Well, Super Bowl Sunday is coming up and somehow I got talked into hosting a party for a select group of sports fans called “women”.  Yes, this year I have started the Ladies Only Super Bowl Party so the pressure is on to make sure the food served is not only healthy but also fun and non-cliché. For example, I have banned potato chips and ranch dip as well as no store bought cheese queso dip and corn chips.  These will be replaced with such Mother Earth Meals specialties as homemade rainbow salsa, humus and multi-grain chips. I can’t wait to figure out the rest of the menu but I’m confident it will be different and yummy for my guests.

Even though I grew up in a house full of girls, my father was a huge football fan.  Chicago Bears, and the Green Bay Packers were his teams.  We even spent one summer vacation up in Wisconsin where a portion of that trip included visiting the 1962 Packers training camp.  I was probably five years old but still remember my mother filming with the Super 8 camera my father shaking hands with Paul Horning, and Bart Starr, two famous Green Bay Packers.  So, Super Bowl Sunday always takes me back to my roots when we would break the rules and eat dinner on the TV trays and watch the game.  Those days, the food served was much different than what I’m planning.  It was “pigs in a blanket” (anyone know what this would be?) or celery sticks with cream cheese spread inside, and of course potato chips and dips.

Times change, food habits change, but the joy of entertaining and gathering with friends never changes. Cheers to a super, Super Bowl celebration!

The big topic of conversation last week centered on Paula Deen.  For those who don’t own a TV or surf the web, Paula announced that she has Type 2 Diabetes.  This revelation has sparked a lively debate among friends and family about her health, cooking style and responsibility to her fans and the public.

Personally I adore Paula.  She is beautiful, entertaining and a bit naughty.  Just the kind of girl I love.   However, you will not find one of her cookbooks among my collection.  I don’t need a degree in nutrition to know that all of that added fat and sugar are detrimental to my diet.  That’s not to say that I don’t indulge occasionally (OK, a bit more than occasionally…),  but I do know right from wrong.

For those who love to cook, cooking shows can be a great source of entertainment and inspiration.  Use them as a guide to inspire your creativity, but keep in mind that you alone are accountable for your own health.  Don’t expect doctors, drugs or TV chefs to do all the work for you.   Remember, healthy cooking, healthy eating, healthy you!

My Unsolved Mysteries

I was just thinking of things that happen in my everyday world that I just can’t explain.  Here are a few of them.

Mystery #1:

You know, it amazes me that even though we are down to just three of us left at home, my grocery bills are the same as when we had five people.  It feels like I cook the same amount of food each week, the refrigerator is stocked as though we have a full house, and the pantry looks like it is feeding an army.  Why do I feel like I have to accommodate food for a minimum family of five when that is not the case?  I know this mentally, every time I grocery shop, and cook, yet the behavior is engrained in me and I can’t stop it. How can this be? It is such a mystery.

Mystery #2:

My mother-in-law, bless her heart, raised nine kids on her husband’s teacher’s salary.  That in itself is a mystery.  But even bigger than that, seven of those children were boys, big boys, (I believe all played football) who ate a LOT of food and drank a whole lot of milk. For example, my husband’s pre-game meal for football was four cheeseburgers.  FOUR CHEESEBURGERS!  Putting that in perspective, there were four boys all within four years of each other so there were four in high school at the same time.  Since they all played football she probably cooked a minimum of 20 cheeseburgers for dinner (remember there were more younger kids to feed too) on Friday nights.  How does one whip up that many burgers plus whatever else they ate while chaos was brewing around them as well?  You just know someone couldn’t find their lucky socks, lost a cleat, a baby was crying, etc. etc. How did she pull that off?  It’s a mystery.  By the way, the woman still has her sanity and looks great at the age of 80!

I could go on, but I won’t bore you and will stop here.  The thing is, we all have our unsolved mysteries.  Feel free to share yours with us.

Merriam-Webster defines comfort food as that which is prepared in a traditional style having a usually nostalgic or sentimental appeal.  In other words, a meal that is both soul satisfying and takes you back to your childhood.  When I think of my favorite comfort foods, they are indeed traditional, made with the most natural of ingredients and are rich in taste and texture but not overly complicated.   You know, the foods you want to serve your family when the days are at their shortest and coldest.

Technically, I suppose comfort foods don’t have to be associated with the winter, but this is certainly the season when I crave the nostalgia.  Or maybe it’s just that it is too cold to be outside, and I prefer cooking to vacuuming.  Nevertheless, here we are approaching another winter with Mother Earth Meals and are excited to share some of our favorite comfort foods with you.  We hope you enjoy what’s on the menu these coming months.

Penny and Maryann

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well it’s a new year, and you know what that means – time to make those well intentioned resolutions.  I can’t decide if I should be ambitious this year or conservative with my expectations so maybe I’ll shoot for something half way in between. My thought is if I share them with you, then I will be more accountable and true to seeing them through.  So, here goes.

Resolution #1:  Make Mother Earth Meals a household name.  (Okay, this is a little ambitious but I believe in Mother Earth Meals so much, I want everyone to feel the same way!)

Resolution #2:  Engage in more conversation with our Mother Earth Meals fans.  Your feedback is so important to us, and I want to make sure we listen to your ideas and comments.

Resolution #3:  Become a better cook.  Stop being so intimidated by the process and just do it!  It should be fun, not scary!

Resolution #4:  Work harder at eating healthy more consistently.  Again, just do it so it becomes the only way to eat.

Resolution #5:  Resolve to fulfill the above four resolutions!

Happy New Years to all our Mother Earth Meals followers.  We love you and hope you have a healthy and happy new year!