Super Bowl Feasts

There’s a lot of hoopla (that’s a technical term these days) going around about the Super Bowl right now. I admit it, I’m not much of a spectator when it comes to sports- never ask me if I know any names of players or even names of teams, because I guarantee you I will only disappoint. I love to be involved in playing sports, but watching them? Meh.

I’ll be watching the Super Bowl this year though. I really feel I ought to because it gets so much hype and I’m interested to try my hand at being a spectator. Also I have a couple major assignments due on Monday afternoon so distractions are obviously more than welcome.

A huge part of the whole thing is, of course, the socializing and eating aspect. What kind of event would it be without the food? But Super Bowl eats are traditionally high-fat, greasy, and contain about a week’s worth of calories even though it’s all snack food.

Fellow bloggers are rounding up some amazing recipes for Super Bowl celebrations, so I thought I’d join in the fun:

For a great dip for raw veggies, soft pita wedges, homemade crackers, or chips (I try to be healthy but I’m not naive!), try my Home-style Hummus. It’s tasty and quick to make, and it doesn’t call for any strange ingredients (I must confess I’ve never found tahini before. Don’t really know what it is. But it’s not in my hummus and my hummus doesn’t taste any different from other kinds of hummus, so I have come to the conclusion that tahini isn’t a necessary component of the dip, even if it is a common ingredient).

If you are willing to get away from the bags of chips, try baking some sweet potato fries! They are delicious (choose sweet potatoes over regular; the flavor is wonderful). You can also make some homemade ketchup* to go with it (and seriously, this ketchup is amazing. Gourmet ketchup):

Mix together 1 can tomato paste, 1/4 cup water, 1 1/2 tbsp sugar, 1/4-1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp cloves, and 1 1/2-  2 tbsp cider vinegar. Enjoy!

Want something a little sweeter? Make some vanilla ice cream or Obama Super Bowl cake!

While I’m not a huge light beer fan, Fat Fighter TV has a list of the best tasting low-cal beers. For peanut butter lovers, check out Peanut Butter Boy’s creations (including chili, 7-layer Mexican bean dip, and nachos!). If you want a classy menu already made up for you, then check out the Swiss-chard artichoke dip and more at The Kitchen Sink. Hungry Girl has a lightened-up nacho cheese dip, as well as a recipe for cheesy portabella skins with bacon.

I’m feeling the link love today.

Share any favorite recipes or suggestions you have for a healthy weekend in the comments!

*adapted from Tosca Reno’s recipe in The Eat-Clean Diet for Family and Kids

Eat Your Veggies!

Eating lots of vegetables isn’t a big problem for me in the summer months. There’s so much variety that munching on them raw or having gloriously huge salads is a delight. But come winter? Forget about the veggies, I’m all about the grains.

Between oatmeal, popcorn, and grilled sandwiches, I get more grains than is necessary. I love bread. Present me with a warm biscuit or scone and I’m your girl. Hot buttered toast, plates of steaming pasta, quinoa with chickpeas and lots of spices… you get the idea. Grain overload.

Grains make for a fantastic comfort food. They also seem to make you warmer. If I eat lots of grains in one day, I’ll feel about 10 lbs heavier. Just a couple servings and I swear I’m swimsuit ready.

So the big challenge in these cold winter months is how to not eat my body weight in grains and how to eat enough vegetables to prevent me from getting scurvy. Remembering that I’m not exactly the most accomplished cook (that’s code for I’m usually lazy and can’t be bothered to make fancy dishes plus good quality vegetables are damn expensive this time of year), I’ve got to find easy ways to get in my vegetables.

Right now, I have a huge thing for massive bags of frozen mixed vegetables- the kind with sliced carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. Throw a pile of them onto the steamer and 10 minutes later you’ve got them on a plate. Grind lots of black pepper on top and sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on there and voila! Hot veggies.

The frittata I made is another great way to get in some extra vegetables. The key with this one is to let the spinach get really small in the pan and shrivel up, and then throw handfuls more on it. I made a bigger one for me and my sister last week and we put in an entire 1/2 bag of spinach in there- it shrinks down to nothing!

Use a George Foreman to grill vegetables that are starting to wilt in your fridge. This is a good one for asparagus- I always intend to make elaborate prosciutto-wrapped asparagus or similar but somehow never get around to it. But they taste great grilled and it takes all of about 2 minutes.

