Have you ever bought a package of mushrooms, only to have them go bad before you could use them—or use them all? I have, more than I care to remember. But not anymore!

At our local grocery store, I can buy mushrooms in bulk. They also sometimes have paper bags nearby. It took me a while to figure out why. Now I know.

You see, mushrooms are a kind of fungus, but they can spoil once picked, if conditions are too moist. Leaving them in the plastic containers they are often sold in does not allow them to breathe, so if they are not used within 3 or 4 days, they start to spoil.

However, putting them in paper solves that. They will stay fresh for nearly a week, at which point they will begin to dry out (provided you didn’t put them in the vegetable bin, which would keep them too moist). However, if they dried out quickly enough, they will still be edible. Have you ever had a recipe call for dry mushrooms? They also seem to have a more concentrated flavor. My husband likes them that way. I still prefer them fresh and succulent, but will eat them either way.

So if you bring your mushrooms home in plastic, put them into a paper bag—lunch bag size is ideal—and keep them on a shelf in the fridge. That way you will almost never have to deal with slimy, spoiled mushrooms!

Have I ever got an episode for “Not Me Monday”! Not sure if I’ll be able get on the linky list or not, but I’m still going to post this here for the benefit of whoever stops by.

The other day last week I had gotten the kids fed and settled down to eat my lunch. I hadn’t been hungry when they were, so I just fed them first. Of course I did not just let them go off and play all by themselves while I enjoyed a nice quiet meal. I would never do such a thing!

About half way through the meal I did not hear my daughter calling me, with an urgent tone in her voice, “Mommy, Manny!” When I got to the bottom of the stairs and looked up, I did not see my son standing there with thick white moisturizing cream all over his. He had not gotten into the bottle of generic brand Eucerine cream that I had not forgotten to close, and had not rubbed it all over his face, head, and clothes. The front of his overalls was not soaked with it. And of course I did not almost lose my temper when I realized, upon getting to the top of the stairs, that his sister had not been helping him. Of course I would never do that. I’m always calm and cool and collected in a crisis, right? And of course she is old enough to know when to call Mommy, right?

As I surveyed the situation, I did not see cream on the floor of the play room and bathroom, including one faucet handle (telling me that Gislaine did try to clean up before calling me). But of course that thick greasy cream would not clean up with just water.

I did not have to change my son from the skin out, and even change my skirt when it was all done. Then I did not spend the next half hour cleaning up the floor with water and dawn dish detergent in it. I did not launder all the cream-soiled clothes with nothing but dawn and a little washing soda in my front loading washer (which is supposed to only have special detergent and nothing that creates lots of suds) to get the grease out. I only used a little bit, though, and they came out clean and only one was a tad greasy, thankfully!

And of course I did not scrape up as much of the cream as I could and put it back in the container. It costs about $10 for a pound of cream, so I wasn’t about to let it go to waste. Not to mention it has to last until next month!

Needless to say, I am VERY thankful that we laminate floors and not carpet! Can you imagine cleaning thick, greasy Eucerine cream out of carpet? Me either.

Good news! I weighed in at 135 this morning! That’s a pound down in the last week.

I’m actually a little surprised to have lost a pound. My week got off to a bad start. Sunday for lunch we went to the ABC in Gladstone. We’d heard they were serving free lunches, and figured it would be like eating out, and even if we had to buy extra food to make a full meal. Well, the food was vegetarian, but it was anything but healthy. Think fast food. Shamburgers and Pronto Pups (corn dogs), with chips and coockes. My husband’s comment was that it wouldn’t hurt to eat that kind of food once in a while (like 2 so 3 times a year) since we didn’t make a regular diet of it. But I felt sluggish the rest of the day. Way too much fat for one meal!

So I watched my fat intake the rest of the week, and I’m pleasantly pleased to know that setback didn’t set me back too much.

Now I’m hoping for another couple of pounds in the next week. Also, I’m toying with the idea of getting a membership at the local Curve’s. The only problem is that I don’t have a way to get there except on Fridays (they close on Sundays). I could always just use the gym at my chiropractor’s… That is, I think, free for his patients (might have a small enrollment fee, I don’t rememnber). So I’m praying about it this week. I don’t want to make a rash decision; Curves has a 1 year contract! I’ll let you know what I decide next week.

