Eh - I loved the documentary. I love the basics at the start and envision myself cooking about half vegan/vegetarian meals. There are about half of thEh - I loved the documentary. I love the basics at the start and envision myself cooking about half vegan/vegetarian meals. There are about half of the meals in here I know won't go over with my family -- but it's a great resource for the rest. Already made the black bean burgers with sweet corn relish. We GOBBLED it UP! Looking forward to using this in meal planning. Will be used at least once a week....more
I bought this on a whim on amazon last month for $3 as a kindle deal of the month. I'm glad I did.
So here's the deal: the last two years I've startedI bought this on a whim on amazon last month for $3 as a kindle deal of the month. I'm glad I did.
So here's the deal: the last two years I've started getting really passionate about being healthy. I've always had weird health problems that are all unexplainable to the medical community (chronic fatigue, morning nausea, joint pain, etc. etc.). I thought I might be celiac and tried eating that way and felt better, my test came back negative, though. Two years ago D's cousin who owns a health store in UT put us on a whole body cleanse with a 3 month diet of ONLY vegetables and lean meats. All of a sudden I had energy coming out of my ears, I was happy and all of my other health problems went away.
That lead to essential oils and clean eating and learning about low-GI . . . and then we moved and I got a job working full time and it all went out the window. I did my best to cut out processed foods and slowly increase the amount of vegetables we ate each day. Under the influence of an awesome friend who started eating vegan I started green smoothies. I was very interested in never purchasing processed foods and going whole-foodist. I've heard about the raw-foodists and see them at the farmer's markets and I know they have good, healthy food - but this was my first time researching and taking a gander for myself.
This is a really good intro book. She goes over the basics of WHY someone would NOT cook their food and the benefits, as well as simple raw snacks, kitchen equipment, and pantry basics. The rest of the book is split into recipes for: Milks/Shakes/Smoothies, Juices, Energy Bars/Balls/Bites, Trail Mixes, Cereals & Parfaits, Veggie Chips/Dips/Spreads, Cold Soups, and Candy/Cookies. Just to give you and idea of all the ways you can incorporate RAW foods into your diet.
My favorite example of why to eat raw foods is when she was talking about nuts/seeds and she was talking about the importance of buying them RAW not Roasted - and she mentioned how just roasting it does more than just make it crunchier and yummier. If you plant a raw seed it grows, if you plant a roasted nut/seed, it will rot in the ground. Roasting changes its composition and removes the live enzymes.
The other reason I gave the book such a high rating (in addition to the information) is I love the author's attitude. She eats about 75% vegan including about 60% raw foods. The rest she uses local farm products. I've found that foodies and people who self-identify as an -ist tend to be a particularly passionate bunch - about what they and everyone else should be eating. The author includes some un-raw ingredients (natural peanut butter for one, with appropriate raw substitutes) in her recipes with the given that, come on, as a mom you have kids and a husband who need to be coaxed along the path at times to make the journey with you. She's very much a 'find a balance of what you want to eat and what works for you and go with it'.
Because it can be overwhelming trying to change how your family eats. And this gave me reassurance that I can go baby steps and that I don't have to be an -ist to enjoy RAW foods and start to be more healthy.
ps - looking forward to saving up for the baby steps of a processor, juicer, dehydrator, and vitamix. I think I'm going to have fun having the time as a SAHM to try this stuff out.
pps - get the paperback, this is one cookbook I'll want to have out quite a bit. kindle makes it a bit more difficult.
ppps - remember, be just a little healthier today than you were the day before :-)...more
got this because D & I are moving from our all vegetable/lean meat/oats stage to low GI foods. So far we've added in frozen berries, quinoa, and agavegot this because D & I are moving from our all vegetable/lean meat/oats stage to low GI foods. So far we've added in frozen berries, quinoa, and agave/stevia. This book is mostly valuable for the ideas for meal planning, recipes, and lists of GI foods and pantry staples (to avoid/to eat).
The rest is easily skimmable (as are most dummies books) and I was glad I only paid $5 for it!
Planning on making copies of the lists and keeping them in the kitchen with me, ditching the rest . . ...more
Ellie's always been interested in medical type things. She wants to be a nurse when she grows up. Add that to the fact that we're committed to teach EEllie's always been interested in medical type things. She wants to be a nurse when she grows up. Add that to the fact that we're committed to teach Elle the correct anatomical terms to our body parts, and you could say we have a little Curious George on our hands.
