Ignorance is bliss?

I am enrolled in a class this semester called “Science, Technology and Society” and for our first discussion we had to talk about how technology has positively or negatively impacted our society.  One of my classmates noted that healthcare has come so far that we can now help people live so much longer than we used to.  His comment was inspired by Phyllis Diller’s’ death at the age of 95.  He explained that in his opinion, quality health care is important to the health, well-being and life span, but that it seems that only the wealthiest people have enough money to be able to afford that good health care.

I agree with him completely, and in my comment to him, I stated as much, and then went on to include my feelings on nutrition.  Good nutrition is extremely important.  If a person does not have money for good, healthy food, they are not going to be terribly healthy people.  If all you are putting into your body is junk, you will eventually gum up the works and the body will break down, and develop things like diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.  I went on to say that unfortunately, healthy food is more expensive than the not-so-healthy foods, and the same poor people that cannot afford health care also cannot afford healthy food.

One of my classmates jumped into the discussion at that point and stated that healthy food is actually cheaper than other foods, and that even the poorest person could afford to buy healthy foods if they really wanted to.  According to her, the reason the super poor people buy incredibly cheap food is because that is what they are choosing to eat.  She claims that the poorest people are eating fast food every day and they are choosing to eat cheeseburgers and fries instead of a “cheaper” salad (which if it comes from a fast food place is really not a healthy alternative unless one elects to leave off the bacon, cheese, croutons and the fat-laden dressing-also, it’s not cheaper).  Also according to her, being overweight is a choice.  She stated that every person on this planet would be thin and perfectly healthy if they only made better food choices.

I have so many issues with her statements.  I will begin with her claim that poor people choose to eat unhealthy food and could easily afford to buy healthy food if they really wanted to.  She said that she can buy an apple for $.89.  Let’s do some math here, based on a real-life experience.  Once upon a time, in the fairly recent past, there was a family of 3 that had a food budget of $10.00 per week.  With that $10.00 three (3) people needed to be fed three (3) meals per day for seven (7) days.  That breaks down to be 21 meals per person for the 7 day period.  For $10.  Total.  If we do a little more math, we find that this family could spend approximately $.47 per meal (to feed all three of them).  (To break it down even more, there were a total of 63 meals—3 meals per person, per day, for 7 days.  3x3x7=63.  So that gives us a total of $.15 per person per meal.) 

If this family bought my classmates’ $.89 apple, that takes almost two meals worth of money.  I promise you, that family did not buy any apples.  So, what did they buy?  They went to the cheapest store in their town and bought macaroni and cheese, 3 boxes-for-$1.00 and ramen noodles 12 packs for $3.00.  That’s seven meals for $4.00, a little more than they should be spending, so for the remaining 14 meals there was either nothing (mainly a breakfast option) or more macaroni and cheese.  They had a little money left over and they used that money to buy milk to make the mac-n-cheese.

 According to my classmate, this family was choosing to buy carb-heavy, unhealthy foods instead of apples and other healthier foods.  She swears up and down that family could have eaten healthy foods if they wanted to.  I guess technically she is correct.  If this family wanted to only eat one meal a day, and share one apple among the three of them for their other two meals, they could have eaten somewhat healthier.  But these people chose to have their stomachs mostly full rather than almost starving. 

I tried to engage my classmate in further discussion, but she refused to talk with me anymore,  insisting again that it’s a choice.  I’m sorry, near-starvation sharing one apple amongst three people (and having that count as two meals) or sharing a box of mac-n-cheese twice a day?  We chose the macaroni and cheese.  (Yes, the family in question here is mine.) 

I was also going to comment on her statement that being overweight is a choice.  I will not get into detail right now, but will say that for some people, yes she is right.  Some people do make bad choices and that is the reason they are fat.   I know someone like that.  However not all overweight people are fat because of their food choices.  Sometimes there are other things going on that make it difficult-to-near-impossible for them to lose weight, no matter what they do. 

So, what I would like to say to her and to everyone else who may read this:  Please be kind when judging other people.  We don’t know what is going on in their life that has led them to make the choices they make.  It’s not really our place to judge others anyway.  Also, if someone challenges our opinions, we should be open to at least listening to them.  They may not be correct, or we may disagree with them, but it may also be us that needs to be set straight. 

