Victoree is honoring the passing of her sister-in-law with sacred silence this week.
To work on: choosing not to abuse food while processing loss, an emotional state that often triggers overeating.
Blessing until…
Victoree
Victoree is honoring the passing of her sister-in-law with sacred silence this week.
To work on: choosing not to abuse food while processing loss, an emotional state that often triggers overeating.
Blessing until…
Victoree
Happy Spring!
Yes it is, according to the Celtic calendar. The wheel of time rolls into the time of new life: lambing, breaking ice and snowdrops poking through the snow. Blessings of Imbolc, Celtic spring, which begins on St. Brigid’s Day, February 2nd. Should you remember, since my career has less of a hold on my life, the rhythm of the earth instead of the corporate structure determines my sense of timing. I am ending the planning period of the year and beginning the executing period. Let’s start with food:
Buy in Season; Buy Local
Some of us plant-based eaters worry about making sure we serve our families a nutrition-dense variety of veggies all year long. In my opinion eating local and in season is the answer. I’m a big fan of local farmers’ markets. It takes the burden off my head of thinking about what veggies to buy every week. In my quest to find what seasonally appropriate vegetables to feature for meals this season I found a useful chart. It’s the Seasonal Produce Guide from USDA.
This week: Pay the rent? Buy Medicine? Buy Food?
Seniors too often find themselves having to choose between buying meds or food. I make sure that when it’s food buying week that I pick the freshest seasonally available.
This month: Executing Plan for Life Season-right Career Change
I was in job-search mode last season and there were poor results. Opening a brand new search this season I look forward to seeing the adjustments made and lessons learned will bring success. I plan to make space for indoor gardening. There will be blogs and pictures from time to time about that.
We welcome spring today and face it believing that the return of the sun will not only bring new life in the garden, but newness in every part of life.
Photo by Jocke Wulcan on Unsplash
Groundhog Day
The groundhog allegedly said spring will come early. We’ll see. None of the usual signs like the early snowdrops peeking out or the brief whiffs of spring perfumed air. However, darn my senses, the sun has returned growing stronger and staying longer by degrees. My neighborhood looks more like the picture above with new buildings pointing up to the sky and wrapped below in black ribbons of new roads. Growth, expansion. Spring is here.
Veganuary
How was your Veganuary? How many new recipes did you sneak into the family meals repertoire? There were two new dishes at my house that got hearty applause, not just a limp “I love you so I’ll tolerate your weird diet” polite clap. My family may never become plant-based eaters, but more green stuff is found and enjoyed at the table.
Fat Tuesday-Ash Wednesday
The year seems to be galloping in and tumbling over itself. The 49ers and the Chiefs will be squaring off in Superbowl 58 on Sunday, February 11th at Allegiant stadium in Las Vegas. Can you get more bright lights big city? Here’s another strange thing: February 14, St. Valentine’s Day is also Ash Wednesday–the beginning of the Lenten season! Since both celebrations tend to be huge food events–especially for chocolate lovers– let’s say that it is going to be a packed week. Kitchen Exhaustion Warning: Prep early as possible. No, it’s not the end…2024 is an election year; a leap year. Believe me, from the look of things there will be enough smoke for BBQs to last until the 4th of July.
Year of the Wood Dragon
It’s an unusual year. Incidentally, lunar New Year blessings for 2024 which according to the Chinese zodiac is a “dragon” year. The element of this dragon is “wood”. The dragon symbolises strength, power and prosperity. This might be the favored season for startups, success, and abundance.
This mixed up, over the top year might just be what we’re looking for: tremendous positive change. A blessed and prosperous Imbolc.
Thankyou thankyou thankyou Max Griss for the gorgeous latkes!
Let me whisper this one: It is extremely difficult to find vegan or vegan-friendly food if locked into the SAD (Standard American Diet) kitchen.
Going plant-based inspires a foodie to look over the fence at other cuisines to find interesting food. Lettuce salads get old on the taste buds. Finding the variety of flavors I longed for was not a problem in the past because being single, broke and hungry pushed me to look at low-cost and good to eat in other people’s cuisines. The unemployment days were where expensive meat first began to drop off my grocery list and veggies became gold.
Beyond dollar store raimen
In fact, in my first kitchen after college, I established “OP food day”–Other Peoples’ food day. It all started with the cheap weekend slice of pizza for dinner. Then, I began to notice other cheap eats from other cultures as I took the shortcut every day through the hallway of the “temple of commerce” in downtown Providence RI, which was not far from where I worked at WEAN radio. That is where I got my first taste of buttery, flaky baklava and savory Italian wedding soup. That is where I fell in love with the pots, knives and cutting boards in the Cooks’ store. Before I lost my first job, I used to frequent a Greek restaurant, Andrea’s, where I met giros. Later, as a educator, the events I used to look forward to most were the international days. Flavors from all parts of China, India, and Vietnam stocked my imagination with combinations that never existed in my basically southern fried food lexicon.
Global eating
When I elected to eat plant-based two years ago, I had readymade cooking references that made the transition away from meat as main entree easier. Global eating–choosing Buddhist, Japanese, Chinese, Indian and other vegetable-based meals is the norm now and not regulated to weekends.
