Category: Healthy Living

This past Christmas, one of the little “gifts” I gave to my daughter was an Anime inspired cookbook called Cook Anime by Diana Ault. I bought it on Amazon. Since I know what she likes, I searched for an Anime inspire cookbook. I was thrilled that she genuinely loved the book and spent part of Christmas day flipping through the book and getting excited about the different recipes and the anime and manga that was the inspiration. Quite a few of the references she was already familiar with. She has already cooked a few recipes from the book, and so I consider this gift a win. I figured she’d like it since my daughter loves Anime, so I thought this cookbook would inspire her to cook a bit more. It has!

Yesterday, I told her to pick a recipe from the cookbook and create it today.

She looked through the Cook Anime cookbook and decided to prepare the recipe on page 33, Tea on Rice.  The above picture is from the book. Reading the summary, the inspiration for the recipe was the Manga/Anime Bungo Stray Dogs.

It does feel strange being on the sidelines while she does the majority of the cooking. This afternoon, I was her helper, and I enjoyed assisting immensely. I must say that she did an excellent job preparing the meal.

 

I enjoyed the ingredients used within the dish; brown rice, green onion, tofu, garlic powder, onion powder, Himalayan sea salt, black pepper, a bit of red chili pepper for colo, and gunpowder tea. She added Braggs liquid amino acid to flavor the tofu. She let that marinate for a while before adding it to the dish. She didn’t follow the recipe explicitly; she used tofu instead of green onion, and other ingredients were substituted, but this dish inspired her.

I’ve challenged her to make one recipe per week from the book. Later this week, she said she’ll be making Rice Chahan, located on page 55 of the cookbook. The inspiration for that dish is an animated film titled Weathering with You.

At the end of February, I received this email from Ooni…

Hi there,

I’m getting in touch to give you an update on when you can expect to receive your new Ooni Pro 16 Oven order. 

As you may be aware, there have been a number of issues impacting global shipping availability and logistics over the past few months. This unfortunately means that there has been a delay to the expected shipping date of your Ooni Pro 16 Oven. 

We always do our best to give an accurate estimate for shipping at the time of placing your order and I am sorry that this has changed- I know how patiently you’ve been waiting. 

Taking into account current shipping delays, we expect that orders like yours will begin shipping out to you in early May. 

We will all be working hard to get your order out as quickly as possible, and we will send you tracking information as soon as your order has left our warehouse.

Thank you again for your order and your patience- we really appreciate it.

Take care,
The Ooni Team 

 

It appears my pizza oven will be delayed a bit more. No! I’m not a bit surprised. I ordered the 16″ Ooni Pro Multi-Fuel pizza oven on December 3, 2o20. When I placed the order, all the ovens had delays. However, the oven I wanted to had the longest delay. At that time, they weren’t being shipped until mid-April. That’s a long wait, but I was fine with that. Over the past few years, I’ve done a lot of research on outdoor ovens, and after finally settling on buying a portable oven, the brand that impressed me the most was Ooni! It’s no exaggeration for me to say that I’ve easily watched over 50 videos on this oven, after deciding it was the right or for me.

So, what’s another month? I’ll wait. I do hope it’s not delayed anymore. However, I can understand that it’s not their fault. During the shutdown, I discovered some amazing content creators on YouTube, and my favorite pizza maker would have to be Vito Iacapelli. He owns a restaurant in Los Angeles, California. I’ve included one of his videos below.

I love bubbly, carbonated, healthy beverages that tickle your nose. Since I’m not a fan of the regular sodas you purchase in the stores, I make my own. Not only are they healthier, but they’re delicious and contain “real ingredients.” I’ve been making my natural sodas from kombucha and water kefir grains for the past several years. However, yesterday, I ordered the DrinkMate from Amazon. It arrived the same day.

Is it just like the SodaStream?

Like the SodaStream, it creates carbonation; but, it differs from SodaStream, the trendy, carbonated drink maker in that I can carbonate anything as long as it isn’t pulpy. The SodaStream, you’re limited to what you can add to water, which means that with Sodastream, you can ONLY carbonate water. You add the flavors after the water is carbonated. With DrinkMate, I can carbonate ANY liquid as long as it doesn’t have pulp/sediment. I see myself using the Drinkmate to make my own carbonated water; however, I’ll also use it to carbonate my bulk teas, juices, and of course, water. I’m curious to experiment with a watermelon carbonated soda with this device. I’ve made it using water kefir grains, and I liked it immensely. Later today, I’ll be making ginger ale. Granted, I already know how they’re supposed to taste since I’ve already made these natural sodas by fermentation; SCOBY (kombucha) and water kefir grains.

Are other CO2 carbonated systems compatible with DrinkMate?

I know that the Sodastream 60l C02 canister is compatible with the Drinkmate; in fact, I have the 60l C02 SodaStream installed in my system now. Why? The Drinkmate that I ordered on Amazon, to be delivered the same day, didn’t come with a CO2 canister. They have them available. However, that would have arrived later this week. I wanted to receive the unit on the weekend, where I had more time to test it out.

C02 canisters can be exchanged?

I already knew the canisters could be exchanged locally or by postal mail. However, yesterday, before making the purchase, I double-checked to see the locations near me that were offering this service. There are several such as; Target, Home Depot, Bed, Bath, & Beyond, and several other stores. If I exchange them, the canisters received would be half the price of purchasing a new canister.

 

 

 

Also, checking Youtube, I discovered hacks for these canisters to reduce the cost of replacing CO2 even more. It would require me to purchase a few more items, including a much larger beverage-grade C02 canister, and that’s most likely the route I will take. I’ll look to purchase the C02 from a brewing company.

