Fondue It

We had a bout of early spring weather so my husband and I bought a rototiller, spread compost, and tilled the garden areas.  We still have more to till since it takes a while because we are tilling down about 18 inches.  I read that tilling deep is ideal because it helps the root systems develop therefore producing larger yields of crops in my new gardening book that I got for Valentine’s Day! What a geek, huh? A gardening book for a gift? It is very untraditional and romantic. (Although, I did get Roses too.)

I made a very Valentine’s dinner of Swiss fondue served with steamed vegetables, clams casino, and flourless chocolate cake. My health voucher for this meal is that it was an occasional treat and we each ate about two cups of vegetables and if you have read a previous post, I am not a stickler for boycotting all things fatty, sugary and made with love, but eating it in moderation. I also know what and how much I put in my dinner because I prepared it. The much larger notion is having the ability and the will to exercise self-regulation and not just eating, but in any part of life that includes the temptation to excess and result in feeling crappy about it. This can be taught early in life and it is much harder to grasp later, a challenge that I am setting forth to do with middle-school age children and later adults. Well so much for romance, but this challenge is a passion for me and I am going to do it.

I remember when I started middle school; I was ecstatic that I could take what little money I had and eat lunch at the snack bar.  This meant that some days, I only had a Hawaiian Punch and a candy bar. I qualified for the free lunch program, but still spent cash on junk food. On days that I did not have cash, I would go without eating lunch because my friends ate at the snack bar and I wanted to hang out with them.  It was only when the weather got colder that we all ended up eating in the cafeteria, but again there were so many choices and we would often eat in the a la carte line, which was more junk. Later, I would choose the cafeteria meals because they were more filling and I could only eat pizza or chimichangas so many times before I just got plain sick of them, but many of my friends would still eat those items every day.

I think that I was more excited because I had the ability to exercise choice despite how bad my decisions were. To adults, giving children the opportunity to exercise choice is important, but it is also a gamble. Schools now have to meet many nutritional guidelines, but it is still not enough because the unhealthy choices are still there and many kids, especially low-income kids do not always have the parental education that establishes healthy eating except the notion that getting more calories for the money is ideal despite how much these calories lack nutrients. I think a partnership between parents and school representatives with child input is especially important. My diet in middle school often resulted in headaches and weight loss during a time in my life that I should have been gaining.  I know growing up, we ate a lot of beans and rice and my mother did not have to deep-fry it in order for us to eat it. Sticking with cultural foods can help, but unfortunately for many people, cultural food has become very limited and supersized. With that, I am going to eat breakfast and here is the recipe.

Breakfast Berry and Cream Polenta

Serves 4

1 cup skim milk

2 cups water

1 cup polenta (coarse grain corn meal)

A couple dashes of salt

½ tsp lemon zest (optional)

1 cup fresh or frozen berries (any variety) I used mostly blueberries and strawberries

1 tbls butter or omit (I used an olive oil spread)

1 tbls honey

2 or 3 tbls chopped or slivered toasted almonds

A handful of fresh berries or ½ sliced banana

¼ cup of plain or vanilla yogurt

Bring milk salt, and water to a boil in quart-sized sauce pot over medium-high heat. Watch carefully. I always forget and then it boils over, very messy. Turn down heat to medium and add polenta in a stream to boiling liquid and stir with whisk as you add polenta. Add berries and kind of mush them up in mixture. Boil till thick, if it thickens to quickly then add more milk. It should turn purple.  When thickened to preferred consistency, add butter, honey and lemon zest.  Spoon into 4 bowls and add more milk if needed, yogurt, berries and almonds.  Add a little more honey if not sweet enough. Start small.  You can save the left overs, but you will have to add more milk or water and whisk in pot the next day.