I have managed to salvage the pics out of the trash but now have to manually go back in and re-add them. With my arm how it is,it may be awile. Depens on how well the
Friday, July 10, 2015
Did I mention I hate Google??
I'm risking Big Brother or the Google gods putting a hex on me but yeah. Free speech and all....so I was on my phone deleting pictures to make up space where evidently I deleted the pictures from my drive or plus or whatever the hell and this in turn, deleted many of my blog pictures.
I have managed to salvage the pics out of the trash but now have to manually go back in and re-add them. With my arm how it is,it may be awile. Depens on how well the Norco and wine Tylenol and ice work to kill the pain. Early blog growing pains-even more are missing from my other blog :(
I have managed to salvage the pics out of the trash but now have to manually go back in and re-add them. With my arm how it is,it may be awile. Depens on how well the
Middle Eastern Vegetarian Madness!!!
What you see here, is "fast food." From a pita palace. I am lucky enough to live in a metropolis that offers cuisines from around the world, and from cultures that typically don't eat meat, such as India and much of the middle east. Now lamb and chicken is often used, and of course at a pita place you can get the classic lamb meat Gyros and chicken kabobs.
This however is the vegetarian lunch platter, featuring classic staple items such as Hummus
More about Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, More on Baba ghanoush Stuffed grape leaves, Falafel, Tabbouleh Salad. Baba Ghanoush is an eggplant dip, the falafel is like hush puppies. Tabbouleh salad is oil,lemon, parsley, mint and tomatoes with bulgur, classically. Tab salad
Often this is what dissuades people from eating vegetarian because they associate it with granola and sprouts-or stuff like this. Now, this stuff happens to be delicious-but it's 'exotic' and outside of a big city or the countries of origin-you probably never had it and find it gross sounding or looking.
It's anything but. I grew up with a Mom who made fried pork chops and potatoes. I didn't have my first taco until I was 12, so I didn't grow up knowing this stuff, either-I had to be 'turned onto' it.
So I urge you to keep an open mind. Though I'm going to focus on foods most know of and tweek them to be healthy-I still will be introducing different cultural foods as well.
Go get Hummus. Even Aldi's has it. Its in the dip section. Made from chick peas-it's also quite healthy. Traditional has a slight lemony nutty flavor, but now there's all sorts of hummus from roasted garlic to spicy to my favorite-roasted red pepper. If you're near a big town, look for a pita place. Look for tabbouleh salad, often in the deli salad section of grocery stores. I'll be adding the recipes also, but to try before you make at home is always a good idea.
So Google these foods, see what's in them. I provided some links (and yes, I do trust Wiki for food descriptions, food kinda like math-I mean facts are facts with food)
Thursday, July 9, 2015
No excuses at all, even on the road truckers can do it
Please bear with me the next week or so. i broke my right arm (at the elbow) and well....I'm r handed. This has made typing nearly impossible and I'm in pain and pretty crabby as a result. I saw this today however and needed to share.....
Years ago I dated a long-distance truck driver, and I'd go on a few road trips with him. I was always astounded at the amount of shitty food choices available to the truckers. Most truck stops housed fast-food, diners and buffets. That, along with sitting all day getting little exercise, many of them smokers as well and drinkers on off nights-many were prime candidates for heart disease and obesity.
Now here's a guy who embodies exactly the kind of person I want my blog to reach-the atypical vegan. He's not only a truck driver-but a southern right out of Mississippi truck driver and ex-military to boot-I'm certain that his eating style prior to changing it all was as American as they come.
Not only did he change his whole diet, eliminating meats and dairy-he's done it while living in a truck, on the road where again, healthiest food option might be a Subway-and that's an illusion of health.
If HE can do it-anyone can. Here's a little news blurb from the Today show and a link to his Facebook page filled with recipes and tips. See his success story and 65lb weight loss here. Vegan Trucking
Plant-fueled Trucker
Years ago I dated a long-distance truck driver, and I'd go on a few road trips with him. I was always astounded at the amount of shitty food choices available to the truckers. Most truck stops housed fast-food, diners and buffets. That, along with sitting all day getting little exercise, many of them smokers as well and drinkers on off nights-many were prime candidates for heart disease and obesity.
Now here's a guy who embodies exactly the kind of person I want my blog to reach-the atypical vegan. He's not only a truck driver-but a southern right out of Mississippi truck driver and ex-military to boot-I'm certain that his eating style prior to changing it all was as American as they come.
Not only did he change his whole diet, eliminating meats and dairy-he's done it while living in a truck, on the road where again, healthiest food option might be a Subway-and that's an illusion of health.
If HE can do it-anyone can. Here's a little news blurb from the Today show and a link to his Facebook page filled with recipes and tips. See his success story and 65lb weight loss here. Vegan Trucking
Plant-fueled Trucker
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Oil!!!! The OPEC of food choices, the lie of the oils
So I was just on a heart attack support group site, and it's a site for those of us who are under the age of 55 and suddenly found ourselves with a bum ticker-often with no warning and no known risk factors. That is, many were NOT smokers, drinkers, drug users, had diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure. Many were even athletic and fit and ate reasonably healthy to begin with. So for lots of people-genetics played a major role, and stress an even larger one. But I would also venture to guess that diet also contributes a great deal-because things we think are healthy for us are actually very counter-intuitive, like the use of oils.
In my support group the question was posed coconut oil vs olive oil. 1, is coconut oil really all the hype that has made it out to be in terms of being 'healthy' and 'good for us', and is it better than Olive Oil, which has been lauded as some big heart disease antagonist and is allegedly 'good' for our hearts?
Now the hype about coconut oil is really over the top it would seem. Coconut anything-oil, water, flakes seems to be the new superfood health elixir of the Gods thing. I honestly don't know how these trends start or how these bandwagons get their steam and momentum to turn from wagons into rockets but they do. And coconut oil has been put on a pedestal of rubbing it on your skin, hair, eating it will act as some sort of ambiguous cure-all and some fountain of youth.
Here's where "If sounds too good to be true it probably is" steps into the picture. And as one poster on the support group said, it is confusing because there are conflicting reports and studies-coconut oil is healthy vs not healthy. Add this to the newer reports coming out that saturated fats such as butter and bacon grease are not the culprits in CAD or heart disease as once thought, and it's back to Exorcist head spinning in terms of what's ok/safe to eat for maximum health potential.
I was in the coconut oil camp for these two reasons: 1, Olive oil at a high temperature-such as sauteeing or stir frying turns toxic and 2, canola oil is GMO and has been linked to causing heart arrhythmias as a result. This all said, the other oils are known to be 'clogging' kinds, that is-hydrogenated (meaning essentially, fake totally man-made processed in a lab oils) or saturated. This just means it has molecules in it that can raise the over-all cholesterol levels in the body and may in fact increase the propensity of plague building.
In a different post I reminded you that in the 80's the latest food trend/obsession was 'fat free'-when the studies came out suggesting that saturated fats was what was causing everybody to have grabbers and stroke out. Far be it for people to critically think or be reasonable, many people immediately eschewed any sort of fat and the food industry had a billion dollar field day replacing normally fat riddled products (mayonnaise, sour cream, ice cream, etc) with 'fat free' versions. Fat-free salad dressings, fat free cheese-shit that normal is comprised of nothing BUT fat now contained none, and people suffered.
Did they lose weight? Yes. Did they have less heart disease? No. They did have hair falling out, they did have depression and suicidal ideation, they did have lethargy and memory issues. The body needs fats to help expedite the glucose to the cells and in particular, the brain. It needs it to build some stores of fat to regulate body temperature and energy production. This all being said, eliminating all fats from the diet isn't an answer to avoiding the oil crisis, either.
Then I discovered these videos. I will encapsulate them for you because I often hate clicking on a link of an interesting-to-me-topic, only to be taken to a video I don't have time or feel like watching. (I can read a lot faster than a video) so simply put: No oil in excess is good for anybody. Not Olive, not coconut, not canola, not flaxseed, not fish oil. None. What is excess? Everyday.
Think about it. You are pouring pure oil on your foods, pure fat. You are dipping your bread in pure fats, you are pouring it on your salad. EVERYDAY. You are stirfrying your veggies in it, you are cooking meats in it, you are drizzing ontop of everything.
"But Olive Oil is heart healthy! Look at all the Italians and Greeks, they have no heart disease like us!"
That's because they eat lots of grains, vegetables and fruits, and drink a lot of wine. They eat a lot of salads and antipastos, they use meat very sparingly, they use it as a side dish, they don't eat it at every meal, and they don't even eat it everyday. They use a lot of beans, they eat fish more than once a week, and they nap during the day and work outside a lot. Their culture is totally different-they are not snacking on baked chips (in oil) they are not eating 100 calorie cookies for a snack (in oil). They are not in a processed food avalanche. They still do their own cooking over there, and those that don't-are fat like us Americans with heart disease to boot.
Oil, along with salt and sugar is in EVERYTHING in the U.S.A. And oil is fat. It doesn't matter if its saturated or not, if its natural or not. Avocados and coconut oils are considered saturated, but they are processed in the body differently than the saturated fat of butter or lard. Two are fruit oils and two are animal. It is thought the fruit oils are better. But they are extremely high in fat and it still remains true that fat will make you fat. If you get fat- that's more stress and strain on the heart. So even if it doesn't clog your arteries, it will still stress out your body and not just for heart reasons.
I don't know a lot about it but I'm pretty sure the Paleo diet is supposed to resemble early man's diet, yes? Well early man wasn't cooking a bunch of crap in oils. So even the meat-eater diet wouldn't support all this oil usage. You don't need to. We have been indoctrinated to believe that we have to cook all of our foods in some sort of substance. You can steam veggies or saute in water and/or broth just as easily as using oil. It's not necessary and it's not wise.
Our bodies need some fat but it's much healthier to get the fats directly from the source, i.e., eat an avocado, munch on some olives, add coconut to something. Even coconut water is better than the oil. Don't use the oils at every meal. If you fry an egg using cooking oil spray for breakfast, slather a coconut oil vegan butter substitute on your toast, then use olive oil on your salad at lunch, then pour a little oo over your grilled chicken breast and pasta at dinner-it may all seem healthy, but that's a lot of oil in a day-now times that by most days. Olive oil has more calories than butter. Saturated smaturated. Cut down on it. Use sparingly. Use as a condiment. It's not a health food, oil is not an elixir and the same holds true for fish oil. Eat the actual fish.
Between using oils for cooking, then using them in supplements (vitamin E, Evening Primrose, Fish oils)-that's a whole lot of oily fatty liquid going into the body and oil and water do not mix. (BTW, you can get the Omega 3's that fish oil contains by using flax, ground flax added to foods gives very similiar benefits. )
Our bodies are comprised mostly of water. It's difficult to digest oils, it can lead to stones in your organs, and difficulty to lose weight no matter how hard you try. I would suggest watching thevideos but bottom line: Limit or eliminate actual liquid oils. And with how expensive they are-at least 10.00 a little bottle or jar-it will keep you thinner and your wallet fatter.
In my support group the question was posed coconut oil vs olive oil. 1, is coconut oil really all the hype that has made it out to be in terms of being 'healthy' and 'good for us', and is it better than Olive Oil, which has been lauded as some big heart disease antagonist and is allegedly 'good' for our hearts?
Now the hype about coconut oil is really over the top it would seem. Coconut anything-oil, water, flakes seems to be the new superfood health elixir of the Gods thing. I honestly don't know how these trends start or how these bandwagons get their steam and momentum to turn from wagons into rockets but they do. And coconut oil has been put on a pedestal of rubbing it on your skin, hair, eating it will act as some sort of ambiguous cure-all and some fountain of youth.
Here's where "If sounds too good to be true it probably is" steps into the picture. And as one poster on the support group said, it is confusing because there are conflicting reports and studies-coconut oil is healthy vs not healthy. Add this to the newer reports coming out that saturated fats such as butter and bacon grease are not the culprits in CAD or heart disease as once thought, and it's back to Exorcist head spinning in terms of what's ok/safe to eat for maximum health potential.
I was in the coconut oil camp for these two reasons: 1, Olive oil at a high temperature-such as sauteeing or stir frying turns toxic and 2, canola oil is GMO and has been linked to causing heart arrhythmias as a result. This all said, the other oils are known to be 'clogging' kinds, that is-hydrogenated (meaning essentially, fake totally man-made processed in a lab oils) or saturated. This just means it has molecules in it that can raise the over-all cholesterol levels in the body and may in fact increase the propensity of plague building.
In a different post I reminded you that in the 80's the latest food trend/obsession was 'fat free'-when the studies came out suggesting that saturated fats was what was causing everybody to have grabbers and stroke out. Far be it for people to critically think or be reasonable, many people immediately eschewed any sort of fat and the food industry had a billion dollar field day replacing normally fat riddled products (mayonnaise, sour cream, ice cream, etc) with 'fat free' versions. Fat-free salad dressings, fat free cheese-shit that normal is comprised of nothing BUT fat now contained none, and people suffered.
Did they lose weight? Yes. Did they have less heart disease? No. They did have hair falling out, they did have depression and suicidal ideation, they did have lethargy and memory issues. The body needs fats to help expedite the glucose to the cells and in particular, the brain. It needs it to build some stores of fat to regulate body temperature and energy production. This all being said, eliminating all fats from the diet isn't an answer to avoiding the oil crisis, either.
Then I discovered these videos. I will encapsulate them for you because I often hate clicking on a link of an interesting-to-me-topic, only to be taken to a video I don't have time or feel like watching. (I can read a lot faster than a video) so simply put: No oil in excess is good for anybody. Not Olive, not coconut, not canola, not flaxseed, not fish oil. None. What is excess? Everyday.
Think about it. You are pouring pure oil on your foods, pure fat. You are dipping your bread in pure fats, you are pouring it on your salad. EVERYDAY. You are stirfrying your veggies in it, you are cooking meats in it, you are drizzing ontop of everything.
"But Olive Oil is heart healthy! Look at all the Italians and Greeks, they have no heart disease like us!"
That's because they eat lots of grains, vegetables and fruits, and drink a lot of wine. They eat a lot of salads and antipastos, they use meat very sparingly, they use it as a side dish, they don't eat it at every meal, and they don't even eat it everyday. They use a lot of beans, they eat fish more than once a week, and they nap during the day and work outside a lot. Their culture is totally different-they are not snacking on baked chips (in oil) they are not eating 100 calorie cookies for a snack (in oil). They are not in a processed food avalanche. They still do their own cooking over there, and those that don't-are fat like us Americans with heart disease to boot.
