Last night I made this little 7″ cheesecake. It’s an Almond Butter No-bake Cheesecake with Brazil Nut Crust. And it’s super simple.
I used the recipe from Cottage Magpie as my base recipe and added to it. I used the nut crust recipe from Nourishing Traditions but modified it. The recipe is after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »
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Food! Glorious food! | Tagged: cheesecake, gluten-free, primal, recipe, vegan | 
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Posted by teamfritch
I went down to the Rose Bowl for my sprints this morning. The grass had received a buzz-cut and it was rather wet.
My vibrams ended up looking like this!
It was a good workout. I ran further and faster than ever and felt great afterwards.
Leave a Comment » | Potato Without A Couch | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
I overheard this while buying my pastured eggs at the farmers market:
LADY CUSTOMER: Where are your eggs from?
FARMER: The farm in Santa Paula.
LADY CUSTOMER: Okay but what do they eat?
FARMER: Oh, they eat bugs and worms and such…
LADY CUSTOMER: Ew! They eat bugs? I can’t buy them then.
As the lady walked away, I wondered if she was a very particular ovo-vegetarian?
Leave a Comment » | Food! Glorious food! | Tagged: bugs, egg, farmers market, ovo-vegetarian | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
Here’s a report from the Atlantic about some Canadian’s who are bucking the law for the sake of their health and/or their pocketbook! Well, I suppose I can’t say why they’re doing it. But I know why I would!
First of all, as fellow Canadian Meghan points out (in this excellent little blog post), good eggs are incredibly healthful. Second, most commercial eggs pop out of sick, deformed, mal-nourished hens, so their nutritional content is all but non-existent. Third, those pitiful hens are indeed poorly treated. And finally, happy eggs from happy hens (well-treated and pastured) are expensive and tedious to acquire! I make a special trip to a farmers market in another municipality for my pastured eggs!
So in order to save money but get happy eggs from happy pastured hens, I would indeed consider raising my own chickens in my own backyard!
Unfortunately, my apartment building doesn’t even allow me to have cats right now.
But would I do it if it meant breaking the law? Golly. I can’t even see that bridge yet. Would you?
1 Comment | Animal Kingdom, Food! Glorious food! | Tagged: cafo, Canada, chicken, egg, health, law, urban garden | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
Most of you know I like eco-friendly, low-impact, sustainable, recyclable practices and the like. I buy organic, local, grass-fed, pastured, raw food and even just got a plot at a local urban garden! So when I came across this home, you can imagine my delight!
The builder is a photographer! I think this photo is beautiful.
Can’t you just imagine sipping hot cocoa by the fire here?
They built it themselves for under $6000 usd!
AND THEY HAVE KIDS!
And they’re not the only ones who arebuilding homes like this!
2 Comments | Life | Tagged: do it yourself, eco-friendly, hobbit, low-impact, mud, sustainable, wales | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
I didn’t watch the Golden Globes. I was at a friend’s home, for a party, and we were enjoying our various meals together. Ryan was watching the live updates from the Golden Globes’ website on his iPhone and would periodically call out a new winner. We all groaned when Avatar won and cheered when Christoph Waltz won.
So today, after reading Janet’s fun Golden Globes recap, I went hunting acceptance speech videos, as per Janet’s recommendations. The one that stood out to me was Meryl Streep’s heartfelt rant. Watch it here!. Oh to have such a simple life!
Then, Darren linked to someone that I can’t believe I hadn’t heard about until now – the mini-Regina Spektor, Nataly Dawn. I guess I’ve been living under a rock, because this girl has more than 17,000 YouTube subscribers! She’s apparently 50% of Pomplamoose, another YouTube cover band. They have a few more subscribers at 70,000 plus. This cover of Beyonce’s popular song was my first taste:
Both Meryl and Nataly seem to be doing what they love and creating art with which people connect. Meryl’s had many years to engage in a rewarding and generous career and seems to recognize that she’s unique in having that privilege. Nataly, new on the scene, seems to create for the love of creating. Her craft is fresh and new and she, though she can be compared to a popular female vocalist, has unique qualities. Something about Meryl’s performances always strike me as fearless. She’s willing to dig deep, go farther, do what’s necessary (while maintaining her own personal integrity). Nataly’s path also seems to be a fearless one. She’s put herself at the mercy of YouTube. And submits her gentle face to its whim.
These two women, both very different artists, inspire me today.
