Breakfast in Bed! What a treat!

My kids brought us breakfast in bed on Saturday! WOW!!!! What a treat! We finally got our “new” dog to sleep in. She likes to get up at 5:30 and eat – but this Saturday we got her to let us all sleep until 7:30! YIPPEE! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen 7:30 from in my bed! The kids snuck in while Rick and I were chatting and enjoying the slow pace of Saturday morning. They were very excited about serving us. And so was I, until I thought about the clean up I would surely face later. But, there’s only one time which is the first time your children bring you breakfast – or anything other than nightmares – to bed. I had made whole wheat blueberry and banana muffins the previous day so I knew we had something in the kitchen they could handle. But, I really felt like fruit – not muffins. I suggested they peel some bananas, slice them in two bowls; add a little maple syrup and walnuts to mine and a few raisins and soy milk to Dad’s bowl. What a wonderful job they did and how exciting it was for me to realize they were slowly becoming self-sufficient! We only lost half of a banana to the floor and my banana chunks were floating in maple syrup and covered with pecans – but with great enthusiasm we cherished the moment!

Me and my cantaloupe!

I went into my local produce market today and got really excited to see Florida cantaloupes! You don’t often see cantaloupes and excited in the same sentence but after a long winter of apples, bananas and pineapples I do get a little enthusiastic when spring and summer fruits begin appearing in the stores. I never really knew how much I liked cantaloupes until I tasted one which was grown right here in the good old USA. When we owned our own produce market we had a customer we called the cantaloupe guy. He would appear each year when cantaloupe season began. Every visit, he would buy 6 to 8 cantaloupes. I used to think he was odd, now I think I may be just like him!

Locally grown cantaloupes are nothing like their off shore counterparts. Fresh, local cantaloupes are often only 1 day from the vine when they appear in the produce market. How do I pick a cantaloupe? First, I look for a local melon with a nice round shape and no bruises or soft spots. (I NEVER shake a cantaloupe. Shaking a cantaloupe does nothing but loosens the seeds and causes the melon to ROT rather than ripen.) Depending on how long before I eat it, I choose a color. The greener the skin, the longer the melon will take to ripen. Then I take it home and let it ripen on my counter or even in my refrigerator. Once the skin begins to turn yellow and dimple I know the cantaloupe is ready to eat. I can even begin to taste it as I prepare to carve it. Take my advice and treat yourself to a locally grown cantaloupe and see if you don’t start using excited and cantaloupe in the same sentence!

OSSP Camping Trip

We just got back from a week long family camping trip and what a wonderful time we had! We stayed on the west coast of Florida for 5 nights in Oscar Sheerer State Park. It was a beautiful campground with shady, private campsites. We saw cardinals, cat birds, owls, herons, egrets, raccoons, cotton tail rabbits, armadillos and alligators, to name a small portion of the abundant wildlife. We went canoeing, fishing, swimming, shell and fossilized shark tooth collecting, sunset watching, hiking and even on an airboat ride. To say that our week was full of adventure would be a slight understatement. I’m not sure what activities we liked the best. All of the adventures blended together into a family memory which will not soon be forgotten. It was wonderful to be able to indulge ourselves in full days without aches, pains or other ailments sometimes associated with active vacations. Having children later in life has been full of challenges, but because of our commitment to a healthy and vibrant lifestyle, none of the challenges have been related to those commonly associated with aging. Now that I’ve had a few moments to reflect, I think all of us would say that our favorite activity was tuning into an “oldies” radio station and dancing in the car to some songs that reminded us of our life long before children. Somehow, the songs seemed richer and certainly more memorable when shared with our children with great enthusiasm and vigor. I never knew a 6 year old and 8 year old could be so creative while “dancing” in their car seats!

