Where to find food?

My favorite place to shop for food hands down is the Aptos Farmers Market. This happens every Saturday at Cabrillo College. It is year round and fantastic. Of course unlike the florescent lit piles of produce in your local mega mart you cannot find all items all year. Farmers markets are so fantastic because you get what is in season now. This means that the flavor of food is at its peak. I once had a hankering for apples. It was not the right season and so I could not find them at my local farmers market. I made my way to Safeway and bought a bag. When I got home and took a bite of one, I was so incredibly sad. Compared to the flavor of the ones I was used to at the farmers market, it tasted like cardboard. Because I like to eat I prefer things that taste good and so that is one of the reasons I love my farmers market.

Another is money. These days money is on everyone’s mind. There are two very important financial reasons to shop at a famers market. The first is my pocket book. I like many Americans prefer to buy organic food. We are waking up to how important our health really is. (Tangent statistics: this generation of children will have a shorter lifespan then their parents due to obesity! One dollar spent in prevention will save you 10 dollars in cure) one thing I hear over and over again is that people want to eat better, they want to eat organic food but they think it is too expensive. I think this is because they go to the big box supermarkets and compare organic to non organic. However what costs me 25 dollars at my farmers market cost me 75 at Safeway. Pretty amazing! What’s more is that I get all the vegetables I need for my family of two, for a week, breakfast lunch and dinner, for 25 dollars! I should also let you know we are not little eaters. We love our salads piled high with all sorts of vegetables and we eat them twice a day. So in short I save money when I shop at my farmers market.

The second financial reason is that of the farmers. I appreciate that there are still people out there working to feed not only their own family but their whole country. When I buy the pound of potatoes at any supermarket only about 3 nickels of my dollar get back to the farmer. 15 cents! The rest goes to the chain of getting the food ready and shipped to my store. This is really unacceptable. We should value the hard working folk of our nation much more then 15 cents on the dollar!


Book to read: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle a Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver

Of course not everyone lives in such a place with farmers markets though I think they are becoming more prevalent. What’s more some parts of the country have real seasons unlike the California coast. I would next turn to a local natural food store and then the organics at a supermarket. I know I mention Safeway above and it is not to pick on them I am happy that they have started to carry their organic brand. I would scout out your local area and find where you can get good fresh organic food that is local. Contemplate how many people your food had to go through before it comes to you and make the best choice you can.

Picky eaters

Picky eaters. We have all come across them and I hear this as a common complaint among my fellow cooks. I have come across several types of picky eaters. Two of my best friends are vegetarians and I myself was one for about 13 years. Of course as best friends do we often eat together so that needs to be taken into account weather dinning in or dinning out. I think because I was a vegetarian for so long this doesn’t faze me as much as other eating restrictions. Of course living in this area makes it a lot easier to find vegetarian fair. However I have found over my many years of not eating meat as well as eating and cooking with my best friends that there are always loads of option out there. I was able to find food in a steak house in Texas. I think most people with special diets like that, know how to find the foods they need in just about any situation. As far as feeding others I find that even those of us who eat meat can still appreciate a meatless meal. In our house we are enacting Meatless Mondays.

Fave veggie entre

Poblano peppers halved and cleaned

Roast in a hot oven until they start to look softish

Cook quinoa and mix with a can of black beans (or homemade black beans) you want a 2-1 rations of quinoa to beans

Mix in some salsa in or a can of chopped green chillies

Fill cooled poblano halves with quinoa mixture and top with a slice or so of cheese. Use Oaxaca or Monterey Jack.

Bake at 350 till done.

Serve with a big salad and a steamed veggie. Super healthy super quick and even meat-lovers will like this meal.

There are also people who have allergies which are very important. Many people have sever allergic reactions and so if you are cooking for other people you need to make sure you know about any allergies. This again is something that is fair and any good hostess / host will check with her/ his guest when inviting them for a meal.

The last group is the people that don’t like certain foods or worse yet are sure they won’t like it so they won’t try it. This is what we typically call a picky eater. I have several thoughts on this.

My first is that parents should stop being short order cooks. Teach your kids to appreciate the food they have on their plate. My mother is a great cook. She made dinner for us every night and served it to us as a family. (tangent here) family dinner takes 1 hour tops and is very important family bonding time. Check in, find out how days were and who the people around the table are. Yes we have busy lives and yes we have tones of schedule but we have an hour and if you don’t take that time your going to wake up one day and not know who your kids friends are what they do or what is going on with your spouse or if you’re a kid your going to think mom and dad don’t think spending time with you is important! How awful is that! Ok stop rant.

So my mother cooked for all of us and there was as the saying goes two choices for dinner. Eat it or don’t. Even the things we didn’t like (and I hate Brussels sprouts) we had to eat at least one of. I think this helped my brother and I learn to try new things not just in food but in life too.

I once talked to a friend of mine who was newly married to a past housemate of mine and she said “he is so picky! How did you get him to eat?” Easy I cooked it he ate it. Back to the two options eat it or don’t. If you have a complainer at the dinner table the best cure is to teach them to cook. They get one night a week to make a meal for the family and they can make the foods they like. Supervised by someone who can cook of course. For that matter it is great for every person to make a meal once a week. It teaches you so much!