#66. Chem Class Heroes.

Remember in science class as a kid, getting those little pH strips and finding out how disgusting the water from your school’s fountain was? (ick)

If you were to use one of those strips to measure your body, did you know you would have a pH, too? (I know, you probably figured that out years ago, but bring that little note -card to the front of your brain again)

Yep, you can either be basic (which nutrition/dietary types call alkaline) or acidic? You’ve also probably drawn the obvious conclusion, you want the be alkaline, or at least close to basic. I’m not saying “oven cleaner / pH 14″ basic, but maybe more along the lines of 7.3 or so.

An acidic body is a diseased / sick / sad body; a alkaline body is a healthy / happy body. It’s all about your metabolism. When your body processes food and drinks, the cells have an acid by-product that we get rid of in the bathroom and gym (not just #1 & #2, but sweat and deep breathing).

Some foods produce more acid – dairy. meat, alcohol,  bread (white and wheat), sugar, etc… Ever feel like you have a junk-food hangover? That’s because your body is loaded down with acid from processing so much of that kind of stuff.

Some foods produce alkalinity – leafy greens, lemons, limes, avocados, etc.

Remember what’s in season? Limes! Lemons! Kale!

Yay alkalinity!

Limes/lemons are easy. Drink lime water. Drink lemon water. Use them with olive oil and garlic as your salad dressings. Throw the juice on fish or roasted veggies. Drink more lime water. Drink more lemon water.

WTF do you do with kale? It’s spiney, it’s bitter, it’s chalky. But done right, it can be really delicious.

Here’s one way to not mess up kale: make chips!

These are so trendy right now in the foodie world…probably because they’re so easy to make and so very delicious, and because kale’s in season, duh.

Your kale needs to be dry, very, very, dry. So, I recommend not even washing it. (oops, sorry I know that’s kind of gross) Any little organisms that can live through 425 degrees for an extended amount of time, I want them on my side. Look, if you have organic kale, that might be an option for you. If you don’t, maybe you have to wash in advance and make sure it’s dry before you put it in the oven.

Oven at 425.

Mix bite sized pieces of kale in with olive oil, sea salt, and garlic…toss them on a pan, and roast them for about seven minutes.

It’s usually seven, but really just keep a beat on them so they don’t burn. They’re supposed to get crispy and brown on the edges, though!

Squirt with a little lemon, or just eat them plain.

Another thing you can do with kale: make a salad.

I sure wish i had photos for this one, sorry. Use kale, pomegranate seeds, parmasean cheese and black beans (if you want) and toss them with a little lime/olive oil/garlic vinaigrette.

You are absolutely worth taking care of. You’re worth making changes so your body is more alkaline. I want you around for a really long time, and so do a lot of other people. So, please take care of your body.

Love you,
Jackie

P.S. For lots more on Alkalinity vs Acidity, you can learn about it from Dr. Robert Young (pH Guru) here, and more tips on how to keep yourself more alkaline from Sylvie and Maryl (nutrition/health/wellness gurus) here, and more inspiration of why you’re so awesome from a website that I appreciate a lot called The Daily Love, here.

#65. You Are What You–OH MY GOD, STRAWBERRY BUTTER?!

First of all, don’t forget this:

Which sounds, and is, silly, but there’s a bit of truth in every joke, and this one is filled with it. You do have permission to be confident in yourself (because no one else will).  And, yes, you are what you eat.

If you notice, you can tell a lot from a person by what they eat. I’m fascinated by it. I think there’s a real connection between what you order (or make) during a meal, and what you are feeling that day. What you eat, and what you crave, are definitely connected. Makes sense doesn’t it? Whatever sounds good to your body might be what it’s lacking. Some days maybe it’s spinach because your body needs more calcium, or folate to get back to alkalinity. Some days, maybe it’s potato soup because you need to feel loved, and your mom used to make potato soup on cold nights like this one.  Some days, maybe you’re feeling beat up, and people just suck, and all you can really control is what and how much food you eat. So, you do. That feeling is a pretty powerful one – feeling powerless.

