I took tap dance lessons as a little kid as well as during my junior year of college, and I keep dreaming that I’ll get back into the lessons again someday. This video is some serious motivation to make tap lessons a priority! It also makes me think I need to create a tap dance routine that Cooper can be involved in, though I think the small dog featured here is perhaps a more versatile dance partner.
Thanking My Lucky Stars
Mom & baby, February 2010
Yesterday was the 5-month anniversary of the day I broke my back. I celebrated by picking up my baby and snuggling him, picking up my dog and snuggling him, and snuggling my husband (he’s too heavy to pick up). And, of course, I also spent some time thanking my lucky stars that I was not hurt worse and that I will make a full recovery, even if it takes a while. Breaking your back sucks, but I am still feeling incredibly grateful that my injury was not worse and that I can rely on my extensive knowledge of nutrition, anatomy, and fitness to help me recover.
I still have a few weeks of physical therapy, but I have been released from the care of the neurosurgeon so I am pretty much on my own for managing my recovery now. Honestly, I have felt like that since the beginning anyway. While the professionals are useful and helpful, how well and how quickly I heal is mostly dependent upon me. Most mornings I am up at 5:00 AM to do physical therapy, trigger point therapy, and myofascial release before Dylan gets up. Then throughout my day I try to fit in stretches or a little foam rolling while I play with Dylan and take care of the house. I also am careful how I move, and I try to avoid carrying Dylan around on my hip too much because it exacerbates my back pain and really throws my whole body out of whack. I also try to be sure I eat well (I always eat very high-quality food, but tend to not eat enough), drink enough water, take my supplements (the usual suspects plus extra calcium and vitamin D to support the bone healing process), and of course, get enough sleep. Most days I am not able to do all of the things I need to do to really take excellent care of myself, but I try, and what’s more important, I try to not stress or beat myself up if I don’t succeed.
Healing from a major injury feels like a full-time job in and of itself, so I try to stay realistic about my progress and the timeline for full recovery. My current expectation is to be back to my full strength and flexibility at 1 year out from the injury, but I am continually reminded by doctors, massage therapists, and physical therapists that 2 years is probably more realistic because soft tissue heals very slowly and I have a lot of soft tissue damage in the area around the break. The professionals are also telling me I should probably give up on ever running again because my L-1 vertebra is permanently lopsided from the break, and the pounding of running could cause problems with my facet joints (and thus entire body!) over time. But I have not given up hope yet! I would love to be able return to trail running with Cooper, one of my all-time favorite activities. So, we will see how things go. For now I’m focused on caring for myself as tenderly as possible, both physically and emotionally, and staying in the present moment rather than getting too far ahead of myself. It’s a very amazing thing to have something almost-really-horrible happen to you, you get a whole new perspective on things. So, even though the back breakage has derailed some plans, I am feeling really good about the outcome so far, and know that things will only continue to improve as time goes on.
What We Eat: Broccoli Stalks
Sautéed broccoli stalks & radish greens
Yes, you read that correctly, I am doing an entire post on broccoli stalks. They are one of my new favorite foods and I bet you will love them too if you just give them a chance!
When you buy broccoli, do you just eat the crowns and then throw the thick stalks into the trash or compost? I used to do that because I thought they were too woody and tough to bother with. Over the past year or so I’ve become increasingly interested in using ALL of the parts of food we buy, both plant and animal. I was so disturbed by my own wasteful actions that I figured out ways to eat a lot of things we had previously tossed, including broccoli stalks. Oddly enough, I have come to prefer the stalks to the crowns. They have a mild flavor and a nice watery crunch. The trick is that you have to peel the tough outer layer off of the stalk (and yes, trash it or compost it…). The inside of the stalk is then ready to eat raw like a carrot, chop up into a salad, or sauté with radish tops and garlic as shown in the photo above. Those are just a few ideas. The stalks are incredibly versatile and would be delicious on a crudité tray, in soup, in stir-fry…the list goes on. I admit that the first time I decided we would eat the stalks I opted to cook them because I don’t like the flavor of raw broccoli and figured the stalks would taste similar. Not so! Removing the outer layer also removes that odd bitterness and the inside is, I dare say, almost sweet! Below is a recipe for a delicious green side dish featuring two commonly thrown-away items, broccoli stalks & radish greens.
