Wednesday, October 26, 2011
A quick life lesson...
So I bought shrimp on Monday. The only de-veined shrimp I could find were farmed or from over seas. So I made the mistake of asking the gentleman behind the counter yielding a sharp paring knife how hard it was to devein them. He sighed, rolled his eyes and demonstrated. Well that doesn't look to hard I said. A half pound of shrimp and an hour of my life gone, I have made the decision to always buy deveined shrimp.
Monday, October 17, 2011
To eat or not to eat
That is the question. Well the real question is what to eat and when.
I have ketchup and mayo, salad dressings, white pasta and dried fruit with added sugar. All still in my house and all on the banned list. The rules seemed fairly simple, and were not that hard to follow. It just involved cooking. But now that we have come to a neutral ending with the challenge, how do we carry forth? Let start at the beginning.
Remember the rules?
No prepackaged goods in any container with more than 5 ingredients. Ok fine... there went mayo and most condiments including salad dressing pasta sauce, ricotta cheese, many juices, most breads... the list goes on.
Now eliminate sugar, in any form except honey and maple syrup (non processed sweeteners) and yes that includes agave nectar and all those gross artificial sweeteners. Well that elimiates the obvious cookies, cakes and such, along with most prepackaged tomato products assuming you had any left that had 5 ingredients or less (think ketchup).
And only whole grains. If you did happen to find any breads, crackers or chips that have 5 ingredients or less, you may only eat the ones with whole grains. Whole wheat pasta? Read the label, not all of them are 100% whole grains.
Add in lots of veggies, preferably local meats and wild caught seafood.
It boils down to Michael Pollan's theory of food: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
I'm not sure I really covered why we decided to do this. The first year the husband and I were in Texas, we were living with his parents. Dont laugh, they had cheap rent and fed us, a lot. They were also visited by the Easter Bunny. As a side note I have no idea what bunnies have to do with Easter or why they deliver eggs...
Anywho... the Easter Bunny brought me a wonderful book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. Combined with years of living in California, this got some wheels turning.
She writes about a year of life essentially living as a locovore. She and her family, for one year ate only foods they could grow in their own farm, or find very locally from other farmers. Her reasons were more concentrated on the massive oil consumption of our country solely for the purpose of moving food. This is a whole other story though. Consequently I did some research to find farmers markets her in Texas. But that's as far as we got. Move forward two years and here we are.
I was inspired by Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food and motivated by this blog http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/
The idea is that the Western Diet is a major part of the increased number of chronic diseases. I have listened to a good portion of In Defense of Food ( I like books on CD, my commute to and from work is long), and read much of the previously mentioned blog, but in no way have conducted or read specific studies that link processed foods with chronic diseases. The author of the food blog posts this 10 reasons to cut processed foods.
While I have not run across this in the food blog, or the book, I have also read articles relating food dye to ADD and diseases in children.
The idea of minimizing our risks for chronic diseases is very motivating. And the author of that blog makes a very good point. Why would you want to eat foods that are designed not to rot. Have you read ingredient lists lately? If you cant pronounce most of the ingredients, or if it takes a long time to read them all... why eat them?
Back to our what to eat and when question:
We like the idea of following real food rules during the week. But I think, due to the various foods in my fridge and pantry that break the "rules" I think we may need an overlap period. Tonight I made meatloaf with lots of veggies, topped with ketchup and mustard sauce. Yes, I used ketchup. See... we still have some and it was easier than opening a whole large can of tomatoes or a large jar of spaghetti sauce.
But where do we draw the line? Last weekend when we went shopping I asked the husband to pick out some of those Odwalla fruit smoothies, mostly because I wanted some of the "superfood". I happen to not mind green veggies in my fruit juice. The husband's first response was "this has more than 5 ingredients" to which I responded "you dont eat enough fruits and veggies." Not that he would go near the "superfood". But more fruit couldnt hurt, I think. I guess I should study those labels.
Sigh, To eat or not to eat...
I have ketchup and mayo, salad dressings, white pasta and dried fruit with added sugar. All still in my house and all on the banned list. The rules seemed fairly simple, and were not that hard to follow. It just involved cooking. But now that we have come to a neutral ending with the challenge, how do we carry forth? Let start at the beginning.
Remember the rules?
No prepackaged goods in any container with more than 5 ingredients. Ok fine... there went mayo and most condiments including salad dressing pasta sauce, ricotta cheese, many juices, most breads... the list goes on.
Now eliminate sugar, in any form except honey and maple syrup (non processed sweeteners) and yes that includes agave nectar and all those gross artificial sweeteners. Well that elimiates the obvious cookies, cakes and such, along with most prepackaged tomato products assuming you had any left that had 5 ingredients or less (think ketchup).
