Something to think over.

I just want to quickly share with you all something I jut read, literally about two minute ago. It is so profound and heartbreaking, that it makes me want to spring into action.
The following paragraph is from Phillip Yancey's book, What's So Amazing About Grace. This story came from a friend of his who worked in Chicago.

A prostitute cam to see me in wretched atraits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter - two years old! - to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it, she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable - I'm required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to day to this woman.
At last, I asked if she ever thought of going to church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. "Church!" she cried. "Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They'd just make me feel worse."

So what are we going to do? Pray for people like this? Hand them a Bible? What if instead, when we saw people who are alone, hungry, cold, sick, or suffering, we stopped and took time from our day to buy them food or socks or a blanket or maybe just talk to them and show that we care? Just a thought... Now what will we do?

Let's Just Graze All Day.

...And I am a foodaholic.  It is official.  I am hooked on food.  Sometimes I dream about it at night...or during the day...or not just sometimes but all the time.  Because I work around food, I often am sparked with new ideas for recipes, sauces, desserts, etc. while I am working, and then I have to try them as soon as I get done with work.  Therefore people call me crazy because I even spend my free time cooking or baking.  Ok, I am getting a bit off track.  My point is that I really, truly love food and I am very thankful that I have some self-control or I would easily be well over 600 pounds.

Anyways, for the last week I have been confined to my apartment because of some nasty virus that picked my as it's victim.  I didn't eat much for the first few days, but as soon as my fever was gone, I became quite hungry, and since I had nothing else to do, I took to looking at recipes and pictures of mouth-watering dishes on Pinterest.  And as soon as I was able to do more than stumble to the kitchen for some toast and a banana, I started using what small amounts of food I had in my kitchen in an attempt to re-create the wonderful world that I saw on my laptop.  I made some tasty Oowy Gooey 1 Minute Vegan Chocolate Cake, 5 Minute Microwave Cornbread, (note the common theme: easy, fast, and oh, easy), pasta with tomato sauce, and some killer oatmeal.  Oh feel free to follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/littlebird32/.

To sum up, now that I am feeling up to more time and labor intensive cooking tasks, I decided to buy some fresh, organic spinach from a little health food store in my neighborhood.  I washed the crisp, dark green leaves and mixed a strawberry vinaigrette of strawberry jam, red wine vinegar, olive oil, and some spices.  I topped off my salad with some slivered almonds.  Let's just put it this way: it was fantastic.

Before I made my salad, though, I decided that I needed to make some granola.  I normally make granola bars, since they are easier to grab when I run out the door for work at a painfully early hour of the morning.  During my state of delirium in bed (maybe I'm exaggerating just the tiniest bit), I found I was suddenly craving a good, solid, crunchy, nut-filled granola.  And since it turned out pretty darn good, I'm just going to share the recipe with you.  I am really happy with how it turned out.  I wanted something with lots of big nuts to add a strong texture, so I left the almonds and hazelnuts pretty big.  The banana adds a good kick of sweetness and just a smallest hint of banana without being overwhelming.  I threw in sunflower seeds, coconut, and the chopped hazelnuts just because I wanted to used up the small amounts I had.  So you could easily leave them out or substitute other nuts and seeds in their place.  Feel free to be creative!  Oh and I never measure when I'm making granola, so the amounts are a bit estimated.

Crunch-Crunch-Yum Granola

1 ripe banana

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp honey

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

4 Tbsp bran

1 Tbsp ground flaxseed

1 Tbsp sunflower seeds

2 Tbsp finely chopped hazelnuts

1 Tbsp unsweetened coconut

1-2 cups rolled oats

1/4 cup almonds, halved

1/4 cup whole hazelnuts

1.  Preheat oven to 200 C (about 380 F).

2.  Mash banana until smooth in large bowl.  Add all other wet ingredients and mix well.

3.  Add all dry ingredients and mix well.

4.  Pour granola on large baking sheet covered with baking paper or Silpat and spread out evenly.

5.  Bake for 10 minutes, then remove from oven and stir.

6.  Return to oven and bake for another 5 minutes, but watch it as it can burn easily.

7.  Enjoy with milk or yogurt and fruit.

Ok, that's all for now, my friends!  Adieu! 

