This week’s theme is healthy takes on comfort foods! First, our quick and easy hangry Goat Cheese Pita Pizzas recipe. Second: our podcast Episode 26: Is mac & cheese a main or a side?. Take a listen to hear us banter about healthy-ish approaches to comfort foods, pop-tart cereal, and of course, the question in the episode title. (What’s your vote?) There’s also an appearance from the lovely Amanda Paa of Heartbeet Kitchen and a giveaway for healthy-ish Scotcheroo bars going on now over at the podcast link.
Our basic approach to comfort food can be found in Michael’s Pollan’s short book Food Rules, Rule 39:
Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.
Pollan goes on to explain that there’s nothing wrong with eating sweets, fried foods, and pastries every once in a while. These type of treats used to be expensive and hard to make, but manufacturers have made them so cheap and easy that we’re eating them every day. If you made all the french fries you ate, you would eat them much less often because they’re so much work to put together.
We agree with this approach, and have found it to absolutely work in our lives. (Those fries above are the bomb, but you have to spend about an hour to work for them!) In that vein, here are our top 10 comfort foods that have healthy-ish spins, or are meant to be consumed occasionally.
Crispy Baked Fries | A Couple Cooks
Oven-roasted fries that are just as good as in the restaurant! Just olive oil, salt and a hot oven.
Smoky Mac & Cheese with Spinach | A Couple Cooks
Squash is the key to the creamy sauce here; plus we’ve added spinach for extra nutrients.
Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream | A Couple Cooks
Made with coconut milk so it’s dairy-free, this ice cream is creamy, coffee-y, chocolate-y, and chunky. One of our favorite desserts to date.
So Cal Pizza | A Couple Cooks
Pizza can be tasty AND loaded with veggies, like this So Cal pizza with peppers, artichokes, avocado and basil.
Lentil Tacos | A Couple Cooks
These tacos are one of our oldest recipes and always a hit with vegetarians and meat-eaters alike.
Raw Brownies | A Couple Cooks
Walnuts, dates and cocoa powder make a little bit of magic and combine into a dense, fudge-y brownie.
Skillet White Chili Dip | Heartbeet Kitchen
The creamy sauce here is part cheese, part white beans, and all goodness.
Gluten-Free Angel Food Cake | Heartbeet Kitchen
This is Amanda’s perfect light and fluufy gluten-free angelfood cake.
I wanted something decadent and sweet today so I made a pan of caramel slices. The base is mostly oats and almonds, the caramel is a mix of dates and cashews, and the layer on top is simply raw dark chocolate sprinkled with some flaked salt. The result of all these glorious whole foods coming together is a luscious, rich treat that is at once nourishing and orgasmic: food for the soul and the body.
Addiction is a choice and NOT a disease! Can I be any more vocal about this?
Over the past few months I’ve shared intimate stories about my own lifestyle choices in particular with alcohol abuse and how it affected me physically, emotionally and psychologically. No one forced me to drink, I chose it willingly. And unfortunately, like many, I pointed a finger at anyone other than myself for my state of being during that period of my life.
The following is a short video message I recorded just before hitting ‘publish’ on this article.
If this wasn’t enough, I surveyed you my readers about your ideas surrounding addictions, and you responded. Your answers were open, honest and in many cases, extremely transparent. One thing that sticks out among all the replies I received, “98% of us either have, or know someone struggling with a substance abuse issue”. Even still, it’s clear that the topic of addictions is one that the majority are NOT openly willing to engage in conversation about and understandably so – who wants to admit they choose a substance over personal responsibility (or in many cases, personal happiness)!?
Wanting to bring to light many of the issues stemming from the “Recovery” treatment industry, we explored some of the mind-boggling statistics, trends and corruptions in the ‘status quo’ processes. We exposed some of the major hypocrisies that exist in the industry and also exposed the very stark reality that all the billions of dollars being dumped into “addiction recovery and treatment” is not helping to lessen the problem. In fact, the problem is seemingly getting worse, despite the large amounts of resources being dumped into the treatment industry. While this is certainly disheartening, it’s not surprising considering the way in which the treatment industry is trying to help people. Bottom-line, addiction is not a disease, so why are we as a North American society continuing to treat it as one? It’s a battle with a losing strategy and we’ll never win unless we make some widespread changes.
Note to reader: If you, or someone you care about, is dealing with a substance abuse issue, I highly recommend reaching out and connecting with someone from Saint Jude Retreats. In addition to the residential facilities, they also offer a Home Program and a Long Distance Learning program as well — exclusive for my tribe, use discount code “addictionfreelife” to receive 15% off
Occam’s Razor and the treatment of Addictions
Occam’s Razor states that when we are faced with two similar explanations for an occurrence, the one which needs the least amount of explaining is often the correct explanation. I see a lot of this in my own personal journey with overcoming my abuse of alcohol and substances.
When I stopped drinking back in 2010, I made a choice to prioritize and pursue my own personal happiness above all else. This solution, seemingly simple in design, wasn’t easy. However, maintaining the course and pursuit of my happiness became second nature the longer I did it. Of course I explored other “recommended” solutions, which promised a certain result – ultimately the cessation of alcohol and substance abuse – but would involve a laborious and unceasingly, arduous journey consisting of weekly meetings, 12-step program adherence, counselling, phone calls, admitting my powerlessness to substances and accepting that I had a disease, and so on…
And so, I pursued a different course that made much more sense to me from a lifestyle and happiness standpoint. This alternative option, which I later learned to be called the Freedom Model (Positive Drive Principle) provided me with a similar result, but one which empowered me to choose my own actions rather than remain a victim to a disease. And you know what, it is the simplest explanation for understanding how I overcame my substance abuse issues.
