Thursday, August 5, 2010

Dealing with disappointment

Happy Thursday everyone!!

How's your day going! Mine going pretty great! First off, I went out to water the garden this morning and I have 3 tomatoes growing YIPPEE! I thought I was going to be tomato-less because there were just blooms and more blooms..but no tomatoes. Now I just need 100 more pounds for my salsa making LOL! Second, I put an ad on craigslist (after hearing about Averie's craigslist adventures) for a scoby and a lovely lady emailed me back almost immediately. I just got off the phone with her and she is so sweet. She is going to give me a couple scobies and some glass beer bottles(the cool ones with the air tight lid) for just a donation!!! She makes kombucha for her nephew who has crohn's disease. Isn't that so special? SO excited! I'm meeting with her next week..can't wait!!! Third, it's my BFF's birthday today! Happy Birthday lovely!! Miss you:(



Fourth, Caitlin of Operation Beautiful was on the Today Show. How cool is that? Her book is out and I can't wait to read. You are beautiful Caitlin and great job!!! I'm so giving this as a Christmas gift to the special ladies in my life.



Here's a little song about women not seeing their true beauty:)















So now onto the disappointing part... Last night I tried to be a kitchie hero but it didn't turn out that well. My cape must have been busted I guess:)


First off, I tried to make almond butter. I had ran out of the store bought stuff the day before and made the mental note to buy almonds. So, I did that, and read a bunch online about actually making the almond butter. Everything seemed simple enough. I soaked around 2 cups of almonds for a couple of hours then I placed them in my food processor. I then proceeded to process and process some more. I added a bit of oil because it didn't seem to be going anywhere. It finally became a bit more smooth but it never got creamy. I swear I processed the mixture for nearly an hour. My food processor was getting pretty hot in the process too..grr! So everyone..what did I do wrong? Any insight? Here's what it looks like right now...


I was thinking maybe I need a smaller food processor because maybe the butter had too much space to get away from the blade. Another thought was that maybe I shouldn't have added the oil to it. I really want the creamy almond butter...boo!

Then I decided to whip up Kristen's cheezy hemp nacho sauce. Well, it didn't really become a sauce. My food processor was just too big for the small amount of ingredients and I didn't have my blender on hand. It still tasted really good but again...not creamy!




I decided to lay everything out on the patio table so the hubs and I could have a nice sit down meal. Then I get a phone call asking if he could hang out with his best friend. I was a little choked but then I realized he hadn't seem his buddy for a long time. So,it was dinner for one.




Some beautiful red quinoa!


My favorite summer salad these days - tomatoes, cucumbers, yellow zucchini, basil, parsley, onions, s&p, rice vinegar, paprika, and a touch of cayenne



I wasn't too hungry because I picked some blueberries earlier that day and so my tummy was pretty full. Plus I just did one of the most intense workouts ever and was still trying to recover from it lol!

So, that's a few disappointments for one night. If that had happened to me a year ago? Well, I would have been mad and would be walking around pouting and building up anger. But why? Because it didn't go my way, that's why. But that's a destructive outlook. I've really worked on letting things go and trying to "go with the flow" more often and I can't tell you how good it feels to do so. One thing that helps me gain perspective is to ask....

Is this problem/disappointment etc going to matter in a year from now?



99% of the time it isn't!! In my case..of course it wouldn't matter.


  1. I'm sure I'll figure out how to make almond butter...eventually!


  2. I will be able to make that cheesy sauce in another piece of equipment


  3. I'll make our dinner even more special next time and spend some extra time prepping!!


How do you handle disappointments? Is it easy for you to just rub it off?

Now this is definitely not disappointing!!! Who's that man in my kitchen? Hey Averie, Ry loves those high raw vegan chocolate chip cookie dough balls so much that hekes them himself. Coming from a guy who doesn't stay in the kitchen more than 2 minutes a day..this is progress:)


Evidence!!!

Have a great rest of your day!!!

7 comments:

Maggie said...

Hey Melissa :)

I'm going to be giving the book to my sister's for christmas because operation beautiful is just so wonderful :)

I wish I could help solve you almond butter problems! I've been thinking about making it too and from what I read online you seem to have done what others have. I have read that you should process the almonds for 15 minutes or more, scrapping the sides and eventually it will turn to creamy goodness. Some even say they didn't need use oil because the almonds release there own in the process. I don't if that helped any :)

I have a hard time with disappointments too. I like your outlook on this though and will keep it in mind :) Sometimes negative thoughts just start spiralling downhill for me, so that's when I try to distract myself. I'll go outside, go for a walk, play with my son, cook something yummy, read a book, etc...It usually can take my mind off things and happy moods happen! :)

Hope you have a wonderful day because you inspiring :)

Nelly said...

what if you put it back in the food processor and added water? i think the almond butter overheated...i think, not sure...but i think...hehe...

disappointment in the kitchie is the name of the game...i've had some pretty horrible misses...and i end up throwing stuff in the compost bin...i feel worse about throwing it out...but if something makes me gag, well no one else will eat it...

i'm thinking of doing an operation beautiful giveaway... =)

love ya babes...

