Carey Jane Clark

Paleo Chocolate Pudding

April 30, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

Seems like I’ve had a hard time deciding lately how we should eat. For a while I tried a Paleo cookbook, and I still use a few recipes from it, but lately, we’ve been turning more to eating vegan at least part of the time (although not strictly so, since we’ll eat honey, butter, and kefir and sometimes eggs). In the end, I may have to simply write my own vegetarian-gluten-free-mostly-dairy-free cookbook! In the meantime, we’ve really enjoyed this Paleo Chocolate Pudding recipe, which can be made completely sweetener-free by swapping out the honey for a mashed banana. I’ve done this once, and it was good, but I must admit, I like the honey version better. I’ve also changed this version from the original because every time I followed the recipe as it was printed in my cookbook, I ended up with lumpy pudding. (The big trick was to remove the coconut milk mixture from the heat before adding the arrowroot and cocoa.)

If you’re a chocolate lover, you’re going to love this!

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons high-fat cocoa powder
1/4 cup arrowroot powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 can coconut milk
4 ounces good-quality dark chocolate
2 tablespoons honey
2 large egg yolks

Directions

In a small bowl, combine the cocoa powder, arrowroot powder and vanilla. Combine with a whisk to remove any lumps.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring coconut milk to a low simmer.
Add in the dark chocolate to melt it, stirring often.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and mix in the arrowroot and cocoa mixture as well as the vanilla, whisking continuously.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks to break them apart, stir in a little bit of the warm coconut milk mixture, then pour all the contents back into the saucepan, and return to low heat.
Add the honey.
Whisk all until smooth and the mixture coats the back of a spatula. (Cooking the egg yolks in the pudding to a temperature of at least 160°F will destroy any bacteria that may be present.)
Pour into small ramekins. Place plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent any skin forming, and put in refrigerator to chill.
Serve cold.

Our China: A Taste of Chinese History

April 29, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

I have mentioned before the unusual things that happen to us here. On Saturday, we experienced another one of those unusual events. We tasted pu’er tea. What’s so special about that? We have tasted pu’er tea before.

In fact, as JavaMan has developed his coffee business here, it seemed he’s learned just as much about tea as he has about coffee. His coffee roaster is housed in a friend’s tea shop, and simply by virtue of spending time in the tea shop and with his friend, he’s learned an awful lot about tea. There are many similarities, in fact, to the growing, processing and tasting of tea and coffee.

For the uninformed, pu’er tea (also written some places as pu-erh) is a darker variety of tea, distinct because after the leaves are dried and rolled, they are fermented. The older it gets, the better–and more valuable–it becomes. Pu’er is grown in the Yunnan province of China, the same province from which China’s best coffee is grown. The very best pu’er tea, when brewed and steeped, should be a rich amber color.

Tasting History

So what was so special about the tea we tasted on Saturday?

It came from the Qing dynasty (1644 to 1912)! pu'er tea

We tasted it at the home of some friends, a husband and wife. The husband used to be a government employee, and at that time, received a gift from someone who, when he saw the price of pu’er rising, decided to invest in an old tea factory. After the purchase, he found a room no one had entered and inside was a huge storehouse of pu’er tea that had been kept there, dating back to the Qing dynasty. The tea was believed to have been fermenting since approximately 1800.

How did it taste? Well, I’m hardly a tea expert, but I do enjoy pu’er. It was delicious, and although this will sound odd, I think it did taste old.

And now I can truly say that I have tasted Chinese history!

Wordful Weekend: A Revelation

April 28, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

Lately, it seems, I’ve been doing a lot of self-examination. So when an article came my way talking about the differences between published and unpublished authors, I was ripe for the picking.

As a previously published author, in almost all of the areas, I was measuring up just fine, but the one area that nagged at me—so much so that I kept the article as an active tab in my browser for several days and would read it over and over (yes, I’m obsessive this way)—was the area of making time for writing.

Productive Writers

The article talked about the fact that published authors are better than unpublished authors at making time for their writing. Specifically, published authors get up early and write, while unpublished authors squeeze their writing time in later in the day.

Ouch. This is an area that makes me squirm every time I think about it.

Conflicted

And I must confess, the struggle I have to make time for writing, for me wasn’t as simple as just deciding to make more time. I realized as I delved into this that it was more than that—it was a struggle between justifying the time I take for writing over the time I give to the other areas of my life: my marriage, my children, and homeschooling my children.

But I further realized this quandary was keeping me in a kind of suspended animation–not really making a decision one way or the other, but still trying to moving ahead. And it was crippling my effectiveness in every area of my life.

I don’t know if I’ve fully resolved my issues over this, but I did realize that there was a way to break through it.

A Resolution

So I’ve made a bold new change to my routine. I’m waking up at 5:00 a.m. every day. I take my iPod along on a walk up into the mountain behind our home and walk while listening to scripture on the iPod, then I take some time to pray while I walk. It has been glorious, and helped, I’m sure, by the fact that sunrise here is an hour earlier than we’re used to in Toronto. So by the time I reach the top of the mountain, the sun is bursting gloriously over the sea and the city. It’s worth waking up for!

Then I make my way back home, find a quiet corner, and bang out a bunch of words. The first day, in one hour, I wrote 1,000 words. This is my goal. the next two days I did this, I wrote in the neighborhood of 600 words. Still, not bad at all.

Every other day, I stay at home, open up my Bible and read the words instead of just listening to them, because I still think that’s important. And then I’m able to do a toning workout video for my exercise time. But I’m really enjoying those walks.

And I’m actually enjoying 5:00 a.m. Most of all, I’m enjoying moving forward with my writing–and my life–at a much better pace.

Core Consciousness

April 27, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

More than six weeks ago, I promised an update on my journey with recovery from diastasis recti with Fit2B. I haven’t updated yet. I can’t even say that my progress is visible yet. But I do think I’m moving in a positive direction.

Challenges

I did have some difficulty staying active with the program the 4-5 days per week that are recommended. For two weeks in a row, I fought a cold or virus that seemed to lodge in my shoulders and neck and make even moving painful, let alone exercising. The first week, I decided to rest, since I knew I’d been cheating on sleep. The symptoms subsided, but returned again the week after. That time, I chose to exercise through them, and was amazed how much the gentle movements in the workout eased the tension for me.

In addition to these challenges, I had problems streaming the videos, a problem that is unique to life in China that I’ve mentioned elsewhere. This was really my greatest challenge, and I’m still finding ways to work around it. I may eventually decide to purchase a DVD instead of trying to use the online videos.

Progress

Having said all of that, I have seen some definite changes, both in my body, and how I think about my core. I didn’t realize just how out-of-shape I was in this area. Having done Pilates on and off for years, I assumed I was fairly core-conscious, but Fit2B has raised my awareness to a whole new level. When I first began to exercise, I was surprised how much my lower back was involved with my core, and how easily fatigued it became when I performed exercises that focused on the core. I became more aware of how I was moving in everyday movements that were compromising my core, from how I got up out of bed to how I sit and stand.

Here are some positive changes I have made:

am more careful when bending over
I have been able to move my concentration on and awareness of my core into other exercises, like walking or using the mini-trampoline
my back is less fatigued, generally, and I “feel” more fit
I am paying more attention to my posture at all times
I am more motivated to exercise

I realize this last item may be partly due to the fact that spring finally seems to have decided to come and stay here, but I have made some positive changes to my daily routine to ensure I’m exercising much more regularly.

I’m confident that with these changes, and finally figuring out how to stream the videos successfully(!), I’ll see the physical changes I’m hoping for really soon.

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