Making My Own Food

DIY or do it yourself is a big thing right now. One of my goals in living is to reduce and hopefully eliminate processed food in my family's life. One of my problems with making my own food is that I get bored. I wish I knew more about how to make up recipes as I go that are exciting and flavorful. When I make something new or something that I haven't made in a long time, I get inspired to continue. The problem is I find myself making the same things all the time. The other night, I had a craving for lentils. I almost didn't make them because I felt like its summer and I should be making a light summer dish, not a heavy comfort food dish. I did add grilled pineapple and a caprese salad with fresh basil and fresh mozzarella which I do think lightened up the meal. What it did though, was to inspire me to make more foods that I don't usually make and to actually listen to my cravings when they are healthy cravings. I think my next goal is to learn about different spices and how they work with different foods. We, unfortunately, did have store bought canzone for food today and I bought an egg sandwich at a small local bistro today for breakfast. I am not really hungry for any other food today, but I plan to start tomorrow with making my own foods and experimenting with different foods and spices to feel more inspired to eat healthy, flavorful, inspired foods. One of the things that inspires me is to watch cooking shows as well as to go to my local farmers market. I love seeing all the different foods, some that I have never heard or cooked with and some are just inspiring even though I have eaten them many times before but maybe in a different way. What really inspires me is my friend Holly, at thesoulchef.com, who cooks every week and always inspires me to use new and different ingredients. I love trying new foods and foods that I have had, but cooked in different ways of with different flavors. Today, I promised my oldest son that we would make granola. He loves granola and yogurt and he loves to help in the kitchen. I want him to help and learn new foods that are healthy, especially since he is on the autism spectrum and I feel that he really needs to watch his diet to help with some of the symptoms of his autism. That in and of itself is enough for it's own post and more. Later tonight, after I find a good recipe, we will make our own granola so that we can add it to our yogurt which I want to become a staple grocery item in our house. Here's to some good, healthy, DIY foods to help kick the processed food habit and save money at the same time! Amy

My Latest Projects

I forget what inspired me to actually start this project, but I decided to pul out my jewelry supplies and attempt to make a wire wrapped puzzle piece.  Actually, I think that I was looking at the build-a-bear website, since I pre-ordered an autism bear, and that was what inspired me.  We had a very lazy Sunday and I played with my jewelry supplies.

I initially used my wire jig and made a large puzzle piece.  It was a little large for what I initially wanted so I set it aside and worked on making a smaller piece.  I photocopied it at 50% and it was a really good size.  At that Point, I just decided to free hand it.  It was much easier to free hand the pattern than I thought it would be.

The ultimate outcome of this idea was a wire puzzle piece pendant with blue stones dangling from it.

I thought about the larger puzzle piece that I had made with the jig and decided to put it on my wrist and bend it around a little.  I then put a pink Swarovski butterfly and Swarovski blue bead in the middle.  I had thought about putting a beaded bracelet to attach to my wrist, but I decided to use a large chain instead.  The outcome:

I put pictures on Facebook and got a lot of comments and likes.  My sister, wants a set and I have a friend who is interested and who shared the picture on her page.  Now I have to figure out how much to charge for things.  Maybe this is actually working.  Maybe I will be able to sell things I make.  I may not or I may be able to make a living at this, but maybe I'll be able to recoup some money to buy new supplies instead of just spending money!

All I know is, I have fun when I create, and if I can make a little money while I do something I love, how can that be bad?

Oh, and since my inspiration for this was the Autism symbol and since Michael has Autism, I will donate a percentage of my earnings to an Autism fund!

Amy

"Craft Hope"

I keep thinking about someday owning a crafting studio.  It's kind of a pipe dream since I don't have the money to open my own business, I will need to have constant income, and I have no business experience.  One thing that I would like to do as part of a craft studio, is have time to craft for charities.  One thing that I can do is start to do that myself.  I can start to create items for different charities and donate what I make.  I have a book called "Craft Hope" that is all about creating handmade items for different charities.  I am planning on looking through it and see if I can plan a project or two and donate them.  I know that there are a lot of different charities on the internet too.  This is something that I have wanted to do, but never followed through.  I really want to follow through this time.

One thing I would like to add to this is getting my community involved.  I'm not exactly sure how to go about doing it though.  I have thought about doing something with my church, but I have not exactly been attending.  I have also recently thought about doing something at our town's farmer's market.  One of the winter farmer's markets that we go to has a donation bin for handmade hats and mittens.  I would love to maybe do something similar at the summer's farmer's market.  What I would ultimately like to do is participate at the farmer's market and have people do a project while they attend the farmer's market as well as have a bin for drop offs.  I have heard of having many people work on an individual square or an individual project so that many people's hands are part of this finished piece.  This probably isn't a feasible endeavor, but it is something that I would like to think about.  Maybe check out when this years knit out is and do something that day in town.

