It's the Little Things in Life. Like Pancakes.

A few weeks into this dairy-free, egg-free life (for me) ~ dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, soy-free life for The Mister friends have been asking how it's going.  So I took some time to reflect.

First I forget that I'm not totally gluten intolerant; but gluten is an inflammatory (and kind of useless calories) so it's a good idea to cut back anyway. And in support of The Mister's gluten intolerance I pretty much stay away from gluten. It's just easier when you're making a meal together. I'm a huge butter lover, though, so giving up butter was a tough one. Finding a butter substitute that tastes half way decent is hard enough, but with The Mister's soy intolerance - we were on a mission! Amazingly we discovered Earth Balance "natural buttery spread" with no soy. I was reluctant at first, but tried it on toast and holy moly - it was good! Granted nothing will ever replace real butter; but if you have to substitute, this stuff is good!

Eliminating chocolate from my life (at least for now - maybe forever) was actually easier than I had expected. Thank god I can still have sugar. :) Not eating chocolate has made me realize, however, how much chocolate I used to consume! Most of it was just mindless eating while I was working. 

I tried Jelly Bellies but they pulled off my crown. No bueno.

Dried fruit is ok but more often than not I just resort to these

or fruit or nothing at all.

Once we found a gluten-free, egg-free pizza crust 

we were able to indulge in one of our favorite meals again 

- homemade pizza. 

This one is pepperoni, baby portabellos, red onion, fresh basil, 

goat cheese for me - mozzarella for him.

The Mister makes a mean turkey burger 

(stuffed with goat cheese for me; mozzarella for hiim) 

and hand-cut homemade roasted fries.

And a delicious chicken burger with tomato-mango-onion-cucumber salsa

Our fabulous home meal delivery service The Spicy Radish offers gluten free and dairy free options on almost all their meals and that's a real plus for us!

Like this peanut chicken lettuce wrap 

with cabbage, carrot and snap pea salad.

and this chicken, gluten free pasta and arugula salad with lemon dressing.  

I was so tired when I heated this up last night 

that I put the homemade tomato sauce on the chicken 

rather than the pasta.  Oh well...

and braised pork chop with quinoa, scallion and carrot salad (The Mister's)

and a turkey meatball with gluten free pasta and 

pesto and roasted red pepper.

My go to meal when I'm in Denver is usually sushi

My go to meal when traveling is a Caesar Salad with chicken or shrimp, no croutons, dressing on the side. Because Parmesan is typically sparse on Caesars, I treat myself to a sliver or two. And I realized on my last trip that Caesar dressing is full of dairy; so from now on I'm going to make the unusual request of balsamic vinegar dressing on the side. Caesars are usually consistent; it's hard to screw up a Caesar salad. Trust me, though, I have had couple that were hot messes - or I guess I should say, cold messes.  (Seriously, though, how can you screw up a Caesar salad??)

Chicken Caesar in the Mill District Minneapolis

Chicken Caesar at the St. Paul Grill in St. Paul

Shrimp Caesar at Red Lobster in Ames, Iowa

I mix it up sometimes - a kale, roasted butternut, pine nut and

 goat cheese salad at Napa Grill in Minneapolis.

Fries? What fries? I don't know what you're talking about.

I can eat most meats, but eliminated beef from my diet by choice several years ago. I can eat most seafood, but have had to [temporarily I hope] forego salmon, cod and sole. 

I'm very much a seafood person.

Halibut with roasted tomato and avocado salsa and gluten free pasta

at Crave in Minneapolis

All veggies are good.  

So, ok, you caught me ~ 

sometimes a favorite side dish to accompany a healthy salad 

is a little platter of fries.  

My guilty pleasure. *wink*

All fruits but bananas are ok. (I miss my peanut butter and banana toast.) I miss ice cream and gelato but am testing the water with some coconut milk and almond milk "ice cream." And I really, really miss my peppermint hot chocolate on cold mornings. That's a tough one - it's my true comfort drink on a snowy day.

