Seek Him this Christmas

It is that time of year again where I go off on a rant about Christmas and how society has lost focus as to what it is all about.  You can read my previous posts by clicking the links below



Avoid the Holiday insanity


Am I a Grinch because I don't participate in Elf on the Shelf


Getting Christ back in Christmas



I have a desire to go off and rant and rave about Santa, snowmen, and elves, and how people tend to focus on these things instead of Jesus, but I have done enough of that in the past.

This year I would simply encourage you to put up a Manger, Crèche, or Nativity.

We have made it a point over the last few years to look for other believers and to keep our eyes out for baby Jesus.  Kids naturally have a keen eye for Santa he is everywhere, but we are changing that at our house. We make it a game to see who can find baby Jesus first.

                         We spend the season seeking HIM.


It is a simple thing that has made a big difference in how we celebrate. It keeps Christ at the forefront of our minds during the season. It changes our thoughts and actions. This year, I didn't even mention it.  It is now natural for the kids to seek him and be watching for him.

May you be inspired to change how you think about Christmas, may you feel the love of Christ this season is my prayer for each of you. 

Happy Momma









P.S.
Here are some of my favorite nativity sets





                                                                                     

                                                 Willow Tree Nativity Set





                                                         

                                                      Melissa & Doug Nativity Set



                                                     
                                         Teak Isle Christmas Outdoor Nativity Set, Yard Nativity Scene





                                                 
                                    Little People Christmas Story Nativity with Lights and Sounds



                                                   
  Nativity Scene (Fits On 8x20 Frame Or Piece Of Wood) wall saying vinyl lettering art   decal quote sticker home decal





                                                          
                 12-Piece Woodland Inspirations Driftwood Christmas Nativity Figure Set





                                                        
                       Fontanini by Roman Classic Holy Family Nativity Set, 3-Piece, 5-Inch Each












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Tuning the brain to the real food channel

As I have journeyed into better eating habits there are still some things that I really struggle with. These are things that I want to believe, but my brain has been "trained" to believe other wise. It has been a battle inside to retrain my brain, but it is working. I am changing my thoughts and my actions while improving my health. 

 

1. Probiotics.  I understand the fact that there are "good bacteria" that are essential for good health. I know that culturing milk to make yogurt and  kefir have really helped my gut, but sometimes my inner germ freak kicks in. I can't seem to help it when I have thoughts like..... "Food should not be left out on the counter growing things" or, "How do I know that it is not growing the wrong stuff?"

Being the chef and going through the courses that teach the danger of  bacteria because it can kill people, where we heard over and over again "hot foods are to be kept hot, and cold foods are to be kept cold" has made me a wee bit paranoid.  Milk (or any other food) left at room temperature for more than two hours, and/or kept in the "danger zone" sends out a red flag, it says "Danger, Danger, throw it out before it kills someone".  It has been a challenge to retrain my brain on this matter.

 

2. Fat.  Growing up in the low fat era has really had an impact on me. The more I learn about how good fats are helpful for the brain and heart, the more I have to turn down and drown out  those voices that keep telling me lies about fat. My brain and heart feel so much better when they have the proper fuel (fat). I am finally getting to where I do not feel guilty buying and using butter and other good fats.  I can use sour cream without the guilt that used to crush me.

It is still hard at times.  Because I am a large woman, I feel judged when I go to the store and buy full fat milk, butter, and cream. I often feel judged by my sisters who are plagued by the "fat monster" inside of them. They are still of the opinion that fat is the enemy. Fat itself is not the enemy, it is essential to good health, but the wrong fats can be detrimental. When I feel judged by others I have to just know deep down inside that I am getting healthier and the good fats are an essential part of it. I have to remember that they don't know about my inner struggles. They do not understand how badly my brain and body were damaged by a low fat (high sugar and starch) diet. They do not understand how the change of diet has helped my digestive system which was out of order.  One day my outside will reflect the health that I am feeling inside.  





3. Starches.  I do not have to have a starch (pasta, potato, rice, bread etc.) at each meal. As a naturally frugal person it has been hard. Meat has always been stretched out in a casserole or such. Sandwiches and cold cereal (cheap foods) have been a main part of life. We learned early on in school that starches are the staff of life and the basis for a good diet. If you look at the 1992 Food pyramid you will see that starches are at the base it is the foundation of our society. We learn it from a very young age. The first foods we are given as infants are the grains and starches.  It is a way of life for so many of us and it is hard to break free.

