Maker Monday: Fast, Healthy, and Flavorful Breakfast Ideas - Protein Tubs

I saw the video below on Facebook showing how to use Greek yogurt and protein powder to make  breakfast bowls. I am not much on breakfast. I'm not awake enough most weekday mornings to appreciate a good breakfast, and if I am not going to have a good breakfast I'd rather skip it. And let's be honest, for a lot of us, the extra half hour of sleep we can exchange for the time it would take to prepare and eat breakfast is worth skipping the meal. I usually toss a protein bar or an apple or banana in my bag and head to work.


When I saw this video, I instantly thought it was a great idea. I have tried so many different brands and flavors of meal replacement shakes. Some of the pre-mixed ones are okay, but they are really expensive. The cost is lower if you just buy the powder and add your own liquid, but the consistency is just awful. No matter how thoroughly or long I mix the powder into the water or milk, it seems to be both watery and clump. The powder settles to the bottom so that occasionally you will get a big mushy clump of protein powder with barely flavored milk/water. It is not pleasant. I like the idea of an almost instant meal, but the texture inconsistencies get me every time.

So, when I saw that they mix the protein powder into plain Greek yogurt, I saw that this very well might solve my texture issue while helping me create a very fast, flavorful, healthy breakfast alternative. Last night I decided to put together a couple just to try. I already had some slim fast breakfast shake mix in my cupboard, and I picked up some fresh  yogurt on our grocery trip earlier in the day (I love plain yogurt on pretty much anything you would normally use sour cream or Miracle Whip).

Once the scoop of protein shake mix is added to a cup of Greek yogurt and mixed well, the yogurt has a very fluffy, whipped texture. It's almost like a dense chocolate mousse. I really like the extra tang that the yogurt adds to the flavor too. I have never liked any of the flavors of protein shakes other than chocolate for drinking, but I could see really enjoying vanilla, strawberry, or caramel as a yogurt/mousse flavor. I slice two to three strawberries to go with each serving and stored them in my Rubbermaid Takealong containers that have the removable trays to keep the fruit from getting soggy. I think I might try some almond slivers, granola, or maybe some dried fruit as mix-ins for some later in the week.

Maker Monday: Fast, Healthy, and Flavorful Breakfast Ideas - Nordic Stone Age Snack Bars

 

I really like the convenience of being able to grab a granola or protein bar, stash it in my purse, and go to work or to the park or wherever I am headed. Some are acceptable meal replacements, and some are very enjoyable snacks. Almost all of them have more sugar than I can for or are so dry and flavorless I might as well be eating cardboard. And so very many of them are peanut butter flavored. I like peanut butter a lot, but I do not care for peanut butter flavorings at all.

I have occasionally made my own granola, but I had never attempted to make my own snack bars. I saw a video cross my feed on Facebook describing a homemade bread loaf made from seeds and nuts. I watched the video (posted below) and thought it looked like a great idea for a lower sugar, flavorful alternative snack.




I did decide pretty quickly that I thought I would prefer this in a more easily portable bar or square format. So, instead of putting the whole mix in a loaf pan, I split it into two 8x8 stoneware dishes.

For my snack bars I included:

• 1/2 cup raw slivered almonds 
• 1 cup raw chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup brown flax seeds
• 1/2 cup golden flax seeds
• 1 cup toasted sunflower seeds
• 1 Tbsp. clover honey
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut

• 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 olive oil
• 5 eggs
• 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt

Mix all of these ingredients in a bowl and then half between two 8x8 lightly greased baking dishes. I cooked my bars at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. They turned out crisp along the edges and chewy in the middle. I cut one pan into small granola bar size, and I cut the other pan into small squares like I would brownies.

They are chewy and crunchy at the same time, very flavorful, and filling. Next time I might try adding a touch of cinnamon or ginger to the mix just to punch the flavor a bit. I think oats would also be a nice addition. The original recipe did not call for the dried fruits or honey, but I wanted a hint of sweetness without adding too  much. The dried fruits also add some varied texture to the bars as well. I packaged them up into snack bags and popped them in the breadbox so that they will be easy to snag in the mornings on our way to work.

The Question of Consent

I have been blogging a lot about family things lately, which isn’t why I originally started keeping this blog/journal. Writing is my way of processing everything going on right now, so I needed the brief outlet. I would now like to get back to other topics, and that is what I am doing with this post.

