This week, I have been pretty happy with my food choices, always managing to hit a sale or two at just the right time. Due to all the frugality, I was able to save up enough in the kitty in case something interesting came along.
Yes, yes it did! I found a huge package of scallops and mushrooms, and I also picked up another package of Kerry Gold butter. (Sorry to break it to you, Steve Cooksey, but I got the same slab for half the price that you did!!!)
Breakfast: eggs, turkey sausage, fennel, tea from trader Olga.
Lunch: coffee and turkey sausage from trader Ingrid, blueberries, beet juice, vegetable broth, tangerines from trader Humberto, scallops cooked with mushrooms and butter, then more butter.
Dinner: Leeks, fennel, feta cheese from trader Felix, greens cooked in beef fat, scallops and mushrooms cooked in butter, then even more butter.
Evening snack: almonds from trader Dean. (And how about that full moon?)
There is only $14.69 left in the kitty, but there are only 5 more days left on the challenge and I still have beef in the freezer.
Showing posts with label locavore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label locavore. Show all posts
Friday, April 26, 2013
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Paleo on $100 a month day 10 - I threw something away!
Hey free food! Who wants to waste anything?
I drank a cup of bone broth before I dashed out early. Pre-breakfast?
Today I was determined to limit the wheat. I enjoyed breakfast courtesy of trader Pablo. There were leftover cut-up giant roast beef sandwiches in the fridge, probably due to the overabundance of vegetarians there the day before, who knows? I rescued the roast beef and threw away the bread. Truth be told, it is pretty easy to throw away bread on an old sandwich. It was smashed and soggy, pink with the meat juices. Anybody else would do it.
I put gobs of roast beef on a salad and topped it with a bit of grated cheese and the dressing. Coffee, too, and one tortilla chip. Later I had more coffee from Gabrielle, and cheese and a piece of turkey roll-up from trader Ingrid. I avoided the brownies, trays of donuts, several giant packages of cinnamon rolls, the several packages of blueberry bagels, the diet Coke, the sugary Sprite, and the rest of a very huge bag of tortilla chips.
Lunch was some leftover pork, lemon balm tea, bone broth, purslane, nasturtium flowers, beet juice and some lemon.
Dinner was the last of the lamb, cooked with kale from trader Alpha and a few olives. I also had lettuce, purslane, and a beef rib. Oh, and one strawberry. Well, I have blown past all the hurricane names with all my trading partners, now onto the Greek alphabet. Thank goodness Alpha came through with the kale, because I am a bit tired of swiss chard.
After the beefy breakfast, I was ready for something else, but nothing else was on sale. I guess there was a glut of beef after the latest beef-kills-you-"study". No glut of chicken. The Authorities have declared chicken to be a perfect food. Economical. Healthy. Eco-friendly. Oh well.
The package of ribs cost $4.11. I have $6.62 left over.
I drank a cup of bone broth before I dashed out early. Pre-breakfast?
Today I was determined to limit the wheat. I enjoyed breakfast courtesy of trader Pablo. There were leftover cut-up giant roast beef sandwiches in the fridge, probably due to the overabundance of vegetarians there the day before, who knows? I rescued the roast beef and threw away the bread. Truth be told, it is pretty easy to throw away bread on an old sandwich. It was smashed and soggy, pink with the meat juices. Anybody else would do it.
I put gobs of roast beef on a salad and topped it with a bit of grated cheese and the dressing. Coffee, too, and one tortilla chip. Later I had more coffee from Gabrielle, and cheese and a piece of turkey roll-up from trader Ingrid. I avoided the brownies, trays of donuts, several giant packages of cinnamon rolls, the several packages of blueberry bagels, the diet Coke, the sugary Sprite, and the rest of a very huge bag of tortilla chips.
Lunch was some leftover pork, lemon balm tea, bone broth, purslane, nasturtium flowers, beet juice and some lemon.
Dinner was the last of the lamb, cooked with kale from trader Alpha and a few olives. I also had lettuce, purslane, and a beef rib. Oh, and one strawberry. Well, I have blown past all the hurricane names with all my trading partners, now onto the Greek alphabet. Thank goodness Alpha came through with the kale, because I am a bit tired of swiss chard.
After the beefy breakfast, I was ready for something else, but nothing else was on sale. I guess there was a glut of beef after the latest beef-kills-you-"study". No glut of chicken. The Authorities have declared chicken to be a perfect food. Economical. Healthy. Eco-friendly. Oh well.
The package of ribs cost $4.11. I have $6.62 left over.
Friday, March 1, 2013
My Year on the Leptin Reset
It has been a year since I did my second version of Jack Kruse's leptin reset.
This week, I found and read through a little notebook with notes on the reset. At the time, I had planned several trips out of town, and so I wanted a compact format. This was also at the time when I started having lots of trouble with those [redacted]people, so I was reluctant to rely upon either them or any other computerized tracking system. After my trips, I abandoned the little notebook, so it was fun reading through it again.
