Feeding Our Lives, LLC

Feeding Our Lives

2014-10-20T08:24:00.002-04:00

Hi All,

As the school year continues to be super-busy, I've realized that I need to make a few schedule changes. I'm enjoying sharing interesting articles and passing along helpful information about living healthy through food and spirit......

But, I don't have the time to write the posts, find pictures that support the post, and schedule the posts.

To still be able to share these pieces of helpful information, I'm going to rely on my Facebook business page because it's a much faster posting process! If you don't have a Facebook account, don't worry! It's a public page that all people can view without an account!!!

If you're checking out FeedingOurLives to get to know me a little better while you're deciding if we'd be a good fit to work together on your healthy-living or food-allergy journey, please click around to view my past posts and view my list of services here. Also, come on over to Facebook to see what links I've passed along over there to get a solid understanding of what research I'm doing to keep my knowledge current.

Thanks for understanding,
Renee

Christmas Gift Ideas that are NOT toys.

2014-10-18T03:30:00.000-04:00

I recently stumbled upon a great list of Christmas gift ideas that aren't toys, and I thought you might get inspiration from it like I did!

Unfortunately, I didn't compile the list myself, so you'll have to jump on over to Raising Memories to view it. But, I think it'll be worth your while if you feel like your house is being overtaken by STUFF!!!

Gluten-free, rice-free cut-out oat cookies

2014-10-15T15:33:00.000-04:00

Santa needed Christmas Eve cookies this year, but I didn't want to make cookies that everyone else could eat and I couldn't because of my wheat issue....what to do??? Well, with the help of the Internet, several various failed recipe attempts, and lots of tasting, I came up with a very yummy gluten-free, rice-free cookie!

(Note: if you're beginning a gluten-free lifestyle, and you can tolerate rice, then you can use a gluten-free flour blend. That's not an option with my family's allergies, though, so I was left creating a recipe.)

Ingredients (Cookies):

1/2 cup softened organic butter

1/4 cup organic brown sugar

1/4 cup clover or orange blossom honey (nothing darker than clover preferably)

3 Tbs organic canola oil (for a crunchier cookie) OR 1/4 cup of organic applesauce (for a cookie that softens with time)

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

2 tsps vanilla (homemade preferred)

3 cups gluten-free, wheat free oat flour (I grind my own from Trader Joe's bag of oats)

Ingredients (Icing):

powdered sugar

cocoa powder

water or milk

Directions:

1. Beat together butter and brown sugar until fluffy

2. Beat in honey

3. Beat in oil OR applesauce

4. Mix in egg until just combined

5. Mix in baking soda, salt, and vanilla

6. Combine in flour until all the flour is absorbed

7. Form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and flatten into a 6-ish inch disc, and refrigerate for at least an hour, up to two days

8. Line a baking sheet with parchment and preheat oven to 350.

9. Generously cover counter top with oat flour, unwrap your disc, sprinkle with oat flour, and begin rolling out until about 1/4 inch thick, dusting with oat flour as needed.

10. Cut out shapes & transfer to lined baking sheet

11. Combine scraps and roll out and cut out again (the number of cookies you make depends on the size of your shapes, but I usually make 2 half-sheet cookie sheets of cookies from one recipe)

12. Bake on the top two racks in your oven, turning the sheets and switching racks half way through. Total cooking time about 20 minutes (we like our cookies fairly well-done so I cook them until quite brown on the edges)

13. Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack; cool completely before icing.

*** Icing: My icing is not science. I mix about two scoops of powdered sugar to one scoop of cocoa with a dash of water or milk to make my icing. Then, I make enough of that proportion to make enough icing for the cookies....sorry this isn't more exact! The cookies are good without icing and great with icing!!!!

Trick-or-Treating with Food Allergies

2014-10-14T03:30:00.000-04:00

When our daughter was first diagnosed with food allergies, we had to come up with a successful strategy to keep the holiday fun even though she couldn't participate in the main event: candy.

