THE BARRY MONTH OF MAY CHALLENGE

[CarolynF]

No..the Coney Pie had hamburger and onions and seasoning and 2 sliced hotdogs..Then over the top was mayo/eggs/cheese, so it was like a nice crust.....

It was very good..Brett thought it was "okay"..

[TuscanGirl]

Pictures!

[sjl330]

Beautiful pics MK.

[CarolynF]

You are all darling.. Thanks for the pictures.. Yipee dd!!!

Anyone watch The Bachelorette? Sandy??? There is a guy with a foot fetish on there..
Not good. She doesn't realize it yet, but she will soon enough.

[TuscanGirl]

Thanks!

DD25 is off to Florida for a week. DH is taking her to the airport in St Louis.
Everyone is so busy!

Foot fetish?!?!?!?!?

[sjl330]

Nope! I am boycotting Bachelor shows of all kinds put on by ABC. Last year with Jason and Melissa totally ruined it for me and I've watched every single season since it started.

Off for my massage today and then lunch with the girls. I took the pup for a walk this a.m. and did my FlyLady mission. So now I can just go relax, lol.

[Buffy45]

Morning peeps.
Grandkids are awesome for me, DH isn't into them though, which is really sad, he just doesn't realize what he is missing but he really wasn't into kids ever. I know other people like this and I don't understand it but it is what it is.
I had 2 grandchicks for several years, then #3 came along. I also had 2 step grandkids come along about the same time as #3 but we seldom if ever see them, stepson is divorced, blah blah. Then the triplets came along, so all of a sudden they were 6 around and then DD#2 had DGS who is almost one. Now, she is pregnant again and we will find out next week if there is more than one. They implanted 4 but Dr. said chances are slim of anything more than twins and even that is not high chance what with her age, etc. but for some reason I am feeling there is more than one. I guess since last time they implanted 4 and there was only 1, I doubt they are this lucky this time. If twins they will be soooo busy, I really hope it is only one since they are so close together, it gives the parents and Mema more time for one on one. But, luckily, they can afford help, so if it is more than one, they can handle it better than most.

I go today to find out what they can do about me bump on me bum.

I have been depressed since return from trip, I know it is trying to get back into regular swing of things and DH has been stressing me out lately. I am getting enough sleep, guess it will swing back to normal soon. I go to my endo next week and I think that will help, I need a pep talk about my diabetes and I want to talk to her about different meds. I am so tired of the stomach distress from the metformin, it did get better to a point but now it just "is" and I am tired of it. But, many of the meds cause weight gain so we must find something that will work for me but not cause that. And, I know strict LC works wonders but I can't make myself do it now, blather blather blather. Bah humbug, I am not usually down like this.

MK, your kids are awesome kids, I can see why having them move out is hard on you. Sometimes it is easier if they are rotten kids, LOL, but luckily we don't have those.

I love that Brett is wanting to learn to cook Carolyn!

Sandy, I think I need a massage and lunch with my GF's, maybe that would lift me out of this funk!

Hello to everyone and kudos to those of you who are eating well, I give you so much credit for doing so!!!

[sjl330]

Come on up and join us Buffy. We'd love to have you. Sending you hugs and prayers hoping your mood improves.

[CarolynF]

Hi ladies..

Okay..I was 155 today...grumble, grumble..My hormones should be balanced so I'm counting on losing a bit..soon..

Buffy: It is soooooo hard to get back in the swing of things after a wedding/vacation/etc..Just take your time and going to the endo will help you get things in order..
Darn that met! I didn't know it made your tummy upset..this is not good.

Has anyone ever gotten a sprayed tan from a shop? I'm thinking of getting my legs done only..Would that look weird?? My arms kinda do get some sun from wearing short sleeves, but my legs look sooooooo pale..

Did my exercise this morning..Brett and I are going sandal shopping for him..and a haircut.

MaryKay: Wow..Florida sounds wonderful. Hope your dd has fun.

I have a very wierd story about a person in our town with a foot fetish. He would go to the shoe stores and hang around..Then one day he went into the Religious Bookstore and attacked a 70 year old lady who worked there. He pulled out a high heel shoe and
started attacking her and made her take her shoes off.. Luckily, the police caught him.
Sicko.......

[sjl330]

My DGD has gotten the fake tans. They wear off pretty quickly. They have some pretty good self tanners out now. Read some reviews and pick one of those. I think there are some good reviews here at LCF. I bet if you post a thread asking you'll find a great answer.

Where's Cindy been? I hope she's ok. She usually posts a lot.

[CarolynF]

Sandy: I think you are right about "doing it yourself"..I'm bad at getting it even, then end up scrubbing it off..I need something foolproof..

Yes, where is Cindy and Jem and everyone else????????????

