Whole Health Dietitian — Tastefully Fueling Active Transportation
Matthew worked on our raised bed at the community garden . . .
. . . while I photographed our furry friends.
I wielded a tool other than the camera at some point, but there is no photographic evidence.
Bed prepared and ready to plant. It looked so pretty with the soil all turned — no gross gasoline-powered tiller required! We planted carrot and beet seeds. The before and after planting pictures look the same. If all goes well, we will see evidence of life soon.
Clockwise from top left: green bean & roasted beet salad (a twist on the salad here); “Whatever,” Matthew’s name for our tossed-together sauteed summer veggie dish (eggplant, yellow squash, carrots, green zebra tomatoes, celery); grilled okra (super easy and delicious), dipped in spicy homemade catsup; and, last but not least, lentil sloppy joes, served open-face on a homemade English muffin.
This dinner was a combination of leftovers (the sloppy joes and the roasted beets) and must-go veggies from the garden and farmers’ market. ‘Twas quite the feast!
Everyday on my morning commute (gag), I pass a message board on the interstate that displays the air quality in terms of color. Green = good. Yellow = not so good. Orange = bad. The sign has yet to display a “Red” air quality day — maybe we would all be dead at that point?
Anyway, if the air quality is yellow or orange, the board displays two follow-up messages: “Please carpool,” and “Please reduce travel.”
Do these messages, delivered at this place and time, have ANY effect whatsoever? What do they want us to do when we see the, “Please reduce travel,” message? Pull over on the shoulder and stop right there? Not go to work for the rest of the week?
Here’s my take: Most people drive right by without noticing (probably because they’re texting or engaging in other dangerous distracted driving behaviors). Of the small percentage that DO notice the sign, the majority disregard the message. And then there’s the tiny minority like me, who feel puzzled and/or guilty. But is there anyone out there who sees the message and actually drives less or sets up a carpool?
I’m making efforts to carpool. I really, really like my carpool set-up, except by-and-large it’s failing. It’s been two weeks since the stars aligned our work schedules matched for a carpool day, and before that day, there was another two weeks with no carpooling.
Since I have a reverse commute (most people in the county drive into the city for work — I do the opposite), there is no public transit option. The 16-mile one way bike ride would involve a lot of big, busy, not bike-friendly roads, not to mention the time involved. So most days I’m that lone person in a vehicle, passing the air quality message board (which is usually yellow or orange, hardly ever green), contributing to the region’s air quality problems and feeling rather helpless 😦
For 10+ years, I never really questioned the standard of disposable menstrual products, other than some vague curiosity when reading historical fiction. My lack of questioning was due, at least in part, to the fact that for most of those years, I never bought any tampons or pads because my bargain-hunting mother stockpiled a lifetime supply (or so it seemed). Between coupons, sales, and rebates, she never paid anything near full price for said items, and our bathroom cabinets were overflowing with feminine products. (Hi Mom, I love you!) I’m not complaining, because my mom’s savvy shopping and generosity no doubt saved me a lot of money, but it may have delayed my exploration of alternatives.
But four females can go through A LOT of tampons, pads, and liners, and the supplies eventually dwindled. Plus, oh hey, I haven’t been living at home for more than 8 years now. I’m an adult, maybe it’s time I bought my own tampons. So I’m buying my own, halfheartedly looking for coupons and sales, experimenting with the cheaper generic options, all while trying to reduce my environmental impact, and I start to wonder, “What did women do before we had disposable menstrual products? There have to be some alternatives out there. What are my options now?”
Forty or so years of tampons and pads adds up to quite a bit of trash, but this, as with most “disposable” products of various types that cram store shelves today, represents a relatively new phenomenon. Today we have non-disposable options that are just as convenient as disposables and more technologically advanced than just using a rag.Continue reading “Diva with a party in my pants”
On Thursday night, after a week of wrangling middle schoolers on bicycles in increasingly hot temperatures, I mustered the will to hop back on the bike for a dinner date. We were torn between Stellina Pasta Cafe (an old favorite) or Farmhaus (something new). I’d read a couple of good reviews about Farmhaus, so it was on my list of places to try.
Matthew voted for Stellina, and I was too tired to care much one way or the other, so we biked there, only to find a thirty minute wait (not outrageous, but it was already 7:30pm and we were HUNGRY). Fortunately, Farmhaus was only a few blocks away, so we decided to try our luck there.
We walked in the door and were immediately hit by the strong fishy smell (the seafood is the main component of their menu that is NOT local). We exchanged a look. Ultimately, they had a table and a menu with some nice vegetarian options, so we stayed.
We choose between three or four salads that all sounded fabulous, settling on the marinated vegetable salad (not sure that’s the exact name).
It arrived in a canning jar — fun! For ease of eating we dumped it out on the plate. A flavorful and fresh start to our meal, the corn melted in my mouth, buttery and sweet, a nice compliment to the other veggies.
By this point, after the initial wall of odor and adjustment period, our olfactory systems became desensitized to the fishy smell.
Next up, sweet potato nachos. These were only so-so. To be fair, we made some changes to this dish. We ordered it without bacon and subbed goat cheese for the blue cheese because someone doesn’t like blue cheese. They came with some kind of a house-made catsup. Our homemade catsup beats Farmhaus’, no contest.
We discovered a new wine, a “sweet” shiraz (Jam Jar, S. Africa) that was basically a perfect red wine for us. Not really “sweet” in our book, but definitely not dry — a perfect dinner accompaniment.
For our entree, we shared the vegetarian succotash, tomatillos, grilled okra, corn, and peppers, served over spoon bread. Mmm, spoon bread — my first, but definitely not my last, encounter with this food. We ate this and were very sad that we couldn’t lick up the last bits in the bowl 😦 In some cultures, that’s considered very polite.
I don’t have a dessert pic, but we ordered a peach and ricotta pastry. The pastry was light and flaky, with a generous amount of fresh, local peaches, served hot out of the oven with peach sorbet on top to cool things off.
We chatted with our waiter about local biking options and headed home after a delicious dinner adventure, both glad we ended up at Farmhaus.
Her Green Life