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westerhos · 4 years

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Our Story: Chapter 7

Hi friends! Sorry for the delay here. I’ve been on vacation, so my priorities have been boozin’ and cruisin’. Thanks for your continued support of this story—I love hearing your feedback. This one’s a whopper of a chapter!

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We often lose track of time in this great, big world of ours, in much the same way we lose a pair of keys, a couple of pens. “I swear I saw them two seconds ago!” we groan, groping to purse-bottoms, finding only lint and chump-change. So many things—these small facets of our lives—sucked into the void of bygones, taken before we can ever think to tie them down.

“I swear I was twenty-two just yesterday.”

This is how it is for Jamie and Claire, their years like old playbills confiscated by the wind and an invisible clock. Certain acts reappear from time to time, when the arm of a broom sweeps them into the light, when the frosting of dust disturbs, then floats. And for a brief moment, as the particles of time and forget resettle themselves, Jamie and Claire can hear their lives’ most glorious crescendos. The lowest notes tip-toe from the long-kept silence, rising and sinking slowly, steadily. All plucked strings, still vibrating, until the echoes die, cradling the past.

You can write an entire story with these bits and pieces of their lives, cut the acts together to form one winding opera. It plays and stops until, eventually, the grand finale. The overlap: a perfect harmony which carries them from their separate wings, to center stage and to each other.

And it is there, finally, that they meet again, lips and lives melding. They stand together in the orb of the spotlight. A single sun, glowing.

THE SPIRIT IN THE HORSE, 2000

Starring James Fraser, Jenny Fraser, Brian Fraser, The Doctor, Ellen Fraser, Fitzy (and a More-Than-Flash of Someone Else)

Though a bestselling author, JAMES FRASER did not grow up with dreams of books, but of horses.

He was born on an unusually hot day, spring 1968. Everything melting at its very seams, the birthing room’s thermometer feverish with mercury blood. His father and sister had fashioned fans from intake forms, moving heat-murk and birth-stink with the accordioned papers. They looked on with damp foreheads, lips white and tight, so that Ellen could have the breaths they saved.

At half-past noon, the doctor had caught Jamie’s auburn crown, dripping more heavily than his own laboring mother. All of this—the heat, the sweat, the waving forms—was taken as the stamp of Jamie’s fate. Surely, they had all agreed, he would set the world on fire, would be a brand forever puckering its skin.

The hibernators had emerged early that year, scurrying from their earthen wombs just as Jamie had slipped from his mother’s. Heat-drunk and dizzied, they had eaten everything in sight. Corn stalks, cabbage leaves, whole fields of barley—gone. Even Ellen’s strawberries, barely ripened—devoured by mid-April. The red fruits had shrunk to halves, then thirds, as the creatures munched and munched. Fleshy hearts eaten to bleeding, the pulp left to the sleepy stragglers.

And so on the day Jamie entered the world, the Frasers had returned to a dark and stifling house. Rot wafted from the windows, and the electrical wires were chewed cleanly through. One rabbit, the chosen martyr, had laid cooked in the grass, fur spiked.

Brian had thrust Jamie into his daughter’s arms, ran inside to rescue what unspoiled food he could (three eggs, a loaf of bread). Waiting in the yard, Jenny had imagined the wilting lettuce inside the fridge and Ellen, equally wilted under the blue hospital sheet. She had watched a squirrel leap across the berry guts, a rope of black wire between his paws.

How—if at all, she had wondered—would they survive without her mother?

Too exhausted for a trip to the store, Brian had fried the eggs on the driveway. The yolk was thick in his mouth and the sorrow thicker in his chest, before he realized Jamie’s cries had quieted. He started when he heard the horse’s whinny, the snorty exhale through its nostrils. Beside him, Jenny had scuttled away, feet scraping at the egg crusts.

Incensed by the heat and the crowd, Fitzy the horse had stormed her stable doors to freedom. She had brayed, desolate to find her owner gone, until she spotted the flame in Brian’s arms. Copper, auburn, cinnabar—all Ellen’s colors—poking from a swaddle of blue. And so Fitzy had bowed her head, brought Jamie into her awed silence. One shining moment, the first since Ellen’s passing—calm and peaceful.

Even now, 32 years later, Jamie loves to tell this story. How Brian had pressed his baby fist to the mane, his mother still a stickiness on his baby thumb. And how, as a young boy, Jamie had thought Ellen lived somewhere inside auld Fitzy. Something in the black bead of the mare’s eye: a flash, a peculiar spark. It was an acknowledgement that, until one night in 1989, Jamie had never felt before.

After his book tour in ’99, Jamie Fraser decided to take the leap—carpe diem—and purchase his own horse and his own land (fields way out in the Highlands; a farmhouse converted to splendor by his millions). The horse, like Fitzy, wears a chestnut coat. She is stubborn but loving, recognizes Jamie’s voice when he calls and his face when it floats above her stable door. He sees a flash of Fitzy—and of his mother, he thinks—when she surrenders her anger to Jamie’s flags of truce: a fresh Granny Smith, a carrot stick plucked from the ground. He sees a More-Than-Flash of Someone Else when she nudges his shoulder, apologetic. The only source of happiness, this beautiful beast, outside of his writing.

“Ye see?” Jamie had said after their first standoff, “Ye canna stay mad at me forever.” And when the horse had chomped the apple from his hand, he’d sworn that she was smiling.

“Mo nighean donn,” he’d whispered, and decided, then and there, to name her Sorcha.

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CARROLL’S THEORY OF TRUTH, 2003

Starring Claire Randall, Frank Randall, Joe Abernathy, duncandonuts, wetwillie, mark_me_1745, parsleymarsley, l.mackenzie (and The Author)

When CLAIRE RANDALL is not working at the hospital, her nose is pressed to a blue-white screen.

For years, she had resisted those monstrous, blocky machines—Macintosh, Dell, Gateway—all brand names accompanied by her husband’s greedy and jabbing elbows.

But there was value in tradition, Claire had argued. A kind of sanctity in the ping of an Underwood or the swish of pen; privacy and authentic connection. Frank had merely rolled his eyes, always lusting after the new and shiny—whether it was a computer or a student’s gloss-plumped lips—knowing it was not “tradition” itself that his wife was holding onto.

“So like you, Claire,” he’d said bitterly one day, “wanting to stay stuck in the past.” And, of course, he’d been right. Just to spite him, she’d finally surrendered and gave him one for Christmas.

Gradually, Claire came to love the whirring engine, the wail of the dial-up, the period of isolation where she was unreachable by phone. Like time travel, almost, the way it took her places past and present, opening every door like some futuristic gentleman.

But mostly, Claire loved the computer for the freedom it gave her. Boot up the system, click the mouse, log on, be someone else. Online, Claire could play a different role than the surgeon or the amateur gardener, pretend she was not the wife who turned her cheek as often as she made her husband’s dinner. On the Internet, her identity was a thirty-word bio, her face a grey silhouette displayed comfortably—anonymously—inside a neat, square frame. A million different bodies growing inside her, once her fingers flew across keyboard:

Claire Randall, the British spy.

Claire Randall, the avid hiker, climbing the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Claire Randall, the mother, who loved the melt of ice cream down her daughter’s chin. Her tiny mouth, sweet and sugared, when it met hers for a kiss.

One website, her favorite, was this: a forum, populated by other faceless humans who, like Claire, could recite page 451 (or any others) of A Blade of Grass. In this corner of the online universe, they had spoken of The Author on a first-name basis, trading facts like prized baseball cards. But it was only Claire who could share the most private knowledge, attribute it all to her keen nose and thus earn the respect of 16 anonymous users.

Even so, Claire had been surprised by what they knew solely through their reading. The Author’s childhood, his relationships, his favorite color. She was able to ask her own prodding questions and receive correct answers, such as:

whiteraven: A long shot, but does anyone know how to contact him by telephone?

And five of the grey-faced few had responded.

duncandonuts: easier to send him send him a letter (might get lost among the rest of his fan mail though).

wetwillie: have you tried his agent, john grey, in london?

mark_me_1745: if u meet him, tell him 2 come 2 brasil!!!!!!! we <3 him!!!!!!!

parsleymarsali: Publishers Weekly mentioned he’s now with Geordie Gibbons at the Claude F. Agency, not Grey, @wetwillie. Think it had something to do with creative differences and missed deadlines.

l.mackenzie: pass that info onto _me_ if you find it, girl! <g>

By a stroke of luck, someone had known someone who’d known someone who’d known someone. And just like that, she was given a phone number the following Wednesday. A day like any other, if it weren’t for a single string of digits sitting in her inbox, a silent but ticking grenade.

She spent three months with the numbers inside her head, stored in a folder marked with The Author’s name. She did manage to call though—once—when her hand finally lowered from its hover. She’d waited out the sonorous ring-ring-ring, the robotic chime, “You have reached the voice mailbox of..." She had listened to the beep that followed and then the silence, stretching, until she remembered her mouth. It opened, exhaled, then shut abruptly with the click of her teeth. There was the clatter of keys and the thwop of a briefcase—Frank home from work.

She had almost whispered, but did not.

It was too much to have both men in the same room: one gently pecking her lips, the other pressing an electric current into her cheek, crackling. Too much, too much. Claire had slammed the phone down and cursed, “Bloody teleprompter. Always calling before dinner,” which had made her husband laugh. She’d made him spaghetti that night, the spices forming twelve digits in the saucepan no matter how many times she swirled the spoon.

It’s been four months since that first and only call, though Claire still remembers The Author’s number. She thinks of if—when—she will have the courage to call again, to finally speak and fill the space of eleven empty years. While Frank snores beside her, she plays the scene from start to finish, like a draft of the real, inevitable thing.

Again: the sonorous ring, the tinny greeting, the beep, and the silence that waits for her. But this time: her mouth opens—one, two three times—and five words repeated, again and again.

In some versions, she says them aloud. In others, merely pushes them, soundless, into the air. Still, they are there, held aloft by satellite arms high up in the sky. Somewhere between her and The Author, existing: I was born for you, I was born for you, I was born for you.

And what is said three times—even unfinished, even without words—is always, always true.

______

THREE TIMES THE WORLD ENDED , 2004

Starring Jamie Fraser, Jenny Fraser, and Laoghaire Mackenzie (and The Girl)

JAMES FRASER, age 34, can pinpoint three moments where his world fell apart.

He was eighteen during the first, a brazen thing, but still as green as the pot freshly stinking his Levi’s. After reading the call notice pasted to his door, he’d floated to the common room on a cloud of White Widow weed. He dialed, laughing, until Jenny’s voice had sobbed down the line, breaking the peace of his druggy fug.

Their father, she’d cried, had died the previous evening.

With the news, the had drugs turned. Floors slanted, limbs jellied. Jamie watched as a hole ripped open the wall behind him, its enormous black void revealing the space Brian Fraser had left behind. It had swallowed Jamie up, refused to spit him back again until The Girl reached inside and found his heart two years later. Returned it to him, like a love note, passed on the inside of her smile.

Jamie describes the second collapse in his two famous novels, A Blade of Grass and Two Centuries in Purgatory. This time, the world had split completely, Jamie and The Girl like two tectonic plates shifting in the night. It was his writing that had bound Jamie’s world together again, though the spine remained cracked, a few of the pages missing.

The third time occurred just last week though Jamie was not entirely surprised. It’s what happens, he supposes, when you build something on uneven ground. Physical presence—someone’s here-ness—does not equate to love.

Nine years after the second earthquake, a new person had come into Jamie’s life. She would stand in the doorway at 6:30PM, jump to her tip-toes to welcome him home. There would be steam from the stove, and utensils would gleam in perfect, shining order. Napkins would wait with their patient folds, each prepared to catch the food that she, his ever-present Laoghaire, had prepared during the day. And for those three years, Laoghaire’s toothbrush had sat next to Jamie’s, her silks hanging beside his cottons. Evidence, he had thought, that he maybe-almost loved her.

But then Laoghaire had grown curious—“Why’ve no made progress on yer novel? What are ye writing all day if it isna yer third book?”—and stuck her piglet nose into places it did not belong. She, in a rare moment of ingenuity, had unlocked the safe and found his letters.

And so this time, Jamie’s world had not ripped or split—but exploded with a thousand sticks of paper dynamite. Laoghaire had burned through the house, burned through the letters. She’d called the magazines and the bloggers, vowing to tarnish his reputation with lies: cheater, drunk, lunatic, fraud. Finally, she’d left, taking the napkins, the cutlery, and the toothbrush—but leaving the embers in her wake, smoldering. A few scraps had avoided the fire, and Jamie read them as the night rose.

My da once told me I’d know straight away, that I’d have no doubt. And I didn’t.

For so many years, for so long, I have been so many different men.

The love of you was my soul.

and

Yours, Jamie

Forever, Jamie

Come home, my heart. I am not as brave as I was before, Jamie

On and on and on they went. Singed pieces of his letters. Every one meant for The Girl who’d confronted his darkness, had rescued his heart at a Christmas Eve party.

4,380. One letter for every day he had missed her.

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THE KILLING GIRL, 2006

Starring Claire Randall*, Henry Beauchamp, Julia Beauchamp, Quentin Lambert Beauchamp, Frank Randall (and The One Person)

CLAIRE RANDALL* , resident at Boston GH, was five years old when she thought she was murderer. For years, she could hardly sleep, fearing not the monster beneath her bed, but the one beneath her covers.

Instead of counting sheep, she’d recounted facts as they’d been reported in the paper: Henry and Julia Beauchamp, parents of one Claire Beauchamp. Their mangled car, and a rocky deathbed set one hundred feet below. Both husband and wife, father and mother—dead upon impact.

Rarely, did this guide Claire towards sleep, and so she began to picture the accident as she’d recorded it in her diary. The same story, but more accurate—one that played behind her eyelids as if she had watched it all, a spectator on the road’s shoulder.

There was her parents’ blue Ford ribboning the cliffside. The low hum of conversation and the static of the radio. There was Claire’s goodbye before they left—“You always go without me! IhateyouIhateyou!”— which followed her parents and pushed them off the edge. She was sure it was her words that had broken her mother’s neck, had snapped it like a flower’s stem. One Claire Beauchamp, the little killing girl.

Five years passed before Lamb had found her in the courtyard, weeping her guilt into a mat of grey feathers. She had confessed to her five-year old anger then; how she’d pried open the rocky mouth and dropped her parents in.

“Death doesn’t move according to reason, my dear,” Lamb had said, “but only chance. And by no fault of yours.” He had patted her on the head like a priest grants forgiveness, and they buried the bird in the Nyungwe Forest. Wings and Claire’s blame laid to rest beneath the trees.

Still, Claire likes how accountability sets her world—so wracked by coincidence—back on its axis. Responsibility, however false, is easier to accept than the fickleness of husbands, of dead parents, of love and life. She assumes the role of the guilty to feel a sense of control, like she herself is in charge of the scale’s tip. And so:

It was Claire’s fault that the frost returned in May, all her marigold suns snuffed out.

It was Claire’s fault that the infection took the wound, gnawed the patient’s flesh so that a saw had to chop the bone.

It was Claire’s fault that midnight voices chirped down the receiver. The girls’ lovesick pleas—I need you. I love you. Leave her.—placed in Frank’s pockets by Claire’s own hands.

And of course, it was Claire’s fault that things had ended as they did. The final fight, every bit of hate, hers to claim:

“I am not an idiot, Frank! And I’m tired of being made into one.”

“Darling, you aren’t an idiot. I never said you were an idiot.”

“Don’t bloody ‘darling’ me, you bloody cad.”

“I’m sorry.”

“How novel.”

“Truly, I am.”

“So that’s it, then? Just ‘I’m sorry.’ No excuses? No begging-on-bended-knee?” (Claire had scoffed. Her laughter, like the paring knife that guts the beast.) “No, of course not. Begging would be too embarrassing for you. Too much effort. All your energy is spent chasing skirts and quick fucks. You selfish, disgusting man.”

“So I’m the only selfish one here, is that it? Just me?”

“You’re saying that I’m selfish?”

“I am.”

“Me.”

“Yes, you, Claire! You, who is always working and never here. You, who sleeps with his books under our mattress, still wears the man’s goddamn ring on a chain. Like a fucking noose around our marriage, from the start.” (Claire had winced; Frank’s knuckles had cracked the wall.) “No, I’m not selfish, Claire. I’ve shared you with another man for thirteen years.”

“So I see you’ve lost all sense, but still have some fucking nerve."

“Cursing doesn’t improve your argument.”

“Wanker.”

“Now Claire…”

“Just go.”

“Claire, please—”

“Go.”

And thus, it was Claire’s fault that Frank had whispered, “You’ve never looked at me. Not once, not really.” And it was her fault that he had grabbed his keys, slipped into the blizzard and into his car.

And it was Claire—Claire, Claire, Claire—who became the ice that hissed against tires. Who launched Frank’s body through the glass, turned his skin purple-blue and the snow dark red. Her fault that the last thing she’d said was “go”, and Frank had taken her at her very word.

All of this, she has put upon her shoulders, for its burden is lesser than the truth: that she has no control, never did and never would. Claire is forever held at the mercy of a capricious gravity—she and everyone else, a little bit helpless. Always.

But there was One Person, she often remembers, who had given her a kind of foothold. On their wedding night, she had whispered about her mother’s flower neck, about the grey bird whose wings she’d given to the Nyungwe. And he had understood, promised forgiveness for whatever wrongs she had and would commit. “Real or imagined, Sassenach” he’d said into hair, “Already forgiven.” They had spiraled through life, the pair of them, both a little bit helpless—but everything shared.

But of all of her false faults, this is one Claire fears is true: that she is the reason The One Person is not here, but some 3,000 miles away. She was, after all, the one who had packed the suitcase and caused the gavel to fall, Divorce.

All her fault: Claire Randall. The guilty one, the killing girl, the widow. Spinning and spinning into empty space, grasping at stars, alone.

*[Note from director: Ms. Claire Randall has requested we change her name to Claire Beauchamp. Please reprint with this correction ASAP. Thank you.]

______

POINT OF CONVERGENCE, 2007

Starring Jamie Fraser (The Author, The One Person), Claire Beauchamp (A More-Than-Flash Of Someone-Else, The Girl), Geordie Gibbons

JAMES FRASER does not like to disappoint. It is his greatest fear, seeing someone’s face pull, twist, and finally droop into an expression of discontent. Even worse: when the expression is given a name, “I’m so disappointed in you, Jamie.” And worst of all: when the name is given by his agent, Geordie Gibbons.

One of the most important days of Jamie’s life began in anticipation of such disappointment. He had twiddled his thumbs beneath a table, dreading the moment Geordie’s fedora ducked beneath the restaurant’s eaves. The wait staff had milled around him: A waiter dashed towards snapping fingers, the hostess offered towels for rain-soaked heads. He’d felt jealous, watching them, of their readiness—how they could be so effortlessly on time. Jamie couldn’t even manage to meet his deadlines, the desk calendar at home flipped far beyond the designated X.

Jamie and Geordie were to have “lunch” and “catch up”. This would, inadvertently, devolve into an interrogation about Jamie’s third novel, which was nothing more than a series of working titles. It was a pattern, this lateness and lunching, never changing despite the demands and promises made by both parties. Geordie would remove his hat, exposing the frown previously shadowed beneath its brim. Their food would be served—Jamie, something yeasty; Geordie, a taxidermist’s culinary experiment—and Jamie would choke down a side of his agent’s disappointment. Eventually, they would part ways, and Jamie would return home, knock out a few pages. Turn in a shitty draft the next morning for the sake of postponing a second “lunch.”

But on this day, the universe had shifted; the pattern broke. Jamie had continued to sit there, all sweat and nerves, but Geordie’s fedora, the interrogation, and the food never came.

