I was doing "no sugar" on this blog.  I am still into no sugar but I have lately gotten "all fired up with vintage Singer sewing machines".

My husband and I are both into these machines.  It all started with us deciding to recover the couchions for our boat Sapho.  We looked up the best machines for the job.  It seems that good machines for the job are a variety of  Vintage Singer Sewing machines.  So, we looked on Kijiji' Craigs List,  Amazon and Ebay.  We found them on every one.  We got a 127 on Kijiji out of Prince George.  We got a 66 in Kelowna and a 15 in Kelowna and a 221, featherweight out of Vancouver.

We are getting the 66 serviced through a Quilt Shop in Kelowna for $79.00.  We are going to use the 66 for the upholstry job.  We are not sure what we are going to do with the others but we may use the featherweight on the boat to do repairs on the canvas, etc.

Update

I have not posted forever. I have been seriously busy lately. We sold our place on the Gulf Islands. I could not tolerate the dampness. It caused me great distress. I have two rebuilt ears and I would get sinus problems that will wreck havoc with my new ear parts and cause vertigo.
That is not good. We have stairs in our cottage and are serious boaters.

I am still dedicated to sugarless cooking. I made sugarless chocolates today and plan to make sugarless cookies. Everyone likes these treats. They are especially nice for the grand kids. One of them is really sensitive to sugar. Everyone says that she looks just like me.

I have also been busy working on my paintings and getting ready to go fishing. I am still dealing with the sinus difficulties that I picked up on the island before we sold it and am trying to resolve the problem before I get on the boat. I find that horse radish helps. I do not like horse radish but I am using it anyway. At least it has no sugar!

Dollysimmo

Dollysimmo

Whey Protein or no whey protein

I have recently decided to try whey protein. I bought some (just cheap stuff and even cheap stuff is expensive about $27.00 Canadian a can) and tried it. It was chocolate and it was horrible as a shake. So......I tried making cookies with it.

I had recently found a recipe on the net using no sugar and no flour and no dairy. It involved ripe bananas and instant oatmeal. I tried this receipt and added 2 scoops of the whey protein and 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa and some wild cranberries. I also added 8 packets of splenda. They turned out really well. The receipt made about 28 cookies or so. I eat a couple every day for a break at 10 a.m. and they are great. They are really filling and I do not want any snacks during the day and have a reduced appetite. I believe that I have more strength and energy (notice the picture where I am packing a front quarter of a woodland caribou out of the bush in Northern Yukon Territory). This strength and energy is really important for me as I have fibromyalgia. This condition was the reason that I initially started experimenting with sugarless cooking. I am really sensitive to sugar.

I think that it is probably too soon to tell if the whey protein is a good investment or not. At least it will not cost much as I use so little. This little bit business is one of the things that is important to people with FMS (fibromyalgia); a little bit goes a long way with us.

The receipe is as follows:

Use 3 ripe bananas, 2 cups instant oatmeal, 1 egg, 2 scoops of chocolate whey protein mix, 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa, 1/3 cup soya milk, one egg, some almond pieces and some sunflower seeds, 2 tablespoons of good oil and 8 packets of splenda; ;mix dry; mix wet, combine then drop on greased cookie sheet and stick in some fresh cranberries if you have them; cook at 350f for 10 minutes.

These cookies really are great; as Julia Childs would say "Bon appitite".

Dear me; here it is nearly the end of April. We are back in the Yukon Territory. I am glad to be home. We had a great trip up the Alaska Highway. I never get tired of driving up the highway. The scenery is ever changing and wonderful.

The weather at our place of residence is warm with a S. E. wind and the dump of snow that we got one night last week; that you see in the picture; is all gone and then some. The ground is just about bare and the lake looks almost ready to cast off its shell of ice. It is changing from winter to spring. We are to have a sunny, warm week; this is lovely. My studio is upstairs with windows facing the south and looking all the way down a lovely, Yukon lake. I am so enjoying it.

I am starting another foray into cooking. We are to have quests this summer and one of them cannot eat onions. Dear me; cooking without sugar and or onions; a challenge indeed.