I’m terrible at making stirfry, but that’s another good way to get in lots of vegetables. You can also mix up a whole bunch of veggies in a pan with some quinoa, or just pile them on when you’re cooking pasta. Rather than top your acorn squash with butter and sugar, mash it up in a bowl and mix in some other cooked vegetables too (save yourself the sugar and fat!). Load on the vegetables on your sandwiches, eat your peanut butter with celery rather than bread, and throw in a ton of vegetables in your soups and stews.

Also remember that corn is a grain, not a vegetable. For some reason we tend to think of it as a vegetable. And if you’re looking for a pasta alternative, try some Tofu Shiritake Noodles! I had them just once (found them at a specialty store); it was only $2.50 for a package and they tasted great with Laughing Cow light cheese and smoked salmon. I need to restock my fridge with a few more packages because I was really impressed with those noodles and I bet they’d taste great with lots of vegetables. If the idea of tofu scares you, just remember that pasta is bland and doesn’t taste like anything anyway- when we eat it, we’re eating it for the creamy sauces and other toppings we put on it. You’re not going to notice the difference.

And you? What’s your favorite ways to get in some vegetables in the winter (especially if they don’t have much flavor this time of year)? Got any good tips for not eating grains for breakfast lunch and dinner? Share them in the comments!

Book Review: “The World Is Fat” by Barry Popkin

I was excited to recently receive a package of books from Penguin Group to review, among them Barry Popkin’s The World Is Fat: The fads, trends, policies, and products that are fattening the human race. The subject of the book is one which I personally find incredibly intriguing, as it discusses the universal issues of health which we are all forced to face in today’s society. The author Barry Popkin is a renowned expert in this field of study; he has conducted research studies all across the globe and has been published in a variety of reputable newspapers and magazines. He is also the director of the UNC Interdisciplinary Obesity Center. Upon learning this information about the author, I had high expectations for this book- and much to my delight, he far exceeded those expectations.

The World Is Fat follows four families and studies their varying lifestyles and the consequences of their health choices. Popkin is diverse in choosing the four families to follow; the Jones family lives in American suburbia, the Garcia family are small-town Mexican immigrants who moved to the American suburbs, the Desai family demonstrate farm life in India during the 1960′s-1980′s, and the Patel family are a present-day family living in a similar area to the Desai’s. Popkin relates to us his own experiences growing up as well, contrasting his childhood in the 1950′s to the lifestyles of children today. In comparing lifestyles that we think would be vastly different, we realize just how detrimental global health really is, and the alarming rate at which our habits spread from one country to the next. Even 50 years of so-called “progress” with the rise of convenience technology has dramatically influenced our lifestyles and harmed our health.

Throughout the book, Popkin illustrates his statistics and history of the food industry with anecdotal evidence of the four families and way in which they live. He refers to a number of long-term studies which he has been involved in and looks at how we got to be the way that we are today. In a fascinating past-present-future blend of the evolution of our perception of health, he makes the reader aware of just how many aspects there are to explain how the world became “fat”.

It was a surprise to see the ways in which Western attitudes of food and exercise have crossed borders and found their way into even the lifestyles of Indian farmers. Convenience and quick fixes seem to be the norm across the globe, and as Popkin observes, we are even seeing obesity trends in the poorest neighborhoods and countries. He explores the increasing rates of overweight children and adults all over the world, identifying “more than 18 countries [in which] over half the population is overweight or obese” (107).

This book closes with a chapter on what we- as both a society and as individuals- can do to try to reverse the damage that has been done to our health. Popkin is not afraid to tell it like it is; you won’t see any coddling or acceptance of feeble excuses here as he points out the bare facts. That being said, he also inspires hope with his suggestions for how we can change. He is candid in his opinions, and also (this is the part that I really liked), in his own personal biases. He presents his opinion with the research and reasons to back him up, then acknowledges other factors for why he thinks in such a way and considers how realistic the changes that we can make are. Popkin concludes that we are quite capable of making drastic changes:

“Actions such as taxing soft drinks, which are unthinkable today, will become doable in three to five years. No one would ever have believed that smoking could be barred from restaurants, or that restaurants would be required to eliminate the use of trans fats. Time, persistence, and, most of all, a bold vision of a better, healthier future are necessary for a successful outcome” (171).

