blog-misc.

Read Donielle’s post below about our fun night out with local West Michigan bloggers.  Some of us were Real Foodie Bloggers, some were Mommy Bloggers, and all were so fun to get to know! 

One thing I’d like to add to Donielle’s post…look what Katie brought me:

Since the day she tweeted her explosive starter picture I’ve been dying for some of that stuff…let’s see how long ‘til I can kill this one, ya wanna?

Here’s the post to read all about it and see more pictures:

West Michigan Local Bloggers Night Out!

Thanks, Donielle!

• By the way, are YOU a West Michigan blogger? Contact one of us so we can include you next time we get together!
• Read more about how I started this blog and other boring stuff that’s sure to put you to sleep.

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A lot of my friends have been a great help with my blogging escapades.  Either with recipes they’ve shared or with all sorts of helpful advice, and I’m thankful to each of them.  But Jeanne & Sonia have been over the top.  They’ve both done research in their own kitchens to help me figure things out; they’ve sent tons of recipes my way; they’ve given me new post ideas and helped me find ways to make my site better; Sonia has even taken pictures of her creations and emailed them to me with her recipe!

THANK YOU!

So last week I took them out to our favorite restaurant for dinner as a way to say thank you for all this and more.  Even at dinner, they were brainstorming with me for ways I could make my blog better, and I don’t think they were just being polite, either!

At that link above, you can also see pictures of our cute little town, which is just down the hill from where we live.  We’re so blessed to live in such an amazing community of people who really look out for each other.  Especially right here in our neighborhood, where Jeanne & Sonia also live.  (And lots more of our friends that you’ve heard me mention here on the blog before.)

The best thing about Reds is the S L O W food.

Slow in two ways actually.  ‘Slow’ as in everything is made from scratch and Chef Glenn knows how to make Real Food. And also ‘slow’ as in how it’s served.  We were there for three and a half hours.  It was a fun and relaxing dinner.

HERE ARE PICTURES OF SOME OF OUR AMAZING FOOD: (The pics aren’t great due to the low-lighting…)

Crème Brule deserves to go first since it’s my favorite!

Top left is a unique bruschetta appetizer that we all loved; top right is another delicious salad; bottom left is my “old-standby”:  “London Broil” – man do I love that dish with its rich veal reduction sauce; bottom right is a lemon dessert with a little shortbread and I think that was a lemon sherbet on top – so full of yummy flavor.  Sonia & Jeanne, please add any details that you’d like, because two weeks is a long time for my brain to remember much.

Thank you Jeanne & Sonia!

• Have you seen this list of healthy restaurants in your area?
• More about Reds & Chef Glenn’s cooking
  

Go see what else is going on over at Real Food Wednesday today! (At Ann Marie’s blog this week.)

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While I normally stick to the topic of health and nutrition around here, now and then I might change things up a touch.  Since I’ve always been open with you on the details of my blog, I thought the following personal story might be good enough reason to deviate today.

At the risk of boring you with the details, I’m going to tell you the whole story, because first of all it will give you a good idea of why there are certain parts of managing a blog that I detest (I just want to do the part that I love: writing posts and interacting with all of you!); and also it will help you understand why I am so thankful for the help God brought to me.

Let me start by telling you about my recent technical dilemma.

Believe me, there’s always something going on with the back-end of my blog that I have no idea how to fix, or how to create what I need, or whatever the problem may be.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve cried out, “Lord!  I don’t know what I am doing, I need you to help me to figure this out!”  He always comes through.  Sometimes I’ll find what I need when Googling.  Other times Ann Marie or my computer guy ($60/hour) will fix something for me.  This time it was different.

I’d been struggling for months trying to figure out how to get a slideshow onto my homepage so I could draw attention to the items on my resources page.  The first problem was that I had no decent software to do something as basic as getting text onto a picture.  Once I finally bought the $60 software, then I had to find the time to figure out how to use it.  Next I had to search out various ways of adding a slideshow to my site.  (Not to whine too much, but keep in mind that just getting posts written is tricky enough, let alone getting to projects like this.  For those who are less technically challenged it would take minutes compared to the months it takes for me to figure it out!)  So then I’d find a site to make slideshows and mess with it for an hour, and then realize it didn’t work for various reasons.  Finally I got a Flickr slideshow up on my site but it looked like crap and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to make it do a continuous loop.  That was a couple weeks ago and at that point I had to let it go for a while, with other more pressing things I needed to get to on the blog and around the house.