Because while Jamie had waited in the restaurant, CLAIRE BEAUCHAMP was arguing in her bedroom mirror: Claire vs. Claire, Head vs. Heart. She was thousands of miles away in a Boston apartment, but still—the tremor traveled, pushing a storm across the Atlantic, down the Royal Mile, to Jamie. The trajectory of his day and his life had changed as Claire gesticulated wildly at her own reflection.

So at 12:14, Jamie had been alone, Geordie unusually late for a man so fond of punctuality. He read the menu three times, settled on a whisky. Thought better of it; ordered two.

At 12:30, Claire’s battle had still raged, no victor in sight. The thunder had shaken the house, shaken the mirror on the wall.

At 12:46, Jamie had condemned Geordie, then deadlines. Art, he’d fumed, was beyond time, existed outside of it. He had ordered a third whisky when a wine spill was wiped up, gone before it had the chance to leave its mark.

At 12:48, Claire had moved to the kitchen. Both armies were advancing quickly, charging into the living room, to the yard, back to the living room, over and over. She and herself, it seemed, had reached a stalemate. Head and Heart had squatted, dripping rain, and awaited the other's surrender.

At 12:50, Claire had paused and looked through the window. She caught a glimpse of her garden, reborn and thriving despite the storm, and the sight of the marigold blooms did not reveal an emptiness inside her. She felt, for once, happy. Her Heart had stormed her Head’s walls, then, the gates of decision giving way.

At 12:51, Claire had opened her scrapbook, a secret once kept from Frank. It was filled with bits and bobs: a piece of bubble wrap, a bell from her holiday sweater. Both of them glued beside old polaroids. Again, she did not feel her Heart stutter, but expand; lift straight out of her chest. A full siege after that. Her Head’s weakest men fell beneath the lash of artery whips.

At 12:52, the end was near, and Claire’s Heart marched to her computer, hunted through years of mail. Its trophy had laid buried in a folder—one message with twelve digits—and the battle, at last, was won.

At 12:53, both Jamie and his phone had buzzed. The door opened, letting in the air. It had smelled of wet soil, earthy and ripe. Familiar, like a ghost’s kiss on the back of his neck. He put the phone to his ear, and…

At 12:53:05, he said, “Jesus, man! Where are ye? I’ve been waiting nigh on 50 minutes!” There was no response.

At 12:53:08: “Did ye get caught in the storm? Are ye calling from a pay phone?” More silence.

At 12:53:13: “Hello? Anyone there?”

At 12:53:20: “Geordie, man, is that you?”

At 12:53:25: A deep, shaking breath. An audible gulp. Claire’s Heart whispering its victory song.

12:53:26: “It’s isn’t Geordie.”

12:53:27: “It’s me.”

And at 12:53:28, everywhere, suddenly—the brightest sun.

Phew! This chapter is one of the longest, but it’s also one of my favorites. The structure is lifted straight from Fates and Furies—there’s a chapter that is just a series of the protagonist’s plays—and I was looking to try something new (it also weirdly fits in with the tone of the chapter introductions). In my opinion, the best thing about writing fanfiction is that you have so much room to experiment.

This structure also allowed me to do what I’d been wanting to do from the beginning: move away from the One Day conceit and explore Jamie and Claire’s pasts. It was very easy to just run with any image or idea that came to mind—we know so little about their childhoods; there are so many possibilities!

And speaking of why fanfiction is so awesome—and I mentioned this in another post—but it’s a blast figuring out how to incorporate canon into an AU setting. Using canon dialogue can boost the emotional punch of a line in a way that is just *chef’s kiss*. “I was born for you.” “I am not as brave as I was before.” Ugh, kill me.

I have to whistle past some of the melodrama and Frank’s computer craze (wouldn’t he also be a typewriter sort of person???). And modern!Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Brazil comment still tickles me. This is not meant as an offense to Brazilians—y’all are just always on *clap* it *clap*, and I love your enthusiasm.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed :)

#myfic #outlander #claire beauchamp #jamie fraser #reunited and it feels so gooooood

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the-coconut-asado · 4 years

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NUT MILK CITY LIMITS

This should have been my Boston blog. And I will write one, someday soon.

But limited as we are to four walls, dodging pavement cyclists and the kindness of delivery folk, let’s settle for a tale of lockdown invention.

That said, my story does start in Boston - or rather, leaving it. It was the real start of The Weird, around early-mid March, when I still took the tube into work and was looking forward to a visit to the hairdresser (lockdown was announced the day before my appointment in case you were wondering. So there will be no selfies here). We managed to head off to the US the day that Trump banned the rest of Europe from flying and I won’t lie, we felt lucky. I sat next to a Canadian student on the flight who explained, as she coughed, that she had traded her study trip around Europe for a £2,000 ticket-chance of getting home.

We got to our faintly Psycho- throwback hotel that night, where we seemed to be the only guests. And for three days we toured the (mostly shut) sites of Boston with the streets all but empty.

At one stage, as we strolled past a CVS store, two young women emerged, insanely juggling 4x16 pack toilet roll bags. How we laughed. The way those pesky kids laugh as the Scooby-ghoul looms behind them. On the Sunday, any holiday vibe had been replaced with low level anxiety, counting down the hours to our flight leaving the US on time and as planned.

And since we landed back in London, that’s been it. Travel now means taking the car for a weekly local drive to keep the battery ticking over, and let’s not dwell on the cancelled trip to Vietnam. The Supermarket Sweep race as you grab random packs off shelves before the personal space invader twats sneak up behind you is now replaced by the delivery time lotto of Amazon Fresh. Got a formula for that, Dale Winton?

But there have been new things to smile about: neighbourhoods coming together every Thursday evening to Clap for Carers; the bravery of NHS workers and a whole army of people I hope we’ll never take for granted again; friends and family checking in on each other much more than ever usual. And the travel buzz achieved by changing our backgrounds on Zoom. Don’t knock it, the endorphin kick is real.

And dare I say there have been pleasures too: delicious meat, fish and vegetables delivered from local suppliers, and weekends full of invention possibilities. “ Are we all fucking bakers now??” Twitter ranted in week 2 of lockdown as flour and eggs became the New Disappeared. Cashew milk, the one nut milk I enjoy, became similarly scarce for a short while, but I discovered the eye-wateringly expensive delights of Milkadamia until sanity returned.

Faced with the random nature of vegetable boxes, half used packs of speciality flours otherwise doomed to outlive their sell by date and the excitement of what you can achieve with a carton of buttermilk and bicarb of soda - life in the kitchen is nothing short of a blast right now. Just like wartime? We have no rationing and plenty of Chipotle paste so, er, no.

Breaking my veg box virginity has been liberating. There are the highs of high-sheen aubergines and those creamy new potatoes of the season, and the occasional low of celery on three consecutive weeks. But the thrill of anticipation when we open the door to a new box is palpable. And finding specialist suppliers for everything from sumac to burrata has made me realise that up until the pandemic I’d been shopping all wrong and wasting far too much money. With the simple elimination of impulse purchase I have hit my notional monthly food budget for the first time ever.

So here are a bunch of recipes for what I consider my best lockdown experiments. Stock up on your store cupboard essentials and you can use whatever basics are available that week. And by store cupboard essentials I mean: Olive and coconut oils, smoked paprika, cumin, turmeric, chilli flakes, soy sauce, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda (you don’t need yeast for soda bread or flat breads). And whatever flour you can find, you’ll be able to do something with it.

Bolli-cauli biryani with camargue rice

Forget boiling cauliflower ever again. Chop florets, toss them in spice and oil and roast to crispy, caramelised deliciousness every time. Serves 2-3.

Ingredients

1 medium cauliflower, cut into florets, then cut each floret in half to create bite size pieces

The cauliflower leaves, pulled from the fibrous stalks

2 medium red onions, quartered

1-2 large red chillies, split from top to bottom but kept intact

2 tsp. Sumac

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp kosher salt

Generous grind of black pepper

1 tsp chilli flakes

3 tbsp. Olive oil

300g camargue red rice (1 small mug)

25g salted butter

Plan yoghurt to serve

How to make:

Heat the oven to 190C.

In a large bowl, toss the cauliflower, cauliflower leaves, chillies and onion (and any other chunky vegetable you hav in the fridge eg.squash, aubergine or courgettes) with the spices and olive oil. Spread out onto a large roasting pan and pop into the oven for 40-45 mins, turning everything half way through. The edges of the vegetables will caramelise and the leaves will crisp up.

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a saucepan until it bubbles then add the rice and toss until you get a toasty aroma. If you used a small cup, then now add a small cup and an extra quarter cup (or if you measured 300g then add 400ml water) and a generous pinch of salt. Bring to the boil, stirring once and then simmer on a medium heat until the water is all but absorbed (about 15-20 mins). At this point, cover with a lid, turn the heat to low and cook for a further 10-15 mins. Turn off the heat and leave covered for a further 10 minutes before fluffing the rice up.

When the bolli-cauli is ready, remove from the oven and serve over a generous scoop of the toasty, chewy buttery camargue rice. Add a dollop of yoghurt on the side and some mango chutney to serve. And treat yourself to some poppadoms for the crunch factor.

Beer and Buttermilk Soda Bread

My favourite bread of the lockdown - and no yeast required. Based on a Paul Hollywood recipe, mine replaces stout with any old beer or lager you may have in the fridge, and a range of ‘bin end flours: Wholemeal, basic brown, spelt and strong white.

Ingredients:

500g wholemeal flour (or a mix of any brown or grain flours you have)

250g strong white flour

280ml buttermilk

300ml bottle of beer or lager

2 tsp salt

2 Tbsp. bicarbonate of soda

How to make:

Mix the flours, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a large bowl.

Make a well in the centre and add the buttermilk and beer.

Mix until everything comes together then knead gently until you have a cohesive ball.

Pop into a 2lb loaf tin and press slightly into the corners.

Leave to rest for 30 mins.

Heat the oven to 210C. Bake the loaf for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180C and bake for a further 25-30 minutes. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack. The base should sound hollow when you tap it.

Cool then slice and slather with butter. This bread is also excellent toasted.

Spinach, Ricotta and Feta Pie

The superstar look of this pie as it emerges from the oven belies a super-easy method. If you can’t get hold of ricotta, just use cream cheese. Serves 4.

Ingredients

7 sheets filo pastry

2 garlic cloves, chopped finely

1 medium onion, finely chopped

250g spinach

1 large egg

1 tsp. Grated nutmeg

250g ricotta, mascarpone or cream cheese.

125g feta cheese, crumbled

Handful of fresh oregano leaves, chopped finely.

100ml olive oil.

1 tsp. Nigella seeds

How to make:

Heat the oven to 200C.

Heat 1 tbsp. Olive oil in a frying pan then saute the onion and garlic on a low heat until soft. Add the spinach and cook gently until wilted - about 5 minutes. Turn into a sieve or colander and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and put to one side.

Beat the egg with the ricotta and nutmeg then season. Crumble in the feta, then add the spinach and onion mixture.

Brush a 22cm loose bottomed cake tin with olive oil and lay a sheet of filo pastry along the bottom and the sides. Brush again with oil, then add a second sheet at an angle to the first. Keep brushing each sheet with oil, then adding the next layers at an angle until you have used six sheets and they are lining the tin in a flower petal formation.

Tip the spinach and cheese mix into the tin then fold each ‘petal’ of filo on top to form a lid to the tart. Brush with more oil then scrunch up the seventh sheet of filo, perch it on top of the pie and brush with the remaining oil. Scatter over the nigella seeds.

Pop into the oven for 25-30 minutes (watch the top so it doesn’t turn from golden to burnt).

Remove from the oven, cool slightly, before releasing the sides of the tin and transferring the pie to a plate to serve.

Carrot cake muffins with mandarin frosting

Not really the season for carrot-eating, but grated three carrots into this cake mix and you have a winner. And the frosting is a great way to use up mandarins. Makes 6 Large muffins.

Ingredients

1.5 cups plain flour

1.5 tsp. Bicarb of soda

¾ cup demarara sugar

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. Cinnamon

1 cup cashew nut milk

2 eggs, beaten

½ cup sunflower oil

1 tsp. Vanilla Extract

3 carrots, shredded

50g pecan nuts, roughly chopped.

For the frosting:

Juice of 1 mandarin

1.5 cups icing sugar

How to make

Heat the oven to 180C.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, bicarb. Of soda, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Add the eggs, oil, vanilla and cashew nut milk and mix again until a smooth batter. Fold in the carrots and the pecans.

In a muffin tin with 6 cases (or double the recipe and use 12). Fill each paper cup with the muffin batter until ¾ full then pop into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes, until they are fully risen.

Remove from the oven and cool in the tin before removing each muffin and placing on a cooling rack to cool completely.

When the muffins are cool, mix the mandarin juice with the icing sugar until you have a smooth and sluggish paste. Ice each muffin and serve.

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thuthu220100 · 3 years

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Meal planning makes grocery shopping and weeknight dinners less hectic, and we could all use a little less stress in our lives. If you’re new to meal planning or just need some new inspiration, our weekly meal plans are a great place to start.

Each week, we’ll be adding the meal plan featured in our Meal Prep & Planning newsletter. Sign up now if you’d like to get these meal plans sent straight to your inbox.

Check out the Expert’s Guide to Meal Planning for tons more plans, recipes and tips that’ll keep you organized.

This Week's Plan: 4-Ingredient Dinners

1 / 7

Sunday: Special Pork Chops

I work nine hours a day, so I need delicious and simple recipes like this one. My husband thinks I work hard fixing meals, but this dish is good and easy. In summer, I can my own salsa and use some to top these chops. —LaDane Wilson, Alexander City, Alabama

Get Recipe

Sign up for the Meal Prep & Planning newsletter for more weekly meal plans and meal prep tips delivered straight to your inbox.

Monday: Caesar Chicken with Feta

My tomatoey chicken is the perfect answer on those crazy days when supper has to be on the table in 30 minutes, tops (doesn't hurt that it's delicious, too). —Denise Chelpka, Phoenix, Arizona

Get Recipe

Tuesday: Weeknight Ravioli Lasagna

My husband and I love lasagna, but it's time-consuming to build and we always end up with too much. Using frozen ravioli solves everything. —Pamela Nicholson, Festus, Missouri

Get Recipe

Wednesday: In-a-Pinch Chicken & Spinach

I needed a fast supper while babysitting my grandchild. I used what my daughter-in-law had in the fridge and turned it into what's now one of our favorite chicken and spinach recipes. —Sandra Ellis, Stockbridge, Georgia

Get Recipe

Thursday: Garlic Toast Pizzas

Between working full-time, going to school and raising three children, finding time-saving recipes that my family likes is one of my biggest challenges. These quick pizzas pack a huge amount of flavor. —Amy Grim, Chillicothe, Ohio

Get Recipe

Friday: Oven-Roasted Salmon

When I’m starving after work, I want a fast meal with no-fail technique. Roasted salmon is super tender and has a delicate sweetness. It’s also an easy wowza for company. —Jeanne Ambrose, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Get Recipe

Saturday: Sesame Cilantro Shrimp

On days when I don't feel like spending much time in the kitchen, I reach for shrimp. I can have a hot meal in the table in 10 minutes. —Tami Penunuri, League City, Texas

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Find more weekly meal plans here.

Stressful weeks need easy dinners, like these. This week, we’re focusing on 4-ingredient dinners that come together in a snap. Because when life is hectic, dinner shouldn’t be.

Last Week's Plan: Canned Goods

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Sunday: Effortless Black Bean Chili

My mom found the inspiration for this chili in a slow-cooker cookbook. After a few updates, all of us love it (even those of us who steer clear of beans). We think it's even better served over rice. —Amelia Gormley, Ephrata, Pennsylvania

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Monday: Family-Favorite Cheeseburger Pasta

I created this cheeseburger pasta recipe to satisfy a craving. What a delicious, healthy classic! —Raquel Haggard, Edmond, Oklahoma

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Tuesday: Greek Brown and Wild Rice Bowls

This fresh rice dish tastes like the Mediterranean in a bowl! It's short on ingredients, but packs in so much flavor. For a hand-held version, leave out the rice and tuck the rest of the ingredients in a pita pocket. —Darla Andrews, Schertz, Texas

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Wednesday: Spinach Salad with Tortellini & Roasted Onions

Spinach and tortellini go so well together, and this salad makes an easy meal with leftover cooked chicken. What really makes it special is the roasted onion that adds oomph to bottled salad dressing. —Robin Haas, Hyde Park, Massachusetts

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Thursday: Contest-Winning Hearty Hamburger Soup

At family get-togethers, our children always request this spirit-warming ground beef soup along with a fresh loaf of homemade bread and tall glasses of milk. This hamburger soup has robust flavor, plenty of fresh-tasting vegetables and is easy to make. —Barbara Brown, Janesville, Wisconsin

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Friday: Creamy Tuna-Noodle Casserole

When you need supper fast, this tuna noodle casserole makes a super one-dish meal. Cooked chicken breast works well in place of the tuna. —Edie DeSpain, Logan, Utah

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Saturday: Classic Chicken Potpie

Our neighbors and a friend from back home are always after me to make "those yummy potpies". That's all the encouragement I need, since we really like 'em, too! —Ada May Smith, Citrus Springs, Florida.

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Find more weekly meal plans here.

Canned goods are a great starting point for countless meals, including these. Each of this week’s dinners relies on canned foods—beans, tomatoes, tuna and more—to make your meal prep stress free.

Want to make your own plan? Check out our meal plan template.

April Weekly Meal Plans

A warm up is on the way! Celebrate spring this month with recipes featuring Mediterranean flavors, roast chicken and more. April is also a great month to get thrifty and experiment with making meals out of pantry staples or minimal ingredients. (After all, we’ve been saving up for spring break!)

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Easter Leftovers

A 7-Day Meal Plan with 4-Ingredient Dinners

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Taco Meat

A 7-Day Meal Plan With Roast Chicken

A 7-Day Mediterranean Dinners Meal Plan

March Weekly Meal Plans

Spring is on the horizon. As you start spending more time outdoors (goodbye, snow), make dinner quick with recipes that require just 15 minutes of prep. Making a big batch of meat and grains on Sunday also helps speed up weeknight dinners. And don’t forget about St. Patrick’s Day. We have ideas for the entire week—corned beef, reubens and other Irish-inspired meals.

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Rice

A 7-Day Meal Plan For St. Patrick's Day Week

A 7-Day 15-Minute Prep Meal Plan

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Slow Cooker Pot Roast

February Weekly Meal Plans

February may seem dull and dreary, but it does have some holidays and events. If you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day with your special someone or observing Lent, we’ve got a meal plan for you. And if you’re in the mood to use your favorite small kitchen appliances—like the Instant Pot and slow cooker—to cook up some comfort food, you’ll find lots of ideas this month.

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Your Instant Pot

A 7-Day Meal Plan for Valentine's Day Week

A 7-Day Meal Plan During Lent

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Slow Cooker Chicken

January Weekly Meal Plans

January is all about starting fresh—and that applies to your meal plans, too! We’re enjoying lots of lightened-up meals, as well as classic comfort foods to keep us warm on cold nights. January is also a great month to experiment in the kitchen, whether that means trying a new global recipe or finally putting your Dutch oven to work. Stay warm out there!

A 7-Day Meal Plan of Healthy Meals

A 7-Day Meal Plan of Winter Dinners

A 7-Day Indian Dinners Meal Plan

A 7-Day Meal Plan of One-Pot Meals

A 7-Day Meal Plan of Kid-Friendly Dinners

December Weekly Meal Plans

If you ask us, December is the best month of the year. And whether you’re craving something healthy in between bites of Christmas cookies or you need ideas for using up leftovers, these meal plans have you covered. Plus, they’re all easy! (We know you’ve got your hands full with holiday prep).

