I made huge strides of progress on our website this morning, writing lots of copy and uploading photo collages like these!
Matt literally had to PEEL me away from the computer at 12:30 for our run. I was glued down!!
He had a whole workout planned – biking downtown to park, running 5 miles, stopping into City Hall to deliver a document, biking back. And it was only 35 degrees outside.
I said whoa.
We dropped the run down to 4 miles, ate a few dates for energy and were off. It was a fun workout but it was COLD! I had envisioned 50 degrees and sunshine per the forecast. Not fun! But it was fun to cover so much ground (9 miles total, 5 of them biking) and certainly got me pumped for lunch.
So many of you commented on our empty fridge. While I DO try to keep shelves clear Barefoot Contessa-style, we ARE pretty low on food! I was hoping to make it through the week without going to the grocery store with our trip on Saturday, but I don’t think we will. But usually we have leftovers on the top shelf, yogurts on the middle, spinach on the second middle, and cheeses and produce in the drawers. We are only 2 people and I like to keep a neat fridge! It makes me very happy to see my food 
Lunch was fabulous – all I wanted was fruit!
I had a big fruit fort made of apple, orange and strawb
Leftover kale
Carrot and Honey Crunch PB
And a toast with PB and J
The usual: sparkles!
It was awesome!
Extra, Extra!
- I did see the Bittman piece on oatmeal …and couldn’t agree more!
- How could I say no when my sister asked me to write a guest post! KERF post on squeezing it all in.
- Thanks to Tina for honoring me as one of her Health Heroes!
Back to my website!
{ 86 comments… read them below or add one }
Man all your photos look amazing Kath!
I love the look of your fridge and Barefoot Contessa. I used to keep mine like that until I found out I was intolerant to gluten – now the entire back 1/3 of the top and bottom shelf are crammed with gluten-free flours. They are neatly organized, but even where there are no leftovers, the fridge is a 1/3 full. I also keep all our open nut butters in the fridge, as well as tahini, miso. I supposed I could try to fit them in the door shelves.
Same here! I am going to have get a bigger fridge someday.
Looks like a great website, so far!
Now THAT kind of work is fun! I love your photo collaging!
I do all my collages at picnik.com! They make it super easy to do side by side pictures.. It’s free, but you can upgrade to the premium for $24 bucks a year.
I love the collages! I think I would have to eat about 3x that amount of food after covering all those miles though
I love your lunch. That looks amazing, clean, and so appealing
Glad you had a great workout to peel you away!!
That’s my kind of lunch: random, healthy and filling!
congrats for making headway on your website! yay for that!
and your PB & Jelly is making me hungry
And I love a clean, organized fridge, too!
Your food looks gorgeous! I keep a neat fridge too, mostly because I eat out so much. Check out my blog– I was on the Today Show this morning!
That’s awesome that you’ve made so much progress for the site!! You go, girl! And yes, I was expecting the weather here in Charlotte to be much warmer than it was when I was out and about this morning… I thought spring was maybe here to stay, but I’m not thinkin’ that anymore! It is stil February, after all
LOVE your fruit fort! Wish I were at home and not at work so I could dig into all of the fruit on the counter top and make one of my own…
I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but your food always looks so wholesome and like, it would make a person the healthiest person alive haha.
I usually keep an empty fridge as well, but not lately — sometimes I think my fridge just needs to be organized, ya know?
I love the fruit fort — and this mix/match meal you have is totally up my alley — like a bunch of snacks all on one plate!
Now that’s my kind of lunch. A little of this and a little of that! Love the fruit fort
I was also startled by the appearance of your fridge! While mine could stand to be a bit cleaner, I would be in a “there’s nothing to eat panic” if mine ever looked like that
I do understand the appeal, and the prep for being away. though.
Very pretty lunch spread! Colors sure get me through the winter.
I like how you packed the errands and the body-movin’ into one. When its more temperate outside I like to multitask by walking errands so that I get some fresh air too.
It’s a bit chilly for that now though!
Meri
You just reminded me that the fact that there’s a GH near my new project site, takes the edge off the 60 mile round trip commute I’ll have for the next 5 weeks.
Re: The Bittman piece, generally I agree with his philosphies but I don’t COMPLETELY agree with this one. I found the comment below that I lifted and pasted below rather compelling. Ideally we would all be eating preservative free whole foods all day every day but life isn’t that simple or easy. Ideally I would pack my breakfast and lunch the night before I leave or cook big pots of things on the weekend but after working a 50 hour week, 10 hours of commuting, at least 6 hours of exercise not to mention sleep, social life, chores, etc there isn’t time or energy to prepare every single meal and snack. Convenience foods exist because of our modern schedules. Yes I eat protein bars a couple of times a week, oats from various fast food outlets, and frozen dinners a few times a month. I also love the work I do and am in very good health.
I disagree that eating a sausage biscuit or big mac is only marginally worse that getting oatmeal from MD’s. Granted I don’t routinely eat fast food but these better choices in the worst of food outlets is an indication of society as a whole becoming more aware of what a good diet requires.
6.Esther B.
