A Whole New Challenge…

Something fairly big happened in our lives this past week.. or rather, something of a slightly larger than usual (I’m guessing) size left. On Friday morning T had his gallbladder removed. He is sleeping peacefully at the moment, or I’m sure he wouldn’t want me posting this, but hey, sometimes it’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission right?

The whole event was a bit of a whirlwind, starting with the surgery being scheduled earlier in the day than we thought (crushing our plans to take the train into “the city”, thankfully a friend pulled through and gave us a ride to T’s parents where we spent the night), then the surgery being later than we thought (starting at 9, not 7), a dead car battery, a reaction to one of the anesthetics, an excruciatingly long wait in recovery, some nasty car sickness (though gold star for T for not puking!). Luckily the one thing that didn’t go wrong was the surgery itself. T was released about 4 hours after his surgery ended and we were back at home the same night.

Recovery was going pretty well until late last night when T woke up with a lot of pressure under his ribs, feeling like he was full of liquid. We called the Nurse’s hotline (if you have not heard of this please look it up: they are FANTASTIC help, and will tell you what your next step is. Whenever I have used them they have been calm, friendly and helpful and last night was no exception). In this case, they suggested we head to the ER, so after a flurry of activity and a ride in an ambulance (thanks to a snow storm, lack of license and panic) we went to the hospital. Blood tests were done and thankfully there is no infection or anything, just some high liver number stuff, but that’s normal after a gallbladder surgery apparently.  T was given some stuff for acid reflux and it seemed to help a lot, but we still aren’t too sure about the pressure and everything. We did some research at home this morning, and it sounds like bloating and indigestion are a common thing for people who have had this surgery. The people who have dealt with and experienced this suggested some digestive enzymes, but more importantly a very low fat diet.

From what I gather the gallbladder stores bile, and releases it when it senses that you have eaten something fatty. With out the organ, your body just kind of oozes bile (appetizing eh?) into the digestive tract, often causing acid reflux. In addition, because the gall bladder isn’t there to help release the bile, which breaks down fatty foods, it is harder for your body to break down the fatty foods, causing a lot of bloating and such.

So, to the point…

The challenge is now to learn how to cook without all of the butter (and those who know me know how much I love to cook with butter.. currently we go through about a pound per week), oil and fat. Of course, this is on top of the organic thing (which is probably a blessing in disguise: organic butter runs us about 9$ a pound), and also trying to eat vegetarian or vegan 3 or 4 times a week (again, a blessing in disguise as the fats people tend to have the most problems with are animal fats).

I can cook from scratch.. just about anything. No problem. I can cater to Vegans, Vegetarians, Gluten Free-ers. I have cooked without sugars, salt or grainy carbs. Fat free though is something new to me. Please don’t get the wrong idea.. we aren’t deep frying maniacs eating breaded sticks of butter for dinner or anything.. but we do enjoy cream based soups, butter chicken, some grilled cheese or quesidillas or veggie drenched nachos (I’m drooling a little bit thinking of it). Breakfast is usually home made scones, or waffles, drenched in butter with a side of fruit. We can eat avocados once or twice a day without blinking, and I personally will admit to a baked goods and chips addiction.

This is gonna be a bit of a challenge. And, to the best of my ability, I will keep you updated, and hopefully inspired.

If anyone out there has suggestions.. please let me know! Now, bring on the salads…

Hello Again!

Wow! A huge thanks to everyone for continuing to peek at the blog, even when I haven’t been keeping it up properly!

First off, let me explain what happened:

It started when I began giving myself a cheat day, which I am not too ashamed to admit turned into a cheat month (or two or six). It started at a food fair, with ice cream, and chocolate, and free samples.. those things get me every time!!

Things got a little out of hand for awhile.. dinners consisting of bags of chips, no dinners at all, or (shhh don’t tell anyone) the golden arches… that kind of thing, and I felt guilty about writing a healthy food blog whilst gorging on Reese’s Peanut Butter cups.. so, I simply didn’t write. It was a little bit of a load off, but I did miss it. Then things went too long, and like a friend that you haven’t spoken to in awhile, it got too awkward to write. What would I say to you, Blog? How would I regain connection? What would you think of the things I had done? Soo.. I left it. I let it creep farther and farther from the front of my brain until I would only remember about you when I had gotten a new comment on an old post.. I’m sorry. Please think of this as that hanging my head in shame awkward phone call, hoping to jump-start and old friendship

While I was MIA I eventually got back on the food wagon (no, not the yummy ones parked on the side of the road near the Vancouver Art Gallery.. though there were a few of those too). I have moved out to Mission BC and in with my man T, started working in a great little soup and sandwich kind of place called The Sweet Spot Cafe (please, if you are coming through check it out.. good healthy food made as much from scratch as we can do, and a gorgeous little back garden to boot), and gotten my butt back on track, with some help from T.

