Apple Quinoa Salad

I am in love with this salad. I got it from my friend, Elise's, Healing Cuisine blog (this is a really good food blog, by the way).

Here is the recipe. I altered it a little from the original, to make it less expensive for me (i.e. buying dried mint leaves instead of using the fresh stuff, using an onion instead of a shallot because I always have onions on hand and hardly even know what a shallot is) and to feed more. Another thing I don't do is rinse the quinoa, like everybody else that I know seems to do:

1/4 cup raw, slivered almonds
2 cups quinoa
4 cups filtered water
2 Tbsp onion, diced
2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
Freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 Tbsp olive oil
1 Granny Smith apple, diced thin
1/4 cup dried peppermint leaves (in the herb section)

1.)  Bring 4 cups filtered water and quinoa to a boil in a medium saucepan. Cover and reduce heat to Low.  Simmer until quinoa is tender but still chewy, about 15 minutes. Let cool.

3.)  Whisk together onion, curry powder, and salt in a large bowl.  Season with pepper. Whisking constantly, stream in olive oil, whisking until dressing is emulsified.  Add quinoa, apple, mint, and nuts.  Mix well to combine.  Serve.

(If you feel like it, you can slice up part of the apple to make it look pretty, like I did.)

Springtime, Kuznia-Style

Ocean rigged this up for Peace:

Peace likes it a lot:

And now, whenever we want to go for a walk with Peace in the stroller, I can't just push from behind like a normal person (or a gay guy in prison). I have to take the string off the bike and pull her along. Kind of like I'm the reindeer and she's Santa Claus.

Here's a picture of Ezra, so he doesn't feel left out (f-stop, 1.8):

And this is what Vern's office looks like so far:

My Food Story

I have been so confused about food lately.

I don't even know where to begin, so this is probably going to be kind of disjointed and not fully thought out kind of post.

First, I'm tired of being a hypocrite regarding the way that I eat versus the way I let my children eat. I want to be as strict with myself as I am with my children.

BUT, at the same time, I don't want to do that because I don't want to have "food rules" with myself. I've been in that mindset before, and it's dumb. Although, for the most part, except for the week in high school when I only ate an apple and half-pint of skim milk for lunch because Vanessa Dufault was doing it, I have more or less had a pretty healthy attitude toward food.

I really like food. I enjoy food. Food is my friend.

I have always been kind of suspicious of people who don't enjoy and love food the way that I do. (Vern's a foodie too. He's engaged in enormous food challenges a handful of times and can eat a lot if he wants to. I love that we have that in common.)

And now I've turned into this food-nerd, who enjoys reading nutritional books (by Diane Schwartzbein, Gary Taubes, Sally Fallon, etc), blogs (I am especially enamored with Matt Stone's 180 Degree Health blog), and discussing all of my findings with my nerdy food-nerd friends. (Because it's just not a playgroup unless we're discussing cortisol, leptin, and insulin!)

So, let's see... where am I going with this?

Yes, so I really know a lot nutritionally about food. And I love that. And I love to eat healthy. I love preparing and providing my family (and myself) with nutritious, quality food.

But, now, here is where the confusion arises... I also believe that (any kind of) food eaten in celebration and gatherings has a different energy than, say, the time I ate at least 20 pieces of leftover Halloween candy alone in my car before dropping it off for donation. I think that food eaten with friends, in communion with one another, is special. Thus, different rules apply.

To be the person that doesn't eat anything at those times because it is not healthy is hardly appealing to me. (Because I DO think there is such a thing as "orthorexia", as much as some of use foodies might want to poo-poo it.)

So, I have always eaten heartily at gatherings because of this.

But something is different lately. Or maybe it isn't. I seem to remember eating myself into a food coma last March around this time as well (which I wrote about in the post titled 'How Eating Out Is Like Having Sex'). Maybe it's just that I've been going out to much. Maybe I need to stay at home more.

But even with staying at home, there have been times when I will justify Vernon and I eating a 1/2 gallon of ice cream together while the children are asleep because of the fact that we are eating in communion together, and enjoying it.

Because I have these differing food philosophies (eating healthy all the time vs not thinking about the nutritional content of food), I am more confused than ever.

I think I may need to re-define my relationship with food.

To what, I don't know yet.

Maybe still carry both philosophies (to be used respectively at whatever time I deem fit), but instead of say, going up to the buffet table at a potluck five or six times until I feel like throwing up, I could eat a normal portion. Or, maybe, when I'm eating out at a restaurant with friends, instead of offering to eat the rest of their strata because I know they're not going to take it home and I don't want the waitress to throw it away, maybe I could just eat what's on my own plate and be satisfied. (Yet, there is a part of me that is resisting these ideas because I actually really like eating a lot on occasions such as those. So, putting up those "food rules" would start to mess with my mind in a way I'm not comfortable with. Yet, on the other side of it all, my body really doesn't feel well when I eat like that.)

Oh, how to balance this all.

