It is no surprise that I would agree with Michael Pollan in the article “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch,” when he says, “The skills celebrated on the Food Network in prime time are precisely the skills necessary to succeed on the Food Network in prime time. They will never come in handy nowhere else on God’s green earth.  In Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch, Michael expresses the difference in how much cooking shows have changed on TV since they first began airing in the 60’s.

Just like Michael when I was a child I grew up in the kitchen though I did not grow up watching the Food Network.  I spent a decent amount of time watching the adults in the family cook.  They always looked like they were enjoying their time together and a lot of time it was.  It felt like we were waiting forever to eat and just as long to get help outside of the kitchen.  They enjoyed cooking because they were cooking for people they loved and we loved eating their cooking.

Michael got to experience in my opinion a real cooking show.  He expresses that when watching Julia Child, “While Julia waited for the butter foam to subside in the saute pan, you waited, too, precisely as long.  You just don’t get that on today’s Food Network channel.  Today you get your basic everyday meal that is transformed to fit the everyday life style of  a “busy” person.  The chef runs through the ingredients list, throws it all in the pan or pot, goes to a commercial come back and wala.  Finished.  This leaves me thinking well how did that happen.  I am not great at reading recipes and being able to create an amazing meal.  I need a visual, show me how to do it.

Cooking shows today aren’t teaching you anything, they are simply introducing you to different foods and providing entertainment.  Having chefs compete in challenges in making dishes that have ingredients’ that no one would use and giving them a short time frame and limited materials to do it with.  If the chef is cooking they are just showing you different ways to hurry out of the kitchen and back onto the couch.

I like another “French Chef” back on TV, I believe more people will watch it and actually want to try to make meals that they wouldn’t normally choose to make.  I was lucky enough to have great home teachers but a lot of money and food is wasted to entertain the world for a dish that ultimately gets thrown away.

Healthy and Happy

Eating to me is enjoyable and satisfying.  When most people eat they do not think about the nutrition part of eating.  Like how many calories something has or the carbs, protein, sugars and fats.  We are the “carefree eaters”.  My mom on the other hand, her life is healthy eating and fitness.

My mom has been a professional body builder and personal trainer now for a little over six years now. She eats very healthy.  Counting every calorie, fat, carb and sugar that she takes in.  Not only does she count her grams and plan her meals she does the same for her clients.  She calls it “eating the right way”.

I could remember a time when my mom did eat so “right”.  Growing up she was always on the go but always made time to satisfy her stomach and please her taste buds.  She ate anything fast food and plenty of homemade fatty foods.  Breakfast was scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon, homefries, grits and even pancakes.  She made the works.  Lunch was the easy stuff lie pizza, chicken tenders, grilled cheese and French fries.  Dinner was the best and most thought out.  Dinner was the only thing that really needed any thought.  She had to make sure she thought about what she was going to make early in the day so she could make sure the meat was defrosted, and that she had everything she needed for the meal and there were no surprises when it came time to cook.  I remember carefree dinners when she made shepherds’ pie, fatty steaks, fried everything and mashed potatoes or rice just about every day.  I don’t ever remember her ever making salad not that we don’t like salad, I love it but because I just wasn’t important.

As a professional body builder and personal trainer your eating habits and what you eat change dramatically.  To my mom it’s all about the nutrition factor and how she can benefit the most from what she is eating.  She told me she can eat lean boneless chicken breasts for lunch and dinner every day because her body shops the most results with chicken than any other lean protein.  I cannot do that.  I need variety, to satisfy my taste buds.

Making sure she gets plenty of water, a gallon a day.  Just thinking of that amount makes my stomach full.  She calculates between 1200-2000 calories a day, including 175g of carbs, 150-200g of protein and 40g of “good” fat.  She will spate those grams in her meals.  She eats 6-7 times daily with 2 hour intervals.  Before she works out she gets her carbs in to help give her fuel and energy.  After she works out she will get in the protein to help build and shape her muscle.

Planning her daily/weekly meals is based on according to her work out load.  If she has more clients on Tuesday than she did on Monday she will take in a little bit more protein and carbs because her body is working double and she doesn’t want her training to affect her body negatively.  She weighs out all of her meals and snacks.  Today my mother doesn’t only calculate what she should eat but when she should eat it.