I had started the leptin reset in the summer of 2011 when my lowish carb diet wasn't working well. In May, I started a couple of days of strict low carb, and then Drs. Eades free Metabosol came in the mail. I did the Metabosol throughout the first weeks in June, but after a few pizza meals, I was back to where I started, even up a couple of pounds, so I decided to abandon that plan and start the leptin reset in earnest in July.
By the beginning of that August, I had lost around 5 pounds on the leptin reset, was feeling much better and controlling carb cravings like never before. But, the success was short-lived, and I resumed my difficulty with carbs and gained all the weight and then some by fall.
In January 2012, I did the leptin reset again, this time for about 6 weeks before starting back in with the exercise. I lost more weight this time, and a total of around 15 pounds by the end of the "Paleo on 100 dollars a month challenge" in March. By this time, I had also started CT.
Throughout the summer, I added in a few more carbs, and quit monitoring my food and weight so regularly. The result was that I gained back the weight. By the beginning of 2013 I was exactly the same weight as I was the year before, but with some differences.
No chronic cardio, no regular strength training. I just live my regular active life, go on hikes here and there, and stretch if I feel un-stretchy.
Work like crazy to get wheat out of my diet. I realize now how delicate my improvements are, and how easy it is to get completely out of balance.
Eliminated the need for sleep medication. I started using progesterone, which has helped in so many ways. Even though it has contributed to my weight gain, it has made me much more accommodating to all types of stresses, like from heat and exercise. I also respond to carbohydrates differently, which can be alternatively a good thing and a dangerous thing. I think I am much more careful with carbohydrates while on progesterone because, while I can take a few more hits, when things go south, they go south much more rapidly.
Better body proportions. I weigh more but my clothing fits differently. People say I look better, younger and my skin is much better.
CT around once or twice a week. This usually involves going to the beach at least once a week and getting in the water for quite a long time, taking mostly cold showers and being in cold air some part of the day except for in the summer.
Moving back more towards a macrobiotic-but-grain-free diet consisting of more seafood, sea vegetables and seasonal food. I was never on strict epi-paleo. My carb and vegetable consumption is much higher. Not as high as what Dr. Wahls recommends, but much higher than what Jack recommends.
Lab-free. I haven't been sick, haven't been to the doctor for awhile, and I don't even know what my cholesterol levels are. I have my blood pressure measured when I give blood, and it is at high-school level (110/70).
I know how to get back on track. When the diet is hard to follow and I am craving carbs, I know I have moved from fat-burning territory back into carb-burning. The best way I have found to get back is to use Metabosol for a few days and also some CT.
Here are the conclusions I have made about the leptin reset:
1. The results are not permanent. I need to continue to be vigilant about diet. ANY higher-carb diet that I eat to satiety results in weight gain.
2. CT does not work for weight loss.
In the coming months, I'll be eating a basic whole foods low carb diet, with seasonal fruits and vegetables. I plan on a lifestyle of "deep seasonality". During the past months, while reading up on macrobiotics in prep for some blog posts, I really did see how much many similarities between where paleo is going and where macrobiotics already is.
During the past few weeks, I have also noticed that in the vegan, low carb, and Kruse-world communities, despite the advances in diet choices, lots of people are still mean and nasty. I found the Optimal Health Cave, but I immediately started having problems with some very difficult people on both sides of the current argument over the validity of some of Jack's EMF theories. So, I am trying to pull myself out of all that muck while I unfriend or "foe" certain people, and try my best not to be that way myself.
While I am not following the Leptin Reset to the letter anymore, I do think that while Dr. Kruse's understanding of physics and electronics seems atrocious, I think there is really something to the idea that EMF is polluting. I will continue my research and experimentation on this subject, but mostly off-line. I really agree with Jack, that there were some "askholes" on his site, and I am just not going to deal with their crap, so the best way to do that is to keep in touch with my IRL friends who know quite a bit about grounding and faraday cages. But, I was extremely disappointed in Jack's responses to many other participants, who had deep and real questions and concerns that I think need to be dealt with. Jack needs to understand that if his theories are so mind-blowing, groundbreaking, and life-changing, then why is he still a Jackhole? Slamming people on minor technicalities alternating with the posting of pithy motivational phrases lifted from others indicates he still has some balance work to do. It is true, people who insist that they have all the answers to the universe are held to a higher standard of behavior.
Recently, dealing with some of these people was like dealing with some of the Paleo/lc debates. I am not into debate, I am into inquiry, discussion and exploration, and finding things that work. Sooner or later, any fine discussion gets taken over by the high school debate teams, full of those pimply-faced nerds who couldn't even get on the "C" basketball team, which muck it up for every true seeker. I think nothing is ever settled by debate, only things torn down.
