back to basics

If there’s ever a case for eating as few food products as possible, I think the peanut problems the US is going through right now makes the case. I know what you might be thinking, that there have been problems from produce as well…and to that I say that’s a good reason to buy local as much as you can!

Really, buying local, whether it’s produce or meat, is the best option you have. You have a chance to not only see where you food comes from, but to talk with the people who grow/raise it. And, it’s cheaper than you’d think.

Yes, if  you buy meat from a local farm (say 1/4 of a steer), your upfront payment is more, which means saving some money may be in order. But you’ll freeze everything, and in the end likely pay less per pound (or the equivalent) than if you’d bought all of that meat from the grocery store. Plus, you now know exactly what you’re getting, and there’s a lot less worry that your family will get sick.

And maybe it’s just my experience, but I’ve never heard of a salmonella or e. coli outbreak from food I’ve purchased from the farmer’s market. To really take advantage of seasonality, you could purchase a share in a CSA (community sponsored agriculture). You’ll get a weekly box of produce from a farm (some will allow you to add fresh eggs as well). You’ll have a chance to eat new foods, and you’ll really be eating seasonally based on what’s available…the way humans ate until about 100 years ago.

Don’t try to make all changes at once. I’ve been there, and it’s a little overwhelming. But, the more you try to buy foods from your area (or at least know the source), the better off your health will be, and the better for the world around you.

I’m sad. I looked at the ingredients list of my favorite blueberry scones (from Panera Bread), and they contain high fructose corn syrup, which means I can’t eat them anymore. Now, scones are not particularly difficult to make, but I did enjoy stopped for a scone every now and then.

Since my discovery, I’ve been thinking about whipping up a batch of scones. Instead of baking them all off this time, I’ll roll out the dough, cut the scones, and then freeze them. Freshly baked scones are the best, and it really only takes a little longer to bake frozen dough.

AND, now I know exactly what is going into my scones, and how much of it. I mean, the Panera scones had both sugar and high fructose corn syrup. I use about 2 tablespoons of sugar in the entire batch when I make them, so why do they need to use multiple types of sweeteners?

It’s really getting difficult to make any food choices, regardless of where you make your purchases. Unless you know the farmer who is growing or raising the food, it’s really tough to know what you’re getting.

It’s all rather depressing. I can’t help but wonder how much longer we are going to live like this. With the economy in the state that it’s in, many people struggle to purchase any food, let alone be in a position where they can search out healthy food.

I was remarkably headache-free during my two week challenge. The past two days I have consumed a few snacks from the natural foods aisle. You would think these wouldn’t be too bad for you. Whether it’s from the snacks, decreased sugar in my diet, or simply not drinking as much coffee yesterday (it tasted bitter) or today (weak), I have a headache that I can’t shake.

Now, it’s not an awful headache, I can still function. Then again, I’ve often been forced to function while having a migraine, so I suppose my threshold for pain when it comes to headaches is quite high.

What I can say is that I believe this will serve as a nice motivator to continue to try to make the best choices possible when it comes to the food I eat. That doesn’t mean I’ll never eat dessert, it means I need to continue the path of making my own desserts (so I know what’s in them) and most of my own food.

As my two week challenge draws to a close, I want to take a moment to think about what I’ve gotten from this experience. The most important aspect is that I really can make some quick meals, eat them without feeling rushed, and clean up the kitchen in an hour’s time. I think my problem to this point has been in feeling the need to create more extravagant meals when I cook; not necessarily things that are impressive, but definitely things that are time consuming.

Searching out some quick-cooking was important to this. The peeled and deveined frozen shrimp are now a freezer staple in my house. I’m able to make a 1 portion meal using this protein. Individually wrapped chicken breasts are also important. They store well in the freezer and are easy to thaw in water. One of these is about 2 portions for me, so they work great for utilizing leftovers in salads or sandwiches.

And yet…I’ve had some odd cravings near the end of the challenge. First there was the mad cheeseburger craving. Granted, it was late at night and I was getting hungry before bed, and our temperatures had been sub zero for days, so craving a grilled burger (a summer food) probably wasn’t all that strange. The following day, however, I wanted a hotdog with kraft macaroni and cheese. Talk about wanting processed food! Again, since I only eat hotdogs once or twice a year, and only eat them grilled, I’m guessing what I was really craving was summer.

No idea as to why I wanted macaroni and cheese out of the box, though. It’s not even a traditional comfort food for me, as I started eating that in college.

This challenge has definitely yielded some unforseen results. As my grill is covered in snow, I doubt I will be having any burgers anytime soon, but that’s okay. Because I could not feed my craving, I have realized I’m willing to wait for the real deal.