If you feel like there’s nothing you can control… you might try to control one of your most basic needs. Food. You can eat a lot of it. You can eat none of it. You can choose what kind of cuisine you want and follow those neon signs all the way to fried chicken coma. You can purge and binge. That you can control.

If that sounds a little too black and white – it is. But that’s what a lot of us want to think in. It’s a relief to have an easy decision, that’s within your control, when you’ve been in an uncontrollable world all day.

But, over-eating and under-eating aren’t your only options. And they certainly won’t solve the problem. And it certainly won’t make you feel any better.

I want to redefine “comfort food” for you. If you actually look up the word “comfort” it can mean, used as a verb: To soothe, console or reassure; bring cheer to.

I like that definition a lot.

But I like it better defined as a noun. That can mean: A state of ease and satisfaction of bodily wants, with freedom from pain and anxiety.

I’m so in love with that definition, I want to bake it a cake and fold its socks.

You see, darling, there are so many things that our body needs to be comforted with. It’s not just about food.
Sometimes we feel what we think is hunger, and it’s actually thirst.
Sometimes, what we think we want is chocolate cake, when really, we’d be much more satisfied with a phone call to mom and a hug from a friend.
Sometimes what we think we need is more control of what’s going on in our lives, but really…what we need is to stop trying to control everything, and let God handle it.
Sometimes, we think we need another hour at the gym a week, when really what we need is to be confident about the body we were given.
Sometimes, we think we need spinach, when really it’s the texture of broccoli we were searching for.

The thing is…the shitty thing is…we don’t really want to look at what we’re missing. It’s scary to think that our lives aren’t as perfect as we post on Facebook. It’s hard to think that sometimes, we may need someone’s help. Admitting that there’s a void, even to ourselves, isn’t easy.

But it’s really important.

Because after you find out what you need, you can get it. And then, you can really be comforted.

And when you’re not worried about food, you can actually enjoy it…especially during the Super Bowl.

That is a photo of the cheesiest, gooeyist, buffalo chicken croissnat roll you’ve ever seen. (So I hear, anyway)

Here’s how I made it:
Can of cooked chicken
Doused in wing sauce
Bleu cheese dressing
Cheddar cheese
Chives
On a crescent roll sheet

Roll that up, bake according to the package directions, but you’ll want to add about three minutes so the bread cooks all the way through, (it’s a lot thicker with all that deliciousness wrapped up inside!) and then cut it into little rounds.

Oh, I need to tell you about these chives–

I bought a normal sized bunch of chives…but the white stems in a bit of water, and they took off like gangbusters.

So I really had to use chives while I was cooking for the Super Bowl.

I also did another batch of crescent roll pinwheels with:
Cream cheese
Diced jalapenos
Chives
Bacon

Those were a big hit, too.

A fellow blogger (use real butter) posted this recipe a few months ago, and I’d been dying to try it. And I figured while I had a Super Bowl sized mess in my kitchen, I might as well.

Now, please note, even though strawberries are everywhere, and on sale with that cute little package of dipping chocolate right next to them — they’re not really in season.

They’re actually not in season until about late June…but I think because Valentine’s Day is approaching quickly, people like to think that heart-shaped, beautifully red fruit matches the holiday.

It doesn’t. But whatever.

Strawberry Butter is so simple, but really feels decadent.

It’s like, “oh, yeah. smutty toast, great thanks. OH MY GOD IS THAT STRAWBERRY BUTTER?!?! AMAZING!”

Food process some strawberries, (I used almost two full packages of berries and one pound of butter. Because overkill is how I roll) and blend them together with softened butter.

It should take a few minutes to get all creamed up and together. Oh, and a word to the wise: don’t add everything in all at once. SLOWLY add the strawberries in thte butter…because if you don’t…you get to clean up a huge mess in your kitchen.
Much like I did.

mmmhmmm.

Also, grapes are just out of season. So, if they’re on sale at your supermarket, that’s why. They’re trying to get rid of them. BUT, you can still find some that are good, and freeze them, or roast them, and make them taste like they did a few weeks ago.

