Place garlic, lemon zest, 1 1/4 cups heavy cream, 1 1/4 cups low-sodium vegetable or chicken broth, 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper in a large skillet. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring to combine. Add 20 ounces refrigerated or frozen cheese tortellini (it will be halfway submerged in the sauce). Cook, stirring frequently to prevent the tortellini from sticking, until tender and warmed through, about 6 minutes for refrigerated tortellini or 10 minutes for frozen tortellini.
These homemade bird feeders are a great way to give your local wild birds a real treat. You can make a bird feeder at any time of year, but it’s particularly important to support wild birds in winter.
Why homemade bird feeders are great for feeding wild birds in winter
Winter is a tough time of year for wild birds, as natural food sources such as insects and berries are scarce. Also, birds need lots of energy-rich food to maintain fat reserves, which are called upon most when temperatures drop in colder months.
Providing a winter food source (such as a winter bird feeder) for birds is not just a perfect way to help your local wildlife. Encouraging a lot of birds to visit your garden will supply you with plenty of interest during the cold winter months.
How do you make a simple bird feeder?
You can buy a wide variety of *bird foodand *fat balls to keep your feathered friends happy, but making your own homemade bird feeders is simple to do. It’s also a lovely activity to get kids of all ages involved with.
How to make homemade bird feeders
Here’s how to make easy bird feeders with lard or other solid fats.
Homemade bird feeder recipe
You will need
Lard, suet or solid vegetable fat (this last option is great for vegetarian-friendly feeders)
Homemade bird seed mix. Wild *bird food, oats, breadcrumbs, sultanas, currants, unsalted peanuts (you don’t need all of these, a mixture of any is fine)
Empty, clean paper cups or yoghurt pots
String
Easy DIY bird feeder instructions
To make your own bird feeders, start by mixing your dry ingredients in a bowl. We’ve found that a ratio of about 2 parts dry to 1 part fat/suet works well.
Melt the lard or suet in a saucepan, then add it to your dry ingredients and stir until everything is well mixed. Supervise children very carefully while doing this. I let mine do some mixing, but handle the heating and pouring myself to avoid any risk of burns.
How to stop leaks!
Once your ingredients are well-mixed, leave them to cool a little while you prepare your paper cups. This will make the mixture safer to handle, but will also mean you get less leakage.
Cut a 40cm length of string. Use a pencil to make a small hole in the bottom of each paper cup, and thread the string through. Leave about 10cm on the outside of the cup, and about 20cm on the inside of the cup.
Tie a double knot in the string at the base of the cup, on the outside. It’s a good idea to put a small circle of cardboard with a hole in the centre at the bottom before tying the knot, this will help stop the feeder slipping off the string.
Fill the cup with your food mixture, making sure to pack it down quite tightly. Try to keep the string in the middle of the cup.
Once you’ve filled all your cups, pop them on a plate or cookie sheet and put them in the fridge to set. This can take quite a while; we usually leave our bird feeders overnight.
Hanging your handmade bird feeders in the garden
When the mixture is set, you can cut away the cup to remove the bird feeder. This can be a bit fiddly, so it’s best left to the adults and older children. Have some kitchen roll handy too, you’ll get quite greasy!
The knotted string is at the bottom of the feeder. Use the string at the other end to hang it up outdoors.
Remember to position your homemade bird feeders where you can see them from the house, and out of the reach of cats.
Fun things to do after you’ve made your DIY bird feeders
Here are some questions you might like to explore with the kids once your homemade bird feeders are in position.
Could you do some bird watching and keep a diary of the different birds who visit your homemade feeder?
What time of day are your feeders most popular? Why do you think this is?
Do particular types of bird visit at the same time each day? Can you think about why this might happen?
How long does it take for your own DIY bird feeder to disappear?
If you hang more than one feeder in the garden, is one more popular than the others? Why might this be?
These are all a fun way to help kids learn about their local wildlife, and encourage them to stay engaged with the garden all year round.
More ideas for easy homemade garden bird feeders
Looking for more ideas for bird feeders? Here are some great variations on homemade wild bird feeders.
Fun shaped garden bird feeders
You can use the same fat and bird seed mixture to make homemade bird feeders in fun shapes too. Large shaped cookie cutters and hollowed out orange halves are perfect for this; check out my easy DIY bird feeder for kids post for full instructions on this great project.
