Food for the Mind

<-- It seems JSF is not alone...

Since my senior year started, I've found a lot more time to read. Lucky-- since I figure, being that I'm (sort of) an ambassador for vegetarianism in my community, wouldn't it be nice if I knew some good, solid facts about the animal industry out there? Besides, I was pretty curious to see why other people are vegetarian, and what they have found are the impacts of a veg lifestyle. Here are a few books I've read on the subject recently... if you're a reader like me, check them out:
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer was honestly amazing. Firstly, he's a brilliant writer. If you've ever read any of his other books-- and you should-- you know this. Plus, he covers an amazing array of subjects in Eating Animals: his trials and travails sticking to vegetarianism (it happens to the best of us...), the dilemmas that being vegetarianism instigates, as well as the cold, rough reality of the industries that exploit animals and his reasons for sticking to a cruelty-free lifestyle. Yeah-- he's an adult, but (believe it or not) adults have feelings too- and they're feelings we can relate to. This book really makes you think about the environmental and (if you're into it) philosophical aspects of eating animals-- it really gets you thinking. So If there's one work I'd recommend to you, it's Eating Animals; the book is personal and relatable, but also a great way to get some information on the subject of vegetarianism.
If you're a more studious person, perhaps interested in understanding the effects of government policy, big business marketing, and global economics on what we eat, what our society thinks about food, etc., Mark Bittman's Food Matters is a fantastic read. It's a little less personal than Eating Animals, but is also super informative. The author calls it "a guide to conscious eating" because it includes recipes, meal plans, and lots of nutritional information in addition to the literature on industry... So if you're looking for something that really makes you think, but that also has applicable eating tips, Food Matters is a wonderful book to read. It's well-written, easy to understand (yes-- even for you, self-proclaimed math kid), and full of really useful information that I can promise will make you sound smart in any conversation ;) If it wasn't, then it wouldn't be a New York Times bestseller!
So get reading! I know, I know, we all claim to be lazy and illiterate-- but deep down inside we all know how great it is to just sit down and read. (Oh-- that satisfied, accomplished feeling after you realize how much more you know after finishing the book!) Basically, I'm recommending a few fairly short works you'll hopefully like-- books which I know I got a lot from, and which I'm sure you will, too. Enjoy your reading (and boasting your new knowledge to your friends! :P)

Food For Thought

Another bout with oral procedure this week. This time: wisdom teeth. Yep- I got my wisdom teeth removed, just in time for my birthday! You can thus imagine that my week has not been the most productive, nor the most exciting. However, sitting there reading magazines and textbooks for four straight days has taught me something (nothing from the text books, I can assure you). I learned how much time we spend eating-- when we can, that is. I had such full days and so much time without meals; just a sip and a slurp here and there sufficed me, and to be honest, I felt fine. I also found out, though, that chewing without your molars is virtually impossible. I also discovered how easy it was to avoid chewing altogether, and be completely satisfied!
Most people who get their wisdom teeth out sustain themselves on pudding, jello, and ice cream (people like my sister.) Those people also get a potbelly in a week. I, on the other hand, actually lost some weight with other, more nutritious staples. Firstly, I prepared before my surgery, and made a curried cauliflower soup that I could eat all week, and another onion and leek soup, both of which I pureed and tasted very good. As my salad? V8. It was a great option, and really broke the monotony of sweet and creamy stuff. Another food item I lived off of? Nonfat yoghurt. I got a good quality one, so that the nonfat actually tasted just as good as the regular yoghurt, without all the icky and unhealthy stuff. It was also really fun to flavor. Of course, I drank a lot of my smoothies, which were a hit with me, as well as anyone who came over during the week, and- yes, I ate the occasional scoop of ice cream as a treat ;) Anyhow, it was fun figuring out what I could eat, from soft banana-stuffed crepes to refried beans. With all that time on my hands anyhow, I could take a few minutes to think up what I wanted, cook it, and enjoy every (teenie tiny) bite.
In other words, if you just got any type of oral surgery, and you can only eat soft foods, don't think of it as a death sentence. It's an opportunity to be creative in the kitchen... and a few days off, too! But be careful when in the kitchen: remember that you're taking some medicines that might fuzz you up or slow you down a bit. Have someone in the kitchen with you-- it makes cooking more fun anyhow!

