Let’s Talk About Food (WIAW)

I have a bit to catch up on but today, since it is conveniently WIAW, let’s talk about food.

And I’m not just going to blast everyone with pictures today-I actually have some things to talk about.

But first, since this is WIAW, I need to share a picture of the Boston Cream Pie I made for my sister’s graduation, although I’ll share details in a separate grad post.

 

I guess before I get too deep into my discussion for the day, let’s go through some other food from the week.

This has been my breakfast nearly all week. I started the break having toast with sunbutter+fruit, but since I was eating breakfast later than usual and had a regimented lunch time since I’m eating meals with my family, I wanted something that stuck with me less.

Plus, these are basically my two favorite foods so it’s working for me! Roasted carrots+mango.

 

Monday morning, I met up with my high school friend for a workout, followed my sandwiches. I got a turkey sandwich with avocado, on a whole wheat roll.

 

If you’re are trying to healthify a sell sandwich, I have a couple of tips-one which I followed, the other which I wish I had.

1. A lot of sandwiches these days are pretty saucy, and I don’t want to miss out! One way to cut back on fat/calories is to skip the mayo and mustard, and just stick with the sauces. I wish I had done this-it was pretty saucy!

2. Thin the bread. If you’re anything like me, the inside of the sandwich is where all the good stuff is (read: the avocado). Eat the sandwich open faced, or hollow out the bread. I probably picked off about half of the roll, and I didn’t miss it!

 

Today, my family and I went to the Ferry building in San Francisco because my grandma is in town and I wanted to see a movie that was only really showing up in the city.

My first stop was coffee! I got a delicious cappuccino, of course.

 

Then, after browsing around the little stands in the Ferry building, we stopped for lunch at Cowgirl Creamery, a fancy cheese store. I had a salad that came with a cheese crisp, and then my mom split a fancy macaroni and cheese.

 

And since there were so many interesting little stands, we stopped at a fancy doughnut place. My mom and I once again shared, and split a chocolate and a salted caramel. The salted caramel was especially delicious-something I’ve never had in a doughnut before! The doughnuts surprisingly seemed on the healthier side, as we didn’t feel too bad afterwards.

 

Ok. Now, onto the food talk and more pictures (I promise). The reason I went to the city in the first place was to see the movie Fed Up. It’s basically about how messed up our food system is, and how it is affecting the obesity epidemic. I agree so much with a lot of what was said in this film, and I highly, highly recommend watching it. It reignited my passion for change. I’m not sure exactly what I can do at this point to make a change (in the obesity epidemic overall), but I think I’m setting myself up to be in a position where I can actually do something. I’m at a university that has and will give me opportunities, and I like to think that maybe one day this little blog of mine might be a forum for change.

So what change? I think our food system is messed up, but I also think our food culture has problems as well. Food (mostly junk foods) is everywhere we turn. Everything is celebrated with food, food takes away our boredom, food commercials and advertisements are found everywhere. I also think one factor many people overlook is the addiction to processed food our country has in general. I’ve done quite a bit of research on the neural circuitry of addiction recently, and I think many people underestimate how strong of a hold this addiction has on people. The documentary interviewed one boy and his family. The boy was obese and wanted to get healthy, but it was a struggle. One scene shows his mother crying as she talks about how she knows to save her son she needs to get rid of the chocolate in the house, but she can’t exactly bring herself to do it. On the surface, she may seem like a terrible parent for choosing chocolate over her son’s life. But compare her behavior to that of an alcoholic with a child-is it really so different?

That all being said, I don’t think I talk enough about health in general and the obesity epidemic on this blog. To be honest, I’m not going to rant about how no one should ever eat processed food, while I post photos of a doughnut. I have no credibility. I want to make an effort to get more into this kind of thing in the future, starting with what is coming next-dinner+dessert.

The movie ended with a challenge to cut out processed food for 10 days-completely. I’m not sure what my next 10 days will hold (yayy moving across the country!) but I want to do my best, because I feel inspired and like I need to do something.

For dinner, we made a taco salad. I decided to whip up some fresh guacamole, but this time with a secret ingredient. A month or so ago I had the best guacamole ever, and it gave me some ideas for my future guac-ing.

 

The secret ingredient? Queso. I mashed it in and it made it creamier and so much more flavorful! Also into the mix went scallions, onions, tomato, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Fresh guac is the best!

 

Since there were extra veggies already chopped, I added them to the taco mix of taco seasoning, ground turkey, and black beans.

 

For the salad, I topped lettuce with a mix of lime juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and tomato, then the meat mixture, then cheese and guacamole.

 

This came together in no time at all! Real food doesn’t have to take forever to make.

The crowning achievement however was dessert. It got rave reviews from my whole family, and they basically ordered me to share. A no sugar, completely unprocessed hot fudge sundae. Yes, it can be done. I wish I had more pictures of the process, as opposed to just the finished product, but I’ll do my best with descriptions!

The “ice cream” was simply frozen bananas blended together very well to make banana ice cream-they get insanely creamy-it’s amazing!

The whipped cream was heavy whipping cream whipped up with a mixer, nothing else added. The fat adds plenty of sweetness.

The fudge was a bit more complicated, and I promise to have a better recipe soon. I threw a few ripe bananas into a saucepan and mashed them up while cooking them. I also threw in coconut oil and heavy whipping cream-probably could have done without the cream but I happened to have it on hand, and it came out a bit too creamy-and also a few squares of unsweetened chocolate as well as cocoa powder. No sugar, all real foods. Still delicious.

 

Another interesting thing-we all were SO full from this. If this had been a regular ice cream sundae, I guarantee I could have downed it without issues. It’s amazing how real food ACTUALLY fills you up, and ignites the fullness cues!

What do you think about the obesity epidemic?