Reid Me

Ah, my masterpiece! So yesterday I prepared my first (of many) slow-cooker recipes from Stephanie O'Dea , the chick who cooked with her crock pot each day for a year.  I decided to start with the Enchilada Casserole because I had been staring at the corn tortillas in our fridge for over a month (thank goodness they last that long!).  I was excited too, because I've always loved enchiladas and the silky, spicy enchilada sauce that is drizzled over the top of them.  I can usually tell how good the Mexican food is at a restaurant based on their enchilada sauce.  You have to be careful eating out, though, most places use flour as a thickener in their sauces and I've had to resort to using the table salsa at many a Mexican restaurant.  Anyhoo... I had my crock pot, my tortillas and my enthusiasm; now all I needed was chicken, black beans, bell peppers, cheese and enchilada sauce, of course!  My husband called to say "Hi," and I told him what my plan for di...

You know what I love about the internet?  Blogs.  Food blogs, to be exact!  There are millions of them.  Do a search for food blogs and you come up with 1,260,000,000 of them!  I like to bake, and I have to eat gluten-free, so before Ms. Hasslebeck on The View had her on GF book and before more stores and restaurants started serving gluten-free food, we had blogs.  Obviously I'm not telling you something that you don't already know.  Just Google your desired dish, or even just the ingredients you have, and boom, thousands of options for your nightly dinner or dessert! Something I've been talking about getting for a while is a crock pot.  We had one way back when, and never used it.  Now, with the two kids and my hubby and I busy with work, easy meals are far more desirable.  What easier than a crock pot meal??  I do casseroles, rice, pasta, etc. but you can't quite get the same effect as you do with a slow cooker.  A couple o...

Tuesday morning, I started my day with about 16 oz. of water and the juice from one full lemon.  I was a bit impressed because I didn't end up with a caffeine headache, and I even felt energized enough to go to a nice hot yoga class!  (It's been a while since I've gone to a class or even done anything at home)  Yay yoga!!  My day went well.  No obvious effects of no caffeine, and I think I felt pretty energized.  I am a firm believer in mind over body, so it may have been merely psychological. Wednesday, I overslept.  Not sure if that had something to do with being overly tired, or a low volume on my alarm...I didn't get my lemon water until after I dropped the kids off at school.  Still, no caffeine headache, but I did feel a little off.  Regardless I stuck to my guns, went to another hot yoga class (yay, yoga!).  Was feeling a bit weak at some moments, but I think it was lack of water and pushing myself too hard.  Again, here,...

So I've been thinking a lot about this water thing.  Water is 70% of our world, and makes up 70% of our bodies ...so, no one is doubting it's importance.  But do we really understand how important it is?  Maybe not as important as what you put into it. I know we need water, but I also know that we can consume too much water.  Remember that CSI where the college kid was being hazed and was told to chug a 5gallon container of water?  He literally died from drinking too much water.  Okay, so you can't always believe what you see on TV, but it's CSI people!  CSI is science and science is truth ...Not that that is any excuse not to get my eight 8oz. glasses of water a day. But back to the importance of water...I have been trying to make a better attempt at drinking more water.  The problem is, when I get up in the morning the first thing I think of is coffee ....Mmmmm... coffee... Coffee is really something I never considered doing without....

It's hard to jump on the internet now-a-days and not see headlines like this: Middle-class areas shrink as America divides into 'two-tiered society' of rich and poor                                  This Is What Revolution Looks Like Justice Dept. in deadlock with Alabama over illegal immigration law I can recall a time when my parents told me that I could be anything that I wanted to be and "the sky's the limit."  We are instilled with this hope of a middle class future, where we can live comfortably and raise a family with all of the comforts we are entitled to here in America, the land of plenty.  We know too many people who have been laid off, who are under water on their homes and are just barely squeaking by.  Our local school district is on the brink of insolvency and the teachers are being asked to take pay ...

Some things are easier to resist than others. So here I am, one week after I started a dairy-free week and I must say, I failed.  I made it six days.  But on the sixth day, there was gluten-free pizza!  This was my first time getting to try gluten-free pizza made fresh from somewhere other than my kitchen.  Did I mention there was gluten-free beer? Okay, so I had some left-overs yesterday, too.  There was mozzarella and Gorgonzola, quite the combination along with crispy bacon, butternut squash, cucumbers and other tasty veggies.  It was sinful.  It was heavenly.  It was delicious.  And I knew that I was totally weak, had absolutely no will power, no ability to say no.  Then again, for someone who pretty much gets stuck eating salads everywhere I go due to limited options, I was not going to settle for a salad when there was gluten-free pizza on the menu! Reid-Me.blogspot.com I did learn a few things this week, though.  I ...

Day five of no dairy.  I think it's going pretty well.  A lot easier than I thought it would be.  The challenge for me now, is to drink more water. It shouldn't be a challenge, right?  I should be able to just keep a glass of water on the table next to me and refill it once it's empty...then repeat, right?  Right. My mom used to drink a ton of water.  She'd have her water bottle with her at all times.  This was before personal water bottles were the "it" thing and you didn't find entire aisles of bottled water in the stores.  This was before Food and Water Watch showed us that you can't always believe what you read on the back of a bottle when it comes to the source.  She used to have this old beat up plastic water bottle that everyone knew was hers, because she was one of the only people I knew of that carried one.  These were the old-school water bottles, before BPA and all the other toxic chemicals were revealed as dangerous and we ...