Here's to you...

This one's for you, Daniel, so you had better read this...

So I am still getting used to this no-Facebook thing, but thus far, I am truly liking it.  Already a few times a day, I have thought to myself, "Oh maybe I should make ___ my Facebook status!"  Then I remember I no longer have a Facebook to update my status on, so therefore I must share my thoughts with real people in the real world.  It has been very enlightening so far and has actually shown me a bit of my own character...

In other news, I am currently stretching after the run that begins my 9 months of training for my marathon.  It just happens to be a simply beautiful day here in Germany and has warmed up a bit so I was able to shed some of the layers I have been forced to run with for the last few weeks.  The sunshine was a huge bonus because after a very short night (especially for a sleep-lover like myself), I was feeling slightly worn out after work.  But still I laced up my trusty Nike running shoes and hit the streets.  Fortunately, it was not very long before I was feeling fantastic and enjoying the view (after a tough uphill run) of the sun-drenched  Bodensee and the Alps beyond.  Now I am enjoying the wonderful feeling of stretching out my tired limbs and am actually looking forward to my day of cross-training tomorrow!

One other semi-major change in my life will happen in 2 short days, on February 22nd.  As many of you know, that is the first day of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter Sunday.  Many people give up something, such as sweets, bread, music, etc. as a sacrifice to remember Jesus' ultimate sacrifice of death for us all (meaning EVERYONE, no just Christians, Jews, etc.).  I have never given anything up for Lent before, but when one of my friends told me what they were doing, I considered it.  They told me about an organization called Blood: Water Mission.  This organization is helping to provide clean water to people in Africa.  So their idea is to give up all drinks except water and save all the money you would have spent on coffee, wine, tea, beer, and any other drinks besides water, for forty days.  Then at the end of the forty days, you donate all the money you saved to Africa for clean water, and you also get to enjoy a hot cup of Joe (or hot drink of your choice) on Easter morning.  I think it is pretty brilliant because it is a good sacrifice for me and gives to a very good cause.  I'd love it you would think about it, and if you want more info, go to www.bloodwatermission.com/40days.

The last thing that I must share for the benefit of a friend of mine named Daniel Paul.  This 26 year old man is from Manitoba, Canada, and insisted that I inform you all of a new nickname of mine: Robin's Egg Blue.  Embarrassing as it is to admit, I actually responded to it the other day... Depressing.

Well I have a lovely little bowl of raspberries with milk awaiting me, so I will sign off...  Adieu.

A New Day is Here.

It has been a disappointing amount of time since I last posted, but I hope that I am now turning a new leaf today.  After reading many articles, I have decided to deactivate my Facebook account.  I read one article in particular in the International Herald Tribune (which is the international version of the New York Times), about a group formed in Ireland called Europe Versus Facebook.  It was formed by a young Irish man who asked Facebook to send him a hard copy of all of the personal information they had stored about him.  He received a package containing about 1500 pages.  In addition to this rather creepy information storing, I have also realized that while I sit on Facebook and scroll mindlessly through my news feed which consists of an overwhelming combination of annoying gossip, unnecessary complaining, and self-centered gloating, I am missing out on the real world and my life is passing me by.  We will never get this time back again, so why do we waste it by living in a virtual world?

Since I have given up my virtual world, I have decided to jump back into the real world with both feet by signing up for the Amica Seattle Marathon, which will take place November 25, 2012.  At the moment, with 9 months until race day, just thinking about running for roughly 5 hours and covering 26.2 miles, makes me start to break out into a cold sweat and my stomach suddenly turns over and fills with butterflies.  That's why, I am trying to take the training process one day at a time.  My training will officially start on Monday with the first day of an 8 week half marathon training plan from Shape magazine.  I used this same plan a year and a half ago when I ran my first half marathon.  I will start with this plan, run a half marathon in April, here in Germany, and then begin with my official training for the full marathon.  

