Tuesday Tricks: Cleaning Silpat

Several years ago I splurged on a Silpat sheet.  I was sick of having cookies and other things stick to the pan.  The Silpat does work like a charm.  Unfortunately, being a slothful cleaner-upper, or, at least, not knowing how to keep the sheet clean, over the time we have had it, it has become nastier and nastier.  (Don't get me wrong:  I DID clean it, just not very well apparently.)  It was time to  do something about it. 

On the internet you can read all kinds of conflicting information about just about any question  you ask.  I finally focused on baking soda, since that is useful in many ways, I have learned.

Before leaving the house I sprinkled baking soda all over the Silpat which I had placed inside a cookie sheet. I then filled the pan with water and left for the day.  Note the nasty edge of the Silpat...


When we came home, the first thing I did was put the pan in the sink, take out the little scrubby sponge that has some netting over it and laid into the mess with a strong hand.  You really cannot tell how well the soda and elbow grease worked, but I am pleased with the result.  At least mostly.

Munchie Monday: Great Steel Cut Oats in the Instant Pot

Having a quick and easy breakfast is important to me.  Eating oatmeal every day is supposed to be great at lowering cholesterol.   Somewhere I saw a comment on someone's blog that in three months her cholesterol went from awful to normal in three months with eating oatmeal every day.  Of course, she did not say what else she was doing, but hey,  oatmeal is easy so why not give it a try.  My next doctor appointment is in three months and it will include fasting blood work, so why not?!

Today I pulled the Instant Pot inner liner out of the Instant Pot and put it on the counter.  This helps keep ingredients for getting places I don't want them!

In the bottom of the pot I put 1 cup of steel cut oats, 3 cups of water, 1/4 cup sunflower seeds,  and 1 teaspoon cinnamon then stirred them well.  Next I sprinkled on top 1/4 cup raisins, almost 1/4 cup dried cranberries, and one large apple grated.  I did NOT stir them in at this point. I just installed the cover, selected HIGH pressure and 8 minutes then went about my business.

When I got back to the pot the oats had been on the warming cycle for 15 minutes.  I took off the cover,  stirred them up, put 1/2 cup into each of two bowls and sprinkled on some chopped pecans...maybe 2 Tablespoons on each bowl.

We ate them with pleasure.  This was at around 8:30.  After the very green smoothie and the oatmeal we did not eat ago until 4:30.  Around 2:30 my stomach began to growl but I was not unpleasantly hungry.  That was very nice.

There was nearly one quart of oats left in the pot which is now waiting for tomorrow. And the rest of the week.  Pretty good deal.

Food Friday: Green, VERY GREEN, Smoothie--Quick and Easy

Someone named Dr. Mona has a channel on YouTube.  By a fluke I saw a video advertised about green smoothies.  I have been pretty anti-green smoothies but must have been at a weak point today so I watched it.  Not only did I watch it, I got up and made it and shared it with Dear One.  He drank it!  You could have knocked me over with a feather.

This is the very green smoothie.

Using a high speed blender, in the blender jar I put:
3 cups baby spinach leaves
2 cups water
1 whole lemon juiced.

Started the blender and blended for 60 seconds.  Probably did not need that long but the one and only time I have used spinach in a smoothie before there were chunks of spinach leaves which gave a very nasty texture on my tongue. NOT what you want in a smoothie.  At least, I don't want that.

Next put in:
1 cored and chopped apple. I used a Pink Lady.
1 ripe banana

Blend again for 60 seconds.

This is very very green.  Pour it into glasses quickly. I gave a 4-ounce glass to Dear One and an 8-ounce glass for myself--since I really wanted this to be tasty enough to eat.  And maybe eat more than one time.

Well, it turns out there is enough for two days, so the rest is waiting for tomorrow morning.  Now I am thinking about what else I can add to the smoothie....maybe some flax meal or chia seeds.  What else?  Hum.  I will have to think about that.

Vegetation Near Us: Stargazer Lily?