We decide to focus our energy on the event of trick-or-treating and the costumes involved: we trick-or-treat with lots of friends in the neighborhood, work long and hard on costumes, and march in a neighborhood halloween costume parade! It's lots of fun!

But, despite our efforts to create a family halloween tradition not focused on candy, there's still the issue of candy.

What we've chosen to do is this:

1. After trick or treating she looks through her grub.

2. She chooses a few pieces to give to friends.

3. We give her an allergy safe candy bar.

4. She sells her candy to the local orthodontist the next day.

To support this don't-focus-on-candy-tradition, we've decided to not give out candy to trick-or-treaters. Instead, we give out candy alternatives that alternate between these ideas:

1. Hand out goods instead of food: We hand out pencils, stickers, erasers, rings, fake teeth, fake eyeballs, small decks of cards, glow sticks, etc. instead of candy each year.

2. Hand out food instead of candy: We give out snack bags of popcorn, pretzels, or cheddar crackers, trail mix, mini boxes of raisins, or bags of dried fruits. (Don't make the baggies yourself; buy the prepackaged servings.)

3. Hand out coins instead of goods or food: we get a roll of nickels, dimes, or quarters from the bank and drop coins in halloween bags instead of candy.

Trick-or-Treating Sugar Content & Halloween Candy Alternatives

2014-10-10T03:30:00.000-04:00

Y'all....Sugar consumption is Out. Of. Control. in America.

We are all (yes, I include myself) are addicted to sugar, and it's killing us. We have rotting teeth, diabetes, heart disease, inflammatory diseases, and addiction problems. If you don't believe me, read this article by Kristin Kirkpatrick from the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. Or this one from from the New York Times arguing that sugar is a toxin. Or this one by Mother Earth Living discussing all forms of sugar.

Or, just trust me that sugar isn't healthy and read on.

(Photo by: Moyan Brenn, Creative Commons 2.0)

As Halloween encroaches upon us, I thought it relevant to share this article I read in Popular Science. Basically, it summarizes that candy has a lot of sugar AND that "The average U.S. trick-or-treater takes home 600 grams of sugar on Halloween - equivalent to 3 CUPS OF PURE SUGAR."

Can you imagine ever giving your kid 3 cups of pure sugar?

There are a few things you can do this Halloween to impact the sugar consumption by kiddos:
1. In our area of the nation, many dentists and orthodontists pay the kids for their candy. Ours gives a dollar a pound for candy. My daughter made 3 dollars last year.

2. Hand out goods instead of food: We hand out pencils, stickers, erasers, rings, fake teeth, fake eyeballs, small decks of cards, etc. instead of candy each year.

3. Hand out food instead of candy: You can give out snack bags of popcorn, pretzels, or cheddar crackers, trail mix, mini boxes of raisins, or bags of dried fruits. (Don't make the baggies yourself; buy the prepackaged servings.)

4. Hand out coins instead of goods or food: get a roll of nickels, dimes, or quarters from the bank and drop coins in halloween bags instead of sugar. Really, if you calculate how much you spend on a bag of candy, this might make a lot of sense (no pun intended)!

Low-sugar Energy Balls

2014-10-08T03:30:00.000-04:00

I stopped making my original energy balls because they were sweeter than I wanted and not quite hardy enough for me....and because we lived off them for over a year!! Truly, I just got tired of making them!

When I read Snack Girl's Energy Ball post, I decided to reintroduce them into our food repertoire. Her version had chopped nuts that intrigued me, and they had no sweetener.

Of course, I had to make some changes to meet our allergy needs, and my family really wanted a little bit of sweetener so I added in honey.