 

Food Friday: Rosemary-Parmesan Butternut Squash Gratin

Yes, it's a heck of a name, but it sure is tasty, to the adults in the house anyway.  No surprise that my picky teenager won't eat it.  That's okay, though!  More for the people who do like it.  :)  I got this recipe from Catherine Newman.  She is amazing and I have never made anything of hers that turned out bad.  I hope you enjoy it too.

Rosemary-Parmesan-Butternut-Squash-Gratin


1 butternut squash (2 1/2 pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch chunks
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon salt (I use iodized sea salt, if you are using Kosher salt, double the amount, or leave it out)
1/2 teaspoon freshly chopped rosemary (or dried, if that's what you've got)
Black pepper
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the oven to 400 and grease a casserole dish.  (I always use non-stick spray)

Arrange the squash in the casserole. Combine the cream, salt, rosemary, and black pepper, whisk it with a fork, then pour it over the squash. Toss the squash a bit to coat each piece with the cream mixture (Catherine and I use our hands for this), then cover tightly with foil and bake in the middle of the oven for half an hour.

Somehow, I managed to not take any other pictures of this... Anyway, here it is ready to go into the oven.

Uncover the squash, gently stir in half the cheese, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top, and bake, uncovered, another 15 minutes or so, until the top is browned and the squash is tender when you pierce it with a knife. Allow the casserole to stand for 5 minutes before serving so that the cream can thicken up.

Food Friday--Veggie French Dip

Veggies.  We can't get enough of them, but sometimes we want something more than just a plate full of veg.  :)

These sandwiches are filling and good, and fairly easy.  I have made them with zucchini and another time with portobello mushrooms and it was good both times.  Even my finicky teenager happily ate it.  This recipe also makes a yummy Caramelized Sweet Onion Jus to dip the sandwiches in.  Messy, but good!

Veggie French Dip with Caramelized Sweet Onion Jus

Ingredients:

3 tsp extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 small sweet onion, very thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tsp tomato paste
1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp malt vinegar
2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
4 small zucchini (about 2 pounds)
4 whole-wheat or multi-grain sandwich rolls

What you do:

Preheat your oven to 475 degrees.

Place a medium saucepan over medium heat and add 1 tsp of your oil.  When the oil is hot, add the onion and saute, stirring often until the onion is soft and starting to turn golden brown, about 10 minutes.  Add your garlic and saute for about 1 minute more.  Add in the tomato paste, soy sauce and vinegar and cook until most of the liquid is gone, around a minute.  Add the vegetable broth slowly, scraping any browned bits from the bottom and sides of your pot.  Reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the sandwiches are ready to serve.

While your jus simmers, trim and discard the stem and bottom ends of each zucchini.  Slice the zucchini lengthwise into 1/4 inch strips.  Coat 2 baking sheets with 1 tsp of oil each.  Lay the zucchini strips on the baking sheets in a single layer and pop them into the oven.  Roast them for 10 minutes, then turn the zucchini strips over and return them to the oven for another 10 minutes, until it is brown and very tender.

If necessary, slice your sandwich rolls in half (but not your fingers!) and place them in the oven during the last 5 minutes of zucchini roasting time.

Remove zucchini and rolls from the oven and divide the zucchini evenly among the rolls.  Using tongs, remove the onions from the jus and divide them among the sandwiches.  Ladle about 1/2 cup of the jus into small bowls and serve with the sandwiches for dipping.

Enjoy!

A Day in My Life

I was looking through some posts I had made on my other blog and found one that I felt needed to be shared.  It's a pretty typical day in my life.  :)  Also, we no longer live in the house with the freakish toilet.

This happened in 2008, but it's still funny (and still totally what my life is really like.  I swear, I couldn't make this shit up).

