Thoughts on the foodie-go-round
This morning I was reading an article on Get Rich Slowly about Donna Freedman (the author) "jumping off the foodie-go-round." As a good title is wont to do, it drew me in because I just KNEW there was going to be some juicy advice in there, fraught with commenters with knee-jerk reactions.
I'm proud that I managed to jump off the train of reading those comments before I gave myself an aneurism. A number of them were arrogant as expected, from both sides of the spectrum. Others were very much "Your Mileage May Very" attitude, which I appreciate and an attitude I am striving to achieve here at Chez Waxing Moon.
On the one hand, I agree with Donna. If you are short on time and you don't care about variety, don't worry about it. However, I agree with her because of her examples, and she missed articulating a key point: She's advocating putting a VARIETY of items into a pot, and eating off it for days. There is a big difference between eating off a pot of chili full of fiber and veggies and possibly meat or your protein-substitute of choice, or off the curry or stir fry full of the same, versus eating off a bowl of plain rice for a week. The latter is depriving you of nutritional value, whereas the former is still going to give you some fairly normal amounts of nutrients, albeit the same ones for a few days.
My partner and I had a roommate at one point who honestly felt that we were "wasteful" because we would cook a pot of chili and take a week to eat it, eating other foods in between. He honestly felt that we should make food and eat off it until it was gone before we should make anything else. Now, I'm not saying we never threw out food, because we did. Things would get shoved to the back of the fridge and lost, I would bring home restaurant leftovers for the boys and they wouldn't eat them "out of respect" despite being told "I will not eat this, please eat it or it's getting thrown away." Even now, because we bring home bargain groceries and don't store them properly (that's a post for another day), we throw away more food than I like.
I just can't do that. I need variety. I have had problems with my appetite for as long as I can remember, and the only way I can seem to combat that is by keeping my food fresh and exciting all the time. Or nachos. I'm always a fan of nachos. It's funny now some of the tips for getting kids to eat (especially more veggies) applies so much to me. Make it dippable, and I'm probably on board. Finger foods are a big fave. I actually LIKE adding extra "stuff" to foods that wouldn't otherwise be there, like carrot/zucchini puree to my chili or protein powder to oatmeal. I like boosting my nutrient values where I can.
In the article, Donna also mentions specifically eating it for 3 meals in 5 days or so. THERE ARE OTHER MEALS IN THERE! Those meals add variety of nutrients to the table. So while it was written in such a way as to be very YMMV and inciting responses, honestly? This just boils down to the same advice we keep seeing: Eat your damn leftovers, save money and time. Still, props to her for getting people to read the article, even if her message was couched in so much backpedaling and inflammatory language in an attempt to sound fresh and exciting as to be lost.
Really though, eat your leftovers. It will save you money. And is something we will probably discuss regularly here at HJ Waxing Moon. One day I'll share my awesome stuffed green peppers recipe with you, which is the beginnings of Mexi-casserole later in the week, when layered with red beans and rice. Three of my favorite meals!
I'm proud that I managed to jump off the train of reading those comments before I gave myself an aneurism. A number of them were arrogant as expected, from both sides of the spectrum. Others were very much "Your Mileage May Very" attitude, which I appreciate and an attitude I am striving to achieve here at Chez Waxing Moon.
On the one hand, I agree with Donna. If you are short on time and you don't care about variety, don't worry about it. However, I agree with her because of her examples, and she missed articulating a key point: She's advocating putting a VARIETY of items into a pot, and eating off it for days. There is a big difference between eating off a pot of chili full of fiber and veggies and possibly meat or your protein-substitute of choice, or off the curry or stir fry full of the same, versus eating off a bowl of plain rice for a week. The latter is depriving you of nutritional value, whereas the former is still going to give you some fairly normal amounts of nutrients, albeit the same ones for a few days.
My partner and I had a roommate at one point who honestly felt that we were "wasteful" because we would cook a pot of chili and take a week to eat it, eating other foods in between. He honestly felt that we should make food and eat off it until it was gone before we should make anything else. Now, I'm not saying we never threw out food, because we did. Things would get shoved to the back of the fridge and lost, I would bring home restaurant leftovers for the boys and they wouldn't eat them "out of respect" despite being told "I will not eat this, please eat it or it's getting thrown away." Even now, because we bring home bargain groceries and don't store them properly (that's a post for another day), we throw away more food than I like.
I just can't do that. I need variety. I have had problems with my appetite for as long as I can remember, and the only way I can seem to combat that is by keeping my food fresh and exciting all the time. Or nachos. I'm always a fan of nachos. It's funny now some of the tips for getting kids to eat (especially more veggies) applies so much to me. Make it dippable, and I'm probably on board. Finger foods are a big fave. I actually LIKE adding extra "stuff" to foods that wouldn't otherwise be there, like carrot/zucchini puree to my chili or protein powder to oatmeal. I like boosting my nutrient values where I can.
In the article, Donna also mentions specifically eating it for 3 meals in 5 days or so. THERE ARE OTHER MEALS IN THERE! Those meals add variety of nutrients to the table. So while it was written in such a way as to be very YMMV and inciting responses, honestly? This just boils down to the same advice we keep seeing: Eat your damn leftovers, save money and time. Still, props to her for getting people to read the article, even if her message was couched in so much backpedaling and inflammatory language in an attempt to sound fresh and exciting as to be lost.
Really though, eat your leftovers. It will save you money. And is something we will probably discuss regularly here at HJ Waxing Moon. One day I'll share my awesome stuffed green peppers recipe with you, which is the beginnings of Mexi-casserole later in the week, when layered with red beans and rice. Three of my favorite meals!
I love making thing that I can stretch through the week's menu! Tonight we roasted a turkey for our weekly game night, tomorrow the carcass from said turkey will be the base for soup and blt night, and then sunday the leftover meat will turn into turkey enchiladas. So it's not so much that I'm eating the same thing for 4 days in a row, it's that I'm using my leftovers as the bases for "new" meals.
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