Garlicky Broccoli Stalks & Radish Greens
2-3 broccoli stalks
1 bunch well-washed & spun (or blotted dry) radish greens
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2-1 Tbsp olive oil
A pinch or two of sea salt
Peel the broccoli stalks using a paring knife (really, a peeler is pointless here), quarter lengthwise, and slice thinly. Heat olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add garlic and broccoli stalks. Sauté for a minute or two, until you smell that delicious garlic aroma and the stalks look a little less raw. Add the radish greens and stir to distribute the oil and get all of the greens in contact with the heat. You may need to add a tiny bit more oil at this point if it seems that you don’t have enough in the pan to cover all of the greens. The oil helps them cook and also helps you absorb the fat-soluble vitamins in the veggies, so don’t be shy. Toss in a pinch or two of sea salt. Continue to stir the greens (it’s really more of a folding motion, actually) until they are all wilted, which takes about 5 minutes or so. Enjoy!
Why I love my husband
I got barbeque sauce on my face today while eating ribs. Of course I didn’t know it and of course Brian looked at me, laughed, and then said, “You’ve got shit all over your face, go look in the mirror.” This happens all the time. I’m not a messy eater but I do like to get all the meat off my ribs and that has certain consequences. I asked him if this shit-on-the-face-all-the-time thing was disgusting or endearing. He said, while still laughing, that it was endearing, and then explained, “You always think I’m making fun of you, but I’m not. I’m laughing along with you, it’s just that you haven’t started laughing yet.” Ohhh, right. Because you can totally laugh along with someone if they’re not laughing!
When I told him I was going to blog his explanation of why it’s okay that he laughs at me all the time, his response was, “Are you going to include a photo of yourself with shit in your teeth?”
What We Eat: Frittata
We eat a lot of frittatas around here. A LOT. I make huge frittatas (the one pictured above was made with 20 eggs, which is the norm), so there is pretty much always some frittata in the fridge for breakfast or snacks. Frittatas are one of my favorite foods because they are healthy, easy, and can be made with whatever I’ve got laying around. They are an especially great way to use up veggies (or eggs, for that matter) that are getting a little past their prime.
The basic method I use is to sauté whatever ingredients I want in my frittata, add them to a bowl of beaten eggs, then pour the whole mess back into the pan, distribute the “fillings” evenly if necessary, and let it cook for a while over low heat. No stirring! At the end I throw the pan under the broiler for a couple minutes to thoroughly cook the top and get it a little brown. When the frittata is cool, I slice it into wedges and store in an airtight container in the fridge; it will keep for 5-7 days that way. You can eat the frittata cold, let it come up to room temperature, or heat it in a toaster oven or microwave. We don’t do the microwave thing and I find that about 7 minutes in the toaster oven at 350F gets my fresh-out-the-fridge frittata warm without drying it out.
Technique notes:
- Make sure your ingredients are in small pieces. Brian has a habit of putting gigantic pieces of kale in our frittatas and it’s really no fun to bite into the frittata and come away with an entire kale leaf hanging out of your mouth. Especially in front of company, oy!
- If you are using meat (we prefer sausage removed from its casing), cook that thoroughly first, add to the beaten eggs, and then use the grease from the meat to sauté your veggies. I typically use about a 1/4 lb of sausage for 16-20 eggs.
- If you are not using meat, I suggest the following fats for your sauté purposes: bacon grease (you should really have a jar of rendered bacon grease in your fridge at all times), butter, olive oil. My dad would put coconut oil on this list but he is crazy. If you don’t mind the taste of coconut in your savory egg dishes, go for it.
- Cook your veggies thoroughly before adding them to the eggs unless you want raw veggies in your frittata.
- Salt & pepper your eggs. I also add salt to my veggies while they are cooking.
- I typically plan 2 eggs per serving. We use large cage-free eggs.
- Greens cook down a lot so use more than you think you need, especially with really wilty greens like spinach or radish tops. You may need to cover tougher greens like kale to cook them through, it’s really unfun to get semi-raw, fibrous, hard-to-chew pieces of kale when you bite into a frittata.
- Obviously you will need an oven-save pan for this method. This is also one of the few occasions that you really need a nonstick pan, too. And please make sure your pan is large enough that your frittata is no more an inch or so thick or you will have a hard time getting it to cook through without burning the hell out of the bottom.
- Do not walk away while your frittata is under the broiler. It really only needs a minute or two and burnt eggs are yuck.
- You can mix cheese into the eggs or put it on top. Try both and see which you prefer, they both yield a slightly different flavor. I prefer it mixed in because cheese on top gets a little soggy in the fridge and in my opinion never fully recovers. Another option is to leave the cheese out of your initial cooking and keep a container of shredded cheese ready to go so you can sprinkle it on top when reheating your frittata.