That means I'll be reconnecting with that neighborhood nerdy kid who became an astrophysicist, that radio guy who builds faraday cages as a hobby, and others who effing love science.
This week, I found and read through a little notebook with notes on the reset. At the time, I had planned several trips out of town, and so I wanted a compact format. This was also at the time when I started having lots of trouble with those [redacted]people, so I was reluctant to rely upon either them or any other computerized tracking system. After my trips, I abandoned the little notebook, so it was fun reading through it again.
I had started the leptin reset in the summer of 2011 when my lowish carb diet wasn't working well. In May, I started a couple of days of strict low carb, and then Drs. Eades free Metabosol came in the mail. I did the Metabosol throughout the first weeks in June, but after a few pizza meals, I was back to where I started, even up a couple of pounds, so I decided to abandon that plan and start the leptin reset in earnest in July.
By the beginning of that August, I had lost around 5 pounds on the leptin reset, was feeling much better and controlling carb cravings like never before. But, the success was short-lived, and I resumed my difficulty with carbs and gained all the weight and then some by fall.
In January 2012, I did the leptin reset again, this time for about 6 weeks before starting back in with the exercise. I lost more weight this time, and a total of around 15 pounds by the end of the "Paleo on 100 dollars a month challenge" in March. By this time, I had also started CT.
Throughout the summer, I added in a few more carbs, and quit monitoring my food and weight so regularly. The result was that I gained back the weight. By the beginning of 2013 I was exactly the same weight as I was the year before, but with some differences.
No chronic cardio, no regular strength training. I just live my regular active life, go on hikes here and there, and stretch if I feel un-stretchy.
Work like crazy to get wheat out of my diet. I realize now how delicate my improvements are, and how easy it is to get completely out of balance.
Eliminated the need for sleep medication. I started using progesterone, which has helped in so many ways. Even though it has contributed to my weight gain, it has made me much more accommodating to all types of stresses, like from heat and exercise. I also respond to carbohydrates differently, which can be alternatively a good thing and a dangerous thing. I think I am much more careful with carbohydrates while on progesterone because, while I can take a few more hits, when things go south, they go south much more rapidly.
Better body proportions. I weigh more but my clothing fits differently. People say I look better, younger and my skin is much better.
CT around once or twice a week. This usually involves going to the beach at least once a week and getting in the water for quite a long time, taking mostly cold showers and being in cold air some part of the day except for in the summer.
Moving back more towards a macrobiotic-but-grain-free diet consisting of more seafood, sea vegetables and seasonal food. I was never on strict epi-paleo. My carb and vegetable consumption is much higher. Not as high as what Dr. Wahls recommends, but much higher than what Jack recommends.
Lab-free. I haven't been sick, haven't been to the doctor for awhile, and I don't even know what my cholesterol levels are. I have my blood pressure measured when I give blood, and it is at high-school level (110/70).
I know how to get back on track. When the diet is hard to follow and I am craving carbs, I know I have moved from fat-burning territory back into carb-burning. The best way I have found to get back is to use Metabosol for a few days and also some CT.
Here are the conclusions I have made about the leptin reset:
1. The results are not permanent. I need to continue to be vigilant about diet. ANY higher-carb diet that I eat to satiety results in weight gain.
2. CT does not work for weight loss.
In the coming months, I'll be eating a basic whole foods low carb diet, with seasonal fruits and vegetables. I plan on a lifestyle of "deep seasonality". During the past months, while reading up on macrobiotics in prep for some blog posts, I really did see how much many similarities between where paleo is going and where macrobiotics already is.
During the past few weeks, I have also noticed that in the vegan, low carb, and Kruse-world communities, despite the advances in diet choices, lots of people are still mean and nasty. I found the Optimal Health Cave, but I immediately started having problems with some very difficult people on both sides of the current argument over the validity of some of Jack's EMF theories. So, I am trying to pull myself out of all that muck while I unfriend or "foe" certain people, and try my best not to be that way myself.
While I am not following the Leptin Reset to the letter anymore, I do think that while Dr. Kruse's understanding of physics and electronics seems atrocious, I think there is really something to the idea that EMF is polluting. I will continue my research and experimentation on this subject, but mostly off-line. I really agree with Jack, that there were some "askholes" on his site, and I am just not going to deal with their crap, so the best way to do that is to keep in touch with my IRL friends who know quite a bit about grounding and faraday cages. But, I was extremely disappointed in Jack's responses to many other participants, who had deep and real questions and concerns that I think need to be dealt with. Jack needs to understand that if his theories are so mind-blowing, groundbreaking, and life-changing, then why is he still a Jackhole? Slamming people on minor technicalities alternating with the posting of pithy motivational phrases lifted from others indicates he still has some balance work to do. It is true, people who insist that they have all the answers to the universe are held to a higher standard of behavior.
