(C)Leaning up

Having de-cluttered the kitchen, we now need to check whether the foods we store and prepare in there are healthy. To develop healthy eating habits we need to eliminate any potential foody pitfalls, so:

Throw out: white rice and pasta, refined flour products (bread, English muffins, crumpets, bagels); thick dressings and cook-in sauces; high salt stock powders and high sugar cereals. And while we’re at it, ditch anything containing caffeine – caffeine slows down the metabolism.
Replace with: whole grain pasta and brown rice, whole grain flour products; oil-free or low-fat dressings; make your own ‘cook-in’ sauces with healthy fresh vegetables; buy rolled oats, bran flakes, low-fat low-sugar muesli, raw unsalted nuts and dried fruit.

We can only succumb to temptation if temptation is there! Stop buying sweets, chocolate, cakes and salty snacks; nibble on fresh fruit or a small handful of dried fruit, or crudités with fat free cottage cheese instead. Don’t buy ice-cream, buy frozen (fat-free) yoghurt – or make your own. I have to be honest and admit that I do still buy and eat chocolate on a regular basis, but I only buy dark chocolate – preferably with almonds – and I limit myself to two little squares as an after dinner treat. If you know something is just too tempting, delicious and irresistible, don’t have it in the house. There is absolutely no harm for the rest of the family to adopt these habits, too. Learning good eating habits now will stand them in good stead for a healthier life.

Cutting down on salt doesn’t mean that our meals should be bland and tasteless – stock up on lots of herbs and spices. ‘Must haves’ are: fresh chopped (and you can freeze these for easy use) mint, parsley, coriander, ginger; fresh grated lemon zest and juice; dried thyme, dill, oregano, and rosemary; ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, paprika and cayenne pepper; chillies – dried or fresh or frozen, or in a paste; one or two good quality curry pastes of differing ‘heats’. All these not only add flavour but have nutritional and medicinal value, too.

Start collecting low-fat, low-salt quick and easy recipes – or try out the recipes I post here. Dig out your old recipe books and put them in clear view so that you use them! Recipes are easily modified to reduce the salt and fats – use herbs and spices and a no-fat cooking spray, fat free yoghurt or cottage cheese as replacements.

No matter how motivated you are to eat healthily, if you don’t have healthy foods and snacks available you are setting yourself up to fail. We need to continually review and modify our eating and shopping habits.

Heart of the home

In days gone by, when Dad went to work and Mum stayed home with the kids, the kitchen was the heart of the home. I remember, when I was a child, spending a lot of time in the kitchen with my mother. I would sit and read, draw or do homework while she did laundry, ironing or washed dishes. Often we would cook and bake together, plan meals and make shopping lists – even do dressmaking! All at the kitchen table. The kitchen was my favourite place to be, and I remember sitting in the lounge only in the evenings, when all the chores were done.

These days, Mum and Dad are – more than likely – out at work all day while the kids are at school or day-care. The kitchen is left in chaos after breakfast; dirty dishes stacked waiting to be washed – not the kind of environment you want to rush home to!

For you to lead a healthier lifestyle, your kitchen needs to be a haven; a place you want to come home to. To be a haven, it doesn’t have to have all the latest mod-cons, gleaming marble worktops and masses of cupboard space – but it does need to be organized. You should be able to put your hand on whatever you need in the way of utensils in a matter of seconds. If you have to search through three drawers of tangled cutlery to find the garlic press, chances are you will skip the garlic altogether.

Take a day to turn out your kitchen. Throw out or give away all the stuff you don’t use or want any more. Arrange your drawers and shelves logically – like items grouped together, most frequently used items to the front of the shelves. If you’re short of drawer space, you can always keep plastic bags or dish cloths in a basket on top of the fridge. Stand kitchen utensils in a large vase or flowerpot on the counter next to the stove. Knives do need to be kept in a drawer or knife block, for their own protection – and out of the reach of little fingers. Make sure all your small electrical gadgets are in full working order and within easy reach. Check all your plastic storage pots have lids that fit well – odd lids and odd boxes need to go. Got a large collection of empty glass/plastic bottles and jars? Are you really going to use them? Recycle.

Tidying cupboards and drawers is enormously therapeutic and emotionally satisfying. I bet, once you’ve done the kitchen, you’ll do the bathroom cupboards and wardrobes too. I did.

Is your child overweight?

