New Years: A Time For Resolutions

Auld Lang Syne
Robert Burns

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne

~
~

New Years has always been a bit of a let down for me. For years I would throw a gathering of friends and family with food and drinks. We played games, talked and made resolutions for the coming year. Resolutions that no one kept, let alone remembered the day after.

I would attempt to follow the list I had made out the weeks before New Years in the hopes that I would at least accomplish 1 of them. I have never been able to fulfill a list of resolution I have made yet.

This year will be different.

This year I will make a list and stick to it. I will share my list with you and you can keep me on the straight and narrow..

~

~

My New Years Resolution

1.Get into shape. Just because your skinny doesn't mean you are in shape. I have several area's that need some lift...lol

2. Eat out less, meaning only eat out once a month

3. Be more organized. For those that know me, I know you are thinking is she kidding, but yes even I need some more organization.

4. Spend more quality time with my husband. Have date nights

5. Read more. I have really been neglecting my favorite past time.

6. Be more attentive to my family and friends. How many times have you sat with someone while they talked about their day and you did not hear a word of it? I do it all the time and I feel horrible. I am really going to stop what I am doing and start listening with my full focus.

~

That is my list, small and relatively easy.

~

Here is my question for you? What are some of your New Year Resolutions?

See you next year!!!

Garlic and Psoriatic Arthritis

10 Reasons For Adding Garlic To Psoriatic and Rheumatoid Arthritis Diets

Garlic can reduce pain and inflammation in people with PA and RA.

Garlic inhibits the formation of free radicals that can cause joint damage .

Garlic is anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal and may protect against some cancers.

Garlic has cardiovascular benefits. It can reduce blood pressure and cholesterol which help to protect against atherosclerosis which means a reduction in chance of heart attack and stroke.

Studies have shown that eating both cooked and raw garlic together provided a better health benefit than eating either cooked or uncooked garlic alone.

Garlic promotes a healthy immune system.

Garlic has antioxidant properties.

Odorless form is less effective than natural garlic.

Garlic has vitamins B6 and C.

Garlic has the minerals selenium which helps regulate thyroid function and immune response and manganese an anti-oxidant.

A very simple Chinese soup with cabbage noodles

I am sick. There I said it. I am so hard headed that often I tell myself I am not ill, so I can continue on my usual daily. But this cold has stalled any progress I was gaining before I caught the darn cold.
I am miserable and since I am the only one that can cook in my household,( Chris had to work) I made a really easy soup that would not only feed my family, but make me feel good too.
My mother would make homemade chicken noodle soup when I was ill as a child. She would boil a chicken and pick it, make noodles from scratch and dice all the veggies small so I could swallow them. Since I am sick, I made my own rendition of chicken noodle soup, minus the flour noodle with a little Asian flare.

First I cannot stress enough to use all organic produce. It is really worth the extra cost.

I diced up 4 stalks of celery, 3/4 bag of baby carrots, 1/8 of a large cabbage and 2 medium onions. I water sauteed them until tender. Next, I added a full teaspoon of cracked black pepper and 4-5 cloves of garlic that you minced, let set for at least 3 minutes to get the most nutrients out of your garlic.

Next I sliced about another 1/8Th of the cabbage again and made them into noodles.

Add onto the top of your cooked veggies and add your prepared vegetable broth. With a dash or two of light soy sauce.

My vegetable broth is pretty straight forward. I use whatever veggies I have laying around. This broth had,

3 onions that were chopped skins left on

1-1lb. bag of carrots washed and chopped, skins left on
1 bag of celery, washed and chopped with leaves left on

2 tbls. cracked black pepper
1 dash of dill

Throw everything in a huge roaster, like you would bake a turkey. Cover with water and set over a low heat and let come to a simmer. Let all your veggies break down. I left mine for most of a day, watching so it didn't cook down and adding water when needed. When you are ready, pour your broth into a strainer to separate vegetable from broth. If desired, use a hand held blender puree the vegetable and add back into the broth. This would make a great base for a veggie risotto. I always puree my veggies and add them into my stock.

