It has been bloody hot in Edmonton lately (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/heat-wave-hits-edmonton-1.2721011), which means I am not in the mood to turn on the oven or the stove. Of course, the small beings in the house (where did they come from and why do they keep calling me "Mom"?) are still hungry and demand to be fed.
In an effort to keep the house cool, as in NOT 30C inside even when it has cooled to a "reasonable" 27C outside, it dawned on me that I should be using my Vitamix! Brilliant. Except that the girls hate every single soup I ever make in there. It is like they don't trust a soup that isn't properly cooked in a pot. I can't blame them, but it does make my no-cook options limited. So, while I was on my run this morning, I turned to my eldest and said, "Hey! We can make a chocolate smoothie for lunch!" and she looked at me like I was a crazy person and replied, "Moooooooom, that is a treat!"
Aha, my girls have been trapped by my spider like senses. Little did they know (they now know, because I believe in being honest with them) that there isn't any sugar AT ALL in their chocolate smoothies! In fact, I often stick veggies in the smoothies. They were on board with this idea once they realized that it is healthy and who doesn't want a chocolate smoothie for lunch?
Fortunately, when we got home, there was a lovely yellow zucchini waiting for us! Zucchinis and chocolate go together so well in zucchini bread, why not a smoothie?
Chocolate Zucchini Bread Smoothie
2 cups almond milk (or whatever milk you prefer)
1 banana
1 yellow zucchini (about 20-25 cm long)
1 cup greens (I used lettuce)
4 dates
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp honey (optional)
2 ice cubes
Put everything in blender and blend until smooth.
This recipe is vegan (depending on how you feel about honey) and gluten free. Also, heat free and stress free. :)
Friday, August 1, 2014
Sunday, July 6, 2014
Throwing Out the Girl Baby With the Baptism Water
At church a few years ago, my eldest daughter (4 at the time) saw her friend, a boy, serving as an altar boy for the first time. She looked hopefully at me and asked excitedly, "When I am big enough, can I serve too?" I replied, "No, because you are a girl. But mommy is doing what she can to change that." I died a little inside knowing what the church was teaching my daughter about being a woman.
I don't think our priest hates women (or our bishop, for that matter), in fact, I know that he has done what he feels he can to give girls the opportunity to serve, including asking our bishop for permission to make some changes. Often the caveat attached to any permission is: "As long as it doesn't cause a scandal."
One of those changes was about churching baby girls in the altar. That means, after a baby is baptized, the priest brings the baby through the altar. Traditionally, only baby boys get this privilage. Baby girls are brought to the doors of the altar, then, as if God has personally rejected them, they are turned away.
At this point I want to note: as I have been told numerous times, ANYONE WHO HAS A BLESSING CAN ENTER THE ALTAR. Only men are allowed to be clergy, so they have this blessing far more often.
By this logic, couldn't a baby girl have the blessing to enter the altar for her churching?
Our priest did this for a short time until someone complained directly to the bishop, which resulted in it being completely shut down (which raises numerous questions about those who go over everyone's head to phone the bishop directly and the message we now have that it is apparently effective and okay to do this). Why was it shut down? Because it caused a scandal.
There is where I start to wonder what on God's green earth is going on. Am I losing my mind? Has the TARDIS transported me out of the 21st Century?? An innocent baby girl in the altar is A SCANDAL? Are you kidding me? Well, if scandals are what changes the mind of the bishop, here is my scandal.
There is no known reason why girl babies are churched differently than boys. Priests that disagree with the idea, have been able to stay obedient by not churching either gender in the altar. But this is not a solution and it doesn't actively stimulate discussion on this topic.
I tried going through the proper channels with my concerns. I spoke to my priest who told me he has to be obedient to the bishop. So I spoke to the bishop and Metropolitan both privately and publicly at an Archdiocesan Council. I got a "keep up the good work" response, which is a non-response really, but here I am taking them up on that encouragement. I have been told the bishop answers to the Synod of Bishops and everyone thinks the OCA is crazy, so everyone is afraid to have them think we are crazier. (Note: this is what I have been told and not witnessed because clearly, I am not a bishop).
So when are our clergy going to speak up? Who is going to stand up for the baby girls to be churched in the altar, or the eager young girls wanting to serve in the altar (some churches DO allow this in some manner, either as altar girls or myrrh bearers), or young women looking to be tonsured as Readers? I don't think that the clergy as individuals hate women, but I think the church itself does. It becomes increasingly difficult to bring my daughters to a church with such mixed messages about their worth.
