I Love Oat Groats: Irish Oatmeal

Get ready for winter. We might special order a fifty pound bag of oat groats from JAR baker's Supply Lincoln on Crow point Road. I love to drop in the raisins while the oats are simmering so they puff up. Sprinkle on home made GORP: cranberries, sunflowers, almonds, peanuts and raisins.

Steel Cut Oats are simply whole oat groats that have been cut into neat little pieces on a steel buhr mill. We use high protein, whole grain oats that have been lightly toasted to create our hearty steel cut oats. Also known as Irish oats or pinhead oats, steel cut oats create a chewy, full-bodied hot cereal.

Steel Cut Oats have always been a universal customer favorite at Bob’s Red Mill. Their robust oat flavor, texture and ease of preparation plus proven nutritious benefits and cholesterol reduction make them a perfect breakfast. A few years back we learned of the World Championship Porridge Competition in Scotland called the “Golden Spurtle.” At that point we had yet to discover the spurtle – a centuries-old Scottish wooden porridge stirring implement.

The Bob’s Red Mill team traveled to Carrbridge, Scotland to compete in the Golden Spurtle World Porridge Championship. We competed against fourteen other teams from around the globe. Our team’s belief in our porridge skills and our consistently superior oats never wavered. That crisp October morning all teams paraded through town behind a bagpipe band. After three heats of competition, we remained one of five finalists. All five finalists prepared their traditional recipe – oats, salt and water – for the judges. Finally, the announcement: “Bob’s Red Mill, is the new Golden Spurtle World Porridge Champion.”

The Bob’s Red Mill Steel Cut Oats we knew to be superior were now proven the “WORLD’S BEST”. The simple, winning recipe using oats, salt and water is on our package so you can make the World’s Best Oatmeal® at home.

We had so much fun at the Golden Spurtle, that we began The Spar for the Spurtle™: the ultimate oatmeal throw down so we could share the fun with our customers. Spar for the Spurtle™ asks customers to submit their recipes using steel cut oats for a chance to win a trip to Scotland to compete in the Golden Spurtle Championship on our behalf. Learn more about this fun competition at www.sparforthespurtle.com and throw your hat in the ring!

Oats are a notoriously healthy breakfast choice, being high in soluble fiber and protein. They are also incredibly versatile. Steel cut oats can be used to make risotto, pilaf, dumplings, arancini and more! Browse our extensive collection of recipes using our steel cut oats here.

Pollen from Grasses

The pollen from grasses affects my histamine tummy. It helps me to drink acidic things; orange juice, seltzer, black coffee, black tea. Others folks require antacids.

Baking Corn Muffins

What is it about corn muffins and black coffee? I baked the muffins and then chased down my husband when I forgot to put them in his lunchbox.

Yummy Black Beans and Kale

Simmering black beans with kale, coffee, ginger, garlic, olive oil, Adobo, Teryaki sauce, olive oil, cranberries, and salt. Simmering rice in leftover cherry tea.

Edge of Uncertainty: Chef's Table

Published on Apr 16, 2015

From isolated Patagonian islands to French Michelin three-star restaurants, chef Francis Mallmann celebrates his wild, open-fire cooking style.
video

Histamine Guts & Sinus Agony

Spring and Fall are histamine and sinus hell seasons. Thank god for the public pool and Excedrin, antihistamine and decongestant. Hang in there!

Autumn Foods

Simmering black beans to bake with corn tortillas. First bowl of groats with GORP this morning. I love bumpy food. It was nice and cold out at 4 AM. I just discovered Jazz albums COLTRAINE on youtube.

I Love a Good Tailgate Party

Without the car.

Smoked Sausage Scented Dryer Sheets

This would be better for the neighborhood noses than what exists.

Drunkorexia

Starving Themselves, Cocktail in Hand

By SARAH KERSHAW NYT
Published: March 2, 2008

MANOREXIA. Orthorexia. Diabulimia. Binge Eating Disorder.

A NEW PATH Judy Van De Veen, 36, with her daughter, Cheyenne. She has struggled for years with an eating disorder and alcohol abuse.
Laura Pedrick for The New York Times

Trish has checked into a treatment center.

All are dangerous variations on the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia, and have become buzzwords that are popping up on Web sites and blogs, on television and in newspaper articles. As celebrity magazines chronicle the glamorous and the suffering, therapists and a growing number of researchers are trying to treat and understand the conditions.