Snack Girl's Allergy-Adapted, Low- Sugar Energy Ball Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1 cup roasted peanuts (we LOVE Trader Joe's Buster Brown peanuts)
- 1/4 cup dried organic raisins
- 1/4 cup dried cherries
- 1/2 organic natural peanut butter
- 1/2 cup organic oats
- 2 TBS honey
- 1 TBS dark chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Place peanuts in food processor and pulse until chopped.
2. Add in all other ingredients and pulse until chopped and blended evenly.
3. Make 1 inch balls! (Tip: if your balls don't hold together, add in a little water and pulse again)

Cost of Groceries for a Family

2014-10-05T03:30:00.000-04:00

Every. Single. Time. I get home from the grocery store, I shake my head in disbelief of how much I spent on food.

(Photo by: Bill and Vicky T, Creative Commons 2.0)

I try to rationalize that we have no other food costs:
- I eat out only once a month for a Girls' Night Out
- My husband very rarely has lunch out for work
- We eat all the food, having very little food waste.

But, still. I drop a lot of money a month on groceries/food (this includes face lotion, shampoo, detergents, etc).

This got me thinking: is my expectation about the cost of groceries (food) accurate? Should I be shaking my head in disbelief?

In case you're wondering the same thing, here's the official breakdown from the August report by the USDA about how much family of 4 (with children ages 6-11) spent on food in July of 2014:

Per month: $650.50 - $1293.20

It does cost a lot of money to feed a family, but I'm well inside the normal range so I am going to try to stop shaking my head.

(Tip: don't read blogs about families who spend less than $400 a month to feed a family! They'll make you feel really bad about yourself and cause you to go look at reports by the USDA.)

How to follow a recipe from a video:

2014-10-02T03:30:00.000-04:00

Do you ever watch cooking shows and then try to mimic the recipes at home, only to be disappointed either by how hard it was to make or by how it tasted?

You, too?

There's a few things I've learned over the years that I thought I'd pass along. This video by Everyday food is a great "learning video" of how to take what's on the show and apply it at home with great results! It's almost all in the video.... just a few things aren't spelled out.

1. Heat your pan while you're prepping the steaks, but not with your oil in it. To Prep the steaks, LIBERALLY salt them and add pepper if desired. (NOTE: you can substitute with a flank or skirt steak, too)
2. Throw into pan. Set a timer for four minutes. Do NOT move steaks.
3. Wash and prep the green beans.
4. Flip steaks.
5. Set timer for four minutes.
6. Smash garlic to peel and then slice.
7. Rinse tomatoes.
8. Drain and rinse beans.
9. Take out steaks, squeeze a lime over the steaks, and tent with foil, set timer for ten minutes.
10. Drain pan.
11. Add olive oil and green beans.
12. Cover for one minute.
13. Add tomatoes and garlic.
14. Season with salt and pepper and vinegar or lime juice.
15. Cook until tomatoes are soft.
16. Cut and plate as shown in video.

Following cooking videos can be easy and successful! Enjoy your one-pan meal that's healthy and satisfying....that takes only a few minutes to cook!

Recognizing Beauty: Feeding Your Soul

2014-09-28T03:30:00.000-04:00

There aren't many words to say about this 10 minute video.

It caused me to pause in the daily hustle and bustle. It celebrated my inclination to have my head in the clouds (learn more about my head in the sky here). It encouraged me to breath and look and give thanks each day for just being.

While food nourishes our body, beauty and thanksgiving feeds our souls.

What do egg labels mean?

2014-09-26T03:30:00.000-04:00

Do you wonder what all the different labels on eggs mean? Here's a quick and easy breakdown:

(Photo by: Ben Brophy, Creative Commons 2.0)

Regular: All eggs are free of hormones per USDA guidelines. These chickens are usually caged, grown in huge farms, and it would be rare for there to be any thought of animal rights.

Cage Free: These hens can roam around barns but usually not outside. This label is NOT regulated by the USDA and means very little.

Free Range: Eggs are from hens who are allowed time outside, or have access to time outside. There's NO regulation from the USDA regarding how much outside time.

Organic: This is the most regulated label by the USDA. The feed is controlled: it must have had minimal use of pesticides, herbicides, fungicide, and commercial fertilizers. The hens are cage-free in barns or warehouse and must have outdoor access. These are confirmed organic by an outside third party.

