Are you scared yet?

"Once bitten by a snake, he/she is scared all his/her life at the mere sight of a rope.” ~ Chinese Proverb

Well, the kiddies (and adults!) are celebrating Halloween this weekend.  The official trick-or-treat day is on Monday so that means tomorrow night I’ll be hiding in my house with all of the lights out (I don’t want to scare the kids with this face!).  Never one to be pegged as bah-humbug-ish, last week I picked up some treats and prepared 9 bags of treats for 9 lucky people.  On Wednesday, I sent a care package full of treats for Sarah and her boyfriend (that's 2), and I gave bags of treats to Neighbour’s two lovely children (that's 4), the two children who live in the house on the other side of me (that's 6), BFF’s daughter and niece (that's 8), and finally my brother makes 9 (he’s the only adult who gets a bag of treats because he has consistently been a big fan of Halloween…unlike me!).  Shockingly, I didn't have a bite of sugar nor have I felt tempted to have a bite...not even an itsy-bitsy chocolate-covered sunflower seed!  So trust me when I say that I prepared all 9 bags of treats without even thinking about stealing a chocolate or candy.  That makes me sugarless for 5 weeks (thanks mostly to Bell's palsy!) and down 15 lbs!  Three cheers for Tracey...HIP, HIP, HURRAY!!! (I'm embarrassed to admit that I originally posted YIP, YIP, YURRAY...duh!  Sometimes my lack of intelligence scares me!)

Enough with the celebrating because now we need to talk about Halloween (bah-humbug!)!  That's right, people:  me no celebrate Halloween!  For all you scaredy-cats out there, who like me, don't want to celebrate and have no idea why we celebrate Halloween, I thought I’d do a little research.

Wow...there’s a lot of information out there (I wish I could use extensive research as my excuse for being really late in posting this weekend but I can't...sorry!).  What was relevant to me (and probably not to anyone else!) was the information that I found on Wikipedia:

The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even ("evening"), that is, the night before All Hallows Day.

Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of  souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls' Day (November 2). It originated in Ireland and Britain although similar practices for the souls of the dead were found as far south as Italy.  Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas.

The practice of Guising at Halloween in North America is first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario reported children going "guising" around the neighbourhood.

With all of the information out there about Halloween, I must say that I just don’t get Halloween!  Not only do I "not get it", it also creeps the crap out of me!   As a kid, I never understood why I had to get dressed up to go trick-or-treating and as an adult, I understand it even less…especially since I’m now sugarless (I think I just wrote a poem…even less and sugarless rhyme!).  I do admit that I enjoyed decorating the house with Sarah, carving pumpkins with Sarah, and making Sarah's costumes for her every year until she was old enough to say "no thanks" to my offers of making her a costume for Halloween. Remember the horse costume that I made for you, Sarah?  I did, however, loathe taking her trick-or-treating.  How could I say no to my child going out for Halloween?  There was always something that made me feel so uncomfortable about taking her door-to-door to receive candy.  Trick-or-treating is just another parental responsibilitiy, I guess! 

So I think it’s pretty clear to everyone now that I’m not a big fan of the “boo” kind of scary that is associated with Halloween because a) scary movies, ghosts, monsters, seeing me dressed up as a stripper for Halloween, scary costumes, haunted houses, etc… really scare me which results in my blood pressure rising, and b) I think there’s enough scariness in the world that we don’t have to dedicate October 31 to scaring people!   So in honour of the scary stuff that goes on in the world every day (not just on October 31!), I thought I’d dedicate this blog post to the non-Halloween stuff that scares the shit out of me! 

Before I start my rant, I must admit to you that I’m afraid of the dark.   There, I said it!  Finished laughing yet?   I'm sure you'll be happy to know that I no longer sleep with the console light on in the kitchen.  I’ve discovered that there’s something really peaceful (more so than terrifying!) about the darkness.  I also believe that you can’t appreciate the light, unless you also appreciate the dark.  So there, one fear revealed and released.   What’s your biggest fear?  How will you overcome it?  If you want to give yourself a gift this Halloween that isn’t filled with artery-blocking, tooth-decaying and blood sugar-spiking ingredients, then I suggest you give yourself the gift of overcoming one fear this week.  I promise that this gift will not make you feel badly about yourself or have you dieting for the next 3 months!

