Childhood Obesity and School Lunches

If you live anywhere near a television, you have heard about the obesity epidemic in the U.S. Two out of three adults in this country are overweight. One out of three children are. And most overweight children will grow up to be overweight adults. Excess weight leads to many health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, and increased rates of cancer. Nothing is more important than our children, and we need to do everything we can to insure their future. This means feeding them healthy, whole foods.

School lunches tend to be full of fat and processed foods. Some schools are improving their menus. My daughter's school cafeteria has a fresh fruit and veggie bar and serves vegetables with every entree. But the entrees themselves are usually fried and/or processed foods, full of fat and calories, and offering little in nutrition. Popcorn chicken, corndogs and pizza. I usually pack my daughter a lunch, but many families, including low-income households, depend on school lunches.

Jamie Oliver, a TV chef, has started a campaign to improve the nutrition in our schools' lunches. He has a TV show, which I have not seen, in which he visits a school district in West Virginia, and works with the cafeterias to improve the quality of the food they serve. He also has started a petition, that he plans to present to President Obama, asking the White House to address this issue. You can visit Jamie Oliver's website, and learn more about this campaign, at the link below. You can also sign the petition. Our children deserve the best.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution

Comments welcome from non-followers

Thanks to a suggestion made by my friend, Merry, I figured out how to open up comments to all readers. You do not have to be registered as a follower of this blog to leave a comment. Thanks, Merry!! :)

Slow Bread

Do you know what is in the bread that you buy? Here is an ingredient list from a commercial white bread: enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, high fructose corn syrup, potato flour, soybean oil, yeast, wheat gluten, calcium sulfate, sodium chloride, ammonium chloride, sodium stearoyl lactylate, mono and diglycerides, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, calcium propionate, turmeric, paprika. Yummy, huh? It sounds like a science experiment to me.

The basic recipe for bread contains flour, yeast, salt and water. That's it. Chemicals are not necessary to produce a loaf of bread. And if you've been lucky enough to taste homemade bread, made without the chemicals, you will know that chemicals do not even make a tasty bread. I am lucky enough to have a mother who bakes bread. When I was a child, our home was often filled with the aroma of bread baking in the oven. To this day, it is one of my favorite smells. And homemade bread is one of my favorite foods.

Over the years, I learned to make bread myself. (Maybe not as good as Mom, but I don't do too bad!) Many people are intimidated by the thought of baking their own bread, but it really is a simple process. It just takes time. I have heard some people say they don't want to do all the work of kneading the bread. I enjoy kneading bread, though. I think it is a great stress reliever. But there is a way of making homemade bread without kneading, and without resorting to a bread maker.

No-knead breads have been around for as long as bread has. Kneading quickens the process of gluten molecules binding together. But slow rising will achieve this as well, and will enhance the flavor and texture of the bread. Slow rising may also fit into busy schedules a little better. Recently, I tried a no-knead recipe for the first time, and it was absolutely the best loaf of bread I have ever made. The crust was crunchy and the interior was light and airy. The taste was fantastic. And it was so easy. Below is my adaptation of a no-knead bread recipe that ran in the New York Times in 2006. It will produce one round loaf of bread. Try it!

No-Knead Bread
Time required: 1 1/2 hours, plus 14 to 20 hours for rising

Equipment needed:
1 large mixing bowl
1 6- to 8-quart heavy pot, with lid (cast iron, enamelware, glass or ceramic - no aluminum or steel)
2 cotton kitchen towels (no terry towels)
1 kitchen thermometer
1 spatula
measuring spoons
measuring cups
cooling rack
plastic wrap

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1/4 tsp. instant yeast
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 5/8 cups warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
2 Tbsp. olive oil (optional)

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, yeast and salt. Add the warm water and stir until blended. The dough will be very wet and sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rest for at least 12 hours (18 hours is even better), at room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough will be dotted with bubbles when it is ready. Lightly flour a work surface, and using a spatula, pour dough onto it. Sprinkle the dough with a little flour, and using the spatula, fold it over onto itself. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.

3. Coat a cotton towel with flour. With floured fingers, shape the dough into a ball. (It is very sticky and wet, so just do the best you can.) Place the ball of dough on the floured towel. Dust with more flour and cover with a second cotton towel. Let rise for about 2 hours. Dough should double in size.