Easy drinks bottle DIY bird feeder for kids – make a bird feeder out of a bottle
This easy way to make your own bird feeder with waste household items is so much fun. Empty plastic bottles or (empty plastic milk jugs) and old wooden spoons or a wooden dowel are great for making bird feeders with dry bird seed.
Simply make small holes in opposite sides of the bottles or plastic containers, push a thin dowel or wooden spoon through, pop the lid back on, fill with bird seed, and use a piece of twine to hang the feeder up.
Wild bird feeders made from pumpkins
Pumpkins and squash make great bird seed feeders. We made this hanging bird feeder from half a hollowed-out pumpkin, sticks and string; my pumpkin bird feeder post has a step-by-step guide to this great craft. Birds will love to eat the pumpkin as well as the bird food.
You could also use large oranges, grapefruits or coconuts for your bird food holder instead of a pumpkin. You could even grow sunflowers and use the seed heads to feed backyard birds.
Pine cone bird feeders
You can make a simple bird feeder with a pine cone – so quick and easy!
This video shows you how to make pinecone bird feeders with peanut butter, but you can also use vegetable fat or lard if a peanut butter bird feeder isn’t an option due to peanut allergies.
Simple upcycled bird feeders for small birds
This is another easy bird feeder crafts idea – perfect for a rainy day. Just use an old plate or saucer to make a homemade bird feeder:
How long do homemade bird feeders last?
The answer to this question depends very much on how many birds there are visiting your garden. In our experience, a homemade fat ball feeder is always demolished in a matter of days – much more quickly than shop-bought ones. Our local birds clearly think they taste better!
You may also find that once you start providing homemade bird feeders, more and more bird species will visit your garden. I think they must be spreading the word that there are rich pickings on offer 😉
More nature inspired craft and play ideas
Making a simple bird feeder diy is just one of the fun nature projects in my book *‘A Year of Nature Craft and Play’. There’s a nature play activity for every week of the year and it includes fun crafts, gardening, nature games, art and science experiments – perfect for inspiring kids to get creative with nature and explore the amazing natural world. You might like to take a look at my other book *‘A Year of Nature Walks and Games’ too.
GOP guvs decry welfare and childhood obesity, tell lazy kids to “stay hungry” for success.
Fifteen Republican governors have said no to participating in a federally funded food assistance program, telling lazy kids to “stay hungry” for success. The program was passed on a bipartisan basis by Congress in 2022 and is designed to provide money ($120 per child) for food purchases during the summer, when children are on break and unable to receive free lunches at school.
Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture. Photo: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Public Domain.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said $2.5 billion was allocated in service to 21 million children. Governors gave various reasons for their states’ non-participation.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R), reached at the governor’s mansion in Oklahoma City, where he was having dinner with his wife, Mary, and their nine children, was cutting into a T-bone steak. “Oklahoma has adequate resources,” he said around a mouthful of medium-rare steak, “and I’m completely satisfied.” He suggested that parents of “so-called hungry kids” plant “victory gardens, like they did in WWII.”
One of the problems with food availability in the summer months is that of access. According to Prof. Mary Tupper, of Harvard University, just one in six in-need families can obtain food resources due to transportation problems. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), reached on the campaign trail in Lobotomie, IA, said that he’s investigating a program whereby bicycles, with large baskets on the handlebars, will be leased to in-need Floridians for a moderate fee. “This service will NOT be available to transgenders,” the governor noted sharply.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R), put forth by some as a likely running mate for the Florida governor, decried “Childhood obesity.” With a shudder she remarked that she’d do nothing to create “ten thousand more fat little Black children” in her state. She added that there weren’t enough “restrictions on food purchases,” and suggested that some parents used food vouchers to obtain “beer, whiskey, lottery tickets, and even cannabis.” Besides, she said, Iowa “is full of restaurants that just throw out perfectly good food every day; it’s up to the parents to be innovative in procuring food for their families.”
Florida, Georgia, S. Carolina and Wyoming have, in addition to denying increased food assistance, opted out of the Medicaid expansion as well. Noted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R. GA): “It’s them George Soros Jews behind all this. They’s trying to replace real Americans with fat Black and brown kids!”
