sister was doing the cooking so I can't comment too much on the work involved - I don't have any fish sauce so she just skipped that bit. I think it would have tasted quite different if that had been included but I was pretty happy with it as-is and probably wouldn't bother getting the fish sauce just to include it. I would, however, probably quarter the Brussels sprouts and drop them in for the last five minutes to make them slightly less mushy.

Today's food:
breakfast: oatmeal with almond butter and half a banana
lunch: leftovers from dinner
snack: a pear
dinner: tbd. probably almond coconut curry greens and possibly some popcorn.

Cleansing

Well, I'm trying a cleanse - eliminating elements from my diet for a number of days, then adding them back to see if they affect me negatively. Since my biggest health concern is arthritis, I'm using a cleanse designed to address inflammatory issues. The idea is to eat no gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, nightshade vegetables (potatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatoes), citrus, peanuts, or corn. I'm using this list of recipes as a starting point, and we'll see how it goes. I'm also probably cutting caffeine, since I don't really like soy milk creamer, I'm supposed to cut soy anyway, and I don't like coffee black.

I can't decide if I want the test to show I have no dietary sensitivities. or if I'd rather find a dietary cure for my knuckles. I guess I'll see how it goes!

Today, however, I tried cooking kasha and it did NOT go well. All I wanted was some pot full of grain that I could use in salads, but this stuff - whoa. Mushy and just not nice.

I don't know where I went wrong.. I will try one more time without any confidence. I will also cook a lot less of it!

Anyway, so far today I've had:
breakfast: oatmeal with half an apple cut into it
lunch: butternut squash soup (from Trader Joe) with some spinach leaves stirred in, half a banana.
snack: likely will be tea and nuts.
dinner: TBD.

ALL of the partiers

I had a terrific, wonderful, mobbed, tasty, fun, packed house-warming party this weekend. I counted just over 50 attendees (11 of those were kids) and it got super crowded and loud inside. I was so so happy to see so many people squashed into my house having a fun evening.

There were people from almost every part of my life: my sister, someone from my high school class who lives here, friends I made when I first moved to Portland, friends from my first software company job, library-school friends, a library-community friend, friends of friends who've become good friends, former roommates, even my real estate agent who's become a friend.

Despite the chaos, there was very minimal damage/spilling/breakage (I was responsible for the sole broken wine glass), and I've got heaps of leftover beer to spread over the social waters for the next few months.

This house is officially warmed!

Pi day approacheth

Okay, it's a month away, but it's never too soon to start thinking about celebrating pi day! I made a classic this past weekend. Make an all-butter crust, then peel and thinly slice at least six different varieties of apples (I used pink lady, gala, granny smith, red delicious, and I forget what else). Stir some flour, cinnamon, sugar and lemon juice into the apple slices, and pour them into the crust.

Don't panic if you have too many - just bake a secondary dish of apple slices!

Drape the top crust on, and take a little time to embellish it if you can: 

I promise you can taste the love all the way to the last slice eaten for breakfast the next morning:

  For a different slice of pie, and to solve the bonus clue, follow this recipe:

Ingredients:

1. The first ten digits of π.  They are: 3.141592653...

2. These 10 operations: - x + + x + ÷ + + -

3. The green 10 number sequence on your Mission Narus card.

Recipe:

1. Start with the first digit of π.  Apply the first operation to the first digit on your card. (In this case, 3 - first # on card = ?)

2. Convert this number to its alphabetic equivalent.

Repeat for the 2nd digit of π/2nd operation/2nd # on card.

When complete you'll have a 10 letter word.  Text this word to Mission Control.

Eat more pie!

Party prep

I love going to parties at friends' houses, and I always feel a little cheated when friends don't get around to having a house warming party because they never felt the place was ready. That's the point of a house warming! If you have it early enough, you don't even have to unpack!

So I'm having a party this weekend (six weeks post-move-in), and am very much feeling the whole Lack of Furniture thing. My office is kind of haphazardly set up at best, and my living room is feeling more than a little echo-y. My sister and I rearranged what furniture there is, and I just can't decide if I like it. I like the couch in its new orientation but I don't have a real coffee table to anchor the space, and the chairs I have aren't really working. Then there's the tv room, which still has boxes (but may not by the weekend.. we'll see) and then there's the fact that I can't really figure out what to do dining-table-wise...I've got a good bit of art to hang but can't figure out where... oh dear.

So, to distract myself from all that nonsense, I'm picking out food to serve at the party. I'll have a few different cookies, and two or three dips, cheese and crackers, and a couple of finger food things. The question I'm now running into is: what to serve in the way of drinks? Beer & wine are obvious for most adults, but not everyone wants to drink and people in this region aren't really into soda. So what do I serve? Tap water seems rather boring. I suppose I can get some fizzy water from Trader Joe's, but what else?