My finished soup. Aren't the cabbage noodles cute?? I served some organic jasmine rice in Kaiti's bowl and ate mine plain with a green onion finish.

This is a picture that Kaiti took, she is really interested in photography and loves to help out with the blog.

I am hopping to be rid of this cold before New Years as I have a lovely meal planned to share with all of you.

~

Question:

What do you eat or drink when you are sick?

Mushroom: A book review and a talk about health from a reformed junk food junkie.

Recently I was book shopping in town. I found a wonderful book that I had passed over several times before, because lets be honest....mushrooms don't seem too exciting. I mean even the book cover was plain.....But look inside!

Chinese Mushroom soup

Mushroom Bruschetta

Hot and Sour Noodle & Mushroom Salad

Mushroom Brioches

Mixed Mushroom Pizza

Mushroom Burgers

Mushroom & Bean Chili

Garlic Mushrooms

~

~

Not only is this book filled with visually stunning pictures, it is mostly vegan, and what isn't vegan, can be made vegan fairly easy.

I try to buy all of my books used. I know that probably sounds strange to some people, but if I can pay for $20.00 for 5 like new books, instead of $50.00 for two that is my kinda deal. Hastings Book store occasionally has this book deal and when they do I stock up! It is not unusual to see me walk out with 15 books at a time.

Here is what I picked up this time.

Really interesting read, actually healthy food based on a custom eating plan. Very ETL approved!

This book really surprised me, it is not as filled with seafood as I thought it would. Alot of the recipes are easily converted to veganism.

I hesitated to put this in my post. We have family with prostate cancer. It is a truly important subject with me and I am not one to take any type of cancer lightly. I have intimate knowledge of cancer and life threatening disease and so I take my health and the health of my family very seriously.

Eating is something you have to do, you should take it seriously. Would you feed your children Mc Arsenic Nuggets, if it was the latest craze? Would you change your diet if you could live another 30 years? While that may sound funny to some, and even more absurd to vegans, vegans can eat unhealthy foods too.

I cringe at the thought that I ate as a junk food vegan for as long as I did.

Think of it this way, like I do.

I use to smoke.... alot. I was also a vegan.

My children had to sit in the back of my car while I smoked. So what if the window was down, so what if I never smoked in the house. I smelled. I stunk. I quit smoking and now I cannot stand the smell of smokers.

It is disgusting, it is unhealthy and it causes cancer.

Third hand smoke is more lethal than smoking, did you know that?

Food is just as damaging as smoking, or drinking for that matter.

~

Those who drink an entire of bottle of wine with dinner, in my opinion have a problem.

If you eat huge portions of food, vegan or not you are going to die early, you are robbing those that love you years of time together. Just because it is vegan does not make it healthy.

Tofutti cream cheese is deadly, so is Better than Sour Cream.

If you must eat things like this, make it yourself. Use organic tofu. That way you will not be subject to harmful GMO'S.

Make a vow to yourself this coming year that you will do what it takes to make healthy resolutions and stick with them. YOU ARE WORTH IT!

With that said. I am very interested in feeding my granddaughter healthy vegan fare that tastes good and is going to give her what a growing baby needs.

Yes she is only three weeks old, but if I start now, think how informed I will be in three months!

This is not a vegan book, but the recipes are so intriguing I know I can make them healthier and vegan.

~
~

I am not perfect. I learn something new everyday. I struggle to fight against my own inner monologue telling me it is ok to cheat.

Just eat a damn twinkie, it is vegan after all.

I ate the twinkie btw...Then I suffered terrible pains. Was it worth it? NO..

Will I talk myself back into trouble, most probably yes.

I love food..

It is a never ending struggle to maintain. I will triumph! You will too, I just know it!

Only I can have a week this bad, and it is only Tuesday!!

