• This is a really cool flow chart by Darya Pino about how to find real food at the supermarket.
• Lisa Johnson, a fitness expert I trust completely, is calling for Brown Bag Wednesdays! I say, bring it on, just be sure to break out the reusable containers.
• Healthland from Time Magazine talks about what’s wrong with the food labeling system in the United States.
• Ivory at Little House in the Suburbs has a new favorite menu planner.
• Melinda at One Green Generation is doing a 21 day cleanse based on Alejandro Junger’s book, Clean: The Revolutionary Program to Restore the Body’s Natural Ability to Heal Itself. (He’s an M.D. who currently lives and works in New York). She’s blogging her day-by-day progress and I’m completely fascinated. I’ve ordered the book and contemplating giving it a shot myself.

How about you? Have you seen any good food-related posts this week?

Photo Credit: flippinyank

Sponsors: Studio Press: Genesis & Prose Child Theme

I need a plan. A meal plan to be more specific.

There was one summer when I did a great job of planning meals and buying groceries ahead of time. Mealtime was much less stressful and much more pleasant then. So why did I stop? I’m not sure. Things got busy, as they do, and I got out of the habit.

One of my goals for the new year is to reduce the stress I’m feeling. To help with that, I’m going to stop making things harder for myself. When I don’t have a plan (for dinner, among other things) I feel more stress than I need to. So it’s meal plan time!

I’ve found several options for meal planning that I want to share with you. Some are more involved than others, so if you’re interested in making your own meal plans, you should be able to find something here that will work for you.

• Erin Rooney Doland, author of Unclutter Your Life in One Week [my review], has a weekly meal plan template that includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and a place for a grocery list. Also, Unclutterer.com has a new sister site called Simplifried. According to the website, “Our goal is to make feeding yourself and your family as painless as possible.” Naturally, I’ve already subscribed to their updates.

• Ivory at Little House in the Suburbs introduced me to Say MMM, which is a web-based meal planning application. If you prefer your tools automated, Say MMM may be the way to go. Even better? It’s FREE!

• Tsh at Simple Mom has a great Basic Guide to Menu Planning that includes her own Google calendar & Gmail planning system.

• Organized Home has a primer on menu planning basics along with some printables.

• Even Microsoft Office online offers a downloadable Weekly Meal Planner template.

To solve the mealtime hassle in my own home, I’m going to set aside some time each Saturday to discuss meal options with my family. From there, I’ll make a list of lunches and dinners for the week and compile my grocery list. On Sunday, I’ll make a trip to the store and buy all of the supplies I need.

I’ll still have to cook amidst the chaos that often accompanies the dinner hour, but I do think that knowing what I’m making and having the ingredients on hand will make the whole event less stressful for me.

How about you? Do you plan your meals ahead of time? Do you think it’s made your life easier?

Photo Credit: gordasm

Sponsors: Studio Press: Genesis & Prose Child Theme

Why not include the kids and make it a family bonding experience? That’s what families have done for thousands of years. It’s not until recently that this trend has changed.

Lately, families and society have shifted the responsibility of food to others. We can go to the grocery store whenever we want to buy whatever we want. There is no sense of where it came from or what’s happened to it. It’s just there.

Food should be communal from the planting, growing, harvesting, preparing, sharing and eating. All of which bring a deeper appreciation for everything that’s involved in getting it to our plates. We have skipped straight to the eating part and most people even do that on the run as if it’s a chore.

There are a bunch of fun projects that you can do as a family to keep everyone involved, and keeping costs at a minimum, all while spending some quality family time together.

Now let’s get into how to start.

Deciding what to grow. Make this a family decision. Let everyone voice their opinions and come to a conclusion as a family.

Potting soil. Go to your local nursery or health food store and buy some organic potting soil to get started.

Starting seeds. There are many ways (and expensive supplies to buy) that you can start your seeds, but there is no reason for any of them. All you will need it some toilet paper rolls, potting soil and your seeds. Here’s a video of how to use toilet paper rolls as a seed starter pot.

After your seeds are planted, you’ll want to keep them in a nice sunny area and keep them moist. After a week or so, you’ll start to see sprouts develop and peek their way through the soil.

Containers. If you don’t have access to land, which is often the case, but have a porch, patio, fire escape or balcony, you can still grow your own food. You’ll just have to grow it in containers.

I’ve found that self-watering containers work great. There are four different ways that you can make a self-watering container.

