“Girl and Dog” – artist unknown
I hope the girl will read to the dog.
Kate Hoyer
I want to pet this sweet dog and make him smile.
Monthly Archives: December 2016
Superfoods Chili Recipe
HungerActions.wordpress.com
Recently I told you about a new recipe book I’m really enjoying: Low Carb Recipes for Diabetics by Don Orwell. He concentrates on Super Foods that boost immunity, promote weight loss and slow aging.
I gave you the recipe for his Minestrone. Today I’m sharing his recipe for Superfoods Chili.
My husband’s first reaction was, “This isn’t chili. It’s a stew.” But then he started eating. Then got a second bowl. Wanted it for dinner the next night – and we finished it for lunch yesterday. And he’s requested more…
This recipe is Sugar Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free,* Egg Free, and Nut Free
SuperFoods Chili
Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp. coconut oil
- 2 onions, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound ground beef
- 3/4 pound beef sirloin, cubed
- 1 cup diced tomatoes
- 1 cup strong brewed coffee
- 1/2 cup tomato paste
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp ground cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 cups cooked kidney beans
- 4 fresh hot chili peppers, chopped
Instructions:
Put all ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on low for 4 hours.
MY NOTES:
I hate using half a cap of something, only to have to throw away the remainder several days later, so I used
- one can of diced tomatoes
- one can of tomato paste
We don’t like ‘hot’, so I eliminated the cayenne pepper, and hot chili peppers, substituting some regular ground peppercorns and some chili powder.
I used 2 cans of kidney beans, draining and rinsing them in a strainer before adding to the slow cooker.
*We sprinkled on some shredded cheese, so our version was not dairy free.
Filed under Cooking/Recipes/Low Carb Lifestyle, DIET!
Baby’s 1st Christmas – Take 7
Thanks to The Riflebird via The Kakapo via Ann Gilstrap
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, holidays
Christmas Gift Suggestions
Wright-Hennepin Co-op Elec. Assn
“Christmas gift suggestions:
- To your enemy, forgiveness.
- To an opponent, tolerance.
- To a friend, your heart.
- To a customer, service.
- To all, charity.
- To every child, a good example.
- To yourself, respect.” ~ Oren Arnold
Filed under Favorite Quotes, Holiday Gift Ideas, holidays
Oil Paintings I Love – Take 3
DayDayPaint.com
I can almost hear the water in this one. Amazing.
DayDayPaint.com
I want to sit in the middle of this sweet family and gather everyone close.
Donald Zolan
Filed under Oil Paintings I Love
Yoga Interrupted
I’ve been so busy lately that the days have gotten away from me – and with them – my daily yoga practice.
Today I decided it wasn’t going to happen again. I was doing my first section when my husband came in from the shop – hungry for lunch. He saw I was busy, so put the leftover low carb chili into the microwave to warm it up. He sat quietly – or mostly – while I finished my session.
I got up, heated the chili for a second time and we ate. I was going to do my second session, but we watched the news. Suddenly I woke up – not having noticed that I fell asleep while supposedly catching up on some of the day’s events.
I came in the office to write a couple of blog posts and wake up with some coffee.
I just went in to do my second session to find my husband in his lounger with a towel over his eyes, asleep.
Hopefully, he’ll wake up soon and I can finish. If not, at least I got ONE session in today…
Filed under exercise
Birds in Winter
“Border Between Ice and Water” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Cold” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Playing with Your Food – Food Train
Creative Things via Vickie Eisenlohr
Filed under Creativity, playing with your food?
Hug
Favim.com
“A hug is a great gift – one size fits all, and it’s easy to exchange.” ~Author Unknown
Baby’s 1st Christmas – Take 6
Thanks to The Riflebird via The Kakapo via Ann Gilstrap
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, holidays
1st Day of Winter 2016
What’s On
Today is the 1st day of winter. I like to think of winter in abstract terms: hot chocolate, fires in the fireplace, warm boots, hats, scarves, mittens – plus snow angels, snowmen, great big fluffy flakes falling like you’re in the middle of a snow globe. Sledding down our driveway with my son in the front, laughing with glee, his hands in the air….
Reality is that in Arkansas, winter isn’t done well. We almost always have ice first, then snow, then more ice. Tree limbs snap as I stand on the porch. Huge limbs fall into the driveway, causing my husband and I to have to use the chain saw to clear the driveway before we can get out. One year we had so much ice that the public water stopped. We were stuck on top of our ridge line with well water. We had no public power, so we started our Chinese diesel generator. The generator overheated, so my husband and son had to put 40 gallon barrels on saw horses and fill them with water in order to keep the generator cool enough to work. We had to monitor it every 30 minutes, day and night. This went on for 14 days.