Recently, dealing with some of these people was like dealing with some of the Paleo/lc debates. I am not into debate, I am into inquiry, discussion and exploration, and finding things that work. Sooner or later, any fine discussion gets taken over by the high school debate teams, full of those pimply-faced nerds who couldn't even get on the "C" basketball team, which muck it up for every true seeker. I think nothing is ever settled by debate, only things torn down.
That means I'll be reconnecting with that neighborhood nerdy kid who became an astrophysicist, that radio guy who builds faraday cages as a hobby, and others who effing love science.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
I'm such a loser
The first time this happened, I thought it was an outlier, and like every good researcher, I threw it out.
(Nawwwww! Just kidding. Regular readers know I don't throwup out any data points because they don't agree with preconceived notions.)
I was on the phone with sis the other day, talking about Thanksgiving.
"I lost a pound over the weekend, " I crowed.
"I gained your pound and then some. Guess I'll have to exercise more this week," she lamented. "It was all the stuffing....."
And, this is from the skinny one, the one they tried to bulk up all those years. The one exercising alot and eating a low fat diet because her doc wants her to lower her cholesterol. At around 220 total, she is teetering on the edge of severe heart disease or stroke. Or so he sez.
This happened at the last holiday we shared. I lost a couple of pounds. She gained four.
Oh, I ate the stuffing alright. And a sliver of pie. And some potatoes. Then I got busy with the dishes and pouring more wine and forgot to have seconds.
"I'm stuffed!" the guests declared as they pushed themselves from the table. And I thought to myself,
"Hey, I am not stuffed."
And the next day we went back to a regular fatty breakfast, turkey salad over a bed of greens for lunch, seafood for dinner.
Now here is what else I learned. Corn chips give me zits and make me achy, especially my big toes. And it isn't about the salt, because the next day I can eat a dozen green olives and have no problem with my joints. Pumpkin pie made from my own real home-grown pumpkins is better than when it is made with pumpkin pie filling from a can. And if you bury a turkey carcass in the garden, the gophers stay away.
(Nawwwww! Just kidding. Regular readers know I don't throw
I was on the phone with sis the other day, talking about Thanksgiving.
"I lost a pound over the weekend, " I crowed.
"I gained your pound and then some. Guess I'll have to exercise more this week," she lamented. "It was all the stuffing....."
And, this is from the skinny one, the one they tried to bulk up all those years. The one exercising alot and eating a low fat diet because her doc wants her to lower her cholesterol. At around 220 total, she is teetering on the edge of severe heart disease or stroke. Or so he sez.
This happened at the last holiday we shared. I lost a couple of pounds. She gained four.
Oh, I ate the stuffing alright. And a sliver of pie. And some potatoes. Then I got busy with the dishes and pouring more wine and forgot to have seconds.
"I'm stuffed!" the guests declared as they pushed themselves from the table. And I thought to myself,
"Hey, I am not stuffed."
And the next day we went back to a regular fatty breakfast, turkey salad over a bed of greens for lunch, seafood for dinner.
Now here is what else I learned. Corn chips give me zits and make me achy, especially my big toes. And it isn't about the salt, because the next day I can eat a dozen green olives and have no problem with my joints. Pumpkin pie made from my own real home-grown pumpkins is better than when it is made with pumpkin pie filling from a can. And if you bury a turkey carcass in the garden, the gophers stay away.
Friday, November 16, 2012
Daily Mail
Schizophrenic fer sure. (At least the popular definition.)
Yesterday's mail included a welcome dearth of political ads, and an extremely early edition of my favorite porn mag, the High Mowing Seeds 2013 catalog. Ahhhh, food heaven!
I also got a fat letter from the Department of Agriculture. Thinking......hmm, I didn't apply for a job there, did I? Fat envelope would then be OK, right? Did I get back on the organic junque mail list? Perhaps they discovered my stance on prop 37 GMO labeling and they invited me to be on a steering committee to evaluate the initiative in preparation for implementation after it wins next year?
Turns out that a citrus pest has been discovered in my neighborhood and shortly, white-suited and masked exterminators will be "visiting" my backyard to spray quick-kill neurotoxins and endocrine-disruptors on my fruit trees, and then follow up with a known contributor to colony collapse disorder that will effectively poison the surrounding soil and bio-food-web for about 3 years.
Yes, there is going to be a meeting, but not for approval, of course, since they already seem to have obtained the authority to enter my backyard without my permission. And, it sucks that I have spent lots of time and energy de-disrupting all my endocrines, especially getting rid of all those pesky estrogen-mimicing compounds that they are now going to spray back into my life, and with repeat applications if necessary. (And, it WILL be necessary, since the horse already got out of the barn.....)
More food fascism, though I am conflicted. I would like to save and/or rescue local agriculture, even though the authorities won't let me do much local agriculture in my backyard, and now, NO organic agriculture, at least in the vicinity of the fruit trees, and anything downwind or downstream from them.
