Midnight cooking

Hi all, once again posting from the dead of night. I am doing one of the few things that I find still brings me some measure of peace and stability to my wacky life. I am cooking something that I know I will need this week. I even have a tumblr account dedicated to some of these recipies I have either learned, or occasionally created. Food has always been a huge part of my memories from both this and past lives. It has also had an emotional effect on me this life that I just can't figure out. In response to this, I have been calculating the amount of money that I spend on food, trying to see where I can't cut costs without it having a significant, negative impact on my health. Seeing that I don't have much as it is, this wasn't exactly going to be easy.

Then it hit me, rather hard too. The one food I love more than almost anything else is bread. I had cut out almost all treats, switched to.canned and frozen veggies and was making beans about twice a week. I am still trying to keep as close to a vegan diet as possible, so I still buy soymilk. I just don't drink too much it an stick to store brands. Bread, however, was expensive. This was doubly so for the types that didn't use milk as an ingredient. It was a huge drain on my already stretched budget.

The store bought bread was expensive, however I soon noticed that flower was relatively inexpensive, so I went out in search of a good recipe for vegan bread. Surprisingly the search lead me strait to another Blogspot blog. eased Vegan life had the perfect recipe for bread. Only three ingredients, it was exactly what I needed.

A month or so later and some tweaking to the recipe, mainly in how long the bread is allowed to rest and rise, I come to my tiny loaf cooling in the microwave. Due to my preference of denser breads and my lack of an interest in sandwiches the dough is only allowed to rise once, and I usually give it about an hour. My purpose for the bread is mainly to serve as a Abaci that I can't eat with some coffee on the way to work. I know it may seen cheep, but something about it feels almost more natural than the cereal I grew up with. I will likely make a few more loaf-like creations when my son is older, so that he can't take it as a sandwich to school, or other things more interesting than that, but it will be a few years so I have time.

In any case, it is getting late, and there are still a few, non-food related things for me to do. Blessed be, and see you all about.
Shilo

The circles we run in

Here I am, back after another hiatus of trying to keep the family together. Thank the Gods it's fall again. As I said in my previous blog, the autumn energy keeps me feeling a bit more optimistic, but even that hasn't kept me going as much as it usually has. Winter is coming, and with it, obscenely high power bills which are my job to pay. Normally this wouldn't be much of an issue, however with my mate making next to nothing, and being in no position to help, I am more than a bit strapped for cash. To top it all off, my baby boy has been to see the doctor three times this month over a mystery fever that no one quite understands. It would be one thing if he had an infection of some sort. An infection I can treat, a mystery fever that has had no other side-effects than a runny nose, or heightened white blood cell count is crazy. And even those two side-effects didn't occur at the same time. I do have health insurance, but even the modest co-pay on that is starting to really kill my reserves of cash. Trying to make ends meet, I have been looking about online for some writing jobs, but those I feel I am qualified for are in short supply. It could be simple inexperience, or possibly nerves as I am reluctant to put myself out on a limb, even though I am seeing no other way. My family has always been very financially conservative, and I greatly dislike wasting money in any way. It rather plays into a few issues with anxiety I have been having. Nothing really related to past lives in any way, simply with watching people this life. I know I should probably get some help with it, but to be perfectly honest I am not sure how well it would work. To complicate things I honestly don't think I have the money for such things. Also, my suspicions are that any psychologist I see would likely want to put me on medication, which I am usually against taking. It's not that I don't believe it would help, but I see medications for most illnesses, both physical and mental, to be more of a temporary solution and I would prefer to find something more permanent. Especially since I know I don't have the money for any sort of medication. I barely make enough to afford the cold medication at the dollar tree. On jobs, I am planning on creating a blog based on a few of my interests on Stumble Upon. I have greatly enjoyed wandering around the internet on it, and have found some fairly interesting articles on neuro-psychology, a bit of sarcasm in philosophy, and plenty of interesting cognitive psychology pages. It would be interesting to see what, if any feed back I get from my crazy perspective on the subjects. In any case, my son is waking, and lunch is almost cooked. I will see you all around, and hopefully more fequently now. Blessed Be, Shilo