Full Day, Full Log, Full Plant-Based Living: Fickle Weather, Infertility, Family Meal-Prepping, Brassicas, and Advanced Glycation End Products.

3.10.2020

Yesterday was a swirl of writing, Plant-Based Whole-Food family meal prepping, soaking up the few slips of sunshine that came with the day’s end, the special treat of Zoom+games with friends, and more continued learning.

Continue on for: obligatory fickle Central New York spring/winter/spring weather photos, the silent grief of infertility, plant-based whole-food family feasting through a day (+ that same family meal-prepping for the upcoming week + how a kiddo can participate + tips on how to be as zero waste as possible), the important health benefits of brassicas and the sulforaphane found within them, some panoramic Onondaga views while working in some cardio, socializing in the time of pandemics, and an explanation of how fats bind with sugar in your bloodstream to create “advanced glycation end products (AGEs)” and how this accelerates cardiovascular disease, dementia, osteoporosis, kidney disease, and the aging process.

Still consuming saturated-fat filled animal products day in and out? You may want to see the page about what’s going on at the cellular level of you and your kiddos. This sort of reading is what opened our minds and propelled us forward in health.

Live kindly, feast kindly, grow forward. <3

Most days of the year, I am overjoyed at the sight of a snowy dawn, but yesterday’s sight brought a held-breath of worry for all the fresh and tender life that had popped up before this wintery wallop.

These peonies were planted by the previous owners and are a joy each year, so the sight of them looking so withered was a slice to the heart.

Luckily those resilient peonies bounced back heartily and looked like this by the afternoon. <3

Dawn

Afternoon

Morning Drawing for Q inspired by the weather and state of the yard.

The weather volleyed all day. It had been still and quiet during my dawn photos, but from then on bursts of clouds would blow in and drop more snow, sun would slip out and melt it all, followed by another wave of clouds that would bring a fresh layer.

Breakfast Q designed for himself: peaches, strawberries, blueberry, peanut butter, and golden flax.

Q’s Daily David Barber Drawing: “It’s the bridge the Balrog was on —and this is a whole bunch of lava—, but now it’s the eye of Sauron and these guys are trying to get to this diamond and it has the ability to stop Sauron once and for all!”

Plant-Based Whole Food Lunch: leftovers edition.

Mine: stoneground polenta, garlicky peas, lentil loaf, homemade marinara.

Q's: stoneground polenta, kale & black bean soup, bell peppers.

Plant-Based Whole-Food Dessert Decadence: when you accidentally put too much oatmilk in the cacao nice cream, so you pour that mixture around a black bean brownie (sugar-free/oil-free) and enjoy it all the same. <3

Real Life: a papa showing how to clean the bathroom, and a shower door that’s been broken (<—by a visitor’s kiddo) for over half a year because the parts could only be found on E-Bay. Grateful for a partner in parenting and household function, and thankful for an upstairs shower. :-)

Socialization for pre-schoolers in 2020: inspired by the previous day’s full-class meeting, a family reached out about setting up a solo one with Q. Watched Q and a sweet set of triplets catch up on their quarantine days, express how much the other soul is missed, show each other the progress on their homework packets, and move on to that fun “Here’s a toy!”.
We are lucky to be well isolated and healthy, and there isn’t a moment I am not grateful for what we have; but that Pollyanna approach to COVID-19 is equally cut with jangly thoughts of what this child’s post-pandemic life will be like and how foreign the path ahead will be for all involved.

Blessings and Heart Wails

We moved into this house in a whirl, and the biggest draw was that it had a completely fenced-in yard. I am every day grateful and in awe of this yard and all the hardwork the previous owners put into it (and we’re carrying on that torch). The place we were renting before had a big yard, but our neighbor’s dog was never contained, its poop was all over our yard (no matter how much we cleaned it up or talked to him or filed complaints with the County: nothing changed), and it would run over and knock over Quill if we weren’t right with him; so we had been yearning for a safe, green space for him to observe nature and play.

The Conti garden was a dream come true.