Hello bloggies! I am hoping all of you have been enjoying your holidays!!! We have really been busy in the Vivacious household.
A new baby, Christmas and Birthdays, not to mention guests popping in and out to see Emma and her new baby and all of the usual things that have to get done.
I am not surprised that I have caught a cold. Having just got a Remicade Infusion, I am susceptible to all kinds of bugs.
Luckily I just caught a cold. Along with a cold, my right wisdom tooth broke while we were out eating Saturday and is now causing me the most annoying pain I have ever been in. It is kind of like a great pressure near my ear canal, that obviously has now caused an ear infection, probably due to the swelling and pressure of the tooth. So my sinuses are draining down the back of my throat causing throat irritation. I hesitate to talk the pain is so annoying!
Has any one had this type of experience, I hate to think I am all alone with this.

This is my favorite coffee mug, wait I guess I should say tea mug as it has had nothing but tea in it since I bought it. Tonight it has a lovely organic cold remedy tea in it....
I felt a little better so I made me a snack that I usually eat in the afternoon. I had 1 medium banana sprinkled with some organic cinnamon powder, 1 large orange, peeled and separated and some peanut butter to put on my banana for some extra protein as I have eaten very little the last few days. Soft foods are good. My dentist is on vacation until Monday, January 3rd and not even available to take emergency calls as he is in Vermont skiing with his family. BTW, his on call dentist is sick....ONLY ME! LOL

So it is 11:37 pm and I am settling down after a long night with a crying baby. We walked her, rocked her, sang to her, pleaded with her, smelled her, changed her, cuddled her and nothing worked. She cried and cried and cried.

She cried so much Emma called the doctor. I said she probably had to burp, that her tummy was slightly distended, I even looked up colic on the web for Emma, I told Emma not to worry, babies do this sometimes.

After two hours of non stop crying, Emma was near hysterics, crying and saying she was a bad mother, and my husband.....He was calmly watching Toy Story 3 without a care in the world...(he put on subtitles)....MEN!

SHE BURPED..... And went to sleep

And so did Emma... and now so am I.

Goodnight

Early Morning start with thoughts of Tofu in my head!

Good Morning Bloggers! I am hoping everyone slept well.

Have you ever thought about a food so much you make up recipes in your sleep? Sadly, I am that person....LOL



Last night I went to bed with thoughts of a highly spiced baked tofu with a crunchy topping of maybe radish and cilantro......


I want something meaty and yet light, filling, but not loaded with empty calories and still be satisfying. So I am thinking...maybe a teriyaki wasabi glaze with sesame seeds over a bed of brown jasmine rice with the radish and cilantro topping.

How does that sound? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

I hope every one is enjoying the Christmas break, I know we are!!!!

Chinese food and a Chinese baby...

Today Emma and Evie and I went to have some Chinese food at City Buffet.
Emma's husband Chris is the head sushi chef and he also cooks on the hibachi!! We get the best and freshest California roll you can get!
~
If you haven't tried a california roll yet, get out there and find one ASAP!
A California roll is delicious, filled with pickled daikon radish, avocado and cucumber, wrapped with nori and then sticky rice...Chris makes the best, if I do say so myself and he uses tons of vegetables in all of his sushi too, not just the vegan ones!

Here is Chris diligently preparing rice balls for the dinner service. He hand molds all of his decorative sushi and then slivers the vegetables over it in an array of colors and flavors!
~
When we arrived Chris told us he had run out of nori wraps and could not make our rolls. So sad, but he did make me a delicious stirfry vegetable dish with green pepper, bean sprouts, celery and carrot, mushrooms and zucchini in a spicy garlic and pepper sauce!
Super tasty and totally vegan! He even cuts the oil in half for me!
(incidentally, I took a picture of my lunch with my phone and sent it to my friend and forgot to take one for my blog....duh!)

After we finished our lunch, we headed over to Wal-Mart to pick up some boxes to finish wrapping presents.
~
Emma got Evie all dressed up!
Evie is 2 weeks old! Isn't she cute!
~
We had a spit up incident and had to change her cloths, but she was happy about it.

Silly little baby! She is totally asleep in the cart at Wal-Mart...

Still totally asleep, I am hoping that since she smiles so much in her dreams we are doing an ok job so far.

~

Hoping you enjoy your evening

XOXO

Viv~~

Oh Cookies! Beginning the baking for Christmas and a book review.

