Wednesday 1 December 2010

House-y Things and a Ramble

Virginia welcomed the First of December with sunshine and a rain storm. Funny how the two go together in this state. Sadly, the weather forecast canceled the "Snow Alert" for next Wednesday. I guess I still have time for a few more walks before my boots need their rub-down for snow.

My Use-Up-Fridge/Pantry-Items week continues. Our meals have been quite substantial considering I, erm, slightly over-purchased groceries the previous week. Here's what we've cooked so far:

Sunday: Curried Red Lentil, Quinoa, and Chickpea Stew. Recipe courtesy of Eat This. Homey, healthy and delicious. My first time cooking quinoa, too! The quinoa cooked for a while and looked like tiny little floating nose rings. I'm sorry, but that's the best way I can describe them. Maybe itsy bitsy smiles without the eyes?  I made a full recipe, so it will probably last us a while. (I might freeze whatever we don't eat.)

Monday: Whole Wheat Penne Pasta with Marinara, Spicy Chicken Sausage, and Olives. We had an unopened package of sausages in the fridge for a while now, so H. and I decided to cook two and freeze two. I love listening to the sausage skin "snap" while it cooks. Olives and penne pasta were in the pantry.  Um. I also attempted to make "S'mores Brownies" listed on the Food Network website. Lesson learned: don't attempt brownies unless you have all of the right ingredients. Suffice it to say, H. and I did not ask for s'more.

Tuesday/Wednesday: Left over stew and pasta. Bacon and Cheesy Eggs with Toast and Baby Spinach Salad + Chocolate Pudding.
H. and I finally finished the package of bacon we froze a while ago. Eggs are a House-y Staple. So is baby spinach. We eat it like chips around here. Everything came from either the fridge, freezer, or pantry. 
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In the spirit of culinary creativity, or plain ol' "Grocery Budgeting", H. and I decided to try a No Sugar, No Flour experiment until S. arrives on the 19th. My goal is not to worry about weight loss or maintenance. And I'll try very hard not to make eating a means of justifying myself and feeling better that I'm consuming "more natural ingredients" than those who eat processed foods. (But honestly, don't we all feel that way sometimes?) 

The older I get, the less I enjoy heavily processed foods without feeling "gross". But can part of the "gross" feeling be influenced by my personal beliefs about processed foods? Once I ate half a biscuit and found the other half covered with what seemed to be mold. I felt sick for the rest of the day. Then my sister came home and told me that the powdery white stuff was just flour. Whoops! Ok, so I'm a hypochondriac.I'm not advocating that we all start eating moldy food and believing that it's not moldy. Or anything like that. (What a relief to discover that the powdery white was only flour!) I just wonder how the condition of the soul and body influence food choices and feelings/reactions to food. Does that make any sense? I'll keep working on a better form of that question.


Sometimes I eat apples just because I'm ashamed. And sometimes I feel guilty when I eat nachos from Target. But I don't really know why I feel guilt or shame. (Ahhhh, Roy, this is making me think of Brothers K. Cuban Cigars, anyone?) Some of the best eating moments happen when I munch on an apple just because I love the taste of apple. And really, I never want nacho cheese for more than one or two days. Oh but sometimes it's so tasty. Why why why?

Oh well. Too many unfinished thoughts and half-formed questions. I should go read some Betsy-Tacy. Thought Project, I'll be back. (With more rambles. And more unfinished thoughts. And maybe some Target Nachos.)


No sugar or white flour for a few weeks can't hurt me. I'm hoping to see if it will help with the general achies and lethargy I've felt for the past few months.

And above all else, I want to have fun and be creative in trying new recipes and ingredients. So many vegetables and grains I've never tried! Bulgar? Nope! Celeriac or beets? Nope Nope! Eggs without gobs of ketchup? Nope. ...I'll have trouble with that one. 


How exciting! The day E. finally learns to eat an egg without loads of ketchup to mask the eggy taste. 

It can be done.

Well, it has to be done. At least for the next two weeks. I still have half a week to finish off some of our sugar/flour ingredients. Hoot!


Here's to a month of good eats and joyous meal making!

3 comments:

  1. Eggs with no ketchup are often made quite nice with salt and pepper. :)

    I think it's good you're being introspective about your food eating, lovie. I'm trying to do that too--find out when and why I began my own conflicted relationship with food.

    That said, however, sometimes it's good to just enjoy the weird things we like. Nacho cheese for example. If you don't think of it as "bad" and allow yourself to enjoy it when you want to, you might find you crave it less.

    We'll talk more of course. :)

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  2. Not Fyodor! He eats cheesy nachos while believing that all his friends secretly eat cheesy nachos.

    Food can be a funny place for moral struggles. I usually have them when I'm divvying up portions of food. I eat the smallest, not to be moral, but to have relief from thinking about the moral struggle. But the tummy doesn't seem to care one way or another. (at least I can still distinguish the truth "within" me, hohoho) I've read that food is where we learn to "identify" ourselves with things/ideas/feelings. We embrace the food as Roy-ish or Emily-ish when we eat it. So maybe part of it is not wanting to be nacho-cheese-girl or bigger-portion-boy.

    Those are some tasty sounding meals, I wish I was going with Sam. Here is a pretty poem to supplement your cheesy reflections ;P

    ON A THEME FROM NICOLAS OF CUSA

    When soul and body feed, one sees
    Their differing physiologies.
    Firmness of apple, fluted shape
    Of celery, or tight-skinned grape
    I grind and mangle when I eat,
    Then in dark, salt, internal heat,
    Annihilate their natures by
    The very act that makes them I.

    But when the soul partakes of good
    Or truth, which are her savoury food,
    By some far subtler chemistry
    It is not they that change, but she,
    Who feels them enter with the state
    Of conquerors her opened gate,
    Or, mirror-like, digests their ray
    By turning luminous as they. -CSL

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  3. I shall come bearing sugar and flour!

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