While we were already eating almost everything from scratch, we have started 2014 with trying to do most of it organically as well.. this has been a little tougher. Because it is all from scratch, our grocery bills usually aren’t too astronomical, but I have definitely noticed the bump up in prices. Even tougher than that though is the options. Here in Mission we don’t exactly have a Whole Foods or a more organically inclined grocery option. We have a produce market (with almost no organic, at least in the winter months), a Safeway (please insert wild laughter here if you have tried shopping organic produce at the Mission Safeway..) a Superstore, a Walmart (even more laughter) and a Save On Foods. While Save On is pretty much our standard, you wont find more than a tiny little isle, a few baskets and some salad mixes for produce. They also seem to have more options for healthy and organic treats, beans, tomatoes etc, but again, you’re looking at about 4 isles.  There is also a great little health food place on 1st Ave called The Pantry (conveniently located right next to The Sweet Spot), but I can only afford to walk in there once in a blue moon. We discovered Thrifty’s a few weeks ago, but it is about a 20 minute drive away, and not a lot cheaper, though does seem to have more options for fruit and veg..  Oy! any Organic shoppers out there, please help! Or sympathize..

We do luckily have garden space at home. Last summer we unsuccessfully attempted peppers, pumpkins, strawberries, blueberries, broccoli, tomatoes and peas last year, and had better luck with carrots, zucchini, lettuce and herbs. This year I am hoping for some more luck.. I never really have had a green thumb, but will try none the less! I will keep you updated!

Other exciting events in our life include:

The adoption of a cat named Dood (who, yes, eats very well and mostly only “good ingredient” food – sometimes he gets tempted by a Temptation). He’s 6, he won’t eat any people food except (organic, stove-top popped) popcorn, he’s HUGE in a healthy way, and he looks like a lion.

I have a nephew! This has nothing to do with food, though I guess that cat doesn’t either, but I am very excited about it. He will be one year old in March, and is about the cutest hipster baby ever.

I stopped eating shellfish.. actually, I watched this documentary by Walter Veith. Whether you believe in the Bible or not, the science behind it is pretty sound.. and I’m sorry if watching it ruins your appetite for a few different meats.. but really, who wants to eat poop bacteria? Ughhh..

Again,  I will try and be on here more often.. and huge thank you to all of those who have continued to check in, or have just wandered by for a peek. I have to say I was blown away by the number of people passing by! If you have any ideas, suggestions, anything you would like me to look into please leave a comment. I’ve got to admit I’m a little lost on what to write about at the moment, so all ideas are welcome!

Thanks again!!

Lunch

Yes. I am aware that it has been a long time.. possibly even forever and a day. I haven’t forgotten about all of you out there, but to be honest, I feel like it’s been so long that I need to come back with something big. The longer I put it off, the more pressure I feel. Then I go and start reading something like  NeverSeconds, written by a young girl from Scotland. It’s photos and descriptions of her school lunches, and photos of school lunches around the world that others send in.  Take a boo, it’s good!

It also makes me think back to the day where we all used to gather in the cafeteria with our trays, anxiously waiting to see if it was fishsticks that day or… wait…. sorry, my mistake! (Insert cranky old lady voice here) Back in my day there wasn’t a school lunch program, or if there was we didn’t know about it.  We brought our lunches from home! Suuure, we had “hot lunch” days, usually a hot dog or a piece of pizza, followed by a “Texas Donut” – a donut shaped pastry as big as your head, but that was a treat!

(fade back into “Sarah slowly speaking out loud to herself as she types” voice)

I remember in Grade five when our class started a Pizza Hut program where you could buy an individual pan pizza off of us. We save all of the money we made and went away for a few days at the end of the year. I ate pizza every week that year I think.

Grade six was around the time where my mom was on her sixth (and thankfully final) year of peanut butter and jam sandwiches (there was a bologna streak in elementary, but who knows what happened to that).  I, being the super picky eater I am now, even back then, refused to eat the simple peanut butter and jelly day in and day out, and would leave the sandwiches to fester in either my locker or my backpack. Instead, I would spend whatever allowance money I had on a pizza pocket. The magnificent pizza pocket was supplied in the school cafeterium for the low price of a buck or a buck fifty. Again.. lots of pizza.

In highschool the cafeteria favourite was the seasoned curly french fries. People would send their friends to run out of class as soon as the bell went and jump in the line, which was always waaay too long and the poor sap at the end always ended up spending fifteen minutes in line for nothing. There were other choices,  the chocolate malt for example, and I seem to remember that there were main course types of things, but I can’t remember what they were.  Often, we would eat out. The church would offer cheap meals (instant noodles for 25 or 50 cents, or you could pay five bucks and get a real meal of chicken fingers and salad or something), but the burrito place (name unknown to me now) was the best.  Breadsticks were a close second, and would run you three fifty for a bag.  They even opened a McDonalds in my town when I was in Grade 10. That was a good year.

If you look back on it all, you might notice a little bit of a trend. The food was not great.  Really tasty, but not great in a healthy way.  There was no salad bar at my school (and I doubt there are many around now actually). Most of it had been previously frozen. Or from a vending machine. I remember going through something like three slurpees and a can of pringles a day in my grade 11 year. There was some info on eating right available, but even my in home ec. class they tought us to make stuff like cakes and cookies. I do remember a fruit salad once, but it was flavoured with half a can of Sprite.

This, Kids, was the end of the golden years. I mean, the golden deep fried years, or just the plain brown food years. We used to eat hot dogs at birthday parties. Or Kraft dinner. Sometimes you’d mix the two (KD with fried weiners, all drizzled with a giant spiral of ketchup was still one of my favourite foods right up until December 31st last year!), drink up some of that McDonalds Orange Drink (do they still make that stuff?) or Tang, slurp up some Jello, Dairy Queen icecream cake (or the cheap white cake from Safeway) and call it a day. If it was a high end party, you’d have it right in the McDonalds and get a tour of the kitchen, or pizza would be delivered to the bowling alley. I wonder what would happen now if a parent served gluten filled processed hot dogs at a birthday party? Anyone out there with kids want to do an experiment?

