In our household 2013 has consisted of one week of exhaustion post holiday, two weeks of flu post exhaustion and then a week of catch up being normal. Needless to say on Friday morning last week when we made a grocery list we needed almost everything.
Friday night we committed two fundamental, but wonderful errors, mistaking leftovers for lunch as still edible and going grocery shopping after work hungry. Both mistakes led us to very hungry wanderings around Trader Joes and Whole Foods.
My body has always been a beacon of nutritional advice. Whenever my body needs something I start to physically gravitate towards it in the grocery store. I remember the low moment when I had gone gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free and legume-free when I stood in front of a plate of mediocre meat at a buffet and after 8 years of vegetarianism nearly drooled on the platter. Less than a week later I broke my vegetarianism on a rare steak. A lot of it. It hit the spot and gave me more energy than anything I’d eaten in years.
Truth be told my body is very quick to tell me exactly what it needs. Convincing my mind it should pay for it sometimes takes more effort, but my nutrient depleted body always puts up an excellent argument.
On Friday night it was salmon. We’ve been limiting our fish intake because of all this heavy metal nonsense and every once in awhile I get so swoony over fish I lose all my resolve. This happened yet again on Friday when we bought something like 1.5 pounds of fresh salmon for the two of us. I had walked by the salmon two or three times, then asked my husband to go back and look at it. Then when he said he didn’t want any I told him I needed it. Knowing how I get about cravings he immediately marched over and secured some salmon.
Food in our household is about intimacy. Growing up my family deemed meal time the quality time for the family and took great pleasure in deciding what to eat when we gathered. In our household even though it is just the two of us we have great feasts for most meals.
Friday night after we returned home at 7:30 from the two grocery stores in Hadley we made homemade pizza. Spelt crust, roasted red and yellow peppers, lots of dried herbs from our farm share, fancy organic pepperoni and two towering salads of salad greens, capers, black sesame seeds, wheat germ and blue cheese completed our lazy Friday night dinner. The next morning while I sipped my tea my husband served up homemade waffles with tons of wild blueberries, fresh whipped cream, local maple syrup and blackberries on the side.
They were both “lazy meals” prepared quickly due to time constraints. But they were both decadent, colorful and healthy. On schedule for this week are homemade chicken and rice soup, red lentils, spinach and brie omelets, avocadoes, grapefruits, fresh apricots, blackberries, kale and a stir fry.
My goal for this Sunday afternoon is to turn the broth I made this morning into a delicious concoction of chicken, shitakes, kombu, carrots, celery, herbs and brown rice. By the time we are ready for dinner tonight our house will smell like I’ve been in the kitchen all day prepping and stirring and working hard. When really I was doing laundry, yoga, writing formulas for patients and updating WoH’s facebook page.
The point of this post is not to brag about this glorious weekend of tasty food (especially not the snack of fresh apricots, a mandarin orange and chocolate from Switzerland that I stopped writing this to quickly enjoy), but to remind us all that cooking well doesn’t take a lot more time than eating out. Buying good ingredients makes eating healthy more flavorful and more decadent than eating fast food. And when you have a refrigerator full of delicious healthy foods you want to eat, food stays exciting and not diet-oriented. So many times I see people eating rice cakes or cardboard granola bars because they want to lose weight. Why not make food a feast for the senses and your health? You will feel less guilty eating it and have a lot more fun.
Check out my Nutrition board on Pinterest to further excite your appetite.
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