Living in the moment

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


‎"To a happy person, the formula for happiness is quite simple: Regardless of what happened early this morning, last week, or last year—or what may happen later this evening, tomorrow, or three years from now—now is where happiness lies." ~Richard Carlson


While I do enjoy a good plan and a stroll down memory lane as much as the next person, I truly strive to live in the moment. What that means to me is staying focused on today, and not letting ghosts of the past or future rule my life. What if? When? I can not answer either of those. Today is the day. Now. Present. We can't change what we've done or have not done, nor can we predict the future. We can only focus on today, the present moment, it's challenges and celebrations. How do I stay focused on the now? By living it. Everyday I wake up, say good morning to the world, and I read today's news. This what's happening today. This is today's weather. This is today's topic of thought. This is what I am making for dinner tonight. If I get stuck in a loop of past or future thinking, I turn the music on and dance. I let my mind focus on what's in front of me. I deal with the laundry or dish stack. Today's chores. Today's needs to be met. Today's recipe that needs to leave my brain. Today. Now. Presently.

There is no better tomorrow. There is only today. Why wait for tomorrow when you have a today, right in front of you? Why wait for Spring? This Winter thing is quite fantastic in it's own right. Today is beautiful to me, despite my post holiday flare-up. Today is beautiful because it is the only December 31, 2010 I will ever live. Today is only one single day of 365 chances to start anew. 365 days to live fully. 365 days to take a wrong turn and find a new road. 365 days of loving. 365 days to make a difference. 365 days to heal some guts. 365 days of weather changes. 365 days of choices to make. Whew! How can I focus on day number 1, when I haven't finished day number 365? I can't, or actually, I won't. I won't live January 1, 2011 until tomorrow. I won't push for January 2, or July 2, or December 21, 2012, until they happen. I choose to live in the moment. I choose to be here now...

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

I'm baking away and making candy. The cold rain could almost be snow if I wished hard enough, but the adobe is warm from the oven, our little tree is sparkling, and I'm listening to Ella Fitzgerald. There's gingerbread cookies ready to come out, so have yourself a merry little Christmas, and I'll be back soon!

PEACE BEGINS IN THE KITCHEN WEEK 12/20-12/26

Here were are again. This time last year I was newly gluten free and still eating dairy and yeast. So much has changed in a year, what I eat only being a tiny part. This week is full of old and new traditions, allot of planning, candy making, and baking. The guy has to work on Christmas Day. We have no choice in this, it's just the way the cookies are crumbling this year. Last year we had our big dinner on Christmas Eve and we are again this year. I am cooking at a shelter while he works, then we will get together with some of his coworkers for a potluck meal Christmas Day night.

To keep my personal spiritual priorities on track this week, I am cooking for peace. When we eat the foods of the people we are being programed to call enemy or forced to choose a side for or against, it changes us by reminding us they are people, not just points on a map. Food, children, family traditions everywhere, count, as much as yours do to you. These are people. This is their food. This is the the world we share. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.


MONDAY
Prayer for peace in Korea
Bulgogi, rice, stir fried garden greens and kimchi


TUESDAY
Prayer for peace in the Middle East
Garnet yams w/ red lentils and cardamom, flat bread, picked vegetables


WEDNESDAY
Prayer for peace in Israel and Palestine
Latkes, roast beast, cucumber salad, flat bread
Save leftover beast for Sunday/freeze


THURSDAY
Prayer for world peace
Global leftover fiesta!


FRIDAY
Chinese roast chicken, buckwheat scallion pancakes, chow fun noodles, and Chinese-American appetizers


SATURDAY
Pot-luck: Carnitas, tortillas, salsa verde, bitter greens and clementine salad, gluten free desserts


SUNDAY
Garden greens topped with roast beast, candied walnuts, raw chopped veggies and perhaps a goat cheese crumble or 2


BAKING
Yeast free flat bread, cookies, yf/gf cinnamon buns, gingerbread, and lots of candy making. I'm making the guy homemade peanut butter cups as a gift :)

My Basic Gluten Free Whole Foods Pantry List

Pantry stocking and cooking from it is a real skill to learn. We have had weeks with a $20.00 food budget in this past year, more often than I want to remember. If we were a typical American couple, that wouldn't even buy our lattes. Thanks to goodness, we are NOT a typical American couple, and I can feed us 2-3x a day for $20.00 a week, IF I have a stocked pantry. I know visions of canned goods and boxes are dancing in your head when I say, stocked pantry, but my pantry only holds at the most...cans of curry paste and coconut milk. Everything else is real foods, stored in jars or buckets, or my fridge and freezer. A visitor said it best. "I know there is allot of food here, but is there anything that doesn't require 2 days planning and soaking? I just don't know who to cook this stuff and I need food now." After I walked him through a 3 minute rice noodle dish, I went through the whole pantry with him.


