Mmmmm good food

[shiredancer]

I had an epiphany of sorts last week, when I looked at my latest yummy frozen heat-up-quick treat from Trader Joe's. Somehow, with all my Weight Watchers weight-gain paranoia and fears of middle-age spread, I've migrated to a heat-and-eat lifestyle. Yes, they're natural and organic (and therefore, expensive), but they're still frozen convenience foods. And the lists of ingredients on them is, like, a mile long.

What happened to Little Miss Natural, hippie-chick, brown rice and vegetables girl? How did I go so far astray? It's sort of symptomatic of so many other aspects of my life, like being so sucked into my job that it gets all the best of my personality and only the tired, cranky aspects make it home with me. What fun for my loved ones.

I think this year is going to see a lot of turning back and reclaiming of some of the better things I've strayed from. The weekend hikes is one part of that. I guess a revision of the cupboards is another. Peter and I decided we'll eat, but not replace, all the convenience foods in the freezer, and so far this week I've made nice, simple baked potatoes and steamed broccoli for one meal (and it was like heaven! especially with a little bit of yeast butter to drizzle over the broccoli), and brown rice topped with sauteed mushrooms in sour cream, served with fresh butternut squash, for another. Really simple, basic stuff, but it's like manna... so delicious. I'll have to keep this momentum going. I have a nice bunch of tiny early asparagus, and a couple of big fat artichokes, all lined up for the rest of the week. Mmmmmm.

Heh. Next thing ya know, I'll be taking up yoga again, and meditating.

Comments

[estellongshanks.livejournal.com]

Oooh, yeast butter. What's that? And what types of things is it used for?

The best meals around here are the ones where most of what we ate came from the produce section and was prepared by hand in our kitchen. I love simple meals prepared at home. Lin makes the most awesome ginger carrots sweetened with agave nectar.

[shiredancer.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, yeast butter... that's from my vegetarian bible, "Laurel's Kitchen". You melt 1/2 cup or 1 stick of margarine (not butter -- for some reason they say butter doesn't work) and stir in 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast (I get that at the health food store). It is *really* rich and tasty. Just a little splash over any vegetable is wonderful, and it's particularly good with broccoli. Cauliflower, too, and probably brussels sprouts. After you refrigerate it and it solidifies, you can spread a little on toast. Yummmmmm.

Oh, tell me about the ginger carrots! I *never* know what to do with carrots. It sounds great! Is agave nectar hard to find?

[estellongshanks.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, I think I'd want to try it with butter anyway. I'll have to look for nutritional yeast.

Will ask Lin to confirm the recipe, but it's something as simple as heat up the agave nectar, chop up fresh ginger root and toss it in, then add sliced baby carrots and cook until warm. Don't know how hard it is to find agave nectar - I think you can substitute honey for the agave.