Crafty? Make Your Own!

If you looked at the
reusable sammy baggies in my recent post and thought, "Hey, I could do that!", you'll want to check out these instructions on How To Make a Reusable Sandwich Wrap.

According to the website, these "fun, functional sandwich wraps give you a reusable alternative to plastic baggies, plus they are a snap to make. After each use, they can be wiped clean with a damp cloth or tossed in with the rest of the laundry."

I don't know about a snap (I routinely sew my sleeves together trying to make a napkin), but they sure are cute!

Thanks, Angie!

Panda Sandwich and a New Shmoo

The lovely people at LunchBots asked if I would give their product a try, so today I put their containers through the ol' shmoo review. I was babysitting today, so rather than making lunch for my grumpy preteen shmoo (I'm tempted to call him poo-poo shmoo...) I made lunch for my lovely little niece, Summershmoo!

Summershmoo is four years old and a princess-lovin', pink-wearin' girly girly girl. Therefore it's full-throttle cuteness today, starting with a Peanut-Butter Panda: I used cookie cutters and whole white wheat and regular whole wheat bread to make a panda filled with peanut butter and agave. The eyes and mouth are bits of grape fruit leather.

I used cupcake liners and Easter cupcake toppers to make the second LunchBot pretty (I trimmed the pointy ends off the toppers with sharp scissors). Summershmoo is very picky when it comes to fruit; I decided to find out if grapes and mandarin segments would work for her. But I know she loves sugar snap peas and baby carrots.

For dessert I continued the Easter theme with a container of Annie's Chocolate Bunny Grahams.

Verdict: Summer was thrilled with everything and immediately ate first the sugar snaps and then the baby carrots. She nibbled on the lettuce before eating most of the panda san ("Can I eat his mouth? Can I eat his ears? Can I eat his eyes?") She put a mandarin in her mouth and took it out again and maybe ate a couple grapes, then shared the bunny grahams with her little sister. 4 stars.

And the LunchBots? You can see from the picture that they come in two styles: one is big enough to fit a sandwich, the other has a permanent divider down the middle, for snacks and smaller items. Both have tight-fitting stainless steel lids; the lids are quite snug (but not water-tight) without any latches to hold them in place. I was worried that small children wouldn't be able to get the lids off, but both my son and my niece got them off without any trouble. I think the size is just right for a bento-style meal or for a child with a smaller appetite.

Spontaneous Contest: Who else would like to give LunchBots a try? (I like them, I just have a cupboard filled with lunch boxes.) Email me with your name and address -- first one gets the set! UPDATE: Wow, I think that took less than a minute. They're gone!

No Excuse for Plastic Baggies

We've been served! As of today there is no excuse for using disposable plastic baggies anymore, because there are now at least a gazillion reusable alternatives.

The latest one sent in to me are these clear Fresh Snack Packs. As the site says, they are "PVC-free EVA plastic, phthalate free, BPA free, and lead free". They come in sandwich and snack size, and I like the way they double-wrap; I imagine that helps keep things well-sealed and fresh.

What other baggie options do we have? Let's see, there's...

Dajo Bags

Lunch Skins

Snack Taxis

and Wrap-N-Mats.

I'm sure there are even more reusable baggies that I don't know about yet. If you know of one, tell us about it in the comments.

My Brand New Baby Blog!

Hey, have all of you heard of This Is Why You’re Fat? If not, go take a look. I’ll wait.

...

Back? The site is getting a lot of press lately. Obviously it’s meant to be funny and outrageous – people send in their craziest junk-food creations and we all groan and laugh. Bacon-topped Krispy Kremes for everyone!

I think the blog is brilliant. Honestly, it IS funny. But in the past few weeks I’ve noticed that a lot of people talking about the site are saying the same thing:

"It’s so gross, but now I want some."

"Eeeew! Oh, I bet that tastes good."

"That’s a heart attack waiting to...mmmm, bacon."

Isn’t that interesting? At the same time that we’re appalled, these images are sinking into our little monkey minds and triggering cravings for these kinds of foods. (Who doesn’t love a deep-fried somethin’ on a stick?) Perhaps we even feel a sense of community and warped pride in this type of county-fair, deep-fried, all-American garbage.