But Jeez Louise, what about the bees? I don't see how mass-spraying of entire towns will help local agriculture, if the spraying greatly contributes to the collapse of the bee community that the agriculture depends on. Then again, what if this nasty neurotoxin stuff works against the bagrada bug????
And, it sucks that I am prevented from taking a propagative cutting of basket rush from a local pond per EPA regulations, and yet the department of Agriculture can run around and spray stuff that is extremely toxic to aquatic life all around said pond?
A few years ago, when I read my big permaculture book, I got a bit overwhelmed, until the author said to just start small, so I picked just one square yard to focus my initial permaculture effort, and, unfortunately, that one square yard is right under the lemon tree, and that culture is about to be destroyed.
In a fit of hope, I Googled "pyrethroid bagrada" and came up with absolutely no matches. I don't know what the word for it is, that thing that they call it when you search two keywords on Google and come up with no matches. It is rare, and I would Google the term if I knew the name. Anyway, where was I? Oh yea, looks like I am sol on the bagrada situation.
One bright spot is that High Mowing has several new varieties of parthenocarpic squash. That's the fancy name for squash plants that produce decent squash without the need for pollination, which I won't be getting as much since the department of agriculture is killing the bees.
P. S. Turns out I am a Googlewhacker. And for your weekend entertainment, check out this charming paper.
Yesterday's mail included a welcome dearth of political ads, and an extremely early edition of my favorite porn mag, the High Mowing Seeds 2013 catalog. Ahhhh, food heaven!
I also got a fat letter from the Department of Agriculture. Thinking......hmm, I didn't apply for a job there, did I? Fat envelope would then be OK, right? Did I get back on the organic junque mail list? Perhaps they discovered my stance on prop 37 GMO labeling and they invited me to be on a steering committee to evaluate the initiative in preparation for implementation after it wins next year?
Turns out that a citrus pest has been discovered in my neighborhood and shortly, white-suited and masked exterminators will be "visiting" my backyard to spray quick-kill neurotoxins and endocrine-disruptors on my fruit trees, and then follow up with a known contributor to colony collapse disorder that will effectively poison the surrounding soil and bio-food-web for about 3 years.
Yes, there is going to be a meeting, but not for approval, of course, since they already seem to have obtained the authority to enter my backyard without my permission. And, it sucks that I have spent lots of time and energy de-disrupting all my endocrines, especially getting rid of all those pesky estrogen-mimicing compounds that they are now going to spray back into my life, and with repeat applications if necessary. (And, it WILL be necessary, since the horse already got out of the barn.....)
More food fascism, though I am conflicted. I would like to save and/or rescue local agriculture, even though the authorities won't let me do much local agriculture in my backyard, and now, NO organic agriculture, at least in the vicinity of the fruit trees, and anything downwind or downstream from them.
But Jeez Louise, what about the bees? I don't see how mass-spraying of entire towns will help local agriculture, if the spraying greatly contributes to the collapse of the bee community that the agriculture depends on. Then again, what if this nasty neurotoxin stuff works against the bagrada bug????
And, it sucks that I am prevented from taking a propagative cutting of basket rush from a local pond per EPA regulations, and yet the department of Agriculture can run around and spray stuff that is extremely toxic to aquatic life all around said pond?
A few years ago, when I read my big permaculture book, I got a bit overwhelmed, until the author said to just start small, so I picked just one square yard to focus my initial permaculture effort, and, unfortunately, that one square yard is right under the lemon tree, and that culture is about to be destroyed.
In a fit of hope, I Googled "pyrethroid bagrada" and came up with absolutely no matches. I don't know what the word for it is, that thing that they call it when you search two keywords on Google and come up with no matches. It is rare, and I would Google the term if I knew the name. Anyway, where was I? Oh yea, looks like I am sol on the bagrada situation.
One bright spot is that High Mowing has several new varieties of parthenocarpic squash. That's the fancy name for squash plants that produce decent squash without the need for pollination, which I won't be getting as much since the department of agriculture is killing the bees.
P. S. Turns out I am a Googlewhacker. And for your weekend entertainment, check out this charming paper.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Am I in the Binder?
I haven't blogged for a time here because I am busy with other projects.
The bagrada bug is on my mind recently, and whether it is OK to put fertilizer with ground-up cottonseed into an organic garden.
If agriculture isn't the reason for our demise, well, then maybe complicated agriculture policy is. I still will probably vote for prop 37, to label foods with GMO's. It is interesting to see the list of donors against the prop. Bumble bee tuna? Isn't that just tuna? Um, tuna with all that wonderful natural vegetable broth made with GMO-soy? Mars also donated to stop the plan, which is really fascinating since they bought an organic seed and food company, which nobody buys from anymore cause they got so expensive and they are really a candy-bar company.