A 7-Day Meal Plan of Freezer Meals

A 7-Day Meal Plan of Fresh Salads

A 7-Day Meal Plan Between Christmas and New Year's

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Leftover Ham

November Weekly Meal Plans

We look forward to November all year long. And while Thanksgiving Day is a major food holiday, the rest of the month doesn’t have to be quite as laborious. That’s why we love these oh-so-simple meal plans for sheet pan suppers, 5-minute meals and more. There’s nothing wrong with taking it easy!

A 7-Day Meal Plan of Sheet Pan Suppers

A 7-Day Meal Plan with Prep-Ahead Soups

A 7-Day Meal Plan with 5-Minute Meals

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Leftovers

October Weekly Meal Plans

Fall is in full swing, and we are loving seasonal ingredients. This month, incorporate pumpkin, squash, Brussels sprouts and more autumnal produce into your meals. This is also a great month to dig into cozy casseroles and hearty German eats (Hello, Oktoberfest!).

A 7-Day Meal Plan Featuring Fall Flavors

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using a Rotisserie Chicken

A 7-Day German Meal Plan

A 7-Day Meal Plan with Fall Casseroles

10 Recipes with 10 Ingredients

September Weekly Meal Plans

September brings a lot of change—cooler weather, back to school and shorter days. Make the most of it with prep-ahead meals, global eats and plans that incorporate your favorite kitchen appliances.

A 7-Day Meal Plan of September Dinners

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Appliances

A 7-Day Greek Meal Plan

A 7-Day Meal Plan with Prep-Ahead Casseroles

August Weekly Meal Plans

The dog days of summer are here. Cool off with summer meal plans built around grilled meats, family favorites and simple ingredients. This is a great month to take advantage of peak seasonal produce, too. (We’re serving sliced watermelon with almost every meal!)

A 7-Day Meal Plan for the Summer

A 7-Day Plan Using Marinated Chicken

A 7-Day Asian Meal Plan

A 7-Day School Night Dinner Plan

A 7-Day Italian Meal Plan

July Weekly Meal Plans

Lazy summer days are coming right up. Enjoy easy, no-cook meals, 30-minute plans and more. Plus, since we know your garden is bursting, find creative ways to utilize fresh basil or mushrooms. Our goal is to help you cook less so you can enjoy more time outdoors.

A 7-Day Meal Plan of No-Cook Dinners

A 7-Day 30-Minute Summer Meal Plan

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Fresh Basil

A 7-Day Meal Plan with Mushrooms

June Weekly Meal Plans

Longer, warmer days have us wanting to eat a little lighter. This month we’re enjoying simple meals and meat-free entrees. At the store (or farmers market!), keep an eye out for tons of fresh summer fruits and leafy greens.

A 7-Day Meal Plan Repeating Favorite Dinners

A 7-Day Meal Plan That Keeps It Simple

A 7-Day Vegetarian Dinners Meal Plan

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Hard-Boiled Eggs

May Weekly Meal Plans

See ya spring—and hello summer! May is a great transition month and the perfect time to start experimenting with fresh flavors in your kitchen. Put seasonal ingredients to work, like tomatoes and grilled chicken, and enjoy time well spent on the patio.

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Spaghetti Sauce

A 7-Day Meal Plan with Grilled Chicken

A 7-Day Meal Plan with Theme Nights

A 7-Day Meal Plan Using Summer Produce

How do I make my weekly meal plan?

In the mood to make your own meal plan? We suggest starting with a few core ingredients that you can use throughout the week. Roast chicken, for example, can work as a Sunday night dinner, a Monday night taco filling and a Tuesday soup starter. We also recommend picking simple, family-friendly meals. After all, meal planning is supposed to make your life easier—don’t feel pressured to whip up a 27-step gourmet meal after a busy day.

Editor’s tip: If you’re on a budget, use grocery store sale flyers to guide your ingredient selection.

What meals can I cook for a week?

Most meal plans focus on dinner, but you can also meal plan for breakfast and lunch—or all three! To save time, we recommend repeating meals for breakfast and lunch. Overnight oats are a great meal prep option to enjoy all week. And a big batch of grains, roasted veggies and grilled chicken prepared on Sunday can feed you for lunch the entire week.

If you’re looking for meal plans that fit a particular lifestyle, check out our low-carb meal plan, vegetarian meal plan and vegan meal plan. We also have tips for creating a healthy meal plan, too.

Next up: How to Stock Your Pantry According to Our Kitchen Expert

The post Your Weekly Meal Planner appeared first on Taste of Home.

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ketoconnect · 4 years

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Keto Taco Salad

Keto Taco Salad Casserole

I can’t believe I have never thought to combine the freshness of a salad and the flavors of a taco casserole until now. This Keto Taco Salad Casserole whips up in under 30 minutes and can last you all week long as your new favorite meal prep!

Our Favorite Weekly Meal Preps!

Meal prep has always been a big part of our keto routine. We’ve been doing it since day one and it has honestly been the number one thing that has kept us on track. While our eating styles have changed over the years, meal prepping has remained constant.

Some of our favorite breakfast meal preps to make and that reheat great are:

1. Sheet Pan Pancakes

2. Easy Egg Loaf

3. Diner Style Blueberry Pancakes (Meghas’ Fave!)

Some of our favorite lunch and dinner meal preps to make and that reheat great are:

1. Air Fryer Chicken Thighs

2. Keto Chicken Nuggets

3. Low Carb Squash And Bacon Casserole

Some of our favorite dessert meal preps to make and that reheat great are:

1. Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (these freeze great!)

2. Keto Blueberry Pound Cake

3. Keto Shortbread Cookies

How Many Carbs Are In A Beef Taco Salad?

The beauty to this keto taco salad casserole recipe is that you can easily increase or decrease the carbs based on what you have on hand or what you want to put in it! The carbs are going to come from the veggies you use. So, for example, if you are anything like me you’ll have a higher carb version from the extra onions, but if you’re like Matt you’ll have a lower carb version by omitting the onions and bell peppers altogether!

You can also cook up the seasoned ground beef and make the casserole with just the cheese, and then serve the cooked veggies on the side so you can add it as you go for your weekly meal prep!

What Mexican Dishes Are Keto Friendly?

That’s a great question and one that I ask myself often. Mexican is one of our favorite cuisines and at times it feels impossible to really enjoy it because a lot of it is comprised of carbs from tortillas and rice.

Since we love it so much we had to find a work around, and we did just that! You’ll be surprised how easily you can come up with some replacements if you just think a little outside of the box. You can start with these recipes:

# Low Carb Tortillas

# Mexican Shredded Chicken

# Easy Keto Enchiladas

# Pork Rind Nachos

Storing And Reheating

When it comes to meal prepping recipes like this keto taco salad casserole I like to know how long it will last in the fridge, if it will freeze well and the best way to store it to ensure freshness.

This recipe compared to something like a breakfast casserole will last a lot longer in the fridge and even freeze well. Eggs can be tricky and won’t stay as fresh for long so I would put a hard 5 day limit on egg anything in the fridge. This casserole on the other hand will last at least 10 days in an air tight container and reheat great in the microwave! You can even freeze it for up to one month.

For any fresh toppings (lettuce, sour cream, cheese, etc) I would pack those separately and top your heated casserole each time you eat it. This will make sure nothing goes soggy and you get the fresh feel with every bite!

Easy Keto Taco Salad Casserole

Whether you make this for a family of six or meal prep it for two you can’t go wrong. Even your picky, non-keto family members will enjoy this and not feel slighted in the least with the lack or carbs. If you want to quickly cook up a side of rice to serve alongside you can satisfy everyone without too much extra work. If you make this keto taco salad casserole let us know below how you change it up!

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#Keto Taco Salad #Keto Taco Salad Casserole #Casserole #Easy Keto Taco Salad Casserole #Easy Keto Taco Salad Casserole Recipe

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watchend76-blog · 5 years

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Oil-free Vegan Muffins and Healthy Baked Goods (nut-free, vegan, wfpb)

During the school year, I have a handful of healthy vegan muffins and baked goods that are in weekly lunchbox rotation.

These baked goods are all nut-free, so perfect for school snacks.

People always ask “what do you pack for lunches?”

To fully answer that question, I included a chapter on packing lunches in Plant-Powered Families, so get all of my tips there.

Top oil-free muffins and baked goods for back-to-school

1) BEST Banana Bread (or muffins): A long-time family fave, and I cannot tell you how many tweets and notes I get saying something like “omg these are oil-free vegan muffins? No one would know!”

True.

I either make in muffins or straight up banana bread. Either way, this Plant-Powered Families‘ recipe is darn easy, and entirely fab, so go bake!

BEST Banana Bread (from Plant-Powered Families)

This quick bread is tender and so fragrant and delicious, you won’t believe it is made with whole-grain flours and no oil! And, you can just as easily turn these into muffins (see note).

Servings 1 quick bread (or 11-12 muffins)

Ingredients

1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour or 1 cup + 3-4 tbsp spelt flour for wheat-free version

3/4 cup oat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 cup pureed overripe banana see note

1/3 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 cup plain non-dairy milk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3-4 tbsp non-dairy mini or regular chocolate chips optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine pureed banana, maple syrup, milk and vanilla. Add wet mixture to dry, and add in chocolate chips (if using), and stir through until just well combined (don’t overmix). Wipe a loaf pan lightly with oil (or use a silicone loaf pan). Pour batter into pan and bake for 43-48 minutes, until golden and a toothpick or skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Makes 1 quick bread.

Recipe Notes

If you have an immersion blender, puree several medium-large overripe bananas in a deep, large cup, then measure to get your 1 cup. If you don’t have an immersion blender, mash banana very well. To make muffins instead of a quick bread: Pour mixture into a 12-cup muffin pan fitted with cupcake liners. Bake for 17-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove, let cool for a few minutes in pan, and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely

2) Apple-Hemp Muffins: A family favorite here, and you guys can’t get enough of them either!

These pack a good dose of nutrtient-dense hemp seeds in a fragrant, tender oil-free vegan muffin. Kids can be a little fussy about eating hemp seeds, yet they won’t even know they’re in these muffins!

3) Pumpkin Seed Chocolate Chip Oat Bars I make these bars when I want a snack that will “hold up” well (ex: won’t get squished in a pocket during a field trip).

These are dense, chewy, bars that are a much healthier alternative to storebought granola bars – and far more satisfying. They keep in the fridge for over a week, and can also be frozen.

4) Oat Snackles and Pumpkin Oat Snackles

These are what I bake when I feel like I have literally 10 minutes to get something in the oven. When you make them regularly, they are that quick. The kids love them, and you can customize with dried fruit, chocolate chips, seeds, etc.

The Pumpkin Oat Snackles offer a fall twist on the classic, flip to page 59 of PPF!

Wholesome Oat Snackles

Sometimes muffins and snacks can be a little on the sweet side for parents and adults who are looking to reduce the amount of added sweeteners in their diet. While most of my baked goods such as muffins are pretty healthful, these little snackles are particularly low in sweetener. They are great for packing in lunches, or to curb midmorning cravings. It’s like having your oatmeal without the bowl!

Ingredients

1 cup rolled oats use certified gluten-free for that option

1 cup oat flour use certified gluten-free for that option

1/3 cup raisins or cranberries, or combination of both

1/4 cup unsweetened finely shredded coconut or hemp seeds

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp lemon or orange zest optional, but adds beautiful essence

¼ tsp sea salt

few pinches freshly grated nutmeg optional, but adds extra flavor if not using zest

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce see note for substitution

1/4 cup pure maple syrup see note

2-3 tbsp non-dairy chocolate chips optional if needing sugar-free

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine the oats, oat flour, raisins, hemp seeds, baking powder, cinnamon, zest, salt and nutmeg, stirring to mix well. Add the applesauce, maple syrup, and chocolate chips. Stir until well incorporated. Use a cookie scoop (or take spoonfuls, about 1 1⁄2 tablespoons in size) to transfer mounds of the batter to the baking sheet. Bake for 14 to 15 minutes, remove from the oven, and let cool on the pan for about a minute, then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes 12-14 snackles!

Recipe Notes

5) Power Cookies: More so oil-free cookie treats than oil-free vegan muffins, but still healthy and chock with good stuff! I’ll be putting this new cookie in rotation this year.

6) BF Blueberry Muffins: These I make less often just because the prep is a wee bit longer (not much, just slightly).

Also because we have one girl that doesn’t like berries. Hence the “BF”! With or without blueberries, they are delicious and quite a treat for oil-free vegan muffins.

BF Blueberry Muffins

BF stands for “blueberry-free” (not ‘best friend’ blueberry muffins, though that could work too)! Confused? One of our daughters doesn’t like blueberries, which baffles me. So, when I make these healthy vegan muffins, I first fill a couple of muffin liners with the batter on its own, and then the remaining with the blueberries. I don’t include this step in the directions below, but feel free to make a couple ‘BF’ blueberry muffins yourself if needed! These muffins are delicious – tender, lightly sweet, and with a hint of lemon that accents the blueberries so nicely.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups oat flour

3/4 cup spelt flour

1/3 cup unrefined sugar (light best for color, but any can be used)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 tsp lemon zest (amazing, don't omit!)

2 tbsp non-dairy yogurt (vanilla or plain)

2 tbsp pure maple syrup or agave nectar

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 cup + 3-4 tbsp plain non-dairy milk

1/4 cup applesauce

3/4 cup frozen or fresh blueberries (tossed in 1-2 tsp extra oat flour)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, add flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda (sift in the powder/soda), salt, and lemon zest. In another bowl, first combine the yogurt with the maple syrup/agave, lemon juice, and applesauce, stirring well, and then add in the milk and stir through until well combined. Add wet ingredients to the dry, and mix through until just well combined. Then, quickly but gently, fold in the blueberries. Pour mixture into lined muffin tins (filling 10-12). Bake for 20 – 23 minutes (longer for larger muffins, less time if entire 12 muffins are filled), or until muffins are set in the centre (test by inserting a toothpick or skewer in the centre of a muffin). Remove from oven, cool for a couple of minutes in the pan, and then transfer muffins to cool on a cooling rack.

Recipe Notes

Notes:

Add blueberries at the very last moment, to limit the ‘bleeding’ of the blueberries into the batter.

Chocolate chips are wickedly good with blueberries try adding a few tablespoons to the batter.

Makes 10-12 muffins.

7) Berry Scuffins: Oil-free vegan muffins meet scones!

When you want a baked berry fix that’s a little quicker, this is your recipe. For the fall and winter, you can use frozen berries or substitute apple or pear – just toss in a little lemon juice first to help prevent discoloring if using these fall fruits.

8) Oatmeal Banana Bites I’ve been making these since my 13 year old was a wee babe!

They are the perfect grab ‘n go snack, for lunches or anytime of the day. Like the snackles, these are quick and like a mini-muffin without the muffin paper. These wee vegan oil-free muffins have been a reader favorite for many years.

Oatmeal Banana Bites

These muffin-like bites use only pureed banana as a sweetener, and as a bonus, they can be prepped in just minutes!

Recipe Notes

Idea: Try adding raisins, chopped dates, or chopped dried banana in place of the chips.

10. N0-Bake Granola Bars. Do they hold together? Yes.

Are they easy to make? Yes!

Tasty? YES!

Healthy ingredients? Yes, yes, yes!

Not a muffin, obviously, but these are perfect for school and work lunches so make it on this list!

No-Bake Granola Bars

These bars are perfect for school lunches because they are nut-free and pack very well. Plus, they are pretty simple to put together!

Ingredients

1/2 cup brown rice syrup

1/4 cup (packed) coconut butter see note for substitution

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup oat flour

2 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut optional

1 1/2 cups natural brown rice crisp cereal

3 tablespoons nondairy chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

Line an 8” × 8” pan with parchment paper. In a medium saucepan over medium/medium-low heat, add the brown rice syrup, coconut butter, vanilla extract, sea salt, and cinnamon. Stir until well combined and the coconut butter has melted. Add the rolled oats, and stir through, allowing to cook for 2–3 minutes in the low heat. Add the oat flour and shredded coconut and stir through. Remove the pot from the stove. Then, quickly stir in the cereal, and transfer the mixture to the pan. Press the mixture evenly into the pan (using a nonstick spatula or piece of parchment paper to press the mixture without sticking). Wait just a minute or two, and then sprinkle on the chocolate chips (you can choose to cover whole bars, or just a portion), and press those into the base. Refrigerate until fully chilled (at least 1/2 hour), then cut in squares or bars.

Recipe Notes

Coconut Butter Note: Coconut butter works well here because it is so dense and helps bind the bars. Because coconut is not botanically a nut, these are also perfect for school lunches. However, if you want to substitute a nut butter, choose one that is very dense, like cashew butter.

Idea: Try some of these flavor variations:

• Raisin-spice: Try substituting raisins for the chocolate chips (and adding them with the coconut and oat flour, rather than at the end), increase the cinnamon to 1/2 teaspoon, and add 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon of allspice.

• Cranberry–pumpkin seed: Try substituting dried cranberries for the chocolate chips (and adding them at the same time as the oat flour), and substitute 2–3 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds for the coconut.

• Cocoa-hemp: Substitute 2 tablespoons of hemp seeds for the coconut, and add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder when mixing in the oat flour and hemp seeds. Keep the chocolate chips, and add in raisins if you like!

There you have it! My favorite healthy vegan muffins and healthy goodies for packing into lunches. All of these recipes freeze well, so if you’re energized to double batches, go for it!

Oh WAIT. I have another… these Lemon Cranberry Muffins and my all-new Chocolate Zucchini Bread!

What are your favorite vegan oil-free muffins?

Other posts you may enjoy:

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Source: https://dreenaburton.com/healthy-baking-recipes-school-nut-free/

#read more #see more #check it out #interesting #learn more

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vacationsoup · 5 years

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New Post has been published on https://vacationsoup.com/the-story-behind-mill-farm-eco-barn__trashed-2/

The story behind Mill Farm Eco Barn

People often ask how we have ended up running Mill Farm. Here I describe my decision to give up a career in Bristol to set up Mill Farm Eco Barn with my husband Neil. Find out what running a holiday business involves and how finding work that works has been the secret to her success.

How did you set up Mill Farm?

Mill Farm began in 2012, Neil had a crazy plan to set up a holiday business in Norfolk. I was pregnant with our second child and on a good salary working as a Director at the environmental charity, the Soil Association in Bristol. Like many changes in my life, it started as an off the cuff remark “if we ever want to do anything different, we need to do it soon” I remember saying to Neil. “At the moment we can get a mortgage, but we won’t if we go down to one income” this conversation set something in motion. After that Neil kept disappearing, spending evenings on Rightmove and I hadn’t quite realised what I’d done!

A year later, we’d purchased Mill Farm, which back then was a ramshackle house where we live now, the shell of an old barn (with planning permission for residential conversion) and a collection of old sheds and outbuildings. Whilst on maternity leave, I’d also managed to get some Rural Development Funding from the European Union to develop the barn as a high end self-catering holiday home and a centre of excellence for sustainable tourism. The grant had to be spent quickly so we sold up in Bristol, I took redundancy and we moved to Norfolk. Or at least the kids and I did - Neil commuted to work in Bristol for the first 3 months!

Looking back, knowing what it is like to have a 6 month old and a 2 year old and managing a self-build project, I probably would have said no way but I went along with it and I’m pretty glad I did. I cruised play groups trying to make friends and in doing so radically improved my driving skills – I’d only ever travelled by bike before. Once the kids were finally in bed we spent the evenings, filling in grant claim forms, researching building materials and with the help of a good friend we developed the marketing plan for the business.