Getting Ready to Podcast

I am getting ready to start podcasting. At least I think I am. I tried tonight while cooking dinner to create a podcast about making dinner. It was a lot of fun. We’ll have to wait and see how it turned out. I was making stewed apples or what I sometimes call fried apples. It’s one of my kids’ favorite foods. We have friends whose kids love them too. Anyway, I had apples that we didn’t particularly care for, so we decided that they would taste great stewed. The apples were a little too tart. They were not as tart as a Granny Smith apple, but they were not as sweet as we like. So, while peeling and paring and stewing, I tried to teach a quick class on a wide variety of topics. I think I covered, or attempted to cover, the different types of common apples and what to use them for, the different types of vegan butter substitutes, the benefits of cast iron cooking, the types of vegetable/fruit peelers I like the best and how to thicken stewing juices quickly. Just a few topics to cover in less than 15 minutes, while preparing dinner and fielding requests from hungry children. Well, time will tell how it turned out. Not sure I am ready for the big time yet. But, hey, it’s always fun to gather in my kitchen and talk.

Check out my podcasts at Veg4health.libsyn.com.

The Joy of Pressure Cookers

If I could only keep one pot in my whole kitchen, without a doubt, I would keep my Pressure cooker. I can’t imagine what it would be like to prepare a whole meal without it. It’s hard for me to believe that I was over 40 before I ever even heard of pressure cookers. We owned our own large produce market and the kindest old gentlemen in the world introduced me to the wonders of pressure cooking. Mr. Pierce had purchased some green peanuts from us, and had returned with a sample of his recently “boiled peanuts”. Whether you are a fan of boiled peanuts or not, suffice it to say that they were the best boiled peanuts I have ever eaten. At my delightful ravings, Mr. Pierce cheerfully shared his secret – the pressure cooker. Not only did he educate me about pressure cookers, but he returned once again with one of his pressure cookers for me to try. I have been hooked ever since. There are lots of reasons why I like my pressure cooker. Pressure cookers cook food incredibly fast, they do not heat up my Florida kitchen, they produce tastier dishes, they seal in the vitamins and minerals normally lost during prolonged cooking and they leave my stovetop neater and cleaner than normal cooking pots do.

How do pressure cookers work? Pressure cookers simply cook foods faster than normal pots by cooking under high pressure and high temperature. Pressure cookers have a more elaborate lid than most cooking pots which provide a complete seal to the pot. By completely sealing the pot with a gasket and locking mechanism, the steam created during heating in a pressure cooker is trapped. This trapped steam builds up pressure within the pot and thereby increases the temperature of boiling water from 212 degrees Fahrenheit to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Under this high pressure and temperature, the fiber in the food is tenderized and the food is cooked in record time with incredible flavor and with very little steam released into the kitchen. Once the food is done, the cooker is removed from the heat source and the steam must be released before the lid can be removed. The steam is released either through a quick release method (using the cooker’s special valve or placing in the sink under running water) or through the natural release method (the pressure eventually drops as the cooker cools). Once the pressure is released, unlock and open the pressure cooker. Read more about this wonderful tool here.

Frozen Mocha Frappuccino

Frozen Mocha Frappuccino

What an unbelievably refreshing treat!!!

1 cup soymilk (regular or vanilla)
1 tbsp instant coffee crystals (regular or decaf)
squirt of Hershey's chocolate
2 tbsp sugar or honey
1 tbsp ground flax
handful of fresh spinach (optional) (You really can't taste the spinach)
2 cups ice

Combine all ingredients except ice and mix in blender or VitaMix for 1 minute.
Add ice and blend on high until ice turns to slush.
Makes 2 servings.

OK, so maybe it's not the MOST healthy thing you could drink, but it sure beats soda or iced tea!!

(whipped cream optional)

More recipes available at http://www.veg4health.com.

There were worms on my Baby Bok Choy!

Last night I had my taste buds all prepared for a nice side dish of stir-fried baby bok choy. I could taste the sesame garlic bok choy already as I started to open my bags and clean it. I was quite surprised to find that I had unexpected guests in my baby bok choy who were quite happily indulging themselves in a fine feast. All of the inside leaves were covered with worm droppings and had quite a few holes nicely carved out. What’s a mom to do when faced with worms in her next side dish? Well, I have to admit that I was in too much of a hurry last night to face the daunting task of de-worming my baby bok choy; too concerned that my eight year old would happen into the kitchen and discover that we are not the only creatures of God who devour leafy greens; and too overwhelmed by the sheer number of tiny, happy, munching green worms. So, I tossed the bok choy, opened my freezer, grabbed the nearest green vegetable I could find and went back to finishing my dinner preparations.

