Rest day, unburdened, and convicted.
So.
Today was a rest day (a real one, Jeannie!). I spent the afternoon addictively finishing book 2 of the Harry Potter series (I know that I am about eleventy years late to this, but I'm just not a joiner.....and as I am getting close to wanting to read this series to my kids, I figured I better vet them myself first). My friend gave me the first two books Wed night and I just finished the second book tonight. Doh. We had a lazy day inside the house this afternoon as we got ready for a party with Nate's school tonight, and I have three exhausted kids now wiped clean of face paint and other adornments and tucked securely in bed.
This convicted me a bit, the other day. I'm pretty good, as far as this list goes, other than the canned tomatoes goes. Its funny, how my Mom is such an extreme moderate, yet has her super weird occasional extremes that keep on proving to be spot on. AKA I wasn't allowed to get dental x-rays. She nursed all of us well past 12 months (which was an anomaly in the 70's, especially in my Italian family, and especially in the face of Dr's who kept referring to her "small dairy" (stabby). She never let us buy canned food that was dented as she had some thing about the cans being emitting dangerous substances. My Mom was before her time, in her own super non activist way, and I love her for it.
The one thing on this list that convicts me is canned tomatoes. I have only canned tomatoes (in glass jars) two seasons, and I have reduced and frozen them two or three more, but never have I done it enough to entirely replace my need for canned tomatoes as I make my own homemade gravy. Reading this article really makes me reconsider where and how I get my red goodness. I either need to get to work this year, or I need to find a glass source that I like the taste of for crushed organic tomatoes. I also need to get more efficient on my meat~ it simply is too expensive to piecemeal it like we do, and it's time to buy a deep freezer, and start buying a cow share. Do any of the few people who comment on this have worries about what you are feeding yourself/your kids? Do you have any shortcuts? We are a meat eating family........my vegetarian days were theoretically rooted in worry about the earth and resources.....but were actually an easy way to restrict a food group to enable an eating disorder, and the vegan thing simply took it to another level........and while I was a "great" vegan, cooking up my TVP and tofu and veggie filled feasts, for me, it was not a diet which actually achieved my stupid goals (despite my rhetoric, my goals in elimination at that time, even if I didn't know it, were weight loss).....I was a bloated, hungry, lethargic, and envious vegan.
It was when I was living in Costa Rica for a time, living on other families kindness, and saying things like "Sin carne"? when they handed me rice and beans, that I realized how stupid my ideals were (for me, at that time). Here I was, an American, living on the kindness of these people who took me in to their humble homes and offered me food, and I had the audacity to worry about whether or not the rice was cooked in chicken broth or not. The funny thing was, if it was cooked in chicken broth, it was from chickens that they had raised and killed right outside in their yard. And once I recognized my own ingratitude, and just started eating up (after 7 meatless years), I found a sort of health that I hadn't known in a long time. Once I went back to Olympia, WA, I found myself working at a restaurant which specialized in hand smoked meats, and I went directly back to delicious ribs, pork, and more wild Salmon than you could shake a stick at......and suddenly the bloated, sad, lethargic, self righteous, vegan was a thing of the past. I know that my experience was my own. I know that all bodies are different. But for me? Meat and vegetables and fruit and grains are where it is at. And for me? The more local and the more in season, the better.
So. Off to find a deep freezer and a cow. And a pig. Because it is stupid expensive doing it the farmers market way, and with the hip I've been out off market for 8 weeks now, which means that for 8 weeks now my family has been (wondrously and gratefully) been relying on the meals brought from friends. But, I turned down mondays meal......because.....for the past 36 hours I have been crutch free.
Crutch free? Yeah! I even went to the party tonight solo. I limp a little. More after a long time sitting. But I'm getting there.
