Sandwiches

Image via Wikipedia To me, sandwiches bring back great memories of my childhood: running into the house, having a yummy lunch and running back out to play; eating sandwiches while sailing with wind and salt water flavoring the taste; stopping during a hike to have sandwiches and fruit; picking sand out of a dropped sandwich at the beach; or just munching on a (wait for it) sandwich while reading a great book on a rainy afternoon.

My toddler recently decided that open faced sandwiches (OFS) are the bees knees. She likes them for breakfast and lunch and asks for them for dinner, but we refuse. I’m not sure whether she likes them because they’re a grown up option, or she likes the fact that she can pick them up with her hands – the ultimate portable nosh. Considering that it’s getting increasingly difficult to get her to sit still for an entire meal, I have a feeling it’s more the latter than the former.

We’re rapidly running out of good options that include vegetables, so I queried mom groups and friends to get some more ideas to change up the menu. In an attempt to assist you in your own OFS options and toddler wrangling, here is a listing of some great options to try:

• A spread made out of pureed veggies hidden under cheese or meat.

• Humus and cucumber.

• Tomato and mozzarella.

• Classic grilled cheese with tomatoes.

• Anything with pickles.

• Avocado with turkey and/or bacon.

• Onions, cucumbers, lettuce, and tomatoes all go well on sandwiches.

• Cucumber, dill mayo and onion.

• Bacon, dill, mayo and avacado.

• Fruit! Banana goes really well on a sandwich so does strawberry (use butter or quark/cottage cheese instead of mayo).

• Cucumber with Roundel cheese.

• Peanut butter and grated carrot.

• Humus and sliced pepper .

• Tomato! Big thick slices of tomato. Get them from the farmers market. Goes good with cheese. Any kind of cheese.

• Tuna, mayo and cucumber.

• Just plain cucumber.

• Egg plant Parmesan.

• Lettuce, tomato, bacon optional, avocado sandwich.

Don’t see your favorite(s) on the list? Let me know and I’ll try it and add it!

Have a great sandwich filled weekend everyone!

Related articles

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• Vegetable and Cheese Sandwich (frugalrecipes.wordpress.com)
• BCV Sandwich (frugalrecipes.wordpress.com)
• Diner's Journal: Little More Than Great Tomatoes and Bread (dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com)

Bits & Pieces

In response to requests for more household cleaning and natural suggestions that I've used and know that work, I'm posting a few that don't take up an entire blog post. They're appropriately called "Bits & Pieces." In today's entry, we're looking at underarm stick stains, wart removal and veg sandwiches for toddlers. Enjoy!

Removing Underarm Stick Stains: A few friends have mentioned this particular stain remover recently. It’s not because I walk around with splotches on my tops. I checked; no splotches on me. But this is a really good trick that works. If you find that your underarm stick rubs onto your clothing as you’re getting dressed, or if your toddler decides to use the stick as a neat crayon, the easiest way to get the smudge stain off immediately is a fabric softener sheet, such as Bounce. You simply wipe the sheet over the affected area and the smudge is gone. No need to throw an entire outfit in the laundry before its truly worn.

Wart Be Gone: If you have a wart, any sort really (even a plantar wart on your foot), the most effective way to remove it is with apple cider vinegar (ACV). I’m not sure if other vinegars work, but ACV definitely does. I’ve only ever used Bragg brand, as it has the good mother in it. I strongly suggest using Bragg brand in this remedy, as I don’t know if other ACVs work (as effectively). It’ll take about a week from start to finish. Basically you soak a cotton ball or other cotton batting (depending on wart size) in ACV and then tape it the affected area with duct tape. The entire wart and a ring of unaffected skin around the wart must be covered by both the cotton batting and the duct tape. Keep it covered. Within the next day or two, when you replace the “bandage,” you’ll notice that the wart had basically exploded. It’s the virus that causes the wart gasping for air or some such. You’ll notice a wee little black dot in the middle of the wart. That’s the dying virus. You need to keep the affected area covered by your “bandages” around the clock for a week. At some point during the week, you’ll notice that the underlying skin is basically taking back over. At the end of the week, you can cut or pumice the dead skin away and your new skin will be as though no wart had been there, albeit a wee bit red from the pumicing etc.

