Finding my path!

So I'm off of the Raw diet and looking to figure some things out.  I hope/plan/want to return to the raw diet but It will not be immediately.  To all of this I say, "I make apology's." I learned this from my hero Carl Paladino (Please not sarcasm!) Well I am ok with my choice and like I said def not done with it.  But while I'm not 100% Raw I am still cooking and trying to develop a healthy vegetarian diet.  I'm trying to cool with all whole grain foods, artificial sweeteners and stevia and seeing how it impacts my sugar and weight.

I'll star off by including two things I've good in the last few days! Both recipes are from Meatless Meals by Barbara E. Echols

The other day I made My Granola page 282.

My Granola

3 1/2 cups rolled oats

1 cup bran

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1 cup chopped cashews

1/4 cup tahini
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup honey
1 cup diced dried apricots or any dried fruit

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Combine the oats, bran, sunflower seeds, and nuts in a bowl, Add the tahini, salt, extract, cinnamon, and honey. Mix well.
3. Spread the mixture in a shallow baking pan and toast for 30 minutes, stirring after the first 15 minutes.
4. Remove the pan from the oven and toss immediately with the dried fruit  to prevent the mixture from sticking together in lumps, When cooled, store in a covered container.

I've made this granola many times over the years.  I'm going to try to make it in the dehydrator next time because if the mixture burns even a little bit it impacts the granola.  I'll get back to you on how that turns out.

Next I made Meatless Meatloaf from the same cookbook page 155.

Meatless Meatloaf

1/4 vegetable oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup any combination of mixed vegetables and cooked beans ( used frozen mixed vegetables.)
1 cup finely chopped nuts or 1 cup chunky peanut butter
1 cup cooked rice (I used brown)
1/3cup bread crumbs (Whole wheat)
1 cup grated cheese
2 eggs lightly beaten
black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Heat the  oil in a skillet and saute the vegetables till they are limp.
3. Combine the sauteed vegetables with the remaining ingredients. Mix well, adding a small amount of liquid if the mixture seems too dry.
4. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

This is delicious.  It's great hot or cold.  I promise you will like it. My dad, when he was alive,  ate this and didn't hate it.  For him that is a ringing endorsement.  He was very much a meat and potatoes man. The funny thing about my dad was that, even though he was not very fond of a lot of my cooking, he always wanted me to become a chef.  Maybe I missed my calling.

Taking a break

So after a bit of thought.  I've decided to take a 3-4 day break from just raw food.  Cravings have won out.  But I'm ok with doing this.  I don't view it as a failure and am really proud of what I've already accomplished so far.  Part of what I hope to do is maintain raw for two meals a day and then return to all raw in a few days and try another 2 weeks.  Not much more to say.   I need to do some cooking the next few days.  as I cook I'll keep you updated! 

The Runner Stumbles

These are my raw pancakes, topped with mashed blueberries with a slight amount of agave nectar

So the last couple of days have been a little more difficult for me. I slipped a little bit but am back on track and doing ok. On Thursday hate I had made, Curry Rice really didn't turn out. I don't think it was so much of fault on my part as it was that soaked rice doesn't soften enough to make it palatable. The rice still tasted raw and ruined the dish. I'm going to try the curry sauce again but next time, only with vegetables. I had planned to use the rest of the meal for the following day, having not planned anything else. Then I was out for a good portion of the day and when out we stopped ay the Apollo Restaurant on Hopkins Street. For numerous reasons, first and foremost cleanliness, I wouldn’t recommend eating here. I ordered a salad. The good news is that it was $2.99, the bad news was it tasted like it was $0.50. The salad and the dressing had absolutely no taste.

 

So feeling hungry and a little bad for myself. I stopped at wegmans and bought eggplant parm and cheesecake. I went home and ate them all up. I felt crummy too so I guess I got what I deserved! I finished up the cheese cake the next day, but stayed on the diet for the next day.

 

The really good news in all of this is that my sugar didn't spike up noticeably. On Saturday my blood sugar was 121 and Sunday (today) it was 144. It's not that I think that I could go off of my meds but it showed me that I can goof up and still see the improvements.

