Winter! One Month Away!

"Mom," I said the other day. "Why am I not cold this winter?"

"Are you usually cold?"

"Yes, I'm usually uncomfortable and miserable."

"You must be eating more protein."

Protein. Protein. Protein. According to my mom, the world turns because of protein. The sun rises and sets because it eats whole chickens for breakfast. The moon controls the tides, thanks to steaks and peanut butter.

I don't know why I've been feeling so vibrant and warm. I just know that I'm preferring running outside to at the gym. And I'm not running to my car every time I exit a building.

So what's changed from previous years? I got a couple ideas.

Hot Water
http://www.kalyanitea.com/cup.jpg

NO cold water for me this year. Every time I drink anything, it goes on the stove first. Warm water is great for digestion. It also keeps your blood flowing. And because it's warm, it keeps you warm. Duh.

Food Timing and Combining

http://www.u-sav.com

Last spring I kept a food diary. The diary helped me to discover the horrible reactions I was having to nuts, seeds and fats. At first, I vowed to stay away. Over time, I discovered that I could digest fats and proteins perfectly fine at certain times of the day with other foods. Sprouting nuts and seeds helps a lot too. So while I'm not eating any more protein or fat, I'm digesting MUCH more. It makes a huge difference in how I'm able to withstand the cold.

Iron, Not Protein

www.scrapetv.com

Protein gives me energy. Iron gives me more. Haven't we been over this before? When my body has iron, it's pumping blood, which keeps me warm. Bring on the meteorites!!! I'll zest them on top of my kale salads. Just kidding. Well, sorta. If I could eat a slab of iron, I probably would - that's how good it makes me feel. Great iron sources include blackstrap molasses, dark chocolate, sesame seeds, tahini, and green vegetables.

Ginger, Tumeric, Cayenne - Not Peppermint
www.chilipeppermadness.com

Before you go sippin' on tea this season, know the properties of the herbs in your tea. Certain herbs warm the body; others cool it down. Logic can steer you in the right direction. Obviously mints are coolers. Peppers are warmers.

My pal over at Dainty Bones would probably ask me to add habanero to this list as well. But this ain't Dainty Bones, so whatever. My favorite good morning tea is ginger, tumeric, cayenne, and raw honey in hot almond milk. It's invigorating and warming - both for the body and tum.

Wool
http://www.awennis.ie

Not very vegan of me, is it? I can't help it. I don't shiver when I'm wearing wool. It's the only article of clothing that truly makes me comfortable in the freezing cold temps.

As you know of me, I eat raw honey. I'm not such a Nazi that I think all animal products are evil. It's all about how the animals are treated. To fight the evil practices of companies who take advantage of animals; however, I buy my woolly sweaters from thrift shops.

http://www.scpagans.org

When it comes to winter, I follow old pagan traditions. Back in the day, winter was the time where everyone burrowed in their homes and rested. This sense of living according to the seasons is really not old; people were living this way 100-200 years ago. Much like bears hibernate, we're supposed to hibernate too!

Last year, I began respecting winter as a time to cozy up and take it easy. I went to bed by nine o'clock. I took time to read books. I stayed in more. I drank less alcohol. I even exercised lighter. I worked on cultivating myself.

It felt good.

But my favorite thing about winter? This poem by Sylvia Plath.

Wintering

This is the easy time, there is nothing doing.
I have whirled the midwife's extractor,
I have my honey,
Six jars of it,
Six cat's eyes in the wine cellar,

Wintering in a dark without window
At the heart of the house
Next to the last tenant's rancid jam
and the bottles of empty glitters--
Sir So-and-so's gin.

This is the room I have never been in
This is the room I could never breathe in.
The black bunched in there like a bat,
No light
But the torch and its faint

Chinese yellow on appalling objects--
Black asininity. Decay.
Possession.
It is they who own me.
Neither cruel nor indifferent,

Only ignorant.
This is the time of hanging on for the bees--the bees
So slow I hardly know them,
Filing like soldiers
To the syrup tin

To make up for the honey I've taken.
Tate and Lyle keeps them going,
The refined snow.
It is Tate and Lyle they live on, instead of flowers.
They take it. The cold sets in.

Now they ball in a mass,
Black
Mind against all that white.
The smile of the snow is white.
It spreads itself out, a mile-long body of Meissen,

Into which, on warm days,
They can only carry their dead.
The bees are all women,
Maids and the long royal lady.
They have got rid of the men,

The blunt, clumsy stumblers, the boors.
Winter is for women--
The woman, still at her knitting,
At the cradle of Spanis walnut,
Her body a bulb in the cold and too dumb to think.

Will the hive survive, will the gladiolas
Succeed in banking their fires
To enter another year?
What will they taste of, the Christmas roses?
The bees are flying. They taste the spring.

Toots

Winter: Love it or hate it? Why?

