I know, I usually talk about food.

But I recently had an experience at a friend’s house that sent me off on another topic direction.

And that’s the subject of dry cleaning.

Now, if you never thought about it before, that’s because it seems like there’s nothing to think about! You take dirty clothes into the dry cleaner, and pick up clean, pressed, closet-ready duds. It’s like magic.

And that’s what my friend thought.

My friend, by the way, is totally into healthy eating, exercise, recycling, organic gardening…you get the picture. So if she could fall into the dry cleaning trap, just about anyone can.

And when I found a whole corner of her super-large closet taken up with baggie-covered clothing on wire hangers I was totally shocked.

“You dry clean your clothes?” I asked in disbelief.

She does, or maybe I should say, she did. Because here’s what I told her about dry cleaning.

The toxic chemicals that dry cleaners typically utilize don’t just stay at the dry cleaner’s (which would be bad enough).  They get imbued in those clothes you bring home so neatly wrapped in plastic and stick in your closet.

And when you unwrap that spotless and neatly pressed jacket, shirt or pants, you’re exposing yourself to things that were not mean to be breathed in or otherwise absorbed in your body.

And that also certainly applies to dry cleaning quilts and bedspreads. Maybe even more so, since you come into contact with these things every single night.

Probably the worst and most pervasive of these isperchloroethylene or PERC for short. Also known astetrachloroethylene, this chemical solvent (also used in paint strippers) is what’s responsible for the intense, sweet kind of smell a dry-cleaned garment gives off when you unwrap it. It then slowly seeps into the ambient air of your home.

And it’s not harmless.

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Inhaling relatively small amounts of PERC can result in such symptoms as dizziness, drowsiness, nausea and headaches, while larger amounts can cause you to lose consciousness, and could even be fatal. And chronic exposure to small amounts can affect memory and concentration, as well as muscle coordination.

It is also considered a likely carcinogen, which has been linked to heightened risks of esophageal cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and cervical cancer in workplace uses, and to leukemia, liver, and kidney cancers in rodents.

But just because togs have tags that read “dry clean only” doesn’t mean they can’t be hand washed with a mild detergent. Some may even be OK to put in the delicate cycle of your washing machine inside a mesh bag. Some locale also have “wet cleaners” that don’t use hazardous dry cleaning chemicals, many of which can be found at www.nodryclean.com.

Of course, your best bet is to stick with clothes that say they’re OK with conventional machine washing and that you can toss in the wash without giving it another thought instead of a chemical bath.

Organic farmers in the United States and Europe are as much different as they are the same.

I thought about that this last month as my wife and I visited three organic dairy farms in Southwest England that supply the organic milk for Kingdom Cheddar, an organic heritage English cheese I have been helping to bring into the U.S. marketplace.

There was no doubt that we weren’t in Colorado anymore. The rolling hills displayed a tapestry of small fields and pastures, all neatly bordered by well-maintained hedges. Stone farmhouses and fences still in use were old when the first homesteaders staked their claims on the High Plains of eastern Colorado.

As I chatted with the dairy farmers around their kitchen tables, and in their milking parlours, I just as easily could have been visiting with an organic dairy farmer in Windsor, Colorado.

These British farmers have taken the plunge to farm organically because they passionately believe that they have a responsibility to nurture the soil, work with nature to produce healthy crops and livestock, and improve the environment they will pass along to their children.

“For me, it’s about the soil,” one farmer told me. “If my soil isn’t healthy, my family won’t be healthy.”

That’s a common refrain among organic farmers. Only the accents are different.

Certainly, organic farmers in England and the United States face unique challenges, and operate in very different marketing systems. But 7,000 miles cannot separate the farmers from the common values they share.

So, it’s almost Thanksgiving – meaning it’s almost Christmas, meaning too much everything – except time.

Right about now I start to feel the like the Star Ship Enterprise shooting through the darkness, stars racing past at light-speed, headed into who knows what. I like to be prepared for the unknown, and I don’t like to cook in hyperspace. I barely like to cook in regular space. Fortunately I love chili. Chili is the answer to everything from mid November through Thanksgiving, and if you don’t mind a little repetition – right on through to Christmas. How do I know this? Well for one thing, I made Sebrina’s Five Star Chili – (a double batch.) We had it for dinner immediately – I added some beer and a hefty bit of hot pepper, both fresh and flakes. It made for an exciting evening! (Read that however you like.)

The following morning we had it with eggs over easy, but its also great with scrambled eggs; Add some slices of avocado, fresh cilantro, shredded Mexican cheese, a dollop of sour cream and Wild Oats mild salsa. That equals brunch at our house. I then put the remainder of the chili into quart bags (seven of them!) and the next time I don’t feel like cooking, (tomorrow,) I will pull out a bag, toss the chili in a bowl, heat it to very warm, and then put it on a bun with a little cheese and a couple jalapeños. Ta-da! Sloppy-Chili Lunch.

If I want to make dinner a one dish event, I will use one cup of chili on a bed of lettuce with some Wild Oats Tortilla Chips. I like green salsa on that, but Wild Oats red salsa is great as a dressing on this too. More sour cream and shredded cheddar, black olives, avocado, cilantro and whatever other garnishes you like. = SUPER good Taco Salad.

I love chili on hot dogs. Sorry but I do. Since I never buy them though, a really close second is chili that has been cooked down till it’s not runny, rolled up in a warm flour or corn tortilla, with sweet onion and some peppers and cheese. It’s a Chili Burrito – or as I like to call it, “A chili dog, – without the bun or hot dog!” This is rather like a BLT without the bacon lettuce and tomato otherwise known as toast, except it’s a lot more filling and better tasting.

