A Tasty Little Post

I have quite a few blog posts to catch up on! There was a lovely long trip back home to Georgia, a surprisingly awesome cross-country road trip in a fancy car, many hikes in the Rocky mountain air, a change in job positions, and quite a few new experiences I've just GOT to chronicle in words. But for today, here's a couple pictures and thoughts about eating-- eating well and eating in. 

For budgetary reasons, Chris and I are eating at home a lot and trying to use many interesting ingredients for the foods we usually tend to enjoy out. I follow the rules of thumb put forth by Lisa Leake from 100 Days Of Real Food about cooking, limiting numbers of ingredients, and working hard to cut processed food out of our daily diets. I also am an avid reader of Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire. Chris has a copy of the Forks Over Knives book and enjoyed the information presented in the documentary. 

What a mess!

As an educator, I'm very concerned about childhood obesity, childhood hunger (and the health ramifications of that!), and the dangers of irresponsible foods being placed in school lunches. That's another soapbox (food crate?) for another day. The bracket on the door of the refrigerator cracked and broke this week, leaving a mess to clean up and less space to contain ALL THE FOODS I insist on stocking. All this stuff was in the door. A couple of glass bottles containing different things also bit the dust. Oh well.

So, for my blog post at a (failed) attempt at "Wordless Wednesday," I give you our fridge:

We seem to adore Target brands. (Hey, when their organic brands are priced better than the national brand, and have better packaging, why not?)  And Trader Joe's. And dairy. There are at least a half dozen kinds of cheese in there. Plus lots of yogurt. My spoiled dog gets yogurt with every meal. << I wonder how a boy from America's Dairyland of Wisconsin and a vegetarian got so much cheese. Hah. >>

There's produce in the drawers-- romaine lettuce (it lasts so much longer when you chop it for salad yourself), Colorado peaches, peppers, kale (we have kale chips several times a week), apples, and zucchini and cucumbers from a local farm. 

I have my Redd's Apple ale and Rocky Mountain peach whiskey plus Chris has all the summer Leinenkugal brews (another WI staple) stocked. 

What're all those green wraps on things? A decade ago, some nice folks I was housesitting for (Ginny and Steve!) used these weird reusable green bags for produce. I was skeptical, but you can't argue with a product that works. You just toss your produce into these green bags, deflate the bags, and twist them closed. They work against the chlorophyll in the plant's cells going bad or something sciencey. The bottom line is, they are an investment in healthy eating! You can rinse and reuse the bags again and again and they still protect your food from going bad as quickly. Sounds like "As Seen on TV," but they work. There's heirloom tomatoes, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries wrapped up still in their containers there. 

Onto the door-- we have quite a few dressings! I have been on a Caesar salad kick as of late. The Trader Joe's caesar dressing is perfect to me. Horseradish is versatile too. Oh, so it would seem we like spicy and flavorful too! 3 kinds of hot sauce? We're on fiyah!

From L-R, clockwise: Smuckers Simply Fruit (nat'l), Organic grape jelly made by my students (CO), One Screw Loose special edition Orange Lavender (GA), and Kay's Kitchen Apple Butter (CO). 

Couple of sweets in there too-- we tend to buy jams and jellies from farmer's markets-- some here in Denver and some I've shlepped back from Atlanta (One Screw Loose is from Barnesville) and aim for the ones with juice/wine/beer/fruit mixed with pectin. That's what you need to get into a good jam. Organic TJ's Hershey's? Doesn't have HFCS. Raspberry agave? Makes a great raspberry hot chocolate or mocha. 

Last but not least-- I think I left off the savory! We tend toward Italian food and stir-fry, so the low-sodium soy sauce is great. I like the Amino Acid spray too-- I use it in salad dressings and as an alternative to soy sauce. Tastes just right. 

A couple tips for a healthier fridge:

• Sort your foods. It's easier to find what you want that way.
• Buy healthier food. Seems like "duh," but you can't eat it if you don't buy it.
• Vote with your dollar. Choose carefully-- local, organic, avoiding big agro-- whatever your interest.
• Remember to eat it! Place to-go containers or leftovers front and center so you remember to eat them before they go bad. Remember granny always said, "Waste not, want not."
• Keep it cool. Place eggs, milk, meats toward the back where the temperature won't fluctuate as much as it does in the door.

What's in your fridge? Any dirty little secret foods?