Anyway… reading this girl’s blog has done a few things for me. It has reinspired me a little (thanks kid!), it has brought back some fond memories of some really trashy food, and it has opened my eyes to the fact that even though lunches are aparently provided at school now, they still don’t look all that great all of the time. For example.. the fact that her dad had to print off an email from the council so the kid could get some fruit? Scary.

Anyway.. bon apetit. Let me know what you ate as a kid.. favourites? The thing you dreaded most? What was worth the most lunch currency in your school? Fruit by the foot was worth..ohh… about 2 mini chocolate bars and an apple in mine. Also, Momma: I’m sorry about the peanut butter and jam thing.. but I still can’t eat them. At least not unless they’re toasted.

Happy eating, and thanks for sticking around!

 

Raw Fish and Kettle Corn

Well! This week isn’t even half over, and already I have tried two new things.

On Sunday night I tried something that I have always scowled at, grimaced at, and gotten chills from, even when I see other people eat it.  We were at Ro Sushi (I love that place, AND discovered on Sunday that I can eat their tempura.. good company, good food and good discoveries!). I had my green hornet roll (prawn tempura, mango, avocado and cucumber) and a yam tempura roll in front of me, and T had a smoked salmon roll, and the dreaded salmon sashimi stuff on rice.

I am a bit of a texture-phobe. I LOVE smoked salmon, but I like the dry stuff (aka the stuff that doesn’t shimmer in the light).  I also don’t enjoy slimy foods, soggy foods, saucy foods (unless they’re sweet), or anything too squishy. However, in the name of adventure, I tried a bit of T’s slimy looking smoked salmon.. it wasn’t too bad. It was slimy, but the taste was good. I survived (and didn’t even make too too much of a face). A few minute later, I was being convinced to try the sashimi. It takes quite a bit for me to try a new food, especially one that I have already decided that I do not like. Raw salmon would be a good example of this.

Back to the sushi restaurant. After much coaxing, and a little bit of bribery (I can now make T eat one thing that he doesn’t want to try, and I’m saving that one for something good), I was handed a tiny little corner of raw fish and rice on a fork. I could feel my gag reflex stretching in anticipation. I made a few faces for this one (couldn’t help it), and eventually shoved the stuff into my mouth.

It didn’t have as much taste as I thought it would. It was kind of slimy, but not as slimy as I had previously decided that it would be. It wasn’t too too bad. I won’t be ordering a ton of it anytime soon, but I survived. I tried something new (and that I thought would be rather yucky) and proved myself wrong, and kept it down to boot. I guess this would be a win.

Thanks T for the new experience, and heads up: I will get you back…

I also tried something new that I knew would be wonderful.

There are many many things to be loved at festivals.. Corn Dogs , Cotton Candy , and Kettle Corn to name a few.  As I can’t see any way that either corn dogs or cotton candy contain 100% name-able and non-chemical ingredients, I will have to stick with Kettle Corn.

Last night I was thinking about things that I could make and bring to work to snack on, and couldn’t get my mind off of kettle corn. It’s sweet, it’s salty, it’s a little sticky and a little crunchy. I all recipe’d a recipe, and realized that it’s probably also one of the easiest things on the planet to make…

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup kernels

salt

If you have a stove top popper, this is a cinch. If you have a giant pot with a lid, it’s still do-able!

Heat the oil in the pot or popper. Throw in your kernels and sugar, close the lid and agitate (or turn the popper crank thing) until there is about 2 or three seconds between pops.

Put into a large bowl.

Salt to taste.

Stir occasionally to break apart large chunks.

Shovel it into your face.

Quick! Easy! Ingredient Happy and Wonderful (not to mention another win).

 

How about all of you people, did you try anything new this week? Was it good/gross?

Week Six Review

Booya Folks!

Week six was smooth as silk, and ingredient-confusion-free! I am now more than ten percent through this, and have only consumed three things which I was unsure about (besides cigarettes). I feel great!

While I’m going to be honest and admit that there are things that I really, really want to eat (we got some beautiful looking cookies in at work yesterday, and those peanut butter cups are still haunting me wherever I go), it is getting much much easier to say “no”. Actually, I say “I can’t. I couldn’t tell you what’s in it”. I find that this response usually gets a confuddled look, followed by a great opportunity for me to gab someone’s ear off about this whole adventure, and to get their perspective on food, what they believe it means to eat healthy, and sometimes a good recipe or interesting food story.

It was a similar situation at work a couple of days ago when a customer ordered something because it was his “only option”.

I said “I know how you feel, I’m pretty much only allowed the apples or the oatmeal because…” and this sparked a conversation about food and trying to get healthy. This guy is about to start some kind of cleanse where he can’t eat sugars or grains of any kind, and has to give up a bunch of other stuff as well. I said that that sounded tough, and he explained that he and a group of friends often try out different food things. One month he went raw food. That to me sounds extreme. I would have to give up all meat (I don’t eat sashimi), baking, and hot anything, and that sounds like it would just make me miserable. It does sound interesting though, and I kind of hope that guy comes back in so I can find out what other crazy diets he’s tried, what tricks he uses to get around things (i.e. eating at restaurants), and what made him feel healthy versus what made him feel sluggish and ill.

