Rootie-Tootie, Fresh and Fruity
My eating habits have been atrocious lately. Coming home to a dark, cold, empty, lonely house, waking up to the same each morning hasn't really inspired me to do things like cook or go to the grocery store or eat. Which of course starts off a vicious cycle with more sadness and tiredness and, well it's all just a bit ridiculous.In addition, what I have been eating, hasn't been very healthy, a handful of pretzels and a cup of tea for dinner? No wonder I have felt like sh!t the last few weeks.
Last night I decided I had had enough of my self-induced whatever you would call it - stupidity? self-pity? (self-induced, self-pity lol)...anyway, so I went to the new Hy-Vee in Liberty and bought food. I also set some new goals for myself about food.
(1) Eat
Well duh!
(2) Have fruit with every meal.
This is actually pretty hard for me. I don't know why, but I struggle with eating fruit. I buy it. I think about it, and then the fruit goes rotten. Similar situation happens with fresh veggies.
(3) Eat more veggies
At least twice a day
I probably should put some goals on there like - eat less sugar (oh sugar why are you so delicious), but I thing that if I fill my diet with good things, I won't eat as many bad things. And I know if I tell my self I can't have sugar, that is all I will want. That path leads to madness and sugar binges.
And after having taught Ecology of Food for several years, buying fruits and veggies this time of year is complicated by the guilt that I am buying food that has traveled across thousands of miles so I can buy blueberries out of season. I however, have decided to be totally selfish and put that guilt aside for now. This summer is when I can do something about that. Canning in my future?
Here are the fruits and veggies I bought at the grocery store.
Blueberries
Blackberries
Two oranges
Korean Pear
Raisains
Currants
Sugar Snap Peas
Spinach
Carrot Chips
A plaintain
Grape Tomatoes
Cucumber
I think that is it. My goal is to eat all of this before it goes bad (especially that Korean Pear, it was a little spendy). Truthfully, it seems a daunting task.
Today - having blueberries and blackberries that I simmered, on my Eggo's for breakfast. Have made my turkey sandwich with Spinach and Carrot Chips.
So so far so good.
I think that fruit is wonderfully packaged as is for lunch (peel and eat or wash and eat) but I never eat it at other meals unless I cut it up. But I think that an Asian pear would be delicious cut into pieces on a spinach salad. Or just cut into pieces with a little cheese as a snack. Since I've started feeding Dianthus, I've noticed that when I cut apple pieces for him, the Mister and I will nibble on them as a snack, which we would never do with whole apples or pears, and that nibbling apple while reading can make quite a satisfying snack (and, unlike various starchy things I pull straight from the container [tortillas and graham crackers these days], taking the time to cut it slows me down and makes it more fulfilling.
ReplyDeleteSome of my comprimises on seasonality include buying frozen berries (much cheaper than out-of-season fresh and often more flavorful) which are great to heat and put on oatmeal (or ice cream or yogurt or french toast), frozen spinach which is great added to tomato sauces or spiced with Indian spices (not a big fan of generic "cooked spinach", but in veggie lasagna or saag paneer, it is fabulous), canned tomatoes (I really don't like fresh unless they are juicy wonderful, and that really only happens in the summer), buying a fair amount of citrus in the winter (in season in the US, although still shipped for quite a distance), and eating things that could be grown in temperate US and cold stored until January (sweet potatoes, cabbage, carrots, winter squash). We always use a lot of canned beans (although the Mister is better about soaking and cooking dried beans in the crockpot). By March I'm more likely to buy whatever.
The problems I have with fruit this time of year is (a) the whole travelled-farther-than-I-ever-have thing and (b) so much of the fruit in the store is so BAD. Even the apples I bought the other day were blah.
ReplyDeletePart of it is I don't have any really good grocery stores here. It frustrates me.
I wind up eating a lot of canned fruit this time of year. I try to find the kind that's in its own juice so it has less sugar. There's still the transport issue, though.
That said, I haven't had a "real" peach (one that actually tasted like a peach) in years, even in the summers....