It’s Friday! That means it’s time to try a new drinks recipe. The weather is cooling off for many parts of the world. Here, the leaves are changing into beautiful colors and the days are cool and the nights cooler.
My neighborhood this week.
When the weather shifts in the fall, I start ordering drinks with a bit more substance. The vodka tonics and rosé wines from summer don’t feel satisfying anymore.
In the last couple of years I’ve really started enjoying hard cider. And while I’m not a fan of typical sangria, I think this hard cider sangria recipe looks fantastic. While it calls for red, yellow and green apples, I wouldn’t worry too much about using all three unless you are having company and really want to impress. Put whatever you have in there, which for us is usually a fuji. Don’t have a navel orange? Use a couple clementines instead.
We are having people over for chili and treats on Halloween (click the link for a recent chili recipe I posted). This will be the perfect drink to serve.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup quartered and thinly sliced unpeeled green, yellow and red apples (or whatever color you have on hand)
1 navel orange—quartered and thinly sliced crosswise (you can also use clementines)
One 22-ounce bottle hard apple cider, chilled (Angry Orchard is my current favorite)
Ice
INSTRUCTIONS
In a pitcher, combine the apples with the orange, apple juice, lemon juice and brandy. Just before serving, add the hard cider. Serve in tall glasses over ice.
I continued to test the recipes from Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook It’s All Good this week, landing on the Chicken & White Bean Chili recipe because it seemed simple, approachable, and really tasty. I make a lot of soups and chilis once the weather starts to cool down. I usually double the recipe and put some in the freezer (lay flat in a freezer baggie) for a night when I’m too busy or lazy to cook.
Whenever I make a soup or chili recipe, I tend to double the vegetables called for. It’s such an easy way to get more vitamins, antioxidants and fiber into yours and your family’s tummies.
The alterations I made to this recipe were:
Add a can of kidney beans to the can of white beans called for.
Use chicken thighs instead of breasts (I find them less dry and more flavorful).
Use a teaspoon of Better Than Bouillon (the vegetable flavor). The recipe calls for the normal chili spices plus salt and pepper. I found when I tasted the chili it was a bit bland. Better Than Bouillon is a favorite of mine. I usually by the organic version and love that I don’t have to keep cans of chicken stock around in my pantry. It stays good forever and, unlike a half-used container of chicken stock, won’t make you feel guilty every time you see it in the fridge.
Add some of the chicken juice from cooking into the pot with the simmering beans and vegetables. It adds nutrients from the chicken, some depth to the mouth feel (I really hate that term, can we come up with something else collectively? Comment below with any suggestions!) and adds some yummy chicken flavor.
INGREDIENTS:
1.5 lbs of whatever chicken parts you want (I used thighs, and doubled the amount so I would have leftover roasted chicken to use later in the week)
3 Tablespoons olive oil
Salt (I prefer sea salt but any will do)
Black pepper
2 small yellow onions, diced (about 2 cups)
1 red bell pepper, seeds and stem discarded, diced (about 1 cup)
3 garlic cloves, minced (add more if you love garlic)
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika (the recipe calls for smoked paprika, but either variety is fine)
1 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes with their juice
1 14 oz can cannellini or navy beans, rinsed and drained (I added a second can of kidney beans)
Whatever toppings sound good to you (sour cream, cheese, cilantro, diced onion, etc)
METHOD:
Rub chicken with about 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Roast for about 25 minutes at 425 degrees, until just cooked through.
When meat is cooked and cooled a bit, shred the meet with two forks
Measure the spices and combine in a small bowl to add during the next step.
Chili powder, smoked paprika, and cumin
Meanwhile, heat 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a stock pot on medium and sauté the onions, bell pepper, garlic, cumin, chili powder, paprika and a large pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until veggies are softened, about 10 minutes.
Garlic, red bell pepper and onion waiting for to be sautéed.
Add tomatoes and another pinch of salt and turn up the heat. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer for about 30 minutes. Break up tomatoes with a spoon.
Add beans and chicken to the pot (use bouillon now if you wish). Add about 1/3 cup water or more depending on how thick you want your soup.
Simmer another 15 or 20 minutes before tasting to determine the spices or salt and pepper you want to add.
