Books I want to own and read in 2014

• Almost Amish by Nancy Sleeth
• One Woman Farm by Jenna Woginrich
• The Feast Nearby by Robin Mather
• Ani’s Raw Food Essentials by Ani Phyo
• The Seasons on Henry’s Farm by Terra Brockman
• The Shoestring Gardener by Claudia F Brownlie
• The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat by Joshua Applestone, Jessica Applestone, and Alexandra Zissu
• The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffery Steingarten

 Technically I have already started reading Almost Amish, and I will most likely finish it before 2014 officially starts. And I borrowed Ani's Raw Food Essentials from the library a long while back, but I would love to own it (along with the rest of her books). I got a Kindle sample of The Feast Nearby, and that really looks like something I will love.

I know some of these books are locavore related, some are gourmet, some are raw vegan, some are definitely carnivore. I'm eclectic to say the least. The main thing I've learned about myself is that my body does best with a balance, and I don't ever want to limit myself by ruling out a cook book or theory of healthy eating just because it is"vegan," or "not vegetarian," or because it came from a book focused on living more simply rather than just food. Ideas and inspiration can come from anywhere, and if I am closed minded, I might miss something.

How our week went. Foodwise.

I want to say that today was a weird food day for us, but in all reality, it wasn’t weird. And it was actually a good food week. Not because just because it was Christmas, but because I made an effort to make better food.

On Monday, I don’t recall what I made for breakfast or lunch, but I know for dinner my daughter had a Stouffer’s Mac and Cheese, and D and I have roast beef sandwiches on Italian bread. We ate dinner after coming home from shopping for Christmas dinner.

On Tuesday (Christmas Eve), again I don’t recall what I made for breakfast or lunch (I really didn’t think I’d actually have the guts to start this blog, so I didn’t pay attention), but for dinner I made potato leek soup and grilled cheese sandwiches, and D wanted ham, so I put a ham in the oven, and luckily I didn’t forget about it. His parents brought over chips and crackers, and made a shrimp cheese dip that his family evidently loves, but the idea of cheese, shrimp and mayo just does not do it for me. As a matter of fact, the smell of the mayo sent me running out the front and kept me outside for a good 15 minutes trying to take deep breathes through my nose to calm my tummy. His mom felt bad and kept the dip covered the rest of the evening. I felt bad that none of them could enjoy their family tradition. Luckily the soup and grilled cheese sandwiches were awesome.

On Wednesday, I don’t remember even making breakfast, though I’m sure I must have at some point. For dinner I made lasagna. Which I managed to screw up because I wasn’t thinking ahead enough steps, and I wasn’t paying attention, and luckily it was edible. (note to self, never attempt to hid spinach in a red sauce again, it just turns everything brown!) Even luckier, it held up to the tried and true rule of Italian food, that it just kept getting better each day of leftovers.

On Thursday, I slept in and didn’t make breakfast for D, but when he came home at midday, I made him a breakfast scramble with hash browns, onions, bacon, and eggs. I attempted to make my daughter an omelet, but I got distracted and burnt the butter in the pan, so I just added that omelet to D’s bowl, wiped the pan out and then made my self and my little girl each a plain cheese omelet. We had leftover lasagna for dinner.

On Friday, I again didn’t get up to make D breakfast, but I did make breakfast for my daughter and I. I put Pillsbury orange rolls (which I had bought for Christmas morning) in the waffle iron. I got the idea of Pinterest, and I can only say I wish I had thought of it sooner. It was faster, easier, and less sticky that making them the way the instructions say, and my little girl ate them like regular waffles with syrup, so I didn’t have to share the frosting. D came home and had a ham sandwich, and we snacked on leftovers the rest of the night.

Saturday (yesterday,) I invited D’s parents over again, because they had to put one of their dogs down the day before. I used the new food processor I got for Christmas and made oatmeal waffles for breakfast. We finished off the lasagna, we had more ham sandwiches, and we finished off the potato leek soup, none of us really distinguishing whether we were eating lunch or dinner. My daughter ate hot dogs for dinner, after eating only 1 waffle at breakfast. I guess her growth spurt is over.

Today, I didn’t make breakfast. We all slept in, and by the time I felt like cooking, it was lunch time. I made a first ever attempt at French onion soup for D and I, and my little girl wanted hot dogs again. It didn’t occur to me until dinner time that it was what she ate the day before. (and this is exactly why I need to be paying attention to what we eat!) The French onion soup was deceptively simple. D even admitted that he hadn’t expected it to taste that good with so few ingredients. For dinner I made country fried steak, mashed potatoes, and corn. I used a packet gravy mix, because for the life of me, I’ve never been able to make country gravy that tastes good. I made my daughter at least eat the potatoes and corn, and even though it’s now 9 o’clock, she’s still picking at it, most likely thinking that I’m going to give in and make her something else.

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day.

Branching Out

            I’ve dealt with chronic pain for most of my adult life, and I long ago decided that medication was not the route I wanted to take. Through much study and trial and error, I’ve learned that I feel better when I am able to eat right (for me) and maintain a regular yoga practice. However, neither of those thing have been easy for me. After my daughter born, I suffered severe depression, we moved a lot, and my husband’s inability to handle stress left him angry an unsupportive. We ate fast food a lot, we were broke a lot, and overdrawn more often that I care to remember. When we weren’t eating fast food, we were eating boxed, cheap food, and the times I did attempt to cook real food, no one liked it. And the yoga? It’s easy to get out of a routine when you feel you can’t even get a daily routine to stick. Still I was determined.

            I found the local Farmer’s Market, but that actually only increased our eating of unhealthy fried foods, as we found a booth that sold “fusion rolls,” comfort foods wrapped un like eggrolls and deep fried. Bacon mac and cheese eggrolls were a big favorite. Even though I was buying fruits and vegetables to use in the juicer I bought myself, I wasn’t buying enough to last me until next payday, and so I was really only juicing every other week, and I still wasn’t eating healthy in between. Even though I spent my days looking at recipes that called for whole foods, and fresh produce, and locally grown, and I fantasized about joining a CSA (community supported agriculture), and read books about not eating out and raw vegan, nothing changed. Eventually I even stopped using my juicer all together.

            Then I left my husband and moved to Arizona. To an area where there seems to be nothing locally grown, no Farmer’s Market that I can find, no CSA (even if I had the money to join one). The only good thing (foodwise, because I love everything else about my move) is there is also no fast food easily accessible where I am. The closest fast food place is 20 minutes away, unless I want to get a burger or hot dog at AM/PM. The only eating out nearby is the corner Mexican food place, and since I can cook the same thing at home for cheaper, I didn’t see much point in that.

            So now, here I am, getting ready to start the new year (2014), and I feel like I’m having to learn to cook again. I’ve got a cupboard full of cook books, a handful of books on eating healthy that I’ve read, a list of books on sustainable eating that I want to read, a stack of Yoga Journal magazines, and a few new kitchen tools that I got for Christmas. My spice cabinet has no herbs in, just seasoning salt, garlic powder, onion powder, white pepper, cayenne pepper, coarse ground black pepper, cinnamon, and sea salt. These are the only seasons I’ve really needed in order to make the few “real” foods I know how to make; pot roast, potato leek soup, and stroganoff. I think it’s beyond time I learn to branch out.