Like most people, I like to eat; I enjoy the act of consuming tasty, well-prepared food. But I also know that too many kinds of tasty food have bad side-effects, e.g. obesity from too much fat and sugar, high blood pressure from too much salt, and possibly cancer from certain preservatives and by-products (e.g. the stuff in bacon, maybe even the crust on bread!). And I also know that what I eat has a bigger effect on the planet and on humankind at large. As such, I choose not to eat meat, and to minimize the amount of animal products that go down my throat (admittedly, I’m not a perfect vegan yet). Furthermore, I’m convinced that what I eat has an effect on my psyche; I’d get pretty depressed after a while trying to survive on microwaved burritos and non-stop Micky D’s (although I know people who do survive on that diet — in fact, too many people).
So, I’m a bit of a “foodie”, a vegetarian foodie. I put a lot of time into cooking and baking, I constantly try to improve my recipies, I own about 7 or 8 different cookbooks, and I’m on the lookout at the supermarkets for interesting new ingredients that might fit with my food philosophy. (Unfortunately, most of the new things I see at those supermarkets are highly-processed “food-like” items, exactly what I don’t want to eat). I’m kind-of a “slow food” guy, although I’m also trying to keep it simple. I don’t do complex, elaborate dishes; I don’t go bonkers to get the freshest, most exclusive items from specialty stores; and I don’t limit myself to organic fruits and veggies (too expensive!). I mainly use ingredients available at the local supermarket (although I do order some things now and then from bulkfoods.com, and I stop in at the local Whole Foods every month or so).
My meals are fairly simple; no fancy salads or appetizers, just a plate full of carbs, proteins and veggie fiber, followed up by a small dessert (maybe some cookies or a cupcake that I made – from scratch – during my weekend cooking sessions). With perhaps a glass of wine or ale (or porter or stout), but sometimes just a glass of seltzer with lemon. I concoct my main dishes on weekends, so that a weeknight consists of cooking some rice or pasta and heating up some veggie side-dishes along with the “main event” (usually a soup, a bean dish, or a pasta sauce). And then sitting down to enjoy the results.
Notice that I cook a lot, and thus use a lot of heat. Yea, admittedly I’m not a raw-foods person. I come from a Polish ethnic family and even though what I eat is very different from what they ate (lots of starch and meat fat and nothing green or yellow), I still tend to favor hot, cooked meals. As such, my carbon footprint is larger than for those good, progressive folk who get by on nuts, salads and raw brocolli. But there’s something very familiar and comforting about having a steamy plate full of calories under my chin, come dinner time — even in July! With me, the old tradition lives on (even though the spices and basic ingredients are all different).
So what’s on the menu? Here’s a list of my main dishes at present. I go back and forth between these items, making enough for 8 or 10 meals and then moving on to another item to sustain me for a few weeks.