 

Now onto what I cooked today. I finally made the Ani Phyo Sunburgers

 

Ani Phyo’s Raw Sun Burger

 

Makes 4 burgers
Ingredients:

• 2 stalks celery
• 1/4 c onion
• 1/2 c red bell pepper
• 1 t sea salt
• 2 t oregano, fresh or dried
• 1 c sunflower seeds
• 1/2 c flax seeds, ground
• slightly less than 1/2 c water

 

Rather than chopping these ingredients, I threw them all into my food processor and blended until everything was only slightly chunky. Now, simply place on your keflex sheet and form into 4 patties. Her directions didn't say to flip the burgers but I decided to flip them. The recipe didn't say how long to dehydrate but I decided that I'd go for about 12 hrs.

 

I decided to double the recipe because I really like the other sunburgers that I've made and hope that I will theses as well. We'll see how they taste tomorrow. I also made my first raw cupcakes!

 

Choccie Cupcakes!

• 1 cup walnuts, un-soaked
• 5 Medjool dates, un-soaked, pitted
• 1/8 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon coconut oil, liquid form
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt

 Process walnut and dates in a food processor until mixture sticks together. Add sea salt, vanilla extract and almond extract. Roll small eight balls out of the mixture and place each one in 1 ¼-inch baking cups. Mold the sides of the baking cups around the balls and form into a cupcake shape.

 

The cupcakes were delicious! I really liked them and to be honest they did remind me of a really dense version of cupcakes. I made the following frosting recipe to go on top. It was very simple and initially tasty but as I licked the spoon a little more I found the oil to be a bit much. We’ll see how it works on a cupcake. I am also a little worried on the amount of oil used. There were a few other recipes available, using less oil but they required me to soak tings over night and I wanted to try these a little sooner then tomorrow. I will try the other frostings next time and see how it goes. I also am not the biggest fan of walnuts so I will try different recipes that use a mix of other nuts. (Well I just ate one cupcake. I do think I will go for another type of frosting. The oil is a bit too much, but overall it was very good!)

 

 The Raw Food Frosting Recipe

 

The recipe is from a post on the Raw Freedom Community. While this recipe features lemon juice, you could make the same recipe with most fruits. I have reprinted it below with modifications.

•  1 C coconut oil
•  1/4 C agave nectar
•  rind from 1 large lemon
•  1/4 C lemon juice

 

1. Beat the coconut oil until creamy.

 2. Mix in the agave nectar.

 3. Mix in the lemon rind and lemon juice.

 

The frosting will spread well. However, it will not be thick enough to pipe. After you put it in the refrigerator, it will harden. I liked it much better cold and would strongly recommend serving it that way

 

 Dinner was nice and easy and very satisfying! I made my version of raw burritos.

 

 Raw Burritos

• Romaine lettuce leafs
• raw salsa (Make your own or you can do what I did and purchased it at Wegmans. I checked all of the ingredients first and I bought the fresh, not bottled!)
• raw guacamole (Any recipe will do. I just used avocado, garlic, cumin, and a tomato. I forgot to add some lime juice and cilantro, but it tasted fine.)
• sliced portabella mushrooms
• black olives
• carrots, thinly julienned
• jicama, thinly julienned
• sliced tomato
• sliced broccoli spears

 

I distributed a healthy serving of each item on the two romaine leaves and I then enjoyed. they were very good.

 

Not perfect for definitely a nice switch and I'll have the rest tomorrow! I might even throw in a little bit of a sunburger to see how that tastes in it!

 

I'm not sure if I’m right here, but it seems like I might be spending less at the supermarket the longer I am preparing raw. Now the initial out put of money for all of these specialty items is definitely a chunk of change, but i went shopping tonight and only bought what I needed. Which for me is rare. usually I buy all of these other items which I munch on or plan to eat later. They are obviously not raw, so I no longer am interested in buying them. So all in all I'm doing less binge buying. I wish I had kept better track of how much I spent before, but I didn't so it can only guess!

Well That's all for now. TTYL!