What do you love about it?

What do you hate about it?



How will you stay warm this year?

Oscar the Grouch Eats a Vegan Ice Cream Sandwich

I started yesterday like Oscar the Grouch. Without a word to my family, I packed up my writing and my food and stormed out of the house like a teenager.

For me, Thanksgiving's a pain in the ass. My dad's all up in the kitchen. So I have to eat out. On Thanksgiving.

What made it worse - I'd been mad IBSsy for DAYS. Often when I'm IBSsy, I won't be able to eat, but I'll be hungry. I drink a lot instead.

The problem is - when the IBS passes, I will be starving. I'll be dizzy. I'll need to eat - immediately. See? Not good on a "stay out of the kitchen" and "let's eat as many animals as we can" type of holiday.

So.

I got in my car and DROVE.

The ride through Valley Forge park was cold and grey. The trees were all rusty and bare. It looked like it was going to snow any second. Nobody was on the road. It was just me, the trees and the deer. I kept the radio off and soaked it all in, cozy in my car.

Where was I headed? You know where. The only place that exists in my heart.

By the time, I got to Whole Foods, it was snowing. And I felt calm again.

This Whole Foods is a biggie. It's got tons of local and raw food. It's got a beer garden. It's also got FIVE food bars. There's NOOCH at the salad bar, with chard, kale, three different kinds of beans, tons of seeds, apple cider vinegar, gomasio - THE WORKS.


I scored...

some Grist...

... a super noochy gomasio encrusted salad ...

... an Oasis raw chocolate bar...



and some Kombooooch... of course.

After that, I stopped off at my local coffeeshop. There I wrote, listened to some jazz, chatted with the locals. Then I went home.

At home, I drank my Grist, hung out with my hilarious family, and played games with my cousin's adorable snickerdoodles. Other than my noochy salad, I didn't eat. I purposely held off, let the Grist fill me up, let the IBS pass.



It grew dark and rainy. At one point, I grabbed my cousin's eight-year-old son, threw him on my back and ran outside into the pitch black rain.

Halfway down the driveway, his little feet started kicking my back.

"Nooo!!!!" he cried. "Werewolves will get us!!!"

Hilarious.

For dinner, everyone loaded up their plates with taters, turkey and coleslaw. I had a massive pile of veggies. My aunt asked me to recite everything that was on my plate. There was raw spinach, raw carrots, raw mushrooms, a bit of kabocha, hummus, and daiya. After each vegetable, she said, "Okay, okay... I'd eat that."

Hilarious.

I ate. I was fine. The IBS had passed.

For dessert, everyone ate apple and pumpkin pie with Breyers. I ate Ani Phyo ice cream.

Raw vegan ice cream

Don't let the picture fool you. The taste is great. The texture, not so much. My cousin tried it too. We both agreed - too dry. I followed Ani Phyo's recipe. She says be careful about adding too much water. I think I was a little too careful.

Whole foods. Writing. Grist. Family. Ice cream. It was a great day. And it came out of nowhere.

So did this.

The Twins' Chocolate Socca!!!!


It's what you call BLACK FRIDAY BREAKFAST!!!!

I cut mine into triangles.

Mashed some ice cream in there.

And nommed it down my gullet!!!

I love the holidays, don't you???

Toots

What did you make for dinner yesterday?

What are your holiday weekend plans?

Do you go to the mall on Black Friday?

If not, what do you do with your day off?

Thankful for...

Gardening in the Grow Indie Test Garden!

Eating arugala straight out of the ground!

Corn water bottles with filters in them!!!




Vitamins!!!

Local raw food!!!




Making deodorant!!!



Tea warmers made out of old stripey socks!!!




Nick Drake




Kombucha (duh...)




My super cute super sweet boyfriend




My friends who love to dance!!!




My mommy



... and YOU!!!

www.davidhorvitz.com







What are you thankful for???

It's Thanksgiving! Make Tomato Sauce!

Here are my good friends, Classy Poppy and Tigercat, demonstrating how to make classy tomato sauce.

The video is brought to you by my other good friends at Go Indie. The video is both educational and fun. It was made in the heart of Pennsylvania country, by good Pennsylvania folks!

As for the recipe, I can vouch for Classy Poppy's goodness in the kitchen. She makes a sweet potato chili that kills it!

Toots

What are your T-Give plans?

Are you a cooker or a nommer?

What are you cookin'?

What are you nommin'?

Happy T-Give!!!!

I'm a Pig

My fellow bloggers. My fellow readers. Meet the sweet potato sundae.

It's what's for breakfast.

For the last few weeks, breakfast has been either sweet potato, pumpkin, or squash. It has worked wonders on my gut. Apparently, I can digest grains - like oats and buckwheat - SO much better at night. In turn, my tum really likes the squishy squashes in the morning. There's no bloat whatsoever. So what used to be my breakfast has become my dinner and vice versa.

