Does This Look LIKE a Bird?

Caught this photo with my phone this morning as the grey squirrel tried to get into the bird food. Was fun to watch. He finally got tired of maneuvering his body into a pretzel and went to the ground to search out what the Blue Jays sling out of the feeders.

A Whole New Life……

based on Whole Foods and plant-based foods. Yep. We are starting on a journey to becoming healthier. Dale read a book called “The China Study” and is convinced that we can be healthier in our “old age.” I also found a great website with much information. It’s call Forks over knives. Link above on whole food.

This is taking a lot of research on our part to find the best whole foods when shopping and searching our recipes that taste good and are good for us. Trust me, a lot of trial and error is going on until we perfect the kinds of foods we like sans the meat and dairy. And, yes, you can now call us almost true vegan! Actually, you can probably call us Vegan-lite!

On our shopping trip to the grocery store we found a “no cheese” pizza. Ever hear of something like that? Almost sacrilegious to say pizza and no cheese in the same sentence! However, we found it total, amazing (my granddaughters favorite word of the day) and  tasty.

Amy’s, we found out, is putting a plant in White City, Oregon for their soup line, so we thought we would give them some Oregon business. We found this pizza in the organic section of Sherm’s.

As you can see, it isn’t all that big and was $6.49. Which is kind of steep but knowing that the product was all organic and Whole Food safe, we gave it a go.

We had enough for a good lunch. We were satisfied and gave this a 10 for pizza’s – cheese or no cheese.

Life is good (we aren’t starving) and God supplies all our needs.

National Pie Day

                                       January 23rd was National Pie Day and at Timber Valley we weren’t talking – , but the real thing!!
You know how SKP’s love to eat. 

Timber Valley was properly represented with homemade pies and store bought pies. Of course, there were prizes on the line here for the homemade pies! Our illustrious judges had a daunting task ahead of them to choose the “tallest” pie; the “prettiest” pie; the “tastiest” pie; and the most “unusual” pie. 

Joan was our committee leader for this event and she did a wonderful job to getting this event organized  Our judges were Garry, Dave, Don and Jim. All guys because, as we know, they know ***food.***  They took a lot of time deciding on which pies (not knowing the bakers) would win awards.

And the winners are:

Faye won the “tallest”  with her Lemon Meringue Pie; Joan won for the “prettiest” and it sure was beautiful; I won for the “tastiest” and Rita won for the most “unusual” (and that’s a long story).

Not being a pie maker, I was surprised to win at all. I found this wonderful site, www. pieofthebeholder.com.

Since I had blueberries on hand, the recipe that caught my attention was the Sour Cream Blueberry Pie.
Here is the recipe.

Make or use pre-made pie shell or crust. Line crust with foil and fill the pie with beans to hold it down so it doesn’t puff up.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool.

The filling:

1 cup of sour cream

3/4 cups sugar

2 1/2 tbsp. unbleached flour

1 egg, beaten  (physically not verbally)

3/4 tsp. almond extract

1/4 tsp. salt

2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (2 containers, 4 bux at HEB)

Whisk the sour cream, sugar, salt, flour, almond extract and egg  in medium bowl. Mix in the blueberries. Spoon the filling into the crust. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, until the filling sets.

The topping (it’s clumpy crumble):

6 tbsp. unbleached flour

1/2 stick unsalted butter (I used one stick by mistake and added a couple of tablespoons of flour to give it more crumble. It kinda worked)

1/3 cups chopped pecans

2 tbsp. sugar

Using your fingertips, mix the flour and butter until small clumps form. Mix in the pecans and sugar. Sprinkle the topping over pie. Continue to bake at 400 degrees F until the topping is lightly browned, about 12 minutes. You may want to place a tin foil collar around the crust as you would be reaching the point of super crunchiness. Cool on a rack and serve at room temperature.

So easy to make and tastes so good.

And here’s my pie. Totally delicious!!!

After the judging, we sold 3 small pieces of pie for $1 and the proceeds went to our Jack’s and Jill’s event club. After everyone got to taste all the different pies, we auctioned off the leftovers.  We had a real auctioneer among us, so he took over the proceedings and earned J&J even more $$. (He came free!)

Life is good. Thank God for blueberries and all nature’s fruit!

It’s A Date

This last week Dale celebrated his birthday. We went to lunch at one of his favorite places, The Lighthouse Bakery. The drive to Umpqua was refreshing and fun. After lunch the next stop was the hardware store in Sutherlin and then a meander through St. Vinnies where I found 3 blouses in great condition!

Saturday, we went to the anniversary/birthday luncheon with the SKP’s at Sizzler. Since we are going whole foods diet, salad was on the menu. I did have a couple of nice hot wings though! And Dale had ice cream and a brownie. Getting together with the folks here always turns out to be a fun time. A lot is accomplished over food for this group!

My gift to Dale this year was a night out – yes, a date – to the Grand Victorian Mystery Dinner in Myrtle Creek. Neither one of us has been to Myrtle Creek and we agreed we need to come back in the daylight.

The play was set back in the 1940′s and called “The Secret Box.” We had to determine which box was the secret box, who had the secret box and what was the secret. So we had to really pay attention to the play!

Entering The Grand Victorian. Notice the full moon in the background.

We were seated at table 9, with 9 people to a table. What was interesting is that the people at the table were from Sutherlin, with 2 women from Asea (friends of the other ladies). So we had that in common and chatted with everyone.

Our table was decorated with 1940′s paraphernalia.