– Black beans / rice or cornbread, with broccoli and yam or yellow squash
– Black bean soup w bread, yam or yellow squash
– Veg chili, red beans and lentils, with broccoli and yam or yellow squash
– Green split pea soup (no ham) with bread, broccoli and yam or yellow squash
– Lentil / tomato soup w bread, yam or yellow squash
– Beans baked in molasses and onions w whole grain raisin bread, yam or yellow squash
– Lentil / barley / mushroom soup w baked potato, broccoli and squash or yam
– Black eyed peas / rice or cornbread w yam or yellow squash
– White bean / kale / tomato soup w bread, yam or yellow squash
– White bean / broccoli soup w red vinegar, bread, yam or yellow squash
– Pinto bean stew w wheat noodles or baked potato, broccoli and yam or yellow squash
– Lentil / carrot / ginger soup w bread, yam or yellow squash
– Baked lentil loaf w sauteed mushrooms, baked potatos, yam or yellow squash
– Ratatouille (zucchini, eggplant, tofu, bread crumbs) w rice, yam or yellow squash
– Curried eggplant with peas, rice, yam or yellow squash
– Noodle casserole w tomato, green pepper, onion and tofu, with yam or yellow squash
– Stir fry (broccoli, red cabbage, red pepper, onions, tempah, garlic) w rice (sweet or short brown)
– Whole wheat pasta, orzo or aroboli rice w lentil/onion sauce, sauteed split mushrooms, steamed broccoli
– Garlic/chick pea/red lentil/cracked wheat soup, with yam or yellow squash
– Falafel with tahini sauce, bread, brocolli, yam or yellow squash
– Red Beans, hot peppers, cumin w/ rice, salsa, yam or yellow squash
– Pasta with kale/red cabbage/garlic, sauteed zucchini and portabello mushroom
– Pasta sauces: Tomato; Lentil/onion with basil pesto; Green pepper and onion w red vinegar
FINAL POINT: Most foodies love farmers markets. Up to now I haven’t given those markets much attention, as they are usually provisional affairs open at a odd times in odd places without good parking. But this past weekend I discovered a more institutional farmer’s market — some snobby foodies might not even consider it a farmer’s market. It’s in South Paterson, NJ, about 5 miles from my house, and I came across it by accident on a photo expedition. It impressed me by its size and scope (it’s not a handful of tables in a town square, but a series of warehouse buildings along a two block stretch where food merchants set up bins on the sidewalk and along the curb). So I got out and walked around, and was quickly astounded by the low prices and high quality of the stuff for sale on those bins. I picked up some apples and tomatos and strawberries at half to 3/4 of the supermarket price.
Most of the sellers aren’t farmers but food wholesalers, although supposedly some farmers set up tables and sell direct during the summer months. So maybe the apples came from Chile and the strawberries from Mexico and the tomatos from Florida or such. This market is not necessarily local, but neither am I. In fact, it’s patronized largely by the local Arab and Hispanic neighborhoods. It’s what “one-worldism” is truly about, once you get past the elitist idealism of the Barack Obama / PBS crowd (to which most “foodies” subscribe). It’s gritty and industrial; it’s not organic and there aren’t any Starbucks nearby (in fact, there are classic old diners to either side of it!). Here’s a pic. My kind of place — I’m definitely going back!
Jim,
Glad you found a place to buy the kinds of food you like. That’s always a nice thing to have happen in a person’s life.
I, however, have a different approach to food. I have never given it too much attention–unless medical problems demanded such attention. For instance, when people for whom it was my responsibility to care required strict diets (such as diabetic diets, low fat diets, low sodium diets–and combos of any of these and all of these) I would very strictly follow such food requirements in cooking and baking for them; and because I was making that food for them, I would eat the same myself. I am well acquainted with following very strict, healthful diets.
Yet, when it comes right down to it, I just can’t get myself all worked up over following such very strict diets. Perhaps the underlying problem here was that in the end many of the people I was care giver for and who required such diets died from something else entirely unrelated to the diet. Somehow that told me that when your time comes, it comes; and nothing is going to stop it.
I have also seen very overweight people take food most seriously, be most precise in what they eat, how it’s served, become upset when food is not served just as they would wish, etc.
I say put things in perspective. (Here I’m reminded of the commercials I’ve seen for the Gordon Ramsey program called, I believe, “Hell’s Kitchen.” A grown man has tantrums that would not be tolerated in a child, a grown man disrespects people by throwing food at them and/or all over the kitchen, a grown man kicks things around the kitchen–all in the name of getting out a “perfect” meal. Please give me a break! The most that can be said is that food is being served, dinner is being served. The world is NOT being saved from extinction, nor is even one human life being saved. If anything would turn me off food and its preparation even the commercials for this program are capable of doing just that. But I digress.)
In the end I find that an attempt at a good balance of the various foods (in whatever form one may wish to take that good balance) is most appropriate.
I also have two words of advice to people who are always hungry for “something” but don’t know what it is they might like to eat: Green vegetables. The real clue that one may not be getting enough veggies is when one feels that hunger that “nothing” seems to be able to “fix.” Green vegetables will always do the trick, I’ve found.
