But what about my kids? (and everyone else)

So, you know you want to eat better, but you are getting resistance from your children, spouse, or _____. What to do?

First of all, never tell someone they should eat something because it is good for them. That is basically synonymous with "tastes like cardboard" in the minds of many people. It's really best if you say nothing at all, because children generally smell a rat if you say anything positive about food. They figure there must be something wrong with it, since you never say anything good about the food they like.

Second, don't assume that anyone will go from a fast-food diet to salads and tofu in one fell swoop. To get whole grains into the diet, start with brown rice instead of white rice. It looks a little different, but the difference in taste isn't terribly dramatic -- and if you don't say anything about it being "good for you," most people eat it and like it. If you have a particularly tough crowd, bury it in gravy or a sauce. Yes, I know gravy is high fat, but they're getting more fiber in the rice, so it's a wash, and you're moving them in the right direction. Next time, leave off the gravy and just sprinkle a little soy sauce on it.

Don't even think about serving whole wheat bread from the store if your family has been eating Wonder Bread. Most store-brought whole wheat bread tastes like cardboard -- or slightly better. Start with baking bread at home using unbleached flour. You've taken a step towards less processing, and I've never known anyone to object to unbleached flour. Then one day just throw in a little whole wheat -- 1/3 whole wheat to 2/3 unbleached. We serve fresh, hot bread with all our meals when we have dinner guests, and we often have whole wheat or multi-grain bread, and people rave about how good it is. Whole grain breads definitely taste best hot!

Third, sit down with your family and ask what they want to eat. Make a menu of home-cooked meals using their suggestions. If you simply make a meal at home -- hamburger and french fries -- you are using far less ingredients and you can control the fat and sugar. You are not going to ethoxylate or hydrogenate anything, so it will be healthier. You can make french fries with potatoes, oil, and salt, rather than the dozen or so ingredients found in fast food fries. (Don't use Crisco shortening, which is hydrogenated oil.) You can make burgers with meat and natural spices, rather than the 40+ ingredients found in McDonald's 100% Angus burger. (Yeah, I thought 100% Angus meant 0% of anything else, but it doesn't.)

In our family, I try to make sure everyone is responsible for making at least one meal per week. Not only does it instill a sense of pride and responsibility, they're also learning a vital life skill. It's no surprise that so many college students today eat out, since most of them don't know how to cook. And according to my college students, there are a lot of experts out there that warn against "the freshman 15," which is the 15 pounds that the average college freshman supposedly gains in that first year after leaving home. Even if they are living in a dorm and eating at the cafeteria, they need to understand what constitutes a nutritious meal. If they've been responsible for meal preparation for several years by the time they leave home, they are more likely to make wise choices.

If you have a baby or a toddler, you're in a perfect position to instill healthy eating from the beginning. A six-month-old does not need dessert or a snack of cake or ice cream. I've seen people assume that children won't like foods -- including myself. When our oldest was a toddler, my husband handed her a piece of a sweet pepper as I was protesting that she wouldn't eat it. She promptly proved me wrong, and today at 21, she loves raw vegetables.

This brings me to my last point. If your child won't eat something at your house, ask Grandma or another friend to make it for dinner next time you visit. When our children were little, we'd have their friends over for dinner, and they would eat things that they'd never dream of eating at home. I'll never forget the little girl who exclaimed to her mother, "You have to get her sloppy joe recipe, because it is so delicious!" The mom was quite shocked to learn that it was made with tofu.

The bottom line with most of these suggestions is that if someone is really accustomed to a diet filled with artificial flavors, sweeteners, and fat, they are not going to change their habits overnight. Take it one meal at a time, one ingredient at a time, and over the course of a few months, you will be able to make big changes.