As such, we make sure Q gets time out in it each day no matter what the weather, and usually the sight of him fills the heart to swell; but yesterday’s brought a moment of wailing before taking some breaths and focusing back on light.

What would give me pause? The path to conceiving Q was filled with tears: there’d been a work-induced miscarriage (accidental: from lifting someone I should not have been lifting, but it was necessary for the job), well over a year of trying again, and when life finally took hold, he held so fast that he was 2 weeks past-due, his head ended up being too big for him to come out, and I was rushed into an emergency C-section. There was poor follow-up care that caused further issues (repeated infections, an incision that kept bursting opening, etc), and there’s been no success with a sibling in the 5 years following his spark of life. He has requested a brother/sister for as long as he’s had words to do so, and is desperate for a playmate. Usually this need was slightly abated by visits with his “similar to brothers” (<— his words to describe the 3 beloved brothers he in-home daycared with from 8wks-2.5yrs), but he’s been separate from them and any of his other friends since March 12th.

Usually, I have the head and the heart to swallow up the grief related to not having another cub around (for Q to love, to fill this family/my arms: I was one of those folks who LOVED being pregnant and was/is still cherishing it all), and I can redirect that energy toward all the joyful vectors that can busy my introverted soul during distant times; but seeing him out there in spitting-snow —playing packless and talking to himself— sure was a slice in that light-focused resolve.

Speaking of redirecting energy and moving forward :-)… while Q got some brief afternoon rec, I organized the kitchen for some family-time meal-prepping.

We’ve slipped a bit during quarantine, and spread meal-prepping out across several days and done it in spurts. Monday, Ian goes back to work full-time (from the safety of the house) and that will shift how our days lineup, so we gathered together to power through a feast of prepping so the week will involve less cooking time.

If everyone pitches in, you get the bonus of it taking less time to accomplish and family-time to boot.

Kiddo helping can be as simple as gathering vegetables from the cutting board and placing them in whatever pan/pot they’re headed. I could obviously/easily do that myself, but if gives him something to do, participation, learning about cooking, and time with us.

Seasoning is also super easy and fun for him to do.

We buy bulk paprika and throw it in into a re-used shaker.

We’re in a quandary/step-backward re: the containers for the potatoes and mushrooms. Usually we’d buy these in bulk, and there’d be no container to worry about. While we wait for the CSA to start back up (and look into mushrooms at the regional market), we’ve been including these options: the wrapper still needs to be thrown away, but the mushroom cartons are recyclable

Those kholrabi came in a bag from the CSA and they are reusable.

We let Q cut soft things (like mushrooms), and I take care of hard things like kholrabi.

If you’ve never heard of kholrabi, they are a member of the impressively healthy brassica family (broccoli, cabbage, brussels, radishes, kale, etc). Brassicas are packed with fiber (<—imperative to your health), vitamins, minerals, fiber, antioxidants, and sulforaphane.

What’s sulforaphane? It’s a phytochemical with the following going for it:

• helps protect against various types of cancer (including colon, prostate, breast, skin, lung, stomach, and more)

• reduces risk of neurodegenerative disease, ocular disease, respiratory problems, heart disease, and other problems, also likely due to the free radical reducing effects

• supports the brain and digestive system

If that wasn’t tantalizing enough, kholrabi is flush with Vitamin C. How much? If you get just 1/2 cup of this into you, it is 70% of your Vitamin C.

We’ve roasted them before, you can slice them super thin and eat them raw, but yesterday’s plan was to make a bit pot of pureed kholrabi to throw into other meals or eat where we’d usually put mashed potatoes or rice.

Super simple: chop kholrabi (keep those skins on for their phytonutrients) cover with water, add salt/seasonings/bay leaf, bring to a boil and simmer until they’ve absorbed the water and are soft enough to blend with an immersion blender, season to taste.

(My seasonings are usually: salt, bay leaf, paprika, garlic.)

Mashed kholrabi: packed with fiber, vitamins, minerals, and tastes like nuttier/sweeter/a-little-spicy cauliflower.

