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Happy New Year! I pray that 2008 is a blessed year for everyone!
New Year’s brings thoughts of change, looking inside and deciding to stop bad habits and/or start up some good habits. We usually make a list of resolutions. We want to exercise more and eat less so that we will feel good about ourselves. Unfortunately for most of us, we don’t make it to the end of January with these habits established.
Where do we go wrong? Are we not determined enough? Don’t have enough motivation? Not enough will power? What ingredient are we missing? I believe there is always a recipe for change, rather than one ingredient that will determine our success. I think the thing we lack most is focus. Obviously our recipe must include will power, motivation and determination, but I think we often don’t have enough focus.
In order to focus we need fewer things to focus on. I don’t suggest we throw out our list of resolutions, but I do suggest we try to tackle only one thing at a time. So in the spirit of babysteps, think of a schedule for starting new habits. I have heard it said that it takes 30 days to form or break a habit, so monthly seems like a good choice to me. Benjamin Franklin wrote in his autobiography a list of virtues that he felt he must possess, but he knew it was useless to try to change many things about himself all at once. He made a list of 13 character qualities he wanted to perfect and focused on one each week and then moved on to the next virtue. He then started back over again, so he really focused on each virtue 4 times per year.
I do think we could try to tackle multiple things per month if they are in different areas, such as one thing in our character, one thing in our eating habits, and one thing in our spending habits.
I myself need to get back into my Pilate’s routine. I’m going to sign up again for the Flylady emails. My own systems for housecleaning work for a while and then I fall out of the routine, so I’m going back to Flylady. Her program is a handy system of email reminders that get you motivated. Since I’m on the computer a lot these days I’m hoping the emails will spur me to focus more on the house. J I have some packaged food items I want to cut out. These are the items I cut out in 2007 – pickles, sour cream, jar spaghetti sauce, canned chicken broth (I have made my own for years, but out of laziness I was buying the canned variety more, now I solely make my own), granola bars, lunch meat, veggie dip, sauerkraut, canned tuna, cake mix, and canned icing. This is not to say that I do without these things, I have either made them from scratch or made an alternative item. I will detail this later.
Lastly, let’s not wait till New Year’s to look inside and make changes. Let us be in a constant state of reflection, all of us have progress to make. Let us move past good intentions and FOCUS on changing for the better.
Here is a recipe that is probably too late for Christmas, but would be a great item for a New Year’s party. This is an awesome spread and really very easy to make, just read through the recipe before you start. Don’t be daunted because it’s called a cheesecake. Don’t worry if you don’t have a special cheesecake pan with removable sides. You could bake this in an 8-inch casserole dish and then just serve it in the dish. Don’t worry if you don’t have breadcrumbs, I made it this year without and it was fine, they just help it release from the cheesecake pan. This recipe is easy to halve. I bought a set of 4-inch cheesecake pans a few years ago and half of this recipe fits nicely in one of those and is a nice size for a small party. If you halve it, just bake a little less time. You want to bake this until it barely jiggles. If you see it puff up real high and is very cracked it baked too long, but it will still be okay, this is a hard recipe to ruin.
Pesto Cheesecake
Dry Breadcrumbs ½ cup pesto sauce (I use the Classico jar variety)1 pound cream cheese, softened (calls for ricotta, but I like the smooth texture of cream cheese) ½ cup sour cream 4 large eggs 1 tsp salt ½ tsp grated lemon zest ½ tsp ground black pepper Topping: ½ cup sour cream 12 sun-dried tomato halves in oil, drained and chopped (I just bought a jar of julienne-sliced tomatoes, so I didn’t have to chop them)
Lightly butter an 8-inch springform pan and dust the bottom and sides with the breadcrumbs. Mix the next 7 ingredients together in a bowl. You can use a hand mixer, stand mixer, or a whisk. It’s probably best to beat the cream cheese by itself for a minute to make sure it’s smooth before adding the next 6 ingredients. I didn’t do this and had some cream cheese lumps that I had to whisk out. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake in a water bath for 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the water bath and transfer to a rack to cool completely. Cover and refrigerate until cold, 6 to 12 hours. Slide a thin-bladed knife around the outside of the cake and remove the outer ring. Spread the sides with more of the pesto sauce. Spread the top with the sour cream and arrange the chopped tomatoes on top. Serve as a spread (cold or at room temperature) on crackers or fresh-baked French Bread slices.
