World Vegetarian Day

If you've been waiting for years to try tofu, this Saturday may be the perfect day for you. October 1st, 2011 is World Vegetarian Day which initiates Vegetarian Awareness Month. It's surprisingly hard to find statistics on what percentage of America and the world follow a vegetarian diet. The US is estimated around 3% for people who completely abstain from meat, poultry, and fish, and around 1% for people who follow a vegan diet, which abstain from meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, and usually honey (and any other animal products). The main reason it is difficult to put an exact number on how many people follow a vegetarian diet is because the term is very broad. Here are some of the most common terms for varying degrees of vegetarianism:

Vegan - no animal products of any sort including meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, honey, some red food dyes (derived from bugs), leather, etc.

Lacto-ovo Vegetarian (most common kind of vegetarian) - no meat, poultry, or fish, but will eat dairy products, cheese, and most other animal products

Pesco Vegetarian - no meat or poultry, but will eat fish, as well as other animal products

"Flexitarian" - a new catchall term for people who abstain from meat to varying degrees. Can be anything from usually avoiding red meat, to almost always following a vegetarian diet with the exception of one or two dishes.

There are hundreds of reasons people choose to follow a plant based diet, and almost every vegetarian has a different reason (or many reasons) for why they decide to abstain from meat. Here are just a few of those reasons:

• Conserve resources: it takes about 10x as much land, 15x as much water, and 10x as much fossil fuel to produce one pound of animal protein vs one pound of soy protein. This means that by following a plant based diet we could feed 10x as many people using the same number of resources that one person eating meat would use.

• Improve your health: it's no secret that fruits and vegetables help to improve our health. By increasing our fruit and vegetable consumption you decrease your risk of heart disease, obesity, hypertension, cancer, and a huge list of other diseases. 

• Cut your costs: replacing meat with beans for dishes, or even just replacing some meat with beans, cuts costs tremendously. A can of beans (3 servings of protein) costs about $0.85, whereas a pound of meat (3 - 4 servings of protein) costs between $2 and $5. Natural and organic varieties of each cost substantially more, but plant based proteins are still significantly cheaper than animal proteins.

• Kinder to animals: this one seems obvious-- no one wants to be killed, cooked and eaten. The common comeback is that people are meant to eat animals. Both of these points are true, but both have complicated issues surrounding them. While people are meant to eat animals, we aren't meant to eat nearly as many animals as we do. Because of our over-consumption animal farms have turned into animal factories, where most animals don't see the light of day and are only protected from spreading severe infections all over the world by being sprayed and injected with loads and loads of antibiotics. So it's not so much the killing of animals, but the treatment of animals before they are killed that is an issue. 

Although I spent a year as a vegan (sort of-- I cheated on family birthdays and major holidays, but I usually followed a vegan diet), I wouldn't define myself as anything close to vegetarian. My goal personally isn't to stop consuming meat, but to reduce the amount of meat that I eat so that I appreciate and celebrate every bite of bacon and enjoy. Vegetarian diets are not meant for everyone, but people who follow a vegetarian diet are committed to making the world a better place, and that is something certainly worth celebrating! So happy World Vegetarian Day-- I know our house will enjoy tofu and other veggie goodies this Saturday, and I hope you find something new to celebrate too!

Celebrate Healthy Eating

When I first tell people that I am a nutritionist they almost always make one of two comments: they either say "Wow, you must be a really healthy eater" (although usually they ask me right after I've finished taking a bite of pizza or cake), or they say "Don't watch what I'm eating, I never eat well." The response I've become most comfortable with, because I believe in it wholeheartedly, is "Healthy eating isn't about what you eat, it's about how you eat it."


Here is one of my favorite perspectives on "healthy eating:"

What is Normal Eating?

Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it -not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is mostly three meals a day, or four or five, or it can be choosing to munch along the way. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful. Normal eating is overeating at times, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. And it can be undereating at times and wishing you had more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.

In short, normal eating is flexible. It varies in response to your hunger, your schedule, your proximity to food and your feelings.

Copyright © 2011 by Ellyn Satter. Published at www.EllynSatter.com. 


What Ellyn Satter touches on is that healthy eating is part of healthy living. You can't follow a healthy diet if your emotional life, spiritual life, and physical life aren't in balance. My philosophy on healthy eating is important for me to cover early in my blogging, because I don't want anyone to think my love for food is sending mixed messages.

