Category: Healthy Living

This past Sunday, I did not make it to church. I had every plans of being there, but… I had lunch to make for six people and by the time Sunday rolled around, I hadn’t made a thing and so,  a little after 10:00, you could find my daughter and me picking up the ingredients needed at Redner’s. I purchased beef, chicken breast, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, ginger, onions and garlic. I also purchased a variety of juices and back to the house we went where I spent the next 2.5 hours cooking.

I wish I could tell you that I took a photo of the food set out at the table. However, that didn’t happen. But, my daughter was thoughtful enough to take a few pictures, while I was preparing the food.

 

The above picture is the last food I made, eggrolls! These were appetizers. I don’t deep fry my eggrolls. I pan fry them. They aren’t as greasy and they are still flavorful. I made vegan and non-vegan versions.

 

There was also potato salad. It was still warm, when it was placed on the table, so plenty of that stayed. Much to my daughter’s happiness. A few hours after being in the refrigerator, this was properly chilled. I had a spoonful and it tasted delicious. My daughter, helped herself to a large bowl. She seemed thrilled, when I mentioned that I had forgotten to give the BF some to take home with him.

 

And now on to the food you can’t really see. My daughter took all the pictures; however, I should have reminded her to take the covers off the food so what was made could be seen.

 

Here’s a picture of some of the food that was on the table. The beef and vegetables (broccoli, carrots and other things I can’t remember) was the most popular food on the table. Not too much of that was left. I cooked the beef in my pressure cooker. According to the comments, this was extremely tender! Of course it was, it was made in the pressure cooker.

 

Then there was this dish. It had chicken breast, mushrooms and other vegetables, spices and herbs.  It was pressure cooked also and then I made a gravy from the juice that the chicken breast produced while it was cooking in the pressure cooker.

 

 

My goodness is the time flying by. This past July 4th weekend, my daughter and I spent part of our weekend with the BF.

 

Naturally, I cooked meals. As I tell the BF, he’s fortunate that I enjoy cooking so much. For me, it’s a form of crafting. I don’t use recipes and I definitely am not measuring what I add to the dish. Often, I have no idea what I’m going to make but my heart and fingers usually guide my path.

I told the BF that I wanted to making “pulled chicken,” for my daughter and him. “Do you have barbecue sauce?,” He asked. I smiled and told him I did not need barbecue sauce and I also told him that a “pulled chicken dish,” did not automatically have to have that.

First I put the chicken breast in his pressure cooker so it would be nice and tender. While that was working I sauteed onions, squash and mushrooms in a skillet. To that dish I added herbs and spices that I ground in my granite mortar and pestle. Once everything was completed I shredded the chicken and added it to the vegetables. My daughter said she wanted cheese and so I added a tiny amount to the last few minutes of cooking.

 

Here’s the result. As you can see, I also made potato salad. It’s the first time my BF has tasted my potato salad and he raved at how good it truly was. Guess what? They both ate seconds… and thirds! Although I love potato salad, I have not made it in a while. Truth be told… I could simply feast on a huge bowl of potato salad, that’s how much I adore the dish. However, I did not do that and ate in moderation.

 

I also had a chance to make them breakfast as you can see in the above photo. My daughter loves her cheese and so I added a small amount to the eggs, along with mushrooms, broccoli and a few other vegetables, spices and herbs. They both raved over this dish also and when back for seconds. With full tummies they were content to lounge about for a bit before we all played Scattergories!

Of course, I did not forget my daughter’s birthday; however, I did not write about it here on her actual birth date.

This past Thursday, my daughter turned twelve. For lunch, I brought donuts for her sixth grade class. Her classmates were thrilled and even sang Happy Birthday to her, much to her embarrassment, although she was secretly pleased.

My birthday celebration for her (was held at home) was a small affair and my daughter was happy with that. The BF had plans of coming out on that day; however, he was stuck in a ton of traffic, that would have delayed him by at least an hour. We are an hour apart. He called (on his way to see us) and told me that he was going to surprise us (I figured he would) but had to turn around and head home because of the heavy traffic. It would have put him out our way about a few short hours before my daughter’s bedtime. He felt terrible.

But he made up for it the very next day…

He came to see us and brought gifts for the birthday princess. Art supplies for my daughter conveniently housed in a plastic storage container. My daughter was thrilled. He drove us to his place and he proceeded to make baked ziti for my daughter and me. I tried to assist, but he told me politely, but firmly to sit down and “let me make dinner for you for a change, ok.” I listened. It was my daughter’s second birthday dinner. She felt super special.

He did a wonderful job. I do think the sauce had meat in it, although there was plenty of pasta and veggies to make me happy.