There were no giant fancy meals cooked up this week, but I did make a pretty yummy dinner from the salmon and potatoes I picked up at the market, along with some asparagus (I used to hate that stuff, but it’s actually pretty yummy), broccoli and red peppers.

I also discovered that a brand called Simply Natural makes a pineapple salsa that I can eat! It contains tomato puree, green peppers, pineapple, tomatoes, sugar, white vinegar, pineapple juice, salt, garlic puree, jalapeno peppers, chopped onions, cumin, cilantro and crushed red pepper, all of which are organic (I realize that I should have typed “organic” before every ingredient, but there are only so many times you can read the word “organic” before you get tired of reading “organic” and forget what “organic” actually means – you would have read “organic” eight more times by the way). I also found some corn chips to eat it with! I do feel a little guilty about buying convenience food as I make a killer pineapple salsa on my own, which tastes better than this one, and is much fresher, but I am also lazy sometimes, and want the stuff out of a jar. It’s not like you cook yourself a three course meal every night or make ALL of your snacks from scratch either, so stop judging me.

This morning (maybe in an attempt to make up for the salsa from a jar) I re-attempted the granola bar. Who’d have thought these things can be so tricky! They are not as crumbly as the last ones, but still fall apart quite easily. They do have a nicer texture this time around though, chewier and sweeter. This is probably due to the fact that I threw in some honey, and a couple of generous spoonfuls of peanut butter. I also didn’t quite measure everything out, so there’s a possibility that there is more butter and more fruit/trail mix/coconut/holy crap like cereal in there too. Even when they are falling apart, this is a good grab and go kind of snack. Plus the last ones kept really well, and they take almost no time at all, so I can bake them once every week or week and a half and have them for lunches. As I am starting a new theatre contract on Monday and am pretty much expecting to be out of my house anywhere from 9 to 17 hours a day, six days a week, this is a good thing. Maybe next week I will even get them right..

I also threw together some more macaroons. I like coconut macaroons because they are sweet, because they are simple, because they are wheat free and are easily sharable with most people (vegans are pretty much out of luck with me because of my love of butter, and often usage of eggs), and because they look pretty darn cute. I like the little haystack looking domes when they get lightly browned.  They are perfect with a cup of tea or coffee, you can make them any size you want, and they are just all around awesomeness. Yay Macaroons!

This was also my third week with my new milk. I’m not sure if it’s just an odd week, or what the deal is here, but I flew through the last litre like crazy. In fact, Thursday I had to go buy a bottle of Avalon because I was almost out of the good stuff. Maybe it’s time to up my dosage to 2 litres a week.. we’ll see what happens next week.

Today also marks two weeks of not smoking. Take that nicotine!! I feel good. My brain is returning to normal, and there are only a few times a day that I am missing it. I find that it’s hard to get out of bed in the morning, because my old habit was to grab a smoke, take a pee and curl up on the fire escape and plan my day while inhaling clouds of chemicals. Now I wake up, think about smoking, realize I don’t smoke anymore and spend way too long avoiding crawling out of bed so I don’t feel like I’m missing out. This is silly of course, because once I’m up, I’m fine. But the first 5 – 25 minutes of my day are a little rough. Then there is leaving my house. I have fought this one by eating a piece of fruit or half of my breakfast after I leave the house. Similarly, I make sure I have something to eat or drink when I leave work. The only other time I feel a little antsy is when I get off the bus, but even that is getting better with time.

One of the huge benefits of not smoking anymore is watching the jar of money on my dresser slowly fill up. I decided when I stopped that I would put six dollars a day into the jar (money that would have gone to smoking), and put it towards something or a bunch of things for myself. Last time I stopped I didn’t do this, and the money that I had once put towards smokes seemed to be absorbed by every day things. This time I can see how much I am saving. I also know that when I do buy something, I will think to myself every time I use it “If I still smoked, I wouldn’t have been able to afford this knife/juicer/skydiving adventure/ driving lesson/ espresso machine”. This will hopefully inspire me to keep putting that money away and keep getting better and better things, like a trip to somewhere hot and sunny, a time machine, a freeze ray, a meat grinder, a mansion on a private island, and world peace. Win! I am thinking as a 2 week smoke free celebration that I will spend some of that this weekend. My rules for spending it are simple. It has to be on either an item that I wouldn’t have bought otherwise, or a memorable adventure. No using it for a coffee, or a movie, or groceries. It has to be a treat. I am thinking that this is the week for either a knife, or for a crock pot. Crock pots are on sale at London Drugs, and would make my next four weeks of working too much a lot easier.

As far as next week goes, I will be busy and it will be an excercise in lunch making. I will also be trying out a new recipe for broccoli cookies. Yes, cookies with broccoli in them.

Week 5 (I think) in Review

Hello Folks!

So much for updating on Friday night/Saturday morning eh?

Basically Week 5 went really well. Really well, except for the parts where I was a little grouchy, or a little frantic, or pacing back and forth chewing on my nails waging inner war over why I should not (and conversely, should) have a cigarette.

