What we eat and why it matters
Last summer I read The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. I was given the book for my birthday, together with some cookbooks. You get the point, I love food. But I care about how it found its way into my kitchen, too. Let me tell you about what we decided works for us, after much book-reading and value-weighing.
Miso tofu tacos inspired by United States of Tara
The inspiration for these tacos came from many hours of watching United States of Tara on Netflix. In the episode miso tofu tacos with picked red onions, Tara makes said tacos. I instantly wanted to be in that scene eating those tacos. Here’s the recipe I conjured up.
Vegetarian, delicious, fridge-clearing quinoa pilaf recipe
Quinoa is fast becoming my signature dish at home. I started incorporating this versatile grain more and more into our meals at home last fall and it has just blown me away with its potential. Our hands-down favorite quinoa dish right now is Quinoa Pilaf; I even set it out for our family dinner at Christmas! It’s vegetarian, delicious, and a great way to clean out the vegetable drawer stragglers (lone celery stalk, anyone?). Plus, there’s more protein in one ounce of quinoa than in one ounce of meat! HA!
How to handle jackfruit — and three recipes to use with it!
Near our house is a botanical garden which includes a small, pathetic tropical fruit orchard. We visit every now and then, usually bringing home a few lemons, but not much else. Most of the things growing there are not super productive, because they aren’t cultivated or cared for, and there is usually only one tree from each species. The trees are also labelled with nothing but a name (and sometimes not even that), so it’s hard to know when things are ready for picking.
A few months ago we grabbed a jackfruit, but when we cut it open it oozed so much latex that we got scared and threw it away. Then we saw Australian celebrity chef Luke Nguyen make a salad with green, unripe jackfruit. He talked briefly about how to cook it. That was enough to inspire us to have another go.
10 tips on cooking for your gluten-and-dairy-free paleo aunt without pulling your hair out
Is this scenario familiar to you? You go out to a restaurant with a bunch of friends and one of them spends half an hour with the waiter trying to work out what they can eat. I’m one of those people! My diet is like a finely tuned orchestra and when I get it wrong I’m hooked up to a morphine drip hallucinating rainbows. It’s not pretty.
Lets face it, most people you meet will have foods they do and don’t eat. For some of us it is really important. Whether it’s a deathly intolerance to nuts or a commitment to not eating dead things, if you’re going to feed friends and family who are offbeat eaters, you need to pay attention or you run the risk of offending their beliefs — or landing them in hospital.
This is my survival guide for feeding offbeat eaters.
Can someone love food and still love the earth?
I just recently became interested in where my food comes from. I am willing to be more responsible about what I buy, but from what I’ve read, grass-fed beef does not always mean humane, Dole bananas are picked by slaves, tomatoes are killing the earth with pesticides, and milk is made by abusing dairy cows.
So what I’m asking is: what’s fact and what’s fiction, and what can I do!? I feel like I can’t eat anything without feeling guilty about it! Can someone love food and love the earth?