Since then, we bought a new propane-powered generator that turns itself on when the power goes out, and turns itself off when the public power is again available. We haven’t lost public water since that awful year about 10 years ago. Last year we were proactive, hiring a man to cut down trees on either side of the driveway that might fall in another ice storm. We had enough snow and ice that all the evergreen trees bent over into the driveway, making it impossible to get down. We had to wait until we could cut down a bunch of the evergreens and haul them to one side in order to get out.
We do have snow tires on our truck which make it possible for us to go down – and come up again – unless we get a bunch of ice. Then we just stay home until the ice melts.
Thank goodness that Arkansas is not a state known for getting lots of snow in the winter!
I still enjoy making snow angels and making snowmen. I still enjoy big, fluffy flakes of snow, feeling as if I’m in the middle of my own, private snow globe.
I love pretty pictures of snow ELSEWHERE, and I LOVE the creative snowmen people make.
The main thing I like about winter is that it doesn’t last forever. It’s a chance for me to get some stuff done inside. I might actually have time to get up and play in my art room! I can plan what I’ll plant and in what squares in our new raised bed square foot garden in the spring.
Hot chocolate (no sugar added) and fires in the fireplace are things I can look forward to.
Have a great winter, my friends!
GifAbyss – Alpha Coders
Filed under Arkansas, Mother Nature
Baby’s 1st Christmas – Take 5
Thanks to The Riflebird via The Kakapo via Ann Gilstrap
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, holidays
Happy New Year Mailbox Decoration Progress Report
Yesterday I finished painting the back side of the Calvin & Hobbes Happy New Year mailbox decoration.
Today I flipped the piece and started painting on the front of the piece. I’ll show more pics when the front is finished. We plan to put the piece on the mailbox after Christmas, so I’m really having to hurry to finish it in time. :0)
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
Oil Paintings I Love – Take 2
Sorry. I can’t read the signature to give credit.
AliExpress.com
Filed under Oil Paintings I Love
Mailbox Decoration for New Years
My husband got the bug to make a mailbox decoration for New Year’s. He found this cute Calvin & Hobbes design on the net. We had to modify the one he found, moving the wording from the gray square on the left of this picture down to across the bottom, larger, and with a different font. We also needed to add an elbow to Hobbes.
My husband translated the picture to the code needed by the computer attached to our CNC setup (computer guided plasma torch) so that we could cut the design out of sheet metal. We made a mounting pipe and welded it to the cut out design. We then painted everything with gray primer paint to keep the metal from rusting.
I then marked both sides of the piece with the design. For some unknown reason, it was really difficult to get the design to match up with the transparency on the overhead projector on the back side. We ended up marking Hobbes’ head, then moved the transparency and lined things up so that I could do Calvin’s head, then moved it again for the words. I then had to free hand all the things that came between the 3 moves to complete the design.
I painted the first coat on the back yesterday. It went pretty well, considering all the guessing I had to do to get the design to come together. I’ll try to finish the back today, except for the accents.
We trying to have it ready to put up on the mailbox right after Christmas.
I’ll post pics when it’s up.
Have a great day!
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
Baby’s 1st Christmas – Take 4
Thanks to The Riflebird via The Kakapo via Ann Gilstrap
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, holidays
Oil Paintings I Love – Take 1
OilPaintingFactory.com – ToPerfectArt
David Stribbling (?) – Sorry, I can’t make out the signature.
Filed under Oil Paintings I Love
Baby’s 1st Christmas – Take 3
Thanks to The Riflebird via The Kakapo via Ann Gilstrap
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, holidays
Baby’s 1st Christmas – Take 2
thanks to The Riflebird via The Kakapo via Ann Gilstrap
Filed under holidays
A Very Nice Day
Fort Smith AR Nat’l Cemetery
My friend, Carla, and I went this morning to lay a wreath at her husband’s grave in the Fort Smith, Arkansas National Cemetery. Volunteers spent hours yesterday tying bows to the wreaths and more volunteers trucked them around the cemetery. Family members came this morning to put a wreath on their loved one’s grave. The wreaths will be up until January 2nd, I think, and then more volunteers will gather them, take the bows off, and store things away until next time. Burials are free for veterans and their spouses. A wonderful tribute to our brave men and women in uniform and their families.
