#*I think it's zucchini but essentially you end up with so many of them you just dump them in people's mail boxes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

needs-to-stop-looking-at-valves · 2 years

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So you clearly love encanto- can you give us some headcanons?

Pfft? What? I don't have any. Totally.

Okay maybe I have a few lowkey-(note, all these are sfw, nsfw can be done upon request)

Julieta doesn't like eating. She spends pretty much every day making food, so she's honestly sick of looking and thinking about it.

Having said that, she does get excited when other people cook/make her drinks. She loves being surprised! You should have seen her face when Augustín made her hot chocolate bombs. It's got chocolate??? Marshmallows?? Sprinkles??? Proudest moment of his life here.

Isa is the one out of the three sisters that was taught to cook. Being the favorite by Alma, she was essentially raised to be 'the perfect wife'. Her food is lovely, and she has quite literally been given marriage proposals after eating her dishes. Having said that, she HATES cooking. She thinks it's boring. Fuck making dinner, she'd rather look at a cactus.

Julieta still wants Isa to know how to cook, because it's a useful life skill. So she tries to do recipes that will get her attention, like stuffed zucchini blossoms.

Pepa doesn't drink alcohol, but gives wine aunt vibes. She doesn't like how alcohol messes with her head, and it makes her weather even MORE unpredictable than before. She drank for like a year, before just giving it up all together.

Félix understands it and respects it. He doesn't do the same, but he makes sure whenever they go for drinks, that hers are all virgin. She still let's him drink though, because why ruin his fun?

Félix isn't picky, but he does prefer a nice white wine with dinner.

Augustín and Fèlix have guy nights, where they go get some drinks and he tries to teach him some dance moves. They invite Bruno often. Is he uncomfortable? Absolutely, but he likes hanging out with his brothers. Mariano keeps trying to join, but Fèlix doesn't let him just yet.

Agustín and Fèlix have tried to beat up each other ONCE, when they were like, in their early teens. Why? Because Bruno thought it'd be so funny to ask these two 'who's prettier, Pepa or Julieta?' They think back on it and they think it's FUNNY. Fèlix still compliments his punches.

Fèlix and Bruno get along fabulously well. So much so that when they were younger, Bruno had a huge crush on him. He's over it now, thankfully, and has told him about it over a few too many drinks. Fèlix got such a big head- he got TWO Madrigals to have a crush on him? Wild (Bruno still thinks Fèlix is a handsome guy tho).

Bruno is definitely happy that Fèlix ended up with being with Pepa. Pepa was boy crazy, and many of the old boyfriends kinda sucked. None of them really treated Bruno like a person, until Fèlix came in. Fèlix actually liked his company, which was. Crazy to him???

This is more Canon, but I wanna elaborate. Fèlix charmed the pants off of Alma. Like she poked fun of his hair and his height, in good fun, but despite what Pepa says, Alma was VERY excited to let them marry, and was very flattered when he agreed to take her last name. Fèlix is the only man who can get her into a party mood, so you see them dancing together at parties a lot.

Augustín is a cat magnet. If someone loses a pet cat, they go to him, and he just finds them with little to no effort. He doesn't understand why, cats just adore him, and even feral felines demand to be scratched behind the ears. While dogs...are the opposite.

Agustín still kisses his daughter's foreheads before they go to bed. He goes by age order, so Isa goes first (he even fluffs her pillow for her), then Luisa (he even tucks her in), and of course, Mirabel (he takes her glasses off for her as he does it). His wife meanwhile, gets cheek kisses before bed.

Luisa loves her mom, really. But it's no secret that she's a daddy's girl. Whenever she's upset, Augustín is on it, holding her in his arms and running his fingers through her hair to try and soothe her. He even does that thing where he takes her stuffed animals and put on a voice to cheer her up. He would kill a man for ANY of his daughters, try him.

Augustín still calls her things like 'his baby' or 'his little girl'. Doesn't matter how big or tall or strong she gets. She's still the bundle he held in his arms so long ago.

Félix still kisses Antonio's forehead before bed, as does Pepa. He wants to do it for Dolores too, but he respects that she's an adult. Having said that, he still checks in on her right before he goes to bed, just in case. He tried to do that for Camilo, but he stopped, since he said he didn't like it. That is, unless Pepa did it.

Félix and Camilo don't hate each other. But Camilo just loves his Mami a LOT more, and he just doesn't agree with Félix. They don't see eye to eye on stuff, so there's some distance between them. Unless for one reason or another, they're dancing or singing with each other. In fact, it's not too rare for someone to catch them dancing to whatever music is playing in town at the time. Camilo is however, a mommy's boy, Dolores is a daddy's girl, and Antonio is incapable of NOT having love for someone.

Bruno loves all his nieces and nephews. He has no favorite, and he leaps at the opportunity to hang out with any of them. Even if it's in public, and he hates being in public.

Camilo's friends are essentially one big theater group, and they're all actually REALLY fascinated with Bruno's stories. It somehow makes Camilo look even cooler to them, and yes, he gets a big head about it.

Bruno jokingly said that Camilo would grow up to look like him. Pepa came in like a hurricane when Dolores told her that her baby was crying-

Camilo and Bruno eat the most out of ANYONE in this family. Even more than Luisa. Camilo eats a bit more, but honestly they eat enough to feed a few families. Fast metabolism.

Bruno and Luisa have an affinity for sweets. It's why whenever Bruno is in town, he picks up something sweet for them to share. It's a cute thing that Bruno genuinely enjoys doing.

Bruno also tries to get to know Isabela more. His rats love cuddling in her flowers, and she loves teaching him how to make flower crowns. Whenever he's looking especially tired or lonely, she invites him to quite literally stop and smell the roses. Or any flower she feels like, Bruno isn't picky.

Félix has a HUGE family of his own. I'm talking sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews- suffice to say he grew up to be quite the family man. Everyone in his family absolutely adores Pepa. Augustín only has a mother and father, and they adore Julieta. They call her Jules.

Camilo does NOT like Mariano. At all. First of all, he's too nice to his mom for his liking, and he's secretly scared that he's going to try to take his sister away from him. Mariano tried to play catch with him to try to bond with him. That ended with him turning into Luisa, and just shattering his fucking nose. No regrets. Mariano wasn't even mad, he just said 'good job!' Before bleeding out.

Mariano does get along with Antonio though. He always finds him cool bugs and cool frogs for him whenever he comes over, and totally offers him piggyback rides whenever he wants. He's had to carry a sleeping Antonio back home more times than he could count. He's also done it once or twice for Camilo, but he never tells him. He knows he'd get embarrassed.

Mariano proposes to Dolores at least several times a day. It's different every time, as he's very creative. She denies it, because she's not ready just yet, but it's sweet, and he's never really upset at being told no. Honestly when they do actually get married, SHE'D pop the question, and he loses his MIND because? What a twist?

Mariano reads poetry for her every night, regardless of where he is. He talks about her lovely hair and her eyes and her little squeaks- he loves her so much.

Mariano wants her dad to like him, really he does. He tries too hard, and Fèlix just think it's suspicious that he moved on from Isa so fast.

Mariano and Bruno get along beautifully. He's so invested in his plays, and Bruno even let's him write some scripts. Dolores thinks it's adorable. Especially when Mirabel gets involved and makes the mice little outfits.

Mariano is so excited to be included in things. Like Bruno. Only, he's like an excited golden retriever. VERY obvious.

Bruno never does predictions on himself. Ever. It happened once during one of his involuntary visions, and it scared him so badly, he didn't sleep for three days. He still doesn't talk about what it was.

Alma is trying to relax her grip on the family. But lowkey she's screaming internally on a daily basis. It's taken some adjustments, but she's trying. Hell, she even let Isa dye a part of her hair pink to show her support.

Alma is constantly trying to find suitors for her grandkids. It's pretty common for Alma to just bring up that someone else's kids/grandkids are sweet and handsome/pretty. Still currently looking for a girlfriend for Isa, but she hasn't stopped looking.

Alma doesn't sing much, but when she does, it has the ability to put anyone to sleep. So much so, they say THIS was her gift. Julieta has insomnia, so she finds herself soothed by her mother's songs. Before Casita was rebuilt, she'd just stand by her door and listen. Now? She's confident and comfortable enough to ask her. Somehow Pepa and Bruno just know when this is happening, and join as well.

Dolores is the 'makeup crew' of the family. As in, if someone's hair is messy or your lipstick is smudged- she's on it. Dozens of family pictures were saved thanks to her. There isn't a look she can't rescue. Mariano wants to marry her when he sees her just leap in to help like that. Hell, she does his hair sometimes and it's DREAMY.

Pepa's weather affects happen in her sleep too. Her dreams affect the weather in the room, and Fèlix has learned to live with it. A small lightning rod in case of thunder, a tarp over their bed for rain, and he sleeps in trunks so his clothes don't get ruined. Pepa felt SO bad when it happened, but Fèlix was just more upset that she didn't get a goods night rest.

When Luisa first got her powers, she accidentally crushed her dad's piano. She cried so hard, even when Augustín kept telling her it was okay. Luisa can play a few keys now because she loves her dad, but it's never something she's been super passionate for.

Everyone can dance in this family. But Augustín and Bruno are the least graceful. They're awkward, but they're really into it. And yes, Bruno has absolutely salsa danced with both Félix and Augustín, he's even MORE goofy on a few drinks.

Mirabel made a bag for Bruno, with three pockets for his little rats. They like going for walks out on the town. If they behave, they get lil treats.

This family will party over ANYTHING. Bruno found out one of his rats was pregnant- they invited the whole town for a celebration.

Bruno treated the bald priest as a sort of substitute of a father. He was respected, admired by the community, Bruno just had a lot of respect for him. The guy is relatively the same age as Alma, actually. He just looks REALLY good for his age.

Mirabel didn't get a new room after the Casita got rebuilt. Instead, they fixed up the nursery to something more appropriate for a young lady. And they finally put a lock on that fucking door-(everyone just helped themselves to that bitch, no one even KNOCKED??)

Bruno doesn't want to be a dad. He doesn't like the discipline aspect of parenting, he much prefers to be the supportive uncle, someone to turn to when they can't turn to their parents. He would like to get married though, star in his own little romance story. He thinks it's too late though, being how old he is. We know it's not, but Bruno isn't exactly full of confidence.

EVERYONE still tries to wingman for him. Even Augustín tried to set up a blind date for him. It was the fish lady. Suffice to say it ended poorly.

Camilo, like his mom at his age, has been on a LOT of dates. He, she's, theys, doesn't matter. He's a pretty boy and he knows it. He's not looking for a relationship, he just likes knowing he's wanted. He tells his mom EVERY detail of his dates, and she thinks no one is good enough for her boy. Honestly if he was into commitment, he'd be the first of Pepa's kids to start a family (Dolores does take things REALLY slow, so Camilo would've grown up by this point).

Pepa kept getting into fights as a little kid. Before she got into boys, she'd throw hands with anyone who tried touching her baby brother. Then puberty hit, and it plowed her like a train, rest is history.

Mariano was kinda. Babied, because he was an only child. As in, he doesn't know how to cook or clean. He was embarrassed when he asked for Dolores to help him cook, but she thought him actually trying was cute. He's still learning, but he's so willing to help around the house. If you're patient with him, he can surprise you.

After the Casita got rebuilt, Luisa takes three days out of the week where no one asks her to do anything. On those days, she spends them napping, taking time to just spend time with her family, and actually getting into writing. Mariano actually reads her stuff. It's mostly just her writing what she did or was thinking of, and she thinks it's meaningless. But he loves it, the fact that she sits there and admires the world.

The original triplets all have recognizable ways of self soothing. Pepa runs her fingers through her hair, Bruno fumbles with something in his hands or rubs at his beard, and Julieta runs her hands over her legs in a kinda obvious way.

#encanto #not transformers #asks #okay so these are a lot #but all of these just came to me

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atlafan · 4 years

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Take it Slow - Part Nineteen

a/n: okay this is my first shot at a harry:y/n fic, and it will be multiple parts. y/n had a bad experience with an ex over a year ago, and finally accepts her coworker and good friend Niall’s invitation to go on a blind date with his friend Harry.

(Fluffy fluff! It’s the Thanksgiving part fam!)

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven Part Eight Part Nine Part Ten Part Eleven Part Twelve Part Thirteen Part Fourteen Part Fifteen Part Sixteen Part Seventeen Part Eighteen

Masterpost

Wednesday was a half day at work. Harry was busy at the beginning of the week, trying to wrap up his work before the holiday. It was a casual day at the office, so you decided to wear jeans and a cardigan. You and Niall walk out to your cars together.

“Have a great time with Sarah this weekend, her family is really nice.”

“Thanks.” He smiles at you. “Good luck tomorrow. I know Harry’ll be with ya, but-“

“I know, if I need you, I’ll call.”

“And don’t forget my dessert.”

“I won’t.” You say, rolling your eyes. You two hug goodbye, and off you go.

You drove right to the grocery store to get everything you needed for tomorrow. You had to make three different kugels. One for your dad, one for your sister’s house, and one to keep in the freezer to bring into work on Monday. Everyone would always beg you for the sweet casserole.

Harry keyed into your apartment around three, and found you cooking up a storm. You had loud music playing while the exhaust fan was on. You had your mixer going to beat all of the wet ingredients together. He smiled when he saw you wearing his apron. He had been leaving more and more of his things at your place. You didn’t mind. He walks over to you and waves hello. You’re startled, only for a second, and pause your music.

“Hi sweetie.” You say with a big smile, kissing him on the cheek. “I’m almost done, just need to pop these in the oven.” You put the casseroles together, put them in the oven, and set the timer. Your kitchen only took a few minutes to clean up since you tended to clean as you went. Harry is leaning against the counter, waiting for you. He opens his arms for you, and you happily go in for his embrace. “How was your day?”

“Good. Got a lot done. I feel good about takin’ a couple days off.”

“Good!” You look up at him.

“How was your day?” He squishes his nose to yours.

“Quick, thank god. We all mostly sat around and chatted. It’s hard to work on a project during a half day.” You brush your lips against his. “I missed you.” You squeak.

“You did?”

“Mhm.” You were trying to be more vocal with him. He needed reassurance just as much as you did. He kisses you, and you kiss him back.

“I like this on you.” He says, tugging at the apron.

“Really? I like it better on you.” You let go of him to untie it. “I couldn’t find mine for some reason. Must’ve gotten mixed in with the laundry.” You place the apron on your island. Harry lifts you up to sit on the counter, standing between your legs. You wrap your arms around his neck, and his go around your back. You liked when you two just hugged. You loved the smell of his cologne and the way his breath always smelled like mint.

“Babe?”

“Mm?”

“I love you.” You melted every time he said it. It didn’t matter how often he said it, you couldn’t hear it enough if you were being honest.

“I love you too, Harry.” He nestles his face into your neck, just nuzzling in. He was being soft with you today.

You realized that Harry had many personas when it came to you. Sometimes he was just your soft boy, looking for cuddles and small kisses. Your soft boy loved to be held at night. This side of him usually came out when he was tired. Then there was your quiet, yet cranky boy. When Harry was overtired or ravenous, he would get cranky. He would pout his lip out at you, and essentially act like a baby until you figured out how to make things better for him. Another side to Harry was when he was full of lust and domination. You wanted to refer to this as daddy Harry, but you would never tell him that. He was also careful not to be too dominating, in fear of scaring you, but you liked when he would take the lead.

You had your different personalities too that he would pick up on. How you were always so shy after he would make you orgasm, and that shyness seeping into the morning. He was a sucker for when you’d act like the baby. When you just wanted to be carried or taken care of. He also noticed slowly that you liked being in control in the bedroom. You liked telling him what to do and how to do it. Your confidence was so sexy to him.

Today he was being your soft boy, and you couldn’t get enough of it. The attention he craved from you knew no bounds. He picked you up off the counter and brought your over to the couch to lay with him.

“How ‘bout some TV?” He asks, taking the remote in his hand, switching on Parks and Rec. He grabs the blanket from the back of the couch, and throws it over your bodies. You feel cozy and warm laying against him. “Hey, whatever you’re makin’ smells pretty good.”

“Oh, thanks! It’s called kugel, remember?”

“So, just how Jewish is your family? Am I going to look like an idiot if I don’t know much?”

“Not at all baby! My brother married a gentile, and my sister is dating one.” You laugh. “You’ll be in mixed company tomorrow. As for the rest of us, we’re pretty Jewish. We all had bar and bat mitzvahs.”

“You can speak Hebrew?”

“Well, only from the Torah. I haven’t practiced in a while, but I have a lot of the prayers memorized so I don’t really need to read it. I can’t like, ask you how your day was in Hebrew or anything.”

“Did you go to temple a lot as a kid?”

“Yeah, for the most part. I went to Hebrew school on Sundays, and then once I graduated from that, I went to temple on Saturdays and had prep classes on Monday nights…for like two years.

“That’s a lot of work for a thirteen year old.”

“Sure is, why do you think we have such a big party once it’s over?”

“I bet you were so cute, up there, speakin’ Hebrew.” He giggles to himself.

About an hour or so later, the oven goes off, and you peel yourself off of Harry. He helps you get the kugels out of the oven, and he takes a big whiff.

“Oh my god, this smells incredible. I may have to try some tomorrow.” He winks at you.

“What do you wanna do for dinner tonight? I grabbed some fresh veggies and rice, I could whip up a stirfry or something.”

“You’ve been cookin’ all afternoon, let me make dinner.”

“We could cook together.”

“Deal.”

You take out the veggies from the fridge while Harry starts a pot of water for the rice. You both chop up some zucchini, asparagus, and mushrooms. It was fun to actually cook together. He let you taste test the veggies in the pan before adding the rice. You both scarfed down the stirfry, and sat back down on the couch.

“So what time do we need leave by in the morning?”

“Um, I’d say nine to get there for ten. Hang out with dad for a few hours then go to Erica’s.” Harry looks at his watch.

“Might turn in early, love. Don’t wanna be too tired.”

“Good idea. Hmmm.” You both stand up and walk to the bedroom.

“What?”

“I’m trying to decide if I wanna shower tonight, or tomorrow morning. I’ll be able to sleep in a little tomorrow if I shower tonight.”

