Hospitality

Here's a great link that includes 10 tips for bringing the gift of hospitality back into vogue. Maybe a great resource for those who have small groups or Sunday School classes that you could share this with/discuss.

Men And Women at Blockbuster

I took a usual stroll "down the wall" of new releases at Blockbuster the other night. Behind me in the procession was a young couple in their 30's. At one point the woman pointed to a video she had apparently been telling her man about, suggesting he consider it. He simply stated outloud - "It's a foreign film. Does that mean I have to read it?" At this his woman walked away, and he and I laughed out loud. He looked at me for support, saying "Did I just state the obvious? Isn't that what you would think?" I agreed and he went to find his woman to smooth things over, I would assume.

Well they came back my way as I had moved further down the wall and this time he pointed to a movie, explaining, "It's sort of a documentary." I didn't hear any response from her, but again she looked at the movie cover and walked away. Hearing the word "documentary", I interjected, "So does that mean the soundtrack sucks?" At this the man and I laughed out loud again.

Well, I made my way to the check out and happened to be right behind the couple. I didn't say anything but observed under the man's arm they had come to agree on the movie "What Happens in Vegas"! For those not familiar with this romantic comedy, it's basically about a couple who gets married in Vegas one night, but instead of allowing them to get divorced when they sober up and realize what they did, the judge forces them to stay married for 6 months first.

So much for cultural or educational viewing. But they tried. And I got a kick out of watching it.

another pesto recipe

I have discovered this summer that you really don't have to follow recipes very closely, unless you are baking, which is why I'm a lousy baker.  So today I experimented with pesto and made a good one.  It's a variation on my old recipe which is a variation on a cookbook recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups packed basil

little less than 1/2 cup walnuts

2 Tbsp sunflower seeds.    The seeds and walnuts totals 1/2 cup.  oh, I should have tried the pumpkin seeds in my freezer---next time

2 Tbsp lemon juice (fresh squeezed)

a few mushroooms, say 1/4 cup?  I would have done more but didn't have that much

3 cloves garlic

1 Tbsp water

1/8 cup chives, something like that (optional)

Blend everything but the basil and water in a food processor.  not to a paste, just so it's all small pieces.  Add some of the basil and water, blend, add some more, blend etc until all the basil is mixed in.    Now everything in this recipe is optional except the basil and some nuts and lemon and garlic.   I liked the mushrooms though.  I think it could have used just a bit of sweetener.  maybe a date?  I'll try that next time.   Each batch I split into four small plastic containers.  so that would be only 1/4 date per container so I don't think it would be overpowering.  or maybe just a touch of maple syrup, 1 tsp?

food aug 30

breakfast:  smoothie

snack:  1/4  musk melon.  sadly, it wasn't very good so I probably only ate half of it.  juicy Colorado peach.

Late lunch:  corn on the cob and avocado spread, cabbage salad.

snack:  juicy Colorado peach

dinner:  zucchini and pesto and tomato

dessert:  orange

I made 3 batches of pesto and snacked a lot on the ingredients while making it.  So I ate quite a lot today.  But that's okay,  I don't want to get too skinny.  It took two hours to make the pesto.  But I was listening to Prairie Home Companion and I made 12 containers, so that's 12 easy meals, so a worthwhile investment of my time.

exercise:  jog 3 miles.  I tried out my heart monitor and this time it worked.  First I checked my resting pulse while sitting on the couch:  46!   It still astounds me because before I went vegan it was 70.  Then when I jogged, it got up to 152 after about 5 minutes and didn't vary much around that, even going up the hill at the end.  I think I must just vary my speed to get a comfortable breathing rate.   According to this website, my target heart rate should be between 120 and 155 if I'm in really good shape and doing vigorous exercise.  I wouldn't say that was vigorous.  I think my heart just beats fast when I exercise.  I have a heart murmur (mitral valve prolapse) so maybe my blood flow is not as efficient.  But then you'd think my resting rate would be faster too.  I wonder why the target heart rate goes down as you age.

greens and tomatoes and onions and garlic

Ingredients:

greens, say, collard greens and kale, what I had today from the garden

can of tomatoes, if you are lucky, canned from your garden

1 onion

1-2 cloves garlic, or more, depending on your preferences

herbs, I used my usual, chives and basil from the garden

wash the greens, chop everything up, cook for 10-30 minutes.  spinach only needs about 5 minutes but the onions and garlic will need more.  swiss chard 10 minutes.  kale 15, collard greens 30.   those are just rough numbers.  

food aug 29

breakfast:  smoothie

lunch:  corn on the cob with avocado butter, collard greens, kale and tomatoes and onion and garlic cooked up, very good.  dessert:  colorado peach, very juicy.

dinner:  half a small yellow watermelon, handful of brazil nuts.   these locally grown yellow watermelons are the best I've ever had.  And I don't know how long the season will last.  Corn season is almost over!  dessert (ha, like watermelon wasn't enough):  orange

exercise:  1.5 hour yoga class.  

PALIN!

I could not be more thrilled! What took 18 million Democrats to merely crack the ceiling only took one Republican gentleman to open the door! Way to go John McCain! I love this woman. She is REAL! My tongue is tripping over my teeth to keep up with my brain on this one. WOW! The clip below is just one taste of this dynamic, articulate, intelligent, attractive, CONSERVATIVE, woman. What more could a guy ask for? Someone find out if she has a younger sister.

food aug 28

breakfast:  smoothie

snack:  decaff cafe americano (a shot of expresso and water), and soy milk.  

lunch:  corn on the cob with avocado spread, boiled potatoes and sweet peas with chives and basil (boiled in a small amount of water so nothing was left and hopefully vitamins remained with the veggies), fruit salad consisting of banana, strawberries, and fresh cut pineapple.  yummy

dinner:  leftover black bean salad, watermelon (yum!), and pluot, and an orange.  I was in the mood for fruit after realizing yesterday that the summer fruit and vegetables are going to be gone soon!

I worked with a colleague at a coffee shop this morning and started off with an herbal tea, and then couldn't resist the coffee.  It was very good, but I felt the caffeine even though it was decaff.  I prefer how I feel without it.  Geez, I am so boring now, not liking caffeine and alcohol.  I'm worried about my upcoming trip to Heidelberg where I will be hanging out with friends who have enjoyed drinking beer with me for many years.  I will probably drink and then I will feel yucky in the morning.  What should I do?  

An interesting thing happened with my eating habits.  I changed my schedule around because I have so much work to do and I'm more productive in the morning.  So I moved my exercise routine to the afternoon.  That seems to regulate my eating very well.  I'm not snacking.  I can't eat too much at lunch because I don't want to be full while exercising.  I hope I keep it up.  However, I might lose too much weight without the snacking.  If that happens, I'll figure out something.  I certainly won't mind eating more!  I'll just have to figure out when.

Conflict of Interest

The U.S. National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) is a government organization that educates physicians and the general public about the "dangers" of elevated cholesterol. They have a panel that creates official guidelines for the reduction of cardiovascular disease risk. They contain target cholesterol levels, and the usual recommendations to eat less saturated fat and cholesterol, and lose weight.

They recommend keeping LDL below 100 mg/dL, which would place tens of millions of Americans on statins.

I was reading Dr. John Briffa's blog today and he linked to a government web page disclosing NCEP panel members' conflicts of interest. It's fairly common in academic circles to require conflict of interest statements, so a skeptical audience can decide whether or not they think someone is biased. The 9-member NECP panel was happy to indulge us:

Dr. Grundy has received honoraria from Merck, Pfizer, Sankyo, Bayer, Merck/Schering-Plough, Kos, Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and AstraZeneca; he has received research grants from Merck, Abbott, and Glaxo Smith Kline.

Dr. Cleeman has no financial relationships to disclose.

