Hostess

A few years ago, I treated myself to a Twinkie.  A fresh Twinkie from the grocery store. 

And I hated it!

It was too soft and spongy and I really disliked the texture.  I couldn’t figure out what was wrong because I had been eating Twinkies for years. 

And then it hit me.

I had been eating Twinkies for year…from the outlet store.  The Twinkies that were about to “expire,” or go past their freshness date.  That is where my mom always bought them, and where I always bought them.  They are so much cheaper than full retail price at the store.  So I had been eating nearly stale Twinkies. Hence, when I had a fresh one, I didn’t like it at all.  That wasn’t the way it was supposed to taste!

I still can’t eat them from the store.  They have to be from the outlet.  That’s just they way it is.

(But I love them frozen now.  Just freeze them, then eat them right out of the freezer.  Yummy!)

Obeying the Commandments

As we were finishing up supper last night (at 5:00), The Teenager remembered that each boy was supposed to bring a dozen cookies to the fireside (which starts at 7:00).  Grrr!

So I jumped up and started making the dough. I scooped up 2 trays and then tasted the dough. It was salty! I looked back over the recipe and realized that with the salt and baking soda, instead of tripling the recipe, I multiplied it by 9. Nine!  Grrrrrrr! I was going to dump it and start over, but The Teenager said we could fix it. So we started gathering up ingredients and mixing.

The Teenager then made an interesting observation. He said, “It’s a good thing we’re Mormons.” I asked him why, and he said because we have a big food storage and had all the ingredients so we could multiply it all by 9. I said it’s not just because we are Mormon, but because we follow the advice of our prophet. But he was right. I had everything I needed.

Sometimes we find that our food storage saves us in the small moments, not just the big ones.  And to me, that can be even more important.

Why?

Last night I watched “The Biggest Loser” and was so inspired.  They have all worked so hard and look so amazing.

I have been working out in the mornings, and I am really proud of myself for how hard I have been working.  I felt really good after this morning’s workout.

And then at 10:00 I cooked up a pound of sausage links and at them.  All of them.  By myself.  And then ate a spoonful of peanut butter.  And then sat down and cried.

Why do I do this to myself?  I know better. 

As I stood in front of the freezer and stared at the sausage, I told myself that I didn’t want them.  And then as I pulled them out and opened them, I told myself that they were bad for me.  And as I cooked them, I told myself that I shouldn’t eat them.  And then, as I was eating them, I told myself what a horrible person I was and how stupid I was and weak.  And when I finished eating the sausages, I felt so awful, that I needed a spoonful of peanut butter to help sooth the hurt. 

But it didn’t work.  Instead, I felt worse.

Why can’t I stop eating?  Why do I do it to myself, when I know how I am going to feel afterward?  I know it’s bad, and yet I can’t stop.  I feel so helpless. 

I want to lose more weight.  I know how to do it, and yet I keep sabotaging myself.  Why? 

I’m going to go find some chocolate.

Gum

When I was little, my Grandma Christensen always had gum in her purse.  It was always the Wrigley’s gum.  Whenever she came to visit, we would ask her for gum, and she gave it up willingly.  Wrigley’s gum reminds me of her.

I love to chew gum.  It has great flavor, it freshens my breath, and it keeps me from eating.  Anytime I start to feel snacky (I know that’s not a word!), I can just chew a piece of gum and then I get the chewing satisfaction without the calories.

But my mom taught me a very important rule for chewing gum, and it’s the same rule for eating at the table:

DON’T CHEW WITH YOUR MOUTH OPEN!!!!

Nobody wants to see what you are chewing, and nobody wants to hear you chew it!  I see people chomping and smacking their gum and they look and sound like cows.  It grosses people out.  And it’s really bad manners.

Please, please, please close your mouth when you are chewing gum!

Please!

April Fools!

I had so much fun yesterday with my kids!  I put messages on toilet paper in the toilet bowl, I put saran wrap in doorways, and we filled a cupboard with balls, so when The Teenager opened it, they all came falling down on him!