In this same section, Barry Popkin examines the strategies that the United Nations and World Health Organization are employing. We are also informed that the Scandinavian counties, Cuba, and Mexico are all leading the way towards creating healthier habits; a good example for the rest of us (particularly in the Western world) to follow.

Written by an expert who clearly has a firm understanding of heath issues to date, The World Is Fat is designed for the general population to read, learn, enjoy, and progress toward a healthier future. It is interesting and informative at the same time, and I can assure you that you will not be bogged down by numbers or an academic style. Far from dry, I found that it was difficult to put Popkin’s book down. The style is engaging no matter what your current understanding of health issues is at.

For information on how to create healthier habits for the whole family as well as to learn about the history of health (including all parts of our lifestyle: medical, activity levels, nutrition, the food industry and the role of political issues such as war), check out Barry Popkin’s website www.theworldisfat.org. This book also provides an excellent Sources and References section and is highly recommended by other respectable authors and researchers such as Marion Nestle and Brian Wansink.

Interested in a chance to win a copy of The World is Fat? Check out this week’s giveaway at Every Gym’s Nightmare!

Ba(rac)king an Obama Cake!

I wish I could take the credit for coining that term, but “Ba(rac)king” is all Bag Lady!

Cammy was lamenting that I had no cake recipe when I was guest chef. So I figured that the inauguration was the perfect time to try out one of the recipes from my grandmother’s recipe book.

It’s called a Johnny Cake, but we decided to name this one an Obama cake! I chose this one because it’s quite healthy for a cake- I actually didn’t change anything in this recipe (that’s a first:)). Really, it’s more cornbread than cake, but that’s why you need to eat it warm from the oven drizzled with maple syrup. Mmmm.

Johnny/Obama Cake

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup cornmeal

1 egg, slightly beaten

2/3 cup milk (I used 1%)

1/2 cup melted butter

Directions

1. Spray an 8-inch square pan with cooking spray. Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Mix and sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into large mixing bowl. Stir in cornmeal.

2. To beaten egg, add milk and melted butter. Pour all at once into dry ingredients. Stir with a fork only until all ingredients are dampened. Spread batter in prepared pan. Bake in hot oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown in color.

3. Serve hot from the oven. Cut in large squares- really good with fresh maple syrup.

I popped the cake in for 20 minutes but my oven is so hot that it was already turning a darker brown. Managed to whip it out quick though before it burned. Because it’s so crumbly and delicate, we had to flip it upside down out of the pan.

The top was prettier, though, so we flipped it again so it was right side up.

The top crumbled and broke off when we flipped it. Ah well.

This was tasty and everyone who tried it really enjoyed it. A huge success! It tastes just like cornbread if you eat it cold and with nothing else on it, but it’s really delicious when you eat it hot out of the oven (or heated up in the microwave the next day) with some maple syrup or honey. Of course, I had to taste the batter (isn’t that the best part about baking?), and it was like having a spoonful of butter. Yummy.

Managing Time

I’m currently taking an evening class on Monday’s called Issues in Health. While it’s an interesting class, after working all morning and then being in class all afternoon, it’s exhausting to have that three hour class at the end of the day! It’s also difficult to plan and fit everything in that I need to do. My eating patterns are especially hard to manage, with trying to take enough snacks to school to keep me fueled up until I get home at 8:30pm. So I found it especially useful when our discussion last class was about stress and time management.

Although the ways to manage stress and time are all pretty common sense, it doesn’t hurt to take another look at them and to think about how we can manage our lives just a little bit more efficiently. So I thought I’d share with you part of the lecture; 10 Tips to Organize Your Time, straight from my notes:

1. Plan. I like making lists. Lots and lots of lists. And to write everything in my day planner, including mundane tasks like “do laundry”.

2. Concentrate- don’t take on too many things at the same time. I’m constantly multi-tasking. But I think it might sometimes have an affect on the quality of my work, so I’m going to try to focus on one thing at a time from now on.

3. Take breaks. I like this one

5. Don’t be a perfectionist- strive for excellence rather than perfection. This one’s a big one for most of us, I think! Just apply it to food or exercise and you’ve got the health blogging community right there.

