What a great food day!

Despite not having a stove, we are making it work...

  Today I ate locally-produced yogurt from Strauss Family Creamery w/ granola, leftover lentil barley soup (which was made with almost all the fresh ingredients being either organic or local or both), a FFTY apple and natural peanut butter, and vegetarian chili, again with all the yummy fresh stuff (though the beans and tomatoes were canned).  Makin' strides!  It's so nice to have real home-cooked food again, even if I didn't do much to get it there.  The food is good for my body, good for my soul (aided by eating w/ the roomies rather than alone), better for the environment than what most people eat (including myself at times), and totally delicious (even if my stomach kind of hates me for making it deal with all these legumes when I'm not really used to them...)!

  This is kind of what its all about, although I would prefer to cook something myself on the stove rather than leave an appliance on all day.  We do what we can, and try to be healthy about it in as many ways as possible.  It will be a lot easier when I can cook for real, but for now, this will do.

  Roomie Maike also pointed out that planning meals for the week ahead will help me to save time and money, and eat better at the same time.  Boy is she right!  This is going to be a must with school, so I'd better get it down in the next couple weeks while I still have some time for flexibility.

  Also, I really should stop writing in the blog right before I go to bed as I would like it to be a good writing exercise for me, but for now please be patient with the lameness of my posts and the inevitable spelling and grammar errors...

Crock Pot: The Stove-less Wonder

Nearly a week later and our stove is still not back to functionality.  Grr!  On the bright side, our landlady does have "tips" for us to "get it back on its feet."  Right...

So the roommates are back and we are left to fend for our selves without the benefit of stove or oven.  Out comes the Crock Pot!  I found a great recipe for lentil barley soup online, and it was amazingly delicious and super easy!  I've never really had lentils or barley much before, but let me tell you...  And, to top it off, this meal was very inexpensive!  Dried lentils and barley cost I think about $1 a pound each, throw in some onions and carrots from my FFTY box, some spices and whatnot, supplement with some celery from the store, and greens from the garden, and voila!  A delicious and ridiculously nutritious meal!  And it only took about 2 hours, which in slow-cooker time is basically instant.

The whole thing got me thinking about how I'm going to manage preparing meals for myself once school starts so that I'm not chowing down at the Bloomingdale's food court twice a week.  The food is good and really should not be considered fast food at all as it is of pretty darn decent quality, but you pay for it through the nose and I just don't need that.  Despite the fact that it was brought down from the top of the cabinets due to a lack of alternative methods of cooking, the slow cooker could really help me out here as well.  I've tended to shy away from using it much because it just makes so damn MUCH food--but maybe this is exactly what I need right now!  I can prepare a big batch of something and since I'd be eating it for lunch and dinner the next day or two, it will go by much faster than my eating habits in the past would likely allow.  Perfect.

I've also been thinking about nutrition, and a co-worker friend sent me a vegetarian bean recipe that sounds absolutely amazing.  I'd planned to make it this weekend but there was the issue with the stove, yet it led me to realize that I don't eat beans very often, and wonder why.  Part of this, I'm sure, is due to the fact that I'm not hog wild about beans, but I certainly don't dislike them.  I guess they are one of those foods that I didn't really grow up with much, and therefore I'm just not all that familiar with.  But dried beans come in so many varieties, are cheap as hell, and are nutritional powerhouses.  What's not to love?  Oh right, they work great in the slow cooker, too.  =)

I'm thinking this could be the start of something great...

Tough to eat well when your stove breaks...

I've been so good and have cooked for myself for like the last 4 days in a row now!  And then tonight I go to make a pizza but it seems the oven won't get past "moderately warm." So my buddy Neil suggest I pan fry the pizza (which is already fully assembled and also "moderately warm").  Where has the idea of pan fried pizza been all my life??!!?  And I say the idea because apparently the stove doesn't want to work at all!  Good thing I'd bought groceries for pizza and also buttermilk for soda bread...  Somebody'd better get out here quick to fix it so I don't waste more food than I already have with the pizza!

Enough dilly dallying!

Time to finally put some of these "resolution" (cringe...r word!) things down more officially!  Nothing major, I know myself well enough to know that I'd probably cheat if anything was overly specific--isn't that the opposite of how most people do it?  Anyways....

The first 2 I already mentioned:

-Quit soda.  So far, so good.  I didn't get a SodaClub machine.  Some things are just better. (ahem...new Mac!)  So I might give myself one for my birthday.  For the record, I don't consider flavored mineral water soda.  I do consider those fruity flavor things that Safeway makes and displays next to the SODAS to be soda.  Duh.

