November 7, 2008

Call me a dork if you want to, or Susie Homemaker, or a Martha Stewart wanna-be, but I LOVE finding a new household product that works wonders!  It makes me happy happy happy.  So in this edition of Friday Favorites, I unabashedly present my favorite household items!  But be careful, if you try them, you just might find yourself in my dorky shoes!

Clorox GreenWorks All Purpose Cleaner

• Clorox GreenWorks All Purpose Cleaner.  It has a fabulous fresh scent thanks to the lemon essential oil, and on top of that, it works!  Before I thought of trying it, I read about the bathroom cleaner in the GreenWorks product line in the August/September issue of ShopSmart Magazine (you already knew I had a bad case of magazine mania, and I love this one!).  ShopSmart said that Clorox GreenWorks Bathroom Cleaner worked as well as others, but didn’t cost more.  I figured the All Purpose Cleaner was a safe bet, and I wasn’t disappointed.  It even does a great job of cleaning my granite countertops, and leaves a nice shine on them.

Caldrea Citrus Mint Ylang Ylang Dish Soap Liquid

• Caldrea Citrus Mint Ylang Ylang Dish Soap Liquid.  The scent of this is heavenly, and makes doing dishes MUCH more pleasant!  I also love the countertop cleaner (great on the granite), the window spray, the home fragrance spray, and the powdered scrub in this scent.  Imagine essential oils of orange, lemon, bergamot, mint and ylang ylang, all blended together!

Simple Human Stainless Steel Trash Can

• Simple Human Stainless Steel Trash Can.  I don’t like for my trash can to be in the pantry with food in case it gets stinky; just one of my many little quirks.  So that means my trash can has to be out in the open, and that means it has to be pretty!  I think this can is very beautiful, plus it doesn’t absorb any odors, and it holds a good amount of stuff.  It’s spendy, but you’re not going to need to replace it for a long, long time!  Maybe never!

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser

• Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.  Several years ago, I had some nasty tile grout at my old condo, and was racking my brain to try to figure out how to clean it.  I knew that LilSis had someone clean the grout at her house in Texas, and it cost a fortune (pre-Magic Erasers), plus they had to use some kind of caustic product.  I was hoping to avoid that kind of expense and chemical experience.  The Mr. Clean Magic Erasers had just come out, and for some reason, I tried them on a bit of grout, and viola!  It worked like a dream!  Better than a dream!  I emailed everyone I knew to tell them of this miraculous discovery.  Now, in this condo years later, I’m still using this product to clean tile grout, and it’s still the best product on the market for the job, and lots of others.

~BigSis

November 7, 2008

Sea World San Diego is a fantastic place to visit for anyone coming to this area. On their last visit here; we took the little guys, and BigGuy to Sea World.  We took lots of great pictures of the little guys.

This happens to be one of my favorites! They were amazed by these fascinating beluga whales!

They are totally in awe of the Beluga Whales!

Here they are petting the Manta Rays.  LittleGuy#2 had no fear at all until one of them popped out of the water and looked him straight in the eye! He had the entire crowd in laughter when he shouted at the top of his lungs; “Did you see those eyes?”

Nice Manta Ray!

We all had a great time at Sea World.  Maybe on the little guys’ next visit here, we will take them to the San Diego Zoo.

~LilSis

November 6, 2008

• CookieMadness whipped up these brownies from the new cookbook called Baked: New Frontiers in Baking, which I just ordered and can’t wait to get!  Can you ever have too many great brownie recipes?  I say, heck no!
• I’ve had a lot of biscotti, but NEVER with banana so I’m really tempted to try Picky Palate’s White Chocolate Dipped Cinnamon and Banana Bread Biscotti.  These would make beautiful Christmas gifts!
• Joe from Culinary in the County reminded me of a delicious recipe I used to make frequently called Cowboy Cookies.  They’re hearty and full of goodies!
• I’m SO dying to make this Guatemalan Hot Chocolate Bread, thanks to Culinary Concoctions by Peabody!  Chocolate and bread together?  Count me in!
• Bakerella just proved that there IS a new cookie under the fall sun!  It’s Pumpkin Pecan Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Maple Brown Butter Frosting.  They look tender and full of flavor!
• It’s a Vegan Sushi Party over at the Post Punk Kitchen. The Elephant Roll is calling my name!