Katie Bergh, a senior policy analyst at a Washington-based research and policy institute, said that pilot programs have shown that this program makes kids healthier and less hungry. It provides more fruits and fresh vegetables for the dinner table. Snarled Rep. Greene: “Vegetables are overrated and I say we have nothing to do with fruits!”
Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen said simply that he “doesn’t believe in welfare.” When questioned on instances of “corporate welfare” in his state as well as aid to millionaire farmers, he grinned and cackled, “Ya got me!” before calling security to order the press from the executive mansion.
Bill Tope is a retired (caseworker, cook, construction worker, nude model for art classes, and so on) who lives with his mean little cat Baby.
Roast until just beginning to soften, 12 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, grate 6 ounces mozzarella cheese on the large holes of a box grater (about 1 1/2 cups). Finely grate 1 ounce Parmesan cheese (about 1/2 cup firmly packed) on the smallest holes of the box grater, or measure out 1/3 cup store-bought grated.
As negotiations on border security legislation happen in Congress, Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., took to the House floor to decry the increase of immigrants into the U.S.
During his speech Dec. 1, 2023, Grothman expressed contempt for ways foreign nationals and their children are illegally getting into and living in America.
When listing legal ways migrants can become U.S. citizens, Grothman pivoted and said citizenship is incorrectly granted to their children born in America.
“That’s not including children who are born here to parents who are not (legal) immigrants because right now our government, wrongly, is saying if you’re born in this country you’re automatically an American citizen,” Grothman said.
Grothman didn’t respond to our inquiry seeking clarification and backup for the claim, which is known as “birthright citizenship.” But his statement aligns with that of some other conservatives, who argue birthright citizenship does not apply to children of people living in the country illegally.
Let’s consider the conditions of citizenship for those born in America.
The 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship
The most common path toward citizenship is by being born in the U.S. or U.S. territory.
This is laid out in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
In layman’s terms, it means anyone born on U.S. soil is automatically a citizen.
A number of Republicans have argued that because undocumented immigrants are not legally in the country, they should not fall under the 14th Amendment’s protections. Critics have pointed to the “subject to the jurisdiction” language in the clause, arguing this means only children of legal residents are natural-born citizens.
However, two Supreme Court cases argue citizenship is given to children of undocumented immigrants.
In its 1898 U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark case, the Supreme Court decided birthright citizenship applies to children of foreigners present on American soil regardless of their parent’s immigration status. The high court listed the only exceptions to birthright citizenship could be if the child’s parents are diplomatic representatives or enemies during a hostile occupation of a U.S. territory.
This provides a direct contrast to Grothman’s claim and many GOP arguments that birthright citizenship wouldn’t apply to children of migrants.
The issue came up again in the Supreme Court’s 1982 Plyler v. Doe case over a Texas education law that allowed the state to withhold education funds for educating the children of undocumented immigrants. In that case, the court reasoned undocumented immigrants are people “in any ordinary sense of the term” and are consequently afforded 14th Amendment protections and threw out the GOP jurisdiction argument.
Because of the Ark and Plyler cases, former President Donald Trump and others, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have vowed to end the birthright citizenship practice via methods of executive order or constitutional amendments.
Our ruling
Grothman claimed “our government, wrongly, is saying if you’re born in this country you’re automatically an American citizen.”
Grothman said it in the context of the immigration debate, suggesting birthright citizenship does not apply to children of migrants born in the U.S.
The Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil and an 1898 Supreme Court case held that citizenship is given regardless of the origin of one’s parents.
A daycare centre in the Mandurah CBD has been engulfed in flames just minutes after it closed on Wednesday evening.
A fire was reported just after 6pm at the Playtime Early Learning Centre on Davey Street as the flames quickly burnt through the inside of the building.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The emergency began with a bang three miles above Oregon.
The first six minutes of Friday’s Alaska Airlines flight 1282 from Portland to Southern California’s Ontario International Airport had been routine, the Boeing 737 Max 9 about halfway to its cruising altitude and traveling at more than 400 mph.
As the plane climbed, the cabin’s air pressure steadily increased, a normal occurrence in comparison to the rapidly thinning air outside. The plane’s four flight attendants and 171 passengers sat strapped in their seats, nearly filling its 178-passenger capacity.
Then boom.
A 2-foot-by-4-foot piece of fuselage covering an unoperational emergency exit behind the left wing blew out. The force of the cabin air being sucked outside in a deafening rush twisted the metal bracing holding the seats next to the hole and ripped off their headrests — which by fate, were two of the few unoccupied seats.
