Mix Tape

When I was in high school, I was the mix tape queen - with my now-husband (then boyfriend) being the king. We made them for ourselves, to give to each other, and to give to family or friends. I still shuffle my music and get bored if I listen to one sound too long.

I came across a new blog (this is a theme this year) and one of her posts was a compilation of new music, a lot of which I enjoy! I thought I'd spread the love.

Also, Girls Gone Child has introduced me to some new music. Here is one of my new favorite songs.

Choir of Young Believers - Action/Reaction from jeff hamada on Vimeo.

Oatmeal

I always tried to eat instant oatmeal because it was "good for you". The fiber, the "heart-healthy grains", supposedly filling... Either way, I found oatmeal boring and was often hungry right after. I didn't realize the problem wasn't the food itself, but me. I was doing it wrong.

Enter the star: Rolled Oats.

I understand that may not look all that appetizing because at this point
I had shoveled down about half and had been mushing it around to get all the flavors.

I came across a new blog 2 weeks ago called Kath Eats Real Food and she has a tribute to oatmeal. I thought I'd check it out since obviously any one who actually likes the mushy, sticky mess of oatmeal is crazy. The tribute has about a hundred different styles of oatmeal, all containing the basic ingredient "rolled oats". I thought I'd give oatmeal one last try, this time using the real deal, oatmeal that doesn't take a minute in the microwave! I even made apple cinnamon muffins to crumble on top (that was a rare ambitious weekend). I made my rolled oats with 1/2 milk and 1/2 water and topped it with a teaspoon of TJ's organic creamy peanut butter, TJ's Golden Berry Blend (dried golden raisins, cherries, cranberries, and blueberries) a sprinkle of shredded coconut and the top of one of my small apple cinnamon muffins.

It. was. delicious.

So forget instant oatmeal - it takes a minute compared to the 5 minutes that rolled oats oatmeal takes, and I think that 4 minutes is well worth the difference!

2010 - The Year of Food

Perfect New Year's Resolutions or Goals

From Phoodie and Michael Pollan:

"From Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food, the rules seem more 1910 than 2010, but offer practical advice for those of you who like to have a friendly reminder around this time of year:

1. Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
2. Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup. Pollan’s example: Sara Lee’s Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White Bread, which fails every test proposed by this rule. “If not for the indulgence of the Food and Drug Administration, (it) could not even be labeled “bread.”
3. Avoid products that make health claims. The FDA’s “qualified” health claims” are all but meaningless.
4. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle. “Processed foods products dominate the center aisles of the store while the cases of ostensibly fresh food–dairy, produce, meat and fish–line the walls.”
5. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. Head to one of the many farmer’s markets. In January it’s not just root vegetables that are in season: grapefruit, pears, brussel sprouts, kale, and spinach are on the list."