“Good thinkin’, I’ll join ya.” He’s already taking his clothes off and turning the water on before you can answer him. “Are ya comin’?” You giggle and take your clothes off.

You get your hair wet first, and push it out of your face. You go to grab your shampoo, but Harry snatches it.

“Um, I need that.”

“I wanna do it, like how you do for me.”

“Oh.” You blush. “Alright.”

Harry puts a small bit of shampoo in his hands. You turn around and tilt your head back. His fingers massage into your scalp, and you can’t help but let out a small moan. He reaches above you to grab the shower head so he can scrub the shampoo out of your hair, the way he’s seen you do it a dozen times. Once he’s satisfied with his work, he puts the shower head back.

“Thank you baby.”

“Not done yet, conditioner.” He picks up the other bottle, takes the ends of your hair and works the conditioner in, then he turns you around so the water hits your hair. He grips it and wrings it out for you.

“Quite observant, aren’t you?” You wrap your arms around his neck, and go up on your tiptoes to kiss him. He wraps his arms around you, and gives your bum a squeeze.

“My turn please.” You giggle, but do as he says. He loved when your nails would really rake through his scalp.

Once you’re done with his hair, you take a wash cloth to wash his back and chest. He does the same for you. It was a nice, relaxing shower. You flip your hair over, and wrap it in a towel. You remember the first time Harry actually saw you do this. He laughed hysterically, but you were able to shut him up when you showed him the picture Niall had taken of him when his hair was long, and he would wrap his hair in towel. You wrap another towel around your body while Harry wraps one around his waist.

You brush your hair out after a few minutes, and begin to blow dry it. By the time you come out of the bathroom, Harry is curled up with his phone in bed. You throw a t-shirt on, and climb in with him.

“Goodnight baby.” You say to him with a soft kiss on the lips.

“Goodnight love.” He turns over like you thought he would, so you could spoon him.

Your alarm goes off at 7:30 the next morning. You’re soaked in sweat as Harry yet again managed to roll completely on top of you. He groans into your neck as you turn the alarm off. He rolls onto his back, bringing you with him on top of him, you squeal from the unexpected action.

“Harry, we need to get up. I need to do my hair and makeup. I haven’t picked an outfit out yet either.”

“But I’m so cozy.” He says, voice still thick with sleep.

“Well, you can stay in bed a bit longer, but you need to let go of me.” He groans again, but releases his grasp on you.

You go into the bathroom to do your morning routine. You plug your curling iron in, and get to work on your hair. Once you’re satisfied, you put your makeup on, and go back into your room. You smell nail polish remover and frown at the sight in front of you. Harry is hunched over on the side of the bed, rubbing his nails with a tissue.

“Babe, what are you doing?”

“It was startin’ to get chipped, so I thought I would take it all the way off.” You frown. His nails were still done from when you went away that weekend. He was trying to hold onto the color for as long as he could.

“Well, I have some quick drying polish if you wanna do them up quick.” You go into your dresser and take out some black nail polish. “See?”

“I think it’ll be fine for today if my nails aren’t painted. I don’t want to give off any weird impressions.”

“Oh Harry, I want you to be yourself around my family.”

“I will be. I’m still wearin’ my rings, and s’not like I can take my tattoos off.” He gives you a reassuring smile. “Tell ya what, when we get back tonight I’ll let ya paint my nails for me.”

“Alright.” You smile back at him. You open your closet and furrow your brows. “What dress do you think I should wear?” He gets up and stands next to you to look over the options.

“How ‘bout that navy one?” You liked your navy dress. It covered your breasts, and had a thin belt to help show your curves.

“Excellent choice.” You kiss him on the cheek.

Harry goes into the bathroom to do his thing while you put a lace bra and panties on. You take out some nylons, and roll them onto your legs.

“Holy shit.” You look up and see Harry staring at you.

“What?”

“You look so…fucking sexy like that.” Your cheeks flush.

“We do not have time for this.” You step into your dress, and pull it up. “Please come help me zip this up.” Harry pads over to you, and slowly zips your dress up, lingering for just a moment to kiss the back of your neck. “What are you going to wear?”

Harry goes to the side of the closet you had cleared for him a while ago. You wanted him to be able to leave some dress shirts and pants at your place. He pulls out a white button up and a pair of green dress pants.

“How ‘bout this?” You loved his green pants. They were a nice forest green that helped bring out the color of his eyes. You also liked when he would wear a white button up, so you could still make out some of the tattoos on his arms.

“I think that would be perfect.” You slip on your navy flats and head into the kitchen. You pull out two casseroles from the fridge and set them on the counter.

Harry comes sauntering out of your room. He has those light brown Chelsea boots on he loves so much. You watch him walk by and can’t help but notice the perfect curve of his butt in his slacks. This was going to be a very long day.

“What?” He asks, noticing you staring.

“Nothing, you just look handsome.” He blushes. He knows she wants him. “Help me carry these down to the car?”

Harry slips his jacket on, and grabs the casseroles from the counter while you put on your p-coat. You grab your keys, much to his dismay. Harry preferred to drive, but you told him since it was your family thing, you would drive.

“Looks like it’ll be a nice day out.” He says looking out the window as you pull out of the parking lot.

“Yup, just a little brisk out.” You hit a spot of traffic thirty minutes into the drive, and you groan. “I hate the way people drive.” This was the first time Harry would see you drive on the highway. You were trying to keep your road rage at bay.

“Holiday traffic, love. Nothin’ we can do about it.”

“I know, we should’ve left earlier. I figured yesterday would be the bigger traffic day.”

About an hour later, you get off at your town’s exit. Harry looks around, having not explored the area before. It was a good size town, there were lots of shops and places to go. You slowly pull up to your childhood home. It was a large white house with a detached garage and long driveway.

“Well, this is it.” Harry gives your hand a squeeze before getting out of the car. He jogs to your side to open your door. You roll your eyes at him.

“Just in case the old man is watchin’.” He winks at you.

You walk up the steps to your home and open the door. Usually your dad kept the door locked, but unlocked it knowing you were coming.

“Dad! We’re here!” You yell, nearly making Harry drop the food. You shrug and take your coat off, then grab the food from Harry to put in the fridge. Your dad had a huge kitchen, an addition he had put onto the home only a few years before your parents separated. Harry takes his jacket off and hang it up where you put yours. “Where is he?” You sort of ask yourself. You go down the hall to where the basement door is. “Dad! Hello!” You yell again. Harry smirks at your behavior.

“Hi!” You hear your dad yells up.

“Jesus, someday when my voice gives out maybe he’ll get a hearing aid.” Your dad comes up the stairs.

“Sorry, I had the parade on.” You two hug. He gives Harry a look.

“Dad, this is, um, my boyfriend, Harry.”

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” Harry extends his arm out, and gives your father a firm handshake.

“Why don’t you give the boy the tour while I heat up breakfast?” You dad says to you. “Probably the first time I’ve ever let a boy go up to your room.” He laughs to himself, and steps by the two of you.

“As far as he knows.” You whisper to Harry. You take his hand and walk him in the living room.

“What’s down stairs?”

“Just his man cave. I’ll show when we come back down. Figured we could start from the top down.”

“Sounds good to me. Should I take my shoes off?”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Still holding his hand, you walk with him upstairs. He stops to admire the photos of you as a child on the wall.

“Look at that hair! And I thought I had a mess of curls as a kid.”

“Don’t make fun.” You pout, sticking your bottom lip out.

“M’not, you’re just so cute.”

“Jesus, come on.” You drag him up the stairs. You walk him through a room that looks like a den. “So this used to be mine and my sister’s room when we were really little. Then my dad turned our attic into a bedroom for Erica and I, and my other sister kept this room.” You turn to open the door up to the attic.

The stairs going up were really steep. Harry hit his knee twice trying to go up. You were used to the stairs so you practically flew up. The room was pretty bare, having not lived there in years. All that was left were the two twin beds you and your sister used to sleep on.

“Pretty big room!” He says walking all around.

“The desk was over here, and we had three dressers over there. All of our toy boxes were along that wall. We could never keep it clean up here. My sister and I are such packrats.”

“I find that hard to believe, your place is spotless.”

“I have storage unit I keep a lot of my old shit in.” You smile at where you used to keep your Barbie’s. “Erica and I used to dump out this big blue bin that had all of our Barbie’s in it. We would play for hours and just leave them around until we were ready to play again. It drove our parents nuts that we just never cleaned up.” You sit down on the bed, he sits next to you.

“So, this is where the magic happened, yeah?”

“Maybe for my sister, I never brought a guy up here.”

“Why not?”

“Didn’t date much in high school.” You shrug and stand up. “Come on, there’s more to see.”

You both go back downstairs. You show him your brother’s old room, which was now a guest room. Then you brought him back down to the living room. You could smell your dad’s latkes. Then you brought him down to the basement. Your dad had quite the man cave. Big TV, surround sound, and a small bar. There were shelves full of tapes and DVS’s. He had sports paraphernalia everywhere.

“Real New England fan, huh?”

“You have no idea.” There were pictures of you and your siblings everywhere. He stopped to look at a picture of you and your dad with a trophy.

“When was this?”

“Oh! That’s like my favorite pic of me and Dad. The Red Sox had just won the World Series in ’04, and the trophy was on tour. They brought the trophy to the high school, so my dad brought us. They even let us touch it, it was so cool. I think I was like nine or ten.”

“Cute bangs.” You roll your eyes at him.

“Someday I’m going to see where you grew up, and I’m going to make fun the whole time.”

“Deal.”

You take him back upstairs to the kitchen where your dad was putting everything on plates.

“Need any help?” You ask.

“Nope, let’s sit at the dining room table.” Your dad brings the last couple of plates over, and the three of your sit down. “So, Harry, what do you do?”

“I’m a photographer for a geographical magazine.” He tugs his shirt sleeve down to try to hide his anchor tattoo. “I also do a lot of freelance work.”

“Harry also has his master’s degree.”

“What does a photographer need a graduate degree for?”

“Well, a couple of reasons. Quite frankly, I wasn’t ready to leave school. My two best mates and I all enrolled to get our MBA’s. It worked out in my favor though because I learned how to properly run my freelance business.”

“Why stay with the magazine then?”

“Health insurance.” Harry shrugs. “And other benefits.”

“Makes sense. I told (y/n) that benefits was one of the most important things when looking for a job. She got lucky where she ended up.”

“I was lucky an alum from the college worked there to help me with the interview.” You all take some food and dig in. “Dad, these are so good.”

“Found a recipe that used parsnips. Ever had potato pancakes before?” He asks Harry.

“Oh sure, never as fresh as this though.” He smiles. Your dad looks down and sees the cross on Harry’s hand, which leads his eyes up to the anchor he was trying to hide on his wrist. Your dad squints at the rings on Harry’s fingers as well.

“Got some tattoos there, I see.”

“Um, yeah, just a few.” Harry’s heart was starting to beat faster. He really did want to make a good impression.

“You know when mum and I were still together we used to joke about getting each other’s names tattooed on our butts.” He starts laughing.

“Dad!” You laugh as well. Harry gives a bit of a nervous laugh.

The conversation stay pleasant from there. You tell your dad about your current project at work, and he fills you in on his volunteer work at the food pantry. Harry helps clean up the dishes when you’re done eating. Your dad turns the parade on in the kitchen. You decide to sit down at the piano in the living room. You open it up and tap on a couple of different keys. Harry hears you from the other room.

“Is that her playing?” He asks your dad.

“Yup, when she was really little she would flip it over and start playing. My wife’s great aunt had that piano and gave it to us. All the girls learned how to play. My son learned how to play the guitar.”

“Musical family.”

“I suppose. I’m hoping someday when she buys a house she’ll take it. She’s the only one that’ll play. Don’t tell ‘em I told you this, but she really is the smartest out of the four. She sees things clearly from every angle.”

“She’s very bright, I’m a lucky guy.”

“Don’t you forget it.”

Harry and your dad come out to the living room to listen to you play more clearly. You’re not playing anything crazy, just some songs you remember learning as a kid. You finish and turn to face them.

“I’m glad you keep this in tune.” You smile at your dad. You look down at your watch. It would take another thirty minutes to get to your sister’s house. “I think we have to get going.” You stand up to give him a hug.

“Happy Thanksgiving honey.”

“Happy Thanksgiving, dad.”

“It was great to meet you Harry.” He shakes Harry’s hand.

“Same to you.”

You both walk out and get into the car. You can’t believe how well that went. You were fully expecting your dad to ask Harry a million different questions.

“I think I sealed the deal with him when I talked about my health insurance.” He chuckles.

“Oh, for sure.” You pull out of the driveway and drive towards Erica’s.

“In all seriousness, how was that? He was sort of quiet at first.”

“He takes some time to warm up to people.”

“You never mentioned you could play the piano.”

“It never came up. It’s not like I’m some prodigy or anything, if I was they would’ve kept paying for lessons.”

You get to Erica’s in exactly thirty minutes. You see your mom’s car is already there. Your brother’s isn’t there, as you assumed because he’s always late. You see your uncle’s car is there already as well. You take a deep breath, and wrap an arm through one of Harry’s.

“It’s gonna be fine.” He smiles down at you.

The door is half open when you walk in. Loud voices roaming through the house. You hear a distinctive, and familiar laugh.

“No fucking way!” You squeal. You run toward the laugh leaving Harry behind to rush back to you. “Nannie!” You throw your arms around you grandmother, tears nearly forming. She wraps her arms around you giving you the best hug possible. “Mom, are kidding me? How could not tell me she was coming?” You say giving your mom a hug and kiss.

“She wanted it to be a surprise.”

“How long are you here for?”

“Just a little over a week, precious.” You give her another hug. You look up and see Harry holding onto the kugel.

“Whoops, sorry, Erica!” You yell for your sister, who comes running into the room to give you a hug. You take the kugel from Harry’s hands, and give it to your sister.

“Yay! Thanks.” She turns around to bring it into the kitchen. You take Harry’s coat, and put yours and his into the coat closet.

“Alright, mom you remember Harry?”

“Of course, hi dear.” She gives him a gentle hug.

“Hello.”

“And Harry, this is my Nannie.”

“I’ve heard so much about you.” He gives her a hug and you could nearly cry at the sight.

“I’ve heard about you too.” She takes his hands in hers. “What beautiful rings. I love a man that can wear his jewelry, your papa never left the house without his gold on.” She says to you. Her eyes catch his anchor tattoo. “Oh for the love of god, her uncle will just love you.”

“He’s got quite a few, I’ve seen them.” Your mom says. Erica comes back over to you.

“So, is this him?”

“Yes, this is Harry.”

“Thanks so much for coming. By the way, mom made an extra dessert to bring to Niall.”

“Oh perfect, thanks!”

“Harry, can I get you anything to drink? We have beer and wine, and we have some other alcohol too. Or if you want water or something?”

“Um, a beer would be great actually.”

“We have bud, bud light, corona…”

“Bud light is fine. If you tell me where it is, I can get it.”

“Just through the kitchen, out to the patio.”

“Want anythin’?”

“Glass of wine please.” He walks off to fine the beverages.

“Oh my god, how do you keep finding these crazy attractive guys?” Your sister says to you.

“I told you he was cute, his pictures don’t do him justice.” Your mom says.

“And how polite was he? He seems sweet honey.” Your Nannie says. Harry comes back shortly with a glass of red wine for you, and a bud light in his other hand.

“Harry, you’re a photographer?” Your Nannie asks him.

“Yes.”

“What made you want to go into that field?”

“Don’t know really, I just always had a camera in my hand growin’ up. Figured I’d want to get a job doing somethin’ I actually liked.”

“And you grew up in England?”

“Yeah, a few hours outside of London.”

“(y/n), where’s that cute Irish friend of yours today?” She asks you.

“He’s started dating my friend Sarah, so he’s with her this weekend. He sends his love. Harry and him are actually best friends, Niall introduced us.”

“Oh! How nice, well, I definitely know you’re in good hands if Niall had something to do with it.”

Harry snakes an arm around your waist to pull you a little closer to him. This environment was a lot less relaxed than your dad’s house was. About thirty minutes later your brother showed up with his wife and baby. You give them a few minutes to settle in before going over to hold your nephew. You take him in your arms and snuggle him giving him light kisses on his forehead.

“Harry, this is my brother and sister in law.”

“Hi, nice to meet you.” Harry shakes both of their hands. Your brother and sister in law give each other a look.

“Nice to meet you too, man.” You brother says. “Wanna hold him for a bit so we can say hi to everyone. We don’t really want Mike’s family all over him.”

“Well it’ll be torturous, but I’ll manage.” You say sarcastically.

“Mike is Erica’s boyfriend, right?”

“Yup.” Harry watches as you bounce the baby, lightly rocking him from side to side.

“He’s awfully cute.”

“Isn’t he?” She kisses his forehead again. “I could just snuggle him all day.”

Harry loved babies, he had mentioned it to you several times. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but he just had this natural thing with babies and kids. He liked seeing how easy and comfortable you were with your nephew.

“Hey, (y/n), can you come help me in the kitchen?” Erica asks.

“But I’m holding the baby.”

“Have Harry hold him, I need your help.” You suck your teeth and roll your eyes.

“Fine.” You look up to Harry. “Do you mind taking him for a minute?”

“Will your brother mind?”

“No, it’s fine.”

You hand your nephew off to Harry, who is trying to hold his excitement in. Your nephew looked up at him with big blue eyes. Harry walked him into the kitchen to see what your help was needed for. You looked at Harry and smiled. He looked so comfortable carrying your nephew around. You were helping your sister get her buffet table together now that everyone was there.

Your Nannie comes over to help as well.

“I’ll take him.” She says to Harry. He gently passes the baby off her to her. “Isn’t he precious?” She kisses him. “Now that’s delicious.” You giggle. This is going much better than you thought. Your uncle comes walking over. He hasn’t had a chance to meet Harry yet.

“So, this the guy?”

“Yes, this is Harry.” The two shake hands.

“Do you have a sleeve?” He asks, noticing the tattoos peeking through his shirt.

“Um, not technically.”

“And don’t give him any ideas either.” Your Nannie says. You wrap an arm around Harry’s waist, hoping he’s not uncomfortable.

“Oo, you two are so cute, let me take your picture.” Erica says. You hand her your phone, and lean into Harry while she snaps a couple shots. “Everybody! Dinner is good to go!”

