Mostly Plants

Last week, I was struck by the wonderful simplicity of the book Food Rules by Michael Pollan, and decided to share some of the best ideas with you. The main premise of this slim, 140-page book, is that if we can follow 3 basic rules in our food consumption, we'll be much healthier. In my last post, I wrote about the first rule, Eat Food, which emphasizes the need to avoid processed food products (for instance, things like Velveeta, which is a "processed cheese product" according to the package).

The next rule which is based on the first, and subject of this post is eat Mostly Plants. This basically speaks for itself. The more food we eat that comes from plants, which of course equals fruit, vegetables, etc, the less processed food we are eating. Notice that he doesn't say all plants, which some people do advocate. (The raw food movement would fall into this camp.) Another reason I like Pollan's work, is that he doesn't say Never. He doesn't say never eat junk food, he says keep things within reason (which is the main idea of his 3rd rule, which I'll write about in the next post.)

These are the rules that stuck with me the most from this section of the book:

34-Sweeten and salt your food yourself. 
      Again, he doesn't say, never salt your food. The main idea behind this rule is that when you buy processed or pre-prepared foods (TV dinners, canned chili, flavored yogurt, restaurant food, etc.), they often come heavily sugared or salted. Ironically, many so-called health foods do this. It's not uncommon for companies to make something, "fat-free," but then pump it up with sugar or salt so that it still has some flavor. So, the implication is that when you prepare your own food, even if you do add a heavy dose of sugar or salt, you at least know exactly how much is going into it. The added benefit of this is that you're likely to use less, because you'll be more aware of the amount. If you had to personally add the sugar into a can of soda, you would probably be less likely to use as much, especially if someone else was watching you! :-) Here's a great video/site explaining the amount of sugar in a can of soda--10 teaspoons!)

36-Don't eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk. 
     Many of the rules in this book were things I'd already known of, but it was good to have them repeated in a concise form. This one, however, I had never thought of. Totally true. Pink, yellow, or green milk is just not natural. (Literally.)

39-Eat all the junk food, you want as long as you cook it yourself. 
     I love this rule, because again, it doesn't forbid you from eating junk food. What it does do is emphasize the impact of fast food in our lives. Let's face it, there's a reason people don't eat french fries at home. They're a pain in the butt to make! If I had to make them every single time I wanted them, I'd definitely eat them a lot less. Same thing applies to baked goods, chips, etc.

So, to recap: Eat food, mostly plants.

I know you'll be waiting with great anticipation for the breath-taking conclusion of this series! :-)

Eat Food

As described in the previous post, I recently read Michael Pollan's book Food Rules, which is a description of 64 basic rules for how we can adjust our eating habits to make sure we're eating well. The short book is divided into three major sections, the first of which is Eat Food, meaning eat real food, not processed food products. One of his major points throughout the book is that our diet has not always been disastrous as a nation, but in the last 30 years or so, it has really fallen apart. To this end, he makes a point of examining old wives' tales and sayings from the past that have been proven to have actual scientific merit and truly are beneficial to our diets. Hence, some of the rules reflect previous eras. Here are some of my favorites from the first section of the book:
[Note: These are all general rules, with clear exceptions.]

2-Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
     A la "Go-Gurt." or "Tofutti."

6-Avoid food products that contain more than five ingredients.
     By following this rule, you avoid a lot of preservatives like high-fructose corn syrup, added salt and artificial flavoring, and "nutrients" that are artificially pumped into food. (Again, be reasonable. One of my favorite Christmas cookies has three ingredients: butter, flour, and brown sugar.)

8-Avoid products that make health claims. 
     I particularly like this one, because Pollan points out that things that make health claims have 1) packages, and hence are farther away from real food 2) come from companies that have money to package and advertise, 3) come from companies that have money to engineer their foods to meet FDA guidelines, (like fat-free mayonnaise).

