Natural Food

I'm impatiently waiting for "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan to get to my local library branch so I can finally read it. I've seen Pollan interviewed on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and I can't wait to dive into it. The basis of the book and Pollan's new book "Food Rules" is that we don't really eat food anymore, and instead we consume food-like products. Dr. Oz basically says the same thing. Your body doesn't know what to do margarine (which is like, three molecules away from being plastic... or something like that) but it does know what to do with butter, which is the fat from cream which is the heaviest part of milk which comes from a cow which eats grass which grows in the ground...

Which got me thinking, you really shouldn't eat anything unless you know the basic story behind it. Like, mayo is a blend of oil and eggs, oil is pressed from olives and eggs are laid by a chicken. Miracle Whip is...????

Try it with your lunch today. I'm having sweet potato fries and spinach salad. Sweet potatoes grow from the ground and spinach does too! Feta is a cheese that is made from milk which comes from a cow. Raspberry vinaigrette is made from raspberry vinegar which is fermented from raspberry juice which is pressed from raspberries which grow on a bush.

I think you get the picture.

For bread and other products that you don't completely make at home, do the same thing for each ingredient. If you get to something you don't recognize, put the item down and find a version that all the ingredients are recognizable.

happy hunting!

Cooking for One

It sounds so sad, cooking for one. But, it's a lot less sad than McDonald's for one. (Not exactly knocking the golden arches, but I know I'm not exactly in the best mood when I sit down to a giant bag of Mickey Dees.) But I know I feel best when I sit down to a home cooked meal and a favorite show. If I have enough energy left I might even do the dishes, but that's a pretty big might.

When you live alone, food can be a big problem. You either have to make a recipe that serves 4 to 6 people or microwave a Lean Cuisine... again. Left overs aren't so bad, but it sucks when you have to eat the same thing for a week just because you're alone.

Fresh veggies are a great place to start with single-serve portions because you can buy the just the amount you need and prepare them as desired. Bagged frozen veggies are next best option.

The Hungry Girl cookbooks have great single serve recipes for everything from breakfast to dessert, but they use a lot of processed products in their recipes to cut down the calorie count. Real eggs and be used in place of the fake egg and so on, but that will increase the calories that are listed for each recipe.

Breakfast food is a great option for single-serve cooking, but they are often carb and fat heavy. Which is why cooking it single-serve is great, because you have the treat one day and aren't left with it sitting around.

Cooking for yourself can be hard, but it's one of the best things you can do for your body. Having complete control of everything that you ingest is step one to becoming a healthier person.

$$$$$

When did the rumor start that all single people automatically had a ton of cash? That if you're not a parent or married, you're not struggling to keep money in the bank. When? Who?

Guess what all you married people with kids, single people have money trouble, too! In fact, we only have one income (unless we're working multiple jobs, but more about that later.)

A big issue married people are throwing in single people's faces is eating out. Guess what, most recipes serve like, 6 to 8 people or something like that. And restaurants usually portion things out into like, single or double servings. So we're eating out not because we can't or don't want to cook or save money, but because we want one burger, not four. Is it so much to ask that we can have different food every night, and not eat the same thing, or not pig-out on two dozen cookies when all we really want is one.

And this whole, you need to save money thing. Save what money? After rent, bills, and food, there is no money. Those great careers with amazing salaries, don't exist anymore. They've gone the way of the dinosaur.

Carrie Bradshaw and Helen Girly Brown made it look and sound so easy. But guess what, it isn't. I don't want Eurotrash friends or rich boyfriends financing my life. I want to do it my way, on my own, no strings attached. Money is a tough subject, and in today's world, it's even worse.

The Benefits of Brinner

Brinner, or Breakfast for Dinner, is amazing. First off, how often do you get to eat good breakfast food in the morning? If you're like me, it's very rare. I'm lucky if I wake up with enough time to have a bowl of cereal and a piece of fruit, most morning it's one or the other. Point B) if you're like me, you only get time to cook one meal a day, and that's usually supper. Example 3: Breakfast is usually cooked one serving at a time, which means that you get a fresh meal every night, rather than a reheated hotdish.

To keep it from being too filling, pick one breakfast dish like pancakes of eggs, skip the heavy meats like bacon and pork sausage (but if you must indulge, go with the turkey version) and top the rest off with fruit or veggies. If you like your eggs yellow, but still want to cut calories, add one yolk, but toss the rest into your scrabbled eggs or omelette. Do you love cheese as much as I do? Get the 2% milk version to top your eggs with.

Pancakes and fresh grapes, amazing! Eggs and all the cantaloupe you can eat? The best supper ever.

Brinner is also great to cook for a couple of friends, it's super easy and always appreciated.