Would you drink this?

That was the impending question. Sitting in the glass was what looked like green slime that was harvested from an algae ridden pond. The brain can't help itself but to say, "No!" to that.

About a month ago, I watched the documentary, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. Actually, I watched it through from start to finish twice in one weekend. There was so much in there that sparked interest and concern in me, I couldn't let it go. What was it that seemed so right?

We knew we needed to eat better. We realized that fresh fruits and vegetables had to take rule over most of our plate. How much salad can one person tolerate? The western way of eating doesn't cater to this way of thinking.

When I would plan a meal and make a grocery list, I would think like this:

• How many days am I going to shop for? I think 6 would do it.
• What meals do I want to prepare for those 6 days?
• beef dish
• chicken dish
• pork chop dish
• some sort of fish, if I have to
• shrimp is good, we like shrimp
• what's left? Oh, a ham steak or a ring of sausage.
• Now I'm getting somewhere. What will I serve with the meals?
• potatoes and carrots will go with the beef. I'll probably make beef stew.
• mashed potatoes, corn for chicken dinner.
• peas and carrots for the pork chops.
• rice goes ok with fish, right? and maybe green beans.
• bacon wrapped shrimp. oh yeah!
• steak cut potatoes or sweet potato fries with the ham.
• I've got my list, now to the store!

Do you see my problems? Everything I make is centered around what meat will be served. And my veggie choices are really slim. This isn't anyone's fault, it is the way our society has been taught to think. When you go to a restaurant, you look at the list of entrees which are all meats and you get two sides to go with it. Same problem.

So the day I went to the store and got my first $30 juicer and started making the tasty green juice for my morning nutrient supply, I knew people wouldn't show much support. I held a clear bottle of the power packed juice in front of someone at work one morning and asked him if he would drink something like this. Squishing his nose in disgust he promptly stated, "No!", which didn't surprise me in the least. If you had asked me the same question a few months ago, I would have had the exact same response.

The sad thing is, a plant-based diet can do so much good for you. You really can heal damage done to your body from the pure nutrients found in the good foods that spring forth with life from the ground. If an elephant can get big and strong by being a vegetarian, why can't a person? Ok, I'm not interested in becoming a hard-core vegan, but I do want to eat myself well, not slowly poison myself to death by eating things that do not benefit my health. Let's just say I have a lot of rethinking to do on meal planning. And I don't care what it looks like, I will gladly drink the green juice, but I'll house it in a travel mug to keep the looks of disgust away.

I have a confession

When I was a kid, things were different than they are now. Grocery shopping meant getting whole, unprepared foods, kids went outside to play no matter what the season was, the family would get together and sit at a table to eat dinner that mom made from scratch, and having a snack meant to go get an orange or have some popcorn. Microwaves just came out and dining at a fast food restaurant was an occassional treat.

I remember when the McDonalds in Mechanicville was the cool, new place in town. It was in eye-shot from the big Episcopal church where we went on Sunday morning. You could walk out of those gothicly tall, red double doors and see those golden arches one short block away. It was an easy walk for a hungry youngster but I wasn't allowed to go anywhere alone yet. I still wanted those burgers; they were so mouth-watering as long as they had no onions.

The special order "no onion" was a problem at McDonalds. They premade all the food. And who knows how long it sat under heat lamps before you ate it. So the "no onion" request was futile at best. They always said it couldn't be done. And they were right. The little onion chunks would set up into the bun and it was nearly impossible to not taste them. My only hope was to go there when our family friend, David, worked the counter. He would go to the grill guy to ask him to make one up before the onions were pressed onto the bun and then bring the freshly compiled ketchup-mustard-pickle masterpiece to the hopeful little 9 year old girl behind the counter. A lot of time has gone by since those days.

I was a semi-slender kid but I was always tall. As a matter of fact, I was the second tallest person in my class all through grade school. Valerie was my only classmate who was taller than me. My self image wasn't horrible but it wasn't great either. It was the 70's. If you had blonde hair and you didn't look like Farrah, or if you were a brunette and didn't look like Daisy Duke, there was something wrong with you. The movie Grease made hot pants and satin jackets popular. Nair paved the way for us to want to wear short shorts. How could you possibly measure up? We tried anyways.

So I rambled on a little. Just what is my confession? I don't like being weighed. That's it. I didn't like it when I was a teen and I still don't like the idea of getting on a scale as an adult. Actually, I don't know many women who do. How many of us take our shoes off before they weigh us at the doctor's office? I do every time. That extra 10 ounces could throw me over one pound more than I actually am. I understand this and try to keep in mind that I don't have to be so hard on myself. Afterall, we have work with what we have been given.

