Kitchen Toys
In the last week I’ve picked up 2 new kitchen toys. A Paderno Spiral Slicer and a Nesco Garden Master Dehydrator. It is a tough pick to select which one I’ve been having more fun with. Price wise the Slicer cost me $34 CDN on ebay, it comes with 3 different slicing blades and works like a charm. The dehydrator, I lucked out and got on sale for $99 CDN, it has adjustable temperature and a timer. It beats my old dehydrator hands down. It is a bit noiser than my old one, but it works so much more effeciently and having a timer is a godsend as I have a habit of forgetting to go and check the status of the foods in it.
So far, I’ve used the slicer to make up the Fettuccini Cheddar Pasta from the Eating For Energy program. Very tasty and it made enough that I had some left over for lunch the next day. I used the slicer to cut up zucchini, carrots and beets. The zucchini I used the larger blade for and the noodles were definitely fettuccini size, but I found them too thick. The carrots & beets I used the angel hair pasta size blade and they came out perfect. I’ve also used it to cut up carrots for my salads as it is nicer than using a grater.
I’ve used the dehydrator to make wraps and currently have a batch of walnut mushroom burgers on the go. The next thing to try is eggplant ravioli or eggplant bacon. While I’m not a complete fan of how the wraps turned out, the fault lies with the recipe and a broken blender than the dehydrator. I’m excited to try the burgers, they look & smell delish.
So if I had to go back and choose which one is the most beneficial item to buy, I would probably choose the dehydrator at it provides me with the greatest chance to try out new recipes. However on a cool factor, the spiral cutter is a no brainer. You could make up a very nice salad to take to a potluck and everyone would think you worked for hours on it. I also have to admit that eating food that looks like pasta is almost as satisfying as eating the pasta itself.
Daily Grind
Over the last 2 and so weeks, I’ve found 3 main breakfast recipes that I rotate through, all from the Eating For Energy program. Spinach Pear Smoothie, Chocolate Banana Smoothie and Morning Museli. This morning I had the Spinach Pear Smoothie minus the pears, but used peaches & cherries instead. It still amazes me that I don’t actually taste the spinach or the fruit, all I can taste is the celery.
Lunch today was a Nori wrap with Salmon mixed with Spicy Mayonnaise, mango, cukes and alpha sprouts. I do love Nori wraps and on days I don’t have salmon I spread it with a little nut cheese before piling it with veggies. With the Fibromyalgia, I try to get salmon in me a few times a week as it is a great anti-inflammatory and it saves on having to swallow more pills. Unfortunately one thing with FM is that you can almost feel like you are taking more pills than actual food sometimes.
Until my pain levels come down and my digestion improves I’m taking daily (spread throughout the day and on a natural path’s recommendation), 1 high potency multi, 500-10000IU vit d, 900-1200mg Magnesium, 2 super ‘B’s, calcium and when I don’t have salmon 6 omega pills. Chronic pain can greatly decrease the body’s reserves of magnesium, vit D & B vitamins or some say vice versa, low levels of magnesium, vit B and vit D can cause chronic muscle pain. Either way, it is a lot of pills to swallow and I’m really crossing my fingers that eating mostly a raw diet will improve my health enough that I can stop having to depend on taking so much vitamins just to make it through the day.
I have finally found a form of magnesium that doesn’t have the immediate response of cleaning out my system. It is Mangesium Chelazome. If I understand it correctly, the research behind it is that the magnesium is bound to amino acids there by allowing it to reach the intestines instead of being fully digested in the stomach which causes the cleaning out effect. For anyone that does take magnesium the other thing I found was that if I took magnesium too close to bedtime I couldn’t sleep (actually the effect was almost like a dose of caffine, I was so wide awake and energized I could have gone running for an hour) , so I now make sure I take my last dose no later than 5pm.
Exercise
I downloaded the demo for Yuri’s Treadmill Trainer and I’m very impressed with it to the point where I ordered the complete first level this morning. I find it is a great way to help me not over do it with my training. I’m very much an ‘A’ type personality and quite often have a hard time reconcilling what I think I should be doing with what my body and the fibromyalgia will let me do. Level 1 is a great starting point that is giving my body the time it needs to heal and still train for my marathon without going out and overdoing it and having to take a week to recover.
If anyone has any other kitchen toys that I should look into let me know although I do have to admit I’m getting to the point where storage space is getting iffy and I’m going to have to start taking over my husband’s hobby garage…