~BigSis

November 5, 2008

Sunday, November 2, 2008 was the big day for the San Diego Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  We all met at 6:00 a.m. at my house and headed down to Balboa Park in San Diego. Our team raised almost $4000.00! I was very happy with our results considering we only had 15 members this year versus 21 members last year. Sundays’ race had a record attendance of almost 13,000 and a record of almost $1.4 million dollars raised for Susan G. Komen For the Cure.

It was a very fun, successful day! And of course, we had to stop in Old Town for Mexican Food on the way home to celebrate our team’s success.

Also, I promised the “Cure” Ty Beanie Bear to one lucky reader who commented on the post.  Guess what, SisMama?  Expect to receive her in your mailbox shortly! You were the only comment on the post for “Cure”, so you can’t be ineligible!

~LilSis

November 4, 2008

Plan on watching, and hopefully, celebrating this historic election with friends? If you’re like me, I always like to serve some “festive cocktails” for special occasions. There are some  great ideas for Election Day Cocktails on Simply Stated that your guests might enjoy while awaiting the election results. These two are quite colorful!

Election Day Cocktails

Cheers!

~LilSis

November 4, 2008

November 4, 2008. After a long, grueling presidential race, this historic election day is finally here! I’m sure it’s going to be an intense couple of days while we wait to hear who will be our next President of the United States of America.

BigSis and I have agreed that we won’t be discussing our political views on this blog.  There are plenty of other sites where you can discuss and/or debate those issues.  We’ve just decided that we don’t want to do it here.

Instead, let’s talk about food!  While we are sitting around glued to CNN watching the results come in, I thought it might be fun to lighten the mood a little and try some new burger recipes. I have to admit that I haven’t yet had time to make these burgers, but I know that they’ll be great since they’re exclusive online recipes from Food Network Magazine.

In one corner, we have the John McCain Chicken Queso Burger.

John McCain Chicken Queso Burger

This John McCain Chicken Queso Burger is right up my alley!  It’s got a little chili pepper, olive oil and the zest and juice of a lemon, lime and an orange in the marinade for the chicken.  You top the chicken breast with salsa and a slice of pepper jack cheese, and add a few slices of avocado. Yummy!

In the other corner, we have the Barack Obama Pizza Burger.

Barack Obama Pizza Burger

The Barack Obama Pizza Burger is also made with some of my favorite ingredients.  The angus beef burgers are grilled, then topped with some marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, and chopped basil. The garlic butter, made from an entire head of roasted garlic, butter, parsley, and vinegar is spread on the rolls and toasted on the grill.

Both of these sound fantastic!!  Unfortunately, we can’t say that about both of our candidates.  (Oops, that’s probably more than I should have said.)

We all know that the voting taking place today is very serious, but we can still try to have a little fun!  If you happen to try either of these recipes, leave me a comment and let me know how you liked it!

~LilSis

November 3, 2008

It’s been a month now since the Nasty Virus hopped on me, and 3 weeks since I got out of the hospital.  You’d think I’d be back to my usual workout schedule, but it hasn’t happened that way.

• I was shocked to realize that after about 11 days with no physical activity whatsoever, I had not only lost weight – which I expected – but I had lost a lot of muscle.  I don’t understand how it can take months of regular focused exercise to build muscle and muscle tone, but only 11 days to lose a huge percentage of it!?  Somebody needs to splain that to me!
• It was really jarring to me to realize how weak and puny I had become, when I had gone into this illness as a very strong and healthy person.  To walk up the stairs to my condo almost winded me, and to stand up after kneeling was a huge challenge for my quadriceps.
• And stamina?  Forget about it!  After sleeping 10 to 11 hours a night, I still woke up exhausted and struggled to work even half a day.

Those are the facts of the situation.  So what to do about that situation?  I NEEDED to get back to working out; both physically and mentally.  But how well should you feel before resuming exercise?  Should you start when you still feel crummy and build up super-gradually, or do you wait until you feel better to begin at all?  Meanwhile, how much more fitness would be lost?  I haven’t really known the right thing to do, but I do know that my body is saying “I NEED EXERCISE!”

So off I went to the internet to do a little research about resuming exercise after an illness. Melanie at Healthy Eating Coach talks about the struggle of getting started again, and she reinforced my thoughts to walk first and then gradually add back in weights with more strenuous workouts much later.

There is a great article on TheBody.com which addresses the importance of listening to your body, resting without necessarily sleeping, getting back to your work routine before adding exercise back in, and eating well even if you don’t feel like it.  Excellent advice!

