Something about apples and peanut butter really does it for me these days. You get your fruit, and you get your fats and proteins all at once. Delicious and Nutritious! And somehow it ends up being a whole lunch, once you finish the apple and start eating spoonfuls of peanut butter. How do you know when to stop? Well, when you can't breathe because of the peanut butter smeared all over the back of your throat, it's probably a good time to call it quits.
But boy, is it worth it.
4.30.2008
4.26.2008
Love - in a tiny blue cup
Dear Capogiro,
Thank you. Thank you for creating Rosemary Honey Goat's Milk Gelato. Thank you for creating Cioccolato Scuro Gelato. Your existence has defined mine. You have made my life, and the lives of many others, worth living. Words are not enough.
I am infatuated.
Thank you. Thank you for creating Rosemary Honey Goat's Milk Gelato. Thank you for creating Cioccolato Scuro Gelato. Your existence has defined mine. You have made my life, and the lives of many others, worth living. Words are not enough.
I am infatuated.
I'm going to a picnic, and I'm bringing...
Seen:
On the banks of the Schuylkill, 1 p.m., group of girls with a picnic lunch. Yellow blanket on the grass and plastic bags of food. How cute. I might be jealous.
On the banks of the Schuylkill, 1 p.m., group of girls with a picnic lunch. Yellow blanket on the grass and plastic bags of food. How cute. I might be jealous.
4.25.2008
Heaven in a Tin Box
Here is what addiction looks like:
The infamous Almond Kiss is a Passover staple for basically every Jewish family.
Gooey, not-milky chocolate-caramel blob encasing two almonds. Eat it slowly, make it last, savor the chocolate caramel goodness. Bite your almonds, don't eat them all at once. Relish the taste and the experience and realize that, no matter how bad the rest of the food might be on Passover (dry, crumbly, tasteless cakes, undercooked eggy matzoh brei, rock-solid matzah balls, the lingering aftertaste of matzah meal and potato starch in EVERYTHING), salvation is found in the colorful tin box full of deliciously perfect Kosher for Passover candies.
"Now everywhere you go someone is chewing on Bartons Almond Kisses - even in New Jersey."
The infamous Almond Kiss is a Passover staple for basically every Jewish family.Gooey, not-milky chocolate-caramel blob encasing two almonds. Eat it slowly, make it last, savor the chocolate caramel goodness. Bite your almonds, don't eat them all at once. Relish the taste and the experience and realize that, no matter how bad the rest of the food might be on Passover (dry, crumbly, tasteless cakes, undercooked eggy matzoh brei, rock-solid matzah balls, the lingering aftertaste of matzah meal and potato starch in EVERYTHING), salvation is found in the colorful tin box full of deliciously perfect Kosher for Passover candies.
"Now everywhere you go someone is chewing on Bartons Almond Kisses - even in New Jersey."
Fruit: The New Atkins
I have successfully abstained from eating matzah since last weekend. I feel this is some sort of record or achievement which deserves special recognition. I also have not missed eating bread at all, which is unexpected. Perhaps that is because I am slowly but surely overdosing on fruit.
Fruit is my bread replacement and the new sugar, the new vice, in my diet. Sure, it is arguably healthy than eating cookies or cake, but pounds of fruit every day can't possible be that good for me. Everything in moderation, after all.
Although there is one sure benefit: I am free of the gastrointestinal problems inherent in eating matzah.
Fruit is my bread replacement and the new sugar, the new vice, in my diet. Sure, it is arguably healthy than eating cookies or cake, but pounds of fruit every day can't possible be that good for me. Everything in moderation, after all.
Although there is one sure benefit: I am free of the gastrointestinal problems inherent in eating matzah.
4.22.2008
In anxious anticipation
I anxiously anticipate the return of the Headhouse Square Farmer's market in less than two weeks. Not only does it mark the season for delicious local food, but it makes a weekend full of farmer's market goodness in Philadelphia. Saturday features the Clark Park Farmer's Market from 10-2 and Sunday (beginning May 4) boasts the Headhouse Market from 10-2.
Fresh, locally farmed vegetables, fruits, poultry, meat, and eggs and locally produced wines, breads, and so many other goodies await. But I can't!
Fresh, locally farmed vegetables, fruits, poultry, meat, and eggs and locally produced wines, breads, and so many other goodies await. But I can't!
Mmm..
Passover! Faves. What could be better than nothing leavened, nothing that rises, and nothing that could possibly inflate or increase in size when cooked? I feel like I am on the Atkins diet.
That said, there are only five forbidden grains: wheat, oats, barley, rye, and spelt. I have decided to invent my own Pesach rules and avoid only these five grains, maybe beans and legumes for a while, and also corn because corn syrup is bad for you and the world.
