What America is eating

I've been doing a lot of research lately helping two of the children with a debate on genetically modified foods. That has led me to watch two documentaries, King Corn and Supersize Me. If you watch them, prepare to be horrified! Today I'm expecting the movie Food, Inc. to arrive in my mailbox via Netflix. I'm scared.

Over the last several years, I've been dabbling in healthy eating. A little juicing here, a little flax seed there. Sometimes I'll jump in with both feet... until the caffeine headaches start. I'm not consistent. I'm trying to reform that flaw in my character.

One thing that motivates me to strengthen my resolve is to educate myself on the dangers of poor nutrition and the mountains of benefits of good nutrition. It's really a change of mindset because walking it out is truly easy. So why don't we do it? Here is a chart of the top ten most purchased items at the grocery store as of June 2009. See any fruits and vegetables on that chart?

We are growing our own food and taking care to buy as much organic and locally grown produce as possible. The dangers of genetically modified foods are huge and many are not yet known. The dangers of preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, and trans fats are well known but the big corporations sell them to us anyway.

And, we buy them.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman is my current favorite read right now. Eat to Live and Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right will change your life. You won't be able to chow down that Twinkie or let your children do the same.

And, that's a good thing.

Pear, Apple, Sweet Potato Bake

This is a recipe that came out in the Hallelujah Acres email newsletter. It is simply scrumptious and makes a fantastic dessert! All you do is slice sweet potatoes, pears, and apples. I used Granny Smith apples. You layer a casserole dish with 1/3 sweet potatoes, 1/3 apples, and 1/3 pears. Then bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. I also sprinkled a little sucanat on top to make a little bit of a crust. It gave it that 'cobbler' feel that we love so much. Incredibly delicious!!

Minestrone Soup... MMmmmm!

This is a recipe I've used many times. Yes, I'm sort of cheating by not diving right into the book and going for tahini wrapped in sea weed. But, I'll get to those. I promise. For a cool, blustery, fall day such as today, minestrone soup really hits the spot. There is not much difference in this soup and a more traditional recipe except the meat and the type of pasta. It is full of great vegetable goodness and has a wonderful robust flavor. I love any pasta and bean soup so this one is a favorite of mine and a crowd pleaser with the kids.

As for the pasta, you always want to stay far, far away from white pastas. This comprises about 90% of the pasta that you see on the grocery store shelves. Not only is it devoid of any and all nutrition, but it acts as a glue in your digestive tract and converts to a sugar almost as rapidly as a jelly-filled Dunkin Doughnut. Bad, bad, bad.

Of course, you can choose a whole-wheat pasta which is a better choice. It has the nutrition intact and is high in fiber. But, why stop there? Whole wheat is rather boring. I personally am on a spelt kick and the pasta I used is an organic spelt "Tiger Tail" pasta I bought at Publix. It has a fabulous flavor and it comes in these cute spirals that the kids think are required for all pasta dishes.

When you are choosing a pasta, think outside the box... the square cardboard pasta box, that is. Look for the small (at least at mine) healthy pasta section at your local grocery and branch out into spelt or kamut. If you're worried about picky eaters at home, don't tell them. My philosophy... what they don't know won't hurt them! ~wink~

This one is a Recipes for Life keeper!

Juicy Juice

I have started on my journey of cooking my way through Recipes for Life. One of the best ways to get nutrient dense nutrition is through juicing. I've been juicing on and off for about five years. You might think you could never choke down carrot juice and the like, but you'll be surprised how wonderful it is! When you're just starting out and acquiring the taste for vegetable juices, I suggest apples and lots of them! They sweeten juice beautifully and make it much more palatable to the standard American diet tastebuds.

This juice is a carrot, kale, lime, and pear juice. I usually use apples but I had a lot of ripe pears that needed to be used so I substituted them. That's the great thing about juicing. You can play with recipes adding in more of the things you really like and slowly adding the things that maybe aren't your favorites. You'll be surprised how quickly you come to love those things you thought you'd never eat.

We have a Green Star juicer which is the Cadillac of juicers. However, there are other cheaper versions if you're just starting out. I started with a centrifugal juicer I bought for $5.00 at a yard sale and used it for the first couple of years. Once you can upgrade to a masticating juicer, the Green Star juicer is fabulous!

It's quite easy to use. Hannah is doing this juice for me.

Looks yummy, don't you think?

Because I use a masticating juicer which doesn't allow as much oxygen into the juice as a centrifugal juicer, I can store my juice in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Because we have such a large family, our juice usually never lasts more than a day. Stored in a glass jar with as little oxygen as possible, the juice will retain its nutrients and enzymes a little bit longer.

Happy Juicing!

The Julie/Julia Project... er, sort of

Well, more like the Lady Why/Rhonda Malkmus Project, but you get the idea.A few months back I went to see the movie Julie & Julia. Excellent movie. Truly. I loved everything about it from the beautiful portrait of marriage and supportive husbands to the stretching one's limits to the incredible cooking. What's not to love? I recommend it.

The premise of the movie is on Julie who undertakes the task of cooking her way through all 724 recipes in Julia Child's classic cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She blogs about this and gives herself 365 days to complete the book. I was inspired!

Of course, Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipes made me cringe a little. I could feel all those arteries clogging up with every forkful of butter laden pork.

Still, I want in on the fun! So, I have dusted off my previously neglected blog, put away the boring diet routine and I am embarking on a similar challenge! Instead of death-inducing french recipes, however, I shall cook my way through Rhonda Malkmus' Recipes for Life! There are 434 recipes in her book so I'm giving myself 217 days to complete the challenge.

While I'm at it, I plan to write more on health related issues, share the ins and outs of a primarily raw food diet such as the Hallelujah Diet, talk about juicing, juicers, supplements, exercise and current events related to health. Ready, set..... GO!

Won't this be fun?!

Monday Ain't-Happenin' Weigh In

To. sick. to. care.

Monday Weigh-In

I'm back to full time work on my diet and exercise routine and I'm feeling it. I'm really feeling it. Icy Hot by the gallon is what I'm saying. But, I know it will just take me a few days to be back in the routine.

The Cadbury Mini-Egg binge is over and it's back to zero processed foods, sugar, and refined flour in all its many forms. The headache will kick in by tomorrow morning. I did it to myself with my backsliding so I'll tough it out. And, I'll try not to complain.

This week I lost another pound. Again, not terrific results but I was eating anything and everything I could get my hands on. Bad, bad girl! I have been exercising sporadically which accounts for any loss I may have had.

It's a new week and I have renewed enthusiasm! Let's get that scale moving, shall we?!