 

It has taken a long time for me to believe that I can have a dinner without a starch. Dinner for me would often start with which starch do I want; pasta, potato, or rice? Then I would build around it. In chef school we spent weeks learning how to prepare starches. This is how food is created, sold and marketed to us.  I have had to work really hard at changing things at our house.

I still have hard time thinking that A piece of fish and a salad or vegetable is a complete meal. I still want the starches to go with it. I am getting better. I used to crave starches so much that I would eat a full meal and then go and eat a bunch of carbohydrates a while later just to satisfy the carbohydrate/ starch cravings.  I was not full until I felt the warm comforting feeling of a carbohydrate load in my body. Things are slowly changing.

 I have enough flavors in my life, I have a full menu, but saying goodbye to a long held carb obsession is hard. I can't help but still hold onto it, my excuse;  "it is for the kids."  It is time to let that excuse be gone. I have learned that the kids can learn to love new flavors and textures too. They don't have to be raised to be a carb addict. Things can change; your health can change; It starts with changing you mind about food and it's power in your life.


What about you? What new thoughts and behaviors have you had to create to improve your health? Share in the comments below so we can all benefit.    


 Additional reading

 My first adventures into making yogurt
  My adventures with kefir

Why a high fat diet

Ex-vegetarian goes high fat/ low carb

 

 

 

Choleserol myths and lies

Cholesterol is not the monster that it is made out to be.

Our bodies need cholesterol to survive, our bodies make cholesterol. Cholesterol is essential to life, it is essential to brain function. so, why is it that we all live in fear of  cholesterol treating it like a nasty monster that is going to somehow kill us?  We have been taught this fear by those who would benefit from selling you cholesterol lowering drugs and other products.  It is plain and simple. They cause fear so that they can sell you on the benefits of their products. These people are the monsters, not cholesterol.

 

                                                                                    Cartoon Frankenstein Monster" by Grant Cochrane

It all begins with a study or two. One that has really been in the fire because it essentially opened the door, is the study by Ancel Keys. Keys did a study on rabbits. It showed how cholesterol derived from animal products affected the rabbits health. There were some real troubles with this research. Rabbits are not made the same as humans. To start, they are not carnivores and their bodies are not designed to need cholesterol like humans. He also fed them pure refined cholesterol in super high mega doses. It really showed nothing useful, it was essentially bad research. It was crazy. But, he was a scientist and people didn't really question his research until later. But in the meantime, he really made a case for cholesterol being bad for human health and opened a "Pandora's box."

In another part of his research, Keys tried to make dietary correlations between countries that ate high amounts of animal products and heart disease levels. The results were really all over the board and there was no real clear correlation between heart disease, and consumption of animal products.  He was able to "Cherry pick" some of the data and show a correlation between heart disease, and animal products. Through these carefully crafted studies and lies Keys, (and some others involved) were able to get the American public to believe that eating animal products especially animal fats would raise cholesterol and damage your health.


These lies were in part due to Procter and Gamble (inventers of Crisco). They hired Ancel Key's to do this research. With Key's help they could sell this stuff as a "healthy alternative" to butter.  They were able to get the heart association on board and WOW! What a journey it has been for the American people. This was just the beginning. The American people used to fight against margarine, now they embrace it as healthy. An article that really does a great job explaining the history of margarine and its effects is;  Our heritage of health, Why have we stopped the war on margarine.  With the heart association on board it opened the way for a whole new generation of people trying to make money. Billions upon billions have been made and fortunes continue to grow, all from this simple set of lies.  

Now, enter cholesterol lowering drugs. Billions are spent to come up with a test to be able to asses the levels of cholesterol in peoples bodies. What is normal, what is high? In the beginning as the numbers were coming in, they really did not know. It became common that numbers over 300 may be considered high.  Now numbers over 200 are high and some are pushing that normal numbers should be well below 180. It is pure craziness. The more people on these drugs, the more money in their pockets. It is getting to the point that nearly everyone falls into the so called "high" category and only a small amount of people fall into the "normal" range. Think about it for a while, if only a small number of people are in the normal range, is that really normal? There are many doctors suggesting that people should take a cholesterol lowering drug, "just to be safe" and they have approved such drugs for our young people starting at age ten. Are our ten year olds really at risk for a  major heart attack?  Is it really helpful to put our children on these drugs for life?


