Lunch
Wow. This lunch was great!! Since I ate a late breakfast, I sat down to lunch around 2:00.
Ham, swiss, and spicy peppers on homemade foccacia (2.5 oz)
Toasty in the oven!
And the most colorful salad!
- Baby spinach
- Celery
- Carrots
- Pom
- Butternut squash (heated)
- A little hummus
- Walnuts
Who needs dressing when you have squash!?
I guess it could have used some red from tomatoes, green from avocado, yellow bell peppers, or purple cabbage but my fridge is only so stocked!
Despite this lunch being pretty high in calorie (thanks to 225 worth of bread), I’m still a little hungry. I’ll just have a snack in a bit 8)
Total lunch calories: 571
Resolutions
Thought I’d share these Ten Thoughts for Whole Living from Body + Soul this month. All ten of them are just brilliant and help remind me what’s important.
When you believe in an abundant universe, your world feels more plentiful.
A healthy diet is about how you prepare, not just choose, your food.
Walk, run, dance, and jump a little every day.
Explore your inner adventurer. Try things that excite you.
Sustainable living goes beyond a single action; it requires a shift in philosophy.
Your limitations aren’t flaws. They’re opportunities to cultivate self-kindness.
Think of smarter, greener ways to keep warm and dry this winter.
The most motivating thoughts spring from gratitude.
Become aware of what you’re eating – and why.
A resolution isn’t what you “should” do; it’s a chance to move your life forward.
My resolutions this year are definitely green, my favorite color 🙂
Although I feel like the whole “green living” thing is the new organic eating and health craze of the first half of the ’00’s, it is REALLY, really important.
Here are some things the husband and I are working on:
- We have started to use our nice cloth napkins (for a few days – unless they get really gross!) instead of paper ones at meals.
- We’re committed to taking our re-usable bags to the grocery store every week.
- We switched our banking bills to e-bills to save paper.
- We always keep our heat off when we’re gone and turned waaaaay down at night. We bought a programmable thermostat.
- We only drink bottled water in emergencies.
- We walk whenever we can, seriously.
- We use washable tupperware when we can instead of plastic bags.
- We recycle more than we throw away each week.
Some things we need to keep working on:
- Use less electricity.
- Keep up our compost. We really only compost big things like huge squash skins and watermelon rinds.
- Be smarter about buying organic food (when appropriate) and shopping at the Farmer’s Market when it opens in the spring to support local farmers. (My favorite grocery store, EarthFare, actually sells a lot of local produce, so that helps when we can’t get to the farmer’s market).
- Make an effort to support companies and buy products that are environmentally friendly, etc.
- BORROW, don’t BUY books! Use the library! (We both prefer to read books we own, which I know is totally stupid and a waste of money and trees!)
Any other ideas that you guys are doing?
bev says
Great looking lunch. Your resolutions are awesome. I have been working on the green thing for a year and wiil continue ( I've got my husband using them bags too.
We even bought my adult children bags for groceries for Christmas…I just hope they use them. I buy glass containers ( Anchor Hocking ) or some at the container store that I use for my lunch at work , glass is safer to reheat that plastic. But if you don't reheat the tupperware would be good. I keep the wax paper sandwich bags on hand ( whole foods has them some time ) when we go somewhere and I fix lunch to eat in
the car. I really appreciate all your blogs. So useful to me and others. We want to continue being Green & Safe and eating healthy for 2008.
jenna says
The hardest thing for me is cutting down on running the dishwasher!! Every month our water bill is so high because I always cook and just put the dishes in the dishwasher for it to do the work….I need to start a) washing my own dishes b) only running that thing every other day instead of every day :/
ps-foccacia looks so good–i have some plans to do some bread baking this week because on monday I begin 3 weeks of nothing but BAKING class at school!! I have heard that everyday the chef gives us a big bag and we just take home everything we baked that day…aka cookies, cakes, breads just floating around my apartment looking to be nibbled on. I need to work on my self control!!
Jennifer says
Hi Kath,
I think it is admirable for you to be more green this year. In keeping with this mindset, I thought I'd share with you more ways to keep the environment healthy. I'm a Marine Biology major interested in marine conservation and I find that a lot of people don't realize the effects eating certain types of seafood have on the environment– in fact, commercial fishing is destroying many important ocean ecosystems! If you're interested, you can go to the following websites to learn more:
http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp http://shrimpsuck.blogspot.com/
You don't have to stop eating seafood or anything, but there are some smarter choices that everyone can make that would really make a difference!
Kath says
Bev,
I haven't heard of waxed paper bags. Too bad I don't have a WHole Foods nearby to go find them 🙁
Jenna,
We don't run our dishwasher enough and i was telling my dad about it and he said your dishwasher (if it's newer) would probably use less water than standing at the sick with the water on for 15-20 minutes washing them by hand. Maybe we should research this….