(It reminds me of my favorite Bill Bryson quote: "Clearly, some time ago makers and consumers of American junk food passed jointly through some kind of sensibility barrier in the endless quest for new taste sensations. Now they are a little like those desperate junkies who have tried every known drug and are finally reduced to mainlining toilet bowl cleanser in an effort to get still higher." America, hurrah!)

So I started thinking, what if, instead of looking at images of junk food every day, we served ourselves up a daily helping of healthy images instead? Can healthy images trigger the same reaction but in reverse? Can they inspire us to better health, make us crave a colorful salad, or help us get to the gym?

That’s why I created a new blog called This Is Why You’re Thin!

The goal of the site will be to encourage exercise and the consumption of healthy plant-based foods through fun, intriguing, and beautiful images that will inspire us all. I’m looking for inspiring photos or video links of the things you do for health: pictures of fresh fruits and vegetables...beautiful bean soups or hearty wholegrain bread...people running, climbing, swimming, stretching...smiling kids drinking smoothies and picking strawberries. Find out how to contribute by clicking here.

I welcome submissions from vegetarians, vegans, raw foodists, flexitarians, and omnivores, but I do ask that your submissions emphasize plant-based foods: vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, etc. (If you want meat and cheese you can visit "This Is Why You’re Fat". They got plenty.)

Please contribute and help spread the word!

My Modified Eat To Live

Salad, salad, salad, is that all you ever eat for lunch? Yep, pretty much. But gosh darn, I like it!

Here's the salad-of-the-day in my two-tier To-Go Ware tiffin. I'm so happy that To-Go Ware has added little Sidekick containers to their line. The lids are stainless steel (no more crying over cracked plastic!) and they fit snug; I haven't had any leak problems. I used three today to hold black beans, picante sauce, and half an avocado to top my salad with at lunchtime. I love the way they all fit in the tiffin.

Shmoo has now proclaimed that he "only eats pears" and has stopped eating all other fruit. ("Who are you and what have you done with my son?") I tried to tempt him with some of this fresh pineapple, but ended up eating it all myself. I packed it in the smaller top container from the three-tier tiffin -- it can be packed and used alone for small snacks. And look at the pretty food picks I found to eat it with!

I've been feeling so good lately! I've been improving my eating style and getting back on track with Eat To Live, with the help of my wellness coach, a personal trainer (basically I need people telling me what to do at all times or I wind up face first in a vat of pudding), the support of my friends, and a lot of hard work.

Right now my slightly-modified Eat To Live food plan goes as follows:

• A green smoothie for breakfast.
  
  
• A small snack if necessary (usually a piece of fruit).
  
  
• A big salad with different toppings, some steamed vegetables, and fresh fruit for lunch.
  
  
• A snack if necessary (usually fruit and an ounce of nuts, or a slice of sprouted wheat bread with almond butter).
  
  
• A big bowl of soup or stew, cooked vegetables, or a stir-fry for dinner.
  
  
• beans are in there at least once a day, at lunch, dinner, or both.

What have I modified? Dr. Fuhrman advises people not to snack, but I find I get too hungry and fall off the wagon if I don't get those snacks. So I snack. I also use a bit of olive oil at times, and I sprinkle salt on something if it means the difference between enjoying it or hating it and feeling sorry for myself.

Apologies for all you non-ETLers out there who might find this post terribly boring. Hopefully I'll find someone else to pack a lunch for soon! Preferably someone who hasn't entered the terrible tweens....

Nutrition for Kids

The Feb. 26 archived episode of the PCRM webcast FoodforLife is called "Getting a Head Start: Nutrition for Kids". It's not the smoothest webcast I've ever seen, but the opening play written and performed by school students is very cute. "Nutrition! Nutrition! Nutrition!"

Tonight I made the Lentil Artichoke Stew they demonstrated in the webcast, and it was seriously Eat To Live-friendly and YUMMY! Using fire-roasted tomatoes really does make a difference, although I used two 14.5-ounce cans instead of the two 24-ounce cans the recipe calls for and thought that was plenty of tomatoes.

A Day in the Life of a Very Busy Vita-Mix

It finally happened. After 11 years of almost daily use, our old Vita-Mix container began showing signs of wear (that time I accidentally left a stainless steel spoon in the blender and turned it on probably didn't help...but the spoon lost).