It was a crazy time. Neil moved up permanently in March 2013, the build was complete in September. The trips around the play groups became very useful as I shamelessly called the Mum’s up and asked if they or their handy partners could construct and move furniture in the hours before we opened and they came, thank goodness. Since then we have hosted over 600 groups, couples, families and friends in our barns. We have made friends, at least 3 couples have moved to the area since staying with us and we are going to a guests wedding in December. We feel we have contributed to the local village by spearheading a campaign to improve the children’s play area (we raised over £35,000), we have put a path on our land so guests and locals can walk the route more easily and planted over 2000 hedge plants and trees. I even joined the parish council. I have to admit though, I don’t really remember my youngest’s first two years!

What’s it like running Mill Farm now?

It surprises me, still, how much effort it takes. Firstly, there is the constant development of the site and what we offer. Neil has a very clear vision for the site and he won’t stop until it is complete. Last September he added a wildlife pond and is managing the paddocks for wildlife . This year we are revamping our games barns as well as bringing back chickens.

It has also been a real family affair. Neil’s parents are local, anyone who has stayed with us will have met Terry who looks after the grounds and the guest allotment and Shona who does all the linen for the barns. My folks, albeit further away, have been a huge help to – editing websites, making furniture and much more.

I’m the main point of contact for bookings and enquiries. At Mill Farm we're passionate about providing great service and a beautiful destination for group get-togethers. We've focused on every detail to make the barns feel like home rather than formulaic holiday lets, so we're well-equipped from the kitchen to baby equipment to books, games and DVDs. Our aim is to ensure guests have a memorable holiday - we want them to fall in love with the barns and the area as much as we have.

Part of my job is going the extra mile for guests. If they're coming for a family celebration, I can help them organise a cake, caterers and even a photographer. We also provide a huge amount of advice to guests in the lead up to and during their stay. I've also started writing blog posts to give guests more insider details that might be helpful for their stay.

Fridays are my craziest day. This is the day we say goodbye to guests and welcome new ones. I usually bake a loaf of sourdough bread for our Eco Barn guests which goes in their welcome basket, together with other homemade goodies such as fresh eggs, organic produce from our allotment, locally-made jam and a freshly baked cake by our baker friend Andrew. My day revolves around supporting our team of cleaners and responding to any maintenance issues.

Sometimes I work in the Eco Barn

By far most of my time though is taken up by marketing. I’m not a marketing person by background so this hasn’t come easily to me. Things have changed so much, just in the five years we have been operating that it feels that this is becoming a bigger job, not a smaller job. The main issue is visibility. I know we have a great product but getting the message out and sustaining our on-line presence is really hard. Whilst Google and Facebook are constantly changing, making it hard to keep up as a sole operator, online travel agents are having a bigger and bigger impact on the market making it harder for small businesses to be found. I try hard to get direct bookings as it benefits both the guests (you have a more personal experience and it's cheaper) and us as a smaller business.

Managing Kids and work

Hands downs this has been the hardest issue for me. I still think I’d like to return back to work someday, I spend a lot of time ruminating over this. Do I actually have the time? What would I even do? Do I really want to give up the flexibility? In so many ways I am so very lucky, yes my work is very fluid (so I do feel like I am constantly at work) but I have 100% flexibility. I pick my kids up from school most days and can cover their holidays. That stress of who is picking them up today, isn’t generally part of our lives.

Recently I have become much stricter about how I work too – I am not sure why it took me so long to figure this out but the following measures have really made a massive difference (but I am only 2 weeks in).

a)I have dedicated hours in the week, which I plan a week in advance

b)I sit down to complete tasks – rather than just ‘be’ at my desk

c)I sort the tasks out around weekly themes – to avoid fliting from one thing to another

d)I have joined Facebook groups and such as the Boostly Academy and Vacation Soup – these international groups are made up of people in the same business as me, we exchange ideas, take part in group activity and learning and this has 100% reduced the feeling of isolation and helps give me focus and a sense of how my marketing needs to change.

e)I turn off my phone syncs when I am with the kids at the weekend - so distractions are at a minimum. I have muted most of my notifications permanently but guests can still call.

f)I have said no to any further building project until we have had a really ‘big’ family holiday!

g) And yes I need to produce a bi-weekly menu – I hate planning family meals.

On a deeper level I worry that I should still do more. My life is very domestic because we are in hospitality. I work from home, bake bread for guests and sometimes make jam, chutney or home grown apple juice. I do wonder what kind of role model I am for my two girls but I’m hopeful that I’ll find the balance and find a way to contribute more. I guess the next challenge is going to be to find the right part time role, or voluntary post where I can put my background in Environmental campaigning to more use.

Travel Tip created by Emma in association with Vacation Soup

#BroadsNationalPark #HolidayInWintertonOnSea #Norfolk #VacationInWintertonOnSea #VacationSoup #WintertonOnSea

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annaddendy-blog · 5 years

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This Woman's Story Will Change the Way You Think About Public Assistance

I had a kid… once.

Her name was Averi. She looked like my daughter, but she was my niece.

My sister was unable to care for Averi. It came down to me or foster care. I decided my life was no more important than hers, so the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) granted me temporary custody. At 27, I was suddenly responsible for keeping a 4-year-old alive.

Most parents get months to prepare; I had less than a week.

I made $360 a week, about $18,500 a year. Now, I had to squeeze caring for a child - day care, food, clothes and all those unexpected expenses - out of an already razor-thin budget.

On top of that, I was consumed by grief from losing my own mother that same year.

I kept telling myself I could do this. After all, it was only supposed to be for two months.

My First Days in the Single-Mom Hustle

My first days as a stand-in mommy presented more questions than my sleep-deprived brain was prepared for: Who was going to watch her while I work? How the hell was I going to afford this?

Luckily, there was a voluntary prekindergarten, or VPK, and day care two blocks from my apartment, and they graciously let me bring Averi by the same evening I picked her up from the DCF.

Averi curiously roamed about the classroom as I quietly explained the situation to the teachers and administrators.

Back in my apartment, we settled into our first night together.

I rolled out an air mattress on the floor of my bedroom. She was required to have her own bed, and an air mattress was the fastest and cheapest solution.

The first day I dropped her off at day care was emotionally taxing for both of us. I cried the entire drive to work.

And once I got there, I could barely focus. I kept thinking through this new set of obligations, commitments and sacrifices I was only beginning to unravel. My mind raced through checklists, appointments and my shoddy finances.

I knew my salary was no match for the expenses of child care. I lived paycheck to paycheck as it was.

Rebekah, my roommate and childhood friend, shouldered the circumstance alongside me. We split rent and utilities, which lowered my core costs considerably. But my credit card debt had nearly doubled since my mom's death.

My approximate monthly expenses were:

Rent payment: $375

Car payment: $350

Electric bill: $75

Internet and cable: $65

Car insurance: $115

Cell phone: $75

Gas: $40

Credit card: $200

Groceries: $150

Total monthly expenses: $1,445.

My average monthly income: $1,440.

Adding in the cost of caring for Averi took me to a new level of financial anxiety. Trying to map out an impossible budget only made it worse.

It started to suffocate me.

The Maze of Applying for Public Assistance

During my first home visit with Averi's social worker, I reluctantly shared my concerns. I was so scared of losing her to the system.

The social worker urged me to apply for public assistance, which I hadn't even considered. I had never seen myself ever needing it. But I had to do something.

Asking for help wasn't in my familial toolbox. My parents always struggled financially, but they rarely ever asked for help. So not taking “charity” was in my blood - from gifts to handouts, I always paid my way even if it secretly broke me.

But I cared more about Averi's well-being than my dignity. It was too real. I needed the help. Any help.

I had no idea where to begin, so the social worker provided me with a list of all the programs I was eligible for. I dove in headfirst.

I swallowed my pride and signed my name on all the dotted lines I could. Applying for government assistance at 27 years old was my new reality.

School Readiness

The first program that came through was Florida's School Readiness financial assistance program.

It subsidized the weekly day care costs, so I could continue working without spending most of my salary on child care, like so many parents are forced to do.

After a $125 deposit, I paid $9.20 a week for Averi's day care.

She attended VPK in the morning and an after-school program within the same building after. I had to pick her up by 6 p.m. every day, or else face a non-subsidized, minute-by-minute late fee.

Temporary Cash Assistance

Initially, my circumstance made me eligible for temporary cash assistance (TCA), a $180 monthly stipend designed to help struggling families with minors.

The benefits help keep children in their own homes, or in the home of a blood relative, instead of foster care.

I received an Access debit card, the same card people use for food stamps. (The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) wasn't born yet.)

The card was automatically loaded with $180 each month. I could use it anywhere that accepted electronic benefit transfer (EBT) payments.

Suddenly, I was that person scouting the exterior of stores for a “We Accept EBT” sign, or quietly asking the cashier if they accepted EBT cards, worried about being judged by other customers.

Eventually, DCF approved me for the Relative Caregiver program, and the $180 increased to $240 monthly.

Women, Infants and Children

Because of Averi's age, I was also eligible to receive assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children, WIC.

WIC provides assistance for low-income women with children under 5 years old. WIC serves 53% of all infants in the United States.

Thankfully, my 32-hour-a-week job allowed some wiggle room for the sloth-like government waiting rooms. I spent a whole morning waiting.

Eventually, I walked out with a handful of food vouchers. They had date ranges and expirations and a list of specific items they could be exchanged for. How hard could it be?

The items on my monthly food allowance weren't exactly the nutritional foods I'd hoped for.

But I had to face it: These were the times of white bread, cereal and canned beans. No more organic eggs and vegetables or soy milk, which I'd become accustomed to consuming before I became responsible for Averi.

The monthly allowance included a whopping $8 for fruits and vegetables. While I would have hoped for more, I was thankful for food in our mouths, regardless of the form it came in.

Averi loved bananas and green beans, so I would purchase those fresh, along with a bag of carrots or apples, whichever I could squeeze out of that voucher.

I won't forget the first time I tried to use them at the register. I dreaded the whole experience, fearful of the disgusted eyes cast by other customers as they waited for me to shamefully get my government-issued rations.

I'd read the voucher over and over to be sure I followed the instructions perfectly to avoid any holdup at the register.

But at the checkout, the cashier informed me I'd made a mistake.

I'd picked up a 24-ounce loaf of bread when the voucher clearly stated I was only allowed the 20-ounce loaf. I was mortified. I couldn't leave Averi there while I ran back, so I put everything back in my basket, careful to avoid the gaze of the line forming behind me.

There it was on the shelf, the 20-ounce loaf of bread with the letters “WIC” plain as day on the price tag.

After that, I spent much more time at the grocery store than necessary, cross-referencing my vouchers so I could avoid any unwanted hubbub at the register.

Medicaid

Averi caught a cold the first week at day care, and then I caught it. I hadn't been sick in over a year, but my stressed immune system was no match for kid germs.

After that, it was pink eye.

Then Averi's repeated sinus infections, futile prescriptions and doctor visits led to a diagnosis of asthma. She was prescribed a nebulizer treatment three to four times a day.

She hopped and bopped around with the cough of a 50-year-old smoker. Eventually, her breathing improved a little, and she got off the nebulizer.

The symptoms kept creeping back, though, so we went to the pediatrician again. She got chest X-rays that determined she had pneumonia. She needed bed rest. That meant finding babysitters or missing work.

By the summer, we both contracted scabies from visiting the place my grandmother lived. The scratching saga continued for months. I wouldn't wish that itching on anyone.

I'm scared to think what may have happened to her if she didn't have Medicaid.

What Life as a Single Parent Was Like

After the first week, I was informed that the original two-month timeline would actually be six months.

To pass the time, I kept her busy.

I found plenty of free kid-friendly events happening around town. We went to community festivals, parks and free concerts.

Friends gave me free tickets to museums and local events like the Renaissance Festival. Averi thrived on all of the new experiences.

I registered her for a Busch Gardens preschool pass, offered free for children ages 5 and younger. I already had a monthly pass - with a $7 monthly rate I'd been grandfathered into - so we frequently visited the park for free entertainment.

When she outgrew her clothes, there was someone bringing me hand-me-downs so I didn't have to buy more. When I did, we went to thrift stores, making it a fun treasure hunt to pick out an outfit she loved.

You learn a lot about people when you fall between a rock and a hard place.

I'd come into work to find a handwritten note and AMC gift cards on my desk. Or a friend's mom would slide me $20 when I hugged her. My boyfriend would treat us to dinner, or his mother would make breakfast on a Sunday morning without asking for anything in return.

Many endured DCF-required background checks just to babysit her for a few hours so I could have a wink of sleep, or time to catch up on work or other obligations.

On Averi's fifth birthday, more than 40 people attended her party at Chuck E. Cheese.

At home, we danced around in all of the tissue paper from the gifts. The joy on Averi's face showed she didn't know about our struggle. She only knew the kindness of friends and family, which is exactly how I wanted it.

The network of support humbled me, and I allowed myself to lean into it.

That August, Averi started school. She received free lunches, and I made her breakfast at home. She adapted with ease, and I shouldered the expense of fundraisers, classroom activities and gifts for her classmate's birthday parties.

One night before bed, I saw the light bulb click in her eyes as the words to Dr. Seuss' “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!” started to make sense. She read every last one of them (except Zumble-Zay).

Sharing that milestone was priceless; I'll forever treasure the memory.

The Financial Toll of Being a Caregiver

Soon August rolled into September, and as the time toiled on, so did my financial problems.

While everyone thought I was due some karmic reward, I was busy maxing out my credit cards.

I knew I'd literally pay for it in the end, but I didn't care. My maternal instinct was to protect her at any cost.

The credit card companies started to lower my limits, because I was only making the minimum payments and overspending.

Overdraft fees on my checking account sent me to my Bank of America branch. I didn't mean to cry when I talked to the teller, but the flood came anyway. All I wanted was to reverse a $30 fee for going $2 over my balance.

It happened more than once. One bank associate began to know my face and my circumstance. His patience and benevolence will always be beyond me, as was his advice.

He told me about financial hardship programs that would allow me to close my credit cards and pay little to no interest.

By September, I started closing my credit cards. I knew this would kill my “age of credit history,” but it was the only way I could keep from drowning in debt, consolidate and lower my interest rates.

The Life I Chose for Averi

I was granted permanent guardianship of Averi that November.

I wanted to keep her as close to my chest as she'd become, but I knew deep down I couldn't continue to provide for her or afford our life together.

My older brother had recently moved back from out of state. We discussed the option of Averi living with him and what would serve her best long term.

On paper, I was single and broke. He had a wife and daughter and was financially stable.

We both knew living with him would be best for her, regardless of how it made my heart ache.

That Christmas came fast.

Between the donations set up by DCF and the continued generosity of family and friends, Averi wanted for nothing. Santa supplied maybe her best Christmas yet. Gifts towered over our 3-foot pink Christmas tree.

While she tore open presents, I snapped a ridiculous amount of photos, mentally preparing myself for the fact that our time, like 2010, was nearing an end.

I was coming to terms with letting go and the decision to give her a better life. A life not supported by the system. A life still with family and within an arm's reach of me.

A week shy of a full year together, I packed her stuff, swallowing back tears.

Her moving in with my brother was an easy sell. She adored her little cousin and wanted to have sleepovers with her every night. The only problem, she said, was that she would miss me.

As we piled her stuff into my brother's black Suburban, she hugged me tight and said, “I love you with all my heart, Aunt Stephanie.”

What My Year on Public Assistance Taught Me

My year of living on public assistance was eight years ago.

Averi now lives 2,000 miles away.

My brother took a job up north, so they moved a year after she left my care.

We've seen each other only a handful of times since; we stay in touch with handwritten letters.

It took me some time to readjust to life without her, both emotionally and financially.

I had plenty of credit card debt before Averi, but it nearly doubled after a year of unexpected child care. The public assistance support ended the moment she left me.

While I did receive a boost in my tax return for claiming her as a dependent, it barely made a dent.

It took me a few years to get serious about paying it off instead of wallowing. I felt like I'd made enough sacrifices that I just wanted to live without worrying about it.

Obviously, ignoring debt doesn't work. I couldn't escape the financial obligations lest I file for bankruptcy. That wasn't me, or who I wanted to be. I'd already danced with the public assistance system, and this time, I wanted to clear it for good. So I faced it.

I slayed that interest-laden beast with balance transfer credit cards and a personal loan to consolidate other outstanding debts.

I inched my way out of debt every year since, and as of August 2018, I'm finally debt-free - aside from a car payment - for the first time in 16 years.

My credit score rebounded, but I had to learn some costly lessons.

I'm not embarrassed to admit that public assistance helped me through the hardest year of my life.

My experience with social workers, courts and public assistance offices made me realize how many kids need our help. Those insights led me to seek out opportunities locally.

I learned that while it isn't easy, asking for help is OK; people love you and want to help you.

And one day, you might even have the chance to help them.

Stephanie Bolling is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She'd love to talk to you about your experience on public assistance.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

The Penny Hoarder Promise: We provide accurate, reliable information. Here's why you can trust us and how we make money.

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cosmicsonglines · 7 years

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Pssst, Taxi? … Boyfriend? …Wifi?

My Cuban Chronicles

It’s been 56 years since the Cuban Revolution, and the spray-painted signs all over crumbling, yet vibrant Havana won’t let you forget. Yes, stepping out of the airport and into Havana is like entering a time capsule, but there’s something more complex going on. My friends & I immediately sensed that Havana housed parallel worlds. There’s the world of the ordinary Cubans struggling daily, and that of the yuma, or foreigner, in town on a vacation. They exist simultaneously, yet rarely collide.

Cubans don’t even use the same currency as tourists, they use moneda nacional (MN). It’s worth about 24 cents to 1 CUC. MN isn’t even accepted at any of the places tourists go. All Cubans who are not in tourism have a side hustle because even doctors and engineers make 25 CUC a month (what it costs to get from the airport to the city). Taxi drivers make more than professionals. As such, you’ll find a lot of ex-engineer cabbies. Almost everyone uses the black market to get by, to get things that Americans would consider basic necessities. Many Cubans receive weekly (illegal) USB “packets” with all the new movies and more, to compensate for the lack of internet access.

As part of the emerging private sector (20% of the economy), I found that airbnb hosts were at this odd intersection, straddling the parallel worlds described above. I recommend staying with an airbnb Superhost — they can help arrange taxis for you, get you additional services like a cook, bartender, or masseuse (often the same person), and they can also call in reservations for you, which brings me to a few tips I wish I’d known beforehand.

Top Tips:

Make reservations in advance if there’s somewhere special you want to eat, especially at the following restaurants:

El Cocinero

Los Naranjos

Doña Euitmia

San Cristobal (where Jay-Z & Beyonce & Obama went)

La Guarida

I found this a bit shocking but you really do need reservations even on weeknights. Old Havana is small and there are only a handful of raved about dinner spots - this makes sense considering that regular Cubans cannot afford to go to any of these tourist spots.

Exchange your USD to EUR at the airport in the states and then exchange EUR for CUC (1 EUR = 1 CUC) at the airport in Havana - once you leave the airport, there are very few places to exchange in the city (maybe 2) and they are very slow.

Bring more than enough cash. American money is ok, but you can’t exchange USD there without a 10% fee. You won’t be able to use your credit card or withdraw money from the ATM. Budget about $100 USD a day and that should be more than enough, not including accommodation. Most meals cost about $10 and cocktails cost $3-4, and beer $2.

Off the beaten path are really cheap local bakeries selling bread to locals for $.04 a loaf and street vendors hawking fresh fruit for $.50. Street food consists of sandwiches.

As always, confirm the amount with your taxi river before getting in. There are no metered taxis. A cab from the airport to Old Havana should be about $25. It cost us $25 to get to Santa Fe from the airport as well. Both trips take about 30 min.