6. Don’t hesitate to say NO. It’s liberating!

7. Don’t procrastinate. I don’t know if I can strike out procrastination from my list

8. Use radical surgery- axe everything that doesn’t give you a feeling of accomplishment/satisfaction. Suddenly my list of things to do is so much shorter…

9. Delegate- don’t try to do it all yourself. Have fun being bossy. Don’t go overboard. You will not be well-received.

10. Don’t be a workaholic. Work can be addictive. Very guilty of this one. Enjoy yourself and step away from the work for a little while!

Share your tips/thoughts in the comments!

Life Lessons: Skating and Sugar

Skater’s High

It really warmed up considerably this past weekend, which led to me participating in one of my favorite winter activities: ice skating! Here in Winnipeg we’ve become “famous” for our exceptionally long skating trail on the river, and I’m fortunate enough to live right on the river. There’s a bridge less than five minutes walking distance from my door in which a small shack is set up to leave your boots as you go out skating. It’s perfect.

I went skating on Saturday, enjoying the scenery and the company of all of the people (apparently tens of thousands of people were there that day!), for a good hour and fifteen minutes. The weather was beautiful again yesterday so I strapped on the skates and hit the ice once more. This time, I made the whole route in less than an hour.

We are all capable of much more than we think. The people out on the river are at all levels of skill; some have all the equipment and really know what they are doing, and others have clearly never put on skates in their life. My winter sport growing up was cross country skiing, and it wasn’t until a couple years ago that I started skating nearly every day in the winter months. I didn’t even know how to skate until my friend taught me once in high school. After that, I was on my own.

I have no idea how to put on the brakes. Nor can I skate backwards. In fact, most of those 8 year old hockey kids can skate circles around me. But I love it, I can keep my balance, and if the difference in speed between Saturday and Sunday is any indicator, I can skate pretty fast when I want to. And that is the result of one lesson years ago and then self-teaching from there. If you enjoy something and put the effort in to learn, setting your mind to it, you can accomplish so much.

Sugar Struggles

I have been struggling with the sugar addiction (I know you can all relate!), so on Friday I decided to go the whole day with no added sugars. Coincidentally, there was also a national no-sugar day set for Friday or something, so it worked out quite well! My biggest challenge was not having peanut butter. The all-natural peanut butter that I eat, PB2, has added sugar to it, so I was determined not to have any on Friday (I generally eat way too much of it on a daily basis). And I got through the day just fine. Had lots of fruit for the sugar kick and a handful of raisins because dried fruit works wonders if you’re trying to cut out added sugar, and I didn’t have any cravings. It was very successful. I’d like to go a week with no added sugar, though that’s going to be difficult, considering there’s sugar in everything from bread to cans of corn… I’ll have to do a considerable amount of prep before I issue that challenge for myself

Learning Contentment

It wasn’t until I was out on the ice by myself with big fat snowflakes falling that I began to think about all this and remember why it is that I live here. I’m sure that if (I refuse to say “when”!) the deepfreeze returns, I’ll promptly forget why I live in this part of the world, but for now I am at ease and content. When you can enjoy the outdoors and see the progress you’re making, it’s difficult to not be happy!

Food Trends

Because we can’t just live and eat these days- nope, everything has to be trendy.

It’s cropping up everywhere now. The “new fad diet” is to not diet! It’s to eat local and real and whole foods. While I’m super happy that this is coming to the foreground and there’s a lot of interest in the concept of eating natural foods, the way that it is being discussed in much of the media concerns me. Grouping it with other trendy ways of eating implies that in a short while, the interest is going to die down and another fad diet will come along to steal the spotlight.

It’s irksome.

Anyway, I still found this article, the Top 10 Foodie Trends for 2009, to be pretty cute. The items on the list include such radical ideas as using crockpots, cooking from scratch, eating locally, reading the nutrition information, and trying out exotic cuisines from around the globe. It makes me feel uncomfortably trendy.

And a shout-out to food bloggers! According to this article you guys are the way of the future when it comes to food (but in the blogging community we already knew about that! And I’m not being facetious here. To name just a couple, I adore the heaps of recipes found every day at Biggest Diabetic Loser and the gourmet-style dishes/photos over at Choos & Chews).