The near-vacuum also ripped open the locked cockpit door, sucked away the pilots’ one-page emergency checklist and pulled off the co-pilot’s headset. More than a dozen other seats, some far from the hole, were damaged by the force. Some passengers had their cellphones ripped from their hands and sucked out. Passengers said one teenager had his shirt ripped off. Dust filled the cabin.
Kelly Bartlett was seated in row 23 — three rows in front of the blowout — and said the captain had just told passengers they could use their devices again when she heard a loud explosion and the cabin filled with cold air and rushing wind. At first she didn’t know what happened.
“The oxygen mask dropped immediately,” she told the AP on Monday. “You know what happens if the oxygen mask comes down? You put it on. And no one ever thinks they’re going to have to use that advice and follow those instructions.”
She next saw a flight attendant walking down the aisle toward the affected row, leaning forward as if facing a stiff wind. Then flight attendants began moving passengers from the row where the blowout occurred and helped them move away. One, a teenage boy, was moved to the seat next to Bartlett. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, she said, and his skin was red. He had some cuts on his body.
“His shirt got sucked off of his body when the panel blew out because of the pressure, and it was his seatbelt that kept him in his seat and saved his life. And there he was next to me,” she said, adding that his mother was reseated elsewhere.
“We had our masks on, and the plane was really loud so we couldn’t talk. But I had a … notes app on my phone that I was typing on. So I typed to him and I asked him if he was hurt,” Bartlett said. “I just couldn’t believe he was sitting there and what he must have gone through, what he must have been feeling at the time.”
The pilots and flight attendants have not made public statements and their names have not been released, but in interviews with National Transportation Safety Board investigators they described how their training kicked in. The pilots focused on getting the plane quickly back to Portland and the flight attendants on keeping the passengers safe, and as calm as possible.
“The actions of the flight crew were really incredible,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at a Sunday night news conference. She described the scene inside the cabin during those first seconds as “chaos, very loud between the air and everything going on around them and it was very violent.”
Bartlett echoed that praise, saying the entire time she felt like the plane was under control even though the roaring wind was so loud she couldn’t hear the captain’s announcements.
“The flight attendants really responded well to the situation. They got everyone safe and then they got themselves safe,” she said. “And then there was nothing to do but wait, right? We were just on our way down and it was just a normal descent. It felt normal.”
Inside the cockpit, the pilot and co-pilot donned their oxygen masks and opened their microphone, but “communication was a serious issue” between them and the flight attendants because of the noise, Homendy said. The pilots retrieved an emergency handbook kept secure next to the captain’s seat.
The co-pilot contacted air traffic controllers, declaring an emergency and saying the plane needed to immediately descend to 10,000 feet, the altitude where there is enough oxygen for everyone onboard to breathe.
’We need to turn back to Portland,” she said in a calm voice that she maintained throughout the landing process.
In the cabin, the flight attendants’ immediate focus was on the five unaccompanied minors in their care and the three infants being carried on their parents’ laps.
“Were they safe? Were they secure? Did they have their seat belts on or their lap belts on? And did they have their masks on? And they did,” Homendy said.
Some passengers began sending messages on social media to loved ones. One young woman said on TikTok that she was certain the plane would nosedive at any second and she wondered how her death would affect her mother, worrying that she would never recover from the sorrow.
But she and others said the cabin remained surprisingly calm. One passenger, Evan Granger, who was sitting in front of the blowout, told NBC News that his “focus in that moment was just breathe into the oxygen mask and trust that the flight crew will do everything they can to keep us safe.”
“I didn’t want to look back and see what was happening,” he said.
The pilots circled the plane back to Portland. Video taken by passengers showed flight attendants moving down the aisle checking on passengers. City lights could be seen through the hole flickering past.
Smith told reporters the descent and landing were loud but smooth. When the plane touched down at Portland International about 20 minutes after it departed, the passengers broke into applause. Firefighters came down the aisle to check for injuries, but no one was seriously hurt.
“There were so many things that had to go right in order for all of us to survive,” Granger told NBC.
Homendy said that if the blowout had happened a few minutes later, after the plane reached cruising altitude, the accident might have become a tragedy.
