Archive for the ‘food’ Category

7 Dec

Here I go, OVERSHARING (again)….

Posted by Jamie Brazil in 2012, diet, food, women. Tagged: , , , , .

Here we are, closing in on another year.  The other day I reflected on this year’s resolutions and the closest I got to the martial arts studio was driving by it several times a week.   On the plus side of the resolution list, my circle of friends has increased and other relationships have found a deeper level.

The eternal resolution of losing weight?  CHECK.  May I say, finally!  But that reflection led me to a greater awareness of a cocmillklifestyle shift.  Over the years, there have been several.  In 2003 I weighed 167 pounds.  That’s when I began walking.  I was 150 by the time I got married and limited dairy in my diet.  Now, aiming for the 120 mark, and the size I wore when I met my husband, I realized the greatest shift I’ve made since 2011 was banishing the soy products from my diet and switching to coconut milk.

The change has been more than just weight loss.  Last December my periods were all over the board, sometimes as long as 60 days between cycles.  Was I pregnant?  Perimenopausal?  The painful breast cysts I’ve had on and off for years flared up with a vengeance.  Something was wrong.

Ever listen to your intuition?  Mine told me to give up the soy creamer in my morning coffee.  I did, and by April my cycle was back on schedule, “the girls” (boobs) felt fine, and, even now, I just feel better overall.

So it made me wonder if other women out there have had similar experiences.  My soy-to-coconut lifestyle shift made me think about 2013 resolutions.  While I drink very little soda pop overall, I’m wondering if I could give it up TOTALLY  for a year?  What would the result be come January 2014?

4 Sep

Wheat Grass Wannabes Need Not Apply

Posted by Jamie Brazil in 2012, food, garage sales. Tagged: , , , , , .

This summer I lost fifteen pounds using a meal replacement powder.  The diet part wasn’t effortless, but it wasn’t too hard either.  However, listening to my husband complain every time I hauled out the blender to mix up another shake was a test of our marriage.

There were moments, listening to his strangled howl of “not the choco-seaweed surprise”, that I wondered if the weight loss was worth it.   Every time I spooned out the mix he’d be throwing open the doors and windows.  Apparently, my special diet drink stinks up the house like a fish market, which is how “choco-seaweed surprise” became part of our daily vocabulary.

And I say surprise because, depending what was in the fridge or pantry, the fish smell ranged from mild to gag-o-rific.  The more stuff thrown into the shake, the better the odor control (like maybe only one door flung open).  Raspberries, coconut, and chocolate syrup were especially good cover ups.  Wait, chocolate syrup?  This doesn’t sound like a diet.

Well, something had to offset the health benefits of all the acai, goji berries, camu-camu, quinoa, wheatgrass, more wheatgrass, maca root, sacha inchi, blue-green algae, Kamut Grass, spinach powder, flax, pea fiber, and… drum roll please … Chlorella.

Chlorella, a.k.a. algae.

ALGAE (not seaweed, but seaweed-ish all the same).

It’s one of the main ingredients.

What’s more, the fine print on the back of the package reads: Athletes and anyone subject to banned substances testing should consult with their physician and athletic organization.

Where did I find such a product?  Mind you, I didn’t buy just one bag, I bought five!  At a moving sale, of course.

Now, before I go further I want to qualify this post with the fact that I don’t normally go around buying food at garage sales.  That’s gross, right?  But five sealed bags of a meal replacement program (expiry date July 2013) for five bucks?  I figured why not.  When I got home I immediately did a web search for any product warnings and was shocked to find out:

1. how much this stuff sells for online

2. product users unanimously swear by the chocolate mix over the other less-paletable flavors. (Really, there are WORSE flavors than fishmonger’s choco-seaweed surprise???)

Fast forward to July.  After swilling my way through the first bag, my husband was pleased with my slimmed-down figure.  Though he swears he can smell the chlorella in his sleep, despite my best efforts of airing out the house daily.   Is it my breath?  Is it oozing out of my pores?  Is the choco-seaweed surprise about to become a “banned substance” around the house?

Fast forward to September.  After another five pound weight loss, my husband has started, as he says, “choking down the choco-slime.”  He’s losing weight now, too.  At least we’ll both smell like chlorella.

Three bags to go!

 

 

9 Apr

Happy Monday! Let’s Play “777”

Posted by Jamie Brazil in food, romance novels, Romance Writers of America. Tagged: , , .

Here we go again, another blog and another “tag” game… instigated by who else, that instigating minx, author MEGGAN CONNORS. 

