For the past six months, I've been trying to find ways to do a nutritional makeover that would make things simpler, more economical and healthier. My friends' responses to this have been twofold:
1. Fresh foods and organic foods are too expensive.
2. Preparing stuff at home takes too much time.
That was when I started seeing how the old canard about varying milage could come into play. I can see where people might get that impression, but lets take a closer look at these ideas. First of all, if we're buying less expensive processed foods and imported produce, we're more than likely buying quite a bit of it. How much of it do you and I waste? Yes, I know that feels like a pretty confrontational question. I asked myself that very thing quite often. I still ask myself that question when doing a head check on how I'm living. It's something I had to take a hard look at. For two weeks, I kept track of everything that went into the trash and composter, not to mention how much of the processed stuff is wastefully packaged and intended to be thrown away. It was appalling. I could have probably fed another one to two people with the stuff that never made it to my plate. The thing is, if you had asked me if I was wasteful, I would have probably bragged that I tried to use every bit of every thing. The bottom line? We're paying for what goes into the trash. The bit of food that we never ate because of the way it was packaged or our expectations of consumption that never happened is expensive for you, for your fellow earthlings and the environment. Doesn't it make more sense to buy just what we need of something that is beautiful, locally and often lovingly produced and more often than not sold by a local small business?
Whether or not we're looking at the dollars and sense (Heh! Cough! Cough! Never mind...) of how we manage our kitchens, time is also probably a concern. The short view is that it's probably simpler to zip open a box and pop it into the microwave. Let's look at the big picture. I might have traded the five minutes I took to prepare that meal for the time I spent to make the money to buy that box, shop for that box and the energy expended to maintain storage to keep it edible. There are also the aforementioned environmental issues and health issues involved.
Okay, let me clarify my stance on this. I am not one of those people who brushes her teeth with a twig and thinks broccoli cries when you wash it. However, I do think that what the food industry expects us to identify as edible has changed drastically over the last sixty years and not always for the better. If you want to read more about that, take a look at
Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food and
Marian Nestle's Food Politics. One of the best compressed pieces of wisdom to be found in Pollan's book is that you should never eat anything your Grandmother wouldn't identify as food. Does this mean to avoid nori because Grandma would look at it and offer a raised eyebrow and a chuffed "Good Lord!" or "Oy" or "Mio Dios!"? No. She'd figure out it was pressed dried seaweed and maybe eventually find some way to incorporate it into her stuffed cabbage or meat loaf. What Pollan is getting at is that Gramma wouldn't have had much use for cereal straws or premade peebeenjays that are probably full of additives made of chemicals that were never intended to be consumed when the big bang was putting together all of those elements.
So. The solution? When you can, eat fresh, eat locally, eat in season and grow what you can. That's a big part of what this blog is about.
First up, we'll look at something that will be fun to make, tastes good and will save you a trip to the store (or worse, the nearest drive-through.) A good vegetarian marinara is one of those all-purpose things that can pinch hit in a variety of capacities through out the week: I use it as-is on pasta. Add some chopped chiles and cumin and you've got a salsa that is great with wedges of raw green and red bell pepper. Spread it on pita with additional toppings and cheese for quick pizza... I could go on, but let me cut to the chase and give you the recipe.
Oy Mama, Dat's a Marinara!2 quarts of stewed tomatoes (home canned or from the local grocer)
1 medium onion white or yellow
one bulb of garlic
1/4 pound of white/button mushrooms (less if you use portabellas or crimini)
1 1/2 tablespoon fresh greek oregano
1 1/2 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1 cup cheap, sweet red wine (Maneschevitz, Stonehaus Davenport Red or any "communion style" wine)
salt to taste...Be stingy with the NaCl, you're going to be using this with other ingredients that may already have enough salt.
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Pour the olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Mince and add the garlic, herbs, onion and mushrooms. Immediately after you've added your herbs, aromatics, fungi, etc, hand crush the tomatoes into the pan and stir. Allow it to come to a very slow boil and then add the salt and wine and let it simmer. At minimum, it should simmer for at least an hour, but this is actually one of those things where the longer it's allowed to sit over low heat, the better it gets. Once you have the consistency you want, allow it to cool and store it in the fridge in a sealed container. It will keep for around a week.
And one to grow on...
Jas' Easy as 3.141591 pita bread
1 cup marinara sauce
approximately 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
approximately 2 tablespoons grated parmesan
(I prefer Organic Valley or locally produced cheese when I can get it)
1/2 cup browned "sausage"
In my life, I've met only one pig that I didn't like. That little cochino lunged, snapped and barked at my sweet tempered giant of a shaggy mutt in a vet's waiting room. Screw him. The rest of pigkind is pretty cool. So I use
Primms Spring Soysage and
Yves Pepperoni for my protien. Once again, this is a case of varying milage. If you want to use critter or no protien at all, go for it. Hey, it's your pi!
Olives
Peppers
All those fine little veggie things your heart desires?
Don't skip 'em!
(with apologies to Fats Waller)
Put the pita in a shallow, round pie pan or other type of baking dish. First add the marinara. Then add the browned protien. Next? Top with your veggies. After that add the mozz cheese and then the parm. The cheese needs to be in that order so the mozz creates a gooey top crust that cooks the veggies and the parm provides a crispy light brown outer crust.
Bake in the oven at 300 to 350 degrees. You will know it's done when you have a gorgeous golden crust and the whole pizza will scoot cleanly in the pan once you've loosened the cheese from the edges. My pies usually take around 25 minutes. Once you take it from the oven, let it rest for about 20 to 30 minutes. Then serve with a nice glass of something you like and a good movie.
Until the next time I feel like writing about food!
Jas
copyright 2008 jas faulkner
Labels: food, green issues, living simply, marinara recipe, pita pizza recipe, soysage