happy camper

First off I just want to say thank you to all of your insightful comments to my last post.  You guys are truly amazing!  I loved hearing all your input and different insights to the topic.  I felt it was really important for me to get that out and I honestly couldn’t believe their explanation after the fact.  I really appreciate all your kind words from the bottom of my heart :) 

On to something fun . . . a little vacation!

Chris and I wanted to do a little something together before the school year starts up again and we didn’t really have many funds to do something too crazy, so we decided on camping!!  You can’t beat $12/night and the great outdoors, right?!  We also decided to treat ourselves with one night at a B & B called The Anniversary House.  We went there a little while ago and absolutely fell in love with it.  It was really a treat after camping!

Originally we were going to go camping this weekend coming up, but we kept seeing the weather report that didn’t look to promising.  Camping in the rain is no fun.  We didn’t want to risk it, so on Friday afternoon we decided to leave last minute on Saturday!  You all know that I like to plan things, so I was a little freaked out by the fact that we didn’t have anything ready.  And camping’s not the kind of thing you don’t plan for! (of course this is what my head was telling me)  So I ran to the store after work and got together some recipes that we were thinking of making when we went up there with the dutch oven.  We also had to run a few errands Saturday morning to get everything, and get Buster off to the vet.  We finally hit the road by noon, and it’s only about a 3 hour drive which is not bad at all to get away. 

Because we decided to go camping so last minute, we also didn’t have a reserved spot and had to cancel our other one.  Yet another voice in my head was saying, what?! no reservation, how are we going to find a spot in the afternoon on a Saturday when everyone’s probably got the good spots already?  We decided to stick with the same campground and see what we could find for walk-ups.  And what do you know . . . we got the last one!  It was right by the toilets and trash bin, but we didn’t care.  It still had some pretty good shade, and it’s camping, so we’re supposed to be roughing it.

Here are some shots of the camp site:

 

Oh my gosh!  I can’t tell you how great it was just to get away, just the two of us.  I mean everything was smoky from the campfire, we had to sleep on the hard ground, it was 29 degrees F at night, but you know what, I haven’t seen Chris that happy in a long time with all this icky economy work stuff.  It was just really neat and made me happy too. 

We got in Saturday afternoon and immediately started setting up camp, and of course I wanted try out that dutch oven!  We didn’t have any wood and the camp host said they were out, so Chris had to go searching, but finally found some thank goodness!

Dutch ovens are amazing, it’s like a one-pot wonder that you can practically make anything in! 

We decided to make Cornbread Topped Chicken Pot Pie.  I’ve made this recipe before, but forgot to account for the altitude change.  The cornbread went crazy!  But it was still oh so good and comforting once that sun went down and the temperature dropped drastically.  Yum!

We didn’t mind the charred bits from the fire haha  It was sooo smoky.  We had to dodge the smoke or it burned our eyes like crazy! 

And of course we had to have s’mores, lots of s’mores!  This is my ultimate favorite thing about camping.  I love how the marshmallows plump up nice and big like the perfect pillow and vehicle for chocolate!

The next morning Chris got that fire going, while I huddled under the sleeping bag trying to maintain warmth without my human heater.  It’s funny because once that sun came up it was actually pretty hot!

Breakfast was Fresh Fig Oats!  I saw these fresh figs at TJ’s and I had to do something with them.  Fresh figs are just special and yummy!

I mixed and mooshed about 3 fresh figs in with 1/2 a banana and added that to the oats as they cooked.  Then I topped it with some more fresh fig, banana and TJ’s snack granola.  Of course we had to have a scoop of peanut butter with it too.  I just love oats because they’re so easy and filling.

 

After breakfast we packed up our gear and headed to Bryce Canyon for some hiking.  Boy was it beautiful!  I can’t even explain it, and my pictures don’t even begin to do it justice.  It was so surreal and peaceful there.  It really takes one back to the essence of life and marveling in the wonder of it all.

This is a place called Wall Street and it was so neat to see.  There are two giant rock walls on both sides as you zig zag your way up the mountain.  Every step there was another great picture to be taken.  I had to be careful I didn’t fall down the mountain while I was gawking in amazement!

Of course I brought lots of snacks!  You never want to go unprepared!  Here I am enjoying a Luna Bar after our 2.5 mile hike.  I think the toasted nuts and cranberry is my fav flavor.  180 kcals and 9 grams protein, yes!

 

This is one of my favorites of Chris . . . very peaceful scenery. 

Happy Campers!

