Fancy Oatmeal for the Holidays

My kids & I are big fans of oatmeal. We go through a few kilos a month, especially in the colder months. I love how easy it is to make--I use quick oats, so I just dump it with the water in a pot, turn on the element & then turn it off again as soon as the water comes up to a boil, stir, et voila: breakfast. Plain old oatmeal is pretty boring, though, so I get creative with the add-ins. Here are two of our current holiday favourites:

Gingerbread oatmeal
Serves four

1.5 cups oatmeal
3 cups water
1-2 tablespoons molasses
1-2 teaspoons gingerbread spice
1 tablespoon vanilla
(4 parts cinnamon, 4 parts ginger, 2 parts ground cloves, 1 part nutmeg)
1-2 tablespoons brown sugar (or other sweetener)

Plain or vanilla yogurt on top

Cook oats as you usually work & then stir in the rest. Garnish with a dollop of yogurt.


Christmas oatmeal
Serves four

1.5 cups oatmeal
3 cups water
1-2 candy canes
handful of chocolate chips (or cocoa powder if you prefer it less sweet)

Crush up candy canes (my three year old loves to do this--I give her the candy in a Ziploc & she bashes them to smithereens with the back of a heavy spoon on the cutting board. Cook the oatmeal as usual & stir in chocolate & candy cane bits.


What's your favourite add-in for oatmeal? Got any recipes to share?

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Welfare Food Challenge: Meal Plan

Adapted from: Rusty Clark - On the Air M-F 8am-noon

The Welfare Food Challenge starts today. If you haven't heard of it before, the Challenge exists to highlight the inadequacy of welfare rates in BC. A single person receives only $610 a month, a rate that's been frozen for over 9 years. After you pay for the bare minimums to survive, you've got about $18 per week for food left over. (more info on the math here) Raise the Rates, with others, is working to increase awareness of the extreme poverty of people on welfare; & how this poverty costs the people of BC in human suffering & billions of wasted dollars every year.

The campaign inspired me to see what eating on $18 per person per week actually means. I sat down with an actual pen & paper, pulling up the calculator & Save On Foods app on my phone. I planned out the cheapest set of 21 meals I could think of. Here's what I came up with:

• breakfast: on sale cereal with milk or oatmeal
• lunch: peanut butter sandwiches with half an apple for lunch every day
• dinner #1: boxed macaroni & cheese with wieners & frozen peas
• dinner #2: beans, rice, & salsa with cheddar
• dinner #3: green beans, potatoes, chicken thighs
• dinner #4: tofu stir fry on rice
• dinner #5: hot dogs with baby carrots
• dinner #6: vegetarian chili with cheese
• dinner #7: tuna rice casserole with peas & cheddar

This limited menu comes to $72, assuming I could get many of the things on sale or at dollar stores. It includes two to three servings of fruit & vegetables per day--much less than is healthy. It also assumes that we already have condiments & pantry basics like cooking oil, salt, spices, sauces. There are no snacks & no desserts. There's only enough milk for 285ml per person per day--cereal & a bit for cooking or maybe a small drink for the kids. It's also counting on a bit of savings from buying a few things in bulk for the four of us--a single person likely couldn't have even this variety of food.

I'm fairly sure it's impossible to get enough fibre, protein, or fresh fruit & vegetables on this little money. & even if you are extremely resourceful with free community meals, picking up the occasional day olds that some restaurants toss out & go to the food bank, you would still be hard pressed to eat healthily.

I can't imagine eating this way, day in & day out. There's no room for going out for treats, there's no room for birthday cake or having a friend over for dinner. There's no room for variety. The stress of shopping for food & making ends meet with this tiny budget would be soul crushing over the long term. 

While I spent an hour or so puzzling this out, I don't plan to actually eat this way this week. Most of us are recovering from bad colds & I honestly don't want to subject my small children to such poor nutrition for the week. It breaks my heart that so many children & adults in this province have to live on so little. 

Please help me send a message to our government that this needs to change. Go sign the petition to raise welfare rates & write a letter to your MLA to ask for action on the issues that impact poverty: get rid of the arduous barriers to receiving income assistance, increase the minimum wage, provide more publicly funded childcare, increase low-income housing stock, & raise the welfare rates. A sample letter is provided at this link. 

