A Weight Lifted

Healthy Cooking Thursday! Plantain Chips

Chef Lisa — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:18:39 +0000

These are about to go in the oven...and then my belly!

Here at Green Mountain, we get a lot of questions on how to use unfamiliar produce that ladies have noticed in the grocery store. It’s a great idea to explore unknown territory in the produce section, as you might just find something that was previously unknown to you is quite delicious, and it’s always good to add a greater variety of veggies and fruits to everyday life. I’ve heard something about variety spicing life up, as well as being a big part of healthy eating… With that in mind, let’s get down to the business at hand, an overgrown banana (kinda).

Plantains are actually a larger cousin of the banana, and can be eaten at various stages of ripeness. When they’re green, plantains are reminiscent in taste and starchiness to a potato. At that point, a plantain is best if its fried or boiled. If you let it get nice and yellow with some black spots, though, it becomes another creature altogether. Just like the banana, a plantain gets sweeter as its skin gets blacker. But that doesn’t mean you should eat it raw…ew. Cook it and you’ll be much happier.

For the recipe below, I suggest you let a plantain ripen to the point of being almost half black or so. The sweetness of the ripe plantain paired with a good Chinese five spice is a great dessert, snack, or even a starchy side dish. (I like it with a spicy grilled pork tenderloin or barbequed chicken.) If you don’t have Chinese five spice in your arsenal, you can substitute cinnamon for it instead with a similar result, or leave out the spice altogether.

Plantain Chips

2 plantains

1 1/2 tsp olive oil

1/4 tsp Chinese five spice (optional)

pinch of salt

pinch of pepper

pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)

Open the plantains by cutting off the tips and slicing just through the skin lengthwise (it’s not as easy as a banana is to peel). Slice the plantains at a uniform thickness; I like about 1/8 of an inch. Toss with the remaining ingredients, then, on a parchment lined or lightly greased sheet pan, lay the slices in a single layer. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20-30 minutes, turning over once during baking to ensure even browning. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before eating.

What are some veggies or fruits you’ve seen in the produce section that you have little or no idea how to use?

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Life Doesn’t Start at Your Goal Weight!

Robyn — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:20:40 +0000

When I lose all this extra weight, I’m going on vacation!

When I reach my goal weight, then I’ll try swing dancing.

I know I need new clothes, but I’m not buying any until I lose weight.

I’ll get back out there and start dating, but first I need to get back down to a size 10.

Do any of these ring a bell? We had a discussion this week about putting life on hold until we reach a specific number on the scale or get back into a certain clothing size. It made me sad that so many people were expressing this same plan of waiting to do things in life because they felt like their weight was holding them back.

Granted there may be some things that aren’t possible at the moment due to our current health/weight status, like running a marathon if you haven’t been training. However that should not limit us from doing the things that ARE possible. Punishing ourselves by not buying clothes that fit, refusing to treat ourselves to vacations, or avoiding social situations may actually prevent us from achieving our health and weight loss goals.

Depriving yourself of these simple pleasures could create a situation where food is our only source of pleasure or it could trigger eating out of frustration or negative body image.

Is there anything you’ve been putting on hold until you’ve lost weight? Is it possible that you could do this now rather than waiting for life to start at your goal weight?

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If The Tennis Shoe Fits…

Cindy — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:13:14 +0000

I went shopping this weekend for some new workout threads and was reminded how invigorating it can be tossing out the old and bringing in something brand spanky new. Even exchanging my dingey socks with a fresh pair of crispy white ones can put a skip in my step and help me stay the path to a healthy lifestyle.

Not to overstate the importance of socks, but replacing old tired tees and tennies with ones that are comfortable and better suited to your workout really can make a difference.

I think it is important to ‘gear up’ for exercise the same way you do for any other event that’s important to you. I don’t mean going out and buying the most expensive athletic wear you can find just to prove how serious you are. Or waiting one more day to engage in your favorite activity because you don’t think you have the right clothes. I’m talking about making a commitment to your new active lifestyle and more importantly your body, in an effort to keep you moving for life.

Here at Green Mountain, we appreciate that shopping for good athletic wear can be challenging., so I’ve included a few links where here are a few links that could assist you in gearing up for your next fitness adventure might be just a little more empowering.