“Harry, why don’t you sit down with my grandmother and I’ll make you both a plate. Save me a seat between you two.”

Before he can protest, your Nannie gives the baby to your brother, and grabs Harry to go sit with her. You make up a plate for him with every vegetable you can find, along with some mashes potatoes. Your mom makes up a plate for your Nannie. You stack another plate for yourself and pile on some green bean casserole, vegetables, and mashed potatoes. You put Harry’s plate in front of him, and sit between him and your Nannie.

Harry sits quietly as he eats, listening to the vibrant conversations your family has. He notices that your oldest sister isn’t there, and makes a mental note to ask about it later. Your mom starts telling a story about when her and your uncle were kids, and your Nannie started choking, and had to slap the back of neck to get the food out. Between tears from laughing your mom says,

“And she says, ‘you ungrateful bastards! I could’ve died!’” Everyone at the table was laughing. Harry started laughing just from the sight of you, tears streaming down your cheeks, trying not to choke on the food you were eating.

“That is the best story.” You say, wiping the tears from your eyes.

“It was scary you know! You two are a couple of bastards.” Your Nannie says, not really meaning it. “Harry, you must think we’re a bunch of lunatics.”

“Not at all, I think it’s great you all seem so close.” He says with a smile.

“I cannot get over that accent.” Erica says. She was sitting across from you. “How come you stayed here and didn’t go back overseas?”

“I just really liked it here. Fell into some good opportunities and didn’t feel the need to leave.”

“So do you have a work visa?” Your brother asks.

“I started off with a student visa, and then had a work visa once I graduated. About a year after that, once I knew I wanted to stay, my mates and I all took citizenship tests, so I have dual citizenship. Annoying process, but it makes it much easier to travel now.”

“How did you two meet again?” Your brother asks you.

“Niall set us up on a blind date a few months ago.” You smile, giving Harry a squeeze on the thigh.

“Where did you guys go a couple weeks ago? The pictures were so pretty.” Your sister in law says.

“We went up to New Hampshire to check out the foliage. It was incredible.”

“Harry, do you do any freelance work?” She asks.

“Quite a bit, yeah.” She looks at your brother.

“Do you ever take pictures of people? We’d love to get a little photoshoot in before Christmas if possible. We’d pay you of course.”

“Sure, I’d love to. Do you have a specific date in mind? I’d have to book it now just cause I’m startin’ to fill up.” He takes out his phone and opens his calendar.

“Um, would two weeks from Saturday work? In the afternoon?” Harry looks at the date.

“I have from like two to four open if that works for you.”

“That should be great! Oh thank you so much. It’ll be nice to have some professional photos to send out. You’re really good, we sorta creeped on your Instagram page.”

“That’s what it’s there for. I’m happy to help.”

After dinner, you all have a little dessert. Most of your immediate family migrated to one part of the house. You were sitting with Harry on the couch when your siblings came over to sit in the same room. Your Nannie sat right next to you. The couch was getting crowded. Without thinking, Harry pulled you onto his lap. You got a few looks, but no one seemed to mind.

“Alright, I’d like to see more of the tattoos.” Erica says, glass of wine in hand.

“I don’t know if your grandmum will appreciate that.”

“Oh go ahead, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious.” He looks at you for approval, and you nod.

Harry adjusts himself so he can untuck his shirt, and unbuttons it. He shimmies his sleeves off. Revealing his heavily tattooed left arm. His right arm only had a couple. He pointed to a few that had meaning, and explained that others were just for fun, or from when friends asked to practice on him. He pointed to where the large butterfly sits just below his breast plate, and the others near his collar bones and hips. He points to where the large tiger is on his thigh.

“Didn’t all of those hurt?” Erica asks.

“Not really, you sorta get used to it after a while.”

“Have you ever done one yourself?” Your sister in law asks.

“Um, yeah, I wrote the word big on my big toe.” Everyone bursts out laughing. “I did say they weren’t all meaningful.” He shrugs his shirt back on, and buttons it up, not bothering to tuck it back in.

“Can I hold the baby again?” You ask. Your brother passes him to you, and you rest his head on your shoulder. “He’s so cozy, I love it. Erica, take my picture with him.” You hand her your phone. She takes one close up, and then backs up a bit to get Harry in the shot. “Thanks.”

After a couple more hours, you both decided to call it a night. You started saying your goodbyes throughout the room.

“Honey, can we come see you Sunday? Nannie hasn’t seen your apartment yet.”

“Sure! You know, I could drive back home tomorrow and stay with you a couple of nights while she’s here. That way she can get around if need be.” Harry tries to hide his slightly fallen face. He wants you to spend time with your grandmother, he was just looking forward to another long weekend with you.

“Don’t be silly, you don’t need to do all that driving.”

“I know, I just want to spend time with her.”

“We can spend the entire day Sunday together.”

“Alright…” You hug your mom, and go to give your Nannie a big hug. “Guess I’ll see you Sunday.”

“Okay darling girl, I love you.” She gives you a big kiss.

“Love you too.”

“Will Harry be around too?” You look over to him and he nods yes. “Wonderful, we can keep getting to know each other.” Harry gives your mom and grandmother a hug goodbye and waves off to everyone else.

“Want me to drive us back, love?” He asks as you walk out into the cold air.

“Would you mind? I’m suddenly realizing how tired I am.”

“Not a problem.” You hand him the keys, and get into the car.

#take it slow #harry styles #harry styles y/n #harry styles fluff #harry styles fluff fic #harry styles x reader #harry styles imagine #harry styles y/n fic #fluff

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petergreenfield · 3 years

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10 GARDENING MISTAKES BEGINNER GARDENERS MAKE (GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS)

There’s a lot to learn about gardening, but it’s a rewarding experience that’s well worth the effort. Make the most of your gardening with these tips from seasoned gardeners on how to avoid and correct popular gardening blunders.

When we begin something new, we are bound to make mistakes, and gardening is no exception. Here’s a list of the mistakes beginner gardeners make.

10. Allowing Weeds to Take Over.

Ignoring weeds will wreak havoc on your yard. They will scavenge all of the vital nutrients that your vegetables need to thrive and produce a good crop from the soil. Before you start planting, take the time to de-weed your garden and keep it up to date. Many people want to use mulch around their plants to keep weeds at bay. Any organic material, such as grass clippings, straw, or dried leaves, may be used as mulch.

9. Not Enough Sunlight.

Some novice gardeners believe they have found the ideal garden spot, but they haven’t taken into account how much sun the spot receives during the day. The majority of your vegetables will grow best in direct sunlight all day. This means that tall buildings, trees, and bushes can be obstructing the sun’s path across your garden. The morning sun is particularly beneficial to your plants. The shade will help keep your plants from scorching in the heat of the day, but it isn’t necessary if your plants are well-watered. Before deciding on a place for your garden, think about how much sunshine it will get. Give yourself a day or two to observe the proposed position for sunlight exposure. It’s possible that you simply need to reconsider your garden location.

8. Not Asking for Advice.

Asking for help, particularly as a beginner gardener, may be more difficult for some people than for others. By simply talking to other gardeners in your neighborhood, you can save yourself a lot of headaches and backaches, not to mention money. Learn what works best for them and what blunders they’ve made. If you’re getting a pest problem, look at what other people are doing to fix it. Rest assured that your issue is not unique and that someone would happily share their experience with you. If you can’t figure out what’s wrong but know something isn’t right, take a photo with your phone and show it to your nearest nursery attendant. He or she would almost certainly be able to make you a recommendation.

7. Watering at the Wrong Time of the Day.

Watering your plants at the wrong time of the day, just like overwatering them, will cause harm and even death to your plants. If you water in the middle of the day, the sun will scorch your plants. Similarly, watering your plants late at night can lead to fungus problems. This is particularly true for plants that do not thrive in wet conditions. In general, it is best to water first thing in the morning.

6. Crowded Planting.

Overcrowding our plants is a common mistake made by new gardeners. Plants need space to breathe. We could end up with toxic, low-producing plants if we plant them so close together that there is no air circulation or exposure to the sun. Take another look at the back of your seed packet to make sure you’re following the directions. While it may seem that they suggest a large amount of space, you may be shocked at how much space your mature plants require. A book on gardening will teach you how to make your garden more effective and profitable as a beginner gardener and be a reference for any future issues you might have.

5. Not Preparing your Soil Prior to Planting.

Believe me when I say that I am a victim of this! I can’t tell you how many gardens I’ve started without first taking care of the soil. Then I’m left wondering why my plants aren’t doing so well a few days later. Well, you can’t hope to grow beautiful, healthy plants if your soil isn’t in good shape. To survive, your plants need a lot of nutrients, which they get from good soil. If your soil is nutrient-deficient, you can boost its health by mulching organic material into it. If you’re going to use raised beds, you can also purchase garden soil. Determine if your soil is clay, sandy, silty, or loam and prepare accordingly. The majority of plants thrive in loam soil, which is the most nutrient-balanced.

4. Growing Inappropriate Species.

Beginner gardeners sometimes make the mistake of planting something that does not thrive in their setting. Take the time to learn about the best seed varieties for your particular spot. You will get a good idea of what grows well in your area by contacting your local nursery and speaking with local gardeners. Planting something that isn’t tailored to your environment is a recipe for disaster. Many seeds have been adapted to allow a plant to thrive in a specific environment. Buying your seeds from a nearby supplier is a smart idea. This will result in a better harvest and a more enjoyable gardening experience rather than a stressful one.

3. Growing Vegetables Your Family Doesn’t Eat.

Some vegetables seem exotic and tempting to plant, but why grow them if no one in your family wants to eat them? It’s tempting to want to try anything, but in practice, particularly during your first gardening season, it’s better to plant what you know your family will enjoy. If you enjoy salsa, I recommend starting a “salsa garden” with tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic, and cilantro! There are seed kits that contain everything you need to get started on a delicious salsa garden. I like growing vegetables that we can pick and eat straight from the garden without having to prepare them. Green beans and cucumbers, for example, are delicious right off the vine. Although zucchini is simple to grow and produces a large number of plants, why grow it if no one in your family likes it? Choose vegetables that you want to eat to prevent waste.

2. Not Having a Plan for Your Garden.

Starting out too large is bad, but not having a strategy for your garden is just as bad. We’d like to believe that all we have to do is throw a few seeds into the soil, and voila! Beautiful, good plants emerge! Unfortunately, we must plan ahead if we want a safe, profitable garden. Your strategy should involve the types of plants you want to use and which ones grow well together and which ones don’t. Consider planting your vegetables in batches so that your harvest is also staggered. Having a plan in place before you start your garden will save you a lot of guesswork and ensure that your first garden experience is a positive one.

1. Starting Out Too Big.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of getting a big, beautiful garden your first season as a beginner gardener. I don’t want to dampen your excitement, but my recommendation is to start small. If you plant a large garden, you will find yourself with a lot of work for which you are unprepared and lack the necessary knowledge and skills. In addition, if you plant a big garden, you can end up with a lot of plants that you don’t need. It’s a good idea to use this first garden as a practice garden, where you can hone your skills and expand your information bank while also building trust for future gardens. This season, plant small, and you’ll be rewarded with a harvest you can manage as well as the satisfaction of knowing you successfully grew your own vegetables!

We strongly suggest you get a book to serve as a reference in your gardening journey.

The books we recommend are linked in the description under this video.

What do you think of our list? Are you guilty of any of those mistakes? Let me know in the comment section below.

Check out the video

Our recommended reading to get you started with gardening:

Backyard Gardening Book (paperback)

Backyard Gardening Book (audiobook)

Urban Gardening Book (paperback)

Urban Gardening Book (audiobook)

GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS GUIDE [14 TIPS TO BE SUCCESSFUL]

10 ESSENTIAL GARDENING TOOLS FOR BEGINNERS [GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS]

#10 gardening mistakes #beginner gardening mistakes #biggest gardening mistakes #common gardening mistakes

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jisssooyah · 4 years

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Hi you... if you were going to curate a little season of films for me, which ones would you choose and why? They don't need to be horror, I'm just curious what you would choose 🌸

I don’t know if you’ll like these movies, or if you’ve already watched them, but after i watched these films, i felt like they might need to belong to you now. i hope they make you smile, roll your eyes, and cry just as much as i did.

1. city of god (2002): this is one of the most immersive and gorgeously shot films i’ve ever seen. it’s set in rio de janeiro during the 60s and spans decades exploring the drug culture in the slums and how this can affect kids just as they are trying to figure their own selves out. the way this film is shot, feels like you were at the sea with them as the sand crunched underneath your feet. but the way that the director captures these individuals, makes you so fucking relieved that you don’t live through any of the circumstances that they go through.

2. the dreamers (2004): set in 1968, this film follows three students in Paris who come of age and explore one another and their limits during the revolution. while these students prop themselves up as individuals obsessed with sex, running underneath themselves is a current of jealousy, obsession, and blurred familial relationships that made me increasingly uncomfortable. you find yourself feeling bad for the children, and ultimately upset at their upbringing because of their parents.

3. if beale street could talk (2018): this movie is based off of james baldwin’s titular 1974 novel. in it, the director expertly and vigorously explores love: a love that feels so real that it hurts. the cast is what sold this film to me. the way they talk, laugh, cry, and smile at one another is achingly beautiful and terrifyingly sad. i wanted to transport myself back to their time period and watch the main characters fall in love because the film didn’t seem like enough.

4. the neon demon (2016): this film follows an emerging model who sacrifices herself to the demands of the industry in order to be attractive and beautiful. there are so many stunning colors in this film that it makes you dizzy, like you’re in a trance and that’s what this world is for the main character: a trance. as she oscillates between reality and fantasy, her world and the characters in it, increasingly seek out to alter her personality.

5. death becomes her (1992): a deliberately ultra-campy parody of trashy, pandering "women's pictures," soap operas and paperbacks from the '80s and '90s. The three leads all do some of their best work - it's hilarious watching Meryl Streep play a terrible actress, Goldie Hawn is particularly hilarious during her character's cat lady phase, and all around just a really fun and eccentric film.

6. princess cyd (2017): i can’t think of anything to write for this but i just wanna say that this is literally one of the most pleasant movie experiences i’ve ever had. so much light and genuine interaction in warm sun rays radiating positive energy and an openness that is far too uncommon in movies nowadays. people talk, people connect, people grow bonds and are allowed to be sexual or intimate or personal without an air of shame or judgement. just pure kind and curious human association.

7. spiderman: into the spiderverse (2018): the message of Spider-Verse is not "gentrify yourself! stop expressing your personality and just conform to what society wants you to be!" After all, what makes you different makes you Spider-Man, and Miles' final expression of himself as a superhero still retains much of his personality and individuality...they're just being used in more productive and fulfilling ways. It's the little things that drive the point home, like noticing that the title page for Miles' finished Great Expectations essay has been stylistically doodled and colored like street art. Rather than seeing his artistic gifts as an opposition to his schoolwork, Miles infuses them together to make the best of the hand he's been dealt.

8. my life as a zucchini (2016): initially heartbreaking and sad, but slowly becoming more joyful and heartwarming as the plot moves along. The film really feels like it captures the essence and child like wonder of these kids, all of them going through hardships but managing to find something to help each other out. It’s so refreshing to see the actual orphanage portrayed in a more positive light, not the usual horrid dump that a lot of lesser movies play them out as. The animation is stunning. One of the best uses of stop motion I’ve seen, everything is so colourful and detailed. There’s some moments set in snowy mountains and these look incredible. There’s clearly been so much love and care put into each and every scene here. The music too, sounds spectacular, it really works well with each scene.

9. lovesong (2016): Mindy and Sarah have that type of relationship where they don't need words because they speak in a language made out of glances and touches. This movie is about the fear of ruining a meaningful friendship and losing an important person, about love that is so complicated that one might not even try because the outcome seems to be so obvious.

10. her (2013): Heartbreak is formative: it changes you heart side out, and leaves your muscles a little stronger, your skin a little thicker, your bones easier to repair. Before this film, I’d never seen anything constructive in having your insides pulled apart by the seams by another person, but this film taught me how. Being in love and then being forced out of it is an experience that changes you fundamentally, but Her taught me its purpose – you don’t need them to leave you so that you can find someone who’s a better fit, because perhaps you never will. You need it to participate in humanity. The common denominator is being hurt, and without it, you’re barely alive.

11. shoplifters (2018): bittersweet and richly transportive, Shoplifters is a film that nonchalantly eases you into its tragic beauty in a way that doesn't punch you hard until the end. It simultaneously made me want to be part of the film's world and also very glad that I'm not. The setting the characters live in is messy and cluttered and full of dysfunction and lies, but it's also got family, and laughter, and fist-bumps, and slurping warm noodles while rain pings on the tin rooftop. So nuanced, so many tiny moments of delicate beauty and unassuming heartbreak, so many people making terrible decisions with good intentions.

12. god’s own country (2017): though it is a love story between two men, this aspect is only addressed briefly in a single scene. Rather, the film is about finding someone who makes you want to be a better person, someone who comes into your life just when you needed it most. Gheorghe helps Johnny open up and realize the beauty of the simple life. From this relationship, Johnny begins to feel comfortable with expressing himself, and his love and gratitude towards others. He also begins to appreciate life in the country, surrounded by stunning landscapes and the beauty of simplicity. Addressing the Yorkshire countryside, Gheorghe says "It is beautiful, but lonely." Johnny is presented with the notion that he doesn't have to be cold and miserable, slaving and drinking his days away. He is presented with the possibility of no longer being alone and finally finding happiness and contentment - and it is more than gratifying to see him accept it.

13. disobedience (2017): a tender star-crossed daydream. the three main character dynamics are special enough on their own, but the romance that blooms at the center is cathartically intimate and even magical: a reunion that feels so inevitable. catching glimpses of a past life, details we aren’t privy to. all the stolen kisses and whispers and promises. a bond so strong that they fall back in sync with each other like second nature, even if they try to fight against it. even if it won’t work. and yet they choose each other, even if for a few minutes.

14. raw (2016): this film is so gross and I like that. There is tons of blood and unique body horror and it all works perfectly for the tone the film is attempting to set. The use of color, specifically neons, creates a constant feeling that you are traveling through some sort of weird ghost world, which I really like. Overall, it's a very well put together film with flashes of brilliance.