Ahh, to eat bread again...
Although homemade Kosher for Passover food rarely disappoints.
That said, there are only five forbidden grains: wheat, oats, barley, rye, and spelt. I have decided to invent my own Pesach rules and avoid only these five grains, maybe beans and legumes for a while, and also corn because corn syrup is bad for you and the world.
Ahh, to eat bread again...
Although homemade Kosher for Passover food rarely disappoints.
4.16.2008
I am apparently easily convinced.
I have been vegetarian, more or less, for about a year now. I don't have a very good reason, and I'll be the first to admit it. It's a matter of convenience on some level. I don't want to deal with having meat sitting around that I have to cook, and food tends to be cheaper if you get the meatless options. But yet another book I'm reading is starting to convince me to go back. Not that it should be hard, I don't have hard and fast ideas strongly supporting vegetarianism, other than vague health, environmental, and societal concerns. If anything, the book, Nina Planck's Real Food reinforces my ideas about the importance of eating locally and as minimally processed industrially produced food as possible. She focuses on real food, and her arguments are convincing. I am particularly swayed by her praises of saturated fat. She claims it is good for the immune system. It could be because I am currently feeling a bit under the weather, but a hefty (healthy?) dose of grass fed raw milk butter certainly does sound good right now.
4.09.2008
To Farm or Not To Farm
Dilemma:
Remove farmland from Conservation Program in order to produce more food?
Food prices are high: farmers will make more money farming this land and selling the crops than they can make through the government program paying them to preserve the land for environmental reasons.
But the Program has been successful: duck populations are high. Hunters like ducks, and duck-lovers like ducks. And a sudden influx of crops into the market will likely drive prices down and the farmers will be worse off than before.
Who will win? Immediate increase in income for farmers but potential for future decrease? Erosion-prone prairie lands currently being protected as wilderness and wildlife refuges?
Maybe the answer is for people to eat less, so the demand goes down and the environment gets preserved. However this still leaves farmers in the pale. And then what about the next industries in the chain, the bakers and others who turn raw crop into consumable good? They need money, too.
I completely understand the farmer's position. Assuming costs would not subsequently drop, it is more financially sound for them to remove their land from the program and turn it into production land. But are these really the farmers we want to support; are they the small-time guys, or the huge corporate farms? Further, if everyone removes their land from the program, that would be a huge loss of conserved and protected lands.
I don't think there is a good answer. Perhaps certain farmers - those small guys - should be given priority in de-conserving their land. That would control future price fluctuations to some extent and would also promote family or small-time farms. Because let's be honest here - I doubt big-time cattle ranchers and huge corporate wheat-growers really NEED that extra money. They could probably also use the morality lesson associated with dedicating their unused land to environmental preservation.
Remove farmland from Conservation Program in order to produce more food?
Food prices are high: farmers will make more money farming this land and selling the crops than they can make through the government program paying them to preserve the land for environmental reasons.
But the Program has been successful: duck populations are high. Hunters like ducks, and duck-lovers like ducks. And a sudden influx of crops into the market will likely drive prices down and the farmers will be worse off than before.
Who will win? Immediate increase in income for farmers but potential for future decrease? Erosion-prone prairie lands currently being protected as wilderness and wildlife refuges?
Maybe the answer is for people to eat less, so the demand goes down and the environment gets preserved. However this still leaves farmers in the pale. And then what about the next industries in the chain, the bakers and others who turn raw crop into consumable good? They need money, too.
I completely understand the farmer's position. Assuming costs would not subsequently drop, it is more financially sound for them to remove their land from the program and turn it into production land. But are these really the farmers we want to support; are they the small-time guys, or the huge corporate farms? Further, if everyone removes their land from the program, that would be a huge loss of conserved and protected lands.
I don't think there is a good answer. Perhaps certain farmers - those small guys - should be given priority in de-conserving their land. That would control future price fluctuations to some extent and would also promote family or small-time farms. Because let's be honest here - I doubt big-time cattle ranchers and huge corporate wheat-growers really NEED that extra money. They could probably also use the morality lesson associated with dedicating their unused land to environmental preservation.
4.08.2008
A Penny for Your Foods
Why is healthy food so expensive? I don't mean "health food." I mean real, live, down to earth healthy food. Yes, a banana at 50 cents at your local fruit stand is no bank breaker. But think about it like this:
1 bagel = 1 dollar, 300 calories (guesstimate) and limited nutritional value
1 banana = 50 cents, 100 calories, and a plethora of nutrients
To get the same amount of straight-up energy, you'd have to spend 50% more on the healthy food (bananas) than on the less-healthy option (a bagel).