Planning, Planning, Planning

Well let me start off by noting that I've discovered that there is a new editing box for new posts.  it allows different colors as well as different fonts. Although the fonts are not that different and are not as quickly noticeable, it's kinda cool to have it. I can also change the size of the lettering to emphasize things. There are a few other features but you're hear to discuss raw food with me, so lets discuss!

I went back to all of the old posts and added labels.  labels are the words or phrases that search engines use when they decide to display different pages for ones review.

You will not that there is a new gadget to the right of the blog.  It's Seasonal Foods. Which i felt was in keeping with the theme of the blog.  As you cook and eat raw foods, for planning purposes, it's important that you be aware of what the different foods are during the season.  It's best to buy local which is both ecological and good for your community.  All of which brings us to today's topic PLANNING!

Planning is probably the most important parts of a raw diet.  You usually have to plan one, to two days ahead for a meal. This is due to all of the soaking, and dehydrating that must occur before you are able to eat many pf the meals.  It is actually the most difficult part for me.  I tend to eat at the spur of the moment, which I think might certainly contribute to my weight problem.  If i planned better and more often I would probably have healthier meals. Some days I forget to plan properly and am stuck having the same thing over and over again.  (Today being an example, although I did enjoy the salad.) I'm getting better but it's still something that I have to work at.

So a couple of thoughts, not directly related to planning, but:

• I'm betting that purists will frown, but I don't always use organic (Cost can be a problem as well as availability)
• And the few processed foods i use, (nut butters and soy sauce) are not even raw. But the bulk of my food does fall under the raw heading.

I just wanted to be completely honest! I hate to have people think that I'm doing so good when they may be struggling or are intimidated by the raw diet.

So I tried the Raw Oatmeal Cookies and they were fantastic.  If you make them, please remember that they are not the same as cookies but they are sweet and delicious! Initially I thought that I would dehydrate them for less time but after they have sat a day or two they soften back up so the time suggested seems to be perfect.

I also tried the two Essence breads that I made. The Essence Bread #1, which is the less sweet one, I preferred over the second bread. Although one thing I did notice was that it was a bit too thick, so next time I will have to make them a little thinner.   I had no real problem eating it.  I had it with a Sunburger and the fixins.  The Essence Bread #2 I found to be very bitter and harder to eat.  I served it with Peanut Butter, honey and bananas.  I eventually removed to the top slice so that I could eat it better (This was one of those days where i had not planned well and had nothing else to eat.) It was suggested in one blog that the longer the sprout tails are the more bitter the grain and my sprouts were pretty long so I will be careful next time and see of that makes a difference.

Today I tried a few new things. 

                             Raw Pancakes
                        The Idiots Guide to Raw Eating

• 1 cup red Fuji Apple, cored, and chopped.
• 8 pitted dates, soaked for 30 minutes
• 1/4 date soak water
• 1/2 cup agave nectar
• 1 TB vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lime zest
• 1 tsp cinnamon
•  TB golden flax seeds, ground
• pinch salt
• 1/ cup buckwheat groats, ground
• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1. place apple, dates, soak water, agave nectar, vanilla, lime zest cinnamon and flax seeds in a blender.  Blend for about 20 seconds or a chunky batter forms. 
2. combine with groats and coconut in a bowl and mix
3. scoop onto teflex sheet. They will flatten a little so make about 1/2 in thick.
4. Dehydrate for 6-8 at 120 degrees.  Flip and dehydrate for another 4-6 hours. 
5. Serve while still sightly soft in the middle
6. Serve hot.  They can be stored for 3-5 days.

I didn't have groats so I just used rolled oats. I used a granny smith apple and forgot the lime zest.  If the batter was any indication, it was really good.  I'll be having them for a late lunch tomorrow. 

                                Brown rice in curry sauce

                                                 By Vanessa Johnson  

• 1/2 cup of brown rice (must be brown)
• 1 tbsp. curry powder
• 1 lb. carrots
• 1/2 small beet
• 1 stalk celery
• Chinese spinach (when juiced thickens sauce- could use soaked flax seeds instead)
• 1 clove garlic grated
• 1/2 small onion chopped finely
• olive oil
• mung bean greens

Soak brown rice in plenty water for 12 hours. Drain. Mix in chopped bean greens and place in serving dish. In a glass place onion,garlic and any other desired seasoning greens. Just cover these with olive oil and let soak. In another glass mix curry powder with enough olive oil to make into a paste. Juice beet, carrots and celery and Chinese spinach. Add curry paste to juice and mix well. Pour curry sauce into serving sauce bowl.