Before I start my training, I decided to brush up on my history of the first marathon, which, according to legend, took place in 490 BC.   Pheidippides, an ancient Greek soldier ran the 42.195 kilometers from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to carry the good news that they had won the battle against the Persians.  Upon arriving, he shouted "Νενικήκαμεν" (Nenikékamen, 'We have won.'), collapsed, and died.   I truly hope that this will not be my fate, but it is good to know the race's history.

Other than the excitements mentioned above, my life has been going on in a rather 'normal' way.  Cooking, baking, working, running, sleeping, eating, etc. I have been trying many new granola bar recipes lately, hoping to stumble upon some fabulous, extremely healthy, flavor explosion in the shape of a granola bar or breakfast muffin that I can eat along side my morning coffee... One of my friends and coworkers also has a passion for making healthy, low-fat granola, muffins, breakfast bars, and other such foods, so we often share ideas and recipes back and forth.  She recently sent me the link for truly wonderful, no-bake, all-natural energy balls.  They are really easy to whip up in a hurry, and simply delish!  I reduced the honey a bit and also tried them once with a bit of baking cocoa for when I was craving some chocolate.  Both ways were hits, in my humble opinion!  Here's the link:  http://www.recipeforcrazy.com/2011/11/natural-snack.html

Well, now I am semi-caught up on my much belated blogging, so enjoy!  Adieu! 

So far, so good! Plus a soup recipe!

I just want to give a quick update on my first attempt at sourdough bread from scratch!  I have never made a sourdough bread before, so I am really hoping this works!  Last Friday I mixed up the flour and milk for a milk sour starter.  It needs to sit for a total of 7 - 9 days, with a few mixings in between.  To give you an idea of what has happened in the last few days, here is a picture of the starter.  When I first mixed it, it was very runny and rather like thin pancake batter.  Now, though, it is much thicker, and you can see the bubbles pushing up to the surface.

Yesterday, I needed bread so I decided to try a Whole-Wheat Italian French bread.  That sounds like a contradiction, but it is just a bread from Italy but made in the shape and size of traditional French bread.  It turned out pretty good but not explosion-of-flavors-in-my-mouth amazing.  The reason I am sharing about it, though, is because I tried an old way of 'signing' bread.  You basically just cut out a letter or shape (I used a 'G') out of paper or cardboard and lay it on the top of the loaf right before it goes in the oven and then sift flour over the whole loaf.  Remove the letter and you will have non-floured initial on your bread!  Here's mine:

Finally I wanted to share a wonderful soup recipe!  I just made it up yesterday, because I had some leftover carrots that I was not sure what to do with.  The measurements are not super exact, as I did not measure anything.  So here goes!  It is a lovely appetizer, very healthy, and so simple. Also can be vegan if preferred! Enjoy!

Creamy Orange-Carrot Soup

2 medium - large carrots, peeled and cut into thin slices (the smaller the pieces, the faster it cooks)

1 medium orange

1 cup low-fat milk or coconut milk (coconut milk makes a slightly more exotic flavor and is vegan friendly)

1 tsp. salt or to taste

Fresh ground pepper to taste

Garlic salt to taste 

1/2 + rosemary 

1.  Boil about 2 or 2 1/2 cups water (enough to just cover carrots).  Meanwhile, use vegetable peeler to peel just the orange part off of the orange (use a bit less than the whole peel if using regular milk) and cut orange in half.  When water boils, add carrots and orange peel.

2.  Let them boil on medium heat until carrots are quite soft.

3.  Remove from heat and use a stick blender (or pour into regular blender) and blend until totally smooth.  Return to heat and add the milk.  Also squeeze in the juice from one half of the orange and stir.

4.  Add all seasonings, stir, and taste.  Add more seasonings if necessary or desired.

Servings: 2

Tastes wonderful with bread.  

I hope that you all enjoy this recipe as I am very excited about it.  It literally made me want to lick my bowl when I finished it!