Airplane Food that Blew my Mind

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I was astonished when I took my first ever flight on a Dutch airline from Amsterdam to Berlin…because of the food. Fly with me for a moment here.

I was handed a neatly constructed cardboard box containing a minimally packaged chicken salad sandwich. This would certainly not have inspired my excitement in any other familiar context, but let me tell you, I was like a five-year-old on Christmas morning!

You see, the package invited me, “Know what you are eating!” And proceeded to inform me with such care and respect for food, the environment, the animals involved and my body that I was completely enamored with this sandwich before I even took a bite.

I looked Carl up. He's for real.

I was provided with the name of the local baker that supplied the bread, the name and webcam site to see the chickens where the eggs and the poultry come from, and the name and contact information for the “friendly food company” that put my sandwich together by hand. Holy Mother Nature! Let me stop here to remind us that THIS WAS AIRPLANE FOOD!

Whoever is in charge of coordinating the food service for this airline respected my health and intelligence enough to assume that I would crave real food and knowledge of its sources. In return, I respected that chicken sandwich like no tomorrow and savored every single crumb. And let me be clear…it was delicious, but even better…it was an experience.

I love these chickens!

Bonus: I am able to visit the poultry site and spy on Dutch chickens in the middle of the night (Their night. I’m not so much of a food nerd that I would lose sleep just to watch chickens halfway around the world. No way.)

Conclusion: I think they do it better.

Thank you, KLM, for the beautiful model.

Something About Bread

Nice Buns

There is something so pure, primal and nourishing about baking bread. Yet, most of us don’t know how. I was thoroughly intimidated by the notion of baking anything until about a year ago when a documentary put a bun in my oven. I’ve since figured some things out…not in pursuit of baking skills, but in pursuit of an ancient experience and simple sustenance that I feel I am entitled to.

How many generations back would we have to go to have our foremothers engage us in the experience of grinding wheat, nurturing an inherited sourdough culture, kneading with our palms and knuckles, smelling the comfort of bread baking, and consuming the earth and air through a chunk of warm bread smeared with fresh butter? There’s a reason its been called our daily bread.

When bread is prepared old-style, our bodies are easily able to digest and extract its valuable nutrients. I’m no expert, but I suffered years of gluten intolerance before discovering that our modern-day commercial yeast, which shortcuts the original (slower) sourdough fermentation process, is to blame. This was an experiential discovery; I felt the difference.  Furthermore, I continue to feel healthy and vibrant eating the bread I bake as a matter of routine each day. And about the elephant-in-the-room question…

One of the most common questions that I get asked about the wonderful foods I encourage people to enjoy, is whether it will make them gain weight. No, I did not gain weight by reintroducing bread as a daily food staple in it is not likely to have that effect on you either. Like with all real, whole, natural foods – unprocessed or minimally processed honoring the most natural methods (sourdough), fresh baked sourdough bread is fulfilling! I’m not left hungry because my body is able to absorb the nutrients effectively from this real food. I believe the sage teachers of our day who propose that it’s very difficult to overeat real, whole foods because they actually fulfill us. The wise ones also remind us that when we prepare our own food from whole ingredients we can relax our overly strict and fear-of-fat based “food rules” knowing that our meal production will naturally align our quantity of food intake. In other words, if you want to eat cookies and French fries every day for 9 days straight, go right on ahead my friend, but bake those cookies from scratch using whole grain organic flour and unprocessed evaporated cane sugar and rich dark chocolate and whole milk butter churned on a local farm, etc. Oh, and hand cut your potatoes (bonus if you grew them) and fry them in organic peanut oil and salt them with fresh ground sea salt full of its source minerals.

The point is that when we prepare our foods the old-style, simple ways, we benefit in every way and our modern “health problems” self-correct! The World Health Organization has for years been clear with us that over 80% of our widespread chronic health problems can be prevented by doing three simple things: eating better, moving more, and not using tobacco. Google it. What’s to figure out!? Are the solutions too simple to catch our eye?

There is a difference between simplicity and convenience. Simplicity is elegant and effective. Convenience is lazy and greedy. Simplicity is slow and savory. Convenience is fast and cheap. Simplicity was celebrated by the late, great Albert Einstein. I’m with him. Well, actually I’m with her. But if Albert was alive…

I want my life simple; I want my bread simple. I want others to physically feel the ease and pleasure of feeding our bodies simply.

This morning before work and while getting my kid off to school, I mixed extra sourdough starter, grated zucchini, evaporated cane sugar (unprocessed), an egg, dark chocolate chips, baking soda, vanilla extract, cashew milk, and buckwheat flour in a big bowl – no measurements, just by sight until it looked like a pourable batter and tasted good – and baked in a muffin tin on 350 until golden brown. Bam. Yum. Score. Simple. Healthy.

Why was it simple? Because those ingredients are my staple foods; everything was handy when I had a whim. Because I was detached from whether the outcome would be “just right” according to some recipe. Because I have learned that I am entitled to eat things that taste and feel good and that my choices are driven by a primal force to nurture myself, having nothing to do with “will-power.” Because most I have accepted that dis-ease in the body is preventable so I’ve taken responsibility for my health back from the massively profit-driven processed food and pharmaceutical industries.

