Name That Substance

What is that, you ask?

Well, I'm not a chef and certainly not a photographer, but this was my attempt tonight at something akin to sorbet.

I tried to follow a recipe and put some frozen fruit, water, and a touch of honey into the blender/food processor (ok, it's a Magic Bullet, but I didn't really want to admit that I own something sold on an infomercial...). It kinda worked, but was so thick that the blades just stuck or spun most of the time. I added a splash of OJ and it seemed to blend better, but then ended up a tad soupy. I could have refrozen it, but I just couldn't wait to eat it.

So this is my contribution for those hmmm... I need something to eat that's GF, that doesn't take forever, and that isn't horrible for me... moments.

I also make a lot of smoothies. We usually end up with some too-ripe bananas sitting around. So before they go completely rotten, I peel them, throw them in a freezer bag, and stuff them in the freezer. Other frozen fruit isn't cheap, but if you watch for a sale it isn't too horrible to stock up.

The nice thing about smoothies is how little effort they require to make:

1. Throw stuff in a cup. Doesn't really matter how much. Bananas, frozen berries, frozen peaches, some plain yogurt, and a little OJ to keep things flowing. Heck, a little PB might be interesting.
2. Blend.
3. Find the box of neon bendy straws stuck in the back of the cabinet.
4. Have a nice healthy breakfast or dessert.

Discovering Real Food

I credit having to go gluten free for making me aware of what is in my food and how it is produced. Man, I had no idea. Even growing up in farm country, I didn't think about it a whole lot.

I ate well growing up. Mom was a pretty good cook, and we ate about like your average American family in the 90s. I didn't usually think too hard about where the food came from, as long as it was there, it tasted ok, and I could scarf it down before band practice (or wherever else I was rushing to back in those days). There were a lot of Subway pizza subs...

Since I've been forced to scrutinize every ding dang detail of every bite of food that enters my mouth, I've realized how much CRAP I've eaten in my lifetime. America is fat?! No way! I've actually lost most of my taste for processed, preserved foods.

I made a GF rice mix yesterday that contained MSG precursors in the ingredients- disodium guanylate and disodium inosinate. I didn't see that when I bought it, it said GF so I grabbed. Anyway, the rice could have tasted decent, but it tasted so much like flavor enhancer that it was hard to tell what the original flavor was supposed to be. Ick.

It seems like the less I eat processed food, the more undesirable it gets. Funny how I used to crave things that repulse me now, even foods that would have been GF. Fast food of any sort makes me feel like I have metabolic syndrome just by looking at it. No thanks.

It's like I've finally realized that real food has nutrients. It tastes good in its own element, without having to doctor it up and save it for later with soy lecithin, methylparaben, or PGPR.

This also means I need to relearn how to cook. Yikes.

That said, I have to admit that I did have to stop by the store on my way home yesterday to buy a chocolate bar. Overly sweet, overly creamy milk chocolate. And I've eaten a lot of it. Not the most appropriate timing for such a post...

I need to go brush my teeth now.