Eat real food.

My husband and I were at our favorite local store, and I was buying some almonds because, well… yum! Anyway, I was thinking of raw almonds, but I saw him eyeing the roasted almonds, so we thought we’d get some. I tasted one of the roasted almonds, though, and… there was definitely something missing. It was easier to chew, yes, but the flavor was missing something very rich and meaty, like the smell of baking bread. I think it’s the taste people are calling umami.

Anyway, he wanted roasted, so we got both. In the picture at the top, the first bowl is the store-bought roasted almonds, and the second is the raw almonds. The third? Those are almonds I roasted—or maybe toasted—at home. They turned out so delicious and very much like the raw. I was so happy my toes curled.

How to Make Toasted Almonds

I used my really cool crank-handle popcorn popper with no oil or anything. Low heat, let it warm a little, then throw in a cup of nuts and stir for 2-3 minutes until they’re hot, and a little toasted. The more roasted you like them (or toasted) the longer you can do it. Try about 5 minutes, and watch for cracking skins. I like them as close to raw as possible, though.

How to Make Roasted Almonds

If you don’t have a popcorn popper, you can bake them in a 350° oven for about 10 minutes, stirring once or twice during the cooking. I’d experiment though, and find the shortest time that makes them easy to chew. You don’t want them as “roasted” as the ones I got at the store!

I need some new ideas. If you have a favorite food made out of, you know, real food, leave a comment.

We weren’t able to get a CSA this year — none were close enough that we felt comfortable committing to biking the distance each week — we did manage to get a garden planted. And that garden is producing Swiss Chard. (Or just Chard. I don’t know if it’s swiss or not.)

I didn’t know anything about chard until this. I mean, I’d heard of it, but I used to eat food that came in boxes, and Chard does not come in boxes. But now I have it growing out of the ground in my yard, and apparently it’s food, so what to do?

Well, I asked around, and a friend who is also just learning told me she learned how to make it from her friend. She described the method I’m about to tell you, and said they’d done it and sampled several different flavorings, like picante sauce, garlic, and lemon. I thought it would be good with the mushrooms we’d bought earlier, and I was right. It turned out great!

Of course, you could use a different kind of mushroom as well. I would have liked to have more mushroom in it… so maybe a less expensive one!

Swiss Chard with Morel Mushrooms

We picked a lot of Chard. When you cook down the leaves, they don’t take up much space, so you need a big handful for each person. After washing the leaves, we pulled the leafy part off the stems. Then chopped the stems into little slices that looked a little like celery slices.

We sauteed the chard stems in butter in the iron skillet — that’s what the black is. I was nervous about the flavor (it’s pretty bitter when it’s raw!) so I kept tasting the sauteed stems. When they started to become clear, I added a bit of salt (not much) and tasted, and suddenly it was yummy. I knew then that it would go nicely with the murshrooms.

Then we started chopping the mushrooms. I guess morels are usually sliced in half lengthwise, but I wanted the flavor to blend with the chard, so I sliced them in rings.

And here’s the finished product. It was a little bitter, but it was subtle. It was also very savory, and quite delicious. I’m looking forward to making more.

The other day I was talking to a lady I know who grows a lot of her own food and promotes gardening and natural healing. She eats a generally raw-food diet. She’s a inspiration, really. But I discovered that day that she also sometimes eats giant cookies made of white flour, sugar, and who knows what else. We all have our weaknesses, don’t we?

We can only change so much of our diets and our lives at one time. So what changes are urgent, and what can you put off for a while? How do you decide which “vices” you can hang on to? It’s a very individual choice, isn’t it? And the big question for me has been whether if I hang on to some “vices,” I will get gradually better, and be able to give them up, or whether I’m just fooling myself. My body used to tell me that the best possible food was either cookie dough, (butter and sugar, with a touch of refined flour for balance) or cinnamon rolls (butter and sugar, with a touch of refined flour for balance). I know that in the past, I’ve switched to artificial sweeteners (the epitome of industrial food) and later discovered my sweet-tooth was as strong as ever. Soon, I was back to the cookies and cakes I’d thought I was free of.

Now, I’ve given up almost all sweets, but hung on to a few crutches. Mainly choco-perfection chocolate which is sweetened with a natural fiber-based sweetner that doesn’t affect blood sugar or insulin. I’ve been diluting them, by melting a small chunk of the chocolate in some coconut oil, and then cooling it in the freezer. The other day, I was at the grocery store, and bought myself a bar, and ate a piece straight. And you know what? The sweetness of it was really unpleasant. I discovered that I’ve actually freed myself of the desire for super-sweet tastes. What good news!

The moral of this story is that if *I* can get to the point where the idea of eating cookie dough is *gross* — anybody can.

Over the next few weeks (now that I’m back) I want to talk more about the process of transitioning away from industrial food toward real food. How do you decide which sweeteners to give up first? What about convenience foods? Is organic more important, or local?

If you have tricks you use to wean yourself off industrial food, or vices you still cling to, leave a comment!