I had a fun weekend of cooking and we had a nutritarian potluck too. It was great fun. I made Dr. Fuhrman's famous anti-cancer soup. It was good but I like my soups better. It makes a huge batch though, which is great. Here it is in my giant stock pot:

We had that at the potluck, and still had tons leftover to freeze into lunch-size portions.

For the potluck, Jim brought spring rolls and dipping sauces which were yummy. Colleen brought baked apples with a raisin cashew sauce. And Sue brought tomatoes and bananas. We enjoyed our food and gabbed for hours. Sue left me with large a ripe banana which I froze and then blended up for breakfast on Sunday--with nothing else! It's yummy.

On Saturday, after I made the soup and before the potluck, I made house-mate's smoothies for the week. But first I had a yummy fruit salad with some of the fruit.

On Sunday, we had soup and manna bread for lunch. Then at dinner I was back into my weeknight routine of making confetti salads for the next day. This is my last week of eating carrots. I have about 10 lbs left but they are probably not going to last for more than a week. It was a great year for local carrots. But the end of carrots is also the start of spring produce. The California strawberries were on special today and they are good. Soon we'll have local spinach and salad greens.

My weekday meals this week will be confetti salads, beans or soup, and manna bread for breakfast and lunch; and carrots and other veggies at dinner.

Chef AJ has published her cookbook Unprocessed. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet (just got the book last week) but have read the book cover to cover. It looks great. For one thing, the chapter on her story is amazing. Wow! What a turn-around she had when she replaced unhealthy (processed) food with healthy (unprocessed). She follows this with a few short chapters on why and how to eat healthy, concise, entertaining, and to the point. For another thing, she starts the recipes with desserts. That's my kind of cookbook. And finally, her recipes look easy to make, with usually less than 10 ingredients, and 1-2 short paragraphs describing how to make them. I'll tell you what I want to make: chocolate fondue. holy cow: peanut butter and chocolate. I might have to forgo the chocolate and just make it a peanut butter fondue.

Not my recipe, another one from Virtually Vegan Mama. I'd like someone to make this and give me a piece. :) It looks good.

Evidence-based home visiting services help improve school readiness, child health and public safety in Washington, a panel including DEL Director Bette Hyde told the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee this morning.

DEL Director Bette Hyde and Thrive by Five CEO and President Nina Auerbach speak to the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee

ooh, just came across these too:

Just saw this posted on virtually vegan mama's blog. I haven't tried it yet, but it looks good to me. hmm, I'm having a potluck next week. Maybe I'll try it out there.

If you live in the area, you are welcome to attend our Nutritarian Potluck next Saturday!

This week's beans are so good! Wow, they taste like baked beans only without the added fat, salt, and sugar. I basically followed this recipe. I used rancho gordo cargamanto cranberry bean. They are kind of big and creamy, yet don't fall apart. But any dried bean would do. I chopped the onion and mushrooms in the food processor, out of laziness. This changes the texture compared to chopping with a knife. Either way is good. The mushrooms give the dish a kind of meaty texture. I dished it out into 10 bowls to freeze and take into work. Yum!

I've been eating a lot of raw foods lately. It's mostly because I haven't been making the time to cook, but I also like it. I'm in a happy rut with these "confetti" or "micro" salads. My base is usually lettuce, baby bok choy, spinach, arugula, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, sometimes red bell pepper, cucumber. Then if I go the savory route, maybe some tomatoes, beans, corn, spices (e.g., Mexican or Italian). Or go the sweet route, some yummy fruit like apple, grapefruit, strawberries, mango, blueberries, mango (not all of them, 1 or 2). Then maybe some cilantro and lime juice, and/or flavored vinegar and/or orange juice. Yesterday I had fresh strawberries and blackberries. Was that ever yummy. A few days ago I had an apple and grapefruit. On weekdays last week I had a big one of these salads for brekky and lunch. I've also been eating a ton of carrots. The season for local carrots will end soon. I'm on maybe the last 25 lb bag. They are sweet and yummy. My dinners lately have included large portions of carrots. I'm just having fun eating large quantities before they run out. The good news is, about the time they run out, we start seeing spring crops at the grocery store--local spinach and lettuce greens. So I'll have something new to look forward to.

Washington once again ranks among the top in the nation for our licensing rules and oversight for child care centers, according to a National Association for Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA) report released this week.

Washington ranks sixth in the nation overall for our center regulations and oversight. We ranked ninth in the last NACCRRA report, issued in 2009.

NACCRRA highlighted some of the strengths in our center licensing work, including: unannounced monitoring visits and complaint inspections; regulations that address all developmental domains as well as all basic health and safety standards; and an emphasis on parent involvement and information.

The Department of Early Learning licenses about 2,000 centers around the state, which includes school-age programs. View our state’s center rules and school-age rules here: www.del.wa.gov/laws/rules/licensing.aspx

NACCRRA recommends that Washington:

• Increase frequency of inspections of child care centers (we currently inspect once every 12 months for centers).
• Require center directors to have a bachelor’s degree or higher in early childhood education or a related field.
• Increase the education requirements for lead teachers to a child development associate (CDA) credential or an associate degree in early childhood education or related field (currently high school diploma or GED).
• Increase annual training requirements to 24 hours, including CPR and first-aid (currently 10 hours).
• Require fingerprints for checking individuals’ criminal history (currently our state only requires fingerprints for those who have lived in the state less than three years).

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has weighed in on our state’s conversation about how to build a more student-focused education system, first in a March 8 opinion piece in the Seattle Times and again today during a teleconference education roundtable with Governor Chris Gregoire and education leaders in the Washington Legislature.

Watch today’s education roundtable below.


The Governor has proposed a single state Department of Education to coordinate early learning, K-12 and higher education.

The bill currently being considered is SB 5639. The House has passed a bill, HB 1849, which would study the issue.

“To me, it’s just really encouraging that we’re putting these tough issues on the table and having thoughtful conversations about them,” Duncan said. “The more courage we can show in making these decisions—our children and ultimately our country desperately need our leadership now more than ever.”

Legislators visited the issue of early learning as a smart investment during the conversation. Rep. Pat Sullivan, D-Covington, asked Duncan how states can protect early learning in tough budget times.

“If we’re serious about getting educators at every level out of the remediation business, that means we have to have a lot more children enter kindergarten ready to learn and ready to read, with literacy and socialization skills intact,” Duncan replied.

This is just beans, lots of veggies that Dr. Fuhrman always recommends, some grains, and carrot juice. Tastes real good.