Initial thoughts about the Drinkmate

I really like it a lot. My daughter and I have enjoyed the carbonated hibiscus soda I made, and we’re both currently sipping on carbonated water that has fresh squeezed lemon and orange added. I squeezed both citrus fruits into my small glass pyrex measuring cup and then poured the juice into my Drinkmate bottle. I used the 1L bottle and filled it up to the fill line. I depressed the button on top of the machine four times to carbonate the water.

 

Although I drink water throughout the day, I realized that I’d been slacking and that I could easily up my intake of water by only not having to refill my container when I’m at work. Because of that, I swapped from my 32 oz glass mason jar to my 64 oz Iron Flask steel bottle that I purchased last Sunday. I’d told my daughter that my challenge would be to make sure that I continued to consume the same amount over the weekend when I was home, but guess what? That’s been a non-issue today. Because I’m almost done drinking my 64 ounces of water, typically, I’m done by 2:00 PM when I’m at work. I purposely try to do this, so if I have to use the restroom, that urge ends when I leave the office at 5:00 PM.

I have noticed that my sleep is becoming more restful again. More rest is excellent news! My appetite was never out of control. However, I have observed that I’m eating less daily.

Take, for example, today. I just ate about twenty minutes ago, and I only ate some (oil-free) home-baked fries. I bake them at 400 F. Guess what? They’re as crispy as fries cooked in oil. I must say, these fries sure are tasty, and they are one of my favorite baked treats, but I wasn’t able to finish this bowl; I’m just not hungry. I’ve saved half the bowl and will eat them either later today or perhaps tomorrow? That’s the thing; I won’t force myself to eat if I’m not hungry.

I did make my daughter a fish sandwich, and much earlier today, I prepared lunch for my father (hamburger with caramelized onions) but preparing the food didn’t make me the least bit hungry. For the most part, I will say that I typically only eat when I’m hungry throughout my life. Being this way has saved me from unnecessary weight gain. I might increase my water intake a bit more since it’s the weekend because I find that I crave even more water. I’m sure if I weighed myself, I would see that I’ve dropped a few pounds also. However, I’m not increasing my water intake for weight loss. I’m doing it because I should. I will say that I’m now back to the amount of water that I usually drank, and it does feel great. When I was actively going to the gym  (I currently work out at home), I drank even more water, at least a gallon (128 ounces) daily.

 

The freshest mushrooms I’ve ever had are the ones that you harvest yourself. Well, the mushrooms I had on hand today, weren’t harvested at home. They were purchased at the local grocery store, and while not as tasty as freshly harvested shrooms, they were still delicious.

I didn’t feel like heating any of the meal-prepped food I’d prepared when I arrived home from work today. I have a few weeks of food made by myself. As I thought about something quick to prepare, I remembered that my daughter had commented on mushrooms, how much she liked them, and that I hadn’t made anything with them in a little while. Since I’d just purchased several pounds of mushrooms this weekend, I decided to make something simple with portobello mushrooms.

In a skillet, I sauteed mushrooms, onions until the onions were becoming translucent. I then added a marinara sauce and let simmer for a few minutes. To that dish, I also added a variety of spices and herbs. While that food was simmering,  I cooked noodles in a small pot. I chose to cook the dishes separately. The good news is, my daughter loves this dish. I didn’t make too much. In hindsight, I should have made more, and right now, I’m too tired to make another round of food. No worries, it’s something I’ll prepare tomorrow morning before heading to work.

In other news…

We received more snow today. However, it didn’t start until I was at work. It snowed for at least three hours. By the time I left work for home, the roads were clear. However, the steps at work were iced over again in some places.

Last weekend, I purchased an outdoor pizza oven, and although it’s listed as a “pizza oven,” it can do so much more. I bought the (portable) 16” Multi-Fuel Ooni Pro pizza oven.

However, it won’t be available until mid-April. It seems that the pandemic had a lot of people expanding their horizons and trying out new things. Creating pizzas is just one of many hobbies some have discovered. Making my own pizza’s isn’t a new hobby for me. It’s something I’ve actively enjoyed making for a few decades.

I’m looking forward to the outdoor oven. It’ll cook foods at much higher temperatures than our oven can ever hope to reach. Currently, it’s the highest temperature is 550 F. What’s the highest temperature for the Ooni Pro? Oh, about 1000F. My Neopolitan pizzas will be ready in less than two minutes. I’m definitely looking forward to baking pizzas, bread, and all sorts of delicious foods in my outdoor oven.

Until then, I’ll keep making pizzas in my standard oven. While our oven does not cook a pizza in under two minutes, I still make delicious pizzas.

My goodness, where has the time gone? This year has passed by in a blur. In August, I purchased mountain bikes for my daughter and myself, and several times weekly, we’ve been exploring the great outdoors. I’d been researching bikes for several months and narrowed my selection to Trek and Specialized bikes. Since Trek wasn’t available at any local bike shops where I’d visited, I went with Specialized. I must say that we’re both happy with the selection. It gives us another way to be outdoors, enjoying nature.

The quickest workout is within our community. It’s about a mile back, surrounded by trees on both sides, before opening up into our little community. Upon leaving the neighborhood, there’s a hill. While you might not notice it within a vehicle, you’re aware of that hill when you’re bike riding or running. This hill has a slow incline, so it’s a lactic burn until it levels off. I’ve joined a few local biking groups and plan to do my first century (100-mile ride) sometime next year.