Category: Healthy Living

My mother hinted that she would like something sweet, so I searched through the recipe book, The 28-Day Plan for IBS Relief by Audrey Inouye BSC RD and Lauren Renlund BASC MPH, that I’d gifted to her and found a recipe for no-bake peanut butter balls. As I reviewed the recipe, I realized it was similar to the one that she made when my brother and I were little. So I mentioned this to her, and she knew immediately what drop cookies I was referencing.

Since I was unsure if she would like these, I made a small batch. I modified the recipe included in the book; Peanut butter, rolled oats, puffed rice, maple syrup, cinnamon, bittersweet chocolate chip morsels were the ingredients listed in the book. I eliminated the puffed rice and I added some spirulina and turmeric. Results? They loved these little peanut butter bites, so I tripled the recipe this evening.

My daughter took a picture of one of the containers of these little bites right before they were placed into the refrigerator. After 10 minutes of putting them in the fridge, they should chill enough to eat. I look forward to doing some more experimenting with this recipe.

Last evening, I made dill beans using my VacMaster 215. You can eat them immediately. I ate a few; however, they were even more flavorful today.

I had suspected that my mother had IBS for quite some time; however, with her world recently turned upside down, I was convinced of this, and while I talked to her about it and to my delight, she was all about making the changes needed. She completely changed the way she ate and allowed me to prepare her meals, and so for the past three days, I’ve prepared all her IBS/FODMAP (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols) meals, and <drum rolls> her IBS symptoms have been reduced significantly. During our chat, I advised her to nix any processed food and focus on whole foods recommended for IBS. I also told her to try and see her doctor.

Earlier today, I prepared quinoa, baked (cubed) sweet potatoes, and green beans with a spritz of freshly squeezed orange. According to her, she’s not experiencing any of the explosive symptoms that plagued her for the past few weeks, and her bowel function is returning to normal. She stated that the food tasted different; however, she said it was good. I told her it was because she’s eating whole foods.

Towards the end of last week, I sent my mom a few links about IBS/FODMAP friendly foods, and earlier today, I purchased two FODMAP/IBS friendly recipe books for her from Amazon, and both books should arrive tomorrow. I read numerous reviews and chose the two listed below based on the positive comments.

 

Low FODMAP and Vegan: What to Eat When You Can’t Eat Anything by Jo Stepaniak, MSEd. I’m familiar with her, and I believe I owned one of her books at some point.

And I bought The 28-Day Plan for IBS Relief by Audrey Inouye BSc RD and Lauren Renlund BASc MPH RD. Both authors are new two me. Both books should arrive tomorrow! Hooray, you’ve got to love Amazon’s quick service for Prime members! I’m curious to see what my mother thinks of the books, especially when preparing her meals.

Moving forward, I’ll believe that I’ll prepare all of her meals for some time, and I’m OK with that. I love meal prep, and I can easily make her meals and seal them using my VacMaster 215. I’ve already started doing using my vacuum sealer for her meals. Since I’m preparing her meals, it means that’s one less thing that she needs to think about, and it also guarantees that the meals she eats are nutritious and delicious, giving her time to relax when possible. I’m very aware that caring for someone utterly dependent on others for everything is a lot of work. My dad continues to improve, and I believe he will have physical therapy tomorrow.

 

Recently I mentioned that my daughter and I had reorganized our refrigerator. Shown below is a picture that my daughter took earlier this evening. I wish I had a before and after photo. The before was not bad at all. However, the clear stackable bins make everything neater. I still might swap a few items around. I’m thinking I’ll move the jars behind the pitcher somewhere else; however, that’s just me being picky.

 

In the above picture, the lower bin on the right is bothering me. It cracked over a year ago. I need to find a replacement bin.

Staying organized always brings to mind the following Bible verse…

Let all things be done decently and in order.

I Corinthians 14:40

We like to keep the refrigerator clean, and she or I go through it at least once weekly. We wipe it down if we see any spills. Weekly checks are also a great way to stay on top of expired food items. In addition, those checks inform us of what’s needed when we go to the grocery store, which eliminates unnecessary purchases since we know what’s required.

The stackable bins were my daughter’s idea. She saw the tip on some websites she visited about refrigerator organization. She mentioned it to me. I told her to send me a picture. I looked at the photo that she had sent. I loved the idea since I could see that it would take our organization to the next level. I promptly told her to look for some on Amazon, and I would buy them.

The above picture is what she sent to me, and later that day, they arrived at our home. While purchasing those refrigerator bins, I also purchased Rubbermaid Leak-Proof Brilliance Food Storage containers.