I want to tell you about something that happened a few days ago. My husband was sick (but improving), and I was still recovering from the same illness. Summer colds are rough!

Anyhow, this particular day, a Thursday, I think, I was tired. It was the end of the day. My husband had been working outside cutting up the tree that had fallen across the bottom part of our driveway (fortunately, not the part that we are using, but still, it blocked the path). Turned out to be an apple tree—a huge one, though only about a dozen years old. It was growing near the drainfield, so the rings were between a quarter and a half inch thick each! At least we have a few other apple trees on the place (with tiny apples on them—I can’t wait to find out what they will turn out to be!).

But I’m getting sidetracked. It was late, around 8:00 o’clock. I was working on something important (probably dishes), and wanted his help to get the kids to bed. But he was nowhere to be seen. I called. No answer.

So I started thinking where he could be. I thought he might have gone on a walk. But so late. And he hadn’t eaten supper yet, either. What was going on?

Suddenly I heard his footsteps on the porch. I immediately began to think of all the things I was going to say, starting with, “Where have you been?” But his first words when he opened the door were, “I’ve brought you flowers.”

A few days old already

Now, let me clarify something about me. I am not a “gifts” person. I don’t feel the least bit unloved if I don’t get a birthday card or an anniversary card or anything like that. Not one bit. And the fact that my husband has never brought me flowers before, at least, nothing significant, and never paid-for flowers does not bother me in the least. Neither of us have “gifts” as our primary or secondary love language, so we’re fine with it.

But still, to think that he thought of me while he was out doing whatever it was that he was doing touched me, and I shut my mouth. It took me a moment to recover from the negative thoughts that had been forming, but as soon as I did, I thanked him for the flowers, and then noticed the daypack on his back. Immediately I knew where he had been. He’d been out picking cherries.

Something else needs clarifying. Before our move, I let my bulk food items (like legumes and grains) run low on purpose. I didn’t want to haul large quantities of food from the old house to the new. And I didn’t have enough money last month to stock up much, so I just bought exactly what we needed of those items. This month, I filled my bean jars and purchased several 5-pound bags of different grains. I even bought 25 pounds of cornmeal (for $12.50—I felt very frugal)! Add to that the fact that it is also fresh fruit season. We’ve been picking pounds and pounds of strawberries, raspberries, pie cherries, and so on at the local U-pick farm. Sure, we get a really good price (I mean, $1 a pound for raspberries is a steal!), but it still costs. So between those two things, I spent the whole food budget allowance before the middle of the month.

Now, it’s not like we don’t have money. I just earned a bunch sewing. So I have some personal cash to spare. And we could borrow money from some other fund if we had to. We’re not going to starve. I can get bananas for my son and things like onions and garlic and tomatoes if I need them. Not to mention I have a well stocked pantry! What it does mean is that I can’t buy lots of fresh produce. And I’ll have to get creative to make foods to use in place of the plantains and sweet potatoes and other things on the menu that I don’t have on hand. When I run out of veggies, for instance, I can always make more green drink!

Put all together, it means that I am very grateful for free cherries. Sure, they’re only wild ones, about the size of medium-large blueberries, with pits as big as regular cherries. But they are as sweet as honey and delicious. My husband picked them in a park behind the high school. No one owns them, and no one else seems to be picking them, so they’re fair game.

It made me think, though. What if my husband hadn’t come in with flowers and cherries? I probably would have chided him for being gone. And he could have had a very good reason to not be home. I need to be more careful of my thoughts.

But thank the Lord, my husband brought me flowers, and saved me from expressing the thoughts I had. God is so good!

I picked up this really great book at the Goodwill the other day for $5, and I’ve got to tell you about it. I think it may be the secret behind why I’ve struggled to lose weight in the past, in spite of a fairly good diet.