But, enough about the problems, let’s talk about solutions
In a previous article I went on and on about why addiction is not a disease. This is a FACT and no longer up for debate. I want to talk solutions – in particular let’s talk about the Freedom Model.
The Freedom Model, a new program developed by and soon to be implemented by Saint Jude Retreats, is truly unique in that it goes about helping people in an entirely different way. One of the core components of the Freedom Model is what they’ve termed The Positive Drive Principle (PDP):
The PDP states that a universal condition exists where all people always move in the direction of happiness and what they believe will be the most beneficial to them at any given point in time – and that includes heavy and consistent substance use as well as other seemingly perceived negative behaviors.
You see, the PDP is not really something you can implement, or practice. It just simply is. It’s a universal motivation in human behavior.
In a recent interview with Ryan Schwantes, president of Baldwin Research and Saint Jude Retreats, he assured me that the PDP is absolutely true. In his years of dealing with “addiction” he’s heard several individuals say “I don’t know why I continue to drink when I know it’s hurting my career” or “I just can’t seem to stop, even though I know it’s hurting me physically and mentally”. Once Saint Jude’s has the opportunity to thoroughly go over the PDP with their guests and help them come to the understanding that they, in fact, choose to use drugs or alcohol because it gave them a sense of happiness at that given point and time, then they can begin to really think about what they’re doing before they do it.
Is the Positive Drive Principle a truly unbreakable argument?
Schwantes has faced hundreds of different scenarios in which people have tried to break the argument, and he shares that it “has yet to be done”.
And so this begged the following question, “What’s the most common argument or push-back you get when sharing the PDP?”
Schwantes shared the following…
“How can people choose something that is harmful or damaging to them, like continuing to drink, when they have liver disease?”
What it boils down to is the benefits. Let me explain.
All choices have benefits or perceived benefits, as well as consequences, or perceived consequences. Every single time you make a decision you are making a very calculated decision in your mind as to what will bring you the most benefits, and you move in that direction. Often times, because of repetition and habitual thinking, you make a decision without actually measuring those benefits, but rather you make a decision that you know for certain will bring you a sense of happiness because it has done so before. The path of least resistance so to speak. And this is why people often say, “I can’t help it, I just can’t stop once I start drinking”.
Your mind works in a similar way, if you don’t actively train your mind to be mindful of your choices, it will simply react and carry out the path of least resistance which is often based on past, repeated experiences.
At the end of the day, we really do have control over our thoughts. Every single one of them, and it’s impossible do anything without thinking about it first. Go ahead and try it. Try to do any action without thinking about it first — now don’t get frustrated, it can’t be done.
Need more proof? Check this out
Here’s a prime example of how the mind will do what it believes it’s supposed to do based on repetition. Watch the following video:
You see this little experiment really proves how your mind operates. It will move in the direction of least resistance and do what it has been trained to do, but when you stop and think about what the heck you’re doing, you are able to harness the power of your mind and perform the action accordingly. This is how personal autonomy and free will work.
Freedom of the mind knows that you have full control of your thoughts, feelings, and perspective on all things in your life. If you fully understand that you have complete control within your thoughts – and always have! – you can never be under the magical spell of anything ever again.
Schwantes went on to share a recent discussion he had with a researcher friend. Ryan’s friend was asking him questions about his past drug use, more specifically his preference to GHB and what it was like. As someone with no past experience with GHB, Ryan’s friend was trying to establish an understanding of his past experience and Ryan’s present day thoughts on it now. Ryan explained to him that when he was using GHB, he really enjoyed it – in fact he enjoyed pretty much everything about it in the moment. Ryan shared that to this day, he believed the way he felt on GHB was pleasurable and he enjoyed it, as he did with marijuana and various other drugs. Ryan’s friend flat out asked him, ‘then WHY don’t you use drugs anymore?’
I am in charge of how I feel today – I choose happyness!
Click to tweet
Benefits vs. Benefits (an Analytic Approach to Choice)
Ryan began to laugh, explaining his present stance on his drug use (and note, this is a full understanding of the PDP and how affects your choices and actions). Ryan told him, “Because other things are more important to me now than getting high. I have a wife, a 3 year-old son and another little boy coming this December. Being a good father and husband brings me more joy than any high ever could. I have a great career that I carry a great amount or responsibility; I enjoy staying in shape and being active and helping others do the same.”
“All of those passions in my life bring me a great amount of happiness, and I am not willing to substitute that happiness for the happiness I may get from smoking marijuana, taking GHB or any other substance, because to me I get greater happiness spending time with my family, being responsible in my career, and engaging in fitness and training,” Ryan shared.
I love this story from Ryan as it reminds me of the internal dialogue I had during early 2010 after making my initial choice to forgo drinking alcohol.
Being mindful of each decision and analyzing ONLY the benefits of each decision, I make the choice to not drink alcohol because, like Ryan, whatever benefits we may get from using alcohol or drugs (which there are benefits), they’re dwarfed in comparison to the benefits I get from choosing to spend time with my family and the other things I love to do. It’s all a matter of relative happiness.
Taking this approach of “benefits to benefits” analysis is a great way to look at the decisions you make. By doing this, you don’t make decision based on fear, missing out, or based on the consequences; instead, you make decisions based on the perceived benefits you get from each of your decisions. By doing this, you aren’t able to lay blame on anyone or anything other than yourself because after all, you are the one making the choices.
