Sunday Song Day: "Wishing on a Star", a Celebration of Crystal, Cappello Tree 2020
This time last year, I was beginning to learn the health imperatives of plant-based feasting (I had originally entered this realm out of environmental imperatives and compassionate reasons) and was sorting out how to transition from “living by example” (<— what everyone says they wish you’d do instead of talk to them about lifestyle changes <— but living-by-example changed the actions/lifestyles of zero souls).
My fleeting/hopeful aim was to use my ancestral cord of storytelling, pair it with my love of photography, and start waking folks up to these extremely important and time-sensitive facts. I started with nutritional imperatives (<—because this had been the biggest shock to me and is still the least known), the science/mechanistic-detail that explained it all, the leading health organizations imploring humanity to shift plant-based for health/environmental-stability, illuminated how our own family’s health had been drastically bettered, and kept tying it all back to the environmental imperatives because folks don’t seem to recognize we’re sprinting toward environmental tipping points yet we could DO SOMETHING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE (<—and it’s cheaper than your current diet, tastier, healthier, and kinder! <—Win, Win, Win, Win!)
Crystal woke right up. She dove into the literature, filled her car-time with audiobooks and podcasts, started making small changes herself, roped in an ever-growing group of family members, and had her (and their) own health vastly bettered in ways they hadn’t imagined… and with one heck of a side effect: lower environmental footprint and a broader circle of compassion.
When folks started hearing that klaxon and asking me to cook for them; I approached this kind/keen soul and asked if she’d like to work harder than she ever has before (within a pandemic) and go out on a limb and start a business from scratch: all I could promise is that we would likely not make much money because I wanted to make it as low-cost as possible (<—because the more people who can afford it, the greater our environmental pushback!)
But she was lit up with the same “Goodness, why don’t more people know about this?! We could all make such a difference and feel so much better!” zeal and jumped forward with me once again.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll be saying it repeatedly until the day I die: find ye a friend like Crystal. Find someone who wants to grow forward with you but still has the light-hearted duality to belly-laugh, find someone who wants to work hard toward making the earth/their community/their family/themselves better each day.
Continue for: Your Kind Kitchen Subscription Updates; “Wishing on a Star”; Onondaga County COVID testing; what we’re eating (including what’s in those handmade truffles), how we’re moving, and what we’re learning through an incredibly busy week; and Cappello Tree 2020.
Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.
We have been touched and overwhelmed by our community’s support of Your Kind Kitchen. If you’re interested in signing up for a January subscription, you better sign-up soon as we have a limited amount of spaces left for the deliveries and the sign-up cut-off is the 18th (<—so we have ample time to have enough zero-waste containers.
The first song to break through the haze of Q’s “Little Shop of Horrors” repeat-request whirl has been Rose Royce’s “Wishing on a Star”.
Why? It is played early on in one of our favorite films (The Farthest) and something we re-watched this week as part of his science education. Ever since, this song has been on repeat and became the calming background to a busy whirl of a week.
Looking for an inspiring film that will light you up with the amazing things humans can do when they pool all their prowess into something good? Check out the PBS documentary The Farthest about the Voyager probe. It has enthusiasm, mind-blowing scientific discoveries, heart-swirls, and visuals that will make your jaw drop. We’ve watched this movie over enough times we finally got it on DVD, and no matter how many times we watch it we love it all the same. It’s perfect for a lift of heart and hopefully it’ll inspire you to pure beam.
And in the meantime, I’ll be over here “Wishing on a Star” that Crystal and I can keep lighting up more and more souls so we can protect this extremely precious planet from environmental destruction before it’s too late.
What did we Cappellos eat this week? Well Wednesday was a Griswold “threshold of hell” dumptser-fire kind of day, so we had “breakfast for dinner” with black bean brownies, cashew cream, almond butter, cherries, and a green smoothie.
Q Breakfast: whole-grain “briscuit” with peanut butter and cranberry sauce, served with a tiny Pink Lady.
Busy week support staples: quick peanut sauce and pumfu.
Red Curry with brown rice, green beans, pumfu, kale, and peas.
Buffalo-Style Pumfu over rice with broccoli, quick-pickled beets, ruby kraut, and bell pepper.