One thing I have been really craving is pancakes. I was finding it a real challenge to find a pancake recipe that didn't call for an egg. Its easy to substitute gluten and dairy, but eggs?  That's a different story; and I can't eat bananas - sometimes an egg substitute. I owe my sweet and very food savvy friend, Jen, big time for sending me this delicious egg-free, gluten-free, dairy-free pancake recipe!  I substituted coconut milk and brown rice flour.  De-lish! (And yes, I get the irony that Jen's blog is called "Use Real Butter.")

I was in such a hurry to taste them!

They were scrumptious. And they may become a real Sunday morning habit!

This new way of looking at food has its learning curve. I'm grateful for the good things - and yummy things - I can still eat. And I'm learning to look at food as fuel to help my body and mind work at maximum capacity ~ rather than entertainment or reward.

I'm not crazy. I haven't given up everything! I still indulge in certain treats now and then. 

Thank goodness I'm not grape-intolerant. *wink*

And there are other kinds of rewards. Like I have more energy and I'm not getting that mid-afternoon slump as often as I used to. (Unless A-choo has me up and at 'em at 4 am) 

The real bonus? I've lost 16 lbs. in about 6 weeks. 

Can't you tell?  *wink*

And that's just by eating what my body craves to be healthy.

Maybe this will be ok after all.

Be Kind to One Another

When I left Iowa at 19 I spent a short stint in Canada then moved to Colorado. Since September of 1974 I have called it my home. So I have officially celebrated my 39th year in my adopted home state. And over those 39 years I have made a LOT of road trips across the vast state of Nebraska to visit my family in central Iowa. In the early years it was just cheaper than flying with little kids. In the later years it was because we couldn't bear to be without our Boo for a week, so she always traveled with us.

After our trip in 2012 we knew that she didn't enjoy traveling that far anymore. So even before we knew she wouldn't be with us for the 2013 trip we had decided to leave her home in the loving care of our pet-sitter. Sadly she didn't make it that long.

I told The Mister that if I had to travel by car across Nebraska one more time my head would explode. (No offense, Nebraska peeps - it's just a very long, straight road to drive with the same scenery for 39 years.  Yikes.)

So we decided to fly ~ but also mix it up a little and see some country we haven't seen that much of.  We decided to fly into Minneapolis, spend some time there and rent a car to make the three hour drive to Mom in central Iowa.

We left our home at 5:45 am last Saturday (taking time to make breakfast and weigh our bags.) We parked in the outlying airport parking, snagging a parking spot 40 feet from the bus stop. Oh and as luck would have it, the shuttle bus pulled up right behind us. And we arrived at Denver International Airport as the sun rose.

Someone had booked our seats in the emergency exit row where there is no place to stash your bag under the seat in front of you. I'm a girl. I have to have my stuff.

 

So we joked with the ticket agent and bingo bango - we have better seats. The Mister thanked him for saving our marriage. 

We were fortunate to be among the first to board and our flight attendant instructed everyone as to their designated spot for carry-ons. She requested we put ours under the seats in front of us. (She and I got along fine.) I watched her as the remainder of the plane boarded. She was friendly and smiled but every inch of her 5' 100 lb. frame was all business. If she told you that was your overhead bin space, you listened. She joked and called herself "Judy the Baggage Nazi."

Get this - the pilot came out and talked to everyone. First thought, of course, omg the flight is delayed. Quite the contrary ~ he was welcoming us all and said if it was alright, we would be departing a bit early.  We arrived in Minneapolis 20 minutes ahead of schedule. As we left the plane I paused to thank Judy the Baggage Nazi and told her I had never been on such an organized flight!

Next step was to pick up our rental car. Someone had requested the wrong size car so the Hyundai Sonata we had hoped for wasn't available. Again, humour and patience paid off. The girl at Avis went above and beyond to find one for us. We waited. She came back and said, "You've got your Sonata!  I stole it from Budget."  

The Mister to our Avis agent, "Don't you own Budget?"

Me to our Avis agent, "You do now!"

Again The Mister thanked her for saving our marriage and we left fast friends.

So we check in to the Marriott (10 minutes from the airport) and have an afternoon to kill. Mall of America (MOA) is across the street, so what the hell ~ let's go see what all the fuss is about. We're walking, we're walking, we're walking. We stop in a few shops. A new carry-on bag with a padded shoulder strap was in order; my shoulders were killing me.  (Hey my carry-on was heavy but both checked in bags were 36 lbs and well under the weigh limit!)