See the gem I found? It can be done!

What I did was drizzle them with olive oil and roast them in a 425 degree oven for about 20 minutes…until they started bursting.

Pre-Oven action there…

Then put them on a sandwich of toasted ww bread and goat cheese. (With a spinach salad.) After all that delicious food, cleaning the kitchen was a real chore…like, two loads of dishes in the dishwasher chore. Know any good sous chefs?

Okay, feed your body well.
You deserve it.

I love you,
LOTS,
Jackie

(This is the third time I’ve written this blog this week…let’s see if it works. this time… cross your fingers!)

#64. I Could Really Regret This Decision.

Sometimes I make very calculated decisions…other times… I can be a bit impulsive.

But, I think there’s room in my life for both.

Today my impulse decision was to buy the biggest bunch of asparagus off of the rack at the store, because I am so happy it’s in season.  That’s right! Asparagus, great vitamin K, C, Iron source is finally in season!

So…be looking for plenty of roasted asparagus recipes to come. (but to get you started, blanch it in boiling water for three minutes, then put it in cold water to stop the cooking. Drain. Squirt lemon,  some garlic, a drizzle of olive oil on it and you’re done. Amazeballs.)

Another semi-impulsive decision I made today, with the start of the new month and all, is to tweet what I eat.

This, I know, sounds really dumb. But actually, it can be really interesting. I think food journals are important…and I’m crappy at keeping one, and because I’ve been without meat for a month…it’s probably time to make myself accountable to getting enough protein in my diet. (I’m really worried about it, actually.)

And I’m just curious.

So, you can follow that on twitter if you want… https://twitter.com/#!/FoodieInk But I’m not really asking, I’m just letting you know that it’s an option.

Alright, bizness. (totally clickable for dopeness.)

Why aren’t you cooking with and eating more citrus!? It’s in season! Lemons! Oranges! Tangerines! Grapefruit!

Yum!

Seriously, oranges are like 37 cents. CENTS. Cheap. Delicious.

Also cheap and delicious, cauliflower. Now, we’ve all got a story about how much we hate cauliflower and blech, and ew, and I don’t like it and all that crap, but I’m gonna tell you…you love it. You just don’t know it yet.

Look at how huge this head of cauliflower is! Less than $2.

Oven=425.

Chop that flower up…throw it on a pan with some olive oil and garlic, chili powder and lemon, and throw it in the oven.

It needs to be dry before you do this, okay? Really dry.

Then, let it roast for about 15 minutes.

It should be just starting to brown up.

Add some parmesan cheese and pine nuts…throw it back in the oven for a couple-five minutes…

It should come out looking something like that.

Here why you should eat cauliflower – it’s chalk full of vitamins C, K, and beta-carotene.. and if you need ALL of those things, because if you haven’t been sick, you know someone who is…because it’s that time of year.

What else is full of vitamin C?

That’s right … broccoli!

And citrus. (Plus, citrus fights scurvy…ask any salty old sailor…they’ll tell you that.)

What else can you do with citrus…

Oh yeah!

You can make it in to a dressing to put on cabbage (ALSO in season! See how this works? Handy!) and throw that on some tacos!

Lemon, honey, mustard, salt, pepper, and thin sliced red cabbage makes a great (low calorie) little slaw for anything. But on a bean and potato taco? Ugh! Fabulous!

Black beans, potatoes, wheat tortilla and that slaw?

Amazing.

There has to be something to this…cabbage, also in season right now, also less than about a buck to buy, is ALSO really high in vitamins C, K and beta-carotene (which is vitamin A)

What does vitamin A do? The Mayo Clinic says it helps with all of these:

Erythropoietic Protoporphyia
Carotenoid deficiency
Cataract Prevention
COPD
Cognitive Performance
Cystic Fibrosis
Exercise-Induced Asthma
Immune System Enhancement
Osteoarthritis
Polymorphous Light Eruption
Pregnancy-Related Complications
Sunburn

I think maybe, just maybe, God knows what he’s doing.

Of course He does, don’t be ridiculous.

Okay, be well,
Love,
Jackie