Serve with toppings
My husband said the chili was “good, but not like oh my God I absolutely love this chili!”. He thought it needed a bit more chili powder and cumin to make it a true chili flavor and tasted more like a stew than a chili. My 10 year old daughter told me she likes my ground beef chili more. That being said, I really thought it was a solid recipe that I would go back to again if I wanted a variation from my ground beef chili that I usually make.
If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I’m cooking my way through Gwyneth Paltrow’s latest book It’s All Good. It’s full of super healthy recipes that look amazing. I’m approaching my project as a busy mom on a budget who loves to cook. I sort of feel like Gwyneth doesn’t understand the “on a budget” part of life, so my goal is to determine how approachable her recipes truly are.
Two days ago, I had my next Gwyneth Paltrow recipe lined up to test. It’s her “Flourless Anything Crumble” which consists of 4 cups of any type of fruit, some maple syrup, olive oil, lemon juice, and cinnamon (all things that are affordable and easy to procure). It also called for almond meal and quinoa flakes for the topping rather than the standard oats and flour. I set off for the grocery store and that’s when the wheels came off of this plan. The almond meal flour was $12.00 and the quinoa flakes were $10. There was a time when I would have guiltily spent $22 on ingredients that would have languished in my cupboard long after using them *one time*. Today, however, I decided that Gwyneth Paltrow could take a seat. I decided to still make the crumble because it sounds good and I had the other ingredients. However, I amended the recipe to use oats and flour because a $22 homemade fruit crumble does not figure into my plans or budget. I can imagine the typical household in this country probably feels the same way.
I thought the resulting recipe with my changes was quite good, although much less sweet than a typical crumble. I used a mixture of frozen peaches and blueberries. I would highly recommend setting your expectations a little bit low for this and approach it as you would when you eat a piece of fresh fruit with maybe a little added *extra*. It was indeed quite healthy, tasted yummy, and I even had it the next morning for breakfast. My 10 year old ate her whole serving with gusto and my husband had two servings and then asked if I could make it sweeter next time. This isn’t necessarily a dish you would make as a dessert for a special occasion, but perhaps a healthy dessert alternative for a weeknight.
Here’s the recipe, adapted from the original featured in It’s All Good.
Fruit Crumble
Ingredients:
4 cups fruit of your choice (apples, peaches, berries, etc)
4 tablespoons real maple syrup (or more to taste)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup white whole wheat flour or gluten free flour of your choice
1 cup oats (old fashioned or rolled)
pinch of salt (I use sea salt)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter (or dairy free butter like Earth Balance), cut up into small pieces
METHOD:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss the fruit with 2 tablespoons (or more to taste) of the maple syrup and lemon juice. Spread out into an 8×8 baking dish. Mix the flour, salt, cinnamon and oats in a large bowl. Stir in remaining maple syrup and the 2 Tablespoons of olive oil. Spread the topping on top of the fruit. Scatter the butter pieces on the top. Bake until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling, about 30 minutes. Serve with homemade whipped cream or ice cream for an extra treat. Or, heat up leftovers in the morning and eat for breakfast with yogurt.
As you might already know, I’ve committed to cooking my way through Gwyneth Paltrow’s newest cookbook It’s All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great.This, by the way, is a huge statement. These recipes will make me LOOK GOOD? AND FEEL GREAT!? I feel like I should take before and after photos or something.
We last made Vegetable Potstickers that were a huge hit. We ate those up very quickly. To summarize the experience: they weren’t super difficult to make (although they weren’t easy either) but were very messy. I was looking forward to making the Japanese Meatballs because they looked much easier and less messy to make. Plus we like meatballs.
With some help from my blog readers, I decided that I am allowed to make substitutions to recipes as I see fit. My good friend Becky pointed out that I was actually doing my readers a service by suggesting substitutions and tweaks that other busy people might also appreciate. Take, for instance, the Chinese Five Spice Powder called for in the dipping sauce. I really dislike the taste of this particular spice blend. My sister in law told me that she hadn’t ever heard of it and could I please recommend something different. I’m thinking that a lot of other people probably don’t have it on hand. So, I made the Hoisin Sauce without the spice powder thinking that I could taste it and add something back if I thought it needed it. Turns out the Hoisin Sauce tasted phenomenal without it. So, there you go. Another substitution came in the form of using turkey rather than chicken, because the grocer was out of ground chicken.
