Friday, June 02, 2006

What Am I Doing Here?

OK, I've been thinking about what it is I'm trying to accomplish with this blog and I'm beginning to get an inkling of where I'm going.

I love to cook. I've always loved to cook. And I'm a decent cook, overall. I know how to follow a recipe, and I have a few signature dishes. I've moved beyond the canned cream of mushroom soup casseroles of my young adulthood. These days I get my fruits and vegetables mostly from the produce section of the grocery store, or the farmers' market, and not out of cans, although I do still use some frozen. I use mostly whole wheat grains and pasta, and avoid products with high fructose corn syrup and trans fats. In fact, I pretty much avoid all processed foods.

And I know healthy foods have a bad rap. And I will also admit that there's a good reason for that. But I'm here to tell you that it's possible to eat healthy foods without having to give up good taste, if you keep an open mind and are willing to experiment until you get it right.

Or, you can let me experiment until I get it right, and then you can take advantage of my efforts. As I've been trying to eat more healthy foods, I've come to realize something important. Healthy eating doesn't mean having to give up all the foods you love. Healthy eating means more often choosing the healthier versions of your favorite foods. So yes, I've pretty much given up butter, russet potatoes, sugar, white bread, white rice, and meats high in saturated fats, to name a few. But in their place I've discovered olive, canola and other nut and seed oils, red, gold and purple potatoes, honey, brown rice, whole wheat breads and pastas, and chicken and fish.

Will I never see butter, pastries, and sausage again? Hell, no! I love all of that too much. But I only have them on special occasions, something along the lines of the 80/20 deal, where you eat healthy (or diet, or whatever) 80% of the time, and have whatever you want 20% of the time.

Does this mean my blog will now be all healthy, all the time? Of course not. But this is a major component of my cooking these days, so it should be a major part of my blogging.

And if you don't want to play along, you can always resubstitute the less healthy ingredients

There's another componenent to what I want to do here, but this post is already pretty long. I'll save that for later.

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