My Sunday

My Sundays typically embody my "Susie Homemakerness".  I putter around my apartment stripping sheets from my bed, starting loads of laundry, tidying up and cooking for the week.  It is not uncommon for me never to leave my apartment on Sundays.  I run my errands and go grocery shopping on Saturdays so, unless someone is forcing me to be social, I change out of my pajamas only to put on a new pair of pajamas.  So classy.  If I really want to "over share", I typically listen to polish polkas or "Sounds of Croatia" on local radio stations while doing all the aforementioned chores.  It makes me feel connected to my ethnic roots and reminds me of a time when these sort of activities were what women were expected to do - now I just do them because I enjoy them.  I can sense the feminists gathering their stones which to cast upon me.

In the kitchen queue today was homemade granola for the week to take to my staff and fresh vanilla almond milk.  Whenever I look at the ingredients of almond milk in the $4 cartons at stores, I am discouraged to find it is not simply filtered water, almonds, and whatever is used to flavor it.  Therefore, I decided to buy a $2 "nut milk bag" (go ahead and laugh, I sure did) and make my own.  I buy almonds in bulk at Sam's Club and keep them in my freezer.  The 9 cup bag is typically $15 and so much more economical than buying almonds in traditional grocery stores or specialty food shops.  I soaked about 1.5 cups of almonds in filtered water overnight.  Today, I drained them, rinsed them, placed them in my food processor with two dried unsweetened dates and some high quality vanilla extract (I wish I had a vanilla bean instead: memo for next time).  Adding enough filtered water to just cover the almonds, I cranked on my processor and pulverized it.  A few times, I scraped down the sides of the bowl and added water until I had the consistency I liked.  When making almond milk, it seems to be a balance between getting the most milk out of your almonds while maintaining fantastic flavor.  It will be a personal preference how much water you add.  I dumped the mixture into my nut milk bag and squeezed away into a carafe below.  Is it weird that it felt like I was milking a nut milk cow's udders?  I then let the bag hang over the cup so gravity could do its thing.  Once I buy my hydraulic press for juicing, I will press the almond mixture versus squeezing - it'll make getting every drop of milk out of the nuts easy peazy.  Results: super easy, super delicious, personalized based upon my taste and no weird ingredients or preservatives I don't know how to pronounce.  Whoopie!

Moving on to the granola.  Many of my coworkers give up bread, pasta and flour during Lent as a "feat of will power strength".  Therefore, once Ash Wednesday passes, my options for treats diminishes immensely.  Granola is a good "go to" because it fits the restrictions and my boss likes it.  Win win.  I don't really have a recipe.  I make it up as I go.  This time, I combined oats, unsweetened coconut flakes, chopped raw cashews and chopped raw almonds in a bowl.  With my hands, I mixed in a tablespoon of coconut oil and local Ohio maple syrup.  I spread the mixture out on two half sheet pans and baked in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes, stirring once.  Basically, just watch it and when you start to smell it and it turns golden brown, you are good to go.  To the hot granola, I added chopped unsweetened dried cranberries and apricots with a couple more splashes of maple syrup.  I then put the pan back into the oven, which I had turned off, and left the door ajar.  This allows the newly added maple syrup to dry out a bit and the flavors of the fruit to mix with the oats without them melting.  Let cool and store in an airtight container.

I also experimented with making vegan "cookie cakes" with my leftover almond pulp from the milk.  Not so sure about them.  I need to research recipes as there are loads of ideas of how to use the precious stuff left over on the web.  Well, I better get back to my puttering, my laundry, my cleaning, and making my dinners for the week.  Also, I may or may not go to the mall and buy this makeup I've been eyeing, which I totally don't need but since it is busy season I can claim "I deserve this" and "I should treat myself" in order to justify it all.  I just have to be back in time for the red carpet specials.  I don't really care about the awards.  I like dresses.  Really pretty dresses.

What do you fill your Sundays with?

