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Summer supper outside, Friday evening
Photos of What We Eat #3
- Pizza number 1: Tomato, basil, and olive pizza: homemade olive oil bread dough, tomatoes from our CSA, basil from our kitchen garden, olives, and extra virgin olive oil
- Pizza number 2: Prosciutto, onions, and gruyere on a light béchamel sauce: Prosciutto with the fat trimmed, fresh lightly sauteed onions from our CSA, gruyere cheese, and a light béchamel sauce made from scratch. The one ingredient this is missing, believe it or not, is fresh pear. The light sweetness is a great balance to the saltiness of the prosciutto.
One sidenote: these pizzas look bigger in the photo than they actually are. Each was about 10-12 inches or so, which is about the size of a personal pizza at a lot of restaurants (not that I’ve actually eaten any of those. Heavens no.). Read the rest of this entry »
Summer supper outside, Wednesday evening
- Grilled fresh local Oregon Albacore tuna
- Cucumber in a yogurt and dill sauce (the cucumber is from our garden, the dill from a local farmer (via our CSA), and the yogurt is Nancy’s – another Oregon local product)
- Roasted beets and Fingerling potatoes (both from our local CSA)
- Blueberry and blue cheese salad with a light vinaigrette (all local produce)
Introducing a New Series: Photos of What We Eat
I’ve had several inquiries from readers on what exactly we eat at home, so rather than launching into some long diatribe on the subject, I thought I’d just show you.
This is the first entry in this series on Almost Fit which is tentatively named, “Photos of What We Eat.” (The title’s a bit long, but it’s the best I have at the moment). Today’s photo is locally caught Oregon Albacore tuna, served with a variety of locally grown vegetables that came either from our garden or from this week’s CSA box. And while I am certain you are going to get tired of me saying this, it was truly delicious.
By way of disclosure, in this series I will say that not every meal is going to be perfect – I’m erring on the side of candor, even if it means the photo is little more than a fabulously lit box of macaroni. While we strive to eat seasonally and locally as much as we can, we do buy products that fall outside the bounds of those guidelines. We still buy things like coffee and balsamic vinegar, and if I want an orange in January, well, I buy that orange in January.
We make responsible choices, but we are also realistic: with two young children, sometimes convenience is the order of the day. It is increasingly rare, but on occasion we have been known to feed the kids a bowl of goldfish crackers and a “natural” fruit roll up.
Ah, to be well rounded.
Hope you enjoy the photos. Comments and questions are welcome.
This is part 2 in a series on buying and preparing chicken. Here is a link to Part 1, How to buy chicken without getting punched. Or, you can skip ahead to part 3 which is Demystifying chicken labels: From Organic to All Natural. If you enjoy these articles, please consider subscribing to Almost Fit. It is free, as always. Thanks.
As I mentioned in part 1 of this series, we have taken our next step in seeking out real food: we are eliminating the purchase of meat and poultry from grocery stores by going directly to the farmer.
Of course, not everyone has access to local farm-raised chicken, so in this article I’ll describe how to save money at the grocery store when you’re trying to make better choices. This piece of the series evolved from a reader’s comment from the last post where the question of cost was raised. I think it’s important because it’s a common feeling among those of use trying to make “better” decisions on what we eat, that we’re going to have to get a second mortgage to be able to afford good food. Read the rest of this entry »
This entry is part 1 in the series, “How to buy chicken without getting punched.” (This part is supposed to be funny.) If you enjoy this article, please consider sharing it via your favorite social media, like StumbleUpon. Thanks.
A few months ago, I went to the local higher-priced grocery store to pick up some chicken. This particular trip to the store however, I got more than I expected: the chicken came free with a side order of attitude and the ever popular “shoulda’-said” chaser.
Here’s the scene: a local favorite shi shi fru fru store in Southeast Portland. The fluorescent light flickers slightly above a stainless, freshly hosed down meat slicer. The smell of fresh salmon and dill permeates the air like the aroma of a wet dog, only fishier and more dill-like. The butcher stands behind the counter, seemingly annoyed by my perplexed-but-friendly stare into the 8-foot glass case, his fingers twitching in preparation for the imminent smoke break or opportunity to slash something, I can’t be sure. (I swear there is a light saber somewhere in this story.) Read the rest of this entry »
In this morning’s Oregonian, the front page includes an article on a proposal to require chain restaurants to display key nutritional information on their menus and menu boards (“Plan would let diners count calories on menu“). Portland of course is not the first major city to consider the idea publicly, but given the progressive nature of the political scene here, it would not be surprising if the rule was approved.
According to the proposal, this would not affect small businesses. Here is a summary, as quoted from the Multnomah County Health Department’s information site: Read the rest of this entry »
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We had a great day picking berries today. Here’s an excerpt from a conversation that my four-year-old son had with a fellow berry picker:
Jonah: “I burped!”
Woman: “Oh my! Have you been eating a lot of berries?”
Jonah: “Nope. Just one. At a time.”
That, is my boy. Read the rest of this entry »
“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.”
-Alan Keightley, as quoted from A Brief Guide to World Domination by Chris Guillebeau
Regular readers of Almost Fit know that I have been mentioning the words World Domination for a few weeks now. Have I gone mad? Do I think that eating real food in moderation will create a position as Potentate of some small nation state? Maybe. But if such a seat were ever offered, I would have to pass – The aspirations that are already on my list are more than enough, and do not include the title of Magistrate. But anything is possible. Read the rest of this entry »
Ed. Note: This article focuses on the benefits of eating together for families with children. I believe that families come in all shapes and sizes; I just chose families with kids for today’s article. Thanks for reading Almost Fit – I really do appreciate it.
With the pace of life building at an ever increasing rate, for many of us, sharing meals at the dinner table is becoming a lost art. Often times if families eat together at all, it is in the car after having placed an order in front of an illuminated board of “value” options, yelling through a cheap microphone, trying to make it to the next activity only a few minutes late for once.
For a while we were sucked into this vortex of squeezing meals in between the “more important” things (as if meals were not critical to life!). Here’s an example. Read the rest of this entry »
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As is our habit, we stopped by the Oregon City Farmer’s Market on Saturday to pick up much of our week’s produce. The Oregon City Farmer’s Market is smaller than many other markets, but we are slowly getting to know the vendors and have found that the size of the market makes it a little easier to recognize familiar faces.
We definitely believe that getting to know where your food comes from, how it’s grown, and supporting the local economy by purchasing from local farmers is a critical value for our family. By both word and example, we hope that these concepts are passed along to our kids who go with us week after week and observe our pleasant conversations with local farmers and vendors.
And nothing is more satisfying than freshly picked berries in berry season here, as our kids know well.
Without further adieu, here are a few photos of this weekend’s spread. And believe me, the food tastes as good as it looks. Read the rest of this entry »
Ed. Note: This is a reprint (with a few changes) of an article I wrote a while back as a guest post for the guys at GetFitSlowly – Mac and J.D. are some of my principle inspirations for writing about this process, and their site is highly recommended. I’ve had several requests to repost the article here, so I am doing so today. If you enjoy it, please give it a vote via your social networking tool of choice, such as Digg or StumbleUpon. Thanks. Oh, and if you’re new here, welcome to Almost Fit. Please leave a comment and introduce yourself.
When it comes to food, exercise, and our obsession with obesity, the French appear to break all of the rules of Western thought. By and large those who live a traditional French lifestyle eat for pleasure and satisfaction, they often smoke (arguably a stereotype), and they drink regularly. Despite a diet proportionally high in things like saturated fats, the French have remarkably low rates of heart disease and obesity. Welcome to the French Paradox. Read the rest of this entry »
