The Expense of Making Healthful Choices

This summer we are away from home for nearly two months.  We are staying in an apartment in the Chicago area with a mostly equipped kitchen, so cooking is definitely not out of the question.  When we first arrived and I looked in the cupboards, I found salt, pepper, peanut butter, sugar and a couple of cans of beans.  Not a whole lot to work with, so I really needed to start from scratch.

Meanwhile, my daughter is working on her cooking adventure and blog, so our meals have been pretty much planned for us.  If we were home, I would have most, if not all, of the basic ingredients and tools on hand.  We would have had to shop for some groceries along the way, but I don't think we would have had to go through each recipe with a fine tooth comb, writing down almost every ingredient on our shopping list like we have done here.

The thing I have learned through this process is that making healthful choices and cooking with fresh, natural ingredients is very expensive!  Especially when you are just starting out!

I know that many of the pricey items I buy (like herbs and dried spices, oils and vinegars) can and will be used over and over in many recipes.  I will not have to restock them often, and usually they will not run out at the same time.  If I were just learning how to cook though, would I know that, or would I think, I can buy this jar of dried basil for $3 and then I still have to buy all the other ingredients, or I can buy this jar of spaghetti sauce for $2 and feed my whole family dinner for less than $5!   


This is a classic short term vs long term thinking problem like one I heard on NPR today:  If someone gave you a choice of getting $100 today or $120 next month, which would you take?  Really interesting article on how our brains work, but I digress...

I have spent hundreds of dollars on ingredients within a few short weeks in setting up a kitchen in which my daughter can learn to cook real, authentic and delicious recipes.  I do that because I KNOW that I am equipping her with a life long skill that will eventually benefit my grandchildren.  It would be much simpler and more cost efficient to buy convenience foods while we're here for a mere 7 weeks.

While I am not wealthy, I do have the means to make that choice, and life experiences and education that help me understand that not only is it worth it, but it is important to my health and that of my family.  Not to mention the fact that the food tastes delicious!

But when I go to giant American grocery stores, I become overwhelmed with the amount of choices people have and the convenience, and the prices!  But then I see the sheer size of so many of my fellow shoppers and I can't help but wonder, what's wrong with this picture?

Why are the unhealthy choices so inexpensive?  Why does it cost an arm and a leg to buy real cheese?   Do people even know that the "cheese" they are purchasing is a processed, cheese derivative, loaded down with sodium?  Do they know how many chemicals and preservatives they are filling their bodies with?

At this point I have more questions than answers, but I am convinced that somehow, this cycle of food,  fat and finances has to be broken.

Passing the Torch, or Not

My 12 year old daughter has entered the world of cooking and blogging.  This summer she is cooking her way through the cookbook Silver Spoon for Children and chronicling her adventure at Silver Spoon Summer.   I'm so proud of her as she is doing all the cooking completely on her own.

We are also learning together and the more she cooks, the more I realize how much knowledge I (and perhaps many cookbook writers) take for granted.  I'm trying to pass on tips without interfering with her independence.   Tips such as:

turn the heat on your pan, then add butter and oil

salt meat before you cook it

salt veggies after they are cooked

bring meat to room temperature before cooking it

Fortunately we are in the US this summer and all the ingredients are (relatively) easy to find.   Today's recipe calls for mascarpone which is difficult to find in Tokyo and is also very expensive.  What will we do when we want to repeat this recipe when we return?

Substitute of course!  A quick google search turned up this solution:

16 ounces cream cheese

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Hot Sauce

Sometimes the things I make are not planned. For example, last week, my friend Colleen gifted me with six jalapeno peppers grown in her friend's garden in Connecticut. Friend had sent a package of home grown vegetables to work in Manhattan with her husband to give to Colleen's husband, who then carried them home on the train to New Jersey. Colleen and hubby don't eat spicy foods much, so I became the lucky recipient of the peppers.

