Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Back to Basics

Have you noticed that I love food?
I love to make food, I love to eat food and I love to feed those I love the wonderful creations I create.
I have been on a sour dough kick again.
Yesterday it was sour dough waffles for breakfast.
Today I made sour dough bagels.
They are to die for.
I could eat those everyday for the rest of my life and be perfectly happy.
Tonight for dinner we will have tortillas made with sour dough and tomorrow I'm making sour dough English muffins.
I can hardly wait!
I love nothing more than making healthy food and then watching my family enjoy it.
I love how these recipes have such few and simple ingredients, yet they taste divine.
I am ruined forever.
I started this journey in a quest for a healthier life style, but now I think I'm just spoiled.
I can't eat store bought bagels any more.
They taste like cardboard.
Homemade ones are chewy on the outside and super soft and moist on the inside.
They are not all the same exact cookie cutter shape.
They look hand crafted, I can see each imperfection in their shape and it makes me happy.
It's the same with everything I make.
The store bought version just seems like a sorry excuse for the real thing.
It's like the difference between picking a super red and juicy tomato from the vine and eating it while it's still warm from the sun's rays and then getting a tomato from the store that is almost red and has been sitting in a warehouse refrigerator for heaven only knows how long.
They are both a tomato, but if you've ever eaten one fresh you know what I'm talking about.
Pulling a warm, chewy cookie off the still hot cookie sheet is ever so much more satisfying than opening a package and eating the sad excuse for the same thing.
Sometime people give me flack for the way we eat.
I wonder why?
Really, store bought and fast food has only been available in the massive quantities that is today for the last 50 years or so.
Think of the whole rest of the history of the earth.
What did people eat then?
There were no Super Wal-Marts filled with man made flavors and preservatives at people's finger tips.
People ate what they could grow or what they could trade for.
And you now what? That simple way of eating not only works, but it tastes better and is infinitely better for you.
I know you all think I'm crazy, and I admit that I probably am.
But honestly, it seems a lot more crazy to me to fill my kids full of additives just because I'm too busy or tired or lazy to make them real food.
I mean that with all the love possible, but seriously, it's time to get back to basics.
The American diet is killing us.
It's making us fat and depressed and sick.
Did you know that if the current trends continue our children's generation is the first generation on average whose life expectancy will be significantly shorter than their parents.
That means that our children will die before us.
That is totally backwards.
Here's another scary fact.
If a child eats 2 bowls of sugar cereal a day until they are 12 years old, they are 100% sure to have diabetes by the time they are 18 years old.
Sad. Scary. Totally Unnecessary.
The good news? 100% preventable.
Make a change, any change.
Start small.
Stop buying cereal.
Make breakfast for a week straight.
It's summer time, we have time.
Make granola or muffins or a smoothie or pancakes or french toast or oatmeal (not the sugar boxed kind!).
Make anything, anything would be better than almost any cereal you can buy.
Try it for a week, even if the kids complain.
Trust me, you'll be glad you did!
We have got to see it for what it is and make a change.
At least Jamie Oliver agrees with me!





2 comments:

Lara said...

I haven't used my sour dough for weeks. I need to get it out of the fridge and feed it before it's completely dead.

The sad, sad story of food...

I told my son the other day that this new baby will be the only one of my children not brain damaged from me eating MSG while
pregnant. He said, "Thanks a lot mom!"

Hey, it's not my fault! My parents brain damaged me with it for years and none of us knew! Live and learn. If you have any brain cells left that is.

Karen M. Peterson said...

I love that you make all that stuff yourself.

I know if I had kids I would do it. But for a single person, it's just such a hassle. Especially when I get very short windows of time to use the kitchen I share with my chef-who-hates-to-clean roommate.