Eating Healthy

Perhaps it's just because when I'm pregnant I have to eat what seems like truckloads of food, but eating healthy has really been on my mind lately. I have a daughter who is a fabulous healthy eater. She will eat raw fruits and veggies all day if I provided them for her. So what's the problem? The problem is in my providing them for her. I never seem to plan to have enough of them in a good enough variety to satisfy her. Also, I wish I were more like her. My first reaction to hunger is to find some yummy carbs to load myself up with. I don't really know how that happened. I have a very healthy mom and grandmother. They are both really great at cooking healthy, interesting, fancy, and enjoyable meals for the whole family. I also have quite a bit of knowledge when it comes to food. I just have slipped into the grab-n-go eating habits that aren't so very good for me. Also, fruits and veggies are expensive! My food budget, like most everyone, is very strained right now. So if my choice is between more apples or getting the oil changed on the car how exactly am I supposed to make that decision? Both are needed to lubricate important things in my life.

Anyway, I'm done complaining because who wants to hear about that. I've been hearing great things about this book lately and thought to myself, "yeah great idea, but how would I be able to afford it. Also, my daughter will eat veggies so why hide them?" Then today I was having lunch with another med mom. This mom is amazing at stretching her food dollar. I'm floored when I hear how much she spends and is still able to eat well. She told me that she loves this book and it didn't really raise their budget as much as she thought it would. She said the best thing about it for her is just fitting in more servings of veggies without feeling like she has to go and cook three or four side dishes. So now I'm actually intrigued. Has anyone else tried the book? Is it worth the investment of actually buying the book? If you've tried it, should I really get a food processor or will my blender work OK?

Recipe I love

Last night I made a recipe I love, love, love. I wasn't going to post about it, but then I saw Heather's posts about food and thought I'd share. I got this one out of the Phillsbury complete cookbook:

Chinese Sweet-and-sour pork

Wow, I just looked at the recipe in the book and that's a lot to type, if you want the recipe let me know and I'll put it up. (It's not hard, I'm just lazy and I'm not sure anyone would actually use it.) The reason that I like the recipe isn't just because it's yummy though. I really like all the chemistry that's going on when you're making it. Maillard browning, starch gelatinization, denaturation of proteins, mingling of flavor compounds, and much more. It just totally reminded me of some of the experiments that I did during school. It made me feel smart and I loved it. Plus, this time I didn't make the oil too hot like last time. The batter browned perfectly.

Another benefit to this came in the entertainment Charlotte had today with the leftover brown rice. I decided to eat some for part of my lunch and she decided that she wanted some too. So I fed her some. Then she decided that she wanted to feel the rice between her fingers. I figured we could have a messy lunch time (occasionally I think it's important to get dirty when learning new things). Then she decided that it would be really fun to empty the whole rice container on the floor. Well, at least she had fun.