• If you are interested in baking bread, read Baking Old-world Style.
• If you are baffled by how to start and care for a sourdough culture read My PetSourdough Starter, Claudia.
• If you want to learn how to cook and eat simply, with ease and pleasure – check out my group classes under services at www.heatherdiamondhealth.com.
• If you want positive and useful resources, updates, insights and information, find me on social media (Instagram @heatherdiamondhealth and FB @hdhtallahassee and Heather Diamond).

HDH…specializing in the change process, helping busy women make healthy changes, and bringing ease and pleasure to the kitchen.

Eat to move. Move to eat.

Our street corners could look like this...
if we create the demand!

Eat to sit?

It seems to me that for all time, before now, humans have had a pretty simple relationship between eating, moving and sleeping.

Nowadays, we don’t have to move much at all in order to eat. And we mostly choose not to. Rather, we favor the sitting position of cars, couches and office chairs. We tend to choose prepared and pre-packaged foods that are as convenient as possible…requiring as little movement as possible. We prefer to have it brought to us, handed out of the window to us, or in car-driving distance on shiny shelves in the most convenient supermarkets where we park as close to the entryway as possible.

We make it more difficult than it needs to be.

Then, oddly, we pay big bucks for gym memberships and diet plans, all the while complaining about how expensive fresh, wholesome food is and how gas and car insurance prices are criminal. Then, we pay emotionally when our workout resolutions and diet plans don’t work. We figure we must lack will power, and our self-esteem dips as a result. Then we pay physically when all that anxiety, stress, cheap processed food, and sitting/driving results in over 46% of the American population having chronic disease and pain that could have been prevented with simple healthy living habits all along. Too often, we pay with our lives or the lives of people we love. The American lifespan is significantly shorter than other developed countries despite the fact that we spend more on health care than any other country.

Why?

Because it’s hot (or cold or rainy) outside? Because we don’t have time? Because we don’t like to sweat in our regular clothes? Because processed sugar, salt, and fat tastes better? Because change is uncomfortable? Because cooking is boring? Because that favorite TV show is calling to us? Because we are powerless, conditioned by the media to believe that we can’t think and act for ourselves to meet our basic needs with simple solutions? Because it’s just the way it is?

Eat to sit?

We are smarter than this.

I love you, Albert.

Einstein, good ole’ Al, was clear about the value of simplicity. When will the simple solutions become trendy or glamorous? When will we see how elegant a woman on a bicycle is? When will we walk or ride a bicycle when we need to go someplace less than 5 miles away? When will we ride our bicycles to the market to buy fresh, healthy food and take it back home and chop it up and maybe apply heat and a few spices and eat it together with people we love and talk and laugh and know that this is the simple way to feel great in our bodies and look good in our clothes and live long, disease-free lives?

Just a regular (super) woman.

The more I arrange my life to accommodate being able to ride my bike to get places (or walk), the more I see others doing the same. I’m not talking about the expensively outfitted athletes who train so impressively. I’m talking about real people of all shapes, sizes and colors living deeply and presently by interacting more directly with the world than what is possible on a device or in a car, house or office. Breathing fresh air, having spontaneous interactions with other people, and transporting the body using physical movement are simple ways to be more positively engaged socially, physically and emotionally (see expanse of research about the effect of being outside on depression and anxiety). Movement linked to meeting our basic daily needs (acquiring and preparing food and getting from here to there) also improves sleep. We are a sleep-deprived nation. When did we decide to disconnect the most essential of human needs? Let's link it all back up. 

Eat (real food). Move. Sleep. 

Move to eat. Eat to move.

Leftover Magic

Party leftovers (not college-style) make opportunities for creative meals.

Who loves leftovers? Yeah, not so many folks. But I do. Not the mushy, microwave-heated version. I love being creative with leftovers by incorporating them into each new dish until they are consumed and nothing goes to waste…because I can be very lazy in the kitchen.  You see, leftovers offer a shortcut. When you are able to re-use already cooked ingredients in your dishes, it saves time and effort. It also feels good to use resources wisely. I believe using leftovers in yummy ways saves lots of precious dollars. Here are some examples to get you started:

