LAmom

JG HAS BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS DAY!

This Sunday we went out to eat for the first time since JG turned 12, which means that he was finally able to order from the adult menu.  JG was so sick of children's menu items that he had even written a web page about it: Why are kids menu foods all the same?

He celebrated his liberation from the kids menu by ordering a Chicken Fried Steak breakfast plate.

CURRENT FOOD INFATUATION: KABOCHA SQUASH

This year I've been working on improving my diet (I wouldn't say that it was really bad before, but there's room for improvement).  My inspiration is some research I did on how to live to be 100.  From the things I read, it looks like I should focus mainly on exercising more and eating better kinds of food.

So I've been trying new vegetables, including lots of different types of squash.  And I have fallen in love with the Kabocha squash.  Velvety texture with a flavor almost like a sweet potato.  Mostly eating it baked with butter and that's it, but I'm seeing some recipes around that look interesting.  This one will probably be first.

I FOUND LAMB'S QUARTERS!

Here in the new house, I've been bemoaning the lack of mallow weeds in the yard.  I have bitter greens (dandelion and sow thistle), sour greens (wood sorrel), and delicate greens (chickweed, and lots of it!), but I didn't have anything I recognized that was a good sturdy, bland green to use as a salad base.

Meanwhile, this other weed was springing up back there and I watched it grow larger and larger, always wishing that I knew what it was.  Well, it has finally flowered, and the flowers gave me a clue!  They looked like Chenopodium.  A little research confirmed that I've got Chenopodium album, aka Lamb's quarters!

I'm eating a salad with them this very moment.  Cool.

FEAR AND HALLOWEEN

Seth Godin's Halloween blog post focuses on marketing, but one question that he asks is:

"How did fruit end up as treat non grata?"

A part of the answer to that is the attitude that has developed that sugar greed is a part of the Halloween fun, thus anyone who doesn't cater to it is a party-pooper who hates children.

But another aspect is fear.  Remember all the urban legends about razor blades in apples?  The take-home message was that homemade treats could kill you.  The only treats to be trusted were the ones that came in sealed wrappers with corporate logos on them.

A home-made cookie or piece of fruit is treated by many as "candy from strangers", and therefore dangerous.  Unfortunately, we are often so unfamiliar with our own neighbors that we view them as strangers who could potentially be homicidal maniacs.  Better off with something from the Hershey's company; we know we can trust them.

DISHES I HAVE EATEN RECENTLY

• Sauteed zucchini
• Grilled squash
• Scrambled eggs with shredded zucchini
• Pasta with chunks of squash
• Crockpot chicken with squash
• Chicken and squash soup
• Zucchini walnut muffins
• Stuffed squash

Right now, there's a squash casserole in the oven.

WHY I'M GLAD TO BE BACK HOME: PART IV

Now that we have a backyard again, we've planted a few vegetables.  We tried to pick the shadiest part of the yard to plant peas, but the recent heat wave has left them looking pretty sad.  Similarly, we got no response from the carrots.  But the squash, sunflowers and turnips are looking great!  We went out this morning for our first harvesting.  JG and I got to discuss which parts of the turnip plant we eat and why ladybugs are our friends.  We picked a huge potful of turnips greens which are now in the crockpot cooking with a chicken.  Woohoo!

WHY I'M GLAD TO BE BACK HOME: PART I

After a year and a half of living in the enormous house in Carson, we are back at our old house in Lynwood.  It really feels good.  One of the things I missed the most at the other place was having a backyard.  Previous owners had converted every inch of the backyard space into additional rooms (except for the little patch where the electric meter was, and that was covered with concrete).

When we arrived back at the Lynwood house (or, as I call it, "home"), JG (he's 8 now) and BT (he's 5) returned to their previous habits of going into the yard to observe bugs.  And we have a great spot back there where we get good sun and very little breeze.  Perfect for warming yourself on a winter morning.