Consent has been a topic of heated discussion in my local kink community (and in the greater community at large) over the past several months. I have seen many threads on various sites started to discuss it, and I have seen the topic come up as discussion points for local meetings. I cannot even count the number of Facebook and blog posts centered around consent, and on multiple occasions consent has been the topic of interest among friends in my home. As I have heard and read more, I have come to realize that what I would gauge a consent violation is very different than many others.

As I begin my definitions and discussion below, I want to make it clear that by doing so I am in no way saying that any differing definitions, opinions, experiences, etc. are less valid than my own. We all have to form our own perceptions and opinions based on our own experiences, and every single one of us will do that in a different manner with differing results. That’s what makes life, our community, and people in general so interesting. Please think about this before attacking me over my opinion. If you do not like or do not agree with the opinion I am about to express, I will be happy to discuss your reasons in a reasonable, adult fashion. Or, you can just ignore my post and move on. Please, once again, do not attack me or anyone else who chooses to share their thoughts here on my blog.

We as individuals and as community of people who participate in BDSM in all of its forms, by the very nature of what we do, have to take questions of consent very seriously. If we see or hear of consent violations happening, we have to do what we can to investigate the situation and make sure it doesn’t happen again for the safety, peace of mind, and reputation of everyone involved. If we do not take such accusations seriously, people will get hurt and possibly killed, people who are committing these violations will continue to do so, and then no one will be willing to interact with others in our community.

I have always participated in kink activities in a risk aware manner. Every time I say yes to participating in any type of exchange, there is a risk that things can go wrong through no fault of mine or my partner. Depending on what the activity is, there is a risk of minor up to very serious harm happening. Things can go wrong without us even realizing it sometimes. I'm very serious about discussing the potential for those mishaps occurring so that my partner and I can have a plan on how to deal with them if they occur. Negotiation and communication are so very important. Discuss every possibility you can think of during negotiation so there are as few question marks as possible. I realize there will almost always be possibilities that I haven't thought of. If one of those possibilities happen and I'm not cool with it, that's what I have a safe word for. 

I couldn’t describe a single truly satisfying exchange where something hasn’t happened that was outside the bounds of what prior negotiations covered. Did that mean that my partner violated my consent? No. It meant that neither of us thought of this particular possibility prior to the moment. Maybe it was a spur of the moment addition to a scene, or maybe it was a calculated turn that was meant to push my boundaries. If this new activity isn’t something I’m okay with, it’s my responsibility to put a halt to things either temporarily or permanently. I shouldn’t expect my partner to read my mind and know that I am not okay with what is happening. That’s putting an awful lot of responsibility on the other person for my participation. I do not think that is fair to either of us. If you are one of those people who falls into such a deep headspace that you do not feel you can say no beyond a certain point no matter what it is, you need to set safeguards for yourself. Perhaps you should have a spotter nearby you can trust to watch and make a decision for you. Whatever works for you. 

If you go through with an exchange to the end without voicing any sort of objections or concerns, two days later you can’t go back and say your consent was violated. If during the exchange I used my safeword and the person didn’t stop, my consent would have been violated. If I had pre-negotiated that I wasn’t willing to do something as a hard limit and my partner did it anyway without re-negotiating it with me, my consent would have been violated. Regret after the fact is not the same thing as consent violation. I hear stories involving this all the time. These are the sorts of stories that set my anger ablaze for various reasons.

There have been plenty of times where an activity was initiated in that gray area. It wasn’t previously addressed, so no one had said yes or no to it beforehand. The majority of time it has worked out positively for everyone involved. There have been a couple of times where one of us has called a stop because something wasn’t right about where the experience was going. There have been times where I have left at the end of the evening feeling okay but then later had second thoughts about doing whatever it was again. My reaction in that case was not to attack my partner and claim that I had been victimized. I talked with the person, explained my concerns and feelings about said activity, and either chose to try it again on a tentative basis or not at all. I am not a victim. I am responsible for my own actions and my own reactions. Being a submissive does not make me weak, does not make me easy to manipulate into doing something that I don't want to do, and does not make me someone who needs protection from my partner or from myself. Being a dominant does not make my partner a mind reader or give them perfect interpretation of body language every single time I react to something during a scene. If something goes wrong (or for that matter very right) discussion afterward is an extremely powerful too. The more you understand about each other and each scene you participate in, the stronger you become in your chosen role. 

