My Trip To The Market

There was a time once, where I spent every spare minute I had perusing books at book stores, and though I still do go into one at least a couple of times a week, my latest consumer fetish has become consumable goods, namely health food store goods. Just look at the little beauties I picked up today at Community Natural Foods...


Hemp Bliss Organic Hemp Beverage; yes it's brown, but it tastes good, and is rich in omegas and protein. There's no end to the goodness that comes from hemp oil. I have this wicked hand cream called "Hempz" that soothes even my dry Alberta-girl hands. Check this out, in one cup of this baby, there's 120 calories, 6.4 g of Omega-6, 1.2 g of Omega-3, 5 g of Protein, and even a gram of Fibre. It's like a super-food. No there is no THC in it, it's completely safe.


I also got these - seaweed rice crackers to go with my lovely in-store made hummus. Hummus is sooooo good. And the small ammounts of seaweed in the crackers have great health benefits.


Then I found this toothpaste made by the "Green Beaver" company. I bought the cilantro mint flavored variety. It actually does taste like cilantro, and you know how refreshing cilantro is. It did a fabulous job of cleaning my teeth as well. I was really impressed as it's all natural toothpaste.


I've become really big on organic apples these days. I was so sad when they took my apples at the border on the way down to Utah, (wasn't thinking ahead) The apples I bought today are the Cameo variety. They're pretty tasty.

Last but not least, I found this fabulous lip balm...

If you can't read it, it says "Kiss Me I'm Canadian" on it, and it's made by the Shea Butter Market in B.C. They believe in fair trade and all natural ingredients in their cosmetics, and best of all - it's Canadian. This one contains only Organic African Shea Butter, Maple Syrup (of course), jojoba, Cinnamon, and Beeswax. The cinnamon in it means - you guessed it, plumping effects, just look what it did to this anonymous person's lips...


Before KMIC


After KMIC

Noticeable difference, eh? I'm pretty impressed overall. What I'm most impressed of all about is that besides the Apples which are grown in Washington, all of the products listed above are made by Canadian companies. That's right - look how much good we have to offer from our great country! I feel truly blessed to live here and to have such great resources for health available at my fingertips. Oh Canada.

What I'm doing (hopefully this answers all questions)

This has often been an inspiration to me. I buy this issue every time it comes out - which is twice a year.

Now that people have seen me in public a few times now and also seen pics, I keep getting the same question... What are you doing? So, I figured I'd share what I'm doing.

First off, well, I've been exercising for quite some time, but not consistently really until about a little over a year ago. I had a friend that taught me something about words and the meaning of them. (no longer a friend, however he served an important purpose at the time) The word determination - people always use this one in the wrong context. They always say - "She has determination" when really they should be saying "She determined" because to have determination means that you have decided to do something, and that you don't just have will-power, but have physically decided to do it. So, after that lesson in word definition which I took to heart, I decided that all I needed really was to determine to do it. That was it really, the whole thing was done right there. Weight loss was just a matter of doing it after that. Honestly, it really is that simple. If you can wrap your head around the psychology of weight-loss then your battle is over. So, then, I just exercised regularly, ate 3 meals a day (not 1 huge one, but actual meals), supplemented with herbs, etc. If anyone wants advice on this, then they can find it all over the internet, OR I have a great Dietitian friend that would happily help you out to form a plan for a small donation to her run for Diabetes in Iceland. The best way really (once you have decided it) is to just eat lots of small meals throughout the day, drink lots of water, and then after like say - 6:30 not to eat anything. I replace a couple of meals with meal-replacements because it's just more convenient for me, this may not be the case for everybody. It's all about what works for you. Exercise wise, I get 30 minutes of cardio 5 days a week, and do Yoga 3 times a week, and just keep active getting walks on my lunch break, etc. I once read about this girl in people who's mantra was "Eat less, move more" - that seemed to stick with me. Truthfully though, it's all in the psychology. You decide to do it, then you do it, and if you slip up, you don't beat yourself up, just enjoy it, and go back to what you were doing. 80/20 my friends, it's all about the 80/20. I plan to go all the way, and to stay that way the rest of my life. Join me in my lifestyle change revolution. Pick up your forks and join the battle!!!! Enough cheese, seriously it's all in our heads.



These are definitely one of my favorite meal replacements.

Grrrrr, what am I doing wrong?

