In my kitchen, lately

Today I joined the frequent buyer club for a children's bookstore.  At age 29...for the purpose of buying books for...myself.  Thankfully I have a husband who loves me because I thought it would be a fun idea to re-read Madeline L'engle's Time Quintet, rather than in spite of it.  I am so damn lucky.

My book nerdiness has nothing to do with the rest of this blog.  I should tell you right up front that this entry is basically a bunch of food porn followed by a picture of my cat.  If you hate food and cats you might want to stop reading now.

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If you're still here it means you probably like food and cats.  Good for you! 

Despite appearances, I have actually been cooking recently.  There was a good period of um, several weeks after we moved where I pretty much subsited on eggs and toast, yogurt, and baked sweet potatoes with hummus.  Really anything you can cook in less than ten minutes was my bread and butter.

Finally last week I said screw that and broke out the Tagine my mother in law gave me for my birthday to make a spicy chicken tagine with apricots, rosemary and ginger.  The sweet potato and egg rut was officially broken.  Here's a little glimpse into what's been going on in my kitchen lately:

Mine did not look this pretty...

Turkish apricots and tomatoes - an unlikely, but tasty, combination

Eating on the porch...with wine ;)

I found these little siggi's bottles at Whole Foods last week - how cute!

The magic that is collard wraps and watermelon on a hot day

Collard wraps courtesy of Vegetarian Times website

 On Monday morning, I got up early and drove over to Minneapolis for a run around Lake Calhoun.  Sometimes I miss being so close to the lake, but it's really just a short drive and it is one of my favorite places to run.

After my run I checked the yoga schedule just to see what was going on, and saw that a class with one of my favorite teachers at the Uptown was starting in 20 minutes!  The fact that I had just run 3.5 miles was not going to stop me from...taking a 60 minute hot yoga class.  It was delightful. 



Chocloate Hazelnut Oat Bar - inhaled on my way home from yoga
Yes, I finally figured out how to use Instagram.  You may now applaud.



Unsurprisingly, the oat bar did not fill the void of hunger left by running + sweaty yoga.  Once I was showered and presentable, Ben and I zoomed over to Target Field for the Twins game, where I promptly inhaled a cuban sandwich and several forkfuls of Ben's buffalo mac and cheese.

Healthy?

Somehow, I even found time to get my bake on, and threw together a strawberry cake adapted from Eat, Live, Run (I basically just halved the recipe and put it in an 8x8 pan, and used coconut milk instead of regular milk for the cake portion because it was what I had on hand).  The original recipe comes from Back in the Day Bakery, one of my favorite places from my trip to Savannah.  Delicious!

...healthy?

And just because we all know who the real star of this blog is...

That's right.

Also, new car decision has been made... tomorrow I'm picking up my brand spaking new Honda Accord!  So excited...and also sad to say goodbye to my little VW :(  More on that later, hope you're all having a lovely week!

Delicious

Well, I hate to speak too soon as it's only 1pm, but today has just been an awesome day.  This is in contrast to yesterday, which found me texting my friend at 5:30pm that I wasn't going to make happy hour because a) I had more work to do and b) "if I don't get some yoga I might die."  No one ever said I lacked a flair for the dramatic. 

12 hour days...they are so fun though.  Anyway, part of my work-related stress (which you've been hearing a lot about lately...sorry...) is related to my ongoing...um, normal job... but a significant chunk was also coming from an additional project I've been working on (still at work just out of the scope of my daily activities), which has been a huge pain in my ass lately.

Essentially, the assignment was: "This product appears to suck.  You are to please figure out why this is and what we should do about it."  There was also a pretty tight deadline and a fair amount of visibility.

I would not say things started out execptionally well.  I spent several weeks digging through reams of reporting, requesting more data, going levels deeper into the data I already had, and finding nothing.  So basically I was sitting on a looming deadline and no answer. 

THEN...about a week and a half ago I got that one, key piece of information that unlocked the whole issue, everything just fell into place and I knew exactly what I needed to do.  Unfortunately, "exactly what I needed to do" was complex and involved a ton of work, and the looming deadline was still just as looming, so it's pretty much been balls to the wall for the past two weeks to get this thing finished and presentation-ready.  Plus, you know, the rest of my job.

Then on Tuesday, my boss mentioned that hey, this is great but it would be really cool if you built a product value model too.  So last night I did not go to happy hour because I instead was busy messing around in excel to finish the aforementioned value model.

Point being, I presented my work today so that beast is FINALLY done with.  Plus, even more to the point, it went really  really well and both my boss and my boss' boss said it was great.  Phew.

