Edible Green Tea

This year so far has brought a wonderful shift to my thought processes and how I handle things.  I've realized that I actually have a choice in how things happen in my life.  Maybe I can't control everything, (whether my kids scrape their knee while playing, or the weather) but I have the awesome choice of how I will handle these things (if I will freak out or just go with the flow and handle problems as they arise).
I've had the please of reading some wonderful books.  The Martian by Andy Weir was a fabulous story.  And by "fabulous" I mean probably one of the best books I've ever read.  Really.  If you have a chance to read this book do yourself a favor and read it.  It reads like a movie and will actually be a movie the end of this year.  I'll admit I was a little sad when I found that out because it was just such a good read.  Anyways, the story inspired me.  It helped keep me in that "choosing" place.  I found myself asking WWMWD?  What Would Mark Watney Do?  An astronaut who is left alone on Mars has decided he's going to survive as long as he can, in hopes he can someday be rescued.  It's brilliant, and nerdy, and funny, and thrilling... I can't recommend it enough and I'm actually planning to buy the book.  I'm ready to read it again.  If you know me, you know what a big deal that is.  I'm not a big reader usually.
The other book I read what called Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard.  It's not nearly the brilliant work of are that the Martian is, but it helps me to laugh at myself when changes in plan happen.  All I have to do is say "Who moved my cheese" and I realize how silly getting bent out of shape is, and work more towards going with the flow.  It's a quick read (it took me a few days but my daughter read it in an hour) and a simple little message about changes in the world and our options when handling it.

With the new mind shift (or in conjunction with) I've been working hard taking care of myself physically.  Resting when I need rest, but being more active in other ways.  Exercising daily and drinking lots of yummy green tea.  I'm in love with my genmaicha tea, but sadly I'm getting low on that, so I'm rationing it.  I've invested in some generic organic green tea, which is ok but quite bitter and we just started drinking Sei Mea's Edible Green Tea.  It's something different and my husband and I have been enjoying it.  I plan to get some organic matcha soon and try that out, see how it compares to the stuff I have and see where we want to go from there, but it's been enjoyable and I do love my little tea ceremonies.  (As a note, my little ceremony is just a nice ritual I have in the morning, it isn't "THE tea ceremony" but just something I enjoy doing and knowing how to make a good cuppa for my husband and I.)

In March it will be time for our buying club to order from Frontier Herb and I've started drooling over the catalog at all the beautiful bulk teas and trying to figure out how many we can (reasonable) afford.  But for now I will stick with what I've got and will continue to try and stay away from the coffee sitting in the cupboard.  I can occasionally hear it beckoning to me, and I'll give in, but I enjoy a good cuppa so much more these days.  Maybe just because I'm better at making tea than coffee.

Whole Food Sloppy Joes

Last night I had a pound of ground venison thawed and hadn't a clue what to do with it.  DH's suggestion of making sloppy joes was a good one.  I haven't had sloppy joes (that weren't vegan) for... well, to many years to count at this point.  I then needed to look up recipes.  Since it's been so long (we're talking like 15-16 years now) all I could remember of ingredients were ketchup and ground meat.  I wanted to try for a whole food recipe, something that I could use some of my homemade tomato sauce (since we have 60 quarts in the basement).  So I started searching.  On Pinterest I found two recipes I could work with.  I liked Lisa's Dinnertime Dish for all the herbs and spices she put in, and  My Humble Kitchen because it is whole food based (and really it was the main recipe I took from).  I decided to combine the two and this is what I came up with:

Whole Food Sloppy Joes

Serves 4 - 6 hungry people

Ingredients: 

    •    1 lb ground meat

    •    1 onion, diced
    •    1 green bell pepper, diced
    •    4 cloves of garlic, minced
    •    6-8 oz tomato paste (or a pint of tomato sauce that's simmered to half it's original volume)
    •    1 cup water (or broth)
    •    1 TBSP chili powder
    •    1 tsp paprika
    •    1 tsp cumin
    •    1 tsp oregano
    •    1-3 tsp apple cider vinegar
    •    3 tbsps honey
    •    Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large cast iron pan heat some oil and then brown the ground meat. (About 5-7 minutes)
2. Add onions, bell pepper & garlic and cook until the veggies are tender.  (Another 5ish minutes)
3. Stir in remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer for 10-15 minutes.
4. Serve over your choice of bread.  (We used this flax bread recipe since we haven't been eating much gluten in the last couple of months.  Note: I never actually add sweetener to the bread recipe as it turns out nicely without it.)

