You Are What You Drink

Years ago in my punk rock years when I stopped eating meat, stopped eating fast food, and generally questioned everything, I also stopped drinking soda. Switching to water seemed so much easier, cheaper, and healthier. The wretched effects of so much corn syrup on obesity rates speak for themselves, and why would I want to give my money to the Coca Cola Company? At the same time, as bottled water became more and more popular and socially acceptable, I was suspicious of the marketing of bottled water (remember Evian?) and tended to stick with tap water. I figured we are lucky to have clean water in this country, and my gut told me that bottled water just didn't make that much sense. Use a Nalgene! Now, 20 years later, it looks like several restaurants in San Francisco and New York have made the break-through decision not to serve bottled water. They cite the futility of using so many fossil fuels to transport water from as far away as France and Italy, when perfectly clean water is coming out of the tap. Some restaurants are further filtering and carbonating the water on their own. What a revolutionary idea! I think it's great. Now I don't often buy seltzer water, but I do like it. So I am considering buying one of these to carbonate water at home. These nifty dispensers from the collections of barware from the 50's and 60's were actually better for the environment. Who knew they were so cutting edge?

Behind the Mall - Photographs by Diana Shearwood

I totally want to check out the Behind the Mall exhibit at Articule gallery in Montreal next week when G and I are there. According to the description, it's "an exploration of the visual propaganda of mobile food advertising." I heard about it from Midnight Poutine.

Sounds awesome!!

Balanced

I think I did pretty well with the balanced diet thing today:

Breakfast: 1/2 cup whole milk yogurt with half cup blueberries, 2 Tablespoons muesli and one Tablespoon ground flaxseed; 1 hardboiled egg; 1/4 cup diced tomatoes.
Snack: 2 pieces of whole grain buttered toast.
Lunch: About 2 cups Mediterranean Shrimp: roasted green and red peppers, tomatoes, garlic, feta cheese and shrimp.
Snack: 1 serving dark chocolate.
Dinner: Scrambled "cheesy" eggs with cream cheese and fresh grated parm; two veggie sausage links; 1 cup steamed broccoli with garlic and fresh grated parm; 1 glass red wine.

Snack later on tonight will probably be an apple with peanut butter, or maybe a couple of slices of turkey and cheese. I also made some more banana muffins, which I will probably have one right now as they are hot out of the oven!

Local Cheeses Are the Best

I've been trying to go to the Farmer's Market in Ballard every Sunday to get local produce, cheese, bread, and seafood. I'm trying to take little steps to be more of a locavore even if I can't change my whole life to center on eating just local foods. The Farmer's Market is about all I can do for now. But it is great. Yesterday I bought some local cheese from these two 11 year old cheese mongers from a regional cheese farm. They were wheeling and dealing like pros - hilarious! The cheese is yummy too.

Here's a startling op-ed piece about the dark side of vegans. I've said it once and I'll say it again. Vegans are extremists. They are generally not sane or rational people. When folks call my choosing to not eat meat veganism, I remind them that a fish and dairy-eating vegetarian is very different, and pretty mainstream. I am against extremism in all forms. Say it with me people: MODERATION is the key.

Chicken Provencal

Last night was my first attempt at cooking chicken. Ever. It was scary to touch and slice chicken breasts for the first time. It was gross, actually, to handle real animal flesh. It was totally freaking me out. But I soldiered on, and the end result was pretty good:

I definitely overcooked the chicken in the broiler (I was being cautious, it being my first time cooking chicken), but it still tasted good. I didn't realize how fast food cooks and browns in the broiler! I've never used the broiler before, and now that I've discovered it I plan on using it more. It's fun! The dish called for half a cup of red wine, so I picked up a bottle of Mas de Libian from Smith & Vine...for cooking and drinking! Good stuff - I'd buy it again.

The recipe is from...you guessed it...The Schwarzbein Principle. I see no reason you couldn't substitute the chicken for tofu or seitan. You simply sautee an onion and a pepper with some garlic for 5 minutes, then add a 28 ounce can of whole tomatoes, half a cup of red wine, 1 Tablespoon Herbes de Provence, 2 teaspoons dried thyme, and ground pepper to taste. Cook it for around 30-40 minutes, then add your meat or meat substitute and garnish with fresh minced parsley. The chicken marinated in 1 Tablespoon of olive oil, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice and black pepper for one hour.

