Born In The Wrong Century?

I came across this fun blog Born In The Wrong Century - Lots of ideas here!

Healthy Cereals

Our family does not eat cereal very much for several reasons.  One is the cost.  The price is so much more expensive than oatmeal, which my husband and daughters in particular, really love.  Then awhile back I read about a study where they fed rats cereal, rat food and the third group was fed the box that the cereal came in.  The rats that ate the cereal died first.  The rats eating the cardboard box the cereal came in lived longer! That was eye opening.  We never did eat all the sugary and colored cereals, but even some of the plain cereals are not that great for you.

The one cereal I have occasionally enjoyed when in a no cook or speedy situation is Nature's Path.  They are a good company from what I've read and are based in Blaine, WA, which is just up the highway from my parents.

The Cornucopia Institute released its survey of cereal brands and companies, paying attention to details such as organic certification, use of GMO foods and use of hexane and petrochemicals.  You can see the scorecard HERE.  I was happy to see Nature's Path received their highest score!  Since a lot of families use cereal, I thought you might like having this information.

Crockpot Cookery

After years without one, I purchased a crockpot last winter.  It is just a cheapy Rival that Target had on sale for $15 (normally $40) last year during the holidays.  So far the funnest thing I have made in it is tapioca pudding, but I have used it for soups mainly.

Today I found this post with some great crock pot tips from Deborah Taylor Hough's The Original Simple Mom blog.  She is also the author of the Frozen Assets: How To Cook For A Day And Eat For A Month book which I liked when I was doing freezer meals.  Talented lady.

I have been on the look out for crock pot recipes that don't say "Open a can of Cream of Chemical Soup", then add...

Any healthy crockpot recipe recommendations out there?

Never Give Up!

So, I'm basically back to Square One!  My weight has a "set point" like a thermostat and if I don't continually exercise I go right back to that.  Exercising has been difficult since my knee injury three years ago.  The knee is better but now I have severe hip bursitis.  I have been in physical therapy twice. It works for awhile and doesn't.  All summer I've been thinking about what to do.  It is important to me to become healthier and to do my part to live as long as possible for my wonderful family that YHVH has given me late in life!  I've decided that the best thing for me to do is to jump back in to blogging.  That gives me a little bit of accountability and a way to make a commit.  So here I am.  Never give up!

In the past I have balked at meal planning, but now I think I'll give it a hand.  Because my family honors the 7th day Sabbath, my meal planning has changed some.  It takes some planning to prepare ahead of time, our festive meal for Friday night as we celebrate the beginning of Sabbath and also make one or two meals for lunch and dinner on Sabbath at home or to take with us to our fellowship/worship meeting.  And sometimes I forget about items in the refrigerator and they need to be thrown out!  Such a waste!  Planning will help reduce and hopefully eliminate this.

Today I've been looking online for some free planning calendars.  So far, I found these at The Project Girl.  Vertex42 has a variety and if you like using Excel you can download the files there to use, OR you can use the pdf files and print them right out.  My favorite resource for homeschooling forms and calendars, Donna Young, has some options as well.

For now I am going to print out some and see which works best for me, then I'll either download and available Excel file or figure out how to make one myself.

If you have done menu planning, I would like to hear from you.  What helped?  What didn't?  Anything you would avoid, do differently, etc?

Interested in Raw Foods

Right now you can download a free pdf of Jordan Rubin's new book The Raw Truth at the Garden of Life website.  Thank you Mr. Rubin!

Book Review

Before I begin writing, I want to apologize to my vegan friends!  I just finished reading The Butcher and the Vegetarian: One Woman's Romp Through a World of Men, Meat and Moral Crisis and it was a really fun read as well as being informative.  The author, Tara Austen Weaver also has a foodie blog called Tea And Cookies that I am hoping to explore.

Part autobiographical, part confessional and part adventure story, Weaver's book also shares information about food, food ethics and how discouraging it can be to get accurate health information and treatment.  Her journey into the world of the local butcher shop began when her Chinese health practitioner and naturopath told her she needed to begin eating meat to get healthy.  Since she has a thyroid disorder, as do many of my family members, including my Hubby who had to have his irradiated, I was hoping she would end the book with a "magic bullet."  However, her conclusion was the same as most of us come to - that each of us has to navigate the medical and health communities ourselves and there is rarely one answer, let alone one that is simple or magical.

As a person who has eaten meat and feels better eating vegetarian, but has also eaten vegan and considered Raw, I enjoyed her discussions on the process she has gone through.  Since she lives in two places I have/do (Washington State and Northern California) I was happy to note some of her great resources.  She was able to do some "investigating" as well and reported on some of the naturally raised meat choices available.  The one I am pursuing further is Prather Ranch which I have passed while travelling up I-5.  My local Co-op carries their meat so next month we may try some.  I was impressed with their humane treatment and slaughter practices as well as the fact that they use all of the animal and they have been practicing ethical and environmental practices for more than thirty years because they actually believe in it, not just because they jumped onto a bandwagon!

For my friends in Washington Skagit River Ranch is a great resource for meat and eggs.  They sell at some farmer's markets in the Seattle area as well.

The book does a good review of the politics of eating meat and how it affects the animals and the environment and she touches on the conflict of having something taste so good and feeling guilty for eating it.  I also enjoyed her humorous anecdotes of growing up in the Hippie culture of northern California in the 1970s and eating healthy long before it was "popular".  My Grandma Hopkins was a "health nut" and some of my kitchen experiences with her (or should I say "experiments") echoed those of Tara.

One caution if you have young readers, she does briefly touch on some topics such as inappropriate touching by an adult during her childhood (I don't want to be flagged in the search engines by using other wording), that are briefly and respectfully presented as part of her journey.

Overall if you are new to healthy eating or considering whether or not you want to eat meat, live as a vegan or vegetarian, I think this would be a good resource. Even if you are experienced and settled in your healthy eating choices, you might enjoy her humor and relaxed writing style.  I had to laugh at some of her comments about "facing the meat in the fridge" as I can relate to them as well.  I have a love/hate relationship with meat - repulsed by it but also enjoying it when it is prepared well.  I am hoping her blog will carry the same writing style.  For me, I would consider this a book I would read from the library (which I did), but not keep as a reference book on my shelf.  It is not because of any failure on Tara Weaver's part, but because her book is not really meant for that purpose.  If you have read this book or do so after reading my review, I would be interested in hearing your opinion.