Gluten free?

Today I am looking for thoughts on gluten free recipes. I made "skinny" peanut butter chocolate brownies at work (which have no flour, butter or oil) but one of our regulars pointed out to me that they could be gluten free had I used steel cut oats instead of old fashioned rolled oats (which are rolled in flour to keep them separated and non clumping). She generously also offered to bring me almond flour and coconut flour to test out with some I my recipes and see how they turned out. So I'm looking to you, my faithful audience, for recipes you'd like me to try and make gluten free!

Betty effing Crocker

I've decided that in all my free time of under-employment I was going to try my hand at something that I really enjoyed...  cooking.  I guess the part I enjoy the most is the eating part BUT I also like making it because it gives me a sense of accomplishment and I am seriously lacking in that department these days.

Last night I decided to make Cream of Sweet Potato Soup.  I had three large sweet potatoes laying around that were begging to be eaten and no idea what I was going to do with them other than baking them.  NOTE: this is NOT a Pinterest recipe (you will see many of those in the future so I thought it would be best to clarify).  I went on my lonesome to the great big internet and googled sweet potato soup on AllRecipies because I have been dying to make a soup.  My boyfriend's son is with his mom this weekend and seeing as sweet potato soup is not really for the 4 year old palate (and making him eat this particular thing was not a battle I felt like having), I decided I'd make it last night.  My boyfriend?  Yeah, well he's gonna eat what I make regardless.  He's kind of a human garbage can.

SO I decided on this recipe because it called for exactly the number of potatoes I had, I like creamy soups and it seemed like the easiest method to turn the potatoes into soup.  Before I proceed, please let me add in here that I am a pretty, "liberal" cooker.  When I cook I usually make entirely too much food and I have a habit of swapping in and out for ingredients because one thing is healthier or I simply don't have it and don't feel like going to the store to get it, so bear with me.

The ingredients.

I used Herb Ox Chicken Bouillon Cubes and about 3 cups of water to make the chicken broth.  It's super easy and great if you can get past the fact that it's one cube per cup of water and each little cube carries 1100mgs of sodium which is 46% of your daily value in sodium for a 2000 calorie diet...  but aside from that, super great, right?

In a vain attempt to make up for the super unhealthy cubes, I opted to use 2% milk instead of heavy cream.  Yeah, I know what you're thinking from the picture, "She eats all this unhealthy stuff and yet she buys organic milk?"  I do and I do so with no guilt.  Sure it's a little more expensive but when I know farmers that buy organic milk, I have to start to wonder about the whole hormone theories of regular milk.  That, and if you've ever looked at the expiration dates, this lasts soooo much longer and since we were throwing a bunch of milk out (which annoys me more than anything) organic milk has solved that problem!

But I digress...  First, I "baked" the sweet potatoes in the microwave for about 20 minutes (10 minutes one side then rotate).  Then I peeled them (I just used my bare hands) and set them on a plate.  The next step is to puree the potatoes and the chicken broth.  Well here is another step where I had to improvise...  The closest thing I have to a food processor or even a blender is a mini chopper so I decided that I would use this and just do the puree-ing in small batches.  This is how I managed:

My mini chopper.

I discovered that I wasn't going to get a "perfect" puree because my chopper was so small, but I did the best that I could with what I had.  I also found out that mashing the potatoes with a fork before putting them in the chopper would make it a little smoother when it came out.

When I finished the puree step, I moved on to warming it in the pan and adding the spices and sugar.  All of those I added to taste, going particularly light on the peppers as I am not a huge fan of spicy food.  I estimate I added less than 1/4 tsp. of cayenne pepper and about the same amount of regular black pepper.  I added more than the recommended amount of brown sugar (about a 1/2 cup).  

Stirring in the spices and sugar.

And finally, in classic me fashion, I removed the soup and forgot to add the milk/cream which made my above rant about organic milk completely moot (I was writing part of this while I was waiting for the potatoes to soften).

So my recipe looked something like this:

3 Large potatoes

3 C. chicken broth

Cayenne pepper, black pepper and salt to taste

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 C. brown sugar

And my soup came out looking like this:

I think it needs a garnish...

All in all, I did enjoy it a lot (I do love sweet potatoes).  I think I would have preferred a smoother consistency, which I think I might have gotten if I had been able to put it in a food processor instead of a mini chopper or if I had used slightly smaller potatoes.  I took it to work today to get some more taste testers from my coworkers and everyone thought it tasted good and I only had one critique which was again about the consistency.  I'd make it again though.  I am also going to get the fitness instructor at my gym to test it out (she is a self proclaimed sweet potato connoisseur) but I'll get back to you on that review.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

new mindset

SO, I know I've been, well...  lost, for quite some time but I am going to try and get back into this, both for the cathartic and therapeutic aspects blogging has as well as to chronicle some of the things I've been dabbling in while I've been away.

I've decided at 25 I have officially reached my quarter life crisis (and yes I do plan on living to 100 regardless of the crotchety old woman I am sure to become).  After all this school and tests and whatnot  I STILL don't know what I want to do.  I know what brings me happiness and I'm thinking more and more that this is what I should be focusing on trying to make happen.