10-Avoid foods that are pretending to be something they're not.
     Like dairy-free cream cheese. This is an oxymoron. Or again, like fat-free mayonnaise or olive oil mayonnaise. There is no such thing. Real mayonnaise is made with eggs, oil and vinegar. Period. These are the ingredients in olive oil mayonnaise:

Water, Olive Oil, Soybean Oil, Vinegar, Modified Food Starch, Sugar, Maltodextrin, Eggs, Contains less than 2% of Salt, Mustard Flour, Dried Onions, Dried Garlic, Natural Flavor, Enzyme Modified Egg Yolk, Beta Carotene* (Color), Lactic Acid*, Potassium Sorbate* and Calcium Disodium Edta As Preservatives, Phosphoric Acid

13-Eat foods that will eventually rot. 

     Anything that will not rot in the coming days or weeks, is unlikely to be real food, based on the amount of sweeteners, shelf stabilizers and preservatives it apparently contains (i.e., Twinkies.) 

16-Buy your snacks at the farmer's market. 

    In this case, you're much more likely to be eating real food, without preservatives, etc. Not only that, there's a much better chance the food is healthy in the first place, like dried fruit, etc. Given my pregnant state, I plan on heading down to the farmer's market soon, since I'll need something to get me through the mornings at school. 

20-It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car. 

     I think this speaks for itself. :-)

Now, just as a point of reference, Pollan makes it very clear throughout the book that he isn't advocating NEVER eating french fries, Cheetos, etc., but just making the rules part of your general habits. (And occasionally breaking the rules. Not daily.)

Rules for Omnivores

This summer, I've read a number of fascinating books about food, including two by Michael Pollan. The first is called Omnivore's Dilemma and talks about where food comes from. In this hefty book, Pollan discusses the origins of 4 distinct meals. First, he follows a McDonald's hamburger from the corn fields, to a ranch, to a feedlot, to a slaughterhouse and examines where the lettuce and tomato come from on industrial agriculture operations. The biggest issue he addresses is the methods of coaxing more products and meat out of corn and cows that they would not naturally provide, which in turn damage the environment.

The next meal is an organic meal from Whole Foods, and so Pollan goes to the beautifully-described, quaint organic farms to research the reality of the "supermarket pastoral" genre of writing that plasters organic food packages. (Not quite as small or "pastoral" as you might have imagined.) In a related meal, he looks for a less industrial organic experience and finds a "beyond organic" farm in Virginia, in which cows, pigs, and chickens are all grown on the same small farm, as well as small amounts of various kinds of crops. Essentially, he describes how all of the animals and organisms work together to create the most productive farm possible, while still living the lives they were more or less intended to.

Finally, Pollan goes all the way back to the beginning and decides to hunt and gather his own meal near his home in San Francisco. He describes his adventures into hunting wild boar as well as how to gather fresh mushrooms as they're in season. This leads to an excellent discussion of the merits and demerits of eating vegetarian, and whether or not he has personally come to feel that he should or shouldn't eat a vegetarian diet. The entire book was good, but this chapter made the book for me. It really addressed a lot of questions I had and provided a good rationale for eating and appreciating an omnivorous diet. I'd definitely recommend this book if you want to ponder where our food comes from and why we eat the way we do.

However, if you want a quick, down-and-dirty, just-the-basics description of the kind of foods and habits that will keep us most healthy (and least miserable), Pollan's latest book is called Food Rules. In the introduction it  discusses how populations all over the world stay surprisingly healthy with all manner of diets, but how overwhelmingly unhealthy the western diet has become. The book discusses the collective wisdom that our culture has seemed to have lost over the years, which has led to our downfall (or up-gain, as the case may be). After the short introduction, it is literally 64 rules, with about a paragraph of explanation of each one. I read the entire thing in an hour. The book is categorized into three broad guidelines, which are 1) Eat food. 2) Mostly plants. 3) Not too much. I loved the simplicity of this book so much, I'm going to write a few following posts on my favorite rules from the book. Either way, I highly recommend this if you're looking for a quick read on healthy food habits.

Digging the Cuisine in DC

When Ben was little (7ish), his parents took them to Washington, DC. He apparently remembers every detail of this trip, particularly the Air and Space Museum. Ever since I've known him, he's dreamed about going back and enjoying tons of museums as an adult. When we were considering our options for this summer, DC came up again and seemed like a good possibility, given that his brother Joe and his girlfriend live there. We were psyched to find a nice little bed and breakfast directly next to Joe's apartment building, which had a fantastic breakfast every morning.

