Mental Vacation

I'm totally stressing right now. And it's over something stupid. I have tickets to the opera tomorrow night and my husband and I decided to play hooky and have a nice dinner and a quiet night at the hotel instead. Reason being that the opera is 5 hours long and we will be rushing to get there in time after I get off work tomorrow. For some reason I feel guilty about not going to the opera because it is one of my favorite composers (Wagner) and favorite singers (Debbie Voigt). I'm exhausted and overworked and having a relaxing mini trip to Chicago without rushing to and from and opera would be nice. But just thinking about not going is stressing me out! It's so silly.

I guess in a lot of ways I feel as though it is me getting another step further away from pursuing my dream of a career in opera. Music has always been a passion of mine, but, like many people, as having a steady income and all that goes along with married life became the driving factors in my life, it has somehow fallen by the wayside. I still take lessons, I still sing, I still dream. But the dream is always feeling further out of reach. In some respects it just mutates in to different avenues of pursuing singing, in other respects I purposely avoid it because I am making a self-fulfilling prophecy of it never happening. Avoidance becomes easier than actually doing the hard work and commitment and risks it would take. And in a very poignant way, NOT going to the 5hour long opera for a mental health vacation seems to be bringing all of my fears and anxieties about my dreams to a head. For what though? How can seeing a single opera affect the ultimate outcome of achieving those dreams? It can't. I no small or big way does it affect it at all, but the little voices in my head want to make me believe that it does.

Go away voices! You are not wanted here! (that is what my voice teacher tells me to say when ever negative thoughts/memories enter my consciousness)

Anyway, I still don't know what I'm going to do. Perhaps I go to an act or two of the opera (which exhausts me just typing about it right now) or I skip it altogether and enjoy and wonderful dinner and relaxing evening with my husband. I'm not sure what I'll do. I guess I will just figure it out as the day goes tomorrow. Ultimately, a decision will be made and either way, as my voice teacher tells me all the time, the good news and the bad news is that I'm going to be okay.

Fish, Chicken, and Meatballs

As promised, I have more tasty meals to share with you. It's funny how after so long you get bored with what you are eating and feel as though you are running out of "creative" ideas of things to cook. Sometimes, you have to go back to basics and maybe make a twist on it, or cook something that is tasty but ridiculously easy to make. I think these three meals fit that bill perfectly. And, they are all really healthy!

I had a bottle of white wine that I needed to finish the other night and I was craving fish at the same time, so throw them together under the broiler and you have a really satisfying meal! Not to mention how a glass of that same wine with the fish that was poached in it tasted! Magnifique! Keeping it light and healthy we paired it with bread and salad with homemade white wine vinaigrette dressing. And FYI, homemade dressing is so easy to make and tastes so much better that I think it is silly to spend money on salt and chemically laden shelf stable stuff. Seriously... throw them out and start making your own, it's so easy a two year old could do it: Oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and herbs if you want them for added flavor. Anyway, I cooked a cod for this recipe but tried it a few days later with halibut and it was just as good. I seasoned the fish with salt, pepper, and my Sunny Paris Seasoning from the Spice House.

With the cold weather we've been having I also wanted something quick and easy to make that was filling and warming. In come the meatballs. We make our meatballs with ground turkey and season them with another Spice House seasoning blend, Rocky Mountain Seasoning. We top it off with a simple mushroom pasta sauce simply because my husband and I love the mushroom ones. Usually I try to go for the Newman's Own brand because of the high quality ingredients and depth of flavor, but my husband went shopping that day so we did the store brand which was good and quite economical (BTW store brands are good things, trust me on this one I was in the grocery industry, they are pretty much the same as the name brands and in some cases are actually made by the name brand companies!). Anyway, I like rotini pasta so we served it on that. And it was sooooo good.

Finally, is a meal I made twice in a three day period my husband and I loved it so much. I got the recipe out of Real Simple magazine. It's a lightly breaded chicken, seasoned with lemon zest, cumin, and salt and pepper cooked with green olives, shallots, Italian flat leaf parsley, white wine, and lemon juice. I decided it needed another ingredient to up the veggie quotient so I added baby bella mushrooms since they are a natural pairing with white wine. My husband and I hummed through the whole meal. We served it with a microwaved Yukon gold potato so that we could soak up the extra sauce with it. And btw, it tastes just as good reheated the next day. The lighting sucks on this, but hopefully you get the idea. I need to remember to take pictures in my kitchen instead of my dining room, the lighting is better in there.

A Long Time With No Food

It's been a while since I've posted any food porn! So I think we are way overdue and it will take forever to post all the pix, we are going to do it in small batches. First up, the long awaited pizza pix from when I had my friend over the other night. We did make your own pizza, healthy and high-class style. I made homemade whole wheat crust, homemade sauce, and had lots of healthy fixings on hand for topping.

