Let's Talk in the Kitchen ......

Let's move out of the workshop for a bit and sit in my kitchen. Preparing food for my family has always been one of my joys. However of late it seems to have become a more daunting task. The list of foods that I will not eat or serve to my loved ones grows each day. I am taking great pains to become a responsible, educated consumer. Don't get me wrong, this is all a labor of love. But, my eyes have been opened lately and I feel a deep sense of responsibility for providing healthy, natural, organic, whole foods types of meals for my family.

I have made a pledge to remove certain things from my diet as much as possible....which makes grocery shopping a bit of a science and can no longer be done in a hurry. Reading labels is essential. So, as much as is humanly possible I no longer buy:

1. white flour (except for making an occasional cake or homemade buttermilk biscuits...for which it is essential...and warm, buttery, homemade biscuits are soul food) When baking bread, I use whole grains.

2. white rice and pasta - I have replaced them with whole wheat or quinoa pasta and brown, red, or wild rice, quinoa, bulgar, etc....and organic whenever possible.

3. anything with High Fructose Corn Syrup.....ugh, nasty stuff, not fit for human consumption. Who ever came up with the idea that we should consume things that were created in a lab, anyways? Read your labels....it is in just about everything...even most breads. I will try to not get on a soapbox about this chemical, but from what I read it is at least partially responsible for the increase in Diabetes, heart disease and cancer in this country.

4. anything with trans fatty acids....so I avoid all processed baked goods, cookies,etc. I don't bake with crisco. No tub of Cool Whip darkens my doorway (also created in a lab!!) I read labels on snack foods and keep them to a minimum. Although, I am not naive enough to think that lables do not lie.

5. I avoid the words "poppin fresh" like the plague!

What I do try to buy is this.....

1. Organic, whenever possible....especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables. Fruits whose skins we consume - like apples, pears, berries, etc. - have higher concentrations of pesticides in the skins. So buying organic (though it is a bit more pricey) is prudent. In the summertime, we grow strawberries and blueberries; which I use for jams and also free quite a bit for use during the winter.

2. Whole grains

3. Butter, never margarine. I would always rather eat a natural food like butter than a lab-created chemical like margarine. I cook with Olive oil and even bake with it. When I buy cheese...it is real cheese...not fake "processed cheese food". I'll take the saturated fats in an occasional nip of cheese...at least accompanying them is some nutritional value!

4. Skim milk - organic.

5. Almonds - for snacking and to throw in salads and stir-fry.

6. Juices - pure fruit juices, without any high fructose corn syrup.

7. Crazy Richard's peanut butter....no salt, sugar or oils added. Nothing but peanuts! I suppose the only thing better would be to find an organic one.

8. Locally raised beef and pork (this year we split a steer and a pig with two other families. Chicken, of course, and local, free-range is best.

9. Staples in our diet are our own Bee Haven Acres jumbo eggs, honey, apples, vegetable (which I froze and canned), strawberries, and blueberries.

10. Milled flax seed ...good to toss on oatmeal or whatever.....

11. Fish...now there is a whole other subject. I carry a chart of good versus bad fish. After all, mercury is not desirable and I want to make an effort to eat only fish that are sustainable. We have over fished our waters and destroyed ecosystems in the process. For safe and responsible seafood consumption, check this out!

I am always amused by the stark contrast between my grocery cart and those of most of the shoppers around me....mine is always so empty by comparison. Convenience foods never make it from the shelf into my cart. I have even stopped shopping in the cereal aisle. I rarely buy anything frozen except for an occasional vegetable that I cannot find fresh and.....of course we can not be expected to live without just a little ice cream!!

I make small trips to the grocery store, probably every other day or so rather than the large weekly or every other week trips. Most of what I buy is fresh, so it has a rather short shelf life. But, I like it that way...it reminds me of the European style of shopping and cooking.

It seems that in this country we have sold our souls for convenience sake. It is to the point where we have lost the desire for quality in our lives....and especially on our plates. Perhaps we chose to spend our money elsewhere, I'm not sure. But for me, eating is spiritual....it is a way of taking the energy of the sun and Mother Earth and assimilating it into our bodies to nourish and sustain us. It is perhaps the single most important thing that we do each day! Why should we not do this one thing with a sense of conscience.

If anything that I have said here has grabbed your interest, please do yourself an enormous favor and read this book: The Omnivore's Dilemma



I cannot tell you how much it will change your life and possibly your health!