Introducing Stella

Well, I have put off making an important introduction long enough. I do not live alone. In fact, one could say that I am not even the "alpha" in my apartment (or my life, for that matter). I take orders from a furry female feline named Stella.

In full disclosure, I will admit now, rather than later, that I am a crazy cat lady; however, in my defense, she is a one of a kind, distinct personality, you forget she isn't human type of pet. Ask anyone who has met her, she is worthy of being name dropped into typical conversations.

My family was a cat family. My Mom wanted us to have a dog, but my Dad knew that parents end up taking on the brunt of chores and pet ownership responsibilities and, therefore, refused (one could argue he couldn't bear the heartbreak as getting a dog eventually leads to saying goodbye to a dog and the loss of Whiskers was just too much for him still). The compromise? Cats. Well, actually, the compromise was a cat. Singular. A friend of a friend found a brother and sister kitten duo trapped in a raccoon cage on his land. The man wanted to keep the male and let us take the female.  We named her Tuna (awesome).  Within a couple days of living with Tuna, we learned she was extremely unhappy about being separated from her brother. The man versus three doe-eyed children? We ended up with two cats. Bunkey and Tuna both lived to be just shy of 20. I missed them whenever I was at college and, for my senior year, decided that I wanted a cat of my own.

My parents agreed that I could take care of and financially support a cat after some convincing and accompanied me to the Vero Beach Humaine Society in Florida. I was set on a male, black and white tuxedo kitten who loved to cuddle. I walked out with a female grey speckled kitty with a black spot on her nose and killer green eyes. She had crawled into my lap and fell asleep at the shelter, what would you have done? Her given name of Belinda (really?) was changed to Stella and she was mine.

Remember when I said she fell asleep in my lap? That has never happened since. Apparently the humane society had just given her a round of vaccines, which made her drowsy. The next day, with medications worn off, her full on crazy came into view. She was an energetic huntress that only allowed me to hold her for short periods as long as she sensed food would be earned for putting up with the obnoxious snuggles. She is a begging, talkative, following, get-all-up-in-your-business type of feline with Pica (which means she eats random objects, they get stuck, and she needs surgery). If Darwin had his way, she would be long gone by now. She eats my clothes, my food, flowers, cords, hair ties, rubber bands, twisties, bling cords and shoes. She needs constant attention and has a "side" of my bed. She can sit on command, play fetch, and "shake". She used to drink out of the toilet until I learned to keep the lid down. Her favorite foods are cereal, popcorn (air popped only) and cantaloupe. She is one of a kind.

You may ask why I would put up with such a handful and my response is this: she is mine. I picked her and we have been two peas in a pod ever since. She got me through boy issues, a couple of moves, and lonely nights. She is an excellent entertainer when I am playing hostess. My Dad was there when I chose her and she was in the room, waiting in the wings, when I lost him. She is completely entwined in my life. Does this make me sound like a crazy cat lady? You bet. But I already warned you about that.

All in all, the point of this post is to introduce you to Stella. I just wanted everyone to have a frame of reference when she does something obnoxious requiring me to vent my annoyance in a future blog post.

Yesterday, Stella (nicknames: Button, Buttonbean, Stella Bean, Stella Pants, Stella Button Bean Pants, and Guzik the Polish word for Button) was my Valentine.  And by Valentine, I mean she ate two of the thirty tulips my Mom sent me for Valentine's Day.

Who was your Valentine?

Pure Bribery

I am in the middle of what are typically my most hectic two weeks of busy season, so this post is going to be short and sweet... with sweet being literal as well as figurative.

I am now starting to help run jobs at work, which requires overseeing staff and delegating tasks. I learned early on that leveraging my "Martha Stewartness" can help keep my workers happy, motivated and on my side. Yes, I bribe my teams with treats.