I had never cooked with fresh, hot peppers before, having only used jalapenos from a can, so it took me a few days and some polling and research to decide what to do with them. I ended up having an interesting conversation with my neighbor's nanny, who is from the Carribean. She said that if she had the peppers, she would make hot sauce.

What? Make hot sauce? I never even knew such a thing was possible! Nanny Felicia only gave sketchy details, so I did some internet research on my own, and found that there are numerous sites devoted to hot sauce making and almost as many different methods for making it. True to my usual form, I read many different recipes and then delved in with my own ideas.

First I donned some latex gloves before washing and cutting the peppers. (The look on my neighbor's face when I answered the doorbell without removing the gloves was priceless). I removed some, but not all all the seeds and placed the cut up peppers in a pyrex bowl. I also cut up one red onion and added a clove of garlic. I measured a half cup of vinegar and poured it over the vegetables. I covered the bowl with microwave-safe lid and boiled the mixture in the microwave until the vegetables were tender, stirring occasionally. (The reason I didn't boil in a saucepan was that I read that the vinegar and peppers will react to metals, and I didn't know if my pans were non reactive, so I thought I'd better stick to glass)

After the peppers, garlic and onions were tender, I used my immersion blender to blend the mixture into a cream like consistency. Then I added 1/2 tsp each of salt and sugar. I mixed this and poured the sauce into a sterilized jar and store it in the refridgerator. So far we've had it on pizza, and it was very tasty!

I had to wash all the utensils and dishes used by hand and then run them through the dishwasher twice, but it was worth it!

And now I can mark Tabasco sauce off my shopping list for a while longer. Thanks Colleen!

Summer Pasta

The editors at Gourmet magazine might not love the changes I make to their recipes, but these changes make it possible for my (picky) children to eat (almost) the same meal as the adults present. I knew that tortelloni would be a hard sell, but penne is a consistent hit.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Salt, and add 1/2 lb penne, setting timer according to directions on the box. Add a bag of dried tortelloni at the appropriate time. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, in a small frying pan, fry 4 strips of turkey bacon (chopped) and 1 clove garlic (crushed) in 1/4 cup butter. When they reach desired consistency, add 2 cups cut corn.

Dice 2 ripe tomatoes and place in a serving bowl. Add the corn mixture and mix.

Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup pasta broth. Add drained pasta to the tomato mixture along with reserved broth. Mix in 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil and salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!

Intentions

I went from Sunday to Saturday without cooking a meal for my family and we weren't travelling. I think that is a personal record for me since becoming a mom, and I didn't like it very much. The reason was that the kids and I were all participating in VBS for the week, them as "campers" and me as a teacher, and dinner was provided there every evening. I was reminded of being at camp as I descended the strairs to the church basement every afternoon, wondering what I might be eating for dinner. It was a strange sensation to have no control over what my choices would be, both for myself and my children, and I discovered that it is not anything I am willing to relinquish. It was a much needed, welcome break that made me appreciate once again the privelege that I have of cooking for my family every night.

My cooking mind was not idle all week though. On our last weekly trip to the library I picked up a few cookbooks that I thought looked interesting. Our library has an extensive selection of cooking and food related books, so I thought I would glean what I could from them and spare myself the cost of buying more cookbooks.

One was entitled The Classic Mediterranean Cookbook and was written by Sarah Woodward. I found it to be informative, and I especially appreciated the photographs of herbs, seafood and produce that I am not quite as familiar with. I thought I would capitalize on my family recently having seen the movie Ratatouille and loving it by making rararouille. Not a big hit, let me assure you (I didn't like it so much myself, but perhaps I added too much thyme - I should have left it out altogether I think). I will jot down several recipes and ideas from this cookbook before I return it.