What would you do if faced with worms on your fresh produce? Would you toss the produce or use it? Normally I just smile, feel blessed that my produce is not too drenched with pesticides to support life, quickly remove the worms, wash thoroughly and quietly use the vegetable. (I say quietly, because if my darling daughter who has an enormous aversion to worms ever found out that she has eaten a dish of raspberries that had once hosted a large green worm, she would never eat fruits or vegetables again!) Perhaps it seems a little odd to use food that once hosted other life forms, but it’s really quite natural and should be reassuring. Living food which is grown in living soil should not be devoid of insects and we shouldn’t be discouraged from using it. I have seen my share of insects and worms from having handled literally tons of produce every month when we owned a large produce business. What really bothers me is when I examine some really nice produce and find it completely devoid of any evidence of living creatures. Saturating a field with pesticides, fungicides and other chemicals may create a beautiful looking harvest, but is it really healthy? Perhaps a little worm isn’t a bad thing after all!

How to Make your Bread Machine More Useful in Your Kitchen than it is as a Boat Anchor or a Doorstop!

I love my bread machine. I mean it – I really do LOVE it! That may be hard for some of you to believe – but I do. I am amazed at how often I talk to people who have given up on their bread machine and left it our for the garbage men or left it in their garage to collect dust. In our house, there is nothing like a nice warm loaf of fresh bread to fill out our dinner menu or to fill hungry tummies when the main course doesn’t appeal to everyone’s “delicately fine-tuned” taste buds. When I was growing up, there was always a jar of peanut butter and a plate of sliced bread on the table. We always had to try what was prepared, but bread and peanut butter were often what filled our tummies.

I used to make bread by hand – totally by hand. No mixer or food processor or bread machine – simply a big bowl and a large spatula. When we opened our produce store, I knew that homemade, handmade bread was no longer going to be an option. So for Christmas, my wonderful mother-in-law blessed me with a breadmaker. Wow, I thought! No more work, just wonderful bread, made hot and fresh daily! After my first two weeks of trying to produce an edible and attractive loaf of bread, I was ready to toss the breadmaker out with my Salton food dehydrator. (That’s another story for another day!) But, I persevered. I checked out bread books from the library, I visited hundreds of cooking websites, and I started my own science laboratory – all to discover how to have my life made easier with my bread machine. It was not love at first sight. It wasn’t even close. Annulment, divorce or permanent separation was looking like my only option. Thankfully, we made it work.

How? Go to http://www.veg4health.com/Articles/howtomakeyourbreadmachine.html for the rest of the story and my great bread recipe.

The "New" Fat

As Trans-fats are systematically eliminated and outlawed, don’t expect processed foods and take-out to automatically get healthier. There is a new fat on the horizon which is worse than trans-fats. Manufacturers and food outlets love it, but the human body doesn’t. The new fat is call interesterified fat and recent research shows that it lowers insulin levels, raises blood glucose levels and adversely affects HDL levels. The Food and Drug Administration recently ruled that food companies can label products containing these new fats as "high stearate" or "stearic rich" fats, or as "interesterified fats," thus avoiding the politically negative buzz word, "hydrogenated," which is associated with transfats. What’s a person to do? I’m going to continue eating as many fruits and vegetables as I can, as close to how nature made them. I’m also going to continue to be very wary of all processed foods and most anything served at a restaurant which is fried.

Menu Planning 101

Trying to drive to Alaska from Florida without a road map is pretty impossible. Trying to eat healthy without a menu and a plan is pretty impossible also. After a busy day at work or field tripping with my children, I need to be able to come home and prepare dinner without having to think. I need to move quickly and with forethought in order to get a healthy and delicious meal on the table in 30 minutes. If I didn’t take the time earlier in the week to plan our meals, I would be lost and the quality of our food would suffer. Not just the taste, but the healthiness as well. If there was one thing I would strongly recommend it would be to make the time each week to sit down and develop a menu for the week. It doesn’t have to be rigid and inflexible and it doesn’t have to be elaborate. It just needs to take into account your family’s schedule, taste buds and budget.

