What not to eat
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I’ve watched a couple of the latest Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall series, The River Cottage Treatment, with avid interest. It’s almost cruel to educate some people as to the source of their food since they don’t tend to associate little bouncing lambs with those supermarket chops wrapped in cling film. The outcome of making them aware of the connection seems to have a mostly positive result in making all (them and us watching) more conscious of what we pick up in the supermarket.
Processed foods are something I’m dead set against but like everyone else, fall into the convenience trap because I can’t be bothered to cook. I blame that lethargy on the processed food but until the energy is found to break out of the cycle, on and on it goes.
I want to break free… I want to break free
While in England, I picked up yet another Indian cook book with great intentions of filling the freezer with home made convenience dinners (minus all those nasty additives) but as yet all I’ve done is leaf through the pages while producing excessive amounts of saliva. Come Sunday I’m going to do something in thick creamy coconut sauce (probably chicken because chicken is all I’ve got!). Coconut sauce is one of those exotic things that turns any old hen into a bit of a dish. Who knows what it would do to the rooster.
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Yes, it’s true Caroline that people rarely pause to think where the food on the table came from. So many people are happy to eat meat, but wouldn’t be prepared to kill an animal in order to eat it. I saw a tv documentary about what goes on behind the scenes in an abbatoir. It didn’t quite convert me to vegetarianism, but did make me think twice about eating processed meats like kebabs and sausages. We need a more back to basics approach. If more and more people start eating organic and free range foods the prices will eventually lower and more producers will be tempted to go organic.
I hope you’re right Ciaran. Organic as the norm would certainly benefit everybody. Organic meat isn’t so easy to come by though. I was fortunate enough to live near a venison farm when I lived in Downpatrick. Even if it wasn’t strictly organic, deer don’t have the same antibiotics pumped into them as cattle do. It’s worth paying a bit more for the meat if you know it’s healthier.
I agree that kebabs, burgers, sausages and the like are worth avoiding.
Plant killers!!!
I recently bought a Crock Pot, which is great for poultry, stews, pastas and more. You just put a bunch of stuff in it, it slow cooks it while you are away for the day, and dinner is ready when you return in the evening
What if, like me, you don’t go away for the day most days? Does it still work even though you’re watching it?
Are you going to try and sell me one?
I had a slow cooker/crock pot for many years. Now I have a slow cooking oven if I want to do that.
Tonight I made Balti chicken in a thick creamy coconut sauce and a pile of naan without the aid of a safety net or a crock pot.
Slow cooking oven!!?
Yes! It’s an oven that…. cooks slow
Hate to put a damper on things, but you do know that coconut is full of saturated fat, not to mention calories (although you don’t look like you need to worry about calories). I must admit it doesn’t stop me from using it though as it really does make a simple curry seem special.
oh noooo! not… the dreaded…. saturated fat and calories!!!!
You must be piling it in Alison if it’s a cause for concern. I know it’s hard not to use heaps, coconut is such tasty stuff but per portion, the coconut sauce is just 2.84g saturated fat… about one tenth of the RDA. Hardly worth fretting over…. not that I was anyway
I recently read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, by Michael Pollan. He follows the path
food from where it is grown all the way to the dining room table (given that indeed
is where anyone eats anymore). In it he assesses America’s industialised nature of
percentage of every product on the shelves, even in the packaging. It was quite a
disturbing read for that reason alone. It was also disturbing to know that cattle
raised for beef are fattened in feedlots on this corn, which is not their natural
food. The antibiotics that they give them are to allow them to live long enough to
get to the slaughter house. Steers generally do not live more than 16 months, when
beef cattle fattened on grass would normally take a couple years at least. To
complicate things feeding them corn makes their stomach a more acidic environment,
which is conducive to e. Coli bacteria. That has become a big concern over here.
Great precautions have to be made to isolate the digestive tract from being
perforated and coming into contact with the meat. You can’t depend upon people
cooking beef at a high enough temperature to kill e.Coli entirely. This alone makes
me spend the extra money to buy grass-fed beef, which runs about $7.00/pound here,
most notable supplied by Coleman Beef here in Colorado. I also have cut down quite
a bit on red meat in my diet. It’s become something of a treat for company at barbeques.
I know what you mean about the dining table… mines used more as a desk but I still eat at it even so…
and I’ve seen pictures of yours…