Is fat beautiful or gross?

Babylonian images of women were plump and full. I still hear regularly from plus size women that it is a bias of our culture. I hate to break it but Babylonian women were healthy. There is a huge difference from the ancient cultures plus size models and today’s overweight women.

Let’s explore why bigger more padded women were beautiful in ancient cultures. Food could be sparse. When food was available it was possibly vegetables. If a woman was fat, she had plenty of food and most likely did not have to work in her field to obtain that food. Thin women usually ate a lower calorie more vegetable and grain based diet and probably worked very hard every day. They beauty was in the status that their size represented.

Outside of that, we can also see a huge difference between the healths of an ancient person who had extra weight versus the average modern obese individual. Consider an ancient diet.  In Babylon people did not have extra chemicals, refined grains and sugars or mass produced processed and preserved foods. In order to put additional weight on, an individual would have to eat large quantities of natural, organic foods. Granted there was potentially a large amount of fats from red meats. I would guess based on the little bits of research my ADD head is able to do, that the majority of their diet was healthy.

In the modern world, we eat artificially colored, flavored, sweetened, bleached, enriched, chemically treated food product. It is almost impossible to escape this. We feed our animals supplemental diets which turn the stomach. We eat sick animals and altered produce. We eat excessive amounts and then wonder why we feel and look yucky. Our obesity is not pleasant looking, it does not create a round plump, full look. It is a hallmark of bad diet. Our skin is pasty and acne prone. Our hair is lifeless. Our thighs are riddled with cellulite. Our arms are flabby. Our stomach has rolls and flab. It is a sign of diabetes, heart disease and breathing problems, to name a few.

It’s okay to be curvy, full, voluptuous ladies and gentleman. As long as that is from a healthy, well balanced diet, not boxed macaroni and cheese and Big Mac’s.

Sorry for such a long break. Life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. When life hands you more lemons, you make dressings, margaritas, Italian dishes and a host of other lemon based substances.

I’m back with a slightly different perspective. My focus of this blog is still the balance of green living, healthy living and frugal living. Stay alert for my next blog entry soon.

Menu Planning

This is going to be a short series of posts on menu planning. Menu planning is one of the easiest ways to save money, save time and ensure healthy meals for your family. Menu planning frightens some and most people have an excuse for why they won’t plan meals. Let’s dispel those fears and eliminate those excuses!

Grocery stores are filled with pocketbook landmines. Even with a menu plan and shopping list I fall into the trap periodically. When you shop without a plan, well, those “great” deals become more of a hazard to your wallet. We’ve read the many hazards of end caps and loss leaders. Without a shopping plan these temptations will grab you and cause terror in your wallet. Daily shopping will also kill your budget. Weekly plans are a minimum. You will spend excess money on gas and miss the opportunity of buying in quantity. Shopping for a whole week will save money.

Making out a menu plan and shopping list takes some time. The more time you spend making a menu plan, the less time this will take. I will also give some hints and tricks to reduce the amount of time you spend making a menu plan and shopping list. For me the key here is efficiency. I spend a bit more time planning my menu and organizing a shopping list. This process saves me time and energy in the store and on a daily basis. I don’t have to worry about what we are going to have for dinner at 6 pm. I organize my shopping list into store aisles, grouping like items. This limits back tracking in the store. I can feasibly shop for a week in 30 minutes from the time I enter the store, until the time I am actually pulling out of the parking lot.

When pressured we take the easy way out. Without a meal plan, we default to fast food, takeout and delivery. Even if we don’t go that far, how many times do we eat Hamburger Helper – esque meals because we don’t know what to serve last minute? Boxed meals might as well be McDonald’s. That is not home cooking. If a complex meal for you is Hamburger Helper you need to pick up a cookbook. I recommend Teens Cook: How to Cook What You Want To Eat by Meghan, Jill and Judi Carle.

Now this sounds all peachy keen right. You know that planning a menu will saving you time and money, but it’s not for you because, you are: too busy, single, a couple, broke, wealthy, competent, incompetent, etc. etc. etc. I call bull hockey on all of it. You don’t have to come up with a new, exciting gourmet meal for each day of the week. You can recruit your family, make them tell you what their favorite dishes are. We can all save some money and a menu plan will do it.

A few non-traditional menu planning ideas that may help you take on this task. Some families have a theme to guide them. Monday’s are Mexican food, Tuesday’s are Italian, etc. They can change recipes throughout the week. I personally make a month long menu plan and I just repeat a two week section. It doesn’t become stagnant and I save some time. Popular amongst couples and singles is to list a week or more worth of recipes and chose meals from the list at random. If you still hold to your excuses, I recommend Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely. Check out her website www.savingdinner.com. All your menu planning and shopping list organization done for $5 a month.