Sandwiches: Evidently toddlers love sandwiches. At least my toddler and local toddler friends seem to love sandwiches for breakfast and lunch. We’re looking for healthy ideas to offer them. Some suggest pureed veg spreads, hummus, dips for them to dip the sandwiches in, pickles with anything, cucumber, and mozzarella and tomato. What has worked for your kids when you’re trying to get them to eat more veg?

Neither Snow nor Rain nor Heat

Whenever I’m working on a physically draining campaign or task, I always reflect on the US Postal Service.

They get the job done, and pretty much always have. While they officially have no motto, many of us have grown up believing the that the inscription on the James Farley Post Office in Manhattan is their creed: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” Evidently the saying wasn’t original; like many great quotes, it was lifted from an earlier tome; here, Herodotus’ Histories is intended to describe the service of the Persian system of mounted postal messengers under Xerxes I of Persia. As history buffs, like the one I’m married to, know, Xerxes was perhaps the greatest King of Persia, and his reign heralded many innovations including timely message delivery.

In this age of the internet and email, instant messages and video conferencing, it’s easy to forget that we have not always been this instantly connected. People even a decade ago used to lose track of a person as soon as they moved; long distance phone calls used to have static in them; and most people lived within a 10 mile radius of the town they’d grown up in.

While some things have changed, some remain the same. People still need to get stuff from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Many of us still use formal writing paper and note cards, and use fountain pens to write on them. Some of us consider which stamp to use on an envelope, and how it relates to the paper on which it is placed or the person to whom it is addressed.

Yet even as one waxes nostalgic about the art of writing, the US Postal Service chugs on getting the job done. Not only do mail carriers walk and drive routes in all types of weather to get your mail to you, the workers in the actual post offices show up day after hot, humid, cold, icy day to keep things running on time. Some might say that they are the backbone of civilization itself, because without efficient and consistent message movement, how could people coalesce to move any agenda forward?

This brings me back to physical endeavors.  

Like any other system, efficiency and consistency move a physical campaign forward. Most weight loss and exercise campaigns say in a throwaway line, buried on page 188 or some such, that showing up day after day and remaining consistent in one’s efforts is one of the most important achievements in the program. The body simply becomes more efficient on processing a set of actions the more that the body repeats those actions. A 50 minute run eventually becomes a 20 minute run over the same distance. A seemingly impossible 50 pound lift becomes easy peasy after weeks of training. Don’t let the weather or your own psych slow down your progress.

Last week, much of the US suffered through an intense heat wave. Here, the heat index had the temperature hovering around 115 degrees, and it was routinely 80 degrees and humid at 7:00 am. While I did get in a couple of runs outside to switch things up, the mainstay of my workout routine continued to be exergaming inside my air conditioned house.

As I’ve said before, exergaming helps make workouts doable and convenient. In the past, I’ve discussed this in terms of ice, snow and cold weather. The same works in the heat and humidity too. I don’t need to drive 20 minutes to get to a gym to workout, I can roll into another room of my own home and exercise here, mere nanoseconds away from the shower room (aka bathroom).

Today, for instance, it’s a nice 73 degrees out, but it’s raining. So while a load of laundry ran to catch up on a week of no drier during the heat wave, I worked out in the other room to Zumba Fitness by Majesco. I’ll discuss the video game more in future posts, but just want to mention that I had a tremendous fun in a very efficient use of time, without having the brave the elements.

What do you do when it’s icky out? Do you take the day off or change your weekly routine around?

Note: Majesco gave me a copy of Zumba Fitness to try out and use.

One Central Log

Until recently, I used my Wii as a repository not only of my weight fluctuations, but also of all of my workouts. While it doesn’t allow for extreme differentiation, it does allow one to log workout length and relative exertion level. I’d been using it as my diary of sorts for my ongoing weight loss campaign. But as I’ve begun supplementing my video game workouts with outside runs, I’ve fallen off the Wii log. Now it’s willy nilly whether I catalogue workouts at all, and if so with varying levels of specificity.

Ultimately, the scales tell us where the weight is and the video games and distances tell us how the endurance is improving. But having a central log is good for ongoing mental check ins and being able to minutely decipher why something is working better or not at all and thus change the program.

Different people use different logs. One friend uses a floral spiral notebook that she sprays with perfume once a week. Another friend uses one of those black and white lined notebooks people used in school in the 60s. A number of people keep a religious log on their computers that they update daily. Whatever works for you works.

Not everyone keeps track on a daily basis. Some folks find time to log throughout the day. Others make sure they write things down the same time every day.  A number of people like to do weekly updates to keep lose track of their progress.

