I answered a list of various questions about my opinions and practices on real food that Katie posed and she chose several of them to compare with another real food blogger, Ann Marie of Cheeseslave.
I've actually been a reader of Cheeseslave for over a year and wish I'd had the opportunity to meet her when we lived in the same city, but I had just discovered her blog before I moved to Nebraska! I'm sure that we passed each other at the local Farmer's Markets, and I always enjoy seeing my old stomping grounds in the photos on her blog. Cheeseslave is a co-host of Real Food Wednesday, which I'm a frequent contributor. Please go visit her!
If you are visiting for the first time from the Face-Off, welcome! Have a look around! Here's my recipe index for fun browsing . . . if you're a regular reader, I encourage you to click over and read the Face-Off!
Go here to see the Real Food Face-Off and below, I've posted ALL of my answers to ALL of the questions Katie posed, so you can get a chance to get to know me better! Thank you Katie for hosting the Real Food Face-Off, I've so enjoyed being a part of it!
The Questions:
1. How do you describe the way you eat when someone asks you to define your food?
We eat real food. Meat, eggs, fruit, veggies, cheese, yogurt, dairy. Some, but minimal grains and legumes. We eat food that could be produced before the Industrial Revolution. I always loved to cook, always loved to eat and I really began learning more about the real food lifestyle when I was in high school and deciding which college to attend and what career to pursue. I had scholarships for both International Business and Culinary Arts. I chose International Business but wanted to continue to learn about cooking so began reading Jacques Pepin's Technique book and Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I wanted to teach myself the basics from mother sauces to knife skills, on my own, at home. From there I sort of stumbled across the real and nourishing food movement and haven't looked back. It made sense to me, to eat . . . food. Pared down to the original source. Not food products. Not processed foods. Just, food.
2. What was/is your major incentive for living a real food lifestyle? (How did you come to eat the way you do?)
Now that I'm a mother, I realize that the health of my family, today and in the future, is literally in my hands. I feel it is important to know what they need to not only survive, but thrive, while having fun and enjoying food at the same time. Watching my children relish, with gusto, fresh fruits and veggies, eat all varieties of cheeses and yogurts, pick off and devour (with fat little toddler fingers) all of the crispy skin off of a roast chicken before eating the meat, and being open to new foods and new cuisines, those moments are what make the "work" (which I often think is fun) of living a real food lifestyle worth it!
3. If you only had energy for ONE make-from-scratch food, what would it be? Is your preference for taste or health?
So many of our staples, like yogurt or chicken stock, take so little time or effort it is hard to decide! I guess the one thing that I cook that takes effort that I'd continue to develop is my sourdough starter and it's myriad of uses. I adore taking the time and effort to make artisinal and sandwich breads, but I also love the convenience of the sourdough starter for a quick lunch of cheese crepes when I run out of bread or tortillas for my toddler, or a foccacia to round out dinner. Sourdough is both healthy and tasty!
4. What food was your favorite that you no longer eat (or shouldn’t eat)?
Chili Cheese Fritos. I never ate them very often, nor do I like or crave the other pseudo-flavored chips (like Doritos) but with both prengnancies I have craved them. They are deliciously terrible for you.
5. What’s your favorite real/traditional food?
This is a really hard question to answer. We eat so seasonally that what I crave in the summer is far different than what I serve in the winter. A favorite meal? Grilled grass-fed rib-eye (bone-on, medium, thank you) with green beans with balsamic tomatoes, bacon and basil, a glass of red wine, and a mix of fresh peaches and blackberries with whipped cream for dessert. That would be my ultimate meal – I'm a summer-food-lover at heart.
6. What was the hardest transition to make to real food?
I think the hardest transition is eating out and eating in other people's homes. You can get rid of so much bad stuff out of your own cupboards, but it's very difficult to make good decisions wen you're faced with a barbecue of pre-formed hamburgers or hot dogs, white-bread buns made with corn syrup and soy oil, American cheese, store-bought potato salad and barbecue potato chips topped off with brownies made from a box. What do you do? We try to make good choices with what is available, but also recognize that our hosts are offering and providing this food with the best of intentions, and so we eat with a thankful heart, and make sure to eat well the next day!
7. What’s something you remain afraid to try?
I'm still working my way to eating more offal.
8. What’s next on your list of changes to make?
This summer I am going to be growing a big garden and learning how to preserve foods via canning. Over the past few years we've lived in apartments and townhomes in big cities with little access to growing space – now that we've got a backyard, we'll be taking advantage of it! I love lacto-fermentation, I love freezing produce, but I'm looking forward to being able to preserve our bounty and store it in the pantry.
9. List your top 3 baby steps to move from a Standard American Diet to Real Food.
1 - Learn what the ingredients are in the processed foods you're buying. Pick one thing to start removing from your diet (soy, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, etc.), read labels and choose your groceries wisely.
2 – Take your favorite recipes and start augmenting them to make them healthier, whether adjusting ingredients or cooking process – you won't eat healthier if you're not comfortable with what is on the dinner plate!
3 - Fill your fridge and your meals with real food. Think about what you're putting in your mouth and make a conscious decision to choose something real.