Ever since we stopped letting Ellie shower with us two years ago she's been asking for body books from the library. I started in the picture book section with very general cartoonishy sort of books. She wanted more detail so I got a few old textbooks - but most of those were showing the inside nervous, muscle, and skeletal systems and less "body parts."
Well Ellie's best friend Maddy's mom is a nurse who believes the same as I do about teaching kids early. So Ellie came home from her friends house asking if babies came out of vaginas. I'm very clear that I will never lie when my kid asks questions like this - I'm telling the truth but I'm only telling facts and then stopping. No expounding. Just answer questions as they come but always be open so she's willing and able to ask. This leads to more questions about making babies so I tell her next time we'll get a lot better book about that stuff. She made sure to let me know she wants a book that shows a peni*. She's never really seen one (a little drawback to not having a baby boy around getting his diaper changed) and she's about dying to find out. How to show a 5 year old a factual-medical-body part in an appropriate way? Hmmmmmm . . . .
I was SO glad my library had this book. It is written in a way where young kids can just look at the pictures, a little older kids can read short paragraphs in larger text, and much older kids and adults have pages and pages of tiny text to learn from. Almost all of the pictures are cross sections of body parts that don't make much sense to a child unless it's explained. We have eggs and sperm, embryo growth, babies in utero, as well as both the male and female reproductive systems.
Did I mention it's a 3D pop-up book? Of male anatomy?
After we were done reading and asking and answering questions what does Ellie say? "Mom, you need to go get me a new book. This one did not show the outside of a peni* and I have never seen that before. I still need another book." She went on to talk for a few minutes about how unfair it is she has never seen one and I am the one that could get a book to show her but I never get the right kind of book, etc. Seriously in 2 minutes she dropped the p-word about 20 times. It was a struggle to keep a straight face. Because seriously . . . .
How is it my child is probably the only child in the world not satisfied with a diagram of a pop-up peni*?
EPILOGUE
When telling this story to my mom and sister, after picking ourselves up off the floor from laughing so hard my mom had an idea. She had a huge "History of Art" book that we all started searching for naked men-statues. {And really what else would you rather do with your mom and sister than search through books for naked-men-statues, ya know?} Thank you Renaissance and the statue David. I think we may have nipped this problem in the bud. ...more
Favorite marriage book - bar none. Recommended from my SIL. After they read this we all saw their marriage go from average to envious. This book has tFavorite marriage book - bar none. Recommended from my SIL. After they read this we all saw their marriage go from average to envious. This book has three parts:
1. Marriage 2. Intimacy 3. Teaching children about Marriage and Intimacy.
I actually have only read the marriage and children parts (eek) but those parts have helped my marriage tremendously. and I'm glad I read it when Ellie was young so I could decide early how to raise her without giving her a complex (the 'LDS Good Girl Syndrome'). Ellie knows more about babymaking and correct anatomical terms than most kids twice her age - and I'm ok with that. And for heck-sakes her husband better thank me that she won't get squicked out about intimacy. But right now it is hard to endure the judgmental looks when my kid busts out the v-word at church on sunday. It'll be worth it in the end, dangit!...more
First thing's first: I love history. And I love going to see historical sites. Did people in the past experience joy, sorrow, shame, anger, happUPDATE
First thing's first: I love history. And I love going to see historical sites. Did people in the past experience joy, sorrow, shame, anger, happiness, or peace here? That was one of the appeals of moving East Coast: History! You just feel connected and feel more meaning to being *there*, you know? And I feel people's presence; I have this belief that when a place becomes a part of you that you leave part of yourself in that place. Richmond was awesome - the cobblestones beneath my feet are the same George Washington walked. I had a really neat experience in the Nauvoo temple. And even the 100yo farmhouse my company uses for storage - I can stand inside and just imagine the feet that have walked there before and their lives. I won't even get started on Monticello.
Anyways, I felt that with this book. I didn't know that Henrietta Lacks was born in Roanoke (20 miles down Roanoke Street), or that she was born and grew up in Clover and South Boston - where I do business with my company every day. But I got that feeling as I read this book - we are all connected.