Part of the enjoyment of this dish is all the serving that you allow yourself. I'll explain. You have the rice mixture in a bowl. The onion/garlic mix in a serving shot glass (or something) and then you have the sauce that should look orangy/reddy/browny in a another serving bowl all on a tray. Your bowl is empty. Then you spoon in some rice and on one side of the rice you spoon on some of the onion garlic mix, on the other you spoon on some of the curry sauce and so as you eat the rice, you decide how much of what flavours you want. Then you can serve yourself some more rice and more sauces... it reminds me of the way Asians eat- many serving bowls of different interesting stuff.. and you keep serving yourself as you go along.

Be careful not to buy mung beans too soon, I bought mine two days ago and they already went bad.  I'll have to go get more tomorrow now.  Well TTFN! Hope to chat with you all (Both?) again soon!

22 days to my goal!

My bread looks very different from this but that's Carrot lemonade just makes me more thirsty!

So I've been doing pretty good. I've cheated a little bit, nothing major, just a few pieces of chocolate today and yesterday. of course my popcorn as well, but been eating full meals, with lots of salads. I even went to the Elmwood Arts Festival and didn't eat anything bad there but the aforementioned chocolate.

I've been pretty busy cooking too. Firstly, I made a great salad the past two days and they were fantastic. To top them off I made dressing to go on it. Although I did make a few changes from the recipe.

Fantastic Flax Dressing

1/2 cup flax oil
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons miso paste (see glossary)
2 teaspoons stone ground mustard
2 teaspoons agave nectar or sweetener of choice
2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar

Preparation:
1. Whisk all ingredients in a small mixing bowl and drizzle over your favorite salad.

Variation:
You can vary the flavor by adding any of your favorite fresh herbs or by adding 1/2 teaspoon of minced garlic or ginger.

I used sunflower oil because I didn't have Flax Oil. So I guess I can't really call it the Flax Oil Dressing, but I do!


I also made another batch of Sunburgers. I now I said I was gonna make the Ani Phyo ones this time, but I wound up making the regular batch. But I didn't cook them as long and they are much moister. (I think I would like an in-between, I want them a little dryer.)

I've also been cooking a bit more from the Juliano Book Raw.

Essence Bread #1
Juliano
1/4 cup almonds
1/4 cup walnuts
3 pitted dates
Water for soaking the nuts and dates
2 Cups sprouted wheat
1/4 cup shredded apple
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, minced
1 tablespoon Olive oil

Directions
Soak almonds and walnuts in water for at least 2 hours. In a separate container, soak dates in water for 1 hour. Drain nuts and dates and toss them into a food processor along with the rest of the ingredients and puree into a dough.

On a solid dehydrating sheet form dough into a loaf about 1 1/2 inches tall, 3 1/2 inches wide and 6 inches long. Dehydrate at 90°F for 13 to 17 hours. When done, the loaf should be crisp on the outside and moist on the inside.

Number of Servings: 6

I'll let you know how this turns out.

Essence Bread #2 is basically the same, but remove the minced garlic, and the fresh parsley. Also increase the Olive oil to 1/4 cup.
I made an additional change, I threw in about 3/4 cup of dehydrated banana chips that I had made previously. Again I'll let you know how this turns out.

Lastly I made
Oatmeal Cookies
Juliano "RAW - the uncook book"

2 cups oat groats
3/4 cup dates
1/2 cup dried raisins
1/2 cup raw almonds coarsely chopped
2 or 3 apples grated
1/2 cup raw cashews

Place oat groats in a food processor and grind until fine. If you don't have a food processor, use a blender and add a little maple syrup to help the dough turn over (I tried it, the blender will do it dry just fine). Transfer the groats to a mixing bowl and add the dates, raisins, almonds and apples and mix the batter well. Set aside. In a coffee grinder grind the cashews until they resemble a silky flour. On a mesh dehydrator sheet shape the batter. Keep in mind that the thicker you shape the cookies the longer they take to dehydrate. Dehydrate the cookies at 90 degrees until they reach your preferred texture, around 12 hours. They don't need to be crunchy all the way though.

