I know I pride myself on not eating processed foods, but I find it hard to abstain completely. One weakness is crackers, another is kettle cooked potato chips, sometimes I eat tortillas, but the biggest one? Pre-made stock. Or broth. Or some variation of salty, flavored liquid to put in soup.
I tried making stock for a while, but this is what I noticed about making stock myself:
1. It became this huge event, like Sunday would be Stock Day! Only stock isn't really that fun, it's just boiling vegetables for a few hours.
2. Since I always made vegetarian stock, I never noticed it to be that flavorful.
3. I would spend all this money on veggies and parsley but even when I made double batches, that would still only be enough for maybe two batches of soup, and dammit, I like to make a LOT of soup and it was sad to see my stock making efforts only go so far.
I talked to some friends who admitted they just used the canned stuff because it was so much easier and I said, to hell with homemade stock! I still had concerns, though - mostly regarding waste and sodium content. I solved the former problem by using bouillon cubes instead of cans or cartons. That sodium was still a concern, though. 1 cup of stock (prepared as directed) contains 35% of the daily recommended amount of sodium. Gross. So I tried to alleviate this by putting in more water than directed, figuring everything was okay.
So anyway, the other night I was prepping veggies so I could quickly throw together some lentil soup after getting back from yoga. Since I was making tea already, I figured I'd boil some extra water so I could dissolve the bouillon cubes beforehand. I came back after a while and found this:
I stared at it for a few seconds before realizing that the layer on the bottom was a CENTIMETER OF SALT. EW. I tried to make myself feel better, remembering that I was going to be adding 4 more cups of water to that, but it was a pretty frightening display of all the gross things in our food.
Now, this is the point where I'm supposed to say, "And I will never use pre-prepared soup broth EVER AGAIN!" but the truth is, it's so convenient. Also, when I actually made the soup, I added more salt immediately, so who knows if I'll ever learn. But MAYBE I'll try taking out that stock pot again. Maybe.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Sunday, December 07, 2008
train of thought.
I just finished Plenty, which is about a couple eating locally for one year. I enjoyed it a lot, in part because it was engaging right away and I plowed through it in a week, and sometimes it's nice to just finish a book quickly. And even though it was non-fiction, it sort of played out like a story with suspense (how ever are they going to make it through the winter?!). But I would have liked more detail on things like how canning works and such.
The book got me to thinking about personal challenges and New Year's resolutions. I don't think eating locally is going to work too well, if only because I live alone and a CSA share can overwhelm even two people. But I feel like I should give something up.
The only thing I've thought of so far is not buying new clothing for a year. I really try to keep my purchases of stuff to a minimum for a variety of reasons, but clothes are my biggest weakness. Today, for example, I ended up in Urban Outfitters for no other reason than it was across the street from my brunch location. I ended up buying a pair of riding boots (not perfect, but good for $60), and then I needed new skinny jeans to pair with the boots, and then why not throw in a pair of $10 shorts for good measure? All of this without buying ANY presents for ANYONE! Ridiculous.
So yeah, it's something to think about. 2009 - the year without sweatshops?
(also, hello blog! I've missed you!)
The book got me to thinking about personal challenges and New Year's resolutions. I don't think eating locally is going to work too well, if only because I live alone and a CSA share can overwhelm even two people. But I feel like I should give something up.
The only thing I've thought of so far is not buying new clothing for a year. I really try to keep my purchases of stuff to a minimum for a variety of reasons, but clothes are my biggest weakness. Today, for example, I ended up in Urban Outfitters for no other reason than it was across the street from my brunch location. I ended up buying a pair of riding boots (not perfect, but good for $60), and then I needed new skinny jeans to pair with the boots, and then why not throw in a pair of $10 shorts for good measure? All of this without buying ANY presents for ANYONE! Ridiculous.
So yeah, it's something to think about. 2009 - the year without sweatshops?
(also, hello blog! I've missed you!)
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