I Can Haz Box? Photo Finish Friday

The Bag Lady's old cat spent a very long time sitting in this box. He may have been waiting for someone to remove the boots so he could lie down......


Photo Finish Friday is the brain child of Leah, at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Health Philosophies, Bag Lady Style

The Bag Lady just read an online news article about a poll that reveals Canadians are deluded about how healthy we are. The article itself made the Bag Lady a little sad (she knows full well that she is overweight and not exactly healthy) but the comment section distressed her even more! So many of the commenters were busy making excuses, or comparing us to Europeans or Americans, or were complaining that the article was outdated/incorrect/something else; they seemingly ignored the whole point. We in the Western World (generalizing, of course) are unhealthy, and most of it can be blamed on over-consumption and inactivity.
The Bag Lady, naturally, has her own opinions on the reasons for the obesity epidemic, and has a myriad of solutions. Wanna hear them? Of course you do!

1. Stop making excuses.
2. Get off your ass.
3. Stop eating fast food, or those frozen things from the supermarket that contain not one ounce of real food, but are "only 275 calories!" Stop with the artificial stuff. Soda pop, artificial flavouring, sugar substitutes (reduce your sugar consumption, by all means, but if you have to sweeten something, use real stuff - not chemicals. You get enough of those in the "fresh" produce and other products you buy!) And reduce your sodium intake while you're at it.
4. Get off your ass.
5. Eat simple, nutritious food, prepared with your own loving hands in your own kitchen. (and NO, it's not more expensive than a burger at McD's - and doesn't take any longer than it does sitting in the drive-thru, choking on the exhaust fumes of the 4 gazillion other people who had the same idea at the same time!)
6. Include a variety of things - fresh veggies, lean meat, whole grains. It doesn't have to be fancy to taste good and be nutritious.
7. Get off your ass. And get your children off theirs, too.
8. Try growing a garden. Even if you live in an apartment, you can grow simple veggies in a pot in front of a sunny window, or on your balcony. There are even urban gardens where you can rent a plot. At the very least, check out the farmer's markets.
9. Yeah, the Bag Lady lives in the frozen north, too - that's not an excuse.
10. Get off your ass.

Now, the Bag Lady also feels that people need to slow down a little, get more connected to the earth and take the time to educate themselves on where their food is actually coming from. She feels great pity for people who live in highly congested cities (which are jungles of concrete with no greenery and all traces of nature erased - in her imagination, of course, since she has never actually been in a really, really large city like New York, or Chicago, or any of those huge American cities..... although she has been in London, England, which qualifies as a really, really large city, doesn't it? But there was greenery there, so she is mostly talking typing just to hear see it herself and is probably pissing off a whole bunch of people who live in those big cities....) and don't get to connect with nature. (if you take out all the digressing in the parentheses, that sentence actually does make sense.)

Move more. You don't have to join a gym, or buy fancy equipment. Seriously, get off your ass, climb up on a stool and clean those damned light fixtures (err, yeah, the Bag Lady is talking to herself, what of it?) or on your hands and knees and scrub the floor. Take a walk, jog around the living room, do some stretching. Get moving. The more you move, the more you'll be able to move and the more you will want to move. The first step is often the hardest - after that, it gets easier. Sorta.

(This post has been brought to you by the Bag Lady's conscience and her unverbalized resolution to be healthier this year. Regular irregular posting will resume..... eventually.)

Photo Finish Friday - New Year's Eve

Looking ahead to the new year....




... or waiting for the party to start!

Happy New Year, everyone.

Photo Finish Friday is the brain child of Leah, over at the Goat's Lunch Pail.

Calf Update

Hayseus is doing very well. He spent a couple nights in the barn as a precaution, but is now outside in the fresh air.

Oh, Holy.......

......calf?

Meet Hayseus, our little Christmas surprise!





Imagine his surprise when the Rancher happened to spot one of the heifers lying in the snow, apparently in the midst of calving! He managed to sneak up on her and give her a little assistance, and she is now the proud mama of a handsome young calf. The first-time mom is quite protective of her calf, and will probably make a good mother, as long as she will stop licking him long enough to let him get a drink!
The Rancher gave him a little jump-start, and hopefully he will survive and thrive. It is cold here, and the poor little guy may lose the tips of his ears and tail, so send warm thoughts this way to help the weather smarten up, 'kay?
(Calving season isn't supposed to start around here until the middle of March. Someone must not have told this heifer.)
Merry Christmas!

Photo Finish Friday - Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Feliz Navidad, God Yul, Happy Solstice, Happy Festivus!!



Whatever your flavour, all the best of the season to you!

Recipes!

So.
The Bag Lady is trying to get into the spirit of the season.
She thought that perhaps she needed to do some cooking to spark her Christmas spirit. She has baked Shortbread cookies (they're all gone already..... must make more) and made a batch of chocolates, which have also all disappeared perhaps she started too soon?

So she is going to do some marathon baking tomorrow..... shortbread, chocolates, butter tarts (which means making pastry using homemade lard!) and perhaps some snacky things like Spicy Ritz Bitz. She loves these. They are easy and delicious, and disappear like magic!
In the spirit of the season, she is going to share a couple recipes with you. Don't even TRY to count the calories in the chocolates. Really.

Spicy Ritz Bitz

2/3 C olive oil
1/2 tsp dill weed
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
1 full pkg Uncle Dan's Original South Salad Dressing
1 box Ritz Bits mini crackers

Combine all ingredients, spread on cookie sheet and bake at 300F for 15 minutes.

Butterscotch Peanut Butter Chocolates

Melt together 1 pkg each of
Chocolate chips
butterscotch chips
peanut butter chips
Add
2 cups crushed potato chips (I know, I know, a health food blog this is not!)
Press into mini candy cups (the little foil or paper ones that look like muffin cups)
OR
drop by teaspoon onto wax paper.
Allow to cool (if you can wait that long)