On Sunday, a passenger’s cellphone that had been sucked out of the plane was found. It was still operational, having survived its three-mile plunge.
It was open to the owner’s baggage claim receipt.
___
Spencer reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. AP videographer Manuel Valdes in Seattle contributed to this report.
Rachel Perlmutter is a recipe developer, food stylist, and culinary producer at The Kitchn. Originally from Houston, Texas, she spends her free time trying to perfect kolaches and breakfast tacos that taste like home. Rachel currently lives in Brooklyn with her partner, dog, cat and rabbit, where they all share a love of seasonal local produce.
Making beef stew doesn’t get any easier than this recipe. Instead of browning the beef to build flavor, we’re relying on a trusty set of ingredients — namely tomato paste and Worcestershire sauce — to give this stew a deep and comforting flavor. Here are the simple steps to take to make this dump-and-cook dinner.
The sugar industry responds to evidence implicating sweeteners in the obesity epidemic.
In terms of excess body fat, the “well-documented obesity epidemic may merely be the tip of the overfat iceberg.” It’s been estimated that 91 percent of adults—nine out of ten of us—and 69 percent of children in the United States are overfat, a condition defined as having “excess body fat sufficient to impair health.” This can occur even in individuals who are “normal-weight and non-obese, often due to excess abdominal fat.” The way to tell if you’re overfat is if your waist circumference is more than half your height. What’s causing this epidemic? As I discuss in my video Does Sugar Lead to Weight Gain?, one primary cause may be all the added sugars we’re eating.
A century ago, sugar was heralded as one of the cheapest forms of calories in the diet. Just ten cents’ worth of sugar could furnish thousands of calories. Dr. Fredrick Stare, “Harvard’s sugar-pushing nutritionist,” bristled at the term “empty calories,” writing that the calories in sugar were “not empty but full of energy”—in other words, full of calories, which we are now getting too much of. The excess bodyweight of the U.S. population corresponds to about a daily 350- to 500-calorie excess on average. So, “to revert the obesity epidemic,” that’s how many calories we have to reduce, but which calories should we cut? As you can see below and at 1:33 in my video, the majority of Americans who fail to meet the Dietary Guidelines’ sugar limit get about that many calories in added sugars every day: Twenty-five teaspoons’ worth of added sugars is about 400 calories.
There are die-hard sugar defenders. James Rippe, for example, was reportedly paid $40,000 a month by the high fructose corn syrup industry—and that was on top of the $10 million it paid for his research. Even Dr. Rippe considers it “undisputable that sugars…contribute to obesity. It is also undisputable that sugar reduction…should be part of any weight loss program.” And, of all sources of calories to limit, since sugar is just empty calories and contains no essential nutrients, “reducing sugar consumption is obviously the place to start.” And, again, this is what the researchers funded by the likes of Dr. Pepper and Coca-Cola are saying. The primary author of “Dietary Sugar and Body Weight: Have We Reached a Crisis in the Epidemic of Obesity and Diabetes?…,” Richard Kahn, is infamous for his defense of the American Beverage Association—the soda industry—and he was the chief science officer at the American Diabetes Association when it signed a million-dollar sponsorship deal with the world’s largest candy company. “Maybe the American Diabetes Association should rename itself the American Junk Food Association,” said the director of a consumer advocacy group. What do you expect from an organization that was started with drug industry funding?
The bottom line is that “randomised controlled trials show that increasing sugars intake increases energy [calorie] intake” and “increasing sugar intake leads to body weight gain in adults, and…sugar reduction leads to body weight loss in children.” For example, when researchers randomized individuals to either increase or decrease their intake of table sugar, the added sugar group gained about three and a half pounds over ten weeks, whereas the reduced sugar group lost about two and a half pounds. A systematic review and meta-analysis of all such ad libitum diet studies—real-life studies where sugar levels were changed but people could otherwise eat whatever they wanted—found that reduced intake of dietary sugars resulted in a decrease in body weight, whereas “increased sugars intake was associated with a comparable weight increase.” The researchers found that, “considering the rapid weight gain that occurs after an increased intake of sugars, it seems reasonable to conclude that advice relating to sugars intake is a relevant component of a strategy to reduce the high risk of overweight and obesity in most countries.” That is, it’s reasonable to advise people to cut down on their sugar consumption.