Medford, MA
February 23rd, 2011
7:12 amI really am sympathetic to your argument here, Mark, but hyperbole doesn’t help things in the long run. Calling the product “oats, sugar, sweetened dried fruit, cream and 11 weird ingredients you would never keep in your kitchen” isn’t quite accurate. Those “11 weird ingredients” include salt (a staple), modified food starch (a relative of cornstarch, another staple), and caramel color (a simple product of heated sugar). They do include chemical additives to the cream, but most commercially available cream at the grocery store has multiple additives to control its stability and texture, too.
Now compare those ingredients to a single Big Mac bun: “Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzymes), water, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, soybean oil and/or partially hydrogenated soybean oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, wheat gluten, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide, soy flour), calcium propionate and sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin,
sesame seed.”
Is homemade oatmeal healthier, cheaper, and (if you’re at home) faster? Yes, of course. But as that long list of chemicals demonstrates, this oatmeal represents a major step forward for McDonald’s. I’d rather thank them for moving in the right direction than chastise them for not being a homecooked meal.
He was pretty sarcastic (and i agree the bun is worse), but I think his point is true – just keep the ingredients simple. There is no need for corn starch in oatmeal – or caramel flavor or sugar for that matter. The debate isn’t “should McD’s have used cornstarch or a more whole food” – it’s let oats just be oats.
Yeah, I think in many cases were just transferring people from processed foods to OTHER processed foods. I always feel the same way when I see The Biggest Loser trainers getting their product plug-ins for a lot of those artificially sweetened foods.
That’s why there’s such an epidemic today.
…with that said though – I do eat those foods at times and don’t turn down my sweets!! I think it can become obsessive and people just need to learn to relax and let go at a certain point (within reason). One thing isn’t going to kill you.
wait, how is it that you agree when you take your oatmeal and pile a ton of crap on top? i don’t care if it’s all minimally processed and “healthy”. you don’t exactly seem to enjoy the simple form of oatmeal that bittman is speaking of. have you ever just eaten oatmeal without 16 toppings?
Can’t wait to see the new site!
I need to do what you do (empty fridge thing). We over buy on food so many times and end up throwing it out.
Lunch looks great as always
I love all the colors in your lunch!
Love the lunch photo shoot location. Like a real fort for your fruit fort.
Looks like a great lunch! How much do you want it to be Spring?! This cold MD/VA/DC weather has got to go!
Would love to dive into your lunch plate. It’s right up my alley. Wish we could get good fresh strawberries this time of year. One of the things I miss about south Louisiana is their local strawberries. They’re tiny but yummy.
Look at all that fruit! I haven’t read Bittman’s take on oatmeal, but I have the link saved to read later.
That is a pretty lunch! Spring weather on the horizon has me craving fruit too.
Have you seen Food & Wine’s Best New Chef Southeast nominations? http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/02/15/food-wines-the-peoples-best-new-chef-2011-southeast/
NC is getting some love!
WOW – Hillsborough made the list! And I have yet to eat at Panciuto!
I think it is great you keep the fridge that clean. I wish the boys didn’t trash mine, but they are kids and we have to learn to live together…the good and the bad. Your lunch looks like my kind of eats! YUM! Have a great afternoon Kath!
An empty fridge is neat to look at, but really energy inefficient. If you want to cut some $$ off of your energy bill, consider filling 2 gallon size jugs of water to keep in the back. Same thing in your freezer. The water bottles will help regulate the temperature and your refrigerator won’t need to work as hard to maintain the temperature.
Love, love, love, fruitarian lunches.
what a pretty lunch!!!
Awesome pictures for the website! I wish you guys were my local bakers! I may be visiting the US in August, yipeee, so will have to track down some of that dakota bread…
Heidi xo
I love collages! I’ve been meaning to use them more often.
Your fruit fort looks mouthwatering! I always crave fruit when I’m thirsty or warm or feeling unbalanced.
I loved Bittman’s article on oatmeal! I was wondering if you were going to mention it
The collage is killer! I am so excited for you!!
Love all the biking you do! I had a dream about riding around town on my bike last night
Guess I need to ride soon? 
I love mix-match lunches like that! A lil bit of everything is fun
PS. I totally need to clean out my fridge!
So excited to see the GH website when it’s up and running!!
Great lunch pics!! Wanted to get a recommendation for a good lunch spot in C-ville, we will be driving through on Saturday on our way out of town and wanted to stop there. Any ideas would be great, thanks Kath!
Check out the Charlottesville page – tons of good options! Try Cville Coffee – right next to our future bakery!
Perfect, thanks so much!
This post speaks to the same thing I wrote about yesterday on my blog. I hate to have so much food in the fridge that we end up wasting things. I am trying this week to not go to the grocery store, and see if we can’t use up some of our stockpiled pantry items. My fridge never looks as clean as yours, but I am making an effort to get there.
1. Your pictures are always fabulous.
2. I love how neat you keep your fridge – I have made comments about this before because I’m totally green (KERF green) with envy!
Your Great Harvest pics are great! So exciting!
Strawberries sound amazing! Especially since I haven’t had them for months because they are out of season.