Here’s the recipe, adapted:
MEATBALLS
1 lb ground turkey or chicken (or beef or lamb or any combo you prefer)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I like sea salt)
1/2 teaspoon pepper (Gwyn would say freshly ground, I say use whatever)
1 garlic clove or more if you love garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder or 1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce (low sodium if possible)
2 teaspoons real maple syrup
Look at these beautiful spices and ingredients.
METHOD:
Mix all ingredients in a bowl with your hands and form into small balls. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes but keep an eye on them.
Hoisin Sauce (recipe below)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup miso paste
1/4 cup real maple syrup
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
METHOD:
Heat oil in small saucepan over medium heat, add garlic and cook about 30 seconds. Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook, whisking constantly for a couple of minutes. Let cool and serve.
A couple of notes about the meatballs: there are no bread crumbs in there. Gwyneth is gluten-free (of course she is. I mean, obviously) So when you are shaping them they have a very soft, sticky, almost doughy consistency. See?
Uncooked meatballs
Not to worry, they bake up very nicely. The recipe states you can bake, pan fry, grill or however-you-want these meatballs but gave no directions for any cooking, so I looked it up and decided I’d bake mine at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Check every few minutes to make sure they aren’t being overcooked.
The result was that my family really enjoyed them, the sauce was my favorite part (visually, it isn’t beautiful — My daughter and I thought it looked like apple sauce, and my husband assumed it was a peanut sauce). I would definitely make these again and double or triple the recipe for freezing.
The Japanese have a word that describes time spent in nature — it roughly translates to the phrase “forest bathing”. It essentially encapsulates fully immersing yourself in the experience of being in nature. You are “bathing” in the trees, the branches, the leaves, the sounds, the smells. It might sound completely woo-woo but hold on a second — there is really something to it.
My favorite place to walk my dog Sammy. It’s right in the city and I can feel myself relax when I’m there.
Back in the 1980’s a neurobiology researcher named Robert Ulrich discovered that when hospital rooms had a view of nature, the patients healed faster than those that didn’t. Newer research has found a link between walking in natural settings and less depression and anxiety. Not to mention we all know being outside and walking helps us stay active and fit. Adding a natural component means we can also reduce our stress levels (which can lead to further health benefits).
A new program called ParkRx is seeing pediatricians and other physicians literally prescribing time in nature to their patients who are sedentary, obese or overweight and suffering from the repercussions, like asthma. As one doctor said “Park Rx, therefore, serves two purposes: (1) to help create a healthier, happier society, and (2) to preserve and create more natural places through our next generation of environmental stewards, conservationists, and activists. Giving children time in Nature to explore, especially through unstructured play, is essential to their overall development and well-being.” I would add that giving ANYONE time in nature is essential to our well-being.
The photo above shows my daughter and her pals at the end of a two week horse camp. She comes home each day filthy and exhausted but so happy.
I have a friend who works for the USDA Forest Service in Arizona and he literally sleeps under the stars many nights. His job is building trails and directing a team of employees and volunteers. His Instagram account is stunning, and I can feel myself physically relax at just the sight of his photos. It is such an amazing thing to see how being outside in the elements day after day contributes to his health and happiness.
One of my friend Andy’s stunning shots of his adventures on the trail. This one is called Sunset at Camp.
So, if you are trying to add some healthy habits to your lifestyle, I would strongly suggest starting by finding time to be in nature several times a week. If you are starting at no times a week, try just adding one or two. If you are in an urban environment, find a tree. Any tree. Pay attention to how doing this makes you feel. Do you breathe more deeply? Do your shoulders become unhunched? Can you feel your heart rate slow down? Take advantage of this totally free health benefit, and encourage your children to do the same.
See the photo above? That’s the wishful thinking version of how I envision my meatball will turn out. As we witnessed with the Veggie Dumplings, my reality wasn’t really on par with the beautiful photo I wishfully posted. That’s ok though, because they were still really tasty.
