One of my favorites from my brain....

Silken thighs and cobalt eyes
That summer by the vines

Where rose's hips like finger tips
Flowed softly down my spine

A lover's breast what laid to rest
The monsters in my mind

Sandy Arter

Short and sweet, but that's how I've always felt about love, being in love with another soul, and the interactions between the bodies the souls inhabit, the deep connection of true intimacy, love brings with it the sweetest peace you can ever know.....

Add Some Spice To Your Life!

My husband and I almost never eat at restaurants. Cooking is a joy for me, a hobby, a passion and even decoration! My kitchen is a blend of Tuscan Garden and Old World Pub. Using good spices in your cooking opens up a limitless world of flavor. The best part about spices; you are adding nutritional benefit, metabolism boosters, and antioxidants to your food without adding calories! Sauces are loaded with fat, sugar, salt and horrible preservatives. Why would you add all these things to your diet, feeding them to yourself and your family? They are unnecessary and the money you spend on one jar or can of sauce, which you know is a single shot thing, you could spend the same and try a new spice that will last a long time, making tons of meals. I collect spices like some people collect decor or antiques(I have at least four different kinds of paprika alone), I use them to decorate my kitchen. Buying or making beautiful jars for storing your spices not only keeps them fresher and keeps them from degrading in flavor and quality, it also adds a flare to your kitchen, making it come alive! Inspiration when cooking is best born when you can see your spices, the colors call to you, yellows, reds, browns, greens; they are absolutely beautiful! Loving  to make my own chips,whether potato or tortilla, have inspired me to make two of my own spice blends that we really enjoy. We make our own bloodymarys from scratch with our spices, fresh cracked black pepper, celery salt, garlic. A tip I can give is to always keep spare empty glass spice jars to make large amounts when you create a spice blend you really like. A neat cheap way to keep your spices straight if you can't tell my smell or appearance what they are is to take a permanent marker and either stencil or free hand a beautiful label or just write it on the bottom of the jar where no one can see it. Spices are amazing! Use them to unleash your inner cook, we all have one all we have to do is give that inner cook the tools he or she needs to flourish! Good luck and if you have any questions or need some help, recommendations feel free to comment!

Best Pizza In Abilene!!!! Let's help them out! An online campaign for DOUBLE DAVE'S PIZZA!!!

There's an awesome pizza place in Abilene that has the best EVER buffet! There's just one problem, they are kinda hidden away :0( These guys are amazing! My hubby and I hate eating fast food and almost never go out to eat, except this place! They have buttery crunchy deep dish pizza, crispy delicious thin crust pizzas, and a magical awe inspiring PHILLY CHEESE STEAK STROMBOLI!!! Everything that goes on the buffet is fresh and made with love, they don't go cheap and bare minimum like other buffets. They also have beer on tap! Good, no GREAT beer! These guys approach everything they make with quality and customer satisfaction in mind. We love them! They use fresh veggies and REAL meat plus have the option of wheat pizza dough! Their dessert pizzas are just as good as the regular pizzas and they have a great salad bar. The buffet is only $8 with the drink included! The lunch buffet runs every day from 11 AM to 2 PM and dinner buffets on Sunday and Wednesday from 5pm to 8pm. They have daily specials and deliver too! They have a pizza of the month every month they offer special deals on. Check them out at www.doubledaves.com, you won't regret it! There's never enough people in there when we go, they are hidden away so go find them at 4001 John Knox by the south side Lowe's right next to Office Max, we cannot afford to lose this place! Support businesses in Abilene, these people are fantastic!


Sandy :0 )

How to be happy today, get to know you!

This will be a series of blogs within my blog. I grew up dirt poor, with low self esteem, constantly trying to find meaning and self worth through other people and was hurt by so many in that attempt. It started snowballing more and more every year, over-investing myself in everyone around me trying to ignore my own growing depression, anxiety, and desperation, until finally, I had completely left myself behind. I am still in a "recovery" faze right now, it takes a long time. I didn't even really understand what was wrong with me, I just knew I was already so tired of living, felt old and had quit planning for a future because I didn't feel like I could go on long enough to make any plans (in my twenties!).
Completely against being medicated took me on a much better road with long term changes, not band-aids or chemical dependencies. My best piece of advice for anyone in this position (I know there are many of you out there), start a book about you, just for you, not the people in your life or their story, everything has to be about you. It's like a journal but a little more in depth so you can actually break down your life into moments, needs, wants and find out what must change. Page one should be a list of YOUR favorite things. Sounds easy right? Not so much, if you've started living for everyone else in your life this can be a helpful first step. If you must sit and put active thought into figuring out what your favorite foods, colors, activities, movies, etc.., chances are pretty good we have some things in common.
Here are some ideas that I used to help me get started.
What is your favorite...
1. breakfast food (something that if you bought it would make you eat a good breakfast everyday)
2. color combo you find most peaceful and where is it in your home?
3. thing to do on your day off that makes you not mind so much going back to work the next day (like your paycheck is actually giving you more that the basics for living)
4. "me time" activity (if you have a hard time answering this one you are not alone, but it's really the most important question and SHOULD be the easiest to answer)
5. song that makes you sing out loud no matter where you are
6. "nobody's watching" dance move ( if you need helping finding one dance with Ellen, I do)
7. place where no one can find you for one hour and the last time you actually went there
8. fruit (being able to answer this one can be a key to healthy living in more ways than one)
9. friend to just sit and talk to about everything or nothing
10. physical quality and last time you showed it off

