Grocery Shrink

I've heard that celery has negative calories, so for several years I've been eating an occasional stalk or two just before bed to make up for my high calorie food choices during the day.  I recently came across the idea that there are a whole host of foods that contain negative calories (burn more calories than they contain) and using them in combination can create a weight loss situation while you are still eating a lot of food.  There are free lists of foods available online which consist of raw, unpeeled, fruits and vegetables.  After reading them and thinking I would put some kind of recipe list and meal plant together but never doing it, I decided to purchase this ebook and take advantage of the author's 150 recipes and meal plans. 

I love that the food choices are healthier than the snacks I normally grab. And I love that if I feel hungry (which is a natural part of losing weight) there is something I can eat guilt free.  My will power is really low and I crave sugar, bread (even if it is whole grain), and if I can talk myself out of those 2, I'd take some potato chips, lol.  I can lose weight to a certain level (where I am now) and the last 10 pounds are so stubborn!  I flip between telling myself I don't look that bad and being disgusted with my inability to get control of myself.

I'll let you know how it goes, but for now you can check out the ebook on your own by clicking here:  Negative Calorie Foods and Recipes Ebook.

This pie is so rich that even I had to split a piece, and that's saying something! It's not from scratch, but it is fast and easy and tasty. The ingredients can be found easily on sale and it makes a quick inexpensive treat for unexpected company or a potluck dinner.

1Chocolate Graham Cracker crust

1/2 Cup peanut butter

4 oz cream cheese

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 box instant chocolate pudding mix

1 1/2 cups milk

1 containter whipped topping

Mix peanut butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar.  Press into the bottom of the pie crust.  Combine the pudding mix with milk, pour over the peanut butter layer.  Put in the fridge until pudding is set.  Top with whipped topping and enjoy!

This is a fabulous pie! 

Crumb Topped Peach Pie

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

The crust and topping:

2 Cups flour

1 Cup brown sugar

3/4 Cup butter, melted

1/2 cup rolled oats

Mix all the above ingredients and set aside 1 Cup for topping.  Press the rest into a greased deep dish pie pan.

Filling:

1/2 Cup sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon cinnamon or ginger

1 1/4 Cups water

Boil for one minute until thickened.  Stir in 4 cups of sliced peaches.  Pour into crust.  Top with reserved crumb topping.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.  Serve hot with icecream, YUM!

Note:  This recipe originally called for apples, but is great with peaches and pears too!

Syrup For Fresh Peaches To Deep Freeze

My Mother-in-law gave me 2 large boxes of peaches from an Amish auction for my birthday!  They were sweet and juicy and more than we could eat before they went bad.  I decided to freeze them to preserve as much of the fresh flavor as possible.

I made a few mistakes freezing the peaches, but the method I used worked realy well.  We’ve already eaten a couple of jars, and they were fabulous.

Step 1.  Boil a large pot of water.  Submerge the peaches for 1 minute.  Immediatly transfer the peaches to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking or rinse under cool water in a colandar. 

Step 2.  Slip the skins off the peaches, and cut into slices, removing the pits.

Step 3.  Drop the sliced peaches into a bowl of light syrup with Fruit Fresh.  You can use white grape juice instead of light syrup.  I used 2 cups of sugar, 12 cups of water and 4Tablespoons of fruit fresh.  I didn’t know at the time that I was supposed to boil it.  I just mixed it all together in the big blue bowl and gave it a very good stirring.

4.  I used a measuring cup to slip 4 cups of peaches into quart size freezing bags.  Then I added enough syrup mixture from the bowl to make sure all the peaches were covered. 

When I ran out of freezer bags, I sterilized some canning jars and found they worked well too.  I can fit more bags in my freezer but the jars are easier to fill without making a mess.

Syrup For Fresh Peaches To Deep Freeze

A good friend of mine raises sheep.  One day I mentioned that I'd like a bit of raw wool to play with. Their annual sheering was in a few days and she brought me a whole fleece!  I promtly stuck the thing in my washing machine and felted the entire fleece permanently embedding the vegetable matter in the fibers.  I was so embarrassed that it took me a year to tell her.  By then it was sheep sheering time again and she rewarded me with 3 fleeces:  1 white, 1 gray, and one dark brown with black swirls.  They are beautiful!  I've had them over a year now and have been afraid to do anything with it.  My husband keeps suggesting I either use it or find a new home for it.

I got up the nerve recently and did some research on how to properly scour, dry, card and spin a fleece.  So here's a photo diary of how we did it.

Here's a before photo of the white fleece.  It's pretty dirty, but a nice long lock with a lovely crimp.

This is the before picture of the charcoal and brown fleece.  I didnt get a shot yet of the gray fleece.

I have about 50 lbs of wool, but after ruining an entire fleece the last time, I decided to work with 1 lb at a time.  To clean the fleece, I filled a large Rubbermaid dish tub full of hot tap water and added 2T of shampoo and 2T of white vinegar to make the ph right for the wool.  I added the wool after I filled the tub to prevent the running water from felting the wool.  I used my hands to gently press the wool into the water. 

After 15 minutes, I gently lifted the fleece into a colandar to drip, while I dumped the tub, rinsed out the dirt and refilled it with hot tap water and shampoo and vinegar.  I soaked the fleece in soapy water a total of 3 times.  I didn't let it soak more than 15 minutes because I didn't want the water to cool too much and allow the lanolin to redeposit on the wool.  The trick is to give it enough time to allow the shampoo to bind to the grease without letting it cool enough to redposit any free lanolin.  Removing the grease will free up the vegetable matter and make it easier to pick out the grass.  Clean fleece is also easier to card (and smells better too–grin).

After washing, I filled the same dishtub with plain warm water (not as hot as the first time, but not cold either) and set the fleece in to soak and rinse.  I repeated this process:  soak in clean water, drain in colander, soak again; until the rinse water came out clear.  It took 3-4 times to rinse it well.

The last time I pressed the wool in the colandar gently to squeeze out any excess water without felting it.  Then I set out old towels on our outdoor table and spread the clean fleece in a light layer to dry. 

Once it dried it was ready for carding.    When we started washing the fleece, We didn't have any carders yet.  I felt sticker shock when I saw the price of new ones!  Luckily I was able to snaggle a couple of used pairs off ebay for $30.  The first pair was perfect.  The second pair didn't have any bent teeth but all the teeth are rusty.  Does anyone know if rusty teeth will hurt anything?  Heidi finds carding a relaxing and rewarding past time.  We are carding the locks into rolags for spinning.  (P.S. Heidi made her shirt at my mom's using a stencil my mom designed.  I just love it.)

Right now all we have is a drop spindle, but once we get good at that, we are hoping to buy an inexpensive spinning wheel.  I found a couple of models that we can save up for.  The first one is called a Babe and is made from PVC pipe!  The second model is made by a small Texas company called Bluebonnetwheels.  The Bluebonnet wheel is by far better looking but it ends up being $100+ more expensive once I figure in all their fees.  Perhaps I can find a used one that still works great between now and then.