10. What is the worst food (or “food”) a person could possibly put into their systems?
Soy – Soy Oil, Texturized Vegetable Protein, Soy Protein Isolate, Soy lecithin, Hydrolized Soy Protein, etc., etc. I do admit to using a good quality soy sauce and enjoying a bowl of miso soup from time to time, but, being a commodity, soy is hidden in so many foods these days it is hard to find a processed food without it and most of the time the soy is GMO! Even a Grade A fresh Turkey I bought around Thanksgiving had wheat, milk and soy in it (which I was not happy about!) Soy is a thryoid disruptor and mimics estrogen, something no one needs more of than what their body naturally produces, especially growing children!
Granted, I enjoy the occasional bowl of miso soup and splash of soy sauce when we eat sushi out, but I don't want it hidden in my bread, lunch meat or peanut M&Ms.
11. If you had only $20 to spend in a week on real food, what would you buy and what would you make?
(assuming I did have a few pantry staples) Eggs, cheese, butter, cream, a seasonal vegetable of some kind and organic baby spinach. I'd make poached eggs in marinara for dinner (thanks for the inspiration, Kristen!), a Florentine frittata for breakfast or dinner one night and eggs en cocotte with a fresh spinach salad. Cheese for a snack and maybe a seasonal veggie with a cheese sauce for dinner, if it's wintertime, or sliced and eaten fresh if it's summertime.
12. What does “eating healthy” mean to you?
Eating healthy means eating, and enjoying, real food. Not worrying about the calorie count of your yogurt or slice of bread, not focusing on the minute nutrient content about each bite, but eating good, solid, varied meals with a healthy attitude and a healthy appetite.
13. Name the top food scoring highest on both the nutritional and budget scale? (i.e., best health benefits for the lowest cost)
Eggs. They are inexpensive and have an amazing amount of good nutrients, minerals and fats. Not to mention they are one of the most versatile ingredients available, from scrambled to a custard to a frittata to snacked on hard boiled. They can be eaten for every meal plus dessert. We try to eat them every day.
14. Biggest drawback of real food lifestyle?
Having to cook a lot of things from scratch. I love to cook, obviously, but sometimes thinking that you and your children need to eat everything that other kids eat (including cookies and crackers not to mention normal meals) and it gets a bit overwhelming. I've learned that variety does not always mean tasty or useful and that an apple and cheese make a perfect snack, far better than Goldfish.
15. What’s the most creative thing you do to make life easier in the kitchen?
I take advantage of two favorite kitchen tools – my crockpot and my food processor. My crockpot is my best friend; I use it to make yogurt, chicken stock, condiments (like caramelized onion marmalade) and, occasionally, dinner! My food processor I use for making bread crumbs, slicing cabbage for cortido, pico de gallo or sauerkraut, making baby food, shredding cheese, making pesto and making bread and cracker doughs.
16. How important is organic food?
For me, being "organic" is less important to me than it being real and made or grown the way I think is best, specifically for meats, eggs, dairy etc. In terms of animal products, it is more important to me to choose products that are raised well and in the manner I think is healthiest, than labeled organic; I'd rather purchase raw milk from a local farmer that I know treats their cows well but isn't necessarily labeled organic, than buy UHT Pasteurized, Homogenized organic milk shipped in from several states away. I'd rather buy Daisy sour cream and cottage cheese that have no fillers and is not organic, than buy a specialty organic sour cream or cottage cheese that has guar gum, nonfat dry milk, citric acid and preservatives in the ingredients, and I'd rather buy farm-raised eggs from chickens that I know were free range, than organic eggs from caged hens fed organic "feed" at the the grocery store.
We do try to buy some organic fruits and vegetables, but when we can't, we just wash what we do buy very well and serve. We're hoping to grow a large garden this summer to compensate!
17. What do you refuse to buy at a grocery store that you do eat from its source?
Fish. Being from Alaska, I'm a fish snob, I grew up eating it freshly caught in the wild and eaten or processed within twelve hours of catching it. Now that I live in the Midwest it is difficult to find good, fresh fish. I can not buy fish from my local grocery store, they carry it but it is frequently farmed and smells horrible so I don't buy it, but I do buy it from a specialty fish shop in town, Whole Foods and occasionally from Costco (with a thorough reading of the fine print).
18. When eating out, how do make your menu decision (fave “out” food, anything you avoid)?
When we go out we normally go out for food that we can't or don't make at home. Sushi, Thai food or specialty meals like oysters on the half shell for an appetizer followed by crispy duck or osso bucco (and oh yes, I eat that marrow spread on crusty bread – YUM!).
I avoid fast food. If I am in the mood for a burger, I'll seek out a local diner or family run "fast food" restaurant that I know makes their burgers by hand over a nationwide chain.
19. Best book recommendations?
Favorite cookbook authors include Julia Child, she taught me how best to use ALL of the ingredients and leftovers I have on hand, Jamie Oliver, Ina Garten and Nigella Lawson. They eat real food and never or rarely use any processed or packaged foods in their recipes. I've been influenced by everything from Sally Fallon and Nancy Enig and also love the honesty of Nina Planck.
20. Number one tip you tell your blog readers about eating healthy foods:
Be reasonable, cook what you like to eat in a healthier manner, don't be afraid to try new things and new techniques and if you can't figure out how your ancestors made a food before the Industrial Revolution, you probably shouldn't eat it.
Katie will be hosting several more Real Food Face-Off's over the next few weeks, check back often!
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