Overall, I was thrilled with what he had done and it certainly was a healthy meal. My daughter must have liked it also, since she had more. She’s not vegetarian/vegan although she will happily consume whatever I put in front of her and be extremely happy. I’ve taught her well.

Dessert for the Birthday girl

A few hours later, we walked to Milo’s for ice cream. They have a stand at the back of the restaurant. My daughter loves ice cream and so she was thrilled! Milo’s is about a mile or so away from his home. The trek took us through the older part of New Market, which is lovely with it’s old buildings. My daughter was thrilled with everything that Mr. Pete did for her on her birthday. Did I say how much I love this man? Of course, I expect him to treat me well. I would not be with him if he didn’t; however, it’s the way he treats my daughter that has me impressed. Again, I would not be with him if he didn’t treat her well or include her in our outings. The fact that he loves her, makes it even better. Again, that’s not an option. We are a package deal after all. Bonus points is that she loves him too, although most times, she’s still to shy to tell him that. 😉

The BF loves taking pictures of my daughter and me. Sighs… I really dislike having my picture taken.

I will admit, that it felt odd not cooking. I did not know what to do with myself, heh! But… I think I COULD get used to it now and again…

In other news…

I DID not finish my daughter’s knitted amigurumi in time for her birthday. In fact, I didn’t even start knitting it yet. The past few years, I’ve knitted an amigurumi toy for her birthday.  I decided to let her choose the type of amigirumi that she wants me to knit. She has and the design she chose means I needed to purchase additional yarn and a special type of “eye” for the knitted toy. Oh well, she’s not disappointed and is super excited that she’ll have another knitted stuffed animal.

Also, I made my first item for the BF. A knitted dishtowel. It’s made of super absorbent cotton. I forgot to take the picture, and so he promised me he would do that so I could post it here.

 

Well here’s a side profile, can you see the improvements.

Eventually, I will have to do a collage so you can really see the improvements in my T-Zone area.

However, thus far, I’m liking what is happening. With my brown skin, hyperpigmentation has occasionally been an issue especially since I love being in the sun, and at times, don’t make sure to wear sunscreen. Well, I’m thrilled to say that not wearing sun protection is a thing of the past. I make my own sunscreen, eventually I’ll share a simple sunscreen recipe here on my website.

 

I recently started tackling the hyperpigmentation, around my T-zone area. I will say that my efforts have paid off significantly, and the darker spots that were around the T-zone area have decreased a lot.

I can’t say what one product helped the most, because to be perfectly honest, they all did; however, I can tell you the beauty tools I used were significant in reducing the dark spots. How do I know that? Simply using the natural skin care products that I had been using were effective, but the skin lightening was happening at a much slower rate.

I’ll be sure to post photos of my before and after sometime soon, and I’m hoping to start posting food photos and finally pictures of Bella, our BichonPoo.

Last evening, I received the New Spa Diamond Microdermabrasion Portable Machine from Amazon. I’m a Prime member and chose same day delivery. It arrived around 6:30 p.m.

 

This weekend is going to be busy, so I wanted to test out the machine a few days in advance, in case I did something stupid. I didn’t. I’ve watched several tutorials on microdermabrasion and have read numerous files about the subject. Even then, it felt weird putting a rough circle on my face to buff away the skin, but I must say it did an effective job of sloughing off the old hyperpigmented skin. I only had those spots in a few areas, but they really bothered me. Underneath that sloughed off skin, was my brand new skin matching my skin color.

I can’t say that I have any rough patches, besides those parts on my face that were hyperpigmented, but now those are soft thanks to the various natural oils, clays, etc., that I’ve used to break down those troubled areas. I think I will use this once weekly or perhaps bimonthly a way to effectively slough off the dead skin.

Once I’ve used it a few times, I’ll be sure to post a thorough review and I’ll add screen shots also.

Grow old gracefully? Ha, I’m fighting it every step of the way. I’ve stepped up my game, a bit, so I can maintain the body I’m used too. With exercise my routine has not changed, but I’ve noticed with skin care, I’ve had to do a bit more… and I’m fine with that.

Well, I’m experiencing some skin shedding on the dark spots. I took a rough cotton hand towel and scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed off the flaking skin.

 

Opal Reply:
February 13th, 2015 at February 13, 2015 10:43 am

@Jennifer, I’m liking it thus far. I’m getting some peeling already, which is a really nice surprise. I wasn’t even expecting to get that with elecrotherapy. I researched it a lot, but guess I’ll have to do a bit more about the skin shedding. Under the shed skin, there’s my normal skin color, so yeah!
Opal recently posted..Electrotherapy update

As I told Jennifer, in the comment section of my last post, I did not know that skin shedding was part of this. I wonder if it’s from the electrotherapy or a combination of all that I’m doing? Hmm…

 

Either way, I’m really happy, so yeah!