My opinion on Marriage

http://www.weddingclan.com/5-ideas-gay-wedding-vows.html

The belief in the rights of same sex marriage can be compared to the belief in the rights of having an arranged marriage. Both sets of marriage systems are based upon an individual’s belief system, usually always rooted in one’s religious background.  It would be naive to expect those whose faiths do not agree with either type of marriage arrangements to change their views easily; however, it is ludicrous to think it justifiable to outlaw a type of marriage based on religious views. Arranged marriages happen in the United States within groups of South Asian and Middle Eastern immigrants who have brought this practice with them from their homelands. “We the People” do not step in and say that this is against the law to practice because we allow and protect religious freedom and equal rights for all citizens. This is why people come to this country, for true freedom. We are a secular nation; therefore no government can prohibit rights based on religious beliefs.

It is obvious that as a U.S. citizen a person has the freedom to choose whether or not to participate in any religious system, so if a woman in the United States of Hindu religion chooses not to not marry a man who has been arranged by her family to marry, there is no legal consequences that will effect her freedom or rights. Although she may face problems within her family and faith, no one can force her into a marriage. She is still free to make her own choice, this includes marrying the person whom she has been arranged to marry.

To outlaw gay marriage, even if there seems to be a majority rule against it, would be unconstitutional. You would be taking a way an individual’s right to practice his or her own beliefs and choose to marry the person they wish to marry. It would be imposing on the same freedom that we say we try to protect in the United States. The constitution of the United States says that no State shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

In my opinion, gay marriage does not hurt anyone. It may be offensive to some, but unless it is causing physical harm to someone, there is no justification for removing the right of marriage from anyone.

Also, where are these statistics coming from that say there is a majority that rules against gay marriage? Statistics cannot be accurate when they do not include studies across every city and town throughout the nation. I have never filled out a questionnaire that asked for my opinion, nor have I ever known someone who has filled out such a questionnaire. This proves that it is possible that there are many voters and citizens whose beliefs are not being accounted for. We should not be asking only the opinions of White Catholic Midwest middle-aged Americans for their opinions. The future of our nation is our children. We should be tapping into our high schools and colleges to see our future generations’ opinions for the importance of this and if their beliefs protect constitutional rights.

            Personal belief systems are very complex. Our own beliefs are based on our background, religion, and upbringing, so we cannot expect that people’s views will change overnight. However, the tolerance of opposing views should be expected in this country, as our country was built by people who were seeking equality and freedom. There is no way to justify a ban on gay marriage because you are then saying it is okay to remove someone’s rights for equality and freedom.

In my opinion, if you are against gay marriage, then don’t marry a man if you’re a man, a woman if you’re a woman, and don’t attend a gay wedding. For all other purposes, people should keep their beliefs to themselves and stop imposing their beliefs as if they should be law. This is not Vatican City. Church and State are separate and always will be in the United States. We cannot call ourselves a secular nation if we allow states to prohibit personal freedoms based on religious beliefs.

                                     http://www.mywedding.com/blog/tag/gay/

Also, as a side note, I think the real problem lies in the fact that there is no sanctity of marriage anymore. Almost 49 % of marriages in the U.S. end in divorce. To me, the issue shouldn't be whether to  allow gays to marry or not, but if anyone should be allowed to marry. Statistics show us that marriage already has troubles and so there would be no way to justify to me that gay marriage is going to have a negative impact on marriage as an establishment. Marriage has already been ruined by heterosexuals. Maybe we need gay couples to redeem its symbolism of love and commitment for us. If its worth saving than its worth allowing gays (who love each other just as much as any man or woman could love each other) to participate in its unity.

          http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2011-02/15/content_12016284.htm

Changing our nation

The American lifestyle is one of great consumption. From the suburbs to the city, Americans spend, consume, eat, and waste more than any other country in the world. Same as the American lifestyle, our eating habits are overly indulgent and wasteful. Our indulgent natures combined with the race towards earning money and success demands us access to a greater and faster food supply. This demand has caused livestock and corn industries to produce and over yield crops, turning out less nutritious food and pushing high levels of toxins into the environment. The consequences of our food consumption affect our country’s health, climate, and economics and until we change our overall philosophy to a less meat-oriented nation, we will not be able to change the food supply structure that is negatively impacting our lives and futures.

In the past few decades, advertisements and marketing have helped mold the American view on what we eat. Although organic foods have always been available, it has only been in recent years that companies have been advertising organic and all natural products. In our supermarkets, products are going “Green.” Going “green” has become a successful trend in marketing and has improved general awareness towards leading healthier lifestyles.