It was nice to have something different.  My daughter thought it was to sweet, but she told me that she believed nothing besides desert should be sweetened.  She's definitely her father's daughter.  And my 4 year old wouldn't eat it because he could see the onions and bell peppers. *sigh* That one would live of of beans and rice if I let him.  All in all though, it was quite the hit.  The whole batch disappeared, no left overs to be seen.  Plates were licked clean and everyone really was happy (even the 4 year old who after being forced to try 4 bites got his bowl of brown rice, *shrugs*).

Hope this helps someone else out there.  Enjoy!

A new year, a new adventure

It's been a few months since I last posted.
Very long and busy months with lots of family (LOTS of family!) and more socializing than my little introverted self finds enjoyable.  But that's just how the holidays are and I do my best to except them and enjoy them for that.

2014's Thanksgiving and Christmas I had people from my family visiting us here in the tundra.  My brother and his wife and my adorable niece were here for Thanksgiving.  It was a very cold week and they got a good taste of what living in a Minnesota winter is like.  I didn't really want them to have to deal with car troubles in -10 weather, but at the same time I thought it was kinda of good.  They have been talking about possible moving out here, which I would love, but I would hate for them to get here and not know what -10 feels like.  It was a great week with lots of talking, the kids played so hard all four of them had a nervous breakdown at one point or another during the week and we were all happy, but exhausted by the end of it.  I am so glad they came and finally got to see where we live.

After their visit we had a few whirlwind weeks of working the Christmas shop.  I myself don't actually work in the shop but DH and our daughter do on the weekends.  It's several rather topsy-turvy weeks where you celebrate Mondays as a day of rest and dread the weekend because that's when you work the hardest.  It's always a little strange.  But this year was a good one for the shop.  Lots of visitors.  At one point we ran out of trees in the greenhouse and another we ran out of all our food and drinks.  Every Saturday was nice and the Sundays weren't so much.  but all in all it was a good year for Christmas.

A week and a half ago my Mom arrived by train from Oregon.  She came to spend Christmas with us.  It was great to have her here.  Spend time talking over a cup of coffee (tea took quite a break with the seasonal chaos), wrapping presents, watching the kids excitement, playing games, cooking and even cleaning.  It was nice to have her around.  We celebrated Christmas at least 3 times.  It was rather exhausting.  The kids got sick the weekend after Christmas with a flu, which fortunately passed quickly but resulted in me being greatly deprived of sleep that whole weekend.  DH had an interview on Monday for a graphic designing job (which he got!) and we are super excited for him.

Mom left yesterday for Costa Rica.  I spent the morning shopping by myself (probably the best Christmas gift ever) and then we spent the remainder of the day playing games, visiting DH's folks, watching movies, and eating yummy foods.  Amazingly my 4 year old stayed up until 11 and the other two made it all the way to midnight.  This was the first year we let them stay up and they had a good time.

2014 was a full year.  Intense in the extreme.  A great learning year and a year which really showed me what is important to me.  Family, friends, keeping myself busy, knowing when to say "no," health, love, fun, and believing in myself.  I say it was "a hell of a year," which it was.  But it gave me perspective, which I am always eternally grateful.  My Dad use to say, "What does not kill us makes us stranger."  I know it's not his saying, (came from Conan or something) but I feel it's been helpful this year.  I have a positive outlook for 2015.  I'm sure it will have it's moments, but I'm ready for it and looking forward to all the adventures that will come our way.