What are some of your favorite spots to shop? Do you have a best kept secret that works for women who come in all shapes and sizes?

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It Happened This Week: Helping without Harming – A Message to Michelle Obama

Marsha — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:30:53 +0000

Body image problems can start at a very young age.

We began and end the week with wise words from Ellyn Satter. Today, we focus on her message to Michelle Obama to stop talking about childhood obesity. Ellyn encourages instead a focus on helping parents set up a healthy feeding environment that will support their children’s natural abilities to choose what’s right for their health. Her feeding dynamics model which I posted about Monday and which you can read more about here will help do that.

A few snippets from a message she sent to Mrs. Obama via http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact:

“Research shows that children who are labeled overweight or obese feel flawed in every way–not smart, not physically capable and not worthy. Parents who fear obesity hesitate to gratify their child’s hunger for fear s/he will get fat. Such labeling is not only counterproductive, it is unnecessary.”
“Provide, don’t deprive.”
“Optimize feeding and parenting, and let children be children.”

If you don’t understand the specifics of what Ellyn is recommending, read her newsletter discussing all this.

Ellyn also encourages us all to mount an email blizzard to Mrs. Obama at the same url and gives these tips for making our voices heard:

Call it a policy/other and put To: Michelle Obama and Re: Child Obesity; Help Without Harming in the message box and post your message.

Keep it short—somewhere on the order of 250 to 400 words. (Actually, 2500 characters—about 400 words—is the maximum the site will accept.) Your short, heart-felt message will have an impact.

Start off with a sentence that summarizes your message, then develop it.

Address one aspect of the topic. Each of us will choose different aspects and together, we will cover what is important.

Send this newsletter to your fellow travelers (that is, other proponents of the feeding dynamics model), and encourage them to post their message.

Will you join Ellyn in ecouraging Mrs. Obama to help our children without harming them? I did.

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Healthy Cooking Thursday: Terroirs of Pleasure

Chef Lisa — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:21:07 +0000

The happy animals of Dairy-Aire Farm, Mt. Holly, Vermont (courtesy of Millicent Johnson)

If you’ve visited Green Mountain at Fox Run in the past few years, you might be familiar with one of our dinner servers, Millicent Johnson. She deftly delivers the evening meal to our guests several nights a week. But what many folks don’t know is that Millicent owns Dairy-Aire Farm (you have to just love that name, right?) and a growing dairy bacterial testing business in nearby Mt. Holly with her husband, Jim.

One of the great side benefits of living in Vermont is that it is easy to find local farmers like Millicent who can supply you with wonderfully delicious and fresh food. The Johnsons raise dairy and beef cattle, pigs, heirloom turkeys, and roasting and laying chickens, and I am happy to be a loyal customer.

The fact of the matter is that animals that are raised on small family farms by people like the Johnsons just taste better. Maybe it’s because they were happier in life than the animals you see in the terrible video footage from the big factory farms. Maybe it’s because the people who are raising them genuinely care about each one of them, let them run around in fresh air, and feed them well (Millicent’s animals often get the produce scraps from the GMFR kitchen). Maybe it’s because they are treated like animals, not like products.

The French have a wonderful word that doesn’t translate well to English, but is a good term to know: Terroir. It refers to the flavors imparted into something (usually referring to wine) due to the ground in which it is grown, the air in which it flourishes, and the weather it experiences. This word flew into my head a couple of weeks ago as I experienced my first taste of one of Millicent’s pigs. Unlike the pork found at the supermarket which is often so lean it’s flavorless, this was full of delicious fat. (Mmmmmmmm.) But it also was full of the “terroir” of the farm. Just like the turkeys and chickens I have enjoyed from the Johnsons in the past, it tasted like mountain air, clean water, good grain, and good earth. In other words, a mouth full of heaven.