I buy pantry items whenever they are on sale or I have an extra few dollars. I know what we have and I carry my shopping list everywhere, because you never know when a conventional grocery store is going to screw up the pricing and quinoa will be a dollar, or I will be able to buy a case of coconut milk for $10.00. I buy as much as I can in bulk, and I buy my spices in whole form when possible, and by the ounce. There may be a few missing items from week to week, but I stay flexible and plan a back up to every menu planned. If I am unwell, the Guy has my back up menu using the pantry. It took 5 months to grow this pantry, and I have maintained it for a year. I will never, ever go back to shopping week to week for basics. With this, a $20.00 week is a tight- needs to be very planned-wild salmon-less breakfast week, not the end of the world. So, just looking at my basic list, I see dozens of meals at the ready with minimal planning or purchasing needed to round it out or fluff it up, depending on our needs or those of our guests. (You'll notice tomatoes, yeast, and cheese are missing now)


If I was more computer inclined there would lines drawn to ingredients and a color coded recipe for each line...sorry, just barely can turn this thing on, soooo. Off the top of my brain, there are vegan onion soup, Tom Yum, carrot ginger, Pho, and Asian noodle soups, right there in the pantry. I can make a nut sauce in 2 minutes to compliment any combination of vegetables, noodles or whole grains. Nut and rice milk. There are pot pies, sweet pie crust, cookies and crackers. There are veggie nori and spring rolls. Lentil soup or dal. Breads, rotti, tortillas, pizza, pancakes, and waffles. Chai. Smoothies. Green drinks. Pilaf to pastas. Slaws and salads and sprouts... and their dressings. There are many tasty, nutritious options.... and I haven't bought anything else yet. When it begins to flow like this, eating seasonally and eating whole foods becomes simple. All it really took was some planning and thoughtful bulk purchases...and away we went. If you are not gluten free, the same principles apply here, just stock according your needs.

This is it. Year round, it doesn't change...just the seasonal produce, and the level of meat supply. 


THE FRESH PANTRY
Onions
Garlic and shallots
Ginger
Carrots
Celery
Yams and a few potatoes

Broccoli and or cauliflower

Bok choy or napa cabbage

Green cabbage

Greens: chard, kale, collards, etc.

Lettuces

Fresh herbs: I grow cilantro, dill, parsley, and oregano all year long.
Fresh lemons and limes
Apples
Fresh seasonal vegetables and fruit


THE STORED PANTRY
Whole grains (a variety of brown rice, quinoa, wild rice, and buckwheat, or other special guest, and all of their lovely gluten free flours)
Masa
Corn meal
Dry legumes (black beans, kidney beans, adzuki beans, mung beans, red lentils, French green lentils)
Rice noodles: both Italian pastas and Asian style
Rice paper rolls
Rice flour tortillas
Frozen fruit: berries and tasty bits.
Frozen vegetables for quick soups and other dishes.
Frozen basil cubes
Apple cider vinegar
Ume plum vinegar
Whole grainy mustard
Sea salt
Black peppercorns
Spices (cumin seeds, oregano, coriander seeds, star anise, cinnamon sticks and powder, thyme, dried turmeric, dried ginger, bay, zattar, cardamom, paprika, dried mustard, black mustard seeds, crushed red pepper, graram masala, herbes de provence)
Dried chilies
Coconut, olive, grapeseed, and sesame oil
Earth Balance for baking and table use
Baking powder and soda
Xanthan gum for baking
Bragg's Liquid Aminos
Coconut milk
Red curry paste
Green curry paste
Pure vanilla extract
Nuts and seeds: walnuts, cashews, almonds, popcorn kernels, sunflower and hemp seeds
Nut and seed butters and flours
Dried fruit
Dairy free chocolate chips or chunks
Kombu and other sea foods: dulse, agar agar, kelp.
Sweeteners - Raw agave nectar, local honey, grade B maple syrup, blackstrap molasses, and organic cane sugar
Cultured vegetables, kimchi and sauerkraut
Homemade vegetable and chicken stock
Herbs for tea
Black tea
Organic Sumatran coffee beans; naturally low acid, yum.


