Food is Love

I've made some changes lately in the way I eat and the way I cook for my family. This has been a gradual change, brought on by a few key factors. I've become increasingly aware of what is in food and what impacts it has on a person's health. The off-shoot of this is that I don't want my kids growing up on processed foods and thinking it's normal. I grew up on vegetables from the garden, we ate the deer and other wildlife that was hunted, our beef came from purchasing a cow down the road, and there was always baked bread and other homemade goodies around the house. I cringe now when I see a commercial for pre-made and pre-shaped cookies that are being marketed as "homemade." Really? If you break down the word, I guess technically they are "made" in the "home" but it's far from the homemade foods that I remember. My children will know exactly what "homemade" really means and I will know what's in their food.

I love to cook. There is something about creating a masterpiece in the kitchen that not only looks good and tastes good, but is good for your family. Whether my family agrees to eat it or not is up for debate, but it doesn't take away that magical feeling. I would much rather create a complete meal with well-rounded and healthy ingredients instead of dumping contents from a box into a pan with some water. Granted, this is an option sometimes for those nights when I'm just too exhausted to cook, but with each night of cooking and each personal success, these nights are becoming fewer and fewer.

Also, a recent health discovery involving cholesterol has really brought our eating habits into focus. Growing up in the Midwest, I was raised on hot dishes (aka casseroles), red meat and potatoes. We ate a lit of chicken too, and the fish we ate was mostly Walleye that we caught ourselves. However, this diet doesn't bode well for cholesterol, something I realized after doing a little bit of research. And while I'm slowly incorporating more fruits and vegetables and less fats into my meals, I need to pick it up a notch. It's out with the frozen pizzas and in with the fish and vegetables.

The good news is that we don't have to cut out pizza all together, which is the favorite food of my son and husband. We just have to cut out the "frozen" part of the pizza. It's actually very feasible to make your own pizza dough and sauce. Add in some fresh vegetables, a little bit of cheese and whatever other toppings you want and you've got a pizza - one that is healthier and cheaper than their frozen cousins.

This is just one example of how an unhealthy and over-processed food can become healthy and still be delicious. Another one would be french toast, which leads me to breakfast this morning.

One of my favorite things to do is make a big breakfast on the weekends, usually Sunday. Again, this stems from my childhood. I can recall countless memories of sitting in the kitchen at Grandma and Grandpa's, all us cousins and aunts and uncles surrounding the table and kitchen island while my Grandma cooked homemade Swedish skinny pancakes on the same griddle my great grandmother used for the same purpose. It was heavenly.

This is why, anytime you are guest at my house in the morning, you can expect breakfast. And I'm not talking about frozen waffles. I'm talking breakfast, the kind of meal that greets everyone in the morning, bringing everyone together and filling tummies with wonderfully delicious food to prepare everyone for the amazing day ahead. This is what breakfast is all about.

Anyway, back to the french toast. Here is my take on french toast for breakfast:

I start with homemade bread. Why? Because it's cheap, easy, and I know what's in it. The best french toast is made from thick slices. The egg bathe I use is the standard - eggs, milk and vanilla extract. My husband likes the batter a little eggy, so I probably add less milk than other people. Instead of frying my french toast, I bake it. The main reason for this is less mess, less standing in front of a stove and less butter. I grab a large cookie sheet (or two, depending on the amount I want to make) and put 1-2 tablespoons of butter on the pan. I preheat the oven to 375F and put the pan in to melt the butter. It's extremely important to have this step - skipping it ensures your eggy bread will bake right into the pan, and instead of french toast slices you end up with some form of mutated french toast that is crumpled, scrunched and missing chunks. It doesn't take long for the butter to melt. Once it's melted, I use a spatula to spread the butter around. I then dip the bread into the egg bathe and lay it on the pan. Once all the slices are on the pan, I sprinkle the slices with brown sugar and cinnamon. I do this with each slice instead of adding it directly to the egg bathe to ensure that every slice gets a little love. Otherwise you end up with one piece covered in eggy cinnamon and nothing on the other poor neglected slices. I put them in the oven for about 10 minutes, then flip them, again adding cinnamon to the other side. I don't add anymore brown sugar because it gets a little too surgery and sweet then. And what to put on top? There are a variety of options! The favorite, of course, is syrup, but I'm not a huge fan of syrup because it's really all sugar, at least a majority of syrups are. Even the "sugar free" syrups are just made with a chemical based sugar substitute. I realize that this is the point of syrup and that there are a variety of real maple syrups out there, but why limit yourself to one topping? For example, this morning, we had a few handfuls of blueberries in the fridge that needed to be used, so I threw them in my handy little mini food processor and blended away. I stirred them once to make sure to get all the big chunks and added a few tablespoons of sugar. Once the french toast was baked through, I made sure to keep the brown sugared sides up on the plate and poured the blueberry sauce over them. Delicious.

See? Things like that - super simple. No recipe needed. Just conscience thought about what and how you're cooking. Instead of frying every slice of french toast in butter, it was baked in a total of 2 tablespoons. Instead of drowning the slices in sugary syrup, they were delicately drenched in a homemade blueberry sauce.

A little awareness and thinking goes a long way when cooking. For starters, I add more fruits and vegetables. It really is easy to do. We've been able to do this in part to shopping in bulk since you can buy 5 pound bags of frozen vegetables that have the same nutritional content as fresh ones (I advise to stay away from canned vegetables as they often contain some sort of preservative and a butt load of sodium). Instead of adding fats like butter and oil to add taste to food, use spices and herbs instead. Also, I try and make things from scratch as often as possible. It's cheap and doesn't take a lot of time.

If you're having a little trouble getting started, don't worry. Like I said, this has been an evolution in process for quite some time now. The first step is to pay attention. Read labels and think about what's in the food you're eating. Second, look for inspiration. Cook books and recipes are a great way to start the imagination. Don't be afraid to experiment and try new things. Third, always think "how could I make this," especially when in the grocery store. I often go to the frozen foods section and look at all the one-skillet meals that are in bags. I look at the ingredients, then instead of buying the meal in the bag I go buy the ingredients and make it myself. No, it won't taste the same, and that's kind of the point. By making it yourself and using better ingredients, it will taste the way food is supposed to instead of tasting like a salt and fat.

Ah, food. Some of my best memories are centered around food. Every family get together turns into a giant all-you-eat buffet of the best potluck dishes every created. And while at that time, mashed potatoes came from boxes and vegetables were in tin cans and you could microwave a meal in a cardboard tray, this wasn't what I grew up on. Therefore, my children shouldn't and won't either. Instead, they'll grow up in the kind of home where food and love are always guests at the same table.