Leave a Comment » | Hollywood, Video Killed The Radio Star | Tagged: Beyonce, Darren Barefoot, Golden Globes, Meryl Streep, Nataly Dawn, Pomplamoose, Regina Spektor | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
Ryan always imagined himself with a coffee shop girl.
But when he married a former McDonald’s employee (that’s right – I worked drive-thru!), he thought he’d have to give up that dream. However, once I got my green card, I needed a quick job before I began the Act One Executive Program. So like a good little Hollywood-hyphenate, I got a job at a coffee shop. One of the best coffee shops! And I learned all I could from them. Once I was done learning, I was also done working for them. And I quit (gasp!). Shortly after that I got a job at a small production company as an exective assistant to the producers and business manager. I’m all about quintessential hollywood jobs, eh?
Anyway, coffee shop girls. There’s something about them. What is it?
Duncan Christopher has an idea.
I even have a cute little green t-shirt that we bought on our honeymoon. It says “Love Street Coffee Shop” on it. I know for a fact that Ryan gets romantical thoughts in his head when I wear it. He can’t help it!
3 Comments | Duncan Christopher, Video Killed The Radio Star | Tagged: "The Rock 'n' Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher", Coffee, coffee shop girls, mcdonalds, video | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
UPDATE (10-01-22): Dr. Myles Monroe has something to say.
Everyone was talking about what Pat Robertson said.
Now everyone’s talking about what Donald Miller said.
Well, Brett McCracken has some thoughts. Here’s a quote:
We need to quit worrying about how the worst among us are ruining our reputation and instead focus on living Christ-like lives in accordance to scripture and God’s will. We need to worry about our own transformation first and foremost. Are we new creations?
We should love others and ease the suffering in the world… not because it will be better for our PR, but because the Bible tells us to and because the Spirit inside us spurs us to outward action. We should exude charity and patience and peace in our dealings with others not because it will win us admirers but because it is the Christian thing to do.
Leave a Comment » | WWJD? | Tagged: Brett McCracken, christian, Donald Miller, donate, Haiti, Pat Robertson | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
The Book of Eli opens this weekend. It premiered last night in Hollywood at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
I have a few friends who work at the company that produced it – Alcon Entertainment. This company also produced the recently celebrated The Blind Side.
Here is an email from a friend with a few interesting links about this film!
Hi everyone,
Check out the link below to see a special clip of Denzel Washington talking about his character in Alcon’s next movie, The Book of Eli.
The Book of Eli is a rated R film, so it’s not suitable for families, but for those over 18 I hope you don’t miss this one. This truly is a story about the hope that God’s Word brings to all.
Please feel free to pass along this link to any pastor or church leader you know. Here is a link of a local youth pastor’s review:
http://whyismarko.com/2010/the-book-of-eli/
Eli opens THIS WEEKEND! Hope you can support such a wonderful message on opening weekend.
- Jessica
I’m really excited about this film. Both for the obvious reason and for the color correction on the film. I love the desaturated look! Is that strange?
I hope those friends of mine who enjoy movies like these will go support it!
Leave a Comment » | Hollywood | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
Back in December, I did too much activity in a short period of time and my body rebelled.
On a Thursday, I went to a free class at California Kickboxing in Pasadena. They kicked my rear end. I took a fall in the beginning of the class onto the mats, but I was fine and continued. The instructor, Joseph, was amazing. There was a moment when I was having trouble with some of the instruction that he was giving me and he said, “That’s because it’s new. Forget that it’s new.” It was like something clicked, a light went off, and I got it. I stayed for about 75 minutes until I finally had to jet.
On Friday, everything hurt.
On the Saturday, I went to an indoor rock climbing gym, called Rockreation, with Tyler and Brian. We started climbing at about 10 am and climbed until about 5 pm. It was awesome. My rear end still hurt from all the jumping squats I’d done on Thursday, but I gave it another good workout… And while on Thursday my arms were mostly punching and striking, on Saturday they were pulling and pushing and quivering. I shred my forearms to pieces.
On Saturday night, I was stiff as a board. And I’d planned a long run for…
Sunday. I had intended to run about 12 miles because I’m training for the LA Marathon and it was a long run day. I wasn’t sure if running the whole thing would be the best for me, so I decided to punch it down to 9 miles. So on Sunday, I found myself at the Rose Bowl, trotting three times around the 3.1 mile loop. At about 6.2 miles, I realized my arms were in pain. I had thought that my arms would be fine, because “after all, it’s only running!” but I was wrong. I keep them bent at a 90′ angle the whole time and that was using my exhausted muscles! I finished at a 13 minute per mile pace. Slacker! And made my way home.