Ingredient combination ideas:
- Spinach, onion, garlic (that’s the combo pictured at the top of this post)
- Chorizo, lacinto kale, onion
- Rutabaga greens, onion, parmigiano-reggiano
- Italian sausage (we like a mix of hot & mild), garlic, bell peppers
- Zucchini, onion, cheddar (cut the zucchini into small thin slices & get it a little brown)
- Spinach, mushroom, onion, garlic (be sure you cook the mushrooms until they are shrively and brown, otherwise your frittata will be wet)
- Mushroom, onion, garlic, bell pepper
- Spinach, feta, onion, garlic (this one is also good with zucchini)
- Garlic sausage (they have this at Whole Foods), radish tops, broccoli stems (peeled & sliced thin), onion
- Bacon, spinach, cheddar (broccoli is also really good in this one, just make sure it’s in small well-cooked pieces)
- Bacon, kohlrabi bulb (peeled & sliced thin), garlic
If you have questions please leave them in the comments below and I’ll do my best to answer them. And please leave your frittata ingredient ideas, too!
Signs
The sign for “Cooper”
Cooper
We are teaching Dylan sign language. Yes, like actual real American Sign Language (ASL), not baby sign language. I figured it would be good for him to know real signs, and I wanted to learn them, too. It is a foreign language you know! We have started with the signs for “eat,” “milk,” and “Cooper.” The sign for “Cooper,” which I made up, consists of holding your hands up to your head, palms forward, like a giant pair of Cooper ears (see awesome Photo Booth photo above that I just took of myself after a sweaty walk and with no makeup on). Yes, I checked first to make sure that gesture doesn’t mean anything offensive in ASL. We started about a month ago and I think Dylan signed “eat” the other day during lunch. I expected “eat” to be the first sign he used since it is the simplest and the one we are most consistent with (side note: consistency is hard!). He does seem to understand the signs for “Cooper” and “milk,” though, so hopefully he will demonstrate them soon.
Apparently once the babes get a few signs down and have that lightbulb moment that signing helps them get what they want, they start learning new signs at warp speed. I am very excited about this since Dylan seems to have inherited a bit of my “I want what I want when I want it” personality and I have some concern that he could end up being a tantrumy little guy down the road. He already complains intensely when he doesn’t get his way, so I am hoping that being able to communicate his wants will help cut down on his frustration. Even more than that, though, I am just really looking forward to getting a better idea of what is going in that little head of his. Obviously he has ways to communicate now through facial expressions, noises, laughing, crying, etc., but I just think it’s really cool that I won’t have to assume that a certain cry or gesture means a certain thing since he’ll be able to tell me with ASL exactly what he wants.
A Sorry Breakfast
Today for breakfast I had two pieces of spinach & onion frittata, an apple, a few ounces of Australian cheddar, a whole boatload of blueberries, a few strawberries, and some leftover cole slaw. I am still hungry. This is the result of going to bed without dinner last night and being a nursing mama. Yeah, I went to bed without dinner because there was a big argument and a lot of pouting, and now I am really paying the price. I am extremely stubborn, and that resolve often bites me in the ass. Do you do that? Please tell me I am not the only one who does that. Also, tell me what you had for breakfast. I think I’ll spend Dylan’s entire nap this morning eating, and I’m looking for ideas for what to devour next. Currently, I am eyeing the leftover ribs.
Also, on a semi-related note, did your mother ever use the phrase “Starving Armenian” when you were little? Mine did, but not in the usual context, which would be as a part of a guilt trip to encourage a spoiled and recalcitrant child to finish their food (similar to the “starving children in China/Africa/Wherever”). No, my mother, and maybe even my father, too, I can’t remember, referred to me as a Starving Armenian because of my unending appetite. How weird is that? And très inappropriate, too, like most things in the 80′s. The older I get the more frequently random memories from way back bubble up to the surface of my consciousness. But the older I get, the less I trust the truth of those memories. What really happened, and what has been turned into something different by the passage of time?
What We Eat: Local Grapefruit
Did you know that if you remove all of the membrane from your grapefruit, it won’t taste bitter anymore? I’m not saying it’ll be sweet like an orange, but grapefruit sans membrane is much, much tastier than grapefruit with membrane. By “membrane” I mean not only the pith but all of that thin skin that forms the fruit into wedges. You’ll need to use a sharp knife to get rid of all of it, but it is worth the effort. To think I spent 32 years declaring my hatred of grapefruit and all I had to do was ditch the membrane to discover a new form of citrusy joy!
