First of Healthy Recipes from The Ark

Besides being the caretaker of The Ark,  I am also a trained Health Educator, which means I spent years learning how to persuade others that taking care of themselves for a longer healthier life is the way to go.  Being riddled with High Blood Pressure, Heart Disease, Lung disease, and Diabetes is not where we want to go if we can help it.   I have to say that it used to be much easier for me to be a "great role model" because I was lithe, had tons of energy, and was even pretty once upon a time.  However, age and genetics can catch up with you for sure.  I am still crazy (in a good way), and have a ton of great ideas to help people stay on track with their health.  Inside, I am doing great ,really.  I have excellent cholesterol and no other problems except this genetic predisposition for what I call Loopty-Loop (Lupus).  Loopty-Loop has made me ache and things hurt a lot.  I keep on though.  I am just not quite the Energizer Bunny in a leotard and tights like I once was.  But that is ok, because I would sure hate to put on a leotard anyway!  Ugggggggg!


When I was the Exercise and Dietary Guru of this town, all of my students wanted me to open a healthy restaurant.  Well, you can imagine what Harvard said about that!  So, I never did.  However, I never quit eating healthy...except for my somewhat addiction to Chocolate which managed to get 100 times worse once the Little Sweetie was introduced to it herself by our sitter, whom I dearly love!   So, from the time she was five years old until about 5 months ago, I steadily put on about 25 pounds that manages to follow me everywhere I go!   I am trying and I have lost maybe 4 pounds since she has left for college, which is amazing for me!!!  I LOVE to cook!  However, what I cook is not what most people in Cleveland County, North Carolina want to eat .  If I see a piece of fatty red meat in the grocery store, I consistently get a mental image of the tubes of blood that were drawn from so many of our patients here in Cleveland County.  Once the blood is spun to be sent to the lab, the fat settles to the bottom of the tube.  I have to tell you that it is hard to imagine that this incredibly sticky, disgusting stuff is actually floating around in some person's blood, but it is.  I have seen many tubes of blood like this!  No wonder the arteries in the heart and the brain get clogged and cause heart attack and stroke!  So, for a long time I have been all about eating healthy.   I try very hard to adhere to a healthy diet, but once in a while the old sweet tooth causes me a problem!  When I cook, I very rarely go by a recipe.  I am very creative and if I read a recipe it is as though I am not using my brain.  Sometimes I will look at a recipe to get a basic idea.  Then I will do what I want to make it healthier.  


Tonight I made up a new dish that I called Chicken Enchilada Florentine.  Here is a picture of it after I took it out of the oven.  Don is a great person to try new creations on.  He is honest!  If it tastes like coo-coo, he will say, "You've made better..."  That is my cue to never make THAT again!   He liked the Chicken Enchilada Florentine very much though! So, here it is!!!

With the spinach on top, be honest...are you gagging yet?  I'll bet several of my down home Cleveland County born and raised friends might be.  But trust me, it is delicioso!  Here's how it's done according to Mama Miller's throw, pinch, and dab recipe.

Ingredients:

3 Fresh skinless chicken breasts, either shredded or chopped small

Rotele (adds fire!!!)

spinach ( 1 cup)

shredded cheddar cheese, feta cheese, and mozzarella cheese

about a teaspoon of chili powder, a bit of cumin to taste, a dash of salt and pepper,

black beans

can of enchilada sauce

tortillas

First cook the chicken in a pan  with Smart Balance Omega -3 oil. Cook with the Rotele tomatoes, (be careful and use it to your discretion in terms of fire!) After the chicken has cooked thoroughly, add the black beans, and the spices.  Remember, I don't really measure, I just taste as I go.  Add a bit of the cheeses to the concoction and then get ready to roll!!!  I spray a Corning Wear or Pyrex dish with Smart Balance spray.  Then I put the tortillas, one at a time on a plate and add the ingredients in the frying pan.. enough to make a round circle in the center of the tortilla. Then I put a little of the chopped spinach in the circle and top it with the cheese. Then I fold it and place it in the pan.  Do this with as many tortillas as will fit into the dish.  Leave a small amount of the chicken concoction to add at the end!  Once all the tortillas are wrapped and in the pan, I add the enchilada sauce to the rest of the chicken.  Then  place a small amount of spinach on top of the tortillas and  pour the enchilada sauce mixed with the chicken on top of the enchiladas.  I end by putting the cheeses on top.  You have to remember that the only thing that is actually a little bit unhealthy  for you in the cheese, so use your discretion on how much cheese you use.  Bake it in the 350 degree over for about 20 minutes until the cheese is a little brown.  It is a meal in itself!



