London Calling

Chicken Nugget

We watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on Saturday -- DVR'd it from Friday.  This was just after a girlfriend's night on Friday where we talked about healthy eating  quite a bit (including a raw milk discussion) and after my public commitment to serve healthier food for my kids.

On the show, Jamie is fighting the school system to bring in healthy options for the kids.  In one scene, he shows the kids what chicken nuggets are made of.  See it here.  Gross!  While I feel a little better about the nuggets in our house -- usually organic, always white meat -- it's still just gross.  We can't control the nuggets that the kids get at school and who knows what's in the fast-food kind.  

On Sunday, I was inspired to invest in a farm cooperative that will deliver fresh, organic produce for 20 weeks over the summer and fall.  It will save us money in the long run because I tend to spend too much at the farmer's market in the summer.  It will also require that we try new things -- even better.  Now I'll eat my organic banana and get back to work.

Committed

I've committed to a really big thing and I'm probably a little bit crazy for doing it.  I'm running the Chicago Marathon on October 10th. When I say "committed," I mean it.  To make this run mean something more than, "hey, I can run a marathon even if I have two little kids and work full-time," I've also committed to support Prentice Women's Hospital and run on their charity team. 

Then, just to seal the deal, I emailed friends and family and coworkers and random contacts to ask for their support.  (Don't worry if you haven't heard from me yet.  You will.)  There is no turning back now, only running forward.

I've been looking for a way to do something to honor my mom's fight.  I've asked my friend Larry from the Susan G Komen Foundation about their efforts in growing awareness and research for Ovarian Cancer.  (I'm sure that he's sick of hearing me ask but he's always very gracious.)  I've looked for local fundraisers, but all I find is information about breast cancer.  On Saturday, while I was at the fitness expo for the Shamrock Shuffle, I saw the table for Prentice and had to stop.  (Both Violet & London were born at Prentice and I'm a big fan of everyone I've met who works there -- from the front desk to nurses to doctors to food service.)

At the booth, a very nice man explained in great detail how the program worked:  training, support before the event, support after the event, the purpose, etc.  I let him know that he had me at "hello."  I was in -- with both of my flat feet.  Supporting women's health is great but this effort includes something very important to me:  research and programs in the field of gynecologic oncology. 

If you are in a position to give to a charity this year, please consider giving to Prentice by clicking here.  Thank you.

Family dinners

In our house, evenings are a wild mess.  We eat at different times, often standing.  Dinner menus are decided by opening the freezer.  I've often left London to finish eating his dinner alone while I put Violet to bed.  The dog is really the only constant companion to anyone eating in the house.

There's all this great research out there that tells us to eat dinner with our kids.  If we do, they'll be smarter, nicer, more well rounded.  They'll stay away from drugs and won't get (or get someone else) pregnant.  Is that really such a surprise?  When parents and kids sit down together and talk about their days without distraction from TV or phones or email/text/facebook/whatever, we really pay attention to each other. 

Any set of working parents with very little kids knows that having dinner together on week nights is a challenge. (That's totally an understatement.  Most nights, it's close to a miracle.)  Babies fall asleep by 6:30 and bigger kids are cranky because they didn't take a nap that they really needed.  Add to that the realization that you have to plan dinners in advance -- things like ingredients and prep unfortunately don't happen by magic.  As our kids get older surviving on a dinner diet of mac & cheese, frozen chicken nuggets or fish with a few peas or carrots (frozen too), and as I ate my 5,346th Lean Cuisine, I realized that we needed a change.  We needed to refocus. 

My friends are probably laughing because I really like to cook and I prefer -- when we can afford it -- to buy organic ingredients.  (Seriously.  Most often, those nuggets are organic.)  Thinking of me serving nuggets and mac & cheese to my kids 23 nights in a row may seem out of character.  Honestly, I let this nugget lifestyle go on so long because we have a nice breakfast together every morning.  Some days we make scrambled eggs or just have yogurt and toast.  Homemade (frozen) or store-bought (also frozen) waffles rule the day topped with soy butter and then jam.  (Sometimes the jam is even homemade.)  So why stress about dinner when we have such a blissful breakfast? 