Let’s take a situation we might be a bit more familiar with and apply the Positive Drive Principle (PDP).
Benefits vs. Benefits: A DadBod perspective
The DadBod scenario.
Last year the term ‘DadBod’ received a ton of press around the world. I even wrote an article on it, which you can read here. The term ‘DadBod’ is a label used to refer to a once fit and ‘in-shape’ guy who has had kids and then became ‘pleasantly plump’ or put on a few too many pounds. Pearson, the person attributed to coining the term, explains it this way:
“…it’s a nice balance between a beer gut and working out. The dad bod says, “I go to the gym occasionally, but I also drink heavily on the weekends and enjoy eating eight slices of pizza at a time.”
Now take note, those afflicted with the DadBod label didn’t become overweight all of a sudden – it was a gradual process and culmination of many, many days of choosing a certain action (or lack thereof). However, in many instances, to the dad’s afflicted by this phenomena, it felt like it just happened all of a sudden. That’s perspective for you.
Now let’s apply the PDP to these unfortunate dudes.
What really happened is that other aspects of life became more important than being fit and healthy. I’m not saying this is bad per se, it’s just a situational fact. The new father’s child brought him much more happiness than going to the gym and so consequently he chooses to spend as much time as possible with his child. Whereas, before having children, the guy prioritized his fitness and health, and as a result kept in shape. At that time, it ultimately brought him a great amount of happiness, but then, post-kids he valued time with them above working out. To him, the greater happiness was achieved by being with his kids. How many fathers can relate to this situation? I know I can!
Now, of course it’s easy to say, “I haven’t been to the gym for years because my kids are young and require a lot of my energy, time and quite frankly are pretty needy.” “I really love watching them grow and learn, and I want to be there for them.”
True. I can’t argue with anyone who says this to me. And if it’s bringing the individual happiness, what’s the problem?
The problem is I’m overweight and I want to get back in shape! But I’m torn because I don’t want to spend less time with my kids, meanwhile the negative feelings associated with being overweight make me depressed. It’s quite the conundrum isn’t it?
Well obviously there’s a way to gain happiness from both decisions, include your kids in your workout plan by doing activities with them, running, biking, swimming, etc. (FYI: here’s 4 ways to be a more active parent)
This is an easy decision because once you have the clarity as to what you yourself did to create the situation you find yourself in, you can easily make a plan to do both — 1. get yourself back in shape by being more physically active, and 2. continue to spend time with your kids by including them in your new activities.
You know being in shape will help you achieve happiness and you know being with your kids will help you achieve happiness. It’s all about the level of happiness you want to have. You can achieve a certain amount of happiness by just going to the gym and being active, and you can achieve a certain level of happiness by just being with your kids. So let’s combine them both and up the level of happiness all together!
Benefits vs benefits and the PDP – is this starting to make more sense? Can you see how this can positively affect your life on many different levels?
Whether it be family, fitness, faith or finances, or dealing with substance abuse, the Freedom Model is a systematic way to help yourself overcome any adversity in life.
So, now what? How does this help me?
All this being said, I’m sure you’ve heard the cliche, “Knowledge is Power”. As overused as this expression is, it is absolutely true. If you are dealing with a substance abuse issue, then take this bit of knowledge and choose to do something with it. And I know if you were to sit down and carry out a benefits versus benefits analysis, you’d agree. Reach out to Ryan at Saint Jude Retreats and have a conversation. You are worth it. You matter.
Addiction is not a disease - it's simply a choice
Choose you and your happiness - you're worth it!
It's no secret, but it's something most of us choose not to ever talk about. In fact, 98% of us either have, or know someone struggling with a substance abuse issue right now.
Based on all the correspondence I've received since starting the #AddictionFreeLife article series, there's a lot of us out there looking to make some positive changes in our lives.
Reaching out for help creates anxiety, nervousness and there's always a fear of judgement. I get that. I respect that. And quite frankly it's why I fully entrusted Ryan Schwantes of Saint Jude Retreats to help me and my tribe. He's an avid fitness enthusiast who understands first-hand how we are feeling and what we are going through, because he's been there and worked through it himself too.
If you are part of the 98% and looking to make some positive lifestyle changes, just fill in the below and reach out to Ryan personally. All communications are private and confidential between you and Ryan.
You're worth it.
[contact-form-7]
If you’ve missed the first 4 articles in the #AddictionFreeLife series, click the below images to get the full back story:
This post is sponsored by Saint Jude Retreats. The opinions and views are wholly my own…
And to be absolutely clear, this is my disclaimer: “Just so you know, I have been compensated to share my ideas on this topic. Sometimes it is in the form of products, or services or even money… But here’s the thing; I won’t share anything with you that I don’t fully support. It doesn’t matter what it is, or how much they are willing to give me, if I don’t believe in it, It won’t be on my site. Seriously. You’ll just have to trust me on this.”~ Coach Moose
If you, or anyone you know, resonate with any of the information shared in this post, do not hesitate to reach out for more information. Call my friends at Saint Jude’s at 877-958-3310 or reach out to them directly via www.SoberForever.net — don’t bother waiting, don’t seek out the advice of others, simply make the decision to choose you and your health first, you deserve happiness.
FREE RESOURCES for Substance Users and Family Members
FREE E-BOOK FOR THE FAMILY
This e-book provides family members of substance users with a completely unique and common sense approach to helping their loved one while simultaneously gaining back the focus and freedom for their own lives.
