Food Blogger to Day Care Provider to Cottage Food Business AND Volunteer!

It's been quite a while since I last published a post! Life has been busy my friends!

Since I retired in 2018, I started watching my two youngest grandsons for my daughter Ashley. About 50 hours a week is dedicated to being at her house watching the boys. This arrangement is working very well for both of us. 

Before I retired

Food blogging metamorphosed into a cottage food business called SalleeB's Kitchen. Remember, happiness is homemade and I'm the happiest baking and decorating sweet treats for special occasions of all kinds.

My daughter doesn't mind me baking and decorating in her kitchen. 

Therefore, I have two totes of cake decorating equipment that stays packed up in the hatch of my Nissan Versa most of the time. I have gotten quite fast at packing additional equipment into the car on baking days! 

Last year I baked 17 dozen cupcakes, 13 dozen cookies, and 45 cakes. 

Some of you might not think this sounds like a lot, BUT that is all of the treats I care to bake and decorate! My goal has never been to run a full-time business. It has always been to supplement my income AND keep it somewhere between a hobby and a part-time pursuit. 

Remember, I am spending about 50 hours a week watching the two grands. 

The oldest started Kindergarten in August 2018 and I am using my 20 years of educational paraprofessional experience helping him complete homework, practice math facts, and read 20 to 40 minutes a day. During school breaks, I also make packets of daily review and practice work. Don't worry though, I have a lot of online learning scheduled in there too. 

As if this wasn't enough, I also help with a church program called Bible Buddies. The Bible Buddies program is once a week for students in K-4th grade and it runs from September to April. There are usually about 28-33 children enrolled in the program. My role is shadowing my older grandson and assisting his group through the three class rotations; music, bible lesson, and crafts/games. 

Are any of you other Grammys keeping up with a schedule like this? 

Be proud of yourself! For me, retirement hasn't been the end of working. It is the end of working for an employer. Now I have a monthly income, supplemental income and every federal holiday and weekend off to go and play! Yes, I am blessed. Well, friends, that catches you up on what I have been doing. I am going to post some baking pictures for you to drool over. I wish you could taste them too!

 

 

 

 

 

Sallee Shares - You CAN Have Edible Black Frosting

This cake was refrigerated overnight.
Note that the black frosting
didn't bleed into the peach or yellow.
This is Americolor Super Black
gel food coloring.

I can achieve a dark black color, but it didn't taste edible. Bitter and yucky is what it taste like. 

How do you achieve a dark black that is edible? Is that top secret information? I found myself thinking so. However, it isn't top secret information. 

I did have to search and read the results of several searches before finding the right search terms to gain the information I was looking for. 

I am going to share the almost-top secret way of gaining an edible, dark black buttercream frosting. 

1. Start with 2 cups of chocolate frosting. Don't have chocolate frosting on hand? Add 1/2 cup of cocoa powder to white frosting and blend well. Voila, chocolate frosting!
2. Add about 2 American tablespoons or 30mL of Americolor Super Black gel food coloring. I am always happy with the color and taste of Americolor Super Black.
3. Add the first tablespoon and blend well. Add the rest of the coloring 1 teaspoon at a time and blend well each time. Remember, you can always add more food coloring, but you can't take out too much! 
4. When the color is almost as dark as I want it, I wait 30 minutes for the color to deepen. 

Now you know the secret to a super black frosting. Happy decorating! 

My New Food Journey - 56 pounds and Another Inch Smaller

Yippee! Another 4 pounds smaller and an inch from most of my measurements!
My energy levels are higher, my knees aren't threatening to buckle anymore, and my lower legs don't feel heavy by the end of the day now. Stairs are no longer an obstacle to be negotiated one step at a time.

Carb counting is my happy spot!
Food is my friend and I can eat a lot of food in one day. Protein, dairy, grains, vegetables, and fruit fill my plate and my stomach. I love smoked sausage, pork sausage, bacon and beef. I can have a link of smoked sausage or a bratwurst, but not in a bun. I can have a couple of chocolate chunk chewy granola bars a day if I want and this curbs all of my chocolate cravings.

Breakfast was a breakfast biscuit minus the biscuit. Lunch was my chocolate fix. Dinner was a skinny version of chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. My husband had oven fried chicken, but the skinny mashed potatoes and gravy. I use chicken bouillon and 2% milk to make my white sauce and mashed potatoes. I still put 1-2 Tbsp. of butter in them. 

Pizza is another food I LOVE!
Carb counting lets me eat pizza just not in the amounts I was consuming before. Pizza is now 2 slices a meal from a medium pizza and I usually eat it for supper, 2 slices for breakfast the following morning, and 2 slices for lunch the following day. Pizza splurge over 3 meals!
Cheese is another food I LOVE!
I can have 1/3 cup of grated Colby Jack cheese or Mozzarella on salads, scrambled eggs, skillet scrambles, etc. Cottage cheese, sour cream, and yogurt are all things I can still eat.