THE MEATY PANTRY
Ground bison and turkey
Bison, beef, or pork for stews
Chicken parts and pieces
Wild salmon, as the budget allows.
Tofu
Tempeh

1 pound of a sausage or bacon type treat

Low Cost Health Care Options

So maybe you are like the guy and I? We make too much money to receive state assisted health care, but not enough money to buy health insurance. We live in limbo, not able to receive real diagnostic or urgent care, waiting for an emergency that may also bring forth needed testing. Seriously. We have thought about me joining a baseball team in hopes I get smacked in the head with a ball and rushed in for an MRI, which I have now 6 expired orders for. I suggested standing in front a shooting range dressed as a deer, then I read the story about the poor woman in MI who shot herself in the shoulder, in hope they would fix it while taking the bullet out. Nope. They just took the bullet out and left her shredded rotator cuff in place. So, how does the working poor and uninsured populous of America survive beside kitchen table podiatry and bathroom mirror oral surgery??

This was a helpful GOV link. It lists low cost or sliding scale clinics in your zip code in the USA. There is no such thing as a free clinic here. When people say this to me, I tend to turn purple and walk away. On a sliding scale, we still had to pay $99.00 per visit, which closed the regular health care door for us. You may have better luck, and surely will if you have minor children...which lowers your scale payment.


This link, lists the state by state assisted programs, also known as 'Medicaid'. Most states, provide free medical care to children of any income level and have an income tier based levels of coverage for adults. Notice I say 'most' states? This one does not.


This link lists Certified Nurse Midwives. CNM's can provide primary medical care and write prescriptions in most states. Mine, is only $45.00 for a full 30-45 minute appointment, labs extra. She is my angel of mercy, has close to 40 years experience in traditional and alternative medicine, and is very informed about food sensitivities and Fibro. We swap gluten free recipes, too.


This is CVS's link. CVS has Minute Clinics. Have a sore throat, need a booster shot or medication refill? You can go here for a quick visit with an RN. Prices vary from state to state, but evens out around $50-75.00 per visit.


Or, Walgreen's. Same deal. RN, about $50-75.00.


Most local health departments also offer limited medical care, including free Pap smears and breast exams for low income women, and vaccinations for those who vaccinate.


Alternative care at a low cost? Why yes! Community acupuncture clinics all over the US offer sliding scales.  I honestly only can pay $15.00 per visit, and that is fine with them. I offer more when I have it, but that's only happened once so far.


Check here for massage schools and their student run clinics, where you can receive free or next to free 1 hour massages.


Are to too squeamish for bathroom mirror oral surgery? Many dental schools offer low cost or free cleaning and some discounted work by final year students. They have been the only way for us to afford to have our teeth in semi working condition. Find the one near you and ask if they have a clinic.


Mental health is very important. Those of you also dealing with chronic pain, know there is a fine line between OK and totally in need of mental health care. You can find options here.


I know this sounds really odd, but many large grocery store chains now offer mobile labs... where I get my updated autoimmune blood drawn ever 6 months for less than half the cost if I walked into the actual lab. I had a full Rheumatoid Arthritis/chronic inflammation panel of 8 tubes drawn for less than $100.00. This is my only access to diagnostics. They offer everything from cholesterol screenings, allergy tests to hormone levels, and bone density scans. Many friends have actually reported it is less expensive to use one of these mobile labs then it is to pay their co-pay. Check your local listings!

Remember. The best health care, and highest of quality, is the one you have access to. Sometimes that means caring for yourself even more thoughtfully than the person next door. You have to live healthy, despite insurance or not. Fresh air, exercise, living with joy and intention, researching and taking supplements as needed, drinking lots of water and eating like you want to live... helps :)

Tucson Tamale Company

The holiday season means one thing here in the Southwest...tamales. Yes, I do make my own, but it's a giant pain in the butt, and probably better to be left to professionals or groups of dedicated people. Enter the Tucson Tamale Company. They hand make the BEST tamales I have ever eaten, and oh...their menu is  gluten free, down to the sides and brownies. They also make killer salsa verde, which I am a huge fan of. And they mail order. I'd love to send tamales to everyone I know in New England!

So here is a link. Try not drool too much on your keyboard, and order the Vegan Blue Corn Calabacita tamales, and for the love of all that is right in the world, order some DOGMALES. Dogmales are gluten free Sonoran hot dogs. If you watched Man VS Food, Tucson, then you saw him go get a Sonoran hot dog. Your mouth watered as he bit into the soft bakery roll, stuffed with a bacon wrapped all beef hot dog, covered in green salsa, pinto beans, and condimentia...I know it did. I know mine did, just as I know I had 2 favorite street vendors for these delights until the sick years and becoming gluten free. Their Dogmales are all of the goodness, wrapped in masa, not bread! I know that this is the closest I will ever have to a Sonoran hot dog again and I am really ok with this. Yes, they are that good!

I'm not being paid to write this, but I would take a case of Dogmales if offered ;)