For the love of hockey

I am sitting here on a Wednesday night watching my favorite hockey team, the Boston Bruins, play one of  their Original Six rivals, the New York Rangers (Bruins just tied the game!).  For 113 days, I was not able to do this because of a lockout, one of the worst things a sports fans can hear.  When I announced in work that the lockout was over and how happy I was, my boss asked me, "Were you the only one who missed it?"

This is the attitude a lot of hockey fans get.  Football, baseball, and basketball dominate the sports consciousness of a lot of America.  And that's just fine by me.  I do like those other sports to an extent.  But my first memory of anything is of hockey.  I remember being about 4 years old, listen to my parents whoop and holler while watching the Bruins.  I was 4 in 1972-a very good year to become aware of hockey in Boston-a Stanley Cup year with Bobby Orr on the team.

I loved watching games with my family.  I have gone to quite a few games, most with my husband who also enjoys the sport.  I know a lot of people don't "get it".  They call hockey a fringe sport.  With 24 hour sports news and so many other "fringe" sports having their own networks (the Golf and Tennis Channels, Speed for NASCAR), I'm not so sure that adjective matters anymore.

People also love to complain how violent hockey is.  Yes, there are fights and it is a very physical game.  And they do it all on skates, folks.  You wanna talk violent-watch a football game sometime.  There is plenty of smashing and bashing going on there-some stomping too (Ndamukong Suh anyone?).  Americans don't seem to have much of a problem with violence-just take a look at our movies, tv shows, and video games.  But hockey?  Oh hockey is just too darn violent.

Whether you like it or not, hockey is back.  And I for one am very happy about that :)  

ok-3rd period is about to start!

Adventures in Eating-Take 1

I love food.  I also love information.  I have read countless articles and books about how what we ingest affects our bodies and impacts our health.  There is so much information out there and so many different trains of thought.

A friend recommended the documentary "Food Matters", so of course, I had to watch it. (You can find it on Netflix). This is where I first heard of spirulina.  Spirulina is an algae that is very high in protein, vitamins, and a wide range of minerals.  It's been touted as a "superfood" and is supposed to help with a host of ailments and diseases.  Being the ever curious foodie/info junkie that I am, I decided to try it and see what all the fuss is about.

Spirulina comes in capsule and powder form.  Nuts.com had a pound of the powder for a reasonable price, so I added it to my order.  I don't like pills-I can never remember to take them.  So I thought I could just add the powder to some water or apple juice-easy breezy.

When I got my order, I promptly opened my spirulina powder.  What I was not prepared for was the smell.  It's god awful.  It smells like the worst low tide imaginable.  It IS algae so I don't know why I expected anything less.  I put a tablespoon in some apple juice-it didn't get better.  Matter of fact, it got worse-it clumped up.  Gross.

So now, I have a pound of foul smelling powder-what to do?  To the Internet!  Most blogs and websites recommended mixing the spirulina into smoothies.  I did find this basic recipe on highonhealth.org for mixing the spirulina into chocolate balls-

1/4 cup seeds (I used sunflower-can use hemp or chia)

1/2 cup cacao powder

2 TBSP spirulina powder

2 TBSP coconut oil

3 TBSP raw honey

pinch of sea salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

I threw everything in the food processor and turned it on.  The mixture came out looking like tar.  Happily it doesn't taste like tar-it tastes pretty darn good!  I scooped them out by the tablespoon, plopped them on parchment paper, and popped them in the freezer.  One of these per sitting (or standing) is plenty-they are very filling.

note-people who have seafood allergies should not eat spirulina.

One last thing-go visit the nice folks over at Nuts.com.  They have a large variety of snacks and sweets and everything in between.  They usually include something free in every order and they are just plain fun!

Goal Oriented

Here we are, nine days into the new year.  I'm not one for resolutions-they're usually broken by this point!  I do, however, have some goals for this year:

Action, not words-I am the queen of talking a good talk-saying I'm going to do something, try something, and then not follow through.  This year, I want to take some of the thoughts and ideas rumbling around in my brain and put them into practice.  I've already started by taking a pottery class, something I've always wanted to do.

Au Naturel-Like a lot of people, I want to improve my health.  I definitely need to lose weight, but I want to go beyond that.  I want to simplify my food, cut out the crap, and get rid of the fake stuff.  Put only the very best in my body and on my body (remember: your skin is your largest organ!).

Look up from the screen-I love technology as much as everyone else. But I think I spend WAY too much time looking at my phone, computer screen, and tv (sometimes all 3 at the same time!).  I need to focus more on the people and the world around me.

Spend more meaningful time with my kids-My kids are 20, 15, and 12.  They are great kids-easy going and fairly independent.  They are all good at doing their own thing and I've taken that for granted.  It doesn't matter how old they are-I still have to engage them, teach them things, listen to what they have to say.  I don't want years to go by only to look back at some point and say, "if only....'

Those are just a few of my goals.  I'm sure they will get amended and new ones will pop up.  I would love to hear some of your goals for this New Year!

Onward into 2013!