The Tree Frogs Are Awake & You Could Be Too
If you feel like every week is busier than the last, we hear you, feel you, and we’re swept up in the same swell.
If you think transitioning toward Plant-Based Whole-Foods (for the betterment of your health, the betterment of your kin’s health, and the critical necessity of this path for creating a sustainable environmental system so we don’t ruin our precious environment for those same kin and every species in our wake <—because animal agriculture is categorically ruining this planet) within such a busy swirl is an insurmountable feat, you are (thankfully) 100% incorrect, and we are a family-of-three who did this transition (<—starting when I was working the busiest/most-stressful job of my life) and we came from polar opposites food-realms to where we are now: healthier/happier than ever.
It starts with small steps (one ingredient, then one meal, then one full day, on-and-on) and those small steps are critical/essential to righting our current planetary damage (<—which again: OUR KIN WILL INHERIT) and in this 21st Century American Life it has never been easier.
It’s also cheaper, healthier (<—we could prevent cardiovascular disease —the NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF DEATH IN AMERICA— in our children and save a soul from suffering while we’re at it), it’s dang delicious, and there are resources to be found in every possible vector.
There are no excuses left for complete immobility, because this isn’t just the casual harking of Karens. This is the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, etc all urging (<—for YEARS now) that humanity transition to Plant-Based Diets.
We’ve now reached crucial times where we are marching ourselves complacently toward the climate tipping points our leading organizations have been warning us about (again, for years), and instead of covering our ears and harking “THAT’S JUST YOUR OPINION! / This is how we’ve always eaten!” we could get our head’s out of the sand (<—we also lined pipes with lead from Roman times all the way up until we started learning it was poisoning us <— sound familiar?) and instead shift our focus toward preservation….and AGAIN, our children will be inheriting what we ruined with apathy and smug cultural comfort; so ask yourself what is more important: momentary mouth-fun or the future of our species and the sustainability of this whole planet?
All it takes is the courage of character to move forward, and y’all can continue to call me a “nag” for repeatedly sounding the klaxon, but it bothers me not: “popularity” is an illusion and this is the most important issue of our life-time. We need as many passionate mouthpieces as humanly possible, and ask yourself if you could stay Midwesternly Mum about climate-change-inaction when you’re a passionate mother who has learned humanity has the power to fix our destructive path (before we ruin our children’s futures), but folks would rather double-down on destruction purely for taste and ease.
Continue for: fresh reports out about how our summers are lengthening due to climate change (fantastic if we want Malarial mosquitoes up North, our crops to falter, our water to recede, more wildfires, etc) plus some handy infographics explaining animal agriculture’s impacts on the environment and our health; yet another week of interviews (Syracuse.com and SUNY ESF); more than 10 examples of what this plant-based (almost entirely) whole-food family was eating this week; what we were working on and what joy was to be found.
Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward.
Crystal and I had an interview with Syracuse.com regarding Your Kind Kitchen’s community-focused aim (to provide affordable/healthful/environmentally-sustainable meals to our community) and our GoFundMe to start a community center (for educating folks about sustainability and showing folks how to do this in their own homes) and kitchen; and then I also participated in a research project with some ladies from SUNY ESF who are working on a project about food choices and environmental impacts. I gave both an earful, but it was also great to have Q chirping up from the background (while working in his school work) with his own healthful/environmental inputs.
I was asked in the research about my emotions related to climate change, and I responded that I feel stressed (DAILY), hopeful (because Q’s generation is vastly more awake than my generation —as they need to be because they’ll be inheriting an environmental dumpster fire of shit— and they will hopefully be able to fix what we cared not to), and determined: because I refuse to sit back and be politely silent or Midwesternly Mum when there is work we could all be doing to prevent needless destruction.
Do we all have the money to do get solar panels, geothermal heating, and electric cars? Nope. Do we all have the money to LOWER our grocery bills (and environmental impact) by transitioning to plant-based whole-foods? YES.
Aside from all the online resources merely a search-and-a-click away, there is a feast of books, and even at our local little Green Hills Market Q spotted this magazine he begged me to buy.
So what’d we eat this week? As always, to help make breakfasts quick and filling, I’ll make a big thing of crisp (and/or oats, which also happened) and pull from it all week. Here seen: a blueberry and strawberry (both of which we picked and froze from last summer) and chia crisp topped with oats, flax, and maple sugar.
Oatflour pancakes with a sauce I made from raspberries and strawberries (also from last summer), topped with flax and maple from down the road.
Most of y’all cooks likely already do this, but for those of you who don’t cook often: don’t rinse away flavor. I’ll keep things like the blender bit from pureeing the sauce and will then scrape that flavor into the milk for the pancakes. (Next time will use a deeper cup and will blend it in <—always learning forward)
Oatly Oatgurt, granola from Grandma, and leftover raspberry/strawberry puree.
A red curry made from a lot of leftover proteins (lima, garbanzo, pea, and lentil) mixed with what was in the freezer: corn and mushroom. On black rice and topped with sunflower seeds.