I am happy to report that I did not have a cigarette, and am now on day 10 of not smoking. I am not so happy to report that for the first week or so, my brain was completely fried. Names for things (and sometimes people) were almost always about an inch and a half beyond my grasp, simple things like attempting to cook dinner felt like climbing a mountain in flip flops, in the rain, while trying to balance a soft cover book on my head, and “huuuh?” became an automatic response, followed closely by a blank stare.  My moods were also a little less than stable. I snapped at a couple of people (my apologies, you know who you are), cried over silly things like the people dying at the end of Saw 3, and did a lot of pouting.

Back to week 5. I am feeling great. There are still a few little moments were I regress into the angry Golum like creature that I was last week, but those times are growing few and far between. I have been putting six dollars away per day of not smoking and am spending a lot of time drooling over what I could buy with that money in the not so distant future (a new knife, a crock pot, a juicer, an espresso machine, a dehydrater, and skydiving). Also, because of the not smoking thing, I have not cheated at all this past week.

That’s right people… last week I could name all of the ingredients (and chemicals… I had some regular milk in a couple of lattes) of everything that I ingested. I am considering this a big giant win.

I spent the week munching tons of vegetables (I was on a little bit of a bell pepper kick), home-made, super crumbly granola bars, loads of fruit, free range eggs, coconut macaroons, and much, much more. The highlight of the week was by far Friday.

Friday after work I wanted to curl up in a ball and disappear for a day. I didn’t want to talk to anyone, cook anything or be seen. I wanted to watch something good and trashy, like Toddlers and Tiaras, or ancient episodes of The Bachelor, eat take out pizza and stuff my face with soy lecithin and vegetable oil laden peanut butter cups. Problem is, I had a commitment, so that plan was out (plus I would have to confess the pizza and peanut butter cups, and I was already full of pride about the not smoking thing and wanted to blog about my 100% cheat free week).

Friday I had agreed to cook Cornish game hens for some friends. The challenge was to cook a meal that a friend of mine, who pretty much can’t eat 80% of anything could eat and enjoy. The dinner was to be held at another friends place where her 1 year old daughter would provide the entertainment for the evening (and did!!).

I arrived, groceries in hand and holding back tears of not-Bachelor-watching-in-my-PJ’s. The hens were still frozen (figures), so they had to bathe for a couple of hours. In the meantime we played, and danced, and giggled. I forgot all about being a huge pain and a super grumpy houseguest, and got my giggle on too. It really is amazing how cute kids can bring out the fun crazy in people. Needless to say, my mood improved about a million fold, and it was time to cook.

I mixed up some lemon juice, butter, paprika, garlic and salt and slathered the hens with half of it. Then I shoved some rosemary up their tiny bums and threw them in the oven.I added the rest of the lemon butter stuff about half way through it all.

Then I threw together a simple salad of spinach, strawberries, avocado, cucumber and nuts (roasted in egg white, sugar, cinnamon and salt). Peppers were chopped, drizzled with olive oil, lightly salted and roasted. Rice was put on to cook and asparagus was prepped for steaming.

It went pretty well. I had never cooked hens before, and I think they turned out alright, though next time probably won’t cook one per person. It was a lot of meat. It was also gluten free, contained no red meat, and if you are one of those people who don’t include better in the whole “dairy free” thing, it counts as dairy free too.

A huge thank you to Sharon for the use of her beautiful kitchen, for washing all the dishes, and for letting me throw her daughter around. Thanks too to Gillian for the challenge, and a hundred thanks to you both for getting me out of my funk. What are we cooking next???

Saturday morning I went to the Farmers Market near Nat Bailey Stadium. The beef bacon lady wasn’t there, but I did find some really delicious sausages…without casings!! A friend later pointed out another vendor who was selling sausages cased in seaweed… definitely something to check out next time. I also picked up some apples, potatos, carrots, eggs, and salmon. Being that it was a gorgeous day and all, people were out in droves. This meant that line ups were a little on the long side, but it was great to see so many people buying local and enjoying the market.

That pretty much wraps up week 5… No smoking, no unknown ingredients, lots of veg, cooking/shopping with friends, finding new and exciting options, eating, talking about eating, writing about eating, and taking pictures of what I am eating. I have tons of energy, my waistline is slowly shrinking, and I am getting my brain back as my body adjusts to the not smoking thing. Life is good.

I started this whole Eat Write Play thing to further develop my love for food, my love for writing (and to develop the skills that go with it), and to re-find that incredible sense of play that you see in the eyes of a small child when they are flying through the air, headed for a mud puddle and wearing their good shoes and nice clothes.

Here I am at the end of week five (yeah, yeah, I know I’m actually into week 6, but humour me please people – I’m about to have a moment), and I am realizing that what I had before for food was a high school crush. It was fun, it was fleeting, and I really had no clue what to do with it all. I’m not saying I have mastered anything food, but the torrid love affair I now have with what I eat is much deeper than it was when I started out. By taking the time to learn what is in my food, trying something new,  giving my body more balanced meals and not over-processed gak, and sitting down to eat (as much as I can), I have developed a whole new appreciation for the things that I eat, as well as noticed the difference that eating good food can make. I am so glad that I am doing this.

Thank you so much to the people who put up with me talking about food all the time, and a HUGE to all of the people who I had food adventures with this week. Thanks to you too, for reading, and I hope to hear your thoughts, insights, suggestions, recipes and what you ate last night in the comments (I wish I was joking about the “what you ate” part…. but really, I would love to know).

Eat well, and check back soon for an update. This week I have no idea what I am making, but hopefully it turns out. If not I get to write about it and you can laugh at me. It’s win win really.