"The Omnivore's Dilemma"

Finally, I'm getting around to reviewing a book that I read two years ago, although if you're a regular reader, you've heard me quote Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" more than once. In a nutshell, the omnivore's dilemma is answering one simple question: what to eat? The answer for cows and coyotes is pretty simple. They're hard-wired to eat very specific foods. If you're a coyote, you eat whatever is smaller and tries to run away. If you're a cow, you eat whatever you're standing on.

For centuries, culture provided the answer to this question for humans, but Americans have no food culture, and corporations have muddied the field even more. When you think of food in France, Italy, India or China, the choices seem obvious, but when you think of food in America, you think of what? We gave the world McDonald's, KFC, and a host of other fast food corporations that dish out food-like substances with 40 ingredients, lots of fat, and no fiber.

The book is divided into three sections -- or possible answers -- to the question of what's for dinner. First choice is the fast food meal, provided by conventional agriculture. Second choice is organic, which Pollan quickly learns is not as simple as it used to be. Third choice is foraging and hunting.

The conventional agriculture answer to the question is a fast food meal, and it all goes back to corn. The burger comes from corn-fed beef. The fries are fried in corn and/or soybean oil. McNuggets contain corn starch, are breaded with a mixture including corn flour, and may be fried in corn oil. The soft drink and dessert are sweetened with corn syrup. And the list goes on. Although we grow lots of corn in this country, it is not edible by humans. It is either broken down into food additives, fed to livestock, or increasingly used for ethanol production.

The organic answer to dinner got pretty messy when Pollan realized that there was a difference between industrial organic and sustainable organic. Industrial organic would be the frozen dinner at Whole Foods. The sustainable organic comes from the local farmer. Pollan visited both types of places, and after reading about Rosie the organic chicken, I'm glad I've never given in and eaten an organic grocery store chicken. The industrial organic chickens are raised in a manner that is very similar to conventional chickens, but they are given organic feeds and provided "access" to the outdoors during the last couple weeks of their very short lives (less than two months). I'd love to meet the brilliantly unethical genius who came up with the phrase "access to the outdoors" when crafting the US organic legislation. What this means for organic chicken factories is that they open a tiny door in the big building, and since the little chickens have never been outside the building in their entire lives, they don't think about going out now.

For sustainable organic, Pollan spends a week on the farm of Joel Salatin in Virginia. Those of us who are into sustainable practices have known about and duplicated Salatin's practices for many years, and it's great that Pollan brought Polyface Farm into the limelight. Salatin's chickens are put on pasture, and his farm has an open-door policy, so his customers can see exactly what they are buying. They can even watch butchering.

The section on hunting and foraging for food was very informative since I've never foraged for mushrooms or hunted a wild boar. It is, of course, the least feasible meal for most Americans, but it was interesting to me from a historical perspective.

Ever since reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" two years ago, I've been saying that everyone who eats should read this book, and I still say that. Unlike most Americans who think that the government is taking care of everything, I think we are responsible for something as simple as what we eat. And while government might approve of a food additive that was just invented five years ago, who knows what it will do to the human body in 20 or 30 years? It might scare a lot of people even more to know that most food substances don't need government approval.

While this book didn't change a lot about the way we do things, it did reinforce some of my beliefs -- like not buying industrial organic meat. After church on Sunday, a librarian friend (thanks, Renee!) gave me an advance reading copy of the young reader's edition of The Omnivore's Dilemma, which is due to come out in October. It is considerably shorter, although still almost 300 pages, and it has pictures. I especially liked the picture from the Salatin farm, as I always enjoy learning more about how they do things. I also got to see a picture of the inside of a chicken factory. So, if you're not up to reading the full-length Omnivore's Dilemma, I'd urge you to buy a copy of the young reader's edition for your kids or grandkids -- and if you just happen to read it before you give it to them, that's okay.

Who's got time?

Homemakers have been searching for ways to speed up meal preparation ever since the first cavewoman decided that she was spending too much time slaving over a hot fire. Through the years many timesaving methods and products have been developed. However, the modern homemaker must evaluate expense in terms of money and time when using them. In the following recipes the cost of the food is more, but the meal is prepared in a jiffy.