Secondary to personal growth and understanding is another very important detail to keep in mind when making the statement that your consent was violated during a scene: Reputation. You only get one reputation as a person, as a submissive, as a dominant. We interact in very close knit  communities in the BDSM world. We all know each other. We go to the same events, group munches, and meetings. We serve as references for each other, and we all (at least I hope all) try our best to protect one another as best we can. It's our responsibility as a community to identify any predatory activity and remove the perpetrators from our active circles. Overall, I think we are very good at doing that. The grapevine is fast and vicious when it comes to violence or consent violations occurring within our safe havens because we want to keep those places and event safe for everyone. For these reasons, reputation is everything. One wrong comment insinuating a partner has violated consent even if retracted later can ruin a person's reputation within the community forever. It may seem harmless to sit around with friends a week after a scene and rehash all the details, how you decided three days after the fact that a particular action by your partner or instance during the scene made you feel violated and that it never should have happened. But then those people go tell three other people each and those people and those people, and before long your partner who didn't know they did anything wrong at all is suddenly banned from community groups and events that they had been participating in for years. Even if later you go back and say it was all a misunderstanding, that you've talked it over and worked out what went wrong ... the damage is done. Some people will accept that it was all a miscommunication, but to others that person will always be a predator who cannot be trusted. 

Do consent violations happen? Do predatory actions happen where people are hurt emotionally, physically, psychologically? Should reports of these violations be taken seriously and acted upon to make sure they do not happen again? Absolutely yes to all of these. If it was something criminal like rape or the use of drugs, the situation should be turned over to the police to handle. If it's one of those gray areas, investigation into the matter should happen right away. Thorough discussion should happen with all parties involved. What were the details of the scene? How did each individual feel about it at the time? Did those feelings change afterward at some point? How so? Perhaps both partners were feeling the same way about what happened but they didn't know how to discuss it with one another. Maybe the other person misread a cue. Maybe something else outside of the scene happened three days later that made that person's reaction to the scene change. Maybe something in their past flared up to cause negative feelings that no one had anticipated beforehand or during the scene. There are so many factors to be discussed in these sorts of situations before jumping to the conclusion that the dominant is a horrible person to engage in play and can never be trusted again. At the end of all of that, if you still feel the same way about them, choose not to play with them again and add a few more things to the list to include in your next negotiations. If they truly violated your consent in any way, make it known loudly so that it doesn't happen to you or anyone else again. If they didn't actually do that, don't ruin their chance of interacting with and continuing to be accepted in the BDSM community they call home.

Dream Lover

Maybe it's the moon or that Mercury was in retrograde last month or that I saw a friend become a lovely bleeding pincushion this past weekend. Maybe my hormones are out of whack, or maybe I'm just legitimately horny as hell. Who knows why, but wow the dreams I have been having lately have been of the oh, my god steamy variety.

Hands wrapped around my throat, lips so close to my ear I could feel every exhale and every movement of their lips as they spoke, back pressed against the chest of someone I couldn't see, fingers ... forceful and deep, demanding, gentle and punishing all at once. It's heady to feel that vulnerable and safe all at once. Asking to stop when my thighs are slick and my body trembles ... being told no because they know I need more.

Dreaming of knives glinting in the light as they trace intricate patterns across my torso with surgical precision and an artistic eye. Gloved fingers rubbing and pulling, opening the tiny incisions further so that the blood flows down my sides and across my stomach. The burning, stinging madness of it makes me squirm, which makes me realize my arms are bound and a latex clad groin is pressed into mine. Latex gloved hands smear the blood everywhere. It paints my nipples a dark red, stains my lips. The salty metallic flavor fills my mouth as fingers delve inside. Bright red menstrual blood pools and drips from my pussy as a shiny, latex clad cock pushes deep and hard. The air smells like blood and rubber and the sounds of slick latex slapping against wet skin, groans and pants and whimpers and growls fill the air.