I love handbags but I've never been into name brand bags. I'm more of a Marshall's/Kohl's whatever bag is on sale gal. But over the years my Mom-in-law and BFF/SIL have sent a few Vera Bradley's my way and I think they are kind of works of art. So when walking into the Hallmark store in MOA looking for something else, I stopped by the colorful Vera Bradley section in the front of the store. The bags aren't within my normal budget but I did fall in love with an extremely colorful one. (As Emile Zola said, "If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist will answer you: I am here to live out loud!") When I saw it had a padded shoulder strap, the deal was done. However... I kind of wanted to see the rest of collection in that pattern and theirs was limited. 

I asked the friendly clerk about that and she said if I really wanted to see all of them the Vera Bradley store was one floor down. And she said it genuinely and with a smile. So I finally found the store, took a quick look around and promptly took myself back to the Hallmark store and the nice lady and bought the bag from her.  Because she had been generous and honest and kind.

Considering every loop around MOA is a mile, we did our 5 miles. We found the delightful Napa Grille and plopped our sorry tired behinds down in seats on their patio. Our friendly server brought us our kale, chicken, roasted butternut squash and goat cheese salads. They were quite yum.

And so began our salad tour of the Midwest. And the oh so healthy side of fries almost every time.

As we were leaving I found our server to thank her and I found myself saying something Charlie's Gannie always said - what his Mother always says - "Have a happy life, sweetheart."

 

The Mister and I remarked as we were saying good night that wasn't it interesting how smoothly the day had gone. Even with a couple of bumps kindness begat kindness; laughter begat laughter and patience paid off.

 

There's a lesson there, grasshopper.

 

The Tears Rolled into My Ears, Darlin'

Its been a hauntingly quiet day here in the studio. The Mister has been gone helping his parents with some minor flooding in their basement. I'm missing Boo snoring on her bed... I've made such a comfortable, cozy nook for A-choo downstairs she no longer keeps me company here.  I took a break from work and put together a little photo-history of my Mom and her life for her 95th birthday next week.  

Mom's natural environment is the kitchen.

She's had quite a life that Mom of mine... She has done everything from pumping gas at the Conoco station she and my Dad ran when they were first married to butchering her own chickens and planting huge gardens to rocking babies to sleep in the hospital nursery where she was a night nurse. And somewhere in all that, raised five kids.

She makes THE best cinnamon rolls - omg - hot out of the oven with some butter - to die for. Her homemade noodles are thick and soft and delicious. I grew up in a Norwegian community (although I am 1/4 Dane and for some reason the Norwegians rank higher...). So I grew up with kumla (a sort of potato dumpling best when smothered in butter) and kringla (a kind of Norwegian shortbread - again best hot out of the oven smothered in butter). Gez, I never realized how much butter we used... explains why I'm allergic to dairy now.

She sews every day of her life - even now. She has an active social life with friends in her retirement complex and her church. I joke that I have a really nice relationship with her answering machine; she's never home!

She lost her husband of 62 years back in 2002 and I know she misses him to this day. But her response to what The Universe threw her back then was to stay busy.  Just stay busy.

I think that is where I learned to block sad things from my mind. Its why I may sometimes appear stoic or reserved. It's just how I deal. Until the other day when I had an acupuncture treatment and for some inexplicable reason two minutes after the acupuncturist left the room - tears began to flow. I started thinking about Simba and more tears. I thought about some other things that have transpired in this sucky year of 2013 - it has been a year of much loss - and more tears flowed. Lying there with needles in my arms and hands I couldn't move. So the tears ran into my ears. (Sounds like a country song, doesn't it?  The tears rolled into my ears, darlin'.) So at least then I could think about something else. Like how it was driving me crazy to have tears just pooling up there in my ears and I couldn't move to wipe them out.

Finally she re-enters the room and I ask, "Is this treatment supposed to make you cry?"

"It can."

"Well, it did."

We talked for a bit and she said, "I don't know you that well, but it seems like maybe you hold your emotions captive. That's not good. You need to let things out or the stress and the sadness and the anger will literally affect your health."  (Hmmm... high blood pressure.)