Her sense of taste I believe no longer exist.  It’s not that she changed so much to now she no longer eats meat. The way she prepares food is different.  I recently ate at her house and we had broccoli and chicken and rice.  She needs the crunch to be in her vegetable or “all the nutrition will be cooked out of it and we just ate it for nothing”. That is the reply I received when I asked why I was crunching on my broccoli.  The rice was brown, mushy brown rice but, “it’s better for your core it doesn’t sit and store fat like white rice”.  The chicken, the chicken wasn’t normal.  Where was the seasoned chicken the nice fluffy white rice and my soft steamed broccoli? I can answer that, at my house.

Her day begins at 3:30a.m. she starts by weighing in.  Checking her weight helps to keep her on track.  By 5:30a.m. she is at work and having her first snack by 7:30a.m.

– 1 slice of 100% wheat bread with 1tbsp. of peanut butter and ½ tbsp. of jelly.  Two hours later she will have breakfast.

9:30a.m.- ½ cup of oatmeal, three egg whites, and 16oz. of water. Two hours later she will have another snack.

11:30a.m.- ½ of a banana, 2 scoops of amplified protein, 8oz. of water.  Two hours later is lunch.

1:30p.m.- 1-2 cups of spinach or lettuce with a 1 tbsp. of honey mustard, 4oz of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and 8oz of water.  Like clockwork she will have another snack.

3:30p.m.- one scoop of amplified protein and 1 cup of fruit. By 5:30p.m. she will be sitting down for dinner- ½ cup of brown rice, 2/3 cup of veggies, 4oz of boneless, skinless chicken breasts.  Her treat for the night usually will consist of a nice protein shake so two hours after dinner she will treat herself to 1 scoop of slow releasing protein with blended fruit.  Even while she sleeps she wants to be building muscle.

On top of making sure she is eating the right foods, that can be difficult when you are constantly on the go.  When this happens she results in using vitamins to give her the amount she needs for her daily nutrition.  Vitamins are the worst for her to keep track of or to easy remember to take them.  Vitamins help her a lot since her body is constantly working out.

My mom says she misses her days where she would only worry about what to take out and what she felt like eating for lunch.  Where she was going to eat out for lunch and not worrying about what’s in it but worry about if it will satisfy her taste for the moment.  I asked her if she would ever go back to “carefree” eating. She says no.  She is very happy with her body and the results she gets from eating healthy and working out. To me this is a hobby for her, for her this is a lifestyle and career.  She cannot be a successfully personal training career and not be in shape herself.  She is her own personal advertisement.  She will always focus on the benefits of food and eat what will most benefit her rather than eat what taste best.

One day maybe she won’t be so extreme.  Maybe she will just make sure she gets all the main food groups in a day and work out three times a week.  She loves seeing people achieve such an important goal as losing weight, she loves to feel a part of that.  She will not change her lifestyle or career choice until she is no longer able.

My mother is maybe not eating her favorite foods and eating carefree but she is Healthy and Happy.

 

FOOD FOR THE SOUL

Since the day I could remember my grandmother had me in the kitchen. Growing up my grandmother always said, “I was a happy baby and never cried because she always fed me”.  She said I was always eating and didn’t have a chance to cry.  I was the first granddaughter and she took me under her right away.  My mom loved modeling we were complete opposites, but she did love the dinners I would make.

One of the first things I remember helping out with in the kitchen were pastels.  Pastels is meat stuffed dough shell and closed shut with a fork, that was my job closing all the pastel and making them look pretty by closing it with the fork.   Thought I had an important job making sure none of the meat got out. I ca remember it like yesterday my grandmothers hands on mine showing me how to firmly press the fork but not too hard to break the dough.

Both my mom and grandmother worked long hours and sometimes got home late.  The kitchen was where we conversed, shared our day and was taught sometimes life lessons and even got my hair washed in the kitchen sink until my preteen age. She loved to compare things to food, she would say, everything like food has to marinade and when it is thought out and done correctly its perfect!” .

I love cooking and I love cooking with friends and family.  My family is extremely important to me and I love seeing them happy.  Much like my grandmother I go to food to put a smile on peoples’ faces. For birthdays I ask if there is something they would like for me to cook for them.  That is my present and I’ve never had a complaint.  Cooking for someone feels so personal to me, not getting something that may break or get dirty and then now that gift is forgotten.  Food giving someone that perfect meal they have been wanting. That moment, that taste sticks with them forever.

Now that my grandmother is gone all of her children and grandchildren wish we could have some of her dishes just one more time.  She would make us each our own birthday cake and believe me we didn’t care this one wasn’t bought at the store with the cool cartoon character on the cake but we knew that our grandmothers cake is going to be so great and made special jus for us the way we want it.