Oil, along with salt and sugar is in EVERYTHING in the U.S.A. And oil is fat. It doesn't matter if its saturated or not, if its natural or not. Avocados and coconut oils are considered saturated, but they are processed in the body differently than the saturated fat of butter or lard. Two are fruit oils and two are animal. It is thought the fruit oils are better. But they are extremely high in fat and it still remains true that fat will make you fat. If you get fat- that's more stress and strain on the heart. So even if it doesn't clog your arteries, it will still stress out your body and not just for heart reasons.
I don't know a lot about it but I'm pretty sure the Paleo diet is supposed to resemble early man's diet, yes? Well early man wasn't cooking a bunch of crap in oils. So even the meat-eater diet wouldn't support all this oil usage. You don't need to. We have been indoctrinated to believe that we have to cook all of our foods in some sort of substance. You can steam veggies or saute in water and/or broth just as easily as using oil. It's not necessary and it's not wise.
Our bodies need some fat but it's much healthier to get the fats directly from the source, i.e., eat an avocado, munch on some olives, add coconut to something. Even coconut water is better than the oil. Don't use the oils at every meal. If you fry an egg using cooking oil spray for breakfast, slather a coconut oil vegan butter substitute on your toast, then use olive oil on your salad at lunch, then pour a little oo over your grilled chicken breast and pasta at dinner-it may all seem healthy, but that's a lot of oil in a day-now times that by most days. Olive oil has more calories than butter. Saturated smaturated. Cut down on it. Use sparingly. Use as a condiment. It's not a health food, oil is not an elixir and the same holds true for fish oil. Eat the actual fish.
Between using oils for cooking, then using them in supplements (vitamin E, Evening Primrose, Fish oils)-that's a whole lot of oily fatty liquid going into the body and oil and water do not mix. (BTW, you can get the Omega 3's that fish oil contains by using flax, ground flax added to foods gives very similiar benefits. )
Our bodies are comprised mostly of water. It's difficult to digest oils, it can lead to stones in your organs, and difficulty to lose weight no matter how hard you try. I would suggest watching thevideos but bottom line: Limit or eliminate actual liquid oils. And with how expensive they are-at least 10.00 a little bottle or jar-it will keep you thinner and your wallet fatter.
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Vegan 4th of July meal........say wha???!!!?????
So you wanna be a vegetarian/vegan? You think a plant-based diet is healthier/make you lose weight/keep you from heart disease cancer/cure your heart disease cancer/cure other things that ail you/you love animals too much and are disgusted by what we do to them/ AND......it's your 1st 4th of July.
Holidays are one of the main places in our food psyche where re-programming can be really, REALLY difficult. As most cultures do and ours is NO exception-food is usually the centerpiece of celebrating a holiday. And with the 4th of July, classically pulling out the grill and having a good old-fashioned BBQ of burgers, hot dogs, steaks, ribs, corn on the cob, potato salad, chips, coleslaw and watermelon-these are considered the 'staple' foods of the Independence Day party if not Summer itself. It's the foods of the season and ironically while veggies and fruits are at their most abundant in summer-meat is usually the big highlight of most backyard meals and summertime venues.
If you are the one hosting the party-it's easy enough to alter your menu for your palate and your new-found food choices, but if you are serving guest who are still eating the classic American way, it can present some challenges-keeping the meat burgers from the veggies burgers on the grill, as an example. So what do you do, make two versions of dishes? I mean, you could-but that doesn't seem very practical from a time or a money standpoint. In this situation I believe the best thing you can do is either tell your guests upfront that things will be vegan/vegetarian and they are more than welcome to bring their own (I'm thinking your party will be quite small with this approach)- or make the traditional items and then make yourself and others so inclined the vegan version OR-just invite fellow vegan/vegetarians.
Nothing can divide people more than the meat vs meatless argument except maybe politics and religious arguments. People are really, REALLY attached to their meat and dairy-addicted in some ways-so what do you do? You shouldn't have to compromise YOUR beliefs or dietary wants/needs to make guests happy, at the same time, do you impose your diet on others who would prefer the traditional meals at holiday events?
Things can get dicey here, especially if you've sworn off meat and dairy for ethical animal rights and reasons. It's unfair for others to expect for you to grill some cow when it goes against your belief system. Conversely....no one should impose those beliefs on others.
Since I'm not entertaining this year for the 4th this is not an issue for me, but I do deal with this on a somewhat consistent basis having a roommate who is the furthest thing from healthy eating there is. Oftentimes I've made him something to eat that I know he will like and eat, but I feel ethically challenged in doing so, like I am enabling his impeding health problems. It's like bartending to an alcoholic or dealing drugs in a way.
Yet the bottom line, is that when it comes to the adults in your life, family and friends and those you break bread with at holidays-there needs to be respectful 'agree to disagree' approach and yes, BOTH cuisines should be offered imo.
The best way that you can influence people you love (even like) to adopt a healthier eating style, is by example, and letting them see and taste healthy eating. By making those veggie burgers-veggie blend, black bean or portabella, by making that vegan potato salad and coleslaw, and offering yummy appetizers like guacamole (with no peas) and veggie platters and fruit platters and vegetarian dips and chips that are at least somewhat healthier than the standard potato chip-you can actually impress on them (and yourself) that it's not so bad eating healthier.
In Googling "Vegan 4th of July" of course I found 100's of recipes for a backyard feast, but-most were 'high class.' Daunting, intimidating, somewhat exotic, and seemed extremely time-consuming. Holidays are NOT the time to be introducing some weird and strange foods to folks; people are pretty set on their traditional fare and it's not the time that people want to deviate and experiment I am guessing. I think it's a fair guess.
So, what to prepare? The same as you always would, just sub. A burger-make it with veggie burgers as stated above. Use vegan cheese, or go ahead and use real cheese if you are a vegetarian and not for animal purposes and don't already have heart disease. For hotdogs, the brand "Tofurky" is supposedly very good, and can be found in the produce section of most large grocery stores. Here's a link to their products: Vegan Hot Dogs and Chicken and Sausage and Stuff
You can make potato salad the same as always, just subbing the mayo for veganaise and omit the hard boiled egg. (There's a link in one of my posts to that website for the vegan mayo). You could make a German potato salad which is vinegar not mayo based, but if I recall right, that's often made with bacon. Though there is vegan 'bacon' as well. Most meats have a vegan 'mock' to them, it's just a matter of looking it up and then finding a store. I typically try and focus on things that the national food chains will have, because this is low-class vegan. Or I should really say' real-class vegan.' The majority of us do not have a huge food budget to feed our families with in these current economic times.
Coleslaw-same thing, sub the mayo. Offer up a big greens salad, and of course veggie kabobs on the grill are to live for.
Now, what if like me, you are the one invited to a party and the hosts are not at all veggieheads? Well you can do what I do, and eat beforehand. Then when I do arrive-I focus on what is offered that I am able or willing to eat. Typically there is a veggie dip platter that often times remains pretty full since people really don't eat much of that I've noticed-the broccolli/carrot/celery/cucumber tray, and corn on the cob is abundant-just don't use butter. 3 bean salad is a big holiday staple and that is fine to eat, though if you are watching or avoiding sugars, it is traditionally made with some sugar and does have some oil in it as well. It's negligible imo but still, for those purist just an FYI. And yes load up on the watermelon.
Holidays are very tempting and this is where many people will 'cheat.' I don't see it as 'cheating' and I think that is the wrong psychological angle to take. It seems as if there is a deprivation mentality and that you are somehow 'missing out' so you must 'cheat.'
For me, it's not that foods like cheese or mayonnaise or butter are evil and taboo or so bad for me that I have to give up and avoid, like cigarettes or an abusive partner. They are bad if used all the time on the regular. They are bad when they are used excessively, in everything, at each meal. It's a cumulative effect. Do I think they are bad on the rare occasions? No, I do not. Do I think you should gobble down a cheeseburger and fries because it's the 4th of July? No I don't advocate that. I also don't think you should go hungry either at a bbq because the healthy food choices are limited.
Be mindful that food you might think is safe to eat for you, like baked beans because it's beans-I would caution that most people make their beans starting from a can, and that can of baked beans may have animal fat in it, as they stick that weird piece of bacon/pork in each can. So I can't promise that it's totally vegetarian even though it's beans. And baked beans is made with a lot of sugar/molasses.
And of course, you can bring a vegetarian/vegan dish of your own to the party, that way, you get to eat what you want AND give other's the opportunity to try something healthy. So here's my contribution to what I think would be a great take-along salad to that BBQ.
Happy 4th of July and Independence Day, stay safe and God Bless America!!
Holidays are one of the main places in our food psyche where re-programming can be really, REALLY difficult. As most cultures do and ours is NO exception-food is usually the centerpiece of celebrating a holiday. And with the 4th of July, classically pulling out the grill and having a good old-fashioned BBQ of burgers, hot dogs, steaks, ribs, corn on the cob, potato salad, chips, coleslaw and watermelon-these are considered the 'staple' foods of the Independence Day party if not Summer itself. It's the foods of the season and ironically while veggies and fruits are at their most abundant in summer-meat is usually the big highlight of most backyard meals and summertime venues.
If you are the one hosting the party-it's easy enough to alter your menu for your palate and your new-found food choices, but if you are serving guest who are still eating the classic American way, it can present some challenges-keeping the meat burgers from the veggies burgers on the grill, as an example. So what do you do, make two versions of dishes? I mean, you could-but that doesn't seem very practical from a time or a money standpoint. In this situation I believe the best thing you can do is either tell your guests upfront that things will be vegan/vegetarian and they are more than welcome to bring their own (I'm thinking your party will be quite small with this approach)- or make the traditional items and then make yourself and others so inclined the vegan version OR-just invite fellow vegan/vegetarians.
Nothing can divide people more than the meat vs meatless argument except maybe politics and religious arguments. People are really, REALLY attached to their meat and dairy-addicted in some ways-so what do you do? You shouldn't have to compromise YOUR beliefs or dietary wants/needs to make guests happy, at the same time, do you impose your diet on others who would prefer the traditional meals at holiday events?
Things can get dicey here, especially if you've sworn off meat and dairy for ethical animal rights and reasons. It's unfair for others to expect for you to grill some cow when it goes against your belief system. Conversely....no one should impose those beliefs on others.
Since I'm not entertaining this year for the 4th this is not an issue for me, but I do deal with this on a somewhat consistent basis having a roommate who is the furthest thing from healthy eating there is. Oftentimes I've made him something to eat that I know he will like and eat, but I feel ethically challenged in doing so, like I am enabling his impeding health problems. It's like bartending to an alcoholic or dealing drugs in a way.
Yet the bottom line, is that when it comes to the adults in your life, family and friends and those you break bread with at holidays-there needs to be respectful 'agree to disagree' approach and yes, BOTH cuisines should be offered imo.
The best way that you can influence people you love (even like) to adopt a healthier eating style, is by example, and letting them see and taste healthy eating. By making those veggie burgers-veggie blend, black bean or portabella, by making that vegan potato salad and coleslaw, and offering yummy appetizers like guacamole (with no peas) and veggie platters and fruit platters and vegetarian dips and chips that are at least somewhat healthier than the standard potato chip-you can actually impress on them (and yourself) that it's not so bad eating healthier.
In Googling "Vegan 4th of July" of course I found 100's of recipes for a backyard feast, but-most were 'high class.' Daunting, intimidating, somewhat exotic, and seemed extremely time-consuming. Holidays are NOT the time to be introducing some weird and strange foods to folks; people are pretty set on their traditional fare and it's not the time that people want to deviate and experiment I am guessing. I think it's a fair guess.
So, what to prepare? The same as you always would, just sub. A burger-make it with veggie burgers as stated above. Use vegan cheese, or go ahead and use real cheese if you are a vegetarian and not for animal purposes and don't already have heart disease. For hotdogs, the brand "Tofurky" is supposedly very good, and can be found in the produce section of most large grocery stores. Here's a link to their products: Vegan Hot Dogs and Chicken and Sausage and Stuff
You can make potato salad the same as always, just subbing the mayo for veganaise and omit the hard boiled egg. (There's a link in one of my posts to that website for the vegan mayo). You could make a German potato salad which is vinegar not mayo based, but if I recall right, that's often made with bacon. Though there is vegan 'bacon' as well. Most meats have a vegan 'mock' to them, it's just a matter of looking it up and then finding a store. I typically try and focus on things that the national food chains will have, because this is low-class vegan. Or I should really say' real-class vegan.' The majority of us do not have a huge food budget to feed our families with in these current economic times.
Coleslaw-same thing, sub the mayo. Offer up a big greens salad, and of course veggie kabobs on the grill are to live for.
Now, what if like me, you are the one invited to a party and the hosts are not at all veggieheads? Well you can do what I do, and eat beforehand. Then when I do arrive-I focus on what is offered that I am able or willing to eat. Typically there is a veggie dip platter that often times remains pretty full since people really don't eat much of that I've noticed-the broccolli/carrot/celery/cucumber tray, and corn on the cob is abundant-just don't use butter. 3 bean salad is a big holiday staple and that is fine to eat, though if you are watching or avoiding sugars, it is traditionally made with some sugar and does have some oil in it as well. It's negligible imo but still, for those purist just an FYI. And yes load up on the watermelon.
Holidays are very tempting and this is where many people will 'cheat.' I don't see it as 'cheating' and I think that is the wrong psychological angle to take. It seems as if there is a deprivation mentality and that you are somehow 'missing out' so you must 'cheat.'
For me, it's not that foods like cheese or mayonnaise or butter are evil and taboo or so bad for me that I have to give up and avoid, like cigarettes or an abusive partner. They are bad if used all the time on the regular. They are bad when they are used excessively, in everything, at each meal. It's a cumulative effect. Do I think they are bad on the rare occasions? No, I do not. Do I think you should gobble down a cheeseburger and fries because it's the 4th of July? No I don't advocate that. I also don't think you should go hungry either at a bbq because the healthy food choices are limited.
Be mindful that food you might think is safe to eat for you, like baked beans because it's beans-I would caution that most people make their beans starting from a can, and that can of baked beans may have animal fat in it, as they stick that weird piece of bacon/pork in each can. So I can't promise that it's totally vegetarian even though it's beans. And baked beans is made with a lot of sugar/molasses.
And of course, you can bring a vegetarian/vegan dish of your own to the party, that way, you get to eat what you want AND give other's the opportunity to try something healthy. So here's my contribution to what I think would be a great take-along salad to that BBQ.
Happy 4th of July and Independence Day, stay safe and God Bless America!!