The above picture is a sample of the food storage containers that I bought. I bought several, and they have replaced all the storage containers that we were using. I love the fact that they are clear, just like the storage bins. Bonus points that they all match. I still need to purchase stackable bins for our deep freezer, and I’ll most likely take care of that this weekend. If I remember, I’ll get my daughter to take “before” pictures. The deep freezer still looks neat; however, the sectional bins will make it where item organization is better instead of just stacking foods items neatly on the deep freezer floor. All the food in the deep freezer has been vacuum sealed. So everything is already neater, and there’s so much more room since I used my VacMaster 215!

We didn’t stop at “renovating” our refrigerator.

We’ve done some more renovations in our home. This lovely Smyrna, Turkish Throw Blanket, arrived yesterday. It’s displayed on one of our maple (wood) rocking chairs.

And the above faux fur throw will be arriving at the end of this week. It’s machine washable! So that will be placed on our Papason chair located in the entrance room of our home.

And we’ll be replacing our kitchen chairs with four of the above chairs.

Perhaps I’ll take pictures of the inside of our home at some point.

 

In other news

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and yes, we are thankful!

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
I Thessalonians 5:18

My father is doing much better, and I do believe he’ll be coming home either Friday or shortly after that time.  This is truly a blessing since we thought we were going to lose him. The hospital bed arrived at my mom’s house today. I helped set it up. My father will be rehabilitating at his home. A home health nurse and his therapists will be done at their home to assist him in rehabilitation.

 

I make my noodles. I find it therapeutic to create them, and in many cases, they’re much more flavorful than many of the noodles purchased in the larger grocery stores.

One of the most challenging types of noodles I’ve made have been ramen noodles; however, this evening, I wanted something quick, and so I grabbed some of the plain ramen noodles that I’d purchased from our local Korean grocery store.

Earlier that evening, I’d purchased spinach and portobello mushrooms from our local store. I had yellow onions, garlic, and bell peppers on hand, so I decided to add those to the dish. It didn’t take long to prepare the meal, and my daughter loved it! Since my daughter loves ramen noodles and eats them a few times each week, I meal-prepped a large batch of ramen noodles. I kept the noodles separate from the stir-fry vegetables. Next week if she wants a quick meal, she can use some of the noodles that I prepared and add whatever else she wants to create her meal.

I work 100% remotely; however, I don’t always have time to prepare food during my office hours. That’s why I love to meal prep. It gives us healthy and delicious options.

Refrigerator Organization

Several weeks ago, my daughter and I organized our refrigerator. My daughter selected clear/stackable bins designed for the refrigerator/freezer, and I purchased them from Amazon. Although we did a great job keeping our refrigerator neat, those bins make our refrigerator even more awesome. Because of that, I decided that the small freezer above the fridge would benefit from a similar makeover.

Thanks to Amazon, I should be receiving those stackable bins between 7:00 – 11:00 AM tomorrow.

 

 

As much as I love our Benge-Nerg (one of my many nicknames for Bengie), that little boy can stink up a room fast when he uses the litter box. While the smell does dissipate in a bit, it’s never enough time to suit me. So today, after testing out the Westinghouse Powerwasher (it did well,) I decided that I would purchase an air purifier for the room that he occupies the most, my daughter’s bedroom. Also, her three guinea pigs are in her room; however, they’re not the stinkers. That’s all Bengie. Benge-Boy is the one dropping those stink bombs.

Initially, I was looking at a few other air purifiers; however, I liked the reviews for the Shark 4; its appearance was also appealing. It’s slim, streamlined, and fits quite nicely with the decor within many of the rooms in our home, and the reviews stated that it was quiet! Perfect!

 

Of course, the most significant selling point was the numerous reviews that raved about it eliminating odor! No more cat odor. Oh yeah, you got my attention! I was willing to try it out if it could remove the slight smell that would linger in her room after he used his litter box. The Shark Air Purifier comes in two colors; white and black. My daughter chose black since it matches her room decor. I purchased a unit for my bedroom also and chose the same color. ?

Let’s be honest; the actual test is in the performance, right? At least for me. When we picked them up from Wal-Mart, I was a bit taken aback by their size. It’s tall. Yes, I knew it was a tall unit, but seeing it in person was different. That’s ok, it still can fit into the rooms selected without an issue, and while I was on board from the initial shock, it took my daughter a bit longer to adjust. I showed her where she should place the unit in her room, so it would not be an issue. Nope, she still had some reservations. However, within minutes after setting up the purifier in her room, it removed Bengie’s lingering odor, and that’s what convinced her. Regarding how quickly the smell vanished, initially, I thought it might have been my wishful thinking that I wasn’t smelling anything. I did not say anything; however, my daughter commented on how “much cleaner her room smelled” after placing it in her room.

