Archive for ‘food’

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May 30, 2012

to bean, or not to bean

by maria polonchek

Okay. Once I tell you the name of the book I read recently, you will know where this post is going and you may very well choose to completely ignore it. The book was Eating Animals, by Jonathan Safran Foer. (Seriously, Jonathan Safran Foer. You are not a law firm. You could cut back on the nameage.) Eating Animals is his first non-fiction book after the novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I’ve had Everything is Illuminated on my “To Read” list for two years now, but haven’t gotten to it yet. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has been made into a movie and got action at the Oscars, but I don’t know what was said because I was only paying attention to Penelope Cruz and her Spanish wonderfulness.

I’m sorry. This has absolutely nothing to do with the post. I just wanted to look at her for a moment. (image: tapety24.org)

ANYWAY. As some of you early followers know, I have an ongoing interest in food. I want reiterate that I’m not interested in dieting, as in short-term eating (or not eating) with the intent to lose weight or change the way I look. This is not the relationship with food I want to model for my kids. But I am interested in diet, as in a long-term investment in nutrition, sustainability (for both me and the planet), and how food makes me feel.

Do you remember, Katie, when you gave me a hard time about going gluten-free? (Which was fine because we shared lunches, which meant YOU had to go gluten-free and, besides, I deserve a hard time about most things I try.) As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve experimented with lots of different ways of eating, from Paleo (the “caveman” diet) to vegetarianism. And it’s true that new information on diet can morph into “fads” that come and go and often, as a result, is mis-understood. But I guess I’m open to fads because I learn new things to incorporate into a long-term way of eating, after the extremes fizzle out. For example, I’m pretty sure EVERYONE could benefit from having more veggies at breakfast.

Of course, Katie, you have had it nailed all along with your “everything in moderation” approach. But one of us needs to be fun to tease.

It seems that if a person really wants to, she can can get her hands on a lot of sound information about food. I’ve read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and Fast Food Nation. I’ve seen Food, Inc., Super Size Me, and King Corn. I cook with Food Matters and Healing With Whole Foods nearby. (Wow. That was a lot of links. I’ve still got to get to Forks Over Knives, too.)

So, while I found myself getting all worked up as I read Eating Animals, I also practiced an exercise in awareness by paying attention to the reactive chatter in my mind and not jumping to any huge conclusions. (Except for the bowl of cilantro-lime shrimp I abandoned after the chapter on seafood. Never one to waste, Chris finished it for me.) Jonathon S. F. uses personal narrative to appeal to the reader’s emotions in this book and makes some pretty huge claims that seem, at times, unreasonable.

It’s just the kind of writing that sucks me in.

In the style of mental rebuttal you had with your pastor in one of your recent posts, here is the dialogue in my head as I was reading:

  • This whole family is going vegan, like, yesterday.
  • Wait. Not sure Chris will go for that. Maybe just vegetarian.
  • Wow. “Cage-free” and “free-range” mean nothing.
  • My cousin was right. I can’t just pat myself on the back for eating “humanely raised” animals. I’ve got to question the slaughter methods. As long as the USDA has control over slaughterhouses, these animals suffer horrible deaths.
  • Well, seafood might be good for me, but it’s terrible for the environment.
  • But how are we supposed to get Omega 3s and B-vitamins?
  • Wait. Jonathon S.F. says he’s writing this because he wants to know how to feed his son. If he’s so concerned about the environment, how can he justify having any children? Our food problems aren’t getting any better by overpopulation.
  • Ohhh….I can’t go there. I have three children. And they’re pretty cool. I like to think I did the future a favor by having them.
  • It’s interesting that vegans and vegetarians don’t talk about the environmental and social impact of their diets: what about the overworked soil, pesticides, and conditions for the migrant workers who are picking all their food?
  • Dang. The only possible way for me to feel good about the way our family eats is to grow and raise our own food.
  • That’s not happening any time soon. Dang.
  • Don’t. Know. What. To. Eat.
  • Maybe we should at least get a pet chicken.

It goes on and on until I come full-circle and pretty much continue to keep doing what we’re doing. I’m planning one more vegetarian meal a week and did ask the butcher at Whole Foods where our chicken was slaughtered.  She gave me loads of information, including the name of the farm we could tour. But when I suggested this possibility  to the kids, I didn’t realize that they didn’t realize that farmers buy and raise animals specifically to kill them.  They knew we are eating animals, but they thought we ate them after they had died of old age, a distinction I take for granted.

Taj said, “I’ll visit that farm to tell the farmers they are being selfish. They’re only considering their own species.”

The twins both said they were going vegetarian, which I thought was great, until they refused to eat more vegetables. Then, they decided to eat the chicken. Kids are not so unlike adults.