Cucumber Tomato Salad
(Depending on how big you want this salad, depends on how many cucumbers/tomatoes/onion you will use-if you're feeding 4 or 40 so figure it out ;)
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Red Onion
Curly Parsley
Rice Vinegar
Oil of choice-olive, coconut, flax, canola (don't recommend canola, it's GMO but lots of people like for salads)
pink salt or kosher sea salt
black pepper
white sugar
lime
As usual, you can be creative with this. The dressing is simple: Oil, vinegar, salt/pepper and sugar. Not a lot of sugar, about a teaspoon for 4oz of dressing. You can use whatever oil (I use olive) and you can also make with apple cider vinegar though that will significantly change the taste. It's a dash of sugar and a small squeeze of the lime, coating the chopped veggies with it. Also if you use Olive Oil then refridgerate the salad, remember that Olive Oil hardens in the fridge so this salad will have to 'thaw' out before serving.
(Yes this goes against the SOS diet of no salt, oil or sugar as this salad has all 3. So, to make it SOS, you can use a balsamic vinegar or other flavored vinegar, omitting the sugar and the salt and using a salt-substitute or herbal blend instead.)
The interwebs are full of different vegan salad ideas for summer, the possibilities are endless. There are tomato/corn/avocado salads in abundance. Vegan websites also offer a plethora of ideas. But for those of us on limited budgets/time and living in areas with mostly meat/junk food eaters-being realistic at the holidays will make it easier to cope with the dietary challenges I believe. Because you will get a lot of "Wha??? You don't want no BBQ chicken? What's up with that?" kind of inquisition from at least one person at your BBQ.
Happy Grilling!!
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Well who put peas in your guacamole??
In case you haven't seen, there's a new 5 minute Internet controversy. Probably not as big of a deal as 'the dress'-but has generated enough attention that even President Obama has chimed in on it.
Obama listens to NO peas
Evidently, someone at the New York Times-a food blogger perhaps, I don't know (details are in the link)-review a guacamole that had the addition of green peas added to it (as well as sunflower seeds for garnish.) On the Twitter that sparked outraged -I mean you would've thought she served it with a Confederate flag napkin or something-she said "Peas in guacamole, trust us." As in, 'This shit is GOOD, yo."
Apparently many did not think so as they took to the social media gauntlet and began to socially crucify said adulteration of guac. It doesn't quite come across as pissing in cornflakes but it sure seems some people are finding great offense to it. Which brings me to the point of THIS post: The obnoxiousness of food comments.
It's almost enough to have me consider disabling comments on the recipes I'll be posting (and have posted) because it's ridiculous. Have you ever typed in a food to find a recipe, end up at "food network" or "all recipes" or somebodies' food blog, only to read the comments and reviews and essentially-everyone has changed the gotdamn recipe and then commenting on the original one???? Yeah these trolls sound something like this:
"Well this Stuffed Pork Chop recipe was pretty good, except that my husband HATES bread and mushrooms so I totally omitted the stuffing. Otherwise, the pork turned out well."
"This veggie stew looked so good in the picture, I just had to make it but since I am a diabetic, those yellow and sweet potatoes were way too starchy for me. So I left those out and instead I added spaghetti squash. Also I sub'd the tomato sauce with ketchup. It turned out pretty good, we will make again."
"The bbq sauce recipe here was just too spicy for my kid's taste. I kept out the chilis and instead I added chocolate chips. Turned out fabulous, THANKS!"
" I am allergic to wheat, eggs, peanuts, gluten, sugar, flour and vanilla, they all make it really difficult for me to breathe. But these oatmeal cookies turned out just fine once I just put in some bologna and a dash of grape jelly. I gained 5 lbs in a day eating too many they were so good!"
You get the picture. Thing is-people have a point. You CANNOT please every palate. I know there are some people who do follow a recipe to the exact t-and in fact get pissy if you don't even put an EXACT measurement, and they are as obnoxious as the people who completely alter a dish. Here's the philosophy that I love (and it's not mine. It's Auntie Fee's. Auntie Fee cooks with lard and butter and cheese and ham and all the shit I won't mention here to make, but I will link you to it because hysterical. And you never know when you just might have to cave and try her self-proclaimed "Dumb Ass Mac and Cheese, dumb means so good". )
Anyway, Auntie Fee will tell you-"It's your shit." That's right. It's YOUR food. Hey, I get it. You're genetically programmed to find cilantro to taste like soap, so you hate it. Cool. USE SOMETHING ELSE. I generally recommend Italian flat leaf parsley (not the curly garnishy kind) in lieu of cilantro, but I mean, IT'S YOUR FOOD. Put whatever the hell you want.
That goes for spices, herbs, ingredients, preferences. What my stuff I post does, is gives you a foundation. Hopefully it'll turn you on to some foods that you've heard about but are very unsure (maybe even ascared of, like Quinoa) -which is pronounced KEEN-WAAH. But you don't have to follow anything I put to a t, PLEASE feel free to alter it any way you see or deem fit. I just don't know if I gotta hear about it. If you are exceptionally proud however and feel that it's something the world MUST know-but you don't want to start your own blog about food, then yeah okay use me as a platform. But I'm not looking for keyboard Iron Chefs here. I don't really care if you don't like this because of that, or that doesn't work for you, or 'Fuck you Lisa Renee, I used REAL ASS CHEESE'-I mean it's your palate, it's your life, they are your arteries, it's all good. It truly is all about you. Hell, even my Italian grandmother could never be pinned down to give EXACT measurements. You use as much or as little oregano as you want. Taste as you go!
So if you don't like peas in your guacamole-don't put fucking peas in your guacamole. This isn't rocket surgery folks. It could possibly be that the incredible amount of blood pressure meds I am on have now mellowed me out to such a degree that I really only rant about pertinent, real world problems (like people on recipe boards, commenting and shit, I mean, THAT'S legit right there to be all bent out of shape over) HOWEVER-haters are gonna hate. Just beware that if you hate too much, I'll comment right back and we can have a hate fest of Internet back and forth aggression taking-out on because really, nobody does truly care about peas in quac, do they??? Please watch the video that made Auntie Fee famous (Disclaimer: NSFW) LANGUAGE. Oh lawrd dear God the language......
Obama listens to NO peas
Evidently, someone at the New York Times-a food blogger perhaps, I don't know (details are in the link)-review a guacamole that had the addition of green peas added to it (as well as sunflower seeds for garnish.) On the Twitter that sparked outraged -I mean you would've thought she served it with a Confederate flag napkin or something-she said "Peas in guacamole, trust us." As in, 'This shit is GOOD, yo."
Apparently many did not think so as they took to the social media gauntlet and began to socially crucify said adulteration of guac. It doesn't quite come across as pissing in cornflakes but it sure seems some people are finding great offense to it. Which brings me to the point of THIS post: The obnoxiousness of food comments.
It's almost enough to have me consider disabling comments on the recipes I'll be posting (and have posted) because it's ridiculous. Have you ever typed in a food to find a recipe, end up at "food network" or "all recipes" or somebodies' food blog, only to read the comments and reviews and essentially-everyone has changed the gotdamn recipe and then commenting on the original one???? Yeah these trolls sound something like this:
"Well this Stuffed Pork Chop recipe was pretty good, except that my husband HATES bread and mushrooms so I totally omitted the stuffing. Otherwise, the pork turned out well."
"This veggie stew looked so good in the picture, I just had to make it but since I am a diabetic, those yellow and sweet potatoes were way too starchy for me. So I left those out and instead I added spaghetti squash. Also I sub'd the tomato sauce with ketchup. It turned out pretty good, we will make again."
"The bbq sauce recipe here was just too spicy for my kid's taste. I kept out the chilis and instead I added chocolate chips. Turned out fabulous, THANKS!"
" I am allergic to wheat, eggs, peanuts, gluten, sugar, flour and vanilla, they all make it really difficult for me to breathe. But these oatmeal cookies turned out just fine once I just put in some bologna and a dash of grape jelly. I gained 5 lbs in a day eating too many they were so good!"
You get the picture. Thing is-people have a point. You CANNOT please every palate. I know there are some people who do follow a recipe to the exact t-and in fact get pissy if you don't even put an EXACT measurement, and they are as obnoxious as the people who completely alter a dish. Here's the philosophy that I love (and it's not mine. It's Auntie Fee's. Auntie Fee cooks with lard and butter and cheese and ham and all the shit I won't mention here to make, but I will link you to it because hysterical. And you never know when you just might have to cave and try her self-proclaimed "Dumb Ass Mac and Cheese, dumb means so good". )
Anyway, Auntie Fee will tell you-"It's your shit." That's right. It's YOUR food. Hey, I get it. You're genetically programmed to find cilantro to taste like soap, so you hate it. Cool. USE SOMETHING ELSE. I generally recommend Italian flat leaf parsley (not the curly garnishy kind) in lieu of cilantro, but I mean, IT'S YOUR FOOD. Put whatever the hell you want.
That goes for spices, herbs, ingredients, preferences. What my stuff I post does, is gives you a foundation. Hopefully it'll turn you on to some foods that you've heard about but are very unsure (maybe even ascared of, like Quinoa) -which is pronounced KEEN-WAAH. But you don't have to follow anything I put to a t, PLEASE feel free to alter it any way you see or deem fit. I just don't know if I gotta hear about it. If you are exceptionally proud however and feel that it's something the world MUST know-but you don't want to start your own blog about food, then yeah okay use me as a platform. But I'm not looking for keyboard Iron Chefs here. I don't really care if you don't like this because of that, or that doesn't work for you, or 'Fuck you Lisa Renee, I used REAL ASS CHEESE'-I mean it's your palate, it's your life, they are your arteries, it's all good. It truly is all about you. Hell, even my Italian grandmother could never be pinned down to give EXACT measurements. You use as much or as little oregano as you want. Taste as you go!
So if you don't like peas in your guacamole-don't put fucking peas in your guacamole. This isn't rocket surgery folks. It could possibly be that the incredible amount of blood pressure meds I am on have now mellowed me out to such a degree that I really only rant about pertinent, real world problems (like people on recipe boards, commenting and shit, I mean, THAT'S legit right there to be all bent out of shape over) HOWEVER-haters are gonna hate. Just beware that if you hate too much, I'll comment right back and we can have a hate fest of Internet back and forth aggression taking-out on because really, nobody does truly care about peas in quac, do they??? Please watch the video that made Auntie Fee famous (Disclaimer: NSFW) LANGUAGE. Oh lawrd dear God the language......
What the f*ck is Gluten, and why should stuff be free of it???
A, it shouldn't.
Gluten is a protein- a mix of a couple of proteins that is, and it's found in some cereal grains. "These include barley, bulgur, cereal binding, couscous, durum, einkorn, emmer, filler, farro, graham flour, kamut, malt, malt extract, malt flavoring, malt syrup, rye, semolina, spelt, triticale, wheat, wheat bran, wheat germ, wheat starch, and oats that are not labeled "Gluten Free" because they have been contaminated by gluten in the field or in the processing plant.
Follow this link for more: What has gluten in it?
You should recognize above stuff like 'durum, semolina, couscous-because that's typically what pasta is made from. Graham flour yields graham crackers, malt-liquors and the stuff that turns a milkshake into a malt.....and we all know about wheat. So what's the freaking deal with it, anyway??
The deal is, people are damn lazy and want a quick fix. Lots of obese people don't feel like changing their diets, lots of depressed and lazy people don't feel like exercising. This problem is cyclical of course-when you are tired, depressed-it makes you lazy-and all of that will make you obese. When you are obese-you become more tired, depressed and lazy.
Therefore, when people feel like shit-they really don't want to have to work at changing their lifestyles. I get it, and not trying to be judgy-I didn't want to change mine,either. So if somebody told me that the only thing I had to do was avoid this one ingredient-and suddenly all kinds of foods came out stating they no longer had this ingredient-I'd totally be down with that. After all, why really investigate why you feel like crap when you can self-diagnose, buy some new bread and call it a brand new you?
Unfortunately-it's bullshit, and of course Madison Ave. is more than happy to continue to sell you on your pipe dream of "It's the GLUTEN" making your life a steaming pile of shit. It isn't.
Only 1% of the population is truly gluten intolerant in the name of Celiac disease. If they eat gluten, it literally starts to destroy their intestines. This is probably NOT you, and can't be diagnosed by you Googling your way to WebMD-it can only be diagnosed by biopsy and by qualified specialist (i.e., a gastroenterologist.)
There are people who are sensitive to gluten, meaning they eat it and they end up with diarrhea or bloatedness or other symptoms of celiac disease, but their intestines are NOT being destroyed. Again, it's a tough call whether it's really the gluten or whether it's the 1000 other things in your diet that suck-things like aspartame for instance. Maybe you only eat 2 vegetables a week. Maybe the veggies you do eat come out of a can, with the nutrients cooked right out of them as they now soak in their own Dead Sea because the salt content is so high. Maybe you don't exercise enough, you don't sleep enough, you drink too much or your Xanax is upsetting your intestinal flora. There could be many, MANY reasons why you feel like crap and cutting out gluten only may help you improve, because in doing so you are cutting out some shitty empty calories, added sugars and carbs that wreck havoc with the endocrine system in your body.
This all said, the above link goes into better detail as to why jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon may not be the best trend du jour after all. Not to mention-its annoying as hell, all this 'gluten-free' labeling.
My roommate bought himself some lunch meat and a new mustard-a horseradish mustard.
I love horseradish so of course I head for reading the label, sure that I would be disappointed that there's probably some kind of oil or sugars in there but to my happy amazement-nope, no oils, salt OR sugars, hooray! However in small print under all the ingredients read: Gluten-free.
SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT IN ALL HELL IS GOING ON HERE? IS THIS LITIGATIVE CUISINE NOW? WHEN THE HELL WOULD THERE EVER BE GLUTEN IN MUSTARD????
Which lead to me to believe that this mustard maker is either trying to cover their ass (USA, home of the CYA) That's right....not the CIA, the CYA as in "Cover Your Ass"-because what, somebody might eat this mustard, claim a reaction and sue because "it must have gluten in it!" so they better label it 'gluten-free', even though the very people who truly need to avoid gluten would KNOW what the fuck 'gluten' is and they would know that it WOULD NEVER BE FOUND IN MUSTARD.
It's everywhere like a plague. I'm just waiting for it. Toothpaste marked 'gluten-free.' Shampoo marked 'gluten free'. An intake manifold for the car 'gluten-free'. Gasoline for the car marked on the pumps "Gluten Free". I mean Jesus H. Is gluten going to become an endangered species??
But just what the hell is in gluten-free bread then, since traditional bread flours are made of all the ingredients listed above? Now the breads are made with STARCH. Which is a bunch of empty calories and carbs and also plays games with the glucose/insulin levels of the body, especially with added sugars.
(Now I'm not a chemist but I have made homemade bread. It's been years but I've made it. I can't remember but I want to say that you did need a little sugar in with the yeast to make the dough. Don't quote me on this, I may be tripping. In that instance I would say that it's appropriate to have some sugar if in fact it is necessary to create culinary physics that alchemy the ingredients into bread, but there's the need and then there's excess for taste and that American palate we've discussed before.)
