Eat Scrumptious

Healthcare, with emphasis on caring for actual health

2009-06-25T05:18:00.000-07:00

Full disclaimer: I am neither Democrat nor Republican and I do not intend to promote or disparage either. This is a nonpartisan look at the highly politicized health care crisis facing the US and its proposed reform. It is, also, ultimately about food and other health choices and acting as a Food Renegade (thank you www.foodrenegade.com for Fight Back Fridays).

(And I promise a recipe for kohlrabi in my next post later today!)

An op/ed from Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090625/ts_ynews/ynews_ts408) points to the key feature of the Obama administration's health care reform effort - reducing medical expenses by keeping people healthy. All politics aside, whether you see Obama as the answer to, or the author of, everything stupid - this approach to controlling health care costs is so common-sense it is genius. And is likely doomed to failure.

Legislation fails when it threatens the livelihoods of any group with enough power to make it fail. Here is a perfect example from Michael Pollan's Unhappy Meals (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5088&en=7c85a1c254546157&ex=1327640400):

...a little-noticed political dust-up in Washington in 1977 seems to have helped propel American food culture down this dimly lighted path. Responding to an alarming increase in chronic diseases linked to diet — including heart disease, cancer and diabetes — a Senate Select Committee on Nutrition, headed by George McGovern, held hearings on the problem and prepared what by all rights should have been an uncontroversial document called “Dietary Goals for the United States.” The committee learned that while rates of coronary heart disease had soared in America since World War II, other cultures that consumed traditional diets based largely on plants had strikingly low rates of chronic disease. Epidemiologists also had observed that in America during the war years, when meat and dairy products were strictly rationed, the rate of heart disease temporarily plummeted.

Naïvely putting two and two together, the committee drafted a straightforward set of dietary guidelines calling on Americans to cut down on red meat and dairy products. Within weeks a firestorm, emanating from the red-meat and dairy industries, engulfed the committee, and Senator McGovern (who had a great many cattle ranchers among his South Dakota constituents) was forced to beat a retreat. The committee’s recommendations were hastily rewritten. Plain talk about food — the committee had advised Americans to actually “reduce consumption of meat” — was replaced by artful compromise: “Choose meats, poultry and fish that will reduce saturated-fat intake.” (Emphasis mine. Though the choice of italics here is not. I just can't seem to un-italicize it.)

So the question is, who's gonna hate this idea? Or more specifically, which group has something to lose and has the extraordinary means to kill the proposal?

On the one hand, private health care insurance companies are gonna love it because the healthier their insureds are, the less they will have to pay out in claims.

On the other...

Medical care in this country is primarily specialty care, which emerged very specifically from the 'sickness care' approach to health care. You want to fix what's broken? For whatever your issue, there is a specialist. New specialties pop up wherever advances in medicine occur - look at the evolution of interventional cardiology since the advent of angioplasty. And I'll tell you what, if I have a brain aneurysm - its a sure bet that I want the very highest-rated vascular neurosurgeon ready exactly when I need her. I selected the hospital to deliver my baby- even before I was pregnant - because it has the finest neonatal department in the area. Thankfully, I had a healthy baby, but should she have needed any critical care, it would have been instantaneously available.

This reform effort (right now, anyway) seems to lean toward placing greater emphasis on primary care, while moving away from emphasis on (far more expensive) specialty care.

My own personal demands for unfettered access to specialty care offers a peek at the problem, now that I'm looking at the issue. I learned earlier this week at my primary care doctor's office that she regularly performs PAP smears and skin cancer checks during routine physicals. I needed neither of these when I saw her because I continue to see my OB/GYN annually for an exam (even though I am done having children) and because just last week I had a dermatologist (actually some para-professional in the dermatology practice) map my moles (though I am extremely fair-skinned and I have burned like crazy over the years, I have yet to have any areas of concern). A little over a year ago, I had an echo-cardiogram at the primary care physicians' office to determine if my Mitral Valve Prolapse had advanced at all in the 20 years since I was diagnosed (glad we checked as it turns out I do not actually have Mitral Valve Prolapse at all). All of this points to the fact that at least some of my demand for specialists is utterly unnecessary. And that my health insurer paid out far more than was likely necessary for me to have these routine exams as specialty care costs are far greater (though only an additional $5 over my regular co-pay for me).

Primary care physicians (largely represented by the somewhat powerful American Medical Association) will likely support of the focus on wellness rather than sickness care. It just makes sense to have your health care hubbed in one office and to see your same doctor once a year for a complete physical. If and when the need for additional expertise arises, you then see a specialist with the advanced education, training and experience to most effectively address your condition.

