Plants and Pickleball

[SilverMtns]

Just wanted you to know your bubbly post made me happy.

[Ruff]

Sourdough! My current sourdough has been running since 2014.

It can take several months for a sourdough to get up to 'full strength', and yes, the discards can get get problematic to use. I always made pancakes with my discard when the kids lived at home. Now I keep the sourdough in the fridge and wake it up 48 hours before I plan to use it. It can go 10 days between feedings this way.

I make whole grain bread with added kibbles that go in a soaker 12 hours before. My own recipe developed over years.

Let me know how your goes on

[Daydream]

Erin, your home baked sourdough bread will be delicious! I never heard of lentil rhubarb stew but I bet it's good. Unfortunately, one of our grandsons is allergic to lentils and peas so I don't cook those very often.

[squealcat]

I enjoyed reading about all the sourdough makings ! My husband is the bread baker in our family and he does a wonderful job ! He doesn't have any starter in the fridge right now but I expect that come fall, there will be a container of it !

-squealcat

[VegSeekingFit]

Hi Erin,

I have to +1 with "your bubbly post made me happy".

Hope that you have an excellent weekend!

Best,
Stephanie

[Lizzy_F]

Hi Erin! Thank you for stopping by my new journal! I appreciate all the wonderful support here! Is is so nice to connect with you - I am inspired by your tenure and success with the program! I love your non-perfectionist approach with the guidelines you set up for yourself that are working for you.

I am such a non-cook that I can’t even imagine making my own bread! You sound like a good cook!

I look forward to following your continued journey!

[Ejeff]

Thanks Beth, I don’t know that I’m a good cook, but I am willing to try new recipes. I’m always asking the kids for their honest feedback to know if I should make it again.

Wow Ruff, that’s an 8 year old starter, excellent! I baked 3 loaves and they all turned out quite well. Now I’ve moved into maintenance mode so I’m keeping the starter in the fridge and will feed it weekly. No time for bread baking right now. After the wedding I will bake more and give to the kids and other family.

Squealcat, great your hubby bakes. Mine also bakes a nice whole wheat loaf. I actually don’t eat much bread as I enjoy the other whole grain starches so much.

Daydream, that’s too bad your grandson is allergic to lentils. I didn’t know that was possible. So he can eat other beans like black and chickpea? What happens if he has lentils? Does he get a rash? I’m learning all kinds of new things with my first grandbaby. In the old days foods were introduced slowly and things like eggs and peanut butter were later. Now parents are supposed to introduce these foods early and if there is a reaction there is a plan to help address it. Quite amazing how the strategies change over the years.

SilverMtns, glad I made you happy. My daughter-in-law sent me a video of my 7 month old grandson giggling. Oh my gosh I can just watch it over and over and it’s the sweetest sound ever. It’s hard not to feel such happiness with that kind of blessing in my life.

It’s quite interesting sometimes when I get on a roll and am preparing some new recipes, I sort of forget to eat fries. Gosh fries and ketchup are just the best. I could eat them every day. They are also great with malt vinegar. I made an Alfredo sauce from cauliflower. Quite nice and creamy. Mixed it with barley and broccoli for a very delicious meal. Been doing lots of shopping and running around with wedding preparation stuff. I have a few lists on the go, it’s fun and exciting. Still getting some good Pickleball matches in as well.

Have a great day and enjoy those spuds!

Erin

[Daydream]

Erin, yes my 7 year old grandson likes and can eat other types of beans, just not lentils or split peas (he is allergic to green peas, peanut butter and cashews too). When he eats something he is allergic to, he breaks out in a rash. I hope he will outgrow those allergies over time.

[Ejeff]

Wow we have another bright blue sky this morning and the forecast is calling for several warm sunny days in a row. Looking forward to that. It was a busy weekend with social events related to the wedding so a couple meals out. Was lots of fun.

