As I mentioned over at my other blog, 2 Witches, I am really behind on my proverbial to-do list. I haven’t gotten back into the swing for my once a week cooking. Determined to start trying to get myself on track I looked for a recipe yesterday that I could toss in the crockpot as we headed out to our weekly family session at Reya’s outpatient program so it it would cook as I ran some additonal errands (a failed trip to a local farm … some food shopping … back to school shoe shopping (6 pairs of sneakers for under $40, I rock!)).

I came across this recipe, luckily had all the ingredients it required, tweaked it a bit, and tossed it together in a flash. Both Reya and Sephoni did a taste test and pronounced it yummy. I am looking forward to eating it a little later this week.

2 cups rice
1 cup lentils
2 cups diced carrots
2 onions, diced
1 tsp cilantro
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp curry powder

7 cups water

Mix it all together. Put your crockpot on low. Allow it to cook for about 4-6 hours, or until all the water is absorbed and both the rice and lentils are tender. really! That’s all there is to it.

This is a great recipe as its truly frugal and is easy to customize to your families own tastes. Add some drained and rinsed canned beans. Not a vegetarian? Add a pound of cooked ground beef (or chicken or pork). Add more vegetables … diced potatoes, frozen peas, cauliflower, etc. Feel free to replace the Indian seasonings with those that you prefer – draw inspiration from Italian or Mexican dishes.

One of the advantages of having a well stocked pantry is being able to toss together meals that are cheap, easy, filling, and nutritious. And with a little creativity you can take one recipe and make it a few different ways.

Blessings

Jia

Image: vitasamb2001 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’m in a place right now where I truly do not know what to feel. Or, perhaps, more accurately, I’m feeling too many things at once to truly make sense of any of it.

Yesterday marked Reya’s return to the outpatient program she began immediately following her discharge from CHOP.

She attends a full day program, and will until they deem otherwise.  Luckily, this program includes a school component as with school resuming in just about 2 weeks the odds of her being able to attend are, quite frankly, slim to none.  In the meantime we plan to put in another request for out of district placement so that when she is ready to attend school again she can go somewhere that will afford her, not only a fresh start but, access to mental health services on site.

We have had her in treatment for over 3 years for depression and mood disorder.  As time has gone by, though, things have gotten progressively worse as opposed to better and so its time to really get serious about helping her get well … or to at least get a handle on what may wind up being something she won’t be growing out of.

And so, I am back to my usual obsessive level of internet investigation. This time instead of researching obscure ailments, I am researching my daughter’s recent changes to her mental health diagnosis.  I am reading up on symptomology, various therapy types and self-help techniques.  I am (thanks to an old friend) networking with another mother who has dealt with similar issues with her own daughter.  I am trying to get my thoughts and facts in order to make a new appeal to our Superintendent of Schools for out of district placement.

I am living one day at a time.  Sometimes, one hour at a time.  But, I am hoping that things will get easier soon.

I have rearranged some things at work so that I will (once again) be working Sunday through Thursday.  The main advantages of this are that I can sleep “late” 3 days a week instead of only 2 & that I will be doing less “cold-calling” at work.  This alone should help my stress levels.

Additionally, the plan is for Accolan and I to use Fridays (when the girls are in school) as Blade & Cauldron days.  Days to work on blog posts, outside writings, designs for our Zazzle store, and eventually merchandise to sell on Etsy.

I hope this finds each of you well and happy.

Blessings

Jia

Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Summer deepens and the air grows thick
hazy visions shuffle in the distance, deceiving.
Will and desire seep away from the soul
like shadows fleeing from the rising sun.

But the nighttime murmurs the promise of Fall
the cleansing breeze teases through my very being.
Hinting of pleasure and serenity to come
like a lovers soft kiss and longing glance.

The days march ever onward in their steady march
the turning of the wheel and the changing of the season.
Coming soon is Winters chilling cold embrace
when fields grow fallow and the earth sleeps deep.

The death of the year ushers in the beginning
for Spring beckons all from slumber with its fertile song.
New life awakens in the dew covered morning
singing with abandon to the glory of all creation.

Copyright: Accolan, Blade & Cauldron 2010

image by grosberg

Fixing baked beans from scratch in your crock-pot is at once cheap and easy.  But, not everyone can tolerate tomato products.

Tomatoes can aggravate my daughter’s GERD, some people believe that eating them can trigger an arthritis flare, and others are simply allergic to them.

