Pimp My Oatmeal

We're turning plain oatmeal into a Tada! this week. If we add more variety then we'll eat more of it, right?

Today I put some sliced bananas while cooking the oatmeal. I added more bananas and crunchy granola on top, too. That and a warm cup of black tea made for a really satisfying breakfast!

Be Good to Your Heart

It's Valentine's Day on Saturday and I thought an appropriate theme for this week would be "Hearts". Now I'm taking that very literally to encourage everyone to turn blah eating into Tada! eating so that we're able to take good care of our hearts. One heart-healthy food is oatmeal and I must admit sometimes it's a blah to prepare or blah to eat -- I don't get excited if it's dry and pasty-looking.

When I prepare my oatmeal, I like using old fashioned oats. Compared to instant oatmeal, it takes a little longer to cook (about 15 minutes) but definitely faster than steel cut Irish oatmeal, which takes 30 minutes. I use more liquid than necessary (maybe an extra 1/2 cup) so it doesn't end up too dry. I allow the liquid (water, 2% milk or soy milk) to simmer, then add in the oats. Then my favorite part -- the fixin's! One of my favorites is fresh fruit, depending on what I have in my fridge. I include some of the fruit as the oatmeal cooks and leave some as toppings. Today I used peaches & blueberries:

The fruit adds sweetness, flavor & texture and what a Tada! breakfast that makes!

CAN-struction

We dedicated this week to recycling aluminum cans and I can't end the week without telling you about a TADA! exhibit I went to last December at New York City's World Financial Center. It's called Canstruction, a world-wide competition for a cause. A bunch of talented architects, engineers and contractors competed against each other to build larger-than-life structures using cans of food. Anyone can build a tower using cans, but can anyone build a peace sign like the one in the photo above? It's called "Give Peace a CAN-ce" that's made of 3000 cans of fruit.

See this symbolic sculpture called "Erase Hunger"? That's the goal of the design and construction industry when they established Canstruction. It's a volunteer effort to raise public awareness and collect donations for food banks [and you know the food banks really need it during these tough economic times]. Visitors were encouraged to bring a can of food. Even school children carried a can of food as their ticket to the field trip. It was so cute! At the end of the New York competition, all the food was donated to City Harvest.

I'm a big fan of Snoopy so I was easily drawn to this one called "Dog-gone eCANomic crisis". There were other cartoon characters like Mr. Potato Head, as well as Wall-E and Eve.

This one is called " CANda Hunger End?" which is a play on words of can & panda. The team who built this highlights the hunger crisis and a panda's crisis of poaching and a threatened habitat due to deforestation. It won the "Best Meal " Award for the use of healthy cans of food like tuna, organic soup and brown rice.

"Up, up and Buffet" takes you on a magical hot air balloon ride! It's made of 3,060 cans and the team specifically selected red, white & blue cans that symbolize the American CAN DO spirit.

This one is called "American Dream" and if you'll look closely, it's Michael Phelps' head [wearing goggles & swim cap] in a pool. He's getting a bad rap these days for irresponsibly taking marijuana...blah to that! But he'll best be remembered for winning 8 gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The architects who made this consciously chose tuna & salmon cans because Phelps is like a fish and these are healthy food.

The Seafarer won the "Structural Ingenuity" Award. The photo might not show it very well but it's like the sail is blowing in the wind. It uses 3,000 cans of tuna & chicken and the architects describe it as "Sailing into the New York harbor to unload a galley full of nutritious food at the docks of City Harvest."

There are just 7 out of the 40 structures that were on display, expressing the statement: MAKING A DIFFERENCE. CHANGING THE WORLD. ONE CAN.

Terrific Tins

One of the things that makes me smile during the holidays are store shelves stocked with decorative tin cans. I must admit I am usually attracted to the packaging more than the food it contains. What's not to love? No need to wrap them when given as gifts. They're colorful and last long after the food is consumed. Through the years, I've found good use for them -- an M&M's tin was turned into a sewing box; a cookie tin held my letter-writing supplies like scented stationery and a rainbow of pens; a hot chocolate mix tin kept my secret stash of dark chocolate...well, so much for the secret part.

Today's blah is a tall Christmas tin which was home to a family of pistachios. Spaghetti noodles have now moved in and they re-decorated using sticker labels & sticker dots. Fettuccine and Bucatini noodles will be moving in soon. I believe many TADA! parties are in order.

Cookie Cutter

Cans come in handy when your inner Jamie Oliver hollers. Shape unbaked cookies or biscuits, even without a cookie cutter, using a small can (ex. tomato sauce can). Make uniformly-shaped hamburger patties using a can (ex. tuna can). Make bread rounds for canapes for your next party or circle sandwiches for your toddler using a can. You know how they present food in fancy restaurants, where salads or appetizers are stacked like a tower? You can do that, too, using a tall can as a mold and removing the can just before serving.

Save those cans! Remove the lids at both ends with a can opener, clean & dry them well and tada! -- you've got a multipurpose kitchen tool without having to spend a buck!

Here's another tada! -- you get to eat after all that work in the kitchen!

A Cute CAN-tainer

Cans with covers are one of the easiest blahs to turn into tadas!. It takes just two easy steps:

STEP 1: Clean the can by wiping the inside with a dry paper towel, making sure to get all the oil & bits of food that may be left inside. A shaking of baking soda can help absorb any food smells. Tap out the baking soda and run a paper towel through the inside again. Don't forget to thoroughly clean the lid either with a paper towel (if it's made of aluminum) or soap & water (if it's made of plastic).

STEP 2: Dress up the can! I like to use sheets of gift wrap or scrapbook paper. I cut it it to size, big enough to wrap around the body with a little overlap and I stick it on using non-toxic glue. Scraps of fabric or stickers are other playful options.

This cool collection of cans keep cookies, biscuits and granola fresh for days as long as they are air-tight. Use them to package food gifts like homemade candies, mixed nuts and Japanese crackers for the holidays. They're very handy to hold snacks for the home & office, too!

Yes we CAN!

During his campaign, President Obama's battle cry was "Yes We Can"...and he did! He made history & is now the poster-boy for captured dreams. A happy and healthy Mother Earth? YES WE CAN! And this week at blah to TADA! we'll take that all too literally by breathing new life into aluminum cans. Just clean them with soap & water and dry them well. If you have an uber-cute label, leave it on and turn the can into a flower vase. Use cans in different sizes and labels, add some freshly-picked flowers to liven up a casual dining table, outdoor seating area or window sill.

Now wouldn't something like this brighten your day?