Food For Thought

My best tomato and pepper year ever!

I have a haphazard approach to writing. The uber-organized, list making side of me has schedules and plans and themes. The creative, laid back side of me writes four articles at a time as ideas pop into my head. I have jumped up at 2 in the morning to write because an idea surfaced that had to be dealt with. I have had days at a time where I never write, but I had several posts already done and just had to click "publish" once a day.

A while back I had a post titled Eat, Sleep, Drink and be Merry. I covered sleep, hydration, joy and gratitude, but I haven't touched on eat yet. It was actually one of the first articles I wrote, when I started, but it grew to such unmanageable proportions. I had to set it aside for awhile to decide what to do with it.

I'm not a dietician or a nutritionist, so I don't want to come across at telling people what to eat or get into debates about vegans and meatetarians. I work with muscles and muscles need fuel to function and to heal. Just like our vehicles, the better quality fuel and oil we use, the better maintained it is. So that is what I'm going to address, quality.

We are so inundated with information and battling opinions from experts about what to eat. Food is a bigger fad that fashion or music. So often marketing campaigns are disguised as health information. It's nearly impossible to wade through. Depending on who and when it's all about fat-free, sugar-free, cholesterol-free, red meat-free, carbohydrate-free, gluten-free, tran-fat free, sugar-free. Salt and eggs have been dietary demons. The latest demon is gmo. Industry has made a fortune marketing alternative ingredients to us - margarine, aspartame, tofu.  Slogans that once convinced us that scientifically crafted formula was better than breast feeding are now telling us to not eat things we can't pronounce. I don't know about anyone else, but I still don't know how to say Worchestershire sauce, but it's a staple in my cooking!

A few years ago, Greenwood Neighbourhood Place had a series over the winter called Cooking for Health and Wellness. (Forgive me if I didn't get the title just right) Once a month a nutrition coach did a cooking class. Each one had a theme - salt, fat, legumes, fermented food, etc. The most important thing I took home from this is that our food is only as good as the ingredients (and that I could make sauerkraut in a mason jar!) I came to the conclusion, that regardless of what the fad of the moment was, the best ingredients are the ones that are the closest to their natural form. Fresh food. This is true for all of us, whether you are a vegan or a hunter. Whether you have special food needs or you are a foodie.

There are a lot of trends out there that at first glance seem impossible in our Northern climate. The 100 mile diet is intimidating - after all, what is available locally in January at -40? Local eating requires some forethought and commitment. I'm not judging. I frequent the farmer's market, and there are some products that I only by locally. I also love bananas and pineapple.

Never too young to garden. Nothing like garden peas!

I'm talking about cooking from scratch. I grew up on a beef ranch, with a huge garden. I thought everyone had a dirt root cellar coming out of a door off their basement. Mom canned and pickled and froze fruits and vegetables that we ate all winter. We had a milk cows, first Bossy, then Blackie (super original names). Even our popsicles were homemade, from a Watkins syrup - they never would have survived the drive from the grocery store.

It wasn't until I was an adult, living in the city, that I really understood how rare my childhood was. I had a friend in University who would drive to Wendy's for a baked potato, because she didn't know how to make one. A high school friend who went to school in Vancouver told me once that she couldn't even find large cuts of meat, like a whole chicken, in the grocery store. There was only yuppie convenience portions, two skinless boneless chicken breasts. Just look at all the new businesses that have popped up in the last two years. Meal delivery services and pre packaged groceries - for one meal!

Eating like this, in the long run, is actually more time consuming, and definitely more expensive. I have had those crazy sorts of weeks, when I didn't do a proper grocery shop, or was too scattered to take things out to defrost. No big deal, quick stop at the grocery store to pick up a package of hamburger or a roasted chicken on the way home. At the end of the week, I realized that these "quick stops" in succession amounted to more time at the grocery store than a regular weekly shop.

If you aren't used to it, cooking from scratch does have a learning curve. It requires some forethought and setting some time aside for it. Everyone has a different approach, there is no right or wrong. The key is to find one that works for your household. Who cooks is also a factor. In some homes only one person cooks, in others, people take turns. So you may need more than one system. My husband and I share the cooking fairly evenly, but we cook completely differently. He's more BBQ and stir fry. I'm more soup and stew. I plan for leftovers, his meals have none.

Breakfast in bed, just because!

Your equipment is also a factor. Do you have a crockpot, instant pot, an oven with a timer, a grill?

What kind of food do you like? Meat & potatoes, BBQ, ethnic, raw food, comfort food.

Do you think things taste better the next day or do you abhor leftovers?

Do you eat all your meals at home, or are you always packing food for on the go?

Whatever you do, it has to make sense for you and your family.

I once had an appointment with a nutritionist shortly after having my kids. As she was going through the Canada Food Guide (the old one), she said I should eat fish at least twice a week. I told her that was not an option, we have fish allergies in the house. I just got a blank stare. She didn't know how to go off script. There is no one size fits all food plan that covers every food allergy, preference, ethics and budget.

There are three distinct audiences that have very different meal needs and challenges. Households with young children, small households of one or two people, and households that are on the run (from their schedules, not the law!) At different points in my life, I have been in all three situations. So I will start with a series, chronologically according to my experience. Who knows where I will go after that!