Newfound Land and a Challenge

 

No, not the country! I'm referring to the land of eating clean. A handful of years ago, my DH and I starting searching for ways to eat healthier. We had side effects that didn't seem right and knew we needed to improve our diet. So began the journey to find a way that would work best for us.

Here's my challenge to you. Want to try an eye-opening experience? It won't cost anything. It will show you something about your eating habits. Take a piece of paper, any paper will do - notebook, sticky note, used envelope out of the trash can - and write down what you eat and drink for one day. Anybody can do something like this for one day. If you are so inclined, try doing it for more than one day.

Why bother writing it out? It will give you a snapshot of what your fearfully and wonderfully made digestive system is having to process for you. It will show you how much meat you eat, how much water you drink, how many vegetables you avoid, what kind of cravings you are addicted to. I'm not suggesting this for calorie counting. This is just a means to begin to know thyself and to be open to something new. Will you take the challenge?

Would you do it?

Juicing. I'm not talking about just making fruit juice. I'm talking about REAL juicing. Juicing that the most hard-core juicers drink. Yes, I'm talking about green juice!

My DH and I watched "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" on Netflix. Actually, we watched it twice and I was interested in the idea of trying to implement vegetable juicing into my routine. Thankfully, my DH is not opposed to eating healthy and trying to improve in that arena so I got a small, entry level juicer made by Black & Decker for $30.00 and a bagful of produce. Here's my record of the start of the journey.

The Dreaded First Few Days
1/22/12
b'fast: 1/2 pineapple, 1 carrot, 1 orange
lunch: 2 stems kale, 2 apples, 1 carrot, 5 cherry tomatos, 4 celery stalks, small bunch of parsley, squirt of lime juice, small piece of ginger root. Made 2 glasses of juice, I drank half and put the rest in the fridge.
Dinner: steamed cauliflower, roasted beets and greens with onion, chicken strips.
Snack: popcorn with butter and salt, bottled oj
Didn't feel sleepy after our regular, early afternoon Sunday dinner. No nap today. Tongue feels metallic. Didn't feel hungry but did feel a bit foggy.

1/23/12
coffee with creamer
b'fast: 1 stem kale, handful of spinach, 2 celery stalks, 6 tomato, 1 carrot, 1 apple
water
lunch: same juice as b'fast, bowl of 3 bean salad
water
snack: nut/raisin/m&m trail mix (kinda saltier than I wanted), handful of blackberries and 3 strawberries
glass of pino grigio with 4 crackers, swiss cheese slices, and blue cheese
dinner: beef stew meat, potato
still feeling pretty good. a bit bound. a little foggy.

1/24/12
bfast: 1 stem kale, handful spinach, celery, tomato, carrot, apple, parsley
water and berries
lunch: veggie black bean soup, whole grain bread
snack: nut trail mix, 4 whole grain crackers with one baby bel garlic cheese wedge
dinner: chicken and steamed broccoli with al fredo sauce over rice, water
Bad day: very sleepy, headaches, eyes ache, neck ache, took an afternoon nap. still bound. irratable. Crass. Metallic taste on tongue but not as bad.

1/25/12
bfast: coffee with cream, kale, spinach, celery, tomato, carrot, apple, parsley
Bolthouse Farms green juice and water
lunch: banana, nut trail mix, crackers and baby bel garlic cheese
water, cup of tea, smoked cheddar cheese on crackers
dinner: pork chops, corn
carrot juice
Feeling MUCH better today. Slight headache, no longer bound, much better mood though still a bit crass. No more metallic taste in mouth. Feeling more energy at night.

Are you afraid to try juicing? It will not hurt you. It will not taste sweet or salty or oily or milky. I best describe it like this: you know that wonderful smell in the air right after someone mows grass? If you could bottle that smell and drink it, that is how green juice tastes. It's good and good for you!

A little slice of

biscuit heaven! 

I had an amazing experience recently.  We took a little trip and decided to try a local, fast food type restaurant that we had never been to before. Bojangles Chicken and Biscuits seems to rule from Maryland southward.  So different than KFC which is a northerner's understanding of what southern fried chicken is. Bojangles is way better. And being served by the friendly folks of the south makes it mentally tasty, if you know what I mean. Anyways, with the understanding that I was not in a GF zone, I got the #5 combo - 2 pieces of chicken, 1 biscuit with a side of dirty rice and a medium strawberry iced tea. The leg was the first to go and it was surprisingly tabasco-ey. A closer look revealed the layer of the heat under the crispy outer coating. Yum! I tried a bite of the biscuit. I knew this was something I would wind up regretting, since it was certainly not GF, but I wanted to try a little. Well, this was probably the best tasting biscuit I had ever eaten and I was hooked. Light and airy on the inside, brown and buttery on the outside. It was gone in minutes. This must be recreated in my GF world!

