Dinner and a Movie: Roll Bounce- The GAIA Health Blog

Some Healthy Food Fun: Dinner and a Movie
Roll Bounce

On the Menu: "Teen Cuisine" (Cheeseburgers, Fries, and Soda made healthy)
Video: Roll Bounce Trailer Making Quick "No Cook" Ketchup
Music: Music From The Roll Bounce Soundtrack

"Where we from? South Siiiiiiide !!"
--The Garden Boyz

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Roll Bounce is one of my favorite, "squeaky clean", rated triple "G", family fun movies that I like to watch when I don't need my brain working so hard.

Set in Chicago, one of the few movies, along with "Love Jones" and Gregory Hine's and Billy Crystal's "Running Scared", that gives that true "Chicago Feel". Roll Bounce is a "coming of age" personal classic of mine about group of kids who love to roller skate, coming of age in the 70's.

Ah yes, the 70's. That "ugly duckling" decade that everyone forgets, or perhaps blocks out of their minds, except those of us who came of age in it. That decade neatly tucked between the chaos of the the social unrest of the 60's, and the chaos of the AIDS and crack infested 80's. Even I can admit that arguably, the 70's produced absolutely nothing, no classic music (ala Donna Summer and KC and the Sunshine Band), no lasting car designs (ala Ford Pinto), no memorable fashion (ala Koolocks), no presidents worth remembering (ala Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter), it produced nothing, except us.......the generation that came of age in that forgotten decade.

"Roll Bounce", the movie, a true Chicago feel, from that big event, which was a trip up to Navy Pier, to that quaint neighborhood Marynook, conveniently tucked away on the South Side, whose cul-der-sac can only be found if you know where to look, to that greatest job in the world, the paperboy delivering Chicago Tribunes door to door........and of course, long before the trendy rollerblading...................... rollerskating.

Rollerskating!!! Those were the days. Growing up in the "steeltown", blue collar, South Suburb of Chicago Heights, the roller rink was where neighborhoods and towns settled their grudges. We used to show those rich brothers from Flossmoor and Olympia Fields how us Chicago Heights boys use to "Roll Bounce". BTW, I'm no longer hating on them, because I'm now trying to be one of those rich brothers living in Flossmoor or Olympia Fields.

Anyhoo, the stakes were very high, since the best male skaters got all the girls. Special shout out to this brotha we called "Skeeter", never knew his real name, he had some moves on wheels that would literally stop the whole skating rink, mouths open in amazement. The skating rink in Markham, Illinois was where everyone in the South Suburbs, converged and got down. Everyone wearing their high school colors like tame street gangs, it was a sight to see.

So far as eating is concerned, this "Dinner and a Movie", in celebration of that coming of age that we all go through, whatever decade, I'm gonna be preparing what I call "Teen Cuisine". Sorry adults, hope you weren't expecting the pan seared scallops, or the grilled Chilean sea bass, or the rack of lamb. We're about to get down on the age old favorite, cheeseburgers and fries. I'm telling you, I've cooked for teens at barbecues and such and it's so easy to trick them into eating healthy by just using quality ingredients.

No exaggeration when I say I literally had two kids coming to blows at a picnic over my last cheeseburger I had on the grill, since they ate me out of house and home of my entire supply. And on the serious side, with all the junk that teens consume, it might be the task of us grown-ups to show 'em how to get some quality food into the system, but still love what they eat. No problem.........let me show how I get down................

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"Teen Cuisine" (Cheeseburgers, Fries, and Soda made healthy)

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I'm never happy with store bought ketchup and BBQ sauces (they are main contributors to childhood obesity), but you can whip up a tasty ketchup without cooking

Quick "No Cook" Ketchup

1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp Onion Powder
1/2 tsp mustard powder

1/2 tsp Pink Himalayan Salt (Avoid Table Salt!!!!!!)
3 tsp apple cider or coconut vinegar
pinch of cloves
pinch of allspice

2 tbsp of organic raw brown sugar
or
2 tbsp (more or less to taste) of Soliga Honey or other quality such as Manuka

Jar of organic tomato paste (look for those in jars because cans are often still lined with toxic BPA)

Burgers

grass fed beef or pasture raised turkey (I'm no longer comfortable eating any beef other than grass fed beef)

Organic Romaine Lettuce
Organic Mustard, Organic Pickles
Optional Diced Apples

Pink Himalayan Salt and Organic Pepper
Grass Fed Cheese of choice (Kids like their cheese yellow, not off-white)

Quality Bread, My favorite is Sami's Bakery Millet and Flax Buns, although kids won't know it's healthy

Organic sliced tomato and onion, but it's best to not put these on the burgers in that kids often take them off, let them have the option of adding. We all were kids, the only thing kinds universally like, with a few exceptions are lettuce and pickles.

French Fries
Organic Potatoes

Organic Coconut Oil (AVOID CANOLA, WESSON, CRISCO, AND VEGETABLE OILS, OR THE WHOLE POINT OF HEALTHY EATING IS DEFEATED, THEY ARE POISON!!!!)

Pink Himalayan Salt (AVOID TABLE SALT!!!!!)

Everyone knows how to cook burgers and fries, so I don't think a video is needed. I like to add diced apples to a burger because they give it a pleasant sweet taste that can't immediately be identified when you bite into them. That trick works great with kids

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Izze Soda

I must admit I myself am addicted to Izze Sodas, and teens will love them. They contain none of the toxic high fructose corn surup and aspartame style sweeteners, just sparkling water and fruit juice. Even with that, I still have some precautions about them, but not enough to not drink them occasionally and serve them to others (It's against my policy to serve anyone what I consider "bad food").

I would like to know more about that thing on the label simply called "natural flavor", as well as I heard that even though some drinks may be labeled as containing real fruit juices, but I heard they can take those real fruit juices, strip off all the colors, add the colors back in, as well as some other mystery miscellaneous processing.

I must admit, I haven't dived into researching Izze as much as I should, perhaps because I'm somewhat addicted to them and don't want them to go on my ever growing lengthy "food blacklist". Plus, I average about 4 or 5 of them a month so I'm not as concerned as the things I consume everyday. I think it's healthy for healthy eaters to have one or two minor "guilty pleasures".

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Anybody who knows my blog knows it's a "feel good" blog stop, so I hope my little "social commentary" that I always do doesn't spoil the mood. But I write whatever comes to my head. Was just thinking that back in that era, in the 70's the worst thing that could happen if , say two teens got into a fight, was that you might get a black eye, and the "worse than death" torture of having to go to school and get laughed at. Now, altercations in Chicago end in gun battles with Glocks, or even AK47's and Uzi's and somebody ain't walking away. In the 70's, teenage pregnancy was there, but was the exception and not the norm.

Most fathers in my neighborhood seemed mad and frustrated all the time, which I understand now, about how they had to fight and struggle everyday in that blue collar world that was the Chicago South Suburbs in the 60's and 70's. However, at least most fathers in my hood were at home with the family, albeit frowning and mean all the time.

A fact I really didn't appreciate until well into my 20's, in that growing up with a father at home was reason to count yourself lucky. But, woe unto to the kid that stepped on the frustrated father's grass. Looking back on that decade, after the chaos that was the late 60's and before all the mega-chaos that came in the 80's, 90's, and the millennium, I suppose we really had it pretty easy growing up.................yup, to us, that forgettable "ugly duckling" decade was pretty easy sailing, just like sliding through time on roller skates...................... the best of times.

~stay healthy~