Then I got an email from Gregg & Hallee that blew me away.

Gregg and Hallee live in Kentucky.  He emailed me a week ago and said that after reading my “Bye Bye Google Ads” post, they felt moved to help me because, “You’re not compromising your integrity or your convictions for the sake of 30 pieces of silver.” (A biblical reference for those that may not know.)  He said, “I have quite a bit of expertise in the technical arena.  If there is any technical advice or expertise that I can offer that will assist you in your ministry, please let me know.  My time is limited as I am working a 60+ hour week in Afghanistan, but I give you my word that I will do my very best to make time for you.”

This made me cry with gratefulness to God for the kindness of strangers.

I knew right away what I’d ask for his help with, and within a couple days, he made a great looking slideshow for my site (which you see above), one that LOOPED with no problems, and when he sent it to me, he even made it super simple for this non-techy to install it!

As a way to thank them I want to introduce you to Hallee’s fairly new blog!

• Right now she’s running a great giveaway for a Christmas baking collection.  (Don’t you love her site design?)  It ends on Monday, though, so be sure to go sign up before then.
• Also, here is a list of posts she’s written called, Surviving Separation.  As you’ll read, Gregg is stationed in Afghanistan and won’t be home until the spring.  These posts are especially meaningful to me because when Kent was in the Marines, we were separated for eight months during the first Gulf War in 1991.  It was a difficult time for sure, but God, along with our supportive family and friends helped us through.  It seems like a lifetime ago now.  I was thinking of attaching a picture, but dang, none of them from back then are in digital form so I guess not!  (Yes, I know I could scan them, but I don’t feel like it, and besides, I had mullet hair back then.  I actually thought it was pretty cute at the time, ha!)

This Christmas season, let my little story bring you peace in knowing that there are many many good people in the world, and I know without a doubt that their number is FAR greater than those who would do us harm.

Thank you Gregg & Hallee!  And thank the Lord for bringing them to me!

Do you have any stories of kindness that you’d like to share with us? If someone is having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year for whatever reason, these stories could help them, so please share!

Merry Christmas reader friends!

• Here’s what we’ll all want soon: A list of posts all about DIETING!
• Need some FRUGAL MEAL IDEAS?
• TOP 20 LIST OF BOOKS MY READERS BUY
• Part of Things I Love Thursday & Finer Things Friday
  

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Readers, I’m going bare-bones honest today.

Last week Ann Marie & I had a disagreement.  (Nothing angry or anything, we’re friends and wouldn’t do that, but a friendly disagreement.)  She decided to take down her Google Ads because of an increasing feeling that running them equaled a lack of integrity due to our inability to control what shows up.  (The ads are automatically keyword generated.)  I disagreed.  I felt that while Google Ads are certainly not ideal, they don’t reflect my integrity, but instead are just an annoying necessity (and I’d have to continue to block the ones that are gross or conflict with my content) until my blog income from other sources grew enough that I could get rid of them.

I asked Kent for his opinion.

“Those ads do bug me.  Sometimes there’s an ad on your site for the very thing you’re slamming in your post.  Why don’t you take them off and give it 3 months and see what happens.” It was a difficult decision since the majority of my current blog income is from Google ads (and Christmas is coming!), but I decided to take Ann Marie & Kent’s advice.

Then Ann Marie got an email from a reader in Ohio.

Turns out we had Google Ads running encouraging readers to vote yes on issue 2!  We had no idea because those ads were geo-targeted to Ohio readers only.  I felt sick to think that my blog could have persuaded someone to vote yes on this issue that needs to be defeated in Ohio on Tuesday!  This turned out to be an amazing sign from God that those Google ads DO have to come down and stay down.  Ann Marie was right.

Now what?