But before I get started I just wanted to wish everyone a happy, after Easter, Monday, not that today is celebrated all that much.  Wait, not that my family acknowledged yesterday all that much!  For the first time in a decade we DIDN’T do anything.  No church.  No ham feast.  No colored eggs.  Nothing special.   My mom-in-law went out for Chinese food, I walked the dog, wrote, then cruised the Fred Meyer garden center with a fistful of coupons and my hubby. 

This was possibly my best Easter Sunday ever! 

As an added bonus, we had club sandwiches for dinner.  My friend and critique partner Frank shoots gobblers in eastern Oregon.  He had a couple turkeys in his freezer from his last hunt, but even one tom was more than his family could get through on Easter weekend.  He asked if we wanted any.  If you’ve never had wild smoked turkey before let me say the taste is BEYOND DIVINE.  Yesterday’s sandwich was pretty much the magnum opus of clubs, layered with smoked turkey, artisan bacon, avocado, and tomato between slices of toasted sourdough.    

Back to 777.   Here are the rules:

Go to page 77 of your current work in progress.

Scroll down 7 lines.

Paste the next 7 sentences into your blog. 

Then tag 7 more authors to carry forth the 7’s game (add their links, and don’t forget to link to the person who tagged you… also let everyone know)

Here are my sentences (the best friend is doing yoga, she’s in the warrior position) :

The corners of Carly’s mouth turned down and a wave of satisfaction rolled over Larissa, she’d gotten through to her at last.  

Carly released her warrior.   “Stop trying to control everything.” 

“I’m controlling?”  Larissa slid the gold-embossed certificate for swimming lessons out of her pocket and waved it.  Friends didn’t let friends go swimming, not if the prospect of setting so much as a toe in a pool sent waves of terror through her.  “Some asshole thinks I need to learn the breast stroke.”

 And here are the 7 lucky and fabulously talented authors I’ve tagged!

 Rebecca Heflin, B.J. Scott, Lia Davis, Susan Muller,  Rose Vanden Eynden, Kristina Knight, and Mandi Casey .

26 Feb

Revenge of the Bleu Cheese (how I blew out my taste buds)

Posted by Jamie Brazil in food, groceries, shopping. Tagged: , , , , .

I have a decades-long history of over-indulging on Bleu Cheese.  The stronger the better in my opinion.   Though I finally found one that got the better of me. 

 Last November, I bought a $1 chunk of Bleu Cheese from France from my favorite store, a place I like to call “The Hob” because it reminds me of the  market in “The Hunger Games.” I won’t mention the actual name of the food discounter because the owner, who is a lovely man, might take offense (but shoot me an email and I’ll spill the beans).  Casting about for bargains in his shop, I’ve picked up the best, and the worst, gourmet offerings to be had.  But as Greasy Sae might say, there’s a price to be paid for everything.  

 I love a deal and deals they have.  An entire box of Japanese pear-apples, $2.  $25-$35 wine with stained labels… three bottles for ten bucks!  Organic Girl salads with all the fixings are only a quarter.   Tapenade for $1.  I discovered the marvels of Bacon-aise there (yeah, Bacon-Mayo!).  And Veganaise, another favorite, is rarely over $2.   Four-dollar boxes of Kashi cereal are $1.59.

Doesn’t sound very Hob-ish, does it?  In fact, it seems an awful lot like what you’d find at an upscale, organic market.  It is, but there’s a catch.

This food discounter buys his stock at auction.   So the offerings are a culinary version of the good, the bad, and the ugly.  The owner shops auctions.  It’s like “Storage Wars” with dry goods, dairy and produce.  Almost everything in the store in on the cusp of its expiration date.   For every ten amazing items I buy, I usually end up with a dud.  Sometimes two.  A box that I didn’t realize was opened.  A jar with a lid that didn’t quite feel right when loosened.   

Then I met the $1 Bleu Cheese.  Pungent and powerful, every delicious bite seemed to permeate my sinuses with its glorious odor.  This cheese was so strong it would make a Frenchman weep.  I almost did.  Every bite built on the one before until finally, it was like every pore in my body was oozing Blue Cheese.   But something else happened, too. 

 A sip of wonderful red wine soured in my mouth.  I spit it out.  The Blue Cheese taste didn’t leave.  Not even after I brushed my teeth.  Not after a cup of coffee the next morning.   For days, it lingered, but worse, I lost my taste for wine.  Even today, wine is somehow… off.  It’s like that Bleu Cheese indulgence blew out my taste buds and left me wondering, have my Hob-shopping habits cost me too much in the end?

 

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