Category Archives: Health

Fleet maintenance

I’ve always been a practical shoe kind of girl, but it took Matthew’s urging to get me into Birkenstocks.  Before I tried Birks, I never realized that, no matter how “comfortable” the shoe, pretty much all shoes are not shaped like feet.  The toe area should really be the widest part of the shoe, not the narrowest!

My feet carry me lots of miles, both walking and pedaling, and I want that to continue for a long time.  And I don’t want bunions!  Foot shaped shoes equal healthy, happy feet 🙂

I own two pairs of sandals and one pair of clogs.  Add in Matthew’s, and we have quite the collection.

On the green side, these shoes can be re-soled, so you can keep a pair around for awhile.  I pulled our fleet out a couple of weeks ago to carry out some preventive maintenance on the cork foot beds.  Buying durable goods and making them last is a good green investment.

Beware the mandolin

I was dubious about owning a mandolin slicer, but somehow it become one (of the very few) items that we tossed onto our wedding registry.  In fact, we received not one, but two mandolins, and the one we kept proceeded to sit in its box in our pantry for many months.  One day, we decided that we should try the mandolin and decide whether we wanted to keep it or not.

In theory, it sounds great: quickly and easily get nice thin slices of vegetables, or set it to julienne and get cute little matchsticks in no time at all!  In theory.  I imagine there are some heavy duty professional vegetable slicers that operate in just that way (in fact, I recall a rather nice one from my time working at Subway).

But ours?  Oh, it is special.  It came with a “vegetable holder” that is supposed to hold the food and keep your fingers away from the sharp parts.  I’m sure the maker included this solely for liability reasons, because trying to use it makes the whole contraption worthless.  If you want to actually slice vegetables on it, you just have to hold them with your fingers.  (Can you see where this is going?)

Last week, I decided that julienned carrots would make a lovely addition to the cabbage salad I prepared for a pot luck.  One moment I was creating beautiful little matchstick carrots, the next . . . .

Would you care for some julienned finger with your salad?  It took off a nice chunk of skin.  That mandolin slicer might be on its way out the door — not sure it’s worth the human sacrifice!  (However, like a true genius, I went back and finished the carrot I had been working on when the accident occurred.)

All patched up and ready to snack!

This beautiful little apricot from my MILs tree made everything better 🙂

Fast food, green and healthy style

Sometimes you just need an easy-ish meal.  The delicious fresh produce available at this times of year helps in this quest.  The other night, we assembled our delicious beet salad (recipe here) and some dressed-up grilled cheese sammies.

Roasting the beets takes a bit of time, but it’s worth it — chop the beets* and get them roasting first, then work on the rest of the meal while they roast.

The co-chef made the grilled cheese sandwiches, with local cheese and our homemade whole wheat bread, dressed-up with sauteed spinach* and fresh green onions*, while I worked on the salad.  He added a fried egg to his sandwich for a twist.  Good fast food requires a bit more time and effort than traditional fast food, but the result is delicious and nutritious!

* From our garden, as were the greens for the salad.

Eat food

Gardens and farmers’ markets are in full swing, and, oh, the fabulous food we eat!

Some recent combos:

Stir fry with basic homemade teriyaki sauce (used fresh ginger and garlic instead of powdered) with snow peas*, broccoli*, black beans**, and edamame.  Minimal cooking keeps the snow peas nice and crunchy!

Mixed green salad* (arugula, spinach, tatsoi, red leaf lettuce) with radish*, hard boiled egg**, green onions**, and sunflower seeds.

Curry with napa cabbage**, snow peas*, rutabaga*, and yellow squash*.

We used coconut milk and red curry paste (both NOT local!) for the curry.  The chef tossed some onion and garlic in there, too.

Strawberry salad

Mixed greens*, sliced strawberries**, goat cheese**, olive oil, and our special balsamic vinegar.  Simple and delicious — good balsamic is the key!

*From the garden.

** Locally grown/raised.