Now I’m trusting God that He’ll continue to direct me in the way I should go.  As I said in this Blog FAQ post, I didn’t begin blogging to make money.  It’s still not my primary motivation – I do it because I love it and because I love the chance to help others become healthier in any small way I can.  But it soon became a full time job and then some (and I’m no longer doing day care).  Not just kicking out posts, but also keeping up on emails, comments, social media (Twitter & FB are a necessity) and the constant new updates or technical problems that come along.  My readership is growing, but the blog income at this point only covers what I need to pay out for help with the never-ending technical issues or maintenance costs.

It will all work out!

Ann Marie always pumps me up and reminds me that we’re doing something very good here, and that eventually it will work out so that we can justify all these hours (50+/week), and I hope she’s right.  If not, I’ll need to make some tough decisions and accept that my blog is only a hobby and significantly cut the hours I put into it.  (And then go get a new job.)  It takes my breath away to think of this, because I love it so much and really feel like this is what I’m supposed to do.  For now I’ll continue to follow God’s lead.  Do me a favor and shoot up a prayer…ask Him to give me wisdom!

Still here?

If you’re still reading, you may be one of my faithful readers, and I appreciate you so much.  If you do feel that you benefit somehow from this blog, here is how you could help:

1. Visit my sponsors at this Resources page.

2. Shop at AMAZON through this link (prices are the same for you).

3. Buy the new Kitchen Kop REAL FOOD INGREDIENT GUIDE!

4. Where to buy items I recommend that are not on my resources page.

5. Leave a tip now and then if you are able. Button and more info below. Thank you!

Times are tough for many of you and if you are unable to do this, no worries.  Send up a prayer for me instead, OK? 

• More random information about the blog.
• Do you have a question about health or nutrition (or about the blog?), go on, ask me, I dare ya!
• Have you been able to implement many of these Rookie Tips yet?

Photo credit, part of Works for Me Wednesday

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Our Trip to California:

• Part 1 – Our son’s dream come true
• Part 2 – Meeting Ronaldinho & Marta – soccer superstars!
• Part 3 (coming soon) – My fitness evaluation and a 10-minute workout (Hint: I was not happy with my results.  Also, a way to lose 10 pounds instantly – sounds hokey but it’s true!)
• Part 4 (coming soon) – Do you take supplements as an “insurance policy”?

NOTE: As I mentioned last time, part 1 & Part 2 don’t relate directly to Health & Nutrition, but they do relate to this blog and they also give you the back-story for parts 3 & 4, so I hope you don’t mind me sharing it all with you!

In part 1 I promised to tell you more about meeting Marta during our morning visit at the Nutrilite facility – Kal tells me she’s the best women’s soccer player in the world, and she plays on the team, L.A. Sol.  (Nutrilite sponsors her along with AC Milan.) The bloggers each had a chance to sit down with her for a short time and through a translator I asked a few quick questions:

• What was your favorite food growing up as a child? Rice and beans.
• What is your favorite *healthy* food now? I like to cook for myself when at home and I make traditional Brazilian foods like beans, salad and chicken.
• What is your favorite “junk food”? French Fries. (I asked her if she liked chocolate and she said she doesn’t like sweets, but “a little is OK”!  She’s so tiny, I guess I’ll eat a little less chocolate and a few more beans…)

Read what Jordan, a 15 year old blogger who we met that day, had to say about meeting Marta:

“Marta, the world’s best women’s soccer player, came and spoke about Nutrilite. I actually got to sit down with her, one on one, and ask her a question. I asked her, “what she does physically, mentally, or emotionally before or after a game that separates her from all of the other players?” She started to tear up a bit and said that “she prays and that she thinks about how far she has come as a soccer player and that she has been doing her best all of her life and she wants to keep doing her best.” She seemed like a great and emotional person.” (Jordan’s entire post is here.)

Kal was pinching himself!

Get this:  next they took us to the Ritz Carlton hotel in Marina Del Ray to meet the players of the AC Milan soccer team!  Yes, this includes Ronaldinho!!!

