Eat food, not too much, mostly vegetables....for a week.

Well, I just finished "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto" by Michael Pollan and it was excellent. I whole heartedly recommend it to everyone. It's a short read but jammed full of information that is likely to change to way you see a lot of things. Part of the book talks about "how to eat" - this is not a diet or a list of forbidden foods. Instead it recommends the three things listed in the title of this post:

Eat Food - this means no food products: i.e. imitation foods or foods that your ancestors wouldn't recognize as food. That also means if the ingrediant list is long and full of things you can't pronounce - it's probably not food but a food product. It's a lot more detailed than that but you get the idea...

Not too much - this means we enjoy our food and don't gorge ourselves on it. We eat more like the French who eat smaller portions of higher quality food.

Mostly vegetables - this means that we eat way too much meat in the country because it has become so cheap. Our ancestors ate a lot less just because it wasn't as available - as do people in other countries. We needs to eat more vegetables with meat being the side dish.

I have oversimplified the book's message by a million - there are health reasons to eat this way but just as importantly environmental, political, and social reasons. In my opinion this book needs to be read hand in hand with The Omnivore's Dilemma which I am still reading - it's a lot longer. Anyhow, my point being that I want to try it out starting this coming Sunday.

I wanted a little time to prepare so I could have it in my mind what I could make. You'd be surprised by how much isn't true food anymore - at least partly. Like today I wanted a tuna sandwich but when I looked at the can saw that it was partly vegetable broth - meaning soy flakes! I ate my tuna still but next week I won't be able to unless I buy the raw tuna and cook it myself. Anyhow...I'll let you know how it goes...I'm curious what my week will be like and I'm betting the food will taste a lot better - as long as I do my job right!

I wish I were a paper engineer...

Last year I became obsessed with paper snowflakes - completely. I spent hours making snowflakes and some of them got to be pretty darn good. I dreamed up a beautiful snowflake book that would get me on Martha Stewart and other morning shows. I got so crazy that I couldn't even stop while I was out. I would sit in a corner during primary at church and cut out more and more - trying to make them have a religious theme so I could justify it a little. A few weeks into my obsession I found a Robert Sabuda pop-up at a thrift store and my obsession transferred to making my own pop-ups. If you have yet to see a pop-up book by Robert Sabuda then you are truly missing out...his books take pop-up art to the level you always wished it was at as a child. I didn't realize I owned one of his when my mom got me America the Beautiful for my birthday. It is truly astounding - they say other pop up artists are mysitified by his work and don't understand how he does it. The thrift store pop-up was Alice in Wonderland and it is magical. With tunnels that Alice falls down and huge arches of cards - it's amazing. And you know how most pop-up books are always trying to close on you? His don't - you can open them up and put them on a table to inspect each and every 3-d detail. Also they aren't as fragile as so many are - my two boys(5 & 2) have yet to destroy either one! I hope to continue to add more and more to my collection.

To participate in my obsessions you have two options - first got to martha and see how a basic snowflake is made - once you understand the basic construction you'll start to see the possibilities open up.

Or go to Sabuda's site and try some of his basic pop-ups. He's got holiday and birthday themed designs that can help you make some nifty gift cards!