4. About 30 minutes before the dough is ready, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put your 6- to 8-quart lidded pot in the oven as it heats. It's important that the pot be heated when you put the dough in it. When the dough is done rising, carefully remove the pot from the oven. If you like olive oil, drizzle 2 tablespoons in the bottom of the pot. This isn't necessary, though. (I just like the taste!) Slide your hand under the towel and turn the dough over into the pot. Shake the pot a little if dough is not evenly distributed. It looks like a big ol' mess, but that's OK. Cover with lid, and bake for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake for another 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Carefully dump the bread out of the pot and cool on a cooling rack.

Planting the seeds...

A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust. - Gertrude Jekyll

Perhaps the best way to feel connected to your food is to grow it for yourself. There can be no replacement for the experience of nurturing a food from seed to plant to your table. I am excited to begin plans for my first organic vegetable garden. I am also very lucky to have a mother and a sister-in-law, who are both avid organic gardeners. Their advice will become invaluable to me! I have not inherited my mother's green thumb.

My property is beautiful, wooded hillside, and I love living here. However, it's not exactly prime gardening material. We have very little yard, and the soil is hard clay. When I decided to try my hand at growing food, I had to find a system that would work in very little space and poor soil. I've been reading Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, and I've decided to try this method. I'm starting small this first year - a 4 foot by 4 foot plot. Following the square foot gardening method, though, this should produce a nice amount of vegetables.

As I go through the steps of beginning my garden, I will keep my readers updated on my progress (or lack of it.) I also hope to add photos along the way.

The first step in my garden adventure is to start my seeds. On my mother's advice, I bought a small plastic greenhouse designed for sprouting seeds. I had a lot of fun looking through all the seed packets at the store and picking out the vegetables to grow. The colorful seed packets contain the potential for so much good food! Keeping my picky 6-year-old in mind, I bought seeds for the vegetables that my family eats the most - tomatoes, sweet peppers, lettuce, and sugar snap peas. I also couldn't resist buying bulbs for red onions. I've planted my seeds in the little peat pods that came with the greenhouse. Now I just need to let the seeds of this garden teach me "patience and careful watchfulness." And trust.

The Farmers' Market - Part 2

Yesterday, I returned to the Athens Farmers' Market. This time I was prepared! Even though it was raining, there was a crowd there, buying all of that wonderful food. There is something to be said about being able to meet the person producing your food, to be able to look them in the eye. And when you hear them describe with pride how they operate their farm, you feel very good about buying their product.

I bought some grass-fed Angus T-bone steaks, that we grilled last night for dinner. My husband took one bite and said, "This tastes like my childhood." Grass-fed beef tastes completely different than corn-fed. There was a time when most cattle was fed grass instead of corn. I prepared the steaks in the Florentine style: rub both sides of the steak with a cut clove of garlic and salt and pepper. Grill to your liking. While the meat rests, drizzle a small amount of lemon juice and olive oil on it. It may sound strange, but it tastes fantastic. I paired the steaks with a Syrah from Raven's Glenn, a winery in West Lafayette, Ohio. It was very good.

I'm a cheese freak, and I bought some delicious cheese at the market. It was made by Laurel Valley Creamery, in Gallipolis, Ohio. A creamy Farmsteader cheese and Cincinnati Chili spiced cheese curds. So good!

My daughter enjoyed the Farmers' Market as much as I did. As we left, she said, "I hope we can come here every Saturday." I hope we can, too!

Defending the Free Market of Food

Currently, there is legislation being proposed that would give the FDA more power to regulate small farms. It is called S.510, the "Food Safety Modernization Act." The link below will explain the proposed law, and why it could endanger our choice to eat locally-grown, naturally-produced food.

Defending the Free Market of Food

Spring is coming!!

As we count down the final days of winter, the weather has been beautiful! The sun is out and the temperature has climbed into the 60's for the past few days. My mind has turned to the garden I want to start this year. It will be my first venture into organic gardening. I also find myself wanting to just sit and enjoy the sun, which we haven't seen in so long. I hope you all have the chance to find a quiet moment to slow down and sit in the sun with a nice drink. If you like cocktails, here is a recipe to try:

Spring Fling
2 parts coconut-flavored rum
1 part orange liqueur (such as Triple Sec)
1 part cranberry juice
1 part pineapple juice

Combine all ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish if you like. Enjoy!

Comments welcome!