It is Saint Jude Retreat’s mission since 1989 to provide a research based program to help you move beyond your current self-limiting habits and achieve a sustained balance in your life driven by your own freely chosen goals and dreams.
from Dai Manuel: The Moose is Loose http://ift.tt/2bEmjWb
While not new, project-based learning has become a popular method to try and move beyond surface-level learning. Many teachers are trying to figure out the right ingredients for strong projects that interest and engage students, while helping them meet required learning targets. But implementing project-based learning well isn’t easy, especially when many teachers are more accustomed to direct instruction, when they can be sure they’ve at least touched on all the topics in the curriculum. On top of the push toward projects, some educators are also embracing maker-education, a distinct but often overlapping idea.
“There’s a lot of research out there about integrating making into project-based learning to ramp up what students are learning in the core content areas that they’re going to be tested in,” said Michael Stone, an Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, who taught high school in Tennessee.
When Stone taught calculus, he was a fairly traditional teacher, but just before taking the Einstein Fellowship, he became director of the Fab Lab and project-based learning coordinator at the STEM School Chattanooga, a high school recognized for giving kids from all over the city access to powerful learning opportunities.
Before the STEM school, Stone was skeptical of project-based learning. He said it had always been pitched to him as a process where the teacher got out of the way and the students learned on their own, something his experience with kids and calculus made him doubt. At the STEM school, he quickly learned that project-based learning actually requires a lot from teachers, and when done well can produce amazing results. Now he helps teachers in Chattanooga experience project-based learning professional development to help them build their skills.
FIVE GUIDING PRINCIPLES
1. Make Projects Explicitly Connected to Standards
“If you are going to do maker-enhanced project-based learning, it has to have explicit connections to standards,” Stone told a room full of teachers at the reMAKE Education conference hosted by the Sonoma County Office of Education. “Otherwise you’re going to have a hard time justifying the time investment.”
While this may seem obvious, it’s especially relevant around maker-education. While many educators are excited about the potential for making to spark deeper engagement with learning in the classroom, often school makerspaces are separate from classroom activities. Some would argue that distance is good, allowing making to remain a self-directed tinkering exercise, but others argue that without clear connections to the curriculum, making in schools may be seen as tangential.
A hands-on making component to a classroom project could be a great enhancement, but Stone said it must be part of a clear plan driving toward learning outcomes. To engineer this type of learning experience, backwards planning is key.
2. Balance Clear Expectations with Open-Ended Problems
One reason experienced project-based learning teachers like the approach is that it encourages students to discover new concepts and to make meaning out of them on their own, with support from the teacher. And there’s a lot of research showing when students learn this way, they remember more and better than when someone merely tells them the information. So strong projects live or die based on the initial driving question developed by the teacher.
“That’s by far the most challenging part,” Stone said. “We want the question to perfectly balance open-ended components, but with enough constraints that it’s pushing them towards learning targets.” Stone knows the project is well designed if two weeks into it the students are asking for the content he wanted to teach them. Through their exploration they came to a point where they need those pieces of content to answer their questions.
Stone also said it’s crucial to design the project rubric around that driving question. “We want to make sure that we’re assessing what it is we really want,” Stone said, so the teacher should constantly be referring back to the driving question as the main filter. The rubric should be clear about the expectations and how students can demonstrate they completed them and in an advanced way.
3. Assess Process Alongside Content
This is a big tenet at the STEM School Chattanooga and a core part of what the school’s founder, Tony Donen, says makes it a STEM school in the first place. Students are always being assessed on process skills like collaboration, critical thinking, communication and innovation alongside the specific content goals.
Stone says the rubric itself should have the process-oriented goals alongside the content goals so students understand they are of equal importance. Those two things side by side are the “why” behind the project, which means the actual final product is irrelevant and could be different for each group. If students are interested in the driving question, discovering the content as they need it, and demonstrating growth in process skills, what they ultimately make is far less important, Stone said.
Making it clear that process is as important as “getting it” is also important for the kids in any class who tend to understand quickly, but don’t always do a good job of documenting why they know. Stone said he’s given groups that made incredible final products low scores for not demonstrating process skills along the way.
4. Anticipate the Skills and Design Scaffolds
“Everyone is capable of solving the problem,” Stone said. Teachers have to start with that perspective and then think about how they can help make up ground for the kids who started behind. With experience, teachers can begin to anticipate the moments when students might stumble.
As Stone grew in his practice as a project-based learning teacher, he began to see how crucial this step is for successful execution of a project. In addition to thinking through the driving question and the learning standards students would need to answer that question, the teacher also thinks ahead about the likely gaps in skills students are going to have both in content and process.
For example, if the project is going to require factoring binomials, the teacher might anticipate that some kids won’t know how to follow a two-step equation. And collaboration is one of the most difficult process skills, especially for less mature learners, so the teacher might also anticipate that parts of collaboration won’t be intuitive to student groups.
“We make sure that while we’re identifying those things, in the planning phase, we’re identifying exactly what activity we’re going to use when that happens,” Stone said. For collaboration, a teacher might use open-ended questioning to help coach students through their stumbles. For content issues, Stone thinks about scaffolds, or wedges as he calls them, in a few different ways.
Whole class activities: This is brand-new content for everyone.
Station activities: This is content everyone needs to acquire, but not at the exact same time. “It allows the teacher to identify which piece of content is going to be the most difficult, and that’s where she can spend the most time coaching up,” Stone said. The other stations might be novel and require time, but may not be as cognitively challenging.