Eat More, Weigh Less by Dr. Dean Ornish is a simple diet plan that anyone could do. It’s more a change of lifestyle than your typical diet, though. His basic idea is that you cut your dietary fat down from 40% of calories from fat (the typical American diet) to 10% (much lower than the recommended 30%), and increasing your carbohydrates. He does this by cutting out meat (which is pretty much always more than 10%), nuts, and other fatty foods. The idea is that you can eat until you are satisfied (not stuffed), and will actually get fewer calories and thereby lose weight.

Dr. Ornish believes that this radical change in diet (removing meat and cooking without oil) is easier to make than simply cutting down on the amount of fat, as the FDA recommends, because the results are almost instantaneous. For instance, on a typical diet that provides 30% of the recommended calories from fat, you have to eat small portions and often feel hungry when the food is all gone. On his diet (which he calls the Life Choice diet), you are able to until you are satisfied, so you are less likely to reach for some not-so-healthy snack later. In fact, in a study done on some women, some of whom ate his diet and some of whom ate the typical 30%-from-fat, small-portions diet, they found that those who ate the low-fat diet ate about 15% fewer calories and lost twice as much as the other group.

This makes a lot of sense to me. I have heard the typical “calories in must be less than calories spent to lose weight,” but I could not imagine trying to count calories. I remember reading sample diet plans and thinking, “How could I survive on that little food?” Then there was my husband, who could eat as much as he wanted and still not gain—who exercises to gain weight! I realized that the missing ingredient in the whole counting-calorie thing was the metabolism. If you have a fast metabolism, you can (and should) eat more. If it’s slow, you can eat almost nothing and you might even gain weight.

Most diet books don’t address this issue. They just focus on calories in, calories out. But Eat More, weigh Less spends a great deal of time on this issue. In fact, in that same study I just mentioned, “the principle investigator, Dr. David Levitsky, [stated that] your metabolic rate is related to the amount of carbohydrates you consume. . . . When you increase consumption of carbohydrates, your metabolic rate may increase.” That makes a lot of sense.

Plus there’s always the issue of gaining weight back once the “diet” is over. That’s why this book is not a diet that you go on to lose weight, then go off of when you’ve achieved your goal. It’s a comprehensive lifestyle change that you will continue for the rest of your life.

Dr. Ornish suggests that it is easier to make such a drastic change in diet than to make a small change, because the results are so instantaneous. He actually developed this diet not as a weight-loss program but as a heart-disease reversal program. There are many benefits to this kind of a diet, and many of them can be felt within days or weeks. This “quick fix” kind of reaction, Dr. Ornish argues, is just the motivator people need to stick with the diet and make it part of their lifestyle.

Now, maybe you’re thinking, “I couldn’t eat a diet that low in fat. It couldn’t possibly taste good.” Well, I haven’t mentioned the best part of the book: it has over 250 recipes, all low in fat or even fat free, made by gourmet chefs. I tried a couple of them last week, and was very pleased. Even my husband liked them! They come up with creative ways to cut the fat without sacrificing flavor. For instance, instead of sautéing onions in oil (which helps seal in the flavor), they use a little vegetable stock. This gives more flavor without the fat. It’s likely on one would even realize that the dishes are fat free “diet food” unless someone mentioned it. They are colorful and delicious. I am looking forward to trying a number of them.

I will say there are things in the book I do not agree with. Things like grazing (eating a little all day long) and meditating (eastern style). But those things don’t detract from the overall message of the book.

There is a lot more in the book, but I’m not going to rewrite the it! You should go and find yourself a copy—even if you just borrow it from the library to read it. But let me tell you, those 250 recipes it contains are worth much more than whatever the price tag might be, so I highly recommend you buy it for yourself!

You can get a copy of the book here:

Here are a few pictures from the past month or so.

I was doing something upstairs one day and heard someone down below calling me to “Look, Mommy!” I just had to run get my camera!

Sometimes after Manny wakes up, I take him to Daddy. This day, they both went back to sleep. Sooooo precious!

One Sabbath afternoon in our since-mown lawn:

Gislaine with her best friend, Megan. They are likely to be found in this pose many random times throughout the day:

I’m sorry if all my recipes lately aren’t exactly recipes you would make for dinner! I mean, my Sore Throat Remedy isn’t even something most people would even need in summer.