And that’s a good outcome of the challenge.

In an effort to get more “true” whole grains into my diet, I’ve been wanting to try wheatberries for awhile now. When I say true whole grains, I mean actually eating grains, not grains that have been ground or refined into flour. I don’t think they are all that “whole” anymore.

Basically, wheatberries are what are ground down into whole wheat flour. They are also delicious in their “before” capacity. All you have to do is cook them in simmering water for 45-60 minutes, then serve. I made this salad: http://cookingwithina.com/2009/01/16/wheatberry-salad/

It’s really quite delicious, and it’s better the longer it sits. I adore balsamic vinegar, and it really melds nicely with the fresh chopped vegetables in this salad. I think a scoop of this salad would be particularly lovely incorporated into a larger green salad, as well.

This salad is also great to make mid-way through the week when you’re trying to use up vegetables, cooked or raw - just chop them up and toss them in. Because the salad is best served at room temperature, I think it would be wonderful at picnics, though you may need a more adventurous croud to try it. I think I will take this to a family event to see how it’s received. My family is picky and from a meat and potatoes background, so it should be interesting!

I need to modify my challenge a little. This occurred to me last night as I was enjoying a wonderful sourdough from La Brea Bakery. I’m in the Midwest. La Brea is in California. Doh! I love their take and bake breads (you take the loaves home and finish baking for 10 minutes in your own oven), but I shouldn’t be buying a loaf of bread that was shipped halfway across the country. We have a local European bakery here that makes several very good breads, but the baked cookies and desserts are off-limits, as they often contain shortening. That’s fine, however, as I’m trying to limit my desserts to things I bake, anyway.

The only other part of my challenge that I want to modify is to take time to really sit back and enjoy my meals. This is difficult for me, as I don’t have an actual table. I have a breakfast bar and tv trays. The breakfast bar is fine for something like breakfast, but not so fine when I’ve cooked a big meal. It’s difficult to relax while eating when you’re staring at four different dirty pots and pans. The time may have come to rearrange my furniture to make room for a small table of sorts.

Finally, the other point from this book that I haven’t necessarily accomplished this week is to stick to a cultural rule of three meals per day, no snacks. I’ve done this before and have been quite successful with it. Meals are much more tasty than ever before, because you are actually hungry when you sit down to eat. It’s been well-documented that any food tastes better when you come to the table hungry.

Thus far today, I’ve been enjoying my coffee, but I need to prepare a small breakfast now. I have errands to run, but it’s very easy to procrastinate when the snow is falling outside my window. It’s beautiful to look at, but not necessarily to drive around in.

It’s only day two of my challenge, and I’m already having a great time with it. I decided to take it a step further today when I made my lunch, and I didn’t follow a recipe. Now, I’m a baker at heart, so cooking doesn’t come natural to me. It wasn’t until I became better at baking, at paying attention to the humidity in the air, the way a dough would absorb more flour some days, less on others, that I really started to become a better cook.

Cooking is about paying attention to the food. It’s also about experimenting. How does it taste if I combine X and Y in this way? What if I do it that way? I don’t have recipes for dishes like lasagna or chili, because I actually cook when I make them.

Today I experimented with pasta and frozen shrimp. If you’ve never tried frozen peeled and deveined shrimp, get thee to a store immediately! I cooked, ate, and cleaned up my kitchen in an hour. The cleaning included unloading and reloading the dishwasher, and disinfecting the countertops, my cutting board, and the stove.

Basically, I started by bringing water to a boil for the whole wheat linguine. I tossed a clove of garlic in the water to impart a little garlic flavor to the noodles. In a saute pan, I heated olive oil and a clove of garlic over moderately high heat. I tossed the frozen shrimp in the pan for a minute per side, then removed them to a plate (and tossed the garlic clove - it was there merely to infuse the oil). Next, I tossed in most of what was left of a can of diced tomatoes (unsalted), a few sprigs of thyme, and 4 cloves of chopped garlic. I seasoned the shrimp and the tomatoes with salt and pepper. During this process, the water started to boil, so I salted it and added the linguine. Whole wheat linguine takes longer to cook than regular, but I set the timer for just 9 minutes, because I wanted to finish cooking the linguine with the sauce.

I let the tomatoes cook for a few minutes, then added about half a glass of white wine to the sauce. I also added some chopped parsley, and let it simmer until the noodles were done. I added the linguine to the saute pan, squeezed the juice of 1 lemon into the pan, and added the shrimp. Gave everything a good stir, removed it from the heat, and covered for about five minutes to let the noodles and shrimp absorb the flavors.

