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More Recipes

by Martha Carr

Photo by lamazone

Last week a lot of people asked me for the rest of the recipes from cooking with Ashley. Happy to oblige. They were all delicious, easy and made lunch a lot more interesting. Enjoy everyone! More adventures to follow

Asparagus and Baby Bok Choy

Boil pot of water, add sea salt. Take same color vegetables – suggestion: 1 bunch of asparagus, 2 baby bok choys – and drop in the roiling water for 1 to two minutes. Remove and immediately put in pre-prepared bowl of ice water. Test to see if tender but still crisp.

Dressing: Chop ½ bag of scallions, mince knob of ginger, add 1 t. orange zest (not the white part – will make it bitter) and juice of one orange. Add salt and pepper. Pour over vegetables and allow to marinate.

 

Acorn Squash and Oyster Mushrooms with Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Cut acorn squash in half and then slice into ¼ inch slices. Use 1 t. olive oil on baking pan. Spread out acorn squash and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook at 400 for 20 minutes.

Saute oyster mushrooms in 1 t. canola oil (olive oil will smoke) until mushrooms turn golden. About 5 minutes. Add ½ of a minced Thai chili. Wash hands immediately after chopping chili and do not touch anything else before you do. No, this will not make the dish very spicy. Squeeze juice of 1 orange into dish and add ½ t. balsamic vinegar and 3 T pepitas.

 

Chicken Salad

Bake chicken breast with lemon oil (found at Oh Olive!) or slices of lemon. Chop cooked chicken, add 1 c Greek yogurt, chopped scallion, basil, salt and pepper.

Tagged as: Cooking, Faith & God, gratitude, Living Our Dreams, Martha's Big Adventure

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Maintenance of a Life

by Martha Carr

I have had this list for a long time that in a nutshell started with, when I, fill in a blank and ended with, then I will, fill in another blank.

It covered every area of my life. Career, money, love, health. Everything felt incomplete and way out of my reach.

I had no clue how to obtain a thinner body, a better job, a bigger book deal, a good man and it all seemed very necessary in order to be happy. The magnitude of it made me give up a lot of the time and run around in circles with all sorts of plans that I started and stopped. My life was frustrating and choppy and never quite got me anywhere.

Then, everything changed. Somewhere along the path I got so worn out I stopped and decided to challenge God. It was the only language I knew – contests were my thing. I know a lot of great preachers say, thank God for the great good that is already being created for you, but I had way too much anger and fear to thank anyone for anything.

However, I could throw down a challenge and maybe, this time, I could stand back and take my hands off the wheel. I was just desperate enough, thank goodness.

Okay, here I am about six years later and I never stopped letting God in, in fits and starts and my list is gone. I weight 70 pounds less, I have a better job, my latest book is on a really good path and that man thing, I’m giving Match.com a whirl.

The point is, I’m no longer looking to the future for a start date on my life and that presents an interesting idea.

I’ve never been in this spot before. The whole maintenance of life where we basically have the baseline for what we want and are going along with what comes next, doing our part and enjoying how things are in this now moment. I can’t really say much more than that just yet, it’s all so new. But I can tell you I’m happy to be here and I’m excited to find out what it’s all like. No more waiting to find out if it’s possible. More adventures to follow.

Tagged as: Faith, Faith & God, Friendships, God, gratitude, Joy, Living Our Dreams, Love, Martha's Big Adventure

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This Too Shall Pass

by Martha Carr

Photo by OhBuoyancy!

I’m grateful I have dental insurance. I’m grateful I have a great dentist. I’m sorry I’ve seen so much of her lately. The dentist is my least favorite place to go. I dread it almost as much as I dread going to the Oncology Department at Northwestern University and I freeze up just about as much as I approach their door. (And by the way, one more semi-annual healthy visit to the cancer doctors and I get to stretch that out to a year.) For me, that means that I grow more silent and have to consciously answer questions and at least be polite.

It’s moments like these that I’m really not a big fan of chit chat and do my best to bury my nose in the Newsweek from last spring.

So, this morning when I headed out to see what could be done for a molar that had lost half of a very old, silver filling I did my best to keep repeating, this too shall pass.

That phrase has gotten me through a lot of things in recent years; some of it big stuff and some of it petty and momentary. Frankly, sometimes it’s the petty things that trip me up the most and cause me to get in my own way.