So, I came up with a tomato-free version of our baked bean recipe that is just as simple to prepare and just as tasty.

Ingredients:

4 cups dried beans – navy, pinto, or great northern
1.5 cup brown sugar
4 TBSP soy sauce
2 TBSP onion powder
1 TBSP garlic powder
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt *

10 cups water

Directions:

Sort beans to remove any stones, and rinse well.

In a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients, and mix well to incorporate.

Pour bean mixture into a 6 qt. crock-pot.  Add water making sure to cover bean mixture.

Cook on high setting for 2 hours, then reduce heat to low and cook for at least 12 hours, or until tender.

The beans will seem much too thin when they are first done cooking.  They will thicken as they sit and cool.

Serving:

We love baked beans in the summer. As a side dish, they seem to go with everything from burgers & hot dogs to grilled chicken or even ribs.  They are especially delicious drizzled hot on top of a scoop of cold potato salad (trust us on this one).

But, baked beans with a side of cornbread and a tossed salad is also a perfectly acceptable dinner.

Variations:

• For health and budget reasons we tend to stick to vegetarian baked beans.  If you prefer to season yours with meat you may add 1 lb of chopped bacon (or 1 lb of browned ground beef) to the bottom of the crock-pot before adding the bean mixture.

Adapted from:

Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook: Feasting with Your Slow Cooker

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Image: Carlos Porto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I’ve been quiet in part to still being sad and tired. But, mainly due to Reya’s mood disorder & depression issues which have shifted from a spike to a full blown down-spiral.

She is undergoing a thorough re-assessment of her mental status. She is having her medication adjusted.

I have been doing a lot of online research (as anyone who knows me IRL probably already guessed) so that I can be an informed participant when we have our sit-down with her psychiatrist sometime next week. I sincerely doubt, though, that she will be able to start school in a few weeks with her peers.

My feeling is that she will instead return to an outpatient mental health program that we started her in upon her discharge from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. While I am grateful that it includes a school component and also has a step-down level that will eventually allow her to return to school I am terrified in terms of the financial aspect of all of this.

Our health insurance is less than stellar. I am grateful to have it. But, that being said this is really starting to add up.

• 3 hospital admissions – $500 each
• outpatient mental health program – $50 a day .. 5 days a week … no CAP and no end in sight
• and that’s just the highlights

Thanks to the generosity of friends the monetary blow from this latest crisis has been cushioned a bit. Thanks to Lady Rose (my blogging partner over at 2 Witches and soul-sister) Sephoni gets to be out enjoying the gorgeous weather instead of having to deal with any drama.

It is truly a blessing to have so many people in my life who care.

I will be blogging when I can … I will keep you posted.

Blessings

Jia

Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Yesterday I decided to throw together a little experiment – a batch of mugwort elixir.

I based my choice on having a large mugwort plant that survived over the Winter and really needs to find a home in the earth, rather than in a container before the first frosts come. Additionally, mugwort has a long history of use as a mild mind altering substance. I have used mugwort tea in the past as an aid to tarot reading or other visionary work. Further, it has a long history of use as a healing herb as well.

I followed instructions found in Country Wisdom & Know-How. I filled a mason jar with mugwort (and a few peppermint leaves just for fun), whiskey, and chopped dried apricots. In about a month I will be straining this mess through cheesecloth, adding honey, and bottling.

I have toyed with herbalism since my late teens. But, this is my first venture into making anything more than medicinal teas. My hope is to eventually be handcrafting most of our medicinal needs (i.e. cough syrups, wound-care ointments, etc). I wonder what I’ll make next.

Blessings

Jia

Image thanks to magic_goose

As I shared over at 2 Witches, Accolan & I started a healthier eating program backin the Spring after finding out we both had higher than optimum cholesterol levels. We were doing quite well (at one point I was down 20 lbs and he was down 35) until late May when we fell off the wagon.

It started for a good cause … our 16th wedding anniversary. We went out for breakfast the morning of, and out to dinner the following evening. All by themselves these two outings weren’t enough to do any damage. Unfortunately, it only started there.

Following on the heels of our anniversary came Memorial Day weekend, then came my 41st birthday, then it was Father’s Day, then the 4th of July. Even then we were still doing ok. We’d stopped losing, but we were holding our own.

Then came the odyssey of Reya’s hospital stays which brought with it the need for convenience food and the fall back into patterns of emotional eating. I’m not sure what the scale says for Accolan (he’s been better than I have been), but I know that I have gained back a bit of the lost weight.

