Chillaxin ain't easy!

It's Sunday!  Every now and then, it's okay to rest the bones. I mean, it was a hard week. The week started with just me and Javy, against the world. On top of that, I worked all week with a sore throat and a cough, got glutenened and now my mom is sick. Javy partied like a rock star last night and stayed up until 9:30. Today seemed to be the right time to put a blanket on the floor and watch Netflix.

However, Javy has yet to be convinced that a body really needs that much rest.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Tonight, Javy got to walk in the Waimea Town Christmas Parade.  It was so much fun, I got to push his wheelchair.  He was so happy the whole time and did not get over stimulated by all the noises and lights.  We've actually skipped the last two Christmas parades.  The last time he went to one, he screamed the whole time.  The loud noises were just too much for him, despite the fact that he was with two of his favorite people-Ryan and Aaron.  So when we got the chance to walk in it, I had to do it.  Maybe he doesn't like watching them, but being in the middle of one just might be his thing.  And such an awesome thing to be right in the middle of, all his peers.

Here's some of the photos that I got.  I know you guys who are my Facebook friends have already seen all of these, but oh well.  Merry Christmas.

I look groovy in my red faux turtleneck!

Looks like an angel, but he's got some devil in him, too.

Classmates since first grade.  Can't believe that he's taller than me now.

So sweet!

Javy being backed up by the band.   

Patiently waiting!

Another classmate since first grade.  

Javy's perspective of the parade.

Pau!  Time to grind.  At our Irish Marie's house,
wish our Alabama Marie was here, too.

Resting, while mommy drinks wine.
He's wearing my flannel  shirt and it almost fits. 

To infinity and beyond.....

Three years ago....

October 30th, 2010, Javy's first time surfing

November 2013

Exciting to think, where we will be three years from today........

Happy Happy Birthday!

Today, at 11:30pm central standard time, Javy has been living it up on this earth for twelve years. His year has been really full:  Big wave surfing, surgery, a visit from his Alabama cousins and starting middle school.  The biggest changes have been gradual, those close to him may be the only ones who notice-his facial expressions, his body language.  His vocabulary has grown.  He says "mom" and I believe "nana" is his grandma.  He reaches to hold my hand or just reaches out for me and rubs my arm.  It seems to me that he doesn't just see me as the one who just takes care of him, but also looks to me for guidance and approval.  I do think that this is the first year that he actually understood that birthday is something special.  Every time someone said it to him, he just squealed with delight or looked at me, like "How did they know?"

I know, I know, you're saying just get on with the photo montage, because I know you have one.  And yes, I do.  These are more for my benefit, because I forget how far we've come and it's great to see how much he's grown and become a young man.  And I'm not even going to mention that there's seems to be darker hair on his upper lip.   Here you go, a slide show accompanied by Queen's "I want it all."

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Improv

Regarding my last post, "Ahead of the Game", I had promised some of my friends that I'd make sure to post some of the things that I actually did with the food, this weekend.  It's not even the weekend, yet.  But I've been at it since Wednesday night.  I want to post before, what's in my head, disappears into a time-space warp.

On top of that, I thought of a lot of useful tips for weight management while I was cooking.  I even wrote notes so I wouldn't forget.  I'm going to break it down in a few segments.

IMPROV
Zucchini, what can you do with zucchini.  You replace your pasta with zucchini.  Driving home from work Wednesday, the light bulb went off, "I'm going to make spaghetti out of zucchini."  I'm gluten intolerant, it's brilliant.  I made an alfredo sauce with some left over cream that was bought over the weekend (not an item we usually have in the fridge).  We had chicken leftover, that was used to make the broth for the dressing.  I added some mushrooms, onion and garlic.  I'm being vague, I pretty much just put the sauce together on the fly.  I think I got a little confused, because I added lemon juice, too.  I think that's for scampi, but, whatever, it tasted good. The important thing to know is that I peeled and shredded the zucchini.  I blanched it, but I think next time I'll steam it.  Ultimately, Javy's satisfaction is the true test and he loved it.

Chicken Alfredo

shredded zucchini

Successful Dinner!

