OP (Other Peoples’) FOOD

Thankyou thankyou thankyou Max Griss for the gorgeous latkes!

Let me whisper this one: It is extremely difficult to find vegan or vegan-friendly food if locked into the SAD (Standard American Diet) kitchen.

Going plant-based inspires a foodie to look over the fence at other cuisines to find interesting food. Lettuce salads get old on the taste buds. Finding the variety of flavors I longed for was not a problem in the past because being single, broke and hungry pushed me to look at low-cost and good to eat in other people’s cuisines. The unemployment days were where expensive meat first began to drop off my grocery list and veggies became gold.

Beyond dollar store raimen

In fact, in my first kitchen after college, I established “OP food day”–Other Peoples’ food day. It all started with the cheap weekend slice of pizza for dinner. Then, I began to notice other cheap eats from other cultures as I took the shortcut every day through the hallway of the “temple of commerce” in downtown Providence RI, which was not far from where I worked at WEAN radio. That is where I got my first taste of buttery, flaky baklava and savory Italian wedding soup. That is where I fell in love with the pots, knives and cutting boards in the Cooks’ store. Before I lost my first job, I used to frequent a Greek restaurant, Andrea’s, where I met giros. Later, as a educator, the events I used to look forward to most were the international days. Flavors from all parts of China, India, and Vietnam stocked my imagination with combinations that never existed in my basically southern fried food lexicon.

Global eating

When I elected to eat plant-based two years ago, I had readymade cooking references that made the transition away from meat as main entree easier. Global eating–choosing Buddhist, Japanese, Chinese, Indian and other vegetable-based meals is the norm now and not regulated to weekends.

My Yiddish connection

I am still adding depth to my experience with vegan cooking, daring to try new twists on old flavors. The vegetable America loves best is the potato and the favorite form is french fries. Then, this past holiday season I looked over the fence at a Hanukkah table. There was one holiday food I could appreciate–potato pancakes–latkes! They attracted my attention because I always liked hash browns better than french fries, so I took a recipe from a holiday cookbook and successfully veganized it. It is now becoming one of my breakfast faves–though I have to get up a little earlier to do it.

Your OP food journey

Let your “OP food” Friday break out of the common, usual and ordinary. Get expansive. Why not do more than sneak a peek at other cuisines and add more delicious, nutritious vegan foods with a global flair this year?

Oh, yes: I like my latkes with applesauce!

RESOLVED: NO RESOLUTIONS THIS YEAR

kelly-si…ash.jpg (Thanks, Kelly, for the inspiration)

Notes for 2024:

Toss the scale.

Pray more. Worry less.

Work your gifts.

Live your life purpose.

Continue exploring and expanding.

Revive personal mental health habits.

Photo by Abhinav Sharma on Pexels.com

Happy New Year – from Victoree

“Live long and prosper”

PARDON THE TURKEY.

Can you identify the other former living creatures in this picture?

“President Eisenhower (left) seems to be impressed by the 43-pound turkey presented to him by Peary Browning (right), the president of the National Turkey Federation. The bird was chosen from over 100,000 at Browning’s own farm.” from Town and Country

The image above was published the year I was born, 1954.

2023…almost 7 decades later…Vegan

Have a happy and kind Thanksgiving! 🙂

-Victoree

BEFORE THE HELLIDAYS COME

Holiday stress and food. Read about how to beat it here.

Here it comes! Planning for the holidays time! Red-eyed looking through all the tidal wave of holiday menu suggestions; tolerating whole books of toys; wading through holiday themed retail cattle prod incentives to buy stuff…

Are you noticing that a common theme for this coming holiday season is the Grinch? Have you seen all the bile-green, Grinch pajamas, cups, and wrappings?

If there is a perfectionist bone in your body you like me have got to be trembling with event planner’s angst as the wreaths start appearing first in the stores, then on the street lamps. It does not get better for vegans because most of the traditional holiday fare is meat centric. My big challenge is to cook satisfying holiday food that will not insult the pro-meat family members and be able to give myself and my vegan family members some comfort and joy too.

Big ask. More planning and learning than I have ever done in my life. The holidays are emotionally stressful enough without piling food stress on top of it. How about we make a little space for ourselves to get over the back-to- standard-time jet-lag, download a Zen breathing app, do some research, taste test, and simply relax before the holidays hit? Let’s promise ourselves to be proactive about creeping Grinch-ness.

Hey. Don’t do the real countdown until you see Santa at the end of the Macy’s Parade on Thanksgiving Day.

BACK IN GLASS

Photo by Ella Olsson on Pexels.com

Query: Does how you store food matter?

This continues a discussion about my latest move toward a lower-BPH home. First I hit cleaning chemicals. As I said before, we are swimming in a slurry of chemicals everywhere–in our homes, in the air, in the water, in what we eat, and even in our own flesh. Science is fum-stumbling toward an answer, but we simply have very little idea of the extent of the damage of what I call “ubiquitous pollution.”

My plan is to concentrate on one area of life at a time to as much as possible reduce personal contact with PFAS/forever chemicals. Next I want to reduce chemicals in my home that leach from the plastic containers used to vend food, cleaning products and cosmetics. Target: reduce chemicals coming into my home through what I store cooked food and reheat leftovers in.

One big problem I notice with plastics that contact food is that they mimic estrogen, making them “hormone disruptors” or “endocrine disruptors”. That means these “fake estrogens” can get into the human system and promote breast cancer. I got into this subject as I noticed the off-ramp from the main subject highway of diabetes–basically an endocrine disorder. It was just too good to pass up.

I love knowledge.

I am also an organization freak. I love that Container Store motto: “Contain Yourself”. To me, chaos is sin.

Because it can be disconcerting to mates and others to suddenly “go back to glass”, a safe, soft path might be to go ever so slowly until, poof! there are no more plastic Chinese takeout containers in the refrigerator. Once the addiction to plastic is broken and glass in the fridge is normal, it might be safe to gradually swap out other items living behind cabinet door to glass, stainless steel, or recyclable plastics (no #6 or #7).

Query: Does how you store food matter?

Response: Yes, indeed! For health’s sake, how food is stored does matter.

FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER…

If you can remember anything from all the hype about FD&C 40 red food dye a few years ago, there was a period when “the red M&M” disappeared from Mars brand’s colorful candy shell chocolates. Extending my learning about chemical colorants in food and cosmetics, one day, I dug into how those beautifully white (clean, purity) colored food items got that way. Turns out it is done with titanium dioxide, the same chemical found in many brands of sunblock. We also paint a form of it on our Living Room walls! Colorants in food, cosmetics and the like are suspected to be allergens, cause birth defects or a threat to fertility. Something to consider for societies facing negative replacement birth rates.

We know that color influences our food buying decisions, an extension of how we expect what something will taste like according to its color. Taking it out even farther, consider that everywhere we go; everything we ingest or breathe or touch has something in it that our bodies cannot metabolize and will even out exist us! I’m talking about

FOREVER CHEMICALS.

It’s unbelievable. You have just got to see this. The image below is from the May 2023 edition of TIME magazine. Read the whole article at your leisure…with the lights on.

Some scientists ignored these common food colorants because it was thought that since they were indigestible by humans, that these chemicals passed harmlessly out of the body in the excreta.

Not really.

Actually, we live in, eat, and breathe all kinds of chemicals every hour of the day. Look how many contacts every day the average family could make with one or more PFAS–PolyFluoroAlkyl Substances commonly called “Forever chemicals”. They are called that because these chemicals hang around in the environment and in living tissue, you guessed it, forever. The TIME article says:

“This entire class of chemicals is probably the most persistent class of manmade chemicals that have ever been made,” says Scott Belcher, an associate professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University, who was a scientific advisor for the contact lens study. “Once they’re there, they’re not going away.”

Where can we run from the chemicals? Where can we hide? They fall back to the earth from the sky in the rain through vapor picked up from poisoned oceans. They get into the water we drink and irrigate our food crops with.

We cannot hide, but we can become aware, preserve and do better.

The article in TIME mentioned the chemicals used in the making of contact lenses, but as you see from the illustration, it goes way beyond contact lenses. We must make a habit of thinking beyond our immediate lust for faster, easier, and bigger, and temper it with wisdom, caution and thought about the whole community of our home, our Starship Earth.

WHAT FRUITIVITY4LIFE STANDS FOR

Cultivate YOU: Fruitivity4Life

We are Fruitivity4Life LLC

Certified organized May 2020 by the city of Richmond, Virginia USA

We stand for Life, Learning and Light. Our motto: Cultivate You.

Our logo is 3 images in one:

THE GREEN TREE: GROWTH AND BALANCE

The green tree is a glyph for the eternal tree; the tree of life. Seen in the art of many cultures, the tree represents growth hand balance.

As above so below; as without so within.

Its roots in the heart of the earth the tree draws water and minerals up through its trunk and branches growing up toward heaven, reaching for the sun; the light. It pictures the cyclical relationship we humans have with the ground from which we came and to which the corporal body goes when we leave. Its top reaches toward the sky where it receives energy from sunlight, the other essential element for life. The tree takes these raw materials and makes food for itself in the leaves, shows beauty in the flowers that attract pollinators, and holds continuity in its seed, protected by its fruit.

THE TRUNK AND BRANCHES: HUMAN IN YADAH/THANKSGIVING PRAISE

The trunk of the tree can be interpreted as a human being arms upraised in the praise position which in Hebrew tradition is called, “Yadah” (say, Yaw-Daw): meaning humanity always in heart and mind in “the attitude of gratitude”–thanksgiving to The Creator of All Things in heaven and in earth.

THE PROMINANT GREEN LEAF: A CANDLE FLAME

The prominent, deep green leaf above the head of the human/top of the tree with spreading leaves can be also visualized as a candle flame surrounded with leafy beams of light. It is the intense fire of purpose, enlightenment, and love giving light and warmth beyond itself into all the world.

Fruitivity4Life LLC is a for-profit organization established and dedicated to using all its talents and resources in the purpose of aiding and abetting the efforts of people in their journey of empowerment, enlightenment, healing, and personal/professional development: Education. Information. Inspiration.

OUR PURPOSE

The company works its purpose currently through its blog, in-person workshops, public presentations, and life coaching. The in-person services of Fruitivity4Life LLC have been closed during the COVID-19 crisis, but will be soon re-opening. Media communication is meant to promote thoughtfulness and individual action about subjects such as emotional intelligence, peace and non-violence, healthy lifestyles, and internal and external balance.

The founder and sole proprietor is the author of the Fruitvity4life blog, Edia Stanford-Bruce, who may be contacted through LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/estanfordbruce

Fruitivity4Life LLC is currently located in Reston, Virginia.