If I Had a Blog This is what I'd say...

If it says use parchment paper, use parchment paper.

When you are instructed to turn up a burner to high, make sure you have the correct burner turned up. Do not turn up the one that has been simmering rice for the past 45 minutes.

Dinner tasted okay, minus the rice, but my mistakes made for a stinky kitchen and some dishes that require some major soaking.

I was at a fair today and did not eat mini donuts. Although I did have a cheeseburger with lots of fried onions, and there is half a dozen Krispy Kremes sitting in our fridge right now. Both these things could have been factors in my decision not to buy mini donuts.

Still, it's somewhat shocking.

There are things that go with tea, and chocolate is not one of them.

There is a lot of chocolate in this house. And cookies. It would scare me if I actually counted the pounds of sugar I've eaten in the past two weeks. And it doesn't help that I haven't run since the beginning of November.

This wouldn't bother me as much if I weren't heading to a warmer climate in three weeks. A climate where I'll be wearing a bathing suit.

Perhaps I'll go for a run tomorrow. Because not eating the chocolate is not a viable option.

I made Adobo Stew for dinner tonight, a recipe from The Rest of the Best. We've made it a few times and it's the most amazing stew I've ever tasted. It cooks in the oven for two hours, and my house smells soooooo good!

I just took it out of the oven and I had to try a piece of the pork to make sure it tasted okay. ;)

Pancakes, waffles and French toast are good, but if I'm honest with myself, I have to admit they are just a vessel for the maple syrup that I douse them in. So when my sister and brother-in-law arrived in April with this bottle of syrup from Ontario, I was one happy camper.

Greg and I have been discussing changing our grocery shopping habits. We'd like to try buying more local foods, and we'd like to eat a bit more organic, especially when it comes to produce.

I've spent too many hours over the last few days trying to figure out the best options, keeping in mind the above two goals, and also weighing the financial impact and the time impact (i.e. I don't want to shop at four different places). It seriously should not be this hard.

The first version of the plan is to start buying produce and a few other items from spud! and start buying our meat from Glenwood Meats. These two places don't fully meet the local and organic requirements, but it's a start. The beauty of spud! is that I don't have to leave the house. And we'll try to go to Glenwood Meats once a month, when we do our Costco trip to counteract our positive impact buy disposable diapers for two kids. The remainder of our groceries will likely come from Fairway, because Greg works above one. Since we currently drive to Thrifty's at least once a week, hopefully this grand plan will reduce our gas usage.

I just don't know if it's worth the time I've been spending menu planning, ordering food, writing grocery lists and scheduling our grocery shopping. If you're going to go organic, shouldn't you go entirely organic? Or does eating somewhat organically help? Ditto for local food. I suppose it does, but I still struggle with figuring out what the right thing to do is -- ethically, environmentally, financially, practically, and from a health perspective.

I have finally found a healthy muffin recipe that I like. I've tried a few I found online, and I've tried altering some of my existing recipes (adding flax, whole wheat flour, etc.), but I haven't really liked any of them. Mostly I find them too dry.

Until today. There's a recipe for Bran Flax Muffins on our package of ground flax seed, and I made the muffins this morning. Sure, you can tell they are healthy (i.e. you know you're not eating cake), but they still taste good. They have no fat in them, and a cup of sugar for 15 muffins. That's about a tablespoon of sugar per muffin. Not too bad.

Oh, and Elliot scarfed one of them down in about 10 seconds flat.

Here's the recipe, in case anyone's interested (and in case I can't find it again):

1.5 cups white flour
3/4 cups ground flaxseed
3/4 cup oat bran (I used wheat bran)
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1.5 cups shredded carrots (two large carrots)
2 peeled and shredded apples
1/2 cup raisins (I substituted blueberries)
1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts and almonds, although next time I think I may just use walnuts)
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Mix together flour, flax, bran, sugar, soda, powder, salt and cinnamon.

Stir in carrots, apples, nuts and raisins.

Combine milk, eggs and vanilla. Pour into dry ingredients and stir just until moistened. (This is where I added the blueberries.)

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes.

My next million, after the pregpenders, will be fat free yogurt that's sweetened with fruit and or fruit juice. Not Splenda. Not Aspartame. Not honey. Not sugar. FRUIT.

I know I could mix it up myself, but I like my yogurt pureed (no fruit chunks) and it's hard to get that.

Hmmm...just did a bit of research. I guess I missed the boat. Cascade Fresh apparently already makes what I want. Now I just need to be able to get it at a local grocery store.

After years of eating instant oatmeal (reduced-sugar, in my defense), I've converted to real oatmeal. That's because I've finally figured out how to make it, what yummy stuff to add to it, and how much sugar to put in. I know, it's not hard to make, but the consistency was never right. But I've got the measurements and the timing down now, and with some flax seed, blueberries, almonds and a bit more sugar than I was putting in before, it's YUMMY. There's no going back for me.

Now I've got to get my son on the same page.