Natural: Hmmm....aren't all eggs natural? This isn't a regulated label and is pretty useless.

Nutrient Enhanced: The eggs are claimed to have higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, and/or lutein. This is done by adding flax, marine, algae, or fish oils to the hens' feed.

Certified Humane: Hens can be kept inside the whole time, but they are allowed to nest, perch, and dust bathe. There are guidelines for the conditions of the hens, and a third party verifies that the farmer is meeting the guidelines. It's a program of the Humane Farm Animal Care.

Local: Eggs sourced from near your store/farmer's market.

Pastured: The feed of these hens is from the pastures. They are kept in pens and moved around the pastures in the pens. They are often used in combination with crop rotating but not always. This label isn't regulated.

And, if you're curious why eggs in America are refrigerated, NPR's The Salt has the answer.

Info-graphic About Food Allergies

2014-09-24T03:30:00.000-04:00

(Shared with permission from FARE)

Mad Genius Cooking Videos: Kitchen Short-Cuts

2014-09-22T03:30:00.000-04:00

I'm always on the lookout for cooking short-cuts to pass along. Here are three from Mad Genius, the test kitchen for Food and Wine. The videos are less than 2 minutes each, and they will each give you an idea of how to make prep work easier in the kitchen!

Here are a few of my favorites
Making Your Egg Slicer Multi-task:

Peel A Hard Boiled Egg with a Spoon:

Easily Cut a Carrot into Even Pieces

Baby Steps

2014-09-19T03:30:00.000-04:00

As I surf the food blogs on the web, I often feel inadequate about my healthy food journey.

I see women who grow and can all the food their families eat. They make absolutely everything from scratch. They never use (gasp) sugar. They don't have any plastic in their homes. And, to boot, they don't spend any money on groceries.

It's overwhelming to read how perfectly healthy they eat.

(Photo by: OakleyOriginals)

When I feel this way, I'm reminded that some readers of this blog may feel the same way about the food in my house. Please don't. I'm a real person in a modest kitchen who spends a lot of money on food each month!

The way I eat and cook now is a result of years of work and training. I didn't one day wake up and say "I'm going to eat all organic, have a garden, cook everything from scratch, and give up gluten."

Instead, I woke up one day, after my daughter was sick all the time, recognizing that I HAD to make changes in my kitchen to keep her alive. So, step-by-step my kitchen transformed into what it is today: it's stocked with healthy food options that are usually homemade from a collection of kitchen appliances that make my food preparation a little easier.

And, just-so-you-know, it's not always a glorious place with gourmet food. Sometimes, we eat scrambled eggs with left-over veggies for dinner. Or sometimes, we eat a bowl of granola. On really late nights, we might just eat a bowl of popcorn. And, usually, you'll find the sink or the counter littered with dirty dishes waiting for the dishwasher.

So, wherever you are on your food journey, please remember that every baby-step you take towards healthier eating is awesome! Don't compare where you are in your food journey to an internet blogger; instead, compare your journey to where you were in the past. You're doing great!

Food Prep Safety Tips

2014-09-17T03:30:00.000-04:00

Do you ever wonder if you need to wash the pre-washed bag of greens you bought at the grocery store? Or, do you wonder how to best wash your produce?

(Photo by: twistedstringknits)

An article by news-press.com presents experts' opinions about when to wash what. If you'd like, click here to go read the full article (it's short!).

For those who want the executive summary, here it is:
1. Don't wash meat before cooking or marinating it because you splash and spread the bacteria on it all over your kitchen.
2. Washing produce gets rid of 99% of pathogens, but cooking produce removes 99.9999% of it.
3. The best way to wash produce is to vigorously rinse it under water; using soap or cleaning solutions presents other risks.
4. Dirt and bacteria are still on organic and homegrown produce so still wash it.
5. Produce in a bag labeled 'pre-washed' means it doesn't need to be washed; if you do, you expose it to pathogens.