Ian made these oil-free red potato fries. <3

More brassica prepping: I’ll roast up broc florets separately from the stems because they cook at different lengths and usually go into different dishes.

How do you roast oil-free? You put a little water in the bottom of that pan and add more as needed. Easy breezy.

The florets became roasted broccoli with pine nuts, lightly dressed with lemon juice and garlic. (Oil-free)

Roasted the broccoli stalks with some carrots (will use this for soup), and roasted a large pan of butternut squash.

Meal-Prepping Storage prepped for pulling out through the week: roasted butternut squash, braised carrots (didn’t remember to photograph them in the fray of work), and roasted broccoli with pine nuts.

Weekly Soup: roasted broccoli stalk, roasted carrot, some leftover artichokes, spirulina, garlic, salt, smoked paprika, cumin, nutritional yeast, and water.

Add to a pot, blend with immersion blender.

Super Green Soup: tastes like roasted broccoli soup.

Fresh Plant-Based Pesto.

We make it “creamy” by adding aqua faba (from yesterday’s chickpeas) and a little oatmilk to 2 bunches of basil, 1 cp pine nuts, 2 cloves of garlic, salt, lemon juice, and balsamic vinegar.

The colors of the Cappello version of bowl licking. Q loves getting caps, even if those caps are Evergreen Smoothie and Plant-Based Pesto.

Central New York May Weather: had less snow in the AM, was melted by lunch, had more snow by mid-afternoon.

When we wrapped up cooking, we fled out for a quick family cardio session: walking down the road to pay the farmer (neighbor/friend) for our CSA share.

We alternate carrying Q for stretches of arm strengthening.

Stone’s Throw Farm is seen in the distance.

South Onondaga Views

The walk home.

Quick protein option: easy peanut sauce.

Peanut butter, red curry paste, lemon juice, a few shakes of berbere season, and water.

Voila

Participatory joy: loves decorating his own bowl.

Plant-Based Family Feasting: arugula, sautéed mushrooms (oil-free), roasted squash (oil-free), quick pickled cabbage, jade noodles, and a quick peanut sauce.

Twilight of a busy day: fridge stuffed with plant-based family feasting, zero-waste popcorn on deck.

1/2 cp popcorn.

Add that to to pan and turn the heat to medium. (with the cover on)

Slightly jiggle the pan every so often.

When they start to pop, lightly crack the lid so that the steam doesn’t get trapped and make them soggy.

Keep occasionally shaking the pan so the kernels get dispersed.

Done when you start hearing long breaks with the popping kernels.
Season with salt, paprika, garlic powder, nutritional yeast, and a veg oil if doing oils.

Tucked Q in, and then we had a Zoom meeting with friends and plated JackBox TV games. Was good for the heart to hear the voices and laugher of loved souls.

Crept upstairs close to midnight(much later than my usual 9PM sleeping), witnessed this sweet scene, realized I’d been doing standing diastasis recti exercises all day (within cooking, walking, writing) but hadn’t done the Challenge exercises, so took a breath and went and did those knowing it’d feel better to have accomplished the goal.

Despite the hour, the day still ended with learning, and clocked in at 12 hours and 45 minutes of busybody legwork, 45 minutes of accumulated cardio, and 60 scattered minutes of Diastasis Recti Exercises.

What goal was accomplished?

• I intended to focus more time on research and application of core exercises, and was able to dedicate a full hour to these quick exercises through the day.

• I wanted to get some sunlight with Q and Ian. We got scattered sun spots and cold winds as we walked down the block to the local farm.

• Ian and I were able to squeeze in adult-time and do a Zoom meeting and games with friends.

• Despite getting to bed later than usual, I still devoted time to reading/learning at the end of the day.

Path of personal growth for today:

• continue with PT approved diastasis recti exercises

• take yardwork off Ian’s plate (something I should be doing and have been tabling for writing)

• free mental space to listen to one of Q’s long yarns

• family cardio

• more reading

Below is another informational snippet from Undo It by Dr. Dean Ornish and Anne Ornish.

Live kindly, feast kindly, grow forward. <3