Fact:  litigation does not make me happy.  Sure, I'll argue for as long as the next guy until I'm blue in the face because, let's face it, I am always right (JK!) but does it really make me happy?  Nope.  It stresses me the F*%# OUT.  So I guess that being a trial attorney and arguing for a living is going to be pretty stressful for me.  But, I remember I did enjoy working with people because I was under the impression that I was helping them.  Helping people whether through volunteering, a shoulder to cry on or good advice has ALWAYS been something that made me happy.  I feel like I am useful when I make someone smile or just comfort them in any way that I can.  I think that's why I enjoyed custody cases.  It was because I felt like I was giving a frustrated parent an outlet as someone to talk to and hope by saying that I would do everything in my power to help them get custody of their child.  (Insert minor problem here of the huge dissatisfaction that I am causing the other parent when doing this.  I still haven't reconciled that little bump in my mind.)  So how to help people and still get paid for it because, let's be real, mama needs to eat!  Did I need to go to law school?  Probably not...  Was it an impulse decision because I was petrified of trying to join the real world after college without any job prospects and lose my health insurance in the process?  Probably yes...  So really, epic fail on my part.

At this point, it's time to stop being scared of what I don't know (which quite frankly petrifies me to a point I am uncomfortable discussing on here) and own up to the mistakes I've made.  This is the only way I can realistically move forward.  I'm not the first person in crisis and I'm sure I won't be the last, so people, LET'S DO THIS!

Get a job!

Aside from school, the other thing that defined me most was working.  Since the time I turned 14 I have   worked.  For me, it doesn't matter where, what matters is the cash flow coming into my pocket.  Working took up my time, required responsibility and scheduling and gave me something to do whether I wanted I wanted to  or not.

My first job was at a deli in a farmers market in Allentown, PA.  I worked Thursdays and Fridays after school from 4 until close and then Saturdays all day.  Since those were the only times it was open, it was a nice starter job for a young kid.  I started out there as the "chavesher" which is Pennsylvania Dutch for "dishwasher".  Now, I'm sure you can only imagine how much I HATED washing dishes.  I didn't like to do it at home and I certainly wasn't a fan of doing it at a deli where I left stinking of wet lunchmeat.  I learned about NBOC (no butts on counters) and to put the DLO (old) stuff out first.  The market had its little quirks like any job and I learned to like it there because everyone was so friendly.  The funny stories of my time there could take up a blog in and of itself, but maybe I'll save those for another day when I'm feeling sentimental.

Eventually, I worked my way up and no longer had to do dishes.  Even after I got another job, I would occasionally fill in at the market when they needed someone extra on a busy Saturday.  After leaving the market I worked at a pool snackstand, Victoria's Secret (blog to come on how awful that was), Lonestar Steakhouse, SJU tour guide, personal assistant, babysitter, catering, bartending, tax preparer, secretary, paralegal and more that I probably can't even remember.  The point is, I had a job from the time I was 14 until I graduated from law school.

After graduation I thought about getting a job for the summer while I studied but everyone told me it was a bad idea because I needed to focus all my attention on the bar exam.  Once the bar exam was over, I wanted to go back to work at the law office where I was working during law school but suddenly, my boss couldn't "afford" to keep me on.  So I lost yet another thing that defined who I was.

After thinking about it and trying to figure out what to do, I just started applying anywhere I thought I could get hired.  I walked into my favorite cafe in town and got hired on the spot and today was my first day.  I learned the ropes and I don't think I have ever been more excited to work in my life.  I left not feeling tired, but feeling excited about the new possibilities and the new doors that I was opening.  No, I don't intend on making a career out of serving sandwiches and coffee, but it is certainly better than sitting around on my butt all day!

Since when it rains, it always pours, I finally got a call back from a legal secretary job that I applied for a while back.  I have an interview on Monday to see whether this will be my next place of employment.  It's always hard when I think about working these smaller jobs and how this is supposed to be the time when I am making the "big bucks" but I guess I just need to remember that we all have to start somewhere.  It's time to look at the big picture and take it day by day instead of trying to speed everything up and get to the end of the race first.

Fingers crossed x

sucking wind

When you're lost, where do you even begin to try and find yourself?  I started by looking in the mirror. I didn't see the lean mean rugby playing machine that I used to be when I knew who I was an where I was going.  Instead I saw a confused, slightly... ahem...  "fluffier" version of that girl, but she was still there somewhere.

Run.

First thought that popped into my head was, "Run."  A command to myself to get my gym shorts on, pull out a ratty t-shirt and hit the pavement.  And so I did...

20 minutes of cardio (defined as "heart pumping activity") 5 days a week is the recommended dose of exercise for the average person looking to keep their heart in shape.   20 minutes may not seem like a lot of time (I can't even get a quarter of the way through a pint of ben and jerry's in that amount of time) but 20 minutes of running after perfecting my groove on the couch for the last two weeks?  You guessed it, ouch.

Needless to say, I was unable to run the entire 20 minutes.  I did 10 minutes up the road, turned around and came back.  I had to stop at the 10 minute mark when I turned around and walked for a little bit, but I ran the majority of the time.  My body felt unnatural doing to motions, with my arms and legs trying to figure out how they were supposed to work together to propel me along my way and by the end of it, I was huffing and puffing and sucking wind life my life depended on it (which in some sense it did).

I know now that part of who I am (or at least who I was) is running.  Maybe it will take me some time to find my pace again and let my arms and legs remember what they are supposed to be doing, but hey, I have my first goal and my first direction; and that direction is full speed, straight ahead.