Week Four in Review

Wow People.. 28 days ago I started something a little on the crazy side, and, despite my bad habit of abandoning projects, am still going strong. In fact, this week may just be the best yet…

Since the last week in review I have managed to eat something leafy and green every day. Win! This was mostly bok choy or spinach, either in stir-fry or salad form… kind of boring. I also managed to make a tiny batch of edible lefse. I got new milk and started something else a little crazy..

I used to really enjoy a kale-spinach-fruit smoothies in the mornings, as it was a super easy way to incorporate fresh (and raw) leafy greens into my daily diet. Lately though, there have been no smoothies. My schedule has fallen into a blissful Monday through Friday and either 6am-1pm or 8am-2pm kind of deal. Don’t get me wrong: I love it, and will very, very, greatly miss it when the theatre things rolls around again (in two short weeks: eep!). Problem is: I have roomies. Ones that, I’m sure, would not appreciate the blender running at 4:45am, or even at 7am. Easy solution: use the blender at work! This next week I will be making some smoothie packs to bring to work: all of the ingredients ready to go (chopped, mixed and frozen) so alls I have to do is chuck them in the blender and add a little water.

This week had a few yummy  meals. Chicken parmesan, chicken wings, stir fry, meatballs, and one lazy lazy day where no dinner was cooked (I have a semi-valid excuse for this one though…more later).

I also attempted to bake twice, and failed, saw a garden, got some milk, and did something that right now has me a little twitchy.

LEFSE:

Thursday night I attempted the Lefse, a Norwegian flatbread made with potato (basically it looks like a tortilla, but because the Norwegians are a brilliant people they found a way to add the yummy potato and make it even more yummy) which is spelled “l-e-f-s-e” not “”l-e-f-s-a” although it is pronounced “Lefsaaaaaaaaaa”, unless you have attempted to make it at home, with a recipe that wasn’t quite right, in which case you pronounce it “F%@!&@$@ Lefsa!” while tossing half of the recipe into the garbage.

If you haven’t gathered yet, this didn’t quite go well.

I got the lefse recipe from my Grandma, who makes it wonderfully and usually I get a pack or two a year. It went a little something like this:

-Make a medium sized pot of mashed potatoes

-Add some butter and salt

-Mix in flour until it turns into a dough

-Roll it out into circles on a floured surface

-Fry in an ungreased pan until brown spots appear

Please note the complete absence of measurements (I guess this is where I get it from..).

Also note the lack of cream (which my Mom found on a bunch of lefse recipes while talking me through my angry mixing of dough phase that came later on).

Last, but not least.. ohhhhhhh…. definitely not least, note the complete lack of the direction: cool your potatoes completely until stiff before adding the flour. DO NOT ADD THE FLOUR WHILE THE POTATOES ARE STILL WARM. EVER. UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE.

As this last missed direction was, well, missing, I started adding flour after mashing my potatoes. Then I added more flour, and another cup, and some more flour. I noticed that my mixture was not really turning into a nice workable dough, more like a chunky paste. I was on the phone with my poor Mom at the time, so she got to hear my colourful language at this point, as well as some interesting descriptions, and my complete joy at the fact the my Grandma had forgot to mention this one little step of cooling the potatoes. All in all my potatoes ate 6 cups of flour before my mom suggested I chuck out half my recipe and go from there. At this point it was looking and smelling like a really bad batch of home-made play dough. The halved recipe ate about another two cups during the rolling process.

The bottom is the abandoned half, the top was what I tried to save..

After I rolled out about 18 or so lefse I started the frying process. The little potato tortillas of death started doing something strange. When I put them on the hot pan they stared doing this weird thing where they would grow giant bubbly tumours, then the bubbles would move around and expand until they sprung a leak and a geyser of steam would rush out. I think it was due to the extreme amounts of flour that had been incorporated.. the mix had become almost elastic when raw. Whatever it was, it was weird, kind of creepy, and nothing that food should be doing.When taken off the pan though, they actually looked like lefse.

After cooking a few I decided to try it.. I smothered one in butter and rolled it up (it was like a butter filled potato taquito from Norway): not too too bad. In fact, it even tasted like lefse!! The night was finally looking up!

(By the way: this is what I look like tired, after being really grumpy about things not working, in my PJs and stuffing my face with butter soaked lefse)

I got half way through frying my pre-rolled stack when something happened. I guess my dough could have used some more flour (greedy, greedy dough), because suddenly halfway through the stack I went to pick up my next little round, and they all were stuck together. They were stuck together to the point that no matter how carefully I tried, they were not un-stickable.

Imagine if you were to take a stack of potentially yummy pancakes. Now separate the stack and add super glue to the top and bottom of each pancake and reassemble your stack. Now, take a can of varnish, a large can of varnish (yes the whole thing), and pour it over your pancake stack, making sure to completely cover all of your pancake stack. Put the varnish-covered super-glued delicious looking pancake stack somewhere well ventilated and wait 12-24 hours. Then go back, and try to separate those pancakes. That’s where I was at with my lefse at ohhh… about 10:30 Thursday night. Please note that I had put the potatoes on to boil probably around 6:30pm, spent about 2 and a bit hours trying to make a dough out of the stuff, and spent what felt like forever rolling out this precious little stack.

