Right. I should explain what that meant, in the last post.
This summer, we're intending to grow our own tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers (to make pickles!) and zucchini ('cause almost free is way better than $1/lb). I plan on putting up as much of it as possible, because chemical-free organic tomatoes are HARD to find and expensive. Quart jars are less than a dollar each, fully recyclable and no BPA. We don't really know yet how this is going to work out, but we're hopeful.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
a rant about canned tomatoes
Crohn's Disease means that random and sometimes unpredictable foods set K's tummy off. We have to be careful introducing anything that has a spicy or spicy-ish element.
Monday night, we had The Boyz (more on them later) over for dinner and TV. I made a double batch of the chili recipe from the lowfat Moosewood cookbook.
I was wicked-anxious about this one, because it was new, it relies on jarred salsa, and it uses a copious amount of cumin. (a suspected but increasingly less worrisome trigger) If you're interested, check out the cookbook - I'm not going to violate their copyright, essentially stealing their intellectual property. :-)
The upshot here is that we loved the recipe. The Boyz ate it right up. K has had chili for three meals over the last four days. (including breaking her lunch routine today to take it!)
K loved it so much that we swapped it into the meal plan for next week, removing a more generic and less specific meal option. This means a trip to Whole Foods for canned tomatoes.
Why, when the grocery store has such an array of canned tomato options, would that be necessary, you might ask.
Because Whole Foods is the only place I can get canned tomatoes that are ONLY tomatoes. No Calcium Chloride, no citric acid, no nada. Just tomatoes. And the only two brands I've found that are ONLY TOMATOES are a Jersey-something brand and Pomi brand, which might be owned by somebody I think I should be boycotting. (clearly I haven't researched it very well, because I'm chosing the path of ignorance for now)
At $3.00, take $.50, give up to $1.00, it gets expensive to be buying tomatoes from Whole Foods. I become more and more determined to get this gardening/canning/storing thing down.
Monday night, we had The Boyz (more on them later) over for dinner and TV. I made a double batch of the chili recipe from the lowfat Moosewood cookbook.
I was wicked-anxious about this one, because it was new, it relies on jarred salsa, and it uses a copious amount of cumin. (a suspected but increasingly less worrisome trigger) If you're interested, check out the cookbook - I'm not going to violate their copyright, essentially stealing their intellectual property. :-)
The upshot here is that we loved the recipe. The Boyz ate it right up. K has had chili for three meals over the last four days. (including breaking her lunch routine today to take it!)
K loved it so much that we swapped it into the meal plan for next week, removing a more generic and less specific meal option. This means a trip to Whole Foods for canned tomatoes.
Why, when the grocery store has such an array of canned tomato options, would that be necessary, you might ask.
Because Whole Foods is the only place I can get canned tomatoes that are ONLY tomatoes. No Calcium Chloride, no citric acid, no nada. Just tomatoes. And the only two brands I've found that are ONLY TOMATOES are a Jersey-something brand and Pomi brand, which might be owned by somebody I think I should be boycotting. (clearly I haven't researched it very well, because I'm chosing the path of ignorance for now)
At $3.00, take $.50, give up to $1.00, it gets expensive to be buying tomatoes from Whole Foods. I become more and more determined to get this gardening/canning/storing thing down.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Coping Mechanism One
Always. Be. Ready.
Part of today's American kitchen landscape involves insta-foods, like rice-a-roni, frozen veggie burgers, frozen burritos, etc. Hot Pockets, frozen pizzas, refrigerated dough. Frozen ravioli, jarred pasta sauce. You get the picture.
Next time you pop open a bottle of your favorite barbeque sauce, take a look at the ingredients. I can't pronounce several of the ingredients in Hunt's or Jack Daniels or... yeah. most of them.
given that I was the queen of quick and easy, eliminating these substances seriously cramped my cooking style. There was no more feeling virtuous as I whipped together a meal of steamed veggies, instant mashed potatoes and veggie burgers served on conventional bread.