Do it yourself Gluten test: Eat pastas made with veggies and quinoa or rice. FYI; I love the people who eat gluten free but proceed to suck down beer. If you give up gluten then you need to give up beer. HELLO, if you drink some beers on the weekend then you are not on a 'gluten-free' diet and that also included certain whiskeys, duh.Maybe your problem instead is that you are a damn alcoholic so to truly ascertain whether gluten is a 'thing' with you, you must avoid it in any and all form, including liquid. Stop eating bread. Classic pastas. Do this for 2 weeks. Avoid ALL gluten for 2 weeks. Then re-introduce it into your diet. If you then become gassy or bloated or diarrhea or heartburn or constipation then perhaps you are really sensitive and should avoid it. Otherwise I would suggest just eating it in small amounts. Moderation. Evidently we were not designed to really digest gluten, and the ancient wheats of yesteryear-I'm talking Biblical wheats-didn't have it......our current wheat is 'gmo' before GMO was a thang.
So beware the gluten trend. It won't be long before we are advised by the medical community and food scientist that avoiding all gluten is bad. Remember when 'fat' was a demon and in the late 80's, everything started going 'fat-free'? There were all kinds of bad health effects from that-people's hair started falling out, their skin dried out, they started going crazy-having no fat or cholesterol in the diet was really making people sick. I don't think the elimination of gluten itself will make people sick, it's the products that are substituting the gluten that will cause the harm.
Eat breads and pastas and cereals sparingly anyway. There are plenty of other non-gluten grains that are far more nutritious that offer proteins and fiber and vitamins and minerals than the ones gluten is prevalent in. I hear bread made with potato flour is pretty tasty, so I will have to make a loaf and see. Otherwise, the occasional flat bread like Naan or pita is a better alternative to that Styrofoam stuff they call sliced bread in stores anyway (but many veggie type people swear by Ezekiel breads) . The healthiest bread on the planet
Gluten is a protein- a mix of a couple of proteins that is, and it's found in some cereal grains. "These include barley, bulgur, cereal binding, couscous, durum, einkorn, emmer, filler, farro, graham flour, kamut, malt, malt extract, malt flavoring, malt syrup, rye, semolina, spelt, triticale, wheat, wheat bran, wheat germ, wheat starch, and oats that are not labeled "Gluten Free" because they have been contaminated by gluten in the field or in the processing plant.
Follow this link for more: What has gluten in it?
You should recognize above stuff like 'durum, semolina, couscous-because that's typically what pasta is made from. Graham flour yields graham crackers, malt-liquors and the stuff that turns a milkshake into a malt.....and we all know about wheat. So what's the freaking deal with it, anyway??
The deal is, people are damn lazy and want a quick fix. Lots of obese people don't feel like changing their diets, lots of depressed and lazy people don't feel like exercising. This problem is cyclical of course-when you are tired, depressed-it makes you lazy-and all of that will make you obese. When you are obese-you become more tired, depressed and lazy.
Therefore, when people feel like shit-they really don't want to have to work at changing their lifestyles. I get it, and not trying to be judgy-I didn't want to change mine,either. So if somebody told me that the only thing I had to do was avoid this one ingredient-and suddenly all kinds of foods came out stating they no longer had this ingredient-I'd totally be down with that. After all, why really investigate why you feel like crap when you can self-diagnose, buy some new bread and call it a brand new you?
Unfortunately-it's bullshit, and of course Madison Ave. is more than happy to continue to sell you on your pipe dream of "It's the GLUTEN" making your life a steaming pile of shit. It isn't.
Only 1% of the population is truly gluten intolerant in the name of Celiac disease. If they eat gluten, it literally starts to destroy their intestines. This is probably NOT you, and can't be diagnosed by you Googling your way to WebMD-it can only be diagnosed by biopsy and by qualified specialist (i.e., a gastroenterologist.)
There are people who are sensitive to gluten, meaning they eat it and they end up with diarrhea or bloatedness or other symptoms of celiac disease, but their intestines are NOT being destroyed. Again, it's a tough call whether it's really the gluten or whether it's the 1000 other things in your diet that suck-things like aspartame for instance. Maybe you only eat 2 vegetables a week. Maybe the veggies you do eat come out of a can, with the nutrients cooked right out of them as they now soak in their own Dead Sea because the salt content is so high. Maybe you don't exercise enough, you don't sleep enough, you drink too much or your Xanax is upsetting your intestinal flora. There could be many, MANY reasons why you feel like crap and cutting out gluten only may help you improve, because in doing so you are cutting out some shitty empty calories, added sugars and carbs that wreck havoc with the endocrine system in your body.
This all said, the above link goes into better detail as to why jumping on the gluten-free bandwagon may not be the best trend du jour after all. Not to mention-its annoying as hell, all this 'gluten-free' labeling.
My roommate bought himself some lunch meat and a new mustard-a horseradish mustard.
I love horseradish so of course I head for reading the label, sure that I would be disappointed that there's probably some kind of oil or sugars in there but to my happy amazement-nope, no oils, salt OR sugars, hooray! However in small print under all the ingredients read: Gluten-free.
SOMEBODY TELL ME WHAT IN ALL HELL IS GOING ON HERE? IS THIS LITIGATIVE CUISINE NOW? WHEN THE HELL WOULD THERE EVER BE GLUTEN IN MUSTARD????
Which lead to me to believe that this mustard maker is either trying to cover their ass (USA, home of the CYA) That's right....not the CIA, the CYA as in "Cover Your Ass"-because what, somebody might eat this mustard, claim a reaction and sue because "it must have gluten in it!" so they better label it 'gluten-free', even though the very people who truly need to avoid gluten would KNOW what the fuck 'gluten' is and they would know that it WOULD NEVER BE FOUND IN MUSTARD.
It's everywhere like a plague. I'm just waiting for it. Toothpaste marked 'gluten-free.' Shampoo marked 'gluten free'. An intake manifold for the car 'gluten-free'. Gasoline for the car marked on the pumps "Gluten Free". I mean Jesus H. Is gluten going to become an endangered species??
But just what the hell is in gluten-free bread then, since traditional bread flours are made of all the ingredients listed above? Now the breads are made with STARCH. Which is a bunch of empty calories and carbs and also plays games with the glucose/insulin levels of the body, especially with added sugars.
(Now I'm not a chemist but I have made homemade bread. It's been years but I've made it. I can't remember but I want to say that you did need a little sugar in with the yeast to make the dough. Don't quote me on this, I may be tripping. In that instance I would say that it's appropriate to have some sugar if in fact it is necessary to create culinary physics that alchemy the ingredients into bread, but there's the need and then there's excess for taste and that American palate we've discussed before.)
Do it yourself Gluten test: Eat pastas made with veggies and quinoa or rice. FYI; I love the people who eat gluten free but proceed to suck down beer. If you give up gluten then you need to give up beer. HELLO, if you drink some beers on the weekend then you are not on a 'gluten-free' diet and that also included certain whiskeys, duh.
So beware the gluten trend. It won't be long before we are advised by the medical community and food scientist that avoiding all gluten is bad. Remember when 'fat' was a demon and in the late 80's, everything started going 'fat-free'? There were all kinds of bad health effects from that-people's hair started falling out, their skin dried out, they started going crazy-having no fat or cholesterol in the diet was really making people sick. I don't think the elimination of gluten itself will make people sick, it's the products that are substituting the gluten that will cause the harm.
Eat breads and pastas and cereals sparingly anyway. There are plenty of other non-gluten grains that are far more nutritious that offer proteins and fiber and vitamins and minerals than the ones gluten is prevalent in. I hear bread made with potato flour is pretty tasty, so I will have to make a loaf and see. Otherwise, the occasional flat bread like Naan or pita is a better alternative to that Styrofoam stuff they call sliced bread in stores anyway (but many veggie type people swear by Ezekiel breads) . The healthiest bread on the planet
SPICES (part 2 of pantry, condiments, etc)
Variety they say, is the spice of life. When it comes to eating plant-based-or mostly plant based- spice and herbs are everything. Spice is what takes any food and turns it from dull to delicious in an instant-it can also ruin a meal-if you've ever had too salty of a soup or too spicy hot of something, you know this is true.
Spices and herbs-fresh or dry-have their own health and medicinal properties. Entire books have been written on that alone. Many people swear by Oil of Oregano, for example, and turmeric pastes to heal all kinds of ailments. Tinctures of garlic, rosemary-whether elixirs or made into teas or simply added to smoothies-not only do spices add classic tastes to so many dishes, but also act as their own little health boosters along with the foods made with them.
Back in the day, spices were pretty autonomous from each other. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme was a popular song in the 60's, but that's how spices came-by themselves. Salt, pepper-they stood alone. In our culture. Many years ago, parsley was simply something restaurants threw on a plate as a garnish to make it 'look nice'. Now we know that parsley has some amazing health properties to it, and in other cultures entire salads are made with it (Tabbouleh). Cultures like Asia were mixing up spices for a long time-Chinese 5 spice, curries.
Now along with individual spices, there are 1000's of different spice 'mixes.' Spices specifically for hamburgers, steaks, chicken, fish. Spices for salads, to add heat, to add garlicky goodness. Spices and 'rubs' for bbq's and roasts, spices for soups and stews-you name it, there is a combination for whatever palate you are feeling-an Italian herb blend perhaps, or a zingy fiery dash of Mexican?
And this is great, wonderful and makes ethnic cuisine a bit less complicated for some-after all, when you can just reach for the "Greek spice" bottle or the "Cajun blend"-you already have the essential spices to that particular cuisine all prepped and ready to go for you. Instead of YOU having to figure out the 5 spices to put into a dish, all the work is done for you. Which can be great. Except one thing:
The majority of these blends are rich with salts and sugars. I know right? Sucks, because what should be a pretty straight forward no-brainer means now you're stuck reading the labels even on freakin' spice bottles now. BUT-(and that's a big but so you know that I cannot lie)-there are also 100's of spice blends now that include NO salts. In fact, Mrs. Dash- her whole line of spices is salt-free. Since so many folks are in fact watching sodium intake, there have been many companies that have followed suite and have implemented a low or no sodium blend.
Even spices known for salt-the infamous Sazon and Adobo seasonings found in Hispanic cooking, now come with a no sodium 'natural' mix. So no despair-you can still have a huge spice cabinet. As pictured here-I like to keep all my spices in glass but I also mix up some of my own 'blends' so I keep those in little tiny tupperware. (Yes, I will share the recipes.)
I put them all on 'lazy susans'-the trays that move around in a circle, for ease in finding the spices I want to use. The possibilities of course are endless when it comes to spicing things up, and it's incredible how spices can truly change the taste of a product. A can of black beans for example, can be made up to taste Latino or from the Caribbean or from Africa-just based on the spices one uses. Spice really makes dishes regional-you can have a Chilean stew, an Brazilian stew or an American stew, just by tweaking a few spices and veggies.
Spices and herbs-fresh or dry-have their own health and medicinal properties. Entire books have been written on that alone. Many people swear by Oil of Oregano, for example, and turmeric pastes to heal all kinds of ailments. Tinctures of garlic, rosemary-whether elixirs or made into teas or simply added to smoothies-not only do spices add classic tastes to so many dishes, but also act as their own little health boosters along with the foods made with them.
Back in the day, spices were pretty autonomous from each other. Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme was a popular song in the 60's, but that's how spices came-by themselves. Salt, pepper-they stood alone. In our culture. Many years ago, parsley was simply something restaurants threw on a plate as a garnish to make it 'look nice'. Now we know that parsley has some amazing health properties to it, and in other cultures entire salads are made with it (Tabbouleh). Cultures like Asia were mixing up spices for a long time-Chinese 5 spice, curries.
Now along with individual spices, there are 1000's of different spice 'mixes.' Spices specifically for hamburgers, steaks, chicken, fish. Spices for salads, to add heat, to add garlicky goodness. Spices and 'rubs' for bbq's and roasts, spices for soups and stews-you name it, there is a combination for whatever palate you are feeling-an Italian herb blend perhaps, or a zingy fiery dash of Mexican?
And this is great, wonderful and makes ethnic cuisine a bit less complicated for some-after all, when you can just reach for the "Greek spice" bottle or the "Cajun blend"-you already have the essential spices to that particular cuisine all prepped and ready to go for you. Instead of YOU having to figure out the 5 spices to put into a dish, all the work is done for you. Which can be great. Except one thing:
The majority of these blends are rich with salts and sugars. I know right? Sucks, because what should be a pretty straight forward no-brainer means now you're stuck reading the labels even on freakin' spice bottles now. BUT-(and that's a big but so you know that I cannot lie)-there are also 100's of spice blends now that include NO salts. In fact, Mrs. Dash- her whole line of spices is salt-free. Since so many folks are in fact watching sodium intake, there have been many companies that have followed suite and have implemented a low or no sodium blend.
Even spices known for salt-the infamous Sazon and Adobo seasonings found in Hispanic cooking, now come with a no sodium 'natural' mix. So no despair-you can still have a huge spice cabinet. As pictured here-I like to keep all my spices in glass but I also mix up some of my own 'blends' so I keep those in little tiny tupperware. (Yes, I will share the recipes.)
I put them all on 'lazy susans'-the trays that move around in a circle, for ease in finding the spices I want to use. The possibilities of course are endless when it comes to spicing things up, and it's incredible how spices can truly change the taste of a product. A can of black beans for example, can be made up to taste Latino or from the Caribbean or from Africa-just based on the spices one uses. Spice really makes dishes regional-you can have a Chilean stew, an Brazilian stew or an American stew, just by tweaking a few spices and veggies.
As far as salt goes-well that's controversial. Sea salt is all the rage, in the belief that it is somehow healthier. I have a bottle in front in this picture of Pink Himalayan salt-touted for its richness in minerals and with some pretty incredible health claims. Trendy hype? Possibly. Sodium is sodium. Regular table salt gets a very bad rap, however it does contain iodine which at one point was necessary to supplement in our foods to prevent goiter. That problem has obviously been eliminated. Now I do -did-like to roll my baked potatoes in a coarse kosher salt, but until I actually try a vegan sour cream, I don't think I'll be making baked potatoes anytime soon because without butter and/or at least sour cream or cheese, I mean, what's the point. In any event, the jury has concluded for now that the pink Himalayan salt is the only salt we should touch at all. Far from being hard to find, I actually got mine at Wal-Mart. Funny because if you Google about it, it seems gourmet trendy could only find at a Whole Foods or upscale-type grocer. It is expensive even at the Wal-Mart compared to a big thing of regular old salt......but I would still err on the side of caution and use ANY salt very sparingly.