The latest entry in the lexicon of food-related ills is drunkorexia, shorthand for a disturbing blend of behaviors: self-imposed starvation or bingeing and purging, combined with alcohol abuse.

Drunkorexia is not an official medical term. But it hints at a troubling phenomenon in addiction and eating disorders. Among those who are described as drunkorexics are college-age binge drinkers, typically women, who starve all day to offset the calories in the alcohol they consume. The term is also associated with serious eating disorders, particularly bulimia, which often involve behavior like bingeing on food — and alcohol — and then purging.

Anorexics, because they severely restrict their calorie intake, tend to avoid alcohol. But some drink to calm down before eating or to ease the anxiety of having indulged in a meal. Others consume alcohol as their only sustenance. Still others use drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine to suppress their appetites.

“There are women who are afraid to put a grape in their mouth but have no problem drinking a beer,” said Douglas Bunnell, the director of outpatient clinical services for the Renfrew Center, based in Philadelphia.

The center, like a small but growing number of eating-disorder and addiction-treatment facilities, most on the West Coast, offers a dual focus on substance abuse and eating disorders.

Dr. Bunnell, the past president of the National Eating Disorders Association, said the obsession with being skinny and the social acceptance of drinking and using drugs — along with the sense, lately, that among celebrities, checking into rehab is almost a given, if not downright chic — are partly to blame.

“Both disorders are behaviors that are glorified and reinforced,” Dr. Bunnell said. “Binge drinking is almost cool and hip, and losing weight and being thin is a cultural imperative for young women in America. Mixing both is not surprising, and it has reached a tipping point in terms of public awareness.”

Psychologists say that eating disorders, like other addictions, are often rooted in the need to numb emotional pain with substances or the rush provided by bingeing and purging. The disorders are often driven by childhood trauma like sexual abuse, neglect and other sources of mental anguish.

Manorexia is the male version of anorexia. Orthorexia is an obsession with what is perceived as healthy food — eliminating fats and preservatives, for example. But people with this condition can dangerously deprive themselves of needed nutrients.

Diabulimia refers to diabetics who avoid taking insulin, which can cause weight gain, in order to control their weight. Despite the name, the disorder does not typically involve purging.

Binge Eating Disorder refers to obsessive overeating, especially of foods high in salt and sugar, that does not involve excessive exercise or purging to compensate for the high caloric intake.

Judy Van De Veen, 36, who lives in Gillette, N.J., became anorexic at 24. She said she starved herself, meting out small bites of low-calorie food for two months. Then she began bingeing and purging, throwing up entire boxes of cereal, whole pizzas and fast food from drive-throughs that sometimes cost her $80 a day.

She went into treatment, both inpatient and outpatient, for her eating disorder for several years in the late 1990s, with mixed results. In 2001, still struggling with bulimia, she took up drinking. If she ate while drinking, she said, she would purge, but then consume more alcohol to make up for the loss, because she wanted to remain drunk.

Many bulimics who drink use alcohol to vomit, experts on eating disorders say, because liquid is easier to purge. They also tend to vomit because they often drink on empty stomachs.

“In the beginning of my eating disorder I wouldn’t touch alcohol because it is so high in calories,” said Ms. Van De Veen, who later found herself regularly hospitalized for dehydration. “But I have the disease of more: I just want more no matter what it is.”

Two years into her drinking problem, she joined a 12-step program. She spent the next two years in and out of six residential rehab programs, spending about $25,000 of her own money because she didn’t have health insurance. But none of the programs were equipped to address eating disorders, so she binged and purged and her eating disorder raged.

Ms. Van De Veen said she has been sober for three years, but is still struggling with bulimia. She now has a 14-month-old daughter, Cheyenne, and she said that her pregnancy and support groups had helped her make progress on her eating disorder.

“I had an excuse to eat,” she said of being pregnant. “I didn’t care and I loved it.”

But she said the temptation to binge and purge is haunting her again.

Trish, 27, who has had an eating disorder for the last 10 years, recently checked into Renfrew, her fifth stint in a treatment center or hospital.

Like Ms. Van De Veen, Trish, who agreed to be interviewed on the condition that only her first name be used to protect her privacy, struggled with anorexia first and then found alcohol. Before she was admitted to Renfrew, she said she was blacking out from lack of food and suffering from excruciating stomach pain.