Other than the steamed veggies, when we eliminated high fructose corn syrup and intensely processed soy, the entire rest of that menu was taken right off the list.
So, we cope. We adapt. We scream at each other when we're ravenous, there's nothing cooked and there's no chance of cheating, because we don't keep the crap in the house any more. (nothing makes us crazy like ravenous. really.)
One of our quickest, easiest tools is a Grain Pot. The recipe is loosely adapted from 101cookbooks, and has become a gem in my clean-cooking sceptor.
basically, we take 2 parts millet, 2 parts quinoa, 1 part wheat kernels, 1 part brown rice and 12 parts water (so, 1/2 cup, 1/4 cup and 3 cups) and microwave the whole thing in a covered casserole dish for 20 minutes. Viola. The base for any number of yummy dishes. And it keeps for the better part of a week.
Part of today's American kitchen landscape involves insta-foods, like rice-a-roni, frozen veggie burgers, frozen burritos, etc. Hot Pockets, frozen pizzas, refrigerated dough. Frozen ravioli, jarred pasta sauce. You get the picture.
Next time you pop open a bottle of your favorite barbeque sauce, take a look at the ingredients. I can't pronounce several of the ingredients in Hunt's or Jack Daniels or... yeah. most of them.
given that I was the queen of quick and easy, eliminating these substances seriously cramped my cooking style. There was no more feeling virtuous as I whipped together a meal of steamed veggies, instant mashed potatoes and veggie burgers served on conventional bread.
Other than the steamed veggies, when we eliminated high fructose corn syrup and intensely processed soy, the entire rest of that menu was taken right off the list.
So, we cope. We adapt. We scream at each other when we're ravenous, there's nothing cooked and there's no chance of cheating, because we don't keep the crap in the house any more. (nothing makes us crazy like ravenous. really.)
One of our quickest, easiest tools is a Grain Pot. The recipe is loosely adapted from 101cookbooks, and has become a gem in my clean-cooking sceptor.
basically, we take 2 parts millet, 2 parts quinoa, 1 part wheat kernels, 1 part brown rice and 12 parts water (so, 1/2 cup, 1/4 cup and 3 cups) and microwave the whole thing in a covered casserole dish for 20 minutes. Viola. The base for any number of yummy dishes. And it keeps for the better part of a week.
The Challenge:
Eliminate:
MSG and MSG mimics
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Artificial Sweeteners
Artificial Colors
Hydrogenated Oils
Preservatives
Why? Because the neurologist said to.
Well, ok, more specifically because in order to diagnose a processing weirdness, the neurologist said "cut this stuff out and we'll try a few other things to see if it gets better, but I need to know what I'm really seeing. Food sensitivities can sometimes act like real neurological barriers to normal function."
We gave it a shot and K's fibro symptoms... relinquished their vicious hold on our lives. She had stamina. She had a full range of motion. She could think clearly and remember things.
We were sold.
It is, however, hard work. No lie, in a world where most easy food comes from a chemistry lab, we've had to relearn a LOT about how we feed ourselves and our loved ones.
Mostly, I expect this blog to be our documentation of this process as we trudge along, figuring out what works and what doesn't.
MSG and MSG mimics
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Artificial Sweeteners
Artificial Colors
Hydrogenated Oils
Preservatives
Why? Because the neurologist said to.
Well, ok, more specifically because in order to diagnose a processing weirdness, the neurologist said "cut this stuff out and we'll try a few other things to see if it gets better, but I need to know what I'm really seeing. Food sensitivities can sometimes act like real neurological barriers to normal function."
We gave it a shot and K's fibro symptoms... relinquished their vicious hold on our lives. She had stamina. She had a full range of motion. She could think clearly and remember things.
We were sold.
It is, however, hard work. No lie, in a world where most easy food comes from a chemistry lab, we've had to relearn a LOT about how we feed ourselves and our loved ones.
Mostly, I expect this blog to be our documentation of this process as we trudge along, figuring out what works and what doesn't.
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