As a society we have lowered and continue to lower cholesterol levels in hopes that it will lower the risk of heart disease, and yet heart disease has increased to staggering levels. Why? We have the wrong information! We are still are led to believe that lowering cholesterol is the best thing that we can do to lower our risk of heart disease. The companies that make the drugs would have you believe that cholesterol is the one and only risk factor for heart disease. Cholesterol levels are only the smallest piece of the puzzle. There are about thirty other things that can be factored into heart disease risk, yet we have come to believe that cholesterol is the one and only risk factor.  These companies have done a great job at brainwashing us to believe that our cholesterol numbers are key, and we need their products. Many Americans have come to believe that these drugs are a lifesaver and are essential to life itself. The truth is that the cholesterol itself is essential to life as I stated in the beginning.


This is insanity.  It is pure craziness. Our young doctors have been trained to believe that nearly everyone is at risk for heart disease because of high cholesterol levels. Many of them do not even know what the other twenty plus risk factors for heart disease are. They are handing out pills by the handful thinking that they are helping keep the American people healthy and free from heart disease.  It is not working.  I have heard people say, "My cholesterol is low, I am good, I am not at risk for a heart attack." Yet they are the ones that suffer heart attacks. Still others take these drugs and endure the side effects of these nasty drugs "to be on the safe side." These people end up suffering all kinds of side effects and end up with very ill health. Their health can become really bad from the side effects of these drugs and they feel terrible; but, they endure it because "I don't want a heart attack."  It is pure insanity.

What the drug companies don't tell you is that there is really only a small percentage of the male population that the drug is really useful and helpful for. These drugs provide a good advantage for older men who have had a previous heart attack. In these cases, the cholesterol lowering drugs are helpful and probably life saving, but for the rest of us it is not so. These drugs do very, little to prevent first heart attacks in men, and women especially do not have any real advantage by taking these drugs, and yet we are convinced that these drugs are essential to good heart health. There are so many other good things you can do that will lower your risk of heart attack ten times more than these drugs without the nasty side effects, but the drug companies want you to think otherwise. They are scaring us into their drugs.

Those that would make money from these lies make sure that it is right out there in front of your face, day in and day out. Can you go a day without hearing someone talking about their cholesterol levels? How often are we hearing ads on TV, radio, or seeing it on the internet? It is everywhere. They are keeping it in the minds and hearts of the people. The know your numbers campaign is working well. My 8 year old son asked me the other day. "what's your numbers?" Then he asked, "what's my numbers?" School age children should not have to endure this. It may at some point be checked in the schools and become routine like eyesight and hearing tests. Our young people have this number constantly on their minds and we think this is somehow normal? Is our health really measured in these types of numbers that really mean nothing? 

I would urge you to think differently. I would urge you to find your own path to good health. Put this thought in your heart and mind.......

 

 

I am in charge of my body and my own health. I will through my own wisdom and understanding come to a place where I am healthy and strong. I will not be influenced by those who have only their own financial interest in mind. I will seek out and listen to those who have my best interest at heart.

 

If this means seeing a different doctor who does not sound like an ad for these companies be it so. Your health is worth the investment of an understanding doctor who knows his stuff. You may have to have a talk with your current doctor and ask him "Is this pill really helpful for me, or is there another alternative?" If he sounds like the ads you see on TV, it may be time to let him go for your own good health.   
Want more? Check out some of the great books on this subject you don't have to take my word for it.

 

 



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This post is shared as part of real food wednesdays

Is it really the peanuts?

In the United States peanut allergies are growing at an alarming rate! 


 courtesy of Microsoft images

It makes me ask "what is going on here?"  There are so many kids being diagnosed with peanut allergies. Schools are going peanut free because of  it. It is super crazy.  A number of years ago we did not have this problem. After doing some research into real foods and how to keep our family healthy I have decided that it may not really be the peanuts causing troubles with our children and our schools.




I believe that it may not be the peanut itself, but the toxins in the soil that they are grown in. Peanuts are a root. They grow down  and suck up everything in the soil and water storing it all in the peanut that we eat.  Peanuts are routinely grown in cycle with cotton plants which are one of the most pesticide laden crops grown in the United States. The ground is totally saturated with round-up and other chemicals that kill everything in sight. The next year they will grow peanuts in the very same soil. IT THEREFORE MAKES ME WONDER IF IT REALLY  IS THE PEANUTS?