What don’t I like that’s on the list? “FrankenFood”, or any processed food that has been vitamin/mineral infused or enhanced with nutrients. Those waters that have got your day’s supply of vitamin x y and z, the cereal bars that have 20g of fiber (and double the amount of sugar), the frozen meals that are “good for you” because they are loaded with protein. To me, FrankenFood undermines the notion of eating healthy with real food.

However, “Food Philanthropy” makes this list as the way that we are putting in the effort to help out those who are malnourished and in serious need of healthy eats. I was thinking about this one in particular a lot yesterday when I received a letter from World Vision. In essence, the letter pointed out the following:

- 60 million children are severely malnourished

- a child who is acutely malnourished is up to 20 times more likely to die than a child with a healthy diet

- another 86 million children are underweight

If you donate even just $40 to World Vision (and the World Food Programme) before February 9th, that donation will be tripled to feed and save the lives of children in Africa.

…I suppose that if we are giving more to starving children around the world and building awareness about these issues, then foodie trends aren’t so silly, after all.

Guest Chef

Today I am guest blogging for MizFit- go check it out for a tasty split pea soup recipe!

Documenting Eating Disorders

Last night I watched the first part of the film Thin, a documentary following several women struggling with anorexia. They are all being treated for it but each of them has varying degrees of wanting to get better.

As someone who has never been anorexic nor had such an extreme case of disordered eating, it was really shocking. Even after hearing about some of your own anecdotes of eating disorders and having read a fair amount about the issue, it’s not the same as seeing it “documented”.

Several parts of the film really stood out. Like the way that at the treatment center, only one napkin was allowed per person at mealtimes to ensure no one hid any food. And the way one woman said how she attempted suicide after eating 2 pieces of pizza. One girl started calorie counting at age 11. Even at the treatment facility, you can see that there is an underlying competition to be the thinnest person there, to be the most ill. There was one woman who tried to keep her calories under 200 a day (when the average person requires somewhere around 2,000), and another who joined the air force for the sole purpose to lose weight.

Your heart goes out to them, that this is what has become of our society, this is what has become of our obsession with food and our twisted view of “beauty”. A young teen in the film relates a fond memory of how she and her mum would chew and spit together- their shared eating disorders created a bond between them. Really thinking about it, about how half the world is starving because there’s not enough food and the other half of the world is starving themselves on purpose, it doesn’t seem to make sense. But as noted in the film, and as most of us can attest to, any sort of disordered eating after all isn’t about the food. We in the first world just have the luxury of choosing food as our outlet, as the object to control.

The documentary showed one woman’s birthday at the treatment center. She was given a cupcake and had to eat it. At first they were all joking and laughing, but then when she started to eat, her discomfort and anxiety became more and more apparent. Afterward, she was crying.

This documentary was moving. And eye-opening. It was also disturbing. It explains a lot about the disordered eater’s mind, however, and is useful for understanding it in that sense. And that’s the reason for documenting this or any issue, right? To raise awareness and increase our understanding of it so that we can prevent it from happening, can try to help each other.

At the same time, I wonder how many people have become disordered eaters because of films like this. Does increasing awareness of these issues also increase the potential for the issue itself to be spread? How often are these mediums abused by the viewers? It’s a worrisome thought, but I believe that we do need to have mediums such as this because the awareness and understanding is a crucial part to helping to solve the issues.

“I used to have a personality”

What are your thoughts on this?

Recipe: Sagan’s Fantastic Frittata

Along with my pedometer, I also got a few other goodies last weekend…

an oil mister and an elephant teapot!

This is my first ever teapot. Isn’t it the cutest? The oil mister is basically a spray bottle contraption. Pour the oil (I like olive oil) into the bottle, pump it a few times, and then spray the pan. No need for using lots of unnecessary added fats when cooking anymore!

Now that I’ve been experimenting with my pedometer and have fallen in love with it, and have been using my wonderful little teapot and have found it to be more than satisfactory, I figured it was about time I tried out the oil mister. And, while I was at it, I might as well make a recipe I’ve never made before. My great and exciting experiment? Frittata!