And only whole grains. If you did happen to find any breads, crackers or chips that have 5 ingredients or less, you may only eat the ones with whole grains. Whole wheat pasta? Read the label, not all of them are 100% whole grains.
Add in lots of veggies, preferably local meats and wild caught seafood.
It boils down to Michael Pollan's theory of food: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.
I'm not sure I really covered why we decided to do this. The first year the husband and I were in Texas, we were living with his parents. Dont laugh, they had cheap rent and fed us, a lot. They were also visited by the Easter Bunny. As a side note I have no idea what bunnies have to do with Easter or why they deliver eggs...
Anywho... the Easter Bunny brought me a wonderful book called "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. Combined with years of living in California, this got some wheels turning.
She writes about a year of life essentially living as a locovore. She and her family, for one year ate only foods they could grow in their own farm, or find very locally from other farmers. Her reasons were more concentrated on the massive oil consumption of our country solely for the purpose of moving food. This is a whole other story though. Consequently I did some research to find farmers markets her in Texas. But that's as far as we got. Move forward two years and here we are.
I was inspired by Michael Pollan's book In Defense of Food and motivated by this blog http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/
The idea is that the Western Diet is a major part of the increased number of chronic diseases. I have listened to a good portion of In Defense of Food ( I like books on CD, my commute to and from work is long), and read much of the previously mentioned blog, but in no way have conducted or read specific studies that link processed foods with chronic diseases. The author of the food blog posts this 10 reasons to cut processed foods.
While I have not run across this in the food blog, or the book, I have also read articles relating food dye to ADD and diseases in children.
The idea of minimizing our risks for chronic diseases is very motivating. And the author of that blog makes a very good point. Why would you want to eat foods that are designed not to rot. Have you read ingredient lists lately? If you cant pronounce most of the ingredients, or if it takes a long time to read them all... why eat them?
Back to our what to eat and when question:
We like the idea of following real food rules during the week. But I think, due to the various foods in my fridge and pantry that break the "rules" I think we may need an overlap period. Tonight I made meatloaf with lots of veggies, topped with ketchup and mustard sauce. Yes, I used ketchup. See... we still have some and it was easier than opening a whole large can of tomatoes or a large jar of spaghetti sauce.
But where do we draw the line? Last weekend when we went shopping I asked the husband to pick out some of those Odwalla fruit smoothies, mostly because I wanted some of the "superfood". I happen to not mind green veggies in my fruit juice. The husband's first response was "this has more than 5 ingredients" to which I responded "you dont eat enough fruits and veggies." Not that he would go near the "superfood". But more fruit couldnt hurt, I think. I guess I should study those labels.
Sigh, To eat or not to eat...
Sunday, October 2, 2011
It's his fault.
A few minutes before the Husband came home I was told he was starving. I hadn't started dinner yet. So he picked up Taco Bell and chicken strips from Whataburger for me. Yup, his fault. We've decided that the weekends are fair game, but during the week we will try to stick to real food as much as possible. I have a few cakes to do this month, he may get to eat out during the week some time. Ok and to be honest I did try a scrap of the cake I baked for a birthday next weekend, but that was to make sure it came out right. Don't want to send out bad cake. I am a little surprised at how we he did for three weeks. And that's longer than the 10 day challenge so I guess that is good. We'll see what the rest of this week holds...
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Barely surviving week 3
As a sided note I would like to point out that the Husband has a blog too. Mine is more about the actual meals, his is, well... his. Click Here for his blog.
So we've almost made it all the way through week three. Its been tough. Co-workers had fried food at their desk this week... it smelled soooooo good.... So far I want KFC (we stopped eating there a looong time ago but this week it sounds so good), goat cheese ice cream and the ability for my husband to eat dinner without me cooking. Which he could do now, if he would stop being lazy.... Dinner is hard enough to make every night and it's even harder when I have to stay late at work. Sigh, the conveniences of fast processed foods. Its not like we ate poorly before. He would get fast food more often than I would like him too, but that also meant I only had to make dinner for me which could be a can of Amy's organic soup. Other than that, I did try to cook a lot. And we didn't keep fast pre-packaged meals in the freezer for dinner. I had some for lunches but that was about it. Oh I guess sometimes I would get the chicken and pasta stirfry frozen bagged meals and add extra frozen veggies to them.
The up side is that we cut out sugar. For him that doesn't really mean anything except that he misses ketchup. For me, and I've been trying to cut sugar for a while, it means that I have the will power to do that. And it also means that i'm down 5lbs. Which is just an added bonus to our healthy eating.