Because I don’t want to drag this post on forever into that mountain far in the distance, I will end it here on the first day.  But stay tuned for day 2 of our camping and dutch oven adventures, and our stay at the B & B!

Do you like to go camping, or do you prefer a nice B & B and a hot shower instead?     

 

all fired up

ok I just have to do a little rant, so please forgive me. . .

Last night I was going through Twitter like I usually do just to catch up on all the fun tweets in the world, well as many as I can lol and I came across a comment that got me, well, all fired up, and it went something like this:

Seriously, are there really people who buy steak at Walmart?

What?! You know I don’t really eat much steak, but I do shop at Walmart for things I can’t find at Trader Joe’s because it is cheaper. I’m not going to lie. Hey I would love to shop at Whole Foods, practically walking around that store gets me all giddy, but it’s pretty expensive for me if I shop there exclusively. Working with lower income individuals, steak from Walmart let alone anywhere would be special to them. You know we can get so focused on culinary creations (myself included), when there are people out there who don’t even know what they are eating tomorrow, or if they can feed their families. This comment just really offended me.

Remember my previous post about the hunger-obesity paradox? I really enjoyed seeing all your insightful comments. You guys are truly special. Thank you!

Michelle @ Find Your Balance has left a new comment on your post "hunger-obesity paradox and beer can chicken":
As for obesity, I wonder how many cases can be traced to a food-related or starved experience vs. an issue with using food to fill an emotional void. In my experience working with clients I'm finding that often, food is a 'good' substitute for love, comfort and interest in one's life.

Nicole M., MS, RD, LD has left a new comment on your post "hunger-obesity paradox and beer can chicken":
Great entry! A lot of my current patient population are food-insecure and it takes a lot of being creative. Some of my patients...if it doesn't come from WIC or the Dollar General, they can't get it. It really can make things challenging, but I've certainly learned a lot, especially to count my blessings.

It’s just so hard because many of the foods that appear to be cheaper and convenient are those that aren’t as nutritionally dense or ethically sound. When someone that doesn’t know where their next meal is coming from and they have 3 children to feed, they don’t give a crap if their food comes from Walmart. If it’s cheaper that’s all that matters. Especially in these economic times, it’s been really hard. My step dad was out of work for 20 months, my dad also got laid off with 3 young kids, and currently my fiancée is out of work and searching. It’s tough and I myself am worried right now. Economic hardship and hunger don’t discriminate, and I’m sure we’ve all seen our fair share in these times.

And I think that’s where we come in because it’s really about education. We know that it is possible to eat wholesomely on staples that are cheaper, but people have to understand how to prepare and where to acquire them. Rhetorical question: Why is it when given the choice between a box of pop-tarts and a large canister of oatmeal that will provide many meals, most will chose the pop-tarts? We are really a select few in the blog world. Yes, there are tons of food bloggers out there, but if you think about it, relative to the entire population, we are unique. While we project great nutritional information on our blogs, are we really reaching the people who need it most when most of them don’t even have access to the internet? If we keep preaching to the choir, how will we reach the entire congregation? How can we reach those that need it the most? I believe that anyone can shop at Walmart and buy steak at Walmart and still prepare healthy meals that satisfy nutritional needs and fulfill our strong connection with food culturally, spiritually and emotionally.

Yes, Walmart has not been the most ethically sound company as many extremely biased websites make clear (there are so many biased websites it’s not even funny). Using un-reliable, biased sites renders one incapable of making a sound argument. Many people can’t really shop anywhere else! Instead of alienating this population with ignorant comments, why not try to spread the word of simple nutrition and better options? And really that’s what it comes down to, foods that nourish our bodies and keep us alive, but it can also be a very strong emotional issue as well.

Walmart is what they are. It’s a company that reduces costs and has helped a lot of people make it in this recession. Their primary means of reducing cost is their inventory system, which is the most efficient in the world. They are also supporting legislation that will require employers to provide health insurance, and are looking at ways to make the products offered more environmentally sustainable. If you don’t like Walmart that’s perfectly justifiable, but you know some ‘people’ have to shop there.

So what can we really do? We really have to be creative like Nicole said above. I’m hoping that you guys can give some great insights too, because I can’t even touch the surface of this.

• Try going to your local food bank and donate some wholesome non-perishable foods or foods that they accept and you yourself would eat.
• I’m also going to get together several boxes of healthier snacks so when I see someone on the street that needs food I can give it to them and not just avoid eye contact because I have nothing to give. I don’t think they’ll mind one bit if any of it came from Walmart.

