Food School: a 31 Day Course (Day 4)

/2 Comments/in /by

Where do you get your food?

Such a simple question, yet a huge answer:

the bigger question I’m going for is–are you intentional about where you buy your food?  When you make health your priority, the next step is getting the best quality food and I’m pretty sure you will NOT get that at a gas station or from a drive thru!

I love gardening.  Well, I love growing things–anything.  Actually, I love watching things bloom.  So it could be a plant in my garden or on my front porch, bringing a stray animal back to health or watching a kid with challenges learn his spelling words and then read!  You get the idea.

We have been in this house for 2 full summers now–and I’m finally working out the best spots to plant.  Each year I add at least one new “crop”. This year I added 36 strawberry plants and 18 asparagus.  I’m not sure that the asparagus made it but the strawberries were phenomenal. I’m on a learning curve of what grows and how much time I have to devote to it.  This year the kids were really into watering and picking the tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs and lettuce creating some wonderful salad combinations.

I also am very blessed to find a CSA, Tomato Mountain Farm, and they DELIVER to my door.  (Even if you live far way–check out the website–awesome recipes and a peek into the life of Chris, a sustainable farmer.) They are super nice when I call to set up the size of my box–they have several options on box size.  I do switch the size of my box depending on the season.  I’m not the best at cooking with a variety of greens (yet) so I do not want to be wasteful–and I know if it takes “too much” effort I just won’t get to it.  Those MENTAL HOOPS that we make ourselves jump through–I’m so guilty!  But I will be posting a Top Ten list on jumping through Mental Hoops during this course.

Last night my CSA delivered two beautiful acorn squash.  I typically just cut them in 1/2 and let them simmer in the crockpot or you could do the same thing on the stove–simmer in a pot with a cover.  My plan is to make a entrée that features the acorn squash as the “meat” and I want the squash firm–so baking would be the best method.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9wqu5r40l0′]

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_m547ILXheI’]

NOTE:  The nutritional value that is on this recipe is just for the Acorn Squash–that would be a every day glitch that I need a creative solution to solve :-)

[yumprint-recipe id=’2′]I am actually making this dinner tonight.  I will use onions, kale, red pepper and acorn squash from my CSA box.  I will create a video of the process and add that to this post.

I thought about adding some dried cranberries but the ingredient list was a little too long!  And it has the dreaded words “natural flavoring” and that just grosses me out these days.  Food School:  Day 3 I write about natural artificial flavorings.

If you have any questions please feel free to leave a message in the comments!

My your food be your blessing!

To receive a free copy of my Blessed by Breakfast cookbook, please go to http://blessedbybreakfast.com and sign up! I send updates that include; family tested and approved recipes, video tutorials, tips and tricks on how to begin your day with the blessing of food.

cookbook coming soon

Books I suggest: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat,

Young Readers Edition The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet

Some of my friends have also joined the 31 day challenge:  

Anastacia Maness  http://rocksolidfamily.com/31-days-building-commitment/

Racquel Narciso http://howtomakeitinsanfrancisco.com/…/

Pamela Hodges http://ipaintiwrite.com

I’m linking up to these blogs. 

 

Food School: Day 3 (Beaver Butt Video)

/3 Comments/in /by

Today for class I want you to watch a video.  

Do I get the best teacher award?

When you were in school did you like the days that you were able to watch a *gasp* filmstrip-ka thunk, ka thunk, ka thunk . . . did the memories come flooding back?  

I watched this video and then spent a few hours researching the facts–and sadly this video is correct.  If you would like me to send you the sites and additional video I can–leave a note in the comments section.  I found some videos to be offensive and I want this site to be classroom friendly–like a real classroom full of kids not just us adults learning.

Vani is a fellow blogger and has an incredible sense of humor to get her point across.

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nweK6VRM8a8′]

After you watch this–please let me know via comments, email or FB if you will be reading your food labels and making any changes!

Be Blessed.  

Ps.  This made me think about more than just a beaver’s butt–why do we kill beavers?  what are the pelts used for?  why do they use the work “harvest”, it makes it sound like you just go out and pick a beaver.  This is a great example of how this blog is more than a place to exchange recipes!  I want to create awareness.  So the question is:  Do you want to be open to understanding where your food comes from?  