The grapefruit pictured above came in our CSA box and is both local and organic. We’ve been getting local grapefruit from a variety of sources since the beginning of this year and I still think it’s weird to live in a place where citrus is local.
What We Eat: Salmon Salad
For lunch today I ate:
- Salmon salad
- Sprouted grain toast with butter and homemade fig spread
- Mixed Greek olives in spicy marinade
In case you are wondering, it was delicious! Also, because I’m sure you’re curious, I did not make the fig spread, it was a gift from a very talented friend who has also bestowed upon us blueberry jam, salsa, and grapefruit-ginger marmalade. Oh, yeah.
Salmon salad is one of my go-to meals when I need something quick. It takes 5 minutes to whip up and the ingredients aren’t set in stone so you can really make it with whatever you have lying around. Because this is the inaugural What We Eat post, you also get a recipe! So here it is, even though you probably don’t need one for this dish:
Salmon Salad
1 7.5-oz can sockeye salmon, drained
3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
3/4 chopped green bell pepper
1 scallion, chopped
Dill (1 tbsp if using fresh, 1 tsp if using dried)
Juice from 1 lemon wedge
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Toss the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Enjoy!
Other vegetables that work well in this dish are tomato, cucumber, red onion, and radish, but you really can use anything you like. Fresh parsley is nice, as is fresh garlic if you are feeling crazy. If you want your salmon salad to resemble more of a traditional seafood salad, dice your veggies up small and mash everything together with slightly more olive oil and lemon juice than is listed in the recipe above. Just please don’t add mayo, it makes salmon sad. Lastly, I drain off the juice/oil that is in the can and give it to Cooper, but Brian prefers his canned salmon with all of the juice, it’s really a personal thing so try it both ways and see which you like better.
I feel it necessary to note that the deliciousness of your salmon salad is directly related to the quality of the canned salmon you use. Please don’t use that nasty Bumblebee stuff, okay? We buy ours from Vital Choice and get the salmon with the bones & skin–it tastes much better and is way more nutritious. We eat the skin and the bones, except for the little salmon vertebrae because they totally freak me out.
I also feel it necessary to note that the photo above is in fact NOT an iPhone photo. I don’t believe this is the first “real” photo to appear on this blog, but it’s certainly the first one in a long time. I deserve a pat on the back!
What We Eat
I get a lot of questions from readers about what we eat. I made the switch to whole, organic, sustainably-raised foods 13 years ago this year, and to local foods about 6 years ago. This is not to say that every morsel of food that passes my lips fits neatly into these categories, but the bulk of what I eat does. And Brian has come along for the ride since I do the meal-planning and most of the shopping and cooking. Sometime I’ll write about what inspired these changes, but that is a much larger topic that will need to be addressed separately. While organic foods have been getting a lot of press for several years, I’ve noticed in the past year or two that people are staring to pay significantly more attention to the concepts of eating whole foods, or local foods, or sustainably-raised foods.
Unfortunately these terms can really just be a lot of jargon. Who defines what food is “whole,” “organic,” or “local” anyway? For me, it all comes down to eating real food: something that has recognizable origins and is minimally processed if at all. I also try to choose foods that are grown near where I live because they are fresher and thus more nutritious, and because they have a much lower environmental impact than foods that are shipped from far away. Eating local foods also ensures that we eat seasonally, which I personally believe is better from a health standpoint. Organic is probably another topic that deserves its own post (I actually did an independent study on organic foods my senior year of college!) but the short, very general, answer is that it means the food has been grown sans pesticides and in an environmentally responsible way. Sustainably-raised, the way I use it, refers specifically to meats, fish, and eggs–are the animals raised in ways that are healthy for them and limit the negative environmental impact?
Where am I going with this? Well, something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time is use this blog as a way to disseminate information that could help other people live more consciously and healthfully. Eating is a huge part of everyone’s lifestyle, so it follows that if you want to change your lifestyle, altering your eating habits is part of puzzle. Because I get a lot of questions about what we eat, how to eat healthier, or how to eat whole foods/local foods/etc., I thought it would be fun to start a regular feature here that would highlight some of our meals. Hopefully the photos and descriptions of what we’re eating will inspire you to try something new, or at least entertain you a little bit. I am also going to be posting a lot more recipes here, and while I already have several requests please leave a comment if there is something you want to know how to cook!
