Food as Thoughts

Rachael had an interesting post the other day that can be found here. I have also been thinking about the same topic lately, as we ready our pantry/kitchen/non-existent storage space for food storage. I had to many rambling thoughts on the matter to leave in her comments, so I am posting it here instead. Hope you're not too bored.

I am of the opinion that everyone should eat healthy but not go crazy. Being of home-grown farm-stock for generations back, I'm a firm believer that you can eat things like fried chicken and biscuits and gravy and still be fit as a fiddle 'cause you're outside pushing a plow all day. But unfortunately, not many of us do that anymore. With fathers spending more and more time at the office, mothers going to work and leaving the kids with sitters, and preschool becoming the new kindergarten so that kids aren't home anymore anyway, the idea of family staying at home and working together has disappeared. No longer are Saturdays spent doing hard labor. Instead we drive around and play video games. And I most certainly am not without guilt. I no longer haul pumpkins, or set strawberry plants, or pick tomatoes, or hoe green beans (I hate hoeing, by-the-way) as I did as a child. And believe me, it shows.

So, since we aren't so active as we, the American people, once were, I think we have to show a bit of prudence in our choice of foods. But I still eat gravy.

In our house I try to server tuna and salmon once a week. Sometimes I throw in tilapia. I don't really watch how many times we eat beef and chicken in a week. I usually just plan meals by what I want to have. But we do have some meals that are sans meat. I just tried one called Tortilla-Black Bean Casserole which comes from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, 12th Edition. Oh, and I usually cut the beef and chicken quantities in half for my recipes.


Every dinner includes vegetables. The website mypyramid.gov does an excellent job of explaining what vegetables should be included in your diet and how much. For instance, did you know that green beans, zucchini, and green peppers are not "green" vegetables? They're "other" vegetables. Green vegetables are really green leafy vegetables and include dark lettuces, spinach, kale, etc. I try to include salad with as many meals as I can (which is not as many as I'd like 'cause salad is a little labor intensive sometimes). I alternate between romaine and red leaf lettuce and I get bagged mixed greens and spinach to add to it. We also eat lots of green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli, red and green peppers, carrots, mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onion. When Neil's cooking we throw in asparagus. When I'm cooking, I throw in okra. Yum. And fattening. 'Cause it's fried.

Now, on the organic front, I say if you want to pay for it then it's great. But with milk already over $3 and my non-organic produce bill already being astronomical, I don't think the health benefits that may or may not be all that big a deal are worth the extra money. My dad grew up with dairy cows, my uncle owns a dairy, and I'm just fine with my antibiotic-laced milk. For veggies and fruits, I would be very happy to buy locally or have a garden. Both are difficult in the desert.

Now, if you're my friend at all, you must know that I have no will-power when it comes to sweets. I just don't. And it doesn't matter where they come from - I will eat them. Whether I'm allowed to or not. But I'm getting better. Slowly. I don't buy junk food at the store. That's the one place I do have will-power. I can keep junk from coming into my home but I can't not eat it once it's there. Pathetic, I know. But recently we decided (meaning I decided and subjected my family to it) that no sweets, potato chips, sugar drinks, etc. would be purchased. Not hard since we already didn't drink soda and I was pretty good with all of the other stuff. We (I) also decided that treats would be limited to Sunday or FHE. Anything not consumed is going to be thoroughly wrapped up and stuffed in the freezer or given to anyone who'll take it.

Bread is the bane of my existence. This is because I hate high-fructose corn syrup. It's nearly impossible to buy bread from a regular grocery without high-fructose corn syrup. I did, however, find in Utah that Macey's wheat bread that is baked in-store is corn syrup-free. And it was good wheat bread. Now I settle for whole wheat bread that has that icky, sticky stuff. I am wanting to switch to making my own bread with the wheat in my food storage but I just can't find a recipe I like. Rachael gave me a fabulous, yummy recipe but we don't eat bread too fast and it gets dry and crumbly. Maybe you can help me fix it, Rachael? So if you have good bread recipes I want them. Now. Until then, I think we might continue to buy bread for sandwiches and make bread every now and again.

Ok, I'm sure I could ramble more but I'm tired of typing. And you're tired of reading. If you stuck with it this far.