Specialists (who are not nearly as cohesively represented in the halls of Congress as primary care physicians for complicated reasons that combine the AMA's generalist focus and punishing anti-trust laws) will say that specialty care IS quality care and any shift away from our current system is a danger to patients. Specialists will point to patient frustration and outrage over managed care efforts in the past. And, it's true, patients commonly had to dance to get a referral from a primary care doc, in many cases delaying necessary specialty care because the patient had to schedule a visit to the primary care physician first and only after that appointment occurred could the patient schedule the appointment with the specialist. "Managed care" as we know it did not enhance patient care. It did enhance health insurers' profit margins because it financially rewarded primary care docs for two things: 1) seeing more patients in less time and 2) restricting access to specialists and tests. Both points worked directly against patients and against quality, timely health care. People are unlikely to embrace any suggestion of a return to this failed system.

Add to that Senator Harkin's comment:

"As the lead Senator in drafting the Prevention and Public Health section of the bill, I view this legislation as our opportunity to recreate America as a genuine wellness society – a society that is focused on prevention, good nutrition, fitness, and public health." (Emphasis mine.)

Sure, Americans spend a staggering $40 billion a year on weight-loss products. But we spend twice that on cigarettes.

Is education the answer? I know my kid learns about healthy eating in school every year. And then lunches in the school cafeteria that boasts selling 125 pounds of french fries each week. There is always a gaping chasm between what people know and what people do with that knowledge. (My favorite example is this: while studying in 1994 to be a Red Cross Certified HIV/AIDS educator, the group of students in this class - all there with the shared goal of reaching out to the community to help people protect themselves from a deadly disease - would step out at each break time to inhale deadly-disease-causing carcinogens.)

Most of us have had the power all along to protect ourselves from many preventable debilitating and deadly illnesses. Will new legislation aimed at ultimately reducing our national debt inspire us to act for our own personal selves and our families in ways that we never have before?

Not likely. What is likely is that we - the health care consumers - will be responsible for killing this health care reform proposal. We are trained to respond to high cholesterol with a 'pass me a magic statin pill and another double cheeseburger, please'. In September 2001, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that as many as 90% of the cases of Type II Diabetes in women was preventable and reversible with healthy eating and other lifestyle changes. Yet, between 1990 and 2005, the prevalence rate doubled causing the CDC to chacterize Type II Diabetes as an epidemic. In November 2007, The National Institutes of Health noted that while it was traditionally seen as an adult-onset condition "type 2 diabetes is increasingly diagnosed in children in parallel to rising obesity rates." Type 2 diabetes is just one example, but it might be tough to find a more dramatic one. Have you seen the 'living with diabetes' magazines - yes, more than one - in the checkout lanes at the grocery store? 90% preventable type 2 diabetes has become its own industry.

What is it going to take to get us to change? What needs to happen to get us to act in our own self-interest health wise?

Check the ACLU's completely un-subtle message about what lengths our government could possibly go to if we move to a universal health care program http://aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf
It is frightening to think that it just might take this Orwellian level of intrusion into our personal lives to make us seek our own wellness. I hope there is an answer before 1984 arrives.

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(I know the ACLU is considered a crazy left-wing organization. But the link below was sent to me by a strident right-winger -defined for these purposes as believing all Democrats are evil morons- friend of mine with the subject line: Ordering Pizza in an Obama World. So that makes this whole post 'fair and balanced' for sure!)

2009-06-23T08:10:00.001-07:00

When I launched the move to eating real food (and began discovering what that really means), I ran to the doc and had my blood work done and urged my hubby to do the same. We expected that his cholesterol numbers would be higher than ideal. They were 4 years ago and nothing about his diet or lifestyle has changed in any way since. He still plays full-court basketball 4 -5 times per week and (until recently) still polishes off more frozen pizzas (with milk shake chasers) than anyone has a right to. He went from 234 total cholesterol to 226. His doctor said that he was probably a little higher than she would prefer, but dismissed the reading as 'not a concern.'

My numbers came back in the normal range (total cholesterol count 189). But the person who called me with the results used an alarming tone when she said "Your LDLs are high and you need to get that number down." When I received the paperwork in the mail, everything was all printed in regular fonts until you got the the LDL count, which was highlighted, bolded and underlined with the word "HIGH" bookending the number 117. Mine are HIGH at 117; my husband's at 160 are of 'not a concern'.

I am confused. (He is nine years older than I am. And he's a guy. You would think...well, at least I thought...well, I don't know what I thought, but I know that these responses were unexpected and a little inexplicable. )

So, I picked up The Great American Heart Hoax: Lifesaving Advice Your Doctor Should Tell You About Heart Disease Prevention (But Probably Never Will) by Michael Ozner, MD (a board-certified cardiologist). Dr. Ozner contends that a healthy cholesterol reading should not exceed 150 - with LDL below 70 and triglycerides below 100. (Given that, my reading IS high. And my hubby's is dangerously high.) And 150? Have you ever even heard of someone with 150 cholesterol?

