Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Food

In an effort to be healthier, I have been trying to eat less sugar lately. And it has been surprisingly hard. I recently got into a really annoying habit of popping a few chocolate chips in my mouth throughout the day. Trying to resist those little morsels of deliciousness is nearly impossible.

Also, I have been attempting to cut down on the amount of dairy we eat. For the first two years of Porgie's life, we rarely ate dairy. We certainly didn't keep cheese, sour cream, and yogurt stocked in our fridge. But lately, we seem to have gone dairy crazy. Somehow, almost every meal I make now requires cheese. I am going to be honest with you - this makes me a HUGE hypocrite. I am a vegetarian because I am opposed to factory farming practices. Yet somehow, I have convinced myself that consuming dairy isn't as horrible as eating meat. But it is. The aim of factory farming is to produce as much meat, eggs, or milk at the lowest possible cost - regardless of the deplorable conditions and the animals' suffering. Dairy is just as bad a meat, and I need to stop candy coating it.

Finally, I am going to attempt a few new things in the kitchen. I want to start making my own bread. I have made bread a few times, and it was fabulous. However, it is hard to find the time to do it during the week. So, I am going to start baking loafs on the weekends and freezing them. Also, I want to start cooking actual meals for lunch. I typically keep food very simple during lunch - grilled cheese, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, boxed mac & cheese, etc. I think we would all benefit from a better meal plan.

Now I just have to find the time and motivation to achieve all of my goals. But as they say, "Lack of time is lack of desire."

8 comments:

Nicole S. said...

Are there local dairy farms near you where they let the cows on pasture? I source almost all or our milk and cheese from that type of farm - and they are usually family owned and operated. Its more expensive but for those times when you would really like milk or cheese, its nice to know you can make a guilt free decision.

Jenny said...

can't wait to hear about all the homemade breads.

i try and meal plan, it works for a week and then i screw it all up!

Jen said...

The Good Cook has a good recipe for bread that you make the dough once a week and then refrigerate the rest and pull of chunks whenever you want to bake a fresh loaf:

http://thegoodcooknj.blogspot.com/2010/03/view-of-things-to-come-artisan-bread.html

Good luck with the dairy! I have whittled our dairy intake down to local, free-range, organic eggs and cheese for the most part. It's hard though.

amanda said...

lack of time is lack of desire - omg sooo flippin true! why have i never heard that?

but for real honey i can't keep up with you - the healthy food, the craftyness!!! one day i hope i can be as motivated as you are!

Clare said...

good luck with all of your food goals!! i will be right there with you in two weeks time, not fun;)

Kris said...

Don't feel too bad, I think we all have our hypocrite moments. I know I do...

I hadn't seen your reason for being veg before, I can understand that... Its why we try to get halal meat as often as possible (most of ours is) because we know the animals were treated well. Dairy is harder to do halal and I guess we fall into that hypocrite category too on that.

I love making bread too. Haven't done it much lately, but planning to get back on track (or try) after we move.

Kate Coveny Hood said...

I'm going to try to start baking bread too! I recently discovered that making pasta is super easy (just a bit time consuming) and so much more delicious than the box kind. Bread is going to be my next project.

Anonymous said...

We are having a ton of dairy, too. Very hard to avoid though. And YUMMY.