I Don’t Do . . . (Fill in the Blank)

First off I want to thank my co-workers for providing me with what is turning out to be a nearly endless supply of blog post ideas. I recently had a conversation in the lunch room with a teller that led to a discussion on food. It started out the way my workplace food conversations normally start: “So, I heard you’re a vegetarian?” After the requisite questions, including “What do you eat then?” the conversation turned to healthier eating in general. She had recently watched Oprah (there’s another future post idea) and now was thinking more about what she was eating.

The conversation was actually very enjoyable as she seemed to be open to making some changes and learning about new foods, but then she stopped me cold when she said, “I don’t do fruit.” Don’t do fruit? What does that even mean? It was a solid declaration like, “I don’t do drugs.” End of story. She said she’ll eat an occasional apple, but that’s about it. She hates bananas, strawberries, etc., etc., etc. I still don’t know what to make of this. And truth be told, she is not the first person to say this exact same statement to me. I’ve also heard variations such as, “I don’t do vegetables” and “I don’t do whole grains.”

 

We all have specific foods we don’t like. I recently saw a TV ad for Miracle Whip that asked people to pick a side. I chose to side with the man who says he’d rather lick a boot than eat Miracle Whip. But to disregard an entire food category? Before you jump in and say, “That’s what you’ve done!” keep in mind that vegetarians make a conscious decision to remove meat from their diet, which they are careful to replace with other protein-rich foods. It is not a casual dismissal without regard to the diet as a whole, which is what the “I don’t do . . .” people seem to, well, do. Why don’t I ever hear someone say, “I don’t do artificial sweeteners,” or “I don’t do fast food”?

What I’m Eating for Dessert

Over the last few months I’ve had occasion to share some baked goods with others. The holidays provide many opportunities to bake with pumpkin, which I did, and since I still have a large quantity of blueberries in my freezer I thought I’d trot them out in the middle of winter as a nice treat. Of course, chocolate is welcome any time of the year, at least in my home.

Pumpkin Walnut Bread: This recipe represented my first attempt at baking for others with the oven in my new apartment. I was a bit nervous about how it would turn out, but this recipe did really well, and made a delicious loaf.

Blueberry Banana Bread: This recipe is from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. It’s a nice twist on traditional banana bread that’s not too sweet and works well with whole grain flours. Be careful not to over bake as it dries out easily without the large amount of fat found in most quick breads.   

Chocolate-Blueberry Cake: This is also from FFVK. It is delicious and I can’t wait to try it again. I used a 60/40 whole wheat to white flour mix, which tasted just fine. This is not as sweet as a typical layer cake so I made some Martha Stewart blueberry cheesecake topping to go with it. It meant the cake was no longer 144 calories per serving, but it tasted great, and who wants a lo-cal dessert on a Friday night with your girlfriends?

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (see Recipes page): My favorite for simply keeping in the freezer for those times when I need a cookie . . . NOW! This recipe is from Bethenny Frankel. It is dairy free (if you use vegan chocolate chips), very low fat, and also works well with whole grain flours.

The next time you need to make a dessert for a party or just for a treat at home give one of these a try. There’s no reason dessert can’t be delicious and cruelty free.

Fish are Animals, Beans are Not

The other day I had the pleasure of using my vegetarianism as an excuse to keep from trying pickled herring on a saltine. The wielder of the herring said to me: “But if you’re a vegetarian you eat fish.” Um, not the last time I checked, I thought. My actual response was more polite. I simply said, “No, I don’t eat fish.”

Once the herring experiment was complete and I was breathing through my nose again, the herring man turned to me and said, “You really don’t eat fish?” I replied: “No, I don’t eat any animals.” His response? “I guess I never thought of fish as animals.” I admit here that my next statement was a little less polite. I said to him: “They’re not plants.” Well, I mean come on. Fish have blood, a brain, eyes . . . they’re animals! They may not be furry, cuddly, or cute, but they’re animals. Any semi-functioning biologist would put them in the kingdom animalia. The only other options, according to the game 20 Questions, would be vegetable or mineral and fish are certainly neither of those.

I tried explaining that pescatarians eat fish, but not vegetarians. That got me nowhere. This confusion about the animal kingdom ranks up there, in my mind, with the girl who told me she thought beans were meat (as Davey Barry would say, I swear I am not making this up). It took every ounce of self-control I have not to burst out laughing or screaming. Beans come from plants. They do not have blood, a brain or eyes. Beans are not animals (kingdom=plantae).