Then, I had a great chat with my doctor this morning during my physical. She explained that the overall number is not very useful. Rather, the HDL to LDL ratio is important. Also the triglyceride number is important. Beyond that, though, the numbers are assessed against the overall health and family history of the individual. Neither of us has any heart disease in our personal or family histories. Neither of us is overweight or has diabetes or smokes.

All of which makes our numbers not overly important, but, apparently not unimportant either. She recommended getting all of our cholesterol numbers within the boundaries of what is considered healthy. How? First: add fish oil and back off of simple carbs. Dr Ozner's recommendation? Exercise and follow a Mediterranean diet.

Backing off the simple carbs is a chief aim of this whole real food effort for us. In three months, I go back to get tested again. I wonder what difference three months can make. Lucky for me, the local farmers' market opens this week.

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Dr Ozner lists "the top foods that have been shown to have a favorable impact on cholesterol, by lowering the "bad" LDL cholesterol or by raising the "good" HDL choleserol...:
* Fruits and vegetables
* Olive oil
* Oatmeal
* Nuts (especially almonds and walnuts)
* Beans
* Cold water fish
* Red wine
* Cinnamon
* Whole grains
* Soy protein
* Plant sterol and stanol spreads

Am I the only one who did not know this?

2009-06-09T14:20:00.001-07:00

This is definitely what I am talking about when I say I am "learnin' stuff."

After reading that the Red Brandywine Tomato plants I received at the Chicago Botanic Garden were 'heirloom', which means 'can be reproduced from own seeds', I was a little confused. I knew that the tomato seedlings I bought from the local garden center were 'hyrbids' as the plastic labels that surrounded their peat cups told me so. What I did not know was what I read when I peeked into Wikipedia for more information:

...most authorities agree that heirlooms, by definition, must be open-pollinated. They may also be open pollinated varieties that were bred and stabilized using classic breeding practices. While there are no genetically modified tomatoes available for commercial or home use, it is generally agreed that no genetically modified organisms can be considered heirloom cultivars. Another important point of discussion is that without the ongoing growing and storage of heirloom plants, the seed companies and the government will control all seed distribution. Most, if not all, hybrid plants, if regrown, will not be the same as the original hybrid plant, thus insuring the dependency on seed distributors for future crops. (Emphasis mine.)

"the seed companies and the government will control all seed distribution" sounds frightening. What is gained by this? And, most importantly, what is lost?

What was planted in the White House garden?

It all leads to more questions for me. More stuff to learn.

Cook. And if you can, plant a garden.

2009-06-09T05:39:00.000-07:00

Pollan's Rule of Thumb #8. Cook. And if you can, plant a garden.

Cooking is already a love for me, so that was a quick win in this effort. Gardening is newer to me and my experiences so far have been less than successful. Part of the problem is that the very best place on my property to grow things would be the front yard. Of course, this is suburbia and front yards are not used for vegetable gardens. My whole (un-jumbo) backyard is shaded by a huge maple tree, the house itself and a wall of deciduous pine trees.

The south-facing side of my house has a 3 x 9 garden area that gets the most sun (other than the front yard), though I cannot confirm that it is the full sun that the 6 tomato plants I have there have requested.

I purchased 4 tomato seedlings at home and garden store. Two of the tomato seedlings I picked up at the Chicago Botanic Garden this past weekend. They were just giving them away. These two are heirloom variety Red Brandywine Tomatoes. Because it is an heirloom variety (according to the instruction sheet given with the plants) it can be reproduced from its own seeds. Also because it is an heirloom variety, it is not typically found in grocery stores (the thin skin does not make for successful transportation.

New to gardening, I was unaware that every tomato plant could not be reproduced with its own seeds.

In addition to my 6 tomato plants, I have a few cucumber plants, one green bell pepper plant, two different kinds of strawberry plants (one pictured above - with some baby strawberries!) and one heirloom zucchini plant (also a gift from the Chicago Botanic Garden).

So in 50 - 80 days, I should have quite the harvest if the plants get enough access to the sun they need and I can keep the chipmunks from treating the area as a buffet until then. (the little creeps have already eaten 8 of 9 sunflower seedlings).

Meanwhile, I can take advantage of the numerous farmers markets in the area. The one in my very own hometown launches June 25.
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Got this recipe for Home Fries from from Rachael Ray:

Heat oven to 500 degrees (525 of your oven can)
Slice one baking potato (per person) in half and then in quarters and then into slices, lay flat on baking pan
Smash garlic (as much as you like) and distribute chunks among the potatoes
Chop fresh rosemary and sprinkle over potatoes
Drizzle olive oil over potatoes and hand-toss until all is mixed together.