Stupid mozzarella. You know, maybe I need to find a new formula. I tried it again today, and got worse results than the first time. Then I tried it a second time, again disappointing. Don't worry, I'm not giving up. I was looking in my book I bought - "And That's How You Make Cheese"; and Mr. Sokol uses all the same things that the lady on the website does, except he tests ph and acidity and stuff and uses a double-boiler and heats the milk over an hour to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. So, perhaps, I ought to be listening to him, and starting with something simpler like cottage cheese, or Queso Blanco. He says that Mozzarella is a "moderate difficulty" cheese to make. It's sort of frustrating though because everyone seems to be able to pull this one off but me. My co-worker Jodi, and also Julie from "dinner with Julie". Ok, not everyone, but those two. Now my friends after having read this will also try it, and I'm sure be successful. There's something wrong with my cheese-making formula. On a positive note, I did make some more excellent Yoghurt tonight. I'm looking forward to eating it this week after being without fresh yoghurt for a week (as last week-end was quite a busy one and couldn't make it) I've been eating Activia all week, and it's not bad, but not fresh you know? I must have my yoghurt. So, I don't know when I will attempt the cheese again, but I'm going to do something simpler next time. Queso Blanco probably. Will let you know (of course).

Mozzarella trial - # 1

First attempt at making Mozzarella, hmmm, not so successful. I think where I went wrong, is that I bought organic milk which probably came from far away. The formula did say to use local fresh milk. I didn't read it close enough before buying all my stuff, so I just bought a gallon of organic whole milk. (thinking - organic = better) It does in general, but it is better to find milk that comes from a local source that's fresh (apparently it forms a better curd)

This is how the curd was supposed to look...


This is how my curd looked...

So, yeah - not so great, and I think that was the problem to begin with. I wasn't really able to drain the whey off as well as I would have liked either. Next time I will use rubber gloves so that I can knead it better. It was too hot after heating it up as in the formula.

As you can see, it had a bit of a grainy texture, but it was supposed to be the consistency of taffy...


And, when I dropped it into the ice water, it did kind of flake away. So, definitely there was something wrong with my curd to begin with...


In the end, it resembled something like cheese, though considerably softer, and not the right consistency...


Oh well, tomorrow if I have time, maybe I'll give it a second try. But whenever I do try a second time, I'll let you know how it turns out.

*UPDATE* - The thing I made that resembled cheese did NOT taste like cheese and was pretty gross actually. I forgot to add the salt!!!! I think I'm going to write out very specific instructions step by step for myself next time - the formula was sort of confusing and jumpy.

Your Next Car!!!!!!!

Here it is...

Your next car!!!!!!! Just kidding. Just so everyone is aware, I am selling my car at present. It's in excellent shape and is great on gas. Not to mention - an excellently dependable road trip vehicle. It has 92500 odd km's on it, and is a 2003 Honda Civic DXG 4-door sedan with Standard Transmission. I know, it's beautiful, and you're wondering - why? Well, if you've read previous posts, you'll know that I am selling the car in favor of a bicycle. (mostly due to financial concerns, costs of gas, payments, insurance, etc) So, if you are looking for a car, OR you know someone who is looking for a car, let me know, and we'll get in touch. I'm asking $14,000 or the best offer I get. So, I'm pretty open to suggestion. Think about it - you know you want it. Let me know if you have any questions.

Utahn Adventures - Conference Style

Last night, at 3am after 14 hours of driving straight (with brief stops) with no cruise, and feeling like the world's first Mormon zombie, I got back from my trip to Utah. I went to SLC for General Conference - which is something that my church does every 6 months. It's a general conference for the entire church world wide - all 13 million of us. They have a Conference Center in SLC where they have about 23000 people seated, but it is broadcast world-wide via sattelite to various meeting-houses across the globe. At the conference, we hear from various General Authorities of the church uplifting and encouraging messages to help us on our journey in life. There are 5 two-hour sessions. 3 on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday. I had never been to a conference in person before, and thought it might be time for me to do so. So, my friend Carrie and I went on our merry way with tickets to the Saturday am session, (which was a solemn assembly because it was the one where we all voted to sustain the new Prophet of the church - Thomas S. Monson) and also the Sunday pm session. It was really really amazing. I really felt uplifted and edified by all of the meetings. Temple square really is amazing as well. The history, and the beauty of the buildings there is amazing. If you ever get a chance, you should visit temple square. They have sisters to guide tours in almost every language. So, Carrie and I stayed with my former mission companion Friday night (again after 14 and a half hours of driving straight - zombie like), then Sunday morning - bright and early, we went to the Conference Center for the first session. What was really really difficult was to find a place to park. It seems to be impossible to find parking in downtown SLC at Conference time. But, we managed in the end. Then, we went into the conference center and found our seats. This is the view from my seat...


