Quasi Espy, etc.

CRAP!  I have too many blogs.  I just posted this to Quasi Hippie, had to delete it because it has GB stuff in it and post it here.  JA HEEZ!   It does have lots of good Quasi-type stuff in it though...

So I am looking at alternatives to sugar as a canning additive in fruit and I've come up nil. Since sugar is not a preservative, it is not necessary to put it in with your fruit when canning; however, the end result is soggy nasty-flavored mush. I good replacement is SPLENDA for a low cal alternative, but I'm allergic, so its out. I was thinking raw honey would be a flavorful alternative and it can be done, even giving your fruit a earthy flavor, kind of like tea, but it really doesn't help you in terms of calories. So, I guess when canning, its best to just use the least amount of sugar as you can. for fruit in syrup, go with the directions for light syrup and you can cut the calories down to 77 calories per serving. For jams and jellies, you can buy pectin that is made for low sugar recipes at the heath food store, but I warn you, each box of pectin only does 1 batch-not 3 like the box says and each box is 5.00 as opposed to the 1.00 old fashioned, fatty pectin. Meh. Remember though, apples have their own pectin, so you can make some pretty fun apple butter with just enough sweetener to take the edge off. Like I said last post, make your apple butter with bee balm blossoms and let it sit. The bee balm is kind of spicy/minty and adds a little something to the butter. You can also add it to smoothies with apples or peaches. If you happen to have it growing wild and you want to use it fresh, it does juice and is kind of good that way too. Play with it and keep the sugar to a minimum.
Today I bought some ginger root and will be making smoothies out of peaches with the ginger. Ginger, FYI, is really good for digestion and stomach ailments. I consider my stomach sliced and sutured a slight ailment, so maybe ginger would be soothing. My little magic bullet happened to come with these little cups for relish or something, but they seem to be the perfect size for post surgery smoothies. You can throw a cube of soft tofu in for added protein, or if you have your own hens, a raw egg too. Don't do raw eggs from a store. You don't know where they have been.
Anyway, since canning may be a big fail, I think I'm going to focus on freezing my fruit and veggies to stick with the organic and no added sugar. Maybe I can make some fruit leather for when I can advance my diet a little bit, but I have a really big chest freezer with LOTS of room for fruit and veggies. Anyhoo, thats what I'm doing today. Tasting smoothies.
I noticed there was quite the crop of red clover on the side of a back road on the way home today and I picked the nicest heads in hopes of drying 1 more quart jar full. I discovered steeping a tea from the blossom heads can ease irritability, regulate your cycle and also helps with menopausal symptoms. I am hooking my intra-menopausal/endometriotic sister UP! I do this for you Nobby, because I love you and because you make me want to eat my own toenails. I should hope you would go out and discover similar natural miracles for me when I'm pushing the downhill button at your age. Muah.

Next year, I am talking you all into nettle smoothies. You will love them.

Lastly,

On the GB movie from the hospital, they say they will be feeding me Crystal Light. At first I wasn't really worried about it, but I have cut diet Pepsi out of my diet completely and have not drank anything but water as a beverage for a few weeks and my complexion has cleared up considerably. My husband, ever the enabler, brought me home a can of diet Pepsi as a treat the other day. I drank it and my arms are covered with red itchy splotches. All this time, I thought only Splenda was my enemy. When I get into that, I get HIVES and my ears swell up. I thought the psoriasis on my arms was inevitable, but now I wonder, Aspertime might be bad too. That being said-I don't want Crystal Light! Rut roh. I am bringing my Crystal Light collection to group. Anyone interested can have it.

Back.

I'm BAAAAAACK.  I know...oh and as promised, Krystal, this post is for you my homie.

This is what I did today.  Down the road from me about a mile is this fantastic Winchestershire apple tree.  wait, is Winchestershire a real apple name or something my dad made up?  Hold on.  I'll ask the Google gods...

*time lapse*

Yeah.  He was just naming them something romantic so we would eat them.  Okay...I'll call them Heirloom apples, since they are most likely a leftover from a homestead  located there at some point in time.  Anyhow, its fantastic and since my own apple trees are a bit manic depressive this year (my greening had an unfortunate suicide attempt last summer and is still in ICU), I'm needing to shop in the ditches for my apples.  Okay, so I go to pick these fantastic apples (did I mention how fantastic they were?) and came home, peeled 2 and put them in the blender with some bee balm and a tablespoon of honey.  YAY! It was good and aside from the honey (my hippie princess friend lost all her honey bees to mice last winter), it was free and organic!!!