They are still dehydrating but the batter tasted fantastic. i am gonna try to make some more but alter it a little bit. I'm gonna try it with rolled oats and grind them till they are fine and I want to replace some of the maple syrup with apple juice. We'll see how that goes...

My blood sugar has been a Little high, between 140 and 190, better then what it is when I'm not on the raw diet, but not as low as it's been before.

All in all, I don't feel as hungry and am definitely eating less. We'll see how that continues and the impact it will have on my weight. So I'm finishing up day six (At this point my longest stretch) and loving it!

Care to join me?

Oops I almost forgot to add this juice. I tried it and loved it! I just didn't have any ginger at the time and used a whole lemon instead of half. Try it.

Carrot Lemonade
by Carrie W.

4-5 medium carrots
1/2 medium lemon
1 mildly tart apple (Fuji's or galas are nice)
1 small 1.5 - 2 " wedge red cabbage
1 round of ginger, about the size of a quarter

Juice all, preferably organic, ingredients and enjoy! Yummy carrots without the overwhelming sweetness and what a
beautiful color! Makes one large or 2 small servings.
(I drank the whole thing all by my self!)

I'm Seeing Changes!

Firstly, some really fun/good news to share. I'm not sure of my exact weight when I switched to all whole grains and no processed foods and now raw, but the doctors office said I was 280. In truth I think I was closer to 290 because I refused to weigh myself for two months at the Dr.'s office. Only when I knew that I had lost some weight did I get weighed again (and that's the time I came in at 280.) The last time I weighed myself i was 268 and I think I've gone down more. Here is why: I, for the most part, have been wearing size 3x shirts. I had begun to slip into 4x. Well today I stumbled on a few old 2x shirts and i found that they fit. Some of them even a bit loose! If ever I needed incentives, that was it. It felt so good putting clothing on, some of which I haven't worn for 4-5 years. Why, I can now wear my Buffalo Bills, Drew Bledsoe Jersey again. (Yes I know he didn't work out here and he doesn't play for us anymore, but the point is I can wear the Jersey!!!!!!!!)

So Cheers! To a shrinking body and better health! I'm feeling really proud of myself right now. I hope it doesn't seem too boastful, but I'm really pleased with my effort and the results!
Thanks so much to those of you who comment on my blog or on the link on FaceBook. Big Thanks to Nancy who inspires me everyday with her dedication to the raw diet and still taking care of her family and their dietary needs!

***

Well Last Friday I had a crummy day at work so I wound up breaking the raw diet that evening. I planned to be off of it for only Saturday. Well it turned out that I was off of the diet for five days. Each day I felt worse and worse. I noticed a few things while I went AWOL from my raw life.
1. Cooked food felt like lead in my stomach. To my surprise this was not just that first day, but every day i was off of it.
2. While I was on the diet I didn't do a whole lot of craving of different cooked foods.
3. When I was off it, I ate everything that I could, not because I had craved it, but because I knew that once I returned to the diet, it would be a minimum of 28 days before I could eat cooked foods again. Which proved to me, how much of eating and food culture is psychological.

Regarding my Blood Sugar, it sky rocketed to 297 the last day I was eating cooked food.(I ate really bad that day so I'm not surprised.) The next day it dropped to 197and today it was 167 so back closer to where it needs to be.

So Now I'm back on the raw diet and doing well. I've made a few things while I was off the diet, initially out of guilt, but I felt better after getting some raw food in my system!

For dinner at a friends house, I made the following dish,

Light Summer Cole Slaw
Raw Foods for Busy People, by Jordan Maerin
3 cups shredded cabbage
1 cup shredded carrots
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked 15 minutes, chopped
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts
2T parsley, chopped
1t fennel or poppy seeds (Optional)
1/4 cup sesame oil
2T cider vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste

Toss all ingredients together!