But the best thing of all was dinner.  The Doctor and I made a special dinner for them.  Included was:

Green peas (taffy);

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches (angel food cake toasted, with icing);

Sushi (angel food cake topped with coconut, wrapped with grape fruit leather, and topped with chopped up swedish fish);

and cupcakes (meatloaf topped with mashed potatoes).

Oh, we also served them “water” which was actually Kool-Ade.  They have invisible Kool-Ade that is completely clear!  It was awesome!  The Doctor and I served them in the living room, and really made it fun.

It was such a fun day! 

Our new favorite treat

When I was in 6th grade, we were living in Great Falls, Montana.  In our ward was a guy who delivered dairy products, and always gave my parents nearly expired yogurt. 

We loved the yogurt, but we would get so much of it, that we couldn’t eat it fast enough.  So my mom started throwing it in the freezer.

I now do that on purpose.  I buy a bunch of it and just throw it in the freezer.  When the kids want a treat, instead of ice cream, we pull them out.  Take the lid off and put it in the microwave for 1 minute at power 30.  They come out perfect to eat.  Cold and creamy. 

I love to buy the Light Yoplait yogurt because there are so many different flavors and there are only 110 calories and 0 fat.  And it’s only 2 points on Weight Watchers.  The kids really like them because they feel like they are eating ice cream.

It’s a win-win!

Addictions

Hi.  My name is Camille and I am addicted to food.
Seriously.
I love food.  I love the taste of it.  I never eat because I am hungry.  I eat because it tastes good.  I never NEED a second helping, I just take it because of the taste. 
I am an emotional eater.  I eat when I am happy and when I am sad.  I eat to celebrate and I eat to mourn.  I eat when I am bored, when I am stressed, when I am mad. 
The thing is, I can't ever be free from food.  If I was addicted to smoking, I could stop and never ever have another cigarette.  If I was an alcoholic, I could stop drinking and never have another one. 
But I can't stop eating.  And I can't stop grocery shopping.  I am around food all the time.  It's in my house!  I have 6 tubs of cookie dough in my freezer because The Teenager was selling them for a fund raiser.  I can hear them calling my name right now. 
And with the holidays coming up, there will be so much food and candy and sweets around.  I really don't know what I am going to do.  My mom can have one bite and it will satisfy her.  Not me.  I have to eat the whole thing, whether it's a bowl of ice cream or an entire large bag of Cheetos. 
Before The Princess was born, I went to Weight Watchers and lost 36 pounds.  I loved how I looked and felt.  I know what to do.  So why can't I do it again?  Where is my motivation? I see women who look so cute in clothes and I say, "I would give anything to look like that."  But obviously I wouldn't because I am still eating and still gaining.

School Lunches

Thanks to a friend (who hasn't friended me on FaceBook yet! LOL) who blogged a wonderful post about making lunches for her girls with love, I have come to you for help.
So this year, I have decided to make lunches for the kids.  We have always qualified for reduced lunch before, which is wonderful because it was only 40 cents a lunch.  But now that I have to, sorry, get to pay full price, it would cost me over $20 a week!  Ouch!
I hate making lunches.  I don't make them with love, I grumble the whole time!  I don't know why.  I hate making them when the kids are home, too.  I just don't like doing lunch.  Well, I like "doing" lunch when it means going to out eat with my sisters!  LOL
Anyway, enough rambling.  I am in need of help.  I can do all the sides fine...fruit, veges, cheese crackers, granola bars, frozen pudding, etc.  I need help with the main course.
I can't do PBJ every day.  I would have a mutiny on my hands.  This is what I have come up with:

• PBJ
• Tuna fish
• Grilled chicken
• Sliced ham/turkey
• Egg salad
• Bologna (yuck!)
• ...

Yeah, I am out of ideas!  I need to know what you have packed for your kids, or what you remember your mom packing for you.  I need inspiration.  Pretty please comment and help me out!

Cake Pops

I saw these posted on Pioneer Woman's website, and on Bakerella's site.  I thought they looked so cute that I wanted to try them. 

You start with cooked cake.  Let it cool and then crumble it up into a bowl.  Dump in almost an entire tub of frosting and mix it all together.  Form them into balls and put them in the fridge for a couple hours to chill.  Melt white chocolate.  Put popsicle sticks into the cake ball so it becomes a sucker.  Dip into the white chocolate and let it harden.  I used chocolate cake, but you should try white.  I think it would coat better.  I needed 3 coats to cover the brown completely.
Then go crazy and decorate.  I was so tired by this time, that I had no motivation.  I did about 6 of each and then quit.  But the ones I did were really cute.  You should go to their websites and see the professional ones.  They are much cuter.

 
 
This is the mess from all the decorations and crap.  It was driving me nuts.


I doubt I will ever make them again because I don't like cake in the first place.  But come Christmas time, I think I might try to make them with my Oreo Truffles.  I just need to figure out how to make a Santa Claus.

How do you eat?

I eat kind of differently. For instance...

When I eat a PopTart, I will only eat ones that don't have frosting. I break them in half, then each in half again. I eat the filling part first to get it out of the way, then enjoy just the crust from the sides.

When I eat a Twix, I eat it one of two ways. I either take a bite, then suck on it until the cookie part has softened and then eat it all, or I will eat the chocolate off the sides, then eat the caramel off the top, and then eat the cookie. I eat all my candy bars section by section.

When I eat my dinner, I will eat the vegetables first to get them out of the way. Then I will eat the other items one at a time. I can't take one bite of one and one bite of another. The flavors mix too much.

I don't care for pickles, black olives, and raisins. I hate onions and peppers (including bell peppers), raw broccoli and cauliflower, black licorice, green olives, and radishes. I am a master at picking the "bad" stuff out of food.

I do have to say that I have gotten better since I got married. The Doctor has introduced me to new foods and made me try them. And I liked them. Some of the foods I used to not eat are chili, crab, lobster, and cabbage (green and purple). I hated touching raw chicken, and now I can skin it!

So I guess this post merged from eating my food weird, to foods I hate, to how I have grown up since I have become a grown up. LOL This is how my head works!

So what food quirks do you have?

40 days is a long, long time...

...but I did it!

40 days without sugar.

I honestly had no idea how hard it would be. I was talking to my mom, and she asked me why I was still doing it if it was so hard. I replied that I wanted to do it for myself. I don't have much willpower, and for me to be able to say that I did it feels really good.

I mean, I had all the sugar still in the house, we just bagged it up and put it under my bed. I even had some in my purse. So I knew where it was. And I could have easily eaten some and not told anyone.

But I didn't.

And that feels really, really good.

I don't how long I can keep doing this

Thanks to The Teenager for killing my January.

Last December he came home and said his Seminary teacher was challenging them to a 40 day sugar fast, starting in January. I thought this would be an awesome thing to do as a family. So we did. And we are.

And I want to die.

I had no idea how hard it would be. We are on day 29. I feel like it's year 29. We still have sugar on our oatmeal and stuff like that, but no ice cream (even on Fast Sunday at Grandma's house), no cookies (that my sisters made for our dessert of the month gift from Christmas) (which we let the 3 younger kids eat because they don't have to do it and they have been so good), and no brownies (even when they have been blessed at Pack Meeting).

More importantly, no chocolate when it's that time of the month and I want to rip someone's head off. Two weeks ago, I was having a really hard day, and I would have sold one of my children in exchange for the right to eat some chocolate.

When we started this, we gathered all the sugar up and bagged it and I put it under my bed. Yes, there is sugar and chocolate in the house. But I haven't touched it. I even have some in my purse. Every now and then I look at it and sigh. But I have been so good. I am really proud of myself.

Last night, The Chocoholic was in tears because he couldn't have the brownie at Pack Meeting. We have been having frozen yogurt, but it wasn't good enough for him. I just held him. I totally understood how he was feeling.

12 more days.

I can make it. I know I can. But I am getting really cranky!

Food Storage

Last week I decided that I was tired of trying to figure out what I was going to make for supper every night. So I sat down and made a menu for the whole month. As I put each meal on the calendar, I pulled out the recipe and made my shopping list. And remember, we don't eat fancy. We are meat and potatoes type of folks.

