Why Dirty Veggies?

It's been brought to my attention that maybe people don't really care what I buy at the farmer's market from week to week.

Here are the top 5 reasons why you should!

1. Because I love the farmer's market! And anything I love, you should love too. Because we're connected like that. Like soul mates. Like brothers from another mother. Like BFFs who will like totally love each other forever.

2. Because if you're truly into food, the farmer's market is your best source for the freshest veggies possible. Things from the farmer's market really do taste better. They're fresher. They're more flavorful. They're just good. It's the way food should taste when it's not loaded up on pesticides and shipped from half way across the world on a diesel-fueled truck.

3. Because it's important to support your local farmers. Large corporations are under-cutting and eliminating smaller local farmers at steadfast speed. By buying from your local farmer's market, you're helping to keep small family farms, that may have been operating for decades, in business!

4. Because it's better for you. The benefits don't just extend to your local farmers. Large corporate farms  are slowly poisoning our foods with pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified mutations, etc. Most of these farms are organic, but because of restrictive and expensive governmental processes to obtain an official label of "organic," many don't have the resources to go through the process. By ingesting less processed, pesticide-free food, you're improving your health without even trying.

5. Because you should be going to your local farmer's market too! The point of showing my weekly goods from the market is encourage you to get out to your local markets. It dispels the misconception that farmer's markets are overpriced. I can get the same things for the same price or even cheaper then what's available in the supermarket.

While I can appreciate that my grocery list may not be as exciting to some as it is to me, these posts aren't without purpose. And it would probably be more meaningful if you actually saw the outcomes of those grocery lists....meaning recipes. Which I will be conscious of posting so you know my veggies are decaying into a puddle at the bottom of my fridge.

And lastly, if you just not down with the Dirty Veggie posts, skip'em. I'll never know.

Now....without further ado, this week's roundup:
7 onions - $2
1 pint of fingerling potatoes - $3 - this week's splurge
3 NYS Bosc Pears - $2
1 head napa cabbage - $1
3 acorn squash - $2 - deal of the week
Total: $10 

To learn more about Dirty Veggie posts, read here. 

Simple Rules

Are you ready for another soapbox, kids? Don't worry. This one is more angry instead of guilting you into growing your own food!

Bonnie's Rules for Proper Gym Ettiquette

Clean up after yourself. Weights should be put away when one is finishing using them. If they weren't too heavy to do however many grunting sets you had, then they're not too heavy for you to walk your ass over to the weight shelf and put them back! This makes them available for the next person who wants to use them while keeping the gym floor from being a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Be considerate of others in the gym. This means wiping down your sweaty machines after you're done using it. I don't care if you're the marathon runner that just finished 50 miles on the treadmill or one of those annoying "trainer groupies" who are just pretending to work out. Either way, I don't want to touch your skank. It also means that you should allow others to take their quick sip of water from the fountain instead of making them wait for you to finish filling up your big ass bottle of water or protein shake.

Ask before taking. It's a very simple rule. Something you're taught at a young age. If you see that a pair of weights are at my feet next to my purse with my towel casually dropped on top of them while I'm obviously taking a break in between sets, then YES, I am still using those, motherfucker! I'm not blind. I can see you moving my towel, pushing aside my purse to nonchalantly take them as though I won't notice that 2 12 lbs weights suddenly disappeared.

Learn when and how to share. I'm not a good sharer either, but in a crowded gym, it's important to let others work into your sets, especially if you're going to spend an hour on the same machine. However, this does not allow you to comment on the amount of weight, number of sets, or form on shared exercise machine. Having a subscription to Men's Health does not make you a personal trainer, my friend, and I like having a neck!


Vanity is unbecoming, but totally entertaining in the gym! So, go ahead and shake what your mama gave ya! Kiss those flexed biceps! Give yourself that pep talk as you're doing a bench press! Refer to yourself in the third person! Just don't expect me to want to talk to you after.

It is not polite to stare. Four out of 5 mothers will agree. We're all familiar with the disgusting, grunting meatheads who leer at women working out. They're gross. They're creepy. They need a good punch to the pancreas. However, if you're staring at me while I change in the locker room, then you better be asking me for my fucking number. Because staring at my insulin pump is not going to make it telepathically communicate to you what it is. Have some class and ask me. It's not like you're worried about being rude or something!

Animal, Vegetable, Soapbox?

Just give me a second while I hoist myself onto my soapbox. Ok, good! Are you ready?

I recently read the nonfiction book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (thanks Tom!), which is the true story of author Barbara Kingsolver and her family's one year pledge to eat only what they were able to grow themselves or purchase from other farmers in their community. At the beginning of the book, the family moves from Tuscon, AZ to a restored farm house in Appalachia, VA, where they farm everything from fruit and veggies to poultry and eggs. Through the family's story, you begin to see how far removed we are from the production of our food. As a nation and as consumers, we remain rather detached from knowing where our food actually comes from. When was the last time you thought about where your avocado came from, who grew them, and how did they get to your supermarket?

Inter-spliced with the families' stories of how they managed this venture are also essays on the state of agricultural affairs in the US and around the world. Basically, what these essays show the reader is that the business of agricultural is a mess. Large corporations are under-cutting and eliminating smaller local farmers while slowly poisoning our food with pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified mutations, etc. while ruining the environment and our health. Obviously, it was a light read.

While this book has definitely changed the way I view food and increased my awareness of the social and environmental impact of how I shop, there were times when I found myself getting defensive while reading. This defensiveness primarily occurred when Barbara Kingsolver suggests that eating organic, local produce is within most people's means, but we make the excuse not to out of convenience.