Healthy eating doesn’t just happen. It does require some planning and forethought, but it doesn’t have to be complicated or boring. Often people ask me, “If you don’t eat eggs, meat or dairy, just what DO you eat?” My response is always the same. “There is not enough days in the year to make all of the delicious foods God’s provided for us.”

Go to http://www.veg4health.com/Articles/menuplanning101.html for 5 easy steps.

I was there when he died

I was there when he died. It was an Easter Sunday, the day for bunny rabbits, Easter eggs and church. The day our Lord and Savior was raised from the dead. It was a day to rejoice, not a day to mourn. We were talking to him, all of his children, gathered around his bed, chatting about the grandchildren and Easter egg hunting. The doctors had just implanted a new pacemaker, and everyone believed he had received a new lease on life. We were smiling and laughing and rejoicing. And then it happened! The alarms went off, his face look startled and his eyes rolled up and back. The nurses came running, and the doctors came too. From every corner of the hospital the alarm was sounded. “Code Blue ICU, Code blue ICU.” Suddenly our joy was replaced with a wild flurry of activity, panic, fear, and anxiety. It had happened once before that week. Nurses and doctors scrambling to save his life; ventilators in place; momentarily stabilized. We could breathe again. But that was earlier. Now, it was happening again. But this time there was no happy ending. No rejoicing at a life momentarily stopped and restarted. No, it was just the end. I was left without a father, my mother without a husband, and the grandchildren without a grandpa. Heart disease had come and stolen my dad. MY DAD; the most precious person in a young girl’s life; the one who should be proud of you no matter how lopsided your kindergarten craft; the one who loves you no matter which boy rejects you and treats you poorly; the one you run to when our young heart is broken; the one who smiles as you run to him at the end of the day; the man with the big blue eyes that sparkle when you walk in; the one whose face, frozen in that moment between life and death, is forever etched in your mind; the one whose smile looks at your kids through the picture on the mantle because he didn’t live long enough to see them any other way. And people wonder why I eat a plant based diet, and why I take exercising so seriously. I remember how it felt to lose my dad and I don’t want my children to have to experience that either. Yes, someday the Lord will call me home, but until He does, I’m fighting. Fighting to have the healthiest life: fighting to be able to race my 6 year old son to the car without getting winded; fighting to see MY grandchildren be born; fighting to live life without hesitation; fighting to be able to serve the Lord with full capacities until the very day He calls me home.

Welcome to the "new" digital age

Welcome to the new digital age! Perhaps that seems a little dated, but for someone who just got their first PDA – it is new news! The PDA happens to be a hand-me-down from my older sister who has been in the digital age for years! But, at least I’ve arrived – it doesn’t really matter how I got here, just that I am here. Now, I just have to invest the time and energy to discover how to wisely use the PDA. I’ve used a paper planner system for over 20 years. Will I now be able to go paperless? Only time, coupled with perseverance and endurance, will tell. All I know is that my eyes have been opened, my horizon broadened, and my depth of befuddlement deepened.

Maybe I’m not too different from you. Have your eyes suddenly been opened to the need to move from the standard American diet and lifestyle to one of healthy eating and daily exercise? Perhaps you’ve been forced there by a confrontation with your current health status or perhaps you’ve seen a glimpse of what your future health, or lack thereof, will be like if you don’t begin to change. It is tough standing on a foreign shore and trying to decide what to do next. The language is different, the people have different customs and nothing feels quite right. All of sudden you are confronted with tofu, target heart rates, leafy greens, BMI, smoothies, biometrics, legumes and a wide variety of fresh fruit and vegetables you’ve never really noticed before. The first thing to do is take stock of the land you’re in and RELAX. Once YOUR sense of befuddlement settles down, you’ll be able to see and act. Take a breath, sit for a spell and listen.