Once I hit the home turf, I started feeling weak. More weak than I usually feel after a long run. Ryan and I went to church (our church meets in the evenings on Sunday), and during church I was nearly ready to pass out. People told me I looked pale. So instead of hanging out with everyone afterwards, we came straight home and Ryan made dinner. I felt better after I ate but I still needed to sleep. I was weak for another 48 hours while my body recovered.
What happened? I’d pushed my body too hard and I was literally, actually, for reals exhausted. No kidding right? But I learned something. I learned my limit and I think it’s a heckovah lot farther out than I would’ve guessed! I also learned the value of a rest day between intense workouts. Rest is part of improvement. For some of us, that concept might be new.
Forget that it’s new.
Rest.
3 Comments | Potato Without A Couch | Tagged: class, climb, exhaustion, free, gym, kickbox, kickboxing, mma, rest, run | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
We tried to send out Christmas card this year. We designed them. Printed various versions. And were planning on putting together our mailing list, when suddenly we had no time left. And now it’s January. Oops!
So I’m going to post our Christmas cards here for the world to see.
Here’s the front:
And here’s the inside:
Onward to a delightful 2010!
1 Comment | Holiday | Tagged: card, Christmas, late | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
Who doesn’t love watching Christmas specials on TV at Christmas time!? You? You don’t? You can go sit over in the corner. The rest of us are going to watch some nostalgia.
Make some steaming hot chocolate, grab a plate of warm Christmas cookies, gather the whole family around the laptop, and enjoy:
Good night and good Christmas!
P.S. I can’t find Rudolph the Red–Nosed Reindeer, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, or The Year Without Christmas. If anybody knows where they’re hiding, please let me know. Thanks! We *could* buy them I suppose. The old-fashioned way – on DVD!
Leave a Comment » | Holiday, Video Killed The Radio Star | Tagged: Christmas, laptop, video | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
Oral Roberts, Evangelist
Oral Roberts died today in Newport Beach, California. Thanks to Erin Amos for letting me know.
The following news outlets have the story:
According to this TulsaWorld article, he took a fall on Saturday and suffered some broken bones.
I’m deeply moved and still experiencing gratitude for the education I received at ORU. More thoughts will follow later.
UPDATE: The thoughts I have are echoed by fellow alum, Sarah, over at Emerging Mummy. Key quote:
“I loved Oral’s bigness. There was nothing small about the man. He was huge – even his ears were enormous.”
I like that Sarah also says, “His faith was enormous.” It’s so true. My mother and I were talking about him yesterday. The legacy that my mother and I discussed was Oral’s courage. And Sarah mentions how his final years were spent telling us all to be obedient. Let’s put it together.
Be courageously obedient to God.
That’s a good treasure to leave behind.
4 Comments | ORU | Tagged: oral roberts, ORU | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
My homemade raw milk yogurt cheese!
Then I got into making my own yogurt. Then I discovered raw milk. Then I discovered raw cheese! So I tried my own raw milk yogurt cheese. Also known as labneh (but I didn’t know what it was called at the time). But since it’s hard to make cheddar and gruyere and swiss, I’ve been buying the raw hard cheeses from Trader Joes!
Imagine my delight when I came across this blog giveaway today! Jenny, over at Nourished Kitchen is hosting a giveaway with Cultures for Health. Both websites are great resources for people interested in whole foods that are prepared well. By blogging about the giveaway I’ve officially entered myself in the drawing!
I would love to learn how to make feta or chevre and then graduate to more complicated cheeses! For now, I’m content with my yogurt cheese. But someday, I’ll want to know that my raw hard cheeses are coming from the same local happy grass-fed cows that my gorgeous raw milk is coming from.
2 Comments | Food! Glorious food! | Tagged: blog, cheese, giveaway, homemade, milk, yogurt | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
For years, I’ve often wondered why on earth I was going to have to have my wisdom teeth removed (which I did, in July). Why did I have teeth naturally grow in that would have to be unnaturally removed in my 20s? What did they do hundreds of years ago without the modern dentist? Who removed their wisdom teeth then? What about eskimos and primitive peoples?