First is a shot of my pizza, pre-cooking. I bought a very fancy tomato basil and garlic soft cheese to use instead of mozzarella, and even though I am still limiting dairy, I put some on a small portion of my pizza. Toppings include: turkey-roni, baby bella mushrooms, spinach, yellow squash, zucchini, sliced Roma tomatoes and garlic stuffed olives. It was so good, though I did overdo it with the amount of toppings I put on. Everything was sprinkled with fresh basil, Italian flat leaf parsley, and oregano, plus a dash of olive oil and salt and pepper.

My friend and husband's pizzas were a bit more cheese covered...

I think the massive amounts of cheese they used made theirs look better right out of the oven, but mine was so tasty, who cares. Right?

I wanted to make a healthy and fancy dessert to go along with the pizza, so I made rice flour crepes and topped them with sauteed strawberries and powdered sugar. I had some difficulties with the crepes in keeping them together, but I think that was in part due to my still figuring out how to properly cook with my new range. Every range cooks a little differently, believe it or not!


The strawberries weren't organic either and the availability was not what I had hoped as far as quality. The cooked down super fast and were a bit more mushy than I normally like them. The recipe needs some tweaking, even though it was good that night. Next time they won't be just good, they will be extraordinary!

More food pix too come, but I need to break it up so the posts don't become obnoxiously long!

Contemplating Politics

It has come to my attention, in more ways than one, that in my happy workplace there is one major way in which I do not fit in. Politics. Granted, it's the same with my in-laws, we all get along fine but when it comes to politics I have no one on my side. So what is the best solution in those situations? I just keep my mouth shut. Just as with the in-laws, I keep my mouth shut at work too, though I am overwhelmed by the feeling that they assume that I am of the same political mindset as them, which could not be further from reality.

Conversation of today's historic inauguration happened sporadically today at work, and as we discussed (in very surface, non-specific conversations-- well, at least on my part) the events of the day I was overcome with the strangest feeling. That somehow it is a conflict of interest to both work at a doctor's office or be part of the healthcare industry and be pro-Obama. The feeling was really intense today, and has kind of popped in and out of my radar since shortly before the elections. Perhaps I am not educated enough on the subject, or perhaps my ideology of the importance of the role government can play in bettering everyone's lives for equal opportunity (a fundamental concept for Democrats) overrules any sort of knowledge that I could gain on the subject to change my mind. All I know is that I feel that my political ideology is at odds with my current profession. On the flipside, the profession I aspire to make my lifelong profession- classical music- is perfectly in line with my ideology.

Even as I write this, it feels as though I cannot get the words or thoughts straight in my mind to weed through the reasoning to it. I see where my coworkers are coming from on the business side- current government subsidized healthcare programs pay a measly fraction of what employer provided insurance programs cover. It makes perfect sense for a business to not support government healthcare programs for that reason alone. Yet at the same point, there are people that cannot afford to get the care they need because insurance costs too much and, in some cases, even with insurance their deductibles or copays are so high it deters them from getting the care they desperately need until they are truly in a state of needing "sick"care.

Therein lies the fundamental problem with our "health"care system. It is structured to simply be a "sick"care program and supports simply masking symptoms or issues, rather than dealing with the underlying causes. We pop pills to make the pain stop, but don't actually address what caused the pain in the first place. And why are so many dying of heart disease, or cancer, or other ailments? Poor diet, lack of exercise, chemically-laced/enhanced/fortified foods, smoking, and the list goes on. That is a subject we discuss all the time at my office, but I fail to see how supporting one candidate over the other supports changing our "health"care system to actually be healthcare. The main difference is availability to the masses, so that everyone has the ability to go to the doctor before the symptoms become so severe that they are rushed to the ER. Doesn't just making that small step bring us closer to a true healthcare system? I don't know, but it sure seems like a start to me.

Then again, I'm just a girl who lives in a bubble and has been fortunate enough to be able to have health insurance without lapse these 29 years. For a short while it might have been fudged a little under my parents, but it was the only option when you need constant medical access for allergies and medications and asthma and hives and, well, everything. That's just my experience, and for those people, like my husband, who are fortunate enough to be healthy enough to avoid needing constant access to a doctor that's great. But that hasn't been my experience, and that makes me feel strongly that access to healthcare should be a right, not a privilege.

Delinquent Blogger

I've been a bit delinquent on blogging these past weeks, but for good reason! We painted our office- and it is lovely! I went over five whole days without internet while we were painting and then putting everything back together, and that was a rough five days for me having now access to the internet! You don't realize how addicted to it you are until you don't have it at your fingertips, easily accessible.

What I can take away from the experience- other than being able to actually SURVIVE five whole days with no internet- is that a little paint does really go a long way in a room. Our once purpley-grey office with a really bad paint job and even worse trim paint job now looks refreshed and absolutely gorgeous. I have my elfa shelves on the wall and am still working on organizing the room the way I like it, but it looks so much better than it did! And even in it's "still being put back together" state my friend last night commented on how organized I was. I had to scratch my head for a minute since it still looks a bit like a tornado went through, but I guess maybe my standards are just a bit high- which I blame entirely on having worked at the Container Store for two years. Pictures will be coming soon.