Bake for 20 minutes or so (until your whole house smells like a holiday)

I served these with corn on the cob and some homemade burgers with lots of delicious garden toppings (red onion, tomato. fresh basil).

Doesn't get any fresher

2009-06-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

I am lucky to live near the Chicago Botanic Garden (and luckier still that my mother gifted me with a membership to this amazing place!). Each Saturday and Sunday, a local chef demonstrates cooking with just-picked ingredients from your garden.

Yesterday a chef from a restaurant in Glen Ellyn, IL called Glen Prairie made Organic Tomato Gazpacho for the audience. (The picture shows everything the chef used yesterday, plus also a guy in a hat.)

Here is the recipe:

5 each Roma Tomatoes (rough chopped)
2 each Cucumber (seeded, peeled and chopped)
1 each large Red Pepper (seeded, cored and chopped)
1 each Celery Stalk (chopped)
5 each Green onions (chopped)
2 cloves Garlic (chopped)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Tabasco (or to taste)
1 oz Olive Oil
1/4 cup Sherry Vinegar
2 ea - 8 oz cans tomato juice or V8

In your blender or food processor, combine first 6 ingredients. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Combine oil, vinegar, tomato juice (or V8) and Tabasco. Blend into vegetables until smooth. Serve in large bowls or mugs. Serves 6 to 8.

For garnish: 1 tbsp creme fraiche or sour cream, halved grape tomatoes and scallions

Everyone in the audience gets samples. The soup was fantastic. The chef suggested it the day before you plan to serve so all the ingredients can "marry" in the fridge.

Plus I picked up two Red Brandywine Tomato seedlings and some nasturtium seeds (dosed with some wormy fertilizer) to add to my home garden.

Pierogi triumph

2009-06-07T05:49:00.000-07:00

The pierogi were not nearly as much work as I first thought. I followed the dough recipe exactly, including the part where all of it is hand-prepped (including the kinda icky part where the raw egg is mixed into the flour). But I was in for the full experience and while it was a little gunky, I would most certainly do it again.

I opted for the Cheese & Potato Pierogi Filling (on page 462 of Strybel's book) with a topping of carmelized onions. This was cry-worthy good food.

I love absolutely everything my Vita-Mix can do, but the Cheese & Potato filling recipe has to be the single most delightful that has ever been mixed in mine. Here's the recipe: Cook 1 lb potato in skins until tender, peel under cold running water, and mash well or grind together with 1/4-1/2 lb. farmer cheese. (The proportion of potatoes to cheese is a matter of preference and may be varied according to taste.) In 2 tablespoons butter lightly brown 2 finely chopped onions and add to mixture... Salt & Pepper to taste. A dash or two of paprika and/or homemade herb pepper will provide added zest. (I could not find any farmer cheese, so I opted for cottage cheese.)

Here is the dough recipe and instructions for cooking as they appear on page 457 in Polish Heritage Cookery by Robert and Maria Strybel:

Sift about 2 1/2 cups flour into breadboard. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Make a volcano-like crater in the flour mound and deposit 1 egg into it. Work ingredients into a dough, gradually adding about 1/2 cup cold water in a thin stream. (Some Polish cooks prefer lukewarm or even hot water.) Knead dough on floured board until firm and smooth, roll it into a ball, and let it rest 10 minutes or so beneath a warm inverted bowl. Take 1/3 of the dough at a time (leaving the rest beneath the bowl) and roll out thin. With glass or biscuit-cutter cut dough into circles. Place a spoonful of filling on each circle slightly off-center, fold in half and press edges together with fingers, crimping to ensure a tight seal. Drop small batches of pierogi into a fairly large pot of salted boiling water, making sure not to crowd them. When boiling resumes, reduce heat to a slow boil and cook about 10 minutes. Test one to see how well dough is cooked. Remove to a colander with slotted spoon and rinse lightly with cold water. Serve hot with topping of choice or let them cool and then fry them in butter to a nice golden brown. ...makes 25-30 pierogi or roughly 4 servings.

For the soup which helped balance this dinner, I fell back on the whatever-vegetables-I-have-in-my-house vegetable soup.

And, of course, there was corn-on-the-cob. As there will be for three more nights. (Picture of corn above from www.pickyourown.org/freezingcorn)

St. Hyacinth and his pierogi!

2009-06-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

Who knew the Polish say 'St. Hyacinth and his pierogi!' when surprised? I like it!

