Don't play with your food!

Caught Jamie Oliver on The Today Show. He was doing a "makeover" of a mom's menu. He peered into the fridge and immediately asked "Where's the food?" The fridge and freezer was chock full of "food" – stuff in bottles, stuff wrapped in plastic, stuff in colorful boxes. Processed food. Typical.Jamie dove into the chiller and commented "At least you have veggies." Out came some prewashed greens, to which the mom immediately said "That's for the lizard."

Now some baby carrots. Mom: "That's for the rabbit."

Jamie: "The animals eat better than you."

(Pregnant pause)

We've been on a quest to eat better. We want D (the Daughter) to eat healthy. And why should we eat anything that tastes like cardboard, just because it is healthy? We’ve discovered that eating can be pleasurable as well as healthy!

Flashback to about 7 years ago. Laziness had gotten the better of us, and we had succumbed to convenience foods. Opening up a can of tuna, frying up some hotdogs, putting water in some instant noodles was quick and easy. Besides, it seemed that everyone ate that way anyway. Why would I bother to exert (unnecessary) effort to cook up anything? Cooking rice was enough of a chore. A homecooked meal would typically be some fried chicken, chopped tomatoes, and rice or variations thereof. When we really wanted to go all out, we would make sinigang.

Today, we have gotten rid of everything canned save for an occasional can of anchovies for our killer putanesca. We don’t eat hotdogs, we check labels for MSG. We look for organic when we can. We prefer lean cuts, fish and seafoods. We wash all our veggies and fruits in baking soda before it goes in the fridge. We always seem to have some “leftover” tea to drink within the day.

Our menus have gotten more varied, are multicultural, and cooking is exciting! Pizza (we make our own crusts!), pasta, tofu burgers, curry, masala, rotis, minestrone, sukiyaki, couscous, sushi, sashimi pho …. I am quite willing to try anything once.

We’ve ventured into baking our own bread (we’re getting better!). We’d like to try making our own pasta. We’ve tried growing our own herbs to some degree of success – step out in our mini-garden and we have siling labuyo, pandan, and ginger. Hopefully we can get basil and wansoy to grow.

Our buying habits have changed drastically too. We’ve invested in a really good range/oven. We go to the grocery every 3 days because we want our stuff to be fresh. The food in the fridge has to be used up within a week. We’ve amassed over 20 bottles of different spices. We have a regular supply of teas. We’ve substituted honey and muscovado for our white sugar. We buy whole wheat flour.

It’s about conscious choices. And we have chosen food to become the penultimate adventure for us. I urge you to take the plunge too! You really can’t lose -- the least you can get out of it is a good meal, and a healthier body!

Photo is of a smiley in our lemon tea. Serendipity! Was walking up the stairs when I looked over and distinctly saw the smiley. Did a double take, yes it was still there. Taken 09/07/05.