I’ve noticed, though, as my faith in God has grown so has my willingness to just see where something is going and to believe, more and more that the destination is a good place. Lately, I’ve even had the thought that I’m already on the journey.

I mentioned to a friend, who asked me how I was doing, that I was good. I wish I was thinner, richer and happily married but I was good. She replied, and quickly, that I had lost a lot of weight, had a better job and God probably had something in mind for the rest too. Good answer.

Now, I have a temporary filling, a placeholder, till the fancy one from the lab is back and it’s not the best but it’ll do for now. It’s just a piece of the same journey and well, this too shall pass. More adventures to follow.

Tagged as: cancer, Faith, Faith & God, God, gratitude, Happiness, Health, Living Our Dreams, Martha's Big Adventure, Nurturing

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The Dating Pool

by Martha Carr

Photo by Sean Molin Photography

It’s been awhile since I’ve thought about dating. Okay, the extra 70 pounds may have had something to do with the long vacation but it’s equally as true that I put on the weight to hold men at bay.

Worked like a charm. I was everyone’s buddy, mother, sister, anything that was as far away from romantic as possible. The wise one who could listen to what was going wrong in your relationship or celebrate when it was going well. Anything but actually getting out there myself.

But if not now, when? Enough already, I’m willing to go on a few dates, be myself and let it be as big or as small as it turns out to be.

Here’s the thing, I’ve spent so many years putting as much between myself and even learning how to be in an emotionally intimate relationship with a man – financial worries, extra weight, career ambitions. That’s just the short list. Now, that all of my excuses are gone it occurs to me that maybe this is even the first time in my life that I am heading into the dating pool as just myself.

Nothing to prove, not looking for someone to fill a need and nothing I’m ashamed or embarrassed about this time. In other words, I can be myself and even find out what that means.

I can find out who I’d even like to date. I’m not sure I’ve ever asked myself that question. It’s a new day, it’s a new body, it’s a refurbished soul. More adventures to follow.

Tagged as: Dating, Faith & God, Happiness, Living Our Dreams, Love

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Proof of God

by Martha Carr

Photo by Joe Doe 2010

Several people have asked me lately to make note of where I see God in the world. This has been going on for months. So far, it’s not really going well. If I’m looking for the light, to date, I’ve found a flickering match.

I’m over the whole parking spaces or rustling in the trees imagery that a lot of people use to say, ‘Oh, there’s God.’ I’m going to need a little something more. I don’t know if that means a big show or small details but I’m willing to ask for more and with good reason.

I’m tired of my view of God being as narrow as trying to get the full view of an elephant through a three-inch slit.

But convincing myself that God is bigger – getting that notion from my head and deep into my heart – has not been easy. The contrary action that a few people have asked me to do is stretch that view and ask God to show Himself in much bigger ways. Start from within, look outward and expect everything.

So far, not much to report but I’m optimistic and I’m going to keep going. I’m even feeling a little excited about the show that I just know is unfolding. More adventures to follow

 

Tagged as: Balance, Faith, Faith & God, God, Happiness, Living Our Dreams, Martha's Big Adventure

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Girl Power

by Martha Carr

Girl Power - have to honor it in order to keep it.

There was a recent kerfuffel between the pope in Rome and some mild-mannered nuns in America who up till now had mostly been known for taking care of the poor. Pope Benedict said they were spending far too much time with the downtrodden and were off-message. At this point, does it even matter what the ‘message’ was supposed to be?

Fortunately, the nuns appear to know who is really their boss and have decided to keep hanging out with the homeless.

At 52 years old, I can remember a time not so long ago when women who wanted a divorce as recently as the 1970′s would carefully plot out having a credit card and a bank account in their name before they’d announce to their soon-to-be-ex that they were leaving. That was because banks didn’t give single women credit, regardless of their financial standing.

When I went on interviews to become a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch I was routinely asked about when I’d be leaving to have children and would angry clients make me cry. Frankly, my favorite client who’d made millions in real estate, started out our first conversation by saying, “Brokers are nothing more than well-paid whores.”

I replied, “I’ve heard the same thing about real estate.” He gave a big belly-laugh and started listening.

My older sisters had even coached me on what to say when I was hit with the weird, whacky and sometimes even illegal questions so that I’d get the job and in the end, prove I could do the job with one hand tied behind my back.

