It was a busy weekend, but in a good way.

Friday morning found us at a Pulmonary specialist appointment for Reya, which simply let to us finding out she needs to undergo more testing – a bronchoscopy and a bubble echocardiography. While I am known to bitch and moan loudly over the cost of our health insurance, the limited choice of doctors, and the high co-pays I am truly grateful to have it. I do not know how else we’d be able to afford all of this. I will, of course, keep you posted as we learn more.

Friday evening found me in Atlantic City. A long planned “day trip” as a birthday celebration. I had quite a wonderful time. I came home almost $100 ahead, was treated to dinner out, enjoyed drinks (some free, some paid), danced, and laughed more than I have in a while.

Saturday afternoon brought Lady Rose, my blogging partner at 2 Witches, over for one of her semi-regular overnight visits. She left at about 1pm today and her visit was filled with love and laughter. And many presents. too many presents. Really! You can see them at our site, if you are so inclined.

I spent most of the weekend muttering a chant in my heart, when not under my breath. One I shared over at 2 Witches and on our chant page as well. Every time I washed my hands, brushed my teeth, showered, flushed the toilet. I never had a formal ritual. I instead inserted many mini rituals into my daily life.

Imagine my surprise when this afternoon found me catching up on my blog reads to find my chant highlighted on so many sites. Thank you to:

• The Pampered Goddess
• Very Nearly Hippy
• Mrs B over at Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom
• The Diving Women

To know, without a doubt, that voices were raised with mine in other places at different times throughout that day touches me more than I can say. It moves me. It inspires me.

I hope it inspires you. To keep the song going. To sing it not once but as an all day long prayer.

But, a chant is not enough.  As Dianne Sylvan says on her blog, “happy thoughts aren’t going to fix this.”  She’s right.

Magic isn’t enough.  We have to be willing to look at ourselves, at the blood on our own hands.  We have to be willing to start making changes in how we live now … today … not later.

We here at Blade and Cauldron are gradually reducing our reliance on mass-produced food.  We are learning to make more and more from scratch.  We are eating only a fraction of the meat we used to.  I am gradually, as I need to make replacements in my kitchen buying metal, or stoneware, or glass or metal rather than plastic.  I am recycling more than I used to.  We are using the air conditioning less.

What can you do?

“May this circle be unbroken
May the earth one day be healed
May we find the answer
May a new way be revealed”
– Blade & Cauldron 2010

Blessings

Jia

Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So, yesterday was my 41st birthday. And I actually had a pretty wonderful day.

I worked a short day, 7 hours straight through with no lunch so I could come home a little early. I wound up taking a nap (glorious), a hot shower (wonderful), and prettying up real quick and going out to dinner with the family.

Dad picked up the tab (we paid the tip) and everything was wonderful. I came home with half of my entree (which I have earmarked for Saturday) and nearly all of my cheesecake (which was consumed in small nibbles after the kids were abed). The healthy eating plan was put on hold this week and I will resume being a “good girl” come Sunday, as I still have about 70 pounds I want to lose before I turn 42.

I was overwhelmed by the number of birthday greetings and blessings both on my personal Facebook page and my Public persona page as well.  Much can be said about facebook’s negative aspects, but I am personally grateful for all the old friends it has allowed me to reconnect with, the current friends it allows me to stay in touch with, and the new friends I meet as well.

Today will find me at a specialist appointment for Reya (one of several we are dealing with) in the morning and then being whisked off to Atlantic City in the afternoon with a couple of girlfriends. The plan is to play the penny machines, consume free drinks, and have a nice meal out.

Tomorrow Lady Rose, one of my oldest and bestest friends as well as my blogging partner over at 2 Witches, will be coming over for one of her semi-monthly overnight visits. Which is probably one of the best ways to finish off the week that I could think of.

Feeling particularly blessed today!

Jia

Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As I mentioned yesterday, I spend every Saturday cooking for the week ahead. Each week I plan to share what we’re having for dinner, along with any applicable recipes, so you can use our menu as inspiration for creating one your own family will enjoy.

Boca Burgers, topped with alpine lace reduced fat swiss cheese, and served with Sauteed Mushrooms w/ thyme
Vegetarian Hot Dogs (we’re experimenting with a couple of brands, and plan to let you know when we’ve found one we really like.)
Homemade whole wheat buns

BBQ Chicken Breasts – a 2 step rub and sauce combo that I am still tweaking

Any and all combination of the above three to be served with the following side dishes:

Tomato Salad – served with homemade whole wheat bread, sliced, brushed with olive oil and baked until crispy
Baked Beans – cooked in the crockpot overnight and sticks to the spoon good
Pasta Salad w/ Pepperoni & Cheese – really good, too good really

As a break up the monotony meal:

Vegetarian Taco Filling – to be served with yellow and blue taco shells, and toppings including shredded carrots, canned corn, diced cucumbers,chopped onion, salsa, guacamole, and sour cream

Assorted canned, dried, raw or frozen vegetables and/or fruits to fill in nutritional gaps as I deem necessary and appropriate, or sometimes on a mere whim.

During the summer (yes I know the solstice (Litha) is still weeks away) dinner is a lot more casual. Less focus on structured family meals and more on letting the girls be outside as much as they want to be when the weather is good, even if that means we all eat at different times. It allows for a more relaxed, slower paced summer, one that I think we all enjoy.

I hope you and yours have a great time this upcoming summer.

