Okay, so it’s technically not summer yet! BUT, this new water bottle I’ve started toting around makes me SO excited for its arrival!

Here’s the back story on my discovery of the Define Bottle….. A few months back, I started poking around on the Internet for recipes and ideas for fruit infused water. You know, the kind of “fancy” water you get at a spa or upscale restaurant with berries in it or cucumber and mint (or, if you like to keep things SUPER simple, drop a lemon wedge in H20 and bam, infused water!). I am a HUGE water drinker but sometimes it’s nice to try something new, right? In looking for recipes, I came across the Define Bottle’s website and thought its design was just gorgeous (and I loved the originality of the idea)! So I mentioned in a recent Odds & Ends post about how I’d put myself on a waiting list for the bottle and was excited for its product launch.

Fast forward a few days and I get an email out of the blue from the bottle’s creator, Carter. And you guys, get this: CARTER IS FOURTEEN YEARS OLD!!!! (I had NO idea, as I hadn’t gotten around to reading the About section of his website). Carter wanted to know if I’d like one of the bottles to review. I wrote him back an email filled with a lot of exclamation points, saying of course I would (!!!) and that I was in awe of his budding efforts as a entrepreneur.  I mean, when I was 14, I was spending my weekends watching Clueless marathons, you know? Here Carter is, the creator of this awesome bottle with incredible branding and a wonderful mission to make people healthier.

So, do I like the bottle? ABSOLUTELY! I’ve been using it the past week and while I’ve just been stocking its bottom with some wedges of lime and lemon I wanted to use up in our refrigerator, I look forward to trying out more of Carter’s recipes for fruit infused water. Peaches and cream water? YUM! The bottle is long and skinny, so it fits best in my over-sized totes and purses (or Dean’s diaper bag). It also fits perfectly in my car’s cup holder (which is nice because my Camelbak steel canteen doesn’t). The bottom has a freezing element to it, so it keeps the refills of water I add to it throughout the day nice and super cold!

And I have to add one last element to this story: In corresponding with Carter, I exchanged a few emails with his mother, Carla. (Carla, I hope you don’t mind me sharing!) Here’s what she had to say about her son: Carter is a fun kid.  He came to us with this idea and my husband and I looked at each other and said”hmmm this is a good idea”…..Carter actually started this project when he was only thirteen and has done a great job. For Carter, it is a mission to live a healthier life and to help fight childhood obesity by getting kids off juice and soda. He has had the opportunity to meet President Clinton and Michelle Obama for his efforts. 

Everyone I know right now is posting pictures on Instagram of food concoctions that comply with their Paleo or gluten-free diet. In the Werner house, that’s far from us right now. Yes, we want to eat healthy too. But right now, Dean’s arrival into our family means we’re in a season of life where mealtime is all about quick, easy, nutritious homemade meals.

Enter the good ‘ol slow cooker. Or, to borrow a page from my mama’s lingo, the good ‘ol crock-pot (coincidentally, I “borrowed” one of her crock-pots 10 years ago and today it’s still the one sitting on my kitchen counter). I cannot begin to tell you the number of days since I’ve been back to work where my brain has meandered to that 4 o’clock “Oh-crap-what-am-I-making-for-dinner-tonight” zone, only to sigh in relief, remembering “That’s right, you put a meal in the crock-pot this morning, didn’t you?”

The crock-pot is one of those perfect accompaniments for cooking in a season of life when one feels frazzled by everything. But also, it’s perfect for cooking in this particular season. As in, wintertime. Come summer, it’ll be back to burgers and chicken on the grill and salads with fresh produce. But winter is the time when a pot roast that’s been simmering all day, its meat so tender it literally falls apart on your fork, is exactly what you’re craving. So I thought I’d share a bit more about some of my favorite crock-pot recipes. I hope you give these a try — they couldn’t be easier and the small amount of prepwork is worth it to come home from a long day of work to a meal that’s ready for you as soon as you kick your heels off!

In searching for crock-pot recipes earlier this year, I came across Six Sisters’ Stuff. Oh my gosh, these women are AMAZING. I purchased both their Slow Cooker and 5-Easy Ingredient recipe books and we’ve really enjoyed nearly every dish I’ve made from them both. (Our top picks include the pulled pork, Hawaiian chicken, Swiss chicken, beef stew and beef enchiladas). Our FAVORITE recipe has to be for their pot roast. I’ve excerpted that recipe below but seriously, buy their cookbook. It’s SO worth it!