Trish, a nurse who lives in Ohio and works with cardiac patients, said she would starve herself through her 8- or 12-hour shifts, staring at the clock and fixating on when she could have her first drink. Drinking, she said, relaxed her when she had to eat in front of other people, a huge source of stress.

“The alcohol is probably what kept any weight on me,” she said in an interview late last month at the Renfrew Center, which she entered on New Year’s Eve for eight weeks of treatment.

“Drinking helped me be less anxious,” she said. “It helped me be more of Trish. The two go together: If I drink more, I’m more into my eating disorder and vice versa.”

Studies show that binge drinking and alcohol abuse are on the rise among women, who are also more prone than men to eating disorders.

About 25 to 33 percent of bulimics also struggle with alcohol or drugs, according to a study published last year in the journal Biological Psychiatry. Between 20 and 25 percent of anorexics have substance abuse problems, the study found.

A growing number of researchers are examining the psychological and neurological links between eating disorders and substance abuse: Does eating a chocolate bar, or bingeing and purging, stimulate the same pleasure centers in the brain as drugs or alcohol?

Suzette M. Evans, a professor of clinical neuroscience at Columbia, recently began a study of the connection between bulimia and substance abuse, a field she said has been neglected.

“People are finally beginning to realize that food can function in the same way as drugs and alcohol,” Dr. Evans said.

As more patients seek treatment for both eating disorders and substance abuse, a complicated set of mixed messages can arise. The response to addiction is abstinence; but quitting food is not an option.

“We’re trying to get our patients to find effective behaviors and life skills,” said Dr. Kevin Wandler, the vice president for medical services at Remuda Ranch, which addresses both eating disorders and addiction at its facilities in Arizona and Virginia.

“Eating normally would be an effective behavior, but it’s easier to give up alcohol and drugs because you never need it again,” Dr. Wandler said. “If your drug is food, that’s a challenge.”

Trish left Renfrew on Feb. 22, after her second time in treatment there. She was determined, she said, to break her obsessions with weight, food and alcohol. Before she checked in, “I didn’t even have the energy to laugh,” she said. But as she prepared to go home, she had more hope than she has had in years.

“I will not live my life like this,” she said. “I’ve learned this time not to be ashamed. I want to love myself and I want to forgive myself.”

Best Food Blog: She Wears Many Hats

Wasabi Cucumber Sesame Salad

Print
Prep time
20 mins
Total time
20 mins

A flavorful crunchy that is light and easy to make.
Author: ©Amy Johnson | She Wears Many Hats
Recipe type: side dish
Serves: 6
Ingredients

3 medium sized cucumbers, sliced thin
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons prepared wasabi
¼ teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar

Instructions

In a colander spread sliced cucumbers out and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt. Let stand and drain for about 15 minutes. Gently squeeze out any excess water and add to bowl.
While cucumbers are draining, toast sesame seeds in dry pan over medium, until browned, stir/toss occasionally. About 5 minutes.
Mix together vinegar, wasabi, soy sauce and sugar.
Toss cucumber, sesame seeds and wasabi mixture until combined well.

Oat Groats

Hot oat groats for a cool morning.

Cool Hot Breakfast

Banana orange juice with ice cubes and home made yogurt is a perfect hot flash breakfast.

Trail Mix: Delicious Fast Energy

Made my own trail mix today: raw almonds, raw sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, raisins, and peanuts. Delicious fast energy.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Studentenfutter

Trail mix is a type of snack mix, specifically a combination of dried fruit, nuts, and sometimes chocolate, developed as a food to be taken along on hikes. Trail mix is considered an ideal snack food for hikes, because it is lightweight, easy to store, and nutritious, providing a quick energy boost from the carbohydrates in the dried fruit or granola, and sustained energy from fats in nuts.