K
Kath says
Jennifer,
Thanks so much for the resources! I printed out the list of fish for the Southeast. It's such a shame that so many of my favorites are on the avoid list (Cod, Flounder) but there are lots I like on the best choices list too. But I had no idea shrimping is such a problem. I LOVE shrimp!! Could you share with us more about how and why shrimping is poor and what us shrimp lovers should do!?
Kath
Brianne says
I have also read that using the dishwasher actually uses LESS water than doing it by hand.. I'm sure that is if it is a full load. I am guilty of putting it though when I haven't filled it to its full capacity- I just hate washing dishes! I am all for being more green. It makes me so sad to think about what we are doing to our earth!
VeggieGirl says
oh my goodness, your salad is so vibrant!! love it!! great mix of ingredients/flavors as well.
I too am working on being more green/eco-friendly – good luck with your resolutions!! :0)
azelma/Jill says
A secret way to cut back on electricity is to unplug electronics that you are not using (a tv, radio, printer, etc.) They are on a certain auto-mode even while on, and thus use energy. Not only is it an earth-friendly action, it can also save around 10% on the electric bill! I'm glad there are a load of people looking to live green, it's very inspirational!
Sam says
Kath, I am a college student and I took an environmental studies class and I heard that washing dishes in the sick is less efficient unless you are someone who is REALLY careful to only use enough water that is needed
Rachel says
I took an environmental studies class last semester and was also surprised to find out that shrimping is such a problem. The main thing that I can remember is that shrimping produces a huge amount of bycatch because of the trawling methods that are used to capture the shrimp. The trawling completely disturbs ocean habitats and results in massive amounts of species being killed and not used for anything. Our professor showed us statistics of the amount of bycatch that results from various fishing techniques, and shrimping was by far the worst. I'm really glad that this topic has been mentioned…thanks Jennifer and Kath!!
laura says
hey everyone i was reading this bread for life diet and it said that fruit is bad for you because of all the sugars and can make you gain weight. this kind of freaked me, i'm a fruitaholic! lol. i noticed you(kath) doesnt eat that much fruit. is there a reason, or just because.. i'm just wondering. keep up the great work. love the blog!!
(anyone elses oppions would be great too!)
the husband says
Saying fruit is bad for you is equally terrible as saying people should avoid carbs. Man I can't stand all the misleading "diet" information out there.
And I feel like we eat a moderate amount of fruit – maybe that doesn't come across because it's usually incorporated into things. In fact, we probably eat at least a banana a day, about 4 apples a week, and maybe 1 or 2 extra things (oranges, mangos, kiwis, pomegranates, etc).
Kath says
I'd have to agree with the husband. The only thing that will make you gain weigh is eating more calories than you expend. That's it. It doesn't matter WHAT form them come in, but obviously there is more to food than calories. You also want optimal nutrition. Fruit has important antioxidants, necessary fiber, and is a great part of a balanced diet.
I probably have at least 2 cups of fruit a day. Today I had banana and orange at breakfast, pom seeds on my salad at lunch. tomorrow I'm having banana for breakfast and a big cup of grapefruit at lunch as well as pom seeds in my yogurt. Maybe some dried fruit in a Larabar as a snack. I eat lots of fruit – especially in the summer when all the berries are in season.
Hope that answers your question.
Kath
Jennifer says
I am so glad that you guys are receptive to protecting the ocean!! 🙂 Rachel, you are completely correct about bottom trawling being such a huge problem. If you good "bottom trawling" you can see for yourself satellite images of the damage they do. Basically, fishermen drag heavy nets on the bottom of the ocean because that is where the shrimp hang out. Unfortunately, there is so much important habitat down there, some of which takes hundreds of years to form. With one pass, a once flourishing habitat is reduced to nothing. Much of what is destroyed houses a variety of species which are caught with the shrimp only to be cast off later.
I do like shrimp and I love seafood, but because of the uncertainty of fishing practices, I don't eat it often. If you love shrimp, I suggest looking for shrimp that are not farmed or trawled, which can be difficult. The problem with shrimp farming is that a lot of it is done in mangroves, which are important nursery habitats for many ocean species as well as terrestrial species.
You can look for shrimp caught with channel-nets which have little to no bycatch. Some fishermen in NC catch shrimp using this method. Pink shrimp from Oregon, shrimp from OceanBoy Farms, and British Columbia Spot Prawns are sustainable choices. I hope that helps you out a little bit. I know it's hard, but I think if we spread the word about these kinds of problems, it could really make a difference!
laura says
thanks for answering. i thought it was also stupid, because its not like i'm eating junk. fruit is awesome! lol