There’s  a recent trend, though, spreading across America to repeal certain laws, state by state that gave women well-earned and hard-fought rights to equal pay or the chance to ever get that job.

As boring as politics can sometimes seem when the airwaves are filled with ads slamming someone, who gets elected can make a real difference in what you might be able to do tomorrow.

Pay attention, choose your candidate and vote. A lot of women fought a long, hard fight to make sure you’d get to dream even bigger. I’d like to thank a group of humble nuns who give of their time and their talents for reminding me of that lesson. More adventures to follow.

 

Tagged as: Accountability, Faith, Faith & God, God, Martha's Big Adventure

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Cooking with Ashley

by Martha Carr

Chef Ashley Runner showing Martha how to 'shock' vegetables without killing them off.

I started cooking differently, which means at all, on October 26th of last year. That’s the day I finally decided to change a few things about myself from the inside out and it came out as more vegetables, smaller portions and nothing processed. So far, that also means 70 fewer pounds and a size 22 to a size 10.

My first attempts at cooking, like I said last week, resulted in a lot of braised pans, charred steaks, mushy vegetables and very dry chicken. For some reason I just kept going this time and pushed through all of those horrible weeks of trying to learn how to cook.

But even as the meat became more tender and the vegetables weren’t so limp, the bland factor was still pretty high. Everything kind of tasted the same.

Just last week, however, I learned that my friend, Ashley has been a professional chef and loves to teach newbies like me how to make great dishes with affordable ingredients and not a lot of time.

In just two hours we made pork chops with granny smith apples and cabbage, roasted red peppers with basil and scallions, a vegetable tartlet without the tart that has eggplant, tomato, red onion and squash, asparagus and baby bok choy shocked vegetables with an orange and ginger dressing, and acorn squash with oyster mushrooms. It was all so easy that I could do it again without wondering how we got to the ending and it was in my budget.

My refrigerator is now full and I will be the envy of everyone at the office tomorrow.

Vegetable Tartlet (without the tart)

Slice two red onions, a small eggplant, two yellow squash and three roma tomatoes. Drizzle 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a tart pan or baking dish. Arrange the vegetables and top with fresh thyme, oregano or marjoram. Drizzle 2 teaspoons of olive oil over the top. Bake at 400 for 25 minutes. Baste with the juices and bake for 20 more minutes. Voila!

Thank you, Ashley for being a part of this journey and helping me to continue to change. Seventy pounds lost so far, more adventures to follow.

Ashley Runner is available for private cooking lessons – leave a comment here if you live in the Chicago area and would like to learn more.

Tagged as: Accountability, Cooking, Friendships, gratitude, Living Our Dreams, Martha's Big Adventure, True Story, Weight Loss

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ComicCon Chicago at Last

by Martha Carr

Martha and Green Lantern

My love of comic books started at a pretty young age. I have an older sister, Diana, who’s now a bone surgeon, who loved Star Trek, the original version and all things DC Comics and was willing to let her younger siblings get their grimy hands all over the new Aquaman. Back then comics were only 15 cents and it was easy to get piles of the latest Batman or Superman.

We had an enormous packing crate full of them and even though our washing machine regularly overflowed and destroyed a few, the crate always seemed to be full of further adventures of my heroes. I was never into the Archie-style comic books.

I like the heroes who were willing to do what was right without ever resorting to killing anyone.

My grown son, Louie who’s now 24 came to the last ComiCon Chicago with me and I was amazed and delighted to see that he knew every character in the large convention hall, even if that had to include Marvel comic book characters. Anyone who’s into comic books will get that one. You pick a team and you stick with it for life. His enthusiasm matched mine and I remember thinking, we have a common language that I gave him. This is my legacy and I’m okay with that.

That’s right, I’m a closet nerd. My living room is painted Superman blue and I’ve been shopping for an orange couch, plus I have a few DC Comic classic posters I’ve been getting framed. More than one friend has pointed out that my living room is every 10 year old’s dream. I’m okay with that too. Life’s too short to make everything HGTV-bland-beige just so everyone who comes through the door likes it. It’s not my goal to cater to the world.

Godzilla and Louie

William Shatner is coming to this convention and I’m hoping to score an autograph for my sister, who I’m seeing in just a couple of weeks. The only signature that could surpass his would be Adam West, the original Batman and Shatner’s autograph would be the best hostess gift one grateful, younger nerdy sister can give another.