TIP: Turmeric, which is the base of many curries, is thought to be an anti-inflammatory possibly anti-cancer property spice. It too, should be Googled for more information. Anyway, it is said that if used in conjunction with black pepper, the pepper enhances the bioavailablity of the Turmeric 10 fold so makes it that much more healthy in our bodies.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Pantry rebuild, staples and condiments (this is a long post) Part 1
The first time you go through your pantry and weed out the stuff that's bad, and read labels- for some things you will say "No fucking way am I getting rid of"-like steak sauce. But you're not being rational, because you are not going to be using steak sauce. same with BBQ sauce. Those are both 'meat' sauces. On the off chance you want to do a veggie BBQ-then you can either use a dry rub, or go ahead and include some BBQ, being mindful of how much sugar it has in it (even homemade, brown sugar and molasses.)
That said, as we know I'm not a hard core fundamental vegetarian/vegan, I'm a moderate. You certainly don't HAVE to part with your mayonnaise and ketchup, but I'd highly recommend it. There are many brands that are vegetarian/vegan friendly.
I took a vegetarian sushi class (yes, I will post how to make) and that is the first time I ever tried "Vegginase". Vegetarian mayo. I thought it would be nasty but to my delight-it actually tasted amazingly good and like 'real' mayo. Here's a link to it and other vegan products, like cheese: Vegan dairy products
I know that there must be ketchup brands without sugar (Dr. Joel Fuhrman's website sells some, actually) and so on.
I'm not going to lie-building up a new pantry will cost a bit. BUT-since you are saving so much not buying meat and dairy and expensive oils, it won't take long and it is SO worth it. The other thing too, is that most the condiments used in vegetarian/vegan cooking have their own health benefits. It's essentially supplementing your meals with additional nutrients at the same time adding flavor and depth. That's a winning combination.
The old condiments of ketchup, mustard, relish, mayo, steak sauce, horseradish sauce, jellies, miracle whip, creamy salad dressings, oils, sugary stir fry sauces, imitation maple syrup, processed honey-needs to go. It's nothing but empty calories, unnecessary sugars and corn syrups, a shit ton of salt, and added preservatives. I'm going to do a separate post on spices alone, but for now, the change in your fridge and pantry needs to happen.
Butter: It has to go. Yes, there is a vegan butter called "Melt". Melt Vegan Spread You can find it in any grocery store. Is it good? YES. It really really is. However it is made with coconut oil, so if you are eliminating oils then you should not use or use quite sparingly.
Then there are Butter Buds. This is sprinkle on. It is made with real butter. But its so little the butter, unlike a huge dollop you'd usually use-that it seems to impart taste rather than the evil artery clogging stuff. Butter Buds
(For the record, I have both in the house when those 'butter' cravings hit. Which thankfully isn't often.)
Do you have to give up things like honey and maple syrup? Nope. Just replace with the NATURAL STUFF. 100% MAPLE SYRUP. No Log Cabin or Aunt Jemima. RAW local honey, not the stuff in the bear. Again, it costs more upfront. But you will use sparingly, and both have health properties in them that their fake pseudo cousins do not.
I have a balsamic glaze, going from left to right. 100% maple syrup. Some sherry wine, and I use white and red wines (real wines, not cooking wines) in dishes also. Apple cider vinegar WITH THE MOTHER. This is very important. If you Google ACV, you will see it touted as a miracle elixir, said to cure everything from herpes to cancer. I can't vouch for the millions of anecdotal claims, but I do know that the vinegar" with the mother" is the one that is said to be medicinal and curative...not the clear stuff in the grocery store. This particular brand-Bragg's-is most popular and a trip to their website will have you convinced that ACV should be a daily part of your life.
For me, it just tastes really good and makes great salad dressings without oil. Speaking of Bragg's, there is also their Amino Acid sauce. It's a soy sauce, low sodium, no gluten, with the addition of 16 amino acids for health. It's a bit "earthier" that regular soy sauce so many Vegans use it as a sub for fish sauce in Thai and Asian dishes. I have some balsamic vinegar, and some honey balsamic vinegar. There is plain rice vinegar and seasoned rice vinegar. Rice vinegars are used often in Asian cooking and has a milder taste than white vinegar. And of course red wine vinegar. Raw honey and hot sauces.....including Sriracha.
Not pictured is soy sauce, fish sauce, gyoza sauce, worchesthire. These contain either too much salt, sugar or fish for the purist. For me-I use them. They add flavor. They impart, imo, very little to the over-all diet in terms of ill-effect. I say that they are apart of my 10% leeway on my diet, because I have always been a sauce person and a condiment person and spice and flavor in my foods is everything to me. Some things can't really be replaced. Like Giardinara. You basically can't even find it outside of Chicago. Its a relish of sorts....cauliflower, carrots, peppers, celery in a vinegar or oil. It's an Italian condiment and in Chicago is mostly used to top Italian Beef sandwiches. It comes mild or hot, and in New Orleans giardinara is used on Muffuletta sandwiches. In any event, it's a fantastic relish and even though some are used with olive oil-I will still eat it. Sparingly as I don't eat it often, but it sure adds a kick to many foods, including an Italian Minestrone soup. Yum!!!
Now, as far as staples go-again, going thru your pantry you may end up like a counter where I had pictured the typical SAD diet. That counter would also include white regular flour, white, brown and powdered sugars, spices with added sugars and salts, lots of spaghetti, and many canned goods with sugars. Many canned 'convient' food like ready-made soups or ravioli type things. Canned fish and canned meats-hashes, hams, Spams, chicken, etc. It's all got to go.
You want to replace with veggies, rice and beans and grains. There are many flour substitutes and I can get into those later, so you can still bake and make breads and muffins and biscuits-just not with Bisquick and other such mixes. Veggies should be low sodium but really, you are only getting canned veggies that you can't really get frozen-like artichoke hearts, or baby corn, or bamboo shoots, or Mandarin oranges. Otherwise, frozen veggies for convenience are far more nutritious and have virtually no salt in comparison.
You want to have a variety of beans on hand, however bags of beans-while takes longer to prepare since you have to pre-soak-are more economical. For those nights of being too tired to cook, a can of beans rinsed is totally acceptable. Cans of different tomatoes-stewed, diced, roasted, pureed.....but again, look out for the additional sugar. Sometimes that takes some label reading-Hunt's makes some no salt-no sugar added tomatoes in their 'all natural' line and Ragu has a no sugar tomato sauce-and if you shop higher end stores like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, they are easy enough to find.
Making your own tomato sauces and tomatoes is more sophomore/junior level type stuff than my blog will get into, but that option always exists as well. There truly isn't anything that comes in a can, that you can't make homemade at home. Especially refried beans which are easy to make without the lard and oils, too.
I like to jar everything so I can readily see it, and the bonus of putting dry goods into glass and metal is that it keeps them bug and moisture free which is always a bonus, especially in warmer climates.( You can find a lot of cool jars and canning jars at Goodwills and garage sales, but I typically recycle jars)
(L to R) A quinoa/rice/pea blend, quinoa, brown lentils, white rice, green peas, yellow lentils, turmeric, cinnamon sticks, black eyed peas (not shown: black beans, kidney beans, brown rice, oats, couscous)
I don't have a bunch of 'snacks'. I've never been much of a 'snacker'. That said, beware of the snack aisles trying to seduce you with 'veggie chips' or 'baked' or 'all natural'. Snacks are bullshit. Every single one of them is processed, none of them are inherently 'healthy' for you. Sure some may impart fiber but over-all they all are pretty bad for us, and even the healthier end ones contain some oils.
Here's case in point:
Crackers on the left, the "hummuz". Label says All natural and baked, made with real garbanzo (chik) peas. Certified gluten-free, and verified non-GMO. Sounds good, right? Crackers made from chik peas, same thing Hummus is made from. But read the label. They contain: Milk protein, palm and/or olive oil, sugar, corn flour, milk cream and salt. Salt, sugar and oil-what the SOS heart healthy 'diet' says to avoid.
On the right, with 'Mary's Gone Crackers'-None of that bs. You simply have organic everything-brown rice, quinoa, flax seeds, sesame seeds, vinegar and tamari (soy). And incidentally, they taste awesome.
In theory-a potato chip is healthier than the cracker on the left, because a potato chip is simply dehydrated potato, oil and salt. There is no milk or sugar in potato chips. So the cracker on the left-not only has milk and sugar, but also has oil and salt so you would be better off with a bag of potato chips.
This is why reading labels matters so much, you can't go by the packaging or 'apperances.' I don't know when the hell as a species we are going to figure that lesson out because it's so true in ALL arenas of life, seriously.
In any event, you can replace white flour spaghetti with gluten-free spaghetti (tastes pretty good, actually)-with rice noodles, with quinoa spaghetti but if you're not gluten-sensitive (and you probably really aren't) then whole wheat can give you some additional nutrients to your pasta. Sub those powdered potatoes for a bag of the real thing.
You'll also want to ditch the chicken broths and bouillons-bouillons contain too much sodium, however, a jar of 'better than boullion' in the fridge is the exception. A little goes a long way and it just taste superior to a block of bouillon or bouillon 'crystals.' Avoid the new flavored broths like the plague.
Be mindful that even vegan veggie broth commercially is made with oils and additional sweetener. For me, when I chop veggies, I save the ends and the left overs and the leaves and store in a big baggie. At the end of the week, I make my own veggie broth to keep. I will post that recipe as well. But again-sometimes we are lazy, tired or sick so to have a few 'convinece' options on the side can't hurt. So a jar of 'vegetable' Better than Boullion' in the fridge or even a few cans of commercial veggie broth can't hurt in those pinch.
What about pickles and jam and jelly and olives and chili sauces and all that other great stuff? Again-read your labels. Yes, most pickles are 'pickled'. That means sodium. Vinegar. You do have to be mindful of the acidity of vinegar foods so if you have a sensitive stomach you will have to moderate yourself. Some pickles-like my favorite bread and butter pickles are now processed with high fructose corn syrup. Some jellies are made 'all fruit' with no additional sugars.
Sometimes you get lucky and big brand names have adjusted to not include HFCS but they do use sugar. And do not be tricked into 'light sugar' or 'sugar free' because you may be trading sugar for aspartame or a fake sweetener such as sorbitol and those imo, are even worse than any sugar product. Ideally, you want things naturally sweetened.
Stevia is a plant-based sweetener. Agave is very popular but it's actually as bad for us as table sugar in terms of how our body processes it. You CAN train your taste buds to not want sugar. Your body can detox from it. When those sugar cravings hit-raisins or fruit can substitute, and unsweetened applesauce and date juice has been used in cooking and baking forever by vegans.
I don't go into great depth and education with this stuff because there is just SO much information out there already. All I can do is direct people what NOT to do. Don't eat white cane sugar, don't eat sugar substitutes, be very careful of agave sweetener, and use natural sweetener like maple and molasses and honey in their raw natural states and sparingly if you must use sugar at all. As for the how's and whys, I invite you to research the Internet just like I have, talk to people who are living sugar-free, talk to those with aspartame poisoning. Listen to people who's lives have changed miraculously and whose health has improved 1000% by making even moderate modifications to the typical SAD diet, much less eliminating the worst (SOS.) Make conscious choices based on all sides of the coin and reach your own conclusions. Critically think it out. If you don't like something I'm doing-don't do it. If you have suggestions/tips/ideas/ knowledge-share it. But no fundamental soap boxing here, please. No vegan panty bunching allowed. This isn't a purist blog, thanks. :)
That said, as we know I'm not a hard core fundamental vegetarian/vegan, I'm a moderate. You certainly don't HAVE to part with your mayonnaise and ketchup, but I'd highly recommend it. There are many brands that are vegetarian/vegan friendly.
I took a vegetarian sushi class (yes, I will post how to make) and that is the first time I ever tried "Vegginase". Vegetarian mayo. I thought it would be nasty but to my delight-it actually tasted amazingly good and like 'real' mayo. Here's a link to it and other vegan products, like cheese: Vegan dairy products
I know that there must be ketchup brands without sugar (Dr. Joel Fuhrman's website sells some, actually) and so on.
I'm not going to lie-building up a new pantry will cost a bit. BUT-since you are saving so much not buying meat and dairy and expensive oils, it won't take long and it is SO worth it. The other thing too, is that most the condiments used in vegetarian/vegan cooking have their own health benefits. It's essentially supplementing your meals with additional nutrients at the same time adding flavor and depth. That's a winning combination.
The old condiments of ketchup, mustard, relish, mayo, steak sauce, horseradish sauce, jellies, miracle whip, creamy salad dressings, oils, sugary stir fry sauces, imitation maple syrup, processed honey-needs to go. It's nothing but empty calories, unnecessary sugars and corn syrups, a shit ton of salt, and added preservatives. I'm going to do a separate post on spices alone, but for now, the change in your fridge and pantry needs to happen.
Butter: It has to go. Yes, there is a vegan butter called "Melt". Melt Vegan Spread You can find it in any grocery store. Is it good? YES. It really really is. However it is made with coconut oil, so if you are eliminating oils then you should not use or use quite sparingly.
Then there are Butter Buds. This is sprinkle on. It is made with real butter. But its so little the butter, unlike a huge dollop you'd usually use-that it seems to impart taste rather than the evil artery clogging stuff. Butter Buds
(For the record, I have both in the house when those 'butter' cravings hit. Which thankfully isn't often.)
Do you have to give up things like honey and maple syrup? Nope. Just replace with the NATURAL STUFF. 100% MAPLE SYRUP. No Log Cabin or Aunt Jemima. RAW local honey, not the stuff in the bear. Again, it costs more upfront. But you will use sparingly, and both have health properties in them that their fake pseudo cousins do not.
For me, it just tastes really good and makes great salad dressings without oil. Speaking of Bragg's, there is also their Amino Acid sauce. It's a soy sauce, low sodium, no gluten, with the addition of 16 amino acids for health. It's a bit "earthier" that regular soy sauce so many Vegans use it as a sub for fish sauce in Thai and Asian dishes. I have some balsamic vinegar, and some honey balsamic vinegar. There is plain rice vinegar and seasoned rice vinegar. Rice vinegars are used often in Asian cooking and has a milder taste than white vinegar. And of course red wine vinegar. Raw honey and hot sauces.....including Sriracha.
Not pictured is soy sauce, fish sauce, gyoza sauce, worchesthire. These contain either too much salt, sugar or fish for the purist. For me-I use them. They add flavor. They impart, imo, very little to the over-all diet in terms of ill-effect. I say that they are apart of my 10% leeway on my diet, because I have always been a sauce person and a condiment person and spice and flavor in my foods is everything to me. Some things can't really be replaced. Like Giardinara. You basically can't even find it outside of Chicago. Its a relish of sorts....cauliflower, carrots, peppers, celery in a vinegar or oil. It's an Italian condiment and in Chicago is mostly used to top Italian Beef sandwiches. It comes mild or hot, and in New Orleans giardinara is used on Muffuletta sandwiches. In any event, it's a fantastic relish and even though some are used with olive oil-I will still eat it. Sparingly as I don't eat it often, but it sure adds a kick to many foods, including an Italian Minestrone soup. Yum!!!