Now we go onto peanut butter. It is loaded with sugar (often in the form of corn syrup), and hydrogenated oils many of them made with cottonseed oil again doused with chemicals while being grown and then bathed in a chemical pool to help in the extraction of the oils. This oil is processed further by being hydrogenated and then it is put into the peanut butter.  Are we really shocked that so many of our children are allergic to peanuts? 



If you enjoyed this, you may enjoy another post I have written.
Is it the wheat, or the way it is processed

Just my simple thoughts

I just gotta rant and rave for a bit. Tune into my brain if you like.  This is just me thinking out loud for a while.


What has happened to our farms? It makes me crazy. Farming has become like an Olympic sport. If you are not constantly improving  from year to year, you are being run over by others. Farmers are going into debt so far over their heads just to be able to increase yields each and every year. It is not longer about what you grow, but how much you can grow and how quickly you can grow it.  The trend spread over to India where Monsanto and a few other companies promised that through their system growers in India could increase the yields of their crops to incredible levels. The farmers bought into it. They wanted to join in the Olympic sport of farming, and they are paying the price.  In America we have big government and big business that will buy the crops  (we buy and feed it to the cattle). Not so in India. Also in America it is socially acceptable to carry a crushing amount of debt in business. Not so in India. In India farmers are committing suicide at an alarming rate. Close to a quarter million farmers have  committed suicide in just a few short years all because they can not keep up with the demands of Those companies who promised them a large crop yield, and all they got was crushing debt.


Debt, we have become so accustomed to our debt that we do not feel the weight anymore.  People do not know how to live without debt. For some it seems like it can't be done. We have come to think that you have to have a mortgage payment and a car payment forever. No one ever pays off the debt, thus interest only loans. Talking about student loans makes people crazy. There are many who say I can't work and go to school, I have to take out loans. It is too expensive. Our children are going to school and coming out with debt that will never go away and many will carry student loan debt nearly to retirement. There are many who will come out of school with debt and no way to earn enough to even begin to pay it back.  I earned two degrees without student loans, it is called hard work. I went to school and worked in the eves. It took a bit longer, but I did it. It is not impossible to stay out of major debt, but it requires effort.


Why do young people have an aversion to work? They think that work is for the illegals in this country. Our kids think that any kind of physical work is beneath them. One mother here close by, when her daughter and boyfriend came to her for money she told them, "There is a yard that needs cleaned up, I will pay you to do the job". They complained and thought that it sounded too hard to work for the money. They went on to get help from the government who gave to them without requiring anything in return.


Our government system. Oh my, I could go off for hours about that, But I wanted to talk about the welfare part of it. We have created a society that is becoming ever more increasingly dependant upon government to feed and take care of us. "Don't worry if you have crushing debt and can't afford to take care of yourself, we can help. We will feed you."  The number of people receiving food assistance  from the government is astounding, and it is growing in leaps and bounds, because the government is pushing for it to be that way. They are telling people, "It is your right as a tax payer".  The government is trying to get us so dependant upon them. Obama will go out in a blaze of glory being able to tell about how he fed and clothed and took care of the American people through a time of great trial.


 It is like the old saying "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime"   We are increasingly losing the ability to take care of ourselves.  We have been feed, but not taught. I am working hard at teaching those around me to think and care for themselves. I am keeping up those old fashioned skills of food growing and preserving. I do not care to garden, I tend to grow more weeds than real food, but the satisfaction of growing my own food and not being dependant on handouts is worth it. I get real satisfaction from it. It is not like the satisfaction of passing the next level on a video game.


Our children have not learned the satisfaction that comes from real achievements in life. They only sit about and play video games all day long. Last year when I heard about a college age boy who died from sitting for nearly 24 hours playing a video game. It made my cry. He sat for so long his blood clotted and sent a blood clot through his body that killed him. I recently got a kindle fire and the children love to play games, there are so many games and activities out there for them to enjoy, but we are sure to limit the amount of time they can play on the thing. I do encourage them to read and enjoy books on it, but the other things we limit. I make them go out and enjoy the world around them. I try and keep them strong in mind, body and spirit.


By keeping our children healthy we can avoid doctors/(pill pushers) as much as possible. I could not believe it when on the TV this week I hear they are recommending that we start checking cholesterol levels of our children as young as eight and recommending cholesterol lowering drugs for children as young as ten.  It is bad enough when we are putting people on these drugs "just in case".  These drugs do not much more than put billions of dollars in the pockets of drug companies and those involved in the production and distribution of these drugs. Cholesterol lowering drugs do not work all that well. The majority of people can get much better results by eating real food. Besides that, there is really little real evidence that lowering cholesterol levels really decreases heart disease. If it really was working, we wouldn't have such rates of heart disease. It seems that it is a way to sell drugs to people and we have run out of groups to target so we are targeting children.