The overall global awareness in recent years is an important step towards changing the American philosophy about food, but faster change is needed in order to reduce the current issues we face. Overexposure to antibiotics, access waste and toxins in our water supply, and less nutritious food are only the highlights of a very long list of health and environmental problems we face from being a meat oriented nation. The best and easiest possible way to change our nation’s ideas of how we eat is through positive advertising geared towards changing our views on food. Such successful marketing as “Go Green” helps companies profit for their efforts in environmental responsibility. The incentives to participate in this trend influence the food industries way of providing what consumers want. Through marketing a new diet to the American people, change towards a new relationship between us and our food could alter American eating habits and reconfigure the way food is supplied.

No other country in the world consumes as much meat as the United States. The idea of reducing our meat consumption requires great marketing strategies. Such marketing towards a “less meat” diet would need to resemble the “green” movement in that it would need to entice people to participate in it. Being green is becoming part of the American lifestyle, especially because of how accessible it has become. Such trends in our society gain popularity when it is available and useful to the consumer.  When such a trend is fully acknowledged by American society, great leaps in developing change spreads across the world.

Small steps can turn into permanent habits. If a new slogan or campaign was created to help advance our beliefs on what a meal needs in order to be healthy and easy,  Americans might be influenced enough to get past our obsession with having meat at every meal. Such a change as this could restructure our eating habits and demand for food, changing the food industry entirely.

Molto Batali è molto bene!

A new cookbook is always a motivator for me. Its like a game to see how many recipes I can master. A good friend of mine gave me a cookbook for Christmas, the 2011 Mario Batali's Molto Batali: From My Home To Yours. I've already cooked a few dishes from it and I must say its no wonder Mario is so plump if this is how he eats at home. His twist on dishes is fun and flavorful, like the Spicy Pumpkin Soup (which had cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes- I thought it was  a great flavor combo with the pumpkin). But since I'm not feeding a family of 6, the challenge is getting these recipes to meet my life's criteria. I'm cutting ingredient quantities in half and not using as much salt and oil as the recipes call for, but still the calories and fat content I'm assuming is probably up there. 


Just to be clear, my goal in finding healthy ways of living is not about dieting, so I'm not going to count calories or grams of fat. I just want to create better eating habits and eat right. My definition of eating right isn't going to be the same as others, but for me it means eating healthy, having lots of veggies in my meals, and portion control (this is difficult for me since I like to eat a lot of whatever tastes good). I want to have a well rounded diet. I am not overweight and looking to lose pounds, but I absolutely need to shape up and a huge part of that is shaping up my diet. The true goal is to eat well, feel well, and live well. 


With this in mind, I've focused in on the vegetable dishes in my new cookbook, but some of the ingredients are a challenge. I would love to find zucchini flowers (my grandmother used to pick them out of her garden and fry them) but I'm pretty sure they're hard to come by in grocery stores. I wish I knew what a cardoon or kohlrabi was and I may sometime venture to google them, but until then I'm not letting these unusual ingredients dampen my Batali spirit for cooking. 


Last night I made the stuffed cabbage, "Lingurian style." I give it a 3.5 of 5 hearts (for how much I loved it). Here's the recipe if you're interested:


http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/the-chew/recipes/Mario-Batali-Stuffed-Cabbage-Ligurian-Style


I recommend anyone who is trying this recipe to give yourself enough prep time. I  spent over an hour chopping, combining and sauteing on the stove before I could roll those suckers up and stick them in the oven. I am also working with very little counter space so that was a factor in what slowed me down. I had all the ingredients accept for the fresh basil (mine wilted) so I used dry basil. I wish I didn't use the full amount of parsley the recipe called for because it was slightly overpowering, however overall I'm very happy with my results. I have plenty of leftovers and extra filling which the book notes to try using in a frittata. Sounds scrumptious. 

I took the cabbage rolls for lunch today, and had one at dinner. There's plenty of leftovers for a single girl but if you try this recipe, plan to share! Is it healthy? Cabbage, potatoes, onion and ricotta cheese.... I say its a wise choice for a Batali dish.

A day, a month, a year

Its officially 2012. I have stuffed my face from Thanksgiving to Christmas and now I'm back here writing to the world wide web on how I'm ready to get back on track. Its been great eating everything I look forward to enjoying over the holidays- pasta, seafood, pizza, pastries...and the list goes on. Now I am back at work after a week and a half vacation and am being forced to get back into a routine.

Its another day, month, year, semester... but I'd like to make things better for myself this time around. The same obstacles exist from 2011 but I think I'm ready to handle things a bit differently for 2012. I'll be 29 this year (just a few months away) and I'd really like to feel and look my best for my birthday. I also have my best friend's wedding coming up and that is also another motivation for me. 

To start off I have decided to give up red meat for the next month. Starting today, Jan 10 until Feb.10th. I think my body needs a break and I'd prefer to get back to my vegetarian roots. Lots of veggies and fish for the next 30 days! Any suggestions on easy recipes for healthy meals and such, let me know!

How much should I eat?

There's this great website I found a while back called www.mealsmatter.org. They have fun quizes and a personal nutrition planner that helps get you in the mood for healthy eating. The nutrition planner is based on your age, weight, height, sex... all the things that determine how much we need to eat. The quantities given are recommendations to maintaining your average body weight and so eating more or less will help you gain or lose weight. Here is what Meelsmatter.org had to say about what I should eat: 

This information is based on the most current food pyramid. Now its time to plan some meals!

Cutting Ties with the Past

Hello!
So before I could go grocery shopping, I decided to empty my fridge of any bad energy that could contaminate my new healthy outlook on eating. Apparently I'm in worse shape than I thought. I opened the fridge door to an eclectic mix of leftovers and untouched foods turning bad. First there was week-old Chinese takeout, then leftover Domino’s pizza, a bag of chocolates, a half empty 12 pack of beer and lastly an almost empty bottle of cheap white wine (not mine btw). The only healthy food was a box of organic lettuces I bought 2 weeks ago and never ate so the lettuce lay gooey and wet in its plastic container. 
When did i turn into a 20 year old frat boy? If what the inside of my fridge says anything about me, it’s that I'm a mess! I'm so disappointed in myself after seeing what’s become of my eating habits, but now I’m even more motivated to get my groceries in check! 

Monday blues- 11/14/11

Its Monday...again. I dread Mondays simply because it’s the beginning and not the end of the week. Mondays also make me irritable because I’m usually not prepared for them. I sit in the office contemplating what I’m going to eat for lunch, meanwhile starving because I haven't had any breakfast yet. So far the only thing I’ve eaten today (by the way it’s almost lunchtime) is a gas station cappuccino and a brownie (from a batch my co-worker brought in earlier). See what I mean? Not prepared.     Seriously, at this rate my teeth are going to fall out from this much sugar. I can't blame anyone but myself. The lack of enthusiasm in preparing meals is partially a byproduct of many years living on my own, cooking too much food for one person, and then struggling all week long to eat the same thing over and over again so as not to waste it. 
You see, I’m a food junkie, a foodie, whatever you want to call it. I loooovvvvee food. I love cooking, finding new ingredients, trying new flavors, and my all-time favorite thing is having the freshest foods and knowing I’m eating healthy.
That entire last sentence was absolutely true up until about a year ago. I’m not quite sure what the turning point was, but my passion for food and caring for what I eat is almost nonexistent. It’s actually scary what I’m willing to eat nowadays…KFC, McDonalds, Subway…OMG I’m on the fast track to Fattyville and I’m the conductor of this train! It hasn't always been this bad, but the past few months I've acquired the laziest of attitudes towards eating- either i just don't do it or i eat from the first fast food joint i can find. It's not about gaining weight, although that is one of my concerns, it’s about knowing I’m not eating well therefore I'm not feeling well. I've got to start eating better so i can work better, feel better and handle stress better. I know it’s all connected, no one has to tell me, now I've got to do something about it before this spiraling takes me to places I never wished to go. 
Ok, so how come in the past 8 years I’ve lived on my own, it’s just started to be a struggle for me to plan my meals? I can tell you I'm needing something easy right now and the easy ways are not exactly at my disposal. I don't own a microwave, my kitchen doesn't have a dishwasher (I hate washing dishes by hand), and Tupperware is starting to annoy me (it always stinks of whatever food was in it). Another reason is by now i thought i would have my own private chef so i wouldn't have to worry about cooking anymore. At any rate, I’m nowhere near hiring my own chef or buying a dishwasher, so as I approach my 10 year reunion (yikes!) and the inevitable 30s (I’m 28 years old, but I’m aware of the countdown), it’s time to whip myself and my refrigerator into shape before it’s too late. I figure if i do this publicly, I’ll be more inclined to stick to it. 
Here's the plan, tonight I will create a plan for 4 days of meals and go grocery shopping. I will blog about the meals I create and will research the best ways to get the right nutrients on a budget.


Here are my obstacles- time, money, motivation, and my newest obstacle, there’s no microwave in the new office.
Consider this my food diary. Whether it’s worth reading or not, i leave that up to you....wish me luck!