I'm Back!

Yeah, I'm back to writing on my blog! It's been a long time and for awhile I thought I wasn't going to continue. But, after thinking about it, I've decided to pick up writing on my blog again because this topic of food habits is important to me. So, this is just a short note, there will be more entries to follow. Just keep in mind that as the growing season progresses in late spring and summer my posts will slow down. I will try to keep up, though! I'll post some more topics on food later.

Thoughts On Reasons To Be Healthy

Lately I've been thinking about some of the reasons why I try to eat healthy and stay in shape. Here's a list of what I came up with (not in order of priority):

1)Personal Responsibility: I was in the pediatrician's office the other day and a ten-year old was there with her father. Her father did not look that old, probably in his late 40's early 50's. He was walking with a cane and I heard him say to the receptionist that he couldn't see because he had cateracts. He was also severely overweight. His daughter did not appear to be a happy, carefree child (and she wasn't sick - she was there for her ten-year old shots). I can imagine that at such a young age she may be worried for her father. For the sake of my extended family members and children, I want to stay healthy for as long as I possibly can! I have every intention of living into my 90's, and passing people on the jogging path while I shout, "eat your peas and carrots!"

2)Prevent illness: You can only start at a young age to prevent serious illnesses like diabetes, heart disease and yes, even cancer. The old adage, "You are what you eat" is very true. In fact, when I mention "young age" I'm referring to the habits that begin as toddlers and adolescents because by the time a person is in their thirties, and definitely by the 40's, the damage has already started. However, I also believe it's never too late to start being healthy. Our bodies are building blocks of chemical molecules that will adapt and respond for our benefit to healthy changes in eating habits.

3)Prevent injury: I started exercising again to gear-up for the growing season. My profession has always involved me being outdoors and often doing strenuous activities in the summer. The older I get, and especially after having children, I'm realizing how important it is for me to exercise and stretch to prevent injury.
Even an extra five pounds of fat (not muscle) on the wrong places on our bodies can add weight to our knees and back that could cause long-term injury to those joints. Carry around a full gallon of milk the next time you walk around the house. It's about 8 pounds - if that were on your body think how much strain it could add to the body with just that small amount of extra weight!

Now I definitely don't consider myself to be in the category of "health nut," but it is something that is usually on my mind on a daily basis. I think that could be a first step to getting results, i.e. just get in the habit of thinking about health!

Feel free to add comments about your own reasons!

Mid-Semester Crunch Time

As you may have noticed, it has been awhile since I've written. There are several reasons: the family has been sick with stomach viruses (non food related), followed by colds, bouts of up-all-night teething from the baby and I'm in my mid-semester crunch time with what seems like an overwhelming amount of information that I have to stuff in my brain!

So, some things I've remembered to write about:
I went food shopping last week for $68 to feed us for a week (some food still leftover from before). Included in that list was beer for hubby ($6.50), pretzels, Doritoes (it was buy one get one free!), bag of frozen chicken breasts (also BOGO), a pound of fish, peanut butter, grapes, bananas, packeged Dole fruit parfaits (I "splurged" on this one as a treat for my daughter and myself), frozen waffles, baby food, milk, store-brand orange juice, can of chicken soup, ground chicken, packages of bottled water for me, a case of store-brand cola for husband.

I guess we drink alot in this family!

The past few weeks I haven't baked much, but recently I made a sweetpotato casserole (real easy) and right now I'm baking chocolate chip cookies, going back and forth to the oven while writing this.

I've also been trying to keep up with my new exercise routine of jogging, some weights and lots of stretching.

"Oh, Cinderella!"

Today I made rice pudding, did the dishes, and swept the floor. Oh my, it seems my work is never done!

Oatmeal Carrot Chocolate Chip Cookies

I was ready to bake again. I had lots of oats that I knew would not be used up before winter was over (I try to use up all of my hot cereals like oatmeal and cream of wheat by spring since I generally only eat those hot cereals in the winter).

So, I decided to make oatmeal cookies and I found a recipe in my cookbook for oatmeal carrot cookies. I had chocolate chips in stock, so I decided to add those, too! I started to shred the carrots, but it was taking up too much time, so I opted for my electric chopper/grinder. Chopping created pieces that were too big, so I ground the carrots instead.