For a satisfying supper, there is Baked Potato with Chili and all of the fixins. The longest part of the prep for this meal is waiting for five minutes for the chili and baked potato to come to come out of the microwave. Precooked bacon crumbles and fresh peppers chopped on top along with – oh yes! sour cream and cheddar. It’s the ultimate comfort meal and you’re full till next Sunday.

Then, while you are watching the game you need to have a snack, so, Chili Nachos of course, a big plate. If you make them in December, Leave some for Santa and you will definitely make the nice list.

But I skipped ahead. Lets don’t forget Thanksgiving. What to do with all of the leftover turkey? Right. Shred it and put it in the chili! Double protein, double good.

Finally, if you are used to having Turkey Chili with rice, try using quinoa that has been cooked with turkey broth alongside or under a bowl of chili. Quinoa is also nice in the four or corn tortilla if you like a more high protein carb to help round out the chili itself.

With all the time you will save not cooking, and all the money you will save eating in, maybe you can buy a meal or two for someone that is not as lucky as you. That could warm the season up even better than chili with jalapeños. Feliz Navidad!

With the Holiday Season upon us, I find myself shoring up good habits I’ve learned along the way, returning to what I know works in preparation for a new round of resolutions for 2015. Without doubt, one of the best (and simplest) is the morning smoothie routine.

I am a lover of breakfast, big sprawling leisurely breakfasts with friends and family, a breakfast of multiple courses, savory and sweet. These are, however, weekend events at this time in my life, and the workday breakfast has historically been coffee. (On some occasions, this can also be said of the workday lunch). The smoothie breakfast, then, is a satisfyingly simple strategy- energy for hours, in under 10 minutes. (Much less than 10 minutes if you have a blender that blends, rather than ruminates, as mine tends to do.)

The use of frozen fruit and vegetables as primary ingredients is a choice I was slower to adopt, as I have a preference for fresh as a general rule of thumb. Studies demonstrating that frozen produce is not only equal, but in some cases superior, to fresh prompted me to reconsider. Not surprisingly, a freezer full of easy breakfast ingredients made my smoothie routine infinitely more possible.

However often I make it to the grocery store, I peruse the frozen aisle-blueberries, raspberries, blackberries galore; mango and pineapple readily available, and the more elusive favorite, the frozen peach. Combined with nut butter (I’m a fan of almond myself), a liquid (coconut water, almond milk, rice milk, water), and perhaps a spice (decorticated cardamom is both delicious and fun to say). Et voila- a delicious and varied menu of nutrition that requires little to no preparation if properly stocked.

I mix up my frozen fruits with vegetables for the much-lauded green smoothie, and incorporate fresh fruit and vegetables as well.  (Click here for a tutorial on diy-smoothie-freezer-packs from momables.com) There is little limitation as far as ingredients go, as this article on how to “drink your avocados” shows. Experimentation is half the fun.

Additional benefits? Smoothie lovers abound, and the range of recipes is enough to stave off palate boredom: for taste, for health, for seasonal eating– the options seem limitless. Here are a few from my fellow Oaties, along with my favorite peach, almond butter and cardamom smoothie recipe.

Smoothies are a versatile breakfast- they can be downed, sipped, savored, transported; one caveat? If you love berries, travel with floss and check your teeth post-consumption. Seeds are wily and seemingly inevitable.

It’s Veterans Day!  A day designated as a national holiday to honor all who have served in the armed forces to defend our liberties!   A National Holiday!  How nice that my 7 year old grandson could tell me why he would have no school on Tuesday: “because it’s Veterans Day”.  At his elementary school on Friday there was a whole school assembly where they talked about what it means to be a soldier, of defending freedom and of bravery and courage.  Caleb really got the message.

How shall we celebrate Veterans Day?  How about a mega dose of Vitamin G!  GRATITUDE!  This is one vitamin that you are not going to find in any particular fruit or vegetable, at least not directly.  Are you grateful  for all the healthy foods we get to enjoy?  Me too!  Up goes our Vit G!

Fellow Oatie, Karen, beautifully opened up this subject in her blog yesterday The power of “Thank You”.  I’m grateful for her great information!  Oh, there goes my Vit G ..

Does gratitude improve your health?  Ahhh, yes!  In a recent study, healthcare practitioners, a group known to experience chronic occupational stress, were divided into 3 different participant groups:
●   Group #1  –  did a journal entry, twice a week for 4 week, on hassles that they experienced at work
●   Group #2  –  did a journal entry, twice a week for 4 week, on things they were grateful for at work
●   Group #3  –  business as usual.
The results were great!  There were basically no differences in the business-as-usual group and the hassle group.  The grateful group had marked improvement of feelings of stress and depression.   The study conclusion?  “Taking stock in thankful events is an effective approach to reduce stress and depressive symptoms among health care practitioners.”  Now, you might not be a healthcare practitioner, but I’m sure you can figure out that it would probably be good for you too!

Today is the 60^th anniversary of the first official Veterans Day  –  Nov 11, 1954!  It feels weird to say Happy Veterans Day  … it’s not really happy.  It’s a day for honoring our many veterans.  A day to feel truly grateful for our men and women who have placed themselves in harm’s way for us.  Let’s show them some extra love, respect and gratitude  –  it’s the patriotic thing to do!  Your Vitamin G will go up, and the veterans’ will too  –  because they’ll be grateful that you remembered!   Gratitude feels good!