We are moving on to the second choice winner in the Gwyneth Paltrow cookbook IT’S ALL GOOD, which you might remember is the Japanese Chicken Meatballs. These seem quite easy to make. They were featured in “The Kids’ Menu” section. There’s a hoisin sauce to serve on the side which includes miso paste. Weirdly, I found some in my fridge from the time I decided I was going to make homemade miso soup and never did. So, we will have to ascertain if that container will give us botulism or if I need to purchase a new one. Other than the ground chicken and the possibly the miso, I’m super excited to announce that I have all the ingredients for this recipe! The ingredients include pantry staples like garlic, sea salt, ginger, soy sauce, maple syrup and Chinese five spice powder. The last one is tripping me up a bit because I have used it before and am not a huge fan of the taste. I’m wondering as I cook my way through the cook book if I should be allowed substitutions based on my family’s personal preference, or if I really should follow it to a “t”. What are your thoughts?
One last thought of the night, which has literally nothing to do with meatballs or Gwyneth Paltrow (that I can reliably confirm anyway): OLESTRA. Remember Olestra? It was that super creepy calorie-free fat substitute that was featured in all those potato chips and snacks back in the late 1990’s/early aughts? It was supposed to be this super awesome ingredient that would allow us to eat snack food guilt-free? That was until weird things started happening to people’s digestive systems .
I wonder when we will stop looking to quick fixes and magical products to allow us to continue to eat junk food and just realize that maybe we need to cut back on the junk food. I love chips and fries and crackers. I really do. But if I’m going to eat them I’m going to eat the real version, and I am going to moderate my intake. I know they aren’t good for me and that they have no nutritional value (except I did tell a friend today her potato chips had a ton of potassium in them, which is actually true, so there. For more on why potato chips are not super villains, check out this link). I don’t believe every single thing we eat has to be virtuous. Let’s just aim to do 80% virtuous and 20% whatever we want. But if you are at 30%/70% I would say you can start slowly by trying to achieve 50/50. And then 60/40, and so on. Small changes beget bigger changes.
I will post my Japanese Chicken Meatball recipe as soon as it’s tested! Until then!
Being a blogger for such a short time, I was thrilled to be nominated today for a Liebster Award! What a fun surprise.
Thank you Jan Baillargeon of Loved And Nourished for the nomination! I really have enjoyed reading your blog and seeing all the adorable photos of your baby girl, the wonderful meals you prepare, and the love you have for your family.
A Liebster Award is an online award originally given by more established bloggers to bloggers with less than 200 followers who post worthy, quality material. If the blogger accepts the award, s/he then nominates a few more favorite bloggers waiting for their awesome stuff to be “found” and thus the chain continues. Click here for a description of the Liebster Award and what goes into accepting it, nominating others, and keeping the awards flowing to others.
The Rules
1. Thank the Nominator.
2. Display the award.
3. Nominate 10 more bloggers with 10 new questions.
4. Answer the questions provided by the Nominator.
5. Notify the Nominees.
10 Questions Answered
What do you hope to accomplish with your blog?
I really am passionate about helping other people realize that they don’t have to be perfect in order to be well. There’s room for treats and indulgences and mistakes. I am passionate about meeting each person exactly where they are. And I want to get people excited about health and wellness.
What’s your favorite blog post you ever wrote? (link it here)
It definitely is the Vegetables Schmegetables post. It really illustrates how even with the best of intentions, kids of nutrition and wellness enthusiasts still give up their veggies sometimes. I am far from perfect.
What is the best piece of advice you have been given?
Be your authentic self.
What’s your favorite smell?
Pine trees in winter. Followed closely by a fire in the fireplace.
What is your best advice for a new blogger?
Don’t try to be anyone else. Write with your authentic voice. Pick topics you are enthusiastic about. There will always be someone who shares your enthusiasm.
What are three things still left on your bucket list?
Skydiving, attending a Presidential swearing-in, running a 10k
What is your favorite meal of the day?
Dinner. It’s when my family is gathered together after a long day.
If you could give your 18 year old self one piece of advice, what would it be?
BREAK UP WITH HIM!
What are three words your best friend would use to describe you?
Funny, resourceful, kind.
What is your favorite memory of this past year?
Showing my daughter I could overcome my fear of waterskiing.
10 Questions for Nominees
What is the inspiration behind your blog?
What’s your favorite thing to eat/favorite recipe?
What would you tell your high school self?
What do you hope to achieve with your blog?
Where is your favorite place to visit?