Girls are good enough for God to create and love them, so the church needs to wake up and realize they are good enough to be churched properly.
I don't think our priest hates women (or our bishop, for that matter), in fact, I know that he has done what he feels he can to give girls the opportunity to serve, including asking our bishop for permission to make some changes. Often the caveat attached to any permission is: "As long as it doesn't cause a scandal."
One of those changes was about churching baby girls in the altar. That means, after a baby is baptized, the priest brings the baby through the altar. Traditionally, only baby boys get this privilage. Baby girls are brought to the doors of the altar, then, as if God has personally rejected them, they are turned away.
At this point I want to note: as I have been told numerous times, ANYONE WHO HAS A BLESSING CAN ENTER THE ALTAR. Only men are allowed to be clergy, so they have this blessing far more often.
By this logic, couldn't a baby girl have the blessing to enter the altar for her churching?
Our priest did this for a short time until someone complained directly to the bishop, which resulted in it being completely shut down (which raises numerous questions about those who go over everyone's head to phone the bishop directly and the message we now have that it is apparently effective and okay to do this). Why was it shut down? Because it caused a scandal.
There is where I start to wonder what on God's green earth is going on. Am I losing my mind? Has the TARDIS transported me out of the 21st Century?? An innocent baby girl in the altar is A SCANDAL? Are you kidding me? Well, if scandals are what changes the mind of the bishop, here is my scandal.
There is no known reason why girl babies are churched differently than boys. Priests that disagree with the idea, have been able to stay obedient by not churching either gender in the altar. But this is not a solution and it doesn't actively stimulate discussion on this topic.
I tried going through the proper channels with my concerns. I spoke to my priest who told me he has to be obedient to the bishop. So I spoke to the bishop and Metropolitan both privately and publicly at an Archdiocesan Council. I got a "keep up the good work" response, which is a non-response really, but here I am taking them up on that encouragement. I have been told the bishop answers to the Synod of Bishops and everyone thinks the OCA is crazy, so everyone is afraid to have them think we are crazier. (Note: this is what I have been told and not witnessed because clearly, I am not a bishop).
So when are our clergy going to speak up? Who is going to stand up for the baby girls to be churched in the altar, or the eager young girls wanting to serve in the altar (some churches DO allow this in some manner, either as altar girls or myrrh bearers), or young women looking to be tonsured as Readers? I don't think that the clergy as individuals hate women, but I think the church itself does. It becomes increasingly difficult to bring my daughters to a church with such mixed messages about their worth.
Girls are good enough for God to create and love them, so the church needs to wake up and realize they are good enough to be churched properly.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Processed Food Better Than Fresh Food? Good Luck, ConAgra.
Frozen, processed food sales are down, according to ConAgra, and they mean to "educate" the public about that.
Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for our health, the local food movement has been gaining a hold on people's minds and they are now eating fresher, healthier whole food to themselves and their families. This affects processed food sales negatively, but instead of following the concept of free market economics (funny how the value of free market economics is touted, but never followed unless convenient for corporations and banks - staring right at you, Wall Street).
If ConAgra actually listened to consumers and heard that they want fresh, organic, local food, they could move beyond hyper-corn-infused microwave dinners and actually provide us with frozen food we would be tempted to eat. The reality is that we are busy and we do not always have time to make supper or lunch from scratch, but we do not want to fill our bodies with limp pasta and tasteless sauce that required four minutes and 30 seconds in the microwave anymore. The questions now in consumer's minds are "Where did my food come from?" and "How was my food made?". If we aren't able to make it ourselves, we want it to be nearly as nutritious as if we had.
Alas, this is not the tack they wish to take. Instead, they want to "educate" (ie. sell) the public on the benefits and healthiness of their food. They want people to be convinced that processed, microwavable dinners are somehow better for us than the fresh produce from the farmer's market. They have expressed concern that processed, frozen food has received a bad reputation. Deservedly so!! These so-called microwavable "dinners" are barely food in the proper sense in the first place. The public is still convinced to a great extent that eating food with the words "low-fat" on it are healthy. Yet, study after study shows that low-fat foods do NOT help people lose weight. Our brains aren't stupid; they want their proper fats to function and will make us eat and eat and eat to get it. I could go on about low-fat foods, but I will stop myself here and leave that for another post.