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#CarFreeCamping: Food for Four (+ 8 Tips)

Planning the food for four of us to spend three days camping was a fun challenge. Since we carried everything on transit, we tried to keep the food light & packable, picking up a few heavy or fluffy/crushable items in Nanaimo near the end of our journey to Newcastle Island. Here was our menu:

Making oatmeal for breakfast

Day one we were travelling until nearly dinner time:
Lunch: fruit, nuts, carrots
Snack: potato chips
Dinner: fire roasted hot dogs
Dessert: roasted marshmallows

Day two we walked around a bit & explored the two beaches near either end of the camp site:
Breakfast: oatmeal with chocolate chips
Lunch: fruit, carrots, nuts, peanut butter & jam wraps
Snack: potato chips
Dinner: pasta with tuna, peas & alfredo sauce
Dessert: roasted marshmallows, chocolate

Picnic lunch at Midden Beach on our long hike

Day three we went on a long hike (about 8km) so there were lots of snacks:
Breakfast: oatmeal & chocolate chips
Snack: nuts, raisins, apples, oranges
Lunch: peanut butter & jam wraps
Snack: chocolate, potato chips (yes, again--Oli bought THREE bags in Nanaimo!), carrots, cucumber
Dinner: brown instant rice with red lentil dahl
Dessert: roasted marshmallows
Snack: popcorn (Jiffy pop!)

Day four we packed up & left our camp site by lunch time, then spent the rest of the day in transit until a late dinner at home:
Breakfast: oatmeal with chocolate chips
Lunch: sandwiches, sausage, carrots, apples, cucumber
Snack: trail mix, cookies

Great new bike racks outside Famous Foods

For drinks, I packed quite a bit of powdered whole milk, but the kids didn't really like drinking it straight. It was great in our tea & in the oatmeal, however. I'll probably bring a lot less next trip. The kids are pretty good about drinking plain water, but just to keep them really hydrated, I brought a few single packets of Kool Aid. They loved it, even when made at half strength, & sported red 'moustaches' most of the weekend.

Oliver picked up a cheap 2L 'cardbordeaux' & a few cans of beer too, which we had at dinner & in the evenings. We specifically went for red wine & dark beer so they'd be tolerable to drink once they weren't that cold anymore.

A few useful tips I used on this trip:

Famous Foods selection of vaccuum packed pastas 

1. Famous Foods is a great place to shop for backpacking food. They have powdered whole milk, which tastes way better than the usual powdered skim that I've bought elsewhere. Their freeze dried peas & onions are super light & taste good when rehydrated, which only took soaking in water (they also sell freeze dried corn & soup mixes). I didn't buy this, but there were some great looking vaccuum packed pasta & sauce dishes there too for about $5 for three servings. I think I'll try those next time
2. Multipurpose ingredients make packing easier. Apples were eaten whole, sliced into tortillas for wraps, chopped to sweeten oatmeal. Chocolate chips & raisins also went into oatmeal & made trail mix with almonds.
3. The Coghlan's multi spice shaker is refillable--I switched the paprika for cinnamon. We also used the salt, pepper, cayenne, curry powder, & garlic powder.
4. Dense, light, high protein & fatty foods are great for active trips. We brought landjaeger dry sausage, which doesn't really need refrigeration, plus a lot of almonds, as well as a small amount of that 'powdered' shelf stable parmesan for our pasta dinner.
5. No Name marshmallows are great--they taste just as good as the brand name ones, which is more than I can say for their vanilla ice cream. Ugh.
6. Buy food according to cooking times. I got red lentils because they cook faster & don't require soaking rather than the green that I prefer. I chose rotini instead of other types of pasta because it cooks two to three minues faster. This isn't a huge thing, but on a multi day trip, it could make the difference between running out of stove fuel early or not.
7. Tortillas don't squish. We ate wraps for lunch two days on the island--tortillas are great camp food, while not light, they are really compact & don't get damaged in transit. 
8. Ziplocs are your friend. I measured the amount we needed for the trip & packed most of our food in zipper bags: oatmeal, powdered milk, chocolate chips, almonds, raisins, lentil dahl mix, freeze dried peas, pasta, pre chopped carrots, baby carrots.

Chocolate oatmeal for breakfast

I think we had a good balance of healthy food--we actually ate a fair bit of vegetables & fruit, kept fairly well hydrated, & didn't take too much food home with us. 

