Hey friends,
I haven’t blogged in awhile but I’ve been struck with a moment of inspiration. Lately, my inner foodie has been bursting at the seems. I mean, our treadmills at the gym have personal TVS, and I run while watching the Food Network. Judgement free zone, please.
Anyways, I like to write and in this Lenten season I’ve been all about getting back to my roots, which happen to be food and writing, and these things, I think, go great together. So I am going to try to document my experience as a poor college student with limited time and a big appetite. I have to say, first of all, that I am not a good cook but I’m also not a bad one. Actually, in terms of college students, I’m above average but there’s a long way to go. I simply like to play around in the kitchen, replicate recipes, and use inspiration to turn my small college kitchen into a haven for simple, healthful, and pleasurable food. I don’t have the best equipment or sufficient funds for the food I’d like to use, but that’s okay. The next trend of this blog will be a college student’s experience with feeding herself well.
People all have different food philosophies, even if they don’t realize it. Vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, locavore, lover of foods from abroad, raw food diet, beef-less diet, protein-not-carbs, carbs-not-protein, no fat, good fat, McDonalds!, etc etc etc. We all make food choices, which say something about us. What’s the best way to eat for ourselves, our health, our culture, our environment? Some people choose only local foods for sustainability; some shun dairy and meat for health and political reasons; some try to subsist on raw foods and kale juice. Good for them, I guess, though in my opinion it sounds sucky to give up meat and dairy (MILK! PIZZA! CHOCOLATE!), or subsist on local foods (New England already sucks enough in winter without taking away my veggies! A girl cannot live on … I don’t know, cereal and potatoes.) All the choices, I would like to point out, are actually indicators of class/income/etc. Ideally, I’d like to eat arugala and fennel salads with a billion other delicious, fresh foods; I’d also love to butcher my own meat and get fresh dairy, but I will graduate next year, have lots of debt, and likely want to spend a lot of time working to pay off that debt and work on a career. Which means, I’ll spend my $5 on a head of organic lettuce canned beans by the dozen. Okay, sociology lesson done.
I have been developing my food philosophy, as it were, throughout my time in college. My first approach to food is that it must be healthful. When I eat a meal, I want to know that I am giving my self sufficient fuel. Tasty, tasty fuel. It also should be simple. I don’t mean unflavorfull or limited in ingredients, but I don’t like overly complicated recipes that require you have 100 gadgets and be a Parisian trained fresh. I’m a human being, not an Iron Chef (yet?). I’ve developed kind of a “fresh-a-tarian” and “real-food” approach to my diet, meaning: buy fresh vegetables and fruits often and focus on foods that look like what you might come across in nature. Cheetos do not look like anything natural, so I probably should avoid them (for the most part).
My second philosophy is that food should be tasty and delicious and has much more value than just being fuel. We imbue it with so much meaning! I admit that this part of my philosophy is driven by my sweet-tooth. I am a baker by nature and crave sweets always. (Hello, Ghiradelli chocolates in my cabinet…) Which is kind of…contradictory to my “eat fresh and whole and healthy” motto for most of my food. But food is fun, it is for both body and soul, and being too healthful and too much of a foodie makes you annoying. You know why people like Paula Deen? Because she uses too much butter, cream, and fat than is healthy, and that is delicious. So, have that egg-white omlette for breakfast, but have banana pancakes with fake (sorry) syrup the next. It will be O.K.
That’s it for now…I plan on posting some recipes/pictures/meal inspiration that has sustained my appetite as a student. On the horizon: homemade sauce and meatballs, linguine with pecarino romano cheese, spicy chickpea sauce, and cardamom-infused rice with fruit. Nothing special, but it beats “Hey let’s order Dominoes and watch Teen Mom 2.”
<3 katie kate
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