Vern showed me some pages in one of D.D. Palmer's Green Books (D.D.'s the founder of chiropractic), and here were some things he had to say,

Chiropractic has not formulated a system of certain, prescribed, fixed rules, because what is food for one is poison for another. Therefore, "Take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry." The one who takes life easy, eats, drinks and is merry, is the one who enjoys the good things of life and lives long in the land.
 
Collectively and individually, those who enjoy life, live to eat and drink and have a good time, are the ones who do not follow any prescribed principles or set rules, who do not measure their food, nor time their eating. St. Matthew tells us to take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink.

When the men or women who have lived to a ripe age are asked how and by what means they have attained such longevity and retained good health, the universal answer has been and no doubt will continue to be, "I have eaten and drank whatever I desired, have aimed to enjoy myself and get the best I could out of life."

D.D. wrote those words in 1910 though, and a lot has changed within our food supply since then, but I like the general idea behind it.

Then, also and in relation to this, there is this quote that I found in Matt Stone's blog that reads, "...stressing out about your diet too much is a leading cause of excessive cortisol production (my note: cortisol contributes to weight gain, especially in the stomach area). It’s probably an even more prevalent problem than eating a truly crappy diet."

All this thinking I'm doing about this isn't doing me any good either. It's increasing my cortisol production, right? It is hard to "eat, drink, and be merry" when you're thinking of how what you're eating is going to affect your insulin levels, digestion, etc. Although, I actually don't really have an issue there... I can eat, drink and be merry with the best of them without thinking about food stuff. It's when I'm nursing the food hangover the day afterward that I start the thinking...

Something needs to shift here, but I'm not sure what it is going to be.

I'll keep you posted.

Treasure Map

One week from now, Vern and I are going to make our respective Treasure Maps (also called Vision Boards). Next Sunday (at 9:32 am, CST) is Aries New Moon, which is apparently the time to make a Treasure Map (don't ask me why... ask this lady, or join this thread on mothering).

But feel free to mark that day on your calendar and join in the Treasure Mapping fun.

Here is what we've been up to lately:

Goofy Mama Answers, Part 5

What methods did you use to potty train your two oldest? I am getting a lot of pressure from my husband's family to train our 2 1/2 year old daughter. I really don't think she's ready and would like to use a gentle approach and wait until she wants to train. We have received potty training books, pull-ups, Dora underwear, and lots of unwanted comments for Christmas. 

I've never liked the term "potty training". Creates such pressure to get our kids to comply to an act that couldn't be more inherent. Kids learn how to use the potty when they're ready. When you're a grown up, nobody ever asks you how old you were when you learned how to go pee on the toilet. You're not filling that answer in on a job application. And the reason for that is BECAUSE IT DOESN'T MATTER!

So what if a kid isn't using the potty before they're three. They'll figure it out. It's not rocket science. Just leave them be, don't pressure them, and maybe let them run around without any pants for awhile (if you have hardwood floors and are cool with stuff like that).

Pressure from extended family about this is unnecessary and annoying. It's like the question, "So, is she sleeping through the night yet?" Who cares! Kids are smart and they're not going to spend the rest of their lives peeing in their pants (no one ever has... I'm almost certain about this, but I have yet to meet everybody on this planet, so this is only my estimation).

Tell the relatives to butt out, and don't sweat it. (You'll have enough to sweat when she's older and pees in the bottle that you use as an essential oil room spray, just to see what pee smells like when she sprays it.)


Your post called "Lower Standards" was interesting and the comments showed several people doing the same. I would like to hear if you've found any drawbacks to this approach. Do you ever get tired of seeing dirty clothes or do things start to smell? Maybe you could role play the part of someone objecting to this philosophy. For example, "I went to Goofy Mama's house and it had a smell." "Goofy Mama's kids seemed dirty and I felt uncomfortable walking in the mall with them." However you do it, I want to hear the other side of the lower standards idea .... 

This is a strange question, but I applaud you for having the courage to ask it, because they always say, "There are no dumb questions..." (except for this one, maybe).

Let's see... role playing? Umm...

PHILOSOPHY OBJECTOR: Goofy Mama, your house smells worse than my dead grandma after a raccoon threw up on her corpse.

GOOFY MAMA: Then your dead grandma must smell awesome because that's what my house smells like... awesomeness.


Is that what you were looking for? Or should I do another?


INT. ROSEDALE MALL - DAY

Philosophy Objector is walking through the mall with her one-night-stand, Charlie Sheen. They stroll past Hot Topic and are approaching The Pretzelmaker.

Philosophy Objector has something she wants to confide to Charlie Sheen. She leans over, whispers,

PHILOSOPHY OBJECTOR

Goofy Mama's kids seemed dirty and I felt 

uncomfortable walking in the mall with them.

CHARLIE SHEEN

What? Goofy Mama is awesome.

Duh... she's winning!

PHILOSOPHY OBJECTOR

But, they were dirty... like my dead grandma.

CHARLIE SHEEN

Being clean is for fools, amateurs.

I don't know. Winning, anyone?

Does that about sum it up?

The quick answer behind this (somewhat presumptuous question) is that we DON'T smell and that our house is lovely and smells like incense and food cooking (when we're not living with Vince, that is. Here, it kind of smells like chemicals sometimes).

Duh... winning!