Now, I know that I can eat the lettuce straight out of the bag!!!!

Defining Food Allergies and Food Intolerances

2014-09-14T03:30:00.000-04:00

I don't talk about food allergies and intolerances very much on my blog, but allergies are probably the single most influential factor in my day-to-day life. I will try to spend more time blogging about them to help spread the word about what food allergies are, what intolerances are, and how to cook with them.

(Photo by: Vu Nguyen, Creative Commons 2.0)

There is some basic vocabulary about food allergies that I thought might be helpful to learn.

1. Food Allergy:
According to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology, a food allergy happens when the immune system over-reacts to the protein in a certain food. The reactions can include:
- a rash, or red, itchy skin (hives/eczema)
- stuffy or itchy nose, sneezing, or itchy and teary eyes
- vomiting, stomach cramps, or diarrhea
- angloedema or swelling
- hoarseness, throat tightness, or a lump in the throat
- wheezing, chest tightness, or trouble breathing
- anaphylaxis

2. Food Intolerance:
There's a lot of conflicting information out there about intolerances. Here's the general consensus, though: if a reaction to the food involves the immune system, then it's an allergy. If a reaction to a food does not involve the immune system, then it's an intolerance. The Australian government's Better Health Channel provides a thorough list of food intolerance symptoms, which include:
- nervousness, tremor
- sweating
- palpitations
- rapid breathing
- headache, migraine
- diarrhea
- burning sensations on the skin
- tightness across the face and chest
- breathing problems (asthma-like symptoms)
- allergy-like reactions

The best example is a milk allergy verses lactose intolerance:
- a milk allergy is when the immune system attacks the milk protein whereas lactose intolerance is when the person's body doesn't have the enzyme to process the lactose in milk.
- The symptoms are probably similar (unless the allergy causes anaphylaxis) but the cause is completely different.

How are organic seedless grapes GMO-free?

2014-09-12T03:30:00.000-04:00

While I was trying to get out of a corn maze the other day, my friend and I were discussing GMO crops. Her question was: How are organic seedless grapes not GMOs?

(Photo by: tribp)

Well, it's a matter of growing techniques verses laboratory techniques.

Seedless grapes have been developed by selective breeding, grafting, and specific cutting methods within the grape family.

Sometimes, it's assumed that because the original food product is altered (after all, grapes should have seeds so this is altering them) the new food product must be a GMO product. But, that's not the case.

A food is genetically modified when a gene from a different species is introduced into the food in question. For example, if a grape had a gene from a lime to make it seedless, then it would be genetically modified.

The best example I can think of is dog breeding. Dogs have been bred over the centuries to create all sorts of breeds of dogs, but they've only been bred with dogs. Therefore, the dogs are not genetically modified, but they are definitely bred. (Please don't ask about wolf dogs because that requires a heck of a lot more theory and history!)

Organic seedless grapes are the same: they have been bred with other grapes of the years to create a seedless grape but not with any other variety of food/plant so they are not GMO.

Make sense?

Interesting Articles from The Salt

2014-09-09T03:30:00.000-04:00

These are a few August articles from The Salt that I enjoyed reading. I thought you might, too.

(Photo by: Iain Watson)

1. The Science Behind Baking Your Ideal Chocolate Chip Cookie

2. Cutting Back on Carbs, Not Fat, May Lead to More Weight-loss

3. Startups Pitch Cricket Flour as the Best Protein You Could Eat

4. For A More Ordered Life, Organize Like a Chef

Outside Magazine's Unschooling Article

2014-09-07T03:30:00.000-04:00

Outside magazine's objective is to present coverage on "sports, people, places, adventures, discoveries, environmental issues, health and fitness, gear and apparel, trends, and events that define the active lifestyle."

So you can imagine my surprise when the cover of the magazine teased: "Special Report: Take Your Kids Out of Schools. Why Adventure is the Future of Education."