I’ve found that the Wii log generally works for me, but I’ve been considering moving the entire thing into a computer program so that I can log sleep (or lack thereof), eating and drinking, time of month (TOM) and dramatic events that I can look back on to know why my workout one day wasn’t as long or useful as another.  I’ll let you know how the new log is going as we move along.

Do you use a log? If so, what kind and in what format? How much information do you log? Have you found it useful? If so/if not, in what way(s)?

Related articles

• How To Manage And Track Your Running (fitnesstroop.com)

Press & Release

Truth be told, my office took pity on me when I began the Gamers for Health campaign way back in 2010, when I was 25 pounds heavier than I am now. They know what a Luddite I am, and they figured they’d help me out by pre-programming my Wii and Wiimote accessories so that all I had to do was plug everything in to get it going. As I’ve chronicled here, even simply plugging the thing in was a *bit* overwhelming for me. In any case, I’ve been happily exergaming on my Wii ever since…

Until yesterday. Something happened. It may have been a power outage. It may have been that my Wii went on strike. Or perhaps the Wiimotes and other accessories wanted a bigger piece of the pie. The outcome, dear readers, was that my Wiimotes and other accessories, like my step, all of a sudden DID NOT SYNC with my Wii! Dum dum Dum. The HORROR!

After unplugging and re-plugging everything possible a few times last night I finally gave up in exasperation 45 minutes later. It was good that I’d run earlier in the day, as I was not to get in any decent exergame workout yesterday. The plug fiasco exhausted me and made me snappy to DH. Enough was enough.

Today was an off day for running and a full-on exergame day, so I knew that the problem needed to be fixed. I looked up nearby stores where I could go and purchase entire new systems this afternoon if the problem could not be fixed in the morning. Basically, I was spent, at the end of my rope, needed to get my workout in and desperate. I guess I'm kind of fried right now.

Then logic kicked in, along with my second cup of coffee. I walked over to my computer, powered it up and typed “wiimote sync issues” and low and behold, Nintendo’s customer service page popped up – who knew?!?! The truly logical thing would have been to look for that first, but the illogical not tech savvy overworked mind digresses. Great! :-D

I marched back in, thanking the Nintendo folks in my mind and feeling all warm and fuzzy about their wonderful patriarchal company, thinking again about what a wonderful community I work in...and tried to sync my Wiimotes…for 25 minutes. Finally it struck me that Nintendo would not have me standing there developing cramps in my thumbs and pointer fingers as I waited for the first stupid waste of an item Wiimote to sync. I trudged grumbling back into my office to look menacingly at my computer. What the HECK was going on?!?! Upon rereading the instructions, a wee bit of wording came forward in bold to my mind’s eye. “Quickly press and release.”

I felt like the Grinch upon hearing all of WhoVille singing on Christmas morning; my heart grew in my chest. Woops. Okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy. So I wasn’t supposed to stand there like an idiot innocent holding the red buttons in for 15 minutes straight. Nintendo, as always, was a bit ahead of me.

I sheepishly skulked back into the other room and tried the quick press and release method. Ahem. It worked. In less than 10 seconds.

The moral of the story is (choose one or more):

·         We all make mistakes.

·         When we’re juggling lots of different things in our lives, we make more of mistakes.

·         There is always help online.

·         Stay calm and carry on.

Honey

Honey is one of the elixirs of the gods. It cures allergies, acts as an antiseptic and antibacterial, tastes good, is non-fat and is Winnie the Pooh’s favorite scrumptiousness for his tummy.

Updated: A friend reminded me about the one year rule. Children under one year old MUST NOT EAT HONEY. Honey can contain spores of a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum, which does not effect people aged one year and older, but which can germinate in a baby's immature digestive system and cause infant botulism, a rare but potentially fatal illness. So no honey until your child has reached at least one year of age!

Our rural household has relatively recently become local honey central. While we don’t have our own hives (yet), DH often talks about how we should think more seriously about keeping and harvesting our own hives. Perhaps someday…

Our reading about honey comes as a result of our allergies, which everyone in our family suffers. Friends had told us that a teaspoon of local honey taken every day would cure the allergies within a week. Well, we’ve tried it and it does seem to work. When one has a severe allergy attack, one teaspoon twice a day seems to tackle the problem. Mind you, we have tried Claritin and Claritin D, which also work, but make one tired and can cause drug resistance, especially in young children. The honey taken religiously seems to have a prophylactic effect and minimize, or obliterate, the allergies.