Long hours amps up the stress and brings out the crankiness in all of us. Therefore, one of my favorite bribes is "PMS Mix": everything one could want when it's that time of the month. Well, male or female, young or old, busy season essentially makes all of us auditors have PMS. If the name grosses you out, it can be called "white trash mix" or simply "white chocolate chex mix".  This is one of those recipes that is circulating everywhere, but here is what I use from a family friend.  Enjoy!

1. Cheerios - 3 cups
2. Rice Chex - 3 cups
3. Corn Chex - 3 cups
4. M&M's - 2 cups
5. Small pretzels (I like sticks) - 2 cups
6. Salted nuts (I use dry roasted peanuts) - 2 cups
7. White chocolate - 20 ounces

Combine the cereals, candy, pretzels and nuts. Spread in a thin layer on wax or parchment paper. Melt chocolate over a double boiler (or slowly in microwave in short increments on 50% power) until smooth. Pour melted chocolate over mix and toss to coat. Allow to harden and store in baggies or an airtight container.

I usually buy enough ingredients to use all of the cereal, but I warn you- it makes a LOT of mix. However, my coworkers and I normally don't struggle to finish it all over a work week. I can eat this stuff until I am sick to my stomach and then I eat a bit more. Oh, the joys of busy season.

So, does bribery work on you?

Healthy Living is a Relative Concept

My Breville Juice Fountain.  I'm going to upgrade soon

to a low RPM two stage juicer with a separate press soon.

I have debated about making this post; however, it impacts my daily life so it is hard not to talk about the ways I incorporate healthy living into my routine. I am an intermittent faster and an occasional juicer.

The minute I hit fifteen years old, my sinewy frame that previously thrived on pizza rolls, Keebler cookies and Kraft macaroni and cheese was no longer easily maintained. When I discovered beer years later? Forget about it. I was always an athlete so I maintained my health by practically obsessing about minutes logged on the trail or in the gym. I counted calories daily for years on various apps/websites. I weighed myself weekly. I felt guilty for occasionally falling off the "healthy train". I was exhausted.

Some typical green juice ingredients.

Enter my career as a public auditor, bringing with it hours of sitting in front of a computer and, during busy season, extra hours and takeout. My workouts dropped and I was absolutely miserable. It took the entire off season to get back on track, which meant constantly thinking about what I was and wasn't doing right. Again, it was exhausting.

My second busy season, I declared I wouldn't let myself slip again. I call this the "try any trend" period of my life. I attempted a paleo diet, the four hour body diet, excessive cardio, excessive weight training, excessive yoga, no bread, no flour... On and on and on. All that I accomplished was driving myself insane and "maintaining" during the winter months. For all the work it took, maintaining seemed extremely anticlimactic.

Brad Pilon's E-Book

Then I discovered Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat (eatstopeat.com) e-book as well as a few documentaries on Netflix about how the juicing of vegetables can aid the American "nutritionally starved" diet.  I had found my golden ticket. I won't go into the details of either, because I'm petrified of sounding preachy (I figure I will put my favorite resources out there and people can take them or leave them!). Essentially, I abstain for one or two 24 hour periods (spread over two days, thus incorporating the hours spent sleeping) during a week and then return to normal eating patterns. It's very flexible with no set days and no hard coded rules. Sometimes, if I don't feel like fasting, I will just skip lunch a couple days a week. Also, I attempt to enjoy homemade green juices (kale, spinach, celery, cucumber, apples/oranges, lemons, etcetera). They energize me and make me feel fantastic.

Stella thinks my juicing thing is weird.

Over the past year, my weight has slowly been on a downward trend but I'm eating what I want and am able to use working out as a muscle building tool versus a punishment only 2-4 times a week. I don't count calories or log my food. I don't beat myself up about eating extravagant meals. I didn't stress over the holidays. I feel like I gave up a second job.

Will this work for everyone? Nope. Will some people think I'm crazy? You bet. This is why I titled the post what I did- healthy living is relative. Each individual needs to find what works for them. It's like the old saying goes: do what you love and never work a day in your life. Find the way of living that you love and never live in a diet frame of mind again.

What makes you feel fantastic?