"Nicky" > wrote in message
...
> On Fri, 2 Jan 2009 20:53:00 -0500, "Evelyn" >
> wrote:
>>For instance I will roast a chicken in the oven one day. Then after
>>dinner
>>I will take the meat off all the bones and put it away. Save the gravy
>>too.
>>
>>Next day, peel a bunch of really nice fresh root vegetables and cook them
>>in
>>the gravy with a little water added. Usually carrots, celery, potato,
>>small whole onions, and a parsnip if I have one on hand, and toss in a
>>handful of frozen peas for color. Then when the vegetables are all
>>cooked, I will add the chicken meat cut into nice bite sized chunks.
>>Thicken the gravy and you have a nice chicken stew that doesn't even
>>vaguely
>>resemble the roaster you had the night before.
>
> Yup; you just described our meals for the last 2 days, except I got a
> copy of Jennifer Eloff's Splendid Low Carbing for Christmas, and made
> a cream sauce for the chicken and added a pie topping : ) Lovely, and
> 1hr pp was 5.8. There's a small serve left over, that I'll have for
> lunch. Half the stock in the fridge from the bones, too, for soup for
> the kids' lunch; the rest in the freezer for another day.



With the cost of food what it is, I think it is only smart to find ways to
make food go further than one meal. A smart cook plans it that way if
there is anything larger than what can be consumed at one meal.

I also have another food-prep habit that I believe keeps us healthy. I
almost NEVER use prepared foods. Other than things like ketchup and
mustard and such, I make just about everything from scratch.

I would sooner DIE than use frozen potatoes or prepare a casserole with a
can of mushroom soup. Some vegetables come through the freezing process
quite OK, like green beans, peas, but absolutely I buy broccoli fresh, and
just about all the other vegetables I use are FRESH. We eat a lot of
various kinds of squash, and all the root vegetables are also fresh. We
eat seasonally that way. I don't buy corn very often in the winter,
because in the summer we get the very best corn picked that very morning
from the local farms.

Now it isn't a solid rule for us to eat locally and seasonally, because it
could get to be too restricting, but we try to take advantage of the local
bounty, with sort of makes us eat locally and seasonally. I believe that
it is better for you all around to do that, if it is at all possible.

Needless to say, unlike Julies family, we have very few real hatreds of any
foods. We like just about everything, but my husband absolutely won't eat
lamb because he doesn't like the taste, and I absolutely won't eat veal,
because of the cruelty in the way they are raised. We eat beef, chicken,
pork, fish of several varieties, almost always fresh, but occasionally
frozen.

I am a very good cook (maybe too good) and I feel strongly about wasting
food but I feel equally strongly about preparing things well, and taking
best advantage of the item I spent my money to buy. Allan Watts, the
famous Zen master said that if you cook a chicken badly, that chicken has
died in vain!

Now I bring this next item up because I noticed them being mentioned a few
times......I NEVER would dream of buying chicken nuggets or other prepared
items like that, because they are concocted from all sorts of horrible
stuff, and I can't imagine it would be healthy for me or actually anyone.
You have no idea when stuff like that was actually made. It could be that
it was prepared 6 months ago and stored forever in the grocers freezer, with
chemicals added to make their shape stay, and the flavor stay, and all of
that. I don't think I have eaten prepared stuff like that willfully in
many a year.

Instead I would buy chicken breasts, cut them into small nuggets, and make a
nice coating then fry them myself. Cheaper, more healthy, and you know
what is in it.

Now that is just a part of my food philosophy.

For what it is worth, everyone says my husband and myself don't look our
age, they take us for as much as 20 years younger. We both have diabetes,
he was diagnosed only recently, but we do look and feel pretty decent. I
attribute it to eating locally, seasonally, and avoiding processed foods.

--
--
Best Regards,
Evelyn

Rest in a sky-like mind.
Sit like a mountain floating on the earth.
Breathe like the wind circling the world