Now, as far as staples go-again, going thru your pantry you may end up like a counter where I had pictured the typical SAD diet. That counter would also include white regular flour, white, brown and powdered sugars, spices with added sugars and salts, lots of spaghetti, and many canned goods with sugars. Many canned 'convient' food like ready-made soups or ravioli type things. Canned fish and canned meats-hashes, hams, Spams, chicken, etc. It's all got to go.
You want to replace with veggies, rice and beans and grains. There are many flour substitutes and I can get into those later, so you can still bake and make breads and muffins and biscuits-just not with Bisquick and other such mixes. Veggies should be low sodium but really, you are only getting canned veggies that you can't really get frozen-like artichoke hearts, or baby corn, or bamboo shoots, or Mandarin oranges. Otherwise, frozen veggies for convenience are far more nutritious and have virtually no salt in comparison.
You want to have a variety of beans on hand, however bags of beans-while takes longer to prepare since you have to pre-soak-are more economical. For those nights of being too tired to cook, a can of beans rinsed is totally acceptable. Cans of different tomatoes-stewed, diced, roasted, pureed.....but again, look out for the additional sugar. Sometimes that takes some label reading-Hunt's makes some no salt-no sugar added tomatoes in their 'all natural' line and Ragu has a no sugar tomato sauce-and if you shop higher end stores like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, they are easy enough to find.
Making your own tomato sauces and tomatoes is more sophomore/junior level type stuff than my blog will get into, but that option always exists as well. There truly isn't anything that comes in a can, that you can't make homemade at home. Especially refried beans which are easy to make without the lard and oils, too.
I like to jar everything so I can readily see it, and the bonus of putting dry goods into glass and metal is that it keeps them bug and moisture free which is always a bonus, especially in warmer climates.( You can find a lot of cool jars and canning jars at Goodwills and garage sales, but I typically recycle jars)
I don't have a bunch of 'snacks'. I've never been much of a 'snacker'. That said, beware of the snack aisles trying to seduce you with 'veggie chips' or 'baked' or 'all natural'. Snacks are bullshit. Every single one of them is processed, none of them are inherently 'healthy' for you. Sure some may impart fiber but over-all they all are pretty bad for us, and even the healthier end ones contain some oils.
Here's case in point:
Crackers on the left, the "hummuz". Label says All natural and baked, made with real garbanzo (chik) peas. Certified gluten-free, and verified non-GMO. Sounds good, right? Crackers made from chik peas, same thing Hummus is made from. But read the label. They contain: Milk protein, palm and/or olive oil, sugar, corn flour, milk cream and salt. Salt, sugar and oil-what the SOS heart healthy 'diet' says to avoid.
On the right, with 'Mary's Gone Crackers'-None of that bs. You simply have organic everything-brown rice, quinoa, flax seeds, sesame seeds, vinegar and tamari (soy). And incidentally, they taste awesome.
In theory-a potato chip is healthier than the cracker on the left, because a potato chip is simply dehydrated potato, oil and salt. There is no milk or sugar in potato chips. So the cracker on the left-not only has milk and sugar, but also has oil and salt so you would be better off with a bag of potato chips.
This is why reading labels matters so much, you can't go by the packaging or 'apperances.' I don't know when the hell as a species we are going to figure that lesson out because it's so true in ALL arenas of life, seriously.
In any event, you can replace white flour spaghetti with gluten-free spaghetti (tastes pretty good, actually)-with rice noodles, with quinoa spaghetti but if you're not gluten-sensitive (and you probably really aren't) then whole wheat can give you some additional nutrients to your pasta. Sub those powdered potatoes for a bag of the real thing.
You'll also want to ditch the chicken broths and bouillons-bouillons contain too much sodium, however, a jar of 'better than boullion' in the fridge is the exception. A little goes a long way and it just taste superior to a block of bouillon or bouillon 'crystals.' Avoid the new flavored broths like the plague.
Be mindful that even vegan veggie broth commercially is made with oils and additional sweetener. For me, when I chop veggies, I save the ends and the left overs and the leaves and store in a big baggie. At the end of the week, I make my own veggie broth to keep. I will post that recipe as well. But again-sometimes we are lazy, tired or sick so to have a few 'convinece' options on the side can't hurt. So a jar of 'vegetable' Better than Boullion' in the fridge or even a few cans of commercial veggie broth can't hurt in those pinch.
What about pickles and jam and jelly and olives and chili sauces and all that other great stuff? Again-read your labels. Yes, most pickles are 'pickled'. That means sodium. Vinegar. You do have to be mindful of the acidity of vinegar foods so if you have a sensitive stomach you will have to moderate yourself. Some pickles-like my favorite bread and butter pickles are now processed with high fructose corn syrup. Some jellies are made 'all fruit' with no additional sugars.
Sometimes you get lucky and big brand names have adjusted to not include HFCS but they do use sugar. And do not be tricked into 'light sugar' or 'sugar free' because you may be trading sugar for aspartame or a fake sweetener such as sorbitol and those imo, are even worse than any sugar product. Ideally, you want things naturally sweetened.
Stevia is a plant-based sweetener. Agave is very popular but it's actually as bad for us as table sugar in terms of how our body processes it. You CAN train your taste buds to not want sugar. Your body can detox from it. When those sugar cravings hit-raisins or fruit can substitute, and unsweetened applesauce and date juice has been used in cooking and baking forever by vegans.
I don't go into great depth and education with this stuff because there is just SO much information out there already. All I can do is direct people what NOT to do. Don't eat white cane sugar, don't eat sugar substitutes, be very careful of agave sweetener, and use natural sweetener like maple and molasses and honey in their raw natural states and sparingly if you must use sugar at all. As for the how's and whys, I invite you to research the Internet just like I have, talk to people who are living sugar-free, talk to those with aspartame poisoning. Listen to people who's lives have changed miraculously and whose health has improved 1000% by making even moderate modifications to the typical SAD diet, much less eliminating the worst (SOS.) Make conscious choices based on all sides of the coin and reach your own conclusions. Critically think it out. If you don't like something I'm doing-don't do it. If you have suggestions/tips/ideas/ knowledge-share it. But no fundamental soap boxing here, please. No vegan panty bunching allowed. This isn't a purist blog, thanks. :)
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Power Bowl.....aka "and the kitchen sink"
If you're new to the land of quinoa and shit like that-this dish will be wayyyyy daunting for you. This is typically something you have to work your way up to, unless of course you freakin' love veggies like I do.
What inspired this for me was produce needing to be eaten soon, and feeling a bit tired so wanting a punch of protein. I do allow myself an egg a week, either like this-or hard boiled. It's part of my 10%. I am not convinced that eggs are evil, on the contrary, they are a complete protein and do have some nutrients in them that are truly vital for health, and difficult to harvest from other places, like lutein and zeaxanthin. For this reason I believe in moderation here. Yes, the yolks contain cholesterol but studies have also indicated that it doesn't affect the cholesterol levels in our bodies. That is, you'd have to eat a hell of a lot of eggs in order for that to happen. Personally, eaten like this-not fried in butter, not in an omelet with cheese-well I'm going to take my chances that it's okay. (Even my cardiologist admits he is vegetarian, not vegan.)
For the purist-leave the egg out. I'm not hard core at all. The transition-which I'll write about in my next post-for me was a process. Some people suggest it should be an event, like ripping off a band-aid but I disagree. I think it should be whatever a person is comfortable with, can handle and will maximize their potential for life-style changing success. Remember, this isn't a 'diet.' It's a way of eating for life. That said, this here bowl can't get much more healthier. Maybe-but I doubt it.
Garlic, minced
small yellow onion
one stalk celery
one carrot, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
chopped cabbage, green and purple (pre-made coleslaw mix great here)
handful of kale, chopped
few springs of parsley, minced
1 can mexi corn (rinsed to get rid of salt and sugar)
1 8oz can lima beans (rinsed)
1/2 cup brown lentils
1/2 cup quinoa
vegetable broth
tumeric, to taste
coriander, to taste
paprika, to taste
black pepper, to taste
4 heaping teaspoons of tomato sofrito
1 egg, cooked how you like it
Start cooking the quinoa and the lentils....like rice, 1:2. So for 1/2 cup, use 1- 1/3 cups water or broth to cook.Once mostly done, set aside. Saute the garlic, onion, celery and carrots in some veggie broth until soft in a dutch oven (soup/stew pot.) Add the cabbage and the chopped kale.
(quinoa and lentils are cooked just like rice. Once to a bowl, simmer, cover and when the water is absorbed, it's done. Typically around 15 to 25 minutes, depending on how big the batch.)
Add the spices, and stir until well blended. Add the lentils and quinoa, and then enough vegetable broth to cover and make soupy/stewy, but not completely soupy. Add corn and lima beans. Stir. Add the sofrito. Cook, simmer on the stove covered for at least 15 minutes. Spoon a bowl out, and then cook your egg. It is not necessary to use oil or butter if you have non-stick pans, but for additional taste you may want to use a vegan butter to fry the egg. Not necessary but sometimes its hard for people to reconcile not cooking an egg in SOME sort of 'fat.'
Of course, you can always poach an egg in either water or more veggie broth, or use a hard-boiled one. I like the yolk running into the broth here, it adds a richer, creamier tastier dimension. On the egg itself I use pink salt and pepper.
*tomato sofrito is a latino condiment in a jar, click here (can be found in all grocery stores in the latin foods section) Sofrito-scroll down a bit
F*ck Gwyneth Paltrow
Ok, I'll give her a break, I mean, at least she TRIED to see what it's like to be poor and eat healthy. Thing is, is that its really NOT that expensive to eat well. When you cut out meat, dairy, and oils-you are saving a SIGNIFICANT amount of money, as frankly those are the most expensive items. The cost of meat these days is outrageous. As discussed before, hamburger runs about 7.00 a package, and you are able to get two gianormous chicken breast for about 8.00 as well.
You have noticed that, right, just how huge chicken breasts are coming now? Yeah that ain't natural. Back in the day, they were half the size of that naturally. I've heard that they give the chickens some sort of hormone so by a certain age, they are already big enough to slaughter to eat.....so instead of waiting for them to mature, they throw them into chicken puberty and kill them much sooner than usual. If you think of just all the fast food chicken places and corporate restaurant chains alone-the demand is so great that yes, they had to think of some way to keep up with it. It's pretty gross.
So let's say you're mindful of all that so you want to get chicken that is 'free range' or you want to get beef that is 'grass fed.' You can even go so far as to get beef where the cows have been massaged and shit and basically given a room at the Hilton. Allegedly the 'relaxed' and pampered cow dies peacefully in slaughter and due to all that bovine bliss, the meat is 'tenderized' by some sort of happiness enzyme, netting you a much better piece of meat. For half of your paycheck.
In other words-if you want QUALITY meat you will really pay out the behind for it and if you are willing to buy the cheaper cuts- and tenderize them by stewing or slow cooking or marinating-you're still paying a lot and now compromising your health integrity.
Never mind the conditions for the animals that are disgusting. I like animals but I'm not driven to fight for them like some of my friends are. I'm glad there are people like that because someone has to do it, but I'm a human rights person first and foremost. That said, it really is terrible what we do to animals in order to eat them and since we don't NEED to eat them, regardless of what them Paleo diet people say-it's just better to go meatless for ethical as well as health reasons. I get it however, that we are a culture indoctrinated with meat eating and in certain states, like Kansas, Texas-I think it's blasphemy to suggest meat-less eating unless it Lent and it's Friday.
That said, oil is also expensive, a medium bottle of Olive Oil runs folks about 10.00. You can find some on sale for about 8 usually, but brand quality and the type of OO matters so of course, it can be a gamble finding a decent cheap one (sorta like wine.) When you get into more 'exotic' oils, even the now ubiquitous coconut oil, you are still looking at 10 bucks a jar or bottle. If the theory is that you replace all other fats with the oils to cook with, drizzle with, roast with, dressing with, saute with-then a jar isn't going to last very long.
Then the cost of milk seems to fluctuate like gasoline, and cheese is not cheap by any means. You might find a '10 for 10' yogurt deal, but 1.00 for a tiny container of yogurt still seems steep to me. All told, even butter runs about 5.00 for 4 quarters so when you add up the cost of just these 3 'staples'-you're running up a pretty high grocery bill. This is why Hamburger Helper being a cheap dinner choice is a misnomer, sure, the HH is cheap, but the hamburger, butter and milk as mentioned before is not.
These are just staples, not including side dishes or snacky foods, another American addiction. Last time I was at Aldi's, it should just be called "house of chips and crackers." The largest selection of snack items I've seen in ages, but that's pretty universal at most grocery stores it seems. Snacks are not cheap either, that is if you want to eat snacks that are even remotely healthy.
So, what do we have pictured above? Almost an entire week's worth of fruit, for starters. It's suggested for optimal health that people eat 3 to 4 pieces of fruit a day. Here there are strawberries, blueberries, a mango, a bunch of bananas, cherries, a bag of honey crisp apples and a cantaloupe. Munch a few strawberries while Facebooking, add blueberries to oatmeal, eat an apple, have some cantaloupe pieces....some mango thrown in with some spicy black beans and rice makes for an exotic Caribbean kind of dish that is really yummy....with all of this, you're pretty good on fruit for at least 5 days.
Meanwhile, there's a tub of roasted red pepper hummus, some queso fresco and some corn tortillas (made with no oil.) I have the cheese as only a garnish for some mushroom tacos I was making (yes, will post recipe) but for those who are vegetarian and eating dairy, you can melt some right in the tortillas. Also smear some hummus on the tortilla and add some of this cucumber.
I was running low on chick peas (incidentally, you can make your own hummus with those) so I stocked up but any 3 cans of beans cost the same. Add a bag of rice and you have a couple meals out of that.
Now, I'm not suggesting this is a week's worth of food. But, this food cost $20.18 at Aldi's. Usually, blueberries and cherries are one of the most expensive fruits. Sure, look for stuff on sale and freeze-I do it with strawberries and blueberries all the time, just lay on a cookie sheet, stick in freezer then throw in a freezer safe baggie-but the point is, you have a lot of fruit and for 20.00 you can have enough veggies and stuff to have a week's worth of meals. Basically, you can eat and feed a family of 4 for 50.00 a week and not starve and not feel deprived.
Farmer's markets are weird. Some are really expensive because they are pretentious and it's more social thing, believe it or not. If you are lucky like me, you can drive on a country road and stop at a real farm with a real farm stand. I live not too far from the Wisconsin border and so that's what I do and there I am able to get organic, fresh garden produce significantly cheaper than either the grocery store or in-town farmer's markets.