We’re often asked, how local is local? Well, we buy honey from local farmers from our town. We’ve been known to buy some from our county outside our town, but generally the more local the better. Hives from down the lane are obviously the best after one’s own hives. But if one doesn’t have harvestable hives and there are none on one’s road, one should be able to buy some at a local farmers market. Ask around, and ask at different farmers market stalls. The hives that are geographically closer to your particular home are the best, but truth be told, all honey is better than no honey.

Honey has been known for millennia as a useful antibiotic, as well as an antiseptic. It seems that it cures and heals people. So if you’re stuck on a hike without a first aid kit or an aloe plant, but you have some honey with you, smear it on your cut, cover it and it will help. Similarly, if you have an upset tummy, take a bit of honey and it will help sooth your stomach. Perhaps that’s why mothers, including mine, give sick children tea with milk and honey.

Honey tastes darn good, and it’s non-fat too. There are constantly new studies coming out regarding the ill affect of sugar and man-made sugar substitutes. Honey remains an all natural, easily stored, healthy option. There is a reason bears and humans have loved it seemingly forever. It’s *that* good!

And lastly, for those of you with small children, and those who would just like to try it, here is a recipe for Winnie the Pooh’s Scrummy Honey Cake*:

Ingredients:

·         1 cup honey plus 2 tbsp for Pooh's glaze

·         ½ cup unsalted (aka sweet) butter

·         1/3 cup dark brown sugar

·         3 large eggs beaten

·         1.5 cups self raising flour

Recipe:

1.       Preheat oven to 320F.

2.       Butter and line an 8" loose bottomed cake tin.

3.       Cut the butter into pieces and put into pan with honey & sugar.

4.       Melt slowly over low heat.

5.       When mixture looks liquid increase heat and boil for 1 minute.

6.       Leave to cool for 15 - 20 minutes.

7.       Beat the eggs into the melted honey mixture.

8.       Sift the flour in a large bowl and pour in the egg and honey mixture beating until you have a smooth, runny batter.

9.       Pour mixture into cake tin and bake for 50 mins - 1 hour.

10.   A skewer pushed into the center should come out clean.

11.   Turn the cake onto a wire rack.

12.   Warm 2 tbsp honey in a small pan and brush over top of cake for sticky glaze.

13.   Eat. J

*Recipe reprinted from Just-Pooh.com

It’s yummy for your tummy too.

To Blog or Not to Blog...

Image via Wikipedia

So, you may have noticed. I haven’t blogged in the last couple of weeks or so. So what’s up? What’s going on? Is everything ok?

Everything is fine. It’s been a long and intense few weeks - even more than normal, which is saying a lot.

On top of work, family life, working out, and keeping the house relatively presentable, we needed to plan and shop for our child’s second birthday. We figured we’d play it out like a big group play date for entire families so that dads could participate. It was a heck of a lot of fun for everyone. Our child looked like an explosion of glee on having such a lovely group play date at our place with so many friends.

The morning after the birthday party, the Supreme Court decided the so-called “violent video game” case, Brown v EMA. To say that we at ECA, and everyone in the industry, had been waiting for the decision would be an understatement.  People were getting ulcers over the thing. Not me, mind, you, but other folks. I had hope. Clearly everyone, or nearly everyone, in the industry was on IM, SCOTUS blog live feed and multiple phones all morning waiting for the decision to come out and discussing as it was coming out. I know I was! For gamer geeks in the industry, this was the Super Bowl. For lawyer gamer geeks, even more so.

It would also be an understatement to say that life fell into a vortex in the two weeks following the decision. This decision is a game changer on a number of levels. I’ve discussed it a number of places, and will not do so here. But yes, Virginia, this is monumental.

In trying to regroup after the post-decision, we’ve also been working on many other issues at ECA. One of which is S. 978, the anti-streaming bill before Congress, which could criminalize video game streaming. Not so lovely for consumers. Check out our campaign.

Which by way of nothing brings me to current results and working out. I’m still working out. 1-1.5 hours 5 days a week. About half of the workouts are video games and half are jogging. I’m up to 5.2 miles and training for a 10K (6.2 mile) race August 6^th. My weight is presently 25 pounds lost, with my next weight loss goal of 30 lost overall by the third week in August.

How are you all doing?

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