Tag Archives: Food

I’m Going To Have An Affair

Posted on by
1

As any pregnant woman or formerly pregnant woman can attest, your palate can be altered when you are pregnant. This pregnancy, I have not enjoyed much food – everything is sort of whatever. The few things I have really enjoyed eating are:

1. Breakfast wraps: scrambled eggs, cheese, crispy bacon, avocado and a smidge of tomatoes. I make versions of this at home.

2. Thin, low-grade cheeseburgers. Not the fat, juicy, hotel types, but the thin-patty, crispy-bun types. My favorite is Apple Pan, but Johnny Rockets can work in a pinch.

And now, the meal that had me thinking of cheating on my husband…

3. A ham sandwich. Not just any ham sandwich, but a sandwich of apricot-glazed smoked ham, tucked inside a soft baguette with bits of Brie cheese. I found myself thinking about it the way you think about a crush. It can also be compared to how you think after a rowdy night of sex with a new lover – your mind keeps drifting back, remembering the sweet moments.

So I drove back to Joan’s on Third to get another one of these delicious sandwiches. I also bought a half-pound of the ham for home (see the ham above, with some goat cheese tart left over from Viv’s party, some garbanzo bean salad – which had too much cumin – and grapes. My dinner last night.) The sandwich was still great. Honestly, the ham on its own was good, but I needed all the trappings - I needed the brie and bread as well. It’s like sex: sure, sex can be good, but you also need the massage, the wine, and the room service.

Food Mistakes

Posted on by
6

It’s always humbling when you realize as a parent you’ve screwed up. Hopefully, it’s something small and not bailing your kid out of jail. Reading a recent issue of the health section of the NY Times told me what I kind of already knew (and my mom kept telling me): that I shouldn’t ride Viv about eating food – any kind of food.

In the video, I say I’m going to link to a study about how picky eaters still get enough calories. I remembered it from my days with Dr. Dean Edell Radio Show. I couldn’t find it, so I emailed him. He said he no longer had it either, but he wrote me this: “The bottom line is, if kids don’t eat lunch at all, they make up for it at dinner… the daily caloric intake is very stable in kids but meal-to-meal is unstable… does that help?”

Take a listen to the other do’s and don’ts.

The Upside of Pregnancy Poll

Posted on by
8

We hear a lot about the hardship of pregnancy. Weird rashes (me), morning sickness (me, but really afternoon sickness), constant urination (me), if my husband doesn’t jump to get me something I bite his head off (me), backache (me, in the later months), waddle walk (yes, me again). But there was a lot I liked about being pregnant with Vivien and that I am getting into now with this pregnancy – or rather, there’s a lot I need to be reminded of as my girth increases (18 weeks). So tell me what you liked about being pregnant. Some sample ideas below.

Thanks, sisters!

The School Lunch Dilemma

Posted on by
10

Okay, this got a little choppy, but when I held up the potato chips there was a longer story there. Hey, it’s hard to fit it all in, in under 70 seconds.

My cousin Margo is a schoolteacher. She teaches elementary kids on a military base. According to her, lunch is a big problem, as the families are poor and the kids don’t get adequate nutrition. She actually has kids who come to class with a bag of chips for lunch.

The harried quality of this video captures how I feel on the mornings I forget to make something the night before. Other times, I really enjoy putting the meal together. It’s like an airplane meal. Little bit of protein, little bit of fruit, etc.

What are your favorite things to put in your kids’ lunch?

The Nanosecond Rule

Posted on by
1

This vlog about how to deal with food that gets dropped on the ground will expose me as the lazy-ass mom I think I am. It’s along the same lines as “cookie making” with my daughter, which 8 out of 10 times means opening the pre-made Tollhouse cookie dough. I figure, she’s nearly three but she can’t hang with all that measuring, right?