I am learning a lot on this, my first ever, Fight Back Friday, (www.FoodRenegade.com) about traditional foods from reading Polish Heritage Cookery by Robert Strybel. In this 1993 book (again 1993!), Strybel (again, like Michael Pollan and Pat Edwards, a journalist) includes a 33-page Forward that covers everything from how Polish Cookery developed (including the influences of 'forcible Russification and Germanization'), the contradictory findings of different diets' effects on cholesterol levels and the sometimes deceptive practices of the food industry. The author describes his book as a "fairly complete compendium of Polish cookery spanning the past two centuries."

I am delighted that I overlooked the book's front cover images of the crispy whole pig and the spiral of sausage that looks like it may have been one of the poor pig's final acts of digestion.

On page 19, Strybel writes: "...and despite the huge upsurge in consumption of 'lo-cal' and 'diet' products over the past decade, overall obesity in America has not declined." Of course, 16 years later the 'diet' industry's growth shows no sign of lagging and obesity rates have experienced their own huge upsurge.

On page 22, Strybel writes: Good nutrition is constantly stressed throughout this book. There is a colossal difference between balanced, common-sense eating habits and all the trendy, pseudo-diet and quasi-health innovations the advertisers try to foist on an unsuspecting public...The general rule of thumb, therefore, is to stick to real, natural foods refined as little as possible..."

'Good nutrition is constantly stressed throughout the book' and there are more than 40 variations on the pierogi in the recipe section? I am feeling significant Polish pride.

Tonight's menu: pierogi with some vegetable soup or stuffed cabbage. "Smacznego!" (Polish translation of 'bon apetit!')

An early failure and an important question: What About Butter?

2009-06-04T08:48:00.001-07:00

Unbelievable.

Last night, I threw together a tasty dinner for my family (casserole of: brown rice, grilled chicken, chopped asparagus, a can of tomatoes and a load of garlic). My kid never once asked what the green things were, she just ate them and gave the dish a thumbs up. Perfect.

After dinner, my kid and I ran off to a fabric store to get her stuff to make a gift for her friend's sister who is graduating high school today. I walk back into my house to see my very own husband finishing the last bite of, yes, a frozen pizza. On DAY 3!

Well, Monday morning he is having a full physical. Including blood work. His cholesterol levels were elevated the last time he had them checked - probably 4 years ago now - and he has not in any way altered his eating (or attempted to remedy it with drugs). Of course, I hope with all of me everything is A-OK. But something tells me that cholesterol level did not fix itself and that he may get some news that will make him (sing with me, Carrie Underwood) think before he cheats. (See above - there is another temptress already in the freezer.)

An additional complication to manage: For the next six nights, at least one person (but probably all of us) in our family will be eating corn on the cob. My daughter is getting braces on June 10th and is taking this opportunity to eat everything now that she will be denied until the end of her treatment. Can't deny a kid that wish. And you just can't eat corn on the cob without glorious melted butter.

But, then again, I am sure everyone's great-great-grandmother would recognize butter as a food, right?

Whole Grain Goodness. For people, too.

2009-06-03T07:15:00.000-07:00

If only our dietary crimes were limited to the pizza problem. We are also fiercely devoted to the simple carb in almost all its forms; primarily bread and pasta. Any night that a frozen pizza is not in the oven, you can almost guarantee that I will be serving pasta with one of two sauces and, of course, some yummy crusty store-bought bread (with way more than five ingredients, plenty of them unpronounceable).

In her book, Cheap Eating, Pat Edwards says: There are probably more chances to save money in buying breads and cereals than in any other area. Store variety white bread is cheaper than firm, brown bread. That's because it's 90 percent air! Try taking a piece of fresh white bread and compress it into a ball in your hand. That's what happens to it in your digestive system. It's about as healthful as play-dough or wallpaper paste."

Yesterday, I attempted to address the bread issue by not only baking a homemade whole wheat bread but also grinding whole wheat berries into wheat at home for the bread (love my Vita-Mix!). It just does not get any fresher or more healthful than that.

Despite the cookbook's warning that baking real whole wheat bread is a challenge, every step went smoothly. The finished product came out of the oven smelling heavenly and looking exactly like the photo in the cookbook. My hubby cut each of us a piece when the bread was still warm from the oven with just a little melted butter.

My dog stared longlingly at me while I ate mine. Eleanor is a retriever and will eat pretty much anything whether or not it is actual food, but she was really focused on this bread. This overt begging was strange as she normally displays superb dog-manners.

The bread was definitely firm and brown. Dense, but not unlikeable. It reminded me of something else and I just could not place it. I kept eating and my pooch kept staring. I had just the very last bite left in my hand when it hit me. The bread is dense and brown and with just one corner left of it, well, it looked and (yep, there it is!) smelled exactly like my dog's Iams Large Breed dog food. It was really only missing the crunch.

I kept this thought entirely to myself as my kid was really enjoying the bread. She liked it a lot, actually. I made us both eggs and toast with it this morning and she asked for me to make her a PBJ with it for her lunchbox today.