The combination of nuts, raisins and chocolate as a trail snack dates at least to the 1910s, when outdoorsman Horace Kephart recommended it in his popular camping guide.[1]

In Denmark the mix is known as Studenterhavre or student oats. It is mentioned in the book Dramatiske scener (Dramatic Scenes) from 1833 where the story teller buys Studenterhavre for a skilling (Danish coin like a pence).[2] Studenterhavre consist of mainly raisins and almonds but at Christmas candy in the form of chocolate pieces were added. The word "studenterhavre" is probably related to the Dutch word Studentenhaver, which is found in writing as early as 1658.[3]

In New Zealand, trail mix is known as "scroggin" or "schmogle".[4] The term is also used in some places in Australia but usage has only been traced back to the 1970s.[5][6][7][8] Some claim that the name stands for Sultanas, Carob, Raisins, Orange peel, Grains, Glucose, Imagination, Nuts or alternatively Sultanas, Chocolate, Raisins and Other Goody-Goodies Including Nuts; but this may be a false etymology.[9]

The word gorp, a term for trail mix often used by hikers, is typically said to be an acronym for "good old raisins and peanuts"[10] or its common ingredients "granola, oats, raisins, peanuts." The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1913 reference to the verb gorp, meaning "to eat greedily".

Trail mix, apart from being a food for hikers, is served as a cheap snack to accompany drinks. It bears sometimes humorous names in certain countries, however, e.g., in Denmark, The Netherlands, Poland and Germany it can actually be purchased under these names:

Studentenfutter ("student feed") in Germany and Austria
Studenterhavre ("student oats", in analogy of horse oats) in Denmark
Studentenhaver (id.) in the Netherlands and Flanders
Mieszanka studencka ("students' mix") in Poland
Studentų maistas ("students' food") in Lithuania
Tudengieine (Student snack) in Estonia
Diákcsemege ("students' delicacy") in Hungary
Študentska hrana ("students' food") in Slovenia
Studentski miks ("Student mix") in Serbia
Bwyd Dewey ("beloved food") in Wales

Ingredients

Common ingredients may include:

Nuts, such as almonds
Legumes, such as peanuts or baked soybeans.
Dried fruits such as cranberries, raisins, apricots, apples, or candied orange peel
Chocolate: chips, chunks, or M&M's
Breakfast cereals, such as Granola
Pretzels



Seeds, such as pumpkin seeds, Brazil nuts, cashews, or sunflower seeds
Carob chips
Banana chips
Shredded coconut
Ginger (crystallised)

Bread Pasta and Sauce

Tonight I made homemade pasta. This time I didn't roll it super thin to #7 but I rolled it to #4 and I loved it. I draped slabs of pasta on objects around the house, finding a few after the meal. I'm laughing. I made a red sauce with tomatoes, cubanelle peppers, onions, celery, and,fresh garlic. I sliced cucumbers and we ate ate my leftover home made coleslaw. I baked multi grain sourdough bread at noon and it came out great. Sweet dreams.

Skinny in Italy

Read

Baking while FLYING

When I'm flying (like I am today) I lose track of basic things like the fact that the bread is rising. When I came home from my walk the dough had risen, overflowing and then it fell back down. So I started over reshaping it while preheating the oven and all was fine. I did forget to put on the timer and then I forgot I was baking. My office is above my kitchen so usually my nose snaps me back to reality. Today it was the smoke alarm that alerted me that my 4 loaves were done. They are black bottomed (loaves of toast!) but delicious nonetheless.

Loretta LaRoche

Take a spin. Twirl around in a circle and say what's bothering you out loud. You'll feel silly and may even laugh. "It's hard to laugh and be stressed at the same time," says Loretta LaRoche, a stress-management consultant and the author of Life Is Short—Wear Your Party Pants.

Get outdoors. "When you go outside, you realize that you're not the center of the universe but just a part of it," says LaRoche. So your problems don't seem as big. To turn your stroll into a walking meditation, say "Peace" each time you take a step. Five minutes a day keeps stress at bay.

Give thanks. Keep a running appreciation list on your phone, suggests LaRoche. Being thankful every day—not only on Thanksgiving—puts frustrations in perspective.

Deck out your desk. Place a photo of a loved one or some fresh flowers near your computer. "It'll remind you that your world is not simply about paperwork, computers and deadlines—there is more to life than your desk," she says.

Cut the clutter. Straighten up your drawers or clean out the closet. Rifling through things takes up time and creates frustration. "These are mindful things that bring order to your life," she explains.

Find a new hobby. "New endeavors enrich our lives and give our minds a rest from our daily to-do list," she says. LaRoche suggests taking a new art class, hiking, singing, or getting involved in a book club.

