For a society that is supposed to have information on every conceivable thing at its fingertips, we really do know sweet f*ck all.

Take the current hero worship of two particular stars; one a Golden Globe nominated actress, the other the singer of a band. Not chunky, not voluptuous, not curvy. Fat. No, not fat - obese. Morbidly obese. It is not beautiful, brave or edgy. It is dangerous. I am sure they are both lovely, talented people. So why are so many watching them kill themselves?

 

I get it. I get why they are being heralded as heroes - they are the antithesis of the uber skinny superstar. To my mind, this is like preferring a sword to poison - at the end of the day, both are going to kill you.

 

If I see someone standing with a gun to their own head, I am going to say something. The two of them claim to "love and accept themselves". Yeah? Again - why are you killing yourselves?

 

Obesity related diseases are fast becoming the number one killer in North America.

 

I don't need to hit you over the head once again with the risk factors of being obese. Let these people do it: http://www.annecollins.com/obesity/risks-of-obesity.htm. I am not talking about carrying an extra 10-30 lbs; I am talking about an extra 100-200 lbs. As in, your scale doesn't go up that high. As in, you have to shop in special stores. As in you get winded walking to your car. As in the friction from your thighs rubbing together could start a fire.

 

Not so long ago, we would have gawped at someone who was 100 lbs overweight. Now they are everywhere. Over a quarter of Canada's population is not just overweight, but obese. That is ONE person in FOUR. Yikes.

 

I am tired of the excuses, having heard most of them come out of my own mouth for years. “I am fat because… “Basically, you are fat because you eat too much of the wrong foods and you don’t get enough exercise.  It’s not rocket science. It really isn’t. The math is really quite simple:

 

Fast food = bad. Slow food = good.

Sitting on the couch = bad. Taking a walk = good.

 

Life is beautiful. Slow suicide is not.

Yup, it exists:

http://www.slipperybrick.com/2010/01/talking-plate-tells-you-to-slow-down/

I admit that I am often guilty of eating too fast.  In fact there are a lot of aspects to life where I find myself approaching them with tremendous speed.

I am starting the process of slowing everything down.

Turning to technology to to help overcome this acceleration is the height of irony.
Technology is what should be turned to when we need to facilitate speed.

Common sense should be the thing we turn to when we need to know how fast we are going, and when to slam on the brakes.

But seeing as common sense is not so common these days I expect parents to snap these things up and plug them in so they don't have to do what their parents did and simply say "slow down".

The poor potato. Unfairly demonized by the carb-phobics of the world, deemed "lowly", all but spat upon by the Atkins and Zone crowds, processed and destroyed by the junk food crowd... the poor, put-upon potato.

In the real-food world, where those of us defy all reason and convenience and cook our own food, the potato is a staple. As it should be. Taters are high in fibre, low in fat and loaded with nutrients. They contain more potassium than bananas, vitamin C, vitamin B6, magnesium, iron... so much good stuff. One, tiny, gnarly potato planted in a small part of a garden will yield 20-30 offspring. They are nothing short of miraculous

Read all about them here:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=48

The problem lies not with the potato itself, but with how it is prepared and eaten. Deep frying or baking are the most popular methods and you know what happens after that - the ketchup/gravy/mayo/sour cream/butter bath. Yes, they are delicious this way... but why bother with the potato at all? Just eat the crap. The potato just becomes senseless filler at this point.

Leading the pack for the most heinous way to consume potatoes is our gift from Quebec, the greasy, heart-clogging nastiness called poutine. To refresh your memories, poutine consists of fries loaded with gravy and cheese curds. Mm-mm- good. Of COURSE it's good. But you feel like a pile of shit afterwards.

I am about a million months pregnant right now and the potato has become my main source of sustenance (I have Irish blood - I am sure it is genetics). It is one of the few things that doesn't give me heartburn and actually stays in my cramped-for-space stomach. And, my GOD, did I want poutine the other day.

Just before I broke down and hit the eastbound 401, I came up with a way to enjoy poutine without the guilt and queasiness. it is not exactly something I would call health food, but it is definitely an alternative to the deep-fried nastiness.

This week Longo’s had local organic potatoes on sale. Hallelujah!! The Universe heard my plea for non-lethal poutine. I made this last night and I have to say, it was fab. It hit the spot. It made me happy. It stayed in my tummy. The baby stopped kicking me in the ribs. My partner Chris smiled. Angels sang. Charlotte went to sleep before 9:00 pm. All was right with the world.