What???!!! A magazine that has nothing to do with education has a feature article about, not only education, but homeschooling!

(A habitat made by my daughter & her cousins. A frog, lizard, huge ant, & beetle are all living together in that jar!)

The article presented a reasonably researched, fair account of what is popularly known as Unschooling. Basically, the family works as a team to do the necessary tasks required at their home, encourages their boys to learn through exploring in the woods, through a homeschool group, and through general living while monitoring their boys' reading and math abilities.

I recommend that you hop over to Outside's website to read the article. It's a very nice representation of why some families choose to homeschool and presents a positive message about the kids who are homeschooled.

Is butter temperature important when baking?

2014-09-04T03:30:00.000-04:00

Yes!!! It is very important!

Today, my husband started to make the oh-so-popular breakfast cookies, but he realized part-way into the process that we were out of milk, oat flour, and chocolate chips. So, obviously, he quit making them and waited for me to get home from errand running.

I took over the cookie making later in the day. And, I was perplexed as to why his batter was so different from my usual batter. While scooping out the cookies, I got to thinking that his cookies ALWAYS turned out differently than mine: his are more misshapen and flatter than mine (they still taste great, though).

So, I hopped on the Internet to inquire if it could be our butter temperatures making the batter different. And, it is!! He almost melts his butter, and I use softened butter.

Mel's Kitchen Cafe did a hugely scientific study (meaning she baked a lot of cookies and had to taste them!) comparing softened, too soft, and melted butter in cookie baking.

If you don't want to read her post (which I think you should because she has pictures of her results!), let me summarize:

Perfectly softened butter produces superior texture and shape over too-soft and melted butter.

She has pictures and everything so go check it out!

Education Gaps

2014-09-01T03:30:00.000-04:00

I was recently reading the bi-monthly magazine published by the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers, VaHomeschoolers' Voice. If you don't get this magazine, and you're interested in education, you're missing out!

(at the end of two weeks of art camp that she chose to go to)

In it, there was an article about education gaps that has really hung with me since I first read it a few weeks ago. Basically, the author (Stephanie Elms) talks about gaps in students' education upon graduation:

"I find it interesting that there are some areas (such as music, art, theater, sports, or even the "softer" subjects like history) where gaps don't seem to bother people as much as they do in areas such as math or science."

According to traditional education models, all students are expected to learn the same body of knowledge and, therefore, should leave school without any gaps.

Looking back at my own education through high school, I would have to say I had some gaps. Particularly in art, theatre, literature, and sports. By the time I left college, I still had gaps in those areas, but I also started choosing to have gaps in science.

Stephanie's article reminded me that we all will have gaps in what we know because we are not a computer. We cannot know it all. Period. Therefore, as adults, we figure out what we like and what interests us to decide where to have gaps.

So, my job as a homeschoooling mom is to make sure my daughter knows what she needs to know to function easily in society (ex: you need basic math to run a household) and know what she wants to know so that her life can really be her own.

Brownie Recipe (don't worry: it's not healthy!)

2014-08-29T03:30:00.000-04:00

You know how some days you just need to throw "healthy" out the window and eat something chewy, fudgy, and chocolaty? Well, these brownies meet all of those needs!

This recipe is easy, cheap, quick, and only dirties one mixing bowl. If you line the baking dish with parchment paper, you don't even have to clean the baking dish! This recipe has never failed me, and it always gets rave reviews from friends.

They also freeze great! I make a batch and then wrap them individually in saran wrap to store in the freezer. When birthday parties come up for my daughter, we grab a brownie out of the freezer for her to have at the birthday party.