Although it is fairly easy to calculate the number of kilojoules an adult requires per day - based on age, gender, health and activity levels – the same cannot be said for children. Children have different energy requirements to an adult, and a higher need for nutrient dense food; that’s nutrient dense, not kilojoule dense. If a child is overweight, rather look at the kind of food he or she is consuming and the amount of exercise he or she is getting.

A formalized diet doesn’t work for children any more than it does for an adult; children need to be shown, by example, how to make healthy food choices. This means choosing fruit and vegetables over sweets and fatty foods. Fish fingers, chicken nuggets and fruit juices are frequent menu items for most children – these are high in kilojoules for the nutrition they supply. Far rather offer plain fish or chicken, and always dilute fruit juice half-and-half with water. Just one teaspoon of fat equals about 792kjoules, as opposed to a teaspoon of protein or carbohydrate which equates to about 374kjoules.

Children are by nature energetic – they like to run about and explore, and they are continually testing and learning about their environment and the people and things in it. In contrast, when mum and dad get home from work, they are often mentally exhausted and just want to sit and relax. Generally, children want to spend time with their parents, and will choose a sedentary activity just so they can be in the same room. Sedentary activities such as playing computer games or watching television burn up far fewer kilojoules than taking the dog for a walk, doing some gardening or riding a bicycle. All of which can be fun for the family. If the climate you live in doesn't encourage outdoor activities, a Wii is a great indoor alternative..

As a parent, you are a role model for your children. Don’t apply rigorous dietary strictures to an overweight child – singling out one child and treating him or her differently from the rest of the family will only cause conflict, unhappiness and, possibly, future food related issues. If your child is overweight, then the only way forward is for everyone in the family to take steps towards healthy eating in the home.

Family meals

These days, what with work, school, home-work and extra-mural activities, it can be difficult to get the whole family to sit down to a meal together. But making the effort to share a meal around the dinner table is well worth the effort in scheduling.

A family meal, eaten together, nourishes the family bond as well as the body. It provides a time for communication. We often spend more time and effort cultivating our friends than our family members.
When did you last spend more than five minutes talking and listening to your children – or spouse for that matter – without instructing or criticizing?

Research shows that family meal times foster identity and a sense of belonging. Children who eat with the family show lower rates of smoking, drinking and illegal drug use as well as having higher academic achievement.

Try and eat together, as a family, at least five times a week. Turn off the television. If you feel uncomfortable without some background noise, then play soft music – preferably classical. The slower pace of the music will encourage slower eating, which is far better for digestion.

Have a great weekend.

Chicken Ukraine : Wk18/5

Serves 4 : Easy : Quick

Ingredients
4 skinless chicken breast fillets

2 Tblsp chopped parsley
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tsp olive oil

1 slice whole wheat bread, crumbed
Chicken spice

Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºc.
Spray a baking tray with non-stick cooking spray.

Slit the chicken breasts three-quarters of the way through horizontally, so that they open like a book.
Mix the parsley, garlic and oil together.
Spread the parsley mix over one ‘page’ of each chicken breast, and close each ‘book’.
Place the chicken on the baking tray.
Press the fresh breadcrumbs on the top of each fillet.
Sprinkle with chicken spice.

Bake the chicken at 180ºc for twenty five minutes.

Cut each fillet in half diagonally.
Serve with a fresh mixed salad.

How clean is your food?

I personally think that a little bit of dirt never killed anybody – in fact, children raised in completely sterile homes are usually more likely to become sick when they are exposed to the real world – so I am not overly obsessive about cleanliness.

Yes, I use an antibacterial handwash before preparing food. I keep a hand towel in the kitchen for drying hands (not dishes) and I change my washing and drying up cloths twice a day. Okay, maybe I am just the teensiest bit obsessive – but, hey, it’s food and food preparation I’m talking about!

All fruit and vegetables should be thoroughly washed before being prepared. Even the stuff you’re going to peel. Bacteria and chemical residue from production and storage can transfer from the knife you use to peel and chop to the flesh of the food you’re preparing. Cooking may well destroy bacteria, but it won’t remove toxic chemicals. If you are preparing food which is going to be eaten raw then the cleaning process is even more important. Even if your pillow-pack of lettuce says ‘washed and ready to serve', give it another rinse just to be on the safe side.

Use cold water - you can add a splash of vinegar, if you want. Leave leafy veg like spinach and lettuce to soak for two minutes, shake off the excess water and then use a salad-spinner or swing the veg around in a clean tea cloth (this is best done outside!). Soak broccoli and cauli for a few minutes, too. Many are the little bugs I have drowned in this way.

