Birke Baehr on the problems with our food industry

You might have noticed from my last post that I've been thinking a lot about food lately. I've been struggling with the cost of maintaining a healthy, ethical, nutrient-rich diet, especially with student loans looming.

This 11 year old finally said what I needed to hear. "We can pay the farmers, or we can pay the hospitals." Well darn. I guess that 'bout settles it!

Seriously, this guy has so many good points it's pretty hard not to agree with him.




P.s. I like Kale chips too. In fact, I'm about to make a batch!

I came across this video while reading Crystal Nelson's Blog.

On Paleo Eating and Tightwadery

I'm not sure how I end up getting myself into these situations, but sometimes I think I'm out to make my life difficult.

The problem is, I'm reading these two books simultaneously, and the result is somewhat confusing. You see, I am reading this book called The Paleo Solution: The Original Human Diet which has presented some convincing and intriguing science about why I should stop eating dairy, legumes and gluten, and instead revert to a paleolithic diet of animal protein and fresh fruits and veggies. Now, believe you me, growing up on a dairy farm, religiously eating whole wheat and lentils, this isn't what I wanted to be convinced of. In fact, I fought quite hard and still find myself twitching at times throughout the day. Never the less, Robb Wolf is one convincing (and funny) dude, so JusPup and I are slowly weening ourselves off these foods in preparation for a full on 30 day trial run in November (all bets are off for Thanksgiving day, though). I know, I know, it's counter to everything I've been taught, but JusPup is down 15 pounds, I'm down 3, and we aren't even totally on the diet yet!

Now, animal protein and fresh plants. Delicious! Healthy! NOT a good paring when in the back of your mind is all the tried and true budget advice from one Amy Dacyczyn (she swears it's pronounced like "decision", who's gonna argue?) of The Complete Tightwad Gazette which happens to be the other book I'm reading. "At every meal include at least one pantry staple" "Bake your own bread at least once a week" and on and on (there really are a lot of good tips in this book)! I love bread! In fact, I just inherited a bread machine! I love pantry staples! Give me rice and lentils any day! Of course, what I've realized is that I also get a tummy full of gas and pain. I sort of thought this was normal...

So, pair my tightwadish tendencies with a fresh-based diet (and a pension for locally, ethically grown) and what do you get? A headache. A budgeting nightmare. OK, that's what I get. (Also, some delicious roast chicken which became roasted acorn squash stuffed with chicken and then became some delicious chicken soup!) What you get is to read about my new adventures in the kitchen, trying to stock a pantry with everything except pantry food, while on a budget, in the soon-to-be-dead of winter.

Do you have a favorite cheap, grain-free, legume-free, dairy-free meal? Please tell me about it! (Also, if you know anyone with a lot of venison on their hands, I want it!)

Yes, these are affiliate links. I realized that a lot of what I write about is books, and thought that I might as well give this a shot. If it skeeves you out, just go to Amazon and search them yourself! I promise I will never speak well of a book that I think sucks. I don't have time for that. I hardly even have time to tell you about the books that I like!!

I think I pissed blogger off...

It's been so long since I wrote a proper post that I think Blogger is mad at me. I wrote up a nice one for your guys, but then everything possible went wrong with formating and stuff just broke.

Here's the gist of it. I took a break, and then I had too much news to share, but none of it seemed worthy of a big "I'm back!" kind of post. So I didn't blog for about 8 months.

So here's a little photo representation of my life since January:

I graduated! (With highest honors. I am a nerd. Thanks for listening. I'm done bragging now.)

I started spinning again. Sort of.

I grew my first solo garden!

I processed a total of 7.5lbs of basil into pesto for my freezer.

I had a blast at Mountain Jam, Oldsongs, and GrassRoots music festivals!

I got a "new" van! A '93 Dodge Caravan! I pimped it out so that I can sleep in it when I have far away events. It is totally dope. That's a Buzz Lightyear air mattress, by the way.

Most of all, I've cooked and eaten lots of delicious food in my HUGE kitchen in my new apartment.

I also went to Cape Cod a couple times, I've been traveling all over the place selling jewelry, I'm working on a new website, I build an awesome hookah for a final project, I did some nice ceramics work, I've been hula hooping again, and I have some beautiful new designs up on Etsy!

Hi! If you made it to the end, thanks for looking! I promise that my upcoming posts won't be this nutty.

Onion, Carrot, Garbanzo Bean Soup!

Onion, Carrot, Garbanzo Bean Soup!, originally uploaded by Soasa Designs.

Yum! There is nothing like second day soup! My journey of cooking for myself is ongoing, and this was my adventure last night. I set out to make this Broccoli, Onion, Garbanzo Bean soup from my new favorite food blog Farmgirl Fare but it veered off path pretty quickly. To start with, despite having about eight fresh produce shops and five supermarkets within three blocks of my house, no one had broccoli worth feeding to a chicken, if they had it at all! I subbed in some carrots instead.