Before you leave, download the Cuba App from iTunes - it will work offline & the map will combine clutch. The GPS will work while your phone is on airplane mode.

Be prepared to have absolutely no wifi. There is wifi in select spots but it's usually a pain to connect.

Take the time to learn a few key Spanish phrases like:

“Necesito ir a…” means “I need to go to…”

“¿Dónde está…” when you’re asking about where something is.

“¿Cuánto cuesta?” = “How much does it cost?”

“¿Puedo ver un menú, por favor? ” which means “Can I see a menu please?” You could also say “Necesito una mesa para dos, por favor” which means “I need a table for two, please.”

To order a drink at the bar, say “Me gustaria un/a … por favor.” So if you want a beer, it would be “Me gustaria una cerveza por favor.”

My shitty Spanish was enough to get us by, but it wasn't enough to ensure things didn't go wrong when trying to iron out the details. This trip solidified my resolve to become fluent in Spanish.

The Trip

Day 1: We arrived in Havana and had dinner at the house in Santa Fe, which is a suburb (consejo popular) about 15 min. west of Havana. I was there for one of my best friend’s bachelorette party & we wanted an escape from the city and not to have to split up the group. So our house was perfect for those purposes. It was right on the water and had a small pool. They are installing an infinity pool soon, which will be amazing.

After dinner at the house, we took a taxi into Old Havana and wandered by one of many bars that was playing music, dancers spilling outside onto the cobblestone street. That was the spot where we got inadvertently hustled by a guy named Lando who told us that, “today is the salsa festival” nah, dude…everyday is a salsa festival here.

He then took us to get the “best mojitos” at an Irish pub. We took one sip and it was apparent that we were being hustled. Soon his friend joined us and we noticed them getting some kind of commission for bringing us to this bar. Then there was the whole Buena Vista Social Club fiasco - we told them we were planning to see the band and they told us they knew where we could get tickets.

They took us to Legendarios del Guajirito. It was some bogus place, overpriced and full of older, cruise ship type folk. AVOID at all costs.

Lando was charming & polite, but definitely a hustler.

Day 2: The one good thing Lando told us about was Santa Maria, a local beach about 20 min. by taxi - free chairs and umbrellas. 2 CUC for a chaise lounge.

We drank plenty of coco locos (coconuts filled with rum, $4) and jammed out with our floatable speaker. Our driver Luis chilled with us the entire day and watched our stuff in exchange for a beer or two (but I think he would've done it anyway).

That night we showed up at El Cocinero for dinner, without a reservation, and it was impossible to get a table. So, we walked to the closest restaurant, which was 1830. That place had terrible “second wedding vibes” as my friend aptly put it. The interior had a retro colonial look. The service was poor and the food was lacking, especially considering the price. I hear 1830 is known for good outdoor salsa after 10pm, however.

Afterwards, we headed to the outdoor club Don Cangrejo, on the water. The band went on at midnight. The singer was so suave and grinded his way into my heart. Regrettably, I can’t remember his name but his selfies (flashing on screen behind him) are etched into my memory.

It was weird that there were all these tables instead of a clear dance floor- people just stood up and danced at their table, or right below the stage.

They say NYC is the city that never sleeps, but I don’t think the originator of that saying has visited Havana. In Havana, the party doesn’t get started until after midnight. The clubs are dead before then so plan accordingly.

Day 3: We explored Old Havana, had drinks and a tasty bite at 304. Then toured the city in an old hot pink convertible, wandered round markets, and stumbled upon a free art gallery with some interesting pieces composed of repurposed trash and used objects.

La Bodeguita Del Medio: where the Mojito was invented and a Hemingway hangout. They play good live music (so do most places) and the Mojitos are the best. People gather outside on the street.

La Floridita: Another Hemingway hangout, equipped with Hemmingway statue at the bar. This is the home of the Daiquiri. A lot of older people, but the tasty drink was worth it.

That night, we had an amazing dinner at Doña Eutimia,a traditional restaurant in Old Havana. It’s at the end of Callejón Del Chorro, an alley full of restaurants, to the right. The food is amazing and cheap and the frozen mojito is the specialty of the house.

We had all heard about Fabrica de Arte (FAC) which is a relatively new art space right next to El Cocinero. It’s a gallery plus music venue/experiential art space. Some dudes said it was 10 CUC to cut the line - I was with 5 girls & couldn’t cut the line without paying, which we opted not to do.

We consoled ourselves by agreeing it was pretty much like a Bushwick warehouse party.

Instead, we had drinks at El Cocinero’s rooftop - so many people from Brooklyn!!

El Cocinero is an old cooking oil factory in the Vedado neighborhood of Havana.

Day 4: Viñales day trip - countryside about 2 1/2 hours away.

Taxi there and back: 100 CUC

We went horseback riding through limestone hills and tobacco fields. Our tour included tasting honey made by bees underground, rum with a special type of guava only found in that region of Cuba, a coffee farm, a lake, and a cave.

(A 4-hour tour for 20 CUC per person; cave entry 2 CUC.)

We had a true farm-to-table lunch & the best piña colada i have ever had in my life.

When we got back, we had dinner across from 304, at FRENTE. Unfortunately, they had rude service. The food was good, but they’d run out of all the seafood on the menu (we got there around 10pm).

Although I wasn’t able to perforate the tourist parallel world and experience life like a local and I came away with more questions than answers, I still have a fondness for the self-reliance I saw and tremendous kindness I experienced.

#havana #cuba #guide #vinales #travel #cubans #bachelorette party #americans in cuba #habana #old havana #habana vieja

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imagineclaireandjamie · 7 years

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Read Chapters One through Six here.

Our Story

You can write an entire story with these bits and pieces of their lives, cut the acts together to form one winding opera. It plays and stops—the sound booth unmanned—until, eventually, the grand finale. The overlap: a perfect harmony which carries them from their separate wings, to center stage and to each other.

And it is there, finally, that they meet again, lips and lives melding. They stand together in the orb of the spotlight. A single sun, glowing.

The Spirit in the Horse, 2000

Starring James Fraser, Jenny Fraser, Brian Fraser, The Doctor, Ellen Fraser, Fitzy (and a More-Than-Flash of Someone Else)

Though a bestselling author, JAMES FRASER did not grow up with dreams of books, but of horses.

He was born on an unusually hot day, spring 1968. Everything melting at their very seams, the birthing room’s thermometer feverish with mercury blood. His father and sister had fashioned fans from intake forms, moving heat-murk and birth-stink with the accordioned papers. They looked on with damp foreheads, lips white and tight, so that Ellen could have the breaths they saved.

The hibernators had emerged early that year, scurrying from their earthen wombs just as Jamie had slipped from his mother’s. Heat-drunk and dizzied, they had eaten everything in sight: corn stalks, cabbage leaves, whole fields of barley—gone. Even Ellen’s strawberries, barely ripened—devoured by mid-April. The red fruits had shrunk to halves, then thirds, as the creatures munched and munched. Fleshy hearts eaten to bleeding, the pulp left to the sleepy stragglers.

And so on the day Jamie entered the world, the Frasers had returned to a dark and stifling house. Rot wafting from the windows, electrical wires chewed cleanly through. One rabbit, the chosen martyr, had laid cooked in the grass, fur spiked.

How—if at all, she had wondered—would they survive without her mother?

After his book tour in ’99, Jamie Fraser decided to take the leap—carpe diem—and purchase his own horse, his own land (fields way out in the Highlands; a farmhouse converted to splendor by his millions). The horse, like Fitzy, wears a chestnut coat. She is stubborn but loving, recognizes Jamie’s voice when he calls and his face when it floats above her stable door. He sees a flash of Fitzy—and of his mother, he thinks—when she surrenders her anger to Jamie’s flags of truce: a fresh Granny Smith, a carrot stick plucked from the ground. He sees a More-Than-Flash of Someone Else when she nudges his shoulder, apologetic. The only source of happiness, this beautiful beast, outside of his writing.

“Ye see?” Jamie had said after their first standoff, “Ye canna stay mad at me forever.” And when the horse had chomped the apple from his hand, he’d sworn that she was smiling.

“Mo nighean donn,” he’d whispered, and decided, then and there, to name her Sorcha.

Carroll’s Theory of Truth, 2003

Starring Claire Randall, Frank Randall, Joe Abernathy, duncandonuts, wetwillie, mark_me_1745, parsleymarsley, l.mackenzie (and The Author)

When CLAIRE RANDALL is not working at the hospital, her nose is pressed to a blue-white screen.

For years, she had resisted those monstrous, blocky machines: Macintosh, Dell, Gateway. All brand names accompanied by her husband’s reverent whisper, longing glances at window displays, or jabbing elbows. “We should get one, Claire.”

But there was value in tradition, Claire had argued, a kind of sanctity in the ping of an Underwood or the swish of pen; privacy and authentic connection. Frank had merely rolled his eyes, always lusting after the new and shiny—whether a computer or a student’s gloss-plumped lips—knowing it was not “tradition” itself that his wife was holding onto.

“So like you, Claire,” he’d said bitterly one day, “wanting to stay stuck in the past.” And, of course, he’d been right. And so to spite him, she’d finally surrendered, gave him one for Christmas.

Claire Randall, the British spy.

Claire Randall, the avid hiker, climbing the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Claire Randall, the mother, who loved the melt of ice cream down her daughter’s chin. Her tiny mouth, sweet and sugared, when it met hers for a kiss.

One website, her favorite, was this: a forum, populated by other faceless humans who, like Claire, could recite pages 32, 208, 451 (or any others) of A Blade of Grass. In this corner of the online universe, they had spoken of The Author on a first-name basis, trading facts like prized baseball cards. But it was only Claire who could share the most private knowledge, attribute it all to her keen nose and thus earn the respect of 16 anonymous users.

whiteraven: A long shot, but does anyone know how to contact him by telephone?

And five of the grey-faced few had responded.

duncandonuts: easier to send him send him a letter (might get lost among the rest of his fan mail though).

wetwillie: have you tried his agent, john grey, in london?

mark_me_1745: if u meet him, tell him 2 come 2 brasil!!!!!!! we <3 him!!!!!!!

parsleymarsali: Publishers Weekly mentioned he’s now with Geordie Gibbons at the Claude F. Agency, not Grey, @wetwillie. Think it had something to do with creative differences and missed deadlines.

l.mackenzie: pass that info onto _me_ if you find it, girl! <g>

She spent three months with the numbers inside her head, stored in a folder marked with The Author’s name. She did manage to call though—once—when her hand finally lowered from its hover. She’d waited out the sonorous ring-ring-ring, the robotic chime, “You have reached the voice mailbox of +44 3456 2222.” She had listened to the beep that followed and then the silence, stretching, until she remembered her mouth. It opened, exhaled, shut abruptly with the click of her teeth. There was the clatter of keys and the thwop of a briefcase—Frank home from work; she almost whispered, but did not.

Again: the sonorous ring-ring-ring, the tinny greeting, the beep, and the silence that waits for her. But this time: her mouth opening—one, two three times—and five words repeated, again and again. In some versions, she says them aloud. In others, merely pushes them, soundless, into the air. Still, they are there, held aloft by satellite arms high up in the sky. Somewhere between her and The Author, existing: I was born for you, I was born for you, I was born for you.

And what is said three times—even unfinished, even without words—is always, always true.

Three Times the World Ended, 2004

Starring Jamie Fraser, Jenny Fraser, and Laoghaire Mackenzie (and The Girl)

JAMES FRASER, age 34, can pinpoint three moments where his world fell apart.

He was eighteen during the first, a brazen thing but still as green as the pot freshly stinking his Levi’s. After reading the note pasted to his door—Your sister called. Said it was urgent—he’d floated to the common room on a cloud of White Widow weed. He dialed, laughing, until Jenny’s voice had sobbed down the line, breaking his druggy fug.

Their father, she’d cried, had died the previous evening.

With the news, the drugs turned. Floors slanted, limbs jellied. Jamie watched as a hole ripped open the wall behind him, its enormous black void revealing the space Brian Fraser had left behind. It had swallowed Jamie up, refused to spit him back again until The Girl reached inside and found his heart. Returned it to him, like a love note, passed on the inside of her smile.

Nine years after the second earthquake, a new person had come into Jamie’s life. She would stand in the doorway at 6:30PM, jump to her tip-toes to welcome him home. There would be steam from the stove behind her and the gleam of utensils from the table, forks and knives arranged in perfect, shining order. Napkins would wait with their patient folds, each prepared to catch the food which she, his ever-present Laoghaire, had prepared during the day. And for those three years, Laoghaire’s toothbrush had sat next to Jamie’s, her silks hanging beside his cottons. Evidence, he had thought, that he maybe-almost loved her.

My da once told me I’d know straight away, that I’d have no doubt. And I didn’t.

For so many years, for so long, I have been so many different men.

The love of you was my soul.

and

Yours, Jamie

Forever, Jamie

Come home, my heart. I am not as brave as I was before, Jamie

On and on and on they went. Singed pieces of his letters. Every one meant for The Girl who’d confronted his darkness, had rescued his heart at a Christmas Eve party.

All 4,380 of them. One letter for every day he had missed her.

The Killing Girl, 2006

Starring Claire Randall*, Henry Beauchamp, Julia Beauchamp, Quentin Lambert Beauchamp, Frank Randall (and The One Person)

CLAIRE RANDALL* , Chief of Staff at Boston GH, was five years old when she thought she was murderer. For years, she could hardly sleep, fearing not the monster beneath her bed, but the one beneath her covers.

Instead of counting sheep, she’d recounted facts as they’d been reported in the paper: Henry and Julia Beauchamp, parents of one Claire Beauchamp. Their mangled car, a rocky deathbed set one hundred feet below. Both husband and wife, father and mother—dead upon impact.

Rarely, did this guide Claire towards sleep, and so she began to picture the accident as she’d recorded it in her diary. The same story but more accurate, one that played behind her eyelids as if she had watched it all, a spectator on the road’s shoulder.

There was her parents’ blue Ford ribboning the cliffside. The low hum of conversation and the static of the radio. There was Claire’s goodbye before they left—“You always go without me! IhateyouIhateyou!”— following her parents, pushing them off the edge, feeding them into the river’s stone jaws. She was sure it was her words that had broken her mother’s neck, had snapped it like a flower’s stem. One Claire Beauchamp, the little killing girl.

Five years passed before Lamb had found her in the courtyard, weeping guilt into a mat of grey feathers. She had confessed to her five-year anger then, how she’d pried open the rocky mouth and dropped her parents in. “Death doesn’t move according to reason, my dear,” Lamb had said, “but only chance. And by no fault of yours, either.” He had patted her on the head like a priest grants forgiveness, and they buried the bird in the Nyungwe Forest. Wings and Claire’s blame laid to rest beneath the trees.

It was Claire’s fault that the frost returned in May, all her marigold suns snuffed out.

It was Claire’s fault that the infection took the wound, gnawed the patient’s flesh so that a saw had to chop the bone.

It was Claire’s fault that midnight voices chirped down the receiver. The girls’ lovesick notes—I need you. I love you. Leave her.—placed in Frank’s pockets by Claire’s own hands.

And of course, it was Claire’s fault that things had ended as they did. The final fight, every bit of hate, hers to claim:

“I am not an idiot, Frank! And I’m tired of being made into one.”

“Darling, you aren’t an idiot. I never said you were an idiot.”

“Don’t bloody ‘darling’ me, you bloody cad.”

“I’m sorry.”

“How novel.”

“Truly, I am.”

“So I’m the only selfish one here, is that it? Just me?”

“You’re saying that I’m selfish?”

“I am.”

“Me.”

“So I see you’ve lost all sense, but still have some fucking nerve. You—you…I can’t even look at you right now.”

“Cursing doesn’t improve your argument.”

“Wanker.”

“Now Claire…”

“Just go.”

“Claire, please—”

“Go.”

All of this, she has put upon her shoulders, for its burden is lesser than the truth: that she has no control, never did and never would. Claire, forever spinning and spinning at the mercy of a capricious gravity—she and everyone else, a little bit helpless. Always.

They had spiraled through life, the pair of them, both a little bit helpless—but everything, everything shared. A cot, a child, bodies, sins, blame.

All her fault: Claire Randall, Chief of Staff. The guilty one, the killing girl, the widow. Spinning and spinning into empty space, grasping at stars, alone.

[Note from director: Ms. Claire Randall has requested we change her name to Claire Beauchamp. Please reprint with this correction ASAP. Thank you.]

Point of Convergence, 2007

Starring Jamie Fraser (The Author, The One Person), Claire Beauchamp (A More-Than-Flash Of Someone-Else, The Girl), Geordie Gibbons

One of the most important days of Jamie’s life began in anticipation of such disappointment. He had twiddled his thumbs beneath a table, dreading the moment Geordie’s fedora ducked beneath the restaurant’s eaves. The wait staff had milled around him: a waiter dashing towards snapping fingers, the hostess offering towels for rain-soaked heads. He’d felt jealous, watching them—of their readiness, how they could be so effortlessly on time. Jamie couldn’t even manage to meet his deadlines, the desk calendar at home flipped far beyond the designated X.

But on this day, the universe had shifted; the pattern broke. Jamie had continued to sit there, all sweat and nerves, but Geordie’s fedora, the interrogation, and the food never came.

Because while Jamie had waited in the restaurant, CLAIRE BEAUCHAMP was arguing in her bedroom mirror: Claire vs. Claire, Head vs. Heart. Thousands of miles away in a Boston apartment, but still—the tremor traveled, pushing a storm across the Atlantic, down the Royal Mile, to Jamie. The trajectory of his day and his life had changed as Claire gesticulated wildly at her own reflection.

So at 12:14, Jamie had been alone, Geordie unusually late for a man so fond of punctuality. He read the menu three times, settled on a whisky. Thought better of it; ordered two.

At 12:30, Claire’s battle had still raged, no victor in sight. The thunder had shaken the house, knocked the mirror off the wall.

At 12:51, Claire had opened her scrapbook, a secret once kept from Frank. It was filled with bits and bobs: a piece of bubble wrap, a bell from her holiday sweater. Both of them glued beside old polaroids. Again, she did not feel her Heart stutter, but expand, lift straight out of her chest. A full siege after that. Her Head’s weakest men fell beneath the lash of artery whips.

At 12:53:05, he said, “Jesus, man! Where are ye? I’ve been waiting nigh on 50 minutes!” There was no response.

At 12:53:08: “Did ye get caught in the storm? Are ye calling from a pay phone?” More silence.

At 12:53:13: “Hello? Anyone there?”

At 12:53:20: “Geordie, man, is that you?”

At 12:53:25: A deep, shaking breath. An audible gulp. Claire’s Heart whispering its victory song.

12:53:26: “It’s isn’t Geordie.”

12:53:27: “It’s me.”

And at 12:53:28, everywhere, suddenly—the brightest sun.

#god this chapter was a proper bitch #let's pretend playbills are like this #our story AU #;mod liv #featuring: frank #featuring: laoghaire

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instantdeerlover · 4 years

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Where To Eat Outside On The Eastside added to Google Docs

Where To Eat Outside On The Eastside

Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Echo Park, and the neighborhoods in between have a lot going for them. Tons of parks. All the coolest new bars (well, in normal times). Countless French bulldogs with names like Timothèé and Radbourne. So it’s almost not fair that there are also tons of great places to eat outside, too. We say “almost” because, right now, we can all take advantage of everything this stretch of Sunset has to offer - starting with these 28 great spots for outdoor dining.

Featured In The LA Socially Distant Summer Guide Everything you need to enjoy some semblance of summer. THE SPOTS Alcove Cafe & Bakery $ $ $ $ American , Cafe/Bakery in Los Feliz $$$$ 1929 Hillhurst Ave.