Still, even after this wonder meal, my zucchini still runneth over.  Zucchini lasagna was the answer.  I'm not sure what the real definition of lasagna is, or if it really is Italian.  I suppose I could Google it, but I don't want to ruin the mystique.  I imagine it to be a very romantic term for layering stuff with damn good cheese.  I consider myself to be a fanatic of cheese and that will probably be the last thing to go before I become a vegan.  Baby steps, I say.  Like the chicken alfredo, this recipe was totally improvised.  I used the mushrooms as my meat.  I sliced the zucchini with a cheese slicer and added a little eggplant-just because it was there.  I had tons of fresh basil and a little bit of my homemade tomato sauce left over, too.  I just started layering all that with some mozzarella.  I bought some of those aluminum pans from Costco and made two pans.   I froze one pan and we ate the other one.  

alotta sliced zucchini

In true lasagna style, one pan is a little bit short.
Just wanted to make sure I had enough stuff.

Not as enthusiastic about this one, but he tolerated it.  There was cheese.

Tip #1: Here's the thing, eating pasta, or any grain, with a meat, is a complete calorie killer.  If you use an App, like Myfitnesspal, you'll see that your total daily calories disappear when you combine those two.  So replacing your grain with a vegetable is a good way to cut back on the caloric intake and it provides so many more nutrients.  See how I balanced out the rich chicken alfredo with something light.  And it works vice versa, don't eat meat if you want to enjoy some pasta or rice.  

A Tale of Two Stocks

Besides the lasagna on Thursday, I also worked on making two stocks-vegetable and turkey.  The turkey is for the gumbo that I made tonight.  I'll address that later.  The vegetable, just because I did have so much leftover basic veggies like carrots, celery and yes, I threw in some zucchini, stuff that was gonna go bad in a few days.  Vegetables stock is got to be the easiest thing in the world to make.  You pretty much just sautee' the veggies in some olive oil and add water, then simmer that for about an hour.  So easy, but will be the base for a lot of good things to come.  

The turkey stock was made with the turkey carcass.  Now it may be the Irish in me, but I love Thanksgiving because its the one time of the year that I can use the phrase turkey carcass without seeming like a freak.  The Chieftains use this term so melodically in their song, "St Stephen's Day Murders", "The carcass of the beast, left over from the feast, can still be found haunting the kitchen."  Ahhh, the Irish!  Okay, slight digression, thanks for hanging with me.  My recipe for the turkey stock can be found in the gumbo recipe I used from The Homesick Texan, which I will provide the link for in the next segment.   

And besides the two stocks, I made buckwheat pancakes, which I topped with the leftover homemade cranberry sauce.  They seemed to be pretty righteous.  Unfortunately, I was unable to partake since the buckwheat (not wheat, by the way) mix had wheat in it.  The cranberry sauce was super easy and delish!  It's from the Pioneer Woman's website.  thepioneerwoman.com

buckwheat pancakes with cranberry sauce

My gluten free breakfast-raw grapefruit and orange juice.
No Grey Goose, actually, I just pretend.

Yummy satisfaction!

Tip #2: Never underestimate your leftovers.  Before you dive into the fresh stuff, use what you got.  And don't be afraid to think about the future.  I froze 3 quart size bags of the vegetable stock.  After I used what I needed for my recipe, I still had 2 quart size bags of turkey stock that I froze.  Future heartaches have been averted.  

Making a roux, checking it twice

Turkey gumbo!  That's what it was all about, tonight.  I got this recipe from the Homesick Texan, who I am a big fan of.  Not because I am a homesick Texan, er no, but because I think she could be related.  She seems to understand the food culture from whence I sprouted.  She even has the recipe for King Ranch Chicken, which I actually believed for a very long time had been invented by my Aunt Dru.  But gumbo is not one of those things that I actually grew up with.  I'm from south Texas, not East Texas. But she posted it and I accepted the challenge.  Mostly,  because I had all the ingredients and I got to use my turkey CARCASS.  homesicktexan.com is her blog, check her out.  For me, it was delightful!  And I'm happy to say there will be plenty for me because I was the only one who thought so.  

Shunning the gumbo

Tolerating

No!

Javy got a bowl of rice and a hotdog, but he tried it, at least.  I am looking forward to tomorrow, so that I can eat some more.  It was very rich, so I only ate one small bowl.  

