cooking

Cooking With Steve: Start With Something You Like

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Eating healthy is a pain for a lot of people. We’re not taught how. Advice often seems like it makes eating a chore. There’s also a lot of really tasty stuff that will also kill us – and is easy to prepare.

Now I do advise you to eat healthy, because let’s face it right now a lot of people are eating utter crap and killing themselves. Just reading about current health trends gives me bouts of empathetic hypochondria. That would also be a good band name.

One thing that has helped me that I can pass on is to start eating healthy, start with eating healthy foods you like.

Maybe you like carrots, or cherry tomatoes, or whatever. Take an inventory of things that you like to eat that are good for you (with appropriate research or consultation) and then start eating them more regularly. Reach for that plain yogurt with honey over a milkshake, or that homemade energy bar over a candy bar, or what have you.

You may just surprise yourself. There’s probably lots of stuff that’s good for you that you didn’t think about before.

This makes it a lot easier as you’re eating good things and thus have less room for bad things – and you’re not noticing the loss of deliciousness. If you find enough healthy foods you enjoy, you can flesh out your menu without feeling much sense of loss at all – and have the gain of feeling better and probably enjoying more natural tastes.

Here’s what I advise:

  • Take an inventory of healthy things you enjoy. Think them over because some things are not obviously healthy, some aren’t as healthy as we think, and some are good in moderation (like fatty but nutritious nuts). Also don’t forget some things are only bad to us due to additional things – maybe if you made your own low-fat vegetable dip you’d enjoy those carrots even more and be healthier.
  • Figure out how you can work in these healthy foods into your diet. If you like spinach salads see where you can work them in as a side dish. If you like peanut-butter-on-green-apple then you’ve got a healthy snack.
  • Rotate the foods you like so you don’t get sick of them – unless you find that’s not possible (I love cherry tomatoes, so I could eat them every other day).
  • Explore what related foods and similar foods may be out there that are also healthy and add them to your repertoire.
  • When you make a new discovery of something healthy-you-like add it to rotation. You may be surprised (I was surprised to find out how great Kale is for a salad).

So trying to eat healthy? Start with what you like – it’ll be easier on you.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

Curry Diary: Keep The Spread

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Well I’ve made version #15 of the curry.  In this case I decreased the spread by 25% from my last version, Milestone #4.

The result . . . wow that was less interesting.

I figured the sweetness of the spread was contributing to the sweetness of the curry, and that cutting it would be worth it.  Well apparently I needed that in the curry roux, probably due to the flavor, fat, and ability to help fry the other ingredients.  Removing it made the curry notably duller – and when I add some in and reheat it, the taste normalizes.

So frankly I’m a bit puzzled/stumped.  It seems that these two ingredients were far more vital than I thought, which may mean I didn’t fully understand the complexity of what I was making – and may have more to learn.  It also means that the red wine may have to be my next target for reduction, and I really want to get it right because it’s addition really took things far.

My only other thought is I used a quickie broth this recipe this time, so maybe I’ll remake the last milestone again, using this broth, to just check to be sure.

Still, closer each time – and this may be a good warning that the roux of a curry is a lot more complex than we may think.  Now I’m starting to understand the tales of secret ingredients, of curry cooked and recooked to unlock flavors, and so on.  This is an amazing art and the further I go, the more respect I gain.

You can really understand how this has spread across Japan into so many versions.  It’s like chili in America in all its amazing variants.

Maybe I’ll never find my perfect curry.  I think by now I don’t care.  I’m loving the ride.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

 

Recipe: Savory Bread

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A toned-down variant of a Taste of Home recipe, this is basically a tasty cheesy bread that you can vary all sorts of ways.  It’s a good mix that’s just easy to keep nibbling on.  No it’s not really healthy, but you could get the lowest-fat cheese possible and use spread to tone it down a bit.

Great for a party, sports or TV watching, and so on.  Also might be fun with a dip or hummus.

  • 1 1-lb round loaf of sourdough (or similar bread and shape)
  • 8 oz shredded cheese with a kick (I prefer Monterey Jack or a mexican mix)
  • 1/4 cup butter or spread, melted.
  • 4 tbsp dried chives
  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Slice bread “grid wise” – cutting crosswise, cuts one inch apart, but not going all the way to the bottom – leave about 1/2-3/4″ bread, then do the same to create a “grid” (rotate the Bread 90 degrees, cut again).  This leaves you a bread loaf that is sliced but still whole with open slices forming a nice grid.
  3. Place bread on Tinfoil – enough to wrap the bread.
  4. Place shredded cheese in the cuts, evenly distribute them.
  5. Melt spread and pour evenly over bread. and cheese.
  6. Sprinkle chives over bread.
  7. Wrap bread fully in tinfoil.
  8. Place bread on cooky sheet and bake for 15 minutes.
  9. Unwrap bread and brake for 10 minutes or until cheese is well melted.
  10. Serve.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.