Healthy Cooking 101: Roasted Vegetables
Yesterday’s Healthy Cooking 101 class featuring Roasted Vegetables was my best class to date. Not because there was 27 folks there (surely that helped), but because there was a special warmth in the room.
Two ovens roaring, filled with four different vegetables (Brussel sprouts, Cauliflower, Roma tomatoes, Yukon Gold potatoes), and the eagerness, oh the eagerness of the participants. They all were hungry. Not just hungry for food, but hungry for knowledge. From the questions that they asked of me, I got the feeling they were tired of the same ol’ same. They seemed to be there looking for ways to cook food at home, vegetables even. Ha. Maybe, just maybe, they’re tired of .99 Value Menus. Tired of being lured in by convenience. Tired of letting their busy schedules be the reason they cave into the convenience. Perhaps, I’m reading way too much into this, but I tell you those enthusiastic faces made me a little emotional. It was AWESOME, I tell you, AWESOME.
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Chrisetta Mosley
I am a product – and now a survivor – of childhood obesity. As a child, my family always told me that my extra weight was merely baby fat and I’d eventually grow out of it. I never did. Instead, my childhood is filled with memories of not being able to ride a bike, flattening its training wheels from being over the recommended weight, and avoiding P.E. classes by any means necessary. For years, I wore my fatness like a wounded soldier wears a Purple Heart - with pride. I owned the look. I dressed it up. I worked the room. There wasn't a skinny girl who intimidated me. I made sure my hair was laid just right. Nails polished. Outfits coordinated to the tee. Accessories to compliment every outfit. But everyone has a breaking point, and mine came in the spring of 2004 when I tipped the scale at nearly 400 pounds 388 to be exact. I was MISERABLE trapped inside of that body. I no longer wore my Purple Heart with pride. Rather, I was ashamed and frightened. Ashamed that I had allowed food to become my everything – frightened I would die because of it. Drastic times called for drastic measures... Today, I’m bound and determined to live a better, healthier, active lifestyle. I realize I’m no longer a passenger in my life, I’m the driver. I’m overcoming my inhibitions and I’m slowly but surely saying farewell to my old childhood nemesis, obesity. For once and for all, Farewell Fatso!