This topic has so many heated aspects that I cannot even begin to touch or explain and it is just so close to my heart, and the fact that anyone thinks less of another because they shop at Walmart, IS offensive to me.

---- awkward break here ----

On a lighter note, Chris and I are going camping next weekend! Since Chris is about done with summer school, we thought we’d catch one little vacation for the summer, and you can’t beat $12 /night! Here’s the campground. It looks beautiful and we are looking forward to doing some hiking and dutch oven cookin’ (you can make practically anything in these things!) We may try to rent mountain bikes too.

We’ve never actually been camping together before, but both of us practically grew up roughing it in the mountains with our dads lol We are really excited and I have of course started making the list of things to bring, but I’m sure I’ll forget something! There’s just so many things to think of. Chris’ dad and my dad have a lot of camping gear that they are going to let us borrow too so that is great. On the last night we also decided to stay at a cute B & B in Cedar City called Anniversary House. We stayed here a little while ago and just loved it and thought it would be a nice treat on the last day.

In spirit of camping, I decided to make campfire oats for breakfast with chocolate chips, marshmallows, crumbled graham cracker strawberries, and dollop of peanut butter yum! It felt like we were right by the campfire lol I’ve never tried chocolate on oats before, but seeing Angie’s awesome powerfood oats, I wanted to give it a try! pb and chocolate is my fav combo! It was really good, but very rich!

What are your thoughts on this topic? I can’t get too caught up in the internet bickerfest though because it really doesn’t go anywhere. Or if you care not to comment on this topic, any fun weekend plans??

hunger-obesity paradox and beer can chicken

I know, not the most fitting combination, but hey these are the next in line in my mind and on my table at the moment!  Lara from Thinspired gave me the idea about this topic since I made a comment on her post a few days ago about balanced eating, eating what you really want, and the rollercoaster many of us feel like we are constantly on.

When I went to New Orleans for the SNE conference a little while ago, there were a couple sessions that were just fascinating to me.  One of them was titled ‘Deconstructing a Hunger-Obesity Paradox’.  Here are some of the interesting statistics I jotted down:

• 130 million American adults are overweight or obese, 61 million are obese, 6 million excessively obese BMI >40
• Excess weight gain is greater in minority groups, 77% black women >25 years old
• About 9 million children > 6 years are obese (bmi >95th percentile) and even higher in minority groups
• 65% of Americans are overweight/obese with 117 billion/year in healthcare costs
• 11.9% us families are food insecure, 1/3 also experience hunger

So the question is why does this happen?  What drives eating behavior?  Does a history of food insecurity lead to obesity?

Now I know that many of you haven’t experienced food insecurity and/or hunger, but it’s just interesting to see how the mind works in those ‘deprivation’ type situations whether it be real or manifested by ourselves.  How many times have we deprived ourselves of something that we really craved, something that wasn’t the perfect model of health but just sounded really good?  And how many times has that backfired only to crave it even more and not feel satisfied if we could have just eaten it in the first place (with reasonable portions)? 

Here are some other interesting findings also presented:

• WWII was associated with food insecurity
• Holocaust survivors reported long-term effects of starvation, Couldn’t throw food away, hoarded food, craved certain foods, had difficulty standing in line to wait for food 
• Research on starvation study - subjects were found to focus on food, collect recipes, changed careers to be chefs
• Veterans only 12.5% of them had a normal weight, they had to eat fast, overate at times, had to have food around

Now this is really startling:

• Homeless youth, particularly 9-18 year olds, are the weight challenged of the future
  • 45 and 50 percent of boys and girls >85th percentile
  • 55% thought they didn't have enough food at home
  • 25% went to bed hungry
  • Strategies – overeat because they don’t know when another meal may be, eat anything, eat disliked foods, eat at relative's/friend's homes
  • Environment - High energy dense foods cost less per kcal
  • Household
    • Strong Parental influence
    • Parents shop with kids in mind, but food sufficiency supersedes individual preferences
    • survival value and price are more important than nutritional value

I just thought these findings/statistics were really interesting.  While many of us fortunately don’t have to go through these types of situations in our daily lives, a lesson of balance can be learned.  I myself like to have something a little sweet after dinner sometimes.  Never at lunch or breakfast really, but only dinner.  I don’t know what it is, but I do.  Maybe it was those times when I was in HS telling myself that ‘those’ foods weren’t allowed, you shouldn’t have those kinds of foods if you want to be healthy, or after a long, strenuous dance class I felt I ‘earned’ it . . .