I think for lunch today, I will slice it thin and serve it with light cream cheese, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. Oooh, or maybe a slice of mozzarella with sliced tomatoes and fresh basil.

Either way, it is sure to be Eleanor-approved!

The Pizza Problem

2009-06-02T05:16:00.000-07:00

We have a pizza problem in my house. Probably we eat pizza three to four times each week for dinner. The frozen kind. It's fast, it's cheap, it's easy clean up and, you know, my husband and I just love it (the 12 year old daughter has been protesting it for some months now, smart kid). And we've been doing this since we got married nearly 14 years ago. I seriously love frozen pizza.

Knowing that I was launching a Monday, June 1 assault on all packaged foods, we indulged in one final frozen pizza Sunday night to say goodbye.

I am confident that - much like when I broke the full-sleeve-of-Chips-Ahoy-each-morning-for-breakfast habit I had from grade school through my late 20s - I will look back (someday) on frozen pizza and wonder was so compelling. (I shudder imagining the trans fats and other garbage I ate.)

To transition away from packaged foods and to maintain my pizza-loving family's buy-in on this effort, I decided that our first adventure would be a homemade pizza. Crust from scratch, sauce from scratch, loaded with chopped veggies and topped with only the slightest hint of some high-end (grated at home) Parmesan and just enough reduced fat mozzarella to melt all the veggies in place.

The pizza crust recipe I got out of a cookbook - there are gazillions of them and they are probably all pretty similar.

The pizza sauce recipe I winged on my own.

Pizza sauce:
1 1/2 ripe tomatoes, quartered
as much garlic as you like (we like a lot)
one fresh basil leaf (big) - and from my very own herb garden I just started (see pic above right)
some red onion
a squirt of tomato paste

Blend it all together in a blender. The fresh smell of this sauce is almost indescribable.

I chopped red onion, green pepper and the rest of the tomato that didn't make it into the sauce for the toppings.

Great news! Hubby and daughter LOVED the homemade pizza. In fact, here's a quote: "Awesome!" - daughter. Way better than the frozen kind.

So, how am I going to match this today? I have not yet made that meal plan (busy planting zucchini, making curtains and otherwise indulging in my Happy Housewife status). It is a shocking cold and dreary day here for early June so maybe some soup?

Diving into the Cooking the Whole Foods Way book today (sitting inside with a large cup of coffee) for inspiration, education and recipes, too.

Today is THE day

2009-06-01T05:21:00.001-07:00

I am tracking my family's efforts to reduce and eliminate packaged, processed foods beginning today for a whole year. Beginning today!

Over the weekend, I devoured Cheap Eating: How to Feed Your Family Well and Spend Less by Pat Edwards. This book was published in 1993 and written by what must be the world's best home ec teacher. (Wait - quick check of Pat Edwards bio indicates she is a reporter with a life-long interest in Home Economics who also served as the house mother for troubled boys).

Of course, having just lost my job my twin goals are eating better and spending less. Cheap Eating startled me; turns out, in 1993 Pat Edwards knew all about the things that Michael Pollan wrote about (in much greater detail) in 2007. Must be that journalist-with-an-interest approach.

Number 8 on Pat Edwards' Ten Commandments for Cheap Eating reads: Avoid convenience foods. Look at the labels - they're largely chemicals that nobody can pronounce, understand or digest...If you are willing to spend an extra ten minutes in the kitchen, you can generally prepare a better tasting, more nutritious meal at less than half the price.

Couldn't be better news, if you ask me.

Cheap Eating is also full of tips on recycling (as a means of saving money and the earth) and organic gardening (as a means of saving money and your health).

She opens Chapter 2 with the key to successful Cheap Eating: To eat cheap, you have to think cheap, and planning has always been a foundation for saving money.

She suggests the following steps:
- prepare your weekly menu
- list absolutely every ingredient necessary for the weekly menu
- go through your cabinets, pantry, refrigerator, and freezer crossing off everything you already have (thoroughness at this point can help to avoid extra trips to the store)
- add non-food items like toilet paper and laundry detergent
(And then, once you have compared the regular prices at three different stores, you are ready to shop.)

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This morning, we had oatmeal from our super-budget-friendly 42 ounce cylinder of Quaker Oats. Cheap and healthful stuff there (though, technically, this must be a processed food, yes?). For lunch, we are having leftover veggie soup I made in my Vita Mix yesterday (thrown together recipe below). Dinner will be today's big adventure.