My Yiddish connection
I am still adding depth to my experience with vegan cooking, daring to try new twists on old flavors. The vegetable America loves best is the potato and the favorite form is french fries. Then, this past holiday season I looked over the fence at a Hanukkah table. There was one holiday food I could appreciate–potato pancakes–latkes! They attracted my attention because I always liked hash browns better than french fries, so I took a recipe from a holiday cookbook and successfully veganized it. It is now becoming one of my breakfast faves–though I have to get up a little earlier to do it.
Your OP food journey
Let your “OP food” Friday break out of the common, usual and ordinary. Get expansive. Why not do more than sneak a peek at other cuisines and add more delicious, nutritious vegan foods with a global flair this year?
Oh, yes: I like my latkes with applesauce!
kelly-si…ash.jpg (Thanks, Kelly, for the inspiration)
Notes for 2024:
Toss the scale.
Pray more. Worry less.
Work your gifts.
Live your life purpose.
Continue exploring and expanding.
Revive personal mental health habits.
Happy New Year – from Victoree
“Live long and prosper”
Rest well.
Eat nutritious food.
Be at peace.
–Victoree–
Can you identify the other former living creatures in this picture?
“President Eisenhower (left) seems to be impressed by the 43-pound turkey presented to him by Peary Browning (right), the president of the National Turkey Federation. The bird was chosen from over 100,000 at Browning’s own farm.” from Town and Country
The image above was published the year I was born, 1954.
2023…almost 7 decades later…Vegan
Have a happy and kind Thanksgiving! 🙂
-Victoree
No matter which of the forces you served in; no matter when in our history you served, know that you are an important part of our community.
Today we honor you.
–VICTOREE
Holiday stress and food. Read about how to beat it here.
Here it comes! Planning for the holidays time! Red-eyed looking through all the tidal wave of holiday menu suggestions; tolerating whole books of toys; wading through holiday themed retail cattle prod incentives to buy stuff…
Are you noticing that a common theme for this coming holiday season is the Grinch? Have you seen all the bile-green, Grinch pajamas, cups, and wrappings?
If there is a perfectionist bone in your body you like me have got to be trembling with event planner’s angst as the wreaths start appearing first in the stores, then on the street lamps. It does not get better for vegans because most of the traditional holiday fare is meat centric. My big challenge is to cook satisfying holiday food that will not insult the pro-meat family members and be able to give myself and my vegan family members some comfort and joy too.
Big ask. More planning and learning than I have ever done in my life. The holidays are emotionally stressful enough without piling food stress on top of it. How about we make a little space for ourselves to get over the back-to- standard-time jet-lag, download a Zen breathing app, do some research, taste test, and simply relax before the holidays hit? Let’s promise ourselves to be proactive about creeping Grinch-ness.
Hey. Don’t do the real countdown until you see Santa at the end of the Macy’s Parade on Thanksgiving Day.
Tomorrow is All Hallows Eve, the day when it is now perfectly OKay to run around the neighborhood in costume begging for candy. Before that mouthful of candy, read the label…if you dare. It’s scary, I tell you.
We in the good old USA love sugar. It seems sugar is in everything. That is because sugar is addictive. Sweet begs for more. Food producers knowing this put sugar in products to prompt consumers to buy more… do I need to continue? This is not good news for those of us working our butts off trying to manage body weight. I thought it would be a snap to avoid sweeteners in prepared food, but with every reading of the ingredient labels on a can of anything I became less and less confident. I despaired of being able to avoid sugar.
It does not help that some sugar is hidden in food and that sugar is veiled behind scientific names. 1g–one gram–of sugar is about the weight of a small paper clip. For every slice of white bread count 3g of sugar. One cup of orange juice has 21g. OK. There’s your toast and OJ. If you decide on a bagel (I love bagels), before it gets slapped with butter, sour cream or lox, has 6g of sugar…and 430 mg of sodium (salt. More about that later).
The sugary treats the kids lug home in the cute bags is usually filled with added sugar. A food may have its own native sugar, but more is added in the process of making it to enhance the sweet taste or the shelf life (sugar is also used as a preservative). Native sugars in foods walk along with other nutrients. Naturally sweet fruits are a big favorite of our feathered friends and other life forms attracted by the sweetness. Sweet means good to eat. Sweet means life. Our fruit-eating friends eat them and pass the seed out through their digestive systems to be deposited in the soil where they are dropped. Voila! new plant. However, the added sugar we put into chocolate milk has no nutritive value at all. It’s just there for the ride.
Going grocery shopping this week? Be sure to turn the pretty pictures around and read the ingredient list for the sugar content. If you see any of these terms, it is another name for sugar:
Glucose – The kind of sugar your brain uses for nourishment
Fructose – The native sugar in fruit
Sucrose – The white sugar on your table
Lactose – The native sugar in milk
From these basic forms, sugar identifying is a tangle of terms, but with practice the ability to recognize sugar on sight gets easier.
Hallowe’en is short for “Hallows Eve”, the day before the “Feast of All Hallows” or “Feast of All Saints”. Of course, blessings of the season…without the added sugar.
–Victoree–