Well, hello again. How about a recipe?

Looks like my average blogging is every 6 months or so huh? I've had that little bloggy bug bite me several times in the last few months, but I just don't seem to get around to doing it. I've been wanting to change the name of my blog for quite a while too. I can't seem to think of a name that I really dig. So for now, it's changed to Happy Sleepy Spoonie.

That would be me, by the way.

My latest set of health challenges have grown and taught me so much, and I find myself everyday more joyful and thankful to God. Not only for His grace, but even for the trials, which I know are sanctifying me everyday. I never stop being amazed by His goodness. That's the happy part - I have so much joy in Christ!

Sleepy, because I felt like I needed another word in there and if I said happy happy, it might sound too much like hungry hungry. As in hippo. So I chose sleepy. I had surgery a few months ago (I am working my brain almost to the point of smoke coming out of my ears, and I can't remember the month that I had the surgery). Ever since then, I am more exhausted than I've ever been. At least for this long of a period of time. I feel like I am in a fog, and maybe like I'm wearing cement shoes. Folks, I am tired.

And Spoonie is self explanatory, IF you know about the spoon theory, and if you don't, I suggest you look it up!

These days, I rarely cook. Did I mention I'm tired? I went to the farmer's market on Saturday though, and bought some loverly Japanese eggplant and zucchini, so I had to make something. I looked up a bunch of recipes, and I don't know if I was just being extra lazy, but they had so many steps I couldn't even read them. Then, I had a flash of inspiration.

I have never actually eaten moussaka, being gluten free, and also allergic to eggs and tapioca. You just can't make a lot of good gluten free dishes without eggs and tapioca. So when a recipe calls for a bechemel, I usually skip right on past it. I don't like using things like egg replacers or gums if I can ever help it, and flax and chia seeds don't give me the results I want either. So, forget it. But, moussaka...it sounds so delicious. Greek food is my very favorite, I think. I firmly believe I could live on pita bread and hummus and baba ganouj....

Anyway. I came up with this moussaka inspired casserole type thingy. It might need a better name. But here we go.

While my oven was preheating to 400 degrees, I washed and cut my Japanese eggplant and a zucchini into rounds and placed them on a greased sheet pan. I don't like to cook with liquid oils like olive oil (too inflammatory), so lately, I've been using red palm oil. I don't use it for other people because they might get grossed out by the color, but I think it looks a little pretty, and it's a nice healthy oil.

 

Once that went into the oven, I started cooking some ground beef in my trusty extremely heavy Dutch oven. Now, I tend to eat semi low FODMAP. Garlic and onions especially bother me. So this recipe could be low FODMAP with some tweaking. I cooked my ground beef with a whole garlic clove in the pot, mostly because I don't like the smell of meat. When you are cooking, it is important to remember to season as you go! I salted the eggplant and zucchini before roasting it, and the ground beef got a little salt, pepper, the whole garlic clove, and some oregano. Oh, and some ground fennel seed. I don't think that is ever in moussaka, but I like the way it smells. Once the ground beef was cooked through, I removed the garlic, added some green onions (take the rest of those green onions and freeze them, all chopped up. Little things like that help later on. You'll be more likely to want to cook a healthy meal if some of the work is already done for you!), more oregano, cinnamon, tomato sauce, and red wine. I generally cook with a Shiraz, but use whatever you want, or if you wanted to leave it out, a little more tomato sauce. OR, I think beet juice would taste lovely! Tomato sauce on its own doesn't really give that deep delicious flavor you're looking for.

 

 

Plus the color of the wine or beet juice makes it oh so pretty. I cooked it until the liquid cooked down, and it looked a little bit like sloppy joe with not a lot of slop. Oh, I forgot to mention, play some good music while you're cooking. I'm sure it makes the food taste better. I chose a 90's mix. You play whatever you like.

So, once the meat was all delicious-like (I know it was delicious because I tasted it. Taste your food as you go! Each component should taste good on its own. Don't be afraid of salt. Okay be a little afraid of table salt, mostly because it's gross. Use a good quality, yummy salt. They don't cost that much.), I scooped all of the now roasted squash and eggplant into my casserole dish. Oh, and at some point, I turned the oven down to 350. It doesn't matter when - this is hardly precise. Then I added the meat, and mixed it all together, with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese - use any hard cheese you like. Then I baked it for about 20 minutes.