Dentists never seemed to be able to answer my questions. They would usually say, “You may not have to have them removed.” ”Some people don’t; but most do.” ”They’ll cause problems later.” But none of them could say why it was necessary in general! Why on earth have several generations of humans had to have their third molars removed!!?
Well, now I know.
I just finished reading a book (online) that pretty much gave me the answer. The book is called “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” and it’s by Weston A. Price.
Regardless of how you feel about his research (ie. whether you’re vegan or paleo or a weight watcher), it’s obvious from the context of the book that the prevailing thought in the 1930s was that the removal of the third molars was a new practice that was caused by a deformation or malformation of the dental arch! Deformation. Yes. All of us who are having our third molars removed are, in fact, deformed. Deformed?! Yes.
Why are we all deformed? Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Food! Glorious food! | Tagged: dairy, dentist, fat, food, primitive, teeth, Weston Price, wisdom | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
Do you remember going to a Pizza Hut as a kid? My family would go at least once a month. We’d go to the one down on Topsail Rd. I remember the warm lit booths. The salad bar. The arcade games. I remember going often with just my momma because Daddy was out to sea. Often my mother would take a group of my little friends. And sometimes it was just our family, when Daddy was home. I loved Pizza Hut. And I believed that my body was a garbage disposal, that it could deal with anything I consumed! Including many slices of a supreme pizza and a bacon bits smothered salad drenched in ranch dressing.
I would expect that in the 1980’s, when we got that ranch dressing at Pizza Hut, that it might have had some preservatives in it; but it was probably mostly real ranch dressing. Like the kind you’d find over in Santa Barbara. It probably had buttermilk or sour cream, mayonnaise, minced green onion, garlic powder, and other seasonings. Any maybe something to keep it from going bad. It’d probably come in a big tup straight from California too!
A few weeks ago, we enjoyed time with friends at a Pizza Hut in the Mid-City area of Los Angeles. It was mildly disappointing. There was no table service. No salad bar (and in fact no salads on the menu at all!). And no ranch dressing. Well, not *real* Ranch Dressing. One of the guests ordered hot wings and this is what came with them:
Here’s the ingredient list: Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Food! Glorious food! | Tagged: dressing, food, pizza hut, ranch, soy | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
Do these guys look alike?
One’s an actor. The other is Facebook-founder Mark Zuckerberg.
I can’t believe I hadn’t heard about this until now: The Facebook Movie. It’s called “The Social Network.” Aaron Sorkin is writing with David Fincher directing. Due in 2010. They kinda do have a built in audience the size of a large country!
Leave a Comment » | Hollywood | Tagged: Aaron Sorkin, david fincher, facebook, movie | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
Here’s a great little EPK the boys have put together. I’m so proud!
Enjoy!
P.S. If you think it looks fun, why not share it with 10s (or 100s!) of your closest friends and family?
2 Comments | Duncan Christopher, Hollywood | Tagged: "The Rock 'n' Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher", Hollywood, movie, oklahoma, ryan fritzsche, Tulsa | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
TMZ often posts pictures of people who look like other people and says things like “Sarah Gilbert Looks Weird” and sometimes I think they’re hitting the nail on the head. Other times, they’re just being mean. But that’s TMZ.
A few nights ago, Amy Mac and I watched “The House Bunny” and laughed and enjoyed girly-ness. We thought the romantic male lead was kinda cute in an awkward way and watching the credits we saw his name, Colin Hanks, and realized… that’s TOM HANKS’ SON!
I’m a huge Tom Hanks fan. Huge. I haven’t seen all his movies, but I’ve liked him in every movie in which I’ve seen him. I’ve had an actor-crush on him since Big (1988) and Turner & Hooch (1989).
To realize that his son was acting, and rather well, was super fun. So, true to girly form, Amy and I looked at pictures of Colin on Google.
We looked at many photos and finally concluded that while Colin is pretty cute, young Tom was cuter…
But then we came across this picture of Young Colin…
And I exclaimed, “Oh! I like him in this photo!”
Amy turned to me and laughed. ”Why are you laughing?” I asked.
“He looks like Ryan in this photo!” she explained. He does, I wondered?
He does!!
Apparently, I have a type. Love you Ryan!
1 Comment | Hollywood | Tagged: colin hanks, movies, ryan fritzsche, the house bunny, Tom Hanks | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
Leave a Comment » | Duncan Christopher, Hollywood, Video Killed The Radio Star | Tagged: "The Rock 'n' Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher", film, video | Permalink
Posted by gilliebean
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