A day in my life (slightly edited from its original form--names have been removed or changed)

The day started out normally with me needing to use the toilet the instant my eyes were open, so I did. When I flushed, the toilet backed up and I had to plunge. (this happens probably four times a week with this toilet. It will back up with just one square of t.p. in it, too. I am not joking.) As I was plunging, the plunger managed to suck up a wad of toilet paper and as the paper squished back out of the plunger, the plunger made some weird sucking noise and doused my legs and t-shirt with disgusting toilet water resulting in my having to shower immediately and clean the bathroom floor. Grrrr...

Fast forward...

I am making vegetable soup (and it smells GOOD!) but while I was preparing the broth, I had adventures. I was opening a can of garlic-herb broth to add to the pot, and when I popped the top open, the broth exploded all over my shirt (not the toilet-water shirt, a different one). The second can exploded all over my arms. So, now, I smell like very strong garlic... this is not necessarily a bad thing, but since I had just gotten out of the shower moments before I did this, I was slightly frustrated.

Second (third? Do the two cans of garlic broth count as one event or as two?) thing to happen was I was holding my can opener (that I had just used to open the broth) in my hand and my cat decided he needed to investigate the can opener. He hopped up onto his back legs, put one of his front paws on my buttock and the other he used to bat at the opener. This was great fun for a few seconds, then he tired of the game and wanted to be back on all fours. Well, his claw had become caught in my pants, and he could not get back to the floor as he was stuck. In my pants. He is yowling and scratching my butt in his efforts to get away, and he somehow managed to pull my trousers down in his efforts to get free. So, I had to have my son come and rescue the cat and me as I was standing there covered in garlic broth.

There is more to the original post, but it's about our dog turning into Houndini and performing amazing feats of harness escape and the feeble attempts at catching him, but is not quite as funny as this bit.

So with this post and the story of me locking myself out of the house and having to break in through the kitchen window, you should be getting a pretty good idea that my life is better than a soap-opera and is rarely boring!

Food Friday--Spiced Green Beans

We all like green beans around here (except frozen ones. They squeak annoyingly when chewed), so we tend to eat a lot of them and I am always looking for new ways to cook them.

Since I recently found out from my doctor that I am having blood sugar issues and I need to be mindful of that, I was looking at a diabetes-friendly-recipe website, dLife, and came across this recipe for spiced green beans. I made it for the first time last night and my husband and I liked it okay, but our teenager seemed to feel that this recipe had been delivered from the 9th plane of hell by Beelzebub himself. At least he enjoyed snapping the beans with me. :)

If you try this one, please stir the beans frequently and watch out the last 5 minutes or so. Mine boiled dry and I had to add a little bit more water.


Spiced Green Beans

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium garlic cloves , crushed and peeled (we like garlic, so I used 3)
1 lb fresh green beans , trimmed and snapped (a good job for an angsty teenager.)
1/2 cup cold water
2 tsp ground allspice (to taste)
1 pinch salt (to taste)
1 pinch black pepper

 Directions

1 In medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring often, until lightly browned.
2 Add the green beans and the water and bring the water to a boil.
3 Stir in your allspice, salt, and pepper.
4 Reduce the heat, cover and simmer 20 minutes, until the beans are soft. Stir frequently--especially the last few minutes and make sure they don't boil dry!

I need some better dishes!  

Also, gratuitous cat-in-a-bag.  

Invisibility and prejudice, another random journey through my brain.

Do you ever feel invisible?  I do.

There are days that I feel like no one notices my presence, or if they do, they disregard it almost immediately.  I will be in the middle of a sentence and the person I am talking to will get up and leave the room.  Or I will be talking and someone will interrupt me and when I try to continue speaking (after they have finished) no one seems to hear me or someone else interrupts me.

This morning I was trying to talk with my husband about something that had slightly angered me.  He was scrolling through posts on Google+ and only half listening and whenever I stopped talking to get his feedback on what I had said, he commented about one or other of the posts that he was looking at, and I am fairly certain that by the time I finished talking, he had not been listening at all for a couple of minutes.

He is not the only person who treats me as though I am invisible.  Most other people do too.  My husband and I were sitting side by side at a party a couple of weeks ago and someone approached us and invited my husband to their party.  Not both of us, just him.  While I was sitting right there.