You can get your kid involved by having them paint and decorate the container.

Caring for. You can divide up the chores of watering, checking for bugs and taking care of the plant amongst the family. Keep a journal and pictures of weekly progress to chart growth to show how the plant has grown.

Harvesting and preparing. You’ll have to harvest and pick the plant to get it ready for your meal. Then, you’ll have to decide how you want to prepare it. Come to this decision as a family.

Sharing. This is where it all comes together. If you made a salad for your dinner and the only ingredient that was homegrown in the salad was some parsley, you are certainly going to brag about that.

It’s that sense of accomplishment and pride that will shine through. You’ll tell everyone that you grew this parsley from seed. I’m certain that you kids will be bragging as well.

You don’t have to have a huge garden. All it takes is growing that one plant to make a difference. It will bring your family closer together and make you appreciate your food that much more.

What are you going to start growing?

Bio:Mike Lieberman, started to grow his own food on the fire escape of his New York City apartment in May 2009. He had no gardening experience and read about a half of a book on gardening when he started. In April of 2010, Lieberman moved to LA where he started a balcony garden and has continued to grow even more food.

Lieberman thinks that people have lost their connection with and appreciation for food. He encourages and inspires people to grow their own. His belief is that by growing just one plant, it will bring people closer to their food source and renew their appreciation for what goes into getting food to our plates.

You can follow his blog Urban Organic Gardener.

Sponsors: Studio Press: Genesis & Prose Child Theme

So what’s a person to do? Believe HFCS is evil and try (possibly in vain) to avoid it, or roll with it and accept the fact that it’s in nearly every factory made product we consume?

I’ve done some digging and hopefully what I’ve found will help you make more informed choices for you and your family.

The Primary Question

Is high fructose corn syrup worse for us than sugar?

The Answer

We’re not sure. Some studies have been conducted, but many have been deemed flawed or not comprehensive enough. For sure, more research needs to be done.

Other Questions

What is high fructose corn syrup?

According the the Mayo Clinic online,

High-fructose corn syrup is a common sweetener and preservative. High-fructose corn syrup is made by changing the sugar (glucose) in cornstarch to fructose — another form of sugar. The end product is a combination of fructose and glucose. Because it extends the shelf life of processed foods and is cheaper than sugar, high-fructose corn syrup has become a popular ingredient in many sodas, fruit-flavored drinks and other processed foods.

The reason that high fructose corn syrup is cheaper than sugar is because of huge government subsidies that go to growers of corn.

So What’s the Big Deal?

The bottom line is that high fructose corn syrup is simply another form of sugar.  Marion Nestle, author, food policy expert and professor (she holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition) writes, “Biochemically, [HFCS] is about the same as table sugar (both have about the same amount of fructose and calories) . . .”

But here’s the problem, Nestle adds, “[high fructose corn syrup] is in everything and Americans eat a lot of it—nearly 60 pounds per capita in 2006, just a bit less than pounds of table sugar.   HFCS is not a poison, but eating less of any kind of sugar is a good idea these days and anything that promotes eating more is not.”

So what are we to do?

1. Read labels. This is one of the most important things you can do. HFCS is in nearly all processed foods. If it’s the first, second or third ingredient, then there’s a lot of sugar in that product. It’s probably best to skip it.

2. Eat more real food. Go for foods that don’t come with an ingredients list.

3. Avoid sodas. These drinks are notoriously high in HFCS.

4. Be aware that it’s very difficult to consume sugar “in moderation” if you don’t know how much you’re eating. Start paying attention to what’s in the food you eat so you can make more informed choices about your sugar consumption.

Let me know if you have more questions about high fructose corn syrup and I’ll do my best to find the answers. If you found this post helpful, please tell a friend and consider tweeting it and/or liking it on Facebook.

Sponsors: Studio Press: Genesis & Prose Child Theme

I thought I’d show you some before and after pictures:

2009

2010: Those are blueberry bushes on either side of the arbor & a raspberry bush between the blueberries and roses.

More photos from this year . . .

I guess I'd better get to weeding . . .

The potatoes in the white boxes are growing like crazy. I keep covering the green with dirt and it keeps shooting upward. We’ve gotten a load of rain lately, so things are a bit muddy right now. I plan to work on cleaning up this area over the Memorial Day weekend.

Please let me know how your gardens are coming along.

Sponsors: Studio Press: Genesis & Prose Child Theme