Archive for the ‘Evolution Of FV’ Category

Lent. Yum.

1 Comment
Posted 24 Mar 2011 — by FV
Category As I see it., Evolution Of FV, Food Holidays

I am experiencing a little pang of guilt this morning. See, us Catholics are knee deep in the Lent this time of year and I have chose to abstain from a few different things. First, let me clear up what Lent is the best that I can. Lent is not much different from Ramadan or any meditation period where you try to better yourself, sometimes even through abstinance and reflection. I think Richard Simmons has a version of Lent called “sweatin to the oldies”. A lot of confusion and debate rises up when Lent is mentioned, but it really is less complicated than people make it. Many people choose paths to better themselves and in the process usually have to ‘give something up’, Lent is no different. There, comprender? (yep, by lingual baby, I don’t mess around!)

Now, on to my guilt (then second most important thing to Catholics, HAHA) I gave up or have chosen to abstain from 4 things during Lent. 1)Any meat besides seafood. 2)All added and/or processed sugars. In anything!! 3)Alcohol. 4)Eating after 8PM. Ok, I know, these seem more health orientated than religious, but imagine the amount of prayer you would need to live with these guidelines for 40 days! It’s only been almost three weeks and the smell of meatloaf weakens my knees.

What this has forced me to do is be much more creative to maintain my nutrition levels (mainly concerning protein intake) and my interest in each meal. Luckily there are seemingly endless variations of foods that live in the water and I don’t have any seafood allergies! It’s breakfast that has been a bit challenging. There’s no unsweetened, fish based cereal that I could eat without proper alcohol consumption, but that’s out too. So, honey is ok because it is not processed, or at least you can buy it that way. Peanut butter can also be bought without sugar in it. Lastly, bread has been the most difficult, almost every brand has sugar, even high end organic breads usually have organic cane juice, a fancy word for processed sugar, albeit organic, but still processed. I found a brand of German pumpernickel bread at my beloved Aldi that contains no sugar at all! No preservatives either, only whole grain. Pumpernickel is sort of a moist bread almost the consistency of banana bread or zuchini bread, but more dense. It comes pre-sliced and must be kept in the refrigerator once opened. It has nuts in it and is just delicious. So with these three ingredients I had this this morning for breakfast…

Is this really a sacrifice??

If this is a sacrifice, then count me in. It was tough, but somebody had to eat it! The point is, if we give up something not so good for us it forces us to be a little more creative. As always, I implore you, get out there, read your ingredients, know what is going in your mouth and eat to live, don’t live to eat.

Abstain and learn,

FV

A garden, a grill and a guy.

5 Comments
Posted 05 May 2010 — by FV
Category As I see it., Evolution Of FV, garden, Really??

Tuesday, May 4th. Gardening day. I would like to share with you some more progress on the garden that the Duchess and I are working on so diligently. I also have a dilemma with which I hope you can help (scroll to the bottom of post if you can’t wait). First, let’s get to the garden.

The progress in the yard has been amazing. The old pool is torn down completely now, (a project started a year ago) the garden in all sprouted and growing and ready for the next wave of crops to be planted and there are tree removal and patio laying plans on the horizon. Today the Duchess and I weeded and then she secured the garden fence and tied lead strings to the fence for the pea plants to climb.

Go Peas Go!!

The garden is slowly, but surely, turning green.

You’ll notice a square in the upper left hand corner that will be the home to more veggies soon like cukes, zukes and peppers. Our indoor seedlings of tomatoes and peppers are itching to get into some outdoor dirt. The space where the pool was is currently a huge sandbox and the old deck has served as a makeshift shed. There’s Choc exploring!

The old pool is missed, but better things are to come.

We decided to cook over an open wood grill. In the ongoing effort to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup, a homemade BBQ sauce was to be made. I started with onions and garlic.

These were lightly sauteed and then I added one of the few safe non-fresh goods.

Nothing added, just tomatoes.

The recipe called for brown sugar. I am currently against the use of processed sugars, but still have some wool pulled over my eyes and haven’t gotten away from it completely.I compromised with a tablespoon of brown sugar and substituted honey for the rest of the sweetness. I didn’t have Worcestershire sauce so I added a dash of soy sauce. I also had to tinker with the vinegar to honey ratio to get just the right taste. The sauce turned out great and made the chicken just perfect on the open flame wood grill!

I baked some potatoes indoor and seasoned them for a quick stay on the grill with the chicken almost done.

For a vegetable we had roasted cabbage. Just cut into sections drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake for about 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees or until the edges start to brown.

Yum!!

Everything about the day was rolling along very nicely until dinner time.

I would like to share with you and hopefully get some feedback on a problem I am having. My middle child, Choc, is a very finicky eater. I am scrambling for solutions to this situation. Yes, I, FV, am experiencing a food problem that I am having a very difficult time solving. Choc is an amazing kid, as I expect you would think I’d say. He is also a child who is stuck in the rut that I rant and rave about all of the time. He is, for lack of a better term, addicted to bad food. If it’s breaded, fried, smothered in ketchup or sugar, he’ll eat it. If not, well, the fight begins. As you may have gathered Choc’s Mom and I are divorced. I have the boys exactly 1/2 of the time. It is my opinion that the boys eat better with me than anywhere else.  Choc is a very intelligent and emotional young boy. He is very artistic and creative. You would think this would translate into food, but it hasn’t. The secret I have is that most dinner times are tainted by his obstinance to eating and my anger rears as a result. This kid can go without eating a single bite rather than eat the food I put before him. I have contemplated every angle of what shrinks might say. Here’s the facts…

1)Choc will eat every bite of a food he likes, i.e. pizza, spaghetti, breaded fried chicken or pork, ground meat from any animal and mostly all vegetables. He will NEVER turn down a sweet snack like cookies, cake or candy, NEVER!  (I don’t want to sound like a bitter ex, but these are the staples at his Mom’s house)

2)Choc will not eat any whole meats like chicken, steak or pork. He will eat fish, usually, and some fruits.