Food is wonderful, and meant to be celebrated! There are times when eating carrot sticks and grilled chicken can be unhealthy (when you're scared to eat it with other people), and there are times when chocolate cake is the healthiest food in the world (when you're celebrating a great moment with loved ones). I am sure throughout my blogging that I will cover many indulgent and many modest foods. All recipes and all foods are important for "celebrating life," and I hope I always leave you with something to chew on.

Worth the Dough

There are few things in the world that are worth celebrating more than warm, fresh baked bread. I love all foods and I'm a very adventurous eater, but good 'ol fashioned bread may be my favorite. I have never had much luck making my own bread by hand. It always turns out too tough, or doesn't rise correctly. About a year ago I stumbled on one of my best Goodwill finds ever: a bread maker. My husband and I were really trying to watch our money, and cutting costs however we could imagine. The bread maker was only $7, so we plugged it in to make sure it lit up, and took it home.

I looked up directions for the bread machine online and we tried a couple recipes. I quickly fell in love. Soon I was making all kinds of breads: herbed focaccia, sweet biscotti, french bread, and more! The homemade bread  was only pennies to make, and it tasted as good as a bakery loaf. My favorite feature is the "dough" setting because you can still shape your own bread and bake it, but without all the timing required when you knead your own dough.

After several happy months of fresh bread, we slowed down on the bread machine because I hit a few snags. Sometimes the bread wouldn't properly knead and it just turned into a mucky, smelly mess. We forgot to put the paddle in, or didn't check that it was properly pushed down far enough to knead the dough. There's nothing more disappointing than thinking you'll be coming home to fresh bread, and instead finding a big mess to clean up.

The bread machine was stored away in our cupboard for several months before we got the courage to try to use it again. When we brought it out, it worked just fine. The biggest tip I've learned for bread machine success is to make sure the beginning of the cycle goes well. As long as the dough is kneaded well on the first step, the rest of the process is almost guaranteed to go smoothly.

I certainly am no bread maker salesman. I have no recommendations on which bread maker to buy, and I speak only from my limited experience on the matter. In our household, however, we certainly think our bread maker is the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Season-ings

Our air conditioning has been off for weeks now and we even turned our heat on for the first time last week (although it is off again, thank goodness!). Although the trees are still green for the most part, all around me there are little hints that summer is fading and it is time to celebrate fall.

Usually I am thrilled with the start of fall. I quickly pack away my shorts and dig out my sweaters as soon as the weather cools off the slightest, but this summer has been so wonderful that I want to squeeze out every last bit of it and savor it as long as I can.

In efforts to help get myself more excited for autumn, I've decided to try some new fall dishes. For Saturday brunch I made this spiced French toast, and it turned out great! I started with banana bread instead of the typical stale French bread. The denser loaf makes a richer, more satisfying meal. I added traditional fall spices-- cinnamon and nutmeg-- to the egg mixture too. It is a simple dish, and extremely easy to make.

Fall French Toast (serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

2 eggs, beaten slightly
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 loaf banana bread cut into thick slices (2 slices per person)
2 Tbsp butter

1. Preheat griddle to medium and melt 1/2 Tbsp butter.
2. In a medium bowl, mix eggs milk, vanilla and spices
3. Dip 2 slices banana bread into egg mixture. Be sure both sides are coated well.
4. Cook dipped bread on skillet, flipping once, until each both sides of toast are golden brown.
5. Repeat with remaining bread slices
6. Serve with maple syrup or desired toppings



I hope you enjoy these as much as we did! Next weekend I hope to try out a caramel apple version using either pound cake or a spice cake with a homemade caramel sauce. Mmmm... that is something sure to get me super excited about fall!!

First Bites

There's a lot of talk about how and when to introduce the first "solid" (really mashed up) foods to babies. Introducing food too early can increase a child's chance of being overweight, but waiting until they're too late can make them picky and hesitant to try new foods. There are so many pros and cons either way, that it's one of the many decisions that doesn't have a "perfect" answer.

With our daughter we decided to introduce foods between 4 and 5 months, when she was sitting well with support. Four months is the earliest a baby should have food other than breastmilk or formula, but there is definitely not a nutritional need for other foods until a baby is at least 6 months old.

