Sweet Pickle Relish

 If you are new to the world of canning this is a great starter project. It is easy, uses only a few ingredients and super yummy!

There are a few things you will need to make this process easier. Stainless steel bowls, measuring cups, knife, chopper, and a food mill. Luckily my sis-in-law had one that I could borrow. The food mill makes chopping the cucumbers much easier. It preserves the juices and texture of the cucumber.

The consistency your cucumbers should be

Yield about 8 half pints

• 4 cups chopped cucumbers (about 4 medium)

• 2 cups chopped onions (about 2 medium)

• 1 cup chopped sweet green pepper (about 1 medium)

• 1 cup chopped sweet red pepper (about 1 medium)

• 1/4 cup canning salt

• 3 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 tablespoon celery seed

• 1 tablespoon mustard seed

• 2 cups cider vinegar

         

Combine chopped cucumbers, onions, green and red peppers in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and cover with cold water. Let stand 2 hours. 

Then start to prepare your jars. After washing them thoroughly with hot soapy water, put in water bath canner and bring to a boil to sterilize. Leave them in covered canner till ready to use. Or you can use another separate pot to boil the jars and the lids in, I found this method easier. If you are so blessed to have a dishwasher, you can put them in the dishwasher as well. You need them hot when you put the relish in them. Never put hot liquid in a cold jar. 

While you are waiting the 2 hrs for your ingredients to soak, you can prepare your second batch by chopping up more vegetables. This way you keep the ball rolling and there is no down time. 

Once the two hours is up:

• Drain; rinse and drain thoroughly. 

• Combine sugar, spices and vinegar in a large sauce pot. Bring to a boil. 

• Add drained vegetables; simmer 10 minutes. 

• Remove sterilized jars from the water bath canner and place on counter

• Bring that water back to a boil, you can add a little bit of vinegar to the water in your water bath canner to keep the mineral deposits off the jars. 

• Pack hot relish into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. 

A batch will typically be 8 half-pints. My 2nd and 3rd batch I was able to get 9 jars. It just depends on how accurately you measure out your ingredients. 

• Remove air bubbles by tapping side of jar or using a knife along the inside of the jar
• Wipe off rim of the jars with a damp paper towel to ensure a tight seal
• Adjust two-piece caps securely, don't tighten the rings too tight, you need the air in the jars to be able to escape. 
• Process 10 minutes in a boiling water-canner. 

After the 10 minutes of processing:

• Turn off the range
• Using a jar lifter, remove the jars from the canner and place on a kitchen towel
• When you hear a popping sound, that is the jars sealing. If they don't seal you can add the relish in with the next batch recook and try to process again, or you can put that jar in the fridge and eat in the near future. 

• Leave the jars to cool 
• You will need to wash off the jars after they are completely cool. Mineral deposits from your water can leave a film on your jars making them look cloudy. 

"We are indeed much more than what we

eat, but what we eat can nevertheless help 

us to be much more than what we are."

Adelle Davis

My Archenemy

We all have one. That one person or thing that can tear us down just when we need to be lifted up. What ever you want to call it, it's there. But mine, has a specific and familiar name. Ladies, you will agree...the bathroom scale is my archenemy. You laugh, but really! How many mornings have you woken up chipper and happy till you step on that scale....dun dun duhhhnnn. The sight of those digits beaming back at you with a larger sum than the day before. How depressing! When you've counted every calorie, ran away from the gluten filled bakery isles and sweated till you couldn't move any more. Yet those numbers seem to climb, ever so steadily. Or worse, stay the same.

Photo retrieved on July 12, 2012 from: 

http://www.theblackpeony.com/2012/05/dont-let-scale-fool-you.html

This link has a great article about weight loss. 

I get caught up in the numbers. Thinking that I did so good the past couple days, surely I am down a few pounds. But then, to my dismay they are the same. So for the past week I have avoided the scale. Focused on what I was eating and doing and not on those dreadful numbers. Seeing unchanging numbers can make you lose hope and give up. If you are going by how you feel, not the pounds you are more likely to keep going with a diet that is meant to make you feel better.

I personally think, that weight loss shouldn't be the only goal in anyones life. Simply because if it is, it will only be a temporary loss. Hence, yo-yo dieting. Being healthy should be the main goal. If losing weight is a result of being healthy then "WAY TO GO!" (and in most cases, the two are linked, you are overweight because you aren't eating healthy and you lose weight once you start eating healthier.) Trust me, I am preaching to myself right now, so I know I am being a little hypocritical.

Luckily I have been seeing a steady decrease in my weight since going GF, but it is still depressing when I see the numbers haven't budged. So, I avoided the scale last week. Did nothing but eat right and focus on my health, not my weight. Yes, they both go hand in hand, but you can change to healthy eating in an instant, you can't change your weight in an instant. So, baby steps.

Photo retrieved on July 12, 2012 from: http://weightlosstory.blogspot.com/

The main thing I noticed this last week. I feel amazing. No churning stomach, no indigestion, lots of energy and have been sleeping through the night peacefully. Also, my clothes are looser! My fairly new jeans (just prior to going GF) are literally falling off me. Now this didn't all just happen last week, it was just something I noticed when I stopped fretting over those numbers on the scale. I don't want to go buy new clothes yet though, simply because I plan on dropping more weight soon. So, to feel better, don't stress about those numbers! They'll go down, just worry about eating healthy and feeling better and sooner or later those numbers on the bathroom scale will match the ones in your head. So from now on, I am NOT going to weigh myself daily. I will every week just to keep record, but no more stressing. If I lose, I lose, if I don't I will retrace my steps ask myself where I need to improve and move on. :)

One little helpful tidbit: Drink lots of water and walk! Water weight is water that the body retains because it thinks it is dehydrated. If you aren't constantly putting water in, it will store it up thinking it won't get anymore anytime soon. So to get rid of that annoying water weight. Keep hydrated. You're body will thank you and let go of all that stored up water. :)