food

 Just a thought, and one I've had for a while to make for myself a list - the 'stranger' foods that I keep in a cabinet all to themselves, that only a bit of this and that the other people in the house will even touch.  My diet is quite a bite different than the other two household members, and it always has been.  Esme mostly eats like her father does, but some of the things I make *intending to share* she will eat.  There are a lot of meals I make that are just plain strange anyway - and I don't intend to share that meal, so why not?  Sometimes my cabinet will go down in supplies for a while because everyone eats the other things and due to my upbringing, I feel odd /guilty having food that I'm the only one that eats, but usually - this stuff is not expensive, either.. it's the getting to a place that has it that is half the battle then it's deciding whether, well we're here - let's buy that three dollar thing and have it on hand.

 

My cabinet:

* next to the items that actually get used regular basis

* bagged dry brown rice, long-grain usually

* flavored chicken and Spanish rices, one cilantro-lime rice bag mixes

* canned coconut milk

* Golden curry medium-hot cube mixes in foil

red curry paste (Thai brand), bottles (I'm out, almost)

cans of black olives (which Esme really likes)

bottle of soy sauce (not usual, but I guess we bought extra, and I keep putting it back there instead of in the sauce/oil/vinegar cabinet because I'll just forget about it again out of 'sight' there)

dried guajillo chiles

dried onion flake

white sesame seeds

seaweed sheets (those little HALO things that come in 80 cent packs)

*peanut butter

*bananas (not in the cabinet, but I eat them often) 

*onions (we use them, not quickly, sort of in spurts - but they need to be around)

*dry roasted peanuts

*bag of green split peas

*bag of yellow split peas

bag of adzuki beans (I got lucky and found them at a store near me!)

small white dried beans from the Amish store last year...

a tinned mackerel in olive oil, at least one

*canned pumpkin

*canned pineapple juice

**dried miso soup with tofu and seaweed (Esme eats this, too) 

a few specialty ramen packages, tonkatsu, soy sauce flavors

canned water chestnuts 

rice noodles

*canned green chiles (mild)

*at least one can of cheap tomato soup

tomato product with hot chiles, green chiles or roasted tomato cans

quinoa

steel cut or other oats, barley

canned spinach or turnip greens

canned black eyed peas or similar

there's a bag of millet in there right now - because of the place with the adzuki beans

also a bag of French green lentils I've used a few times, same store

regular brown lentils

bag of dried red lentils 

usually at least one of each:

    can of red beans (with chili sauce)

    can of black beans

    can of lima beans

    can of cannellini beans 

    can of mushroom pieces and stems 

    canned tuna

teas: black tea, peppermint tea, green teas, licorice tea, chai mix (minimum of these)

some containers of chicken or beef broth for making other meals

in the freezer : *brown rice flour, and whole wheat flour 

Also in the freezer : *green onions, *kale or bokchoy *peppers *sweet peas kielbasa chopped and bagged

In the fridge : miso soup concentrate (which Esme does not like),* fresh carrots 

thai fish sauce, soy sauce, green olives, sweet relish, wasabi sauce, *mayonnaise

*eggs from very productive chickens, *regular whole milk, *full-fat unsalted butter , a very HOT brick cheese that I eat, American cheese that mostly Mark eats and is good for grilled cheeses, white balls of mozzarella at times that Esme will eat on other things 

Other cabinet :

peanut oil, vegetable oil, olive oil, sesame oil, balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, rice vinegar, apple cider vinegar

Family cabinet : 

whole potatoes, sweet potatoes, regular family canned foods like fruits (oranges, peaches, pineapple, apples, cherries, cranberry sauce), carrots, green beans, corn (which I cannot eat), parboiled rice (which I'd rather eat the brown), and pasta and other usual tomato products that the family would eat, ravioli and spaghetti and chicken noodle soup etc.  Of course family section of the freezer has regular flour, hamburger, chicken (mostly Esme uses) and the occasional frozen pizza

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A few of the stranger meals I have made more than once and intend to again : 

tortilla with mashed carrot and sweet relish

red beans with melted American cheese and carrots 

canned pumpkin and lima beans

guajillo chile, tomato, onion and dry roasted peanut sauce on rice

Esme meals I make that she will eat on a regular basis with me:

frozen kielbasa, slow fried onions and peppers, along side scrambled eggs from our own chickens

specialty ramen soup with green onions, shaved carrots, sliced boiled eggs and sometimes pork meat from another meal

flavored rice mix (chicken, Spanish rice) beside canned fruit, carrots and eggs

pasta and sauce

openface shredded pork sandwiches with white mozzarella melted on top

grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup

taco salad 

'caesar' salad, with black olives, boiled egg and sometimes white cheese or that mexican melting cheese

October

 

October has been here, and is nearly gone.  I don't feel lately like I have too much to say, but thought I'd do a little update as I have more to think about today than some days and am not actually asleep or working.  Still just trying to get through every month on the way to the other one.  But, Esme's birthday is coming up, as well... and I'm not even that sure what she wants to do!