SO, how about I talk about the book?
Mrs. Lacks died of cervical cancer and the cancer tissue Johns Hopkins biopsied without informed consent went on to become the first immortal line of human cell tissue (meaning it never died but continuously replicated). This is the story of her life, her death, and her immortality. The HeLa cell line revolutionized the world of medicine and has been the foundation of research in DNA, genome mapping, disease and cancer, (even my favorite) IVF, etc. Many people and doctors and companies went on to become rich off of using and selling her cells. Her case and things the medical profession did at the time were also the foundation to a lot of laws and protection in place for informed consent and patient's rights (that didn't exist back then).
While I've read negative reviews with complaints about Ms. Skloot adding herself as a character in the story or the fact that so much focuses on Lacks' children/related drama - I believe that's a short sighted approach to what this book presents.
This book is chock full of nice, meaty, moral issues - just waiting for you to jump right in.
Did you know US was one of the last countries to regulate medical testing (animal and human)? That poor, uneducated blacks were regularly used as medical guinea pigs without informed consent by shooting them up with disease/cancer/infection, just to see what would happen? (the most famous of which being the Tuskegee Syphilis studies) Sounds a bit . . . Nazi-esque? Yes, I'd agree. And these things were happening not too long ago (50s). My grandparents were my age when this was a socially acceptable practice. Oh and did you know that there are thousands of genetic tests out there you could take when you go in to the office, but because of copyright they have a right to charge what they want and block others from doing the same? I believe the book said it would be over $1 million to run every genetic test on you.
Do you want to talk about the quandaries of regulation in medical research? Patent law and copyright issues for DNA/cells? Profits of pharma companies? Do you get paid when your cells strike it rich for someone else? The continued distrust from African Americans of authority or society 'wanting to help them'? Justice of affirmative action policies? On breaking the cycle of poverty? Abuse and attachment in children? Society's treatment and housing of homeless and/or mentally disabled? Family history and knowing who you are? It's here, it's ALL here.
This book may not be the best written or life changing book - but it presents questions we need to be thinking about and need to be answering. It tells a story that needs to be told.
P.S. now excuse me as I sneak over to the www.henriettalacksfoundation.com website to make a small donation in appreciation of the sacrifice of the Lacks family in furthering the medical miracles that bless my life every day. They provide resources to descendants of H.Lacks to receive an education. ________________________________________________________________________________
~Wow, I think this would be an awesome book club book.
~Sounds a little boring, but 3 chapters in: I'm hooked....more
author has gluten-free in her household, so I picked this book up. made for all natural, real ingredients, it seemed like a good mix of comfort foods,author has gluten-free in her household, so I picked this book up. made for all natural, real ingredients, it seemed like a good mix of comfort foods, family friendly, adventurous, and ethnic foods that would fit my family's tastes and the way I cook. I think I'll end up buying it whether or not I have Celiac, but she does mention everything in this book is on her blog 365crockpot.blogspot.com or something....more
I found this to be a good reference with OK recipes. For gluten free recipes the whole family will eat I like Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big BookI found this to be a good reference with OK recipes. For gluten free recipes the whole family will eat I like Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking more than this book . . . I kept it on the shelf for reference for the last month. I'm being tested tomorrow for Celiac and I imagine based on what the results of the test are whether I go out and buy a plethora of Celiac-themed books....more
I first heard about this gardening method either watching the church's annual general report or seeing a link to it on the LDS.org website. It was hig I first heard about this gardening method either watching the church's annual general report or seeing a link to it on the LDS.org website. It was highlighted in a story about teaching poor people in third world countries or in big cities with tiny plots of growing space to start gardens. The church would go in to teach and most of the time they used this method. I was intrigued so I bought the book.
We always had a garden growing up and all I remember is LOTS AND LOTS OF WEEDING and never having lots of food at the end. We hated it. The premise of the book is to change the way you think about gardening (not in rows in a massive mud pit that attracts more weeds than plants) but in easy to reach blocks (usually 4x4 sf) and utilizing vertical plants by having them grow up (i.e. tomatoes) thus you can harvest twice as much crop in half as much space.
I got this book last year when we started planning our first garden. People think I'm crazy -- and Darik thinks I'm too into "the method" but I swear everyone will understand when it comes harvest time.
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