In addition to having a freezer full of delicious pork (which I will more often than not be pairing with some lovely legumes, I swear ), I also feel great knowing that I am giving my money to a local family I care about instead of some nameless corporation. You don’t have to live in Vermont to find local farms near you. Many states have organizations and websites to help link small farms and farmers’ markets with hungry people. Try this site to find farms near you, or if you’re in Vermont, click here for some listings. It might be a little more effort than running to the supermarket, but it is worth it – you’ll have good karma for giving back to the community as well as wonderful experiences in your local terroir. And you will also be more aware (dare I say Mindful?) of exactly what you are eating. Do a taste comparison sometime, and I swear you’ll never go back to the supermarket.

Do you have a favorite local farmer or farmers’ market to which you’d like to give a “shout out”?

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Winding Down, Without Food

Robyn — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:30:02 +0000

Do you look forward to anything on your to-do list?

Finish all tasks on daily to do list – check. Wrap up a hectic work day – check. Pick up around the house – check. Deal with kids, bills, making dinner, pets, etc…. – check. Now it’s “me time” and it’s going to be me and food. How often do we go to food to wind down or relax?

One type of hunger we talk about at Green Mountain at Fox Run is Spiritual Hunger. In a nutshell eating for spiritual hunger is using food to fill a void. That void could be filled by a variety of things: friends, family, pets, sense of community, religion, connecting with the natural world, taking the time to self-nurture through hobbies, activities, or anything fun. Probably my favorite description of spiritual hunger is John Mayer’s song, Something’s Missing.

If food is the highlight of your day, it might not be a bad idea to assess what else could serve that purpose. I have so many things to look forward to each day that I’m much less likely to go to food for comfort or nurturing. The things I’m passionate about are music, stained glass, painting/drawing, animal rescue, continuing education, gardening, dancing, sewing, and being with my family and friends. I do something related to any of the above each day; they give me more to look forward to than food.

How about you, what are you passionate about? Do you take the time to get involved in your passions each day?

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When ‘Working Out’ Becomes Work

Cindy — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:06:09 +0000

I wish that getting and staying fit was as simple as a walk in the park or as inspirational as frolicking through a field of wildflowers.

The truth is, shouldn’t it be?

I return to this topic time and again because months, even years go by, when I’m really feeling great about excercise.

Then, out of the blue (*poof*) the love is gone.

Usually when this happens to me I write it off as a phase and believe this too shall pass. Sometimes it does, but sometimes I struggle. I try to remind myself that patience is a virtue — especially when it comes to activity. And just because I wake up one morning and don’t feel like hiking through the forest doesn’t mean I’ve ‘lost it’, nor does it mean I can’t take a nice walk through the park. (Are you paying attention, Cindy?!)

Recently, I was reading about a motivational theory called the self-determination theory (STD). It’s an interesting concept and grandfather to the idea of intrinsic exercise. As a theory it concerns itself with our natural or intrinsic tendencies to behave in effective and healthy ways — behaviors that intrinsically support our desires.

I’ll admit that sometimes I feel resentful about having very limited time for exercise. But, the truth is, I’ve made choices in my professional and personal life that leave me less and less opportunity for activity. So it’s time to re-evaluate.

Our reasons to exercise can be many. But isn’t the most important endeavor our search for joy and well-being? When I strive for nothing more than the high I get from healthy living, I feel fulfilled and content.

I know we have a wise and experienced bunch of readers out there – why not share how you’ve learned to re-group and revitalize healthy living behaviors in your lives?

For me, the resolution may be simple. Be patient, re-evaluate and keep on plugging.

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Raising Healthy Eaters: Feeding Teenagers

Marsha — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:02:57 +0000

Happy birthday, Jake!

Today my youngest child begins his last year as a teenager. He’s off at college and I’m not dealing with the day-to-day responsibilities of child rearing anymore. But many of us still are, and I thought I’d celebrate Jake’s birthday by pointing readers to Ellyn Satter’s latest newsletter talking about the division of responsibility in adolescent feeding.

If you don’t know Ellyn, she’s a long-time proponent of attuned eating — listening to our bodies and responding intelligently when it comes to our choices around food. She’s also the creator of the division of responsibility in child feeding which basically says that parents provide the what, when and where of eating and kids decide the whether and how much. It’s a system that served me well in raising my two without eating issues in a time when eating issues abound. It’s not like I didn’t have any challenges. I’ve talked about feeding challenges with Jake before.