-Quit driving.  I'll be honest--not off to a great start here.  To be fair, I've been sick since NYE, and hate the idea of taking public transit while ill, and haven't really gone anywhere anyway... Excuses, excuses, right?  The idea is to drive as little as possible, by considering before each trip if there is an alternative way to get there.  Can I walk, bike, or take PT?  I have a sweet bike and rain gear, so this really shouldn't be an issue...We shall see!  I've already experienced some of the benefits to myself, and I know that society would just be so much better off!  Some lady honked and was screaming at me inside her car the other day because I refused to make a turn into oncoming traffic.  Would a person EVER consider screaming at another individual if not for this idea of being inside their own little bubble??  I briefly considered getting out of my car and going to have a little chat with her and kill her with kindness--see if she feels like screaming to a perfectly nice smiling individual who is curious about her anger issues!  Haha!  But...I was sick, so I'll save that for another day.  Sadly, I'm sure it will happen again.

-Food!  This is a big one.  I have so many ideas!  Still, my main resolution (ugh) strategy is to take things day by day, one decision at a time, rather than have major earth-shattering goals.  Step one is to waste less of what I buy.  I get a produce box every other week from Farm Fresh to You (see link to the right--they are great!), and generally use it all, but sometimes I just don't get around to it.  It's really all a matter of planning, and I definitely got worse at this when school started in August.  So first I'm going to try to make sure I have time to use what I have and throw less away.  Hopefully this way I'll also rely less on crappy pre-prepared things, even if they aren't that crappy.  I'd like to make my own bread every now and again as well.  My roommates have a breadmaker that gets far too little use for how easy it is, and I also like Irish soda bread--which doesn't even require a breadmaker!  (http://www.sodabread.us/Recipes/sodabreadrecipes.htm)  It's ridiculously easy, tasty, cheap, and so much better for me!  Slow Food USA is an organization that is pretty much about everything I'm into these days, so I'm going to join them as soon as I figure out what chapter I want to be a part of (moving in June).  I'm going to quit eating beef altogether, unless it is locally raised, grass fed, and humanely slaughtered.  I'm not that into beef anyway aside from a good homemade burger every now and then, so I don't even know when this will come up.  I will continue what I've already been doing for much of the last year when it comes to meat--eating so much less of it that my visit home for the holidays left me feeling totally heavy and gross from all the meat.  We just don't need that much!  When cooking for myself, I've always steered towards a mostly vegetarian diet, mostly for fear I'm going to mess the chicken up or something, so that's fine.  Eating out will be interesting--and sandwiches.  Oh how I love me a turkey sandwich!  But, I'm not cutting them out entirely, just contemplating if I really need to eat a bunch more meat at that given moment in time.  Other than that, I just plan to be really choosey about what and where I eat.  Is it local?  Is it organic?  Are the workers treated well?

So yeah, that pretty much sums it up!  Any other ideas or suggestions are absolutely welcome!  (Again, I say this as though I have readers!)

Not gon' do it...

I have so many thoughts on starting a new year, but already feel the lag to write them down.  Perhaps the fact that my nose won't stop running and my skin is too raw to feel it has something to do with it?

Railway Ramblings

For my trip down to SoCal for Christmas, I decided this year to take Amtrak rather than fly or drive, and I took some notes for anybody that cares.

7:50am

I arrive at the station, and after a brief moment where I think there is no parking, I find a spot right in front! I confirm that it is, in fact, okay to park there, free and indefinitely, and the station agent assures me that it is. I show my ID, get my tickets, and I'm ready to be on my way in about 30 minutes.

As I wait, I get the impression that there is just something so damn civilized about rail travel. While I realize that my impression may be due to a lack of security concerns, there is nonetheless something quite nice about not being harassed prior to boarding, and to not having to arrive 2 hours before departure only to sit in a soulless airport breathing recirculated air. While I wait for my train to arrive, I have the pleasure of sitting in a lovely train depot (which I believe was completely remodeled within the last 7 years or so), and the option of waiting outside in the fresh air if I so choose. The station guy actually bellows the names of the stations the incoming trains will be stopping at. People can accompany their loved ones to the train door, and greet them there upon return. Did I mention I parked right in front of the station for free and for an unlimited time? It is so much more people oriented. I don't know what the security answer is and how to take planes back to this golden age, but I am a fan.