Better Homes and Garden Encyclopedia of Cooking, Volume 15 (1973)

Yes, we're busy. But someone once told me that people make time for the things they think are important. That's why I make time to cook. Food and health are important to me. I love good food, and I hate wasting money. Shortly after moving to the country seven years ago, we drove into town one night and ate at a buffet. I suddenly realized that most of the food came from cans or a freezer. Why was I wasting my money? My family could have eaten the same foods at home for about 20% of the price we were paying. I would have only had to open a few cans or boxes and heat up the contents. My then-9-year-old daughter could have done as well. And we had also wasted the gasoline and the time that it took to drive to and from the restaurant.

After that experience I started considering the time issue more carefully. Was I really saving time by eating out? Plenty of nutritious meals can be prepared in less than 30 minutes, which is the amount of time it would take most people to simply travel to and from a restaurant. After you add in the amount of time you spend waiting for your food at the restaurant, you're up to 45 minutes or an hour of wasted time. Instead of spending 30 to 60 minutes fighting traffic and waiting at a restaurant, you could spend that time with your family preparing food.

One of the ways we manage to eat real meals at home is that everyone in our family knows how to cook. My children learned to cook when they were eight or nine years old, and as they get older, the meals get more complicated. Everyone has their specialties -- Jonathan makes a great pasta primavera, and Katherine makes a delicious eggplant parmesan -- but everyone is capable of reading a menu and taking control of a meal when needed. I also have our bread recipe taped up inside the kitchen cabinet where I keep all the baking supplies. This is a picture of our queso blanco with marinara over pasta, and everyone in the family knows how to make it.

Another time-saving tip that I've learned is to double a recipe for a casserole and freeze half of it, or put it in the frig if I know everyone will be happy eating it again in a few days. It doesn't take any more time to double the recipe than it does to make a single batch. Doubling this Mexican turkey casserole is really easy to do. For the second casserole, just mix up everything except the chips, put it in a freezer container, and freeze. On the day you want to have the second casserole for dinner, move it from the freezer to the frig the night before, so it will be thawed when you get home from work, and you can put it in the oven.

When I make homemade bread, I use the Kitchen Aid, and I mix up enough dough for two or three loaves. It doesn't take any more time to mix up three loaves than it does to mix up one. I can make rolls for tonight's dinner and bake a loaf of bread that will be used for breakfast tomorrow morning (regular toast or French toast). The dough for the third loaf can be put in the refrigerator for a future lunch or dinner. Take it out of the frig a couple hours before the meal, put it into the bread pan, let rise, and bake as usual.

Of course, I can't talk about saving time without talking about using a crock pot. Whenever we are going to be busy all morning, I put lunch into the crock pot, so it's waiting for us when we come into the house at noon. If you're too busy in the morning to get it started, you can start the night before. Put everything into the crock pot and put it in the frig. In the morning, take it out, plug it in, and you're on your way out the door. If you tend to be forgetful (like me), then put a sticky note on your exit door that says, "Plug in crock pot," or just "Crock pot!" Here is my recipe for split pea soup, but there are also recipes right on the bag of dry peas that you buy at the store.

The crock pot's logical companion is the bread machine. I used to use a bread machine a lot! Now I have the Kitchen Aid and make multiple loaves at one time, but I do still drag out the bread machine from time to time. If you want soup and bread for dinner, put the soup in the crock pot, and set the timer on your bread maker to be done about the time you get home from work. I used to do this a lot when I worked full time in the suburbs. It's so nice to walk into the house and smell fresh baked bread and hot soup. For more on breadmaking, check out this post from a few months ago.

You can plan meals in tandem with one another. First make an extra big pot of chili for dinner one night. Then the following morning, put potatoes in your oven for baked potatoes, and set your oven timer so they're done when you arrive home. Reheat the chili and serve over the top. For more on baked potatoes and the two dinner concept, check out this post from January.

