Showing posts with label walking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walking. Show all posts

Monday, June 22, 2009

Monday, with more energy than usual.

The first day of the week is always the day that I decide to start something that I've been putting off. I love to walk, but got somewhat out of the habit for the past couple of weeks due to rain and potty training. So this Monday morning, I decided that I have to be a walker once again. I must admit that it in some ways was due to the 5 pounds I realized I gained when I decided to weigh myself while visiting my parents for the weekend. They had a scale in the downstairs bathroom, and it was somehow able to call my name. (The only scale I have here in my home is inaccurate and buried in the back of the hall closet - where it will stay secured indefinitely.)

Normally, I'm not too hung up on weight...but I thought some of my clothes seemed a little snug. After that blasted scale called me out, I spent the rest of the day counting how many non-essential morsels I ate while happily helping my Mother in her kitchen. She made two different kinds of bars...what was I supposed to do? I chose to eat what I pleased (and it was worth it) and then decided bright and early on Monday morning, things were going to change.

SO, today after breakfast, boy and I took a walk to the "big park" which entitles me to at least 4 miles of calorie burning bliss. I obsessively wear a pedometer and am proud to report that it was 4.65 miles on today's route. We were back home by 11, and he actually was in bed for a much needed nap by noon. I took advantage of such a windfall by scrubbing the bathroom, washing my neglected kitchen floor and starting the laundry.

It was 2 o'clock and the kid was still asleep, so after a quick call to my Mom to see if I could use outdated Sure-Jell, I decided to make some freezer jam with the organic strawberries I got from the Amish during my visit home. I wasn't sure I could complete my task before the boy awoke, but don't you know that it takes absolutely no time and not much effort to make freezer jam? I swear that no one in America would dare dream of using overly processed, artificially sweetened (or by contrast needlessly expensive organic) preserves if he/she could manage the simplistic directions inside the Sure-Jell box. I figure my 6+ jar endeavor cost me about 6 bucks, and is infinitely more rewarding than purchasing.




The mismatched beauties resting nicely for 24 hours before freezing.





Excess strawberries, mixed with sugar and added to plain yogurt for consumption tomorrow.

I was also excited that my husband was making his own supper, so I could have whatever my heart desired...I chose quiche from Mollie Katzen's pretty simplistic method in The Enchanted Broccoli Forrest. I used farmer's cheese, goat cheese, zucchini, onion and mushroom. I haven't made a pie dinner for quite a while, and I really enjoyed it. I like it even more that I know all of the leftovers are mine. Fortunately I come from the stock that wastes nothing and eats until it's gone...seldom do I tire of eating the same thing day after day - unless that cooking bug really hits me hard, and that usually happens more in the indoor-bound winters.


I used the time the quiche was baking to wash up and considered the fact that I have no idea where I got my pressure cooking pot that I use for fudge, cooking pasta, (pressure cooking, of course...the one day a year I get a taste for the beer/yogurt chicken cooked under pressure - but that's another story), and generally everything else that doesn't fit into the sometimes too large All-Clad stockpot which is on the kitchen workhorse list.




I love the Magic Seal label.


The bottom of the pot. Mysterious numbers in a pleasing typeset.


All in all, not too bad for a Monday. I love that walking gives me energy and appetite, and now that I can proudly say my son is potty trained, I can stay on schedule once again. Soon my clothes will fit, and all will be right as rain.