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Veggie soup:
I gathered up the various veggies I had in my fridge (onion, celery, carrots, red pepper, yellow pepper, green pepper and broccoli), some garlic, a can of dark red kidney beans and 2 cans of diced tomatoes. I chopped and sauteed onion, carrot and celery. I put these things in the Vita-Mix - onion, celery, can of tomatoes - with juice - garlic, a 1/2 cup of kidney beans and a little bit of water and blended until smooth, then added the blend to the sauteing vegetables. I chopped and added all the bell peppers, added the rest of the kidney beans, and some Mrs Dash seasoning. I let it cook until all the veggies were tender. It was crazy good - kid and hubby approved. Also I added a little Sriracha chili sauce to my bowl, which punched up the flavor even more.

What a person can learn at the library

2009-05-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

Controversial it may be, but the feds were sure on to something when they sought unfettered access to (suspicious) citizens' library book-borrowing records. No doubt the most rookie detective could see a pattern in the books I selected last night.

Cheap Eating: How to Feed Your Family Well and Spend Less by Pat Edwards and Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping by Judith Levine. Of course, I am hoping to be gainfully employed before a whole year goes by and I am not all that big a shopper anyway. But, it's supposed to be very funny and I could use a laugh and some impulse purchase resistance tips.

I also got Cooking the Whole Foods Way by Christina Pirello and Polish Heritage Cookery by Robert & Maria Strybel; looking to maximize my Vita-Mix use and learn a thing or two from the 800+ page book about what the Polish food culture is (was).

My great-grandmother was Rosalia Dembinski. She was born in Germany, so my grandmother (her daughter) insists Rosie was German. But back then Germany saw borders less as a boundary and more as a dare. Plus, I am pretty sure Rosie is the source of the Polish phrases gramma has been keeping us in line with all these years.

And my hubby's mother's family is all Polish, so these facts (coupled with the easy - and free - access to this incredibly well-researched book on Polish heritage cookery) made me decide to investigate this food culture first.

I also picked up a tip book on having a successful blog (meaning, you know, someone else actually knows about it).

How quickly things can change

2009-05-28T14:06:00.001-07:00

Just yesterday I posted about how one of the challenges I face in cutting easy, fast and packaged foods out of my family's diet is that I work full time and often travel. And then this very morning, I joined the ranks of the nation's unemployed.

So now a new challenge: eating Real Food without increasing our food budget (and maybe even decreasing our food budget?). I know - Rule of Thumb #5 is Pay More, Eat Less. Well, maybe by focusing on the 'eat less' part, I can still buy higher quality food and break even.

Interesting how meal planning is the answer to both a super busy schedule and a reduced family income.

(So glad I got my Vita-Mix before my pink slip!)

Luck sure helps

2009-05-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

I have a few things working in my favor as I embark on this Real Food journey.

I have ready access to fresh fruits and vegetables year 'round. And for at least four months each year there are Farmer's Markets just a short bike ride from my house. My family can go weeks without eating meat and not really notice, so increasing vegetable eating will primarily mean reducing our pasta consumption. Seems easier than swapping out meat as the star of dinner.

My hubby just celebrated a birthday of significance, which has him on high-alert for health issues. He is in terrific shape, maintained by playing full-court basketball about 4 times each week. But he worries about what's going on that cannot be seen (and hesitates to have his worries confirmed by any medical probes). His concern allows me to offer him more healthful breakfast and dinner options without too much protest.

My daughter, who just turned 12, has been schooled about proper nutrition since fifth grade. Her 6th grade health class watched SuperSize me http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Size_Me. She has not requested fast food of any kind since (except for Wendy's - that darn commercial that says 'Way better than fast food. It's Wendy's!' I guess has her believing that it is not actually fast food). She is eager to eat whatever recipes she selects from a cook book. And she is pretty open to eating whatever you put in front of her. Unless, it includes beans. Or asparagus. Oh, or seafood. Not so much as a fishstick for this kid. One sneaky trick I have used over the years with her is to blend beans into whatever soup or sauce I am making. If she cannot actually see a bean, she never complains.

And, I just invested in a Vita Mix, which is so powerful, it can blend anything into oblivion. This machine has given my hubby and daughter a jump start on increasing fruit consumption (replacing sugary cereal consumption) with incredibly good smoothies in the morning. After I make all-fruit smoothies for them, I toss a bunch of greens in the Vita-Mix and make a green smoothie (though commonly it is purple due to the blueberries or blackberies winning the pigment battle) for myself.

Hubby and kid will not touch a smoothie that has spinach or romaine in it, no matter how much I say "Mmmmmmm....." when I am drinking mine.

The Vita-Mix gives me one additional extraordinary power, which should help guide us down the Real Food path. It grinds grain. So instead of having to use store-bought, bleached, refined, white, nutritionless flour, I can buy whole wheat berries and grind my own flour fresh at home before baking.

