In the beginning

So, I thought I’d start by just going over a few of the initial changes I’ve made in my kitchen.

Once I finally wrapped my head around the whole “good fats in moderation are good for you” concept, the first thing I did was buy whole milk instead of 2%.  I can hear some of you gasping.  I felt completely BAD buying those first couple of containers, like a food cop was going to jump out of the dairy case and cuff me for trying to clog my family’s arteries.  Obviously, some folks don’t do milk or dairy, and that’s great, but in my family we do like milk, so…why whole milk?  Well, it tastes really good.  The idea behind this whole food concept is to up the quality of your food, enjoy it slowly and thoroughly, and you eat less.  It’s true.

So change #1: whole milk.
I’ve been buying organic milk for several years now, either this brand or Horizon.  But I always bought 2%, occasionally forcing myself to buy skim for my own consumption.  Blech.

Last night before bed my stomach was a bit empty.  I poured maybe 4 ounces of milk into my Bama jelly glass and sipped it over the next 15 minutes.  It tasted amazingly good, and it filled my stomach just enough to let me go to sleep feeling comfortable.

I suppose the next change is really more of a series of smaller changes.  I took a few of the recipes I found in the books I’ve mentioned (French Woman Don’t Get Fat, The Fat Fallacy) and tried them.  We had some pasta with leeks and parmesan cheese, drizzled with plenty of olive oil.  Delicious!  And along with that I prepared some pork loin chops.  I still have some work to do if we want to have those again because to say they were a bit tough is being generous.  But, we also had another pasta dish another day, this one with lots of zucchini and diced tomatoes, again with a good amount of olive oil and some basil.  We had some whole wheat bakery bread toasted with a slathering of the new butter I’m buying: Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter.  Ingredient list? “Pasteurized Cream, Salt.”  Yes, it has to be left out for a few minutes to be truly spreadable.  This is not hard to accomplish.  You set it out, you do some of the other stuff that needs doing, and when you check it again, it’s ready.  It is a beautiful creamy yellow and tastes so good.  It even says “milk from grassfed cows” on the package.  Yes!  That’s exactly the kind of REAL FOOD I’m looking for…

So change #2: try new recipes that are heavy on the vegetables, and don’t skimp on the good fats to increase their palatability.  (Just learned that new word from yet ANOTHER new book: Low-Fat Lies, High-Fat Fraud).  Tonight we’re having bean burritos.  In the past, when we wanted burritos, I’d buy a couple of cans of store beans, plop ‘em in a saucepan, and voila!  But today, I put a bag of rinsed and sorted pintos in the crockpot with a good amount of salted water (and I used coarse sea salt), two whole garlic cloves, a tablespoon or so of chipotle chili powder, about a teaspoon of cumin, and some bay leaves.  When I get home I expect them to be tender and ready to eat along with some monterey jack cheese that I’ll grate right before we eat.  We’ll have some of the fresh salsa that Publix sells in the deli (all natural, lots of veggies, no weird ingredients). I’ll let you know how they turn out.

The last change that I’ll list for today is more of a behavior than a food choice, per se.  I am slowly learning to savor the food I eat.  It took me by surprise when I started consciously putting down my fork between bites – because I realized that I usually shove food in like I’m being timed.  Also, I’m simply chewing my food.  Tasting it.  Enjoying it.  I’m not saying I’m trying to chew a certain number of times, but I’m actually using my teeth, consciously noticing the flavors and textures.  Another surprise: when I took note not to put more food in my mouth while there was still the bite I had just taken in there.  Seems crazy, I know, but when I began to pay attention, I came to see that I was eating too fast and not even coming close to appreciating what I’m putting into my body.

Change #3: slow down and savor it.

As far as finding some substitutes for the store bought things we’ve been buying for years, I have two things to share today.  Stephen loves Chunky Chips Ahoy cookies.  Kerry does too.  I’ve been known to indulge, as has David.  So, I figured I’d find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I could and make it with the best ingredients I could afford.  So, I made these: Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies from the wonderful blog 100 Days of Real Food.  I recommend the recipe heartily.  Next time I’ll be doubling it so that we have a treat that isn’t packed with chemicals.I used organic whole wheat pastry flour, good unsalted butter, and pure vanilla extract.  I used Nestle semi-sweet morsels because I had them on hand already.  And these turned out beautifully!  David and Kerry thought they were great.  The only drawback was that when Stephen asked for “Chis Ahoy” and I smiled brightly and brought over one of these beauties, he picked one up, sniffed it delicately, and said, “No.  Chis Ahoy peas.”  Ah well.

The other new recipe I worked on this week was a homemade granola.  Since I’ve been eating more yogurt (whole milk with cream top) I remembered how good granola goes with yogurt.  So I studied some recipes and kind of cobbled together my own.  To make about 4 1/2 cups total, I used 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats, 1 cup of sliced almonds, 1 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut, a 1/2 cup of walnuts, about 1/4 cup each of flax seed and sunflower seeds, a scant 1/8 cup of brown sugar, 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, a drizzle of honey, and about 1/8 cup of coconut oil, warmed slightly to liquefy.  I mixed all that together, spread it on a foil-lined cookie sheet, and baked it for 1 hour, 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes so it browned evenly.  The house began to smell SO GOOD after about 30 minutes.  The end product was golden, crispy, and smelled delicious.

I tried about 1/2 a cup of this for breakfast, with a generous amount of whole milk.  And let me tell you…it beat any cereal I’ve tried.  It was so very good!

Well, this has grown very long.  I guess I’m still pretty excited.  I’ve always loved to cook and this feels like such an adventure.  Thanks for coming along!  More to come!