Oprah and becoming a vegetarian...

If you watch Oprah, you probably saw the episode where she and a large portion of her staff went vegan for one week.  I'm always flirting with thoughts of cutting meat out of my diet, so the title of this episode interested me.  I've done the vegetarian thing on and off for years, but vegan?  I've never tried it, and I was curious.  


Well, after watching the episode, there is no way I could go vegan... I love cheese entirely too much, and I can buy cheese from farmers that treat animals the way I am comfortable with... but after watching this Oprah episode, I am going vegetarian!  I'm not going into detail, but it showed the process a cow goes through before, during and after slaughter.  Correction.  The only thing they did not show is the actual "kill shot", but they showed the face of the reporter as it was done, and she looked horrified!  The poor cows.  


Now, I fully understand that eating meat is natural... and that, without it, we would not have evolved to be what we are today.  But, animals are treated much differently these days.  


Since there is much more demand for meat, the "business" has become more about "business" than the raising of an animal.  The whole thing is sad, really.  As a country, we don't need to be eating as much meat as we are.  There would be less heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, etc., that's for sure... and the health insurance might not cost as much because there wouldn't be as much demand for that either.  Of course, this is just my opinion.  ;o)  


So, you part of my blog now will be to document some of my favorite vegetarian meals.  And with gardening season right around the corner, I just might include some of that too!  :o)  If nothing else, we'll save money on our bill because there won't be any meat in the bill!

Witching hour... how I survive!

Witching hour... Ahhhhh!!!  It's when everything goes from manageable to out of freeking control!!!   After having #3, it only got worse.  Trying to juggle the needs of two toddlers and an infant.  What was I thinking???  Here is how I do it.   


#3 has always been into books, so if I come up with something to distract #'s 2 and 3, she will keep herself entertained in another room doing the book thing.

#2 is into pretend play right now.  We were lucky enough to get a play kitchen as a Christmas gift two years ago, and I'm telling you... if you have the space, it is WELL worth it.  She will spend hours in front of this kitchen pretending to wash dishes, cook breakfast/lunch/dinner, or feed her baby doll in the highchair (not pictured).    

#1 is still a little one, so all I have to do to prevent cries is stick toys on the tray to his high chair and he'll entertain himself until dinner is ready.  Right now, he likes to bang things.  It doesn't matter what it is.  A spoon, cup, toy car... or just his fists.  He is a total boy!  Bang bang bang is all he does! 

Tonight, I made a fairly simple dish.  One that should have taken about 15 minutes.  All I had to do is boil pasta and make a sauce for it with spinach, tomato, cheese and cream.  The longest part about it was boiling the water and letting it cook.  While that was happening, I would make the sauce, and we were good to go!  Ding dong!!!  I was wrong!  It took me a good 45 minutes.  I was lucky the pasta didn't turn to mush... 

My life is chaotic to say the least, but the most important lesson I have to remind myself of daily is this.  Do your best to nourished your children with heatlhy food, keep them warm and make sure they are happy (generally speaking... ha ha).  If you can do that, you are doing fine!  


My kids are warm,  happy, and I made a meal that was 1) edible, 2) colorful and 3) packed with vitamins and nutrients for my growing family.  Oh... and 4) we ate at the table together and talked about our day.  Food to nourish our bodies and conversation to nourish our souls! 

Cheers!