Chronicles of a Late Bloomer

What sort of amazes me is how much time and energy it takes to eat well and be mindful about things. For me, even after I had pretty well gotten the bingeing under control, I still had a problem with fast food and not, of course, because it tastes so much better than its opposite. (Whole food? Slow food? Speed-impaired food?) Fast food is just easier. It’s quicker to satisfy. It doesn’t involve washing dishes or storing leftovers in little plastic bowls which you then, also, at some point in the future, end up having to wash. Again.

Sure, I watched Super Size Me and was appropriately — even righteously — disgusted. I read Fast Food Nation and nodded my head along the whole way. I still wince when I think of my granny — an old farm girl and my favorite republican hippie — and the whole fresh foods that she insisted on eating and preparing for herself and for us. I know all about trans-fats and about french fries whose first ingredient is high fructose corn syrup and about the whole unfortunate Mystery Meat situation. Cheese substitutes. Formed patties of mincemeat resembling, on some alien planet, a chicken breast or a pork rib or a “nugget.”

It’s not that I don’t understand why fast food is bad for me. It’s just that I work 13-to-14-hour days and I get tired. It’s that I want to spend the weekend with my boyfriend, cuddled up and watching Buffy. It’s that, when you get right down to it, I sometimes lack the mental and physical energy it takes to plan ahead, have ingredients on hand, scrub, pluck, bake, scrape, and scour my way to healthy living.

PastaQueen talks about this very phenonemon in her new year post, stating that:

It will take time: I don’t just mean this in the sense that it will take a year to lose 50 pounds, though it will assuming you lose a pound a week, a safe and attainable rate. I mean you have to take time out of your day to exercise and prepare food.

Fast food is fast for a reason. It is fast in every way. It is quick to deliver what precious few nutrients it contains, then burn out and become lethargy. Become insulin overload. Become fat. It is quick to digest, due to the absence of fiber and natural ingredients. It is first in and first out, in a way. It is fast.

But, I’m trying to eat slower now. Slower in every sense. I’m trying to eat foods that digest slowly, that release their nutrients and energy slowly, that last longer, that require more work. I want to eat this slower food, well, more slowly. To savor and enjoy it. I am not, unfortunately made of money. I cannot hire a personal chef to prepare this food for me, and a maid to clean up the dishes afterward. So, in the service of slow food, here are some things that have helped me on those days when I’m in Danger of Drive Thru.

• Invest in good tools. If all of your tupperware containers have matching lids, if your knives are sharp and easy to clean, if your plates and bowls are microwave friendly, you’ll be more likely to use them. Period. Toss out what doesn’t work and replace it with what does.

• Learn how to cook. I don’t mean “learn how to follow a recipe,” though that’s a good starting place. Learn how ingredients go together, then force yourself to experiment. You don’t like eggplant? Fine. Substitute it for zucchini, winter squash, roasted tomatoes, or something else that you DO like. Read books about basic cooking techniques (poaching, broiling, braising…) and use your imagination. Watch cooking shows. Check cookbooks out from the library and read them for ideas, not recipes. Be brave.

• Prepare ahead. Okay, yes, this one is obvious and I already said that I don’t always have time or energy to do so. Please note that I did not say “Plan Ahead,” which makes me feel constricted — like I don’t have choices. What we are going for here, at Chez Mal, is a combination of interesting options and reasonable alternatives. It’s crucial, for me, to feel that I can make any number of delicious meals that will fill and thrill me, and still get to bed before 11:00 on weeknights.

  So, I very pointedly set aside time each week (usually on the weekend) and I try to use some of that high-energy time to prepare food for the upcoming week. During Prep Time (someone in a blog recently called it “shop and chop”), I may do any combination of the following:
  

