Whole wheat zucchini bread with honey and friendship

It's so nice to cook with a friend.

Whole wheat zucchini bread with honey and only 190 cal ( 5 PPV)

My friend Ann has the most amazing vegetable garden.  Her veggie patch is such sun kissed that my shade shy one  is kind of jealous.  More so,  because I am thinking that  next year I might do volunteer gardening in her soil with my favorites  veggies like the Persian cucumber and Thai chillies.

Ann had a back surgery recently so I help her with the harvesting part where you have to bend down; and what enormous jewels do I find.  There are so many zucchinies that we could feed the whole neighborhood, except that  theses neighbors are also blessed or overwhelmed with their own crops now.

So,  we decided to make some zucchini bread.  We made three loaves that have 36 servings!

The best part was the time spent together while the bread was cooking in the oven.  We shared stories from our past and plotted ideas for future projects while totally being in the present...the sweet aroma of the goody cooking there, did not let us forget that.

I learned how you can dry things without using a drainer board that eats up space on your counter top and this little shelf has  dual purpose to hold things when not on duty to dry things. Isn't that cool and green?

And you may use zip loc bags instead of buying containers to hold your packet of flour or crackers.  The zip loc bag can help if the paper flour bag gets a hole, it  protects  from bugs and  it lets you see clearly what's inside and it is always there in your kitchen.

Now our yummy treat...MMM. and just 5 PPV - totally worth it.  This is what I ate this morning for breakfast  with a glass of milk and half a banana and felt no guilt  at all.

Happiness is..? And the answer is...

When you open your mail box

 

 and inside you find a nice thick packet

 you open it and inside that you find a fine a little card with lots of scribbles from your three year old grand daughter and

some YUMMY COOKIES.
You munch on them looking at the picture your grand daughter sent you

 and come to know from another little note ( that her mommy wrote)  that these yummy goodies are only 1 1/2 PPV( Weight Watcher Point )

And then what do you do?

You  tell the whole world how happy you feel!

Teaching ESL I mean English to Students from Italy

I had a fun day today teaching English ( American) to a bunch of teenager students from Italy who came to USA in Saint Mary's College   to study American culture and language .  They will be here in the San Francisco Bay area for only two weeks this summer.  Every morning they will come to the class and then  go to visit celebrated places in  the San Francisco  area.

As a non native English speaker I was going back to those early days down the memory lane  when I could not explain all that was swimming in my head.  My tongue was not ready.

 The same thing is happening with these kids and sometimes  interesting even hilarious things are cropping up.  For example, I asked some one- " Is she taking a break?"- showing the picture of a lady who was sitting on a bench , kind of in a relaxed mood with a Starbuck coffee in her hand

 One of my student replied  with her brows crossed -" Break?  No she is no break... fine , she is not taking any break.  She is all whole".

They are a cute bunch of kids and I am looking forward for what happens tomorrow.

Bead Soup Packet

My Bead soup packet arrived today.  What a surprise in the mail box !  These days the mail box is not that exciting for me, most of the exciting news come in e mail form or at the face book page.  But today it was different.

My bead soup partner Debbie Davis sent me such cool things that I can hardly wait to play with them.

Oh, the clasp is so pretty and here is the focal

Deb also sent me the most beautiful green agate beads, and a string of heishi beads that will be very useful too.

There are some pretty brass findings too.  Now the colors of the green beads are so pretty,( my photos have not done the right justice to them)  I am feeling like going shopping and getting  a blouse to go with that green , or may be many colors will go with it.  But I just love that lime green for these summer days.

Thank you thank you thank you Deb, I am very happy for what you have sent. 

I am going to talk about what I had sent to her in my next post.  Now let's relish this soup.

 You may wonder what this bead soup thing is?  Well it was started and is  organized by an amazing jewelry artist named Lori Anderson.  Visit her blog because you'll be refreshed.  Any way, this is the 6th Bead soup party where more than three hundred jewelry artists all over the world are taking part.  Each one is matched with a partner.  I did not know my partner Deb Davis before and what a pleasant surprise knowing her and her amazing work.

Deb sent me some beads and I did to her  and now our challenge is to make something with them and then reveal them in our future blogs.  Our revealing day is August 11th 2012.

It is a lot of fun indeed and I give my heart felt thanks to Lori for coming up with this unique Bead Soup  idea and taking the trouble of organizing this massive project.

Wire work Pendant 
Today I created a new wire work pendant.

  I was so excited to get this tutorial from a very talented wire artist Donna Spadafore, or Gailavira.- Check out her awesome tutorials if you are interested to be wired up.  I mean literally, you may get all wired up, ...this is quite  some addiction.