I acquired a button (perfect for the farmer's market basket, no?) shouting, "GMO-free hottie". Not sure on either fronts, but I think I do know the reason for a 5-dollar head of organic broccoli and it is not due to all that fancy and expensive labeling.
It's this bug. Apparently, fresh broccoli is like msg-laden trans-fatty gliadin-laced red-hot Cheetos food-reward-wise to these visiting critters.
Seaweed. Yes, seaweed is in our future because the bagrada bug hasn't figured out how to eat it yet. Those epi-paleo folks will be missing their cilantro this winter, too. Lovin' me's sea-spinach!!
Anyway, I haven't had any time either to search for my name in any of the binders full of women that the paleosphere keeps handy just in case anyone actually wants to hear anything pertaining to women that doesn't involve reproductive status. I am sure it is there, just that it is easier to search amongst their own kind and continue to have all the boys speak for us, while they trot out Joel Salatin like they invented him or something.
The bagrada bug is on my mind recently, and whether it is OK to put fertilizer with ground-up cottonseed into an organic garden.
If agriculture isn't the reason for our demise, well, then maybe complicated agriculture policy is. I still will probably vote for prop 37, to label foods with GMO's. It is interesting to see the list of donors against the prop. Bumble bee tuna? Isn't that just tuna? Um, tuna with all that wonderful natural vegetable broth made with GMO-soy? Mars also donated to stop the plan, which is really fascinating since they bought an organic seed and food company, which nobody buys from anymore cause they got so expensive and they are really a candy-bar company.
I acquired a button (perfect for the farmer's market basket, no?) shouting, "GMO-free hottie". Not sure on either fronts, but I think I do know the reason for a 5-dollar head of organic broccoli and it is not due to all that fancy and expensive labeling.
It's this bug. Apparently, fresh broccoli is like msg-laden trans-fatty gliadin-laced red-hot Cheetos food-reward-wise to these visiting critters.
Seaweed. Yes, seaweed is in our future because the bagrada bug hasn't figured out how to eat it yet. Those epi-paleo folks will be missing their cilantro this winter, too. Lovin' me's sea-spinach!!
Anyway, I haven't had any time either to search for my name in any of the binders full of women that the paleosphere keeps handy just in case anyone actually wants to hear anything pertaining to women that doesn't involve reproductive status. I am sure it is there, just that it is easier to search amongst their own kind and continue to have all the boys speak for us, while they trot out Joel Salatin like they invented him or something.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
The Tuna Boat just Sailed In!
What a nice half-way-around-the-year reminder of my "Paleo on 100 dollars a month" challenge.
A friend called and mentioned that her friend's son went out fishing near San Diego and caught this huge tuna. She was offered some, but was unprepared for two details.
First, she was given a ton of it.
Second, she found she doesn't like tuna.
Did I want to take it off her hands? Sooooooo, here I am, after an unsuccessful market run looking for suitable epi-paleo eats on a budget, and an entire platter of freshly-caught tuna just drops into my lap, right before dinner. Already perfectly seasoned. She told me to keep the platter, too.
Since it was already seasoned in a rich blend of garlic, lime and some kind of Middle-Eastern seasoning blend, I decided not to eat it raw. I didn't have to do anything except plop the huge slabs of tuna in a pan and lightly steam it until it was cooked enough to flake.
Mmmmm! Tuna for dinner. Tuna for breakfast. Tuna all week. Tuna coming out of my ears. Tuna making me friends with all the neighborhood dogs and cats. Tuna making me happy, too.
A friend called and mentioned that her friend's son went out fishing near San Diego and caught this huge tuna. She was offered some, but was unprepared for two details.
First, she was given a ton of it.
Second, she found she doesn't like tuna.
Did I want to take it off her hands? Sooooooo, here I am, after an unsuccessful market run looking for suitable epi-paleo eats on a budget, and an entire platter of freshly-caught tuna just drops into my lap, right before dinner. Already perfectly seasoned. She told me to keep the platter, too.
Since it was already seasoned in a rich blend of garlic, lime and some kind of Middle-Eastern seasoning blend, I decided not to eat it raw. I didn't have to do anything except plop the huge slabs of tuna in a pan and lightly steam it until it was cooked enough to flake.
Mmmmm! Tuna for dinner. Tuna for breakfast. Tuna all week. Tuna coming out of my ears. Tuna making me friends with all the neighborhood dogs and cats. Tuna making me happy, too.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Decluttering!!!!
Yesterday I cleared out and donated the bread pans.
I know to some, this seems small, but maybe their lives didn't revolve around bread and other healthy whole grains as much as mine did.
As soon as I went out on my own, I get several popular vegetarian cookbooks, a grain grinder, some bread pans, a few sifters, and a whisk.