I have been looking up receipts in both magazines and on the internet. I have found one good main dish receipt that I have modified somewhat. It is simple, fast and good and liked by all I have tried it on. It is a chicken, pasta dish and goes as follows:

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tsp olive oil
1 bell pepper; any color; cut into nice cubes (this is just for a splash of color more than anything)
1 cup shell pasta
2 tbls chicken soup mix or 1 cup of chicken soup broth (no MSG)
1 can mushroom soup (no MSG or onions)
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Boil two boneless, skinless chicken breasts until they are done in enough water that you would be able to cook a cup of shell pasta in later. I add some chicken soup broth that has no MSG. This takes about 20 minutes or so.

Cut up the bell pepper

Take the chicken out of the pot and add the cup of pasta with a tsp of olive oil.

Cut up the chicken into chunks.

Remove the water from the pot when pasta is done (I save the water for soup stock).

Add a can of mushroom soup (with no MSG or onions). Heat until chicken and soup are hot.

Pour into a casserole dish that will hold it comfortably and add 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese to the top. Place in oven or microwave and heat until cheese is melted. Serve with a lovely tossed garden salad.

The above main dish will serve 4 for 1 meal or 2 people for two meals. It keeps well in the frige so you could even make it ahead and serve it the next day. It could easily be doubled or even tripled for a larger crowd. A crowd pleaser and easy to do; what a combo!

Oklahoma blues

Here it is March 3rd already and I have not posted for months. I had great times last winter. We spent most of it in Florida. It was really cool for Florida but still warmer than the Yukon. I also got to attend the Dunedin Art School for a couple of six week courses. I really picked up my drawing and painting skills. I painted a couple florals and three pastel portraits of one of my grand daughters. It was great. Everyone who saw the results of my work was impressed. I plan to return to Florida and the Dunedin Art School next winter and take more courses.

In the mean time, we are in Oklahoma City visiting family on our way back to the Yukon and have picked up a dreadful stomach flu. I was the least affected and was well enough to make lots of soup. I am sticking to barley soup all day today. Everyone else is eating chicken noodle soup. I did well with diet in Florida this winter. Last winter I gained pounds from lack of attention to my diet. This year I did not gain a pound. My husband gained 14 pounds last year and this year he actually lost a couple pounds. That diet is so important! We must pay attention!

I really look forward to getting back to Canada and our family up there.

Baked Barley and Black Beans to go with BBQ

I am still working on sugarless but I am adding a bit of sweet using Maple Syrup. Apparently Maple Syrup is the least offensive sugar type sweetner.

I make a lot of barley soup and have been experimenting ways to use the left over soup and turn it into something magical. Well; believe it or not I think that I have found something magical (if I can just duplicate it again). I invented "Baked Barley and Black Beans" and what I did to do that follows.

Note: I always make my barley soup very thick with lots of carrots and the carrots in the baked barley and beans seems to be OK:

Start with at least 4 cups of very thick beef barley soup. Add a large can of black beans (washed and drained). Mix in a medium sized can of crushed tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of catsup and 1 tsp of prepared mustard (being careful to use canned tomatoes that have no sugar in them mindful that there is some sugar in the catsup). Add 2 tsp of Tabasco Sauce and 2 packets of Splenda. Place in a baking dish and bake at 350 for 1/2 hour.

In the meantime cut up a small yellow onion into rings and place them in a shallow dish. Marinate it with 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and 1/4 cup Maple Syrup.

Place the onions and marinade mixture on top of the baked beans and barley and return it to the oven and bake for another 1/2 hour or until the onions are cooked.

This made a pretty good "baked bean dinner". It would go really well with BBQ pork or chicken and some garden salad. I marinate pork and chicken with balsamic vinegar and some soy sauce. I never put BBQ sauce on my BBQ. I find that the marinade is good enough for me. My husband finds it too dry and uses BBQ suace. I think that there is too much sugar in the BBQ suace for me. There is a bit of sugar in the soy sauce and more in the catsup it's true but I guess I will have to admit a bit of sugar now and then for the sake of good food that tastes good. That is the whole challenge, I guess, making good food that tastes good.