Located in two converted houses on Hillhurst, this is one of the best outdoor spaces out there — perfect for penning the next King Lear, or sweating through every fiber of your clothes. Plus, they have a really good eggs Benedict.

All Day Baby $ $ $ $ American in Silver Lake $$$$ 3200 W Sunset Blvd

The Silver Lake comfort food spot has set up a small outdoor dining area running along Sunset Blvd. Now you can enjoy their smoked ribs, hot catfish sandwich, and perhaps the most delicious biscuit on the planet while soaking up some rays.

Bar Restaurant $ $ $ $ French in Silver Lake $$$$ 4326 W. Sunset Blvd

Bar Restaurant, one of our favorite new restaurants to open in the past year, has reopened as “Bar Restaurant Valet Parking,” with seating on their patio as well as a brand new dining space in their parking lot. There’s string lights, tons of foliage, and old menu favorites like the cured ham and moules frites.

The Black Cat $ $ $ $ Bar Food , Bar in Silver Lake $$$$ 3909 W Sunset Blvd

The famed Silver Lake bar has opened a big outdoor area for both eating and drinking. Expect picnic tables, string lighting, and two big white tents to block out the sun.

Casita del Campo $ $ $ $ Mexican in Silver Lake $$$$ 1920 Hyperion Ave

If you’ve missed Casita’s atmosphere and lethally strong margaritas as much as we have, good news - the iconic Mexican restaurant in Silver Lake is back open with not one, but three new outdoor patios. All the tables are six-feet apart, there are string lights hanging everywhere, and tons of umbrellas for shade. In other words, this is the ideal atmosphere for one too many margaritas.

Counterpart Deli $$$$ 1559 Echo Park Ave

The all-day vegan restaurant in Echo Park has brand new sidewalk seating going along both Echo Park Ave. and Delta St.

Golden Road Brewing $ $ $ $ American , Vegetarian $$$$ 5410 W San Fernando Rd

Golden Road, the LA-bred, Budweiser-owned brewery in Atwater Village, has reopened their large front patio and side yard for dine-in. They’ve got an eclectic menu full of pub food, like carnitas poutine, BBQ short rib sandwiches, and fish & chips. First-come, first-served.

Guisados $ $ $ $ Tacos in Echo Park $$$$ 1261 W. Sunset Blvd.

Guisados has reopened all of their locations, including the Echo Park outpost, with its back patio in the hills of Chavez Ravine. All the tacos are $3.50 or less, so you can really go crazy here and try a bunch of different stuff. Our favorites are the chicharrón - pork skin simmered in salsa verde - and the super-spicy chiles toreados, with four kinds of hot peppers.

El Cid $ $ $ $ Silver Lake $$$$ 4212 W Sunset Blvd

A classic spot on Sunset Blvd., this music and dance venue in Silver Lake has reopened their back patio for drinking and dining. The menu is all bar food - chicken wings, nachos, and an Impossible burger - which is ideal for eating alongside their super-strong margaritas. They’re requiring patrons to wear masks at all times when not dining, and highly recommend making reservations. For more information, check out their Instagram.

Figaro Bistrot $ $ $ $ French in Los Feliz $$$$ 1802 N Vermont Ave

Los Feliz sidewalk spot Figaro Bistrot reopened in late May, with their French cafe food, and all kinds of European wines. Things can get expensive, but when you’re drinking a glass of pinot on an empty Vermont Avenue, you can’t be too mad about it.

Fred 62 $ $ $ $ Diner in Los Feliz $$$$ 1850 N Vermont Ave

In “normal” times, Fred 62 was a 24-hour diner on Vermont across from the Los Feliz 3. Since reopening, they’re a 15-hour diner (9am-midnight), which is still pretty useful. They’ve got plenty of sidewalk seating for eating diner classics like all-day omelettes, mac & cheese balls, and Juicy Lucys, along with some recently added pan pizzas.

Home Restaurant $ $ $ $ American in Los Feliz $$$$ 1760 Hillhurst Ave

In a neighborhood that knows good patios, Home is one of our favorites. The leafy space on Hillhurst doesn’t exactly feel like a home, but it is a great place to hang with a few friends and burn an entire Thursday afternoon drinking mimosas and people-watching.

The Kitchen $$$$ 4348 Fountain Ave

A Silver Lake locals’ spot that’s been around since 2000 (approximately 100 years in Silver Lake time), The Kitchen reopened their sidewalk seating for dining. The menu is mostly comfort food, which we all need a bit of right now - mac & cheese, meat loaf, and chicken pot pie, among many others. They’ve also got a small but very affordable beer and wine list.

Lady Byrd Cafe $$$$ 2100 Echo Park Ave.

In what might be the most unique patio set up in town, Lady Byrd Cafe (in the old Pollen space in Echo Park) has placed plant-filled greenhouses around every table, ensuring minimal germ exposure and maximum English garden aesthetics. Couple that with a menu that includes sandwiches, pasta, and pastries, and this new all-day cafe is as good of an al fresco dining situation as you’ll find this summer.

Little Dom's $ $ $ $ Italian in Los Feliz $$$$ 2128 Hillhurst Ave.

Los Feliz locals’ spot Little Dom’s has reopened their patio seating for nightly dinner and weekend brunch, both of which will involve wood-fired pizzas, sandwiches, and, hopefully, martinis. Reservations required.

Lolo Wine Bar $ $ $ $ Wine Bar in East Hollywood $$$$ 5140 Sunset Blvd

Lolo in East Hollywood has one of the most underrated patios on the Eastside, thanks to its quiet setting and massive fig trees. The menu is keeping a tight focus to start, serving snacks and focaccia sandwiches at lunchtime, and at night, they’re doing housemade pastas - spaghetti with sungold tomatoes and eggplant, tagliatelle with mushrooms, and ricotta cavatelli with pepper ragu and pork meatballs. They’ve got an excellent wine selection, too, and are offering all bottles from their shop at retail price for dine-in (plus a $10 corkage).

Loupiotte Kitchen $ $ $ $ French , Brunch in Los Feliz $$$$ 1726 N Vermont Ave

Another French cafe in Los Feliz, Loupiotte is the ideal place for a 2pm glass of wine when “work from home” isn’t going as well as you might have hoped. Pair it with some creamy polenta with mushrooms and a fried egg, or their excellent burger - made with gruyere and confit d’oignons (jammy onions) - and you’ll be very happy. They’ve got a partially-covered patio with a few tables off Vermont.

Lowboy $ $ $ $ Bar Food , Bar in Echo Park $$$$ 1534 Sunset Blvd

One of our favorite bars in Echo Park has been doing limited seatings for a while now, but if you’re a little nervous about grabbing a burger and a beer inside, fear not: They’ve also got a small enclosed patio on the sidewalk, and they’re cocktails are just as delicious (and deadly strong) outside.

Ma'am Sir $ $ $ $ Filipino in Silver Lake $$$$ 4330 W Sunset Blvd

Ma’am Sir might not have the biggest patio in town - it’s a parking-space sized section of Sunset in front of their Silver Lake spot - but if you want to eat Filipino food outside, this is a great place to do it. They’re constantly changing the menu, but have recently been serving chicken-fried mushroom sandwiches, sisig burritos, and whole-cooked milkfish bento boxes.

Marco Polo $ $ $ $ Italian in Silver Lake $$$$ 4141 Santa Monica Blvd

Before the pandemic hit, Marco Polo was one of the most interesting new spots in town, serving coastal Italian food and some seriously good handmade pastas on a lush pool deck. They’re back open with poolside dining in Silver Lake. Reserve here.

Melody $ $ $ $ American in Virgil Village $$$$ 751 N Virgil Ave

Virgil Village’s natural wine bar Melody converted into a wine shop for much of the pandemic, and now, they’ve reopened their patio, too. Alongside their long wine and beer list, they’ve got weekly pop-ups from spots like Metztli Taqueria, an excellent high-end taco spot. First come, first served.

Messhall Kitchen $ $ $ $ American in Los Feliz $$$$ 4500 Los Feliz Blvd.

Los Feliz’s summer camp-themed Messhall has reopened for patio dining. Their all-day menu includes a fish fry, smoked ribs, and crab cakes, along with some really great cocktails and a few kinds of oysters. They’ve got an all-day menu weekday lunch and nightly dinner, and a weekend brunch menu. Reserve on their website.

Mohawk Bend $ $ $ $ Bar Food , Vegetarian in Echo Park $$$$ 2141 W Sunset Blvd

Craft beer hall/vegan pizza specialist Mohawk Bend is back open. They’ve got their regular patio underneath their large marquee in Echo Park, plus some expanded sidewalk seating on Sunset.

Momed $$$$ 3245 Casitas Ave

Mediterranean spot Momed is back open in Atwater Village. They’ve got a big patio where you’ll eat lamb and beef meatballs with pine nuts, feta, pomegranate seeds, and tomato ragu, and excellent chicken skewers with chickpea aioli and tzatziki.

Rockwell Table and Stage $ $ $ $ American , Bar Food in Los Feliz $$$$ 1714 N Vermont Ave

You probably know Rockwell more for their burlesque shows than their food, but that shouldn’t stop you from going by for Happy Hour or brunch on the patio. They’ve got two levels of outdoor seating for you and your quarantine buddies to grab a table, order some cocktails, and split a BBQ chicken flatbread.

Sogo Roll Bar $ $ $ $ Japanese , Sushi in Los Feliz $$$$ 4634 Hollywood Blvd

Since Sogo’s opening, their front patio area has been used for people to wait around until a seat became available at the bar inside. Now, the Los Feliz sushi spot has converted the space into dining, meaning you can enjoy their simple, fresh hand rolls while remaining outside and socially distant.

Spoke Bicycle Cafe $ $ $ $ American in Atwater Village , Frogtown , Silver Lake $$$$ 3050 N Coolidge Ave

Spoke Cafe is a great Frogtown spot on the LA River Bike Path, serving sandwiches, coffee, beer, and wine. They’ve got a big, open patio, the best vegetarian burger in the city (house-made with smoked mushrooms and beets), and waffle fries that will take you directly back to middle school in the best way possible.

Taix French Restaurant $ $ $ $ French in Echo Park $$$$ 1911 W Sunset Blvd

The classic French restaurant in Echo Park is now offering outdoor dining in their parking lot. The set up includes umbrellas, potted plants, and a lot of steak-frites.

via The Infatuation Feed https://www.theinfatuation.com/los-angeles/guides/where-to-eat-outside-on-the-eastside Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://trello.com/userhuongsen

Created August 28, 2020 at 11:42PM /huong sen View Google Doc Nhà hàng Hương Sen chuyên buffet hải sản cao cấp✅ Tổ chức tiệc cưới✅ Hội nghị, hội thảo✅ Tiệc lưu động✅ Sự kiện mang tầm cỡ quốc gia 52 Phố Miếu Đầm, Mễ Trì, Nam Từ Liêm, Hà Nội http://huongsen.vn/ 0904988999 http://huongsen.vn/to-chuc-tiec-hoi-nghi/ https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xa6sRugRZk4MDSyctcqusGYBv1lXYkrF

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peacefulheartfarm · 4 years

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Raw Milk Cheese in Virginia

Today I’m going to review how to get raw milk cheese in Virginia via our herd share program. And, because I have lots of new listeners, I’m going to review our creamery project.

I do want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to my veteran homestead loving regulars. Thank you so much for stopping by the FarmCast every week. I appreciate you all so much.

As always, there’s a lot going on and there is not nearly enough time in the day to get everything done. And as always, I love it. It’s so good to be alive.

Homestead Life Updates

We are finally getting a break from the heat. Rain has finally returned – at least for the time being. There is still quite a bit of summer left to go.

Herd Share Program

It has been a while since I talked about our Herd Share program. We offer you the opportunity to have your own part of our dairy herd. You too can experience what we are blessed with by virtue of operating our homestead. I know all of you cannot possibly do what we are doing, but you’d like to have the benefit of fresh dairy products from pasture raised cows.

The way you obtain raw milk cheese in Virginia is to purchase part of the herd and then simply pay a monthly boarding and maintenance fee and we will take care of everything else for you. On a weekly basis, you come to the farm and pick up your fresh milk products. We have butter and cheese year-round. During the active milking season we also have fresh, raw A2A2 milk and Yogurt.

We guarantee fresh milk from the first Saturday in May through the last Saturday in October. Sometimes we have milk earlier and sometimes it lasts longer into November. As I said earlier cheese and butter are available year-round. We have many members who are only in it for the cheese and butter.

If you are not familiar with A2A2 milk, I have a podcast on that topic titled, “What is A2A2 Milk?”. Link in the show notes. Or just go to our website (give web address), click or tap the podcast menu item and browse for it. It’s a way down the page as it was well over a year ago that I did that podcast.

The Area We Serve

For those of you out there listening to the sound of my voice, if you are in the southern/southwestern Virginia area or northern North Carolina area, we are here for you. It is about an hour trip from Winston-Salem, North Carolina and perhaps an hour and a half from Greensboro. In Virginia, Martinsville, Hillsville, and Galax are all less than an hour away. Wytheville is slightly over an hour. It takes us an hour and 10 minutes to get to the downtown Farmer’s Market. Roanoke is 2 hours from us. Floyd, Christiansburg and Blacksburg are somewhere in between.

Herd Share Pickups

We are open for on-farm sales and herd share pickups: Saturdays 3 - 5pm and Tuesdays 10am - 12pm. Come on out and get yourself some homestead sunshine. Take a look at how our animals are raised. We’ll answer all of your questions and make sure you get the best grass fed and finished beef, lamb and goat on the market today. Tuesdays 10am – 12 pm and Saturdays 3 – 5 pm.

Creamery

For new listeners I want to go over what we are doing with our creamery. My husband, Scott, is single-handedly building our USDA inspected dairy facility. It is a monstrous task. He has been doing the physical work on it for three and a half years. Long before that he was drawing up the plans. He was born with a hammer in his hand so he is very skilled at doing these drawings. We had long discussions about what we needed to include. The dairy inspector has been involved every step of the way. Many hours went into the design before the first bit of ground was dug up for the foundation.

Once it is complete, we will be able to offer our raw milk cheeses to the general public. Right now, it is only available via our herd share program that I just talked about. The milk, butter and yogurt will only ever be available via herd share. Unless and until the laws change in Virginia.

There are many different sections to the creamery building project. There is a barn, a milking parlor, a milk storage room, a full bath, the cheese make room, two cheese caves, a commercial kitchen and a storefront where I will do business with all of you.

Barn

The farthest away from my back door is the barn and animal loafing area. This is where we will collect the cows for milking. It is covered and will keep the donkeys out of the rain and snow. There is also a small area on the other of a wall from the stanchion platform. That will be used for various other aspects of animal husbandry.

Milking Stanchions and Milking Parlor

From the loafing area, the cows walk up four short steps to get to the stanchions. This area is set up with metal bars that keep the cows together and at the perfect angle for milking. The cows walk into the stanchions and eat a little snack while we are milking them. We are standing below them where the floor of the milking parlor and the rest of the building is about 2 and a half feet lower than the elevated barn floor.

Let’s do a virtual tour of the rest of the building. You are currently standing on the floor of the milking parlor. It is open and breezy. The design is one we saw at another dairy near us. They got the idea from a trip to New Zealand. Most milking parlors are closed in, dark, and humid. Ours has a roof but no sides. The air freely circulates.

Imagine you were facing the cows in their stanchions. Now turn around and face the other way. The rest of the creamery is now in front of you.

Milk Room

Directly in front of you is the doorway to the milk room. This is where the milk is stored. There is a direct pipeline from the milking parlor to the milk room. Its main feature is a large stainless-steel bulk milk tank. Our tank will hold up to 80 gallons of milk. The milk must be cooled quickly and this is the piece of equipment that makes that happen. In accordance with USDA inspection rules, it must be emptied, cleaned, and sanitized at least every three days.

Directly to your left would be the wall of the large cheese cave. There is no access from this side, called the dirty side. To the far left is a utility room. It holds the washer and dryer and the pipeline milking system. That thing is really loud. I’m glad it will be behind closed doors in the utility room.

Full Bath

You are still standing in the middle of the parlor floor. Directly to your right is a doorway to the clean side. Walking through the doorway, immediately on your right is a bathroom complete with shower. We will be able to come in dirty and sweaty from milking and take a quick shower and get into clean clothes before entering the “clean side”.

When you walk into this section the bathroom is on the right and in front of you is storage area for clean clothes, aprons, gloves, boots and so on that are used within the cheese make room. It is the ultimate in clean spaces. There are even pans of bleach water at various locations to keep the soles of boots clean and sanitized.

Cheese Make Room

Past the storage areas is the entrance to the cheese make room and a hard-right turn will lead to an entrance/exit door to the creamery on the right. We are going to enter the cheese make room. In here we find all of the tools and equipment used to make the cheese. A vat is the centerpiece. But there are lots of cheese forms or molds for shaping the curd. There are sinks and tables – all stainless steel. Shelves contain various sets of weight, measuring tools, and cleaning supplies. In the corner is the magnificent cheddar cheese press we special ordered from the Netherlands.

The floors have a tile with a special and very expensive grout that will hold up to the acid pH of the cheese whey. It empties out of the vat directly onto the floor and flows down to a floor drain in the corner.

The Cheese Caves

After entering the room, turn left and walk all the way across the room to the exit door. It leads to a common area between the cheese caves and the kitchen. Directly in front of you is the door to the small cheese cave. To the left is the door into the large cheese cave. To the right is an open doorway to the commercial kitchen area.

The raw milk cheese caves are heavily insulated rooms that will maintain specific temperatures and humidity. We are currently using the small cave to age the cheeses we are making for our herd share members. It is complete except for electricity. Scott has something rigged up that works quite well for the humidifier, a small lamp, the window air conditioner and Cool Bot. The Cool Bot is an electronic device that fools the air conditioner into thinking it is warmer than it actually is so the air conditioner will continue to run. Most won’t cool a room below 60 degrees. But with a Cool Bot we can get our temperature down to the low 50’s which is ideal for aging cheese. The small humidifier keeps the humidity well over 70% and sometimes as high as 83%. I’d like to get it to go higher. Still working on that detail.

The large cheese cave will be similarly equipped and has enough space to house an entire year’s worth of cheese. Some of our cheeses need at least 8 or 9 months to reach a decent maturity and will only get better with time.

Commercial Kitchen

Standing in that entry alcove, large cave on the left, small cave in front of you, turn right into the commercial kitchen. You can see yet another entrance/exit door. It’s not there yet, but you will eventually see a large stove to the left of the door and a triple sink to your left against that wall. Stainless steel tables will be in the middle of the room. Freezers and refrigerators will be lined along the wall opposite of the door. A window above the chest freezers will give visitors a view into the cheese make room.

Far to the right you will see the door to the storefront. And that is the last room in the building. Of course, it also has an entrance/exit door. This door is where you guys would enter the building to pick up product. Another window here that looks into the cheese make area.

When it is finally complete, we will have an open house for you all to come and see how it all turned out. Classes in cheesemaking and food preservation will also be a time where you all can see the final creation. And if you are a herd share owner, weekly and/or monthly visits bring you even more access to all of it.

That went a little longer than I originally intended but I get so excited when I’m talking about our creamery. I want everyone to know how wonderful this project is and what a wonderful job Scott is doing to bring our dreams to life.

How about some homestead updates on the animals, gardens and orchard.

Animals

All of the animals are doing well, even in the heat. The cows produce slightly less milk on really hot days, but for the most part they are doing a splendid job of producing milk and otherwise munching lazily on grass all day.

The calves are getting bigger every day. Luna’s eye is healed and it looks like she will have permanent scarring on her eyeball. We now have the flies under control and do not foresee any future issues with pink eye.