We went to a local Fort Smith restaurant for brunch and good conversation after that. Also – to warm up a bit! The temperature was in the low 50s when we left this morning. By the time I got home, it was in the low 40s with a raw, cold wind. It’s supposed to go down to 16 tonight with a chance of light snow…
After brunch we went to one of our favorite places – Hobby Lobby. Neither of us needed anything, but that was beside the point. We both bought things that made us smile.
I got this metal sign for my husband. I hung it on the wall above our kitchen calendar so we’ll see it every day.
I guess these are made of some sort of treated paper, but I’ve never seen any Christmas ornaments like this before. I got two beige ones, like the one above, and two pale green ones, like the one below. Each of them has pearls and lots of sparkly glitter.
This sweet seahorse painting was on sale, and I couldn’t resist it. :0)
This picture doesn’t do this ornament justice. It’s super sparkly silver and simple glistens when light hits it. I just love it.
Finally, the next two pictures are of Carla’s present to my husband and me.
This is an electric cool mist diffuser. You can change the color! It has red, green, purple, blue, white, and more, I think. You fill it with water, drop in a few drops of essential oil in whatever aroma you like and turn it on. The mist goes up in a small column straight up from the center of the top. It turns itself off automatically when the water has been used up. So it’s very festive, plus adds needed moisture to the air. What a wonderful gift!
Yesterday I turned it to the purple setting, and today I changed it to red. I LOVE IT!
When we were on the way home, Carla stopped at her house so I could see her new rabbit. It’s about 12″ from nose to tail and she says it’s calico colored. I would describe it as a really soft between a mauve and caramel color. He likes to be petted! So far, Carla hasn’t been able to hold him, but hopefully, that will come soon. She’s added this new member of the family to her dog and two cats. :0)
I called my husband, who met us at Carla’s. We and her close neighbor were able to help her get a huge outdoor hutch out of the back of her truck and set it beside her shop. She’s planning to start raising rabbits in the future. For the winter, the rabbit is living in an indoor hutch inside the house. All the animals seem to be co-existing without problems, though the dog tends to sit right beside the hutch with her nose as close to the rabbit as she can get. The rabbit seems oblivious…
I got home and put all my new goodies away. Now I’m happy to hole up in my warm house while the weather outside deteriorates.
Filed under Friendship, holidays
Low Carb Minestrone Soup Is a Winner!
Wikipedia
My husband’s firm opinion is that Campbell’s Soup is the best and that no one should even try to compete. He ate his words – as well as the soup – last night! :0)
The recipe is for “Minestrone” and the source is Low Carb Recipes for Diabetics by Don Orwell.
He looks as food as medicine. He promotes what he calls Super Foods that boost immunity, promote weight loss, and slow aging. This is the first of his recipes we’ve tried, and we’re really impressed.
The Minestrone Recipe serves 8 to 10. It’s sugar fee, gluten free, dairy free, egg free, and nut free. So what’s left? Really good soup!
Ingredients:
- 3 tbsp. coconut oil
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 onions, chopped
- 2 cups chopped celery
- 2 carrots, sliced
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup tomato sauce*
- 1/2 oz red wine (optional)
- 1 cup raw cannellini beans*
- 2 cups green beans*
- 2 cups baby spinach, rinsed
- 3 zucchinis, quartered and sliced*
- 1 tbsp. chopped oregano
- 2 tbsp. chopped basil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp. olive oil or cumin oil
Instructions:
Put all ingredients in the slow cooker and cook on low for 6 hours
NOTES: (MINE)
- I used a whole can of tomato sauce
- I used a CAN of cannellini beans
- I used a CAN of green beans
- I used ONE zucchini
- I went lighter on the herbs and spices
- At my husband’s request, I added some cut up roast beef (about one cup, diced)
- I added some xanthan gum thickener about half an hour before serving
I really liked this soup, but I’m much easier to please than my husband. HE liked it, too. He requested we eat some of the leftovers tonight, along with garlic bread made with our new low carb bread. He sounded surprised when he told me it was “good – really good,” and then mentioned it again when we were cleaning up. I have two large glass bowls of soup left. I’m thinking that I’ll serve one of them for us tonight and freeze the other to enjoy later.
Filed under Cooking/Recipes/Low Carb Lifestyle, DIET!
Baby’s First Christmas – Take 1
Thanks to The Riflebird via The Kakapo via Ann Gilstrap
Filed under holidays
creativeartworksblog 