1 Tablespoon honey = 64 calories
2 small wild apples = 120 calories
1 bee balm blossom = 0 calories
_________________________

 My carnivore hubby will be having pork chops slow cooked in this apple sauce.  We will see how well it goes over with him.  He tolerates my ditch cuisine pretty well.  If its good, maybe he won't freak out too much when I tell him I REALLY want to take that online holistic healing class this winter...its ONLY $1600.00.  That is less than the roof is going to cost. If things get too ugly, I can bring up the air conditioning reclaim machine thing he spent most of last year paying for. 

I owe my soul to the Snap-On guy by the way.  It was the only way I could keep my first born without having to guess his name.

So, as discussed in group-omg I'm almost done!!!-I need to focus on eating little tiny bits several times a day instead of waiting until I am hypoglycemic before I eat something.  Also, my water intake is pitiful.  While I can honestly say I have thrown soda out the virtual window of my uber-healthy temple, coffee is my love. Oh I love coffee.  My only saving grace is the fact that I am a hard-core coffee snob that will only partake in 1 or 2 cups per day IF it is decent.  I am not an off-the-wal-mart-shelf coffee drinker.  If I wanted to drink pissy mud, I would harvest it for free from the cow yard.  No, I pay for super fresh coffee that has never seen the inside of a freezer or the inside of a supermarket for that matter.  It is not marred by thick, over pasteurized cream or flavored with synthetic waxy chocolates and high-fructose corn syrup.  Its just really good, flavorful, fresh coffee.  Every once in a while I will throw some mulling spice or some organic chai in the basket for flavor...mmmmm.  I friggin' love coffee.   I do have a coffee pot that can brew 1 cup at a time, so I can limit myself that way and I can make a point to only partake once a week.  It's not something I can't say no to, its just something I really enjoy and I don't want to say no until I absolutely have to. 

So, I made my excuse.  I'm aware of it and today I focused on hydration and nibbling.  Aside from having to pee allot...Nope.  That's it.  I pee alot.

Another concern.  My Strattera gives me instant heartburn.  When my stomach is tiny, I'm afraid I will just burst into flame because there will be no room for heartburn.  I will skip heartburn and spontaneously combust.  Wow.  What a grease fire that will be...I may need to discuss this with my doctor.  The Strattera problem--not so much the grease fire.  I wonder if he will suggest living retarded for a few months to give my stomach a chance to heal before swallowing pills again. Hmmmmm.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Lay it on out there

Firstly, I am riddled with an extreme amount of stress right now that I do not wish to discuss via blogger.  Let it be known that it is stressful stress of the most extreme and frankly, I don't have much to say in the way of my blog because my stress happens to be the only think on my mind at the moment.

What I will share is the fact that I went in to see Dr. Setla and had the best labs on the planet.  Unfortunately, going to see her was the wrong thing to do and I was told that I will have to see her again anyway, so my efforts were in vain.  Also, I missed a phantom appointment in April and now have to see my dietitian when I can instead of having had seen her when I should have and therefore I am screwed on my surgery date being within the year.  Big yip.  Another thing to worry excessively about. 

Thirdly, I am not going to pretend that I am never going to eat another French fry, hamburger or piece of chocolate cake for as long as I live.  This is unrealistic.  The point of the Learn program is to teach you how to make responsible choices.  There is nowhere in that book that says chocolate will never pass over your lips again.  My husband is not a big supporter in terms of eating well with me.  He chews tobacco, drinks 6 liters of mountain dew a day and eats at Culvers.  For your information, I had 4 pieces of shrimp, a couple of fries and did not eat any of the sides.  The rest went to my dog.  In the old days I would have eaten all of my meal, plus whatever was left from the kids.  BACK OFF.  I am doing wonderfully and am very proud of the fact that I am not eating like I was and have not eaten like I was for 2 months now.  To assume that I can never go into a Culvers with my husband on occasion because of my surgery is narrow.  Not to mention the fact that I am able to do this with all the shit hanging over my head makes it clear that I will be fine after my surgery and the fact that I am going to my classes every Wednesday night, no matter how depressed, sad or upset I am,  tells me that I am committed and will be successful.  That being said, I don't feel like typing about anything fun or wonderful because I am dealing with a whole pile of stuff right now and I am embarrassed enough that there is no way in hell I am putting it up on a public forum for the world to see what a big fat screw up I am. There. I posted.  Happy?

Maybe if I get this Labor day weekend out of the way I can have more time to update my blogs.  I need to paint.