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.

Last week casseroles

Last week I lived off three casseroles for lunches and dinners: Arroz Con Pollo (excellent recipe from Stacy's Snacks), Mushroom and Brown Rice Casserole (from 101 Cookbooks), and Chicken and Shrimp Coconut Curry from "The FoodDoctor" cookbook.) I'd spent $34.00 at the grocery store last week.

I also bought pizza for lunch one day as a friend asked me to walk with her to Amatos (it's all her fault!) $5.00. I satisfied a craving for take out Pad Thai at Pom's Restaurant on my way home from work one night $12.00. I bought a bottle of Merlot ($10.00) on Wednesday. Saturday, I had two rum and pineapple drinks and a Portobello Sandwich at Dogfish Cafe for $30.00. (Really delicious sandwich, and it was nice to socialize.)

So, basically, $80.00 for food and alcohol. For one person. Me.

In the Garden

The morning in 2007 I learned my father had died, I turned on the radio and heard the song “In The Garden” being song in a deep baritone on a religious station I hadn’t even realized the radio was set on. The song was very moving, and perfectly matched my feelings at that moment, as it is about walking with Jesus in a garden, and it reminded me of my Dad, for many reasons.

Two years later, my sister and I visited the cemetery, where my parents gravestones had been newly installed, a very emotional visit. Then, we went to see my mother in the nursing home, where she suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. I tried to make conversation about flowers and the rainy summer and how the garden outside the home seemed to be doing well. She responded to my emotions, if not my conversation, holding my hand and stroking it with her thumb, comforting me as tears escaped my eyes. When my sister and I left my mother, we passed a room where they were holding a church service. I heard a beautiful hymn being sung, and, as I paid attention, I realized they were singing “In The Garden.” The song I had asked to be sung at my Dad's funeral, after hearing it the morning I was told he had died.

This may not seem like much to you, but, for me, I was absolutely floored. It makes me wonder if, as my father told me, which at the time I ascribed to his brain injury, it isn’t true, “Amy, its all One. It’s all One thing.”

I just like recording my grocery bills, I know its weird

$34.93

can coconut milk $1.29
can diced tomatoes $1.38
chicken stock $2.49
Greek yogurt $1.79
can Tonino tuna $2.08
coffee $3.99
tomato paste .75
Lactaid milk quart $2.19
chicken $6.00
celery $1.59
basil $2.29
lemon .59
cilantro $2.29
wild Maine blueberries $4.99
onion .68

I made a fabulous coconut chicken stir fry for dinner, and froze the leftovers. Tomorrow I will make a chicken stew. I still have cereal, eggs, rice, some veggies and condiments left over from last week, so this is not quite an accurate picture of what I can do, but its a good start.

Desperate to lose weight

Last week I re-attempted my version of the Atkins diet, because I'd had it with feeling fat and this is the only diet I've ever experienced immediate success on. I ate walnuts, macadamia nuts, almonds, peanuts, tuna fish, chicken salad, eggs, roast beef, cheese, Atkins drinks, minimal fruits and vegetables and no cereal, bread, rice or pasta.

Predictably, my need to pee tripled, as the protein, if not dammed up by carbs, seems to push the water right out of my body. A couple of times I felt dizzy. I lost two pounds. I really like my version of Atkins, except it makes me feel sick.

This week I am re-naming my diet the anti-Alzheimer's diet, because I really am terrified of developing that disease. I am drinking apple-pomegrante juice and eating blueberries every day, but still abstaining from grains. I truly think grain-carbohydrates make me fat. I am going to increase my greens this week. We'll see how I feel. This is all an experiment.

Cafe This Way

Last weekend I was on Mt Desert Island, in Maine, for a family reunion and afterward my sister and I had a vegan dinner at Cafe This Way in Bar Harbor.

I had pecan crusted tofu with a side of mashed root vegetables, delicious mixed sauteed vegetables and an appetiser of marinated mushrooms and seaweed "caviar," little, gelatinous balls that released a pleasant, salty taste as they popped between my teeth.)

The meal was so good, all the cells in my body sang with delight. Man, why isn't it possible to feel that good after every meal? What does it involve to eat that cleanly and happily every day? Maybe it was the absence of wheat flour products, or animal products, but my body seemed to say, "finally! You are giving me pure food, without fillers or toxins for me to sort through to find the nutrition." I felt great.

We know what we we have to do

A new study published in the British Medical Journal, after following 23,000 Greeks for 8 years, reports that lower mortality is associated with moderate alcohol consumption, which is one glass of wine for women a day, eating two cups of vegetables, a cup of fruit, hand full of nuts and two tablespoons of olive oil a day, a quarter cup of beans a week, and eating little or no meat. Consumption of dairy, fish and grains did not seem to affect mortality, possibly because the study did not differentiate between whole vs processed grains, or low-fat vs full fat dairy.

So, basically, we should concentrate on eating vegetables, beans, nuts and fruits, use olive oil, and drink a little wine (with a meal.)

That seems so do-able, but what do we really eat? I have olive oil in my cabinet, but do I use it? Every day? How can I change my habits to increase the odds the oil winds up in my dishes? The challenge for me is to develop an automatic, unthinking, habitualy healthy diet. Because my normal unthinking diet relies on the vending machine at work and what few vegetables the Subway worker tosses on my sandwich.

For the last two weeks, I've been buying about $14.00 worth of fresh fruit and making a fruit salad with mint, almond extract and simple sugar (sugar dissolved in heated water). The salad lasts me about three days. That's a do-able habit, to get more fruit in, making a big fruit salad at the start of the week.

Last week I made some bean burgers, but, unfortunately, I failed to adequately rinse the Swiss chard, resulting in burgers with "real grit." Live and learn. Buying, preparing and consuming new vegetables takes practice.