CleverDonkey.com …Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel

Keep the Government Out Of My Life!

A day in the life of a typical American:

Your alarm clock rings, having been powered through the night with an uninterrupted flow of electricity generated by a power company that is a regulated monopoly.

Your alarm clock didn’t catch fire overnight, nor did any other product in your house, because their safety is regulated by consumer product watchdog agencies and federal trade regulations. 

However, if you had somehow had an accidental fire, you could have picked up your phone (regulated monopoly) and called 9-1-1 (municipal service) and had the fire department (municipal service) on site within minutes saving your home and possessions.

As you move through your morning routine in your house, which is still standing because it has been built to meet building codes, you turn on your television

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10 stalks of fresh asparagus, top 4″ cut off (two 2″ sections will blend better)

1/2 carrot
1/2 ripe banana
fresh orange juice (highly recommend Tropicana Valencia or Simply Orange — anything not from concentrate)
splash of raw kefir
2-3 frozen strawberries
Turbinado raw sugar to taste

Blend the hell out of it and drink it like a shot.

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Fresh raw kefir
Frozen strawberries
Fresh strawberries (if available)
1-2 tbsp Naturally More peanut butter with wheat germ and flaxseed
1/2 ripe banana (or frozen banana chips)
mini-handful of fresh oats (i.e., Quaker Oatmeal – not the instant kind – uncooked)
frozen miniature chocolate chips
Turbinado raw sugar to taste

Man this one is so good.  It’s my favorite so far

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fresh raw kefir
frozen strawberries
1/2 banana (frozen slices or fresh) – just make sure it’s RIPE
1-2 tbsp of peanut butter
raw sugar to taste

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Fresh unsweetened kefir
5 – 10 frozen strawberries
2-3 fresh strawberries (optional)
1 tbsp or so of peanut butter
raw sugar (Turbinado) to taste

If you don’t like peanut butter (Engineerboy considers it food of the devil), orange juice is good in there instead.

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Marie, Marie, How Do Your Kefir Grains Grow?

For those of you who know me or even casually see my updates on Facebook, you know that I have become somewhat of a Kefir nut lately.

Kefir, for those of you who don’t know, is a dairy-based fermented concoction that’s created by a complex microbiotic culture when the culture is immersed in fresh milk.  More on Wikipedia, more on this guy’s Kefir site.  It can refer to the grains — the little colonies that do the fermenting — or the finished product, which is a bit like yogurt but with more live “stuff” in there and a thinner consistency.  So, you can — if you have access to a reasonably upscale grocery store or a mediterranean market – get Kefir in its

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NOTE:  I am not a doctor and this post is simply me relating my personal experiences.  Consult with your doctor before making any health-related decisions or taking any health-related actions.

Update 10/12/2008 – It has now been TWO YEARS since I’ve had any type of cold, flu, sinus infection, or sore/scratchy throat.  Two years, clean as a whistle, and it’s due almost completely to using the neti pot whenever I feel a tickle/cough coming on, plus using it once a month regardless.  Original article is below, from 12/2/2007.

Starting in my mid-20′s (I’m mid-40′s now) I began having recurring respiratory issues.  I considered them to be “colds”, as I was coughing and stuffy with a scratchy throat.  A few times it was bad enough for me to drag myself to the doctor.  Twice it developed into bronchitis.  But, in

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Open the pod bay door, Mittens

We are a pet-intensive household.  Currently we have three dogs and a cat, but we used to have two dogs and three cats.  Having three cats teaches you that maintaining a litter box is an endless, thankless, hopeless, gross, stinky, unhealthy, unending chore.  We used to use the LitterMaid, and went through three of them over the course of five years.  They worked…okay.  However, they had some significant engineering flaws, such as the fact that the rakes became caked with kitty poo, the receptacle filled up super quick when three cats were on the job, and they simply wore out after a year or so.

When we moved to our current house we decided to forego yet another LitterMaid and search for a newer, and hopefully

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Ingredients

Portabella mushrooms, chopped
Red Onion, chopped
Montreal Chicken Seasoning (contains no chicken)
Canned chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
Cooked brown rice
butter (can substitute olive oil)
ginger sesame marinade (optional)

Directions

Pre-heat a cast-iron skillet, frying pan, or wok on medium heat.
When wok is hot, add butter, and portabellas and red onion. Add a dash of Montreal seasoning.
Stir-fry until onions are carmelized.
Then add chickpeas, drained, and more butter. Add another dash of seasoning.
Stir-fry until chickpeas are browned.
Then add more butter and the cooked brown rice (cold from the fridge is ok). Add another dash of seasoning.
Stir-fry for another 5 – 8 minutes (add a Tbsp or so of ginger marinade if desired) until everything is nice and sizzling hot.

Editor’s note: When I first posted this recipe, I commented that I usually pair this dish with cheese to get some protein. But my great friend Darla clued me in the wonder food that is chickpeas: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=58. Check out the

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Hot Yoga Here

1320 W. 34th at Golf St.

Houston, TX

832-483-5787

www.hotyogahere.com

Bikram’s Yoga College of India – Houston

2438 South Boulevard

Houston, TX

713-664-5333

www.bikramyogahouston.com

Note: Bikram’s Yoga College of India – Houston also has another Galleria location

Ok, so if you’ve perused some of the articles on this site, you already know I’m a yoga person. And you may have read my review about Hot Yoga Here, the yoga studio I go to here in Houston. And if you’ve read my review, you’ll know I love Hot Yoga Here so much that I have said that I couldn’t even bring myself to go to another studio, even for the purposes of comparison.

The “Other” Yoga Place

However… this past weekend Hot Yoga Here was closed for a planned event and I needed to get my yoga on, so I decided to give the “official” Bikram franchise here in town a try. I’m

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