In other exciting organization news, the buffet for my kitchen is finally coming today! My mother-in-law and aunt-in-law are finally making the trek with it and I can't wait to finish organizing my kitchen! When you cook like I do, having lots of storage and being organized is so important!

Speaking of, I will have lots of yummy food pix coming soon. Lots of good eats have been going on these last two weeks!

My new favorite food: The perfect vegetarian pizza

After realizing that since the stomach flu bought my diet had gotten a bit off track (and I was noticing the difference with my digestion) I needed something easy to make, eat, and super tasty (like always). Dairy was starting to bother my gallbladder- probably, due to the massive amounts of cheese I consumed over a 5 day period, which still paled in comparison to what I use to consume- so I thought why not try a cheeseless pizza? Load it with tons of veggies and make it with whole wheat dough, but skip the cheese and see how it tastes, ya know? I could not have made a better dish!!!! Doing my usual thing I compiled a few different recipes and made my own rendition of an old favorite. I made homemade whole wheat dough for the crust to add fiber, nutrition and flavor, and topped it with a homemade tomato sauce and tons of veggies. I topped it off with some EVOO and fresh herbs. So good!

Look at how beautifully all the veggies roasted and the beautiful carmelization of the tomato sauce on the crust.

Not only was this super tasty and super healthy, but it definitely got my digestion "regular" again, if you know what I mean. Talk about fiber! One of my girlfriends is coming over for dinner on Saturday night and I think I will do a reprise of this recipe, but in a "create your own" pizza way. I'm sure my husband will like it, especially topped with disgusting amounts of cheese... though the pizza does not need it at all! I didn't miss it or want it the flavors will so rich! To make it non-vegetarian and add some protein, I've been eating the leftovers with turkey-roni and it's quite good with it!

I love the flexibility of pizza and I can't wait to play with variations on this creation this weekend!

Ringing in the New Year With Taste

It's been so busy with all of the New Year's festivities, coupled with work and doing work on the new house that I haven't had a chance to blog! So, after much ado, I will update you on all of my good eats for the past week or so, in chronological order of course.

As mentioned earlier, I spent Christmas with the stomach flu. All the wonderful food I had planned on eating was forgotten I spent four days eating nothing more than rice, crackers, and toast. Mistakenly, I thought I was feeling better on Christmas night so I ate a real meal, and the only food you can get on Christmas day: Chinese take-out. I went with a safe Chicken and Broccoli with rice meal, and it tasted great even though my stomach told me later it was not ready to handle real food yet.

When I was finally feeling better on Sunday and eating real food again I decided that a homemade soup with all sorts of healthy nutrients was in order. I made one of my all-time favorite vegetable soups with parsnips, potatoes, leeks, and tomatoes. We dipped some crusty bread in it and it was fabulous. My husband added a disgusting amount of parmesean cheese to his, much to my chagrin, but what can I say, the man has yet to beat his food addictions like I have. This isn't the best picture of the soup, so I will have to make it again to show you it in better detail. :)

New Year's Eve I made dinner for my mother-in-law, who came to stay the night. She had originally intended to come on Christmas Eve, but she was also sick so we postponed our holiday festivities until New Year's Eve. After four long years of waiting, I finally was able to break out my wedding china so the meal needed to be worthy of such an event. Although I had to work all day prior to dinner, I think I was able to put together a meal that was just fine for breaking in our china. Roasted pork loin with a mustard and maple sugar crust, roasted asparagus with EVOO, lemon, and parmesean, and crescent rolls. What can I say, I needed a starch that was quick and easy to make so I went for those. Everything was really good. I would have liked to use a drier rub for the meat, as I have in the past, but I didn't have enough of my spice mixture left to do that. Dessert was port wine poached pears with cinnamon and star anise. It's such a great light dessert, and very holiday appropriate, so I broke that recipe out again.

New Year's day we had friends over for finger food, but I completely forgot to take pictures of the spread! So here's a run down of what we ate: cheese and crackers with grapes, prosciutto wrapped asparagus, olive tapenade on crostini, chips and salsa and homemade guacamole, barbeque flavored little sausages (a New Year's day necessity), stuffed mushrooms, and peppers with a mustard and maple syrup dipping sauce. It was so good, and I discovered that day that I can eat cheese again with complaint from my gallbladder! So excited! Anyway, the food was amazing and I have been enjoying eating the leftovers the past few days.

Speaking of leftovers, the last picture I have for you is of the dinner I made tonight. I reheated some of the pork loin and served it with leftover peppers sauteed in the mustard and maple syrup dip, which also tasted great with the pork, and served it with crescent rolls. I think I am officially crescent rolled out and can go without having them again for another year, but they were good while they lasted.

I look forward to continuing to explore the healthier side of food and living in 2009 and can't wait to keep sharing new health stories with you! I anticipate I will do my gallstone flush soon, and I am working hard and getting in top physical shape now. These past six months have been life altering for me, and I want to keep moving forward in this direction forever. Now, to get my husband to eat healthier when I'm not supervising him....