Women

Why is it so hard for some men (not my amazing husband) to realize that women are not an accessory, a compliment to their goals... But individuals with goals and ability not limited by sex?  When I see idiots given time on television proclaiming that women working and pursuing careers is the cause of a decline in civilization, I not only have to inquire if we have slipped back into the 19th century ... But refrain from saying highly obscene and inappropriate things that reference someone having feces for brains or needing a swift kick in the ass. 

Yay!

After a vacation where we kind of derailed from the healthy eating thing, we are back on track at the Wilson house and I never realized how basically completely cutting back on meat saves money while helping you get healthy.  Before Adam and I ate healthy, mostly veggie... we spent around 90-110 dollars a month.  We would buy enough meat for daily dinners which would equal about 30 or more each week.  We also have cut back on things we get from the middle of the store and that has resulted in a few weeks of groceries being from 40-50 dollars instead.   We also buy things like veggie burgers and sausage and they taste great...
so I am liking it and I get pretty creative at lunch time.

Today I had coconut rice with crumbled veggie spicy sausage, calabrian peppers, celery, and soy sauce.

It was great.

At The Beach

We're on vacation!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.

This mother's day has been the best, our first Mother's Day with the most awesome boy anyone could want.
It is not my first Mother's Day, and for many years I dreaded the holiday and while Aiden does not replace our precious Anna that we lost 11 years ago... he makes this day so much better.

May 4th

When I do have a second to watch television.

HBO's new news documentary show called Vice that comes on Friday nights is increasingly becoming one of my favorite things on television.  Tonight they covered the poverty in Mumbai, the boys who are increasingly ostracized from the FLDS in Colorado City, Utah and then this small country in the Sahara that has an obesity problem in the midst of a famine because the women force feed themselves to be fat so they can get husbands because if you are fat, it means you are well taken care of... but this growing obesity is causing rising health problems.
Such an interesting mix of journalism, very open, not polished, real... I like it.

I also re-watched the documentary Manhunt which covers the entire time the CIA started looking for Bin Laden, going back to 1995... the entire story is interesting, but what was crazy was the office of female analysts (no joke they were like all females) who tracked Bin Laden down and continually warned that he was about to hit in 2001.  Such a crazy documentary and the work of these analysts is really interesting.


But... I still have one more paper to finish before the end of the semester, a pretty detailed review of In Search of the Racial Frontier by Quintard Taylor.  The book looks at the African American experience in the West from the 16th century to the present... yea... there were a few Africans in the West in the 1500s... crazy.  The book is pretty interesting, I have read up to the Civil War pretty much and the struggles with the states and territories in regards to slavery or the introduction to Anglo-Americans to areas initially inhabited by the Spanish and later the Mexicans and how a lot of the racial identifiers came with the Anglos, along with an erosion of any social status or rights they had prior to that arrival.  The transformation of Texas into an antebellum slave system was really interesting, but also interesting was Utah and its approach to slave laws as opposed to the South.  It is a pretty interesting book actually... just want to get the semester over so I can take a break and read the tons of books I've ordered for the summer.

Dinner tonight

It's meat night... Lean steaks, garlic potatoes and a salad with kale, cucumber, carrot, goat cheese, and Calabrian peppers

What We Do on Meat Days

Technically we did Fish tonight, I say we...but it was Adam cooking fish tonight.  With the blackened catfish, he roasted some Kale with roasted garlic and olive oil and some Quinoa with red pepper, basil and brown rice.

It was yummy

Even on meat days its pretty healthy, only using olive oil and trying to get a green in every single meal.  I can eat the leftovers for lunch.

I am really liking Kale, totally recommend it.  

Being Healthy

Part of my dinner tonight

     For a while during my pregnancy Adam and I worked very hard to eat healthy and we have sort of fallen out of that with grad school, work, and a little one getting bigger and more active every day.  So, with some inspiration from others and the very firm belief that we want Aiden to eat healthy from the start and not pick up bad habits, we've begun to eat healthy ourselves and that does not mean we skip out on the really awesome but bad stuff completely, but we are going to try to keep meat or fish to once a week and cut back on sweets (I tend to bake a cake a week, this is going to reduce).

I think the obstacle with healthy eating is the false notion that it does not taste good and it really does taste good if you know what to make and take the time to get the right stuff.  It is actually slightly more affordable too...

We bought meat for a month and froze it, allowing for once or twice a week of fish or even red meat if it is lean and beyond that because we bought only vegetables and stayed away from all the stuff in the middle isles that will get you in trouble... canned stuff, etc.... we spent less at the grocery store than we usually do and we got more food.  I am excited about this, I want to be more healthy and I want Aiden to be healthy and on the weekends we are going to add in walking (it is just too hectic during the week)

So after buying things like kale, avacado, green beans, broccoli, brussel sprouts, grains, yogurt, and other healthy items... 

I did a kale salad tonight with hot peppers, goat cheese, and a little greek dressing

I roasted some potato slices with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and garlic

and for dessert I sliced some bananas, sprinkled a little raw sugar over them and put them under the broiler for about 6 minutes.

Roasted Potatoes

broiled bananas

Pretty happy with the outcome of the dinner and I am hoping that we can continue these eating habits.  I want to be able to spend time with my son, be active, and enjoy life and I think that eating healthy is a part of that, and it will also make me feel better about myself and what I put in my body.  

After trying some of the really delicious food that my mother in law and father in law had over the weekend (they have started doing a plant based diet), I think that the key is making good food from the wide variety of foods available.  

Atlanta Vacation!

Having a great time.