A few things I'd change about our trip for the next time: I brought way too much powdered milk, about 20% too much pasta, rice, oats, & lentils. We definitely didn't need three bags of chips--one would have been enough. More peanut butter would have been nice too, but we made the small amount last. Also, I needed to add more of the freeze dried onion to the dahl mix.

I'm pretty pleased with myself--this was the first trip I've planned where food weight was really a consideration. All our past camping trips were by car, where weight is fairly irrelevant, except for the bikepacking trip last summer to Galiano, but our friends planned the food for that one.


For more info on how to get to Newcastle, check out my post on taking transit from Vancouver to the island here. 

This post has details on how to pack light on a car free camping trip for four. 

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Stop & Smell the... Apples?!

OMG, we have apples on our trees? Full story of our accidental orchard on the blog. :) [Link in profile] #eatlocal #anappleaday #eastvan

A photo posted by Lisa Corriveau (@spokesmama) on Jun 10, 2016 at 7:04pm PDT

About seven or eight years ago, an apple core escaped the green waste bin, or maybe was just chucked into the weeds on the edge of our driveway at the back of the house. It sprouted & grew in the little strip of dirt there, up against the tall wood fence. We noticed it once it got to be a couple of feet high, maybe the next year, realizing that it was an apple tree. We sort of forgot about it for quite a while, at various points doing a bit of a hack job pruning it to keep it out of the way of the garbage & green waste carts.

A few days ago, I happened to glance over at the tree (or trees, technically--it's two) & was amazed to see apples! We bought another apple tree via the Treekeeper sale in the past year & I guess the cross pollination was what spurred on the fruit this year.

As an aside, this should give you a sense of how busy I've been lately--I've had so much bikey stuff going on (the Cargo Bike Championships, Bike to School/Work Week, finalzing all the details for the first ABCs of Family Biking Workshop, planning a Vancouver Family Biking Ride, writing an article for Momentum Magazine, Active Transportation Policy Council Meetings, planning our involvement in Car Free Day) that I didn't even Instagram the apples until today.

So here they are, about three dozen apples in all, growing between the concrete driveway & the fence. Hopefully they don't get eaten by pests & we'll have a good crop!

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WIN 2 Tickets to Savour Our Neighbourhood

Savour Our Neighbourhood 2016 – The Mount Pleasant Family Centre Society's 3rd annual fundraising event – is almost upon us! Thursday, March 10th, from 5:30pm to 9:30pm, we're creating a feast for the senses, filling Heritage Hall with local food, craft beer, BC wine, & music.

At Savour Our Neighbourhood you'll sample bites from a variety of local restaurants and eateries, sip beverages from local microbreweries and premium BC wineries. You won't be able to resist dancing to the infectious soul and funk of some of Vancouver’s finest musicians. You'll have the chance to win some incredible prizes in the raffles and silent auction. This is an adult only event (19+).

If this sounds like fun to you, enter the contest to WIN two tickets to Savour Our Neighbourhood!

There are several options for entry--please do as many as you like to improve your chances of winning. Contest closes at 11:59pm Monday, March 7. The winner will be contacted by email & must reply within 24 hours to claim their tickets. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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How I lost 23 pounds

Zucchini "pasta" made with my new veggie noodler

It's been about four months now since I started actively trying to lose weight. I've done some reading & tried a few approaches. It seems to be working: I've lost over 20 pounds so far & I feel like the way I eat is sustainable, not deprivation.

People often notice that I've dropped a few sizes, & I've had a few ask what my 'secret' is, so I thought I'd share. (spoiler alert! It's not really a secret)

Before I say anything further, let me say this is just what has worked for me, I know everyone's bodies are different so if you to try eating the same way, your mileage may vary. I am not a dietician, or a medical professional of any sort, nor do I claim to be any sort of expert or diet guru.

Now that's out of the way, here's the list of what I've learned in the past few months, in no particular order:

This veggie bean soup was yummy!

