I have been playing with the idea that weight loss, for me, isn’t about smaller portions of what I’ve been eating for years. Instead, over the past few weeks I’ve done a complete overhaul on what I choose to put in my body (although the occasional Twizzlers is still a very real part of my diet). I have done a bit of reading about all of the chemicals in our food, and although I had to stop reading the book that shall remain nameless (see prior posts), I did get a bit of insight into how our bodies handles those chemically laden foods. It doesn’t. Our bodies are not recognizing many of the foods we eat as actual foods because of the trend to replace what’s real with what’s cheap. We suffer as a result in a number of ways – from not feeling satiated after we’ve eaten to not giving our bodies what our bodies need to carry us around each and every day (I maintain that the occasional Twizzlers is perfectly acceptable).
I recently began an organic local produce delivery in an attempt to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. I’m not saying organic is the way to go, but I’m giving it a try. There's something about eating foods untouched by potentially harmful chemicals and antibiotics that reminds me of a simpler time when drive through windows and 44ounce soft drinks would have only existed in science fiction (early science fiction, maybe?). So far, I have to admit (although extremely unscientifically) that the food actually tastes much better than produce from big box stores, which is often genetically modified to the point of not really being food at all. Here’s my first produce order:
I also had some staples like chicken, brown and basmati rice, all natural peanut butter (with peanuts being the only ingredient), eggs, and a few other odds and ends thrown in to get me started properly. I’ll be updating periodically with updates about my deliveries as well as new foods I try as a result of exposure to several new fruits and vegetables that I never would have thought about purchasing at my local grocery store, such as kale. When was the last time kale was on YOUR grocery list? I did a quick Internet search on kale preparation and discovered that many people are raving about baked kale chips. With kale in hand, I decided to give it a try.
It was delicious and amazingly simple. In a large bowl, I mixed the kale (broken up into chip-sized pieces with the stalks removed) and just a splash of olive oil, added some freshly ground sea salt, then baked at 300 degrees for 22 minutes. The recipe I found suggested 20 minutes, but I found that the extra 2 minutes helped the chips get a bit crunchier and gave them a deeper smoky flavor.
Oh, and forgive the low quality photos as my Blackberry's camera is on par with dollar store disposables.