As a broke-ass social worker, I took a bit of offense to it. If I have to provide myself with food for a week and I can get 5 conventional, not locally grown apples as opposed to the 2 organic, local apples, guess which one my limited budget is buying? Not because I don't appreciate the health benefits, the environmental benefits, and the benefits to local farmers, but because I need to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. What are you suggesting, Barb? That I'm cheap? Lazy? Entitled?

I realized the answer to all those questions are yes, yes, and yes. I was feeling defensive because she was right. I would love to live the way the Kingsolvers do, but get overwhelmed by the amount of time, money, energy, and sacrifice it would take. It's much easier to buy produce that has been shipped across the country (or world) because it's cheaper and I want it NOW! But if I considered the amount of money I waste in vegetables gone bad at the bottom of my fridge, it's hard to claim that I can't afford to support my local farmers.

While I don't have the means to pick up, move to Appalachia, and live off the land, I am able to be more conscious of my buying and eating patterns. I may not have the opportunity to "get to know my farmers," but I can definitely be more mindful of local and seasonal buying. I am making a resolution to utilize farmer's markets more for my produce, share recipes using locally farmed ingredients, and even consider having a container garden for my own veggies next spring. You saw how well the peppers worked out!

I'm putting it in writing. I hope you hold me to it.

Touché!

Jeez! The borage of comments and threats I received after my "Diabetes Makes You Stupid" post. My mother went out and bought me a lifetime supply of skittles! Jerry is threatening to sew bells onto all of my clothes! Had I realized that this was the response I would have received, I might have played it a different way! Like....

I went to the gym this weekend, started to run, and felt a little funny. I checked my blood sugar and realized, "Shit! I don't have my diamond rings with me! Damn it! How could I forget my diamond rings? Should I tell the instructor? Will I be okay? I really could have used my diamond rings!"

Any takers? Any one? Any one?

After giving everyone the speech about how I'm still learning diabetes, still working on accepting it, knowing and allowing little mistakes to happen, trying to find the balance between being obsessive and being lax to the point of dangerous, diabetes decided to throw me a curve ball this morning. Shithead.

I went to bed last night with a 141 blood sugar, which is pretty good for preparing to go to bed since my blood sugar tends to drop in the middle of the night. My dinner was not all that carby as I just ate a veggie wrap and low carb brownie. I did not have anything else to eat.

I woke up this morning to, what I realize now, is a test. Diabetes is trying to see if I will actually practice what I preach (or vehemently type) to others. That mistakes happen, that I'm not going to get upset over every high blood sugar, not going to cry at every low, accept that diabetes just is.

I check my blood sugar and it's 256!! What the fuck?! That can't be right! I check again, 250. Huh? I check again 214! Even though they're all different numbers, I think I can average them out and see I'm in the 200s FOR NO FUCKING REASON!

I calm myself down, trying to repeat all of the defenses I just used with everyone else. Remember, not getting upset over every high blood sugar. Accepting that mistakes happen. Blah blah blah. Whatever!

Stupid fucking pancreas!

But I get it. I see it. I see the test.

Touché, diabetes. Touché.

Ooo Baby I Like it Raw*.....

Time for another food adventure! No animal sexual organs were ingested this time. I know some of you are disappointed to hear this. Jerry sure was!  He loves to eat the penis.

Pure Food and Wine is a raw food restaurant, which means that nothing is heated above 118 degrees and no animal products are used. The belief is that eating food in its natural state preserves its vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. I had been to Pure Food before and thought it was interesting enough to go back. When a Groupon for $25 of $40 worth of food and drinks came up, I jumped on it!

My favorite raw food so far is definitely the nut cheeses. Nut cheeses are made with nuts (duh) and nut milk. We started with a sampler plate of three different cheeses made of macadamia, almonds, and cashews. For the record, Jerry has totally fed into my "I can make that!" philosophy by suggesting we try to make some! Thanks for believing in me honey!

Zucchini and Tomato Lasagna

Next, we had our entrees. Jerry ordered the Zucchini-Tomato Lasagna, which also happens to be Howard Stern's favorite. I know this because Howard and I are such good friends. This entree used zucchini in place of pasta and had basil pistachio pesto, sun-dried tomato marinara, and macadamia pumpkin seed ricotta. It was delicious! Not as delicious as real lasagna, but we're working with raw food here, people! I had the Sweet Corn and Cashew Tamales with Chili Spiced Portabella. There was an awesome cacao mole sauce on the plate that was chocolatey and cinnamony!

Dark Chocolate Trio

Dessert was the best part! Everything was covered in dark chocolate. We had the Dark Chocolate Trio, which consisted of chocolate cardamom coconut ice cream cone, pistachio gelato ice cream sandwich, and chai tea creamsicle. The ice cream sandwich was ridiculously good. Jerry preferred the chai tea creamsicle. 

Ok, are you ready for my soap box? Here it goes!

Since becoming type 1, I have had several people suggest to me that I can "cure" my diabetes by eating a raw food diet. I have a real problem with people who suggest they have a "cure." In my professional life, working with families affected by autism, I struggle with this all the time. It angers me when people play on others' vulnerabilities and hopefulness while disseminating misinformation that can be potentially dangerous. By suggesting that I will never have to take insulin again by following a raw diet angers me and my fucked up pancreas. He's working really hard to not function, you know!

While I occasionally enjoy eating raw, if it comes down to eating raw for the rest of my life or taking a unit or two of insulin to enjoy a slice of cake, shoot me up baby!

*Title cleverly suggested by Jerry