I have favorite things, too

I'm on "vacation" this week from teaching. I used the quotes because I have papers to grade, class work to prep, and lots of typical mommy stuff to do this week, not to mention the job of cooking for Thanksgiving, getting our Christmas tree up, and organizing our holiday card photo... so I'm not in the classroom this week, but I'm not sitting around with nothing to do, either.

With that said, I arranged my day around watching Oprah's Favorite Things Episode last night. Sigh. I was disappointed.

I liked that she scaled back her efforts (i.e. smaller audience) and that she chose military wives--a group of hard working, self-sacrificing women in which to bestow her loot. And, for the most part, I liked the gifts, but I just didn't get into the way it all unfolded. The usual excitement/emotion was somehow missing from the event and I wound up feeling mad that I didn't watch The Next Iron Chef Redemption instead. EVEN WORSE... I had a brief moment where I wish I would have graded papers(4-6 page essays on education and Plato's Allegory of the Cave). YIKES!

Oprah's been doing this since 1997... did you know that? I just googled it because for the longest time, I had myself convinced that my mom came up with idea of gifting "favorite things" at the holidays. I know-- crazy. But the women of my family have been trading tea towels, Yankee candles, and the best-ever, comfy, fuzzy socks for such a long time that I thought, maybe, we were first to think of it.

My dad has always said, "There's no such thing as an original idea." For that, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that "favorite things" was not a family tradition ripped off by Oprah, but instead, an idea we flat out stole from her.

We started in 2002. And so, in my family, as with last night's Oprah show, we've lost the excitement and emotion for it. After all, in our price range, there are only so many candles, and kitchen gadgets, and puzzle books, and best-ever, comfy, fuzzy socks.Let's not even open the can of worms that is the economy, the jobs report, forseeable tax hikes, my dad's retirement... all that stuff that makes responsible adults feel guilty about buying anything these days. I'm not sure about the fate of "favorite things" this year.

But if I had a magic pocketbook...one that was bottomless with $5 and $10 and let me buy all the little gadgets and do dads for my sister-in-law, and my aunts, and my mom, here is my list of favorite things:

1. The Chocoveda Chakra Box of Chocolates

2. Zella "Live in" Legging

3. lululemon atletica Y Tank

4. Super Cute Mini Stainless Steel Travel mug

5. Heifer International: A Flock of Chicks

6. Popcorn: from our own store (website is still being constructed)

7.

It's SO easy being green...

Here's the recipe for my favorite GREEN SMOOTHIE
1 cup fresh, organic spinich
I section (about 5 inches) of English cucumber
1 avocado (skin and pit ommitted)
Juice from 2 small green apples and 1 medium pear

I juice the fruit in my Breville juicer. I whizz the vegetables and fruit juice in the Magic Bullet. Sometimes I add crushed ice to ensure the smoothie is super cold. This is a very tasty smoothy, but making it REALLY cold with the addition of the ice makes it feel like more of a treat.

Another variation (although less sweet) would be to elimated the avocado and substitute freshly brewed, unsweetened green tea in place of the fruit juice.

Cutting back on dairy products has been the hardest, but this VERY BERRY SMOOTHIE doesn't miss yogurt or milk. It uses Almond Milk as it's base which gives the drink a much richer flavor than milk and makes it less tangy than the greek yogurt I had been using.

Here's all you need:
1 cup Almond Milk (unsweetend vanilla)
1 cup frozen berry mix

For the berries, I use organic produce that I've bought in bulk and frozen. In the winter, when I run out of my own stuff, I buy an organic medley of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries from Whole Foods.

I whiz these two in the Magic Bullet and have a delicious smoothie in less than a minute!

Also, try this really delicious variation:

1 cup Almond Milk (unsweetened vanilla)
1 frozen banana
1 cup of blueberries
1 mango, diced

The kids and I were drinking these every morning with breakfast (OR as breakfast!!) but lately we've switched to preferring this refreshing beverage in the afternoon as something light, yet tasty that won't spoil dinner.

Switching from packaged stuff felt difficult at first, but once I committed to spending 5 extra minutes on fresh stuff... well, it's been easy being green and clean.

Story of my life...

It seems as if I'm always doing this--standing in the kitchen, looking through a cookbook, trying to figure out what's for dinner.

My mom tells a similar story about the stress of the infamous question, "What's for dinner?" In some ways her telling of it is a boast that she not only worked 8-4, five days a week, but that she also cooked a full, homemade meal, worthy of sitting down at the dining room table, following every one of those long days at the office.

I think it was 1976 when she "went back to work"--the year that both my brother and I were in school all day, the family was low on cash, and my dad had a flexible enough schedule as a professor at a university that she could work full time even though we only had one car.

She rode with a friend who lived nearby. Each day, she was picked up at 7:30 am and dropped off at 4:30 pm. And according to my mom, each day, just as her high-heeled foot would extend from the open car door and touch the curb, my brother, sitting patiently on the cement front steps, would say, "Mom, what's for dinner?" She claims he looked pitiful and forlorn as if he hadn't eaten all day. He claims he hated broccoli and kidney beans and was merely ensuring he'd have a stress-free meal.

Which ever is true is no longer the point of the story. For me, as a working mom with school-aged kids, the story is more about how one woman "did it all". How she, exhausted after a full day of work outside the home, kicked off her heels, and went to work again in her own kitchen. It's about how one woman, despite the shifting cultural paradigms from the role of the stay-at-home/housewife to that of the working mom with the latchkey kids, successfully merged the two sets of values-- making it look easy and making it look as if every other mom was doing this, too.

There are times when I'm tired or when I just don't feel like cooking. There are times when I contemplate calling out for pizza, but because of my mom and all those hot meals, served promptly at 5:45pm, I think better of it and keep flipping the pages of my cookbook until I find the perfect thing for tonight.

New food is never easy...

It's been two years since my abdominal surgery and almost three years since I've taken any medication. And although that milestone in itself makes me feel good, the real reason for my energy and clarity is the natural path of whole foods, exercise, and meditation that resulted from the frustrations I had with medication, doctors, and the idea of other surgeries.

My diet has been mostly vegetables, limited dairy, and limited gluton for quite sometime. But the kids and Eric... well, it's been "healthy" but not nearly as strict and "mindful" of nutrients as mine... until recently.

When Andrew started getting stomach aches and gut-wrenching cramps similar to my experiences of several years ago, I couldn't fathom the idea of him following in my footsteps by undergoing the same tests, taking the same medications, or god forbid, someday, needing surgery. Now, the whole family eats what I eat and endures the lectures (which I fondly refer to as "re-education") of the dangers and evils of processed foods and sugar. They ride with me to Whole Foods, an hour and a half away in Lincoln Park, and they patiently endure the times I'm unavailable, meditating in my closet.

Andrew is on board because he knows that he won't get a stomach ache when he follows my diet. But Adrienne? She misses the sweets and most importantly, she misses french fries and chicken nuggets, corn dogs, and Quaker granola bars. She sometimes wishes I would just buy her one package of Oreo's or just one small bag of Doritos.

Notorious for communicating through notes, Adrienne left this on the kitchen counter. New food and new habits are never easy....