So we got a spiffy new one! The 5200 model we got has some nice new features -- new lid, new handle, BPA-free container, and it's quieter than our old one, too.

I've raved over and over about the Vita-Mix on my blog and in my books, but I hear what you're saying: "It's a blender, Jennifer. What on earth could make a flippin' blender so special that you would spend that much money for it?" (At least, that's what I think you're saying, because that's what I said to my husband when our old Vita-Mix first arrived.)

To give you some idea of why I love my Vita-Mix oooh so much, I present you with A Day in the Life of a Very Busy Vita-Mix:

5:30am: Our busy blender's day begins at the crack of dawn with a smoothie for Hubby shmoo (his smoothies involve raw eggs, so I'm not even going into it).

7:00am: I'm finally awake and it's time for my morning smoothie.


My breakfast smoothie is almost always the same: 1/2 cup pomegranate juice, 1/2 cup hemp milk, 1 tbs. flaxseed (whole, no need to grind them first), a banana, 2/3 cup frozen blueberries, 1/3 cup frozen pineapple, and about 2/3 cup chopped organic frozen spinach.


A quick blend and the flaxseed and spinach disappear without a trace. I pour the smoothie into my travel cup, take a couple sips, and head for the gym. When I'm done working out the smoothie is waiting for me in the car, still cold.

10:00am: I whir up a batch of creamy Nacho Cheese for our afternoon out with friends. My mom reports that her regular blender never gets these vegan cheese sauces as creamy and smooth as mine.


5:00pm: It's time for dinner and one of my favorite Vita-Mix tricks: blending a portion of a vegetable soup and then stirring it back into the soup to make the soup "creamy" without using any cream.

This Indian Cabbage Soup is nice and spicy. I serve it with dahl and brown rice.

7:00pm: Dessert, our favorite! And here's something a regular blender really can't do: make sorbet. Tonight I go all-out and make Healthy Fruit Parfaits.


I start by bringing out the bins of frozen fruit I have in my freezer and washing a bowl of fresh (not frozen) blueberries. I blend frozen peaches with a bit of orange juice, using just enough liquid to get the blender going while keeping a thick consistency (I use the tamper to keep things moving). I put the peach sorbet in a bowl in the freezer for just a minute while I rinse out the container and blend frozen strawberries with a few pieces of frozen pineapple and just enough soymilk to get it going again.


I layer spoonfuls of peach sorbet, strawberry sorbet, and fresh blueberries in pretty parfait glasses garnished with slices of tangerine. Oooh, fancy shmancy! And no sugar!

08:00pm: After one last wash and rinse, our Vita-Mix is ready for a well-deserved rest. Good night, Vita-Mix! See you in the morning!

Acne

It must be true. Shmoo must really be hitting his preteens, because now he has zits. Last night he pointed to the big red blotches on his chin and asked me, "What is this?" My little baby!! Next thing you know he'll be going on dates and asking to borrow the car...

I've dealt with acne my entire adult life (they all told me I'd grow out of it, the liars). And although acne has been linked to milk and dairy products in several studies, going vegan did not clear up my skin at all.

Of course, although it didn't contain dairy, my early vegan diet did include daily servings of things like soda, chips, candy, and french fries.

When I learned about nutrient-density and started following Eat To Live, things changed. I cleared sugar, white flour, and oil out of my diet and added more fruits and vegetables, and within two to three weeks my acne had disappeared. At first I didn't know what to make of it. Each morning I would stare intently into the bathroom mirror, ready to do battle with my face, and would find that I had nothing to fight. I would stand back and gape at myself. No zits!

Of course, I'll always have acne scars and pores you can see across the room (along with wrinkles now, how lovely), but for the first time in my adult life I have clear skin. The nasty bumps return and flare up all along my chin and jawline within two to three weeks of bringing sweets back into my diet. (I wish I could say one experience of this was enough to keep me on the wagon forever, but I must admit I've fallen off a few times now, always with the same results.)

