To eat or not to eat.

*note to readers: this post did get a bit long, i'll try and post more often this year to keep them shorter

That is the question.

Cliche, I know. But this seems to be a never ending question. In even its simplest forms, why is food always an issue? Even when we cared little about what food, or food like substances we were eating, what to have for dinner was always a dilemma. 

But now we are more informed of the consequences of our food choices. I suppose, to some degree we were aware before. But now we feel that our decisions related to food matter.. At least from one perspective of the situation. I think one of us is just along for the ride, and he's not the one actually cooking.

Thanks to kitchen remodeling and the holidays, our "Real Food" concentration flew out the door closely followed by old sink, stove top, counter, oven, fridge and microwave.

While all of these items have been replaced (we are still missing the back splash and the refinishing of the cabinets) our attentiveness of "Real Food" has not. 

We did however do a beginning of the year purge of most of our condiments in the fridge. This was mostly due to the fact that the majority of our food items were residing in the old fridge hooked up in the garage because we were too lazy to move them into the new fridge. And when we killed the power to install the dishwasher, the old fridge did not automatically kick back in when power was restored...This also led to an impromptu emergency cooking of six alaskan halibut filets and two large salmon filets which turned out to be an amazing dinner and, well, food for the entire week. (Sorry, no decent photos of that)

Throughout the holidays we kept saying that once we got back from vacation we would start the food challenge again to help make up for our poor eating decisions that come with holiday baking. However, coming back to a still unfinished kitchen was hardly motivating. I also have been working late hours which is not conducive to many home made meals.

On top of all of that, here is the new dinner dilemma...

I watched a video online... you know, the ones about how commercialized, meat has become. The kind of video that PETA would produce in the interest of vying for humanely raised animals. The kind of video that makes you wonder who would work for such companies, and do they hire criminals with violent tendencies as an 'acceptable' outlet for their anger? The kind of video that makes you understand why meat in the supermarket is so much cheaper than that at the farmers market. The kind of video that makes you cry.

Yes, I watched one of those.

I also skimmed over some articles that re-emphasized what they put in ground meat and how important it is to, if you are buying meat at all, buy freshly ground meat guaranteed to have nothing added to it. Especially pink stuff.

And then I realized I had one more pack of ground turkey in the fridge. 

Do you understand my problem?  I have new constant debates in my head for every meal.

That became the weekend of meatloaves and veggie meat balls. Because one of us watched some of the video and thought to HIMSELF "hmmm I'm kinda hungry, and I want a burger". 

Veggie meat balls - for lack of a better term

Surprisingly though, they came out well. A bit on the pasty side. Thus the beginning of the quest for the perfect veggieball recipe. Eggplant is my new friend. I just have to figure out how to cook it.

The week after my unfortunate encounter with said video and week of meatloaves and veggieballs, I found free range chicken eggs and chicken breast a the farmer's market. This may have to be a weekly thing, when I can get there. I really like the idea of happy chickens.

I didn't make it to the farmers market this morning for happy chicken because I opted to pick up some raw whole milk, cheese and eggs that I think are from happy chickens from a farm that travels in from Brenham, TX every other week. (Brenham, TX is the home of Bluebell ice cream, a local Texas favorite) I have not tried this farm before and I don't think I've ever had raw milk, but I love the idea. (I do need to find out about the eggs though, it was raining and there was a long line behind me so I didn't ask too many questions.)

So here I am, on Superbowl weekend dreading going to the store.Not because of the crowd, but because I don't know what to eat.

And as much as I hate it, I have Texas brisket in the fridge which I think will make a very nice sandwich on the 'real food' bread I bought today. 

"happy cow, happy cow, happy cow"......