On The Run (from schedules, not the law!)

If you are patient, and have sunflower seeds, an alpaca
just may kiss you on the nose!

It's ironic that yesterday's post was about patience. That should have been today's. 

Yesterday I knew what was on my to-do list, and I was prepared. I had some podcasts downloaded on my phone, I filled my travel cup with coffee, I had a detailed list (I love lists!). 

Today I was ambushed. Our current internet demands - in a rural area- have been under a slight strain. In an effort to lessen frustration, we decided to switch to a smart hub. Unfortunately, my email was tied to our house internet, and when we cancelled it, my email account went POOF! The attempts at recovery started before 7 am. It's now 1:30 pm. Several hours of being transferred from person to person, department to department. Part of the problem was that my email is so old, that it doesn't follow current standards for security. Thank goodness for speaker phone, I could at least keep writing while I was on hold, listening to that jazzy music!

At one point, I did have to partake in some dirt and sun therapy. This was after the nice Telus lady told me it was all fixed, I just had to log in. I tried, it didn't. So I walked away, cleaned out two flower beds, played with the dog and had some taco soup. I'm a big believer in dirt therapy!

By then my in-house IT guy figured out the problem (new password needed an upper case letter)! Not only was I able to log in, but all my emails (which the nice lady said may take the tech department 5 days to fix) were all present and accounted for.

In the meantime, I set up a gmail work account - chinookmassage. Feel free to use it to ask questions about your aches and pains. That's what I'm here for! There is a contact link in "visit profile" on the left side of the page.

Fast Meals Don't Have To Be Fast Food

Many of the tips for small families translate to meals on the go or lunch ideas. Around the beginning of May (when schools were open!), my most common conversation with clients centered around coming up with interesting lunches. We're tired of school lunches, and work lunches. Fresh summer produce isn't out yet to tempt us with new flavours.

Herbs are hanging to dry on the rack
Swiss chard and kale waiting to be
dehydrated.

Finding healthy lunch alternatives just takes some forethought. Most people don’t do their most creative thinking during the rush to get everyone out the door. Collect some single serving size containers; doesn’t have to be fancy, yogurt containers work just fine. Next time you make a pot of chili, soup or meatloaf, make a double batch. After dinner, ladle all the leftovers into containers, label them and put them in the freezer. After a few dinners, you have a nice assortment of ready to go lunches and you don’t have to each chili for a whole week.

Most of the work of supper is the chopping of veggies. It doesn’t take much longer to chop twice as much, and you only have to clean up once. For big meals like lasagna, make two and put one in the freezer for that day when you really don’t want to cook. Or if you have a small family, use some smaller pans and divide it into four. If you don’t have a bunch of pans that you can leave in the freezer, line it with foil. Once it’s frozen, you can pop it out, wrap it up in the foil and put in a labelled ziplock bag. Just don’t forget to put it in a pan again to thaw!!

Base recipes can be used for many things. A huge pot of spaghetti sauce can become chili the next night by adding beans, corn and chili powder. Before you add the meat, separate out a couple cups and blend it with some tomato paste for pizza sauce.

Healthy doesn’t have to break the bank. One of the advantages to freezer meals is there is little waste, no languishing veggies turning nasty in the fridge. You can also take advantage of larger sizes or bulk items that are more cost effective. Buying larger containers of food is much cheaper. It doesn’t take long to scoop yogurt into a reusable container or throw an handful of raisins in a snack bag. Next time you’re in the grocery store, pull out your phone and use the calculator to figure out what those tiny boxes of raisins cost per gram. You will be surprised to see how many it would take to fill the big bag!

Having a supply of healthy snacks that are easy to grab also reduces the temptation to pick up chips or chocolate bars on the go. Granola, yogurt, crackers & cheese, fruit leather, popcorn, veggie sticks are all better ways to take the edge off your hunger or get you though that 3:00 slump. My oldest is known for grabbing an "emergency back-up apple" on the way out the door, in case he gets hungry between home and school (it's a 3 minute drive!)

I find it a lot easier to pack healthy work lunches if I have lots of veggies peeled, chopped and ready to go. I find most veggies store better if you keep them in separate containers. I keep a bowl of hard boiled eggs in the fridge and a bag of croutons at work. My salad spinner has a storage lid that keeps it fresh for over a week after it's washed. Making a salad only takes a minute then. We are lucky enough at work to have a fridge, so we keep an assortment of communal condiments to share.

Make friends with your crock pot, or spend some time actually learning how to use your instant pot. It is time well spent. It’s a lot easier to eat a healthy dinner if it’s already cooking when you walk in the door. Not to mention the mental boost after a long day to have those heavenly aromas greet you as you walk in the door.

Basic dehydrator

One of my favourite crock pot tricks began with celery. You can't make soup without celery, but I don't eat it raw. So I would buy a bunch of celery, use a few stalks in the recipe, then chop the rest up and freeze it in recipe sized portions. Years ago we bought a small round food dehydrator. We used it for everything from deer jerky to homemade fruit roll ups. We have since graduated to a large dehydrator with temperature control and dehydrate carrots, peppers, celery, onion, garlic, kale chips and herbs. You can also dehydrate in an oven. You don't have to spend a fortune, in fact, I would say don't, not until you know this is something you want to do and will like.

