a peek inside the fishbowl

(I’ve been busy today!)

ETA: This is the best recipe for multigrain bread I have found so far. It makes a lovely brown loaf (as you can see!)

There’s no need for a bread machine, this recipe is dead easy, and I don’t even consider myself a baker. I got the recipe from Canadian Living. They haven’t posted it yet, but I will link to it once they do…

I just wish there was such a thing as low-carb bread (oh, and calorie-free butter!) :)

As you know, what with my posts about granola bars and fruit smoothies with flax and spinach, I spend a considerable amount of time dwelling on what we eat.

We went to Dairy Queen one night during the last week of summer. We’re not regulars at Dairy Queen by any stretch, but Mark thought it would be a nice way to cap off our evening. (In fact, I think we were there after Rock n’Bowl.) Anyway, as we waited in line I decided I didn’t like Dairy Queen very much and I didn’t order anything. I decided that if I was going to eat ice cream, it was going to be something I really enjoyed, like, say, Haagen-Dazs. Mark and the girls each got a small dipped cone, the volume of which took me by surprise. When they get ice cream at home they get one scoop, but these were huge. Portion control just went out the window. How could little kids be expected to eat so much ice cream? Why should little kids be allowed to eat so much ice cream in one sitting? Why does a treat have to be such a big treat? Isn’t a small treat nice enough?

(Calories aside, have you ever thought about what’s actually in soft serve ice cream? It’s basically corn syrup and chemicals, mixed with air. Here’s an article with more details. Perhaps I’ll start making my own ice cream. I have an ice cream maker. I should be using it more.)

It seems like the majority of people out there really don’t think, or care, about what kids are eating. How can that be?

Dr. Freedhoff’s post the other day (accompanied by a photo that make my stomach turn) about school cafeteria lunches didn’t just make me ill, it made me feel sad. How can a SCHOOL get away with serving this to their students? But it’s not just the schools. It’s the parents. We let the schools get away with it. And so much of what we feed our own kids is crap. Much of it sold to us in the name of convenience … a concept largely invented by marketers and public relations departments hired by Big Food.

WHAT kids are eating is one issue, HOW MUCH is the other. Portion sizes are big, and getting bigger. Kids are growing up in an environment in which supersize is the norm. Large is the new small.

When the girls and I talk about body sizes we talk about how everyone is the same on the inside, and not to judge people based on what they look like. We talk about how the Most Important Thing is to eat well and be healthy and strong. You can be petite, or large, (or still have an, AHEM, SHAPELY backside like myself) and still be healthy. Sure you can! But, but, but, I am seeing more and more young kids with major weight issues. And that’s not healthy. I wonder about those kids and what the story is behind their weight. I am just waiting for the day that one of the girls points to a fat kid and asks me what I think about their body shape.

Should I tell them that some kids are fat because of what they’re eating? And they lead sedentary lives? Not everyone has a thyroid/or other health issue that is causing weight gain. You know what really shocked me, seeing overweight kids in the change room at our local pool. I never really understood what they carried with them… until I saw the folds, FOLDS of skin and their soft jiggly midsections. I’m sorry, but anyone under the age of 20 should probably not have a “beer gut.”

We had dinner at The Works not too long ago. We like The Works because it’s walking distance from where we live, and Mark and I like the food. (They have great veggie burgers!) As we sat at our table I noticed a twenty-something guy sitting alone at a table for two right next to us. He was just sitting there, staring down at the table. It was kind of awkward, because we were so close and I wondered whether our chatter was bothering him. Before long it became clear that he was there for what The Works calls “triple overtime.”

Here’s the description (as printed on the menu):

“3 of our thunderbichin’ one pound Monster Burgers piled with bold bbq sauce & cheddar eat em all in 20 minutes & you get the burgs for FREE, a dinner for 2 on your next visit FREE & a WORKS baseball cap FREE – chill out burgs take 30 minutes to cook !!”

Woo hoo! All this heartstopping glory can be yours for only $36.50! You pay only if you can’t finish it under 20 minutes.

Wait staff were coming over to explain the rules, and other wait staff were coming over to see what was going on etc etc. It was a circus. My heart was sinking, my stomach turning at the thought. There was no way I could hope to enjoy my own meal if this guy was going to be shovelling food into his maw at the table right next to ours. What made it even more sad was that the guy appeared to be by himself! A few minutes later he was joined by some friends and THANKFULLY someone decided to move the whole bunch of them over to another table at the other end of the room.

The eating began. Each of the three burgers had two patties on it. He ate it all under the time limit. He just plodded through it, and amazingly, didn’t throw up. After he was done he was congratulated by the server … people were high-fiving him, there was lots of praise and cheering and gushing “you did it!” etc. He got his Works hat and (another) free dinner.

So tell me, since when is it cool to eat like a pig?

With portion sizes and waistlines getting bigger, one can’t help but wonder where we’re all going to end up. What are people going to look like in twenty years? Fifty? Will we even be around to see it? Are we going to eat ourselves to death?

– I’ve run out of frozen berries, so today’s smoothie is an unmeasured mixture of green tea, fresh pears, cucumber, sweetened plain yogurt, ice cubes, ground flax and honey. I wasn’t sure if I was going to regret the addition of cucumber, but it was surprisingly refreshing.

– It’s cold today! I need new slippers. Slippers are the new cool. Did you know that?

– I plugged in ye ol’ litebook this morning. I needed something to light my fire today.

– Mark and I made a BIG purchase this weekend. More on that later, but I will say this: I am incredibly excited. It’s a big blog post in itself. Anyone care to guess?

I am keeping this short because my pile o’work is about *this* high and my week is shaping up to be a busy one.

What it is about September?