Remember that all the fruit and vegetables you buy have been sprayed with preservative chemicals and insect repellants (unless they are organic) and have been handled by many people before arriving in your kitchen.

How clean is your kitchen?

There are many, many things I am more interested in and more inclined to do than housework. I do give the house a pretty thorough clean once a week, but my home is by no means immaculate. I am reasonably tidy, but I’m not paranoid about a bit of dust or a used teacup on the draining board. I am, however, fairly fussy about kitchen cleanliness.

I try to keep my kitchen tops clear – it just makes them easier to wipe down – but this can be difficult to manage if, like me, you have things that are used frequently, and you have insufficient cupboard space to house them (things like the kettle, toaster and microwave spring to mind immediately).

My counter tops are polished black granite, which looks very smart when clean, but getting them clean can be problematic because I can’t use a chlorinated cleaning agent – it dulls the shine over time. I’ve found the best thing to use is very hot clean water and a clean dish cloth: sometimes I add half a cup of white vinegar to the water – vinegar helps cut through grease and is mildly antibacterial. Cleaning agents generally leave smears and chemical residue, which can transfer to food, so rinse well if you do use one.

Counter tops should be swabbed down before and after food preparation. Once you have washed the surfaces down, hang the dish cloth somewhere to dry before running it through the washing machine on a hot wash. You should use a fresh drying cloth each time you do the drying up, too, and recycle the same way. A damp drying cloth left hanging around is a wonderful breeding ground for bacteria, as is the dish cloth.

Replace scouring pads at least once a week, and make sure to rinse them well after each use. Keep your pot- and bottle-brushes fresh by standing them in a medium strength solution of bleach and water for half an hour or so, then put them in the dish-washer (if you have one) next time you run it.

So much of life and living revolves around the kitchen, let’s keep it healthy.

Mind your p’s and q’s

My grandson is eighteen months old. He doesn’t say much yet, although he doesn’t really need to say anything, he just smiles beatifically and points and gets pretty much whatever he wants. I’m trying to get him to use ‘ta’ at the moment, but maybe I’m being too ambitious? He can follow simple instructions, and his comprehension is amazing.

When I was about three, my mother tells me, I sat in my highchair and asked for cake.

Me: want cake.
Mum: and? (looking for a ‘please’)
Me: want cake.
Mum: and? (still looking for a ‘please’)

Me: … and nemolade.

I got both. Delivered with a smile and a kiss.

What you see is not always what you get

As a teenager, I used to rinse my hair with malt vinegar after washing it. Vinegar removes the last traces of shampoo and is supposed to enrich hair colour (malt vinegar for brunettes, lemon juice for blondes – or white spirit vinegar, I guess).

On this particular day (my mother was out) I helped myself to a cup of malt vinegar and repaired to the bathroom for the hair-washing ritual.

The final vinegar rinse smelled a bit odd.

I went back to the kitchen to check the bottle. The label did indeed say ‘malt vinegar’.

My hair felt sticky.

When mum came home:
Me: Mum, please don’t buy that type of vinegar again. It smells funny.
Mum: Which vinegar, darling?
Me: (retrieving suspect, now nearly empty bottle from the pantry) This one.
Mum: Oh, no!!! That’s not vinegar, that’s the brandy I’ve been saving to put in the Christmas cake!

It took three shampoos to get the brandy out.

I think I stopped the vinegar-rinse after that.

A night off

On Monday night, I didn’t feel much like pfaffing around in my mother’s closet-sized kitchen. It feels very strange to cook in unfamiliar surroundings where you can’t immediately find what you’re looking for, and all the cupboards and drawers are arranged according to someone else’s logic. And the tin that is marked ‘cake flour’ probably isn’t cake flour (or any kind of flour) at all.

Anyway, I prepared loads of fresh vegetables and put those on to cook, and rustled up a mushroom and onion gravy. Total time spent in preparation: 15 minutes. Then I set the timer, turned the gravy down low and went back to my laptop.

We had: potatoes, butternut, broccoli, carrots, courgettes and patty pans. And I opened a tin of butter beans.

There was nothing left. I didn’t even get the chance to take a photo.

Eight out of twenty four

Hardly a pass mark, is it? Only 33%. But if you score 33% for sleeping, you are top of the class and fortunate indeed.

Research has shown that people generally like to sleep between five and eleven hours in every twenty four, the average preferred period being just under eight hours. No-one really knows why we sleep, but it is absolutely essential to our health, as necessary as air, food and water. Adequate sleep is necessary for proper brain function - thinking, evaluating, memory, coherent speech, concentration. Lack of sleep effects every part of life - jobs, relationships, productivity and safety.

