Month: January 2010

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My Week in Food and Drink

My week started last Sunday in the best possible way. After a lovely morning selling the Gluten-Free Goodies at the farmers’ market, I was off to the spa.

Yes, the spa. I rarely indulge. It’s hard when you’re cheap and don’t like taking your clothes off in front of other people. But my clothes were off because Pacific Waters Spa hosted a group of mom bloggers for an afternoon of mini treatments and demonstrations. It was a beautiful place and the treatments were amazing, especially the massage. Between the pounding my back gets from running and hours I spend standing while I’m baking, I really needed a massage (I really need a chiropractor, but who has the time?). Then the group of us had the delightful drinks shown here and fabulous garlic fries.

Then on Monday, Nintendo was nice enough to include me in a demonstration of a couple of new games. The one I can imagine myself actually playing is the America’s Test Kitchen game for DS (if we had a DS). It contains a library of ATK’s recipes and an interactive way to get the kids cooking. You can assign players and duties. The nice thing is you can assign jobs that don’t involve knives or fire. The part of the game I liked best is that you can put in the ingredients you have on hand and it will give you an ATK recipe. You can come up with a menu for the week and set up a shopping list. The game comes out March 28th. Fun Stuff.

After that my two bff mom bloggers and I went to Café Pinot downtown and it was quite fantastic. We were lucky enough to hit it on Dine LA week, which means we had an appetizer, main dish, and dessert for a fixed price, a reasonable one I might add. I had a lovely mushroom risotto.

On Wednesday, I ventured downtown again to Babycakes NYC. It’s a vegan bakery that is mostly gluten-free with some spelt goodies. It was my second time there and I think I’ve tried everything. My husband liked the cupcakes and I thought the donuts were quite good.

Thursday, the husband and I took the kids to the Rock Sugar in Century City and tried out their gluten-free offerings. They only had a few so it wasn’t hard to pick. We had a duck curry and green curry vegetables. It was good and the kids ate their chicken and rice. What more could you ask? (for it to be cheaper?)

And the week wrapped up with a girls night out in Culver City. We went to Saint Amour. The Confit De Canard was excellent as was the bottle of Pinot we had. The desserts were only ok, I thought.

What a week. Tomorrow my carriage turns back into a mom car and I’ll be making brown rice pasta with meatballs.

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Amelia's Eating Made Easy

I absolutely love talking to Amelia. She has masters degrees in nutrition and public health and is one of the most knowledgeable people I know. Not only is she a personal chef, but she also does nutritional counseling, puts out a newsletter, blogs, and teaches cooking classes. As part of my new series on local small businesses, I’m profiling Amelia’s company Eating Made Easy, formerly Amelia’s Meels.

Amelia’s approach to food and nutrition is very reasonable, which is why I enjoy talking to her. She isn’t advising cutting out all carbohydrates or never having a cupcake again. She’s giving clients manageable lifestyle changes.

“People are always looking for a quick fix and there isn’t one,” she said.

Take, for example, cleanses. These popular remedies are used by some people at the beginning of the year to try to detoxify after the gluttony of the holidays. They are supposed to clean out your system and help you lose weight in the process, but do they work?

No. No they don’t. “It’s so preposterous,” she said. “It’s like saying ‘I’m going to take a razorblade to your skin because you got a sunburn.”

What is the best way to detox after you’ve been brutal to your body? Eat more fruits and vegetables and limit caffeine and alcohol. “The majority of people have all the systems they need for toxins to leave their body within 24 to 48 hours. There isn’t anything so toxic unless they are drinking Windex.”

Having a personal chef has always been an unrealized dream of mine. When Amelia gets a new client she caters the menu to each person’s dietary needs – gluten-free, vegan, peanut allergy – no problem.

The same is true with weight loss and nutrition counseling. If the goal is to lose weight, she figures out what works best for that person’s lifestyle. That might mean eating less sugar or cutting down on smoothies. If someone eats fast food everyday at lunch, she figures out a way to cut a certain number of calories so that person can lose weight – maybe no fries one day, or half a bun the next, or cut out the soda to save 200 calories.

She also had some advice that I think might help me lose a couple of pounds. I’m a sucker for those fluffy stories on yahoo or in doctor’s office magazines that tell me what to eat to make my stomach flatter. Nuts and oatmeal are always on the list so of course I put walnuts or almonds in everything so that I don’t have to do crunches. Well, apparently adding 500 calories to an already full diet will not give me a sick pack.