This is obviously a very basic, overly simplified algorithm. Less healthy things like croissants and muffins are usually more expensive than something like a bagel. But then again, more elaborate (the reason croissants are so expensive - and delicious) or "exotic" fruits are more expensive. Silly little containers of fruit salad that consist mostly of days-old, over- or under-ripe honeydew generally run between three and five dollars. For the same price, you can get a small soup (which is of course fairly healthy, depending). But you can also get at least two muffins or three to five bagels! And this is all so far without taking into account fast food, where at McDonald's one can partake of a Sausage Egg McMuffin for a mere 450 calories - running only a couple of dollars.
No wonder this society is so unhealthy. When you can get a more filling (or disgusting...), higher energy meal for a roughly equivalent price, it's only logical to choose that option when eating based on financial reasons alone.
But I wonder why this is the case. I don't think I need to argue that a Sausage Egg McMuffin, or even a croissant, muffin, or bagel takes more time and money to produce. Aside from shipping costs, which make tropical and exotic fruits legitimately more expensive (but really, the "sausage" in the McMuffin did NOT come from the pigs next door), it has got to be cheaper to get an apple on the shelf for consumption than it does a baked good or especially something involving meat. That doesn't even take into account the costs - financially, agriculturally, and otherwise - of raising animals for slaughter or making muffins. (I'm probably being a bit hard on muffins...)
Yes, fruit is perishable. Yes, some of it comes from far away. But meat is perishable too, and I don't even want to know how long some of that McDonald's stuff has been sitting around. Plus, that meat had to travel, too. Here's where I think the difference lies: fruit is unprocessed. Thus, because processing involves labor and therefore wages, as well as machinery and factories and therefore huge amounts of energy, foods that are processed should by all rights cost MORE than unprocessed foods in equivalent quantities based on caloric content and nutritional value (better should be cheaper - deterrent!).
Then there's the whole issue of how you can't find fruit anywhere hardly. (Restaurants, coffee shops...)
....Don't get me started on vegetables.
1 bagel = 1 dollar, 300 calories (guesstimate) and limited nutritional value
1 banana = 50 cents, 100 calories, and a plethora of nutrients
To get the same amount of straight-up energy, you'd have to spend 50% more on the healthy food (bananas) than on the less-healthy option (a bagel).
This is obviously a very basic, overly simplified algorithm. Less healthy things like croissants and muffins are usually more expensive than something like a bagel. But then again, more elaborate (the reason croissants are so expensive - and delicious) or "exotic" fruits are more expensive. Silly little containers of fruit salad that consist mostly of days-old, over- or under-ripe honeydew generally run between three and five dollars. For the same price, you can get a small soup (which is of course fairly healthy, depending). But you can also get at least two muffins or three to five bagels! And this is all so far without taking into account fast food, where at McDonald's one can partake of a Sausage Egg McMuffin for a mere 450 calories - running only a couple of dollars.
No wonder this society is so unhealthy. When you can get a more filling (or disgusting...), higher energy meal for a roughly equivalent price, it's only logical to choose that option when eating based on financial reasons alone.
But I wonder why this is the case. I don't think I need to argue that a Sausage Egg McMuffin, or even a croissant, muffin, or bagel takes more time and money to produce. Aside from shipping costs, which make tropical and exotic fruits legitimately more expensive (but really, the "sausage" in the McMuffin did NOT come from the pigs next door), it has got to be cheaper to get an apple on the shelf for consumption than it does a baked good or especially something involving meat. That doesn't even take into account the costs - financially, agriculturally, and otherwise - of raising animals for slaughter or making muffins. (I'm probably being a bit hard on muffins...)
Yes, fruit is perishable. Yes, some of it comes from far away. But meat is perishable too, and I don't even want to know how long some of that McDonald's stuff has been sitting around. Plus, that meat had to travel, too. Here's where I think the difference lies: fruit is unprocessed. Thus, because processing involves labor and therefore wages, as well as machinery and factories and therefore huge amounts of energy, foods that are processed should by all rights cost MORE than unprocessed foods in equivalent quantities based on caloric content and nutritional value (better should be cheaper - deterrent!).
Then there's the whole issue of how you can't find fruit anywhere hardly. (Restaurants, coffee shops...)
....Don't get me started on vegetables.
Why Capitalism is Bad for Food
"People are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states."
It makes you think about what kind of world we really live in. Food, like water, is a necessity for life. But both resources have turned into profit-driven corporate machines. Why should people all over the world be starving, without access to water? The world couldn't always have been this way. People just don't live where they can't get water. It's that simple.
Water should be free, with unlimited access for everyone, everywhere, all the time. At the risk of being too political, only a hard-hearted hard-core capitalist could disagree with that.