Findings from observational studies have been “more ambiguous,” though, with an association found between obesity and intake of sweetened beverages, but failing to show consistent correlations with consumption of sugary foods. Most such studies rely on self-reported data, however, and “it is likely that this has introduced bias, especially as underreporting of diet has been found to be more prevalent among obese people and it is sugar-rich foods that are most commonly underreported.” However, one can measure trace sucrose levels in the urine, which gives an objective measure of actual sugar intake and also excludes contributions from other sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup. When researchers did this, they discovered that, indeed, sugar intake is not only associated with greater odds of obesity and greater waist circumference on a snapshot-in-time cross-sectional basis, but that was also seen in a prospective cohort study over time. “Using urinary sucrose as the measure of sucrose intake,” researchers found that “participants in the highest v. the lowest quintile [fifth] for sucrose intake had 54% greater risk of being overweight or obese.”
“Denying evidence that sugars are harmful to health has always been at the heart of the sugar industry’s defense.” But when the evidence is undeniable, like the link between sugar and cavities, it switches from denial to deflection, like trying to pull attention away from restricting intake to coming up with some kind of “vaccine against tooth decay.” We seem to have reached a similar point with obesity, with the likes of the Sugar Bureau switching from denial to deflection by commissioning research suggesting that obese individuals would not benefit from losing weight, a stance contradicted by hundreds of studies across four continents involving more than ten million participants.
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If you’re looking for a simple side dish that works with practically every main dish, let me suggest roasted broccoli. Perfectly roasted broccoli is crisp-tender with super-flavorful caramelized bits that you’d swear were seasoned with more than just salt and pepper. The secret to serving broccoli that you want to eat every single week starts even before you slide it into the oven. Here’s how to do it.
Key Ingredients in Roasted Broccoli
How to Roast Broccoli in 3 Easy Steps
Do You Need to Wash Broccoli Before Roasting?
Produce — including broccoli — should always be washed under running water before preparation. This removes any dirt or bacteria that may be present on the broccoli from harvest, storage, or preparation.
Is Roasted Broccoli Better than Boiled?
Is Roasted Broccoli Good for You?
Roasting broccoli is a great way to keep the nutrients inside the vegetable (and not in the cooking water as can happen with boiled or blanched vegetables). Broccoli is an excellent source of vitamins C, K, and A and minerals like potassium, calcium, and iron. It is packed with antioxidants, a good source of dietary fiber, and is relatively low in carbohydrates with 4.5g of carbs per 100 grams.
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
My absolute favorite smoothies to sip are super creamy ones packed with big fruit flavor. It also helps that they’re really pretty. This classic strawberry banana smoothie checks all those boxes: It has the prettiest bright pink color, is bursting with the sweetness of strawberries and bananas, and is just creamy enough thanks to the addition of whatever milk you have in your fridge. Best of all, you only need three ingredients and five minutes to make it.
Key Ingredients in a Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Do You Need to Put Ice in a Smoothie?
You don’t need ice in a smoothie. Instead, go for frozen fruit. It adds more flavor, keeps the smoothie from tasting watery, and gives the drink that signature icy consistency.
How to Make a Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Strawberry Banana Smoothie Variations
This creamy smoothie is absolutely delicious as-is, but there are also quite a few variations, whether you want to add a boost of protein, squeeze some greens into your day, or just give it a fun twist.
WASHINGTON — Sen. John Fetterman acknowledges having “dark conversations” about harming himself before he hit “the emergency brake” and sought treatment for depression.
He remembers thinking about his three school-age kids. “I can’t be a blueprint for my children. I can’t let them be left alone or not to understand why he would have done that,” the first-term Pennsylvania Democrat told NBC’s “Meet the Press” in a deeply personal and introspective interview taped before the broadcast that aired Sunday.
So he checked himself into Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, last Feb. 15. “There was nowhere else to go,” he said, describing how he often felt during his stay that “there wasn’t any hope sometimes and like, ‘What do I have left?’”
He also wondered whether he would survive politically.
“When it got released where I was and where it was going, it was a big story. And so, I had assumed that that would be the end of my career,” he said.
When he sought treatment for clinical depression, Fetterman was still coping with the effects of the stroke he had in May 2022, during his campaign for one of the Senate’s most contested seats. “My heart technically stopped, and it was a very touch-and-go situation,” said Fetterman, 54. A pacemaker was implanted with a defibrillator to manage two heart conditions, atrial fibrillation and cardiomyopathy.