 

I had to replace the front brakes on my mail truck last month, and the fix is *still ongoing* with problems, and I'm still paying on it, to boot.  The other day, the tire was actually *on fire* in my driveway when I got home... well, a spot behind the axle that has a lot of grease on it was on fire with orange flames - but it was highly distressing.  I've had it in to them four or five times trying to get it fixed - but she is an old truck, and does not have anti-lock brakes.. so here we are, trying to 'get her to good'...

 

In August I started a supplement to try to help my hEDS, and it seemed to work well, but I can't get it around here, and need to order another bottle.  I've been off of it two weeks now.. after being on it for two months.  I do see a difference.  But it was difficult - because while I was on it they also had me working almost every day straight for weeks on end.  I began to wonder what it would have been like without that supplement... if I would even have made it through it.  But I'm just not sure.  The supplement didn't stop the afternoon drag-down that would make me nap.. but it stopped some of the 'revenge muscle' problem I was having, and the intense cravings for strong spice were less.. although the cravings for protein were still there.  Now that I'm off of it I'm covering my food with pepper and putting an entire family's meal portion of curry into a single serving of food again.  But overall, I'm not eating as much anyway (we'll see how the cold weather affects that) and some of that is still to do with my sinuses and that extra 'nowhere place' in my throat that food gets caught in - sometimes I just want coffee and soup for the entire day.

 

So, it's like that lately.  I'm just bumping along and studying Japanese, Welsh and Spanish, with smatterings of Czech and French.  I've been doing WaniKani for kanji and am up to about 170 kanji, although I don't know the entire 150 for N5 yet.  I tested to A1 in Spanish, which is new.  I did not retest French.  I tried a Czech test and realized just how much I still have to learn there.  DuoLingo did that hearts thing the other month and it has really limited what I do on there - I feel like I'm missing that as a major activity I had been doing - but I don't want to pay money for it, not yet.. although I've been thinking about subscribing to one language thing or another sometime when I can talk myself into affording a month.  

 

I've been trying not to spend more money, because it is always going somewhere... lately - to this truck fix that is not fixed.  But I'm also trying to work as much as they need me... because I know the $ are always needed later.  As always, I worry that I am not doing enough for Esme, as she is a teenager and doesn't really tell me what she wants - I have to draw it out of her like cobwebs and she is a bit like me, that she will *not want* to make it easier on everyone but then I've been there.. such a hard thing to figure out from both sides.

 

I've been watching some TV shows in Welsh because our internet is fiber now, and much better without the data limits.  But it's not like I'm suddenly all about the videos all 24-7... another thing to ponder on.  I read the book Tyrannosaur Cavern.  I've been reading this Food Heroes Ramen, Soba & Udon book (I see they have a series).. and just started Rick Riordan's Red Pyramid.   I found a really great way to boil eggs and put them in ramen with green onions and finely shredded carrot for Esme and I, and she actually liked it.  She likes the miso soup packets that are now available again at the store - used to be something I was surprised she liked when she was little.  I learned to make sushi rice and onigiri rice balls and have made those with brown rice nearly every week, and eat them with wasabi, red curry paste, nori sheet and sesame seeds.  

Cooking:

Etre ziti : made directly in a ceramic pie pan, 350 degree oven

Recipe : 2 mashed overripe bananas, 2 eggs beaten, 1/4 cup sugar, salt, bit of milk, then added brown rice flour until it was pancake batter consistency +1 (just a bit more than that), put in oven, about 40 minutes or less... take out and cut into eighths and put up in glass container, has sort of a floppy moist texture but good with peanut butter and so forth.  I eat a lot of brown rice now - trying to avoid wheat and white rice, and I also eat a LOT of peanut butter, mayonnaise, olive oil, olives, cheese and eggs.  Of course, there are vegetables, and we eat pork often and other meats but if I'm cooking what I'm going to eat - it is the above things, and I'm eating the rest with other people to share meals.  

 sushi rice substitute: wash long-grain brown rice, boil as normal (2 times water, bit of salt, bit of rice vinegar in water, raise to boil, lower temp and cover, cook until water absorbed), then while still warm stir in a bit more rice vinegar, white sugar (amount depends on rice) and salt.. let cool down some, press into onigiri balls, with sesame seed and/or nori sheet embedded on top, cool and store in glass container with cover in fridge

The supplement info I read a few months ago said methylated folate was possibly the key, and avoiding folic acid supplements that are overabundant in foods like white rice, breads and pasta.  Other ways to get better folate (more usable by the body) are avocadoes, olives, bananas and eggs.<--ding ding, my diet powerhouses for years already.. but now I have an idea 'why'...  The choline in egg yolks is probably something I've been making extra use of for years - I do this thing where I cook the whites to 'just' congealed and keep the yolks runny, add all the heavy fat-soluble spices to the yolks (paprika, turmeric, black pepper) and eat what someone else would consider 'too spicy to live' with relish.