Baking Without Eggs March 14, 2008

I love to cook, especially if it involves following a real recipe.  I have the added challenge of baking things without eggs since I have a son who is allergic to them.  I have discovered a wonderful cookbook titled “Bakin’ Without Eggs,” by Rosemarie Emro.  The recipe I would like to highlight now is “I Can’t Believe It Has No Eggs Cheesecake.”  I took the liberty of adding a topping, which was a huge hit with my family.  Pictures of my success are as follows.

 

If you are interested in the details of the recipe, I will gladly share with you!

San Diego, CA

I had the opportunity to spend a week in California this past week.  Unfortunately it was due to my uncle being sick;  he had a heart attack!  We spent most of our time visiting with him, but during times of letting him rest we did do a little sight seeing.  I thought I would share some of my pictures…

The Cove at La Jolla Underwater Park

I love palm trees and waves!

This Cove is called Seal Beach.  We got to watch as some of the Seal were being born!

Our visit ended with a beautiful sunset.

Next, we visited the Cabrillo National Monument.  The view of the city of San Diego was awesome from here.

 This is what is inside the light house and is responsible for magnifying the glow of the canldelight that was once used to light up the harbor.

I have many more pictures, but it takes very long to edit each one and post them.  I will try to add more as time goes on, so keep looking back!

Homemade Pizza February 28, 2008

I have been on a mission to start cooking from scratch using whole and organic ingredients.  I have a child with food allergies, so my mission is doubly important.  I have found that I enjoy cooking when it involves more than opening a box and adding water. 

To start my journey, I decided to pick from the dinners that we are use to eating and learn how to make them from scratch.  I decided to start with pizza first.  It took a few recipes and some practice to finally master it.  I am completely satisfied with the final results.  I even had a pizza party that involved the making of seven pizzas!  The pizza proved to be a huge hit, which is not usually an easy accomplishment with my usual food critics, those being my family.

I found the pizza dough recipe on Food Blogga.  I am excited to give more of her recipes a try.  I have not mastered a pizza sauce from scratch as of yet, so for now I am using Contandina brand pizza sauce.  We layer whatever toppings we are in the mood for, along with a pile of mozzerella cheese, and voila!  A great tasting pizza! 

I have asked for permission from the author of Food Blogga to list the recipe on this site, but until I get a response you will have to go through this link to get the recipe.  The entry happens to be a recipe for a particular kind of pizza, but the blog entry starts out with the recipe for basic pizza dough. 

I urge you to give it a try!  I think you will be pleasantly surprised about the ease in which it takes to make it and how wonderful it tastes.

Side Notes February 20, 2008

I am not a popular writer by any means, but based on my little site counter I can see that I do get a few visitors.  I have no idea whether you like my topics or if you would like to see more of them, but if you like what you see and wish to see more, please leave me a note.  I will then try to make your wish more of a priority.  After all, it is more fun to write about something if you know it is being enjoyed by someone else.

Introduction to a new category- cooking

As the creation of this site has been in the making, I have been pondering different categories to write about.  I wish to keep this blog as a more personal journey in writing about the things that are of interest to me ,or things that are just part of my life whether I have interest in them or not.

Once such aspect of my life that I am still newly involved in but greatly enjoy is cooking.  I am trying hard to incorporate more healthy and whole foods into my family’s diet, and by doing so I have discovered that there is a whole other world out there for me.  So, for this category I plan to write about all of the new recipes that I try, and in turn reviewing them based on how successful I am in bringing the to the dinner table.  I completely welcome new ideas from others, so please feel free to share them here.

4 My “getting back into shape” journey

I have been invited to write about my “getting back into shape” journey on the weighdownes blog, therefore I have decided to cease my journal about it here.  Please feel free to venture over and check it out.  For those of you who are in the same boat, I think you will find it somewhat inspiring.  The blog is still in the beginning stages, but I believe it will prove to offer much more as time goes on.

3 My “getting back into shape” journey February 15, 2008

I have decided that living a healthy life is not all that bad.  Of course, it has only been a couple of days, and I am sure there will be more testing times along the way.  I have been pleasantly surprised at how much easier it is than I thought it would be.  Maybe it is this writing about it on a daily basis that is helping me pay more attention.  It makes me feel more accountable for the decisions I make because I know I am going to write about my day.

Now that I have written about my feelings on how hard the journey feels, lets take a look at yesterday.  First the diet.

*breakfast- an apple and black coffee

*lunch- 1 grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup and an apple.  WATER, of course, to drink

*dinner- homemade pizza and WATER to drink

*junk- two homemade donuts, two Kalibers (non-alcoholic beer)

Now that I see my diet written out, I can better critique it.  Breakfast could have been improved by eating something more such as the bowl of oatmeal I had the previous morning.  Lunch was great!  I was careful to make my sandwich with only one piece of cheese and minimal butter.  I felt very satisfied after completing the meal with the apple.  Dinner wasa bit heavy, though.  I made a homemade pizza dough that was delicious, but I am sure it was laden with calories.  The pizza was also layered with pepperoni and bacon pieces.  On a positive note, I only ate two pieces and I did drink WATER along with the meal.  What I definitely should not have eaten were the donuts.  I was trying to make homemade donuts for my children to eat for desert and I hadto test them out.  They were awful, by the way   The beers, well, I know I could have done without, but it is only an occasional thing.  Sometimes, when I get the rare privilege of watching a few of the TV shows I have recorded I also like to enjoy one (or two) of my fake beers.  I can justify the beer since it is only rarely.

Now for the exercise.

*I worked out my stomach muscles by kneading three batches of dough.

Okay, yes, the exercise category is sad.  I did not get on that machine.  By the time the evening came I was so dreadfully tired!  But, I woke up this morning with aching stomach muscles!  I did not realize at the time, but I was giving myself a very serious ab workout by kneading that dough.

In my reflection, I can see two things to improve from yesterday.  I need to eat a real breakfast.  I also need to just say noto the junk!  Exercise seems to be my hardest challenge.  I think about it everyday, and I believe that in due time I will get more in the habit.  With the weather being what it is I am trapped in the house.  I much prefer to be outdoors in which I get tonsmore exercise.