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.

What Ever Will I Do?

For the first time in months - maybe a year - save one small Etsy bunny order to complete, I have no pending orders.

...I'm taking a minute to assimilate that.

So yesterday when The Mister asked me to tag along to a brief [sort of] business meeting at World of Beer (Mad Men Version 2013) ~ I had no reason not to go. Of course had I known it was a beer/sports bar (he wisely didn't tell me where the meeting was going to be), I probably could have used that as my excuse. 

So I went and drank a glass of wine and played on Facebook while he did his thing.

And the next surprise was wandering across the way to meet other friends at Jax Fish House for Happy Hour. I was told the restaurant had only been open 2 days. The appetizers were things that I absolutely shouldn't be eating right now (I've lost 5 lbs and I don't want to blow it), but they were yummy.

Calamari with mango-chile mojo & lime aioli

Grilled Fish Cakes Dynamite with sriracha mayo

And I'm making an effort to step out of my chardonnay comfort zone (aka chardonnay rut). Our cute server recommended Jax White Sangria. Sure, I'll give it a shot.

Jax White Sangria

White wine, pineapple syrup, orange vodka,

blood orange juice and fresh citrus

The sangria - quite yum.

The oysters - not a fan.

For my Denver peeps ~ both World of Beer and Jax Fish House are calling themselves a Cherry Creek location, but they are in Glendale. There is a whole new development behind the Hilton Garden Inn Denver Cherry Creek on Colorado Boulevard (and Cherry Creek South Drive). I don't recall everything that is there but there are several restaurants with more to come. 

So this morning (after a 2:30 am sudden wake-up anxiety attack ~ oh the scary things that the wee dark hours bring to one's mind) I walked into my studio and realized I didn't have an order list on my work table. Of course there's always R & D to be done; but other than a quick bunny to whip up, nothing urgent.

So I walked back out to contemplate my day over a smoothie.

I'm getting better at just winging the recipes.

Orange juice, vanilla bean yogurt,

pineapple, peach, some flax seeds and ice.

I kind of don't know what to do with myself. Until I look at my studio which strongly resembles a place where a bomb just exploded.  The Mister and I have big plans for the next week as we are going to be switching his office space and my studio space. I will be making his loft office into my studio ~ much larger and much cooler. I mean temperature-wise. Turns out my studio in the summer is the hottest room in the house - even with the AC on. So tons of work ahead moving technology and furniture and reorganizing on both our parts. It will be worth it. And keeping my mind and body busy for the  2 weeks is essential.

We are trying on an Amazon Prime membership for size. So in addition to our Hulu+ and Netflix addictions we will probably have a new one to add to the mix. Perhaps as I finish the laundry (that need to be productive never leaves), I'll sit and knit and watch some flicks. I say that but I know I will automatically flip on The West Wing because I'm hopelessly hooked again. ;-)

Red or White?

If you've known me for five minutes you know I have a fondness for the grape.  In liquid form.  And I'm not talkin' grape juice.  So the deal I make with myself is I work hard and I relax hard.  Especially when I finish a big project (and a lot of them seem to be big these days...) I get a reward.  And since I'll be making an appointment for a physical soon I thought I would pay homage to my evening/weekend/vacation drink of choice.  Before the doctor tells me to knock it off.

I have always been a chardonnay girl

Ah, memories... This was poolside at the Bellagio in Las Vegas 

a few years ago.

One of the first times I took my Lensbaby 2.0 on a little trip

and we were becoming friends.

And I like it over ice. And I don't care what the wine snobs think.

And yes, I usually prefer a flat-bottomed glass.  

My friends talk with their hands.  

You get the picture.

Once in awhile I will choose a red 

to go with a nice Italian meal.

But I always come back to my beloved white.

If you know me and if you knew my sisters

you would know that this is absolutely the way things are.

Yup, that's me.  The rebel in the boots, wine in hand.

So tonight after I had packed up 43 Whee Ones - all tagged with their personal little stories; and 9 canvas wrap prints all tagged with stories and history of the Denver landmarks and retro neon signs - everything inventoried and in their satchels ready to deliver ~  I thought a glass of vino was in order.

Keeping in mind that my blood pressure has been high lately (oh the joys of getting older and stressing out about every little thing - and a couple of big things) and I know my doc will wag his finger at me when I see him ~ I opted for a glass of red.  On ice thank you very much.

It's a nice little pinot.  Not bad.  And yes, I will drink it ala 

Diane Keaton style - on ice.

Not everyone in the family opts for the ice;

but I don't judge.

And it seems the irony in my life never ends.  I grabbed a fortune cookie leftover from our last delivery to munch on with my wine.  Are you fricking kidding me?

Oh the irony.

Perhaps it is time to try that yoga thing again.

Or at least take a walk.

A Family of Geeks

The other day I sent that breathtaking video of San Francisco from the air to some friends and family who don't do Facebook.  (Who doesn't do Facebook?)  I heard back from many of them ~ one of them saying he loved it but couldn't view it full screen.  

I thought is it possible that he doesn't know where to click to view full screen?  So on the off chance that he didn't I did a screen shot of the beginning of the video, drew in a little arrow and explained how to do it.  Not wanting to insult him I emailed him back saying, "You probably know this, but just in case you don't ~" and went on to explain a simple click here and boom ~ there ya' go.

He responded saying no, he didn't know that and thank you!

I shared this story with my mister over a drink and a bite at one of our favorite haunts on Friday afternoon

(The duck is a whole 'nother story - literally - for a whole 'nother post.)

He wasn't surprised.  As an IT Consultant he sees all manner of technological know-how and non know-how.  He had some wise words ~ never assume people know things. Or don't know things. It's a fine line.

So over his kobe beef sliders

and my seared tuna and wasabi slaw

we talked about technology and how far we (especially I) have come.  I'm certainly not on his level, but - to my surprise - I know a bit more than some. And a lot less than some.

Most of what I have learned is by just jumping in and trying things and making mistakes. None of my mistakes have been fatal and I have to admit there is a certain comfort level knowing that if I have a technological near death experience, I've got the expert right here in the house to fix it.  (Trust me, he's fixed more than one blue screen of death for his clients.)

My sons have both been in tech-related fields for years, so they've kept me upping my game as well.  So I forget sometimes that not everyone is surrounded by geeks (and I say that in the most loving way).  The three of them - the mister and the sons - have pushed me to keep up (in the most loving way) and I'm grateful!  

For instance ~ I never thought I needed more than one monitor in my studio.  Now I work with three and can't imagine anything less.

(Someone was looking for popcorn.)

I use one for regular basic cable television and two for my work.  Although truth be told, one is usually streaming either Netflix or Hulu+.  Which brings me to another point ~ how little regular television I watch anymore.  That's why we could cut back to basic cable and save about $100/month.  :)  Almost everything I view (we view) is online instant streaming.

We recently devoured the exclusive Netflix drama series "House of Cards" with Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright.  Ach - so good!  And I say devoured because we watched the entire 13 episodes in one weekend.  I remember seeing Kevin Spacey in an interview as he was promoting the series ~ he said this is the way of the future.  This is how people are viewing television now ~ to sit down and watch an entire season of a program in a weekend.

So it still surprises me when I realize that not everyone does this.  That people still watch television.  On a television.  +wink+