 

Hallelujah Poo-tine

 - 4-5 organic new potatoes (if you can find 'em somewhat cheap. Any new potato will do. BUY LOCAL!!!!! sorry - soapbox moment)

- 1 sm white onion, chopped medium fine

- 2-4 tbsp olive oil, divided

- pinch of sea salt

- 2 cups beef or veggie stock

- 2 tbsp onion soup mix (low sodium, if available)

- 1 tbsp flour

- 2 tbsp Worcestershire

- splash of water

- hunk of feta cheese

- 3 or 4 green onions, chopped

Preheat over to 375C. Wash and cut the new potatoes into smallish chunks. (They crisp up better when they are smaller.) Put in boiling water for about two minutes. Drain, toss with 1-2 tbsps of olive oil and salt. Place on a baking sheet and put in over for approx. 30 minutes.

While taters are roasting, make the gravy. Sautee white onion on medium heat in the rest of olive oil until soft. Add stock, onion soup mix and Worcestershire.

Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Keep on low boil until liquid is reduced by about a 1/4 - should take about 10-15 minutes.

In a small bowl, add enough water to flour to make a slightly runny paste. Whisk into gravy mixture. Should thicken up within a few minutes. If you want a thicker gravy, add more flour. If it is too thick, add more stock or water. Or go nuts and add a bit of red wine or beer.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm on low heat.

When potatoes are done to desired crunchiness, top with the gravy, as much crumbled feta cheese as you would like. Ditto the green onions.

 Enjoy your (somewhat) healthy Soon to Be Poo-tine.

Watching my 3yr old daughter play with plastic kitchens, plastic shopping carts, plastic shopping baskets, plastic plates and cups, plastic cash registers and plastic money all the way down to every conceivable food item in plastic form, got me thinking about how kids learn about food, not just their origins but how we buy them.

Charlotte has so much fun playing with food, she wants so desperately to cook and clean, and buy foodie.  She rings up her purchases on the cash register and pays the fake money regardless of what comes up as the total. 

If only it were that simple.

Budgeting food along other living expenses at anytime can be difficult, but even more so in a recession.

Everyone has their approach to shopping, along with their strategies for saving $ whether it be buying in bulk, making items from scratch or recycling.

You pick most of these up as you are indoctrinated into the world of shopping by going through the process with your parents.

All of these have saved us tremendous amounts of $, but no more so than one simple strategy.

Use coupons, and compound them on weekly specials.

We approach shopping by applying coupons to the weekly specials from several stores.  We don't necessarily go to every store to buy one or two loss-leaders, we look to find the stores that have the majority and then match up coupons to them.

By doing this you can effectively pay lower than wholesale prices without committing to buying in bulk, which coincidentally if done at a Costco or Meglomart doesn't save you any money anyways.

There are several resources for identifying deals, and some websites that even pointout how best to match coupons to specials.

Our list of usual suspects includes:

smartcanucks

http://smartcanucks.ca/

Dealcetera

http://dealcetera.com/

bargain moose

http://www.bargainmoose.ca/

incomeXchange

http://www.incomexchange.com/

save.ca

http://save.ca/english/index.php

GoCoupons.ca

http://www.gocoupons.ca/home.html

flyerland.ca

http://aurora.flyerland.ca/

Some of the posting on these sites overlap, but there are several unique deals that get posted on each that balance everything out.

Rethinking your approach to shopping from paying huge $ in exchange for convenience, to doing a little detective work up front can net you some serious $. Ultimately when you break down your cost savings vs the time offset on an hourly basis you'll come to realize what an impact this has.

Saving money this route can be aplied to higher priced organic items, or items from local vendors that cost more than the grocery store.

What got me thinking about the plastic toys and the cash registers is what lessons are being taught about conservation, savvy shopping and recycling to our kids. 

There are no plastic coupons, or weekly flyers, the concept of saving doesn't seem to be encouraged, and that is a shame.

There is a marginal increase in work to pull this off, but I want to emphasize marginal.  The savings outweigh the convenience.

We love food and love to eat. We are not fatty fat fats with a cheeseburger obsession, nor are we pretentious little wankers looking for the latest hipster fare. I suppose we fit somewhere in the middle.

We are a couple who live in the in-between (in between the city and the country) and have one beautiful daughter and another one on the way.

The recession has not left us unscathed, but we refuse to lie down and weep and wail and wait for the sky to fall.  For the most part going out to eat has become a thing of the past. That's not really such a bad thing, though. Both of us have lost a significant amount of fatty fatness, among other ailments.  Not only do we look and feel great, we did it with very little sacrifice and even less money.

Along the way we have learned a lot about food - how it is grown, the people who grow it, how it has been mucked about, its long term effects on our bodies and the earth. We have learned how to shop and eat well on a tight budget, what our bodies need and the shocking amount of garbage and chemicals we North Americans shovel into our maws on a daily basis.

As anyone who has been to Walmart lately knows, there is a fatty fat fat problem in our country. And it is getting worse every day. Let's face it - what goes in should not look like what comes out.

It IS possible to eat well for very little money. We want to share our continuing experiences with you - our shopping tips and tricks, recipes, favorite foods, costs per serving, etc. We want to share the things that make you feel (and look) really, really good.