If you could do one thing over in your life, what would it be?
What is your favorite sport/activity to participate in?
What movie could you watch over and over again?
What are the 3 things you hope to accomplish this year?
What wisdom can you share with brand new bloggers?
Here are the blogs I’ve chosen as Nominees (in alphabetical order)
Ok, so last night we were lucky enough to be invited to a private event at the Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis which included the coolest theater experience we’ve ever had (a fully immersive and interactive performance of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) followed by a traditional lobster boil by Smack Shack. It was amazing.
I woke up this morning feeling like I wanted to eat a bit lighter, and I had some leftover cooked quinoa and tofu from the Veggie Dumplings we made yesterday so I decided I’d make a salad for my family to have for lunch today. I wanted something light and easy. I had some fresh green onions and cucumbers from the farmer’s market in the fridge and peas in the freezer. I always have garlic powder, salt and pepper, so those were no-brainers. Below is the recipe I created, which is totally vegan. It’s easy to sub out the tofu for another protein of your choice: beans, feta cheese, even shredded chicken.
QUINOA AND VEGGIE SALAD
Ingredients (makes 4 servings)
3 cups cooked quinoa (I like adding a bit of vegetable Better Than Bouillon to mine when cooking)
1/2 cup crumbled firm tofu
2 green onions, white and light green parts only, chopped
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder or fresh garlic, minced
1 cup peas
1/2 cup parsley
course sea salt and pepper to taste
METHOD:
Mix everything together (think you can manage?)
This would be an easy salad to double the recipe and keep it around for lunches and side dishes all week.
Remember those beauties? Vegan Dumplings were the big winners in the poll for the first recipe I would test from Gwyneth Paltrow’s It’s All Goodcookbook. You’ll remember from a previous post that I received the book as a birthday gift, and that Gwyneth and I have a long, complicated history. Mostly it’s me not being sure if I should love her or loathe her. It’s so hard to decide. Regardless, I love the look of many of the recipes in her cookbook and so I decided I would cook my way through it and report back. What I want to find out are: Are her recipes approachable? Can a middle aged busy mom without a nanny, a cook, a housecleaner and other household help actually find the time to make the creations within? The only way to find out is to try.
I accumulated the ingredients for the dumplings pretty easily (you know what, I like to say potstickers better, and I think the way I made them are more like potstickers, so let’s go with that from now on). It wasn’t a crazy list with lots of expensive, hard-to-find ingredients.
My kiddo has been in camp all week and I really wanted her help with this one, so I waited until today to make these. You’ll notice in the photos she’s wearing her Angry Birds pajamas. In this house, we cook in our pajamas.
The end result is that they turned out amazing. They were really delicious and perfect and we couldn’t stop eating them. They might not be as beautiful as the stock photo I used above. I’m thinking I should invest in a food styling course.
The downside is that they are really messy to make, including a lot of splattering if you choose to pan fry them (which we did, because PAN FRYING IS AWESOME). The cleanup wasn’t fun, but then again it never is. My best piece of advice is to always try to clean up as you go so it isn’t so overwhelming at the end. Here is my kitchen at the end of everything. SO. MUCH. MESS.
So here’s the recipe, adapted from Gwyneth Paltrow’s Vegan Veggie Dumplings (I can’t legally reprint the whole recipe here without her permission, and even though I emailed last week to ask for it, I’m guessing her people have better things to do, which may or may not include sourcing local and organic tomatillos for her kids’ lunches.)
Vegan Potstickers Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups green cabbage, roughly chopped
1/2 small red or yellow onion, or even two or three green onions, roughly chopped
1/2 cup crumbled firm tofu (I haven’t tested this but I bet you could use ground chicken, turkey or other animal protein in place of the tofu. You know it wouldn’t be vegan anymore, though, right?)
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup cooked quinoa (I love adding a bit of vegetable Better Than Bouillon to my quinoa when it’s cooking. It adds flavor)
1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons neutral oil (I used olive oil which technically isn’t a neutral oil but it worked out fine. You could also use canola)
Pinch of coarse sea salt
48 square wonton wrappers found in the refrigerated section, typically near the tofu
Dipping sauce for serving (see below for recipe)
Vegan Potstickers Directions:
Pulse the cabbage, onion and garlic in the bowl of a food processor until finely chopped.