Because I don't think that I can eat another frozen dinner and I want my kids to enjoy food and experience variety and I want to hear about their day before they forget the details.  (Maybe just London can articulate his day, but Violet is very close behind.)

The challenge:

(1) Get home earlier.  I had to leave the office by 5 p.m. or it's just impossible.

(2) Make sure that we have food to cook.  That meant planning dinner before opening the refrigerator and staring at it looking for inspiration.  "What can I do with peas, American cheese, grapes and noodles?"   (They really liked that dinner. No kidding.)

(3) Get moving fast when I get home.  When Evelyn has Violet in the tub, I need to cut, slice, dice, prep and get anything we plan on eating in the oven or on the stove top.  When that princess is all clean and beautiful, I just have to hold and squeeze her.  My time with her is so limited!!  Thank goodness for that knife skills class!!!  (Future post about Emergency Room trip to sew on fingertips is bound to happen.)

Week one was a success!

Monday:  Stopped at the grocery and bought a piece of salmon, white wine, shallots, spinach and a potato.  Cooked the salmon in the oven with carrots.  (The carrots didn't cook enough, but London liked the salmon.)  Put frozen chicken in fridge for tomorrow.

Tuesday:  Chicken baked in white wine with shallots.  Steamed broccoli. (I got home late, so London only had some of the chicken & Violet missed the whole thing.  Sort of messes with my perfect week, but I'm still counting this day as a success.)

Wednesday:  Same meat, same way but with carrots and green beans.  Kids ate too.  Violet only ate carrots but London ate at least a bit of everything.

Thursday:  Baked a frozen tilapia and steamed the rest of the broccoli.  Kids both liked the fish. 

Friday:  Made wheat pasta with turkey sausage, onion, pepper and spicy tomato.  Barry joined us and everyone liked dinner.  I felt a big sense of pride to see all four of us at a table together.  Then London asked why we had to pray and thank God for everything and we had a nice philosophical discussion.

Taylor's in town next week for spring break.  Do you think we can pull off just one family dinner?  Would it be too Rockwellian?  No.  It would be wonderful. Whether it's pizza or a five-course meal, it would be perfect.

"Cha cha cha" or no "cha cha cha"?

In London's school they have a very elaborate birthday tradition.  They sit in a circle on their rug and place a candle and a globe in the middle of the circle.  After the teacher lights the candle, they sing a song -- I don't remember the words -- and the birthday boy/girl walks around the globe.  He or she makes one circle for each year they've been on the earth to signify how the sun goes around the earth once each year.  At the end, the child blows out the candle.

Then, he walks around the circle and everyone says something nice to him.  They say things like, "I like your shirt."  "Can I give you a hug?"  "Can I be your friend?"  It's quite uplifting.  We should really think about doing that as grown ups.  Finally, they sing "happy birthday."  But just before the kids sing, the teacher asks, "cha cha cha or no cha cha cha"?  I guess some kids are pretty passionate about the subject.  

Today, we left a voice mail for Auntie Ellen.  it was a "happy birthday" sung by London.  When I asked him  the "cha cha cha" question, I thought about it a little differently.  Any day can be a "cha cha cha" day.  It doesn't have to be a birthday.  Nothing spectacular has to happen.  It's just a day with a little extra -- well, cha cha cha.  

Here's to a few cha cha chas.

An Incredible

London loves movies but he loves just one movie at a time and watches it over and over and over.  He also likes to act out the movies while he watches them using his toys or just running around and repeating the dialog.  A few weeks ago, his favorite movie was The Incredibles. In the movie, the family is a bunch of super heros and the mom's skill is to stretch -- incredibly.   

While I'm not very good at real-life stretching -- just ask my yoga teacher -- as a mother, I feel that stretch every single day.  All that "stuff" to balance and nothing is perfect.  The house is only clean on Mondays (after the cleaning lady has been there).  We live on 5-minute meals during the week (can't wait until someone comes out with a cookbook for that) and may have a home-cooked something on the weekend.  Workouts happen at 5 a.m. or they just don't happen.  I get ready for the day with:  a 5-minute shower, a 5-minute face and a 5-minute wardrobe prep (that means select outfit & dress).  

I take a nice pause for hugs and kisses and pancakes for breakfast, which I guess is what keeps it all together.

What happens to Mrs. Incredible with she's stretched just a little too far?