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Bread, Cheese, Meat, Fruit, Pickles
11 Aug
A casual summer lunch while homebrewing. Excellent Jasper Hill aged cheddar, Dirty Girl dry farmed tomatoes, candy stripe figs.
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February In My Mouth
2 Mar
For February I tried a no-sugar, no-wheat diet (which I impulsively extended into an almost-zero-grains diet, and minimized oils except for olive, coconut, and butter), mostly out of curiosity. As part of it, I took a photo of almost everything I ate or drank (except coffee and water). Click the image for a larger copy.
I wasn’t perfect: I’d decided ahead of time that the weekend of the Tour de Biere bike ride I’d have a few beers, but that weekend turned into a mini-break (two tacos w/ corn tortillas, a few beers, two cookies during rides, and some pita bread). To make excuses, I’d found myself feeling weak and very low-energy during a 50-mile bike ride, and eating my non-grain snacks (beef jerky, eggs, peanut butter, bananas) didn’t help. But once I ate some grains (pita bread, tabouleh), I felt great– my energy returned and I was no longer bonking. But I have no excuse for cheating with the cookie…
Other cheats included: a small piece of chocolate early on (not realizing what I was doing), small amounts of rice twice, barbecue that I suspect had a bit of sugar in the sauce, and a few cocktails (unclear if I was skipping those or not– no gluten, but grain-based). I also ended two days early when I had friends over for a beer of the month club, since it was the only night in a many-week window that everyone could make that.
But I almost exclusively ate green vegetables, fish, meat, yogurt, nuts, and fruit.
It was an interesting experience– I had a powerfully intense sugar and then bread craving from about days 9-12, which then subsided. And by the end of the month dessert seemed less attractive to me. I felt healthy during the month though not dramatically more than the previous month, and I lost about 5 pounds (though I’d lost and kept off 30 lbs over the past few years, while still eating grains, potatoes, and some sugar– I think just by eating smaller portions, better resisting snacking urges, and biking a fair amount). So it wasn’t a dramatic change for me, and feeling weak when biking without starch was an unpleasant side effect. I’m sure paleo experts could tell me I was doing it wrong and there was a grain alternative I should have been eating for sustained exercise, though.
I did get a sugar headache from the first ice cream I had March 1st, though… but I look forward to eating delicious pasta at flour+water soon.
Okay, enough of this rambling. Back to the usual food and cooking blog…
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Chick peas, spinach, broccoli, redemption
21 Dec
Nothing fancy: Chick peas with onions, lots of garlic, cardamom, turmeric, a little tahini, lime. Roasted broccoli and spinach salad. And a Russian River Redemption (belgian-style blonde).
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Bean / Escarole / Sausage soup, Roasted Vegetables
12 Dec
Helping a friend work through his CSA on a cold and somewhat gloomy evening:
Soup of sauteed onions/garlic/carrots, kidney beans (white and black, half mashed), chicken broth, sage, parsley, and roasted garlic precooked sausage, simmered together for 10-15 minutes. Then a full head of shredded escarole was added for another 5 minutes (covered). And hey, the rest of the soup actually managed to keep the escarole in check and mask the bitterness.
Roasted broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage (I’d never tried roasting cabbage– crispy/soft and delicious).
Wild rice.
The Robot Must Eat 