I had a really hard time asking these things of myself, but I did and found I had no answers. Anyone would lose their excitement for life if they weren't living and I wasn't. I was buying only the food that I knew everyone else enjoyed, so there was never anything I really enjoyed eating in the house. I figured that was fine, I would just not eat, maybe lose some weight (that back fired ) and destroyed my metabolism. Then I realized I couldn't stand the color combos in the house we bought, I had no space I just felt at peace in. I was hating myself and my job because I was spending every bit of my paycheck on everyone else. I would always take other people shopping but never really bought any pretty clothes or anything I wanted. I gained weight and just felt defeated. Like the only purpose for me existing was just to help other people, almost as though if I helped other people enough I would finally hit a point where it would either finally be my turn because they were going to be okay, or get too tired to go on anymore and give up completely. I'm still trying to find my favorite "nobody's watching" dance move but I've actually been having fun and smiling in the attempt. The beauty of this list, if you let yourself make it, is those who can't answer are the ones who need to put in the time and effort to find out why. Why don't you know what your favorite things are? It's because you never do them! You quit playing, quit living and quit loving yourself enough to have equal say in you own life. Start with one thing a day and if you can't answer go out and try some new things, find your answer, it starts a chain reaction, I promise. Never forget that you only get one chance and none of us know when it's over.

Sandy :0)

Guiltless cookies from scratch...part 1!!!!!

I love healthy and nutritiously inspired cooking! Recently I've been experimenting with meal replacement trail mix cookie recipes. I haven't figured out the exact measurements yet, but will this week and will be doing a great follow up blog to this one with pictures. I've been eating these cookies like crazy the past two weeks ( I have a bad habit of skipping meals, it's been killing my metabolism) and so far I have lost 6 pounds, so I'm really excited to share these recipes(I'll probably be doing a new one every week, I have an idea for a dark chocolate cherry cookie). I've come up with a couple of different variations, but have discovered something really cool! In place of butter in these recipes I've been using pureed fruit! It's so awesome! I like putting cinnamon in the cookies (1-2 tablespoons depending on tastes) because it helps to balance blood sugar, so I started with fruits that would be complementary to the cinnamon. So far I have used applesauce, pumpkin(I used 1 can), and pureed bananas! Just pick your puree and put about 2 cps (like I said all the measurements in this first blog are ball park figures) It has worked out so well, they are soft chewy and super satisfying. I've been using about four scoops of vanilla whey protein and only 2/3 cup artificial sweetener (it doesn't take much because of the pureed fruit and protein powder) to do huge batches of these cookies! There's absolutely no white flour, I use solid stone ground whole wheat flour(wonderful flavor and I'm in love with the texture), just 1 1/2  tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder. I put about 11/2 cups oats and 6 eggs, this does make a huge batch about 40 to 50 cookies, but my husband and I have been eating these so fast we have to make that many at a time. About 2 cups of your choice of trail mix, more or less depending on personal taste. I just buy dried apricots, plums, cranberries, almonds, and walnuts in bulk (below I have posted some examples of dried fruits and nuts I have used and really worked well)and make my own trail mix, in the long run it comes out alot cheaper for how often I have to make these, but for just one batch you should probably be able to find a nice 16 oz bag to suit your tastes. I also liked one batch that I threw about a cup of coconut in, yum! Also about 1 tablespoon of vanilla. I would ball park the flour at 3-4 cups at this point. I have been just adding the flour until I get a workable cookie dough texture. Just mix it all together starting with wet ingredients, (puree, vanilla, eggs) then add dry ingredients mix well and add trail mix, coconut, etc last and mix through. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees f and make sure you spray some cooking oil on the pans because you have to keep in mind there is no butter or oil in these cookies so you want to do something to make them not stick to the pan. Do rounded tablespoons and bake for about 10 to 15 minutes, usually you'll notice some browning of the peaks and tips of the cookies and this will let you know that you are pretty close to done. Set out to cool and enjoy! I've really enjoyed them and feel great, remember the balance of life...its all about fiber and protein!

I just love this green stuff!!

Try growing lettuce, spinach, and chard! Its super easy, looks really pretty and can be grown just about anywhere. These leafy little guys aren't really picky about soil, they only need a moderate amount of light and do great in containers. One packet of seeds well tended will give you a whole season of free greens. Also if you don't want to buy greens or seeds next season never pull from the center stalk, let it flower and seed. Another thought, if you wish to keep growing throughout the winter just keep a cycle of fresh babies planted and when it gets chilly move the operation from the porch to the indoors! Find a window sill that gets a little light and they'll be more than happy. Til next time,
Sandy

A Green Idea!

You never know what I'm going to post! I love to live green any chance I get. My husband and I are also big fans of eating green. We love green onions! Here's a money saving green tip that you just might love. We only buy green onions once a year. I am a gardener, but my biggest peeve is how long it takes for some veggies to mature, onions are a big offender, so I cheat :0) When you go to the grocery store to buy green onions pick up a bag of potting soil too. The green onions you pick up usually have the little baby white onion still at the bottom. Find a bundle that have good little roots going strong. When you get home from grocery shopping prep a spot in the garden or use a planter, you can do this whether you live in a house or apartment. Cut off the green onions you plan to use. Save the bottoms and plant them! Those beautiful little onions are still alive! They will start growing and you can usually harvest within just a week or so. With very little maintenance these little guys will keep growing strong! So take a little time, save some green, eat some green and keep anything out of the landfill you can! Till next time...

Sandy