• Leftover vegetables – dump them in a new soup or stew; if not already too soft, stir fry them to put over rice; add them to an egg omelet, scramble, or frittata; add to bean dishes; add to marinara sauce; put in blender with spices, butter, and something starchy like a boiled potato to make cream of veggie soup.
• Leftover pasta – keep it cold and add veggies and/or canned seafood and dressing (oil and vinegar) for a pasta salad; add to a brothy soup.
• Leftover sweet or white baked or mashed potatoes – grill in iron skillet with butter and put an egg on top for breakfast; if baked, dice and refry in oil and salt for a hash brown dish; put in blender with something creamy (milk of any kind, butter or oil of any kind) and spices and water to preferred thickness to make potato soup.
• Leftover rice – stir-fry in sesame oil with onion, garlic, and other herbs and add nama shoyu or tamari or soy sauce for a fried rice dish; add to soup or stew; if mushy, put in blender with spices and an egg and enough flour of any wholesome kind to make rice patties to fry up the skillet with oil of any (good) kind.
• Leftover water from boiling beets (So pretty it can’t go down the drain!) – store in mason jar to add to smoothies for a sweet and nutritious kick for the next week or so.
• Leftover water from boiling or steaming any vegetable – store in mason jars for making adding to any dish that calls for broth.
• Leftover meats – chop and top salads; chop and mix with greek yogurt, mayo, mustard, or other type dressing and spices to fill a sandwich; add to stir-fry or soup; add to omelet or quiche or egg scramble; add to hashed potato scramble; add to fried rice; add to quesadillas.
• Leftover rice and beans combo – mash or blend in blender with an egg and extra flour of any kind if needed to smooth and thicken to fry rice and bean patties in the skillet with a thick layer of oil on the bottom of the pan. 

Basically ANYTHING, even foods that didn’t turn out the way you hoped when you prepared them, can be remade into something beautiful and tasty…given a second or third chance…salvaged…saved and savored!

Thrilled to influence healthy, happy life changes in simple ways that empower us as the nurturers and healers of our own bodies, as the Goddesses of our kitchens, by bringing more ease and pleasure into your routines. Eat up! (And check out my new website that I am so stinkin’ proud of at heatherdiamondhealth.com.)

Happy health to you and yours.

A Cookie for Breakfast?

A sweet cookie - a beautiful plate - a strong coffee.

My friend recently reminded me that people will, like it or not, become similar to the five people they spend the most time with. I believe this is true, so I choose wisely. But I also think that we pick up crumbs from people we encounter more briefly along the way and incorporate them into our lives. For instance, years ago I spent just enough time with my daughter’s Oma (Dutch-American Grandmother) to form the opinion that she is a brilliant example of healthy living.  One delicious crumb I picked up from her was the healthy decadence of a cookie for breakfast. WHAAA!?! Did a natural health coach just advise cookies for breakfast? Well, not exactly. Let me explain.

The beauty of Oma’s morning cookie was in how she took it: always only one, always a type of cookie that she loved, always sitting down in mindfulness and always paired with a rich cup of coffee or tea to slow the ritual down a bit. Her thinking was that her cookie breakfast was her daily tasty treat to look forward too…unapologetically, confidently and joyfully. As a self-possessed, sophisticated woman, she decided to eat her dessert first – literally and daily. I was awestruck. She went on from there, each morning, in her methodical way to spend her time at the gym, at work, on the golf course, etc. But she began her day in honor of her sweet tooth.

I personally do not have much of a sweet tooth and never crave sweetness at breakfast. I like my morning meal super salty! But the IDEA is irresistible to me. So I offer this idea to you. There are a variety of superb cookie recipes out there that will grant you a sweet and nutrient-dense morning meal. I encourage you, if you have a mild to moderate morning appetite and enjoy sweetness, to choose one that you love, learn to bake them from scratch, fill a special cookie jar with a fresh batch each Sunday and enjoy the hell out of those babies all week long: ONE at a time, once a day, and with all the fanfare that will signal your body that it is getting a very wonderful treat! This is an important part of self-care. Cookies.

Here’s my favorite cookie these days.  Enjoy!

Healthy Soft-baked Chocolate Chip Cookie

Makes about 12 cookies

INGREDIENTS (Remember: always the wholest, realist, freshest you can get!)

   
8 tablespoons of ghee or coconut oil
3/4 cup sucanat (unprocessed sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1½ cups flour (I like a half and half combo of unbleached bread flour and buckwheat.)
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
¾ cup dark chocolate chips or chunks

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Beat the oil/ghee with the sugar until creamy. Add the vanilla and the egg; beat until just incorporated - (if you beat the egg for too long, the cookies will be stiff).

3. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until crumbles form. Use your hands to press the crumbles together into dough. It should form one large ball that is easy to handle (right at the stage between "wet" dough and "dry" dough).

Add the chocolate chips and incorporate with your hands.

4. Roll the dough into 12 large balls or 24 small ones and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for 12 minutes until the cookies look puffy and dry and just barely golden. DO NOT OVERBAKE. They'll be pale and puffy.

5.  Let them cool on the pan for 30 minutes or so. They will sink down and turn into these dense, buttery, soft cookies. These should stay soft for many days if kept in an airtight container. You can also freeze them.

NOTES

The 2 most important things about this recipe are 1) adding enough flour, and 3) not baking for too long.  If you find that the dough is wet and it REALLY sticks to your hands, you probably need a little more flour. This is important otherwise you'll have flat cookies. I'll usually add a few tablespoons at a time to get it to the right consistency. You should be able to roll the balls of dough between your hands without sticking or falling apart.

Loving the business of helping people make healthy changes by bringing a bit more ease and pleasure into our daily living…please check out my new website at heatherdiamondhealth.com. Happy health!

*Recipe adapted with gratitude from http://pinchofyum.com/the-best-soft-chocolate-chip-cookies.