I love books! Here is a list of my favorite books and movies on the subjects of cooking and health and a few I want to read/watch. These are some great last minute gift ideas or just more things for you to check out from your local library.
Books on Cooking
The Joy of Cooking – a great basic cookbookI recommend this for new and experienced cooks. It covers every category and every food type. I like to pull this off the shelf and just read it sometimes. It has more than just recipes, but explanations and techniques.
How to Cook without a Book by Pam Anderson
Learn techniques, not just recipes. This is a great cookbook for the new cook or the cook that wants to get away from packaged food. Watch out for a couple of packaged food ingredients, but overall it’s real food.
The Perfect Recipe by Pam Anderson
I love all Pam Anderson’s books. She used to work for Cook’s Illustrated magazine (another favorite of mine). She will test every possible way to prepare an item and then present you with the best version and also explain why.
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
This is another great basic cookbook, for new and experienced cooks. It’s not as expansive as The Joy of Cooking, but covers a lot of ground. In this book are recipes for popcorn, hot cocoa, and much more. Mark Bittman shows how easy it is to prepare food from scratch; there are no packaged items in his recipes.
Magazines on Cooking
These are my favorite magazines. I LOVE that they don’t include advertisements (Fine Cooking includes a few, but nothing like Bon Appetit!), and they show you how to cook real food! Gourmets insist on fresh, real ingredients, like butter and cream so these recipes are going to be healthier than packaged food.
Fine Cooking
Cook’s Illustrated
Cuisine
Books on Health
The Maker’s Diet by Jordan Rubin
Ignore the word “diet” here. This is a book about healing. Jordan Rubin has an awesome testimony of healing through whole foods.
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary Enig
An excellent source of nutrition information from an unbiased source including lots of recipes for foods prepared in traditional ways, the way our ancestors prepared their food. At last, a successful challenge to politically correct nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats!
Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary Enig
A very well written book about how wrong we have been to avoid fatty foods, with concise information about why we need fat. Includes lots of whole-food recipes. Great for someone needing healing or needing to lose some weight.
The Untold Story of Milk by Dr. Ron Schmid
Fabulous information about the dangers of pasteurization and the wonders of raw milk.
Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz
Recipes for everything fermented, from sourdough bread to beer to pickles. These items are fermented naturally so they retain their enzyme and vitamin content. I made his pickles and they were awesome!
Living the Low Carb Life by Jonny Bowden
This is the book that started it all for me. When I quit nursing my first baby I started gaining weight. That nursing really uses up the calories for me. The weight kept creeping up so I tried to eat as little as I could and cut out as much fat as I could. I not only kept gaining weight, but I was STARVING all the time! My blood sugar would drop and I would reach for something lowfat to bring it back up (like a granola bar) and then an hour or two later it would drop again. I felt miserable and I craved food all the time. So I turned to lowcarb eating. The pounds starting coming off and I was feeling good, but my thoughts were, “all this fat can’t be healthy.” So I started my research. I read lots of books, Atkins, The Zone, Suzanne Somer’s food combining book, and more. I stumbled upon Living the Low Carb Life at my library. This book compared all the low-carb diets out there and gave great information about how fats, sugars, and protein react in our bodies. I recommend this to anyone that wants to learn!
Clean House, Clean Planet by Karen Logan
This book is great if you want to cut down on those toxic household-cleaning products. Karen Logan gives many different recipes for natural inexpensive cleansers you can make at home. She also talks about how we kill those germs without toxins. This was the selling point for me, germaphobe that I am.