Taste Changes

Ever realize how much your taste has changed since you were a little kid? Let me tell you-- there are so many things that I eat now that I literally thought were the most disgusting foods on earth when I was seven. Figs? Yum. But when I was seven, if someone even said the word, I ran in the other direction. You know what I understand now? I associated "fig" with the revolting taste of Fig Newtons (which I still hate, by the way). Then I made the bold decision to try a real fig a few years ago, and boy has it payed off. Figs are so delicious, and, not being Fig Newtons, really quite healthy. That's just one example of something that has changed for me personally. Sometimes, also, your taste just changes. As we get older, we become more receptive to more esoteric or complicated flavors. Think of yourself as a more sophisticated, adventurous individual than you used to be; that's always a good motivation to try a little something new.
Can you think of something that you used to find revolting, but that you adore now? I challenge you to think of something you don't like, and give it one more try. You never know- you might end up loving it!

Keeping up at Camp

My parents weren't too eager to send me to camp this summer (with the financial crisis and all), so lately I've been trying to find ways to keep myself occupied. Like my grandmother always says to me, "that's the only way we'll ever keep you out of trouble." After a few weeks of half-conscious summer apathy, I realized that she was beyond right: If there's one thing I should definitely not be doing, it's nothing. So I've tried desperately to find something to do, from getting a job to trying out new hobbies- but there's just something so fun about getting out of town and chilling out with new people that those things just don't satisfy.
Lucky for me, I stumbled upon a week-long stage tech camp in Cedar City, Utah, (not too far from my hometown of Las Vegas), that cost just under the amount of money I'd made at my summer job. Being a proud techie-- and bored out of my mind-- I realized that I had encountered gold. My problem? It started the day I found it. Within two very frantic hours, I OK'd the idea with my mother, was entered into the program, packed my bags, bought a bus ticket to Utah, got on the bus, and was on the road to camp! But being anything but a normal camp (c'mon- this was kids who elected to go to a Shakespearean festival), we were staying in dorms and didn't have a dining hall or any real way of getting good food. It was one of those "eat whatever you bring or buy in town" situations. Of course, just perfect for me... Ha.
Most of the girls were surviving off of Capri Sun, Ritz crackers, and the occasional deli sandwich or make-at-home pizza cut up with scissors (this really happened). And the guys- oh, I can't even go into it. Let's just say that a whole French bread, beef jerky, and an energy drink made a well-rounded meal in their books. One in every three of us got sick. Wonder Why?
But I have to say-- while they were dying for good food, I had never eaten better in my life. Those were some good meals I threw together! When my friends and I stopped at the market for lunch (They purchased day-old oil-slathered chicken wings. That meal, I calculated, killed around twelve or thirteen chickens, by the way.) I got a bag of salad, an apple, peanut butter, and pita bread. I cut up the apple into thin slices, slathered the peanut butter in the pita, and made an apple-peanut butter pocket. Sooo delicious! I ate some salad with it, and had a stick of super satisfying, uberflavorful vegetarian jerky. (I bought it in California, but you can find it online... I strongly reccommend getting some. If you buy a lot at once, it's totally affordable!) Had it with some water, and felt really full at the end. It checked all the boxes in my book. When we got back to the dorm, I had a popsicle along with everyone else. Yeah, I had a popsicle... why not? It's dessert, and I earned it! That's just an example of what I ate all week. Needless to say, I certainly felt and looked better than the others by the end of that week. Seriously, our dorm sounded like a nursing home by the end, constipation complaints at all! (I suppose that's the problem with camp: you hear just about everything, including things you really don't want to hear.)
Anyhow, my tactic to staying healthy was to look for variety in what I was eating. I kept it fresh and new, and my body sure did thank me for it. If you're in a program, whether you eat in a cafeteria or not, the key is to look for a variety of foods. Take a carbohydrate (try for healthier complex carbs, like whole wheat products), a protein, a veggie (you'd better!), perhaps a fruit, and even a fat (You know how much is appropriate, even though you lie to yourself and pretend you don't). Also, don't be abashed about what you're eating! I learned not to apologise for what I ate a long time ago. I'm not embarassed at all. As a matter of fact, some of the other girls, when they realized how horrendously they were eating, told me how embarrassed they were of their own eating habits. I was so happy eating my own food that I didn't have time to think about how the others regarded my choices. All I cared about was how good my food made me feel, and anything besides "Yumm" was quickly discarded from my mind.
So that's really it! Whether you're eating in a camp cafeteria, dining hall, or have free reign of the town around, you can still eat fantastically! Just look for variety, and enjoy the delicious food available to you. Honestly- with some imagination, anything can be made to taste good! Mix it up, make good friends, seek out fun, and enjoy camp!