I work late hours so when we get home we have time to make dinner and get ready for bed.  The most time I get to spend with my daughter is in the kitchen.  I use this time to converse, help her with homework and watch her practice her dance for school and talk about our day.  My daughter is eight and she is wanting to help out more in the kitchen.  Just recently she has begun her cooking lessons. She is always asking why I am putting this and how much of that and she loves to be my taste tester.  She is currently my ingredient adder and my mixer. I am grateful for his kitchen routine and grateful that it was instilled in me because without my passion for being in the kitchen I would fear I was losing out on memories.

I recently was invited to a baby shower and they requested me to make pastel.  My daughter has yet to help make these with me so I prompted her to wash her hands and to get the stool.  This moment was important to me because it is something I made all the time with my grandmother. That moment I put my hands on top of hers and was showing her what to do immediately tears came down my face and I was a kid again.  As I would show and tell my daughter what to do I could hear her voice and feel her hands on ours, it’s like I was taken back and all the sudden you had three generations in the kitchen all learning together.

The kitchen works in mysterious ways I also met my fiancé in the kitchen.  I never met someone who liked looking for different recipes or being in the kitchen as much as I do.  We both wok late hours but always find time in the kitchen the three of us.  I always told my dad I will marry a man who can cook and let me tell you, my honey can throw down.  My fiancé did not grow up in a stable home and was raised mostly by his sister, they too spent most of their bonding in the kitchen they were both young and had to teach each other.  Like me he too would rather make someone an amazing meal of their choice for their birthday rather than get a gift.

If I could pass one lesson on to my family it would be much like Julia Roberts in Eat, Prey and Love.  Food is for the soul whether you’re happy, sad, hot or cold food has a way of making everything better.  Food is filled with love, color, memories, and expression. Food could bring you closer to places you might not get to go or maybe it’s a certain dish bringing you back to where you once loved to be.  Food is how I stay connected to my grandmother and how my family will stay connected to me.

My theme for class will be food.  I love to cook and I love to find and try new recipes and special triks on cooking.  This class i hope to explore many more different ways food helps us as humns and the eviorment.  I have loved to cook since grade school. I have been recently more curious in the health factors in food. I am Not just interested in what vegetable is beneficial but more so in where you are getting these vegetables.  I hope to explore canned food vs frozen food or farm raised fish and wild caught.  Another aspect of food i would like to get into is brands of food and how they affect our body.

Besides food for a back up I would write about family and relationship.  I would talk about relationships with distant family vs family that live a few minutes away. I would also talk about multi-racial families which i feel is important to me and my child, or what the modern day family looks like opposed to your average family in the early 20’s-70’s.

I have an eight year old child and another interest of mine would be eduaction.  With my daughter I am always worried about if she is being taught the right way.  Being in the inner city you have the stereo type that inner city kids are bad and pushed aside as far as education.  I would like to get into homeschool vs public or private school especially with all the attacks on people in public places you think, do i really want to risk my child? I would like to go through daycare and the struggle it is for single parents to get daycare that is not just affordable but time conveient as well.

Both of these extra themes can still be tied into food in some way so i am hoping my writing skills in this class allow me to explore all of my themes.

I would like to think of myself as an emotional writer. Growing up my friends and I passed notes all the time, especially if we were talking about how we felt.  For me notes were a way for me to deal with people, without having to deal with their reactions face to face and with no interruptions.  Isn’t that what writing is all about? The freedom of writing with no judgment and no time limit just keep writing until your point is met without fear of someone altering your opinion.

Even as a reader I like to read about emotional life events. Reading books based on real life events and people Based on true stories are my favorite.  Reading about some ones good times or bad times without a break or interruption in their life.  If it were not for biographies and memoirs we wouldn’t know why someone did what they did or how they accomplished it and how they felt during and after.

Writing for me was a way out.  Mainly when I was hurt is when I would right. Writing to friends and family was easy to me.  It was a way for them to know how I truly felt.  I didn’t have to deal with the interruptions of their facial or body expressions. That dreadful sigh of disapproval or that embarrassing laugh because the reader doesn’t agree.  All these actions when feelings are said aloud would alter my opinion or feelings because I would feel bad or too embarrassed to truly explain myself.

This semester I hope to achieve a more creative way of writing to be maybe more fictional. To not only express how I feel but to think outside the heart and try to see things in others eyes and how they might feel.  My goal is to be more opinionated and to allow that interruption of someone else’s views challenge my feelings.