Summer time salad

When I was growing up summer meant a lot of things.... iced sun tea, grilled foods and lemon and oil salad. I made this salad just the other day with some garden lettuce. It is way simple and a beautiful memory for me. I know, "lemon and oil? Salad? Seriously?"

Yeah, I'm serious. Here is how it goes:

You need:
The amount of everything depends on the size of the salad
Lettuce of choice (the crisper, the better), chopped
Onions, thinly sliced
Tomato, thinly sliced
Optional ingredients: cucumbers, grated carrot, radish, whatever
Juice of 1 lemon (or more for a bigger salad)
Olive oil (or other oil of choice)
SALT (very key!)

How to:
Place all ingredients except lemon, oil and salt in a bowl. Mix. Squeeze juice from lemon into the salad being careful to catch any seeds. Add what seems to be an equal amount of oil. Toss to cover. Now add the salt to taste, a little at a time. Let sit, covered, in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Toss before serving.

The salt is key. You don't want anyone having a heart attack over the sodium content but you do want enough salt for it to enhance the flavor of the lemon and oil as the dressing for this simple salad. If you taste it and think "yuck," you just need to add more salt.

Growing up, my mom always added a whole pack of chopped, dirt-cheap lunch meat. It was a summer meal for us. I always appreciated it and never realized it for what it really was- my mom just trying to provide for us. I am so happy that once I had the ignorance of a child!

Enjoy! Happy summer!

Sprouting seeds

I am involved in a holistic living group here in town. At our last meeting a lovely woman talked to us about sprouting seeds- who knew? I was very intrigued by this and have finally got on the train to sprout my own.

I am sure you have heard of sprouts- the most "famous" being alfalfa sprouts. If you have never eaten sprouts, now may be a good time to enter them into your diet. Here is why:

• They are an amazing source of nutrients given that they contain everything needed to sustain life
• They have an alkalising effect on the body, working against free radicals (cancer causing agents)
• Aid in controlling hot flashes, PMS, menopause and fibrocystic breast tumors
• Contains highly active antioxidants
• Prevent DNA destruction
• Protects from the effects of aging
• Prevents bone breakdown and osteoporosis
• Contains oxygen for healthy cell life
• Provide living enzymes
• Good source of essential fatty acids
• Being a chlorophyll-rich food they act as a blood cleanser

It's not all about alfalfa sprouts. Other common sprouts are broccoli, radish, various bean sprouts, clover and more. For more information about the different types of sprouts and their benefits, see the following websites:

http://www.herbsarespecial.com.au/free-sprout-information/so-good-sprouts.html
http://www.living-foods.com/articles/sproutbenefits.html
http://www.isga-sprouts.org/

Growing your own sprouts!

Growing your own sprouts is super easy! You don't need anything special- just a jar, a breathable cloth, seeds and water. Here is how you do it:

1. Put 2-3 tablespoons of your favorite sprouting mix/seeds in a jar and cover with cheesecloth or other breathable fabric.

2. Rinse with water and drain. Then fill jar up with water a little above the seeds and soak over night. Dry seeds are dormant. By soaking the seeds, you wake them up.

3. Drain and prop at an angle so leftover water can drain throughout the day.

Prop at an angle to drain

4. Continue to rinse seeds twice/day by swirling seeds with a little filtered water and draining and propping up.

5. Sprout for 4-6 days or until the root is 1-2 inches tall.

6. Rinse and place in fridge to be eaten. Consume within a couple days. Yum!

I grew something- yay sprouts!



You can also purchase a sprouter which helps if this is something you plan to have going all the time. Please check out the website http://sproutpeople.org/ for more information.

Here is to better health!

Food diary of the scared to die

I gotta tell you, that title took me a while....

Me, my sister Lisa and niece Whitley

In my last post I mentioned how my sister Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer last week. This came as a shock given the fact that I'm not done grieving my mom's death, and neither are my sisters. Through my mom's experience my sister has done a lot of research about cancer, treatment methods conventional and non-conventional, etc. She has made the decision to not take any conventional action right now, not surgery, not radiation, not chemotherapy. She is on a super-duper cancer fighting vegan diet with other supplements in hopes that it will create an environment where cancer cannot survive or prosper. This might sound like a death sentence to people who have only known conventional treatment or know little about cancer. It is not. If you stop and think and drown out the noise of the conventional medical system (where profit plays a role), it makes all the sense in the world to put only good stuff in your body to fight cancer. It is a risk but people who do conventional treatment die everyday. My mom was an example.
With that being said, I have decided to make some drastic changes to my diet as well, to come along side my sister. Here are some things I am doing or eating now:

