Thanksgiving in New Orleans

I spent this thanksgiving here, in New Orleans. My friend's mother is a famous local chef, and made some amazing traditional Louisiana dishes that I'd never had before. Completely disregarding my attempts to not eat meat, I had fried turkey for the first time with oyster dressing, creamed carrots, and some sortof baked dish I can't recall the name of. This reminded me of rule #29 which says to mix up the types of foods you eat and try new things. If I were to eat food like that all the time, I would definitely not have the healthiest of diets. But some of those items would be a good addition to my diet; the creamed carrots for example, and the oyster dressing which had more vegetables and less butter than my traditional idea of dressing which closely resembles stove top stuffing. Experiencing traditions of a different culture reminded me alot of how many things we can adopt to our own diets in order to resemble those of other cultures, taking the best and most health-conscious ideas from every culture, (including cultures within the United States) and including them in our "American" diets to become more well-rounded.

Merry Christmas?

In light of the upcoming holiday season, I found this particularly disturbing image. It takes the using meat to flavor food rule and disregards it completely.

when all i want is a big fat chocolate chip cookie...

I have a tendency to crave sweets when I feel overloaded with school work. So even though I sort of hate these types of webpages, I figured if anyone else is in my boat maybe it could be useful to remind you all not to jump ship on Food Rules just because it is finals week (even if I do first).

http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/11-healthy-ways-to-destress-with-food/article181243-3.html#slide

If you are a caffeine drinker, I've found a good way to make it through long study days without crashing is to switch to tea throughout the day, and then if you really need it, drink coffee later on. It'll help you not overdo the caffeine and end up feeling simultaneously sluggish and jittery. I am not exactly sure if promoting coffee late at night is a healthy recommendation, but for those of you who may do it anyway, I figured I'd let you in on that discovery I've made.

trying new things

Most of the food that I eat is brown. Today I started off by making an omelette and adding onions, spinach, feta, and mushrooms. It was great because I have a hard time getting protein and usually resort to bars and powders with several ingredients which I can't pronounce. Then for lunch I had a grapefruit, which was pink and tasted alright. I must admit that I haven't drank water for the past several days. I am pretty sure I have either had a coffee or a chai latte or cran-grape juice for every meal. i have always disliked the way water tastes. The only time I drink water is when I am forced to, which is surprisingly often. I also need to work on not eating snacks instead of meals. A lot of the time I will have popcorn for dinner. Tonight I will have a meal for dinner and it will have colors and it will have been prepared.

Food Rules: The Edible Experiment, Weeks Twelve/Thirteen

(I'm combining this two weeks since one of them was Thanksgiving and we were off :)

Journal Entry
Week Twelve
November 12, 2010

The first rule I have been working on is as follows:
Rule 49 “Eat slowly” and "Put your fork down between bites"

While "eating slowly" has been a challenge, I have been more successful with putting my fork down between bites! Growing up, I had a friend who always put her fork down between eating. She was thin as a rail and I always wanted to be like her because I equated putting your fork down while eating to "staying skinny!" (Ok so we were like 7 but still, that's what was going through my 7-year-old brain). I always had a hard time doing that, though, because my mom was a terribly fast eater and so a typical family "dinner" would last about 10 minutes on average, maybe 15 minutes on Sunday.
Yet over the years I do think I have learned to eat at a more reasonable pace, and since practicing this rule, I've actually noticed myself putting down my fork inadvertently now! Progress!!


Journal Entry
Week Thirteen
November 12, 2010

SO! Thanksgiving has come and gone! Can we say Food Hangover?? My family enjoyed the following: Filet Mignon, Garlic Barbequed Shrimp, Grilled Rosemary Asparagus w/ Hollandaise, Baked Sweet potatoes, Eggplant and Shrimp Casserole, Green Salad, and Sweet Tea... Ok so we're Un-traditional. But that's how we do it in the Morris Family ;) Yeaaah Thanksgiving!!

Reflecting on what I ate for Thanksgiving, I was estatic to realize that everything, (EVERYTHING!) complied with Pollan's Food Rules that I have been following this semester!

Filet Mignon/Shrimp - The rule about 4 legs, 2 legs, and no legs :)
Asparagus - Of course, a vegegable! Seasoned not with salt, but with pepper and rosemary, tossed in a little bit of olive oil, and grilled over an open flame. Delicious!
Hollandaise sauce - I don't particularly care for this sauce so I didn't eat it, but my family was still in line, Lol - egg yolk, REAL butter, and fresh lemon
Sweet Potatoes - a healthy starch (and one of my favorites!!)
Eggplant and Shrimp casserole - It is what it says! Perhaps a few breadcrumbs were thrown in the mix, and maybe some eggs to hold it all together.
Green Salad - pretty self explanatory :)

Even the dessert which normally would follow the rule to "break the rules once in a while" pretty much complied with the Food Rules book! My dad is a HUGE fan of Lemon Meringue Pie, which consists of Fresh Lemon juice, condensed milk, egg yolk, and whipped egg whites. That's it! Put it in a pie crust (flour and butter - maybe lard - but hey that might be the only rule we broke) and you've got yourself a Food Rules friendly dessert.

Needless to say I was extremely full and pretty stoked that we actually had a delicious, healthy, Thanksgiving dinner!

Off the Train

So here we are wrapping up the final weeks on this food rules ride. I'm not sure if it was the holidays or I just got lazy, but I've noticed I don't stick to some of the rules as much. It might also just be from the laziness and stress of exams time, but I surely don't put in as much effort as I usually do. This week especially I've been eating candy, cakes, ice cream, white rice, and all sort of other no-no's. On the bright side, I notice I've been eating a lot less meat more so than I usually do. It takes a lot of effort to keep up with all this, but I know I can't just go back to the way I use to eat. There are slip ups here and there, but overall I know I have to and want to remaining eating healthy and mindfully. I always known that everything has a lot of ingredient in it, but more than ever before I see that everything has a crap load of ingredient in them that I wouldn't have even expected! It's so odd.

Last night, my friends and I went to go eat at a buffet, probably wasn't the best idea, but I made some healthy choices I think. I saw two of my friends eating frog legs (I still find that strange they serve them at buffets) and i was just looking at them. Frog legs really look like chicken wings or legs. It was about the same color meat and the bone structure was similar too. I've never had frog legs, but it didn't seem so different, and apparently my friends said it's leaner than chicken which I can believe because frogs hop around all day so they get plenty of exercise. Will I try it? Probably not.

"Your food is ready"

So far most of what is studied is food, the ingredients, how it is prepared etc. but one major thing that is overlooked even though it is probably in everyones kitchen is the microwave. The microwave is a serious hazard that is used every single day. I must admit I am guilty of it too, but for a few years now I have used it less and less. I have always been told by my mom it is not safe and I find that my food taste ten times better actually prepared. It is pretty much logical, how can food that takes and hour to cook on the stove be prepared in the microwave in a matter of minutes be healthy? It isn't! Most of the nutrients that are in the food being heated are completely destroyed in the process. I looked up a little information on the matter and this is the link ...

http://www.globalhealingcenter.com/microwave-ovens-the-proven-dangers.html