One has to conquer the psychology of food in our culture which is "ALOT." The typical restaurant meal is really the size for 3 meals, which is why many people need to-go boxes or they want to split an entree. We have learned to 'super size' and we equate 'bigger is better' with our foods the same way we do our homes and vehicles. Add to that the subconscious remembering our parents pushing us to finish everything on our plates ("there's starving kids in China") that we feel the need to continue to eat, even when our hunger has been satisfied.
We need to lose that mentality. You do NOT need to have a jillion choices of snacks each week, or have a dozen frozen entrees and pizzas and quick 'nukeable' meals and soups and such. And once you get really good at all this natural eating, you learn to freeze from the big bowls and pots of stews and soups and rice thingys, so then you now have your own stock-pile of convenient frozen meals to take to work or after a hard day at work. We will get there. For now, just be relieved to know you don't have to shop at "whole paycheck" in order to eat healthy and you don't have to take a second mortgage out on your house, either.
If fast food restaurants were honest in advertising
Click above to see true an honest fast food commerical
Click above to see true an honest fast food commerical
I'm a writer. Period.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy taking pictures. But every single picture of food I post here, has been taken with a cellphone. And they have changed throughout the years, from Iphones to lost Android phones that needed replacing with cheaper ones.
That said, I've noticed that many food bloggers also have a photography passion/hobby and their pics look very nice and professional. Hell, that's how food sells on menus, right? (And never looks like it on the menu, right.) So-what you see is legit, raw and real, like what I upload to Facebook raw and real. I am NOT a photographer. I have an artistic eye-I sketch, I paint and stuff...BUT....I dont have the means to really make this 'glossy'. I'm just putting this out here before I get trolled about the quality of pics.
You wanna know what the damn food looks like, MAKE IT and see for yourself. Its really that easy lol.
That said, SOME pics are decent while others are not. However like life and people, its the CONTENT and not the appearance that truly matters the most. (Yeah I know tho that you have to attract to learn content in the first place, blah blah.) Anyway, lets talk about some product replacement.
(Photo bombing Roommate sold separately.) Anyway, when going off of cow's milk, some people think that their only option is some soy or rice milk but that is no longer the case. As you can see pictured here, there is flax milk, cashew milk, almond milk-this here is actually a hybrid of almond/coconut milk, and there is coconut milk as well. And of course, there is soy and almond milk. Personally, the chocolate almond milk is simply to swoon for, as it is rich and creamy yet without the fats and crap in dairy cow milk.
I read one blogger call cow milk 'cow pus' and that's pretty gross but yeah. When you figure what all they are eating, the hormones they are given, the antibiotics-but to get the milk supposedly without all of that stuff, you are paying a ridiculous amount. I eyeballed at Wal-Mart and a gallon of organic milk THERE is over 6.00.
These milks pictured here run about 3 to 4 dollars. But it really is worth it. Of course if you are watching your sugars, then you want to get the unsweetened flavor. I personally stopped drinking dairy milk years ago because I'm lactose intolerant, but I still used cream in my coffee. CREAM, either 18% or 1/2 and 1/2. I would get SO pissed off if I had to resort to regular milk or God forbid-skim-in my cafe but I digress.
I use the milk for mixing into my oatmeal and I use it for recipes that call for milk or cream, say, in a soup. That's when the unsweetened flax really comes in handy, I personally like it the best and think it has the most health benefits. I don't really care for the taste of soy milk but the nut milks taste just fine to me, so for pouring on cereal or making a healthy pancake or waffle I'm thinking this is totally the way to go.
I have put into coffee and blech. Not for me. But since I've quit smoking and changed my diet, I don't much have a taste for coffee like I used to. I drink about 1/2 a cup in the mornings and I do put the nut milk in it, but I drink it because coffee does have some antioxidant properties and studies have shown that is beneficial now for heart patients. (Go figure. For years they said caffeine will mess with your heart causing arrhythmia's. To be fair, in some people it does, they are sensitive and the energy drinks WILL kill you and your heart, just sayin') BUT the hospitals and cardiac units will serve you up as much coffee as you want-I laid up in ICU drinking it all day long when I had my heart attack. (It helped metabolize the nicotine out of my system faster. That's why people smoke more when they drink coffee and vice-versa-nicotine makes caffeine metabolize faster. When you quit either, you need less of both.)
Anyhoo.....experiment with the non-dairy milks. Now there are some very adventurous hard core souls out in the world who even make their own nut milks, I have seen this on a number of blogs. I assume it's much more economical and you control the ingredients but meh. For me I think there are some things I will always just buy. Never say never and all that but I'll consider this a 'pre-packaged fast' food. :)
That said, I've noticed that many food bloggers also have a photography passion/hobby and their pics look very nice and professional. Hell, that's how food sells on menus, right? (And never looks like it on the menu, right.) So-what you see is legit, raw and real, like what I upload to Facebook raw and real. I am NOT a photographer. I have an artistic eye-I sketch, I paint and stuff...BUT....I dont have the means to really make this 'glossy'. I'm just putting this out here before I get trolled about the quality of pics.
You wanna know what the damn food looks like, MAKE IT and see for yourself. Its really that easy lol.
That said, SOME pics are decent while others are not. However like life and people, its the CONTENT and not the appearance that truly matters the most. (Yeah I know tho that you have to attract to learn content in the first place, blah blah.) Anyway, lets talk about some product replacement.
I read one blogger call cow milk 'cow pus' and that's pretty gross but yeah. When you figure what all they are eating, the hormones they are given, the antibiotics-but to get the milk supposedly without all of that stuff, you are paying a ridiculous amount. I eyeballed at Wal-Mart and a gallon of organic milk THERE is over 6.00.
These milks pictured here run about 3 to 4 dollars. But it really is worth it. Of course if you are watching your sugars, then you want to get the unsweetened flavor. I personally stopped drinking dairy milk years ago because I'm lactose intolerant, but I still used cream in my coffee. CREAM, either 18% or 1/2 and 1/2. I would get SO pissed off if I had to resort to regular milk or God forbid-skim-in my cafe but I digress.
I use the milk for mixing into my oatmeal and I use it for recipes that call for milk or cream, say, in a soup. That's when the unsweetened flax really comes in handy, I personally like it the best and think it has the most health benefits. I don't really care for the taste of soy milk but the nut milks taste just fine to me, so for pouring on cereal or making a healthy pancake or waffle I'm thinking this is totally the way to go.
I have put into coffee and blech. Not for me. But since I've quit smoking and changed my diet, I don't much have a taste for coffee like I used to. I drink about 1/2 a cup in the mornings and I do put the nut milk in it, but I drink it because coffee does have some antioxidant properties and studies have shown that is beneficial now for heart patients. (Go figure. For years they said caffeine will mess with your heart causing arrhythmia's. To be fair, in some people it does, they are sensitive and the energy drinks WILL kill you and your heart, just sayin') BUT the hospitals and cardiac units will serve you up as much coffee as you want-I laid up in ICU drinking it all day long when I had my heart attack. (It helped metabolize the nicotine out of my system faster. That's why people smoke more when they drink coffee and vice-versa-nicotine makes caffeine metabolize faster. When you quit either, you need less of both.)
Anyhoo.....experiment with the non-dairy milks. Now there are some very adventurous hard core souls out in the world who even make their own nut milks, I have seen this on a number of blogs. I assume it's much more economical and you control the ingredients but meh. For me I think there are some things I will always just buy. Never say never and all that but I'll consider this a 'pre-packaged fast' food. :)
Monday, June 29, 2015
Close, but no cigar......
Speaking of cigars, it's been 3 months since I've had any nicotine. Quit cold turkey. I smoked 30+ years, often 2 packs a day and times of extreme stress, burning through almost 3 was not unheard of. No one ever imagined that-least of all me, who had been trying to quit for YEARS. It really wasn't hard at all, once I had the shit scared out of me and you know, almost died. Funny how that makes smoking not very important.
I did use xanax the first week and the insomnia was off the chain crazy for about 3 days straight, but over-all, its been fine. I didn't change a thing in my life. I eat, drink, drank coffee, do all the same things I did before. It truly is in your head.
My cardiologist did say that it would be okay for me to smoke water vapor (with no nicotine in it)-though he looked at me like I was nuts-and I did that for a little while because I really found the act of inhaling something and holding something hand to mouth, THAT was the addiction. That's what I craved.
Most the time however, I will hold a cinnamon stick roughly the same size of a smoke and that is all I need to do. Evidently cinnamon is healthy as well, so if I do chew on it, its all good. Lowers blood glucose.
My last posts on this blog were 3 years ago, in 2012. And I really was attempting to eat healthy. I didn't do too bad. Unfortunately I just didn't know any different, just how bad the cheese, dairy and oils were for me, for all of us. Like I said, I will be keeping the old posts up because it does help to have those recipes as 'transitional' from 'truly shitty diet' to 'relatively healthy'-I guarantee if you are on a shit diet that even my old posts will have you losing weight and feeling better, but I'm going to go back in an edit them now to make them either vegetarian or vegan. Look for the *.
I did use xanax the first week and the insomnia was off the chain crazy for about 3 days straight, but over-all, its been fine. I didn't change a thing in my life. I eat, drink, drank coffee, do all the same things I did before. It truly is in your head.
My cardiologist did say that it would be okay for me to smoke water vapor (with no nicotine in it)-though he looked at me like I was nuts-and I did that for a little while because I really found the act of inhaling something and holding something hand to mouth, THAT was the addiction. That's what I craved.
Most the time however, I will hold a cinnamon stick roughly the same size of a smoke and that is all I need to do. Evidently cinnamon is healthy as well, so if I do chew on it, its all good. Lowers blood glucose.
My last posts on this blog were 3 years ago, in 2012. And I really was attempting to eat healthy. I didn't do too bad. Unfortunately I just didn't know any different, just how bad the cheese, dairy and oils were for me, for all of us. Like I said, I will be keeping the old posts up because it does help to have those recipes as 'transitional' from 'truly shitty diet' to 'relatively healthy'-I guarantee if you are on a shit diet that even my old posts will have you losing weight and feeling better, but I'm going to go back in an edit them now to make them either vegetarian or vegan. Look for the *.
Eat right, exercise and die anyway
One argument I hear a lot from people is that we are gonna die anyway, so we might as well enjoy life. This is a rational to continue to eat foods and do activities that are not in our best health interest.
To a degree, I agree. Life is meant to be enjoyed. And there's not a question that fatty foods, creamy foods, cheesy foods, sugary foods seem to enhance the joy of life-and they do very much act as drugs in our brains. You can find all kinds of information on just how some foods truly are considered addicting.
But such as with drugs-our bodies don't need the certain ingredients-like sucrose, which is aka 'table sugar', white cane sugar.
But I tend to agree that the idea of never tasting certain foods again, seems like a huge bummer considering that yeah, something is gonna get us anyway. But here's where that argument ends.
Depending on who you ask, a 10% leeway in the diet is permissible. I suppose you pick you poison then. Do you eat some chicken? Do you have some fish (both a couple or few times a month.) Do you have an egg? Do you put a slice of cheese on something, or dip your bread in oil?
It is said to reverse disease, such as heart disease-you must go on an SOS diet. No Salt, No Oils, No Sugars. Seems daunting in a culture where those 3 ingredients are abundant and put into EVERYTHING.
How do you avoid it? Reading labels of course, and knowing the code words for hidden oils, fats and sugars. Things like 'corn syrup, high fructose' hide sugar. Oils -those are pretty specific but there is no 'healthy' oil. Olive oil is not good for the heart. The Mediterranean diet is good for the heart and the meddie lifestyle is good for the heart. Those people have less heart disease as a byproduct of lower stress, more rigorous physical activity, naps during the day, and a diet filled with fresh fruits, veggies and grains. Here in the states, its assumed if you just sub butter with olive oil, you're 'heart healthy' but that's bullshit, because butter has LESS calories per serving than oo. Now, the oo may not be 'saturated' fat, but obesity counts as risk factor on the heart. The fatter you are, the harder your heart has to work to pump the blood and oxygenate you. That added stress and strain causes problems as we are well aware of.
Problem is, subbing with fake sugars, 'no fat' or 'low fat' creates a whole host of other problems as well. Our bodies are not built to consume white sugar but it really doesn't know what the fuck to do with aspartame and the like, so yes your pancreas gets all out of whack with insulin/glucose and stuff like that and boom, you've given birth to diabetes.
I'm going to go over some labels to show just how deceptive marketing is,in terms of leading people to believe that food is not only healthy but even safe.
Yes, you ARE going to die anyway. And we've all heard the stories of the clean living jogger who drops dead on the jogging trail of a heart attack, and the grandfather who lived to be 98 despite a pack a day, 6 pack a night eggs every morning and beef every evening lifestyle. But times ARE different, including those cigarettes that have also been adulterated and added shit to. So here's the options:
Die, but die 10-15 years younger than you have to, and until you die, be plagued with illnesses like diabetes, cancer, crippling arthritis, dementia, chronic aches and pains, headaches, insomnia, impotence, no sex drive, exhaustion, depression, hair loss, anxiety, obesity, constipation/diarrhea, no energy, sadness, mood swings, skin problems and end up in a nursing home where you are completely dependent on people you may not even like, OR-die with minimal illness, active and autonomous and taking care of yourself until you peacefully die in your sleep from old age?
I'd rather give a few 'pleasures' food wise up, to avoid the fate I have seen as a health care worker time and time again. It ain't pretty. And, I'm also not ready to go anytime soon. So, I'm willing to try and do what I have to prevent as much bullshit as I can.
To a degree, I agree. Life is meant to be enjoyed. And there's not a question that fatty foods, creamy foods, cheesy foods, sugary foods seem to enhance the joy of life-and they do very much act as drugs in our brains. You can find all kinds of information on just how some foods truly are considered addicting.
But such as with drugs-our bodies don't need the certain ingredients-like sucrose, which is aka 'table sugar', white cane sugar.
But I tend to agree that the idea of never tasting certain foods again, seems like a huge bummer considering that yeah, something is gonna get us anyway. But here's where that argument ends.
Depending on who you ask, a 10% leeway in the diet is permissible. I suppose you pick you poison then. Do you eat some chicken? Do you have some fish (both a couple or few times a month.) Do you have an egg? Do you put a slice of cheese on something, or dip your bread in oil?
It is said to reverse disease, such as heart disease-you must go on an SOS diet. No Salt, No Oils, No Sugars. Seems daunting in a culture where those 3 ingredients are abundant and put into EVERYTHING.