Staying awake for only seventeen hours at a stretch - which many of us do every day - leads to a decrease in performance similar to that experienced by drinking two glasses of wine!

Quality sleep needs to be continous and uninterrupted. And here-in lies a problem. Most of us live in densely populated areas. All our neighbours have at least one dog and one car. And probably an alarm system. We all live in close proximity to main roads. Not to mention small children who have bad dreams or wake for feeding.

We can habituate to certain noises or sounds - this means that the sound is so consistent that you stop noticing it - the clock ticking, the thrumming of electrical appliances, that sort of thing - but a sudden loud noise, or a change in the quality of a sound, or even a cessation of a noise can wake us. Then we have to start going through the various sleep stages again, from the beginning, until we get back to deep beneficial sleep.

There is little we can do to combat night noise polution. Some people go to bed wearing earplugs, but personally I've found that physically uncomfortable, and I feel very vulnerable when I can't hear. Others use an air-conditioner to give an overlay of 'white-noise'. I guess it's a case of whatever gets you through the night.

Striving to thrive

We all want to thrive and succeed. We all want to be valued for who we are and what we do, at home, at the office and in the community. Very often we feel we are not thriving, succeeding or valued in any area of our lives. A lot of this comes down to our own lack of regard for ourselves.

We are last on our list of priorities, whether our needs are spiritual, mental or physical, everyone and everything makes the top of the list while we leave ourselves trailing behind. And no matter how much time, effort and money we expend on the front-runners they never seem to move off the list entirely and make room for us at the number one position.

One thing we can do is take five minutes in the evening to assess our performance for the day. Even if we have had an 'unproductive' day, we nevertheless completed some important tasks. We prepared meals, made at least one bed, dropped and fetched children from school or creche, supervised homework, listened to a friend, spouse or colleague with attention and sympathy, made somebody smile.

All of the above - and plenty more - are worthy of recognition and appreciation. They are all everyday tasks that you complete without even thinking about them, they are second nature. Value yourself for them, even if nobody else seems to.

Bear in mind, we all feel this way. We also need to show others that we appreciate and value them - we don't do this often enough. It only takes a hug, a smile and a 'thank you'.

Wouldn't a hug, a smile and a 'thank you improve your self esteem?

Relationships

We enter into relationships all the time. Some are never pursued, for whatever reasons, but others are cultivated on a daily basis. There are no written rules for relationships, even in a marriage. Oh, in marriage there is the 'love, honour and obey' bit, but I don't think much cognisance is given to that these days.

In all relationships there are implied and infered expectations. Rarely are these verbalised, except perhaps parent to child (I expect you to...), and then most likely with irritation. And expectations change over time, too.

What are your expectations of your current partner? And what does he/she expect of you? Do either of you actually know?

I have been married for going on 35 years this year. I'm very fortunate that my husband is kind and supportive of any venture I undertake. He is neither verbally nor physically abusive. He is loving, affectionate and loyal. And undemanding. But what are his expectations of our relationship? Has he even thought about it? I tried to think what I expect of him, and it's actually quite difficult. Is this because he has already met and surpassed all my conscious and subconscious expectations? I found it easier to list what I think he expects of me - and I realised that what I think he expects of me is what I expect of me. So am I falling short?

Maybe it's time we all verbalised our expectations, so we each know where we stand. Suppressing emotion is damaging to our physical health and our relationships.

Change one thing at a time

Change is often viewed as negative: it disrupts our habitual patterns and takes us out of our comfort zone. Sometimes the change is of our own choice - changing jobs, moving house, having a baby.
Sometimes it's forced on us - a new boss, a petrol price increase, redundancy.
Whether the change is forced or chosen, it takes a toll on our general health and well-being because it is stessful. We don't always cope well with stress, especially when several stressors occur at the same time, but we can improve our coping skills by eating wisely.

In our journey to healthier eating habits - and a healthier overall lifestyle - we can make small changes, one at a time. Once we have adapted to that change, and it has become habitual, then we can make the next change.

For this week, let's turn off the television while we have dinner. Dinner time is prime time for fast food advertisers, and while hamburgers, pizza and chicken burgers may have been the furthest things from your mind when you started to eat (unless you are actually eating one of them), these intrusions will detract from your enjoyment and appreciation of the food in front of you. Within reason, plan your mealtime so that it doesn't conflict with everyone's favourite programme. But then again, you can always record the show, can't you?