Workshops: This is an option for small groups of students who either feel they could need a review or the teacher sees they need a little more help.
Focus groups: Mandated time with the teacher because there are some prerequisite skills that a student needs, without which the project won’t be accessible.
As teachers plan their projects — weeks before students even see it — they are thinking about these categories of scaffolds and where in the project they foresee needing to use them. “When teachers can think in that way ahead of time and plan for those necessary scaffolds within those confines, we find it really helpful,” Stone said.
5. Transfer Accountability to Students
This becomes easier to do after a few projects and as students get older, but works especially well around skills like collaboration. At the STEM School Chattanooga, students make contracts with one another about how each member of a group is expected to participate, and students set the consequences for failure to do so. In the first project they might make very light consequences, but then one kid gets stuck doing all the work and decides to put more teeth into the consequences next time.
“We let them give each other detention; they could reduce their final grades,” Stone said. He found it liberating as a teacher because when a student didn’t meet the terms of the contract and received a consequence, she couldn’t complain because she had helped to design it and agreed to it at the beginning. Often, Stone said, the student-designed consequences were far more brilliant than anything he would have ever come up with.
When Stone coaches educators in project-based learning, he stresses that the point of the methodology is to put students in a position where they are solving authentic problems, not to check a box. Putting students in these kinds of situations creates opportunities for accidental learning, as does making, which is partly why making-enhanced project-based learning can be so powerful. The key thing for educators to remember is that both of these pedagogical strategies, which can go hand in hand, should be in the service of providing deep learning opportunities.
Prior to the 1960s, scientists thought children who spoke more than one language had a handicap for learning because they had to spend too much time distinguishing between languages. With more modern brain imaging technology, researchers can now see how multilingualism actually strengthens the brain. People who speak more than one language have a higher density of gray matter that contains most of the brains neurons and synapses.
Scientists are also beginning to distinguish between young children who grow up learning and speaking two languages as compared to those who learn a second language in adulthood. Children use both hemispheres of the brain to acquire language, which means they often grasp the emotional implications of language more deeply. In contrast, adults who learned a second language tend to approach problems presented to them in that language in a more rational, detached way. Scientists hypothesize that it’s because adults often acquire language through the left hemisphere of the brain.
Learn more about the fascinating brain research around multilingualism from this TED-Ed video and the accompanying lesson plans. Many classrooms are filled with students who speak more than one language and they should know that ability is a great strength.
Goat Cheese and Tomato Pita Pizzas the fourth recipe in our series inCooking for Hangry People, recipes to help inspire quick and nutritious meals to combat hanger, that dreaded combination of Hunger + Anger. We’ve tried to keep the recipes 20 minutes or under, and use a limited list of ingredients that are fairly easy to come by. More on why we started the series ishere. This post has been sponsored by Kroger. All thoughts and opinions are our own.
Life sometimes seems like little bits of crazy, strung together with brief moments of solitude or exhilaration. And while “just make time for margin” might be the default answer to the problem, Alex and I realize not all of us are afforded this luxury. Especially those of you out there who are parents (bless you, seriously). The more we talk to friends and family who are parenting tiny humans, the more we hear about how difficult is is to find the time to enjoy cooking.
Even without little ones, the daily grind can be a challenge. For example, how to get a wholesome dinner on the table when you flew back from vacation at 1 am the night before, went straight to the office and worked late finishing up the pile that had accumulated during your absence? (True story, recently over here). Over the years, a few tips have emerged to help us survive the crazy of life and continue to make nourishing meals. Here we go:
Tips for How to Survive Hangry
Freeze your leftovers.Recently we’ve started freezing our leftovers from “cooking nights” and saving them for nights with no margin. It’s not rocket science (my mother has been doing this for years), but it’s saved us in a pinch lately. Not all meals freeze well, but we’ve found things like soups or curries are perfect for this.
Simple recipe concepts.It’s kind of a “duh”, but having a few simple recipe concepts that aren’t PB&J is a key to nourishing quick meals. Our hangry series recipes are concepts that you can execute in 20 minutes with variable ingredients based on what you have on hand — especially this one, a pita pizza that’s uber simple and customizable.
Easy snacks. We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: healthy snacks like roasted salted almonds, veggies and hummus, or dried fruit are crucial for tiding over a hanger crisis.
Prepared salads.These days a lot of larger groceries have deli counters or salad bars with whole food, nourishing options for salads. Make sure you know what’s in them, but if you choose wisely you can find some veggie-filled goodness in a pinch.
Grocery pickup or delivery services. Recently we’ve been taking advantage of services like grocery delivery and in-store pickup. Honestly, saving precious evening minutes by having groceries already ordered and ready in the store for pickup can be a lifesaver in a time crunch. We’ve used ClickList to order online from our local Kroger grocery store, and the groceries were ready and delivered to our car when we arrived. It’s pretty sweet, and we’re hopeful that companies will continue to innovate to help make home cooking easy to get on the table!
This particular recipe is one of our favorites yet; it’s incredibly simple and easily customizable to the ingredients you have on hand. A pita pizza can be prepared in the time it takes to preheat your oven, and baked in a little over 10 minutes. Our key is to prebake the pita a few minutes per side in order to achieve a crispy crust. These goat cheese and tomato pita pizzas use heirloom tomatoes left over from our farmer’s market run and fresh thyme from our garden, along with pitas, mozzarella and goat cheese from the grocery. The tangy, pillowy goat cheese is a perfect foil to the sweet tomatoes. It tastes like it’s taken hours to prepare, even though it’s the definition of simple. Feel free to use any produce you like for your pita pizzas — but the goat cheese and fresh thyme are essential for the fresh, summery flavor.
