Urban Balcony Garden

I don't know what you call the opposite of a green thumb, but I kill plants. I've tried indoor plants several times but they never make it. I understand the concept of over-watering and under-watering, so I'm not sure what my problem is.

Fortunately, I have better luck with plants outdoors. I love to garden and last summer I helped my dad prepare and plant his garden in Washington state. I moved to the east coast before reaping any harvest, but I was amazed at the bounty he and my mom collected over the summer.







Currently I live in a high-rise condominium, but I've been wanting to play in soil and garden. I have not identified any community gardens close-by (although there are several scattered throughout the city) so I was beginning to think I would have to swallow my desire to garden. Then, earlier this year I read this post on Crazy Sexy Life and I knew as I read that I would have to give balcony gardening a try. This guy just makes it sound so magical (a garden growing on a fire escape in New York City?!), while also sharing some dirty details and pointers. Check out his blog!

So, I'm doing it, too.

So far I have planted: basil, cherry tomatoes, heirloom purple tomatoes, arugula, buttercrunch lettuce and red cabbage. I germinated my basil seeds first, so we'll see how that goes. One of my main goals in balcony gardening is keeping the cost down, and using as many recycled containers as possible. Between my husband and I, we have plenty of containers and I'm hopeful that I will not need to purchase any. My costs have been $7 for a bag of soil, and around $2.00 for each packet of seeds. Yesterday I planted. I'm keeping everything inside until I have hearty sprouts, then I'll arrange everything on my sun-kissed balcony.





I feel like a little kid, eagerly awaiting any sign of the first sprout. The only thing I'm missing is Stevia. I want to grow my own plant, dry the leaves, and use them in their whole form for sweetening my tea. I'm also anticipating satisfying my summer sweet tooth with sun-ripened cherry tomatoes. There's nothing more delicious than a warm, ripe, juicy tomato. Goodbye winter. Let there be a warm spring and pleasant summer!

In a few weeks, I will be transferring my starts outside to my balcony.

Still Sugar-Free and Insanely Happy

It's been exactly 2 years, 2 months and 22 days since I gave up the white stuff. I don't enjoy saying it like that, though, because it doesn't feel like I have given anything up. It feels like I have been given energy, happiness, good moods, more time (less time sleeping/napping), better health, and a greater understanding of this little devilish, overly processed grain of nutrition-less sweet.

What started out as a test of my willpower became much, much more. At first I missed and craved sugar in all it's sweet and fattening forms. Oreos became the object of my lust, as did giant mochas and whipped cream, brownies and Ben & Jerry's. Thing is, when I began feeling wonderful and going through my day without any sugar crashes, I realized that I was happier than a taste in my mouth could ever make me. The taste was so temporary but the feeling of being energized lasted and built up my confidence. I don't question whether I have willpower anymore. I've proven to myself that I can do anything since I did what I set out believing was impossible.

People ask me all the time whether I miss things like cookies and donuts. Sure I do. Sometimes. But most of the time I'm not obsessing over food anymore. I don't fantasize about getting my sugar fix. The cravings have hugely subsided and when I do get a hankering for something sweet, the slightest sweet in my mouth satisfies me.

Overcoming such a difficult behavior to control (my former sugar addiction) is the best. Nothing I've ever put in my mouth compares to feeling in control and happy and healthy. I used to think all this was impossible. I read books and heard stories about people who had given up sugar and I kind of didn't believe them. Surely they had hidden stashes of donut holes or midnight runs to Mickey D's for chocolate shakes. No one can really go without sugar, I used to think. Now, it's a way of life for me and lots of others who have dared to test the limits of their willpower.

With the growing rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other medical issues, I don't care to go back to sugar. I love a little drop of honey in my tea, and my date- and molasses-sweetened cookies or my rich and creamy peanut butter cups. All in moderation, which is now something I can do. Hooked on the white stuff, I could never understand the concept of moderation.

