Leafy greens are your friend

On my never-ending journey to better nutrition and health, I've discovered leafy greens.  Specifically "dark" leafy greens.  These guys are POWERHOUSES of nutrients, and shockingly low in calories.  Oh, and they fill you up like nobody's business.  When I eat 4 cups raw (cooked down to 1 1/2 cup) I barely have room for the rest of my meal. 
I get the bag of mixed greens (collard, turnip, mustard) or a large bunch of kale (yes, I said kale, don't be afraid!); whichever is on sale at the store that particular week. 
The first thing you should know about these beauties is you DO NOT need to boil/steam or otherwise, pre-cook them before your sautee.  Its unnecessary and will leech out some of your yummy vitamins.
Here's how I cook them (same method as my other fav: red and napa cabbage!)

Leafy Greens with Garlic
4 cups of greens, washed, patted dry & stems removed
1/2 t. chopped garlic
1-2 glugs EVOO
1/4 c chopped onion (any kind), if you have it around
Chili powder to taste
S&P to taste

Add your oil to a med-high skillet.  NEVER add oil to a cold pan.  Sautee your onions & garlic a minute or so.  If you don't have garlic, you can use garlic powder.  If it's salted garlic powder, just omit the salt later on.  Add your greens, 1 cup at a time.  Turn heat down to medium.  Stir quickly to avoid burnt greens.  You may add some veg or chicken broth (just a bit) if you don't have enough oil to keep the greens from sticking.  Keep adding greens as they cook down.  When adding the last bit of greens, turn your heat off, add chili powder, S&P, and put the cover on your pan.  Let sit for 2-5 minutes.

I like to have greens w/ tofu & a 1/2 sweet potato.  I find the savory and sweet flavors really compliment each other.

Do you have a favorite healthy veg recipe?  Please share it.  either post in comments or post a link to your blog posting.

Guest blogger: House Call Fitness

From our friend Abby at House Call Fitness (where the personal trainer comes to YOU at YOUR house.  How cool is that??  Please check out this great woman's owned business if you live in the Chicago area!)

You say you don't have time to exercise? I beg to differ. Read on for simple strategies on how you can get your 30 minutes per day.
30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise on most days of the week (think 5) is the minimum amount of exercise needed to achieve cardiovascular and health-related benefits. (Remember: more is needed if weight loss is the goal) The good news for people who are time crunched is that you can accumulate this 30 minutes throughout your day. You can break it up in to three manageable 10 minute periods.
Ideas for increasing your daily activity:
WALK ON YOUR LUNCH BREAK
PARK IN THE FARTHEST SPOT FROM THE STORE ENTRANCE
TAKE A WALK AFTER DINNER
WALK OR BIKE TO WORK
CLIMB THE STAIRS TO YOUR OFFICE INSTEAD OF TAKING THE ELEVATOR
ON YOUR 15 MINUTE BREAK, CLIMB THOSE STAIRS AGAIN


Here are a few random facts on stair climbing that I gathered from a recent article in the Intelligencer.
67% RISE IN STAIR USE AT A 10-STORY MIDDLE-INCOME HOUSING COMPLEX IN THE BRONX AFTER THE CITY STARTED POSTING "BURN CALORIES, NOT ELECTRICITY" SIGNS
33% DIFFERENCE, IN A HARVARD STUDY, IN MORTALITY RATES BETWEEN MEN WHO CLIMBED MORE THAN 55 FLIGHTS OF STAIRS A WEEK AND THOSE WHO DIDN'T
STAIR-CLIMBING IS A MORE EFFICIENT FORM OF EXERCISE THAN WALKING: TWO ADDITIONAL MINUTES OF STAIR-CLIMBING PER DAY (APPROXIMATELY 3 FLOORS) CAN BURN MORE THAN ENOUGH CALORIES TO ELIMINATE THE AVERAGE ADULT'S ANNUAL WEIGHT GAIN


WORKOUT WITH A BUDDY, TAKE TURNS MAKING UP NEW EXERCISES
EXPERIMENT WITH A NEW CLASS
PICK UP A FITNESS MAGAZINE AND TRY SOME NEW EXERCISES
PURCHASE A NEW WORKOUT VIDEO SUCH AS TAW KWON DO OR HIP HOP
TRY A BOOTCAMP STYLE WORKOUT
GO ON A WALK/RUN WITH A FRIEND
RUN AROUND AND PLAY WITH YOUR CHILDREN IN THE YARD


Take a look at this video clip and see the measures that some folks in Sweden went to in order to encourage people to take the stairs.

People are discouraged by boredom and encouraged by novelty. What can you do to make exercise more appealing to you? How about making it more fun?


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Since Zenfull Mommy and I are both doing the 2010 AWBC, we will be doing some long training walks together. YEAH! I'm also getting a friend at work to join our AWBC team: she lives just 2 miles from my house so we're going to start working out together as well. This will get ME motivated, as I cannot let these two amazing ladies down.