15. the night is short, walk on girl (2017): what an absolutely magical adventure of a film. Essentially this is a heavily episodic look at a night in the lives of several people, centered on a woman and a man as she gleefully floats from event to event while he neurotically obsesses over how to "coincidentally" talk to her. The storytelling is incredible; while the overarching narrative is simple there are countless threads woven together to connect everyone in the story to each other. That in itself is a big theme: connections between people, how everything is interrelated, and what a large impact seemingly insignificant things people do can have an impact on everyone around them.

16. coraline (2009): Coraline is the best stop motion movie ever made in my opinion. Before the film released in 2009, I read the book and was completely blown away by its creativity and story. It’s a pretty dark tale featuring many scenes of fright that work well in both a horror setting and an animated kids setting. On surface value, this film is quite horrifying, which is something I’ve always loved about it. While it does make a few minor changes to the book, it improves upon a piece of art that was already jaw-droppingly good. Coraline feels like a real little girl with some real problems. She’s selfish but likable which is something most films cannot translate well. Of course, she has a pretty awesome arc as well which brings this movie to a perfect close for her character. The other-mother is also perfectly done. She is almost exactly how I imagined her in the book and the animation on her is spookily gorgeous. There is not one dull moment in this film. It is literally a perfect piece of cinema.

17. the third wife (2019): haven’t seen a film this visually delicate in a while. Ash Mayfair works with the looming mountain surroundings to make her characters —these women, these girls— as small as possible, as isolated as possible. Uneasiest of all is the protagonist May, so young and so weighed by responsibility, her position blurs between being one of the wives and being one of the daughters. It’s an extremely bleak tale of circumstance. An old tale, certainly, but so beautifully crafted it doesn’t matter. Mayfair holds a fearful tension throughout, and it only ever shatters in the cruelest of ways.The abundance of women and display of sisterhood begin as a comfort, but horror takes over as we realize how conditional and fragile that comfort is. Even the daughters are subconsciously aware, one of them praying to the gods to grow up and become a man, shearing her hair off in naive triumph. It’s a doomed cycle of girls performing roles which are unfortunately their best option, right up until the final scene of May with her daughter, still in their mourning clothes. She, like the older wives, finally realizes they’re the same as the cattle laying on their side for too many days.

#asks #shortcake-kaspbrak

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sfarticles · 3 years

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Holiday Cookbooks: The Gift That Keeps On Cooking........

I know that I’m not alone when it comes to reading cookbooks similarly to the way one would read a novel. The cookbooks that interest me tell a story about the recipes and the author, or have a unique theme. Who else is a fan of single-subject cookbooks? Those that feature a certain ingredient in each of its recipes.

There are those who follow comedian Rita Rudner’s quote, “I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and say to myself, ‘well, that’s not going to happen.” However, they still enjoy a cookbook as a “prop”, or appreciate a beautiful coffee table book, where not one recipe is used, but the glossy cover has mouth-watering visuals.

This is the time of year when so many cookbooks are released; just in time for gift-giving season. Going through my ever-increasing collection, I picked some for you to consider as a gift for the cooks on your list. I am sure you will find one to buy for the cook-in-you too.

With kids spending more time at home these days, it is important to keep them occupied with fun activities. And, what child doesn’t enjoy spending time in the kitchen, and then enjoying the results of their efforts? Written for 8 to 13 year olds, “The Complete DIY Cookbook for Young Chefs,” by the editors of America’s Test Kitchen (2020, $19.99) teaches them to prepare common store-bought items from scratch. From peanut butter, chocolate hazelnut spread, and apple sauce to bagel chips, cheddar cheese fish crackers, and strawberry Pop Tarts, to vanilla no-churn ice cream, hot fudge, pancake mix, hot cocoa mix, they probably won’t go back to store bought! The symbols for each recipe denote if the recipe is for a beginner, intermediate or advance recipe, and if the recipe requires the use of a knife, microwave, stove, oven or no knife or heat required. I found the pages dedicated to secrets for “Success in the Kitchen,” “Decoding Kitchenspeak,” “What’s Up With Ingredients?,” “How to Measure and Weigh,” and ”Essential Prep Steps,” provide the perfect introduction to cooking. The “DIY Mixes” chapter details ways for kids to make homemade holiday gifts.

A companion book to the above title, is “Kitchen Explorers: 60+ Recipes, Experiments, and Games for Young Chefs,“ also by the editors of America’s Test Kitchen (2020, $12.99. The workbook format structures at-home learning, making it easy for parents to use the kitchen as a classroom. Experiments using food, interactive games and kid-centered recipes, allow youngsters to practice skills in a fun way. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on science experiments and activities, as I learned a few things along the way. Experiments include “What Makes Fizzy Drinks Fizzy?,” “The Gooey Science of Melting Cheese,” Amazing Emulsions.” After the experiments are completed, the “Understanding Your Results” helps the learning process. The “For Grown-Ups” chapter, created by educational experts, helps guide learning and connect lessons in the workbook to school curriculum. With “STEAM,” kids will learn how cooking involves Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics.

Bakers and dessert lovers will appreciate “Holy Sweet!: 60 Indulgent Recipes for Bigger, Better Desserts,” by Peabody Johanson (2020, Page Street Publishing, $21.99). Like the author, I have a sweet tooth too, so it has been added to my collection. This book was inspired by the author’s childhood favorites. Her introduction, mouth-watering photos, fun-to-read headnotes to each recipe, and the creative creations drew me to the book. Johanson takes pies, cakes, cookies, and cupcakes and infuses them with flavors of cereal, ice cream, candy and booze. Think, Milky Way Pie, Cookies and Cream Ice Cream Bread Pudding, Cap’n Crunch Boston Cream Pie Layer Cake. And perfect for the holidays, Peppermint Bark Red Velvet Layer Cake. Now don’t you feel like a kid in a candy store?

Brunch seems to have reemerged as a new craze. During the winter months, I prefer eating brunch, especially on Sundays. “Let’s Brunch: 100 Recipes for the Best Meal of the Week,” by Belinda Smith-Sullivan (2020, Gibbs Smith, $24.99) celebrates the meal that isn’t going away. The author writes in her introduction, “brunch just might become the new dinner party.” When life gets back to normal, this book will be a welcome addition to those who like to entertain. In the meantime, they have many recipes to explore. The chapter “Breads & Toppings,” has a recipe for one my favorites, Sweet Potato Buttermilk Biscuits. Pannettone Grand Marnier French Toast, Brisket –Stuffed Herb Cornbread, with recipes for jams, syrup and flavored butters to round out the chapter. Starters include Smoked Salmon Blinis, plus Jumbo Shrimp and Lump Crab with Vodka Cocktail Sauce. Of course, Smith-Sullivan includes many egg dishes and sides. Desserts run the gamut with Lemon Curd and Gingersnap Trifle, Savory Spice Olive Oil Loaf Cake among others. And what brunch is complete without a cocktail? Pomegranate Mimosa, and Chef Belinda’s Creole Mary should fit the bill.

Cheese aficionados on your list will welcome I Heart Cheese: A Cookbook, 60 Ooey, Gooey, Delicious Meals for Serious Cheese Lovers, by Mihaela Metaxa-Albu (2020, Page Street Publishing, $19.99). The vivid photography of the dishes coupled with the elegant plating will make the reader want to get right to work, preparing the mouth-watering dishes using a variety of cheeses. I found the breakdown of the chapters by type of cheese helpful. Before each chapter’s recipes, there are details and nuances about the cheeses in the chapter with suggestions on how to draw out the best flavors of each cheese. Both sweet and savory dishes are included, such as Ricotta Coconut Almond Cake, Savory Chili and Grana Padano Cookies, Deconstructed Cheese Board Salad, Savory Pancakes with Crumbled Feta and Chives. The recipient will enjoy their journey to cheese heaven with these recipes.

One doesn’t have to be vegetarian or vegan to enjoy plant based cooking. This style of cooking is popular because of the growing interest in healthier eating and sustainability. “The Complete Plant Based Cookbook: 500 Inspired, Flexible Recipes for Eating Well Without Meat,” by the editors of America’s Test Kitchen (2020, $34.99), is the book to help its recipients prepare meals that are not only healthy where vegetables take the center of the plate, but in a tasty and creative way. I found the makeovers of comfort foods quite interesting. For example, PB & J transforms into Sautéed Grape and almond Butter Toast, featuring fresh grapes sautéed with lemon and thyme, topping crusty bread slathered with almond butter. The book gives the reader inspiration to create plant-forward meals that don’t use processed ingredients. And, those beautiful photos are inspiring, as are their renown signature headnotes; “Why this Recipe Works.”

What cookbook roundup list would be complete without one for chocoholics? I am sure you or someone on your list is one. From everyday recipes to more extravagant treats, Sabine Venier, author of “The Chocolate Addict’s Baking Book,” (2020, Page Street Publishing), shares tips and tricks on how to make it easy to incorporate chocolate into a plethora of dessert recipes. Now, who wouldn’t savor S’Mores Chocolate Cheesecake Bars, Zucchini Chocolate Olive Oil Bars, White Chocolate Carrot Cake Blondies, or Sweet Potato Chocolate Cinnamon Roll Pie, or Apple Cider Chocolate Macadamia Toffee? Venier’s flavor combinations are creative and meld well. For those that prefer standards, there are recipes for Soft Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting, Brooklyn Blackout Chocolate Cupcakes and Flourless Chocolate Cake.

#The Chocolate Addict's Baking Book #I Heart Cheese Cookbook #Let's Brunch #The Complete DIY Cookbook for Young CHefs #The Complete Plant Based Cookbook #Kitchen Explorers #Holy Sweet!#holiday cookbooks #holiday cookbook gifts #cookbook roundup

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libraford · 5 years

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Rose Profiles Part 3! (Here are Part 1 and Part 2)

As always, tag yourself, your friends, and your OC’s at your own risk. There are many, many different kinds of roses.

1st photo:

Explorer (red, left)

Green Tea (green, right)

2nd photo:

Lola (hot pink, top left)

Free Spirit (pink-orange, top right)

Shimmer (peach, bottom right)

High and Magic (red tip orange, bottom left)

Marzipan (light pink, center)

3rd photo:

Carrousel (hot pink, left)

Lighthouse (yellow top)

Purple haze (lavender, right)

Starlight (yellow, bottom.)

4th photo:

Clockwise from the top.

Limbo (yellow green, top)

Saga (medium pink, right)

Frutetto (pink-green, right)

Roseberry (magenta, bottom right)

Heart (dark red, bottom left)

Nectarine (left)

Deep Purple (top left)

Jade (center)

5th photo:

Queen Mary (hot pink

6th photo:

Shocking Versilia (Bright pink, left)

Hummer (yellow, right)

Profiles below!

Explorer disappears off of their social media accounts for months, even years, only to resurface again with a completely different personality, in a different state, and having ‘been through it.’ Won’t share their stories because they just want to be over it and move on, but if you get them alone they will tell you every single trauma. Rumors of their death have been greatly exaggerated, but appreciated.

Green Tea would like to adopt you and be your grandma. Grows all their own food and over-estimates just how much they can eat and is excited to share the rest. Swears every year that they’re done with zucchinis, but ends up growing them anyway. Can make zucchini bread blindfolded, as a result.

Lola is a stage presence even when they’re not on stage. Grand entrances. ‘Grandma-ma, its me: Anastaaaaaahsia.’ Best jokes without even trying. Loves the attention, needs to learn how to deal with loneliness.

Free Spirit doesn’t have to be born in late autumn to be a Sagittarius. Wears sandals everywhere and hates that places require shoes. Would be a nudist if people would stop calling the cops about it. Ignores bad news, plans to live on a compound with 20 or so close friends- presumably who are also down with nudity.

Shimmer is very pretty but is only just now realizing it. Incredibly strong- can lift most things that other people their size/age cannot, and for awhile thought that this was their only good trait. Doesn’t even work out, just is Like That. Prone to posturing about it.

High and Magic has read every book on the occult that you can think of and about a billion others. However, it’s not clear on whether they actually absorbed the knowledge of them or read them for the sake of having read them. Owns many robes, but thinks wizard hats are hokey.

Marzipan has to have someone else accompany them anywhere because they get so nervous at the check-out counter that they forget how to talk or do math. Very sweet, but very shy.

Carrousel would eat only candy if it were allowed and that is why they are not allowed to go to supermarkets unsupervised. Kind of cranky, but the nap does nothing. Hasn’t bought new shoes in five years because ‘they just need a new insole!’ Sore.

Lighthouse is an optimist that means it. Party healer. Rants about essential oils, but not in the way you think they do. The person you come to when you want to talk to someone. Will keep your secrets for you, but will also insist you find help.

Purple Haze is hurt easily- emotionally and physically. They’ve tried to develop a thick skin, but it’s been decades now and it’s just not going to happen. Tries to take on other people’s burdens, gets burnt out easily. Early 2000′s emo music is their guilty pleasure.

Starlight was obsessed with the X-Files, but mostly because they had a crush on one (or both) of the protagonists. This lead to a life-long dedication to the paranormal (and also shoulder pads). Joined the local ghost hunting chapter, but isn’t convinced that they’re legit. Has seen an actual UFO, swears by it.

Limbo will read anything by HP Lovecraft and can connect any world disaster to Cthulu’s awakening. Will play more than three tabletop campaigns at one time and manage not to get any of the plotlines confused. Has to explain a lot of things to a lot of people.

Saga wears haute couture no matter how ugly the dress is. Attracts photographers to them even in the middle of the street. Loves the camera, camera loves them. Walk, walk, fashion baby.

Frutetto is in their Sweet Lolita phase and will probably continue to wear it as long as they make cute clothes in their size. Parasols, cherry blossoms, fake eyelashes, actually uses their matching tea sets.

Roseberry will fucking fight you. Tell them they can’t do something and they will make you eat your words by shoving it down your throat, mother fucker. Often will go out of their way to do something out of spite just because someone said they couldn’t. Forbid them to do something, I fucking dare you.

Heart accidentally faked their own death and just kind of let things happen from there. Never actually revealed that they were alive, went the extra mile and bought a clever disguise to fool their family and friends for awhile. It... almost worked. Almost.

Nectarine would happily become a homemaker, spend the day cleaning and tidying, gardening and cooking. Has a million projects they’d love to do if they had the time, but unfortunately they have to work and make money. Waiting to win the lottery so they can just stay at home for the rest of their life.

Deep Purple joined a girl gang once, but no one believes them when they tell people that, so they just don’t talk about it. Had a wild time in college, doesn’t remember most of it. Keeps a running list of places they’re not allowed back to.

Jade wants world peace, but oh my god- will they gossip and get in your business. Honestly, the worst at talking about people behind their backs, but if you ask them what they want for Christmas, the answer is always ‘world peace.’

Queen Mary has been fighting for so long and the fight goes on forever. All they want to do is rest, but there is so much work to do. Terrible about their own self-care, but will tell other people to stay hydrated. What’s the phrase? “Never set yourself on fire to keep others warm?” Should have listened to that earlier.

Shocking Versillia has a purse to match every outfit and if they don’t have one that matches they will find one. Same goes with shoes. Thrived in the late 1990′s, now is just trying to stay happy.

Hummer will chop down a tree just because they feel like it. Impulsive, bad decisions, and a couple broken bones. Learns what they can do by figuring out what they can’t. Knows how to set a splint because they’ve had to do it by themselves; that one time when they went hiking on that unmarked trail and ended up skittering down the side of a cliff? Woops. But hey, that’s one more thing for the list.

#rose profiles

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sadtapas · 4 years

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Quarentime Return + Oodles of Spoodles n’ Zoodles

Hello, my sad, hungry friends. How have you been? Little panicky? Thinking every dry cough is your death? Chatting with your parents about their living wills? Me, too! Such is the Covid life. I have returned because literally what else is there to do while we all hole up in our homes hoping for a reprieve from the deluge of existentially dreadful news. Now that we all have become fearful of human proximity we’re all cooking more and, frankly, if ever there was a time for small meals for one, it seems to be now. This isolated lifestyle of profound loneliness is like a 10% change from my normal routine, so take some cooking tips from an expert at forgetting what human touch feels like!

Figure for this first recipe in these particular end days we could use something filling and fun to say. Y’know, laughs! I’m going to try to be loose with some of the recipe particulars to allow for your varying, panic-stocked pantries, and since grocery stores are the only bastion of humanity still functioning it’s a mixed bag on if you want to go to a potential coronavirus hotspot for the sake of hoison sauce. Boy, if they’re going to be on the front lines of a pandemic those grocers should be paid a lot more, huh? Almost as if “essential services” should be re-examined and compensated in accordance to their significance. Stay safe, grocers of America, we love you even if a country in a long tumult to abstracted capitalism and cavalier corporate overseers don’t!

Anyway, here’s some Oodles of Spoodles n’ Zoodles.

Ingredients:

Sweet potato

Zucchini

Peppers

Onion

Garlic

Your preferred stir fry sauce

So who here has entered the age of accumulating kitchen gizmos? All my dehydrators, sous-viders, and Instant Potters stand up! For this recipe to work we’re going to need a spiralizer, which are those do-dads that work to noodlefy your various fibrous materials. These come in many degrees of fanciness, so if you’re one of the bourgeoisie with an adjustable spiralizer set it to “noodle” or whatever, your highness.

Get a non-stick pan going hot with your preferred frying oil. No wrong answers here. While that’s heating up scrub your sweet potato supply and then start turning them taters into shreds. As you spin them around be sure to break up the threads lest you end up with a stream of potato that looks like one of those Guinness records for longest fingernails (do not Google). You have now created sweet potato noodles, or spoodles! What fun. Toss those into the pan once completed, as the potato parts take a few minutes longer to cook than everything else due to their consistency and that this is really the only ingredient in here you don’t want to eat undercooked. Better safe than sorry. Wash your hands.

As the spoodles cook get to dicing up your onion and pepper. I’ve been getting these itty bitty peppers lately because they make a surprisingly good snack whole, just bite them off the stem. Kinda like a vegetable strawberry. But I eat the leaves of the strawberry. I don’t know when I began eating the leaves of strawberries but I choose not to change unless any of you tell me this is another way I’m killing myself to add to the pile.

When you start getting some onion stink in your nose add some minced garlic. Make sure you’re stirring this fry pan frequently as leaving the potatoes sedentary for too long can crisp them up too much.

