The cat conundrum

So I have two wee little kitties, Max and Akaya. Akaya is going to be 12 soon, and as a member of the senior cat population, she has some health issues that I would really love to have solved. Mainly, this involves IBD (inflammatory bowel disease), or so the vet believes. It's impossible to know for sure without extremely invasive testing, which just seems unnecessarily cruel and, well, unnecessary. So I've chosen to treat the issue as if it is IBD. This has involved trial diets of specialty foods as well as medication, neither of which have been very fun.

This lack of fun is mainly because I have TWO cats and they're both whiny about food. Also, pilling a cat is never fun (saying "pilling a cat" is kind of fun, but not enough to make up for the actual deed). Because of the difficulty inherent in pilling a cat, I have finally put my mortar and pestle to use in crushing the pill, which is then mixed with some wet cat food (which I've pureed with some water to make it nice and soupy, just the way she likes it). Of course, one can't have wet food without the other getting whiny and shoving in, so Max has to have his own cat food (chunky with gravy, just the way he likes it). And when Akaya is done slurping up her wet food, she helps Max by licking the gravy off of the chicken chunks in his food. Ahhh, symbiosis. This will work well as long as Akaya doesn't spontaneously decide that she no longer likes the type of wet food that I am providing, which has already happened twice. Persnickity cat.

But now that Akaya is on a special-food-only diet, I'm having to separate their dry food as well. Akaya can't eat any of Max's food, and I don't want Max to eat Akaya's food since it's insanely expensive and he's got a big appetite (he's a growing cat after all, but mainly it's his spare tire that's doing the growing. And his fur - more on that in a bit). And naturally, Akaya would prefer to eat Max's food and Max would prefer to eat Akaya's food. I'm experimenting with feeding them in separate rooms and only leaving the food out as long as they eat their own food. They haven't eaten as much as they usually do, which is slightly worriesome as Akaya's weight recently dropped quite dramatically, and I'm hoping she'll put some back on. But hopefully they'll learn to eat the food that's given them.

As far as cat hair goes, hairball season is upon us. The cats are shedding all over the house. I think Max sheds his coat completely every night and regrows a new one before morning. I'm guessing he spends the majority of the night scampering around the house and depositing the spent cat hair on any available surface, because it multiplies faster than I can keep up with it. I'm definitely going to have to get better about combing him, because the layer of fur in the house and the hairballs on the floor are starting to get annoying. Perhaps instead of "Locks of Love" we can sponsor an organization for those poor little hairless cats and call it "Coats of Compassion" or something like that. Hey, it's an idea.

April Menu

It just occurred to me that if I ever want to find my list of April food, perhaps sometime in the middle of April, it might be quite difficult, so I'm just going to add a list here for my own reference (and to help with the creation of my shopping list for this Friday). I'll need at least 8 different meals:

Potatoes with cottage cheese
Bean and vegetable soup
Black bean and cheese quesadillas with tomatillo sauce
Bean and vegetable pot pie
Polenta with topping
Roasted asparagus? Or asparagus and bean salad?
Salad!
Asparagus and Leek Quiche for Easter dinner (I will almost certainly have leftovers to last a few days)

A good Monday

Finally, I've had a great day. It's amazing how I feel like I can accomplish anything after some good exercise. Today, I did a 1-hour spin class and then climbed for about 45 minutes. While my climbing skills have been somewhat lacking lately, I did finish a 5.10C that I'd been worried about because of a rather tricky part. While I didn't do it perfectly today, I figured out what I did wrong so I can do a better job the next time. My plans for the rest of the week include a short run tomorrow (20-30 minutes), a flag football game, runnning stairs (twice to the top of the local parking garage), and some weights for the arms on Wednesday, another short run on Thursday, and some bouldering on Friday. Sounds like a good plan for this week...

Food has been an interesting topic for me lately. My local co-op has been having "recession fridays", with 10% off of everything the first friday of every month. I have now decided to only shop once a month, and supplement with occasional trips to the farmer's market, which in Sacramento is a thing of beauty. This has been great for me in two ways - it's forcing me to plan my meals well in advance, which helps my time management and means I waste less food, and it also means I'm spending less every month on my grocery bill. However, I'm going to have to get a bit more serious about really planning meals. And this is going to have to be my long-term memory for food planning and recipe storage. So I'll get started with April!

The plan is to make two different dishes every week, with each dish providing four meals (I'm single, and I tend to make foods I love and don't get sick of). The remaining meals during the week will consist of either a frozen co-op meal (Amy's Indian!), a tamale from Primavera Tamales, or the occassional meal out (Daphne's!). On weekends, I'll scrounge the pantry or share meals with friends. March has turned out fabulously - I spent $80 on the first recession Friday and another $10-$15 at farmer's markets. I will finish out this week with homemade whole wheat bread and salads picked fresh from the garden, with lettuce, carrots, and radishes grown in my community garden plot, and canned beans, which I'm trying to incorporate for more protein.

April is the next one to plan. I'll definitely have some polenta with some kind of topping, perhaps some more salads, bean and vegetable soup (recipe to follow soon), bean and vegetable pot pie (recipe also to follow soon), and black bean and cheese quesadillas with tomatillo sauce (made fresh with tomatillos from my garden last fall and frozen for just such an occassion!). I also have some frozen zucchini soup that will need to be used up soon. I've become a huge fan of freezing vegetables. I rescued some vegetables from a friend's fridge while he was on vacation, chopped them up, and froze them in zip-loc bags (which I rescued from people at work who were going to throw them away). So those will go nicely in my soup. I'll also be making an asparagus and leek (and maybe mushroom?) quiche for Easter dinner. Yum! I'll have to remember to get some cheese for that at the co-op this Friday.