Just in case you're thinking that this is too complicated, and "My time is worth something," let me add one final thought. I used to buy into the idea that my time was worth something, and then one day I realized that my time was worth exactly what I was being paid ... which was ... um, nothing most of the time. Corporate America really wants us to believe that our time is worth so much that we can't be bothered with menial things like cooking -- and didn't McDonald's tell us in the 1980s that "You deserve a break today," which, by the way, was voted as the best advertising jingle of the 20th century. McDonald's realized that it was not selling great hamburgers -- it was selling a lifestyle. So, unless someone is paying me red hot cash to do something more lucrative than cook (and my other family members are similarly engaged), we realize that making our own homemade food is actually one of the smartest investments we can make in ourselves.

Let's celebrate food!

Since the dawn of time, food nourished our bodies and kept us healthy. It made us happy with its beautiful colors, heavenly scents, and delicious flavors. It provided an opportunity for us to connect with our loved ones at mealtime. It filled us with awe as we saw miracles of life unfolding in our gardens, our pastures, and our kitchens. As The New Laurel's Kitchen (1986) says,

[T]here was an unquestioned recognition that what goes on in the kitchen is holy. . . So many mysterious transformations are involved -- small miracles like the churning of butter from cream, or the fermentation of bread dough. In times past there was no question but that higher powers were at work in such goings-on, and a feeling of reverence sprang up in response.

I can't remember a time when I thought of cooking as anything other than fun. I've always looked at it as a creative outlet, just like some people look at knitting or rebuilding an antique car. I only lived in a dorm for one semester in college, and the thing I hated was being unable to cook. That's when I realized that cooking was important to me -- and not simply to feed myself. Not only do I enjoy cooking the food, I enjoy making it look pretty on the plates. It's like creating a work of art. I love trying new recipes and growing fresh herbs. There are so many things in this world that we can't have, but when it comes to food, our options seem infinite. I have a couple dozen cookbooks, which I'll never work through, and now there are millions of recipes on the Web. I'm like a kid in a candy store. But before I get too excited, I'll admit that I know my attitude towards food is unusual.

Today, food is more likely to fill people with anxiety rather than happiness or awe. People feel guilty when they eat too much -- or when they eat something that tastes "too good." If it's good for you, then it probably tastes like cardboard, right? Our food comes frozen in bags or dried in boxes, and it has traveled an average of 1,500 miles to get to our plates. It is quite dead so that bacteria and fungi have nothing to feed upon, and since the nutrition and taste have been processed out of it, food scientists have enriched it with vitamins and artificial flavors. We're too busy to sit down with friends and family, so we grab a quick bite in the car or in front of the television. Should it surprise us that our eating habits are leading to rising rates of obesity, heart disease, and cancer?

We have a national eating disorder, according to Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma (2006). Every year, we have a new food demon (trans fats, carbs, red meat). We spend millions on diet books. Studies come out telling us to drink red wine, eat more tomatoes, or eat oat bran -- and for a short time, we do it. We are obsessed with eating healthy, yet we are increasingly becoming the most unhealthy industrialized country on the planet. We eat 20 percent of our meals in cars, and every day 1/3 of our children eat at fast food outlets.

They say enthusiasm is contagious, and I hope they're right. My goal for the next couple weeks is to get people excited about food. If you've been reading my blog for long, you know I love food. I love everything about food -- planning, growing, preparing, sharing, and eating. And I'm busy. But food is important to me, so I've figured out how to make time for food, even though I only have 24 hours in a day, just like everyone else. Since time is one of the objections I hear most often when people talk about eating better, I've decided to address it early in our two-week celebration of food. Tomorrow, I'll talk about the time issue, and next week, you'll see how I actually plan and execute the whole food thing.

Piglets arrive

It was a busy day for us. Katherine and I went to pick up four piglets from a farmer downstate who raises them without any drugs or vaccines. One of these little ones will become our pork in about five or six months. A couple of them are reserved for friends' freezers, and one has not been spoken for yet.

