Two faced meal.

As I was sitting in my house recovering today, I had the occasion to look around my kitchen and recognize the odd mix that is my diet. 

I am really into food politics. I watch the movies about GMO foods (from both sides). My kindle books right now are a biography of Cod, a book on the philosophy of food and a book on the history of food. I can quote obesity statistics for most of the country, I know what the calorie counts are of everything I eat, and yet, my diet is just weird.  And my weird diet has made me really become aware of the benefits of locally produced organic food.

 Almost all of the vegetables in my house are organic, from the  local CSA(the fruits and vegetables themselves come from the entire west coast, but are 100% organic.) They are a bit bruised when they get to my house, but they taste absolutely succulent.  The apples are flavorful, the oranges are juicy and not sour or bitter and the strawberry was simply perfection.  When I make my boiled greens for the week, I can actually taste the difference between the chard and the collard and the kale even after I have boiled them in wine or chicken stock. 

The non-organic veggies in my house are the opposite. They are canned and frozen and flavorless. I have corn on my counter that looks brownish yellow and is packed in some sort of watery product. The fruit cocktail cups for my young son's lunch cannot possibly contain fruit. The little squares of juice infused squishy things taste okay, but nothing like a real pear or a real apple. 

Then, in a fit of convenience, I decided to buy a set of packaged and over-processed food like-main dishes to have around the house. They are convenient, and confession, they don't taste awesome. My cupboards are filled with different mass produced preservatives mixed with different varieties of corn and soy products. The nutrition labels give the deceptive picture that what I am eating is low-calorie and is fortified with all of the vitamins an adult woman could need.  And, because of my food politics reading of late, all I can think of when I eat my box of stuff that is meant to approximate an entree is that I know where this thing comes from and it ain't a fishing boat in Alaska or an organic farm upstate.  

And for me, I realized that the main issue is that I don't really know how to cook so I get scared and either go out to eat or eat food-like substances. I can make chili (but all of the ingredients mostly come from cans), I can make quiche (but I use a trans-fatty pie crust from Marie Callendar's).  

So, protect your children (I will probably accidentally leave the oven on),  and get ready for emergency phone calls and texts regarding my inability to figure out how to clean up the flour I spilled on the floor and the weird smell emanating from the sushi rolls.

I am officially, in a month, when all of the processed crud has finally departed my kitchen, am going to become a person who eats only food. :)