My lover, my love.

As I lay here in bed, my wife snoring gently beside me, my thoughts turn to the past weeks, and I am filled with an overwhelming feeling of contentment.

The past few weeks have been tumultuous to say the least. Many aspects of my life have seemed to be in a constant state of upheaval and I haven't known what to do about it. I've lost my usual zen attitude, and frankly I'm none too pleased about it.

I've slowly been getting my groove back, thanks in no small part to my wife. She has a large heart, and a huge capacity for compassion and love. She has been supportive not only through the mundane (my vegetarian aspirations), but also through my search for peace and sense of self.

I cannot say it enough - I love and appreciate my wife. Every day is a new adventure with her, a fresh start with every sunrise.

You have my heart and devotion, dear one.

Forever yours,
K.

Various and sundry updates

Hello, my name is Kathryn and I am addicted to juicing without a juicer.

It has been, oh, 7 hours since my last juice fix and I'm already craving MOAR! Today I made Apple / Pear juice and LOVED it. It was crisp and refreshing - perfect for a morning pick-me-up.

I'm finding that as I cut back on my coffee intake, I crash less during the course of the day. Juices and teas are turning out to be a great way to help the waking-up process.

Visiting coffee houses during the week is a social ritual for me, so instead of cutting out the visits, I'm changing what I imbibe while there. I'm trying to remove milk from my diet completely, so I'm doing a lot of creative substitutions and really enjoying the challenge ... and the change. My body feels less "icky" after eating a bowl of cereal with Almond Mylk than how it feels after consuming cow's milk.

I bought a book - How to Become Vegetarian for Dummies - and am really enjoying it so far. I bought it because I (rightly) assumed that it'd have great information on the mechanics of nutrition, all in one place.

I also cooked a vegetarian stir-fry, and will post pictures of it soon!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I love my Wife

I came home a little late this evening. If it hasn't been in the news elsewhere, Dallas / North Texas was hit by a snowstorm the likes of which have not been seen in some time. This translates into slower driving times, because as anyone in the South knows, Texas drivers are made more stupid by the presence of inclement weather of any kind, not even counting the level of cold-i-tude and general icy-ness that has blanketed the place for the past several days.

My darling Wife has been so supportive throughout this entire endeavour, and I so appreciate her. But tonight she did something super-special:

As soon as my key was in the door, my beautiful Wife was in the kitchen, busily making me only the most delicious salad EVAR. It had ...

• lettuce
• one whole tomato
• half a large-ish cucumber
• a pinch or two of canned roasted red pepper strips
• and a smattering chopped yellow onion

I was tired, and the last thing I wanted to do was to make dinner for everyone tonight like I normally do. It took all of 5 minutes to toss together such a lovely salad, but it made me feel like a queen. My love, I thank the Goddess every day that she made sure you're in my life. As Valentine's day draws near, know that you're in my heart, now and always.

Thank you for tonight.

XOXO
Kathryn

Also, MOAR JUICE

Yes. I made MOAR.

I am in love with how simple juicing without a juicer has turned out to be!

Behold, the beauty that is ...

Grapefruit / Blood Orange Juice

I used ...

• one whole Texas Red Grapefruit
• one whole Blood Orange
• four pieces of ice

... blended it all together in my Handy-Dandy Food Processor, strained it through a paint-straining bag, and ... VOILA! Juice of the most delicious kind! 

A belated update

I did it!

I cooked a vegetarian meal!

And I was especially proud of myself - I economized. I only purchased two special ingredients for it! I had everything else on hand!

I sat down and thought, "What can I make with what I have?" And I came up with ...

THIS!

Rice without cheese
 
I cooked Basmati rice in vegetable broth, tossed in sauteed onions and sun dried tomato bruschetta, and topped it with lots of mozzarella cheese and called it a day well conquered.

Rice smothered in cheese

I made JUICE

and it is FANTASTIC!

I used this recipe from {gone raw DOT com}, a truly wonderful resource, both for its RAW recipes and for its forum community.

The recipe had only three ingredients, most of which I had on hand -

• 1 apple
• 2 peaches
• half a can of pineapple with its juice

It called for fresh pineapple, but because I'm on a tight budget, I used the canned variety that I had on hand. I found it to be extra handy, since it had the juice and all.


It's so smooth and light! Delightfully refreshing and tingly on my tastebuds! And all I needed was my food processor and a paint-straining bag-thing! It took all of 5 minutes to prepare the fruit, blend, and strain, leaving me plenty of time to enjoy!

This healthy eating thing is just so darn novel, I can't get over it!

Watch out for my post later this evening (or in the morning), for I am preparing a Vegetarian meal, as promised!

Bananas and I ...

... don't seem to get along.

I have a love/hate relationship with 'nanners. I love them, they hate me! It's happened a few times - I eat a banana, and then have to run to the bathroom to allow it a hasty exit, stage left. It sours my stomach, usually very suddenly, and I have the uncontrollable urge to hurl.

I (foolishly) tentatively tried one again today. I needed a quick pick-me-up. My sugars were low, and I didn't want to make a sandwich. My roommate's bananas called to me quite beguilingly, only to prove once and for all, that bananas are not for me.

So I made my first bowl of cereal with Almond Mylk instead of Milk-milk. I was a bit trepidatious, as milk often has the same violently disasterous result with my stomach chemistry that bananas do, but ...

It. was. delicious!

And my stomach is calm as ... something that is very calm!

Now I'm off to conquer my day-off from work. I recently found out from Bitt of Raw that I can make juice using only a Blender! So I'm off to Home Depot for to buy some paint-straining bags. I want to experiment with juices before I try a juice fast next week that I was inspired to do after reading Raw Goddess Healthy's post.

Toodles!