Okay, so the  first thing that’s on my mind about the scariness in this world, has me feeling REALLY guilty!  I’m sugarless yet I found myself preparing bags of poison sugar to gift to people that I care about (I'm sorry for being a sugar-pusher!) so I guess I should start with: SUGAR SCARES ME!  This week on CBC Book Club, a book about sugar was highlighted (just in time for Halloween…coincidence?).  The name of the book is Sugar: A bittersweet history and was written by Elizabeth Abbott.   The history of sugar is quite fascinating because it was originally only available to the wealthy but then a PR campaign resulted in having sugar in EVERYTHING!  Do you know how difficult it is to find food that doesn’t have sugar listed in the ingredients?  Anyways, at this point, the history of sugar isn’t what scares me so much; it’s the number of articles that have been written about the dangers and toxicity of sugar.  FYI - sugar is poison!  Instead of watching a scary movie on Halloween, I dare you to watch this video, Sugar: The Bitter Truth, and read these articles: 

Is Sugar Toxic? 

Sugar – Sweet Poison

Sugar -  Pure, White and Deadly

What’s even scarier is that instead of eating sugar, people are substituting with artificial sweeteners which have proven to be even more dangerous than sugar so if you’re going to consume something sweet, make sure you eat the real thing:  sugar not artificial sweeteners!  Better yet, if you’re craving something sweet, have a piece of fruit.  Now that’s not so scary….unless the fruit is covered in pesticides! 

I don't think I have to tell you how toxic pesticides are to the human body but what’s even scarier is that a government can ban certain chemicals from being used in their country but will continue to import food from other countries where the chemicals are not banned.   All the more reason for consumers to increase their understanding of the origin of the food they consume (and also the chemicals that are found in our hair products, body washes, food storage containers, etc...).  In a previous blog post ("What's in a name or label?") I wrote about learning how to read labels (i.e. is “made in Canada” the same as “product of Canada, and are all of the ingredients actually from Canada?) and I recently read on someone’s Facebook page that you can identify the origin of the food based on the first numbers of the UPC code.  I can’t remember where I saw it and whether or not it’s true but I do remember UPC codes beginning with a “0” means it comes from Canada or USA.  Whether or not 100% of the products found in that item come from Canada or USA, I can’t be sure.   As consumers, we need to be more aware because a lack of awareness is scary!!!

Not only are pesticides detrimental to our health, they’re also creating havoc on our planet.  Schools of fish are washing up dead on shores, flocks of birds are dropping dead from the sky, and watersheds and aquifers are being contaminated with chemicals (the source of our drinking water!).   I recommend that you read Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” (she's my hero and this my favourite book ever!) to have a better understanding of the dangers of pesticides.  You could also read one of my favourite blog posts, “A World Without Bees”, as a reminder (is it okay that I have favourite post?).   

One thing that I find to be very scary is how animals are treated before they are slaughtered for our consumption.  Have you seen the movie Food Inc.?   If you’re looking for a scary movie to watch on Halloween, I recommend you rent this documentary.  I promise that it will scare the crap out of you!  It will also make you much more conscious of the food that you eat and it might even enlighten you with compassion for animals who are cruely sacrificed (and tortured!) for our eating pleasure.  As someone who eats a mostly-vegetarian diet, I’m extremely conscious of any animal products that I'm consuming whether it be yogurt, cheese, eggs or chicken.  I want to ensure that the animals have been treated with kindness and respect (and hopefully love!) while they are providing me with nutritional substance.   For example, when I buy eggs or chicken, I buy organic, free-range but buyer beware because a friend posted this photo on Facebook this week that really scared me (again, just in time for Halloween!):

Free-range horror!!!