The Denver Post also provides some excellent guidelines to follow when you’re getting back to an exercise regimen.  I thought it was a great tip to work out at the gym during less crowded times, since your resistance to germs could still be diminished.

And lastly, I found that according to the National Institute of Health, exercise boosts the immune system. They say that:

• exercise flushes bacteria from the lungs
• exercise may flush out carcinogens (cancer-causing cells) by increasing output of waste
• exercise sends antibodies and white blood cells through the body at a faster rate
• bacterial growth may be reduced by the rise in body temperature when you exercise
• stress-related hormones that increase the risk of illness are reduced with exercise

I didn’t know all of these things, did you?  These are all great reasons to get back on track!

After reading all this information and thinking it through, I decided that moderation and patience were the keys, as well as common sense.  This past weekend was gorgeous weather, and I couldn’t stay indoors resting on the sofa one more day.  So my modified workout plan resumed.  Here’s what I did:

• One hour walks outdoors last Saturday and Sunday at a slow pace
• Three trips to the gym during the week for walks on the treadmill at a medium pace
• One hour walks outdoors this Saturday and Sunday at a medium pace
• Plans for this week include stepping up the treadmill pace a bit and adding a few minutes to the workout, and adding a couple of light weight workouts.
• I also want to add back in my yoga and pilates workouts, but I’m trying not to overdo it so that may be placed on the agenda for next week if I’m up to it.  I feel like the first order of business should be to do the light cardio and build from there.

So far, it’s feeling fantastic to be active again, even at a reduced level.  I can feel my muscles beginning to wake up a little, and they’re very happy about it!  Hopefully this process will continue to go smoothly.  It’s been an exercise in patience, if nothing else!  How about you?  Have you had this experience, and how did you handle it?

~BigSis

November 2, 2008

Last weekend, as I was just trying to get back to exercising, I caught a cold.  I haven’t had a cold in AGES, so I’m sure it was because my resistance is low, but I was determined it wouldn’t drag me down.  I made a beeline for Central Market and got the ingredients to whip up a batch of what I call Immune-Boosting Soup.  I didn’t have a recipe because you can really throw in anything you want.  The key is to use shiitake mushrooms and lots of garlic.  Do you know about the benefits of shiitakes?  Studies have shown them to be incredibly immune-boosting and anti-viral.  They’re one of the amazing super foods that do so many wonderful things for our bodies.   And garlic is known to be antibiotic, anti-viral and anti-fungal.  Sorry there’s no photo, but this soup in NOT very pretty or very photogenic.  Let’s just say it’s brownish.  But this is not a beauty contest recipe, it’s a healing recipe!  Here is what I used for my soup:

5 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
8 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/3 large red onion, chopped
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp Penzeys Vegetable Soup Base
Few dashes Penzeys Mural of Flavor (salt-free)
Dash cayenne pepper
Shallot pepper and garlic pepper to taste
Salt to taste (be careful since the soup base has salt and you’re going to be reducing the liquid a little)

Saute the onion, garlic and ginger together until soft, and then add the sliced mushrooms and continue to saute until they are browned and tender.  Add about 6 cups of water and the seasonings and simmer for an hour.  Add more water if you like, and adjust the seasonings as needed.  Makes about 3 servings.

I had this soup for dinner three times last week, plus I immediately started taking a supplement called Super Lysine which has really helped me squelch bugs in the past.  Besides l-lysine, it has vitamin C, echinacea, goldenseal, licorice, garlic, and propolis.  Within a day, I literally felt better!  The cold started over the weekend, and on Monday I was sneezing and blowing my nose like a mad woman, but by Tuesday it was better!  Usually a cold can drag on for days and days, so I’m happy that this little combo of soup and Super Lysine did the trick for me.  I’m not a doctor so I can’t tell you what will work for you, but if I can get some relief naturally without having to resort to a medicine, I’m happy!

~BigSis

November 1, 2008

Does he look ticked off or what?

~LilSis

November 1, 2008

What the “L” is Lil Sis up to?

• Loving the fact that it’s Saturday and I can be away from my computer without feeling guilty.
• Lingering over my favorite McCanns Irish Steel Cut Oatmeal.
• Limbering up to go for a run.
• Loving my new Asics. These are the ones I buy every time. I don’t even have to try them on anymore. I put so many miles on my shoes that I have to get a new pair about once every two months.

Pink, of course!

• Listening to my cardio playlist on my iPod.
• Looking forward to spending the rest of the day down at the Harbor cleaning up our boat.

~LilSis