Psycho Blog

Okay, so if you ever visit my blog shortly after I do an new entry (or 4 or 5) and you see multiple copies of the same pictures in super giant size, there is a reason for this besides I am really bad at this. I probably am really bad at this but there is another reason too. I usually blog on my computer and when I do, the pictures don't always show up so I keep putting them on until they do. I can't see all the weird stuff until later when I go on my laptop and see crazy, giant pictures and sometimes four or five copies of the same giant picture. The pictures are all there, I just can't see them. I can't tell you why this happens but I eventually fix it. Unfortunately, sometimes it is after half a dozen people have stopped by my blog, which may explain why they stuck around in the first place. Hmm.

Biking and Shopping, Shopping and Biking

A few months ago we finally got a grocery store in our town. Now we could shop without driving for ten minutes. I know, that isn't really too far but it is so nice to have a store where we can quickly pick up a few items. For years I've been hoping for the day we would have a grocery store and I could get on my bike when the weather is nice and go shopping. It was a simple dream but simple dreams can be pretty great. So for my birthday Brent got me a cargo trailer and today was the inaugural run!

I love this thing already!

Eating Clean!

So I was watching all of these documentaries a while back that were all about eating clean and healing your body through eating really healthy food. It inspired me! Mostly because I really love crap like that. I should have been some sort of dietician sociologist. Does that exist? So I was trying to eat clean too. I took a bunch of pictures to inspire me to keep eating clean. No, I don't eat great everyday but more often and I've been working out really regularly. I'm starting to see some results and I really do feel much healthier. So I know you want to see all of my pictures of my food, right? Right????

Purple smoothie: Strawberries, blueberries, flax seed, greek yogurt, kale.

Salad and cottage cheese.

Veggie pizza and fruit!

Green Smoothie! Spinach, pineapple, mango, greek yogurt and flax seed.

Salad and spagetti with squash, broccoli, kidney beans and mozzarella cheese.

Beans and rice, zucchini and fruit.

Tostada and cantaloupe!

Quinoa salad, strawberries and green beans.

Salad with a bunch of veggies, eggs, and chick peas. With vinaigrette.

May Days

May has been busy! The end of the school year always is. Zoe graduated from elementary school. Isabella finished Jr High and is on her way to freshman year in high school! Noah finished third grade and made it on the competition soccer team. Which apparently means soccer 24/7 around here.

There was the mini marathon for Zoe and Noah at school, Zoe took 4th place in the 6th grade. We went hiking for my birthday-it was planned to be a little hour long hike or somewhere around that. Instead we ran into this trail to Lake Blanche up Big Cottonwood Canyon that was 5.6 miles round trip. We ended up hiking for 4 1/2 hours! Almost all of it up hill. Brent and I were sore for the whole next week almost. It was a great accomplishment though.

Zoe and her friends on their way to Dare Lagoon Day.

 Zoe and her BFF at 6th grade graduation. She gave one of the speeches! We are so proud of how hard she works in school!

Zoe and teacher, Mrs Fajardo.

Arches!

We spent part of Spring Break in April at Arches National Park and Moab. It was lots of fun! We saw the Delicate Arch and went on a little Colorado River run (cold!), hiked a lot, climbed a lot of stuff and spent some time at the pool (it had a water slide, the kids' favorite part!) We even found a couple of restaurants that had gluten free dishes. Polenta lasagna, yum!

Christmas 2011

I've got a ton of pictures to catch up on so I will start with Christmas. What I remember five months later: It was a really good Christmas. I ended up sick though (I think a girl at school infected me with a dirty thermometer) I survived through the present opening and visiting family and dinner then I spent the next couple days in bed watching cheesy Hallmark Channel Christmas movies and Netflix documentaries on clean eating all the while consuming about 500 Hershey Kisses of various varieties.

I Have Perfected My Cheesecake

It's true. I used to make that jello cheesecake mix before gluten free came along. I missed cheesecake (who wouldn't?), so I started making my own. After finding some recipes on the internet and tweaking them I've got the best one down so I think I should record it here (you know, for posterity) so I don't forget what made it so good. Yes, it will have gluten free crust, of course. But if you wanted to try the recipe you could just substitute your standard graham cracker crust or whatever you like. I have to give credit to this blog.
This crust is so awesome! It's good for cheesecake, the layer bars I used to make (you know, the bars with the graham cracker crust and chocolate chips/butterscotch ships, coconut and sweetened condensed milk) and I tried it without the sugar and used it for my quiche and it turned out pretty good too. It's not a super rich, dense sort of cheesecake but it's the way I like it.

Cheesecake

Crust:
1 cup Pamela’s Gluten Free Baking Mix

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup cold butter (or Smart Balance spread like I use), cut into pieces

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Mix it all together and press into the pan

Cheesecake:
 3-8 oz bars of cream cheese, softened
1-8 oz bar of  neufchatel cheese ('cause it cuts the fat a wee bit)
1 cup of granulated sugar
2 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon gluten free vanilla

Mix it all together well and pour in pan. I don't use a cheesecake pan because, well I don't have one. So I just use an 8x8ish glass dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Then, turn off the oven and leave it in there for another 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for a while then refrigerate overnight. Top with whatever you like, I like cherry pie filling or just plain is good too.

*no picture right now but maybe I'll use that as an excuse to make it again so I can add a picture.

Coming Back?

