Aint Nothing Sweet About Spam…

February 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
no spam!

I just deleted hundreds and hundreds of comments in the form of  spam.  You can’t believe how much the site gets and it knows NO boundaries.  ANYTHING you can think of, from somewhat appropriate things like diet pills and supplements to every male enhancement drug (I realize I should never say the word FOOTBALL on here…whoops, I just said it again) to coupon sites, celebrity (and not so celebrity) sex videos and  I get spam about….and it causes way too much wasted time!  But why do we call it spam?  How did it end up with the same name as that funny meat in can, which I can honestly say, I have never personally tasted, but is a staple for many, as it is subsidized by the U.S. government and is common food on Indian reservations (and many people’s pantry).

Ironically, there is an article in today’s newspaper about the correlation between eating Spam and developing diabetes.  In a study of 2,000 Native Americans from 4 different states, those who ate the most canned meat, (Spam or spam which is the generic term for any canned, processed canned meat) developed diabetes at twice the rate of those that ate the least.  With very few ingredients in canned, processed meat, none of them sweet (though I do think potato starch is part of the mix) one might wonder why it might be related to increases in diabetes.  Me, I have my very strong suspicions and I don’t think it’s the potato starch.

Spam and spam.  They have a lot in common and seem pretty harmless, but in reality…there probably aint nothing good about either!

We will miss the “kids,” tonight, but music calls and they are answering.  Good for them!  I feel a day off from cooking and a possible visit to the Falafel Bistro where finding a good meatless meal is as easy as finding any other kind of meal…except, of course, Spam!

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Filed Under: health and happiness ·

The Stuffed Mushroom

January 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSMaV8G6xIwmFpyQHa9xKzEnNXejHmxfjTIQQk0Avm72gSjSXsNIf I had a restaurant, or a food truck, I would call it The Stuffed Mushroom.  But right now, the best I have is my kitchen, which I love to cook in, especially on Thursdays and Sundays.  Yesterday, I made a big salad, a pot of split pea and barley,vegetable soup (including a bit of that demon, the white potato) and, as I have been experimenting with the past few weeks, I made a couple of stuffed portobello mushrooms (mine being my “main” course).  I look for nice, big, round portos, clean and de-stem then,  and then in a drop of oil saute up some other chopped mushrooms. Yesterday I used a blend of mushrooms with some garlic and celery.  Then I added some spinach leaves and a half a diced tomato.  Instead of bread crumbs, I used one piece of very grainy wheat bread and crumbled it into the pan, which worked well enough to soak up some moisture and somewhat bind the ingredients.  After loading up the caps with the “stuffing,” I baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes. I opted to leave any bread crumbs off the top, this week, as the bread was enough. They were very satisfying in terms of taste, presentation, satiation and decadence, low in calories and filled with nutrition!  Gotta love the stuffed mushroom and know that you are only limited by the boundaries of your imagination!  With all the health benefits they provide for such a small amount of calories, let us eat our mushrooms!

On the fitness side, my animals had their yearly check-ups on Friday.  Our wonderful vet, Dr. Mike, was so quite surprised and pleased at how well Blaze is doing with his “bad” leg.  He says Blaze is bearing more weight on it than he has seen him do since his injury well over 3 years ago.  I am convinced that there is one and only one reason why he is doing as well as he is, at almost 11 and that reason is WALKING…EVERY DAY.  The doc was also impressed with his dental and general overall health.  Once again, I am reminded of not only  how important daily exercise is for all that ails us, but how great it is for gaining and maintaining general health.

How are you doing with your 10,000 steps a day?  Let’s all get moving and make it a marvelous Monday.

Carol and Nicole, hope you both had wonderful birthday weekends!

Filed Under: Food, health and happiness, Recipes ·

Get Your Happy On

January 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

“A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.”

– Paul Dudley

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Filed Under: health and happiness ·

We all Gotta Eat…

January 27, 2012 by 1 Comment

Judy, you are right!  We do think way too much about food in our society…and I read very deeply into things regarding health.  I always have, and I always will.  In 6th grade, my teacher gave me 2 books at the end of the school year as a gift for being the biggest reader.  While I don’t remember what one was, the other was a book about a girl with a physical disability and I loved it and it began a life time of interest in all things related to the human body AND the human spirit.  Through my years of teaching fitness, I have pushed people to jump, run, dance and lift more because I always believed it to be the magic bullet (and I still do).  More recently I “push” the plant-based diet thing, because I believe there are some disconnects.  I promise, I don’t do it for me, I do it because I believe it can cure the incurable.  No, Rita, you are not alone, because others that are perfect weight, or even on the low end of their ideal weight, have also been diagnosed “pre” diabetic, so there is a disconnect somewhere.

There is also a disconnect between how much food we have in our country and the fact that still, people go hungry.  Thank you Lesley and Richard, for allowing me to join you at the soup kitchen yesterday and get a glimpse into what it is that’s going on there, how you are helping and how I can help, too.   If you are local and you are reading this and know of any restaurant or store that discards ANYTHING food-wise or otherwise at the end of the day, please let me know so I can pass that information on.  This place is in need of most everything, yet they manage to feed over 100 hungry people each day (amongst other things that they help with).  I will be organizing a fund-raising effort in the form of a Friday evening class, probably in late February or early March.  More about that as I figure it all out!

* “Because the suffering of any human being diminishes all of us, it’s our responsibility to try to ease that suffering. It is not a matter of titles, but of responsibilities.”
– Khaled


Filed Under: Food, health and happiness, Plant-based diet, The Soup Kitchen ·
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