Today was a rest day (a real one, Jeannie!). I spent the afternoon addictively finishing book 2 of the Harry Potter series (I know that I am about eleventy years late to this, but I'm just not a joiner.....and as I am getting close to wanting to read this series to my kids, I figured I better vet them myself first). My friend gave me the first two books Wed night and I just finished the second book tonight. Doh. We had a lazy day inside the house this afternoon as we got ready for a party with Nate's school tonight, and I have three exhausted kids now wiped clean of face paint and other adornments and tucked securely in bed.
This convicted me a bit, the other day. I'm pretty good, as far as this list goes, other than the canned tomatoes goes. Its funny, how my Mom is such an extreme moderate, yet has her super weird occasional extremes that keep on proving to be spot on. AKA I wasn't allowed to get dental x-rays. She nursed all of us well past 12 months (which was an anomaly in the 70's, especially in my Italian family, and especially in the face of Dr's who kept referring to her "small dairy" (stabby). She never let us buy canned food that was dented as she had some thing about the cans being emitting dangerous substances. My Mom was before her time, in her own super non activist way, and I love her for it.
The one thing on this list that convicts me is canned tomatoes. I have only canned tomatoes (in glass jars) two seasons, and I have reduced and frozen them two or three more, but never have I done it enough to entirely replace my need for canned tomatoes as I make my own homemade gravy. Reading this article really makes me reconsider where and how I get my red goodness. I either need to get to work this year, or I need to find a glass source that I like the taste of for crushed organic tomatoes. I also need to get more efficient on my meat~ it simply is too expensive to piecemeal it like we do, and it's time to buy a deep freezer, and start buying a cow share. Do any of the few people who comment on this have worries about what you are feeding yourself/your kids? Do you have any shortcuts? We are a meat eating family........my vegetarian days were theoretically rooted in worry about the earth and resources.....but were actually an easy way to restrict a food group to enable an eating disorder, and the vegan thing simply took it to another level........and while I was a "great" vegan, cooking up my TVP and tofu and veggie filled feasts, for me, it was not a diet which actually achieved my stupid goals (despite my rhetoric, my goals in elimination at that time, even if I didn't know it, were weight loss).....I was a bloated, hungry, lethargic, and envious vegan.
It was when I was living in Costa Rica for a time, living on other families kindness, and saying things like "Sin carne"? when they handed me rice and beans, that I realized how stupid my ideals were (for me, at that time). Here I was, an American, living on the kindness of these people who took me in to their humble homes and offered me food, and I had the audacity to worry about whether or not the rice was cooked in chicken broth or not. The funny thing was, if it was cooked in chicken broth, it was from chickens that they had raised and killed right outside in their yard. And once I recognized my own ingratitude, and just started eating up (after 7 meatless years), I found a sort of health that I hadn't known in a long time. Once I went back to Olympia, WA, I found myself working at a restaurant which specialized in hand smoked meats, and I went directly back to delicious ribs, pork, and more wild Salmon than you could shake a stick at......and suddenly the bloated, sad, lethargic, self righteous, vegan was a thing of the past. I know that my experience was my own. I know that all bodies are different. But for me? Meat and vegetables and fruit and grains are where it is at. And for me? The more local and the more in season, the better.
So. Off to find a deep freezer and a cow. And a pig. Because it is stupid expensive doing it the farmers market way, and with the hip I've been out off market for 8 weeks now, which means that for 8 weeks now my family has been (wondrously and gratefully) been relying on the meals brought from friends. But, I turned down mondays meal......because.....for the past 36 hours I have been crutch free.
Crutch free? Yeah! I even went to the party tonight solo. I limp a little. More after a long time sitting. But I'm getting there.
We have absolutely loved buying a share of a steer. We always have meat on hand, which is huge for us, and it's prepared the way we like it (thickness, we get some pre-made patties, etc.). We get a huge variety of steaks, roasts, and ground beef. We like that it's a little bit different each year in quantities of various cuts. The flavor of the meat is SO much better (though maybe not from what you've been getting already) and the price is incredibly better! The ground beef price is probably comparable to store prices, but the price of the roasts and especially the steaks is WAY better.