When she was a newborn, I told my OB how I was sterilizing everything that came near her. He rolled his 60+ eyes of experience. “You’re going to get over that quick. If a binky drops on the ground, you’ll put it right back in her mouth to keep her quiet.” Ah, how right he was.

People Are Meant To Eat

Posted on by
2

So I noticed Dooce’s response to people who are unhappy with her vegi cleanse. I get cutting out meat. I did that for a while…three months, then one taste of bacon and it was all over. And I get cutting out red meat since they say cow farts contribute to global warming. And if I’m going to do something I think I would rather cut out a steak rather than my air conditioning*.

Since I live in California I’m no stranger to wacky and different diets and food beliefs. I got talked into a cleanse a few years back. And it wasn’t just veggies, it was NOTHING. Ten days of nothing, but some crappy tasty Chinese herbs and water. Now, I didn’t seem to get the memo that if you deprive your body of that much sustenance you need to lay down on your coach all day and only move to scratch an itch. No, I wisely decided to pick that week to move out of my apartment in San Francisco.

After a few days of eating air, one gets a bit high. I still don’t know how I stuck to it at all. On day four my friend Whitney and I loaded up a van full of my belongings to drive to my new apartment in Santa Monica. He had to do all the work though because I was feeling a little weak and kept giggling uncontrollably. How I didn’t snack on the boring stretch of Highway 5, I don’t know. Oh, yes I do. I wanted to be skinny. Blah, blah toxins, I wanted a flat stomach and this cleanse was going to kick start my path to svelteness.

The next morning back at my place I got really sick. Vomiting herbs and water, really out of it. All I could do was sleep. I couldn’t even get to the couch. Whitney rolled his eyes at me and said something like, “This is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done.”

I started back with clear broth. Then crackers. Food begot more food. I felt better. I think I’ll just wear Spanx.

*Oh god! I just saw pig farts hurt the environment too. Damn, my bacon is threatened again!

Dining with Kids in Tow

Posted on by
6

Remember when you used to meet your girlfriends out to try a new restaurant? Or you would have a couple of cocktails after a movie? Yes, good times. Well, the easy going times out where you don’t worry about how much the sitter is costing may be gone, but I refuse to totally surrender my love of going out to restaurants. Granted, I have to if I want to see my husband since he owns a restaurant and works a lot. Even though he is the chef I still need my daughter to behave so as not to scare the paying customers off. So, I have summed up my helpful hints for dining with the little ones. It’s not the same as dining with your gal pals, but it’s great to be out and be served!

Food Fanatic Moms

Posted on by
11

I was at a kiddie party this weekend that totally proved my thesis on this one. All the little kids were sitting around the little table outside after the birthday girl had blown out her candles. And as children around the world know, after the candles it means cake time! Unless of course your mother is a nut.

So, one woman started to hand out cake and ice cream to the kids who were patiently waiting for their treat. After she placed it in front of a particular 4 or 5 year old girl, the girl’s mother comes running over “Oh, no, Debbie, oh, no!” She fluttered around holding the paper plate aloft with the sweets looking for someone to had it back to. I stared for a minute, trying to figure out what she was flapping around about. When I figured it out, I offered to take the plate from her and I gave it to my daughter.

Debbie looked forlorn as the other kids stuck their fingers in their food. She was beat down, she’d been through this before. The mom came back and handed her daughter a piece of cookie the size of half of my pinky. Ironically, Vivien ate one bite of the cake and two spoon-fulls of the ice cream and then left the table for the jumpy house. I nudged the woman who had been handing the plates out and she said, “That women is going to give her kid an eating disorder. I went to medical school and that’s what they told us, because those kids never learn to regulate their own eating.”

Food-controlling-mom wasn’t done making it a special day for her offspring, “Here, Debbie, here’s your treat,” as she placed a plate full of cut watermelon in front of sad Debbie. One mommy friend said, “She shouldn’t even take her kid to a party if she can’t have the cake. That’s the deal, kids at party get cake.” That’s what I thought.