Here are some rules we went by for feeding our baby:

1. Take your time. Wait 2-3 days between each new food so that if baby has a reaction you know what caused it
2. Spice it up. Don't be scared of new flavors. Try adding very small amounts of spices (they're stronger than you'd expect!), like cinnamon, garlic, and chili powder (watch out for spicier chilis, such as paprika and cayenne).
3. Play it safe. No egg whites or  honey under the age of one, and no nut/peanut products or shellfish under the age of two. Also avoid any allergens that run  in your family until the child is at least one, or whenever your doctor recommends introducing them
4. Try, try again. If baby doesn't seem to like the foods your offering, don't force it-- but don't give up! Try offering it again in a week or so, maybe mixing it with a fruit or veggie baby already likes.
5. The Tooth Truth. Many parents worry their child won't handle solid foods until they have enough teeth. More than presence of teeth, developmental stages are important for introducing purees and finger foods. When baby is sitting with support, start offering thin purees. Slowly try thicker purees, moving to soft textures like mushed bananas. When baby is crawling and using a "pincer grasp" she is ready to try finger foods. As you introduce table food use the general rule that if you can crush it with your own fingers, your baby can crush it with her gums. Offer small portions and make sure baby's mouth is empty between bites.
6. Have fun! More than teaching your baby to like peas and carrots, you're truly teaching your baby to like eating. Encourage your baby to explore new flavors, and enjoy the experience! Make sure you have plenty of time to feed your baby so you aren't rushed or stressed, and try not to worry too much about the mess.

Think Globally, Eat Locally.

In a world where we can access food and goods from all over the world, right at our local grocery store, rarely do we ever think about where food comes from. In my mind, the orange I'm eating comes from Giant Eagle, but truly it probably comes from a huge farm in Florida, California, or even a different country. It traveled at least 2,000 miles, and was picked at least a week ago, before I bought it from the produce aisle. 

This year my husband and I decided to "get back to our roots" and eat more locally grown produce. It is much more efficient to eat locally grown foods: there is less gas waste from shipping, and food is consumed sooner so there is less wasted due to spoilage. 

We signed up for a Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA) share, and we have fresh picked organic produce delivered 1 block from our house each week. It was surprisingly affordable-- $22 a week for more produce than we can go through, and phenomenally fresh... unbelievably phenomenally fresh. Some foods I feel like I am tasting for the first time in my life. Who new a carrot could be so sweet? Or that potato varieties actually have deep flavors? 

Many foods I truly am tasting for the first time. I never would have bought kale, swiss chard or beets in the grocery store, but they have become three of our favorite vegetables from our farm share. It's a bit embarrassing to admit, but at the beginning of this summer I honestly didn't even know what produce could be grown in southwestern PA. Eating locally has definitely been an eye opening (and taste bud opening!) experience.

Our next goal is to look into locally raised meats. These are substantially more expensive than the $1.88/pound meat we've been buying at the grocery store, but quality, health, and ethics tell us we should explore options for buying locally grown meats. By consuming less meat, and by buying larger quantities (with a deep freezer), we hope to find ways to make the change. 

It's refreshing to find ways to challenge our thoughts on how we eat, and what we eat. Changes always happen gradually, but it's important to remember to take them one bite at a time!

A New Recipe for the Blog :-)

As I'm sure any readers have noticed, I haven't been the best about updating this blog. I love blogging, but find it difficult to think of things to write about often. I've decided to change directions a little bit, and instead of trying to cover celebrating all aspects of life, I'm going to focus on one of my very favorites: Food.

I'm going to look at different aspects of food that are worth celebrating, following a theme each day. The blog will follow a bit of a schedule that will hopefully encourage me to post a lot more frequently:

Mondays: Celebrate food on the Table (recipes, favorite foods)
Tuesdays: Celebrate food in the Kitchen (cooking tips, kitchen gadgets I love)
Wednesdays: Celebrate food in the Body (health and nutrition tips and info)
Thursdays: Celebrate food in the World (eating ethically, and how people eat around the world)
Fridays: Baby Bites-- food from my baby's perspective and insight on feeding kids

Over time, the topics may change, but these are five areas of interest for me, and chances are, if I'm more interested in the topic, the blog will be more interesting!! If you have any ideas on topics you'd like to see, or questions you have about food and nutrition, email them to me at julie@block-parties.com.