Childhood Obesity

I had never really put any thought into childhood obesity and wasn't really concerned because obesity has never been a problem for me or anyone in my family. I attributed our physiques with decent genetics and didn't think obesity was really a problem. I've seen lots of chubby people and very few morbidly obese people but I figured there had to be something wrong with their genetics.

Then I went to the drive-in and decided to get some popcorn and a diet soda. :-) As I waited in the long line I couldn't help but notice there were several young fat kids. Not just chubby, but really fat. Their parents were fat too. I thought to myself that maybe it's just the drive-in and fat people like to go. I don't often hang out in places where so many fat people congregate and so it was a bit of a shock. And then I started to think about how much work is required to really gain that much weight.

My weight fluctuates and I'm most comfortable at about 115 - 120 lbs so I could lose a few pounds right now but I'm not fat. Just chubby. These people are fat. Grossly and possibly morbidly fat. I'm not the best parent or the best cook but I think I would seriously have to feed my children crap constantly for at least 6 months for them to get as fat as the children I saw at the drive-in. I feel guilty feeding them McDonald's or Little Caesars every now and then, but I seriously think I would have to feed them garbage - fast-food and processed/packaged food for a long time. And how could anyone afford to do that. I can't afford to buy packaged food - it's too expensive and I actually enjoy preparing meals. It's a bit of an escape to stand in the kitchen and create a meal I know will nourish my family. Sipping wine while I'm cooking helps too.

I guess my concern is why parents don't take the time to actually cook. It's far less expensive and yes it may take a little more time but with a few shortcuts it is easy to create a healthful and delicious meal.

Here is the recipe of one of my children's favorites.

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (fillet into 4 breasts)
1 10 oz bag of egg noodles
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes (can use freshly diced tomatoes)
1 can of black olives (shortcut - sliced)
1/2 jar of capers (drained and rinsed)
1 small onion (shortcut - presliced)
1 8 oz. container of mushrooms (shortcut - sliced)
1-2 cloves of garlic (minced)
4 Tbsp of Italian Seasoning

1 loaf of premade garlic bread
1 bag of spring mix salad

Boil noodles according to instructions. Drain and set aside.

Fillet the 2 chicken breasts into 4 breasts and sprinkle with Italian Seasoning on both sides.
Preheat stove and skillet to brown the chicken breasts.

Add the 3 Tbsp of olive oil.
Place breasts into skillet and lightly brown - do not fully cook.
Add the sliced onions, mushrooms, and minced garlic and saute lightly.
Add the 2 cans of diced tomatoes and bring to a gentle boil - just bubbly. Add water to desired consistency.
Add the capers and olives and a few dashes of Italian Seasoning and let simmer while chicken breasts cook fully. Do not over cook the chicken.

Heat the garlic bread according to instructions.

Serve one breast on a bed of noodles and cover with lots of sauce. Serve with a side salad and the garlic bread. It's a light, flavorful, easy meal. The kids love it and the sauce and noodles are great without meat too and make for great leftovers.

Enjoy!

Vegan and Gluten-Free Granola Bars

Vegan & Gluten-Free Granola Bars Recipe 

by Lydia WiatrowskiNote: I use all organic ingredients

1 C oats (gluten-free) processor2 C rolled whole oats (gluten-free) - do not process1 C almonds processor1 Tbsp whole flaxseeds1 Tbsp whole chia seeds1 Tbsp nutritional yeast1/4 C Earth Balance (then melted)5oz frozen strawberries processor1/2 C raisins1/2 C dark chocolate1 Tbsp honey2 Tbsp maple syrup1 Tbsp Tahini1/2 Tbsp raw sugar

Preheat oven to 300 degrees

Combine 1 C oats and almonds in food processor. Pulse until combined.Pour almond and oats into large mixing bowl. Add all seeds and dry ingredients and combine.

Put strawberries into food processor and pulse until slightly chunky.

In smaller mixing bowl melt 1/4 C Earth Balance. Add honey, tahini, syrup and raw sugar and combine well with Earth Balance.

Fold in wet ingredients with oat mixture. Fold in raisins and dark chocolate chips and the 2 C whole rolled oats.
Press into 9 x 13 Pyrex glassware dish and bake at 300 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool completely before cutting into bars.

Enjoy!

Adela (Lita) Lerma's Homemade Tortillas

My mom has been making tortillas ever since I can remember. The only problem is she has never measured anything with any cooking or baking utensils. Mom actually uses the lines of the palm of her hand to measure and the feel of the dough to determine if it is right. So I have done my best to try to capture the measurements of her tortilla recipe.