First we waited in a room across the hall from where they were finishing their lunch.  I was so excited and caught up in the moment, even though a few days prior I had never heard of Ronaldinho or AC Milan!  Kal had, though, that’s for sure, he’s been a huge soccer fan for years.  He’s had the soccer jerseys and soccer screen savers, and all the stuff kids love, so he couldn’t even believe where he was.  They gave us jerseys and a ball to have signed – so fun!  Here’s a picture of Ronaldinho signing Kal’s jersey.

More pics with a couple of the players (the lighting was not so good):

Later we went to the Home Depot Center to watch the game between AC Milan and L.A. Galaxy in Nutrilite’s suite where they continued to treat us very well.  This was the game that they were talking about on the news all last week – the one when the L.A. fans were booing their own player, David Beckham, whenever he’d go near the ball.  Not a little, either, they were booing very loudly, it was quite a scene.  I thought it was a bit harsh, but Kal & others nearby thought that he just might have deserved it.

What an amazing day, and a birthday gift that Kal will never forget.

Couldn’t care less about soccer?  Maybe you haven’t seen these posts…

• 5 ways all big life changes are the same
• Have you heard the benefits of coconut oil in your diet?
• Fast Food Dangers and Our Version of Fast Food These Days
• Healthy Snack Ideas

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Our Trip to California:

• Part 1 – Our son’s dream come true
• Part 2 – Meeting Ronaldinho & Marta – soccer superstars!
• Part 3 (coming soon) – My fitness evaluation and a 10-minute workout (Hint: I was not happy with my results.  Also, a way to lose 10 pounds instantly – sounds hokey but it’s true!)
• Part 4 – Do you take supplements as an “insurance policy”?

NOTE: Part 1 & Part 2 don’t relate directly to Health & Nutrition, but they do relate to this blog and they also give you the back-story for parts 3 & 4, so I hope you don’t mind me sharing it all with you!

COME BACK TOMORROW! I’M DOING AN EXTRA POST TOMORROW (SATURDAY) TO ANNOUNCE A NEW GIVEAWAY, PLEASE CHECK BACK IN THE MORNING!!

Life sure is crazy sometimes.

Who would have thought that writing this blog could bring about something as cool as what I’m going to tell you (and show you with a lot of pictures we took).  Due to the nature of my blog, and my strong opinions against processed foods (sadly, this is where most of the money is), the chances that opportunities like this will come around very often are slim.  Farmers don’t have big budgets, and I’m OK with that – telling you about real, traditional foods and getting the truth out about what really makes us healthy is what’s important.  But still, this was really fun…

The way it all worked out was a gift from God, no doubt.

I was asked to come to California to visit the Nutrilite (Amway) supplement facility in Long Beach.  (Although I believe much more in nutritious foods to keep us healthy, we do take supplements as an “insurance policy”, so this wasn’t a stretch for me.)  They also happen to sponsor AC Milan, a professional Italian soccer team, and they’d be taking us to meet the team (!!!) and to see the game against L.A. Galaxy (David Beckham) as well.

All this was to happen on our son’s 17th birthday…

There was no way I could accept the invitation and do all that without him, on his birthday, especially when he’s such a huge soccer fan.  I’m sure they don’t get asked this very often, but I took a leap, explained the situation, and asked if he could come along.  When they said yes (at 11:00 am on Friday, just a few hours before we would leave), he was geeked!  (Thank you, Nutrilite!)

No more complaints!

Of course I used this opportunity to let him know that he could never again complain about what he calls our “health food”!  (Although not many kids get things like ice cream for breakfast now and then, and all the butter on their sourdough toast as they’d like, so he really shouldn’t complain about not getting his beloved Poptarts and boxed cereal anyway!)

Breaking my own rule

Note: I’m breaking my ‘no-pictures-of-our-kids-on-the-blog’ rule for this post, and our son, Kal, gave me his permission.

Our trip begins…

We left early Saturday morning and got to California about 11:00 a.m., when “our driver” took us to our hotel in Long Beach.  Here are some pics of our super fun hotel that was just renovated with a beautiful, tropical look.

