I was reading an excerpt from a book whose arrival I am excitedly awaiting.  In this anxious interim, I read a portion today about beginnings...a random selection on the Amazon.com web site.  The book was, "To Bless the Space Between Us:  A Book of Blessings," by John O'Donohue

 

"Tus maith leath na hoibre."  An old Irish proverb which means, "A good beginning is half the work."  The author says that a time of "considerations, hesitation, uncertainty" can delay us "before the actual act of beginning happens." 

 

I believe the beginning he goes on to refer to as "awkward and slow" would be an accurate definition of my crawl towards the ultimate reward of better health and more inner confidence.  It's a daily struggle. 

 

I will hold to his comment about beginnings being like new horizons.  They want to be seen and want to break away from that "grip of the past."   I need to keep focused on that thought!

 

Jo

 

 

 

This past week was a tough one, but now I feel back on the right track.  Doing the food journal is a real help in keeping focus and as long as I respect the procedures I myself made up for guidance during this challenge, it will all work out for the best. 

 

Jo

Don't know what the calories are in this recipe, but it can't be too awfully bad.

 

In the "dog's version" I did not use onion, garlic (puppy poison) or really any of the other ingredients.  Did add a little onion and garlic powder.  Have no idea why---not like the dogs would care.

 

French Chicken in a Pot

 

Adjust oven rack to it's lowest position.  Preheat to 250 degrees.

 

Cast iron Dutch oven

 

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 whole "roasting" chicken--4 to 5 lbs.

2 teaspoons Kosher salt or 1 teaspoon table salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

 

Pat chicken dry.  Rub it with salt and pepper.  Heat oil on top of stove in Dutch oven until it's just beginning to smoke.  Add chicken, breast-side down.

 

1 small onion, chopped

1 large celery stalk, chopped

6 garlic cloves, peeled

1 bay leaf

1 sprig fresh rosemary or 2 teaspoons dried

 

Scatter ingredients above around chicken.  Cook on the stove until the breast is lightly browned--about five minutes.  ***Flip the chicken to breast-side up and cook about 6 to 8 minutes.  (***Help to flip chicken--insert a wooden spoon into the cavity of the bird)

 

Remove Dutch oven from heat.  Place foil over its top and the cover with a lid.  Place pot in pre-heated oven.  Cook about an hour and twenty minutes or two hours, depending on size of chicken (I bake it for at least two hours, no matter what size the chicken is).  Remove chicken from pot to a carving board.  Tent it with foil and allow to rest about twenty minutes.

~~~

Optional step:

 

Strain chicken juices from Dutch oven through a strainer.  Discard fat.  Pour into saucepan and heat up on low.  Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.  Should make about 3/4 cup of juice. 

 

I would use grape seed oil rather than olive oil.  Personal opinion, but I think olive oil should not be heated that high.

 

 

Just got done having salad for breakfast.   This is the morning of our weight reveal in the News-Herald.

 

In October of 2009, my husband and I made an agreement.  We were driving home from our annual vacation in Gloucester, Ma.  I had bought a vegetarian book titled, "The Kind Diet," by Alicia Silverstone and was reading a few of it's beginning pages to Gary.  After several miles of gory mental pictures related to the book, he asked me to stop reading.  Gary decided and I agreed, we would not eat meat at home anymore.  We were free to choose whether to eat meat or not while out at a restaurant or at a friend's house, but I would not bring any meat into our home.

 

We have lived by our agreement since that day in 2009, until we were told our little dog, Freya, was a diabetic. 

 

After much reading, I decided to make a homemade diet up for her.  I made this decision because information on the web was contradictory and I was having such a horrible time sorting through the ingredient panels on cans of dog food. 

 

My decision was to adapt one of my favorite recipes called, "French Chicken in a Pot."   The original recipe is fantastic and so good tasting.  I will include the (people's) version in my next blog. 

 

Ok, we're aware I have a weight problem.  Baking chicken for the dogs was torturous to say the least!    Visions of baked chicken breast on crappy, but oh so soft white bread with a heavy hit of Miracle Whip ("A sandwich isn't a sandwich," as we know) with lettuce, salt and pepper!  BUT, back to reality, I

made the chicken recipe...solely for the dogs.

 

So, today as I sit at the table eating a breakfast salad, I'm kind of proud that I didn't succumb to the chickens' temptation.

 

Jo

 

I apologize for not keeping up with my blog entries recently.  We thought that our little Cairn Terrier was dying the week before last.  Our vet heard some fluid in her lungs so, he gave us lasix, but she became even more despondent and weak over the weekend.  We waited for the blood work results. 

 

She already has an enlarged heart and the blood work showed that now she also has diabetes.  Freya will be sixteen years old in April and while that's a good old age for a dog, we would like her to live until fifty or more. 

 

Our dog's rapidly declining health was tough to watch.  Being an emotional eater, I would consciously think about what I was eating, but stopped keeping a food journal--up to and including this week (still have to get back in the swing of things).  It's really difficult trying to become aware of my food intake. 

 

It's even tougher injecting exercise into this sedentary life.  I'm not a go-go kind of person, by nature.  Some good friends of ours are so physically active, it's almost amazing to behold!  They thrive on it and I'm truly in awe of this devotion to motion.  Like someone just beginning on a new musical instrument, I hope that after a while this abhorrence for practice (or in this case, exercise) will magically turn from pain into pleasure.  Maybe someday when I've lost that "magic number" of pounds, I, too, will desire the practice of exercise.  

 

Until then, working on the elliptical pacer, doing yoga or running with odd-looking little MII people in the Land of WII still feels a bit foreign.

 

Jo