Our precious children who we would like to have a bright future, sometimes it seems so dim for them and me too. I just go about doing the best I can, and teaching them the best skills I know how. It is hard to send my children into an world where there are so many rules and regulations that they can hardly breathe, then there is danger around every corner and not just bullying, when drugs and pornography are such troubles in elementary school it makes me so upset, I mean really, eight and nine year olds delving into hard core porn it is astounding. I did not have to deal with this stuff until junior high, when I was old enough to at least grasp it a little bit.

It is a scary world, it is not the world that I would choose to live in. But I do live here. I can teach my children to hold on to the good things. I can teach them to not dwell on the evil and bad things in this world.

 There is still good in this world I know it and I see it. I can surround myself with the good things. I can choose positive things to fill my world. I choose those things.

Now that I have gotten all that out of my system, I am ready to go find those great and good things. You too, go find some good today!

The skinny on trans fat Part one

High fat, low fat, fat fat fat.
Good, fat, bad fat, feel like a rat.
What to eat, and what to not.
Which will keep, which will not. 
My brain is going all around.
If I pick the wrong one, I'll be in the ground.
Help me please, cause I don't know.
Which fat to use and which should go.

Happy momma

                                                                                                          photo courtsy of Microsoft images



I penned this little ditty to express my feeling about the world we live in. People get so excited about what is good and what is bad for us to eat. There is so many differing opinions out there. It is enough to drive one crazy. I have avoided it by going simple and natural. If I understand it I will eat it. Simple foods like butter, made from cream and salt. Extra virgin olive oil, pressed straight from olives. Coconut oil straight from the coconut. These things I understand, but Margarine, trans fat.... this is all too much.



It is all begins with money; oh yes, money of which it is written; "The love of money is the root of all evil"  In my discovery of margarine vs butter there is a story told. It goes something like this. Margarine was invented in America by turkey farmers wanting to quickly fatten up their flocks to keep up with the demand for the  Thanksgving table. They knew that fat had twice the calories per gram as compared to other foods. They pumped cheap oil full of hydrogen to make it firm enough for the turkeys to eat, processed it into pellets, and proceeded to feed it to the turkeys which killed the entire flock. Not wanting to lose all the money invested in this project they processed it into something that resembled butter and fed it to the people. This is a bunch of crap, or is it?  The story makes for  a  great headline for those advocating real butter.


The truth does have to do with money. Let us take a trip back to 1860's The French were looking for a cheaper way to feed the men in the Navy. They held a contest to see who could come up with a cheaper substitute for the more expensive Butter.   In 1869 Hippolyte Mege-Mouriez of Provence, France, patented a butter substitute made from beef fat and other ingredients. He named this substance "margarine" since he had used the fatty acid component, margaric acid. Margaric acid looked like pearly drops so its discoverer had named it after the Greek margarites, meaning pearl.

This stuff called margarine took off around the world.  People were making real profit from it, often passing it off as real butter.  Here in the United States this new stuff  called margarine caused a nasty war between the dairymen and the men  making margarine. In 1886 congress passed the federal margarine act. It regulated the sale and distribution of margarine. I have included a link below to that document along with a history of the war on margarine. It is interesting reading.

Margarine really took off again in the 1920's and became widely acceptable with the advent of the great depression and the subsequent world war. It was affordable, and available. (dairy was scarce at this time).  During this time it is being developed and changed to be made with vegetable oils as compared to the beef fat, but nobody seemed to notice, it was cheap and fed the family and kept them from starving. By the time the depression and the world wars were over many had forgotten the fight between butter and margarine.  Margarine was becoming a part of every table. The ban seemed to  be useless, the people had spoken; they wanted margarine over butter. Congress removed the ban in the 195o's 

In the 1950's another  important thing took place. Ancel Keys published studies about the lipid hypothesis. The American heart association began warning people about the dangers of saturated fats, and its link to heart disease.  People were urged to not eat animal fats including butter. A large portion of margarines are now being made with vegetable oils. It seems to be the perfect substitute for those who were avoiding saturated fats. Margarine  was being called wholesome and good. It was even hailed as a miracle food. It was going to change the world once again.

