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I've had this thing about soup lately, mostly from recipes at epicurious.com (use "advanced search" on the left for lots of ways to find things). On one hand, it's been really cold and I'll admit that below zero temperatures in late February is getting a little old; on another hand I'm trying to eat a little better (and not waste money on food that isn't very good); and on the third hand it's been fun. Three hands, I should have been Truman's economist...

Just finished Mushroom and Barley that I'll have for lunch tomorrow, and also recently have made roasted butternut squash and black bean. I went out to eat Friday night and had Cream of Carrot - it was amazing.

And another part came from In Defense of Food. This book doesn't really promote soup, but it does make it easy to eat "Food". Food does not, according to this definition, include processed stuff - Food means things your great-grandmother would recognize. I thought that was interesting and have given it a fair amount of thought.

The three points of this book are Eat Food, Not Too Much, Mostly Plants. I explained Food above, Not Too Much covers how portion sizes have changed in the last 20-50 years and also how Americans typically eat until the food is gone rather than until they're full, and Mostly Plants is pretty straightforward but there are a lot of points explored. Great book, glad I chanced by it on an unusual trip to Barnes & Noble (rather than ordering online).

[adina]

Interesting...

Yeah, soup is quite the comfort food for those of us up north. I'm making some today as well, beef and barley, dh hates mushrooms.

Taco soup is one of our favorites, basically chili with a few more ingredients, and we also have a Bacon and Tomato recipe that we love.

Going to look for that book while I'm out today. Does it include recipes?

I've also got one called "is your child's brain starving" which talks about how the super processed food doesn't give kids the nutrients they need to be able to function as well as they could. That one really pushes their magic smoothie packet, but if you get past that it's not too bad.

We need to cook more. But I hate going to the grocery store. Except Whole Foods, love that, I can get my latte and take my time. So I'm conducting an experiment. Even tho Whole Foods is further and a bit more expensive, if I cook more, we eat out less, so are we saving money by spending more on groceries? So far this month I think we've spent about $250 eating out (eating out includes picking up Chinese or ordering pizza as well). Yesterday at Whole Foods I spent about $35 on groceries for chicken fingers with apricot dip for last night, and the vegetables I need to make soup today, which we'll be eating for 2 or 3 days....

We'll see.

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Going to look for that book while I'm out today. Does it include recipes?

I've also got one called "is your child's brain starving" which talks about how the super processed food doesn't give kids the nutrients they need to be able to function as well as they could. That one really pushes their magic smoothie packet, but if you get past that it's not too bad.

No recipes in the book - he's trying to get people to think differently about food. In other words, there are good vs. bad choices (or at least some better than others) at any restaurant or grocery store. What we're used to thinking are good choices might be bad and vice-versa. He's more of a fan of "whole foods" rather than suppliments - the beta carotine in carrots and other things might be good, but there might be something else in the carrot that makes it so healthy for us. Or maybe it's the beta carotine in it's whole form. We're not sure; we just know that carrots are good and to make assumptions based on that isn't necessarily correct.

I've been cooking a lot lately - getting back into breads too. But somehow chocolate chip cookies magically appeared too. In the last 10 days I've only gone out for lunch once instead of most (or all) days. Ten days, $6 each = $60. I figure that bringing my own food is about $2 a day. Nine days at $2 is $18, plus one at $6 is $24. That's a $36 savings in two weeks; more than 50%. And it's just plain better, all around. And not wasting gas in the car to go get something. It's working...

[photophorous]

I just stumbled upon this while reading articles on one of my favorite hippie left-wing nut-job websites. It's an interview with the author of "In Defense of Food." Pretty interesting.

http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/77330/

I've been paying attention more lately to the ingredients of the tasty tasty processed foods that I eat so much of and the quantity of chemicals that I can't pronounce is pretty disturbing sometimes. Of all the dietary trends I've seen since I started paying attention, the "all natural" trend seems to make the most sense. I'm not as worried about calories and fat as I am about the preservatives and god knows what else they're putting in there.

The biggest problem I have with cooking regularly and eating real foods is that to get the most benefit (and best taste) you really need to use fresh ingredients. So, it's not only a problem with finding time to cook but also with finding time to visit the grocery store more than once a week. I wish we had more of the small corner markets like you see in more densely populated areas. And, I really wish I lived in a place where I could ride my bike to work and pick up produce on the way home to cook for dinner.

Paul

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And, I really wish I lived in a place where I could ride my bike to work and pick up produce on the way home to cook for dinner.

If I ever move out of this area, I have two requirements - it has to border big water (like the Great Lakes or ocean) for kayaking and also just about exactly what you said - except for walking distance. Hard to ride a bike in the snow! I guess that would be #3, change of seasons...

Thanks for posting the interview, I'll check it out. I heard a review about his other book and have meant to pick it up.

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This is going really well, and I'm looking forward to Carrot Soup for lunch today (excellent stuff if you've never tried it). Home-made stock in it, even. Between this (overall eating as little processed food as practical given the fact that I don't have a huge amount of time to cook) and walking quite a bit, I've definitely lost weight and feel a lot better in general. I don't actually weigh myself so I can't list a number, but it's pretty obvious to me.

We've had a pretty tough winter with near-record breaking snow amounts (if not all time highs) all over the area. Big snowfalls were usually followed by sub-zero temperatures. I haven't been sick at all this year even though I work all day in an office with a lot of people who have been sick - some for weeks. Total cost of food (grocery store + going out occasionally) is probably down - the main cost is time. It takes more time to find recipes, make a list, read labels while shopping and cook than it does to pickup take-out on the way home from work. Time is valuable, of course - but I'm glad that I made time to do this.

[adina]

Well, we did okay for a while, and then we got hit with every illness going around, and I lost my motivation. Aprils a new month, and a new try.

I found that book at the library, just waiting for it to get in. And recipes aren't a problem here, but finding the time is. On the plus side, you can make soup in the morning, which is when I'm ambitious, and just heat it up for dinner, which is when I'm not ambitious.

We just went on vacation, and ate crap all week. So now I'm feeling crummy, and need to recover.

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I think any plan like this that requires 100% is going to fail. Don't worry about it - just do what you can. We went to a restaurant buffet on Easter; there's a rough situation when you're trying to lose a couple of pounds! I just ate what I felt like eating and back to what has become more usual the next day. Another thing I noticed is that I ate less than I might have before, and wasn't hungry later that day.

I have a library of cookbooks and use Epicurious a lot but for me (us) it's matter of compromises in what we both like. Soups are my domain, however - I'll make several servings and they go into portion-sized containers to make carrying to work the next day very easy. Summer's coming so I'll probably be eating more salads. Penzey's Spices have a lot of dressing mixes that are easy to make and you know exactly what's going into them.