Finding the ME in this holiday season

I'm sure the title of this post sounds odd, especially in light of this recent post.  But work with me a little and you'll see the message I'm trying to convey.
The holidays are stressful and I personally think they are MOST stressful on moms.  We try to make everything perfect for everyone in our lives.  Getting that PERFECT gift, decorating the house JUST SO (and I seriously have trouble keeping my house clean enough to avoid a DCFS investigation...), extra amounts of cooking/baking, finding cute-as-a-button outfits for the kids, trying to ensure those velvet dress pants from last year still fit after Thanksgiving, spending extra time with in-laws and extended family (which is ALWAYS stressful, let alone with this added pressure), and the list goes on and on and on. 
I remember as a child, my mom hid/kept all gifts in the basement.  We had an old (150 yr+ farm house with an unfinished (ie: cinderblock w/ dirt floor) basement.  It was cold and damp.  Mom MADE the majority of our gifts (sewing), but made sure we had a couple store bought ones as well.  Even back then, poor as we were, she went over-board with gifts.  Because my dad ran the farm and routinely worked 18 hour days, it was up to mom to get Christmas organized.  On the evenings leading up to Christmas she would spend hours in the basement at night after we went to bed.  Then Christmas Eve she's spend hours baking: cookies, cakes, sweet rolls, etc.  Come Christmas morning I cannot fathom how exhausted she must have been.  She did EVERYTHING for everyone else, and never took time for herself.  I often wonder if she enjoyed the holidays herself.
As a new mom, I'm committed to find some time for myself this season.  Otherwise, I fear, the stress would prove overwhelming and I wouldn't enjoy the holidays at all.  So what am I doing?  I'm making all gifts.  The time I spend on these gifts is actually ME TIME.  I ENJOY making things for others, but even more, I LOVE the satisfaction of homemade projects and the solitude it takes to complete the projects (usually in the basement where my sewing machine and craft cabinet are.)  It's a peaceful time for me.  I play Christmas music and reflect.  I emerge from the basement renewed and frankly, more sane.

What are you doing to take care of yourself this season?

The importance of giving

Every year I try and re-inforce the fact that giving to others is so very important. This year, I think my kids finally got it...they got "it".

We had several toys in the basement , New and in Boxes, from Birthdays, Christmas, etc ..that for some reason or another my girls never got around to opening or playing with. It seems as though no matter how many times I ask the Granparents (my kids have 3 sets) NOT to buy them toys, they ignore me and Dive in head first.....So We pulled out ALL of the toys, I think there were about 30 items and put them out on the living room floor. Each of my girls were told to pick 1 toy that they wanted to keep....this was a VERY SLOW process, as they NEEDED all of them but they eventually each chose 1 toy and we packed up the rest. After talking as a family, the kids decided to give the remaining toys to a local orphanage in our area.

My girls have been asking me every day when we are going to take the toys.They are so excited to give them to the kids and to make others' happy. My 7 year old told me that it makes her heart feel good to give her things to kids that need it. She got it.



On a final note, my husband and I didn't want to clean out the kids toys and give them away while they were not home. We feel that it is important for them to be involved in the giving process and to willingly give things to others.

How do you help others less fortunate than you?

Sweet and Spicy Nuts

My friend made these for Thanksgiving and was nice enough to share some with our family, they are delicious! ♥


1 ½ cups lightly salted roasted cashews
1 ½ cups shelled unsalted pecans
1 ½ cups shelled unsalted walnuts
1 ½ cups shelled unsalted almonds
2 Tbsp. snipped fresh rosemary
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. ground red pepper
3 Tbsp. butter, melted

Spread nuts on a large baking pan. Toast in a 350 degree oven until golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Add rosemary, brown sugar, salt, and ground red pepper. Add melted butter and toss to coat. Let cool and store in an airtight container. Makes 6 cups.

Color blind

Note: if you don't know me in "real life" for this posting you should know that we are white parents with a black child adopted from Africa.  With that bit of background, please read on.

Last week, and this is by far not the first time this has happened, I was telling a friend that we are looking into Jamaica and/or another Caribbean country for Sam's brother's adoption. The friend responded "what do you have against white kids?"
WOW. And this is a GOOD friend.
I'm sure I'm not the first IAP to experience this. I'm sure I won't be the last. But it hurts just the same.
I'm sure I don't need to say this to you but WE HAVE NOTHING AGAINST WHITE KIDS. Just like we have no particular preference for black kids. Sam being African is just the way it all worked out. We wanted to parent, and Ethiopia was a good program/good fit for our family at the time. Now that we're home, we want some sort of racial equality in the house, so our next adoption will also be a black child from an African diaspora nation (since we aren't returning to Africa.)
I could say (1) DCFS (state) adoptions in IL are 99.9% African-American children, and chances are better than 50% once the child is in your home, but before the adoption is finalized a birth parent will return and take the child. (2) Private IL adoptions can cost up to $65K and are, for the most part, open so the birth mom/parents are always a part of the child's life, if they so chose. (3) Russian and other "white" European programs are dicey, expensive, require extensive in-country stays, and there are no guarantees as to the health of the child (ie: blind adoption.) (4) we chose not to pursue years of extensive fertility treatments that would likely NOT ever lead to a live pregnancy.
But I shouldn't have to.
People should be excited for us because we are parents and wish to bring a second child into our family. But they aren't always. This makes me very sad. Sad for those would don't "get it." Sad for any discrimination my children will face, not because they are black, per se, but because they don't look like us, and are obviously adopted.
I'm sure my friend didn't mean to "sound" racist, but that's what I "heard."
Have you experienced racism regarding your family structure/children?  Or yourself?

AWBC 2010: In it to END It

In 2010, once again, we are participating in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.  If you don't know about this amazing 2 day journey, please check it out here.  We each have been touched by this disease personally, with friends and family members courageously fighting, and winning.  These loved ones are beautiful, strong, and feisty women with children and husbands and careers.  They fight for themselves and those around them.  They garner strength from other survivors, and we are humbled and awed by the grace and courage they have shown to us over the years. 

Although we cannot take away the physical pain or emotional hardships this disease causes, we CAN WALK.  And we can raise money to fund mammograms for underinsured women, and research for a cure.
If you'd like to donate to our team, BREAST INTENTIONS, drop us an email and we'll tell you how.  But this isn't about US, so donate to other walkers/teams, or become a walker yourself, form your own team, be a volunteer to pass out water, do whatever you can.  Because together, WE CAN FUND A CURE!