How do you avoid it? Reading labels of course, and knowing the code words for hidden oils, fats and sugars. Things like 'corn syrup, high fructose' hide sugar. Oils -those are pretty specific but there is no 'healthy' oil. Olive oil is not good for the heart. The Mediterranean diet is good for the heart and the meddie lifestyle is good for the heart. Those people have less heart disease as a byproduct of lower stress, more rigorous physical activity, naps during the day, and a diet filled with fresh fruits, veggies and grains. Here in the states, its assumed if you just sub butter with olive oil, you're 'heart healthy' but that's bullshit, because butter has LESS calories per serving than oo. Now, the oo may not be 'saturated' fat, but obesity counts as risk factor on the heart. The fatter you are, the harder your heart has to work to pump the blood and oxygenate you. That added stress and strain causes problems as we are well aware of.
Problem is, subbing with fake sugars, 'no fat' or 'low fat' creates a whole host of other problems as well. Our bodies are not built to consume white sugar but it really doesn't know what the fuck to do with aspartame and the like, so yes your pancreas gets all out of whack with insulin/glucose and stuff like that and boom, you've given birth to diabetes.
I'm going to go over some labels to show just how deceptive marketing is,in terms of leading people to believe that food is not only healthy but even safe.
Yes, you ARE going to die anyway. And we've all heard the stories of the clean living jogger who drops dead on the jogging trail of a heart attack, and the grandfather who lived to be 98 despite a pack a day, 6 pack a night eggs every morning and beef every evening lifestyle. But times ARE different, including those cigarettes that have also been adulterated and added shit to. So here's the options:
Die, but die 10-15 years younger than you have to, and until you die, be plagued with illnesses like diabetes, cancer, crippling arthritis, dementia, chronic aches and pains, headaches, insomnia, impotence, no sex drive, exhaustion, depression, hair loss, anxiety, obesity, constipation/diarrhea, no energy, sadness, mood swings, skin problems and end up in a nursing home where you are completely dependent on people you may not even like, OR-die with minimal illness, active and autonomous and taking care of yourself until you peacefully die in your sleep from old age?
I'd rather give a few 'pleasures' food wise up, to avoid the fate I have seen as a health care worker time and time again. It ain't pretty. And, I'm also not ready to go anytime soon. So, I'm willing to try and do what I have to prevent as much bullshit as I can.
SAD (Standard American Diet)
Now bless the churches and counties hearts for providing food pantries in the first place. Its a god send to many families and they are much needed. And a can of tuna, or a can of re- fried beans with lard is better than starvation, there is no doubt. But these products shown…..not ‘real’ food. filled with preservatives, sulfates, sodium, dyes. Filled with sugar, and lards, and oils that are palm, cottonseed, canola-not only saturated but GMO as well. Filled with corn syrup or corn syrup solids, lots of gluten for those who care, bleached flour, and devoid of nutrients so the FDA says they gotta re-add vitamins, so you have synthetic vitamins thrown in which lately studies have shown to exacerbate heart disease.
Ironically, all of the ‘easy fixing’ foods can easily be replicated ‘homemade’ for the same amount if not cheaper and the same amount of time preparation. Sadly-we’ve stopped teaching Home Economics and teaching our kin to cook-so they don’t know this.
Mac and cheese is easy homemade, and Hamburger Helper is just the addition of hamburger to mac and cheese. A bag of potatoes yields about 5 boxes of the Betty Crocker potatoes so a bag is actually cheaper. If you get a block of cheddar, between the mac and cheese and the potatoes Au gratin boxed-you can make both homemade FOR CHEAPER.
I don’t advocate eating this stuff, but I’d rather see people eating these foods from scratch, which is infinitely healthier than the boxed version. So I'll show some recipes how to make the above, on the cheap, homemade, tastes much better. Then I’ll give you the vegetarian versions.
I'll be easy for your first time.........
Chili. Who doesn't love it? And often, many kinds of meats are used to make it. Ground beef of course, the classic choice. But I've had it made with stew meat, sirlion meat, buffalo meat, turkey, chicken and venison. Some chili I've eaten at contests in bars-simply God awful. I mean they had to have been drunk as hell to think it was good, the weirdest freakin' chili ever can be found at chili cook-offs in some neighborhood bar. So I figure, how bad could substituting the meat with 'smart crumbles', a soy bean based 'meat substitute' really be?? So I tried it.(Pictured: Soy meat chili, IKR? Looks like 'real' chili)
Lets start with the obvious ‘when you’re poor’ meat staple. Which is
really kind of a joke now, considering that even the cheapest of
hamburger (chuck, not sirloin) is about 6-7.00 a small package-still,
its a ‘go to’ for many people. I joke about how white trash Hamburger
Helper is-and it is-but its a big part of the typical American diet. The
average box of HH is about 1.50, 2.50 for the ‘ultimate.’ However, you
have to add your own milk and butter and meat, so really, this meal is
not as ‘cheap’ as one might think.
The brand of fake meat (sounds so gross, right? FU, because if you eat McNuggets, you have turned the fake meat corner a long time ago) is “Lightlife” Smart Ground, and its made from Soy. The Verdict: AWESOME. Even my carnivore for life roommate said “Yeah, this is totally edible, I’ll eat this.” He threw some Sriracha sauce on there and did just that.
RECIPE:
1 small-med yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 pkg Lightlife Smart Ground ‘beef’
1 cans italian stewed tomatoes
1 can Rotell original diced tomatos with chilis (mild if you’re not a fan of any heat)
2 cans dark kidney beans, one can drained but not rinsed, one can drained and rinsed
1 8oz can low sodium tomato sauce (if you can find w/no sugar added, you are a boss)
You can also use tomato paste, chili sauce (beware the sugar)-its your chili, do what you want. In fact, take your own damn chili recipe and just sub the meat with the smart crumbles. Dig?
Sautee green pepper, diced yellow onion and garlic (2 cloves). No need for oil, just add a pinch of water. Once softened, add the ‘meat’. Add tomatos, beans, tomato sauce or whatever the hell you want or however the hell YOU make chili, because everyone has a chili recipe…..and ENJOY. Garnish with jalapeno, scallions. If you aren’t full vegan, use plain greek yogurt in place of sour cream for vegetarian and use a vegetarian cheddar cheese, and of course raw onion too if you like.
The brand of fake meat (sounds so gross, right? FU, because if you eat McNuggets, you have turned the fake meat corner a long time ago) is “Lightlife” Smart Ground, and its made from Soy. The Verdict: AWESOME. Even my carnivore for life roommate said “Yeah, this is totally edible, I’ll eat this.” He threw some Sriracha sauce on there and did just that.
RECIPE:
1 small-med yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 pkg Lightlife Smart Ground ‘beef’
1 cans italian stewed tomatoes
1 can Rotell original diced tomatos with chilis (mild if you’re not a fan of any heat)
2 cans dark kidney beans, one can drained but not rinsed, one can drained and rinsed
1 8oz can low sodium tomato sauce (if you can find w/no sugar added, you are a boss)
You can also use tomato paste, chili sauce (beware the sugar)-its your chili, do what you want. In fact, take your own damn chili recipe and just sub the meat with the smart crumbles. Dig?
Sautee green pepper, diced yellow onion and garlic (2 cloves). No need for oil, just add a pinch of water. Once softened, add the ‘meat’. Add tomatos, beans, tomato sauce or whatever the hell you want or however the hell YOU make chili, because everyone has a chili recipe…..and ENJOY. Garnish with jalapeno, scallions. If you aren’t full vegan, use plain greek yogurt in place of sour cream for vegetarian and use a vegetarian cheddar cheese, and of course raw onion too if you like.
FACTS
Every 34 seconds, someone is having a heart attack. Every hour, someone dies from heart-related illnesses. Heart disease kills more people than all forms of cancer combined.
Diabetes is an epidemic now. Cancers are increasing. More and more people suffer from digestive upsets and migraines, not to mention mood disorders, depressions and anxieties.
We are dosing our kids with drugs because there is an over-abundance of diagnoses of ‘Attention Deficit Disorder.’ Sexual dysfunction, obesity, fatigue-leads more people to self-medicating, i.e. prescription drugs, illicit drugs and alcohol.
Why? Look at our foods. Those who argue “Well my grandparents lived a long time”-they didn’t deal with the shit we do now. We have fake sugars, and 1000′s products made with them. We have fake fats. We have bleaches and dyes and fortifications and additives and preservatives. We replace gluten and fats with chemicals and questionable fillers. Our grandparents didn't have 'bars' of 'nutrition' to take with them on the go. They had nothing to 'nuke' for dinner.
You used to go to a local butcher for local cuts of meat, and you'd go to a fish market for fish. Milk was delivered to their doors-from the dairy itself-and breads were purchased at the bakery. There was no 'one stop' shop, you'd buy fruits and veggies at a farm stand. You went to the grocery store back in the day, for your lards, flours, sugars and dried goods such as beans and rice.
We now house animals in unbelievably crowded and filthy arenas, we feed them antibiotics and hormones in order to expedite mass meat production. The meat is not the same, even when I was a kid-I can tell a difference. We have more food poisoning bacterias (E Coli), our soil has been adulterated due to pesticides, and we have hybrid-GMO foods made for some reason-mere lazy. I mean seriously, you can’t spit out the fucking black watermelon seeds?
Don’t even get me started on “gluten-free.” Few people have true Celiac Disease. The rest of us are suffering digestive not so much because of gluten-but all the other bullshit. They stick wheat in everything now, allegedly healthier than white flour, and with the fake fats, sugars, fillers, chemicals, colorants, fortified enriched-that’s what’s killing our gut. When people eliminate gluten they usually eliminate a lot of other bs by default. However, when you buy a ‘gluten free’ product that naturally WOULD have gluten in it, now you are buying a substitution which will probably also make you feel like crap.
Our grandparents ate organic all the time-because it used to ALL be organic. They had no ‘better eating through chemistry’. They didn’t have a microwave which gave birth to the ‘convienience food’ world. Nothing was stored in plastic, really. Higher quality ingredients were used, and there were less choices. Today, just going down a bread aisle can confuse you for an hour. They didn’t add massive amounts of salt to foods-and people cooked at home. The seeds were not genetically altered.
Going out to eat was for special occasions, and fast food was a ‘treat’-not a lifestyle. Even the fast food ingredients and products were of much higher quality. With population and demand increases, poor economies and growing conditions-price vs supply and demand means substituting costlier things, such as sugar into a cheaper alternative-high fructose corn syrup. Killing us all, as it wrecks havoc with the pancreas/glucose/insulin routine in our bodies.
Just like you could argue that Latino cuisines have a palate that is geared towards hot and spicy foods-the American palate likes sweet. This is why there is sugar in EVERY FUCKING THING., From salad dressing to ketchup to any bottled sauce, to tomato and spaghetti sauces, even spices-sugar is in everything., And the bitch of it is-we don’t need it. At all. Our bodies DO need SOME sodium. We simply don’t NEED sugar so the over abundance that we get when not even trying-then the sugar we DO choose in the forms of ice cream, pies, cakes, etc…..its no wonder that every other person seems to develop diabetes or reactive hypoglycemia. Yet to avoid those products and buy them without the additives-that’s where the cost factors in. So what’s the solution?
GIVE THE SHIT UP. LEARN TO LIVE WITHOUT SUGARS. More on that to come, and I know what I'm talking about because I was also a sugar addict.
Diabetes is an epidemic now. Cancers are increasing. More and more people suffer from digestive upsets and migraines, not to mention mood disorders, depressions and anxieties.
We are dosing our kids with drugs because there is an over-abundance of diagnoses of ‘Attention Deficit Disorder.’ Sexual dysfunction, obesity, fatigue-leads more people to self-medicating, i.e. prescription drugs, illicit drugs and alcohol.
Why? Look at our foods. Those who argue “Well my grandparents lived a long time”-they didn’t deal with the shit we do now. We have fake sugars, and 1000′s products made with them. We have fake fats. We have bleaches and dyes and fortifications and additives and preservatives. We replace gluten and fats with chemicals and questionable fillers. Our grandparents didn't have 'bars' of 'nutrition' to take with them on the go. They had nothing to 'nuke' for dinner.
You used to go to a local butcher for local cuts of meat, and you'd go to a fish market for fish. Milk was delivered to their doors-from the dairy itself-and breads were purchased at the bakery. There was no 'one stop' shop, you'd buy fruits and veggies at a farm stand. You went to the grocery store back in the day, for your lards, flours, sugars and dried goods such as beans and rice.
We now house animals in unbelievably crowded and filthy arenas, we feed them antibiotics and hormones in order to expedite mass meat production. The meat is not the same, even when I was a kid-I can tell a difference. We have more food poisoning bacterias (E Coli), our soil has been adulterated due to pesticides, and we have hybrid-GMO foods made for some reason-mere lazy. I mean seriously, you can’t spit out the fucking black watermelon seeds?
Don’t even get me started on “gluten-free.” Few people have true Celiac Disease. The rest of us are suffering digestive not so much because of gluten-but all the other bullshit. They stick wheat in everything now, allegedly healthier than white flour, and with the fake fats, sugars, fillers, chemicals, colorants, fortified enriched-that’s what’s killing our gut. When people eliminate gluten they usually eliminate a lot of other bs by default. However, when you buy a ‘gluten free’ product that naturally WOULD have gluten in it, now you are buying a substitution which will probably also make you feel like crap.
Our grandparents ate organic all the time-because it used to ALL be organic. They had no ‘better eating through chemistry’. They didn’t have a microwave which gave birth to the ‘convienience food’ world. Nothing was stored in plastic, really. Higher quality ingredients were used, and there were less choices. Today, just going down a bread aisle can confuse you for an hour. They didn’t add massive amounts of salt to foods-and people cooked at home. The seeds were not genetically altered.
Going out to eat was for special occasions, and fast food was a ‘treat’-not a lifestyle. Even the fast food ingredients and products were of much higher quality. With population and demand increases, poor economies and growing conditions-price vs supply and demand means substituting costlier things, such as sugar into a cheaper alternative-high fructose corn syrup. Killing us all, as it wrecks havoc with the pancreas/glucose/insulin routine in our bodies.
Just like you could argue that Latino cuisines have a palate that is geared towards hot and spicy foods-the American palate likes sweet. This is why there is sugar in EVERY FUCKING THING., From salad dressing to ketchup to any bottled sauce, to tomato and spaghetti sauces, even spices-sugar is in everything., And the bitch of it is-we don’t need it. At all. Our bodies DO need SOME sodium. We simply don’t NEED sugar so the over abundance that we get when not even trying-then the sugar we DO choose in the forms of ice cream, pies, cakes, etc…..its no wonder that every other person seems to develop diabetes or reactive hypoglycemia. Yet to avoid those products and buy them without the additives-that’s where the cost factors in. So what’s the solution?
GIVE THE SHIT UP. LEARN TO LIVE WITHOUT SUGARS. More on that to come, and I know what I'm talking about because I was also a sugar addict.
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