Happily I was able to get back to the blog sphere and post some of the baking I have gotten done. As you know I am busy with a new granddaughter, and today is my youngest daughters birthday!!!
Kaiti requested we go to the mall and eat at her favorite Chinese restaurant, luckily they have a wide selection of vegan food for people like me! I ate an egg roll and my favorite rice!!
~
Tonight Kaiti requested egg in toast and fruit salad for her dinner, as she is more vegetarian than vegan. She asked for lemon bars for her dessert and I am making a special punch that I will give you the recipe later in this post.

Here are the three goodies I made last night!!!!!!
I created these (so I thought) about 5 years ago for my husband. They are white chocolate (not real of course, does anyone know where you can get a real vegan white chocolate?) pecan chips, and cranberries in an oatmeal cookie dough!!!!!
The recipe is everywhere now, even vegan versions.
~
These are about the size of a silver dollar. When I went vegan, my cookie size started dwindling too. Just like my waist line......lol
~
Snicker doodles, I make mine a little different than traditional recipes, I make mine out of a sugar cookie recipe and then roll them in cinnamon sugar. Emma hates snicker doodles, but loves these!

Haystacks!!!!

These are so easy, just melt a bag of butterscotch vegan chips and pour over a large bag of chow mien noodles in a large bowl, mix and drop by tablespoons onto parchment paper.

~~

Since I am not much of a sweet eater and never have been a fan of chocolate, I do not find the lure of goodies too hard to resist this year, I cannot remember the last time I ate a cookie, and cake is almost non existent in our house.

Last night I was caught tasting a haystack by my husband, who then tried to take a picture of me and put it on my blog to show you, even I eat sweets on rare occasion, just in severe moderation ........lol

This is actually the only decent picture of our tree in the living room, no matter how I took the picture it always came out fuzzy....??....

We are enjoying ourselves this holiday season, we have eaten out way way too much, visited friends and family often and listened to hours and hours of Christmas music.

~

Some of my favorite Christmas music is the classics sang by Dean Martin, Judy Garland, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby and of course, the Chipmunks!

Hours and hours of dancing to jingle bell rock and Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas with a baby have made this season extra special!
~
Having a new baby around, I am constantly on the look out for healthy recipes for when she is ready to start eating. I happened to stumble upon this book in a bargain bin, for $5.00 and thought, for that price it was worth the risk.

Healthy Meals For Babies and Toddlers.

By, Valerie Barrett

Delicious and nutritious recipes for your children, from weaning to starting their school years.

Contents:

Introduction

First Tastes

Establishing Solids

Encouraging Self Feeding

New Tastes and Textures

Tasty Adventures Joining Family Meals

Index

The pictures in this book are lovely and vibrant. The writer comes across as knowledgeable and thoughtful in her writings. Her attention to detail is well thought out and skilled.

~

My favorite thing about this book is within the first five pages she includes a vegetarian and vegan diet plan for your baby. She does not throw out that she had to include this in her book, but adds that a vegetarian diet it is a perfectly healthy way to raise your baby. She also includes several recipes and suggestions for vegan and vegetarian children.

Here are some of the recipes she included that I think you would enjoy!

~

Quinoa and vegetables

Spring vegetable Risotto

Pastina with butternut squash

Hummus

Beet Dip

Falafel with Carrot salad

Fruit Dippers made with yogurt

Fragrant Creamy Rice

Vegetable lasagna

Smoothies

Warm Pasta Salad

~

While this is not a vegan or even a vegetarian cookbook, I find that it is thoughtful, intelligent and endearing to it's many readers.

I am hoping to make most of these recipes for my granddaughter when she takes her first bites!

All of Evangeline's food will be homemade and organic.

~

Being the hippy mother I was, my youngest daughter never tasted soda until she was 7 or 8 years old, and it was organic. My healthy ways fell off for a number of years, but with the way our food is treated compared to 15-20 years ago, I feel it is imperative that we do all we can to ensure the successful eating habits for our children and their children.

~

Are you ready for a totally addictive punch that is almost healthy???

Ok, ok so it isn't, but it tastes good!