We are down to just two bulls being raised for meat. I called the meat processor today to get them scheduled. It will be October 2021 before they can be processed. There are still hiccups in the food supply chain due to the virus. It looks like it is going to take quite a while to get that flow back to normal. The overflow from the closure or reduction of service from large processing plants keeps overwhelming smaller, custom processing operations used by small farmers.

The goats and sheep are also doing very, very well. I am pleased that we have had no issues with lambs this year. It is the first time in our history on this homestead that we have come this far without losing a single lamb. A 70% to 80% survival rate is much more common for us.

I noticed the coats on the donkeys are really glossy today. Probably a month ago they finally shed all of their winter coat. Quite often they roll in the dirt and dull their coats, but we had rain last night and they were particularly glossy this morning.

Garden

The heat has kept me busy watering the garden. I don’t know if I mentioned this in prior podcasts, but I hope to have drip irrigation in place next year. We keep improving our gardens each year and I think it is time for the automatic watering system to get going again. We had it working for a couple of years, but we have not reconstructed it since the entire garden was redesigned four years ago.

The peppers, tomatoes and sunflowers are the centerpieces of the garden at the moment. Many of the sunflowers have bloomed. They are gorgeous. The tomato plants are loaded with green tomatoes. I saw an orange one this morning I will have to go our there later and see if there are others. The peppers are producing well. Some of the peppers are smaller than I think they should be and I believe that is due to not enough fertilizing. I need to step up my game in that arena.

Well now that I think on it, the basil, oregano and thyme are also worth note. I took an oregano leaf to Scott the other day and let him smell it and identify it. Don’t you just love the smell of fresh basil and oregano? I’ll be drying some of that for use this winter.

Orchard

A lot of the blackberries are getting eaten by the birds. There is a ground hog hole in there also. He is probably taking advantage as well. Scott went out there with the chain saw and cut a path between the rows. I might have mentioned that last time. He started last week and just yesterday finished all of the rows. I can freely pick berries now. But there is still so much that needs to happen with cleaning up those rows of blackberries. Now that I have a clear path, I foresee the final clean up happening much later. In the fall or perhaps even in the winter.

The strawberries are completely overrun with weeds. I have a task on my calendar that says, “weed the strawberries”. It also says it is four weeks overdue. Do you have any idea how many weeds have taken over in four weeks? It’s a lot. There are far more weeds than strawberry plants. Looking on the bright side, the larger weeds are much easier to pull up all at once. And with just a little work, it makes a very big dent. Feeling you have accomplished something is very easy when you see the earth where previously it was covered in large green things with lots of stickers.

Final Thoughts

That’s it for today’s podcast. I hope you enjoyed the tour of the creamery. It’s good to review how far we have come every once in a while. If you looking for raw milk cheese in Virginia or nearby, I hope you’ll consider joining our herd share program. We make really fine cheese and our milk is rich, nutritious and, best of all, delicious. The butter I make is the best I have ever tasted and I have had other grass-fed raw milk butters. Mine is superb. You won’t find this kind of quality and flavor anywhere else.

If you enjoyed this podcast, don’t forget to subscribe via iTunes or your favorite podcast listening app. Also, please share this podcast with any of your friends or family who might be interested in this type of content.

Thank you so much for listening and until next time, may God fill your life with grace and peace.

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Visit our website Herd Share page

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halohealthcoach5 · 4 years

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Mediterranean Hummus Toast

Looking for an easy, filling meal to keep you energized? This Mediterranean Hummus Toast is packed with plant-based protein and fibre to keep you going for hours. It takes just ten minutes to make but it feels special. Time to up your toast game!

Before we all started sheltering-in-place, one of my tried-and-true pieces of advice for how to eat healthier was to cook at home more often. When you cook at home, you control the ingredient quality and how much sugar, salt, vegetable or whole grain is on your plate. Generally, home cooking is way healthier and way more economical than having other people cooking for you.

However, after months of living just steps away from our kitchens 24/7, we’ve realized that there can also be a few challenges to healthy eating at home.

For starters…well…we’re spending all of our time just a short walk away from our kitchens. It’s easy to get bored and look for entertainment in the fridge. Or to find yourself grazing out of the pantry when you were really there to get a glass of water. We’ve also learned how to comfort ourselves with food and now is a time when we’re searching for comfort. Which is totally normal – but long term, it can also diminish our energy levels and our mental wellbeing.

I have partnered once again with Silver Hills Bakery (sponsored post!) to offer you some simple ideas on how to eat well at home so you can feel energized and well and a crazy delicious hummus toast that will likely earn a spot on your weekly rotation!

Dietitian Tips for Healthy Eating at Home

Eating well isn’t about eating ‘perfectly’ all of the time; there is no such thing as the perfect eater. Eating well means you give your body the nutrient-dense food it needs to fuel metabolism as well as making space for pleasure and enjoyment in eating.

Create a Light Structure Around Eating Times

I’m not a big fan of rigid structure in your eating habits because I feel that it disconnects you from listening to your hunger cues and what your body really needs at any given moment. However, if you find yourself wandering to the kitchen more often than is necessary, you may not be listening to those cues right now. If this feels like you, it doesn’t hurt to set meal times for a while and see if that feels better. If it doesn’t, let it go.

Start With the Best Ingredients

Like I said, when you’re at home, YOU get to choose the ingredients you work with. As much as possible, make those ingredients whole plant foods. You can’t go wrong! Whole plant foods are nutrient-dense…as opposed to energy-dense…meaning that they pack a lot of nutrition into each bite. And, when enjoying prepared foods look for products that are made from whole food ingredients, like sprouted grain breads.

Make Meals that Actually Fill You Up

Crafting a filling, nutritious meal is a bit of a science – and a bit of an art. First, some simple science: in order to feel full and satisfied you need enough protein, fat, and fibre. This could look like steel cut oats with hemp hearts, almond butter and blueberries…or it could look exactly like this Mediterranean toast.

The art part comes in making meals flavourful. You know that feeling when a meal simply didn’t satisfy – even if you probably ate ‘enough’? You end up wanting to eat more to get to that satisfied place. Fat is important in a meal because it carries flavour; however, we also tend to respond best to meals that have a balance of flavours. Some salt, something sweet-ish, a bit of umami and a bit of acid will do it. I’m quite convinced that there is no meal that cannot be saved by some salt, a squeeze of lemon or a bit of umami-rich soy sauce…or all three!

Snack Smart

Snacks are often where we eat higher sugar, more processed fare. So it’s the perfect time to be mindful of eating more whole plant foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains. However, if you are staying at home and not moving much, you may also need fewer snacks. Snacks aren’t mandatory: a good rule of thumb is to eat just enough to get you to your next meal. Often, this means just a piece of fruit with a tablespoon of nut butter or some roasted chickpeas to get you through a couple of hours.

Feeling ravenous between meals is often a signal that your last meal wasn’t balanced or large enough. Always eat when you are hungry; just be thoughtful about how you can increase protein, fat and fibre at the next meal time. If you are exploring structure around meal times, here’s a tip: make your snack after you eat your meal…and then close the kitchen until dinnertime. If you have your water and snack at your workspace, you’ll avoid another trip to the kitchen when the urge to eat hits. Plus, making a snack when you’re full means you’ll probably make healthier choices.

Keep it Simple

Life is hectic at the best of times; right now, many of us are downright exhausted. Don’t tell yourself that meals need to be elaborate to be good. Pair down your pantry to your favourite staples. Have an arsenal of a few spices and condiments that you love. Keep a tight rotation of easy meals like hummus toast, kale salads and pastas to streamline the mental work of food preparation.

Why are Sprouted Grain Breads Better for You?

Sprouted grain breads have been my family’s everyday breads for over a decade. I actually got my start as a dietitian doing nutrition tours in a grocery store; this is what I taught folks about sprouted grain breads:

Breads made with sprouted grains replace breads made with flour. Flour has a small particle size, so it is rapidly digested and absorbed and can spike blood sugars – even 100% whole wheat (flour) sandwich bread has a high glygemic index.

Sprouted grains, being intact whole grains, will have more nutrition: sprouted grain breads have on average 12 grams of plant-based protein per two slices, and a whopping 10 grams of fibre. Compare this to 7 grams of protein and 4 grams of fibre for an average supermarket whole wheat loaf.

This higher fibre and protein content will help balance your blood sugar curve, keeping you feeling fuller and energized, longer.

Sprouting may also help increase the content of folate and vitamin C in grains.

Sprouting helps transform the nutrient content of the grain, including activating enzymes and reducing substances such as phytates that may make minerals less bioavailable.

Why Hummus Toast is Such a Healthy Choice

Stuff-on-toast is one of my main food groups. We put hummus on sandwiches, but often don’t think about layering it on as the main event! Hummus toast is a rocking plant-based meal because it comes packed with nutrients:

Protein: A thick layer of hummus is going to offer a boost of protein, about 6 grams worth. So, one slice of sprouted grain bread and a 1/3 cup of hummus has about 12 grams of protein.

Fibre for your gut + microbiota: The same amount of hummus on toast also provides 10 grams of gut-loving fibre, including fermentable FODMAPs and soluble fibre from the chickpeas that will drive growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut that help fight inflammation.

Energizing minerals: both sprouted grain bread and hummus offer iron to help oxygenate your tissues and zinc to support immune function. Magnesium supports bone health and your nervous system. And sprouted grain bread is an especially good source of selenium and manganese to fight oxidative damage to cells.

Slow burn energy: The combination of fibre, protein, healthy fats and lower glycemic carbs means that you will feel fuller, longer…leading to fewer snack attacks. What’s more, blood sugar rise is moderate so that your energy levels will be stable for hours.

This Mediterranean Hummus Toast doubles up on protein by adding smoked tempeh and then gives you a dose of greens to make this a complete meal.

Looking for other vegan toast ideas?

Sprouted Grain French Toast with Caramelized Bananas and Walnuts

Mediterranean Hummus Toast

.wprm-recipe-rating .wprm-rating-star.wprm-rating-star-full svg * { fill: #343434; }

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Diet Vegan, Vegetarian

Keyword Hummus, lunch, tempeh, toast

Dietary Preference dairy free, egg free, nut free, vegan, vegetarian

Prep Time 2 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Servings 4 toasts

Author Desiree Nielsen, RD

Ingredients

4 slices Silver Hills sprouted grain bread I used Mack's Flax

1 ⅓ cup your favourite store bought hummus

1 package smoked tempeh or smoked tofu cut into ½ inch (1 cm) cubes

3 large handfuls baby spinach

⅓ cup oil-packed sundried tomatoes patted dry and thinly sliced

⅓ cup kalamata olives pitted

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

salt to taste

freshly cracked pepper to taste

vegan mayo for serving

Instructions

In a small bowl, stir sundried tomatoes into hummus. Set aside.

In a nonstick skillet just over medium heat, warm olive oil and then add tempeh cubes. Cook until golden brown on 2-3 sides, about 1-2 min a side. Add spinach and stir until just wilted. Remove from heat, season generously with salt and pepper.

Then, toast bread. Spread thinly with vegan mayo and then add 1/3 cup of hummus. Divide spinach – tempeh mixture between the toasts and add olives.

Notes

Note: all prepared foods have different flavour profiles. Be sure to taste and adjust here! Hummus fall flat? Brighten it up with some lemon juice. Tempeh lacking salt? Toss tempeh mixture with 1 tbsp of soy sauce to enrich the flavour.

The post Mediterranean Hummus Toast appeared first on Desiree Nielsen, Dietitian.

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imsohealthy2 · 4 years

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Easy + Delicious Vegan Dinner Recipes

Are you trying to eat less meat and more vegan meals? Here’s a list of easy and healthy vegan dinner recipes for you to keep on hand! Make your weekly meal plan with this list!

If you’ve followed Happy Healthy Mama for any amount of time, you’ve probably figured out by now we don’t subscribe to one particular diet. I strive to serve my family a wide variety of whole foods that are nourishing, taste delicious (<—important!), and aren’t too complicated to make.

That said, I think there’s one goal every family should have, whether you eat plant-based, keto, Paleo, or anything in between. What’s that goal?

EAT MORE VEGETABLES!

Everyone has to agree on that one, right?

Vegetables are full of the widest variety of nutrients that our bodies need to stay healthy, fight disease and infections, be our best, most energetic selves. All of those nutrients will also help our kids develop to their highest potential, physically and mentally.

So if eating more vegetables is the goal, let me help you by giving you some vegan dinner ideas to incorporate into your meal plans this year.

You don’t have to be a vegan to eat plant-based meals. What happens when you start to incorporate more healthy, plant-based dinners into your life? You automatically eat more vegetables. The goal. So let’s do this!

We aren’t a vegan family, but I have over 300 vegan recipes on my site! Check out all my vegan recipes here.

Easy, Healthy, and Delicious Vegan Dinner Recipes

Cauliflower Tacos

If a family member is hesitant about trying vegan dinner recipes, start with a familiar dinner-tacos! This cauliflower “meat” filling is easy to love!

Vegetable Pot Pie

Think pot pies are too labor intensive? Think again! This one takes only 10 minutes of prep work and 30 minutes to bake! It’s full of frozen vegetables, which are just as nutritious as when you buy vegetables fresh!

Crockpot Vegan Chili

Your family will love this hearty chili that’s filled with superfoods! You will be surprised how much you love veggies like sweet potatoes in your chili! This isn’t your average chili and I think you’ll love it.

Root Vegetable and Red Bean Stew

Vibrant orange root vegetables are full of vitamin C and beta-carotene. Red beans add protein, calcium, iron, and magnesium. This is one of my heartiest vegan dinner recipes! It’ll keep you full.

Vegan Corn Chowder

The first time I made this, my husband couldn’t believe it was vegan. It’s outstanding in the summer when corn is in season, but you can use frozen corn as well!

Vegetable Pumpkin Curry

Cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli are powerful anticancer foods! Pumpkin adds more fiber and the ginger gives this even more anti-inflammatory properties.

Roasted Portobello Fajitas

Portobello mushrooms also have anticancer properties. You won’t miss the meat in this dish! It’s a favorite among meat lovers and herbivores alike.

Pantry Pumpkin Bisque

When you need a quick, clean out the pantry dinner, this is what you should make! Add some crusty bread and a big salad and you’ve got a lovely vegan dinner recipe.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

Quinoa and black beans give this plant-based stuffed pepper recipe an extra protein punch. Use whatever color bell peppers you prefer. This is a Crockpot recipe but you can easily adapt it to your oven if you prefer.

Roasted Vegetable Buddha Bowl

Brussels sprouts, rainbow carrots, and broccoli come together with brown rice and a lemon tahini sauce to make a nutrient-dense bowl that ups your vegetable intake immediately! That sauce though!

Sweet Potato Noodles with a 5-Minute Peanut Sauce

If you haven’t tried sweet potato noodles, you need to ASAP!! This is the quickest, tastiest dinner that you must try! Also makes a great, quick lunch.

Sweet Potato Black Bean Burgers

This one has been pinned over 200,000 times and has many, many rave reviews. This one is vegan and gluten-free and full of amazing flavor! If you are looking for a great veggie and bean burger, this is the one to try!

Grilled Vegetables and Pasta

My very favorite way to incorporate a ton of vegetables into a hearty meal is this pasta dish! It’s so flavorful and easy to prepare. If you don’t want to grill your veggies, you can roast them!

Vegan Coconut Curry Lentil Soup with Chickpeas

This is such a comforting soup–and you can make it in your Crockpot! If you like curry, you’ll love this one. This vegan dinner recipe happens to be one where you dump the ingredients and walk away! So easy.

Mexican Quinoa Skillet Dinner

One big ol’ skillet is all you need for this awesome vegan and gluten free dinner! Oh, the flavors are outstanding and it takes less than 30 minutes! You’ve got to try this one!

Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili

This will become a new favorite. It’s ready in about 30-40 minutes and so tasty. I have a friend who told me she makes this for her family twice a month! I love hearing reviews like that.

Beet Burgers

These hearty burgers will fill you up more than a burger with meat!! One of my all-time favorites, beets are full of antioxidants and have detoxing power. I adore this recipe.

Instant Pot Vegetable Soup with Beans

This is a hearty vegan soup that makes a great dinner! If you have an Instant Pot, this is a must try recipe! It’s another vegan and gluten free recipe that is a great meal prep dinner idea, too.

Whole Wheat Penne with Mushrooms, Spinach, and Tomatoes

Nobody will ever even notice this is a vegan recipe because it’s just so darn tasty that’s all they’ll be thinking about! This is a great way to get some extra spinach into your diet.

Quinoa Vegetable Stew

If you’re looking for a stick-to-your-ribs type vegan dinner recipe, THIS is the one you should try! Quinoa and veggies come together for a delicious and satisfying meal.

Zucchini Noodles with Bean Balls

Just as satisfying as a big plate of pasta, but with extra veggies since the noodles are zucchini! These bean balls are super easy to prepare, as well. Who doesn’t love a good bean ball?!

One Pot Coconut Curry Lentil Bowl

You’ve got to love a one-pot wonder dinner that’s healthy and plant-based! This makes a comforting dinner, as well. This recipe has gotten rave reviews over the years–it’s a must try!

Vegetable Lentil Soup

If soup is on your menu this week, you really should try this Vegetable Lentil Soup. It’s easy, flavorful, and always a hit. Bonus: this one is also gluten free!

Korean BBQ Chickpea Bento Bowls

This Bento Bowl recipe is beyond tasty and filling! Just look at those vibrant colors–you’ve got to make this vegan dinner recipe ASAP!

Quinoa Patties with Black Beans and Corn

Loaded with protein, serve your favorite salsa on top of these for a satisfying main dish! These could also be served on a bun as a burger.

Vegetable Grain Bowl

This Vegetable Grain Bowl recipe is nourishing and delicious and also makes a perfect meal-prep dinner. When you want a big bowl of healthy comfort food, this is a great one!

Vegan Lentil Loaf

If you’d like a vegan dinner that is reminiscent of your family’s favorite meat-y dinner, you should really try this one! It’s a protein and fiber-packed Lentil Loaf that only takes 10 minutes of prep time! Yes, you read that correctly…10 minutes of prep is all!

Marinara Sauce with Chickpeas and Kale

You can eat this one with spaghetti squash or regular pasta. Either way, it’s a fabulous vegan dinner recipe that is filled with some extra nutrition from the chickpeas and kale.

I hope this inspires you to try more plant based dinners! Do you have a favorite vegan dinner recipe your family loves? Share a link in the comments or on the Happy Healthy Mama Facebook Page!

The post Easy + Delicious Vegan Dinner Recipes appeared first on Happy Healthy Mama.

Healthy Diet

#Healthy Diet

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kennethherrerablog · 5 years

Text

This Woman’s Story Will Change the Way You Think About Public Assistance

I had a kid… once.

Her name was Averi. She looked like my daughter, but she was my niece.

Most parents get months to prepare; I had less than a week.

I made $360 a week, about $18,500 a year. Now, I had to squeeze caring for a child — day care, food, clothes and all those unexpected expenses — out of an already razor-thin budget.

On top of that, I was consumed by grief from losing my own mother that same year.

I kept telling myself I could do this. After all, it was only supposed to be for two months.

My First Days in the Single-Mom Hustle

My first days as a stand-in mommy presented more questions than my sleep-deprived brain was prepared for: Who was going to watch her while I work? How the hell was I going to afford this?

Luckily, there was a voluntary prekindergarten, or VPK, and day care two blocks from my apartment, and they graciously let me bring Averi by the same evening I picked her up from the DCF.

Averi curiously roamed about the classroom as I quietly explained the situation to the teachers and administrators.

Back in my apartment, we settled into our first night together.