New Year, New Posts

First I must apologize on my absence on this blog. I have been so wrapped up in life that I haven’t made my pizza recipe I promised pictures of since. In fact I haven’t cooked lunch since August. Sheesh! I know, how horrible can I be? We’ve been living on leftovers, convenience foods and sandwiches for lunch. Terrible.

I have set a New Year’s Resolution forward for myself. Oh no! I promised myself that I am returning to this blog and I will be posting at least a couple times every week. Now, I am a full time college student and classes will be starting again soon, but I will try to post regularly during this lovely Spring term.

Part of our (mine and hubbies) New Year’s Resolution is de-cluttering our lives. Not just physically getting rid of all the extras but also emotionally and in all areas. We are refocusing our attentions to provide the things we want and need in life. Currently we are in the planning stages. We are re-organizing to make everything run much more efficiently so that as changes begin, we have the freedom to not crumble. Don’t laugh, many times we have tried to move forward in one area and watched the rest of our lives crumble.

My current project is getting this house together. OMG! Being away for the last couple of months with 4 little ones running around has created an utter state of CHAOS! And yes I mean that in the FlyLady/SHE sense of Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome. If you haven’t yet checked out Flylady.net, go to Flylady.net. It’s worth it, even if you are organized.

Wishing everyone a happy and fantastic 2011!

Technical Difficulties

Oh No! I wanted to post at least one quick, easy, veggie recipe! I had a yummy mexican veggie pizza going for lunch but after reviewing my pictures on my phone I realized that something was amiss. Lo and behold the children and I have terrorized my Blackberry into submission. There is significant scratching in the middle of my lens leaving a cloudy, mucky haze to all of my pictures.

This led to a short retail therapy session and I bought a new camera. El Cheapo Wal-Mart Special but seems decent for my purposes. It's a Kodak EasyShare C182. It is supposed to be here early next week (fingers crossed).

As soon as our glitch is resolved, I will recreate the recipe and the corresponding photos and give everyone something to try.

Vegetarian

We are bombarded daily by the happening hot diet. Sometimes they are a gimmick, sometimes they are expensive, many times they are far far from healthy! The best diet is the balanced diet; eating everything in moderation. I know that seems like a duh, but how many times do you see across the front of a magazine, "Lose 15 lbs and 4 inches in just 3 weeks eating this amazing food." Now the balanced diet/moderation concept doesn't seem so silly, huh!

This is titled Vegetarian. I'm sure you are expecting the normal meat is bad lecture. I'm not going to tell you about the evils of steak. Granted if meat is consumed in large quantities (not in moderation) it is bad for your health, the environment and the budget, but in moderation is a tasty treat. This is titled Vegetarian because I think that many of the benefits are overlooked when it comes to eating Vegetarian meals.

My primary driving forces behind a weekly vegetarian meal is: cost, taste, health, environmental concern. Yes, I said it, it can be a cheap, tasty, healthy and green way to eat. I'm not saying that every meal should be meat free and we should protest and raise in arms for a vegetarian utopia on earth. I'm just saying give your budget a break, give your mouth a treat and don't be scared to eat a meal that doesn't have meat.

What is less expensive than veggies? When you combine beans and rice or beans and corn you create a complete protein that rivals meat. No I lied, it doesn't rival meat, it trumps meat. Why you ask. Well, it is low fat and high fiber. Meat can't tote those qualities! Price a bag of rice and beans to a nice steak, ya, I told you so. C-h-e-a-p! And when you are feeding a family of six on a limited budget, cheap is important. Heck, it's important for everybody, look at rocketing food costs, save a few bucks and eat some veggies.

Tasty? We aren't talking about the overcooked flavorless slop that used to be served on your plate during school lunch. We are talking about fresh flavorful food. Something that nourishes the whole body, spirit and mind. Mexican and Italian cuisine lends itself well to Vegetarian cooking. Try making mini pizza's on corn (or flour) tortillas, using veggies for toppings. Nice and quick!

Of course, it's easy on the environment and healthier. Low fat, high fiber, high nutrient. Animals take large amounts of land and meat must be refrigerated etc. etc. etc. You've all heard it before, I'm not going to go over it again.

So, I encourage you to try the occasional veggie only meal once in a while. It is the best way to balance, green, inexpensive, healthy living without depriving yourself!

Food Stamp Window Cleaner.

Sorry all, no pictures. Found an awesome recipe for window cleaner on Tip Nut. It's called Lemon-Fresh Window Cleaner, but I call it Food Stamp Window Cleaner. The reason is two fold. The ingredients are all items you can purchase with Food Stamps and they are inexpensive. Here's the recipe:

3 TBS lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

2 cups club soda (you can use water too or a mix of water and club soda but
I prefer 100% club soda)

1 tsp cornstarch

Pour everything into a spray bottle then shake well before using.