Guess who's back?

That right after a two year hiatus I am back to talk about one of my favorite subjects... Food!  A lot has changed over the last two year including my eating habits.  About two years ago I decided to start eating less meat and more fruits and vegetables.  It seems pointless to argue the merits of such a change, I will simple say that it is true that if you eat better you feel better.  I have heard a lot of people joke that if you are what you eat then I would want to be a piece of bacon (actually I have never heard anyone say this).  Why if you could be anything would you pick something dead?  Eat living things you come alive.  It seems simple enough.  For your enjoyment I have included a recipe for cantaloupe punch which is a good starter drink to drink in the morning.  It is by no means the healthiest drink but is better then most things people eat to start their day.  Enjoy:

Cantaloupe Punch 

You will need a juicer of some sort, I used a commercial citrus press and a Hurom slow juicer (where I got the recipe)

Juice 1 Cantaloupe (de-seeded and cut out of rind of course)

        12 oranges

        1 lemon

Optional: add ground cinnamon with an immersion blender to finished juice.  This should be added to taste (somewhere from 1/4 tsp - 1/2 tsp)  

    

The Memories of Fall Part One

It is that time of year again when food and family will be on the minds of all individuals.  I love the fall and the many fun food traditions.  The first major tradition for me is pumpkin carving.  My brother and I are quite good at carving pumpkins, usually he draws the picture and I spend the countless hours carving it.  In fact we won a pumpkin carving contest for about three years.  I wish I had a picture of those pumpkins!  It has been a few years since I have lived close to my brother and my pumpkins has struggled as a result.  I am not an artist.  Here is a picture from the last pumpkins my wife and I carved from 2009.  I hope this year, since I now live close to my brother again to do a legit pumpkin with his help.... I guess we will see.

A New Direction ?

So a lot has been happening both in my personal and food life, believe it or not I have had a change of heart about food...  It all started when I went to a community event that was also potluck and I watched as people were pushing and running to get to the free food, it looked like pigs at a trough, I also witnessed people stacking food on top of other foods so deep that they might as well have had a chum bucket and a straw.  The icing on the cake was the 14ish year old, fat girl swirling ranch dressing all over her plate until it turned white.

Well that was enough for me something snapped inside, I decided that I was going to evaluate the way I eat... I came to a few conclusion which I am going to share, 

1.  I was eat too much meats and fats.

2.  I was eating too much processed foods

3.  I was eating too much cooked foods

4.  I was not getting the nutrition I needed from my diet

So, I made a choice, I was going to go Vegan Rawish for 2/3 of the the day meals and snacks, this means that before diner I eats like a vegan and all foods are uncooked.  I have been working towards this for about three weeks.  I now feel great and I have lost a substantial amount of weight.  

I am now going to give you an idea of what a meal might like like that I would eat and its nutritional values

This meal included Romaine lettuce, one tomato, one cucumber, Homemade Raw Kale Chips, 5 figs, 1 pear, Pecans, and a olive oil/ rice vinegar dressing:

 Here is the nutritional info for this         

Total

592 Calories

20 Fat

0 Cholesterol

55 Carbohydrates

16 g Dietary Fiber

31 mg Sodium

45g  Sugars

8 g Protein

 107 mg Calcium

1201 mg Potassium

I Can Be Your Wingman Anytime

What is it about Buffalo Wings that say amazing!

It is my opinion that wings are a love/hate food, this means that you either love them or hate them.  The most common reason I have heard that people hate wings is because they have a bone, very little meat, and are messy.  Also depending on the sauce involved some people hate the flavor or the assumed spiciness.

As a foodie I love wings, to me they are like a meat rocket to deliver flavor to your tongue.  I love to experiment with new and original sauces all the time and find the wing the perfect place to do that.  Here are some of my latest concoctions

I call these traditional buffalo wings, half bottle of Franks red hot, 3 TBS butter, dash of Tapatio, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce

Alabama White Barbeque Sauce Wings 

South Carolina Mustard Barbeque Sauce Wings

Served up with a salad and fried pickle 

Super Spicy Honey Barbeque Wings, made your mouth tingle   

I am often asked for recipes for my sauces, truth be told a lot of them are made up and impossible to recreate ever but that's ok with me I will always have the memory of that Picasso wing that for one moment happened, blew my mind and was never seen again.  It is that special moment of sauce Zen that makes me hungry to explore new and different directions

Dr. Strangeprotein or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Soylent Green

Soylent green is not people but rather Organic Hemp Protein Powder.

I have been working out at the gym and although your body certainly need to eat better and more calculated in order to be health and for the exercise to work, there is a horrible myth in the U.S.A.  that people need to eat protein bars and shakes or large amounts of meat protein in order to be healthy after a workout.

Meat protein has its own problems (which I will not get into) and most manufactured protein is of the lowest quality and might be worst then some fast food (I said some). 