And right now there are huge amounts of mallows growing in the yard!  There's some sow thistle as well, and on the side of the house there is wood sorrel and some of the best chickweed we've ever gotten.  At this very moment I'm eating one of those fantastic free organic salads that I've been missing for so long.

More tomorrow about why I'm glad to be back here.

EEWWWWW!!

JG decided that these taste perfect together.  The Sour Punch Bite tastes more sour when it's sandwiched between the Ruffles.

For the record, I don't give my kids candy on a daily basis.  We have one day a week that we call Sweets Day which is when we get candy.  JG will usually get something in the Gummy Worm food group, while BT alternates between that and the chocolate food group.

IF WE ATE WHAT THEY TOLD US TO . . .

UPDATE -- I found a link I want to add: Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

From the American Journal of Public Health we learn that foods that should be in the minority in our diets make up the majority of what is showcased in TV commercials aimed at children.

Convenience/fast foods and sweets comprised 83% of advertised foods. Snacktime eating was depicted more often than breakfast, lunch, and dinner combined.

A 2000-calorie diet of foods in the general-audience advertisements would exceed recommended daily values (RDVs) of total fat, saturated fat, and sodium. A similar diet of foods in the child-audience advertisements would exceed the sodium RDV and provide 171 g (nearly 1 cup) of added sugar.

You know how commercials for children's cereals always include that shot of the bowl of cereal accompanied by a couple pieces of toast, a glass of juice, and a glass of milk, while the cartoon mascot chirps, "Part of this nutritious breakfast!"?  Do any of us really feed our kids that breakfast?  The whole reason you serve cereal is to save yourself the trouble of preparing a breakfast.  If I'm going to make the effort to make toast for everybody, I can give them some fruit along with it and forego the cereal.  When they say "part of this nutritious breakfast," you know full well that the cereal isn't the part providing the real nutrition.

If you happen to live in Seattle, however, you may soon see some advertisements for much better food choices:

This week bus riders in the Highline, Tukwila, Burien, and White Center areas will see original works of art by 120 area students that have been created as part of a bus advertising campaign promoting the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables.

"We were teaching students what advertisements are and how to pay attention to their methods, and what they are trying to sell them. We start the lesson by teaching children about how flowers use bright colors, scents, and even mock female insects to attract pollinators. The students were asked to create advertisements for fruits and vegetables after the kids reported that they have not seen any ads like this. Proud of their own artistic achievements, some of the students suggested it would be cool if these ads could reach the public in their neighborhoods."

Here's a sample of some of the ads.

This illustrates why the profit motive can be so destructive.  Advertising, instead of calling our attention to the things that are best for us, instead wants us to focus on whatever someone can make the most money from.  My favorite example is breastfeeding.  The big problem with breastfeeding is that nobody makes that much money from it.  Some nursing moms buy breast pumps, but those are only a one-time purchase.  How can that compare to formula that you have to buy continually for years?  That's why ads for bottles and formula vastly outnumber the "public service" ads that encourage us to breastfeed.  Our best interests are not the issue.

STARBUCKS CHALLENGE

If I drank coffee (yech!), I would participate.  This is from green LA girl:

According to its own policy (PDF), Starbucks will make fair trade coffee for you, any day of the week, in the 23 countries it is licensed to including: Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, the U.K. and the U.S.

But just how easy is it to get a fair trade coffee in a Starbucks in one of those countries?

We aim to find out.

Join the challenge:

1) Simply visit your local Starbucks and ask: "Could I get a cup of fair trade coffee?"

2) Tell us what happened next. Was it hard or easy to get a cup? You can see our first posts here.

BLOGGERS: simply blog about what happened and tag it with "starbuckschallenge" (all one word) on del.icio.us (put the Starbucks location in the "extended" description). We'll pull all articles into a feed and run that on our site - you can run the feed too, of course, if you'd like. ALSO help us get feedback by telling people about this challenge on your blogs.

NON-BLOGGERS: tell us what happened by emailing City Hippy or green LA girl, and we'll do the rest.

HT: blogging.la