Oh, and we also ran out of time and didn't get to the value model during the meeting.  So...there's that.  Vegas Lounge, I passed you up for naught.  Except not actually, because even though I didn't actually present the model I (or someone else) will probably end up using it in the future.

So yes - good day!  And then I ate a delicious salad for lunch - baby spinach, arugala, grilled tempeh and apple, with homemade maple mustard vinegrette.  Normally I like the apple pieces much smaller, but this is what happens when you have to slice an apple with a janky plastic cafeteria knife - ginormous apple chunks.  I also usually put warm roasted butternut squash on this baby, which is pretty much the best part...but sadly I have not had time to roast a squash :(   Poor me, my life, wah, etc etc.

Yum

Anyways it looks like we are FINALLY going to have a nice weekend!  MN has been in an unfortunate pattern of being gorgeous during the week and then raining all weekend, so I'm excited to actually be outside during the day.  Miracle of miracles. 

Tonight Ben and I are attending not one, but two musical events - a performance by a friend of mine from choir (Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire to be exact and anyone who knows what I am talking about will hopefully be as pumped as I am.  This thing never gets performed live!), and then the Mayfly Rooks CD release show at the 331! 

We've also decided that tomorrow we are doing absolutely nothing.  Maybe going to Target and yoga, but other than that we have big plans for the couch, Punch pizza, wine and old movies.  I'm hoping for a marathon of Rear Window, To Catch a Theif and the Apartment, but we shall see.

Happy FRIDAY!!

The dumbest thing I have ever heard

Lately in "things that make me embarrassed on behalf of humanity," a California mom has successfuly sued Ferro over the shocking fact that Nutella is not healthy.  Apparently she was surprised to find that the chocolate-hazelnut spread, which tastes like candy and magic, contains both SUGAR and CALORIES.

So...let's talk about this.  Healthy is trendy right now, and everyone and their mom is trying to 'healthify' what was previously deemed unhealthy.  You have General Mills adding whole grains to their sugar-filled, processed cereals and foods that never contained carbohydrates to begin with now shouting from the rooftops that THEY HAVE NO CARBS!!! Not to mention that Vitamin Water is out there acting all "oh I'm so healthy I have vitamins and shit" even though it's basically colored sugar water.  And don't even get me started on sugar and preservative-filled "healthy" granolas and yogurts.  Bleh.  So basically, Nutella is hardly alone in this effort nor are they the worst offender.

Were the ads implying that Nutella is healthy somewhat misleading?  Meh. Probably.  Know what else is misleading?  This:

(source)

Also this:

(Source)

Should anyone be surprised that Nutella is not sugar-free and low-calorie?  No.  Take some damn responsibility and read the label.  Does Nutella have 200 calories per 2-tablespoon serving?  Yes.  Know what else does?  Peanut butter.  Almond butter.  Any nut butter really.

Also, here is a list of things that Nutella on whole-grain toast is healthier than, which are also things I witnessed parents feeding their children for breakfast when I was working at the YMCA:
- Donuts
- S'mores pop tarts
- Pudding
- Twinkies
...yes Twinkies.  One mother diligently and lovingly packed two packages of Twinkies for her son's breakfast every day.

COME ON PEOPLE.  With all of the crap we eat, and feed our children, a little Nutella is hardly going to hurt anyone.  An entire jar of Nutella? Maybe.  A little Nutella on toast?  Of course not.  Anyways sorry, it just gets me all worked up when people refuse to take responsibility for their own choices and lack of due diligence.  Believing everything you see in ads is just ridiculous, and if you don't do your research it's your own damn fault.  End of story.

Everything Old Becomes New Again

We often make the mistake of thinking that current fads are some brand new phenomenon.  Take our culture's obsession dieting and thin-ness for example.  While it's true that it is relatively recent when you consider the history of...the earth...extreme dieting is not actually as modern as many of us think.

Last week one of my colleagues came across this Wellness Timeline from the Hartman Group, and I couldn't resist sharing a few of the more entertaining nuggets.  Did you know that calorie counting goes back as far as 1917?  And that low-carb diets first appeared in 1825??? 

If you know me, you know I think fad diets are a) dangerous and b) useless and I feel like this pretty much proves my point.  If it didn't work in 1825, or again in 1863, it probably won't work now.  Wait until you see some of the crazy shit people have done in the name of 'dieting'... insanity.

