The Veggie Queen is Baaaack...From Denver and Elsewhere

I know that I have been remiss in writing here. I have been really busy for the past 6 weeks, teaching and traveling and have lots of excuses. But when I get notes from people asking if I am OK? I realize that I must take at least a few minutes to write.

I just returned from attending the American Dietetic Association (ADA) conference in Denver, referred to as FNCE (Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo). I hadn't attended in 15 years. But I am now the secretary of the Vegetarian Practice Group of the ADA, and that means that I take minutes at board meetings, in person and on the phone. The funniest part is that sometimes I have a hard time reading my own notes. But it all works out.

The highlight of the conference was hearing and meeting Dr. Michael Roizen, who has co-authored the YOU books with Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Oprah doctor. I am not someone awed by celebrity, it doesn't do much for me and I've met enough of them to realize that they are "real" people, just like we are. But I am wowed by brilliance. And I rate Dr. Roizen near the top of my list (which includes Paul Stamets and Paul Simon among others) as a particularly brilliant guy.

His talk was brought to us by the Walnut people and I thank them, not only because I like walnuts but because Dr. Roizen was inspiring and believes with all his heart and mind that changing your eating can change your life. Amen. (Featured in this photo with me is Martha DeCampos, of the Vegetarian Practice Group, and lots of onlookers.)

Additionally, in the 15 years since I last attended this conference, a number of organic companies have begun attending including Amy's Kitchen, Numi Tea, Alvarado Street Bakery, Sunshine Burger, Mary's Gone Crackers, Dr. Kracker and more. I applaud them all for showing up and sharing what they do to educate dietitians. (If you're reading this and your company attended please let me know.)

I also went to a great talk on why the Registered Dietitian (RD) ought to be promoting organic foods. WOW. It's about time.

My previous trips included a jaunt to San Diego where I did cooking demonstrations for 2 different WIC (Women, Infants and Children) offices about eating deliciously by cooking whole foods in a pressure cooker.

And right before that, I was in San Francisco attending BlogHer Food with 300 other food bloggers, too many to mention here, except for my wonderful roommate Cheryl Sternman Rule of 5 Second Rule. who is an all around top-notch person and great writer. Read one of her recent posts, Regret ,and you'll see why I love her writing, wit, humor and photography skills. She bakes a bit too much for me but thankfully I live far enough away that I am not taunted and tormented by her baking projects. She also includes some healthier recipes for balance. Thanks Cheryl.

Watch for an upcoming post on making tofu at home with Rachael of La Fuji Mama. I have already started so you'll see it sometime soon, as well as an update and highlights of my travels.

My travels are over, unless, of course, you invite me to come visit you somewhere, although I much prefer the time and space of writing at home. But if you've got an empty beach house in Mexico with an internet connection, let's talk.

And for those of you wondering, I am obviously alive and doing well. I always love to hear your comments.

Without Mom Where Would I Be? With Food and Vegetables

Family meals growing up were always interesting, and they happened almost every night. My mother made dinner. With a meat and potatoes husband, most of the time, and 3 particular daughters, I am sure that it wasn't easy to make something that everyone liked. This is still the daily dilemma for many Moms today. Although now, if your child doesn't like something, you can open the freezer and hand them something to pop into the microwave. But not then.

My mother never forced me to finish a meal or clean my plate. When I was a very young, and naturally too-skinny, girl she would tell people, "She eats just fine and when she wants to." Mom was responsible for most of my good eating habits, and a few of the not-so-good ones, too. She used to take me to the bakery for a treat (remember those black and white cookies?) at least once a month as I recall. She let me walk to the candy store and buy whatever I could afford, which usually wasn't much. She never made much of a big deal about either activity.

But what my mom really did for me was just let me be the eater that I was, and offered meals with vegetables daily. My best meal memories actually have to do with another Mom, and that was my grandmother, my mother's Mom.

My Nana, as she was affectionately called, was an excellent cook. She loved cooking and really knew how. My grandfather had a heart attack in his mid-40s (he lived until he was 78) so she had him on a special diet based on the Kempner rice diet. She cooked "special" things for him. It was those “special” things that I looked forward to tasting when she'd come to visit us for dinner. I am sure that my Mom could have made the same food as my Nana but it was Nana's domain and she wouldn't let anyone else do it. She carried a little cooler filled with what I deemed “the good stuff.”