Me in front of the organ and looking down to where the General Authorities sit
...people were still filing in for the conference. Conference itself was amazing. To see the transcripts for it, go here. After the 2 sessions, the girls and I took a tour around Temple Square. Yildiz used to be a missionary on Temple Square, so she showed me us a few things that she knew about.

Yildiz and Carrie - my 2 conference week-end buddies

The Temple at Temple Square - it was closed during conference, so, couldn't go in.

Me standing in front of the temple and the historic tabernacle - where Brigham Young himself spoke to the saints and every prophet and apostle that came after him as well.

The inside of the tabernacle and the famous organ of the tabernacle. Where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir still practices and performs.

The new and pretty spectacular Conference Center in SLC.
That evening, the girls and I took a trip to Target. Pronounced Tarjez (after all, I was touring around with a couple of Quebecois). We were pretty excited about it as you can see...

Then, later that night, as the men had all gone to Priesthood session, the girls and I hit "Ladies Night" at Deseret book where we got wicked discounts on fabulous books and other lovely items. After this, I went to visit my buddy Mark whom I haven't seen in about 8 months. He lives down there now. I miss him. *sniff*

Mark took me to a Utah Mormon party. All inclusive - with chips, and sponge cake and a rousing game of Mafia. Good times - Utah style. (actually it really was fun, but Logan - they need you - bad)
The next day, of course, we did more conference. Both sessions, after which we toured around in oreo formation, looking at more sights around temple square. That evening, Carrie and I ate at this crazy place called "Mayan Adventure". It was really insane! It's a theme restaurant. The interior in indescribable. Best I can come up with is that it feels like you're in a jungle, and then there's this show, where the workers of the restaurant dive into a pool wearing loin cloths. Only in Utah. That night, we went back to Lehi to stay with my former mission companion - Caley and her family again, had an awesome visit, and then went to sleep. In the morning, we did IHOP for which I am still suffering - severely. I remember now why I don't eat like that anymore. I certainly don't need another reminder like it, so will be fasting somewhat for a few days whilst I purge the toxins. On the way home, it was snowing, then raining, then hailing, then snowing again. As soon as we crossed the border, the weird weather stopped. Interesting. I also got a speeding ticket in Malad, Utah from an officer Nalder (yes, it is ironic - only mission friends will get that reference). $75 for going 11 miles over the speed limit. Ah well. I will remember to avoid state troopers in the future. Now, the next project is to sell the vehicle that got me there and back. It really did amazingly well on the trip. I'm due for an oil change next week, but after that's done, whoever wants it can have it for $14000 obo. I'll do a more thorough description tomorrow or the next day. Spread the word my friends.

Treasure hunting on You-Tube

Just been surfing You Tube (not that I don't have a thousand things to do, but just felt like winding down you know), and I found the most awesome videos... just thought I'd share. You know when you get a really cool idea of what to search for, and then you just have to look it up right now? Well, it started with Joni Mitchell. I saw this video before, but needed to see it again. It's her on a show based out of the University of Manitoba called "Lets Sing Out" back in the '60s when she was still Joni Anderson...



Joni is sooo awesome. I love that she's ours - a national treasure. Yea for talented Canadians. There's really so many, too many to list, but we really are a diverse and talented people. Here's another Joni treasure filmed about a year later...



So, looking for great Joni Mitchell videos led me to one of her on the Johnny Cash show, and of course, then I had to search for great Johnny Cash videos. Oh, I found them. Johnny may not be Canadian, but he's the original man in black, and definitely one of my personal favorites. Here's the first one I found (and it's one of my favorites) You can see the love in this one...



Then there was this classic treasure from the San Quentin prison concert and my personal favorite Johnny Cash of all time...



Anyway, there's some treasures for you. Just thought I'd share. Won't be posting for a few days, as I'm off to Utah for the week-end. My first time ever as a tourist. So excited.