3)Eating seems to be an inconvenience at times for Choc.

4)It seems that, besides sugar, texture has a lot to do with Choc’s resistance to certain foods.

5)I feel like I am going to lose my mind over this issue. My oldest, Bird, is a year away from being a teenager and his appetite is growing everyday, but he really had no eating issues before. My youngest is still very impressionable and seems to follow suit if tensions rise over eating. Choc, sometimes, just refuses to eat.

Look, these things I know. Kids won’t starve themselves. I know my divorce has put some stress on the kid’s lives. I am not some crazy foodie parent putting vegan-friendly-organic-burger-shaped patties in front of my boys. We’re talking about meat and potatoes. I’m not looking for a litany of reasons this is happening, I’m looking for ways to break this trend of irrational food resistance. My dear Mom, TooRedLyn, would have just strong-armed the point (and the chicken) into my head. I am trying to avoid that method.

So, for the sake of my dear Choc, does anyone have any ideas I could try? I am humbly awaiting your advice.

“How does this make you feel?” -Siggy Freud

FV

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How’s that spelt?

4 Comments
Posted 10 Feb 2010 — by FV
Category As I see it., Evolution Of FV

Had toast for breakfast today. Two pieces. With spelt.

What’s spelt? Good Question. Spelt has been popping up in all sorts of healthy foods, organic products and Whole Foods type stores.

Spelt is the brighter, thicker looking grain. The commercial wheat is the grey-ish sick looking grain, yuck.

Turns out that spelt is just wheat, but better, stronger and more full of vitamins and protein.

One of my recent queries was into the Caveman Diet propagated by many but recently brought to media attention by John Durant, an online advertiser and founder of Hunter-Gatherer.com.  Mr. Durant and the participants in this lifestyle eat only foods that could be hunted and gathered in the same manner our ancient ancestors could. The philosophy prohibits consumption of bread or any processed wheat products.  Now, in my quest for health and evolution I have tried to eliminate wheat products. I initially strayed from bleached, processed wheat. Then I began to look at the necessity, if any, of wheat in our diet. My theory was based only in my own observation of the qualities of flour. If I take a bowl with water in it and add flour, the water thickens. The more flour I add, the thicker the mixture becomes until it is eventually a thick, dough-like blob. This sounds like a benign outcome and a base for dough, right?

Sure, but my gut throws up a red flag. We, as humans, are around 80% water, right? You see where I’m going. I don’t want to be a thick, dough-like blob. Seemingly many people do. Now, certainly our bodies are a tad more complex than a bowl of water, and I’m sure that they are capable of processing some amounts of flour. But look around. Lots of dough balls rolling around the streets of our world, a crazy amount of flour based foods available at every bite.

Back to Mr. Durant. Cavepeople didn’t process grains into flour and bake beautiful baguettes. They may have chewed on some fruits at the ends of ancient wheat shoots and even smashed up multiple grains they gathered to make a bowl of the first ever granola. But, I’m almost certain that fine milling, bleach and potassium bromide came along many years after fire!

This brings me to spelt. I mentioned that it is like wheat, just better. How? Well, I will elude to the egg industry for the answer. Anyone remember hearing in the past twenty years how chicken egg shells have become thinner and more brittle and the nutritional value of the egg has dropped almost in direct proportion to the mass overproduction of eggs? I’ll make this quick. Pesticides, poor living conditions and sub-standard feed all drastically reduce the ability for a chicken to produce calcium for the shell and nutrients for the egg. This is all a result of over production and an industry turning it’s head to quality in the name of profit. Open up an organic, cage free egg dozen at the store and FEEL the difference, you can feel how thick it is. Just how a beer mug feels different to your hand than a wine glass. Then drop anextra dollar and take them home and eat ‘em, mmm.

The wheat industry has also been a victim of overproduction and profit pitfalls. Modern wheat has changed dramatically over the decades as it has been bred to be easier to grow and harvest, to increase yield, and to have a high gluten content for the production of high-volume commercial baked goods. (www.spelt.com) The outer husk of mass produced wheat has become thin. The nutritional value has been sacrificed for high gluten content. (Sound familiar egg industry?) The nutritional value is also depleted due to the insufficient protection from the thin husk. But, in the name of mass, speedy production to feed our obsession with breads, cake and cereals.

Dough balls!

Spelt! A grain untouched by mass production. Why? It’s shell or, uh, husk is too damn tough. It’s high in protein and fatty acids, great stuff for bodies, but no so much for Texas Toast. Processing and yield would get in the way of profits, aw. Spelt is the great, strong ancestor of wheat. Just like the caveman is the great, strong ancestor of you and me. Look for it, try it, spend a little bit more money on it.

So, I’m adding spelt to the list of things I want to put in my mouth. It’s under-processed, high nutritional value seems very logical to me no matter how it’s spelt!

We must stop thinking fat,

FV

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