A magazine in the hotel featured the owner and had this to say, “Hotel Maya is being called Long Beach’s most exotic boutique hotel.  (It’s inspirations were Fast Company-meets-Coastal Living.  Words to describe the hotel are creative, active, relaxed, escapist and connected.)  A lively restaurant called Fuego features an expansive outdoor patio with views of the adjacent marina and downtown Long Beach.”

We had some tasty Mexican food on the patio for lunch.  Look at this cute “guacamole trio” (delicious, although they all tasted pretty much the same to me), we also had some tasty steak tacos, along with a little Sangria for Mom.

Then we took the water taxi over to get some chocolate and wander around Long Beach in these waterfront shops.

Here are pictures of the neat hotel pool with a view of downtown Long Beach – I loved the whispy curtains around the private sunbathing areas, which were right by the poolside bar!  (Note to self:  come back with Kent someday…)

Ann Marie was sweet enough to come down from L.A. to take us out for sushi!  It was our first time and I never knew that “sushi” actually doesn’t mean “raw fish”, although you can get it with raw fish, which we did, and we both loved it!  Sushi is basically little rice rolls with all different options for inside:  raw or cooked fish, little pieces of vegetables, different sauces, etc.  Ours had a crunchy outside, raw fish, a piece of asparagus, and the tastiest sauces you could imagine.  The other ones we tried had crab inside.  Then you dip them in a little soy sauce and Mmmmm.

Ann Marie then ordered a few more adventurous things for us to try – one of which was eel, which I found disgusting!  They remind me of snakes so I only took a bite because Ann Marie said I had to – they had too strong a fish taste for me, even with the good sauce that it came with (Kal liked it).  We also got some foie gras so Kal could try it, but it was no where near as good as what Ann Marie & I had at Grace restaurant when I visited her in April (if you don’t have a clue what that is or how to say it, like I didn’t before April, read about it at that link).  Kal & I were brave and each tried some of everything, but we were all over the sushi.  She said, “Sushi rolls are the grilled cheese of sushi…”  We didn’t care, and we both want more – hopefully they’re as good in Grand Rapids!  Sadly, despite Ann Marie’s valiant efforts, I never did pick up a piece of anything with my chopsticks.  (I just didn’t care enough when I had perfectly willing fingers to do the job.)

Kal still couldn’t believe he was really in California, and that the next day he was going to meet his soccer heroes.  He asked me, “Mom, how do we make it all seem like it’s really real?”  I could only suggest that he thank God for such a gift. On Sunday morning we went to 6:30 mass at this beautiful church in Long Beach.

Next we met some very nice people from Nutrilite (most of whom lived near us, where Amway is headquartered), and some other bloggers as well, when we all went to the Center for Optimal Health where their supplements are manufactured.  They asked us to line up for a group picture, and that’s where I had my first experience with the “paparazzi”, a small one, but still…if they were going crazy taking so many pictures of a few bloggers, I can’t imagine what they do when movie stars show up.  I’m not sure why they wanted so many pictures of us (this guy’s camera was going non-stop, along with a video guy, sound guy, their producer, another camera man…), talk about being out of my comfort zone.  So I just did as my Mom always taught me to do when I was in uncomfortable situations:  “smile and be nice to everyone.”

For the morning we listened to a few short presentations (which I’ll tell you about in parts 3 and 4), and even got to meet Marta, the best women’s soccer player in the world! Next we had some lunch and headed to Kal’s favorite part of the weekend…

…to be continued in part 2:  meeting Ronaldinho & Marta!

• Go on, ask me, I dare ya!
• Suffering from Digestive Problems?
• FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS BLOG
• Alzheimer’s Disease & Coconut Oil?

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I purposefully didn’t make this picture bigger, because it doesn’t look anywhere near as good as it tasted!  (I’m actually getting better at taking food pics…but you can’t tell that here.)

