Pasta dish

Grilled veggies from the garden, add pasta, and there's your dinner!


See recipe on quick Slow Food link.

Laundry

Ok. I'm doing laundry today. But only because the sun is shining and I can hang it out to dry.

We try to do that as often as possible. It gets us out, it gets us moving (bending down and stretching upwards toward the line counts as exercise), AND, it costs 60% less to use major electrical appliances on weekends.

Not that I can get by without doing laundry during the week. But I can keep the big stuff, like sheets and towels, until the weekend.

So today, despite the risks, I am doing winter clothes laundry. Ben's hats and mittens and scarfs. I kept a hat out just in case, but the rest of it I want to get packed away. F.i.n.a.l.l.y.

Ben woke up at 5:55 am today. Even before hubby had to get to the airport for his flight. For some reason, he couldn't WAIT to get outside. By 7:30 am I could not keep him indoors any longer. He was bringing me shoes, his jackets, so I had to don one myself over my PJs, and head out to pick up dog poop, with coffee in hand, so the child could play outside.

Anyway. We walked and walked from about 9:30 till noon, down to the village to run errands. He's napping now. Maybe we'll make it to the birthday BBQ next door by 3 pm or so.

I wish I could take a nap now...

Heart disease

A good friend was recently diagnosed with Angina.

Just before that, he was concerned about a spot on his lungs. The patch went on, and the focus was on lung cancer.

On Good Friday he admitted himself into the hospital with chest pains. The following week he got an angioplasty - he's 38.

Life has to completely change for him. Everything, from the eating habits to the lifestyle changes.

***
My hubby and I are fans of the whole food diet, organic diet, and less is more in general. This doesn't mean we don't ever eat junk. That being said, we rarely pick up fast food or eat chain food, too many mom-and-pop shops around to try out in Hogtown, but we have been known to buy oven-baked fries, or some PC prepared product you can shove in an oven with a blink of an eye.

But the bulk of our diet is whole foods. We like to cook, we like to eat, and we eat with gusto.

And, happily, so does our child.

***
Our buddy now is constantly asking us for advice. He bought a huge bag of flax seeds and sprinkles some on almost all the food he eats now. We encouraged him to grind them first, as per Rosie Schwartz's article in the National Post recently regarding the benefits of ground flax vs whole flax. (The article appeared in the newspaper and isn't available on the web.)

It's a start.

Our aim now is to help him stay away from the processed foods, even if they are stamped by some health authority. Whole foods are better for you anyway.

I am spurred to keep my food blog going, with a new emphasis. To help those who need to change their diet with tips and recipe ideas from a non-expert who lives a healthy life.

Hypoglycemic

My blood sugar crashed. Probably because I ate 4 waffles today. Too much simple carbs in my system.

After several days of non-stop energy and a toddler who is sleeping through the nights, I'm feeling rather pooped today.

No energy to write.
No energy to surf the blogsphere.
No energy to get up off this chair and and get tea.

Blah.

Reading cookbooks part II - Healthy eating

Andrea of Quietfish has written a blurb in her blog called Promoting a healthy body image in young girls. It is an important message even for those of us who are raising boys. After all, Mommy is a girl. And the boys will most likely have a girlfriend at some point, no?

Coming originally from a European background where healthy eating is (was?) the norm and not labeled "healthy" per say, I found it fascinating and to some degree irritating as a teenager and young adult that people my age were drinking diet coke for breakfast and visiting fast-food joints on a regular basis and calling it their favorite food.

In University during the late 80s and early 90s, I drank diet coke because all the girls drank diet coke. I didn't even like it! But back then, it was the in-thing to do. (I'm not like that anymore).

Today, we grow our own veggies in a little plot at the back of the house.

Offer someone who claims that Wendy's or KFC is their favorite food a sun-drenched tomato harvested seconds prior to eating it and see if you can convert them. (If you live in Canada you may have to wait till next September to do that).

Is it me or is counting calories, or points, unnatural? I have heard from many people that Weight Watchers works, but that in itself is a lifestyle choice too. If you have to weigh food and consult a chart, and make that as part of your lifestyle, why not just pick fresh food, and on that topic, ask questions about how the food was raised or grown, and make that your lifestyle?

There is someone I know casually who has successfully (not!) tried Weight Watches over many years, AND KEEPS GOING BACK THERE WHEN SHE GAINS THE WEIGHT BACK. Maybe this system works for some people, and if so, all the power to them, but I still think it's unnatural to weigh food.

Eating healthy seems so simple to me.

But I know it's not for some people.

If you grew up with packaged convenience foods, whose shelf life would survive a nuclear war, well, a whole new approach to food must be considered in order to make healthier choices.

You could start by reading Fast Food Nation, French Women don't get fat, or any number of Whole Food type cookbooks out there (go to the library and borrow a book if you participate in the contest of not spending frivolously, or visit some of my recommendations and spend a half hour at a bookstore), and see if you can take one step in the direction of eating right and making healthy choices.

You will feel better.

You will learn to enjoy cooking if you don't already.

And you will be amazed how disgusting a Big Mac really tastes after you've had an opportunity to eat an organically grown hamburger, topped with home grown (or farmer's market) veggies and few, if any, prepared condiments.

And on that note, I must have lunch right now.