This one, however, isn’t because I’m sick, but because I have decided I need to eat better. But I’m not fond of greens. I really dislike cooked greens. Yuck! Okay, I had cooked spinach once that was so good I took seconds, but it was cooked with coconut milk and onions and garlic or something, but as a general rule, I don’t like cooked greens.

Then on a walk recently I saw some mullein and thought of something we had done briefly in my teenage years. By briefly, I mean for a few days. But it really impressed me. We made green drinks. Mom would go out and pick random edible greens (I distinctly remember alfalfa being one of them), blend them with water, strain them with a fine mesh strainer, add a little pineapple juice to make it palatable, and drink it. I remember it wasn’t so bad with enough pineapple juice.

My thoughts went something like this: This would be a great way of getting more greens in my diet without having to eat a lot more food. Plus if I could get most of the greens from outside, it wouldn’t break my budget either!

Mullein

So on a walk one sunny afternoon, I picked 4 big (but not too big) mullein leaves. When I got home, I added a couple of kale leaves I had on hand, water, and blended them. When it was rather fine, I strained it out into a strainer, dumped the fiber back in the jar, added more water, blended some more, then strained again. Then I added a tiny bit of pineapple juice, divided it in half (because it was too much for me), and gave some to my husband and drank the other half.

As I was blending it, I saw a dandy lion plant outside—you know, the kind with smooth leaves, and thought I should have put some of that in too. But I didn’t this time. Next time I will. When I don’t have kale or spinach or some other store-bought green on hand, I’ll get all my ingredients from outdoors. Summer is such a good time for that.

I guess I already gave the recipe above, but here it is in case you want to print it:

Green Drink

A handful or two of greens—edible weeds are the best
Enough pineapple juice to make it palatable (though other kinds of juice could work) or try throwing in a carrot or an apple

Blend with as much water as needed so that it blends freely. Strain through a fine mesh strainer (a cloth is not necessary). If you want to, blend the fiber with more water. Add juice and drink.

 I dare you to try it!

It’s weigh-in time for me. I know I haven’t got as much exercise, per se, as I would have liked to get last week, but then, I’ve still been sick, and my husband has been even more sick, so I’ve had plenty of distractions. But I’ve been watching what I put in my mouth, and I am pleasantly pleased with the number that showed up on my scale this morning. I even checked it twice to be sure!

This morning I weighed in at 136! That’s two pounds down from last week.

At least one of those pounds I could probably credit to a new book I picked up Sunday at the Goodwill for $5. Maybe you’ve heard of it; it’s not a new book. Eat More, Weigh Less. I plan to write a proper book review of it soon, but let me just share how it has helped me this week.

If you’ve been following my weight loss challenges, you will probably be aware that I am trying to avoid eating supper, or only eating a light one if I am truly hungry. Well, this book has encouraged me to be more aware of what I put into my mouth. For instance, the other night I was hungry. I decided to have a couple slices of toast. But instead of putting on a generous serving of butter (Smart Balance, actually), I decided just to put some smashed home-canned pears on it instead. I probably saved myself 100 or more calories that evening, and I didn’t really sacrifice taste.

Basically the book has you eating a diet that has only 10% of calories from fat. I don’t think I’m going to go that low, because I know that good fat is important—and because I am married to a husband that can eat a rather high-fat diet and never gain a pound. But I think I can make a few small changes to cut down on the amount of fat I get without sacrificing anything. For instance, when I eat sweet potatoes and tofu for breakfast, I don’t put any butter on them. Sweet potatoes have enough flavor all on their own, and I eat them with the tofu, which was cooked with a little coconut oil (a metabolism-boosting oil, remember?), so that is really all the fat I need. Or when I made oven fries, I measured the oil instead of just pouring on some. One teaspoon of oil for about 2 ½ pounds of potatoes added only 5 grams of fat for 3 people, meaning I only got about 2 extra grams of fat, or less than 20 calories extra. I was probably putting on 2-3 times that much before.

So. . . my goal for the next week is to lose another 1-2 pounds, and to try to get more exercise. My husband cut the tree that was going across the driveway, so now I have no excuse for not walking up and down the property, hill and all, once in a while.