I could go on ... the dreams have just been flowing lately. I'm not horribly prone to wet variety of dreams, but I have been blessed/cursed with quite a few lately. I know I am in desperate need of some heavy S&M play. And admittedly, my sex drive has been in overdrive lately.Definitely some food for thought that makes me want to recruit a few friends who like playing in blood as much as I do to make some of those thoughts a reality.

The Childlessness Syndrome

I think I have it ... The Childlessness Syndrome.

My 35th birthday is coming up very soon, and my ovaries feel every tick of the clock. I'm approaching that invisible wall where once you're past it the risks involved in starting a family multiply and keep on multiplying every year. Gestational diabetes, multiple births, infertility, birth defects, chromosomal abnormalities, low birth weight/early births, high blood pressure issues ... the list goes on and on. I'm already facing infertility issues and a family history of premature births and early menopause. I so desperately wanted to have kids before I was 30 and beat the multiple clocks that are ticking away. Now that I'm fast approaching 35, the pressure is on, but there isn't really anything I can do about it.

The doctors have told me that I'm unlikely to get pregnant without help via either IU or IVF procedures, and my insurance only covers a small fraction of IU and nothing on IVF. The doctors also told me that even if one of these procedures works so that I do become pregnant, the chance of a full-term, live birth is very slim. Hearing that, logically and emotionally, I have to ask myself is it worth it? My mother miscarried two daughters, and my older brother only lived for 6 hours after he was born. I was her miracle baby who survived, but she still grieves for those three who didn't make it.

With the chances being so small, should I put myself and Steffie through that grueling and expensive process? I just don't know. I don't know. I know I would survive the disappointments and potential losses, but would we as a couple survive the emotional roller coaster? I would like to say absolutely yes, but I've seen so many couples torn apart by these sorts of things. My wife is the love of my life, and I won't sacrifice her and our relationship for the slimmest possibility of a biological child.

The thought that I may never be able to carry a child, to give birth to him or her when I've wanted it for so long fucking hurts. And if I'm being completely honest with myself, it doesn't raise my self esteem any either. I know intellectually and logically that it isn't my fault. I didn't do anything to cause these medical problems. I've been very careful about my reproductive health. I've never missed a yearly check-up. I was always particular about having safe sex to avoid disease, infections, etc. My weight could be better in order to potentially improve some hormone levels and general mobility, but otherwise I am in very good health. Still the thoughts creeps in from time to time that if I had started trying to have children earlier before my thyroid problems developed that maybe this could have been avoided, that starting birth control so early and trying that horrible depo shot maybe have permanently screwed up my hormone production/levels, that if I weren't broken, Steffie could have children of her own. Not having kids makes family functions awkward as hell, and my mother resents me not giving her grandchildren yet.  Logically I know there is nothing that I could have done that would change what is happening or isn't happening now. I know that it isn't my fault. But ... sometimes it's so very hard to remember that.

I've thought about surrogacy as an option. I've even had more than one friend make the offer to be our surrogate. I have mixed emotions about it. If my eggs were viable (the doctor says there is a good chance they aren't), then I would consider it further. If we were able to use biological material from both of us, I would definitely want to go with a surrogate that we don't know rather than a friend. As much as our friends tell us it wouldn't matter, that the child would be completely ours, I would worry that at some point it would turn into, why are you raising the child I carried this way or that way, etc. I don't want to lose a good friend over that, and I won't have someone else tell me how to care for my child. Sticky situations abound. Excluding the possibility of using my own eggs, I don't think I would do it. It would bother me if our child was biologically Steffie's but not mine. What if something were to happen down the road where we split? Then there is the argument that the child is more hers than mine, and child custody just gets ugly so quick without that extra layer of ownership. Maybe that is selfish of me, but it is how I feel.

I would rather at that point look at an adoption instead. And then comes a whole other set of potential problems. We are a lesbian couple who have pretty eclectic social and religious views. In a world that likes to make the adoption process doubly hard for anyone who doesn't fit into the one size fits all box of white, heterosexual, practicing Christian wholesomeness, I know adoption will not be an easy process for us. We both work full time, and we do not have a huge amount of money in savings after buying a new home this past year. I don't know what the requirements are now, but I know at one point adoption required one parent to be able to be off work for 6 months to a year to bond with and acclimate the child to his/her new family. I don't know if this is still the case, but if it is, neither of us can afford to be out of work that long.