2.5 lbs of flour

1 heaping soup spoon of salt

1 tsp of baking powder

1 handful (from the fingertips to the main crease of your hand) of Crisco

hot water (almost boiling - hot enough to make kneading the dough with your hands uncomfortable) - hot water is added until the dough feels right.

Knead the dough until it feels right and then make small round dough "patties". Not balls, but patty-like so you can then roll them into tortillas. Heat on a comal at medium high heat. It the comal isn't hot enough, the tortillas will cook too slowly and be hard. Also note if you add too much baking powder, the tortillas will also become hard. It's really a learning process to get the dough correct. Even my mom, when out of practice, can make a hard tortillas.

Dough "patty" topside view

Dough "patty" underside view

Dough "patty" side view

Standard comal

Rolling the dough "patty" into tortilla form

Tortilla

My First Field Trip

My mom recycled before recycling was cool.

This morning while packing my daughter's sack lunch for her field trip, a flood of memories from my childhood field trips filled my head. There was one very vivid one in particular. I don't remember what grade I was in. Maybe second or third grade. But I remember I was going to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) Zoo in Portland, Oregon. I was so excited to be traveling to Portland and even more excited to go to the zoo. I couldn't wait to see the exhibits and experience the zoo because truthfully the only times I got to go were through school outings.

My mom was a single mom raising four children. She had a sixth grade education and English was her second language. She was born in Crystal City, Texas but began working as a migrant farm worker about the same age I began going on field trips. She traveled from Texas through Colorado into Washington and eventually settled in Washington where she met my father. 

Their relationship did not last and my mom was twenty-five with four children and very limited options for work which limited our budget. We simply were unable to enjoy activities requiring any expenses such as travel or admittance fees, so this field trip was an adventure. An escape. A world beyond Adair Village, Oregon. 

To be honest I don't really remember much of the field trip other than lunch. I think the event was so universally encompassing that the impressions I got were what any child would walk away with. What made this field trip stand out for me was not the actual trip but rather the lunch my mom packed me. I was so excited to have a sack lunch because being a free-lunch child I seldom got a sack lunch. I always had the hot school lunches and envied my friends with their hostess cupcakes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and super hero thermos. I wanted a Scooby-Doo lunchbox with a matching thermos but instead I got the colored lunch tickets. This field trip brought me my first sack lunch. 

I remember sitting on the ledge of a cement wall. I believe it was a landscaped area outside of the entrance and I remember excitedly opening my sack lunch only to find a folded tortilla with peanut butter and jelly wrapped in foil and a Golden Griddle bottle filled with Tang. There were no hostess. No chips, no soda. Nothing except mom's tortillas and Tang. I remember someone jokingly making a comment about my Golden Griddle Tang bottle. I laughed it off and I think I was able to play it off well because my classmates liked me and I don't think they truly wanted to hurt my feelings. 

But I was disappointed. I was sad. I was embarrassed. I was ashamed.

Looking back now I know my mom gave us everything she could. We were poor but we weren't without and today I just wanted my daughter to not stand out. I wanted to spare her the sadness I felt on that first special day. My first field trip.  

So today I made sure to pack my daughter a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread, a banana, strawberries, trail mix, and a Hansen's soda. No one noticed her lunch. No one made any comments. She simply blended in with the rest of the students. 

Procrastination...

Mother Mary publicly breastfeeding baby Jesus.

As you can see it has been awhile since I've posted anything to this "blog". I had great intentions and seriously wanted to begin blogging but realized I couldn't hold myself to the daily postings so I simply shut down. But today I have a renewed energy and motivation. My son is now 2-years old and has found ways of entertaining himself at times when I need to do some research or get online. Hopefully I can find the energy to get online after the babes are asleep as I don't want this to pull me from my motherly duties. My children come first and everything else gets re-prioritized as priorities change.

I will be posting about several topics I hold near and dear to me. Mostly parenting, cooking, and a few social/political issues. As I share my thoughts and beliefs about certain issues, please understand I truly do it with love. I don't mean to turn anyone off or away and sometimes I may come across as intolerant but that is the furthest from the truth. I am probably one of the most accepting and tolerant people I know. I have friends from every political leaning and extreme and they are my friends because all politics aside, I know they would be there for me if I ever needed them. They are my friends and have supported me through emotional difficulties, the loss of my dad and brother, failed marriages, and the ups and downs my family has experienced as a poor Mexican family growing up with a single mom. I also have friends who disagree with many of my beliefs both Christian and secular. Some of my friends do and believe in things I don't, but there is some commonality that bounds us together and that is what I hold on to and why we remain friends. Not all of my friends have breastfed or kept their sons and daughters intact. And not all of my friends parent as I do. Not all of my friends vote the way I do. That's okay. 