Tagged as: DC Comics, Living Our Dreams, Louie, Martha's Big Adventure

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Cooking Lessons

by Martha Carr

Yes, that's my pan. A lot of scorched food has led to a few good cooking lessons

Back in October of last year I finally found a way to eat that wasn’t so crazy and the pounds started to come off.

However, just two months later I was doubled over in pain wondering if I had stomach flu till I realized that the flu doesn’t tend to come and go. About an hour or two after I ate something, even the smallest bites, I was curled up, unable to do anything else, wondering what had happened. A couple of tests later and I found out I had Celiac and my body was fed up with the way I was treating it. No more gluten, which means wheat, rye or barley and in my case, and a lot of people with celiac, no more soy.

I’ve made the joke more than once that God was doing for me what I had refused to do for myself. Nothing like pain as a motivator to get my hand to stop reaching for that cupcake or cereal or cheese-filled pretzels. Instead, I was reading labels down to the last ingredient and ranting about soy being in chewing gum. Trader Joe’s has become my favorite place to shop because unlike Whole Foods they have gluten-free options that don’t include soy. I’ve discovered the web site www.glutenfreegoddess.com and read up on the topic while finding some recipes. I’ve gone out for tea with a gluten-free friend, Jess who smiles at my frustration and then calmly makes suggestions about how I can do things differently. She has an ingenious way of ignoring my sighs and getting me to believe this too will be okay.

At first, I burned a lot of food or at the least dried it out till it was pretty inedible. I’ve also rolled the dice on some salad dressings that said ‘canola or soy’ hoping for the best and realized that occasionally it’s going to be soy and bad things will follow. But over time I’ve turned down the flame on the stove and found the store, ‘Oh Olive’ that has unbelievably good oils and balsamic vinegars that make cooking so much easier. And, I’ve discovered that another friend, Ashley can cook and is willing to come over and teach.

One of my hope-to-do items was to learn how to cook better but I never had much real ambition until I had a good enough reason. Boring green beans and plain chicken is apparently my breaking point.

The good news is, Jess is rubbing off on me and I seem to be more excited about learning to cook with natural ingredients and expanding my repertoire than focused on being unable to pick something up quickly and just eat it. Makes me wonder how that new way of looking at life – some things are worth doing right – will pay off in other areas. I’ll let you know. More adventures to follow.

Tagged as: Balance, celiac, Cooking, Food, Friendships, gratitude, Happiness, Living Our Dreams, Martha's Big Adventure, Weight Loss

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Writing Away

by Martha Carr

Here’s a question that’s been rolling around in my head and I’d love to hear from all of you what you think your personal answer is to it:

If no one was really going to ever read what you write and you were never going to make much money from it, if any, would you still write?

Apparently, my answer to that is no and I’m not sure if I’m happy about that or not. After watching my latest book languish for almost two years, (yep, you read that right – two years – but things are changing on that front too), I found it harder and harder to want to write another word. Three books and hundreds of columns later and I was out of words. I’m not sure if it was because it might mean no one would be reading along with me and sharing their experiences or because I was really out of things to say.

The latter seemed a little hard to swallow since I had always gotten the same kind of internal high from writing that a really good stretch of running had given me. There was a connection to some greater feeling even while typing away, alone at the keyboard. But I had spent two years immersing myself in social media, publicity, and setting up a suitable blog until most of my writing was reduced to less than 140 characters. The business side of writing seemed to be draining all the joy of writing, right out of me.

So, I’m waving the white flag and going back to focusing on what I love, the writing and letting go of the virtual arm-waving to attract more followers or readers or whatever you might want to call it.

Part of my resurgence of joy and optimism has to do with the new agent I’ve connected with who’s going old school and wants me to focus on writing. Genius.

I’m still going to tweet or update but without the frenzy or sense of urgency and just trust that it’ll all work out the way it’s supposed to. All of that time that was spent trying to do what every other writer seemed to be doing is going to get redirected to just hanging out with other writers in my hometown of Chicago and not so we can just talk about writing. Some of that will be spent talking about our spouses or children or even the weather. Then, when I sit down to write I’ll actually be glad to spin another tale. More adventures to follow.

Tagged as: Balance, Living Our Dreams, Thriller, Writing

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