Now, I just ate a bowl of this. But, practically any vegetable would be a good side dish. If I had any choice, I think it would be super tasty with some carrots, jicama, and some zucchini hummus. And kalamata olives.

This part is very important! Serve with another sprinkle of fresh parmesan and a dollop of salted sour cream. This is what will take the place of the bechemel. Obviously it's not the same, but I'm telling you, this was a delcious dish.

Moussaka Inspired Casserole Thingy

12 oz ground beef (use lamb if you have it!)

2 small Japanese eggplant

1 small zucchini (or substitute both of these with a regular eggplant)

Salt & pepper

Oregano

Cinnamon

Garlic (optional)

Fennel seed, powdered (sorry, I'm no good with measurements)

1 cup tomato sauce (I use organic, and it tastes better)

1/2 to 1 cup red wine (Shiraz if you have it, or seriously, I would try beet juice)

Parmesan cheese, shredded

Sour cream (you better salt that stuff)

Follow my wordy instructions up there. Enjoy.

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A Bit of Encouragement

Greetings, readers! All two or three of you! Last time I blogged, I shared it on my Facebook page, thought better of it, deleted it. I have no idea why. Will I do the same with this one? Who knows. I don't even have a title. Or much of a direction.

 

Well last time I talked about non-resolutions that are sort of resolutions and sort of not. As I said, for me it was more about feeling a little bit better than I have than it is about a new year. However, I do feel like once Christmas is over, I'm always ready for something new. When I taught preschool, I was always excited for our regular schedule to start back up again. Now I feel like I have less direction, less of a routine, so I feel antsy.

 

Anyway, almost as usual, I was having these lofty thoughts about what I would be doing with my time, newly restructured, once the new year celebrations were over. I say almost as usual, because they haven't been quite as lofty as in years past; no matter how well I look or how much better I am than I was, I am living in a new reality. Sort of. I've known for quite a long time that I have issues that will likely never go away (except when I'm in those periods of plotting how I will make them go away), but my latest health issues are definitely not going to go away. So, with that in mind, I've been thinking and planning or plotting or scheming...

 

And this week I feel like crud.

 

I feel the need for a sidenote here - at least two, maybe even three times in the last few weeks, I've had someone (different people on each occasion) tell me that you would never even know that I'm sick or struggle with all the issues that I do. Now, my closest friends and family do know it, because I'm a whiner. But these are people who don't know me so well. I know a lot of people who struggle with illness hate hearing that - and I also know that when people say it, it is not always meant to be kind. Sometimes it seems like a judgement - 'Why can't you just suck it up? You look fine to me!' But I really like it when someone says it to me. I don't think it's a good thing to hide your struggles - it's dishonest, and people can't really know what you need if you don't let them know. And I will admit that sometimes my prideful self puts on a show for people. But when I open up to someone and tell them about my illness, and they say something like that to me, I love it. Because I don't want people to see whiny Robyn. I want them to see joy, because the joy of the Lord is my strength! I don't always succeed in this - especially with my close friends, whom I feel comfortable enough with to let my guard down. I need to remember that a joyful and happy heart is as important to show them as it is anyone else, right? Right!

 

Okay, back to whiny Robyn. Not really. But seriously, I feel so lousy this week. In fact, I haven't left my house in four days. I've canceled plans with several different people because I just don't feel well enough. Now, after all that exciting (and remember for someone who is sick all the time, exciting might be just accomplishing a boring task or meeting a friend for coffee) planning and thinking about what I will do with my time, it can almost be a letdown. If I let it become that, anyway. I've had times in the past when I get sick and I feel so down in the dumps because all my plans have to change. But through all the hard things and pain in my life, God is really teaching me some things. Sometimes my plans are not His plans. And that's okay. In fact, it is good. I don't know what the reason is, but I don't have to. I can tell you one thing: it is sure humbling. I picture myself getting up in the morning, feeling good, getting ready to go, getting out and doing whatever it is I need (want) to do for the day, content and satisfied because I have accomplished so much. Stuff like that doesn't really happen when you don't go anywhere and have to lay down because you're in too much pain to even sit up. And it can be a disappointment. I want to BE important. I want to DO important things. When is that going to start?!

 

.....do you ever read Ephesians?

 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens, and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation - having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. ~~Ephesians 1:3-14 NASB

That. That gives me chills.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. ~~Ephesians 1:3-14 NASB

What was I whining about??

 

 

 

 

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