FALL APART POT ROAST

Ingredients:

2-3 lb. boneless beef chuck or rump roast
1/4 cup flour
1 onion, sliced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 (1 oz) package dry beef gravy mix
1 (1 oz) package dry Ranch dressing mix
1 (1 oz) package dry Italian dressing mix
1/2 cup water (or more if you want your gravy to be thicker)
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 (16 oz) package baby carrots (you can use less, I just love carrots)
4 potatoes, cubed

Directions:
Spray slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Spread onions on bottom of slow cooker. Sprinkle flour over work surface. Sprinkle salt and pepper on the roast and roll in the flour so all sides are coated. Place roast in the slow cooker. Mix together beef gravy mix, ranch dressing mix, Italian dressing mix and water until smooth. Pour over the pot roast. Distribute carrots and potatoes around the roast and pour Worcestershire sauce on top. Cook the roast on low for 8-10 hours. Slice the roast and pour gravy (it should thicken up while it cooks) over it. Serve with carrots and potatoes on the side.

And I thought I’d also share my Aunt Pat’s recipe for the most AMAZING slow cooker lasagna. I know, you’re probably thinking, LASAGNA in the crock-pot? But seriously, this is the BEST lasagna I’ve ever had! I won’t be making it any other way now!

CROCK-POT LASAGNA

Ingredients:

1 lb. cottage cheese
1 lb. mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 lb. hamburger
1 medium onion, chopped
2 15 oz. cans of tomato sauce
1 3 oz. can of tomato paste
2 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. salt

Directions: Mix the first three (cheese) ingredients in one bowl. Brown the hamburger and onion in a saucepan and then add the remaining ingredients to make the meat sauce. Layer meat sauce on bottom of crock-pot, then add a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles (break to fit crock-pot), another layer of meat sauce, a layer of the cheese mixture, then another layer of uncooked lasagna noodles. Repeat this layering (noodles, meat, cheese) until you’ve reached the top of the crackpot or all your ingredients are gone. Cook on low for 5 hours.

“As a culture, we’ve become upset by the tobacco companies advertising to children, but we sit idly by while the food companies do the very same thing. And we could make a claim that the toll taken on the public health by a poor diet rivals that taken by tobacco.”

 I spotted this article last week in the New York Times Magazine and told myself to make time to read it. So glad I did. I finished the piece (an excerpt from this book added to my GoodReads list) furious. We all know junk food is bad for us. What Michael Moss, investigative reporter for the Times, discovers is just how we—as a nation—have been duped by companies engineering our ADDICTION to the stuff. From soda to potato chips, it’s not your fault you can’t stop at just one sip or one crunch. They’ve spent billions of dollars creating it that way.

Moss talks to more than 300 people in or formerly employed by the processed-food industry, including scientists, marketers and food engineers. Of course I was aware of how manipulative this industry is. I just didn’t know the extent to which nearly everything on the grocery shelf has been designed — thanks to salt, sugar and fat — to get us hooked.

In a section about Prego spaghetti sauce — a sauce we’ve bought hundreds of times, falling for its “Heart Healthy” labeling and convenience factor — Moss writes:  Many of the Prego sauces — whether cheesy, chunky or light — have one feature in common: The largest ingredient, after tomatoes, is sugar. A mere half-cup of Prego Traditional, for instance, has the equivalent of more than two teaspoons of sugar, as much as two-plus Oreo cookies. It also delivers one-third of the sodium recommended for a majority of American adults for an entire day.

So I guess I’ve been eating the equivalent of half a row of Oreos every time I make spaghetti at home. Are you serious?! (But, as Moss points out in this Amazon interview, reading nutrition labels is no longer easy. So I’m not the only one!)

Reading this article reminds me I can do better. I can start making my own pasta sauce (thanks Annie for the recipe!). Same with salad dressings (vinaigrettes are easy to whip up, so why do I keep buying the stuff in the bottle?). And surely my lunch time sandwich can go without a side of potato chips (which are, in Moss’ words, engineered to be “the perfect addictive food”.)

I wonder if and when our nation’s relationship with food might change. Will government regulation wind up playing a role the way it did with Big Tobacco? Will our grandkids look back 50 years from now at the way our society ingests Big Gulps like water and cringe to the extent we look back at the ’50s and ’60s love affair with cigarettes? Gosh, I hope so.

In the meantime, it’s journalism like this that reminds me of the small changes I can take to make a difference. To watch out for those health claims in the grocery store aisles. And in the words of Michael Pollen, if you can’t say it, don’t eat it.

Photo credit: Grant Cornett for the New York Times