I garnished the finished product with additional chopped parsley, and some grated parmesan. It was a lovely dish, very light but satisfying.

Over the holidays, I spent so much time baking, candy-making, cooking, and canning for my gift baskets that when meal-time rolled around, I often didn’t have the energy or kitchen space to fix myself a meal. So I started stocking my freezer with frozen pizzas, and when I grew sick of those, I would get take-out. Not exactly the back to basics lifestyle I was trying to achieve.

To kickstart my efforts post-holiday, I’ve issued a challenge to myself: no eating out, only natural foods free of preservatives, for two weeks. When possible, I will buy local or simply make things myself.

So far today, I’ve made a homemade breakfast bread (kind of like an Irish soda bread) that takes all of five minutes of mixing, then bakes in the oven while I get on with my morning. I’ve also made a very delicious lunch of pumpkin ravioli (that a local company makes, with all natural ingredients) with a sage brown butter sauce, toasted hazelnuts, and grated nutmeg; and a salad of greens, cranberries, toasted hazelnuts, shaved parmesan, and toasted hazelnut oil. It felt decadent, yet it was simple and fast to make. Start to finish on the cooking and plating was about 20 minutes (take that, Rachael Ray!). The cleanup was easy, as well.

I figure the challenge should be relatively easy, but it will involve creativity and planning in order to keep my meals exciting. The ultimate goal is to continue way past the two weeks, and to rely 95% on my own cooking, and to use restaurant meals what they are meant for: a treat, rather than the solution to “I don’t feel like cooking or cleaning up tonight.”

I’m kicking off the new year by making a large pot of soup. Okay, so technically I kicked off the new year yesterday by making bread pudding, but that was a special dish for a holiday brunch.

Today is actually back to normal living, with no excessive amounts of cooking extravagant desserts, candies, and meals that people wouldn’t normally consider a meal (like bread pudding). Instead, I’m making a lentil and tomato soup from the Cooking Light website. I guess you could say that my 2009 resolution is to cook even more of my own food, and to keep trying new things. I’m starting things out right with this soup, because never before have I eaten lentils. I do hope that I like them, because they are a good source of plant protein and fiber, both of which I’m trying to consume more of. I will never give up meat, but I’m trying to be very careful about the quality of meat that I buy. Good quality meat (by good quality, I mean raised ethically, without hormones or antibiotics, and with the appropriate feed) is very pricey however, which means I’m not able to purchase meat as often.

I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I’d much rather support a farmer who is raising the animals ethically, and I know that this food will be much better for my health in the long run. I think you (well me, at least) tend to feel more connected to your food when you’re aware of where it came from. I know a lot of people try to view food as fuel only, but I don’t know that it’s the best idea. I think we appreciate it more when we know where it came from and approach our food as more of an experience; we’re more likely to cook it ourselves in new and interesting ways, rather than just heat up a Lean Cuisine.

As someone who has struggled with weight but yet loves to bake, I find that I’m less likely to overdo it with food when I make it myself (whether it’s a dinner or a dessert), than when I get takeout or buy a package of cookies from the store’s bakery. Now if only I could love cleaning up the mess I make in the kitchen as much as I love creating the mess…

If you’re interested in the soup recipe, here’s what I’m making: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=249952

I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions, but in 2008 I did set up a couple of goals to work towards. One goal was to try a new food each month, another was to buy myself flowers each month, and the third goal was to take up running. I did fairly well with the first goal; I didn’t schedule a new food to try each month, but I did step outside of the box and try several new foods, including scallops, oysters, figs, pomegranates (the actual fruit), quince, butternut squash, sausage (ok, that wasn’t entirely new, but I dislike sausage and yet tried one at a Brazilian BBQ)… that’s all I can remember at the moment, but I also expanded my repetoire with cooking and canning (I canned preserves for the first time ever!).

I didn’t buy new flowers every month, but I did expand my garden a bit this year (or tried to, as we first had major flooding and then went through a bit of a drought). The running fell through when I threw my back out late last winter. I tried to take up running as I was still healing, and I ended up making things worse. So, that one I gave up for the year.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with my progress, and now I’m looking forward to 2009. I would like to expand my cooking skills even more, and I am working on cleaning up my diet more. I already do a pretty good job with consuming few processed foods, now it’s time to cut down on the saturated fat and refined flours. I almost included sugar in that goal, but I really don’t overdo the sugar unless it’s combined with white flour.

The final goal is to continue to eat more fruits and vegetables, and to work out creative ways to add them to my cooking. I’m seriously considering participating in a CSA this summer both to try new things, but also to force myself to create dishes based on the food that is available. We’ll see.