Did you make this recipe? Do you have a hangry tip?
We’d love to hear how it turned out. Leave a comment below or share a picture on Instagram and mention @acouplecooks. In honor of our hangry series, use the tag #hangrynomore !
1 pound tomatoes (heirloom or multi-colored, if desired)
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
4 ounces goat cheese
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
Olive oil (optional)
What To Do
Place a pizza stone in the oven and preheat to 450°F.
Place pita directly on the oven grate and pre-bake 3 minutes per side, then flip and bake another 3 minutes.
Meanwhile, thinly slice the red onion. Roughly chop the thyme. Using a serrated knife, thinly slice the tomatoes.
When the pitas are crisp, remove them from the oven. The top each with ½ cup mozzarella, then tomatoes, onions, and thyme leaves. Add dollops of goat cheese. Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt, especially the tomatoes. If desired, drizzle with olive oil. Bake until the cheese is melted, about 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut into wedges, and serve.
This was 100% inspired by a drink I had the pleasure of slurping a week ago with some friends at Chau Veggiexpress. Their coconut shake came highly recommended and it hit the spot on the hot beach day we were having. Chau has some of the freshest, yummiest vegan food in Vancouver and I need to go back ASAP for their pecan caramel bar.
This recipe is refreshing, hydrating, full of healthy fats and electrolytes, VERY coconut-y, comes together in a few minutes and is delish at any time of the day or night. My recipe came out much thicker than the one at Chau, probably because I blended in more actual coconut meat and maybe used less coconut cream? I'm not entirely sure because I didn't manage to steal their ingredient list for the drink. So I improvised. I also couldn't place what sweetener they used but I went with my personal, long-time fave: maple syrup. However, coconut nectar or coconut sugar would be perfect here. Cuz... ya know, there's a coconut theme.
In other news, my lil brother scared the shit out of me earlier today when he surprised me with a fake skeleton as I walked out of the bathroom.
COCONUT SHAKE
1/2 cup young coconut meat 1/2 cup coconut cream 1 cup chilled coconut water 3 tablespoons maple syrup 1 1/2 cups ice cubes Handful mint leaves (optional)
Blend the coconut meat, coconut cream, coconut water, maple syrup and 1 cup of the ice together until frosty, sweet and smooth (unless you like it a lil chunky). Adjust according to taste preferences (I added more maple syrup but I'm a sugar fiend). Pour the shake over the remaining ice and mint leaves.
Notes: Try to find raw coconut meat and raw coconut water, the flavour is waaay different and in my opinion, much more delicious. Feeding Change is the brand I'd recommend. You can use any other sweetener you like (coconut sugar or coconut nectar would be fitting).
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Humans love music, especially when there’s repetition that catches the attention. And even though many people listen to music to relax, the brain is doing a lot of work to break apart and understand the music before putting it all together again. Brain scans of people listening to music show many different parts of the brain firing at once, but that’s nothing compared to what’s going on inside the brains of musicians themselves.
“Playing music is the brain’s equivalent of a full body workout,” says educator Anita Collins in a TED-Ed video on how playing music benefits the brain. Playing music requires the visual, auditory, and motor cortices all at once and since fine motor skills require both hemispheres of the brain, the act of playing music may strengthen the bridge between the two sides. In studies comparing playing music to other activities, including other forms of art, playing an instrument is uniquely powerful for the brain.
Watch the video to learn all about the benefits of learning to play an instrument.
One of the first exercises Kyle Ware does with teachers in the Kentucky Shakespeare From the Page to the Stage development workshop is to get them on their feet and using the words of Shakespeare in action, in a game called, “Shakespearean Insults and Compliments.” Ware, who is director of education for the company’s extensive schools program, said that teachers take each other down and lift each other up using the words of the Bard—no matter if they’re accurate: “Thou art an ill-fated huggermugger!” is an example Ware gave.
“Then the other person might throw something back at them. The idea is that, when put in context, this insult is something that can easily be understood. Even though I don’t exactly know what a huggermugger is, I get it.”
From the Page to the Stage was developed by Kentucky Shakespeare in conjunction with the Folger Shakespeare Library in 1991, as a way to help teachers get the most out of teaching Shakespeare to their classes, and has been honored by the Library as an exemplary program and used as a model for other professional development programs. The idea behind it, said Ware, was to get Shakespeare “back up on its feet,” where it belongs. Since Shakespeare’s plays were meant to be performed, Ware said they have seen that students get more out of Shakespeare when they are doing both reading and performance.
Ware also shows teachers ways to let kids interpret the text when doing analysis, often using Othello’s Act III, Scene III as an example, which he studied with a recent group of high schoolers. Ware tells teachers about a particular student’s reaction to Iago, who doesn’t say much, but let’s Othello do all the talking, and therefore all the work of the scene:
IAGO: My noble lord–
OTHELLO: What dost thou say, Iago?
IAGO: Did Michael Cassio, when you woo’d my lady,
Know of your love?
OTHELLO: He did, from first to last: why dost thou ask?
IAGO: But for a satisfaction of my thought; No further harm.
OTHELLO: Why of thy thought, Iago?
IAGO: I did not think he had been acquainted with her.
OTHELLO: O, yes; and went between us very oft.
IAGO: Indeed!