Ahh. Admit it: You feel better already.

source

Limber

The Mini Mart sells home made limber. The neighborhood kids buy it for 25 cents. I tried my first one and now I want to make it for my friends.
Article

Emotional Eating By Kelly James-Enger

Snack attack? Fight back!
Using food to manage your moods and feelings is a short term fix at best. We’ve got ways to get emotional eating under control.



Emotional Eating By Kelly James-Enger



Carl Davis first started comforting himself with food as a child.

“I think whenever I felt stress, or whenever I felt unloved, which I often did, I would eat because that would make me feel good,” says the California resident. “I discovered cookies early on and we loved each other for a long time. And M&Ms—I still have a problem with M&Ms.”

The habit continued into adulthood.

“I’ve eaten whole packages of cookies and entire extra-large pizzas by myself,” says Davis, the author of Bipolar Bare: My Life’s Journey with Mental Disorder.

While he’s become much more conscious of his food intake since having bariatric surgery, he still struggles sometimes. After he was rear-ended on the freeway recently, he bought chips and salsa and, of course, M&Ms to soothe himself.

“I was like, ‘I don’t care—I just want to feel good,’” he admits.

Davis’s story isn’t unusual. Many people turn to food to try to manage feelings like anger, boredom, anxiety, and loneliness. However, the short-term pleasure is often offset by long-term results like shame, weight gain, and worse overall health.


When Food=Love

Many people with bipolar deal with cravings and weight gain associated with their psychotropic medications. That’s a separate issue from emotional eating, which has roots in psychological rather than physical causes.

Understanding why we use food to manage uncomfortable feelings is the first step to breaking free from the emotional eating cycle.

“Emotional eating is eating in response to an emotional need as opposed to a physiological need,” says Carol Milstone, PhD, a clinical psychologist in private practice in Ottawa, Ontario. “In general, it provides a form of distraction. It takes away the emotional pain that people are feeling.”

But that distraction is only temporary—and illusory. “The emotional pain is compounded because afterwards, they feel guilt … and they feel out of control,” Milstone says.

Yet it’s a normal reaction to reach for food when we’re unhappy or stressed, says nutritionist Elyse Resch, a registered dietitian and co-author of the influential guidebook Intuitive Eating. …

“We learn from the moment we’re born that food is comforting,” says Resch. “It’s an inborn thing to know that food is going to be soothing, and food is a socially acceptable way to soothe ourselves.” The pattern of “feel bad, eat to feel better” is often learned during childhood, says Carolyn Coker Ross, MD, an integrative medicine specialist for eating disorders and author of The Binge Eating and Compulsive Overeating Workbook.

Bipolar-Forgiveness“A lot of it goes back to issues in childhood, which can be anything from poor relationships with parents … to a history of trauma, abuse, or neglect,” she says. “Foods high in sugar and fat light up the brain’s reward centers and give you a feeling of calmness or comfort that people long for.”

That’s what the Rev. Katie Norris was looking for as a child. When she felt lonely or upset, she would eat.

“I would come home from school and eat a lot of sugar,” says the El Cerrito, California, resident. “If I had a really bad day and there were no cookies or candy around, I would eat sugar out of the bag with a spoon.” Feeling physically or emotionally trapped, sad, or depressed still triggers the urge to eat. And she finds it hard to cut herself off from the “sweet stuff” once she starts indulging.

“There are ‘binge foods’ that make me feel worse, but in the moment make me feel better,” she says.



AMPED-UP EATING

Anderson’s emotional eating also tends to worsen during a depressive phase. Yet she says anxiety is actually her biggest trigger.

“If I’m very anxious about something I definitely eat,” says Anderson, who lives in The Villages, Florida. “It’s like I cannot cram enough food into my mouth. Sometimes it’s actually good food, a bowl of scallop potatoes with ham cut up in it; other times it’s chips and sometimes sweets.”

Some emotional eaters binge in secret, adding to the shame. Kresic of Toronto only gives in to her cravings for sweets at night, when she’s alone. Despite having made a healthy, balanced dinner for her family, sometimes in the late hours all she can think about is food.

“I’m a very giving person, and I guess I’m a people pleaser—giving, giving, giving, and not getting back recognition,” she reflects. When she reaches for sugary treats, “I think, ‘It’s a reward for all the work I’ve done.’”

Sometimes she manages to overcome the cravings. Other nights, she winds up in her kitchen, unable to stop eating whatever sweet things she can find.