I started grinding the flour and making bread weekly. I made at least four loaves of wheat bread a week, and a dozen or so oat flour muffins that were to last the week but usually lasted only a few days. I usually made two large sheets of thick-crust pizza several times a month. When I was too busy, I just went to the bread outlet store and filled my freezer with stale Bobolis. Later on when I became a consultant, my schedule was flexible enough for me to make some kind of bread every day. Real authentic bagels, pita, chapatis, tortillas, nut roll.
Pretty soon I started receiving all sorts of bread-related gifts for every occasion: fancier whisks, kneading boards, spring-form pans, fancy cast-iron muffin tins, baby loaf pans, cinnamon-roll forms, a gingerbread house mold, crumb-catchers, cutting boards, fancy artisan bread-slicers. I was easy to buy for.
During the 2009 Locavore challenge, I even grew wheat. And if the movie is ever finished, you'll get to see me stomping all over the stuff in my crocs, trying to remove the chaff. What fun! It is just like making wine, only drier.
I realized a couple of weeks ago that I was finally finished with bread when I offered to help a friend with a party. She needed food. What could I make? She suggested cookies and I had that deer-in-the-headlights feeling. I couldn't even articulate how I felt about it. Speechless.
All I could think about was trudging to a conventional grocery store. What do I need? Flour, chocolate, baking soda? Of course, I would complain about the prices. I would make tons and they would smell wonderful and we would eat the broken kinds and fall back into the wheat abyss. I would gain 40 pounds before Christmas. It would be very ugly.
OK, time to do something about this. I feel lighter already.
I know to some, this seems small, but maybe their lives didn't revolve around bread and other healthy whole grains as much as mine did.
As soon as I went out on my own, I get several popular vegetarian cookbooks, a grain grinder, some bread pans, a few sifters, and a whisk.
I started grinding the flour and making bread weekly. I made at least four loaves of wheat bread a week, and a dozen or so oat flour muffins that were to last the week but usually lasted only a few days. I usually made two large sheets of thick-crust pizza several times a month. When I was too busy, I just went to the bread outlet store and filled my freezer with stale Bobolis. Later on when I became a consultant, my schedule was flexible enough for me to make some kind of bread every day. Real authentic bagels, pita, chapatis, tortillas, nut roll.
Pretty soon I started receiving all sorts of bread-related gifts for every occasion: fancier whisks, kneading boards, spring-form pans, fancy cast-iron muffin tins, baby loaf pans, cinnamon-roll forms, a gingerbread house mold, crumb-catchers, cutting boards, fancy artisan bread-slicers. I was easy to buy for.
During the 2009 Locavore challenge, I even grew wheat. And if the movie is ever finished, you'll get to see me stomping all over the stuff in my crocs, trying to remove the chaff. What fun! It is just like making wine, only drier.
I realized a couple of weeks ago that I was finally finished with bread when I offered to help a friend with a party. She needed food. What could I make? She suggested cookies and I had that deer-in-the-headlights feeling. I couldn't even articulate how I felt about it. Speechless.
All I could think about was trudging to a conventional grocery store. What do I need? Flour, chocolate, baking soda? Of course, I would complain about the prices. I would make tons and they would smell wonderful and we would eat the broken kinds and fall back into the wheat abyss. I would gain 40 pounds before Christmas. It would be very ugly.
OK, time to do something about this. I feel lighter already.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Can we really have a cheeseburger?
I read the article about how impossible it is to make a real burger. And about all I can say about THAT is that if you are going to use a cheeseburger as the gold standard recipe, and all the stuff you put on it identifies it as a California burger, it might be a good idea to try it in California first before declaring that it is impossible.
I am sure the typical hamburger can easily be made in the fall.
Although I don't have a steer to slaughter this fall, I am sure people could butcher a goat at any time. Of course, with goats being about the only local livestock, one would expect an abundance of goat milk in the spring and summer. No need to wait a year to harvest some rennet. Goat cheese can be made in a couple of hours with plain ole goats milk and some lemons. Now if you insist on that square orange stuff, there is no hope for you anyway, and it is probably best that it is impossible for an average person to make just so you don't hurt yourself.
Cucumbers come into harvesting from June to September, giving any cook ample time to make pickles and store them hassle-free until the rest of the ingredients are ready.
Lettuce grows extremely well in the fall, and people here harvest lots of lettuce right about the time when the last of the summer tomatoes are harvested. Of course, the tomatoes can be picked and the vine hung up right out on the patio, and you can have a fresh sliced tomato up to and including New Years day. (Ask me how I know this....) If that isn't good enough, you can grow tasteless winter varieties that will mimic the one they put on your fast-food meal perfectly.
Mustard is just about the easiest condiment to make. My mustard seeds would be ripening by now, had the goldfinches not stripped the plants clean of all seed pods and flowers. If I really had to have mustard, I would have planted more. If I hadn't gotten around to fermenting last fall's apples into vinegar, I'd just make mustard with sauerkraut or pickle juice. It works really well. The reason I didn't get around to planting more mustard for seed is that I grow plenty of hot mustard plants in the fall, and a nice hot mustard leaf can do double duty on the hamburger instead of the mustard and the lettuce. And it is much easier since after the goldfinches get into all the seed, they toss it all around and it reseeds itself everywhere and all I have to do is sit around and marvel at the efficiency of laziness.
