Heel Pain (aka Plantar Fascitis)

Probably 6-7 yrs ago I had a very bad case of Plantar Fascitis.  At that time, I was making a lot of money as well as having great insurance.  Maybe that was a crutch because I leaned on other people too much such as doctors, therapists to help me deal with my excruciating heel pain.  After going regularly to a chiropractor, massage therapist, sports medicine doctor, a physical therapist (he was the therapist for the Arizona Diamondbacks then), wearing these awful socks at night, and even considering getting steroid shots (I did not succumb to this, though), none of those things worked or really did much to relieve the pain.

I was in my 30s and still very active, but the heel pain made it barely tolerable to even walk.  I dreaded putting any pressure on my feet due to the pain I was having in both heels.

Then, one night when I couldn't sleep due to the pain, I was surfing the internet and came across this book by Clair Davies called Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, 2nd Edition.  Mr. Davies has since passed away, but next to God and people you think would be the most important people in your life (spouse, children, family, etc), I rank him up there for the work he did in this area and him disseminating this information to the world.  I have bought maybe close to 10 copies of this book, some people never returning it.

A couple weeks ago, when spending 6-7 hrs walking around at the zoo, the next day, I had heel pain again.  Granted, in the past 6-7 years, I have had hardly any heel pain because from Mr. Davies book, I found out the reason for my particular heel pain and got rid of the reason and kept at it.  Since then, however, I learned that heel pain can come from a number of different areas of the body, not the just the area I thought.

For me, way back years ago, the root of my heel pain was from Tibialis Posterior:

Once I started to get rid of the trigger point, which a trigger point is basically a muscle knot that creates pain in some part of your body.  Where the trigger point is does not necessarily mean the pain is there, as you can see in the above diagram.  Once that trigger point is released, the pressure and pain decreases and/or is eliminated, depending if you have gotten rid of the trigger point completely or not. 

How I got rid of the trigger point was using my thumbs on that area as I sat down, pressing on the trigger point.  Because that trigger point was really set in, it took me a couple weeks to work through the trigger point and I could only take so much pain, had to give my body time to heel.  But, the very first time I exerted pressure on that trigger point, I could feel the pressure on my heels releasing some.

When my pain started again, this time I tried to locate the same trigger point, but there were none in Tibialis Posterior, so I looked in the book for other areas.  I found working on Soleus 2 helped a bit:

With Soleus 2, I could still use my thumbs, but that hurts my thumbs, and years later now and having worked on a number of trigger points in my body for other things, I have learned to use some inexpensive aids.  I used a ball that is about the size of a softball and while sitting on the bed with my legs extended, I place my calf on top of the ball and press, rolling the ball some.  That was painful and I just kept at it.

What I have found is when trigger points are really set in there, I have to give my body time to heel after working on the trigger points.  Once that area gets sore, I let it heel until it is no longer sore, which is often 2-3 days, making sure I get plenty of rest and drink water.

The pain lessened after working out that trigger point, but there was still some pain, but this time it was on the inside of my heel where the abductor hallucis is.  

How I worked out this trigger point was initially with my thumb, which wasn't smart, so then I used my knuckles.  That really hurt.  After my knuckles got tired, I switched to placing my elbow on those points.  My elbow gave me the best leverage and force I could exert and made me feel nauseated.  I had to stop after working on this a bit.

As of right now, the area is very sore and still hurts some.  Something I forgot to do all this time was take some Alleve and ice down the areas.  The trigger points not only cause the pain in whatever area, but inflammation occurs.  So, you really need to work on bringing down the inflammation.  Though I don't like to take medications, but I found this to be helpful to take a couple Alleves and ice down the area a few times.  

The icing REALLY helps a lot.  I would recommend everyone buying a therapy icing bag, a larger one as this has come in handy for all sorts of injuries and pain and is a very natural way to help bring down inflammation.  Here is a nice one at Amazon you can get - Physical Therapy Ice Pack.  I recommend getting the larger size as that can be used anywhere on your body.  We keep ours in the freezer all the time and it takes about 30 min. to get cold again.

Another area I worked on that also helped some was the Quadratus Plantae area.  How I addressed this trigger point is put a golf ball in a sock on the floor and applied pressure there.  The sock helps it not to roll around as much.  

Here are some other areas that can cause heel pain that you can try.  The stuff in the back of the legs, I would use a softball or a baseball (your leg on top of it pressing down) to get down into those areas over your thumb.

Scrumptious Tuna Salad

This is a tuna salad that my husband and kids love.  It's easy to make and is very versatile.  You can eat it over lettuce or in a sandwich, make a panini or a tuna melt out of it.  The ingredients and options are endless.  I love red onions in this, but didn't have any.  Green onions also are very tasty for this.  Hard boiled eggs would be great, too, but I didn't have any made up.

This salad I love for it to have lots of color and flavor.  The pickles give it a salty taste.  Avocados give it a creamy texture and if you don't want to add mayo, you don't need it.  The oil in the tuna gives it lots of flavor.  Tomatoes neutralize all the flavors.  The cheese adds a bit more salty flavor, but also a creaminess.