Anyone who's been following me on twitter knows about the chocoholocaust. Since quitting coffee (almost a year ago!), I've been munching on cacao in the AM. Sometimes it's first thing, right as I hop out of bed. Sometimes it's in the car on the way to work. Cacao is a total substitute for coffee and tea; I won't even try to deny it. But it does not bother my stomach and does not leave me jittery. It also gives me good fats, fiber, iron, and magnesium.

Sweet Potato Sundae

The Potato
Bake a sweet potato (duh)
Scoop it out with an ice cream scooper (duh)

The Topping
Make Averie's coconut oil chocolate
Sub cacao for chocolate
Sub 20 drops of stevia for agave

Altogether Now
Drizzle cacao top of sweet potato
Watch as the cacao hardens into a cacao shell!
Munch-munch-munch!
Nom-nom-nom!

Y'know you want some.

And now for something completely different...

Remember my new soaps?

Massive fail.

Both left my skin waxy and dry.

Yuck.

So far, nothing has treated me better than JASON.



Sorry friends, but for now, JASON stays.

In the meantime, I will keep trying greener options!!!

Before I go, here's a shameless plug. My BFF of 23 years has opened an etsy shop! Check it out!

Toots

How do you wake up in the AM?
Are you a caffeine whore like me?
Or do you get your body movin' in other ways?


Are you a chocofreak?
If so, what is your favorite way to eat it?


What soaps do you like to use?

So Fresh and So Clean-Clean!

Ain't nobody dope as me...

HA! That song is so old. But I still love it. Too bad the for real video isn't on YouTube. I love the TLC cameo at the end.

Does this sound random and careless? Yes. This is the most random and careless blog I've ever written. Why? Because I'm trying to blog more. Because I've got a lot of life to say.


1. I'm quitting my secondary ed cert and focusing more on my writing, and the business of whole foods, herbal tea making, and getting a full time professorship teaching English and Literature. The path towards the cert has been filled with roadblocks. It was not the path for me, and I knew it from the beginning. I pushed on, out of fear for my future. Now, I am making decent money again and I have faith that my dreams are not so far-fetched. Woot! Like the kids say.



2. I want you to know that I HEAR and ACT on your suggestions. One great one was in the post about my quest for vegan soap. Several of you suggested I find a brand with less plastic packaging - a bar, perhaps!

You were so right! It is good to be vegan, better to be vegan and green. There are SO many people out there who don't know how badly we are effing up the planet. Every little bit that we can do HELPS.

Today, I picked up two new soaps.


The lady at my favorite market helped me find something similar to my beloved JASON, but in a bar soap form.
3. I got ANOTHER cold! That's the teaching life for you. To combat it, I'm using all of the usual remedies, as well as this new one a friend told me about: New Chapter Sinus and Respiratory. It's been about four days. My cold is well on its way out. But when I talk I sound like Romancing the Stone!



4. Despite my cold, I spent yesterday up in NYC, cheering on my good friend Mr. Indie who was running in the marathon.


I run, but I'm a terrible runner and could never do a marathon. It was inspiring to see so many people accomplish such a difficult feat! Just before the finish line, runners lifted up their arms and cheered. Looks of surprise and joy were pasted on their faces. I got a little teary. A couple of times. HA!

Afterwards, Mr. and Mrs. Indie, the boyfriend, and I ate at Otto Enoteca. It was INCREDIBLE.



I ate gluten. It was the second time in the past two months that I've eaten gluten. Both times, I steered clear of the cheese, but ate the bread and sauce. Both times, I did not get sick. I definitely felt fuller faster. Most importantly - in the days after, I had no troubles digesting any food.

The classic Margherita! I steered clear of the cheese.

Does this mean I'm going back to gluten?

No way! The gluten free life has left me happier and much more awake.

But I do like that I am able to eat gluten socially. No longer do I have to be a pain in the ass when my friends are deciding where to eat! I was SO pleased to have pizza with such wonderful friends last night. We talked, laughed, and went "Oh my God" at how tasty everything was.

Here is a plate of appetizers - not ours! We got brussel sprouts, broccoli rabe, and olives.

5. It looks like SOY has been the culprit of my sickness all along. And it's no surprise considering...

... What I learned about soy from watching Food, Inc.!

I JUST saw this, if you can believe it. If you have not watched it, please do. It is not gory. It will only challenge your ideas about food. You will be GLAD that your ideas were challenged. Trust me!

Toots

What foods do you only eat socially?
Do they help you enjoy your social situations more?


Have you seen Food Inc. yet? If so, what did you think?
What are your reasons for or not watching it?


Have you ever run a marathon?
If not, what athletic feats have left you impressed with yourself?

Being a really good waitress
throughout college and grad school is one of mine! HA!

Seriously though - what have you done
that makes you feel really proud of yourself?