Instead of saying I've "given up" sugar, I need to start saying that I've streamlined my eating habits to reduce needless calories. Giving something up is what people do for lent. It no longer makes sense for me to use this phrase. It's quite a treat being satisfied with a juicy piece of fruit. I no longer worry about extra calories, which before always came in the form of something sweet.

I don't know if this is at all inspiring in any way. I hope it is. I just wanted to give a personal update and reiterate that being sugar-free is one of the greatest gifts I have ever given to myself. It's not only doable, it's packed with rewards.

(Thank you Marc and Angel for posting my article, "9 Timeless Nutrition Tips for Any Age" on their blog, Marc and Angel Hack Life.)

Coke, PepsiCo, Michelle Obama, & Other News...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Recently in the news:

PepsiCo
PepsiCo makes a world-wide commitment to not sell sugary drinks in schools. However, they will still sell non-caloric beverages and sports drinks like Gatorade. We all know Gatorade is sugary, but at least Pepsi is taking a step in the right direction. Thanks to CSPI for their work in this effort. Unfortunately, Coke is not doing the same.

Michelle Obama "Scolds" the GMA
Thanks to Food Politics for outlining excerpts of Mrs. Obama's speech to the Grocery Manufacturer's of America. It certainly packed a punch!

Let's Move! Campaign: A Closer Look
Take a look at the informative post on Appetite for Profit's blog. If you haven't been interested before, reading A for P's take on things is sure to get you fired up!

Fooducate
Here's more on the Let's Move! Campaign, plus, look around this blog for lots of great nutritional information.

Bob's Red Mill: An Incredible Change of Ownership
When I found out that Bob transferred his multi-million dollar business to his employees, I teared up. Not just because I miss my hometown, but because of this amazing act of kindness. He inspires me to make decisions that I can look back on and feel proud of (giving away material items rather than storing them). Click here for the scoop. And if you happen to run out of date sugar or garbonzo bean flour, order from the Red Mill. Better yet, take a vacation to Portland, Oregon and plan to eat at and tour the facilities. It's quite charming.

That's it for now. I have an itch to write something provocative and juicy. Any topic suggestions?

My Kitchen Exploded

It's been a while since I've had the motivation to blog...

Here's the most recent reason why:



It happened last week and almost killed my dog. I was seconds away from having my bare feet sliced into serving sizes.

What happened is I got home and wandered into the kitchen for a glass of water. My faithful mutt always has a sip with me. Her eating and drinking dishes are next to the pantry. Like I've mentioned before, my kitchen is teeny. So, Annie and I are wetting our whistles and then I step out of the kitchen for a second before loading some dishes in the dishwasher. Annie steps out into the front room with me. As we are walking out of the kitchen, the biggest crash I've ever heard in my life happened on the tile floor. The shelves in my poorly constructed pantry came crashing down. Basically, my pantry exploded.

Upgrading your containers to glass is a good idea--if you trust your pantry shelves. Most of my grains and pastas have been housed in gorgeous mason jars. Suddenly my kitchen floor became a swampy combination of vinegars, syrups, and a steady flow of molasses carrying large chunks of glass all throughout my kitchen and seeping into my living room. Walls were splattered with sticky substances. Most of our food became a soupy mix of glass shards and molasses. I freaked out. I grabbed Annie, and ran outside the apartment to call Jeff. I thought the wall had come down.

Fortunately, I have a most incredible husband. As soon as he heard the trembling in my voice, he assured me he was out the door and would take a cab home. I was shocked and thought it unnecessary for him to leave his job (contract position...you don't just leave because your wife has a molasses problem) until 6pm that night when we finally finished cleaning up the mess. It was a nightmare. Our apartment is completely tiled, so glass shards had rolled and spread all throughout the kitchen and the front room. We wore Crocs as we cleaned and then had to clean the glass bits out of the Crocs. Scrubbing molasses and glass off the floor was dangerous and tedious. I got cut. Jeff probably did, too, but didn't say. He had the good attitude, I had an anger management problem: "I could have been killed! Annie was drinking her water just seconds before...if she were standing there when it happened, she could have been killed!"