[CindyCRNA]

Here I am!! Work yesterday and no chance to post. Buffy, coming home after a well anticipated vacation is always a let down. I'm always bummed after. I'm sorry metformin messes with your stomach.

Sandy, I love the knobs and pulls on your cabinets. Are the cabinets all new or a reface? We need a reface as the cabinets are solid, just chipping and I want granite counter tops.

My 27 year old horse, from here on out will be known as DHOR 27, so as not to confuse her with a DH (yes, I know what it sounds like!) I also have a DHOR 9 but he is in good health. To make a hugely long story short, she basically started showing symptoms of a stroke. MAJOR facial drooping, cant' blink her left eye, drool coming out of the left side of her muzzle, gait very stiff on her left side. The vet thinks it may be a central nervous system infection that they can get from opossums. We sent blood off to NY and may have a diagnosis this Friday. She can eat grain by sticking her tongue in it but it doesn't appear she can eat grass. She has lost weight in the past 3 weeks but looks better now that I have her in a stall and am giving her as much food as she can eat.

If it is EPM (the opossum infection) treatment is very expensive but she is happy and looks forward to going outside and gets excited to see the other horses so what can I do. God gave me a good job for a reason.

Right now she is on high dose Vit E that can help protect some of the nerves from further damage. She is gaining weight and appears upbeat but confused as to why 1 side of her face doesn't work!

On a happy food note, I did make a 1/2 leg of lamb for me as BF doesn't care for it. I made homemade Taziki and have LC pita's so that will go to work tomorrow. I am doing filets from Costco again tonight as they were too good last time!

Carolyn, I love a spray tan but you have to let them show you how to protect your hands and feet or they get blotchy. There was a fabulous place in ElPaso and I looked like a California girl for the 3 months i was there. Never found anything as good in KC.

[CarolynF]

I knew I should have hit that opossum the other day. So sorry for your DHOR27 Cindy..
How about putting a feed bag on her? I've seen that in the movies..

I think I will do some research at Walgreens tomorrow.

Idol is on tonight and Brett promised that he would watch it with me..

[CindyCRNA]

We are watching Idol right now!

Hey, what liquid oil do you all bake with if you wanted to use a healthy fat for a cake? I was all proud of using cannola and now I just learned it's not good. There is a movie on DVD called Fathead and there is a thread over on the main with a 9 minute video on fats which is very informative. Corn=bad, cannola=bad, sat fat=good, but I need liquid and I got the impression that too much monounsat was not good either.

[ebheffernan]

Hi all, still here! I did really well until night #3 ....but back to it now! Even with going over on my flex points, I'm under what I was previously averaging and this coming week should be easier d/t not working much weighed 146.5 yesterday so I'm on the right track now I think. Found a good way to make my protein shake for quick breakfast-I just stick one egg, 1 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1/2 cup raw goat milk, 4 ice cubes, a bit of water and some nutmeg and shake away-it's good! And I get all those bioavailable vitamins and minerals from the raw yolk and raw milk. No cream for me until maintenance
Cindy-so sorry about your horse, hope you find out what it is soon-we lost our 11 year old dog about 7-8 months ago to leptospirosis (they get it from wild animals) she went into acute kidney failure.
Buffy-you'll get back into it, just keep plugging away!
mkay-the pics were great, your DD is adorable!
ok, off to karate where I will hopefully have a good, sweaty workout and feel better about my bad food indulgences today
Becky

[CarolynF]

I melt coconut oil sometimes..And I do use safflower oil sometimes, too. I really like to bake with unsalted butter for the most part. Although in the Cook's Illustrated, half butter, half oil is a good combo for a moist result.

[ebheffernan]

cindy-
I've done baked goods with almond flour and coconut oil with lots of success, comes out yummy and moist. Coconut oil is good for you and very heat stable, but get the virgin cold pressed stuff and not the processed stuff. Here's my pumpkin cake recipe, you'll just have to use an AS for the sweetener and something for the sorghum flour as I don't think that's LC. I think you could get away with straight almond flour and be ok, or try a little coconut flour or low carb flour. I use this for birthday cakes for my kids who are GF

3 extra large organic free-range eggs
2 cups organic light brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 15-oz can cooked pumpkin
2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla extract
1 cup almond flour, 1 cup sorghum flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 10 x 13" baking pan with greased foil or parchment.

Beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl till light and frothy; add the brown sugar, beat till smooth; add the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla; beat to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (the GF flour mix through sea salt). Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture a little at a time and beat to combine- for two minutes.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes, or until the cake is firm and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean.

Cool on a wire rack while you make your frosting.