The most amazing thing about this meal was that I did not crave sweets afterward! I always crave something sweet after a meal, probably because my meals are usually high carb, which causes a rush of serotonin then a subsequent "carb crash" which triggers the craving for sweets to bring that serotonin rush back (Chap 4: The Low Serotonin State). So, I think this meal was balanced enough to not cause the serotonin rush or the subsequent sweets craving. Cool! They would probably not advise having wine with dinner because it is a stimulant and stimulants do all kinds of bad things to your body, but whatever. I enjoy it! And if I deny myself a glass of wine or two with dinner when I want it, I'll just overindulge later on, which is definitely bad. Which is why I also had two squares of delicious dark chocolate (which is a SuperFood, but that's another book!)

Wedding Menu

The Times has included the wedding menu of one of their featured couples, I guess because the bride is a chef. Never seen that before. Butterball potato gratin with thyme and gruyere cheese sounds awesome!

World's Largest Wheel of Cheese

On Wednesday I stopped by Grand Central to see the world's largest wheel of cheese. The frommage grande was produced by Beemster, a Dutch cheese company. It was pretty hilarious: it was on a raised platform with a big, blue velvety rug underneath, roped off by red velvet ropes with a security guard near by. Unfortunately there were no samples being give by the time I got there after work. Unless I had known beforehand that it was the world's largest wheel of cheese, I probably wouldn't have thought so otherwise, but it was still impressive.

Another view of the cheese, with a bunch of Beemster brochures. You can see a reception area set up in the distance. I asked the security guard if it was a public event but he said you needed a ticket. Darnit. I would have loved to hang out with the cheese and have a glass of champagne, mingle with some cheese executives. Maybe that should be my next career move, cheese executive...

Schwarzbein Breakfast

Here's my attempt at eating a balanced Schwarzbein breakfast: broccoli cheese souffle, diced tomatoes, and two veggie sausage links.

Have I mentioned you should read the Schwarzbein books and Tired of Being Tired? I am currently reading "The Schwarzbein Principle" and like "Tired of Being Tired," it is blowing my mind. Here are just a few passages that I have underlined:

Heartburn is the burning sensation felt when acid from the stomach rises back up the esophagus. When you think about eating, your body assumes it will receive protein, and your stomach produces hydrochloric acid. The purpose of this acid is to activate enzymes for the digestion of proteins. On a low-fat, low-protein diet, the carbohydrates you eat go through the stomach so quickly that the outpouring of acid has nowhere to go but up. To complicate the issue, later on, insulin, stimulated by these carbohydrates, further increases acid production by activating other hormone systems. p. 25

The medical profession and the media has so frightened the public about cholesterol and fat that people firmly believe they must be avoided at all costs. But this fear of cholesterol and fat is not grounded in scientific fact. On the contrary, cholesterol and fat are essential to life. If you do not eat cholesterol and fat, you will be on the accelerated metabolic aging track toward disease and death.pg.61

AH!!

It would be impossible to list all the health problems that can occur as a result of depriving your body of fat, but here are few signs and symptoms: brittle nails, carbohydrate and stimulant craving, dry/limp/thinning hair, infertility, insomnia, loss of lean body mass with body-fat gain around the middle, mood disorders, scaly/itchy skin.pg.64

I've been doing the high-carb/low-protein/no-fat/low-fat thing for nearly 15 years, thanks to my poor vegetarian diet. I was definitely not a good vegetarian, and now that I'm in my 30s I can feel these years of poor nutrition catching up with me which is why I'm really trying to change my diet to a more balanced one, which is really the crux of this Schwarzbein thing. They do have a cookbook for vegetarians and don't discourage people from vegetarianism, but I've finally accepted the fact that while my brain is telling me not to eat meat, my body is really craving it so I'm going with what my body is saying. Maybe at some point I won't want to eat meat anymore, but for now, it's on the menu!

Broccoli Cheese Souffle

This recipe is from The Schwarzbein Principle. Eh. It called for either ricotta or cottage cheese. I had some cottage cheese on hand so used that. I think that this is the reason for the bland flavor. Cottage cheese is nasty! I thought I would try to start liking it because the Schwarzbein books recommend it as a snack, but one look at it and it just instantly turns me off. As my neighbor said last night: "It looks like a yeast infection." EW! So, I will definitely use ricotta next time because I do think this could be a good recipe. Also, the cooking time was indicated as 30-35 minutes, but it took me nearly 50 minutes to get it puffed up and golden. My oven is a little off, so maybe I didn't have it at the right temperature.

Gourmet Doggie Treats

Street Treats vending machine on 23rd Street, Manhattan.