But food is a tougher question. People have been trading in food for millenia, but somehow these days entire countries are full of starving populations. Why is this? Oh, the people we could blame. Colonists and colonialists, the industrial revolution, subsidies... the list goes on. Yes, these are sources of the problem but the real problem here is not what happened back then but why it isn't working now. And why isn't it working? Like Krugman says, it's because of the cost of raw materials and basic foodstuffs. And who's to blame? The American system, oil, biofuel, and the Chinese.
It makes you think about what kind of world we really live in. Food, like water, is a necessity for life. But both resources have turned into profit-driven corporate machines. Why should people all over the world be starving, without access to water? The world couldn't always have been this way. People just don't live where they can't get water. It's that simple.
Water should be free, with unlimited access for everyone, everywhere, all the time. At the risk of being too political, only a hard-hearted hard-core capitalist could disagree with that.
But food is a tougher question. People have been trading in food for millenia, but somehow these days entire countries are full of starving populations. Why is this? Oh, the people we could blame. Colonists and colonialists, the industrial revolution, subsidies... the list goes on. Yes, these are sources of the problem but the real problem here is not what happened back then but why it isn't working now. And why isn't it working? Like Krugman says, it's because of the cost of raw materials and basic foodstuffs. And who's to blame? The American system, oil, biofuel, and the Chinese.
4.04.2008
Top Food Myths, Facts, and Contradictions (Do you know the truth?)
1. Bananas are binding.
2. Red wine prevents cancer.
3. Dietary cholesterol is bad for you.
4. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
5. Chocolate is good for you.
6. Chocolate causes pimples.
7. Bread crusts make your hair curl.
8. The Food Pyramid.
9. White bread.
10. Soy products.
11. Beans, beans, are good for your heart…
12. McDonald’s salads.
13. Menstruating women crave chocolate.
14. Diet soda.
15. Celery is negative calories.
16. No red wine with white fish.
17. No cheese with seafood.
18. Goat cheese is lactose free.
19. Caffeine is dehydrating.
20. got milk?
2. Red wine prevents cancer.
3. Dietary cholesterol is bad for you.
4. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
5. Chocolate is good for you.
6. Chocolate causes pimples.
7. Bread crusts make your hair curl.
8. The Food Pyramid.
9. White bread.
10. Soy products.
11. Beans, beans, are good for your heart…
12. McDonald’s salads.
13. Menstruating women crave chocolate.
14. Diet soda.
15. Celery is negative calories.
16. No red wine with white fish.
17. No cheese with seafood.
18. Goat cheese is lactose free.
19. Caffeine is dehydrating.
20. got milk?
4.02.2008
Tough Love
It's been a long time...
I've now been trying this pledge thing for a couple weeks, and let me tell you, it's TOUGH.
How can you avoid refined ingredients and sugar and soy and dairy and non-local eggs? It's really hard. Finally I've kind of figured it out, though. At least I hope so. I'm eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, pretty much abstaining from carbohydrates when I eat out of my house because it's so hard to find 'healthy' stuff. It's sort of turning into a whole foods-esque thing, although I don't think the raw food thing is really anywhere I want to go with this.
The tempting vice aspect of the things I'm avoiding is also hard. One thing I have discovered is Alternative Baking Co.'s 100% Vegan cookies. They're pretty good, actually, except for the fact that they're packaged so I now know how many calories are in a giant cookie. It's a lot...yikes.
It's a hard "diet" (although I don't like to use that word - maybe lifestyle?) to follow, but every day I figure out something new that makes it easier and better. And it's worth it - I feel generally healthier and no longer get that gross feeling you get when you eat too many nasties. All in all so far a success, we'll see if it lasts.
I've now been trying this pledge thing for a couple weeks, and let me tell you, it's TOUGH.
How can you avoid refined ingredients and sugar and soy and dairy and non-local eggs? It's really hard. Finally I've kind of figured it out, though. At least I hope so. I'm eating a lot of fruits and vegetables, pretty much abstaining from carbohydrates when I eat out of my house because it's so hard to find 'healthy' stuff. It's sort of turning into a whole foods-esque thing, although I don't think the raw food thing is really anywhere I want to go with this.
The tempting vice aspect of the things I'm avoiding is also hard. One thing I have discovered is Alternative Baking Co.'s 100% Vegan cookies. They're pretty good, actually, except for the fact that they're packaged so I now know how many calories are in a giant cookie. It's a lot...yikes.
It's a hard "diet" (although I don't like to use that word - maybe lifestyle?) to follow, but every day I figure out something new that makes it easier and better. And it's worth it - I feel generally healthier and no longer get that gross feeling you get when you eat too many nasties. All in all so far a success, we'll see if it lasts.
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