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Tag: buckwheat

A Tiny Home Invader, Brene Brown, and Upcycling In Action

Day 23 of 28 Day Refocus

I don’t startle easily so much anymore, but this little dude, literally, came out of nowhere as we were leaving this morning. This is fair warning if you get squirmy with reptiles, this might not be the place for you. Come to think of it, I post a lot of insect photos, too, so…

Anyway…clearly, this little creature was having the exact same experience of being in the wrong place and, man, was she ever freaked out! Truthfully, I don’t even know where she got off to in the end. Right after I took this photo, she disappeared as quickly as she appeared. Fingers crossed that I don’t find her in an upside down state in a few days…

Cornered, The Condo
Atlantic Beach, FL – August 24, 2021

Parks and Recreation:

Spanish Pond, Timucuan National Preserve
Jacksonville, FL – August 24, 2021
Spanish Pond, Timucuan National Preserve
Jacksonville, FL – August 24, 2021

In The Gardens:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle; The Condo
Atlantic Beach, FL – August 24, 2021

I found a couple of extra trash cans in my guest room closet while I was looking for the right space to put a washer and dryer in the condo. I was about to put them in the Goodwill bin, but decided that I would re-plant some tomatoes instead. I’m going to have to start moving some of these seedlings to the garden soon. It might seem like I am planting a ton of plants and that’s because I am. The clock is ticking down to tour and the end of my time playing in the soil, for now. I think that the 9’ sunflowers will probably be my most successful planting endeavor, but I am looking forward to the fall season.

Mammoth Sunflowers, The Condo
Atlantic Beach, FL – August 24, 2021

Sweating It Out:

It was such a nice “return from the rest day” pace and there was a good special on the TV, so I added a bonus mile.

What I Watched:

This particular Netflix special is one that I return to again and again. For those of you that don’t know of Brene, we must not be spending enough time together. She is one of my heroes and, by far, one of the most inspirational people to me in terms of trying to understand…well…a lot of things. She is a shame and vulnerability researcher, but she is also a professor, a business woman, an author, and a tremendous storyteller. Her books are all over my house and Kindle and her two podcasts, Unlocking Us and Dare To Lead, are among my favorites. This talk is really grounding for me, so I was happy to keep at it on the treadmill while she kept talking.

On The Plates:

Goodness was all over the plates today! Brunch was, per usual this month, my standard green drink, but I had a pretty grain packed day after that. Supper was my new favorite meal of grass fed beef cubed steak with coconut milk buckwheat and green beans. I’m not saying that I licked the plate, but I definitely used a green bean to scrape up the last bits of yumminess. I meal prepped the buckwheat and steak yesterday and the green beans cooked in the skillet that I used to reheat everything. I’ll probably have the same thing tomorrow, but with a different veggie.

Dinner was equally fast, but not quite as successful due to a structural failure. This is my third package of this brand of sprouted corn tortillas and I haven’t had this problem until now. The tortillas seem to be much drier and more crumbly than the past packages, but the meal was good, so I didn’t care and ate it more like a salad. They were very well seasoned scrambled egg tacos with pickled carrots, red onion and green peppers on mixed greens.
I ended the day with a pear that was close to the size of my head and two servings of cashews. Today is one of my two “Under 1700 Calorie” days for this week of my four week challenge. The other five days, my goal is to keep under 1500 calories.

Cronometer:

Garmin Says:

Easing back into it and feeling strong heading into Week 4! I’m keeping the goals the same for the last week of the challenge. A minimum of 15,000 steps per day, including a 5 mile stretch of any pace over 4.0mph or a 15minute/mile (meaning 5 miles of exercise, not activity), plus three days of resistance training. I think I can nail it. Everything is started to get a little more routine and moving, in general, is easier as my body re-adapts to purposeful movement. I remember how this becomes addictive again.

Stay safe and moving, y’all!

Buckwheat Stuffed Pepper

Ingredients: Red Bell Pepper, Buckwheat, Coconut Milk, Orange Pepper, Broccolini, Garlic, Chia Seeds

For Serving: Red Leaf Lettuce, Cucumber, Snap Peas, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Maldon Flake Salt


This was a “Use It or Lose It Lunch” as so many of mine are. Because I really try to keep food waste to an absolute minimum, I have a lot of meals that come into fruition by sheer luck. The plating is random because the snap peas and the cucumber really wanted to be eaten that day, but let’s talk about the pepper. You can stuff a pepper, or really any vegetable that you can hollow into a container, with an infinite number of filling which is why they have become one of my go to meals. Also, unlike an eggplant or a squash, there is no pre-roast that has to happen, but you probably still have to pre-cook the filling…If you know how I usually roll, you know that I had the buckwheat meal prepped already.

A few days before this, I had soaked my buckwheat for a few hours in room temp water with a splash of apple cider vinegar… read why I soak grains here… but if you’re not into the fuss, no worries. You could also use whatever grain or lentil, for a protein kick, that you like. Anywho, I had made my buckwheat according to standard cooking instructions, but I like to use coconut milk instead of water for extra flavor. When it came time to make this dish, I used about a cup of prepared buckwheat, half of an orange pepper, a handful of chia seeds and a bit of garlic. Mix it all together with a little extra virgin olive oil. Cut the pepper, clean out the ribs and seeds, and rub her with a touch of EVOO. Stuff your filling it into the pepper and really press it in. Bake at 350 degrees until the pepper is cooked and the top is a little crunchy.