I look forward to getting some comments. We writers need feedback, and I'd love to hear about the thoughts and experiences of others. If you are new to Blogger, you may not know how to post a comment. Here's a few tips: First, you must be logged in as a follower of this blog to leave a comment. This is a security measure that Blogger uses. Once you are logged in, you can go to the bottom of the post that you want to comment on. Click on the underlined "0 Comments" (or whatever number of comments there are.) A window pops up for you to type your comment in. Type in your comment and click the "Post Comment" button. Then, you will have to type in the security words that appear, as a second security measure. If you don't type in the security words, the post won't appear on the blog. Let me know what you think! Thanks!

The Farmers' Market

A great resource for locally-grown, naturally-raised food is your local farmers' market. Many cities and towns have begun promoting this old idea. The farmers' market in my town only meets during the summer months, and so far, is rather small. I hope to see it grow. Only 30 minutes from our town, though, is Athens, Ohio, which hosts a farmers' market year-round. Audobon Magazine said that The Athens Farmers' Market was "one of the nation's best markets." I finally got to visit it yesterday.

Since it is still winter, I didn't expect to find a lot at the market. I came ill-prepared, without a cooler or shopping bag. That was a mistake. There were producers of naturally-raised, grass-fed meats. Farmers who made their own organic cheeses. Organic eggs, breads and sweets. We did buy some salsa, which was out of this world! And I can't wait to try the maple syrup we found. There was even some produce - winter squashes, apples, greens. One vendor told us to be sure to come back in April, when things really take off.

The atmosphere of this market was great. Everyone seemed happy. There was quite a diversified crowd there - hippy throw-backs, farmers in overalls, well-heeled couples, and people from every corner of the planet. All of this great food brought everyone together. I loved that.

I will definitely be visiting this market next weekend, with a large cooler, a lot of shopping bags, and my family to help me carry our new-found treasures. I would encourage you to find a farmers' market in your area. You'll probably find yourself visiting it often!

What is Slow Food?

In 1986, the fast food chain, McDonald's, announced plans to open a restaurant near the Spanish Steps of Rome. Italian citizens were outraged. Food is an integral part of the Italian culture. In Italy, food is to be prepared with care and shared with friends and family. It is to be lingered over and savored. Nothing could be less Italian than McDonald's. In response to the giant of fast food, the beginnings of the Slow Food movement began. This organization has grown to be an international group, with national and local chapters all over the world. Its mission is to preserve local food traditions and educate people about the consequences of fast food and fast living. I've posted a link to both the international and American Slow Food organizations on the right side of this blog.

To me, slow food is a state of mind. It's about slowing down enough to sit down and eat dinner with my family. It's planning a made-from-scratch meal, finding quality ingredients and cooking it with care and love. While the slow food attitude is easy to maintain in Italian culture, it can be challenging in our fast-paced American culture. We move at such a quick rate and have such hectic schedules, it can be hard to get everyone in the house at one time. In families where both parents work outside the home, finding the time to prepare a home-cooked meal can seem impossible. I think it's worth making the time, though. It may mean rearranging schedules and re-prioritizing activities. For those who never sit down together at the dining room table to share a meal, just setting aside one day may make a big difference. Get everyone involved in preparing the meal, sit down and talk to each other. Reconnect. The Italians have a wonderful proverb: A tavola non s'invecchi mai. You never grow old at the table.

The journey begins...

I love food. I love planning meals, shopping for just the right ingredients, and creating magic in the kitchen. And I especially love eating food. Recently, though, I became aware of just how disconnected I am from my food. I go to the grocery store and put items in my cart without ever thinking of where that food came from. Where and how was that tomato grown? What did the cow, whose steaks I'm about to grill, eat himself and how did he live? What is xanthan gum, and why is it in my mayonnaise? Does it matter? If we are what we eat, and what we eat eats, then it does matter.

As I began to research how most food is produced in the USA, I was astounded. This is what I've been eating? This is what my child has been eating? Government agencies and corporations may tell us that it's safe and healthy, but should we entrust our well-being to them? Something had to change.

This blog is a journal about my journey to reconnect with what nourishes our bodies, and I believe, what can also nourish our souls. What and how we eat affects our health. Most people understand that. But it also affects us environmentally, socially and spiritually. I plan to share personal insights, recipes and my journey to finding natural, sustainable, delicious food for my family. I invite all who are interested to become official "followers" and share their own thoughts and experiences. My hope is that I can, at least, spark some interest in others to think about what they are eating and what it means to them. Buon appetito!!