I used the fennel seeds and I must be honest I found them too strong, although my friend Nancy liked it. i would most likely add some dates or other sweetener and not fennel. Although the poppy seeds could be interesting.
I also made them pudding which they all said they liked (I don't think that they were just being nice.) I made the chocolate pudding and a blueberry pudding, which is the same as the chocolate pudding (Included in the August 12, 2010 post) and replaced it with 1/2 a cup of blueberries.

I also made a Cashew Banana Mylk from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen by Ani Phyo. here it goes.

Cashew Banana Mylk
5 cups water (They always suggest filtered.)
2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup raw cashews
1/2 vanilla bean (I used about 1 tsp of vanilla)
1/2 cup dates
pinch of sea salt

Blend together. will keep in the fridge for 3 days!

I liked this alot fresh, It was great in my morning Muesli (From August 9, 2010 - minus the apple juice and not soaked over night) but day two I didn't like it as much. I know it was still good but I didn't like the flavor as it settled in. So I took a chance and poured it in the blender and added about a cup of frozen berries. (I'm sure any fruit will work.) I really liked it this way and it was def filling.

I also made:
Fruit Leather
Two cups any fruit (I used a mix of frozen strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries.)
1 cup water
place in a blender
Dehydrate 12-24 hrs

I found even 12 hrs was too much but it turned out tasty. I added coconut meat to half of the batter. It seemed to dry up quicker. (I'm guessing that the coconut absorbed some of the liquid. So if you add coconut or anything else, keep that in mind and adjust the dehydration time.)

Right now I'm working on bread and Ani's sunburgers (not the sunbuger recipe that I've used.). I'll post the recipes in the following blog.

Well thanks for reading and I'll be back soon. I promise not to take off five-6 days next time!

Fudge you say?

Yep! Raw, Vegan fudge. It's nice and easy.

1 cup nut butter (I used peanut)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 coconut butter
1/2 cup chopped nuts (Optional)
1/4 cup agave nectar (My addition)

hand mix it all together spread it in a shallow pan and refrigerate or freeze till solid. Remove and cut into pieces. Store in fridge. I've already tried it. It's fantastic.

I also made the following:

Portobello Mushroom Steaks with Balsamic Asparagus from Idiots Guide to Eating Raw

Ingredients

•4 portobello mushroom caps
•2 cups filtered water
•1/4 cup plus 3 teaspoons nama shoyu (raw soy sauce)
•1/2 cup fresh basil, thinly sliced
•2 teaspoons garlic, minced
•1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
•pinch salt
•pinch freshly ground black pepper
•2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
•1 teaspoon stone ground mustard
•1 bunch asparagus (or enough for 4 servings
•1/2 medium red bell pepper, seeded and diced
•1/2 medium yellow or orange bell pepper, seeded and diced
•undisclosed amount of maple syrup (try 1/4 cup) – book left this out of the ingredients!
Directions

Must caps in quarters and place in a baking pan with gills facing down. Add the water and 1/4 cup nama shoyu and put into 145 F dehydrator for 30 minutes. Remove from dehydrator and pour off the marinade (save 1/2 cup).

In a separate bowl mix basil, garlic, 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 teaspoons nama shoyu, salt, black pepper. Push mushrooms into this marinade, coat evenly.

In a bowl, mix 2 tablespoons olive oil, balsamic vinegar, stone ground mustard, maple syrup, 1 teaspoon nama shoyu.

Clean and trim asparagus, put into pan, add this balsamic marinade.

Put asparagus in pan into 145 F dehydrator for 1 hour, stir every 15 minutes.

After this hour, add remaining 1/2 cup balsamic marinade to bottom of mushroom pan and put it into the 145 F dehydrator with the asparagus for 45 to 60 minutes.

****

The Recipe did not include how much maple syrup to use so I just threw in about 2 tsp. Try different amounts yourself. I also made a mistake and added mustard to both but I think it will be ok. It smells delicious!
Well I'm eating it before I head off for my walk. It's a nice, delicious meal. Really good and really flavorful. I'll have leftovers tomorrow!

On a side note, but certainly related one, I've been walking Delaware Park for three consecutive days. Two days I walked alone. I'm really trying to do this whether anyone joins me or not. I really want to keep doing this!