So the quest, to make a healthy homemade protein bar, with about 25 grams of protein and 30 carbohydrates that can keep in the freezer for about 3 months and makes about 24 bars has about 300 calories, and comes to about .50 cents a bar...

Here is what I made...

Homemade Protein Bar

Like a thick Fruit Cake

 Ingredients

1 cup Organic Hemp Protein Powder

1/2 cup oat bran

1/2 cup whole-wheat flour

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

2 cups almonds

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup dried cherries

1/2 cup dried blueberries

1/2 cup dried apricots

1 (12.3-ounce) package soft silken tofu

1/2 cup unfiltered apple juice

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 TBS molasses

2 large whole eggs, beaten  or proper amount of Natural Egg Replacer

2/3 cup natural peanut butter

Canola oil, for pan

Directions

Line the bottom of a 13 by 9-inch glass baking dish with parchment paper and lightly coat with canola oil. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the protein powder, oat bran, wheat flour, wheat germ, and salt. Set aside.

Coarsely chop the almonds, raisins, dried cherries, blueberries and apricots and place in a small bowl and set aside.

In a third mixing bowl, whisk the tofu until smooth. Add the apple juice, brown sugar, molasses, eggs, and peanut butter, 1 at a time, and whisk to combine after each addition. Add this to the protein powder mixture and stir well to combine.

Kind of gross at this point but that is normal

Fold in the dried fruit. Spread evenly in the prepared baking dish and bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 205 degrees F. Remove from the oven and cool completely before cutting into squares. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to a week or freeze for three months

In with the nuts

The end result look like baby poop but matched all of my previous criteria and taste like a less sugary, somewhat health, fruit cake.  I call it a success and better yet I know everything went into it, so here is to your health!

Homemade Baby Poop!, I swear it is good for you

Extreme Couponing Report

So, I know that I have not written for a month, but I have been busy trying out something that I would now like to report on.  I have been working on the art of extreme couponing, which is defined as the systematic shafting of your local grocery store through the use of superior organization, patience, and manufacture's coupons.

 

After one month I have learned a lot about this art and here is my check list to test if you are ready to do this.

1.  Do you know thy grocery self:  it seems easy enough, but it is not.  In order to really make savings and make this count in an extreme way, you have to be committed (not the straight jacket kind) and love grocery shopping.  Do you know the "normal price for food" and could you spot a good deal?  The truth is that over the month I averaged 72% saving on all of my grocery trips.  When I was sloppy or lazy it was more like 50-65%, and when I was really trying I got as high as 79%.  Here the thing if you are not committed and hate grocery shopping, the chances increase that you will spend more money and start eating worst because of the need to use your coupons.

2.  Is time really money?  To do couponing it takes time, I mean lots of it! Time to get coupons, cut them, organize them, look through the ads, match up deals, and then go to all the stores.  I spent at least an extra 3-6 hours messing with the grocery shopping.

3.  Do you have the storage?  I filled up all of my free storage space in a month, freezer first then on from there.  It's a lot of work to coupon right and if you do not have the space it might be wise to choose wisely what you buy.

4.  Are you flexible?  Buying food only when it is on sale and couponed means you must be flexible in how you eat.  Will this drive you crazy?  I can promise you there are very few, if any, coupons for organic and specialty foods. 

If you feel comfortable with your answers at this point let's get to the basics of couponing

1.  Sign up with all of your local grocery store's web pages, club cards, and make sure you get their ads.

2.  Get coupons, for Sunday's paper and online.  You will need a lot of them, I found 4-5 for each product worked well with the coupon policy at my stores.

3.  Know your stores coupon policy.

4.  Get a coupon binder with coupon holders (I used baseball card sheets).

From here you are ready to begin

The next step is to get the ads and create a list, then go shopping.

Here are a few rules and tips I learned along the way

1.  Never forget or mix up your binder ( I did this twice) :(

2.  Resist the urge to buy things you normally do not buy.

3.  If a deal does not feel sweet enough do not do it.

4.  Find a coupon friend, I did not do this but would like to in the future.

5.  Be willing to wait and cut your losses.

These are all I can think of for now.  I hope this was helpful, if not I am ok with that.  I can tell you this much, there is a really and somewhat disturbing rush you get when your bill is $102 dollars, and you think, "I can't pay for that" then you give them your club card and coupons and the bill drops to $30 dollars and the casher says," that was like $26 dollars in coupons, you should teach a class about this" that it all feels worth it and you feel like a drug junkie out to get their next fix. 

Happy Couponing!!!!!

Share a Blog: My Open Mind: A Bite About Food

I decided to share another blog this week that wrote about food, I thought it was fun and insightful

My Open Mind: A Bite About Food: "I love food. To allow that part of my mind a little air time, I will share a memory and a guilty pleasure. When I was growing up, one of ..."