So... what did we have this week? Thats a good question.. let me think... Ohh It started with Monday night.
We each took a half day off of work to go out to the Woodlands to pick up more bread (did I mention we love Great Harvest Bread co and the fact that the honey whole wheat bread only has 5 ingredients! Think about that the next time you pick up your whole grain bread in the store and start reading the 30+ ingredient list...), shop at the nice mall and see Matt and Kim ( a nice surprise opening act) My Chemical Romance and Blink 182. That was a lot of fun. Might have been even better had the mall not been full of food we couldn't eat and surouned by delicious restaurants. We each managed to consume our pre-packed pb and honey sandwiches. See the down side of real food is that most of it needs refrigeration and in this 100 degree weather even coolers are not great choices.
Tuesday night was glop. :) This started out as a recipe and has become the everything but the kitchen sink noodle bake. Without the baking part. I get lazy.
So we've almost made it all the way through week three. Its been tough. Co-workers had fried food at their desk this week... it smelled soooooo good.... So far I want KFC (we stopped eating there a looong time ago but this week it sounds so good), goat cheese ice cream and the ability for my husband to eat dinner without me cooking. Which he could do now, if he would stop being lazy.... Dinner is hard enough to make every night and it's even harder when I have to stay late at work. Sigh, the conveniences of fast processed foods. Its not like we ate poorly before. He would get fast food more often than I would like him too, but that also meant I only had to make dinner for me which could be a can of Amy's organic soup. Other than that, I did try to cook a lot. And we didn't keep fast pre-packaged meals in the freezer for dinner. I had some for lunches but that was about it. Oh I guess sometimes I would get the chicken and pasta stirfry frozen bagged meals and add extra frozen veggies to them.
The up side is that we cut out sugar. For him that doesn't really mean anything except that he misses ketchup. For me, and I've been trying to cut sugar for a while, it means that I have the will power to do that. And it also means that i'm down 5lbs. Which is just an added bonus to our healthy eating.
So... what did we have this week? Thats a good question.. let me think... Ohh It started with Monday night.
We each took a half day off of work to go out to the Woodlands to pick up more bread (did I mention we love Great Harvest Bread co and the fact that the honey whole wheat bread only has 5 ingredients! Think about that the next time you pick up your whole grain bread in the store and start reading the 30+ ingredient list...), shop at the nice mall and see Matt and Kim ( a nice surprise opening act) My Chemical Romance and Blink 182. That was a lot of fun. Might have been even better had the mall not been full of food we couldn't eat and surouned by delicious restaurants. We each managed to consume our pre-packed pb and honey sandwiches. See the down side of real food is that most of it needs refrigeration and in this 100 degree weather even coolers are not great choices.
Tuesday night was glop. :) This started out as a recipe and has become the everything but the kitchen sink noodle bake. Without the baking part. I get lazy.
See you cook up some ground meat, we always use turkey, and drain. Put that in a side bowl while you use the same pan to saute some onions and garlic. Start some pasta cooking. Then maybe add some some carrots and squash to the onions and garlic. Oh and a green pepper, I've learned to like those in this dish. Then you add in some tomato sauce or paste, or pasta sauce, or tomato soup and paste... This time I had a large can of crushed tomatoes, some frozen chicken broth and a partial can of tomato paste left over from the sheppards pie. How about some more veggies... looks like I had frozen corn, peas, broccoli and spinach. Cook on med heat for a while (covered). Mix this with the pasta and ground meat. Wanting this to last for lunches and a few dinners, (which worked out well because I worked late the rest of the week) i made a lot of pasta and sauce mix, and put it all in a 9*13 pan. At this point I could have baked it, but I didn't have as much sauce as I wanted and didn't want to dry out the dish. Just one more way to get the husband to eat more veggies!!
Unfortunately ricotta cheese has too many ingredients in it so this was my lasagna substitute for the week.
Thursday night I discovered that my raviolis were a disaster! They were completely in-edible since I made the dough too thick. Good thing I used the cheese filling (thinking the husband would eat some) and saved the squash filling for later. I mad just eat that plain!
So at about 8:30 i made chicken from a good recipe that my cousin provided for me.
Its an orange teriyaki chicken recipe with sweet potatoes. I added in some onions but I think I have to pre-cook them a bit next time, they came out a bit crunchy. The whole thing turned out quite tasty. Even when I added peanut butter to some of the sauce, then added rice and cooked spinach and the chicken and potatoes.
Since we finished off the chicken for lunch today.. I am a bit stumped for dinner. I don't want to go to the store but I may have to... we seem to be out of food. Well..."real" food anyway...
One more week to go.... OMG I want Halloween OREOS!!!
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