I have so many ideas, but I'm not sure that they are things that are actually feasible.  As usual, I have goals/ideas, but don't know how to follow through.  I am off to look through my "Craft Hope" book and hope that it inspires me to somehow follow through with my dreams/goals, or at least one of them.

Amy

Inspiration

Am I inspired and if so, to do what?  I am inspired, but the problem is I tend to lose any energy to put my inspiration to good use.  Why do I lose inspiration?  That is the obvious question.  What is not obvious is the answer.  I have all these dreams and goals, but I don't ever seem to put them to good use.  Yes, I am a busy mom of 3, but I tend to lose focus.  I start off with the best of intentions and then, I totally lose it! 

One of the things thatI am inspired to do, is change my eating.  I start off doing well, then I lose it.  The thing is, I think that my diet, may have something to do with my lasck of energy, my lack of focus.  I really want to cut out gluten, dairy and probably yeast from my diet.  I really need to eat a anti-candida diet and see if that gives me any more focus and energy.  For the life of me, other than thinking that I am struggling with food addictions, I can not figure out why I can't eat the way I want to.  It's not like I don't like the food, it's more that I like the other foods more.  It's more that I can't stop eating the other foods.  I try going slow, but then I just explode and everything goes horrible.  I read all these blogs about people who have made changes and feel so much better.  Why can't I make the changes too.

I am also inspired to be more creative, I just can't seem to find the time or the energy to pull out my supplies.  I should give myself some credit here though.  I have been trying to be really good about fitting in some creative time every week and I have been able to do that, just not as often as I would like and more rushed than I would like vs being an enjoyable activity.

I would like to be more green in my life.  I do well at times, but then I don't do any where near as well as I would like.  I want to be less reliant on commercial stores and use more thrift items.  I want to make better choices when it comes to food, energy, and recycling.  I am really trying hard not to buy new, trying to cook at home (healthy meals), trying to not use energy sucking appliances, and trying to reduce, re-use and recycle and up-cycle.

Some of these activities are things that I would love to translate into a profession.  I know that i could go back to school and get an art therapy degree, a nutrition degree, go to cooking school for alternative cooking (not just the basic cooking that I can already do), sell my creations, and I'm sure there are more, I just have to think outside the box.  The thing is I have to get my body and mind to have the energy and the focus to decide what it is that I want to do for a career!  After writing this (which is one of the reasons I like this blog), I am thinking that I really need to focus on my diet and see if that helps with my energy and my focus in other areas.  I guess the next step is for me to start cutting out dairy, wheat, gluten and all the other potential allergens/intolerances that I may have and start eating a more vegan diet as well as an anti-candida diet and start to see if I feel better.  I need to focus on my food addictions (at least the ones that I think I have) and really be good at not eating them so that I don't get into the habit of eating things that are not good for me.  I am thinking I may even start eating green smoothies as a way to just start this whole process.  I will be sure to write about the different changes to my diet and how these changes are affecting my whole life.  The one things that I will always take from my social work education is that people are multi-faceted and that all the different areas of our life affect who we are.  When we make changes in one area, it can have either positive or negative effects in other areas.  I know what I need to do, now I just need to do it!

Amy

Inspiration

I have been reading many blogs lately and am totally getting inspired.  Currently, the blog that I am most enjoying is blog.healthy-green-lifestyle.com.  There are so many recipes I want to try.  I just need to make the time to start cooking healthier for my family.  I am starting to get better, but I have a very long way to go.  One of my newest goals is to start making homemade yogurt and granola.  We have started to eat yogurt almost every day as well as granola.  I have been buying stoneyfield yogurt which I love, but I would rather make my own.  I have a friend who makes her own yogurt and I plan to ask her for some advice.  I did get a granola recipe from a neighbor and can't wait to try it out.  blog.healthy-green-lifestyle.com also has a protein bar recipe that I am dying to try as well as pumpkin ice cream that has no milk or cream in it.  I can't wait!  There are so many recipes I want to try.

Like I said in my previous post, my husband was diagnosed with metabolic syndrome.  This really means that as the primary meal planner for the house, it is my responsibilty to plan meals that will help him hopefully resolve his metabolic syndrome or at least make it so that it is not a major issue in his life.  Along with that, we will hopefully both be losing weight, my blood pressure will go down and my kids will have a better start to eating healthy given that they are so young.

Unfortunately, the plan for dinner tonight is not all that healthy.  I had bought a calzone the other day and I don't want to waste it.  I plan to have a better start tomorrow.  Tonight after work, I plan to go home and make some ice cream.  I want to try the pumpkin one first, but I think I have all the ingredients for the other one at home, so that will be my first try.  I plan to research more healthy eating, going in the direction of weight loss, lowing blood pressure, and helping with metabolic syndrome.

Check back for more info once I actually get the chance to make some of these delicious recipes!

Amy