Sometimes I hardly know whether to laugh or weep.

More Government Regs are not the Answer

First Lady Michelle Obama is asking restaurants to reduce the serving sizes in kid’s meals and include healthier side dish options such as carrot sticks and apple slices. I applaud Mrs. Obama’s desire to eliminate childhood obesity, and I would even consider supporting stronger government regulations . . . if I thought it would fix the problem. American children are not obese because their only options when eating out are a cheeseburger with fries or a grilled cheese sandwich with fries. It’s an entire cultural mindset that needs to change.

Americans have somehow managed to create a mental disconnect between what they eat and their health. And yes, excess weight is a health issue, not a cosmetic one, especially when it is spreading through the population so broadly it can only be categorized as pandemic. No one would suggest that the occasional trip to McDonald’s is what’s hurting our children, but rather the constant flow of junk foods into their bodies. Even at home they are surrounded by fruit snacks, chips, candy, and sodas. Even healthier foods, such as yogurt, are filled with processed sweeteners and petroleum-based food coloring, not to mention the brand that offers a cup of M&Ms on the side.

It is time for Americans to begin paying attention to what they are actually eating. Read those labels. Get to know the ingredients and how many calories are contained in the foods you eat, what a serving size actually is, what foods trigger cravings you can’t control, and what foods should never cross your threshold. I might be able to keep a bag of tortilla chips in my pantry and never over eat, but I could never keep a bag of chocolates without consuming half the bag in one sitting. I’m learning how my mind and body respond to the foods I eat. I’m learning how to take responsibility.

Fast food restaurants and junk foods didn’t come out of nowhere and take us by surprise, making us all fat against our will. Over several decades Americans have ceded the primary responsibility for our own food to those who are willing to manufacture it for us, hoping we will be back again and again begging for more; paying them our hard-earned dollars for the privilege of making us sick and fat.

So They Say

I have heard it all my life. I probably even heard it on Sesame Street. I can just imagine Kermit the Frog telling Cookie Monster that he should think about cutting down on the cookies and exercise more. I have a vague memory of the Count wearing a John McEnroe-style sweatband around his head. Was Richard Simmons ever on Sesame Street? Probably.

If the eat-better-and-exercise-more drum was beating when I was a child in the early ‘80s it is pounding even louder now. As I write this approximately 60% of the American population is overweight. A full 30% is obese. The message is virtually everywhere we go. Even Barnes & Noble has their front display table devoted to healthy eating, dieting, and exercise books.

They say if you eat better and exercise more you will feel better. You will have energy like you never had before. I didn’t think they were lying. I mean, eating better and exercising certainly couldn’t make you feel worse, unless you pulled a hamstring or something, right? If I had known exactly how great eating better and exercising would make me feel I would have started sooner. But, it wasn’t until I needed to do something about my weight gain that I started paying far more attention to what I was eating. I added exercise in the form of jogging, pilates, and then yoga to supplement the diet. Jogging has since gone by the wayside; my knees couldn’t take the several miles a week I was running. But I still do pilates and yoga regularly.

And I feel great. But even better? On the occasions when I do let my eating slide back into old habits or allow laziness to win out over the muscle-burning yoga practice, I feel far less than great. And the difference is so noticeable it motivates me to get back into that warrior pose.

Eating Healthy Food = Gag!

Admit it. Many of you think healthy foods are yucky. You grew up in an era when so called “health foods” tasted like cardboard and looked like rabbit food. In fact, you might still refer to vegetables and the like as rabbit food on rare occasions you speak of such things (and then only to make fun of the people around you who can recognize celeriac). You have visions of your parents or grandparents eating that high fiber cereal that looks like twigs yet doesn’t taste quite as good as what you image a twig would taste like. If this is what you think healthy eating is like then you are dead wrong. In fact, you’ve never been wronger.

