Blog To Taste: Wedge Salad

Dont miss my post over at Blog To Taste, Wedge Salad this week.  More BtoT posts by me.

What I Ate: Camping at Lost Lake

     i went camping this weekend, I was kind of excited.  I made a video.  I went with a group of twelve friends.  We stayed at a organization camp site at Lost Lake.  Our site had a stage and a crazy stone fire pit with a chimney.  We spent the day swimming and playing in a paddle boat.  It was great trip!  Here is what I ate and some pictures.

Breakfast:  I hard boiled eggs at home for a quick and easy source of protein.  On most camping trips I will cook eggs there but I was camping light and didnt want to pack a pan.  I also ate apples and bananas.  A friend gave me a frozen hash brown that I heated in some foil on coals.  I will be bringing some of those on my next trip!

Lunch:  I made "unwiches" with romaine, honey roasted turkey from the deli and mayo.  Sliced yellow pepper and leftover red cabbage slaw.  

Dinner:  Before I left I spirlized a sweet potato, zucchini and carrot.  I added that with some sliced cabbage, mushrooms, onions with salt, pepper, garlic and oil wrapped in foil.  Then when I was ready to eat I put it on the coals.  It took about 40 mins to cook.  I also roasted hot dogs, but no pictures.  I made a ketchup and mustard sauce before I left to make life easier.

Snacks:  Carrot sticks, cucumber, dark chocolate raisins, and home roasted almonds.  And chips, but dont tell Rosie!  

I ate out of a plastic baskets I got at the dollar store.  I lined them with wax paper.  This was Rosie's idea and it was really fun.  Next time I might use double the wax paper.

I was hitching a ride with some friends so I tried really really really hard to pack light.  This is one of the reasons I chopped everything at home and did not bring raw meat.  I like to a have separate small cooler for raw meat so if it tries to escape I should be safe.  I wanted to have an easy time cooking.  I also wanted to be out of the way and not dependent on borrowing a stove.  I brought just enough food and was very satisfied!  One of my camping goals is going to be dutch oven cooking.  My friend made some amazing peach cobbler in hers.

What do you eat camping?

Blog to Taste: Red Cabbage Carrot Slaw

Dont miss my post over at Blog To Taste, Red Cabbage Carrot Slaw.  More BtoT posts by me.

Blog to Taste: Grape Salad with Mint

Dont miss my post over at Blog To Taste, Grape Salad with Mint.  More BtoT posts by me.

Food: Double Baked Potatoes

     i love potatoes.  Like really really really really love potatoes...  In all the paleo books I have read they say no to potatoes.  Sad face.  I tried giving up potatoes many times.  Many times.  I have quit smoking, gave up dairy, meat, gluten, rice and beans, but I can NOT give up potatoes.  Which is funny because when I tell people I am gluten or dairy free and they say they could never give it up, I laugh.  "You can give up anything if you really want to!"  I say.  Maybe this is why I cant give up potatoes.  I dont want to.  I gave up gluten and dairy because it doesnt agree with me.  I am happier without it in my life.  Potatoes make me feel better not worse.  So I have given up on giving up potatoes!  

I made these yummy double baked potatoes for Easter.  We had a very easy meal plan and I decided to make it a bit more exciting.  These were super easy and super delish!

Ingredients:

• 4 medium potatoes
• 1/4 cup of mayo
• salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Scrub potatoes and bake for an hour at 350.  (I pierce my potatoes with a fork but I am not sure if you have to do this in the oven...)
2. Let cool for a few minutes, till you can handle potatoes without burning yourself.
3. Cut each potato in half longways.
4. Scoop the meat of the potato from the skin and place in a bowl.  Be sure to leave a little meat so the skins keep their shape.
5. Smash the potato with salt, pepper and mayo till it has the consistency of mashed potatoes.  I used the help of my hand blender.
6. Scoop potato mixture back into the skins.  If you want to get fancy use your cake decorating kit or a zippy with the end cut.  
7. Broil for 3 minutes and check.  If they are not golden enough for you, broil for another 3 minutes.  
8. Enjoy!

Blog to Taste: Deviled Eggs 3 Ways

Dont miss my post over at Blog To Taste, Deviled Eggs 3 Ways.  More BtoT posts by me.

Blog to Taste: Beet Red Velvet Gluten Free Cake Cookies

Dont miss my post over at Blog To Taste, Beet Red Velvet Gluten Free Cake Cookies.  More BtoT posts by me.

Blog to Taste: Sauteed Spinach with Garlic & Bacon

Dont miss my post over at Blog To Taste!  Sauteed Spinach with Garlic & Bacon.

Food: Gluten Free Cake Mix Cookies

     i am not a baker!  I dont even like a lot of baked desserts.  Too sweet for me.  Yesterday was my moms birthday and I wanted to do something special for her but wanted to eat it too...  I had a cake mix in the pantry and my friend Lindsey made something like this for our friends birthday this summer and they were amazing!  Only she made a peanut butter frosting.  Yum!