Leftovers from above on fresh red-leaf and served with quinoa.
Plant-Based Mac and Cheese from PMA Foods with Politely Spicy Cheeky Monkey, Spinach, and Roasted Red Peppers.
Calling this the Fiesty Jack Mac. :-)
Here’s some yard kale that powered its way through our harsh winter, and below is what we’ve been doing with it.
Beyond Sausage Slider on whole-grain (oat, flax, tapioca) bread, with amino braised kale, caramelized onion, guac, and bell peppers.
Black rice, steamed garlicky kale, pumfu, olives, leftover guac, and red chile sauce (<—made last week with leftover chilis from our CSA)
Amino braised Broc (a Q favorite), ruby kraut, black rice, peanut sauce, and furikake for added omegas and calcium.
Similar to above, but with roasted potatoes, easy avocado, and sesame dressing.
And some dark chocolate truffles made from the Samoa cookie topping Crystal gave us (unsweetened coconut, plant-milk, and dates), topped with flax.
Got this plate for a few bucks out of a clearance bin over a decade ago, and it is one of my most treasured things.
And we had a lot of different smoothies, but this one was a sunny-day winner: raspberry, mango, oatmilk.
What I never hear him say anymore: “I’mmmm hunnnnngrrrryyyyyyy” and absolutely no form of, “I don’t want to eat that!”
What I get instead? An even-keeled kiddo who can sit through a 1.5 hour bank visit to set up his T-Ball team’s account (I decided I wasn’t juggling enough spinning plates and agreed to be treasurer 0_0) with nary a “When can we leave?! I’m bored! etc” and instead had both the teller and the past-treasurer commenting on how well-behaved and self-entertaining he is.
Here seen: him spotting the toy they hide and if you find it you get a treat. When the treat turned out to be milk chocolate, he politely said, “Thank you, but I cannot eat this.” and the lady sweetly gave him a toy plane instead.
Speaking of plant-based food and warming weather: our week was filled with taking out the remaining Your Kind Kitchen Launch food which had been (heartbreakingly) unable to be delivered, and had wintered in the Store because there was too much to compost over the winter; and Crystal and I cleaned out several hundred dishes (gathering all the food into that gigantic tote so that it could be composted over at Crystal’s <— was too much for our system), and prepared the containers for storage.
While we worked, Q played or did his school work.
Q - “Seeing all these dishes reminds me of What We Do In the Shadows and that vampire who hadn’t done dishes in many many years.”
The December before Q’s January birth, Ian convinced me to go down to Ithaca with our friends to sit in on a Horror Movie Festival, and my super-pregnant self (who has no constitution for horror movies and tries to avoid them) found myself laughing so hard through this movie I didn’t get up once to pee (a feat at that stage). Fast forward a few years, and Ian showed Q a parentally edited viewing of the movie, it became a Q fave, and he’s likely the only 6 year old I know who would look at a pile of dishes and think about lazy vampires. <3
And outside of T-Ball Prep, Board Meetings, Homeschooling, Small Business Ownership/Hustling, Environmental Activism, and background life whirls, we were out planting the various willow clippings that had sprouted root in our vase.
That’s a yellow willow bush I’m planting by his arbor, and then me planting Salix discolor (pussy willow).
Homeschooling Scenes
When I resigned from (going-to-give-me-a-stress-heart attack) Medicaid Service Coordination for Adults/Children with Disabilities, my sweet boss (whose husband was a college Biology prof) gifted us this college textbook to use with Q and it has become an essential helper in this unexpected realm of homeschooling.
Newts were the Kindergarten Journal theme of the week because we spotted one on a neighbor’s property last week and Q was all jazzed up to learn more about them.
This week’s fact card to my Aunt from Q <3
Two books I have read more than most other books on this earth.
I’ll rec’ again and again and again, but the Izzy Gizmo series is perfect/delightful/a-must-buy.
“Mama, this monster reminds me of you because it has reeeally hairy arms.” Mom Life. :-)
And we didn’t have the time to get out to our local parks this week, but we are incredibly grateful for a neighbor who has started letting Q (and me) roam his magical nature wonderland.
Skunk Cabbages blow my dang mind.
Measuring to make an accessible path down to the water for this sweet neighbor.
Our first dalliance with mud-bridges (I was raised in the prairies of Central Illinois, so CNY is a fresh/appreciated wonder to me)
He spent hours in this icy stream this week.
And he also got some T-Ball lessons from his Papa (and soon to be coach)
And a helpful assist/gift from Opa when we learned that much-loved wooden bat wasn’t right for T-Ball.
Spring Cat Life: when you can’t make up your mind if you want to be inside or out. :-)
And he was prompted by our new friend Scott Bennet to join the ICPS, and this was his face when his first International Carnivorous Plant Society newsletter arrived. :-)
Also him this week: “I heard there is a college right here in Syracuse that is focused on the environment and forests, and I’m going to go there and study carnivorous plants and their habitats so we can protect them.”
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?✌️🤟🖖