Keep it Hot, Hot, Hot!

It's summer, and aren't we glad- We're out of school, it's sunny and hot outside, and some of the best foods of the year are in season! Summer is a time to get out and live our lives in the warm sunshine; but sometimes, that sunshine gets pretty darn hot. To give you a sense: at six thirty this morning, when I headed out with my friends to go hiking, it was already 97 degrees outside.
At eleven o'clock, we drove back from our hike under a sun burning bright and temperatures pushing far past one hundred. For those four hot, hot hours of hiking, my sister packed a few chocolate covered energy bars, blueberries, and crackers to bring with us... Choices, we found out, that were not optimal for the conditions.
The crackers were fine, as you'd expect, but the chocolate bars were completely melted, and the blueberries putrid. With dirt and melted chocolate on our hands, we forced the food down our gullets, but it certainly wasn't delicious, clean, or healthy. Also, I was in the mood for pretty much anything besides rough carbohydrates, which made my tired throat sore.
My first tip: definitely, definitely bring water. I can't tell you how important it is. So often I suppose I won't be thirsty, but in this kind of heat, my whole water bottle was finished just past halfway through the hike. Bring more water than you think you'd ever drink. Believe me-- you'll work your way through it.
Now for food: having hearty foods is definitely best when you want to keep the amount of food you're carrying to a minimum. So rather than bringing chocolate-coated protein bars, which taste like compacted dirt and irritate your throat, bring items that are better suited to hot weather, perhaps something like a Clif Bar. I personally don't like eating a whole Clif Bar (though sweet and delicious, the oversweetness makes me very thirsty, and they're extremely caloric), and instead prefer foods that resemble it... Try trail mix. It has that same filling satisfaction, but you can bring exactly what you like by making your own! For goodness' sake- it's called trail mix, what do you think it's for? Combine all your favorite snacks: dried fruits and nuts. That stuff's really good!
If you're in the mood for fruit, and you don't prefer it hot and half-rotten, consider freezing it. Not all fruit freezes well, but some, like oranges, do just fine. If you stick one in the freezer the night before and let it freeze through, the peel will be soft, but the inside of the orange will be perfectly good. And it's still nice an cool when you want to chow down!
Another fun option is vegetable chips, which are another less starchy option from energy bars. Beware of the veggie chips that are pretty must just colored potato flakes, though. They are full of starch, and aren't particularly satisfying, either. Look for veggie chips that actually look like veggies. Don't worry- they're not hard to find, and are everywhere in health food stores.

Also, look for dried fruits and vegetables, which are really yummy and easy to pack, and are even more delicious if you buy them as "leathers." If you need a quick burst of sugar, the dried fruit leathers are just the right boost (and, I might add, they satisfy a sweet tooth like no other!)Besides that, simply aim for a good variety of snacks that hold up well, and enjoy your time in the sun!

Oh, the Joys of Social Dining!