I'll get some recipes up soon. In the meantime, happy eating!

Healthy whole wheat bread

In my attempts to eat more healthfully, I've wanted to make homemade whole wheat bread, but most recipes require eggs, milk, butter, and honey, which all have a bit more fat than I would like, and require me to keep ingredients on hand that I would not normally have, such as milk. However, my wonderful baking sister provided me with a fabulous recipe that I need to preserve here for posterity (or else I will have to ask her AGAIN for the recipe, and she will throw a cookbook at me). Here goes:

2 cups warm water
1 tbsp yeast
1/3 cup honey
1 tbsp salt
4 tbsp oil
3 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups white bread flour

Proof the yeast, mix it all together, let rise 1.5 hours (1 hour if your house is really warm, or you leave it next to a cozy fire or sunny window). Scrape out of the bowl, divide into two, flatten each piece, then fold into thirds like a business letter. Press gently into a baking pan lined with cooking oil or parchment paper. I tried one of each tonight, and they both worked just fine. Let rise another 45 minutes or so. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes, turning halfway. Voila! Fabulous, healthy whole wheat bread!

I just spent the day cleaning out my mom's house to prepare it to sell. While my sister and I worked hard all day, and some parts of the house look pretty good, we barely made a dent in the sheer amount of stuff that still needs to find a new home. It's definitely inspiring me to clean out my own house, as soon as I have more energy.

One of the things I have been meaning to do for a while is to write a list of what I'm grateful for. My sister has started doing this recently, and as I sit here nursing an early spring cold, I'm thinking that would be a good idea. So here goes.

1. Rain. After living in Oregon for several years, I love the rain, especially the sound of the rain as it falls on the trees. I also like to drink water, and rain can be especially helpful in that regard.

2. My wee kitty. He loves to sit on my lap, and he shows so much appreciation just for my presence. It doesn't take much to make him happy. If only I could get him to stop shedding so much... And my other kitty as well, whose favorite activity is to sleep on my bed. Or my sweater. Or whatever else I leave lying around that smells like me.

3. Never having to take another exam again. After passing the last exam to fulfill my career goals, I will only be taking exams if I want to, and right now I can't even think of anything I want to do that requires an exam. Hooray!

4. Living in such a diverse place. I love having lots of non-chain shops and restaurants to choose from, and I love being able to walk or bike to most of them quite easily. I also have a natural foods co-op and my community garden plot (and historic Sutter's Fort, which I have never visited) within easy walking/biking distance of my home. If I ever leave Sacramento, I'll definitely miss that.

5. The means to go to those shops and restaurants every once in a while for a little splurge. While I'm definitely not as well off as the rest of my friends, I have a steady job that pays me enough to go out and splurge once in a while, which is great when I'm so tired that even the thought of cooking is exhausting.

Well, I'm not sure that helped me as much as it helps my sister, but perhaps I'll get in the swing of it soon. But I'm glad to be back and posting!

English muffin recipe

I make this recipe with my stand mixer. You can also mix the ingredients by hand, or with a bread machine on the dough setting.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups milk
2 cups white bread flour
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1 tsp sugar
1.5 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter, softened
1.5 tsp active dry yeast

Warm the milk gently and dissolve the yeast in it. Add the butter. Mix in some flour and allow it to sit for a few minutes, then add the salt, sugar, and the rest of the flour. When you have a good dough (it will take some practice to learn when that happens), cover the bowl and allow it to rise in a warm place for one to two hours, until it has doubled in size.

After it has finished rising, roll it out on a floured surface. Using a cutter (or a cup or bowl) cut out your muffins. Shape the trimmings into more muffins. Dust with cornmeal, semolina, rice flour, or wheat flour, cover, and allow to rise 20 minutes.

Lightly oil a griddle or frying pan. Cook the muffins very slowly, 7 minutes on each side, until they are lightly browned and are almost doubled in size. Viola! Fresh English muffins...

On food and packaging

So I’ve been doing some thinking on how to reduce waste, especially packaging waste, and also how to eat more healthfully. I want to stop eating margarine and eat butter instead. I’m considering buying the giant stick of butter from the co-op that’s just wrapped in one piece of paper. I think it’s a pound of butter. But I’d need an easy way to 1) bring some to work to keep in the fridge, and 2) use it at home without hacking off a piece of the huge block every time. I’m thinking I can reuse the glass jars that certain things come in, such as bread yeast or the new boullion that comes as a paste. I can refill the jar from the big block that I keep at home. I would probably buy the individually wrapped sticks of unsalted butter for cooking and baking, because they’re much easier to measure than the huge blocks.

I also hate how much packaging my English muffins come in. Every week, I have the little cardboard box and plastic bag to deal with. English muffins are relatively easy to make, but they don’t keep long, so I think I will make several weeks worth at one time and then freeze the majority of them in individual bags. I can then put them in packs of 5 and each Sunday place a pack of 5 in the fridge to use for the week. I may try it out this weekend and see what happens.

I’m also having a hard time with my diet. I tend to either eat too much or nowhere near enough. It’s been very difficult for me to find that happy middle ground, and I would sure like to. I would love to know exactly how much to eat, to know when to stop eating because I really am full (and not feel guilty if my plate isn’t clean). I would like to look at a normal portion and not think “that’s all I get to eat?”. I find that when I put what I think is an appropriate amount of food on a plate, it generally turns out to be too much, but because I was raised to eat everything on my plate, I eat it all anyway.

So those are some goals to work on: less food, less packaging, and definitely less soda.