I’m like you—I don’t like my fridge or cupboards TOO full…it’s messy, disorganized, and easier for food to go bad. I prefer to make a weekly trip to the grocery store (after careful planning!).
Those pics are so good! I wish we had the same issue with our fridge, we buy way too much stuff, especially produce, and end up throwing alot of it out. I think the big problem is i tend to go shopping when I’m a little hungry. Not good!
I love all that fruit! Looks like an amazing lunch!!
Great pics and what a workout! I’m not a fan of super cold weather either, I always layer up, get hot, shed layers, freeze, repeat.
Lunch looks wonderful.
That is my kind of lunch!!! Texture heaven
I LOVE the photo collage!
Aeesome! Now I can blame the fact that I never exercise on the fact that I don’t have a husband. Woot!
I love your “I eat real food” shirt! Oh, and carrots and peanut butter, I am going to have to try that. I see that you slice the big carrots. Those are so much more delicious than the baby carrots.
I had lots of fruit today too! Banana in my oatmeal, apple slices for snack, and an orange for lunch – and I want more!
Great photos!!
Sparkling water is my favorite thing lately! I love adding a squeeze of lemon, it is absolutely delicious:) Slash I love your photo collages, they are so much more interesting than looking at a bunch of pictures!
Great lunch spread, i wonderful mix of everything.
Brave souls! I hate the cold – and I live much further up North!
What time do you eat your lunch or dinner since you workout around noon hour? Do you shower/clean up after?
Also – is there any downside to stocking your fridge?? I prefer to do that to avoid having to go to the store a lot – which takes a LOT of time…
that fruit looks gorgeous:)
Loved the oatmeal article. Thanks for sharing!
I really appreciate the link to the Bittman article on oats! It’s kind of funny because I was just commenting to a friend that I highly doubt the McDonald’s oatmeal is actually a good choice because because they always seem to add something unnecessary to mess it up! And he summed that up in better words than I could! So thanks!
I appreciate the link to the Bittman article on oats! It’s kind of funny because I was just commenting to a friend that I highly doubt the McDonald’s oatmeal is actually a good choice because because they always seem to add something unnecessary to mess it up! And he summed that up in better words than I could!
Nothing makes me happier than an organized, not overly crowded fridge and a lunch filled with variety and color!
Happy Oatmeal: The mrbreakfast.com web page has a recipe for homemade Instant Oatmeal. I make it and keep it in the pantry to use when I am in a pinch for time. It keeps quite a long time and can be enhanced by raisins, etc. It is great to use when traveling by packing it away in a container. Just put some of the mix into the coffee carafe, run hot water through the coffee pot in the hotel room and instant delicious oatmeal!
Yum, I love the looks of your fruity lunch! Some days all I crave are piles of fresh fruit.
Lunch looks awesome! Made me smile to hear your fridge organization…mine is organized the same way!!
That lunch looks so fabulous. I’m such a fan of leftovers at lunch time!
Your website pictures look great.
Hi Kath!
I love your blog design, and I am sure your Great Harvest site will be amazing too! I’m currently in the process of getting a website up and running for my new job, and was wondering if you do all of the design work yourself? (I remember you posting about making the social media buttons) And if so, where do you host your site from?
Thanks so much!
Dana
Hey Dana,
I do do it all myself, but I am no expert! I figure out the little things as I go. I host with Dreamhost, who I like a lot.
I love the GH collage, and the delicious-looking fruit! While my fridge is essentially the opposite of yours, I do appreciate the pretty space.
You guys never cease to amaze me with your mile-coverage!! I am so impressed and I can’t even fathom how you do that, lol. Maybe one day I can be as good as you.
Awesome fruit fort! I love your photo collages!! How do you do those? Like Photoshop or something ?
Lightroom or Picasa
I love the photo selection for the GH website… can’t wait to see the finished product!
I love, love, love how simple and clean you eat! Your such an inspiration to so many of us, Kath! I still totally think your amazing photos and creations should be featured in Real Simple and Clean Eating
What a cute collage! Looks like everything is going well for the bakery so far.
Love your fruit dish! Sometimes, that’s all I crave.
GREAT HARVEST!!! YAY!
Hehe, love your Fruit Fort!
healthy platter
I love the Bittman article. I was lucky enough to hear Joan Gussow speak this past weekend at an organic farming convention. I highly recommend her book “This Organic Life” to you. I’ve been reading your blog for years and I think you would love it. It’s written as a story but teaches you how to live on your own backyard garden, buy local and is filled with yummy seasonal recipes. She considers herself a nutritional ecologist. Anyhow, now that I’ve blathered on promoting her, it was incredibly empowering and inspiring to hear her speak. Nice choice on opting out of the non local pork
I’d love to hear someone like her speak
I have been in a fresh fruits and veggies SLUMP lately! I think it’s probably because I need to go to the store, too! Thanks for a “refreshing” reminder of how GOOD they are and how much MORE I need to be eating them!
That lunch looks scrumptious! Especially the toast.
great workout, and lunch! Holy yum!
me likes the pic of you kissing the bread!