On our last night in DC, Joe says, "Wow! You guys really did DC!" And that we did. We took in a minimum of 16 different museums/monuments, etc. It was a great place to get stamps in our National Parks/Monuments Passport book :-) We even managed to teach Joe something new: the art of planking. (See below.)

While Ben was thrilled at the museums (he would have preferred to have gone to more!), I thoroughly enjoyed going out to eat every night. Added to that, Joe and Jocie live in Dupont Circle, which between it and the next neighborhood over, seems to be foodie central. Here are some of the places we ate: 

• Wood-fired pizza at Pizzeria Paradiso and yummy gelato at Dolcezza
• Ben had signed up for the DC area Groupon service, and had come across this Indian restaurant called Heritage India that was close to Joe's apartment, so we went there (and used the Groupon) and it was great! I had some nice appetizers including a fantastic yogurt and curry chicken, tomatoes in a balsamic reduction and a mango lassi (my favorite). 
• After a rainy afternoon to clear the heat and humidity on Friday, we ate at Ben's Chili Bowl, famous for having been an organizing spot for civil rights activists in the 50s and 60s.
• We took in the Hirshhorn Museum of Art and the Air and Space Museum (see pic below for Ben's gleeful eyes!) and then found an upscale, fast-food Indian place in Chinatown called Merzi. It was very similar to Chipotle, and very good! Here's a pretty accurate review of it. 
• We also got Joe his fix of Astronaut ice cream. He hadn't had it since he had visited DC as a child, but this is how he described the flavor: "It's like hard cotton candy that tastes like ice cream with the consistency of chalk." Turns out, that was a pretty accurate memory! (See pic above)

• Another day we had an early supper of Korean dumplings at a place called Mandu, which were quite enjoyable. I was pleasantly surprised, given my general dislike for Korean flavors. We finished that day off several hours later after a thunderstorm at Shake Shack with a peanut butter shake that was amazing!! Added bonus: Michelle Obama had eaten there for lunch!
• And just for irony, we went to Washington, DC, and had some excellent Mexican food :-) at a beautiful restaurant called Lauriol Plaza. I had tamales with a fantastic green sauce (my best guess: oil, broth, green chilis, cilantro and cumin).
• Since our flight wasn't supposed to leave until 5 PM on Wednesday (and ended up being delayed another 2 1/2 hours), we had time to bum around that day as well. After an interesting walk through Ford's theater, I decided to stop and get some ice cream at a place in the guidebook called Cowgirl Creamery and have a late lunch at the airport. I walked into the store, and it turns out that it's a cheese store! (This is the next best thing to an ice cream store, in my book.) So I got some very flavorful string cheese and a fresh dill pickle and called it a day. 

And that, folks, is some of our culinary adventures through DC!

1 down, 2 to go!

1 trimester down, 2 to go! :-) Shetler baby #1 is due January 18! This picture is from about a month ago, when baby was about an inch and a half long, and had arms, legs, a heartbeat, and was moving around :-) I had another ultrasound today and saw eyes, ears, and mouth, and confirmed the unlikeliness of Down's.  

We're really excited, but man, there are tons of decisions to make, not the least of which is what process to go about birthing a child. We know a number of people who have had home births (including the former owners of our house! 2 of their children were born here :-)), as well as a number of different other techniques (natural, standing, water birth, etc.). So, who knows where we'll end up on that one. And then there are all the other decisions like where to put a nursery (and what to put in it), disposable or cloth diapers, a name, etc. One thing we did decide on (and were thankfully in agreement on), was that we don't want to know the sex of the baby until it's born. Related to that, Ben said, "Then we get to pick out 2 names!" To which I said, "Then we have to pick out 2 names!" 

Thankfully trimester one went pretty well for me. Actually, it wasn't even confirmed until I was about 8 weeks in, so that made it easier :-) I didn't have much nausea, outside of slight queasiness related to an empty stomach, which happens quite often. However, I was totally exhausted for much of May and June. If I hadn't had a positive pregnancy test, I was about to ask for a mono test. Thankfully, I'll have something to show for this exhaustion! :-) While I was waiting in a doctor's office for an hour this morning, I read at least 3 baby magazines, and one referred to the second trimester as "the honeymoon trimester" so I'm hoping it'll be a bit more enjoyable :-)

Welcome back!