OTHELLO: Indeed! ay, indeed: discern’st thou aught in that? Is he not honest?
IAGO: Honest, my lord!
OTHELLO: Honest! ay, honest.
IAGO: My lord, for aught I know.
OTHELLO: What dost thou think?
As Ware tells it, a student then popped up and said, “Hey, he’s clownin’ him!”
“So that is exactly what’s happening in this scene – Iago is clowning Othello,” Ware said. Though ‘clownin’ someone isn’t exactly a scholarly term, Ware said that’s more than all right: what matters is that students are making connections between themselves and the feelings of 400-year-old Shakespearean characters.
“And when a teacher hears that, she says, ‘Yes, I see my own window to my students. I see my own window into this work.’ Then hopefully, they can relay this idea through their own curriculum, their own text analysis. That’s the thing we try to do, leave them [educators] with the tools to do this kind of work.”
THE BENEFITS OF THEATER
In his book Doing Well and Doing Good by Doing Art, UCLA professor James Catterall details the results of a twelve-year study in which he followed secondary students who participated in music or theater arts in school into their adult lives to see if the arts made a difference, and what kind of difference it made. Catterall found a strong association between high school theater and inner development. “Sustained student involvement in theatre arts (acting in plays and musicals, participating in drama clubs, and taking acting lessons) associates with a variety of developments for youth,” he writes in the first chapter. “Gains in reading proficiency, gains in self-concept and motivation, and higher levels of empathy for others.”
Ware said that teachers he works with find Shakespeare more challenging to teach in today’s digital climate, an observation Ware himself makes when he works directly with students in classrooms. In recent years, Kentucky Shakespeare has added Shakespeare workshops that work with students and teachers on developing skills like conflict resolution, body language and empathy—ways of communicating they feel may be getting lost when most interactions happen screen-to-screen instead of face-to-face.
One such program was a four-week residency conducted by Kentucky Shakespeare’s producing artistic director, Matthew Wallace, at a Jefferson County school for students with behavioral and emotional disorders. Wallace, who is also a facilitator at the Shakespeare Behind Bars program conducted in the Luther Luckett state prison, had experience in teaching conflict resolution using acting techniques and Shakespeare.*
For art and humanities teacher Sharon Lillie, who applied for a Very Special Arts grant to bring Wallace and crew to the school twice per week for four weeks, teaching Shakespeare in this way to her students—boys and girls who had already been kicked out of traditional school—the experience was “absolutely worth it.”
For more than two hours, Wallace worked with eleven of Lillie’s ninth- and tenth-gradeers on the first scene of Romeo and Juliet, in which the servants of the two warring households get into a fight.
“You would think that working on a scene where the characters fight wouldn’t be such a great idea with our kids,” said Lillie. “But it worked. They learned the lines, they learned what the lines meant, they talked about things like: what kind of body language does somebody have when they’re ready to fight? What about when somebody’s backing off? How would you step into the area, and out? How would you vary your tone of voice?”
Lillie said that, once the students had gone through the text and learned what the words meant, performing even the most confrontational scenes was fun for them because they weren’t themselves: they were the characters.
Since many of her students end up in the special school in the first place because they have a hard time reading physical or verbal cues, practicing them “for pretend” strengthened their ability to read others’ reactions. Being able to do this in a safe environment, said Lillie, with the added fun of acting, made a visible difference in her students.
“On the days when Matt came,” Lillie said, “Their homeroom teacher reported these students got along a lot better the rest of that day. They were more relaxed with each other, they could take things a little less seriously than what they had been doing.”
Wallace, who said that his workshops often focus on issues like conflict resolution, was adamant that he never wants the scenes themselves to turn into some kind of therapy. “The brilliance of Shakespeare is that, at the time the plays were performed, it was still a mostly oral society, ” Wallace said, noting that most of the population was illiterate. “So it’s all about the words—the sounds of the words, and how it makes you feel when you hear them and when you are saying them. We think that sort of visceral experience of saying these words out loud is valuable,” he said.
“It’s using the healing power of the arts to create this structure and using teamwork. And the building of empathy is huge.”
At the end of the four-week workshop, the students performed their Romeo and Juliet scenes in the cafeteria for the whole school, which Lillie considered a symbol of how far they’d come: though the students were visibly nervous, they didn’t get stage fright and they remembered their lines.
Throughout the experience, students kept a journal of their thoughts and feelings. While many had recorded positive details about the experience, Lillie remembers two students especially, one who wrote, “I really love this.” And another, who wrote, “It was fun to be joking on each other and getting away with it.”
*A previous version of this post misstated that Wallace was a former facilitator of Shakespeare Behind Bars, when in fact, he continues to in that role. We regret this error.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past three months, you’ve probably heard of the terminal cancer diagnosis of Gord Downie (lead singer to the Tragically Hip, also known as The Hip).
I had a friend in high school who worked for KFC. She would tell me stories about the person who came in and ordered a large popcorn chicken with ranch dressing and a Doublicious Combo — with a Diet coke.
We would giggle at the preposterousness of the last-ditch attempt at caloric restraint and maybe you just had the same reaction.
But I wonder if this sounds more familiar: the person who goes to the latest fashionable restaurant and is careful to send the bread basket away, order the grass-fed organic beef and trade the potato for a salad with the dressing on the side … and then orders three artisan cocktails – double shots in each with simple syrup and etc.
Don’t get me wrong — this makes a LOT of sense in a foodie/deliciousness kind of way.
But not really from a health perspective.