So how did they turn out? Better than I thought! The combination of carrots and chocolate was delicious. Who would've thought - chocolate covered carrots??




When I finished baking, I was ready for a snack with a glass of red wine to enjoy while "catching up" on a pile of papers to read! (But, I didn't eat all those cookies at once!)

Making Pizza

I love pizza and it's such an easy meal to make! We were running out of ingredients in the fridge, freezer and pantry, so I took inventory of what I had available to cook for dinner...flour, pizza sauce, cheese...and yeast in the freezer. I bought yeast before we moved to North Carolina and kept it in the freezer. Now was a better time than ever to cook with it! I found a recipe online for pizza dough and began the preparations around 3:00 to allow time for the dough to rise. It was easy to make: yeast dissolved in warm water, add the flour and a little bit of sugar; stir it together and keep it in the bowl covered in Saran Wrap at a temperature of about 75 degrees. Well, there's no way I'm turning the heat up in our house to 75 degrees, so I turned on the oven to about 200 and set the bowl on the range. The dough rose in an hour.




Then, I punched the dough, set it back on the range top for another 10 minutes and it was ready to prepare for the pizza sauce and cheese.




I pressed it into a pizza pie shape (I had a momma's helper)



spread the sauce and added the cheese - and voila, it was ready for the oven. At this step I realized it would have been more practical to press the pizza dough directly on the stone instead of pressing it on the cutting board and then trying to transfer it to the cooking stone. Now I know! Also, I spread oil, which was left-over from a jar of marinated artichokes, on the top of the stone for flavor on the pizza crust.



Thirty minutes later it was ready to eat. It turned out great, because everybody enjoyed it!

Changed the Name of the Blog

I changed the name of the blog from "Secret Habits of a Thin Person" to "A Journal of Food Habits" because that's what this is turning out to be: more of a journal than a "secret" on nutrition, dieting or health. After writing several blogs for this site I'm discovering that I don't really eat very healthy anyway. I think I manage my weight more on terms of small portions and keeping an active lifestyle. I've started to exercise again, too, so that helps! I hope you enjoy my blog!

Bacon Fat

Check out this solidified bacon fat from the George Forman Grill after I cooked about 6 slices of bacon. If that fat didn't get taken out of the bacon, it could've ended up in my arteries!

Homemade Desserts

Last week, on Sunday, I made homemade chocolate chip cookies. I should know this recipe by heart since I grew up making them in my Mom's kitchen. I have fond memories of me and my sister making chocolate chip cookies with my Mom. My favorite part was when I would carefully measure out the flour in the measuring cup and slice off the excess from the top with a butter knife leaving behind a perfectly smooth surface of flour. My sister would crack open the eggs being careful not to get any pieces of the shell in the bowl. The last step - adding the chocolate chips - was the culminating moment when we looked forward to eating the raw dough by the spoonfuls!
"Not too much," Mom would remind us. "We need some left over to bake for cookies." Sometimes I ate so much cookie dough that by the time the cookies were done baking, I ate just one or two from the oven.
On Sunday, as I slowly stirred the chocolate chips into the dough so that none spilled over the edge, a smile came to my face and I thought of my Mom and sister. And when the cookies were done baking, I only had room enough for one.

The cookies were gone within a few days. So today, a week later, I baked Apple Crisp. It's a simple recipe of about 5 granny smith apples, oats, flour, sugar, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg baked together in a small casserole dish. I thought about dashing out to the grocery store to buy vanilla icecream to eat with it when it was done baking in the oven, kindof like pie ala mode.
"Mmmm," I said to myself as I practicly drooled at the thought of scooping the icecream over the piping hot dessert until it melted into one, irresistable delicacy. But, I know my husband prefers chocolate mint icecream, which means I'd be left to finish the entire gallon of vanilla by myself before it got frosty in the freezer. I didn't want that "responsibility" nor the known fat content, so I skipped the icecream. When the apple crisp was done baking I set it on the stove top to cool off before eating.
At that point, my daughter was ready for bed. I read a story to her and tucked her in tight, but as I got up to leave she pulled on my shirt, "Don't go mommmy, please! Stay with me." So I lay there with her for awhile so that she could be comforted even though the apple crisp was calling my name, getting cooler by now. Then the thought occurred to me that in a few years my daughter would not be begging me to stay with her but rather, as a teenager who knows it all, might be asking me to leave her room. A tear rolled down my eyes and I held her tighter. She smiled, laying there peacefully. I left the room and she fell asleep quickly.
I went to the kitchen and scooped out several spoonfuls of Apple Crisp onto a dish. I took a bite. As cold as the apples that came out of the refrigerator. But it was too good to put down and re-heat. I finished it and helped myself to some more. This time I didn't mind waiting to eat the homemade dessert.

