The challenge of being creative should not be...

...finding my crochet needles.

I have another two weeks to complete the first creative challenge. Ordinarily this would not be too much of a problem but having concurrently decided to be on a time-consuming food cleanse and reorganize my den I may have overreached. Or I can just find the crochet needles and be inspired by the cold weather to create a blanket in my lap. 

On a to do later list (due date: future) I have a vision of a perfect guest room (https://www.pinterest.com/isabelleb4/guest-room-ideas/) with a winter beach as a my palette, 

designed around a cozy, hand-crocheted striped blanket.

Step 1: Crochet a blanket

Here is the blanket in it's current state. Wish me luck!

Whole 30 and the theoretically non-compliant Pho

The gist of the Whole 30 program is to reset your physical, metabolic clock with a 30-day no sugar diet which excludes all obvious sugars, plus dairy, alcohol, beans, grains, and corn. It's similar to Paleo (but with all the reading we've been doing we are definitely not into Paleo) I love the occasional "cleanse," and Chris is always on board for food experimentation (details here if you're interested: http://whole30.com/whole30-program-rules/).

The NOs are pretty straightforward, skip forward to theYESes. (http://whole30.com/downloads/whole30-shopping-list.pdf) Fifteen days in, we are eating plenty. In fact, we're surprisingly craving free and never starving. What started out as three meals a day has settled into brunch and dinner with some grazing of fruits, nuts and baked sweet potatoes.

We've been good, we've been following the rules.

I spent two days making homemade Pho (using this recipe: http://steamykitchen.com/3136-crock-pot-pho.html), Two days of a house smelling like a Pho shop. I ran out to get fresh Thai basil and bean sprouts (just the plant part) and found these noodles made out of sweet potato starch. After 15 days I am practically made of sweet potato, which makes this perfect.

See how perfect.

But then this from a Whole30 moderator

"While the ingredient is technically compliant, I would file this under 'paleofying poor food choices' " 

Sadness ensues. Hmmm, let's call it something to consider for the future and meanwhile I will call this a rubbery version of a compliant sweet potato.

Feeling a little self righteous this morning. I think the Tiger Blood is kicking in.

Wow! It's been a while, my introverted blogging isn't very prolific.

January 2015 seems like a good time to try again, especially mid Whole30 and starting a creative challenge, More interesting posts pending.

I have a new idea (no surprise) for how to keep up with this blog that involves a rotating schedule of posts with ideas/plans, progress updates and outcomes, recipes, etc...that would have me posting something about 3 times a week. Ambitious for someone who takes two year breaks, but there you have it, always the optimist.

So...

GOALS FOR January (into mid February)~

• Successful Whole30 with Chris (a month without dairy, grains, beans, corn, sugar or alcohol)
• Project 1 of the Creative Challenge 2015
• Organize my Den
• Everything else (including first four weeks of HUMS 390 Child Welfare) all the errands, laundry, and household management items plus a few extras I'm ignoring.