Our drive down was pretty uneventful, except I had a migraine and kept thinking that I should have stayed home and sent someone else to pick them up. But now that Margaret has officially moved to Urbana, there are only four of us, and Mike and Jonathan had their own work to do. This is about the fifth migraine I've had this week, and they're probably coming from the arthritis in my neck. That disturbing snap, crackle, and pop sound emanates from my neck when I move my head. Those muscle relaxers are starting to look tempting again.

"Celebration of Food" starts next week

Although I've never thought of this as a food blog, when you get down to it, it really is all about food -- planning for it, growing it, preparing it, and finally, eating it. This next Sunday, my family will be presenting the service at our church. We'll be talking about "The Spirituality of Eating." When I made the suggestion to my husband, he said to me, "People are going to think that food is the only thing you ever think about." I laughed. He really did have me figured out a long time ago. In 1988, we went on a cruise, and I was emphatic about making it to all the meals and snacks served on board. In exasperation one afternoon, he said to me, "The difference between you and me is that I eat to live; you live to eat." I couldn't disagree. So, I like food. No, I'm more like the food critic in Ratatoulle who said, "I don't like food. I love food. And if I don't love it, I don't swallow," when someone asked him how a food critic could be skinny.

There were times in my life when I just shoveled it in, thinking about nothing more than filling my belly. But as I've grown older, I've become pickier in many ways. For example, I don't like conventionally grown zucchini, because with its thin skin, it absorbs the bitter taste of chemicals sprayed on it. I often wonder how many people would love raw zucchini if they had ever tasted organic.

But I digress. As I've been doing research for our church service next Sunday, I've been reading a lot about people's relationships with food, and it's been interesting. So, rather than forcing our congregation to sit through hours of readings and musings, I thought it would be better for everyone, including my blogpals, if I used a lot of that fodder here on the blog.

Starting next Monday, I'll spend the week writing about food and gratitude, time management, organization, and a host of other things to address reasons why so many Americans don't eat as well as they know they should.

The following week, I'm going to put all the musings into action. I'll post my menu for the week, along with a shopping list. Then day by day, I'll talk about how it all works in real life. After all, you know what they say about "the best laid plans."

I wanted to get this post up early, so that all of you could let me know if there are any particular challenges that you face when it comes to cooking or eating healthier, so I can address those over the next couple weeks. People are often telling me, "It's great that you eat so well, but I never could do that." Okay, why not?

So, what's with the picture up at the top? That was dessert for yesterday's lunch. Although it tasted heavenly, the texture wasn't quite perfect, so you're not getting the recipe just yet. Cooking really is fun -- even when you mess up.

Cup of coffee, anyone?

As I sat here this morning, sipping my coffee, I remembered the old days. Back when I was a young adult, I would often drink one or two liters of soft drinks per day. I went through diet and regular stages, sometimes deciding the sugar had too many calories or that the artificial sweeteners might not be good for me. But I always drank a lot of whichever variety. I even went through stages when I drank [gasp] Kool-Aid, because I'd decide that soda was too expensive.

Now, I basically drink lots of water and a little coffee, tea, and wine. Typically, I have hot coffee (sometimes tea) for breakfast, iced tea or water for lunch, and wine or water for dinner. As an afternoon treat in the summer, sometimes I have an iced coffee, or in the winter, I'll have a cup of hot tea. When I saw this article recently, it occurred to me that it is not that unusual to hear about research showing that people who drink water, coffee, tea, and wine realize some health benefits. But I've never heard of any research that showed people who drink soda or Kool-Aid or any artificial drinks realize any outcomes other than being more likely to be obese or overweight -- and that's true even if they're drinking diet sodas. How can you become overweight drinking diet soda with is calorie free? Theories include the concept that people think they can eat more since they're drinking diet soda, as well as the possibility that artificial sweeteners make you crave more sweets.