What you need:

Vanilla cake mix (any kind you like I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Vanilla Cake Mix)

3 eggs

1/2 cup Vegetable oil

1. Mix ingredients together in a bowl
2. Scoop onto a lined baking sheet (I used a Silpat Mat) they will need some space because they do expand.  Two baking sheets worth.
3. Bake at 400°F for 10-15 minutes on a middle rack.  
4. Move to a cooling rack.

I frosted them with Dark Chocolate frosting from a can.  I heated the frosting for 10 seconds in the microwave stirred and zapped it for another 10 seconds.  I put it in a zippy bag and cut the corner off.  Too bad I cut the hole really big and it kinda went everywhere...  Still tasty!

Rating:

5 out of 5 shark fins!

What are you making today?

Honesty: Food

     i have an interesting relationship with food.  I love to eat and love tasty treats.  I also have lots of issues with weight, acne (yep at 30), mood, energy level you name it!  Over the years I have tried lots of different "diets" to improve these situations.  I quote the word diets because they werent really diets but lifestyle changes.  I was a vegan for 3 years then when gluten free then paleo, well 95% paleo.  I been on this journey for years.  I was reading for months about veganism before I finally tried it.  I like to do lots of research.  I have read more books on food and eating than any other kind of book.  I read cookbooks like they were books, each recipe...  I think food should be seen as more than just something you eat, but how you fuel your body, as medicine and a way to heal. I have learned a lot about food and I have learned a lot about how food affects me.  I think there are many foods in this world that we eat that arent good for us.  Gluten is at the top of the list.  Back in the day when we baked our own bread I think it was less bad, but still.  I have never been tested to see if I was a Celiac, but I know that after giving up gluten for a few months eating again was an awful idea!  It makes me balloon out and look like I am 5 months pregnant.  Not a very good look...  It also hurts!  I get a headache and feel cloudy.  I also get mean.  I believe this is all do to the fact that I am being poisoned...  Recently when I tried to drink butter in my coffee I learned it also makes me very unpleasant.  I go to a dark place.  I should also mention that I am Bipolar.  When I went vegan I improved a ton!  I had very few episodes.  When I started eating meat again I was in a weird state of angry depression for the first few months.  I cried all the time and would yell at anyone.  I think this was all the extra hormones from the animals I was eating.  I am fine with it now.  I do feel better when I eat organic meat, but you can only do so much of that when you are broke...  So I think it was the hormones in the butter that made me crazy not so much the lactose.  It gave me headaches and heartaches.  Not something I want to continue to have.  

I have had many friends with opinions on me and food.  I have also had people who arent my friends have opinions on me and food, these I take much less stock in...  "If its in a blog you believe it."  Yeah.  Not just one blog but I have done research using blogs and what ever I am interested in is found in multiple blogs and webpages.  "I like to over complicate my life."  This one is the funniest to me.  I am trying to uncomplicat my life.  Life is too short to feel awful all the time and if I can fix that with food, YaY!  I dont feel I ask for special treatment.  I have many friends who take good care of me and my issues.  This is something that always pleasantly surprises me!  Makes me feel loved.  "Sarah chooses not to eat cheese."  Yep, but not for the same reasons.  I liked cheese, understatement, I loved cheese!  I choose not to eat it so I wont feel suicidal, yeah the butter made me feel suicidal.  Not cool or worth it to me.  

I feel like I am the best path for me.  Paleoish.  I will keep trying to do what is best for me and not care what people think.  I want to be the happiest, healthiest version of me.  Crying and yelling at people I love is not on that list.

Thanks for listening!

Road to playing the guitar:  Downloaded tuning app
101 in 1,001 list written:  86!  Getting there...
New closet bar installation:  The left hand side is almost screwed in all the way...
TV show:  I had to switch to How I Met Your Mother.  I need some funny!

Photo an Hour: My 30th

i have wanted to do a "photo an hour" for a long time.  What a better way to start than my birthday?  Here we go!  :)

7:00am   Good Morning, but not getting up yet...

8:00am My hair looks amazing!

9:00am  The morning constitutional

10:00am  Breakfast at Alice's Country House.

11:00am Driving back to camp and had to check out this pretty!

12:00pm  On an adventure and you got to stand on a log.

They other side of the log I was standing on...  Yikes!

If you look closely you can see a house.  Can I haz?

1:00pm Rosie, my camping soul mate, spotted an Evening Grosbeak on the adventure.  Good spotting!

2:00pm back to camp.

3:00pm Ferngully

Margarita is so cute!

4:00pm  The trees in our campsite.

5:00pm Adventuring, again, to look for wood.  

6:00pm  Still Adventuring

Rosie found a moth.

7:00pm  Dinner.  Roasted veggies and meatloaf!

Sleepy Boone and a giant's feet.

8:00pm More trees in our site.

9:00pm Sun is disappearing but the twinkle lights are sparkling.

 10:00pm  My chair is the best and some smoke.

11:00pm  My theme song, Natalia Kills - Problem, its a dirty video...

12:00am  Fire in the velvet night.  

It was a great day and a great camping trip!  

What did you do last week?