Depression doesn’t necessarily trigger her urge to binge. “But in a hypermanic stage, that’s when it’s really at its worst,” she says. “It feels good to feel good.”

Breaking the habit of reaching for food when you’re feeling uncomfortable, or sad, or anxious, or simply bored takes a two pronged effort—dealing with root causes and substituting alternate behaviors. Here are five strategies that can help:



1 Face those feelings

The expression “stuffing your feelings” perfectly describes the attempt to bury emotions under an avalanche of food. To break the pattern, you have to be willing to recognize and experience unpleasant emotions, to “sit with” those emotions instead of trying to sublimate them.

One way to do that is by becoming more mindful about identifying your mental state, says Milstone—perhaps anger, or loneliness, or feeling overwhelmed. “The first step is identifying when the stress [or emotion] is starting,” she explains.

Being mindful helps you recognize what is happening inside—and what feelings you’re trying to escape from. That may involve looking at the bigger picture of what troubles you, whether that’s things that happened in your past or something in the current state of affairs.

“The biggest thing I push is to help people identify issues that need to be dealt with—childhood issues that they haven’t dealt with, or lives that are out of control,” says Ross. When you address these, she says, you’ll find that the urge to “eat your feelings” dissipates.



2 Tap into true hunger

Emotional eating patterns often short-circuit the body’s natural sense of hunger and satiation. For Norris, added weight from overeating would send her too far in the other direction.

“I would under-eat to try to make up for eating all the sugar and then I would crave protein and fat, and I think that started me binging on other foods as well, because I was out of balance,” says Norris. “When you yo-yo diet, you get totally out of sync of when you’re hungry.”

One solution: intuitive eating. That means paying close attention to your physical sensations so that you’re eating only when you’re physically hungry—and not eating when you’re not. By tuning in to your body, you also learn to put down the fork (or the bag of chips) when you’re full, says Resch.

Ideally, over time you will default to a more healthful diet as you come to recognize how different foods affect you.

“Intuitive eating is the ability to trust your body to tell you when you’re hungry and when you’re full, and which foods feel good and comfortable in your body,” says Resch. “Intuitive eating means you honor the signals your body gives you. It’s inside out, instead of outside-in.”

It also means that when you’re not hungry and you want to eat, you ask yourself what you really need. Maybe it’s soothing yourself with reassuring words instead of what’s in your refrigerator. Maybe it’s talking to another sympathetic soul, or journaling about what’s going on. Maybe it’s turning on a good comedy show as a way to lift your spirits. Unless you’re physically hungry, food will not fill that void.



3 Distract yourself

When you are tempted to eat, it helps to find a way to keep your mind off your cravings. This is especially useful when food becomes a form of entertainment to stave off boredom.

Physical activity can be effective—a walk around the block instead of into the kitchen, for example. Norris listens to music. (In fact, she has customized playlists for when she’s feeling manic or depressed.) Kresic uses deep-breathing techniques.

For Davis, meditation is the key.

“You get a kind of equilibrium … if you can get your mind in balance, or equilibrium, you can resist those things generally speaking—except when you get nailed on the highway and then you just want to feel better,” he adds with a laugh.

Anderson volunteers for charities and knits and crochets everything from baby items to skull caps for military service members to winter hats for schoolchildren.

“My hands are so busy I don’t have the time to eat!” she says.

A distraction won’t address your underlying emotional issues, but it can divert you from using food as a stopgap.



4 Find other joys

The urge to use food to make yourself feel better may lessen if you add more pleasure of other kinds to your life.

Bipolar-CreativityStart a list of activities that make you happy and give you satisfaction, then look for ways to incorporate them into your routine. It can be as simple as a relaxing stroll in the park or spending time with someone whose company you enjoy.

Doing things that leave a positive afterglow will help you modulate your mood overall—and make you less likely to turn to food when you’re not truly hungry.



5 Eat right

Foods we turn to for comfort tend to be high in carbohydrates and the unholy trinity of poor diet: saturated fats, salt and sugar. Apparently our brains are wired to desire foods loaded with fat and calories because those foods were most efficient at keeping our ancestors alive during times when food was scarce—which is rarely the case nowadays.

Yet according to Resch, eating well is especially important when taking psychiatric medications.

“For medications to work well, you need the precursors for making the neurotransmitter receptors,” she says. “Eating balanced meals regularly will help the medications work better.”