I rolled out an air mattress on the floor of my bedroom. She was required to have her own bed, and an air mattress was the fastest and cheapest solution.

The first day I dropped her off at day care was emotionally taxing for both of us. I cried the entire drive to work.

I knew my salary was no match for the expenses of child care. I lived paycheck to paycheck as it was.

My approximate monthly expenses were:

Rent payment: $375

Car payment: $350

Electric bill: $75

Internet and cable: $65

Car insurance: $115

Cell phone: $75

Gas: $40

Credit card: $200

Groceries: $150

Total monthly expenses: $1,445.

My average monthly income: $1,440.

Adding in the cost of caring for Averi took me to a new level of financial anxiety. Trying to map out an impossible budget only made it worse.

It started to suffocate me.

The Maze of Applying for Public Assistance

During my first home visit with Averi’s social worker, I reluctantly shared my concerns. I was so scared of losing her to the system.

The social worker urged me to apply for public assistance, which I hadn’t even considered. I had never seen myself ever needing it. But I had to do something.

Asking for help wasn’t in my familial toolbox. My parents always struggled financially, but they rarely ever asked for help. So not taking “charity” was in my blood — from gifts to handouts, I always paid my way even if it secretly broke me.

But I cared more about Averi’s well-being than my dignity. It was too real. I needed the help. Any help.

I had no idea where to begin, so the social worker provided me with a list of all the programs I was eligible for. I dove in headfirst.

I swallowed my pride and signed my name on all the dotted lines I could. Applying for government assistance at 27 years old was my new reality.

School Readiness

The first program that came through was Florida’s School Readiness financial assistance program.

It subsidized the weekly day care costs, so I could continue working without spending most of my salary on child care, like so many parents are forced to do.

After a $125 deposit, I paid $9.20 a week for Averi’s day care.

She attended VPK in the morning and an after-school program within the same building after. I had to pick her up by 6 p.m. every day, or else face a non-subsidized, minute-by-minute late fee.

Temporary Cash Assistance

Initially, my circumstance made me eligible for temporary cash assistance (TCA), a $180 monthly stipend designed to help struggling families with minors.

The benefits help keep children in their own homes, or in the home of a blood relative, instead of foster care.

I received an Access debit card, the same card people use for food stamps. (The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) wasn’t born yet.)

The card was automatically loaded with $180 each month. I could use it anywhere that accepted electronic benefit transfer (EBT) payments.

Suddenly, I was that person scouting the exterior of stores for a “We Accept EBT” sign, or quietly asking the cashier if they accepted EBT cards, worried about being judged by other customers.

Eventually, DCF approved me for the Relative Caregiver program, and the $180 increased to $240 monthly.

Women, Infants and Children

Because of Averi’s age, I was also eligible to receive assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s supplemental nutrition program for Women, Infants and Children, WIC.

WIC provides assistance for low-income women with children under 5 years old. WIC serves 53% of all infants in the United States.

Thankfully, my 32-hour-a-week job allowed some wiggle room for the sloth-like government waiting rooms. I spent a whole morning waiting.

Eventually, I walked out with a handful of food vouchers. They had date ranges and expirations and a list of specific items they could be exchanged for. How hard could it be?

The items on my monthly food allowance weren’t exactly the nutritional foods I’d hoped for.

But I had to face it: These were the times of white bread, cereal and canned beans. No more organic eggs and vegetables or soy milk, which I’d become accustomed to consuming before I became responsible for Averi.

The monthly allowance included a whopping $8 for fruits and vegetables. While I would have hoped for more, I was thankful for food in our mouths, regardless of the form it came in.

Averi loved bananas and green beans, so I would purchase those fresh, along with a bag of carrots or apples, whichever I could squeeze out of that voucher.

I won’t forget the first time I tried to use them at the register. I dreaded the whole experience, fearful of the disgusted eyes cast by other customers as they waited for me to shamefully get my government-issued rations.

I’d read the voucher over and over to be sure I followed the instructions perfectly to avoid any holdup at the register.

But at the checkout, the cashier informed me I’d made a mistake.

I’d picked up a 24-ounce loaf of bread when the voucher clearly stated I was only allowed the 20-ounce loaf. I was mortified. I couldn’t leave Averi there while I ran back, so I put everything back in my basket, careful to avoid the gaze of the line forming behind me.

There it was on the shelf, the 20-ounce loaf of bread with the letters “WIC” plain as day on the price tag.

After that, I spent much more time at the grocery store than necessary, cross-referencing my vouchers so I could avoid any unwanted hubbub at the register.

Medicaid

Averi caught a cold the first week at day care, and then I caught it. I hadn’t been sick in over a year, but my stressed immune system was no match for kid germs.

After that, it was pink eye.

Then Averi’s repeated sinus infections, futile prescriptions and doctor visits led to a diagnosis of asthma. She was prescribed a nebulizer treatment three to four times a day.

She hopped and bopped around with the cough of a 50-year-old smoker. Eventually, her breathing improved a little, and she got off the nebulizer.

By the summer, we both contracted scabies from visiting the place my grandmother lived. The scratching saga continued for months. I wouldn’t wish that itching on anyone.

I’m scared to think what may have happened to her if she didn’t have Medicaid.

What Life as a Single Parent Was Like

After the first week, I was informed that the original two-month timeline would actually be six months.

To pass the time, I kept her busy.

I found plenty of free kid-friendly events happening around town. We went to community festivals, parks and free concerts.

Friends gave me free tickets to museums and local events like the Renaissance Festival. Averi thrived on all of the new experiences.

I registered her for a Busch Gardens preschool pass, offered free for children ages 5 and younger. I already had a monthly pass — with a $7 monthly rate I’d been grandfathered into — so we frequently visited the park for free entertainment.

When she outgrew her clothes, there was someone bringing me hand-me-downs so I didn’t have to buy more. When I did, we went to thrift stores, making it a fun treasure hunt to pick out an outfit she loved.

You learn a lot about people when you fall between a rock and a hard place.

I’d come into work to find a handwritten note and AMC gift cards on my desk. Or a friend’s mom would slide me $20 when I hugged her. My boyfriend would treat us to dinner, or his mother would make breakfast on a Sunday morning without asking for anything in return.

Many endured DCF-required background checks just to babysit her for a few hours so I could have a wink of sleep, or time to catch up on work or other obligations.

On Averi’s fifth birthday, more than 40 people attended her party at Chuck E. Cheese.

At home, we danced around in all of the tissue paper from the gifts. The joy on Averi’s face showed she didn’t know about our struggle. She only knew the kindness of friends and family, which is exactly how I wanted it.

The network of support humbled me, and I allowed myself to lean into it.

One night before bed, I saw the light bulb click in her eyes as the words to Dr. Seuss’ “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!” started to make sense. She read every last one of them (except Zumble-Zay).

Sharing that milestone was priceless; I’ll forever treasure the memory.

The Financial Toll of Being a Caregiver

Soon August rolled into September, and as the time toiled on, so did my financial problems.

While everyone thought I was due some karmic reward, I was busy maxing out my credit cards.

I knew I’d literally pay for it in the end, but I didn’t care. My maternal instinct was to protect her at any cost.

The credit card companies started to lower my limits, because I was only making the minimum payments and overspending.

Overdraft fees on my checking account sent me to my Bank of America branch. I didn’t mean to cry when I talked to the teller, but the flood came anyway. All I wanted was to reverse a $30 fee for going $2 over my balance.

It happened more than once. One bank associate began to know my face and my circumstance. His patience and benevolence will always be beyond me, as was his advice.

He told me about financial hardship programs that would allow me to close my credit cards and pay little to no interest.

The Life I Chose for Averi

I was granted permanent guardianship of Averi that November.

I wanted to keep her as close to my chest as she’d become, but I knew deep down I couldn’t continue to provide for her or afford our life together.

My older brother had recently moved back from out of state. We discussed the option of Averi living with him and what would serve her best long term.

On paper, I was single and broke. He had a wife and daughter and was financially stable.

We both knew living with him would be best for her, regardless of how it made my heart ache.

That Christmas came fast.

While she tore open presents, I snapped a ridiculous amount of photos, mentally preparing myself for the fact that our time, like 2010, was nearing an end.

I was coming to terms with letting go and the decision to give her a better life. A life not supported by the system. A life still with family and within an arm’s reach of me.

A week shy of a full year together, I packed her stuff, swallowing back tears.

Her moving in with my brother was an easy sell. She adored her little cousin and wanted to have sleepovers with her every night. The only problem, she said, was that she would miss me.

As we piled her stuff into my brother’s black Suburban, she hugged me tight and said, “I love you with all my heart, Aunt Stephanie.”

What My Year on Public Assistance Taught Me

My year of living on public assistance was eight years ago.

Averi now lives 2,000 miles away.

My brother took a job up north, so they moved a year after she left my care.

We’ve seen each other only a handful of times since; we stay in touch with handwritten letters.

It took me some time to readjust to life without her, both emotionally and financially.

I had plenty of credit card debt before Averi, but it nearly doubled after a year of unexpected child care. The public assistance support ended the moment she left me.

While I did receive a boost in my tax return for claiming her as a dependent, it barely made a dent.

It took me a few years to get serious about paying it off instead of wallowing. I felt like I’d made enough sacrifices that I just wanted to live without worrying about it.

Obviously, ignoring debt doesn’t work. I couldn’t escape the financial obligations lest I file for bankruptcy. That wasn’t me, or who I wanted to be. I’d already danced with the public assistance system, and this time, I wanted to clear it for good. So I faced it.

I slayed that interest-laden beast with balance transfer credit cards and a personal loan to consolidate other outstanding debts.

I inched my way out of debt every year since, and as of August 2018, I’m finally debt-free — aside from a car payment — for the first time in 16 years.

My credit score rebounded, but I had to learn some costly lessons.

I’m not embarrassed to admit that public assistance helped me through the hardest year of my life.

My experience with social workers, courts and public assistance offices made me realize how many kids need our help. Those insights led me to seek out opportunities locally.

I learned that while it isn’t easy, asking for help is OK; people love you and want to help you.

And one day, you might even have the chance to help them.

Stephanie Bolling is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder. She’d love to talk to you about your experience on public assistance.

The Penny Hoarder Promise: We provide accurate, reliable information. Here’s why you can trust us and how we make money.

This Woman’s Story Will Change the Way You Think About Public Assistance published first on https://justinbetreviews.tumblr.com/

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thomasgmcelwain · 6 years

Text

Foreword

FIND truth, my soul, and do not flee away

From light that pains the darkened eye with day.

Is man the gauge of right and wrong, one man

Who rules, the erudite or strong, who can

Impose by arm or reason his own will,

Or even the free soul that's standing still?

I think not, my experience shows me

That human search has limits it can be.

If I am limited, it does not follow

That there is greater in the world to wallow.

But if there is One violent Beloved,

He may extend a hand, though it be gloved,

A hand of revelation in my need,

A word of knowledge and a loaf to feed

The soul whose barren corners lack the light

To know the right from wrong at the first sight.

Sweet Reader, dearest, take this book in hand,

And open it, and read, and understand.

It holds the words of One divine and true,

Called Allah, Ælohim, or God, or YHWH [Huu].

I sip the bright and glowing syllables

Of revelation, myth and miracles,

As some contend, but none of these describe

Those words to me. I see no lie or bribe,

But only billets-doux from the Beloved.

I answer them, cloved, cinnamoned, fox-gloved,

Rose-watered and in bitter lime inured,

Yet shyly pausing to pluck at His word.

Sweet Reader, dearest, take this book and read

The words of one Beloved, if you'll not heed

My flocked rejoinders. Meet the Sabbath day

With book in tow and in it lose your way.

I might cast curses on that education

That turned me preacher to the church and nation

That will have nothing of the words I say.

I speak to bare walls who once spoke for pay.

And yet I cast suspicion on the priest

Who eats his hearers' bread, offence increased.

Instead of bare walls I preach on to God,

Call Him Beloved who am made of the sod.

Since none stop on the corner where I preach

My livid rhymes, I'm free of those constraints

That hired bishops lay on self and each.

I live among wild creatures and their saints.

I thank that education that gave me

The languages to read the sanctity

Entombed in Bible and Qur'an for earth,

And taught me what a lexicon is worth.

With Hebrew text and facile dictionary

I can dispense with other commentary.

Caedmon alone in Saxon tongue was bold

To start the brave tradition of the old

Medieval singers of the divine Word.

Such troubadours but copied Arab style

That spoke Qur'anic language for awhile.

A pox upon Wickliffe's and Tyndale's curd,

Who turned the poetry to prose and thus

Began tradition of translating worse.

I laud the two, however, for their fame

Of opposition to priestly acclaim,

And setting every ploughboy on the hill

To knowing Scripture better than church mill.

The only way to translate's with the heart

And rhythmings and rhymings from the start.

But divine Word bears no translation well.

Its incarnation in body a spell

Quite failed to rend the veils and fill the earth

With knowledge of the Lord and of His worth.

Rather than a translation, I shall speak

Of sermons for the listener that I seek,

The barkings of a dog let off the leash,

The contemplations of a lone dervish.

I read the Massoretic text and take

The Byzantine or Received Text in stake,

Just as did those who followed good King James,

And so relieve myself of blames and claims.

I trace Apocrypha attached in Greek,

And add to this two other works I seek,

The Book of Enoch and of Jubilees,

Whose language is beyond my expertise

That must rely on Lawrence, Charles and

Josh Williams's edition out of hand,

But most upon delighted reading of

Ras Feqade the First's compelling love.

And so I here recuperate the narrow

Canon of Ethiopic church and marrow.

I hesitate not to redeem a few

More ancient texts that have freshness of dew

And speak of our Lord in his infancy,

Or like Clement affirm morality,

Or like Thomas reveal a secret word

Of what Christ said and of what then occurred.

Axum and Yemen must have taught the first

Of Muslim refugees what was not worst,

The popular faith, not official go

Of king, but that of peasant and the low.

This unspoiled, pristine faith by some called Jew

And by some Christian is retained by few,

And is expressed in Qur'an to guide to

Reform behind the sectarian view.

And so I take also Arab Qur'an,

And try its glowing words and put them on

To wear in English eight-step lines as brash

As any Turkish folk bard makes from trash.

My speeches to the Lord I make resound

In ten-step lines with some ghazel-like sound,

Although in both I sometimes let the measure

Run in a rhyme feminine for its treasure.

These freely singing sonnets from the heart

Reply to the Beloved from horse and cart.

I let the modern translator run prose

In pseudo-scientific power pose,

And take each word I taste as full inspired

No matter what the critic has admired.

The old scholars say faith arose in time

Through fear of ghosts or high gods in their prime.

Both evolution and diffusion make

Some errors that the new-come seems to take.

I lay off every theory and instead

Know that all faiths are of one power bred.

They all began once when a crowd complained

They heard God speaking on a mountain trained.

Some call the mountain Sinai some Redstone

Pipe Quarry, others have their grant and throne,

But all are right as far as they retain

The message of the Decalogue amain.

All is just book and visions of the wary,

The Torahs, Psalms, and Gospels, no doubt true,

Are ancient words repeated, ancillary

To that one revelation that will do

For all time, I mean Decalogue. That's all

We find in any book of faith that's call

Direct from God to multitudes to show

What is belief and faith and how to go.

To me the words are lovely things to hear,

That God is one, and yet He is so near

To me that I cannot see Him at all,

As I cannot see heart, vein, or eye-ball.

No thing can express Him in image or

Be object of my worship, but abhor.

His name is lovely to be called upon

In joy, in fear, in quietness and calm,

Who holds guiltless who do not call in vain.

Though He is always present, I can gain

No hiding place from Him, yet He appears

Each Sabbath day with happiness or tears.

He gives one duty only to be done,

Not great feats nor things tiring to be won,

But simply honour to one's mom and dad,

By doing so, one avoids all things bad,

In judgement has the chance to come home free.

He lovingly protects from harm by saying

Not to kill, not commit adultery,

Not to steal, and in bearing witness staying

Within the truth. But greatest satisfaction

Comes in not coveting another's faction.

The Bible and Qur'an have just one plot,

Examining the Decalogue's love-knot.

O pagan Christian, lay this book aside.

You've not honesty to bear truth, abide

In your Mithraic sacrifices and

Their festivals to sun on every hand.

Or else put off idolatry that wears

The false face of three gods in one for dares,

Put off your human sacrifice and cup

Of human blood you drink and then look up,

Put off your hate and criticism of

The sacred Word of God dwelt on in love.

Bow down in sacrifice of self this day

Of Sabbath rest held in repentance' sway

Instead of the emotions of false story,

Seductions of fanfare and churchly glory.

The dross of seven evils I replace

With gold of love to God, before His face

Obedience to His word rightly known

That He sent out from Sinai and His throne.

The first evil eschewed is pagan gods

Set in their trinities cast on the sods.

The second evil is the works of hands

Set up for worship, iron credo bands.

The third is Sunday worship, sun worship,

The fourth is priestcraft and bowing from hip.

The fifth is payment to the priest and crown,

The sixth is violence and killing for

The so-called faith and weal, and what is more,

The last is pride of power, seeking renown.

Sweet reader with a loving heart, read not

This book at once as in an hour taught.

Instead take it each day in sacred draught,

And after whirling holy names at eve

As Sabbath draws on, do not take your leave

Until you've made a portion of its fire

And calm one with your secret soul's desire.

A daily, weekly guide its pages are

To those who follow David's key and star.

The Baptist way of worship guides my hand

With prayer and song and preaching to the band.

The Torah is a song, the Psalms a prayer,

The Gospel and Qur’an preach to the fair,

And so the whole’s a Sabbath meeting’s share.

Beloved, God of the Universe, the One

Who stands alone in royal dignity,

Creator of the worlds and all things done,

Look in Your love and mercy upon me.

I put Ed Elwall's turban on my crown

And don his white and seamless Turkish gown.

I start my pilgrimage at Eden's gate,

Pass Egypt and fair Babylon with hate,

Bow at the Kaaba of my own threshold,

And penetrate the streets of Salem, old

And worn, kiss Ephrata's steep hills and fly

To Yemen and Axum beneath clear sky.

Beloved, God of the humble and the small,

Hear one poor dervish and his single call.

The camels and the caravans pass by,

The trains of pomp and wealth beneath a sky

Clear sunned. I walk my circle now alone,

No comrade here to share my wine and bone.

None hears my footsteps fall in sacrifice

But You alone, Beloved, and You suffice.

I lay Ed Elwall's turban now aside,

Take off the Turkish gown once donned in pride,

And naked step into the slaughtering ground.

The sighing of Your name's the only sound

That touches on my ear. Alone I whirl

While the great and the true come to unfurl

A flag of conquest and a seat of state.

Outside the fold I humbly kiss Your gate.

The wilderness about my ringing ears

Re-echoes with the sermons in arrears

E. Eckerlin recites into the wind.

Like his my fellows are both winged and finned,

Who can sit through the rhetoric of hours,

Day after day, night after night, in showers

Of jewels let loose from Your eternal Word.

I meet the lone dervish of beast and bird.

The man was satisfied to be alone,

Cabined in the woods, friend of earth and stone.

He was again in peace when others came,

Establishing about him halls of fame.

He lived to see the comers go away.

Still he was satisfied to stay and pray.

The most obscure of Your band is St. Beathan,

Not even certain which of two we mean,

Or if he is progenitor of mine

Or only mentor of my fathers' wine.

The Celtic hermitage beside the lake

Was where he learned in every beastie's wake

And taught the humble who came to his door

To pray to You, Beloved, upon the shore.

I too in centuries beyond his ken

Avoid the tabernacles of strong men

And sit between the lake and forest trees

And learn from robins and the bumble bees

To take my breath and nourishment from You

Alone beside the pansies and the dew.

#The Beloved and I

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