My grandfather’s food was perfect for me -- baked potatoes, special tomato sauce, vegetables and usually chicken or fish, which I didn’t ask to eat. It was only recently that I realized that I ate all the vegetables that Nana brought with her whether it was eggplant , broccoli or green beans. I ate plenty of vegetables at home, too, but Nana's always tasted better. Maybe it was the special love that she put in for my grandfather that made the food taste so good.

My very special memory of my Mom, who is alive and doing well, is in the summer when I was 4 years old. She bought, or maybe grew, English pod peas. I don't remember eating them before but when I tasted them, I loved them. I recall her giving me an entire bag to shell. I went to a neighbor’s house and while sitting on a swing, I was shelling peas and eating almost as many of the small, sweet rounds as made it into the bowl for my mother. She would add them to macaroni salad. (Yes, this was pre "pasta salad" days). I am sure that I ate macaroni salad because of the peas, and not the other way around.

After I left for college my mother tended a garden. One winter I came home and my mother cooked kale. I didn’t recall ever eating it before – maybe they didn’t sell it in the supermarket. The flavor of those sweet greens still lingers in my mind today ---one of the best vegetable eating experiences I’ve had, and lead to me eating kale and other greens often.

Food issues with my mother didn’t exist since she let me eat what I wanted when I wanted without ever thinking that it was strange. When I left home and packed on some extra pounds more than once, my mother didn’t say a word, likely knowing that I had the inner wisdom to eat what I liked, and regain equilibrium and return to my natural weight.

I find it fascinating that I have turned into the quintessential mother in my professional life as The Veggie Queen™. I repeat the Mother’s war cry: “Eat your vegetables every day” although I don’t say it quite that way.

So, I have my mother to thank for good eating habits: eating when I am hungry, never feeling as if I need to finish the food on my plate with a strong desire to eat my vegetables. And when I see my mother we can share a piece of pastry or chocolate, and that also feels like a natural part of healthy eating.

Note: After writing this post I took my dog for a walk, and realized that there is indeed another Mother to which I owe complete gratitude, and that is Mother Earth. For no matter how we treat her, she still continues to provide nourishment to millions of people. She knows how to nurture each plant to provide for each person, and it’s our job to listen and learn. For without Mother Earth, we and bounty wouldn't be here.

If you want to learn more about healthy living healthy weight at Green Mountain at Fox Run click here.

If you like this post or have any comments about it, please enter them in the comments section below. I want to hear what you've got to say about your Mom, or other, experiences that have influenced your eating.

The Registered Dietitian Lens I Look Through -- National Registered Dietitians Day

I have been a Registered Dietitian for 25 years. That's a quarter century. But you can't tell it by looking at me (at least I don't think so), most likely because I practice what I preach, although I prefer the phrase, I walk the talk.

My career as an RD has been quite varied -- possibly more so than for many other dietitians. I am sure that it's because I love wearing hats and have quite a varied collection. I wish that I could juggle (for real) but I only juggle jobs and responsibilities.

Here's a not-so-brief rundown of the breadth of where I've been in the RD world and where I am and what I do today.

I started my career as a dietitian in private practice. My specialty was perinatal and pediatric -- I loved working with pregnant women, new mothers and children. I especially enjoyed working with the pregnant women and helping them shape their eating habits for when they had their babies. My internship training was in that field and I knew that's where my heart was. Starting a private practice was not the usual RD route for an inexperienced RD but with a bachelor's degree in business, I figured that I could handle it. And I did. I maintained an active practice for 10 years.

Throughout my career I have always held more than one position. (If you've heard of Barbara Sher, you will recognize me as a scanner. ) I started my speaking career while I had my practice and have been doing it ever since although my focus and topics have shifted.

I also began consulting for corporations shortly after beginning my career and continue to do that and it encompasses a wide range of places from HMOs to private schools and manufacturing facilities.

My first "real" RD job was at an HMO called Maxicare. It was a great job that allowed me to see clients with a variety of needs, offer corporate wellness services, teach health education classes, ranging from stop smoking and stress management to weight management and cholesterol control and others in between. I also was allowed to develop materials and even wrote a book. (Unfortunately it was before personal computers and I wrote on company time so wasn't able to keep a copy for myself.)