When I was growing up, my mom gave me the job of baking. She did all the cooking for us, and sometimes my father would pitch in as well. But I started getting fond of making cookies, cakes, frostings, desserts, pies, brownies, rolls, breads and biscuits. We had an old red and white cookbook that had fabulous biscuit recipes in it. The best one called for cream of tartar, which seemed like a weird name for an ingredient, but they always tasted the best. I loved them slathered with butter and doused with honey right after they came out of the oven. So good!

Going GF has imposed baking challenges, for sure. They can be overcome with persistence. The desire to make Bojangles biscuits drove me to face it head on and I did with a vengeance. Determined to bite into those buttery balls of fluffiness, I started to search for their recipe. Or at least the general direction of their recipe. It didn't take long to find several. All they are are buttermilk biscuits. Ok. I can do that. Self rising flour, baking powder, powdered sugar, crisco, buttermilk, butter. I got everything I needed to make a batch.

Attempt #1 was a regular-flour batch so I could see if they were close. Well, not as light and airy but good and close enough. Then the GF flours were blended up - brown rice flour, tapioca flour, potato starch, cornstarch - then baking powder and cream of tartar was added to make it self rising. Here we go! Attempt #2. The GF version. Mixed it all up. Kneaded together and shaped into rounds. Baked for 8 minutes then coated with melted butter before baking for the remaining 4 minutes.

The pictures say enough to know that they were tasty. Especially when slathered with butter and doused with honey right after they came out of the oven! Topped off with a big glass of milk = a perfect breakfast, IMHO. My hubby had one with egg and cheese inside. Way better than anything you would get in a drive thru. These will be made many more times in my house!

I still haven't mastered a decent fried chicken. There is a Bojangles in Pennsylvania. A mere 5 hour drive from my house. I have driven farther than that for less good reasons before. Can anyone say "day trip"?

Recipe re-do

Did you ever see a show with a recipe that sounds just great, but it is off limits?  I enjoy watching cooking shows. They make wonderful presentations. Some are old school styles, some are based on a region or a country. Some are focused on the science behind it all. 9 times out of 10, the final product is tainted.

Food allergies and food intolerances are coming to the forefront of media conversation. This is a good thing. People need to be more aware of the reason their body does what it does in response to what you feed it. We have become a society of quick fixes, which typically includes a pill to make everything better. More often than not, this won't fix the real problem, but masque the symptoms and fool you into believing you are ok.

Not that long ago, this was a picture of what people thought of when they thought of food.

Industry saw the opportunity to lighten the load in the kitchen. Canned foods, instant foods, tv dinners, prepackaged foods, preserved foods, processed foods. Before you knew it, meals were overrun with unnatural ingredients and we all got used to it. Now, we are finally coming around to how good real food is, both in taste and in health.

Since awareness is rising, many GF products are available in the markets. Farm markets are all over thte place. Gardening is becoming more popular. People have options!

While I watch cooking shows, I take the recipes that are close enough to being easy and GF, and make them GF. Swapping out the big offenders, most of the time it is pasta, and our dinner table is livened up with new tastes.

Get creative and try it for yourself. See what you come up with.

Sweet -n- fruity tea

We had our first bar-b-q dinner tonite.  The sun was strong, the air was clean, and the grill was ready to go. How could I resist the allure of smoky burgers, sizzling bacon, hot dogs that had some extra time to get those cool looking char lines. Yes - to the whole experience!

Now for the side kicks of the meal. Potato salad - check. Mixed greens and dressing - check.  Soda - no check.  It just doesn't do it for us anymore. Not a thirst quencher. Way too sugary. Too un-natural. A better choice, in my humble opinion, is iced tea.

There is a way to make iced tea that is so easy and so delicious, you will not want to bother with the powdered or premade stuff again.   I really like flavored teas, and wanted something that would compliment the meat in the meal, so I made cranberry almond iced tea.

Sweet -N- Fruity Iced Tea

4 cups water
8 tea bags, flavored or plain
1/2 cup sugar (more if you like sweeter drinks)
1/4 tsp. almond extract
1 tray ice cubes
3 1/2 cups cold water

Bring 4 cups water to a boil. Turn off heat and steep tea for 5 minutes.  Get out your nicest pitcher and put the sugar in it. Pour the hot tea over the sugar and stir until dissolved. Stir in the extract. Add the ice cubes and the cold water. Serve!

Plain tea with orange extract would be really nice. Or black tea with licorice. How about getting crazy with a mint tea with some sort of cocao added? You ain't finding stuff like that on the store shelf. Oh the possibilities!

I am a fan of green tea. Nice and mild. Not bitter. Good for you, or so they say. The next batch I have in mind is going to be a peach iced tea. Maybe with a dash of cinnamon extract. Let me know what you make!