Another thing I’ve noticed about food in my life: I can eat something for long periods of time, love it, almost want it for every meal. Suddenly, I will wake up one morning and never eat that thing again. This has happened over and over again in my life. It’s almost as if a switch is turned off. Most likely this phenomenon is related to something in my metabolism.
I must also say that there is one diet I’ve seen lately that I think will prove to be a real scam. I saw a medical doctor (on a program that gets a lot of attention by a lot of people) promoting this diet on TV–this diet amounts to eating almost entirely raw diets. And the doctor was touting the idea that if one eats this diet religiously, one WILL extend one’s life to perhaps 150 years! Good grief!
I had two thoughts about this: First, the thought of spending even 75 more years of my life eating raw vegetables just so that I could live 75 more years had absolutely no interest for me. Second, as I tho’t about it, I found that I really had no interest in extending my life another 75 years. After having lived the years I have lived and gone thru the things I have gone thru in the years I have lived, I really can’t say that the tho’t of living another entire life held that much interest for me. But it did make me think that the boomer generation just can’t face the fact that they are actually getting old and perhaps should give some tho’t to the end of life. I’m astonished that it seems the boomer generation actually “bought” (
Comment by MCS — March 26, 2009 @ 11:04 am
Jim,
Glad you found a place to buy the kinds of food you like. That’s always a nice thing to have happen in a person’s life.
I, however, have a different approach to food. I have never given it too much attention–unless medical problems demanded such attention. For instance, when people for whom it was my responsibility to care required strict diets (such as diabetic diets, low fat diets, low sodium diets–and combos of any of these and all of these) I would very strictly follow such food requirements in cooking and baking for them; and because I was making that food for them, I would eat the same myself. I am well acquainted with following very strict, healthful diets.
Yet, when it comes right down to it, I just can’t get myself all worked up over following such very strict diets. Perhaps the underlying problem here was that in the end many of the people I was care giver for and who required such diets died from something else entirely unrelated to the diet. Somehow that told me that when your time comes, it comes; and nothing is going to stop it.
I have also seen very overweight people take food most seriously, be most precise in what they eat, how it’s served, become upset when food is not served just as they would wish, etc.
I say put things in perspective. (Here I’m reminded of the commercials I’ve seen for the Gordon Ramsey program called, I believe, “Hell’s Kitchen.” A grown man has tantrums that would not be tolerated in a child, a grown man disrespects people by throwing food at them and/or all over the kitchen, a grown man kicks things around the kitchen–all in the name of getting out a “perfect” meal. Please give me a break! The most that can be said is that food is being served, dinner is being served. The world is NOT being saved from extinction, nor is even one human life being saved. If anything would turn me off food and its preparation even the commercials for this program are capable of doing just that. But I digress.)
In the end I find that an attempt at a good balance of the various foods (in whatever form one may wish to take that good balance) is most appropriate.
I also have two words of advice to people who are always hungry for “something” but don’t know what it is they might like to eat: Green vegetables. The real clue that one may not be getting enough veggies is when one feels that hunger that “nothing” seems to be able to “fix.” Green vegetables will always do the trick, I’ve found.
Another thing I’ve noticed about food in my life: I can eat something for long periods of time, love it, almost want it for every meal. Suddenly, I will wake up one morning and never eat that thing again. This has happened over and over again in my life. It’s almost as if a switch is turned off. Most likely this phenomenon is related to something in my metabolism.
I must also say that there is one diet I’ve seen lately that I think will prove to be a real scam. I saw a medical doctor (on a program that gets a lot of attention by a lot of people) promoting this diet on TV–this diet amounts to eating almost entirely raw diets. And the doctor was touting the idea that if one eats this diet religiously, one WILL extend one’s life to perhaps 150 years! Good grief!