Another book I borrowed was the Culinary Institute of America's Gourmet Meals in Minutes . This one opened with a lengthy section on stocking a pantry and prepping a kitchen. I sat down and read it as though it was a novel! It was useful, informative, interesting, and most of all, managable and seemed within the range of my abilities and common sense! Armed with my post-it notes for marking interesting pages, I started leafing through the recipes. I soon found that I was about to run out of post-its and realized that I would never copy down all these recipes! I proceeded to log onto my Amazon.com account and add the book to my wish list post haste!

I will go through the entire cookbook again soon (reading) and single out a few recipes to try first, and I fully intend to renew the book for the 16 week duration, unless I purchase my own copy first!

The newest issue of Gourmet which arrived today also had a great many recipes that I wanted to try out right away. Perhaps I am giddy after my week off from cooking, but I should have plenty to write about in the weeks to come! That is if I don't get too sidetracked painting all the bedrooms upstairs while the kids are at day-camps this week...

Coffee Cake

Sometime during all my Christmas baking and preparation, I came to the realization that I need more than one set of measuring cups, so the next time the opportunity presented itself, I bought a set of black, Oxo ones. Upon unstacking them for washing when I reached home, I discovered that this particular set includes separate cups for 2/3 and 3/4 cups. This was new to me. In the past (the dark ages?), when I needed 2/3 of a cup of something, I would fill my 1/3 cup twice, or if I needed 3/4 cup of something, I even had a choice! I could use the 1/4 cup three times, or use it only once, and also dirty the 1/2 cup. Or, if I was really lazy/pressed for time, I would eye-ball it in my 1C measuring cup. Not so anymore. Now I can be P.R.E.C.I.S.E.

All joking aside, I soon found out that these new cups can come in handy, as you too can discover if you try this recipe for cofffee cake that I have made more times that I can even begin to remember.



Yogurt Coffee Cake

2 1/4 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 C brown sugar
1 C white sugar

Mix throroughly, then add 3/4 C canola oil

Remove 3/4 C of the above mixture and place in a small bowl. Add 1 tsp cinnamon and crumble. Set aside.

To the remaining mixture add:

1 tsp baking sode
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 C yogurt

Beat until smooth and pour into 8x9 pan. Top with crumbled mixture and bake at 350 F for 40 minutes.

Product Review

I've been intrigued by these slow cooker liners that I've seen ads for in magazines, so when I saw boxes of them prominently displayed in my grocery store, I fell victim to the advertising campaign and product placement and threw a box into my cart. Earlier this week I cooked chicken stew (not a big winner, so I won't bother to post the recipe) and decided to try out said bags.

First of all, the bag seemed a bit big for my slow cooker, but of course this would not be universal as mine is on the small side. It felt strange to be placing my ingredients in a plastic bag where I knew they would simmer for the next 8 to 10 hours. I set aside my hesitation however and proceeded to fill the pot with vegetables, raw chicken and a some stock.

The cooking went well - in reality I couldn't tell a huge difference between having the bag and not having it. I disliked stirring the stew with it in the bag because the wooden spoon had a tendency to catch on the bottom of the bag and move it around (could be partially due to the size disparity between cooker and bag). The meal did not taste "plasticky" at all, and clean up WAS easier. I didn't have to soak or scrub at all. I just placed the pot and the lid in the dishwasher.

Was it worth it? I'm not sure. I still don't like the thoughts of my food cooking in a plastic bag, but it did make clean up a breeze. I'm sure I'll use up the other 3 liners in the box, but I don't think I'll go out of my way to buy a new box.

NYT Childhood Obesity

This NYT articlethe other day about childhood obesity made me so sad. The author of the article, Jodi Kantor, wrote about a school district in PA where they have begun sending children's BMI scores home with report cards. I guess the idea is that "the powers that be" would like for parents to become aware of how their children compare with national standards.

This is such a loaded topic as people tend do be very private and defensive about both their weight and their parenting, and by sending these scores home with the report cards, people will naturally associate their BMI scores with being "graded" on their weight (and by extention, perhaps for some, their parenting).

