Food I can't eat

I have been carefully dieting since Jan. 1st. I have done well, but it's getting old. The longer I go in a dieting cyle, the harder it gets and the slower I lose weight. I am going on my diet break next week for 3 weeks. I am so looking forward to it. The last week has been especially rough. THREE major potlucks at work, a big Relief Society party, just to name a few reasons. Below is the ham and cheese stuffed bread I made for a work pot luck. I heard it was really good. Sigh. I may make one while I am on my break.

 This is the Stromboli bread that Imade for our Relief Society party. it is layered with ham, salami, cheddar and mozzarella cheese and roasted red peppers. Again, I've never made it before and I didn't get a single taste.

 Here is the table laden with food at our Relief Society function. I got to take a picture because I couldn't eat anything.

 This it the beautiful cake that Kristina made for the baby shower we had at work. It has blueberries all over it. I have a piece in the freezer for my break, but again I didn't get any of it. I also made a big batch of spinach and chicken enchiladas for the baby shower. The photo somehow didn't get here. I heard they were really good. I have some of those in the freezer too. Sigh. I can't wait for next week.

Reworked French Onion Soup

Another recipe that I decided to rework for my diet was something that would be reminescent of French Onion Soup. There are a lot of things in French Onion Soup I can't eat when I am dieting, so it bears only a faint resemblance.

In a large soup pot, add 1 cup of beef broth. Slice 2 large sweet onions into rings and add to the pot. Add 4 cloves of minced garlic. Put the lid on the pot and let the onions and garlic cook until very soft. After about 5 minutes, add 4 cups of sliced fresh mushrooms. Mushrooms aren't in french onion soup, but they give it substance without the bread and cheese. Put the lid back on for about another 5 minutes until all the vegetables are soft. Add 1 and 1/2 tsp kosher salt and 1 tsp of pepper or to your taste. Add another 3 cups of beef broth. I measure out my 4 oz of cooked meat (lean chicken, beef or pork ) into my bowl and pour the vegtables and broth over it. If you aren't measuring your meat, I would just add 3 to 4 cups of shredded, cooked lean meat to the soup.

Enjoy!

REWORKED AVGOLEMONO SOUP

I am often on my protein sparing modified fast diet. Whenever I feel like I have gotten a little out of hand, I put myself back on. It's been four years now. I have gotten more creative lately with recipes and trying to adjust things so that I can eat them. I was looking at a recipe for a Greek soup called Avgolemono. I thought well if it weren't for the rice and the oil, I could eat that. So here is my reworked recipe. It's tart, but nice flavors.

Start with:

1 cup of chicken broth in a large soup pot

add one finely diced onion

3 cloves of diced garlic

Cook until soft. I usually put the lid on to promote softening of veggies without adding oil.

While that is cooking, dice 4 cups of fresh spinach.

After the onions are soft (about 5 to 7) minutes, add the spinach. Add another cup of chicken broth. Put the lid back on the pot to steam the spinach.

Take 1/2 c of fresh lemon juice and put in a jar. Add 2 tsp of arrowroot, 1 beaten egg, 1 tsp kosher salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Shake to mix.

After spinach is cooked down, slowly add the lemon juice mixture to the bubbling broth, stirring after each addition. It should thicken. Add 1 tsp dried basil and 1 tsp dried parsley or 1 tablespoon each fresh. I usually end up adding about another cup of chicken broth or whatever is left from what I opened (can or carton).

I measure out my meat, so I put 4 oz of cooked chicken in my soup bowl and then add the hot broth to it. If you aren't measuring your meat, I would add two cooked and shredded chicken breasts to the pot.

Enjoy!

Scottsdale Dog Club Show 2012

I enjoy going to dog shows. Not so much for actually watching and following the competition as just being able to see, pet and enjoy all the beautiful dogs and talking to the owners. I am lucky that my friend Penny enjoys doing it with me. She is quite contect to just wander through and visit as they come. We don't have any agenda of anything we have to see.
The Fiesta Cluster of Dog shows was just over the last 5 days. We made it to one afternoon. There is another big weekend coming up in a month that we hope to see some of too. That one will be on the West side. Here are a few of the sights we saw:
 Always interesting to see the fancy Poodle doos. I actually really like a standard Poodle, but I like the all over even body cut.