I ended up using:
2 huge carrots
3 small yellow onions
4 medium cloves of garlic
1 can of garbanzos, rinsed
2 cans of water with three SA sized chicken bullion cubes (that means tiny, by the way)
1/4 tsp cayenne
Salt and pepper
1/8th cup of cream

I cooked the onions and carrots in olive oil for a bit, added the garlic, then added the garbanzos, cayenne, water and bullion cubes, simmered for about 20 minutes, added salt and pepper and blasted it with the immersion blender (which I officially cannot live without.) I added the cream later when it had cooled a bit. I couldn't resist eating some last night when I finished making it, but most of it went in the fridge, and I just ate some now! I am really proud of myself. I've definitely had some failures in the past couple of months (and choked them down so as not to waste food) but this one I would actually feed to other people! Yay! It's simple and cheap and SO good. I garnished it with some Finlandia (it's like a really, really light cream cheese) diced red peppers, and tarragon.

Next time I'm going to add spinach to get some more iron in it, and roasted red peppers because they are delicious. Also, a little less cream.

Intent Update

You may or may not remember my Statement of Intent to keep track of what I was eating and when in order to figure out why my energy was so low. Turns out I was basically starving myself. Oops. Also, very unlike me! It's basically a result of my stomach (and I think maybe my heart)being homesick. Turns out I enjoy eating a lot less when I'm alone.

On Monday I set out intent on cooking some food that would be appealing to me and make me want to eat. Remember my new-found faith in the connectedness of all people? I stumbled across Farmgirl Fare a great blog about food, from a lady who lives on a farm:) Can't get much closer to home than that!

I went for two recipes: Use it or lose it lentil escarole soup and Slice of Toasted Heaven Lemon Coconut "Bread". I didn't follow either recipe very well, because I didn't have a measuring cup or spoon, so I did everything by ratios...sort of. I did the "bread" first, using a drinking glass (which I believe is closer to a cup and a half) as a measuring cup, and sort of eyeballed everything else. It came out pretty well but I'd use more coconut and vanilla extract and less lemon juice next time. It's delicious though, and I love it and recommend it. Toast it! She's not kidding. It reminds me of a blueberry lemon pound cake my mom makes. If I can find blueberries here I'm going to add them next time.



While that was baking (for 40 minutes instead of 60-70, because Ceci's gas oven is different that what we normally use) I started up the soup, again with no measuring cup. I also only had one tomato, and no escarole. I used two kinds of lentils, and a ton of carrots, and probably not enough liquid so it's pretty thick. I also added a little cayenne, and cooked up some hamburger in Penzey's Southwest Seasoning that Mom gave me! I threw that in after I blended everything. I don't want to brag, but lentil soup is one of my favorite things on the planet, and this may be some of the best lentil soup I've ever eaten. I am very proud of myself. It also keeps me going all day! I made enough that I can probably eat it for 10 meals, so I threw a bunch in the freezer for next time I'm craving it.

I was only on Farmgirl Fare for a short time, but I have about a dozen recipes I want to try. I can't recommend her more!

Statement of Intent

Self-Eval, originally uploaded by Soasa Designs.

I have something I need to declare, and I need to state it publicly because it's harder to back out of something once you've told other people you'll do it (I hope.) Starting tomorrow (only because I already can't remember today's list) I'm writing every single thing I eat or drink in that little book in the image above (which also happens to be my impromptu knitting idea book, so the incentive to carry it around is good.)I haven't decided what to do with that information yet.

I think I just need to take stock.

I know I eat a ton of those cute high-fiber crackers with suns and wheat stalks imprinted on them.
I know I eat a ton of lite Finlandia cheese (cream cheese but a lot lighter.)
I know I eat a lot of Activia yogurts, because they have the best flavors...(unfortunately the low-fat one's suck.)
I eat a lot of tomatoes...

My energy is really low, and I'm always hungry.
I can't summon the energy to go out with Ceci and friends because I can't handle having to speak The Language all night.
My mood is swinging violently.
I can't seem to kick the cough lodged in my chest.
I think I'm sleeping way too much.

I think I'll add also that I'm keeping track of how much I sleep, how much I get out of the house and how my energy levels feel throughout the day.

Basically I want to be able to write a post like this. Or this. Or this.

I feel like with all the hustle before I left for this trip I didn't get to do my yearly self-evaluation and re-adjustment and I think now is the time. Something's gotta give or I'm going to waste this adventure away...

#5 Blessed Are the Cheesemakers

Book: Blessed Are the Cheesemakers by Sarah-Kate Lynch
Pages: 324
Entertainment Rating: 5/5
Snooty Rating: 2.5/5
Total Rating: 7.5/10
Books Read Total: 5/50
Pages Read Total: 1390/15,000

This is an adorable book! The characters are lovable and witty and boy oh boy do I love cheese! I read the entire thing last night, only setting it down for periods of 3 or so minutes to brush my teeth or find a snack. It's easy breezy reading, nothing especially thought-provoking or challenging, just a good though somewhat unrealistic story. Take it to the beach, read it on the train, it's charming and entertaining.