Spiralizing zucchini is much easier than the sweet potato. These guys are soft and friendly, and, if you want, make for a great raw, cold snack, too. Just toss them with some olive oil and spices and you got a summer salad. But that’s an “if we ever go outside again” dish, so let’s move on. Once you’re done turning your zucchini into noodles - zoodles, y’all! - add them to the pan.

Now get out whatever you like to use as a stir-fry sauce. Could be as simple as soy sauce, it’s up to you. I like making one that’s a mixture of soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, and some dry spices. Your mileage may vary. Is sriracha still a meme food that everyone has? It’s not great for adding to the fry but when in doubt just dump it on whatever dish you’re not terribly thrilled with. Throw your sauce in, stir everything up for a little so the sauce can absorb into your foodstuffs a little, and boom!

We have gone full Dr. Seuss in this kitchen with Ooodles of Spoodles n’ Zoodles! This is, granted, more work than setting and forgetting some rice or regular noodles, but, for a veggie-only dish, this has a lot of inside-soothing power. It’s warm, crispy, and just green enough to feel like you’re doing something good for yourself. As tempting as it may be we cannot get through this apocalypse on pizza rolls alone.

I’m gonna try to make more Sad Tapas in the near future, and I’m always open to your recipe suggestions (coming up with new ones is easily the hardest part). Stay safe out, mostly in, there, my friends. Maybe buy a gift certificate to your favorite restaurant if you’re feeling weird about take out but want to support the local economy. Look to the helpers. And if this is really the whimper of the end of the world, at least go out with a full stomach.

#recipe #zucchini #sweet potato #zoodle #seuss #quarantine #isolation

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nakedecon · 5 years

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diet that actually works

alright everyone. i'm about to share with you a diet that is super easy to stick to and actually yields results.

now, just a disclaimer, this may not be as fast/extreme as some of you would like, but i can guarantee you all that this pace allows you to be consistent and prevents you from constantly falling into a binge cycle.

within a month of starting this meal plan, i have lost 13lbs. that is an average of 3.5lbs a week.

average daily intake: 800 calories

BREAKFAST

EVERY morning, i drink a profast chocolate shake. they're sold at a local metabolic weight loss center, and they are admittedly pricey, but they are definitely worth it. if you can find a similar/cheaper substitute, even better.

i also ALWAYS drink coffee with a packet of splenda and .25-.5 cup of cashew milk. the foods you eat on this diet are pretty limited so i need my caffeine in the morning, as well as some fat to keep me satiated.

profast shake: 100 calories, 7g carbs, 1.5g fat, 15g protein

1-2 cups of coffee: 20 calories, 3g carbs, 1g fat, .5g protein

LUNCH

for school, i only pack one thing: a very, very basic salad. it encourages me to stick to smaller portion sizes and it also relieves my growling stomach at just the right time of day. if i ever am feeling weak/faint, i will pick up leftover scraps/snacks from my friends and classmates.

chopped romaine (2 cups): 16 calories, 3.2g carbs, .2g fat, 0g protein *2g dietary fiber*

grilled chicken breast (1 oz): 53 calories, 0g carbs, 2.1g fat, 8g protein

sliced cucumber (.5 cup): 8 calories, 1.9g carbs, 0g fat, .3g protein

lite ken's balsamic vinegrette (2 tbsp): 60 calories, 3g carbs, 4.5g fat, 0g protein

it really is essential to have some source of protein—i have struggled for years to implement a plant-based diet in my household. given that i'm an 18 year old living with my parents, i really did not get much of a say in dinner selection. a meat protein, however, has the ideal macronutrients ratio for this diet, and also will keep you the most full throughout the day while also repairing your muscles after heavy workouts.

while you also may assume that you can go without the salad dressing, please know that the dressing often times contains your highest amount of fat for the day. as i'm sure you know, you will be very constipated during this diet and i suggest sticking to natural means of achieving bowel movements—so stick to coffee and keep this portion of fat in your diet.

DINNER

i am very privileged to have a mother willing to work with me on this diet, and i am very grateful for the work she puts into preparing my dinners. while we do switch up the dinner menu every night to avoid monotony, it is ALWAYS a vegetable paired with a meat protein.

typical vegetables: broccoli, asparagus, cauliflower, zucchini, brussels sprouts

typical proteins: chicken, salmon, turkey, pork tenderloin

i try to eat as early in the evening as possible, around 6:30pm, so my body has plenty of time to digest and also burn off any additional calories before i go to bed. to avoid late night snacking, i focus on homework or watch youtube videos, specifically mukbangs or 10,000 calorie challenges. if i really cannot resist the urge, my go-to treat is 1 outshine fruit popsicle. the no sugar ones are 25 calories and they're just the right size to satisfy me. it also makes me think that i'm cheating on the diet, so having just one is enough to keep me from going back.

EXERCISE / WORKOUTS

this is so important for this diet, and i definitely credit it for speeding up my weight loss process. even as someone undoubtedly suffering from body dysmorphia, i am starting to see positive changes in my physical state. my legs are slimmer and have more defined contours, showing off my muscles. my stomach is MUCH flatter than i was at my starting weight, and my hipbones actually protrude out.

i play lacrosse for my school, meaning i exercise roughly 4-5 days a week. practice extends for 2 hours, while games last 50 min, plus our 1 hour warm-ups.

i'm definitely not saying you NEED to pick up a sport in order to do well, but i am telling you that being obligated to teammates and a coach really pushes me to workout every weekday, and prevents me from excusing myself from exercising.

before practice every day, our team runs 1 mile together, with the average pace being 6.5mph. at my weight, 150lbs, that burns me roughly 100 calories.

during actual practice, we do a lot of jogging/sprinting throughout all of the drills, but we also wait in lineups and whatnot, so when i calculate my burned calories in myfitnesspal, i always underestimate the time of my workout. instead of logging 2 hours of lacrosse, i typically log 35 minutes, which burns 320 calories for me. i'd rather underestimate than overestimate.

for those of you that are not committed to a sport: i highly recommend purchasing the p90x package. once my lacrosse season ends, i will be turning to that as my form of exercise. p90x provides a great workout plan for those who are specifically looking to become lean, rather than bulky, while still building defined muscle. i'm pretty sure the average p90x workout burns around 450 calories, and if you pair that with a mile run, that'll give you a total of -550 calories a day.

PLEASE do not skip this aspect of the diet— if you think you can just create a calorie deficit without implementing some form of exercise and strength training, you are not going to get the results that you want. yes, you will lose weight. but that weight will be a combination of fat AND muscle.

the more muscle you have, the higher your BMR is, simply because it requires more energy to maintain muscle than fat. in addition, having muscle will make you look much more toned rather than flabby/one-dimensional. i promise you that you will not bulk up like a body-builder if you eat protein or workout. instead, you're going to achieve a flat stomach/abs and toned arms/legs. the only way you would bulk up is if you eat a caloric surplus, so you have nothing to worry about.

ADDITIONAL POINTERS

cut out oils. this is so so important— oils contain way too much fat and way too many calories. your body needs to be using the fat it already has for energy, not new sources of fat that you put into your body

the macronutrients ratio: 50% protein, 30% carbohydrates, 20% fat. you want to really boost your protein intake in order to repair your muscles after working out. carbohydrates also provide your body easily-accessible energy, but a majority of those carbs should come from vegetables.

NO fruit. fruit contains way too much sugar and while they do contain fiber, you can do without them.

NO grains. grains, such as pasta and bread, are extremely high in calories and, honestly, do not really keep you full. i understand eating a bagel right before an extreme workout in order to get some energy, but grains really do not provide much sustenance and i highly suggest you do not indulge.

gastrointestinal issues. yes, you are going to be constipated. stick to coffee and the salad dressing as natural laxatives, but if you NEED a bowel movement, consider drinking smooth move tea. or milk of magnesia. and a TON of water. as someone who often suffers from painful bloating, i recommend buying gasx chewables— they are so relieving and they actually taste like candy, without having any calories.

buy a lifewater. lifewater is my saving grace. by purchasing a 1L bottle, it encourages me to drink SO much water throughout the day. i normally keep it room temperature and i end up drinking over 3L within 24 hours, and i am TERRIBLE at reminding myself to hydrate. water is so so important for this diet, especially if you are working out often. it also encourages more bowel movements and prevents your body from retaining too much water.

avoiding a binge. i actually keep a list of foods in my notes app. it features a ton of meals/snacks that i am dying to indulge in. for some reason, it helps me. also, try to remind yourself that the primitive part of your brain is fueling your irrational cravings, but your advanced brain is control of your motor functions. YOU are in control of whether or not you grab snacks and feed yourself, NOT your cravings.

feel free to send me any messages if you have any questions! hope this works for you all!

#ana #thinspo #fasting #calories #anamia #proana #thin #food diary #thinspiration #diet

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sea-changed · 5 years

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vermiculated replied to your post: vermiculated replied to your post...

I can't believe I missed this until now! wow! Here I am, here you are, there are books and words between us. wonderful. thank you.

<3 <3 <3

I have to tell you that I read Olivia Waite's new ff and it has exactly this problem. It is as though both heroines are mealy-mouthed and forgettable so that the reader won't be offended by reading a book about women. Their only flaws are caring too much, wanting appropriate twenty-first century style recognition (ahistoricism doesn't bother me but as I was reading it, I thought, @sea-changed is going to be livid) and accidentally misunderstanding one another...

also attempted financial abuse. which I mention separately because it added a note of the glass armonica to the music of the spheres. how is ff so inadequate to our desires?

Oh no, this is terribly disappointing to hear; I’d been holding out some amount of hope for this one, though that was probably folly on my part. Why, in a subgenre written by and wholly about women, can the seemingly fairly standard “women are people” concept continually fail to gain ground? I’ll still read this, as it’s waiting for me on my phone and the upcoming semester promises to require mindless stress-reading, but I’ll be extremely irate about it. (I always think I can be magnanimous about ahistoricism in romance novels, which is obviously a lie, but it is good to be known like this.)

re: re: 34, I love the sweeping romantic sentiment because they manage to meet in the middle only when they both understand themselves to be ludicrously devoted. It didn't quite feel like a romance novel, you are correct -- there's a bit of neither fish nor fowl here? I personally feel that the natural second-half plot ought to have been shoring up how Richard and David love one another despite their respective troubled backstories rather than ...

...advancing the political thriller from "A Seditious Affair" and developing a coherent moral world. Which is what novels are oriented toward: why do people do what they do, despite everything? In romance, they do it because they love one another (or they're supposed to) whereas I think more complicated motives such as you discuss are much rarer.

oh, novels!, I say, like I live inside Tony Trollope's vision. I think the book tries to have it both ways and ends up being slightly frustrating for all readers. just write two books, Kimberly! Kimberly is what I call her when I am trying to hector her from afar. dear Kimberly, please have Susan stab Templeton. xo.

“Just write two books” is honestly what it comes down to: it feels like two books, and while I get that the political thriller part allowed David to be David to to requisite degree, after how gracefully it was cleaved to the romance plot in Seditious Affair it felt a bit tacked-on here. And while I’m certainly not opposed to moral ambiguity in my ships, the genre formula seems to require that said ambiguity, if there is any to begin with, be neatly swept under the rug; it’s really the sweeping I have the problem with rather than the ambiguity itself. (Because like, should Richard be fucking his valet? No! That’s a pretty open-and-shut one. Which certainly doesn’t mean I’m opposed to watching it happen, but I’d like fewer bows on my endings, I guess. Did you know Gentleman’s Position was the first book of the series I read, because I thought it had the most interesting-sounding summary? In hindsight this amuses to no end.)

(The accusation that there are similar moral issues and rug-sweeping in Seditious Affair, and that I am simply too starry-eyed over it to complain about them, is potentially quite valid, though because of said stars in said eyes I’m not the one to judge.)

(dear Kimberly, please have Susan stab Templeton --The only way I can see this going down with zero hair torn out of my head, quite honestly.)

re: re: 39, @mysharkwillgoon made the unkind (but accurate) observation that this series is always available at our county library because no one likes it. I recognize that I am utterly alone in how much I enjoy this, and am really pleased that you picked it up and felt the requisite feelings. I know you're not a Victorianist by practice or nature, so it's impressive that you returned to this weird book.

HA, I’ve made this same observation (likely about the same library!), which I’ll admit is satisfying to the part of me that thinks everyone should have my taste, though dissatisfying to the equally clamorous part of me that wants to read Seditious Affair for the sixteenth time and has to wait for it on hold. Weird romance seems to be my favorite kind, so I too am glad I returned to it. Not a Victorianist by practice or nature may have to go on my office wall.

A general query: can literary fiction be experimental enough to reach the logical end-point of the genre or are we still pretending that felicity in art is enough? Why must there be meaning in the world? Perhaps I judge the Booker too harshly: it is only a literary competition, it is not an immurement by orange sticker -- yet every book I have wanted to love from the longlist has given me the same depth of emotion that I feel on regarding ...

...a tray of wrapped zucchini at the grocery store: why are we engaging in such resource-intensive craft! (this is not strictly true. I delighted in A Little Life, it was nothing like plastic on vegetables at all.) To continue, is the worst thing that happened to literary fiction the application of irony? I am no supporter of the genuine, the real, the unmanufactured, yet ironic distance can hardly support so much.

It's not a prerequisite. and it looks like smugness more often than it comes off as wit. I read someone recently saying that the problem in Jude the Obscure is "done because we are too menny" which struck me -- a biased Hardy fan -- as missing the point about art: the place where it happens is an artificial one, but it has greater force for that. it's not a bug, it's a feature!

"somewhat poisonous nostalgia" sick burn, I like it.

Speaking of sick burns, “the same depth of emotion that I feel on regarding a tray of wrapped zucchini at the grocery store” has the devastating combination of being both pithy and accurate. I do find myself regularly mystified about what criteria are used to long-list books in general (the Booker being, I think, a particularly frequent and egregious example): it leaves me to wonder whether a) people who judge these things find being left cold and unmoved a virtue in fiction or b) they are led to feel things about writing I find cold and unmoving. (I tend toward the first, though the fact that people have seemingly genuine emotions about Madeline Miller novels would argue strongly for the second.)

The pitting of irony and emotion against one another is, I agree, one of the central failings of the literary genre: Both! Both are good! As you say, being in a constructed hothouse universe is not to be derided (though certainly poked at), and it does not (or at least should not) lessen the emotional validity of the created world. Have faith in your own creations, you dimwits.

I have been thinking all morning about your observation that none of these books are experimental enough: I thought the French were meant to be good at this. Do you think it has to do with our late uneasiness around teenage sexuality, and that writing a sufficently-complicated teenager such that he is entitled to his own sexual preference means that authors no longer sound unique, ...

... but rather like a series of psychology textbooks. Which can be a pleasure (what's UP, Megan Abbott) yet tends to make these books extremely ... putdownable. Thank you for this, there's really nothing better than having a person with exquisite taste on whom one can rely to read books first.

I do think that there is an essential trouble with alienation in YA novels: so many read as false and/or patronizing, because they’re being written to teenagers rather than about teenagers. (Sometimes this is rectified when adult lit writes about teenagers, but mostly it is not, and certainly not in this case. Here again is a case of irony vs. emotion; if you’re not going to give me emotion, you’ve got to be a whole lot better at irony--or in this case more specifically narrative commentary--than this.)

(On the subject of complicated teenagers having sex convincingly, I was recently a fan of Patrick Ness’s Release, which the author describes it as a cross between Mrs. Dalloway and Judy Blume’s Forever; a comment I’ll let stand on its own sizable feet.)

And there is truly nothing better than having someone to dump your own particular long-winded exegeses on, so thank you for that in return.

ps I read Astray and it was so frail! "disappointingly pedestrian" indeed. If I could write like Emma Donoghue, I guess I would labor under the curse that afflicts her plotting.

For being a book that contained so much that I love--an entire collection of extremely specific and well-researched historical settings!--it was so flat. I know Donoghue can write better sentences, I’m at a loss why she chose to not put any in this collection.

#vermiculated #replies #books tag

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livingcorner · 3 years

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17 Tips For Starting Your Own Herb Garden@|how to start your own herb garden@|https://ift.tt/3tw5vd9

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But it also doesn’t leave none. Your apartment probably (hopefully) has a fire escape, a balcony, or a patio. And that means you’ve got a little chunk of outdoor space that you can use to set up a kitchen garden of your very own.

Growing your own herbs is especially great because they don’t take much space and a little will go a long way in food. Also great: You don’t have to buy a huge bunch of parsley for a single recipe and then let the rest rot in the fridge. Instead, you can snip off just as much as you need at a time.

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Here’s what you need to know to get started:

To be clear, storing items on a fire escape IS against fire code (at least in New York City), and for a reason — if you can’t actually walk on it or access the stairs/ladder, it’s not a very effective “escape.”

That said, if you’re careful to leave a clear, walkable path that will let someone access both the window and the ladder, you should still have space for a few pots that can really brighten up your life every day there isn’t a fire (which will hopefully be all of them).

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Even if you’re careful about making your fire escape garden safe, you may still get in hot water with your landlord or the relevant authorities if it’s easily visible to people on the street. And your little herb friends deserve a safe space! So, basically, don’t be stupid. If the fire escape isn’t behind your building or is too small to safely fill with pots, think about some other apartment-friendly gardening options instead.

You need to know how much sun your plants will get, and how much they need. Most vegetables will do best in full sun (six-plus hours), but some greens and herbs are happy with less. On a fire escape, surrounding buildings or trees could block sun for part of the day, so check to make sure you hit the minimum for the type of plants you want (you can get that info from the little markers in their pots or from Google) before you buy seedlings.

To figure out how many hours you get, just keep an eye on the spot where your containers will be and make a note of when direct sunlight begins in the morning and ends in the evening. Or you can buy a little sun calculator to work it out for you.

Also keep in mind that the amount and direction of sun will change throughout the summer, so be prepared to move plants around for maximum ray catching if needed.

The timing of when you plant will vary depending on where you live. Basically, you can get started as soon as you’re sure temperatures won’t dip below freezing again. But don’t worry about missing some magical deadline; you can also continue planting things throughout the spring and summer. When you’re ready, here are the basic essentials you’ll need:

1. POTS: The size can vary depending on what you’re growing, but you want to make sure there’s enough depth for the plants’ roots to fully develop. You’ll probably want something at least 8″ in diameter; it’s better to overestimate how much space you’ll need than underestimate. Here are some general guidelines for picking the right pot size and material.