Jeff lost much of his "junk" food, and I lost all sorts of beans and grains and pasta. But in the end, I realized how lucky I had been. I can't imagine standing there and having a pantry full of glass jars and dishes fall down on me, surrounding me with shards of glass, cutting me into pieces. Annie and I decided that even though it was a strange catastrophe, it was a reminder to be thankful. We avoided the worst of it. And Jeff still has his job.

Natural Sugars are Still Added Sugars

Anyway I look at it, I have been eating too much sugar, albeit in the form of natural sugars. Women should eat no more than 6 teaspoons of sugars, and for men it's 9 teaspoons. Lucky I don't eat added sugars. At least that's the way I saw it, since my sugars are mostly natural and hardly processed.

My latest revelation is based on information I read in CSPI's Jan/Feb 2010 Nutrition Action Healthletter. The cover story is SUGAR OVERLOAD, Curbing America's Sweet Tooth. Read it!

I was happy to see my favorite subject broached, but I thought to myself, 'This doesn't pertain to me anymore. I quit sugar over two years ago.'

What I read, however, turned my perfectly ordered world of natural sugars upside down.

I was not ready to have over two years of my work be thrown out the window by one statement. "[Added sugars] include high-fructose corn syrup, ordinary table sugar, honey, agave syrup, and all other sweeteners with calories."

Then I discovered a list in the article that brought me to tears. The list titled, Sugar by Any Other Name, broke down what is considered an added sugar, which just made me grimace. Why? Because my beloved list of natural sweeteners that I held high and mighty and above all reproach found themselves in the same category as the horrible sugars that I have not touched in over two years. How in the world could my raw honey be rubbing elbows with corn syrup? Or table sugar even compare to grape juice? Were not my beloved natural sugars in an entirely different class because they're, er, natural?

Apparently, folks, my head has been in the clouds. I thought I had found redemption in honey and juice concentrates and maple syrups. The sad news is that these are added sugars. That's not an opinion. That's a fact.

And that, my friends, breaks my heart.

An added sugar is an added sugar, no matter what the source of that sugar is. The verdict is in, the science is clear, and the AHA is bold enough to tell us that unless we keep all of our added sugars in the 6-9 teaspoon range (9 for males, 6 for females), we may be headed for medical troubles including increased risk of heart disease, high triglycerides, diabetes, visceral fat, gout, overeating, high blood pressure and obesity.

Added sugars do not include fruit, dried fruit, vegetables and other whole foods.

I'm angry for giving natural sugars an exception in my kitchen and in my diet. I thought I was free to eat as much "sweet" as I wanted, as long as my sweet was natural and barely processed. Now I see that I confused science and philosophy. Because I believe philosophically that honey is a better sweetener than sugar (raw, local, not processed, etc.), I made the mistake in believing that it is healthier, too. It may or may not be healthier, (honey has about 300 more calories per cup than white sugar) but as far as all those medical diseases are concerned, I have to limit honey as much as I have to limit white sugar because they are both added sugars.

I don't want to play by the rules of the AHA (6 teaspoons, approximately 100 calories, is not very much sugar, especially if you drink sweetened beverages or alcohol), but I also don't want to be suffering from heart disease or diabetes in the future, trying to convince myself that natural sugars are off the hook.

Soda Tax: Who is For It & Who Isn't

Sugar, rum, and tobacco are commodities which are nowhere necessaries of life, which are become objects of almost universal consumption, and which are therefore extremely proper subjects of taxation.

— Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776

What it is:

A soda tax is a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages and those sweetened with caloric sweeteners.

Purpose:

To decrease the consumption of sugary beverages and to generate revenue for obesity-related medical costs.

(The following is far from being an exhaustive list of all who are for and against the tax.)

Who is for it:

Most recently, California Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez introduced his soda tax bill for California.

California Center for Public Health Advocacy helped Florez draft the bill.

The soda tax was first introduced in 1994 by Kelly D. Brownell, PhD., Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale.

