Thoughts about food

The other day I was home alone and hungry.

I am spoiled. Jon is a good (great) cook and I rarely cook for myself anymore. If left to my own devices I joke that I would live off of popcorn. It is not very far from the truth! It is not that I can't cook, or that I don't like to cook, it is just that I am not motivated to cook for one.

So, back to the other day...

I have been craving popcorn for awhile. But popcorn my way: coated with about a tablespoon of melted butter mixed with some tamari (teaspoon?), sprinkled with lots of nutritional yeast. Yumm! I am quite capable of finishing off the entire batch. Big boost of B vitamins thanks to the nutritional yeast. Porter loves this stuff also and gets to finish off the dregs.

So, as I am making the popcorn I got to thinking about the foods I used to eat a lot of when I was a poor college student back in the 80's, and to be honest, up until not so long ago.

Mostly vegeterian. Lots of whole grains, nutritional yeast, beans, veggies, yogurt...

After shopping the other day I am reconsidering that diet. We already bake our own bread (Jon makes incredible sourdough), most of the meat in our diet is obtained from the wild, either by a local fisherman or relatives who hunt. We even belong to a CSA and get our veggies and eggs from them.

But maybe it is time to refocus on the old standbys of bulger, cheese and onions or potatoes, onions, tamari and nutritional yeast?

Our family is lucky - we have some flexibility in our budget. Three years ago the current prices for food and fuel would have been very difficult for us to manage.

For most of my neighborhood and for most of the clients at our clinic, the current situation is leaving them in more dire straights than normal ("the trouble with normal is it always gets worse..." - name that artist). Can they afford the gas to get to their appointment? What about the meds we prescribe? When I offer a patient nutritional counseling I try to focus on inexpensive, basic foods that are nutrient dense and that they are willing to eat.

These are interesting times we are living in...