I then went shopping. For the whole month.

It took me 2 hours. With my 4 year old "helping."

I was a little scared at the checkout, but it only came to $250. I was so excited.

As I was walking out to my car, I was quite smug. I didn't understand why people are spending $600 a month on food.

And then I started thinking.

I didn't have to buy any meat, because I already had chicken and hamburger in my deep freezer.

I didn't have to buy any vegetables because I had them in my deep freezer, and cans on the shelf.

I didn't have to buy any cheese because I had that in my freezer.

I didn't have to buy bread because I make it myself.

I didn't have to buy any beans, or rice, or potatoes, or flour, or sugar, or salt, or...well, you get the idea.

When we get our tax refund each year, I take $1,000-1,500 and build up my food storage. I have buckets in the garage with flour and sugar and beans and such. I have a deep freezer to keep turkeys and chicken and hamburger. And those I don't buy unless there is a really good sale.

My hamburger I buy at Sam's Club in 80 pound boxes. I divide it up and use my FoodSaver to seal it good. But my mom always used old bread bags. And they worked just as good.

I am a proud member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have been commanded to have food storage. I always have, but now I think I really "get it." It's not just there for when we have disasters. It's not just there for when we are out of work (although it has been a blessing when we were!). It's there to help us live frugally.

My food storage room, which is in my furnace room. Not ideal, but you put it where you can!

My deep freezer, which is completely full. I seriously can't fit anything else in there!

These are the #10 cans of food from the Church's cannery. We have potato pearls, apple slices, hot chocolate, minced onions, etc.

My buckets in the garage. Again, not the best place, but it works!

Looking at these shelves make me feel so secure.

Is he starving?

You would think with a nickname like "The Chocoholic" that he would be overweight.

Nope.



The Chocoholic has always been able to do this. It freaks me out.

I have to buy him "slim" jeans.

Several weeks ago, he was wearing a pair of jean shorts that were just too short. I had him give them to me and I looked at the size.

Size 5.

He is 9 1/2.

I just about died!

He is always eating, always hungry. I don't get it. He certainly didn't get it from The Doctor or me!

HOT!

It's too hot to cook.

Last night, after we went out to look at our garden, we realized that it was cool and wonderful, so we turned the air conditioning off and opened the windows. I loved it!

This morning, before I left for work, I told The Teenager to shut the windows at 10:30 before the air conditioning kicked on.

Well, he shut the windows (small miracles) but I forgot to turn the air conditioning back on this morning.

So when I got home at 3:30, it was 84 degrees in my house.

It's now 5:02 and it's still 82 degrees.

There is no way I am getting near my oven.

Or my stove.

And there is no money to eat out. Even if I wanted to walk outside.

Peanut butter and jelly, anyone?

Homemade Ice Cream

A few years after The Doctor and I got married, we bought an ice cream maker. I love homemade ice cream. That is the only strawberry ice cream I will eat. We made ice cream all the time. I use my mom's recipe that doesn't use eggs and it is so simple and inexpensive to make.

After about 10 years, the ice cream maker died, and we didn't have the money at the time to replace it. So we went several years without one, and boy have I missed it.

So, last week, we were at Walmart and they had ice cream makers. Not the kind where you have to freeze the bowl, the real kind that you use rock salt with, like we used to have. I was so excited. We splurged and bought it. I had to buy frozen fruit, ice and half & half (we already had rock salt at home), but that was it. On to the fun.

Homemade Ice Cream

1/4 c. lemon juice

fruit

1 quart milk

2 c. sugar

1 c. half & half

Blend lemon juice and fruit in blender. (I have found that if I fill the blender with fruit, I get better flavor. Because it's frozen, I have to add the milk so that it blends well.) Combine everything in ice cream freezer and freeze.

That's it! So simple! I have made strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, and my new all-time favorite, mango! It is so yummy! It seriously tastes like you are eating a frozen mango. You have to try it.

Plus the fact that I used fat-free half & half, so this is fat free. Next time I make it, I am going to experiment using Splenda, to see if I can cut down on the calories.