The hardest thing to duplicate is the bun, but that is easy for me since I don't eat that stuff much anymore and would just leave it out entirely. But in earlier times I have actually planted, harvested, winnowed, ground and baked wheat. Believe me, the people who say our diet should be based on healthywholegrains and other seed foods just don't know diddly-squat about growing and securing their own food. It is really hard to grow seeds. You might plant a whole row of something, and then have mice come by and take much of it at the last minute, or have it shatter all over the place. Even for something super easy like amaranth, gathering even a cup of the seeds takes many hours and it tastes like red poi. (Ask me how I know this...) There is good reason why the Chumash put a much higher price on chia seeds than on acorns. If you have actually tried to harvest chia or basil seed or acorns, you will immediately notice the difference in time needed to get a cup of seeds vs. nuts.
Around here, I might be able to make a steamed pile of acorn flour, and this would take quite a bit of time. I don't know how it would taste because every time I attempted to make food from acorns, it was a failure. There is a good reason why the Chumash acorn-grinding stones were near the ocean. They could have just grabbed more seawater for soaking, bypassing the moldy stage that my acorn mess got into. And they did. Acorns made up around forty percent of their diet.
Actually, the hardest food around here to replicate in a fast food meal is the potatoes. They only grow in the spring, and are usually rotten by summer. I grow a few of them, but mainly it is "you want sunchokes with that?" And if you want to supersize THAT, well there is still no hope for you.
I am sure the typical hamburger can easily be made in the fall.
Although I don't have a steer to slaughter this fall, I am sure people could butcher a goat at any time. Of course, with goats being about the only local livestock, one would expect an abundance of goat milk in the spring and summer. No need to wait a year to harvest some rennet. Goat cheese can be made in a couple of hours with plain ole goats milk and some lemons. Now if you insist on that square orange stuff, there is no hope for you anyway, and it is probably best that it is impossible for an average person to make just so you don't hurt yourself.
Cucumbers come into harvesting from June to September, giving any cook ample time to make pickles and store them hassle-free until the rest of the ingredients are ready.
Lettuce grows extremely well in the fall, and people here harvest lots of lettuce right about the time when the last of the summer tomatoes are harvested. Of course, the tomatoes can be picked and the vine hung up right out on the patio, and you can have a fresh sliced tomato up to and including New Years day. (Ask me how I know this....) If that isn't good enough, you can grow tasteless winter varieties that will mimic the one they put on your fast-food meal perfectly.
Mustard is just about the easiest condiment to make. My mustard seeds would be ripening by now, had the goldfinches not stripped the plants clean of all seed pods and flowers. If I really had to have mustard, I would have planted more. If I hadn't gotten around to fermenting last fall's apples into vinegar, I'd just make mustard with sauerkraut or pickle juice. It works really well. The reason I didn't get around to planting more mustard for seed is that I grow plenty of hot mustard plants in the fall, and a nice hot mustard leaf can do double duty on the hamburger instead of the mustard and the lettuce. And it is much easier since after the goldfinches get into all the seed, they toss it all around and it reseeds itself everywhere and all I have to do is sit around and marvel at the efficiency of laziness.
The hardest thing to duplicate is the bun, but that is easy for me since I don't eat that stuff much anymore and would just leave it out entirely. But in earlier times I have actually planted, harvested, winnowed, ground and baked wheat. Believe me, the people who say our diet should be based on healthywholegrains and other seed foods just don't know diddly-squat about growing and securing their own food. It is really hard to grow seeds. You might plant a whole row of something, and then have mice come by and take much of it at the last minute, or have it shatter all over the place. Even for something super easy like amaranth, gathering even a cup of the seeds takes many hours and it tastes like red poi. (Ask me how I know this...) There is good reason why the Chumash put a much higher price on chia seeds than on acorns. If you have actually tried to harvest chia or basil seed or acorns, you will immediately notice the difference in time needed to get a cup of seeds vs. nuts.
Around here, I might be able to make a steamed pile of acorn flour, and this would take quite a bit of time. I don't know how it would taste because every time I attempted to make food from acorns, it was a failure. There is a good reason why the Chumash acorn-grinding stones were near the ocean. They could have just grabbed more seawater for soaking, bypassing the moldy stage that my acorn mess got into. And they did. Acorns made up around forty percent of their diet.
Actually, the hardest food around here to replicate in a fast food meal is the potatoes. They only grow in the spring, and are usually rotten by summer. I grow a few of them, but mainly it is "you want sunchokes with that?" And if you want to supersize THAT, well there is still no hope for you.
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