The last face the lost lefse saw

“Then I did something that I almost never do when baking or cooking. I gave up. I threw the half stack of stuck into the garbage (along with the failed half of my original amount). I did learn a couple of things  however:

1) When making lefse, chill your f^(#ing potatoes until they’re stiff.

2) It never hurts to look at more than one recipe when trying something new.

 

GRANOLA BARS:

Friday I felt like I had to redeem myself a little, so I decided to make granola bars because really, how can that go wrong? I mixed up some oats with some melted butter, trail mix, holy crap cereal, coconut and whatever else granola bar additive yummy stuff I could find as well as some sweetened condensed milk.

I like my granola bars chewy, so baked them for about 20 minutes until the edges just started to brown. I pulled them out and turned the pan upside down onto the cooling rack where the whole tray crumbled and fell apart.

I tried to fix this by squashing it all back into the pan and baking it longer. Please note that this doesn’t work. They will kind of stick together, but will still be super crumbly and will fall apart when touched and not be chewy at all. Basically you will end up with slightly bar shaped logs of something that simply turns into crunchy granola when touched. Maybe this is what you’re looking for, in which case, leave a comment and I will tell you how to screw up granola bars.

THE GARDEN:

On a much happier note, I also took a peek at a garden yesterday!!

A while ago I had emailed a woman about taking on a plot in a community garden near my house. Last week she got back to me and explained that she had a wait list of 100 names, and had stopped adding names after that. She suggested I try again late in the spring. Community gardens are a great idea, they use space in unused lots, parks, boulevards for food, flowers or whatever else those people who are lucky enough to have them wish to grow. Usually though the plots are fairly small, very open, very close to the next persons plot and cost about $15.oo a year (which really isn’t a lot).

I was a little bit down about not getting this little patch of Earth, and was telling T about it. While I was being grumpy, he did something wonderful. He looked up a yaardshare program, found one near my house, and even made contact with the woman. Thank you thank you thank you!

As last week was a bit of a weather nightmare in the lower mainland, I waited until yesterday to walk by and take a peek at the space.

I am excited! The woman had mentioned that she doesn’t allow the use of pesticides or chemical fertilizers (Win!). There are a couple of girls who used the garden last year who might come back, but there is lots of space for everyone, and it also means that we can take turns watering, as well as share whatever we grow (Win!). There is an odd-looking, but neat pyramid structure for peas and climbing beans, and a small raspberry patch (Win!). She even has a kiwi plant growing! (exciting win!).

I didn’t take any photos yesterday, because, well, I had kind of snuck into the backyard (she did say to come by whenever), and it does need a little work. There is a lot of weeding, soil turning and things that have to happen before anything can be planted. Parsley has more or less taken over one large patch, and there is a fair bit of hay covering another patch. You may think this would deter me a little, but pretty much the opposite. I can’t wait to get in there and dig stuff up. If it weren’t so cold and wet out there I might even be doing that right now. In honesty, it will have to wait a few weeks, but it is something that I look forward to!

MILK:

I got new milk this week, and haven’t died. Yay!

A GRUMPY NEW UNDERTAKING:

Something odd happened yesterday. I got back from the garden and doing a little grocery shopping, had just made some granola crumbly stuff and was outside on the fire escape smoking the last smoke out of my pack. I was thinking to myself “probably should have picked up another pack when I got the groceries. Too bad. I really don’t want to go out again”.

That thought morphed into “I don’t have to go out again. I wonder how long I could go without a smoke”.

A couple of miles down the track and the thought train was speeding along from “Well, I’m two hours in, I think I could do this” to “I must have at least one cigarette in this house somewhere” and back to “three hours.. three hours thirty seconds…”

I have looked up some cheesy videos made with the idea that they will help you appreciate the decision to not smoke. They are cheesy little attempted pats on the back that one minute feel like they are helping a little, and the next make me want to punch the guy who made them because there is no way that he can know what this feels like, then I feel guilty for wanting to punch him because he is, after all just trying to help, and probably made the videos because he himself had trouble quitting and really does know the weird half there state my brain is currently in. I have also downloaded this annoying counter thing that tells me how long it has been since my last smoke, how much money I have saved by not smoking, how many cigarettes I would have smoked in the time since I have quit (though this is flawed because it averages them out over the day, not the hours that I am awake), and how much time I have added to my lifespan since stopping. I love and hate this thing alternatively. I like knowing how much money I have saved, how much longer I am apparently going to live, and how many less cigarette buts there are in the world, but the clock is driving me nuts. It even counts seconds (though isn’t quite accurate because I found it two and a bit hours after stopping and guessed the exact time I took my last puff).

As I type this it has been 22hr., 3min, and 28 seconds (29, 30, 31….)

I have saved $5.85

I have not smoked 13 cigarettes (reminder: flawed because of the all day average thing)

I will live 1 hour,  5 minutes longer.

Also, Ihave about half the brain capacity that I had yesterday morning when I was still smoking. I have managed to misplace two of my bowls (probably containing some sort of life saving snack), I can’t stop wiggling my toes, have an attention span of about 7 minutes and I am sooo grateful that I can keep my fingers busy typing this blog entry (which currently sits at 2,411 words).

Thank you for putting up with this massive post, as well as the mood swings, which I am sure are apparent in this monster of a post. Thank you also for continuing to read (or scan, sorry guys, I know this is a long one), and for taking the time to think a little bit about what it is you are putting into your mouth (or not putting in your mouth, as the case may be).