It's always so awkward when you have eat with someone who you normally just talk to. Today, I have to face that awkwardness in full force: I'm going to a business luncheon-- Ickkk.
See, it's not the business part, nor the lunch part (certainly not the lunch part) that I dislike, but rather the whole idea of being in the middle of a conference with your mouth full when someone directs a question at you. Or smelling like a giant garlic loogie. Or getting sauce all over my face, or crumbs all around me. Or looking like a food-obsessed fattie. Or having food stuck in my teeth and looking like a humongous slob... You get the point.
Not that I have a weird phobia or anything...
We can all relate to this. Have you ever gone to a study group that meets over a meal? Maybe even with the person you like sitting right across from you? And all you think about is "Oh my gosh- There has to be something in my teeth, because he/she would never look at me this much otherwise!" Yeah, well haven't we all.
I remember the horrific days of travelling with my parents: we would get on the airplane or stop in the gas station, and she would whip out Pandora's dreaded lunchbox. All the containers would come out wet with condensation, and as they would open, the atmosphere around us would shrivel up with the heavy odors of (pre-veg days) smoked fish and cold cuts, mustard, onions, slick olives, stinky cheese, and super-strong dressing on a cold, wilted salad. We would spread out all the wet containers and start arranging our food into some kind of edible concoction. It would get all over everything. The condiments would drip out the bottom, the food would blast out the top onto your face and your clothing. This was anything but a neat operation. No. Fun. At. All.
Even when I was seven, when I was supposed to be completely socially unaware, I realized there was something wrong with the food choices my parents were making.
So let's readdress all those issues that were so disturbing to me: smell, neatness, convenience, even daintiness. I fretted: How do I create a meal I can take with me that fulfills all these requirements? But y'know, when I was packing up my lunch today (I can't order food. Remember the whole kosher thing?), I realized that there were a ton of ways to avoid uncomfortable situations. I set up a meal perfect for the circumstances.
Here's what I packed, all in separate plastic containers, to be eaten room temperature:
Fake chicken nuggets with a bit of Parmasean sprinkled into the container, tomato sauce, Salad, dressing (I made it myself- a spicy/creamy number), a few leftover roasted potato cubes (for my sister, who can't eat a meal without more starch than neccessary), and some yoghurt layered with homemade plum conserves on the top. Sounds pretty good, eh?
I chose those items, firstly, because they were super easy, taste good at room temperature (so I didn't have to add an ice pack, which creates that godforsaken nasty condensation) and half of them were already in the refrigerator. Also, they aren't smelly or cumbersome, while still being delicious and healthy (save the potatoes). Another huge advantage of those foods, which we always forget, is that they're very easy to eat in bites, so your mouth is never really full, and they're perfect to eat with one hand, either with your fingers or with a fork. No cutting or two-hand foods involved, so you can just take a bite and not seem totally absorbed by your food, or get your hands all messy when you have to suddenly pick up a pen and write a note. As an extra, none of them really crunches loudly or makes crumbs, either.
Another little trick that I slipped in was cutting the salad into just the right size pieces, because if they're really long, they stick out of your mouth and flick dressing all over the place, besides the fact that you have to mutilate your face to get it all in. It's simple, but this little technique works like a charm. Just cut the lettuce leaf vertically down the middle before chopping normally. People actually notice how neat you look eating your salad, and I have to say, they seem to be quite jealous. Plus, it's just more comfortable to eat.
Your meal looks especially nice when everything is in its own container. And when it's all packed into a nice paper shopping bag (my "grown up" lunchbox was a small Saks Fifth Avenue bag!) it's neat and convenient, too. With utensils and a napkin, I was set for a fantastic, not awkward meal that my taste buds, the rest of my body, and my coworkers, could all enjoy.

Satisfied and Under the Budget

All us teenagers seem to think that if we could afford anything, we'd be as skinny as twigs and healthy as Jack LaLanne. Whether or not that's true, we just don't-- and it frustrates us. We ask: "Wouldn't you think that our parents could just invest in the good food? That it's a priority?" To many of them, it's not, and we just have to live with it.
I can definitely tell you that my parents are not huge fans of overpriced and bug-filled organic fruits and vegetables; all the interesting-looking healthy options we seen in stores like Whole Foods or Trader Joe's that are, to them, "just too expensive." Well, I have had to find a way to get my hands on some good food anyhow, because it's a priority to me. Here are some things I do that compromise my parents' price standards and my standards of good nutrition.
Firstly, try signing up for some kind of a rewards program or buying club at your local supermarket, if it's offered. Let me tell you- it really pays off. With those extra dollars, you'll be able to afford products you normally didn't have the money for.
Also, I know that pretty packaging is ever so enticing, but don't fall for it. There are so many times when you buy something because the wrapper or box looks so "earthy" or "natural foods-y." What matters is what's in the ingredients and what the nutrition facts are. The less romantic looking option might not only be better for you, but cheaper, too. Watch out for that- a lot of the time, you don't even realize that you're buying food only because you think the packaging is pretty.
A great trick is looking for produce that is on sale. It's not what you're thinking-- that they're the old rotten fruits and vegetables that must have fallen on the floor in the back of the store-- usually, the fruits and veggies that are on sale were just over-ordered by the store, and they want to get rid of them before they go bad. That also means that they're often in season (when the fruit is naturally meant to be harvested during the year, just so you know), which is a good thing. Lately, I have been living off of the raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries that have constantly been on sale all over town. If I may say so, they're also the best berries I have tasted in a really long time. So definitely be opportunistic, and aim for food that is on sale. When you get home, it's super fun to then find a way to use what you bought. Check out some recipes on the internet or find something else in the refrigerator that might taste good with it. Experiment with you taste buds and your intuition... more often than not, you'll come up with something that tastes out of this world!
You can eat just as well without all the over-expensive prices and be able to get those fancy shmancy jeans in a smaller size :D