The truth of matter is that these overly processed foods are not good alternatives to a home made meal. Does that mean that all frozen food is terrible? Of course not. There is an entire section of the frozen food aisle dedicated to frozen vegetables and fruits. They include in their ingredient list that fruit or vegetable and THAT IS IT. Nothing else weird and unpronounceable is necessary because it has been frozen in its simplest state. Now, if they would go down the road to organics, that would be even better. I have read the studies that state the nutritious quality of food is not compromised if it is sprayed with herbicides and pesticides. Perhaps not. But that doesn't mean I want my body and my air filled with toxic chemicals, right? And it would be nice if my food was not GMO because I do not want to be Monsanto's personal lab rat (as we have been with wheat and look at all of the gluten allergy people now!).
At the end of the day, corporations like ConAgra need to start listening to consumers instead of trying to shove their sad idea of "healthy" down our throats. Because if they get their way, the only healthy thing is going to be their bank accounts.
Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for our health, the local food movement has been gaining a hold on people's minds and they are now eating fresher, healthier whole food to themselves and their families. This affects processed food sales negatively, but instead of following the concept of free market economics (funny how the value of free market economics is touted, but never followed unless convenient for corporations and banks - staring right at you, Wall Street).
If ConAgra actually listened to consumers and heard that they want fresh, organic, local food, they could move beyond hyper-corn-infused microwave dinners and actually provide us with frozen food we would be tempted to eat. The reality is that we are busy and we do not always have time to make supper or lunch from scratch, but we do not want to fill our bodies with limp pasta and tasteless sauce that required four minutes and 30 seconds in the microwave anymore. The questions now in consumer's minds are "Where did my food come from?" and "How was my food made?". If we aren't able to make it ourselves, we want it to be nearly as nutritious as if we had.
Alas, this is not the tack they wish to take. Instead, they want to "educate" (ie. sell) the public on the benefits and healthiness of their food. They want people to be convinced that processed, microwavable dinners are somehow better for us than the fresh produce from the farmer's market. They have expressed concern that processed, frozen food has received a bad reputation. Deservedly so!! These so-called microwavable "dinners" are barely food in the proper sense in the first place. The public is still convinced to a great extent that eating food with the words "low-fat" on it are healthy. Yet, study after study shows that low-fat foods do NOT help people lose weight. Our brains aren't stupid; they want their proper fats to function and will make us eat and eat and eat to get it. I could go on about low-fat foods, but I will stop myself here and leave that for another post.
The truth of matter is that these overly processed foods are not good alternatives to a home made meal. Does that mean that all frozen food is terrible? Of course not. There is an entire section of the frozen food aisle dedicated to frozen vegetables and fruits. They include in their ingredient list that fruit or vegetable and THAT IS IT. Nothing else weird and unpronounceable is necessary because it has been frozen in its simplest state. Now, if they would go down the road to organics, that would be even better. I have read the studies that state the nutritious quality of food is not compromised if it is sprayed with herbicides and pesticides. Perhaps not. But that doesn't mean I want my body and my air filled with toxic chemicals, right? And it would be nice if my food was not GMO because I do not want to be Monsanto's personal lab rat (as we have been with wheat and look at all of the gluten allergy people now!).
At the end of the day, corporations like ConAgra need to start listening to consumers instead of trying to shove their sad idea of "healthy" down our throats. Because if they get their way, the only healthy thing is going to be their bank accounts.
Friday, April 12, 2013
$21 Per Week
One week before Christmas, I was driving along highway 628 on my way home from work sans children, since James had a meeting in St. Albert and could pick them up on his way home from work. Part of this road becomes a dirt road and I began the usual courtesy of driving in the middle of the road, then hugging the edge as best as I could while passing someone. I looked ahead and saw oncoming lights, so I moved my Ford Escape to the side, except that my vehicle did not want to move over; it wanted to fishtail on the ice. It is difficult to remember exactly what occurred, but I think in my attempt to stop the truck from swerving, I hit the brakes and my truck swung around, hurtling toward the snowbank at 80 km/hr. At this point I realized there was nothing I could do, so I relaxed and just started to mutter "No, nononononono..." repeatedly, hoping that this ordeal would be over soon and I would live through it. The SUV hit the snowbank and, as SUV's tend to do, promptly bounded onto the passenger side. Shaken, but okay, I managed to crawl out of the driver's side door with the help of the on coming driver. The end to this story? Happily, a retired guy who was looking to tinker on a truck bought it for $2000 and we were left wondering what our next vehicle would look like.
