French Toast Girl

How to save the world, 20% at a time

We interrupt this glitter-and-coffee-fest to bring you the following:

I was all set to post another new painting this morning, when I saw this and needed to share it instead. I've written before about how I feel about how the choices you make at the grocery store can change the world; how I think everyone should pick up a copy of John Robbins' amazing book Food Revolution, because you will never eat the same way again ... but please read on, die-hard meat-eaters, and tell me this doesn't change your thinking a little bit:

From Mark Bittman's article in the New York Times:

Growing meat (it’s hard to use the word “raising” when applied to animals in factory farms) uses so many resources that it’s a challenge to enumerate them all. But consider: an estimated 30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation.

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

20 percent - suppose you ate one more pasta dinner a week, hold the meatballs. Or had a pizza with just veggies instead of pepperoni. Or at breakfast, skip the bacon and sausage. If you knew that making a simple choice like what you were having for dinner could make that much of a difference, wouldn't you do it today?

Read the entire article here (it's free).

Labels: food, nature

french toast girl

On chicken

I've spoken before about the book "Food Revolution", and how it was life-changing for me. Seriously, I can't recommend it enough. While my family doesn't eat completely vegetarian, we're not too far off - we do still eat chicken, once a week. (And the boy can't kick the weekly bacon habit, but we're working on it.)

And that's why I thought it was really interesting when I saw the commercials for Tyson chicken where the kids thanked their mother for giving them chicken that's antibiotic and hormone-free. Because here's something many people don't know: chicken by federal law has to be hormone free. So I was interested that Tyson was pushing this as a marketing tool. And yeah! Great! Educate people! If you're going to promote antibiotic chicken as well, that's even better.

(I'll get back to Tyson in a minute: but here's something else interesting most people don't know: that lots of the feed chickens eat has animal byproducts in it. That's right! The chicken you eat might have eaten other animals! I'm not even getting into the way many chickens are treated, I'm talking about them purely from a consumer point of view. I do not want to eat chicken pumped full of junk, being fed goodness knows what, and I don't want to give it to my family either. And do not get me started on beef: there's a reason we don't eat it. Go read the book.)

So when I'd first seen these Tyson commercials, where the kid stands up on his chair and thanks his mom for caring enough to give him Tyson chicken, I almost wrote a post about it. But then I realized recently I hadn't seen them for a long time, so I did a little research. The commercials were pulled because there is a medication in the chicken feed that is - guess what? - classified as an antibiotic! I give them credit for trying...

Still want to eat chicken? I can totally recommend Readington Farms (we have it in ShopRites in NJ): the chicken has no antibiotics administered, no artificial growth hormones, no animal byproducts, no artificial ingredients, an all vegetable diet, and is free farmed. Plus it costs almost the same as your average chicken that was fed who-knows-what.

Labels: food, NaBloPoMo

french toast girl

dear pancakes

Tell me you wouldn't love to be me this morning. ♥ (Pretty good for 4.5 years old, huh?)

Labels: family, food, kids, NaBloPoMo

french toast girl

raw?

I've been reading a bunch about how cooking your veggies kills all the nutrients - this was in my inbox this morning (I subscribe to this great newsletter called The Ideal Bite):

Getting your nutrients. One study found that stove-cooked spinach lost 77% of its folate; another study found that broccoli lost up to 97% of its antioxidants when nuked in the microwave.

So I followed some links and found this: it's a guy(who happens to be a model) who eats only raw food now, and these are his before and after pics after ONE MONTH.

All this is making me want to go out, grab a ton of veggies, and throw them in the blender. I'm not saying I would not cook anything again, but I think maybe a smoothie here and there and sneaking the family some extra fruit couldn't hurt. We eat pretty darn healthy over here - my kids ask for tofu and spinach, I kid you not. But maybe we're ready to take things to the next level. Or at least I am.

Checking out:

♥ We like it raw (blog by my coworker's friends)
♥ Gone raw has lots of recipes I'm going to check out.

Labels: food

french toast girl

Real Food

Let me tell you some things Real Food is not.

It isn’t to be eaten with one hand while you’re driving and talking handsfree on your cell phone. It’s not something you gulp out of a styrofoam container while you run to catch the train. You don’t absently take bites out of it while watching TV, only to look down and forget where it all went or how it tasted.

Real Food could be practically anything as long as you love it, and you are aware of what you’re eating and you really, really savor it. Real Food must be made with love and eaten in good company. (Especially if that company is yourself; the next time you’re going to eat alone, put on great music, use the nice dishes, sit down and really taste what you’re eating!)

Now let me take it one step further: I think Real Food has ingredients you can understand. Things you’ve maybe eaten before; definitely things you can pronounce. For instance... what goes into french toast? Eggs, milk, bread; if you’re me, there’s vanilla and cinnamon too. No mono-deoxy-nonpronounceable anything.

I happen to be known online as the French Toast Girl because I really like french toast, but also because I have a philosophy about it, which goes like this: Life (like french toast) is made up of simple ingredients that combine to make up a marvelous concoction we often take for granted. Your life is full of wonderful flavors, and meant to be relished. And if you aren't crazy about the way your life tastes, remember: you're the one who controls how much sweetness goes on top, or if it's soggy and underdone.

Okay - so are you picturing your toast? Is it on a paper plate? Did it come from a box? Or did you make it yourself? Mine is on good dishes, with raspberries from my garden, eaten out on the porch in the early morning, with a pot of tea on the table, listening to the birds sing. You might have your whole family sitting around you, asking to pass the maple syrup. Or you might be sitting by yourself, looking out at the way the morning sunlight hits the trees, with your journal at hand in case you feel like writing something. Maybe you’re in a 5-star restaurant and a dashing young waiter has just lifted the lid off a silver serving tray and presented a platter of french toast to you, and the aroma is so good it’s knocking you off your chair. Are you with me?

If you’re thinking, “That’s lovely, but all I can picture is warmed up microwave french toast,” then my friend, here is your chance to turn things around. Try my current fave french toast recipe for oven-baked french toast. Enjoy it in peace and good company. And if you have a favorite french toast recipe, please share. I'd love to try it!

Labels: food

french toast girl

ART, iNSPiRATiON, AND WHY LiFE iS LiKE FRENCH TOAST.