We got a Trader Joe's!

Portland, Maine just got a Trader Joe's, and I will be interested to see how that will affect my bottom line. So far, I have discovered they sell a Tuna Thai Curry for $1.49 which is actually edible, and filling over brown rice. Also, I bought some Trader Joe's French Roast coffee for $4.34, which is a great price.

Diet-wise, I've realized the way to go is using brown rice as a staple, and adding as many fresh vegetables as possible, while avoiding bread, pasta, cheese and sugar, when possible. This is my new focus, reducing calories while trying to eat a nutrient dense diet.

Money and Food

I've been feeling embarrassed by this blog, and my obsession, in general, with how to feed myself as cheaply and efficiently as possible. God knows I'll never be a good cook, as I am uncomfortable with food as an artistic material and at sea over my own physical requirements for it, but food, cooking, grocery shopping IS an important topic, and the fact I struggle with it is precisely why its important for me to write about it. (Important to me, but not necessarily to you :-)

Food, as a topic, is more complicated than just a recitation of the techniques and ingredients to produce a certain recipe. (For me, its more complicated.) It's how do you fight the hunger that rises up three times a day? How do you fulfill the demands from your body for calcium, protein, micro-nutrients of every stripe, when your body allows you, even encourages you, to eat "whatever?" It's complicated also because money, to buy the fruit and vegetables, doesn't grow on trees. One's budget is limited. It's no good to pretend we live in the Garden of Eden and all that's required to eat healthily are good intentions. Cash is required as well.

So, I am renewing my commitment to writing about what I spend and what I eat. It's important to me to get this figured out.

So many of us are overwieght

Seeking inspiration recently, I Googled "real life weight loss success stories" and the first hit was Fitness Magazine... a story about women who have actually lost weight...which, when I clicked on it, immediately led me to a recipe for macaroni and cheese.

Such are the dangers of seeking advice on the Internet. You cannot lose weight eating macaroni and cheese. I'm sorry. We have been told that diets don't work, and this is sooo true, but there does have to be an element of restraint in one's eating. Last night I talked myself out of a dozen different eating scenarios. I wanted ice cream, I wanted mindless eating. In the past, I have given into these habits faster than you can say "eating like this will make you gain weight."

Why are so many Americans overweight? Maybe because we are all working two jobs, or unsatisfying jobs, or are battling energy draining commutes, which sets one up to look for a make-me-feel-better-fast "reward." Fitness Magazine offers a story about real weight loss, but switches to a recipe for macaroni and cheese, because, obviously that is what we really want. And, cheese is something an advertiser can sell, whereas, nobody makes a profit, or buys advertising to promote, "just not eating so much."

Not quite off the subject, I have been thinking lately how problems in our schools are a reflection of the wider community. Our kids are not succeeding academically, but its also true our society is not succeeding. I think there has been a growing sense in our nation, while our jean sizes grew, that our nation is stumbling. Didn't we all feel uneasy when housing prices were sky high? Turned out our wealth was based on derivative trading, a Ponzi scheme of an economy, we were not so much a powerhouse of innovation and valuable businesses as a nation of con artists. I think the recession is bringing us all down to reality, to trying to innovate and grow something besides our fat cells. I know I am trying. That's my rant for the day.

$15.64 at grocery store last week

coffee $4.99
canned tomatoes $1.39
butter $1.49
fat free half and half $1.49
ground turkey $3.29
onion .90
5 lb potatoes $1.99

I made a turkey chili that lasted almost all week, and I ate some suppers of mashed potatoes, which I actually quite enjoy. Ate up food I had in my pantry: oatmeal, apples, frozen vegetables, etc. It felt liberating to have spent so little money.

Red Cabbage Slaw; Bobby Flay

Red Cabbage Slaw; Bobby Flay

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 small red onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro leaves
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 head red cabbage, finely shredded

Directions

Combine all ingredients, except cabbage, in a blender and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Place cabbage in a large bowl and toss with the vinaigrette. Season with salt and pepper and let sit 30 minutes in the refrigerator before serving.

News flash! I just read that red cabbage may be a super food that prevents Alzheimer's Disease.

I'm going to make this recipe one of my staples. Also, apple juice shows promise in research studies.

Rachel Ray

Last week I made a Mexican Lasagna from a Rachel Ray recipe that woke me repeatedly during the night. Undeterred, I brought it for lunch for four days (it made a huge pan of ground turkey, cheese, beans, corn, spice and layers of tortillas.)

I also made Pad Thai using instructions from Kevin on the blog "Closet Cooking." (He's amazing.) It came out pretty good. I used tamarind paste, a fruity addition, for the first time ever, and the Pad Thai tasted less like sweaty gym socks, than usual.

Saturday I went to a health fair and got to indulge my hypochondria and snag some free bottled water and a banana. I got myself tested for osteoporosis (I don't have it), arterial blockage in the limbs (all clear), hearing (normal) and total cholesterol 213 (borderline high.) I spoke to a middle aged woman at the Alzheimer's booth whose father came down with the disease in his 50's, who told me not to worry about getting it, since my mother and grandfather weren't stricken till late in life. She told me only the early onset version is hereditary. I told her its more inheritable from the mother's side (she didn't know that.) So, we comforted each other.

One thing I noticed was how unhealthy all these health experts looked. Lots of fat nurses testing the masses, and the lady at the osteoporosis booth looked frail, almost skeletal. What is good health? In some ways, its just the absence of pain and disability. It's being able to walk as far and as fast as you want to. It's living up to your life expectancy. I was blessed with good genes, for the most part, and I have walked a lot my whole life, never smoked, and eaten reasonably well, if too much. Mostly, I would like to not feel fat every day of my life. Weighing less would be being healthier, to me. And that is a pretty serious intervention.

Ministry of Food

The famous Naked Chef, Jaime Oliver, has a cookbook called Ministry of Food, and a website where he posts how-to cooking videos. One of his goals is to teach people what we have forgotten: how to cook at home. He is really sweet and I enjoy watching him explain the simplest things.

This week I made his Fish Pie, which is just a casserole of salmon, celery, carrot, herbs, cheese, and tomato, topped by mashed potatoes. I also made his Salmon Tikka with nan bread, very easy and exotic.

I ate way too much dairy this week: chicken and ricotta burgers, a mushroom and cream with ground turkey over pasta dish, and eggs for several breakfasts. My arteries are probably clogging as we speak, except for the bits of oatmeal still scrubbing them. Next week I will focus on vegetables.