Ingredients:

4 ounces of unsweetened Baker's baking chocolate

1 1/2 stick of unsalted organic butter

2 cups white organic sugar

3 organic eggs

1 tsp homemade vanilla

1 cup white wheat flour

(Optional: bag of chocolate chips)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Microwave unsweetened chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl for 2 minutes or until butter is completely melted (stir frequently to make sure you don't accidentally burn the chocolate!)
Stir in the sugar.
Mix in the eggs and vanilla.
Fold in the flour and, if using, the chocolate chips.
Line a 2 quart glass baking pan with parchment paper.
Spread batter into pan
Bake on the upper-middle rack of the oven for 20-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with fudgy crumbs. (NOTE: the shape of your baking dish will impact the length of cooking time so start checking the brownies around 15 minutes)
Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then cut immediately using a serrated knife.

Naturally sweetened, gluten-free, chewy granola bar recipe

2014-08-28T22:19:00.000-04:00

These make a dense, chewy bar. Lots of "extras" could be added, such as coconut, diced dried fruits, nuts, etc.

Renee's Gluten-Free Granola Bars:
Dry ingredients:
2.5 cups broken organic rolled oats (I run mine through my Vitamix to break them up a little bit)
1/2 cup organic oat flour (you can make your own here)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

Wet ingredients:
1/2 cup local orange blossom honey
1 beaten organic egg
1/2 cup organic applesauce
3 Tbs organic canola oil or melted butter
2 tsps vanilla extract (homemade is preferred)

After cooked ingredient:
Mini Chocolate Chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line a 9x13 glass pan with parchment paper.
2. In a largish bowl, mix everything together.
3. Spread the mixture into the lined pan. The mixture might look like it won't fit into the pan, but it will! I promise! Just keep spreading it with the back of a spoon until it's level and even.
4. Bake for about 15 minutes and then rotate the pan; cook until golden brown on the edges.
5. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of the bars after you've taken them out of the oven.
6. Set you timer for 5 minutes.
7. Spread the chocolate chips around to make a chocolate topping for the bars.
8. Lift the parchment paper out of the pan onto a cutting board and cut the bars with a sharp knife. I normally do 4 cuts the long direction of the pan and three cuts the short direction to get 12 bars.
9. Let cool and then store in an airtight container. I keep ours in the freezer.

Funny Video about the label "Natural"

2014-08-27T03:30:00.000-04:00

Remember back in July, I shared a link to an article by NPR about the lack of meaning of the word "Natural," in regards to our food?

Well, in case you didn't read it, here's a video that comedically informs consumers about how the food industry tries to bump up food product sales by using the word "Natural" on packaging, even though it means virtually nothing!

Enjoy!

Berkeley's Version of the Food Pyramid

2014-08-24T03:30:00.000-04:00

While touring the Smithsonian's American History Museum, I stumbled upon this version of the food pyramid. I hope you enjoy following its suggested "obsessive daily requirement" like I do!

I'm going to hop off the computer to grab my chocolate now...

Feeding Your Soul: Why I'm trying to not use the word "Busy" as a descriptor

2014-08-22T03:30:00.000-04:00

I have a beef with the word "Busy" - it's a word I use to describe my life when people ask me what I've been up to but it doesn't actually describe anything, and it makes my life seem that it's outside of my control.

It's as though "busy" means that my life has been running me, instead of me running my life.

(Photo By: Moyan Brenn)

When someone asks me what I've been up to, I will try to respond:
- I've been camping with some of our very best friends;
- My family and I attended every family program at the National Gallery last month;
- I've been cooking to stock the freezer to help reduce dinner-time stress;
- I had a picnic with my family and friends on the National Mall;
- I've been helping out our church with a new service project;
- I've been planning for the upcoming school year;
- I've been planning and creating our gardens;
- I've been helping with our scout troop;
- I took a walk to watch the sunset.

To just tell someone "I'm busy" doesn't express to them that the things I'm doing are intentionally chosen by me to feed my soul. They are activities and events that I deem as important to my family's growth and well-being.

Perhaps one of my favorite write-ups I've read about busy was by the NYTimes. You've probably read it before, as it came out a few years ago (I've even shared about it before); I feel, as fall is quickly approaching, it's an appropriate reminder to not be "busy," but be intentionally living.