I *heart* my crock pot!!

Salt, pepper, roasted garlic and pepper spice, Italian spices, splash of soya sauce and splash of Worcestershire sauce. Put in crock pot on low for about 5-6 hours. Christ on a bike, were they ever good!! :)

An over-due update

Let's see...where to start?

I'm pretty sure I have candidiasis, based on the opinion of an online contact (who says he has a BSC and PHD in naturopathy and homeopathy):

If you're sugar-addicted you most likely have candida overgrowth in your gut. MD's should have their licenses revoked for reckless negligence as we see so much of this. They prescribe antibiotics like candy, and never recommend the patient follow up with probiotics. Prescribing antibiotics is ok, but antibiotics these days tend to wipe out all your gut flora as they're broad spectrum. If you have a white fuzz on your tongue in the morning, sugar-addicted, bloated after carbs/sugar, brainfog-ish, that's candida at work.

The sugar cravings are actually the yeast begging you to feed it. Once you get rid of it, the sugar cravings disappear. You must follow the candida diet (much like Atkins), and take both natural and medical antifungal drugs (Diflucan 100 MG, 30 Tabs, one pill, once daily) and no sugar! Sugar is candida food. Natural antifungals do work, but not as well as Diflucan which blows up the yeast cell. As the yeast cells blow up, you will feel crappy as all the toxins from these cells are dumped into your bloodstream. This is called die-off. Drink a ton of water. You can buy a Yeastbusters kit at any health food store, and a bottle of garlic capsules (not odor free) and chew on real garlic cloves as well.

Also, OOO (Oil Of Oregano) in liquid form, five drops on the tongue, breath in and out ten times, take a sip of water, swish in mouth, and swallow will kill yeast from mouth to the other end. Garlic and OOO are the most powerful natural antifungals. Buy a large bottle of probiotics (acidophilus/bifidus) to recolonize your guy flora. This will put your gut flora back into proper balance. Take the probiotics for the rest of your life and only use pharmaceutical antibiotics if your life is in jeopardy. OOO will kill most any bug/cold/flu you will ever come across in your life. And it won't destroy your gut flora.

Read all you can on Candida, buy the book The Yeast Syndrome, follow my guidelines and those in the book and you'll notice in four weeks or so you'll be able to walk through a bakery and look at sweets and you'll look at, smell the bread and you'll come to the realization that you don't crave it anymore.

I don't see myself munching on fresh garlic cloves but I have started taking spoonfuls of EV coconut oil, which is also an anti-fungal. I'm thinking of buying the Yeast Busters kit but I should at least ask my family doctor if the ingredients included in the kit are safe for me before I spend the $100 or so. I really would like to kick this sugar habit...

Beef marrow bones

I saw a package of these bones a few weeks ago and thought I'd try them out. Into the freezer they went for awhile, and this weekend I finally got around to dealing with them.

After defrosting in the fridge for a couple days I roasted them in the oven for 20 mins at 450F. The smaller ones looked nice and done (the larger ones still looked red and nasty) so I thinly sliced some little buns, toasted them, and spread the marrow on them. It was pretty tasty and Rabbit thought so too.

The crockpot was standing by, pre-loaded with baby carrots (all I had), celery, onion, two cloves of fresh garlic and a bit of freshly-ground salt and pepper. The bones went in and I filled the crock almost to the top with water. It's on low and will run at least until tomorrow. I look forward to drinking the stock...yummmmm!

Tasty dindins

Wild salmon (fried in butter in the cast iron skillet) with lots of zucchini and peppers fried in bacon fat, and fresh garlic, which I'm REALLY starting to appreciate.

Getting back on track

I'm managing to change some of my bad habits again and eat better food. In just a couple of days I'm back down to 152.2 (the other day I was 154.5) and feeling a little better.