 

Food School: a 31 Day Course (Day 2)

/0 Comments/in /by

Welcome to Day 2 of Food School!

How did you like the video from yesterday?  Did it make you think about what your eating?  Create any questions in your mind?  If it did–great!  I’d love for you to share them in the comments.  If it didn’t get you to think about your intention at all–hhhmmm, that means you have homework :-)

Have you ever asked yourself any of the questions from day 1?  It can be over whelming.  So let’s figure out how we can be intentional about the next 31 days.  I have created this one page worksheet (HOMEWORK) for you to fill out or at the very least–look at it.  I know I will have some students who will print it off, fill it out and then send me an email for extra help and some who won’t even open the file . . . I’m ok with that.  You chose how you want to use this 31 days.  If you chose not to look at it . . . please know that it is there for you when you want it :-)

In this course I am boiling down several years of figuring out what mattered to me–you reap the benefits of me being on the slow train!  Here are the questions:

What? do you want to be intentional about?  

For me it started by recycling and having less waste.  Then I made some changes in how I clean my house–if you need tips my friend Kirsten has an awesome website!  I used cloth diapers . . . you get the idea.  Then my focus changed to food.  My intention was to cook real food for my real family–no processed food or snacks.  That was a little too lofty so I backed off and began with myself.  What did I want to eat and what made me feel best.  I kept a food log of when I was hungry and for what.  It quickly became obvious to me what my body was craving–fruit, nuts, some veggies, soups, crunchy bread and toast for breakfast.  I became more and more aware of what my body wanted to eat–NOT what I had been eating.  Coffee?  every morning, until one day I thought–uggh this doesn’t taste good–but it took me almost a year to say to myself–“you don’t have to drink coffee just because that is what you have done for 35 years!–it is ok to change.” and from that now I drink juice, tea, coffee if I want it, but I listen to my body each morning.  Why did I allow myself to just get stuck in a rut of–this is what I’ve always done!  So unlike me, but as a Mom, I was on auto pilot.  (sound familiar?)

Why?  

Assign a reason for your intention.  If your intention MUST HAVE MEANING.  Without meaning there is not intention.  Initially, I wanted to be healthier-but when I became really clear I wanted to lose weight–but even that wasn’t enough (because I’m still fat!)  I want to live a healthy life to honor my soul, my body and all living things.  With that–I look at food (and life) differently.  

How?

For this month in particular I am looking at food for how it will nourish my body–not feed my insecurities!  I weighed myself at the beginning and I’ll tell you if I have lost any weight at the end of these 31 days!  If you really want to know how much I weigh I will be glad to tell you–in a more private way!  cookies.  The idea is to remain flexible enough to forgive yourself–but rigid enough to stay on track.

Does all of that make sense?  If you have any questions send an email or message me on FB and I’ll “chat” you through it.  I’ll probably repeat this a few times but if you know of someone who might need a little boost in a positive direction–please share this with them.

Oh, I almost forgot.  In the side bar of this post will be an Amazon button, when you click it takes you to an amazon site–from there you can sign up for a free 30 day trial of Amazon Prime–this FREE 30 day membership has lots of perks–for this course it allows you to watch FREE documentaries  that I will be talking about.  I am an affiliate for Amazon.  So if you sign up you will be supporting this class.  (thanks in advance!)

 Tomorrow’s class:  food vocabulary.

Tomorrows recipe:  Almost Vegan chocolate chip cookies :-)

You can use the comments section to share what your food intentions.  Be Blessed.

********************************************************************************

To receive a free copy of my Blessed by Breakfast cookbook, please go to http://blessedbybreakfast.com and sign up! I send updates that include; family tested and approved recipes, video tutorials, tips and tricks on how to begin your day with the blessing of food.

cookbook coming soon

Books I suggest: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat,

Young Readers Edition The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet

Some of my friends have also joined the 31 day challenge:  

Anastacia Maness  http://rocksolidfamily.com/31-days-building-commitment/

Racquel Narciso http://howtomakeitinsanfrancisco.com/…/

Pamela Hodges http://ipaintiwrite.com

I’m linking up to these blogs.