Keep on reading, let me know what you think!

USEFUL LINKS:

Yardshare: http://www.sharingbackyards.com/browse/Vancouver,BC&welcome_box=3

Lefse: http://visualrecipes.com/recipe-details/recipe_id/113/Lefse/

Non Smoking Stuff: http://ffn.yuku.com/topic/12886/Video-guide-for-those-just-starting-their-quits#.TyRc7YEtvaF

(the counter thingies are called “quit meters”)

 

P.S. : something increduble: I have ZERO things to add to the cheat list this week: WIN!

Why Is This In My Food: Calcium Propionate

Calcium Propionate lurks mostly in breads. In fact, mostly in most breads. Try and find a cheap grocery store bread without it. I dare you. Also try finding tortillas without it. I couldn’t, that’s why I made my own.

What exactly is it though, and why is it in our food?

Calcium Propionate is used to prevent mold in foods, such as breads. It can also be used as a fungicide, and even as a feed supplement in cattle rearing.

But mold prevention is good right? Well, maybe if people were buying fresh baked bread instead of the generic stuff that keeps for three weeks, or eating meat that had been fed fresh grass instead of grain that had been sitting around for months or even years it wouldn’t be needed at all.

The wiki article that I got most of this from contains one paragraph that, to be honest, freaks me out a little:

“When propanoic acid is infused directly into rodents’ brains, it produces reversible behavior (e.g. hyperactivity, dystonia, social impairment, perseveration) and brain (e.g. innate neuroinflammation, glutathione depletion) changes that may be used as a model of human autism in rats.^“

Human autism eh? Hrmmmm….

Could stuff like this in our foods have a link to the current number of people with ADHD, autism and the like? I have no idea. I’m not a scientist. If it could mess with rats though, what’s to say even the little trace amounts we get in our food aren’t messing with us?

Getting “Fresh”

Hey Folks!

I just watched “Fresh” a film about, what else? Food.  It’s a film done in the States by Ana Sofia Joanes, and it’s worth a watch. It only runs about an hour and ten minutes, so make yourself a cup of tea or some popcorn, curl up for an hour and enjoy.  As an added bonus, you can watch it for free this week (Jan. 26th through Feb.1st) by clicking here!!

Whenever I watch a food documentary I feel two things: One is a little nagging voice that tells me that I have read about or watched something on most of this before, the other is a HUGE feeling of inspiration.

Watching farmers do their thing in a natural and sustainable way makes me want to get a little dirty (in the soil sense, though I will admit to having developed a strictly foodie crush on Michael Pollan).

Watching the packed feedlots and chicken houses makes me never want to support that kind of system or eat those poor animals again (I’m not going veggie – I just want to eat happier, healthier meat).

Watching people like the inner city farmer from Chicago (Will Allen I think his name was) makes me think that yes, in fact, I can make a difference. It may be a teeny tiny difference, but if I make a change, maybe I will inspire some of you out there to do the same, and slowly, ever so slowly things might make a turn for the better.

Please watch this one while you can and let me know your thoughts and ideas!

I’ll even make it easy for you and save you some scrolling time by putting the link here as well!

The Little Things in life

I went into this whole Eat thing knowing that I would have to ask questions, and most likely turn down a lot of the foods that I enjoy. I knew that eating out of my home would be a nightmare, and that lots of foods would be staring me down and screaming “why won’t you just eat me!?!”

Today I had a different experience.

Today I was on Granville Island wandering around before seeing a show (if you get a chance, see “Do You Want What I have Got? – A Craigslist Cantata”.. it was so good I cried tears of laughter). I was wandering aimlessly and the delicious aromas of the market were taunting me. Patricularly the Mexican place. I went outside and the smell of double butter croissants slapped me in the face.

I love double butter croissants. I love them fresh out of the oven, when they are in their prime flaky outside-moist buttery inside prime. I went into La Baguette to get a better whiff and could feel the flaky pastry melt on my toungue.

The girl at the counter asked me if I needed help, and the words “I have a bunch of annoying questions” spewed out before I could even stop them. I really did mean to say “Just smelling, thanks”, but that isn’t what happened. Instead I asked her what was in the croissants. She answered (even looking it up to make sure she was corrent).

“White unbleached flour, butter, salt, sugar and yeast”

The words were almost music to my ears.. just one note was off… the “butter” needed a little more explaining. I asked another annoying question, she asked the baker and returned with the gleefull answer that the butter was, in fact, completely free of colour.

Even before the whole Eat thing these croissants were something to be excited about. I am sure, however, that the poor girl behind the counter never had anyone actually hop up and down a little and clap over them. I ordered one. Then I changed it to two. I thanked her profusely and told her that she had just made my day, and quite possibly my whole year (I had explained a little about the Eat thing when I asked for the ingredients). She smiled like I was a crazy person who might rob her or something if she didn’t smile and nod, and she bagged me two croissants.

I stuffed one into my mouth right away (not the whole thing , they’re too big for that, but I did take rather large bites) and decided that I would eat the second a little more like a human being, and a little less like a starving heyena.

I picked up a coffee at The Blue Parrot, circled like a vulture until a seat opened up and sat with my coffee and my croissant near a window. It was bliss. I even took the time before cramming it into my face to take a photo:

Sometimes it’s the little, simple things that brighten your day, like the light bouncing off the buttery, flaky pastry as you sit with a coffee watching the boats go by.