Speaking of advice, Amelia’s blog is also a great source. When friends ask her questions like, Which yogurt is good for me and which one is the nutritional equivalent to a candy bar? Here’s your answer.

“The main thing I would want people to know is that I’m not here to preach to you what you should be eating, but teach you how to make a healthy lifestyle a reality no matter what your life is like,” she said. “I want to inspire you to love healthy food as much as you love unhealthy food.”
To learn more about Amelia visit her blog. To contact her about personal chef services, nutritional or weight loss counseling, or cooking classes email her at info@eating-made-easy.com or call her at 310-484-6140.

This is part of a series I’m doing on local small business. I don’t get paid for this, but because I have a small business I want to highlight other entrepreneurs I believe in.

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Quinoa with Garlic, Spinach and Dried Cherries

I had a very busy weekend which meant I wasn’t around to cook for my kids. I had a pleasant reminder of this when my husband said to them, “Isn’t it nice to have Mommy home for dinner?” Let me just say, I’m always home for dinner!!! I mouthed something I can’t repeat here.

To make up for my two evening absence, I took the 5-year-old to the Trader Joe’s yesterday to help me pick out something to make for dinner. We had 20 minutes before picking up the 4-year-old. We spent 10 of those minutes talking about ice cream, one of my favorite subjects. When we finally pulled ourselves away from the freezer section we ended up at the dried fruit area. I wanted to cook quinoa and I had a hankering for cherries after having a lentil, brown rice, and cherry salad from Urban Green Cuisine. There were four different kinds of cherries so I asked the woman standing next to me what I should get. She told me to buy Montmorency Cherries because they are packed with antioxidants. I get all of my cooking tips from random people I run into at the grocery store, so I bought them. The 5-year-old promised he’d eat whatever meal I came up with that involved cherries (He did not).

Here’s what I came up with:
Quinoa with Garlic, Spinach and Dried Cherries

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add 1 cup quinoa. Simmer for about 12 minutes or until it’s fluffy and the water is gone.

While that’s cooking, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil (or grapeseed oil) in a pan with a heaping teaspoon of minced garlic. Saute 1 bunch or a 6 oz. bag of spinach until wilted.

When the quinoa is ready, mix it into the spinach and add a ½ cup of dried cherries. Sprinkle with grated or shaved Parmigiano and Reggiano cheese and serve.

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A Happy Ending

Long before I became a blogger or a mother, I was a newspaper reporter. When the earthquake in Haiti devastated the country, I worried that the story of how my friend had worked so hard to adopt a child from Haiti would end tragically.

It seemed that so few stories ended happily. Or so I thought.

Lorraine and Damien’s story ended in the best possible way. They brought Samantha home to Los Angeles last night. She is safe and healthy and with a family who loves her. She dressed up in her new sister’s princess dresses and the two stayed up until 2 am playing. Today Samantha, who turns 10 on January 25, unpacked the clothes, books, and toys donated to her during her stay at a hospital in Pittsburgh, in her very own bedroom.

Her parents say she hasn’t yet shown signs of trauma from the earthquake or her years in the orphanage. “So far so good,” her father, Damien, said. “We are absolutely thrilled to have her home,” he said.

Here are past blogs about the family’s struggle to get Samantha home:

LA Moms Blog Post – http://www.lamomsblog.com/2010/01/one-mothers-struggle-to-get-adopted-daughter-out-of-haiti.html#more

Lorraine’s Letter – http://yvonneinla.blogspot.com/2010/01/friends-struggle-to-get-daughter-safely.html

Updates – http://yvonneinla.blogspot.com/2010/01/la-family-trying-to-get-adopted.html

http://yvonneinla.blogspot.com/2010/01/wonderful-news-friends-daughter-is-on.html

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Wonderful News!! Friend's Daughter is on Her Way Out of Haiti

I just talked to Lorraine and Samantha is on a plane and coming to the U.S.!!! She’ll arrive in Miami first where she’ll go to a hospital. Once doctors determine that she’s healthy, she’ll fly to Pittsburgh. Lorraine and the rest of the family will meet Samantha in Pittsburgh and bring her home to Los Angeles.

A wonderful and unbelievable ending to their story.

I haven’t been able to find out how many of the other children from Bresma are coming with her, but this news story said that 61 children from the orphanage were heading to Pennsylvania on a relief plane.