So rather than actually express my emotions I booked another treatment. Yup, that's me. I'd rather lie on a bed with needles in me than confront my emotions.

Baby Steps...

As I was editing images this morning I thought, "Life goes on" and felt like maybe I was making some progress. The Mister and I have, despite our deep sadness over losing Simba, had some smiles in the past few days.

We [almost] had to force ourselves to celebrate our 20th Anniversary two days after Simba passed. Having made one of the hardest decisions of our lives on Tuesday, by Thursday neither of us felt like making decisions. So the Jeep just automatically steered us to Hillstone for sushi

and comfort fries.

And because we already had tickets and reservations, Friday found us at Lucy for dinner and Comedy Works for Kevin Nealon.

As we do, we did some retail therapy at IKEA on Saturday and the rest of the day was spent assembling our new entertainment center. (Or rather I watched; The Mister assembled.)

While he did that, I experimented making a pizza we could eat with our new food restrictions. We discovered our restrictions aren't as restricting as we thought.

I had forgotten about my little garden, so did some harvesting this morning.

With which I made chunky guacamole

and peach, mango, tomato, cucumber, cilantro, onion, jalapeno, garlic salsa.

And as I was cleaning up the kitchen I heard the familiar jingle, jangle, jingle of our girl's tags on her collar. Startled, I spun around fully expecting to see her. Of course she wasn't there. But it sent me into a funk. Life goes on, but not for her.

We have felt so many arms around us this week. A multitude of kind and comforting and loving words have come our way. 

My son and his wife sent this beautiful plant with a lovely note. 

Our Vet Clinic sent a card telling us a tree was being donated in Simba's name in Superior National Forest in Duluth, Minnesota.

Family and friends are making donations to animal shelters and rescues in Simba's name and we will do the same.

It's all so loving and warm and wonderful.

But when I wake at 2 am and feel her presence right next to me on the bed where she slept... I lose it all over again.

Baby steps...

Balance. What a Concept.

A few years ago I would have done that circular hand gesture to my head (ala CA-RAAAAZY!) if you would have told me that this weekend I would practically be doing cartwheels (ok I can't really do cartwheels - that's why I said "practically." I faked them to make the cheerleading squad) ~ when for four days in a row my blood pressure has been in the 120's over the 80's.  Woohoo!

So, although most of the credit is most likely due to a new medication (yes, I hate the fact that I have to be on medication but I have no choice) I would like to think that I've made some lifestyle choices that have helped as well.

First ~ I had the luxury of having a couple of weeks off in July so I was able to step away from work a bit and do other things.  Like move my studio to a larger space.

This was quite a job - moving and organizing everything. 

But now that I am settled in, it was so worth it!

I had a few play dates with my Mister - Steve Martin, Edie Brickell and the Steep Canyon Rangers were fun.  We had a great dinner at Lucy's and a fun show at Comedy Works with Sherri Shepherd.  We had another great meal at Tamayo and then it was on to Cirque du Soleil and Amaluna. Next week we have dinner at Lucy's again and then on to Comedy Works to see Kevin Nealon.

Cirque never disappoints.  Ever.

Rather than drive 22 hours (round trip) across NE Colorado and Nebraska and halfway thru Iowa again (because after 39 years my head would explode if I had to do that One. More. Time.), when we visit my Mom for her 95th birthday in a couple of weeks, we opted to fly into Minneapolis. We'll mix in a little culture, art, shopping, great restaurants in the Twin Cities with our visit to Mom in Iowa.

And we're planning long-term for some very cool trips.

I'm really working on letting go of stress and unnecessary drama.

I'm being pro-active about my health - asking questions and pushing authority. Yeah, that's the rebel hippie chick making a comeback!

We hired a housekeeper. So oddly enough I now sit in my studio creating while every other Friday some little cleaning angel comes in and cleans my whole house.  What a concept...

My Mister recently was tested for food allergies and since - as he says - he is allergic to just about everything but oxygen  ~ we've made some big changes in our diet. I was tested, too, and although my results aren't in yet, I'm assuming I will have many of the same restrictions. And besides... we're a team.