What is the real difference between a paperless world and a non-digital world? The data is the same, it’s just a matter of storage. Kind of like “paper or plastic” when you go to the grocery store. The difference between the standard American lifestyle and a healthy one is just a matter of 2 things, movement and whole foods. Make the decision to embrace the reality and necessity of these two things, and don’t look back.

I didn’t need anyone to convince me that the digital world was better, easier and offered more possibilities than remaining in bondage to paper and pen. I just needed someone to come along beside me and enable me to make the discovery myself. You already know that eating less processed food and getting more exercise is better. You’ve just been searching for someone to come along beside you and enable you to live healthier. So welcome aboard – our journey is just beginning and it’s going to be a fun and tasty ride.

Christmas in Florida

Christmas in Florida is always an interesting experience. Two days before Christmas and it is sunny and warm – a perfect day for pleasant outdoor experiences. Now is the time of year when we all stop hibernating and start doing. Of course, the highways are totally crowded and the stores beyond description. We are going visiting today and taking our bicycles for some extra fun. Our eating – well, we are planning on using up some of our margin. But the extra activity will deposit into our margin account. So, it all balances out. And that is how we manage to have a life and truly enjoy it. We have become doers, not talkers. We don’t search for the illusive magic pill, fairy wand or pixie dust. Being healthy is truly a lifestyle, not something that happens to you when you take a pill, drink a particular juice or hope for health. It is an active, lifelong experience made up of choices that we make everyday and every hour of everyday. There is no fountain of youth which provides rejuvenation with a dip or a drink. And if we spend all of our time searching for it, we will fail to have the life we hope it would provide. And to be honest, we all know that. But moving from talking to doing can seem impossible when our easy chair seems so comfortable and relaxing. What do we do and how do we do it? The first thing we must do is look in the mirror and see who we are. Not who we want to be, not who we hope to be, but who we really are. When nobody is looking who are we? We can’t get anywhere if we don’t start where we are. The best navigational system in the world cannot take you to where you want to go if you don’t know where you are starting from. Next, set a long term goal – a picture of where you want to be. It’s a long term goal, so unlike others, I am prone to say it doesn’t have to be specific. I think a mental picture of the life you want to have is as good as specific biometrics. If need be, find some pictures for the internet or magazines of people who look like they are living the life you want to have. Post them on your fridge, your computer, your Treo or your phone. When tempted to go back to old lifestyle choices, look at the picture and think of what your life will be like.

Now that you know where you are and where you want to go, you need to allot time for the journey. How much time depends on you and the vehicle you are using. Traveling from Florida to Alaska can take anywhere from months to hours, depending on the mode of transportation you are taking. It would be silly to plan on being in Alaska in a day if you are planning on walking and it would be just as silly to think you can compete in your first triathlon next month if you not willing to make a major commitment to training and eating habits. My journey from a couch potato eating the standard American diet to an athlete eating primarily high nutrient-to-calorie ratio foods has taken years. I have greatly enjoyed the journey and am reveling in the beauty of my destination. Notice, it has taken me years to get here, and I still have a ways to go. I keep thinking about scheduling my first triathlon, but I’m not sure I’m willing to make that commitment, yet. It’s all part of realistic goal setting and life choices. But at least I’m making my own choices rather than letting ill health take over and dictate my style.

Another Camping Trip

There’s nothing like sitting around the campfire while capturing your thoughts on your laptop. Camping in the 21st century is quite a bit different than it used to be. Next thing you know, not only will the State Parks provide water and electric at every capsite, they’ll add Wi-Fi as well. Things will never be the same – except that kids will still be kids. Our kids just love camping in the woods. There’s something about the freedom to explore all the God has created without any pressing timetable or agenda. Freedom to run and the freedom to sit and stare at a fire for hours is freedom for our soul.

