resolved

I've had an interesting week as far as food goes. First my husband underwent a proceedure requiring a bland vegetarian diet. Second I re-read Laurel's Kitchen. Then I watched the documentary Food, Inc. This has led me to a lot of soul searching.

Many of you know I was a vegetarian for about a decade. In the early 1990s there was a severe outbreak of e-coli in Seattle right near my home. Several children died or were maimed for life. At the time, I had a houseful of little people. My desire to cook or eat food that would bring them possible harm was flatlined. Cold turkey, we went meatless.

Unfortuanately, I had no clue how to do it in a healthy manner. We still ate white sugar, rice, pasta, and bread. Canned green beans, tomato sauce, and corn plus dehydrated onions were pretty much our staple veggies. We ate a bit of fresh brocolli and ice berg lettuce, too. The only real change I made was to eliminate animal flesh products and eat more beans. Health was not the result. After ten years of this, at the urging of our family doctor we again began to eat meat. We did feel better, when I had sources of grass-fed, free-range eggs, chicken, beef, milk, etc. But that all went away, when we left Seattle.

But by that time, I had begun to read more about nutrition. Unfortunately, getting quality fresh produce of any kind in Hawaii was almost impossible (except pineapple and bananas). I still learned more and more and more. Now you might say I have a self-inflicted PhD in underground nutrition. It's nothing like they teach at BYU, if it's what the nutrition department teaches at Women's Conference. Anyway, if I were to attempt the vegetarian thing today, I could do it amazingly well.

After gaining a greater understanding of our food sources from the documentary, I feel a need to eliminate anything in our diet that isn't organic and naturally grown the way my great grandparents grew things on the farm. Surely, I don't intend to go back to being a vegetarian. However, if I cannot find sources of clean animal products, I won't eat or cook them. My grocer has plenty of organic veggies for me to choose from. I've found local sources of clean, organic milk and eggs (I'm getting my own chickens again this spring.) I have a basement full of grains and beans. But I've yet to find clean meat in this farming/ranching community. Interesting.....I think I'll take the advice I give in my cookbook and substitue mushrooms or tofu for the meat in my recipes until good sources can be found.

FOOD, INC.: Movie Trailer - For more funny movies, click here