And then there are the completely selfish lifestyle changes to consider when asking myself if I want to make the changes necessary to start a family. We are very socially involved with our friends and hobbies. We are part of multiple alternative lifestyle groups, we have very active gaming hobbies, and we keep strange hours. We hate being fully clothed at home. We have sex toys and latex clothing and adult oriented literature scattered liberally throughout our house. We have a dungeon and fetish closet. We host parties. We spend hours or days at a time playing tabletop games at three or four day conventions. We like to pick up and go whenever time and work allows. Neither of our families live close enough to us that we could look to them for an occasional babysitter so that we could still participate in those activities on a limited basis. Finding a babysitter for even something as small as a night out would be an interesting feat. It would be honestly a very big change that would have to happen if we choose to have children. Thinking about those parts of my life being greatly reduced or going away completely brings a whole other bag of mixed emotions.

So ... child or no child in my future? I don't know. Am I happy without a human child? Yes. I have my wife who loves me and who I love enormously. I have a puppy who is decidedly spoiled because of the very fact that we do not have humie babies. My life is full of social activities, friends, and family. I have a job that I really enjoy and a new house that we are working very hard to make into the welcoming home that we want it to be. My life isn't broken without children. I can be and am happy without kids. Maybe it is just time to decide that they aren't going to be part of my complete. That's just the way it is. Time will tell better than any hypothesizing I can do on my own now.

Maker Monday: Kitchen Witchery : Steffie's Make Me Feel Better Chicken Soup

When I am feeling under the weather, my beautiful, awesome, wonderful wife will make me her homemade chicken soup.. I call it her "Make Me Feel Better Chicken Soup" because it always does make me feel better. The bonus is that it is super tasty too and full of things that are good for you. There's definitely some magic in its delicious broth.

Here's the Recipe:

2 large or 4 small chicken breasts grilled or pan seared and cubed
96 oz chicken or turkey broth (2 of the family size 48oz cartons)
1 1/2 cups chopped baby carrots
3 small yellow potatoes cubbed
1 cup frozen green peas
1-2 cups frozen mixed cauliflower/broccoli
1-2 cups button mushrooms chopped
1 cup corn drained
1 bundle diced green onions, sliced thin
3 cups tri-color rotini noodles or egg noodles
Spices and Herbs (to taste): 1 tsp oregano, 1 tsp parsley, 1 tsp rosemary finely minced, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp basil, 1tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp black or white pepper, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp chicken bouillon, 2 tbs lime juice.

Mix chicken, chicken broth, and all vegetables other than potatoes together in large pot and bring to boil. While it is coming to a boil place potatoes and 1/4 cup water in microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 4 minutes on high. Add potatoes to pot.

Once mixture has come to a boil add in noodles and cook until tender. This is the time also to add in any herbs and spices that you would like.

Servings: 10-12

Maker Monday: Ode to the 1950s - Cheesy Surprise Hash Brown Casserole

 

Cheesy Surprise Hash Brown Casserole

Half a Bag of Ore-Ida Hash Browns, thawed (approximately 15 oz)

1 can cream of chicken soup (cream of mushroom works good too)

1 can cheese soup

1 can SPAM luncheon meat (the Bacon flavored one works the best)

1 small onion diced

½ cup sour cream

½ cup frozen peas

1 cup shredded cheese of your choice

2 cups crushed sour cream and onion chips

Spices to taste (salt, black pepper, paprika, garlic powder, Cheyenne pepper)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter or spray a 9x11 casserole dish and set aside.

In a mixing bowl combine thawed hash browns, cream of chicken soup, cheese soup, sour cream, shredded cheese, and frozen peas together folding gently until fully combined. Add spices now as well keeping in mind you may not want to add much salt at all because of the SPAM and canned ingredients sodium content. If you stir, it has a tendency to break up the hash browns too much, and then they become mushy.

Open and cut up the loaf of SPAM into small cubes. Dice the onion. Very lightly coat your skillet with olive oil (or if you prefer a bit more spicy chili oil works great.) Fry the onions and SPAM on medium heat, flipping two to three times until meat is crispy and onions are just starting to caramelize.

Drain excess grease and then mix in the SPAM and onions with the rest of your ingredients. Move mixture into your prepared casserole dish and spread out evenly. Cover the top with your crushed potato chips.