I guess for now, I continue to educate myself and make the best decision with the information I have. But I wonder: how do other people approach the food conundrum? I see everything from willful ignorance to extreme activism. I seem to fall somewhere in the middle which, considering that we ALL eat, EVERY day, seems to be the least I can do.

Posted in books, culture, food, kids, motherhood, parenting | 8 Comments »

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February 6, 2012

a sweatpants approach to cooking dinner

by katie savage

I, too, hope this doesn’t turn into a food blog. This, coming from a woman who ate chili dogs and slice-and-bake cookies for dinner last night. I don’t think the hot dogs were free-range, either.

The way I eat is similar to the way I dress. I just can’t pick a way. Some people are classic, some people are trendy, others are boho-chic. I am all of those (or none of those, if you’re going to be pessimistic about it). Allow me to explain.

When people say, “I’m just not sure I could pull that off,” I’m not sure what they mean, unless they’re talking about something haute couture or something that Madonna wears during the Super Bowl halftime show. Usually, they’re just talking about tall boots or a hat or something. I think that if you can afford it, it comes in your size, and you think someone else looks cute in it, you can totally pull it off. Of course, there are minor caveats to consider, but overall I think this inability of mine to understand the not-being-able-to-pull-something-off mentality comes from the fact that I don’t like to be tied down to a certain label. Or I can’t decide which label I’d prefer being tied down to. My closet is overflowing with all the things I think might look cute somehow, someday, even though I have nothing that goes with it. Some days I’d like to dress like Jackie O. Other days, Gwen Stefani.

So back to food. My kitchen looks like my closet, if you substitute garam masala for ankle booties. I have tried recipes from Dr. Oz to Paula Deen, and there are only a handful of recipes that I’ve made more than once. Perhaps this comes from the belief that there could be something better out there. Perhaps I get bored easily. The only thing I’m sure about is that I sort of like being all over the map about cooking.

Just to dig this whole comparison into the ground, I’ll tell you that right now, with two tiny people bugging me all the time for, you know, safety and sustenance and mobility and whatnot, my food style of choice is: sweatpants. I am hardly motivated at all to cook. I want stuff that is e.a.s.y. Here are my favorite sources of easy right now:

  1. Soups. Throw a bunch of stuff in a pot. No, no—don’t go to the store—just use whatever is dying a slow death at the bottom of the vegetable crisper. Let it sit in a bath of chicken broth for a long time. Sure, even as long as it takes to build a railroad track, breastfeed an infant, then clean up said railroad track from under the couch where someone thought it would be fun to move it. Eat.
  2. Fix, Freeze, Feast. About a year ago, a church friend of mine invited me to join a freezer group. Six of us get together and cook huge batches of four different meals. (The meals all come from the Fix, Freeze, Feast cookbook and are usually very good and not at all casserole-y.) When we’re finished cooking, we all go home with eight meals to stuff in the freezer. This is fabulous for nights when I have important meetings with dignitaries and foreign investors or when Grey’s Anatomy is on.

 

 

Posted in food | 2 Comments »

February 2, 2012

a little here, a little there

by maria polonchek

I swear this is not going to turn into a food blog for me, but I don’t swear that the next two entries aren’t going to be about food.  (Got that? ‘Cause that last part was a double-negative.) I just spend a lot of time eating. All of us do. We eat more often than we do most other things and if we’re spending so much time doing something that has such a profound impact on our personal health, on our societal health, and the health of our Big Home (this planet), I figure I might as well put some thought into it.  (Full Disclosure: as I’m writing about healthy food, I’m having a glass of wine with dark chocolate and sliced strawberries.)

Really, I wanted to back up a bit and slow down with my last post about food.  For starters, I just had a conversation about food with someone recently that made me realize I should clarify: when I’m thinking about, shopping for, cooking, and eating food, I’m not AT ALL interested in “dieting” in the sense that refers to a temporary way of eating to lose weight. I use the term “diet” sometimes to describe a general, long-term lifestyle with food. That’s not to say I haven’t had my share of issues when it comes to food and its effect of my appearance. I spent many years through high school and college worrying about my weight, the size of my clothes, and how I stacked up against completely unrealistic ideals. (I  bumped into a friend I knew in college recently on facebook and asked if he remembered me. “Of course.” he said. “The girl who used to worry her armpits were fat.” Really? I was that girl?)

However, now that I’m in my thirties, with three kids, I’m much more interested in getting to be active and alive, and enjoying my body to its fullest potential as long as it keeps ticking. Somehow, paradoxically, I think being pregnant and having kids–the stuff I used to assume would destroy my body as I knew it– has been the best thing that’s happened for my self-image.