The other day I was walking somewhere and saw what I thought was a Stargazer lily across from me. It must be somewhere here in the commercial complex where the office is, but at this moment I cannot remember.  I just remember crossing the street to see if it really was a lily.

Anyway,  I went over to it.  How glorious it is!  I am not sure it is actually a Stargazer but it surely is beautiful.

Wednesday Wonders: Red Dragonfly

Today I was out walking.  Well, I took some letters to the outside mailbox while listening to Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery on my phone.  Since I needed more steps I went around the defunct science building and kept on until I came to the ponds in the park.  There on the first pond I saw a red dragonfly, something I did not know even existed.  My picture is no good. It is another "Where's Waldo?" sort of picture.  (Look about halfway down near the right edge...)

However,  when looking on the internet this is one of the things I found:

"The dragonfly, in almost every part of the world symbolizes change and change in the perspective of self realization; and the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life."

Well, isn't that an interesting thought?!!!  I have just started making some changes.  Maybe that dragonfly is evidence that the changes are a good thing and that this will be real lasting change, for a change!

Tuesday Toys: For the Kitchen

Yesterday I went to the town fair.  In the center of town several streets had been blocked off.  There were many booths of all kinds. I went mainly for the "health street" to see what new tidbits I could pick up that might get me on the straight and narrow permanently.  Hope springs eternal, you know...!

Another reason I went was because I could take the train into town and avoid trying to park somewhere, lose the car, get lost myself, etc etc.  It was an adventure to ride the train.  The stop I needed was about a block from the first street. Very handy.

After walking around in the blazing sun, with no hat, and no water bottle I finally found the health street.  My blood pressure was checked.  OK. My blood sugar was checked.  Not OK.  My blood cholesterol was checked.  Really not OK.  Fortunately there were no more things to be tested...!

After walking around some more I found a tent that had a water wall in it and misting water all around the top of the tent.  There were triangular paper cups which I filled with water and drank deeply.  I had my wooden walking sticks with me and people looked at me peculiarly for some reason, but the sticks gave me the confidence to do all the walking I wanted to do.  More than 11,000 steps, my best day in months.

There was a Chinese acupuncture booth that I saw as I was walking by.  The man there invited me in and said he could do a free diagnosis, so I went in and sat down.  He looked at my tongue and told me I have poor sleep.  Yep.  He looked at both ears, one at a time and told me I had tinnitus. Yep.  Then he told me I have inflammation. Yep.  After that he told me one other thing I did not want to hear, so I am putting that idea on hold for now.  Perhaps I will go see him at some point before we leave, but after I have given the other health initiatives a good try.  If I do two new things at once I won't know that acupuncture actually works, rather than the other healthy living things.

As I was leaving the fair I smelled fresh garlic and walked over to a tent where a woman was grating garlic in a plate!  So surprising.  It looked very interesting.  Always up for a new kitchen tool, I purchased one of the grate plates.  Today I used it for both garlic and jalapeño.  It did work.  It will work better when I am using fresher garlic, though, I feel sure.  These garlic cloves broke in half from age, I think.

This is obviously the jalapeño.  It is not a very good advertisement for the Grate Plate because of inexperience. If you go to the website you will see lovely silken grating.  I think I like this toy.

Munchie Monday: New (Old) First Thing In The Morning Beverage Quick and Easy

Years ago my sister and I were drinking a crazy beverage to assist us in cleaning out our inwards and potentially leading to weight loss.  I don't remember how it went.  Obviously it was not a gigantic success in my case.  My sister looks pretty darn good, so maybe it did work for her though we have not discussed it since them.

This morning I was up early.  For some reason I was looking at a couple of the notifications on my phone from YouTube about health.  One was about a morning "detox".  Usually I delete anything that says detox but this time I watched it.  It was a pretty quick and easy "cure".

This is what I did:

Started the hot water running from the tap while I got out a mug from the cupboard.  I poured in about 1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon juice, a scant Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, shook in three small shakes of cayenne then filled the cup with hot tap water.  I stirred well then glugged it down.

Amazingly, it was not bad.  I will make it again tomorrow.

The best news is that the "detox" did not entail an hour in the little girl's room!!