I make a really good poached egg. I’m decent at cooking eggy-in-the-basket and scrambled eggs are almost difficult to screw up. But an omelet? That’s one of the many recipes that is beyond my cookery skills. Whenever I’ve attempted it in the past and tried to flip the darn thing, it just falls apart. So I’ve given up on omelets.

But frittatas are a little different (a very little different). And I’d never tried one before. It’s about time I got on that. I scoured the Internet and my cookbooks for frittata recipes and have since learned that a frittata is actually very similar to a Spanish tortilla- I’m going to have to try to make one of those next!

Surprisingly enough, my cooking went by without a hitch. That’s got to be a first! Certainly reason to celebrate. Last night, however, the stir fry that I was making didn’t cook quite so smoothly. The sauce was a little on the vinegar-tasting side and the broccoli and chicken burned a touch (“lightly charred”), and I probably should have sliced the carrots rather than chop them in big chunks (mmm, crunchy!), and there was only about 1/8 cup of noodles for each myself and the other cook in the kitchen, but other than that it still tasted pretty good! It was rather pitiful, though, because a stir fry has got to be the easiest meal in the world to make, and we had no idea what we were doing. And this was with a lady who can whip up pies and canneloni and make an entire Christmas dinner like nobody’s business!

Anyway, I’m sure you’re all very interested in the recipe for how to make a frittata:

Sagan’s Fantastic Frittata Recipe

This is what I cobbled together from what I had in the fridge:

- 1 cup egg whites (no, don’t throw out the yolks- I used Simply Egg Whites, the stuff that comes in a carton. 1 cup is the equivalent of 8 egg whites or 4 whole eggs. Check that the only ingredient listed is egg whites)

- Shredded cheddar cheese (just grated a bunch. Maybe 1/4-1/3 cup?)

- Chopped green and red pepper

- 1 chopped tomato

- handful spinach (tear it up so its in slightly smaller pieces)

- black pepper

- basil

- oregano

Directions:

1. Spray a pan with olive oil in a mister. Throw in the red and green pepper and move it around for a couple minutes (over medium heat). Add the tomato and spinach and stir it every so often with a spatula.

2. Meanwhile,whisk the egg whites in a bowl with the cheese, black pepper, basil, and oregano. Try to make it frothy so that air is added to make the eggs fluffier.

3. When the spinach starts to shrivel and get smaller, pour the egg mixture over top and swirl the pan a bit so it gets evenly distributed.

Let it sit and when it the top starts to set, slide the spatula around the edge of the pan to let the runny part get to the bottom.

4. After it has become quite firm, cover the pan with a lid and flip your frittata. Slide it back into the pan so that it is flipped upside down. Continue to slide the spatula around the edge every minute or so until the frittata is firm- it should “not be runny, nor should it be bone dry”.

And you have your very own frittata! Depending on how much and what type of cheese you use, this entire frittata can be under 200 calories. It’s healthy, it’s tasty, it’s filling, and it’s easy. That’s how I like my recipes.

A couple notes…

You’ll want to be patient. I think my problem with past attempts to make omelets is that I cook it on too high a heat. Keep it at medium heat and don’t get discouraged. Grate yourself some more cheese to munch on if you’re really starving. Better yet, chop up some extra veggies!

Also, it’s a good idea to use a lid without a lip. Even though several of the recipes I found warned me not to use a lid with a lip, that was all I had. When I slid the fritatta back into the pan, Some of the runny eggs got caught in the lip so I had to lift up part of my fritatta and pour the eggs underneath. Not very classy, but it worked!

About the egg whites: depending on how long you’ve been reading this blog for, you may already know my position on eggs, but for the newcomers (*waves*), I like whole eggs very much. Could rave about them all day long if I had the chance. But everything in moderation, so when it comes to baking or other cookery in which the yolk won’t be missed, I prefer to just use the egg whites. I get in enough whole eggs otherwise that I don’t need to eat a bunch extra when I won’t even be able to really appreciate them. So feel free to replace the egg whites with whole eggs if you don’t eat a ton of them, just remember that the calorie content (but also the nutrient content!) will be a little higher. And it’s probably not wise to eat the whole frittata in one sitting if you’re using whole eggs because 4 eggs is a little much for one person in one day!

Some day I should probably learn how to cook real meals… but until then, I’m happy to experiment and learn the basics:)