Laury@TheFitnessDish said...

Congrats on the Kombucha shrooms...I need to put an ad out!!!

As far as teh AB goes, I am sorry you had no luck. My philosophy is, that is MUCH easier, cheaper, and time efficient to just buy it. If you buy the raw, all natural stuff, its just almonds, unlike when you buy almond milk, they add some stuff to it, making it worth it to make your own!! Just my thoughts, to each his own though!!!! I do not handle disappointment well, especially when I put a lot of work into something!!

Have a great night!

shesarunner said...

That's so cool that you found a scoby online! I think I'm going to try that...I really want to try making my own kombucha but I find it kind of intimidating. I'm sure I'll be motivated to try when I see what you make!

I'm sorry to hear about your kitchie disappointments. I have never tried to make my own almond butter before, so I have no idea what went wrong! I wish I could be of more help. I try to shrug off my kitchen disappointments. I know that when I am making something for the first time, I tend to screw it up a little...I kind of expect it by now. I just do what I can to salvage it, and if i can't then it's really no big deal. It happens to everyone. And like you said, it certainly won't matter as time goes by. I think it's like that with all of life's disappointments (or most of them anyway)...you are let down at first, but over time you forget about it and better things come your way...like perfect homemade almond butter :)
Have a great night lovely!

HiHoRosie said...

Sorry about the kitchen mishaps. Certainly happens enough to me! lol! Did you see Evergreen's post (a couple back) about almond butter? Maybe she's got advice for you? I've never made it but maybe there was too much in the fp? I dunno. Sorry!

And that's so cool about Caitlin. So happy to see her on the today show and seeing her book and message out there!

Congrats on the tomatoes! Yippee! We're getting some too! :)

evergreen said...

Oh! So sorry I did not see this post earlier. About the almond butter, use either dry, un-soaked nuts, or nuts that are soaked and dehydrated.

Wet nuts:) don't seem to work well. I'll go back and check my post on it to make sure that is clear, maybe add something to say don't use water as I have seen some people try. It will also 'go off' quicker with water added, so make sure it's stored in the fridge:) It should be fine to eat, just not the texture you were looking for.

I have never made the cheezy hemp sauce, but it does say to use a blender, so maybe that's what happened there? Usually more liquid can get things to blend better even in the f.p. though. At least it tasted good though:) Actually, it looks like a good mix to make into crackers! Also for smaller amounts of food, one of the personal size blenders (like the magic bullet) are wonderful!

Yay for finding a scoby!!! You will have a house full of kombucha in no time...hehe:)

Love the pics of you and BFF, and the one of 'that man' in your kitchie:)

Melissa said...

Hey Maggie - I think there are going to be a lot of similar Christmas gifts this year..you couldn't ask for a better gift (in my opinion:) Thanks for the thoughts on the almond butter..it's quite the mystery LOL! I LOVE your take on disappointments..it's so beautifully written!! You rock, girl! And you are so inspiring..I mean lemon tarts? YUM!

Hey Nelly - I'm going to try adding some water! Thanks hun!!! HAHA ya..I've just got to get creative with the screw-ups or donate it to the compost LOL!
I would be all over that giveaway! You are beautiful girlie!

Hey Laura - SO Craigslist pretty much rocks!!! Definitely put an add out:) I'm stubborn though Laury,I want to make it myself LOL!! I hear ya totally! Just here the raw stuff is CRAZY pricey and so me making it would cost about half the price which has me pretty motivated:)
You are awesome girl!!

Hey Lauren - Oh, I'm so intimidated but I'm going to play around and see what happens! Definitely put an add out!! Okay you are so amazing with your writing...what you said about disappointements? so amazing..and true!!

Hey Heidi - I did her post but I thought maybe because I didn't dehydrate mine that the results would be different. Thanks for the shout out though!!
Yay for tomatoes! Can't wait:)

Hey Angela - THANK YOU for your insight! I really appreciate it. It's all coming together now:) I have one more pack so I'll do it properly next time!!
Yes, I totally need a magic bullet..thanks for the reminder I keep thinking about something I could use for smaller food stuffs!!
I'm totally excited to adopt my scoby LOL!!
Thanks for the picture love hun:)
YOU ARE AWESOME!!!