James, never one to spend more money than he has to, suggested that we quit "f---- around" and just buy the vehicle we want...brand new. Me, who will happily spend money on whatever, didn't need much convincing. New vehicle it was. After many budgets later to see how much we were spending on a vehicle and what our monthly payments would look like (I like spending money with money I have; I hate owing), we bought a 2013 Subaru Impreza in Cherry Red (which is "maroon" to the insurance people who do not recognize the term "Cherry Red").
More expenses followed: I wasn't going to drive the highways without winter tires again, et cetera, et cetera. Next thing we know, February is looming and the credit card is looking crazy. If there is a financial rule we adhere to like it was from the Bible is this: we pay off our credit card amount in full, every month. This ensures that we neither overspend, nor that we incur ridiculous interest (again, I like spending money, but I don't like giving away money to large banks for no reason). So we had to start to find pockets of money in various places until we realized we were about $500 short.
I had just read this article: http://www.chatelaine.com/living/budgeting/could-your-family-live-on-21-a-week-for-groceries-take-the-challenge-and-save-thousands/ a few days before and realized that we could possibly do this. A household of six people, four adults and two children (we have renters), would have to live on a highly restrictive food budget for one month. Considering we normally spend approximately $700 per month on groceries, this was going to the extreme.
Lucky for us, I tend to hoard. When I buy groceries, I buy everything in bulk because, God forbid, should I run out of something right when the inspiration hits for me to cook with that particular food. James constantly finds my treasures in various pockets of cupboards and wonders why on earth we have three different bags of bulgar various stages of emptiness. The first thing I decided to do once we were both on board the crazy train was to go through our freezer, pantry and fridges to ensure that if we could not afford to buy another thing, we would at least be able to eat broccoli and rice for a week.
James, never one to spend more money than he has to, suggested that we quit "f---- around" and just buy the vehicle we want...brand new. Me, who will happily spend money on whatever, didn't need much convincing. New vehicle it was. After many budgets later to see how much we were spending on a vehicle and what our monthly payments would look like (I like spending money with money I have; I hate owing), we bought a 2013 Subaru Impreza in Cherry Red (which is "maroon" to the insurance people who do not recognize the term "Cherry Red").
More expenses followed: I wasn't going to drive the highways without winter tires again, et cetera, et cetera. Next thing we know, February is looming and the credit card is looking crazy. If there is a financial rule we adhere to like it was from the Bible is this: we pay off our credit card amount in full, every month. This ensures that we neither overspend, nor that we incur ridiculous interest (again, I like spending money, but I don't like giving away money to large banks for no reason). So we had to start to find pockets of money in various places until we realized we were about $500 short.
I had just read this article: http://www.chatelaine.com/living/budgeting/could-your-family-live-on-21-a-week-for-groceries-take-the-challenge-and-save-thousands/ a few days before and realized that we could possibly do this. A household of six people, four adults and two children (we have renters), would have to live on a highly restrictive food budget for one month. Considering we normally spend approximately $700 per month on groceries, this was going to the extreme.
Lucky for us, I tend to hoard. When I buy groceries, I buy everything in bulk because, God forbid, should I run out of something right when the inspiration hits for me to cook with that particular food. James constantly finds my treasures in various pockets of cupboards and wonders why on earth we have three different bags of bulgar various stages of emptiness. The first thing I decided to do once we were both on board the crazy train was to go through our freezer, pantry and fridges to ensure that if we could not afford to buy another thing, we would at least be able to eat broccoli and rice for a week.
Initially, it was difficult to imagine only spending $21 in one week. It forced us to prioritize our food and our food intake. I am not sure why it was surprising to me, but most of the money was spent on soymilk. We go through soymilk in this house so quickly, it occurred to me that someone might be just dumping cartons down the drain. No one is, but we do have six people living here with large appetites, so I guess buying 30L of soymilk in one month shouldn't have been the shock that it was.
It really helped that I wasn't on maternity leave anymore. During mat leave, I could easily go shopping; finding reasons to spend money, especially in the grocery store. Because it is food, right? Food is a good excuse to spend money guilt free. Except that from now on, it won't be guilt free for me because there is so much food in my house that I can't bring myself to buy more than I NEED for the household to function, rather than stocking up for the next nuclear war.