Tip #3:  Please don't underestimate yourselves.  I hope no one thinks that I am posting all this stuff to brag.  Like look at me, look at all I did.  I'm not like that.  I've worked really hard these last two days.  If you knew me before, you'd know how lazy I could be.  I was a work 40 hours a week, kind of gal, who only thought about the immediate future.  I don't know exactly when it clicked inside my head, but to have a successful healthy lifestyle, you got to utilize your time wisely and plan ahead, especially meals.  In addition to all this stuff, I caught up with all the yard work, got the Christmas tree out, performed various homemaking functions, and took care of admin stuff.  I used to be the great procrastinator, now I'm getting it done.  A very wise person told me recently, "You gotta make hay while the sun is shining."  So if you're like I used to be, just start with small changes and see where it goes from there.  Your quality of life will be so much better.

Ahead of the Game!

We had an awesome weekend.   It started out, of course, in Hanalei with a surf session with Javy's favorite surf partner, Kevin.  And a gourmet beach bbq with Debbie, Maia and Ryder.  Debbie is an awesome cook.  Then my sister and her girlfriend came over from the Big Island.  I feel very very blessed, because we now have a full cupboard and refrigerator.  They bought us two bags full of vegetables from the Big Island farmer's market, they are much cheaper.  I also feel ahead of the game because we already had our Thanksgiving bonanza, I think it was one of the best Thanksgiving meals I've ever had, personally. We also got a special treat- a night out on the town at Port Allen Bar and Grill, at sunset.

Javy living it up at dinner.  His Keanu Reeves hair is making a come back.

But irony is never too far away, my friends, as my body decided to detox itself on Monday morning and I came down with some kind of vicious stomach bug.  I didn't eat for over 36 hours and my first meal was a bowl of brown rice and lots of hot tea.  It's Tuesday evening, and I'm just now able to sit up.  So far no other family members have been afflicted, thank God.  For whatever reason my body needed it, but I really missed my kids at school and I won't get to see them until after the break now.

 So now I've got a long weekend to prepare all the vegetables that they brought over.  I really feel like a pioneer woman who's got to prepare the harvest for the winter months. I'm nervous, because I don't want to blow it.  I want to make sure everything is used as efficiently, as possible so that Javy and grandma can have plenty of healthy meals.  So now that I can sit up, it's time to do some research.  After having such an awesome gourmet beach barbecue, mostly with vegetarian dishes, I'd really like to learn to cook like that.  I mean, I'm from the south.  We do meat and the vegetables come with meat, too.  I've got a lot to learn.  Anyone have any suggestions, message me.  Have a good holiday, my friends.

It's Never Too Late....

I was thinking that I love that life took the good and the bad parts of me and made one awesome meld, that is me.  I don't know if it took me this long to figure that out, or took this long for me to take shape.  I think its latter and I owe it all to Javy.  Pre-Javy, I was young and obnoxious.  Most of you guys wouldn't have given me the time of day.  Javy brings out the best in me.  I'm glad that I can finally say that I'm proud of myself.  

I am determined that I will reach my first goal weight of 155, the last 20 pounds that have haunted me for the past couple of months.  I am so determined that I know that I will even lose weight over the holidays.  This is huge for me.  Last year, my goal was just to make it through the holidays without gaining weight, which I was successful, by the way.  For me, this is more than a physical development.  It tells me that I'm gaining strength inwardly, as well.  The holidays are more than food.  They are more than physical indulgences.

We are actually having our Thanksgiving meal, this Sunday, because my sister and her girlfriend are flying over for the weekend.  I am so excited to share with them a meal that is made from scratch.  I've already pureed the pumpkin that I found at our local farmer's market.  I made homemade cranberry sauce.  I think that I've even convinced them not to have a turkey.  I'm not sure about that one, but I refuse to buy a Butterball with all the nasty stuff they inject into it.  So we'll see how that goes.  We're going to visit a local farm to get fresh herbs and vegetables, maybe even get some goat milk.  It's just going to be an awesome time of sharing and reminiscing.  I'm sure we'll bring my grandma's memories back to life as we cook her cornbread dressing, with a non-wheat twist.  And of course, our Aunt Dru's memory will be kept alive with some some fresh breakfast screw driver's, can't make Thanksgiving dinner without them.