The current Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Thomas R. Frieden, and the above-mentioned Brownell argue for the taxation of sugary beverages in this 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article.

New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene

Dr. David A. Kessler, author of my personal favorite, The end of overeating.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest

Without coming right out and saying it, Dr. Nestle implies her interest in the tax with several related posts.

President Obama: "It's an idea that we should be exploring," the President said. "There's no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda. And every study that's been done about obesity shows that there is as high a correlation between increased soda consumption and obesity as just about anything else. Obviously there is resistance on Capitol Hill to those kinds of sin taxes," he continued. "Legislators from certain states that produce sugar or corn syrup are sensitive to anything that might reduce demand for those products. And look, people's attitude is that they don't necessarily want Big Brother telling them what to eat or drink, and I understand that. It is true, though, that if you wanted to make a big impact on people's health in this country, reducing things like soda consumption would be helpful." — President Barack Obama to Men’s Health



Who is against it:

Beverage companies, and the American Beverage Association (ABA).

The ABA has this to say about the tax, "Families are still barely making it from paycheck to paycheck. Adding to their burden with a tax on their groceries should be the last way to tackle the state's budget problems." I think they need a heftier argument. Since when have sugary beverages become a staple of Americans' groceries? They go on to say, "...this tax will threaten thousands of well-paying, New York jobs in the beverage and related industries." Lack of jobs in New York? I can only hope that there would be a lack of jobs in the sugary beverage industry and other junk food industries!

Let's see, who has our best interest in mind: doctors, professors, and directors of major health agencies......or beverage companies?

I can't resist sharing this video:

Easy Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread

This bread is virtually the No-Knead recipe I posted in October, with a few alterations. It's a cinch to make, hardly any maintenance, but does take 12-18 hours to rise. So start it the day before you want it. For those of you who have had little luck with yeast breads, you'll love how fool-proof this is.

The only real trick, in my opinion, is getting the water temperature just right for the yeast. My way of doing this is crazy and I don't exactly recommend it, although it works for me every time. I basically put my finger under running water until it's just too hot for me to stand, but not hot enough for me yell. I know there are better ways (a thermometer, perchance?) but I'm old fashioned in the kitchen, including measuring. I generally don't. My husband wonders why I don't measure, and I don't have an answer for him. I know it makes sense, to guarantee that the recipe comes out perfect.....I guess I love how food comes out different every time.

However, it's hard to post a recipe when I'm just throwing things around, so I've done my best to gauge amounts. Tinker if you will.

Easy Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread

2 C whole wheat flour
1 C white whole wheat flour
2 pinches sea salt
1 packet active dry yeast
1/2 C raisins
1-2 tsp. cinnamon
approx 2 C. tepid water (less water by about 1/2 C if using white flour)

Mix dry ingredients including yeast. Then add water and mix until sticky and shaggy. This picture shows that I need more water. Dough should be fairly moist all over.


Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for between 12 and 18 hours, room temperature.

Then turn dough onto lightly floured surface, sprinkle with a little flour, and fold it over once on itself. Cover loosely with plastic wrap for about 15 minutes.

Using lightly floured hands, quickly and gently fold dough into a ball, and place on lightly floured towel, seam down. Dust with more flour. Cover with another towel and let rise for 2 to 3 hours. Should double in size after rising:


At least 30 minutes before putting dough in oven, heat oven to 450 degrees and put in a heavy cast iron pot (or enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) that is at least 3.5 quarts to 8 quarts. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven and turn dough over into pot. Shake pot once or twice if dough is not evenly distributed. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes. Then remove lid and bake another 15 minutes, until loaf is nicely browned. Cool on rack.



While the bread was still warm, I cut a few slices and slathered them with butter (Earth Balance) and just a light smear of honey. I find this bread delicious and especially rustic. Each bite with raisins is heavenly. I'll add more next time.

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I can't resist showing you my dog, Annie. She put up with us while we had cabin fever during the blizzard last week. She pretends like she hates wearing glasses, but she knows she'll get treats if she poses for the camera. The abuse!