  • Slow-bake a pound or so of chicken breast fillets, topped with herbs (rosemary, oregano, chili powder, whatever…). I refrigerate the whole batch, once it’s cooled, and use these throughout the week, chopping them up for sandwiches, salads, and main dishes.
  • Broil a large salmon filet and eyeball it into 4-ounce-ish servings before refrigerating. This is great in salad or as a quick, delicious protein and, like chicken, I don’t mind eating it cold.
  • Roast winter squashes, and mash them with parmesan, fresh-squeezed citrus juice, or nothing at all. Refrigerate in one-cup containers.
  • Simmer a pot of steel-cut oats for quick breakfasts. I like to cook these up with a handful of frozen berries (even cranberries) and a nice dousing of ground-up flax seeds. Stirring it cold with plain yogurt is also delicious, if there’s no time for microwaving.
  • Make big batches of soups, beans, and sauces. Some of my favorites are crock-pot friendly, and involve dried beans (cheap!), homemade tomato pasta sauce (delicious!) and baked meatballs from scratch (proteiny!). All of these can also be frozen and are, if I do say so, awesome.
  • Concoct a simple, fruit-filled muffin that can be refrigerated in individual bags or frozen for a quick breakfast or snack.
  • Chop and freeze fruits for smoothies. I always like to have frozen banana slices on hand because they are so sweet that I never, ever, ever have to add sugar to my smoothies. Recently, I’ve also been chopping up mango and freezing them on cookie sheets until they can be stored in big ziplock bags. Holy smoothie goodness, Batman.
  • Hard boil some eggs. They make quick, on-the-go, reasonable protein alternatives. Also, if you use a pencil or non-toxic pen to mark these puppies (I like to draw emoticons and faces, but you could also go with the boring “HB” for Hard Boiled), you’ll never accidentally go cracking one of them over a bowl when you are trying to make cake.
  
  
• Stock up, but don’t overstock. This applies to shopping wisely for the upcoming week. It reminds me of a recent post over at Veggie Paparazzi where she discusses a few stor-able staples that can be mixed in any combination to make fancy, happy foods. I’ve learned that I need to keep a stock of “easy” foods on hand, without resorting to “sleazy” foods. To do this, I try keep:
  
  • A jar of low-fat natural peanut butter and a collection of gala and fuji apples. It takes 2 minutes to slice up an apple and toss it into a container with 1 tbsp of peanut butter. This is high in fiber, protein, happy mouth-feel, and satisfaction.
  • Frozen fruits and berries, in case of smoothie emergencies. (See above.)
  • Almonds.
  • String cheese.
  • Laughing Cow Light Cheese. Small tupperwares can hold 5-7 sensible crackers and a wedge of cheese. I eat these for afternoon snack with a bunch of grapes and feel that I am being very, very fancy.
  • Cherries, when I can get them.
  • Whole wheat pasta. I prefer the sort of bite-sized kinds (penne, rotini, etc.) to the spaghetti and linguini family, because they cook up with less muss and feel satisfying in my mouth.
  • Lettuce — but not the bagged kind. I find, recently, that lettuce really loses something when it has been sitting off the stem for a few days. It doesn’t take that much more time to rip up lettuce off a head of romaine or red-leaf, it tastes better, and it is cheaper overall.
  • Grape tomatoes. I like to toss these with little balls of fresh mozzarella and balsamic vinegar for an ersatz caprese salad.

• Photograph your food. Okay, this may seem weird. But, the fact is that when I see healthy food, I always want healthy food. This is the same reason why I have rarely (if ever) used a recipe from a cookbook that didn’t have an attached photo — preferably glossy, in full color. One peek at a healthy, colorful plate or bowl of food that I have made (and enjoyed) in the past suddenly makes all of the elbow grease of cooking and cleaning seem worth it. Incidentally, the bowl of lunch-ity goodness shown above includes a pre-roasted chicken breast fillet, a pre-mashed roasted butternut squash, and a quick-steamed head of broccoli. Easy. Delicious. Attractive. Beats a Big Mac every day, but only if I can trick my eyes and my salivary glands into believing so. Enter the digital camera.

• Cheat, but don’t fail. I find that it really helps to have 3-4 delicious, healthy-ish frozen meals available to me for those days when I just can’t. By this, I don’t really mean to buy “Lean Cuisine” or other supposedly healthy, cheap food. I mean frozen dishes that will really fill the void that your mind creates when it thinks that only a Quarter Pounder will do. I like Amy’s Organic entrees, and really recommend the Indian and Mexican choices. The cheese lasagna is also pretty great. Kashi frozen meals are pretty good, too. They taste clean. Fresh. Whole. There are lots of options at organic supermarkets for frozen meals. Many are good. They are filling. The portions are generous, the food is organic, and while it may not be the world’s best choice, it wins the prize if the alternative is a Whopper.

What do you do to make it easier? How do you fit slower foods into your lifestyle? Please do not respond if you are a millionnaire, if you have a private chef on staff, or a full-time maid for clean-up. Tips from people whose significant others volunteer to do the dishes from time to time may be considered.