I’m going to confess something that I am not proud of. I was an extraordinarily picky eater as a child. I was so picky that the thought of eating a sandwich made with whole wheat bread would make me want to cry. I exaggerate not. The only fruits I liked were apples, bananas, and green grapes. Everything else was out. The only vegetables I liked were iceberg lettuce, carrots (only raw), celery, and corn. Everything else was totally grodey. Then, guess what? I grew up! Over the course of several years I retried the things I used to despise: whole grain breads, squash, Brussels sprouts, spinach, peaches, strawberries, and much more and found that not only did they not trigger my well-exercised gag reflex, but I actually enjoyed eating them. Nay, I LOVED them. There are things that I still don’t care for (brown rice comes to mind), but I incorporate them into my diet because I’m an adult.

"Health” foods have come a long way in only the last few years. Vegetarianism and its variants are taking off. Organic foods are more popular than ever. Organic grocers like Whole Foods make it possible to try amazing foods like quinoa, fiddleheads, gruyere, and lentils de puy anytime you want. The choices are almost endless. Don’t like soy milk? Try almond, rice, hemp, or coconut. Don’t care for Brussels sprouts? Try preparing them in a different way. Add garlic or red pepper flakes. Stop denying yourself the experience of benefiting from eating well because you think you won’t like it. Grow up.

I Hate it When That Happens

If you read Tuesday’s blog post you know that Mediterranean White Bean Soup is my new favorite, and all day Monday I had been planning on making a pot when I got home from work. It takes close to an hour and a half to make so I wasn’t going to eat it for dinner that night, but would certainly be having it for lunch Tuesday and then there would be the spoonfuls while finishing to make sure there was enough salt, pepper, and vinegar, not to mention the lovely aroma of olive oil and rosemary floating through the apartment.

I had purchased enough navy beans on my last trip to Whole Foods to make a double batch of the soup, which of course requires adding more water to the soup (duh). Unfortunately though, I forgot that in my previous attempt at a double batch I had cut down on the water a bit (so it would fit in my Dutch oven better) and then partially covered the pot to prevent too much reduction. The consistency and flavor were perfect.

This time, for some inconceivable reason, other than a temporary loss of sanity, I used the full amount of water AND partially covered the pot. I didn’t realize my error until the beans were done and I had pureed several cups of the soup. It was a watery mess. The flavor was fine, but the consistency was totally off. I sank into despair. My only hope was that it would thicken as it cooled. I set some aside for lunch the next day, left the remainder in the pot, covered it, and put it in the refrigerator until I could come up with some way to redeem my error.

I ate the lunch portion dutifully the next day, and though thinner than I would like, it had thickened up a bit and tasted great. As I contemplated the soup before me an idea hit me: add brown basmati to the soup to take up some room in the “extra” broth. It was the perfect solution; it bulked up the soup and added more whole grain to my meal. I made a few cups of the rice that night, added some to the soup, froze the rest, and then cleaned up my kitchen feeling proud of myself. I had turned a culinary disappointment into a victory.

What I’m Eating for Dinner

It’s been a while since I did a post about the newest recipes I’ve tried, and I’ve recently tried a few great ones. They are listed below with links so you can try them yourself.

Mediterranean White Bean Soup (see Recipes page): This recipe comes from The Joy of Cooking. It’s called “pantry soup” in the Mediterranean region because it is made with pantry staples such as dried beans, olive oil, and canned diced tomatoes. This simple soup is absolutely my favorite thing right now. It’s super cheap, and making a double batch is just as easy as a single batch. It freezes well, which means you can have delicious, hot lunches all through the winter.

Red Lentil Sweet Potato Curry: I found this recipe after I bought a couple of sweet potatoes because they were on sale for almost nothing. I’m not a huge fan of sweet potatoes, so I went looking for a recipe I could add them to rather than eat them on their own. This recipe is so good I made it again the next week with some green lentils I had on hand (since I had used all the red I bought for the first batch). The green were just as good, however, because they take longer to cook the pieces of sweet potato completely disintegrated. This dish is even better served with warmed pitas.

Quick and Easy Potato Soup: This recipe comes via my favorite food blog, Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. I’ve only tried it with soy milk, which makes the soup come out kind of frothy, but the flavor is wonderful and mild. I’m not sure if other non-dairy milks will have the same frothy effect once blended. Make it in small batches you can eat within a few days, because it does not freeze well. The milk turns grainy and the potatoes lose the nice texture they developed while baking. This makes a very quick soup if you microwave the potatoes, but I think it’s worth the time to bake them. Add 1 cup of canned great northern beans for a protein boost.

Post recipes or links in the comments section below to share with others what you’ve been cooking.