It's just more confirmation of what Michael Pollan says in his book, In Defense of Food, "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." I sort of figured that out about 10 years ago, although I wasn't able to articulate it as nicely as Pollan. One of these days I still need to review that book on here, but as I've heard him say in countless interviews over the past year -- the more you study the topic of nutrition, the more you realize that it is not nearly as complicated as scientists make it. The whole thing really can be summarized in those seven words.

Cooking with lentils

When most people hear that we cook almost all of our food from scratch, they think that we must spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Compared to most people, I guess they're right, but we don't spend that much time in the kitchen. After all, we do have a homestead to run, so most of our meals are fairly quick and simple to make. Since they're made from real food, they're also healthy and inexpensive.

Several times a week, we eat beans. Although many beans, like pintos, garbanzas, and black beans, have to be soaked before cooking, lentils and split peas are so small they can cook without being soaked first. This is especially good for those days when I don't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen, or when I forgot to soak beans ahead of time.

My idea of convenience food is buying a box of spices at the Indian grocery store in Bloomington. I consider it a convenience because it has all the spices I need in one box. I only have to measure one spice blend instead of a dozen individual spices. Last night, we had chana dal masala for dinner, which simply required cooking lentils and rice, sauteeing some onions and tomatoes and adding the spices. It was so easy that Katherine was able to take over after I had to go to bed with a migraine.

Earlier this week, I made a lentil loaf. This recipe comes from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook, 1988. I love older cookbooks because their recipes are made with real foods and don't take much time to prepare. Too many of today's cookbooks either have too many packaged ingredients or take hours to prepare. I have neither hours nor packaged foods, so I prefer the older cookbooks.

Lentil Loaf

Cook 1 1/2 cups rinsed lentils in 3 1/2 cups water until tender. Partially mash lantils and mix with 2 onions that have been fried in 1/4 cup oil. Add to lentils and onions:
2 cups cooked rice
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup catsup or barbecue sauce (we use barbecue sauce)
1 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. marjoram
Press into an oiled loaf pan and spread catsup or barbecue sauce on top. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.

This post is part of my continuing series on cooking with beans. You can also read Bean Basics, Split Pea Soup, and Pintos: My Favorite Beans.

Daylilies in bloom

I walked around the yard and counted 15 different varieties of daylilies in bloom. As July progresses, that number will grow into 20-something. Here are two that were blooming yesterday.

Another view from my toilet

You might recall that a few months ago, I said that my toilet just might be the best seat in the house, because there is such a great view. Well, the view has not been so great this summer, because algae has really started to grow on the pond. After doing a lot of reading about algae control, I finally decided that we should remove as much of the algae as possible by hand. Jonathan actually volunteered for this job. Sounds like something a teenager would enjoy doing, but as he started working, it seemed a lot like mucking out a barn. He initially thought he would be able to simply grab the algae and toss it, but he decided fairly quickly that it would be better to use my idea.

My brilliant idea was to use snow fencing as a net to grab the algae and pull it up on shore. For you non-midwestern readers, snow fencing is this flexible plastic fencing that farmers put up as a temporary fence to create snow drifts where they want them. So, I stood on the shore, holding one end of the fencing, and Jonathan took the other end and walked through the pond. In a few spots he had to swim. It was much more difficult than I expected it to be. I was surprised when I almost got pulled into the pond as he started pulling his end through the water. It didn't help that the edge of the pond was really slippery. We were able to cover most of the pond by pulling the fencing across three different sections.

You can see the pond looks much better after Jonathan's hard work, which took several hours to complete. My contribution was pretty minimal. Now, to get the water clear and avoid future algae blooms, we need to create long barley straw snakes with the snow fencing and empty water jugs as flotation devices. If this sounds way too weird, but you're intrigued and want to learn more about how barley keeps ponds clean, check out this link from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. I hope we can get the barley snakes out there before the algae takes over again.