OK, but enough of that.  Here’s what I’m thinking: in my old post, I briefly went over the “extremes” (in quotations because, for some people, these are a way of life) that I’ve experimented with over the years. I’ve tried all of them as physical experiments to discover food’s effect on my mental and physical well-being. Between my interests in nutrition and holistic health and my (sometimes foolish) willingness to try anything, I’m game for whatever is on the plate in front of me. The only big thing I haven’t tried is being vegan because BUTTER IS AMAZING.  So, here is the shit I’ve tried (in the order I’ve tried it) and here is what I learned. (so far. i’m always still learning…):

  • Vegetarianism This is a tricky one for me. While I believe eating lower on the food chain is the best way (and someday, may be the only way) to sustain the human population, personally I feel the worst (physically and mentally) when I’m vegetarian for long periods of time. It’s not a secret to those around me for more than a few hours that I have GI issues. When I’m vegetarian, it gets worse. I’m gassy, gain weight, and feel sluggish. However the thing I most keep in mind about this option is that, to paraphrase Mark Bittman, even if you believe animals were put on this planet for our culinary enjoyment, it’s unlikely you believe they should also be tortured. And the fact is that they are. I’m not about to upload pictures of live chickens or pigs missing body parts, because chances are at least one of your facebook friends is already doing so. But the way I’ve turned this lesson into practice is buying local, humanely-raised animal products. And it costs more. So we eat less of it. And as much as I try to protect my kids from conflict while they’re young (they’ve seen less movies than they are years old. and the majority have been documentaries on things like geysers.), I do explain to them how we get meat and why I don’t eat it if I don’t know where it came from. What I learned: Eating doesn’t just affect my health and quality-of-life, it affects living beings everywhere, from animals to people living miles away.
  • Gluten-Free This is the trend lately, and with some of the mis-information out there, I feel fortunate that my education about wheat and gluten has mostly come from a super-smart friend who happens to have Celiac disease, She suggested I try gluten-free for 30 days when I was in the height of my GI issues. (I’ll spare you the details here.) Gluten-free felt good to me. I had less anxiety and slept better. I learned how to cook with new stuff: almond flour, Basamati rice, quinoa. But the downside was that, with all the fiber, my GI issues actually got worse and I often found myself in predicaments where I couldn’t eat the food in front of me and didn’t have a substitute (This says more about my lack of discipline and planning-ahead than it does about the diet.)  However, as far as ethnic foods go, as long as I stayed away from Italian, I realized many cultures focus on other grains: Mexican foods use lots of corn, for example, and Asian foods use rice.  What I learned: flour products are pretty “empty” flavor-wise. They rely on other foods to give them flavor. (Jam on bread, sauce on pasta.) Why not just skip the white, processed flour and get straight to what’s giving it flavor? Also, potatoes, corn, and rice are all more flavorful substitutes for the starch in a meal.
  • Paleo (or the “caveman diet”) This has been my most recent experiment, and is most different from vegetarianism. It is also gluten-free by nature. The guidelines are pretty simple: eat foods that existed before the advent of agricultural farming. So: fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and meat. This happens to be most like a diet I did years ago with a roommate who had Crohn’s disease. I hated eating whatever I wanted in front of her when she was eating peas and eggs every morning, so I did it with her and realized I liked her food better than mine! This has opened me up to think outside the cereal box. I started having veggies at breakfast (peas in scrambled eggs is fast, easy, and good), using simple, powerful flavors like lemon, garlic, and cinnamon, and having more food around to snack on: cut fruit, nuts, and pepitas.  I also stopped caring about how much fat and focused on what kind of fat.  So this meant eating avocados, salmon, and pecans, and straight-up drinking flax or olive oil. What I learned: I can get pure flavor in less ingredients when I use the right ones. Also, our traditional American breakfast is insanely limiting.
  • My Kids! As parents, we think it’s our job to teach our kids about nutrition, but I’ve learned a few things from watching them. For starters, my kids would pretty much try anything their first two years. I have never bought a jar of baby food. I just pureed whatever Chris and I were eating. In their first year, the boys slurped down spinach, blueberries, avocados, bananas, sweet potatoes, beets, you name it. I don’t understand why people are surprised when a toddler likes healthy food: they’ll pretty much eat whatever you give them in the first year or two. It’s when they started pre-school lunches and got their hands on a cookie for the first time that my kids got a little more picky. Also, I’ve noticed how kids go insane on one kind of food for a while and then stop it cold-turkey. (Katie, you witnessed Sola eat, like, 16 clementines in one setting, right? And then she didn’t eat anything else for the rest of the evening. The next day, she was on to something else.) (And, as I’m typing this blog entry, I’m not paying attention and she just ate 8 pieces of bread.) It makes sense to me that we give into craving and gorge ourselves. After all, I doubt hunter-gatherers were worried about representing all food-groups in their stone bowls, or whatever they used before Bed, Bath, and Beyond was invented. They found a berry-bush or whacked a lion on the head and dug in, right? (Confirm that last part before you quote me.) Finally, there’ s always the power of the “no-thank-you bite.” I’ve told the story a million times about how the boys made me try a bite of cucumber after I insisted that I haven’t EVER liked cucumber. “Mom, you’re being a hypocrite,” they said. (A word I really regret teaching them….) “Remember, you always tell us ‘you never know when your taste buds are going to change their minds’.” And, of course, they were right. I tried the damn cucumber and not only was it not that bad, I liked it! I will now eat cucumber. What I learned: Have an open mind. Don’t feel guilty for gorging on something or going on a “kick,” as long as you round it out over time. And, finally, take no-thank-you bites.

