Author: Christina Bruni

Christina Bruni is the author of the new book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers. She contributed a chapter "Recovery is Within Reach" to Benessere Psicologico: Contemporary Thought on Italian American Mental Health.

Appetite for Destruction

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This blog entry is not intended to be a boot in the bum. At the end I tack on the truth: we cannot judge each other for the choices we make. The choice to eat meat is a personal decision. Fire up the barbecue if you want.

I’m not a total saint as though I don’t eat meat I have chicken and turkey. They are not without controversy either.

My goal is to make followers think for five minutes about what each of us can do to promote the health and welfare of Americans. Seeing beyond our own plates is called for.

The book shown above is an expose of the food industry where a handful of corporations earn billions of dollars at the expense of their loyal customers who buy their food “products.”

Apart from what I believe is the health risk of eating meat I won’t eat meat for other reasons. I stand in solidarity with homeowners living right near the CAFOs–slaughterhouses.

Negative health effects of the people living near these confinements include “a lower life expectancy and higher rates of infant deaths, asthma, kidney disease, tuberculosis, and blood poisoning” according to the book which everyone should read.

Workers falling into manure pits die from the fumes. Industry-bought economists at college universities tout the economic growth that CAFOs bring to these areas. That is a lie.

Income inequality thrives where CAFOs exist in rural areas like these. Elected leaders are in cahoots with these big food businesses via deregulation and rubber-stamping the building of new slaughterhouses.

“High poverty rates and anemic job growth” follow these CAFOs. Undocumented workers comprise the employees here as no Americans want their kids to work there. The fallacy is that CAFOS promote good jobs. In fact indentured servitude is more likely what these kinds of jobs are.

The solution is voting with our wallets and pocketbooks like always. We don’t have to buy what these billionaires living in mansions are selling: ill health and income inequality.

Elected leaders who don’t want undocumented people coming here are colluding in allowing undocumented people to work in CAFOs. This hypocrisy is not funny.

What else can we do?

Some of us will tout the benefits of eating a nice juicy steak and continue to do so. We cannot judge each other for the choices we make.

However we can open our eyes to what is going on. Lobby for workers’ rights and the ability to form a union at a CAFO.

Chocolate Cornstarch Pudding

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I took this recipe from allrecipes.com. Just say no to boxed instant pudding with food dye. Per serving this had 33g sugar so it’s best reserved for an every-so-often treat.

To its credit the recipe per serving has 6g protein.

The recipe serves 4. Yet I used only 3 crystal bowls filled up near to the top.

For a summertime and year-round treat I say yes to this pudding from scratch.

The chocolate pudding tastes like real chocolate. Not the chemical chocolate taste of the instant boxed kind.

I had a bowl of this chocolate for breakfast. It tastes delish. I recommend steering clear of products in supermarkets. Instead use recipes or create on your own recipes for food like this that you can make from scratch.

Though you were supposed to stir constantly for 20 minutes on medium heat I have a hotter flame. So I stirred the mixture for only 10 minutes.

Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Cornstarch Pudding

1/2 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 3/4 cups milk

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  1. Stir together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir in milk.
  2. Bring to a boil, and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.
  3. remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla.
  4. Let cool briefly, and serve warm, or chill in the refrigerator until serving.

Metabolical

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I checked this book out of the library and stopped reading it.

The premise is scientifically sound. The reason I didn’t read it is because the M.D. author wrote: “Shop the perimeter of the supermarket.”

In my view no one should be going in person to a market to shop for food unless they’re NOT buying processed food and not buying food with chemicals listed as natural flavor in the ingredients.

I didn’t like that the author conceded that it’s okay to shop in the perimeter. Not everything sold in the end aisles is healthful. That’s obvious in the Stop-n-Shop I’ve gone to.

In Metabolical the author talks about those of us who are TOFI: Thin Outside Fat Inside.

You want to be healthy: Lay off the Starbucks drinks and diet and regular colas and resist taking up smoking.

It’s as simple as that. I found a recipe for chocolate pudding that I’ll post here. As store-bought instant pudding has food coloring and other not-good ingredients.

We should each of us enjoy life and Eat to Live. There’s no shame in wanting to be happy and healthy.

There’s no shame in having an illness either. A person might not be in remission (the medical state of having no symptoms). Yet they can recover in terms of having a life they love.

Illness makes it harder to live your life. My sincere hope is this blog can be a ray of light in readers’ lives.

I would say 90 percent of what happens we can’t control in our life. In my view the things that are under our control should be taken advantage of.

Tofu Pudding

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This dessert is cool and sweet on a hot summer evening. I found the recipe in Bon Appetit magazine.

I buy the Nasoya organic silken tofu. The recipe calls for a 16 oz. package of silken tofu.

Bring one 1/2 inch piece scrubbed ginger thinly sliced 1 cup packed dark brown sugar and 2 cups water to boil in medium saucepan.

Reduce heat to a simmer and cook until sugar is dissolved.

Strain the ginger syrup into a small jar or airtight container. Discard ginger.

Chill until cold at least 30 minutes. Pour over tofu to taste.

Ginger syrup can be stored in refrigerator up to 3 weeks.

White Bean Tuna and Roasted Pepper Salad

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Serves 4

1 15-oz can of cannellini beans rinsed

1/4 small red onion finely chopped

6 Tbsp classic vinaigrette below

3 hearts of romaine torn into pieces 12 oz about 6 cups

2 jarred roasted red peppers drained and cut into pieces

1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts drained and quartered

1/2 cup pitted mixed olives

1 5 oz can tuna packed in olive oil drained and flaked

First the vinaigrette:

1 cup

1/3 cup red wine vinegar

1 shallot finely chopped

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp Kosher salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil.

