Fat and Crafty.com

“I think i got too many vegetables” Miss Bit at dinner last night.

I got home last night and at the last minute needed to make dinner. We were running late, I’d stopped to pick Miss Bit up and then dragged her into the library with me to pick up books i had waiting. Staring at the fridge I decided that the solution was a pork and vegetable stir fry. Turned the stove up to the max and stir fried my little heart out. When dinner was served up Miss Bit did her best, eating her rice and meat, and then only giving a slight protest about the vegetables. But the line “I think I got too many vegetables” cracks me up.

It also makes me think about my dinner time rituals and how stringent i am about them. Meet the dinner rules

1. Dinner time at my house is at 7:00. 6:45 if I’m lucky , 7:15 if I’m running late.
   • i work hard on this one. When I get home I make dinner right away. For me its a great transition between work to home, almost meditative. It also gives me a sense of purpose that lets me rehome myself before the rest of the evening.
   • Dinner is at 7 because we have other things to do with our evenings. The girls have school in the morning so bedtime is 9 fro the little one and we want to make sure both of them get a chance to digest before they go to sleep.
2. Dinner is always a protein, a starch and at least one veg
   • Protein is usually meat. Beans rarely because of allergies and soy never as a primary protein because of allergies. Adding extra veg is a great way to feed more folks with less.
3. Everyone eats, unless you are ill.
   • Seriously. Everyone eats dinner. We may eat in different areas between the kitchen and the living room, but we all eat at the same time.
4. Everyone eats everything, unless you are allergic. (with small exceptions)
   • This is a big one with the girls. I expect both girls to each take a bite of everything. If the item is a known offender we might relent and let them have an easier vegetable, but most of the time its everyone eats everything. I’ll admit to cooking to the tastes of the household though, so this is easier. Things like salmon, beets, mushrooms and Brussels are loved by half the household and hated by the other half, so we don’t have them often and those who don’t like it get another option

What are the dinner time rituals at your house? do you have a set time/place for dinner?

Yesterday I took the first step into learning how to use my sewing machine. I took a sewing machine 101 class up at Berina Northwest

(photo by Booleansplit  )

I’ve had my sewing machine for 10 years now, and to be honest, it kind of scared me. I’ve done some clothing for the SCA with it but none of that was well executed and none of it looks good at all. So I paid my $50 a couple of weeks ago when I couldn’t get into Learn to Sew class series and waited excitedly.

The first success I had was in locating my machine and all the parts to it, including the booklet with the information on the machine. I slid it all into a Whole Foods bag and was off. Patrick dropped me off a little early, giving me enough time to ensure the coffee to blood ratio in my blood stream was correct. (Read : I had a cup of coffee at Starbucks)

The class was very hands on with each of the four classmates bringing their own machine and walking through the cleaning, oiling, threading, sewing of the machine. There were plenty of little upsell opportunities as th teacher suggested we would want this product or that, but there was no pressure.

There was also no pressure to replace my machine. Berina NW specializes in Berinas. I have a Kenmore. One of the other ladies in the class actually looked at me and asked “You have a Kenmore and dont know how to use it??” and “Why don’t you take classes where they sell Kenmore’s then?”

Bitch.

But at least this pressure didnt come from the teacher or the other folks at Berina NW. In fact, I’d say Gloria Young who taught my class is a complete professional and worked hard to make sure I did not feel like the odd man out for my older, non Berina machine. She even went so far as to highlight something my machine can do that the more expensive machines cant. (removable bobbin hook)

I  am looking forward to taking the Beginning sewing class at Stitches next, and then depending on how that goes, I may or may not try the next series at Berina NW. Part of it is the timing, and I’d rather move ahead on my own a bit. After all, Leah is a fabulous resource, providing we don’t try to kill each other.

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/tim_norris/
Photo by Tin Norris)

Working a staff event today we had little bags of fruit “candy” to hand out to folks who came by.  Looking over the packaging , I became annoyed  by the propaganda
“Finally a snack you can feed your kids, guilt-free!”  “The fruit your kids will actually eat”

Because clearly kids wont eat  fruit unless it has sugar added is pureed  then extruded into little dots and dried. 

it’s just like the  two books that came out this past fall, Deceptivly Delicious and The Sneaky Chef
Both books centered around one premis. You find fresh vegetables at the peak of their freshness, take them home lovingly prepare them into purees  then freeze them. Then you pull them out and add them to other recipes for nutritional content without letting your child know they are eating evil vegetables.

Seriously.  As Seinfeld  the author of Deceptively Delicious says “start with a food the kids will eat and add a vegetable of the same color.” Sweet potatoes in mac and cheese. Cauliflower as part of your coating for chicken nuggets? Disgusting.  Brownies with spinach and carrot? Gross.
 Even 101 cookbooks  tried a black bean brownie this week. I’ll give Heidi some leeway because  it appears that she’s trying to use   beans not just for a health boost but for the bean characteristics of density and texture.

Maybe I’m old fashioned. I think kids should like food that looks like food. I think that the fruit your kid eats should be actual grapes, strawberries, kiwi fruit, bananas, oranges, or watermelon.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ferronj/
Photo by ferronj.

Feeding children can be a challenge at times. I know from experience, I have two at home of very different ages. One is trying to get used to my cooking, the other is learning to cook herself.
Do they eat everything?
Heck no! Do they try it? Absolutely!
Doesn’t matter if the girls are sure they wont like it they have to give it a try, and they are encouraged to keep trying as their taste buds change.  In the meantime, explore the vegetable kingdom far and wide! Try different vegetables , try different preparation methods. Eventually  you’ll find what their likes are. Its not required to go  to the lengths that the  Great Vegetable challenge is going, but I think we can all use to get out of our vegetable comfort zone.
  
To sum it up, fruits and vegetables arent evil.
 The companies and cookbooks trying to convince us that  fruits and  vegetables have to be hidden or sugared into candy to be  eaten? Maybe not evil, but a little delusional.

I’m a big fat yogurt eater. It’s my preferred breakfast. My favorite? Greek gods yogurt. No it’s not lowfat, but when comparing the sugar count on it as compared to yoplait I think its worth it.

Here is how they match up

Greek Gods

Serving Size 4 ounces

Calories 130

Fat 11g

Sugar 5g

Yoplait

Serving Size 6 ounces
Calories 170
Fat 1.5g

Sugar 27 g
Sure I’m trading off sugar for fat, but I’m ok with it because of the flavor. The greek gods yogurt is rich and filling and has not artificial flavors at all. I eat the plain yogurt by the spoonful happily.

I so wish I was going to Canadaland this weekend

“The 6th Annual Fibrefest International is an exhibition and conference for the fibre enthusiast.”