Remember how I was sick for a week and still had to do (nearly) everything that I would do when I’m not sick—but slower, leaving me with precious little free time to actually rest? Well, now that my husband is home for the weekend (this was written last Saturday), it would be nice for him to be able to help out. I’m still sick, after all, and it would be nice to be able to rest a little.

Fat chance. My husband is now sick. He seemed fine at lunch, but then he went for a nap shortly after lunch. Usually he goes for a walk first or at least waits an hour or so for his lunch to settle—not today. I was looking forward to a nap, but figured I’d let him take his first, since he seemed to be settled down for one by the time I finished cleaning up after lunch. After a couple of hours, he still wasn’t up, but I was ready to go lay down. Gislaine was already playing outside, so I took Manny, whom I had been watching, and put him down beside Daddy, saying, “It’s my turn for a nap,” and went to bed.

Well, I never really got any sleep. I remember dreaming about lifting my foot to go up the stairs, but not high enough, and I stubbed my toe on the step, effectively waking myself up (don’t you hate those kinds of dreams!). Then the kids were running riot downstairs. So I didn’t really get much of a nap.

When I finally gave up and came downstairs, my husband was still zoned out on the reclining deck chair where I’d left him. I asked if he’d rested. He said, “Not much. I don’t feel well.”

So now imagine my thoughts. I’m sure you’ve been there, especially if you’re a mother.

I’ve been sick all week, but I still did about 90% of what I normally would do. I mean, sure I didn’t clean all the bathrooms—just the toilets—but at least I got meals out on time and changed diapers and did all the laundry—and then some, when Gislaine’s pull-up leaked. . . It’s not fair! Now that he’s sick, he gets to lounge around all day, without a care in the world, while I, still sick—and probably no less sick than he is—have to keep going. It’s not fair!

Well, that’s how they started to go, anyhow. But the Lord stopped me. Lisa, He reminded gently, remember that your husband gets migraines when he’s sick. When he gets sick, he usually gets a migraine to go with it, and that’s way worse than what you’ve gone through. For some reason, he doesn’t always tell me when he has a migraine, so I’m not sure if he does yet or if he just feels tired. [Note from the following day: Not only did he have a migraine, but when I went to bed, he had a fever of 104.7! That’s way worse than I ever dealt with! But I didn’t know that when I wrote this.] I consider how he was up just as late as I was before I got sick, and that my coughing the last few nights has kept him from sleeping well. I also remember how when he would come home from work, I would finish getting the kids fed, lay out pajamas or whatever, and go take a hydrotherapy hot-and-cold shower, and go to bed. Or just simply go to bed. As early as 8:15. Meaning he had to do the supper dishes and put the kids to bed (neither of which is easy), and then do anything that he would normally do in the precious little time he had after coming home between 7:30 and 8:00, as he does every night. Bless his heart! He never complained. At least not to me.

So why should I complain? I am on the mend, after all. I made sure to rinse the dishes, mostly, so actually washing them will be a cinch once the sun goes down (because I just can’t get out of the habit of not washing dishes during the Sabbath—especially now that I don’t live in cockroach paradise!—and because the dishwasher that came with the house is not working). Then I’m going to bed. Probably by 9:30. That should be our bedtime, but before getting sick, I may have only gotten to bed by then once since we moved, and very seldom before that. “Schedule” seems to be a dirty word in our house—or at best an ignored one. But let’s not go there. I’m still praying about that issue!

So instead of complaining to my husband about how I have to work while I’m sick, but he gets to be lazy, I made him a green drink of mullen leaves, kale, and a little pineapple juice. I should have put garlic in it, but I didn’t. That’s okay. He drank it. I’ll find out what he thinks of it later. I’m glad he wasn’t sick while I was, or I would have had to do the supper dishes the next morning—not fun! And I’m thankful that he has a strong immune system. He’ll probably be all better in a few days.

But just to draw out a lesson. Our thoughts affect our emotions. If I had given in to those first negative thoughts a few hours ago, I would be pretty miserable by now, and resentful of my husband. Instead, I’m thankful for the man I married, and I hope he gets better soon!