~

Lemon Pineapple Punch

1 Frozen cont. Lemonade concentrate

1 Frozen cont. pineapple concentrate

1 2 liter bottle of 7-up, or sprite

Pour all into a large pitcher and mix well and ice and serve. I had this at a wedding reception last month and loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~

~

JUST FOR FUN SUNDAY!! Please answer each question for fun!

So, what is your Favorite holiday treat?

My favorite Treat would have to be eggnog shakes with a little nutmeg sprinkled over the top.

What is your Favorite Holiday dinner item?

This one is tricky....I would have to say my favorite holiday dinner item would be scalloped corn.

What is your Favorite Christmas song?

My favorite song would have to be Judy Garlands "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" It alwasy makes me cry.

What is your Favorite holiday Memory?

My favorite holiday memory would have to be growing up in Iowa, and waking up to a white Christmas and finding the house all toasty warm, the windows all fogged up from the oven, smelling holiday food and finding a brand new Radio Flyer Sled just waiting for me to take it out!!!

What do you do to incorporate old traditions into your family?

Hopefully, I have incorporated all of the old traditions into my home. We have the same holiday menu each Christmas, Santa Clause visits the small children and leaves stocking full of old fashioned goodies!! (please refrain from berating me if you are against Santa, It is all for fun and I do believe in the Risen Christ Jesus)

We play board games with each other, watch old Christmas movies, cuddle and laugh all night long!

I am really looking forward to hearing everyones answer!

A new baby and Christmas cookies!!

This is my oldest daughter's new baby. Isn't she a doll? I am just thrilled with this new addition to our family!

Everyone is wrapped around her little finger, wouldn't you be too? She was brought into this world Dec. 6Th. She weighed 8 lbs. and was 20 inches long.



DO YOU LOVE HER MOHAWK? ME TOO!



So we are entirely blessed this holiday season! Almost all of the Christmas shopping is done, the menu is planned and the cookies and candies are finally starting to get listed.

We are making the following:



Cookies

Decorated Sugar Cookies

Peanut butter, chocolate dipped cookies

Chocolate chip pecan cookies

Snicker doodles

Oatmeal cranberry pecan cookies

~

Candy

Haystacks

Almond bark pretzels

Rocky road


As I am always so busy lately, I will include our Rocky Road recipe for you know in case I am not back on before Christmas!!!!



~

~

Rocky Road



1 pkg. vegan chocolate chips

1 pkg. vegan butterscotch chips

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 pkg. vegan marshmallows

1/2 large jar roasted peanuts



In the microwave or in a double boiler, melt the chips and peanut butter. In a large bowl, add the peanuts and marshmallows. When chocolate mixture is ready, pour over the nuts and marshmallow, you do not want the marshmallows to melt. Stir and pour into a greased or parchment paper pan 9x13.
~
Let cool and then cut into 2x2 inch pieces.

Wishing all of you the happiest of holidays!!!!!!

Winter Salad and Pain

Today I made a tasty little treat! I made a apple mango pomegranate salad with mint. It was really tasty and super easy to make!

There really is no recipe, but here is one anyway

Winter Salad

1 large gala apple, peeled and chopped
1 mango, peeled and chopped
1 pomegranate, seeds removed
3 mint leaves, sliced thin

Toss everything together and serve immediately.

So it is 2:50am and I sit here aching and wondering how it is that I can go to sleep with my joints swollen. I am a map of pain tonight. It starts with my right middle toe, then traveling to my left knee, which branches out to both hips. My left elbow is twitching and both my wrists are swollen and finally to my index finger on my right hand followed by the right middle finger and then of course my left 4th finger....Why am I telling you this? Everyone else is asleep.

Psoriatic arthritis is a bitch. . .

I am at wits end...so here is my question to you.

How I can reduce the swelling in my joints so that I can get some sleep? My Internal Medicine doctor put me on amitiptyline for my chronic pain, he started me at 10 mg, but my rhuemetologist bumped it up to 25mg; due to my lack of sleep. Now I am forgetful and shaky......

I make a joint juice that has lemon, apple and parsley in it for a reduction in swelling and I have bumped up my calcium after my blood work came back twice with low counts.

Any suggestion's would be most appreciated!