We all know the drill: Aim for a diet that contains lean protein, whole grains, healthy fat, and a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Furthermore, the connection between a nutrient-rich diet and better mental (and physical) health is strongly established—as is the association between junk food and depression. The better you eat, the more you strengthen your defenses against stress and the low moods that can tip you into emotional eating.




Tagged with: emotional eating, Fall 2014, feelings, food, weight gain

Friends: Come for Supper

I have basil semolina dough waiting for me to roll out.

String Bean Meditations

Yesterday morning I got in a swim before our SLATER PARK PAWTUCKET PARADE performance and I even had a few moments to rinse and decapitate my big bag of string beans so I could make a garlic stir fry when we came home hungry. As I was doing this chore I realized it was a perfect calming and meditative activity. My friend Sally was occupying my thoughts. Sally Larrick is an excellent cook weaver musician photographer and a Buddhist. She has the ultimate meditations in the kitchen approach to making food. She one made a pecan pie starting with picking and shelling the pecans, and making the crust from scratch. She also makes etouffe a French New Orleans shrimp butter sauce that she fed me over brown rice. Her husband made their gorgeous oak kitchen table. She is a weaver by trade and she dyes the wool before threading the loom. She may even chase down and shear the sheep. She can sing and play upright bass and she can sew anything from a bolt of fabric. She once made a fold up foam rubber couch-chair-bed. I slept in when I visited. She's made a bathrobe a dress shirt and a gorgeous blouse.

The String beans cooked with my simmered all day garbanzo beans and sauteed garlic were amazing over rice for supper at ten PM. Food is healing.

Pasta Tango

Last night I prepared the semolina and egg dough with fresh basil, salt, black pepper and Adobo and had it waiting when my husband got home. I fed the dough through the hand cranked pasta machine while turning the crank and my husband caught the paper-thin sheets of pasta so they didn't stick together. It was an intricate kitchen tango requiring focus, concentration and patience. My husband hung the noodles on our clothes rack and separated and dried the macaroni while fending off the cat and dog. I told my husband, "this is so romantic and now we get to cook it and eat it. People should do this as a form of marriage counseling." I made a simple marinara sauce with fresh garlic olive oil crushed tomato, salt and oregano. Next time I will just have the pasta plain with butter and salt to really taste it. I was amazed at how much pasta came out of a cup of semolina and one egg.

The Science of the Best Fresh Pasta

Cooking

Now's the really easy part. Boil up some salted water and toss those noodles in. They'll cook quickly—I'm talking 60-seconds quickly—so be ready to taste and drain them almost immediately. That said, while fresh pasta cooks rapidly, it's important to make sure that it's thoroughly cooked. Unlike dry pasta, it actually gets slightly firmer during the first phase of cooking. If you don't cook it long enough, the egg and flour proteins won't set, your starch won't fully hydrate, and you'll end up with a kinda pasty pasta. Personally,I like my pasta cooked for around 90 seconds, but you may find that you prefer a shorter or longer boiling time. Just don't exceed two minutes—that's when it starts to get mushy.

Tah dah!

Here's another article worth reading.

Playing with Dough

We've been all excited about the rain expected today after a hot and dry summer. I baked bread today and while it was baking I mixed up a batch of pasta dough for home made macaroni. I've been dreaming about egg noodles and I found Federal Hill semolina in my freezer. Read more about how simple and fun pasta making is here.

Susan Olson's Magnificent Corn Oil Pie Crust

pie crust recipe:

Basic 9 inch pie

3 Cups King Arthur unbleached flour
3/4 Cup Corn oil (I find it should be corn oil)
6 T combination of milk and water - or just cold water if no milk around
Mix lightly and form into two balls
(I'd add a teaspoon of Kosher salt.)

Roll between wax paper, Put in pie pan - if things are off, patching is easy as dough is quite moist and pliable.

Put fruit in crust - add 1/2 C or a little more sugar depending upon desired sweetness. If apples - just sugar - If berries or peaches need to mix sugar with some flour.

Dot with butter
Add top crust - cook at 425 for 40 or so minutes - until brown and bubbly.

Also see KING ARTHUR RECIPE below for one pie crustsource.

1 1/2 cups (6 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup (2 3/8 ounces) vegetable oil
3 to 4 tablespoons (1 1/2 to 2 ounces) water or milk