 After I bought them and  printed out the tutorials, it was past midnight and I could hardly sleep,   I was just waiting for the morning.

 I know it is frustrating when things do not  happen the way it should happen, the wires to behave , or my wrist to turn the way it must,  yet there is fun...huge fun... like we had had  when we were little making sculptures.

I fiddled with it for a long time and finally  here is one of my  finished products.

Some of them may go to my Etsy store soon.  And that's  another" tomorrow's project".

I wrapped some coins too.

 Which ones can you identify?  They are from different parts of the world.  I am going to reveal the answers soon.

My Bead Soup Partner

I came to know my Bead Soup partner, Debbie Davis  from her blog and her wonderful work from her etsy shop.

I am so excited to be part of this Bead Soup Party.  This is my third time and each time I came to know such wonderful artists through this blog hopping.

I wrote to Deb that I'll find some thing that'll go with her style.  She reminded me - are n't we supposed to think out of the box?  .venture out of our known territory!  That's right.

Here is one of her awesome  art.

So this evening ( well it's past 10:10pm now) I am into finding what can I give her...  I am supposed to send her a cool clasp and a nice focal bead.  Then there are other beads and findings to go  as side dishes

Nope, I am not going to show you.  Deb should get it first... But do come back after July 2nd , we should both get our packets  by then.

And we are both going to show off our finished product by August 11, 2012.

Lori, our leader, who  takes all the trouble to co ordinate this humongous project with three hundred- plus blog- hopping- jewelry artists all over the world,  gave a great idea today.  It  is how to get rid of the CAPTCHA monster from your blog.  And I did it finally.  Thank you Lori.

 Now you don't have to prove that you are not a dumb robot any more to leave a comment in my blog:).

Weight Watcher Wisdom

 Wednesday, April 25, 2012

What Weight Watching wisdom did I gain today?

Yeh! I dropped 3.3lbs in a week!

For my birthday, my gift to myself was a membership in Weight Watcher.  I also presented myself a book named FRUITS and VEGETABLES A- Z. 

  And yes, I did try two recipes from this book. The mushroom muffin pizza  turned out really nice.

Muffin Pizza with Mozzarella and Mushrooms

It was a challenging week for me because number one, it was my birthday and the food in Benehana with all the juggling of the Japanese chef was so fabulous … but hey, how many Points Plus?

The next day I had  a craft show,  All day I was kind of starved with only a couple of granola bars and string cheese sticks, so at the end when I reached home, I was feeling like I could eat the whole house,  I was so famished.

But then there were four days left to straighten up and be sober.

What I learned this week is the value of awareness.  I was aware seeing what is going in my body and documenting it, even though I was 12 points over…I still lost 3 lbs in a week!

I was aware that late afternoons are my week points.  I found one solution –  a latte with fat free milk.  The shot of caffeine and the goodness of milk just can pick me up.

Today in our meeting the topic was – accepting and being nice to myself.  There are times when I’ll fall off the wagon.  I do feel “What the heck”…and grab another chocolate chip cookie, another Hershie bar.

That is when it is important to be loving to yourself, not criticizing.  How would you nourish yourself?  plan ahead, and if you fall, dust off and move on, not quit .

We talked about stressful situations.  My stressful situations regarding food are-

Entertaining guests.  You want to give them good, tasty food, show off your culinary expertise and they are not necessarily low fat ones

Answer – have a bowl of fresh veggies and a great dip with yogurt.

Have a bowl of colorful fruit salad.

Being a guest – when you don’t have much control what is being served.

Answers:

* Plan ahead and budget 15 or 20 points for that.  Spread the whole day with that plan. 

*Incorporate exercise points to buy some extra calories!

*Use the 3 fork bite rule.  Remember the 1^st bite is for tasting, 2^nd one for savoring, third one,  judging. Is it worth continuing with  more bites if you have to sit down and count the point value?  Possibly not.  Brain wash yourself if in doubt :)

The quote of the day:

Food can make our taste buds happy

It can not make us happy

Food can distract us from our pain

It can not take away our pain.

-        Author unknown.

I was asked – what is my strategy for next week?

It is not to miss a single meeting and I’ll share what I learn  in my weekly Wednesday blog.  I commit.  Next week I’ll not be able to attend on Wednesday, but I’ll go to the meeting  on Saturday. But do come on  Wednesday for this blog …there will be something regarding this topic.  And I’ll be so happy if you comment and put your input too.

Do drop by if you are in the same boat making the same journey.  We can’t do it alone, my friend.

By the way – You may like to read a related blog : TheHealing Apatite- the story about Anjuli.