Vegetables in Every Pot!

Most Americans are now too young to remember President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous message to Americans weary of a failed economy: “A chicken in every pot!”

It would serve to define a healthy society ~ and a healthy economy.

Now that we’ve experienced the worst of economic times since then, the message is still apt ~ if you modify it to: “Vegetables in every pot!”

While we don’t have the childhood diseases that led to a high mortality rate back then ~ by and large ~ we’re sicker. Ironically, there’s been plenty of food available ~ and that’s a big part of the problem. Too much of what we ingest is junk.

We look to food for diversion ~ for entertainment ~ as much as for nurturing our bodies. Unfortunately, the “nurturing” part has come up short.

There’s a very simple trick to make sure there’s a healthy soup simmering on the stove or in a crock-pot that will energize your body, and save you money, too.

Always keep a fresh supply of chopped carrots, celery and onion in the fridge. (about three carrots, three celery stalks and a medium onion). Also make sure you have some cans of chicken or vegetable broth, and diced tomatoes in the cupboard.

When you know this is a day you won’t have time to plan a decent meal, or the whole family is on the run, toss the veggies into a crock pot with a couple of cans of broth, a cup or two of water, some diced tomatoes, and maybe a dab or two of tomato paste, a tablespoon of cider vinegar, and some salt and pepper for taste.

That’s a base to get you started ~ to that you can add some shredded cabbage, a diced potato, a sliced zucchini, a can of corn kernels ~ whatever else you like!

Any left over soup can be heated up the next day for lunch.

Figure how much you would have spent picking up carry- out or going to a restaurant and put that into your savings account!

More Thoughts on Eating Simply

We waste a lot of food.

I read recently that Americans toss 27 percent of all they food they buy from super markets and restaurants, and that just five percent of that wasted food could feed four million people a day.

Do we need four boxes of cereal? How about just one box and a box of oatmeal?

Does everyone need to have their own individual order when they’re eating out? Does everyone NEED a soda pop?

I don’t think there are many people who haven’t felt that depressing, emotional emptiness after you’ve filled your stomach and emptied your wallet eating dinner out. You secretly wonder: “Where’s the purpose?”

Are we mindlessly buying, micro waving, and eating in an endless cycle that does nothing to truly nurture us. Are we wasting our energy, as well as our food ~ and our money?

But if we feed our bodies well, we nurture our spirit. Either you do, or you don’t ~ and on a very basic level, you know the difference on a very basic level.

So there is an immediate recognition of energy coming back to you when you begin to reign in meaningless routines by being mindful.

If you plan to eat only what you need to be healthy, you’ll find preparing buying and preparing food to be incredibly simple, quite inexpensive, and wonderfully rewarding!

Eat Simply ~ Eat Well!

Sometimes it’s just a matter of eating less!

I get stuck sometimes gazing into the refrigerator for the makings of something “creative” ~ and it doesn’t always come together.

But the other day, for example, I found that even that half cup of leftover linguini I was tempted to toss down the garbage disposal ~ but didn’t ~ and that skim of marinara sauce in the jar, was just enough to save me from buying lunch somewhere.

I mixed it together with a few black olives, sprinkled some parmesan cheese and a little pepper, and it was perfect. I also grabbed a few raw baby carrots and some almonds before I headed out the door, and I was on my way.

There were once days when I’d scrape more than that off our plates after dinner, and often felt pangs of guilt left over from the years of listening to the nuns preach to us about the starving people in India.The sobering reality is that now there are starving people in this country ~ and but for the grace of God ~ any of us could be in a food line somewhere sixty days from now.

So returning to my “mindful eating” mantra ~ the key is to plan ahead. As opposed to making big hauls from Sam’s Club or Wal Mart that fill your cupboards and refrigerators, plan a menu ~ mindful of what you NEED to eat. Turns out, it's not really that much!

It will save you time, energy and money (not to mention calories!) ~ while you invest in your most important asset ~ your health!

(I’ll be presenting on this topic this Sunday, December 13th, from 11:30 – 12:30 at the Academy of Yoga. Would love to see you there!)

Empower Yourself by Eating Well!

I’m not a vegetarian but I’m seriously considering it.

The scope of our individual influence on the state of the world is limited, but that influence expands significantly the closer to home we get.

So I ask myself ~ how can I have the greatest impact for good at the tender age of 63?

As Alicia Silverstone so cleverly states in her new cookbook ~ "The Kind Diet" ~ we are all activists when it comes to our food choices.

And why is that?

Unlike the political process that excludes those who choose not to participate, we ALL eat, and we vote every time we push a grocery cart up to the check out stand with the products we purchase. The same happens when we buy locally from a farmer's market.

The food industry is HUGE, and the choices we make not only directly affect our pocket books, it sends a message to produce more of what we're buying.

The closer to home it’s produced or grown, the more natural it is, the better it is for you. Basically, vegetables and fruits have the nutrients that most efficiently fuel our bodies and boost our immunity to illness.

I find it interesting that with the current conundrum surrounding health care reform, there’s a general lack of awareness of the level of control we can exercise in our own kitchens.

“Let food be your medicine and let medicine be your food," was the advice of Hippocrates centuries ago.

