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Fellow food traveler, fear not the meek parsnip! I had seen the long albino carrot thing in the grocery store before, but never tried it. I read about their preparation method in Nourishing Traditions and decided to give them a whirl.
The Long, Albino Carrot thing
I’m glad I did! I scraped them, like you would a carrot, and julienned it, like you would a carrot, and sauteed them slowly in butter, like you would a carrot. And they tasted…not unlike carrots! There was a definite carrot flavor in there, but it was tempered with a lovely anise-like licorice flavor. This root veggie will be a welcome addition to our winter local fare.
Sauteeing gently in butter
Okay, so the idea of planning a category of food a day is a good one, but sometimes life intervenes. For example, this weekend I was straightening up my food storage area in the garage with Christy. Our garage stays a pretty even temperature year-round, probably because it is underground on three sides. I found some dried white beans as I was straightening a shelf and handed them to Christy saying, “Here, take these upstairs to the kitchen. I’m going to soak them for baked beans later this week.” I guess I was mumbling, or thinking out loud or something, because she proceeded to bring the beans up and soak them herself! I didn’t notice what was in the bowl (she covered it just like she’s seen me do) until I got out the soaked flour for today’s pancakes.
Pancakes for breakfast are such a mixed blessing. I don’t like making pancakes for breakfast because it can take a whole hour to cook as many as I need for my family. Someday I’d like to find a gigantic cast-iron griddle that will work on my electric stovetop, but I’ll bet it’s something I’d have to invent. I like making pancakes for breakfast because it gives me a whole hour standing at the stove to do prep for other meals between flips. I boiled eggs for egg salad, flip; I checked on my fermenting foods in the cupboard, flip; I rinsed my sprouting wheat berries and sunflower seeds, flip; I chopped and sauteed a couple onions and garlic cloves, flip, to which I added the drained soaked beans and got it boiling, flip. I even managed to do the dishes between flips! After everyone had all the pancakes they wanted, I put the leftovers on a cookie sheet in a 150° oven until they were crispy, which took about two hours.
I added some tomato paste, soy sauce, maple syrup, molasses, apple cider vinegar, red pepper flakes and dry mustard to the beans and scooped it into my slow cooker. It cooked away on High until dinner. They were good but something was…missing. Hm. I’ll have to think on that. I’ve never been able to make baked beans like my mother’s, partly because she uses white sugar and brown sugar and molasses and maple syrup and that’s just way too much for me. Don’t get me wrong, they are wicked good, but it kind of takes the health benefits away from the beans to drown them in that much sugar.
The crispy cakes went over well with all but John, who turned up his nose at the idea of pancakes for snack. Christy said, “It’s like having honey on a spoon, then eating the spoon!” Rose ate four of them, but not with honey, with blackberry fruit-only preserves. John has put in a request for scrambled eggs with cheese and toast for breakfast. That with a cup of his special eggnog should give him a really good start on the day tomorrow. I think I’ll go grate that cheese tonight, though, for safety’s sake!
John, my teenaged son, has trouble thinking things through sometimes. He’s got a 4.2 GPA, taking honors and AP classes. His teachers think he’s the smartest thing since capri pants. But when it comes to nutrition, the boy just doesn’t get it. He wants food to be all about treats and sweets and feasts.
He’s been having stomach problems for about a month now. He has tended toward heartburn in recent years anyway, but now he is having heaviness in his stomach like there’s a rock in it, combined with irritable bowel syndrome. His acne has spiraled out of control again. As you can surely tell by our “About” page, this boy is in nutritional crisis. His sense of taste is so diminished that he is only interested in 8-10 food items. Everything else tastes wrong to him. He simply refuses many of the foods I cook, restricting his dinner to only the meat I serve.
This morning on the way to school, he was complaining about his stomach again and asking if he couldn’t stay home. I really laid it all out for him. I explained that his body knows how to heal itself and how to function properly, but he has to provide the tools and building blocks with proper nutrition. I stressed how important it is to eat even foods that aren’t sweet because they contain important nutrients his body can’t assimilate through the expensive vitamins he takes. I gave him some examples of things happening in his body that could be directly related to insufficient nutrition. We’ve had this talk many, many times. It usually comes down to him saying “I can’t.” It did again this time. And that’s when I said something really, really stupid.
“I’ll get up and make your breakfast if you’ll eat it.”
What was I thinking? Proof that I’m not a morning person, that crazy statement. My making breakfast usually involves second-degree burns and stitches. I am just not coherent early in the day, haven’t been since I was 10. And I just offered to get up at 5:30 every weekday morning to feed a boy who is plenty capable of feeding himself? OY! All I can say is I must have been desperate to see improvement to offer such an outrageous deal.
There was a catch though. “You have to eat it. And we have to agree on three months of no sodas, limited sugar and increased fruits and veggies.”
I can’t!
What do you usually have to eat at school?
A taco.
Lettuce and tomato?
Lettuce.
What color?
Yellow. (ew.)
Do they have fresh fruit at school?
Yes. They have apples and bananas.
Can you have one with your daily taco?
No, I don’t have time.
Are you allowed to eat anywhere but in the lunchroom, like in the hall on the way to class or between classes, what about on the bus?
No. Nowhere else.
Okay, so the schoolday is pretty much written off. I can help him before school and after. It’s a challenge, for sure, but one I am looking forward to. If I can just get him pumped up with some good calories, some serious nutrients and some fresh water, I know he’ll feel the difference. Once he starts feeling the difference, I won’t ever have to have that talk again. I know once he feels it he’ll be sold.
The Dark Side of Fat Loss