The truth is that people are more conscious and health focused than ever before. But they are focusing on the wrong things. Because the things you actually need to focus on are old news. Boring. They are like those posters they pin to the ceiling at the dentist’s office that say ‘everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten’. Like, eat your vegetables.
But imagine trying to sell magazines with a big headline saying: “Vegetables! Still good for you after all these years!”
Instead, it’s much more profitable to headline some breaking news about:
Ice cream is low on the glycemic index! (this is true BTW – the fat balances out the sugar load).
But investing your health efforts in the relatively low glycemic index of ice cream would be the wrong thing to focus on. Have you ever hear of the 80/20 rule?
It states that we get 80% of our results from 20% of our effort.
The trick is to figure out what that 20% that delivers is and do more of that.
So here are the 5 things you REALLY need to focus on to get healthy and lean…
5 Must-Do’s to be Healthy, Lean (and quite frankly, Awesome in life!)
1. Portion control and calories in/calories out
Straight up, if you have extra body fat you are probably eating too much.
Yup, you heard me.
It’s not that your Macros are off or you are sensitive to gluten. It’s just straight up more food than you need, my friend. Maybe you caught the news a few years ago that we are supposed to have 5 meals a day. What the news didn’t cover is the kindergarten lesson of OMG don’t eat if you are not genuinely hungry!
The portions these days are absurd. Here’s what your ideal plate should look like:
half the plate should be covered in vegetables
your protein is the size of your palm (not your hand. Palm)
your fat portion is the size of your thumb (so – cheese, dressing? THUMB. Your tiny, insignificant little thumb)
your starch is the size of your fist.
If you are trying to lose weight and want to focus on that 20% of effort that really delivers when it comes to nutrition, focus on maintaining your portion sizes and forget all the rest.
2. OMG go to SLEEP
Guess what happens when we’re tired?
First, we crave sugary, high calorie foods to give us energy.
Then, our decision-making skills are compromised to the point that we might as well be drunk.
Then the body perceives that we are not sleeping because we must be in crisis, which releases the stress hormone, cortisol, which retains abdominal fat for when we need it.
Interestingly, most people who are chronically sleep deprived are in denial about how it affects them physiologically. If you think you function as well on five hours of sleep as you do on seven, you are being like that drunk guy at the party who is slurring and insisting that he’s OK to drive home. Don’t be that guy. Stop looking at Pinterest and go to bed.
Choosing low carb snacks to go with your late night Netflix binge is an example of the 80% that is getting you nowhere. Turning off the Netflix and going to bed is an example of the 20% effort that will give greatest rewards.
3. Don’t drink so much booze
I wish I didn’t have to type that. I really do. There is nothing better than a glass (cough, cough…bowl) of wine to unwind after the kids have gone to bed.
Many people – especially women – are drinking way more than is considered safe. Check it out: One 5oz glass of wine a night plus a cocktail or two on Saturday night = a ‘heavy drinker’ as defined by medical guidelines.
WHOOPS.
And listen – I know that alcohol might help you unwind and fall asleep but it reduces the quality of your sleep and contributes to overall anxiety.
Fussing over the relative sugar content in your wine is an example of the 80% that doesn’t really matter. Straight up reducing your alcohol intake is the 20% that will deliver maximum rewards.
4. Move more during the day
If you are reading this blog, you probably pride yourself on being active. Maybe you go to fitness classes and you run in the mornings.
And that is AWESOME.
But if you are a member of the human race now, you are actually probably pretty sedentary.
And it’s not your fault – EVERYTHING we need to carry out is done in front of a computer. Most places we need to go are by car. You get the point.
We know we need to move our bodies so we are conscientious to take an hour out of our day to go to the gym. The unfortunate thing is that one hour doesn’t make up for the other 23.
If you want to see weight loss results, you need to stay moving. All day. Stressing about whether your Spin class will burn as many calories as CrossFit is an example of the 80% that doesn’t matter. Getting at least 10-15K steps is the 20% that will keep you lean and healthy.
5. You’ve got to chill
At the end of the day, you probably don’t want to be thin.
No, really. You don’t.
The trouble is – that you think that feeling will happen when you’ve lost 10 pounds.
…and so you stress about losing 10 lbs and whether you blew your clean eating diet over the weekend and whether your muffin top is visible in that shirt, etc etc.
And all this stressing is leading to emotional eating and more cortisol being released and abdominal fat being retained which leads to more stress, etc – you see where I’m going with this.
And the truth is that feeling – being happy with your body, being at peace – is available NOW.
Not in 10lbs.
…but in 10 deep breaths.
So in conclusion, how’s the 80/20 rule apply to your life?
Stressing about your body is an example of the 80% that will not deliver the results you are looking for. Managing your stress and maintaining a positive mindset is actually
Everything.
So don’t sweat the small stuff. That 80% of health-related news that is just click-bait and not really important. Manage your portions, go to sleep, ditch the drinks, get moving more and then….chill.
You’ve got this.
Author Bio: Oonagh Duncan
Oonagh Duncan is a fitness industry veteran famous for her sense of fun and was awarded Pro Trainer of the Year by the Canadian Association of Fitness Professionals for the past two years in a row. She is an Associate Fitness Editor for Chatelaine Magazine and regular Expert on the Steven and Chris show. She is the founder and head trainer of Fit Feels Good Inc, where she leads the legendary online weight loss program, The 28 Day Transformation Challenge. When she’s not training, she’s playing Star Wars with her three year old and five year old sons.