1820 - Vinegar and Water diet made popular by Lord Byron
1825 - Low Carb diets first appear
1850 - Establishment of the Vegetarian Society
1853 - Potato chips are invented
1863- Banting's Low Carb diet
1887 - Ephiram Cutter publishes a book on cancer and the diet
1917 - "Calorie Counting Diet" by Lulu Hunt Peters is published
1925 - The Cigarette Diet (!!!) "Reach for a Lucky Instead!"
           ...because everyone knows that lung cancer is preferable to not losing weight...
1941 - First diet pills are marketed
1954 - The TAPE WORM diet (yes that is exactly what it sounds like)
1955 - The first McDonalds opens its doors
1961 - Weight Watchers holds its first meeting
1982 - Ketchup is declared a vegetable
1984 - 7-11 Introduces the 44-oz Super Big Gulp (ew)
2002 - Dr. Atkins "New Diet Revolution" is published
2005 - Atkins files for bankruptcy

So...that happened...

So, long story short, taking extreme measures to achieve ridiculous standards of beauty is not a new thing.  In China, women used to bind their own feet - literally breaking the bones - in order to have dainty feet.  In many countries in asia, people use creams to lighten their skin...or in more extreme cases, bleaching treatments that can permanently ruin their skin.  

You might copy Shah Rukh's skin, but he will never tell you the secrets of his hair.

I'm not sure I have a larger point here, other than that it makes me sad to realize just how far back our obsession with attaining physical perfection dates.  There's a big difference between wanting to be the best version of yourself, and wanting to be someone else.  So...yeah...really nothing other than that.  

If you remember nothing else from this blog, remember the tapeworm diet.

That is all.

Happy Monday.

Staying Healthy for the Holidays

Disclaimer right up front: I apologize in advance that this post is probably NOT what you thought it was going to be. Most "Healthy for the Holidays" type posts will give you tips on how not to let this season of parties and general merriment derail your diet, add a couple of inches to your waistline or otherwise destroy your life. I'm going to tell you kind of the opposite. I am not a nutritionist, nor do I have any official qualifications aside from working in healthcare...these are just my thoughts.

I am actually pretty irritated by the constant barrage of "Don't let the holidays kill your diet!" articles that flood health magazines and ads around this time of year. I just don't see what is healthy about spending the holiday season worrying about avoiding "bad" foods , planning your life around what to eat at parties, and feeling guilty when you let your diet slip.

In his book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan recalls a word-association survey in which the number one response to "Chocolate Cake" for Americans was "guilt." In contrast, the number one response from the French was "celebration."

Honestly, what is so bad about putting on a couple of extra pounds during the holidays? I think the main reason we are so afraid of gaining weight over the holidays is that the diet and fitness industry keeps telling us it is the worst thing ever...and they probably sell a lot of magazines by doing so.

I'm not saying we shouldn't eat mindfully - I actually think we should eat mindfully all the time. I am not on a diet and will never go on one. "Diet" implies that a temporary state, and I aim to eat healthfully all the time, not out of fear or restriction but because I love my body and want to feed it well. Restriction is not healthy. Anxiety and guilt around food is not healthy. One or two days of stuffing your face with Turkey and pie is not going to kill you. You probably won't gain weight after a few family celebrations - and even if you do, why is that such a big deal?

Thinner does not automatically equal healthier - and don't even get me started on BMI, which is a total crock and was never intended to be used as a tool for assessing individual health. I'm not saying you should give yourself carte blanche to eat everything in sight for two straight months - and I also recognize that there are people for whom these diet tips are probably helpful - but I think for the vast majority the mere mention of "diet" creates more fear than anything else. Being grossly overweight is not healthy - but neither is constantly worrying and beating yourself up about gaining weight. I firmly believe that anxiety and guilt is more unhealthy than adding a couple of (probably temporary) inches to your waistline over the holidays.

On Thanksgiving, I spent exactly zero hours worrying about what I would eat. I had a full plate of food, made sure I got plenty of veggies, and sampled all three butter-filled desserts. And then after dinner, my sister, my aunt-in-law (is that even a thing? ...it is now. I declare "aunt-in-law" a thing) and I giggled together, as we took our forks to the pear-cranberry-crumble and cleaned out the baking dish. We had fun. I did not feel guilty, and I don't think that anyone should. That's what Thanksgiving is about: family, fun and a little too much pie.

Being healthy is a holistic concept. It is about your your inner dialog and your relationship with yourself, just as much as it is about the physical aspect. Don't beat yourself up over a piece of pie - it's just not worth it. Indulging (every once in a while) is not "bad." Gaining a few pounds is not "bad." Enjoy the holidays, be thankful for what you have, and don't let holiday food-guilt derail your health. The end.