Interlibrary Loans Are Great.

Thanks to interlibrary loans, I have these books on my shelf right now:
Life Without Bread,
The Fourfold Path to Healing,
Relearning to See, and
Better Eyesight without Glasses.

Hooray for the library!

Life Without Bread is good so far: right off the bat, the authors recommend only six bread units (bu) per day- that amounts to 72 grams of utilisable carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are in some vegetables and dairy products, as well as in all of the obvious foods (pasta, grains, sweets, and fruits). They count a cup of whole milk as one bu, but I decided not to count milk at all. I drink enough milk in a day to use up all of my allotted bread units! Which means I can't eat yoghurt, vegetables, avocados, molasses, beans, OR kombucha if I count milk!

The book is very helpful, though. Right away, I was reminded that I eat way too much bread and too many potatoes. I had been eating half of a bagel with butter in the morning- I definitely don't need that. If I'm not careful, I slide into eating carbs instead of meat or fat. I like those quick fixes, but my adrenals don't!

No Mushrooms = Sadness

Tonight I'm making my famous manicotti for dinner; it's in the oven right now. I realised earlier that I don't have the recipe- it's on the box of noodles that I usually buy and I bought a different brand this week- what am I going to do?! I panicked momentarily, until I remembered that I don't follow recipes. I just make them up as I go along. Phew! Crisis solved.

Anyway, for this recipe, I made a tomato-based sauce with carrots and mushrooms in along with the usual garlic and onion. It looks and smells really tasty. I can't wait to eat it all up! Later this week I'll get to use the rest of the mushrooms I bought: I'm making a copycat dish from Johnny Carino's. Chicken with mushrooms, spinach, and provolone layered on top. The original dish had ham and no mushrooms, but we all know that's not right, don't we? Anyway, where would we be if I followed recipes all the time? Without any mushrooms, that's where. And that, my friends, is a sad place to be.

Planting Future Food

Today, I went to the store with my mother, and we bought one of these (ours is bigger). I planted food in it! I planted chamomile, oregano, rosemary, lavender, dill, and tomatoes. The tomatoes were in an heirloom mix pack, so we don't know exactly what we'll end up with. Could it be these? Or these? I can't wait to find out!

I'm going for it.

Dear Sourdough Bread,

You're next.

Love and kisses,
Me

Right, so I'm not very good at remembering to post...but I can't decide if that's bad or just The Way Things Are.

Regardless, I do need to update you all on What's What here in my corner of the blagosphere. I decided to postpone school for now, being that I have no monies, and that it's not important enough for me to go into debt to get there. Instead, I'm going to keep saving money, and get to work on another kind of dough. I'd like to work more on my baking and candy-making skills (Not for my own consumption, of course). I've been dreaming big with a friend about starting our own bakery/pub (didn't know you could combine those, didja? Well, you can if they're right next door to each other). This (these?) bakery/pub will need some good food, so we're expanding our chefly repertoires. This work has the added benefit of being really, really fun.

If you have any good recipes, please be sure to pass them on!

Here are some from me.