Goodbye Thursday Hello Weekend

Breakfast:

Pumpkin Pie for 1!
Oat crust, filling as usual, and organic oikos vanilla on top and a half of a banana on the side.. with flaxseed butter

Here is the explanation:

"Crust":
1/2 Cup total of Irish oats ( I mixed flaxseed cereal with it too)
Put into an Oven AND Microwave safe dish (I used this corningware dish) with
1/2 cup water ( so that the oats are soaked but not floating in water)
Microwaved for 2 minutes
Spread out oat crust to the sides of the dish so that its a flat crust like shape
Put oven-safe dish into (toaster) oven at 375 for about 5 minutes

"Filling"
Mix following ingredients into a separate bowl
1/4 cup organic pumpkin (puree not filling)
1/3 cup egg beaters- or I've used carton egg whites only or 4 egg whites
pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon Brown sugar
1 teaspoon of Maple Syrup (or more brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon of Baking Powder
Microwave for 2 minutes or until slightly firm all over

Put-It All-Together:
Take out crust dish w/ oven mitt!
Spoon this slightly firm mix into the crust dish
Put back into oven for another 5-7 minutes + at 375
Topped with a spoonful of "cream" aka nonfat greek yogurt, sprinkled with cinnamon

On the side I had a half of banana with pb


Lunch: Whole Foods Salad


If you often read my blog, you can tell that I NEVER treat myself to lunch out. Mostly because I enjoy preparing my own food, secondly because I HATE to spend the money when it is so much healthier and CHEAPER to plan a tiny bit and have foods for lunch. However, being sick and being on campus until 1 pm ( and having class at 3:45) I knew it would be the best option to either stay or head to Whole Foods less than 1/4 mile from campus! So, I thought it would be a nice treat to myself to get a yummy made-my -own salad!
Broccoli

Roasted and non, Red Bell Pepper

Quinoa

Chicken

Mixed greens

Feta

Purple Cabbage

Cucumber
Corn and Black Beans
Two quarters of roasted potatoes ( top right)

And, an artichoke

Pineapple and Strawberries

Dinner:


leftover Whole Wheat Pasta and Sauce, Half of a whole grain bun for a mini-tofu sammy, extra veggies (peppers, cauliflower), parm cheese, some chicken in there too...

Body:

I certainly DID NOT feel well enough to get in a workout after class ...ARGH! I barely had a voice and felt really tired after the interview and lunch. But I needed to stay for class. Calling the doctor in the morning for meds!

Mind:
Met April on campus at 9:30 to get equipment, then we met our freshmen interviewee for our project on College Freshmen Food Choices. The interview we conducted took about 30 minutes, then we went to the library and transcribed the interview. Apparently this takes a looonnngg time, ( it took about 1.5 hrs)

Class: we talked more about TG, but mostly cholesterol and phospholipids and went over our exam from last week. I did alright ( I got a B)... but so many people in the class did worse than the last exam and we all studied so hard. I think it was because there were SO many places to mess up, SO many enzymes for each pathway - so he gave us an extra credit opportunity to work in groups and re-do the first problem. We did great!

Soul:

It was so nice to treat myself to Whole Foods, $8 for lunch is outrageous but I never do it! I sat outside too, the sun was really warm but the air was cool.

It was also SO nice to be out of the house all day! Even though I still felt ill and was exhausted, i have been "couped up" in the house all week being a total bum on the couch! ( i needed to be but..)

After lunch i searched for articles to support my metabolism research paper and found a bunch!

Another lake trip to Nana's is in store for this weekend since she is having "thanksgiving" early, but I am un-sure if I will go mostly because I have been so sick that I haven't been able to get alot of my research done. I also would hate to bring my cold with me and get nana or any of jeff's sisters/neice/nephew sick!

It's Thursday!!! Grey's and Ugly Betty soon and I am catching up on Private Practice right now...

Organic, Inc

I basically try to follow and enjoy a diet high in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, low-fat dairy and eggs, lean meat, fish and little alcohol. The body digests these foods over time, slowing gastric emptying into the pancreas, keeping insulin release stable, blood glucose levels fairly stable.

I found Organic Inc immediately interesting because this is all discussed in its first chapter! This "diet", tends to be thought of as the South Beach Diet only because Miami cardiologist Arthur Agatston came up with diet to comabt heart disease and with comibination of reduced calories, subjects lost weight. The South Beach diet didn't offer up anything that nutritionists were not already saying at the time of its outburst, but its association with buff models and the miami area founder- led it to take off -becoming a spin on the nutritional approach going back to Hunza peasants of Britain, who have historically incredible survival rates ( their diet was high complex carbohydrates, vegetables and fruit, well taken care of livestock).

When you add in organic, local foods to this model, it no longer becomes a "prescriptive diet" for losing weight- it somehow becomes your "way of life". You increase sustainability by choosing local foods, you increase your health and eliminate pesticides in your body by choosing organic. It doesn't mean you have to shop at Whole Foods.... it means that you are a consumer that CARES!

The marketing exec from Whole Foods tells Samuel Fromartz (author of Organic, Inc), We knew consumers for quite some time heard about Organic, but no one really knew what Organic meant. For that matter, we also knew consumers did not CARE- they just wanted to feel good about the choices they made.

Whole Foods is also developing a way to ensure their meats are not only free of antibiotics and hormones, but also raised to animal-compassionate standards, another means of increased sustainability. Yet, Whole foods capitalizes on consumers- American consumers LOVE FOOD, they also LOVE SHOPPING, yet most HATE shopping for food. Whole Foods makes that easy, they make the choices for you- telling you its good.

Their 365 brand of organic products is an example - You can buy a bag of 365 organic pasta for less than $1 or you can buy Montebello brand pasta grown on hilltop in Italy, farmed free of chemicals for $2.99. The WF brand makes "organic" easier- cheaper. I question though, the sustainability factor; What about LOCAL people???!?! Yes you are doing a "good" thing for your body by purchasing organic, but what about the cost of transporting that hilltop Italian pasta from Italy? The jet-fuel, the gas mileage to the Whole Foods??

I mean, is it really worth it for the economy? Most people today in the U.S do not own a pasta maker or know how to make pasta. This is where my recent reading of Slow Food Nation and Gastronomical Me come into play. Shouldn't we also be concerned with sustaining the economy and sustaining human growth by education consumers to be co-producers, to know what gastronomy is and why it is important to have skills such as making pasta, or growing vegetables free of pesticides ?