Serves 5

Ingredients:

• 5 cans 5 oz tuna (preferably in oil, but you can use any tuna you want)
• 1 bunch green onions, sliced
• 1 large firm beef steak tomato (or any tomatoes you want in small chunks)
• 3 small avocados (or 2 medium ones), cubed
• 3 Tbspn mayo
• 2-3 full sized Claussen dill pickles (or the equivalent), chopped
• sea salt & ground lemon pepper, to taste
• 1 cup shredded cheese (I used mozzarella)

Directions:

• Put the tuna in a large glass or stainless steel bowl.  If there is too much oil, drain the oil.

a little too much oil - needs to be drained somewhat of the oil

•  Mix all ingredients together.

Avocados & Tomato

Tuna, Green Onions, Avocado, Tomato atop, Claussen pickles on the bottom

Everything except the Mayo

• Serve in a sandwich, panini, on top of greens or just eat it plain.  Be creative.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Breakfast Pocket, Egg & Cheese Breakfast Pocket

This breakfast idea came from Pinterest and I'm not even sure where.  When I refind it again, I'll give credit.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

• 4 slices bread
• 1 Tbspn cream cheese
• 1/4 cup blueberries
• 3 Tbspns butter
• 1/4 cup shredded cheese
• 1 scrambled egg

Directions

• On 1 slice of bread, spread the cream cheese.
• On the opposite side of the cream cheese, spread butter on bread.  Also spread butter on the other 3 slices of bread.

• Spray the sandwich maker with oil both the top and bottom of the grill.  
• Place the butter side down of the cream cheese slice of bread on the grill portion.
• Top one slice with blueberries, the other slice with cheese..

• Top with remaining bread slice (unbuttered side to the blueberries). 
• Close sandwich maker grill.
• Cook for 4-5 min.

• Cut and serve.

Sausage, Bacon, Spinach Spaghetti Bake

This dish is a spin off of another dish I made last week called "Cheesy Tortellini Spinach, Sausage, & Bacon Casserole".  I didn't have any tortellini, so I used spaghetti instead.  This is not a low-carb dish, has plenty of fat & flavor.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz package dried spaghetti (you can really use any pasta and if you're gluten free, use a rice pasta)
• 1 1/2 lb kielbasa sausage, cut into medium chunks
• 1/2 lb maple bacon, diced
• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 5-7 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bunch fresh spinach, washed and roots cut out
• 3 Tbspns flour (or coconut flour)
• 2-3 cups 2% milk (or you can use goat's milk, almond milk, coconut milk here)
• sea salt & ground pepper, to taste

Directions:

• Cook spaghetti according to directions on package.  Once cooked, drain and put in a large stainless steel (or glass) bowl.

• Cook bacon until it's half cooked on medium high heat.
• Add kielbasa to bacon and cook until sausage is browned.  Don't overly stir, as my husband likes it fairly browned.
• Add onions & garlic.  Cook for another 3-4 minutes until onions are translucent.
• Using a slotted spoon, take meat & veggies mixture out and into the same bowl with the cooked spaghetti.

I put this in a pan first.  I really should've put it in my large stainless bowl.

• Preheat oven to 375° F.
• If there is a lot of bacon grease, remove some of it to your reserve bacon grease jar (I keep bacon grease in glass jars in the frig for when I want to use bacon grease or have that bacon flavor in my foods.  Far better than buying lard at the store.).
• Add the flour to the remaining grease in the skillet.  Stir.  It should be forming a thick paste.

• Gradually add the milk and keep stirring.  If it's too clumpy, add more milk until it's the thick, liquidy consistency that you can pour.
• Season with salt & pepper.
• Add chopped fresh spinach to the sauce, stirring occasionally.  A large bunch of spinach will wilt almost to very little spinach.

• Pour over spaghetti & meat mixture.
• Using tongs or a pasta utensil, mix all the ingredients well, but not overly mixed as to break up the noodles.

• Put in a 13x9 casserole dish.  
• Top with shredded mozzarella cheese.
• Bake for 20 min.
• Remove from oven and if you'd like, sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley (I didn't have any and just left it out).

Organizing Kitchen Tools

Rather than buy a jar, container or something to hold my excess kitchen tools (I have many of these and it takes up 2 containers), I found an old plastic container of cookie dough that wasn't being used.  This became my new kitchen tool container.

Yes, I know there are artistic DYIers that would cover this in some gorgeous fabric or something, but this was just easier to do.  Wash the container, dry it, and it's set to go.  If you'd like to cover the outside and decorate it, have at it, but this was good for me.  It's big enough to hold my cooking utensils and works great!

Organizing Spices, Seasonings, Dried Herbs

I get in these spurts of decluttering and organizing periodically.  Now that I'm married, my husband does not like clutter or procrastination, so this makes it perfect to do some Spring Cleaning and deep Spring Cleaning.  My spices were awful and in 2 different places.  I really didn't know what I had, except for those things I used often.