Jia

Image: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

One of the ways that we save money is to coordinate our food shopping around a planned menu based on what we already have on hand in our pantry, and what is on sale that week at the supermarket.  In other words if canned tomatoes are on sale I might make a large pot of Spaghetti Sauce, a mess of Vegetarian Chili, or a batch of Cream of Tomato Soup.  Or, if my pantry is long on lentils and beans I might make some Kosheri, or some Stewed Tomatoes & Beans to serve over Cheesy Corn Pancakes.

In a typical week, I work 40 hours, staying 30 minutes late each day Monday through Thursday so that I can leave at 2pm on Friday. This allows us to get all our food shopping done (sometimes hitting as many as 4 stores) and to be home in time to deal with dinner with time to spare.

Saturdays find me in the kitchen for anywhere from 4 to 8 hours (depending on the menu). Accolan helps by doing some of the prep work (i.e. chopping onions), baking the bread in our machine, and keeping up with all the dirty dishes that get created.  Is it exhausting?  Yes.  Is it tedious?  Sure.  Is it worth it?  Yupper doodle boys and girls!!!!

During the bulk of the year I make 3 double batches of meals – enough to serve as dinner for the 5 of us on 6 nights – such as stew, soup, casserole, etc. The seventh night is generally a leftover night, where everyone either eats what they liked best, or has a little bit of everything.

During the summer, when our focus is food on the grill, I am more likely to make 2 or three large side-dishes (ex. baked beans, macaroni salad, potato salad, tomato salad), par boil some chicken (and toss it with some dry rub), marinate some steak, and perhaps some vegetarian taco filling, or something similar, to fill in the gaps.

In the limited time between when I come home from work and when I want food on the table (as well as Tae Kwon Do classes three nights a week as well as Dr. appointments at least twice a month) it is so much easier to come home and be able to fix something fast that is healthy and wholesome rather than (due to a lack of time) order in a pizza or fill up on prepackaged, convenience type foods. This way, for the most part, dinner time is a simple matter of heating up the main course and preparing a base (like rice or pasta) and/or sides (fruit or vegetables as appropriate). It has the added benefit of also being is much cheaper over the course of any given month.

I was originally inspired to cook this way by the book Once a Month Cooking by Mary Beth Lagerborg.  As I lack the blessing of an extra ‘fridge or a chest freezer it would be impossible for me to cook that way.  So, instead, I spend one day a week filling my house with food and occasionally make a little extra of something to throw in the freezer if I know of a weekend in the near future that I will be unable to cook.

Have you ever tried cooking this way?  What are your experiences?

Blessings

Jia

Sponsored links:

Once-A-Month Cooking, Revised and Expanded: A Proven System for Spending Less Time in the Kitchen and Enjoying Delicious, Homemade Meals Every Day

Once-A-Month Cooking Family Favorites: More Great Recipes That Save You Time and Money from the Inventors of the Ultimate Do-Ahead Dinnertime Method

Image: healingdream / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I found a recipe for Magic Dust on one of the blogs I read – October Farm – and immediately decided that I absolutely had to make it myself.  When Memorial Day weekend came I had the perfect moment to give it a go.  I will admit that I started tweaking the recipe right from the get-go, I’m a rebel that way.  I simply added a few more spices to balance the aroma in a way I found pleasing.  I fully expect to continue to tweak it until it is something that is more mine and less hers, at which point it will find its way over to our recipe pages.  But, first I have a mason jar full of rub to use up.

What I wanted to share with you in the meantime is how magical I found the act of preparing it.

The rub itself is a blend of brown sugar, white sugar, salt, and various spices.  Most of the process was along the lines of measuring out and then dumping each ingredient into a large bowl (with the exception of grinding down the rosemary in my mortar and pestle first).  But, when the time came to incorporate everything into a homogenized rub I found that the best tool at my disposal wasn’t a spoon, or even the whisk I originally chose to do the job, but my hands.

I loved not only the tactile feel of working the ingredients, but also the opportunity it gave me to infuse them with energy.  Now, this technique can be used to imbue a custom herbal blend with energy toward a specific goal or purpose, such as healing, or protection.  Or, as I found myself doing the other day, you can simply pour your own love for your family into it.

Aside from the opportunity it gives you to weave a little more magic into your everyday life, making your own custom seasoning blends is another step toward a more frugal and more earth-centered lifestyle.

• even taking into account the cost of the individual ingredients (which served dual purpose of expanding my ever growing spice cabinet) my jar of dry-rub is cheaper than if I tried to buy it already prepared
• while the rub includes both sugar and salt in its ingredients it is easy to customize the levels of these ingredients to accommodate a special diet
• making the mix yourself eliminates your exposure to unnatural food additives in similar store-bought products such as artificial flavors, MSG, preservatives, artificial colors and chemicals intended to prevent caking
• you get to use real sugar, instead of having your mix sweetened with corn syrup solids
• you minimize your consumption of one-use packaging

I don’t use much in the way of pre-fab seasoning mixes as a rule.  But, I see myself starting to make my own after this weekend experiment.

Do you make your own rubs or seasoning blends?  Do you make them as you need them or is it something you habitually do once or twice a year to fill your pantry?

Blessings

Jia

Want to make your own seasoning blends?

Paul Kirk’s Championship Barbecue Sauces: 175 Make-Your-Own Sauces, Marinades, Dry Rubs, Wet Rubs, Mops, and Salsas

Barbecue! Bible : Sauces, Rubs, and Marinades, Bastes, Butters, and Glazes

BBQ Sauces, Rubs & Marinades For Dummies