After a crazy month of being out of town 20 out of 30 days (Tucson, LA, Philadelphia, DC), I'm finally back in the sweet hot dry heat of Puh-hoe-nix (as my non-AZ friends say). After 7 super-damp hot (but fun) days in DC, I'm actually ready for some dry heat (emphasis on the dry). This is a post I've been meaning to write for about 3 weeks, and now I finally have time and energy.

A small habit that Ben's parents and we have developed is to have a meal ready on the table if either of us returns from the airport in the general time frame of dinner. This is fantastic for me, because when I get home from a trip at supper time, the last things I want to do are cook from my empty fridge or go out for yet another meal. This is a fun thing to be on the receiving end of, and it's also a nice way to get fresh stories from the returning travelers.

Hence, when Jay and Marilyn returned from Indiana last month, I took up the cause and had supper ready at their house when the Super Shuttle dropped them off. Since I had just received a 10 bottle shipment of Salsa Lizano (a tangy, non-spicy sauce that Jay discovered on SST in Costa Rica), I had a hankering to make our favorite food to go with it: the super-simple Cuban Black Beans from the Extending the Table international cookbook. They are ultra-simple and can be made with less effort than it takes to read this post.

Cuban Black Beans
from Extending the Table


1 c. green pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 16 oz. cans black beans, undrained
1/2 t. dried oregano
3 T. vinegar

Saute green peppers & garlic in 2 T. oil. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes on low heat. Serve over white or brown rice and a splash of Salsa Lizano if you have it. (I have 5 extra bottles if you want some!!)

To go with this, I made my favorite cold green bean salad from the More With Less cookbook, which is basically an egg salad with green beans and the best part: dill pickles.

Green Bean Salad
from More With Less


3 c. steamed green beans, cut in 1 inch pieces
4 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
1 large dill pickle, chopped
2 T. vinegar
1 t. salt
2/3 c. mayonnaise

Combine beans, eggs, onion, and pickle in medium bowl. Mix vinegar, salt and mayo together and pour over salad. Stir gently to combine. Chill and serve. Serves 6.
[Note: I don't like raw onions, so I steamed the onions along with the beans to take some of the bite out.]

We also had some yummy hummus and garlic toasts they had sitting around, which rounded the meal out. For dessert, we had my favorite easy, "healthy" dessert: Peanut Butter Banana Tortillas. (Hey, it's got fruit, that makes it healthy, right?!)

Peanut Butter Banana Tortillas


4 tortillas
2 bananas
peanut butter
2 T. chocolate chips

Follow this process for each tortilla: lightly brown tortilla on one side. Take it out of the pan, and spread peanut butter on half of the browned side. Slice half a banana and lay them on top of peanut butter. Sprinkle a few chocolate chips over the bananas. (Careful: Put a few less than you think, because it's easy for the chocolate to take over the whole thing.) Fold tortilla over and brown both sides of the tortilla. Serves 4.

Happy summer eating!

Inspired by Jack

After some very sleepy days, I've been waking up to Jack Johnson on my iPod. One day this week, the song I woke up to was "Banana Pancakes" and I swore the house smelled like syrup when I woke up. So, all week long, banana chocolate chip pancakes were on my brain. (And if you haven't heard the song, it's a great rainy day/call-in-sick song :-)) Hence, tonight, on my first day off from school, pancakes were on the list. I went straight to Allrecipes, and this is what I found. Hope you like it! I included some of the tweaks listed by reviewers as well.

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

1 c. flour
1 T. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 egg, beaten
1 c. milk
1/2 t. vanilla
2 T. apple sauce (or oil)
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 c. chocolate chips (optional)

1. Mix dry and wet ingredients in 2 separate bowls. Combine the two mixtures. Batter will be lumpy.

2. In lightly oiled skillet, drop batter by 1/4 cup full into pan over medium-low heat. Cook on both sides until golden brown. Cooking slowly ensures the bottom doesn't get too dark, while still getting the inside done.