Then last week I discovered that I'm not alone. Here's the passage I read in Anticancer:

"When [Loren Cordain, PhD] was told that certain population groups whose way of life is very different from ours had no experience of acne (which is caused by an inflammation of the epidermis, among other mechanisms), he wanted to find out how this could occur...Cordain accompanied a team of dermatologists to examine the skin of 1,200 adolescents cut off from the rest of the world in the Kitavan Islands of New Guinea, and 130 Ache Indians living in isolation in Paraguay. In these two groups they found no trace whatsoever of acne. In their article in Archives of Dermatology, the researchers attributed their amazing discovery to the adolescents' nutrition. The diets of these contemporary sheltered groups resemble those of our distant ancestors: no refined sugar or white flour, thus no peaks of insulin or IGF in the blood.

"In Australia, researchers convinced Western adolescents to try a diet restricting sugar and white flour for three months. In a few weeks, their insulin and IGF levels diminished. So did their acne."

Think this information will be enough to convince shmoo to go sugar-free? I doubt it. That monkey just don't let go. But maybe when he gets interested in girls...

Two Cute Lunch Kits

Wow, it seems like exciting new lunch-gear is just springing up left and right! I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the fun lunch items I want to share with you all. Here are two more:

1. Etsy craftswoman Becky Striepe recently sent in this email:

"Hi Jennifer!

I've been a big fan of yours for quite a while. You're basically the reason I got interested in bento, so it would be a total honor if you mentioned my Lunch Kits on your blog. Each one comes with: a handmade bag, 5 napkins, a stainless steel lunchbox and a pair of bamboo chopsticks or eclectic utensils.

"I'm also a vegan and love cooking! Your Magical Loaf Studio is one of my go-tos when we need an easy, tasty dinner. It hasn't failed me yet!"

Oh, thank you so much, Becky! Your handmade bags are super-adorable!

2. A blog commenters recently pointed me towards Kids Konserve, a new company focusing on waste-free lunches for kids.

There's so much to like here! Their Lunch Kits come with a recycled canvas sack with recycled aluminum name tag, an organic cloth napkin, stainless steel beverage bottle with a carabiner, a BPA-free "food kozy" that replaces disposable baggies, and two stainless steel food containers with BPA-free plastic lids. Eco-impeccable!

There is one thing I don't like, though, particularly since this kit is geared toward school kids, who usually don't have access to a refrigerator: I wish that the lunch sacks were insulated and came with an ice pack and a built-in ice pack pocket, to keep foods safe until lunch time.

Also, although I think stainless steel is the best choice environmentally, I wonder about sending kids to school with it. Watching my own son swing and drag his backpack around makes me fear these containers will wind up dented in a matter of weeks. And do schools have issues with stainless steel, particularly those with security? Thoughts?

Road Trip with a Pitted Prune

We’ve been stuck under gray skies so long, I can hardly remember what the sun looks like. It sure feels melancholy around here towards the end of winter. Time to get out of town and take a road trip! Yesterday we packed lunches and rode along with my dad and his sweet dog Libby, up into the pretty foothills of the Blue Mountains.

For shmoo’s lunch I packed a veggie dog in a whole wheat bun, two corn-on-the-cobs, and a Sunsweet Ones. What clever marketing is that? They’ve packaged individual pitted prunes in little wrappers to look like candy!! I saw these at the store and just had to give them a try. It seems like they would make the perfect, healthy treat to tuck into the corner of a kid's lunchbox.

For myself I made a hummus, sprout, tomato, and lettuce sandwich on sprouted wheat bread packed in our Lunch Skin bag. I also packed a tiffin container of mini cucumber slices, baby carrots, celery, and green grapes, and two Golden Delicious apples.

We started out worried about the weather; the car was wrapped in dense fog and the cold was bitter. We guessed we wouldn’t be able to get too far into the hills and would probably have to turn back. But as the car headed up into Dayton we climbed out of the cloud cover and suddenly, there it was! The sun was shining down on us from a blue sky! We had a wonderful, warm tramp about in the hills. The snow was mostly melted away. The ground was mucky but mostly clear.

Verdict: Shmoo wolfed down the hot dog and an apple but wouldn’t eat the corn ("too mushy" – it was cooked frozen corn), then said "This is my treat? Nice try!" and handed me the prune. Oh well, I still think it's a great idea. Maybe it will work better with younger children?

We nibbled on the veggies and grapes together on the drive back. I discovered that I love popping a slice of mini cucumber and a green grape into my mouth at the same time. Nice flavor combo!