Parsley Pistachio Pest-Faux :-)
This was made on a wizarding whim yesterday and was AMAZING (tasted like a creamy pesto), so going to recreate this soon and will definitely offer it through Your Kind Kitchen.
One of the reasons we were propelled by our business mentor to launch Your Kind Kitchen ASAP (not next summer as was originally planned) was the growing need for meal services to help families through this pandemic (<—a common wail has been that restaurants are closed, people are burnt out on cooking the same thing, etc), and in weeks like this one both Crystal and I were wishing we’d already launched so we would have had dinners covered and prepped.
Aside from the usual hustle of starting the business and homeschooling Q, this week we also spent several hours in the car awaiting COVID testing. Onondaga County is skyrocketing (<—everyone now knows at least someone with COVID).
Friday: 2 hours in the car (we got there at 7 so we could secure a place in line), and he still had the sweetness to write the nurse a thank you note, thank her through the pain, and recover like a champ.
Gratitude Wherever It Can Be Found: Wednesday, he sat in the car with me for over 3 hours as we crawled through the line for COVID testing at the Syracuse Community Health Center (<-- our beloved Crystal tested positive —she recovered and is a-ok—, and because we had seen her 2 weeks ago, we wanted to ensure we were COVID-free); we comically (tragically ) gave up when we had a Clark Griswold moment of pulling forward (because the car in front of us had given up and pulled out/away) and as we pulled up we saw a sign saying they'd stepped away for an hour lunch...and we were only halfway through the line!
Through that entire wait he was patience, sweetness, and self entertainment (including that pen drawing of him giving his grandmother "a plant that multiplies hearts forever and ever.")… mostly it was a LOT of “The Little Shop of Horrors” soundtrack (both the movie and musical, alternated). <3
That he could still be smiling at the end of that wait is a wonder even to me. If you’re going to get stuck in a car for hours: may your kiddo be as even-keeled as this one. <3
Foolishly, I had thought we’d be done with the testing in under an hour and we’d be able to go run around the snowy forest, so I’d decked him out in all his hiking gear.
And this is how that morning had started: a mason jar full of oatmilk that exploded and sent shards all over the floor.
But there’s no time to sit around and cry over spilled oatmilk or the county's alarming rates, there is so much dang work to do!
I laughed off the above and we got back to living.
Because everyone now seems to know someone (or several), Q’s been sending out a fair amount of “Get Well Soons” and “Thinking of yous”, and when he heard his beloved Aria had an ill loved one, he got right to work.
“It’s a cobra lily! They are so strong their roots can withstand fire. I thought it may make her feel like everything is going to be ok.”
Daily physical activity (beyond perpetually standing/pacing/cooking) is the thing I need to consciously remind myself to do, and here’s some examples of ways we got moving this week.
Enjoying snow, light, and yard space.
Cosmic Yoga
Roaming around Rand
Throwing Snowballs <3
Running around Mike’s Trees (<—Ian and I have been coming here for as long as we’ve lived in South O.)
Cappello Tree 2020
Ian and I jokingly named it "Rumple Bum Bum” because some trimming left it looking quite wonky, but Q enthusiastically bellowed, “No! We should call it ‘The Tree of Happiness’!”, so there you go. :-)
Our ornaments are all either things we’ve made ourselves (including some salt dough ornaments that are still kicking 8 years later), ones gifted by loved ones, or gotten from artsy friends; the topper is an Ian creation. <3
Wicket Love
Love Through Dishes (<—he’s the sort of kiddo who’ll spend half the time singing and the other half asking for kisses)
What was inside Crystal’s birthday truffles? We’re calling them Bean Balls because they were black bean brownies whipped up with homemade nutbutter (peanut and Brazil), a little melted Miyoko’s cashew butter, a little maple; and then rolled into lightly salted dark chocolate.
They tasted like decadent, fudgey wonders.
Crystal’s Birthday Card: made on the same cardstock as our first tasting menus and a view of what 2021 has to offer (<— our shared dream of finally getting our children together at lakehouse for a few nights and hopefully properly celebrating her 40 revolutions around the sun.)
What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️
Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕
Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥
Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎
Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️
What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.
We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️
Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️
If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕
We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖
