food

Musings On Health, Nutrition And Baking Powder

Posted on December 8, 2007 by Debora

Ten years ago I was the poster child for poor nutritional habits. I pretty much lived on pizza, donuts, rocky road ice cream and Dr. Pepper. I had no concept of what constituted a balanced diet.

Then I became pregnant with my first child. For the first time I began to wonder if I should maybe be taking a closer look at what was going into my body. After all, I wanted to give this new life inside me its best chance at a healthy, strong beginning.

So I started reading about whole foods and additives and the effects of processing, and pretty soon I’d decided to make some changes in my eating habits. And it didn’t take long for me to discover that the better I ate, the better I felt. One change led naturally to another, and within a few years I felt stronger, more energetic, and just plain healthier than I had since I was a kid. Whole grain breads and cereals, fresh raw produce, organic whenever possible, staying away from artificial flavors, colors and preservatives, no more soft drinks — these things dramatically changed the quality of my life. Not that I’d ever had any serious health problems before, but the new sense of vibrant health was incredible.

One of the smaller changes I made was to stop using regular commercial baking powder. I used to use Clabber Girl, which like most commercial baking powders contains aluminum sulphate as an acidifier. Consuming aluminum has been strongly linked to developing Alzheimer’s disease, and man, I just can’t see taking chances with that.

For a while I was making my own homemade baking powder with baking soda, arrowroot powder and cream of tartar. But the packages of arrowroot powder always passed their expiration dates before I’d used even half, and it seemed like a waste of money (and arrowroot, although to be honest I’m not really sure what that is). But then I found Rumford Baking Powder at my favorite health food store; it’s a “premium, aluminum free” baking powder that uses monocalcium phosphate as an acidifier. Monocalcium phosphate is generally recognized as safe, maybe even good for you depending on who you talk to, and Rumford Baking Powder isn’t that much more expensive than the regular kind, so I started using that instead of making my own.

So this morning I was making waffles for the kids, and I got to reading the fine print on the Rumford label, and discovered that it’s made by the Clabber Girl Corporation. I absorbed that info for a minute, and then wondered, “Why would a company acknowledge the strong connection between an ingredient and a disease, develop and offer a safer version of the product…and then keep on providing the original, probably dangerous version? I mean, why not just offer the safer product as a “new and improved” version of Clabber Girl Baking Powder? It works just as well in recipes. And not everyone shops in health food stores, or knows that consuming aluminum might seriously hink with the quality of their future life. Should there be some ethical responsibility taken here? Seriously, does it ALWAYS have to be about making a few extra bucks by using cheaper ingredients, even at the expense of your customers’ health?

Clearly I was never meant to be a mover and shaker in the world of big business, because these kinds of choices never make any sense to me.

Categories: Family, food, Health, Life, Nutrition | Tags: , | 6 Comments

Today I’m Thankful For…

Posted on November 21, 2007 by Debora

…my crockpot! Wondrous invention.

This morning I headed down to Temec to enjoy some last-minute grocery shopping on what must surely be the busiest grocery-shopping day of the year. I figured that after a day spent searching for parking spaces and standing in long lines I probably wouldn’t feel much like cooking, so before I left I put a beef brisket in in the toaster oven, broiled it on both sides, then plunked it into the crockpot with an onion (sliced), three cloves of garlic (minced), and about half a jar of Claim Jumper barbecue sauce (heavenly!).

When I returned home this afternoon the savory aroma of barbecue sauce and brisket filled the kitchen. I’d picked up some fresh-baked sourdough rolls from the bakery in Temec to round out the meal…and my work is done.

Man, I love my crockpot. :^)

Categories: food, Life | Tags: | 3 Comments

A Winter Garden Writ Small

Posted on November 20, 2007 by Debora

Always leave enough time in your life to do something that makes you happy, satisfied, or even joyous. That has more of an effect on economic well-being than any other single factor.
– Paul Hawken

Every summer as I’m delighting in the lavish bounty of my garden I promise myself that this time, for sure, I will plant a winter garden and keep the fresh veggies coming. And at some point every January or February I realize that once again the winter garden hasn’t materialized and it’s time to start preparing the plot for spring planting.

This October as I was on the return lap of my road trip I swore that the first thing I was going to do when I got home was to put in that winter garden. No excuses this time.

And then I got home, and the truth hit me. The reason why my best intentions come to naught every fall. It’s because in November, when the summer garden is fading out and the time has come to till the soil and plant winter crops, one has to make a choice: put in that winter garden…or make one’s house shiny clean and nice for the holidays.

I love the holidays. The holidays merit a shiny clean house. I also have two young children, and that house ain’t going to scrub itself.

So I got to cleaning. But I couldn’t bring myself to let go of the winter garden idea. I realized that what I need is a set of raised beds near the house, dedicated solely to stuff like lettuce and broccoli and cabbage and stuff that will grow year-round here.

Not having time to build these raised beds at the moment (see holidays and housecleaning, above), I opted for a quick fix. I picked up the biggest plastic pot I could find at Home Depot (24″ diameter), set it up out of reach of the dogs (on a couple of old truck tires; effective if not terribly pretty), filled it full of organic potting soil and seeded it liberally with radishes, broccoli, carrots and several varieties of lettuce. I just mixed everything together; there’s no “radish section” or “lettuce section.” I figure I can eat all the thinnings and end up with a handful of adult plants spread evenly around the pot. The carrots are experimental: I’m not sure if carrots will grow in the winter here and this seems like a good way to find out.

wg1.jpgEverything sprouted very quickly; I’ll need to do a lot of thinning.

I want to take a moment to sing the praises of Hybrid Packman broccoli. This variety not only has a mild, delicious flavor, it also has the wonderful habit of growing nearly full-size heads to replace the ones you harvest — over and over, for as long as the plant lasts. I have broccoli in my garden right now that I planted last spring, that are still producing beautiful heads! So even if I only have room for one adult broccoli plant in my little winter garden this year, it should still produce a satisfactory amount of edible goodness.

As for the lettuce, once it’s big enough I like to harvest it by the leaf rather than by the head, so one plant of each variety should provide many salads. The only variety I’ve had any luck with in my summer garden is Romaine, but for the cooler weather I’m trying a few different kinds to see how they do.

I also like Cherry Belle radishes and Tendersweet carrots. I didn’t plant cabbage this fall because of space constraints, but as my winter garden setup grows I’ll be adding both green and red varieties.

I’m pretty excited about the prospect of year-round fresh-picked goodies, but experience tells me that these things rarely work out exactly as planned. I’m eager to see what thrives and what doesn’t in my little miniature garden.

Categories: food, Gardening, Life | 9 Comments