According to the information provided, this is a photo of organic, free-range chickens.  HORROR!!!  I did not verify the authenticity of this photo but nevertheless, it's an awakening.  I think the only way to know, for sure, what you are buying/eating, is to visit the farm.  Thankfully, I live in a rural area where I can easily visit the farm where chickens and eggs are sold but I know for many of you, that’s just not possible.  As consumers, we have a lot of power (aka money!), so we need to take back that power and demand to know where our food is coming from!!!

You'll be happy to know that my rant is over (for now!) but I wanted to share something with you that scared me this week:  the feedback that I received regarding my message (s) to George Stroumboulopoulos!   My brother Some of you found it frightening that I would send those that message to Strombo so I’ve been seriously considering my actions and have decided to write a how-to guide on approaching celebrities (stay tuned for an upcoming blog post!).  FYI - I dreamed of George last night (just sayin'!).  In the meantime, I thought I’d share a photo that George posted on his Facebook page last night (thankfully, I saw the photo after I dreamed of him!):

Is scary a synonym for sexy?!?

Sadly, the truth is that there are so many other things that scare me in this world (besides the photo of George!) including poverty, war, corruption, greed, John Cusack – bashing, disease, addictions, bullying, negativity and hate but there’s only so much space in my blog.   I must admit that the scariest thing for me is feeling so helpless about the things that terrify me when it comes to the state of the planet and the state of our collective consciousness because it feels like there’s nothing I can do to change these scary things.  That’s why it’s important for me to bring as much love, hope, happiness, kindness and laughter to my blog.   Some would say that I’m crazy in denial but I truly believe that focusing on the positive somehow makes the negative go away.  There’s only so much energy in the world so if we brought more positivity into the world, the negativity would automatically diminish (don’t make me bring out the mathematical equations to prove it!).  

So now that I’ve shared with you the things that scare me, I’d like to frighten you with the following:  this week I turned my kitchen into an experimental baking lab!  Yes, that’s right people…be afraid, be very afraid…I’m now a baker!  Okay, I’m not actually a baker, I’m simply attempting  to make the world a less scary place by sharing a wheat-free and sugar-free pumpkin ginger nut muffin recipe with you!  I searched high and low for pumpkin ginger nut muffin recipes but didn’t find exactly what I was looking for so I decided to experiment with different recipes.  After three attempts (and taste-tasting by my favourite muffin mockers!), I think I found it: 

(Looks scary but it's yummy!) wheat-free, sugar-free, ginger pumpkin nut muffins

Dry ingredients:

1 ½ cups quinoa flour (or whatever flour you want to use)

2 tbsp ground flax seed

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp allspice

1 tsp ground ginger

Wet ingredients:

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 ¼ cup pure apple juice concentrate (a container of frozen concentrate, thawed…make sure it’s pure juice - no sugar added!)

1/3 cup coconut oil (or you can use any fat…melted butter, extra-virgin olive oil)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp freshly grated ginger (optional!)

½ cup apple sauce (I chopped up an apple, and cooked it with a little cinnamon and water until it was mush)

Optional:

1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts in one batch then pecans in another…I liked them both!)

Candied ginger

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
3. Combine wet ingredients in a large bowl then combine the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients.  Do not over mix. 
4. Add nuts to the mixture (I don't enjoy nuts in my ice cream but I love 'em in my muffins!). 
5. Pour batter into muffin tins (make sure the muffin tins are non-stick…you can rub the tins with butter or oil to make sure they don’t stick!).
6. Bake for 25 – 35 minutes (I noticed the muffins were always ready when I started to smell the yummy goodness oozing from the oven).
7. Let stand for 10 – 15 minutes. 
8. Add a piece (or pieces!) of candied ginger to the top of each muffin (very optional!)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! BOO!!!

P.S.  To those of you who received one of the nine bags of treats that I prepared, please do not consume the entire contents of these bags in one sitting.  Moderation is the key!!! 

P.P.S.  If you are the parent of one of the people who received one of the nine bags of treats that I prepared, please do not steal the candy from your kids!!!

P.P.S. If you are my brother, and you received one of the nine bags of treats that I prepared, you need to share the candy and chocolate with Mom and Dad!  :P