One of my HMO colleagues taught nutrition at Cal State Northridge and when she switched offices, and I took her place, she offered me that job. I loved it and taught one general ed nutrition class each semester. I also started teaching cooking classes as a way to further my nutrition message.

When the HMO company started to tank, I was laid off in the 2nd round and found myself adrift, although I still had my practice and my teaching. I ended up as the Master Food Preserver for Los Angeles county and learned about food preservation -- how to can, dry, pickle, etc. Interesting topic, not a very good job for me. Luckily, I moved to Northern California and found a new job.

I worked for WIC in Sonoma County for 2 1/2 years. I was hired to develop classes for pregnant women, infants and children, and breastfeeding women. I loved the teaching but didn't care much for the paperwork. But the job paid the bills and I only worked part time while I also was teaching at Santa Rosa Junior College and doing freelance writing.

My job at the college changed from teaching nutrition to teaching cooking and I found my niche, translating good nutrition into food. I also continued to write about food, farming and cooking and develop my speaking skills.

A few years ago I wrote my cookbook The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment, which I call a lighthearted look at vegetables with more than 100 seasonal recipes.

I have now been in Sonoma County for 20 years. During this time I have consulted for companies such as Amy's Kitchen frozen foods (I recently produced their very successful 2 week diet plan), worked on a heart health research project at Kaiser Permanente hospital, also worked on a project to revamp the cafeteria at Kaiser, have given farm tours, done many cooking demonstrations for HMOs and corporations, teach cooking for The McDougall program, continued freelance writing and teaching cooking at the college and at other cooking schools. I also speak to a wide variety of audiences (and can do that for you).

I have 2 websites: http://www.theveggiequeen.com/ and http://www.pressurecookingonline.com/, this blog and my other blog: http://www.pressurecooking.blogspot.com/. I sell products that I love on my websites and I am always on the lookout for great new ideas to keep people eating well with an eye toward health. I am currently working on developing an herb and spice blend for everyday use.

Late in 2007, I produced and starred in a pressure cooking DVD, Pressure Cooking: A Fresh Look, Delicious Dishes in Minutes, which is 75 minutes long and comes with a 16 page recipe booklet with 14 recipes. I continue to do freelance writing online and in print with a foodie and environmental focus. In 2008, I became a fellow of The Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy. I have appeared on radio and TV, and have been quoted in many national magazines. All of this is in a day's work, and I love it.

My dietitian's lens colors everything that I do. I offer people in many settings a fun and interactive way to learn about nutrition. But I'll never cram it down your throat; I prefer that you take small bites and savor the flavor.

Here is what other Registered Dietitians are blogging about:

Beyond Prenatals - Food vs. Supplements and Real Advice vs. Fake Advice
Annette Colby - No More Diets! A Registered Dietitian Shares 9 Secrets to Real and Lasting Weight Loss
Ashley Colpaart - Dietitians working in food policy, a new frontier
Diana Dyer - There and Back Again: Celebration of National Dietitian Day 2009
Marjorie Geiser - RD Showcase for National Registered Dietitian Day - What we do
Cheryl Harris - Me, a Gluten Free RD!
Marilyn Jess - National Registered Dietitian Day--RD Blogfest
Julie Lanford - Antioxidants for Cancer Prevention
Renata Mangrum - What I'm doing as I grow up...
Liz Marr - Fruits and Veggies for Registered Dietian Day: Two Poems
Meal Makeover Moms' Kitchen - Family Nutrition ... It's our "Beat"
Wendy Jo Petersen - March 11 is our day to shine!
Diane Preves - Registered Dietitians and the White House Forum on Health Reform
Andy Sarjahani - Dr. Seuss Tribute continued: Green Eggs and Ham and a Sustainable Food System
Rebecca Scritchfield - Big Tips from a "Big Loser"
Anthony Sepe - RD Showcase: Registered Dietitian Day, March 11, 2009
Kathy Shattler - RD Showcase for Nutri-Care Consultation
UNL-Extension, Douglas/Sarpy County - Nutrition Know How - Making Your Life Easier
Monika Woolsey - Dietitians--Can't Do PCOS Without Them!
Monika Woolsey - In Honor of National Registered Dietitian Day
Jen Zingaro - My life as a Registered Dietitian