I felt somewhat put off by the underlying tone of the article which I felt was condescending. It seemed as though there was a veiled sense of "look at these poor, uneducated, fat people who refuse to admit that their children have a problem that needs to be dealt with." Quotes such as

"On a recent school trip to New York, the girls felt like visitors from a different, chubbier planet, they said.
'They’re all this big,” said Cassie Chase, holding her arms close together, “and we’re all this big,” she said, flinging them wide open.'"

left me feeling like there was an "Us (healthy) vs Them (unhealthy)" divide.

Nevertheless, this is concerning:

The farmers and foundry workers here in north-central Pennsylvania have different ideas about weight than those of the medical authorities who set the standards (the percentiles are based on pre-1980 measurements because the current population of children is too heavy to use as a reference). Here, the local pizza chain is called Pudgie’s. Nearby Mansfield’s fanciest restaurant serves its grilled chicken salad piled with fries.
Nearly 60 percent of eighth graders in the district scored in the 85th percentile or higher in 2003-4; more than a quarter had scores in the 95th percentile or higher, meaning they were officially overweight.

Kantor mentions the disparity between the food choices children are offered at school (funnel cakes and pizza for breakfast for example) and alerting parents to BMI numbers. The school district is clearly sending a mixed message. How are children, or parents for that matter, supposed to excersize healthy choices and adjust their sense of normalcy when no healthy modeling is provided?

I don't know what the answers are, but I am certain that they lie in education. Parents need to be educated, and then the children. Are the parents really surpised to see that their children have a high BMI? How about redirecting some of the money that goes to reporting these scores to educating parents? Could healthier choices be added in the cafeteria menu if the number of choices were pared down?

I think this mother says it best:

"Christina Bové is the mother of three children who attend the Blossburg schools. She clutched a picture of her 9-year-old son, Christian, in a bathing suit, to prove that he was not “at risk of overweight,” as his 92nd percentile score had indicated.
The letter was inaccurate — and useless, Ms. Bové said. “The school provides us with this information with no education about how to use it or what it means,” she said."

Isn't it possible to inform, educate and empower people without belittling them and making them feel defensive?

Spicy Quiche with Avocado

Crust:

1 1/2 cups flour
7 Tbsp cold butter, cut up
1 egg yolk
2 Tbsp cold water

Cut butter into flour with pastry cutter until crumbly. Add egg yolk and water and knead into a dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Filling:

Beat together in a bowl:
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk (NOT condensed)
3 eggs + white
salt/pepper to taste

1 cup leftover taco chicken
1 cup shredded cheese
1 sliced avocado

Bake at 400 for 35-40 minutes.



Not everyone in our family likes avocado, so part of the quiche had none.

Chicken Wraps

This week, K, who just turned 8, decided that she wanted to cook dinner for the family. She consulted her DK Children's Cookbook and found a recipe for chicken wraps that she wanted to try and then proceeded to make a shopping list for me. We discussed the things she would like to change, and decided that it was all right to omit the snow peas and exchange green peppers for red. Apart from cutting the chicken, K succeeded in cooking the whole meal herself.

Cutting up the green pepper requires full concentration.

Stirring the chicken and vegetables

Squeezing out the lime juice

Filling the wraps

The finished product

Chicken Wraps

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips

1 green pepper

8 flour tortillas

juice of 1/2 lime

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp honey

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Asian hot and sour sauce

Wrap the tortillas in foil and heat in 375 oven for 6 minutes.

Stir together olive oil, honey, salt and hot sauce in a medium sized bowl. Put chicken in bowl and stir until each piece is coated.

Preheat a skillet, then add chicken and fry for 2-3 minutes and then turn. Add peppers to skillet. Stir mixture and squeeze lime juice over it.

Spoon chicken and pepper mixture into the tortillas and fold to make "envelopes". Secure with toothpicks if necessary.

Next time I might add onion and garlic, and perhaps some other colors of peppers or additional vegetables. More hot sauce might also be desirable for adults. This could be good with fresh tomato salsa and/or guacamole.