2. POTTING SOIL: You want a potting mix that’s formulated for containers, not anything that says “garden soil.” Use this calculator to figure out how many bags of soil you’ll need based on the dimensions of your containers.

3. PLANTS: Farmers’ markets are a great local source for herb and vegetable seedlings in the spring. Hardware and garden stores should have a decent selection as well.

A few other things that are nice to have, but not necessary: A trowel (for moving dirt around), a watering can (though you can also just use a large pitcher), and fertilizer to use once your plants are established (see item #14 in this post for more info).

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No matter what you’re growing, you should probably buy them as seedlings, not seeds. Yes, sprouting tiny baby plants from seeds can be magical and miraculous and all that jazz. But honestly, it’s not worth your time when you’ve got a small space and a relatively short growing season. Instead, buy established toddler herbs and vegetables at a farmer’s market or a nursery. You’ll get edible results much sooner and they’ll be less likely to die in infancy.

Basil is the herb that everyone loves and that loves everyone. It’s a very enthusiastic grower that smells and tastes great. It’s also helpful for gardeners without a lot of experience because basil will let you know right away if you’re not watering enough — by looking sad and wilty — but perks back up again after a good shower.

Always cut off the top of a basil plant instead of snipping leaves from the bottom or side of the main steam. If you take those lower leaves, you’ll just damage the plant’s solar power source, and make it grow tall and spindly instead of branching.

Don’t take off much more than a third of the plant’s height, and cut right above a spot where you see new little leaves sprouting from the stem. Those will go on to grow two new branches where you just had one stem before, which means a bushier, more compact plant.

You should also aim to trim before any flowers bloom. They may be pretty, but they’re essentially the plant’s way of saying, “I’m quitting my job in order to have babies.” You want the plant to keep doing its job, i.e., producing nice, big leaves that you can turn into pesto, so snip the tops off as soon as you see buds.

Give it a try it next time you have a few leftover sprigs. Once it has roots an inch or two long, you can just tuck it into a pot and let it rip.

Greens like spinach, lettuce, and arugula work basically the same way as herbs: You can buy them as seedlings, plant them, and they’ll keep throwing up new leaves that you can harvest repeatedly. These grow quickly and get started right away, so you can have salad in the spring and early summer while you wait for other veggies like tomatoes to get rolling.

In the mid or late summer (or whenever your first round of greens stop producing new leaves), you can replace them with cold-weather-friendly greens like chard and kale, which will keep on going well into the fall.

Fresh chives (above) are the kind of thing you might not buy, but will sprinkle on basically everything you cook if they happen to be growing right outside the window. They also bloom with pretty purple flowers!

Scallions are easy to grow in small containers, and you can get them started just by going to the grocery store and picking a bunch that have healthy-looking white roots on the end of the bulb (instructions here). Then you can harvest the green tops throughout the summer and leave the bulbs to keep producing.

Even after you close up shop on the fire escape for winter, you can keep scallions going with just a cup of water.

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Chances are you’re not going to have enough space to grow something like zucchini, so stick with veggies that aren’t heavy and can do well in relatively small containers. Just keep an eye on tomato and bean plants — which can get very tall very quickly — and tie them to a stake or railing if they’re getting out of hand.

Mint — particularly peppermint — is INSANE. It’s actually an unstoppable alien plant that will spread its runners and roots like nobody’s business; I once discovered my mint plant literally trying to sneak out of its pot and off the back of a second-story fire escape.

So mint should probably have a pot all to itself, or else it’ll just strangle anything else in there. It’ll also be less leggy and more bushy if you’re not shy about trimming and using it. This yummy maple-mint iced tea is a great way to go through bunches of it.

Exotic stuff like “pineapple” mint and lemon verbena might seem appealing when you’re at the garden store, but you should pay attention to what you actually eat and cook with, and grow accordingly. Love salsa? Plant tomatoes, hot peppers, and cilantro.

You can also get fancy with “companion planting” certain things close to each other, which may help control pests.

Happy roots with room to grow mean happy plants with plenty of leaves down the line. You might be tempted to cram as many seedlings as you can into pots to get the most out of your real estate, but if they’re crowded they won’t produce as much, and then you’ll both be sad. Leave several inches between plants (here’s a helpful, more detailed discussion) and don’t put more than a few into one pot.

Also make sure that, if you’re combining multiple types of herbs in one pot, they all have about the same sun and water requirements.

Herbs are delicate critters and need a little more babysitting than most houseplants. Remember that a fire escape made out of black metal is going to get really hot, and your pots probably aren’t that big; both contribute to the soil drying out faster. You can slow down the drying process a little bit by covering the soil with a layer of mulch, but you’ll still want to check it about every other day (or every day during hot weather).

To check, poke your finger into the pot, and if the dirt is dry an inch below the surface, it’s time to water. That said, you don’t want to drown the plants, so just water until the soil is damp all the way through, not soaking wet. And if your pots don’t have much in the way of drainage holes, err on the side of watering less, more often.

You want to be sure that the pots don’t just hold onto water and turn into root-rotting swamps. The easiest, most important thing to do is buy pots that have at least a few good-sized drainage holes in the bottom (though you may want to set them over a tray so you don’t end up dripping mud onto your downstairs neighbor’s head).

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Keep in mind that putting chunky material like rocks or pot shards in the bottom of a container is kind of a myth and won’t actually increase drainage. The most important thing is using potting soil (not just dirt from the ground) that has little granules of perlite and other minerals that keep it from getting water-logged.

If you want to try a level 2.0 project, it’s actually pretty simple to build cool self-watering bucket containers with cheap recycled materials.

You might think that dirt is just dirt, and any dirt will do. Wrong!

Start your plants in new potting soil (the kind that comes in a bag at the garden store) or, if you’re reusing old soil, remove any dead roots and mix in some compost or fertilizer. Then give things a little boost as needed throughout the season. You can use water-soluble chemical fertilizers about every two weeks, or try organic alternatives like coffee grounds, seaweed, or “liquid fish.”

Why? If you want your plants to keep producing throughout the summer, it’s important that the soil they’re growing in is aerated enough to let oxygen through and provides enough nutrients. When you’re watering small containers frequently (which you should), you end up flushing out the nutrients in potting soil to begin with.

Squirrels suck. They just do. They will dig up an entire three-foot-long container, CONVINCED that it’s full of buried acorn treasure (it isn’t! I checked!) and not give a shit that they just destroyed your lovingly tended micro-farm in the process.

If you’re having problems, you can try your luck with any number of possible solutions: bloodmeal fertilizer, plastic mesh or chicken wire, cayenne pepper, or even good old-fashioned rocks. I confess that my weird DIY method of weaving a deterrent latticework out of bamboo kabob skewers only…kinda sorta works. But I’m not giving up yet.

You can troubleshoot a lot of common problems, like yellow leaves (which might mean too much water or not enough nitrogen). If you really think a plant is beyond repair, do a thorough inspection and give it a little time before you hold a funeral.

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My setup last summer (IDK what’s happening with that tragic dill, sorry).

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source https://livingcorner.com.au/17-tips-for-starting-your-own-herb-gardenhow-to-start-your-own-herb-gardenhttps-img-buzzfeed-com-buzzfeed-static-static-2015-12-28-18-campaign_images-webdr09-17-tips-for-starting-your-own-h/

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theblessed-unrest · 4 years

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Vegetarian Recipes I 💖

I’m starting a new thread for #Gabcooks because during my 6-month exchange in Vancouver, I’ve developed a passion for food and appreciation beyond simply the end product on my plate. There’s just something about being in the fields, plucking out fruit from the land, food compost being a common sight and feeling the vulnerability and fragility of fresh produce that makes you want to whip up the best meals you can with what you have and to demand the same from places you dine at. It makes me think, perhaps this is why there is a dearth of excellent, world-class food places in Singapore, apart from hawker food - where then again, the best places are usually run by older folks (who I hypothesise had more interaction with their food before they were turned into food?) Millennials these days keep opening cafes with eye-roll inducing, run-off-the-mill menus. (Did someone say avocado toast with eggs benedict? I swear, if someone says describes a cafe as “insta-worthy” again I will wring them dry...)

Food security is something many developed countries have began to take for granted and you can see this from the amount of food wasted in these countries. Research by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has shown that food waste by consumers is more common in high-income countries (FAO, 2019). Especially in urbanised settings like Singapore (which generated 763,100 tonnes of food waste in 2018), where many have not even stepped into a farm their entire lives, Wendell Berry’s word never rang truer. He writes that “cultural amnesia” regarding the origins of our food is rampant. Not only does food waste have negative environmental impacts (GHGs, carbon/land/water footprints), but it just seems like a really dumb problem to have by virtue of how easy the solution is: basically to estimate rightly and buy the right amount of food you need. Everyone benefits because you save money while not having to go out of your way to save the environment.

Regarding this point, I found the figures interesting for the main food groups and their associated contribution to carbon/land/water footprints. In this regard, all food groups (not just meat and animal products!) can equally contribute to food waste, so this applies to even vegans/vegetarians. The bottomline is, no matter what you eat, don’t waste it.

(Source: FAO, 2019)

But cutting out food waste is just one part of the equation. We need to do more.

I can’t commit to veganism just yet, but here’s my hot take: I think the world will benefit with majority of people incorporating more eco-friendly and zero waste lifestyle habits (imperfectly) rather than a few people practicing through and through veganism. So I guess I am a “Reducetarian” in a sense. Multiple resources have pointed to reduction of meat intake as the essential to avoiding a climate crisis, with a recent study by Oxford showing that just going vegan for two-thirds of your meals can cut down food-related GHG emissions by 60%! And of course, eating less red meat is good for your health.

As for me, apart from when I’m out with my friends or eating what my mum/helper cooks at home, I will try to get vegetarian food for myself (usually at a mixed rice store). Quoting Wendell Berry again, I too believe that “eating is an agricultural act” and a critical way we can take action to fight climate change (since eating is something we inevitably do every few hours each day).

Many of my friends didn’t believe I could survive on a vegetarian diet on the weekdays when I was in Vancouver, and ask me what I eat then: beans??? (Short answer: no, I believe only 10% of my diet were beans as seen below) So here are some recipes to start with that can help you transition into a plant-based diet while proving that you don’t necessarily sacrifice taste! (Another hot take: thinking that steak belongs in “fancy meal” category and a proof of culinary prowess is the lack of one’s imagination. Any fool, including this writer, can cook a good steak at home after a few tries.)

Recipes

(Source: Bon Appetit)

1. Parmesan-Roasted Cauliflower

I let my family and some friends try this for the first time when I came back and everyone had second/third/fourth helpings... I don’t know how to describe roasted cauliflowers apart from “life-changing”. You’ll never stir fry your cauliflowers again.

(Source: Bon Appetit)

2. Spaghetti Aglio e Olio with Lots of Kale

Super easy weeknight meal to make. Just remember not to hold back on the salt.

(Source: Bon Appetit)

3. Zucchini-Herb Fritters with Garlic Yoghurt

“It tastes like meat!” I rest my case. I had them with cold soba, sautéed swiss chard, julienned cucumber and occasionally, a poached egg. (Also, the garlic yoghurt dip is SO GOOD. I introduced my family to it recently and we’ve been making a new batch every week since.)

4. Wholesome Burrito Bowl

Inspired by a time where my roommate and I paid close to $10 for a burrito bowl in school. Never again. Also if you’re not sold yet, it has guac (!!)

(Source: My Gluten Free Guide)

5. Cheesy Potato Rosti

For 2 servings

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

2 peeled potatoes (I used russets because they were on sale when I made this)

1 tbs olive oil

Salt and pepper

Lemon wedges (squeezed for serving)

Optional: garlic yoghurt (refer to BA’s Zucchini Fritters recipe)

Method:

1) Grate potatoes.

2) Take handfuls of your grated potato and squeeze it out over the sink to remove as much liquid as possible. (Life hack: put it in the fridge while you go and busy yourself with other things for half an hour or so to get it real dehydrated)

3) Heat oil in large frying pan over high heat. Season potato with salt and pepper and place half in pan, distributing it evenly to form a large circle. Press t down with the back of a spatula. Cook for 2 minutes, then turn down the heat to medium and cook for a further 3 minutes.

4) Place a plate upside down on top of the potato and carefully flip the frying pan so that the fried side of the rosti is facing upwards on the plate. Gently slide back into the pan and continue cooking for another 4-5 minutes, turning up the heat for the last minute or so to crisp up the base. Remove from pan. Repeat with remaining potato.

*Notes: You can add on whatever other ingredients you want! I recommend onions and mushrooms. They probably go well with poached eggs and other sautéed vegetables as well.

6. Baked Patatas Bravas with Egg

Inspired after having it at Como Taperia :’-) Make sure to watch the eggs!

7. Chana Masala

Seriously, the secret to good vegetarian food is the spices!! Great with naan.

8. Zucchini Loaf

Zucchini again?? Yes, I somehow managed to procure a hugeass zucchini. Story for another day. Basically kind of like a carrot cake situation but moister because zucchinis have higher water content.

(Source: Epicurious)

9. Burst Cherry Tomato Pasta

Super easy, tasty and fast dinner to whip up (without even having to crack open a jar of pasta sauce!)

10. Crispy Black Bean Tacos with Avocado and Feta

Another really fast, easy and satisfying meal to make. Especially if you have a masher. I use a fork :’’-)

11. Grilled Cheese Sourdough with Caramelised Onions and Scrambled Eggs

I had a phase (during finals) where I was basically exhausting all the possible permutations and combinations of meals you could make from sourdough, cheese and eggs. It was kind of a eureka moment when I thought of adding caramelised onions into your classic grilled cheese sandwich.

For 1 serving

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

1 small onion, or half if large (chopped)

1 tablespoon unsalted butter (softened)

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon sherry vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

2 slices of sourdough (or any other bread of choice)

2 slices of cheddar (I mixed in some shredded parmesan as well)

1 large egg

Salt and pepper

Method:

1) Heat half tablespoon of unsalted butter in a large pan over medium heat. When butter is melted, add onions in and cook, stirring occasionally, until dark brown and caramelized, about 15 minutes. Add the vinegar, sugar and 2 tablespoons water, scrapping up any dark bits that have accumulated on the bottom of the pan. Continue to cook until all the liquid has evaporated. Transfer the onions to a bowl.

2) Butter 1 side of each bread slice. Lay 1 slice butter-side down onto pan on medium heat. Top with 1 slices of cheddar, parmesan, a dollop of the onions and 1 more slice of cheddar. Top with another slice of bread, butter-side up.

3) Cook until the cheese begins to melt and the bread is golden brown, 2 to 4 minutes. Flip and continue to cook until golden brown and the cheese is melted through, 2 to 4 minutes. Cut in half.

4) Crack egg into a medium bowl. Add salt and pepper. Whip eggs until completely homogenous and pale yellow in colour, about 30 seconds. Heat butter on pan over medium-low heat. (Can skip this step if your pan is non-stick) Add eggs and cook, undisturbed, until a thin layer of cooked egg appears around the edge of the skillet. Using a spatula and broad sweeping motions, push eggs all the way around the circumference of the skillet, then across the bottom. Continue to push eggs around and across skillet until fluffy and barely set, about 2 minutes; they should still look runny on top. Sprinkle with more pepper if desired. Serve immediately with grilled cheese sandwich.

(Source: Bon Appetit)

12. Spicy Kimchi Tofu Stew

A winter essential. Really comforting to have with rice.

13. Crispy Maple-Soy Glazed Tofu with Soba & Kimchi

A product of making do with whatever I had in the kitchen. Followed this recipe for the crispy maple-soy glazed tofu. Served it with chilled soba and kimchi straight from the fridge, topped with chopped green onions. Flavours actually went really well together.

14. Pumpkin Soup with Cheesy Garlic Bread

A fall essential. Made the cheesy garlic bread from scratch with sourdough, olive oil, minced garlic, green onions and shredded parmesan cheese.

15. Cream of Mushroom Soup with Cheesy Garlic Bread

It was a phase of soup + cheesy garlic bread. I can’t find the recipe I used though... But here’s Bon Appetit’s recipe.

16. Barlett Pear and Goat Cheese Toast

With some chopped roasted almonds and a drizzle of maple syrup, it’s a taste bomb.

17. Cheese-Stuffed Bell Peppers

Great finger food for a party!

18. Baked Eggs with Mushrooms, Cherry tomatoes and Spinach + Toast

Zero cooking needed. Just chop up the ingredients and stick them in the oven (together with some slices of bread for maximum efficiency). Great for lazy dinners or a late night snack.

(Source: Bon Appetit)

19. Pumpkin Loaf with Salted Maple Butter

Loaves are my favourite thing to bake now. I love the flavours in this one - it has fresh ginger!! There’s also very little effort required for maximal output. I can have them for breakfast, snacks and dessert. And they freeze well so future you will thank you too.

#gabcooks #personal #bon appetit #vegetarian #reducetarian #healthy #recipes #cooking #testkitchen

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gethealthy18-blog · 5 years

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295: Health Foods That Are Actually Making Us Sick With Dr. Gundry of the Plant Paradox

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/295-health-foods-that-are-actually-making-us-sick-with-dr-gundry-of-the-plant-paradox/

295: Health Foods That Are Actually Making Us Sick With Dr. Gundry of the Plant Paradox

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

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Katie: Hello, and welcome to the “Wellness Mama Podcast.” I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com, and I am here today with one of the most requested podcast guests ever. Dr. Steven Gundry MD is a renowned heart surgeon, four-time “New York Times” bestselling author and physician-scientist. He’s considered the leading expert in the world on a lectin-free diet as the key to reversing disease and boosting longevity, and he explains the science and the protocol in his book, ”The Plant Paradox.”

He also wrote a book called “The Longevity Paradox: How to Die Young in a Ripe Old Age” where he talks about how to get younger as you age, and he certainly seems to be an example of that. He also has written several cookbooks, including ”The Plant Paradox Family Cookbook,” which comes out right about the time you are listening to this and is available everywhere books are sold. This is one of my favorite interviews I’ve done. It’s fascinating.