It’s been a fun weekend. A little warmer than expected, but that’s Florida in December. While most of the country is ending their camping season, we are just starting ours. The migratory birds are taking up residence and the bugs are starting to hibernate. I can’t say we accomplished much this weekend, but that is what camping is about. We sketched the flowers and trees, dipped our fishing poles in the water and got lost in the woods. We headed straight out the back of our campsite, picked up a service road and followed the blazes on the trees for awhile. We saw a group of deers, including several fawns, and even found a baby ring neck snake. We turned around after a while, followed the blazes back to where we turn into our campsite, and it wasn’t there! We tried to find it, followed all the little foot paths, went in every possible direction, and couldn’t find it. What to do now? We hadn’t had breakfast yet, and everyone was beginning to whine, especially the adults who hadn’t had their coffee yet. We finally found another service road, and as my husband said, “If we just stay on this, it will lead us to another road, eventually.” It’s the eventually that always gets me. Eventually – that could mean minutes, or hours, or days. I wasn’t going to last very long without my cup of decaf. Luckily, it only took us a couple of minutes until we picked up the main camping loop road. Thank goodness! Within 30 minutes we back at our campsite, stuffed full of breakfast. Near tragedy was averted – thanks to a level headed husband, who got us lost in the first place, and well placed service roads.

Right now, we’re watching the turkeys come running into our campsite. We’re feeding them the leftover corn from last night’s corn on the cob. I think they rather prefer the junk food most people feed them to the corn we’re feeding them. Just like most of us, their taste buds have grown accustomed to salt, sugar and food additives. Not exactly the way God prepared it, but the way we’ve adulterated it. They’ve left our corn, looking for greener pastures. Just like us, they are ruled by their tastebuds. However, before they die of heart disease or cancer, they’ll probably end up on some hunter’s table.

Ballet-mania

Ballet, ballet, ballet! My life is lately consumed by ballet! My daughter’s ballet, of course. Not mine. Three hour practices twice a week can drive anyone crazy. But she loves it, so we sacrifice. We gladly, on most days, give her our time and energy. Why? We do it so that she can twirl and leap and move about in graceful defiance of gravity and all that holds the rest of us firmly planted on the ground. The smile on her face, the bounce in her step and the joy she exhibits are things we wouldn’t trade for anything, even though it does make our days a little crazy lately. I’m getting a new appreciation for “fast food”. For us, fast food means a full meal of healthy food on the table in about 30 minutes. It means that I make sure we have a well stocked freezer full of veggies and meals I’ve cooked before. It means planning ahead, but being flexible enough to change our plans. It means serving a less traditional meal than most Americans do. Last night we had sweet potatoes, speckled butter beans, swiss chard and fresh whole wheat flax bread. Everyone was delightfully “stuffed” and quickly satisfied. How did we do all this so fast? Well, I have two “secrets” which I love to tell people about.

My first “secret” is always making more than you can possibly eat at one meal. Leftovers are a busy family’s best friend. Frozen, they last for months. Unfrozen, they make a great start for another recipe. Three nights previous, we had regular sweet potatoes baked in the oven. I just cooked twice as many as we would eat. That night, I scooped them out of their skin so that last night, I could use them for sweet potato casserole. We do lots of things that way. Mashed potatoes one night make a great topping for shepherd’s pie another night. Leftover rice becomes fried rice later in the week, or stuffing for a pepper.

My second “secret” is my pressure cooker. Oh, I just couldn’t possibly live without it. Pressure cookers are the fodder of lots old tales about exploding dinners in the kitchen. Created early in the 1900s, pressure cookers simply have locking lids which allow the steam from cooking to buildup pressure, which greatly decreases the amount of time it takes to cook foods. Pressure cookers make short work of all kinds of vegetables, beans and especially soups. Modern pressure cookers, unlike their ancient counterparts, are built with several safety valves and pressure locks which make them safe and easy. The only challenge I have found with using a pressure cooker is that it can cook vegetables so fast that I need to keep a careful eye on the clock. For instance, broccoli cooks within a minute and cauliflower within 2 minutes. So, timing is important, but even if the veggies get a little overcooked they can easily be salvaged by mashing with spices and/or a bit of cheese and bread crumbs. We love having fresh collards, which some people cook for hours with salt pork. We can cook collard greens in less than 5 minutes with a nice vegetable broth and seasoning.