• Drinking water and 100% fruit and veggie juices, no pop
• As much organic raw veggies and fruits as possible, or frozen but not canned (I have read that most cans are lined with a BPA plastic which can get into the food)
• Organic brown rice, not white rice
• Whole grain pastas
• Almond butter instead of peanut butter
• Continuing with organic milk (looking into raw milk)
• Making my own soups and sauces
• Staying away from high fructose corn syrup, aspartame and MSG
• Doing my best to stay away from anything in the processed food aisles between the dairy and the produce
• Very limited sugar intake
• Looking into getting grass-fed meats
• No processed meats

Another thing I did was get rid of anything that I didn't want to snack on. It usually happens around 2 or 3pm and 10:30pm when I get the "snackies." I reach for something easy which is usually junk. It only leaves me feeling like I want more. And because I am an emotional eater anyway, this really was not good. So I threw those things out.

Another challenge has been having stuff that my kids will eat but not have junk around. I realized that my kids have the habits they do because they have watched me eat in front of them for their whole lives. When I am eating a piece of chocolate and Sofia looks at me, squints her eyes and says, "please can I have some chocolate, mommy?" what am I to do? If I don't have junk in my house I won't be lying when I tell my kids I don't have any treats but they can have a piece of fruit. I can do it! So can you!

So, this is day three and I feel good. Here is what I have eaten for the last three days:

Day 1: Breakfast: blueberry bagel with almond butter and milled flax seed with a tiny bit of apricot preserves, a banana and some watermelon. Lunch: Chicken salad with low mayo and steamed veggies mix. Dinner: Turkey burgers on whole wheat buns, veggie salad and baked sweet potato fries.

Day 2: Breakfast: Oatmeal and fruit. Lunch: Rosemary chicken salad on wheat, orange pepper slices and watermelon, sun chips. Dinner: Caesar salad and bread (catered meal I helped serve at church, not the best pick) and apple juice.

Day 3: Breakfast: Egg white bagel sandwich and orange juice. Lunch: Tuna salad on whole wheat, sugar snap peas and strawberry/blueberry mix.

This might not seem very drastic but just the amount of stuff I am not snacking on during the day is serious and to my benefit.

I am trying not to get crazy or stress out about it. I understand that a lot of stuff in my life is totally out of my control. I understand I am not my mother or my sister. I also understand, though, that if I can make some positive changes in my life with something that is in my control, I should do it. There is no time to waste! I guess you could say I am scared to death to continue eating like crap. If you eat like crap, you should be too.

Today, take a look at your life to see where you can make some positive changes and go for it. This is it, you have one life.

TGIM: Thank God It's March!

Yay! Welcome to March! I woke up today at the crack of 7am and the sun was already trying to shine. I love sun- everything is better when the sun is shining. I had an open day today so I... went to the hospital to eat? Yes. My mom used to work at a local hospital in the nutritional services area. Before my mom went into home hospice care last fall, she had about a month stay at this hospital which meant me and my sisters spent a lot of time there. The cafe staff was more than hospitable and always took great care of us. After mom passed they put up a very special memorial in the hospital chapel in her honor. My heart aches right now recounting it. It was beautiful and so special. Every now and then I take the girls to have lunch at the cafe and they still take great care of us. It is a way, I guess, for them to honor a woman they worked with and cared for, by caring for her family in the wake of her passing. They also have GREAT food. Today I had a turkey sandwich on a pretzel bun with jalapeno red pepper mayo and veggies. Sofia had "Dino nuggets" and orange slices and Leila ate an orange slice (surprisingly well) and some homemade apple carrot oatmeal. It was busy but good and I felt close to mom by being there.

After the hospital I went to the grocery. Not something that is a good idea to do with two small children (which is something I never think about until I am super frazzled) but I worked it. I can't tell if more people give me to "poor woman" look or the "stupid woman" look but either way, I am too busy tending to the kids and trying not to forget something that I don't even notice half the time. Today a woman told me that seeing my beautiful children made her day. I thought that was cool and her comment counteracted my frazzle meter which was trying to sky-rocket. In the end I made it to my car in one piece... or three pieces, however you want to look at it.

Tonight: continue a fight against the illness running rampant through my family, fix and eat dinner, grab a watch battery so I can finally know what day it is and cuddle with my honey. Oh, and ignore about a hundred and fifty things that need to be done around the house. Yea, that sounds about right.