8:20am

Our train is waiting for another train to finish disembarking so that it can pull into the station. It waits a moment longer so that a former passenger can cross the rails to run and get his jacket that he left on board. An extra 30 seconds for all who have to wait perhaps, but I would gladly give an additional 30 seconds of my life so a fella won't have to fret about losing his jacket on Christmas eve. All aboard!

8:30am

We finally depart, 11 minutes behind schedule. This is the real drawback of taking the train—time is a little bit fluid. I am scheduled to arrive in Bakersfield at 1:51pm, however I'm pretty sure we'll be a bit off. Freight has the right of way on the rails, which can throw Amtrak for a loop. (Hopefully this will change with high speed rail!!) I knew this going in, as this is my third trip to SoCal on the train, and as far as I'm concerned it still beats both driving and flying. I manage to share a table, supposedly reserved for groups of 3 or more, with a guy who has already plunked himself down here on his own, so obviously the conductor doesn't mind too much. I have an electrical outlet so I can use my computer all I want. Sadly, I forgot my crappy headphones at home so I can't listen to music, and the hotel game the roomies gave me probably has sound that I will miss out on as well. Good thing bro works at Circuit City and I have 2 books to read...and some sleep to catch up on.

10:20am

Modesto.

Sleeping with your head on the table is very comfortable. Until you wake up and try to move. To make up for it, we are treated to the entertainment of a guy who decides that now is a good time for a smoke break, which apparently we don't have time for, and the conductor announces to him (and us) that he is now “off the train.” Of course, he is already off the train, so presumably he attempts to get back on the train so as not to be permanently off the train, and he decides to bring along his cigarette. Apparently that's a violation of Amtrak rules and California laws, don'tcha know! Don't smoke kids, there really isn't any good to it. My fellow table-user/sleeper says that he's never been on a train that blew its whistle this much. I think its charming but ask me again in a couple hours.

11:50am

Fresno.

I've been to Fresno, and there's not a lot to love, but this approach is really not its best side! Poor Fresno! Table-mate is getting off here, but he tells me that he lives in Palo Alto without a car, and has considered renting a car, flying, and taking the train, and he thinks the train is just the best option. 3 times in the last 8 months and he takes CalTrain to SF, bus to Emeryville, then gets on Amtrak to Fresno. Quite a trip, and for him it still beats the faster but more carbon-intensive forms of travel!

2:00pm

Bakersfield.

I arrive in Bakersfield to make my transfer to a bus waiting to take passengers from our train directly to Union Station in LA. Not sure it could be any easier. Our trip over the Grapevine is cold, with snow on the low hills. There are few people on the bus, so no body heat to keep us warm, and the driver has to crank the heat so we can even see out the windows. The trip is smooth with just a little traffic at the end.

4:20pm

LA.

I've arrived! The station is beautiful. I've been here before but had forgotten how nice it is despite looking like there hasn't been a remodel in ages. Pickup from dad is smooth. No over-inflated-ego parking cops freaking out that dad pulled over and parked while I was still 15 yards away from the car, and nobody trying to rush us along even though we are moving quickly to begin with. All in all, really quite a nice way to travel. If you have the time, take the train any day over driving or flying!

Bitten by the Blogging Bug...

Yes, the day I thought would never come has arrived.  I have decided to write a blog detailing my adventures in sustainability, and the idea here is that by making it public I will have some sort of accountability to myself, and perhaps even get feedback and other ideas.  Today I'm thinking I'll write mostly about food and how it affects us physically and spiritually, in our communities, food security, how it affects the planet, etc., but that might change tomorrow.  Basically I think about food a lot!  If you feel like chiming in, feel free to do so.  (I say this as though I actually have readers!)  And yes, I do realize the irony of sitting at my computer writing a blog whose content touches on the concept of community, but just work with me here!  This will mostly be a place for my thoughts, with the purpose being more to generate some sort of cohesion of ideas rather than a place to generate a community or some other such nonsense...and should a community somehow magically manifest itself, so be it.

So why now?  Well, 2009 is right around the corner!  I'd best prepare myself for a delicious and sustainable year!  Set goals and whatnot!  I think I'm feeling pretty lofty this year: 

-Quit soda.  I've done this before, and I think I'll be okay as long as I have some form of bubbles.  I've asked for a SodaClub thingie for Christmas so we shall see!

-Quit driving.  I did this for a while in the summer and it was fine.  Come January, I begin this adventure again, only this time in the rain!

-And of course, the food!  Basically the aim here is to eat "real" food as often as possible rather than processed junk food.  I made significant in-roads in this area about a year ago but have reached a bit of a plateau with much room to continue to improve, so here we go!