I've been thinking about starting up the blog again. It's been a while since I've posted anything and an even longer while since I posted regularly. Honestly, I don't know if I have much to say right now. A quick update would be: I'm in month 8 of my medical assisting program. I regularly let people stick needles in my arm just for the heck of it. I hope soon to stick needles in their arms just for the heck of it. I should be there soon. Just have to memorize the order, color and purpose of the blood tubes and twenty other quick and easy steps. Easy??? Last week we went to Arches National Park for the first time and stayed in Moab. I could post some pictures of that. All I can say is it was beautiful- the Delicate Arch is even more majestic in person than in photos, walking up a mountain of sand looks super strange but is actually fun, and polenta lasagna is more tasty than it sounds. I've also come to the conclusion that I have big, Mormon teeth. There, I said it. It's true. They aren't quite white enough for Mormon teeth though. Though that may be an unnatural state of whiteness.

That Folk Singing Sci-Fi Geek Was Pretty Cool

It may come as a surprise to you that I. LOVE. MUSIC. Okay, maybe not. When I was a young mom I was going through a slight postpartum cuckoo phase. I was conflicted, what kind of mom was I that I didn't want to listen to Raffi or Barney sing in my car whilst towing little ones about. But I felt my life was no longer my own and music was the only thing I could still control. The only thing that was still all mine. And in all seriousness, I don't think your kids care what kind of music it is and it won't stunt them cerebrally if they don't sing The Wheels on the Bus while driving about suburban Utah. So I had my music to sooth my troubled soul. Well that and Phil Hartman making me laugh on News Radio. (Laughter is right up there with music too.) I seriously mourned that guy's death a little when his wife tragically shot him.

Not to say I didn't give the kids a good dose of kiddie songs. Isabella had a Barney dinosaur that was about two feet tall with arms that moved as he sang. The three of us (me, Isabella and Barney) could belt out a medley of top 40 toddler hits like no one else. There was also my own medley to all three of my kids when they were babies of You are My Sunshine, Carpenters, Close to You and Beetles, Obladi Oblada. I could so rock that medley. So clearly, my kids were in good hands musically speaking.

Now it is so cool to see my girls enjoying their instruments. Zoe makes a great tormented pianist. She reminds me sometimes of that Muppet pianist on Sesame Street who always freaked out and banged his head against the piano when he couldn't get it right. (I kind of loved that guy.) But eventually she does get it and she is really enjoying it. Isabella gave up piano and moved on to guitar. I can't tell you how proud I was to hear her tell me after class the other day that her teacher said she was the winner of the best chord playing for Smells Like Teen Spirit. (Or how thrilled I was to find a teacher who teaches songs from musicians like Nirvana, Green Day and Bob Dylan.) Okay, she's only been in this class for a month but a mom can still be proud. I am more than a little jealous she is taking this class. Someday I'll make time to get back to learning the guitar.


So I love music, all around my house, in my car; I wonder when the day will come that my kids shame me enough into getting me to stop singing along. It was easier when they couldn't sit in the front seat. Now I'm getting a little self conscious, and I feel I should share the radio every once in a while. Not a fan of hip hop and the other music they play on that station but I can share (a little). I love seeing my favorite artists play in person too. I'd go to a concert every month if I could but that's not really practical. Last weekend Brent and I went to see They Might Be Giants again. They are just so much fun. Not quite the musical genius Ben Folds is but tons of fun and lyrics that are like goofy, profound poetry. I asked Brent if he minds me dragging him to these things. His reply was, I don't want to go out when I'm at home, then I get there and have a good time, then after about an hour I'm done and tired of standing. Well at least there is room for compromise in there somewhere. He was pleasantly surprised last week because Jonathon Coulton was the opening act. I said, who is Jonathon Coulton? Oh, he played some songs on John Hodgman's book on tape, he replies. Aaaa-hah! Now it makes sense. Well, no it doesn't really because a book on tape doesn't usually have a musical guest. Anyway, he turned out to be sort of a folk singing sci-fi geek sort of performer. How can that not be entertaining?





Funny how a song can sound beautiful, disturbing and funny all at once.

Halloween 2011

The Zombie

The Mime

The Rock Star

Something Reeeeally Important To Blog About

I don't like cake pops. To put it frankly, they are disgusting and they creep me out. The thought of eating a piece of cake that has been rolled around in someone's hands into a circle and then covered in fondant is not appealing to me in the least. (Fondant is a whole 'nother disgusting ball of wax all by itself.) It reminds me of how little kids like to take the crust off a piece of Wonder bread and roll it in a ball and eat it. Yes, I did this as a kid. It's not the only questionable thing I did as a child. Then I saw some cake pops in my current issue of Martha Stewart Everyday Food. They used a circular cookie cutter, then covered it with chocolate. I can get behind that cake pop. I don't judge you for enjoying a cake pop or enjoying making cake pops. That is your decision and yours alone to make.

I'm not really into the whole fancy cake/cupcake thing anyway. Cupcakes are so 2008 anyway. Pie is the new cupcake, I hear. I'm not sure what the new pie is. For me a cake isn't about being pretty or exotic or being motorized in some crazy fashion. It's about finding a way to get frosting into your body so you don't have to sit there with a tub of Betty Crocker Supreme. I watch some of those cake shows on TV occasionally . But I wouldn't eat anything they make. Take Ace of Cakes, for instance. Do you really want to eat a cake decorated by a graphic artist who thinks he or she is making an edible work of art? I have my doubts about the cleanliness of those places. Way too many power tools involved and wood and cardboard...and rice crispy treats masquerading as cake under that fondant. Not right at all.