Dr. Bairey Merz has received lecture honoraria from Pfizer, Merck, and Kos; she has served as a consultant for Pfizer, Bayer, and EHC (Merck); she has received unrestricted institutional grants for Continuing Medical Education from Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Novartis, Wyeth, AstraZeneca, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging; she has received a research grant from Merck; she has stock in Boston Scientific, IVAX, Eli Lilly, Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson, SCIPIE Insurance, ATS Medical, and Biosite.

Dr. Brewer has received honoraria from AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Lipid Sciences, Merck, Merck/Schering-Plough, Fournier, Tularik, Esperion, and Novartis; he has served as a consultant for AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Lipid Sciences, Merck, Merck/Schering-Plough, Fournier, Tularik, Sankyo, and Novartis.

Dr. Clark has received honoraria for educational presentations from Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, and Pfizer; he has received grant/research support from Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, and Pfizer.

Dr. Hunninghake has received honoraria for consulting and speakers bureau from AstraZeneca, Merck, Merck/Schering-Plough, and Pfizer, and for consulting from Kos; he has received research grants from AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Kos, Merck, Merck/Schering-Plough, Novartis, and Pfizer.

Dr. Pasternak has served as a speaker for Pfizer, Merck, Merck/Schering-Plough, Takeda, Kos, BMS-Sanofi, and Novartis; he has served as a consultant for Merck, Merck/Schering-Plough, Sanofi, Pfizer Health Solutions, Johnson & Johnson-Merck, and AstraZeneca.

Dr. Smith has received institutional research support from Merck; he has stock in Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson.

Dr. Stone has received honoraria for educational lectures from Abbott, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Kos, Merck, Merck/Schering-Plough, Novartis, Pfizer, Reliant, and Sankyo; he has served as a consultant for Abbott, Merck, Merck/Schering-Plough, Pfizer, and Reliant.

Every company in bold is a statin manufacturer. This is outrageous! These are the people setting official government blood cholesterol target values for the entire country! Eight out of nine of them should be dismissed immediately, and replaced by people who can do a better job of pretending to be impartial!

black bean and corn salad

I kind of stole this recipe from Jennifer Raymond's "Fat Free and Easy" book, but I didn't follow it that closely so I'm hoping that means I'm not violating copyright laws by publishing it here.   and I used less beans and less onion and less spices and more corn because I don't like eating too many beans.

Ingredients:

1 cup dry black beans, soaked overnight, then cooked for 1-2 hours or one 15-oz can

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

4-5 fresh corn ears, slice off the corn with a knife.  or a bag of frozen corn.

2-3 tomatoes, from the garden if you are lucky, diced

herb of your choice, for example, cilantro.  I used my favorite right now because it grows so well in the garden:  chives and basil.  I probably put in 1/4 cup chopped.  you don't need any at all if you don't want.

1 Tbsp seasoned rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar or whatever vinegar you have or none at all

1/2 lemon juiced.  

her recipe also called for ground cumin and coriander and more vinegar and lemon and red pepper.

but the veggies were so good and fresh, I just wanted to taste them and not the spices so much.

mix it all together.   yum.

aug 27 food

breakfast:  smoothie

lunch:  corn on the cob with avocado butter, broccoli and carrots

dinner:  black bean & corn salad, nectarine, a few mushrooms, strawberries and pineapple pieces.  snack:  orange.  I was making OJ for housemate UR and it looked so good I ate an orange.  I should eat more oranges.  the organic valencia oranges are great.

I started realizing Fall is coming so I'd better enjoy the fresh fruit while it's there, so I bought some at the store and will eat it the next few days.  We probably only have about 1-2 weeks left of the corn.   The black bean salad was really good because of the fresh sweet corn!  yummy.  man, the produce has been so good this summer.  we are so rich to have all this food delivered to our grocery stores.

exercise:   body power class and yoga at MBG

A World in Heat!

No, I'm not referring to global warming. I have been thinking a lot about this poem in light of Russia's recent actions in Georgia. This poem is found in the epilogue of the German Bertold Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Translated by George Tabori [Arturo Ui is a fictitious representation of Adolf Hitler as a mafia gangster in the United States]. This prophetic (and poetic) warning is very relevant to our day and age, and may always be.

If we could learn to look instead of gawking,
We’d see the horror in the heart of farce,
If only we could act instead of talking,
We wouldn’t always end up on our arse.
This was the thing that nearly had us mastered;
Don’t yet rejoice in his defeat, you men!
Although the world stood up and stopped the bastard,
The bitch that bore him is in heat again.

Robinson and Long.com

Here is a website that Hugh Hewitt has been referencing as a great "all-in-one" site for conservative thinkers. After only glancing at it, it seems a little too condensed and concentrated for my brain to scan and latch on to something, but maybe it will grow on me. Let me know what you think.

food aug 24-26

time flies.  what did I eat on Sunday?  oh yeah.  smoothie for breakfast.  corn on the cob with avocado butter, and salad for lunch.  salad was lettuce, tomato from garden and mushrooms, with orange-cashew dressing (leftover from last week, still good).    In mid-afternoon, housemate UR wanted to snack on crackers so I baked some sprouted corn tortillas with pesto on them, cut into bite size pieces.  This was yummy.  Then we wanted more, but we were out of tortillas but had one more frozen baguette from my neighbor so I toasted slices of that with pesto on them for UR, and I had boiled edamame with pesto.  I should have stopped there but I thought I should eat more so I wouldn't get hungry later (dumb), so I decided to have some kohlrabi and carrots.  That made my stomach too full and bloated.  so I need to pay more attention to how I feel than to schedules.

On Monday, Aug. 25, I was gone most of the day so had half of a muskmelon for breakfast, berry smoothie for late breakfast, green smoothie for late lunch, and leftover salad and dressing for dinner.

Tuesday I had berry smoothie for breakfast.  Lunch was corn on the cob with avocado butter, and a mixture of everything left over in the fridge before grocery shopping.  so that was beets, remainders of a kohlrabi, half a sweet potato, half a small cabbage, a tomato from the garden (needed to eat it since it was leftover from canning and had no skin), garlic, boiled in a small amount of water, and I added in chives and basil at the end (since they are my most popular and healthy garden herbs).   Now the tomato did not really fit in with this.  probably not the garlic either.  I think cabbage, tomato and garlic would have been good.; or beets, kohlrabi, sweet potato and cabbage would have been good. but all together it was kind of weird.   the herbs would have been good either way.   Dinner was half a watermelon at the co-op followed by leftover cabbage mixture at home.  The watermelon was the best I've ever tasted.  It was fantastic.  It was a yellow melon, not technically a watermelon, I forget what it was called, was locally grown.  The cabbage mixture tasted better at dinner.  Then the tomatoes seemed good.  Dessert was a pluot (plum-apricot hybrid).  

I had fun at the gym today.  We had to run up and down stairs for 25 minutes and I kept up with one of the jocks.  I wonder if she was irritated by it because I'm such a weakling.  But I have clean arteries so can run up stairs I guess!   It was a really hard workout though and now I have a bit of a headache.  Oh, and then afterwards, the chin up bar was calling me and I did a full chin up, my first one since I was a kid!  wow.  so maybe I'm not such a weakling anymore.  well, now I'm only the second or third weakest one in the class, except for the chin up which I can do because I weigh less than average.  I can still barely do one full pushup.  But I can do 60 knee pushups.  Some day, I'll do the full pushups and chinups.  I never thought this would be possible but now I do think it's possible.  That's not from diet but from the classes at the gym that push me way more than I ever would on my own.

Democrats, Abortion, and Journalism

How is it possible to describe the event both ways? Either way, I am thrilled to hear that the Christian community of the Democrat party is standing up against this evil, especially now that the word "rare" was removed from the party platform this year, referring to abortions. From a "Quote of the Day" post at Hot Air:

“‘Surely we cannot be pleased with … millions of terminated pregnancies,’ Blake said to applause from the nearly full Wells Fargo Theater.”

“Schenck said the hall, filled with several thousand Democratic activists, fell uneasily silent as Blake spoke against abortion.”

Maybe the media really does have a bias? Not really sure. So what actually happened: applause or silence?

Cult Leaders and Christian Pastors

John 3:6 states that "flesh gives birth to flesh, but spirit gives birth to spirit." In its context, this is directly talking about physical birth versus spiritual birth to explain that our spiritual life cannot come by means of physical effort. The truth of this biblical principle is valid in many arenas, and maybe none as poignant as the area of preaching.

Whenever someone approaches the Bible to "pull out" some practical application or insight, there is a very real danger that the flesh, as opposed to the spirit, is relied upon to communicate. It may be a good-intentioned pastor or a malicious, deceptive cult leader, but the end result is still the same: declaring that the Bible says something it really doesn't.

When a pastor does not take the time to study, to perform due diligence on a text, but rather finds a unique comment, verse, or phrase in Scripture and expounds on it as if it is a spiritual insight or biblical truth, he is no different than a cult leader who intentionally manipulates a text to accomplish his own purposes.

There is an additional component that must be addressed, however. The response of the people may be as equally enthusiastic or sincere in both cases because people simply are that way. Jesus described us as sheep (even sheep without a shepherd). Sheep rely on a shepherd, whether true or false, to lead them to provision and offer protection. There is an implicit trust in a leader.

But even more than this is a general desire of the people to hear from God. If a spiritual leader stands up to declare some insight or truth with articulate persuasion, the initial response of hunger to receive what God has for them, combined with a trust in the leader, provides a huge platform for the flesh to display itself. Again, this dynamic is the present both when a Christian pastor or a cult leader speaks.

So how does a Christian pastor guard against being merely a benevolent cult leader? By saying only what the Bible says. By refusing to rely on his flesh, and by giving the only spiritual words that s/he has to offer: an accurate, clear, explanation of God's spoken Word. Anything more, or less, than this is simply using the Word for his own purposes. And regardless if those purposes are well-intentioned, they are still HIS purposes and not God's.

As a preacher, offering our hearers what comes out of our flesh may move THEIR flesh (whether intellectual stimulation, emotional response, or physical applause), but it cannot move their spirit. To move the people's spirit, to effect their spiritual life, requires a work of the spirit.

Day in Napa Valley

Living so close to Napa it was about time I actually took a trip over to see what all the fuss is about. Well, from my one day excursion Napa Valley lives up to its reputation. Here is a brief pictorial-journal of my day.

We started the day at the North end of the valley, visiting Sterling, which I highly recommend. They have a tram that takes you up to their winery at the top of the foothills, and provides an incredible view!













They also have a video presentation at various locations throughout the self-guided tour that gives a lot of information about wine-making in general. This tour was my favorite, and at $15 for 5 tastings, it really is the best bang for your buck, with the view as a great bonus!

We then drove 5 minutes over to the recently-opened, 100,000 square-foot, $37 million "Castle". This winery was built to add the Tuscany feel to Napa, which I think it does quite successfully.





























At this point we definitely needed some food so we stopped by a great restaurant that had a "Barbecue Today" sign out front.

















We then drove down to Robert Mondavi Wineries, the namesake of the "father and founder of the American Fine Wine Industry." Compared to the others, this was predominantly a vineyard, consisting of over 500 acres. Yes, there was the tasting, but the vineyards were the main attraction.













We rounded out the day with a stop at Domaine Chandon, a champagne vineyard. We got there with only about 45 minutes before they closed to host a wedding, so sorry for no pictures. However, this was more of a chic club/salon environment and the ambiance was more appealing than the view, for the most part.

A few take-aways from my day:

• Napa is a wonderful place, well-worth a visit.
• There are so many vineyards and tours to be done that there is no way to see it all. It has to be done over a week-long vacation or several day trips, for those of us who live close enough.
• The North end of the valley is much more quaint and picturesque than the Southern end, which seems to be more flat and "business"-faced.
• I'm not a fan of red wine (which gets its color from the skin that is left in the barrel, as opposed to the white, which gets it simply from the juice of the grape). I most enjoyed the sweet, dessert wines (which get their sweetness, in part, by leaving the grapes on the vine longer).
• Bring some crackers, chips, or something to snack on in the car between tours (especially if you only sample the wine without cheese or appetizers - the cheap way). This will help you keep your wits about you and help you finish the day strong!
  
• I now have a greater understanding of the grapes, the process, and all the variables that add to the process of making a great wine. It was a very enjoyable, educational, and aesthetic experience. Two thumbs up!

why am I doing this?

I'd like to point out my motivation for all of this. It was all an accident. I accidentally got healthy and then the new energy made me motivated to get more healthy so I started working out and got stronger and got more balanced and started looking great and it was just a reinforcing pattern.

So how did this happen? I explained some of this in my first post but I rambled a bit. of course, I'm going to ramble here too. I'm 48 years old now and this started when I was 44. That winter I started getting lower back aches. I swam at the gym but that didn't help. One of my friends told me she really enjoyed yoga. I didn't know anything about it but my back was hurting so I looked it up on the web and found a nearby studio and it said newcomers welcome so I showed up at class one day and it turns out I stumbled on the perfect teacher for me. It was really hard at first and my goal was just to make it through the class. I don't know if that started changing my mentality or not. It rested my mind and I think that had an effect.

About 5 months later I decided to become a vegetarian, sort of from a random conversation with a vegan. Oh, a year or two before that I had read "Fast food nation" and was grossed out by our meat production system and was buying organic meat. and I had read a book about environmentally friendly consumer choices you can make and I learned that not eating meat has the biggest effect. So I was sort of heading this way and then took the plunge when another friend did too. I enjoyed it immediately. I just enjoyed not eating meat.

I also accidentally didn't drink milk for 2 weeks while traveling in Mexico and Sicily and discovered that my daily indigestion went away! That clued me in that I might be lactose intolerant so I experimented with ingesting dairy, and discovered that I was. Well, that made it easy to go vegan a few months later.

Then I started losing weight and had more energy and it was really a surprise for me! I started researching veganism more and realized that it's healthy for you! And I also learned more about the horrors of animal exploitation and food production and that sealed my decision to remain vegan. I lost 30 lbs and not only felt great but looked great. Wow. what a surprise for someone my age. I've always been dorky looking and now I'm less dorky looking than ever before.

I had a set-back when I broke my kneecap in 2006, but yoga really helped me get back my strength and mobility. I joined the Monkey Bar Gym to help me get stronger in my leg, and discovered that it helped me get stronger everywhere. It was really hard at first. I could only go one day a week because I would get sore for the next 5 days. But eventually I started getting stronger and feeling stronger and looking stronger and it was so much fun, it just motivated me further.

So I'm just tickled that at the age of 48, I'm feeling and looking good. I never ever expected that treat. According to Dr. Fuhrman, this should be perfectly normal for everyone, but the Standard American Diet has ruined everyone's health.

The thing that surprises me the most is my heart. I have a murmur and I used to get skipped beats all the time and had a fast resting pulse rate. Now my resting pulse rate is 45! I just bought a heart monitor because I'm curious to see how good my heart is now! I don't get out of breath like everyone else. Note, this is mainly from my eating habits and also going to an exercise or yoga class 5 days a week, running 1 day, and taking 1 day off. so it's not like I'm exercising 3 hours a day. I ride my bike everywhere but I ride slow and enjoy the view, I hardly think it's a work out.

I'm just surprised by the whole thing and that's why I'm writing this post. I wish everyone could experience this.

aug. 23 food

Breakfast, what else:  smoothie

Snack:  delicious ripe peach!   they've been hit or miss lately (sometimes mealy), but this was a hit.

Lunch:  what else:  corn on the cob (only a few more weeks of corn season!) with avocado spread, and cabbage salad.

Snack:  delicious ripe peach.  all gone now, sadly

Dinner:  watermelon & cabbage salad.  the watermelon was not very good.  first bad one.  it was seedless and had too much white stuff in it, not sure what that is.

Exercise:  jog 3 miles.  I tried out my new heart monitor.  it didn't work due to operator error.  I'll get it to work next time.  I think this will be fun because my heart is so much healthier than it used to be.

aug 19-23 food

I guess I haven't blogged in 5 days?  I have to remember what I ate.  I have had a steady stream of guests for the last 4 weeks.  Given that, I did pretty well.  not so well yesterday though...

Okay on Tuesday I had to go to campus all day again so had a fruit smoothie for breakfast and a green smoothie for lunch.  I think I had cabbage salad as a snack.  Tuesday night I was busy too and I decided I was due for a splurge so I ate from the willy street co-op deli.  I didn't have a big meal but it wasn't particularly healthy---small portions of: mac n "cheese", lasagna, gumbo, and a mexican pie (beans and polenta) (all of it vegan, you can always assume that).  I finished it off with a cowgirl cookie (healthier version of the vegan chocolate chip cookie).   so that was my splurge.  it didn't make me feel like I was missing much.  oh, you might ask, why was this not healthy?  well, mainly that it didn't have a high nutrition to calorie ratio and too much oil and salt probably.  not many vegetables or fruit or greens to it.

On Wednesday, let's see another long day on campus, and the usual fruit smoothie for breakfast, corn on the cob and avocado spread for lunch, huge bowl of collard greens for dinner.   watermelon at lunch and dinner.   snacked on mushrooms and cherries.

Thursday, fruit smoothie for breakfast.    Lunch #1:  peeled squash with pesto sauce and chopped fresh tomato from garden.  Visitors arrived for a late lunch of corn on the cob with avocado spread, salad (lettuce, fresh garden tomato, mushrooms, orange cashew dressing), steamed potatoes and beets seasoned with chives, basil, lemon juice and maple syrup (just a touch).  Dinner snack was a green smoothie while visitors had appetizers and dessert at an Italian restaurant (nothing vegan there!  so the green smoothie is a great thing to have on hand).  Came home and drank 2 glasses of wine with visitors.   and this gave me a little hangover!   

Friday I was tired from lack of sleep and wine and I just decided to splurge again so I had a fruit smoothie for breakfast and then half a bean burrito from chipotle's for lunch, nothing muffin and 2 cowgirl cookies for dinner.  the muffin and cookies gave me a bit of a tummy ache.   I kind of did this because I want to try going without grains and do more raw eating and I thought of that as a last supper kind of thing.  I just want to try it for a few weeks before I head off to a business trip.  I'm going to meet a healthy raw eater on Monday and get some tips from him.  I do think I feel better when I don't eat grains.  and this time of year it is soooo easy because there are sooo many good vegetables and fruit to fill yourself up on.   

As usual, the breakfast smoothies were a big hit with the visitors, as were the avocado spread and the corn on the cob.

Should I add my exercise log to this?  I guess so if this point is to show how to do this.  So I went to the monkey bar gym for exercise class on Mon-Thurs., and went to yoga class on Friday. 

Don't Waste Your Humor

I haven't listened to this yet, but had a friend recommend it and am intrigued enough to post it here for your reference and my future ease to find and listen to. Humor is a wonderful gift of God and I enjoy laughing a lot. I am looking forward to hearing what C J Mahaney has to say in "Don't Waste Your Humor".

Good Sportsmanship

As I have been watching the Olympics the last couple weeks I have been amazed and impressed with the quality of not only the articulate ability of all of the athletes that are interviewed, but even more so, the attitude and the sportsmanship of those that lose or are eliminated. WOW! These athletes lose with grace and character. It makes me respect them, especially given the opportunity they have: competition on the world stage/arena that comes only every 4 years. You can't console yourself with "We'll get it next game", or even "Next year we'll come back and beat 'em", or anything close to this. It is truly unlike any other athletic event, yet the composure and assessment of what happened when they fell short is truly admirable. Thank you for representing the Olympic spirit well and the US even better.

God Heard His Prayer

I came across Hebrews 5:7,8 tonight as I was looking for another verse in the Bible.

"During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered..."

The amazing thing is that Jesus "learned obedience." He wasn't disobedient, but, as John Piper explains, he learned "a greater yieldedness to God" through what he suffered. But the phrase that jumped out at me was "and he was heard...." He prayed to be saved from death, and he was heard?!? So God heard his prayer, but answered "No". That's the easy answer to explain this. But beyond that, the fact that it says God heard his prayer is just a sobering statement in the midst of the suffering. God heard him. God was there to say, "I hear you."

Generally, when the Bible records that a particular prayer was heard, it implies that the answer, the thing requested/prayed for, was granted. Maybe that should cause us to reconsider what Jesus' prayer was. It may not be that he was praying to be spared the experience of death, but rather that his death would not be the end of the story; that he would be saved out of it.

This would be a very insightful understanding of the event, especially if we hold that "and his prayer was heard" means what it has meant in other places. The insight would be regarding what Jesus prayed and not how we might pray if we are in the same situation. Food for thought as we consider how to pray and how our Lord prayed.

If There Is No God - Dennis Prager

This is an amazing articulation of the argument for the detrimental effects for not believing in God, in contrast to the popular ideas that religion has caused a lot of evil in our world. It's also a great example of the clarity that I appreciate in Dennis Prager.

Answers to Evil and Suffering

Here is a great post on Evil and Suffering that addresses the logical, emotional, and biblical perspective of the issue. There is a handout from the church where this was presented which might be helpful for others who wish to address this topic where they live. Great resource and obviously well-researched, well-thought out -- well done!

I'm Yours - Jason Mraz

Here's another music video of a song that I find catchy. I like it. Just a fun, sunny, lazy day kind of song. Enjoy.

Hymns

I love hymns and came across this blog post that suggests current versions of hymns, along with the itunes link, for you to check out. Great post and great selection.

Life Begins at Conception According to the Experts

From First Things:

Dr. Hymie Gordon (Mayo Clinic): “By all criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception.”

Dr. Micheline Matthews-Roth (Harvard University Medical School): “It is scientifically correct to say that an individual human life begins at conception.”

Dr. Alfred Bongioanni (University of Pennsylvania): “I have learned from my earliest medical education that human life begins at the time of conception.”

Dr. Jerome LeJeune, “the Father of Modern Genetics” (University of Descartes, Paris): “To accept the fact that after fertilization has taken place a new human has come into being is no longer a matter of taste or opinion . . . it is plain experimental evidence.”

Rick Warren: At what point does a baby get human rights in your view?
Sen. Barack Obama: Well, I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.

aug 18 food

Breakfast:  smoothie

Lunch:  2 nectarines, mushrooms, cherries.  I dipped my mushroms in my neighbor's salsa.  It was good.  This seems an odd lunch, just something I threw together in my lunchbox.  and I wasn't that hungry because my breakfast was late.

Early Dinner:  green smoothie

Snack:  mushrooms, cherries, many sips of tomorrow's smoothies, many spoonfuls of tomorrow's cabbage salad.

Interesting, an all-raw day.  it's easier to eat raw when you are in a hurry which I am for a few more days.

avocado butter

Ingredients:

1/2-1 avocado, peeled and pitted

some chopped chives or basil or cilantro or other favorite herb (optional)

lemon or lime juice (optional)

peel the avocado and smash it in a bowl. Add any optional ingredients or none at all! Truly, I recommend nothing but the avocado because I eat this on corn on the cob. It is best to just have the avocado and corn flavor and nothing else. It is great on corn on the cob! My house guest loves this way better than butter.

food aug 17

Breakfast:  half a musk melon, handful of walnuts

Snack:  nectarine, cherries, mushrooms, some lettuce.  Guests had smoothies and bagels.  They like the smoothies!

Late Lunch:  3 corn on the cob with avocado butter (this was soooo goood, like butter only better, and guess how you make it:  smash 1/2 avocado--that's it!), watermelon.  Guests had hotdogs and bratwurst and corn on the cob with lots of butter and salt, and Italian potato salad.

Late snack:  carrots and kohlrabi sticks, and large slushy water-juice thing (I half froze a water bottle filled with ice cubes and juice--some berry juice that housemate UR buys).  We were at the terrace and the guests had popcorn and beer.  I didn't want beer because I have three very long days of work ahead of me.

Dinner:   green smoothie.  Guests had fried cheese curds and large turtle sundaes.   I'm sure by now they think I am so far out and weird that they would never for a moment every consider trying to eat healthy because I am too extreme and it looks appalling to them.  They also think I'm weird for exercising a lot.  I'm anything but a role model to these dear friends because they think I'm a whacko extremist.  However, I think their eating habits are as whacko as they think mine are, and their health is poor and they are overweight, so they aren't swaying me anymore than I'm swaying them.  In fact, I haven't had any desire to splurge during their visit--I figure I'm due for a "nothing" muffin (my current favorite splurge) but I don't need it yet.  It's actually interesting psychologically how sometimes with friends and visitors you are influenced by them to go one way and other times to go in the opposite way.  

The Story

I've been hearing this song on GM commercials during the Olympics and found it on youtube. Brandi Carlile has a haunting voice. Enjoy.

Solzhenitsyn

Here is a great post by Dinesh D'Souza regarding the "prophet" and social commentator, Russian Alexander Solzhenitsyn. (Excerpts:)

Today it is impossible to deny that Solzhenitsyn was correct about the “evil empire,” and his role in exposing it and bringing it down. But there is another side to Solzhenitsyn that has been largely ignored, and this is his critique of certain trends in Western civilization. Solzhenitsyn raised this subject, no less controversial and for us closer to home, in his famous 1978 Harvard address.

Even though he was second to none in his denunciation of totalitarian socialism, Solzhenitsyn said, "Should someone ask me whether I would indicate the West such as it is today as a model to my country, frankly I would have to answer negatively." The whole address is worth reading, but here are some highlights.

On what has happened to the rule of law: "People in the West has acquired considerable skill in using, interpreting and manipulating law....If one is right from a legal point of view, nothing more is required, nobody might mention that one could still not be entirely right and urge a willingness to show restraint or sacrifice. Everybody operates at the extreme limits of those legal frames....A society without any objective legal scale is a terrible one indeed, but a society with no other scale but the legal one is not quite worthy of man either."

We don't have to agree with Solzhenitsyn on everything to say that, far from being a reactionary, here was a man who was ahead of his time in diagnosing some of the serious ailments of the modern era. Not only was he right about the Gulag; in many respects this forlorn Russian hermit was also right about us.

Here is the whole speech as well as a commentary by Chuck Colson with links to other articles.
Here is also a recent post from my friend Jeremy with two extended quotes from Solzhenitsyn regarding war. Well worth reading!

Side Benefits of Eating Healthy

1.  Clean up of dishes is easy when you don't cook with animal products or oil.   Doesn't even require soap.   This makes camping trips much easier.

2.  Without animal products, the kitchen and refrigerator are now cleaner than your toilet!  (meat and dairy and eggs are the biggest source of bacteria and viruses in your house by far).

3.  On a similar note, so you leave out your leftovers for a few hours, no big deal when it's all plant food, which makes it easier to travel with too.

4.  If you are feeling lazy, don't even bother to cook your vegetables, just call it a salad and congratulate yourself on your healthy raw meal.

5.  My arms look good in a tank top.   It's kind of fun for a 48 year old.

Well, so far this is kind of boring.  Hopefully I'll think of something else to add.

aug 16 food

We have guests this weekend and they eat so differently from me it's actually easy because I just eat what I want and they eat what they want.

Breakfast:  smoothie

The guests also had a bagle and butter and cream cheese

Lunch:  3 pieces of corn on the cob (the third was too much), finished the tofu jambalaya (too much), piece of watermelon.  some cherries.  some mushrooms and bites of my dinner salad while preparing food.   I overate!

The guests had brats (bratwursts) on buns and Italian potato salad (same as regular but has pesto instead of eggs, so both mayonnaise and oil) and corn on the cob with butter and salt.

Dinner:  1 beer, cabbage salad

The guests had fried cheese curds and large turtle sundaes at the custard shop.  I took my salad to the custard shop. 

cabbage salad

Ingredients:

1/2 medium cabbage

2 carrots

1 green apple

1 orange, peeled, remove seeds if they have them

1/2 cup boiled peanuts or raw chopped walnuts (boiled peanuts are yummy!)

1/2 cup raisins

2 Tbsp Dr. Fuhrman's blood orange vinegar

optional:

fresh beets, sweet potato, fennel, kohlrabi

half an avocado, smashed (substitute for nuts)

fresh herbs (chives, basil, parsley, dill, whatever you have and like)

You can make this pretty fast if you have a food processor, using the grater blade to shred the veggies, and the S-blade for the orange. I peel the apples and carrrots before shredding. Combine everything in a large bowl.

Aug 14-15 food

two days worth of food that were similar so I'll combine them into one.  

breakfast was the usual smoothie.

On thursday I made tofu jambalaya, from Susan Voison's blog, but I changed several of the ingredients because I didn't feel like going grocery shopping for just a few things.  I didn't have celery and my green peppers were small, but I did have kohlrabi and there was a can of water chestnuts in the cupboard (my only can, besides a leftover can of beans from a trip!).  so I threw those in to replace the celery and supplement the small green pepper from the garden.   I also used herbs from the garden, oregano, thyme, basil, instead of the recommended spices because how can you pass up on fresh herbs?   It's hard to ruin jambalaya and this was no exception, tasted great.  I also don't bother with tomato sauce.  I had two canned tomatoes (the last from last years garden!)  and I added a few more tomatoes from the garden.  Otherwise I pretty much followed Susan's recipe.  Oh wait, I also used a wild/brown rice combo instead of white, and I didn't bother to fry anything up, just threw stuff in the pot as I chopped it, starting with the rice since that takes longest to cook.  I let it cook for at least an hour to make sure the rice cooked, adding water as needed.  So I didn't follow the recipe much at all, but it was great anyway, and easy.    So I had that for lunch the last two days and it should last through today too.

Dinner on Thursday was a green smoothie and nectarine and pluot (cross of plum and apricot).  and I snacked a bit more on some cherries and jambalaya, and maybe some kohlrabi, I forget.  I probably overate, what's new.

Dinner on Friday was a quick salad made from lettuce and salad mix, kohlrabi, beet, part of sweet potato, carrot, and half an avocado.   It was enjoyable.  It must have been inspired by talking to my raw vegan friend the day before.     I actually didn't overeat on Friday.  That is a first.  I ate that salad while we were at a frozen custard shop with our weekend guests.   They had large turtle sundaes (vanila custard, like soft ice cream, pecans, caramel and hot fudge topping).  Most people would think that is weird,  but I was in the mood for the salad.  Dairy products don't interest me anymore so I don't feel deprived about not getting frozen custard.  I have my own splurges I can do anytime if I want to.   Like "nothing" muffins and vegan chocolate chip cookies from my co-op grocery store.  But I'm not in the mood for those right now either.  But that will change, ha.

Aug 15 rambling

I was a model healthy vegan the last two days.  I wonder how that happened.   There might be something to my switching my schedule around a bit.  Work is really going to be busy for me for the next few months and, well, my productivity of late would not cut it, so I decided to switch my schedule around and put work first, a philosophy I normally would object to.  So I've been starting work the moment I get up, and then exercising in the afternoon.  And I got a lot of work done, so it worked.  In the past I didn't do this because I wasn't disciplined enough to stop work and go to the gym.  But maybe now I'm so hooked on the gym I can do it.  It wasn't just discipline, it was not having the guts to tell people (usually students) I don't have anymore time for them because it's time to go to they gym.  Another strange thing that happened with this schedule is I stopped snacking.   I'm not as hungry in the morning and then after lunch I don't want to eat because I'll be working out in a few hours.  So I go 6-7 hours between lunch and dinner and don't feel hungry (according to Dr. Fuhrman, when you eat a healthy diet and you don't have all these toxins in your body, you don't detox in between meals and you can go a long time without eating--I never was sure I believed this but I am starting to--I no longer get the headachy tiredness in between meals).  So for the last two days I was actually hungry at dinner.  I feel a little hungry at 4 pm but I think that's just my stomach emptying out a bit and at 5-6 pm I'm still not hungry.    Who knows how long this will last but it worked for two days, ha.   

Here's another story.  At the co-op the other day I ran into a guy who is more extreme than me!  He's a healthy raw vegan.   Note all three words together.  Most raw vegans eat a bunch of olive oil, which is not healthy.  We ended up  chatting for about an hour.  I'd like to chat with him some more.  It's nice to feel a little camaraderie.  And I think he's right for the most part.  I think raw eating is easier in many ways and maybe more healthy.   But I haven't yet read a raw book that is scientifically sound.  But I think their instincts might be right--they are in tune with their bodies unlike medical researchers, and just know that they feel better eating this way.  I think I feel better when I eat raw.  Then the only problem is they make up silly pseudo science to back up their claims and they sound stupid.  I'm not sure there's anything to all that enzyme stuff they talk about.  At least that's what Dr. Fuhrman says.  But Fuhrman recommends beans every day and I am feeling that this doesn't work for me very well.  I think those raw people might be on to something.  Some day maybe real science will back them up.  So I might try doing more raw stuff.  When I was at the golf tournament and ate raw for 5 days, I felt fantastic.  And I can still follow Fuhrman's advice eating raw, just not include the beans.  Maybe I'll ask him about it.   Well, this was going to be a food log post, but instead I've rambled, so I'll stop the post here and make another one.

chive spread for corn on the cob

My visitor Gail and I came up with this

Ingredients:

1/8-1/4 cup chopped chives

few leaves basil (optional)

1 tsp ground flaxseed

1 tsp maple syrup

1 tsp lemon or lime juice

I'll update the measurements more as I experiment with this.

blend the chives and basil and ground flaxseed in a coffee grinder or food processor.  put in a bowl and add the other ingredients.  Vary to taste (e.g., maybe you want 1 Tbsp of the syrup and lemon instead of 1 tsp).   You can also just do this with chives and nothing else---just blend them in the coffee grinder.  They get slimy enough to work as a spread on their own.  

This spread also works for other vegetables like potatoes. 

Note:  this was okay but later on I discovered avocado spread and it was way better.

Aug. 7-13 food

Well, I can't recount everything I ate for the last 6 days.  I had an out-of-town guest for several days and we visited some friends for a couple of days.   We ate well most of the time.  We splurged on soy lattes (decaff for me) and Nothing Muffins from the co-op.  And too much beer.  It took me a couple of days to recover from both the alcohol and caffeine (large decaff lattes have enough caffeine to affect me).  We went out to restaurants twice.  At one restaurant, we got a vegetarian burrito which was filled with a lot of good vegetables--reasonably healthy, though we also ate tortilla chips.  At the other restaurant, we had scrambled tofu and American fries and blueberry pie!  So a fair amount of oil and salt there.   But I enjoyed it and can't say I regret it.  The only thing I didn't enjoy was how I felt the next morning after drinking.  I am fine after one drink, okay after 2, and noticeably tired after 3.  I just can't handle alcohol very well anymore, maybe due to my age or the lack of caffeine to counter the alcohol.  Other than the splurges, we had the usual stuff, fresh sweet corn and veggies and fruit for the big meal of the day, salads with berries and fruit while staying with our friends (who weren't warned I was a vegan so it was easier for everyone that I brought food---no one was offended as far as I could tell).

I'm back to my usual summer routine which right now is smoothie for breakfast, corn and veggies for lunch, melons and fruits and salads or green smoothies for snacks and dinner, and a few oz of walnuts/seeds per day (mostly in smoothies or salad dressings).   For example, today I had steamed beets, sweet potato and kale with the corn.  The veggies were seasoned with rosemary, parsley and chives from the garden.   The salads and greens and mushrooms have more protein per calorie than fruit so I'm trying to change the ratios a bit, since I'm working out a lot.    I'm also cutting back a little on the quantities since I have been eating well past fullness which isn't healthy.   That's partly because I buy too much fruit at the store and feel that I need to eat it before it goes bad, so I just need to buy a little less.  

I'm pretty busy with work so probably can't blog every day anymore.  I'm going to have several more guests in the next few weeks.  I probably should log that a bit because that's the hardest thing for people to deal with.  I'm actually kind of tired of splurging so don't really feel like it right now, in part because it pushes out the healthy stuff and I'm having fun with my fitness routines.  But we'll see how I do with all the visitors.   

What a Preacher Sees

Here is a fascinating post where Joshua Harris is going to post the actual manuscripts/notes that several popular preachers take into the pulpit with them. Having just preached the last two weeks, it will be very interesting to see the comparison.

oatmeal

Ingredients for 1 serving (increase as needed for more):

1/2 cup oats

water (usually about twice as much as the oats).

chopped walnuts  (say, 1-2 Tbsp per serving)

chopped apple or pear if you have one (optional)

raisins or chopped figs for sweetening

soy milk or other non-dairy milk (optional)

berries (optional)

chopped spinach (optional--yes, it is good!)

Cook the oatmeal until it tastes how you like it.  I like it well-cooked so I often go 30 minutes for the steel cut oats.  Or better than that, if you have time, let it get hot or boil, then soak for 20-whatever minutes, and then it will cook quicker and taste better.   Add more water or soy milk as it gets too thick.  Stir a lot at the beginning to prevent clumping.   About half-way through you can add the fruit and nuts and raisins and soy milk and spinach.  When the oatmeal is done, add the berries---if frozen, add them earlier.  

Aug. 6 food

Breakfast:  smoothie, oatmeal+fruit (peaches and nectarines and leftover fruit salad from yesterday.  I made the oatmeal for the guests but it was a treat for me too!

Lunch:  Leftovers from yesterday:  potato salad, fruit salad, salad, boiled sweet corn

snack:  nectarine, carrot, raw kohlrabi

Dinner:  zucchini "pasta" & pesto.   I used a fresh tomato from the garden.  yum.

dessert:  cherries and grapes

fruit salad

Ingredients:

A good base is

1 large carton of strawberries

1-2 carton of blueberries

1-2 ripe banana

other great things to add when in season are:

pineapple

peach

nectarine

raspberries

mango

figs

Cut everything up and mix it in a bowl. Try to mix enough sweet fruit such as figs and bananas so you don't need other sweetener.

Steamed potatoes

This was super easy and good

Ingredients:

a few potatoes

1 sweet potato

chives and basil from the garden.  and/or dill and/or cilantro (this time of year, chives and basil).

1 Tbsp lemon juice (fresh squeezed) (optional)

2 Tbsp maple syrup (optional)

If the potatoes are new and the skin looks tender enough, don't bother to peel them.  otherwise peel and cut into bite-sized pieces.  same with sweet potato.  Steam the potatoes for 5 minutes.  add in the sweet potatoes for another 10 minutes.    chop the herb, mix with the lemon juice and maple syrup.  Add to potatoes when finished.   if you are watching the sweets, just use 1 Tbsp of maple syrup, or none at all.  This is great cold as leftovers---then you call it potato salad!

Aug 5 food

had visitors today but since I'm the cook I'm in control.

Breakfast:  smoothie, snacked on fruit while fixing lunch, oops.  cherries, grapes, etc.

Lunch:  boiled sweet corn, steamed potatoes, salad (lettuce, ripe garden tomatoes, mushrooms, red pepper, avocado) with cashew orange dressing, fruit salad, pinto beans.

Dinner:  Leftovers from lunch + watermelon

The beans made me bloated and gassy.  So forget the beans for a while. The guests also had meatloaf, milk, frozen custard and special K bars.

cashew-orange dressing

Ingredients:

1/3 cup cashews or some cashew butter (or walnuts or hemp seeds)

2 medium oranges: peel, cut into quarters and de-seed

1 Tbsp Dr. Fuhrman's blood orange vinegar

some grapes or pineapple or figs if you have them (optional) (figs are best!)

Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth. I've modified this recipe several times and it evolved into something that was different from the original recipe from the Fuhrman site, and now it's evolved back into the Fuhrman recipe, so I probably shouldn't post it here. But that is my excuse for why it's here, because at one time it was different. Note: you can substitute for the orange or part of them a variety of things like grapes, pineapple, mango, and/or figs. This keeps for a few days in the fridge or you can freeze smaller portions of it.

boiled sweet corn

Just in case you don't know how to do this...

Ingredients:

large pot of water

sweet corn

Boil the water while shucking the corn (removing the outer layers). Add the corn cobs--I prefer to only do 3-4 at a time but if you have a crowd of people, add as many as you can. once the water starts boiling, set the timer for 5-6 minutes. after it's done put them on a plate and serve. They are delicious as is, with nothing on them. lately I've been adding chives to them because I am really into chives this sumer. or you can add a no-salt seasoning but I think they taste better without. I know, you've always put on butter and salt. But just try it a few times without. If it's really fresh sweet corn, it tastes great all by itself!

Aug 4 food

Today I seemed to return to normal.  The produce in the Co-op looked so good that I didn't want anything else.  I was thinking that even though I have had to admit my failings to be perfectly healthy on this blog, I am really fortunate to be in the situation I'm in.  In fact, I can't believe my good fortune.  I am lucky to have discovered how to be healthy, and it was an accident of becoming vegetarian for environmental reasons (and buried deep down, liking the idea of not killing animals).  Like everyone else, I didn't think what you ate mattered for your health.  But after becoming vegetarian and then vegan and then learning more about it, I discovered the health benefits.   I also finally had the nerve to try out yoga and the Monkey Bar Gym.  That has made me stronger and more fit than I was since I was 20.  And I'm 48 years old!  Now compared to other reasonably active people, I'm average strength, but compared to how I was 3 years ago, I'm noticeably stronger and I'm likin' it.   Then there is my fun job, and I love the place I live in.  I love how the weather changes so much in the summer.  We get the beautiful dry days, but it's nice to get the occasional hot and humid day too, and the thunderstorms.  So no complaints here.  But this is a food blog, so here is what I ate today.

Well, breakfast wasn't until 11:30 am and I got up at 6:30 am, so there was a plum after my exercise class, and a nectarine after yoga, both perfectly ripe and delicious.  Then the breakfast smoothie.   Lately I've been putting in 2 Tbsp of raw sunflower seeds instead of soy milk or other nuts (that's 1 Tbsp per serving).  I figure it's a good thing to eat after exercising, has a lot of protein.  Today I made some soy milk, so I'll put that in for a few days also, or maybe instead of the sunflower seeds, we'll see.

Late Lunch:  collard greens, boiled sweet corn, pinto beans.  snacked on cherries, grapes and mushrooms and a few bites of watermelon.   I decided to buy a coconut at the co-op, since my experiment with the pineapple a few weeks ago was so successful.   I googled "how to open a coconut" and found this website which explained it well.   I decided the coconut is more work than it's worth.  Opening it is easy enough but then trying to cut out the meat is hard work.  And it's not as sweet as I thought it would be.  I added it to the collard greens and it was good, added a good texture and taste.  But I think I'll be lazy in the future and stick with shredded coconut which I can get in the bulk section and is reasonably unprocessed.  I also added a Tbsp of vinegar early on and I think the advice is correct that it removes the bitter taste.  Oh, the collard greens were from the garden and they are great.   For the pinto beans, for spices I used ground cumin, then towards the end added thyme and oregano from the garden.  then at the very end chives and a little basil from the garden.  I am choosing these herbs because they are in my garden.  Everything for the next month will be topped with chives and basil.

late afternoon snack:  raw carrots and kohlrabi.  I really like kohlrabi.  You have to try it a few times before it grows on you.  It's got an apple-like texture, but not sweet,  but just sweet enough to make you want more. 

dinner:  leftover collard greens and watermelon.  and a few strawberries. 

I snack too much.  but at least it was healthy today.

BO Dollar Bill

A $3 Bill, that is, thanks to Townhall:

Liberals and Character - A Study

Here's a fascinating new study that identifies the value of character from a social-political perspective. The summary of the study gives the bias away, but the effort, and conclusions are surprisingly in the "right" direction: "The idea of "good character" sounds old-fashioned and patronising, but it may be the key to some of our most entrenched social problems. Politicians across the spectrum are starting to realise this."

The article identifies that character has been a more conservative issue, however "progressives" are now taking a second look at this issue considering that:

"...inequality of character may now be as important as inequality of economic resources. The specific concerns of progressives can be divided into three connected themes: the link between character attributes and life chances; the life chances "penalty" being paid by the children who do not develop a good character; and the growing demand for good character in the labour market."

Among the conclusions,

"So if there has been a corrosion of character—and the poor have been disproportionately hit—who is the villain of the piece? Historically, the left has blamed capitalism; Marx's exploration of "alienation" is an early example. But during the 20th century, concern has shifted from the labour market to the product market, with fears about the character-sapping effects of materialism and consumerism. The right, by contrast, points the finger at the loosening of social norms and constraints associated with the 1960s. Of course, there is some cross-dressing here, on both sides: Blair attacked some elements of 1960s liberalism and Cameron is a critic of corporate irresponsibility. But each side, in its own way, blames liberalism: for the right, the social liberalism symbolised by the 1960s; for the left, the market liberalism associated with the 1980s.
...

If market liberalism cannot be convincingly blamed for corroding character, what about social liberalism? Has the loosening of laws on divorce, abortion, contraception and homosexuality undermined character? Here the liberal defence is weaker: principally because of the influence of greater individual freedom on some aspects of family life.
...

Nonetheless, the liberalisation of attitudes has done some damage. The "anything goes" mentality has sometimes translated into a reluctance to pass judgement on the actions of our peers, even when they are clearly wrong. Communitarian critics of liberalism such as Michael Sandel and Alasdair Macintyre argue that individualism has crowded out virtue and morality: the regulation of public behaviour is one area where they are right.

Moreover, the impact of social liberalism may have damaged character development in the most important place of all: the family. The necessary sacrifices of good parenting collide with the assumption that the individual is entitled to lead his or her life only by reference to their own desires. Parenting is a sacrificial, self-negating activity, and not all adults are up to the job. Finding the time, energy and commitment that needs to be spent over decades to raise a child well is tough. This has always been the case—and it should be noted that most parents now spend more time with their children than in previous generations. But the assumption that parents can have it all is entirely at odds with the reality of successful child-rearing. One of the most positive developments of the last half century is the entry of women into the labour market, but it has, of course, subtracted from the time and commitment to making homes and children, and men have seldom stepped in to fill the gap.

The liberal ambivalence about authority is also problematic in the family setting. "One of the key things about a family that works well is the in-built hierarchy," says Julia Margo. "The ideal sort of family for character development is two adult parents and older siblings who are well behaved. Then there are opportunities for purposeful activities: a family holiday with joint activities, or regularly playing football in the park. Family mealtimes, and having meaningful conversations with parents, are particularly important."

In other words, "traditional" families make the best character factories. Parental authority is important, especially when children are young. Taking part in traditional activities like Sunday lunch is not nostalgia, just good parenting. And of course, anyone concerned with character must be concerned with family breakdown. It is harder to be a good parent alone. Not impossible, of course. But it is a fact that divorce or separation is where individual freedom collides most dramatically with the collective need for our children to be well brought up. It is not obvious how public policy can help parents stay together. But at least some politicians are talking about it."

And the final paragraph deserves a hearty "AMEN":

"Character is an old idea with contemporary relevance. A considerable number of pressing social problems—obesity, welfare reform, pensions, public disorder, educational failure, social immobility—are all, in part, questions of character. It is a treacherous political terrain, but one in which governments are increasingly entangled. Anyone who is interested in creating a successful liberal society is interested in character too, whether they admit it or not. Good societies need good people."

Insight From Dennis Miller on Iraq Victory

I've had the chance to listen to Dennis Miller's radio program recently and he made a very insightful point I think worth repeating. A caller asked him what his definition of "victory in Iraq" was, what would it look like. Miller responded something like this (paraphrase, of course):

I think it will look like the last time we dealt with radical terrorists, say, like the Japanese in WWII, who were willing to dive airplanes into our navy ships at Pearl Harbor. Their view of the world was so different from ours that it would have seemed impossible to create any "Western" - looking society, let alone a democracy, out of Japan. Yet, 60 years later American Baseball played its season opener in Japan! It may take 60 years, but I think that's what victory in Iraq will look like. It will be buying the best computer or radio in the world with "Made in Iraq" stamped on it.

"Guy Church"

Here's an interesting article about the trend that most churches are populated by a majority of women. I appreciate the recognition of the problem (which I think it really is), but I don't agree with the solution most of the examples are promoting.

For example, ""We wanted it to feel like some guy's really, really cool home," albeit one with lots of high tech and a staff videographer, says David Parker, 121's associate pastor for worship and creative arts."

This seems to reflect a "Willowcreek" approach to church, which will only produce a consumerist mentality and a different problem in another 20 years. What about actually thinking through what the Church is supposed to be about and then designing what we do based on what God intended it to be, not some "really, really cool" hunting lodge, or video arcade, or any such thing.

Aug. 3 food log

We met friends and went to an all-day event (7:30 am - 7:30 pm).  We went to the Co-op and got some treats before we left.  uh-oh.  So I got another "nothing muffin".  I still have to find out how unhealthy they are, i.e., how much canola oil they have in them--the rest of the ingredients are fine if not as nutritious as fruits and green vegetables.  Then for the rest of the day had my breakfast smoothie, fruit (plum, grapes, cherries, apple), green smoothie, and some mushrooms when I got home.  oh yeah, and  a couple of bites of UR's vegan chocolate chip cookies.  So, not perfect but not too bad.   

Oh, I made a good treat for UR when I got home.  I don't consider this real healthy since it's white bread, but it's a good transition food (from Standard American Diet to healthy).  I had some frozen baguettes from my neighbor.  I thawed one in the microwave, thawed some pesto, sliced the baguette into coins, spread the pesto on them, and toasted them in the oven.  UR said it was really good.  I also made her a guacamole sandwich with another of the baguettes today.   I made some guacamole out of avocado, lime juice, chives and basil (our garden cilantro is long gone whereas chives and basil are going strong)--forgot the garlic but it tasted good anyway.  Then just put that in the baguette.  Again, it's not super healthy but compared to the alternative, which would have been hotdogs and fries, this was a good meal.  so UR ate well today, I think.  I have an idea for a healthier treat with pesto that I'll post when I make it--well, it's pesto on corn tortillas, toasted.   But we have to test it out first and see if it's good.

popcorn with chocolate maple syrup flavor

Ingredients:

popcorn

maple syrup

cocoa powder

air-pop some popcorn.  pour some maple syrup (say, 1 Tbsp), some cocoa powder (say, 1/4 tsp), and some water (say, 1-2 Tbsp) in a small spray bottle.    shake well.  spray on popcorn and mix it around.  

really good!

July 30 - Aug. 2 food

Work is going to get really busy for several months so I'm not sure how much daily blogging I can do.  Also after the last few days I'm realizing I may not be such a good example to others on how to eat healthy.   I need to switch gears a bit and go back to eating regular sized meals and not snacking.

So, going back in time.  July 30, I had pretty normal meals except for those 3 beers, oops.  Let's see, usual breakfast smoothie, for lunch I had brought a green smoothie but also got a tofu dish at a food cart.  This was tofu in peanut sauce over salad greens.  The salad greens instead of rice won me over.  The peanut sauce was probably too salty but wasn't overly peanuty so probably not too bad.   Then I had my green smoothie later.  Then the 3 beers with the out-of-town meeting attendees.  whew.    I didn't eat much dinner, just snacked on the food I prepared for the next day.  

July 31 I was very bad as the food provider at my meeting brought in a bunch of vegan cookies.  So I had 3 chocolate chip cookies and 4 Newman oreo-like cookies.  I had my usual breakfast smoothie, didn't have hunger for the green smoothie so wasted it!  and for dinner had a healthy meal at a restaurant followed by a vegan cupcake!   So much for being a good example for you.  But at least I didn't have a beer.  I was definitely not in the mood for that.

On Aug. 1, the meetings were finally over and I returned to normal.  Had a smoothie for breakfast, lunch was corn, green beans, salad and fruit salad.  Yum.  for dinner I had curried greens.  It was like the version I posted but I didn't use cashews (wasn't in the mood after the rich food from the previous day), added beets and their greens, and used a large bag of saute greens from a local farm, instead of the mustard greens.  It was good.

On Aug. 2, today, I was gone from 4:30 - 7:30 am, ate a peach during that time, stopped at the co-op for groceries and got a fresh "nothing muffin".  okay, this is not as good as fruit but it's not awful. it's a "healthy" muffin and it tastes very good and is filling.  Canola oil is in the ingredients list but it's pretty far down.  It has flaxseeds and oat bran and soy milk and that flour that's not wheat but isn't gluten-free, I forget.   I'm going to find out how much oil is in one of these and see if I can add it to my list of occasional items.  Maybe that would satisfy my splurge urges and prevent me from overdoing it.  Anyway, that filled me up and then I was gone again for several hours so didn't eat again until our late lunch of sweet corn, potatoes, leftover curried greens, and watermelon.  yummy!   For dinner we sort of splurged and had air-popped popcorn topped with maple syrup and cocoa.  okay, this was good and the amount of maple syrup and cocoa we ingested was very small.  I put maple syrup, water, and cocoa powder in a squirt bottle and squirted it on the popcorn.  This was really good.  I will do this again!   The only reason I call it a splurge is that it's not unhealthy itself but it replaces food that would be much more healthy.  So these sorts of things should be limited.  I shouldn't do one meal of a muffin and another meal of popcorn in one day.

One thing I am forgetting is I'm doing this for my health (well, not the vegan part), so I should keep that in mind when I'm tempted to splurge.     Well, let's see if I can improve over the next few days.  Otherwise, why am I writing this supposed advice column?