His victory over Republican Mehmet Oz had helped Democrats keep control of the Senate and made him a national figure. It was the height of his political career. But he couldn’t make it out of bed at his home in Braddock, in western Pennsylvania.
“I really scared my kids, and they thought, ’You won, Dad. Why aren’t we enough? Why are you still so sad? Why are you even more sad?’ And it was hard for — to explain why I was. And, of course, a 9-year-old child wouldn’t understand that. And it was awful,” Fetterman said.
So much so that he said he “pleaded not to go down to D.C.” later that November for orientation sessions in Washington for newly elected lawmakers.
His favorite holiday was nearing, yet he was unable to think about getting Christmas presents for his children and “dreading” his swearing in on Capitol Hill early in the new year.
Within two months, he was at Walter Reed. Aides had described the new senator as being withdrawn and uninterested in eating, discussing work or the usual banter with staff.
“This is a conversation that I’ve had with myself and anybody that knows they’re unable to address their depression, is they start to have dark conversations with themself about self-harm,” Fetterman said. “And things continued to kind of tick off the list. And then I kind of hit the emergency brake.”
He added, “I knew I needed help.”
Before checking into Walter Reed, Fetterman had never publicly discussed his battle with depression. He has since said that he has experienced it on and off throughout his life.
He left Walter Reed at the end of March after six weeks of inpatient treatment with his depression “in remission,” according to a statement from his office.
Doctors describe “remission” as when a patient responds to treatment so that they have returned to normal social function and they are indistinguishable from someone who has never had depression.
Fetterman has since become a visible presence in the Capitol, bantering with reporters, joking with Senate colleagues and speaking up at Senate hearings.
To others who are now “facing a really dark holiday time,” Fetterman offered this guidance: “I know that last year’s was desolate. And this year’s might be desolate. Next year’s can be the best ever. And that’s what happened for me.”
Flip the salmon and cook for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant but not browned, about 15 seconds. Pour the sauce over the salmon. Cook, spooning some of the sauce over salmon as it cooks, until the sauce is thickened and reduced by about half, and the salmon is just cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. An instant-read thermometer into the center of the thickest fillet should register 120°F to 130°F for medium-rare, or 135°F to 145°F for more well-done. Garnish with thinly sliced scallions if desired.
Newswise — WASHINGTON—The Endocrine Society, the world’s oldest and largest professional medical society devoted to the study and treatment of hormone-related conditions, applauds Governor Mike Dewine’s veto of a proposed Ohio law that would have banned gender-affirming care for minors. The bill he vetoed contradicts mainstream medical practice and scientific evidence and would have taken medical decision-making out of the hands of families and their physicians and instead relied upon government officials.
More than 2,000 scientific studies have examined aspects of gender-affirming care since 1975, including more than 260 studies cited in the Endocrine Society’s Clinical Practice Guideline.
Major medical and scientific organizations including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics are in alignment with the Endocrine Society on the importance of gender-affirming care.
In June, the Endocrine Society worked with other medical societies in American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates to pass a resolution with overwhelming support to protect access to evidence-based gender-affirming care for transgender and gender-diverse individuals. In the resolution, the AMA committed to opposing any criminal and legal penalties against patients seeking gender-affirming care, family members or guardians who support them in seeking medical care, and health care facilities and clinicians who provide gender-affirming care.
Pediatric gender-affirming care is designed to take a conservative approach. When young children experience feelings that their gender identity does not match the sex recorded at birth, the first course of action is to support the child in exploring their gender identity and to provide mental health support, as needed.
Medical intervention is reserved for older adolescents and adults, with treatment plans tailored to the individual and designed to maximize the time teenagers and their families have to make decisions about their transitions.
As Governor DeWine noted, only a small number of Ohio’s children would be impacted by the proposed legislation, but it would have profound and even life-threatening consequences for those affected by gender dysphoria. Around 300,000 teenagers ages 13-17 in the United States, or 1.4% of the population, identify as transgender, according to the Williams Institute. An estimated 4,780 adolescents with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria started puberty-delaying medication between 2017 and 2021, according to an analysis performed by Komodo Health Inc for Reuters.