This table setting reminded me of the time I went with my daughter and family to Medieval Times down by Los Angles. The waitress we had so so accommodating and helpful. She kept us supplied with water, tea, coffee, rolls and anything we asked for. The waitresses were also dressed in 1940′s costume.

We were even given our own “Secret Box” with a peppermint candy inside.

We had two choices for dinner – Prime Rib or Garlic Chicken. Everyone at our table ordered the Prime Rib but Dale and I! I’m so glad we did because the chicken was delicious. Our first course, salad and rolls, came after the first scene where the main characters were introduced. Dorothy and her older adult children, Shirley and Lilly, and Grandpa (who kept us laughing all through the play).

After the 3rd scene, dinner was served and they did a very good job of getting the food out without it getting cold. We enjoyed the meal immensely.

The 4th scene was at a dance club where everyone was enjoying a night out – with secrets.

We got a treat with several of the cast singing songs popular during that era. “Swining’ on a Star”, I’ve Got Rhythm,” “You Make Me Love You,” and 5 others. What accomplished vocals we heard! A very entertaining show. After this scene dessert was served. We had a choice of New York Cheese Cake with Raspberry sauce or decadent Chocolate Cake. Chocolate won out!

Since it was Dale’s birthday, they announced all the birthdays and we sang happy birthday to celebrate the birthday people. Our waitress handed Dale a slice of the cheese cake to take home! What a great birthday present!!!!

Needless to say, this was a date we will remember for a long time.

Life is good. Amazing God Grace How Sweet the Sound, that Saved a Wretch like me. Amen.

Aren’t These Cute

One day around Christmas time, Dale and I went into a shop on Central in Sutherlin while waiting for Morgan to get a bath and clipped. It was called “New 2 U.” They have used furniture, books, and all sorts of stuff. It’s an interesting shop. And they were having a sale.

We found these birdhouses that we couldn’t resist. One was for us and one for Dale’s sister, Dorana.

This one was for Robin and Dorana – a winery birdhouse.

This one is ours! We saw a birdhouse like this when we were in Washington and “just had to have it” when we looked through the glass at the creative birdhouses. At 20% off, there was no thought – take it home!

The flower in the background is one my friend, Jane, gave me when we first begin our friendship. This was a big deal for her as she and her hairdresser, Karen, exchanged this little flowers that move back and forth when in the sun. I felt so honored.
You can find them at the Dollar Store!!! Where else!

Life is good. God is to be praised! Always.

 

Getting a Little Creative

It has been a month since I joined Weight Watchers. Yes, I can hear you groan, but something needed to be done about the flab on my body! I’m motivated and that is when I have to get going on getting healthy. Motivation is the key.

I won’t go into what WW is about. The program is teaching me to stop when I am full; take smaller portions; and eat lots of fruit and veggies. It is also teaching me healthy snacking. WW program is not a diet. I can eat anything I want. However, I only get 26 points a day so the choice to eat something with a lot of points or not comes into play. Therefore, WW is teaching me good choices when it comes to food.

One good tool to eating healthy and good food choices is in planning meals ahead of time and also shopping for the ingredients. If you I know what you  I am going to eat and all the ingredients are in the fridge, then you I’m not going to go for stuff I know would blow not only my points, but also my weight loss for the week.

I found this awesome recipe  ~ Mexican Lasagna. I found the recipe at the Food Network website. You can find it here:
Mexican Lasagna

I did a few things different to make this WW friendly. Well, maybe I did only one thing – NO sour cream. I just didn’t want to go there. I’m not even fond of Fat-free sour cream.

The other thing I did was use chicken but this would also be a good vegetarian meal without meat. I took all the ingredients, but the cheese, and cooked them on the stove top. I layered the corn tortillas in my 11 x 7 Pyrex dish, cutting them in half. I used 6 inch tortillas. I layered the chicken mixture on top of the tortillas, sprinkled with cheese and repeated 3 layers. Covered and baked for 30 minutes (not the hour in the recipe) and took the cover off and baked for another 5 minutes. Topped it with diced tomatoes, avocado, salsa and jalapenos. It was delicious.

This is one of those recipes that you can either follow the recipe or do your own thing with. Which is so much more fun!!!!  Another great thing about this dish ~ IT IS SO EASY TO MAKE.

WW points=5

Life is good! (in the kitchen). God made today and it was beautiful.

Weekend with Pa-Pa

Dale is off to Reno with his mom to babysit the grandkids. Chloe is now 3 and Noah is 16 months.

If you have read Dale’s website, he has been busy making toys for the kids for Christmas. We didn’t send the Reno kids their gifts this last December because Dale was going to visit. The price of postage is so expensive any more, we were able to buy more gifts for them.

In this photo, Noah is playing with an engine and a couple of cars pulling logs and blocks. Dale has been working on this for a couple of months and it turned out wonderful. He used Purple Heart wood for the boiler. It is beautiful wood when finished.

Chloe is wearing an apron I made her. The material is full of bright colors and frogs. Dale made her a spoon and fork for helping mom in the kitchen. Dale also made her one of her favorite friends, Thomas the Engine.

Thomas has two pegs for coats and his face pops open to expose some little drawers that Chloe can hide her special things in. The kids got a lot more presents, but these ones will be special through the years because Pa-Pa made them. Who knows, one day they may be antiques!

We saw these hats at Micheal’s and couldn’t resist. Chloe is  putting hat and shovel to good use in the colder weather!

Life is good. God is hugging Betty!