I had two thoughts about this: First, the thought of spending even 75 more years of my life eating raw vegetables just so that I could live 75 more years had absolutely no interest for me. Second, as I tho’t about it, I found that I really had no interest in extending my life another 75 years. After having lived the years I have lived and gone thru the things I have gone thru in the years I have lived, I really can’t say that the tho’t of living another entire life held that much interest for me. But it did make me think that the boomer generation just can’t face the fact that they are actually getting old and perhaps should give some tho’t to the end of life. I’m astonished that it seems the boomer generation actually “bought” (and continues to buy) the idea that “young” is the only thing to be and even that it is the BEST thing to be.
But in the end, I just don’t care that much about food, never have.
I am glad that you have found a place where you like to find the kinds of food you want to eat. I am a firm believer in finding joy in life where one can find it. Enjoying perusing a food mart and finding foods that interest one is certainly a positive thing for you. And saving some money on getting what one wants and what one appreciates is not bad either.
MCS
Comment by MCS — March 26, 2009 @ 11:04 am
Jim,
Glad you found a place to buy the kinds of food you like. That’s always a nice thing to have happen in a person’s life.
I, however, have a different approach to food. I have never given it too much attention–unless medical problems demanded such attention. For instance, when people for whom it was my responsibility to care required strict diets (such as diabetic diets, low fat diets, low sodium diets–and combos of any of these and all of these) I would very strictly follow such food requirements in cooking and baking for them; and because I was making that food for them, I would eat the same myself. I am well acquainted with following very strict, healthful diets.
Yet, when it comes right down to it, I just can’t get myself all worked up over following such very strict diets. Perhaps the underlying problem here was that in the end many of the people I was care giver for and who required such diets died from something else entirely unrelated to the diet. Somehow that told me that when your time comes, it comes; and nothing is going to stop it.
I have also seen very overweight people take food most seriously, be most precise in what they eat, how it’s served, become upset when food is not served just as they would wish, etc.
I say put things in perspective. (Here I’m reminded of the commercials I’ve seen for the Gordon Ramsey program called, I believe, “Hell’s Kitchen.” A grown man has tantrums that would not be tolerated in a child, a grown man disrespects people by throwing food at them and/or all over the kitchen, a grown man kicks things around the kitchen–all in the name of getting out a “perfect” meal. Please give me a break! The most that can be said is that food is being served, dinner is being served. The world is NOT being saved from extinction, nor is even one human life being saved. If anything would turn me off food and its preparation even the commercials for this program are capable of doing just that. But I digress.)
In the end I find that an attempt at a good balance of the various foods (in whatever form one may wish to take that good balance) is most appropriate.
I also have two words of advice to people who are always hungry for “something” but don’t know what it is they might like to eat: Green vegetables. The real clue that one may not be getting enough veggies is when one feels that hunger that “nothing” seems to be able to “fix.” Green vegetables will always do the trick, I’ve found.
Another thing I’ve noticed about food in my life: I can eat something for long periods of time, love it, almost want it for every meal. Suddenly, I will wake up one morning and never eat that thing again. This has happened over and over again in my life. It’s almost as if a switch is turned off. Most likely this phenomenon is related to something in my metabolism.
I must also say that there is one diet I’ve seen lately that I think will prove to be a real scam. I saw a medical doctor (on a program that gets a lot of attention by a lot of people) promoting this diet on TV–this diet amounts to eating almost entirely raw diets. And the doctor was touting the idea that if one eats this diet religiously, one WILL extend one’s life to perhaps 150 years! Good grief!
I had two thoughts about this: First, the thought of spending even 75 more years of my life eating raw vegetables just so that I could live 75 more years had absolutely no interest for me. Second, as I tho’t about it, I found that I really had no interest in extending my life another 75 years. After having lived the years I have lived and gone thru the things I have gone thru in the years I have lived, I really can’t say that the tho’t of living another entire life held that much interest for me. But it did make me think that the boomer generation just can’t face the fact that they are actually getting old and perhaps should give some tho’t to the end of life. I’m astonished that it seems the boomer generation actually “bought” (
Comment by MCS — March 26, 2009 @ 11:04 am