My Weakness

Chips! I LOVE chips, especially ranch Doritoes!

It has PHO (partially hydrogenated oils), which I know is bad, but it's my weakest temptation.

The other day I came home from work/school and I saw that my husband bought a bag of Doritoes from Walmart. My reaction - delighted! Like a little kid.

The next day, I had a regular breakfast of a bowl of Life cereal for breakfast, a packed lunch of peanut butter and jelly with a handful of Doritoes, dinner was the "half" serving of Red Lobster crab in a cream sauce with linguini (too much cholesterol and sodium so I left a lot of the sauce on the plate), and for a snack at night - A LOT of Doritoes! I was hungry because my breakfast and lunch were pretty meager that day so I made up for it with the Doritoes, I guess. Yes, I felt guilty because of the PHO. So what do I tell myself? You only live once, I guess. :)

Food for Two Weeks

My husband will be gone for two weeks, so I went foodshopping and tried to stock up with enough food while he's gone. It's easier to do that than trek to the grocery store with two kids.

It cost $143 total, but that was really high because I bought $43 worth of baby formula.

I categorize my food list by meal: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. I do that to plan out different meal types for the week.

For breakfast's: 2 bananas, Kashi cereal, cream of wheat, Natural Quaker quick oats, and for my daughter, regual Quaker Life cereal (6 g sugar for 3/4 cup serving) and cinnamon raisin toast. I had enough milk leftover from last week, so I didn't need to buy that. I skipped orange juice, too, because my husband prevously bought store-brand somewhere else.

Lunch's: I'm tired of peanut butter and jelly, but my daughter loves it, so I bought another store-brand jar of grape jelly, and Skippy Natural Peanut Butter. That's the only PB brand I could find for the best price that doesn't have Partially Hydrogenated Oils (PHO) and also the oils don't rise to the top of the container (no need to stir). However, I still try to use it in moderation because it is still high in fat (16 g fat for 2 Tbsp serving). My philosophy is: it's peanut butter, of course don't look at the fat content! You know it's fatty. It's more important to watch the PHO because you can always burn the fat, but you can't stop the arteries from clogging if you're going to eat foods with PHO. Tyson chicken nuggets and my husband bought Chef Boyardee previously.

My dilemna for lunches is that I need something I can pack up for when I have class or go to the office. I usually rely on left-overs if possible. I would rather avoid all lunch meat as much as possible because of the nitrates that are used as a preservative and are carcinogenic. However, I did buy bacon for BLT's this food shopping trip. Bacon also has nitrates and is fattening (6 g for 2 slices) so for sandwhiches I'll try and limit the amount of bacon to 2-4 slices. Also bought lettuce and tomato. I already had bread from before (whole grain white).

Here's my pet peeves with bread: I don't like wheat bread because of a sick association from when I was pregnant with my first daughter. I really like rye bread for everything but peanut butter and jelly and since I try not to eat too much lunch meat, then I don't buy that much rye bread. I'd be better off making my own bread. It's really easy, but takes some time, which I don't have!

Soups: The high sodium content isn't good, but for the price, soup makes a cheap, quick lunch. We stocked up on Ramen noodles previously, which is good because I can control the amount of powder (=sodium) I put into the pot!