RAINY DAYS AT THE ARK

Winter at the Ark has seemed more like Spring Has Sprung!  Don't get me wrong, I love rain at times, but come on this is ridiculous.  While most people just enjoy being inside and curling up to read a book, or watch TV while it is raining, if you own an Ark, you must learn to deal with crappy hair, mud, and frozen hands and feet.  During the rainy times, my boots are soggy that I keep by the front door.  There is mud everywhere, despite my constant cleaning, and I am forever feeling sad for all the poor babies that have to be outside in their stall (if they have one!) and dog houses.  When it is raining, the horses that don't have a personal stall gather with the goats and llamas and congregate in the center aisle of the barn.  When I go out in the morning, it looks like P. Diddy had a party in the barn!  Instead of beer cans and liquor bottles, there is lots of poop of all sizes!  Big "road apples", little "road apples" and lots and lots of very small "road apples."  I mean they are everywhere.  Usually one mischievous, and long necked character has managed to take all the halters, bridles, and lead ropes off of their hangers.  I won't mention any names..How could either one of these cuties cause trouble you ask?  Believe me, you "aint' seen trouble like these two can cause an Ark owner!  

Another cause of trouble on rainy days is Patches the Pit Bull Terrier...excuse me, she is a Staffordshire Terrier!  She doesn't like it when I call her a Pit Bull, but it is what it is.  She stays inside during the day, but she must go outside at times too, of course.  so she inevitably decides to roll, and "do her thing" outside by flipping over digging and several other antics that only she can do.  Our wonderful pet sitter, Dianne, swears that she has ADHD because she cannot sit still.  When I bring her in, she is usually covered in dirt or some other obscene object.  I try so hard to wipe her off, but she is a powerhouse and sometimes she just comes flying into the house!!!  Mud paws is what I refer to my kitchen floor as!  I am constantly mopping!  However, mopping is therapy for me, so I get to have a lot of therapy on rainy days!  Well, I think I will go and read my Nook for a while until some furry beast beckons me away from my sanity!  Perhaps I should go and make something healthy for dinner!!!  Recipe to follow!

Full Moon...Snow Moon at the Ark

Ok, so it is February 7, 2012 and what photo-op do I seize upon?  Well, this of course, mainly because of what it does to the creatures around here, excluding Harvard, who is only phased by Duke Basketball!  I was tempted to drag him outside and tell him that a giant basketball had escaped from Cameron Indoor Stadium and was flying through the sky.  This could have possibly dragged him away from the TV for a few minutes, but I seriously doubt it!

I go outside and take my photo and was amazed at how many coyotes I heard.  I could hear one down at the north end of our property calling to another one at the south end of the property. I have to admit that it was a pretty scary sound.  Gibbs, our Great Pyranees who is normally a  125 pound ball of furry sweetness, was  on full alert tonight and patrolling the entire fence line to keep the scoundrels away from our llamas, goats, and mini's.  Gibbs was appropriately named after Jethro Gibbs on NCIS, because he looks pretty darned laid-back, and would make a good kisser  (excuse me!) but he is all business and will certainly whack you on the back of the head if you act like a dumb fool and enter his property.  If I had my way, I would have 3-4 Gibbs to patrol but The Little Sweetie has made that impossible by bringing home 10 other furry beings.  The poor llamas were so afraid that they bedded down with our 39 year old pony in his stall.  He couldn't protect them if his life depended on it, but they are his best friends now so he might possibly make a little snort or stamp a hoof...but that is about it.   Coyotes.... hmmm... let's get rid of them.  Who the heck brought them here anyway?  Whoever they are, I am mad at them!   Until we get rid of them, I guess my poor big ole Gibbs will have to continually patrol .   Lord I love that big old sweetie But...can he protect us from this???Not sure....