The big dehydrator was an investment, but I prefer dry veggies to frozen, and I dry much of my garden produce. I spend a couple of hours in the fall drying veggies, and it lasts me all winter. The most time consuming part of meal prep is washing and chopping.

In the mornings before work, I only have to put some broth, a few handfuls of dry veggies and seasonings in the crock pot with some stew meat or chicken. I thaw the meat the night before and it can brown while my coffee brews. 8 hours later, I come home to soup or stew!

Tray of carrots ready to dehydrate

Celery leaves and stalks

I'm also a big fan of using my oven timer. Evening meetings, extra curricular activities, and fitness classes aren't always at the most convenient time. And family members can be scattered in both time and location. I would take one of those handy extra meals out of the freezer and thaw it in the fridge. After work, I could pop it in the oven, set the timer, and the oven would turn off when the food was done. I didn't have to worry about being right there at the right time to turn it off.

It is also not unusual for me to pack up a hot supper for a family member who has multiple obligations. My favourite containers are glass or ceramic with clamp on lids or soup thermoses,they don't leak. I put them in an insulated lunch box and deliver a hot lunch to whatever boy needs it. I keep a bag of fast food condiments in the fridge (soy sauce, ketchup, etc.) and have some old cutlery that won't cause me panic if it gets lost.

Meal planning can take many forms. Most of us feel like the hardest decision we make all day is what to cook for dinner. For some planning means writing out seven days worth of dinner and buying those ingredients. For others it’s spending all day Sunday cooking the week night meals. Some families assign certain nights to each member to divide the work load. There is no right answer, find what works for you and your family.

The other benefits to cooking more intentionally include environmental, much less packaging waste; financial, it’s cheaper in the long run; and emotional, we feel better about ourselves when we know we are making healthier choices. Making changes can be challenging. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do it all at once.

We have now taken care of our most basic needs for healthy living; food, sleep and water. Once that’s under control, you will be amazed at how much physically better you feel already, and how much more capable you are at facing your day.

Pantry Cooking

New practices of limiting shopping to once a week or less has led to some creative meals. Having everyone home for all the meals has led to a desire to make them more creative. We are in the habit of shopping later in the week, so our house is now at the stage of fresh veggies getting a little wilty, random leftovers in the fridge and maybe not having the ingredients on hand for a particular meal. In the “old days”, if I had a craving for a particular supper, I would pop into the grocery store on the way home from work. That is not to be. With the bigger load of groceries, it’s also more important to clean out the fridge before you shop (make room for that extra gallon of milk!)

There is a recipe I have been wanting to try for a long time, but never got around to it. I don’t often watch talk shows, but this morning Marilyn Dennis had a Dietician on, and since healthy food prep has been foremost in my mind lately, I watched that segment. She was making a Mexican soup, similar to the taco soup I have been wanting to try. The beauty of this recipe is that you use what you have on hand. Since a part jar of salsa and an open bag of tortilla chips were at hand, today was the day! It really is a recipe that you use whatever you have on hand. Here’s what I did.

Taco In A Bowl

1 sautéd onion and garlic clove (out of fresh, I used powder)

1 jar of salsa

4 cups of chicken broth (didn’t have any, made some with oxo)

1 can of black beans (I used white kidney beans which we prefer to red)

At this stage, use a hand blender to blend this up – it gives the final soup a thicker consistency. If you have family members who pick beans out, you can blend in both cans. The beans are more about consistency then flavour, I'm sure chickpeas or hummus would work too. I usually have some refried beans in the cupboard, but not today. Hummus or refried beans would eliminate the need to blend.

1 can beans, left whole

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

Juice of one lime (didn’t have any lime juice, I used a little lime flavouring)

Whatever fresh, canned, or frozen  veggies you have on hand. I used:

1 can kernel corn

1 cup frozen radish pods (looks like green beans, taste like radish – grew it last year)

Chopped peppers and pea pods from yesterdays salad.

Vegetarian soups aren't super popular in my house, so I added 2 cans of chicken flakes. You could add leftover meat. Since I didn't have to cook hamburger or chicken, the whole soup was done in less than an hour, which made it great for lunch.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt, crushed tortilla chips and shredded cheddar. The original recipe also suggested serving with avocado. A dollop of guacamole would be nice too.

In my house we all ate it a little differently. My husband put the cheese and whole tortillas on top and popped it in the oven to melt the cheese and toast the chips. My youngest and I crumbled and mixed it all together. My oldest left his chips whole  and scooped it like salsa. I knew I had a hit when my youngest said ,“it tasted like more!” It made enough for tomorrow's lunch too.

The entire recipe could be made from canned veggies and beans, which make it a perfect emergency or camping food. This soup would freeze very well.