We go into a lot of different topics, including autoimmune disease and how to reverse it, how to keep your family healthy, even things like we go deep on APOE-4 genes and a whole lot of fascinating science. And Dr. Gundry practices medicine still seven days a week with his waitlist only clinics and helps thousands of people a year to get healthier. And, stay tuned to also hear how some of his clinical studies that he’s working on, they have a 95% reversal rate for autoimmune disease. So, like I said, one of my favorite episodes that I have done, and I hope that you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Katie: Dr. Gundry, welcome, and thanks for being here.

Dr. Gundry: Thanks for having me, “Wellness Mama.”

Katie: I am so excited to have you. In fact, you are one of my most requested guests ever, and I’m so excited to finally get to chat with you on air. And I mentioned in your bio you are well-known for your book, ”The Plant Paradox,” and I think that’s a perfect place to start because I read it and really enjoyed it, and I know it caused a stir to say the least. And you talk about lectins being a problem. So to start broad, can you give us an overview of what lectins are?

Dr. Gundry: Lectins are a plant protein that’s a sticky protein, and they’re designed by plants as a defense mechanism against being eaten. These, believe it or not, plants don’t want to be eaten, and they don’t want their seeds or babies eaten. So one of the ways they fight against being eaten is to produce these lectins, which like to bind to specific sugar molecules in us or any of their predators. And those sugar molecules line the wall of our gut. They line the lining of our blood vessels. They line in our joints. They line the spaces between nerves.

And when lectins hit these places, they are a major cause of leaky gut. They can break down the gut wall barrier. They’re a major cause of arthritis, they’re a are major cause of heart disease, and they’re a major cause, in my research, of autoimmune diseases. And so anything that a lectin can do to make its predator, us, feel bad, not do well. A smart predator says, “Every time I eat these particular plants or their seeds, I don’t do very well, and I think I’ll go eat something else.” That’s the defense mechanism that plants use.

Katie: That makes sense. So what would be examples of foods that contain lectins and some of the different types of lectins that are in these foods?

Dr. Gundry: Most grains have lectins primarily in the hull, sometimes in the germ of the grains. So we’re talking about, for instance, gluten happens to be a lectin, but there are other mischievous lectins in wheat in the hull called wheat germ agglutinin, which is probably even worse than gluten present in all grains except sorghum and millet. Sorghum and millet don’t have a hull and have been tested as lectin-free. They’re present in all beans. Beans and legumes have some of the highest lectin content of any food, and that includes peanuts.

Peanuts are a legume, they’re not a nut at all, and that includes cashews. Cashews are part of the nightshade, Oh, sorry. Not the nightshade family, poison ivy family. And anyone who thinks that cashews are good for them might chew on poison ivy and find out how bad that really is. I mentioned nightshades. The nightshade family includes potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, and even goji berries. And then there are also lectins in new world’s squash families, things like zucchini, things like summer squashes, things like cucumbers actually all have lectins, primarily in the peels and the seeds. So that’s a good overview.

Katie: Got it. So, that sounds like a lot of foods. I know people who are not familiar with this may be thinking, like, “That’s half of what I eat.” What would be on the converse, what would be some examples of foods that do not contain lectins?

Dr. Gundry: Well, you know, interestingly enough, all of those foods that I mentioned, no human being ever consumed any of those foods until about 10,000 years ago when agriculture started. We did not eat wheat. It didn’t exist. Rice began being cultivated 8,000 years ago. Things like the nightshade family, most of us come from Europe, Africa, or Asia, and all of these nightshade families are American plants, and so none of our ancestors ate any of these until 500 years ago. And beginning to be introduced to something in 500 years is like speed dating and evolution, and I think we haven’t been able to catch up with adapting to these modern foods.

So an answer to your question. We have been eating leaves and tubers for probably millions and millions of years. There is evidence that early man primarily got a lot of its food supply by tubers, including, fun fact, those little tiger nuts, which are actually not nuts at all but little underground tubers. There’s some pretty cool archaeological evidence that we consumed quite a bit of tiger nuts in the past. But yams, for instance, are another thing and all the leafy green vegetables. Great apes like chimpanzees and gorillas eat mostly leaves, and we started as one of the great eight families.

Katie: That is really fascinating. So to clarify one point on this because you just mentioned a lot of vegetables and even tubers that are sources of starch, I think that there was some misconception with “The Plant Paradox.” People thought it was essentially a carnivore diet or that you were saying to avoid all plants, and that’s certainly not the case at all. But can you just clarify that a little bit?

Dr. Gundry: Yeah. This is not a carnivore diet. It’s the antithesis of the carnivore diet. I’m actually very plant-friendly. In fact, there’s a vegetarian and vegan version of every one of my recipes in every one of my books. And I’m secretly trying to make people pretty close to vegan as possible. My wife and I eat pretty much vegan during the week. Then on the weekends, we add usually wild shellfish or wild fish into our repertoire. Now, the reason I think people think that this is a carnivore diet, the carnivore diet folks have jumped on the lectin bandwagon because, quite frankly, all plants have lectins in them.

And my point in “The Plant Paradox” is that there are some plants that we have eaten for literally millions of years and our bacteria, our microbiome, has evolved to handle those particular lectins and eat them and also teach our immune system that, “Yeah, this plant has a lectin, but, hey, you don’t have to get all upset about it because you’ve seen this lectin for a million years and don’t get your shorts in a wad. And I think that’s the difference. The carnivore diet folks say, “Okay, well every plant is bad, and so we auto-eliminate all plants.”

That’s, I think, taken to an extreme. I will say this about the carnivore diet. In a way, it is the ultimate elimination diet. And I do have patients with severe IBS or leaky gut that even raw vegetables, particularly raw cruciferous vegetables, are really mischievous introducing them initially into the program. And I write in all the books, and some people don’t read closely enough. But if you do have IBS, or a leaky gut, or diarrhea, then raw vegetables are way down the list that you should add to your diet. And if you want those vegetables, you need to cook them to an inch of their life and make them kind of mushy, particularly a pressure cooker really helps.

Katie: Let’s talk about that a little bit more. I’m a huge fan of pressure cookers and Instant Pots, and I have actually several of them. But how do pressure cookers help with lectins?

Dr. Gundry: So there is good evidence that all lectins can be destroyed with the application of high heat and high pressure simultaneously. The exception to that is gluten. Gluten does not appear to be broken down by high heat and high pressure. Interestingly, I was a professor and chairman at Loma Linda University for much of my career, and the Adventists are vegetarians. And, the primary protein source in the Adventist diet is texturized vegetable protein, TVP as it’s known. And this is actually defatted soy meal that is extruded under high heat and high pressure. And I think maybe unbeknownst to them, this deactivate the rather nasty lectins in soy.

So some people characterize me as anti-bean, and that’s actually not the case. I think beans have some great soluble fibers that if you deactivate the lectins by pressure cooking them, they’re a really great source of food. And so, as you know, I’m a big fan of the Instant Pot. In fact, on November 19th, I’m introducing ””The Plant Paradox Family Cookbook,” which has mostly Instant Pot recipes for busy families. And you’ve got six kids, so you are one busy wellness mama. And so, an instapot is just a great option for delectinizing foods and getting a great meal on the table very quickly.

Katie: I definitely agree. I’m a huge fan of it. I’ll make sure to share your new cookbook when it comes out and also to grab a copy. But just to make sure I understand, so if people are using an instapot or pressure cooker correctly, does that make things like beans, and nightshades, and squash safe to consume?

Dr. Gundry: Yes, absolutely. And I go through that in every one of our books, that the key is using a pressure cooker, like an Instant Pot and following the package directions. The other thing I think that’s important for people to know who maybe are still afraid of the pressure cookers, the Instant Pot or other modern pressure cookers are not their grandmother’s pressure cooker. My mother exploded one when I was growing up. These are incredibly safe, useful devices. I think the other great thing is, and I have no relationship with this company.

There’s a company called Eden, E-D-E-N, that not only soaks all their beans and legumes and lentils but also pressure cooks them. And they’re really one of the few companies that has a non-BPA lined can. And just to give you an example. I ran home from filming, in San Francisco, a public television special Wednesday night, and I opened a can of Eden Garbanzo beans, threw in a bunch of chopped onions and a half head of radicchio with some Italian herbs, and stirred it all around, and that was dinner. And so you can report that Dr. Gundry admitted to eating pressure cooked Garbanzo beans. Oh my gosh. News flash.

Katie: I have it on the record now. We have a record of this. What about grains? So you mentioned sorghum and millet do not have lectins. Does that make them okay as is to consume?

Dr. Gundry: Yeah, I think they’re really a great underutilized grain. Both sorghum and millet, you can make into oatmeal which has the texture, which has the flavor. I’m a sucker for sorghum popcorn. Sorghum popcorn looks like miniature popcorn. It smells like popcorn. It tastes like popcorn, only it’s really tiny. And I think it’s another underutilized grain. Now, one of the things that I talk about in all my books, these should be used not as the mainstay of anyone’s diet. I think they are additions to a diet. They still have a lot of starch that breaks down into simple sugar.

And one of the things I’ve seen through the years in dealing with my patients is that a lot of people see my list of friendly foods page and look at the resistance starches and say, “Oh, I can have unlimited amounts of sorghum, or Yuca, or millet.” And I’ve tested this on myself, and I’ll have a bunch of sorghum popcorn and then check my blood levels of triglycerides. And sure enough, if I’m munching, even a couple cups of sorghum popcorn as a snack, within a week, my triglycerides are elevated. And as people have heard me talk, that’s really bad longterm for heart health.

Katie: That makes sense. Let’s go a little deeper on that because I think that there’s also a misconception that you are just, by default, low carb or that you recommend a low carb or keto-type diet because a lot of these foods that contain lectins are also high carb, but you are a heart surgeon as well as a research scientist. So give us the low down on that. What do you personally consume carb-wise, and what do you recommend for your patients?

Dr. Gundry: Well, so I’m actually, as you probably know or as people know, I have a ketogenic version of my diet that I use for anyone who is insulin-resistant, or prediabetic, or diabetic, who has issues with cancer. I treat a lot of patients with cancer with my version of the ketogenic diet. But my version of the ketogenic diet is plant-based in that I want people to consume about 80% of their calories as primarily olive oil and/or avocados. And that’s where the vast majority of their calories should come from. I literally want people to consume about a liter of olive oil per week. And as strange as that may seem, that’s 10 to 12 tablespoons of olive oil per week.

My wife and I go through about a liter and a half of olive oil every week. And David Palmiter, a good friend, he and his wife, each have about a liter of olive oil per week. And you can look at any of us, and we’re certainly not overweight. In fact, there’s a beautiful study out of Spain forcing people to use a liter of olive oil per week for five years at the age of 65, and they actually lost weight during that time period. And they had improved brain health and memory, and they actually reduced their incidents of coronary heart disease by 30%.

So back to your original question, I believe that most of the food that we should be to get olive oil into our mouth. In other words, the purpose of eating broccoli is to get olive oil into your mouth. The purpose of having a salad is to get olive oil into your mouth. In fact, when I pop sorghum popcorn, I pour olive oil over it. And in fact, in my previous cookbook, I recommended that people, instead of butter on their approved waffles pour olive oil on it. And people go, “Wait a minute, olive oil on waffles?” Well, it’s a fat, and it’s a good fat, so why not use the waffle to deliver a good fat like olive oil? Everything goes better with olive oil.

Katie: I’m a huge fan of olive oil as well. I’m glad that you are such a supporter. So another thing I’d love to go a little bit deeper on. So I first really started learning about lectins starting with gluten but then all of the others when I was in, like, the really bad part of having Hashimoto’s. And so, I was trying to figure what was wrong with me, and I eventually figured out it was Hashimoto’s. And for a long time, I had to be very restrictive with my diet. And I’m much less so now. But let’s go deep for a little while on the lectin autoimmune disease connection. Can you start by explaining what’s going on in the body that there’s that link?

Dr. Gundry: Yeah, I think the first person to talk about this was Loren Cordain from Colorado State University, who, I think, is the true father of the paleo diet. And Cordain postulated that one of the things plants do is molecular mimicry. And the best way to explain this is lectins are proteins, and our immune system is set up with literally barcode scanners that read the barcode on all proteins that enter us. And the immune system is educated as to which proteins are friendly, that they’ve got a valid passport, or which proteins are on the no-fly list. And when, give you an example of a splinter, is under your skin, it gets all red, and that’s your white blood cells attacking that foreign protein.

So lining the wall of our gut is about 65%, 70% of all the white cells in our body line our gut wall. So if a foreign protein, you know, like a lectin, makes its way across the border, our immune system scans the barcode on that protein and says, “Aah, that’s a bad protein. And number one, we should mobilize the troops and kill this guy, but we should also memorize what this barcode looks like so that if we ever see something that looks like this barcode again in our body, we will attack it.” Now, I think plants are a lot smarter than people give them credit for, so plants have made these proteins resemble other proteins in our body.

For instance, they resemble the proteins in the thyroid gland. They resemble proteins in joints. They resemble proteins in nerves. They resemble proteins in skin. And, they even resemble proteins in the brain. So that when your immune system is activated by a leaky gut, then your immune system or I call them your fighter jets are going through your body and they go past your thyroid or Kelly Clarkson’s thyroid and says, “Oh, my gosh, you poor person. There are lectins in your thyroid, and we’re going to shoot to kill. Now, they don’t quite look like the electrons we’re looking for, but they’re pretty close. And so we’ll shoot first and ask questions later.” So that’s molecular mimicry.

Last year, I published a paper of 102 people with biomarker-proven autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s, like Crohn’s, like rheumatoid arthritis, like lupus who were put on the Plant Paradox program. And in six months’ time, 95 out of 102 patients were biomarker negative for those autoimmune diseases. So that’s a 94% success rate in six months. Not bad if I do say so. So we’ve seen people like yourself, like Kelly Clarkson, become completely autoimmune negative within a fairly short time period. In fact, just recently, I mentioned on another podcast, in my practice, for a new patient, usually my PA will see the patient first, and then I see the patient the next visit.

And I saw a woman in her mid-50s who had Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and she had been on the program for three months. When I saw her, first thing she did was introduce herself. She said, ”Well, I’m here because I have, you know, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.” And I said, “Well, no you don’t.” And she said, ”Well, of course, I do. That’s why I’m here.” And I said, ”Well, you don’t have it anymore.” And she said, ”Well, how could that be?” So I held up her new lab work and sure enough, her anti-thyroglobulin antibody or anti-thyroid peroxidation antibodies were previously positive, but now they were negative. And that was in only three months. So, obviously, she was delighted and so was I, but that’s what we’ve come to expect.

Katie: That’s an incredible success rate, and I love that it turns the idea on its head. There’s an understanding that autoimmune diseases are not reversible, and I’ve heard that, you know, from a lot of doctors saying, “Once you have it, you always have it.” And so I’d love a little bit more just to clarify, these people are not just in remission, but they don’t even have the biomarkers at all for autoimmune disease at that point.

Dr. Gundry: Correct. The biomarkers are negative. They’re zero. And, you know, that includes rheumatoid factor, that includes anti-CCP3, that includes anti-nuclear antibody, that includes anti-DS double-stranded DNA, that includes Sjogren’s syndrome. We’ve seen reversal in so far every autoimmune disease. So, we’ve tackled…including MS. We’ve recently… Let me give you another example. There’s some beautiful new tests looking at attack on brain myelin that’s measurable with tests. We’ve got anti-cerebellar antibodies.

Recently saw a gentleman, young man in his mid-30s, very successful businessman, young wife, who had brain fog, for lack of a better word. And he came to us, had autoimmune markers for lupus, but also had two markers of his brain being under attack, one of them a de-myelination antibody. And we put him on the program, and he travels a lot. And I saw him back after two months. He said those two months were the most difficult that he’s ever had in his life. He hated me. But his wife, to keep him on track, actually made all his meals and packed them for him while he was traveling because, you know, he’s a 35-year-old guy who’s got markers for MS, and his brain doesn’t work.

So he said, you know, after six weeks, he said, “I really began to start liking you, so let’s see what we got.” And sure enough, his marker for lupus antinuclear antibody was gone. But I think most encouraging was that both of his brain autoimmune markers were now turned off. And that just gives you the power that people have to take control of what…many doctors are telling them, “Well, you got MS, and you’re just gonna have to live with it.” And, you know, Terry Wahls perfectly proved that this is something people do not have to live with. This is something that’s reversible, and these are fixable problems as long as we repair the gut barrier.

And, I think, my research over the last 20 years has stood the test of time that Hippocrates was right, that all disease begins in the gut. And I’ve added to that, that all disease can end in the gut if we stop a leaky gut from occurring. And if lectins are one of the major causes of leaky gut, and I and others believe they are, then getting lectins out of the diet is a first step.

Katie: I love Dr. Wahls. Her work is so encouraging as well. And I’m guessing there’s a lot of people listening who are going, “Oh, my gosh, is this actually possible? I have X, Y, Z autoimmune disease. Where do I start?” And I know that, obviously, they need to get “The Plant Paradox,” and we’ll talk about your new book in a couple of minutes as well. But can you, kind of, give us just a broad overview, both as a doctor and as a researcher, what you think an optimal diet for most people sort of, like, a specific issue looks like? Like, where should we begin with the good?

Dr. Gundry: Well, like, principle number one of “The Plant Paradox” is what I tell you not to eat is far more important than what I tell you to eat. And I can’t emphasize that enough. It’s the foods that you remove from your diet. And if you want to call it an elimination diet, that’s fine with me. But there’s certain foods that are making people sick. And getting these foods out of their diet, the ones I’ve just talked about, the ones that we were not designed to eat and that we were not exposed to until 10,000 years ago is the perfect place to start.

And I jokingly say I want people to party like it’s 9,999 years ago and eat that way because these modern foods didn’t exist in the human diet. And that was actually my research as an undergraduate at Yale University. I had a special major in human evolutionary biology, finding the foods and the environment that transformed a great ape into a modern human. And that’s actually was the basis of my original program.

Katie: That’s amazing. And also, you do talk a lot about the microbiome, and I know that removing lectins is a big part of that. Most of the people listening have kids, and that’s been a big area of research for me as well, as, how do we give our kids the best start in life by fostering a good microbiome early on? And I’d love to hear your research and your take on that. As parents, what can we be doing from the very beginning with our kids to make sure that they have the best start in life when it comes to this?

Dr. Gundry: Well, that’s why I wrote ”The Plant Paradox Family Cookbook” because, number one, I was a professor of pediatrics at Loma Linda, was a children’s heart surgeon, and a lot of my practice now involves children with the juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease. I see a lot of children with asthma and eczema that have had no results elsewhere. And having children follow this program is obviously challenging because of peer pressure. But what we found was that if children were encouraged to follow this program, their Crohn’s disease went away, their rheumatoid arthritis went away.

And if they slipped, even if they cheated one time, had a cupcake at a school party, that they would flair immediately. And one of my patients early on said, “You know, feeling good, never tasted so good.” And I think that’s a really important point. So how do we do this with our kids? Now I have two young grandchildren. And bless my daughter and her husband’s heart, they have fed their kids with the Plant Paradox since day one, and they’re both thriving three and five-year-olds now. One just started kindergarten. And they cook in the kitchen.

I think that’s one of the most important things you can do, is involve your kids and making things very early. I give step-by-step advice to mothers who wanna get pregnant on the steps you need to do. Once you’re pregnant, what you should do. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of high dose fish oil, particularly DHA for building your baby’s brain. There’s a new study out that shows mothers who supplement with vitamin D have smarter kids who do better athletically than mothers who do not supplement with vitamin D during pregnancy. I think this is incredibly important information, and we give the all the suggestions in doing that.

In addition, please, please, please keep cows milk out of your child’s diet. Your baby is not a baby cow, and cow’s milk is designed to make baby cows grow rapidly so they do not get eaten by predators. We, as you, as a mother knows, are a very slow-growing species, and we do not want to have insulin-like growth factor, IGF1, which is high in cows milk given to our kids because it will actually make our kids grow faster and fatter. And that’s the last thing we actually want. Kids who grow rapidly have a much higher incidence of childhood cancers and cancers in their teenagers than kids who grow slowly and normally. So those are a few of the helpful ones. We can go on and on, but it’s all in ”The Plant Paradox Family Cookbook.”

Katie: Yeah, definitely. Again, echo the recommendation for your books.

Katie: And you mentioned in kids that they were even able to see reversal of autoimmune symptoms and certainly in adults. There’s studies on this as well, but then it took complete adherence and no cheating. And so, I’m curious how you respond because I get these, too, people who say, “This is way too extreme. Everything in moderation. It should be fine. Like, you don’t have to completely avoid it.” I’m just curious how you answer those types of questions.

Dr. Gundry: Well, in the paper that I published at the American Heart Association in Lifestyle and Epidemiology meeting on the patients with autoimmune disease, seven of the patients subsequently, once they were in remission or cured, had no biomarker evidence of disease, started liberalizing their diet. And all of those seven people relapsed. The good news is once they went back on the program, they cured themselves again. They went back into remission. And that’s what we see. I lectured at Harvard two years ago at the neurosciences meeting.

And after giving this evidence, one of the professors said, “Well, that’s ridiculous. You know, everything in moderation. What do you say to that?” And I said, “Well, that’s fine. You know, if you want moderate heart disease, if you want moderate arthritis, if you want moderate dementia, and if you want moderate autoimmune disease, then please do that. But who in the world would actually want that? It’s preventable. These problems do not exist in societies that eat like us.” And I mean, believe it or not, when, you know, when I was in medical school, autoimmune disease and childhood cancer were aberrations.

They were oddities. And now, every commercial we see on TV is for, oh, you know, a happy person smiling with our autoimmune disease because of an immunosuppressant drug. And people forget that I was a transplant immunologist. I’m world famous in Xenotransplantation and how to fool the immune system to accepting a pig heart as normal. And what I’ve taken with my knowledge of autoimmunity and immunity is bringing that into, “Okay, we know what the immune system is looking for, let’s calm it down. This is fixable.”

Katie: And that makes so much sense. And a couple more questions, I don’t know, that will probably come up and that are probably common questions for you. You talk about how you eat seafood on the weekend, and there’s also that conception in the natural health world that things like shrimp and crab aren’t good for you because they’re bottom feeders with their filters. And so I’m curious your take on that.

Dr. Gundry: This is one of my favorite questions. I have a very good friend who’s a professor at the University of Texas in Galveston, which is one of the shrimp capitals of the world, and he delights in telling anyone who will listen that a shrimp is not a bottom feeder. They’re free swimmers, and they are a quad with trawlers nets, and so they are absolutely not bottom feeders. I used to live in Baltimore, Maryland, and I can assure you that crabs are not bottom feeders either. They actually are free swimmers.

And, in fact, there’s a Pulitzer prize-winning book that I recommend to anyone about the Waterman of the Chesapeake Bay called ”Beautiful Swimmers,” which is about crabs. And so, that’s one of the great misnomers of all time. Incidentally, muscles may be one of the greatest health foods known to mankind. They are regenerative creatures. They actually filter about six gallons of water every day. They do not accumulate toxins, and they clean the ocean, and they actually do not use up any energy. So, they’re really one of the best foods that you can eat.

Katie: That’s great to know. And what about fruit? I know that’s a common food for kids. You didn’t mention it as being a source of lectins, so I’m curious your take on fruit.

Dr. Gundry: So two things on fruit. We forget at our peril that a few short years ago, fruit was only available seasonally during seasons that primarily were summer and early fall, and not the rest of the year. Unless you lived in the panhandle of Florida, you didn’t have fruit during the winter. In fact, there’s volumes of research that show that great apes only eat fruit during the summer, and they eat fruit to gain weight for the rest of the year. In fact, fruit consumption, fructose, is one of the best ways to gain weight that there is. Let me give you a recent example.

I recently appeared on the “Kelly Clarkson Show” because she cured her Hashimoto’s by following my book. All she did was read my book. She never met me. She didn’t have a consultation with me, and lo and behold, you know, she lost 30 pounds, and her Hashimoto’s was gone by…well, it’s up to 40 pounds now just by following my book. So I was talking with her producer a few weeks beforehand on, you know, what we’re gonna do on the show. So I showed up in the green room backstage, and the producer walked in, and he said, ”I took your advice. I gave fruit the boot. I gave up fruit, and I’ve lost five pounds in two weeks. And that’s the only thing I changed. I gave up fruit.” He said, “How did you know?” And I said, ”Well, because we use fruit to gain weight.” Fruit is not a health food for children, and particularly fruit juice. There’s a recent study in the “British Medical Journal” showing that fruit juice consumption is a leading cause of cancer. And we have to understand that cancer cells vastly prefer fructose, fruit sugar, over glucose. And so, you know, give fruit the boot.

Now, berries are great. Pomegranate seeds are great. Persimmons are in season right now. Those are some of the safest fruits you can eat. But this should be a treat. We should treat fruit as what it is, and that’s dessert. It is not a healthy snack. You’re much better off giving your kids a handful of walnuts, or pistachios, or macadamia nuts as a healthy snack rather than a healthy piece of fruit. And to elaborate on that, most fruit in this country is brought over incredibly long distances from Argentina, and Chile, and even Mexico, and it’s picked unripe and then ripened with ethylene oxide.

An unripe fruit actually has lectins in it. I am old enough to remember eating green apples as a kid and suffering what we called the Green Apple two-step, which was pretty impressive diarrhea. And that’s because the lectins in green apples were designed to not make you eat that fruit until the seeds actually had a peel on them that you couldn’t digest, and then the plant actually wanted you to eat its fruit. That’s how it works.

Katie: That’s really fascinating. So, as an action step, you’re saying things like local, seasonal berries when they’re in season as a treat, that’s totally great. It’s just eating all fruits year-round like we live on a tropical island confuses our body basically.

Dr. Gundry: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it’s really one of really the major causes I see of weight gain in this country, of insulin resistance in this country, and heart disease, quite frankly. Actually, it raises triglycerides. Triglycerides are the first form of fat that we make from sugars. And also, by the way, fructose is a toxin, and it’s such a toxin that we carry it immediately to our liver where it’s detoxified into triglycerides, which is a fat, and uric acid. And uric acid causes high blood pressure, and it also causes kidney stones and gout. So we always have to go back to realize that fructose is not our friend. Fructose, oh, by the way, is a mitochondrial poison. So why anyone would want their kids consuming a mitochondrial poison is beyond my comprehension.

Katie: That’s a great explanation. And as some really important people in my life get a little older, my parents, and also as I get older myself, you also are well-known for your book, ”The Longevity Paradox.” So to switch gears a little bit, explain to us what ”The Longevity Paradox” is.

Dr. Gundry: Well, we all want to get old. And live a long time, but we don’t wanna get old. And that’s actually ”The Longevity Paradox.” We look kinda into the future and getting old, we don’t wanna die, but getting old doesn’t look very good. It means hip and knee replacement. It means stents or open-heart surgery. It means maybe not remembering your loved ones’ names or ending up in a skilled nursing facility or assisted living, and none of that looks particularly good. What we really wanna do, the subtitle of the book is we wanna die young at a ripe, old age.

And that’s what we want, and it’s actually achievable. And the purpose of ”The Longevity Paradox” is to give people the hope and the evidence that it’s never too late to make changes in your life that will change your life around. And the examples that I see in my practice, and I see patients seven days a week because I learn from my patients. I learn what happens when I ask them to do certain things. I learn from their blood work what works, what doesn’t. And you know, I can’t resist not seeing patients every week, every day because every day I get to learn something new from one of my patients. And, you know, what a tremendous gift my patients are to me. So ”The Longevity Paradox” is how to get young, no matter how old you are.

Katie: I love that. And I’m curious, are there any supplements or go-to things that you take or that you think are essential for both getting rid of autoimmune disease, living longer, a lot of these things that you’ve talked about?

Dr. Gundry: Well, as you know, I formed my own supplement line, Gundry MD, three years ago now. All the supplements that I manufacture are based on my research in tens of thousands of patients, looking at their blood work and their response to certain ingredients. So I’m obviously biased that there are some really good things that people should take. Now, I’m a nut. And I list every one of the supplements that I currently take at the end of ”The Longevity Paradox,” and there are a rather impressive list. I take about 120 different supplements in the morning and about 80 at night. And I’ll tell you when I’m 150, how that worked out. In fact, our saying in our clinic is “150 is the new 100.”

So having said that, I think there are certain supplements that really every human being should take for maximal health, and that is vitamin D3. The current recommendations are being raised. Most labs now, a vitamin D level of 120 is now considered normal, not elevated. I have run my vitamin D level greater than 120 for the last 17 years to prove that I’m not dead. And so far so good. I’ve yet to see vitamin D toxicity. It may exist, but I certainly not seen it in my patients. So I’m aggressive at pushing vitamin D on my patients, at least 5,000 international units a day. Most people with autoimmune disease should start with 10,000 international units of D3.

The second thing that I think is critical for most people is to get enough fish oil, and I don’t care if it’s algae-based DHA, but to get enough fish oil to have 1,000 milligrams of DHA per day. And look on the back of whatever omega-3 or fish oil you’re buying and look for the amount of DHA per capsule and then just choose accordingly. I take care of a great number of people with the APOE-4 gene, which is, unfortunately, nicknamed the Alzheimer’s gene. And about 30% of Americans carry the Alzheimer’s gene. And in those people, I supplement with krill oil in addition to their fish oil.

Not as a substitution because there’s a phospholipid in krill oil that will carry DHA into these people’s brains, which otherwise might not get there. It’s a small technical point. But since Dale Bredesen who wrote the end of Alzheimer’s and I have become friends, we’re both very adamant about getting people with the APOE-4 gene, not only on fish oil but also on krill oil. And so, those are the essential things. The third thing that anyone can do for longevity is to practice time-restricted feeding. Now, whether we call that intermittent fasting, whether time-restricted feeding, which means limit the eating time during the day to a small number of hours, start with 10 hours, work your way down to even four to six hours, that’s probably one of the best ways to prolong good health of any trick that anyone has ever discovered.

And I profile a gentleman from the 1500s, Luigi. Carnero, who wrote a book on how to live to 100. He actually died at 102 in the 1500s. And he wrote a book on how to do this. And he actually practiced calorie restriction, and he gives the complete guide of how to do it. And one of the things that I always remember him, he said that most people think that 65 is pretty much the end of life, and there’s not much worth living for. And he says, “I stand to correct everyone that 90 and 100 is the best years of your life, and here’s how to do it.” And that’s what I want for everybody.

Katie: I love that. And I’ll make sure there’s links to all of your books in the show notes, and I’ll also post them on social media. But I’d love that you address the APOE4 because that’s something that runs in my family and something I’ve done quite a bit of research on as well. It’s good to know that there are things people can do to really mitigate that. Another clarifying point, I just wanted to make sure we touch on.

When I made this dietary switch myself when I was just learning about autoimmune disease, there was definitely an adjustment period where I didn’t feel very good. And you mentioned one of your patients didn’t like you those first few weeks. So, can you talk about, is there an adjustment period with this when your body’s still kind of like trying to figure out what’s going on, when it’s not as fun, and when do the beneficial results kind of start to work?

Dr. Gundry: Yeah, I actually tell any of my new patients that “You’re gonna hate me for two weeks and then you’re going to love me.” And it’s worked out to be pretty true. Most of us are addicted to the morphine-like compounds in grains and in dairy, and it’s like being withdrawn from a drug. One of the reasons we love wheat products, and rye, and barley, and oats is because of these morphine-like compounds that they are morphed into. And one of the reasons we like cow’s milk and cheeses is a beta-casomorphine, which goes right to our brains, particularly women’s brains, and goes happy, happy, happy, happy.

And interestingly enough, since you mentioned the APOE-4 gene, remarkably, saturated animal fats like cheeses are really detrimental to people with the APOE-4 gene, and vast majority of people with the APOE-4 gene love cheese. And it’s one of the hardest things to get away from them, and it’s because of these morphine-like compounds. And I really do think that most of us are, you know, addicted to this and it’s withdrawal. And once you withdraw, that’s when things start kicking in.

The second thing that happens, the vast majority of Americans are insulin-resistant. They have high fasting insulin levels. And I tell anyone who will listen in all the residents that come through my clinic and family practice that the best test if they’re gonna spend their patient’s hard-earned money on a laboratory test, the best test to get is a fasting insulin level. And that’s gonna tell you more about your patient’s fate than just about any tests you can get. Most people are insulin-resistance, and insulin resistance, not only feeds cancer but also makes your brain die rather rapidly.

We now know there’s a condition called type 3 diabetes of the brain and your brain becomes insulin-resistant. And so, when people go on a program like my own, they’re not able to actually get to the fat cells and make ketones, you mentioned the ketogenic diet earlier, and so they really crash and burn because they don’t have what we call metabolic flexibility. They can’t change on a dime from burning sugar as a fuel to burning fat as a fuel. And I talk about those and how to get around it in all my books. And it’s a big factor in making this transition easy for people.

Katie: Amazing. And again, I know I’ve said it a couple of times, but I definitely recommend all of your books. I’ve gifted them to my parents. I tell a lot of people I love. And I’ll make sure they’re linked in the show notes, but, of course, they’re available anywhere books are sold. And speaking of books, I’d love to ask, mainly selfishly for my own ideas, if there are any book or books besides your own that have really impacted your life that you’d recommend?

Dr. Gundry: Well, actually, in my grade school library when I was 10 years old, I found a book called ”All About You.” And it actually changed my life at 10 years old. And after reading that book, I decided to become a doctor. And one of the things you’re…you know, you’re a mother, and you probably already know the importance of reading to your kids, number one, and getting your kids to read.

I think just reading opens up so many doors. Early in my lectin research, I was most impacted by Michael Pollan’s really first book, which was called ”The Botany of Desire,” about how plants are intelligent thinking creatures that manipulate animals for their benefit. And it just, you know, was tantalizing how smart plants are, and I think it really set the stage for me to give plants the credit they are due.

Katie: I love that. And reading is a huge, huge part of my life. Even in the busiest of times, I’m sure I get in time, like at least 30 minutes to read each day. I think it’s such an important thing for all of us. That and community, which I also personally think is huge for health and longevity and like having strong relationships and really nurturing those are kind of my two non-negotiable when it comes to life.

Dr. Gundry: Well, you’re absolutely right. In “The Longevity Paradox,” one of the real factors in all of the blue zones, those people with extreme longevity. And interestingly enough, I’m the only nutritionist who’s ever actually lived most of his life in a blue zone in Loma Linda University, so I hope I know what I’m talking about. Blue zones have this intense social network, and it’s this social network that is really critical to longevity.

And so you’re right. One of the things you’ve got to have is a social network, however you wanna constitute that social network, whether it’s, you know, whether it’s based on religion, whether it’s based on community service, whether it’s based on, “Let’s play bridge together at your house once a week”, you know, “mothers against drinking alone on a Friday night.” I’m just making that up.

Katie: I love that. I know you talked about it, and I’ve seen the stats as well about how having those solid relationships and making them a priority, it actually statistically is more important than things like even quitting smoking or exercise. Like, it’s absolutely vital to our health. And so I love that you talked about that.

Dr. Gundry: Yeah. Yeah. We are very definitely social creatures. And the other thing I can’t stress enough is having a pet, particularly a dog or a cat, in every study that’s ever been done, not only promotes longevity but is a great social connection. Making you to walk your dog twice a day is a great way to meet other people, and having a pet improves your microbiome and your children’s microbiome. And, in fact, mothers should realize that children who have pets introduced early in their life have far less allergies and far less eczema than children who don’t have a pet, exactly the opposite of what many mothers are taught.

Katie: I love that. I’m gonna use that to help talk my husband into another dog, and I think that’s the perfect point to wrap up, have strong relationships, have a pet that you love, and eat a clean diet, and get some sunshine for vitamin D. I think we covered so much in this episode. I hope that maybe one day you’ll come back for round two, but I’m so grateful for your time and for all that you shared today.

Dr. Gundry: I’d love to come back, and thank you for all the great work you’re doing. And we’re gonna have you on my podcast, and we’ll talk about all the stuff that you’re up to, and I’ll really look forward to it.

Katie: Thank you. I can’t wait. And thanks to all of you for listening and sharing one of your most valuable resources, your time, with both of us today. We’re so grateful that you did, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the ”Wellness Mama’ Podcast.”

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/dr-gundry/

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