And in the biggest picture, we are fortunate that we are seeking to maintain the good health we know we are lucky to have. We are genetically blessed - neither my husband or I have heart disease, diabetes, alzheimer's or commonly inherited cancers in our families. No one is immune to any of these, of course, regardless of how pristine one's family tree. (And maybe we're at some extra risk because we're never really on the lookout for anything specific.) But having 96-year-old grandparents living independently sure does make one smug about her gene pool.

We also have the same challenges many others face. We both work full time and my job often requires travel on weekends. My daughter is involved in activites outside of school, too, which means our schedules are never the same day to day or week to week. Meal-planning and routine food shopping is going to help, I think.

So, my family is on board with this effort and I have access to everything I need to achieve it. It's gonna be easy, right?

Rules of Thumb

2009-05-26T12:17:00.001-07:00

Kind of like how Christians have the "11th Commandment" - Do Unto Others - that encompasses all of the previous ten, Michael Pollan has recently offered a one-size-fits-all rule for eating Real Food: 'Don't buy any food you've ever seen advertised - the real food is not being advertised - and that's all you really need to know."

"Summer summer fruit, it wouldn't be summer withouuuuuut 'em" "Got milk?" and "The Incredible Edible Egg" are ad jingles and slogans that have me wondering if fruit, milk and eggs are disqualified as real food because their respective suppliers' associations spent some portion of the members' annual dues to advance the industry through advertising. One the one hand, this is blatant advertisement. On the other, I know my great-great-grandmothers would recognize each as food.

This puzzle leads me back to Pollan's previous nine Rules of Thumb suggested in his article Unhappy meals http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html. I aim to follow these in my quest to eat (and to feed my family) Real Food. Paraphrased in parts, and directly copied in others, from the article:

1. Eat food. Or, don't eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.

2. Avoid products that come bearing health claims. Don't take the silence of the yams as a sign that they have nothing valuable to say about health. (The silence of the yams...I love that.)

3. Especially avoid food products with ingredients that are unfamiliar, unpronounceable, more than five in number or that contain high-fructose corn syrup.

4. Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.

5. Pay more, eat less. Paying more for food well grown in good soils will contribute not only to your health (by reducing exposure to pesticides) but also the the health of other who may not be able to afford that sort of food: the people who grow it and the people downwind and downstream of the farms where it is grown.

6. Eat mostly plants, especially leaves. Scientists may disagree on what it is that is so good for us about plants but they do agree that they're probably really good for you.

7. Eat more like the French. or the Japanese. Or the Italians. or the Greek. People who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally healthier than we are.

8. Cook. And if you can , plant a garden. To take part in the intricate and endlessly interesting process of providing for our sustenance is the surest way to escape the culture of fast food and the values implicit in it: that food should be cheap and easy; that food is fuel and not communion.

9. Eat like and omnivore. The greater the diversity of species you eat, the more likely you are to cover all your nutritional bases.

These nine steps seem to me a reliable guide for reducing the processed/packaged foods we rely heavily on in our house. Some will be easier than others - I love to cook and have started a (limited) garden. On the other hand, if I were French, or Japanese or Italian or Greek or a member of any identifiable culture, I might know a tradition to turn to first. But it should be a fun experiment to pick some of the nationalities we are rumored to have in our history and research what my great-great-grandmothers might have served to their families.

Life-altering freebies

2009-05-25T06:02:00.000-07:00

I live near Chicago, so it was a surprising Sunday morning when I found a sample Sunday New York Times in my driveway alongside my Chicago Tribune. This is going back a while now to January 28, 2007, but something I read in that free New York Times changed me. Or at least pointed the way to a change I would ultimately make (apparently, I am no one to rush through a contemplation phase).

Michael Pollan wrote Unhappy Meals, The Age of Nutritionism: How scientists have ruined the way we eat. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html He has since adapted this article into a full-length book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.
(If you haven't already, please read In Defense of Food.)

Michael Pollan's message is this: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Nutritionism (different from nutrition) is the scientific pursuit and examination of the specific healthful nutrients in the fruits and vegetables and whole grains (that everyone knows we should all be eating). Sounds beneficial, but Pollan points to the (unintended?) result:

Nutritionism, which arose to help us deal with the problems of the Western diet, has largely been co-opted by it, used by the industry to sell more food and to undermine the authority of traditional ways of eating.

Also:

...most of the nutritional advice we've received over the last half century (and in particular the advice to replace the fats in our diets with carbohydrates) has actually made us less healthy and considerably fatter.

Well, that's a mean trick.

But:

That's the great thing about eating food as compared with nutrients: you don't need to fathom a carrot's complexity to reap its benefits.

If that were the only exquisite sentence Pollan crafted, my devotion would be absolute. That it also provides the caring cool-kid's rescuing hand from the nutritionism bullies surrounding us? That's magic.