We've made a couple of stir fry dinners this week and unfortunately rice made a reappearance on our plate. At the very least, it wasn't instant rice! Usual ingredients in our stir fry include large chunks of zucchini, bell peppers, garlic, and sweet onion. These are fried up in hot bacon fat and then we usually add some sort of leftover protein (last night it was hamburger). Hot damn, it was delicious. It got eaten so quickly there wasn't any time for photos.

Tonight we're going to our friends' house for dinner and drinks, so I will try to be good under the circumstances.

I feel like shit.

My eating habits....well, hunger pangs are out of control. I am a slave to sugar and salt and Philly cream cheese onion chip dip. (Christ, it's so bad, just typing that makes me want to go buy some and down a large bag of dipped chips.)

I feel that my eyes and my tongue are in cahoots to sabotage my health and weight-loss that I experienced last year. I've only gained 5 lbs of it back, but it looks like it's all in my belly and I hate how fat it makes me feel. Last summer I almost thought I could see a glimmer of hope; a smaller belly with the possibility of one day having a flat belly again. I almost saw definition in it. Almost.

Then I got lazy. Again. I don't feel like doing much of anything and while I wish I felt like exercising more, I just don't feel like I have the energy. Of course I blame that on all the shit I've been eating lately. AND the rum and Cokes just about every night. Why can't I stop myself? Why????????? I'm even having trouble choking down the fish oil and calcium magnesium tablets!

We moved to a 'new' (older) house this summer and bought a new gas range too, however, I can't seem to get back into the swing of cooking. For shame, it's been almost 2 months and the most action it's seen is the frying pan with bacon and then eggs cooking in it. Actually, no, the MIL came by last month with her infamous apple crisp and needed to bake it in our oven. Of course.

I'm having trouble staying satiated for long as well. I need more fat in my diet and the chicken skin (from a crockpot-roasted bird) is not enough. Today I ordered a 1-gallon tub of Nutiva coconut oil so that will help.

When I open the fridge I want to dig in to the chocolate cream pie that's in there (yes, that was my doing as well). When I have bones to put in the organics-waste bag in the freezer, I see three tubs of sugar-laden ice cream and I groan inside my mind but I close the door. I have to be in a special mood to want ice cream.

I wish I had taken a picture of the bird in the crockpot - it was a beautiful sight. I cook it breast side down and when trying to turn it over to take its temperature the luscious dear just fell right apart. God, it was good. I have one more bird to cook this way (next week; don't want to get tired of chicken) and I promise to take a picture then.

My career goal is to become a certified health & safety professional and my brain is starting to remind me that I need to practice what I preach. I don't want to be a walking contradiction. Now if only my eyes and tongue would cooperate...

Yep

I suck. lol

I'm back!

Went through a bit of a cooking funk there, where nothing really inspired me. I've also got a lot going on over here, what with my online course aaaaaaaand we're prepping the house to sell it. Mix in the hours spent looking at prospective next homes and boy oh boy, I sure don't feel like cooking.

However, I did make a beef roast recently and hey, whatdoyaknow, when you have a proper meat thermometer that you can stick into the meat and leave it there while it's in the oven, cooking isn't nearly as unpredictable!

This roast still came out a bit more done than I wanted, but now I know for next time. The veggies were a frozen mix that worked quite nicely. I'm glad I didn't have to chop all of that stuff!

Update: Deodorant / Armpit Rash

Awhile back I had made my own deodorant, which was fantastic at keeping my pits smelling divine. However, because I already had a rash from my previous store-bought stick when I switched, the baking soda in the homemade stick irritated the rash enough that it wouldn't go away. It took me awhile to figure out what to do about it, aside from using nothing and stinking. Eventually I decided to try putting a dusting of corn starch on them, and nothing else for awhile.

It worked! The rash is just about gone, and once it's completely healed I'll try the homemade stick again. Should only be another week or so to be sure.

Successful Experiment: Eggs in Bacon Baskets

Got a couple of updates for the blog today, and the first is to proudly show off our eggs-in-bacon-baskets! :D