On the top and side of the unit is a digital readout/menu in which you can track your air quality and the intensity of the fans that are used. These units have four small fans located inside. I do find the info that it tracks to be interesting. Scrolling through the “Air Info” menu screens for the filter located in my bedroom, I see that I

currently have 4,394 hours before I need to replace the filter,

 

I will say that after burning incense in my room, that number plummeted to 22%,

 

and then it dropped to down 9%, before bottoming out at 0!

 

It will take 90 minutes to clean my bedroom.

 

And a few moments ago, I took another obligatory photo; I see there’s hope! The air quality within my bedroom has climbed to 30%! Glancing over at my Shark, I see it’s now at 61%. My air quality is still in the red zone; however, there’s hope as my numbers continue to soar.

Initial thoughts

I love pets and welcome them in our home; however, I don’t want to SMELL them in our house, and before Bengie, we did not have this issue. Although he stays in the upper levels of the home, the fact that there was still an occasional odor within the rooms that he frequented was an annoyance for me. After turning the unit on, I found it odd that her room was at 100% clean air. I still smelled a faint odor of Bengie in her room when I placed the unit in there. I’m unsure what to think of that. I’ll have to do a bit more research on that topic.  I’ll be curious to see how the Shark Air Purifier performs within a few months; however, thus far, I’m impressed. It removed any lingering pet odor that I smelled after a few minutes of running. If it’s anything like my Shark Vacuum, which is still working as well as it did when I purchased it a few years ago, I believe I’ll still be impressed.

Edited to add

Fast forward thirty minutes later, and the Shark Air Purifier is almost back to 100%.

Yesterday afternoon, I received my VacMaster 215. It arrived a little after 2:00. I was still working, and so I brought it inside and went back to work.

This vacuum sealer has been on my want list since 2017. I’d used them many times at a local Food Bank where I volunteer, so I know they are excellent.

The box that it arrived in was huge! Additionally, there was a box inside the box, and it was neatly packaged with thick styrofoam which ensured that the machine was protected.

This machine weighs 83 pounds. I weigh 30 pounds more than the machine; however, although I’m petite, I could pick it up and place it on the island in our kitchen. Who knows, I might eventually purchase a heavy-duty cart for placement. It uses a 1/4 hp rotary oil pump. I added the oil once I’d set it up, and will keep an eye on it and change it when needed. Yesterday evening, after returning from the hospital where my father is, I used the machine. I used it non-stop for a little under an hour.

I must say that I’m enjoying my VacMaster 215, and I’m looking forward to using it extensively today. I’ve already used it on some of the produce from our garden. My one complaint would be that the little booklet that came with the machine did not give many details regarding the suggested settings for the VacMaster; however, I know I’ll be fine. There are a few YouTube videos about this particular brand. My favorite is by a lovely lady named Judy Leach, I stumbled upon her VacMaster videos shortly after she posted her first review, and it’s still my favorite video about this particular sealer.

I plan to set aside a few hours today, going through our deep freezer, and resealing anything that is not vacuum sealed. I’m actually looking forward to this. The machine came with vacuum-sealed bags, and I’d purchased more bags that arrived on Wednesday, and I have more scheduled to arrive later today. I definitely anticipated another round of shortages in the upcoming months, and I’m very happy if that does happen that I’m prepared. Since I’ve always done a lot of meal prep. My parents were and still are amazing role models when it comes to prepping, if there is a shortage, I’ll be prepared.

Besides water, herbal teas are what I consume most. I drink them several times weekly. Hot or cold, they’re always a welcome addition. I’m a member of a tea forum, because of that, I’ve become interested in blooming tea flowers. Some of the ones I’ve seen remind me of small kelp balls, and when hot water hits them, they unfurl to reveal a beautiful flower. While looking at them, I quickly realized that I could easily make those myself at home with the various edible flowers and herbs that I grow on our property, and I look forward to doing just that next year. However, until that time, I do believe that I will try some of the tea blooms myself.

This morning, I ordered this lovely glass teapot, and I’ll receive two tea flowers along with the teapot. It should arrive tomorrow morning by 8:00 am.

The description says,

GIFT SET INCLUDES TWO BLOOMING TEAS. The Celebration Teapot comes with two Teabloom jasmine-infused blooming tea flowers – also perfect for loose-leaf tea, teabags and fruit-infused waters. As a gift for a special person – or yourself! – this is a tasteful choice that shows how much you care.

I cannot wait to get my glass teapot and to try out the blooming teas for myself. This evening, I received two different tea blends from Tiesta Tea; Blueberry Wild Child, Loose Leaf Blueberry Hibiscus Herbal Tea, and Lavender Chamomile tea. My daughter and I tried the Blueberry Wild Child tea, and we adored the deliciously fragrant tea. We loved the delicate taste and the floral sweetness of this blend.

I’m looking forward to having another cup soon. I’m also looking forward to my much-loved hibiscus tea petals. I order them in bulk. That should arrive tomorrow morning also.