Redirection

Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know about my other wordpress website at www.lovevickyholt.com. It has stuff about my new books.

On the What’s4Dinner front, it’s all pretty much the same. Still intolerant of gluten, still addicted to sugar, still trying to make good food choices for the family. It’s hard, people! Sometimes I just give up and we eat out. Or I buy prepared things from the grocery. Thankfully, we have lived through these “mom fails”.

Two books whose titles I recommend for improving your family’s diet are “Plan Simple Meals” by Mia Moran and “The Brain Warrior’s Way Cookbook” by Tania and Daniel Amen. They are wonderful resources and have replaced all of my other cook books. Doesn’t mean I use them religiously, (that’s what the internet is for, right?) but whenever I use them for cooking/preparing food, I always feel better about what I’m giving my family. Good luck and happy eating!

She Lives!

Okay, yes, a bit melodramatic considering most of you see me in other social media. But I had a recipe eureka! moment this morning, and had to share with all of you.

Our family’s New Year’s Day tradition involves-drum roll-food. Basically it’s all you can eat apps all day. Lil smokies in grape jelly/chili sauce, meatballs in sauce (today it’s Korean Bulgogi), deviled eggs, relish tray, dips, cheese, crackers etc. DH had to go out to grab more milk and asked me to text him if I needed other things. While he was out, I had a snap craving: Pinwheels! You know the kind, cream cheese wrapped up in flour tortillas with little bits of tasty goodness like red peppers or lunchmeat or what have you? So I texted flour tortillas and scallions to DH.

He came home, and oops! No flour tortillas! No scallions! What??? He showed me his phone. All my texts came through except that one! Curses technology! (You might be thinking however, about how wait a minute, aren’t you supposed to be GF? Yes I am, but sometimes cravings will not be denied.)

He offered to go back out, but what kind of woman do you think I am? The roads suck, the temps are negative a billion degrees; I told him we’d make do.

Then I had an inspiration. I already had the cream cheese, some red pepper, some yellow pepper, some black olives. I added green olives. And ranch dressing mix. I also had crispy romaine hearts in my fridge, and the idea was born! And they’re GF!

 

I don’t know if they’ll hold up for a couple hours in the fridge before they get wilty, but fingers crossed. At least I enjoyed all the tasty ends I cut off. I basically made each one an inch wide and you can use the romaine ribs as a little handle. Nifty!IMG_20180101_113129

Long Ago, In a Kitchen Far Away

It’s been over a year. Apologies, dear reader.

I don’t know if I’m making an actual comeback here, but my food world is going through a sea change and I just had to write about it.

Remember when I waxed poetic about Coke? Remember my dignity post about Twinkies? And my visceral hatred for all things Pop T*rt? All of these thoughts are rambling around in my head and I have to pair them with some compelling information.

A long while ago, husband and I watched “Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead” and were like, right on! Let’s buy a juicer!

We also watched a documentary about corn. King Corn? I’m not sure of the title. It went in great detail about high fructose corn syrup AKA the devil’s brew.

Fast forward a few years. DH had some health problems. Nothing drastically serious, but bad enough to destroy being comfortable in his own skin. A Dr. recommended the book “Dropping Acid” and DH did it whole hog, with my help of course. Turns out dropping acid from your diet means dropping mostly processed foods. Also, he had to drop pop and juice and Gatorade and chocolate. Being the kind of woman I am, that meant basically our whole family dropped those things as well. It wouldn’t be nice to drink orange juice in front of him. We have milk and water.

Continue on one more year. Most of DH’s health issues were resolved but another came up, and he speculated sugar might be the culprit. We stopped baking cookies every week. We stopped buying fruit snacks and fruit leather for the kids. We stopped buying Pop T*rts and high sugared cereals.

I’m more or less on board with all these changes; I know they’re good for me. Good for all of us, really. But sometimes I just gotta have a chocolate chip cookie. Or a peppermint patty. So I’m having a hard time letting go of sugar. Then we watched “That Sugar Film” and the next day I threw out an entire brand new bag of candy I’d bought to eat in the car on the way places. I was on board! Then a few weeks later, I was jonesing for a candy bar really bad. And I still order Coke when I’m on dates with DH. (We don’t go that often, but still.)