Snacks: whole grain Goldfish, Snyder's Yellow Corn Tortiall Chips (on sale, no PHO), Ortega Salsa (best price), store-brand sharp cheese, Yoplait Dora yogurt (checked the date, so I got two), Del Monte sliced peaches in plastic cups (for lunches), 2 bags of chocolate chips (I intend to make home-made chocolate chip cookies), Rold Gold Honey Wheat Pretzels.

Dinner: store-brand parmesan and mozzorella cheeze, sliced provolone cheese, Mama Mary's pizza crust (3 small ones), light sour cream, jar of artichokes, small container of regular mayo, frozen Kashi Mediterranean pizza, 1 and a 1/4 lb ground turkey, hamburger rolls, frozen containers of vegetables (sides dishes for dinner) of: Birds Eye sliced green beans with almonds (2), Green Giant broccoli with cheese(2), Green Giant corn. My daughter would normally eat those vegetables. Already have Idaho potatoes at home, which I will make home-made french fries out of for the burger meal and I already have pizza sauce for the semi-homemade pizza. (I consider it "semi" homemade because I won't make the crust from scratch. That's also easy to do, I'm just saving time).

Extras: store-brand salted butter, large dozen eggs

I did not buy toiletries or household products since I made a separate trip to Walmart for those items.

Watered Down Juice

Awhile back I started to get in the habit of watering down my juice. 1) It saves money because bottles of juice (~64 fl. oz) can be expensive and 2) sugar is just empty calories, so I add water to "thin" it out.

It's usually a 1:1 ratio, half water, half juice.

Since I've been doing that for so long, I cringe when I drink regular juice that isn't watered down. There is one exception in that I will drink orange juice that isn't watered down, I guess because it tastes more natural than other juices.

Simple Dinners on a Budget

cSo now that I'm a student again, we'll be on a serious food budget.

I will *try* not to buy junk food. What, exactly then, is junk food?

To me, I define junk food as any food that is not necessary to sustain a person's dietary needs in a day.

For example, if you go to the food store and you only have $20 to spend on food for your family of 4 for a day would you buy chicken, bread, pretzels, icecream and a juice drink? Probably not. For breakfast, you might buy cereal ($4-$5); lunch might be sliced turkey ($2.5), cheese ($2), loaf of bread ($3); dinner could be chicken ($5), rice ($2) and green beans ($2). That's pretty basic, but for $20 there's no room for "junk food," even if most people wouldn't consider pretzels to be junk food. The truth is, we don't *need* pretzels, or food similar to that, to live off of each day.

So, here are some examples of lunches and dinners I've had the past few nights:
casserole: chicken, can of cream of chicken soup, shredded cheddar cheese, 1/2 cu of sour cream, 16 oz. bag of "california" mixed vegetables and french fried onions (an extra that could've been spared); and pre-made, store brand biscuits.

chicken ceasar sald wraps (soft tortilla shell); two for me, three for husband, one for daughter

a similar casserole: chicken with cream of chicken soup, a little milk, fresh mushrooms, and french fried onions; baked red potatoes (with a slice of butter); rice; and the same biscuits.

turkey hot dogs (7 g fat per dog, 10% saturated fat, 580mg sodium) on a roll (1 g fat per bun, no sat. fat, 230mg sodium per bun, 4g protein) with mustard and ketchup

mac 'n cheese with two chicken dogs cut up in it

we splurged one night and bought dinner for $30 (including a $5 tip) at a hamburger joint: hamburger (beef) with blue cheese and bacon and onion rings (about 12), chicken fingers, and a turkey burger with fries. I removed alot of the melted blue cheese because it was over-kill.

leftover casserole

Breakfasts have been: a cup of Kashi or Smart Start cereal (I measured one cup) with a 1/4 cup of orange juice. Now I know what you're thinking: "A quarter cup of orange juice? Who drinks just a quarter cup?!" I do. Because read my other blog, ."Watered Down Juice." I've gotten used to low-sugar drinks and a quarter cup of OJ is just enough to satisfy my quench for OJ in the morning.
Mid-morning I'll brew a cup of coffee and sip it all day. I bought raw sugar for coffee and tea so I won't be using white sugar any more, yeah! I also drink water throughout the day. I get thirsty alot.

We have chocolate leftover from Christmas, so I've nibbled on that here and there: but just one or two squares at a time