I get RAVE reviews on this from all those kids and mom s used to sugared glutened regular cake
Becky

[ebheffernan]

Sally Fallon is a good resource to learn about good vs bad fats-just google her name and you should get some good resources

[CindyCRNA]

Thank you for the info and the recipe. I love pumpkin. I just ordered the book Know Your Fats by Mary Enig off e-bay. I have the good cold pressed coconut oil. I should try to melt it and use it. I thought about very light olive oil but have read that it is too processed. I'm wondering if it is that strong of a flavor that you just couldn't use it.

So Carolyn, Safflower oil is a good one??

[ebheffernan]

I think the more saturated fat the more heat stable-poly and monounsaturateds are less heat stable and worse to cook/fry with from what I understand, although I have to stir fry in olive oil-the coconut oil is too strongly flavored for me for that. I just try to stir fry on lower temps.
I baked today (I enjoy baking-i can't do it as much on this WOE )
I got this recipe off elana's pantry, it's good although I did use the agave and the carbs show in the muffins (I ended up with 7.5 g net carbs per muffin) but they're good for the kids and super tasty and you can easily sub an AS in there and significantly reduce the carbs.
Gluten Free Carrot Cake
3 cups blanched almond flour
2 tsp celtic sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
5 eggs
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup grapeseed oil (I subbed coconut oil)
3 cups carrots, grated (I food processed mine!)
1 cup raisins (I omitted)
1 cup walnuts (I used 1/2 cup pecans here)

combine dry ingredients and set aside. Combine wet ingredients. Stir carrots, raisins and nuts into wet ingredients to combine. Stir wet ingredients into dry. Bake at 325 for 35 minutes (I did muffins instead of a cake so the baking time was right around 20-25 minutes)
they were super yummy!
Becky

[TuscanGirl]

Morning!

Sorry I didn't get back yesterday!
I went out to lunch with friends and then a new massage place. It was wonderful!

I bought flowers for the back pots and ran a few errands. Then dinner and DD22 came home so we walked our usual 2.5 miles.

DH worked late and both DS's were at life guard training.

DS16 has his first 1/2 day of finals today.


Becky - thanks for the recipes! Are there threads for these too? I love hearing what everyone says!
What brand of protein powder do you use in your smoothies?
And did you sift the coconut flour for the coconut bread?

Sandy - I've never tried any kind of tan but the "natural" one. The new lotions are supposed to be really good!

Cindy - poor DHOR!!!! Are strokes common in horses? And 9 seems too young for it not to have another cause.

Carolyn - I'm sure you'll start to lose soon. Darn hormones!!

DD22 and I will walk this morning, then we both need a wedding present for the wedding she's in this weekend. She's Maid of Honor this Sunday night.
I've never been to a Jewish wedding! I saw her huppa at the shower - it's gorgeous!

[CindyCRNA]

Oh, Becky that looks good. I love to bake also but take it to work so they can eat it. It helps me get my baking fix. I notice it calls for Grapeseed oil. Is that a good one to bake with? But I bet CO was a great flavor in a carrot cake. I have evrything to make that too! I still have Amish friendship bread starter fermenting on the counter. I made a pumpkin version with pumpkin spice pudding and canned pumpkin and just made an apple walnut version which looks good. BF gets 1 and 1 goes to work which I have again today.

I medicate DHOR 27 before work today with her high dose Vit E. Poor girl. I'm worried about her. I know 27 is old but she is so spry that I feel bad for her. She is confused as to why her face doesn't work. I board her at a VERY nice barn and all the workers are doing a good job to keep a good eye on her.

I'm look forward to my book, Know Your Fats. Melting butter or CO is a good idea but with baking, I think liquid oil has some desirable qualities in baking. Right now, I'm using butter, CO and olive oil but am depressed about canola. I think canola, from what I read, does not cause an increase in coronary lesions if your diet has sufficient sat fats, from what I read in the study.

Hope everyone has a great day. Sandy and Carolyn, look forward to meeting you next week!

MKay, DHOR 9 is fine, It's DHOR 27.

[TuscanGirl]

Cindy - sorry - I mixed them up! I hope DHOR27 recovers quickly!

I started Crestor last week (only 2X a week to start) and noticed that every morning after, my left eye feels like it's bulging. And it's hard to get my contact in that eye.

Thoughts?

I'm calling the doc today!

[Buffy45]

Morning dear friends,
Hoping my mood is improving, thanks for the kind reassuring words, yes, I am sure it is let down from trip, annoyance at DH, and I don't recover from being tired very quickly anymore.

Went to surgeon yesterday and he said the hematoma on my hip will resolve itself in months, which is better than opening it to drain it b/c of risk of infection. And, he said it shows now sign of infection now, so unless it does, I just wait on it to go down. It will be a sort of feeling as if I am getting slimmer, right??? LOL

I haven't done any baking lately, just am not in the mood to cook, which is too bad, I used to love to cook and bake. I have used mostly butter and or CO when I bake LC. Or, you can get extra light olive oil which has no taste, which I like to use as well.