So, I guess that’s the tour of my digestive track over the last decade. I’m not really doing anything too extreme right now, but working with the culmination of all these lessons. I do feel comfortable having anyone over for a meal. Whether we have guests that are vegetarian, gluten-free, or traditional meat-and-potatoes eaters, I feel comfortable eating and cooking in all of these ways.

What lessons about food have stood the test of time for you? What is something new you tried for a recipe (adobe sauce? tomatillos? gorganzola?) and incorporated into your routine? What foods make you feel the best?

Happy Eating!

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January 26, 2012

would you like quinoa with that?

by maria polonchek

Well, Katie, one of those changes I was going to make after the New Year (i hate calling them “resolutions,” which are just begging to be unresolution-ized. no, that word is not in spell-check.) was to treat my body more like a temple and less like a bowling alley by eating whole, healing foods. When I eat healthier, my whole family eats healthier, and that seems like a good thing for all of us. So I dusted off a fantastic cookbook I’ve been recommending to everyone but not using myself and got inspired.

As you know, I’m a fan of Mark Bittman, the New York Time’s food  columnist and blogger. (Didn’t I give you a copy of How To Cook Everything? Or you gave one to your sister? Or maybe both?)

Anyway, for Christmas a few years ago, Chris gave me Bittman’s newest cookbook The Food Matters Cookbook. It’s right up my tree-hugging, healthy-eating, but-still-got-to-live-in-the-real-world alley. I love his straightforward, pragmatic approach to what can sometimes be guilt-inducing, unsustainable eating ideals. He knows the health benefits of eating less meat, processed foods, and sugar, but at one point he writes “I’m not perfect, and you won’t be either.” Instead he embraces a method you’re always encouraging me to try: moderation. It’s brilliant! He’s vegan everyday until dinner time and then eats and cooks what he wants. He says it’s fine to use white sugar in cookies instead of squeezing agave nectar out of your own cactus leaves, or whatever I was considering doing. He says that if not being able to afford organic is what’s stopping you from eating your veggies, than don’t buy organic. If you use richer, real  ingredients–whole milk, real Parmesan cheese, and real bacon–you will use less becasue the flavors are so strong.

His main emphasis is that people cook their own food. That’s the best thing we can do for our diets. Once we get going in the kitchen (and his recipes are famously fast and simple) we will naturally become more invested in what’s in there, where it came from, and where it’s going. I re-read the intro to the cookbook for inspiration and it’s a summary of his other book by the same title. The main point I get from it is simple to remember and practice: eat more plants and less animal products. It’s better for your body and the environment. This seems like a middle-road approach that most people, no matter what their diet of choice, can agree on.

Chris and I are always playing around with what we eat. We’ve swung every way from vegetarianism to paleo. I’ve experimented with being gluten-free and dairy-free. And I’ve learned valuable things about nutrition from all these extremes, but the one thing they’ve all had in common is that, for our family and lifestyle anyway, they aren’t sustainable for longer than a few months. But I do take what I learned from each style and apply it to Bittman’s philosophy.

For example, on the paleo diet, there isn’t much choice for breakfast if you only look at traditional breakfast foods. So we started having vegetables at breakfast every day. (My favorite veggies at breakfast are all fast and green: broccoli, asparagus, and brussels sprouts.) This works right into Bittman’s plan, who points out that veggies are the one thing that should show up at every meal. You know I’m not a fan of children’s menus–I think it’s doing a disservice to kids if you assume for them that won’t want to try or like healthy “grown-up” food. Kids at our place eat the same things adults do. If they don’t have teeth, we stick the meal in the blender.  This is when serving lots of veggies is great for the kids; it gives them some choice. I let them pick one they can try and say “no thank-you” to, and this helps them feel like they have a say.

So, our first breakfast with Food Matters was this: sauteed asparagus, sweet brown rice porridge with blueberries, (better than oatmeal, with a little milk, sugar, and vanilla), and boiled eggs with lemon and olive oil on top. And, I’m sorry to rub it in, but fresh-squeezed OJ from the oranges on our tree. Yum!

I know you make great stuff, too, like your Lemony Cous-Cous Salad and Wedding-Shower Egg Bake. Let me know what works for you guys when it comes to keepin’ it real in the kitchen. When necessary, maybe we can tweak some recipes to make Mark proud…

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