Kids coming for supper today so planning to make a potato corn chowder and a rhubarb crisp. Rhubarb really does grow like a weed, I have just one plant and it really produces lol. Garden lettuce is almost ready to eat. First seed planting didn’t grow so must have been bad seeds. If at first you don’t succeed plant again lol.

I’ve been enjoying my walk/jog. Feels excellent to know I’m getting some decent cardio in a couple times a week. I time myself so I can watch my fitness improving over time. Now I should add in one day of cycling as I also have a spin bike gathering dust. The route I jog takes me roughly 27 minutes which seems like a reasonable amount of time as it nearly hits the 30 minutes recommended.

It was interesting to read again what Jeff said about salt recommendations. A while ago I did actually pre measure salt by putting it into a separate shaker. I might try that again as I’m curious. I might do it for 4 days, like measure 2 teaspoons and see if I even use it all. I bet I don’t, but it would be nice to confirm I am following the low salt guidelines.

I found out over the weekend that a guy from our old neighbourhood passed away 2 summers ago. I was so shocked when I heard the news. He was always such a kind person very proud of his children and little grandchildren. Anyways I looked up his obituary and I was so stunned to see how much weight he had gained. He was always very slim and outside in his coveralls working on his cars or the yard. Not sure why he gained so much weight in a one or two year period, but I hardly recognized him. He died at 66 of a heart attack. When I hear these sad stories of sudden preventable death it reenforces my commitment to eat healthy.

I’m thankful I learned of starch based eating...wonder how much I would weigh now if I had not. Likely 45 pounds more. I was also noticing at least half the people at Pickleball wear one or two knee braces. Everyone assumes it’s just part of aging when in reality it’s the food.

I’m off to the courts shortly, hope everyone has a great day!

Erin

[Ruff]

I am so sorry to hear of the early death of your old neighbour. As you say, it is so sad when people gain weight, they lose their lives either way, either through death, or through not being able to live fully. And so many simple do not want to hear the message. I know I didnt when I was obese.

And I meant to ask before. Pickleball?

The salt shaker is an interesting experiment. I eat no oil or added sugar, but I do still have a little salt, added at the table as recommended by Dr McD. But I have no idea how much I add. I use unrefined Marlborough sea salt from the top of the South Island, to support local.

And finally I am envious of your weather. I am winter storm bound today. No snow here because I live on the beach but it will be very slowly inland, all the passes will be closed. Here it is just rain rain and more rain...and pounding seas!

[Ejeff]

Katie, yes our seasons are in reverse so when we have our -20C temperatures come January you will be enjoying the sun. Hopefully the rain will end soon and you can get outside again. I learned to play Pickleball when I retired 3.5 years ago when we spent a winter in Arizona. It’s a very fun social sport a bit like tennis, but much less running and I always play doubles. You can watch a YouTube video. I play outdoors from May through September which I much prefer. Indoors is okay, but it’s a bit noisy and harder to see with the lights glaring. I joined a club in our local area which has about 350 members. There are various round robin events I can sign up for each week. The round robins are fun as each match you play with different people. Everyone is very friendly so it’s been a great way to meet people. I cannot imagine ever giving up the sport now that I have started it. I have always loved to play sports. Even though I’m short I played basketball for many years and softball also. I enjoy the team sports more than individual sports as I’m very outgoing and my days are always better when I’m with other people.

Today and tomorrow I will be a bit busy in the kitchen. The wedding rehearsal party is at our house tomorrow. My husband and most guests are SAD eaters so there will be typical bbq food burgers and smokies. We will have the vegan versions of those things so oil and not healthy. I’m making a potato salad which uses cashews, beans and potato for the “mayo”. I’m also making chickpea salad for lunch on Saturday as we will have at least a couple hours between getting hair and makeup done and leaving for the ceremony. I baked some treats for both houses (bride and groom each get ready at different location). Brownies, chocolate chip cookies and bliss balls. The baking is all compliant although higher fat as I have used nuts and seeds. Wedding food is Mexican, I will bring my cashew sour cream. Also making a salad with corn, beans, peppers and mango.