Lesson learned? Yes. Buy shopping consciously, and taking Chatelaine's idea of maintaining a $21 week once a month, we can save about $200 per month in our house. That is $2400 per year. How much will you save?
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Early Spring Means Spinach
You know it is time to plant spinach in Edmonton when the temperatures start to hover in the just above zero range and the sun has actually melted some of the snow from your soil.
Starting your garden early (this year I started mine at the end of March) without fear means that you can actually start to see and use fresh veggies by the end of April/beginning of May! Spinach, and a few of its cold weather happy friends, respond well to these cooler temperatures. They do not do well in the summer months; last summer I experimented just to make sure that the expert advice was right and my spinach was sad and wilty.
We have a lot of wild rabbits running around our neighbourhood, so I thought that they would take full advantage of fresh spinach sprouting before them; alas, they are not interested in it all. Happily for me, I can safely plant my spinach in my south facing front yard and in the bed that runs along the west facing side of the house without competing with the rabbits!
We don't want to live on spinach alone, so there are some other vegetables that can be planted right away. Try radishes, lettuce, and onion. It is possible to be able to have a couple of months of these veggies before it is too hot. To ensure that you always have fresh produce popping up, practice succession planting. Start by planting your cold weather seeds now, then do another row in two or three weeks. Repeat one or two more times, when you start to notice that it has become too hot and the plants are coming up bitter.
Enjoy your early veggies!
Starting your garden early (this year I started mine at the end of March) without fear means that you can actually start to see and use fresh veggies by the end of April/beginning of May! Spinach, and a few of its cold weather happy friends, respond well to these cooler temperatures. They do not do well in the summer months; last summer I experimented just to make sure that the expert advice was right and my spinach was sad and wilty.
We have a lot of wild rabbits running around our neighbourhood, so I thought that they would take full advantage of fresh spinach sprouting before them; alas, they are not interested in it all. Happily for me, I can safely plant my spinach in my south facing front yard and in the bed that runs along the west facing side of the house without competing with the rabbits!
We don't want to live on spinach alone, so there are some other vegetables that can be planted right away. Try radishes, lettuce, and onion. It is possible to be able to have a couple of months of these veggies before it is too hot. To ensure that you always have fresh produce popping up, practice succession planting. Start by planting your cold weather seeds now, then do another row in two or three weeks. Repeat one or two more times, when you start to notice that it has become too hot and the plants are coming up bitter.
Enjoy your early veggies!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
White Death
I came across a documentary on Netflix called "Hungry for Change" while making supper. It is a general sort of movie, although it had some good information. The main message was to reinterate that sugar, of any processed form, such as high fructose corn syrup, has extremely terrible effects on our bodies. It's addictive nature and negative affect on our bodies is equated to cocaine.
Although this comparison may seem dramatic, I am entirely on board with the comparison. There is a war on sugar going on in our household. If I had it my way, our children would never eat sugar. However, my far more temperate husband tries to keep one foot on planet Earth, so our children have been subjected to Halloween candy, Christmas goodies, birthday treats, Valentine's Day yummies, and so on. I have limited our eldest daughter (our youngest isn't yet 2, so it is far easier to control what she eats) to one small candy jar to fit all of the candy she will receive over the year. By next Halloween, she will still have some Halloween candy from this past year in the jar, which we will toss.
The fight; however, is daily. My dad once asked me, "Why can't I spoil my granddaughter a little? What is the problem with me giving her a little treat sometimes?" I replied, "Dad, it isn't just you. You give her a little, the neighbour gives her a little, daycare gives her a little, her own dad gives her a little, top that off with every holiday and celebration where other parents and family members are giving her goodies and you have a child that is eating sugary goods every single day!" We wonder why we are hearing about children at the age of four or five being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes - the diabetes that is linked to lifestyle. We assume that child must be eating pop and chocolate bars daily with cake for supper while they sit in front of the TV for hours on end. That is the extreme, and sadly it does happen, but our children are being fed cookies for dessert, cupcakes at school for a classmate's birthday, a candy in their lunch for a treat, a pop with their snack on the weekend. And that is the obvious stuff. As a teacher, it is distressing what parents are putting in their child's lunchkits and are doing it with the best intentions. I have seen entire classrooms where every single piece of food that is put in every child's mouth come from a package.