We had leftover grass-fed beef & vegetable soup the other day, and I knew soup wouldn’t fly two nights in a row with the fam, so here’s what I did (I used to love it when my Mom made this, and it’s so easy):

Homemade Beef Pot Pie Recipe or Homemade Chicken Pot Pie Recipe – use whatever kind of soup you have leftover…

• I didn’t have quite enough leftover soup for this recipe (to fill a 9×13 pan), so I added more organic beef broth from the store to my homemade stock already in the soup.  Then just taste-test as you add sea salt & pepper, along with other seasonings such as garlic or whatever you’d like, until you get the taste just right.  I also added some frozen corn and peas because I love that in pot pie, and my family eats those well.
• Thicken the soup however you choose:  a homemade corn starch mixture (use organic to avoid GMOs), an arrowroot mixture (for those avoiding gluten), a sprouted flour (to avoid phytic acid and refined flours) (More about sprouted whole grain flour), or a regular flour mixture if that’s what you have.  For all of these you add very cold water and whisk well until you have a smooth, thick consistency.  (Amounts depend on how much soup you have.  For a whole pot full, I use about 2/3 of a soup bowl of thickening.  Not very exact, sorry.  Start with less, you can always quickly make more.)  Slowly pour into boiling soup while stirring.  (Chef Glenn at Reds says that the key to avoiding lumps is to have your thickening very cold and your soup very hot.  Sometimes this works for me, sometimes it doesn’t – do you have any more tips for avoiding lumps in your gravy or thickened sauces?)
• Once it’s as thick as you’d like it, pour it into a buttered 9×13.
• Top with Homemade biscuits – I made these with the buttermilk variation and they were delicious – so light and flaky!
• (You could freeze it at this point to defrost and bake later for a quick dinner!)
• Bake until biscuits are golden brown – about 15-20 minutes on 350*.
• Serve with the stew mixture spooned over top of the biscuits.
• This is similar to a stove-top version I’ve posted before, Pork Ala King.

Let me know if you try it! 

This post is part of Things I love Thursday & Real Food Wednesday – go there to add YOUR post about Real Food!

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I’ve got all SORTS of good stuff for you today…but have to warn you, I’m ALL over the place.  I hope you don’t mind.  Anytime I find something cool, I want to tell you about it!

• I had a couple requests last week from new bloggers, asking if I could answer blogging questions and help them with some beginners advice, so I decided to add on to my consulting page.  I’d like to do it all for free, and most advice will still be just that, but I need to be careful with how much I take on.  If you’d like some one-on-one detailed help on blogging, on feeding your family healthy meals, or anything else, let me know!
• Watch this interesting 9 minute video and read Kimberly’s post, Does the U.S. Cancer Industry Really Want to Find a Cure?
  • “Oncologists can only do what the government allows them to do.”
  • “Alternative therapies for cancer shouldn’t be ignored, just because they are unpatentable.”

Just to be clear:  if Kent, myself, or one of our kids was diagnosed with cancer, I don’t have a clue what we would do.  Even if we wanted to look into alternative therapies, who knows if we could even afford it since insurance doesn’t cover most of them.  Obviously, this has to be an individual decision depending on each unique situation, and it all needs to be flooded in prayer.  I only put up this link today to show you that there are other options than the traditional ones when faced with a scary diagnosis.  (Have you seen my breast cancer post?)  Let me know what you think of this!

• Check out this useful post from Jenny at Nourished Kitchen – she lists various types of foods and tells which are good, better & best – traditional foods for every budget.
• Moms with young children, you’ll love this post from Kimi, full of great tips about cooking healthy meals with little ones nearby!
• Lastly, this post from Ann Marie tells you about the upcoming No GMO Challenge!  She’s kicking it off this week at the Real Food Wednesday blog carnival, where we hope you’ll also join in with your posts about anything related to Real Food! 

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I have all sorts of little things to share with you, so hang on, here we go………

• Here’s my main post for today, be sure to check out these stories telling how various readers have gotten past the “low fat mentality”.  (Responses from Nina Planck, Sally Fallon & more!)
• I also start answering Random Reader Questions from my “Go on, ask me, I dare ya” post where I opened it up to questions you might have.  The first one is from a reader asking about using coconut oil to treat LICE…
• Read why Cheeseslave has decided to change the Real Food Wednesday topic this week.  I hope you’ll join in!

• I caught another awesome shot out our slider one morning last week and I looooove sharing these cool pics, but not on my health & nutrition blog so much, so I posted it at my other blog.  Go take a look if you don’t have anything else to do.

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