MK, what is the crestor for? Is that a known side effect? I would def call the Dr. on that. I have never been to a jewish wedding either.

Cindy, so sorry about Dhor and the stroke, poor thing. A friend is going through a rough time with her golden lab, I feel so bad for her.

Becky, that carrot cakes looks good, printed it out in case I can get my baking groove back :-)

Carolyn, Jergens makes a moisturizing lotion that has a little self-tanner in it, that works very gradually and if you have dry skin and use it daily after your bath, it will give you just a little color, I have used it and it seems to work pretty well without leaving streaks, spots, etc. Just use carefully around your ankles, knees, etc.

I have 2 of the wild cats kittens in the house, trying to tame them down somewhat. I have named them McNaughty and McNice, you can probably understand why. One is getting really sweet, the other? well, he seems to have taken up residence under the couch and only comes out for food although he yowls at the top of his lungs at times, LOL. They are going back out but I wanted them tame enough that DGS could play with them.

[CarolynF]

Hi everyone..

I love McNaughty and McNice. I think I bought some Jergens lotion this morning at Walgreens..

Yup..looking forward to seeing you gals next week..Should be lots of fun. Wish everyone could get together.

Becky: Wow..those recipes sound great.. Thanks.

Grapeseed oil is fine to bake with. I love it. I read somewhere where safflower oil was okay..You just never know, though. I have the Mary Enig book, too.

Garage door spring broke this morning. We can't lift the door. So, luckily, DH left his car here or I would be using Brett's..We are off to Wallie to buy him a grill pan for his apartment.

Jewish weddings are fun. My college roomie was Jewish..Great fun and great food..

Gosh, MKay..I wish you didn't have to take any drugs for Cholesterol..grumble, grumble.
Definitely call your doctor. A lady just started it at my exercise place and she noticed that she couldn't remember what day it was the other day. But, then she figured it out.
She blamed the Crestor..Her cholesterol was over 300 so she needed something.

[ebheffernan]

yes, I always sift my coconut flour into the wet ingredients otherwise it lumps up and is hard to break apart. I usually use Jay Robb or designer whey. Both are pretty clean and sweeten with stevia, but I'm not a protein powder connoseur! I didn't post those two recipes on the recipe thread. The almond flour pumpkin cake was adapted from one on Karina's Kitchen and the carrot cake was from elana's pantry. You can just google those and get their blog threads and there are lots of comments under both recipes. Elana used to use a lot of almond flour and some coconut flour, although lately I believe she found out she was allergic to most nuts. The older recipes are still on there, she uses a lot of agave. Karina also has some recipes using almond flour. I don't know either of them, I have just been following their blogs because I like their recipes and they both eat gluten free! I learned a lot of my GF baking off those two sites
Becky

[CindyCRNA]

I'll have to go to Whole Foods to check out the oil situation. I'll wait for my book first to see if she has a recommendation.

Becky, I thought about extra light olive oil but read the good properaties of the oil were ruined by the processing to make it tasteless.

Getting ready to go to bed. I'll take my DVD player and watch my Netflix DVD Six Feet Under. Only 4 more DVD's to go. I watched all 6 years back to back. Now what will i do!!

[sjl330]

Good morning!
Cindy, I think the guy we bought our house from had the cabinets refaced. I know the doors aren't original but I'm pretty sure the structure is. I hope your DHOR27 is doing better. How scary!

My good eating has paid off again this week. I'm down to 146 again. But of course, tomorrow starts a 3 day holiday weekend. And again, I'll try to resist all the temptations. Eventually, if I keep trying I just might be able to accomplish that, lol.

I have chiro this a.m. and a few errands. Nothing major. And I need to do my walking interval workout. I think I need to get arch supports. My feet are starting to hurt me. I just got new shoes a short while ago and I'm doing stretches before walking but they still hurt. And I don't want to get plantar faschitis. I'm going to talk to the chiro about it too.

Have a great day!

Oh I made the Coney Pie last night. It was good but I'll tweak it differently next time I make it.

[TuscanGirl]

Morning!!

Buffy - the Crestor is for high cholesterol. I was perfectly happy with the Pravachol, the doc just wanted to try this. Not after today!!

LOVE your cat's names!!!

Carolyn - be sure to take pics next week! I think this wedding will be fun.

I hope to actually stay home and get something done today - like all the cleaning I need to do and get possibly the flowers planted in the back yard pots.
And laundry - also need to do laundry!

Today is DS16's last day at school! Tomorrow he'll be a Junior! Yikes!

[TuscanGirl]

Hi Sandy!

I bought some insoles for my shoes and they helped my feet a lot. I think the Dr Scholl's Athletic ones.

What do you do on your intervals?