If it comes from a package, there is sugar in it. If it is processed or refined in nearly any way, it has sugar in it.
This can be quite frustrating when I grocery shop because sometimes I want to buy a convenience food in case I have one of those hectic days where I don't have a chance to cook. Instead, I end up without because there isn't a company out there that will produce a convenience food that I would actually want to put in my body. The irony is that all I can think of is how I can make it so much better at home.
What can one do? How can we stop killing our bodies and our children's bodies while not spending every second in the kitchen growing sprouts and living like rabbits off of lettuce?
Step One: Get rid of the packaged food. Read the labels. If you don't know what the ingredient is, throw it out. There are few exceptions to this rule, so it is a fairly good one to use. (An exception: tocopherol. That is just fancy talk for Vitamin E.)
Step Two: Buy a good cook book. I recommend Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food. He teaches you how to cook in it simply while at the same time offering recipes that can be made quickly. It has become my standby instead of depending on convenience food for hectic days. Also, my husband, who is pretty much ADHD, finds it refreshing because he can actually follow it.
Step Three: Buy quality food. Farmer's markets are an obvious choice, but sometimes you don't have the time to run to one, or it isn't open when you need the food. Grocery stores can be wonderful, plus you get to vote with your money. A lot of stores will tell you where the food is from and whether or not it is organic.
*Just a side note: There have been some news articles published stating that there is no nutritional difference between organic food and non-organic food. What they fail to address is the affect of ingesting toxic chemicals from our food into our bodies. Toxic chemicals + our bodies = bad plan.
Step Four: It is quite difficult to get away completely from the sugar in the world unless you make new friends and family, so try to control it as much as possible (without acting like a nutball). In our house, our kids can only have a sugar based treat on the weekend. That treat can only be eaten after lunch or supper and can only be once per day. It explains why the Halloween candy lasts so long!!!
It is generally just a good habit to think of other foods as treats. Fruit is generally sweeter than other foods, which makes it satisfying after supper.
Dr. Christiane Northrup points out in "Hungry for Change" that sugar is highly addictive, just like alcohol or heroine, yet it is acceptable to give it to our children and to ourselves. Perhaps we need to starting asking why.
Although this comparison may seem dramatic, I am entirely on board with the comparison. There is a war on sugar going on in our household. If I had it my way, our children would never eat sugar. However, my far more temperate husband tries to keep one foot on planet Earth, so our children have been subjected to Halloween candy, Christmas goodies, birthday treats, Valentine's Day yummies, and so on. I have limited our eldest daughter (our youngest isn't yet 2, so it is far easier to control what she eats) to one small candy jar to fit all of the candy she will receive over the year. By next Halloween, she will still have some Halloween candy from this past year in the jar, which we will toss.
The fight; however, is daily. My dad once asked me, "Why can't I spoil my granddaughter a little? What is the problem with me giving her a little treat sometimes?" I replied, "Dad, it isn't just you. You give her a little, the neighbour gives her a little, daycare gives her a little, her own dad gives her a little, top that off with every holiday and celebration where other parents and family members are giving her goodies and you have a child that is eating sugary goods every single day!" We wonder why we are hearing about children at the age of four or five being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes - the diabetes that is linked to lifestyle. We assume that child must be eating pop and chocolate bars daily with cake for supper while they sit in front of the TV for hours on end. That is the extreme, and sadly it does happen, but our children are being fed cookies for dessert, cupcakes at school for a classmate's birthday, a candy in their lunch for a treat, a pop with their snack on the weekend. And that is the obvious stuff. As a teacher, it is distressing what parents are putting in their child's lunchkits and are doing it with the best intentions. I have seen entire classrooms where every single piece of food that is put in every child's mouth come from a package.
If it comes from a package, there is sugar in it. If it is processed or refined in nearly any way, it has sugar in it.
This can be quite frustrating when I grocery shop because sometimes I want to buy a convenience food in case I have one of those hectic days where I don't have a chance to cook. Instead, I end up without because there isn't a company out there that will produce a convenience food that I would actually want to put in my body. The irony is that all I can think of is how I can make it so much better at home.
What can one do? How can we stop killing our bodies and our children's bodies while not spending every second in the kitchen growing sprouts and living like rabbits off of lettuce?