Simple advice for the prevention-minded.

Difficult? It can be.

But simple? Absolutely.

The pay-offs are quick and obvious. You’ll spend less money and you’ll feel better. There’ll be more energy available to you physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

You can then see yourself differently ~ as a contributor to the planet rather than just a consumer of its resources ~ with a wealth of options!

Mindful Eating Isn't Thinking

You know, mindful eating isn’t thinking about eating. Generally, if you’re thinking about eating, your going to want to eat ~ whether you need to or not.

Being mindful is totally different because what comes into play is beyond cerebral activity.

It reflects an awareness of your feelings and emotions, essential guideposts in forming behavior patterns that work in your best interests.

Not so with thinking.

Thinking often just ensures that you’ll always do what you always did, so you’ll always get what you always got.

That’s why exercise needs to be a part of this conversation, because putting your muscles to work is what helps bridle the activity of what’s affectionately referred to as “the monkey mind.”

Without exercise ~ just thinking ~ our minds are engaged like a revved up car engine with the emergency brake on.

But thinking makes us who we are ~ we would reason. To not think would cut off the ego’s essential source of validation. Which, of course, is precisely why you shouldn’t think.

You more or less get out of the way of your higher self ~ that intuitive voice ~ your “true North” that knows exactly what you really need.

If you can’t envision what activity you’d engage in, then just start walking. Briskly. Step out there after dinner when it’s dark and cold ~ or better yet, before dinner right after you get home from work.

Then check yourself out. Just that departure from the “same ol’, same ol’” will have recalibrated your system enough to cause you to pause before you make the same old food choices. That’s all it will take, because for a time, however brief, you’ll consider making a better choice.

If it works that way once, it can work that way again.

Nourishing the Body Isn't Rocket Science

What a brilliant statement recently by Sam Kass, assistant head chef at the White House:

“Cooking for people’s pleasure is obviously a nice thing to do, but the No. 1 reason we eat is to nourish ourselves and take care of ourselves.”

Kass couldn’t have framed it better. That’s why we cook and why we eat ~ a refreshing shift from the palate to the rest of the body.

I read his interview in the NY Times recently. It turns out he’s quite the activist. He and Michelle Obama are focusing on the increasing problem of childhood obesity, and Kass plays an important role in her healthy living agenda.

His main job, though, is cooking for the Obama family. The head chef attends to the formal banquets.

As Kass put it, “You look around our country and you see that we have a lot of major challenges, the origin of which is food.”

However, a former White House chef offered this criticism: “Let’s remember: the guy’s a cook. There are people who are much more qualified to talk about nutrition than cooks.”

I disagree totally.

Eating well is far simpler and easier than most people think. Just like that problem of not seeing the forest for the trees, often people can’t see good nutrition for all the boxes, bags and jars of stuff that’s not good, crowding their refrigerators, cupboards and counter tops.

A start would be to do a purge of all the white or processed foods. It’s amazing how that alone clears the playing field of what you have to work with.

You can build better choices from there!

Fight Flu With Food!

Have you gotten your H1N1 flu shot yet?

It’s big news in the media, and long lines form wherever there’s the possibility of getting vaccinated. People are worried, and if they’re not, the nightly news says they should be. So then, of course, they are.

Hospitals are full, and it’s predicted that as much as 40 percent of the population may get it before it’s all said and done.

So what can you do?

That should be your question no matter what your illness. Aside from one of the best defenses ~ washing your hands and keeping them away from your face ~ put your focus on food and water, and hold your stress level at a minimum.

Just the process of preparing food can do that, mainly because it’s tangible ~ and it doesn’t require remembering a password!

Yesterday I made a minestrone soup in the middle of a list of other things I knew I should be doing. I dropped the “should”, because that word alone can send your head in a whole bunch of unproductive ~ dare I say “toxic” ~ directions.

So standing on my unmopped kitchen floor, with sunlight streaming through my still uncleaned windows, I sliced carrots, celery, zucchini, cabbage and potatoes, and chopped onions and minced garlic.

As my yoga instructor would say during those very long poses: “There is nothing else to do, and nowhere to go ~ right now.”

Key is not thinking about the next thing to do, because the next moment doesn’t matter as much as the present one. (I finally find, later rather than sooner, that that axiom applies to everything.)

Besides, I was on a mission to shore up my defenses against the flu. And I fully believe good nutrition can do that.

If I’m geared up too much emotionally, I pour myself a drink ~ of water. I do that frequently. It reinforces my main goal of being mindful of what I’m doing. It’s like a reminder. And water truly is the elixir of life!

I gather all the vegetables and sauté them for about 10 minutes in a pot with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. I can either finish it as a stove top process or just put it all in a crock pot, adding a can of beans, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of chicken broth, a cup of water and a little salt.

If you want meat flavoring, you can cut up a strips of bacon and add it to the sauté process. If you like it spicier you can always add some Tabasco sauce or salsa to your bowl.

That’s it.

There are few things that make you feel more intact that knowing there’s a warm pot of soup to fuel your body and boost your immune system.

I’ve said it before. Good health care really is affordable, especially if it starts in your own kitchen.