They had a booth and display in honor of military working dogs. I have a great amount of admiration and respect for these dogs. They were working on raising money for a monument in Washington for them.

 This Border Collie puppy wasn't in the show. He was just visiting, but awfully cute.

 The Afghn hounds are always really pretty. We happened on to the class and the differences in their coats and coloring were amazing and lovely.

 This wire haired Dachshund was there in support of his friends who were in the show.

 What can you say about an Affenpinscher face?

 Two sibling boy afghans and a female. Look at the differences in coloring.

 One of the gals I work with has two Shiba Inu's. It was fun to see how puppyish they look because of how rounded their coat is. This is a full grown adult. Really pretty dogs and a nice size.

 I had to take a photo of the long haired Dachshund class for my friend Melinda from work who has a few of these guys.

 I love a Clumber Spaniel. Just something about them. They are a large dog in a little body.

 English Setters are another beauty.

 A couple of Standard Schnauzers.

 A Tibetan Spaniel puppy, 6 months old. Another breed I think I would like to own. Adorable dog.

 This Irish Wolfhound was a good backrest. Gentle giants.

 I am not a big fan of these dogs, but they always make interesting photos.

 Minature Bull Terriers. They have the funniest oval heads. Another friend has these guys.

 Irish Terriers. I think they are pretty redheads.

 A Bouvier Des Flanders. A nice looking pile of hair.

 A Briard. This dog one Best of Herding breeds.

 A rough coated Collie

 A Puli. They naturally have dreadlocks and herd sheep in Hungary.

 A Swedish Valhound. A breed new to the AKC and the first time I had seen one in person.

The Best of Herding class.

Keegan laughing

I had this photo right side up, but for some reason if loads this way. I am enjoying having Keegan living with me. And I lvoe this photo of her laughing. It's fun having someone around the house!

Renaissance Festival

Keegan and I went to the Renaissance Festival this week. We were greeted by the King and Queen.

Sung to by several different groups.

Keegan practiced her archery.

We saw baby animals.

Numerous costumed participants.

A bullwhip show, which including setting it on fire and playing the harmonica at the same time.

Dancing girls.

Birds of prey show, including this red tailed hawk and african owl.

Purused the shops.

Watched the games like this king of the log or a pillow fight over straw.

When we were waiting for the jousting to begin this couple gave me a chuckle.

Saw a viking with a mean helment.

Our jousting champion.

We had a Johnny Depp sighting.

Fun day.

Arabian Horse Show 2012

Today Keegan, Penny and I went to the Arabian Horse Show in Scottsdale. I had never been and it was amazing! The horses are so beautiful that they don't look real. It's the largest Arabian Horse Show in the country. It lasts about a week and we only could go the one day, so we couldn't see everything. Still, we got a nice sampling. We enjoyed the filly halter class. The class we saw were all about 9 months old. They were already pretty darn amazing.

The have hunter classes, dressage, western pleasure, reining, arab costume, pleasure driving, trail riding. They just about have it all. This horse was a half arab and had a great sliding stop in the reining class we saw.

This girl was in the 13 and under class.

This girl is all decked out in her show finery.

This little girl was in costume for some little kid class.

I loooved watching the pleasure driving class. There were only 4 entries, but they were beautiful. I will post a video clip later.

There were amazing things for sale. These show shirts ran around 3200$. I bought a T shirt that wasn't anywhere near that range. It also had a lot less bling.

There were even mirrors and saddles with bling. The ties in the back have bling on them. This both was called bling tie affair.

This horse won the driving class.

Beautiful.

This filly almost didn't seem real even when we were standing next to it. She was just so beautiful.

Lots of pretty girls.

Then the colts came in.

We saw a very small amount of the junior costume class.

 I would definately go again. It was a really fun time.