The Dollar Tree or the 99 Cent Store, as well as Goodwill, Savers, or the thrift stores have been my friend in many things.  It seems like there are more options for organizing without spending lots of money.  So, while my husband and kids were asleep a couple Saturdays ago, I decided I was going to tackle my spices, dried herbs and seasonings.

I found in the cupboard a stainless steel round thing that was perfect for holding all my bags of ethnic spices, as those didn't come in jars.  Then, I went to the Dollar Tree, which is about a mile from my house, and found 3 blue plastic rectangular baskets, 1 smaller container, and a bigger rectangular tub to house my vitamins & supplements. (I don't have pics of everything).

The 3 blue baskets would separate my spices & seasonings/herbs:

• Frequently Used
• Bulk
• Infrequently Used

I ended up tossing a lot of the infrequently used stuff, as I wasn't sure how old the stuff was and figured I could start fresh at this point since I haven't had the need to use those in quite some time because I didn't even know I had them.  This was true of supplements and vitamins.

Frequently Used Bin

Bulk Bin

Asian Packaged Sauce Bin

Pan of Bagged Spices

Often I am just pulling down the frequently used and bulk bins while I cook and it makes it so very easy than scanning through lots of things to find what I need.  Saves me time, money (as I know what I have).  When I'm out of something I need, I just place the container on the counter and take it with me the next time to get more.

While also cleaning out and organizing my spices, I found I had 3 things of thyme.  Yes, I use this dried herb, but I didn't realize I used it THAT much and had 3 containers.  I was able to combine them into 1 container and therefore, less clutter.

Salted Caramel Apple Mini Pies

This recipe came from "Just a Taste" blog, where I think she got her recipe from King Arthur's flour.  I tried to follow this recipe as close to possible, which is unusual for me.   Kelly from JAT blog said that you can buy large flake sea salt at any supermarket, but going to 6 places and not finding it, maybe it's not the thing here in the Southwestern U.S.  I used regular sea salt instead.  Not sure if that makes a difference or not.

My husband prefers this dough recipe over the one I used for the empanadas, so I will next time use this recipe for the empanadas, too.

Ingredients for Dough:

• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour (I haven't tried this with almond meal or coconut flour yet)
• 1/2 tspn sea salt
• 1/2 tspn baking powder (you can use cream of tartar & baking soda instead)
• 1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, cut into small cubes
• 1/2 cup cold sour cream

Ingredients for Filling:

• 1 cup small diced (peeled) Granny Smith apple (putting it into a mini food chopper is faster)
• 2 tspns fresh lemon juice
• 1 Tbspn cinnamon
• 1/4 cup sugar (you can use xylitol instead)
• 2 tspns all-purpose flour (you can use almond meal)
• 4 store bought soft caramels, chopped (mini food chopper makes this easier)
• 1 Tbspn sea salt
• egg wash (1 egg lightly whisked with 1 Tbspn water)
• crystal sugar

Directions for Dough:

• Sift flour, salt, baking powder together in a large glass or stainless steel bowl.

• Put the flour mixture in a KitchenAid bowl.  Add the cold butter to it.  Mix on a low setting until the mixture resembles wet sand.

• Add sour cream.  Keep mixing until a ball is formed, or something close to it.
• Flour your work surface.
• Knead the dough some until it comes together.  If the dough is too sticky, add 1 teaspoon at a time to it so you can handle the dough.

• Place a large sheet of wax paper over the dough and roll the dough to an 8x10 rectangle.  It's less messy to have the wax paper between the dough and the rolling pin.

• Dust both sides with flour and fold the 8x10 rectangle into thirds, like folding a letter.

• Rotate the dough 90° and once again roll into an 8x10 rectangle.  Dust and fold into thirds.

• Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate as you make the filling.

Directions for Filling:

• In a small bowl, combine apple, lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar, flour.  Stir until mixed well.  Set aside.

I used a whole LARGE Granny Smith Apple (way too much)

Directions for Pies:

• Preheat oven to 425° F.
• Remove dough from refrigerator.  
• Unfold it onto a well floured surface.  Roll into 14x14 inch square or bigger.

As you can see, this is the eyeball method for 14x14 rectangle

• Using a 3-4" circular cutter (can be a biscuit or cookie cutter, a cup or glass), make as many circles as possible.  You can also use other shapes to make your pies, if you desire.
• If you are making 10 pies, you will need 20 circles.
• Spray a baking sheet with oil.
• Place half the rounds on the cookie sheet.
• Top in the middle of each of those rounds with apple filling, leaving enough room all around for it to be sealed later.  Place with the apple filling some of the caramel bits and sprinkle with sea salt.

• Using your egg wash and a pastry brush, brush all around the filling edges.
• Top with a 2nd round, gently sealing all around the filling.
• With a fork, crimp the edges together, which seals the pies.
• Repeat with the remaining rounds until finish.

• Brush each pie with the egg wash.
• Using a sharp knife, cut 2-3 vents on the top of each pie.  Sprinkle with crystal sugar, if desire.
• Bake the pies for 15 min. at 425° F, or until golden brown.

• Remove pies from oven and allow them to cool for about 10-15 min before serving.
• These pies are great hot or cold and served with French Vanilla ice cream.