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LA Family Trying to Get Adopted Daughter Out of Haiti

I wanted to update the LA Moms Blog post from Friday about friends who are trying to get the girl they are in the process of adopting out of Haiti.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much good news to report. The situation is still desperate. The children in the BRESMA orphanage have received limited supplies, but continue to be short on water. Many of the children have diarrhea and are having trouble getting rehydrated because there isn’t enough water.

Lorraine and Damien’s daughter Samantha isn’t sick. They have talked to Jamie McMurtrie Heckman, who runs the Bresma orphanage with her sister Ali McMurtrie, (You can find updates about the two sisters at this blog), and she told them that Samantha’s is doing ok for now.

Security at the orphanage continues to be a huge concern. The orphanage is run by Americans and people know that. Whenever they get a delivery it’s a huge risk for their safety. There is so much danger all over the country that the military is overwhelmed.

There are many rumor and news reports about planes going in to rescue the BRESMA orphans and some of the thousands of other orphans in the country. About a dozen children have been flown out, but the others are still in desperate need of help.

If you’d like to help, Lorraine and Damien recommend donating to one of the LA area drop off locations listed on this site.
http://www.lime-aid.tv/

This website is also collecting donations for the Bresma orphans.
http://www.centeroflife.net/haiti/index.html

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PBS and Food, Inc.

I have always loved food, both eating it and making it. But it wasn’t until I read Eric Schlosser’s book “Fast Food Nation” that I really started thinking about what I put in my body. Now that I have a family, I think about it all the time.

Schlosser was on a panel Saturday discussing the PBS (POV) documentary “Food, Inc.” about the frightening way food is produced in this country. He was joined by Michael Pollan, who wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and the new book, “Food Rules.”

I was able to meet Schlosser and Pollan and in true form, I was a complete spaz about it. When I saw Schlosser walking out of a PBS interview after the panel I shouted, “Fast Food Nation changed my life.”

And it had, somewhat. Unfortunately, not enough.

I talked to Pollan about a dilemma I had last week. I was at the store and I looked at the price of a half pint of organic blueberries and compared it to the 1 pound pack of conventional blueberries. The 1.5 pound was only slightly more expensive than the much smaller organic package, but my kids could have blueberries for a week (or as long as they lasted). Conventional won. According to Pollan, that was not a sound decision. He was very nice about it, though.

He said to look up the Dirty Dozen organic , which is a list of foods that you should absolutely buy organic. I already knew that blueberries were on the list.

These are hard decisions to make, especially for people who are on a budget (or are cheap). I asked him what people should do if they can’t afford to make dinner every night and fast food is so inexpensive. It’s actually cheaper to make meals at home, he said. It’s just that many people can’t invest the time.

He had some good tips such as, don’t buy cereal that changes the color of the milk and avoid “edible food-like substances.” In his own life, he and his wife and son cook their food and don’t buy processed foods.

The most frightening thing the panel talked about was how food producers are selling the inferior meat that the fast food chains don’t want to American public schools. It’s especially scary when you think about the fast food hamburger, which is mainly made up of byproducts of beef that are also used as pet food.

I don’t eat a lot of hamburgers, so the other item raised by that panel that I found personally disturbing is that Americans are eating 500 calories more a day since 1980. That’s a lot of calories and a lot of pounds.

There was some good news. What are the fast food chains that Schlosser said are ok to go to? In N’ Out and Chipotle. It turns out that we do have somewhere to go in the course of a long day when I don’t feel like cooking.

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LA Moms Blog post: One Mother's Struggle to Get Adopted Daughter Out of Haiti

This is the LA Moms Blogs about Lorraine’s struggle to get her daughter out of Haiti.

http://www.lamomsblog.com/2010/01/one-mothers-struggle-to-get-adopted-daughter-out-of-haiti.html#more

CNN ran this story about the ophanage.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/01/15/haiti.orphan.adoptions/index.html

Here is a website collecting donation for the Bresma orphans.
http://www.centeroflife.net/haiti/index.html

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Friend's Struggle to Get Daughter Safely Out of Haiti

The news footage from Haiti is almost unbelievable. Buildings in rubble, bodies and limbs scattered in the streets, children wailing. The Red Cross estimates that 50,000 people are dead.

My friend Lorraine has always feared for the safety of the daughter she is trying to adopt in Haiti. But now the situation is so dire, she is asking the world for help.