So if at times I seem intolerant, please email me and remind me the most effective methods of change require love, compassion, and gentle prodding. I will do my best to hold to my Christian beliefs of love and compassion and articulate my thoughts in ways that I think bring honor to my Lord and my causes. 

Here is what you can expect: Food, food, and more food. Parenting, cooking, and baking with love. Intactivism with love and breastfeeding news and support. Every now and then I'll share articles on relationships as we all can use help in that area. And I'm sure there will be much more. 

Thanks for riding along and I hope you enjoy this journey with me. 

Norma-Jean Vincent's Homemade Macaroni-n-Cheese

This is not the original recipe shared with me by my former mother-in-law, but rather a variation inspired by her recipe which I believe was shared with her by her cousin - I don't remember her name. This is a household favorite. My middle child loves it so much that each time I make it she wants to take some over to our neighbors so they can also enjoy it.

3 C. elbow macaroni
16 oz. cottage cheese
8 oz. sour cream
8 C. shredded cheese (I always use the Mexican mix)

Take a 9 x 13 casserole dish and spray it with Pam or a non-stick cooking spray.
Mix the cottage cheese, sour cream, and a couple cups of shredded cheese along the bottom of the casserole dish and set aside.
Cook the noodles according to directions - at high altitude I cook them for 10 minutes at a rapid boil then drain (do not rinse).
When the noodles are ready, pour them into the casserole dish and mix with the cottage cheese, sour cream, and remaining shredded cheese - set two cups of shredded cheese aside to layer on top when the dish has baked.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
After the dish has baked for 45 minutes, remove the aluminum foil and spread the remaining two cups of cheese along the top and bake for an additional 10 minutes uncovered.

Recommendation: Serve with peas and a fresh fruit salad.

Here are some variations to the recipe depending on your mood and who you're cooking for.

1. Mix in a pound of cooked, taco-seasoned ground beef.
2. Mix in green chili peppers and dash with coarse ground pepper - this is my favorite and I always separate a portion to bake separately from the main dish.
3. Use plain yogurt instead of sour cream.
4. Low-fat version (this is hardly the recipe to try to make low-fat): use low-fat sour cream/low-fat plain yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, and a fat free cheese. I often use the low-fat cottage cheese and low-fat sour-cream and it is still very flavorful but I would not recommend using a fat-free cheese.

Grandiose Intentions

Today is day-1 of being a full-time mom. I had all these grandiose ideas of what I wanted to accomplish today as I began this new endeavor but I sit here completely exhausted at 8:30pm. If I didn't have so many more things to get done, I'd crawl into bed with my baby boy and fall asleep but I made a commitment to myself that I would begin my Active Mother's blog. I will commit to writing every day even if it is a short blurb or reference to something I believe in or support.

Today I wanted to create a list of my goals, projects, and personal growth initiatives and complete a few tasks. I only accomplished a few of the tasks I had in mind but I'm hoping tomorrow will bring a new day with a new start and new initiative. I'm hoping I will feel rested and have much more energy and motivation but I will begin with my general outline tonight.

Goal 1: Lose 20 freakin' pounds. Where the hell did this weight come from!? I did something really stupid thinking I was being really brilliant and ended up bloating up like a beached whale. I'll explain more later but I gained 8 pounds in two weeks and probably another 8 just watching the 8 I gained.

Goal 2: Start running again. I want to begin building my base again and hold back for awhile until I rebuild my strength. I always end up coming out way too hard and get injured and set-back only to come back hard again and suffering another injury. So, this time I'm starting out slowly. 15 - 15 - 15 for two weeks then 15 - 15- 20 for two weeks and I'll progress from there. My long-term goal is to run a marathon with my girlfriend Patty in 2013.

Goal 3: Learn a new craft. I have always wanted to learn how to quilt and I am starting a class tomorrow morning at my church called Crafting Connections where I will learn how to quilt. I am so excited!

I have many more goals, but I'm trying to be realistic. Next is my list of projects.

Project 1: Complete scrapbooks for each of my three children. I have started scrapbooks for each of them but always find other priorities so I will now create a timeline and complete each of them.

Project 2: Organize the garage. I love running, cycling, snowshoeing, hiking, fishing, and camping and unfortunately my gear is everywhere so I want to organize everything by activity so I don't have go buy duplicate things every time I can't find what I'm looking for.

Project 3: Create a blog. I want to be a resource to other women, moms, and working moms and provide helpful tips and information. More to come on this project.

Note - these are very personal initiatives I am publishing because I feel if I publish them I have to hold myself accountable.

Personal Growth Initiative 1: Heal from past wounds. More to come...
Personal Growth Initiative 2: Heal broken relationships. More to come...
Personal Growth Initiative 3: Learn to love in a healthy way. More to come...