So, ballet is still stressing our schedule, but with a little planning and preparation, we can still find lots of ways to create wonderfully tasty and health meals quickly.

Training Wheels

What a fun time we had this weekend! Our youngest learned how to ride his bicycle without training wheels. Actually, what he really learned was how to stop – without letting go and leaping from the bicycle. Balance was not an issue for him. Knowing when to not let go and jump was his issue. If only that was the issue for all of us. Seldom do we walk through life with balance. And seldom do we let go with as much ease as my youngest son. We hold on to our bad habits, refusing to let go or stop. We continue to ride down life’s road regardless of the destination. Speed seems to be more important than destination or the scenery. We may know and see warning signs that we are headed for disaster, but letting go seems too hard or too scary. We need to slow down, put on the brakes and lean to the side. Then stopping isn’t hard. It’s natural.

Perhaps that’s the way we are with our eating habits. Life is just coming at us too fast it seems, to stop and assess. We begin to feel it’s either full steam ahead or dead stop. But that’s not the way it has to be. Incorporating healthier habits into our lives can be both natural and easy. Start with accepting that small changes tend to stick. Look at each meal and add or change one simple thing to make it more nutritionally sound. Perhaps it’s beginning to add more lettuce and tomatoes to your burgers, or perhaps it’s switching out that all beef patty for one made with vegetables. It might be as simple as just adding another vegetable or fruit side dish to your plate. Maybe removing a few things from your menu would be a good start. Give it time, concerted effort and consistency and you might be surprised at how easy it is. You’ll also likely be pleasantly surprised to see how much better you feel.

Just like riding a bicycle, permanent lifestyle changes take balance, patience, persistence and the ability to know how to stop when you need to. Oh, and my son? The smile on his face as he realized he knew how to ride all along was priceless.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another season come and gone – the beginning of another Christmas season. A time for families to unite and rejoice – yet at our table there are several empty spots. No grandpas and grandmas to tell stories of long ago to the grandchildren. Ones we’ve all heard a million times and wish we didn’t have to endure again. And then suddenly, they are gone. No more family stories or memories, except those that we can remember. Another generation lost to the next. Heart disease, obesity and diabetes are more than silent killers – they are family thieves. They come when we are too busy and too distracted to pay attention to our health, too lazy to get off the sofa and exercise and too stubborn to admit that our lifestyle choices are not healthy. This Thanksgiving, we are celebrating the life we have and the choices we’ve made. We have decided to take charge of our health – preventative health - and enjoy the fruit of our choices. Choices to liberate our taste buds to the wonderful flavor of unadulterated food and engage our minds in expanding activities and move through life with ease and flexibility that regular exercise affords us. In order to do that, we keep Thanksgiving joyful, stress-free, focused on the right things, simple and also delicious. We all snuggled in bed today - laughing and sipping our coffee. My 6 and 7 year old are so excited that they finally figured out how to make coffee for us – just the way we like it. I always dreamed about being served my first cup of coffee in bed and it’s finally come true – certainly in the way I never imagined. It was wonderful having everyone snuggled together on a cold day, laughing and talking and planning our activities for the day. We didn’t have to rush out of bed trying to get all of the preparations done. There is plenty of time for that today – and the memories we made this morning by making the time to relax and bond together as a family are priceless. They are certainly worth our decision to keep Thanksgiving dinner easy and tasty. Not that we don’t love elaborate and creative dishes some days- but it sure is nice having all of the comforts of down home cooking – with a really healthy twist. Like the pumpkin pie I fixed this morning. My 6 year old helped and just loved to lick all of the extra pie filling from the Vita-mix container. Yum, Yum! According to him, it’s the best pumpkin pie he has ever tasted.

Pie Crust:
Ingredients
1 ½ cup + 3 T flour (we use all whole wheat – but you can use whatever you like
1 ½ tspn sugar
¾ tspn salt
½ cup cold-pressed oil
3 T soy milk
Preparation
Mix dry ingredients together in pie plate.
Mix milk and oil together in measuring cup, until fully mixed.
Add oil/milk mixture to dry ingredients, blending with fork until crumbly and thoroughly mixed.
Press pie crust onto bottom and sides of pan.