Movie on Health
Super Size Me – Morgan Spurlock decided to document himself as he ate McDonald’s for every meal for a month. He visits a dietician, and various medical personnel during the month and they chart how badly his health declines. Even though I knew McDonald’s was unhealthy I was shocked by his results. The only downside I saw was the movie’s emphasis on both the fat and sugar as the culprits. I would really like to see the same study done just isolating sugar. Sugar is our real enemy, folks. The fat at McDonald’s is the wrong kind, but too often all kinds of fat gets lumped together as the bad guy. If you want to watch this with your kids, please check it out at www.kids-in-mind.com first.
Wish List
These are books I really want to read and movies I want to watch, when I find the time.
The Cholesterol Myths by Uffe Ravnskov
Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine by Dr. Ron Schmid
Life Without Bread by Christian B. Allan and Wolfgang Lutz
Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes
Whole Food Facts by Evelyn Roehl
These are documentaries. Please not that I have NOT watched them yet, so I have no idea as to the quality of the content.
I want my children to see that the Bible is more than a collection of stories. I want them to see that it is more than great literature – poetry and prose. I want them to see that it is the Word of God and that He is faithful to keep His Word.
So I had an idea to study the prophecies in the Bible that relate to the birth of Jesus for Christmas. Then on Christmas day we’ll read the story and see how these prophecies were fulfilled. We will highlight one prophecy each day as a way to count down the days till Christmas. This is my alternative to an advent calendar, where you open the 24 little doors, from December 1st through 24th. You could do this any time of year, with other topics in the Bible, as well. I found 14 prophecies, so we will start this December 11th. Here are the verses we will cover – Isaiah 7:14, Isaiah 49:5, Isaiah 9:7, Daniel 2:44, Micah 4:7, II Samuel 7:12-16, Genesis 49:10, Micah 5:2, Genesis 12:3, Isaiah 49:6, Isaiah 8:14, Hosea 11:1, Jeremiah 31:15, and Isaiah 53:2-3. These prophecies range in date from approximately 550 BC to 2200 BC. I find this fascinating, so many people in different places and different times confirming God’s Word.
We’re going to read the story out of the Narrated Bible because it places things in chronological order. These are the references – Luke 1:26-38, Matthew 1:18-25a, Luke 2:1-20, Matthew 1:25b, Luke 2:21-38, Matthew 2:1-23, and Luke 2:40.
Now in our family we don’t really place a lot of emphasis on Christmas being a celebration of Jesus’ birth. There is not one place in the Bible that tells us to celebrate His birth. The disciples didn’t celebrate His birth, nor did the early churches. Therefore when our reading of the story is done I will ask the kids what is even more important than Jesus’ birth. With most of our Bible reading I like to bring the focus to the central theme – God’s love for man and His plan of redemption. The Bible is really a love story and it all points to Jesus. His birth is not where the story ends; the rest of the story is how He died a most horrific death for something He didn’t even do. He was innocent, but He took our place and paid our debt. If Jesus had grown up to be a great teacher we wouldn’t have anything to celebrate. It is His death and resurrection we celebrate.
So what does this have to do with health? Our spiritual health is the most important thing in our lives! Eating right and exercising mean nothing compared to where we will spend eternity. We can eat perfectly, but that won’t save our souls. We can exercise and keep our bodies in tip-top shape, but that won’t save our souls. This Christmas take some time to reflect on your spiritual health. Have you received God’s free gift? We don’t have to work for it, it is free, but we do have to receive it. I can give you a beautifully wrapped gift, but unless you open it up you won’t experience the joy associated with it.
How do we receive? We have to realize our need for a Savior, that we are sinners and that He died to cleanse us (Rom. 3:23). We must repent and ask God to forgive us of our sins (Luke 13:3). We must believe in our hearts that Jesus died for us and that God raised Him from the dead and we must confess with our mouths (Rom. 10:9-10).
I hope this Christmas that you see (along with my children) that God’s Word is true and that God is faithful to perform His Word. I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” John 3:16 “For God loved the world SO much that He sent His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life.”
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