So last night DH came home with a book called “Salt, Sugar, Fat” by Michael Moss. He’s a Pulitzer Prize winner, in case that sort of thing impresses you. I’m reading this book and realizing how deeply entrenched my brain is with sugar. I need some professional help! And I don’t even eat processed cookies/cakes/candies that much. But I would like to get rid of the craving for it, which I think means getting rid of it entirely. Anyway, I wanted to write about it, because it’s all compelling information and research, and it’s all available to the general public. The general public just doesn’t want to hear about it. Possibly why this book was at the dollar store! I highly recommend watching or reading these titles and evaluating your own family’s pantry. It’s eye-opening. If I write again, I’ll write about my radish cure. Or is it a curse?

Composition with breakfast on the table. Balnced diet.

Fresh everything is probably always going to be the best choice. But it’s also the hardest.

Hello There, Once Again

THEauthorphotoI thought it might be fun to resurrect this old thing. After all, I have been on my brand new treadmill religiously, back to running/walking to my sick beats, and feeling alive.

Last I wrote, I was working on my debut novel. Now Book 2 is out, and I should be working on Book 3 this year. I have lots of writing news, but mostly I save that for my other blog, the writing blog.

This one is where I like to keep track of my exercise habits and food breakthroughs.

Boy, do I have a lot to say about food breakthroughs. But it can wait. For now, I am excited to report that I can run an entire mile without stopping, at 5mph. That’s a big deal for me! I love my new treadmill. I’ll have to devote a blog post to that sometime.

Thanks for stopping by,
V. L. H.

First Three Chapters

My book is done, but needs revising and perfecting. But as a cruel teaser, you can read the first three chapters.

Look for my facebook page, Rise of the Battle Bred, or check out my website, where the chapters are:

http://riseofthebattlebred.weebly.com/

 

I’m only getting on the treadmill sporadically. It’s so hard to get everything done! Oh, and Tessa says ‘hi’. If ‘hi’ sounds like a fit saying ‘what ARE YOU TYPING???????’

Green Beans: The Star of the Show

Had to blog about the beans that I had way way way too many helpings of tonight. Wow. So you know how Amazon Kindle always has a long list of free books you can ‘buy’? I bought several cookbooks from the Gooseberry Patch on different kinds of cooking…slow cooker, meatloaf, mac n cheese et cetera. I found a green bean recipe in the slow cooker book…three cans of drained green beans, two cans chicken broth with garlic (I had to substitute chicken bouillon cubes with minced garlic) and yes, a half pound of bacon. Salt and pepper to taste, but I actually forgot this step, and it wasn’t needed AT ALL. Cook for FIVE hours in the crock pot.

Expletive! Superlative! Truly divine beans! That’s all I had to say, you all have a good day now.

For Autism Awareness

I’ll answer the question first, What’s4Dinner? If I can remember, I’ll put the roast in and we’ll have a lovely meal with beef/potatoes/carrots and rolls.

For Autism Awareness, I’m linking the post I wrote for my Social Stories blog. Have a good day, and if you have someone in your life affected by Autism, then maybe reach out and give them a hand this month. Autism Awareness Month

Ideas of things you can do for a family with Autism

Offer to take their child with Autism for two hours so the family can do an activity free of stress

Offer to bring dinner one night

Offer to visit the family and entertain the child with Autism so the mother can complete some chores

Find out the child’s favorite treat and bring it; stay and chat with the child for a few minutes

Offer to take the children free of the disorder somewhere fun so they can have a ‘normal’ outing

Read up on what it’s like to have Autism, and come up with some ideas of how to help on your own

Send a note of encouragement to the family affected by ASD

Send flowers to the family affected by ASD

Make a donation to an Autism research organization or other similar charity in the family’s name

Talk about Autism with the people you meet each day to heighten awareness

Greet the child with Autism enthusiastically when you meet them out in public or at church or school

Bring a book to read to the child with Autism so mother can have a nap

Understand that sometimes when they say ‘Fine!’ they don’t mean it

Understand that sometimes when they say ‘Fine!’ it really is fine

Ask about the child with Autism; people generally like talking about their struggles-it’s nice to have a listening ear too