soapbox

I'm a child of the boxed cereal generation—Quisp, Kaboom, Fruity Pebbles, you name it. This, for me, is the example of mad-food-scientism (I know it's not a word, but I thought it appropriate given the context) at its worst. Let's pulverize and rob the grain, suck out any trace of nutrition or fiber, then pump vitamins, minerals, additives, artificial flavors, preservatives and pseudo-food back in, so we can say it's 'part of a balanced breakfast', extrude it into all sorts of unnatural shapes, add colors not seen naturally on the face of the planet, and Mom will love it because it's quick and easy, and purportedly nutritious!  Those neon bowlfuls were the epitome of our fast food nation and of our disconnect with nutrition. But, trust me, I LOVED it all...at the time.

Well, I've grown up now and pushed myself away from the sugar bowl for the most part.  I can't remember the last soda I drank or the last bowl of Frosted Flakes I ate. But I don't miss them, and my tastes have readjusted back to normal, so that the natural sweetness and flavors in foods really shine.  Am I the Mother Teresa of eating? Not by any means, but I do try to make good choices most of the time, and try to keep those diving expeditions into the bottom of the Nutella jar to a minimum—it’s all about balance.

Most of my recipes are made with 100% organic ingredients (where possible). Why?  Quite simply, we are what we eat...and the thought of all those chemicals and pesticides in and on our food makes me more than a little nervous.  America's corporate food practices are harming us and a way of life.  The motives behind corporate farming are plain and simple—make money, at whatever cost.  Anyone interested should read Michael Pollan's books, watch Food Inc., etc.  The information is out there, but we have gotten so far removed from our food and so ingrained in the fast food way of life, that we've become disengaged and willing participants in the cycle.  I believe ‘natural’ is the only real way forward and think we have settled for less-than at the expense of our health and the environment.  Not only does organic simply taste better, it's a win-win on every level.

Mother Nature has worked things out just fine over the millennia, and She has a scary way of responding to meddling sometimes. She has been a very generous benefactress and deserves to be taken care of accordingly, and I'm pretty sure we're not doing that very well.  I think the good Lord entrusts us to be better stewards of the bounty He has blessed us with.  I suggest we look back to the wisdom and knowledge of tens of thousands of years of agriculture, and learn from that rather than trust corporate farming to do what's right in the long run.  I really believe that if the FDA and the big corporations like Monsanto and ConAgra all put their collective resources and brain-power together (no snickering out there), we could certainly come up with some better alternatives to the current chemical-based practices.  Is this really the best we can do?  We can send robots to Mars, make test tube babies, and create DNA in a laboratory, but we can't come up with environmentally safe food practices?  I know we can do better.

We can't fix it all ourselves, but we can fix one or two things here and there.   Getting into the kitchen and making real food is one of those things.   If we have everything else but we don’t have out health, none of the rest of it matters.  My blog is just a small attempt at adding some food joy and wisdom to the cyber world.  I hope you’ll find some helpful information here and enjoy some tasty travels as well.  I've tried to make most of the recipes with a healthy slant.  Some are filled with good-for-you ingredients, and others have just been tweaked a bit here and there so they are at least better-for-you delicious. Enjoy the recipes, feeling good about what's in them and how they taste. I hope you'll just love what's on that spoonful!

~~Leigh