Ellyn’s division of responsibility in adolescent feeding is along the same lines. I enjoyed particularly her story about how one mom drew the line at breakfast. The daughter didn’t want mom making it any more so mom said fine, you do it. But when daughter started skipping it, mom insisted — either daughter made it or she did. Daughter caved and went on to realize the value of breakfast, even becoming a proselytizer of sorts with her friends.

So in honor of my youngest’s last year as an adolescent, I encourage other moms (and dads) of teenagers and younger children to follow Ellyn’s website, her newsletters and pick up some of her books for intelligent guidance on helping your kids become healthy eaters.

Our time with them is so short; we need to make the most of it. *Tears*

Have you any stories to share about feeding your teenagers or younger children?

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Learning to Love Winter: Break Out the Snowshoes!

Marsha — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:30:16 +0000

Winter. It’s something that happens every year. In some places, it’s quite a bit different than the rest of the year. We can definitely say that in these parts. Vermont winters are lovely just like the rest of the year. But we tend to have a lot of that white stuff around. And it lasts for a long time, making it important to get out in it. Otherwise, cabin fever sets in waaay before the season is over.

So how do you enjoy the outdoors in winter if you’re not too keen on skiing (or as my husband describes it, a semi-controlled slide down a steep icy surface) or skating (I’ve never been attracted to the idea of falling on ice)? Try snowshoeing! I doubt it will ever make it as a winter Olympics sport for this reason: If you can walk, you can do it.

We’ve had a gorgeous snowfall this week that meant fun outdoors for the women at Green Mountain. With our beautiful surroundings, we try to get our participants outside as much as possible to experience the joy of recreational fitness, e.g., moving naturally while having fun. Our goal is to help them reconnect with the pleasure of moving their bodies, to become intrinsically motivated to move. ‘Cuz that means we’ll keep doing it, which spells success for reaching health and healthy weight goals.

Getting outside at Green Mountain in the winter means a lot of snowshoeing because there’s no learning curve. Just about everyone becomes a big fan of it.

There’s been a lot of snow south of us this year, too. So if you can’t make it to Green Mountain for snowshoeing, you may have enough around you to enjoy. Here’s a great primer from REI on snowshoeing that can help get you started.

Have you ever tried snowshoeing? If so, what do you think?

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Healthy Cooking Thursday: Faux Sugar on Snow

Chef Lisa — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:21:08 +0000

The Beginning of the Amazing February 2010 Storm @ GMFR

I’m not sure who the genius was who first decided to take some delicious heated maple syrup and pour it on new fallen snow, but whoever it was, I would kiss them today if I could. This wonderful cold weather tradition is almost enough to make a person wish for snow. When the hot maple syrup hits the cold powdery Vermont snow, it transforms to pure candy (what we call “sugar on snow”, the Canadians call “maple taffy”). And for better or worse, this week in Vermont, we are getting a fair amount of the white stuff (about 4 feet in 24 hours at my house, and counting!), which will ensure that I’ll be having a little sweetness for dessert. However, the power’s out at my house, and I only have an electric oven, so I’m not cooking the syrup. (Besides, I know that if I do, I’ll be eating more than I want to of the stuff. It’s a little difficult to only cook a couple of tablespoons of syrup at a time.)

Traditionally, sugar on snow is served with sour pickles and doughnuts. I prefer it with a little bit of nutritive value, namely fruit and nuts. While not cooking the syrup means less of a “candy” experience and more of a slushie one, it also means not having to clean a really sticky pan. Give this healthy seasonal snack a try the next time you’ve got the white stuff coming down in your neck of the woods.

Faux Sugar on Snow

serves 4

2 cups of fresh, clean, powdery snow

1/4 cup REAL maple syrup

1/4 cup toasted almonds or walnuts

2 bananas, sliced thin

Put the nuts and fruit in 4 shallow, rimmed serving dishes (ramekins or “boats” would work well). Scoop the cold snow directly from the outdoors onto the nuts and fruit and quickly pour the maple syrup over the whole mess. Grab a spoon and enjoy.

Check out another great recipe from our archives featuring maple syrup.

What is your favorite snowy weather food?