1. I don't drink my calories. When I have a can of pop or a fancy espresso drink here & there during the week, the calories add up fast. I've also read that calories in liquid form don't register in the same way as a full belly from a huge salad or bowl of rice & beans. I may still want to eat even though I've just consumed a 1000 calorie beverage. Beware smoothies for this reason, especially the ones from fast food places or smoothie places--they often have a ton of added sugar on top of the fruit & veg that may be in them.
2. Refined starchy foods aren't worth it. I'm not going all Atkins on you, but I do avoid the more processed carbs as much as possible. Anything made mainly from white flour--pasta, bread, muffins, cookies, crackers--has a lot of calories & not much else. Fibre is really key in helping you feel full & slowing down the metabolism of the sugars that these starches turn into rather quickly, so I still eat some starchy foods, but I try to pick whole grain versions when I'm eating things like bread or pasta. I've also started doing a lot of substitutions like zucchini 'noodles' for spaghetti or ramen, roasted chickpeas when I get a potato chip urge, or high fibre cereal with fruit rather than just toast for breakfast.
3. There is no magic bullet. It's not about superfoods, fat burners or supplements but just fewer calories. All the magic formulas or secret tricks that are out there are just marketing. Easy answers sell diet books & make snake oil peddlers like Dr. Oz millions of dollars, but I think the sad fact of the matter is that eating less crappy food is the only way to lose weight & be healthy. Which leads me to my next point...
4. I track what I eat. I always thought my diet was pretty good, but I rarely ate green leafy veg, consumed way too much fatty dairy (11% greek yogurt, several ounces of cheese a day, plus milk & occasional ice cream binges) & just a lot more calories than I needed. But I didn't really know what I should be eating until I started actually writing it down (or entering it into MyFitnessPal, technically) Tracking also helps me identify foods that are higher calorie than I may have realized, like salads at restaurants (the dressing & add-ons like dried fruit & nuts are often super sugary & fatty). I won'tdo this forever, but I think it's helping me stay honest when it comes to portion sizing & snacking.
5. Portion sizes are important. I attended a nutrition class led by a dietitian a few months ago. Seeing the fake food she brought along was really helpful for me to get a sense of how much to eat. Using an app to track my diet helps me rejig my portion sizes too. & though you might think that it means always having less than I want to, it's not all bad news. I realized that the 'official' recommended portion size for fruit & vegetables is 1/2 cup/120ml--half a banana or half an apple, a handful of peas or carrots. It's not that hard to get in the 5-10 fruit & veg recommended in the Canada Food Guide.
6. Calories have nothing to do with satiety. Reading Eat To Live then trying fairly low-calorie salads as meals really hammered this one home for me. The stomach doesn't feel full based on calories consumed but bulk, so I eat low calorie, high fibre, & nutrient dense foods more often. Meaning veggies, fruit, beans & legumes. Huge salads or plates loaded with raw veggies & oil-free hummus dip satisfy my North American desire to consume mass quantities while being full of nutrients but not necessarily calories.
7. Protein isn't as important as people think. I'm not saying it's unnecessary, but there's no reason to go out of my way to add it in. Adding a few grams of chopped nuts to my oatmeal or cereal in the morning does put off the stomach rumbles for a little longer, but that's the only difference I've noticed. From what I've read, if I'm eating enough food, I'll get enough protein. 
8. Fat has its place: a very small place. A teaspoon of oil to sautee with, an ounce or less of cheese grated on dinner, or the (most likely) healthy fats in nuts, olives & avocadoes added to salad is great. But the processed stuff (butter, olive oil, etc) is basically just fat & doesn't generally have any other significant nutritional value.

I ate one of these. Just one. In past I likely would have had four.

That's about it. Michael Pollan's very simple advice in In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto sums up most of the above: "Eat food. Mostly Plants. Not too much." Another thing to mention is that I don't really consider this a "diet" in the sense that it's a temporary change in eating habits to lose weight. I see this as a permanent change to my eating habits. Or perhaps I should say an ideal to continue striving for, since I don't have a 'perfect' diet. I still eat chocolate, have cake at birthday parties, & eat the occasional handful of deep fried potato chips or fries. But my eating habits are healthier, I feel better, & I'm about the same size I was in my early 20s, which feels good too.

One last thing: you may have noticed that all of the above is about eating. Nothing about exercise. This is not because I think changing eating habits is the only way to lose weight. Being physically active is vital. But for me, with osteoarthritis in my hip limiting further options for exercise, diet had to be the main part of my strategy. I do bike about 50km a week & walk fairly often too. I don't really think of it as exercising, since it's just how I get around & it's nothing new. But there's no question that keeping as active as I can has helped me keep my metabolism running higher than it might be if I were to cut calories alone.

So there you have it. Does any of the above surprise you? Have you tried eating this way yourself?

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