Recovery Week

Sorry this post is so darn late but it further proves our need for a recovery week. Life has been crazy these past few weeks and especially THIS week I have not been able to focus on anything, including food. We have not been eating poorly necessarily. I have been making salads and eating fruit. But food has definitely not been our focus.

So what is going on? I just had an amazing bridal shower throw by Ryan's mom and sister at a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Silverton, Oregon. As a result I have tons of presents to put away thanks to our generous guests. One friend recently came over and said, "your house looks like the Crate & Barrel warehouse." I think this friend was being too kind because a warehouse would never be as disorganized as what we have going on. I also have thank you notes to write! And laundry and packing to do because we leave for a family raft trip this Friday. So between eating rafting food and bridal shower food and some quick food in the middle we are pretty much too busy to give a food rule the focus it deserves.

Next week.

In the meantime, here are two pictures to give you a taste of what we are dealing with in the Orwick household:

Sushi Madness & Rule #51

This past week we finally got it together to do something we have been wanting to try since December 2010: homemade sushi. For Christmas I bought Ryan all of the things needed to make sushi (besides the fish) and somehow we have put off trying it until now. BUT, what better week to try it then a week that has a food rule focused on the first bite! Sushi is all about first bites because you can make each bite taste a little different depending on the filling and what condiments you add.

Below are the pictures from our Sushi Madness. We intended on making three different rolls: 1. Shrimp tempura roll 2. Spicy tuna roll 3. Veggie roll Little did we know that each recipe made enough for four plus rolls on it's own. Thus, we ended up with sushi madness. It was pretty intense for two people to try and eat 12+ rolls in under 24 hours. We ended up having sushi breakfast, sushi lunch, and two sushi dinners just because we wanted to eat it all in the 24-hour window before the raw fish became at risk for spoilage.
















This week we are moving on to Rule #51: Spend as much time enjoying the meal as it took to prepare it. This will be a week with a lot of homemade goodness so we can take our time to eat slowly and enjoy our delicious food.

Slooooowwwwwww DOWN! & Rule #50

Trying to eat slower is a near impossible task unless you have some pretty intense focus. Our normal dinner conversations this past week went:

"KK, we need to eat slowly." "Alright." (3 bites later...) "Oh shoot, I forgot." (Repeat).

I remember a meditation weekend I did in college where there was no talking allowed. We ate in silence and really concentrated on every bite of food. I was surprised how fast I would become full because I was so attuned to my body. Also, each bite of food (even though it was Whitman food service--which I have to say was pretty delicious) tasted amazing because we allowed ourselves to pay attention to every hint of flavor.

Now I am stuck eating dinner every night with the love of my life.....not too bad, but it is definitely harder to eat slowly when we are concentrating on sharing/listening about the day's events.

This week we have Rule #50: "The banquet is in the first bite." This means that we should be savoring the first bite because it's all down hill after that.....less exciting taste and more calories. Kind of reminds me of what they say about drugs....you can keep eating (or shooting up) but the first bite (the first high) will never be as good as all of the rest, but you keep eating (using) hoping that is not the case.

This past weekend my childhood neighborhood showered me with love. It was an amazing event and not only did I get a lot of new and exciting stuff for the kitchen...I also got a favorite recipe from each guest. This should keep me very busy because I want to try them all!

"Consult Your Gut!" & Rule #49

A common phrase this past week in the Orwick household has been "Consult your gut!" (usually exclaimed as someone gets up for seconds of something). It's amazing how much your visual perception of something dictates how much you eat. For example, if I dish Ryan up and spread the helping all over the plate he seems more satisfied with the portion size than if I put the helping in one heap on his plate. Sometimes it was not fun consulting my gut because I would really want "one more piece."

This upcoming week we have Rule #49: Eat Slowly. I ate dinner the other night with a dear friend and we had these amazing wings at Pok Pok (Portland people should know what I am talking about). My friend and I marveled afterwards on what a good menu choice this was because it forced us to eat slowly (pulling the meat off the bones with our hands), which in turn helped us to consult the gut. Pollan recommends you eat slowly in one of two ways: 1. Liquefy your food & 2. Put down your fork between bites.

Here is a picture (sorry it's kind of dark) of me learning to belly dance at a Lebanese restaurant we went to for my friend's birthday (another occasion when it was not so fun to consult the gut!):




HAPPY 4th of JULY EVERYONE!