Some junk, Some Adventure & Rule #40

I had a lot of grand plans...such as making homemade donuts. We were having burgers for dinner, however, and I thought onion rings would be a good start to cooking homemade junk food. And by the time I finished with the onion rings I could not bear to look at, much less EAT, anything cooked in that amount of oil. So beer-battered onion rings were our homemade junk food this week and they were delicious. It was my first time making them. Ryan whipped up a spicy creamy sauce and I was in heaven. Even though they were onion rings they tasted healthier because I made them--less grease and less salt. At the same time, making this meal myself made me realize how unhealthy they were--they were fried in a huge pot of oil....so that meant that I ate less, or at least didn't want to make the donuts for dessert that I intended on cooking.






In other news my wonderful life partner cooked an amazing Asian meal. Please see the pictures below of the tofu stir fry, citrus sesame salad, and noodle crab cakes and you will understand why I am marrying this guy.




Next week we will be following Rule #40: Be the kind of person who takes supplements--then skip the supplements. AAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! I don't care if it's mental or what but I rely on my supplements like none other. My prediction is that I will get sick without them. The challenge will be trying to eat healthy enough foods that I won't need the supplements. I am guessing there will be a lot of fish in my future this week.

In happier news here is the most beautiful orange I have ever seen:


PS. I can't end this post without mentioning that I went food trippin' this past week with Erin. I don't know if you have ever heard about this but it is seriously weird. You dissolve this berry (in pill form) and swish it around your mouth. It then blocks off certain taste buds so that you experience food entirely differently--most food became sweet. Tonic water tasted like soda! Lemons tasted like lemonade! I was peer pressured into this but I was happy I tried it. Luckily, the effect only lasts an hour and then your taste buds return to normal. I highly recommend this activity!

Oils, LA, and Rule #39

I am late writing this because I went to LA for the weekend. My sister goes to school there and is studying to be an opera singer. I was fortunate enough to get to see her junior recital. It was so good that she made me cry and if you know me I am not the crying type.

As for eating traditionally stoned ground oils I can say that I didn't cook with anything that wasn't traditionally stoned ground; however, I sadly had no time to really cook this past week, much less experiment with different oils. This will have to come at a later date. On the bright side my sister was able to show me the wide range of cuisines that Portland lacks....sure, we have Chinese, Japanese, Mexican, etc. but it does not compare to the authenticity that I experienced in L.A. We went to a Chinese restaurant where nobody spoke English and the cooks made their own noodles. They cut them into the soup. We then went to a Polish restaurant thanks to my Aunt and Uncle. I got a spicy sausage and some of the best cabbage soup I have ever had. We had good Thai thanks to Andy and his parents. We also had good Indian....Indian that actually served Indian food opposed to what Americans think that Indian food should be. I was in heaven. I know my sister is going to kill me for not posting pictures yet but they are coming Lily...! Ryan and I finally had time to cook our first meal in what seems like a long-time tonight. I love this weeks rule #39: Eat all the junkfood you want as long as you cook it yourself. Awesome!

The Dread of the White Bread and Rule #38

We attempted to be extra prepared this week by starting it out with the best smell in the whole wide world: home baked bread. We got a new bread machine as an early wedding present (thank you!). We missed R2D2 (our old bread machine that was the cutest bread machine ever and had the best quirks) but this new bread machine makes bread a whole lot faster.





Ryan broke down towards the end of the week when we went out to dinner at a place with amazing burgers. The restaurant didn't have whole wheat buns and Ryan's craving for the burger got the best of him (I am guilty as well because I took a bite). For the most part, however, we ate whole grains.

Next week will be Rule 38: Favor the kinds of oils that have traditionally been stone-ground. After doing a handy-dandy google search I have learned that this includes olive oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, and palm fruit oil (not sure what this last one is....?). We might try to find some palm fruit oil to spice things up.

In other news, we ended up buying something off our own wedding registry because Ryan got so excited he could not wait! This is a problem because we are such cooks that we hardly had anything to register for in the first place. BUT I am glad we ended up doing this because life just got a whole lot simpler. We ended up buying glass jars to store all the foods we buy in bulk (think flours, sugars, etc.). This was a necessity because storing all our bulks in plastic bags was the biggest nightmare if one of them developed a whole (think flours, sugars, etc. all over the floor!). Here is a wedding present to ourselves!:




HOORAY! Hopefully this trend will not continue because (a) we cannot afford presents to ourselves and (b) getting gifts from others is fun because then we can think of all the special people in our lives every time we use them!

My Milk Stayed White & Rule #37

Well, my milk stayed kind of white this week...except when I made smoothies for breakfast and blended my smoothies with berries.



But I did not have any artificial coloring, which I think was the point of this rule. This upcoming week Rule #37 we will have to pay attention to color again because: The whiter the bread, the sooner you'll be dead. Aside from the occasionally baguette we have stopped eating white bread already. When I bake I also try to incorporate whole wheat flour. Sometimes this doesn't work out so well (ie dutch babies) but every once in a while we get an extra nice surprise (ie gingerbread cake).

Sweetened with Sunshine & Rule #36

We avoided unnatural sugar this week. After researching we found that there are lots of differing opinions when it comes to the term "natural." We defined this term by clarifying that the sugar we ate didn't contain any additives (such as coloring). We pretty much stuck to sugars that are naturally found in fruits and vegetables. Here are a few of our favorite naturally sweet things we ate this week:

My sweet fiance sweetening his whole grain waffle with some maple syrup!