It stops here and now.

This weekend will find me resuming my habit of fruit smoothies for breakfast and noshing on fruits and vegetables for snacks.

This weekend will find me drinking lots of water and flushing my system.

This weekend will find me packing my work bag with supplements and a journal to track my food intake.

Wish me luck

Jia

image credit: CLangevin

I’ve been in hibernation, for the most part, since my last post.

As I wrote over on 2 Witches, I am beyond grateful that she is home and on the road to wellness. I am aware of how blessed I am by the support of friends and family during this difficult time.

That being said, I am simply physically and emotionally spent after two long weeks of hospital visits. Beyond that, Reya’s ongoing mood-disorder and depression issues are in a full on spike right now which just adds to the stress.

Money is tight. Tensions are tighter. Reya is fighting us in terms of the diet and lifestyle changes she needs to make. If nothing else, this recent crisis brought home more than ever the reasons why Accolan and I both want and need to make changes in our life.

And while I’ve found inspiration lacking, and have found myself with less time to write since giving up our own living room so that Reya could have her own bedroom, I’ve kept my brain occupied by working on our Zazzle store.

Yesterday marked the Pagan holiday of Lammas (Lughnasadh) for those of us in the Northern hemisphere. While I didn’t find the time or energy to do formal ritual, I did drag the family out to a local lavender farm and baked a wonderful mixed fruit crumble (recipe to follow) in the evening.

My hope is that each of you finds your larders overflowing with a rich and bounteous harvest (literally and figuratively). May you each find that you have enough to sustain you in body, mind, and spirit through the months ahead.

Blessings

Jia

PS For our friends and readers in the Southern hemisphere we hope that your Imbolc was truly renewing and purifying.

Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Today was the last day of the annual county fair. We were so happy that circumstances allowed us to go, even if the day was unbearably hot, and the event cut short on account of rain.

Reya spent the day there with her friends and Sephoni hung out with us.  The three of us shared a blooming onion, a funnel cake, and a lemonade (homemade is better).  Sephoni rode a bunch of rides and as thrilled when she ran into one of her friends.

We came home and each took a nice cold shower.  We ate, I whipped up a batch of homemade chocolate ice cream (to go with the homemade chocolate syrup), and we’re currently watching The Return of the King on television.

Sometimes it doesn’t take all that much effort to have a lovely day.

Blessings

Jia

Reya came home from the hospital on Saturday the 17th, just in time to attend her grandfather’s 70th birthday party. At the time of discharge she was still symptomatic and we didn’t have any answers. We left with simply the advice that if she again spat up blood that we should take her to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Both Saturday and Sunday night found her bringing up blood. Monday, Accolan called CHOP and was advised that we should bring Reya to their E.R.

She was admitted and finally released Friday afternoon with a diagnosis of severe GERD (causing both gastritis and esophagitis) that caused GI bleeding. Additionally, she was diagnosed with cough syncope. The later means that when she would have a coughing fit (or experienced another trigger) due to the GERD or her recently diagnosed asthma she would pass out.

She came home with both a prescription for a proton pump inhibitor and advice to make both diet and lifestyle changes.

I cannot express my gratitude not only for such a simple solution (especially as more and more time went by Accolan & I were certain we were looking at something much more dire) but for all the support I received from friends and co-workers.

While we settle back into normal life please enjoy these marinades I whipped up today in an effort to make Reya’s new diet more tasty and enjoyable.

“Creamy” Asian Marinade for Chicken

3 TBSP low fat sour cream
1/2 cup honey
1/4 tsp ginger
2 tsp soy sauce

toss the ingredients in a food processor or your blender until an even consistency

Peach and Honey Marinade for Pork

1 15 oz can peaches in fruit juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil

toss the ingredients in a food processor or your blender until an even consistency

Simple Marinade for London Broil

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
2 TBSP rosemary

whisk together

We had the london broil tonight and, frankly, it was fabulous. Served with microwaved “baked” potatoes and sauteed asparagus it was a much enjoyed meal after the last two weeks of take-out, hospital cafeteria, and fast food. Reya passed on it though, choosing instead to have a dinner of porridge (with skim milk and brown sugar), toast with preserves (and no butter), and thinly sliced apple.

The other meat will be grilled tomorrow and will be the basis of our meals for the week to come.

Blessings to you and yours

Jia

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net