Step One: Get rid of the packaged food. Read the labels. If you don't know what the ingredient is, throw it out. There are few exceptions to this rule, so it is a fairly good one to use. (An exception: tocopherol. That is just fancy talk for Vitamin E.)
Step Two: Buy a good cook book. I recommend Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food. He teaches you how to cook in it simply while at the same time offering recipes that can be made quickly. It has become my standby instead of depending on convenience food for hectic days. Also, my husband, who is pretty much ADHD, finds it refreshing because he can actually follow it.
Step Three: Buy quality food. Farmer's markets are an obvious choice, but sometimes you don't have the time to run to one, or it isn't open when you need the food. Grocery stores can be wonderful, plus you get to vote with your money. A lot of stores will tell you where the food is from and whether or not it is organic.
*Just a side note: There have been some news articles published stating that there is no nutritional difference between organic food and non-organic food. What they fail to address is the affect of ingesting toxic chemicals from our food into our bodies. Toxic chemicals + our bodies = bad plan.
Step Four: It is quite difficult to get away completely from the sugar in the world unless you make new friends and family, so try to control it as much as possible (without acting like a nutball). In our house, our kids can only have a sugar based treat on the weekend. That treat can only be eaten after lunch or supper and can only be once per day. It explains why the Halloween candy lasts so long!!!
It is generally just a good habit to think of other foods as treats. Fruit is generally sweeter than other foods, which makes it satisfying after supper.
Dr. Christiane Northrup points out in "Hungry for Change" that sugar is highly addictive, just like alcohol or heroine, yet it is acceptable to give it to our children and to ourselves. Perhaps we need to starting asking why.
Monday, January 14, 2013
Carcass
As a Substitute Teacher, often I am left with seat work to give to the students or an entire day of watching "Osmosis Jones" with every junior high science class. Ugh. Unless the teacher has requested me directly, I am rarely left with anything interesting to actually teach the students.
However, I was requested by the teacher for today and she left me to teach a lovely lesson on "The Parts of the Carcass".
I am vegetarian. I can tell you where the leg of an animal is, or maybe their eyeball, but the butchered carcass parts? No.
Once upon a time, I was not vegetarian. I loved eating meat, even finding ways to eat meat during breakfast, but my knowledge of the parts of a carcass did not go past "steak".
Fortunately, when I entered the classroom, my demo carcass was merely a marker drawing on whiteboard, rather than an actual carcass. I assumed an actual carcass would be my demo and everyone could have fun chopping the bits of the poor animal and naming them. I admit, I was slightly disappointed at the whiteboard drawing. A real carcass brought nostalgic memories of when I was a child and my Dad would go hunting every autumn (he continues to do so). One year, for whatever reason, and to my Mom's horror, he had it in his head that he was going to take the carcasses home and butcher then with a friend in our basement. There, from the rafters in the basement ceiling, hung a deer from its front legs. My brothers and I found the entire ordeal fascinating and would spend nearly every moment sitting on the huge freezer which was within touching distance of one of the deer carcasses. We became bored sitting there and just staring at the thing, so I made up a game. Nearly all of the games I made up had a dare involved and this game was along the same lines. I challenged my brothers to a contest of who could stick their head in the ribcage of the deer without touching the sides. I won, of course.
Despite my experience with carcasses, I still had no idea the names of the butchered parts. So, lesson plan in my shaky hand, I approached the whiteboard. Oh, by the way, it had now been properly labelled thanks to the Foods 30 student that helped out in that class. Somehow, I was still convinced I would give each part the wrong name and the pathetic Foods 10 students would fail their carcass test. Really, there was nothing to be concerned with because the students were clever enough to find ways to remember the correctly named body parts. "Shank" quickly became "skank". The "head", well, I will keep this on the PG side of things.
To wrap this up, I will give you a fast and yummy after school snack recipe that I made my girls today and has nothing to do with a carcass.
1 pkg Raincoast Crisps (or whatever crackers you prefer/have around the house)
1 Camembert or Brie cheese
1 jar of carrot marmalade (or any other orange-y or apricot spread)
Cut the layer of rind off of the top of the cheese. Place cheese in a small pan and spread marmalade over the top (3 or 4 tablespoons should suffice). Place in toaster oven (or large oven if you haven't a small one) and bake at 350 F for about 5 - 10 minutes, just enough for the cheese to soften and just start to bubble. Serve with crackers. YUM!
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