So I rid the pantry of everything containing gluten, dairy, eggs, soy and beef.

Not that there would be beef in the pantry.

Obviously booze is not off the table.

We're eating healthier.

And I promised myself I would resume (yet again) my morning regime.  Work the body, clear the head and open it to creative and positive thoughts.

Peace and love, baby... peace and love. 

And normal blood pressure. Even though I am now in my busiest few months of the year I am striving to hang on to this.  If I'm not careful I might actually find balance. Omg. What a concept.

Delicious Distractions

I'm fairly organized so looking ahead and knowing that this weekend I would either feel like celebrating or feel like being distracted (sadly it's fallen into the black hole of WTF??) ~ I'm glad we had plans for Friday night.

We love to laugh so we're always up for Comedy Works and there's a nice one not far from us.  Bonus points for making dinner reservations at Lucy Restaurant for a delish dinner before the show.  (If you're lucky Lucy the dog - who owns the restaurant... will saunter thru.)  Dine before the show and you're treated like royalty - both during dinner and at the show. Sherri was really cute; I like comedians who can make you laugh just talking about every day things in life (Jerry Seinfeld and Ellen come to mind, too).

My Asian Chicken Salad

really sinful waffle fries

And The Mister's Sesame Seed Ahi Tuna

Saturday found us at Bonanno Brothers Pizzeria for an early dinner.

Home made burrato (mozzarella wrapped ricotta cheese)

Followed by 

Beet, arugula and cucumber salad with yogurt dressing.

I missed The Mister's pizza but it looked quite yum.

From there it was off to the Botanic Gardens at Chatfield State Park to spend a crazy fun evening under the stars with Steve Martin, Edie Brickell and the Steep Canyon Rangers. They did not disappoint. Even though bluegrass isn't at the top of my list music genre-wise ~ you can't listen to this music and not tap a toe or quell a smile. And it just made me happy.  Happy is a good place to live.

And how nice of them to sign our CD.  They say "Hey" btw.  

And on a side note - that Edie Brickell (aka Mrs. Paul Simon) - absolutely charming.  I love her!  The Mister recalled a quote of hers I had posted in a previous post. When asked if her husband influenced her music:

"Asking someone to help you create is like asking someone to salt your food ~~ it has to be to your taste."  *Edie Brickell*

And if you are 100 years old like me you smile when you think of the other famous Steve and Eydie.   

Although we are veterans of summer concerts at the city-based main location of the Denver Botanic Gardens this was our first visit to the State Park venue. It is beautiful - we sat on a large groomed lawn with about a thousand or two of our friends ~ a big stage looming to the west and the foothills in the distance as your back drop.

I used to be one of those crazy people clammering to get as close as I could to the stage ~ gotta' get the money shot!  But you just never know when you're going to get busted for being a "professional photographer" (anyone with a DSLR and anything other than a kit lens is sometimes deemed thus) ~ and after a few years and many concerts, I decided there is something to be said for being in the moment.  

And not stuck behind a lens missing the moment. 

So this is my crappy cell phone shot. 

My crappy cell phone shot of an [almost] full moon rising

and the thunderheads building on the eastern plains

Which reminds me of a couple of funny lines Steve shared:

"We are so happy to be performing here tonight for you and your cell phones."

And when the winds picked up at sunset (as they will in the foothills particularly) and the 500 lb speakers on either side of the stage started swaying dangerously from their hangers, Steve looked rather nervously (we had binoculars) at one of the stage hands and said, "Should we be worried, Mr. Speaker Man?"  A pause.  "Wait. I see one thumb up. Can I get two?"

(It was incredibly windy for about 15 minutes.  We discovered when we returned home - waaaaaay east of the concert venue - that our neighborhood had been under a tornado warning - sirens and everything. Simba and A-choo slept right thru it.)

So, since we've become - like - (I'm channeling my innner 12 year old) event addicts ~ coming up next Cirque du Soleil's Amaluna in August and a return to Lucy Restaurant and Comedy Works in September for one of our favorite guys Weeds' -  Kevin Nealon.

So take that biopsy results - whatever they may be!!  Bring it.