This is one of my favorite sore throat remedies. One of my friends shared one with me that has more stuff in it, but I never buy radishes and only rarely have red onion around, and besides, it’s got so many things in it that it would take a year of making it when I’m sick to remember it without looking up the recipe. Not to mention that I don’t have Internet anymore, so looking up the recipe would consist of writing it down on my need-to-do-online list and waiting until the next Friday or Sunday to get it. And then going to the store for ingredients. And considering that this cold I am just getting over started on a Monday. . . well, you get the picture.

This remedy is one that I sort of invented myself. It’s quick and easy to make, and it really helps a sore throat. I’m sure it also helps the cold too, but then colds are usually viruses that just need to run their course, so it might not shorten it much. Could help the intensity, though. Anyhow, here goes:

Lisa’s Sore Throat Remedy

About ½ cup lemon juice (I always estimate this)
A little water (maybe a quarter cup or less)
3-4 cloves of garlic, mashed, minced, or pressed (so they blend better)
As many dashes of cayenne pepper as I think I’ll be able to handle, plus a couple more
A little honey (maybe a tablespoon—I never measure)

Blend the above, gargle, and swallow. Simple.

Now here’s the theory behind why I made it. Garlic is a good antibacterial and I think antiviral too. I don’t know where my Green Pharmacy book is to check. Well, I do know where it is. . . somewhere between 5 and 10 feet away from me, in one of those boxes that are stacked about 5 high. . . But I think it’s common knowledge that garlic is good for you, and that it kills bad things in you, so that’s why garlic. Lemon juice is soothing to sore throats—at least in the long term. I sometimes use fresh lemon, but it about doubles prep time trying to avoid the seeds, and I rarely have fresh lemons around anyway, so I just use the stuff in the jar. Maybe if I got a citrus juicer. . . Anyhow, it’s good for you too.

Cayenne pepper is a stimulant that attracts blood to whatever it touches (they say to put it in your socks to warm your feet—but I’ve never tried it). It dilates the blood vessels, allowing more oxygen and white blood cells to reach the area. Also, the capsicum (I’m so proud that I remember that word without looking it up!) is a pain killer. Once the burn dies down (in less than two minutes, I assure you), the pain-killing part has begun to work.

The honey does more than just help it taste better. Honey also has antibacterial properties. If I don’t have time to look up proof sites before posting this, do the research yourself. But suffice it to say, though liquid, it never spoils, so that has to count for something! Anyhow, it also tends to coat things, and I have found that the cayenne burns a tad bit longer (not much, though) when I use the honey, meaning it’s staying there a bit longer, doing it’s work. I have made this without honey, but it is much harder to get down.

So even though I have had a bad cold, I have not endured much of a sore throat—only first thing in the morning, before I got around to making this concoction. And that was usually the last I felt of a sore throat until the next morning. I always make it fresh for me, and gargle a mouthful every 5-15 minutes (often during breakfast preparations), until it’s gone. That would be 4-5 doses. I don’t think I’d want to take them one after the other. I like hot food, but not burning in my throat, and thanks to the gargle, that’s where this stuff burns!

Also, I always swallow, so that I can get the full benefit of the garlic. Some people don’t believe in taking cayenne internally. That’s fine. I won’t argue with you. Let me just say that #1 this is a medicinal use, and #2 if you don’t want to swallow, you don’t have to! As far as I’m concerned, it has benefits, especially medicinal ones, and I will use it from time to time, especially medicinally.

I have made this for my daughter, minus the cayenne and about triple the honey and the water, and after about 3 days she started liking it. She didn’t at first. So I started using it as a way to make her stop complaining about her nose.

“Every time you say, ‘My nose bothers me,’ I’ll have to give you some medicine.” Then I would follow through. It took some work to get those first few doses down (including some threats of sitting on her and pouring it down her throat). I should clarify that a “dose” for her was less than 2 ounces, and since it didn’t have cayenne, and since she didn’t gargle it, I made her drink it all at one sitting. Well, today just before lunch, she said, “Ohhhh, my nose hurts. Mommy, I need some medicine.” Bless her heart! Too bad I didn’t have any and was just about to sit down to lunch! But I told her that the main ingredients in the medicine were in the sour cream that I was putting on her salad (lemon and garlic), and that seemed to satisfy her.