Are you seeing the heavy cream and butter that I am still eating? Yes, I eat heavy cream and butter on or with my food. I cook with the butter and the cream, but I seldom go over 2 Tablespoons a day. Dinner was a skillet scramble that I love. Lots of veggies scrambled with a large egg and egg white. Then topped with picante sauce. 

When I started my food journey, I used the app LoseIt! and set my goal to lose 95 pounds at a rate of a pound and a half a week.
The app tracks calories, carbs, protein, etc. For myself, I watched the carbohydrates, but found that the calories I consumed seldom went over the calorie goal anyway. Fat and sodium intakes were two things I also tried to balance out. My weight was put on gradually and wanted to take it off gradually.
The initial plan was eating 135-180 carbs a day and almost 1900 calories a day.
As I logged my weight loss, the app gradually reduced the calorie count, but I continued to eat 135 - 180 carbs a day. Honestly, there are days I can't eat another bite because I am full and my carb count is at 80 to 125 carbs. See the food diary snip for January 29th. I ate 87 carbs and couldn't eat another bite!

My New Food Journey Continues - Fifty Pounds Smaller

It has been awhile since I have posted here at SalleeB's Kitchen, but life happens doesn't it? My new food journey began in June 2017 when my blood work came back in the upper end of the prediabetic range. I immediately resolved to lose the extra pounds that I had slowly put on over the last seven years. However, this news just increased my resolve to follow through on a decision I had made in April 2017 after seeing the picture below. 

To date, I have lost 51.8 lbs. 
My original clothing size was a plus size 22/24. Now, I am wearing a plus size 16/18. How amazing is that? There have been several other benefits to losing this weight. The first one is that my November blood sugar, or A1C test, was at the lower end of the prediabetic scale. Another benefit is that my knees and lower legs no longer ache and cause me pain. No more one stepping up and down stairs while holding onto the banister. My energy level is much better too.
Exercising Much? 
One of the first questions I get asked is how often am I exercising. This is funny because I haven't exercised once. Yes, I have lost over fifty pounds and haven't intentionally exercised once. Instead, I have made a change in what and how I eat. This eating change is responsible for my weight loss.
My choice for dropping the extra pounds is a combination of counting carbohydrates and using the plate plan method. 
When I first started counting carbs, I decided to use an app to help me log my carbs. This has been a great way for me to track my calories, carbs, fat, sugar, sodium, and protein intake too. My daily carb goal is 135-180 carbs a day. As long as I don't eat a lot of pasta, cake, or food containing starches that turn into sugar, I can eat a lot of food and I do not feel hungry or food deprived.  A side benefit of counting carbs and using an app is that I find myself planning my meals most of the time. 
The plate plan is easy! 
I just imagine a line divides my plate in half horizontally. That top half of my plate is for non starch food like lettuce, salad olives, cucumbers, etc. The bottom half of my plate is for starches on the left and protein on the right. None of my food should be taller than a package of playing cards. How easy is that? 
Measuring My Food
In addition to carb counting and the plate plan, I started measuring and weighing the food that goes onto my plate at home. No more guesstimates for me. Now my kitchen scale is in use almost daily in contrast to before when it sat in the cabinet for weeks at a time. I also use 1/2 cup and 1 cup containers to use when I pack my lunch for work. 
A Label Reading Surprise
I have always been a label reader, but after I started counting carbohydrates, my first shopping trip to the grocery store took label reading to another level. That initial trip took much longer than usual because I had to read the ingredient list  and carbohydrate count on every prepackaged product I picked up and was surprised at how sugar hides as an ingredient in an amazing number of foods! 
One of the Changes in What I Buy
One of the biggest changes in my new food journey is that I stopped buying prepackaged pasta and pasta sauce. I can't eat prepackaged pasta mixes because of the carbs and pasta sauce has sugar hiding in it. Sugar equals lots of empty carbs. These two items are no longer found in my pantry. 

I could go on and on about the changes, but I don't want to overload you with information that I have acquired over a seven month period of time. My new food journey is continuing and I will tell you more about it in other posts. 

No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pumpkin Spice Whipped Cream Topping

Yield: One 8" cheesecake
Ingredients

• 1 no bake cheesecake mix
• 1/2 cup 100% pumpkin puree
• 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
• pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 8 oz. of heavy cream

Directions

• Follow the package directions on the cheesecake mix, but add 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar, and 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice to the milk called for in the directions. 
• After mixing the graham cracker crust, set 1 Tbsp. of crust aside in a small bowl. 
• While the cheesecake is setting up in the refrigerator, pour 1 cup of cold heavy cream into a mixing bowl. 
• Beat on high until the cream begins to thicken slightly. 
• Gradually add 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and 1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice. 
• Continue to beat on high until the cream thickens and forms creamy, stiff peaks. 
• Spoon onto the cheesecake filling and spread evenly. 
• Sprinkle 1 Tbsp. of reserved graham cracker crust over the top. 
• Refrigerate until time to serve. 

Enjoy a slice of homemade happiness on a plate!