HFCS

An interesting post from a blog I've recently been following:
http://alifelesssweet.blogspot.com/2010/10/corn-sugars-coming-soon-to-ingredient.html

First of all, the pro-HFCS commercials crack me up. The danger of HFCS lies not in the fact that it is somehow worse for you than sugar (the argument the commercial implies), but that it is a) ridiculously processed from a product that our nation is relying too heavily upon, and b) that it is found EVERYWHERE. In things you would never expect (like bread crumbs).

I am not the healthiest eater in the world, and I am not necessarily trying to cut out HFCS from my life as this blogger is, but I am trying to be more aware of what I eat and I look at ingredient lists more. I like putting my money behind products with short ingredient lists that I might find in a recipe rather than a text book. I don't think all processed ingredients are necessarily evil, and I am a proponent of science improving our lives. But I am not so sure about "better eating through chemistry."

One of my new food obsessions is an oatmeal brand called "Better Oats." They have lots of different styles and flavors of oatmeal (dark chocolate and maple and brown sugar are my two favorites right now) and there ingredient list reads just as you would want in oatmeal: whole grain rolled oats, sugar, flaxseed, natural and artificial flavors (not something I am mega concerned with), guar gum (for texture and thickening according to wikipedia), caramel color. So it is clearly still a manufactured product rather than something you would make in your kitchen, but it seems closer to home (in addition to being DELICIOUS).

Happy New Year!

Wow- I have been all crappy about my blog. No posts in how long??

I must say, the last semester was a little nuts. Fun, lots of great learning, but crazy-making all the same. But I got through it with sanity (mostly) intact and I am looking forward to the coming semester.

And it is a new year. A new decade. Time to review what the past year has been. I have:
*taken 17 tests and 10 finals
*spayed a dog and did not pass out or kill my patient
*thrown up on a road trip to Disney Land
*seen some havalenas in Arizona
*watched my brother-in-law graduate from law school
*was matron of honor at my maid of honor's wedding
*discovered Jasper gets car sick too
*spent a lot of time with very good friends- old and new
*went to the AVMA convention in Seattle where I attended some lectures and got a crap-load of free pens
*spent not enough time with my husband

I can't even summarize the past decade. I have gone from 16 to 26. Met and started dating Andrew, got a driver's license, graduated high school AND college, watched Andrew go through several surgeries, watched him lose his father, got married, moved out, got my first real job, got into vet school and moved to Pullman, adopted two cats and a dog...lots of fairly major events in the past decade.

I am not so great at resolutions. I prefer "goals." My goals for the upcoming year are:
*don't be such a fatty-fat
*be a better wife
*continue to get through vet school without going crazy and running down pedestrians on campus

Happy New Year everyone!

Loving Vegetables

...albeit somewhat reluctantly

Part of my internal goals for this garden were to help me love vegetables more. Homegrown, in season, fresh, heirloom veggies are to store bought, well traveled, out of season, grown-for-easy-shipping-rather-than-flavor veggies as looking at a Monet painting in person rather than seeing a fuzzy picture in a book without your reading glasses.

We successfully ate many spinach salads plucked fresh from the garden and they were great. Ditto for the Mesclun Mix of salad (also great on sandwiches). My Latah tomatoes are of a less flavorful variety than some of my later bearers but they are delicious in salads and on sandwiches and I am contemplating drying them for winter stews. Onions clearly belong in everything and potatoes are nature's most perfect food so neither of those have been a problem. My biggest hangups remain some of the green veggies: cooked spinach is still a crime in my mind (it's a texture thing, plain and simple); zucchini is only good in bread or (as I just learned) cookies; cooked broccoli is limp and slimy and I'd rather just eat it raw with ranch.

Today I am changing all of that. Well, except for the cooked spinach- I stand firm there. Apparently the keys to my loving zucchini and cooked broccoli are 1) barely cooking them; and 2) combining them with stove top stuffing. Last night I lightly sauteed some green onions, diced zucchini, and diced ham in a small saucepan, then cooked the stuffing according to the package directions after I had transfered the goodies to a bowl. I topped it with a chopped tomato that warmed in the stuffing and it was fabulous!! Today for lunch I have a slight variation: ham, zucchini, minced onion, and a small amount of the first (!) broccoli from our garden. Oh, and more tomatoes. The broccoli was barely in the pan for a minute when it turned the perfect shade of bright-go-light-green so I took it out while the onions, zucchini, and ham continued to soften and pop. The results: YUM!