Raise your hand if you only shop "the outside" of the grocery store? As in, you are an outsider. I am raising my hand.
I do occasionally have to pop into the inner aisles for something like olive oil or beans or nuts or raisins, but that's about it. Produce, meat, dairy, eggs...that's where the real food is at. The outside. For a smudge over a year, I have stayed fairly strict about eating food that is food. I've joked that if it comes from the ground or had a mother, I'll eat it. But really that is the food motto I live by.
I do occasionally have to pop into the inner aisles for something like olive oil or beans or nuts or raisins, but that's about it. Produce, meat, dairy, eggs...that's where the real food is at. The outside. For a smudge over a year, I have stayed fairly strict about eating food that is food. I've joked that if it comes from the ground or had a mother, I'll eat it. But really that is the food motto I live by.
Up until this summer, I never cheated except the day of a holiday. Not the week leading up to the holiday. The day of and the day of only. Now here is where I must admit that this summer I ate some chips and salsa and chicken wings and splashed it all down with a cold beer. It was summer. It was necessary. I also know I am at the point if I "cheat" one night, I won't be going and taking a head dive and falling off the whole wagon.
I also ate a piece of Momma Debi's fresh homemade rhubarb pie. With ice cream. Because the pie was hot out of the oven and it was necessary. But again, I know that since I have basically completely cut out white sugar for a whole year, my body is no longer addicted and does not crave sweet at all. Therefore, one piece of pie on a Sunday night at the farm does not equate to also eating three cookies the next afternoon and a brownie the day after.
And now that school is starting up again, I find myself being strict again. Eating and preparing only food that is food. Because food is for fuel.
My friend Danae has been rethinking her ideas about food and is climbing on board for "if it came from the ground or had a mother" eating. At first, she called me approximately six times a day asking, "Can I eat this?" or "What did you instead of that?" Now, she is learning that eating real food is not as difficult as it sounds and that your body absolutely does learn to not want sweet. She is also becoming amazing at finding yummy recipes online that are made with only real ingredients. Her family's tummies thank her. I just know it.
The two of us have started getting together to try new recipes. It's one big bag of win I tell you. Because cooking is even more fun than normal when it comes with quality friend time as well. And when it's over, we both have enough food to last a few days.
Last time, Danae called me the day before and said, "Okay so I found this recipe for chicken salad that looks good. But we need to make chicken stock. Not buy it. I think this involves a chicken carcass and I'm not sure how I feel about that."
My reply was, "I actually have a whole chicken in my freezer that a friend gave to me from their farm and you know what, I think it's time I learned how to cook a whole chicken. It's part of becoming an adult. It has to be."
Her answer was, "You do that part. Good idea."
So the day before cooking extravaganza, I grilled a whole chicken. First, I had to take out the neck and other funny business items from inside the chicken. This might have meant I had to give myself a pep talk about being an adult and I might have called Momma Debi for some moral support and I might have closed my eyes. But I did it. Then after it was grilled up, I took all of the meat off the bones and saved the carcass for the chicken stock.
Saved a chicken carcass. In my fridge. Never thought I'd see the day.
The next afternoon, at Danae's house, we cooked the carcass and made homemade chicken stock. Two fist pumps and a donkey kick for one more check on the "I'm an Adult" checklist of life.
Turns out chicken stock has to cook for several hours. Which gave us time to also make a stir-fry using vegetables from my garden and that sauce you see in the picture. It's like soy sauce only it's made with good for yo' body ingredients.
Mushrooms, carrots, and red onion were also added. Not from the garden.
And chicken. Not from the garden. I served it over brown rice and it was yum. Somebody ate it right up. I also steamed fresh beets from the garden to be a side. Fresh beets from the garden are fabulous with anything. I don't know what Danae served hers with but I know she said her family loved the stir-fry.
And here's why it's fun to cook at someone else's house.
There are little feet under a table. With a cute smiling face above the table.
There are concentrated faces and hands trying to figure it out. With an uber cute vintage suitcase that I wanted to steal.
There are wispy hair pony-tails to be done. With a slice of nineties Celine Dion playing in the background.
There is an adorable baby who wanted some visit and smile time. And she also needed her diaper changed. That part is not nearly as adorable.
Cooking at my house is not nearly as entertaining as it is at Danae's house. Chaos is not a part of my usual day and with three kids under the age of three, it is a regular occurrence at hers. I get distracted by lovely dish towels and fresh flowers at my house. While at her house, I get distracted by this, "Hey, hey, hey Amy...I think you have really taken enough pictures now and you should come play farm with me."
Before whipping up the chicken salad, I did go play farm. Farm and babies. It only seemed fair.
Back to the what started it all. The chicken salad that caused me to have a chicken carcass in my fridge. All I could think while we chopped and diced and looked at a computer screen for the recipe was this better be mighty tasty.
Back to the what started it all. The chicken salad that caused me to have a chicken carcass in my fridge. All I could think while we chopped and diced and looked at a computer screen for the recipe was this better be mighty tasty.
And tasty it was. Cooking a whole chicken and dealing with the carcass was worth it.
I can't imagine what my grandma would think if she saw a computer in the kitchen. She would shake her head and say, "Oy." But I do often think of her when I cook because she was definitely an all natural cook. She grew, canned, and froze almost everything she fed her family. I know she would be proud of Danae and my cooking days because we are using food. Real food. And we are cooking. Not buying pre-made, pre-packaged, pre-going to give you a heart attack food.
Being an outsider in the grocery store is a win. It's fairly easy for me because I really only am required to take care of myself. But Danae is making it work for her family and finding that the benefits far outweigh the extra time it can take. I'm proud of her for starting the process.