Bringing back the memories!  *tear*

Dance Team at UNR!  3rd in the Nation!

Really there are no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ foods, only ‘everyday’ and ‘sometimes’ foods.  We tell our 8th graders in our program ‘everyday’ foods are those that we should have to help nourish our bodies and build our bodies to become stronger, happier, healthier.  ‘Sometimes’ foods aren’t bad, but they are foods that should be eaten in moderation and don’t necessarily help our bodies to grow and develop, but they are still fine to have.  Yes they are! 

Now I allow myself to have a treat every once in awhile to satisfy the craving and truly enjoy it, or else it tends to build up and then there’s no turning back lol  And you know when I want to have a burger I’ll have a burger, when I want a milkshake by golly I’ll make one, or when I crave a giant salad I’ll chop and chop to get one.  It’s really about enjoying our bodies, being in awe of the things we do every day, and realizing that we should eat what we are truly craving and love to eat, watch portions and be active!

The rest of the presentation focused on SNAP-Ed (supplemental nutrition assistance program), formerly known as Food Stamps, and how this may actually be contributing to the obesity epidemic.

I am by no means an expert in Food Stamp offerings, and I am not putting down the program by any means, but here is the argument that was raised . . .

When food stamps first began in the 1930s, it was intended to help farm prices and give needed calories to the hungry.  Calories are great when people back then would buy food and make it at home, but today many people rely on quick energy dense foods to make ends meet because they are cheap and filling.  The program has since expanded but the message hasn’t changed.  With ‘nutrition assistance’ in the new title, this program should focus more on nutritional quality rather than just calories in general.  There is still a great support for energy-dense foods, including the soft drink industry.  This just doesn’t make sense to me.  Also the allotments are only given once per month, so there is generally a feast during the first week and then as the supply runs out the last week, participants are just getting buy.  It’s a continual feast and famine cycle, which may contribute to weight gain and eventually obesity. 

Studies have found:

• Significant increase in calories (400) during week 1 vs. week 4 of a SNAP cycle among food insecure, obese women.
• Current participation is associated with 9% increase in probability of woman being obese. Previous participation vs. no participation increased chances of being obese.
• 2k increase in snap dollars was associated with 7kg weight gain.
• Increasing diet cost associated with lower ED, total energy, fat, sat fat, sugars and increased intakes of A and C.

Interesting isn’t it?

Now on to a great recipe!

I’ve never made beer-can chicken before just because I’ve never been a master at the grill (most of the manly men want that job), and honestly haven’t had a grill in a long time.  When I went to Home Depot to search for some grill gadgets to buy with our gift card, I found a gadget specifically for beer can chicken!  I thought I had to try it!  This recipe is fool-proof and the chicken comes out so moist and tender.  I even thought we overcooked the chicken at first because when we went to check the temp it shot up to 190!  But it turned out delicious :)

Beer-Can Chicken

For the brine (optional and will had some sodium to the chicken, so not the best if you are watching your sodium):  in a large pot stir 1/2-3/4 cup salt and 1/2-3/4 cup sugar in about a gallon of ice water and let the chicken sit in it for 2 hours.  Don’t go longer than 4 because it will get salty.  This really increases the water holding capacity of the meat, which yields it juicy and tender.    

For the rub:  Chris put this together and didn’t really measure, but it contained cumin, garlic powder, chili powder, brown sugar, lemon zest, basil, AP seasoning, salt, pepper

Rub this all over the chicken, and under the skin to really enhance the flavor.  It makes a huge difference.

For the veggies:  Chop up a bunch of various veggies, throw them in the bottom of the pan and a cast iron skillet; sprinkle with AP seasoning, salt, and olive oil.  Make sure to stir them as they cook!  I think my favorite was the little cherry tomatoes because they get so sweet as they cook.  Their juice also lends a sweetness to the rest of the veggies.

Simply place the chicken in indirect heat on the grill and cook for about 1- 1/2 hours, basting with BBQ sauce every 20-30 minutes.  This sauce from TJ’s is great in a pinch! 

Cooking time will vary, depending on the size of your bird, but a thermometer should register 180 in the thickest part of the thigh.  Our grill is pretty small, so we just put the heat on low and it was done in an hour.

Also grilled up some portabella mushrooms with some of the BBQ sauce from TJ’s.  They are so meaty!

 

Overall a great meal with lots of leftovers!

Sorry this post was so long, and thank you for reading!  I sure look forward to your comments :)

What do you think of the hunger-obesity paradox or psychological food deprivation in general?