Gender-affirming care can be life saving for a population with high suicide rates. For example, a 2020 study analyzed survey data from 89 transgender adults who had access to puberty-delaying medication while adolescents and data from more than 3,400 transgender adults who did not. The study found that those who received puberty-delaying hormone treatment had lower likelihood of lifetime suicidal ideation than those who wanted puberty-delaying treatment but did not receive it, even after adjusting for demographic variables and level of family support. Approximately nine in ten transgender adults who wanted puberty-delaying treatment, but did not receive it, reported lifetime suicidal ideation.
Medical decisions should be made by patients, their relatives and health care providers, not politicians.
Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.
The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endocrine.org. Follow us on Twitter at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.
Another year, another chance to bang your head against the wall, with good reason—and with Reason. Here are 10 incidents from 2023 that will alarm everyone who supports the free-range kids movement.
Unspecified danger in Aisle 4: The University of Michigan surveyed parents of children ages 9–11 and found that half wouldn’t even let their kids go to another aisle at the store without them. Letting them out of sight for even a few moments seemed unthinkably dangerous.
Generation Unease-Z: “Gen Z perceives more dangers in life than previous generations.” That was the finding of a study presented at the 2023 Society for Risk Analysis conference. (What danger lurks in the next aisle?)
Potty crashers: Students in several Oklahoma elementary and middle schools are now required to sit with their parents at all times during high school football games. In one district, the kids must also have an adult take them to the bathroom. No word on whether they’re allowed to self-wipe.
D.C.’s one-child policy: One child per swing, that is. A playground sign in suburban D.C. listed 22 rules, including these: Children must swing in an “upright position,” and there is to be no “loitering” on the slide. As for the jungle gym, kids must not “skip rings or rungs.” Adult supervision required.
Not required? Fun.
Eek! A disproportionate reaction: Meanwhile, to the north, the town of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, shut down one of its playgrounds after a health hazard was discovered on the premises. The hazard? A mouse. No word on whether it was chasing a cat and wielding a mallet.
Sex panic: After a 5-year-old pulled down a 3-year-old’s pants in Poncha Springs, Colorado, two preschool workers were criminally charged for not reporting the incident quickly enough. In court, a defense attorney told the judge: “We are here because one preschooler pulled down another preschooler’s pants.”
More sex panic: Sociologist Emily Horowitz’s 2023 book, From Rage to Reason, chronicles what’s wrong with the sex offense registry, including the case of an 18-year-old who had consensual sex with a 16-year-old. After the 18-year-old landed on the registry, it was almost impossible for him to find a job—but finally, he obtained work in an office. A judge then sentenced him to six years in prison for working too close to children. (The office was near a school.)
Blame mom: Before Connecticut mom of five and part-time Uber driver Tabitha Frank left for her shift, she called her children’s father to come help her daughter, age 12, babysit. He said he would be right over, but then he fell asleep. While Frank was away, her 2-year-old accidentally fell out of a window and tragically died. The authorities decided that Frank hadn’t suffered enough and charged her with manslaughter.
Cops and donuts: Two suburban Connecticut parents let their kids, ages 7 and 9, walk to Dunkin’ Donuts. Police spotted the children and charged the parents with risk of injury to a minor. A few days later, they dropped the charges. But child protective services picked up the case and insisted the mom go to therapy. Who’s the crazy one?
How about just a tardy slip? A Chicago mom who was late to pick up her children from school four times last year got a letter saying she was under investigation by the Department of Children and Family Services. “My daughter rushed to the car and she’s like, ‘Mommy DCFS came to the school, and the lady made it sound like we weren’t going to come home with you today,’” said the mother. In Chicago’s Cook County, 60 percent of black kids are the subject of a child protective services investigation.
But it’s not all bad: There were many positive developments to celebrate this year as well. In 2023, four states passed “Reasonable Childhood Independence” laws: Virginia, Montana, Connecticut, and Illinois. These laws say that “neglect” occurs when parents put their children in serious, obvious danger—not anytime they take their eyes off them.
These states join Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado in becoming “Free-Range Parenting” states. With the help of Let Grow, the nonprofit I helm, the bills almost always have bipartisan sponsors, and they passed unanimously in four states.
In 2024, we’re hoping to prevail in Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Georgia, and the biggest kahuna of all: California. If you’d like to get involved, please visit LetGrow.org. And in the meantime, happy, criminal-charges-free holidays to all!