In a large non-stick skillet heat the oil over medium-high heat and add the cabbage mixture with a hefty pinch of sea salt.
Cook and stir occasionally until the veggies have softened, about 5 to 6 minutes.
Add in the tofu, peas and quinoa and continue cooking until the peas are soft, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the soy sauce and sesame oil. Use a potato masher to smush up the mixture until it sticks together. We allowed some of the peas to stay whole because we wanted a bit more texture.
Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
Make an assembly line of several wonton wrappers and put 1 teaspoon of the filling mixture in the center of each wrapper. Wet your finger in a small bowl of water and use it to moisten the edges of each dumpling. Carefully fold the corners over making a triangle, making sure you press all the edges to form a good seal.
Heat a bit of the neutral oil (like canola) in a large nonstick skillet set at high heat. Cook the dumplings for 2 minutes, or until they are golden brown on the bottom.
When the potstickers are browned to your liking on the bottom, add 1/2 cup of water to the skillet, putting the lid on and allowing the dumplings to steam until the wrappers are completely soft, about 2 minutes. Serve with the dipping sauce recipe below. ***Make sure if you are using a skillet that isn’t non-stick that you pay close attention to the potstickers because they will cook a lot more quickly than in a non-stick skillet. (See the photo below for what happens when you don’t pay close enough attention.)
Vegan Potsticker Dipping Sauce Ingredients:
3 tablespoons soy sauce (I use lower sodium)
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
Combine all ingredients with a fork or a whisk and serve alongside the potstickers.
This morning I was scrolling through my newsfeed when I saw, for about the 3,654th time, a headline that said “THE 10 FOODS THAT DIETITIANS WILL NEVER EAT” . I have a problem with headlines like these. For one, all dietitians and nutritionists are not exactly the same. They are a huge community of people who have very different belief systems about food. It’s not like they all got together at some huge conference and decided “Hey, let’s vote on whether pretzels are evil, ok?”. It doesn’t work like that.
Secondly, I am willing to bet that a vast majority of nutrition professionals indulge in “no no” foods all the time. Not constantly. But once in a while. I’m willing to bet they have the same philosophy as I do, which is that life is too darn short to not have an ice cream cone once in a while.
I feel that statements like these set everyone up for failure. Imagine you are someone struggling with healthy eating, just trying to do your best. Maybe you are at the very beginning of cleaning up your diet. Maybe you’ve ditched Flamin’ Hot Cheetos for some whole grain pretzels, and you’re feeling pretty good about it (as you should!). Now imagine you read an article like the one above in which a dietitian says she will only consume a pretzel if she is quite literally starving. What does that say to you? What I’ve heard time and again by people who are working on eating healthier is that when they hear statements like these, the first thing they think is something like “Screw it, I’ll never be good enough and so I might as well go back to my Flamin’ Hot Cheetos”.
Blanket statements as they pertain to nutrition just aren’t helpful, in my opinion. When I hear a nutritionist say that they would never ever in their whole entire lives eat a hot dog, I feel sad for them. I love hot dogs. I don’t care that they might contain weird animal parts. Isn’t part of being ecologically responsible using up all the parts of the animal so we produce less waste? And I just really love the way they taste. So when I’m at a BBQ and that’s what’s served, I am ok with that. I will throw some sauerkraut, pickles, onions, mustard and ketchup on that thing and enjoy every bite.
Is 80% of my diet healthy, nutrient-dense foods? You bet! Do I love deep fried pickles once a year when I go to the state fair? Oh heck yeah! You see, I think eating a healthy diet is what helps me walk 18 holes of golf (about 8 miles) while carrying my bag. It is what allows me to keep my kidneys and brain and heart healthy so I can hopefully live a very long and contented life. But if I subsisted only on chia seeds, kale, salmon and blueberries my whole life (all things I love by the way), without any of the added extras, I think it would actually decrease my quality of life. There is something to be said about joyful eating, especially when it’s with people we love, and its affect on our happiness.
These are just my opinions. Everyone is different. But one thing I do know is that perfection is an illusion. The perfect diet, the perfect marriage, the perfect job. They don’t exist. And while we are all chasing our perfection, we might be missing out on the best parts of life.
Cultivate Wellness 