To a jar add vinegar, shallot, Dijon, salt, and pepper.

Cover and shake to combine. Add oil. Cover and shake until emulsified.

Dressing will keep in refrigerator up to 5 days.

  1. In a large bowl toss beans and onion with vinaigrette then add romaine and toss to coat.
  2. Fold in peppers, artichoke hearts, olives, and tuna.

How I created this recipe:

Marinated artichoke hearts are soaked in UN-healthy fat in the form of sunflower oil. So I used a can of Cento quartered artichoke hearts instead.

I didn’t buy the red onion and shallot. I used Cento food products and kalamata olives.

Since I’m only one person not serving 4 people I estimated the measurements for the vinaigrette and the salad ingredients.

The amount of vinaigrette and food in salad was fine the way I measured everything.

Mediterranean Diet

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Step away from the Starbuck’s.

It’s a myth that “calories in versus calories out” or burning off more calories than you consume is the best way to eat or lose weight. It’s the type of food that counts.

Today I’ve been figuring out how to “cook” up my dinners when I have no energy to cook and desire to clean a dish and saucepan after.

The magazine above which I found in Walgreen’s has easy healthful recipes that I’m going to make this summer. In the next blog entry I’ll share one for tuna salad.

My approach is that I want to eat 90 percent of my food coming from God’s green earth or the bright blue sea.

I have a big chocolate chip cookie or whoopee pie here and there. However I try to watch what I eat and drink consistently.

The Mediterranean Diet is touted as the healthiest diet. Really it’s not a restrictive “diet” it’s a lifestyle.

This summer I’ll make one of the recipes that calls for using a Dutch oven.

Coming up the tuna salad recipe.

Like Italians say:

Mangia bene – vivere bene.

Eat well to live well.

Sustain-Ability

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The photo above is of a “continental breakfast”-style dinner.

I’ve taken to making this meal when I have no energy or desire to cook and then clean dishes pots and pans.

Food items:

Mary’s Gone Crackers gluten-free crackers.

Black seedless grapes.

Driscoll’s organic blackberries.

Cento olives in the yellow can.

Grillies halloumi cheese.

Have no idea if this is a healthful dinner.

What I’ve come to realize is that sustainable habits like a weekly routine should sustain our ability to thrive as human beings living in a society where the scarcity mentality is alive and well.

We shouldn’t view things in terms of competing with each other to get what we need to survive.

To sustain our ability to live life whole and well I think adapting and being flexible is paramount.

So take having that weekly routine:

In some weeks we’ll be cooking our dinners 4 or 5 times a week. In other weeks we’ll need to find quick-and-easy meals to prepare because our energy is shot or we don’t have the time to cook and clean.

Before we can save the planet we need each of us to attend to our own health and well being.

That’s because we might live on God’s newly green earth down the road. Yet if we don’t have the health to enjoy our time here it’s likely going to be harder to feel good about ourselves.

I eat well to feel well.

With the summer heat coming on I’m all for making dinners that don’t require using the hot oven. A way to save on your gas or electric bill too.

Seeing the Eclipse

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I viewed the solar eclipse today through the free eclipse glasses that the New York City public libraries gave out to customers.

The photo above is how the eclipse appeared through the glasses. A moment of transcendent awe that turned an ordinary Monday afternoon into a Wow!

Another solar eclipse will come around in 21 years. I’ll be 79 then.

What takes my breath away is seeing nature in all its glory like when I viewed the eclipse.

The weather will be getting warmer so the days of talking long walks in a park or on the city streets is coming soon.

I imagine that even a person in a wheelchair can find a stretch of road in a park to fly by wheeling through nature..

What joy is to be had living in tune with the natural world.

I hope you enjoy seeing this photo if you weren’t able to view the eclipse on your own.

2024 Early Spring Lower Body Routine

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1.DB squat: hold DB at chest with both hands and squat 15 pounds 3×12 reps.

2.KB swing: hold 10 pound DB in each hand and swing 10 pounds x 2 3×12 reps.

3.Hip bridge from floor: lying on floor with feet flat and DB resting on hips press hips up to ceiling 15 pounds 3×12 reps.

4.Single leg Romanian deadlift: right hand on wall DB in left hand lift right leg and reach toward toes on left side going for stretch in hamstring then switch sides 8-10 pounds 3×12 reps.

5.Wall sit: as long as possible. (sitting against wall with back against wall.)

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Medicine ball slams side to side (16 times) Lift ball high up then slam on floor.

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Alternating leg raises.

Fast-paced step-ups (1 riser on platform) 25 seconds.

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Crunches on floor: lie flat and pull both arms and legs together to crunch in the middle.

2024 Early Spring Upper Body Routine

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1.DB row: hold DB in both hands bend forward with arms to side and pull both arms back together 10 pounds 3×12 reps.

2.Chest fly: lying on floor hold DBs above chest bring arms out to the side to stretch chest then press up 5 pounds 3×12 reps.

3.Should raise: hold DBs in front and DBs facing forward lift DBs out to side and up to shoulders 5 pounds 3×12 reps.

4.DB Hammer curls: one curl at a time palm facing in 5-8 pounds 3×12 reps.

5.Tricep extension: holding DBs by shoulders elbows up extend arm one at a time toward ceiling 5 pounds 3×12 reps.

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Mountain climber (20 seconds)

right into

Plank on hands (as long as possible)

Jumping Jacks (25)

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Russian Twists with 8 pound DB