Pumpkin Pie Filling
Ingredients
1 - 15 ounce can of pumpkin
1 package of extra firm tofu, well drained
½ cup sugar or natural sweetener
1 ½ tspn cinnamon
½ tspn ginger
¼ tspn all spice
¼ tspn nutmeg
1/8 tspn salt
1 T cornstarch
Preparation
Place all ingredients in blender or Vita-mix or food processor, processing until well blended
Pour filling into pie crust and bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes.

I hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving. Take some time for fun and laughs. Elaborate cooking is fun when you want to take the time, but it’s wonderful not to be held in bondage to it. And remember, eating healthy can be fun, fast, easy and most of all tasty.

Another Easy, Healthy Recipe - Portobello Sandwiches

Portobello Sandwiches

Ingredients:
- 1 large Bell Pepper, sliced
- 2 medium fresh Portobello mushrooms (about 4 inches in diameter)
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp dry mustard
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1/8 tsp salt
- whole grain bread or baguettes
- lettuce, sprouts, tomato, etc for serving on sandwiches

Preparation:
1. In a small mixing bowl, combine vinegar, oil, mustard, garlic, and salt.
2. Clean mushrooms; cut off stems even with caps. Discard stems.
3. Pour marinade mixture over mushrooms and pepper and allow to sit in closed
container in refrigerator overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
5. Spoon marinated mushrooms and pepper into a baking dish with sides to catch
the marinade mixture. Bake for 15 minutes.
6. Place baked Portobello and pepper on toasted whole grain bread or baguettes
and add lettuce, tomato and sprouts.
7. ENJOY!

Clogged Arteries Showing Up in Kids

How early do the signs of heart disease begin to show up? Earlier than you may think. Review this article from Healthday News and possibly re-think what you're feeding your children.

SUNDAY, Nov. 12 -- Children with heart disease risk factors -- obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol -- already show indications of fatty build-up in their arteries that could cause heart attacks when they're adults, Canadian researchers report.

"Primary prevention of heart disease must start in childhood. We need to start looking at and treating risk factors for heart disease in children," researcher Dr. Sanaz Piran, an internal medicine resident at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., said in a prepared statement.
Piran and her colleagues reviewed data on 3,630 children, ages 5 to 18, who took part in 26 studies in Australia, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States. Those studies used noninvasive methods to measure arterial blood flow and the thickness of artery walls in children with and without heart disease risk factors.

In many cases, children with heart disease risk factors showed early signs of atherosclerosis.
The review was expected to presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association, in Chicago. The findings highlight the need for parents and doctors to prevent and treat cardiovascular risk factors in children, the authors said.
"Diet and exercise are especially important to curb the escalating problem of childhood obesity," Piran said. "Obesity puts children at risk for high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol levels. Children's diets have changed dramatically, influenced by television commercials and the convenience of fast foods," she said. "Children are eating too much fatty and processed foods. Parents need to involve their kids in regular exercise activities and cut down on fatty meals, emphasizing healthy food such as vegetables."

Parents should not smoke in the presence of children and, if there's a family history of high cholesterol, children need to have their cholesterol levels checked, Piran said.
"The very things we recommend to adults should be recommended to parents for their children. There needs to be a family-oriented approach to cardiovascular prevention and to addressing these risk factors," she said.

Vegetables Are Good for the Brain

A new study shows that eating vegetables protects brain function in aging adults. As part of the Chicago Health and Aging Project (CHAP), researchers at Rush University Medical Center examined the association between rates of cognitive change and dietary consumption of fruits and vegetables among 3,718 participants, aged 65 years and older. Those who consumed greater than 2.8 servings of vegetables per day had significantly slower rates of mental decline than those who ate fewer servings. Green leafy vegetables, in particular, were most strongly associated with a decreased rate of mental decline. Fruit consumption was not associated with cognitive change.

(from Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine)