variety and moderation

More and more people are paying attention to what they put on the table and in their bodies. I have had an interest in what I eat for a while and over the years my interest has grown as research on the subject has been published.

As I have mentioned in previous posts I grew up eating home cooked meals. I can't tell you that we didn't eat any processed foods but it was minimal compared to how much my mom cooked. I also work at a grocery store and have developed a real interest in encouraging others to eat better. My heart breaks a little every time I see an overweight kid or hear stories about mom's on Weight Watchers that take their kids to McDonald's frequently.

I am not a good activist. I feel out of place trying to convince people that my way is better.  I am grateful that there are people out there doing that and providing information to help myself and others make informed decisions.

I stumbled upon just that kind of place the other day. Lisa over at 100 Days of Real Food started this project on her own and is sharing some information about how to make the right decisions for you and your family.

photo from www.100daysofrealfood.com

What I love about the blog so far is

1. they don't claim it is going to be easy

2. they don't make you feel guilty in the posts

3. they give you resources to make this attainable

Their recent post about Real Food FAQ's is a great way to get started on your own project to eat real food and get some good answers. There are many other resources on their blog to help you answer some of the tough questions and to start your own real food pledge or just learn how to avoid processed food in general.

It doesn't have to start out as an all or nothing approach. Start small and work you way to less and less processed foods. The most important thing to remember with your diet is variety and moderation. Lots of different things and not too much of any one thing.

Some other resources for eating better and changing the way you and the people around you eat:

Michael Pollan's website

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Alice Water's Edible School Yard project

If you have more suggestions for great places to learn about the food we eat please send them along

too many recipes too little time

I have recipes from family, magazines, and some printed from web sites. Some are on 3x5 cards some on post-it notes and some on napkins.  I love to organize them. Sift through them and dream about meals I could put together. I think it is my mini experiment in hoarding. If it hasn't come from family I seem to rarely use these collected recipes. I have started binders for some of these recipes. If a meal becomes tried and true I can find it in one specific binder. Then there is a binder for the baking recipes as well as a photo album filled with 3x5 and 4x6 cards and a folder filled with magazine articles not yet filed. My mother is the queen of recipe organization and the woman uses them all. She used to have a nice recipe card folder with the recipes either hand written on the cards or a newspaper or magazine recipe glued to a card and folded over to fit in the file box. Out of necessity she has upgraded. The volumes of Bon Appetit were starting to take over her side of the playroom so she made a new system. She now has a binder for each kind of protein, one for sides and a few others. Last time I looked I remember seeing at least 5 three-ring binders filled with recipes. How do you store your recipes?

the story of me

I have been through a lot. Not a lot in the sense that I over came some horrible disease or that at every turn in my life I am racing against some obstacle. If you put my life next to someone that has a story that could sell books then I haven't been through much.

But just because I haven't gone through one trial and tribulation after another shouldn't diminish the fact that I have been through a lot. I think we have all been through a lot. It seems to be an unfortunate part of growing up. Most likely, it is me who dismisses the things I have been through. I do it with sayings like, "oh this is nothing a lot of people have it worse." Yup they sure do. And while the "stuff" I have been through wouldn't make the news, it was hard and I think it is time to own it.

I think that women are too hard on each other. More importantly, I think we are more hard on ourselves. This isn't news. We all know this. We keep perpetuating it though. We work so hard to put on the brave face when what people need is to see it is okay to struggle. That though there is struggle we can maintain the strength and move forward. I was broken for a couple years. For a long while I struggled to put one foot in front of the other. I had to get help to do it. Without that help I would have a very different life. While I got help it was only that. I did the heavy lifting. I am the one that actually had to face my fears and find ways to conquer them so they didn't conquer me.

I went through that tough stuff. I am proud of myself for coming out the other side 10 times the person I was when it started. I don't dwell on it but I don't celebrate it enough. I think I might have more confidence if I spent more time telling myself the story of me. How I started out feeling shy and awkward and grew to be the woman I am now. My husband keeps telling me he is proud of me. Almost every time he says it I ask, "what for, I didn't do anything?" It is only recently that I have started responding with a simple "Thank you." With that simple thank you I think I am celebrating the fact that I can do amazing things.

It's a party

I was very excited this morning to see that I had a legitimate comment posted to the blog. Carrie from { the vintage wren }, the inspiration for the coffee bar, sent a comment my way. So I decided to check out her site this morning and she has posted more about her coffee bar and started a linky party. I am new to a linky party but it sounds like I am going to get to see other great coffee bars by signing up so I am in to give it a try.

This is my finished coffee bar and if you would like to read more about how it came about you can check that out here.

The Kitchen Counter Cooking School

When we were back in Indiana my mom was reading "The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry" by Kathleen Flinn. I had heard of the book and picked it up a couple times but since I have lately been unmotivated to read I never got much further. According to my mom she actually bought the book for me but thought she would just read it before she sent it along. Unlike me, my mother never has trouble finding time to read. Now retired, it is one of her favorite things to do and I have a lot of hand me down books that I haven't even cracked to prove it. On the trip back to California we stopped at a bookstore in the Minneapolis Airport and I picked up "The Kitchen Counter Cooking School", Kathleen Flinn's second book. It sounded interesting and my mom said that other book was good so why not. 

It was a very insightful book about that state of some home cooks and what makes people eat all that processed food. The answer kept coming back to fear of the unknown in the kitchen and failure. Reading it made me grateful that my mom taught me how to cook, that she and my father are so comfortable trying new things in the kitchen and that we never ate anything out of a box. 

Side story: When I was in 5th grade my dad won a sales contest and got a trip to Maui. We didn't have near by grandparents that could come watch us so we ended up with Mrs. McDermot. I still complain about this week and thinking about it now I realize I will need a whole post dedicated to this story some day. For now though just the part that relates. My mom cooked all the meals we would need in advance and froze them. On the night we were to have chili we were also supposed to have corn bread. My mom's corn bread is made by following the recipe on the box of Quaker Corn Meal. Mrs. McDermot however wasn't having that and went to the store and got a black and white labeled box (for those that don't know in the 80's that was the generic store brand) and it still sticks out in my mind as one of the worst things I have ever eaten. 

I went through, what we will call, a fiscally irresponsible period in my life that had me eating out of boxes, ramen and frozen dinners. I wish I had this book then to teach me some of the lessons to eating well on a budget.  

This is a fun read for anyone that loves cooking, loves cooking shows but doesn't go into the kitchen, needs a little push to cook. There are some great tips and recipes in there as well. I personally am looking forward to cooking fish after reading this. 

Room for cream?

It is all about pinterest these days. I found many great ideas for our wedding on pinterest. Now that we have moved out of the tiny apartment into a house I have found so many great ideas that I have to keep to keep reminding myself that I have a budget and other responsibilities and can't possibly do them all.

So I am focusing on the functional projects that will be around for a while. The latest project started with a need for more kitchen storage and counter space. I have definitely upgraded from the kitchen in the apartment but this one just didn't come with quite enough space for a kitchen lover like me.  Then came this great coffee bar idea that I found on pinterest. You can see updates on where I found the cabinet, the struggle to get the hardware off over here at this post. So the finished project is finally in the house...

I got the canisters at Midland when I was visiting my parents last month. If you are ever in Indianapolis and have some time for antiquing I highly recommend it. I even managed to find a spot for my Coozie collection on the new coffee bar so that might make it a beverage bar.

I have this piece coming from One Kings Lane, a shopping website which my sister-in-law, Felice, showed me. I think it will add some height the to coffee bar similar to the inspiration coffee bar.

I still love all things vintage. As I have been shopping for rugs I keep trying to imagine having this nice tuscan kitchen or something more adult (read: traditional) but it never seems quite right. I am going to stick to what I am naturally drawn to instead of trying to make a room fit for the pages of a magazine.  So the inspiration for the colors in the kitchen came from these things. 

From the top: Wrapping paper from a wedding gift, poster from a recent Gaslight Anthem show, and another poster give to me by Maya. The brown on the coffee bar came from the wrapping paper. I liked the other colors in the paper and the two poster are favorites and have a kitchen theme.

Do you get the last poster?