Here is her letter:

We started the process to adopt Samantha from Haiti in August 2007.
Due to red tape, corruption, and apathy by the Haitian government, an adoption process that we expected to take 9-12 months has continued to stretch longer with no end in sight. We have traveled to Haiti on 10 different occasions over the last 2 1/2 years–each time to visit and develop a bond with Samantha. Samantha will turn 10 in less than two weeks. She entered the orphanage just over three years ago. Her parents gave her up do to extreme poverty. We have met them and have seen firsthand the love they have for their daughter–so much love that they are willing to give her a better life that takes her away from them. Samantha is a wonderful gift they have given to our family.

It has been painful to watch her grow up in an orphanage–but we wouldn’t trade for anything the opportunity to know and love her over this period of extended delay. We are especially grateful that Lexi was able to travel to Haiti for the last three trips and at long last was able to meet and enjoy time with her big sister. We remain committed to bringing her home–no matter how long and difficult the road ahead will be.

My husband, Damien, and Lexi, were in Haiti from January 8th until January 12th. They were incredibly lucky to fly out just four hours before the earthquake struck. Damien was able to contact Samantha’s orphanage director just after the earthquake. He received news that she, and the other children, had come through it without injury. The day after the earthquake, Damien received a distressed email from this same orphanage director. While the children remain unharmed, they have no drinking water, are running low on food, and are unable to inhabit the severely damaged house. Thus far, they have seen no signs of assistance. The block wall that surrounds the orphanage toppled during the earthquake. If rioting begins as they fear, the children are fully exposed to the potential violence. This situation is dire.

We have been working alongside our adoption agency to identify sources of immediate rescue assistance from local non-profits, the UN, the US Dept of State, and/or the US Military. We are hopeful–but far from certain–that help will arrive in time to save all lives.

Beyond the near-term crisis, Haiti’s orphans are faced with a long and steep uphill battle. The Haitian government infrastrucure and many of the already over-flowing orphanages are in ruins. The paperwork supporting many of the in-process adoptions may have been destroyed. Barring unexpected leniency by the Haitian government as well as cooperation by US Immigration, It seems likely that current orphans won’t be united with their adopting families for an extended period. In addition, the Haitian orphan population grew (possibly dramatically) in size as the earthquake struck and took the lives of many Haitian parents. As the government begins to rebuild, adoptions–and badly needed adoption reform–are unlikely to be near the top of its priority list.

These conditions point to a huge need for near- and long-term funding for Haiti’s orphans.

Please contact Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office to ask that she put pressure on the Haitian government to allow pending adoptions to go through quickly so the children can get out of the country safely, 415-393-0707.
If you would like to help, here is a list of supplies that are needed at Samantha’s orphanage and drop off locations in and around Los Angeles. http://www.lime-aid.tv/
Here are is a list of other organizations taking donations
http://www.oxfam.org/
http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main&s_src=RSG000000000&s_subsrc=RCO_FrontPagePanel

Samantha is pictured above with the two Americans, Ali and Jamie, who run the orphange.

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got milk?

As I said in my previous post, 2010 is looking a lot like 2009. Just like last year, I made a poor parenting decision so my kids and I could go to a fun blogger party.

Yesterday I took my boys to the W Hotel in Westwood and we hung out with celebrities instead of going to basketball practice. It might sounds bad and that’s because… it was bad! My older son is not the most accomplished basketball player and of all of his teammates he was probably not the one who should miss practice. I thought we would just be a few minutes late, instead we missed the entire thing. Did I mention I’m an assistant coach? Yep, not good. (But he’s 5 and the party had Legos! And an ice skating rink!)

Anyway, the event was to announce the new got milk? ad with Rebecca Romijn and her twin daughters. (The sign is held here by Romijn’s husband, Jerry O’ Connell, who is delightful), and to kick off a program that will give away 200,000 gallons of milk. And, if you go on Facebook and pass a virtual gallon of milk, $1 will go to Feeding America.

So really, we were helping to spread the message that milk is good for families. Actually, the 5-year-old who suddenly stopped drinking milk last year, drank two jugs of it. Oh, right. It was chocolate milk. But it’s still milk.

Both my boys ended up having a lot of fun. They were able to try ice skating for the first time (in 75 degree weather) and take the Lego’s home. We did manage to get some basketball in today. To make up for missing practice I made the 5-year-old play with me for an hour. He did a great job! I think it was the one on one attention. Right.