Anyway, that is not what I intended to write about this morning, I just needed to vent a bit I guess.

What I wanted to write about is the attitude I have encountered toward people on food stamps.  Many of the people I have dealt with have been very nice about it, but there have been a few people that copped an attitude with me.  I was paying for my groceries with my food stamp card and the guy behind me in line said "It must be nice to not have to pay for your food."  I just looked at him and didn't say anything, but I was thinking "Oh yes, it's great.  It's great to know that my water and sewer service are going to be shut off in a couple of days because I can't pay those bills.  It's amazing to know that my phone service is going to be shut off because I can't pay it.  It's nice to know that my mortgage payment hasn't been made in five months and that if it's not all paid up by next month the bank will take my house away and my family will be homeless.  It's great to be humiliated and judged every time I pull out the card and tell the cashier 'It's EBT please.'  Yes, sir, it's very nice."

Prejudice against poor people is rampant in the United States, and I don't completely understand why.  Yes, some people are poor because of their own choices and actions (or lack of action), but not every poor person is to blame for their circumstances.  We should try to have a bit more compassion for other people.  We never know their trials and situation.  We can't know what circumstances have brought them to the point they are at in their journey.  Instead of judging, we should accept and respect other people (until the give us reason not to, as some of them will.  But we shouldn't go into every situation expecting that we will be disappointed.)

Sorry if this is disjointed, I'm dizzy and tired this morning and having some thinking issues.  :)

Food Friday--Cream Cheese Salsa Chicken

It's early.  My cat decided it would be fun to wake me up at 4:30 this morning by kneading my butt and then meowing in my ear several times.  When that didn't work, she started playing with the coat hanger on the closet doorknob.  That did it, so now I am awake and pondering food, and she is happily curled up on my desk sound asleep.

I decided to post this recipe for a couple of reasons.  Chicken is about the only meat my son will actually eat, and this stuff is pretty good.  Also, I am considering making it for dinner tonight so I can post pictures of it later on.

This chicken mixture is good served over rice (or your favorite grain) and it is also good wrapped up in flour tortillas like enchiladas, which is what the recipe originally was.  I have used boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts for this, whichever one I can find on sale, but I only use boneless, skinless because if it has bones or skin I get completely grossed out and can't even touch it (also, I don't have much money and I don't want to pay for bones).

I feel the need to add here that this is one dish that my meat hating son will almost beg me to make.

Also, I'm sorry about all the "to taste" notations you find in my recipes.  I often don't actually measure stuff when I cook, I just add until it looks right.

Cream Cheese Salsa Chicken

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs, either cut in strips or bite sized chunks
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced (or less if you don't like garlic)
1 to 1.5 packages reduced fat cream cheese, or to taste
1 to 2 cups of your favorite salsa, to taste
2 tablespoons Olive oil or some non-stick cooking spray
Rice or other grain to serve over,
OR
10-12 soft taco sized flour tortillas and some yummy cheese to top them with

If serving rice, get that started.

Heat the olive oil (or pan coated with non-stick spray) over medium heat until the oil shimmers.  Add in your onion and bell peppers and saute until the veggies are starting to get soft.  Toss in the garlic and chicken and cook, stirring frequently, until the chicken is cooked through.  Add your cream cheese and salsa and stir until the cheese is melted and the salsa is incorporated and everything is nicely coated with the sauce that forms.  Remove from heat.  Serve over rice OR wrap about 1/2 cup of the chicken mixture in each flour tortilla, place in a baking dish coated with non-stick spray, and bake for about 10 minutes at 350.  When you take them out of the oven, sprinkle a little cheese over the enchiladas and serve.


I prefer this served over rice, but my son prefers it in flour tortillas and then topped with Tostitos Salsa Con Queso.  We made it topped with melted Velveeta once, but that was kind of gross and I won't do it again.

The red and yellow bell peppers can be swapped out for green bell peppers if you would like as the green ones are generally cheaper.  The red and yellow are prettier and in my opinion they taste better than the green ones.  Also, to make this vegetarian, instead of chicken, a couple pounds of mixed, sliced mushrooms would probably be good.