Food Based Life

I have spent this cold and rainy Tuesday watching TED videos relating to diet and disease. And while watching I have been making soup and filling out my diet food diary. I adore fast food. My husband has worked for the fast food giant McDonald's for nearly 35 years. BUT......

I made and packed lunches for my children from kindergarten to high school graduation day. I packed lunches for their school friends as a special treat. I didn't leave it to the school system to feed my children. That was my job. Even when I worked full time (and packed my own daily lunch). I tried to get the oldest to "try" the school lunch but she refused. My son would only buy on the days they had pancakes and sausages. Yes, that was a lunch.

I know how to make a pot of coffee and mix things into it and carry that coffee to work with me. I don't stop and buy cups of coffee. I do whine, cry and stamp my feet when I misplace my insulated coffee cup and have to carry coffee to work in a towel wrapped Mason jar. For the cost of two Starbucks coffees I can buy a pound of premium, locally roasted coffee beans and make coffee every day for several weeks. It's like free coffee.

And for the cost of a week's worth of Lean Cuisine Frozen meals I can make bigger, healthier and tastier meals. Because I know how to cook. Or, more precisely, I know how to read and follow directions.

Today I looked in the recipe index to find a new soup that I could make for my lunches. I found that I had most of ingredients for Tomato and Kale Soup in that new cookbook, Love Soup. I washed kale and picked it off the stems, peeled two potatoes and diced them and chopped the few good (not mushy) bits of celery from the crisper, diced a yellow and half a red onion and smashed three cloves of garlic (which I fried in a bit of good olive oil). Opened a can of organic tomatoes and rinsed off a can of white beans. Added veggie bouillon cubes. Water. Red pepper flakes. Salt. And a frozen cubes of last year's basil puree. Soup. For several days. And it's very good.

To be fair, I watched my fraternal grandmother and my mother cook. One was very good at it. The other cooked because that was the only way any of her four children were going to eat. And we ate whatever was put in front of us. I even grew to love some of those meals. So the tradition of measuring, mixing, stirring, browning, seasoning was always there in my life. I knew my mother's soup was terrible. So mine is better. Her chili was good so that's the chili I make. I make the old European foods of my grandmother because I have always loved them and have always eaten them. I write the recipes down for my two children so they can eat well at home.

And so we can all continue to eat if economic ruin happens. I play this game where I try and figure out what foods I can buy with $20 for the maximum number of meals in a week. Food that will fill my tummy and still taste good. Hispanic families go to tortillas and beans in hard times. I go to flour and potatoes. All the foods I would buy with my $20 would be found on the outside edges of the supermarket. Vegetables (fresh and canned). Cereals (oatmeal or cornmeal). Flour. Eggs. Dry Beans. I would give up dairy (milk and cheese), meat, sugar based food and fruit. If there was extra money, I would buy oil. I would steal sugar and salt from restaurants. I have thought this all out. I'm ready.

With flour and eggs I can make bread, noodles, tortillas, and dumplings. With vegetables and dry beans I can make soup and sauces. I can fry potatoes and onions and serve with an egg. I could feed myself and my family. It is a carb loaded diet but we wouldn't be having large portions because we wouldn't have much to share. And we could survive.

These TED programs stressed the need to educate children and their parents in "how to cook" because they don't know how. They eat prepared foods or take out foods. They think hot dogs and buns is a meal. Pizza. (not the homemade one I make with limited fats) Chicken Nuggets. Pop tarts are breakfast washed down with Mountain Dew. Everything they eat comes out of a package or box. I don't know if they even buy cans of food.

All of this has perplexed and used up most of my day. Only the soup has gotten crossed off my list. But I don't think it's been a waste. I can see that my Vegetable Gardening class is going to have a different spin this time. I can feel change coming.