ReplyDeleteIf you're buying a freezer, there are usually good deals around the major holidays, though I don't know if you want to wait that long. Also, buy a really big one. We bought a few years ago and bought one that seemed like it would be plenty big, but now we wish we had gone bigger. We really love that we bought an upright one, though.
And, thanks for mentioning the acid breaking down the can. I hadn't really thought about that aspect of it.
First off, crutch-free?! Hell yeah. :)
ReplyDeleteAs to the rest, we definitely try to eat a whole food diet. (Mostly local and "organic" when possible, I say "organic" because some of the local produce is grown without chemicals, etc, but not certified). We are not vegetarian, though my kids refuse to eat meat for some reason even with repeated offerings. I guess it is a taste/texture they haven't taken to naturally, but I assume they will pick it up and be more adventurous at some point. While we eat some meat, we do very much limit the consumption of animal products, not from a animal rights stand point (as we do buy ethical products and I don't mind being part of the food chain), but because of some of the medical studies linking the consumption of animal products to cancer, heart disease, etc. Anyway, it's not something that we stress over too much. Mainly just follow Pollen's creedo of "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Simple enough for even me to implement. ;)
I definitely need a deep freezer. Like you, I did a bunch of canning at one point and need to make time to do that again, but a freezer would also add to more convenient healthy eating. Definitely buy whole (or half/quarter) animals. The quality and value is so much better and it's way easier to just pluck something out of your freezer. They will often do the cuts of meat that you want too, so you don't end up with all ground beef or chuck roast, etc. Have fun!
Whooo Hoo for being crutch free!!
ReplyDeleteI need to get back to cooking more whole foods--this baby thing really threw me off my game. We do buy grass feed beef...last year we just got 50 lbs of ground sirloin, as we don't cook steaks often. Cow share is the way to go, and like someone above said, there are places that you can place an order as to how much of each cut of beef you want. Love my deep freezer--it's a stand up one as I am short and can't reach the bottom of the chest without falling in :)
Good info on the supermarket foods to avoid, thanks. And congrats on being crutch-free!
ReplyDeleteMeg I didn't even realize that they had stand up ones ~ that sounds brilliant for a shortie like me and I bet it helps to keep things from getting lost at the bottom. Obviously I have some research to do!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, girls, I have lost the crutch and it looks like there is no going back! It is wild that in using my leg more my pain at night has lessened tremendously.....its like in using the muscles, even if I am using them imperfectly as I limp, they are all getting strengthened, and it is helping with the nighttime pain! I'm so happy (though I admit I feel self conscious about the limp, and I need to just get over that and limp my proud self around with my head held high :))
First of all, YAY for crutch free!!!
ReplyDeleteWe're in the process of eating down the food in our deep freezer so we can make room for hopefully a cow and pig share. We are definitely meat eaters, and because of how Yifan was raised, he prefers pork, so we have to find a way to get both of those.
It has definitely been a struggle to maintain our farmer's market relationships after moving out of the city. Right now, we're looking for a better balance - it just took too many hours out of our weekend to make the drive and do all the shopping.
We've migrated toward a local grocery store that specializes in local (usually organic) food. It is hard because part of what I love about the farmer's market is that my kids are reminded of where their food comes from. That's harder to do in a grocery store, even the "fancy" ones.
I definitely will be looking for an end of summer trip to the farmer's market, though. We need to get our boxes of tomato seconds for canning. Typically, we just make red sauce and can it - it is a staple in our house. This year, I want to actually can some diced and crushed tomatoes.
I repeat the woohoo for crutch frees. An awesome accomplishment on your way to complete healing.
ReplyDeleteCans totally skeeve me out.
I buy boxed tomatoes (check out http://pomi.us.com/home.php) at the grocery store for pretty cheap and they've been great for us.
And keep me posted on your cow share thing... Colin and Jocelyn loved it, but had too much for just them, even splitting with others.