It seems perfect for food  for manufacturers to put into their products. It was cheap and ready to take on whatever flavor they choose. The people have already accepted margarine, now we have hydrogonated oils. That have replaced animal fats in our diets. Hyrdogonated oils are put into nearly all of our food including margarine. It has become a staple in our diet. This produces a whole new problem when It is discovered that hydrogenated oils and the margarine made from them do not have the same effect on the body as the  margarine of the past.  And now a new war ensues.... the war on trans fat.  Come back in the next couple of weeks when we will talk more about it.

 In the meantime here are some interesting links with more info on the subject.


why has the war on margarine stopped?
margarine act of 1886
history of the war on butter

WHAT IS REAL FOOD?

I have become very disappointed  with society and the the misconceptions of what is healthy for you. We hear so much in the media. Every company is screaming loudly making all kinds of health claims. It is so overwhelming. It seems like what was healthy last week is this weeks devil food. It is enough to make your head spin.  

I HATE THE MARKETING SHENANIGANS THAT ARE GOING ON ALL AROUND US. I FEEL LIKE A RAT IN A LAB EXPERIMENT.

© Alexanderpokusay | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos


I try not to let it get to me, but sometimes I can't help it. For example, last week I was looking about the grocery store and I saw a container which I thought read  "fat free half and half."  I stopped and looked again; and sure enough it said fat free half and half. I am thinking to myself "What in the world are they putting in there?" Half and half as I know it is half milk and half cream. I started reading the label, skim milk, corn syrup, guar gum, natural flavorings and the list goes on  about 15 ingredients in all. About every ingredient has a star by it. In the fine print, it says the starred items are not normally found in half and half.  I was shocked. People use this thinking that they are healthy, because it is fat free. Come on people! I can understand milk and cream, but this list of ingredients seems too much. Then I read this morning about a petition to the government to allow artificial sweetners into our dairy products without having to label it. Oh man, what's next.

Then there is the Corn syrup thing. I read "no high fructose corn syrup" on the package, and then three ingredients in I read  corn syrup.  Many things still have corn syrup, just not the super refined high fructose kind. The corn syrup I bought to make Christmas candy was labeled as "no high fructose corn syrup"  (if that is not confusing to the brain, corn syrup labled as no corn syrup).  People read the headlines on the package and then go right on thinking it must be healthy, because the banner across the front of the package says so. It says no corn syrup on the label, yet it is still full of the stuff, just slightly less refined (like that makes it ok).

As a society there is a desire to be healthy, and the marketing people know it. The newest buzz words in the fast food industry are "healthy, and wholesome"; if they use those words they can sell the products for up to three times the price. The trouble is that those types of food are rarely healthy or wholesome. We are just kidding ourselves in thinking that they are. It is a crazy game that we are playing and our health and well being are on the line.  The only way to get good wholesome food is to create it and grow it yourself.

I am trying to get back to basics and eating food as it comes from the earth.  It is a big change for us and finding recipes is a big part of it. I recently have had several friends go on vegan diets. I was so excited thinking that I had some new resources in my real food revolution. I thought I would pick their brains for some great recipes, boy, was I ever disapointed. I didn't come up with much of anything from them. As a further disapointment, I watched a documentary where they took three individuals and followed them as they began a journey into the vegan lifestyle. It was eye opening for me.

© Digitalpress | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

During this documentary they took a trip to the store to get supplies; it looked like this: Vegan margarine, soy hot dogs, vegan burgers, Oreo cookies, boxed cake mix and frosting and the list went on like this. I did not see any real food going into the baskets. They were showing how you can transfer over from the standard diet to veganisism with very little change.  "Really this is what vegans are eating?"  My freinds also verified this fact. I suppose that I live in a land of my own imagining, thiking that a vegan diet was a whole foods diet. I knew veganism was more than just salads as some people think, but what I found was suprising to say the least.

Now that I have that all off my chest I can go back to finding recipes for real food and writing about it here at life less hurried.




article about the petition to put artifical sugers in dairy
I have included the links to several of my past posts that you may enjoy reading

posts about those great grains

I'm eating real butter and eggs

slow down and savor your food and life

confessions of an emotional eater

Winter grilling! good for the soul

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    The other night I got a hankering for a grilled steak. Lucky for me, our grill is out back and under the patio where there is a bit less snow.  I  brushed a couple inches of snow off the grill  and lit her up. Even in the cold weather BBQ/Grilling lifts my spirits. There is just something about it. I enjoyed myself looking out over the white winter wonderland that exists in my backyard.