Tangerines


Sweet Potatoes


Carmelized Onions (we have these at least once a week)


Honey


Next week we will be following rule #36: Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of your milk. This rule is straight forward and will be easy for us because we have not had this type of cereal since we began this food challenge.

In other news Ryan and I signed our catering contract this week for the wedding. Because food is so important to us we went with a small catering company called Phresh that uses local and organic products. The owner said that he will often go to farmer's markets the morning before they cook to purchase their food. I'm not giving away all of the surprises of the wedding but I can promise that we are having some atypical wedding food (the caterers worked with us to create a special menu of things they have never cooked before!). The tasting was amazing and Ryan and I are so excited!!!

Pizza Redemption & Rule #35

We survived our hardest week in a while: No pre-added salt or sugar. This was an exceptionally hard week because multiple people wanted to take us out to dinner and how do you eat at a restaurant without consuming food that has salt and sugar not pre-added? WELL, we figured it out: SUSHI! We went sushi crazy and had some delicious meals. Also, my aunt and uncle were in town from California and we spent time with them and my mom's cooking (I watched her add the salt and sugar to some things). I felt super healthy this week. Snacking was focused on healthy things. Not eating cheese (lots of pre-added salt) was one of the hardest parts of this week. We managed to cook a pizza at my mom's with a white sauce and no cheese that was amazing! Yay for pizza redemption from the sardine episode.....(shudder).

This upcoming week is rule #35: Eat sweet foods as you find them in nature. All I can say is thank goodness this rule isn't happening over Easter weekend (aka jelly bean coma day). Here come's a week of no unnatural sugar. Also, Pollan specifies no juice even if it is from a natural source due to the quick absorption of sugars and the lack of feeling "full" due to the lack of fiber.

Fermented Fun Times and Rule #34

This past week we ate a lot of different foods containing live microorganisms. This might sound weird...especially the way Pollan describes it as food that has been "predigested by bacteria or fungi." Tasty, right? When people asked us what our rule was this week I kept forgetting how to explain it aside from "Eat yogurt and tofu and stuff....yeah." I am sad to report we didn't try anything too exciting. My mom suggested something I have never heard of but there weren't enough hours in a day to get it (wedding planning is basically done though!). So, if I try this mystery food in the near future I will include a special post about it because I am sure everyone is curious now (sorry!).

This upcoming week is Rule #31: Sweeten and salt your food yourself. My prediction: Ryan is going to LOVE this rule.

Sicky Fishy & Rule #33

My oh my this past week was HORRIBLE. I am a brave eater and always have been....but stinky canned fish I cannot do. In fact, I don't even eat canned tuna. This is not food for humans. This is food fit for cats. HOWEVER, when starting out the week I tried to keep a positive attitude. We went to the store and bought a couple cans of sardines, anchovies, etc. On Tuesday night I decided to dig in.

Making a sardine pizza sounded logical for several reasons. Reason A: Pizza is delicious. Reason B: Even bad pizza (pizza hut for example) is delicious. And Reason C: I love making pizza.

I made my own whole wheat cornmeal pizza crust and topped it with sauce and cheese. Ryan then used a can of sardines and we stuck it in the oven. Not only did our whole house smell like vomit, my first bite of sardines had me running for the toilet. I would like to attribute this to the sickness I endured days after this horrible bite of sticky fish. Ryan, who generally likes stinky canned fish agreed that it was the most disgusting thing ever. We tried to pick the sardines off and salvage the pizza but the juices had saturated all the way through. The pizza was a goner and was placed in it's rightful place: The Trash. In my whole entire life, I never thought I would throw away pizza. Folks, this day came and went and I am scared I will never look at pizza the same way again.

I spent the rest of the week trying to eat Caesar dressing, something that I do enjoy. Ryan ate some more canned fish. Bottom line: Cons outweigh the pros on this rule. Stick to fish oil pills and save your taste buds.

I am excited for this week Rule #33:Eat some foods that have been predigested by bacteria or fungi. This rule will be a breath of fresh (non-fish-smelling) air after last week.

Amazing!!!

Inspiring me to do a better job with last week's rule....worth the read:

http://www.oregonlive.com/mix/index.ssf/food-trends/castagna-chef-matt-lightner-forages-the-northwest.html

Forage-less & Rule #32

Sorry Allison. We were so lame this past week. I had high hopes that we would do something exciting but Ryan and I both got the cold that is going around. In fact, I still have the cold and cannot get rid of it. We had one night of glory with wild salmon and mushrooms. Ryan and I, both achy-bodied and runny-nosed, forced ourselves to turn on the grill and make a delicious meal. So true, winter is not the season to go wild. My mom found this website when she heard what we were doing: http://www.wildfoodadventures.com/johnkallas.html Anyone want to do a class (when money goes on trees?)? Allison!?!?!



Rule #32 I have been dreading: Don't overlook the oily little fishes. I have never tried eating an oily little fish. And I never thought I wanted to. Just the idea of eating skin, bones, etc. of some greasy salty little thing makes me want to vomit. I thought I might break myself in by trying some on pizza.....verdict still to come.

In other news we finally got our freezer! They delivered us a broken one the first go around so on try #2 we have a functional freezer that is so big I bet both Ryan and I could fit inside. Now we need to work on filling it up!