So the next few days will NOT be my normal way of eating. It will be higher fat. During these types of events I just do my best to not over indulge and then immediately go back to healthier eating afterwards. Today I will be eating some potato corn chowder I made a couple days ago. Gosh it’s so good I will have to make it more often. Not sure what else, I think I will make some steel cut oats in the pressure cooker.

The next few days are full of events and lots of socializing. Looking forward to all of it. This is the final wedding for our kids, the other 2 both got married 4 years ago. It’s an outdoor event and the forecast is showing sun all day. If it holds up should be a very excellent weekend. Wishing everyone a great weekend too!

Erin

[Ruff]

Have a wonderful weekend Erin. All best wishes for the wedding.

I can't wait to hear all about it.

[Daydream]

Erin, all the food you are making for the wedding rehearsal party and the wedding sounds delicious! I'm sure everyone will love it. What a happy occasion! I wish your daughter all the very best that life has to offer!

[Ejeff]

Katie and Daydream thanks for the well wishes. The wedding was excellent, perfect weather beautiful blue skies. After the wedding we were a group of 17 that went to the mountains. The groom is from France so many of his family came. If you come to Canada you should see the mountains. We had a great time seeing all the sites and getting in some good hikes. The toughest hike was up the mountain to the top of the Banff gondola from the Hot Springs parking lot. It was 1 hour 50 minutes up and 1 hour 15 down. The views are quite spectacular so if you’ve never been I would highly recommend it. I was the only person over 55 that did that hike. It’s one of the wonderful benefits of staying at an ideal weight, increased stamina for fun activities. We were camping and the others stayed in chalets. We mostly had meals at our campsite as eating out is crazy expensive.

Now back to regular routine. I will be eating simple food as I’m still emptying out the freezer. My garden lettuce is growing very well so I have a good supply ready. I missed my air fried potatoes while away so cooked up some of those. Today will be more potatoes, some refried beans and likely cauliflower and/or broccoli from the freezer. I will make some sourdough pancakes as I want to use up my starter discard. Of course some Pickleball later.

Enjoy the day!

Erin

[Ejeff]

Hello. All things are well in my world right now. We are still having some excellent summer weather with temperatures in the high 20s. The emptying of my freezer is going well lol. Jeff is so smart when he recommends cooking extra and freezing in meal sized portions. I haven’t been great at freezing things as soon as they are made so I am going to try to be better about that. This week I’ve pulled from inventory curried chickpeas and rhubarb lentil stew. Both quite enjoyable. I have quite a bit of frozen cilantro so I mixed some of that up with refried beans and salsa. Makes a nice dip for veggies or I just eat it with a fork. I usually top with black olives as well. I’ve been eating too many dates with a bit of peanut butter and a chocolate chip on top. I heat them in the microwave. I need to make some healthy cookies shortly, I will use bananas and puréed prunes for the wet and oats for the dry. Lots of spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves etc make any oat cookie great tasting imho.

We had a nice bike ride in our river valley weekend before last. Rode on a few paths we hadn’t taken before and some streets with some beautiful views of the valley. It’s such fun to discover new things in my own city.

This past weekend our daughter and new husband took us out to supper and a comedy show. They wanted to thank us for helping them with the wedding. We had such a nice evening, we dined at the Japanese Village. There was one meal for the non meat eaters which was tofu and veggies. It’s all prepared right in front of you on a big grill. Was very tasty. That’s one nice thing about eating just plants makes menu choices simpler. The comic we saw was very funny, not too crude and could deliver jokes on the fly based on what happened in the audience.

This week is a bit busier as I’m helping my daughter at her job a few days. I like the physical work. Will also play as much Pickleball as I can fit in. I made a really nice batch of hummus with garlic, lemon and basil. I don’t normally add basil, but it’s very nice. I will be eating that with carrots, celery and cucumber next few days. Dates were on sale at Costco this month so I stocked up on those. I like to put one in my salad dressing sometimes. I figure eating dates is better than sugar or maple syrup. Guess that’s about it for now.

Erin