My thoughts on meditation

Meditation

Part of my quest for better health includes mental, emotional, and spiritual well being.  Today's world is filled with almost 24-7 demands. It used to be we could turn off distractions and rest but now with social media and technology that's portable it's difficult to escape. Now add in the mixture having Attention Deficit Disorder and with it the inability to focus it just create chaos. 

Now yes I'm on medicine for my ADD but I've also added something else to help.  Meditation. I know, I know it sounds so new age and weird but it works. Closing my eyes and focusing on just breathing or on one concept (like positive thinking) has been to say the least life changing. My ability to focus and concentrate has improved immensely. I also know that morning meditations help me to keep a positive outlook during the day. I missed a day earlier this week and I was grouchy.   My family has noticed the improvement and encourage me to continue meditation. I found this post on the Facebook page for My Uoga Online and I think it accurately depicts my brain before and after meditation.

Creative cooking

In my attempt to make gluten free ravioli I realized that the dough was too sticky to roll out and cut individually. What could I do? Waste the dough? Throw it out? Hmm- use a mini muffin pan to make the ravioli and to stuff them. I stuffed mine with mushrooms marinated in balsamic vinegar. I baked them in the oven for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. They taste great! This recipe is a keeper! In the future I plan to make them with chicken or turkey instead of mushrooms and a tomato sauce.

Yumaste 

Cinnamon walnut brittle

This brittle is a sweet treat! Easy to make and diabetic friendly with a pinch of cinnamon to give something extra.

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar or Whey Low

1/4 tsp cinnamon 

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups walnuts

In a heavy duty pan (a lighter weight pan will cause the sugar to burn- I use a cast iron pan) melt the sugar

Once sugar is completely melted remove from heat

Add vanilla, baking soda, and cinnamon 

On a baking sheet covered with parchment paper place Walnuts trying to not layer them

Pore melted sugar over walnuts as evenly as possible

Freeze for several hours

Break apart and enjoy

Yumaste 

A poor attempt at gluten free baking

Don't let this bread fool you- it looks ok but taste terrible. I figure that I could have done with less baking powder since I think that is causing the bad aftertaste. A failed attempt is still an opportunity to learn.

Gluten free bread- an experiment

I love bread- it's wonderful and glorious and joyfully filled with carbs. But... I also live with people who cannot have bread. The idea of life without bread- that magnificent dietary staple seemed depressing. It did until I found a recipe for gluten free flaxseed based bread. It sounds good- in theory and the first few bites were ok but it was off somehow.  The texture was close to regular bread, the rosemary and oregano helped to flavor the bread, and yet there was an aftertaste. I'm not going to give up on finding an alternative to bread but this recipe is going in the trash.

Sugar substitute

There are a lot of sugar substitutes out on the markets.  Most of them have a bitter aftertaste and are made from questionable ingredients.  I have found one product though that tastes similar to sugar, doesn't have an aftertaste, can be used for baking, cooking, or just to sweeten a cup of tea or coffee.  Whey Low is a diabetic friendly sweetener that can b used measure for measure in place of sugar.  It is made with natural sugars like sucrose, fructose, and lactose.  The sweetener was developed by a husband seeking to help his wife who was diagnosed with diabetes.  There are a variety of types of Whey Low including a brown sugar alternative, one for making ice cream, and one particularly marketed for Type-2 diabetics.  I use all of these products and my family can't tell the difference between Whey Low and sugar in their food.